Vampires weren't SMeyer's bigger mistake

This is my first incursion on Twilight related matters. This is something I've been thinking for a long, long time.

Why do these young girls love Twilight so much? Nothing about it was original, not even their beloved "hero", Edward. (Better thinking, the ridiculous sparkling, dazzling, razzle dazzle thing is all Meyer) I'm not going to talk about how Bella is an empty shell. I'm all Edward now.

Who's Edward Cullen? He's a 100 year old vampire, who doesn't want to lose his human side. He's a regular vampire who makes philosophical questionings, who cares about people, he doesn't want to kill them, he thinks that's disgusting, repulsive. Oh! He's rich and he's gorgeously handsome like... like... what were the words? Ah! A Destroying Archangel! Isn't he perfect? Isn't he original? HELL NO!

The vampire who wants to deny his condition is an old issue in the vampy related literature. The biggest and the best example is Louie. Louis Pointe du Lac, was "created" (in a non vampiric way) by Anne Rice. He is rich, gourgeously handsome and from the moment he realizes how disgusting his eternal condition is, he decides not to feed on human blood. He starts drinking rat blood and he even gets to the ridiculous point of drinking a poodle's blood. But remember, he never sparkled, AND at some point of his life, Louis saw that he could no longer deny his own nature, so the rat thing had to stop.

Do you want another exemple? Michael from "The Lost Boys" He's a teenager attracked by a girl and decides to join a biker gang to "make an impression". He eventually finds out that the gang leaders are vampires. They start his "vampire trainning" but he can't do his final test which is, killing a person. The movie is all 80's trash but it's one of my fave 80's teenage movies. Whatever, Michael didn't want to exchange his humanity  for the eternity.

SMeyer isn't all that vampiric mithology killer. Even the lack of sex isn't original. According to Anne Rice's stories, vampires are extremely sensual and sexualized creatures. They feel an inexplicable desire and attraction to other vampires or humans with no discrimination of race and gender. They just feel it. And they get plesure from the seduction game they play with their victims and from the bite itself. Vampires' sexual organs are not functional. (Apparently in SMeyer world only female vampires have non funtional sexual organs. I wonder why such a sexist POV) 

Cutting the crap, is not mithology killing. Anne Rice did that. SMeyer problem is that she takes all those vampire stories and turn into a ridiculous thing. She wrote a book about a girl who refuses to grow up, not in a Peter Pan way, she wants to run away from her resposabilities (including her child). And I'm not going to start on that project of love story.

Edward was the first sensitive, thoughtful vampire. Bullshit! The "I don't wanna be a killer" thing is an old, old issue in vampire literature. Of course these kind of POV was brought by women and almost all we write, at least a bit (and not only women do this) come from our own lives. JK Rowling created HP world in a very difficult moment. Anne Rice wrote the Vampire Chronicles after loosing her mother and her five year old daughter (very interesting when you think about Claudia, the child vampire Lestat created. Who died -twice- without the change of growing old). Stephannie Meyer squeezed Twilight out from a wet dream. How do we expect that to be good?!

Hey! At least they sparkle! She had to be original in some point.

p.s. I'm totally ignoring the new vampire stuff. True Blood, Vampire Diaries, House of Night and hundreads (I mean it) of other vampire teenage stuff. I have tortured myself enough. 

HELL YEAH!

It doesn't make sense

I'm trying to gather all my courage and strengh to watch Eclipse but I can't find it right now. But, this video is almost persuading me to step into the cinema. 

This is Felipe Melo and he is basicly a troll (though he says he's not), he is just there getting famous by talking about the things he dislikes. I don't like his videos much, and I only watched three (the Twilight one including). He's boring on his crititcs, he's usually empty and meaning and though, I believe  all these things he says didn't really come out from his own mind and that he had some kind of source, flamming Twilight is always fun and seeing all those lovers reactions is even more funny! Enjoy!

Toy Story 3

I waited 11 years for this movie, really. 11 years is maybe a bit much but this is probably the movie I've been waiting the most since I heard that it was going to be made.  

You must have noticed that I haven't grown up and that I love animated movies or so called "children movies". It happens that Toy Story 3 isn't a movie made for children. Toy Story 3 was made for people like me, kids that watched Toy Story 1,  15 years ago. (I'm old!!!!) Most of the Toy Story fans are going though or have just gone though  what Andy is going now: getting in the university and leaving childhood behind. That's how the story starts.

Andy is 17 now and he's leaving to the university and he needs to clean up his bedroom.  See whaich toys he'll take with him to the university, which he'll keep in the attic and which he'll donate. He decides to take Woody with him and keep all the rest but accidentally his toys get thrown in the garbage, Woody goes for his toy box friends rescue but when he gets there they have alredy scaped and they're thinking that Andy has decided to dispose of them, so they decide to go to Sunnyside Daycare. 

When they get there, they get a warm welcome from the toys. Their leader Lotso tells them that not having an owner is much better, the children of the daycare centre are always replaced by other children and they'll always have someone to play. They'll never be abandoned again. Woody decides to try to go back to Andy's house and ends up kidnapped by a little girl called Bonnie. So Andy's toys are send to the younger children's class and that means that they start to get tortured. (believe me, that's torture for toys, I see 1 to 4 years olds playing everyday and I know how the toys "suffer" haha) Buzz decides to scape and gently ask Lotso to replace them into a class with older children but he finds out about Lotso's evil plan and ends up getting rebooted and starts to think he's a space ranger again. Meanwhile Woody is in Bonnie's house and discovers about Lotso's story. So he scapes from Bonnie's house to help his friends to scape from the Daycare. 

