Aliyana Magazine» movies

Films still worth Watching

jhoniball — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 05:40:05 +0000

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Calling All techies! Calling all action Maniacs! Calling all Avatars!

jhoniball — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:39:27 +0000

I decided to lay my movie-review-writing-pen down for a while, seeing that its holidays. I thought it to be wise to take a break. So there I was, playing Startrek with one of my good friends. The scenario is, that you are a commander of a ship and you have to defend the universe from the Borg forces, which in itself is great, but early on into the game-play I started getting frustrated and not because I couldn’t get the hang of it. It is a reoccurring frustration that whenever we tell a story of another planet or alien race, whether it be in a game or in a movie, I find it that we are unable to harness the creative energy to visualize and create the worlds which they are from.
I expressed my frustration and had a beer; we continued to play for at least 4 extra hours. Thereafter my friend told me about Avatar, well in any case that which he could remember from the trailer. There we were, two nerds on our way, in the spur of the moment to go watch a movie which hopefully was not a waste of Star trek playing time.
Avatar which in my understanding means: a computer user’s representation of oneself, but I googled the meaning and found a much earlier reference. The older meaning comes from Sanskrit and means, a descent from heaven to earth.
Nevertheless we watched the film and were amazed by its brilliance. Avatar directed by James Cameron which is about a paraplegic Marine who gets dispatched to a planet by the name of Pandora to complete a mission originally meant for his twin brother, who had been a scientist on the planet. What makes the film extremely interesting is that on the planet there is a Tribal Humanoid race occupying it(The Na,vi), and for the first time we can see how a alien race would live out their lives on their home planet whilst we play the role of the invaders .
Jake Sully played by Sam Worthington who is the marine sent to the planet to create an alliance with the native people, so that the human miners can abuse the planet’s resources as they wish, he falls in love with the people and their planet and struggles to make a choice, on which side to support.
Tremendous effort has been put into the special effects of this film; quite frankly I am surprised that they could afford such a great feat, seeing that our world is in an economic crisis. The film has interested me in how our imagination sees alien worlds. Pandora looks like earth but when closely inspected one starts to see that every living thing on it, is immensely interconnected and you start to realize that it is not only a comment on, the world that we live in, but at a same time it acts as a warning to us all that if we continue with our destructive path, we will end up alone.
I have watched the film for a second time, this time in 3d. The only problem that I found with watching it in 3d was that of colour quality being lost by the darkened glasses you have to wear to watch the film. In the best circumstances I would say, ‘watch both as it gives you two different enjoyable experiences.’ This is definitely a film that can be watched by all whether you are a sci-fi lover, an action maniac or you’re just a romantic.

I would like to end my review with the oldest meaning of the word Avatar which means, Descent from heaven to earth. And what I’m trying to tell you by this is that, I would like us all to descend from our high horses and watch the film.

UP?

jhoniball — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 05:47:17 +0000

UP?

So you’re most probably wondering what all the excitement is about… well Up Produced by Pixar Animation studios and written and directed by Bob Peterson and Pete Docter have made a film, that has everyone jumping up and up about! Not only did many critics think that Pixar would not be able to top their previous animation film Wall-e, but surprise-surprise they did it again! I think I should let you in on a little top secret information about Pixar, that not many of us know about, and that is, that even before Toy Story was made all the Pixar movies till this date had already been conceptualized by then. You say conspiracy, I say fact. Did you know that Wall-e was in toy story? And that in every Pixar film that has been made, the animators left little Easter-eggs of characters of the movies to come.
Tremendous time and effort must have been put in to produce a film of such a visually-pleasing quality, whilst not having to give up anything on the wonderful story-line itself, by saying story line, I mean that I cried, laughed and cry-laughed whilst being held at the edge of my seat in a full 3d film adventure, if you haven’t experienced 3d film then you definitely have to see up as your first, just to set the standard.

Up is about a young boy Carl Fredericksen, who dreams of becoming an adventurer. As we all know that not all of our dreams as a child come true, and before we know it, we saying to ourselves “I’m too old for this know”. Carl goes through his youth without ever achieving this dream, he comes to a realization and one day in a busy city, a house with thousands of balloons strapped to it, floats past a sky-scraper, on its way to explore the wilderness of South America and the 73 year old pensioner steers his course to the exploration of the unknown and challenging the belief that are we really too old to do something about our dreams?
The movie challenges the imagination of old and young, as it plays with ideas that man has pondered about for centuries, important things such as, if we could make a dog talk, what would it say? Dug, a dog with a device that allows him to talk has captivated my imagination and if there are any scientists out there working on an important project like this one, I would gladly invest my money into research of the kind.
On a more serious note, has Pixar ever disappointed us? If you’re not sure, why are you still reading? Get up and go and see the film for yourself!

