Spike Jonze movies:
1) Where The Wild Things Are (2009)
2) Adaptation (2002)
3) Being John Malkovich (1999)
Friday, March 27, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Matthew Vaugn is a genius
Matthew Vaughn movies:
1) Kick-Ass (2009) (post-production)
2) Stardust (2007)
3) Layer Cake (2004)
1) Kick-Ass (2009) (post-production)
2) Stardust (2007)
3) Layer Cake (2004)
Friday, March 20, 2009
Fantasy Followups - music latley
2008 was an uneventful year for music. The lack of mind-blowing albums kept catchy singles more appealing to fans that are patiently waiting and downloading. Other then the Blood Brothers new project Jaguar Love, the years in the making Third (<- the clever album name) Portishead album, and two releases from Nine Inch Nails, I personally can't think of anything else that swept me off my feet.
There are some big albums coming so I decided to check out some big names and let you all know what's worth checking out.
MSTRKRFT, born out of the break-up of the unbelievable Death from Above 1979, just released their second LP Fist of God.
a) Kick-ass title and hilarious album cover
b) It has Ghostface Killah on a song and other awesome guests
c) Its intense as fuck
Not as long and repetitive as The Looks, this album is just plain fun. If you dig the electro thats been out lately and you don't despise the rap thats being "written" these days, check it out.
Finally, I can complain.
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Metric, both bands with female lead-singer, both took their sweet time recording third albums, both albums are boring as hell.
Theres not much I can say about these releases. It's Blitz! and Fantasies are terrible and obviously lazy albums. They both have about two songs that are exciting and bring new sounds from these talented musicians. Other then that, not worth a try.
On a quick note, if you miss Post-Punk and are just awaiting for a huge revival please go here:
myspace.com/thehorrors
This band decided to drop their surft-punk garage rock style (which was cool, find their first album) and have released a song called "Sea Within a Sea" which is the best song of the year.
Go there because its there to be downloaded for free and you can watch the crazy video for it.
There are some big albums coming so I decided to check out some big names and let you all know what's worth checking out.
MSTRKRFT, born out of the break-up of the unbelievable Death from Above 1979, just released their second LP Fist of God.
a) Kick-ass title and hilarious album cover
b) It has Ghostface Killah on a song and other awesome guests
c) Its intense as fuck
Not as long and repetitive as The Looks, this album is just plain fun. If you dig the electro thats been out lately and you don't despise the rap thats being "written" these days, check it out.
Finally, I can complain.
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Metric, both bands with female lead-singer, both took their sweet time recording third albums, both albums are boring as hell.
Theres not much I can say about these releases. It's Blitz! and Fantasies are terrible and obviously lazy albums. They both have about two songs that are exciting and bring new sounds from these talented musicians. Other then that, not worth a try.
On a quick note, if you miss Post-Punk and are just awaiting for a huge revival please go here:
myspace.com/thehorrors
This band decided to drop their surft-punk garage rock style (which was cool, find their first album) and have released a song called "Sea Within a Sea" which is the best song of the year.
Go there because its there to be downloaded for free and you can watch the crazy video for it.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Vampires that sparkle - a review of Twilight
I approached Twilight before watching it with an open mind. I had never read the books or even heard about it till its recent popularity. Unlike many people, I didn’t have a hate for the teenage girl fandom that the film was capturing, I was more baffled by it. I thought this film was going to only gain popularity in the teenage girl demographic but instead it became a worldwide phenomenon. I first experienced this when I walked by Much Music a few months ago on a rainy day, around the time when the movie was being released. I asked someone in the huge person crowd about what’s going on when I got responses like “Its Edward and Bella from Twilight” “I’ve been camping out here for three days!” or the more usual “I love Twilight!” The months passed and the revolution that was Twilight began to intrigue me. Without making any prejudgments, which was extremely hard in the aspect of screaming fan girls, I watched Twilight on DVD.
Twilight tells the story of Bella Swan, a teenage girl who moves from her Mother’s place in Arizona, to her father’s house in Forks, Washington. In Forks, Bella meets the abnormally pale yet very charming, Edward Cullen. Bella has no interest in any of the normal kids who just want to hang out with her. She’d much rather discover the mystery of Edward and his incestuous brothers and sisters. After Edward saves Bella from a car crash, the mystery unfolds as they become closer and eventually fall in love. Finally it is discovered that Edward is a vampire and so is the rest of his family. Edward must fight his desire to eat Bella for lunch with his desire to go on a lunch date with her. Edward and the other vampires learned to live peacefully with the humans of Forks but when a band of blood hungry vampires arrive in town shit gets hot.
