Cloverfield

The United States Defense Department finds a videotape in what used to be Central Park in New York. The video recordings start off at a going away party. Rob Hawkins’s friends decided to throw him a surprise going away party because he decides to accept a job offer in Japan and is leaving the next day. All of a sudden, there was an earthquake that occurs and the people at the party see the news that a ship has capsized in the harbor area. They go to the penthouse to see what was going on and see the accident. There were explosions that was going on in the city. Getting to safety, everyone runs downstairs. There was a monster destroying New York. The movie is captured on the tape recording that the friend was using to record the party. It follows the group’s night trying to escape. Before escaping the monster, Hawkins needs to save a friend who he’s in love with.

During the movie, I was trying to picture myself in their shoes. Imagining myself trying to escape and survive this event was horrifying. It seemed like one of my bad dreams or something. It’s was obvious that the monster didn’t exist in real life and it seemed like it could happen because everyone says that the world is going to end. I just pictured this movie to be the end of the world. Throughout this movie I felt sorry for the characters because all this movie had was tragic events. Even though the movie was depressing at times, it is still a movie to see.

Life as We Know It

"Life as We Know It" is about Holly and Eric. There was another couple, Peter and Allison who are happily married. Holly was best friends with Allison and Eric was best friends with Peter. Once Peter and Allison had a baby whose name is Sophie, Holly and Eric become Sophie’s godparents. At one point, Holly and Eric were set up on a blind date and it was a disaster. They were not meant to be together. But one night, Allison and Peter both die in a car crash leaving their daughter Sophie to Holly and Eric. This seems absolutely crazy because Holly and Eric just couldn’t be together; But they had to take care of Sophie because she had no one else. Holly and Eric set their differences aside and tried to raise Sophie as best as they could. Of course, they run into some problems on the way.

The one problem I have with romantic comedies is that all the stories seem to be the same. This movie actually proved me wrong. Even though this movie was depressing at times, I still laughed at many different parts of the story. The amusing parts weren’t predictable and were original. One of the qualities of this movie was that it was realistic. The plot of the movie seemed like it could happen to someone in the world.

Salt (2010)

Evelyn Salt is an agent that works for the CIA and is highly respected by many people for the accomplishments she as done for her country. One day Orlov, a Russian defector, shares crucial information with Evelyn; The Russian president will be assassinated when he attends the funeral of the U.S. Vice President. Orlov says that the assassin is a women named Evelyn Salt. This assassination is all apart of Orlov’s plan called “Day X”. This was an operation that has been organized since the Cold War. The operation’s purpose was to destroy the United States. In order for this to happen, Orlov trains a group of young Russian kids. Once the Russians are trained, they are sent to the United States to blend in and work for the U.S. Government. Once “Day X” arrived the Russian group will strike. Salt is a part of this group. But there is something different about her.

When I first watched Salt, I could not believe that the movie ended so suddenly. I was still guessing the events that I thought were going to happen next and it just ended. I was so into the movie that I felt like the story just started. Disappointed that the movie was over, I still thought it was awesome. The action and the stunts that Salt did during the movie were mouth dropping and I didn’t even know that some of the stunts existed. Salt is one of those movies were you have to watch it a second time in order to get it. And it was twice as good.

Make It or Break It

ABC Family’s television drama series, Make It or Break It, is a story about the lives of four gymnasts whose goal in life is to make it to the 2012 Olympics.  These four gymnasts are: Payson, Lauren, Kaylie, and Emily.  Each of these girls live very different lives and have problems of their own, but they all have gymnastics in common.

Payson is the most focused and determined athlete at “The Rock”, which is the (fictional) elite gym that they train at.  Because of this reason, she is the best female gymnast in the gym.  Payson had a back injury in the past and after practicing for Nationals, it flared up.  But since she her determination dominates her, she ignores it and keeps training.  When she competes at Nationals, Payson falls and injures her back. This back injury is very serious and she was told that she couldn’t do gymnastics anymore. Payson has to deal with this career changing news and figure out a way to be the same gymnast she was.

Lauren is a two-faced liar and the one that stirs up all the drama between the girls. She does many things to make the other girls hate her. In the beginning of the season, she betrays all of the athletes in the gym because she goes to another gym with their head coach before competition.  This is very bad because without a head coach, the gym and the athletes are a mess.  Also, she stabs Kaylie in the back because she sleeps with Kaylie’s boyfriend, Carter, which they both fight over throughout the first season.  Even though Lauren acts out and hurts many people, she is the most vulnerable character on the show.  The reason for this is because her mother leaves her at a very young age.

Kaylie is the National Champion.  She would not have achieved this if it weren’t for Payson’s back injury, but since she was runner up, she won.  When Kaylie won, everyone thought her luck was the reason why she won and not because she was a good athlete.  This brought the most pressure for Kaylie because she believed that they were right.  Having to live up to the title when everyone thinks you don’t deserve it brings a lot of pressure and this pressure pushes Kaylie to work harder to beat the best athlete in the world on the China team.  Kaylie has to deal her relationship issues with Carter, as well as her parent’s divorce.

