Grudge Match – A Film Review

In those rare occasions that both my husband and I have a Saturday afternoon off, we tend to watch a movie together, that we have not had a chance to see at the theater. This week we finally managed to see “Grudge Match”, a film starring Sylvester Stallone (Razor) and Robert De Niro (The Kid) , as two older gentlemen, former talented boxers, who never got the chance to fight that re-match, De Niro’s character was always hoping for.

Here is the trailer:

We truly enjoyed this movie, not because it was really clever, or had many plot twist, but because it was funny, and took a serious stab at the main actors, who seemed to enjoy making fun of their past roles, while still embodying these characters with graze and depth.

Training Scene:

With the addition of Kim Basinger in the mix, as well as Jon Bernthal as Robert’s characters son, and a few scenes with L.L. Cool J. and you have an entertaining mix, that is worth a watch.

Alexander (The Movie) – A Review

 

Movie: Alexander

Release Year: 2004

Director: Oliver Stone

Rating: 5/5 Stars

I have always been fascinated by Ancient History. It was my favorite subject in school, and is my favorite subject to teach. Out of this reason, and many others, I decided to watch Alexander, directed by Oliver Stone, in its extended cut version, today.

While of course this is a movie rather then a documentary, produced by an epic, and larger then life director, it is essentially the story of a great man. There are sure ways the execution of it could have been done better – rather then switching back and forth within the time line, it could have been done linear, but the care it showed for each individual character was superb. As a fan of Jared Leto, I was drawn to his performance, which was as I expected exceptional, as the best friend, and essentially true love of Alexander. Colin Farrell gave an charismatic, emotional and convincing performance, even if it was considered controversial, and I have a feeling not well received because of that. Glad, that I had only heard of a hint of the controversy about the movie and its main characters relationship with two males, to whom he was closer then any woman, I saw only the depth of their relationship, rather then the dissatisfaction that others have expressed about the film, because of it.
The fight scenes where epic and grant, nothing less is to be expected by an Oliver Stone project. Sometimes the gore was much, but war is not pretty, and should not be described as such, and back then it was even more personal and therefore more explicit. Maybe it also hinted on stereotypes when it expanded to include the people of Asia, but it is after all a movie from the view of a limited worldview, of the times of the beginning of exploration, rather then after it.

In all I really enjoyed the movie, I enjoyed the care of portrayal of each characters, the emotion, the visual execution, and its depth. Having one of my favorite actors, and musicians in its cast (Jared Leto), was the icing on the cake.

Serena – A Short Film (Review)

I love artfully done short films, may they be a documentary, a extended music video turned into a short film, or a story. Wigs has brought forth a few short films on their channel (available to stream on their channel as well as their YouTube Channel). “Serena” is one of these creations, masterfully done, staring Jennifer Garner (Dallas Buyers Club) and Alfred Molina (Not Without My Daughter).

Centering around a very confined space – the confessional of a Catholic Church, both manage to capture the essence and power of a tender story, a woman falling for the “wrong” man, the man on the other side of the confessional, turning the setting almost romantic. This short film, and the expressive performances, are a real gem.  Watch it for yourself:

I truly think that the casting for this project was precise, and could not have been better, with Alfred Molina using his close-ups to portray an deeply convincing Priest.

I invite you to explore more of the short stories and documentaries, as well as ground-breaking series that Wigs has to offer.

X Is For X-Men: Days of Future Past – News

The release of X-Men: Days of Future Past is drawing closer (May, 23rd 2014), but not while already drawing some unwilling attention, not because of bad reviews, but because  of Director Bryan Singer’s announcement, that he will not be attending any of the premier festivities due to the abuse allegations against him. While I will not comment here on the case, I do consider this a fair and wise move, as it will take away the attention from him, and refocuses it on the film.

One of the pictures from the movie does bring us some mystery – Quicksilver is holding a young girl on his lap, and even though Brian Singer has denounced the possibilities of Quicksilver’s sister Scarlet Witch making an appearance, it does make us fans wonder, who then this little princess is, if not her.

See for yourself:

 

I for my part will look forward to this installation of one of my favorite Marvel characters, with the high hopes to be just as entertained as I was with the previous creations of this franchise.

Are you looking forward to this installation of the X-Men? Which of the Marvel franchises is your favorite?

On a side note: Bryan Singer also credited as the producer of a very interesting drama, I just recently wrote about, and which premiered last week: The Black Box 

 

J Is For Johanssen

As in Scarlett Johanssen that is. You know her from the Iron Man movies, as the voice in “Her”, and also, “Robot Chicken”.

Scarlett Johanssen has been busy. Yes I know she is pregnant, not what I meant, but besides working on Avengers 2 and having a kid, she has two movies coming out shortly (or have been released last week), which both sound weirdly interesting. Oh, and a Black Widow movie has just been announced! Busy woman, good for her. Let me start with “Lucy”

Lucy

Release Date: August 8th 2014

By: Universal Pictures

Director/Writer: Luc Besson

In Lucy, Scarlett plays a young woman who gets caught in the midst of a dark deal, waking up with drugs sown into her stomach. As one of them bursts, her abilitiy to access her brain becomes enhanced, leaving her able to manipulate her environment beyond what should be physically possible. It is a movie tailored to Scarlett’s abilities, her fighting skills she equired for her role as Black Widow come to display. Impressive action scenes seemed to be littered throughout this dark movie, that also features Morgan Freeman.

Here is the trailer:

And here is the second one:

Under The Skin

Release Date: April 4, 2014

Director: Jonathan Glazer

Under The Skin is a surreal, limited release movie, with Sci-Fi elements. It is based on a novel by Michel Faber.
The main character, an Alien, played by Johanssen, takes on human form in order to seduce men, so she can harvest their organs, under the supervision of another alien, who has taken on the form of a male motorcyclist.

 

Both movies are certainly worth taking a closer look at, building around a strong female lead character. Enjoy!

 

 

 

And Action! The Show Must Go On

We are a family of creative people, of artists, who need an outlet of some form or another to not go stir crazy. Creating is in our blood, so today’s daily prompt question made me smile:

If you were involved in a movie, would you rather be the director, the producer, or the lead performer? (Note: you can’t be the writer!).

Photographers, artists, poets: show us CELEBRITY.

Ah, the movies – the beauty and artistic expression of cinema! I spent many hours of my childhood within the confinements of a movie theater, which took me out of the bounds of a rather harsh childhood and transformed my life into something magical.

I still love the movies, the small artistic pieces as well as the big productions such as anything created by Marvel (so sue me, I am a Geek). It is not to my surprise that my daughter is two years away from embarking on a journey to study Film and a son who wants  to study Video Game creating, and song writing. My husband is itching for the day when my writing will make enough money for him to hand over our business to someone else, and he can devote his time to artistic photography. So, like I said, art is in our blood, it is who we are with every inch of our being.

But which role would I take within a movie, if I could not be the writer? Well maybe, in the midst of writing scripts, I will be one day as lucky as one of my personal heroes Joss Whedon and be able to direct, not just write cinema. I have no need to be in front of the camera, but I have to be in the middle of it, get my hands dirty, put together the pieces that make the stories come from paper to the wondrous creations I have been so lucky to see.

Maybe one day, one of you will be watching one of these movies, with my name at the end of the credits. If not, that is okay too, because writing is, and always will be my first and biggest artistic love. But it would the icing on the cake.

See you in Hollywood

 

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