My Filmviews

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. Read more…

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. Read more…

The Salton Sea in California was created in 1905 when the Colorado River had so much water that it flooded the area. The water stayed and it quickly became a place for tourists to spend a day at the beach. People settled there in the 1950′s forming various towns including Bombay Beach. Since the surrounding area consists of desert it slowly lost its glory and now it’s a shadow of what it used to be. Director Alma Har’el decided to make a documentary about the town. Just like Errol Morris did in Vernon, Florida it paints a picture of a few of the people living there. Read more…

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 Ruth, writer of FlixChatter. Read more…

My stack of of DVDs that I still have to watch has been big for ages. Some movies have been in it for years and Das Boot was one of them. I heard amazing stories about this film, but because of its length (close to 5 hours) I never made the time to sit down for it, until recently. Read more…

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. Read more…

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. Read more…

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. Read more…

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. Read more…

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. Read more…

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. Read more…

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? Read more…

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. Read more…

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. Read more…

Humanity has always wondered if we are alone in the universe. Is life on this tiny grain of sand on the vast beach called the universe unique? With UFO sightings and projects like SETI we are looking for answers, but have still not found an answer. In this movie another earth appears and people want to find out more about it. One of them is Rhoda Williams (Brit Marling), a young student who looks up at the sky when she hears about it and in doing so causes a horrible accident which changes her own life and that of others. Read more…