"That Annoying Kid!"

THE KID WITH A BIKE

Original title: Le Gamin au vélo
Year: 2011
Country: Belgium/France/Italy
Language: French
Number: 1094
Written and Directed by: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Starring: Thomas Doret, Cécile De France, Jérémie Renier, Fabrizio Rongione
Cannes Film Festival: Grand Prize of the Jury, Golden Palm

The Dardenne brother's latest film The Kid with a Bike is the story about a 12-year-old boy named Cyril, who's recently been left in an orphanage by his father, who have suddenly disappear without telling Cyril where. Cyril then runs away from the orphanage and goes back to his father's apartment, only to find out that he's left. His father also sold Cyril's bike, which was bought by a woman Cyril meets at the clinic. The woman, Samantha, returns the bike to him, and she also tries to helps Cyril finds his father, and she also get attached to little Cyril and sometimes works as his foster mother.

The Kid with a Bike is a good idyllic indie film, with the great handheld camera, the same naturalism, and the same depth to it's characters. It is so good that I would have given it five stars, but like the Star Wars prequels, it was ruined by a kid. What a story needs to catch my interest, is that the protagonist neexd to be empathic, which in this case the protagonist isn't. Cyril is a restless kid that won't take a break for a second. He's rude. He never listens, and is stubborn. To say it more informal: He's a dick. I can't help it. But overall this film is digestible, and I really liked the other characters, and Cyril seems also to get better, but the first half is unforgivable. Thumbs up.

Grade: B-

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"Twilight in 3D"

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN

Original title: Låt den rätte komma in
Year: 2008
Country: Sweden
Language: Swedish
Number: 1071
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Starring: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar, Henrik Dahl

Forget Twilight, True Blood and all the other gay vampires, and watch the Swedish vampire flick "Let the Right One In" by Tomas Alfredson instead. In this film we follow the twelve-year-old boy, Oskar who's an outcast, who the other kids always bullying and hits. On the playground one evening where he lives, he meets a girl named Eli, a thin and ice cold child, who's also his new neighbor. And what's worse, is that she's a vampire which means that's she feeds on blood in order to survive, and it's her father who has to kill innocent people and tap their blood, so that his daughter don't have to draw suspicion by doing the killing herself.

Yes, there's a love story between Oskar and Eli, but it's loaded with so much innocence because they are kids. I love that the director tells us so little. The word vampire is barely mentioned. It's a sad story about two outcasts, which is the opposite case with Twilight where it's a forced love story with nothing but sexual attraction that is displayed in five movies. We know that Oskar and Eli belongs together and it's clear from the start, but they can't be together, which is a real tragedy, which is sad. While Bella and Edvard on the other hand gets a designer house in the middle of the forrest. I also like the tone of the film, and the cinematography of an ice cold Sweden. And there's a lot of satisfying violence as well. A vampire movie as it should be. Thumbs up.

Grade: B+

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"A Screenwriter's Inception"

ADAPTION.

Year: 2002
Country: United States
Language: English
Number: 1008
Script: Charlie Kaufman, Donald Kaufman
Director: Spike Jonze
Starring: Nicholas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Brian Cox
Oscar wins: Best Supporting Actor (Chris Cooper)
Oscar nominations: Best Actor (Nicholas Cage), Best Supporting Actress (Meryl Streep), Best Adapted Screenplay 

Charlie Kaufman is probably one of the few screenwriters around that is known for being a screenwriter, without being a director too. He have also done the extraordinary thing of being more famous than the directors he's worked with, and for once we have a writer that gets the credit he deserves. Do you remember who directed "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind"? Adaptation is his semi-autobiography, his eight and a half. It's a great insight of how a writer thinks. It's all of Kaufman's thoughts, his writer's blocks that drives the story.

This is the story: The successful screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Nicholas Cage), who's had a great success with the script for "Being John Malkovich" is having problem with adapting Susan Orlean's (Meryl Streep) best selling non-fiction novel "The Orchid Thief" into a screenplay. The novel focuses on her investigation around the orchid-stealing red neck, John Laroche (Chris Cooper) who seems to have a great passion for Orchids. A passion that Susan wished she had. But the book ends with something that seems to be an unfulfilled love affair hidden in the subtext, which seems to be the problem with the story, since nothing between Susan and John not really happens, which Charlie find hard to adapt. So instead he decides to write a screenplay about himself trying to write the screenplay, which of course is the movie itself.

