Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Nonsensical

Plot:
In 19th century England, Colonel Darcy (Sam Riley) travels to the home of a wealthy family to investigate rumors of a newly infected zombie. He arrives at the home and sits with the family before taking out a small vial containing carrion flies as a means to detect the undead. When the flies land on the house's patriarch, Darcy kills him. Assured that no one else could have been infected, he leaves. One of the young girls in the house retreats upstairs to check on the niece of the recently dispatched zombie. She discovers the niece devouring a servant; the niece then proceeds to attack her.

The Bennet sisters - Elizabeth (Lily James), Jane (Bella Heathcote), Kitty (Suki Waterhouse), Lydia (Ellie Bamber), and Mary (Millie Brady) - have all been sent to China by their father (Charles Dance) to learn in the art of weaponry and martial arts. Mrs. Bennet (Sally Phillips) wants her daughters to be married off to wealthy suitors. As it turns out, the Bingley family has moved in nearby and are throwing a ball, wherein Mrs. Bennet hopes that the young and handsome Mr. Bingley (Douglas Booth) will win over one of her girls. Elizabeth, on the other hand, doesn't want to seek a husband.

The Bennets attend the ball. Bingley instantly sets his eyes on Jane. When Elizabeth overhears a disparaging comment about herself from Mr. Darcy, she walks outside tearfully and encounters Mrs. Featherstone (Dolly Wells), now a zombie. Before Mrs. Featherstone can converse with Elizabeth, she is killed by Darcy. A horde of zombies then attack the party, prompting the Bennet sisters to fight them off. Mr. Darcy instantly becomes smitten with Elizabeth when he witnesses her in combat.

The Bingley sisters invite Jane over for tea at Netherfield. Mrs. Bennet forces her to go on horseback, thinking she will be invited to stay overnight due the oncoming rainstorm. While on the ride, Jane encounters a zombie and fires her gun. The gun backfires leaving a bite-like wound on her hand. She kills it but then spots a zombie woman with her child. Jane hesitates and is attacked by the zombie. At Netherfield, Mr. Darcy orders her confined to her room, in fear that she may have been bitten. While in Jane's room, Mr. Darcy releases his flies to detect a zombie, but Elizabeth catches each fly with her hand and returns them to Mr. Darcy.

The Bennets are visited by Parson Collins (Matt Smith), who intends to marry one of the sisters. He initially sets his eyes on Jane, though he is told that she is with Mr. Bingley. He then tries to seduce Elizabeth, and proposes to her, but states that she must give up her life as a warrior, something that she adamantly refuses to do. Mr. Collins later decides to settle with Elizabeth's friend Charlotte (Aisling Loftus).

After Jane recovers, the sisters attend another ball thrown by the Bingleys. There, Elizabeth meets a soldier named Wickham (Jack Huston), who seems to be charming and polite. He tells Elizabeth that he has history with Mr. Darcy and does not wish to further challenge him. Another group of zombies attack the party, resulting in Bingley injuring himself, and Mr. Darcy joining Elizabeth in fighting the horde.

Elizabeth travels with Mr. Wickham to the In-Between, an area outside of walled-in London but inside a royal moat, to a church filled with zombies, who feed on pig brains to keep themselves from going completely savage. Mr. Wickham wants Elizabeth to join him in helping the zombies. He also suggests that she run away with him, but she remains conflicted. Elizabeth and Mr. Wickham then meet with Mr. Darcy's aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh (Lena Headey), a notorious zombie killer with major authority and wealth, to try and persuade her to come to peace with the more "civilized" zombies. Mr. Darcy and Lady Catherine blatantly refuse. When she arrives home, Elizabeth is told that Mr. Darcy has convinced the Bingleys to move away. When Mr. Darcy approaches Elizabeth with a proposal of his own, she expresses her outrage at his actions and fights him in a duel. Mr. Darcy pins her to the ground, but offended by her accusations and hatred towards him, he lets her go and leaves.

