American Horror Story, Murder House (2011): I Probably Shouldn’t Have Watched It At 3 am In A House That Creaks

Note: No major spoilers ahead, but it may be hard to understand without you having actually watched the show. So go watch it first, then come back. 

I started to watch American Horror Story because it’s summer and a friend had recommended it to me several months ago and it looked interesting. Also it was free on Amazon Prime.

Look at this. It just rings creepy and that really appealed to me (I like horror movies, okay?)

The series starts out with a couple and their teenage daughter moving into a large and strangely cheap house to start fresh and try to pull their family back together again because the marriage is failing and the daughter is shutting them out.

The house is large and eery and really cheap. The realtor tells them that the previous owners were involved in a murder-suicide. Inside the house.

Okay. Kind of cliche, but I was expecting a haunted house, so I let that slide. Besides, what other alternatives are there? The previous owners just got creeped out by the house and moved out? Death is definitely a better hook and much more intriguing.

But as the series goes on, it is slowly revealed just how much death had occurred in the house. There’s a lot of it. One by one, each of the tragedies is explained. I am amazed by the backstories of all these characters, which needed a dark yet wild imagination to create all these stories because each and every one of these backstories were interesting and, more importantly, easily distinguishable so that even with the large number of characters, each of them stayed unique and gripping.

Some of the previous owners of the house include a gay couple struggling with their relationship, Chad and Patrick, portrayed by Zachary Quinto and Teddy Sears, as well as Constance Langdon, wonderfully performed by Jessica Lange, a manipulative and dark mother who had a child with an extreme physical deformation, one with Down’s Syndrome, and also one who was a murderer.

Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange), who is a strange character and I really don’t know how to describe her because she’s just…strange.

Now, with all that being said, American Horror Story is not really a “horror” film (or TV series or whatever), because it’s really not all that scary.

Sure, it’s a haunted house and lots of people have died in various dark and gruesome ways and anyone who dies in the house stays as a ghost/spirit that can’t leave, but other than some really good make-up and effects on the more gruesome characters, there was not much horror.

With that said, I never said that it wasn’t creepy. Especially when it’s three in the morning and my house creaks when the wind blows and I’m the only one in my house that’s still awake. And especially when I watched this on my computer on my bed, meaning that, since the computer is basically on my chest as I lie flat on the bed, the screen is really close to my face.

Other than a couple of cliche jump scares, the creepiness was more from the anticipation of something dark happening rather than what was actually happening. So even if you are like my brother who pretends he really wants to play Infinity Blade to escape watching horror movies, American Horror Story should be okay for you. Just be prepared for some impressive make-up on the dead people.

As a whole, I really, really enjoyed watching American Horror Story. In fact, I’ve already started on the second season. It was a bit cliche, and sometimes the plot could’ve moved faster to explain some of the mystery, but in general, I thought it was awesome.

And it had one of the most intriguing characters I had ever encountered: Tate Langdon, which Evan Peters took and transformed into one of my favorite characters.

Okay, maybe my opinion is a little bit biased because I already really liked Evan Peters from X-Men, but this character just really blew me away.

Tate is a troubled teenager that sees Dr. Harmon for therapy, who happened to fall in love with his psychiatrist’s daughter, Violet, who also happened to be a mass murderer that killed fifteen kids at his high school and many others, who also happened to be dead.

Saying that he is a dark character is a bit of an understatement.

But the thing is, Tate seems very charismatic. He easily befriends Violet and just doesn’t act like a mass murderer.

Look at that smile. No wonder Violet fell for him.

Throughout the series, it is constantly brought up that Tate is a bad person. In fact, he is even described as a monster.

But from what I saw, Tate wasn’t a monster. He seems to genuinely love Violet and wants to protect her and make her happy. Granted, some of his methods of trying to make her happy is a bit twisted, but that doesn’t make him a monster.

However, at the same time, as more is revealed about Tate Langdon, the more his love for Violet seems like only a perversion of love because of his dark actions, particularly regarding his tendency to kill people and the way he tries to make Violet happy, like that time he tried to get her to do a double suicide with him so that they can be together forever.

