New Costume Images from Alice in Wonderland!

I found these images on one of my favorite sites: costumersguide.com.

From watching the trailers it appears as though Alice’s costume changes throughout the film. Perhaps her wardrobe does a “Dr. Parnassus” every time she ventures to a new part of Wonderland? Just a thought…

Enjoy!

Click on images to enlarge.

Who gave Ashton a license to kill?

I can buy Katherine Heigl as a cute and naive newlywed… but does anyone really buy Ashton Kutcher as badass assassin? Didn’t think so…

Killer’s Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND69q158IZI

Valentine's Day = Love Actually but not >

This weekend, I, unlike many other members of the single male species, ventured to the movies to see… Valentine’s Day. I know, strange. Now, don’t get me wrong, I too really wanted to see the much awaited Shutter Island or even the new Wolfman movie like most testosterone fueled homosapiens; however, I had my mother with me and since she’s not a fan of anything creepy, gothic, thrilling, or unsightly I decided a safe romantic comedy would be best.

The movie was everything I expected it to be. It was cute and clean and featured an all star cast consisting of everyone from Julia Roberts to Jessica Alba and their family members (literally in Robert’s case – Director Gary Marshall gave Robert’s niece a part in the movie).

Jennifer Garner and Ashton Kutcher are well matched as a cute couple in 2010’s Valentine’s day. Their storyline parallels that of Keira Knightly and Andrew Lincoln’s in 2003’s Love Actually. Both couples feature a woman who has fallen for the wrong man and a love stricken “best friend” left on the sidelines.

Valentine’s Day is very much like 2003’s smash hit Love Actually in format, look, and even the pairing of couples. Each film featured a successful, cheating man; a young man in love with a woman who’s heart was falling for the wrong man; and even a cute, bright-eyed, dimpled boy who claimed to be lovesick for an older woman.

Eric Dane and Bradley Cooper co-star as a homosexual couple struggling with relationship issues.

One thing that did surprise me was the storyline included a homosexual couple! This is defiantly a progressive move on the movie studios part; never before have I seen two gay men featured as a leading couple in a major romantic comedy. Although this movie focused on several couples throughout the course of one day leaving very little time for any of the storylines to truly take center stage; it was refreshing to see that the movie studios are finally beginning to realize that there is a market for films focused around gay characters. Maybe, we’ll soon see a major romantic comedy featuring a single gay man as the protagonist! Think about it, homosexuals are asked to endure romantic comedies featuring heterosexual couples, why not the other way around?

All in all, this movie was good for what it was made for – a fun, easy going date night movie with a few laughs and a lot of “awwwww” moments.

Kyoto!

Hey guys!

I just thought all of you should know about the Kyoto Costume Institute! This institute has an unbelievably extensive collection of vintage garments raging from the early 1700’s to the turn of the past century. They are also considered one of the leading costume museums in the world. Here’s their website! Feel free to explore!

http://www.kci.or.jp/index.html?lang=en

They also have a few published books featuring their most exquisite garments. I HIGLY recommend these books to any costume enthusiast. These images were taken from the Fashion Volume 1 (Taschen 25th Anniversary) Book.

http://www.amazon.com/Fashion-Taschen-Anniversary-Costume-Institute/dp/3822827630/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266520212&sr=1-1-spell

The Corruption of Wonderland

Now, the other day I stumbled upon yet another extended Alice in Wonderland trailer. While I have to admit the film does look breathtaking, I am concerned for the overall integrity of the Alice in Wonderland franchise. Burton’s latest exertion will not be a retelling of the famed and classic Lewis Carroll story, but instead will be a new adventure into Wonderland following a much older Alice back down into the rabbit hole. This story will reintroduce many of Carroll’s beloved characters, such as the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts, but will use them in a completely fresh storyline.

Now, this could be either an exciting and satisfying effort or a dismal failure leaving many Carroll fans outraged and disappointed. Hopefully, Burton will be able to tell a new story without ruining or morphing the personas of these establish figures to suit his idea of Wonderland.

Think about it, how many times has a remolding of a classic had adverse effects on a franchise? Shrek, for example, was a perfectly funny and well told fairytale for the modern viewer but were Shrek two and three really necessary? In my estimation, these pointless and frivolous adjuncts to the brand only proved to be disadvantageous to the world of Shrek and left a bad taste in many fans mouths. Was Be Cool really necessary? Did we really need to see a sloppy sequel to a fairly well developed movie? I don’t think so. Of course big production companies such as Disney and Warner Brothers are ultimately a business looking to increase the size of their ever growing pockets, but does that give them the right to cast aside artistic integrity? Where does the madness end?

Of course, this isn’t the first time Carroll’s little Alice has been vandalized! Who can forget the awful children’s series back in the early nineties showcasing a hip preteen Alice living in the modern world with easy access to a high-tech wonderland through her bedroom mirror! Or American Mcgee’s atrociously gothic video game! I suppose anyone with a few pennies to spare has the power, but not necessarily the authority, to corrupt a classic in order to potentially make a dollar or two.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m looking forward to seeing Burton’s bound to be blockbuster; I just hope it proves to be worth my eleven dollars at the box office.

I'm Back!

I’m a bad blogger. I’m a bad blogger for two reasons:

1) I haven’t actually done any blogging in several months.
2) I haven’t even thought about blogging in several months!

I know, I know, I know… it’s not fair to me as a blogger nor is it fair to you as a reader; however, I can guarantee you that I have been actively watching and analyzing films as well keeping cognizant on the world of costumes during my brief hiatus. Now, what have I been doing these past few weeks? Well, besides working around the clock and keeping up on my studies, I have recently been watching ALL of the Academy Award nominated films for this year. Challenging, I know.

As most of you probably know, the best picture nominations for this year have increased from the standard of five nominations to ten. Why? Well, the Academy hopes that by increasing the number of best picture nominations they will help the general public broaden their cinematic palate and increase box office sales. Oddly enough, this year’s nominations boast an impressive list of box office home runs- all of which need very little help with box-office numbers (excluding the relatively little known indie film An Education staring Kary Mulligan). For the most part, best picture nominations tend to be a fair mixture of well-known blockbusters and esoteric-art house films; however, this year proves to be an outlier to the established equation.

Personally, my pick for this year’s best picture is torn between Disney’s UP and the low-budget Sci-Fi District 9.

I think Up was a charming and entertaining movie for all ages that focused primarily on the importance of love and the power of dreams (a much needed message for today’s emotionally distant and distressed world) and should receive recognition for its ability to make a grown man cry within the first ten minutes of an ANIMATED film!

While on the other hand, District 9 blew me out of the water with not only its intriguing storyline but also its powerful performances and guerilla documentary film style. I find it completely intoxicating that such a powerful film could be done on a mere budget of thirty million dollars, shot in video, and edited on Final Cut Pro (a tool used by most college and high school filmmakers)! This movie impresses with its ability to send a message of universal acceptance without slowing down its momentum and loosing its audience to unnecessary and mooshy speeches about love and acceptance.

While I remain ambivalent towards what I will ultimately choose as my final pick for best picture, I continue to hope that all of you keep up on the latest films! What do you think should win best picture for this year?

You can find a full list of all of the nominees at www.oscar.com