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Stephenie Meyer’s The Host In Theaters March 29, 2013

May 19, 2012 By Momstart 51 Comments

THE HOST is an enchanting and fateful story about the survival of love and the human spirit in a time of war. Our world is invaded by an unseen enemy. Humans become hosts for these invaders, their minds taken over, while their bodies remain intact. Most of humanity has succumbed.

Have you read this book? I read this book because I liked the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer so very much. The Host are the humans just as the synopsis stated above and there are a few humans that have remained safe and are in hiding coming out only for emergencies. The main character (Saoirse Ronan plays Melanie) is inhabited by one of these aliens (Wanda) and her personality is so strong that the alien can not take full control of her mind so they share the body. The humans don’t trust Melanie anymore being a host and the human part of her wants to be part of the humans more than anything. Why? LOVE Companionship all those things that humans live for.

Melanie is in love but he is disgusted because of the alien inside her. Of course a love triangle develops here, the alien falls in love with a different human. It will be interesting to see if the relationships are truly captured on the screen as they are in the book.

In anticipation of this movie coming out next summer we’re celebrating summer reading.

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a copy of the book the Host

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Filed Under: giveaway, Movie review Tagged With: Book, book review, movie, movie announcement, Stephenie Meyer, The host

The Secret World of Arrietty Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack Giveaway

May 14, 2012 By Momstart 140 Comments

“The Secret World of Arrietty” on Blu-ray™ Combo Pack and DVD, on May 22, 2012. This visually stunning animated masterpiece stars an illustrious voice cast that includes Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, Bridgit Mendler, Moises Arias, David Henrie and the iconic and much beloved Carol Burnett.

“The Secret World of Arrietty” is based on the children’s book “The Borrowers”. I’ve never read that series of books but a friend that watched the movie with me did and she said it was the same kind of story. I thought the movie was pretty cute, a little long or it felt long at times but it’s really a visual thoughtful movie. “The Secret World of Arrietty” is an imaginative tale of “little people” living furtively among us, and the unlikely friendship that forms when their hidden world is discovered. The heartwarming family adventure features beautiful, stylized animation and timeless themes of friendship, courage and determination.

The friendship that formed between Arrietty and 12-year-old Shawn (voice of David Henrie), a human boy who comes to stay in the home, was probably my favorite part. If discovered, their relationship could drive Arrietty’s family from the home and straight into danger. From the legendary Studio Ghibli (“Spirited Away,” “Ponyo”) comes “The Secret World of Arrietty,” an animated adventure based on Mary Norton’s acclaimed children’s book series “The Borrowers.”

The film was directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi and produced by Toshio Suzuki. Gary Rydstrom directed the English-language version of “The Secret World of Arrietty” from a screenplay written by Karey Kirkpatrick. The producers include Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall. The original Japanese screenplay was written by Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa.

Special Features Include:

2-Disc Blu-ray Combo Pack: (1 Blu-ray Disc + 1 DVD)
• Storyboard presentation of the film
• Original Japanese Trailers and Television Commercials
• “Summertime” Music Video – Performed by Bridgit Mendler, the speaking voice of Arrietty.
• The Making Of “Summertime” Behind the Scenes – Bridgit Mendler hosts a look at the making of the music video.
• “Arrietty’s Song” Music Video – Experience the movie’s theme song, performed by innovative singer and harpist Cécile Corbel, who also wrote the lyrics.
1-Disc DVD: (1 DVD)
• “Summertime” Music Video
• The Making Of “Summertime”

Released May 22nd.

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The Secret World of Arrietty Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack

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Filed Under: giveaway, Movie review Tagged With: blu-ray, giveaway, movie, Secret World of Arrietty

What To Expect When You’re Expecting Giveaway

May 12, 2012 By Momstart 51 Comments

WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING will be in theaters May 18th and the last time I went to the theater with my husband I saw such a funny trailer that I’m really excited about this movie. What to Expect When You’re Expecting looks so very funny and the line up of actors is amazing. Having kids brings the true meaning to unexpected to your lives and from the trailers it looks like this movie has truly captured it.

