Transformers

I think that most people would have to agree that this film is AWESOME. So i dont think that there needs to be an explanation of what i think haha... but i'll jsut give you a briefer.

I'm kind of lazy to tell you what the stories about, but bascially its just about 2 sides of robots the Autobots and the Decepticons. Both are brought to Earth to look for a cube like object that carries huge amounts of power. And of course in power, one wants to use it for good and the other wants to use it for evil. So the war begins, both robot species are trying to fcapture this power.

I wasn't anticipating this film all to much. I wasnt a huge transformers fan. I never watched the cartoons or followed anything dealing with transformers. All i knew was that these cars transformed into robots hahaha...
The only reason i would've watched this film was probably because Shia Labeouf was the lead chacter, and also the fact that Michael Bay directed it. All in all i think that this film was pretty awesome, the action scenes were awesome. The story line might've been just regular but i mean i think that the action made up for that. Its not all action pact, i mean there are a few ice breakers here and there, meaning little quirky funny comments and things from the actors. So it's not to serious all the time. You should all definitely check it. I guess i wouldnt want to give such high ratings for this film, just because i wouldnt want you or anybody in it to go in with high expectations and comming out dissapointed. So as a suggestion. Just watch it, But i just have to say its worth going to the movies for.

Once

Memorial weekend, and of course Pirates of the Carribean is out. Unfortunately, everyone knows that it will be extremely crowded and because of that, the fam decided to catch another flick. Indie of course. I never heard of this film, but it was brought up by the bro, and so we went and watched it.

This movie follows the "guy" who works for his father's store fixing vacuum machines. Besides working with his father, he also plays the guitar and sings his own music on the streets of Europe. He meets a "girl" who is admired by his music, and too plays an instrument, piano. The two become friends and are able to help each other by sharing what they love, music. The movie just follows the life of this guy and girl, who persue the guy's dream of becoming a famous musician.

This movie was almost like a documentry of this guys life in how he puts together his music and goes for his dreams. Songs were played throughout this film, which in some ways made it seem like a musical. I thought the music in this film was really good. The "Guy" Glen Hansard, played incredibly. When you watch him on screen, it is just crazy watching him sing. I found myself looking up some of the tracks when i got home. Glen Hansard is actually in a band called The Frames, so you can if you want look them up and listen to thier music. But the songs from the movie are from another album, and can also be found on the soundtrack. haha so check it out!

La Doublure (The Valet)

I watched this movie a couple of weeks ago, but do to lazyness i was unable to write a little review for it. haha

So let's begin. This film, as you can tell by the Title of this entry, that it is Foreign, French.

This film follows an ordinary guy,François Pignon, whom is yes you guessed it a valet worker, played by Gad Elmaleh. He is caught between a scandle that must be hidden in order to save another mans, Pierre Levasseur, marriage. Pierra played by Daniel Auteuil, is having an affair with a super model, Elena Simonsen whom is played by Alive Taglioni. Pierre's wife, Christine Levasseur, played by Kristine Scott Thomson, finds a photograph of Pierre and Elena, and is suspicious. In this photo however, happens to have Francois in it, which as a result leads Pierre to tell his wife that it was Francois who was with the super model.

In order to follow this lie, Francois Pignon is paid to pretend that he is dating Elena. They are forced to live with each other and act like a real couple. In the midst of all of this, Francois has already another love and another friend who is also a valet worker. He is forced to keep this scandle hidden, which results in more confusion with the other people in his life.

I really enjoyed this film, it was a fun comedy to watch. It's just one of those movies that you dont have to think about. The story and plot is very basic, yet fun to watch. Another Foreign film to reccomend. Check it out.

Hot Fuzz

Hott Fuzz

So the day right before or well actually that Monday after Spring Break, my brothers and i decided to catch a flick. I was suprised that this movie was out, but i guess because i had no idea when it was comming out. The media didn't really advertise this movie. In all honesty the only kind of advertisment i got from this movie was through school, where this guy came around giving out stickers and such, trying to promote the movie. I had orignally heard about this film through a poster i saw and from some other people. This movie immidiately interested me because of the two main characters whom was also in the movie Shaun of the Dead. If you havent seen that movie, PLEASE it's a must see! Anyways going on with this story...

So this movie follows Nicholas Angel, Simon Pegg, who is considered to be one of the best cops in the police force in London. However, his superiors consquently transfers him to a small town in London, Sandford. This little town is basically known to be crime-free, in the middle of nowhere. There he meets another cop, PC Danny Butterman, Nick Frost, who is a major fan of action flicks. Together as partners they stick together watching over the small town. As time progresses, a series of events start to happen, and as a result Angel is convinced that this town is not so crime-free afterall. He eventually becomes obsessed and tries to put all these strange incidents that they call "accidents" together. Resulting in some mega ass woopin'.

