It’s that time of the week again when I take a look at the many roles of one actor, this week with Brad Pitt. Pitt was born in 1963. As he grew up he was always very active as he participated in various sports. Once he graduated high school he went to the University of Missour in 1982. He majored in journalism and was interested in advertising. Something which also interested him was acting and he left the university two week before graduation to move to Los Angeles. He had his first roles in 1987 and appeared in shows like Dallas and Growing Pains and 21 Jump Street. His first leading role was in the movie The Dark Side of the Sun in 1988, which wasn’t released until almost 10 years later. His breakthrough came when he appeared in Thelma and Louise in 1991. From this moment his career took off. He has been nominated for an Oscar several times, but has not won it yet.

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Pitt has played some amazing roles and picking a favorite is difficult. He was great in Fight Club, Seven, 12 Monkeys, Burn After Reading and Snatch and I really can’t pick a favorite.

What is your favorite Brad Pitt role?

No “Story Behind…” this week as time really hasn’t allowed me to write a new one, but I do have a review:

Hunter S. Thompson was an interesting man, which was made clear by the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in which he goes on a drug filled journey and ends up in the most bizarre situations. If you’d like to know more about him I recommend watching the documentary Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter s.Thompson,which shows that what was shown in that movie was only a small part of a life filled with extremes. Knowing that The Rum Diary was also based on his work I was looking forward to seeing this, especially with Johnny Depp starring again.

Kemp (Depp) is a man moving to Puerto Rico to land a job as a journalist on the small island. The newspaper isn’t anything special, basically making sure that American tourists can read nice little fluffy stories about the happy things going on. Kemp, together with some of his colleagues end up in some of the politics played by other Americans on the island planning to make some changes.

Now if you go into this movie expecting more of the crazy stuff you saw in “Loathing” you will be very disappointed. First of all the movie is based on a book written by Thompson, but it is a fictional story and sadly that means it is a lot more boring compared to his real life. The movie shows a lot of talking with Depp ending up in some tense situations, but it never really gets exciting. It has a couple of funny moments, but in general it wasn’t as good as I expected. It did have some great performances though with Giovanni Ribisi’s Moberg being a standout one. He manages to make his character extremely weird (using a strange voice), but very believable. I was looking forward to the scenes he showed up in.

Overall The Rum Diary didn’t deliver the thrills or suspense necessary to keep you hooked. There is a lot of beautiful island imagery, some laughs and tense situations but in general it is not enough to make this a must see. Personally I’d rather rewatch “Loathing” or the Thompson documentary.

Score: 6

As a viewer you are introduced to a family who used to have fun by blowing things up and shooting guns, until the FBI arrested them. It has had a big effect on the family and its children and we see them struggling with one of them, a boy named Benny who takes a lot of medicine to fight his bipolar disorder. You see he has a hard time dealing with other kids and school and you just hope he manages to find his way in life.
Red is another inhabitant of the town, an old man who tries to stay alive by making a small profit selling cigarettes. CeeJay Thompson is the third subject, a teenager who fled LA to get away from gang violence and has dreams of becoming a NFL player and is falling in love with the sister of one of his friends.

Bombay Beach manages to give you a feeling of the poverty and issues the people of the town deal with, while at the same time also showing the beauty present. Something which really stood out for me about this documentary is the way it looks. Everything has been shot so well that the only way to describe it is artful. It uses a couple of staged scenes which add to a feeling of looking into the souls of these people and seeing their dreams. It might not have the focus a lot of people want from a documentary, but it didn’t bother me as I think it’s an amazing documentary worth checking out.

Score: 8

Trailer:

Every week I read a lot of great movie related blogs and I thought it was time to give the ones I visit regularly a chance to shine in the spotlight, by interviewing its writers.

This week’s interview is with Ruth, writer of FlixChatter.

What is the history of your site, why did you start it?
Well my site actually got started on a whim, even though I’ve been toying w/ the idea of blogging for a while. I was doing an assignment to create a blog design for my client so I was doing some research on it and decided to just start one so I can learn about it. I talked about movies all the time with one of my co-workers at the time and he said I should just start a blog so I don’t have to email him movie news or comments all the time. I haven’t really had a venue to channel my love for writing (other than my ‘novel’ that I started writing 2 yrs before I started the blog) so combining that with my love for movies just seemed like a wonderful idea.

What makes your movie blog different from the ones out there?
Well, it’s different because it’s MY views of movies. FIlm-watching is such a personal thing, everyone is going to get something different from the same film. Plus my blog encompasses all kinds of different aspects of films, i.e. movie music, editing, posters, opening titles, and of course, the actors. I also vary my posts from reviews, top ten lists, featured trailers/posters, featured actors, etc. just to keep it interesting.