Adaptation is loosely based on Kaufman's own experiences of trying to adapt the novel. With loosely it means that for instant that Charlie also has a twin brother named Donald (also Nicholas Cage) who's a big fan of structured Hollywood storytelling, and sees the famous story guru Robert McKee (Brian Cox) as his idol. While Charlie wants to be as independent and original as possible. Donald Kaufman does not exists. It's clearly one of Charlie's personalities, an inner struggle between the structured story telling and the original and pessimistic storytelling, with on-screen narration where Charlie constantly thinks for himself "I'm fat, I'm ugly, I'm Bald".

It's a wonderful meta film, or something deeper than that. Like a screenwriter's Inception. It's a story about a story under development, it seems to take form while we watch it, a character written story. Remember when Jeff Daniels played a character on the silver screen in Woody Allen's "Purple Rose of Cairo" that suddenly jumps out of the screen and into the real world. In Adaptation it feels like the opposite, that the writers jumps into the screen to fix the movie and give us the ending we desperately need. And it also show us all the storytelling techniques and cliches that no matter how hard we try, we can't hide from them.



Other things besides the amazing screenplay is the amazing cast, with Nicholas Cage in one of his greatest performances, who kind of resemblance Gene Wilder's character in The Producer, in sense of look and lack of self confidence. Cage does a great job in giving us two different performances, with such a big contrast, but at the same time a great comical chemistry, because they are in-fact twins. Meryl Streep give us as always a superb performance, but it's Chris Cooper who steels the show, with his southern accent, missing front teethes and with a red neck attitude that is a great contrast to his love for orchids. He really deserved that Oscar.

My conclusion of Adaptation is that it's a great meta meta film, with one of the most original screenplays that jokes about the story structure itself, by breaking it on purpose. It's specially a treat for those who have read Robert McKee's book to look at this film with admiration and wondering. But it doesn't matter if you have read the book or not, because his lectures in the film give us a great insight into his theories. Adaptation is simply a screenwriter's joy, and it's also an inspiring film for those who might want to become a writer, no matter what medium. Thumbs up.

Grade: A

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"Ever considered taking an Airplane?"

MONSTERS

Year: 2010
Country: United Kingdom
Language: English, Spanish
Number: 1082
Director: Gareth Edwards
Starring: Whitney Able, Scoot McNairy

Monsters is a science fiction film that takes place in a not so distant future, where NASA have found life on one of Jupiter's moons. A probe is launched to collect samples, but crashes upon re-entry over Mexico, and a new alien life form begins to develop into an octopus-like creature which is spreading fast. And half of Mexico is quarantined as an "infected zone", and the US and the Mexican military struggles to exterminate the aliens without causing collateral damages . The plot is set some years later in the unaffected Mexico, where alien attacks is quiet usual, in which we follow the Photographer Andrew Kaulder, who's tries to get good pictures of the situation, but he gets another mission: to get the chief editor's daughter, Sam, in safety back to the US. Getting away with boat is impossible, so they have to go through the infected zone.

Monsters is after my opinion one of the worst, and least thought off science fiction scripts that I've ever seen! I'm not a nerd, but this is one of those films where lack of common logic is ruining the film experience. My essential question is: Isn't there any air plains? Why not go south and take a boat from Honduras for example? Why go through the infected zone when you know it's dangerous? I tell you why: because it's an excuse for a love story between Klauder and Sam, which is perhaps the only thing that makes this film worth it's D+. All this lack of logic wouldn't have mattered if there was any good action scenes, or scenes where anything is at risk and damages the characters, but there isn't any. The journey through the infected zone seems to be a walk in the park where the only thing that matters is their love life. The aliens are horrible, or in this case not horrible enough and doesn't do any harm to the main characters for some reason. There's no conflict in this movie!



