What the ...?

One of the things I love most in movies is a smart and interesting turn-out of events, so it makes completely sense that one of the things that annoys most in a movie is when it, somewhere along the way, loses the plot.

Specially when the movie is going so well, you're really into it, and then, bam! Something happens and it makes you go 'what the...?' and that's it. The movie it's completely ruined. This frustrates me so much!

And it's even more annoying the fact that usually losing/ruinning a good plot means introducing ETs and/or crazy-high-tec machines.
Don't get me wrong - I like ETs and I certainly don't have anything against high-tec machines - but don't make us believe you've created this super cool and smart State conspiracy or anything as exciting as that ( I looove a good conspiracy movie!), just to tell us it's been silly ETs or stupid machines all along. Argh!

And the worst thing is that the writers probably thought they were been super smart and doing something that would get everyone to go 'oooooh!'. Bad news mister (or miss), the plan failed. Big time. The 'ooooh' you're hearing comes with a B in front of it, as is 'Boooooooooooh!' Next time don't to be so lazy and spend some extra time coming up with a real turn.

Ok, that was a bit harsh, but what can I say? This REALLY frustrates me.

Right now I can't really thing of many movies that lost their plot along the way (my brain has the tendency to erase painful memories as a self-defense system) but here's the ones I remember:

• Knowing
• Eagle Eye
• The Forgotten (oh, this one pissed me off so much that I might do a whole post just to curse it.)
• The Box

If you know any other movie that made you go 'what the...?' in a bad way, please be kind and let me know. So I won't watch it, of course. Thank you very much. Really appreciate.

ps: I just realized it's halloween and I probably should have made a cool post related to it.. well, maybe next year. Plus, movies like the ones mentioned above are pretty much my worst nightmare, so I guess the post kinda is related to halloween in a way.
Happy Hallowen, everyone. =)

Cellular

I love this movie!!! Seriously, it's SO good.

Cellular is about this woman who has been kidnapped and ends up making a call to an unknown person asking for help. This one phone call it's her only chance of getting out of it alive. On the other side of the line it's Ryan, a worry-free guy, just chilling and having fun with his new cell.

I must repeat, I love this movie!!! haha My mom and I are junkies on good action movies, so when we first watched this one we were 'wooow!'. It's not just an action movie, it's an action movie with brains! It holds not just your attention, but also your breath and makes you go 'oh, shit!' as the story unravels. It has the perfect combination of action, good plot, good actors and great turn-out of events.

Also, I love when the hero is just the normal, 'avarage', guy. It's so much easier to relate to them and beacuse of that they become, not only more likable, but also even more heroic, don't you think?

Watch it!

The Skeleton Key

Not really my kind of movie, but my cousin recommended it to me and she was so excited about it that I decided to give it a chance. The main reason why I don't usually watch this kind of movie is because I'm quite easily to impressed, still, I gathered some courage and managed to fool my grandma into watching it with me (just for the record, she's 83. Poor grandma. I know, I'm going to hell for this). Gotta say, I don't regret watching it one bit!

The Skeleton Key is about a young nurse (Kate Hudson) who finds herself working at this spooky house.  Surrounded by mistery and mystic things everywhere, she doesn't know what's going on and decides to investigate what's really happening there.

The movie is absolutely great! It has the right amount of mistery and thriller and it manages to hold your attention without scaring too much so that you'll lose your focus. All the actors are amazing. Peter Sarsgaard nails it, as always. John Hurt too.
And that end! Oh, my! I was like 'O.O!!!!!!'. haha

Must confess I was a bit scared of looking into mirrors for a few days, though. haha

Totally worth watching, even if you're not into horrors/thrillers.
 
ps:  Despite of almost having a heart attack during the spooky parts, grandma's fine and she actually liked it. :)

All about Steve

 

All About Steve (with a V!) is about Mary, a crosswords writer, who believes to have finally found true love and so decides to go after it in this crazy journey. Turns out, of course, Mary is the naive kind and doesn't realize Steve may not be into her at all. 

It's a very, let's say, peculiar movie. Quite odd in the begining, but if you stick with it and give it a chance you'll see that yes, it is unconventional, but is also sweet and even inspiring. Just like Mary.

Sandra won the Razzie award for worst actress for her perfomance in this movie and when I saw the trailer I thought I agreed with it, but watching the movie I just realized how wrong they were in giving her that award. Mary is weird and hyperactive and unic and Sandra couldn't have portraited her any other way. Come on, what did they want, The Blind Side Sandra? Go watch The Blind Side then!

That's Mary, take it or leave it.

Signs

 

Is it possible that there are no coincidences? 

I know most people think The Six Sense is M. Night Shyamalan master piece and I won't argue with that, but to me Signs is he's best movie. It's definetely my M. Night Shyamalan's favorite. (Acutally I only like this two, I find his other movies quite... I don't know. They just don't make much sense to me.)

