Perfectly Casted Characters Pt1

We've said it a million times, we love when books become movies. We also go gaga over when a casting director nails their choices. It's not just about finding someone who just happens to look like the character... because lets face it sometimes they end up not looking anything like them. It's about having the right attitude, about being able to capture the emotions we felt towards the book, and about having a certain presence that will capture our hearts. Here are our choices for actors we thought nailed or will nail their page to premiere roles.

Shall we start with the most obvious one??? The entire cast of The Harry Potter Series... DUH Right!? But of course the even more obvious ones are Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint. We don't think the movie franchise would have been nearly as successful with anyone else playing Harry, Ron, and Hermione. The added bonus was for us getting to see them grow not only in age but in their acting. I think we can all agree that The Harry Potter Series is the most successful and well done book to screen.

Our next pick is Ansel Elgort as Augustus Waters in The Fault in our Stars. Wow, just wow. I think we really got everything we wanted when they cast him to play the tear jerking Augustus. His boyish charm, sweet persona, and down to earth attitude pulled from his real life ways made him the perfect match. Ansel has such a way about him and we think this was the perfect movie character for him to play. Being no stranger too the Ya book to film world we've also been able to see him play Caleb Prior in the Divergent Trilogy. As much as we love him in that role we just can't get enough of him in TFIOS. This gripping and emotional role might have been hard for most to reach, but dang it if he didn't make us feel all the feels that the book left us with. Well done movie world! Well done!

Next up we have a newbie to the book to film thing, and that is Mae Whitman in The Duff. We loved her version of Bianca. So comical and confident. Bianca's no care attitude was nailed by Mae. Bianca in the book might not have been our favorite, but movie Bianca was someone we loved. I mean when she wears that outfit made up of crocs and pajama pants I about died! She really brought all the sarcastic mojo needed to nail this roll. Everyone's calling this the new version of Mean Girls, and I think they would definitely fall into the same genre.

Don't have too ask me twice

Theo James as Four in Divergent! What? You've never heard of him? Ha, yeah we were just kidding... We know you have. Theo is an amazing example of when not just the actors attitude fits the person but so does their looks. Besides the eyes Four sounds like he was written based off of Theo James himself. "Spare upper lip, full lower lip, deep-set dark blue eyes (so dark they are almost black) long lashes, deep voice, more than six feet tall, muscular, ears that stick out, short hair, and large nose"... So mmm yeah pretty sure that sums up both Four and Theo description well. Theo did an amazing job portraying the tough as nails Four as well. We loved that Theo makes us feel like were still reading the book while we're watching the movie. Think we can all agree this casting director deserves a raise! Thank you!

On to the next one... Robert Sheehan as Simon in The Mortal Instruments City of Bones. We know a lot of people don't think Lily Collins was the perfect Clary, or that Sexy Campbell Bower was the best pick for Jace, but we think we can all agree that Robert Sheehan is an amazing choice for Simon. He has the I've been friend zoned so many times- best friends forever- I'm the one you should be introducing to your mother because hey I'm not your brother thing down. We love seeing Robert do interviews, his overall attitude both on and off the screen are so captivating. He brought all the heart eye for Clary and nerdy friend charm we were hoping to get.

There are a few people we would like to "Pre-mention"... We say it like that because they haven't actually starred in the film yet. BUT, we still think that they are going to portray their soon to be Page to Premieres perfectly.

Thomas Mann as Greg Gaines and RJ Cyler as Earl in the film version of Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl. Even though psychically both Thomas and RJ don't fit the part, the scenes we have already seen lead us to think that maybe changing their appearance up a bit was a good idea. RJ seems to have the sarcastic and surprisingly good friend attitude down and Thomas seems to have the I'm to awkward for this world idea nailed. We are both so excited to see this movie hit theaters.

Chloe Grace Moretz as Cassie Sullivan in The 5th Wave. This is the movie I (Angela) am most looking forward to seeing in 2016. I remember reading the book even before the movie was opted and thinking how amazing she would be as Cassie. Just seeing her in KickAss 1&2 sealed that deal for me. She's sassy, strong willed, and always says what shes thinking both on and off scree. She's also no stranger to P2P, staring in both Carrie and If I Stay. We know that she can do emotional while still giving us all the "Cassie is a complete bad ass" feels we need. It doesn't hurt that she is so close in age and physical appearance. The main reason we think she's going to nail this?.. Is because the book is all about the unbreakable bonds of family, and we all know Chloe and her family are tighter than glue in real life. January 2016 can't come soon enough!

And to wrap this all up we leave you with this.... The steamy fine and the man designed to blow girls minds... Nick Bateman as Miles Archer in Ugly Love. This film might actually defy science and get us pregnant. But why do we really think that he will crush this role with high standards? That's easy to answer, because the fans chose him. We as readers asked for him to play Miles Archer. And having an author and film makers listen makes all us coho fans very happy campers! We haven't gotten to witness a lot of his acting skills (only seen him in Hobo with a Shotgun) but I'll be honest... this film could just be him standing drinking a Capri sun for two hours and I wouldn't complain. He has the look and were hoping he has the attitude to to knock this role out the park. Seriously, why is 2016 so far away???

