MAY'S MOVIE REVIEWS

Reviews

2012-09-03T07:09:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the "silence". I have signed on to tumblr and I have a page there where I write very short movie reviews. I don't bother analysing the entire script (not that I did that here anyway) but I just say if I thought it was a good or a bad film. Check it out here.

TUTU GOES PSYCHO

2011-01-23T04:02:00.000-08:00

MAJOR SPOILERS - DO NOT READ IF YOU WANT TO WATCH THE FILM - SPOILERS AHEAD.

OK...I think Black Swan is one of the most overrated movies this award season....

1) I found it distasteful that they glamourise mental illness. Let's be honest, Natalie Portman's character wasn't quite alright was she?

2) Glamourising drug use. Nina (Natalie's character) goes out with this other girl and doesn't trust her but this person offers her some drugs and all she says is "how long will it last for?"....basically, the only way Nina can have fun is by taking drugs otherwise she is too rigid. Once she takes drugs, she cannot remember if she had sex or not. Sounds like a great night out....right. Oh she is also supposed to be this dedicated performer - then what is she doing out clubbing in a seedy NY night club the night before she is due on the stage?

3) It was obvious that Natalie Portman wasn't dancing the most difficult dance scenes......every time she danced, they just focused on her feet or showed her from a distance.

4) What was that thing with her mother painting creepy portraits? They were seriously messed up. I wouldn't have been living with her if she was my mum!

5) So....the only way you can achieve perfection in an art is by going psycho and being unstable, unfriendly and self harming....

6) Why the hell was this black swan so important? I didn't really care for the story.....because they didn't elaborate on the story/art much....

7) Like most of the bad movies, it is riding high on just publicity and all the good scenes are in the trailer.

I am sorry but Natalie Portman isn't the greatest actress out there. I don't think the movie and it's casts deserves Oscars. Sorry.

The Social Network

2010-10-22T15:16:00.000-07:00

Rating: 5/5

I saw 'The Social Network' on Tuesday and absolutely loved it. Well, a movie directed by David Fincher ('Fight Club' ,'The Game' etc) and a screen play by Aaron Sorkin ('A Few Good Men', 'The West Wing' etc) had to be really good...well, that's what I expected anyway and I was not disappointed. It doesn't usually happen! Usually, when I go to watch a film with really high expectations, I come out feeling quite disappointed really.

The guy who plays Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) does an excellent job, followed by Adam Garlfield (who plays Zuckerberg's best friend Eduardo Saverin). In fact, I think the entire cast did an excellent job including Justin Timberlake who played the slimy character very well.

The movie is based on a book by Ben Mezrich 'The accidental billionaires' (I have ordered my copy!).

what is it about?

On a fall night in 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programming genius Mark Zuckerberg sits down at his computer and heatedly begins working on a new idea. In a fury of blogging and programming, what begins in his dorm room soon becomes a global social network and a revolution in communication. A mere six years and 500 million friends later, Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history, but for this entrepreneur, success leads to both personal and legal complications.

What's good? The movie! oh I thought that the club scene in the movie was really cool. The music was VERY loud and the characters had to shout to be heard. It felt very realistic. It was just like being in a nightclub and shouting to be heard by your friends.

What's bad? Not a lot!

Barefoot in the park

2010-10-16T05:17:00.000-07:00

Rating: 5/5

Sometime this summer, I came across this film on one of the movie channels. I caught it midway and I found the dialogues very funny and witty. It didn't feel like an OLD film. In fact, the story could be very relevant today.

So, I rented the film and watched it from the beginning and I can safely say that it has become one of my favourite movies.

What's good:

Witty dialogues.
funny storyline.
eccentric characters.
sexy Robert Redford (I wish he was like a vampire or something so that he would have never aged...he is so handsome in this film).
Jane Fonda is so pretty and she does a great job as well.

What's bad?:

Not much really.

Check out the trailer here.

Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps

2010-10-12T10:25:00.000-07:00

Rating: 3.8/5

OK!! I finally saw WallStreet 2: Money Never Sleeps. Prior to today, I tried to see it about 4 times and every time something came up (the 4th time, I got the times mixed up...) anyway so...here are the things you need to know (don't worry - no spoilers ahead! Just my suggestions coming up ;-)):

1) Don't go expecting Wall Street 1. Why? because?! DUH! - no seriously because we all know the sequels usually aren't as good as the first film;

2) Just go to "watch a movie", a movie that just happens to have Gordon Gekko in it;

3) Gordon Gekko isn't real? OK? so don't go there expecting to know "how Gekko should behave";

4) there is no number 4.

