Category: Cinema

{mosimage}Once is probably one of the best Irish films coming into scene in the last decade. Discover the power of music in the streets of Dublin.

First time I watched Once was in a little film festival sitting in open air in a quite cold summer night. At the beginning, being honest, I was about to leave, thinking it would lead me nowhere while watching how a girl with strange accent was wandering around Dublin with her vacuum cleaner. But step by step I got totally involved in the action. Director John Carney, who also wrote the script, achieves one of the best indie movies of the past years, ending up with a surprising but refreshing success in many countries where cinema distributors were convinced to give it a try. With a very little budget and a solid plot, he narrates a beautiful tale of love, music, hopes and sometimes harsh reality.

Glen Hansard (maybe he rings a bell for some of you having acted in The Commitments years ago) and Marketa Irglova have a good chemistry together, and it is delicious to walk around the streets of Dublin while following their adventures and misadventures. Music is superb (the film won the Academy Award for the best song) and the characters feel real.

Maybe it touched especially my hearts since I am an expat too and I lived in Ireland for 1 month, but this DVD is worthy every penny of it. A tasteful movie that proves that great cinema can be also made with low-budget.

Rating 5/5

{mosimage}Our big and angry green friend is back causing destruction wherever he walks through

Edward Norton is the one chosen to incarnate The Incredible Hulk in this new adventure of our green massive friend, and alas he makes a good job. It seems that this actor was born to carry on with roles twisted and with bi-polar personality.  He is basically the best of a film with some nice touches. The beginning in the favelas of Brasil is certainly entertaining, and the cameo by Rickson Gracie slapping the face of Norton really surprised me gladly! The first half of the film is well done and directed with rhythm and keeping a great pace, although in the end it turns to be a bit predictable, and the final battle against the two monsters could have been more spectacular. Tim Roth is maybe not in his best role here, and looks a bit like a parody of himself, while Liv Tyler and William Hurt are just correct but not brilliant.

Fans of The Hulk will enjoy this, and for the other spectators who want action and not much of a twisted plot, this will work. But it left me a bitter sweet taste, because it had the ingredients to be better but the final product was just “average”.  Lovers of cameos will love this film too counting with another special one unaccredited by Robert Downey Jr. near the end.

Rating 3/5

{mosimage} Robert Downey Jr. faces one of the most important roles in his life as Tony Stark.

There was a big polemic around the choice of Robert Downey Jr. for this role, but finally, after watching this Iron Man, I think most have to agree that he is the right person for the job. His personality as a fallen and reborn Hollywood star matches perfectly with Tony Stark, a rich businessman dedicated to build weapons that will turn into a super hero wrapped in a power suit.  Most of us have grown up following the adventures of the Marvel super hero created by Stan Lee (who of course does his “official” cameo in the film) so there is no much need to explain who Iron man is. Director Jon Favreu takes some licenses from the original comics to identify the story with modern times, but the result is pretty plausible.

You can find together with him, a cast with luxurious names such as Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow and overall the excellent and almost unrecognizable Jeff Bridges. The interaction among the actors is certainly the best of a movie that otherwise, turns to be too much predictable. It was missed a bit of more risk in the script, which does not shine as bright as the suit of our beloved Iron Man. Just another comic adaptation with some good moments, but do not expect big surprises here, apart from the obvious big one of seeing Downey Jr. in this role.

Rating 3/5.

{mosimage}Being a nerd turns to be a pain in the ass when you start high school and somebody systematically bullies you. Owen Wilson will put a remedy to that!

I am a big fan of Owen Wilson and I had big expectations when I saw the cover of his new DVD: Drillbit Taylor. The role of a naïve homeless on charge of being the personal bodyguard of three funny losers who just started high school seemed to be tailored-size for his comedy sills. In a way Drillbit Wilson offers what you expected, no more no less. Owen Wilson is credible in his role of big child, and the teenagers perform correctly, but the script is not shiny enough. The jokes in general are not so funny and the action is pretty predictable from the beginning to the end. The best parts of the movie are maybe when Owen Wilson is acting as a fake substitute professor at the High School. But the relation among the main characters could have been more strongly built.

