Hi folks, I couldn't wait to write this review after seeing The Princes And The Frog, for it was fabulous! My blogger buddy Nebular told me of another great movie!
The plot of this movie has obviously been inspired by the good old The Frog Prince fairy tale, but is very original. The graphics are crispy and so vividly colorful, making this one of the most visually striking films ever. The voices are perfect, the dialogs very lively throughout and often hilarious. You get to listen to a few pretty cool songs with such a unique blend of music.
I often rely on my blogger friend Nebular's movie review blog, CineMarvellous, to decide on what movies to watch. That's how I got to know of Coraline.
Coraline was greatly different from all other animation films I've seen. The plot and the sequencing were mostly different. Coraline Jones, a little girl, moves in to a new house with her parents. She is very inquisitive, and finds her parents rather strict, boring, restricting. One day, a kid in the neighborhood brings her a rag doll, which, much to her surprise, looks remarkably like her. Coraline later on discovers a tiny, locked door in side the house. When her mother opens the door for her, Coraline is disappointed to see only brick wall behind it. But some time after, she learns that a the door indeed leads some where, under special circumstances, some where she gets to do or have anything that might be impossible with her parents. Little does she know that this newly discovered, too-good-to-be-true place is nothing she ever bargained for...........
The movie is brilliant in the way it slowly builds up tension, with the anticipation that something sinister is about to happen. The sequencing and some absolutely brilliant music enhances that effect. I have never seen any other movie using music for that purpose as effectively as Caroline. The dialogs,voices,graphics are all of great quality. I highly recommend this film to you all movie lovers.
See the review on CineMarvellous
I'm grateful to Nebular for posting a very good review of this film here on Cninemarvelous because that's how I came to know this movie. I went straight for a trailer in you tube after reading his review. All looked very promising. When I finally watched the movie I was so glad that I did. Io Non Ho Paura, a.k.a. I'm not scared was a masterpiece.
In this gripping Italian movie is a plot that takes your fullest attention through out. It cats a group of kids living quite happily in a breath taking countryside of Italy, playing about carefree like birds. One day they ride on to an abandoned building. One of the kids, a boy, Fillipo, accidentally discovers a big hole dug on the ground and covered from above. He takes a peek in to it gets a nasty shock when he sees a child imprisoned inside.
Fillipo slowly builds a rapport with this locked-up stranger, and tries to figure out who he is, why he is kept there, and by whom, not quite realizing how what reveals it self to him would affect him and what it would demand of him.
This plot is so strong and full of suspense, keeps you wondering what would happen next, and the end is as appealing as the beginning. And you get see one of the best acting performance of a child ever. The selection of the locations couldn't have been better. And the director has used some symbolic, subtle things to express ideas that a hundred words wouldn't. Io Non Ho Paura is a very good example as to how have thriller effects suspense in a movie with out using blood curdling action sequences.
I just saw the movie Inkheart yesterday, and enjoyed it. It is about a father and a daughter who possess the mystical ability to bring the characters out of a story book if they read it aloud, an ability they didn't know they had until it was too late. I wouldn't go any deeper in to the plot here as I will only spoil it for you if I do.
I perceived this movie as one with a good mysterious plot that builds up lots of anticipation, and fairly good cinematography. I'm afraid acting performance of the cast in general is very mediocre. This movie has been shot at some of the most beautiful locations I've ever seen.
Inkheart the movie wasn't as well received as the book on which it was inspired.
I hope to get whole Inkheart trilogy and read it. If I do, I might post a review on Smart Readers, my book review blog.
I refer my favorite weekly science mag Vidusara in search of good sci-fi , movies to watch, and that's how I got to know of Signs. The review on the mag was impressive enough to persuade me to see the movie. The movie was really good in many aspects.
Lets start with the plot. Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) lives in a large corn farm with his son and daughter. He had been a priest, but after the death of his wife in a terrible accident, he no more has faith in god. His son suffers from asthma, and his daughter is hydrophobic. his younger brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix) has come to live with them after the tragedy, leaving his baseball career behind. One morning, they are all shock to see a massive crop circles in the corn field. They first think it to be a hoax by a neighbor, but what follows the incident along the next few days make them think otherwise. Strange figures appearing and disappearing at the farm in the dark, their dogs acting weird, other crop circles and UFO s appearing all over the world, and some other happenings that I wouldn't rather tell you so as not to spoil things for you, convince them of a possible alien invasion. The plot flows on with how they face what comes for them in the end.
