Dark Shadows

Tim Burton directs this horror comedy released only last week. It's based on a TV-Series also called Dark Shadows and, like the series, it tells the story of a vampire that was imprisoned for two hundred years. As he escapes he finds that his family's fortune has disappeared and that the evil witch that imprisioned him is responsible for it. So he sets on to get the money back as well as wooing the family's new nanny.
It stars Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins, Michelle Pfeiffer as Elizabeth  Collins and Eva Green as Angelique Bouchard. Plus Helena Bonham Carter as Dr. Julia Hoffman and as always the music is done by Danny Elfman. 

This movie is based in a TV series of 1966, which had around 1500 chapters. I haven't seen the original series, but I have seen some of the chapters of the Revival done in 1990. The Rivival's treatment of the story is way darker than Tim Burton's movie, it doesn't have the comedy take that this one has, which makes the story pretty interesting. The problem of the movie is that, based in a series which is so long, there are some things that don't get enough time or explanations.

And I think that's about all I have to critisice of this movie. I loved the way it is set in the 70s, how the music and the brands are set on screen. Plus every line uttered by Johnny Depp is a mine of gold.

The visual effects, make up, dresses and sets, are worth seeing. I loved them all, specially the werewolf and the visuals around Angelique Bouchard.

DARK SHADOWS TRAILER

Well it's a Tim Burton movie. It's funny and beautiful, the script is whitty and the acting is just perfect. The make up work and the special effects alone are worth every second.

The Hunger Games

This adventure movie directed by Gary Ross and based on the book by Suzanne Collins was released in April 2012 and tells the story of Katniss Everdeen who volunteers to take her younger sister's place for the anual Hunger Games, a competition in which a boy and a girl from each of the twelve districts in which the United States have been divided have to fight to death until only one survivor is left. 

It stars Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen a tribute of district twelve and Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark the other tribute of district twelve. 

As always I'll start with the worst of this movie, which isn't much, but it's incredibly bad done. 

I don't really know much about music, but what little I know is that it can be half the movie. The music gives depth and tension and it can show the grandness of a set with more eficiency than any shot. The music in this movie is so thin, so incredibly thin and weak that it even throws you back in some scenes. Don't get me wrong, it can be beautiful. Katniss' song is really nice and there are very well set silences, but at some places it really doesn't cover half of the grandness it should show. James Newton Howard did a great job with Pretty Woman or Dinosaur, but here he failed. 

A point of controversy is the treatment of violence in this movie.If you're looking for something like Battle Royale (which has a similar plot), then you really shouldn't watch this. Even though the books are pretty bloody, the movie has been thined in this aspect. In comparison there's nearly no violence. Most of the killings aren't shown, but there are some pretty nice shots of the girl killed by wasps and the death of the little girl. 

Other than that the adaptation is pretty good. It cuts very little - most of which is Katniss running around alone  through the forest  and asking herself if Peeta is trying to kill her or not. Among the writers were not only the director, Gary Ross, but also the writer of the books, Suzanne Collins, which is allways good if you're adapting from a book. The point of view changes between the book and the movie. In the books the whole story is told from Katniss' point of view alone, here you have an omniscient point of view, which allows for multiple plotlines that are only hinted in the books. There's a better presentation of President Snow (the president of the United States  played by Donald Sutherland) than in the first book, there's also a better presentation of Seneca Crane (played by Wes Bentley). It also shows  how the population sees the Hunger Games and how it is prepared and ploted.

The setting and dresses are pretty cool, and pretty close to the book. Some of the scenes seem taked directly out of a Tim Burton movie, specially the character of Effie Trinket (played by Elisabeth Banks). It's very rich and the special effects are just too cool. 

I have to talk also of Jennifer Lawrence interpretation, which I loved. She impersonates an 16 year old girl and, even though she seems a little bit too old, she gives a really good interpretation, specially in those shots in which she's scared. 

