As a prelude to my next review post … enjoy the videos below.  No prizes for guessing what the next review post will be about.  Check them out!

My favourite is this fan-made video incorporating and weaving in scenes from the TV series Heroes and Supernatural:

There is no doubt in my mind that Neil Gaiman is a true blue romantic at heart. Just read his fantasy work Stardust, which was adapted into a movie starring Claire Danes, Robert de Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer, and which I simply had to watch, and you’ll surely agree with me.

Let’s talk about the book first, since I like it slightly more than the movie, which I watched just before reading the book. The story revolves round a young man Tristan Thorn, who set off on a quest to fetch a fallen star to win the hand of the town beauty. His quest took him into the unexplored lands on the other side of the ancient wall from which his tiny village took its name where he encountered strange things, magical creatures, witches and other wondrous things that belong in Faerie. Along the way, Tristan uncovered the truth of his parentage, found his heart’s desire and learnt the meaning of true love.

I took to Mr Gaiman’s imaginative story-telling right away. This is the Brother Grimms for grown-ups, and living up to the tradition of the fantasy genre, the realistic yet poetically tragic ending was more palatable to me than the pat happily-ever-after curtain closure the movie attempted to conjure. I mean, the heroine is immortal, but the hero isn’t. Some of Gaiman’s wry humour wasn’t moved to the big screen.

When Kristie decides to take up a cause, you can trust her to go all out for it. Just look at her crusading efforts and the converts she has made, and you can surely guess at the passion that stirs inside her heart. Why, if you need conviction, ask the readers whom she’s successfully persuaded to read Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas last year.

So, when she started crusading for readers and friends to give the BBC drama series North & South  a try, I decided to get the video and watch the series myself. Turns out all that swooning over le Armitage was no exaggeration and the series itself is every bit worth the lavish praises Kristie and her friends, and the many fan converts she’s made since the crusade began, had heaped on the story, plot development and the characters, and more!

From the first encounter between Margaret and John, I was drawn to the internal struggles and conflicting emotions fleeting across the heroine’s faces, and the quiet admiration shining through the eyes of the absolutely drool-worthy Armitage. As their inevitable attraction unfolds in the four-hour drama, I started cataloguing the intense looks and brooding glances which spoke volumes without John ever uttering the redeeming three words, and sometime after the second episode, I lost count and simply gave myself up to the thrill of ‘the look’ every time it happens.

Mailyn, you’re absolutely right! PoTC3: At World’s End rocks!!! The kids and I agree that movie 3 is the best ever. And we’re all looking forward to the next adventure of Jack Sparrow, Will and Elizabeth Turner. 

You see, I am convinced that Captain Jack is going to contrive to find the Fountain/ Water of Life/ Youth and restore Will so that Elizabeth and he can have a happily ever after, as the ending clearly hints at that. He has a good heart underneath all that cunning and wile. I also believe there’s no way the producers are leaving things hanging the way it is, tearing apart the lovers just when they finally got back together. It’s going to be the height of cruelty, and I think this series is still too good a money spinner to let it die just like that. 

So, here’s a petition to Mr Jerry B and the Walt Disney bosses to present a satisfactory conclusion (and by that, I mean reunite Elizabeth with Will) in the fourth movie. I’ve already promised the daughter I’ll get the video when it’s released, so here’s a guaranteed fan and customer. Besides, the die-hard romantic in me just cannot live with the fact that the pair is destined to live apart meeting for one day only every ten years.  The Disney story-tellers have been creating happy ever after and making dreams come true for decades … I just won’t buy that they aren’t just as much an opimist as I am, so there!

Having just finished watching Harry Potter movie DVDs one through four over the last three weekends with the kids, and re-reading Order of the Phoenix and Half Blood Prince for the, I don’t know, fourth (?) time, I couldn’t help feeling excited about the next movie hitting the big screen this summer. Not to mention the thrill of receiving the last instalment, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows at the bookstore I pre-ordered with a couple of months from now. 

I really really hope the director, Yates, put all the crucial points of this book into the movie. Of course, there’ll be cuts. This is after all the thickest book by far. The other night while I was surfing the web, I came across this fabulous movie tie-in site, Join Dumbledore’s Army, and thought it was a very, very clever marketing idea. It’s another good use of the social interactive nature of the web again. Bloody brilliant, I’d say! 

Btw, if you’ve a moment, drop by Dan’s site – it’s very classy looking now and there’re news and interviews on all his new ventures.

Anyway, that set me to thinking about the coming movie, and this is what I envision it should contain.

Having caught three episodes of Ugly Betty on local TV, I’m more than ready to put my stamp of approval on this quirky drama comedy about a plain-looking but intelligent, confident and resourceful young woman starting out on her career in the superficial world of high fashion publishing. 

What I dig about this show is the central character Betty Suarez’s big-hearted way of treating people, being nice to even those who’d hurt her deliberately with well-aimed remarks and snide insinuations at her fashion sense. She may not be coiffed and perfectly powdered, and dressed in haute couture, but I love her quirky and eclectic dress sense. It’s got her personality stamped all over it. The infectious thing about her is that she is passionate about what she believes in and when she’s brimming with ideas, she really goes out to champion them. Her indomitable spirit and optimism in the face of adversity (and trust me, there are plenty saboteurs out to see that she, and her boss, fails) are the stuff of human drama that I find lacking in some of today’s shows.