MegC said:

I am reading City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare.  It's the newest in her Mortal Instruments series.  Totally a YA book, but I started the series and it's surprisingly good so now I have to finish it.  At least Cassandra Clare knows how to craft a good story even if I object to the relationship between the hero and heroine of the book.

I read a lot of young-adult…try to keep up with what my students read.  Although I refuse to read Nicholas Sparks.  His books make me gag.  At least throw in some supernatural to keep it interesting.

But I've figured out why teenage girls are incapable of having a realistic relationship (besides the fact that they're teenage girls).  In a lot of these books (Twilight, Mortal Instruments, Infernal Devices, Vampire Diaries, etc.) the hero is some guy with weird issues who's not bad per se, just strange.  And, inevitably, he falls in love with this girl who is perfect (literally, the heroine always seems to be a girl who is SOOOOO good.  The worst thing the author says about her, for example, is that she's too honest or something equally ridiculous).  But he's afraid that he'll taint her if they're together so he spends 3/4 of the series/book trying to NOT be with her, only to finally succumb.  And the girl, because she's perfect, is able to change the hero and help him through his issues.  It's so….idealized.  Who can live up to those kind of expectations???

I say give me Scarlett and Rhett any day.

A friend of mine who has a teen daughter is glad the girl is over her Twilight interest — I think she burned out with the first book/movie LOL My friend said that it was one of the things that disturbed her about the Twilight series, and it was pretty much what you so capably covered in your message, MegC.

Of course I look at Twilight and Vampire Diaries and all I can wonder is what has happened to the vampires I grew up with, be it Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee, or Gary Oldman, Louis Jourdan and Max Schreck. Vampires always had this mystique about them, but the Cullens nearly have me looking for the Holy Water, communion wafers, garlic and crucifix so I can go on a major hunt a la Anthony Hopkins' Van Helsing! LOL (Although to be fair, in the last movie — whatever it was called LOL — the two vampires that had the most interesting back-stories were the blonde Cullen girl who was turned in the 1920's after being molested by some men, and the youngest Cullen boy who had been a Confederate officer during our Civil War. Those were much more interesting than the painful to watch Edward and Bella. And you are SO right — Edward takes off in the one book/movie so Bella won't be tempted and the silly girl is nearly suicidal in an attempt to “reach” him).

Bella may be one of the most frustrating heroines I've found in literature or the movies. Now, sometimes heroines frustrate me because they DO make the wrong choices (Scarlett and Charles, Scarlett and Frank, Scarlett and Ashley; Meggie and her husband when we all know it's Father Ralph who is her one love); or because we wonder why they don't see what we know makes the imperfect hero special (Scarlett and Rhett; Robin Hood and Lady Marian); or we see our heroine about to make a major mistake and we want to warn her (The Ghost and Mrs. Muir  — Mrs. Muir falling in love with Miles Farley and him breaking her heart; Anne of the Thousand Days getting hooked up with that horrible Henry VIII LOL). Bella of Twilight is frustrating because she's uninteresting — to me anyway. Which I guess in her Creator's eyes makes her perfect? The girl makes Wednesday Addams of the Addams Family look like a happy-go-lucky, carefree soul!

I might want to give Scarlett a shake and tell her to SNAP OUT OF IT, but she's worth a 1000 Bellas!

Anyanka said:

There are no prequels……There are no prequels…..

 

ROTFLMAO! You're right. I'll repeat after you.

There are no prequels.

There are no prequels

There ARE…NO…PREQUELS.

THERE…ARE…NO…PREQUELS.

TinaII2None said:

Don't try your Jedi mind tricks on me, Mr. Lucas.

This totally cracked me up!!!

I will readily admit, I have read ALL of the Twilight series, I own all the movies up to this point, and I am squarely on Team Edward.  But I think vampires are sexy in general, and I think Rob Pattinson is slightly more attractive than Taylor Lautner.  Really, if you ignore Bella and Edward, the other characters are really interesting.  In fact, if Charlotte had been born a boy, the name “Jasper” was on my short list.  Charlotte's middle name is, however, Esme…though not because of Twilight.  And Bella even gets a little more interesting in Breaking Dawn.  Still…sparkling vampires???  It's an interesting premise, but…really??

 Gary Oldman will forever be my favorite portrayal of Dracula and I decided that Winona Ryder should have left Keanu Reeves (who acted surprisingly well in the movie, even if his British accent left a little lacking) and gone with Gary Oldman instead.  

