Band of Joy

After a total lack of subject I come back with something at least a bit interesting to share. Robert Plant's newest album. Everyone that knows me knows that Led Zeppelin is my favorite band and one of the major reasons is this man's voice. And I must say, it is like fine wine, it gets better with age. 

The album is very good for listening anytime, and it's excelent travelling music. It follows the path of the country-blues and the roots of American music. Of course (thanks God, maybe) his voice does not have all that power of Zep's good ol' days, and perhaps that's why he re-learned to sing.  No more screaming , groaning and high notes, he still have the sex appeal but he, now sing with such an elegance among accoustic guitars, mandolins, banjos, pedal steel guitars and accordions. The duets with the singer Patty Griffin are also something that deserves attention in this album, they are beautiful. 

The first track Angel Dance invites you to dance, House of Cards is a bit obscure, Central Two O Nine, the only song written by Plant, has some of those arabic references so common to some of Zeppelin songs in it's backing vocals.

Silver Rider is probably the most melancholic track of the album (no wonder why it's my favorite) and it's also the longer. He sings for six whole minutes and I could stay listening it endlessly. You can't buy my love is a funny ballad, with lots of drums and percurssion and before you notice you're alredy dancing at the sound of it. Falling in Love Again is one of those ballads from the 50's, made for dancing cheek to cheek. 

The Only Sound that Matters is the countryest of the songs, and it's beautiful. Monkey is probably the only track I would skip while listening to the album, some of the critics liked it but I found it a bit annoying at some tomes. Get along home Cindy is one of those songs that sound like Zep's songs in it's last days but you can't remember the name of any of them to compare. LOL

Harms Swifted Away has some of that country beat. Satan your kingdome must come down is a classic song from America's folk music and it was performed beautifully by Plant. Even This Shall Pass Away is a poem by Theodore Tilton and it has a bit of Zep's psycoldelia. The drums are really marked here and it has a lot of distortion. 

Band of Joy was the name of Plant's blues & Soul band back in the 60's, before Led Zeppelin in which John Bohan also played. Plant ressurected the band in this album and tour and it doesn't disappoint at all. Now, that you've done a great job, dear Robert, could you please, go on tour with Jimmy Page and the Zep again?

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?

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.

The Family Jewels - Marina and The Diamonds

I'm really pissed off that I lost my post but I'll start again...

I've been wanting to write about her for a while. She was my (not really mine, a friend "introduced" her to me) great musical find of 2009. Her debut album, "The Family Jewels" was just released and I'm reviewing it now.

Marina Diamondis is Welsh singer and songwriter with Greek ancestry, her cogname comes not only from her last name, which means diamonds in Greek, but it also is a cute nickname to her fans. Owner of a deep voice, she's capable to change from deep notes to the higher ones within seconds. Her lyrics, wrote by herself, what is rare in pop world nowadays, are pretty much about her own experiences and her own toughts. The reason I liked her so much: her voice is almost is hypnotic (it changes so much during the songs, I love that) and her lyrics seem to be talking to me (Yes, identification is a primary criteria for me to like something) but, they are not empty and they have a tone of critic to some standarts.

The album starts with "Are You Satisfied",which is basically her introducing herself, with funny synthesizer the lyrics are about stardom and ambition. "Shampain" has an eletronic beat and is dancing. "I'm not a Robot" is sutil, meaningful and sensitive, maybe the highest point of the album. Is about frailty, and most of all accepting your own frailty. The video is really something, totally David Bowie in the Ziggy age. With "Girls" the album starts to sound more pop, but the lyrics aren't that pop, one funny line is about chick lit writers. "Mowgli's Road" is totally senseless and I love it! It has something of Kate Bush and the video is completely bizarre. "Obsessions" is my top favorite. I've been listening it almost everyday since I heard it for the first time. It's piano is sublime and her voice is amazing. "Hollywood" was the first single, it's probably the "most pop" song of the album. It's chorus get stucked inside your head but it's not all that bad. The album does not end gloriously but these tunes I talked about and some others from her EPs (like "Simplify") are amazing. Her voice is unique, I love the way she plays with it and all the weirdness all around.

