Eighteen Reasons to Love Taylor Lautner

I found this fun picture gallery on People.com about 18 reasons to love Taylor Lautner from Twilight and New Moon.  I thought I would share a few of the reasons here on Bookroom Reviews with you, because I know there are alot of Twilight fans that read my blog!   For the rest of the reasons and pictures, here is the link for your enjoyment!  Which reason do you pick?

REASON 3:  HE FLEXES HIS MUSCLES  At 16, Lautner was told he was too young and too thin to fill the role of a much-larger Jacob in the Twilight sequel. But he stayed focused, packed on more than 30 lbs. of muscle and kept his starring shot in New Moon. “Now I’m a big bad wolf!” he said.

credit bauer griffen 

REASON 12:  HE LOOKS GOOD IN A WIG  On a lesser hunk, Jacob’s wig could look downright goofy. “[The wig] would get caught in my mouth, and I would be spitting it out in this scene where I’m coming close to kissing Bella,” Lautner admitted. “It was annoying.”

 Credit: Summit

 REASON 13  HE LOOKS COOL ON A MOTORCYCLE   When Kristen Stewart’s  Bella crashes her bike in New Moon, it’s Lautner who revs his engine to come to her rescue. “Yes, I rode the dirt bike for a total of about five seconds in the film,” he said, “but, for those five seconds, I had to look as cool as possible.”

 Credit: Johnstone/Raishbrook/Splash News Online

REASON 4: HE’S A LEADING MAN    In New Moon, Robert Pattinson ’s Edward leaves Kristen Stewart ’s Bella heartbroken – creating a romantic opening for Lautner’s Jacob. “It definitely says something about him – he puts people at ease,” Stewart says of her costar. No wonder their chemistry smolders onscreen.

Credit: Summit

REASON 1:  HE LOOKS GOOD WET  And the winner of this wet T-shirt contest is … Taylor Lautner ! The New Moon star – who celebrated his 18th birthday on Feb. 11 – makes a splash as Malibu’s finest during a magazine photo shoot in October

Credit: Bauer-Griffin

Taylor Swift SNL Firelight Spoof

Taylor Swift and SNL spoofed Twilight last night and it was hilarious!  Her impersonation of Kristen Stewart was perfect.  What did you think?  Funny or Not?  Are you looking forward to New Moon on November 20th?  You can watch the video below.

New Moon Comic Con Clips (Video)

New Moon scenes were unveiled yesterday at Comic Con and the movie looks impressive!   The clips seems to suggest that it is not diverting from the novel written by Stephanie Meyer.  Check out the clips below.  Beware of lots of screaming.  What do you think?

Clip 1
Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) and Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) are bent over an antique light blue motorcycle. Jacob wears jeans, a brown t-shirt, and his hair is long. As Bella sits on the motorcycle, Jacob guides her hands (touching!) over the handles. “Brake. Clutch. Gas,” he reminds her. Bella revs the engine. “Slowly release the clutch,” says Jacob.

Suddenly, Bella sees the translucent apparition of Edward, a concerned look on his face, standing in front of her. We can see him, but also see through him. Bella takes off on the bike.

As she zooms down the road, Bella gains speed. She zooms by another apparition of Edward, standing in her path. She speeds by another. Losing focus, Bella swerves and falls from the bike, hitting her head on a rock.

Jacob speeds over to Bella on his own bike, coming to a stop with a flourish. He hops off the bike and rushes to Bella’s side. She is bewildered, and blood gushes from a gash on her forehead.

“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” Jacob asks. Bella apologizes for the blood, but it doesn’t bother Jacob.

He takes a step back, the camera following his every move. Jacob strips off his shirt, revealing a six-pack, and bends down to dab Bella’s wound with it. Their faces come very close.

“You’re so beautiful,” she tells him. Emotion flashes across his face.

END SCENE. TWILIGHTERS SCREAM.

