New Post on the new site:

Michael Emerson: Read

Please make sure to check the new site for new reviews from now on, mine are all moved, Ghanoo will move his reviews within the next weeks. However new stuff is going to appear THERE from now on.

Have fun!

Ghanoo is a lazy ass!

This movie is basically about a woman's request to the second editor of a movie critiques site to create himself a Wordpress account and start moving his reviews. Now when she had finished moving her posts and the whole move of the site was only a day away, he still had not even created an account but continued posting on the old site.

Now this woman became very angry and raised hell but then just decided not to publish his new posts anymore till he moved his old ones, otherwise he would not get his ass up. Spoiler: It worked.

Totally recommend this one bcs it's a real daily life movie, that could happen anywhere.

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Imagine us being a bit like them two nowadays:

Closer

Apart from the celine dion crowd, and the people who live in an extrapolation of the "ever after" concept in fairy tales, people know that relationships are complicated, because they house a big amount of conflict all the time, things get more complicated when covetness enters in the game, and it gets complicated to the Nth degree when parties involved have a hidden agenda, one of the most faithful portrayals of all of the above is the movie "Closer" by Mike Nichols

Four people from diffrent nationalities and diffrent backgrounds, two British men Dan (Jude Law) and Larry (Clive Owen) , and two American women Alice (Natalie Portman) and Anna(Julia Roberts) meet in London during diffrent circumstances, and they fall in love, end up engaged, married and living together, then doubts start to arise on the accuracy of their choices, then adultry and cheating and double lives enter inevitably in thie mixture, brining many changes to their situation, in a game where nobody wins, and where winners congratulate the losers, the very game of life.

So great is this movie, because it's so simple, it doesn't need plot devices because the characters tell the truth to the people they are supposed to deceive, Larry and Anna are hugely successful in their profession, Dan and Alice are struggling, and it doesn't change a darned thing, it's all the same, it's the same green on the both sade, and since this movie was adapted from a play long unedited sequences reveal the past and intentions of characters, it says much about the state of relationships in this century, people want everything so much that they end up with ... nothing

The artistic praise in this movie goes to Mr Nichols, and Patrick Marber the writer, without forgetting the majestic performances from Natalie Portman and Clive Owen (both golden globe winners for that), the scene where a washed up Dan goes to see Alice in the strip club is so intense that you could make a movie just out of it.

Well for the rest of the world creaming about upper mid class western life, this is as faithful a portrayal as it gets, and in the words of the great Warren Zevon "Rich folks suffer like the rest of us, it will happen to you", so perhaps at the end of this movie you will realise that your relationship is not that miserable after all, and that's the bonus form of self help one can get out of a brilliant piece of a movie making, and granted it's a movie you will never get tired of.

Mission Impossible 2

After the first installment was a commercial and a critical success, Ethan Hunt came back to the movie screens for another episode of "Mission Impossible" and since Tom Cruise is very involved with the project being a producer as well, he hired no other then Mr Hong Kong cinema himself, John Woo, to direct the sequel, was it a success ? let's dig deeper.

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is the new leader of IMF, and while on vacation doing some extreme sports thing he gets contacted by the Agency, and during a meeting in an exotic location Mission Commander Swanbeck (Anthony Hopkins) informs him that some prototype virus "Chimera" had been stolen by his arch rival Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott), and that his mission "should he choose to accept it" is to retrieve the virus and it's antidote, he might choose two teem members and the third must be Nyah Nordof-Hall (Thandie Newton), a woman who had a relationship with Ambrose and well trained in her field.

From Spain to Australia, back to America, and again, the chase between Hunt and Ambrose goes firece, while both fight to get their hands on Chimera, a love triangle forms between the three of them, and indeed it has an effect on the progression as anytime the professional and the moral and the sentimental gets mixed, you always know in your heart that the good guys win, but at what cost, to themselves and humanity.

A highly anticipated sequel, turned out to be a mere money maker, John Woo lost his mojo when he moved to America and he never got it back, he surely made a lots of money, but he did a big harm to his filmography, an American action hero is not as absolute as a hong kong one, and besides, the story doesn't justify the stunts, which are the true force of this movie, and the two most important ones, the vilain and the love interest are far from convincing, Thandie Newton was a clear miscasting, and Scott could be a goold vilain would his character be drawn better, but again, this is a star vehicle for Tom Cruise, who shines in shades and on motorcycles, doing stuff that is illegitmate outside of Hong Kong, i mean at one point, a white dove flies out of nowhere for god's sake ! but it was a good summer movie, which a lot of movie fans wanted to like, and the remainder is a couple of mountain climbing stunts, and some scenes that look like the prototype of the far superiour "The Dark Knight", indeed at the heart of a good action movie are story and character, and character is exactly what this movie lacks.

Catch Me If You Can

Genius is a word we use carefully here in JM, because otherwise, anybody who is not average would be labled "Genius" and that's not the right way to use it, but Frank Abegnale was a true genius a guy who managed to make millions of dollars, pose as a Panam pilot, a district attorney, and even a pediatrist and go around the world, before he was nineteen years old and Spielberg made a movie based on the events of his life and that's "Catch me If You can).

Frank Abagnale (Leonardo Dicaprio) is a teenager in New Jersey, living an upper middle class life, his Father (Christopher Walken) is quite successful in his business, and his mother (Nathalie Baye) is French, whome his father met while he was serving in WW2, the couple can't resist some troubles they have, and they end up divorcing, the super sensitive, super intelligent Frank doesn't take it well, and using some wisdom provided by his father, he manages to fool everybody, from Airport authorities, to respectable hospitals, to the US attorney office, using innovative forgery techniques, and a superiour self confidence, and to make so much money doing forgery stuff wherever he could.

On the other side is agent Handratty (Tom Hanks) the chief of check fraud branch in the FBI local office, and he is the one hunting him, Handratty is a good guy, paternal, intelligent and understanding, soon enough a strange bound forms between him and Frank, and this bound is the wire that connects the movie together, at the end Frank is a troubled child in a broken home, he needs to prove himself to the world around him, and to some persons in particular, and Handratty understands that, but will it be enough to catch him ?

One of my personal favourites, it's a brilliant movie, much praise goes to DiCaprio's performance, as Abagnale, this guy didn't replace DeNiro in Scorsese's world for nothing, there are other great preformances, Hanks as always is very good, but i think the best of them all is Walken as Frank's father, this performance should have got him several awards, he got the nominations but he was more then good.

A swingy score by John Williams and the traditional brilliant cinematography by Janusz Kaminski complete the atmosphre of this film, and compared to many movies set in the sixties this one is so superiour, because it does not fall into the trap of nostalgia but focuses on the characters and their relationships, Jennifer Gardner plays a role which is hard to forget of a prostitute who ends up paying her client for her services, this movie was good when it came out, it stands the test of time, it's not a masterpiece like the other three or four Spielberg made, but it's close to that status, brilliant people make the most difficult things look effortless, and this movie is an exemple of that.