It is this contrast and uncertainty about Tate that makes him so interesting; and Evan Peters did a truly spectacular job of portraying this complicated character and he definitely made Tate Langdon one of the most enjoyable parts of this show.

Conclusion: With both a wonderful cast and well-written story, American Horror Story not only provides a wonderfully entertaining and creepy story of Murder House, but also managed to write a teenage character who was not a total stereotypical jerk or idiot with Taissa Farmiga, who created a wonderfully unique character that had the easily recognizable “teenager” characteristics and a kind of complexity that really brought Violet Harmon to life. Yes, there are a couple of cliche spots and the plot was a bit hard to get at the beginning, but wonderful acting to everyone, especially Tate Langdon. Bonus points for awesome characterization of Tate and also the attractiveness of Evan Peters. 9/10. 

X-Men,Days of Future Past (2014): A Time-Travel Movie That Doesn’t Make My Head Hurt

Note: Guess what? I didn’t put spoilers in this!

I didn’t know it was a time-travel movie when I stepped into the theater and bought tickets for this movie.

I guess the name was kind of a giveaway, but I didn’t really read the title. The fact that young Charles and young Erik were in the same movie as Old Charles and Old Eric was probably another giveaway, but I didn’t really think about it.

Wow, Hugh Jackman doesn’t really look like Hugh Jackman in this poster.

When they brought up the whole time-travel thing, I remember hoping that it wasn’t those movies with the extremely complicated quantum physics time travel theories where there are multiple alternate universes and people travel through those or it creates a different alternate universe or whatever else time-travel movies do.

X-Men starts out a couple of years in the future, approximately 2020’s, and there are these Sentinels, huge, ass-kicking, kind-of-mechanical robots that hunt down mutants and kill them. Also, they can gain the mutant’s power when they come in contact with it. Minor issue there.

Yeah. These bad guys.

Many mutants have died at the hands of these sentinels and, to prevent the extinction of mutants, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) has to travel back to 1973, before the Sentinels were even built to stop Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from killing Dr. Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), designer of the Sentinels, because that would lead the government to carrying out his designs to create these Sentinels, since mutants now seemed dangerous, having targeted one of the most known figures in the government.

Easy enough, right?

Not at all.

Several issues already come up before Wolverine even starts to time-travel. First of all, there is a time constraint, because Wolverine has to get back before the Sentinels find them. Second of all, he has to be able to find Mystique, which is kind of difficult because she does happen to be a master of disguise. Third of all, to stop her, he needs to get Charles and Eric to work together, which is kind of difficult, considering what happened in X-Men: First Class (if you haven’t seen this, I recommend that you do) and also that Charles is now a slight addict and Erik is locked up in a concrete prison about a hundred floors underground. Another minor issue.

However, at the end of the two and a half hours, everything gets resolved nicely. I did promise no spoilers, so I’ll just leave it at that.

An interesting and action-packed plot, X-Men: Days of Future Past is entertaining from beginning to end as Wolverine attempts to prevent the annihilation of mutants. The cast is, of course, fantastic, starring the very famous Hugh Jackman, but also with all these cool people like James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Patrick Stewart, and Ian McKellen, and a whole bunch of other cool people.

Obviously, not a life-changing movie, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. I was slightly disappointed to see that Wolverine no longer had his shiny metal claws, since he traveled back in time to his younger body and all, but everything else made up for it.

However, my favorite part of the entire movie was Peter Maximoff (Evan Peters), which I think is probably a favorite for many viewers.

If you don’t think this guy is super cool, go watch the movie again.

This guy has the ability to move and think at the speed of sound. In the movie, these sequences show him moving slowly and in a very relaxed way while everything around him barely moves. Very cool effects. Even better use of slow-motion than The Matrix.

Here he is again. Cool powers and also pretty cute.

Holding a mischievous and kleptomaniac streak, Peter Maximoff provides a break from the seriousness of, you know, the entire extinction of mutants about 50 years in the future, as Evan Peters brings in a quirky and entertaining character that makes breaking into a prison seem like a breeze.

