I Was Asleep Or Maybe I Was A Dream

Not gonna lie, I'm already counting down the days until Avengers: Age of Ultron comes out on DVD.

Gif from Tumblr.

As in I literally have a countdown on my calendar.

This news is not all that surprising to anyone, I think. Gif from Tumblr.

Is that sad? It's a little sad, isn't it? It's just that every time I open up one of the new releases of the Marvel comic books I subscribe to, there's that ad right there, taunting me that it's almost here, almost here. I only saw it three times in theaters, and I'm dying to watch it again.

Gif from Tumblr.

What part of Avengers: Age of Ultron are you most looking forward to watching again? Let me know in the comments.

XOXO
Gossip Ghoul

Movie Review: Pitch Perfect 2

Sometimes you go see a movie and just cannot stop singing afterward. Pitch Perfect 2 is one of these. The songs were so much fun. The whole movie was fun, really. I had a great time watching it and laughed so much. Elizabeth Banks, Anna Kendrick, and Rebel Wilson are freaking awesome and totally crack me up.

All gifs and pictures from Tumblr.

One thing that made me happy was that Pitch Perfect 2 averted what I call Sequel Syndrome, in which the sequel recycles the exact same plot and jokes from the first movie. The Trebles were no longer the main rivals. Lincoln Center was mentioned, but it wasn't a bit deal. Beca and her boyfriend didn't have any romantic drama. Beca's storyline wasn't about fitting in and finding her place at school; it was about finding her way on her career path after college while balancing her time with her friends. The Bella's theme wasn't about finding a new sound; it was about finding harmony and coming together.

Fat Amy got more focus in this film (yay!) and got the romantic subplot (We Belong!!), and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld's addition to the Bellas felt natural, as did the Latina girl who's name I forget and her running gags. Also, the "I'm Jessica!" joke was an excellent lampshading moment of how Ashley and Jessica's characters are interchangeable and unimportant. Additionally, I was very pleased to see Anna Camp return. I was worried she wouldn't be in the film since I didn't see her in the trailers, but she was, and she got to so sing (yay!).

And awkward Anna Kendrick is just completely adorkable. Love, love, love!

All in all, it was a really fun movie that I genuinely enjoyed, and I'd put it on par with the first movie. Have you seen Pitch Perfect 2 yet? What was your favorite part? Let me know in the comments, or tweet me @ak_gossipghoul.

XOXO
Gossip Ghoul

Top 30 LOL-Worthy Moments In Avengers: Age of Ultron

WARNING: Contains spoilers! Including some big spoilers! If you have not watched Age of Ultron, read at your own risk!

All pictures and gifs from Tumblr.

Avengers: Age of Ultron was awesome and freaking hilarious. When I started writing my review post that turned into me melting down into a puddle of fangirling squee, I started to list all my favorite funny moments, so I decided to make a list of them all here in ascending order to top favorite. There were a lot of them. So many moments made me laugh. It was actually difficult to narrow it down to thirty. I kept expanding the list. It was originally ten, and I couldn't possibly narrow it down to just ten. So here they are:

30. War Machine's confusion upon seeing Vision for the first time. Nobody updated him on what had happened, and suddenly Vision bursts in and finishes off War Machine's fight, and Rhodey's just like "What?"

29. "Ek-shel-shior!" Stan Lee Cameos are always great, and they've gotten more and more amusing over the years. Drunken Stan Lee was particularly awesome.

28. "Were you napping?" Thor taking just a few seconds too long (in Cap's opinion) to save a car that's fallen off a bridge.

27. Pietro's "What the hell, man?" type expression when grazed by a bullet.

26. Thor "has no regard for lawn care."

25. Sassy Banner and Tony's argument. "Not when I've created a murderbot!"

24. "Wounded screams." Thor backpedaling and trailing off awkwardly when telling Banner of the Hulk's destruction.

23. Quicksilver attempting to grab Mjolnir and falling.

22. Ultron attempting to apologize to Ulysses Klaue after ripping off his arm.

21. "Cuttlefish!" Essentially Andy Serkis's entire performance.