Update on the moving

You may wonder how far we got in moving the site and its posts.

For that we created a list to mark what's already done and what still has to be done
Click to see details

As you may see all 48 posts of Sina's in 2008 have been moved already, so its 48 reviews you can try the new search on already. Feel free to try it and let us know if you found what you were looking for.

Also see the "Editors" page for Sina's Bio bcs that much is done, too.

We keep you updated on the progress!

Leaving Las Vegas

Since Bugsy Siegel imagined it (see our review of "Bugsy") Sin City has been known to contain all the forms of excess within it's limits, from the psychadelia of a Hunter Thompson to the crooning of Sinatra and the Rat Pack, to Pharaonic projects by Winn and his likes, yet on the outskirts of Vegas exists another limit, the place where dreams and illusions die, and the doomy question comes knocking "what remains when everything is gone ?" .

Ben Sanderson(Nicholas Cage) is a Hollywood agent who has hit rock bottom due to alcoholism, under the California Sun he manages to trash a beautiful existence the whole world creams about and throw it all at the foot of his mistress, the bottle, and since late alcoholism is full of unfunny ideas, Ben has the best of them all "Going to Vegas to drink himself to death".

After burning the remainder of his LA life, and since his firing from his last job got him a nice severance package, he puts his plan to work and goes to Vegas, checks in a motel, and on the Strip he accidentally meets Sara () a beautiful hooker, between the two, an odd relationship forms, based on "mutual understanding", he doesnet criticize her occupation, she doesnt criticize his "mission", but Sara is just his perfect match, she seen it all, she is more disillusioned then him, if that's possible, this relationship is deep and doomed, with and end that will surprise you, this is really a Hunter Thompson vision of vegas, the place where the American Dream dies.

The movie has a melancolic tone, it's similar to a free fall to the abyss of human misery, but with a shining light at the bottom, at the end Ben and Sara are metaphors of the successful and beautiful who are too odd to live, and too cool to die, and are stuck in this big mirage in the desert, a hole they can't, and don't want to get out of.

The chimestry between the two lead actors is a rare thing on movie screens, because they hit bottom , they are at the edge of honesty, the rest of the cast is for plot purpouses, this movie is about Ben and Sara and and that's it.

Mike Figgis makes a great tale of Vegas and despair, the city lights are filmed in a beautiful cinematography, and the fragility of Elisabeth Shue is not something you will forget soon, and anyways, if Vegas is the tomb of the American dream, then leaving Las Vegas.... a surrender to nothingness, and seening such a high concept within the limits of moviemaking is great by itself.

The Last King of Scotland

Africa, cradle of civilisation, land of exotism and mystery and beauty.... and dictatorship, and murder, and blood money, and a lot of things, matter of fact the old continent is still struggling, because "the new continent" and the one above are still making it a rule to give shelter to it's dictator and leave it in it's virgin state, save for the natural ressources of course.

"The Last king of Scotland" is such a movie, it's about Ugunda, a country not many of you have heard about, and it's center is the life and times of General Idi Amin the man who ruled the country
with an iron fist and an undeniable charisma seen through western eyes.

Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) is a young Scottish doctor fresh out of med school, he has daddy issues and don't want to end up like father in the classy monotonous life of village practice, so he throws his dice on the world globe, and ends up in Ugunda, where he helps a humanitarian doctor to cure the needy in a remote Ungandan Village, his arrival conicides with the successful coup d'etat staged by General Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker) , a series of events lead Nicholas to become a close adviser to Amin, and to enter his life of ultimate luxury, unlimited power and raw violence beyond the understanding of a Scottish upper middle class kid who came to look for adventure.

The movie is shot in warm hues, and a great cinematography, again through western eyes, it starts in the exotic safari Africa with exotism and mystery, then slowly to "bloody money " Africa where nobody wants to live, and the truth is lost between those two, in a mere cinematographic point of view the movie is good, but you can't help the feeling of absorbing a biased message, it's speaking about real people having real lives, it has a somewhat honest point of view in the sense of Nicholas's indulgence of Idi Amin's cruel behaviours is a metaphor for the whole western indulgence of African dictatorship, i mean who did provide dictators with arms (see our review of "lord of war), with tax havens, with swiss accounts, and sometimes even of a favourable media coverage, far from me to indulge dictatorship and killings, because i know what it's like to live under a dictatorship, but this bloody coin has two sides, and you can't just focus on one, because i think he is just paying the price of his political stands during "Operation Thunderbolt".

Back to cinema, Whithaker's acting is amazing, he could absorb and channel the raw magnetism and undeniable charisma of Amin and won all the major awards that year, on the other side James McAvoy is really good in his interpretation of a candid doctor, who came to Africa to seek adventure, and ends up learning that "everything there is real" in the words of Amin.

Being an African myself, i can't judge this movie without thinking about the broken promises my contient endured, an how deceived it was, from the early days of Ben Mhidi, Nasser and Lumuba, a big African Festival is happening in Algeria these days the second "Panaf", the first was in 69, between the two is a painful story of an extinction of a holy fire of aspiration for billions of people, which got reduced to the distance between any African capital, and Geneva, and they don't even need that now, they have the internet

NEWS: IMPORTANT!

Hey guys,

there's some really big and important stuff to announce. Jebby Movies is finally moving!

Nah, don't worry, we are not going anywhere but we will move all the posts and the best of your comments to http://jebbymovies.wordpress.com/ - Soon we will also get us a short and nice domain but for now it's just the server movement.

Why do we move?

Wordpress provides better service for everyone! You will have a site search that actually works, will be able to find us on Google and so on, the comments and site managing is much more easy and comfortable and you will be able to browse through the reviews you are looking for, faster and better.

For us however it provides a better look into the site statistics and an easier post and comment management. I got my own site http://sinahawk.wordpress.com/ on Wordpress since the first launch and it just works better.

We will drop a few features (such as the "Tag cloud" and the store) and provide new ones (easier linking to Youtube and Communities, new categories ...).

It will take a lot of time to move all the reviews of the last years but we will finally finish somewhen. Please check out the new site already and use the comments at the "About" page to let us know about the new site. Also GO ON CHECKING THIS SITE bcs really new reviews will be posted here till the other site is complete!

Have a great rest of a weekend
Best regards
Your editors

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

What happens when you take your audience for granted, well Sting made a luth album, The Rolling Stones made disco albums, Schwarzenneger made a movie where he was pregnant, and these endeavours share one common symptom, they are not just mediocre, but they have a kind of an agressive mediocrity, a disrespect for fan's loyalty.

"Forgetting Sarah Marshall" is such an exemple, although not that mediocre anyways, Peter Bretter (Jason Segel) is a film musician whose girlfriend is the smoking hot Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell) the star of "Scene of the Crime", a series that bears a ressemblance to a certain CSI, the couple is disequilibred but functional, until the day the inevitable happens, Sarah Breaking up with Peter.

