lördag 2 juli 2011

Super 8

Plot
Joseph Lamb (Joel Courtney) looses his mother in a accident at the steel factory, at the moment he and his friends are recording a film about zombies. After convincing Alice Dainard (Elle Fanning) to play the wife of the private detective they decide to shoot the scene, at night, at a railroad track. They witness the train crash, and the military take over the small Ohio Town.
The deputy Jackson Lamb (Kyle Chandler), tries to uncover the truth, not knowing his son are in the middle of it. The truth turns out to be something no one would ever have guessed.

Opinion
One can straight away see this is a work of Steven Spielberg (most famous for among other E.T, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, and the TV-series Taken (where he also worked with the sister of Elle Fanning, Dakota)). Spielberg loves to show us young heroes (found in E.T and Taken), and things no one knows existed. The monster in this film had, when looked close upon, a great touch of E.T in him, and also, the films takes place in a time, when people (mostly adults) are afraid of the outside, the cold war is at it's peek, and everyone is scared.
J.J Abrams, (the producer of Lost, Alias and Cloverfield) on the other hand seem to like technical things. Some of the props in this film had a close resemblance to things we can see in Alias, but the "oh, we can't really see the monster until the end of the film"- is somewhat close to how he made Cloverfield.

I guess I could say you should go see the film. There are some lose treads (as we know J.J Abrams, had the same idea with Lost), unseen monsters that might ruin the experience. Joe is very similar to the character of Elliot in E.T, and the second Fanning sister, are rather similar to her older sister, as she was portraying Allie (yeah, not much of a name change, as Alice were called Allie throughout the film) in Taken.

What's good with the film is the first half, where the monster is unknown. We just know something is lurking, but we have no real idea what it is, except dangerous. Also, the fact that they do not work with stereotype teenagers (or youngsters on the brink of becoming teenagers), as are done in many films (another films working that well too is Mysterious Skin). That was nice to see. There were all kind of outsiders, but there were no real "cool gang".

If you like E.T, Lost and Alias (preferably in a combination) go see the film, otherwise, don't. Or at least don't spend money on seeing it in the movies.

torsdag 23 juni 2011

Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides

Plot
Jack (Johnny Depp), Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), Blackbeard (Ian McShane) and the Spaniards are all out for the same thing. The fountain of youth.

The films starts with Jack trying to save Gibbs (Kevin McNally), but ends up at the royal kings dinner table, where he finds Barbossa, one leg less, but just as dirty and evil. He runs of in his usual manner, and to find the man who claims to be him. "Jack" (the imposter) turns out to be Angelica (Penélope Cruz), an old acquaintance of Jack's and the daughter of Blackbeard.  She tricks him, and he has to gang up with Blackbeard, and Gibbs manages to get onto Barbossa's ship. 

Jack decides to try and make mutiny, and that is not one thing Blackbeard approves of, and he makes Jack show him the way to the fountain, or he will kill him. Blackbeard needs to find the fountain, because a prophecy has foretold he will be killed by a one-legged man, Jack on the other hands, is as always looking for something precious to him.

Opinion
Penélope Cruz as a substitute for Kiera Knigtley is not okay. The film is for me a disappointment, but it is still a more "serious" Captain Jack Sparrow we see. But without the trio (Depp, Bloom, Knightley) that actually makes the Pirates movies, it feels a bit... poor. There is something lacking, especially as it seems like they are giving other people traits from the other two (Angelica gets some of Elizabeth's traits, and random missionary man Philip gets some of Will's traits, and it does not seem right).

I feel it being a bit too much magic in this film, even though it has been a lot in the others, this just became a bit over the top. But there were a few really fun situations, and a nice touch using Keith Richard in one of the roles. And I did really like the mermaids, so far from the cute ones in Disney's cartoons and fairy tales, these were proper evil mermaids. Those I liked!

The story is okay, I couldn't find enormous holes and odd ends or parts without any explanation, even if one thinks that, it is still Captain Jack Sparrow we speak about, even though his plans and ideas are not even close to what they are in the other three films, and I feel it hard to understand if this is before or after the other films. 

I'm not sure if I should recommend it or not. I would at least not pay full-price for the film, or I would wait for the DVD to become cheaper before I see it (if I hadn't already), but if you're a Johnny Depp/Jack Sparrow/PotC-fan, well, I guess it's okay, but the first film is still the best of the four. 


Spoiler alert!
(If you do not want to know what happened, then stop reading, right here! And yeah, I put them down here as I don't want to ruin the film for anyone!) 
A big disappointment was the Spaniards! They only wanted to find the fountain to destroy it, as it is not a religious place, how lame is that? I mean, come on! That is just... I don't even have words for it! 

söndag 19 juni 2011

Remakes

I was going to open up a discussion topic now.

What do you people think about the remakes that Hollywood are doing now?
Are there really no ideas what so ever on new films.

I have seen two trends that are really strong in Hollywood the last few years.

