Displaying Review 16 - 20 of 21 in total

• Check yourself before you wreck yourself — for Due Date
  Written by lovelyT on 09.12.2010

  spoilers

  This is one of those movies which you see and forget in few days. Why? Because everything you have to see in this one you will see on a trailer. The funniest scenes and the best dialogues are already there, so after you've seen the movie, you ask yourself, did I see something new here. Well, I wouldn't give this one a 6,5 and then state that there is nothing more to it, but basically the greatest scenes have been used in its trailer. This is the case with most movies, especially comedies, but there have been some great ones which plot has developed outside their trailer, such as The Hangover, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Death at a Funeral and few more, being the minority of good comedies made in last 2 or 3 years.

  This movie relies upon its actors, which imo made an excellent job here. Zack Galifianakis proved to be a great comedian, with his portrayal of Ethan Chase, a.k.a. Ethan Tremblay, a lonely misfit, wannabe actor who travels to Hollywood to pursue his dream. After a list of bad circumstances, he rents a car and offers a ride across country to a passenger he met on the plane to California. The passenger is Peter Highman, an architect who must get to Los Angeles to the birth of his first child. Ethan is actually responsible for the fact Peter can't travel by plane and tries to recompensate by offering him this ride. Peter is a complete opposite of funny, clumsy and good hearted Ethan, who has a great number of hilarious problems. He is serious, cold and really not fond of chatting with strangers who seem to be a little off edge.

  During their trip to California, they get into a series of trouble and meet many interesting people. There have been some great situations and scenes here, but I think there have been some which were filmed only to emphasise that this is a comedy. But, we know that and we figured it out, so some parts of the movie have been really unnecessary, such as the scene with the man in wheelchair, the whole Mexico thing and the not so funny thing about Ethan's dog Sonny, which besides that is a great accessoire in this movie. On the other hand, the story about Ethan's father, his problem with glucomma and especially his theory about Peter's wife and best friend and some lines by Zack Galifianakis are the reason you should watch this movie. He is definitely the best thing here, because although he can often be very irritating, he has such a lovable face and look in his eyes, that you simply must forget everything he does and forgive him, which in the end Peter manages to do.

  I've seen most movies by Todd Phillips and I must say that most of them rely on excellent actors, great storyline and few amusing scenes, but the thing that overpowers all those great facts is the so called toilet humor, which some people might like and some don't find that amusing. I have nothing against it and although this movie doesn't have so many scenes with that type of humor, there is still something that lacks in this one to be considered a great comedy.

  And finally, a 6,5 for this one because of its great cast, some really funny parts and the soundtrack which is one of the best things in all Phillips' movies. Thumbs up for Pink Floyd and the scene in the car and Band of Horses and the wonderful sequence of the landscape and the beauty of a road trip.

  LovelyT

• A private story during a well known historic period — for The Dreamers
  Written by lovelyT on 09.12.2010

  contains spoilers

  Story about France in the late 60-s and a young American who comes to Paris and meets twins who are movie fanatics just like him and the plot which goes around peace and anti-war messages and sexual revelations is the content which sounds promising. But after watching it, I felt there wasn't everything said and explained in this one.

  We meet a young American who comes to the university to Paris and two young twins, a brother and a sister who spend their time watching movies, acting and guessing scenes from old classics and who follow the believes of the Revolution going on in the their city. Young Frenchmen fought for free thought, free love and peace on Earth. When Matthew gets involved in the twins' life and weird behaviour, he feels happy and satisfied for finding friends in such a short time. He couldn't even dream what a friendship with them would bring him. After inviting him to live with them while their parents are gone, Matthew starts to discover a whole new side of them and their lives. It seems they cannot do anything alone and they spend night and day together. They play their weird games, which at the beginning attract Matthew, who starts falling in love with Isabelle, a beautiful girl, who obviously has some problems with relationships, being to closely attached to her brother, who on the other hand allows himself to spend some time away from her.

  Step by step, Matthew becomes involved in a relationship where twins play the main role. From a shy, silent boy, he turns into a young man who isn't afraid to speak his mind, but simply can't make to win Isabelle over. He must constantly fight with Theo, Isabelle's twin brother, who has a strong influence on his own sister. Their relationship is way beyond a normal brother sister relationship and Matthew must accept that or be left alone. He begins a relationship with both of them, but tries to get Isabelle for himself.