What I liked ,most about Signs is the suspense and thriller effect it generates. Sound effects, lighting,camera angles, pace, and the feeling of anticipation have been used to cause an optimum effect on the audience, and above them all is the brilliant acting performance of all key characters.
Signs is more of a thriller/suspense movie, discusses deeply about man's faith, under the cover of a plot involving an alien invasion. So why don't you have a go at it too?
A bugs life is an animation movie about a colony of ants who were made slaves by a bunch of grass hoppers. I found the truly wonderful.
There is a colony of ants who work hard for all some gathering food, only to offer a very large portion of it to a bunch of bullying grasshoppers. Flik is an ant who is considered an oddball by the rest of the colony. He always invent things, and tries to make a difference. The real starting point of the plot is when Flick's newly invented harvesting machine knocks the pile of offerings for the hoppers in to a water puddle in the haste of getting in to the anthill as the hoppers approach the colony looking for the usual offering. The grasshoppers are furious to find no offering, and threaten and order that the ants somehow gather food for the offering, "before the last leave fall".
The movie has a good plot, the voices are brilliant, dialogs are fantastic, and the graphics and animations are superb.
I really did have such a wonderful time watching this movie, laughing so hard that my ribs nearly cracked. I would say Hot Fuzz is a film in which crime,suspense,action all so finely wrapped in humor.
Okay, time to take a peek in to the plot. Nicholas Angel ( Simon Pegg ) is a police officer of the Metropolitan Police Service of London. Hardly anything but the duty matters to him. His overly devotion to duty makes his fellow officers look bad, and he gets transfered to a small station in Gloucestershire. Though dignified as he is Angel is determined to do his best in the apparently crime-free neighborhood. Unfortunately, the entire staff of his new station is an ignorant and lazy lot.
Things get a new twist when a few of the villagers die in most odd accidents. Angel is convinced that they were all murdered,but to his dismay all the stations staff including the inspector is convinced they were all accidents. However, Angel is determined to find the truth............
Well, the beauty of the movie is the way this plot has been turned in to a comedy. In my opinion, all rest of the cast do a better job acting than Pegg who plays Angel, but his is a pretty good performance too. Watch the movie and see whether you could agree with me.
I really don't know why this movie was generally negatively received by movie critiques, I found the movie interesting.
The plot starts with a plane crash. Very few of the passengers survive. Psychotherapist Claire ( Anne Hathaway ) is called upon to counsel the survivors, who are vulnerable to post traumatic stress, in a group setting. One of the survivors, Eric ( Patrick Wilson ) , refuses to participate in group therapy. He looks too cheerful for someone who has just been in a horrible plane crash, which is assumed to be suggestive of significant psychological disturbance. Clair visits him at his place and talks with him,trying to help. He denies her professional help but indicates that he likes her. In the mean time some of her group therapy participants stop showing up for therapy. Things get really spooky when Clair and the patients notice a stranger looking at them during the group sessions. Then certain things happen that make Clair and her patients wonder whether the plane crash was not caused by pilot error as believed but by a defect of the plane, and the airline company is trying to remove evidence. Thinking that knowing the truth would help her patients, Clair tries to find out what really happened. What she ultimately discovers is......................
The end of the movie is totally unexpected and surprising. Hathaway does do the justice for her role, showing clearly the kind of difficulties faced by a psychotherapist, working with disturbed and uncooperative patients. She also has succeeded in showing that a psychologist is also a human being after all, vulnerable to all those emotions, stress, and so on. The way Patric plays the role of a post traumatic stress victim is nearly perfect. The excellent cinematography of this movie has given it an
air of mystery in a very fine manner.
I'll conclude this review by saying that Passengers is a movie with a very unique theme, a dramatically surprising end, very good acting, and excellent cinematography.
