Movie Madness: The Avengers rule!

In one word:

AWESOME!!!

Some random thoughts (because I'm still a bit tired from my crazy weekend in Germany and Luxembourg and can't seem to get my brain to function rationally, and I really wanted to get this out before it hit the screens in the US):

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Monthly Movies: April'12

April... an odd month with a few movies I'm kind of scared about confessing in public that I actually went to see them! :p

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Monthly Movies: March'12

This is the "how on earth did I manage to go this often to the movies?" month! I even saw 4 movies in an 8-day period! Kind of crazy, even for me! :p
March was definitely a month for flights of the imagination and high doses of adrenaline: spies being double-crossed, spies competing for the same girl, Martians, the magic of the earliest movies, guys threatening to jump off a ledge and some funny retired Brits lost in India...

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Monthly Movies: Feb'12

It's "hurry up and catch all the Oscar nominees before the big day" month! :p

Or at least it was supposed to be... but some of the ones I was missing had already come and gone (Tinker, Tailor...), others only hit the screens here on Oscar weekend (Hugo, My Week With Marylin...) so I didn't really have time to get to them! Oh well, short month - short movie list. 

Moneyball.

Well now, that was interesting! I went in (my Dad's choice of movie) knowing absolutely nothing about this movie other than Brad Pitt got a Best Actor Oscar nomination for it (imho a well deserved nomination!). Voil�! The sum of my knowledge before it started. Which is probably a good thing because had I known just a little bit more I probably would have said "no thanks" since a movie about baseball and statistics would have held no interest for me beyond Brad Pitt's performance and seeing as how I had no choice but to see it in Spanish (wasn't one of the few we've been getting un-dubbed) I would have chosen to wait for the dvd. And I would have missed out, because that was one damn fine movie! Great performance, yes sir, but also a fascinating story and look into an aspect of a sport that I knew next to nothing about! Who knew player's stats could be given so much meaning and brought to life in such an interesting manner? And based on a true story... the ending surprised me! I expected Pitt's character to make a money/prestige-based choice which he didn't. Anyhow, really like this film! :o)

Addendum: just my rotten luck! One week after seeing this the Yelmo went ahead and released it in VOS (i.e. English w/ Spanish subtitles) as well! I guess I should have waited... oh well! :p

War Horse.

Wow! Way to tug on the heart strings Spielberg + John Williams (beautiful musical score)! I have vague memories of reading this book as a kid, must have gotten it from the library though 'cause I searched through the bookshelves at home, and it's not with our childhood books (although there are tons of other "horsey" books). I thought it was a beautiful tale, full of moments of magic, heartbreak and thrills. I particularly loved the dialogue between the two enemy soldiers as they worked with those wire clippers... Lovely, epic movie. :o)

Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace 3D

Wow, I can't believe I didn't notice the first time around just how much this movie was skewed to a younger audience compared to the original trilogy! Between the Gungans and the battle droids ("roger, roger")... yikes! Could they be any more annoying?! I guess the first time out I just let myself be overwhelmed by the fact that I was getting more Star Wars (to say I'm a fan would be a major understatement... you should see my bookshelves... lol!) plus the amazing special effects, the gorgeous soundtrack and Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor. ;o) And I like Natalie Portman as Padm�, but not so much when she's all decked out as Queen Amidala (and speaking in that stilted voice and language). Plus I got a hoot out of seeing R2-D2 and C3PO and loved the fact that I could pick out key musical cues from the original trilogy in various parts of the soundtrack.

In any case, Gungan and droid shuddering aside, I quite enjoyed watching it again on the BIG screen (some movies were just meant to be seen big), and I thought the 3D transfer was fantastic! I was just as moved as the first time while watching the climactic fight between Darth Maul and Obi Wan and Qui Gon, with the mesmerising Choir of the Fates singing in the background (brilliant John Williams!). I'd say it's worth going if you're a fan, or if you have younglings you would like to properly introduce to the world of Star Wars. And you're willing to ignore the cringe-inducing Gungans.

Movie Madness: time for the OSCARS!!!

