In My Mailbox (144)

I got twelve postcards this week! From Yekaterinburg, Russia I received the first of the week. I love this postcard, with the sunflower umbrella.

Sent: february 8th 2014
Received: april 13th 2014
Distance: 3,534 km (2,196 miles)
Travel Time: 64 days

From Rauma, Finland I got this funny Spongebob postcard. I don't know why Spongebob, but still it's funny!

Sent: april 10th 2014
Received: april 13th 2014
Distance: 1,456 km (905 miles)
Travel Time: 3 days

This is a very impressive landscape. The card came from Taipei, Taiwan.

Sent: march 31st 2014
Received: april 13th 2014
Distance: 9,462 km (5,879 miles)
Travel Time: 13 days

As almost every card from Ukraine, this one is from its capitol Kiev. I don't know exactly what it is, but it looks like a fairytale.

Sent: april 9th 2014
Received: april 16th 2014
Distance: 1,717 km (1,067 miles)
Travel Time: 7 days

I didn't know who it was, but when I looked closer I realized it was Freddy Mercury from the band Queen. I love their music and Mercury was a fantastic singer. The card came from Novosibirsk, Russia.

Sent: april 24th 2014
Received: april 16th 2014
Distance: 4,887 km (3,037 miles)
Travel Time: 23 days

These joyful running children came from Diadema, Brazil.

Sent: february 13th 2014
Received: april 16th 2014
Distance: 9,782 km (6,078 miles)
Travel Time: 62 days

Yeah, another mapcard. This time from Fairmont, West Virginia, US.

Sent: april 9th 2014
Received: april 16th 2014
Distance: 6,463 km (4,016 miles)
Travel Time: 7 days

Another postcard from Rauma, Finland. This is such a gorgeous bear, I just love this card.

Sent: april 12th 2014
Received: april 16th 2014
Distance: 1,456 km (905 miles)
Travel Time: 4 days

My favorite of the week, a card I had already received from someone else once, came from Vorst, Germany. It's one of my all-time favorites! Wolves are so amazing.

Sent: april 12th 2014
Received: april 16th 2014
Distance: 34 km (21 miles)
Travel Time: 4 days

Cute squirrel!!! The card came from Ufa, Russia.

Sent: april 5th 2014
Received: april 18th 2014
Distance: 3,301 km (2,051 miles)
Travel Time: 13 days

From Dreieich, Germany this puppy was send to me. Adorable!

Sent: april 14th 2014
Received: april 18th 2014
Distance: 231 km (144 miles)
Travel Time: 4 days

You just gotta love tea. It's from Taipei, Taiwan.

Sent: april 5th 2014
Received: april 18th 2014
Distance: 9,462 km (5,879 miles)
Travel Time: 13 days

Thanks Lena, Nuna, Vivian, Zoya, Polly, Natasha, Anne, Anna, Gina, Travelbat, Seisenbacher and Ching-Hui for your great postcards this week!!

No Top 5 Thursday

You might have noticed that there was no top 5 thursday this week. Work was just too busy that day, so I didn't have the time and energy to put it up. Next week it will be back again.

100 Movie Challenge 2014 - # 52: Admission

Director: Paul Weitz
Genre: Comedy/ Drama/ Romance
Runtime: 103 minutes
Year: 2013
Starring: Tina Fey, Paul Rudd, Lily Tomlin, Michael Sheen, Wallace Shawn

Description: Portia Nathan (Tina Fey) is a Princeton admissions officer who is up for a major promotion. She takes a professional risk after she meets a college-bound alternative school kid who just might be the son she gave up years ago in a secret adoption.

Review: Two of Hollywoods favorite comedy stars are joined together in “Admission”. Fey plays Portia Nathan, an admissions officer at Princeton, who is an absolute control freak. Rudd is teacher John Halsey, who’s school is visited by Portia.
Tina Fey is known for her amazing humoristic timing and her great comedic ideas. And Paul Rudd is someone very often seen in Judd Apatow movies and he knows how to win over a crowd. Both actors are holding back in this movie, it could have been a lot better. The story isn’t the flaw, because that’s just fine. There aren’t a lot of jokes, the romantic storyline is very bland and the melodramatic touch is just minimal.
“Admission” isn’t a movie that I will remember for a very long time, it’s very average. Maybe they should give Fey and Rudd another chance, because they both have the potential to make a great comedy together.

