MTV Reveals Ghostly Secrets Behind 'Paranormal Activity 2'

Happy Halloween week! In honor of the spooky celebrations, let's discuss a scary movie.

'Paranormal Activity 2' director Tod Williams revealed to MTV five secrets about the movie. Not only was I attracted to the title, but the format made the article super easy to read and more structurally organized. I think this is the best way to do this with the article. Not overwhelming, not boring.

Also, a creepy, open-ended photo accompanies the story, and it leaves me aching to find out what is actually going on. I must say, all the photos from this movie make me shiver.

What I thought worked the best with this article was the use of an interview with the director. The video of the interview is placed right in the article and covers all the material that could be read. This is perfect for people who don't feel like reading and want a more leisurely way of getting the news.

Spoiler alert! This MTV article does, however, contain a few glimpses into startling, scary moments. If you want the full, pee-in-your-pants experience, I would suggest not reading it until after you see the movie. I think the spoilers are ok for this article because it is targeted towards people who have seen the movie already. The article makes much more sense for people who know the scenes they are talking about.

Fourth 'Pirates of the Carribbean' Lost at Sea

I find myself drifting with the tides a bit.

Should I be happy about the new "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," or should I be really, really upset? I seem to be vacillating between the two.

See, there is no Will Turner or Elizabeth Swan in this movie. Instead, a new damsel in distress joins the storyline. Penelope Cruz plays Jack Sparrow's "lost love" and takes over Swan's place.  Geoffrey Rush will also be coming back with Johnny Depp to make this movie happen. 

When I searched to find more out about this movie, I found a sea of nothing. Ok, not completely nothing. Many people wrote quick snippets on their blogs about how lucky the actors must be for getting to film in Hawaii. Duh. Mentions of the movie's production were only a sentence or two long. 


I noticed that The Huffington Post touched on the subject on July 26th, 2010, but it again was just one of their writer's blogs and photo of a ship they were building for the movie.


Where is all the coverage, people? The other "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies did pretty well, and I would think that a lot of people (especially the younger crowds) would be really curious and excited about this one coming out on May 20, 2011.


Apparently not.


Perhaps newspapers find it pointless to be talking of a movie that still has half a year to finish up. Or, perhaps this movie has horrible advertising methods. Either way, it needs some publicity, and people want it!


Why not interview Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz together? Why not interview the director? Even entertainment shows could get great material off of going to the set of the filming and give away a few tasty morsels of the movie's secrets.


I'm extremely intrigued by Captain Jack Sparrow's adventure to find the fountain of youth. Newspapers, magazines, and TV shows need to start doing some investigating.


I'm drowning in anticipation.

New Great Success for Kazakhstan

It's hard to forget the foreigner we all loved and hated- Borat. Even today, people can be heard quoting the movie every chance they get with sayings like "very nice, how much?" and "Wa wa wee wa!" with that absurd accent.

Others, such as the actual country of Kazakhstan, are also finding him hard to forget, or forgive.

The New York Times interviewed Erkin Rakishev, a Kazakh director who is planning on correcting everyone's opinions of the country and its people.

The article, "Taking Revenge on 'Borat,' Amorous Donkey and All," ran on Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010 and took up the entire top fold of page A11 in the "International" section. I completely agree with giving this article so much space because this movie was incredibly popular and widely consumed when it came out in  theaters in 2006 and again on DVD. People still laugh about it years later.

This article was written by Clifford J. Levy who inputs his own opinion and observations throughout the article. Normally, I wouldn't think this would be the best choice for covering the upcoming debut of a movie, but in this case, his thoughts represent the troubling questions that are more than likely going through the minds of everyone reading this article as well.

For example, the whole point of Mr. Rakishev making this movie is that he was insulted by how Kazakhstan was represented in the movie. However, in his movie, his character is the brother of Borat, named Bilo (who is actually mentioned in the movie "Borat"), who escapes from a mental institute, gets rabies, and has sex with a donkey and ends up pregnant by it. Levy took it upon himself to ask in his article, "Remind us again how this is supposed to improve the image of Kazakhstan?" And this is exactly what you are wondering, too, isn't it?

