domingo, 20 de maio de 2012

Source Code


I knew way back that this would be a good movie. Couldn't have been more right!

Source Code tells the story of Colter Steven, whose mission is to find a bomb in a train. Source Code is the program that puts him in the train and gives him 8 min to find the bomb, every time he fails he has to go back and try again. Oh yeah, and let's not forget, he has to do that while in someone else's body.

I know my explanation made it sound bananas, but it's not. It actually makes some sense when you're watching the movie.

And as I said before, I love Jake, I love sci-fi and I love some action, so I loved the movie. It has the perfect  sci-fi/action/emotion combo. I love when action and sci-fi movies manage to bring some real emotion to it, and Source Code did just that.
It's not too emotional, but it definitely has a emotional touch that I wasn't expecting and was surprised in a good way by it. The emotional factor is due to the fact that we become close to both main charcters, Colter and Colleen (Jake and Vera).

Plus the movie has many others turning points where we find out things we didn't see coming. I was pretty shocked by some of those things. What it's really nice is that we find them out along with Colter, so we end up connecting even more with him.

Vera Farmiga and Jake Gyllenhaal are pretty good. Their acting made the movie even better. Gotta say I had never seen Jake like this, there're some pretty touching scenes where he's incredible. Vera too. As for Michelle Monaghan, once again she disappointed me. I thought her acting was kinda awkward, at times the facial expressions did't match her lines. It confused me. It's a good thing that Jake and Vera are good enough for the three of them.

Totally recommend! Great movie. Feel like watching it again. :)

Note: watched it again last night, had forgotten how much I hate Dr. Rutledge, feel like punching him in the face!!

domingo, 13 de maio de 2012

Troy


Troy is a retelling of Homer's Iliad, telling the story of the famous war between Greece and Troy over the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen.

I'm a HUGE  Homer fan, I'm actually majoring in Latin and Ancient Greek literature and so the other day I was talking to my friend how much I love Hector and she told me that I should watch Troy, and so I did yesterday.

*Warning: Spoilers

They changed the story quite a bit and I wasn't pleased with that but they managed to be very faithful to Hector's part, which made me very happy.

Let me start by telling you that Hector is my favorite character in all literature, so he was the only reason why I decided to watch this, and the fact that Eric Bana played him made me even more excited, because I always thought he had that Hector thing, he is the Hector I always imagined. And he did not disappointed me. He was Hector in every way, in every look, in every word. He captured the essence so perfectly well. He OWNS the movie, which just makes me even more proud of Hector. His acting is so powerful, he did justice to this amazing character. When he kills Achilles' cousin and when he says goodbye to his family, you can feel his feelings. The only bad thing about Hector was his hair, they give him the worst hair. Eric Bana and Hector for the win! Always liked Eric, but he surprised me in a good way. I just can't get over how perfect he is on this. He managed to make me love Hector even more, if that's possible.

Orlando Bloom is quite good as Paris too, he portraited very well the younger bother who's too naive for his own good. He had Paris uncertainty in every word he spoke and every action he took, you could sense how unsure he was and you could see a little fear in eyes at all times.

Peter O'Toole is really good as Priam, got to say I cried when he goes to Achilles to ask him for his son's body (of course by then I was already crying because of Hector's death), I also liked Sean Bean as Odysseus, even though he doesn't appear that much.

And as for Brad Pitt, well I saved the worst for last. In my opinion he's just awful as Achilles, he didn't manage to capture Achilles fury very welll, it felt fake 80% of the time. I like his scenes with Patorclus, but that's pretty much it. Watching him as Achilles was like watching Cristiano Ronaldo playing soccer football, you know how sometimes he stops and poses? That was Brad Pitt's performance. He would just pose as if saying 'Look at me, I should model for Calvin Klein'. That's not Achilles AT ALL. Achilles is arrogant, yes, but not towards his look, towards his fighting skills!! Not sure if that's his fault or that's just how he was directed. They also changed Achilles ethos quite a lot. Plus, too much make up, he looked like Barbie at times.

Over all, it's a good movie. A little long and if you are a diehard Homer fan you won't be very pleased, but might enjoy it. Now, if you're a Hector fan like me!!! you won't be disappointed and might end up completely in love with Eric Bana, just like me!!!. And if you're just looking for entertainment it might be a good call if you like epic/war movies.