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SushiTheLegend

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CinnamonStar Newbie

CinnamonStar

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Name: right above^^

 

Film: Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008 )

 

[spoiler=Profile]

Directed and written by Woody Allen

Genre: Romance, Comedy

Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and others

 

 

 

[spoiler=Plot Summary]

The storyline rotates around 2 more or less 20-year-old characters who share the same interest in art, yet seem to stand in a total opposition in any other regard: Vicky is a student engaged to a successful businessman; reasonable, down-to-earth and with a biting sarcastic underbelly. Her close friend Cristina on the other side takes life on the light shoulder, occasionally getting lost in her daydreams and most of all, showing an openness to anything in love matters. Their directly contrasting visions are challenged on a trip in Spain, where they meet a local artist. Juan Antonio possesses any qualities a woman would appreciate: the looks, eccentric personality and free spirit, if only he wouldn’t have this tendancy to slam the door in at the next best occasion: On the first day in Barcelona, he invites the 2 women to stay at his house for a weekend, without leaving out that he plans to spend the night with both of them. Highly down-to-earth Vicky of course denies the offer, but in the end has to give in to Cristina’s enthusiasm.

At this point the relations between the 3 protagonists start crossing each other: Both female characters finally end up in bed with Juan Antonio, leaving Vicky in an inner struggle and pending between the eccentric artist and her future (*cough*boring*cough*) husband. At a first stade she decides to stop frequenting Juan Antonio, who develops a close relationship with Cristina. The latter is soon introduced into the world of the artists, where she finally feels at home in, and moreover starts developping her own talent in photography.

The story however is drawn into further conflicts when Juan Antonio’s ex-girlfriend, a deranged, depressive artist, brilliantly played by Penelope Cruz, appears again at his home after a suicide attempt. It comes out that they still share a close bond, not being able to live together or apart from each other.

The film then dives further into character development of the protagonists, showing Vicky’s struggle and life with her husband, Cristina’s artistic talents and the story between the 2 artists she now, more or less unwillingly, has to share the room with. The latter finally ends up in a three-sided relationship, being with both Juan Antonio and his ex-girlfriend.

After other events, most notably the ex-grilfriend trying to shoot the others, the story ends with the 2 protagonists returning to the US, Vicky with plans to spend a boring life with her husband and Cristina... looking for whatever she needs in life.=)

 

 

 

Positive

On first sight, the whole movie appears to be based only on weird relationships, everyone going to bed with everyone and finally ending up with something s/he didn’t want. Under the seemingly shallow surface however a more thoughtful approach brings forward the core of the movie. Other than the whole love-pycho-let’s-all-sleep-together merry-go-round the film also brings up more interesting topics, most notably the role of the artist in society, the social values we’re often following blindly and just plain simple the quest of happiness.

A huge plus is certainly the “lulz” delivered in the movie, especially Vicky’s sarcastic comments. Some of her quotes really remain stuck in your mind. Thumbs up for the fun and sarcasm!!:D

Related to the fun aspect is also the atmosphere of the movie. It just has this free spirit ambience underlined by a slightly ironic underbelly, which is always nice to follow. The setting was also well-chosen since it kind of represents holidays and the artists scene.

Another great plus is the “line-up” of the story. Most of the important characters have quite unique mindsets that often clash with each other and kind of set them apart from their surroundings. One of the most interesting, yet underrated characters is Juan Antonio’s father, a misanthropist artist who is very skilled at what he does, but keeps his works to himself since he hates the world, more or less like a punishment.

The best thing in the whole movie however was Penelope Cruz! She plays the psychotic ex-girlfriend so convincingly that she soon pulls the other characters into the background. The role earned her a nomination at the Oscars which I think she really deserved.^^

 

 

Negative

Just like above, for me, the above-mentioned character could have had more screentime and more development of her background story. Other than how she and Juan Antonio used to attempt to kill each other on many occasions (the knife-chair thing:P), not much else is known about the time they spent together. Overall, the fact that the characters in the movie are so interesting and quite unique this time implies that some of them, specifically the secondary ones, lack screentime and therefore character development. More than that, they appear as bright lights in the story that are rather hard to situate and seem to disappear after their short time. For me, one of those characters is the misanthropist father mentioned above. This is really my main critic about the movie; it’s kind of sad to see how great ideas are not developped enough which eventually creates the feeling that something is missing.