It seems to be one of those science fiction movies that wants to be a metaphor for a political subject matter. Like with District 9 is an alien metaphor for the South African apartheid regime. Monsters seems to wanna be a movie based on the military war against the Mexican Drug Cartels, which causes many civilians their lives. District 9 seemed to have a clear message, while Monsters seems to have no one, except the fact that the aliens are people too, and it's the war which cause their anger. So the message is to let the Drugs Cartels be left alone? That's not a very pleasant thought. Monsters is not a popcorn flick, nor is it a political thriller, it's just a love story that could have been a simple road movie, or better, a Motorcycle Diary. Thumbs down. And it certainly don't deserve to be included in this book!

Grade: D+

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"As Little as Possible"

CHINATOWN

Year: 1974
Country: United States
Language: English, Cantonese
Number: 584
Script: Robert Towne
Director: Roman Polanski
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Diane Ladd

Oscar wins: Best Original Screenplay
Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress (Faye Dunaway), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound  

Roman Polanski's Chinatown, or should I rather say Robert Towne's Chinatown, because it's he who wrote the excellent script and the story. Chinatown is one hell of a film noir, and Polanski really gives Towne's script the treatment it deserves, by making it indeed very authentic and also true to it's genre, supported by a great cast and a believable structured corrupt cooperation that destroys the city and makes the life tougher for the common man.

Chinatown is set in a 1930s Los Angeles where the former police officer J.J. Gittes (Jack Nicholson) whom after quitting the police department in Chinatown is now working as a private detective, where no serious jobs like adultery suspicion is quiet normal. But one day, a woman named Evelyn Mulwray (Diane Ladd) suspects that her husband, Hollis is cheating on her. After following, Hollis around the city and finally takes a picture of Hollis with another woman, which is printed in the paper the day after, Gittes meets a woman who claims to be the real Mrs. Mulwray (Faye Dunaway). This means that woman in the start was an impostor, who was paid to set Gittes up into a even bigger mess than just one simple adultery case, but involves every one at the top.



Chinatown is a well structured story, with all the right elements of a great mystery film, that escalates from the lowest unimportant investigation to the worst cases of political corruptions, that can possible be imagine. It also contains many great twists, and even one of the most horrifying twists in movie history. The cinematography is just perfect, it give us a dried out Los Angels with no water, like a desert. It's not the L.A. we're used to. The performances are just marvelous, with Jack Nicholson in the lead as a tough and fearless detective, who's not afraid to use violence. And with the noir godfather himself, the director John Huston, playing the creepy and corrupt Noah Cross, a role that certainly should have gotten an Oscar nomination.

All the good things I've written so far, might sound like an A+ review, so if you feel it's weird that I give it a B stars instead of an A. The reason why is because I found it a little boring, and literary dry because of the cinematography, but then again it's suppose to be dry, but then again it wouldn't feel right to give it full score. I must always follow my gut-feeling. But after watching it for the third time, my view have improved since the two previous times. Thumbs up.

Grade: B+

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"More Dinosaurs, Please"

THE TREE OF LIFE

Year: 2011
Country: United States
Language: English
Number: 1093
Director: Terrance Malick
Starring: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain
Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography
Cannes Film Festival: Golden Palm (Palm D'or)

Well, the mole Terrence Malick is in the mood to pup out of his hole to make another crazy project. This time it's a movie called "The Tree of Life", an ambitious film with a wide specter that has everything, that not every one will quiet understand the connection between, or if it ever was any. Like what is the connection between Brad Pitt in the 1950s and a bunch of dinosaurs millions of years ago? Well it's what I (except all others) finds the least surrealistic. In my case I only wish there were more dinosaurs.

The Tree of Life is an extraordinary film, because it's covers the birth of the universe, the creation of the earth, the first lifeforms in the water, the dinosaurs, the big comet that killed them, and then suddenly jump right to the 1950s, where we follow an abusive father (Brad Pitt) who want's to learn his three sons how to manage in a tough world, while their mother (Jessica Chastain) is more of a kinder nature, who doesn't want to step up for them against their father. We also follow one of their sons, Jack (Sean Penn) in the present where he's still hunted by the past.

The Tree of Life is definitely a cinematographic masterpiece without a doubt, with all the beautiful shots that just amazes you every time. This is Malick's trademark. I have no problems with the dinosaurs, it might sound weird, but it's the dream sequence or what ever you like to call them I have a problem with. They are beautiful, but I think they destroy the whole story as a naturalistic one, because I think there's one thin red line that everything has to do with nature, not fantasies. But The Tree of Life is definitely a great painting. Thumbs up.