---

Unveiled at the close of the panel, Chris Weitz introduced the pivotal Volterra scene:

Clip 2
Alice and Bella are winding through the streets of Volterra, slowed by massive crowds of townspeople in red robes, celebrating the festival. Bella jumps out of the car.

“You’re the only one he can’t see. He’ll be under the clock tower. Go!” says Alice.

Bella races through the crowded city. We see her at times in slow motion.

She fights her way through the crowd, stopping at the fountain in the middle of the square. In slow motion, she looks up to see Edward, slowly unbuttoning his shirt just moments away from revealing himself in the sunlight. He opens his shirt to expose his pale chest. (And his abs. Very nice abs.)

Bella screams out to Edward. “Stop! Stop! No Edward, don’t!”

He takes a step forward.

END SCENE. CROWD GOES WILD.

New Moon Movie Trailer Exclusive 2009 MTV Movie Awards

Here it is! The first trailer for New Moon, as just seen on the 2009 MTV Movie Awards!  What did you think?? Love the tranformation!

New Moon Movie Trailer

Here is a sneak peak at the New Moon Movie Trailer!  The complete New Moon Trailer will be shown this Sunday on MTV during the Movie Awards.   I will post it soon after.  What do you think?  I love the kiss!  You can now watch the full Official New Moon Trailer Here!

TWILIGHT MOVIE REVIEWS ARE IN!

Today is the day! Twilight, the film based on the first in a series of wildly successful YA novels written by Stephenie Meyer, opens, with a dedicated fan base of vampire-lovers. The story follows Bella (Kristen Stewart), a young girl who moves to the Pacific Northwest, as she falls in lust — yet maintains a chaste relationship — with a handsome “vegetarian” vampire (in that he doesn’t eat human blood) named Edward (Robert Pattinson). The teenage couple desires a physical relationship, but contact must be avoided, because Edward’s instinct to drink Bella’s blood is so strong. So, what do the non-teenage critics think of all the brooding and sexual tension between Bella and Edward?  I think it is very interesting the various opinions, but I would agree only teenage girls will truly LOVE this film.  I especially like Roger Ebert’s review from The Chicago Sun Times.  I do want to know what you think, if you have gone to the movie please leave a comment about what you thought!  I will be going sometime in the next few weeks myself.  Don’t you just love that picture above!  I think it’s my favorite of all the ones I have seen so far!

Time:

Hardwicke, who directed the teen outsider films Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown and The Nativity Story (another fable about a special girl with a condition that’s hard to explain), is no great shakes as an auteur. She dawdles in sketching Bella’s high school chums, and her direction of the dialogue will often bore those who aren’t mouthing it from memory as the actors speak it. But she chose her leads wisely: the pretty Stewart is a questioning, questing presence; the Brit Pattinson, a sensitive-stud dreamboat. And Hardwicke is faithful to the book’s chaste eroticism. The couple must put off having sex because, well, it could kill Bella. (aids metaphors are unavoidable here.) Yet waiting has its own delicious tension.

So Twilight isn’t a masterpiece — no matter. It rekindles the warmth of great Hollywood romances, where foreplay was the climax and a kiss was never just a kiss.

Variety:

Admittedly, it’s a relief that Rosenberg dispenses with Meyer’s often embarrassingly overripe prose (“His hair was dripping wet, disheveled … his dazzling face was friendly, open, a slight smile on his flawless lips”), and pic’s selective rewriting of the rules of vampire lore (no coffins, no garlic, no fatal aversion to sunlight) does hold interest. There’s a fleeting moment when the two leads — standing together in a secluded glade, their bodies circled by the camera — come close to capturing the tale’s lush, swooning romanticism.

Village Voice:

Stephenie Meyer’s wildly popular novel, Twilight—the first in a four-book series about a 17-year-old girl who falls in love with the hunky vampire who sits next to her in biology class—bored me silly, but that’s clearly a minority opinion. In the novel, Bella and her cold-to-the-touch lothario, Edward, talk and talk and talk. For the beautifully photographed (by cinematographer Elliot Davis) film version, screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg (bless her) has pared the couple’s blather down to the essentials, as when Edward (Robert Pattinson) says to Bella (Kristen Stewart), “You’re my own personal brand of heroin.” Poor girl. How could she not succumb?

