Category Archives: Entertainment

Lady Gaga Coming to Lebanon for Byblos 2012 Festival Concert?

The newest rumor circulating around is that Lady Gaga has decided to take the whole “Lebanon” references of her songs to the next level and actually show up in the country for a concert at the Byblos 2012 Festival, as part of The Born This Way Ball.

I can already hear the shrieks of the little monster echoing all the way to New York (or wherever she may be).

The Byblos 2012 Festival has hosted many internationally recognized artists like Scorpions and 30 Seconds to Mars. But perhaps the most “in” artist it will host, if this turns out true, is Lady Gaga.

Will the arena be big enough for all the people who want to go? I don’t think so. Prepare for some serious black market prices if you cannot snatch your tickets early.

Will you be going? Or are you, like me, not tempted by the whole thing?

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 – Trailer: Bella as a Vampire

Here you go:

It looks like they’re toning down the “love story” approach for the promotion of this final movie and moving more into “Bella is now a vampire” realms.

Perhaps this is the smarter way to approach the final (and most useless) installment in the Twilight story. The final book, to begin with, has nothing going on. It’s a brick (about 800 pages) where Edward and Bella get married and have sex. She gets pregnant and delivers after a record-speed pregnancy during which she almost dies so he turns her. When she wakes up, they have more sex. The baby is thought to be a baby vampire and the rest of the movie is them preparing for a battle… that doesn’t happen. Diplomacy for the win!

Sorry for ruining it for you. Not really.

No, I won’t be watching it when it comes out.

No, it won’t be a good movie.

No, the trailer is not representative of the content of the movie.

Yes, it will make a lot of money.

In a nutshell, watching this movie will hurt your eyes and ears. Caution is advised.

13 Awesome Ads!

A friend recently shared these ads with me and I thought they were awesome.

Tilt the screen forward

The Hunger Games Breaks Box Office Records – Sets Huge Debut

$155 million.

That’s how much The Hunger Games has grossed in its opening weekend, enough to place it third on the best opening weekends list of all time, behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and The Dark Knight. The Hunger Games has, therefore, grossed more on its opening weekend than any other non-sequel movie ever made.

That’s even more than the $142 million Twilight: New Moon made on its opening weekend. Here you go, yet another reason as to why The Hunger Games is not Twilight.

The appeal for the movie has been attributed to an array of factors ranging from the critical acclaim the movie has amassed, the high interest fueled by an engaging marketing campaign, the fandom of the books, to the wide range of audience that have seen it: interest was high among both female and male viewers.

The Hunger Games has also become its studio’s biggest hit ever in just three days. The previous best for Lionsgate was $116 million for Fahrenheit 9/11.

The next installment in the books Catching Fire is slated for a November 2013 release. With the reception this one has gotten, Catching Fire will be a volcano.

The Hunger Games is NOT Twilight

I had no intention to write such a post. But when I saw people on various platforms saying that The Hunger Games is just another Twilight, I simply had to step in to say no. Just no. And I think I am a qualified person to make the comparison. How so? Well, I’ve actually read both book series before the hype for their movies set in.

1 – The Books

There is a drastic difference between the themes of the books to begin with. The Hunger Games does not have supernatural human beings, let alone vampires or werewolves that have been so ruined in their portrayal that they’ve become a common source for jokes. The main characters of The Hunger Games are not driven by their incessant need to be loved but by their primal instinct for survival. Both may be intended for young adults and have a central female character but when it comes to the plot, protagonists and reception, the two series couldn’t be more different. Twilight is a fantasy love story, while The Hunger Games is an adventure about survival. That alone create a huge difference in the central elements of the book: where characters in one search for a boyfriend, the characters in another prepare for a revolution.

This brings me to point 2.

2- Katniss Everdeen and Bella Swan:

Bella’s struggles in Twilight is to choose between the sparkly vampire Edward and the transform-at-will werewolf Jacob. Her character is also nauseatingly one dimensional, useless and completely infatuated with mundane things, making her unlikeable.

Katniss is the exact opposite. Where Bella had things handed for her on a silver platter (boyfriend trouble don’t count as life problems), Katniss has to survive a world where the government has made the people hungry, where her mother is disconnected from the world and where she has to care for her only sister. Katniss’ world does not revolve around a boy, unlike Bella.

Bella is driven by her infatuation with Edward. Katniss is driven by her need to survive a cruel world. Katniss is a character young readers should look up to. Bella Swan is not.

3 – The Movies

Both movie series are turning out to be immensely popular. The Hunger Games has grossed over $25 million from midnight screenings alone. Twilight movies have broken records. Where they differ, however, is in the drastic critical reception. The Hunger Games has an aggregate score of more than 90% of positive reviews. Every single Twilight movie has been certified rotten by critics. You can read my review of The Hunger Games here. I didn’t even find it in me to review the latest Twilight movie. Enough said.

Perhaps both The Hunger Games and Twilight can be considered as a “teen” series. How that’s a bad thing, I’m not sure. The difference remains that one is absolutely relevant to what we’re living through today: revolutions, war, famine while the other lives in lala land. The fact remains that people need to get it in their heads that not anything that rings true with young adults needs to be compared with a preceding cultural phenomenon. Twilight was compared to Harry Potter. The Hunger Games is being compared to Twilight. How ridiculous, I know. When will such unfounded thoughts end? I have no clue.