Movie Marathon: Jeremy Renner

(Note that this post was written right after the movie marathon was done, but I just finished it now because it's school's days off and I rarely touched my laptop. Like usual, I don't do blog on holidays)

Yeah, I know I just did a movie marathon very recently, but I just couldn't help to do another one. And yes, I did it in my exams week. Well, not exactly "exam", because it was just basically the deadline week. No particular exam, just assignments and assignments. And I did a movie marathon because I'm just that cool.

Who is the "lucky" actor?

Jeremy Lee Renner is (yeah, come on) one of my favorite actors of all time. Let me ask you: who has never heard of this man? You've got to be kidding me. Even though you're not a movie buff, you must have heard his name, at least once. Okay. Some of you might know him from the Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker, but he's mostly known from his work as Hawkeye in Marvel's The Avengers - as my little 'survey' said.

Before getting involved in the big movies like I've mentioned above, Jeremy was starring in the TV series The Unusuals (too bad, the series was cancelled after 10 episodes) and smaller movies. In fact, his portrayal of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in Dahmer was the reason Kathryn Bigelow chose him for the lead role in The Hurt Locker. He got his first Oscar nomination ever, and got the second one for his involvement in Ben Affleck's The Town. And after that, he got more famous by co-starring with Tom Cruise (Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol), Rachel Weisz (The Bourne Legacy), Gemma Arteton (Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters), as well as the blockbuster movie The Avengers and the critically acclaimed American Hustle.
Wait, that's not it. Jeremy is a good singer too! He was singing in one scene in Love Comes to the Executioner. I've also heard him singing in Saturday Night Live where he was hosting for the first time.

So, what makes you decided to do Jeremy Renner movie marathon?
It started right on Jeremy's birthday, on January 7th. I watched The Hurt Locker that time, and suddenly decided to do Jeremy Renner movie marathon because he was one of the 'candidates' for my movie marathon (who did not get picked before because of my changing mood). So, happy belated birthday, Mr. Renner! And thank you for being a distraction from my goddamn tasks :p

Here's the list of his movies, according to the time I watched them:
1. Thor (cameo; and I watched this long before the movie marathon started to refresh my brain that was tired of thinking about house designs)
2. The Hurt Locker
3. North Country
4. Love Comes to the Excecutioner
5. Ingenious
6. Neo Ned
7. 12 and Holding
8. A Little Trip to Heaven
9. 28 Weeks Later
10. Dahmer
11. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
12. S.W.A.T.
13. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
14. The Town
15. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
16. The Bourne Legacy
17. Marvel's The Avengers
18. Take
19. American Hustle

After watching all of them, do you have any specific movies that you've been into?
Of course. In fact, I loved all of them--it showed us that Jeremy could play such different characters without sticking to one of them. Really cool. Here is it.

Since it's my favorite movie, Marvel's The Avengers is on the top of the list. You obviously know Avengers (and I already talked about it in RDJ movie marathon), so I won't talk much about this. Jeremy played a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Clint Barton who went by the name Hawkeye when he joined The Avengers. It was the 2nd time he played Barton after being an almost-unnoticeable cameo (blame the darkness--I almost lost it too) in Thor.

Second is The Bourne Legacy. Oh, I LOVE Bourne movies! I was kind of disappointed when Matt Damon decided not to do more Bourne. And I was like, "What?! They will replace Damon as Bourne? Nooooooooo!". But, it turned out that they wouldn't make Bourne as the main character. Instead, Aaron Cross, who was played by Jeremy, took his place. Taking place around the same time as the events in The Bourne Ultimatum, Jason Bourne's action affected other ops, including Cross, whose life now at stake because the men behind those ops tried to make everyone involved disappeared. Many people didn't like this movie and said that it was like forcing itself to get a connection to previous Bourne movies (my aunt said this lol). But, no. I love Bourne movies. I love Jeremy Renner. Of course I'd watch this even though Matt Damon didn't come back.

Third is Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. In this 4th movie of the franchise, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is on an impossible mission once again, but this time he gets to team up with Benji (Simon Pegg), fellow agent Jane Carter (Paula Patton), and... Jeremy Renner! I mean, William Brandt, the IMF Secretary's chief analyst. Together, they try to track down a dangerous terrorist who has access to Russian nuclear launch codes--and apparently, plans to use it against US. It's so fun to see Jeremy kicking-ass in this (before The Avengers and The Bourne Legacy of course). This movie receives mostly positive reviews, both from audiences and critics.

