The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

December 29, 2008 at 1:00 am (Movie Reviews)
Tags: , , , ,

We’re deeply affected and touched by this wonderful masterpiece. I don’t care what Roger Ebert and others say that it’s a Forrest Gump rip-off. It’s not. It might have some similarities, but the feel of the movie is way different. Inspired by the short story from F. Scott Fitzgerald, the movie follows the life of a boy/man who ages backwards. This is the only thing that the movie has in common with the short story. But I did not care. The screenplay was so beautifully written. And the acting was flawless. Cate Blanchett somehow managed to amaze me once again, after so many incredible performances. And Brad Pitt delivers his most powerful and grandios work. I want him to get the Oscar for Best Actor. It’s his time.

It’s nothing like other David Fincher movies. He manages to show us once again what a great film-maker he is. Beautiful directing. Some people are bitching about its length, 159 minutes; it’s all nonsense. It could have lasted 4 hours, I would not have cared. It is such an intriguing and sad and beautiful film about birth, life, happiness and sorrow… death.

It’s been some time since I’ve been waiting for it to be released. I knew that it would be a masterpiece.

Do yourself a huge favor and go see this movie! Or download it… it’s amazing!

10/10

Leave a Comment

Milk

December 26, 2008 at 5:32 pm (Movie Reviews)
Tags: , , , ,

Astonishing performance by Sean Penn in this biopic about California’s first openly gay elected official, Harvey Milk. I’m sure he’ll get an Oscar nomination for his role, but I don’t think he’ll win the award. We haven’t seen Brad Pitt in ‘The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button’ yet. The last person who won an Oscar for a gay role was Philip Seymour Hoffman in 2006, for his marvelous Capote role. But let’s not forget that he stole the award from Heath Ledger, who portrayed another gay character in the already legendary Brokeback Mountain.

Enough about awards talk. The movie, directed by Gus Van Sant (he’s openly gay), is beautifully crafted, and tells us about the last 8 years or so of Milk’s life. If at the age of 40 he thought that he didn’t do anything with his life, at 48 I’m sure he was proud of what he accomplished. Other notable roles include Emile Hirsch’s weird character Cleve Jones, Diego Luna as the gay Jack Lira, James Franco and of course, Josh Brolin, again in a hate worthy role. The atmosphere of the early and late 70’s is genuine, the last scene is just simply incredible and sad… A great movie by Van Sant. He outdid himself. He may be up for an Oscar again, 11 years after Good Will Hunting.

9/10

Leave a Comment

The Dark Knight

December 26, 2008 at 2:15 am (Movie Reviews)
Tags: , , , , ,

(Originally written in August 2008)

Where should I start? I mean, I’m pretty freaking speechless. And I can’t really believe either, that The Dark Knight has been released and I’ve seen it. I’ve been waiting for this movie for like almost 2 years.

I’m a huge Batman fan myself, since a little kid. Seen all the movies, seen all the cartoons. Read a few comics too. I really loved Tim Burton’s vision on the Dark Knight, but pretty much hated Schumacher’s on Batman and Robin. Batman Forever is somewhere in the middle I guess.

I’ve seen Batman Begins in the theaters 3 years ago, when it was released. And I was completely blown away. By Christian Bale, by the feel and Christopher Nolan’s directing, his take on the character, the story and most of all, the realism.

Batman Begins quickly became my all time favorite Batman movie, and I can’t imagine someone else than Bale playing the Caped Crusader. Keaton was great, but Bale is Batman.

2 Years have passed and they announced that Heath Ledger will be the (new) Joker. I never really enjoyed Nicholson in the first one, he just seemed stupid and that he was playing himself but with make-up on. I’ve been a fan of Ledger, but not really familiar to his works. I was psyched when I found out about him being part of the cast. I mean, I trusted Nolan. I knew that it will be a kickass surprise.

And oh it was. The Dark Knight is the first Batman movie not to have “Batman” in its title. And that’s not coincidence of course; The Dark Knight is nothing short of a crime saga set in Gotham City. It begins pretty much where Begins left off, with the appearance of The Joker, who at first is considered a minor threat to the mobs and to Batman but that doesn’t last much as Joker’s crimes become more deadly and twisted.

Heath Ledger stole the show. Whenever he was on screen, he was fantastic. Makes you forget how to blink. The new grungy look that they adopted for Joker works out perfectly because it emphasizes on his personality. He doesn’t care for money, power or himself. He just wants chaos. The lack of his background was also genius, making him more mysterious than ever. Ledger lost himself in the character. He is The Joker.

Another villain that appears in this (besides Scarecrow who has a cameo) is Harvey Dent/Two Face. Aaron Eckhart also plays his role impeccably as Harvey Dent, The White Knight of Gotham and finally Two Face. The scarring looks gritty and pretty gross, nothing like the stupid pink paint on Tommy Lee’s face in Batman Forever. That’s why it’s so awesome.

The plot is strong, with a few big surprises. And with an ending that should lead to a third Batman movie. Something even more different than The Dark Knight.

It’s just fantastic, others calling it “The Godfather of superhero movies”. It’s way different than anything else. The Dark Knight is an experience, the most elaborate and pretentious comic book interpretation. Stellar.

10 / 10

Leave a Comment