The Duff Movie Review

So last night we went out on a total GNO, like we usually do for page to premieres... We got on our bedroom slippers, threw on some yoga pants, grabbed some candy and headed out to our local theater for the 7oclock showing of The Duff. For those of you that might not know this movie is based off a book, The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger. From the previews, we knew that this was going to be a loose adaptation of the book, but we were excited nonetheless. 

The book follows 17-year-old Bianca Piper. She's the average looking, smart, quirky girl in her group of friends. Bianca has never had a problem being the less noticeable girl in the group until one night the most popular jock in school, Wesley Rush, tells her shes the "DUFF". 

The movie did an EXCELLENT job of taking what was on the pages of Keplinger's book and making it into something more. We went into this knowing that it was going be a "new age" version of Mean Girls, and suspected that's probably where it would stop and would more than likely fall on the side of way to grilled cheesy... BUT, this movie turned out to be a nice surprise. It was funny, witty, had great chosen actors, and went better than the book did. We spent most of the movie laughing our heads off at the witty jokes. I (Leah) know that I could relate to Bianca on SO many levels and every time she would say or do something hilariously awkward I would be like "OMG THAT IS SO ME" in my head!

Robbie Amell did an amazing job portraying jock turned nice guy Wesley, while giving his character both life

and humor. Skyler Samuels and Bianca Santos who played her best friends Casey and Jess were both sweet and well chosen sub characters. Bella Thorne who plays Madison, Bianca enemy in the film was someone I (Angela) thought was an interesting and not-so-good fit for the new Regina George in this movie. I again found myself pleasantly surprised. She ended up playing the part rather well. There's no doubt though who stole the show;  yes it was Ms. Bianca Piper herself. Mae Whitman was the perfect choice to play Bianca. She was funny, quirky, and took the character to the next level. She was just overall well portrayed. The movie also does a really great job with its supporting characters, such as teachers and Bianca's mom. They add an extra level of funny to the plot that you don't expect.

The movie itself was rocking just under two hours and I think that was the perfect length for this film. The Duff movie did an amazing job capturing what high meanness is really like all while managing to make audiences laugh. I know a lot of people are saying that this movie seems mean because it's focusing around just a negative word, but well let you know first hand it's not! It's just a coming of age story that shows a girl figuring out that high-school doesn't define you. You definitely have to not judge the book or the movie by the cover on this one. It starts out focusing on the negative but by the end you have a feel good story that leaves you walking away with a good message about being yourself.


Angela's Rating- 10/10 Stars (I liked it way better than the book)
Leah's Rating- 10/10 stars (Me too!!)

The Duff by Kody Keplinger

I'd never heard of this book until I saw a bunch of posts on IG about how it is becoming a movie. I love reading books then going to the movie premiere, so I decided to pick this one up. If you read the back cover of the book, it will literally tell you the entire plot of the story. Literally.

Ok, so let me start by saying this book was cute. It's definitely a fluff kind of read that you want when your brain feels like it can't compute anything and you need something easy and fun to read... Kind of like watching chick flicks on Lifetime. If you have ever been a teenage girl, you can more than likely relate to the main character, Bianca. If you are the cynical, sarcastic one out of your group of friends, you will most likely be able to relate to Bianca. She is a high school senior who is pretty average looking but is very smart. She has a tough outershell made of ssarcasmthat she uses to bottle up all of her feelings. She also has two gorgeous blond best friends that look like they should be on the cover of Teen People (is that even still around?). Basically, Bianca comes on some hard times in her personal life. Parents are divorcing, her long time crush has a girlfriend, her dad has a drinking problem, etc. She decides to distract herself from all of her problems by setting up a friends with benefits relationship with the school's gorgeous, rich manwhore, Wesley, who has not so affectionately nicknamed her "duffy" because she is the Duff (designated ugly fat friend) of her friend group. I mean, who wouldn't want to hook up with someone who insults you at every chance you get? Oh that crazy self esteem, who needs ya! Anyway, so they hook up a lot... A lot, a lot. But as FWB situations ALWAYS go, feelings eventually come in to play. Bianca knows Wesley will never like her because she will always be Duffy to him. On top of that, she has been basically ditching her friends for him and hiding all of the drama going on in her life from them, so they are all mad at each other. Yadda yadda yadda lots of drama later, happy ending.

I can seriously say that I can give this review without fear of spoilers because everything you could possibly want to know is on the back cover of the book. The whole thing is soooooooooo predictable that you pretty much know exactly what's going to happen as soon as you meet all the characters. The thing I disliked the most about the book was Bianca's inner monologue consisting of "He could never like me, right? Girls like me are destined to be the Monica Lewinskys of the world, not the politician's wife." It's really eyeroll worthy for the most part.

I do think it will make a cute movie because it will be very Mean Girl-ish with hotties and funny high school drama. Even though the book was mediocre at best, I'll definitely be seeing the movie in theaters. This isn't the type of book where you feel like you're going to miss something if you don't read the book first (especially since by the looks of the movie trailer, they just used the book as a very loose guideline... Actually I'm not even sure they are going to follow the book at all), so I wouldn't worry too much about it. That being said, it is an easy read and a good fluffy filler, so if you want something that doesn't require a lot of thinking and will give you a few laughs, give it a shot.

3/5 stars