Signs is about some marks on the ground that have been appearing all over the world and no one really knows how to explain what they are or why they are appearing. Mainly, though, the movie is about this 'broken' family and how they'll face and deal with all the unknow and uncertainties of what's happening.

I love this movie so much that I've lost count of how many times I've seen it. And the great thing is that every time I watch it I find out something that had passed by me and the story becomes even more amazing. I love how every single piece fits perfectly, including the ones you haven't even figured out yet. And I love how each new time I watch it I go 'Ohhhhhhhh!!!! It makes perfect sense!!!'. I love the whole signs things and the message the movie passes and I love the dialogs and how meaningful they are. I love Bo (the youngest kid), love Merril, I love everything about it!

  

The funny thing is that I haven't found one single person how agrees with me. Oh! Just remembered, there's one, my geography teacher. I'm sorry to say that I don't think all these people who dislike this movie and think its 'blank' have really understood the story or the message behind it. Think they were just expecting a thriller or horror movie and since they didn't get that they got dissapointed. 

Go watch it! It's a great movie with a smart plot. It's kinda funny and will scare you at some points too. And if you don't like it, watch it again. Who knows, you might find new pieces to the puzzle.

Oh, before I go.. Be aware that the marks on the ground are not  the signs. ;) 

Swing away.

Amortentia

For all the muggles non Harry Potter fans here, Amortentia is a love potion that smells differently to each person. It smells like the things one loves.

The other day I was in class and this overwhelming bubblegum smell took over the room, at the moment I couldn't help but image how Amortentia would smell like to me. I didn't need to think much to come to the conclusion that it would most probably smell like rain, freshly showered skin and my mom's baking.

What would Amortentia smell like to you?

Tootsie

What a fun and lovely movie!

Tootsie is about Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman), an unemployed actor who, as his last resource, decides to audittion for a woman’s part in a major soap opera.

Great to just relax and enjoy the story. It has a light sense of humor and some unexpected turn outs. Plus, Dustin Hoffman playing a strong, independent woman is just priceless. And he does it so well!!

My mom and I love this movie! 

Highly recommended.

Random Fact: Tootsie got nominaded for 10 Acadamy Awards back in 1983. Quite a lot, huh?

While you were sleeping

If I had to choose only one movie to watch for the rest of my life, this would definitely be the one.

While you were sleeping is about Lucy, a lonely woman who saves the life of man. Somewhere along the way a misunderstanding happens and the man’s family ends up thinking that they were engaged. Having a family for the first time in so long, she doesn’t know who to tell them the truth.

I just love this movie so much. It’s heart warming, it’s sweet and at the same time slightly funny. You just fall in love with Lucy and the Callaghans (gradma is my favorite).

Sandra Bullock and Bill Pulman couldn’t be sweeter together.

The whole movie just feels like a big, warm, embrance.

Just lovely.

Apocalypto

I know Mel Gibson has been acting completely koo-koo since Passion of Christ but I’ve got to say, putting his personal life aside, I’m a HUGE fan. He is talented, he knows his work and he takes risks. I mean, most hollywood people would have done a movie about the Mayas spoken in english - which would have ruined it - but he didn’t, even if it meant the movie would have a much narrower audience. Plus, Braveheart is a massive part of why I’ve grown up to work with movies.

Apocalypto is about the struggle of a Maya man to survive so he can save his family after the attack from some other Maya tribe.

It helped me a lot with my History tests back in High School, because it has lots of what my teacher taught us about the Maya people, like the fact that among Astecas and Incas they were the only ones who actually had a chance of defeating the Spanish, but they had already destroyed themselves with so many inside conflicts - which is the center of the plot-, also the fact that the Mayas were the only ones who reconized the Spanish as men and not Gods - that too is very clear in the movie.

I remember the critics talked a lot about how bloody it was and almost nothing about how meaninful it is. In fact, they went on and on so much about it that when I actually watched it I was like ‘OK, I see blood, but where’s the BLOOD?’. There is a lot of blood on it, but so there is on Tarantino’s movies and no one ever talks about it, they don’t even seem to notice it (the sound of  nazis being scalplessed in Unglorious Bastards still haunts me!). So don’t get too caught up on it that you forget the plot and the message behind it. I was so touched by Jaguar Paw love for his family that I barely saw all the blood they talked about.

In fact, when you really think about it, love it’s what moves the story. There’s also some other great lessons about men and civilization. It shows both sides, how far men can go for power and how much men can take for love.

Give it a chance, it’s a lot deeper than you may think. Just open your mind and heart to take in the real message.


“A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.”

Joyeux Noël (Merry Christmas)

Décembre, 1914. Une histoire vraie que l’Histoire a oubliée.

Merry Christmas is about how during the World War I, French, German and British stoped the war to celebrate Christmas together. Best thing about it? It’s a true story!

It’s very moving to see those people realizing that they are more alike than they were told and that war is not worth it, at all. Truly proves how useless war is and how friendship can rise even in the most hostil of the enviroments. It’s a real lesson to all of us.