What do you enjoy most about your site and what’s the reason you keep doing it?
I REALLY enjoy the blogging part itself but the more I blog, I find that the most enjoyable aspect is the community aspect. Getting comments and ‘meeting’ fellow film lovers, whether they also have a blog or not, is so rewarding. I must admit, my eyes always light up when I see a new comment on my email! I love the joy of connecting with people who share my love of a particular film or actor and I also enjoy reading others’ posts and learning about different kinds of films I otherwise wouldn’t know about. Truthfully, I don’t think I can live without blogging now, even when I’m on vacation, I miss blogging a lot!

In which ways has your blogging changed the way you watch movies? Do you watch more of them, do you view them differently?
I don’t think blogging change the way I watch movies in drastic way. If anything, it perhaps make me view them with a more ‘critical’ eye as I’d have to review them later. It made me pay attention to them more whilst before I probably didn’t notice as much details when I watch a movie.

What’s your favorite article you’ve written?
Well, I don’t know if I can point to just one. I think I’m proud to all the posts I wrote on this list that generated a lot of comments and were featured on IMDb. But if I had to pick just one, I guess it’d be my first pitch I did for Castor’s blog, the Hearts Want romantic thriller. I spent a ton of time on it, developing the story, the characters, researching location, etc. and I really think it’d make a pretty compelling movie.

Could you name five of your all time favourite movies?

Sense & Sensibility

Roman Holiday

Gladiator

Ben-Hur

Batman Begins

Do you own any movie-related items that you are proud of?
I received TWO autographed photos from Christopher Reeve when I was in high school, one is him as Superman and the other one in a Tweed suit. You can view them both here. The other item I cherish is the autographed picture that Gerry Butler signed right before my eyes after I met him at TIFF in 2005. I wish I could get an autographed item from Gregory Peck, alas he’s already passed

Anything else you want to tell us about yourself?
I just want to let everyone know that I started a tumblr » flixchatter.tumblr.com For now it’s all Gregory Peck stuff, but somewhere down the line I’ll expand it to be a Classic Hollywood tumblr.

For those who have never heard of this, Das Boot shows what it was like to work on a German U-boat during the second World War. As a viewer you join 42 young men as they first set foot on this submarine. They are full of hope and looking forward into fighting the English. Their long journey shows that it’s not all glory and that life under water also can be filthy, frightening and desperate. A U-boat captain is constantly playing a game of cat and mouse with the destroyers and it means he has to take decisions that could end a lot of lives.

Ever since I saw The Hunt for Red October (starring Sean Connery) I’ve been a big fan of movies with submarines in them. I would never want to work on one, but it’s an intruiging setting and being underneath the waves makes everything feel alien and claustrophobic, because you know if something goes wrong you can’t just escape, it’s the end of your life. Das Boot feels like the most realistic depiction of life on a submarine and as a viewer you almost become part of the crew, being near them in these close quarters.

The U-boat featured in this movie was specifically built for it and it looks amazing. The actors trained a lot in order to be able to quickly move through it, but the cameraman especially has done an amazing job as there are some shots where he’s running through the submarine that are just stunning to look at. The movie was shot on a relatively low budget (15 million dollars), but it feels epic and even though it is obvious some models were used for the battles (which were later also used for Raiders of the Lost Ark) it really doesn’t matter for the thrills you get when you watch it. If you can manage to make the time to see this you will be rewarded with a thrilling look into life on a U-boat.

Score: 9

The art world is an interesting one where people are willing to pay big money just because it is widely loved. If there is demand there are always willing to help in supplying what they want and Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie) is the man for the job. While he has a day job as a headhunters trying to find the right person for a CEO position he also steals paintings in order to be able to make sure he keeps his wife happy and is able to pay for his expensive villa. It is not a job without risks and when one of them doesn’t go as planned Roger doesn’t seem to be safe anymore.

Although this is a Norwegian movie it feels like an American one. It looks great and has some nice set pieces and action sequences that will have you on the edge of your seat. As a viewer you are taken along for the ride and slowly uncover what the hell Roger has gotten himself into. It’s also a movie that has a couple of graphic scenes that might have the faint of heart turning their head away. They feel realistic and part of the story, but it’s nice to be warned about them. It also offers some laughs because of the absurd situations Roger ends up in.

The story is a classic one of a fugitive trying to get away from the bad guys while at the same time trying to find out why things went wrong and trying to get them right. This is a movie that showed up on one of the top 10 lists of 2011 (can’t remember which site) and I can completely understand why. It’s a movie which surprised and thrilled and one you really should check out.