Emily is the new comer and the outcast of the show.  Since “The Rock” is an elite gym, it would be very expensive to train there. The reason why she can even train at “The Rock” is because she earns a scholarship from them. Emily has this scholarship because her family is economically challenged and this hurts her gymnastics career in many ways.  First, it is one of the rules at “The Rock” that the athletes aren’t allowed to have jobs.  Second, she has to worry about her family members and if the electric bill has been paid. Finally, if they want to take their career far, as their coach says “you need to eat, breathe, sleep gymnastics”, meaning they can’t have any other distractions. Having this job wears her out and distracts her from her gymnastics career. Emily’s job at the Pizza Shack soon hurts her and is used against her to take her scholarship away. Another issue that she has to deal with is her experience.  She has only trained at the YMCA in a small town in California.  This isn’t enough and doesn’t compare to the other girls who have been training at “The Rock” for most of their lives.  Training at “The Rock” is a big opportunity for her because that’s the only way that she can become a serious and well known athlete.

This TV show is one of my favorites out of the many TV shows that I watch, so I totally recommend that you try the Pilot.  If you just watch one episode, you’ll be hooked like I was. J

Vampire Diaries

The Vampire Diaries is a supernatural drama-horror TV show that is based on the book series by the author, L. J. Smith. This series is about the Elena Gilbert.  Due to her parents dying in a Car crash, Elena isn’t the same person she was before the accident. She becomes unhappy and distant like anybody who loses both their parents.  But everything changes when a new guy comes to Mystic Falls. Stefan Salvatore comes back to his hometown after 145 years. Now, you probably are thinking that I wrote the wrong number of years right? It’s not possible that someone can live for more than 145 years.  Well, in this case, it’s possible.  Stefan Salvatore is a vampire. Elena soon falls for Stefan and their lives become more and more complicated when Stefan’s vampire brother, Damon comes into town.  Damon is a totally different person from Stefan. Vampires need blood to survive. Stefan denies himself blood to avoid killing, while Damon doesn’t care about anyone and who he kills.  Both brothers begin to show affection towards Elena, but this isn’t some coincidence.  145 years ago when Damon and Stefan were in Mystic Falls and both human, there was a girl named Katherine.  They both fall in love with Katherine, but this turns around when she turns them into vampires.  She ends up leaving them and breaking their hearts.  Since Katherine looks exactly like Elena, history repeats. The main focus of this series is the love triangle between them and the vampire problems they bring to Elena’s world. 

Glee

The musical comedy-drama TV show, Glee finally comes back next week! This show is about a high school’s glee club, located in Ohio, trying to stay alive and not get kicked out by the cheerleading coach, Sue Sylvester.  Will Schuester is the Spanish teacher at the school. He has always liked to sing and dance like the kids in this glee club.  Throughout the show, Will is passionate about the kid’s talent and wants them to succeed in Sectionals. Sue Sylvester is the coach of the cheerleading squad and does everything in her power to try to kick the glee club out.  Will and Sue are always in a battle.  The kids on the other hand, have problems of their own.  In high school, being in the glee club isn’t really an honor or something to be proud of like when you’re on a varsity team, but every high school student thinks it’s a joke.  The high school students show this by dumping slurpy drinks on the kids from the glee club.  But despite everyone having a negative opinion on this idea, the glee club kids stay in glee club.  They sing and dance to songs that are popular in today’s music, but they make the song their own.  Later, these songs are released on iTunes and are a big hit.  I’ve also like a lot of the songs that came out and if you haven’t heard them, go to iTunes right now.  They have a variety of different genres and songs that everyone will enjoy.  

Hellcats

Are you a fan of Bring It On! or Step Up 2? If you are, then this is the show for you! This comedy-drama series is about Marti (Alyson Michalka), who is a lawyer student at a college called Lancer; Lancer is located in Memphis, Tennessee. Marti is a serious student that wants to be successful and graduate college, but she looses her scholarship which is what is keeping her in school. Marti must now find a new way to stay in college, which she does by entering cheerleading tryouts for the school’s cheerleading team, Hellcats. If she makes the cheerleading team, then she gets a new scholarship and stays in school. Of course Marti makes it and she is introduced into a totally different world: Cheertown!

I like the characters in this show. In the beginning, I thought that my favorite character would be Marti, but she turned out to be a very big cliche character. The character that I ended up liking most is Savannah (Ashley Tisdale). Savannah is the cheerleading captain of the Hellcats. In the beginning of the series, Savannah looks like she would be the snobby queen-bee, but she turned out to be the complete opposite. She has a bubbly personality and is loyal to her teammates. Savannah’s actions really surprise me because she’s very benevolent. There was an event in the story where the Hellcats had to compete against the Volleyball team to prove that they are athletes too. Marti couldn’t attend this competition because her academic class had a trip which was very important for her education. Knowing that Marti is only using cheerleading to get a scholorship in her education and is choosing the success in herself rather than the team, Savannah doesn’t reveal this to the team. This shows her loyalty to Marti and how she understands Marti’s situation. Not only does this show have unique characters, but it’s very entertaining to watch the world of cheerleading and their routines. I totally recommend this TV show! :)