Disney Movie Collection

Hello everyone! I have exciting news!

Lately, I’ve been super obsessed with Disney classics and music and everything DISNEY!!!! So this summer I’m going to start a string of reviews of all Disney movies! I’m super pumped to do this! A friend and I have literally been singing Circle of Life on the phone with each other for like a week now. With each movie, I’m planning to add a link to a nice renditi0n of my favorite song from that movie!

I love Disney movies because while to a little kid they seem so lighthearted and goofy, now that I re-watch some of my old favorites,  I’m seeing things I didn’t notice before (I’m mainly talking about Lion King).

Anyway, I don’t know which movie I’m going to review first, but boy am I excited!

Oz The Great and Powerful

Zarah’s Rating: 4

RATED PG: Ok first off, see this movie in 3D. It’s one of those that are actually worth it because of the special effects and all that jazz.

It’s like a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, which I’ve only seen once when I was little, so I barely remember it. This guy, Oz, is a circus magician, who is kind of a jerk and rips off people and uses his apparent charm to get women to work for free. He gets sucked into a tornado, and he begs to have his life spared and that he will be a better man. Then he lands in Oz (another world), where there is a “prophecy” that he is supposed to be the hero and save the place. So he’s a little freaked out because he’s just a meek conman. That is the basic premise of the movie.

There is one part where there are like these flying monkeys, and these are not cute little adorable chimps, they look like *shudders* I can’t even describe.

This is the creepy monkey. Imagine it in 3D.

I’m trying to keep this brief, but I must show you this. On the other end of the spectrum, there is this cute little monkey.

This monkey is adorable.

I’m not gonna lie. At first I was surprised when I heard James Franco was in this movie, much less the main character. He’s not exactly the kind of Disney role model you’d expect to see. But then again, once in a blue moon Disney whips up some movie that is surprisingly dark and may quite possibly scar you for life ( The Hunchback of Notre Dame). I don’t know if you know this, but James Franco kind of creeps me out. His smile makes him look like a stalker and he always seems high. There’s this one point in the movie where he smiles and the camera stays on him for like eight seconds and nothing else is going on, so his smile just keeps getting bigger and bigger and I couldn’t help laughing (I would not recommend laughing during this part because no one else is, and the woman next to you might give you The Glare. But I did, because I generally don’t care).

This movie is surprisingly funny (more so than the cheesy kind that Disney is barely capable of) and it does have kind of a semi-predictable twist.

I wonder if when you get sucked into a tornado you end up in Oz. Too bad there are no tornadoes where I live.

Om Shanti Om

Zarah’s Rating: 5

 

RATED PG: I’m not so sure about the rating because it’s a Hindi movie, but PG seems appropriate. This movie is so funny! The first time I liked it because of the plotline, but the second time, I was just laughing the whole time.

Basically, it’s about this guy who is in love with this actress but she’s secretly engaged to a film director, but then she becomes preggers and the director dude kills her… Yeah, talk about Daddy issues. Anyway the starstruck fellow witnesses it, but then the director’s thugs kill him, and then he gets reincarnated and tries to get revenge. It sounds really stupid now that I put it into three sentences or less, but I swear it’s hilarious and Mukesh Mehra is a pretty swag guy (the antagonist). This movie is reeeeeeally long though, so be prepared to refill the popcorn! Actually, I’m not sure where you can purchase this movie, unless you live in New York or New Jersey or in that general brown area like Edison where the sketchy guy behind the counter sells DVD’s with hand written titles, and tells you, “No refundzzz.” (Go ahead and interpret that as an Indian accent, but let’s not limit ourselves! He could be Paki, Indian, Sri Lankan, Bengali.. There’s a whole world of brown possibilities! Heck, call them.. Brownablities). It’s a pretty risquè business.