Levy does a wonderful job of recording the director's reactions to his questions as well, noting giggles, fits of laughter, refusals to answer questions, etc. It really gave you a sense of who the director is, as well as a glimpse into how the movie is being made.

The quotes from the director that Levy used were character-revealing, thought-provoking, and humorous at times as well. I thought the story was brilliantly written. The article made me oddly excited and intrigued by the movie, and now I find myself hoping and praying that it does end up in the U.S. theaters one way or another.

Sacha Baron Cohen has some serious competition to look out for.

'Star Wars' 3-D Fever

George Lucas has officially crossed over to the dark side.

Who is to blame for this horrific transition? James Cameron.

Ever since "Avatar" came out in theaters on Dec. 18th, 2009, the 3-D mania has been out of control. Suddenly, everything is being filmed in 3-D, and movie theaters have piles of those goofy glasses just waiting for the films to hit the big screens.

And guess what movie is supposed to make its debut in 2012? "Star Wars"- all of them.

Lucas, director of the "Star Wars" movies tells Access Hollywood in an interview he has "never been a big fan of 3-D, but that movie definitely improves in [the field of] 3-D." Upon seeing "Avatar," Lucas decided that Star Wars HAD to be shown in 3-D. What Lucas is forgetting is that the Star Wars phenomenon is dead, annoying, and overdone at this point, and the general public agrees, too.

Ben Fritz of the Los Angeles Times talks in an article of this possibility of the saga meeting the 21st century and its 3-D technology. This article, however, lacks any originality and depth. Almost all of the information was taken from the interviews Access Hollywood had with Lucas, and you would think a newspaper in L.A. would be able to score an interview with Lucas.

The rest of the story was obtained from a press release that The Times was able to get before it was released to the audience. Why would a newspaper run a story that the reported did absolutely no reporting for himself? Were they so completely out of material that they had to get another newspaper's story, use quotes from someone else's interview, and put it in their own? If you didn't do the work yourself, don't run it.


It will be interesting to see if Lucas actually does go through with his plans. Something tells me it won't be as awesome as he thinks it's going to be.

'Easy A' an Easy Watch

Yes, it is hard to believe that yet another cruel high school movie has hit the big screens once again. Mean Girls has done it, Breakfast Club has done it, gosh even Napolean Dynomite did it. So, what would set Easy A apart from the countless others? Two words.

Emma Stone.

Easy A came out on Friday, September 17th, and it made $17,734,040 on opening weekend alone and ranked number two in the box office. This is all thanks to Emma Stone and her unlikely quirky confidence. Why unlikely? Her character is a fly on the wall at a high school full of gossip-hungry teens waiting for someone to slip up.

The New York Times also agrees that Emma Stone is a precious gem in this movie. In an article written by Stephen Holden on September 16th, 2010, the critic wrote the movie "commands attention for the irresistible presence of Emma Stone, playing a good girl who pretends to be bad. Her performance is the best of its type since Alicia Silverstone’s star turn several high school generations ago in Amy Heckerling's 1995 hit, Clueless."

After this is where I completely disagree with the critic's point of view. The comparison he makes to Clueless becomes the driving force in this review, and to be completely honest, that's what took all credibility away from him.

He later states that he believes Easy A "isn’t nearly as good a movie as Clueless."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Personally, I find the whole idea of Clueless even being a good movie nauseating. To say Easy A isn't as good is like saying Abraham Lincoln wasn't as good of a president as George Bush. Blatant Lies.

Easy A deserves four stars out of five and is a great movie for both guys and gals. It is witty, dramatically refreshing, and a clever spin on The Scarlet Letter. I highly recommend everyone sees this movie.

And, no. It is nothing like Clueless.