Movie Review - I Am Legend

Movie: I Am Legend (2007)

Starring: Will Smith, Alice Braga

Synopsis: (from Yahoo Movies) Robert Neville (Will Smith) is a brilliant scientist, but even he could not contain the terrible virus that was unstoppable, incurable...and manmade. Somehow immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City...and maybe the world. But he is not alone. He is surrounded by "the Infected"--victims of the plague who have mutated into carnivorous beings who can only exist in the dark and who will devour or infect anyone or anything in their path. For three years, Neville has spent his days scavenging for food and supplies and faithfully sending out radio messages, desperate to find any other survivors who might be out there. All the while, the Infected lurk in the shadows, watching Neville's every move, waiting for him to make a fatal mistake. Perhaps mankind's last, best hope, Neville is driven by only one remaining mission: to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus using his own immune blood. But his blood is also what The Infected hunt, and Neville knows he is outnumbered and quickly running out of time.

My two cents: I saw this movie on Sunday night (12/30/07) with my cousin PM and her husband JM. I think that before going into the movie I had a very general idea what it was about, but not a whole lot more. I knew it was about Will Smith, last man on earth. Good enough for me. What I didn't know was how freakin' scary this movie was at times. Or how deep. Or how sad. I've heard from several people who've seen this movie, and I've heard "I loved it" and "I hated it"...I actually haven't heard any inbetween opinions, so it seems it's one of those movies that evokes strong feelings one way or the other. I'm in the "I loved it" camp, although as I was watching it, I hated it. Let me clarify. I don't watch scary movies, I hate scary movies. I live alone, therefore, scary movies serve to only make me a paranoid mess, hearing every little noise in my condo complex, and getting zero sleep. Therefore, I don't watch them. I Am Legend was the type of "something is going to jump out any minute now" scary movie that I like the least. And yet, there's a sort of adrenaline rush that makes it clear why people choose to watch movies that make them jump out of their seats. This movie has quite a few of these scenes, and it made for an interesting viewing experience. PM and I actually screamed out loud a few times, which led to fits of giggles afterward, but there were other screams in the theatre, so we weren't alone. In fact, there were two "thuggish" looking teenage boys sitting in front of us, and during one of the scenes one of them jumped so far out of his seat I'm pretty sure he was airborne for a while. He then promptly slunk down in his seat, zipped his jacket up over his face, leaving only his eyes, and watched the rest of the movie in that "I can see, but I can't really see, just in case something else jumps out" position. I myself watched quite a bit of the film through my fingers.

Besides the "scary" parts, the movie was also heavy with a sort of dark, end of the world gloom, broken up only by the humor Will Smith's character infuses in his conversations with his dog, himself, and well...his imaginary friends. Being the last man on earth has led him to develop a sort of "crazyness" to keep him from going crazy. Through flashbacks we learn how the world came to be what it is, and how Smith's character has taken it upon himself to be the savior. He almost literally carries the weight of the world on his shoulders, and Will Smith does a tremendous job of displaying the range of emotions a man in his position suffers through on a daily basis. I've always been a fan of his, but I think in this movie he reached a new level of his acting abilities. And ladies? HE LOOKS HOT as hell.

From a "special effects" perspective, the movie was pretty cool. Seeing New York City in a post-apocalyptic, weeds growing in the middle of highways, cars abandoned on the streets, wild animals roaming free sort of way was pretty magnificent. A true urban jungle. I was pretty impressed with the sets, scenery, what have you.

The movie certainly raises a lot of questions, and you walk out with a "wow, that was deep" sort of feeling. At least that seemed to be the consensus among the viewers at the theatre that night, from what I heard as we were walking out. The teenage boys who sat in front of us? "Man, that was some deep shit" is what one of them said as they walked past us.

I don't think PM liked the movie nearly as much as JM and I did, but that is mostly because she was upset at several "turns of events" throughout. It is by no means a "feel-good" movie, and tears were certainly shed (by yours truly as well) while watching it.

Overall, I really enjoyed the film, even if I was crawling out of my skin waiting for it to "be over already", and I will probably watch it again in the future.

Rating: I'm going to give it 4 out of 5 Martini Glasses.