20. "JARVIS is my co-pilot" bumper sticker. I want this bumper sticker for myself.

19. "He's multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit." I totally choked on my Sprite at this line.

18. "It's full of people..." A SHIELD agent struggling to come up with the right saying.

17. "No one would know." Hawkeye wanting to shoot Quicksilver in the back.

16. "Go to sleep. Go to sleep. Go to sleep." and "I'm sorry." from the Hulk-buster fight.

15. "NO SURRENDER!... I'm going to surrender." Baron Von Strucker was really funny in his few brief moments.

14. Thor: "No one has to break anything."
Ultron: "Clearly you've never made an omelet."
Tony: "He beat me by one second."

13. "Fortunately I am mighty!" Oh, are you now, Thor?

12. "Boom! You looking for this!" War Machine's face when people finally laugh at his story. He's like, yeah! I'm funny, dammit!

11. "Jane is better." I just love the manliness competition between Tony, Thor, and Cap (although Steve wasn't a part of that scene). To quote Maria Hill, "Cough, testosterone, cough!"

10. Thor's face when for a moment he thinks Steve is going to be able to lift Mjolnir. That whole scene was funny, really, but Thor's expression was the best. The beginning of this video has an edited clip of that scene:

9. "For gosh sake watch your language!" I love everyone mocking Cap for his "Language!" comment.

8. "Steve, he said a bad language word!" Maria Hill joins in on the mocking Cap fun.

7. Thor stepping on a Lego and kicking it out of sight before anyone notices.

6. "Please be a secret door. Please be a secret door. Yay!" That little squeal Tony does when he says "Yay!" is just freaking adorable.

5. "Good talk." "No, it wasn't!" Both times I went to see AoU, the whole audience laughed at "Good talk" and laughed even harder at the pained response.

4. Banner: "How is he?"
Tony: "Unfortunately he's still Barton."
Banner: "That's terrible."
I just love Science Bros interactions!

3. "I'm glad you asked that because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan." Ultron's not your typical villain.

2. "Elevator's not worthy." Steve and Tony trying to justify their not being able to lift Thor's hammer.

Although I will also remind everyone of this justification of not being able to use the hammer:

1. Vision picking up Mjolnir, and everybody's shocked expressions at it. It's a moment where you gasp in shock (Oh My God, did that just happen? Did that seriously happen?) and laugh at the same time. That was definitely one of the best parts of the movie.

What were your favorite Avengers: Age of Ultron moments, funny or otherwise? Let me know in the comments, or tweet me @ak_gossipghoul.

XOXO
Gossip Ghoul

So I Finally Got To See Avengers: Age of Ultron

To a certain best friend and her fiance, along with anyone else out there who hasn't yet seen the movie: there are lots of spoilers ahead! Read at your own risk!

All pictures from Tumblr.

I fucking loved Avengers: Age of Ultron! I loved it so much that I am going to see it a third time tomorrow. That's right. A third time. Because it's fucking awesome. It was everything I wanted it to be and more. Love, love, loved it!

So are we going to talk about Thor's visions? His wasn't his past like Natasha's. Like Cap and Tony, his deepest fears were involved, but his vision also showed him things he had no way of knowing otherwise, especially the Infinity Gems revealed so far. He might have known about the Aether and the Tesseract being Infinity Gems, but he couldn't have known about the Power Stone from Guardians of the Galaxy or that the Scepter contained the Mind Stone. Is it because he's a god? Or was all-seeing Heimdall contacting him via the vision? And that hooded figure-- I'm convinced that was Loki. Anyone else agree with me? Does Thor know that Loki was working with Thanos? Did Loki ever tell anyone that? Does Thor have any idea what Thanos is up to, or is Thanos purposefully shielding himself from Heimdall by having previously used middlemen (Loki, Ronan, even Malekith) to get the Gems for him?

