Harry Potter: Game Over!

I finished reading the last installment of the Harry Potter series last night. 

We can discuss it now. 

😉

Good Morning, Baltimore; I Got It!

Hairspray: The Movie Musical

(If you want the synopsis of the film, click here.) 

I always had the curiosity: if stage versions of musicals were adapted to the big screen would it work?

Some do, ie, Grease.  And some don’t, ie, Rent (if though I think it should’ve been promoted better).

This is one of the “do’s.”  Although the ending has been slightly changed, it still works to almost an exact to its counterpart.

I did notice some continuation edit mistakes, but that’s just me using my college degree. 🙂

John Travolta playing Edna Turblad is delightful.  Even though it’s been almost 30 years since Grease, it was just wonderful watching him dance and sing in that beautiful fatsuit he had on. 

Michelle Pfeiffer as Velma Von Tussle was very convincing as the former beauty queen turned tv stage manager.  Her singing voice is fiesty as ever.  I still can’t believe she was in Grease 2.

James Marsden was great.  One can’t help but wonder that all that smiling must hurt.  And yes, Scott Sommers/Cyclops has a wonderful tenor voice.  Once again my thinking lead me to this conclusion: Boy, thank god Boogie’s Diner was only one season. 

Queen Latifah part of Motormouth Maybelle was better than the original one in the 1988 non-musical movie.  Strong singing voice.  

Allison Janney part of Prudy Pingleton, even though small in part, was second to Amanda Bynes’ Penny Pingleton in comic relief.   I’ve only known Allison as CJ on the West Wing, but her humor in that was a very dry in nature.

But, the biggest surprise, as in the roles of the adults, was that of Christopher Walken.  His Wilbur Turnblad was wonderful.  He was the cat’s meow.

As for the kids, newcomer Nikki Blonsky was excellent as Tracy Turnblad.  She looked like she was really having fun whether she was in character or not.  Zac Efron as Link.  Once in a while I was thinking Elvis with cuter eyes.  Elijah Kelley as Seaweed.  Another cute with a great voice.  And lastly, Brittany Snow and Amanda Bynes.  Who knew they could sing?  Surprise to me.

Last, but not least, props go to the producers and directer, to include John Waters and Ricki Lake in cameos.  (John Waters is seen as a flasher and Ricki Lake plays a talent agent.)

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I got it!  I got it!

The last book of the Harry Potter saga arrived at my doorstep around 11:30am today. 

I’m only in the first pages of the first chapter.

I should finish this book by week’s end.

I do have a life. 🙂

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

The movie is much darker than the previous. 

Imelda Staunton plays Delores Umbridge perfectly.  Just as I would have imagine the character adaption. 

Emma Thompson, albiet her character Sybil Trelawney is only a few minutes worth seeing, still makes me laugh.  The thick eyeglasses remind me of that character in Office Space.  I couldn’t help laughing to myself in wishing that her character was going to say, “Don’t touch my red stapler or I’ll set this place on fire.”

But, what I really liked was the death scene of Sirius Black.  It wasn’t too dramatic like I would imagined. 

As like the others in this series, great visual effects.  And the audio edits were wonderful–no need for sound when we can see how Harry reacted to Sirius’ death.

 The only disappointing factor is that the film seem to go too fast. 😦 

 Now to anxiously wait for the 2-disc DVD. 🙂

Flickr This

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

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I uploaded at least 3 of my pics from vacation. 

Too lazy today to upload them all. 

I trying to see if I can catch the evening showing of the new Harry Potter movie so timing is of the essence.

Mahalo Hawaii!

Well, it’s our last day here.

I didn’t get to go to the beach 😦 .  I knew I should’ve requested to go back to the hotel after lunch Sunday.

Oh well.  There’s always a next time.

Mostly we’ve playing tourist.  The Polynesian review last night was good.  And yes, I did take some pics and I’ll them posted as soon as I get back home. 

Well, our ride is here to take us to more last minute tourist spots until our flight tonight.

Mahalo and Aloha!

Greetings from Hawaii

Aloha!

The trip started on a rainy Monday morning.  We were delayed for about a half hour or so because of luggage still being loaded onto the plane.  We finally landed in sunny and warm Honolulu just to wait another 20-minute delayed connecting flight to Hilo due to Aloha changing planes (mechanical problems with the 1st plane, I think).  We landed safely at Hilo and took our shuttle bus to the camp where we were staying.  Oh yeah, the trip was another 45 minutes.  We arrived around 7pm, I think, and the weather was misty and wet.  I forgot to mention that the camp is located at the summit of Mount Kilieua. 

Oh well, to make the story short, I had gotten sick with fever at some point after touring all of the Big Island on Independence Day. 

I been feeling off and on since landing back here in Honolulu. 

Hopefully, with the help o-t-c drugs, thankyou Tylenol, I’ll feel much better when I go to Wakiki later on.

To be continued…. 😉