Sunday, October 27, 2013

About Time movie review

Cast: Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy
Director: Richard Curtis
Running time: 2 hours and 3 minutes
  About Time is a movie about a young man who learns from his father that he has the power to go back in time and change any situation. We watch him use his power for his benefit and for others and we go along as his life changes with the help of his extraordinaire abilities.
  The whole movie is charming and lovely and that is mostly because of the very likable leading man. Domhnall Gleeson has an awkwardness that is very appealing. He is not the model-actor that is a usual choice in many movies but he is not the complete opposite either. He is just the cute guy next door. One of the things i really enjoyed about the film was that it wasn't focused on how Gleeson was going to get the girl, McAdams, using his powers and that would be the end of it. It wasn't a love story but rather a life story. There was more to it. It had more aspects. From his parents, sister, best friend.... to his wife and kids. It covers all the layers of his life from the point that he learns about his powers and on. Moreover, i found unusual and very interesting his relationship with his sister, Wilson. It was sweet and their love was pure and unique. The movie , also, has a solid lesson to be learned which is always a good thing. Lastly, i though it was great how the movie portrayed Gleeson's character through the years. You could see the subtle change in his maturity and thought process as he was getting older. And as he was growing up so did the way he used his powers. 
  There was one thing i didn't really understand. SPOILER ALERT!!!! Why couldn't Tim go back to see his father after having a third child? If he did everything the same way theoretically it would be possible to go back and then return to the same present, especially since he had done it once before; so that he would have the daughter he had before instead of a son. And i know what i am saying is confusing for anyone who hasn't seen the movie yet but i was very curious.
  The thing that i found a little bit unrealistic was the character of the sister, Lydia Wilson. She was  depicted as a girl who lived in her own world but that was only for some of the time; other times she would act in a more usual way. So i thought the movie had to either go all out and make her really weird, in the alternative-indie movie kind of way, or make her really damaged which would mean another backstory for her because here she seemed to have a pretty great childhood which wouldn't explain the damaged part. And finally what i found to be another negative about this movie was that it was too perfect. Perfect next-to-the-sea mansion and down town apartment, perfect family, perfect girl... It was a bit too much perfection.
  In conclusion, i really liked this movie, even though it wasn't perfect. Very enjoyable and i recommend it without a doubt.
Score: 82%

m.

Courtesy
Universal Pictures

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Fact Thursday

  Hey guys! Today's fact comes a little early,but who wants to wait until Friday. So here it is:
The glamorous and extravagant mansion in the movie The Great Gatsby was actually, as told by the movie's director Baz Luhrmann, his old high school in Australia as well as some computer graphics.
Hope you enjoyed today's fact and come back for more movie facts, reviews and more.
Have a great day.
m.
Courtesy
Warner Bros. Pictures







Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Margot at the Wedding movie review

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jack Black, John Turturro, Zane Pais
Director: Noah Baumbach
Running time: 1 hour and 33 minutes
  "Margot at the wedding" is literally about Margot who went at a wedding. No, I'm kidding, it's much more than that. The movie picks up with Margot (Nicole Kidman) and her son on the train going to visit Margot's sister that is getting married. During the movie we explore Margot's relationship with her sister, her son, her husband and how Margot reacts and thinks in general.
  I have to say i really liked it. It was a little wacky and weird but, also, felt realistic and genuine. The main theme of the movie was the relationship between the sisters (Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh). They talked about one another behind the other's back but they felt like real sisters (there is a specific scene where they talked about the past and laughed about it when you could see how comfortable they felt with each other). And even though the one criticized the life choices of the other you could see the love they had despite their estrangement. Moreover, another element of the movie i really liked was how troubled Margot was and how that was portrayed in really settle ways during the movie. There were not any big, yell-y and dramatic scenes but you could see from the way she would talk to her son or her sister or how she would react to situations that Margot wasn't just a regular person but that she had issues. Finally, there were, surprisingly, some funny scenes and what i liked the most about them was that the movie was not a comedy but the scenes were funny in a way they would be in real life. Not in a big way but in an everyday kind of way.
  One thing that would really annoy me in any other movie but felt right for this one is that there are many things happening but non of them is explained further. For example there are the neighbors that want to cut down the tree or Becky, who is the third sister, or their mother or almost anything really. However i felt that the movie didn't have to explore any of those things. I viewed it as more of a film that showed us Margot at a given moment and how she handled a certain situation rather than a film that showed us Margot and her life in general. In the same spirit i thought the ending was perfect. Even though i was taken aback with surprise at first, the more i thought about it the more i realised that as i said before the movie was about Margot at the wedding (pretty spot on title) and it didn't have to end with a big finale. It, instead, ended in a realistic way that showed that, ultimately, nothing changed and everything stayed the same.
   As a bad thing i really can't find anything to say. The movie felt realistic and it had a artfulness to it so if you are not into more artsy movies maybe you won't like it but i am and i enjoyed every minute of it.
  In conclusion, a realistic movie that says a story in its own way. Definitely worth a watch in my opinion.
Score: 83%

m.
  
Courtesy
Paramount Vantage

Friday, October 4, 2013

Stuck in Love movie review

Cast: Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connelly, Lily Collins, Nat Wolff, Liana Liberato, Kristen Bell
Director: Josh Boone
Running time: 1 hour and 37 minutes
Stuck in Love features the lives of a father, his son and his daughter and how they each experience love.
  The movie has a lightness and youthfulness that i really enjoyed. It's all about love, has a pretty great cast (i love Greg Kinnear and Jennifer Conneli and i am really getting into Lily Collins) and feels like a fairytale to be honest. Also, a small thing that i would like to point out is how much i like movies that end in quotes. I don't know why but every time a movie starts and/or ends with a really great famous quote i get excited and that was the case with this movie. Moreover, i thought the relationship between the father and his kids was the relationship that i would like to have with my kids, someday.Kinnear's character treated his children with respect and viewed them as his equals and not like little kids. He talked to them as he would talk to grown ups.On that note, i really enjoyed the relationship between the siblings. They obviously care about each other but not like in other movies where they either don't love each other at all or they are inseparable,have only nice things to say about each other and never fight. Finally, i found the realism of the story about the younger son and his girlfriend really refreshing. We see in the movie the period of time when they are in love but we, also, see how Liana Liberato's character had many problems that couldn't be solved by Nat Wolff's character but how he still had the illusion and desire that she would come back to him and how she didn't.
  However, i had much trouble with this movie. My main problem was that any of the stories, and i am not only talking about the love stories, was not properly analysed and shown in depth. Not the relationship between Lerman's and Collins' characters,not Wolff's and Liberato's, not her drug and alcohol problems, not Connelly's and the-guy-that-i-don't-even-know-his-name relationship,not Kristen Bell's and Greg Kinnear's relationship, barely Kinnear's and Connelly's relationship and break up and not Lerman's mother's death. We never saw under the surface about any of the stories, so ultimately i couldn't really care about the characters and their fates. The relationships were unrealistic, how Collins got together with Lerman after she avoided him so much for example, and too many to cover in one movie, frankly.
  In conclusion, i enjoyed it as a light,with not much substance love story. Not nearly a masterpiece but not in the top 10 worst films of the year.
Score: 54%

m.
Courtesy
Millennium Entertainment