Inspired by the perennial New York Times bestseller of the same name, WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING is a hilarious and heartfelt big-screen comedy about five couples whose intertwined lives are turned upside down by the challenges of impending parenthood.

Over the moon about starting a family, TV fitness guru Jules and dance show star Evan find that their high-octane celebrity lives don’t stand a chance against the surprise demands of pregnancy. Baby-crazy author and advocate Wendy gets a taste of her own militant mommy advice when pregnancy hormones ravage her body; while Wendy’s husband, Gary, struggles not to be outdone by his competitive alpha-Dad, who’s expecting twins with his much younger trophy wife, Skyler. Photographer Holly is prepared to travel the globe to adopt a child, but her husband Alex isn’t so sure, and tries to quiet his panic by attending a “dudes” support group, where new fathers get to tell it like it really is. And rival food truck chefs Rosie and Marco’s surprise hook-up results in an unexpected quandary: what to do when your first child comes before your first date?
A kaleidoscopic comedy as universal as it is unpredictable, WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING finds humor and uplift in all the unexpected trials and triumphs of welcoming a child into the world. The film stars Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Elizabeth Banks, Chace Crawford, Brooklyn Decker, Anna Kendrick, Matthew Morrison, Dennis Quaid, Chris Rock, Rodrigo Santoro, Ben Falcone and Joe Manganiello.

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(1) Main Prize package including:
(1) shirt
(1) poster
(1) swag from promo partners
(5) Second Prize packages each including:
(1) shirt
(1) poster

(1) smaller swag from promo partners

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Filed Under: giveaway, Movie review Tagged With: Lionsgate, movie, What To Expect When You're Expecting

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Movie Giveaway

May 12, 2012 By Momstart 35 Comments

THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL is being called “The Avengers for grown ups” and is expanding throughout the US this month to a theater near you.

ABOUT THE FILM
THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL follows a group of British retirees who decide to “outsource” their retirement to less expensive and seemingly exotic India. Enticed by advertisements for the newly restored Marigold Hotel and bolstered with visions of a life of leisure, they arrive to find the palace a shell of its former self. Though the new environment is less luxurious than imagined, they are forever transformed by their shared experiences, discovering that life and love can begin again when you let go of the past.

Distributor: Fox Searchlight
Cast: Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Dev Patel, Celia Imrie, Ronald Pickup with Tom Wilkinson and Maggie Smith
Director: John Madden
Running time: 122 Minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: Expands throughout the US this May, 2012
Based on the novel These Foolish Things by Deborah Moggach

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A Taste of India Spice kit
THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL bathrobe
THE BEST EXOTIC MARIOLD HOTEL seed kit

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Filed Under: giveaway, Movie review Tagged With: giveaway, movie, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Amazing Hair in Brave: An Inside Look At Pixar’s Animation Techniques

May 9, 2012 By Momstart 45 Comments

Ever since I watched Monster’s Inc. I’ve really had a great respect for what the animators at Pixar do. They amaze me with their ability to do hair and make it look real and just spectacular. It’s more than just drawing now it’s physics and computers with fine hand tuning.

it is physics, it is a bunch of equations, one of the variables is time. So we can basically tell the physics simulator time is now not what you think real life is….

This is part two of an interview with Claudia Chung where she goes into great detail describing how they do the hair in the movie Brave, and it’s not just Merida’s hair, there is hair all over this movie. This is Angus, Merida’s trusty steed. He’s a magnificent animal with hair, fur, a main and tail and whiskers.

How Claudia Describes It:

Angus is actually much more complex. He has eight layers groom but his layers aren’t like Merida’s layers which are layered on top of each other. His layers are the different types of hair he has on him. He has his tail, his mane, his fetlocks, he has belly fur and he has chin fur and they all have to move.