Score: 9

As you know I usually go into the movies without knowing anything about it. Albert Nobbs was part of a preview festival I went to and apart from a thumbnail of the poster I went in blank. No idea what it was about and who played in it. When the movie started I saw the name Glenn Close show up on the screen and although it vaguely rang a bell I really couldn’t think of a face that matched the name. When the movie started I got an uncomfortable feeling.

The movie is set in a hotel in the 19th century and Albert Nobbs is a butler working there. From the moment he showed up I felt something was wrong with this actor. Why did this man have such a weird face and a voice that also didn’t fit? Then a bit later another man showed up and I couldn’t understand why all these women in the hotel thought he looked beautiful and wanted to know more about him. I thought he looked like a woman. As it turns out my uncomfortable feeling was right as it turns out (as the trailer shows) these men were both women. The story is that these women were not able to get work and that posing as a man would allow them to make some money. Albert Nobbs (Glenn Close) has a dream of setting up her own shop and after finding out the secret of another woman posing as a man she wants to do that by marrying a woman and has her eyes set on one of the maids. The movie shows how she tries to reach her goal and deal with hiding her big secret.

This is a movie I really did not enjoy and I can’t understand all the praise Glenn Close has been getting for this role. It seems she has used botox and because of it I had the feeling she couldn’t show much emotion. Surely looking around makes you come across as vulnerable, but it didn’t convince me. The only scene in which I thought she was convincing is one where she goes to the beach (you know which one I’ll mean once you see it). From the outset of the movie I didn’t feel like the premise was very believable which made me feel like a observer who didn’t care much about the characters instead of someone who was feeling what they were going through. Albert Nobbs was a disappointing movie which I wouldn’t recommend.

Score: 4

Recently I met up with a couple of friends and of course the subject of movies came up. Among my friends I’m the one who watches most, so they asked for some suggestions. Now it’s getting harder to suggest something to them as my taste is a bit broader than theirs, which means I sometimes have to warn them they might not like it.
It ended up in one of them listing a short list of requirements before he would decide to watch a movie. Including not watching something if it had a score lower than a 7 on IMDB. Of course I think that way you might miss out on some entertaining movies, but to each his own.

So today’s question is:
How do you decide which movies you will watch?

I think curiosity is the best description in deciding which movies I want to see, but a lot of factors come into play. If other bloggers with similar taste praise a movie I will want to check it out as well, but there are exceptions. I’m a big action movie fan and know that these often get bad reviews. If I would have only looked at review scores I wouldn’t have watched movies like The Three Musketeers, Immortals and Battle: LA, all movies I enjoyed for what they were. IMDB usually plays an important part as well if it is a movie I have never heard of.

As for which movie I watch out of my stack of DVDs, that usually comes down to my mood and how tired I am (because I won’t throw on a 2+ hour movie if I know I won’t be able to make it till the end).

How do you decide which movies you will watch?

Welcome to the 25th installment of “The Many Faces of…”, this week starring Matt Damon!

Damon grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts and lived close to Ben Affleck, who has been a friend of his since he was little and with whom he still collaborates. I high school he acted in several plays. He went to Harvard University but did not graduate as he decided to head to LA to pursue an acting career. He started acting in small movies (his first at 18 in Mystic Pizza) and starred together with Gene Hackman in Geronimo: An American Legend in 1992. He was willing to do a lot for his roles and proved so in 1996 when he lost 18 kg for his role in Courage Under Fire (he had to take medication for years after it because it took a big toll on his body). His big breaktrhough came with Good Will Hunting. Together with Ben Affleck he won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. After this his career took off and starred in popular franchises as the Oceans and Bourne series.

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My favorite role of his is as Jason Bourne, especially since he speaks some Dutch in the first movie.

What’s your favorite Matt Damon role?

Check out other entries in the “Many Faces of…” series here

Despite knowing that this was a movie not a lot of people seemed to like (one look at Rotten Tomatoes makes that clear) I still was curious to see if this would be a movie I’d enjoy. I haven’t seen The Fall yet (but the DVD is waiting on my “to watch” stack and remembering that The Cell (which I saw while on holiday in Florida) was visually striking I wanted to find out if director Tarsem Singh managed to do the same with this movie.