 

 

 

Overall, this is not the type of movies I usually enjoy, but nonetheless it was a pretty good watch.^^ Woody Allen manages to pack more serious subjects into a carefree high-spirited context that paradoxically enough gets the point through well. I didn’t plan to watch it first, but after a friend told me about it I gave it a try and it was certainly worth the time. Actually it’s one of the few times a movie really made me laugh which means something.^^

Overall, with the convincing actors, sparkling storyline, but partial lack of character development and some boring/unneeded parts, it makes an 8,2/10.

 

 

Oops huge scroll of text.O_o Next time I’m going to make it shorter.:P

Well about the strange choice, I picked it for one reason only – Penelope Cruz’ nomination at the Oscars. Possible future reviews will not be about weird films no one is interested in, although I don’t have a taste for actions and huge “OMG BANG!!” stuff.O_o

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andre007 Newbie

andre007

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im interested

name=Andre007

Film=Shawn of the dead

 

Shaun of the Dead is a 2004 British zombie comedy film directed by Edgar Wright, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and written by Pegg and Wright.

 

The plot focuses on Shaun, a young man who is attempting to get some kind of focus in his life as he reconciles with his ex-girlfriend and settles his various issues with his mother and stepfather. At the same time he has to cope with an apocalyptic uprising of zombies that is destroying society - but to whose beginnings he is totally oblivious during the first third of the movie.

 

Pegg and Wright have referred to Shaun of the Dead as being the first film in their "Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy" with Hot Fuzz as the second and The World's End as the third.

 

Plot

Shaun (Simon Pegg) is an appliance salesman whose life is going nowhere; he follows a mundane routine, and his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) is dissatisfied with their relationship, primarily because it revolves around going to "The Winchester", Shaun's favourite pub, every night. He also has issues with his hated stepfather Phillip (Bill Nighy), his increasingly unhappy flatmate Pete (Peter Serafinowicz), and a dissatisfying job where his younger co-workers show him no respect. Following a broken promise to do something special for their anniversary, Liz dumps Shaun. He decides to drown his sorrows at the pub with his other flatmate Ed (Nick Frost), his best friend. After a night of drinking, he has an epiphany and resolves to sort his life out.

 

Unfortunately, this revelation comes at the same time as an uprising of the undead within London, who begin to attack and devour the living. Shaun realizes the gravity of the situation only after two zombies attack him in his backyard. As he finds out, Pete has also become a zombie, Shaun and Ed plan to leave the house. Shaun and Ed proceed to rescue Liz, along with Shaun's mother Barbara (Penelope Wilton) and stepfather Phillip (who had been bitten earlier offscreen) to the Winchester. Liz's friends, David (Dylan Moran) and Dianne (Lucy Davis), also come along.

 

During their journey, Phillip is mortally wounded but manages to make his peace with Shaun before turning into a zombie, forcing the group to abandon him and their car and go the rest of the way on foot. The remaining group find the Winchester surrounded by zombies, and they approach the pub by impersonating zombie behavior, but they are discovered after the zombies hear them talking and arguing. Shaun draws the undead away while the others barricade themselves inside. Shaun returns to the pub thinking that he gave the zombies the slip, but the zombies followed him, and soon break in. Shaun is forced to shoot his mother, who was infected during the chaos; David is pulled through a smashed window, torn apart and eaten; Dianne charges outside in a vain attempt to save David, exposing the others to the zombies. Ed attempts to prepare a Molotov Cocktail, but is bitten by the zombified Pete, who is shot in the head by Shaun. Escaping into the cellar, Ed decides to stay behind while Shaun and Liz escape through the barrel lift. Shaun and Liz, who have reconciled over the course of the day, prepare for one last great battle against the zombie horde, but are saved by the British Army.

 

Six months after the zombie outbreak, society has returned to normal, and the remaining zombies have now become a part of everyday life, being used as cheap labour and game show participants. Shaun and Liz move in together, along with undead Ed, who is kept in the garden shed, leashed and playing TimeSplitters 2. It is debatable as to whether or not this film could fit into the category of zombie apocalypse, as society does not crumble thanks to an effective response from the government.

