Quantum of Solace

I saw this movie couple of weeks ago when it was released. Although many of the reviews were not as good as Casino Royale, I still liked this movie. It picks up where the last movie left off when James Bond (Daniel Craig) investigates the organization that blackmailed the woman, Vesper, who James Bond loved and almost quit his job for in Casino Royale. This movie was not as great as the first one. But it is also one of the best in the James Bond franchise. It had an interesting story but jumped around too much that it left me a little confused and incomplete. Also, this movie portray James Bond during his darker times so it was more violent than many of the Bond movies I've seen before. Even though it's not like Casino Royale, it's still a film that you should see in the theaters. And with some improvements, hopefully the next installment would be as great as the first.

The Reader

Release Date: December 10, 2008.

Starring: Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes

Directed by: Stephen Daldry

Michael Berg and Hanna(Kate Winslet) fall in love after she rescues him. There's only one catch. She is twice his age! After being involved for sometime, Hanna mysteriously dissapears. Years later, when Michael is a young law student, he meets with Hanna again while he is watching Nazi war trials. Hanna is on trial for a crime she committed and does not want to be rescue because she thinks that what she did is worse than killing someone. As her past is revealed, he finds a deep secret that will affect both of their lives.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Release date: 12/25/08
Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, and Tilda Swinton
Directed by: David Fincher
Written by: Eric Roth

This movie is a story told by F. Fitzgerald in the 1920's about a man born in his eighties and mysteriously ages backwards. The story is set in New Orleans around 1918, at the end of World War I. Throughout his life, Benjamin experiences love, happiness, and death as he starts to lose his memory.

Toy Story 3

I know it's not coming soon but I just found out that there will be a Toy Story 3 movie coming out on 2010!!! It's going to be about Andy finally heading to college and he ends up dumping his toys in a day care center.
My two cents: It should fun and interesting seing this movie again on the big screen. After all, this is THE movie that gave birth to all the Pixar movies we have now.

Fun Trivia: For those of you that don't know who provides Woody's voice, then you should know that it's none other than Tom Hanks!

June 18, 2010!!

Four Christmases

Starring Reese Witherspoon, Vince Vaughn, Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek
Directed by Seth Gordon

It's that time of the year again, more holiday romantic comedies. This movie happens to star two big name stars (Witherspoon and Vaughn). It's about a young couple, each with divorced parents, are forced to celebrate one Christmas with all four of their screwed-up families.

Fun Trivia: Both Witherspoon and Vaughn are producers on this movie.

November Biggies

1. Milk(see below for full description)

2. Bolt
voiced by John Travolta, Miley Cyrus, Susie Eastman, Malcolm McDowell, James Lipton
Written by: Dan Fogelman, Chris Williams
Directed by: Byron Howard, Chris Williams

A canine(Travolta) discovers that he's just a TV star, not an actual daredevil superpooch.
The trailer looks hilarious, check it out!!!




3. Role Models

Starring: Paul Rudd, Seann William Scott, Elizabeth Banks, Jane Lynch
Written By: Ken Marino, David Wain, Paul Rudd
Directed By: David Wain

Scott and Rudd paly salesmen for Minotaur Energy Drink who have never quite grown up. After trashing their sales truck, they get arrested and avoid jail by accepting community service---mentoring troubled kids.

Scary Movies

This past Friday was Halloween and I thought I'll share with you my top 5 scary movies I've seen. These aren't ranked in any special order. They are just 5 of my favorite horror movies of all time.


Halloween (1978)
This is a classic scary movie. Directed by John Carpenter, it became one of the highest grossing independent film. It was also the movie that made Jamie Lee Curtis famous. The story centers around a man who escapes a psychiatric hospital and stalks and kills Jamie Lee Curtis and her friends. It's a classic slasher film where the killer is known to wear a white mask. This movie has little graphic violence but nonetheless very scary. The theme song especially defines the scary moments in this film.



The Shining (1980)
Another well known classic scary movie is The Shining. Jack Nicholson plays a writer who is seeking a quiet place to write his novel. He accepts a job as a caretaker of a hotel closed during winter season. The manager warns him that the formal caretaker got cabin fever and killed his family and then himself. Despite this, he takes the job and eventually turns psychotic and tries to kill his family. What makes this movie so scary is Jack Nicholson. He does a tremendous job in playing someone who becomes psychotic slowly.



