Top 5 Thursday: Steven Spielberg Movies

With "Lincoln" coming out in theatres soon, here in the Netherlands, I thought to rank my favorite movies by director Steven Spielberg. He has made so many great, memorable movies. Here are my favorite five.

5. Catch Me If You Can
It's an extraordinary story, that's really hard to believe but actually happened. Love the acting by Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio. I always watch it when it's on.

4.Jaws
The power of this horror movie is how the tension is build up. The first 45 minutes you don't even see the shark, but it's terrifying anyway. Nowadays it's more bloody. "Jaws" is a fantastic movie.

3. Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones is my favorite movie character and the movies are all great. The first is still the best and I just love that scene with the swordsman Indy shoots. A movie full of adventure, humor and romance.

2. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
This film has a lot of aw-moments. "E.T." is such a sweet, heartwarming and touching movie. Great for all ages. Even the kids in my class, who are from a total different generation, know "E.T.". Timeless.

1. Jurassic Park
I remember when I first saw "Jurassic Park". It was jawdropping and right after the end credits I wanted to see it again. It's so amazing. And still I can watch it over and over again.

They Almost Made the Top 5: "Empire of the Sun", "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom", "The Lost World: Jurassic Park"

In the Picture: The Characters from "The Usual Suspects"

"The Usual Suspects" is one of the best films made in the 90's. Amazing, the ending, oh my god. Here are the characters.

Dean Keaton
Played by: Gabriel Byrne
Keaton is a womanizer and a bit narcissistic, but he also wants to keep positive view on things. He’s the leader of the group.

Michael McManus
Played by: Stephen Baldwin
McManus doesn’t have an emotional connection with other people and some call him ‘crazy guy’. He laughs when it isn’t appropriate or when nobody else laughs.

Todd Hockney
Played by: Kevin Pollak
Hockney is full of anger and resentment. He can’t control his emotions, especially not his anger.

Verbal Kint
Played by: Kevin Spacey
Kint has a melancholic sad face and doesn’t look too smart. He walks funny and when he starts talking it’s hard to shut him up.

Fred Fenster
Played by: Benicio del Toro
Fenster has a flashy appearance and can’t sit still. Verbally he wants to impress people, he has a special way of talking.

David Kujan
Played by: Chazz Palminteri
Kujan is the officer who’s leading the investigation. He thinks he’s smarter then all of them, is impatient and the only way he can get to the truth is by using people.

Favorite Character: Tod Hockney

Weekly Photo Challenge 2013 - Theme # 2: Music

Second day of my photo challenge. An easy one.

Music is an important part f my life. And I have a very varied taste. Sometimes I'm in the mood for easy listing, like Mumford & Sons, sometimes I want a bit more guitars like Pearl Jam or Foo Fighters. When I'm frustrated or mad I love Alanis Morissette and Lifehouse I can listen to anytime. This is the photo for this week.

Movie Trailer Sunday (68)

This weeks trailers are about a kidnapped teenage girl, different stories coming together, hypnotizing, a tablet and girls taking revenge on boys.

The Call
Description: When veteran 911 operator, Jordan (Halle Berry), takes a life-altering call from a teenage girl (Abigail Breslin) who has just been abducted, she realizes that she must confront a killer from her past in order to save the girl's life.
Director: Brad Anderson
Starring: Halle Berry, Abigail Breslin, Morris Chestnut, Michael Eklund, Michael Imperioli
Trailer: Trailer "The Call"
Comment: I'm not a Halle Berry fan, but I adore Abigail Breslin.

The Power of Few
Description: Spies, cops, holy fools and well-armed children cross paths on a day of danger, mystery and possible transformation.
Director: Leone Marucci
Starring: Christopher Walken, Christian Slater, Anthony Anderson, Jesse Bradford, Q'orianka Kilcher, Moon Bloodgood
Trailer: Trailer "The Power of Few"
Comment: These days Christian Slater movies aren't really worht watching, although I like him. But this movie actually looks really good.

