On the IMBD forums I’ve seen a lot of people in favour or American re-makes because they think they’re easier to follow than subtitled movies in the original for them foreign language. There’s also many countries (Most of central and southern Europe) that dub just about everything in another language than their native one. For me as a Swede I have a hard time understanding what they find so difficult about subtitles. Sure in some less developed countries where a large percentage of the population can’t read it’s one thing but when Americans prefer re-makes and French and Germans dubbed movies it’s just silly. Personally my reading skills were good enough to follow subtitles when I was seven and it’s been working well for me ever since.
I think it’s especially silly when people (Americans, it’s always Americans) complain about how it’s hard to follow a movie in a language they don’t understand with subtitles they do understand. Personally I think it’s harder to follow a movie in a language you do understand with subtitles in another language you also understand.
The things is no matter how good the subtitles are not everything can be accurately translated. Take humorous puns like this for example: “What did the grape say when it got stepped on? Nothing – but it let out a little whine”. Translated to Swedish the words “whine” and “wine” have no similarity to each other which means that directly translated the joke no longer makes sense. The usual solution to this is replacing the joke with a similar one. It works but when you understand the spoken English and get the joke it’s a bit annoying reading a completely different joke in the Swedish subtitles. That is what you could call hard to follow. Hearing one thing in one language and reading another in another language. Yet here in Sweden where almost everyone understand English we don’t complain because we’re used to this.
What do I want to say with this? That people who think subtitles makes movies hard to follow should think about how we do it in Sweden and how we manage well despite the fact that most of us understand both the spoken language and the subtitled one. Dubbing makes movies look weird and re-makes… well isn’t that just extremely unnecessary? Just read the damn subtitles.
When I was a teenager it bothered me that the actors depicting teenagers in TV-series always were in their twenties. A show I watched a bit was Dawson’s Creek (I’m not proud of it OK?! >_<) and at the beginning in 1998 they were all supposed to be 16. The youngest of the actors playing the leads was actually 20 and the oldest 27! So here’s a show I’m as a teenager is supposed to identify with but yet they put a 27 year old in it? All it did was create these weird ideals of how to look which obviously were impossible to follow for most teenagers.
Now though, more than ten years later, I look at this in a kind of different way… You see I still enjoy TV-series and movies set in a high school environment. I might be 26 and prefer to watch movies about people my age but I can still appreciate something set in that environment because well, been there done that. I can relate because once upon a time in a not too distant past I was a teenager myself.
Not much have changed in the casting of actors for these series and movies in the past ten years. I have changed though. Now I’m very happy to see someone aged 27 playing a 16 year old because for obvious reasons I prefer to look at 27 year old guys rather than 16 year old kids. Take Glee for example. The character Finn is 16 but the guy who plays Finn, well he’s 27, my age that is. And damn he’s hot! And don’t kill me now Twilight haters but I think Rob Pattison is hot. Well at least in his vampire make-up. So he plays a 17 year old but in actuality he’s 23, not that much younger than me. Great!
I still think they should try to hire actors who are around the age they portray for a more realistic feel but I’m not really complaining any more. I’m glad they did choose Rob Pattison rather than a real seventeen year old.
Comparing Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles to Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga.
CHARACTERS: The Vampire Chronicles: Intelligent, sophisticated, gorgeous, complex. The Twilight Saga: Intelligent, sophisticated, gorgeous.
I prefer the VC characters.
STORYLINE: The Vampire Chronicles: Complex and philosophical. The Twilight Saga: Well it’s a love story and that’s it.
I prefer the VC storyline.
MYTHOLOGY: The Vampire Chronicles: Very interesting and detailed. The Twilight Saga: The werewolves have a mythology but the vampires don’t. Pretty disappointing.
I prefer the VC mythology.
GIFTS: The Vampire Chronicles: The regular stuff plus a few extra. The Twilight Saga: The regular stuff plus a lot more.
I prefer the TS gifts.
SETTING: The Vampire Chronicles: From ancient Rome to present day Los Angeles. The Twilight Saga: From Forks to Rome.
I prefer the VC setting.