He also has whiskers. Fortunately whiskers are pretty stiff so we didn’t have to make those move. But all these things are hand placed. Take a look at what he looks like to groomer. We have this image. There’s a hundred and eleven thousand curves that are hand placed on him. Those grow out to about one point eight million curves to make up his full groom.

Now Merida and her Curls maybe not as complex as Angus but still a lot of work.

Ideas come from sketches

Models and real hair help them figure out how hair reacts in the wind, with movement and how it should lay.

The curls themselves are really tightly wound curls but the movement of her overall curl is nice and soft. And there’s also these hairs that break away from her silhouette to show her wildness, her adventureness. And that’s kind of the key look for Merida’s hair that we had to hit when we designed her. So, as a groomer, this is what I would see in the computer. This is what I would work with, Merida kind of standing there. I would take her scalp and basically grow curls off of her head and detail exactly how those curls grow.

The groomer who actually worked on Merida developed a new technique because she wondered, "How do I get these curls that look the way the art director wants?" … "I really need a curling iron." So she actually built in the computer a curling iron where she could change the sizes of the cylinder, the length and stuff, so she could curl the curves around that. That was really what she had to do to actually produce these curls really fast and direct, and have them be art directed.

Merida has fifteen hundred hand-placed, sculpted curves. That’s a lot of time in the wig-making process. Notice the different colors ? All of these different colors actually represent different layers of her hair, kind of like you would in Photoshop.

So each layer is a different kind of curl size, different length, different stiffness. Some of the bigger curls might be stiffer and what you can see then is as they layer together they create the final look of Merida’s hair. There is a fill hair, kind of like the soft, fuzzy, hairs that you guys have, that’s that like first level, in the end it’s a hundred and eleven thousand curves that get rendered on her head.

Brave comes to theaters June 22 2012.

Disney Pixar covered travel and expenses.

Filed Under: Movie review Tagged With: brave, Disney, how to create hair, movie, Pixar, Princess Merida Hair, travel

How Do You Prepare to Be Maria Hill Marvel’s The Avengers Interview with Cobie Smulders

May 4, 2012 By Momstart 18 Comments

Have you seen Marvel’s The Avengers yet? If you haven’t you NEED to go see it. There are lots of really great characters in it and Maria Hill is one of them you need to meet because Cobie Smulders did quite a bit of preparation for her role as Maria Hill in The Avengers.

First, She had to familiarize herself with Marvel, “when I got this role, I started reading all the comic books all the blogs, and everything anyone had to say about the character Maria Hill. I was trying to learn as much as I could. She’s described as like the biggest bitch in the universe.” She also said it was “kind of cool to approach a role with that kind of stigma behind it, and to just own it and be Maria Hill in the way that works with Nick Fury.”

Preparing for stunts she had to learn how to shoot, move and race a car. In the beginning of the movie there is a really intense car chase sequence. She liked doing her own stunts and loved the process…”to feel like at any point, I could take anyone down” I would to feel like that to be able to take anyone down at anytime. I think training to be a super strong human would be a lot of fun too, plus driving a car under extreme safe conditions that would be fun. Cobie said, “I’d never done driving under extraordinary circumstances. ….it felt like a dance choreography where you’re driving and and then a car hits you from the sides. Then you move your body this way and then you jam it into second gear.”

She also said that she probably got on Joss Whedon’s nerves because she wanted to have more of the action with her character.

“I remember doing one scene with Sam and we were shooting a bad guy, and Sam shot three bullets and then they would say, “Sam you shoot three times, Cobie, you shoot once, and then Sam shoots two more times”, and I was like, what’s that? ….why can’t I have shoot twice, I’ve trained to do this.”

More on her special training for this..

