I came across an excellent image which explains (one of the reasons) why movie piracy works.  Click the image for the larger, original version.

UnrealityMag runs a post with a whole bunch of posters for “Inglourious Basterds” movie.  These posters were drawn by various artists and are now collected into an exhibition.  But not only that!  Quentin Tarantino himself, signs the posters, which are being sold and all the money donated to help with the recent Haiti disaster.  Is that cool or what?  Check the link for more posters.

Here is something to wait for …

“Prince of Persia : The Sands of Time” is something to look for, whether you’ve played the computer game or not.

I wonder if that is just me or someone else out there can see the similarities between actors Oliver Platt and Aleksandr Shirvindt as well.  Oliver is a bit younger (born in 1960) than Aleksandr (born in 1934), but I still think they look very much alike.  Here are the pictures (shamelessly stolen from the Google Image search results) for you to have an idea.

Aleksandr Shirvindt

Oliver Platt

So, what do you think, do they look the same or is it my imagination?

I just came back from the movies, where I watched “2012“.  Initially, when I heard about this film, it sounded awesome.  I even posted the trailer in the blog, when I first saw it.  But then, it came to the cinemas and pretty much everyone I know went to see it, and I haven’t heard any exciting reviews yet.  Yes, the special effects are awesome.  Yes, they destroy the US and even pretty much all current Earth population.  Yes, it’s breath-taking at times.  But there was no excitement in those comments.  No thrill.  No sparks.  It almost felt like the movie was boring.  So, I wasn’t hurrying to see it.  But today I finally did.  First, because I had to.  Second, because all the other movies I’ve either seen or they suck.

So, I went to see “2012″ with lower expectations than I initially set.  And maybe that was exactly what I needed.  Because I quite enjoyed the film.  There were, of course, a few tongue-in-cheek moments, such as mobile telephony working when everything was falling under ground or a doctor with 2 hours of practice flying planes or a computer simulation being able to predict wave impacts up to the second during the time when nothing was certain.  But that doesn’t matter.  You get these in pretty much every movie these days.

What’s important is that the movie had something to show that you haven’t seen before.  Yes, everyone saw the end of the world movies.  But not at this scale.  Ground was falling, building were collapsing, giant waves were playing ping pong with huge ships, trains were flying over airplanes, and on, and on, and on.  Some of the scenes were so realistic, that I was grabbing my armchair’s handles.  And that happens rarely.

If you are not into huge scale special effects films, then this one still has some drama, romance, and comedy to offer.   Comedy especially.  I think it actually made the film so much better.  If everything that happened in the movie would have been given with the serious attitude, it would be way too boring and unrealistic.  But an occasional joke here and funny face there brought this film to life.  As did some of the acting.

Overall, I’d recommend this film to anyone who expects entertainment from a movie.  4 stars.

P.S.: If I still haven’t convinced you to see this film on a big screen, consider this: it was directed by Roland Emmerich, who also directed movies like “10,000 B.C.”, “The Day After Tomorrow”, “The Patriot”, “Godzilla”,  ”Independence Day”, “Universal Soldier” and a few others.

I just came back from the cinema where I watched “Law Abiding Citizen“.  I vaguely remember seeing a trailer for this film, but other than that it wasn’t ringing any bells or setting any expectations.  Even though 7.3/10 IMDB rating was promising.

The film turned out to be rather awesome!  From the first scenes it looked like it had enough of everything – drama, action, plot twists, etc.  It also felt nicely paced – not too fast, and not too slow.  And it was getting better with every scene.  I was somehow thinking that it would turn into one of those numerous revenge movies, where you could see through and predict things easily, but it didn’t.  Just when I thought I had it figured, the plot was taking another twist, turning the movie even more interesting.

It’s difficult to talk about specifics without giving spoilers away, but I’ll try.  While, as I said, I really enjoyed the film, the ending wasn’t up to the par with the rest of the film. It felt hurried into and even like it was from another movie or something.  I would prefer a different one.  But if there was a chance to shift the movie anywhere, I’d start the opposite direction after the scene with the judge.

