Armie Hammer, my review of the man AKA the latest Lone Ranger, read on...

Where to start with a decent review of the man that brought my 2^nd favorite childhood hero back to life? Armie impressed the hell out of me as the Winklevoss twins in The Social Network  a few years ago, & I vowed to put him on my watch list & am so glad I did. He was phenomenal as J. Edgar’s secret love interest in the movie of the same name opposite Leo DiCaprio a couple of years ago, & was precious & funny as all get out in Mirror, Mirror last year as the Prince with Julia Roberts. He was nominated for many various awards for The Social Network & J. Edgar & won a couple & I predict there will be more to come in his future, without a doubt. He has that bigger than life presence on the big screen, & I’m sure partly due to his 6’5” stature, but he’s also got a charm about him that carries through in all his roles he’s played whether they are dramatic & serious or campy & funny. & he can do major action stunts as we saw in The Lone Ranger. I adore actors that don’t let the stunt guys do all their stunts for them, so he has gained my admiration for that alone.  He has that star quality that will most assuredly work for him in garnering bigger & better roles in his future. Next up for him is The Man from U.N.C.L.E., the next Guy Ritchie movie that is based on the popular 60’s TV series opposite Henry Cavill & then on to 2:22, a mystery suspense thriller about an air traffic controller that experiences some strange events. It was supposed to start filming 2 years ago, so it’s possible it may never get off the ground, I’ll be watching for news of it, as it sounds like it’s right up my alley. He also owns Bird Bakery in San Antonio, TX with his wife, model & TV personality, Elizabeth Chambers, & the website looks so scrumptious, I would give anything to live in San Antonio right now! Bird Bakery 

Check out some of his previous works if you haven’t seen them, you may very well be pleasantly surprised.  

Partial list of his Filmography in pics & videos below:

The Social Network

Trailer

Clip of Armie as the Winklevoss twins

J. Edgar

Trailer

Clip of Armie & Leo

Mirror Mirror

Trailer

Clip of Armie & Lily Collins

The Lone Ranger

My favorite scene, “Hiyo, Silver, Away!”

Trailer #3

Trailer #4

Ben Whishaw AKA Q these days, my review

I became a huge fan of Ben's after I saw his brilliant portrayal of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille in Perfume several years ago. I had previously seen him with Daniel Craig in Layer Cake before & also in the British indie, Brideshead Revisited, but I was more in tune to the star, Matthew Goode at that point, however after Perfume opened my eyes up to his super talents, I was sold. Then when I saw him portray the famous poet, John Keats in Jane Campion's Bright Star opposite Abbie Cornish, I fell in love with the most soulful British actor I had seen in many years. I was enthralled, & have been following his rising star since. He was profound in Cloud Atlas, & then played the really cool genius, Q, in Skyfall & will be reprising his role for the next Bond movie which I was extremely happy to hear. He got critical acclaim for his role as Richard II in the BBC's The Hollow Crown which will premiere on BBCA this fall, as well as for his short lived role as Freddie Lyons in the BBC's The Hour. He will be seen next in The Zero Theorem, (by Terry Gilliam), & the drama, Lilting & will start filming soon for Ron Howard's "In the Heart of the Sea". If you haven't seen any of his films besides Skyfall, check them out, he's got that special something & will undoubtedly be much better known by this time next year.

Below are some of his works in pics & videos: 

Perfume

Brideshead Revisited

Bright Star

The Tempest

BBC's The Hour

BBC's The Hollow Crown

Cloud Atlas

Skyfall

One last honorable mention is his work as Keith Richards in the 2005 flick about Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones 

Stoned

In memoriam, Bart Brown, my best friend - Sept 16, 1964 - August 9, 2004

For Bart, with Love

  
This is sort of a re-post from 3 years ago. My best guy friend ever, Bart Brown, passed away 9 years ago tonight & even though I am not commemorating his death day, I am remembering him with love & I still miss him terribly.  I thought I would post a few pics of him here & just remember the great times we had together.

He used to play his guitar for me all the time, & one of my favorites was Alone Again by Dokken & it seems so appropriate, it always makes me cry.