Next, The Hurt Locker, which led Jeremy to get his first Oscar nomination. When the previous team leader got killed by an explosive device, SFC William James (Renner) took over a highly trained bomb disposal team in Iraq. Yep, as you guessed, James loved what he did, but sometimes he didn't think about his team's safety--even his own. The movie is 2 hours long, and you won't find music score that much. But I love this movie. Every time James got to dispose a bomb, it's so intense. My favorite scene is when James and the team was facing an Iraqi man with bombs all over his body. Damn, I got teary eyes when watching it.

Fifth is The Town. I talked about this previously on Ben Affleck movie marathon, so you just have to click it. Jeremy played James 'Jem' Coughlin, one of the robbers and Doug's (Affleck) best friend. He was a hot-headed man who didn't give a damn about anything else but to accomplish their mission. Jeremy earned another Oscar nomination (this time was Best Supporting Actor) for his portrayal of Jem. This was also the first Jeremy Renner movie I've ever watched, but that time I was focusing on Ben Affleck (yeah, another favorite actor of mine) so I just forgot about him haha.

Sixth is S.W.A.T. Seriously, when I first watched this, I didn't recognize Jeremy at all. I mean, I was too focused to Colin Farrell to recognize the unrecognized actor who played Brian Gamble. Sorry. But that's the truth ._. Then when I got to know Jeremy more, I finally could realize him in this movie (and apparently the other movies he'd been on). Gamble was first a partner and best bud of Jim Street (Farrell) in S.W.A.T. before he got kicked out and went rogue.

Seventh is Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. Ok, before I continue, you should know that the only reason I put this movie in this list is because Jeremy Renner was in it. Yes, I'm biased. Care much? Lol, sorry. Anyway, Hansel is played by Jeremy, and Gretel is played by the beautiful Gemma Arteton. Of course you know the story of Hansel and Gretel. This movie is set years after the siblings killed the witch who kidnapped them. And, yes, that witch (and her even uglier witch friends) struck again!

Honorable mention: A Little Trip to Heaven

Well, that's it. This doesn't mean the movies that I don't short-review are bad. He's a great actor, you know. He knows what kind of roles that are perfect for him (almost every role I guess haha).
Anyway, in the future we can see Jeremy Renner in The Immigrant, Kill the Messenger, the fifth Bourne movie, and of course, The Avengers: Age of Ultron!
And I believe someday he'll get that golden statue :)

"I like to stay busy, I like to stay focused, and I like to stay creative. Without being creative I'd be dead."

- Jeremy Renner

See you in the next movie marathon post!

(Yep I've just finished another movie marathon. Who's the actor? Just wait and see!)

Pics were taken from Google, then were made into a collage by me.

I like to stay busy, I like to stay focused, and I like to stay creative. Without being creative I'd be dead.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/jeremy_renner.html#ikv6ATLbrU81YboJ.9

I like to stay busy, I like to stay focused, and I like to stay creative. Without being creative I'd be dead.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/jeremy_renner.html#ikv6ATLbrU81YboJ.99

A Road Trip to Remember

No, the road trip was not as dramatic as the poetic title (though it sure was memorable). I just couldn't find any other suitable title for this. And this wouldn't be a detailed blog post about the trip, I just wrote the big part only.

On December 30th 2013, the date where I collected my postponed assignment, my uncle and aunt picked me up from my boarding house to go on road trip with them to Bali and celebrate New Year there! Since becoming a college student I almost never had a proper holiday (going outside the city, traveling, blah blah), I just stayed at home watching movies. And finally, I could forget my other assignments for a while and enjoyed the rare time from being away from the hectic days of college.

While the road trip was not the first time for me, the activities and things we did were indeed new for me. From Malang to Bali -- of course it required us to cross the Bali Strait. Yep, it was my first time crossing the strait with ferry! It was late night, but I could see beautiful lights from the other ships and the port. It was so fun (and ugh, I didn't take a pic of it because I was so tired and only able to enjoy it haha).

After arriving at Gilimanuk Port, I spent my time mostly to sleep. My uncle's fast and F1-like driving didn't stop me from getting a good sleep since I finished my assignment at 2 am the other night. So then we picked up my cousin, Nisa, who was studying in Udayana University to stay with us in the hotel. The next day, the fun began!

The view from the hotel balcony. And yep, that's the sea!

That's me in Balangan Beach. Chubby as always. (Pic taken by Nisa)

Happy New Year! Fireworks from the beach. It was raining that time so we decided to watch the fireworks from hotel balcony.