Entertainment Weekly:

For girls, the intense, ego-stroking appeal of Meyer’s novel was the way that Bella becomes this undead Byronic stud’s soul mate without quite knowing why she’s worthy. She’s a Kewl Generation damsel waiting to be rescued from her jaded heart. Stewart is an ideal casting choice — she conveys Bella’s detachment, as well as her need to bust through it. And getting Catherine Hardwicke to direct Twilight was a shrewd move, because the youthquake specialist of Thirteen treats teen confusion without a trace of condescension: She gets their grand passions and prickly defense mechanisms. She has reconjured Meyer’s novel as a cloudburst mood piece filled with stormy skies, rippling hormones, and understated visual effects. What Hardwicke can’t quite triumph over is the book’s lackluster plot. On screen, Twilight is repetitive and a tad sodden, too prosaic to really soar. But Hardwicke stirs this teen pulp to a pleasing simmer.

USA Today:

Neither strong sunlight nor the sight of oozing blood will deter the romance between a teenage girl and her vampire dreamboat in Twilight (** out of four).

And despite questionable casting, wooden acting, laughable dialogue and truly awful makeup, nothing is likely to stop young girls from swarming to this kitschy adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s popular novel.

Washington Post:

I never quite bought Edward’s extraordinary running, jumping and tree-climbing ability, either. Hardwick relies too much on motion blur, a cheat that looks oddly dated, given the F/X capabilities evident in, say, the “Spider-Man” movies. And the scene in which Edward reveals what his skin looks like — like diamonds, according to Meyer — is frustratingly vague. “This is what I really look like,” he says, stepping out of the constant fog into a rare shaft of sunlight. What? Out of focus?

But these are minor complaints. On the whole, “Twilight” works as both love story and vampire story, thanks mainly to the performances of its principals. Pattinson and Stewart want to convince you that their characters are an undead freak and the girl who, against all logic, loves him. Yet they do it not by selling you on what makes Edward and Bella so different, but by finding their flesh-and-blood humanity.

Chicago Sun-Times:

Should a woman fall in love with a man because he desires her so much? Men seem to think so. It’s not about the woman, it’s about the man’s desire. We all know there is no such thing as a vampire. Come on now, what is “Twilight” really about? It’s about a teenage boy trying to practice abstinence, and how, in the heat of the moment, it’s really, really hard. And about a girl who wants to go all the way with him, and doesn’t care what might happen. He’s so beautiful she would do anything for him. She is the embodiment of the sentiment, “I’d die for you.” She is, like many adolescents, a thanatophile.

If there were no vampires in “Twilight,” it would be a thin-blooded teenage romance, about two good-looking kids who want each other so much because they want each other so much. Sometimes that’s all it’s about, isn’t it? They’re in love with being in love. In “Twilight,” however, they have a seductive disagreement about whether he should kill her. She’s like, I don’t especially want to die, but if that’s what it takes, count me in. She is touched by his devotion. Think what a sacrifice he is making on her behalf.

San Francisco Chronicle:

Although this film will seem bloated to newcomers, and the plot kicks into gear slowly, “Twilight” never has the rushed or stilted feel of a 500-page book that’s been adapted into a two-hour film. Small things seem to be missing, but considering the number of characters introduced and themes that are explored, it’s a credit to Hardwicke and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg that the movie remains coherent throughout.

The production also benefits from two good leads: Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, as Bella and Edward. Pattinson in particular is convincing as a 100-year-old vampire stuck in a “Groundhog Day”-style existence that has him going to high school after high school, surrounded by a supermarket full of the young blood he craves but cannot eat.

