January 2014 POPSUGAR Must Have Box Review with Spoilers

 Popsugar Must Have subscription box got the boxes shipped a little late this month, but mine shipped out last Monday, and I got it this morning.  Super fast.  Honestly, I love this box!!!!  Makes up for December :0)

POPSUGAR is a monthly subscription lifestyle box for gals.  The cost is $39.95 a month, free shipping, but it's cheaper when you subscribe with a 3, 6, or 12 months subscription.

On any month you can receive goodies for home, a book, fitness, snack, makeup, pampering, fashion, etc.  You never know what you're going to get, only that it will be fun and worth around $100, give or take a little.

You can subscribe here.

 White Truffle Pipcorn, valued at $6.  I've heard so much about truffles, but haven't tried anything with truffles, dispute my love of mushrooms.  They're so expensive.  This popcorn (pipcorn) is really nice, tasty, and light.

 

The Juice Generation: 100 Recipes for Fresh Juices and Superfood Smoothies, by Eric Helms, Retails at $20.  I'm not into the Juicing trend as a whole, being a lover of meat and chewing food, but I am fond of juices and smoothies, and this book is nicely put together.  Bright colorful pictures, and an explanation of all the superfoods and why they're so good to eat.  Also, there's tips and advice for making your own concoctions.  

Super cool.

 Revlon by Marchesa Box O' Files, valued at $3.49.  I need to get into the habit of filing my nails when I cut them, and these are such a cute set

 

 2014 Flip Around the World Desk Calendar, by Rifle Paper Co., valued at $16.00.  This calender is so cute!!  Below is a picture of the calender opened to April, which is the Paris map.  Each page is a map of some famous cities around the world, done in a fun style.  After I'm done using this calender at the start of next year, I'm going to frame my favorite pictures for the wall.

 See how cute the calender is?

 (Malin+Goetz) Detox face mask, valued at $40, Full Size!  I'm so excited to try this!  This product has such good reviews, and everyone on the forum I visit says this detox face mask feels so good.  A perfect pamper item.  And the size is actually quite large.  From the website:

"Winner of Allure Magazine's Editor's Choice Best of Beauty Awards (2008) Best Deep Cleansing Mask. An easy 5-minute foaming gel mask: Innovative, oxygenating cleansing agents replace harsh detergents and drying clays to deep-pore-cleanse, lifting dirt, oil and make-up away from the skin without irritation, while creating a physical barrier to seal hydration. Complex amino acids and natural almond extract gently and effectively purify, clarify, balance and soothe. Stable Vitamin C, antioxidants Vitamin E and Soy Protein help firm and address concerns for aging while instantly brightening complexion. Natural fragrance and color."

Pure Luxury, which is one of the reasons I subscribed to Popsugar in the first place, so I can experience and discover amazing items I didn't know about.

Jack + Lucy Tech Gloves.  No one can find the link to these gloves, and I had no luck getting the information, but I love these!  I've never owned a pair of tech gloves, never really knew what they were, but these are nice and comfortable.  What's even more awesome is that these gloves fit perfectly!!!  I've got such short fingers, and it's hard finding gloves that aren't too long.  It's delightful that I finally own a pair that fits!

Overall a fantastic box.

Snow White and the Huntsman: Movie Review

"Oh, how I wish that I had a daughter that had skin white as snow, 

lips red as blood, and hair black as ebony"

Rating: 3 stars out of 5

I just finished reading my Grimm's copy of "Little Snow White."  In this version Snow White is seven when she comes of age and is sent into the woods to beg for her life, only to be tricked three times by her wicked step-mother and die by poison apple.  She awakes not by true loves kiss, but by the jostling of her glass coffin causing the apple to dislodge.  The Prince bought the coffin from one of the guarding dwarfs (no idea how old he was) after falling in love with her beauty.  

All throughout Europe there are different variations to the Snow White tale.  In some her heart is wanted by the queen, in other versions it's her lungs.  The dwarfs are even, in one incarnation, robbers.  And as we've seen this year, Snow White has been retold three times, in three entirely different ways, and I'm sure we haven't heard the last of Snow White.  She's been around since the 1800's after all.

