Currently when most people hear the name Tim Burton they will immediately think of Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and movies with a very dark tone and strange elements. He has succeeded in creating his own style and has gained a big group of fans. That he’s able to create movies with a whole other look is something he shows with Big Eyes, starring Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz. Continue reading
Technology is developing at an exponential rate. The machines which once were considered supercomputers and occupied whole rooms now fit in the palm of your hand. That exponential growth does not seem to stop anytime soon and many futurists already try to look ahead and predict where it will lead us. Ray Kurzweil is one of them, who predicts that there will be a moment where our minds simply will not be able to keep up with artificial intelligence, which will end up changing society. He even thinks there will be a moment where we no longer will need our physical bodies anymore and we can just upload ourselves to a computer, basically granting us eternal life and opening up new experiences. It is a subject I have always been interested in, seeing where technology will take mankind. Her is one vision of a future which to me does not sound that far-fetched. Continue reading
Amy Adams was born in 1974 on the 20th of August in Vincenza, Italy. Her father served in the army and they moved around a lot. When she was eight they settled in Castle Rock, Coloarado. In school she sang in the choir and also danced, trying to become a ballerina. She didn’t go to college and after graduating from high school she headed to Atlanta. She had to let her dreams of becoming a ballerina go and went into musical theater. She worked in several theaters and finally ended up in L.A. Her first movie role was in Drop Dead Gorgeous. She appeared in several other small movies and TV shows (Smallville, Buffy, Charmed and others). She was in Catch Me If You Can, but it wasn’t until her role in Junebug until she started being noticed. Movies she has been in include Doubt, Julie and Julia, The Fighter, The Muppets and The Master. Continue reading
A McDonalds hamburger. That’s the first thing I thought of after seeing Trouble with the Curve during the 7th PAC festival in which movies are previewed which will be released over here in the coming months. All of movies were announced ahead of time except this one. I was hoping I’d get a chance to already see Looper, The Master or Killing Them Softly. So a movie about baseball was not something I was expecting, but since the movie has some well-known actors like Clint Eastwood, John Goodman, Robert Patrick, Justin Timberlake and actress Amy Adams I was interested to see it. Continue reading
The Muppets are a small part of my memories of when I was a lot younger. Their Muppet Show ran from 1976 till 1981 and it was broadcast on Dutch TV by the KRO starting in 1977. Now I doubt I saw it that early, but I do remember watching it weekly somewhere in the eighties. I always enjoyed the show and couldn’t wait to find out what would happen when Gonzo was supposed to blow his trumpet. I also watched the Muppet Babies cartoons which had a lot of imagination in their stories (and some crossovers with movies as there was an Indiana Jones related one).
I didn’t see much of the Muppet movies back then (really only the Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppets From Space which I both like), so have been catching up with all of them. I have to say I’m not a fan of the newer ones (Treasure Island/Wizard of Oz and the other Christmas one), but the first three were quite enjoyable (which I only saw a couple of weeks ago). Now the Muppets are back and the question is whether this movie manages to bring back that feeling I had during the eighties? Continue reading
Over the years there have so many movies about boxers. Of course the most famous movies are the Rocky films and when you look at the pictures of The Fighter you’d expect a similar kind of movie. Although there are some things that are the same, the focus is not as much on the fighting as you’d expect. Continue reading
It’s not often that movies based on someone’s life are funny. I Love you Philip Morris is one example I can think of, but so is Charlie Wilson’s War, despite the serious subject of the tension that was brewing in Afghanistan between the local people and the invading Russian army.
Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) is a politician from Texas who lives a very luxurious life while he has his seat in the American Congress. He likes his women, booze and drugs and really has fun with it all. When he sees the situation in Afghanistan on TV something changes. He decides to do something about it and finds out that America is hardly spending any money on getting the Russians out of Afghanistan.
He’s helped by Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts) who, although she’s not a politician, does know the right people to get things done. There is also help from CIA agent Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who really doesn’t care what the people within the CIA think of him. Together they try to make some money available for Afghanistan. Continue reading