OK...first thing first, I am loving the movie posters. Love the father and son theme going on here. Mentor and Protégé theme if you will. Check out an example below:

Student and teacher?

Now to the movie! So, like I told you above, I went with attitude (points 1-3) and actually really enjoyed the film. I guess it kind of helped that I watched Wall Street 1 (again) last year so I dont remeber the entire story by heart. So the sequel was new and fresh for me.

What's good?:

Michael Douglas is still good as Gekko but he doesn't have a lot of screen time;
Well, from the recent events point of view, I thought it was interesting to watch a movie that showed the credit crunch or atleast incorporated it into the story. I didn't go to do math or to get investment tips from the film so I didn't care if anything added up or not (maybe it did? maybe it didn't? who cares? I saw it for pure entertainment value);
Shia LaBeouf! Hello? Shia always looks so geeky but for a geeky guy he actually looks very hot! He is hot and looks fine in a suit (I love guys in a good suit). In one of the scenes he asked the female character played by Carey Mulligan (more on her later) to marry him and she thought for a moment. I nearly shouted at her "Girl!! say yes!!! you could be Mrs LaBeouf!! but then I realised Shia wasn't asking her for real and he was playing a character and you know, it's marriage. You have to think about it and blah blah.

Check out his beautiful big brown eyes below....nice tie too!

Hot geek?

THE APARTMENT! oh My God, forget the story! The apartment in which Shia's character lives with his girlfriend is AH-MAZING!!!! Now that is my kind of place. In fact, that is my dream place. I would love to own a place like this one day and preferably with Shia LaBeouf in it!

What's not good?

Shia may be hot but I am sorry his character isn't interesting like Charlie Sheen's. I didn't care much for his connection with his mentor and all that (but then I told myself to stop comparing it to the original and I was good to go); Shia looked quite young to be playing a high flying Wall Street guy;
CAREY MULLIGAN....where did they find her??? she is an awful actress. She didn't sound American, sounded more like a Brit (which she is) with a fake American accent and I didn't buy her running a "not for profit" website exposing the bad bad world of wall-street and all that. Her "blog" ran from a cool office (they had lots of iMacs) and anyway, if she is really anti-capitalism then what on earth is she doing going out with a WALL STREET GUY?! Hypocrite? (barf). I also don't like her hair style. It looks awful.
They spent too much time on the other bad guy played by Josh Brolin (don't worry, I am not giving out any movie secrets. It's pretty obvious in the film that he is the bad guy and they make no secret of it either).
Gekko should have had more screen time.

Bottom line is, the movie is enjoyable. It's something you will not regret watching (e.g. you would regret watching 'Eat, Pray, Love'). But if you come out feeling stressed then I really don't know what to say about it. It might be useful to talk to someone about it then?

Final Verdict: It won't win an Oscar but then again I am sure they weren't aiming for an Oscar either.

Enjoy it :)

Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps

2010-09-30T12:10:00.000-07:00

Review for this movie is coming soon!!

Tamara Drewe

2010-09-27T11:10:00.001-07:00

Trailer

TAMARA DREWE

RATING: 3.5/5

Synopsis: When Tamara Drewe sashays back to the bucolic village of her youth, life for the locals is thrown upside down. Tamara -- once an ugly duckling -- has been transformed into a devastating beauty (with help from plastic surgery). As infatuations, jealousies, love affairs and career ambitions collide among the inhabitants of the neighboring farmsteads, Tamara sets a contemporary comedy of manners into play using the oldest magic in the book: sex appeal.

What's good?: The movie is set in an idyllic English village where "so called writers" come to find inspiration. They all descend onto a place run by the wife of one of the top crime novelist.

The movie takes a dig at the celebrity obsession and almost everyone in the village is nosey and as a result there are plenty of comic scenes. The humour is very British so if you like quirky movies, then this is your film!

What's bad?: It makes you want to move to the country but wait is this a bad thing? Oh it is also a little predictable but still very enjoyable.

Want to visit the beautiful countryside where the movie was filmed? check out this link!

