What the Film » Cinema releases

Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland

what film — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 18:09:10 +0000

Learning that Tim Burton’s next film is his very own interpretation of Alice in Wonderland does not come as a surprise. How could such a milestone of fantasy literature and film production not inspire one of the most creative and imaginative minds of Hollywood? Burton’s story could be considered half a remake and half a sequel of the original one, since the protagonist here is an 18 year old Alice Kingsleigh (Mia Wasikowska), who does not remember her past wonder adventures but will re-live the fantastic journey and encounter all of the iconic characters who have populated this amazing tale.

Nonetheless, the director has declared his intention is to thoroughly recreate the sacred spirit of the story and, unlike all his previous movies, make it perfetely consistent with Lewis Caroll’s work. Other actors in the new movies’ cast are: the unfailing Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, Michael Sheen as the White Rabbit, Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat, Christopher Lee as the Jabberwock and Anne Hathaway as the White Queen.

The movie is to be released in March. In the meantime, Walt Disney is marketing the product in true wonderland style by sending to several film journalists mysterious parcels with a a really unusual copy of the novel Alice in Wonderland: a sort of chinese box made of books of different dimensions with images of the upcoming Burton’s film. At the heart of the boxes, a USB pen drive with the script “Read me “ and “This key will lead you beyond the gate of Wonderland”…

Top Box Office Movies: Avatar

what film — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 23:17:40 +0000

Avatar is certainly the film pushing science fiction to the next level. This movie has immediately had a huge success in the US from his first week after being released and is believed to repeat the same in Europe where it will be distributed in January.

James Cameron had in mind the idea for the movie since 1995 but realised he did not have the technological means to go on with the production. He worked along with the top minds of the industry to develop the motion capture technologies which make Avatar one of the most spectacular and jaw dropping 3D films out there.

The story is set in 2154 on Pandora, a toxic planet light years from the Earth, populated by blue skinned Na’vi indigenous. The protagonist Jake Sully, a disabled ex-marine, has been selected by the RDA corporation for the planet colonisation “Avatar” project. He enters the hostile environment with his consciousness in the body of an artificial Na’vi in order to better cope with the natural and survive without oxygen.

Jake will eventually find himself blending with the native population through Neytiri, a female Na’vi who will make him part of the tribe’s culture and the natural environment. Throughout the story, the ex-soldier will strive between his aim of establishing peace between humans and Na’vi and, on the other hand, the occupation interests of the corporation.

Christmas Movies: Sherlock Holmes

what film — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:27:50 +0000

The latest adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s character, Sherlock Holmes, sees Robert Downey Jr. in the role of the famous detective and Jude Law as his trustworthy assistant Dr. Watson. The plot of the movie directed by Guy Ritchie is not following one of Doyle’s narration but presents an original story with Holmes facing a new enemy, Lord Blackwell (played by Mark Strong) who is planning a satanic conspiracy endangering the entire country.

The film therefore takes the freedom to reinvent and almost revolutionize the iconic character. If you expect to see the well-known detective in his tweed outfit with his unfailing magnifying glass and typical British composure, you will soon be deceived. Sherlock Homes only saves here his legendary perspicacity and intelligence. He is otherwise depicted as a womanizer with gambling issue and the thug attitude of those who never back down in front of a fight. The film is of course set in nineteenth century London, a dark and unrecognizable metropolis which levels of daily crime, violence and homicides makes it look closer to a far-west town rather than to the hometown of British monarchy.

Nonetheless, the work is a great homage to Doyle’s novels in the way it is dominated by the charisma of the protagonist, with his out-of-the-common mind, and his companionship with Watson. The successful mix of Hollywood action movie style and the depth of its literary origin has so far been recognized in the film’s much acclaimed debut in cinemas.

Oliver Parker’s Dorian Gray

what film — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:00:37 +0000

There have been several past attempts in transferring the most famous novel by Oscar Wilde on the big screen. This movie, however, looks more to be a re-interpretation rather than a faithful adaptation of the perturbing novel.

In fact, Oliver Parker’s work has a particular focus on facts and facets of the main character that Oscar Wilde had only left to the reader’s imagination, even by pushing the shooting script further and introducing non existing characters in the original novel.