 

 

[edit] Cast

Actor Role

Simon Pegg Shaun

Kate Ashfield Liz

Nick Frost Ed

Lucy Davis Dianne

Dylan Moran David

Penelope Wilton Barbara

Bill Nighy Phillip

Peter Serafinowicz Pete

Jessica Stevenson Yvonne

 

 

[edit] Background

The movie is notable for Wright's kinetic directing style, and its references to other movies, television shows and video games. In this way, it is similar to the British television sitcom Spaced, which both Pegg and Wright worked on (Pegg as co-creator, writer and star, Wright as director). In particular, the movie contains many homages to previous zombie and horror movies, most notably the Dead trilogy of George A. Romero. The name of the film is a play on Romero's Dawn of the Dead.

 

The film was initially inspired by the episode "Art" of the television programme Spaced, written by Pegg (along with his writing partner and co-star Jessica Stevenson, who also appears in Shaun as Yvonne) and directed by Wright, in which the character of Tim (Pegg), under the influence of amphetamine and the PlayStation video game Resident Evil 2, hallucinates that he's fighting off a zombie invasion. Having discovered a mutual appreciation for Romero's Dead trilogy, they decided to write their own zombie movie. Spaced was to be a big influence on the making of Shaun, as it was directed by Wright in a similar style, and featured many of the same cast and crew in minor and major roles (as well as Pegg, Wright and Stevenson, Nick Frost — who played Mike in Spaced — has a starring role in Shaun as Ed, and Peter Serafinowicz who played Duane Benzie in Spaced — appeared in Shaun as Pete).

 

The film is notable for the number of British comedians, comic actors and sitcom stars present in its cast, most prominently from Spaced, Black Books and The Office. As well as the cast members previously mentioned as having appeared in Spaced, Shaun also stars Dylan Moran, well-known as Bernard Black in Black Books, and Lucy Davis, who played Dawn in The Office. In addition to this, cameo appearances are made by Martin Freeman (Tim in The Office), Tamsin Greig (Fran in Black Books, Caroline in Green Wing), Julia Deakin (Marsha in Spaced), Reece Shearsmith (a member of The League of Gentlemen) and Matt Lucas (writer/co-star of Little Britain). In addition, the voices of Mark Gatiss (The League of Gentlemen) and Julia Davis (Nighty Night) can be heard as radio news presenters, as can David Walliams (Little Britain) who provides the voice of an unseen TV reporter. Trisha Goddard also makes a cameo appearance, hosting a fictionalised episode of her real-life talk show Trisha. Many other comics and comic actors appear in extremely brief appearances as zombies, including Rob Brydon, Paul Putner, Pamela Kempthorne (Morticia de'Ath in The Vampires of Bloody Island), Joe Cornish, Peter Kay (Phoenix Nights), Antonia Campbell-Hughes (from the Jack Dee sit com Lead Balloon) and Michael Smiley (Tyres in Spaced).

 

The production was filmed entirely in London, primarily at Ealing Studios, and involved production companies Working Title Films and StudioCanal. Many exterior shots were filmed in and around the North London areas of Crouch End and Finsbury Park. An early working title was Tea Time of the Dead, as was Dwight of the Living Dead. Zombie extras were mainly fans of Spaced (who responded to a casting call organised through a fan website) or local residents who, curious at what was happening, asked if they could take part. The scenes filmed in and around "The Winchester Pub" were shot at The Duke Of Albany in Monson Road New Cross, a three-storey Victorian pub popular with supporters of Millwall F.C.[2]

 

 

[edit] Reception

Shaun of the Dead was released on 9 April 2004 in the United Kingdom and 24 September 2004 in the United States.

 

The film proved both a commercial and critical success. In its opening weekend in the U.S., Shaun earned $3.3 million, taking 8th place at the box office despite a limited release to only 607 theatres (compared to the usual 2000-3000 for other top 10 entries). In the UK it took in £1.6 million at 307 cinemas on its opening weekend and netted £6.4M by mid-May. The film has earned $30 million worldwide in box office receipts since its release. Although a success at the box office, the film found the majority of its positive audience reaction through strong DVD sales and rentals.