Slate:

Hardwicke, whose first film was the harrowing mother-daughter melodrama Thirteen (2003), has a keen sense memory for female adolescence—not just the social insecurity of that time but the grandiosity that can make self-destructive decisions feel somehow divinely fated. Unwholesome, sure, but arguably no more so than Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre, two better-written Gothic romances about young women in thrall to a remote, charismatic, often cruel hero. And while Pattinson’s Edward is a bit of a vain prig, no one you’d want to risk your immortal soul for, his worthiness doesn’t really matter. Twilight is a story about pining for the one person you can, and should, never have, and who among us hasn’t at least once experienced that vampiric craving? As a life lesson for teenage girls, Twilight (excuse the pun) sucks. As a parable for the dark side of female desire, it’s weirdly powerful.

NPR:

And though the story’s action quotient has been increased to appeal to the random males who might show up at the multiplex, Twilight is unabashedly a romance. All the story’s inherent silliness aside, it is intent on conveying the magic of meeting that one special person you’ve been waiting for.

Maybe it is possible to be 13 and female after all — for a few hours, at least.

AP:

If you’re coming into this material cold, though, you will be seriously baffled as to what the fuss is all about, and that becomes glaringly obvious in the way Hardwicke has staged her action sequences. When Edward leaps from one spot to another to show off his physical prowess, or when he races through the forest with Bella strapped to his back, it looks distractingly jumpy and false. (The moment when he sparkles in the sunlight looks especially cheesy.)

There’s nothing transporting about the visuals. “Twilight” was a famously low-budget production compared to most traditional blockbusters, but this is ridiculous.

It doesn’t help that, as Bella, Kristen Stewart looks singularly sullen the entire time. She’s supposed to be enraptured by the thrills of her first love. Instead, she merely appears to be in the throes of pain. Sure, they can feel like the same thing when you’re a teenager, but Stewart’s one-note performance makes it difficult to get swept away by Bella’s forbidden, romantic adventure.

Wall Street Journal:

Attention, all 13-year-old female readers of this newspaper: Run, do not walk, to the nearest multiplex playing “Twilight,” the screen version of Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling potboiler about a principled vampire and the teenage girl who loves him. Others needn’t run. Or walk.

The New Republic:

Stewart is likable as Bella, who is not always a likable character, and while Pattinson’s role is inevitably more ridiculous, he does as reliable a job with it as might be hoped. The rest of the cast is fine as well, with Burke standing out as Bella’s taciturn, drily humorous dad. The direction by Hardwicke (Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown) is capable, though the film’s special effects—mostly very fast running, jumping, and tree-climbing—might’ve done with a little more work.

Ultimately, Twilight is silly and melodramatic and hard to dislike in much the same way as its target audience, with a distinctly teenage sense of tragedy.

Salon:

Hardwicke’s vision of the book stands by itself, anyway. “Twilight” is a slightly awkward picture: Sometimes Hardwicke hits a sweepingly majestic groove, only to stop short before she reaches the peak of go-for-broke swooning. In other places, she’s too heavy-handed with the honey dripper — some of the movie’s creepy romantic goop is ladled out in sticky puddles. Steel yourself, too, for some howlingly bad makeup: The vampire characters sport a marble-toned pallor that looks as if it was applied with a spray gun.

New York Times:

Though her filmmaking can be shaky, the director Catherine Hardwicke has an eye for pretty young things and a feel for the private worlds that younger people make for themselves. But she’s working in shackles here. In her best movie, “Lords of Dogtown,” about the birth of the modern skateboard movement, a teenage boy sneaks out at night by slaloming off a roof while holding a surfboard. It’s a blissful declaration of freedom, including freedom from the big parental no.

Ain’t It Cool News:

TWILIGHT is a very sweet and crushingly romantic film, but it’s a lite romantic movie. I guarantee that fans of the book won’t LOVE the movie like they did the book. The reason? Because Hardwicke and the producers of this film didn’t trust in the conversations and the expressions of the characters thoughts. Sure, the movie is 2 hours long and to add in the substance of all those conversations. To do more than just the common cheap exchanging of glances and the hanging out in treetops and saving her from certain death… that takes real courage and real understanding of love.