Rating: 2,5/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2014 - # 51: Dolphin Tale

Director: Charles Martin Smith
Genre: Drama/ Family
Runtime: 113 minutes
Year: 2011
Starring: Nathan Gamble, Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd, Morgan Freeman, Kris Kristofferson

Description: A story centered on the friendship between a boy and a dolphin whose tail was lost in a crab trap.

Review: Winter is a very special dolphin. In the winter of 2005, when she was only a couple of months old, Winter was found by fishermen. Because her tail was severely damaged by a crab trap, they had to amputate it and she eventually got a prosthetic tail. This true story is combined with the fictional story of Sawyer Nelson, who has trouble socializing with other kids. He helps a fisherman when Winter is found and becomes fascinated with dolphins and other marine life.
For a family movie “Dolphin Tale” manages to check every box. There is a positive moral, it has tension, pace and humor and the characters are real and likeable. Off course you shouldn’t expect memorable performances or mind blowing cinematography. What we do get is a film that was made with love and is a joy for the entire family.

Rating: 3,5/ 5

In the Picture: The Characters from "The World's End"

I finally saw it this year and it met my expectations. It’s a fantastic comedy, this is how comedies should be made! And it also brought some great characters. Here are the characters from “The World’s End”.

Gary King
Played by: Simon Pegg
Gary King is a middle-aged recovering drug addict. He is still stuck in his teenage life, because he wants to get the old group of friends together again. Gary is determined to finally finish “The Golden Mile” because they didn’t manage that back in the days.

Andy Knightley
Played by: Nick Frost
Andy used to be Gary’s best friend, but nowadays Andy is a more serious man. He is a lawyer. Andy doesn’t want to be a part of the reunion, but when he starts feeling sorry for Gary he decides to take part anyway.

Oliver Chamberlain
Played by: Martin Freeman
Oliver is a serious business man, an estate agent, who is still working while trying to finish “The Golden Mile” with the guys. He only got into the group because Gary thought his sister Sam was hot.

Steven Prince
Played by: Paddy Considine
Steven used to be Gary’s fellow rock star in training. They were very similar when they were kids: Cool, good-looking and both into Oliver’s sister Sam. Steven is now an architectural consultant and hasn’t heard from Gary for a very long time.

Peter Page
Played by: Eddie Marsan
Peter is from a wealthy family and that was the only reason Gary wanted to be friends with him. As a child, Peter was bullied and when he revisits New Haven he sees his bully again.

Sam Chamberlain
Played by: Rosemund Pike
Sam is Oliver’s sister and caught the eye of both Gary and Steven. Gary had a fling with her when they were younger, but she always regretted that. Nowadays she is more into Steven.

Favorite Character: Gary King

Movie Trailer Sunday (134)

Here are this weeks trailers.

The Angriest Man in Brooklyn

Description: Henry Altmann (Robin Williams) is having a horrible day, made much worse by his visit with Dr. Sharon Gill (Mila Kunis), who abruptly informs him that he only has 90 minutes to live. After storming out of the hospital in disbelief, Henry panics and races through Brooklyn in an attempt to right all of the wrongs in his life, while Sharon desperately scrambles to find him and get him into surgery.

Director: Phil Alden Robinson

Starring: Robin Williams, Mila Kunis, Melissa Leo, Peter Dinklage and Hamish Linklater

Trailer: Trailer "The Angriest Man in Brooklyn"

Comment: It's about time that Robin Williams got a movie worth watching again.

Chef

Description: Chef Carl Casper (Jon Favreau) suddenly quits his job at a prominent Los Angeles restaurant after refusing to compromise his creative integrity for its controlling owner (Dustin Hoffman), he is left to figure out what's next. Finding himself in Miami, he teams up with his ex-wife (Sofia Vergara), his friend (John Leguizamo) and his son to launch a food truck. Taking to the road, Chef Carl goes back to his roots to reignite his passion for the kitchen -- and zest for life and love.

