The Paperboy

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron, Nicole Kidman
Director: Lee Daniels
Rating: ●○○○○ - a joke

I went to see Paperboy not sure of what to find but curious to see a movie with Nicole Kidman who I haven't seen around for a while.
Next time I should probably do my homework.
I did not like Paperboy.
The plot does not stick together, to start with.
A reporter and his brother (Matthew McConaughey and Zac Efron) investigate the events surrounding a murder in an effort to exonerate a man on death row. But it is not clear why. In the middle of this, pops up Nicole Kidman a pretty naive woman, who falls in love with the accused jailed man that has never met but that wants to marry.
It simply does not make sense.
The characters then are ridiculously exaggerated and unreal.
As a result this turns this movie from an intended drama to a farce.
And then we arrive to the most ridiculous scene ever seen on the big screen (sorry for the spoiler): Zac Efron goes for a swim, gets attacked (at 2 meters from the shore) from a herd of aggressive jellyfishes, manages to drag himself to the shore and passes out (?) and what does Nicole Kidman do to save him? She pisses on him... yes, just as you read it...

Flight

Starring: Denzel Washington, Kelly Reilly
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Rating: ●●●○○ - Missing something

I was wondering what happended with Robert Zemeckis.
The Oscar Winner director of Forrest Gump (but also of Back to the Future) had not been directing a "traditional" movie since Cast Away with Tom Hanks in 2000, having switched to digital movies (The Polar Express, Beowulf, A Christmas Carol) in the mean time.
Now after 13 years Zemeckis returns back with Flight.
If you watched the trailers, this is not really the hi-adrenaline/catastrofic movie that may appear from the flight emergency landing scene.
Flight is the essentially the battle of a man against his addiction to alcool, skilfully interpreted by Denzel Washington and a story about fall and redention and about having a second chance.
A good movie overall that however appears to lack some flavour and intesity. You wonder what would this movie be if directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perros, Biutiful, 21 Grams, Babel).

Django Unchained

Starring: Leonardo Di Caprio, Jamie Foxx, Christopher Waltz
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Rating: ●●●●○ - The Revenge

Here is the second episode of Tarantino's personal remix of Italian genre movies, after Inglorious Basterds (from Italian Inglorious Bastards of 1977 by Enzo G. Castellari).
Genre movies (in Italian "Cinema di Genere") refers to a style of Italian movies of the 60s and 70s by which the Hollywood colossal films were reinvented compensating a lower budget with a stronger, edgier, violent and expressive cinema.
Among the themes that encountered higher international success were Horror, with the movies of by Dario Argento, and the so called Spaghetti Western, mostly with the movies by Sergio Leone (true masterpieces) and fellow Sergio Corbucci (all with the unmissable Morricone soundtrack).
Sergio Corbucci, in particular, directed Django in 1968, a western based story of revenge starring Franco Nero.
The first sequences of Quentin Tarantino's Django start from here, with opening titles and direction style taken directly from 1960s Spaghetti Westerns.
But this movie is not a remake, its a new interpretation of the original theme of western revenge. Therefore, soon after the opening titles, Tarantino's Django walks with its own feet, following the original plot assembled by Tarantino, who confirms to be the best movie writer out there.
The links with the original Django are present in Morricone's soundtrack and in a small part played by Franco Nero.
Tarantino's movies usually don't have anything to teach, there isn't a good or cause cause.
However, in Inglorious Basterds things started to change, Nazis were the bad guys bad and deserved to die. A bit too simple.
Here Tarantino wants to show how horrific was slavery. This time the theme touches directly the conscience of the Unites States. Its shameful slavery and racist past has been exposed several times recently at the movies, the last one being the excellent "Lincoln" which has just been reviewed in this blog.
But while these other movies focus on the humiliation of the discrimination, Quentin uses his violent and sadistic point of view to show us how horrible slavery was. And for once, with all the blood and the gore, Tarantino is not exaggerating.

Lincoln

Starring: Daniel Day Lewis, Tommy Lee Jones
Director: Steven Spielberg
Rating: ●●●●● - A Landmark

Lincoln is a great movie.
Expectations, to be honest, were high, given that we are talking about a movie directed by Steven Spielberg, with Daniel Day Lewis, about one of the most important and influential American presidents.
The movie is not however, a biopic, in the sense that the real focus of the movie is not Lincoln but rather the debate in America around the approval of the 13th amendment of the constitution that abolished slavery, a turning point in World's history.
It is not by chance that this movie has been made now with Obama president, because it represents the latest step in the Afro-American battle for equality, a process started with the approval of 13th amendment 150 years ago.
The movie requires a bit of historic preparation, and gives for granted that you already understand the context of the secession war and the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.
As said it is not a biopic, but a movie about politics, and in this period when everybody complains about bad politicians (regardless of where you live) gives us one of the greatest examples of what being a good politician means.
In conclusion I want to highlight the immense performance of Daniel Day Lewis as president Lincoln, surly worth the Oscar.
Excellent movie, excellent acting performance.