This is a movie which deals with Greek mythology, so seeing gods and oracles is all part of the story about King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) wanting to conqer Greece by getting his hands on the hidden Epirus Bow, which will allow him to unleash the immortals (strong enough to fight the gods), who have been locked away in a mountain and unable to move.
Of course there must be something or someone standing in his way and in this case it’s Theseus (Henry Cavil), a simple farmer who has been trained so well that the most experienced warriors look like first time fighters. After an attack on his village he’s out for revenge. Together with an Oracle (the beautiful Freida Pinto) and some other warriors they set out to find King Hyperion and have their revenge.

Visually it’s a very unique and beautiful movie. It’s obvious that a lot of time was spent on processing all the images with the computer as colors are bright and a lot of CG has been added. The costumes are stunning (although I must admit the helmets the gods wear do seem ridiculous, but then again I know nothing of what’s hot in “God fashion”).
And as we are in sword and sandal territory the movie wouldn’t be complete without some good old battles. Now in this case the movie doesn’t hold back, so if you can’t stand the sight of blood it’s better to skip it. Limbs are cut off, heads beaten to red pulp and people cut open. A lot of this is done in slow motion (which is comparable to what was done in 300 or even something like The One with Jet Li) and I thought it was stunning to watch.

Does this movie have a great story? I have to admit that it’s not the strongest part of it all, but the visuals and battles made up for it. It’s not a movie everyone will love, but which I think should be watched to be amazed by how it looks.

Score: 8

My journey into stories behind famous movie related things we take for granted continues, still focussing on the logos of the big movie companies. This week’s choice: The Universal Pictures logo.

Universal was founded by Carl Laemmle. He moved to the US in 1884 and had a job as a manager. He was fascinated by the nickelodeons and saw how many people visited them and decided to start purchasing them. In 1909 he founded the Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP). In 1912 a contract was signed with other studios (Powers Picture Company, Champion Films and American Éclai) and this resulted in the founding of the Universal Motion Picture Manufacturing Company in 1914 with Laemmle as its president. Through the years the company has had various logos:

1914-1919

The first logo that was used already showed a globe which has a lot of resemblance to Saturn with its ring.

1920-1922

The ring is now slightly tilted and various fonts are used.

1923-1926

This is the first one where the planet looks like earth. This one shows a plane flying around the world leaving a trail of smoke which slowly turn into the words “Universal Pictures”.

1927-1936

An updated version of the previous logo which also has the plane flying around the globe. The text now reads “A Universal Picture”.

1936-1946

Now this is my personal favorite as it shows the globe made from plexiglass with the words A Universal Picture circling around it surrounded by sparkling stars. It was built by Alexander Golitzen and photographed by John Fulton.

1946-1963

As the company merged with International Pictures Company a new logo was commisioned. This version simply showed a rotating globe with the words “Universal International” shown on top of it.

1963-1990

The camera zooms through space towards a rotating earth where the word “Universal” fades in.

1990-1997

This one starts on the side of the earth with a short reflection of the sun on the water after which the Universal letters come around as the camera slowly zooms out to show the earth and the stars behind it. It’s interesting to note that this wasn’t done with CGI, but was all model work.

1997-2012

The first CGI version of the logo where light emerges from the globe, slowly revealing the continents. The name Universal appears in gold and white lettering.

2012-

The brand new logo to celebrate the 100th Anniversary. It will be shown first with the animated movie The Lorax. Universal has also set up this website to celebrate, which includes a very deep look into its history and its movies.

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Recently I visited the PAC festival, which is regularly organised by one of the biggest cinema chains in the Netherlands. It shows previews of quality movies that will be released in the coming months. One of the five movies that was shown was Intouchables. A French movie I hadn’t heard of before based on a true story.

Philippe (François Cluzet) is a rich quadriplegic man who is looking for a new assistant to help him with all his daily needs. Driss (Omar Sy) is a criminal from one of the bad neighbourhoods of Paris who is just out of jail and is applying for the job (knowing that he won’t get it because of his history) and just wants a signature to make sure he gets his social security payment. Philippe asks him to return the next day and decides to give him the job. These are two people from different backgrounds who can teach each other a lot about life.

Now it’s clear that this movie has been adapted from the real events as it adds a lot humour. Driss knows how to enjoy himself and doesn’t hold back in saying what is on his mind. He doesn’t treat Philippe like someone who can only move his head (sometimes even forgetting that fact) and does make fun of him. Philippe tries to show Driss things in life he never experienced.

François Cluzet and Omar Sy form a unique on screen duo who really have a spark between them and it’s exactly the reason this movie works so well. Sy manages to make Driss very likeable, but also believable and his interactions with Cluzet are movie gold. The story has heart, drama and comedy without ever going into predictable territory, which makes it feel so fresh. I was afraid that this movie would become predictable very soon, but it never did.