Trance
Description: Fine art auctioneer Simon (James McAvoy), in league with a gang led by underworld boss Franck (Vincent Cassel), plots the audacious theft of a masterpiece by Goya from a major public auction. When Simon double-crosses the gang during the robbery, Franck retaliates violently and knocks him unconscious. In the aftermath of the heist, Simon sticks stubbornly - and perhaps shrewdly - to his claim that the violent trauma has left him with no memory of where he stashed the artwork. Unable to coerce the painting's location from Simon, Franck and his associates reluctantly join forces with a charismatic hypnotherapist (Rosario Dawson) in a bid to get him to talk. But as they journey deeper into Simon's jumbled psyche the boundaries between reality and hypnotic suggestion begin to blur and the stakes rise faster and far more dangerously than any of the players could have anticipated.
Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel, Rosario Dawson
Trailer: Trailer "Trance"
Comment: Wow, this looks awesome!

InAPPropriate Comedy
Description: A computer tablet full of the world's most hilariously offensive apps breaks through the borders of political correctness, stirring up cultural anarchy.
Director: Vince Offer
Starring: Adrien Brody, Rob Schneider, Michelle Rodriguez, Lindsay Lohan, Ari Shaffir
Trailer: Trailer "InAPPropriate Comedy"
Comment: Why am I even sharing this. Maybe because Rob Schneider is my guilty pleasure...

Girls Against Boys
Description: When Shae (Danielle Panabaker), a naïve college student, is tormented by several men in a matter of days, she reaches her breaking point, and is drawn into coworker Lu's (Nicole LaLiberte) twisted plan for revenge. Together, the two embark on a gruesome killing spree, terrorizing and brutally murdering not just their attackers, but any man who gets in their way. However, after a wild weekend of retaliation, the friendship between the girls shifts into a dangerous obsession, and their perverse game becomes a desperate struggle for Shae to maintain control against Lu's deadly and seductive influence.
Director: Austin Chick
Starring: Danielle Panabaker, Nicole LaLiberte, Andrew Howard, Michael Stahl-David, Liam Aiken
Trailer: Trailer "Girls Against Boys"

In My Mailbox (79)

TWELVE postcards this week. That's a lot, so I had a good postcrossing week. The first of the week is this beautiful snowy landscape from Renkum, the Netherlands.

Sent: december 27th 2012
Received: january 6th 2013
Distance: 88 km (55 miles)
Travel Time: 10 days

I don't know who this creep is, but the writer was a fan of "Divergent" by Veronica Roth. The card was send from Panevéžys, Lithuania.

Sent: december 25th 2012
Received: januaru 6th 2013
Distance: 1,315 km (817 miles)
Travel Time: 12 days

I love this series of cards. I have a few others already. The card is from Moscow, Russia.

Sent: december 28th 2012
Received: januari 7th 2013
Distance: 2,139 km (1,329 miles)
Travel Time: 10 days

From Odessa, Ukraine I received this landscape. I don't know what the picture is like this, I can't seem to turn it around. Weird.

Sent: november 29th 2012
Received: january 8th 2013
Distance: 1,880 km (1,168 miles)
Travel Time: 40 days

I c=got this vintage USA postcard, from Beaufort, South Carolina. It looks a bit cheesy and that's why I like it so much.

Sent: december 31st 2012
Received: january 8th 2013
Distance: 7,057 km (4,385 miles)
Travel Time: 8 days

From my own country, Halsteren to be exact, I received this panda. Funny thing is that she sent me a card before, with her family on another account. And again I love the postcard.

Sent: january 6th 2013
Received: january 8th 2013
Distance: 123 km (76 miles)
Travel Time: 2 days

As you might know, I love the fall, so every postcard with this theme is super welcome. As for this one, from Krakow, Poland.

Sent: december 22nd 2012
Received: january 8th 2013
Distance: 943 km (586 miles)
Travel Time: 17 days

From Kodaira, Japan I got this fun monkey. The writer is an Indiana Jones fan, he's my favorite movie character.

Sent: january 3rd 2013
Received: january 10th 2013
Distance: 9,356 km (5,814 miles)
Travel Time: 7 days

This amazing rabbit postcard came from Purmerend, the Netherlands. I love this collection of rabbits. The writer also just started a photo challenge like I did. Only she is taking a picture every day.

