As I promised here are the next reviews:
Transformers
Some things I never really understood. For example, why all my friends liked Transformers so much when I was a kid. I always thought they were stupid and boring, and therefore I didn't even consider watching "Transformers" at a theatre.
But sometimes even I can be proven wrong.
From the first minute of the movie I was weirdly drawn to it. It's humour, it's crazy protagonist and it's awesome special effects, even though I've seen better.
The story is pretty simple. The Autobots and the Decepticons have come to earth to find the All Spark, the object that created their robotic race. The Autobots want to destroy it, because the Decepticons are planing to turn all machines on earth into an evil army.
Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is madly in love with Mikaela (Megan Fox). But he is more or less a loser. This changes when he and his father go and buy Sam's first car. The old Camaro turns out to be Bumblebee, one of the Autobots, who tries to help Sam to get to Mikaela.
When the Decepticons find out the location of the All Spark they invade earth and the battle with the Autobots begins...
"Transformers" is more or less your average comic movie:
You have a loser that is in love with the hottest girl in school. He finds out that he has superpowers or gets something that has superpowers. This something has to save the earth in the end and the loser gets the beautiful girl.
Simple and effective, but it works really good once more in Transformers. The humour is really great and something completely different from this years serious adations like "Iron Man" and "The Dark Knight".
The plot is more or less solid and has no real surprises, but it nevertheless entertains throughout all the 138 minutes.
The actors are good, although you don't have to expect Academy Award worthy performances. But you have to mention that Megan Fox is really überfoxy. Her pure presence is absolutely steamy. With this as a bonus and an absolutely entertaining 2 hours I give:
8.0 out of 10 mutating cars
Into the Wild
Every year there are movies made by people who I wouldn't consider as powerful directors. Last year one of this movies was "Into the Wild" by Sean Penn. His fourth feature film tells the story of Christopher McCandless who decides to travel through the USA shortly after his college graduation. His doesn't tell his family that he is planning a trip because he doesn't want them to hunt him down. He wants to leave everything behind. At first he travels west to Arizona, then down the Colorado river into Mexico and next up north through California to go to Alaska. On his travels he meets a lot of different people. For example Jan and Rainey, a hippie-couple that drives through the country, or Ron Franz, an old leather craftsman who wants to adopt Christopher, because he has no children of his own.
The plot is told like puzzle. At first we see Christopher discovering his "magic" bus in the wilderness of Alaska. Then we always jump back in time. In these fragments we learn Christopher's story and the how and why he went to Alaska. He is a frustrated young adult who cannot bear living with his parents and their expectations. He decides to get reborn, but not in a religious way, but in his own spiritual and natural way. His journey is subdivided in chapters of a life: Childhhod, Adolescence, Manhood and The Gaining of Wisdom.
The movie is based on the true story of Christopher McCandless which has been published as a non-fictional novel by Jon Krakauer in 1996.
I haven't read the book so far, but what Sean Penn does with the material is truthfully and honestly a masterpiece. The movie has an official running time of 148 minutes. These 2 and a half hours fly by. The plot is constructed to be entertaining, thought-provoking and pittoresque. And it works perfectly fine, given the fact that the people Christopher meets are interesting, their stories make you wonder about society and the nature, especially of Alaska are breathtakingly beautiful. Sean Penn's director's eye is unique and his style of presenting people and nature is phenomenal.
The cast proves to be phenomenal as well. I've seen Emile Hirsch in "The Girl Next Door", which wasn't the top of acting, but what he establishes here is outstanding for a 22-year-old. His resemblance with the real Chris McCandless is remarkable and his acting is top-notch. But the rest of the ensemble is marvellous as well:
Catherine Keener as hippie Jan is heartwarming, William Hurt as Walt McCandless, Chris' father is very strong and 82-year-old Hal Holbrook as Ron Franz deserves his Academy Award nomination for "Best Supporting Actor".
Another thing that I have to mention is the shots of the countryside. Alaska, California and Arizona are shot beautifully and make it impossible to not get infected with wanderlust. The Grand Canyon is such an amazing wonder of nature and the Alaskan tundra is gorgeous.
The last thing that makes this movie a perfect masterpiece is the score by Eddie Vedder who received a Golden Globe for his song "Guaranteed". The quiet and yet powerful songs plus the intertextual references are conductive to one of the most beautiful and saddest movies about human society I've seen in a very long time.
9.6 out 10 travelling scholars of life and nature
Please watch this movie! It is absolutely wonderful!
That's it for today folks!
Samstag, 27. Dezember 2008
#31
Hello everyone!