Peter doesn't take it well to say the least, since he is basically a man boy, think couch potato with a vengence, so after trying everything, he follows his brother's advice and goes to Hawaii to forget it all, and guess what, Sarah is also there with her new boyfriend, the rock star Adlous Snow (Russel Brand) the leader of Infant Sorrow.

One thing leads to another, and all the clichées of the genre fall like the moussoun, Rachel (Mila Kunis) is the hot receptionist who has a little thing for Peter, Matthew (Jonah Hill) as a restaurant employee trying to break into music, Chuck (Paul Rudd) as the Surf instructor, and the old story of Peter trying to make it big in the entertainment business using his frustration as creative stimuli, until reaching a predictable ending that will make you wonder when did it cease to be an Apatow production, and became a Sandra Bullock one.

Now don't get me wrong, it's the summer, and if you have nothing to do, it's a nice afternonn movie, but it's below the Apatow standards, like "SuperBad" we reviewed days ago, it's a predictable plot, what make an Apatow comedy is it's unpredictablity, and it suffers some problems in the level of character building, some of them like the fundamendalist couple, or the yoga instructor are just fillers, they just occupy vacant screen time, a special mention indeed for Russel Brand who saves the movie with his exotic brand of comedy, and his onscreen wit, you won't forget his performance here anytime soon.

Apatow and Co are working on a new thing, "Funny People" with Adam Sandler, and the usual people, now will Sandler drag Apatow below to the level of "big daddy" or will Apatow drag him up to the level of "Punch drunk love", a low point in the body of work of this great funny Apatow family, but we shall be indulgent, because they made us laugh so hard, and so many times.

The Man Who Wasn't There

Some things are easier said then done, like "bring back the golden ae cinema" think of the failed attempt of Clooney and Soderbergh to do their interperetation of "The Third Man" it was named "The Good German" and tanked like a torpedoed german submarine in WW2, but the Coens know the craft of film noir, and that's what made "The Man Who Wasn't there" a success.

Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton) is a barber in Santa Rosa, California in the fifties, he has a quiet stable life with his wife Doris (Frances Mc Dormand) and works at his in laws barbershop, one day an "entrepreneur" named Creighton Tolliver (Jon Polito) asks him to become his business partner in dry cleaning, Ed is supposed to make it big, and lack of funds leads him to blackmail his wife's boss Big Dave (James Gandolfine).

Following that greedy move, everything around Ed falls into pieces while he is the quiet observer he is "just the barber", this basic blackmail will make him cross the paths of a ruthless lawyer (Tony Shalhoub) a young virtuousou pianist (Scarlett Johansson), in the whole mood of the USSR atomic bomb, the Rosewell UFO's, and all the Pulp culture in the Fifties America.

That's a movie the new generation of filmmakers can present to HitchCock, or Welles and be proud, it has all the elements of noir used in a masterful way, with Ed Crane as a fabulous anti-hero, he is in the midst of the Horatio Alger thing, he wants to make it big, that's what America is supposed to be about, but he is stuck in his air conditioned hell, and when he tries to leave his comfort zone, destiny hits him with it's huge shovel on the head.

Straightforward cinematography from back in the day by Roger Deakins plays a big part in the success of this movie, and a minimalist score by Carter Burwell, it's insane how the Coens can be brilliant, it left me spontaneously clapping while the end credits were rolling, and indeed a special mention to the acting of BBT who channels one of the quietest anti-heroes in the coen's universe since Byrne in Miller's Crossing.

Ed lives his life as an UFO fitting nowhere, and the conens are at their best when they film misfits, this is one of their best works, and it won a big award at Cannes that year, indeed they want to win a handful of oscars years later, but that's another story for another review.

Superbad

If you love American comedies nowadays then you live in the Apatow world, the guy behind "the 40 years old virgin", "knocked up", or "forgetting sarah marshall", with a little help of his friends, the likes of Seth Rogen, Adam Sandler, Micheal Cena, he know makes or produces, or supervises these blockbusters with an attention to detail, and also a respect to the audience smarts and the rules of the genres, just as he did with "SuperBad" in 2007.

Evan (Michael Cera) and Seth (Jonah Hill) are best friends and are also in their senior year in highschool, like all the teens in their age, they like adult movies, booze, video games, and girls.... a little bit too much, but their success with the other sex is limited to say the least, because of their geekish looks and shyness, but this is about to change because Jules (Emma Stone) a girl Seth has been creaming over since forever asks him to be in charge of the booze details of her party, using the gorged ID of their friend Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse).

This assignment is harder then what they thought, because they cross the paths of two crazy police officers (Bill Hader and Seth Rogen), a crazy driver, an alcoholic dude, the night will be long for the three of them, and because they are two weeks from graduation, their fear of the upcoming separation adds a lot of tension to their quest to take the booze where it belongs.

The Apatow formula is easy to understand but very hard to replicate, it's beyond the sterotype of "the geek meets the fly girl", this is an update on the Woody Allen formula, a strong plot with well drawn characters, and then the comedic artifacts enhance the final work, Seth and Evan are in the tradition of the comedic duos, their loyalty to each other carries the movie, their questo to get this booze to the party is involving for the audience, this level of craft is not what you'd expect in a movie made for the widest audience.

We all loved "American Pie" when it came out, but it was a guilty pleasure, but this is the kind of teen comedy you won't be ashamed to like, because it's brilliant and involving, indeed there are minor flaws here and there, some details we could live without, but if you like comedy, it's as good as it gets, and in these hard times you can't possibly spare a chance of a good laugh, life is too short for missing it's funny part.

Red White and Blues

Every true movie lover loves music as well, and it's a delight when the two merge sometimes, like in these interesting documentaries produced by Martin Scorsese about the blues, there are seven of them but in my opinion one of the best was "red white and blues" directed by Mike Figgis.

The movie simply documents the british influence on the evolution of the blues music in General, and how the british music scene shifted from jazz influences to embrace the blues, and the very passionate people at the center of the mouvment, it's true that GenXers, and GenYers don't know much about that, we tend to take things for granted, but it's safe to say that without these people, your favourite rock band, or metal band would probably not exist.

Through testimonials of inflencial musicals, like Eric Clapton, BB King, Chris Fowler, Jeff Beck, the story is told, how these very passionate post war musicians discovered the blues through import vinyls, and how they absorbed it for ten years, to then export it back to America in the era of "the british invasion", where the beatles and the rolling stones took america by surprised and amazed it and the rest of the world for decades.

The Rolling Stones are not interviewed but they are part of this mouvment and so are the beatles, it's interesting to notice that it was a political decision in America to shelter white kids from this music, it was the reason it had to find a temporary refuge across the ocean, and then invade white america in the mid sixties, thus "opening doors that otherwise would have stayed closed", it is also interesting to notice how these brilliant people made this music their own, but without changint it's core, a fascinating journey indeed.