Sent: january 8th 2013
Received: january 10th 2013
Distance: 163 km (101 miles)
Travel Time: 2 days

From Neumünster, Germany I received this gorgeous postcard. What a beautiful creature it is.

Sent: january 7th 2013
Received: january 10th 2013
Distance: 418 km (260 miles)
Travel Time: 3 days

And this is such a cute postcard. Happy dogs make me a happy person! The sender visited my hometown Roermond a couple of times. The card is from Düsseldorf, Germany.

Sent: january 7th 2013
Received: january 11th 2013
Distance: 56 km (35 miles)
Travel Time: 4 days

The final card of the week came from Bandung, Indonesia. This is the biggest flower and has a diameter of 1 metre. Amazing huh!

Sent: december 21st 2012
Received: january 12th 2013
Distance: 11,408 km (7,089 miles)
Travel Time: 22 days

Thanks Heidi, Victorija, Katya, Farid, David, Linda, Machia, Elsea, Sonja, Nadja, Helge and Larissa for the great postcards this week!

Top 5 Thursday: Quentin Tarantino Characters

Quentin Tarantino is my favorite director and he has made only a few movies, but practically all brilliant. Part of why they are so good, are the fantastic characters. Here are my favorites.

5. Jules Winnfield (“Pulp Fiction”)
The fearsome Jules is without a doubt a bad motherf****er. He is philosophical, intense and confrontational and that’s what I like about him.

4. Hans Landa (“Inglorious Basterds”)
Although he is an evil man with class, you somehow have respect for him. He has a certain charm, but you really want to hate him.

3. Shosanna Dreyfuss (“Inglorious Basterds”)
Shosanna went through a lot when she was younger. That made her strong and relentless. She wants all Nazis to die and she has the perfect plan.

2. Mr. Blonde aka Vic Vega (“Reservoir Dogs”)
Mr. Blonde is a man with a sick sense of humor. He likes to see people suffer, that’s his form of entertainment.

1. The Bride aka Beatrix Kiddo (“Kill Vol. 1 and 2”)
She ain’t your typical woman. Don’t mess with her, because you get it all back ten times worse. The Bride is a kick-ass woman!

They almost made the top 5: Mr. Pink (“Reservoir Dogs”), Butch Coolidge (“Pulp Fiction”)

50 Books Challenge 2013 - # 1: Eon by Alison Goodman (Eon # 1)

Title: Eon (Eon # 1)
Author: Alison Goodman
Story: Sixteen-year-old Eon has a dream, and a mission. For years, he's been studying sword-work and magic, toward one end. He and his master hope that he will be chosen as a Dragoneye-an apprentice to one of the twelve energy dragons of good fortune. But Eon has a dangerous secret. He is actually Eona, a sixteen-year-old girl who has been masquerading as a twelve-year-old boy. Females are forbidden to use Dragon Magic; if anyone discovers she has been hiding in plain sight, her death is assured. When Eon's secret threatens to come to light, she and her allies are plunged into grave danger and a deadly struggle for the Imperial throne. Eon must find the strength and inner power to battle those who want to take her magic...and her life.
Start: january 1st 2013
End: january 9th 2013
Comment: Eon is the apprentice of Dragonmaster Tozay and one of twelve other boys who will be competing for selection by the Rat Dragon. The only things is, Eon isn't a boy. Eon is really Eona. I wanted to read this for quite a while now and when I received it for Christmas I couldn't wait to start reading. I was a bit disappointed because I thought this fantasy book, about dragons, would grab me and amaze me. Sadly enough it didn't do that as much as I hoped it would. It was still a pretty good read and the author kept up with the pace of the main theme of the book. Goodman's writing style is easy to slip into, and the story has the promise of being thoroughly engrossing, but in my opinion it failed to meet my expectations. There were some moments in the book that kept me on the edge of my seat, but sometimes I just couldn't wait for the chapter to end. I hope "Eona", the sequel, is better and I will read it. Because I'm anxious to know how it all continues.
Rating: 3/ 5