The Town

2010-09-26T16:01:00.001-07:00

Trailer

THE TOWN

RATING: 4/5

Synopsis: Doug MacRay is an unrepentant criminal, the de facto leader of a group of ruthless bank robbers who pride themselves in stealing what they want and getting out clean. With no real attachments, Doug never has to fear losing anyone close to him. But that all changed on the gang's latest job, when they briefly took a hostage--bank manager, Claire Keesey. Though they let her go unharmed, Claire is nervously aware that the robbers know her name and where she lives. But she lets her guard down when she meets an unassuming and rather charming man named Doug not realizing that he is the same man who only days earlier had terrorized her. The instant attraction between them gradually turns into a passionate romance that threatens to take them both down a dangerous, and potentially deadly, path.

What's good?: First of all, this Ben Affleck chap is actually a rather good director! I didn't know he was the director until the credits started rolling in. The movie is a little bit dark, and it reminded me of 'The Departed'. I think the same people brought us that movie.

The whole story is enjoyable. I thought Blake Lively (Serena from Gossip Girl!) played her part of a single mum very well.

Rebecca Hall does a good American accent.

What's bad?: Well not much - it makes Boston come across as a bit of a grim and depressing city.Also, it took me a little while to get used to their Boston-irish accents!

Eat, Pray, Love

2010-09-26T14:27:00.000-07:00

This is my first ever post. Since I am such a big movie junkie, I thought why not write my own reviews and see if anyone cares about reading them?

So here comes my first ever review and I am afraid it isn't a positive one!! I will rate movies from 1 to 5. 5 being an excellent movie and 1 being not so good. If the movie is exceptionally bad then I may even go into the minus territory!! well my blog, my rules! ;-)

Trailer

EAT, PRAY, LOVE. Rating: 1.5/5

I feel I may be a little bit generous here but I think this was slightly better than another horrible movie from this year (The Killers!).

Why the disappointment?: well, usually I find that if I go with very low expectation (especially if a movie has been receiving bad press), I tend to enjoy it. Well, this time, I was very disappointed. I haven't read the book so there isn't anyway I can compare it to that but if the book is anything like this movie then I am very confused as to why it was such a huge success?

Anyway, the story is simply this: (Spoilers alert ahead!!!): Julia Roberts character is in an unhappy marriage. She is so unsure about her husband that she cries every night in the bathroom and prays to God. I think her fear for her relationship came into play after she visited a fortune teller in Bali who told her that she will have 2 marriages. One long and one short...anyway, her husband tells her that he is thinking about going back to college to do masters and she flips out and decides that she doesn't want to be with him. Off she goes, falls in love with a random struggling actor (gorgeous James Franco plays the part). They have a fling, he introduces her to his guru's photo and says that one day he would like to go and visit her temple in India but he can't afford it (as he is a struggling actor). She is very aloof but somehow he falls in love with her. She isn't so sure and he says to her that if she does decide to stay with him then he promises to take her out to eat Indian food every night! BUT this isn't good enough for Julia's character because all she pines for is Italian food ...so off she goes and moves to Italy for 4 months where all she does is eat and eat and eat and does no sightseeing whatsoever. Makes friends with random Italians and a Swedish woman who are not interesting in the slightest.

Then she moves to India to the temple of the struggling actor's guru. She moans because she is bitten by mosquitos - after 4 months, another nutcase tells her one thing which isn't that difficult to figure out that she should move on from her divorce (she is the one who left her husband in the first place anyway...). Then she moves on to Bali, back to that fortune teller who doesn't recognise her. But finally he does and tells her that all he can teach her is that she should pray (whatever she learnt in India), and keep eating good food (ha!) and also if she wouldn't mind, could she also photocopy some stuff for him. So for 4 months this is all she does and then she binds the documents and gives them to the fortune teller who is very pleased.

Meanwhile, she has also met with another divorcee. He is Brazilian and we know he is easy going because he calls everyone "darling". He decides that he is in love with her but as her life is in NY and his in Bali, they should conduct a relationship in the middle and he suggests getting on a boat and going to an island near by (well it's convenient for him!)...she hesitates but in the end comes around. THE END.

It's also painfully slow and LONG movie. Goes on and on and on.

Anything positive in the movie?: Well, there is one thing. Italian food looks very good!

So should you watch it?: Well it's up to you but it's really waste of time and money (me thinks!).