This story is illustrated by filmed performanes of many british musicians and singers doing blues renditions, and heavyweight ones, Van Morrison, Tom Jones, Jeff Beck, the best performance in my opinion is Lulu's rendition of "drown in my own tears" but they are all great, and recored in the legendary Abbey Road studios for god's sake !

A great primer on blues for those who are interested, and just a great documentary by all means, if you have a chance to catch this one don't miss it, because cinama and music, especially the blues have a deep relation and blues is the music of the night, of the misfits and of the lonely, and a lot of the movie making comes from these primal elements.

Manhattan

One yea after his triumph at the oscars, Woody Allen came back to visit the themes he endears the most, people, relationships, psychanalysis, and a New York, and rather then taking a thematic departures, he made what might be qualified as the second volume of a trilogy which is still unachieved, "Manhattan" that is, one of the director's landmarkish works.

Isaac Davis (Woody Allen) is a successful TV writer in New York with a fair amount of success

with women, and friends who support him, what seems to be a happiness receipe has the exact opposite effects on Isaac, he is neurotic, self loathing, and dating a seventeen years old girl Tracy (Mariel Hemingway).

In a broad move of desperation Isaac quits his high paying job to focus on writing his book, but he is unable to work, and his finances decline rapidly, during this time he meets Mary (Diane Keaton) a pseudo intellectual as he describes her, who can go on showing off her knowledge for hours about things ranging from Van Gogh to the Saturn's sattelites, a series of events lead the two of them to date, Mary who is every bit as neurotic and unsecure as Isaac is a perfect match for him for a while, but does this affair have a future.

This movie takes the older then this world concept of "greener on the other side" puts many levels of comedy and brilliance over it, Isaac doesn't know what he wants, and he systematically destroys any chance he might have to be a little bit happy, some people are just like that, his relationship with Tracy is perfect but he intellectualise it too much, his other relationship with Mary is him going to the other side of the specturm to see if he fits in there, but he is a misfit, in all ranges, colours, and relationships.

It's shot in a great black and white by Gordon Willis in wider then usual format, maybe to capture the broadth of the city, the dialogues are brilliant, and the acting a little bit theatrical, but theather is not far from this movie, nor is the cinema of Bergman, one of Allen's hero.

But in it's essence this movie is a commentary he is having on the intellectual circles of New York, despite his looks Woody Allen is the kind of a person "to stay the whole afternoon watching sports on television then reading russian litterature" he seems to have more then desdain for pseudo intllectuals and their self centred monologues, but it is also a very funny movie, with hilarious bits of dialogues, and a very good romatnic comedy in it's own right, one of the director's/authors best films to date, it manages to have it's pulse on the city's rhythm, while drawing a broad painting on the issues it's inhabitants might have, and considering the huge task that is, it's a masterful piece of work, and a good place for anybody to dive in the Allenian brilliant universe.

March of the Penguins (La marche de l'empreur)

Question: Who cares about penguins in Antarctica ? Answer: French people, somehow these people have plenty of ressources and free time to go spend time with these noble animals, the coolest species in my opinion, in terms of swagger and attitude, the result is an interesting documentary, "the march of the penguins"

Emperor Penguins are observed in their natural Habitat, Antarctica, as they "march" from the ocean, their natural habitat, inlands in an ardous and difficult journey to their breeding ground, where they establish a colony, find a partner, following by the female laying an egg, the parents then have the difficult task to keep it warm from winds that can reach 190MPH, predators, all that while they starve since the ocean is far, and it's the only place where they can find food, a journey that takes several months, and which many of them will not survive.

The educational value of this documentary is dense, interesting and metaphorical, both the male and female empror penguin take turns in keeping the egg safe, after the laying, the female goes back to the ocean to bring food, while the colony sticks together agains the cold and dark Antarctic winter, and if they make it to the ocean, they are preys of many predators and dangers, it's really fascinating, i'm far from being an enviromentalist myself, but the whole experience is worth watching.

What torpedoed the experience was the dubbing (french in my case) where famous voice actors, Charles Berling and Romane Bohringer took speak for the male and female penguins, it's almost silly, since they want to make it look like a romantic comedy or tragedy or something, the kid's voice to the baby penguin was beyond silly, these birds are too cool to sound like french brats.

The music is adequate, except maybe the techno pop thing to illustrate the "love story", but I still think the original version narrated by morgan freeman is more interesting, and anyways, minus the narrative, which is a plus if you are into tear jerking, it's a movie worth watching by all means, some people will try to see it in a metaphorical sense for strong family values, and parental sacrifice, but these creatures are just birds, they are genetically programmed to do what they are doing, but watching these noble animals, with their tribe values and patience beyond tough times, is inspiring in a sense, these animals are not called emperors for nothing, they have royal value.

This documentary/movie won the oscar for best documentary, well deserved, well done, and try to think about the penguins right now preparing for their endless trip, boy are they cool !

The Third Man

Viewing a «certified classic» is an intimidating experience, the equivalent of listening to The Beatles's Revolver, and what if you won't like it, does it mean that it sucks, or that you suck, but in general all these ideas vanish after the first half an hour of viewing, classics are classics because they are more then good.

«The Third Man» happens in Vienna, not the peaceful Vienna with it's architecture and music and cafés, but the post war one, which is divided to four parts, by the number of the winners of world war two, times are though and everybody is surviving as they can, life goes on.
Holly Lime (Joseph Cotten) arrives one morning to join his friend Harry Lime only to find him murdered, since Holy is a pulp Western writer he smells something fishy in this whole thing, Harry was murdered by his own car with his friends attending at the door of the building he lives so unlucky Holy attends his friend's funeral hours after he arrives.

Holy starts investigating and questioning Ha's friends, which leads him to Anna (Alida Valli) Hal's beautiful love interest whom he already seen in the funeral, and Sergent Paine (Bernard Lee) and major Calloway (Trevor Howard) British officers in charge of the investigation, Holy's diggining brings him some unwanted attention, and in a post war city everything can happen, soon enough he finds about a huge ploy including some dirty money, and where what he believed in is shattred like an ancient mirror, when he learns about truths which were better concealed.

What a great Noir indeed in post war atmosphere, words are not enough to describe the minimalist brilliance of this movie, first it was a script developed by Graham Greene from a novella he wrote for this movie, and then there is the beautiful sitar music by Anton Karas, no big horn sections in here, no haunting violins, most of the time it's the silence and the mood, and the gorgeous black and white cinematography by Robert Krasker, and Vienna itself.

The acting is the true force of the movie, you have Joseph Cotten as Holy who is the best Noir detective i've seen so far with all respect to Humphrey Bogart, Alida Valli as the femme fatale is a radical departure since she has dignity, she is not manipulative, and far from being a vamp, she is just stuck in this part of the world doing what she can to survive, but the acting crown goes to Orson Welles in an improbable vilain part, I mean I never thought I would say this, but he is probably the best Vilain i've ever seen on a movie screen, and during the movie famous Ferris wheel scene, with a dialogue every bit as good as the famous dialogue in «on the waterfront»

This movie has been named the best British movie ever, and also won the grand prix at Cannes this year, it's had to find a movie that top it, as Noir and Mystery movies go, and that's why we love cinema no matter how many atrocities Micheal Bay, and McG make us endure.

