"The book is a film that takes place in the mind of the reader." ~ Paulo Coelho

Saturday, October 27, 2018

Announcing My Halloween/Costume Blog Party ~ 2018!

Hello Everyone!
The last two years I have hosted a Halloween Blog Party! This year I have decided to do it again!


DISCLAIMER:
Kara had a good article on Halloween with some really good points. You should check it out. I agree with her on a lot of them. But why am I hosting this?
I like to think of Halloween as the eve before All Saints Day, not a day for "celebrating" death or witchcraft.  But, I am also calling this a costume party and it is twelve days after Halloween so you don't have to relate it to that.
This is a big subject and I mean no harm or offense to anyone.

I mean, what other day can you dress up without being made fun at?


This years dates: November 12-14, 2017!

How it works:
1. You choose a character from a book, movie, or both.
2. You read/watch, the book/movie, that the character came from.
3. You dress up as the character and take pictures (NOTE: You don't have to show your face, I don't).
4. You review the book/movie/both in a post and include photos of you dressed up!!

The Rules:
1. You don't have to do Halloween to participate. I just use Halloween as an excuse to dress up.
2. You don't have to show your face, my sisters and I don't.
3. If there is more than one movie version you don't have to review all of them.
4. If you want you can just choose to review something, OR show pictures, you don't have to do both.

My sisters and I love being the same, but not the same. A few years ago we were all queens. Two years ago, we decided to all be villains. The results were pretty "wicked".
My older sister was: The Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland)
I was: Ursula (The Little Mermaid)
My younger sister was: Cruella de Vil (101 Dalmatians)

Last year we were all something "piraty".
My older sister was: The dread pirate Roberts (The Princess Bride)
I was: Captain Hook (Peter Pan)
My younger sister was: A skeleton (I reviewed Halloween Town) [She was our "skull and cross bones"].

This year... we are not anything alike. I really could not think of anything until a three days ago, so I am going to post pictures of us from a few years ago! These buttons are clues to what we are going to be, so I am welcoming guesses! Please take one and share the news!

1.

2.

3.

Sorry, I know they are a little obvious...


Let me know which costume that my sisters or I have worn is your favorite!

MovieCritic

Friday, October 26, 2018

Movie Review: The Miracle Worker (1962)

Hello!
Crystal at In The Good Old Days Of Classic Hollywood and Robin at Pop Culture Reverie are hosting the 2nd Disability in Film Blogathon!
I just saw The Miracle Worker for the first time in September, and it really is a powerful movie so I am here to review it! And it just happened that one of the buttons has a picture from The Miracle Worker!

Plus, this is based on a true story.

My guarantee: On ALL of my reviews there are NO spoilers unless I give you warning.

The Miracle Worker (1962):
Seven year old Helen Keller is in a world of darkness, a childhood illness left her so that she cannot see and she cannot hear. Mr. and Mrs. Keller decide to hire someone to try to teach her -the other option would be sending her to an asylum. When the tutor arrives, she is the short tempered Annie Sullivan who just recovered from being blind herself. Ms. Sullivan's goal is to teach the mischievous Helen what an object is.
Black and White
Genre: Biography, Drama
Length: approx. 106 minutes.
Costumes: 8, nothing too special.
My favorite: This black one worn when we first see Ms. Sullivan.
Script: 9.
Crew:
Directed by: Arthur Penn
Written by: William Gibson
Based on: The Miracle Worker - by William Gibson
Starring:
Anne Bancroft as Annie Sullivan.
Patty Duke as Helen Keller.
Inga Swenson as Kate Keller
Victor Jory as Captain Arthur Keller
Andrew Prine as James Keller
Kathleen Comegys as Aunt Ev
Cinematography: 8.
Cinematography by: Ernesto Caparrós
Music: 7.
Music by: Laurence Rosenthal
Quotes: 9, "Language is more important the mind than light to the eye."
Oscars won: 2: Best Actress: Anne Bancroft, Best Supporting Actress: Patty Duke
Notes: Patty Duke was playing a seven year old, but was actually fifteen at the time! Watching her you would never know.
Storyline: 9, there is some mention of things that happened in asylums, but is told as being bad and abusive. Right now I can't recall anything else!
Good For: Anyone who is struggling in anyway, everyone. This movie is so inspiring.
Overall Score: 8.5!

For the blogathon:
This movie shows disability in film to it's extent. Being deaf and blind? How much harder can it get? It is a really well done film and I highly recommend it.

Big thank you to Crystal and Robin for hosting this! Go check out the other entries HERE.

Thanks for reading!

MovieCritic

Thursday, October 25, 2018

2018 Tolkien Blog Party Tag

Hello!
Did you miss me? Just joking!
So, back in September, Hamlette hosted her 6th Tolkien Blog Party and I wasn't here to participate, so I am filling the tag out now! Because, I want to. Anyway, I am going to be answering these with my older sister because she had a Lord of the Rings themed birthday this year!