If you know me and you really want to see this movie, I would recommend asking me at a time when I am mad [at you or otherwise] because this movie always cheers me up! There are so many quotes from this movie and I think I shall just list them now:

1. It’s so damn primitive (with the raspy voice). – Mukesh

2. POOF. Wego. POOF, POOF! (makes poof motions with fingers) – Om

3. Happyz endingzz. (hahah only funny because he says it funnily) – Om

4. (that whole situation when Om has a conversation with his mother)

5. NAHI! – Om’s mom (if you pay attention, I sometimes yell this out in class… It means NO! in Hindi. Whenever I say it all the brown kids lift their head and look at me haha. My family is like, “What’s your problem, we don’t even speak Hindi. Go learn Bengali, you white washed fool.” not their words exactly, I kind of just mushed them all up. One time my grandma asked me how are you? in Bengali, and I replied Teekay. which is good is Hindi. I guess I watch too many Hindi movies. Another time this woman at some party asked me if I wanted rice or something (in Bengali) and I replied that my name was Zarah. I know what you’re thinking.. MACPHAIL! Oh lord… )

6. Ooli baba – Om

7. Q bebeh, mezihai? – Om (I don’t know how to type it so I just put the letter q. It sounds like the word cute, but without the t sound and abrupt and almost like it’s cut off. It means What?)  I say this one too much.

8. Thumi RASCALA!

If you know me, you don’t know how much I hold back on saying these, because most of them are in Hindi, and I learned my lesson about screaming things in other languages in a primarily English speaking venue. (You don’t get good reactions)

:) PS This is one of my Top 5

The Help

Zarah’s Rating: 5

RATED PG-13: I loooooooooooved this movie. I saw it after I read the novel (which by the way is better, but one can’t compare; the books are always better! [there are a few exceptions]). This movie has everything in it: an awesome cast, humor (the first thing I look for), a heartfelt message (because lately I’ve been doing totally pointless and shallow movies made only for viewing enjoyment), and PEOPLE OF MY FAVORITE COLOR! I ♥ ☻ Don’t pretend you didn’t know that… (actually any dark color will do… The darker the better; in chocolate’s case, the darker the bitter[er]) … BUT WE ALL KNOW WHAT DARK CHOCOLATE DOES.

So this movie is about a writer (a white one [this is relevant because it takes place in the 1950's, a time of segregation where black women were typically maids or nannies, basically raising their clients' child[ren] with low pay and little to no respect, and cleaning and cooking. Basically taking the role of the mother, except the mother gets all the credit]) who listens to stories of being a nanny/maid to white people from the perspective of the black women. The writer’s friend, Miss Hilly, is super racist and is just all around ignorant (which is pretty much the worst thing you can be) so the writer keeps it a secret. One of the nannies is the main contributor to the “book” of compilations of stories narrated by nannies, and she and her friend gets a bunch of others to participate and basically it’s a big deal and it’s a really good movie so go see it!!!!!!!!!!!! I don’t want to give anything away, but I did cry (I think I did, it was a while ago. I watched it with a lot of other people, so I definitely know that TEARS WERE SHED). It really pulls at the heartstrings. . . Most of it is appropriate I believe, but like I said it was a while ago. There is this one part that’s gross but it’s mostly sad. I’m not going to elaborate, not because it’s bad, but because it will spoil it. You’ve got to pay attention when you watch this movie (which is difficult for a lot of us! I constantly want to talk during movies) otherwise it’ll just seem dramatic and dumb, which it’s not.

If you liked this review, or if you dreadfully hated it (most people tend to share negative things… maybe I should start making horrible reviews…) then GO TELL YOUR FRIENDS, PARENTS, NEIGHBORS, FAMILY, PETS (you would be surprised how quickly word gets around once you tell an animal), ANYONE ELSE YOU KNOW.

Tell them to read this review, AND see the movie. Because we’re both AWESOME GRAWESOME!

:) Till next time.

PS If you’d like to really enjoy this movie, read the book first.

What To Expect When You’re Expecting

Zarah’s Rating: 3

RATED PG-13:  I saw this movie back in October and I planned to do a review. Then I got lazy. Then I saw it again like a week or two ago. Then I got lazy. Then I decided to whoop by butt into shape and make another post because it had been too long since my last one. So, here it goes:

This movie is funny, but it’s really inappropriate. It’s not the kind of immature, stupid inappropriate you hear in the back of the school bus, but the kind you would expect from a movie about various couple giving birth. I would NOT recommend seeing this with any of the following: a parent (unless they are the laid-back, cool cat kind [but they're still your parent so it's bound to be awkward to some extent]) an older sibling who is stuffy and uptight and tells you that you can’t watch things that you should totally be allowed to watch because they think they are doing you a favor but in actuality they are abusing their power as an older sibling, and if this was the 1700′s they would be King George and you would be the pilgrims who flee and become awesome once they declare independence (speaking of, go see National Treasure) and you would kick their butt for being a tyrannical tyrant who is full of tyranny and you would establish your own country that would prosper (but then around 200 years into the birth of your country, it would be faced with an economical depression that would be depressingly depressing), but your country still wouldn’t be number one in science and math, because that’s where the Asian countries come in  (don’t even get me started on that) so everyone depends on it to be number one in English, which is where they get the whack teachers that play rock music in the middle of class and claim this is all part of the learning process… but I’m not talking about America… This is ALL hypothetical.

