Four Lions

Released in 2010 and directed by Christopher Morris, this movie is either a dramatic comedy or a funny drama that tells the story of four incompetent British jihadist set out to train for and commit an act of terror.

It stars Kayvan Novak as Waj, Nigel Lindsay as Barry, Riz Ahmed as Omar and Adeel Akhtar as Faisal. 

The fact that this movie addresses the isue of religious terrorism nowadays is both the dramatic and the funny aspect of this movie. The caracters should be fearsome: hell, they're terrorists, they speak 90% of the movie of blowing people up. And yet te viewer grows fond of them seeing their life outside the jihad.  

The leader of the group, Omar, is married and has a son to whom he tells variations of the sotry "The Lion King". An occidental viewer would expect that either the family has no knowledge about the terrorist aspirations of the father or that they're somehow against them. Yet both woman and child are completly supportive of the man blowing himself up.

Another strange fact about this movie is that Omar's brother seems a lot more radical than Omar, refusing to enter a room in which there's a woman and growing his beard to a certain length.  And yet he's not related to the jihad andbhas nothing to do with the radicalism of his brother. 

 I think that's one of the best things about the movie: it forces you not to judge somebody by their appearences. For Omar seems the more integrated and less radical of the brothers and it is him who wants to blow things up. 

I'd say that the worst thing about this movie is the slang. The characters's thick accent and constant use of slang makes it very difficult to understand everything the characters say.  And this movie's jokes are mostly related to what the characters say.

Other than that, it's a very good movie. The jokes are very funny and the controversy of the main topic keeps you on the edge wondering constantly how it's going to end. 

Remarcable is also the stellar appearence of Benedict Cumberbatch as a negotiator and the Waj, a somewhat retarded jihaidist, and the failure at the training of crows for terrorism 

FOUR LIONS TRAILER

Original, fresh, well acted, funny, dramatic... there are so many reasons to watch this movie.....

The Great Mouse Detective

This Disney movie was directed in 1986 by Ron Clements and Burny Mattinson and tells the adventures of Basil of Baker Street, a mouse that investigates crimes, who has to stop his archennemy: Professor Ratigan. 

The voices star Vincent Price as Professor Ratigan, Barrie Ingman as Basil and Val Bettin as Dr. David Q. Dawson. 

This movie is Disney's take on the popular character of Arthur Connan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes. Basil happens to live in the very same building as the victorian detective and uses methods that are pretty much the same. Obviously Dr. David Q. Dawson is also the rodent version of Dr. John Watson, both characters are doctors that come back to London from war and get stuck with this mad detective. 

I think that this version is more likeable in his eccentricities than the pedantic genious that appears in most versions. Don't get me wrong, this mouse is full of himself and ignores everyones feelings just as the original. But maybe because he's an animated character or because he's a mouse, it's rather bearable. 

Most of the symbols of this well known books appear in the movie, which also adds to the depth and background as well as broadening the children's knowledge.

One of the best things of this movie is without any doubt Professor Rattigan, dubbed by Vincent Price. The rat's just pure evil, and has a lot of fun being evil. Plus Vincent Prices' work is - like allways - impecable. Something I find surprising is the fact that Basil has a protrait of Professor Rattigan in his living room and I'd love to know why. 

The animation of The Great Mouse Detective is very good. And it's also the first Disney movie that combines traditional animation with computer generated animation. 

The final battle, that takes place inside the Big Ben is one of the best Disney battles I've seen and I can't stop laughing in the 'death trap scene'.

THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE TRAILER

A very good movie with nice animation and a funny script beautifully doubled. Very recommendable.

Angels and Insects

Directed by Philip Haas, this movie was released in 1995 and it's based on a book by A.S. Byatt that was published two years before. It tells the story of William Adamson a poor naturalist who marries in the 1800s into the Alabaster family, a family of British aristocrats that has taken him in after a shipwreck. 

It stars Mark Rylance as William Adamson, Kristin Scott Thomas as Matty Crompton, Patsy Kesit as Eugenia Alabaster Adamson and Douglas Henshall as Edgar Alabaster, elder brother of Eugenia. 

Angels and Insects is a very interesting film, done with extreme care. The setting is spectacular, and the atrezzo and dresses are extremely beautiful. The worst thing is the hairstyles, but I asume that's how women did their hair, so...

The main character, William Adamson is a sweet little man, who understands where he comes from without letting the discrimination of the aristocrats disturb him. He's a good man who marries Eugenia Alabaster without malice or second intentions, but because he loves her. His interest relay heavily on the study of insects and, together with Matty Crompton, tutor to Eugenias younger sisters, he starts writing a book on red ants. 

Matty Crompton is an intelligent woman, more true to William's heart than Eugenia, who's atraction resides heavily on her beauty. Towards the middle of the movie, William starts discovering his interest for Matty. 

The sexual pulls of the different characters are one of the main points in this movie. It doesn't shun of that topic, but it embraces and it shows the conflicts that sex provoques in that society. 

Other than that there doesn't happen much in the movie. It's rather long and there isn't much action, but the beauty of the images and the well used music makes each scene flow in such a way, that you're not bored any single moment. It relays heavily on the script and consistence of the acting, which is great. 