When I read a review of this movie, I couldn't wait to see it. When I finally saw it, it turned out to be even better than mentioned in that review. Shutter Island is a psychological mystery-thriller with a very strong plot and probably the best acting performance by Leonardo DiCaprio.
The plot is set in 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) investigate about a patient being missing from Ashecliff Hospital for the criminally insane on Shutter Island. As teddy stays in the Island attending his assignment his deceased wife visits him on a dream and tells him that the missing patient is actually still on the island, as well as the man who once set fire to Teddy's house, in which she died. Teddy himself suspects of some malpractice being conducted by the staff of the facility and pokes in to almost every corner, and odd things keep popping up. What finally reveals itself for him is..............
The end of the movie was so unexpected, and that's the best part. DiCaprio's acting in this movie is unbelievable, that good. The art direction is superb, the environment of the island has been created with a bone chilling air of mystery. Shutter Island is an all around great movie.
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Produced by Martin Scorsese
Bradley J. Fischer
Mike Medavoy
Arnold W. Messer
Written by Laeta Kalogridis
Steven Knight (uncredited)
Dennis Lehane (Novel)
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio
Ben Kingsley
Mark Ruffalo
Michelle Williams
Music by Robbie Robertson (supervision)
CinematographyRobert Richardson
Editing by Thelma Schoonmaker
Studio Phoenix Pictures
Appian Way Productions
Sikelia Productions
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) February 19, 2010
Running time 138 min.
Country United States
Language English
A problem with many American science fiction movies that they are mainly action/thriller movies with just a touch of science. But Contact is truly an exception in the science plays a bigger role in it.
The plot is woven around Dr. Eleanor Arroway, [Jodie Foster ] a scientist determined to capture some radio signal transmitted by any extra terrestrial intelligence. She has a hard time continuing her research, with the majority of her fellow scientist and even sponsors thinking she is on a wild goose chase.
But the whole world gets exited when she eventually does receives an encoded signal apparently transmitted from the star Vega. The message shows the video Adolf Hitler's welcoming speech at the 1936 Summer Olympics. Apparently the TV tranmition of that speech had reached far out in the space, received by some alien beings, and transmitted back to the earth. Further decoding of the message reveals a set of instructions to build a very sophisticated machine that is believed capable of transporting a single person to Vega.
Over much discussion and argument, the Federal government decides to build the machine. After some dramatic incidents, Dr. Eleanor eventually becomes the Earth's representative who would volunteer to go in the machine. What she discovers after the machine is activated with her in it is,.....................
I consider this to be the best sci fi movie I have seen so far, though Jodie Foster's performance as the main actress was not much impressive and the end of the movie was a little awkward.
Vantage point is a political-thriller movie with a very unique editing that holds the audience's curiosity and enhances the suspense.
The plot is woven around an assassination attempt of the president of United States in Salamanca, Spain, where he attends an international treaty designed to combat global terrorism. The movie presents the various parts of the event as seen by eight different parties from different angles at deferent times.The audience has to make scene of the situation by taking the eight pieces together.
The film contains really fast moving and thrilling action and a lot of suspense. And the actin performance of the whole cast is very good too. The only and a significant draw back is that the there is no point to the plot, it's just a mare assassination attempt,presented in such a manner that it gets the full attention of the audience. At the end if the movie, you will wonder, "wow, that movie was one of a kind, great action, acting is good too, but there wasn't any real story, eh?". But trust me, you wouldn't regret seeing it.
Directed by Pete Travis
Produced by Neal H. Moritz
Written by Barry L. Levy
Starring Dennis Quaid
Matthew Fox
Forest Whitaker
Richard T. Jones
Bruce McGill
Eduardo Noriega
Zoe Saldana
Edgar Ramirez
Sigourney Weaver
William Hurt
Ayelet Zurer
Music by Atli Örvarsson
Cinematography Amir Mokri
Editing by Stuart Baird
Studio Relativity Media
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date(s) February 22, 2008
Running time 90 minutes
Country United States
Language English
This movie shows us how misarable war can make people's lives, specially those who are not engaed in it. It shows us parents losing children, children losing parents, family members losing one another, even parents rejecting their children. It shows what horrible things some people can do to others, driven by the extrenme feelings towards a particular religeon, race, or ideology, going way against any religeon's core principles.