So tonight is another one of those random nights in which I kind of wish I was living across the pond again, just so I could participate in and enjoy the madness that is the Academy Awards (a.k.a. the Oscars). I used to enjoy the show (and rooting for my favourite films) quite a bit, but since moving to Europe I've rarely had the chance to indulge in the craziness... 9h time difference with L.A. and the fact that it's on Canal+ (pay extra) definitely put a damper on any celebrations... So in Spain people don't really pay much attention to the Oscars. Hell, most people don't really pay any attention to the Goyas either (Spain's equivalent). I've only done anything Oscar-related here my first year in Uni when we organised an Oscar pool at the dorms and stayed up to watch it! (but of course, any excuse is a good excuse to stay up and party, so lol!) I've managed to stay up and watch it on a few other occasions, including once in Belgium... but this is the first time in like forever that I'm participating in an Oscar pool, albeit long-distance! My aunt's sister's family in the US apparently do this every year and since we've been communicating a lot via Facebook lately (we met last year in Paris, big coincidence our both being there at the same time) and discovered we have similar tastes (books, movies) and she invited me to join in! It gives the proceedings a bit of an added thrill for me. Fun! :o)

Unfortunately I'm not as well prepared for the Oscars as I have been other years (too many movies I haven't seen yet: Tree of Life, Midnight in Paris, Albert Nobbs, Hugo, Beginners...), the Academy's upping the number of films in Best Picture category complicates things, and later release dates in Spain don't help (Hugo just came out this weekend)! So I kind of figuratively flipped a coin in some categories while filling out my ballot, but here are a few I did give a bit more thought to... I have no way to honestly judge who "should" win, so I'm just saying who I would vote for if I had the chance, plus who I think might actually win it (if different).

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Monthly Movies: Jan'12

One of my local movie theatres, the Yelmo Puerta de Alicante, is finally showing current movies in VOS!!! (i.e. orginal language with Spanish subtitles). Just one session per day of the four sessions each movie is showing (so you've got to work around their schedule), but that's better than the nothing we had before. And I've been so enjoying these performances un-dubbed! I hope they keep it up! :o) So this January I got to play in a Zoo, cringe at some incompetent bank robbers, watch a criminal mastermind match wits with a genius detective, lose myself in a performance without words, catch glimpses of Britain's recent political history, and watch a man reconnect with his family and his roots.

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Monthly Movies: Dec'11

Not much time for movies in December (2 were seen in the same week)... unsurprising considering how busy it gets during that month! A period courtroom film, a holiday-themed rom-com and an action piece: quite diverse! :p

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Page vs Screen: The Dark is Rising vs. The Seeker

The things I do for this Blog... like watching a movie I swore to myself I would never see again! I couldn't remember the details of why, but I did remember that I definitely did NOT like the movie version of one of my favourite young adult books: The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper. Well. I guess writing this post will help me remember in the future why I disliked it so much... (other than the fact that it was just, well, a bad movie!).

Thing is, I've been wanting to write another Page vs Screen post for a while, plus I wanted something in a Christmas vein, and a family member mentioned on Facebook that she was about to embark on one of her yearly traditions, reading The Dark Is Rising at Christmas. It made me realise I haven't read it in years, and it does seem the perfect time of year to read it since the story takes place between the Winter Solstice and 12th Night (night before the Epiphany or Three Kings Day). So I pulled the book off its shelf and got hold of The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising (which by the way makes no mention of the significance of the dates Midwinter, Twelfth Night etc.). And here we are!

vs

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Monthly Movies: Fall 2011

Hmmm... for some reason I haven't been able to keep up my Monthly Movies this year! I keep playing catch-up by writing about several months at a time like I did with the Summer Movies. Not good... I need to get into the habit of signing in and writing a quick something about each movie when I get home right after having seen it, 'cause otherwise when it comes time to write the post I don't always remember what I wanted to say! This Fall it hasn't helped that I haven't been too inspired by what I saw on-screen, and those I did really enjoy I told you about in Movie Magic or Madness posts. Anyhow, in an attempt to get things back on track, here's a brisk run down of the movies I've seen this Fall. They include some spy tales, romance, drama, fantasy, period drama... Let me know if you've seen them and what you thought of them!

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Movie Magic on Thanksgiving: The Help

My Thanksgiving has been un-food related so far, unless you count the grocery shopping for Saturday's feast when my family will be celebrating our own version of Thanksgiving (which as usual involves having lots of friends over). It's hard to do a full-blown turkey dinner when it's not a holiday and you have to consider people's work schedules and general fatigue. So while we're outside of the US, Saturday it is!

