Category: Movies

I am a huge movies fan. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I don’t get much free time to enjoy watching movies. But when I do, I try to share my thoughts about the movies that I’ve seen. Movie reviews, celebrity news, trailers of upcoming flicks, etc – are all in this category.

District 9

District 9

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.

Funny People

Funny People

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:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24VVnvrjI8w]

Sleepers

Sleepers

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.

Gamer

Gamer

Went to see “Gamer” in the movies yesterday.  As you might know, I actually expected this film.

It turned out to be quite a disappointment – silly story with a lot of non-sense, very shallow characters, horrible dialogues, extremely annoying shaky camera and fast cut editing, and overall feeling of pop.  There were some good special effects, but they were practically lost to fast cuts and horrible rush through the movie.

Overall rating 2 stars.