But I love everything Gary Oldman does in the same way that I love Daniel Day Lewis, Stanley Tucci, and, more recently, Leonardo DiCaprio.  If a movie includes them, I will probably find a way to see it.  I recently caught the version of The Scarlet Letter starring Gary Oldman as Dimmesdale and Demi Moore as Hester Prynne (which was a stretch, let me tell you).  Even though the movie was dreadfully twisted to resemble almost nothing of the original story, I still really liked Oldman as Dimmesdale.  Dimmesdale always struck me as wimpy and pathetic, but I was REALLY convinced by Oldman's portrayal of him that he really was doing what he thought best.  It sort of all made sense in a strange, sad kind of way. 

MegC said:

TinaII2None said:

Don't try your Jedi mind tricks on me, Mr. Lucas.

This totally cracked me up!!!

I will readily admit, I have read ALL of the Twilight series, I own all the movies up to this point, and I am squarely on Team Edward.  But I think vampires are sexy in general, and I think Rob Pattinson is slightly more attractive than Taylor Lautner.  Really, if you ignore Bella and Edward, the other characters are really interesting.  In fact, if Charlotte had been born a boy, the name “Jasper” was on my short list.  Charlotte's middle name is, however, Esme…though not because of Twilight.  And Bella even gets a little more interesting in Breaking Dawn.  Still…sparkling vampires???  It's an interesting premise, but…really??

 Gary Oldman will forever be my favorite portrayal of Dracula and I decided that Winona Ryder should have left Keanu Reeves (who acted surprisingly well in the movie, even if his British accent left a little lacking) and gone with Gary Oldman instead.  

But I love everything Gary Oldman does in the same way that I love Daniel Day Lewis, Stanley Tucci, and, more recently, Leonardo DiCaprio.  If a movie includes them, I will probably find a way to see it.  I recently caught the version of The Scarlet Letter starring Gary Oldman as Dimmesdale and Demi Moore as Hester Prynne (which was a stretch, let me tell you).  Even though the movie was dreadfully twisted to resemble almost nothing of the original story, I still really liked Oldman as Dimmesdale.  Dimmesdale always struck me as wimpy and pathetic, but I was REALLY convinced by Oldman's portrayal of him that he really was doing what he thought best.  It sort of all made sense in a strange, sad kind of way. 

---

I have to admit that I have not read the Twilight series.  I have seen the first two movies, and only at the urging of my friend did I watch the second one.  She told me the acting got better in the second movie.  HA…I really beg to differ.  When Robert Pattinson took his shirt off, well I was LMAO.  I was waiting for those jeans he had on to fall off of him.  Not my ideal vampire. 

 I can't pick a team.  I'm neutral.  Bella drives me crazy!  I see zero personality there.  Same with Edward and his clan.  What's with Jasper's hair?  My friend was wrong. The second movie did not get any better. I was rolling my eyes through the whole thing. Sparkling Vampires…Yuck!  I don't know what I'm missing because I know this series is a big hit.  I just don't get it. 

My all-time favorite vampire is Mick St. John (Alex O'Laughlin) in Moonlight. Now there's a vamp! 

Leonardo DiCaprio is such a talent. He's great in everything I've seen him in.  My favorite was Blood Diamond.

MegC said:

This totally cracked me up!!!

I will readily admit, I have read ALL of the Twilight series, I own all the movies up to this point, and I am squarely on Team Edward.  But I think vampires are sexy in general, and I think Rob Pattinson is slightly more attractive than Taylor Lautner.  Really, if you ignore Bella and Edward, the other characters are really interesting.  In fact, if Charlotte had been born a boy, the name “Jasper” was on my short list.  Charlotte's middle name is, however, Esme…though not because of Twilight.  And Bella even gets a little more interesting in Breaking Dawn.  Still…sparkling vampires???  It's an interesting premise, but…really??

 Gary Oldman will forever be my favorite portrayal of Dracula and I decided that Winona Ryder should have left Keanu Reeves (who acted surprisingly well in the movie, even if his British accent left a little lacking) and gone with Gary Oldman instead.  

But I love everything Gary Oldman does in the same way that I love Daniel Day Lewis, Stanley Tucci, and, more recently, Leonardo DiCaprio.  If a movie includes them, I will probably find a way to see it.  I recently caught the version of The Scarlet Letter starring Gary Oldman as Dimmesdale and Demi Moore as Hester Prynne (which was a stretch, let me tell you).  Even though the movie was dreadfully twisted to resemble almost nothing of the original story, I still really liked Oldman as Dimmesdale.  Dimmesdale always struck me as wimpy and pathetic, but I was REALLY convinced by Oldman's portrayal of him that he really was doing what he thought best.  It sort of all made sense in a strange, sad kind of way. 