Jhoniball

Book vs Movies: Do you really want to watch?

jzvoutete — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:27:54 +0000

It is almost sinful when something so beautiful is created and then brutally morphed into another of its kind. Dan Brown is the American author of the bestselling book The Da Vinci Code. An absolute must read, and as acclaimed critics all over the world have declared, it is “unputdownable” which is a praise that only the virtuosos of writers is accredited. If you have missed reading this book, it is not too late. This as a text that can be read over and over and does not gain age. The Da Vinci Code is one of the most controversial fictional novels of the decade because it plays on the nerve of a delicate ideology of society; the Christian religion. Robert Langdon is a professor of Religious Symbology and he discovers a surreptitious society called the Priory of Sion which holds the greatest secret of the Christian faith. The novel opens with a gruesome and captivating description of the unusual murder of a curator, Jacques Saunière, in the famous Louvre museum in Paris. The chapter is wonderfully constructed, his use of diction so vivid that the reader is thrown into the after-hours at the dark museum with this frightened curator, who is the last bearer of this important secret into the final hour of his life.

The Priory of Sion holds the unknown truth that Jesus Christ was not in fact an unblemished virgin and that he married; impregnated Mary Magdalene and they bore a child. From here the book takes us into a whirlpool of exciting and intriguing characters, such as the Albino Silus and his masochistic rituals and a deeper look into Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the last supper. We are emerged into the myriad of conspiracy of the Catholic Church, Mary’s role in the Christian history and the daunting search of the Holy Grail. When reading this novel one has to remember that it is of a fictitious nature and that Dan Brown, like most great authors has just created a masterpiece with words.

After the release of a fantastic book such as this, producers dig their claws into the print text and morph it into film media; such a catastrophe! Great anticipation is created for its release and three years later, an adaptation of the novel is ‘out in cinemas near you.’ This is a firm warning: I implore you, do not watch the movie, especially if you have not read the book yet. Making a movie is a complex process and adapting a book into a film is even more complicated. This is because a screenplay works with the formula that a page of writing equals a minute on screen. One also has to note that a screenwriters use a different font (courier new) and format that allows for less words on a page than usual. TheDa Vinci Code is 489pages paperback; this would mean approximately 8 hours 15minutes on air excluding the added pages created by the format, an 8hour movie; not likely. The consequences of this are that vital and interesting chapters and events are left out to satisfy the 190page requirement of the script. The beautiful book becomes a series of shots and scenes pasted together racing towards some sort of explosive conclusion.

Rotten Tomatoes is a film review website and its general consensus is that “what makes Dan Brown’s novel a best seller is evidently not present in this dull and bloated movie adaptation of The Da Vinci Code’.” One of the most fascinating scenes in the book is the death of Monsieur Saunière and how he is found bleeding and lying in the odd position of Da Vinci’s Vitruvian man. In the film this is very poorly shown, made to look as just another twisted murder. The book however makes the reader feel every cut the curator inflicted on himself and so colourfully describes the scene that at the end of it, one realizes that they had been holding their breath.

A film is a different text and in its own respect, it is equally wonderful to books but reading novels is one of the most rewarding feelings in the world. One of those things that can be an addiction but a pleasant distraction from the rest of reality. The beauty of it is that one can do it in the space of their choosing. Lying in your bed, outside on the grass, on the airplane flying over the sea…The splendor behind reading is the power that is placed in one hand to formulate and create one’s own pictures. The world of words encompasses you and while you are receiving entertainment, your vocabulary is expanding. It has that all good feeling you get after a long jog. So next time you find yourself about to pick out the blockbuster movie before reading the book, just think, do you really want to watch?

Here are a few great books to read before you watch the movie.

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

The Firm by John Grisham

The Shining by Stephen king

The Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Coco Chanel – Movie Review

jhoniball — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 06:56:02 +0000

Coco Chanel ““The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.”