Not one of the best comedies recently released. Unless you are a real die-hard fan of Wilson, you will perfectly survive skipping this one.

Rating 2/5.

{mosimage}Poker is just like real life. You can bet hard and win… or lose everything. Ben Campbell will see both sides in Las Vegas casinos.

I must admit I have no idea of playing poker, but I love movies about poker. Not long time ago we had the chance to see Eric Bana´s great performance in Lucky You, and now we assist to another little masterpiece with this 21. A group of young and hyper-talented students will try to put the biggest Vegas casinos at stake led by the methodical Kevin Spacey, and Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) will have to carry a double life: a grey and shy student during the scholar week and a successful gambler at weekends.

Sturgess is credible in his performance, mastering a difficult multisided role, while the beauty of Kate Bosworth is a balsam all over the film. They are perfectly supported by two huge Hollywood names such as Laurence Fishburne and Kevin Spacey in brilliant secondary roles.

A good cocktail and an intelligent script make the movie pretty enjoyable from the beginning to the end. There is also space for a couple of small twists that enrich the plot but do not destroy it. Nice title to watch!

Rating 4/5.

{mosimage} Directed by one of the most interesting Japanese anime directors, Tomomi Mochizuki, here comes a tender love story between two Japanese teenagers. 

Aaltojen Kuohu was part of the films featured during the past Rakkautta & Anarkiaa festival in Helsinki. If you missed it (or otherwise you specially liked it) in the big screen, now you have an excellent option to review it again in DVD. The film narrates a simple but wonderful story that mostly happens at high school, with two friends, Matsuno and Taku falling in love with a new student coming from Tokyo: Rikako. The female role is quite complex and identifies very well with the hard times of being teenager and new in an unknown city, with a family broken by a divorce. Rikako is not the typical sweet girl, but that makes her even more fascinating, a mix of innocent girl and little devil, the typical figure that just make men lose their head. 

There are not big special effects or high doses of adrenaline exhibited here, like it is usual in many other Japanese animation films. The simplicity of the story is the weakest and the greatest point achieved by Mochizuki at the same time. It brings closer to us the life of Japanese students, their expectations, their efforts to achieve good marks to go to a good University, the rituals of their everyday life, etc.

Maybe for some other viewers the plot can turn to be a bit too simple, but in any case the duration of the movie is just around 1 hour 10 minutes, so there is not much time to feel bored. Not one of my Japanese movies, but not a bad effort though. As a negative last note, I must accuse the Finnish distributors of the same repeated mistake: there are no English subtitles available, so be ready to practice your Finnish skills if you do not understand Japanese fluently… 

Rating 3/5.

{mosimage}Aaron Eckhart is a loser not happy with his current life. Addicted to candies, cheated by his wife… he will find a new meaning to his life with the intervention of a young kid. 

After watching Bill, I still have not decided if I liked the movie or not. There are as many points in favor as against this movie. Aaron Eckhart´s role is certainly good, sometimes even brilliant. He is credible as a man with no personal achievements always running with the flow that the family of his wife imposes him. There are some enjoyable moments and lines in the film, and certainly you do not get bored watching it.  But after half of the movie passed, I thought that the final 20 minutes could have been better developed. The script has some flaws, and maybe the character is not everything you would expect from him.

From my point of view it was a mistake not to develop more the relation between the kid and Jessica Alba, that would have add a nice touch of transgression in the movie. I suppose the American moral does not allow to feature openly a relation between an underage guy and a young beautiful girl in her twenties, but certainly it is some more doses of transgression what is missed in the movie; the reaction of Eckhart when being cheated is not very plausible, neither the happenings after the mini “orgy” in the tent. And Alba’s appearance is pretty wasted here, not adding much to the flow of the action. 

It is a pity that the script was spoiled to give a more politically correct ending to the movie, because certainly this Bill could have turned out to be a little masterpiece. Unfortunately, it finishes as just a good comedy that could have been better. 

Rating 3/5.

{mosimage}“You, the Living” is the new film by Swedish director Roy Andersson.