Conclusion: With an exquisite cast of characters and an entertaining plot, X-Men exceeds expectations (unless you have super high expectations or you were expecting a movie as good as Shawshank Redemption) and provides an exciting and enjoyable movie experience. A little taken off for lack of Wolverine being badass with his metal claws, but lots and lots of bonus points for Peter Maximoff, aka Quicksilver. 8.5/10.

Before I Go To Sleep (2011): Pretty Good But I’m Probably Gonna Forget About It In A Month

This book was recommended to me by several people. And it’s being made into a movie. So I read it.

Very intriguing, don’t you think?

This is a book I would’ve picked up, even if it hadn’t been recommended. Before I Go To Sleep, written by S.J. Watson, has a very intriguing concept of a woman who wakes up thinking she’s in her twenties when she’s actually forty-something. Turns out, she forgets almost everything about her life whenever she goes to sleep and wakes up the next morning, still thinking she’s either in her twenties or just a child. And every day, her husband has to explain that they’ve been married for a long time and that she was in an accident that gave her memory problems. Cool, right? I admit, I would’ve been much more impressed with the idea, if it hadn’t already been in a movie called 50 First Dates with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore.

Yeah, this movie.

But, that aside, I picked it up with a growing interest and high expectations. The story itself wasn’t uninteresting. A tiny bit predictable (as in I guessed the ending long before it happened), but completely new stories in every single book are too much to ask for, so I forgive Before I Go To Sleep.

Although nothing much really happened action-wise, the changing moods of the narrator, Christine, are very interesting. Other than the occasional desire and growing crush on her younger doctor, Dr. Nash, the internal conflict focuses on her changing trust in her husband, Ben. Her trust in him fluctuates throughout the book. In the very beginning, the reader is shown the words, “DON’T TRUST BEN” that Christine has written in the front of her notebook that she has been writing down her life in. S.J. Watson then leads us into several entries in which Christine believes that Ben is the only person she can trust. lHer trust fluctuates between oh-you’re-the-only-one-i-trust-because-you’ve-taken-care-of-me-despite-my-memory-all-these-years-so-therefore-you-must-really-love-me and dude-what-the-hell-you’re-not-telling-me-the-truth.

In all, the plot was interesting and it grabbed my attention in the slightly-tugging-at-my-mind way, rather than oh-my-god-i-have-to-stay-up-all-night-to-read-this way; neither of which is better, this story just happened to peak my interest in a different way.

However, despite all its strengths and interesting concepts, I will probably have forgotten the entire plot of the book by July. “Bland” is a harsh word to describe the plot, but more like the taste of that mediocre buffet on the side of the highway. It’s good and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but by the end of the week, I will have no idea what I had eaten at that buffet. That is Before I Go To Sleep. In a food analogy.

To me, the issue is in that the entire book feels the same. All of Christine’s entries run together and it ends up seeming like one long entry, which is almost like a flat line, meaning there is nothing that stands out. Other than the interesting concept of this specific type of amnesia, nothing about the plot really stands out. It all feels the same.

Obviously, there are things happening, like when Christine first realizes that Ben has been lying to her about her son, which she didn’t know she had, or when she meets with Dr. Nash, but the feeling about these scenes and events is pretty much the same. That slight sense of mystery, curious and slightly nagging, but easily put out of the mind, with just a dash of anxiety.

Conclusion: Although an engaging idea about a new kind of amnesia, the book itself is quite easy to forget with a somewhat predictable plot and lack of change in tension and feel; despite this, Before I Go To Sleep still pulls off an enjoyable read. Bonus points for having Nicole Kidman in the upcoming movie. 7/10.

Maleficent (2014): Angelina Jolie Was Cool and All But It Was Just So Disney

Note: Spoilers ahead!

I was excited to see Maleficent, especially in theaters. It was very visually appealing and the trailer looked cool.

Look at it. It looks promising, doesn’t it?

But I didn’t come out of the theater feeling completely blown away or enlightened by some warm yellow light of epiphanies or even mildly impressed.

Don’t get me wrong, the visual effects are impressive and Angelina Jolie looks wonderfully Maleficent.

Awesome visual effects. It looks just like a Disney animated film but 3D and kind of real.

Obviously they can’t look exactly alike, but she definitely brings out a Maleficent flair, right?

And also the dragon was cool.