THE HUNGER GAMES TRAILER

Well, I know it's not the best movie, but it's pretty neat, nicely done with interesting and round characters, cool special effects and interesting disign. The main actors are beautiful and do a decent job. It's a chick-flick with some aspirations and critic - which will propably be more developed in the next movies. I liked it - if I forget about the disastrous music - and that's why I recommend it. It's entertaining  and that's about it. 

Erik - Portrait of a Living Corpse

This horror drama is a retelling of Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera from Erik, the Phantom's twisted point of view, directed by Ryan Bijan in  2010 and released two years later. It stars Ryan Bijan as Raoul, Autumn Hyun as Christine Daae and  Matthew Brett Ham as Joseph Buquet. Erik, the main character, is untitled as it was played by more than one actor. 

Before I start this review I'd like to point out that this is a really low-budget movie, done by an amateur cast and a 19 year-old director, who's also writer and actor. I got to know this movie  - as well as most of the Phantom movies I've seen - thanks to the PhantomReviewer and I have to agree with him once more: this movie is worth the buying. 

The things I didn't like about this movie are really few and mostly due to the inexperience of the cast and director.

The worst thing by far is the audio. I'm not sure if it's due to the cut or the problems with a bad mic, but there are places where you can't really understand what the cast is saying.
This is directly related to the cut. In general the final cut's amaizing. Yet there are some scenes in which it's not as neat as it should be. Two examples of this are the scene at Perros' graveyard, where Raoul answers a question Christine doesn't do, and the scenes where Erik talks to Christine through the mirror. A scene in which the  editing makes no sense, is the one in which Madame Giry enters Box V and has some sort of conversation with Erik, while you see Erik in another box on the other side of the theatre. It's rather confusing, but as it's a really short scene...

Other than that I had only isues with Meg Giry's acting, which could have been a lot better. In general the acting was ok. Not brilliant, but ok. I think Erik was the best played. His whole presentation is great and he has some rather awesome scenes such as the park scene, in which the viewer get's glimpses of his humanity. Christine has some sort of character, which is allways nice, plus she kicks Raoul, which is even nicer. Don't get me wrong, Ryan Bijan does a great job as Raoul, but I just can't stand that character.

The script ads some interesting things to the traditional story. It's very close to the Leroux Novel, including things that don't usually make it into the movies. The scene at Perros, includes the throwing of skulls at Raoul, scene I think haven't ever seen in a Phantom movie, and Raoul even has this little and anoying moustache. It also gives Erik some of his bad-ass-ness back. He kills, he threatens, he throws the voice and he does evil things. And the killings are rather colourful and beautifully innecesary. For example Compte Phillipe D'Arcy- who hadn't made it into a Phantom movie since 1925- death scene is rather unnecesary, but got me laughing at the strangeness of it.
A problem of the script is: it focuses so much on Erik, that it nearly forgets to show the world of the other characters, making some of the scenes difficult to follow if you aren't familiar with the original story - which in turn focuses so little on the Phantom's point of view, that you really don't get a good look at him.

The best thing by far is the cinematography by Wesley Kirk and Spencer Wallace. The movie is beautiful to watch. The scenes and decoration, the colors... Specially those turning around the phantom. Erik's lair has finaly turned into a normal regular house, with a great persian rug and Luis XVI furniture - sort of.
As this was filmed in Texas, USA, the crew found a problem: the Opera wasn't really that old, at least the inside of the building. It looks rather moddern. As does Christine's dressing room. Some of the scenes are very victorian - the Phantom's lair and Carlotta's dressing room, while others are completly modern, like the corridors of the Opera House, and the stage and even some of the dresses. This duality is great, and helps making the story a-temporal.

I have to praise the work of the costume and make up department. Erik wears a great black mask and a smaller white one which allows to see his chin, teeth and mouth. And those are disgusting. Really and uterly disgusting. His cloack- a big red and black thing- is spectacular and I just love his fedora.
Christine's dresses are rather acurate at times, and Carlotta's green dress is just amaizing.