From Sweden comes this movie, highly praised for the critics, as far as I have seen before putting my hands into reviewing it. Roy Andersson displays here a collection of situations, 50 or more, that have as common features a depressing atmosphere. Beings that feel trapped by their lives, with dreams that do not come true, and with surrealistic situations, are displayed in front of our eyes. It reminds me a bit of the style you can see in the great British animation series Monkey Dust. But while in that series, I cannot avoid to laugh my ass off, certainly this Andersson s movie resulted boring in the end. I lost concentration after the first twenty minutes, and my girlfriend did not even want to continue watching it until the end.

Maybe you need to have been born in a Scandinavian country to fully appreciate Andersson s irony, but for me basically the film did not mean much in the end. Many cinema critics who love to masturbate their minds with indie cinema will find the film delightful, but for me the most important thing is that a film is able to transmit something. And this Sinä Elävä just got me as cold as the chilly Swedish weather portrayed all over the film. If you are able to discover something in the film that I could not, I congratulate you.

Rating 2/5.

{mosimage}Coen brothers strike back with another superb title. One of the DVDs of the year.

Ethan and Joel Coen have gone though a consistent career, able to create a personal trademark in their films. Most of the good features you can see in some of their previous masterpieces are here again in this superb No country for old men. The acting skills of the three main characters, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones are simply fantastic; especially Bardem here is at his best. Not just because I am also Spaniard, but I think everybody must admit that here he really achieves a great performance as the assassin Anton Chigurh. Even the resurrected Woody Harrelson plays his part nicely in the plot!  

Some acid humor and astonishingly shocking visual sequences make you get literally stitched to your seat during the whole movie. The Coen brothers also play successfully with the lack of music to empower the oppressive atmosphere of those dusty corners of the deep America.

If a friend asks you about advice before watching this film, it is a bit difficult to describe what this movie is really about. That is maybe the magic of the Coen brothers, to leave you with the feeling of having assisted to a masterpiece that cannot really be transcribed into simple words.

Rating 5/5

{mosimage}Follow the trip of Chris McCandless to a new solitude life in Alaska.

I have encountered feelings towards Emile Hirsch. During this movie, sometimes he seems to give a very nice portray of his character, Chris, but some others he simply annoys me; something similar to what happened when I saw him in Alpha Dog. In any case, Into the Wild is quite an interesting movie to see. Based on true events, and in the book by Jon Krakauer and directed by Sean Penn, we assist through the movie to the existential trip of the young Chris, leaving all his past life in search of a new existence where the materialistic things are not the important ones. Farther than the reasons of Chris to do that, the more interesting parts of the movie are his encounters with other characters, and the mark that they leave on each others.

The movie wisely mixes drama and comedy, and there are some astonishing sequences where the nature is very present. But it is difficult to understand the utter motivations of Chris during his trips, and without the understanding and the identification, it is complicated to fully enjoy his wanderings around USA without feeling a bit uncomfortable and critical.

Maybe it is an excellent movie to watch more than once, because the first time will leave you still wondering if you liked it or not. At least it is good that a movie can make you reflect.

Rating 3/5.

{mosimage}Based on the books by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, here comes a new fantasy story!

Well, it is difficult for whatever fantasy title based on a book in the past years to compete with the excellent trilogy of Lord of the Rings. Titles like the Golden Compass have not passed the test to improve Jackson’s masterpieces…neither this Spiderwick Chronicles. In any case, the film is not so pretentious and just turn to have an easy plot to follow and some good special effects, but without an overdose of them.

Probably the little ones of the house will enjoy it pretty much, but for the grown up audience, this can be a bit too boring and predictable. In any case, the work of the children is good, and it has a very nice and funny final scene when the evil boss is finally defeated by one of the friendly fantasy creatures (that we are not going to reveal to ruin the final).  

If you have children at home, it can be a good option to make them sit in front of the screen for a couple of hours. If you are looking for fantasy films to enjoy yourself, maybe this product will end up being a bit too simple for your taste.

Rating 3/5.