And is it weird that they introduced Black Panther's nemesis Klaw before introducing Black Panther? Andy Serkis was fucking awesome and hilarious as Ulysses Klaue, and I loved that they're setting up introducing Black Panther, but it's still a little weird, right?

Did anyone else think Scarlet Witch was really under powered? This a woman who bends reality to her will. She created an alternate universe just by thinking it. She de-powered like 90% of mutants just by screaming "No more mutants!" at Magneto. I get that she's still discovering how to use her powers, and her coming out to join combat was a powerful moment, but she should be more powerful. Hopefully in the future we'll see her explore more of her abilities.

Also, the only thing that bothered me about Quicksilver was his speech. In like every other incarnation Quicksilver always talks really really really really fast, like he does everything super fast, and I was disappointed that Pietro spoke like a normal person here. See below for the comparisons of other Quicksilver portrayals (my personal fave is the X-Men: Evolution version).





I wish there had been more Falcon (although yay, more comic book-based costume!), although I understand not wanting too many elements in epic fight scenes already crammed with characters. Speaking of, yay, War Machine! I really wished he had gotten to fight in the last Avengers film, so huzzah!

Can I take a moment to mention just how fucking amazing James Spader was as Ultron? In every single scene, he just brought so much to the character. He had the right balance of rage and self-righteousness, and he was hilarious in a movie chock-full of witty one-liners! Oh, he was awesome.

And so was Vision. OMG Vision. Especially the part with Mjolnir... And that last scene with him and Ultron.... But the Mind Stone is in his head! His head! Is Thanos going to rip it out of his head?! Will Vision survive that? Or will that bring back Ultron since part of Ultron's consciousness is in him?!!!!!

And with JARVIS becoming Vision, I will miss JARVIS, but FRIDAY was in it! Hurray!

And the Hulk-buster armor scene! It's not easy to make a fight that epic with that much humor, but they pulled it off! And so much Science Bros! I could totally use a movie of just Science Bros!

And Hawkeye felt more like Hawkeye this time.

Yeah. That's the facial expression I expect to see on Hawkeye 24/7!

And all the feels of Quicksilver's death! I'm still upset about that! It's not fair to kill him off like that!

And Natasha putting aside her personal feelings to do what she knows she has to do to save people... Natasha is a much stronger character than she gets credit for. The only reason they didn't have her attempting to pick up Mjolnir is because she would have succeeded! Seriously, she has wielded Mjolnir in the comics.

Am I the only one who stayed behind convinced that Joss Whedon was lying about no final credits scene? Yes, there was the fucking epic Thanos and Infinity Gauntlet scene, but no end end credits scene like the shawarma scene. I totally thought he was lying, and he wasn't. No shawarma. Sadness.

BUT OMG THE INFINITY GAUNTLET I'M TOTALLY FANGIRLING RIGHT NOW JUST THINKING ABOUT IT AND I BOUGHT A REPRINT OF THE FIRST ISSUE OF INFINITY WAR AT FREE COMIC BOOK DAY YESTERDAY AND I'M GEEKING OUT SO MUCH ABOUT IT!!!!!!1!!!!!1!!!!!!!1111!!!!!!!!!1

Ahem. Calming down now.

I really don't understand why so many people were disappointed with the movie. What the hell? It was amazing!

What did you think of Age of Ultron? What was your favorite part? Are you excited for Infinity Wars too? Let me know in the comments, or tweet me @ak_gossipghoul!

XOXO
Gossip Ghoul

Life Without Avengers

This is my state of mind right now:

Gif from Tumblr

I can't log into Tumblr. I can't peek at Twitter. I can't use Facebook or go anywhere online. I just have to put my hands over my ears and tell everyone to stop talking about Avengers: Age of Ultron! I haven't seen it yet, and I don't know when I will! Don't give me any spoilers!

I can't handle not seeing it yet. This is driving me crazy. People see my Avengers graphic tee and say, "Oh, did you go see the movie?"

And I reply bitterly, "No, I work three consecutive days of eleven hour shifts, so NO, I have not gone to the movie theater yet! Thank you for reminding me of how much my life sucks right now!"