Again, cryptically speaking to avoid spoilers, I think the film raises an excellent point on the fight of good and evil.  And, unlike many other movies that do the same, there is some really big and strong evil.  And, again, unlike in many other movies, the good is represented mighty powerful even if outnumbered.  And there is the fight between the two for the whole film.  But the ending spoils the fight a bit, since the fight and the whole point of counter-balancing one with another fades away for something else.  And I am not even sure what that something else is.

Anyway, nevermind the rant.  If you watch the film, you’ll know what I am talking about.  And I highly recommend that you do.  There is something for everyone and there is a lot for people who like this type of films.  5 stars.

I couple of days ago I went to see “District 9“.  I’ve been waiting for the movie and finally it hit the Cyprus cinemas.   I’ve seen the trailer and heard a lot of people spreading good word of a mouth about the film, but wanted to see it for myself.

It turned out to be an excellent movie.  First of all, it didn’t follow those typical Hollywood storylines.  It actually had an orignal story, which it told in a rather original way of pseudo-documentary.  Not that we didn’t have pseudo-documentaries in the movies before, but I don’t remember the genre used for an alien story.

Secondly, it was nice to see action taking place somewhere else.  Not New York, not London, not Paris.  Not even US or Europe.  Not even Mexico. Africa.   And not the bushmen Africa, but a rather large city of Johannesburg.

Thidly, there was plenty of good acting.  Most of the actors are not the mainstream well-known faces.  But the talent is there.  Interesting, how unknown actors together with an original story make this film so much more realistic and believable.

Fourthly, there is a whole lot of special effects and CGI.  With Peter Jackson being one of the producers, you wouldn’t expect anything else.  But all those effects were integrated in the film in a very natural way.  After all, the film was about people and aliens, and not about special effects.

Overall, I enjoyed the film quite a bit.  It was engaging, original, entertaining, and gave me something to think about.  And I don’t ask for anything else from a movie.  5 stars.

Just got back from the cinema, where I watched “Funny People“.  When I saw the trailer, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see this film or not.  There were a funny scenes, but it looked like a cliché, more or less.   But then I saw a 7.3/10 rating at IMDB and decided that I want to see that.

The film turned out to be quite good.  It’s not really a comedy in the sense that you’d expect from the title, poster, and trailer.  It’s more of a drama with a few funny bits in it.   And while it does follow a sort of cliché story, it does it in an interesting way.  The best to describe it I guess, is with a bad racing car analogy -- you can see the track and you sort of know where the car will go, but it still surprises you with its dynamics and by getting off the track at a few turns.  Except that the film is actually good.  You sort of know how it will end and how you’ll get there, but there are a few things which come slower or faster than you’d expect.

All in all, it was a kind, thought provoking, and at times quite funny movie.  Recommended, with 4 stars.  And if you want to see the trailer, here it is:

A few days ago I watched “Sleepers“.  I guess the title of the movie makes it sound like a horror film and that’s why I missed it for all these years.  Somehow this time I decided to check the cast and was very surprised to find so many celebrities in – Kevin Bacon, Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, and a few others.

The film turned out be excellent.  First of all, the story, which is fascinating.  It is said to be based on a true story, however there are only so many people who can back it up.  But it’s not really important if it is true or not.   It’s realistic enough and has enough unexpected twists and turns.

Secondly, plenty of good acting.  There was enough freedom given to each of the actors, and there was enough to explore and enough screen time to show the results.

Thirdly, the technical part.  While the film didn’t need as much of special effects as any modern action film (which it is not), there were quite a few challenges, which were solved nicely.  The back in time feeling, boys’ memories, and the atmosphere for each scene, varying from childish fun to adult sadness – all were done excellent.

Overall, a highly recommended movie with 5 stars from me.