Boonie's Top 20

In NO particular order -

1. Gone with the Wind
2. Fight Club
3. The Shawshank Redemption
4. The Nightmare Before Christmas
5. About a Boy
6. Moulin Rouge
7. Gladiator
8. The Village
9. The Dark Knight/Batman Begins
10. Mean Girls
11. Lord of the Rings
12. Star Wars (not including dreaded prequels, naturally)
13. Indiana Jones
14. Spiderman (not including 3)
15. Beauty and the Beast
16. The Emperor's New Groove
17. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
18. Evil Dead/Army of Darkness
19. The Mummy (only the 1st one)
20. Pirates of the Caribbean (only the 1st one)

If I made a list of all the ones I like that didn't make the list... it would go on forever.

I encourage you to make your own list.

Spoilers and the 10 Day Rule

Would you be angry at me if I told you that Snape kills Dumbledore?

Would you ring my neck if I told you that Darth Vader is Luke's father?



Would you wail and gnash your teeth if I told you that Jacob falls in love with the vampire-ish spawn of Bella and Edward?

No. You wouldn't, because you already know, and those of you that don't know could care less about spoilers because you aren't hard-core fans (also known as "believers.") See, the believers knew Snape killed Dumbledore within 10 days after Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince hit shelves.The believers knew Darth Vader was Luke's Father within 10 days after The Empire Strikes Back premiered. The

believers also knew that Jacob imprinted on Renesmee within 10 days after Breaking Dawn arrived.

Therefore, Stephanie (not Stephenie) and I came up with the Ten Day Rule, which states that 10 days after the release of a movie, book, TV show, and what have you, you are allowed to discuss the plot twists and story lines freely, without any regard whatsoever to those who do not want their fly-by-night interests spoiled.

In other words, please excuse my lack of spoiler alerts.

What's That? You Want Another Harry Potter Vent? Well, Okay....

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (book 5,) nobody believes that Harry is telling the truth about the death of Cedric Diggory.

However, on the other hand it's factual knowledge that in Goblet of Fire (book 4,) Barty Crouch Jr. impersonated Mad-Eye Moody and turned the Triwizard Cup into a Portkey. And it's common knowledge that Barty Crouch Jr. is a convicted Death Eater who was thought to have died in Azkaban years before.

Don't these idiots see that if Barty Crouch Jr. impersonated Mad-Eye and attacked Harry it must therefore mean that Harry is telling the truth?

However, then I realized, after coming to this realization, than many times in government people ignore the obvious facts. Logic is funny that way; it can be completely ignored.

(Incidentally, Barty is my favorite Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 character to play because, unlike my third favorite [Sirius,] he can use Dark Magic. [-Second favorite being Lucius Malfoy who is fabulous and can also use Dark Magic.])

Okay, my next post might not be about Harry Potter. We'll just have to wait and see.

+ is often used to replace "AND," not "plus."

A woman in my class last semester who shall remain nameless, (since I can't remember her name,) told my entire class that the "Claire Danes' Romeo and Juliet is actually pronounced 'Romeo Plus Juliet.'" We must assume that she thinks because it's written "Romeo + Juliet," it must read "Plus." Yet... rarely in the English world does +=Plus. In MATH, sure, it's a "plus" sign, but in ENGLISH, it's an "and" sign.

Don't be fooled, as my class was, my friends. (Not that you would be.) Some of us remember the previews and commercials for Romeo + Juliet, and we would have remembered if they had ever said "Plus." I mean, come on!

It's a life-long goal of mine to not correct people who mis-quote movies, or mis-represent movies. (It's a huge pet-peeve of mine when it happens, but a huge pet-peeve of those around me when I correct them.) So, I didn't correct her... and the knowledge of this fact is driving me insane, so I had to put it here.

As if Baz Luhrmann wanted to set his Romeo and Juliet apart from others, or something. He uses Shakespeare's words! To change the name would be to plagiarize, (though, it's not like there's a copyright on Shakespeare.)

I know, what you're thinking. "What's in a name?"
Ha.... Ha.... Ha.....

Harry Potter Quandaries

If you follow me on Twitter, shut up. I'm posting it here too.

I'm rereading all the Harry Potters before the last one comes out. I used to read them frequently but after the seventh, and most horrible, I completely lost interest. However, the first half of the seventh movie actually wasn't so bad, so... idk, I'm reading them again.