This movie is once again, another comedy. They use british humor, so essentially it's pretty straight forward, but i guess if you dont get the humor you might not understand whats going on. But yeah i enjoyed this movie. Although, i don't think it quite beats Shaun of the Dead, but mayb because i've seen that movie so many times, and i consider that movie one of the best movies to watch. But Simon Pegg and Nick Frost together is genious. They are one of the funniest duo's. If they have any future movies together, i would say that i will be right there to watch it. HAHA... Check out this one, It's Bloody Brilliant!

Blades of Glory

Blades of Glory

This movie is basically about two professional ice skaters who were banned from competiting in the men's competition for the Olympics because of a certain incident that happened. Because of this, the two rivals in return find a way to compete together in the doubles competition. The movie follows Jimmy MacElroy, played by Jon Heder, and Chazz Michael Michaels, played by Will Ferrell. MacElroy and Michaels are very differnt in terms of thier background and personality, but the one thing that brings them together is thier passion for ice skating and winning the gold for the Olympics. However in every competition, there always is an additional rival team, in this case that would be the Van Waldenberg siblings, Stranz and Fairchild, played by Will Arnett and Amy Poehler.

This movie is categorized as a comedy, because of all the rediculousness it brings from Jon Header and Will Ferell. I would have to say that this movie is the kind of movie you would watch just for fun. Essentially you have a very funny cast known for thier comedic talents, so of course they all have thier moments of glory.

300

This past weekend, my friend and i decided to go catch 300. It was only just released that Friday, and we were risking going on an opening weekend. Fortunately, we went at 345 pm, matinee, and there weren't that many people yet, even though it was a full house by the time we sat down.

This movie is based on the Thermopylae battle in 480 B.C.
King Leonidas played by, Gerard Butler, and 300 Spartans fought to the last man against the Persian King, Xerxes, played by Rodrigo Santoro and his massive Persian army. With only 300 Spartans, King Leonidas and the Spartans were able to use their tactics to take over thousands of Persians, with the help of 700 Thespians. However, knowing that the odds would get them in the end, the Spartans held their guard and stayed in position to keep fighting. Other characters included Queen Gorgo played by Lena Headey, Theron, Dominic West, who was one of the counsel men, Dilios, David Wenham, who was one of the Spartans and as well was the narrator throughout the film.
The movie was just about two hours long, it was not only about the fighting, but it also explains some side stories that were happening back in Sparta where the queen was trying to persuade the counsel men to bring more troops to help. I thought the movie was good. I especially liked how they used dim and dark colors to give affects to the scenes. I also liked the way David Wenham narrated the film, his voice and sound gave a very fantasy feel to the film. Gerarg Butler did a great job of portraying King Leonidas. The movie is pretty much like any war movie. But instead of guns, they used arrows ans spears to kill one another, which resulted in real face to face combat. Their were pretty graphic scenes, like thrusting spears into each others bodies, or heads being chopped off, that kind of ordeal. The majority of the people that i know who have seen this film have liked it, but I've heard from friends from others that they didn't. So maybe you should all check it out anyway haha...

Zodiac

Zodiac
This is actually a late entry do to school, and the fact that i was lazy to update my blog haha... but in any case let's get right into it!

This film was based off of the Real life Zodiac who was a serial killer in the San Francisco Bay area back in the 60's and 70's. The zodiac wrote letters to the police which in return created a whole investigation in finding this man. The movie follows various situation dealing with the Zodiac. First, obviously is the police investigation, second follows a comic artist who works for a newpaper and how he gets hooked, or rather more obessed with finding the Zodiac as well.

I would like to say that this film has to some extent an all star cast. Well maybe not an all star cast, but most of the faces that you see in this film are all recognizable if you are indeed a person that watches a lot of movies or television. The three famous faces in this film however are Jake Gyllenhaal who plays the animated artis Robert Graysmith, Mark Ruffalo who plays Inspector David Toschi, Anthony Edwards who plays Inspector William Armstrong, and Robert Downey Jr. who plays a writer for the newpaper, Paul Avery. I thought this cast did a really good job portraying all of the characters. MARK Ruffalo was intelligent and witty which made it really easy to like his portrayal of the inspector. Robert Downey Jr. was great in that his character brought comic relief throughout the movie using little one liner comments. This film runs for about two and a half hours. It's pretty long, but it's because the movie covers about thirty years of investigation. Overall i thought that the movie was great, its filled with mystery and suspense.
After comming home from watching this film, my bro went online to look for some zodiac stuff, and suprsingly they actually have some of the letters scanned from the zodiac, and it also shows the victims that he killed as well as some suspects that were invovled.