Catherine Hardwicke (Lords of Dogtown) directs Twilight… to good effect. She handles the camera in more sophisticated ways then most movies for this demographic can offer. The compositions of shots were attractive at many moments and Hardwicke’s steady-cam captures the forest scenes in beautiful ways. On top of this, the acting of the main characters beats expectations. Robert Pattinson portrays Edward in an exceptional way. He’s emotional yet emotionless, and his mannerisms feel so real they give an extra depth to the character you wouldn’t expect. Kristen Stewart, although over dramatic at points, played a teenage girl that I could recognize. That has to say something because not only can teenage girls around the world relate with the portrayal of Bella, but I could too. Kristen Stewart projects the fear and excitement that Bella feels in a rare method that I have yet to see in a while. Hardwicke gets a big credit for their performances. Since directing Lords of Dogtown she is obviously an actors’ director. I can’t think of many directors who can get a teenager performance that is not only believable, but also entertaining. She definitely broke the cheesiness that I expected from those two characters. Carter Burwell composed the music for Twilight. He has worked on most of the Cohen Brothers movies and most recently on In Bruges. His music is eerie yet epic and gives certain depth that scenes wouldn’t have had without it. It’s also cool to hear 15 Step by Radiohead at the end credits, which are awesome.
Aside from the mind-blowing credits, the movie is extremely flawed. Although the cheesy lines are delivered well by Stewart and Pattinson, the rest of the cast blows. The characters are written to be minimal but when they finally get to speak for a few seconds, their campiness explodes and it hurts to watch. This is the actors’ faults and the screenwriter’s fault, Melissa Rosenberg. Rosenberg’s writing for film is so terrible, to the point where I don’t understand how the fans didn’t realize it themselves. The movie is written for idiots and written by an idiot. Every now and then, Bella gives delivers a voice over that is supposed to reveal her deepest thoughts. The problem with this is she reveals to us story elements that are already suggested in the exposition of the movie. For example:
Bella (Voice Over): I’m going to confront him to see what was wrong with him.
Bella then confronts Edward and asks what was wrong with him.
Bella (Voice Over): I’ll miss Arizona. I don’t want to move.
Bella enters her mother’s car with a pissed off look on her face. They drive by a sign that says Welcome to Arizona.
There are lines that I wouldn’t be able to argue because they are obviously important romance lines from the novel but some of them are just absurd. Are audiences so dumb that they need the character to explain to us what she’s about to do before she does it… and then she obviously does it? There are so many redundant lines the movie. Although the performances are great, Edward and Bella won’t stop repeating themselves. Bella keeps questioning how Edward has super human abilities, even long after she found out he is a vampire. Edward won’t stop telling Bella that they can’t be together at moments where it’s not even important to say it. On top of this, the plot becomes so convoluted near the end that I had to force myself to accept the chain of events in order to finish watching the film. The romance between Edward and Bella is so well done and the other conflicts are so damn boring that I had no interest in seeing them collide. The introduction of the more primitive vampires is not scary and is only developed 30 minutes before the two hours are about to end.
Certain aspects I cannot complain about because they are obviously directly from the book, which I have not read. The flashbacks that explain vampire mythology and the back-story of Edward’s family are really dumb and unnecessary but they are probably full chapters from the book that had to be included. The way the vampires are dressed is too in your face and obvious. They were probably described like this in the book, but did they really have to wear white suits and look much older then the other high school kids. Couldn’t their separation from the public and their abnormal behaviour be enough to raise suspicion? But most importantly, lets talk about the vampire mythology. I have no complaints about how they survive during the day when it’s cloudy (its constantly cloudy in Forks for some unspoken reason) but do they have to sparkle in the sunlight? They could have actually burned in the sunlight because that would add more conflict in the novel for Bella and Edward. Last I heard, conflict is good for stories. The vampire baseball scene was just plain dumb. I’m sure Stephenie Meyer could have come up with a situation that was more in tone with the book but no, the vampires had to play baseball and be really good at it. These aspects only helped in keeping me away from ever reading the novel.
Here are the questions I will ask myself after every review I write.
Will I watch it again? No.
Will I recommend it? No, but I’ll tell people to be open-minded if they must. If they are looking for a cool young vampire movie, I'd recommend Let The Right One In instead.
Did I like it? I didn’t hate but I didn’t really like it. I was surprised to be entertained at moments.
Do I have any last words? Stop hating the movie until you’ve sat down to watch it. Gain an opinion and if you still want to bash those tweens, don’t stop. But don’t waste your time if you won’t be able to open your mind for it. If you have the will power to do so, give it a chance. I gave it a chance and I’m not disappointed that I did.
Twilight tells the story of Bella Swan, a teenage girl who moves from her Mother’s place in Arizona, to her father’s house in Forks, Washington. In Forks, Bella meets the abnormally pale yet very charming, Edward Cullen. Bella has no interest in any of the normal kids who just want to hang out with her. She’d much rather discover the mystery of Edward and his incestuous brothers and sisters. After Edward saves Bella from a car crash, the mystery unfolds as they become closer and eventually fall in love. Finally it is discovered that Edward is a vampire and so is the rest of his family. Edward must fight his desire to eat Bella for lunch with his desire to go on a lunch date with her. Edward and the other vampires learned to live peacefully with the humans of Forks but when a band of blood hungry vampires arrive in town shit gets hot.