The Impossible

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts
Director: Juan Antonio Bayona
Rating: ●●●○○ - Hopeful

The Impossible is a movie based on a the true story of a young family vacationing in Thailand as they struggle to survive and reunite in the aftermath of the devastating 2004 Southeast Asia tsunami.
That natural disaster was the probably the worst in history killing over 230,000 people in fourteen countries.
The beginning of this movie is incredibly similar to the first part of Hereafter directed by Clint Eastwood in 2010. In both movies we as spectators are submerged by the tsunami wave and struggle to get out of the flood.
Then while Hereafter moves on and develops other themes, The Impossible focuses on the experience of that tragedy, making you live the struggle for survival and the panic of losing your loved ones, it brings you there with all the drama.
Because of this The Impossible ends up being a powerful movie thanks also to the good interpretations by Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts.
The only limit that I would find to this movie is that the story is a bit straight forward, without many surprises.
Perhaps after the shock of the tsunami wave, no one wants more surprises in this movie.

Les Miserables

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Russel Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen
Director: Tom Hooper
Rating: ●●●●○ - Epic

The screen transposition of this successful London west-end and Broadway musical has been done in grand style.
The stellar cast to start with (which includes a couple of Oscar winners), with a great interpretation from the prestigious wolverine Hugh Jackman and his Aussie fellow, but fierce enemy on screen, Russel Crowe, and including also great performances by Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen (aka Borat).
Then the costumes and the setting in a unsettled France of the beginning of the 1800.
Finally the poignant and intense story derived from this classic of Victor Hugo.
All these factors make this film a great movie production.
But...
I suffer from a strange allergy that makes be rattle in agony when I see a movie in which the characters speak to each other singing.
In this movie all (or at least 99%) of the dialogues are sung, so for me it has been a painful 2hs and a half.
So if you like musicals, this will probably be your favourite movie ever.
But, if you suffer from my same allergy, make no mistake, see something else.

Life of Pi

Starring: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan
Director: Ang Lee
Rating: ●●●○○ - Over-promising

After the Christmas break, I started the year with Life of Pi, movie transposition of the successful book by Yann Martel published in 2001, directed by Oscar Winner Ang Lee (Sense and Sensibility, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain).
The main feature of this movie are the images, the visual effects and a finally proper and skillful use of the 3D feature, the best since Avatar. So in case you wonder, yes this one is worthwhile watching in 3D.
The movie has a first part based in India which deals with the theme of religions vs. rationality which I find very interesting, though you have a feeling that you are missing out something compared to the book.
Then there is a second part about the kid and the tiger. This part is the one where images and the photography come in support of an otherwise slow paced section, which is the the core of the movie, the main central part.
Finally there is the conclusion, in which again, you feel that you are a bit rushed into. In the first part you are promised a story that will show you the existence of God (nothing less), but in the end I felt I was promised more than what has been delivered.
So this is a visually excellent movie, an inspiring story, with some pace issues here and there (derived from the difficulty of transposing a spiritual book into a movie) but overall a movie worth watching.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Starring: Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman
Director: Peter Jackson
Rating: ●●●●○ - Does not disappoint

This week's movie is a much expected one: The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey
It is worth saying that I have not read the book and so I will not comment on much faithful to the original the story is.
But I did see the Lord of the Rings trilogy of which the Hobbit is the prequel.
If we ignore this for a moment and evaluate the Hobbit as a stand alone movie, then we could say that it is a bit slow at parts (the dinner of the Dwarves at Bilbo's place for example) and that the writers did not even try to come up with a kind of conclusion for this episode.
But we know that there will be two other episodes of the Hobbit due to be released soon, that have been already filmed.
For now, we as viewers just need to follow Bilbo in his travels though fantastic landscapes, Gandalf, the Gollum, battles with Ogres, and most of all... the Ring.
The whole production team is the same as previous Oscar winning trilogy, starting from director Peter Jackson who wrote and directed the previous one.
So if you liked the Lord of the Rings and you want to see more of it, you know you cannot miss this one.

End of Watch

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Peña
Director: David Ayer
Rating: ●●●●○ - Involving

I liked End of Watch, I think it was a well done movie.
The story is around the friendship of two street policemen, played by Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko, Brokeback Mountain, Jarhead) and Michael Peña (who played the cop also in World Trade Center).
The movie focuses on the day to day lives of these two cops, their fears, their feelings, rather than the usual crime-punishment seen usually in this genre of films. In other words, you see more dialog between the two than adrenaline-type chasing action scenes.
Don't expect this to be a movie about zero tolerance, or the I-am-the-law kind. It is a honest portrait of two ordinary guys doing their job.
Clearly there is police action here, but like maybe never before, you see the action through the eyes of these two policemen.
The film is shot mocking a handy video recorder, in particular the one Jake Gyllenhaal always carries with him during his patrols, giving this movie a Youtube/Real TV feeling, a clever trick that makes End of Watch very realistic and involving.