Director: Jon Favreau

Starring: Jon FavreauSofia Vergara, John Leguizamo, Bobby Cannavale, Dustin Hoffman, Oliver Platt, Emjay Anthony, Scarlett Johansson and Robert Downey, Jr.

Trailer: Trailer "Chef"

Comment: It's a microbudget film, but a must-see for me!

Wish I Was Here

Description: A thirty-something man (Zach Braff) finds himself at major crossroads, forcing him to examine his life, his career, and his family.

Director: Zach Braff

Starring: Zach Braff, Kate Hudson, Mandy Patinkin, Josh Gad, Ashley Greene, Joey King and Pierce Gagnon

Trailer: Trailer "Wish I Was Here"

Comment: I still haven't seen "Garden State" yet.

Decoding Annie Parker

Description: Armed with a wicked sense of humor, Annie Parker (Samantha Morton) faces down family loss, a cheating husband and her own mortality. At the same time, Dr. King (Helen Hunt) upends scientific doctrine when she discovers the BRCA1 gene mutation, which revolutionizes understanding and treatment of certain types of breast cancer. How the paths of these two women intersect is funny, irreverent, and heartwarming without the burn.

Director: Steven Bernstein

Starring: Samantha Morton, Helen Hunt, Aaron Paul, Bradley Whitford, Rashida Jones, Richard Schiff, Alice Eve, Maggie Grace, Marley Shelton, Chris Mulkey and Corey Stoll

Trailer: Trailer "Decoding Annie Parker"

Comment: Helen unt is back in the game!

 

The Dolphin Tale 2

Description: It has been several years since young Sawyer Nelson (Nathan Gamble) and the dedicated team at the Clearwater Marine Hospital, headed by Dr. Clay Haskett (Harry Connick, Jr.), rescued Winter. With the help of Dr. Cameron McCarthy (Morgan Freeman), who developed a unique prosthetic tail for the injured dolphin, they were able to save her life. Yet their fight is not over. Winter�s surrogate mother, the very elderly dolphin Panama, has passed away, leaving Winter without the only poolmate she has ever known. However, the loss of Panama may have even greater repercussions for Winter, who, according to USDA regulations, cannot be housed alone, as Dolphins, social behavior requires them to be paired with other dolphins. Time is running out to find a companion for her before the team at Clearwater loses their beloved Winter to another aquarium.

Director: Charles Martin Smith

Starring: Nathan Gamble, Harry Connick Jr., Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Kris Kristofferson

Trailer: Trailer "The Dolphin Tale 2"

Comment: Yeah Dolphins!

100 Movie Challenge 2014 - # 50: Spring Breakers

Director: Harmony Korine
Genre: Drama/ Comedy
Runtime: 94 minutes
Year: 2012
Starring: James Franco, Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine

Description: Four college girls hold up a restaurant in order to fund their spring break vacation. While partying/drinking/taking drugs they are arrested only to be bailed out by a drug and arms dealer (James Franco).

Review: American teenagers look forward to Spring Break the entire year. A week full of alcohol and partying. Friends Faith, Candy, Brit and Cotty want to go as well. They don’t have enough money, so they rob a restaurant to get money for their trip. When they meet a guy named Alien, the week of innocent partying changes to a week of sins.
A movie that is titled “Spring Breakers” sounds like a fun teen flick. If you wanted that, this is not your movie. It has a dark atmosphere, it’s a bit vague. The further the girls a pulled into Alien’s world, the weirder the ambiance gets.
The film has flashbacks and flashforwards and you find out that the characters aren’t your typical students, but girls with deep and crazy thoughts. Off all the characters, Faith is the only one you can sympathize with. She eventually sees that what they are doing is wrong. I don’t really care for any of the other characters, you just want to slap them in the face and wake them up. James Franco, with his weirdest look ever, is sublime in his role as Alien. He is genuinely a creepy and intriguing man.
“Spring Breakers” is artistic, with great cinematography. It’s an unexpected and original film, which will leave the audience amazed.

Rating: 3,5/ 5