 

Critical reaction was largely positive, with the movie receiving a score of 91 percent at the comparative review website Rotten Tomatoes (with a Cream Of The Crop score of 94 percent) and a score of 76 out of 100 at Metacritic.[3][4] In 2004 the magazine Total Film named Shaun of the Dead the 49th greatest British film of all time. In 2005, it was rated as the 3rd greatest comedy film of all time in a Channel 4 poll.[5] Horror novelist Stephen King described the movie as "...a '10' on the fun meter and destined to be a cult classic."[6] In 2007, Stylus Magazine named it the 9th greatest Zombie movie ever made.[7] With positive reviews, the film has acquired a cult following among audiences, especially those who were fans of Pegg and Wright's work before the film was released.[8]

 

Pegg and Wright also scripted a one-off tie-in comic strip for the British comic magazine 2000AD entitled "There's Something About Mary". Set the day before the zombie outbreak as depicted in the film, the strip follows and expands on the character of Mary, who appears briefly in the intro credits and is the first zombie whom Shaun and Ed are aware of, and details how she became a zombie. It features expanded appearances from many of the minor or background characters who appear in the film. The strip was made available on the DVD release of Shaun.

 

George A. Romero was so impressed with Pegg and Wright's work that he asked them to appear in cameo roles in Land of the Dead, the fourth part of his Dead series. Pegg and Wright insisted on being zombies rather than the slightly more noticeable roles that were originally offered (as revealed in a DVD interview).

 

In 2006, the National Entertainment Collectibles Association announced that they would be producing action figures based on the film as part of their Cult Classics line that features fan favorite characters from various genre films. The releases so far are:

 

12" Shaun with sound

7" Shaun, which was released in Cult Classics series 4. The sculpt was based on the 12" figure.

"Winchester" two-pack, featuring 7" versions of Ed and a Bloodied-Up Shaun with the Winchester rifle.

Zombie Ed, which is a re-deco of the "Winchester" Ed, to be released in Cult Classics: Hall of Fame.

Upper Deck Entertainment released a card for the popular World of Warcraft Card Game in 2007, an ally named "Shawn of the Dead",[9] with the power of bringing back allies from the enemy graveyard.

 

In the computer game Hellgate London, cricket bats are a class of usable weapons. Rarer cricket bats have names such as "Shaun's Sidekick" and feature quotes from the movie in their description text. Flagship CEO Bill Roper said, "How could we make a game that features beating up zombies in London and NOT include a cricket bat as a premiere weapon of choice?

 

As with Spaced, in keeping with Pegg and Wright's adoration of the horror genre and specific films within that genre, as well as popular culture in general, there are many in-jokes and references to other films, television programs and pop-culture artifacts. Many of these references are mentioned in the 'Trivia Track' subtitling feature on the film's DVD and take the form of character names, scenes, snippets of dialogue and background materials. They are made both overtly (such as David's death scene in Shaun, which reflects the similar death of Captain Rhodes in Day of the Dead, and the use of the sentence "We're coming to get you, Barbara!" from Night of the Living Dead) or in a more subtle fashion (such as Foree Electronics, Shaun's workplace, being a reference to Ken Foree, a star of Dawn of the Dead).

 

Prominent are many references to George A. Romero's earlier Dead films (Night, Dawn and Day of the Dead, with Dawn in particular being referenced). In particular, the plot of Shaun relates directly to the plots of Romero's zombie films — all of which involve several people trapped in a building, with flesh-eating zombies attempting to break in to devour them, without a direct explanation for the cause of the zombie plague. The title Shaun of the Dead is also both an obvious parody of and homage to the title Dawn of the Dead. Numerous lines, scenes and background details also directly refer to the Romero films, including the music playing over the Universal logo, which is the synthesiser soundtrack to Dawn of the Dead. The film also features a Kid Koala remix of "The Gonk," which was used over the closing credits of Dawn.

 

Other than Romero's work, many other references to horror films are made, such as the The Evil Dead series, 28 Days Later and the films of horror directors Lucio Fulci and John Carpenter. More diversely, references to Blade, The Deer Hunter, Reservoir Dogs, and Invasion Of The Body Snatchers the films of James Cameron and the Star Wars trilogy can be found. Several references to video games involving zombies, including Resident Evil, TimeSplitters 2 and Zombies Ate My Neighbors, are also present.