I do like Twilight. I actually do. I guess it’s pretty obvious that I think it’s no way near as great as The Vampire Chronicles though. Those are the best books about vampires I’ve so far read in my life. Don’t think you know the story just because you’ve seen the movies. The books are far greater than that sorry attempt of a movie Queen of the Damned and the pretty good but nowhere near as great as the book Interview With The Vampire. I guess something that obviously makes The Vampire Chronicles storyline richer and more complex is the fact that it consists of many more books than The Twilight Saga. And the fact that it’s written for an adult audience (at least in my 26 year old eyes) makes it better as well.
With all this said I still look forward to seeing New Moon. Like I said, I do like Twilight. It’s just not the best vampire story out there.
When I watched the film Aquamarine the other day I noticed a thing in the film which I’ve seen in a lot of chick flicks. The trying on clothes scene. Think about it. You’ve seen those too.
The scene in which a girl while shopping tries on different clothes accompanied by a catchy song. Usually while doing so she does some dance moves, crazy faces etc to make the scene “even catchier”.
Some films in which this is seen is Aquamarine, What Women Want, What A Girl Wants and Princess Protection Program.
This scene from What Women Want is a type example of what I’m talking about!
Tonight I’ve watched Ghost, two drama movies, “Det okända” (the unknown) and now Rescue Mediums. Watching one movie and two TV-shows involving ghosts at night isn’t a good idea since I’m a bit scared of the dark. Anything involving ghosts should be watched in daylight.
I’m a skeptic and have a hard time believing in things which can’t be explained. I do however think that out of all the supernatural things people claim are real ghosts are what is most likely to actually exist. Even if I don’t believe in god and am absolutely terrified of dying I think that perhaps, maybe there are ghosts. It’s a big maybe though.
The very thought of such things freaks me out though. I’ve seen too many horror movies and you know it’s hard to defend yourself against a ghost. So after watching things on TV with ghost in them I need to sleep with the lights on. If I don’t I get this panicky feeling that maybe there’s something hiding in the darkness. Of course there never is but you never know.
Speaking of which. I recently watched the re-make of Amityville Horror and god that movie freaked me out. The original version was the first horror movie I ever watched and it scared the shit out of me. It was nice that the new version did as well. And I actually think the new version is better than the old one. Mainly because of the storyline concerning Jodie.
Another movie which also scares the shit out of me is Evil Dead. Black magic, evil spirits and extremely disturbing possessions. Who isn’t freaked out by that?! I also like the re-make of House on Haunted Hill. I know it’s not highly rated but I find it extremely scary.
Know any good movies similar to those I mentioned? If so please let me know. I’m always up for a good scare.
By the way, if you know me offline or online ask me about the password for the previous post. I won’t give it to people I don’t know.
Hello bitches. This is another blog of randomness.
What I’m up to: I’m in the middle of a Lord of the Rings marathon which I started saturday. So far I’ve watched movie 1 extended version, movie 2 extended version and movie 1 extra material. Since the extended versions are like three hours long and the extra material to each of them is at least four hours this has taken me a while and I’m not even halfway done!
Calamari: (a fancy word for squid!). Am I the only one who like this food? It barely have any taste but I love the consistence! Like rubber, most people say. Well in that case I like rubber.
Party: Friday I went to the fair fest (marknadsfesten) or whatever I should translate that to. Yeah, fair fest I guess. It’s this lame ass small town event that takes place the night before the fair. A bar, carouselles etc. Well since I live in a lame ass small town I also attend it’s lame ass fair fest. And as long as you’re drunk everything is fun you know. So yeah, I was drunk. My knees have scratches so I must have fallen some time during the night. I can’t remember it though. I also asked my sister to take my bag with extra clothes home with her. I really can’t remember why. I don’t even live with my family so it makes no sense. Oh well, neither do I when I’m drunk.
Work: I still have none and this week will be my eight week doing nothing. First my job had summer holiday, then I was sick and then I had my last day at work. So, here I am, doing nothing. It’s ok.
Life in general: In waiting I guess. Waiting for next year when I’ll start college. Waiting to find an apartment in Jönköping so I can move. Waiting for life to begin.
There are kids tv-shows which you’ll always remember. For me Disneklubben and Disneydags are two of those shows. Disneydags (disney time) was a swedish version of The Disney Afternoon which aired pretty much the same cartoons.