The flow of time is also very well achieved. Usually a movie based on a very long book that tells a story that developes through a long period of time, doesn't really give the sensation of pass of time, or it makes such great jumps, that the viewer gets lost. Maybe it's because the movie is set in a country house, or that the time isn't really important, but while watching this movie the time seems frozen, markt only by Eugenias pregnancies. 

ANGELS & INSECTS TRAILER

Angels & Insects is one of those movies that want only to show an age, and a way of life that's lost to us now. The conflict appears late, but the movie isn't boring at all. The acting is exceptional, the script consistent, the dialogues meaningful and the setting, dresses and make up, very beautiful. 

Priest

This movie was directed in 2011 by Scott Charles Steward and tells the story of a priest who disobeys church law to track down the vampires who kidnapped his daughter. 

It stars Paul Bettany - who also played Michael in the movie Legion [2009] - in the leading role; Cam Giganet as Hicks and Maggie Q as Priestess. 

There's nothing much to say about the movie. It's an action movie with a strange view on religion that has the pretension of being critic with the religious autocracy; very similar to Legion. 

The disign of the city is chaotic and ugly, whereas the country around the city is a dessert. All is dominated by the color brown, black and grey. 

The vampires are in this movie a completly different species that's hunted down by priests - which are humans with special powers of speed, strength and precision. They're rather ugly and slimy and nasty looking, eliminating all the beauty of the mythological creature.

The plot of the movie is predictible and stupid. The reasons given by the Priests bosses seem weak, a mere excuse for making the guy a fugitive. The action scenes are a little bit exagerated, but not too much, so they're still enjoyable. 

PRIEST TRAILER

All in all it's not that bad. But if you want to watch a religious themed movie, go and check Legion out. It has the same main actor, angels with wings, better designed fiends, and a somewhat better plot and dialogues - not a lot better, but still... 

Gigi

Directed by Vincente Minnelly, this musical was releasedd in 1958 and tells the story of a rich french playboy and a youthful courtesan-in-training who enjoy a platonic friendship which isn't going to stay platonic for long. 

It stars Leslie Caron as Gigi, Maurice Chevalier as Honoré Lachaille, the narrator of the story and uncle of Gaston, and Louis Jourdan as Gaston Lachaille, Gigi's platonic friend.

For a musical I think it has very few songs, and I didn't like most of them, yet the singers do a good job and, specially Leslie Caron has a beautiful voice. 

The story isn't really very original, but the relationship between Gaston and Gigi is interesting and manages to hold the atention of the viewer through the whole movie. 

I think the best thing about this movie is the ambientation. The whole thing is set in 1900, and the dresses and houses are very good decorated. It also shows the life of the parisian mistresses in a new light: from the point of view in which it's not a critic, but something that happens and of which neither women nor men are ashamed. Of course this being an American movie and from the 50s it has a happy ending with a big wedding between the sweethearts.

It reminds me a little bit to "the Lady of the Camellias", only without the whole tragic turn and the death and stuff. 

The collors are worth mentioning too. Every shot looks like a watercolor painting. The light is soft and the palette very bright. 

GIGI TRAILER

A nice and entertaining movie, worth watching. 

Opera

Also known as "Terror at the Opera", this movie was directed in 1987 by Dario Argento and tells the story of a young opera singer who's stalked by a deranged fan bent on killing the people associated with her to claim her for himself. 

It stars Christina Marshillach, Ian Charleson and Urano Barbeini. 

This movie doesn't make any sense. The characters are as flat as a table, the main character's reactions are incomprehensible and the motives behind the killings very loosely explained. 

But the killings are very nasty and gore. Most of the violence is done off screen or with closeups to something else. But it's the fact that the killer forces the opera singer to watch every  murder by gluing needles beneath her eyes. It has a lot of reference to the eyes which is kind of really creepy.

I think the idea wasn't bad, but it wasn't well developed. 

OPERA TRAILER

If you're a fan of horror movies, you could check this one out, but I don't really recommend it to you. There are loads of better horror movies around. 

Franklyn

Directed by Gerald McMorrow in 2008, this movie is a split narrative set simultaneously in contemporary London and in a future metropolis ruled by religious fervor. It's the story of four lost souls, divided by two parallel worlds, on course for an explosive collision when a single bullet will decide all their fates.  Starring Ryan Phillippe, Sam Riley, Bernard Hill and Eva Green.

I really love this movie. It starts off as four unrealted stories that have little to do with each other. One can connect two of those - Eva and Sam's stories because they've crossed paths once or twice, but Ryan Phillippe's and Bernard Hill's stories are completly unrelated, the second once moreso, as it's set in a dark steampunkish world. Yet the action developes in such a way, that at the ending one understands completly the relation between all of them. 

The script has some very very good scenes in it. This is a movie made so that the viewer thinks and reflects over what happens to every character. It's very rich in character developement and every one of them turns out to be really interesting. 

The future world is a very crude view of the modern world pushed to the extreme. I love how McMorrow uses the religion to criticise the void in the modern world in which everything can be named god. "These days, you can form a congregation simply based on washing-machine instructions." It has also a very cool light - all in dark brown gold and black. 

I don't really like the one used in the present London, but the other one is melancholic and nearly clasic, very beautiful.  

FRANKLYN TRAILER

I can't recommend this movie enough. It's not only a ferocious critic to the actual society, but as also some very nice action scenes, a big explosion and a very good script.