But Marina has a serious problem: she is (using her own words) too indie for pop and too pop for indie. She sounds pop but her lyrics are "indie". Soon enough believe she'll have to choose her path in her career and I really hope she doesn't go to the pop side of the force. Untill there, she's a nice voice to hear.

More of Marina you can find on her official website. I like reading her blog, it's really personal, without being cheesy. Strong opinions, dilemas, news and photography, always a good reading. (For celebrities personal blogs, I mean)


Enjoy Marina's "Ziggy Video" I'm not a Robot, but please, listen to my fave song, Obsessions.





Update on me:
It took me ages to write something. This post was actually ready but I lost it while I was trying to publish it. I've been working a lot and studyin like crazy. But I alredy signed my diploma mirror and that means that the end is near... FINALLY!

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.

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. ;)

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.

Tropic Thunder

The first time I started watching this movie I fell asleep. It was so boring and non sense. Jack Black was exaggerating on his faces and Ben Stiller was pretty dull. Robert Downey Jr. was interesting, but I was so sleepy that even he could make watch the whole movie.

Yesterday my boyfriend made me watch it (He was getting his revenge because I made him watch Mamma Mia!)  and yesterday I wasn't sleepy so I really had to watch it all. First, it was funny to see my boyfriend complaining about the parody of Platoon. The first conclusions about it were the same of the ones I had in the first time I "watched" it: There is a lot of money in the movie, the special effects are really good but it's really boring. As I watched the whole movie this time I could notice some other things.

The critics about Hollywood actors behavior were great! Stiller - as director, writer and producer - spreads his poison all around. The main characters are so alike some real life actors. Tugg Speedman (Stiller) is an action movies star that wants to become a serious actor. (Stallone??) Kirk Lazarus (Doney Jr.) is a prize winner actor, that act like a schizophrenic by really getting "in" the character and wants to adventure in big blockbusters. (De Niro???) Jeff Portnoy wants to get rid of bad comedies about fat people that fart a lot (Murphy?????) and wants to get over drug addiction (Downey Jr.???? Owen Wilson????)

The best thing about this film is Downey Jr's acting, it was really, really great- as good as Heath's in The Dark Knight, this confirm my suspects that he got the Oscar just because he died. Another funny thing was that I took some time to recognize Tom Cruise, I looked at him and thought: I know that guy, almost an hour later they closed in his face and I had the insight: Damn! It's Tom Cruise fat and bald! But besides the nice critics, the good special effects and Doney Jr.'s the movie is just a piece of shit.

If you want to watch Jack Black getting and gun out of his underwear and Ben Stiller killing a panda, go ahead and watch it. You may laught a lot but the movie still dull. Robert Downey Jr is a good reason for watching it.

Tropic Tunder's highs and lows


+ Robert Downey Jr.
+ Satan's Alley, Scorcher and The Fatties traillers.

- Ben Stiller
- Jack Black

Brilliant Quotes by Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) 

Check it out. Dustin Hoffman, 'Rain Man,' look retarded, act retarded, not retarded. Counted toothpicks, cheated cards. Autistic, sho'. Not retarded. You know Tom Hanks, 'Forrest Gump.' Slow, yes. Retarded, maybe. Braces on his legs. But he charmed the pants off Nixon and won a ping-pong competition. That ain't retarded. Peter Sellers, "Being There." Infantile, yes. Retarded, no. You went full retard, man. Never go full retard. You don't buy that? Ask Sean Penn, 2001, "I Am Sam." Remember? Went full retard, went home empty handed...

About Tugg Speedman's best movie, which he plays a "full retarded" farmer. 

I don't read the script. The script reads me. 

Kirk playing Chuck Norris?

Everyone goes gay once in a while. This is Hollywood!

