Tag Archives: 2010

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Boy (2010)

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I usually don’t hear or read a lot about movies from New Zealand. Of course WETA and Peter Jackson are the most famous export “items” from this country, but I can’t remember any movies I’ve seen that were filmed there with local actors. Until I saw Boy.
Boy is main characters in this movie, a kid who loves Michael Jackson, who just released his album Thriller. As the movie is set during the eighties, it’s something which is used to great effect. So they are not only talking about Michael Jackson, but other well-known eighties subjects, like E.T., are also mentioned. Boy has a lot of imagination and at school he tells a lot of big stories about the things his father did and how great he is. He does not tell the class that in reality his father is stuck in jail.
As you do when you are young (and also when you are older) Boy tries to be cool to his friends and tries to impress the girl he has a crush on (including a Michael Jackson dance routine).
Because his grandmother isn’t home (his mother passed away when he was younger), it is up to him to take care of the rest of the kids. This includes his little brother Rocky, who thinks he has superpowers. I really loved the way these special powers are shown, which is very imaginative (and results in some laughs). Continue reading →

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The Experiment (2010)

The human psyche is an interesting thing, how does it work? Are we really as civilised as we think we are? How much time is necessary before we forget about our manners and treat other badly? Those are interesting questions that might be hard to give a good answer to.
The Experiment is based (although very different) on the Stanford prison experiment where student were randomly assigned roles of either prisoner or prison guard. The assignment for the guards was to run a prison. The experiment was supposed to run for 2 weeks, but had to be aborted because the guards were not treating the prisoners very well. Ethically they could no longer continue.
The setup for this movie is almost the same, but instead of students the subjects are people that have responded to an ad in the paper. Continue reading →

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Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)

Street art is an art form that has grown quite a lot the last couple of years. The art itself is usually very temporary as it’s seen as graffiti by city officials and subsequently removed. It’s something the artists themselves are very aware of and they generally do not mind. Thierry Guetta is not a street artist, but he does film everything (he always has his camera in his hand and is filming). He joins his cousin, who is street artist Space Invader regularly. Space Invader is well-known for sticking tiles with the space invader game characters on them to walls all around the world. Guetta is very interested in this form of art and asks other artists if he’s allowed to tag along and film them. They usually agree and Guetta gets to know a lot of artists. He learns more about the art, but there is one artists he isn’t able to track down and get in contact with. That artist is Banksy. Continue reading →

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The Karate Kid (2010)

Before giving my opinion on this movie I have to admit that I hardly remember anything about the 1984 original. I watched the original trailer on Youtube and still a lot of scenes were not familiar. So it’s been a while since I saw that version. As this new movie is targeted towards kids there will probably not be a lot of them who have seen the original. So I will not make comparisons. The new Karate Kid is a remake that takes the idea of the original and gives it its own twist.
Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) has to move to China as his mother landed a new job there. He did not practise his Chinese as much as he should, so when arriving it means it’s harder to understand what’s going on around him. It’s all very strange to him. Continue reading →

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Four Lions (2010)

The reality of suicide bombing is something the world has gotten very familiar with unfortunately. Of course everyone has seen some images related to these bombings. Not a lot of movies are made about the subject (the only one I know about it is Paradise now). If you would have to make a movie about it yourself, you’d probably show the story of what motivates the bomber to do such a thing so you are able to maybe understand it better (for example a specific background that results in a nothing to lose attitude) You probably wouldn’t think of making a comedy about the subject, but that’s exactly what Four Lions is. The result is a really funny comedy. Continue reading →

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Baseline (2010)

Danny (Freddie Connor) is a bouncer at a club. He likes his work, but is making plans to move up and start his own club. Despite chances to make a quick buck he managed not to follow the darker roads to his goal. When he saves the life of a local ganster it means a change to his own life.
His best friend Paul (Gordon Alexander) is not doing as well. He’s gambling a lot and has a lot of debt. Although he manages to delay payments, he doesn’t have the money to pay up. Danny and Paul both end up in a situation where their friendship, relationship and their own moral values are put to the test. It forces them to make some very difficult decisions Continue reading →

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Salt (2010)

During the cold war (but also after it ended) Russians were usually the bad guys in movies.
When the threat of Russia had disappeared Hollywood started looking for a new enemy and ended up with terrorist, who usually came out of the middle east.
Salt succeeds to bring the Russian threat back in its setup. The timing of the movie in July seemed perfect with the news of the discovery and capture of a couple of russian spies who already lived in America for several years. This is also the idea behind Salt. The execution of the idea really manages to bring back the cold war feeling that existed in the eighties. Continue reading →

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The Expendables (2010)

Action heroes. Tough guys that are able to defeat whole armies without any help, drive fast cars and always have beautiful women around them. The eighties and beginning of the nineties have produced a lot of action movies and a lot of stars. I grew up watching a lot of Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone movies. Besides that I loved the martial arts movies starring Jean-Claude van Damme, Steven Seagal and Eric Roberts (Best of the Best). The were all “high adrenaline” movies which usually didn’t have great stories, but they made up for it with lots of action scenes. Over the years these type of movies have become less popular and there don’t seem to be as many of them made anymore. Continue reading →

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Inception (2010)

The essence of a movie can usually be described in one sentence, which gives you enough information to get a feeling what the movie is about. This sentence has been formed based on an idea. When that idea has been thought up the script writer start expanding on it. Together with set builders and many other people involved in preparation they are the architects who create the world in which the movie will be set. This can be a single room or many locations, anything is possible.

When preparation is done the director and actors step into the world and take care in filling in all the small details. They do this by improvising, making changes to scenes or shooting it a specific way. All this takes places within the confines of the concept for the movie.
When the movie finally has been edited, it’s up to the person that goes to the cinema to step into this temporary reality. If the movie is a good one you’ll disappear in it, the world around you no longer exists and you forget that you are sitting in a chair at the cinema. You are actually in the place that is shown on the screen. The ending of the movie is the shock that takes you back to reality. If the movie was powerful and had some messages that resonate with your own ideas they might even become part of your own values. If that’s the case, the whole team behind making the movie has made a masterpiece.

Inception uses this concept, but instead of movies they use this on dreams. Christopher Nolan ( Following, Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige and The Dark Knight) shows his vision on what’s possible in your dreams, but has he managed to create a masterpiece? Continue reading →

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The Ghost Writer (2010)

The life of a ghost writer (someone who writes books, speeches or lyrics for others) isn’t easy. No one is allowed to know that you are responsible for something and you’ll never get any respect from the readers, someone else will however. The only thing you’ll get is a bag of money and you will have to start looking for your next job. Ewan McGregor (whose character doesn’t have a name and is called The Ghost in the credits) is such a writer and has been asked to write the memoirs of English prime minster Robert Lang (Pierce Brosnan). He has a very short time to finish it. Lang already had a ghost writer, but he was found dead and it’s up to The Ghost to finish the book. He is caught up in a political web when Lang is mentioned in an international case about the treatment of some prisoners. The Ghost starts searching for some answers. Continue reading →