Would you like to die at a young age with everyone remembering you or grow old and only be remembered by your friends?
It is a question Andrew (Miles Teller) asks during dinner with his family. He’s a drummer who wants to become the best and be famous. He wouldn’t mind dying young if that means immortality and being mentioned amongst the greats. He is very motivated to reach that goal and is willing to give up everything. Continue reading
If there is one artists who had a huge impact on a specific music genre than James Brown fits the bill. A quick look at the “Rap Sample FAQ” shows a long lists of artists who have sampled his music. James Brown had a long and very successful career with some ups and downs. Just like biopics about other artists (think Walk the Line and Ray) Get On Up tries to tell his life story. Continue reading
Although I really like going to the cinema there are some aspects I do not like. I decided to go watch it at one of the cinemas pretty close to home, but as I am not a fan of football I didn’t know that there was a game on near the cinema. It meant it was almost impossible to find a parking spot and grab a quick bite to eat because of the long lines. I managed to walk into the theater with food in my stomach, right at the moment the trailers had ended (and as that is usually a huge frustration I didn’t have to endure them). I was ready to enjoy the movie, until a woman in the right corner of my eye decided it was a good time to send some whatsapp messages. Don’t know if it was about the film, but that bright screen (she did set the brightness lower, because you know it would be rude not to) was a distraction. I didn’t immediately want to say something about it, but it took a bit longer before I felt I was fully engaged by the movie. Enough about my cinema experience of that day though. How was the movie itself? Continue reading
The brothers Coen have made some very good movies in their long career. Looking at their filmography there are some movies I have seen many times and which are easily some of my favorites. Despite that though I am not someone who will blindly love their movies because they have directed it. For every Fargo there is a The Ladykillers or A Serious Man. Maybe not bad movies, but ones I really was not able to enjoy or could not get into. Inside Llewyn Davis has been getting a lot of buzz the past couple of months. Although I was hoping I would also be enjoying it I somehow had a feeling this would not be a movie for me. Unfortunately it turned out I was right. Continue reading
I used to love watching animated movies. If there was a new one I just had to check it out as soon as possible. But something has changed and I’m not sure what it is. Even though every year has some great animated movies, there are a ton of horrible ones. I guess I have seen too many bad ones to be excited about what is being released. Last year I could not be bothered to check out movies like Planes or Turbo because the concept behind them just felt like marketing and nothing more. Movies just to sell toys. Still I did watch some animated movies. One of them was Epic and that film disappointed me and probably also made me a bit more cautious. Still I was quite intrigued by the teaser trailer for Frozen and since this is a Disney movie it could be good. Tangled was a lot of fun, so chances were this one would be enjoyable too. My trip to the cinema confirmed my hopes. Continue reading
Although Walt Disney built his company based on the success of his cartoons, his company also produced many live action movies during the fifties and sixties. One of their biggest hits was Mary Poppins, a movie which I also loved watching when I was growing up. Who would not want to have someone in their home who was able to do the things she does? But with every movie, there is also a story about how that movie got made and in the case of Mary Poppins it was a very difficult one. Walt Disney loved the books about the character and had contacted its writer, P. L. Travers, to allow him to turn that book into a movie. She was very protective of the character she had created and refused Disney the rights, because she thought that a film would not do the books justice. For more than 20 years Disney kept trying to convince her he could do it. In Saving Mr. Banks we see that struggle of trying to secure the rights, but also the creation of a classic Disney movie about a magical nanny. Continue reading
TLC was only a little over ten years ago, one of the biggest female groups in existence. Since they brought out their first album in 1991, the trio consisting of Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes and singer Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas, was a mainstay in the charts. Their mix of R&B with a hip hop edge earned a big number of fans. Those fans helped the group sell millions of records, but behind the success they did have issues. Their contracts were bad and it meant they were hardly earning any money of their sales. When Left Eye died in a car crash in Honduras in 2002 it meant an end to the career of the band. Although the two remaining members appeared on some shows to talk and sometimes perform there wasn’t any new music available. Crazy Sexy Cool: The TLC Story, which got the stamp of approval from T-Boz and Chilli, now looks back at the history of the group in the form of a bio-pic starting from their discovery until Left Eye’s untimely death. Is it only a must see for fans or will it be able to appeal to the younger generation as well, who did not grow listening to any TLC music? Continue reading
I’m not big on musicals, maybe the reason for it is the amount of Disney movies I’ve seen where they burst out singing, but I always have the feeling they are not for me. Still I do watch them occasionally and there are some which I do like. Singing in the Rain is a good example and so is this one, Moulin Rouge!. It is a movie I’ve had in my collection for years and felt like watching it again. In anticipation to the Great Gatsby I just had to see another movie by director Baz Luhrmann. Continue reading
Some stories are almost too strange to be real, but this documentary tells one that will have you captivated. This movie is about Rodriguez, a musician I had never heard of before. He’s an American artist who never made it there, but who played a big part in the history of South Africa. He had a big following there and any serious South African record collector has to have his records besides those of greats like the Beatles. Unlike the Beatles though no one seemed to know anything about him. Not where he lived or even if he was still alive. There were crazy stories about how he had died, but nothing could be confirmed. Until two people decided to find the truth about him. Continue reading
There are some movies which seem to fly underneath the radar and don’t get the attention they deserve. I hadn’t heard of Pitch Perfect before until I saw it reviewed on a fellow blogger’s site. I saw the poster and looked at the trailer (because I expected not to watch it) and really wasn’t sold on it. Then more positive reviews started coming in and I just couldn’t ignore the movie. Is it really perfect or slightly out of tune? Continue reading