Last but not least I have to talk about one of the Lair scenes. All of them are great, from the dinner scene to the unmasking scene.  But I think the best one is the praying scene in which Erik kneels in a muslim fashion on his persian rug and thanks god. That scene and the park scene in which Erik goes through a big and beautiful park and plays with a squirrel, are THE most beautiful scenes of the whole movie.

ERIK - PORTRAIT OF A LIVING CORPSE TRAILER

I really recomend this movie to you, for it's flaws don't outshine it's greatness. Of course you have to watch it bearing in mind it's only the first half of the story (Act I) and that it was made by amateurs, with no budget and barely professional. The result is the clear reason why people do movies: not to earn loads of money, but because there's a story to be told. 

Beetlejuice

Directed by Tim Burton in 1988, this comedy tells the story of a recently deceased ghost couple  that contact a 'bio-exorcist' in order to remove the obnoxious new owners of their house. 

It stars Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis as the Maitlands, Winona Ryder as Lydida Deetz and Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice. 

One of - I think - the less known Tim Burton movies. It's also one of his first full-length movies. And it's pure Tim Burton style. 

The story is funny and well developed. The Maitlands are your typical american loving-couple from the 80's, whereas the Deetz are atypical, and strange and really bizzare. The wife is a modern artist, the father want's just peace and quiet but can't leave his work behind him and the daughter is a goth girl who can see ghosts. 

If you ask me the only thng you have to take out of the movie is Beetlejuice. I think you either love the guy or you hate him. I hate him. I don't find him funny and whatching the movie in spanish didn't help. I swear in the 80's there where only 4 spanish dubbers, you hear the same freaking voices in every movie. 

Anyway. The best thing of the movie is the visual part. As I said before Beetlejuice is your pure Tim Burton movie with it's bizzare buildings - the Maitland's house has only 10 windows, and it ends up looking in the inside more like a grave than a real house. The collors are saturated and bright with loads of black and white and strange lights. And then comes the stop-motion animation, which is, like allways pure awesomeness. 

BEETLEJUICE TRAILER

All in all a very decent movie, with a good script, funny moments, great music by Danni Elfman and awesome stop-motion. Please don't watch it doubled in spanish. 

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Written and directed by Joss Whedon in 2008 and starring the Tony-winner Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day, this musical miniseries, tells the story of Dr. Horrible, an aspiring supervillain who must balance his career and his pursuit of Penny, a beautiul do-gooder in love with his archenemy, Captain Hammer. 

The three episodes are just 15 minutes each, yet they're 15 minutes of pure genious.

Neil Patrick Harris is a great singer and a fine actor, with a lot of facial expression. The main character is an incompetent mad-scientist who has a videolog and a crush on a do-gooder with whom he goes to the laundromat. I mean, come on! He's a supervilain in a laundromat, that in itself is funny. 

Captain Hammer, played by Nathan Fillion is such a dick, you hate him from second one. He's the superhero who fights against Dr. Horrible. Usually you espect some nice yet-stupid  good guy, who hasn't much of a brain, but a big heart. Yet Captain Hammer is an ass, who just hits on Penny because he knows that Dr. Horrible is in love with her. He's also very vain and smug, and... I think there's nothing to like in either his character nor his looks. 

The music is just great. As I said before, Neil PAtrick Harris is a great singer, as are the other two main characters. 

The jokes are hilarious. Check also the Bad Horse Chorus, the first time they appeared I laughed so hard I had to watch the scene two times. The ending left me completly frozen in place, it was absolutely unexpected and...

DR. HORRIBLE'S SING-ALONG BLOG TRAILER

Just go and watch the bloody thing, it's barely 45 minutes long and you won't regret it. 

Ultraviolet

Directed in 2006 by Kurt Wimmer, this action movie tells the story of a beautiful hemophage infected with a virus that gives her superhuman powers who has to protect a boy, who's thought to be carrying antigens that would destroy akk heophages.

It stars Milla Jovovich as Violet, Cameron Bright as the boy called Six, and William Fichtner as a nerdy scientist called Garth.