Brubaker

Prison movies are a staple genre in popular cinema, because they treat universal themes, especially crime and punishment, which are the basis of the whole concept of justice, and because of the potential of dramatic richness of incarcerated people each having a story to tell.

«Brubaker» is no exception to this rule, but it has another perspective on it, Henry Brubaker (Robert Redford) is the newly appointed director of the Wakefild prison in Ohio, because of some electoral promise the governor had made, reforming prisons has always been a shiny campaign slogan, rarely applied in reality, but Brubaker has another view on this matter, he is a criminologist, and an idealist, he is here to change things, and does not believe in half measures.

Wakefield being a sort of a modern medieval dungeon, only a notch above a slaves farm, where inmates starve, are tortured, and are subject to many abuses, while people outside the prison are making some sweet benefits, Bruback's attitude ends up irritating more then one, and finally brining him the wrath of the very people who employed him in the first place, who used him as a vehicle of a PR endeavour, and who see the prison in terms of profit, politicians the true scum of the universe.

This movie is a true hidden gem of the genre, I remember saying that Redford was the Brad Pitt of his time, in fact he is superior, there is a sort of integrity in the way he plays his parts, and a sort of a hidden charm beyond looks, this is a gift that cannot be acquired, and the mid career Redford here masters it like a second nature.

The cinematography is adequate to the theme, the supporting actors are good, especially Miss Gray (Jane Alexander) the person who recruited Brubaker and who supports him to the end, and also Morgan Freeman in a short but a memorable performance, the sheer of the last scene will give you a chill up your spine, it's superior to the usual tear jerker where many auteurs are niched usually, It's a true reflection on how a sparrow can bring the spring if it's the right one

Surely one hidden gem of the genre, it has Redford on top of his game, also a special nod to the script by W.D. Richter (screenplay/story) and Arthur A. Ross (story)., which has a lot of humanity and smarts in it, inmates are in because they committed crimes they generally regret, the true criminals are the people in suits and women suits with their camera ready shiny smiles, but then again they are incarcerated inside their mediocrity and hypocrisy, and there is no shabbier prison then this one.

Year: 1980
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Starring: Robert Redford, Jane Alexander, Yaphet Kotto, Everett McGill

Se7en

In the end of the second millenium, especially from 1995 and on, there was a pre apocalyptic feel in the air, the internet was new, and people did not know what to expect from it, the united states were ruling the world without being accountable to anybody, and the popular culture was no diffrent to that feeling, one of the most prominent exemples is "Seven" by David Fincher, the shock film of that year that put Fincher and Pitt on the map.

Detective Somerset (Morgan Freeman) is a police officer who is a week away from retirment, his young replacement is detective Mills (Brad Pitt), and Somerset has to brief him on the cases, Somerset is tired and disgusted of what the city became, and he sees his retirment as a failure to make the world a place worth fighting for.

Things take a dire twist when some strange murders start to happen, very calculated and following a certain ritual, first an obese man is killed in a very disgusting way , and then a successful laywer with , and then a pedofile, a pattern starts to form, and it seems that the killer is graphically illustrating the seven deadly sins, because the murderer manages to leave clues leading from murder scene to murder scene, with some macabre references to ancient books.

Things go from bad to worse, Somerset who is the older of the two uses his considerable knowledge to link the murders, while hard boiled Mills is losing his tempter, his recent moving to the city has causes his wife Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow) some adaptation troubles, the killer John Doe (Kevin Spacey) seems to be playing the police department like puppets, and the graphical nature as well as the atrocity of the murders escalates, untill reaching the climatic superb ending where again, nobody gets away clean.

The movie is well known for it's desperate tone as well as it's brilliant cinematography, Somerset is desillusioned, he knows that the world sucks, but he can't understand John Doe who claims to have pure motives, I remember watching this movie at a young age, and it turnted me off everything for a while.

David Fincher has made great movies especially in that category, but he is more a technical director then an intuitive one, his collaboration with Brad Pitt, who plays here one of his most memorable roles, is undenaiably brilliant, and Morgan Freeman great performance counter balances all the others, he was discovered late, but he is a great actor.

The world has changed since 95 but arguably to worse, consider that this movie was made before 9/11, and gitmo, and the balloney invasion of Iraq, the morals decay had lead to a new race of criminals, and compared to those John Doe is a small time crook, but this movie is terryfying, not in the Exorcist sense, but in a more intellectual one, it raises questions and never answers a single one of them, it's like a downhill rollercostar ride that ends up in a tar pit, but it has a great rythm image and performances and can be considered a prequel to "Fight Club" by the same Fincher/Pitt, and we will soon have the occasion to speak about that one in greater detail.

Sideways

Indie movies are the true beating heart of cinema, they are the niche for auteur movies which are the only genuine art pieces in popular cinema, and often because of the low marketing budgets it's hard for them to reach for a large audience, « Sideways » is no exception, and while being an Oscar winner in the writing category, is still reduced to the status of buried treasure.

So let's pick a shovel and unearth it, Miles (Paul Giammati) is a stereotypical loser, with all the ingredients that make one, abusive mother, failed relationships, denial of relationship failure, alcoholism, and is also an aspiring author who had no luck so far in publishing.

Losing loves company, the only thing working in Miles life is a strong friendship he has with Jack (Thomas Haden Church) an actor with a decent success who is about to get married, the other thing working in his life is a passion for Horticulture, and everything related to wine, and vineyards, so instead of a bachelor party, both of them decide to have a road trip through rural california, and it's wine culture, exactly a week before Jack's upcoming wedding.

The initial plan is, drinking nice wine, golfing, good food and wine, and women if possible, Jack being the best marketable of the two ends up attracting Christine (Sandra Oh) a thirty something wine grower who is still gripping on her youth, and since nobody wants to be a third wheel, Maya (Virginia Madsen) a waitress in a nearby restaurant wh knows both Miles and Christine is also part of the party.

While Jack is attracted to the nets of temptation, Miles and Maya find they have many things in common, especially the wine culture, indeed nothing goes out as planned, and this roadtrip takes an unexpected turn that will test the loyalty of Miles and Jack to each other, and to their past and future commitments, in beautiful South California.

This movie is a great loser buddy movie, Miles anxiety and issues with women drive this movie along with the wine culture, max knows the wine, he sees the beauty in it, but he can't extrapolate it into his life, the wine here is very metaphorical and is the soul of the plot, people end up alone, and they want to be more then the usual drinker, they want to do it with class, it's really about looking at reality through a half full glass of wine, it's colored and distorted, and it smells nice, but the post hangover things are here to stay, no matter what cellar you might have.