Well, the movie has some details and dialogs that are really not meant for children. Barbie and Ken are an exemple. Spanish Buzz is simply HILARIOUS.  The story is sutil, beautiful really.  This movie touched me right from the first scene. I was seing something from my childhood in big screen again. I knew I was going to cry, everybody knew that. And so I did. By the end of the movie a boy that was sitting in front of me was  staring at me with a face that told me "Why is this crazy young lady crying like this?" and one question was hanging in the air: What toys will you dig out from your attic?

News News News!

I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED MY GRADUATION COURSE!

That's it! This is the big news! My graduation ceremony sets place in September so tecnically I'm not graduated yet but I have finished all my subjects. 

I have had a nice week so far, things at work as less worse than I thought and I survived my feedback. I won't be there next year, thogh, unless things change. I lost my hability of planning my life for the next year because of the moving possibility and I have decided, at least, try not to worry before it's time to. I went to a Zeca Baleiro concert on Wednesday and unfortunately I don't have pics because my mum was with the camera and she was travelling. The concert was great and he played almost all my fave songs. It was really good, I haven't danced like that in a while! 

I was taken by the World Cup fever. I watched all Brazil's matches and except for the ones against Cote d'Ivoire and Chile, the other ones were absolutery boring! Specially today's fiasco against Netherlands. I don't know enough bad words in English to express my indignation. Of course Brazil isn't only football and I hate the Brazilian stereotypes but the Worl Cup is the World Cup and even though you don't like football that much (I don't like mostly because I get stressed, as I did today) you can't help getting a bit excited. The whole country stops to watch the games and you get a day off from work (or at least half of the day), so it's easy to be taken. 

I'll have to work for 2 more weeks before I can get a 10 days recess. I won't be able to start my psycology course or post graduation this year so I intend to rest from "school" for the nexts 6 months and that's a strange thing because I don't really know what it feels like not having to wake up at 5:45 a.m. to go to the class. That was my life during the last 20 years. I need to organize my stuff, my university things and so on... I haven't done that for 2 years or more so you can imagine how messed up things are. All the stuff is badly acomodated in the closet.

I can't wait to watch Toy Story 3. My brother has spoiled some facts to me (I wanted to kill him) and I'm excited about it because it seems that the movie wasn't made for kids but the old Toy Story fans, like me, who were kids when the first one was made. It's been 11 years since Toy Story 2 and I've been waiting for a long time. Probably my next post will be about it. 

That's it. A resumé of my last month.

=D

p.s. Listen to the link on Zeca Baleiro, I love him and I'm a fan since I was a child. ;)

p.s.2 That's me, age 6. Graduation ceremony when I leaned to read and write. =)

Be Italian: A "Nine" Review

I know I said I would write an Iron Man 2 review... but I feel like I'm not enough qualified to write about it. I haven't read "The Demon in the Bottle" (shame on my... the comic book is just a few steps away in my brother's bedroom...) Well, I'll read it and maybe I'll write something about it. Maybe I'll translate my "bastard"step brother's review into English, if he allows me. He's a specialist. Haha!

Back to the subject... Nine... Nine...  Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Judi Dench, Fergie, Kate Hudson, Nicole Kidman and Sophia Loren. Got it? Now I can move on.

Nine is a musical, directed by Rob Marshal, the same guy who directed my fave musical ever (well, now I simply can't choose one) Chicago. First thing I want to talk about is how Marshal's musicals go on. It's not that almost ridiculous thing of people talking and suddently, out of nothing they go "Oh! Let's sing instead of talking." No. The songs in Marshal's musicals are played in another set, like a theatre and it's like the songs are only in the character's heads. So, the characters are talking and then the song starts to play and the scenes start to change, from the set where the character is to where the song is played. Specially in this movie, all the songs are inside Guido's mind, in his desilusions, in his search for the content of his new film.

Some facts

The musical is inspired by Federico Felini's film 8½. I can't say much about Felini's work since I only watched Satyricon and all I can say about that film is: What the hell?! Poor Petronius must have rolled in his tomb. LOL 

I thought that the name of the musical was "Nine" because of the women, I thought that were nine women in Guido's life, but when I watched it I obviously noticed that they are only seven. So, the real reason this is called "Nine" is, according to the author of the original Broadway musical, that if you add music to 8½ "it's like half a number more".

Stick to the point, Mariana.

Here's the deal: Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) is an Italian film-maker that made great movies in the begining of his career but after some total fails he's living his midlife crisis: He has ten days to start shooting his next movie and haven't written a word of the script and to add some more, this imature and spoiled man has to deal with the women of his life: his wife (Marion Cotillard), his mistress (Penélope Cruz), his confident (Judi Dench), his fan (Kate Hudson), a prostitute from his childhood (Fergie), his muse and movie star (Nicole Kidman) and the spirit of his mother (Sophia Loren). 

Daniel Day-Lewis's appearence, after "Gangs of New York" and "There Will Be Blood", is quite a relief. I mean, it's nice to see him a little bit more handsome. His acting is, as always, impecable. You can tell it by his accent (and when he says the word "two" I think of this video.) and his expressions. You can almost feel what Guido's feeling. His performance is amazing, very active and atletic (in the extras they said he didn't use any doubles) so he's really acting, singing and jumping at once all around the set. Still, I can't compare his acting in this movie with his acting in the movies I mentioned before, maybe that's because Guido is lighter character. 