  This movie is a great portrait of the young rebels of that time. It shows their strong spirit and their will to fight against the politics, but in my opinion it relies too much on their sexual exhibitions, without going deeper into the main problems of that period. Three main characters are on one hand strong individuals who aren't afraid to speak their mind, but who hide their weak side between their four walls and are scared of getting caught, explaining that revealing their secret would finish by ending their lives.

  Three main actors made an excellent job here and Michael Pitt was a big revelation, after watching him in some of his earlier roles. Eva Green is absolutely beautiful as a messed up, innocent and fragile Isabelle and I think she gave the strongest performance in this movie. Her character goes through so many different phases and deals with various thoughts and she proved that she has the talent to play that kind of roles. Louis Garrel, as the youngest one of the trio also made a great performance as stubborn Theo, who keeps fighting for what he believes and isn't afraid of the consequences.
  Two other things which I really liked in this movie are the flashbacks of old classics which must be guessed by the main characters and its fabulous soundtrack (The Doors, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan etc.), which perfectly depicted this period.

  There are many things that make this a movie worth watching and one you could watch many times, but the fact that the main message of the Revolution wasn't revealed here make me give it a lower rating than I would usually do after watching a movie with this topic, a European movie which is always so much braver then American movies.

  LovelyT

• Boring boring boring — for Elizabethtown
  Written by lovelyT on 11.12.2010

  Well how to describe a movie after giving its review this title? Those were one of the longest 2 hours in my life when watching a movie. There is absolutely nothing interesting in this one. We have a nice plot, which could have been developed into a beautiful, warm story about family and human relations, but no, we get a slow paced, boring movie, which characters don't reach to us and don't share with us any of their emotions. I enjoyed Crowe's movies, especially Almost Famous and I was totally surprised seeing his name as the director of this movie. I was so disappointed.

  This is the story about Drew Baylor and his relations with people in his life. After making a big mistake on his job, he takes a trip to Elizabethtown, his father's birth place, to meet his relatives, as his father passed away. Elizabethtown is a small town in Kentucky, which residents know everything about Drew's father and try to make Drew feel like home. On his way there, Drew meets Claire, the stewardess who helps him find Elizabethtown. And so on and so forth. The story line is so uninventive that I can't really say anything more about it. Instead of that, I will focus on the bad sides of this movie, and there are many.

  First, the list of actors in this movie is really not bad. When you have Susan Sarandon you expect at least a decent movie. Judy Greer is a fabulous actress, always a supporting role, but very often one of the best parts of many movies. But they failed here. Or their characters just haven't been that interesting to keep you occupied. I just can't find any good words for Orlando Bloom, whom I find good only with his blond wig and pointy ears. And Kirsten Dunst, although the best character in this movie, is so irritating with her voice and facial expressions that I couldn't accept her in this movie. I wouldn't call her a bad actress, but there is something I don't like about her.

  Second, the movie has some really bad attempts to be funny and humorous. The scene with the groom in the hotel, Susan Sarandon's eulogy or Samson, son of Drew's cousin and everything connected to him are all but funny.

  Third, the script is really boring and plain and the chemistry between two main actors is missing, although Dunst tried to do something, but couldn't do much having Bloom as her partner.

  The only good thing in this movie are the last 20 minutes when Drew decides to take a road trip back to Oregon and follows Claire's instructions. She leads him through USA's secluded places with a great choice of songs and interesting facts about those places.

  This is definitely not a romantic movie I would recommend to all of us romantic souls who expect something more than few "funny" lines, a boring development of the plot and one of the most unconvincing love pair ever.

• A movie you will never forget — for The Great Escape
  Written by lovelyT on 11.12.2010

  Ok, to make things straight. I'm not a great fan of war movies. Or, to make it more clear, I haven't been a big fan of them, until I've seen two wonderful movies with a war theme in one month. The first one was Dirty Dozen and the second was this jewel, one of the best movies I've ever seen, with a fabulous group of actors who make an outstanding and one the most memorable movie casts ever. What can you even expect when you have Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, James Garner and many more in one movie? Fantastic 172 minutes of pure fun, laughs, tears and excellent screen writing.

  I wouldn't even call this one a war movie, although it's set in a war camp during World War II. I would rather call it a drama with a war theme and numerous unforgettable and funny scenes I've seen in a movie for a long time.