But the plot line…the plot line!

You would think it would be a captivating plot line. Maleficent tells the story of what really happened to Maleficent, the villain in Sleeping Beauty. It starts out with Maleficent’s happy childhood living in the moors of this fantasy land where the fairies and humans are separated because of arguments. That’s when Maleficent befriends this poor farmer boy (Sharlto Copley), who becomes her first love.

Obviously it doesn’t work out because there wouldn’t be a movie if it did.

At some point, the humans begin to attack the fairies, but Maleficent is totally badass and drives them away with her wings then uses her magic to make this wall of thorns.

Maleficent totally kicking some ass with her wings.

The king of the humans conveniently is old and sick and about to die. Farmer Boy is also conveniently in the room when the king announces that whoever kills Maleficent gets to be king.

Then Farmer Boy goes to warn Maleficent and they run away together and happily ever after, right?

No, because we were only thirty minutes into the movie.

Instead, Farmer Boy cuts off Maleficent’s wings and tells the king that he killed her. Sounds a bit like Snow White, right? Anyways, Farmer Boy eventually becomes the king.

And that’s when Maleficent becomes this super evil villain who’s out to get revenge. And then the whole cursing Aurora (Elle Fanning) thing that goes on.

Very touching story, I know. My eyes are brimming with sparkling tears as I write this. At this point in the movie, I was still intrigued. But as it went on, I became much less intrigued.

Everything about the movie had so much Disney flair that it all just fell flat. I could almost predict the entire plot. (Not as well as low budget horror and alien films, but I was pretty close.) Aurora grew up into this wonderful and beautiful teenager who’s always happy and kind and caring and for some strange reason not angsty at all despite living with three crazy fairies who are on the lowest part of the scale in terms of mothering.

Like, that’s cool and all, Aurora, being all happy all the time, but honestly, you just don’t have character. Happy is your character and that’s the furthest thing from realistic that I can imagine.

Speaking of not having character, Prince Phillip (Brenton Thwaites), though extremely cute in a slightly scruffy high school boy sort of way, is about as useful as a cardboard cutout. He spends more than half of his already short screen time unconscious as Maleficent takes him to the castle. Then his kiss doesn’t even work.

The whole Maleficent-waking-up-Aurora thing. I’m sure it used to be creative, but as this point, it’s become pretty much as cliche as “true love’s first kiss.” Sorry, but Frozen already stole your thunder on how true love doesn’t have to be romantic love.

Conclusion: Though Angelina Jolie looks striking in her emphasized cheekbones as she sits among the land of fairies, aka computer generated visual effects, the story itself is so Disney that it has become boring and rather flat and stale. But bonus points for the dragon and attractiveness of Prince Phillip, even if he is practically a cardboard cutout. 6/10.

First Post Ever (except not really)

Hello there nonexistent readers!

Hopefully someone is actually reading this because otherwise it would be really pitiful if my readers are actually nonexistent. 

But all pessimism aside, this is my first post on this blog, except not really, because I used to blog on another blog. As you can tell, I took the same name, Mostly Short Stories, but I am starting new and fresh the summer before my senior year of high school. 

WordPress told me to introduce myself in the first post. So here we go. Let’s do a list.

1. I like reading books and watching movies.

2. To me, food is great. And I can eat a lot and just about anything. I’ve been called a human trashcan before.

3.  My name is Jamie.

4. I was apparently named after a 90’s TV show.

5. I have a younger brother.

6. My younger brother is really annoying sometimes.

7. I suck at lists.

 

So I plan on writing book reviews, movie reviews, maybe a little something about my trips and travels that don’t happen very often and a little bit of my own writing on here. 

Side note: My movie and book reviews will depend on whatever I happen to be reading. I don’t exactly keep up with the newest releases, so if I suddenly wrote a review about movie that came out 15 years ago or a book that no one has ever heard of, just be aware that it might happen. 

Another side note: Most of the writing I will be posting within the next few months or so will be edits of my own writing from my early high school years. The unedited versions are on my older blog, but I assure you, my writing has much improved and you really don’t need to look for the older ones. 

 

And here’s a picture of me trying to avoid having my picture taken.