Some female characters are completely decorative but some with nice surprises. Fergie, who plays Saraghina, a crazy prostitute who was part of Guido's childhood is one of those. She doesn't speak a line! A single one! But what she's there to do, she does well. I may not like her own music but she's a great singer and her theme in Nine, "Be Italian" is simply all the Italian men stereotypes together and it's sang with incredible passion. The other decorative character is Kate Hudson's Stephanie, completely out of time (too 2000's for a film in the 50's) but a big surprise in the singing number, she sings passionately and very well.  

Now, the woman characters who matter. Judi Dench's number is the most "musical like"  but it's beautiful and fantastic. I believe she and Daniel showed well the chemestry between their characters. She's more than a confident, she's his couselour. Sophia Loren is literally the spirit of this movie, I can't think of another Italian actress to play this role but the woman scared the hell out of me with all that botox. She can't close her mouth while speaking!!!! Nicole's presence is almost oniric, in Guido's desilusions, in search for some inspiration.  She is his muse, his ideal woman, but as woman in love, she wants to be seen as she really is. She  has few scenes but big, big role. Her singing skills are no news, she's been in Moulin Rouge (in which people start to sing out of nowhere...)

The best acting in this movie goes to the wife and the mistress, Marion Cottllard and Penélope Cruz. Penélope has no limits, indeed. After that well deserved Oscar for "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" another well deserved nomination! What the hell she did with her accent??? She simply turned her Castillian accent into a Italian accent perfectly. She's funny, comic. She's obsessed with that man, she wants more of him (as all women in his life) but she can't handle to be his wife. Penélope's number is stunning (my poor brother, a huge fan of hers was stucked in the couch) and her singing is amazing.

I'm a fan of Marion Cotillard since La Môme. She has this capacity of changing from character from character and La Môme impresses because she changes a lot in one movie and with so many tiny details like hands, shoulders, spine curvature and facial expressions, voice tone. In Nine, you can feel how much her character loves her husband but can't stand the feeling of being left behind all the time, of living a sort of lie. She sings one of the trickest and surely the saddest song of the film (My husband makes movies) and she does that so naturally that we think that's so easy, and then as if it wasn't enough she sings and dance beautifully in "Take it All" and that's when Guido see's that he can't make the movie and he's forced to grow up.

A interesting thing on this movie is Guido's creative process. Beside all the desilusions that end in nothing, I mean. He really grow up and start to connect with his interior child. It is this child who really inspires him, in this child rests his geniality, and from the moment he grows up, stop to consider himself the center of the world, when he finally reconect with this child, he starts to be the great film-maker he is. Now, I must see if Felini's 8½ is a real master piece.

p.s.

JOKE OF THE DAY: The MTV Movie Awards. 

No commentaries.

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

SPOILER ALLERT!

This must be the film I must waited in years. Since I heard of it I've been waiting. I waited and waited and I got disappointed. The movie is way below my expectations and as a friend of mine said, Marylin Manson's POV of Lewis Carrow's most famous story must be more interesting than Tim Burton's. 

Well, if you expect to see a film as faithful to the book as the Walt Disney one you shouldn't waste your money watching it. I alredy knew this and I didn't mind at all, I thought that it would be nice. Here's the plot: Alice is a girl who likes to wonder and lose herself in her thoughts. She doesn't like to wear corsets and stockings and doesn't care for what is considered proper. She's about to be proposed by an awful lord and she's surrounded by people from a decadent aristocracy. Her lorde proposes and she asks for a time to think and start running after a white rabbit and she eventually falls in the rabbit whole and gets in the Underland . (not Wonderland!) In the Underland  the White Queen (Anne Hathaway) lost her crown to her despotic sister, the Red Queen (Helena Boham Carter) and Alice (who alredy has been to the Underland) is the champion who will, according to the oracle, defeat the Red Queen's beast and allow the people to rise against the evil queen and bring the White Queen back to power. Alice is back to the Underland and doesn't remember ever being there and everyone thinks she's the wrong Alice but she sees very close how awful is the Red Queen and decides to help the Underland resistance.

The movie is boring. You see, I went in the last session, at 22:20 and I was very tired after a long day at work but if the movie is good this isn't normally a problem. But the thing was so boring that I spent most of the time trying not to fall asleep and I must say I didn't succeed. I slept about 5 minutes during the final battle! Johnny Depp's acting is blend and everyone in Underland has an odd Russian accent. The 3D isn't that nice but I must say that my spot in the room didn't help, I was too near to the screen 'cause I couldn't find a better spot. I thought that The Cartepillar would have Alan Rickman's features but it only had his voice but I, as any person who was Pollyanna Syndrime, found the bright side of the film. 

The Cheshire cat is nice, I liked it. The make up was great and Alice's dresses were really beautiful. But the only acting that I found really nice was Anne Hathaway's. The White Queen is like Jack Sparrow is skirts, very funny. And the most "interesting" (but cliché) thing was that every character in Underland was like a character in Alice's real life. What made the whole thing seem more like a dream. I waited too much from this film though, and I'm disappointed.