“I actually found this guy, really oddly, through my naturopathic doctor.He’s literally called me and talked to me about the movie and I said I want to do all this training… I’m looking for a place to shoot and learn some martial arts. Then he said, I’ve got this great guy, Tom Mazzola and he will totally help you out. And he did he came to my house a couple time a week. “

So Cobie Smulders learned how to shoot and be comfortable with a gun. She learned martial arts and how to drive like there is no tomorrow all to be a perfectly stunning, smart and strong Maria Hill in Marvel’s The Avengers.

Interview Opportunity and expenses were covered by Disney.

Filed Under: Movie review Tagged With: Cobie Smulders, Marvel, movie, The Avengers

What’s It Like To Be A Bad Guy Like Loki: Marvel’s The Avenger’s Interview With Tom Hiddleston

May 2, 2012 By Momstart 24 Comments

I never dreamed I’d have a life bigger than being a stay at home mom. After my second child was born I was seriously depressed and had to find something to do with my life, I started blogging and the next thing I know I’m interviewing amazing actors like Tom Hiddleston who play Loki in Marvel’s newest movie The Avengers.

What did I think about Tom?

He’s amazingly real. Actors that know how to capture our hearts look us in the eye, shake our hands or give us a quick peck on the cheek. Tom Hiddleston shook all of our hands and asked us our names before we began our interview. How charming is that, he may play one scary megalomaniac in The Avengers but in person he’s kind, intelligent and quite animated.

He came in the room and he was all about fun and being relaxed. The girls told him the view in the bathroom was amazing so he had to go check it out. Once he sat down I decided it was time to start the interview, I mean we only had 10 minutes with him and I didn’t want to waste a second of it. So I asked him

So, tell us how much you like playing such an evil bad guy???

Well, because I played him before, I kind of feel like I’ve got both my arms around him. I understand underneath all of his evil and anger madness and mania, there’s a sort of emotional heartbreak. But it was really fun to cut loose and just let his hair down, literally and metaphorically.

You all know that in a superhero movie they good guys have to overcome an obstacle. One was they all thought they were the best and didn’t want to work together, two, they had to overcome Loki and all of his mass destruction so the movie wouldn’t have have been possible without a really super bad guy and Tom Hiddleston has mastered Loki if you ask me. Of course he did have the coaching of Joss Whedon. Together they made Loki more menacing. That and because of Joss’s immaculate writing and direction, the — the sort of fist-pumping redemption-drama is, uh, is earned by the heroes having to overcome an obstacle. And your fist is pumping for Iron Man, Hulk, and Thor and Captain America … all of those guys because I am that obstacle. Someone’s got to do it, basically, and it was really fun, like being a kid, too. There were days where I had a harness underneath my costume, and wires underneath and attached to the sides and I was just flying around, like a circus act, like a kid, basically.

Sounds like complete fun to me. Plus he seems to enjoy being and inspiration to children. Of course he’s the bad guy in this movie and most kids will probably want him to bite the dust he finds himself remembering how he wanted to be superman and that through a film… you can enter a child’s imagination in the most extraordinary way

Loki is a complicated character it’s not that he’s evil he’s hurt and damaged. Tom said there is still a vulnerability there. He also said, there is still this spiritual damage at the heart of him, underneath his anarchy and his chaos and his anger and destructiveness.

What are his thoughts on Loki?

I always think of him as an antagonist as opposed to a villain, but only because every villain is a hero in his own mind. Uh, and all of us in the world, we, as we move forward with our lives, we make choices, and we like to think that they’re the right choices.

What are your thoughts on Loki in The Avengers? Go see it May 4th and come back here and tell me all about them.

Thank you to Disney and Tom Hiddleston for this amazing interview opportunity.

Filed Under: Movie review Tagged With: interview with Tom Hiddleston, Loki, Marvel, movie, The Avengers, Tom Hiddleston

10 Reasons to See Marvel’s The Avengers

May 1, 2012 By Momstart 44 Comments

The Avengers is surprisingly funny. If it wasn’t a comic, an action movie, an intense ride of entertainment, I would venture at calling it a comedy. Each of these heroes brings wit to the table in the most appropriate places. Simply these are my ten reasons for watching The Avengers Friday May 4 opening night or shortly thereafter.

