Depression and Disaster

Kirsten Dunst gave an award winning performance in the film Melancholia.  This 2011 psychological disaster movie about a planet called Melancholia was hiding behind the Earth's sun and is now on a collision course with Earth to destroy it.  Justine, played by Dunst has everything going for her in life however, she is going through depression.  Her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her husband John (Keifer Sutherland) start off by throwing a lavish reception for Justine and her new husband Michael (Alexander Skarsgard).  Director Lars von Trier demonstrates two sides of this movie through the eyes of Justine and Claire.  The comparison of how an extremely depressed woman and a woman that's in control of her life deal with the end of the world is ambiguous and fascinating. The still life photography and the cinematography is absolutely brilliant.  You will either love this story for its symbolism and psychology or dislike it because of it.  Either way, its a beautiful and mesmerizing story.

Snow White with a Dark Side

Snow White and the Huntsman starring Twilight's Kristen Stewart as Snow White and Charlize Theron as Ravenna the Evil Queen in the dark version of the Brothers Grimm Snow White and the seven dwarfs. Though the story lacked some substance and clarity in parts and became a bit whiny with Kristin Stewart staring off into space at times with her big beautiful vacant eyes, there were some excellent acting done in the movie that should be credited. Of course you can't miss the eye candy of Chris Hemsworth. Charlize Theron did an excellent job as the evil Queen Ravenna and the special effects around her costume were brilliant. Sam Spruell who plays her evil brother and enforcer Finn is a coward and person to look out for and was a direct connection to his sister in more ways then one. The dwarves or little people headed by Bob Hoskins just like in the dark tale, liked their drink,  told tales and sang but got down to business when it came down to protecting their princess. The cinematography and CGI was fantastic and the story does pick up in parts here and there. It's worth seeing.

Beauty and the Beast Wannabe!

Beastly is supposed to be an updated version of Beauty and the Beast.  Apparently, Daniel Barnz, the writer and the director of this film forgot the concept and the story.  I saw it is was showing on cable one day and thought, "why not...it can't be that bad!"  Well...

Alex Pettyfer who portrays Kyle/The Beast plays this character much like he acted in the movie "I Am Number Four" as "John Smith", brooding with an attitude and never really learning his lesson until the end.  At least in that movie you have a good soundtrack!  Kyle is a pretentious and mean young man and he humiliates the wrong person.  A young lady named Kendra that unknown to him is a witch played by Mary-Kate Olsen.  She retaliates and puts a hex on him and will not lift the curse until he learns a lesson.  His father who acts no better than he does, leaves him with his housekeeper and a blind tutor played by Neil Patrick Harris.  Lindy, the "beauty" that Kyle falls for brings a little brightness to the story but only a little.  The story becomes too trivial and you start to lose interest in Kyle and his immediate problem.  I can see why this film was forgettable in the theaters and it didn't last that long on the cable stations either.  That is not a good sign.

Rotten Tomatoes

An Unexpected Hero

Peter Jackson's The Hobbit:  An Unexpected Journey was surprisingly entertaining for me especially since I never saw any of the Lord of the Ring movies.  I also liked that the story was explained for novices like me and I was able to follow along and look forward to watching the trilogy movies.  The story starts off with Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit, sixty years in the future writing his story about his unexpected adventure with Gandolf the Wizard and thirteen dwarves who are trying to reclaim their lost dwarf kingdom of Eredor.  It was overtaken by Smaug the dragon many years ago.  The new dwarf king, Thorin, who has unresolved issues with the elves for deserting his people many years ago and a strong desire to regain the dwarves home, leads this group through Middle Earth where they run into many dangers along the way.  One of my favorite scenes is with the goblins.  The visual effects of that scene was fantastic and of course the cinematography was great throughout the movie.  With so many shots done aerially and the movement of the camera, looking at some of the scenes was a bit dizzying and some scenes can make you feel a bit uneasy.  The beginning is long but that's Peter Jackson's signature.  However, once you get pass that, it is a fun movie. The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey is definitely worth it's weight in gold literally.

A different kind of Princess

Before I begin my review, I would like to remark that the dedication to Steve Jobs at the end of the movie was respectful and well deserved.




Brave, an animated movie by Disney and Pixar set in what I perceive is late 19th to perhaps early 20th century Scotland, about Princess Merida, daughter to Queen Elinor and King Fergus whose fate has been chosen by her parents and who decides to choose her own fate.  In order for her to change her fate, Princess Merida feels she has no other  recourse but to rely on the help of an old witch that turns out to be her undoing and finds herself running out of time to right many wrongs when she takes this course of action.  Brave is depicted  as a children's movie and on some levels it is.  The playfulness of Merida's brothers are wonderful and enjoyable to see. The camaraderie between the King and the other clan leaders are endearing and at times playful along with elements in the forest that are pure Disney will definitely entertain the children.  The vibrant red curly hair of Merida and her brothers and the beautiful cinematography are unforgettable.   However, some elements that were more understandably for an older child were the underlining "coming of age", "mothers and daughters" and "trust and respect" issues.  The Scottish accent was very heavy and I'm sure if children were not thrown by it, many adults might have been.  I watch a lot of foreign films and the BBC, so I was not put off by it, but we are talking about a bigger and younger audience.  Overall this was not a bad film,  I loved it and would recommend seeing it.  I'm just blowing caution to the wind to parents with very young children who believe the story is one thing and it turns out to be something very different.  Otherwise, sit back and enjoy a very well made movie.