So, first day of 2014, I thought I would come back to Malang (come back to my assignments, to be exact). Ha! My uncle and aunt had other plans for me and Nisa -- taking us to Jogja!

Bunch of people were waiting to take a pic in front of Malioboro street sign. If you go to Malioboro, you just have to do this. (Pic taken by Nisa)

Finally we got our turn. Nisa, me, Arfa, and Aunt Jella in Maliboro~ (Pic taken by my uncle)

The next day, we went to Affandi Museum. Just so you know, Affandi was a famous Indonesian artist. When I went to the museum and saw that name, I thought I've heard his name before (yep, that was a fail thing for an architecture student). Then, when I saw his paintings, I remembered that I had learned about him in both middle school and high school. You know, I forgot easily about this kind of thing -.-

A glimpse of inside the Affandi Museum. Love the paintings!

This one was like, the biggest painting in the gallery. Love this (and sorry, I forgot the name of the painting...)

Words to remember!

Since I'm an architecture student, this little kind of thing excited me. Maybe it could inspire me to design hehe.

 After that, we went to Warung Raminten for lunch. Its owner is Yogya's famous transsexual (or transgender -- what do you call it?). Ah, too bad I didn't take a picture of what she looked like.

Three women and a man. I thought that man was a real person... kind of creepy. (Pic taken by my uncle)

This was on the tissue box. Creative and funny.

These were chocolates. And these two described me at most hahaha. I should've bought those, ugh.

That was it. There were so many other moments from that road trip that I could not forget, but I don't want to make you bored. Well, I rarely posted about my personal life -- this blog has been full of either fangirling things or my "random" thoughts -- so I just want to finish this post as soon as possible before I myself also get bored. And I still have other tasks to do... and movies and series to watch.

Toodles!

Movie Marathon: Jonny Lee Miller

(Note that this post was written on December 23rd 2013, but I just finished it now because the busy week -- and the other tasks which apparently are as deadly as the main one)

Cheers to the (nearly) long weekend!
Cheers to the deadline that has been postponed!
Cheers to another movie marathon!

Call me crazy, but I immediately started another movie marathon right after my lecturer announced that the final assignment's deadline had been postponed to next Monday. This movie marathon was not planned, I'll tell you my reason why I chose this actor. And, my latest 3 movie marathons were all the actors who have played Sherlock Holmes, my favorite fictional character ever -- Robert Downey Jr, Benedict Cumberbatch, and now, Jonny Lee Miller! You can check my SH post here and here :)

Jonathan "Jonny" Lee Miller is one of my favorite actors of all time. For all the people who don't know who he is (OH, COME ON), I suggest you check the TV series Eli Stone, or his latest series Elementary, where he portrays Sherlock Holmes.

JLM was born British, but he also can use American accent perfectly, like he did in some of his movies and in Eli Stone and Dexter. Some people who have watched Eli Stone couldn't believe that he was a British because he sounded and looked like an American. He had played various kind of roles (hacker, drug addict, journalist, pilot, killer, cyclist, detective, and many more -- I wouldn't list them all, right?!) and that's what made him got into the list of my favorite actors haha. He also appeared on broadway for After Miss Julie, and played Victor Frankenstein and The Creature alternately with Benedict Cumberbatch for the stage production of Frankenstein. Yes, they are both Sherlock Holmes!
I've heard him singing in one of his movies, Love, Honour and Obey. He is also a marathon runner. I told ya, he's good at anything. Oh, and he is a supporter of Chelsea -- I knew this because he once replied to my tweet (and it made me go GYAAAAAHHHHH). Too bad, I myself support Chelsea's rival Manchester United. Well, that doesn't mean I stop loving him. Come on, my father is also a Chelsea supporter, my brother is a Gunner (Arsenal supporter) and Barcelona supporter, and my mother doesn't even care about this football thing to support one.

So, what makes you decided to do Jonny Lee Miller movie marathon?
Like I said, I wasn't planning this at all. I just happened to have a Dexter marathon, and since JLM was a guest star in season 5, I rushed to watch it until it reached season 5. I didn't know what kind of role he would be playing; didn't even try to find it on the internet. I just had to watch it. And voila! I loved it. He played Jordan Chase, a motivational speaker who was tied to a rape and murder case. Not that I loved the character, I just loved the way JLM played Chase -- who was inspiring and intimidating (and scary!) at the same time. It was soooo great!!! I mean, I watched him on Elementary first, so I just couldn't believe it that he used to play the character like Chase. *standing ovation*
After I finished it, I got a starstruck on him, despite having known him for years. You can see all the fuss on my latest Midnight Random Thought. Yeah, I'm sorry I got crazy like that sometimes. (SOMETIMES???!!!)
At first, I watched Aeon Flux and Mindhunters only. Then, after a week without movies because of the assignments, it was announced that the deadline has been postponed. So, I got even crazier; I watched all of JLM movies that I had and the ones that I could find.