Julie & Julia

I'm not going to really talk about the movie. I just can't think of a better title for the post now. But if you want my opinion, that's a great movie and both, Meryl and Amy were great in there. The story is beautiful and something I need. I'll explain.

It's been a while since I've been thinking of blogging. I have always blogged, I mean, since I heard of the thing. It was about 8/9 years ago. Unfortunately (fortunately to be honest) they are nowhere to be found. The only thing I still have from this age of my life is my fotolog, I have two actually. Gosh! I go round and round to tell a story, let me go to the point now. 

It's been a while since I've been thinking of blogging. But I don't want to write about my days as I used to do when I was 13 but, writing "useful" things (as if anything I could possibly write be useful) and a very good friend of mine was thinking about it too. Writing about fun things we like, like the blogs we read. But I can't think of something I can write about for a "successful" blog. Everything I like alredy has an amazing blog about. lol Whatever. I'm going round again and I think this isn't the point.

The main character was in a crossroad and could change her life, in the case by blogging. Changing life by blogging is a little bit cliché right now, I think, but I'm trying to find something nice to do. Any suggestions?

How to train your dragon

IT'S THE BEST FUCKING MOVIE I WATCHED IN 2010!

Ok. Now I can talk about it. 

SPOILER ALERT

In a Vicking village called Berk lives a teenager called Hiccup. He's extremely awkward, he can't do anything right and nobody trusts him, in actual terms he's a nerd, but unlike another teenager that claims to be awkward and that we know very well, he's not an emo and it's decided to be a Vicking and make his father and his people proud. He's weak and skinny and can't hold an axe, or hammer, or sword so he builds a machine to try to kill a dragon (because that's what Vickings like to do) and during an attack he hits the most powerful dragon they know, no one has ever seen it: The Night Fury but no one believes in him.

In the next day he goes after this dragon, that must have fell somewhere around the island and when he gets there the dragon trapped and totally vulnerable, it's his oportunity to kill a dragon and finally be a Vicking  but he can't do it. He releases the Night Fury and go home. After the last dragon attack in the village Hiccup's father and leader of the village, Stoik decides to go on a quest to find the dragons nest once again and tells Hiccup to start his training on killing dragons, but he now knows that's not what he wants to do. He tries to speak to his father but he can't (his father isn't much into listening), the kid has no choice but to start his training, but everyday he goes to the hidden place where the hurt Night Fury is and he starts to be friends with the dragon. He gets to know more about dragons and realizes that "everything they knew about them is wrong". 

You see, the plot isn't that original, it's the same old story about the old and the new wrestling and their lack of understanding. It's the same old story about "the other" and about breaking down predjudices and how dangerous actions, no matter how noble they are can result in permanent losses. It's not original, but somehow the writer made it sound beautiful and meaningful. If you want to watch a movie that talks about predjudices against "the other" and about a person that got into another culture and starts to understand it, watch this, not Avatar. 

This is Dreamworks masterpiece. I'm not that fan of the Shrek movies (I liked the 1st, that's all) and I definetely hate Madagascar but since Kung Fu Panda I believe that Dreamworks is starting to get near Pixar. And I do believe that this is going to be quite a competition in 2011's best animated movie Oscar.

Things I really liked

The training and the dragon classification totally sounds like an RPG game. And that was funny because I was watching the movie with a bunch of nerds that could be seen in The Big Bang Theory and that are RPG players (I am a RPG player myself). 

The soundtrack by John Powell (P.S. I love you and Ice Age 1,2 and 3) is the most beautiful I have listened in years. This soundtrack does more that what ordinary soundtracks do. It transports you to that world (and I can feel it just by listening to it, like I'm doing right now) it raises the emotions, show you the feelings of the character.

The graphics are stunning, really beautiful. I watched it in 3D, of course it makes things more beautiful. But the movie is beautiful anyway.

The only thing I regret is that I had to watch it dubbed, so I couldn't listen to Gerard Butler's voice, which I like very much. lol

Now, listen to my fave song of the soundtrack. 

It's complicated

It's no news that I'm -after all- a hopeless romantic and that I love romantic comedies. But sometimes, some can bug even me, like the awful "Valentines Day" (CRAP MOVIE!) but a recent one really made my mind up. I said before that this film deserved a whole post dedicated to it and while I watched it for the second time today I was finally sure that it's a good movie: My father laughed. And that's saying something. lol

It's Complicated it's about a woman, mother o three grown ups, (Jane - Meryl Streep) that was cheated by her husband (Jake - Alec Baldwin) who changed her for a younger woman and it's been divorced for 10 years. They travel to NY for their youngest's graduation and end up having sex, after 10 years almost wresting each other. They end up having an affair, that of course isn't that great but it helps them (and specially her) to understand better what happened between them. Of course she sees that the thing isn't going to work and she starts seeing Adam (Steve Martin) but many, many things start happening at the same time and her situation become a little bit comic, not to say tragic. lol

I've read some bad critics about it. That the director, Nancy Mayers (Something's Gotta Give), it's reapeting herself by passing the message of love in the maturity. Or that it's never late to be wanted by two men, but I don't think that's the "message". The thing is: Love after the 50's always bugs people. People like to think that life is over after certain age and all you've got to do then is wait for death to come. Lot's of directors are always repeating themselves and nobody gives a shit! It's the most mature romantic comedy I have seen in years, probably since, Something's Gotta Give!