Seven (1995)
This movie is also one of my favorite movies of all time. It stars Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin Spacey. Pitt and Freeman play two detectives who are investigating murders that Kevin Spacey committed based on the Seven Deadly Sins. The horror in this movie comes from the gruesomeness of the crime scenes and what was done to kill the victims. There was also a twist at the end of the movie.



Dawn of the Dead (1978)
This movie was the goriest movie I have ever seen in my life so far. It is even worse than any of the Saw series of film. Directed by George A. Romero, this movie received an equivalent of NC-17 rating of today's standard because of the graphic scenes. It was released with an unrated rating to make it more of a commercial viable film. This is a sequel to "Night of the Living Dead". It tells the story of a group of people who managed to trap themselves in a mall to survive from the zombies that has taken over the town. The graphic scenes are what made this movie so horrifying because it looked so real.



Saw (2004)
And last but not least Saw. Although it span four other versions, I've only seen the first two. The original remained the scariest. The movie is about "Jigsaw" who kidnaps people and put them in life threatening traps in which to teach them lesson to repent from their previous wrongdoing. Each person trapped must make a sacrifice whether it's cutting your arm or leg off, or killing another person trapped in the room with you in order to save your family. Detectives frantically search for the killer as the kidnap victims lives remain on peril. This movie was rate NC-17 for gore but under editing drop down to a R rating (unlike the previous movie mentioned). This movie is one of the scariest in recent times.

Milk

Starring Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, James franco





Written By: Dustin Lance Black





Directed by: Gus Van SantT

Milk? What does that mean? If you want to get a feeling of what this movie is about, just think of 2005's Brokeback Mountain and you'll at least know the subject anyway. This movie follows out-and-proud activist Harvey Milk(Penn), the first openly gay man elected to a major political office .

Who is Penn's lover you may be asking? Well it's none other than James Franco! According to Franco, there was only suppose to be one love scene but the movie ended with four. This is going to be an interesting movie to see since there's talk that it may be as good as Brokeback Mountain and it could even be an Oscar contender for Penn.

Changeling

Drama

Directed by: Clint Eastwood

Rated R

140 mins

Changeling is one movie I have heard all critics rave about. The movie is based on true events that took place in Los Angeles, California in 1920. A mother is distraught when her son is kidnapped and prays for his safe return. She receives news they have found him but she suspects it is not truely her son. Starring in the film is Angelina Jolie, who critics say had an outstanding performance. Directing the film is Clint Eastwood. All reviews claim this is one of his best films.

Pirates of the Caribbean 4

So I've heard rumors for the past few weeks about Gore Verbinski directing another Pirates of the Caribbean movie. All the media have been researching it and not only have they concluded that Pirates of the Caribbean is a possibility, it is now a certainty. Returning cast members include Orlando Bloom, Kiera Knightly, Geoffrey Rush, and Johnny Depp (of course). I have also heard rumors that they are currently filming right now and the film is supposed to be released in 2011. If you remember the ending of the latest Pirate's movie, it ended with the fountain of youth concept. I suspect all will be on the hunt for it in the next film.

Top Movies Out in November

These are some of the most anticipated movies out soon.

1. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
   
   

2. Role Models
   
   

3. Quantum of Solace
   
   

4. Twilight
   
   

5. Soloist
   

6. Zack and Miri Make a Porno
   
   

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is a sequel to the first Madagascar animated film in 2005 and comes out November 7th. It will again feature Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, and Jada Pinkett Smith. Role Models also releases in November 7th and stars Paul Rudd and Sean William Scott sign up to be Big Brothers after a court mandated them to do volunteer work. One of the most anticipated one on the list is probably Quantum of Solace. This is the second James Bond movie that stars Daniel Craig. Twilight comes out Nov. 21 and is a vampire movie starring many new and upcoming young Hollywood stars. The Soloist stars Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx about Jamie Foxx who is a homeless man but has an extradinary musical talent in which Robert Downey Jr. discovers and befriends him. This also comes out Nov. 21. Although the last movie on the list technically comes out in October, I put it on the list because of the recent success that Seth Rogen has had with Knocked Up and Pineapple Express. He returns with another comedy, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, starring Elizabeth Bank about two friends making a porn film out of desperation to make money.