So, let's begin with the review: 

Those of you who have been reading my blog so far surely know that I'm not all that picky with the movies I watch. I believe that there's a moment in which nearly every movie can be entertaining. I don't say good, I say entertaining. Because that's what movies are there for: to ease  you into a new world, troubles that have little to do with you, action and fantasy and whatever. There's a good moment to watch nearly everything if you're in the right mood. 

I can't think of a mood in which you would like to inflict this movie upon your brain. 

The acting is crap. Pure and total crap. The onlyone that can be saved - if barely - is William Fichtner, who's cute, nice and has about 2 minutes of screentime. I mean, come on! MIlla Jovovich did an amaizing job in The Fifth Element, kicked ass in the Resident Evil saga.. Hell, she did even do a good job in the Three Musketeers! What went wrong here? The child is also awfull. I usually don't like movies with child, but this one couldn't even act! 

So, if the acting sucks, maybe a movie can be saved by either the story or the looks. The story is... non-existent. Well, I'm lying here, it does exist, but it's just some thin and translucent excuse to make Violet run around showing her flat belly and wielding a sword. 

Good, usually people wielding swords can safe a movie. Take Thor as an example. The story sucks, but he runs around with a hammer and you have some fun watching him getting hit time and time again by Natalie Portman... After 0.3 seconds of Ultraviolet you grow to hate the swordwielding. The visual effects are computer generated. If you're going to say that there are a lot of good movies - a lot of really good series - with computer-generated graphics, and that those are really good, I agree. The trouble is not that they are computer generated. It's that you can see the computer doing it. It's really badly done, so that you can't believe one second of it. And the action scenes are so paste together that they loose all their flow and just seem fake. 

One of the most impressive sequences, in which Violet jumps from a building and throws the motorcycle she's driving into an helicopter, has far more effect in P!nk's videoclip "There you go", released in 2002.

There's one last thing that drives me mad in this movie and if somebody has read the comics, watched the series or just knows, I'd be really grateful: what's the matter with A) Violet's hair and B)Violet's clothing. Why does it change shape and collors? Where the writers so laizy they couldn't decide in one hair collor... or a motive for it's magically changing. 

And the hint towards the Clockworck Orange is ridiculous and out of place, that movie is good, this one shouldn't even try to remind you about it, it only manages to drag it further down. Sorry, but somebody had to say it.

ULTRAVIOLET TRAILER

So, if you where considering watching this. I don't think you want anymore. It's not even good as background noise. You see this on TV and change channels. It will spare you a an hour and a half you can use doing anything else. 

Iron Man

Directed in 2008 by Jon Favreau, this superhero movie starts when a wealthy industrialist, Tony Stark, is forced to build an armored suit after a life-threatening incident, he decides to use its technology to fight against evil as well as shutting his weapon industry. 

The movie stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/IronMan, Gwyneth Patlrow as Pepper Potts, his assistant, and Terrence Howard as Rhodey.

I just jumped into this after watching The Avengers and loving Tony Stark/ IronMan. I wasn't expecting much, but the characteristic charm that I loved in The Avengers, and I have to say I wasn't left down. 

So the movie isn't your multiple-oscar-winning-deep-thought-and-metaphysical movie. This is just for entertainment. The plot is rather simple, yet consistent, the evil guys are obvious, but intelligent, the battles are explosion-filled with loads of glass flying around. It's cool and the visual effects are just magnificent. 

The best part of the movie is Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark. For those who don't know IronMan let me give you a heads up about the main character: there where other superheroes get knocked on the head and pushed towards helping people in need, altruism, being kind, being responible, etc, knight in shinging armour, etc - which in the end makes them rather lame, obvious and predictible as well as boring, Tony Stark is selfish, narcisistic, stinking rich, works developing weapons, drinks too much, cares too little... He's very happy with the system and ignores all the rules, doing whatever he wants whenever he wants to. And that's great. He has a terrible character and it's funny. It's refreshing and makes you love the guy, even though you would wanna kill him if you ever met him in person. 