My sister flew in from England this morning to join us for the holiday, and after lunch we kidnapped our dad for our own father-daughter holiday tradition (any holiday will do): going to the movies! The selection was a bit limited, but I managed to twist their arms a bit and get them to agree to seeing "Criadas y Se�oras" a.k.a. The Help. I felt that at the very least, it being an American holiday and all, we could go see a movie depicting life in the US in the not-so-distant past. I think the fact that it was an earlier show than our other option probably weighed more in my favour... but they were glad in the end! 

All three of us (my sister, my dad and myself) really enjoyed this movie, although my dad did say that in a way it was a bit depressing. I found it to be disturbing... the society it depicted, the people's mentality, their ignorance... Although intellectually I know about all this (racism, social differences, sexism, education etc.) having studied it in school, observed it in other films, emotionally it still feels like a punch in the gut. How could people seriously think and behave like this? And I'm not just talking about the treatment of the black servants, but those suburban women so disconnected from reality were just as scary to me! Separate restrooms because of disease transmission? Seriously???

For any who haven't seen it (came out in the US in August, should be out there on dvd soon), it's the story of Skeeter, a young white woman who comes home from college back to Jackson Mississippi with dreams of becoming a writer (while all her mother wants for her is a husband and kids) and who wakes up to the realisation of how people in her social circle treat "the help", particularly the black maids who raise their children (and raised them as well!). She decides to write a book about these maids' lives from their own point of view and manages to convince two of them to share their war stories with her, in spite of their fear of possible repercussions. We're in the early 1960s, beginning of the Civil Rights movement, and those involved are terrified of what could happen to them (at the hands of the KKK and others) if they were known to be participating in this project. It's both a horrifying, moving, poignant and at times funny tale with some wonderful women brought to life by some amazing actresses, particularly Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer who play Aibileen and Minny. And any scene Minny is in is unforgettable!

On this Thanksgiving Day I am very grateful that society has changed so much, that the world depicted in this film feels so alien to me that I barely recognise it, and that there were men and women brave enough to stand up and help bring about an end to this discrimination.

I hope all of you who are celebrating the holiday have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your loved ones! :o)

Movie Magic: Tintin comes to life!

Can I take a moment to gloat that we got this film 2 months before the US?

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Ok, moment taken. It's such a rare occasion, particularly in a big-name film like this one, I just had to enjoy it! ;o)

It took me a bit of convincing (read emotional blackmail) to get my regular movie-going partner in crime to agree to this one because a) animated films haven't been his cup of tea in years, and b) in his words "Tintin isn't part of my culture, it's very much a European thing". Well sorry Dad, Tintin may be primarily a European cultural reference, but Herg�'s famous reporter has blazed his way across the globe with his comics having been translated into more than 80 languages (and more than 350 million copies sold - thx Wikipedia). Sure, I may have read through the whole collection -several times- in high school (any French Lyc�e worth its salt has a decent BDth�que -comic-book library-, and Tintin wouldn't be missing from it!), but someone got me copies in English as well... who might that have been? For the record, he says it was my mom, which would explain the ones in Spanish as well... I have an odd multi-lingual comics collection. Back to the non-Gringo thing... I do have several friends in the US who were very familiar with Tintin, including one who was something of a Tintinophile. He went so far as to have someone translate the dialogues in the comics that were in Arabic, Chinese and Russian just to verify that they fit in with the story and weren't random gibberish made to look like another language! And hey, even Bart Simpson is a Tintin fan! Although being very much a part of European culture I guess would explain why the movie got released 2 months ahead on this side of the pond...

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Movie Madness: The Three Musketeers

I don't think there's any other way to classify this one than under Movie Madness, because the latest outing of my all-time favourite swashbucklers is definitely more than a bit mad!!!

I've been seeing this poster hanging up in my local movie theatre for almost a year now:

(warning: some spoilers ahead)
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Movie Madness: Summer Movies 2011

I've been pleasantly surprised by most of the movies out this summer. I think it's actually been the best in a few years! We got several comic book heroes, wacky pirates, a few angry apes, avenging wizards, a couple of original westerns, some period films and a few bitter disappointments.