  The plot is pretty simple. A group of most persistent war fighters meet in a German camp and start to make a plan to flee from this one, too, after many failed attempts to escape from some other camps. Most of them have tried more than five escapes, but always without success. But this time things seem to be more promising. Creme de la creme is here. After some more attempts to escape from this one, too, the group decides to gather their strengths and make the greatest escape ever. Lead by Roger Bartlett, a.k.a. Big X (Richard Attenborough), the group consist of Captain Hilts or "The Cooler King" (Steve McQueen) who spends most of his days there in a "cooler", being punished for his attempts to escape and way of communicating with the
  guards, "The Scrounger" (James Garner), "The Tunnel King" (Charles Bronson), who keeps an interesting secret, "The Manufacturer" (James Coburn), with his hilarious Aussie accent and "The Forger" (Donald Pleasance), who is one of the most memorable character here and many more "members", who are all very important for the execution of their escape. It would last too long to enumerate all of their unforgettable lines and great scenes and I suggest everyone to watch this movie and experience their adventure with them.

  I don't remember when I have watched such a beautiful movie. It has everything, it's a strong drama with a wonderful story, amazing characters, masterfully played by all the actors, more funny elements than many comedies I've seen and one of the most tragic ends, too. You get attached to all of them that you start to feel all their emotions, you get involved in their adventure and you are kept on your seat until the end, when you finally realise that this is in fact a true story, which must end this way.

  A must see for everyone, a story which convinced me not to have prejudice against any movie genre and made me watch more movies I would never consider watching before. It seems I've grown up :)

  LovelyT

• How far would you go? — for Requiem for a Dream
  Written by lovelyT on 06.01.2011

  This is by far one the most disturbing movies I've seen, not because of its shocking scenes, but because of the theme, which is so strong that it leaves you with that weird feeling of unease and with so many impressions and thoughts. It is definitely a movie you won't soon forget. It covers a well known story of drug world and junkies, but told in such an original way, through perfect direction, masterful performances and music score which increases its potency and makes you even more uncomfortable. I've heard so many things about this movie, but I didn't think that it would make such a strong impact on me. I was speechless, but left with so many thoughts and impressions that I couldn't even express them all.

  We follow the story of Harry Goldfarb (Jared Leto) and his mother Sara (Ellen Burstyn), his girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly) and best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) and their ways of dealing with their situation. They are all drug addicts who are slowly getting lost in that vicious world, where there is no space for self esteem and self appreciation, but where there is only room for thought about the next fix and the ways to get a hold of it. Sara is the victim of her life situation. She is a widower who is slowly losing her son, too and the only thing she has is the TV show she is constantly watching and her afternoon talks with her female neighbours. Her life changes after she gets a phone call with the information that she is going to be on television. She becomes obsessed with that fact and the current popularity among her friends and so she begins to take four different pills a day to lose weight and fit in her red dress she last wore to her son's graduation. On the other side, we have her son who is struggling to get drugs together with his best friend and girlfriend. On their way to achieve their goals, they are slowly getting lost and finally end up alone and miserable. The ways they are trying to get drugs are so painful and low and this is the most shocking part of the movie, along with Sara's hallucinations after becoming addictive to her diet pills.

  In my opinion this is one of the best portraits of what drugs can do to a human life. It turns you away from your friends, it alienates you from the world outside and it makes you do things you would never consider doing. It is told in a remarkable way, through images that don't need any explanations, with help of excellent actors and their masterful performances, especially by Ellen Burstyn, who should have been given the Oscar award for her portrayal of Sara. Her change from a well mannered housewife to a maniacal junkie is worth admiration because it is definitely one of the best female performances in the last decade. Jennifer Connelly is wonderful as a messed up girl who in the end doesn't choose the ways to get drugs. The last scene where she humiliates herself to the lowest is so painful to watch, especially when we see that she would really do anything for drugs.

  Each minute of this movie is hard to watch because it is so realistically told that you can even feel compassion with the main characters although you don't approve of their deeds.
  All situations and actions are followed by a great instrumental by Clint Mansell, perfomed by Kronos Queartet which makes you even more uncomfortable and proves the importance of music in movies, along with the great vision of its director. This is my first movie by Darren Aronofsky and I can't wait to experience some of his other works, to see if he manages to cause such strong feelings in me, as he did with this one.

  LovelyT