O filmach » 2007

Hot Fuzz

Tom — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:04:38 +0000

The biggest suprise in 2007 movie branch. To be honest – I also was suprised while watching this movie. It was not announced with huge marketing campaign and came like the thunder from the sky.

The story of sergeant Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) that is “too good” to work in London because he makes the rest of police department look bad is just fun. He is being transferred to the country and starts working in “the safest village in England”. This is just the beginning of this story that is unpredictable, the most funny and not stupid at all. All characters are people from flesh and bone that are very reliable. The actors play great from main heroes to some small episodes (great Bill Nighty, visible in just few scenes). The director Edgar Wright is known from earlier comedy Shaun Of The Dead – also created with Simon Pegg – those two gentlemen have written scripts for both movies. We can see here blinking to the audience all the time – the movie is consciousnessly referring to many movie schemes, topics and plots. This is just a kind of postmodern comedy but not kind of parody (like e.g. Scary Movie series). This is an independent movie with great script, and real sense of humour. It is just a movie that we have not seen in cinemas for a long time.

Hot Fuzz trailer

Hot Fuzz, 2007. Directed by: Edgar Wright. Starring: Simon Pegg, Martin Freeman, Nick Frost, Jim Broadbent, Timothy Dalton.

Volume: 80%

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Tom — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:36:58 +0000

I got a problem with this movie from the beginning. Some say that it is awful, some say that it is great. And I still can’t decide…

“Next” is a story of a magician Cris Johnson (played by Nicolas Cage) that is able to see the future few minutes forward. This is interesting starting point to create a story about man that can predict your every move. And in my opinion this story is not so bad – well thought, logical and coherent.

The main plot is based on Philip K. Dick’s story. I didn’t read this book, so I can’t compare the original idea to the screening.

The movie is well played (Cage is good actor, nevertheless his acting was destroyed in recent years by the movie he had chosen to play in), Julianne Moore is always a class for herself.

What else? The story is nice (can be even surprising for few people), written with self consciousness. I would not judge the ending so hard – there is something about that final. Something interesting, that even is compared to the rest of the movie. Even logical. Even makes sense. And that is a lot.

Next trailer

Next, 2007. Directed by: Lee Tamahori. Starring: Nicholas Cage, Julianne Moore, Jessica Biel, Thomas Kretschmann.

Volume: 60%

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Blade Runner

Tom — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:58:32 +0000

Blade Runner is a strange movie in many ways. It never made financial success and the critics were at first very skeptic to this vision of future presented by Ridley Scott. Was that just a misunderstanding, or maybe leak of marketing efforts? For sure cutting the film without director’s knowledge was not very good idea, and that move was repaired after the director’s cut release in2006 (the original movie is from 1982!).

Let’s focus on the director’s point of view. The movie still has this magic that I felt while watching it for the first time. The world is dark and complete, heroes are played great (Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer were just brilliant here). But great acting is just one of elements that made this movie a legend. The whole composition of showing the world, the talks, action starting slowly and brilliant Vangelis music gives this movie some spirit that wants you to watch it all over again and again.

The story is focused on blade runner’s (Harrison Ford) chase after replicant fugitives. He is in a special police unit that is supposed to hunt and kill all replicants that come to earth. A replicant is a kind of artificial human being, made to do the most dangerous and extreme jobs in space. Those replicants are not allowed to come to Earth. But sometimes some of them does. Every replicant has safety catch – they can live only four years. Leader of the small group (Rutger Hauer) wants to visit their creator and force him to make their life longer.

It is not just another action movie. It is full of philosophical reflections about humanity, slavery and justice. What makes you a human? What does it mean to be a human? What makes you think that if you are a human you should have bigger and better rights? This movie is actual and it will be for a long time. Those questions are just few that comes in mind while watching.

Blade Runner The Final Cut trailer

Blade Runner, 1982 (original version), 2006 (the director’s cut), 2007 (the final cut). Directed by Ridley Scott. Starring: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Daryl Hannah, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos.

Volume: 100%

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Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Tom — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:05:18 +0000

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is one of those movies that we could call “one f it’s kind”. It is a musical, horror and also gothic story. No one else but Tim Burtin himself constructed unique view of 19 th century London with all its dark alleys, common problems and social unrest. Vision of the demon barber himself is more than just a story. It is another movie where the magic vetween Tim Burton and Johnny Depp is visible in every single scene. Those two guys probably understand each other without any words at all. Johnny is in my opinion one of the most talented actor of twenty and twenty first century and with this role he shows that there is nothing he could not play. Acting is very strong part of the movie, I supposed that Helena Bonham-Carter was born to play her part here.

The visual side of the movie is trully amazing. The London is so dark and sweaty that we can’t doubt that what we see is really “that London”. The story is a classic so there is no point of spoiling the fun of watching newest adaptation.

One thing that makes all of this taste bad was a way the movie was advertised across the world. From trailers people could think that they will get another bloody horror with corpses and body parts flying around. They could feel dissapointed seeing Johny Depp singing the whole movie. I guess that someone just wanted to earn more money from this piece of art and that is why many people were just misinformed.

Sweeney Todd trailer

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, 2009. Directed by: Tim Burton. Starring: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sasha Baron Cohen.

Volume: 80%

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300

Tom — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 06:18:34 +0000

Hello there, this is my first post here. I will write about some movies I’ve recently seen. I’ll try to write not only about new movies but also some older masterpieces. From time to time I’ll try to show how bad some movies are. But writing about good pieces of art is more pleasurable for me.

300 is a motion picture that is an adaptation of Frank Miller’s comics under the same title. It is a story about the battle under Thermopylae in 480 B.C when only few Spartans stood against huge army of Persians allowing Greeks to gather their forces and stand against the powerful enemy. Although the movie is based on a real story it is mostly redrawn and shown as a direct screening of the comics that is a base for the script. The Spartans doesn’t look like historians say, and the whole Sparta image based on democracy is not real. Sparta was a monarchy with dual core of power (two kings), with very brutal way of making their soldiers war machines (some of that methods are actually shown in the movie). It is interesting that the Spartans was in huge minority in their country, there was only about severeal dozens of thousands at the time. The rest were their slaves and other Greek people.

Showing Persians as ruthless monsters is also not so good, because Persia was a country where people had a lot of rights, even citizens from conquered countries (Persians allowed many freedoms, and gave many rights to women that could also serve in their army). And not every Spartan was wearing only underwear, showing his greatly muscled body.

But the main event is true. There were about 300 Spartans and some of ther allies that standed in small gorge against the army of hundreds of thousands and they hold very long. Showing Spartans using computer techniques could be a shot in own feet, but it wasn’t. The movie looks just like the comics – a little unreal, and many actions are totally unreal (like shooting arrows from few miles using standard bows).

So is this a good movie or just bunch of crap? There is something about this movie that makes it good. The whole strory of Spartans is told by one of their soldiers that is galvanizing Spartans and Greeks into action before huge battle with Persians. This soldier is simply glossing over the facts and with that point of view the whole movie makes sense (Spartans are fighting hundreds of enemies at once, huge unknown beasts, and Persian king Xerxes is just a giant). And that is the thing that makes 300 really good movie – it is some kind of convention, style of narrating that we need to believe in, just for this once. If we do that we can put apart all historical nonsenses and unreal actions. Because this is a story told by a soldier. And we know how soldiers can tell their stories, right?

300 Theatrical trailer

300, 2007. Directed by: Zack Snyder. Starring: Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, David Wenham, Dominic West, Rodrigo Santoro.

Volume: 70%

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