Thursday Thirteen

A new year has dawned, and with the coming of a new year, it seems everyone has their hearts set on fresh starts, new beginnings, clean slates. I don't know what it is about a New Year that makes such a difference, after all, every day is a new day, an opportunity to make a fresh start. And yet, we can't help it, we get wrapped up in the mystic power of a brand new year laid out in front of us with all sorts of potential. I'm no different, I always begin the year with goals, plans and expectations; hope, joy and a fresh outlook.

But that's not so bad, is it? Everyone needs a fresh start now and again, so if we choose this turn in the calendar to recenter ourselves, refocus our minds and hearts, then let it be. There's no harm in taking that deep breath at the stroke of midnight and plunging in head first into the new year.

So here we are, 2008. A wide open canvas for all that it will be. Where this year will take me only time will tell, and I'll let it unfold on its own.

For now, however, I'd like to reflect a bit on this past holiday season. Christmas and New Year's Eve passed in a frenzy of food, family, fun and friends, and I've barely taken the time to share any of it with all of you. So I thought I would use this week's Thursday Thirteen to share some of what my holidays were like.

1. I'm not entirely sure why (though I have my suspicions) but to me, this Christmas was probably the best my family has had since my grandmother passed away seven years ago. There was a real sense of family, of love, of togetherness that we've tried to bring back through the years, but for some reason, it was present this year. No doubt my brother's recent experience had something to do with it, but it was more than that. I've refrained from delving too deeply into what it is that has transformed within my brother, because that is his to tell alone, but we'll just say that through a series of "everything happens for a reason" type of events, he's found a bit of himself that was lost a long time ago. And as fate would have it, quite a few members of our family are interconnected in how it all played out, and so we found ourselves this Christmas very grateful, and blessed.

2. I had a lovely time the Sunday before Christmas hanging out with my mother, my "little sister" Lil'K, and my brother (and his dog Diamond). We've made it a new tradition that Lil'K and I help mom with the baking of all the Christmas sweets she makes. Namely, Lil'K and I make one particular cake, while mom makes all the rest. This particular cake is quite "labor intensive", and Lil'K and I take great pleasure in our creation. Something went horribly wrong this year however, and the fact that the cake managed to not collapse in on itself was quite the accomplishment. The ordeal leading to the completion of this cake was rought with fits of giggles and horrified squeals. You sort of had to be there, but it made for a fun afternoon in mom's kitchen. So much so that when I dropped Lil'K off that night, she told me her cheeks hurt from laughing so much. There is no greater feeling.

3. My friend Traveler was "home" from Florida for a few weeks, and we were able to spend some quality time doing what we do best. Attending a Boston Bruins game, with free tickets in a VIP suite she scored through her various connections, sipping martinis while we gossiped about poor wardrobe choices of those surrounding us, and giggling like schoolgirls as we flirted shamelessly with men we had no intention of speaking to after we left that day. We spent another day shopping and basically wasting time while we enjoyed time together in a friendship that thankfully has not really suffered due to the long distance her move to Florida created. If anything, we've just become more creative in how to make our friendship work. Traveler is easily one of my closest friends, and distance hasn't dulled how easily we relate to each other.

4. My family celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve. We all gather at my mother's house for dinner, enjoy ridiculous amounts of food (and wine) while we chat about anything and everything. This year midnight came with hardly a notice from us, and all of us filed out and headed off to midnight mass. After mass we regathered at mom's for the annual "exchange of the gifts". The gift exchange in our family has always been a momentous occasion because we open all gifts one-by-one, so that everyone can see what everyone else has received. We also ALL give a gift to every person. We do this not because we have loads of money to spend (we do not), but because in our family, the act of giving is actually a lot more pleasureable than the receiving. You can see the thrill on everyone's faces as their gifts are opened and well received. None of us spend a lot of money, but all of us spend a lot of time thinking of just the right gift.

5. This year, I was particularly excited about several of my gifts, because I'd thrown in a personal touch to quite a few of them. Having discovered photography this year, and the fact that I might actually have an eye for the art, I put together quite a few "photo" gifts for people. Among them was a photograph of a sunset for my uncle, a collage of photos for my cousin M&M from a "foliage" trip we took with her daughter Braniac in the fall, and other elaborate collages I created for a few girlfriends with photos we took at several events through the year. The gift I was most excited to give, however, was the one I created for my brother. Several years ago my uncle created fabulous collages of photos for our family. They included pictures of our childhood, with our grandparents, parents, etc. At the time my brother was possibly too young to appreciate such a gift, so he received a remote control car, or something of the sort. I remember that he made a comment that he wouldn't have minded receiving a collage as well, but it wasn't a big deal. This year, however, I felt that he would trully appreciate a bit of his history in photographs, so I dug out old photos and new, and put a great collage together. I could hardly wait to give it to him. I believe he loved it as much as I had hoped he would.