Kirk about Alpa Chino's homossexuality and the fact that he really got "in" the character when played a gay priest.

No line on the horizon

When I was 13 I needed a song that talked about war for my dance classes at school, a called my father an he told me "Take a golden covered CD on the shelf called U2-The best of 1980-1990, listen to 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' and 'Where The Streets have no name'". I did as he told me to and it was love at first sight (or hearing). I became obssessed about the band, really obssessed, I had posters, I knew (and still know) the lyrics by heart, I knew everything about their life and so on... I grew older and of course I started listening to other things but U2 always gave me that feeling of wanting to run or to go on a trip.

No line on the horizon is the 12th U2 album. It was released in the last January and I haven't heard it until today. I don't really know why, maybe it was my father putting agains one of my fave bands ever saying that's absurd Bono asking every nation money for charity and his cds being the most expensive ones. Maybe it was my brother saying that The Edge is the worst guitar player ever but I have never really listened to him (my brother). Well, the album is better than I was expecting but it isn't that good, there isn't anything different, a blowing mind song. It was well produced, it has U2 trademarks but nothing else.

The opening track that gives the album's name "No line on the horizon" is good but it's too slow for being the first track. "Magnificent", "Unknown Caller" and "I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight" are my favorite tracks, they are melodic and follow the same line of the last two albuns "All that you can't leave behind" and "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb", "Moment of Surrender" is the most 'peaceful' one, but I didn't like it that much.

"Get on your boots" was the first single released and it's really good and "Stand Up Comedy" is really exciting, these songs remind me of "Achtung Baby" whitch is the best U2 album ever.

In "Fez – Being Born" you can hear some Oriental influences, "White as Snow" have a Western thing and it's very beautiful. "Cedars Of Lebanon" is the political song of the album.

In short the album is good but it isn't surprising, all the songs remids of something they have alredy done in the past but in the past they did it better. I can't say I didn't liked the album at all, U2 still U2 for me and there's no way I cannot like it, uless they make another POP. LOL

Rosemary's Baby

Last night I finally watched this movie in a “Cult” session on TV. One word can me used to describe my feeling about this movie: deception.

Mark well my words here: The movie ISN’T actually bad (I don’t want movie maniacs trying to kill me here… LOL) The movie IS really good, but many people have talked about it with me in a way that I thought that I wouldn’t be capable to sleep after watching it. Someone even said to me that the baby was the ugliest thing in the world, I was tense in the scene which Rosemary approaches the cradle and then: the baby isn’t shown. How could someone say that to me?

Well what can I say about the movie itself? It’s a classic of psychological thriller. Polanski is a master, I can’t deny that. You can really see that he hadn’t much money to put in the film but he made a wonderful job with the scrip, the plot is interesting and makes you tense. And there isn’t a single computer made effect (of course, it’s a 1968 movie!) it’s all about shadows, lights, smoke, little tricks… That shows exactly how tallented the director is.

Latest films I watched:

I Robot

Into the Wild

Wood & Stock: Sexo, Orégano e Rock'n'Roll

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

SPOILER ALLERT! If you don't like spoilers don't read it!

Well... what can I say. I was always disappointed when I watched the other Harry Potter movies. The two first tryed to stick to the book so hard that became boring. The third was the best IMO. The fourth was the worst IMO. The fifth was "swallowable". The sixth was THE BEST HARRY POTTER MOVIE EVER DONE!
Of course it wasn't perfect like the book, some things weren't explained well and for a person that doesn't read the book it can become quite confusing. (All the way home I was explaining things about the book to my bf), these parts where Dumbledore is training Harry about the Horcuruxes were too fast; but no one can deny that the movie was quite good. It was the best adaptation from book to big screen. I laughed a lot, I was tense and I cried. The timing was really good.

Some people have been saying that the movie sticks too much to the teenager questions and dating and kissing. Guess what? They ARE teenagers and that on the book all the time. I don't think that they have exagerated on this. The relationships between Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hemione are really important and they must be explored on screen.

