Tim Burton's Art for exhibition in Los Angeles

http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/tim-burton

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art are going to show bits and pieces of the director Tim Burton's (Beetlejuice, Nightmare Before Christmas, Batman) art from his whole career.

According to the article, there will be more than 700 pieces of art up for display, bot illustrations, photos, paintings, animations and other things Burton have made during his long career in the show-business.

Tim Burton himself will open the exhibitions at 10AM on Saturdays and Sundays as soon as they open (Oct 1st).

Dracula (1992) Spoiler alerts!

Plot
Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves) travels to Transylvania to help Count Dracula (Gary Oldman) to buy property in London. Dracula finds the photo of Harker's wife-to-be Mina (Winona Ryder), and becomes obsessed with her. Mina is, when Harker is away, visiting her friend Lucy (Sadie Frost), whom becomes very sick. Arthur Holmwood (Cary Elwes) orders for the Doctor, Jack Seward (Richard E. Grant), but he has no idea what could have happened to Lucy, and in turn sends for his friend Abraham Van Helsing (Anthony Hopkins) who says it is because of Nosferatu. Mina gets romantically involved with the vampire, without knowing who he is.

Mina goes to Romania, marries Jonathan, and keeps quiet about her adventures with the vampire, but after Van Helsing tells them they have to kill him, she agrees and follows, and her secret is out.

Opinion
This film is one of the worst Dracula films. They claim to keep to the book, but it is very few parts of the film that do. The effects are really poor made, and the ideas are poor in all.
Reeves makes a really bad impression, there is no love to be this role in his acting, and the love story between Dracula and Mina is just stupid. The Count becomes a vampire in the same category as Edward Cullen, Bill Compton and other "humanvampires" of today, and not the monster he is in the book.
The worst acting, among many really poor ones, is anyhow Lucy. She does noting else but swirls around in bed, and then explodes. That was not very nice.

I would not recommend to see this film if you want the magic of Dracula, nor if you want a nice vampire story. The only reason one should watch this is to see how poor it is.

Trolljegeren (Trollhunter)

Plot

A grupp studenter från Volda i Norge, gör som projekt ett repotage om björnjakt, där björnar skjuts utanför säsong, av någon som inte alls är björnjägare.

De tre vännerna följer efter mannen genom Norge, och han varnar dem för att göra det. När de hittar honom i skogen, kommer det fram att det finns bra mycket farligare saker i skogen än björnar.

Åsikt

En fiktiv dokumentär i samma anda som Blair Witch Project, Rec, och Paranormal Activity (även om man kan se att de flesta likheterna finns till Rec, där de också har ett filmteam). Dock är den här filmen betydligt roligare, och man får faktiskt se vad det läskiga är. Det får man inte riktigt i de andra filmerna.

Troll känns väldigt norskt, och det här konceptet passar mycket bra. Det finns både humor, och samhällskritik i filmen. Den är välgjord, och de troll som finns med är riktiga bestar, även om endel av dem liknar John Bauers troll. Det kändes också väldigt skönt att filmen inte dominerades av saker som Griegs I bergakungens sal även om man kände igen termen (det norska ordet för bergakung är dobregubbe, som var just namnet på ett av trollen).

Norge har på sistone gjort några riktigt bra filmer (där ibland Snarveien, Död Snö, Fritt Vilt) och den här blir lätt en del av samlingen!

Det finns lite få saker som man kan sitta och irritera sig på i storyn, men man har lätt överseende för dem för att allt annat är riktigt bra.

Rekommenderas definitivt!

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.

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! 

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.