So Christmas seems to be a good time of the year to watch some movies. At least I used the spare time and I watched:
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
After I saw the first 5-6 episodes of the series, which in my opinion is a little bit boring due to the fact that each episode is really short, I wanted to watch the film. Neither the critics nor the general public seemed to like it (rotten tomatoes has an average of 18% and imdb shows an average of 5.3/10). But I wanted to watch the movie with as little prejudice as possible.
So I did and I have to admit that I ended up liking it. Or I felt entertained for the most part.
Even though the only voices from the real movie where those of Sam Jackson and Christopher Lee, I did not have the feeling that something important was missing. Especially happy made me the fact that they couldn't/didn't get Hayden Christensen. I liked Anakin for the first time since "The Phantom Menace".
The story is really simple, but who could be surprised given the fact that this movie is only a lead-in to the series. Jabba the Hutt's is being kidnapped by Count Dooku's assasin Asajj Ventress and held captive on a nearby planet. Anakin and his new Padawan Ahsoka are sent to rescue the Huttlet. But Dooku set the kidnapping up to make Jabba believe that the Jedi want to kill the Hutt Clan. So Anakin and his padawan have to save the Huttlet, return to Tatooine and bring him back safely.
The plot is no fireworks of imagination and big surprises but it is Star Wars.
The setting is great, the score is fantastic as always, the humour is really well placed and the new characters fit perfectly into the world.
One of the biggest problems seemed to be the 3-D look of the movie. I personally like it very much. Some less important sceneries are scarce, but the important settings are detailed and enarmored.
7.4 out of 10 fighting Clones
Eagle Eye
Sometimes there are movies which I want to see because I like one or more actors. Sometimes I want to see a movie because I liked the trailer. Sometimes I want to watch a movie because of a recommendation of one of my friends. And sometimes neither of this applies and I watch a movie out of mere curiousity. With "Eagle Eye" the latter one was the case:
The actors are ok, the trailer was mere average and none of my friends had seen it thus far, but there was something that attracted to this flick.
The plot in short:
Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) gets home and finds his appartment stuffed with material to build bombs etc. He gets a call in which a female voice tels him to leave the appartment in the next 30 seconds, because the FBI will be there.
Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan) kisses her son goodbye. He's going on a band trip to Washington. As she leaves the station she gets a call as well. She's being told that she has to get into a Porsche Cayenne and drive to a location in order to see her son alive again.
They both want to refuse, but the female voice shows them that she is far more powerful than the two are. They are being sent on a mission that could change the USA forever...
At the beginning of the movie the plot seems to be solid but not out of the ordinary, but the further the story goes the more intriguided you get, because the real plot unravels itself slowly but thrillingly.
The acting is solid, the score is fitting and the character constellation is really good.
What the movie is missing are surprises, because even though the story is revealed slowly you never think: "Wow, that was unexpected!"
Still "Eagle Eye" has it's strengths and knows to entertain. Especially the relationship of Jerry and Rachel (LaBeouf and Monaghan) is thrilling and makes you wonder throughout the whole movie whether or not there will be a kiss.
Another thing worth mentioning is Billy Bob Thornton's performance as FBI Agent Thomas Morgan. He is incredibly sarcastic and really cool at the same time.
For an alltogether positive and entertaining movie I give:
8.2 out of 10 unknown female callers
Stay tuned for a review of Transformers and another movie during the next couple of days. That's all folks!
So Christmas seems to be a good time of the year to watch some movies. At least I used the spare time and I watched:
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
After I saw the first 5-6 episodes of the series, which in my opinion is a little bit boring due to the fact that each episode is really short, I wanted to watch the film. Neither the critics nor the general public seemed to like it (rotten tomatoes has an average of 18% and imdb shows an average of 5.3/10). But I wanted to watch the movie with as little prejudice as possible.
So I did and I have to admit that I ended up liking it. Or I felt entertained for the most part.
Even though the only voices from the real movie where those of Sam Jackson and Christopher Lee, I did not have the feeling that something important was missing. Especially happy made me the fact that they couldn't/didn't get Hayden Christensen. I liked Anakin for the first time since "The Phantom Menace".
The story is really simple, but who could be surprised given the fact that this movie is only a lead-in to the series. Jabba the Hutt's is being kidnapped by Count Dooku's assasin Asajj Ventress and held captive on a nearby planet. Anakin and his new Padawan Ahsoka are sent to rescue the Huttlet. But Dooku set the kidnapping up to make Jabba believe that the Jedi want to kill the Hutt Clan. So Anakin and his padawan have to save the Huttlet, return to Tatooine and bring him back safely.