These are just a few thoughts on the movies I've seen this summer (I don't think I've forgotten any), in the order of my having seen them. Most of of these have been out for so long (and some are probably on dvd already) I'm not going to walk on eggshells worrying about spoilers, although I'll try not to yell out "it was Col Mustard in the dining room with a knife!". :p

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Movie Madness: Thor - Popcorn Season begins!

ARRRGH!!! I had the bulk of this post written and ready to post for April 30th... just needed to add in a short review on Thor and find some pics to illustrate it... but the movie left me feeling so blah I couldn't bring myself to write it and instead packed my bags for a trip... and then was gone without internet for 10 days and then and then... dammit time sure flies!!! So just ignore the fact that this says April... I was mostly written on April 29th except for the Thor part.

- * - * - * - * -

And so it begins... with Norse God Thor blasting his way into the cinemas this weekend (in Spain we got it a week before the US!), the cinematic summer is now upon us! To think, it's still April! May Asgard find us prepared. :p

"What's this?! You haven't written a word about movies in months, and you're starting up again with a popcorn flic?!?!?!" Not only have I been mum on the subject of the silver screen for far too long, I haven't even been to the movies in a month! scandalous! :D A mix of fatigue, un-interest in what was playing on the screens (the cinematic doldrums between Oscar season and summer are depressing...), oh, and a little incident on a bike that kept me immobile for a while. I'm going to try to bring back my movie-going standards of old, and take advantage of the draft posting option and write my mini-reviews for Monthly Movies as soon as I get back from the film (instead of leaving it to do them all at once when I can't remember as much and laziness kicks in at the idea of having to prepare a long post with reviews, posters and links).

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Monthly Movies: December airplane bonus!

Airplane bonus!

With over 20h of air travel time between Paris and Auckland, you can bet I made the most of the fabulous in-flight entertainment system to catch up on movies I missed on the Big Screen and discovering others that weren't even on my radar!

Going the Distance

Leaving Paris I decided to start with something light-hearted to help keep me awake while waiting for dinner (we took off at 1 a.m. instead of 11 p.m. because of snow issues). And what a pleasant surprise this was! A more adult rom-com than usual, both characters feel very real, and it's been a long time since I enjoyed a movie w/ Drew Barrymore so much! She makes me understand her pain and frustration at living in a long-distance relationship (she's in San Francisco, boyfriend in NY) and desperately trying to establish her career while finding a way to move closer to him.

Winter's Bone

After a night of desperately trying to sleep (and failing miserably most of the time), I realised I'd waited too long to start my 2nd choicem so had to flip through the options for something shorter. I landed on Winter's Bone (which as far as I know hasn't hit a screen near me) that I keep glimpsing very good info about across the Atlantic.

WOW! Talk about intense! The young lead Jennifer Lawrence is amazing as she desperately tries to locate her father (who skipped on his trial hearing) so she and her younger siblings don't lose their house (which he had the brilliant idea to put up as a bond), all the while taking care of the young ones and teaching them how to survive. She carries the whole movie solidly on her shoulders and does it brilliantly.

Eat, Pray, Love

I didn't want to risk missing out on this one again (previous flight), so I started out the flight between Hong Kong and Auckland with Julia Robert's latest (and thought how fitting to watch a travel movie while on a trip!). She's wonderful as usual and the movie presents some interesting ideas as to life, love and God which made me take pause, and I had a great laugh at the Italians' view of Americans and they feel they have to earn life's pleasures! (completely agree with their assessment, and am glad to be more European than American in that aspect) Oh, and I'm now curious about reading the book...

All's Faire in Love

After a decently long nap I went for comedy again to accompany brunch, and couldn't resist the lure of one that takes place during a Renaissance Fair and stars the delightful Christina Ricci! What a blast! I loved the mix of faux Shakespearean / medieval English and thought it was a really cute story! (plus I love those dresses, lol!)

So, have you seen these? Any thoughts? I just realised (looking it up on imdb) that All's Faire was from 2009! Some movies just never make it across the pond... grrrr!!!!