Mr. Darcy writes Elizabeth a letter to apologize for his actions and to state that he separated Jane and Mr. Bingley for fear that Jane only wanted to marry Mr. Bingley for his wealth, having overheard Mrs. Bennet drunkenly mention it. Mr. Darcy also mentions that Mr. Wickham had tried to elope with Darcy's fifteen-year-old sister for her fortune. Mr. Darcy's letter states that he is battling zombies in London, and that they have overrun the walled city. Elizabeth is then cornered by Lady Catherine and her bodyguard Wilhelm (Ryan Oliva). Lady Catherine states Mr. Darcy has been intended to marry her sickly daughter, Anne, from their youth and confronts Elizabeth about rumors over Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. When Elizabeth denies it, Lady Catherine instigates a fight between Elizabeth and Wilhelm in place of Lady Catherine who Elizabeth has refused to fight. Elizabeth overpowers Wilhelm. Afterwards, Lady Catherine decides to protect Elizabeth's family from approaching zombies and takes them to her estate. Elizabeth later finds out that Mr. Wickham ran off with her younger sister, Lydia and decides to go rescue her.

Elizabeth joins Mr. Darcy in London and helps him battle the undead. Mr. Darcy encounters Mr. Wickham at the old church and rescues Lydia in the basement. While fighting Mr. Wickham, Mr. Darcy impales him and reveals a bite mark on his chest, revealing Mr. Wickham has been undead all along. When a horde of zombies, who had been living normally until the pig brains they had been eating were switched with human brains by Mr. Darcy storm the cellar, Mr. Darcy escapes with Lydia.

While heading for the last bridge from London, Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham fight once more with Wickham gaining the upper hand. Before Mr. Wickham can kill Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth rides in and chops Wickam's arm off and knocks him unconscious. Mr. Darcy rides with Elizabeth across the bridge as the army destroys the last remaining bridge to keep the zombies trapped within the In-Between on the inside of the moat. Mr. Darcy is injured in the explosion and is rendered unconscious. Elizabeth tearfully admits her love for him. After Mr. Darcy recovers, he finds Elizabeth and they share their first kiss, agreeing to marry. The two have a joint wedding with Mr. Bingley and Jane, officiated by Mr. Collins.

In a mid-credits scene, the now one-armed Mr. Wickham is leading the zombies toward them, ready for war.

Review:
the film really ruins the romance of Pride and Prejudice for me. i mean, i understand that it was just a parody but really, to introduce zombies into the equation really is a nonsense.


the chemistry between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy is clearly non-existent, except when they are fighting each other at Collins' house as to when Mr Darcy confesses his feelings for her only to be rejected. that moment was almost electric, I'd say.

i have many issues with the plot. the weak plot is the only explanation as  to why great actors like LH and CD, the GoT alumni failing to shine in their characterizations. comparing the movie with the 2005 version, the difference is like heaven and earth!

i mean, Elizabeth is supposed to be a strong fearless warrior but many times she fumbled when the need arose for her to slay the zombies. she appeared at times, confused and befuddled that it irked me.

as for Mr Darcy, he is so sullen, too much so that he drove away any idea of attraction that should be. as i said, the moment of passion is only he sparred with Elizabeth. that only is the bright spot for me. the rest, it kinda ruined the Pride and Prejudice for me. sorry. LJ, this is a flop after that Cinderella movie. and it fortuitously featured GoT alumni also as the hapless Prince Charming.. better luck next time, dear.

The Longest Ride (2015): cuci mata fest :)

The Trailer:


The Movie:


The Plot:
Luke Collins (Scott Eastwood) is a bull rider on the Professional Bull Riders tour, who is seriously injured one night while competing. A year later after recovering, he starts riding again and meets Sophia Danko (Britt Robertson) after she attends the show at the urge of her friend (Melissa Benoist). She is an art lover living at a sorority house with an internship secured in New York City. On the way home from their first date, they spot a car crash in the woods and help rescue an older man who is stuck inside. Sophia also pulls a wooden box from the vehicle.

While in the hospital, Sophia continuously visits the man she and Luke rescued, Ira Levinson (Alan Alda). He explains that there are letters in the box, which he wrote as a teenager, and she offers to read them to him. They tell the story of how he met his late wife, Ruth (Oona Chaplin), in 1940. Their stories start to interweave. Luke finds an old photograph of Ira and Ruth that fell out of the box in his car and takes it to him at the hospital. In flashbacks, Ruth tells a young Ira (Jack Huston) that she wants a big family and, eventually, he proposes to her before leaving to fight in World War II. However, Ira is shot during an attack and is later informed by the doctor that he can no longer have children, news that causes distance between him and Ruth when he returns because he knows how much she wants to be a mother. They decide to make it work regardless and move in together, decorating the house with many paintings that Ruth loves.

