Year: 2009

Marley & Me

The other day I went to the cinema to see an action movie. But for some reason, cinema management decided to swap the times and I ended up in a totally different film, one that I didn’t really want to see, but which was a better home than to return home – “Marley & Me“. By the way, the poster at the cinema is different from the image above. Poster shows Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston, and a little puppy. If it was only for the puppy, I’d have gone home.

Now that I’ve seen the film, I am actually glad that I didn’t go home that day. It was totally worth it. Yes, it had bits and pieces of your stereotypical romantic comedy and all the bits and pieces of a pet movie, but it had more than that. Firstly, there were parts that were really funny. And then there were parts which were really sad (even though, I have to admit, that I didn’t drop a single tear, not very usual). But the best part, if you ask me, is how the family life was shown. Particularly, married life, with kids. When moods swing, things change, but the main stays. And also how close sometimes a family gets to falling apart, and how it’s only a tiny little bit of patience that decides if it will stay together or break. I’ve seen many movies that tried to show this, but it was the first time that I’ve actually seen it done.

Overall, I’ll give it a 7 out of 10. It’s entertaining, emotional, and has a few things to think about. Good movie.

Photo toolbox refreshed

I finally saved enough courage to order some more stuff for my photo toolbox. It’s been a really long while (more than a couple of years) that I wanted to get a new lense, which would have a wider angle view than anything that already have, and a proper flash unit. And here I am, a proud owner of Canon 17-40mm f/4.0L USM lense and a Canon 430 EX II Speedlight flash, plus a bunch of new batteries, filters, hoods, and such.

As with any other new gadgets, there is a lot to read, learn, and try. But I am already happy with how it fits and how it works. Above you can see a self-portrait, practically the second image I took in almost fully automatic mode. Georgeous! This picture has all chances of becoming my new avatar or something. And, of course, a few more images were uploaded to my Flickr photostream. More to come.

Yes Man

Yesterday I saw “Yes Man” in the movies. I remember thinking that it should be a funny but pretty average film back when seeing the trailer. So I wasn’t expecting much of it. Due to the lack of options, decided to go see it anyway.

I have to say that I enjoyed it more than average. It was very kind, positive, and funny. Of course, it was a little bit sad, as is usual with Jim Carrey movies. But overall it was pretty good. Much better than expected. I don’t know if it was a combination of the film and my own mood, but by now I don’t even care. I laughed outloud a few times and that rarely has to do with my mood.

Grab it on DVD or see it at the movies – you’ll equally enjoy it. 7 out of 10.

The International

Yesterday I went to see “The International“. It’s not an outstanding movie in any way, but a well executed film in one of the genres that I happen to enjoy – conspiracy. (I’m not even sure that it’s a genre on its own)

Here you’ve got everything a good conspiracy movie should have – special agents, huge financial organizations, corruption, lots of assassignations, and a few good guys who are ready to do anything for justice. And, as always, they need to get bad for a greater good. All of that was mixed with gun fights, chases, good camera work, and some special effects. And it had Clive Owen in it. But the problem was that this film didn’t have anything (or not much at least) of original stuff. It was very much cliche.

Recommended for the fans of the genre. An overall of 7 out of 10.

Watchmen

“Watchmen” turned out to be quite a disappointment for me personally. Maybe that’s because I am not much into comics and maybe because I don’t know who watchmen are and how they came about. But still…

The poster was sort of speaking for itself, and film’s opening credits were pretty cool. It started pretty well. But then it went into a totally different direction. Instead of being your regular comics-based story with a bunch of good and bad guys, and a fight between them, this time it was all about the psychology and drama of a superhero. There were quite a few superheros, who, for some reason, didn’t seem to be really superheros, but rather a bunch of guys in weird costumes. They didn’t do anything superheroic, didn’t have any tricks up their sleeves, didn’t care much about anything else.

The visual effects were excellent, but with no base for those effects, no action, they started to grow pretty boring. And the film went on and on and on (almost 3 hours), and by the time of it I myself was almost falling asleep. I pulled it through, but barely.

If you are into superheros and everything that surrounds them, then you’ll probably enjoy this film. For me though it was somewhere on the scale of 3 out of 10.