Catherine Hardwicke (Lords of Dogtown) directs Twilight… to good effect. She handles the camera in more sophisticated ways then most movies for this demographic can offer. The compositions of shots were attractive at many moments and Hardwicke’s steady-cam captures the forest scenes in beautiful ways. On top of this, the acting of the main characters beats expectations. Robert Pattinson portrays Edward in an exceptional way. He’s emotional yet emotionless, and his mannerisms feel so real they give an extra depth to the character you wouldn’t expect. Kristen Stewart, although over dramatic at points, played a teenage girl that I could recognize. That has to say something because not only can teenage girls around the world relate with the portrayal of Bella, but I could too. Kristen Stewart projects the fear and excitement that Bella feels in a rare method that I have yet to see in a while. Hardwicke gets a big credit for their performances. Since directing Lords of Dogtown she is obviously an actors’ director. I can’t think of many directors who can get a teenager performance that is not only believable, but also entertaining. She definitely broke the cheesiness that I expected from those two characters. Carter Burwell composed the music for Twilight. He has worked on most of the Cohen Brothers movies and most recently on In Bruges. His music is eerie yet epic and gives certain depth that scenes wouldn’t have had without it. It’s also cool to hear 15 Step by Radiohead at the end credits, which are awesome.
Aside from the mind-blowing credits, the movie is extremely flawed. Although the cheesy lines are delivered well by Stewart and Pattinson, the rest of the cast blows. The characters are written to be minimal but when they finally get to speak for a few seconds, their campiness explodes and it hurts to watch. This is the actors’ faults and the screenwriter’s fault, Melissa Rosenberg. Rosenberg’s writing for film is so terrible, to the point where I don’t understand how the fans didn’t realize it themselves. The movie is written for idiots and written by an idiot. Every now and then, Bella gives delivers a voice over that is supposed to reveal her deepest thoughts. The problem with this is she reveals to us story elements that are already suggested in the exposition of the movie. For example:
Bella (Voice Over): I’m going to confront him to see what was wrong with him.
Bella then confronts Edward and asks what was wrong with him.
Bella (Voice Over): I’ll miss Arizona. I don’t want to move.
Bella enters her mother’s car with a pissed off look on her face. They drive by a sign that says Welcome to Arizona.
There are lines that I wouldn’t be able to argue because they are obviously important romance lines from the novel but some of them are just absurd. Are audiences so dumb that they need the character to explain to us what she’s about to do before she does it… and then she obviously does it? There are so many redundant lines the movie. Although the performances are great, Edward and Bella won’t stop repeating themselves. Bella keeps questioning how Edward has super human abilities, even long after she found out he is a vampire. Edward won’t stop telling Bella that they can’t be together at moments where it’s not even important to say it. On top of this, the plot becomes so convoluted near the end that I had to force myself to accept the chain of events in order to finish watching the film. The romance between Edward and Bella is so well done and the other conflicts are so damn boring that I had no interest in seeing them collide. The introduction of the more primitive vampires is not scary and is only developed 30 minutes before the two hours are about to end.
Certain aspects I cannot complain about because they are obviously directly from the book, which I have not read. The flashbacks that explain vampire mythology and the back-story of Edward’s family are really dumb and unnecessary but they are probably full chapters from the book that had to be included. The way the vampires are dressed is too in your face and obvious. They were probably described like this in the book, but did they really have to wear white suits and look much older then the other high school kids. Couldn’t their separation from the public and their abnormal behaviour be enough to raise suspicion? But most importantly, lets talk about the vampire mythology. I have no complaints about how they survive during the day when it’s cloudy (its constantly cloudy in Forks for some unspoken reason) but do they have to sparkle in the sunlight? They could have actually burned in the sunlight because that would add more conflict in the novel for Bella and Edward. Last I heard, conflict is good for stories. The vampire baseball scene was just plain dumb. I’m sure Stephenie Meyer could have come up with a situation that was more in tone with the book but no, the vampires had to play baseball and be really good at it. These aspects only helped in keeping me away from ever reading the novel.
Here are the questions I will ask myself after every review I write.
Will I watch it again? No.
Will I recommend it? No, but I’ll tell people to be open-minded if they must. If they are looking for a cool young vampire movie, I'd recommend Let The Right One In instead.
Did I like it? I didn’t hate but I didn’t really like it. I was surprised to be entertained at moments.
Do I have any last words? Stop hating the movie until you’ve sat down to watch it. Gain an opinion and if you still want to bash those tweens, don’t stop. But don’t waste your time if you won’t be able to open your mind for it. If you have the will power to do so, give it a chance. I gave it a chance and I’m not disappointed that I did.
10 Favorite Films of 2008
I'm going to start my blog with my favorite 10 movies of last year.
The trend I hope to continue is that I will talk about and review movies that deserve a new opinion thats yet to be voiced.
Speed Racer
Slumdog Millionaire
In Bruges
The Dark Knight
Hellboy 2
Let The Right One In
JCVD
Gran Torino
The Wrestler
Rambo
A review of Speed Racer and why its the best movie of 2008 will be posted soon.
The trend I hope to continue is that I will talk about and review movies that deserve a new opinion thats yet to be voiced.
Speed Racer
Slumdog Millionaire
In Bruges
The Dark Knight
Hellboy 2
Let The Right One In
JCVD
Gran Torino
The Wrestler
Rambo
A review of Speed Racer and why its the best movie of 2008 will be posted soon.
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