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.

No Country For Old Man

I went to see “No Country For Old Man“.  I’ve heard some buzz about this film – with it getting major ratings and collecting a few Oscars – but I never read too deep into it or even watched a trailer.

The movie turned out to be pretty good indeed.  An interesting story, nice story telling, good photography, pretty good acting on all parts, and so on.  But what really captured my attention was the quietness.  This is probably the most quiet movie I’ve seen in years.   Even though it has a few gun shots here and there, I was struck by an almost total absence of soundtrack, as well as how quiet actors are speaking. It almost sounded like real life, where people don’t argue, shout, or kill each other every 15 seconds…

This quietness wasn’t only in the sound.  It was also in visuals and acting.   Many modern films, especially those that involve guns, choose to go for stunning special effects with bits and pieces flying around, smoke covering up things, etc.   None of that happened in this film.  There were some special effects, but they were very moderate and appropriate, without destructing attention.  Same goes for acting.  Although there are some high profile actors, such as Tommy Lee Jones and Woody Harrelson, they aren’t shining.  They do their job and do it well, again, without stealing any attention from the film itself.

I rated the film as 8 out of 10.

Shoot ‘Em Up

I went to the movies with some friends to watch “Shoot ‘Em Up“.  I had some expectations for the film, since I liked the trailer and the cast, and the title was somewhat promising.  I’m glad to report that the film was by far better than any of my expectations.  I really enjoyed it from start till the end, plus the credits, minus the break, which some of the cinema halls are still doing (silly!).

What did I expect from this film?  Entertainment.  I wanted it to be a good action movie, with lots of shooting, car chases, and humor.  Visuals, sounds, special effects, and dynamics of it all.  It was all in there.  And more.

I ranked this film as 5 out of 5, 10 out of 10, and the best out of the best without even thinking for far too long, and, to be truly honest, even before the movie was over.  That’s how much I enjoyed it.  But just in case you are skeptical, here are a few points, which I considered (I’ll try to make at as spoiler free as I can):

  • Action!  I wanted a lot of action and I got it.  It was all action and very little of anything else except for the action.  I don’t think there was a single minute in the film without somebody shooting somebody, aiming at somebody, ambushing somebody, or planning to shoot somebody.  The title of the film is a very well chosen motto.
  • Acting.  Three main roles were played by Clive Oven, Paul Giamatti, and Monica Bellucci.  Clive Oven is an excellent choice for this sort of movie, especially considering how well he did in “Inside Man“, “Sin City“, and BMW’s “Hire” series.  Paul Giamatti is an excellent actor too.  He is not as well known as he should be, and this film was yet another opportunity for him to show himself.  He was great!  In fact, it’s been a long time since I enjoyed acting in the action movie this much.  (Tarantino’s cast doesn’t count).  As for Monica Bellucci – she is a very beautiful woman and a good actress, but I am not a big fan of her.  Either she doesn’t have a spark for me, or I don’t see it.  However, she did good in this film too.
  • Visuals.  In a film like this, photography and special effects are of extra importance.  And they were done right.  Camera angles, lights, cuts, compositions, and all that were very good.  There were a few interesting perspectives too.
  • Music.  There is an extra bonus in here.  The choice of hard and heavy music was great – nothing suits the action movie better.  And one of the first track’s was by the legendary “Nirvana”, which helped to set the right mood for the film.  It was like one cool rock-n-roll party.
  • A  touch of drama.  In a film like this, a tiny bit of drama is needed to set the stage, provide some background, and explain the story.  Without this tiny bit of drama, all those killings don’t have much meaning.  But.  The mistake that so many action movies are falling for is too much of drama and sadness. Cemeteries, funerals, and things like that don’t belong in the action movies.  Gladly, the “balance of the tiny bit” was perfectly kept in this film.  Just enough was provided without too much shown to break the fun, entertainment, and rock-n-roll atmosphere.
  • A deep thought or a spotlight on a global problem.  This is my personal criteria for a 10 out of 10 movie.  I believe that whatever the genre or the story of the film is, there is always time and place for a little bit more than just what is needed to entertain the audience.  But, as with the previous point, there is a dangerous pitfall – propaganda.  Many films spend too much arguing about either side of the global warming issue, or useless wars, or drugs, or something else.  “Shoot ‘Em Up” brings attention to the problem of gun control.  But, again, it takes only about 40 seconds of the movie time without disrupting the main course of the film, and gives a few things to think about.  Really slick!
  • References to other movies.  This is also just something that I like. I believe very much in “standing on the shoulders of forefathers”.  I believe that no movie is an exception – all were inspired by some previous work mixed together with something else.  I think paying respects to those inspirations is a nice thing to do.  Again, it should be done as a barely noticable touch here and there, without destructing people’s attention from what is going on.  I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but I saw some references to “Sin City”, “The Matrix”, “The Transporer”, and a few other films.  Tiny, almost unnoticeable references.

In summary, the film is worth every penny of the ticket, every second of the screen time, and every dollar for the DVD, which I’m definitely going to buy.  This is some quality stuff, which doesn’t come out of the movie companies every other day.  Strongly recommended for the fans of the action genre.