Now this is a movie I hope a lot of people will see as it deserves to be watched. I’m already pretty sure this will end up in my top 2012 list, so see it if you can.

Score: 10

Every week I read a lot of great movie related blogs and I thought it was time to give the ones I visit regularly a chance to shine in the spotlight, by interviewing its writers.

This week’s interview is with Claire, writer of Cinematic Delights.

What’s the history of your site, why did you start it?
I started writing my blog back in September 2009 as writing a blog was a requirement for the journalism diploma I was studying. After I graduated in July 2010 I decided to carry on writing – by then writing my blog had become my main hobby.

It wasn’t until February/March of last year that I really started connecting with other movie bloggers, though. I can’t remember exactly how I found him but Scott over at Front Room Cinema was one of the first bloggers I connected with. From there I met Ruth at Flix Chatter, Terrence over at The Focused Filmographer and, of course, this blog!

What makes your movie blog different from the other ones out there?
I guess you’d have to ask my readers! I used to feature more ‘newsy’ items like the latest trailers and posters but I wasn’t really keeping track of what was happening! Now I write more features – recent features have included Top 10 Movie Animals and Top 10 Movie Dads. I also have a few regulars. At the moment my regular features are Musical Monday and Favourites Friday, and I like to write posts celebrate the birthdays of my favourite actors, actresses and directors as well.

What do enjoy most about your site and what is the reason you keep doing it?
It has to be other people’s comments. In my day to day life there are only a couple of people I can really talk to about movies. My fellow movie bloggers are on the same wavelength as me and I always appreciate reading what they have to say. My blog allows me to interact with other movie
lovers around the world – I have regular conversations with people as far away as America and New Zealand!

In which ways has your blogging changed the way you watch movies?
Well, I watch a lot more movies than I used to. I go to the cinema more often and I have also signed up to LOVEFiLM, which is a movie rental service. When it comes to actually watching movies I’ve always been the ‘on the edge of your seat’ kind-of movie goer, so not much has changed in that respect.

What’s your favourite article you have written?

Now this is a toughie… There’s a few that spring to mind including my recent Top 10 Movie Dads post and my A Life in Movies post that was part of Fandango Groover’s blog-a-thon. I’m going to go for my Top 10: Fantasy movie locations post, though. I turned a rather lovely shade of green while I was writing it! It was the first Top 10 that I wrote and, as I’ll explain later, the fantasy genre is my absolute favourite.

Could you name five of your all time favourite movies?

My absolute favourite films are The Lord of the Rings trilogy. If I had to pick one then it’d be The Two Towers.
At the time of writing, my other choices would be

Jurassic Park

True Romance

The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Footloose (the original!) – quite an eclectic mix!

How many movies do you watch on average each week?
Not that many to be honest, probably two or three. Most of my movie viewing is at the weekends, when I can relax and really get lost in what I’m watching.

Do you own any movie related items that you are very proud of?
I have a few bits and pieces but my favourite items would be my The Lord of the Rings memorabilia: I have an Evenstar necklace, a pewter goblet adorned with images of Aragorn and, of course, a replica of the One Ring. Another favourite item is my Batman print, which is a limited edition of 75 by a UK artist. It has the rather excellent title, ‘Flawed Genius’.

Anything else you want to tell us about yourself?
A little while ago Max over at Impassioned Cinema called me ‘LOTR fangirl’, and it really made me smile. While I do enjoy watching all different types of movies, the fantasy genre is my absolute favourite – my least favourite is horror as I am a big baby and would watch most of the movie from behind my hands!

If I could walk around in a movie then it’d have to be something along the lines of The Lord of the Rings, Robin Hood or The Princess Bride – I’m a sucker for the medieval period and anything involving magic. In fact, I am quite a medieval geek… During my English degree I took a module called ‘Arthurian Adaptations’, which was all about Arthurian romances, and I used to work at a castle for two years during my university holidays! Yep, the nickname LOTR fangirl suits me pretty well!

It’s been a while since I saw a Michael Douglas movie I enjoyed. A while ago a DVD store near me had a big sale and going through stack and stacks of DVDs trying to find my personal treasures I found Beyond a Resonable Doubt. The cover looked cool, it had Michael Douglas in it and it seemed to be a courtroom drama. Worth seeing right?