Without setting on the side the pivotal theme of The Picture of Dorian Gray, that is the cult of eternal beauty and the primacy of art on life (it is one’s life that is to be an artistic creation and not art that is to reproduce life), the film is especially centred on the process of depravation following Dorian’s pact with the devil for eternal beauty and youth in exchange of his own soul.

The movie sets out the novel’s original plot of Dorian Gray (Ben Barnes), a young man of charming beauty arriving in the London of late XIX century, where the character soon becomes enticed by dandy Lord Henry Wotton (Colin Firth) into the life of hedonistic seek of pleasure. The painting of him made by artist Basil Hallward (Ben Chaplin) will embody the dissolution of his soul behind the never fading beauty of his appearance.

The peculiar contribution of the film though is the insights into the dark side of the story with explicit scenes of Dorian’s devotion to lust and pleasure. Also, the picture of Dorian itself is shown in the film as a living horripilant creature locked away to rot and uttering back-shivering sounds. It is certainly this type of elements powered by the use of special effects that are adding a horror twist to the story’s already decadent flavour.

The final part and ending of the film take a decisive distance from that of the novel which might seem disappointing for Oscar Wilde’s lovers. It is probably best to see the movie as being an independent piece of work, which would also explain the looks of Dorian Gray being quite different from the blonde young man with blue eyes narrated in the novel. This movie takes inspiration from the novel and does present, nonetheless, the whole spirit of Wilde leaving the right spaces for his famous aphorisms and conception of life, art and beauty.

Robert Zemeckis – A Christmas Carol

what film — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 10:46:26 +0000

Christmas is the most wonderful season of the year and when it’s time for Christmas, it’s time to watch some Christmas movies. If you’ll celebrate Christmas in front of the TV, they will serve you the usual Christmas menu: “Love Actually” and “Home Alone” but this year go to the cinema for a change and watch Robert Zemeckis’ “A Christmas Carol”.

This timeless tale was portrayed countless times but the story never gets boring. Ebenezer Scrooge, played by Jim Carrey, doesn’t believe in the spirit of Christmas. He is such a negative and mean man and is haunted by the three ghosts of Christmas; Christmas past, present and future. Ebenezer Scrooge gets to see all that he needs to see just so he would realize what the true spirit of Christmas is.

Basically, the story is still the same but it’s the animation that makes it different. Of course there is a bit of difference on every version as to keep the viewers guessing. This version is spectacular and is available on iMax 3D so viewers can enjoy the animation even further. Jim Carrey’s portrayal of Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge is impressive.

All in all this movie is great for the season. Some animation can be quite scary for the younger audience but they will surely enjoy it too. It’s a great way to start feeling the magic of Christmas before everyone starts celebrating.

Olatunde Osunsanmi’s The Fourth Kind

cinema review — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:26:38 +0000

A chilling movie about true-to-life story of alien abduction (or at least that’s what they believe it is) in Alaska. There are 4 kinds of Alien encounter. The first kind is when a UFO is spotted, 2nd is when there are evidence, 3rd is when an alien made contact and the fourth kind is abduction.

The fact behind the story is based on the mystery of missing persons in Alaska since the 1960’s. Dr. Abigail Tyler, a psychologist, had videotaped sessions with her patients and discovered some very strange and disturbing evidences of alien encounters and abductions. Olatunde Osunsanmi, the director, had interviewed Dr. Abigail Tyler and that’s how the movie began.

She talked about her experience as a psychologist, detailing information about her patients and their violent reactions under hypnosis. One patient even ended up killing his wife, kids and himself when the doctor couldn’t figure out what his language meant. It’s a spine-tingling movie that will keep you on your toes for the entire movie. The fact that this is not a fictional movie makes it much scarier.

Milla Jovovich portrayed the character of Dr. Abbey Tyler in an impressive manner. The movie was well played and the suspense would lead you up to the very end. All in all, it’s well worth a movie ticket. Go and watch the movie at your local cinema now.

Hanno Hofer: Tales From The Golden Age

what the film — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:19:34 +0000

Tales From The Golden Age contains a series of 5 episodes each built around a legend from Romania in the late 80s. The Golden Age was the official name of Ceausescu’s rule, even if in reality people were living in darkness (electricity was off in the evenings on a daily basis for about 2 hours, most of the times there was no hot water, no heating in the houses and no food in the fridges).