Anyways, more people NOT to see this with: anyone of the opposite gender (unless your the kind of person who is immune to that [in which case if you are, I'm sorry for you] or the other person is a really close friend so it doesn’t matter), and last but not least (actually last but most. This is the most important of all) anyone younger or immature who you don’t think can handle it. There is nothing worse than learning stuff way too young… Granted, I know now I’m probably making people my age start to be tyrannical to their siblings and once they are old enough the siblings still wouldn’t let them and then we’d get that whole situation I mentioned previously, but still.

I’ll tell you all a story: I once had a tyrannical older sibling (hard to believe, right? Alas, not all stories are gumdrops and candy canes). She wouldn’t let me watch ANYthing. Not Pretty Little Liars, Gossip Girl, Mean Girls, Easy A, etc. (actually some of these are pretty bad). But then, one day, on a dark and stormy evening, I mustered up the courage to trespass into her room, take the DVD marked Mean Girls, slip it into the DVD player, when no one was home (or so I thought), played it, got to the first two minutes, then had the door open by none other than the dictator, I mean sister, herself, Julius Caesar! (That’s not her real name, if any of you didn’t realize. If you did, HISTORY BUFFS UNITE!) I shut the DVD player and plastered on my most convincing face (which was coincidentally MY MOST REVEALING GUILTY CONSPICUOUS FACE OF ALL!) I did not end up seeing Mean Girls that day. I don’t remember the first time I did, but the point is, after I did see it (with my sister’s permission), she started letting me see other stuff, and she started looking at me as her equal (which was stupid, because I’m not equal to her. I’M GREATER THAN HER! Me ≠ Caesar. Me > Caesar. See what I did there? Oh Gord, I can’t get enough of puns. (Gord is God and Lord put together. I said it accidentally today, but it sounds like you’re saying God with an Australian accent). I think she was so strict with me in the first place because when she was like 4, she was locked in a room by some distant relative who was like 13 (actually now that I think about it, my sister was probably 7 or 8) because he wouldn’t let her watch Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Because it was too inappropriate. . .  I don’t think he was watching out for her. I think he was just being mean. But anyway that’s why she was strict with me (I presume, but ya know this is just my inner psychiatrist speaking). If I had a little brother or sister, I probably would have, but thank heavens I don’t. If your older sibling is like Julius Caesar, or King George IV (or is it VI? I’m a disgrace to history buffs everywhere) don’t fret. Either they are looking out for you, they are mean, or they don’t want to be bothered by you (which was the case for me most of the time, because my sister would get annoyed when I started watching a show SHE discovered, and now I’m a big fan, even though it’s HER show to begin with. Her words not mine. I mean gosh you don’t own the stinking show). Imagine if you were an older sibling and this annoying little brat with snot hanging out of your nose (… Not insinuating anything of course) and they wanted to watch a movie they wouldn’t understand or even appreciate. So use your judgment.

BACK TO THE MOVIE FINALLY:

Basic premise of story (I’ll try to keep it brief) – Various couples are pregnant. They struggle. Babies are born. The end.

Now how’d you like that? In between, there are a lot of jokes and funnies, but that pretty much sums up the whole movie!

The next review will be The Help!

Pitch Perfect

Zarah’s Rating: 5

RATED PG-13: Well, it’s been about a month since my last post, but please forgive me. This is kind of my job, and no one goes to work during the holidays, and even after New Year’s it takes a while to get in the swing of things!