Grade: B

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"Runaway Groom"

SEVEN CHANCES

Year: 1925
Country: United States
Language: Silent
Number: 25
Director: Buster Keaton
Starring: Buster Keaton, T. Roy Barnes, Snitz Edwards, Ruth Dwyer

Buster Keaton's Seven Chances is another of his masterly crafted comedies, that really makes people laugh, and that are timeless. Slapstick humor on it's best. While Chaplin enchanted us with his charm, Keaton gave us adventures that blew us away and where the slapstick is more in focus. In Seven Chances we follow the young business man, Jimmie Shannon (Keaton) whom together with his partner Billy is about to go bankrupted unless they come up with some money, but one day Jimmie receive a letter from his deceased uncle, who gives him 7 million dollars, only if he marries before his 27th birthday, 7 O'clock. The only problem is that he's birthday is on the very same day, and they only have few hours to find him a bride, after he's girl friend declined his proposal when she found out he only did it for the money.

Seven Chances is a quiet entertaining slapstick comedy, with a lot of laugh out loud moments, and fantastic and exhilarating stunts, like with the amazing scene where Keaton is running away from a bunch of big rolling rocks following him. And I must not forget the funniest part when Billy is publishing an article in the afternoon paper that Jimmie needs a bride. And of course hundreds of women have showed up, and Keaton has to run for his life. I hope for god sake this picture remains unspoiled, and that Adam Sandler keeps his dirty paws away from this concept, and don't ruin it like he did with "Mr. Deed" and "Just go for it", and I just get the chills of thinking about one hundred transvestites played by Sandler running after Sandler. Every body knows now these days, that all you need is marrying a Las Vegas stripper. So this movie wouldn't have worked to day at all, so that's a relief. Thumbs up.

Grade: A-

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"The Georges Méliès Roast"

HUGO

Year: 2011
Country: United States
Language: English
Number: 1102
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen

Oscar wins: Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing
Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Original Score  

Martin Scorsese's latest film, Hugo is the second film of 2011, along with "The Artist" that is a tribute to the silent film era, and Scorsese does a great job of going back to the very beginning to see how one pioneer, Georges Méliès, a magician who saw this new medium more than just moving pictures on the sideshow attractions, but as a vehicle to other worlds, other planets and other realities. It was of course the Lumière brothers who invented the camera, but it was Méliès who first used it to create illusions.

Hugo is set in the year 1931, in Paris where a young boy named Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) whom after his father's (Jude Law) death is forced to live with his uncle (Ray Winstone) at the train station, and Hugo have to leave school to work as a watchmaker. But before his father's death, they were both working on finding all the missing part to an automaton (A mechanic robot) which Hugo brought with him at the train station, but he need the missing parts. And it's only one store on the station that have those parts, is a toy shop, run by a man named Georges Méliès (Ben Kingsley). After having caught Hugo of stealing, Hugo is then set to work for Méliès to pay his debt. But Hugo's search is far from over.



Hugo is funny enough a family film, by one of the most violent directors of our time. But we must not forget that Scorsese have given us some big surprises over the years, like the musical "New York, New York", the period drama "Age of Innocence" and the historical epic "Kundun". But this only shows us Scorsese's love for the cinema itself in every form, and Hugo is for sure his greatest tribute to something he really loves more than everything, the movies. And Hugo is full of every kind of tribute to the great silent classics, such as the scenes where the Station inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen) is chasing after Hugo, or when Hugo is hanging from a clock, like Harold Lloyd. And it's indeed funny to watch. But the problem might be that it's more of a tribute than a movie. Overall I did love Hugo, and I really hope that more people will open their eyes for the silent cinema. Thumbs up.

Grade: B+

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"Overthrowing the Animal Kingdom"

ANIMAL FARM

Year: 1954
Country: United Kingdom
Language: English
Number: 273
Director: John Halas, Joy Batchelor
Voices: Gordon Heath, Maurice Denham

George Orwells, who's probably most famous for his science fiction novel 1984, also wrote a children's novel, named Animal Farm, which is the story of how the farm animals rebels against the drunk and violent farmer. But after the revolution, a pig named Napoleon have great influence within the pig circle. Who also raise an army of shepherd dogs which he uses to execute a coup d'etat, and establish a far worse dictatorship than the farms previous owner.