Just as when it comes to Disney movies I think the Disney cartoons of the early nineties are much better than the ones of today. Of course that might not be the case in actuality because however young in mind I am I still can’t apprechiate a cartoon today in the same way I did almost twenty years ago.
Anyway, you guys remember Tale spin, Duck Tales, Rescue Rangers, Adventures of the Gummi Bears and Tiny Toons? Then there was also Quack Pack and Goof Troop but by the time those shows were aired I at least pretended I was too old to care about cartoons. Even though I watched a few episodes here and there early weekend mornings.
Out of these shows Duck Tales was my absolute favourite. I mean, a robot duck and a neaderthal, can it get any more exciting?! For a eight year old, apparantly not, since I still remember the exact voice of Bubba.
You know what? I’m actually gonna try to find Duck Tales online and re-watch a couple of episodes. I’m afraid I might be disappointed but actually I think I won’t be. After all, I still love Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and the Little Mermaid.
There’s something about things you loved when you were a kid. I still prefer the old Narnia movies to the new ones. That’s really not logical since I know the new versions really are better. At least when you look at the special effects, because the effects of the old movies are really, really awful. Still, there’s something about the old movies which the new ones doesn’t capture. The fact that Aslan looks like a stuffed lion stolen from some kind of wildlife museum in the old versions doesn’t bother me much since I thought he looked very real when I was seven. That’s what I grew up with and that’s what I love. No amount of CGI can change that.
You know which movie villain(s) I think is the scariest ever? Terminators! Watching the future scenes of the robot war in Terminator 1 and 2 makes my skin crawl.
Human villains with knives and guns doesn’t scare me at all. Ghosts scare me a lot. Terminators scares me even more. I mean, what do you think would be worst being chased by? Some guy with a knife, a ghost or a nearly indestructable robot with red eyes?
Terminator 2 is in my top three of the best movies I’ve ever seen and has been so since I was thirteen. Like you know, I love everything post-apocalyptic and in Terminator 2 I love the sadness the people in the movie feel about the destructiveness of mankind.
My favourite scene is when they’re getting weapons at Sarah’s friends place and two kids run around chasing eachother with guns arguing about who shot who. John looks at them and then say “We’re not gonna make it, are we? People I mean” and the terminator answears “It’s in your nature to destroy yourself”.
That’s very true. Just look at the world. Sooner or later we will destroy ourselves and the world we’ve built around us. I’m certain of it. Somehow despite all of our achievements I feel like we’re on our last breath. Our intelligence and technology will be our downfall.
I started watching Prozac Nation but the movie made me low so I’m gonna watch something else. I’m very sensitive when it comes to things like that and sad movies really brings me down. Like really, really down. I can feel depressed for hours after watching a sad movie. Things like that just really gets to me. I’m one of those who cries watching Rose telling Jack she’ll never let go, the Terminator sink into the fire and the hobbits saying goodbye to eachother by the grey ship. Heck, even a documentary about the fall of the Berlin wall made me cry! But it was just so beautiful, people fighting for their freedom, in the end winning over dictatorship. Ahhh, my poor heart!
Aaaaanyway, gonna try to choose another movie to watch. A comedy. Oh wait, I’ve got it! The Princess Diaries 2! That movie can’t possibly make me cry! Oh wait, I’ll take that back. I might cry because it’s so bad. Ok, it’s not totally awful but I wouldn’t exactly name it as one of my top 100 movies. At least it’s ok as easy entertainment. Something to watch in the background while cleaning.
I looked through a list of all animated Disney movies and I wasn’t surprised to realize that all of my favourite Disney movies were made in the 80s and 90s, the decades during which I grew up.
My all time favourite is Beauty and the Beast (1991) followed by The Little Mermaid (1989) and Aladdin (1992). I don’t think any movies followed by The Lion King in 1994 are worth watching. Perhaps I was just too old to apprechiate those movies when they came out, or they really aren’t very good. I go for the second.
Welcome to Whirlwind, the online home of a 27 year old Swedish girl named Angelica. The site consists of 170 MB words, photos and art. Please do take a look around.
Welcome to Whirlwind, the online home of a 27 year old Swedish girl named 