Watching it however quickly changed my feelings about it. First of all Douglas only appears in a few scenes. The story focuses on C.J.Nicholas (played by Jesse Metcalfe who I never heard of), a reporter who knows for sure that the district attorney (played by Douglas) is winning cases because he’s tampering with evidence. In order to prove this he has an ingenious plan of waiting for a murder to happen, try to get as much information he can from the detective who is investigating it and then buying all the items which the killer has used, documenting it all and then be caught. During the trial he can then show the footage and expose the district attorney. This was such a ridiculous plot that it was really hard to take this movie seriously. Of course Douglas gets help of a corrupt cop who manages to get the right information every time to be able to be at right place to prevent C.J. to succeed.

So this movie already lost me before the end, although I did decide to see all of it as I did want to be able to form a complete opinion about it. Then in the last couple of minutes there was an unnecessary and one extremely weird twist which really had me shaking my head in disgust and take even more points of the score. A dissapointing movie which I won’t recommend to anyone.

Score: 3

No Monday Question this week, instead a whole lot of questions! In movie history there are these products everyone would like to get their hands on and try them out. Well, now is your chance by joining the movie products blogathon.

Which movie would you find in your own Pulp Fiction briefcase?

They say you always want the things you can’t get and in this case it is true as I would love to watch the documentary “Breath Control: The History of the Human Beat Box”. It came out in 2002 and was only shown at festivals. There was talk of a DVD of it coming out, but it didn’t materialise because of clearing issues related to the music used. I don’t beatbox myself but am a big fan of the music and seeing beatbox legends like Doug E. Fresh and Biz Markie talking about what made them famous is something I will not be able to see. So if I opened the briefcase this is what would be in it and it wouldn’t even matter if the film was good or bad.

If you had a Back to the Future DeLorean, which movie related time period would you travel?
I’d be tempted to go to the silent era, just because so much of those movies (an estimated 80%) were lost and can never been seen again (even one that earned an Oscar), but I don’t know for sure if I’d enjoy it. Instead I would love to go to a time period just before the television was introduced and cinemas would be everywhere and very popular. Just reading about the history of cinemas in my own city (Rotterdam) it’s sad to see how many have disappeared. Watching movies like Cinema Paradiso makes me long for that experience.

If you woke up tomorrow morning and found out that you were living your own Groundhog Day and could only escape it by watching all the movies from a specific genre, which genre would you choose and why? And which genre would be your personal hell?

Now there are a lot of genres out there with documentaries being the most varied. I was going to pick it, but then realised it’s probably the biggest one there is as there are so many out there. It would be either action or science fiction, but since the science fiction genre would have more variation I’d choose that.
My personal hell would definitely be horror movies. I don’t watch them as I can’t really enjoy the experience, but having to watch all of them ever made would be something I’d want to escape.

You have the Neuralyzer from Men in Black in your pocket. Which movie would you travel into to use it on one of the characters to change the movie in a fun or interesting way and what would happen because of the change you made?

Now this might be very cruel, but I’d go into Back to the Future just after Marty has parked his car. After the flash he can’t remember where he parked it and spends a lot of time trying to find it. Someone else finds the car, but since he doesn’t have the keys it is towed and ends up into a government facility where it is investigated. Somehow Marty finds out and has to admit he’s from the future to enter the facility and get the car back.

If you would be able to enter the dreams of a famous movie character like Cobb did in Inception using the dream machine, which character’s dreams would you jump into to get to know that character better and what do you think their dreamworld would look like?

I’d probably go into the mind of a character that isn’t able to speak (no, not the horse from War Horse!) to find out more about them and was thinking about an alien since their dreams and experiences are probably very different. I’d be interested to know more about E.T. because we really don’t know much about him/her except for wanting to go home and help others. I’d like to see the world he lives on and what his goals in life are. I have no idea what he would be dreaming about though which would make it even more exciting to see.

Lacuna Inc, the company from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind just opened on the corner of your street. Which one movie memory would you delete to experience it for the first time again?

There are tons of movies I’d like to experience for the first time again (really all of the My Filmviews tens), but being able to only choose one I’d have the memory of Old Boy removed, just to experience that first time shock to the fullest again.

Right next to Lacuna Inc, another company Rekall from Total Recall has opened as well. Which character in which movie would you like to be to experience it in first person?

With so many great characters to choose from this is a hard one to choose from. A while ago I did the “Which movie character would you want to be for a day?” article and those are all things I’d be interested in, but today I feel like picking a very simple one and that’s Jesse from Before Sunrise. We all know that thrill of getting to know someone and falling in love and it would be an enjoyable night strolling through the streets of Vienna.

Please post your links to your own Movie Products blogathon answers and I’ll add them here!