Original? Maybe not, but somehow the movie felt like real life. (Apart from living in a big house in Santa Barbara, CA. and having fancy cars and these material things lol) and real life doubts. Apart from it, the movie is extremely funny, I had a great time watching it and watching it again. And the acting is impecable. I'm a huge Meryl Streep fan (I'll write a special post about her soon) and I would watch anything she's in but she's always great. She is a chameleon and that's what I admire in actors and actresses. Alec Baldwin is also great and so as Steve Martin, though I don't like him that much.

I loved this movie and I think that this would be one of those I'll have to buy because I'll watch it hundreads of times. And I recomend it, even for those who don't like romantic movies. 

Random thing I have to say... 

I'm studying a very interesting not compulsory subject at university, it's called "History of English Language". The classes are in another school inside the university. This course is similar to the English course in the universities in another countries, they study Portuguese grammar, linguistics, literature and the same aspects of other languages.  Well... it's suposed to be a place of good readers. And readers of good stuff. 

Well... it happened that we were talking and somehow the subject of the chat was Emily Bronté and I commented that the poor woman must be having a bad time wherever she is since they republished Whuthering Heights in a special edition as "Bella and Edward's favorite book". And I started the flame wars there, I'm a teaser and sometimes I can't help myself. lol Well... a "girl" (a woman to be honest) lifted her file and there were Twilight stickers on it. Special New Moon's premiere stickers! I was shocked when I saw it! I don't know what is worse: a student of this course that doesn't like to read (the teacher told me that they exist) or a student of this course that likes to read the Twilight Saga (this word has been so badly used lately)

The thing got worse: Last class the "girl" went wearing a Twilight T-Shirt! 

What can I say? Twilight happens!

The Book of Eli

SPOILER ALLERT

The Book of Eli finally came out in Brazil, last Friday and I managed to watch it on Sunday. I was excited about it because after a long fasting of playing villains, Gary Oldman is once again embodying evil - and that's what he does best IMO. I was excited by this idea but I didn't expected that much from the movie. The good thing is, I got surprised.

There's nothing really new about the story, and some points reminds us about lots of old westerns, Mad Max and other post apocalyptic movies. But it doesn't seems to be a copy but a tribute to all these movies and styles. 

In a future destroyed by nuclear war caused by religious fundamentalism, people live from letf overs of the old times. The deserts are full on thiefs, rapers and all sort of bad guys and there is this misterious wanderer played by Denzel Washington. He just keeps walking to West carrying a book that he reads everyday. One day he ends up in a small city ruled by Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a guy who knows where to find clean water and use this to control the place. Carnegie is, initially amazed by Eli's fighting skills and tries to persuade him to stay in town by sending his blind mistress daughter (Mila Kunis) to "entertain" him. The guy declines the offer and ask her to have dinner with him, but before he says a little prayer. The girl, who have never seen someone praying, is amazed by those words and in the next day, she does the same while she's eating with her mother. Carnegie, then realizes that Eli has the book he is seeking. By this time, you must have alredy noticed that the book in question in the Bible and that this same book was the reason of the war that terminated civilization. Carnegie wants the book because people is going to listen to him, by listening those words, the book is, for him, a way to rule the world. Eli believe that those words can free people. That's the main plot. Eli runs away with his book, in his mission to take this book in a safe place in West and Carnegie goes after him. The end is quite surprising and I liked it.

I LOVED the cinematography. The begining is entirely black and while, the colors beging to appear slowly but they are always faded and the sky is always B&W. The location is beautiful. The Hughes Bros are great directors, the whole thing showed how desolated earth was and how helpless people were, and how Carnegie's plans would work if he succeded his quest. For me, some scenes are like being inside the director's mind and some takes are really impressive and amazing.

Carnegie is an educated man,  a survivor, someone who was alive when the whole thing happened and wants to use his knowledge and religion to control people's mind and gain more power. Gary is, as always, awesome. Everything is perfect, accent (a different one, that he never played before), expressions... At some point you almost begin to agree with Carnegie, a thing that Denzel Washington can't do playing Eli.

I was a bit afraid that the religious aura would take over the film but that doesn't happens. The film doesn't intend to make you a believer but, of course, it leads you to refletion. I don't know much about other countries's reality but here in Brazil there are lots, and I mean LOTS of preachers that use the power of the words in the Bible (and let's admit, they are powerful) to get money, to get power. Very few people use that book as a way to be a better person each day, as a life guider (in a critial way, I don't mean, follow it without thinking about them). 

The movie isn't a waste of time or money and totally worths to be seen in the teathre because of the beautiful cinematography.

The Oscars 2010

Yes. I do know I'm awfully late but what can I do? My schedule is crazy lately. Still, I believe I have something to say about this year's Oscars.

I almost didn't watch the Oscars this year. What happens? Here in Brazil only one network holds the rights of casting it and the Big Brother's 10th edition (How could we get to that??? How?) is more important than the greatest ceremony of the film industry. When it started on Brazilian TV four categories had alredy been revealed and I had lost the opening number. Fortunately, moments later, I found a way to watch it on the internet and run away from the "simultaneous translation".

