Chirstchurch Earthquake

For those followers who don't know me, I am born and bred in the beautiful city of Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand. 

On Tuesday 22nd of February at 12.51 I was sitting in a concrete car park about to go to yet another movie, when a 6.3 earthquake hit the city. With other cars in the car park getting violently jiggled as if they were toys, and bits of concrete roof falling on my windscreen, it was the second time where I have wondered "is this it. am i going to die in a concrete car park, alone?" The first time being when the first earthquake hit on September the 4th 2010. While I was fortunate to get out without a scratch, to date 149 people have lost their lives from mother natures movements. From what I've seen throughout the city, I cant explain how surreal it is for my city to look like a third world country that you see on the television during a war or something similar. Its scary, and a feeling I now wish upon no-one, anywhere, anytime, in any situation. 

Here a just a few of the pictures that I managed to capture while out rubber-necking/ rescuing my mums car from the center city. 

 Shop facades fallen

 used to be a two story house...

 rubble

 queues for gas because of no power  

 all roads are like this..

 big gaping holes

 some with cars in the them..

 roads are reduced to wavy concrete

 silt holes

 shops I used to frequent in high school

 Quinns, chemist

 TV crews

 just fallen onto the road

 Grand Chancellor in the background is on a slope

        about to collapse

 roads about to sink into the river

 a huge army presence

 all the churches in the city

 merivale shops again

kia kaha NZ

Movie #17: Black Swan

Similar to Inception I left this movie asking myself what the eff just happened and is it real. So did the rest of the cinema apparently, as it took a couple of minutes for people to realize the film was over and come to terms with what they just saw. 

While I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, I have so many questions left unanswered, and if I were to truly question the possibility of events in this movie, I would loose myself, and become just as delusional as Miss Portman's character Nina Sayers, who with the help from a  emotionally tormenting, overbearing mother becomes obsessed and then delusional following the stress of being cast as head ballerina in her company's production of Swan Lake. 

Similar to The Fighter where Mr Bale lost weight for his role as Dickie Ecklund, Miss Portaman reportedly lost around 10 kg's (20 pounds) to make her look more like a ballerina. Amazingly, Miss Portman also did capitalized on nearly 10 years of ballet lessons to perform most of her dance routines in this movie; any shots with only Miss Portmans hips down were shot with dance double, 26 year old proffesional ballerina Sarah Lane. While costar Mila Kunis had less experience on the ballet front her dance double was proffesional ballerina Maria Riccetto.
I give this movie 9/10 for a fantastic ballet movie, and for providing an unforgettable start, middle, and finish.
Ciao

Movie #16: Somewhere

Hopefully there isn't Sofia Coppola fanatic out there because unfortunately this movie was horrendously bad. Unnecessarily prolonged boring scenes with little to no script at all is never a recipe used for even a 4/10 movie. Therefore I give the movie a 3/10. The only reason I could sit through the painful 97 minutes of this was because of the beautiful Elle Fanning.

Au Revoir

Movie #15: The Fighter

After movies like Rocky I was a bit skeptical about another poor kid from a hick town becoming the best fighters the world has ever seen by overcoming adversity etc. However, many critics have dubbed the fighter as the best movie of 2011, and so far, I would agree. 

As i've said previously, I love movies based on actual events, and its definitely an added bonus when the actors do that little bit extra to portray  the characters lives as close as possible. Take Mr Bale for example, reportedly lost weight to achieve the gaunt thin frame of Dickie Ecklund by eating very little; lets not forget that Mr Bale also lost just under 30 kg's (63 pounds) for his role in The Machinist. Reportedly, Bale also went missing for hours at a time in preparation for his role as the 'Irish' Micky Wards half brother. 

I actually did some research afterwards and watched the original trilogy of Ward vs Gatti, which is the last fight in the movie, and it gave me more understanding to just how amazing a boxer Ward was, and then to think that some of the things in movie may have happened, its inspiring to say the least..

This movie definitely deserves all the Oscar nominations, and I give it a humble 9.5/10.
Ciao

Movie #14: The Green Hornet

Im not sure whether my expectations were too high or it was just overall a shitty movie, but I couldn't stay interested At All for the 119 minutes of (usually highlarious) Seth Rogan admiring on an Asian dude with mad scientific/engineering skills and pretending to fight crime. The saving grace for this movie was Christopher Waltz. The man is a genius. 

I adored him as a renegade nazi in Inglorious Basterds, and cant wait to see him in the much anticipated Water for Elephants.

Unfortunately for Chris, his epic potrayal of self-conscious criminal mastermind could not give this movie any a higher rating than a 5/10

dont worry Mr Waltz, im sure i'll Love Water for Elephants

Au revoir

Movie #13: Tangled 3D

Yes, I do go see nearly every movie in cinema :)

Suprisingly I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, despite not being able to figure out during the entire 100 minutes who voiced Rapunzel (which later was discovered as Many Moore), and despite the impossibility that one would face when handling, dodging, plaiting, and swinging from a 100 meters of supposedly pristine clean blonde hair. Rating a 6.5/10. If only everyday was a Disney fairytale, then it could be a 10 :)

Au revoir

Movie #12: The King's Speech

So sorry for the long delay but here we go...

With a whopping 12 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and acting honors for Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush, as well as a Best Director mention for Tom Hooper, this movie is impossibly intriguing. 

With an amazing cast including Firth, Rush and not to mention a few hot-off-the-brooms Harry Potter hotshots including Helena Bonham Carter, Timothy Spall and Michael Gambon. However, with the movie based on true events, despite the cast this would of been a must see for many.

A 8.5 out of 10f for The King's Speech :)

Au revoir