The movie leaves you shoked, sad, thinking. Showing some of the best acting performances music ever, this movie is a masterpiece.
Directed by Predrag Antonijevic
Produced by Oliver Stone
Written by Robert Orr
Starring Dennis Quaid
Stellan Skarsgård
Nastassja Kinski
Nataša Ninković
Sergej Trifunović
Music by David Robbins
Distributed by Lions Gate Films
Release date(s) November 20, 1998
Running time 103 min.
Language English & Serbo-Croatian
A problem I have with most Hollywood action/thriler movies is that their stunts are far too exagerating and unrealistic. Among the few exceptions are movies such as Saving Private Ryon, Cliff Hanger, and Shooter is a bit close to that league. It also las a good plot.
Retired Gunnery Seargent Bob Lee Swagger(Mark Wahlberg ) of US Marine Scouts, one of the very best snipers of the world, lives a solitary life in his mountain home. But tat's a about to change. A sertain Colonal Issac Johnson( Danny Glover) visits Swagger and and asks for his help to track down an unknown sniper who is rumoured to try to assaninate the President of US soon. As his patriatism gives in, Swagger reluctantly accepts. Then Swagger visits the three places where the president is scheduled
visit, and with careful observation,picks Pheladelphia as the most likely place to be chosen any sniper wanting to assasinate the president.
On the day of the President's presence in Pheladelphia, Swagger keeps watch for the mysterious sniper, together with a local polieman. What's happens is quite beyond what Swagger has been expecting. The Ethiopean archbishop, participating the sane event with the Presivent, is who gets assasinated, and, at the same time, the policeman shoots Swagger too. Though injured, Swagger escapes.
Swagger is suspected fot the assasination.The plot flows with Swagger's desperate attemts to untwist the truth behind this set up and prove his innosance.
Mark Wahlberg does absolute justice to his role in this movie, and I must say all the rest of the cast perform really well too.
Directed by Antoine Fuqua
Produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura
Written by Stephen Hunter (novel)
Jonathan Lemkin (screenplay)
Starring Mark Wahlberg
Danny Glover
Ned Beatty
Michael Peña
Tate Donovan
Kate Mara
Rade Šerbedžija
Mike Dopud
Levon Helm
Music by Mark Mancina
Cinematography Peter Menzies
Editing by Conrad Buff
Eric Sears
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) March 23, 2007
Running time 125 minutes
Country United States
Language English
I thought to review this movie solely because of the acting performance of Nicolas Cage and John Travolta. Otherwise it's pretty much an ordinary action-thriller movie.
Sean Archer(John Travolta) is an FBI agent who's primary objective is to capture Castor Troy(Nicolas Cage),a notorious criminal who also killed Archer's son accidentally in an attempt to eliminate Archer. Archer is obsessive with the case,and his family life is greatly compromised by that.
Eventually Archer and his team succeeds in closing upon Troy and his brother. After some violent hassle, Troy gets knocked in to a coma,just after boasting about a bomb that will destroy Los Angeles,and his brother is captured.
Out of the sheer need to locate and deactivate the bomb,a black bag operation is executed. A medical scientist disguises Archer to look remarkably like Troy by some highly sophisticated and new surgical procedure.
Then archer is sent to the jail where Troy's brother is kept,pretending to be Troy.
But things change when Troy suddenly regains consciousness. He holds the medical scientist and Archer's boss hostage and demands that he be disguised as Archer. This done,he kills the scientist and the boss and destroys all the deviance of the surgery.
Then Troy starts playing around being Archer,fooling every one in the FBI as well as Archer's wife and daughter.
Archer is desperate,unable to convince any body about what's going on.He takes the only step available. He escapes the jail,acts like Troy,looking for a way to solve the mess.
The plot goes on an obvious direction from there. What's significant is how well Cage and Travolta both play two personalities. It's as if it has happened for real. It's worth seeing the movie even just to experience that unbelievable performance.
Directed by John Woo
David Permut
Produced by Barrie M. Osborne
Terence Chang
Written by Mike Werb
Michael Colleary
Starring John Travolta
Nicolas Cage
Music by John Powell
Michael A. Reagan (source music)
Cinematography Oliver Wood
Editing by Steven Kemper
Christian Wagner
Distributed by North America:
Paramount Pictures
International:
Touchstone Pictures
Release date(s)June 27, 1997
Running time 141 min.