The script is wonderful, the setting in South California wine culture more then adequate, and this whole fourty something people not giving up on life has a fragile beauty in it, Alexander Payne is a writer director to follow, and the four principal actors have an undeniable chimistry, it's like one of these long melancolic jazz jams, you don't have enough of it, or just like one of these precious wine bottles you might have if you are not religously forbidden to do so like myself, you need to own this movie in any form whatsoever, it's a summer movie by excellence, missing it would be a sin.

007: For Your Eyes Only

James Bond has spent almost fifty years at her Majesty's secret service, that's a long time, in where the world has seen many changes, unfortunatly the true Bond spirit did not survive the fall of Berlin's wall, now becoming a mere copy paste of Jason Bourne, yes it's making a lot of money, but the last few ones were actually a waste of celluloid.

But back when "For Your Eyes Only" was released, the greatest James Bond was still on duty, Roger Moore that is, and his mission this time is to recover or destroy the ATAC system, some kind of a fancy satellite guiding system for strategic messiles, which was lost in the Adriatic Sea, with the help of a very cool British/Greek bond girl Milena (Carole Bouquet) and the whole tools Q provides him with.

The Power of a James Bond movie is to combine everything we like, want and aspire to be, in this installment, it's a subtle mixture of Italian winter sports resorts, Greek mythology and Hospitality, the blue of the Mideteranean Sea, Archeology and Scuba Diving.

To make his mission a success James Bond enlists the help of Kristatos (Julian Glover) a Greek smuggler with an admiration for British lifestyle, and he is a victim of the plotting of Columbo (Chaim Topol) the former associate of Kristatos, but in this double edged plot, loyalty changes with the breeze of the Miditeranean sea, and since ATAC is a serious business, the Russians are not far, but since the movie was made in the detente times, they are kinder then usual, and their attitude is more businesslike.

These are the Bond movies we like, beautiful bond girls with smarts, fast cars, exotic locations, a solid plot, and even the classic Casino scene where bond always wins, the action scenes are great and inventive, and the underwater scenes with a glimpse on the Greek civilisation are breathtaking, even Bond's Archnemesis SPECTRE makes an appereance along with the Iron Lady herself Mrs Thatcher, it was a brilliant way to enter the eighties for the Bond Franchise

I remember watching it a decade and a half ago, and it's still relevant now, a great place to start your Bond experience if you are new (don't be turned off by the Daniel Craig crap, he ain't a true Bond), or to add to your 007 Filmography if you are a veteran, in both cases, Roger Moore remains the best Bond ever, and we 007 fans really hope that the franchise will manage to get back to this state of brilliance, let's hope the Broccollis will be able to listen to this request or are they too busy counting their millions and licensing the 007 seal to video games

Year: 1981
Director: John Glenn
Starring: Roger Moore, Carole Bouquet, Julian Glover, Topol

Minority Report

In a near future, crime fighting agencies have a major asset, they have a means to know about and prevent a crime before it even happens, this is the mission of a Precrime a government agency led by John Anderton (Tom Cruise) who has achieved remarkable results in the district of Columbia, which is supposed to encourage the whole country to endorse this method which combines police efficiency, high technology and parapsychologic powers focused around the powers of three oracles, the twins and Agatha (Samantha Morton).

Precrime being the center of a major media attention, the department of justice dispatches Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell) an ambitious suit with enough authority and insolence to irritates the established order, Anderton is not happy because he has skeletons in his closet caused by a close family member of his involved in a tragic happening, which jeopardized his stability, and made him prone to dishonourable behaviors.

To make everything worse, John is the next target of his team, since He is about to be part of a crime, now this can be either a ploy to take over his service, or that he has good reasons to go on the other side of the law, this is the central conflict of «Minority Report»

Anything Spielberg does has the potential to attract movie audiences and movie lovers alike, because the man has the hidden talent to make movies that attract both, in his first collaboration with Tom Cruise, and over a script based on a short story by the legendary Philip.K Dick it even has the potential to become a cultural event, something that would be in the same drawer with «Blade Runner» as one of the Sci-Fi classics, this movie doesn't manage to do so, but It fails honorably, because it doesn't laugh at iteslf, and it respects the audience's brains.

Anderton quest to discharge himself from this criminal involvment that did not occur leads him to realise that this whole mess is political and involving very influencial people, as he learns from his mentor Max Von Sydow (Director Lamar Burgess), who was the mastermind behind Precrime, and as we follow him through a futuristic Washington D.C, we have a glimpse of the future without the cheap tricks that we became tired of, but in it's essence it's a thriller, it doesn't really dig deep in the soil of big brother issues, and private life, , Anderton wants to know the truth, to do so he crosses the middle line between good and evil back and fourth, and visits the underworld and it's identity concealing technologies to do so.

When I say «fails honourably» it still means that it is head and shoulders above stuff like «I.Robot» or even «A.I» by the same director, the way Anderton uses the interface of Precrime was as overused as the Matrix's bullet time effect, We wish it would dig deeper into the territory of the conflicting man-machine relationship, and how new technologies are altering our free will, but this movie is here to entertain, and it does it brilliantly, it is not the best Spielberg but it's quite good, and it gives him another success to add to the many he had in his rich creative life, casting choices are good, the cinematography splendid, we just hope that summer blockbusters with A-List stars had this quality controls, but when you see «Transformers 2» being so popular while being so bad, you wonder if American movies have went again through the downward spiral of lucrative mediocrity, and even if it does, we'd still have the underground Sci-Fi movies.

Vanishing Point

A Dodge Challenger running trough the asphalt of the American southwest, the radio is turned on KOW radio with plenty of soul and funk music, the sun is burning, and rebellion is in the air, and sex drugs and rock n'roll are nearby, this is the spirit of "fear and loathing in las vegas", but from another persoective, because we are in the middle of a huge inter state car chase, this is "Vanishing Point"

Kowalski (Barry Newman) is a former lot of things, a former Vietnam war hero, a former police officer, a former motorcycle and destruction dirby racer, and a former boyfriend of a surf queen, the man has lived a rich life, and now he is a car delivery driver, a true rebel soul addicted to an absolute concept of freedom, so after he delivers a Chrysler Imperial he refuses to take rest, and starts his next journey right away, delivering a white Dodge Challenger to San Fransisco, and while enroute he refuses to pull over when asked to do so by motorcycle cops, this act will be the ignitiono of a major chase through four states, a mystical journey, where he will cross path with death many times, and where he will meet allegories of counter culture elements, a sort of a modern day Greek mythology hero in the American Southwest.