Luke continues riding bulls, no matter the risk of being hurt again, while he and Sophia fall in love. Ira is now out of hospital and has been moved to a nursing home, where Sophia continues to visit. She gets a call from her boss in New York asking her to attend an art exhibit in Charlotte the following week, which she invites Luke to. While they're there, Luke makes a rude comment to Sophia's boss, which causes an argument between them. They talk about how their worlds are so different and Luke doesn't feel the relationship will work because of it. Back home, Sophia goes to Ira for advice. He then tells the story of how they made their situation work. Ruth was a school teacher who became very attached to a young boy in her class. Because he comes from a broken family, her and Ira begin taking him in as their own and, eventually, Ruth decides she wanted to adopt him but his guardians wouldn't allow it.

Meanwhile, Luke injures himself again, causing him to be rushed to the hospital. As Sophia is leaving for New York, she gets a call and goes to see him. Luke is told he can never ride again but refuses to accept that his career is over. Following an argument, Luke and Sophia break up. In flashbacks, Ira and Ruth also break up because she can't see a life with him without children in their future. However, weeks later, Ruth returns and they confess their love for one another. One morning, now eighty-years-old, Ira wakes up to find Ruth has died in her sleep. He boxes up all of the paintings they collected together to sell them at an auction. One night, a woman knocks on his door claiming to be the wife of Daniel McDonald, the child they almost adopted when they were younger, to inform him that he has died. She gives him a portrait of Ruth that Daniel had painted and the photograph Daniel had kept of Ira and Ruth (the one Luke found in his car the day of the crash) with a message on the back that reads: "Ruth Levinson, third grade teacher. She told me I could be anything I wanted to be when I grew up". Daniel became a professor, taking after Ruth.

Sophia continues her studies at Wake Forest and Luke continues to ride bulls. One day, they both receive a phone call from Ira's attorney, to inform them that Ira has died and that there will be an auction held for the paintings. Luke wins his last ride, but feels disappointed because Sophia isn't there with him. He then decides to go to the auction, where he buys the first painting, Daniel's portrait of Ruth. Sophia and Luke talk, and he tells her he won't ride anymore because what he really wants is to be with her. While they kiss , an uproar breaks out in the auction room. Luke is informed that he is now the owner of all of Ira's paintings since Ira left a message in his will stating that whoever bought the portrait would get them all since it was the most important one to him, making Luke very wealthy in the process.

A year later Luke and Sophia, now married, have built a museum dedicated to Ira and Ruth and the ranch is saved. Luke takes Sophia to the old college where Ira and Ruth used to spend their anniversary.

Review:
I admit, I watched this movie because I'm such a fan of SE, hahahah.. sue me if you want :)

at first, the movie was rather slow to my taste but it picked up in the middle, when the flashbacks start coming in.. maybe because the pairing of BR and SE lacks the chemistry. I would have casted another actress other than BR because her portrayal of Sophia is rather tepid, lacking the warmth that Ruth has on the other hand. even Melissa Benoist shows more warmth than her and she's just a supporting character.

the movie captured the bull riding profession quite nicely, i mean, i could understand the risk involved in it and the rush that made Luke unable to quit. it's dangerous yet it draws you in.. i don't know how they film it but damn, it have been difficult.. in reality, it must have been more challenging, right? hat's off to all the cowboys in the ring, y'all!

the ending is just convenient, don't you think.. Sophia had played such a great part in the remaining time of Ira's life. if it's left to me, i would just hand the paintings over to her instead of auctioning it off to strangers and leaving nothing to her.. but then, as I said, the ending is convenient, leaving the money instead to Luke who somewhat impulsively bought Ruth's portrait. and doesn't it bothers you that the first letter Sophia read is the first that Ira had written to Ruth? and every letter that they read as they pick randomly from the box is consequent too? how convenient..

this film is just so-so.. but SE's good look makes up a lot on my rating, muahahaha

oh manisnya, manisnya senyumanmu :D

Ira and Ruth are convincing as a couple, loving and connected