Here are what others would do with their products:
Southern Vision
Fernby Films
Inspired Ground
Top 10 Films
Impassioned Cinema
The Focused Filmographer
Desert of the Reel
Ticker Talks Film

Pacino was born in 1940 and grew up in the Bronx. He dropped out of school at 17 and did a lot of small jobs to finance something he wanted to do, acting. He joined the Herbert Berghof Studio where he learned a lot from Charlie Laughton. With his experience there he applied to the Actors Studio and was admitted. He did some plays before making the jump to movies.

The first film he appeared in was Me, Natalie in 1969, with only a small role. He got noticed and his big breakthrough came when he played Michael Corleone in The Godfather (which was only his third movie role), which got him a nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He later received other Oscar nominations for his roles in Dick Tracy, …And Justice for All, Glengarry Glen Ross, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and Scent of a Woman. It was for his role in the last movie he received the statue.

Click to enlarge

So how do you pick out your favorite role when there are so many amazing ones to choose from, he was great in the Godfather and Scarface, but I always liked his performance in Carlito’s Way of the gangster wanting to get out of the game, but being pulled back in.

What’s your favorite Al Pacino role?

Check out other entries in the “Many Faces of…” series here

For those expecting a science fiction story I can say that it is not. The other earth is there, but it’s just a small part of the story, just like it was in another movie with a similar idea, Melancholia. This movie isn’t as dark, but does deal with the personal struggle Rhoda is going through. She once was a promising student, but now has a job cleaning schools. She wants to face the one she has caused pain, but is afraid to do so. When she hears about a competition that could give her the opportunity to join a spaceship to the other earth it’s a chance for her to escape it all and at the same time to allow her to face her fears.

This was a movie made on a small budget (just $200.000), but just as movies like Bellflower or Monsters it really doesn’t show. This is a drama which works because the convincing acting of both Brit Marling and William Mapother (who most will recognise from Lost). The effect of the other earth appearing looks stunning. Part of me wants to see a sequel to this as it could explore other questions we have about how we would react to knowing there is other life out there.

Score: 8

Continuing my look into the stories behind movie related things we all take for granted, this week’s choice is The Warner Bros. logo.

The history of Warner Brothers is an interesting one. The brothers Wonskolaser emigrated, together with their parents, from Russian controlled Poland to the United States. Their father changed their surname to Warner. When the brothers were older they started screening the movie The Great Train Robbery in a vacant store, which they called the Bijou. In 1903 they bought a small theater and turned it into a Nickelodeon called the Cascade, where people could watch movies for, as the name implies, a nickle. In 1904 they founded a distribution company and around the time of the first World War they started producing movies. They opened their studio in Hollywood in 1918 and slowly the company began growing and was the first studio to release a talkie in 1927 called The Jazz Singer. For more history on the Warner Brothers I suggest watching the documentary The Brothers Warner.

Through the years the studio logo went through changes as well.

1923-1929

The original version of the logo already had a shield (it’s unclear why it was chosen) and the WB, but also a picture of the actual studio.

1929-1936

Here the picture of the studio has disappeared and the letters WB fill the whole shield. The text shows “WARNER BROS. PICTURES, Inc and The Vitaphone Corp. present”
According to Wikipedia:

Vitaphone was a sound film process used on feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects produced by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1930. Vitaphone was the last, but most successful, of the sound-on-disc processes. The soundtrack was not printed on the actual film, but was issued separately on 16 inch (40 cm) and, later, 12 inch (30 cm) phonograph discs recorded at 33 1/3 rpm, a speed first used for this process. The discs would be played on a turntable indirectly coupled to the projector motor while the film was being projected.

1936-1937

In the next version of the logo the shield zoomed into view out of the clouds, followed by the text “WARNER BROS. PICTURES, Inc. Present” appearing over it.

1938-1948

The logo has now has more depth to it and a banner has the text “WARNER BROS. PICTURES, INC.” on it.

1948-1967

The classic WB logo colors, gold and blue, are introduced. Sometimes the clouds are the background, but it’s also shown superimposed on the movie itself, as is the case in this screenshot from Rope.

1967-1970

At the end of the sixties a big change was made to the logo as Seven Arts productions acquired a controlling interest in Warner Bros. It appeared in yellow or white and was quite simple.

1970-1972

When the newly formed Warner Bros-Seven Arts was acquired by Kinney National Company it decided to drop the Seven Arts from the name and the logo changed again.

1972

Only used for a very short period, the logo looked like it had in the past.

1972-1984

In 1972 the logo was redesigned by the legend himself, graphic designer Saul Bass and has a stylised W.

1984-2001

In 1984 the classic logo returned with not a lot of difference compared to earlier versions.

1998-2011

In 1998 a CGI version of the logo was introduced which started with a picture of the studios, a ripple going across it and slowly turning to reveal the logo.