Which is probably what Pepper Potts - played by Gweneth Paltrow - wants to do more than once. She's Tony Starks assistant/motherfigure/person-for-everything. She and her boss are in love, but they kind of keep denying it. There are very few akward moments due to their mutual feelings. 

That's another cool thing about the movie. Unlike most superhero movies I've seen like Spiderman, Superman, Batman, Tony Starks love life has a very low relevance in this movie. Whenever Pepper's life is threatened she either kicks the crap out of the threat, or is safed by Iron Man. That's it. There's no big sacrifice from IronMan so that Pepper won't be in danger anymore. That would be out of character and probably hasn't crossed his mind. 

The battles are pretty well done, with stunning effects and magnificent technology. 

I really, like the ending. The very end of the movie in which Tony Stark is confronted by the press and has been told not to reveal his secret identity.... You can imagine how Tony Stark answers to the press questions. 

IRONMAN TRAILER

So if you like superheroes, check this one out. If you don't, check it out anyway, there's fire, robots, plus a hot guy runing around in sleveless-tight-shirts. That alone should be worth it. 

The Avengers

Released in 2012  and directed by  Joss Whedon, this superhero movie, brings IronMan, Captain America, Hulk and Thor together into a hero-league created by Nick Fury to fend of and battle the god Loki and his army. 

It stars Robert Downey Jr. as IronMan, Chris Evans as Captain America, Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk and Chris Hemsworth as Thor. Tom Hiddleston is the infamous Loki, whereas Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner are Black Widdow and Hawkeye. 

I have to admit that I went to see this movie without any good expectations. I'm not a superhero fan, I don't  read Marvel comic books and other than Thor - which isn't all that good - I hadn't seen any of the previous movies. But I did get around and watch it and it wasn't bad at all. 

Let's start as allways with the worst parts of the movie. Which is - in my humble opinion - Captain America. He's stupid, oldfashioned - which is justified by the fact that he was frozen for 60 years - and your typical american-knowital-racist-stereotype. I plain and simply hate him and his good lines can be counted by the fingers of one hand. 

Another not so good thing about the movie is the plot. It's rather obvious and predictible. But that's usual for this sort of movie. The evil guy in this one is Thor's halfbrother Loki. That in itself just pisses me off. Ok, Loki's not the most kind of gods, and yeah, he may be considered the evil god of nordic mythology. But, come on! Why can't they leave him alone! Anyway Loki as the evil one here is rather thin. His motives are weak and stupid, barely explained, but I really like his reasoning and some of his assholeness is just glorious. Yet in the end they only use him as an excuse to make fun of him. 

The visual effects, on the other hand, are anything but cheap. They look gorgeous and really pull you into the movie. I specially like the technologie used by IronMan and the aliens at the ending. The explosions and the final battle are very, very cool. Hulks transformation - specially towards the ending - is impressive as well. 

I know it's not typical for this sort of movie, but I think one of the best things in "The Avengers" is the script written by Zak Penn and Joss Whedon. I haven't seen many of Penn's movies having only seen the X-Men series but I've discovered that I know and love a lot of the movies written by Whedon, such as Toy Story, Atlantis, and his tv series, like Buffy VampireSlayer. It's a rather refreshing if simple script, with a lot of punchlines and funny moments.

And finally the best thing of this movie is IronMan. He's a highly gifted, egocentric and insufferable pain in the ass. Yet he has the best lines and, as you only have to know him through the screen, you quickly find you like him. I loved the guy so much, I ran and watched IronMan and IronMan 2 - you will be hearing my reviews of those in a short while. 

As for the rest of the heroes. I still haven't seen Hulk, but I probably will be watching that in a short while. Another thing why it's worth watching this movie - specially if you're a woman or gay - is Thor. He looks nice, as a beautiful voice and funny lines. Plus runs around wielding a hammer with his golden locks in the wind. 

THE AVENGERS TRAILER

 So, if you have some taste for superheroes, want to watch people run around in explosions and beat the crap out of aliens, and if you don't mind ninies telling gods what to do and get beaten around, then you should check this out.