There is pretty obvious comparisons to the russian revolution and Joseph Stalin's terror regime. It show us practicably step by step the soviet history, all the terror, reforms, suppression and deprivation that Stalin regime stood for. So is this a propaganda film, or not? superficially it is, but it also give us the facts and the natural reaction to that. And not all the pigs are evil, there were even some who supported the other animals. Talking about the movie in general, it's very dark and sad, even more macabre than a Disney film, that is probably not suited for every ages. But why not use animals? We do test everything on them, so that means animals can represent people so children can understand politics. Thumbs up.

Grade: B+

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"A Horror Delight"

VIY

Original Title: Вий (Vij)
Year: 1967
Country: Soviet Union
Language: Russian
Number: 477
Director: Georgi Kropachyov
Starring: Leonid Kuravlyov, Natalya Varley, Aleksei Glazyrin, Nikolai Kutuzov

Viy is by many stated as the very first horror film ever created in the Soviet Union. It's based on the Ukrainian 19th century story by Nikolai Gogol. It's the tale about the young seminary student named Khoma Brutus who's send out from his studies to go to a village to perform exorcism on a young maiden who just died but still haunts the village. Her father gives Khoma the task of spending three night alone with her corpse inside the church, which something of course is all other than a nice experience.

Looking at Viy with today's eyes, it's special effects are poor, and indeed with some very laughable blue-screen effects that is kind of awful, even at that time. But then again it's just funny, even though I feel that it's all done in a studio, which kind of destroy the experience. But it's still some very scary moments that would probably traumatize young children, but is a horror treat for the adult audience. I specially liked Natalya Varley's performance as the possessed girl. It's really scary. It is in fact a spooky film, and exhilarating horror film in true Tim Burton style, with some disney horror as we seen in Pinocchio and The Black Cauldron. Overall Viy is a horror film that passes the test as a horror film, but not the test of time. Thumbs up.

Grade: B-

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"Fassbinder = Fassbender"

SHAME

Year: 2011
Country: United Kingdom
Language: English
Number: 1092
Director: Steve McQueen
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale, Nicole Beharie

Steve McQueen's (not The Steve McQueen) Shame is a masterpiece, with a lot of shocking scenes that we are not used to, but that many of us boys will relate to so much that we feel the shame come over us. So just in case, just see it alone.

Shame is set in New York were we follow the thirty or something Brandon (Michael Fassbender) who seems like an ordinary New Yorker with a good looking face and body, a well paid office job and a fancy apartment. He does't stand out of the crowd if you had seen him. But behind closed doors he's a sex-addict who masturbate as much as possible, even i public bathrooms. He like to have sex with prostitutes, and some times stalks girls that he sees. Many of these doesn't sounds that bad, but it's when his sister, Sissy (Carey Mulligan) has come to live with him, because she has nowhere else to stay. And it's then the Shame comes to it rights, when she is down and need a brother now more then every, she's rejected, and her brother want's her out since shes in the way. The sex-addiction start to give consequences to the people around him.Shame is a macabre film to watch, but at the same time also a beautiful and sexy film thanks to it cinematography. It isn't only contains naked bodies, but also minutes long shots which is McQueen's trademarks. For example the scene where Brandon is jogging trough New York while listening to classical music, or when Sissy is singing Sinatra's New York, New York while we see the look at her face which show the quiet opposite of what the song is saying. We get a perfect view of the real New York as the city that never sleeps.

Michael Fassbender does what's to date his best performance, and I hope we get a lot of better competitive once. He does a marvelous performance, and is truly believable as the characters he's playing, plus he also doesn't look to pretty as most other actors these days. While most other actors still have something boyish with them, Michael Fassbender looks like a grown up, a average looking man, with a average looking body. And that is what makes him believable, plus he's character give us that impression that he's not what he is, that he seems a little shy and does't always want's to be the center of attention. But all this makes him interesting and attractive to most women. He plays a character with a wide range of personalities who he's able to hide. He's always wearing a mask, and in the end we don't really know who the real Brandon is. Fassbender is without a doubt the new Marlon Brando, and that's mainly because he's performance can be compared with Brando's performance in Last Tango in Paris.