1. Remakes on really good old films/foreign film, making them really poor!
2. Making films of comic-books and mangas (an one or two books).

This discussion subject will be remakes (I will make on on the making of films of comics later).

So what do you think about the remakes? Do they need to make remakes?
What films has had a better remake than the original film, are there any?

Well, it's all up to you to start discussing!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Plot
Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore), a poor boy living in Scotland whit his family. In the town, Willy Wonka's (Johnny Depp) (the worlds most amazing chocolate-maker) closed down factory exists, but one day, people start to see smoke from the factory again. It is announced that there will be five golden tickets in the candy-bars sent out to the stores.

The first was found by a German child named Augustus Gloop (Philip Wiegratz), the second by Veruca Salt (Julia Winter) from England, the third by Violet Beauregarde (AnnaSophia Robb) from Atlanta, USA, and when the fourth ticket was found by Mike Teavee (Jordan Fry), from Denver, USA, Charlie becomes rather disappointed as his chances of getting the tickets are very small.

One day, Charlie finds a ten pound bill, and buys a chocolate-bar, in it, he finds the last golden ticket, and are invited for a day at the factory, and at the end, someone will win an amazing price!

Opinion
Johnny Depp in one of his craziest roles, but the film is cute, and I think it really is a family-film, and even  younger children can see it.As I remember from reading the book, it does not follow it exactly, but rather well, but I think Willy Wonka is not as eccentric in the book, and he has no problems with his parents, which I think is a nice add from Hollywood (for once!). Even though, of course, the idea of the film is that, do not be greedy, and you will get what you want, it works, but as it is adapted from a children's story, getting the morale completely out of the story is hard. 

I personally would have liked if Helena Bonham Carter had a larger role, as she is an amazing actress, but she is okay as a mother. I also see it rather fun that Christoper Lee is Willy's angry father!

I would really recommend the film to anyone. It suits everyone,  and Johnny Depp makes Willy Wonka more interesting than what he is in the book, and he has an opportunity to really go crazy (a lot better than when he was the Mad-Hatter in Alice in Wonderland). This was the second film Freddie Highmore and Johnny Depp works together, and in this one, Freddie has grown a lot.

Priest

Plot
Once there were a war, between man and vampires. Man though they had win, but they were wrong. 

When the "Priest" finds out his brother (whom are portrayed by Stephen Moyer, most known as Bill Compton in True Blood), and the woman and child the priest had left for his brother to take care of, had been attacked by vampires, he leaves the city, and breaks the vows he once made to the church.

Opinion
A really good movie!

You feel like they have taken The Matrix(a lot of the fighting haveMatrix-feeling), added some vampires (evil ones), and then put in a few wannabe-Batmanbikes, and some Star Wars feeling, and voilá, you have a filme based on a Korean manhwa.

The fighting is of course unrealistic, but it is well-executed, and the vampires are really cool, as they are not sparkling, or not human at all, as the humans and the vampires are two different races. There are ONE human vampire, and he is the first of his kind.

One thing that I felt was really good with the film was the fact that they did not linger to much in things "unnecessary" for the plot. 

I would really recommend the film to everyone who loves nasty-ass vampires, and it has a nice touch of religion vs. vampires, that I have not seen in films.  Of course, there are some cliches, but one can live with them because the rest of the movie makes up for it.

I think this movie actually worked better in 3D than other films I have seen, and the animation at the beginning of the film was one of the best I have seen in cinema (only the one in the seventh Harry Potter film has been close to as good!).

Hello and welcome!

Hello!

Well, after a few weeks of thinking, I decided that I was going to start this blog! This, and one blog specialized on book reviews. Mostly because I like to help people to know a lot about films and books, and I would love to let people know what kinds of books and films I think are good, and give help and tips.

I will review both old and new films, as I see it, it is never to late to discover a film!

As a difference from my other "main" blog, this will only contain reviews of films and filmrelated subjects, and my other blog http://libraryofthedreams.blogspot.com/ will only contain book reviews and bookrelated subjects!

I hope you will enjoy this just as much as I do!

Sanna

fredag 11 mars 2011

Vampires Suck!

Plot
Becca Crane moves to her dad in Sporks, Washington from Nevada. There she meets Jennifer and Rick her two "friends" but also Edward Sullen and Jacob White. Edward and his family are vampires. Edward and Bella dates, but Edward leaves her and she gets devastated and tries to kill herself. She is now torn between Jacob, whom also has a dark secret, and Edward, but in the end she choose Edward. 

Opinion
As I dislike Twilight, I love this film. It has a lot of fun jokes on behalf of Twilight, and how people claim Bella and Edward and the rest of the characters are behaving in the book and film.
If you like Twilight, you will probably don't like it that much.
To be able to understand it completely though, you must have either watched or read the books/films, even though you might enjoy some of the things anyway.
I'd say, slapstick and spoofs are the words that describe it, so if you do not like that, then do not watch.