Coco Chanel this name is quite familiar to all the fashionista’s and even the rest alike, a fashion brand like no other, yet behind this brand which we all desire, stands a successful woman and one of the most marvelous life-stories ever told. You might not even know that Coco is not her real name or that Fashion was not her first love and no, she did not come from a wealthy background, on the contrary she had been an orphan. That’s right she’s is a self-made woman and the Avant-garde of fashion.
The movie Coco Avant Chanel, directed by Anne Fontaine has attempted to capture the early troubled beginnings of the exceptional Gabrielle Chanel and her rise to become one of the most legendary fashion designers the world has known. As this will never be fully possible to understand all the complexities that made her the success that she was and that her brand still is today. We can but only just sit back and stare in amazement to the key instances that changed her life forever. Coco played by Audrey Tautou who is also known for her work in Amélie and The Da Vinci Code, played the role exceptionally well.

The film focuses on the life of the young Chanel and explores how she entered into the French upper class society and the early beginnings of her life-long career, but keeping a focus on the loved-ones she found and lost along the way, emphasizing the fact that she was a normal person with feelings just like you and I. The movie is hard to follow in the beginning due to subtitles, unless you understand French, but it takes 5 minutes to be transported into the story and then you don’t even notice that you’re reading the lines.
The minimal use of sound and the emphasis on the pure natural visual experience is another reason to go and see the film.
At the end of the movie I was left with a feeling of empowerment, strength and belief in myself, it left me with the notion that great people are not necessarily born, but they can also be made. So then, why are you still reading? Go and see the film and be inspired and take the world by storm.

THE PROPOSAL

admin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 07:37:26 +0000

The Proposal

Older moviegoers are likely to have seen the plot of the movie innumerable times in the past. Besides, the movie itself, starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, is a so-called date flick. Lou Lumenick in the New York Post calls it “shamelessly derivative, contrived and predictable.” Yet he adds that it is “nonetheless a crowd-pleasing romantic comedy.”

Here’s the problem with a movie as formulaic as The Proposal: anybody who wants to see it already knows exactly how everything will play out. Odds are strong that the core audience for this movie doesn’t want to be surprised anyway, but unfortunately the obviousness of everything makes it a snooze fest for anybody else. As hard as Sandra Bullock and the cast try to inject a His Girl Friday or It Happened One Night level of screwball energy to the opening New York scenes, The Proposal never differentiates itself enough from the modern rom-com pack to stick in your memory.

However, I personally would suggest that we ignore the underlying fact that The Proposal is one big cliché. After all, Predictable rom-coms can work if the comedy and chemistry are there!!

The Hangover- Box Office movie (July 09)

admin — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:15:44 +0000

Starring Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms

Going to Las Vegas for a ”wild” bachelor party is now the ultimate middle-class hedonist cliché. The fun of The Hangover — what makes it more than just one what-happens-in-Vegas romp too many — is that the film completely understands all this. The four comrades who drive from Los Angeles to the Nevada desert to prepare for the wedding of Doug (Justin Bartha) aren’t daring or cool; they aren’t born swingers. They’re an unglamorous Every guy quartet, doing what they all think they’re supposed to do. They’re probably imitating Vegas movies as much as those films imitated reality.

The Hangover is, in essence, a creative twist on the “one crazy night” and “road trip” comedy templates. I don’t think it’s necessary to go into much detail as far as the plot is concerned; all you need to know is that it’s a great story, with great acting, and very big laughs. What more can one want from a comedy? This is not a family film by any means. The language is very over the top.

The Hangover will go down as a must have Blu-Ray, DVD, VHS and a fun re-watch over and over for some hysterical laughs.

Make Sure to Stay after the credits!!

Knowing

admin — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 07:37:29 +0000

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Chandler Canterbury, Rose Byrne (Rated: PG-13 -disaster sequences, disturbing images, brief strong language)

It’s a Nicolas Cage movie so, I must admit, I was expecting major crazy! There’s something about Nicholas Cage delivering apocalyptic lines (“I can still see their faces … burning …”) that never stops being funny.

The plot involves the most fundamental of all philosophical debates: Is the universe deterministic or random? Is everything in some way preordained or does it happen by chance? If that question sounds too abstract, wait until you see this film, which poses it in stark terms: What if we could know in advance when the Earth will end?

It’s pretty much impossible to take the rest of a film seriously once you’ve seen a flaming moose running toward the camera in slow motion.

However, this movie was rated best DVD of the week, so I guess you should get yourself to see it. Trust me, though: Where this movie goes, you do not want to watch it with children!!

17 Again

admin — Thu, 14 May 2009 05:52:32 +0000

17 Again isn’t ground-breaking cinema. The film has a predictable body-shifting premise and a heavy dose of sentimentality. Yet its stroll through familiar territory isn’t necessarily a mortal sin.

