Category: Movies

Just watched “Boiler Room” on DVD and I liked it. A lot.

When I think about it, there are not so many components for a great movie. Get an interesting story from one of those billions books in print. Than think of a nice way of telling the story, making sure that all main characters are described nicely. Spend some time on the relationships. I hear that having some anger and some romance helps a lot. Than find a couple of artists and/or photographers who can picture out some nice images involving the characters of the story and their surroundings. Maybe add some music to it. And that’s it. You are done.

Of course it is slightly more complicated than that with all the fuzz and details, but it is, in my opinion, a managable job. Making a great movie is like any other business. I wonder though why there are so few of them. Probably that is because there are so many lousy jobs in all other businesses.

Well, “Boiler Room” is one of those films which were done right. Everything fits in together very nice – interesting story, good character development, excellent acting spiced up by a few celebrities (Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Ron Rifkin, Ben Affleck and others), good photography and music. And as any great movie, it provides not only entertainment, but also few points to think about. Questions of family relationships, good and bad, trust, and racism are all nicely covered.

Rating this film as 9 out of 10 I feel the need to provide some feedback on why it wasn’t perfect. Minor issues indeed. It was kind of slow without the point at times and it left some loose ends to the story. Loose ends as in there were certain things that were given some time in the film, but which on the other hand led to nothing and weren’t properly explained. Other than that – a great film.

Watched “S1m0ne” on DVD. It is an amazing movie and it’s a pity that I missed it while it was in the cinema.

I think I liked everything about this film. I liked the story and I liked the irony. I liked the acting. I liked the camera. I liked the music, and I especially liked the photography. Heh, I even liked the happy ending.

Now, I think I’ll need some time to form whatever I feel about this movie into words. I’ll get back to you when I am ready. For now I’ll just give it a 10 out of 10.

Olga and I went to Orphanides supermarket today. Orphanides is one of those shops that try their best to make the life of consumers difficult. 50 cent deposit for the shopping cart is an absolute requirement to make shopping painful for one’s customers, so these were implemented.

Parked in the underground, we deposited the 50 cent coin and picked up one of the carts. When we were passing by the Orphanides caffeteria, we decided that we want to eat something and continue our shopping after the meal. The caffeteria does not have enough space to keep the cart nearby, so we were basically forced to leave it outside together with other carts, some half empty, some half full. When we came out, our cart was gone. The first thought that I had was that Tom Hanks is somewhere near. :)

In one of his recent movies – “The Terminal” – his character was living in the airport. In order to earn some money, he was collecting carts around the building and bringing them back to cart parking, thus getting deposit coins.

Anyway, we laughed a little and went to get another cart. Olga found 50 cent coin on the floor fo the caffeteria, so we actually haven’t lost anything…

Just watched “Any Given Sunday“. This is by far the best movie about American football that I have ever seen. Football sequences are done amazingly well, plenty of suspense make you grip the armchair handles, and outstanding soundtrack (“Black Sabbath”, “Godsmack”, “P.O.D.”, etc) boosts up the atmosphere to the adrenaline heaven.

The film itself is very close to perfect. Not only the football sequences were great, but the whole film was very photogenic and excellently directed. Mastered by Oliver Stone, with stars such as Al Pacino and Cameron Diaz the film feels like a great real life story. I think it was before the second minute of the movie that I forgot that I am actually watching a movie. It just sucks you in and don’t let you out until the end. Amazing experience.

9 out of 10.

Watched “New Jack City” on DVD. This is a really old movie (from 1991) and I think I’ve seen it before.

This film is a nobel attempt to show all the bad things about drugs and crimes using the methods of the recently (80-s) popular action movies. The drug scenes are pretty good, but the rest of the film is pretty worthless. The story around Chris Rock‘s character Pookie was done pretty good – criminal, drug addict falling down, than discovered by some good people, rehubed and cleaned up, and than falling back. The second fall is much faster than the first one. And is one-way ticket. Anyway, the scene where Pookie smokes crack after rehub, I believe, was inspirational to plenty of movies (Tarantino‘s work, “Trainspotting“, “Requiem for a dream“, etc). Great work here!

The problem with this film is actually the story that it is based on. There are too many things in it, but it is not complex by any means. Most of the stuff is meaningless anyway. And the drama needed more work. I mean we are talking about a whole bunch of victims of drug usage, but the only person crying in the whole movie is the drug lord himself, before shooting one of his comrades. Strange. Something is broken here.

This film played its role in the inspiration of drug fighting movies. It is too old to be watched this days, unless, of course, you are the fan of those. Take something else. 5 out of 10.