I thought that this year's Oscars would show what path will film making take. Movies full of money and ultra high tecnology but completely empty, or brilliant movies by themselves, whith no distraction. Which I don't think it's the better way. And I'm now really optmistic about film making because Avatar DID NOT WIN the best picture Oscar!!!! Ha! Between "The Hurt Locker" and "Pocahontas feat. Smurfs", "UP" was my favorite, but... hey! Avatar DID NOT win!  /o/ \o/ \o\ *does the happy dance*

The ones that support Avatar  say that it has a message of love, conservation and conscience but still the critic and the message is empty. They didn't handle it the way they should. The hurt locker won movies OVER Avatar. On the other hand, in the categories Avatar won, it had no real competition, they were well deserved. So I believe that this year's Oscars were fair and, as Mo'Nique said in her speach, they were about performance and not about politics. Movies like "Precious" and "The Hurt Locker" were really recognized in festivals around the world and the Accademy is now at least pretending to care about content.

One thing I noticed about the Oscars in general is that every year they have a kind of "theme" that chooses the winners. 2002 was race (Denzel Washington and Halle Berry won) 2009 was homossexuality (Milk). I thought, for a moment that this year would be like 2002 (Hollywood and it's creativity crisis...) but no! The minority contemplated this time was: women! Well... Kathryn Bigelow was the first woman to win the Best Director prize, a day before the 8th of March. Tsc... Tsc... Hollywood has no creativity at all.

I have a theory about the way they choose the best actor/actress winners. I haven't watched any of the movies nominated in these categories this year, so I have no idea of who really had the best performance, but I do believe, and I say that because I have watched some ceremonies - that the academy doesn't know how to choose the winner among the five nominees. They choose the one that have alredy being nominated at least twice but never won, the other ones, if it is the first nomination should be happy by being nominated and wait some more years. Still, I have heard that Jeff Bridges really desearved it.

This doesn't happened in the best actress category, it was Sandra Bullock's first nomination and she won because, maybe, and I'm saying this because I haven't watched all movies, she was the best between Carey Mulligan and Gabourey Sidibe, I don't know. But I confess that I really hoped that Gabourey Sidibe won, to show that you don't need to be white and skinny to be on the top, but, that's too much to expect from Hollywood.  Meryl and Helen are better actresses? Of course yes, but both of them have won the Oscars more than once and hell! Meryl have been nominated 16 times!


Well, the Oscars were ok and fair, in my POV but the ceremony itself was extremely boring! I was excited about it because I loved last year's ceremony with Hugh Jackman hosting, the opening number was really funny and I loved "The musical is back". I couldn't stop laughing. And I had just watched a film with Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin (It's complicated - Awesome! The movie deserves a post) but they were really just calling people to the stage, nothing more. The jokes were awfully unfunny! The only thing that was almost funny was the "Paranormal Activity" joke, just because this was the worse movie I watched in 2009. 
 

Ups

* UP! My favorite movie of 2009, very well deserved Best Animated and Best OST prize. (And I'm a huge Hanz Zimmer (Sherlock Holmes) fan!!!
* They didn't have Original Song performance this year, instead the performance was for the best OST and I liked it. =)
* Listening to Morgan Freeman's voice explaining how sound editing works. And the thing was interesting, most people don't know why such category exists. 
* Christoph Waltz REALLY desearved the statue. I didn't like Inglorious Basterds that much (I'm not a Tarantino fan) but he was impecable there. 





Downs


* What the hell were Bella and Jacob Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner doing there? Especially presenting a tribute to Thrillers and Horror movies? What was Twilight doing in this Thriller/Horror tribute? Hell!

* Alec and Steve. I expected more.

The Wolfman

In a time where so called "werewolves" can't stay a single minute with their shirts on, a werewolf movie where the monster in question stays all the time dressed like a victorian gentleman is more than welcome.

The Wolfman is a remake (it seems that hollywood can't create anything, anymore) from the homonym film shot in 1941. The begining of the movie totally reminded me of Bram Stoker's Dracula, and for a moment I thought that it would copy or something like that but I was surprised that both movies had only that aura of fear in common. It isn't really scary (at least not for me) but you can feel the aura of fear by the heavy mist and the lack of color.

Story is simple, no big deal. Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro) is an actor and he's in London, he receives a letter from his sister in law asking him to go back home and help to find his missing brother. So, he goes back to his old home in Wales, meets his father (Anthony Hopkins) and finds out that he's late and his brother was alredy found dead. He decides to stay and find out what happened to his brother. The plot gets a little bit more interesting when it starts to reveal the curse in the Talbot family. Simple story, but entertaining film. 

What I really liked was the werewolf. Different of what we've seing lately. The last werewolf I saw in a film was in Harry Potter and the Prisioner of Azkaban (I won't talk about those New Moon shirtless furry pups) and don't get me wrong, PoA is my very favorite HP movie but the werewolf itself  was quite disappointing. This werewolf is fascinating, walks like a man, runs like a wolf, it doesn't have that elongated snout and it stays dressed all the time! (How odd for a modern werewolf uhn? It will be revolutionary when we have a non sparkling vampire movie) Wolfman fits perfectly in this case, when you look at it you can tell that it's a man, well, when it's not running and striking, of course, but it's a man lupine features. Brilliant make-up and CG work. 

Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkings were superb, seing the two together was really nice. Hugo Weaving, always in a supporting role but always making a magnificent job. Emily Blunt, on the other hand, was just an ornament. (She was much better in Jane Austen Book Club)

The low point is that the movie intends to frighten but it doesn't really do that (like I said above, at least no me, but I heard that some people were shitting on their pants) Instead, the scenes are really brutal, gore. Heads being riped off, brains and guts all around. The changing is quite violent too. 