Surprisingly, the movie has both amusing and endearing qualities, and far surpasses its sub-par expectations. There are laugh-out-loud scenes — especially with Ned and the principal — and scenes with enough sincere romance to bring a tear to the eye.

The movie stars both (Zac Efron) as Mike O’Donnell, a young man who in 1989 was the star of his basketball team. Mike seems to have it all…skills, popularity, a beautiful girlfriend and a bright future in sports. Just before the big game, where his coach tells him that there are major college scouts there checking him out, Mike learns that his girlfriend Scarlett (Alison Miller) is pregnant. Rather than play in the game he leaves in order to tell her that he’s sticking with her and they’re going to get married and have the baby together.

Skip to twenty years later, and we learn that Mike’s life hasn’t turned out quite as well as he’d hoped. He’s become a loser (Matthew Perry), working at the same company for sixteen years and estranged from Scarlett (Leslie Mann) and his children Alex (Sterling Knight) and Maggie (Michelle Trachtenberg). He’s living with his long-time best friend, a geeky software tycoon named Ned (Thomas Lennon) who displays his nerd credentials all around his house with star wars and lord of the rings memorabilia. When he gets passed over for a promotion and the resulting confrontation with his boss costs him his job, Mike finds himself back at his old high school where he tells a janitor (Brian Doyle-Murray) that he wishes he could live it all over again.

Of course, he gets his wish through a series of bizarre circumstance and decides to enrol in high school to get another chance at life and help his kids, including helping Alex get on the basketball score the girl of his dreams (Josie Lopez) and get Maggie away from her jerk of a boyfriend Stan (Hunter Parrish). But can he manage to put his own life back together in time before Scarlett completes their divorce???

In a light hearted way “17 Again” is about the choices we make in life and how we foster greatness for the ones we love.

So, yeah, ‘17 Again’, fairly well written, hilarious, well and sometimes greatly acted and awesome direction for the most part, and a genuinely good, enjoyable and moving film. Take a look and you’ll probably be surprised… but don’t go in hoping for anything Oscar worthy. I get the impression there is only so much a director can do with a film like ‘17 Again’ and he did it alright.

Seven Pounds

admin — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 06:17:40 +0000

Will Smith, along with the same director that brought us the powerful “Pursuit of Happyness”, once again delivers a moving performance that is sure to delight his fans and perhaps convert a few that aren’t already.

From the beginning Seven Pounds challenges the audience to enter into the world of the tormented “tax agent” Ben Thomas as the story, mainly told through several flashbacks, takes us through his long journey of redemption to a tear-jerking climax.

Seven Pounds does not quickly give up its secrets. For the first half of the movie we are left with very few clues to the exact point of Thomas’ strange and sometimes seemingly cruel actions. The opening scene, an emotional close up of Smith as he dials 911 to report his own suicide, sets the intriguing tone that will help to keep us involved throughout this two-hour long movie.

Mucchini masterfully keeps us in a state of suspense as we watch Thomas’ plan unravel as he continues to investigate the mysterious seven people he refers to in the beginning of the film, under the guise of an IRS agent. As more details of Thomas’ character and mission are given to us (in a very tantalizing manner), we are slowly brought deeper into Thomas’ scheme and the drastic steps he will take to fulfill it.

After encountering, and promptly falling for, Emily Posa (Rosario Dawson), an artist with a heart condition and one of the seven, the movie begins to border on the dangerous territory of romantic sentimentality, but amazingly sincere performances from both Smith and Dawson ensure that we are kept engaged in the true meaning of Thomas’ mission.

Although Muchini has taken a risk with the continuous emotional tension and somewhat dark story, the delicate performances of its talented cast and the powerful climax encourage those who are willing to be drawn into the cryptic story to exit with a sense of upliftment. Definitely not to be missed.

Aliyana Magazine» movies

Films still worth Watching

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Calling All techies! Calling all action Maniacs! Calling all Avatars!

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UP?

UP?

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Book vs Movies: Do you really want to watch?

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Coco Chanel – Movie Review

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THE PROPOSAL

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The Hangover- Box Office movie (July 09)

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Knowing

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17 Again

Surprisingly, the movie has both amusing and endearing qualities, and far surpasses its sub-par expectations. There are laugh-out-loud scenes — especially with Ned and the principal — and scenes with enough sincere romance to bring a tear to the eye.

In a light hearted way “17 Again” is about the choices we make in life and how we foster greatness for the ones we love.

Related Posts

Seven Pounds

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