The plot is no fireworks of imagination and big surprises but it is Star Wars.
The setting is great, the score is fantastic as always, the humour is really well placed and the new characters fit perfectly into the world.
One of the biggest problems seemed to be the 3-D look of the movie. I personally like it very much. Some less important sceneries are scarce, but the important settings are detailed and enarmored.
7.4 out of 10 fighting Clones
Eagle Eye
Sometimes there are movies which I want to see because I like one or more actors. Sometimes I want to see a movie because I liked the trailer. Sometimes I want to watch a movie because of a recommendation of one of my friends. And sometimes neither of this applies and I watch a movie out of mere curiousity. With "Eagle Eye" the latter one was the case:
The actors are ok, the trailer was mere average and none of my friends had seen it thus far, but there was something that attracted to this flick.
The plot in short:
Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) gets home and finds his appartment stuffed with material to build bombs etc. He gets a call in which a female voice tels him to leave the appartment in the next 30 seconds, because the FBI will be there.
Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan) kisses her son goodbye. He's going on a band trip to Washington. As she leaves the station she gets a call as well. She's being told that she has to get into a Porsche Cayenne and drive to a location in order to see her son alive again.
They both want to refuse, but the female voice shows them that she is far more powerful than the two are. They are being sent on a mission that could change the USA forever...
At the beginning of the movie the plot seems to be solid but not out of the ordinary, but the further the story goes the more intriguided you get, because the real plot unravels itself slowly but thrillingly.
The acting is solid, the score is fitting and the character constellation is really good.
What the movie is missing are surprises, because even though the story is revealed slowly you never think: "Wow, that was unexpected!"
Still "Eagle Eye" has it's strengths and knows to entertain. Especially the relationship of Jerry and Rachel (LaBeouf and Monaghan) is thrilling and makes you wonder throughout the whole movie whether or not there will be a kiss.
Another thing worth mentioning is Billy Bob Thornton's performance as FBI Agent Thomas Morgan. He is incredibly sarcastic and really cool at the same time.
For an alltogether positive and entertaining movie I give:
8.2 out of 10 unknown female callers
Stay tuned for a review of Transformers and another movie during the next couple of days. That's all folks!
Mittwoch, 24. Dezember 2008
#30
Christmas Update:
So I've been really lazy during the last weeks, but I decided to enjoy everybody who might be reading this blog with a Christmas Update. So here are a couple of quick reviews of films that I've seen since "Wanted":
Quantum of Solace:
Since I wasn't expecting a movie as good as "Casino Royale" I wasn't as disappointed as some of the reviewers and critics. I liked the way Marc Foster varied between fast Action and slow dialog-heavy parts. It may be that this was also present in "Casino Royale" but I only noticed it in "QoS". The plot, nevertheless, was a bit sparse. It didn't electrify me, but I was never bored.
But seing as it as still a Bond film I was really disappointed in the "Bond Girls".
Strawberry Fields? Come on, seriously? Poor Miss Arterton was more than underchallenged. I think there is a lot more to her as an actress than shown in "Quantum of Solace".
I liked Olga Kyrilenko though. She wasn't as tough and emancipated as Eva Green in "Casino Royale", but she still had an aura of independence which I really fell for.
7.8 out of 10 Martinis
Thirteen:
As a huge fan of both, Evan Rachel Wood and Holly Hunter, I was surprised that I hadn't bought this beautiful movie about the problems of a teenage girl who wants to be more popular at school, but has to deal with parental and familial problems at home, where her mother accomodates everybody who needs to crash for a couple of nights, because she cannot say no.
This movie is more of a social analysis of destroyed families than a mere Hollywood movie, and I love it. Holly Hunter and especially Evan Rachel Wood have an incredible onscreen presence which makes it feel more like a documentary than a drama, if it weren't for the perfectly lit and aranged locations. "Thirteen" is not a feel good movie, but it shows the world as it is in a nearly perfect manner which makes it impossible not to be impressed by the fact that actress Nikki Reed, who plays the popular girl who's even more emotionally damaged than Wood and Hunter, wrote the script at age 14 together with director Catherine Hardwicke.
At first it seems to be an ordinary film about a girl wanting to be the popular girl, and we've surely had enough of these flicks by now, but it turns out to be so much more. If you want to learn something about how families really work, watch this movie.
8.6 out of 10 homemade navel piercings
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium:
It's always nice to see that there are still movies made which make you feel like you're a child again. This is absolutely the case with "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium", a movie about a 243-year-old man who owns a magical toy store. Edward Magorium (played by a wonderfully sweet Dustin Hoffman) has only turned 243 because he was never bored in his life and most of the time he lifes his fantasies. And now, in 2007, he is looking forward to his next big adventure: death. He wants to leave his store to young Molly Mahoney, a pianist who has never lived up to her potential due to lack of self-confidence.