---

I've been a fan of Gary Oldman since The Professional and his Dracula is probably my all-time favorite. But then I loved how they managed to mix the the historic Vlad (or what we think we know of him) with the Bram Stoker character — gave him so much more depth, especially in his dealings with God as well as him still seeking for his Elisabetta. (The restaurant scene in which he and Mina speak of his homeland never fails to touch me). I smiled when you said you thought Winona should have gone with Dracula! The ladies in my family used to get into some intense conversations about that — I thought Mina and Dracula; my sisters felt bad for Jonathan…and my mother thought Jonathan and Dracula should have found somebody else! LOL (You're right about Keanu — he wasn't bad in the part, but I read that Coppola managed to get some good performances out of both him and Winona, or so both of them admitted. It was nice having Keanu in a role in which he doesn't go “Whoa.”)

 My late mother loved Daniel Day Lewis in The Last of the Mohicans, although I understand that the movie is somewhat different from the novel. (Such as them switching the sisters' names). But I remember in one scene, when he is battling the French and the Indians to rescue Cora during the ambush, my mother would tell us to notice that although his skill never wans once, he never takes his eyes off Cora. Wow. She also felt the same as you about The Scarlet Letter — she'd read the book years and years before and “hated” it as far as what Hester is put through, Dimmesdale's weakness, etc. and while we both agreed that the film was fairly dreadful, we both enjoyed Oldman's performance! After a while you just figured it was easier to pretend it had NOTHING to do with the novel and was an entity all to itself! LOL  

My brother-in-law gave my youngest sister/his wife the entire Twilight series, which she then shared with our mom and our other sister. They all were bigger fans than yours truly; I did enjoy the first movie though, but then I loved Robert in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire so it was nice seeing him in a more major role. JASPER! Thank you. I was drawing a complete blank on the name (and the glowing vampires thing . Anyway, I did like Jasper. And loved that about your Charlotte. (PS: Glad to hear Bella gets a bit of life — so to speak LOL)

Started reading Henry VIII's love letters this morning while on the way home, but then put the book up as I fumbled it after nearly dozing off (had a long night at work). I sort of gathered — from reading the first letter — that there may have been more prior to that one, but…I guess they're missing? What a perfectly insisting/demanding man. Some of his subtlety is almost as subtle as the proverbial sledgehammer. (I want you. I need you. Why are you doing this to me? Don't you know I love you? I mean he sent her a buck he hunted down with his own hands for goodness sake! LOL)

MegC said:

Leonardo DiCaprio's talent really hit me when I saw Inception.  I was just so impressed with his performance and it made me realize that he's really been growing as an actor since playing Jack in Titanic (which I so didn't love).

My husband didn't like Gangs of New York, and I didn't really like it that much, either, but Daniel Day Lewis as the Butcher was impressive.  Pretty impressive knife handling skills if I do say so myself.  Cameron Diaz sort of killed that movie for me, I think….

Loved Inception — had to watch it twice to get the whole meaning, and I could probably do with a few more viewings but he was quite good in it. And I thought it one of the best movies of 2010.

Didn't see Gangs of New York although my mother had a high opinion of it. There were a couple of occasions when i thought about renting it, but I think every time I saw a clip with Cameron Diaz LOL I ended up putting something else ahead of it on my Netflix queue. As a Day-Lewis fan going all the way back to A Room With A View  I'm sort of sorry I never got to see his Butcher.

I think Day-Lewis came out of retirement to play the Butcher.  He's vicious!

@Anyanka-I think Catch Me if You Can was a great movie, and probably one of the first movies I saw him in other than Titanic.  

We own Inception, and I think we might watch it tonight.

About GWTW…I messaged Claire awhile ago and she said she was ok with us reading and discussing GWTW.  I also messaged BoleynFan to see if she was ok with it since she runs the book club thread and I didn't want us to just hijack it from her, but I don't think she's been on in awhile so I haven't heard anything back from her yet.

@Tina:  Gangs of New York is a good movie, but it's a Scorsese movie which means it's LOOOONG (three hours, I think).  If you can ignore Cameron Diaz, the other characters are good.  Liam Neeson has a small part in it, and I think Colm Meaney is in it too (O'Brien from TNG).  It's very bloody (I mean, there's a character named the Butcher!) which doesn't bother me, but if you got squirmy watching Braveheart, for example, then Gangs of New York isn't for you.  I just found Diaz's character superfluous…I mean, do we really NEED a love interest?  I hate it when directors take good movies and throw in an unnecessary romance.

One of the best parts about Inception was the fact that the only romance in the story was an actual vital part of the plot.