 

So what makes this retailing different?  Snow White and the Huntsman, according to the title, highlights the connection between these two characters, but by the end of the movie you can't help but feel this wasn't achieved.  Charlize Theron as the evil Queen is clearly the star of the movie, and it seems a movie title "Fairest of them All" would have been more accurate.  

Charlize steals the movie with her screen presence and beauty.  She commands attention and gets it, though I feel at times her need for control comes off temper-tantrum like, garnered through years of getting her way

In the movie, after Snow Whites true mother dies, the King is a total wreck, and like the great father figure he should be, he runs off to battle, leaving his daughter to be raised by others.  Because his pain obviously is greater then Snow White's.  They're fighting a dark army when a carriage pulls up.  A prisoner has been captored!  One prisoner!  It's a beautiful women!  Marry her tomorrow!  And he does, which leads to his immediate demise after she kills him.  

I have to stop and wonder how great a King he really was.  Everyone says he's great, and yet he selfishly and foolishly leads his Kingdom to darkness and ruin.  But he's great!! We need to honor him!  And of course Snow White, at the tender age of seven or eight, is thrown into a tower, because the queen doesn't want to kill her.  Let her live and grow old in a tower . . . just because.

Enough of that, back to the review.  Snow White comes of age and is fairer then the Queen, not necessarily thanks to her looks, but her heart.  Snow White has a pure heart, and that gives her magic powers.

 Snow White flees to the forest, a Huntsman is sent to follow, only for them to become love interest!  Well, the movie is called Snow White and the Huntsman after all. We expect it.  Only Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth don't have believable chemistry.  And the plot misses opportunities to bring them together more often then not.  Then you've got the Duke's son trying to find Snow White, running with the bad guys as an archer.  Honestly I like Sam Claflin's William, the Dukes son, and by the end of the movie I felt real bad for him.

The tragedy of this movie is that there was a lot of promise.  I loved the darker tone, but it was a little too much at times.  Too many battles.  And the movie felt long.  A mark of a great movie is that you don't feel the time pass, but I did with this movie, and it was painful at times.  

The movie clearly wants the Huntsman and Snow White together.  He teaches her a fighting technique that helps her defeat the Queen.  He kills the Queens brother which weakens her.  At the end it's the Huntsman's kiss, not the Duke's son, that awakens her, only she never learns this.  Snow White just wakes up and gives a rousing speech which leads everyone to battle.  The last shot of the movie is Snow White being queened and the Huntsman looking on from the back of the hall.  It feels empty, hallow even.  

I like the idea of the Huntsman getting together with the princess.  Like I said before, there's so many versions of this tale that this would be an interesting twist, and in the story I read Snow White doesn't even get kissed.  (And if you think I read a version that appeals to children, you should read Rapunzel.  That girls got problems!!)    

What the movie gets right is the incredible CGI.  The visual affects are amazing, and I loved the fairy forest.  The dwarfs were fun.  And I heard other people say Chris Hemsworth's Huntsman felt like Thor was cosplaying.  I didn't feel that way at all.  I liked his portrayal.  I didn't care so much for Kristen Stewart's Snow White.  Gennifer Goodwin, from Once Upon a Time, wins the Snow White wars.  She is hands down my favorite.  

I can't really say I recommend anyone see this movie, though I must admit I have seen it twice.  I'm sure the producers and studio was hoping this movie had the same success as 2010's Alice and Wonderland, which grossed over a billion worldwide.  Snow White and the Huntsman, since June 1st, has only grossed $151,630,800 domestic and $370,430,800 worldwide.   Not bad, but not great. 

One last comment.  Florence + the Machine's end credit song "Breath of Life" is epic.  I've been listening to it on loop.

                     

 Have a great day!