I will always love you, Bart, may you rest in peace.

ALL OF ME Henry Cavill 0003

Hah, I found this recently & even though I'm not a fan of making Henry Cavill into Christian Grey for the 50 Shades of Grey movie franchise, this was cleverly edited somewhat with some scenes of Jared Leto from one of his music videos. I liked the video, who wouldn't? But I'm hoping the rabid fans don't get their way about Cavill, he's Superman, goddamn it! He's too damn busy making the excellent Man of Steel sequel & first, the new Guy Ritchie movie, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. next month in September. Let him be the hero for now. Yeah, he's sexy as all get out, & any woman in their right mind would fantasize about him that way, but he's too gifted to get stuck as just eye candy in a soft porn movie franchise. Just my opinion. 

Man of Steel Review

I LOVED this movie, & is my favorite Superman movie now, & my favorite movie of 2013. Henry Cavill became Superman in my eyes & I'm an old Christopher Reeve fan from way back when it was originally released. I believe he would absolutely give his blessing to Cavill's performance as well as the movie. It is very different from his movies, as it is much darker, is similarly done like Chris Nolan's Dark Knight series, it could have been titled, "Superman Begins" actually. Michael Shannon put in a stellar performance as General Zod, & I highly anticipate award noms for him. Not that Henry doesn't deserve any, but knowing how the Academy is regarding superheroes, I doubt that will happen. Amy Adams was excellent as Lois Lane, & I have to admit I couldn't see her as Lois when I first heard she was cast. She portrays her in such a strong, yet vulnerable way, & was perfect. Russell Crowe was superb as Jor-El & the 1st 20 minutes of the movie was on Krypton, so he had a much larger presence than I originally thought he would. I was very pleased that he was cast as well. The best surprise of the movie, was the fantastic Antje Traue who plays Zod's 2nd in command, Faora-Ul. She was very impressive on screen, & I'm looking forward to her next movie now. I really liked Laurence Fishburne as Perry White & hope to see him in the sequel. Kevin Costner put in a strong believable performance as Clark's adopted father, Jonathan Kent, & Diane Lane did very well as Clark's mother, Martha. & last but not least, I thought Dylan Sprayberry did a great job as the 13 year old Clark in several scenes. 

I have to add that Superman has been my #1 hero my whole life. I started watching the old George Reeves reruns in the late 50's, early 60's when I was a little girl, & read all the comic books I could get my hands on. Then you could've knocked me over with a feather when Chris Reeve's 1st movie came out in '78, I thought I had died & gone to heaven! I loved Superman 2, as well, & even liked the 3rd one. When Superman Returns was released in 2006, I fell in love with that movie, & truly felt like Brandon Routh portrayed the man of steel very, very well, & did justice to the role. However, this movie put me through the roof, & was an emotional roller coaster for me, it was not comical like the Chris Reeve movies, but it has just enough comic relief, in my opinion, & I actually prefer the darkness, seriousness, logic, & scientific way that Zack Snyder & David Goyer made this reboot. Plus the action sequences and special effects are so phenomenal, it was incredible to watch. & finally I have to give major kudos to Henry for his brilliant performance, he made me believe a man can really fly! 

The genius that is Hans Zimmer composed the profoundly awesome score that drives home the emotions throughout the film and is in perfect sync with the scenes, but can also work as a standalone score to listen to. You can check out the clips from it here - Man of Steel Score

If you didn't see this fantastic movie on the big screen, & still have a chance to see it that way, DO IT! It just won't be the same on a TV, unless of course you have a 150" screen.

I'm so thankful it made enough money that there will be a franchise. I'm already frothing at the mouth waiting for tidbits of info on the sequel!

Check out the trailers below:

Check out the official website here - Man of Steel It's a really cool site with beautiful wallpapers, gallery, games, & videos. & the coolest thing of all, a Glyph Generator where you can answer a few questions about yourself & get your own Glyph made with your name & add your picture to post online there. Mine is Vanessa-Ko or Vanessa of the house of Ko. Pretty cool!