Okay so I feel like this movie is our generation’s Mean Girls (yes I let the 90′s babies reserve the right to call it their generation’s movie, because let’s face it, by the time we were old enough to watch it, it was like 6 years old [if my math is correct]. And yes I don’t think having been born in 1998/99 qualifies one to be a 90′s baby). This is a far less inappropriate, musical-type version of Mean Girls, but nonetheless, it has had the same effect on my peers. It came out in October but I just saw it this past week. Immediately (because my life is ironic, and the second I learn something, it starts popping up everywhere), people started saying a bunch of quotes from the movie (the kind of dialogue that makes one look up and say “Hey I watched that too!” [and probably reply with another quote]. Every time my math teacher said the word “concave”, my friend and I looked at each other and laughed.

So this movie has the caliber that I can’t say many movies have. It possesses an uncanny ability to make anyone laugh (even if you are an uptight stickler) because there are so many random aspects. This was my reaction to the movie:

HAHAHAH. HAHAHA. HAHAHA. HAHAHA. HAHAHAH. HAHAHAH. AAHAHAHAHAH. *choke a little* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. *if I was drinking a beverage I would’ve spit it out* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. HAHAHAHAHAHAH.

HA. HA. HA. HA . HAHAHHAHAHAHAH (<<<for my friend, The Stutter Laugh)

If you haven’t watched this movie, I definitely recommend it because it’s HILARIOUS and the music is also good.

I should probably tell you what it’s about:

A girl whose father is a professor at a college is being forced to attend against her will (not really against her will, but you know teenagers) and she really wants to go to LA to be a D[isc] J[ockey]. She joins an A Capella group called The Bellas. Basically they’re in a rivalry against the male group, The Treblemakers (I’m trying to start a wordwide pun by saying “I Knew You Were Treble” whenever the Taylor Swift song comes on. I don’t know if you noticed, but I just used a pun, I said word instead of world.) And the rest is a blur of singing, dancing, singing, deejaying, singing, funnies, and more singing. I’m still not sure if this is a musical or not, but I’d still say it’s totally worth it because it’s not like High School Musical where they have annoying original songs (they cover modern songs that come on the radio all the time and also mashups!).

Tonight I’m going to watch What To Expect When You’re Expecting, so “expect” a review soon!

Sorry for such a long break! I’ll try to be more proactive.

HI! This is like 2 days after I initially published this post, but I was doing math homework and a new song by Olly Murs came on called Troublemaker (see where I’m going with this?)  and I had to tell someone! So whenever you hear it say Treblemaker because that’s actually the name of the male a Capella group in this movie.

Star Trek

Zarah’s Rating: 5

RATED PG-13: AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! I JUST FOUND OUT THEY’RE COMING OUT WITH A SEQUEL! HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED.

*Me going onto Youtube to watch HEYYEYAAEYAAAEYAEYAA, get distracted by a featured video with Chris Pine’s face on it. Read the video title. Flip out. Watch teaser trailer for Star Trek IntoDarkness. Flip out even more. Tweet about it. Post a status about it. Realize I haven’t done a review on my favorite movie (excludes my Top 5). Freak out. Find biggest picture possible. Start writing review (but not before going on Pandora and finding a Christmas music station!) *

In honor of the new movie (coming out in 2013) I shall do a review on Star Trek. I saw this in theaters 3 times and I loved it each time. It’s about a guy named Jim Kirk who gets recruited to the U S S Enterprise crew in space and he discovers that his father died a hero saving the ship and was the greatest captain. Basically he has to go to space with Spock, this half-human, half-Vulcan dude who totally hates him because Jim is really kind of a smart aleck. They encounter “great adventures” and “dangers of space” (to take from the commercials). This movie is for people that are space or sci-fi geeks, or they like the original Star Trek series, or if they are like me and just go because it’s Chris Pine. But I also go for the storyline! Imagine a Twi-hard, but not Twilight…
Anyway, I’M SUPER EXCITED FOR THIS NEW MOVIE AND THAT’S WHY I’M WRITING IN ALL CAPS (I hate when people misinterpret my all caps enthusiasm for anger). AAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!

AAH!
P.S. This review was on short notice and I am just so excited so I apologize if it didn’t help at all.

Shutter Island

Zarah’s Rating: 4

RATED R: Okay I am so surprised this is rated R. I saw it a while ago, but I don’t remember anything too bad. I think my older sister and cousin fast forwarded anything bad, but there’s not much. I do recommend watching it with someone though. But not if you talk during movies because then you might upset others. It’s not really too scary, but then again you might not want to take my opinion though, because I watched this in the middle of the night during a storm and I didn’t find it scary, so I might have a higher tolerance rate.