I could go all the day talking about Fassbender but I think I said all that's important. My conclusion about Shame is that it's a movie that is strong, that we recognize us self and identify with Fassbender's character so much that's I think it's better if you see this movie alone. This is really a mind-blowing film, that might set your own life into perspective. Thumbs up.

Grade: A

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"The Girl with the Advertisement Tattoo"

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

Year: 2011
Country: United States
Language: English
Number: 1095
Director: David Fincher
Starring: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård
Oscar wins: Best Editing
Oscar nominations: Best Actress (Rooney Mara), Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing

I tried to be open minded. I tried to not compare it with the Swedish version. I tried to tell my self that this is an american adaption of the same book. But I failed. David Fincher's version of the Swedish best-selling novel by Stieg Larson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is for me just another american thriller with all the same american crap, like product placements, long unnecessary flashbacks that can be told by a few words, Stereotypical characters, to much information of who's who, while the excitement of finding it all out on your own is totally gone. And the fact that they chose to do the film in Sweden with some of the actors putting on a laughable Swedish accent. It seems like this movie was made hasty.

I didn't like any of the acting. I didn't like Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander. I think Noomi Rapace was better, creating a more mystical adult character with a dark past, while Mara is just a troubled teenagers which I don't feel any affection for, because it's seems more like a phase, rather than a way of life. And Stellan Skarsgård's performance is probably the one I hate most after Mara, because of his low key villain character with his stereotypical villain grunting voice. it's almost like a parody of a villain featured in a Naked Gun movie.

I don't care if this movie is closer to the book. All that I care about if this is a good film or not, which it wasn't. Maybe it's because I liked the Swedish version. Maybe it's because I'm to hanged up in movies and criticize every tiny detail. But the fact is this movie dragged. I can't understand what other people sees in this. I am probably the only person who didn't like it. A big thumbs down from me.

Grade: D

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"World War I with Disney Sparkles"

WAR HORSE

Year: 2011
Country: United States/India
Language: English
Number: 1098
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Jeremy Irvine, Peter Mullan, Benedict Cumberbatch, Emily Watson
Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Musical Score, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing

Steven Spielberg's War Horse is based on a children novel with the same name, and then I have to look at it as if I wear a child, because it's darn difficult to even like it as an adult. It all starts in a small quiet town in England, where a mare is giving birth to a young healthy colt, whom the teenage boy Albert Narracott is looking after and shows a great deal of love for, and names him Joey, and to all the villagers amazement is able to plow the whole field on just one day on a very young age. He is without a doubt a miracle horse. But when the first world war breaks out, Albert's father takes Joey to the town to sell him to the military, so he can pay the rent on the farm which he's about to lose. Joey is drafted into the war as a cavalry horse on the British side, but is after a bloody battle used by the Germans, and then is owned by a little French, and then the German again, etc. etc.

As an adult I think this movie could have been more realistic, more macabre, more merciless on the characters to really get the message through. But what we see here is that the feeling called Hope is what gonna get you through a war safe. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas had no difficulties to tell how it was, and so could this film. And it's very difficult to be amazed or surprised when movie trailers these days reveal the whole story. I also don't like the main character Albert with his crystal blue eyes, with an innocence of a Disney character, and so is it with the rest of the characters, by looks you know who's good and evil.

It is a good looking movie though, But if I look at it as child it's actually kind of a thrilling film. The horses in this movie really had a soul that was worth to keep and relate to, and we also can understand them as people, with the same feelings, compassion, bravery, hope and anger. They don't need any narration of any kind to be understood. John Williams delivers once again a good score, and the cinematography is great. I'm kind of split when it comes to the question if I like the movie or not. But I think if I ever had children I would probably watch it with them, and they would have cried. I know I'm a little sentimental but I give it a Thumbs up.

Grade: C

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"Trouble in Paradise"

THE DESCENDANTS

Year: 2011
Country: United States
Language: English
Number: 1101
Director: Alexander Payne
Starring: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Beau Bridges, Judy Greer
Oscar wins: Best Adapted Screenplay
Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (George Clooney), Best Editing

Alexander Payne's lasted drama-comedy The Descendants is another deep film, with an extremely well chosen cast that hit the right notes. Although I don't think it overcomes none of his earlier films like Sideways and About Schmidt it's still a pretty solid peace, and a superb performance by George Clooney in his prime.

