J.J. Abrams Made Me a Space Nerd

We live in a golden age right now where being a geek, or a nerd, is not only acceptable, but actually kind of cool. If only 15 year old me knew just how great life was going to get! I’ve been a gaming nerd since I was old enough to hold a SNES controller, I burnt more hours than I care to admit playing World of Warcraft, and I’ve even played several sessions of Dungeons & Dragons, but I’ve always found myself in an almost defensive manner stating ‘yeah, but I don’t like space-y stuff’. 

Perhaps I saw that as the final threshold into full on nerd-ism that I was too scared to cross, but until 3 years ago I couldn’t tell the difference between Star Trek and Stargate, and my Star Wars knowledge was limited to the fact that Darth Vader was Luke’s Father. Er, spoiler alert. What made all of that change was the release of Star Trek Into Darkness. I had found my love of movies, and decided that I’d give any movie a chance, no matter how boring it sounded, and I guess at the time I’d thought that backfired, when my husband, then fiance, said he wanted to see the sequel.

I made the even bigger mistake of admitting I hadn’t seen the 2009 version, and so not only was I forced to watch it on that very night, but the next day we went to see Into Darkness. I never thought I’d find myself loving it quite so much! Someone had just made Star Trek fascinating to me, and I owed it all to J.J. Abrams. As I tend to do, I spent an hour on his IMDB profile checking the rest of his work, and realised he was also responsible for giving me an interest in the Mission: Impossible series. Ghost Protocol was the first I’d seen, and so I was super excited when Rogue Nation was announced!

Of course, in December 2015 J.J. Abrams did the impossible, and made me fall hard for Star Wars. So hard, our wedding cake topper, reception cocktails and even my wedding shoes were Star Wars themed. I don’t think my Dad’s ever been so proud of me! 

When the stealthy advertisements came out for 10 Cloverfield Lane, I sat and watched the original Cloverfield that same day, and when the release for the new movie came out, I dragged my family to the cinema like a kid on Christmas Day. Never before have I been excited for something because of a Director. Actor or actress, yes, but not Director. That’s partly thanks to the blog, too, for making me think more critically about what I watch, but still.

So here’s to you, J.J. Abrams, Happy Birthday, and thanks for turning me into the space nerd my Dad and Husband have always wanted! I can’t wait for Star Trek Beyond.

Priceless Parent's Guide Finds #1

Did you know every movie on IMDB has a Parent’s Guide? It’s a useful tool for parents to decide for themselves if a particular movie is suitable for their child(ren), and I use it a lot to help my Mum and 13 year-old brother. It’s also handy for me to find out if I’m going to be able to sit through any kind of horror movie.

There are categories for sex & nudity, violence & gore, profanity,alcohol/drugs/smoking and frightening/intense scenes, and users are able to fill these categories with scenes of note.

Well, as handy as the Parent’s Guide is, it defines movie moments in such clinical terms, that it’s actually hilarious, and I thought it would be fun to share some of these priceless finds with you all. No spoilers ahead, not to worry!

As Bill goes through a phone, he sees pictures that the owner took, all focusing on a woman's breasts. (Non-Stop)

A dog is briefly seen apparently cut by half during a nightmare sequence; the head end then chases the tail end. (Inside Out)

It is halloween, several characters are dressed up (vampire, skeletons). A man in a tight-fitting costume struggles to get it off in time to go to the bathroom. It later transpires he didn't make it in time. (They Came Together)

Champagne is seen (Flightplan)

A man walks into a couple (sex implied) - we see the other man's buttcheeks for a few seconds, hear a little moaning (no female nudity). (A.C.O.D.)

A man out of nervous anticipation quickly finishes a bottle of beer. (Her)

Insulting another man, a man makes crude, sexually explicit remarks about the other man's wife. (Run All Night)

The opening sequence has silhouettes of naked women. (Spectre)

We see Ilsa in a bikini as she gets out of a pool. (Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation)

We hear eerie screeching coming from inside the walls of a maze. (The Maze Runner)

A man is punched in the face. (San Andreas)

Vlad mentions "boobies" (Hotel Transylvania 2)

A scene is shown where some men have to break into an employer's mother's house to delete an email that her daughter sent her by mistake. (The Intern) - note this is listed under Frightening/Intense scenes

A girl yells penis twice.  (Hot Pursuit)

Sexy dancing at a talent show. (Mean Girls)

Mini Reviews: The Maze Runner (2014), Fantastic Four (2015) & Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)

Doing overtime at home to pay for our cat Loki's vet bills has meant I've worked my way through a lot of movies recently, which in turn means plenty of reviews to write up! This little set mainly contains movies that Jenna's already seen and reviewed, so it seemed silly to dedicate a whole post to each!  You know I drafted a post for Mission Impossible but never wrote it or posted it?! You didn't?! I thought you did, ha!

I have very little interest in the Fantastic Four series, it’s just never had much appeal to me. However, I won’t miss a chance to see a superhero movie and despite the appalling reviews, I gave Fantastic Four (2015) a go. Boy, it really was terrible. The introduction was alright, although the characters were boring, and the ending was okay, especially in terms of special effects. The main problem was everything else, cheesy dialogue, awful acting and just a boring plot that didn’t flow well at all. I guess Green Lantern isn’t the worst superhero movie anymore, huzzah! I’ll take that as a win. Damn it!!

When the trailers came out for The Maze Runner (2014), I wasn’t bothered in the slightest. I hadn’t read the books, and I was still in awe of The Hunger Games so I wrote this off completely. Curiosity got the better of me though and I ended up enjoying this much more than I thought I would. The tension and now knowing where the plot was going kept me hooked and I was pleasantly surprised. Dylan O’Brien impressed me in Teen Wolf and he makes a great lead in this. I’m quite looking forward to watching The Scorch Trials now!

Although I was very late to the party, I really enjoyed 2011’s Ghost Protocol and when the trailers came out for Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) I couldn’t wait. It sounds silly but it’s probably one of my favourite trailers, I think it was the music that did it for me. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the latest mission. Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner and Simon Pegg have such a great on-screen chemistry, I’d happily watch them together in anything! I got a little lost in the game of ‘Is Isla a good guy, bad guy, double agent, double double agent’ malarky but that’s normal for me, ha.