But that’s why TWILIGHT is simply a good Romantic film, whilst Linklater’s BEFORE SUNSET and BEFORE SUNRISE are amongst the greatest Romantic films. Those TALKING HEAD scenes in CASABLANCA really killed it, didn’t they?

Premiere:

Twilight takes the theme of vampirism as sexual sublimation to a whole new level, and it’s hard to overlook the religious undertones of the scene when Edward catches an apple Bella drops and offers it to her on his open palms like the cover of the Twilight books. Or when Bella trustingly cuddles up to him while he intones, “And so the lion fell in love with the lamb.” This line garnered shrieks from the teens in the audience because it’s a direct quote from the book, but the religious symbolism couldn’t be more obvious (or disturbing). Keep your religion out of our vampires, Hollywood!

originally posted at jezebel.com

Twilight Movie Primer

The big day is coming November 21st.  Are you ready?  Meet the cast and refresh your memory to get ready for the Twilight movie.  Does the movie cast fit who you pictured when you were reading the book?

TAYLOR LAUTNER
Role Bella’s bud Jacob Black
Where you’ve seen him Tweeners will remember Lautner as the titular superhero trained by great whites in Robert Rodriguez’s The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D. The 16-year-old also has a recurring role on the Christian Slater spy series My Own Worst Enemy.  Though Lautner’s role in the first of the Twilight flicks is small, it is integral: He helps Bella uncover vampire Edward’s true identity.

PETER FACINELLI
Role Dr. Carlisle Cullen, the patriarch of the vegetarian vampire coven
Where you’ve seen him Facinelli broke Jennifer Love Hewitt’s heart as douchey jock Mike Dexter in the teen flick Can’t Hardly Wait.

ELIZABETH REASER
Role Matriarch Esme Cullen
Where you’ve seen her Reaser had multiple identities (Jane Doe! Ava! Rebecca!) on Grey’s Anatomy before dating multiple former flames on the recently canceled Ex List.

ASHLEY GREENE
Role Pixieish prognosticating vamp Alice Cullen
Where you’ve seen her Probably nowhere, unless you’re really looking. The 21-year-old has had a few TV guest spots on Crossing Jordan and Shark, and had a seven-episode run on MyNetworkTV’s Desire

JACKSON RATHBONE
Role Alice’s significant other, mood-manipulating Jasper Hale
Where you’ve seen him Rathbone’s had a slew of TV guest spots ranging from The O.C. to the short-lived Beautiful People.

KELLAN LUTZ
Role Edward’s muscle-bound “brother” Emmett Cullen
Where you’ve seen him Lutz saw combat as a soldier on the miniseries Generation Kill and has been hitting the books as a West Beverly student on 90210.

NIKKI REED
Role Emmett’s mate and resident sourpuss Rosalie Hale
Where you’ve seen her Reed first teamed up with Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke in 2003, co-writing the film Thirteen, which Hardwicke directed and Reed starred in. They met up again on 2005’s Lords of Dogtown before Reed moved to The O.C. to play one of Ryan’s love interests.

CAM GIGANDET
Role Baddie bloodsucker James, who’s out for Bella’s neck
Where you’ve seen him Kicking butt is nothing new for Gigandet who played a fighter in 2008’s Never Back Down and Marissa’s killer on The O.C..

RACHELLE LEFEVRE
Role James’ fiery-haired mate Victoria
Where you’ve seen her As husband-stealing Melinda on Swingtown and as Adam’s stripper wife, Heather, on What About Brian

EDI GATHEGI

Role The third member of James’ gang, Laurent
Where you’ve seen him Gathegi played a Mormon geneticist dubbed “Big Love” on House.

BILLY BURKE
Role Bella’s police-chief father, Charlie Swan
Where you’ve seen him Burke’s no stranger to the badge, having played a detective in Untraceable and a police lieutenant in Fracture.

From Entertainment Weekly.com

Brand New Twilight Trailer!!

