Sparks Novel “Sparks” Attention

By Ali Coad

Dear John is the newest novel turned movie to come from popular novelist Nicholas Sparks. He is perhaps best known for his novel The Notebook, which was adapted into a major motion picture starring Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling. In this novel, Sparks continues to leave readers impassioned and invested in the simultaneously heart-breaking and heart-mending story of John Tyree and Savannah Curtis. Sparks captures the reader’s attention with a subtly simplistic writing style. He always seems to leave the reader hungry for more. Needless to say, I devoured this book.

When I heard that this book was going to be adapted into a movie, I was very excited. Then I heard that Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried were starring and the already highly anticipated movie was instantly fast-tracked to a “must see.”  I only hope that this film doesn’t disappoint and remains true to the story that Sparks wrote.

The tale beings with Savannah, an innocent and naïve young woman, falling irrevocably in love with John, an angry and isolated soldier. They meet on a hot summer day while John is on leave and Savannah is building houses for the homeless in Wilmington, NC. John said it was love at first sight, and upon their first meeting, when they first made eye contact, “[He] felt something click, like a key turning in a lock.” Savannah, as we discover later in the book, felt the exact same way. But John and Savannah are still a very long way from happily ever after.

John is soon forced to return to Germany, where he has been stationed for the war, and Savannah and John are equally heartbroken. They remain faithful in their relationship and continue to talk through weekly letters and sporadic phone calls. Days pass at impossibly slow rates, only making their time apart more unbearable. Finally, the time has come for John to return home. Then September 11 happens. He is forced to choose between the love of his life and the duty to his country.

As expected, Sparks leaves the reader reaching for tissues. The emotional journey ends favorably but not expectedly, and not before he takes the reader on a series of twists and turns. Hopefully, the film adaptation of Dear John, directed by Oscar nominated filmmaker, Lasse Hallstrom, does the novel justice. The book was quite the page-turner, and I’m expecting the movie to be just as good. The theatrical debut is set for February 5, 2010, just in time for Valentine’s Day!

Emma Watson: After Hogwarts

by Maggie Ortlieb

From Hogwarts to Brown, transferring schools isn’t the only thing Emma Watson is doing these days. In 2001 she started off her career as Hermoine, in the ever so popular Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Since then, she has starred in the next five movies in the Harry Potter series, acted in the television film Ballet Shoes, and played the voice of Princess Pea in Kate DiCamillo’s Tale of Despereaux, which was released in 2008. Now, you can see her in print ads for the high end fashion line, Burberry.

Emma Watson went from being the typical young teen wearing t-shirts and jeans, to a fashion icon. She has been on the cover of Teen Vogue multiple times and is part of the Burberry campaign, which means modeling at London Fashion week! No matter where she is or what she is doing, her outfits are stunning. On the Late Show with David Letterman Emma sported a creme-gold dress outlined in black with a unique necklace-type collar. At the National Movie Awards in London, she was dressed in a white gown with sequins covering the chest.

Her attire is always original and never too revealing. Emma Watson is never spotted wearing the same dress to an awards show as another celebrity. And she doesn’t wear trashy dresses, as do other celebrities close in age — plunging too deep at the chest and cut to short above the knees.

Emma Watson is a great fashion role model for teen girls. Many of her outfits are custom made, but her style can be created at recessionista price by highlighting certain elements of her style.

So what’s next for Emma Watson? According to a Teen Vogue interview, she is uncertain if she wants to continue her career as an actress. She fell in love and had a strong connection with the character Hermoine, but if she doesn’t feel that way about another character maybe she’ll become a doctor or an english teacher. Wouldn’t it be awesome to have Emma Watson teach your writing class?

Anti-“Chick Flick” Coming to a Theater Near You

By May Chan

“Chick flicks” have come a long way from being “a motion picture intended to appeal esp. to women,” so Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary states. The term does not identify an audience with a specific type of interests or a type of genre for a movie. In other words, anyone could easily define a “chick flick” as a sappy tearjerker that only girls would enjoy. What’s the point of using this word? It just makes the concept more formal that women should watch certain types of films and everyone else should watch other types of films.