{mosimage}The central square of the city of Salamanca becomes a battlefield with the arriving of the president of the United States…

Being the action shot in the Spanish city of Salamanca, I was especially motivated to watch this movie. But after the first minutes, my attention became dissolute. The initial attack and the sequences of the bomb exploding are visually shocking, but later the big possibilities that the plot offers to make a good film are wasted. The facts are told and re-told from different points of views of the people participating in trying to save or kill the President of USA during his visit to a conference in the city, and so much rewind becomes to be pretty annoying. The cast lists very good names like Dennis Quaid, Forest Whitaker, Sigourney Weaver or the Spanish Eduardo Noriega, but most of their appearances get pretty wasted and without rhythm with so many flashbacks all the time. For example, Sigourney Weaver appears at the beginning of the film, and then… nobody exactly knows what her role is there anymore… Forest Whitaker s acting skills are also basically wasted there, and his friendship relation with the little Spanish girl is forced and not plausible, nobody would believe that after a conversation of 5 seconds he must become  her personal guard angel.  

Eduardo Noriega is an excellent Spanish actor who could have given a much better performance than just the simple role of being chased during all the film for ending up shot. And so on, so on… There are not even nice twists in the end of the movie, something that for example another film full of flashbacks like Memento mastered; the bad guys soon are discovered to be really bad guys and the good guy is the typical American hero who will solve the situation just shooting around to the evil terrorists.

Resuming, a very disappointing movie. My advice is that you better try with another movie if you are tired of the typical action films that lead nowhere. And by the way, as a remark, the Spanish security forces do not usually speak so good English. They must have taken intensive language lessons while I was outside living in Finland.  

Rating 2/5.

{mosimage}One of the Finnish titles of the year, a heart breaking drama that take us to the island of the dark butterflies.

Opposite to the title, in the island where the youngsters try to overtake their problems you won’t see many butterflies flying around. But you will surely appreciate the darkness of tormented souls wandering around, looking for a reason to live on.  

As you will notice while watching it, this movie is certainly not the best one to cheer you up in a bad day. Personally I felt quite depressed after watching it; something bad happens every 10 minutes, and there are not many happy moments to compensate the drama surrounding the characters. That does not mean anyway that the movie is bad. I enjoyed pretty much the excellent acting of Tommi Korpela as Harjula, the director of the institution in the island, and the young Niilo Syväoja as Juhani, both of them perfectly complemented by Eero Milonoff, who after Ganes, is becoming a safe value to count with in whatever Finnish movie he appears. The list of secondary roles also counts with the presence of well known Finnish names such as Kati Outinen or Matleena Kuusniemi.

A tough movie but endorsed with a positive message of hope in the end. Certainly Finnish cinema and its melancholic atmosphere is not the most appropriated one if you like light-hearted movies, but hey, that is why this is Finland, isn’t it?  

Rating 4/5.

{mosimage}Follow the funny life story of Dewey Cox, a fictitious musician who will overcome difficulties to become a super star.

Biographies of famous musicians have been quite trendy in the past years in Hollywood, like Ray (2004) or Walk the Line (2005). Now the rise and fall topic takes a more humoristic approach with this new comedy directed by Jake Kasdan, with John C. Reilly as the main character. Reilly has appeared in secondary roles in many comedies and successful movies during the past years, such as Gangs of New York or Talladega Nights, and it is nice to see him taking up the main role. Not an easy task to perform a character from the age of 14 to 71. During his personal trip through life, he has the chance to share stage with most of the music legends, and sarcastic and hilarious situations never stop.  

But apart from the compulsory doses of dumb situations that all good comedy must offer, it is admiring how Reilly masters his character in a way that we can really feel identified with him as if a real musician would perform in front of our eyes, and not just a funny imitation. In a way, Dewey Cox, with all his eccentricities, looks plausible for the audience, because that is what it is expected in a life of a rock star: excesses, mischievous behavior but overall a huge sensitive heart.

Maybe it will not make you laugh like a crazy madman, but it is a fresh comedy and pretty recommendable to music fans. It also made me pretty happy to notice the presence of legendary bluesman “Honeyboy” Edwards, whom I had the pleasure to meet last year in Estonia; together with him a long list of real musicians that wanted to join the party like Eddie Vedder or Jewel, and some other surprises with cameos of famous actors uncredited.

Rating 3/5.