The Descendants is set in Honolulu, Hawaii where the lawyer Matt King (George Clooney) is trying to prepare family and friends for the horrible news that his wife, Elizabeth who have been in a coma for weeks, and the doctors have told him that she never will recover, that she's in a comatose state, and that it's better to pull the plug. Matt already has enough trouble with his two daughters, Scottie and Alexandra whom he don't seems to understand. Alexandra who is in her late teens, suddenly tells her father that her mom had an affair with another man behind his back. And the rest of the movie we follow Matt trying to find the man she was sleeping with so he can inform that's his wife is dying.

This is a pretty good concept that Payne picked up. The idea of Hawaii as any other ordinary place in the states, with the same problems and crisis. Just because there's sunny beaches doesn't mean it's a permanent vacation. It's like Terms of Endearment, only set in Hawaii. George Clooney's performance isn't over done, he plays a perfectly realistic dad like Dustin Hoffman did in Kramer vs. Kramer. And there's also Shailene Woodley who does a perfect movie debut as Matt's teenage daughter. Thumbs up.

Grade: B+

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"The Perfect Cold War Tone"

TINKER TAYLOR SOLDIER SPY

Year: 2011
Country: United Kingdom/France/Hungary
Language: English/French/Russian/Hungarian
Number: 1096
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Starring: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, John Hurt
Oscar nominations: Best Actor (Gary Oldman), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Musical Score

Tomas Alfredson's adaption of the famous John le Carré novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. This is the story about the British Intelligence (Internally known as the circus) where the old top agent and acting chief George Smiley (Gary Oldman) have to clean up the mess from his deceased boss, Control (John Hurt) who have suspension of a double agent in the circus, who's been there for years. Every one is a suspect.

Well I haven't read the book, but I am familiar with le Carré's books, and I can see why the film is what it is, because most of the plot evolves inside the characters heads. But in this case it's kind of slow down the film, and it feel a little long, but at the same time you can almost hear the sprocket-wheels rotating inside Smiley's brain while he's thinking. Gary Oldman delivers what must be his life performance, he's totally convincing with his new look that doesn't look any think like him. The rest of the cast is also pretty strong. And the feeling of a on going cold war is clear. The possibility of war is still there.

Why do I give it a grade of three stars when I give this film so much good feedback? Because it felt to slow, and some times I felt some thing didn't happened. I tell you what I do; I read the book and then re-watch it. But for now I give it a marginal thumbs up.

Grade: C+

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"Nostalgia on it's Best"

THE ARTIST

Year: 2011
Country: France/Belgium
Language: Silent (with some english dialogue)
Number: 1103
Director: Michel Hazanavicius
Starring: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell

Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist is actually a silent movie made in the 21st century, using only title card and a musical score to tell the story besides the moving images. Who could have thought that they would eventually make a silent film now and that it would be a good one, a serious one with all the same elements, and with some meta film themes. This is the greatest tribute anyone could have made, and I hope this movie that can be as immortal as any other silent film.

The story takes place in the late 1920s where the silent actor George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) who's the most popular superstar of his time. But one day he bombs into and fall in love with the young Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) whom he meets out side of the premier of his newest movie. And they meet again at the set where Peppy and George really fall for each other, but it will never work because of their differences and George already got an annoying wife (Penelope Ann Miller). But suddenly an invention named talking pictures is about ruin George's career, while Peppy becomes the new star. How will George survive this?



This is simply the best way of celebrate the magic of movie in general, both silents and sounds. Many of the movies within a movie is pretty funny because of all the typical silent film trademarks. Jean Dujardin is simply a delight, and he's smile is so contagious that I can't help myself from laugh. He's screen partner Bérénice Bejo is also pretty charming and they have the perfect chemistry. There's also many good supporting actors, such as James Cromwell as George's faithful servant. And of course John Goodman as the stereotypical overweight Hollywood producer Al Zimmer who always have a cigar in his mouth. And I must not forget the other star, George's best friend and sidekick, a dog named Uggie.

It's actually kind of funny and mind blowing that this is the first silent film that I've watched in a movie theater, it was a special experience and I hope it's not the last. This movie deserves every of it's Academy Awards and the ticket was worth every penny. Thumbs up.

Grade: A

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