The movie isn't "WOW what a movie" but it's entertaining and the good part is that the werewolf isn't crazy about ripping off his clothers and showing off his washboard belly. ;)

Top favorite male voices

They could read me anything, the phone book, the bible or even Twilight. I wouldn't mind to keep hearing their voices for hours and hours and hours. They could sing anything, I wouldn't mind to listen. Here's my favorite male voices.

6. Matthew Barlow
He probably has one of the most powerful voices in heavy metal and it makes me shiver. It's amazing. The best Iced Earth vocalist ever!!
Listen: Iced Earth - A Question of Heaven

5. Gabriel Macht
I wouldn't mind keep looking at him and not only listening to him. I first saw him in the awful romantic comedy "Because I said so", where he plays a very charming musician and while I was watching I could only think "What is this voice?" Deep and hoarse, very very sexy.
Watch: The Spirit

4. Morgan Freeman 
I don't know, I just love his voice. It's kind and warm and really nice when saying "Shoot that motherfucker" in Wanted.
Watch: The Bucket List

3.  Gary Oldman
He doesn't have a deep voice, in some interviews it can be almost high pitched (not in an annoying way) but I love what he does to his voice, he can change it in different levels and he's a wonderful singer. He can speak in a way that can really touch us, like in the last scene of The Dark Knight.
Watch: Dead Fish - because he sings on this one, and it's hilarious.

2. Nick Cave
When Nick Cave sings "Happy Birthday to you" he can make it sound like the funeral march.Period.
Listen: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Far from me 

1. Johnny Cash
His songs are great and he could make covers better than the original versions. His voice is captivating and can make you want to stand up and dance or lay down and cry. He deserves the first place.
Watch: Johnny Cash on the Muppets Show - Ghostriders in the Sky

Pocatar

Disney's James Cameron's  

Pocahontas Avatar

In 1607 2164, John Smith Jake Sully arrives in the lush new world of North America Pandora. The settlers are mining for gold unobitanium under supervision of Gorvernor Ratcliffe Colonel Miles Quaritch. John Smith Jake Sully begins exploring the new territory and encounters Pocahontas Neytiri. Intially she is distrustful of him, but a message of Godmother Willow from the Tree of Souls helps her overcome her trepidation. The two begin spending time together, Pocahontas Neytiri helps John Jake understand that all life is valuable, and how all nature is a conected circle of life. Furthermore she teaches him to hunt, grow crops tame dragons and of her culture. We find that her father is Chief Powhatan Eytucan and that she is set to be married to Kocoum Tsu'Tey a great warrior but a serious man whom Pocahontas Neytiri does not desire. Over time John Jake and Pocahontas Neytiri find they have a love for each other. Back at the settlement, the men that believe the natives are savages plan to attack the natives for their gold unobitanium. Kocoum Tsu'Tey tries to kill John Jake out of jealousy but he is later killed by the settlers. As the settlers prepare to attack John Jake is blamed by the Indians N'avi and is sentenced to death. Just before they kill him the settlers arrive. Chief Powhatan Eytucan is nearly killed and John Jake sustains injuries from Gorvernor Ratcliffe Colonel Quaritch, who is then brought to justice shot with narrows. Pocahontas Neytiri risks her life to save John Jake. John Jake and Pocahontas Neytiri finally have each other and the two cultures resolve their differences.

Disclaimer: This text isn't mine. I just copied it here because the image wasn't good enough to be read in the blog. You can see the original here.

The best animated films of the 2000's

I'm still on the list mood. I wasn't capable to put the animation movies along with the other ones because some animated movies are REALLY better than those movies I listed on the last post. So I have chosen 10 animation movies and I'm sorry to tell that I haven't watched The Princess and the Frog yet, and according to my brother, if I had, it would be on this list.

10. Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of The Were-Rabbit (2005)
It's a kick in the ass of those who say that british humor isn't funny. I love Gromit, he doesn't speak but he's very very expressive.

9. The Emperor's New Groove (2000)

 I remember I couldn't stop laughing at the theatre.

8. Beowulf (2007)
1st. I might be wrong and I don't mind but performance-capture ends up being animation to me. So in here they took the greatest epic-poem in the medieval literature and made an fantastic movie. Epic! Special comments to the cast here, great job.

7. Lilo & Stitch (2002)

Hawaii, Elvis, strange scientific experiences and aliens. Sounds odd? It is but it worths every minute.

6. Brother Bear (2003)

It isn't hard for me to leave a movie theatre crying but my boyfriend was holding his tears too. Great road-movie. Great soundtrack by Phill Collins. (Disney is always impecable in this aspect). Great plot.

5. Kung Fu Panda (2008)

Aww... Come on! Jack Black is priceless here!!! The Panda looks just like him!

4. Finding Nemo (2003)

If there were roads on the sea I would call this a road-movie. LOL Anyway it's about a journey and it's just amazing. I think I liked this movie that much because I felt just like Nemo back then.

3. Spirited Away (2002)

This is just beautiful. It's Hayao Miyazaki's masterpiece.

2. Up (2009)

But it's a TALKING DOG!!! Nothing more to say.

1. Wall-e (2008)

Well... I'm in love with PIXAR since I first watched Toy Story, about 10 years ago. There isn't a single PIXAR movie that I don't like but this... this is just their masterpiece. How? Just tell me how could a little robot like that be so expressive? How can a film with whole 15 minutes of almost absolute silence keep lots of kids - and adults - quiet? I have no idea, I just know that this movie is just amazing.