My answers will be in blue.

Hers will be in green.

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read or watched The Hobbit or all of The Lord of the Rings, do not read this!!

We have both read:
The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings
We have both seen:
The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

The Questions:


1.  What's your favorite Middle-earth story/book?

The Hobbit! That book made me: feel scared, laugh, cry, and happily smile. It is in fact my fourth favorite book of all time.
I really like The Fellowship of the Ring, but I just really like all of them.

2.  Do you have a favorite subplot?

The mysterious Tom Bombadil. (I just learned that he is not in the movies and I am not happy!)

There are a lot of them that tear me apart. I like Tom Bombadil as well. And I am interested in the Entwives.

3.  What's your favorite theme in Tolkien's books?  (Can be in one specific story, or overall.)

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”

I feel like even though this is from The Hobbit, this theme still runs through The Lord of the Rings.

There is a lot of true friendship in it. What it means to be a friend.

4.  Do you have a favorite weapon from Middle-earth?

Um...

Well...

Bow and arrows are my favorite weapon. But I feel like Hamlette means specific weapon, so I'll go with Sting.

Aragorn's sword Anduril. Or Sting, because it glows when orcs are near!!!

5.  Would you like to be a hobbit?

I think I would like the hobbit life style, but... right now I am 5'9 1/2 and I really like being tall so I would not like being shrunk to hobbit size. Can I be Merry? A tall hobbit?

YES!!! 

Why?

I'm already short, I like the simple life, the Shire would be the happiest place in the world.

6.  Do you have a favorite romance/couple?

When I was little I saw a part with Strider and Arwen, but I couldn't read the subtitles. I was very annoyed, and that kind of tainted my viewing of them.

I didn't like reading it, but afterwards I like the idea of Faramir and Eowyn. I think my problem was that Faramir was my favorite and I didn't like Eowyn, but I think I would like it now.

Or, Sam and Rosy.

Well, obviously Aragorn and Arwen. Sam and Rosy at the end are kind of cute too. I like Faramir and Eowyn because I feel like it changes her for the better.

Wait, did you just type what I said?

Everything you say can and will be used against you.

7.  What's your favorite Middle-earth creature?  (Can be "real" or "imaginary.")

Ents!!!! They are the best!!!

I like the elves. A lot. I love the elves. I could live in Lothlorien. And hobbits are so fun!

8.  What character do you look the most like?

Like how I imagined them, or in the movies? In the movies: For hair and eyes, it is between Galadriel or Eowyn, but for facial features... I'm not sure. 

Arwen? Black/brown hair. 

9.  Are there any books about Middle-earth or Professor Tolkien (but not written by him) you recommend?

I have actually not read any.

I have started a book called The Hobbit Companion - by David Day which has lots of interesting things about how J.R.R.Tolkien came up with Middle Earth.

(She hasn't read all of it.)

10.  List up to ten of your favorite lines/quotations from the Middle-earth books and/or movies.

If we each did ten, we would be here all day. So we will each do five (ha, I already did one in a previous question so I get to do six!).

1.

"'Don't you leave him Samwise Gamgee', and I don't mean to."

~The Fellowship of the Ring (movie)

2.

"What has it got in it's pocketses?"
~The Hobbit
(The  is really funny: we quote this all the time. Our little sister hasn't read the books [we are so close to convincing her!] but she is terrified of Gollum. She doesn't know where that quote comes from but she quotes it all the time too!)

3.


In western lands beneath the Sun
the flowers may rise in Spring,
the trees may bud, the waters run,
the merry finches sing.
Or there maybe 'tis cloudless night 
and swaying beeches bear 
the Elven-stars as jewels white
amid their branching hair.

Though here at jouney's end I lie
in darkness buried deep,
beyond all towers strong and high,
beyond all mountains steep,
above all shadows rides the Sun
 and Stars for ever dwell: 
I will not say the Day is done,
nor bid the Stars farewell.
~The Return of the King

4.
~The Lord of the Rings

5.

"I am the clue-finder, the web-cutter, the stinging fly. I was chosen for the lucky number."
~The Hobbit

6.

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
~The Fellowship of the Ring

7.

~The Fellowship of the Ring
(You have to throw a funny one in, right?)

8.
~The Fellowship of the Ring

9.

"There's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for."
~The Return of the King

10.


"In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit."
~The Hobbit

Classic.

I hope you enjoy my sister's and my answers. Thank you to Hamlette for hosting this, and sorry that I am a month late! Check out all the other tag answers HERE.

Thanks for reading!

MovieCritic
"If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, where you stop your story." -Orson Welles