This mythological journey is set on the root music of the south, soul and gospel, provided by Dj Super Soul (Cleavon Little) the blind guide of Kowalski who considers him "the last American hero to whom speed means freedom of the soul. The question is not when's he gonna stop, but who is gonna stop him. ", and when Kowalski goes off the road to avoid opression, he meets very symbolic characters, each and every one helping him to cheat the authroties and death itself, a rattlesnake, a snake catcher (Dean Jagger), a biker and his naked girlfriend, a sect in the middle of the dester. He also has the chance to meet the ghosts of his own past, his motivation is as pure as his white shirt and the colour of his car, when a man loses all what matters to him, he still has his freedom, his free will, and the endless road of destiny, I think I will stop here, because this movie cast layer over layer of meaning and wisdom, that ask for interpretation, and that are a snapshot of the post Woodstock America, with drugs and freedom and race issues, you can almost feel that the air is heavy with ghosts of the happenings on these roads, and the region itself, and that's what makes Kowalski's journey infinitly Interesting.

A cult classic by all means, a movie that will haunt you, vanishing point is the point in perspective where two parallel ends meet, by going as fast as possible with pure motives, Kowalski reaches the line between the real and fictional, this world and the other, what He is and what He wanted to be, indeed on this endless highway of life is a merging point ahead, Kowalski managed to reach it because he managed to become a light bolt moving ahead, that's what everybody aspires to become perhaps, the gates of eternity are ahead, but unfortunatly nobody knocks, that's my modest interpretation of that monument, and you will surely enjoy it and have your own interpreation of it, but I certainly hope that somewhere on the highway, this Dodge Challenger is cruising ahead with no particular destination, a remake is in preparation by Richard "Donnie Darko" Kelly, I surely hope he won't screw it.

Year: 1971
Director: Richard Sarafian
Strarring: Barry Newman, Cleavon Little, Dean Jagger

Spy Game

Sometimes you feel in the mood for a political thriller, for most of us it makes us feel smarter, and it makes you more "involved" when you watch the news, the majority of them are totally disposable though (remember "the sum of all fears" with Ben Affleck, horrible) but "Spy Game" is a cool one, and for many reasons.

Nathan Muir (Robert Redford) is a veteran CIA agent, who has operated in several parts of the globe, on his last day in the agency's headuqarters in Langley, news break in that one of his protegées Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt) has been arrested in China, and is facing an ill omen, the dilemma being that major trade negociations are happening at the same time at the highest political level, so the agency convocates Muir to "fill some gaps" on Bishops missions, and through that, he has the chance to tell the story of the recruitment and the training of Bishop, and also his various missions especially in Beirut during the Lebanese civil war.

Beirut in the eighties was CIA's paradise, of course before the bombings of the Us Embassy and the Marines HQ, and both Muir and Bishop were stationed there, undercover of course, but the former boy scout Bishop, treads on the red line when he gets involved with Elisabeth Hadley (Catherine McCoramack) a British activist who is responsable of some bombings around the globe, this conflictual situation leads to dire consequences for evreybody, and nobody gets away with a clear consciousness.

The fun of this movie is that it' juxtaposes the highly formal conference room in Langley with all the suits playing mental chess with Muir, and him using every chance he has to do things to help Bishop, and all the flashbacks, to exotic places, like Berlin and Beirut, the editing is brilliant, and it goes back and forth like a good yo yo, the weakness of the movie is Brad Pitt's acting, not a good match for Robert Redford, well he can be a great actor but not here for sure, but still there is a good father-son parallel between the two actors, because Redford was the Brad Pitt of his time also, on the time this movie was released there was a picture on french "Premiere" where both were standing smiling you'd swear he was his father.

So it's a nice lesson on the CIA disasters in Lebanon and the people invloved in them, the best scenes are the conference room scenes where Muir's brilliance shows, the film is visually superiour thanks to the technique Tony Scott aquired through the years, especially one famous scene on top of a German building, and at the end, agents on the field are human beings with emotions and feelings, this is not an anti James Bond per se, but it is much closer to reality.

Year: 2001
Director: Tony Scott
Starring: Robert Redford, Brad Pitt, Catherine McCormack

Eternal Sunshine Of the Spotless Mind

Picture this, somebody sending you a message saying that a friend, lover or fiancée, has completely erased you from their memory, and advises you to act accordingly, seriously how would anyone feel facing that, yes indeed sometimes one wants and needs to forget, after forgetting, the second logical step would be "what if i could do it all over again ?"

This is the central theme of Eternal Sunshine, Joel (Jim Carrey) meets Clementine (Kate Winslet) and they have an affair, at first they are excited,
then happy, then bored, then angry, then sad, then vindictive, happens all the time, the final straw being, memory erasing, Joel is accidently informed of this on Valentine day ! and being the man child he is, decides to do the same, so here He is at the headquarters of Lacuna Inc, asking Dr. Mierzwiak to erase Clementine from his mind, a procedure that turns out to be harder then what they thought wich is a good parallel for them to reveal their own issues with memories and love in general.

The fearless team of Lacuna is dispatched at Joel's place, to perform the erasing, the team leader Stan (Mark Ruffalo) is in charge of the operation, along with the frivoulous Patrick (Elijah Wood), and as things get complicated, they are joined by Mary (Kirsten Dunst) Dr Mierzwiak's Assistant, and throughout the night, they visit Joel's Memory, trying to erase it memory management being as hard a task on computer as it is inside consciousness.

Charlie Kaufman is a brilliang screenwriter, his screenplay is the true stat or this movie, nobody does alien scripts with deep social commentarism as he does, Michel Gondry the director is the other force of this movie, brining on his trademark visual inventivity, and as with a good script and a good director, no actor can fail, so the actors have adequate room to play at ease, Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, have a good chemistry, and it carries the movie, the initial conflict is do they want to forget ? from this central premisse, the movie has a strong structure, where great visual tricks are performed, and in the ambient surrealism of this movie, everything makes sense, with respect to the audience's suspension of desbelief, it is never silly, and never overdone under a brilliant score by Jon Brion.

Gondry and Kaufman are amongst the "Smarter then you crowd" people like Sofia Coppola, Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham, the bands Phoenix, and My Bloody Valentine and even the White Stripes, these people work together all the time, their work might be too arty for some, but it's output is American art with a European touch, this movie has the feeling of a good French movie, it comes as no surprise since Gondry is French, but it's brilliant, because it respect's the audience's imagination even in it's surrealism, rather then catering to fairy tales fantasies, Kate Winslet in here looks as Kabyle as ever, acts as Kabyle as ever, I never liked her, but i like her part in this movie, she should do that more, and less like "The Holiday"

Maybe it is not the best movie to watch if you have breakup issues, because you will project it on yourself, but any visual proof that inventivity and humour and surrealism can survive in something aimed at a large public is good news for us, and we keep on asking for more stuff from Kaufman to whome we wish a long miserable life, because his misery has such a beautiful output.

Full Metal Jacket

« Born to Kill » is the inscription on the helmet of Sergeant James T. "Joker" Davis the protagonist of FMJ, but this is just what he thinks, or let's say that's what he was told to think, through eight weeks of intense physical and psychological strain under the vicious command of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (Lee Ermey), a training many others can't or won't survive, but the protagonist is a smart dude a person who would be a computer geek if he was born a decade later, he has a good journalistic pen, but he is cursed by his birth certificate to be at draft age in the midst of the craziness of the Vietnam war.