Iron Man – Tony Stark played by Robert Downy Junior doesn’t play well with others but he’s still a genius. Watch and see if he can learn to work together and think of anyone other than himself in order to save the world from an unbeatable army lead by Loki

Thor – Can an alien work with petty humans with alter egos? I mean he’s a god that controls lightening and has as much strength as The Incredible Hulk plus he’s something special to look at right? Can he fight his brother that he still loves and wishes would come home? How far is he willing to go to save the world he’s supposed to be protecting?

The Black Widow – I’ve never seen a woman so good at interrogation. Taking verbal punches like they hurt her deeply, and they may have affected her but once she got the information she needed she looked like she could care less. Plus she could fight like she had four hands and four legs. Amazing moves, one of the times she bounced off the floor I thought that looked like it hurt.

Hawkeye: I never thought this would happen but he was my favorite character in The Avengers movie. I was rooting for him from the beginning of the movie and loved watching him in action. He’s the Legolas of the Avengers a never misses shot.

The Incredible Hulk in charge of his emotions or always angry you decide but his part to play in this movie needed both him and his alter ego. Together they had to find the enemy and strike them out, but can he work together with others and control the huge green ticking time bomb inside of him? You’ll find out how this green buy works watching The Avengers.

Captain America he’s a leader and he’s honest and a good ole boy in everything he does. He follows the Law and I love that he has such heart and devotion to doing right. But he’s not afraid to challenge someone in the way even when it’s one of the team players.

Maria Hill – she’s absolutely awesome and kicks major but herself. She’s not your average secretary she’s just as much in the action as everyone else. Car chases, perfect shot shooting and keeping Nick Fury almost in-line are her specialties.

Nick Fury – Nick Fury knows exactly what information The Avengers need to know to motivate them to do their jobs. He knew exactly what he was doing from day one even when he was hiding information from them. He’s an evil mastermind working for the right team.

Loki – Tom Hiddleston is quite charming as the bad guy and at times you almost feel bad for his predicament, except for the fact that he just loves to torture people. But, someone has to stand in the way of the heroes or there is no story and Loki does an excellent job pulling you in.

Family – The Avengers struggle to be nice to each other but were open enough to each other to tell each other what they really thought of one another. Sometimes family is so close that we hurt each other like this too, but when something really terrible happens we combine forces to “Avenge” that wrong or hurt.

It was really hard limiting my reasons for seeing the movie to only 10. I could have gone after things like humor, action, edge of your seat, excitement, all reasons come to the same conclusion, The Avengers was an amazing movie that you have to see.

Filed Under: Movie review Tagged With: Captain America, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Loki, Maria Hill, Marvel, movie, Movie review, Nick Fury, The Avengers, The Black Widow, The Increcible Hulk, Thor

Pictures from Closing Night of Tribeca Film Festival With First Responders & Marvel’s The Avengers #theavengersevent

April 30, 2012 By Momstart 29 Comments

Something in the movie Marvel’s The Avengers that you can’t see until Friday was how they actually honored the First Responders of our country in the movie. They were on the scene and they looked heroic while they helped people as The Avengers fought the guys that were impossible for them to defeat. One thing I can show you is how first responders our nations heroes were honored at the Red Carpet event I attended Saturday. During the closing night of the Tribeca Film Festival in New York the First responders had the red carpet treatment. They were given free tickets to the film festival, they were on the carpet with the stars. They were taking their pictures with them and truly honored in a special way. When Robert Downy Junior was introducing the movie he asked all of the first responders and military to stand, then everyone in the room stood to give them a much deserved big warm round of applause. I was honored to be apart of watching everyday heroes having a very special night.

Here is the Pictures from Closing Night of Tribeca Film Festival With First Responders & Marvel’s The Avengers…

Thor: Chris Hemsworth