6. I received many wonderful gifts, meaningful, fun, entertaining, and useful. I would list them all here, but I'm afraid I'd leave something out and offend someone, so we'll just say that I loved each and every gift I received, and was just glad to be thought of by everyone. I really did get some great gifts though! I'll probably mention some in my future posts as I use them.

7. By the time the "gift exchange" was complete it was nearly 4AM. I told you it was a momentous occasion, didn't I? We all gathered our wares, and headed for home.

8. Christmas day is a lazy day for our family. We get up late to recover from the previous evening, and spend the morning (ahem, early afternoon) playing with our gifts. I had a (very) late breakfast and surrounded myself with my booty. A late shower and I was off to join my family at a family friend's house, where a new tradition of Christmas lunch/dinner has been borne the last few years. More food, more wine, more conversation and laughs. I was home by 7PM and curled up on the couch in my pj's, in preparation of the return to work the next morning.

9. The Saturday before New Year's I had my annual Christmas Party at my house. Every year I host a few "girl's nights" at my place. It began with my annual Christmas Party the first year I owned the condo and has now blossomed into a few other's throughout the year, usually for my birthday, and this year, for Halloween as well. Because I am single, and have a fantastic group of female friends from various areas and times in my life, I've chosen to make these parties "ladies only" events. It gives me an opportunity to spend some time with my friends, and for them to get to know each other a bit. And since it's my party, I can be "single" if I want to, and not feel like the only one in the room without a partner. It works out well, I think, because I believe the girls enjoy a night off from family and significant others, to just be girls. We eat, we drink, we chat, we play games, and all sorts of hilarity ensues. This year was no different, we had a fabulous time. I might have had a bit too much to drink, but I'll never tell.

10. Making my party a bit more special this year was the fact that my cousin PM and her family had arrived from California earlier that day, and she was able to come to one of my parties for the first time since I've been hosting them. I miss PM tremendously, and always enjoy spending time with her, so it was a treat to have her there with my other friends. Her sister M&M and I have become extremely close over the last few years, so it was wonderful to have both of them there, now that we're all grown up.

11. The following day I was able to hang out with the rest of PM's family. Her husband, JM who I definitely consider a very good friend and her two little boys. Her oldest boy, who is four now, I am madly in love with, and miss terribly when they leave. Her youngest, who is seven months, I had yet to meet. Yes ladies and gents, I have fallen madly in love with him as well. Never will you meet a happier child. I got plenty of "baby time" in, and am really sad they don't live closer, because I swear I'd sign up for babysitting duties regularly (are you guys listening? MOVE BACK). sigh, worth a shot folks. That evening PM, JM and I went to the movies to watch I Am Legend. I'll save that movie review for a separate post, and you all already know about the text messaging/LawBoy fiasco, so I'll skip that as well.

12. New Year's Eve was spent at my aunt and uncles house, with my parents, my cousin M&M, her boyfriend, and Braniac. Again, family, food, wine, laughter, conversation and games. All the good things in life. We watched Dick Clark's countdown, and I was home and in bed by 2AM.

13. I took lots of pictures during these few weeks, but have not had a chance to upload them yet...I'll share them on here soon though. I can honestly tell you that I'm actually sad for the holidays to be over. There was a joyful, warm, loving light surrounding them this year, and I'm not quite ready to turn it off yet. My Christmas tree is still up, and I still turn the lights on every night when I get home. I'm thinking I might have to take the tree down this weekend, and I'm kind of sad about that. But I guess I'll have the pictures to remind me of the season and make me smile.

I hope you all had as wonderful a holiday season as I did. And here's to a fantastic 2008!

Everybody's making changes - The Lawboy Chronicles

Let me start off by saying that I've made an executive decision, and have decided to retire this blog from the Wordless Wednesday meme. At least for now. I'm considering possibly picking it up at the Creative Karina blog instead, but for this week, I'll just be skipping it.