Super apes with a vengeance

Rise of the Planet of the Apes was excellent.  This was only the second movie so far this year that I would love to see over and over again.  Ok...I am a fan back when Charlton Heston starred in the first Planet of the Apes.  The cgi in this film was amazing.  Congrats to the visual arts team.  The expressions on Cesar's face and body language was unbelievable.  The story is pretty much the beginning of the Planet of the Apes saga.  Cesar's mother, a chimpanzee used in an experiment to find out how to enhance the brain functions is mistakenly killed trying to protect her baby, Cesar.  The experiments stop and James Franco (Will) takes the baby chimp home and gets help from Freida Pinto (Caroline) a vet and is joined by his sick father John Lithgow (Charles).  Cesar has the serum in him from his mother.  Cesar becomes older and wiser and that is when things start to become complicated.  This movie keeps you engaged and excited.  It was a great movie and I highly recommend it being seen.

Harry Potter ends

Harry Potter, Hermime and Ron are together one last time.  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2 was a fast paced and emotional movie for all the Harry Potter fans.  The battle of good verses evil and the final fight of Harry and Voldemort bought excitement and anticipation to us all.  There were a lot of questions answered which was nice.  Many fans will miss Harry Potter, but what a wonderful run of very likable characters.

Thor -Superhero or eye candy

Thor was an unexpectedly good movie. I thought...oh not another superhero movie but I was surprised that it really kept my attention. The story is about two sons who are be up for heir to their father's throne and to be king to a city of gods. They are somewhat at peace with a civilization of a frozen-like race on the brink of war. The eldest son is cocky and gets exiled to Earth. While he is gone, things start to fall apart for his planet. The movie goes in the direction of good verses evil and the innocent are caught in the middle. The cgi was great and the cinematograhy was fantastic. I left the movie a little puzzled with the extent of the story line of Earth. It reminded me of the extra unnecessary existence of extra pirates run by Yun Phat's character in the third Pirates movie. It would have been a better movie without the extra part. The move Thor is enjoyable and I saw it twice so that should tell you something.

Hannah - revenge at it's best

Hannah, played by Saoirse Ronan was wonderful.  I like the fact that not only did she play a foreigner but she looked so European as well.  It just made the movie more authentic in my eyes.  The story about a genetically produced child trained to protect herself because she becomes too dangerous to have around anymore.  Hanna is taught through books and fairy tales and wants to get out and experience all she has learned.  She finds out things that make her more dangerous and sad and gives you a feeling that revenge can be sweet.  Eric Bana, who plays her father surprised me with his acting abilities in this movie.  There wasn't that much in the way of dialogue but he was threatening in stature.  Cate Blanchett played a tough selfish agent bent on keeping what she had done for her country and herself secret.  This story is not an "original" story but the acting and the closeup shots were incredible.  I wish there were more shots showing the scope of the countries they shot in, but you can't have anything.

Sucker Punch - Punchless...

The movie Sucker Punch is a fantasy based cgi movie that takes a young girl (baby doll's) life which is tragic and pitiful and is supposed to remove her from her unfortunate circumstances and give her a chance at happiness.  The story gets lost when she goes into this fantasy world kicking butt with her new found friends.  Things start to become complicated when she realizes that this journey is not only about her. The graphics in this movie was terrific, but the story fell short in what it was trying to accomplish.  Too bad the writers or the director didn't work as hard on the direction and the story or give the talented actors  much to work with as they did putting in the time to get the graphics right.

Movie Review

"I Am Number Four" is a science fiction/fantasy teenage movie about human looking aliens from another planet whose people have systematically been killed off.  Alien assassins are hunting and killing nine specially powered young people to complete their mission.  Number three was killed along with his keeper and now they are after number four.  The first two are dead and the story never really goes into detail about that.  Number 4 (John) of course wants to be a normal teenager but is reminded to stay off the grid so that he is not found.  Well...how easy is that in terms of the Internet and smart phones?  This movie have some references to different movies such as Superman, Twilight and Transformers.  The teenagers, the girlfriend, the geek sci-fi friend who wants to believe and who has a father that could hold the key to the whole situation.  The way the movie ended means there will be a sequel.  I Am Number Four is not a bad movie.  It's entertaining and if you are looking for a light distraction with no real strain on the brain, then sit and enjoy the show.

Green Hornet

The question that comes to mind after seeing the Green Hornet is why do you need the Green Hornet and what is his actual purpose?  Not only was the so called hero upstaged by his partner Kato, he was also upstaged by the car.  Tom Wilkinson, Edward James Olmos and Cameron Diaz were unfortunately dragged into this poorly written movie trying hard to play straight and serious parts in this pathetic movie.  On a short positive note, there were some scenes that were funny because they were a rip off of the Pink Panther.  There was the same idea in the Pink Panther of a love/hate relationship between Clouseau and Cato that was used in this movie.  The Green Hornet left me with a bad taste in my mouth and a question mark on the top of my head.