 

It’s here!  The third movie trailer for Twilight just premiered online tonight!  Also what do you think of the new movie poster?  Can’t they make Edward look attractive?   He just looks odd in all the posters and magazine covers.

Twilight Movie Reshoots: Why are they filming again?

Thought everyone would enjoy some fun news about Stephenie Meyer after the Midnight Sun controversy.   The Twilight movie is in the midst of some re-shoots and Entertainment Weekly has the scoop.

Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke confirms to EW.com that she’s currently overseeing reshoots on her adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s book (now opening Nov. 21). “It’s pretty cool,” Hardwicke e-mails from Pasadena, Calif., where she’s filming the new material. “We got to shoot some things I really wanted.” While reshoots often hint that there may be a problem with a movie, that doesn’t appear to be the case with Twilight, whose initial 44-day Oregon production faced multiple weather-related difficulties.

Thus, a few key aspects of the production are getting further attention. One redone scene shows Edward (Robert Pattinson) playing Bella’s lullaby. During the movie’s initial shoot, Pattinson performed the scene while improvising with his own music; now he’s playing the actual song, which has been written by veteran film composer Carter Burwell (best known for working with the Coen brothers). “[Pattinson] is a great pianist, long vampire fingers,” Hardwicke says. And if that doesn’t whet your appetite, Hardwicke also reshot the bedroom kissing scene on Thursday. The first time around, Kristen Stewart, the actress who plays Bella, was still 17, and between juggling three hours of school work per day plus numerous camera setups, the scene was never finished. Hardwicke also shot a few new scenes: more of Jacob, more on the Cullens’ backstory, and more footage in the meadow. Says the director, “It’s all just icing on the cake.”

Fall Books to Movie Preview

Entertainment Weekly has posted a list of the most anticipated movies for the Fall and several of them are based on books.  I am so excited to see all of these!  Which ones are you most excited to see?  I’m sure you know which one I want to see most:)

NICK & NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST  Oct. 3  Michael Cera, Kat Dennings, Ari Graynor  Mixing Juno’s smart-mouthed humor with the one-crazy-night setup of Can’t Hardly Wait, this teencom follows the adventures of music snobs Nick (Cera) and Norah (Dennings) as they fall in love while chasing their favorite band — and Norah’s drunk BFF (Graynor) — around the streets of NYC.

THE ROAD Nov. 14 Viggo Mortensen, Charlize TheronCormac McCarthy’s 2006 post-apocalyptic novel about a dying man who tries to lead his young son to safety was a critical darling that grabbed the attention of readers and, yes, even Oprah (not to mention us — The Road nabbed the No. 1 spot on EW’s New Classics book list). So why should the film adaptation be any different? Though certainly bleak, the film has Oscar written all over it. And when has Mortensen ever let us down?

TWILIGHT Dec. 12 Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson Since Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer’s final installment in her teen vampire-centric franchise, bowed at No. 1 on nearly all the best-seller lists, why not catch up to tween readers nationwide — and enjoy some vampire eye candy — by seeing the movie version of book 1, which follows a girl (Stewart) who falls in love with a handsome bloodsucker (Pattinson).

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON Dec. 25  Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett In an effort to make people of all ages feel bad about the way they look, Brad Pitt reteams with his Fight Club director, David Fincher, for this bittersweet fantasy about a man who ages in reverse from 80 back down to infancy. But can baby Brad actually hope to out-cute Shiloh

MARLEY & ME  Dec. 25  Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston  Adapted from John Grogan’s best-selling novel — a memoir about life with a hopeless yellow Lab named Marley — comes this romcom about a journalist (Wilson, in his first role since his reported suicide attempt last summer) and his wife (Aniston) who move to Miami and decide to adopt a puppy that would inevitably become a bigger part of the family than they ever expected.

REVOLUTIONARY ROAD Dec. 26 Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio Don’t miss the boat on this one: Titanic stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio are back together for a decidedly unsentimental portrait of a marriage, based on Richard Yates’ 1961 novel.