Nana's fave movies of the decade

First of all, I want to make clear that I am no movie critic, I'm no expert, I'm just a cinema lover. This is MY 10 favorite movies from 1999 to 2009. Writing this list wasn't easy, I would say that it was almost painful because of the feeling of "not being fair". I hope you'll enjoy.

10. The Departed (2006)

Director: Martin Scorcese 

Funny, brutal, tense and surprising. This one goes to the my fave mob movies shelf. 

9. The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King (2003)

Director: Peter Jackson

This movie is just AWESOME! I still can remember the feeling while watching it in the cinema 6 years ago. It's my fave from the ring trilogy. 

8. Irréversible (2002)

Director: Gaspar Noé

One of my best friends is a huge Monica Bellucci fan and also crazy about this movie, so he talked me into watching it. It's shocking, disgusting and brutal. But it gets more brutal as you see how much you are used to brutality and violence. Then you get to the conclusion: "Le temps détruit tout". 

7. The Dark Knight (2008)

Director: Chris Nolan

I'll kick your ass if you say that this movie is in this list because of Gary Oldman. (Of course I wanted to leave the theatre when I thought that Gordon was dead. Just kidding) This movie is intense and dark. All cast was impecable, and the movie is just great, so it deserves a spot on this list. 

6. Gladiator (2000)

Director:Ridley Scott

As a historian I shouldn't like this movie that much, except for the great battle scene in the begining. But the plot is so envolving, the photography and the costumes are so beautiful and the soundtrack is absolutely Hanz Zimmer's master piece (I love all his soundtracks) that I couldn't left this film behind. 

5. There will be blood (2007) 

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson 

The story of a true born "self made man". Daniel Day-Lewis acting and the "almost exorcism" scene made the movie for me.

4. Into the Wild (2007)

Director: Sean Penn 

As far as I'm concearned, every 21 year old young person that is feeling lost somehow wants to do something like what "Alexander Supertramp"did. This road-movie tells Christopher McCandless's trip to find himself and this is THE best road movie I have EVER watched. Breathtaking. And I didn't talk about Eddie Vedder's work in the soundtrack here, which is brilliant.

3. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) 

Director: David Fincher 

Never before did I see a whole movie theatre standing up to applaud a movie, yes a movie. This story is beyond words but if I had to choose one to describe, it would be curious. 

2. Once (2006) 

Director: John Carney

This movie proves that you can make a great movie with little money. This is about two people that meet each other through music and then find themselves. When it comes to the "unfufilled love" I believe that it's even better than "Lost in Translation". All songs were written and recorded by the lead actors Márketa Irglova and Glen Hansard. Amazing. 

1. American Beauty (1999)
Director: Sam Mendes
The Burnham's are a perfect family. They have a job, a house, a teenage daughter and... nothing happens. They reached the "American Dream" but they feel empty and unhappy. One day Lester decides to change, and this will lead to his death. (I'm not spoiling it, if you haven't watched it, I'm not telling you the end) This movie was one of the most surprising  movies that I have ever watched and it's a true slap on America's face. 


Now... the 5 WORST movies of the decade! 

5. Scary/Superhero/Epic/ Disaster Movie (They have been annoying us for the whole decade)

Any of these series should be burned and wiped out of earth. 

4. I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007)

It was THE worst romantic comedy I have ever watched. It has no plot, I mean, the things just go happening and happening. It's not funny and Michelle Pfeiffer is a pain in the ass here.


3. The Unborn (2009)
Gary Oldman should forgive me but even he could save this movie. It's so boring that couldn't even make me laugh.

2. Little One (2006)
I simply hate those american comedies. They are awful, but this one is something... worse. CRAP!

1. Twilight (2008)
Vampires that sparkle and make noises like Tinker Bell? Should I say anything else?

Birthday Wishlist

Well my birthday is on it's way and I'm letting myself dream about gifts a little bit by making a wishlist. (Who knows unh?) 

These are just some things I would really, REALLY love to get for my birthday. LOL

Let me dream because at least it is for free. haha.

Here we go...

Some Gary goodies. Two movies that I love and that I don't own yet. (A shame for a fan ! At least I aredy have 8 of his movies in original Dvds. I would have 9 if someone hadn't stolen my Immortal Beloved DVD)

The Professional - Director's Cut and The Fifith Element - 2 CD edition

This one I've been wanting since last year when I saw it on the book shop, I swear that I staied staring at it for half an hour than I had to go back home. I want it because I have never read them in the originals and because this edition is SO beautiful!

Jane Austen Deluxe by Penguin Books

These I've been wanting like forever but they didn't exist! Let me explain. Since the 1st Harry Potter DVD was released I said: "I'm going to wait untill the last movie so I'll buy all of them at once". I've changed my mind because Warner is going to release the "Definitive Edition" of Harry Potter movies. They are really complete with 4 DVDs each movie. Of course I won't be able to afford all of them at once so, it's better to buy them separated. For now only the 'The Sorcere's Stone' and 'The Chamber of Secrets' were released in this version.

Harry Potter and the Sorcere's Stone - Definitive Edition

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Definitive Edition

Well... that's it. As you can see... not much. At all.

LOL

p.s. This post is dedicated to my boyfriend who didn't know what to give me as a birthday gift. 

p.s.2 I MUST win in the lottery. LMAO