But when Magorium tells Molly that he is leaving the store gets upset and looses his magical powers, because Molly doesn't believe in magic without Edward Magorium. Luckily she has little Eric Applebaum and Henry Weston to make her believe in herself.
"Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" is the first movie from director Zach Helm, writer of the wonderful film "Stranger than Fiction". It is a movie that lives from two things: a) the love to detail that Zach Helm shows and b) the warmhearted performances by Dustin Hoffman and Natalie Portman, which make the movie feel like a modern fairy-tale.
Of course it is a movie that mostly children will like and of course it is difficult to fall for such a movie when you're a rational adult, but given the fact that I always try to keep my rationality to an acceptable level and preserve my childishness to a certain degree, it is no surprise that I really enjoyed this movie. It simply is a feel good movie and thus it lives up to the expectations.
8.2 out of 10 stupid zebras
That's all folks!
So I've been really lazy during the last weeks, but I decided to enjoy everybody who might be reading this blog with a Christmas Update. So here are a couple of quick reviews of films that I've seen since "Wanted":
Quantum of Solace:
Since I wasn't expecting a movie as good as "Casino Royale" I wasn't as disappointed as some of the reviewers and critics. I liked the way Marc Foster varied between fast Action and slow dialog-heavy parts. It may be that this was also present in "Casino Royale" but I only noticed it in "QoS". The plot, nevertheless, was a bit sparse. It didn't electrify me, but I was never bored.
But seing as it as still a Bond film I was really disappointed in the "Bond Girls".
Strawberry Fields? Come on, seriously? Poor Miss Arterton was more than underchallenged. I think there is a lot more to her as an actress than shown in "Quantum of Solace".
I liked Olga Kyrilenko though. She wasn't as tough and emancipated as Eva Green in "Casino Royale", but she still had an aura of independence which I really fell for.
7.8 out of 10 Martinis
Thirteen:
As a huge fan of both, Evan Rachel Wood and Holly Hunter, I was surprised that I hadn't bought this beautiful movie about the problems of a teenage girl who wants to be more popular at school, but has to deal with parental and familial problems at home, where her mother accomodates everybody who needs to crash for a couple of nights, because she cannot say no.
This movie is more of a social analysis of destroyed families than a mere Hollywood movie, and I love it. Holly Hunter and especially Evan Rachel Wood have an incredible onscreen presence which makes it feel more like a documentary than a drama, if it weren't for the perfectly lit and aranged locations. "Thirteen" is not a feel good movie, but it shows the world as it is in a nearly perfect manner which makes it impossible not to be impressed by the fact that actress Nikki Reed, who plays the popular girl who's even more emotionally damaged than Wood and Hunter, wrote the script at age 14 together with director Catherine Hardwicke.
At first it seems to be an ordinary film about a girl wanting to be the popular girl, and we've surely had enough of these flicks by now, but it turns out to be so much more. If you want to learn something about how families really work, watch this movie.
8.6 out of 10 homemade navel piercings
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium:
It's always nice to see that there are still movies made which make you feel like you're a child again. This is absolutely the case with "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium", a movie about a 243-year-old man who owns a magical toy store. Edward Magorium (played by a wonderfully sweet Dustin Hoffman) has only turned 243 because he was never bored in his life and most of the time he lifes his fantasies. And now, in 2007, he is looking forward to his next big adventure: death. He wants to leave his store to young Molly Mahoney, a pianist who has never lived up to her potential due to lack of self-confidence.
But when Magorium tells Molly that he is leaving the store gets upset and looses his magical powers, because Molly doesn't believe in magic without Edward Magorium. Luckily she has little Eric Applebaum and Henry Weston to make her believe in herself.
"Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" is the first movie from director Zach Helm, writer of the wonderful film "Stranger than Fiction". It is a movie that lives from two things: a) the love to detail that Zach Helm shows and b) the warmhearted performances by Dustin Hoffman and Natalie Portman, which make the movie feel like a modern fairy-tale.
Of course it is a movie that mostly children will like and of course it is difficult to fall for such a movie when you're a rational adult, but given the fact that I always try to keep my rationality to an acceptable level and preserve my childishness to a certain degree, it is no surprise that I really enjoyed this movie. It simply is a feel good movie and thus it lives up to the expectations.
8.2 out of 10 stupid zebras
That's all folks!
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