I'm dying right now. #NerdGirlProblems 😭

If you've gotten to see Age of Ultron, don't you dare give me any spoilers in the comments! 

XOXO

Gossip Ghoul 

Movie Review: Big Hero 6

So the Disney movie Big Hero 6 came out on DVD a little while back. I remember when it theaters I knew I wanted to see it right away opening weekend because of how adorable it looked. Plus I really love Disney. Plus it was made by a lot of the same people who did Frozen and Wreck It Ralph, both of which I really love.

Gif from Buzzfeed.

And let me tell you, Big Hero 6 was really good, even better than The Book of Life, which was also really adorable. I'll admit that it wasn't as great as Frozen or as visually stunning, but it was still heartfelt and touching and OMG I'm tearing up again just thinking about it! (T_T)

Like Wreck It Ralph, it had strong themes of friendship and identity, and like Frozen, it focused on family -- although on a pair of brothers, not sisters. Also, like many superhero films, it mixed in themes of revenge and redemption. Additionally, it was one of the most diverse Disney films I've ever seen.

Big Hero 6 takes place in an anime-esque city called San Fransokyo - a combination of San Francisco and Tokyo - where kid genius Hiro is interested only in illegal robot-fighting and gambling. His older brother Todashi urges him to apply himself in using his intellect in creating something important, something to help others, like the cuddly robot of Todashi's creation, Baymax, intended as a personal healthcare assistant to treat people who are sick and injured.

After a terrible incident, Hiro relies on Baymax and his group of friends (all racially diverse super genius scientists except comic book-obsessed Fred. I love Fred. Fred is me.), and they form a sentai-style group of superheroes in order to catch a dastardly villain. I'm trying to minimize spoilers, so let's just say I cried a lot. I admittedly also loudly exclaimed the word "Fuck!" twice in dismay. Luckily I was the only one in the theater at that showing, since I neglected to see it in 3D.

Pic from Buzzfeed.

I will mention, however, that I was incredibly annoyed by all the mispronunciation of every single Japanese word and name. Every. Single. One. Why couldn't Disney have hired a voice coach to teach the cast to say names correctly?! Was that so hard?!

Speaking of the cast, however, it does include the lovely Jamie Chung, whom I have a crush on, as well as Alan Tudyk, who once again voices a devious character of suspect motivation (just like King Candy in Wreck It Ralph and the Duke of Weaseltown in Frozen -- so far from cuddly Wash playing with toy dinosaurs in Firefly). Except for all the mispronunciation, the cast did a great job.

By the way, be sure to watch until after the credits for a Stan Lee cameo! What's a Marvel movie adaptation without Stan Lee, after all?

So go on and enjoy the cuteness, and bring tissues. You're in for a whole lot of feels.

XOXO
Gossip Ghoul.

My Top Five Guilty Pleasure Movies

Everybody has a few. You know, those movies you hide at the back of the shelf because when people come over, they're like, "Why do you own this?"

And you look at the floor and mumble in embarrassment, "I like it."

"But it's so stupid!"

Well, yeah. It's thoroughly stupid and badly done. You just really enjoy it a lot despite all its faults. That is a guilty pleasure movie.

I add the condition that in order to qualify as a guilty pleasure movie, one must feel embarrassed about liking it. That's why I never include children's movies. Kids' films always bring a sense of nostalgia, even when watching those made more recently. If you loved Toy Story as a kid, chances are you won't be embarrassed to admit you bawled your eyes out at the end of Toy Story 3. Of course, those are also well done movies, so they wouldn't count anyway.

I'm sure one of my friends would step forward and say, "Aurora K., why aren't you mentioning that you own almost every single one of the Barbie Movies and two copies of each of the first two Twilight films?" The simple answer is that I don't feel guilty about any of those. I unabashedly admit my undying love.

But some movies, on the other hand...

Here is my list of the top five guilty pleasure movies I own, in no particular order:

Picture from Tumblr.