With the exception of the dreadful fake-opera-singing, all the acting is amazing. The actors managed to show us real people instead of just characters.

One of the scenes that moved me the most is a dialog between French and German, where the French says something as ‘My German isn’t nearly as good as your French’, to which the German answers ‘You’re not married to a German wife’. Can you image that? Being married to a French and all of the sudden you have to fight the French. That’s just crazy! Poor guy, would not like to be in his position.

Favorite scene: the very last one. I find it so meaningful and very moving. Love the song too, very touching.

Without an enemy there can be no war.

ps: Before I go, just want to talk a little about Daniel Brühl (he plays the german leading character). He is my favorite actor. Not one of my favorites, THE favorite one (watching the movie you’ll have a little sneak peek of why). He is German and he is brilliant. He has something most hollywood actors don’t (probably because they don’t need to), he speaks lots of languages; so I’ve seen him in German movies, French movies, Spanish movies and even Catalan movies. Also, he knows how to choose his works really well, if you see his name attached to a movie, you can be sure it’s a good one. It’s a shame he doesn’t get the attention he deserves (at least world wide, I’m sure he’s huge in Germany).

Little Miss Sunshine

Must say that when I first watched it, at the begining, I wasn’t very into it, but as the movie went on it grew on me and by the end I was completely fascinated.

Little Miss Sunshine is about Olive, a young girl who was called to replace some other girl as a contestant in a beauty pageant (called, guess what! Little Miss Sunshine). More than that, the movie is about the journey and struggles of this very peculiar family to take Olive to her beauty pageant.

Toni Collette (I’m such a fan of her! She’s always great on her movies.) plays the mom, Greg Kinnear is the dad (I love the whole irony behind dad, with his job and his life, very clever). Alan Arkin (the name says it all) is absolutely great as the grandad, bringing lots of funny moments (I love the grandad!), Steve Carell is amazing as a character who is very different from the ones he usually plays, the lonely and sad uncle. Dwayne, the ‘dark’ brother, is very well played by Paul Dano (specially because it must be really hard to capture the essence of a character who barely speaks and he succeeded on that).

There are so many things I love about this movie (the yellow van is one of them), but the one thing I love the most is the contrast between Olive and the other contestants. It’s just brilliant! A genuine girl among all those mini-barbies. Also, Olive’s dance routine! Oh, my God! Love it, Love it. Thanks for that, grandad. ;)

FUCK BEAUTY CONTESTS!
- Dwayne

Just love the whole meaning behind that quote, it has become my life motto.

What are you waiting? Get the popcorn and go watch it. Now!

ps: I know I wrote ‘love’ a lot, but how could I not?

{proof}

 

I watched proof for the first time about 3 years ago, I liked it so much that I watched it two days in a row. Haven’t watched it ever since and this week I just woke up dying to watch it, but since I can’t find the DVD anywhere, I thought I should at least tell you about it.

Proof  is about this woman whose dad is a great mathematician, but in his last years he has lost his mind a bit and she chooses to quit everything to take care of him. The story revolves around the fact that the daughter starts to belive that she might be losing her mind as well.

There’s nothing really major about it, but it’s a good movie. It catches your attention and really makes you wonder what the true answer is. Must confess that I changed my mind every 5 sec. There’s also a little romance (I love the romance), it’s very subtle and almost not there because it’s not the main purpose of the movie, but it’s really sweet at the same time.

All the main actors are very good. Anthony Hopkins plays the crazy dad perfectly and Gwyneth Paltrow really brings the uncertainty her character requires, leaving us with lots of doubts. And of course, the bonus, a cute mathematician/drummer nicely played by Jake Gyllenhaal.

Great movie for a lazy night. Just sit back and enjoy it, no worries, no too-complicated-plots, no unnecessary drama. Just enjoy a good movie.

The biggest risk in life is not taking one.

One Week

One Week is a Canadian movie about Ben, a guy who has always settle for everything in his life and now discovers he has stage 4 cancer.

I know, the plot is a little cliché, but the way it was put together it’s not. The narrador, which kinda reminds me of Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain except that I like One Week’s narrator better because he is nicer and doesn’t speak so fast, bring us a lot closer to Ben; telling us his past, his thoughts and how he affected other people lives. Thanks to him I felt like Ben was my brother, or my best friend, which made the whole experience much more personal and emotinal.

Emotinal, that describes really well what this movie meant to me. It touched some wounds, I related to Ben’s feelings lots of times. It made me think about MY life, it was a great therapy session (at points  I’d cry and didn’t even know if I was crying about me or Ben anymore). 

To make things even better, the movie has LOTS of beautiful Canadian views, some quite unexpected and others that just makes you gasp.

I liked the soundtrack too. Think it matched the movie perfectly, bringing so much life to each scene.

Definitely worth watching!

To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield.

Ps: favorite scene, Ben awkwardly dancing on the side of the road. So sweet.