Volver

Another Foreign, Spanish movie for my brothers and me.
This time, we were debating over The Curse of the Golden Flower or Volver. We just decided on Vovler because it was the top movie on Rotten Tomatoes. haha We were being very indecisive, which resulted in being late watching the film. Luckily the previews saved us some time, so that when we got in they were barely showing the films title. VOLVER

Volver, translation: To return, is about three women. All are related to one another, but all have thier own stories that are portrayed in this film. The movie follows a good mother, Irene played by Carmen Maura, another young mother, Raimundo, played by Penelope Cruz, who is living a struggled life, and Sole played by Lola Duenas, who is running a salon in her apartment, where gossip is being told. This film is categorized as a drama/comedy and runs for about about two hours. I thought this film was really good, even though the diaglogue was really fast. Thier were a lot of things going on in this film, however, in the end everything seemed to come together. It had its fair share of sad moments, as well as its funny moments. The overall storyline of this film was good too. This film is nominated for 2 golden globes, and has won about 12 awards overall. I dont know if you want to believe the Hype, but i thought this film was overall pretty good.

El Laberinto del Fauno

Happy New Years Everyone.. Hopefully a lot of you have rested up from a great night of partying, and feeling refreshed to go back to work or school hahah.. But anywho, since i still have another week to go, as well as the rest of us for school ENJOY IT WHILE IT LASTS!

Starting off this new year, my brothers and i decided to go watch Pan's Labyrinth. It was only released in select cities, and luckily there was one showing near where i live. I saw this trailer awhile ago, and found it to be a pretty interesting story, and wanted to check it out. Then my brother brought up just recently, so we decided to watch it.

El Laberinto del Fauno, translation Pan's Labyrinth, is a fantasy, fairy tale, that takes place in Spain in the 1940's. It follows a young girl, Ofelia, that moves into a new house with her pregnant mother, and new adopted father. At this new place, Ofelia finds a Labyrinth that is behind the new home that she lives and creates a whole new world, using her imagaintion and dreams. At the sametime this is happening, her adopted father, who is a military officer, is trying to capture rebels around the area.

I thought this film was really good. It was very dark, and pretty graphic in certain parts. It's rated R so, dont get confused when they say its a fairy tale. Exactly how Ebert would say, " A fairy tale for adults." This film also won multiple awards for best foreign film. This film runs for two hours, it might seem long for some of you, maybe because there are two stories happening at once. Yet, i think that a lot of you would enjoy it, if you're up for a thrilling, fanasty, fairytale.

Letters from Iwo Jima

Hello everyone, boy has it been an insane month. Finishing off my fall semester, crazyness malls, crowded streets. It's just been a busy month i guess you can say. It's only after christmas that it has been ok to just hang around not having to worry about doing errands. actually only thing to worry about is finding a party to go to for new years eve hahaha. But its ok. New Years isnt a big thing for me i havent celebrated it like the big kids. So i'm not expecting much...

So my bro's been wanting to watch this film for awhile. I guess he did some research which lead him to some info to find where this film was playing. The ARCLIGHT, in Hollywood, where it plays movies in a Cinerama Dome, at 11:05 was where we were going. I haven't seen a war movie in quite sometime, i think the last one i've watched in the theater was probably.... saving private ryan? i'm actually not sure haha i guess thats how long its been.

Anyways, Letters from Iwo Jima is bascially about the war between the U.S. vs Japan in World War 2. This film is the opposite side of the film Flags of Our Fathers. It's bascially the Japanese side of the story. I have yet to see the movie Flags of Our Fathers so i can't really compare the two films. So you can make that decision to pick which one you want to watch first. Both are directed by Clint Eastwood too. So they both can be equally as good.

The movie is told in the perspective of a japanese soldier who fought and lived through it. I thought this movie was really good. This movie is actually in japanese, and runs for about two hours and thirty minutes. Thiers soo much going on, that i didn't think it felt that long. Thier were stories told, as well as side stories of some individual soldiers, and of course war scenes.
Thier were some familiar faces that were in this film, which included Ken Wanatabe who was in the Last Samurai, and Shido Nakamura who was in Fearless.

I thought the movie was pretty intense, like all war movies, you can see how crazy wars were/are from watching so many die and suffer. Watching your friends, officers, and practically everyone around you die. The feeling of knowing you can die at any moment, or knowing that you WILL die with no hope left. This was a good movie to watch, some of you may even cry. I know i got watery eyed at some point of the film. But none the less it was a good film to watch so GO WATCH IT!! it's only in select cities so be on the watch.