2011-

The newest version which transforms into the New Line Cinema logo.

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Time is something you always think you have enough of. You probably waste a lot of it by doing unimportant things. To some time is money. In this movie time really IS money. Is this science fiction movie worth watching?

Society has changed and people have been genetically modified to not age beyond 25. Under their skin they have a green clock counting down those 25 years and once it gets to 0 you die. It’s possible to live longer though as you can work to be paid in extra time (or steal it), but at the same time everything you buy has to be paid for in time. So in theory you could be living forever if you manage to just acquire lots of time. It’s something which happens to Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) who lives in one of the ghettos of a big city (which is bordered of by zones, which you have to pay for to leave). With all the time in the world on his hands he decides to see if he can change the system. When someone suddenly has a lot of extra time he stands out and it means a lot of people are after him. During his journey Sylvia Weis (Manda Seyfried), daughter of a very wealthy man joins him and the two slowly turn into Bonnie and Clyde.

I liked the concept of the movie, which initially reminded me a bit of Logan’s Run, but it has its own unique twist with time being used as currency. Annoyingly though you hear the word “time” being said so many times that it slowly becomes too much. I was interested to see where the story would go, but about halfway through it started to lose its focus and it became unclear why the two did what they did and I slowly lost interest.

Visually I loved the world that was created for this. It’s a convincing world where it seems those who have cars have these cool custom muscle cars (a lot of the same ones though) without door handles. The clocks under the skin look good and it’s a believable system. It’s not enough though to make it a good movie and by the end of it I became disappointed.

Score: 5

Welcome to this week’s Moviesite Spotlight. For those who wonder what this is:

Every week I read a lot of great movie related blogs and I thought it was time to give the ones I visit regularly a chance to shine in the spotlight, by interviewing its writers.

This week’s interview is with Dan, writer of Public Transportation Snob.

What’s the history of your site, why did you start it?
I’ve written about films on a few websites over the past 10 years or so, but they’ve mainly been DVD reviews following a standard format. I started a blog to try different styles of writing and gain more control over which movies to discuss. Another reason was to check out those films that have sat in my watch list for years but always get pushed back. With that in mind, I organize my blog around short monthly marathons covering a specific theme. Examples so far include the That Crazy Nicolas Cage, We’re All Dead! (post-apocalyptic), Take the Money and Run (heist), and When Am I? (time travel) marathons.

What makes your movie blog different from the other ones out there?
I try to use different approaches for my blog reviews to avoid becoming too conventional. It also makes the writing process more interesting for me. I use a question-and-answer format for each marathon and then craft the main posts around the responses. Also, I don’t cover movie news and generally skip writing about movies that are currently in theaters (with a few exceptions). I’m still tweaking the format as I go along and keep looking for ways to improve the blog.

What do enjoy most about your site and what is the reason you keep doing it?
I’m enjoying the chance to catch up with movies I’ve wanted to see for years while discovering lesser-known gems that were completely off my radar. Another fun part is creating top five lists each Friday, which help me to spotlight some past favorites. On a different note, my college degrees were in English and Journalism, but I’m not currently working in that field. The blog is a creative outlet that keeps me sane when the mundane corporate world is wearing me down.

In which ways has your blogging changed the way you watch movies?
I’ve always watched a lot of movies, but the blog has changed the way that I pick which movies to see. The marathon theme is going to dominate what I decide to check out at home. Also, knowing that I’ll be writing about a film keeps me focused when I’m watching it. It’s easy to get distracted and miss something if I’m not careful.

What’s your favorite article you have written?
During my The Year 1984 marathon, I caught up with Sergio Leone’s epic Once Upon a Time in America for the first time. I didn’t love the movie due to some major flaws, but the post is one of my favorites. It can be found here.

Could you name five of your all time favorite movies?
This is a very tough question, and my opinion changes all the time. I struggle to balance the truly enjoyable movies with the epic “great” films. Sticking with the first approach, I would pick:

Casablanca

City Lights

Goodfellas

L.A. Story

Almost Famous

How many movies do you watch on average each week?
I generally watch three or four movies a week. We have a two-year-old at home and I’m currently attending grad school one night each week, so my schedule is crazy at times.

Do you own any movie related items that you are very proud of?
I’m not really a memorabilia guy beyond the DVDs and Blu-rays themselves. I am proud to wear my fine Filmspotting t-shirts.

Anything else you want to tell us about yourself?
I started the blog as a personal project and didn’t expect to have so much fun interacting with the community. Getting comments and feedback from readers is always great and an added bonus to catching up with so many interesting movies.