So, reading them back to back answers a lot of questions, but I find myself asking more questions as well. Aaaaaaaaaand here they are -


In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (book 4) - Why doesn't Dumbledore grab hold of the Triwizard Cup/Portkey, travel to the graveyard, and kick Voldemort's butt the second Harry gets back?


And also if the Dark Mark appears on Death Eater's arms, why doesn't the ministry insist everyone wear short sleeves? Or at least LOOK there! It's true that sometimes the Dark Marks are not visible, but insisting all wizards wear short sleeves would solve this little problem! "Uh, Mr. Fudge, Lucius Malfoy is a Death Eater." "How do you know?" "Because he has a tattoo of the DARK MARK on his ARM! Doi!"


And really, why isn't veritaserum (truth potion) used constantly!? (Every time they mention it I think of Wonder Woman.) Sure, veritaserum might be unethical, but are we worried about human rights in the face of Lord Voldemort? (And does anyone else think his name sounds more like a puppy than a twisted dark lord? "Who's a good Voldemort?")


And now a quote from 30 Rock's Twofer - "What I don't get about Quidditch, is if the snitch is 150 points, then why do people even bother with the quaffle?" So true, Twofer. So true.


By the way, I found a link to Unicycle Quidditch rules. I bet you could play it with roller blades....
http://www.uk.unicyclist.com/quidditchrules/rules.html
I love the diagram of how to make a quaffle! This would be especially fun for a class that read Harry Potter, unfortunately, I think it's banned in schools for witchcraft. *sigh* Oh brother.


And here's a link to a fun Harry Potter online store. I love that there are "wands" and "toy wands." OMG, nerds!
http://www.wbshop.com/Harry-Potter/hp,default,sc.html


And to end, some Potter Puppet Pals -

Coming in November

Preview:

http://youtu.be/uycOpnYnd5g

I'm not so sure about this two-movie business. But, as long as they don't make a Bree Tanner movie, I'll be fine.

X-Men First Class

Cons:
1. It's a prequel and what do we say about prequels? They suck. (Naturally there are exceptions.)
2. The girl who'll play Katniss in Hunger Games, (Jennifer Lawrence,) played the lamest Mystique ever. What a helpless child!
3. ENOUGH with the strip clubs already! Is this X-Men or Transporter II? (Not that Transporter II isn't the greatest movie ever.)
4. Remember that scene in the first X-men, where young Erik is trying to get to his mom in the concentration camp, and he pulls the gate towards him? Well, we get to see that scene again, but re-shot. And... it's a whole lot worse this time. The acting is worse. The cinematography is worse.... And I sat there and thought, "Oh, this is not a good sign." (To be fair, I thought the PREVIEWS were not good signs, so maybe my displeasure with the movie is my own little self-fulfilled prophesy....)



5. I just don't like James McAvoy (Xavier.) I got very sick of him holding his finger up to his forehead every time he was using his powers. ("Dooouuuhhhh, uhh, thanks. I couldn't have figured out that you weren't actually speaking out loud just then.") I thought Xavier should have been like a young Dumbledore, in a way. (The book Dumbledore, not the scary movie one.) Very smart, all knowing, wise, yet with a witty-cool sense of humor. From McAvoy's performance I was left thinking he stuck his nose where it didn't belong and was kind of mean. Poor blue Mystique.
6. January Jones' Emma Frost was borderline unbearable. The meaning of her lines got swept away due to her inaptitude when it came to communicating (which is just another word for ACTING.)
7. Prequel humor. "Oh! That's funny because he's going to be a professor soon!" "Oh that's funny because he's going to be bald." "Oh get it! 'Cause that's what Mystique will look like when she's older!" (I admit, I laughed at Wolverine's cameo, but strictly because this movie was in dire need of more Hugh Jackman. (Don't make me watch Real Steel instead, 'cause I will!)

Pros:
1. Michael Fassbender (Erik/Magneto) is awesome.
2. Kevin Bacon! Now I can get him to Rachel McAdams in 2 steps! (Plus, he was fascinating in this.)
3. "Hey Britney, give us a song then!" That's right, our favorite little outcast from About a Boy, (Marcus, aka, Nicholas Hoult,) is back in Beast form. Growing up agrees with our little singer. (And now look how much easier it is to get Kevin Bacon to Hugh Grant and Toni Collette!)

This movie's plot was effortlessly simplistic, so they stuffed it full of fluff. Boonie no like fluff. But, you're an X-Men fan, so you're going to either watch it in the theaters or rent it, which you should do. You should see it. You might even own it, but it's no X2.