Tangled is based on the brothers Grimm story of Rapunzel. Disney has taken this original story and modified it heavily. Rapunzel’s hair is magical and can give back youth and heal wounds when a magical song is sung. Rapunzel also doesn’t stay in her tower as long as was the case in the original story and there is no prince involved.
Did Disney change too much of the story or has it managed to give it a nice new twist to give it a breath of fresh air? Continue reading
There are movies which I will watch on TV if I just happen to see it playing (although I actually hate to watch movies on cable because of all the commercial breaks). Coming to America is one of those movies and Groundhog Day is another one. Bill Murray is weather man Phil who, together with his producer Rita (Andie MacDowell) and cameraman Larry (Chris Elliott), travels to the little village of Punxsutawney to report on Groundhog Day, the day on which a groundhog does a prediction on how long the winter will last.
Everything seems like routine job and Phil heads back home. They find out quickly they won’t be able to make it because of blizzard and are forced to return to Punxsutawney. It will be Phil’s longest day. Lees verder
Gaspar Noé is a director who stands out. With Irreversible (a movie which I have not seen) he has shown he’s not afraid of controversy. The movie had a rape scene which was close to 10 minutes and something that was hard to watch for a lot of viewers. With Enter The Void Noé attacks his viewers again, although less extreme (although there are still some very explicit scenes). It’s more an attack on your eyes and ears, which already begins when the movie starts. You’ll hear loud music and see a lot of flashes. The flashes are something that will return all during the movie, so if you are sensitive to them it’s better to skip the movie as you will get a seizure. Enter The Void is a movie that can’t be compared to anything else I’ve seen. I would almost describe it more as an experience instead of a film. Continue reading
The loss of someone you love can have a lot of impact on someone’s life. It’s also something everyone responds differently to. Becca (Nicole Kidman) and Howie (Aaron Eckhart) have lost their son and do their best to try to move on with their lives, which isn’t easy. There is a lot of friction between the two and they can hardly talk about it with each other.
The have joined a therapy group to listen what other parents are doing that have gone through the same thing, but even this is hard for Becca. She really can’t handle it. Continue reading
As it’s the last day of the year I think there is no better way to end it by reviewing my movie of the year by letting it skip the queue of upcoming reviews. With Black Swan I had the same feeling as I had with The Social Network. I was wondering how a movie about a specific subject, in this case ballet, could be interesting. If you check out the dance movies which came out lately you will notice that most of them are targeting a young audience with the drama in those films being equal to the levels you see in your average soap opera. As I try to never watch movie trailers and try to know as little as I can about films in advance, I was in for a big, but very pleasant, surprise. Continue reading
After the fantastic Gone Baby Gone (which I gave an 8 ) Ben Affleck is back with his second movie in the director’s chair. Just like that movie, this movie is also set in Boston, where Affleck grew up. During this movie a lot of bank heists take place in the city and Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck), James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner), Albert ‘Gloansy’ Magloan (Slaine) and Desmond Elden (Owen Burke) are one of the gangs responsible for them. These bank robberies are meticulously planned and the gang is very precise and professional in their execution. They wear latex gloves, are unrecognisable because of their masks and destroy any evidence that could be used against them (like putting the harddisks that are used for the surveillance cameras in the microwave) Continue reading
The past few year Emma Stone has been hard at work making a name for herself in Hollywood. She played in Superbad, Paper Man and Zombieland. With Easy A she gets the chance to show if she has enough talent to carry the weight of a whole movie.
In Easy A she’s Olive Penderghast, a normal girl who spends a lot of time with her friend Rhiannon (Alyson Michalka) and does ok at school. Rhiannon’s parents are a bit weird and when they invite Olive to join them for a weekend in the country she tells Rhiannon that she can’t go as she has a date.
After the weekend Rhiannon ask her about the date and whether or not she slept with the guy. Olive decides to lie about it and confirms that she has. She doesn’t know that Marianne (Amanda Bynes) is listening in and it only takes a few minutes before everyone at school knows about it. It’s the first time that Olive is the center of attention. Continue reading
A Place in the Sun is based on the novel An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, which was based on real events. It won 6 Oscars, including best director, best editing, best music and best screenplay.
George Eastman (Montgomery Clift) is a man without a lot of education. He is invited by his succesful uncle (played by Herbert Heyes) to come over and work for him. Because he’s not really adapted for the higher social circles he receives a very simple job working in one of the factories. Because there are a lot of women working there as well it is not allowed to have relationships with other factory workers.
But as these things go, sometimes the flesh is weak and George has several dates with Alice (Shelley Winters), one of the women he works with. When he sees the wealthy Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor) he immediately falls in love with her and tries to sneak away from Alice whenever he can to spend some time with her.
When Alice tells her that she’s pregnant he sees all his dreams go up in smoke. While spending some time at his uncle’s vacation spot he hears the story of a couple that drowned in the lake. Is this the solution for his problem? Continue reading
This weekend I asked on Twitter if anyone was interested in doing a guest review on this blog. Liam Underwood was soon to respond and has selected Låt den rätte komma in (Let The Right One In). If you are also interested in a review you wrote appearing hit the Contact link at the top. I want to thank Liam for writing this excellent review, makes me want to see this film as soon as I can.
Vampires have an extremely sexualized romantic history on-screen, and they are currently experiencing somewhat of a resurgence. Despite their ugly origins with ‘Nosferatu (Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens) (Murnau, 1922)’ – a bald-headed creature with bat-like features – the screen vampire is often depicted as dashing charming creatures of the night with a certain allure to them.
From Bela Lugosi in ‘Dracula (Browning, 1931)’ to the iconic imposing Christopher Lee in Hammer’s ‘Dracula (Fisher, 1958)’ offering, the Count is perhaps the most famous screen vampire. The 80s saw vampires as sexed up party animals with ‘The Lost Boys (Schumacher, 1987)’ and the criminally overlooked ‘Near Dark (Bigelow, 1987)’ – this portrayal still glamourised the vampire lifestyle. Most recently, vampires have become heart-throb sparkly sex symbols, thanks to their idolised depiction in ‘Twilight (Hardwicke, 2008)’. But vampires are rarely grounded in reality, either situated in a gothic or fantastical context. Until now. Continue reading
Frank McCloud (Humphrey Bogart) is a war veteran who travels to Key Largo to honor a friend of his who died during the war. He visits those left behind (a father and his daughter played by Lionel Barrymore and Lauren Bacall), who run a hotel in this far corner of Florida.
Despite the quiet season no rooms are said to be available and it doesn’t take long for Frank and the rest of the occupants of the hotel to be stuck as a result of a tropical storm. It turns out it is not the only threat they are facing. Continue reading