The bridge scene had all that controversy but I think it was nice. It was important to show how things have changed since the dark lord return and it's much better than two ministers talking. Come on! This is Hollywood and book and movies have different timings and dynamics.

I really liked they showing what was going on inside the room of requirement with Draco, I think it shows very well the conflict inside the boy. He didn't really want to do that but he needed. And Snape ah! Snape. I was afraid that he would be left aside but his value in the story was well shown. Congrats to Alan Rickman for his work, we could really see that Snape didn't want to do what he had to.
To choose the lower point of the movie it was the attack to the burrow. For me it made no sense having that on the movie. This time could have been used to wand fights when the Death Eaters arrived in Hogwarts. I mean, it was only Bellatrix running through the tables and destroing the china? Then the fire on Hagrid's house. No fight, no Dumbledore's Army, no Bill and so on...

The choose the higher point of the movie it was the cave scene. Watching it was like really entering the book, it was perfect. Those cristals in the set, everything there was perfect. Congratulations to Daniel and Michael in this scene, it was really hard and tense.

In the cast the lower point was Jim Broadbent, not his acting but his Slughorn. I think that just wasn't ok. The higher points were definately Rupert Grint, believe me, from the trio he's the best one. I couldn't stop laughing in the scene he was "poisoned" by the love potion. His facial expression is unbelievable. I can't wait to see his new movie "Cherry Bomb". And Tom Felton, he was really good indeed, by the same reasons I said before: we could see the conflict within him.

Well... the movie is really, really good. The screenplay was good, the cast was great, it's nice to see how the actors are growing up with the characters. The effects was very good. Well... I give it 4 stars. LOL

It's not another post about Gary Oldman

It's really about Bram Stoker's Dracula. I think this movie is made of lots of tiny little detais and though I think Gary is the greatest of all it's not another post about him. But as my boyfriend like to say he ignores my opinions about Gary Oldman, he says I'm too suspect to talk about him. Well... Let's start from the begining.

On Brazilian Valentine's Day (June 12th) I won a deluxe edition of Bram Stoker's Dracula with 2 DVD from my bf, as I told on my old blog. And yesterday we finally found time watch together. (what didn't really happened because he slept, due to the medicine he toke, LOL) In the moments he was awake he said: The special effects of this time were really poor. And I told him that they weren't and that Coppola wanted that movie that way and that for me it showed all director's tallent.

But, when I was watching the extras DVD I got surprised when Coppola said that there are NO special effects in the movie. That everything was just visual tricks. Coppola said that as the book was written in the early 1900, by the time the cinema was invented he wanted to make the movie looks like the first movies ever made. And no one can deny Dracula is a master piece, it's genious work.

Watching the extras I was thinking about how much cinema lost it's magic. My thought must have something to do with my nostalgic personality that thinks that everything that's good doesn't exist anymore, I'm an old school person, but I can't deny cinema lost it's magic and glamour.

I'm not a technology hater of any kind (I just don't like robots and AI lol) but the special effects are being too much used in the movies nowadays. You see, movies like Dracula with low-tech tricks show all director's tallent and criativity. It's all light, shadows, ropes, smoke, mirrors, turning the camera upside down, moving backwards, it's like magic. Doing the best with what's possible, with what's avaiable. Take a look at movies like Citizen Kane, Singing in the rain (did you knew that the rain was with white ink just to be better seen?) and even the first Star Wars that was in the begining of computer effects had the shadow and light magic that only the director poiny of view can have.

You see the other directors from Coppola's generation like Spielberg and Lucas are so fixed into action movies full of computer effects that sometimes forget the main thing in a movie: the story! Sometimes their movies are just meanless. I can't give less value than these directors have, I couldn't but they are also responsable for movie's loss of magic.

I hope the cinema can get it's glamour back again and that movies can have better stories and mix the old and the new things. Nothing can be wasted in the name of the good entertainment.