Country U.S.A.
Language English
Moon is a great science fiction-psychological thriller movie,one of the greatest I've ever seen. It presents the tragic destiny of person,fallen victim to a world driven by advanced technology and,let's say,greed.
Sam Bell(Sam Rockwell)is all alone on the moon,working for a company called "Lunar Industries",gathering Helium and sending to earth,to fulfill earth's energy demand.He is stationed on a base automated by a very sophisticated technology,with an equally advanced robot named Gerty.
There's only two more weeks to finish his three year contract on the moon and he is very excited about going back to his wife and daughter. Some how there has been no live communication between the earth and the moon he has only been able to communicate with recorded messages.Sam has also been having hallucinations since recently. He sees teenage girl around,now and then.
One day he gets on a rover and goes to the Helium harvesting machine to get the next load ready to be sent to earth in a capsule. As he gets close,his hallucinatory girl appears on the path,and Sam crashes the rover on the harvester in his confusion. He just manages to put his helmet on before loosing consciousness.
When he later wakes up in the infirmary of the base,Gerty tells him of the accident,but Sam Doesn't remember it. Sam is also told that a rescue team from Earth to repair the damaged harvester he is not allowed out side the base.
But Sam gets ever so suspicious when he accidentally overhears a live communication between Earth and Gerty. He sabotages one of the gas pipe of the base and persuades Gerty to let him out to fix it.
Once out side,Sam heads for the harvester instead. There he finds some one unconscious in a rover,his own double!
He brings the unconscious man to the base and gets Gerty to put him in the infirmary and give necessary care.
When he recovers, the two identical men start accusing each other for being a clone.But they eventually get over the grudge and start working together to unearth the mystery behind their existence. What they find out is........
Well,watch the movie! It's a masterpiece! One distinctive feature of this film is that there is only one human character in almost the whole film. One another thing is that the whole plot takes place on the Moon. Sam Rockwell does do justice to the character of a man working alone on a lifeless planet,shut away,only to face a totally unacceptable reality in the end.
Directed by Duncan Jones
Produced by Stuart Fenegan
Trudie Styler
Written by Nathan Parker
Duncan Jones
Cast Sam Rockwell
Kevin Spacey
Dominique McElligott
Music by Clint Mansell
Cinematography Gary Shaw
Editing by Nicolas Gaster
Studio Liberty Films
Stage 6 Films
Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics
Release date(s) 23 January 2009 Sundance)
17 July 2009 (UK)
Running time 97 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Nicolas Cage plays the role of a complicated character in this film. He, Roy Walter, is a con man who earns a fortune by tricking people in some ways, together with his side kick Frank( Sam Rockwell). Roy is severely neurotic, can't tolerate dirt, obsessive compulsive and there for is a loner, divorced, and suppresses a crush on a woman who also seems to like him. Following an intense neurotic attack one day, he visits a new physician who councils him and suggests that he makes contact with his ex wife. Eventually he sees his daughter who apparently likes and understands him. She steps in to his life penetrating all his phobias and ends up settling down in his apartment, claiming to have quarreled with her mother. Living with her is like an exposure therapy that his phobias begin to subside. Just as the life starts to look bright, things go horribly wrong when one of Roy's con victims encounter him, his daughter and partner. In a violent struggle, the daughter shoots the challenging customer. Just as Roy manages to let his daughter get away with Frank, the enraged client knocks him out cold. After this incident the plot reveals a tremendous twist in itself. Watch the movie and see for yourself. It's a beautiful film. which revolves around Nicolas Cage's unbelievably fantastic acting.
Directed by Ridley Scott
Produced by Ridley Scott
Steve Starkey
Sean Bailey
Jack Rapke
Ted Griffin
Screenplay by Ted Griffin
Nicholas Griffin
Script based on Matchstick Men: A Novel about Grifters with Issues (2002)
Cast Nicolas Cage
Alison Lohman
Sam Rockwell
Bruce Altman
Bruce McGill