Here's the list of his movies, according to the time I watched them:
1. Aeon Flux
2. Mindhunters
3. Endgame
4. The Flying Scotsman
5. Plunkett and Macleane
6. Dracula 2000
7. Byzantium
8. Dark Shadows
9. Complicity
10. Trainspotting
11. The Escapist
12. Hackers
13. Love, Honour and Obey

After watching all of them, do you have any specific movies that you've been into?
Is it wrong to say that I LOVE all of them? There are so many movies of his, but I could only watch 13 of them. But I think it's impossible to short-review those 13, so I just picked some.

First, I really, really love Mindhunters. It's like FBI meets Agatha Christie's novel And Then There Were None. How could I not love this movie?! Yeah, I love FBI-related movies or TV series, especially about profilers, like Criminal Minds. I could not just miss this movie. JLM here played Lucas Harper, one of the young FBI students who were sent to an island to undergo a training to be a profiler. What they didn't know was that it was more than a training as they discovered that one of them was a serial killer and was targeting the others. Quite convincing, huh? And it had amazing cast, other than JLM himself.

The second is Hackers, where JLM played a young hacker, Dade Murphy, who, along with other fellow hackers, discovered a dangerous computer virus and must use their skills to take down the man behind it, while being pursued by Secret Service. Oh, and this movie also starred Angelina Jolie (who was JLM's ex wife -- ok, don't be surprised), Matthew Lillard (Shaggy in Scooby Doo), and Jesse Bradford (Charlie in My Sassy Girl). Just so you know, this movie came out in 1995, where the internet was unfamiliar to the public. It has became a cult classic since.

The third is The Escapist. I watched this without subtitle, so excuse me if I got the movie wrong. Denis Hopkins (JLM) was a pilot. When some robbers led by Ricky (Andy Serkis) broke into his house and killed his wife, he tried to get revenge by breaking a police car so he could get arrested -- later attempting to escape purposely from the prison to get him transferred to the maximum security prison where Ricky was. It was very good and thrilling. JLM's acting as desperate and vengeful husband was sooo great. It was supported by convincing acting of Serkis, who was really scary and annoying too.

The fourth is Love, Honour and Obey. So, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson from different adaptations in one film? This is irresistible, at least for me. JLM and Jude Law! Wait, there's more. Rhys Ifans and Sean Pertwee, who played Mycroft Holmes and Lestrade respectively in Elementary (yep, with JLM), also appeared in this movie. Daaammmnnn! I was so happy that I could only laugh and clap my hands speechlessly. In this movie, almost all the characters had the same name with the actors who played them. Jude (Law), who came from a gangster family, was asked by his friend Jonny (JLM) to help him got into the North London criminal gang. As Jonny got more involved, he started making mistakes that would led him and the others to start a 'war' with South London mob.

The fifth is The Flying Scotsman, a film based on the true story of Scottish cyclist Graeme Obree (JLM) who tried to break the world record by building his very own bicycle from washing machine parts and inventing the unlikely riding position. We also could see Obree's mental health problem which he had suffered since the world-record title was stripped from him after only a week. I'm not a cyclist though, but I love cycling with my family. Seeing this movie made me want to go home sooner, reunite with my bicycle, and then go cycling until my legs tired!

Honorable mention: Aeon Flux and Trainspotting
Aeon Flux was the first movie where I recognized JLM. Trainspotting was a good movie, but somehow I couldn't 'connect' with it--but again, JLM was soooooo great in this movie as Sick Boy!

Ah, I really want to write them all, but I'm tired already -_- And I love all his movies. He's always been perfect in every movie he's in.
Okay then, you should know Jonny Lee Miller by now hahaha.

"The whole point of being an actor is to get satisfaction out of a role -- unless you're just vain about celebrity. You're always looking for the one thing that will surprise you."

- Jonny Lee Miller

See you in the next movie marathon post!
And have a great 2014!

Pics were taken from Google, then were made into a collage by me.