This is about a fella (Leo DiCap) who is a Marshal on Shutter Island. On the island is a mental hospital/psych ward (some housing for people of the sort) and he is searching for a missing patient. It has a familiar story line like that of Dream House, but I didn’t predict anything in this one, and it fooled me completely. My sister, on the other hand, foresaw everything (which usually happens to me, that’s MY role!) and spoiled it for us.
Anyway, he is searching for the patient and he uncovers intriguing and disturbing information (that I cannot disclose at this time). If you want to know what happened to the patient, go watch it! It’s really good and I think it’s worth it!
I’m not sure if you remember this, but around the time this came out, there were tons of ads for it on YouTube  and those trailers kind of freaked me out because they showed a creepy woman. Don’t worry though, because that woman is just a random patient and she’s not even important!
For those of you interested in psychological thrillers but are easily frightened:
First of all, how can you be frightened? Aren’t you just overwhelmed with possible outcomes? Second, I would recommend seeing a different movie if this is your first one, because there are a few unexpected (like when something pops out) occurrences  but if you are intent on seeing this, then just expect the worse at all times. Also, if you don’t want to see this, but want to know what happens, go watch Dream House, because the ending is EXACTLY the same. The only difference was one was predictable and one was surprising.

Til next time!

Dream House

Zarah’s Rating: 3

RATED PG-13: I decided to do a horror movie this week, but if you know me, then you are aware that it’s also going under Comedy. Sorry I didn’t do any movie reviews this week, I was busy. With important things. Of importance.
I’m doing this movie because in the midst of all the hype about Skyfall, I decided to do a Daniel Craig movie (I asked my mom if I could go see it with my friends and she said,”I want to come,” and I asked why and she said,”I’m going for Daniel Craig, not you!” Oh, Mother). I will be having a review on that, as well.
This movie was so funny and confusing and cheesy all at the same time, and we saw it in theaters. It was inevitable that my sister and I would talk, and surprisingly enough, there was no lonely old lady shushing us. I saw it with my friend also, and following the movie she probably thought,”Oh my gosh, these people can’t shut up!”
The movie is about a family who moves into a seemingly perfect house (to take the commercial’s attention-grabber). The husband, Will, discovers that 5 years earlier the mother and 2 daughters of the family living there were murdered. The father, Peter Ward, was the main suspect, but they didn’t charge him because of lack of evidence and mental incapability. I could explain the rest, but that would be summarizing.
Basically, the movie is a psychological thriller with probably a few scary parts (to you wimps). The ending is either very surprising or totally predictable, not in between (I saw it coming, me being the master at deductive skills). It makes you think, though, so I guess it’s considered effective.
☻

You can expect 2 more reviews next week!

The Hunger Games

Zarah’s Rating: 4

RATED PG-13: WOW, 8 MONTHS TOO LATE. I actually saw this in theaters, but at that time I didn’t have my uber-successful site created yet ☻ AND YES I’M TEAM GALE. Can you tell from the poster? (I’ve been Team Gale since I read the books, but it doesn’t hurt that Liam Hemsworth plays him) And I’m also anti-Peeta because in the beginning of the first book, let’s face it, he’s kind of a baby. And Josh Hutcherson plays him, and the whole Bridge to Terabithia thing left a scar on his permanent record. (Real quick here: Yesterday my friend pointed out that both stars of this movie are coming out with new movies this week!)

Okay this movie is rated 4 because it’s really good, but the only thing is that it was BLOODY! BLOODY, BLOODY, BLOODY! BLOODIER THAN A VAMPIRE (HAHAHAHHAHAH). It’s just very gory and graphic with all the violence. The problem was, with scary movies (which this wasn’t) is that they are usually cheesy so it’s not scary, but this wasn’t cheesy, and yes I admit, it gave me ‘Knight mairs’.

If you lived under a rock and haven’t seen this movie, don’t fret! You’re not alone. My sister and my cousin (not Nono. Let’s call this one … Razzy) haven’t seen it either.

I can’t wait for the second movie! I can wait for the third though, because I personally hated the ending of the trilogy.

HAPPY TURKEY DAY. GOBBLE GOBBLE

gobble gobble