Monthly Movies: Autumn 2010

Yikes! What happened with my monthly movies posts??? I love writing these! I just wasn't really inspired this summer... not much worth writing about other than Inception which deserved its own "Movie Madness" post but was too busy to write (I thought I had, just realised while looking for it for a link that I hadn't!). And the fact that I didn't see a single movie in October (shocking!) is proof that having a lot of work to do and needing a bus to go to the movies... well it ain't easy! :p

I could just drop it for now and start up again in 2011 (Feb, since I doubt I'll see anything in January), and you've probably seen most of them by now, but still... My movie obsession won't let me drop it and I'm interested in hearing what you thought of those of these films that you've seen. So this post is just a combo of the Fall, not as complete as usual because some of them I only jotted down a few notes after seeing them and that was a while ago... but I don't want to leave them out 'cause there were some little (French) gems I want you to keep your eyes open for if you happen upon them!

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Movie Magic: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1.

WOW! wow.

I think they actually did it just right! (for once!) That beginning before the title sequence is so poignant, with so many unsaid goodbyes (I had forgotten about those!), so many heartbreaking looks (snif!!!).

How can I review this without spoiling it for anyone? Tough one... let's see if I can figure out how to speak in code so that I can express my opinion on certain points so that those who have seen the movie (or are very familiar with the book) will understand me, but so that I don't give anything away for the rest...

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Movie Magic: Oceans for World Oceans Day

"L'Ocean, c'est quoi l'Oc�an?"

In a single word: BREATHTAKING!

Two words? AWE-INDUCING. Also JAW-DROPPING.

Seriously, there were several moments in this film when I noticed my mouth was gaping and I couldn't seem to bring myself to close my jaw. It is that beautiful!

Oc�ans is the latest project by French documentary film-makers Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud (of Microcosmos and Le Peuple Migrateur / Winged Migration fame). Released in the U.S. by Disney Nature for Earth Day (I wonder why they didn't wait for World Oceans Day?) it has been highly popular with critics and the general movie-going public alike. I have trouble getting my friends to join me in the cinema... but none of them wanted to miss this one! Although that might have something to do with the high percentage of biologists among us... ;o)

From what I've seen by comparing the two websites, the French (and Spanish which is what I saw) version of the film is a bit different from the US one. The narrator is rarely present (as opposed to Pierce Brosnan in the English version talking about each of the animals... from what I could tell in the videos on the Disney page), and is basically there to ask a question and let the images try to answer it for him. To me the music and images come together to create a form of poetry that is very true the nature of the Ocean itself and what it has inspired in so many people since the dawn of humanity.

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Movie Magic: Summer Stock

Andrew over at Encore's World of Film & TV is hosting a Musical Blog-A-Thon today and since I had a new dvd waiting to pop in the machine I though this would be the perfect occasion to join in to a bit of crazy bloginess! ;o)

The idea was to write about your favourite musical, but you already know I'm not very good at following instructions... and besides, I've already written about my favourite musical Meet Me In St Louis. As I looked for it through the archives I discovered that was actually only the 3rd post I wrote for the blog (and my first review)! And it's not half bad, if I do say so myself (you can check it out here). ;o)

So anyhow, back to this post. I was practically jumping for joy when I saw this on the shelves at the FNAC a couple of weeks ago, as is usually the case when I land on a Judy Garland film I haven't seen. Add in a dose of the extremely talented Gene Kelly and the summery title fitting perfectly into this glorious weather, and I thought it would make for a good choice for the Blog-A-Thon.

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Movie Magic: new outing of a favourite outlaw

Robin Hood Memorial (Wikimedia Commons)

Traditionally the stories of Robin Hood and his merry band of outlaws who rob from the rich and give to the poor take place when King Richard is off fighting the Crusade in the Holy Land, with his brother Prince John back in England having usurped the Regency and playing at being King. They usually include the dastardly plot to keep Richard a prisoner by the Duke of Austria who captured him on his way home from the Crusades and is keeping him under lock and key at the behest of Philip of France (a canny politician if ever there was one!) and Prince John. Traditionally Robin Hood foils this plot by helping gather the ransom moneys and having them delivered to the Queen Mother Eleanor of Aquitaine who ensures the delivery of The Lionheart and upon his return to England thanks Robin for his services to the crown and rewards him by pardoning him his "crimes" against the crown and so he is no longer an outlaw.

Well that's not this story.

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