Sarah

Spider-man: Movie Review

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

A few years ago, after the debacle that was Spider-Man 3, there was promise of a Spider-Man 4, with a possible 5 and 6 to go along with it.  The first movie was great, and the second movie was brilliant, so maybe those behind the 3rd installment learned their lesson and the 4th would lead the franchise back on track.  Well, needless to say, everything fell apart, and two years ago Marvel announced they were going to reboot the whole thing.  The next Spider-Man movie was going to retell the origin story with a whole new cast of fresh faces and go under the title The Amazing Spider Man. 

But do we need another one!!??  That was my reaction.  Spider-Man, the first, came out in 2002 to great success, only a decade ago.  Why the reboot?

For the longest time I was hesitant, skeptical, but the last trailer that was shone proved intriguing, and last week I saw the movie and loved it.

I didn't keep up with the cartoon series of the 90's, nor have I read the comics, but my brothers are in the know when it comes to all things geek, and they gave me the heads up about the Spider-Man film trilogy that broke with cannon.  MJ was a love interest later in Peter Parker's life, he's supposed to make his own web, there's a humor about the fight scenes that were missing, etc, so even though the trilogy was well received, true fans wished the movies stayed truer to the comics.  A reboot was the fans hope that the movies would get back to canon, and they did.

What I liked:

Though I'm not a die-hard fan, I do like the fact that The Amazing Spider Man got back to the heart of the comics.  Gwen Stacy was Peter's first love, and they did justice to her character.  I loved Emma Stone's portrayal; she and Andrew Garfield (who plays Peter Parker) have fantastic chemistry (they're also dating in real life, which proves how great they get along together).  I never cared for Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst as love interest.   

And, like the comic, Peter makes his own web device.  He also comes across as the geeky nerd he's supposed to be.  I think Tobey Maguire is a fantastic actor, but Andrew is the Peter Parker I imagined.  Overall I'm delighted with Andrews performance.  There was a lot of debate over who was going to be the better Peter, but I give the win to Andrew.

I liked Rhys Ifans as Doctor Connors.  He's a brilliant actor, and I've enjoyed some of his other work.  

Overall this was a fun movie flick.  Not perfect, but enjoyable.  All the characters felt real and relatable.  They were real people in extraordinary circumstances.

What I didn't care for:

I don't know how it was done in the comics, but I didn't like how Peter Parker ordered the web he uses from OsCorps.  Maybe its just me, but wouldn't someone figure out who is ordering all the web?  And what happens if it is no longer produced?  It's probably just a personal gripe, or a potentential plot point, I don't know.

Also, at the end when Gwen gets the antidote (to cure Doctor Connors and the police men who were turned into lizards) who gives it to her father, who then gives it to Peter, and a great antidote gas cloud heals the city, why wasn't Peter's mutation cured?  And that leads me to the mutation, animal DNA situation.  Peter gets bit by a spider and attomatically transforms.  Dr. Connors struggles, with Peter, to create a lizard formula that won't kill whatever is getting the new DNA.  How is it Dr. Connors overlooked the spiders?  And how were the spiders able to cause the mutation in the first place?  I do have to admit, the scene where Peter is in the secret room surrounded by all the spiders was really well done.

Also, one thing I think the original trilogy better accomplished was creating tension and tragedy surrounding the death Peter's Uncle, and how that ultimately shaped Peter into the hero he is.  In the new movie it was amusing watching Peter catch all these criminals, but there was something slightly hallow in it.  Though there was a great build up of Peter's character, always feeling abandoned by his parents. That struggle was believable and nicely done.

Even with those gripes, I did like the movie, and will easily see it again.  Is it up to the slandered set forth by The Avengers?  No, but it's still a fun romp.  There's been a lot of buzz that Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man is going to make an appearance in the next Avenger movie, but according to a panel this weekend at the San Diego ComicCon, Spider-Man won't be teaming up with the Avengers.  I'm honestly very dissapointed with this information.  It would have been fun to see.  Does that mean he might be in the movie, but not team up with them? . . . .

Ah well,
Have a great weekend!
Sarah