Movies

By Guus , 4 November 2006

Movie poster for Borat.Last night we saw the Borat movie, with the long title "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan".

"Borat" is a fictional character played by Sacha Baron Cohen, a British comedian who became famous with playing "Ali G.".

The audience, mainly students, loved the film, although some people did not laugh when the Cohen was mocking evangelic churchgoers. The strength of the movie is that it's harsh to many different groups in society. Yes, the movie makes fun of Kazakhstan, but it's just as well mocking the U.S.

I enjoyed the movie, and at times it was absolutely hilarious (I loved the scenes with the bear). Other times it was painfully funny -- a colleague expressed it as "you're laughing but sometimes that's because there is nothing else you can do".

Borat buys a pet.

Borat buys a pet.

Topic
By Guus , 23 October 2006

A while back Sasha and I watched V for Vendetta, an action-thriller set in London in the near future.

We now have Time Warner as cable provider, and although the selection of on demand movies is slightly smaller, they have pretty good and up-to-date selection of movies.

V was a delightful movie -- a bit predictable but with great visual effects, which I like.

I didn't know them, but the movie is based on a comic series.

Topic
By Guus , 8 June 2006

Capote.This weekend we saw another Oscar winning movie: Capote.

The movie describe an episode in the life of Truman Capote, an American author. Like Walk The Line this is a documentary, without the singing of course.

The role of Capote is played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, who really deserves the Oscar he got for best actor in a lead role. The movie describes the events of Capote's book In Cold Blood and the process of interview the murderers and writing the book.

Topic
By Guus , 28 May 2006

Saturday evening we saw X-Men 3, The Last Stand, the third film adaption of the X-Men comic books.

We saw the first movie about a year ago, and two weeks ago we saw X-Men II on TV, so we were well prepared. We had enjoyed the first two movies very much, and yesterday we were very pleasantly surprised with the 3rd one.

It is not common for a sequel, let alone a second sequel, to be as good as the first movie, but X-Men the Last Stand was delightful. Intelligent, surprising story lines, good acting and of course brilliant special effects made for a really good Saturday night movie.

The movie theater was packed, and most viewers were very enthousiast about the movie as well. For those of you who are planning to see it: make sure you stay all the way until the end of the credits -- there is an interesting surprise scene.

After the movie we went to Four Courts and had drinks and a light dinner.

Topic
By Guus , 23 May 2006

Walk the Line.Saturday night we saw Walk the Line, an award-winning movie on the lives of Johny Cash and June Carter.

The acting by Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon was very, very good -- the Oscar for Witherspoon was truly deserved and I'm surprised that Phoenix did not receive more awards than he did. Both of them performed all the songs in the movie themselves.

I didn't know much about Johny Cash or June Carter before I saw the film, but I'd seen the famous concert in Folsom Prison, which place a part in the movie too. It must have been a really nice concert to attend, except for the fact that being in the audience implied that you would stay in that jail for quite some longer time.

Johny Cash at Folsom Prison.

Topic
By Guus , 13 May 2006

The Man.Usually I don't watch the movies in the plane but today I saw a really entertaining movie, The Man
.

Samual L. Jackson, in his role as rough cop was great but his involuntary partner, Eugene Levy, gave a great performance in his role of traveling dental tools salesman who just doesn't stop talking.

Sasha and I are visiting Irena and Jonathan this weekend, to celebrate Irena's birthday. We both arrived late last night, and this morning we went to see Ilana play her soccer game.

Topic
By Guus , 30 April 2006

Get Shorty.A little while ago I rented Get Shorty. We saw Be Cool last November, and both movies were equally funny.

John Travolta played his usual character -- a cool, tough and funny loan shark who makes his way into the Hollywood movie business. The movie is from 1995, so Travolta played this role one year after his come-back role in Pulp Fiction.

Topic
By Guus , 23 March 2006

Brokeback mountain.A couple of weeks ago we saw Brokeback Mountain in the Loews theater in Georgetown.

The story is about two cowboys who fall in love while they are herding sheep on Brokeback Mountain when they are young. They continue their secret relationship in the years to come, although they both get married to a wife and even get children while they're still in love with each other.

The subject of the movie is intolerance towards homosexual people. The story line starts in the 1960s the two men meet, and the movie plays in Wyoming and Texas.

Brokeback Mountain and its director, Ang Lee, won many awards this year, including 3 Oscars.

IMDB has some funny trivia about the movie, especially about director Ang Lee and his experiences with sheep.

Topic
By Guus , 12 March 2006

Lord of War.Last night we saw Lord of War, a movie about international arms trade.

The movie was made as if it were a documentary about Yuri Orlov, a trader in arms or "gun runner" played by Nicolas Cage. Orlov grows up in Little Odessa and slowly becomes the world most successful arms trader. His big boost comes when the Iron Curtain falls and he starts trading huge amounts of weapons between his native Ukraine and other countries to West-Africa.

The movie had an interesting, if at times cynical plot as it deals with the conflict that Orlov faces between his drive for success and the immorality of his work.

Some of the scenes were cruel to see, which was part of the movie's message of course, but over-all it treated the subject with a mixture of moral analysis, reporting-style objectivity and humor.


Lord of War.

Lord of War.

Topic
By Guus , 5 February 2006

Match point.Yesterday we went our for dinner in Georgetown, to Bistro Francais. It's was the first time we were in this nice french restaurant, with a beautiful interior and good food.

We had a really good time and stayed till late in the restaurant. Afterwards we went for a late movie; we saw Match Point in the Georgetown Loewie theater.

Match Point is a story about an ex-tennis player who joins high-society in the UK by marrying a rich girl, and who falls in love with his brother-in-law's fiance. The film is directed by Woody Allen, and the main theme is Allen's long-held belief in the power of luck in determining people's destiny.

It's a good movie, a thriller, and although Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is not playing a very good role as the main character, the other actors are compensating for this (most notably Scarlett Johansson).

Topic