Instead, I give you the latest edition of the LawBoy Chronicles. For those unfamiliar with LawBoy, you can catch up here, here, here and here. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Okay, so, you've got the story now, right? So, from that point in October I received maybe two or three further text messages from him, a "Happy Thanksgiving", a "Merry Christmas" and the random "Hi, how are you". I replied to the holiday greetings with holiday greedings, I did not reply to the other messages. In all honesty, just couldn't strike up the motivation to do so. I'd pretty much decided that I was over it.

Fast forward to Sunday, December 30th around 7PM. I get the random "Hi, how are you", followed by "Any plans for New Year's?". I'm in the process of getting ready to head out with my cousins to the movies, so I reply with a quick "Fine, will just be chillin' with family on New Year's, you?"

He replies: "That's good, I don't know yet. Will be making some changes in 2008". Hmm...where have we heard that before? July wasn't it?

In the meantime I'm driving to the movies, and buying tickets, and choosing seats, so I don't reply for a while and receive another message from him: "When can I see you?"

Right. Well, the movie is about to start, so I don't reply, shut off my phone and focus on not jumping out of my skin while watching said movie. (I Am Legend, for the record, movie review to follow later this week).

After the movie, while driving home, my cousin PM and I have a small discussion about Lawboy's last text. Here's where I stand on it; I feel that just because you "THINK" you will "be making some changes in 2008" doesn't change a damn thing as far as I'm concerned. The way I'm looking at it, you can see me when you have gone and made those changes, taken a step back and made sure you're right with yourself. THEN, and only then, should you be thinking about stepping to me. This isn't going to be a "let me see her, see if there's anything there, and then if there is I can break things off, and if there isn't, well, then I don't have to" situation. This isn't and shouldn't be about me, after all, right? Not for him anyway.

So, once I get home I send him a text: "I don't know, when can you see me?" Thinking it'll start up the conversation as to what his situation is shaping up to be, or whatever. Not so much. Instead I get: "What are you doing next Saturday?"

That's not going to work for me folks. For starters, this "text flirting" has been cute and all, but if you want to ask me out on a date, at least have the courtesy to pick up the phone and use your VOICE to do it. And make your changes first, because me? I'm rapidly losing any inkling of interest, or curiosity, or whatever it was that had intrigued me in the beginning. Losing or...yeah, it may already be lost.

So I replied that I am busy next weekend, because I am. I don't know what I'm doing yet, but I'm sure something will come up, and I'm sure whatever it is will be far more interesting than being LawBoy's "inbetween" chick.

I'm ambivelent as to whether there will be future LawBoy updates. Anything is possible, and could actually still redeem himself, and then again, maybe not. Only time will tell. For the record, once I told him I was busy, I didn't hear back from him again.

Ah, good times, good times.

Check out my Guestbook! - This is a sticky post, please scroll down for new entries.

And so it begins

Here we are, 2008, a brand new year, and brand new challenges ahead. Starting off the year with a fresh new look here at Candid Karina, ready to tackle Blog365 head on.

The beauty of Blog365 is that the rules are a lot looser than NaBloPoMo in that you don't actually have to "post" everyday, as long as you create everyday. In other words, if you are away from an internet connection, as long as you write something (even in a journal) everyday, and then post it when you have access again, then you are still complying. And you can even post to different blogs, but that'll just get confusing for me, so count on a fresh post from me here, daily, or as close as I can get.

To be honest, I didn't really joing Blog365 with the belief that I would manage to post every single day in 2008, but I figured I already post pretty regularly, so this will just be an excuse to network some more over on Ning, which I enjoy tremendously.

So, the games begin then.

And what does 2008 hold in store here at Candid Karina? I'm not really sure, but my cousin PM told me this weekend that she much preferred my blog when I did more "writing" and less "memeing", so although I'm not sure I'll cut back on the memes, because the few I do participate in, I enjoy, I do plan on writing more, so there will be some changes for sure.

There will be more tales of "All the Boys I've Loved"; more updates or "non-updates" as they may be about "Lawboy" and any other potentials that may cross my path this year; certainly more "Tales from the Firm", and even more answers to questions you've asked me that I have not yet gotten to.

As I continue to explore photography, there will be more pictures. And at Creative Karina, my other blog, there will be more poetry, short stories, and whatever else strikes my fancy.

And hopefully, and perhaps most importantly, I hope to build stronger, better, more consistent conversations with you, my readers, through comments, through emails, through whatever means we can use, because YOU my blogging buddies, are what makes it all as much fun as it was in 2007.

So, without further ado, let the games begin...to 2008, and beyond.