I Am Legend

I went to see “I Am Legend” with a few friends of mine.  Some of them saw the film before a few times, but decided that it was worth another view anyway.  That pushed my expectations up a bit.  But.  The film was indeed worth it.

Here are the things that I liked, in no particular order:

  • Will Smith.  He is a good actor.  It just that most of the times he has to do those rather simplistic roles.  But in this one, you can see the talent.  He does really good.
  • Visuals.  There are some really cool images in the film.  In fact, it’s the visuals that create the bigger part of this movie.  There is some excellent photography, which could have been easily transformed into still images and paintings.
  • Drama.  There seems to be no shortage of movies about viruses, zombies, and the end of the world.  However, so many of them fail to create the drama around the events.  Broken families, numerous victims, and blood rivers seem to be present everywhere.  But rarely they are used to create the horrific sense of sadness and pity.

Of course, there were a few things that sucked in this movie.  I’m not going to go through the details on these, since they aren’t worth it.  However I’d like to mention the zombies.  I think that the choice of rather cartoon-ish characters was wrong.  More “realism” in this area could have made the movie almost perfect.

I’d give it a strong 7.5 out of 10, and a recommendation to watch it, even if you are not a fan of the sci-fi end of the world horror.  It’s pretty good.

Dan in Real Life

I almost missed “Dan in Real Life“.  I wasn’t even planning to see it, since the poster is does not appeal to me and I’m not a big fan of Steve Carell.  I mean, he is OK, but he’s not someone who attracts me to the movie.  But anyway.  I ended up alone in the cinema.  And I’m glad I did.

This is a strong 8 out of 10.  There is no point at telling the story or bringing up any scenes from the film – most of them are rather traditional and have been seen before.  The movie follows the stereotypical love story with all elements such as close family involvement, road trip, hurting someone’s feelings, kids, rain, “go get her”, etc.  All these were present here too, and, I should say, there were very well done.

But the strength of the film is not in the love story.  It’s in other things.  For me personally, it was very refreshing to see a healthy family. And a big one a that.  This whole film was around a well managed and developed family – something they don’t show very often in the movies.  This film shows how parents can spend time with their children, how siblings can be good and supportive friends, how important are good family values and how they are passed along and cultivated.  This part of the film was so good that I almost could not believe my eyes.  That alone is worth the time.

And that wasn’t the only good part.  Somehow, the film is very romantic and sentimental.  Sometimes it’s said, sometimes it’s funny.  Sometimes it’s very social, and sometimes it’s very private.  And it “feels” very good too.  There is an almost natural balance of moods and transitions.  It’s not boring, and it’s not trying to squeeze any tears out of you, while, at the same time, it’s not trying to make you laugh so hard you fell from your chair.  It asks its share of questions, tries to provide some answers, and leaves a lot to think about, while still entertaining.

With all that, I am a little glad that it didn’t have a strong overwhelming story to tell.  It already offered enough, and with a good story it would be pushing its luck.  (However there are movies that do both).

Also, there is plenty of good acting in this film. It’s not brilliant or anything, but it is very believable and human.  There were some familiar faces cast for this movie, and those that aren’t so familiar, did equally good.

Overall : strongly recommended.

AVPR: Aliens vs Predator – Requiem

I went to see “AVPR: Aliens vs Predator – Requiem“.

I wasn’t ever a big fan of “Alien” movies.  Space horror is not something that turns me on.  However I remember enjoying the “Predator” flicks.  Especially the first one with Arni.  When they mixed the two, it was sort of interesting to see how it will all come out.  And the trailer was excellent.  But the film was somewhat boring, even though it had its momentss.

The Requiem part sucked though.  The good parts aren’t visible because of the constant mix of night, darkness, shadows, absence of lights, smoke, fog, underground catacombs, water, and a bunch of huge objects obstructing the view.  And just to be on the safe side, scenes are cut at every half a second.  That’s about the good parts.

The bad parts are shiny obvious.  The biggest of them is acting.  I know, I know, I’m not supposed to expect any great acting out of a sci-fi space thriller sequel.  But what this movie had doesn’t even qualify for acting.  I have a suspicion that even Keanu Reeves could do better than that (and we saw speculations of that it is possible to replace Keanu Reeves with wooden plank).  I mean, where do they even find actors like this?

Then, there is the Achilles’ heel of all horror movies – common sense.  This film had the smallest fraction of common sense you can see in the horror movie.  People, evacuating from the town in a hurry, are waiting in the traffic jam on the freeway, while the second line is empty.  A soldier popping out his head of the armored military vehicle to see what’s going on with this shooting outside in the middle of ambush. One predator calling another one for help after an accident, and that other predator going into almost full scale war with aliens, without ever calling for any more help.  Alien inserting eggs into women at the hospital for them to give birth to more aliens only a couple of minutes later (previous parts of the movie seemed to have a rather longer period with eggs growing and stuff like that).  The list goes on.  And of course it is possible to find explanations for each one of them, but that will hardly help the feeling of things happening in the way that they aren’t supposed to happen.

As I said, I’m not the big fan of either the genre or these particular movies.  But I think I can realize a good piece of entertainment, when one is offered. And in this particular case, I don’t think it qualifies.  Rating: a weak 4 out of 10.  Feel free to express you disagreement in the comments.