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Poseidon© Newbie

Poseidon©

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Space Buddies

 

 

Is it good? Yes, but only for kids. I didn't have that much expectations for it but when I finished it, I LOVED IT! The movie has alot of suspence but the voices are LAME, for example the ferret, it was so bad, I had to hide in shame. The end wasn't very sastisfying because it had a normal ending, the dogs went back to earth, the end, see what I mean?

 

Anyways, I would recemmend this to only kids. (Even though I'm 13)

 

Voice Acting: 3/5

Storyline: 5/5

Suspense: 5/5

 

Overall: 13/15

 

[/size]

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Huntar! Newbie

Huntar!

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Here is my review on Death Race (2008 )

 

Death Race (2008 )

 

A movie written, directed and produced by Paul W.S. Anderson. It is a remake of the 1975 film "Death Race 2000, based on lb Melchoir's short story "The Racer". Starring Jason Statham as the main character and Joan Allen, Tyrese Gibson, and Natalie Martinez.

 

The movie takes place in the United States in 2012 when the econemy is so terrible that a former Nascar driver is forced to work in welding at minimum wage to support his wife and young daughter. The main character, Jensen Ames (Jason Statham) comes home from work, talks to his wife and then goes upstairs to check on his infant daughter. Meanwhile, a prisoner on parol for the weekend sneaks into his house, takes his money he just earned, and kills his beloved wife.

 

Jensen fought him, and took the knife from his hand to save himself and scares the man away. The authorities come into the scene and see him, a bloody knife, and a dead woman and he is falsely accused of murdering his wife.

 

He is taken to a maximum security prison. The warden is a malevolent woman named Hennessey (Joan Allen) who takes pride in the famed "Death Race", which puts prisoners against eachother in a race, with armored vehicles, machine guns, nos, and the chance to earn their freedom by winning 5 races. I know, it just sounds like fun, doesn't it?

 

He makes enemies with the wrong people and has to fight them. He doesn't win and it gets broken up. He must settle this score in the race. The warden gives him the chance to race for his freedom since the famed racer, Frankenstein, had died in a fatal crash, and needed a replacement to wear his mask (he needed a mask because his face was deformed and misfigured from too many crashes).

 

Out of 10 racers, the first 6 died quickly in the first segment of the death race, to be viewed by millions of viewers more than the super bowl in America. Through a thrilling and suspensful race, he eliminates everyone up to himself and Machinegun Joe (Tyrese Gibson). They plot to escape the prison for good after Jensen realizes that Hennessey tried to assassinate him.

 

Jensen and Machinegun Joe eventually escape the island craftily using their armored cars to protect themselves from the bullets of the policemen and helicopters chasing them. The crash their cars and hop a train to mexico. Jensen's navigator puts on Frankenstein's mask to give the illusion that Jensen got caught.

 

A year or two later, Jensen, Joe, Elizabeth Case (Natalie Martinez) his navigator, and Jensen's young daughter live happily in Mexico as mechanics. Then, you guessed it, they lived happily ever after.

 

I recommend this movie to everyone that likes danger, suspense, racing, and guns.

 

Plot - 10/10 [Great. I liked how it is actually possible that this could happen, especially in today's world]

 

Entertainment Value - 10/10 [i loved it. Really "actiony"]

 

Acting - 7/10 [Meh. It was decent. They could have done better]

 

Quality - 9/10 [it was quite good. The effects were mindblowing as well.]

 

Total = 4.5/5

 

[Letter Rating - A]

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SushiTheLegend Newbie

SushiTheLegend

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Righteo, time to announce who I have selected as the Movie Reviewers, I shall let you guys discuss who the leader is and whatnot yourselves, make sure the leader posts the HQ from which you can all discuss things as well as have links to all created reviews contained in it's first thread post, this means all reviews need to fit with guidelines created by said leader, now to announce the Movie Reviewers!

 

First Movie Reviewer - Luna Lovegood

Second Movie Reviewer - Hunter

Third Movie Reviewer - Cyber Altair

Fourth Movie Reviewer - Opalmoon

 

As I say, discuss amongst yourselves who you wish to be the head reviewer and work from there. ^^

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