Around Valentine’s Day this past year, studios bombarded moviegoers with He’s Just Not That Into You, which opened in theaters at number one. Following that, Confessions of a Shopaholic stepped up with its money-doesn’t-really-matter fashion speak. This is nothing new so far to attract women to sit in a dark room and escape or drag their loved ones (oh, so loved) to sit in a dark room and escape.

The romantic comedy genre, on the other hand, is a different story: more men seemingly go to theaters to watch it or they download it without as much hesitance as downloading the ultimate “chick flick,” The Notebook. But this isn’t the 50 First Dates type of films they’re flocking to go see.

Turn up the notch in sex and throw in a little bromance and what do you get? The start of the rated-R (“R” for raunchy) anti-“chick flick.” No guy can resist the lead actor they can actually identify with, especially someone without a six-pack.

“I’d rather watch something with action that’s probably more interesting,” Pablo Sanchez, a senior at Mt. San Antonio College said. When asked what movies he has seen in the romance/romantic comedy category, Sanchez can recall willingly watching Sweet November, Blue Crush, and Wedding Crushers.

In the latter film, the characters of Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson take advantage of female guests. One memorable scene includes a montage of bedding women, cranked up with a soundtrack song to boot.

In Knocked Up, Ben Stone (Seth Rogen) impregnates Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl), while they are inebriated. Heigl even calls the film, “a little bit sexist,” according to Vanity Fair’s Leslie Bennetts. She goes on to say that the movie “paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys.”

The actress later clarifies to People magazine that she wanted to remind women “it’s a broad comedy.” What does that mean? Maybe Heigl doesn’t want to bite the hand that feeds her. After all, it is Hollywood.

But wait, isn’t she also starring in The Ugly Truth? When Heigl switches roles and her character has the upper hand, it’s fine and dandy, but next time, should she try to look at it through the other gender’s perspective?

Breaking the lewd romantic comedy cycle, (500) Days of Summer premiered recently, attempting to go outside its genre. A guy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) falls for a girl (Zooey Deschanel) only to have his heart broken.

As the male lead actor, Gordon-Levitt told the Chicago Tribune, “As much as the movie does find humor in it [being heartbroken], I don’t think the laughs have to be shallow.” This type of romantic comedy might pull a few heart strings from male adults, but will some film sans Megan Fox ever garner teenage boys without them cringing? It’s safe to say no.

Audiences do not see reviews promoting movies saying, “It’s the best chick flick of the year!” The media has deemed saccharine films as “chick flicks,” and when it gives a movie that category, most of the male gender, especially teenagers, would turn away from it. From the trailer of a movie, a teenager can easily point out whether or not the movie belongs in the list of the “Top 50 Chick Flicks of the Year.”
Just because an anti-“chick flick” movement continues to progress, that has not stopped directors or anyone else promoting their films to make the final product painstakingly appeal to men.

Remember the trailer to Twilight? All of the action sequences make it in the trailer, and the corny romance gets downplayed. And for those few guys, who have never heard of it before the so-called “phenomenon,” the lovely surprise comes the moment the female protagonist begins narrating the film. If Knocked Up was funny to you, the vampire romance is a laughing riot…unintentionally, of course.

Alex Fonseca, a 33-year-old Whittier resident, said, “I watched Memoirs of a Geisha. Does that count?” Fonseca’s uncertainty speaks volume. He says that he has probably seen many movies in the romance category, but it’s not as easy to remember as a blockbuster.
So, what can anyone do? The expression, “chick flick” has been so integrated with today’s lingo that not even young women care if it means anything.

The male audience should check out movies that realistically depict women with life experiences, instead of only movies about women who save the day in leather outfits. If teenage males did not think “chick flicks” were taboo, they would watch it regardless of the movie’s title. There’s no shame in crying while watching A Walk to Remember. Just don’t call the movie “A Chick Flick to Remember.”