1. Red Riding Hood: I was really excited when I first heard about this movie. A gothic version of one of my favorite dark fairy tales? Sounds awesome, right? Plus Amanda Seyfried is sizzlingly beautiful in that red cloack, and Gary Oldman is a great actor. Then throw into the mix bad writing, a mediocre at best plot, and far too much hair gel for the guys, and the movie really suffers. Not to mention, WTF was that dance scene? It's really bad, yet I enjoy it. Sometimes I'm in the mood for cheesy teen drama. Also, it inspires me to write dark fairy tales well in the hopes that this won't be repeated. There is some pretty beautiful imagery, though.

Also, Red Riding Hood led to this Sterek fan video, and that's a good thing.




See? It can't be all that mad of a movie if it can fuel my slash feels for a completely different fandom, right? Right?

Speaking of cheesy teen drama...

Picture from BoxOfficeProphets.com

2. She's The Man: Attempting to follow the footsteps of 10 Things I Hate About You as a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, She's The Man is a modern teen version of Twelfth Night. It stars Amanda Bynes, which right there should give you a notion of its quality. She's The Man doesn't measure up to 10 Things I Hate About You's witty and clever dialogue or its brilliant characterization. Instead it's just stupidly funny, relying on gender stereotype jokes and an over the top ridiculous love triangle (much more ridiculous than in the original Shakespeare, I feel). But sometimes I want mindless laughter, and She's The Man is perfect for unwinding after a stressful week.

Going from teen drama to preteen drama...

Picture from Tribute.ca

3. Sleepover: This is a really stupid movie about girls about to enter high school going on a scavenger hunt in order to become popular. Well, to get the popular girls' lunch spot. It is so ridiculously bad and two-dimensional, but it gives me a silly happy feeling when I watch it. You know, the thought that determination and the power of friendship could magically make your life better. Also, it has Jane Lynch in a minor role. Steve Carrell too, but I'm convinced the movie would not be as enjoyable without Jane Lynch, since she's made of awesome.
 

Picture from EW.com

4. The Hot Chick: Yeah, yeah, another high school movie. I remember seeing this in 8th grade at a classmate's house while working on a science project and finding it hilarious. It's an old movie -- so old it has Tia and Tamara Mowry, the twins from Sister, Sister in it, and it is such a badly done comedy. The thing that makes it brilliant is that Rob Schneider is scarily convincing as a teenaged girl. He really, really pulls off the part of a shallow blonde cheerleader trapped in an ugly man's body. I can't stand Rob Schneider in anything else, but he's ridiculously funny in The Hot Chick. Check it out some night with popcorn, candy, and a bottle of white wine or pink cocktails to be extra girly.

Picture from ComicVine.com

5. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: OK, yeah, I hear the collective gasps of shock and horror, the angry cries of "How dare you! And you call yourself an Alan Moore fan!" I like the LXG movie, ok? So send away the lynch mob. The LXG graphic novels are pretty incredible. Obviously. Alan Moore wrote them, after all, and he is a brilliant storyteller. To describe the movie as a very poor adaptation would be saying the very, very least, especially with the gross departures taken from every one of the characters -- both from the graphic novel and their literary origins. The LXG movie is one of those examples of films that give comic movies a bad name, like Batman and Robin or Constantine or Howard the Duck. Yeah, that's how bad it is. Considering that and how great the original work is, it was shocking to myself that I actually enjoyed it. Quite a WTF moment. Of course, Sean Connery and Richard Roxburgh probably contributed to my enjoyment, along with semi-badass vampire Mina (although WTF? In what way was Mina ever a chemist?!).

So there you have it: five movies I actually do own and watch when no-one is around. They're bad, but that's part of their charm. I certainly enjoy them more than popular, "successful" comedy Bridesmaids. But to each his or her own.

Yeah, they're all from Goodwill or secondhand stores. Like I'd pay full price for any of these?

All you readers out there, what are your guilty pleasure movies? Tell me in the comments!

XOXO
Gossip Ghoul.