I, Robot

Starring: Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan, Alan Tudyk, James Cromwell
Director: Alex Proyas
Writers: Jeff Vintar, Akiva Goldsman


Although this movie came out almost 4 years ago, I watched it for the first time recently. It is a story set in the future year 2035 where robots are designed to help humans with whatever they desire them to do. All robots are preprogramed with 3 laws: (1) a robot cannot harm a human, (2) a robot must follow all human orders except if it comes in conflict with the first law, and (3) a robot must protect its existence as long as it does not break the first two laws. Del Spooner (Will Smith) is a detective who is sent out to investigate the death of his friend and inventor of the 3 laws of robots, Dr. Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell). Spooner has a distrust for robots because of a previous incident. As he investigated, Spooner becomes well aware that a robot was involved in the murder despite the fact that all robots have the 3 laws in placed. With the help of Susan Calvin (Bridget Moynahan), they quickly discovered that the new NS-5 robots are responsible for the murder and can potentially kill other human beings. This movie was based off a book and the screenplay was adapted by it. Will Smith delievered his usual great performance as well as Bridget Moynahan. The movie plot moved very quickly and the action scenes were great. It was a great action film with a great story. Action movie addicts would love this movie and is a great classic.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Romantic Comedy

Starring: Michael Cera and Kat Dennings

Directed by: Peter Sollett

Michael Cera plays a kid in high school who sends his own mixed CD's to his ex-girlfriend who he's still in love with. Kat Dennings also plays a high school senior who is the ex-girlfriend's friend. The whole movie was centered around learning about eachother and falling in love during one night in New York. Through the night, both run into different problems and situations. Cera and Dennings have great chemistry together. Cera with is comedic timing and delivery and Kat with her charisma and intellegence, make the movie highly enjoyable. Also adding to the comedy was Cera's gay friends and Kat's always drunk best friend. I thought the movie was a fun, cute little romantic comedy.

Burn After Reading

Comedy
September 12th, 2008
MPAA Rating: R for pervasive language, some sexual content and violence.

STARRING
George Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Brad Pitt

WRITTEN, PRODUCED & DIRECTED BY
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

I saw this movie last week. It is about a CIA official (John Malkovich) who is bitter about being fired and writes a memoir to exploit his bosses. The memoir some how gets fallen into the hands of two dumb gym employees (Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand) who decides to release the information unless they were paid for its return. Although it was a comedy that have some funny parts, the movie overall didn't leave any lasting impressions on me. The plot was smartly written, but that's about it. No one actor or actress stood out in this movie as they all did a very good job in complimenting each other. Since this type of comedy isn't for everyone, I would recommend this only if you're looking to watch a smartly written and directed comedy with A list actors. Otherwise, most of us can just wait for DVD release of it.

Eagle Eye

Director: D.J. Caruso
Written by: Travis Wright, John Glenn, Hillary Seitz
Produced by: Alex Kurtzman, Robert Orci, Pat Crowley


I recently saw the movie Eagle Eye. The movie was
centered around technology and the evils of it. I thought the movie was actually pretty good, opposite of what critics thought. The movie was so fast paced and exciting that you couldn't wait until the next scene. It kept you so interested and it did a good job of making you think that these things could actually happen to someone. Shia LaBeouf did an outstanding job. You really get to see how versatile he is in his acting. Playing opposite of LaBeouf was Michelle Monaghan. She also did a fantastic job in capturing the audience. If you're in the mood to watch an action packed, exciting, and adventurous movie, go see this one.

Breaking down "Joan of Arc" VISUALLY.

La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928)


directed by:Carl Theodor Dreyer





I know, I know, this movie is really old but it is SO worth watching if you like to see well thought out and planned movies. This movie is obviously in black and white and to top it off it is a SILENT movie. To fully appreciate this movie I have created a list of things you should look at to understand to understand the visual structure.

First thing you have to know about this movie is that CONTRAST is the idea behind it.

1. First of all, notice that the priests/judges(antagonist) have strong facial features. They are grotesque looking. Joan on the other hand, has symmetrical features.
2. The priests give fast, and strange performances. Joan moves slowly, like an angel.
3. IMAGE SIZE:
-98% shots of Joan are median shots or close-ups
-Priests: they have extreme wide shots or extreme close-ups
4. Joans' shots are more predictable. Shots of priests are more diverse.
-Joan's shots are cut next to the judges and therefore don't match in size. This suggests conflict and we feel close to Joan.
5. Judges are often decentered. This means that they are not right on the center of the shot. They are either way at the bottom of the shot or way at the top.
6. ANGLES:
-Dreyer uses low angles on Judges to make them look like monsters.
-Shots of Joan are at face level. Makes her look like a normal human being.

As you can see this movie was all about contrast. Dreyer, the director, doesn't want us to think actors are equal in this movie. There are many other techniques used by the director but these are just a few to give you something to think about if you ever have to watch this movie for class or for fun.