Big Screen Breakdown: Beautiful Creatures

The witty dialogue

and powerful performances by the actors, namely Jeremy Irons, Emma Thompson, Alden Ehrenreich and Emmy Rossum

are about the only things that saved this movie from being a disaster.

The book may be a rather predictable teen romance fiction, but Ms. Garcia and Stohl's more involved storyline (which even has a few admirable twists) was compressed in this movie into an insipid uninspiring tale of love.

There were parts of the story that could have been portrayed in more interesting ways, while others could have been left out altogether. There were more than a few portions that I wished could have been more faithful to the book.

The cuts and awful editing by Malaysia's Censorship Board to ensure that the movie would be palatable to a wider range of audience certainly did not help.

The movie actually had a star cast but it is a scandal how underutilised they were.

Having said all that though, it was reasonably good to watch.
It was only my high expectations of the movie that drove me to disappointment.

P.S. The soundtrack was quite engaging...

Beautiful Creatures

Before I sit down for the movie this week, I promised myself that I would finish the book first.

Okay... I may be jumping the gun here, but although I'm only 15 pages into the book, I am already absolutely loving it!

I admit that my sense for a good book is different and way below the level of critiques such as the Malaysian Reader, or even my good friend, the Snuze (when she finds the time for it :p).

But in those 15 pages, I do think that the authors managed set the 'atmosphere' for the story quite vividly.

It was totally absorbing! And my insides are totally jumping with excitement at the thought of watching the movie!

I really, really hope that it's worth the wait!

Are you SURE they are clean?

If you have been to a hospital, you might have noticed bottles for dispensing alcohol hand rub suspended at selected places along the corridors.

Photo from KentOnline (www.kentonline.co.uk)

These are for staff and visitors to clean their hands, usually after meeting a patient, and prevent possible spread of infection.

Following several acquaintances to a hospital ward last week, I saw one friend head for the dispenser bottle at the end of our visit.

To my amusement, she started spreading the alcohol gel like it was branded hand cream. And she spent quite some time at it, luxuriating in the feel and making sure she got to those hard to reach places.

I quickly pointed out to her that if she really wanted to kill those germs on her hands (rather than giving them a cooling bath), she needed to rub the gel briskly onto her hands following the prescribed method within half a minute.

It is the instant drying of the alcohol from the surface of the skin which 'fries' the little buggers leaving your hands (almost) germ free.

In fact, there was a poster by the dispenser bottle with instructions on how to correctly wash your hands with the alcohol rub. Something like this poster below:

Poster by courtesy of the World Health Organisation (click to view slightly bigger version)

So dear readers, on your future hospital visits, when you encounter these alcohol rub dispenser bottles, do stop wasting rubbing alcohol by ensuring you practice hand hygiene the right way. Thank you!

*This was a community message service by the Stone Burner

Ups & Downs

Life is full of ups and downs...

A divorced cousin and the ex got re-hitched, while said cousin's sibling and the significant other got un-hitched.

Hope they've both had more ups than downs to get them through their lifetimes.