The film explores episodes from everyday life of the Golden Age contemporaries – trading food for food, organising meetings with people forced to participate, fear at the workplace etc. The most tragi-comic episode is the episode called Party Photographer – an experienced photographer working for a national newspaper. All the president’s pictures that were to be published had to be approved by a panel of party members – so the pictures had to be edited in order to make the president look taller and better than his official visitor. It was the pre-Photoshop era so the photography tricks had to be made by scissors and glue. One particular episode is shown in the film: the visit of French president Valery Discard d’Estaing – a representative of capitalist world.

The pictures taken by the photographs at the airport show a barehead Ceausescu close to a French president much taller and with his head covered. The message of such a picture was that the communism was hat off in front of capitalism. The photographer tries to fix the problem, glues a hat on Ceausescu’s head but is rushed by the party secretaries and the picture is published without being completely ready. The final (and published) image shows Ceausescu with his head covered and holding an extra hat into his left hand. Because the newspapers have already started their train journey to all major cities, Militia is needed to interfere to stop the trains carrying the newspapers and collect all of them, so that nobody can see and read them next day.

This Orwellian film was screened in Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2009 and has received good reviews from critics.

Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity

cinema review — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:19:54 +0000

This movie was released last October 16, 2009 but had been filmed 3 years ago with a very low budget. The movie stars who are now being called as 2 very famous unknown people Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat.

Basically, the movie is low budget but for it to have gained such a big impact in the movie industry means something and that’s the reason why I went out and watched the film myself. I must say, the movie will bring chills down your spine. It’s like a regular documentary of paranormal activities in Micah’s house and their effects are minimal but really well done. The scene where Katie was pulled out of their bed and dragged out of their room was fantastic. The ending was the movie’s climax too and it was quite simple but well made.

If you have no clue the actor’s are just acting, you’d probably think this documentary is really the real thing. They truly captured the heart of paranormal activities and that earned them millions of dollars. Kudos to the 2 geniuses for a wonderful job. They managed to beat other more expensively produced horror flicks such as Saw VI and Astroboy ranking number 2 at the box-office next to Michael Jackson’s This Is It movie tribute. It’s a great watch especially for Halloween so make sure you don’t forget to bring popcorns and enjoy the movie.

Spike Jonze- Where the Wild Things Are

cinema review — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:05:28 +0000

This movie stars Max Records as Max. This young boy simply loves having fun but felt misunderstood by the world. One time, he got angry and bit his mom and he ran away and that’s the beginning of his amazing adventure.

Max ran away and reached the forest. He ran through the forest and at the edge, he found a small boat that he used to set sail out to sea. He then arrived to a very strange island where he met some very strange creatures that were arguing. There were the wild things and there’s another character named Carol. Carol was destroying the huts and the wild things were mad at him. Max joined him and destroyed the huts. The wild things were so mad at this intruder that they wanted to eat him. Then, Max told them he has super powers and he’s a king from where he came from.

Max was then crowned as their own king but eventually, the wild things and Carol figured out that he wasn’t a real king at all and that he doesn’t have super powers. They got mad at him which made him want to go back home. Carol was mad at him at first but later realized that Max was a good friend. The part where they had their farewell was a very touching scene.

All in all, this movie is recommended for kids and kids at heart.

Radu Jude: The Happiest Girl in the World

what the film — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:03:44 +0000

The Happiest Girl in the World is a film which will not make you the happiest spectator in the world but at times will make you smile or laugh. When the final credits will flow on the screen a natural question might torture you “Was that all?” The script is pretty simple – a 17 year old girl won a car after sending in 3 labels taken from some juice bottles. She and her parents travel to Bucharest to get the car but the girl will take part into a whole day of filming testimonials to encourage people to send in their labels. During the small breaks of the filming sessions, the girl’s parents try to convince her to sign the car selling agreement. The parents want to sell the car and open a touristic hostel with the money.

The viewer is given a “she signs it”-“she signs it not” situation and is fed a lot of repeated actions and lines from shooting the commercial.

The title of the film hides a bit of an irony because the girl cannot fully enjoy her prize (her family want to sell the car straight away). One of her lines in the commercial is “… and I am the happiest girl in the world…” but she doesn’t smile for the camera (and thus making the marketing people of the juice brand go crazy).

The film was presented at Berlinale in 2009 and the idea of this film was born from a real similar situation to which the director was a witness.