War is nothing new, I bet even Neanderthals had their wars, warlords, politicians, businessman, and even media adding oil to the fire so it never consumes, what is great about this movie, which some consider to be the greatest war movie ever, is that it has a neutral point of view on both the training field and the battlefield, the soldiers and officers are not heroes, they are plain guys from poor to medium upbringing, some are simple, others are smart, none heroic, they have various skin colors and various cultural backgrounds, and above all have the same rifles, and are threatened by the same angel of death.

Death on the battlefield is like fish in the sea, or whatever better metaphor you might find, it is omnipresent, as depressing as it sounds, it puts an emphasis on the here and now, because people tend to be dissatisfied based on the assumption that they will live a long time ahead, but the immediacy of death and the blurriness of the ideal brings out the best and the worst in everyone, again, nothing heroic, this movie does a great job of being as realistic as possible, from casting choices, to camera moves, to set design, it has this sense of atmospherics that sucks you in, and when people eventually die, they just die, they don't find out about hidden wisdom, there is no dramatic closeup on them, they only stare at the other world, as they are going towards it.

Speaking of casting, you almost can't recognize anybody, the protagonist is private joker (Matthew Modine) as the journalist soldier for «star and stripes» the one in charge of keeping the morale of the troops, by covering various operations, and Leonard "Gomer Pyle" Lawrence (Vincent d'Onofrio), the guy who is too fragile to take it all, and all the others are really names I could not identify, there clear message being, «no stars», would they have casted Charles Bronson, it would become a Bronson movie, and eventually it will be about a special guy on the battlefield, none of it here, just regular guys stuck in a game bigger then them.

Matter of fact this movie has the feeling of playing a war video game, something like «Call of Duty», and it is obvious that these games took inspiration in here, especially when it comes to level design, It's not a mockumentary or something like that, it is just a brilliant war movie, at the end of everyday soldiers are glad to be alive, they don't know what's ahead, deep inside them they know they will not make it probably, but they live in the moment, and the Camera of Stanley Kubrick is so neutral, it's just there, even the Vietnamese are feeling and behaving the same on their side of this huge chess board, all corpses look the same, smell the same, and governments never learn, they did the same thing again in Somalia, destroyed a country that was already devastated by famine and plagues, then they just did the same in Iraq, and the mess they left behind in there was so big, that I hope it will inspire the new Kubriks , Copollas and the Stones some other masterpieces, Cinema at it's best can be transcending, it can document and educate, and show instead of telling, and that's why we love it, despite all the «transformers» and the chick flicks they keep on throwing on our faces, this Kubrick will resurrect your faith in the silver screen if you lost it, and in a world of prtence, you surely need it as hell.

Year: 1987
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Starring: Matthew Modine, Vincent D'Onofrio, Lee Ermey

Bugsy

Gangster movies are a staple genre in pop culture, for some reason there is a strong identification with the rise and fall of criminals seeking to make it big and legal, some crime figures, real and ficitional have aquired mythological status, think of Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Vito and Micheal Corleone, and indeed Ben "Bugsy" Siegel.

In thie film adaptation of his life and times Siegel (Warren Beatty) is a quick tempred jewish mob head from New York, he is rather happiely married, and at the same time a big womanizer, business is great thanx to the alliance he made with his childhood friend Meyer Lansky (Ben Kingsley) and Lucky Luciano (Bill Graham), being the totally impredictable man he is, he goes to Los Angeles for a two weeks business, he ends up buying a house in Beverly Hills, establishing a local brand of his mob activities under the control of Mickey Cohen (Harvey Keitel) and meeting a real life femme fatale, Virginia Hill (Annette Bening) who will be a key factor in his rise and fall.

Virginia is a mobster dream, with strong personality and a temper quicker then Bugsy's if this is even possible, the thing is that Bugsy loves her, this unconditional love will lead him to jeopardize his family stability, and his business activities, but it also takes him west to the Nevada desert where he has a visionary idea, building a big casino in the middle of the desert, the now legendary Flamingo.

Back then, Las Vegas was your average town on the highway, and everything still needed to be done, but Bugsy was an enthusiastic, and meets his partners to ask for the financing a huge (by the standards of that time) one million dollar, and the Casino is set up to open during the next holiday season, but building the hotel turns out to be a more difficult and more pricy task then what Bugsy and Virginia intitally thought, and as the costs were jumping, the anger of the investors rises, and all this will force Bugsy to make several sacrifices to make his dream come true, and it will test his loyalty to his principles, and his friends, and to Virginia, and their loyalty to him to the extreme limit.

Indeed, this is a tale of redmption, at the end of the day the dream of bugsy is to build a monument that will outlive him, something like a Charles Kane, Xanadu, and his other dream is to "make it legal", a place where gangsters can finally be accpted in society, and where people will fly from all over the country, and the world, to be part of the artificial paradise they created, Warren Beatty does such a good job in this movie, that it made me understand why Tarantino casted him as the original Bill in "Kill Bill", his charisma and talent is second to none, I think even the real Bugsy would be happy with his portrayal of him, Ben Kingsley, and especially Harvey Keitel and Elliot Gould, make great performances too, It seemed to me that Anette Benning weakned the movie, but not all that much, the real star in this movie is the building of "The Flamingo" itself, a dream so big that it finally destroys the dreamer.

This movie can seem lenghty in the middle, but it's full of passion and wit, under a master score by the legendary Ennio Morricone, Bugsy is motivated, by Love and Ambition and Loyalty, and at the end he loses the three, but his passion remains, I think I answered my question about why people love gangster movies, that's because of all these value that motivate them, a sort of a modern Robin Hood mythology, although the majority of them did not have all the nobility, but let's remember this is a movie, a mere fictional portrayal, and nobody will ever be interested in the real Bugsy Siegel's rape and murder history, Let me say that this movie is the third brother of "The Godfather" and "GoodFellas", and that Bugsy Was right, since the flamingo generated a hundred billion dollars from the initial six million dollars investment.

Year: 1991
Director: Barry Levinson
Starring: Warren Beatty, Anette Bening, Harvey Keitel

Lord Of War

« All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie » these were the words that came to my mind as the end credits of « Lord of War » were rolling on the screen, these words are from a Bob Dylan song, and granted, there always were a great deal of truth in his words, truth is so obvious that it makes you instantly recognize, half truths, instant truths, baked truths, bikini truths, anyways, this movie deals with the arms business and has the effect of a bullet that rips your consciousness in two.

Yuri Orlov (Nicholas Cage) is the son of Ukrainian immigrants, his parents run a small restaurant in Little Odessa NY, his younger brother Vitali (Jared Leto) is the lousy chef and he is the bum of the family, well at least until he has a revelation, an abstract one, every precious thing needs a safe, and every safe needs a gun, every interest engenders a conflict, and every conflict needs guns, and since the big five of the security council are also the big producers of arms, then granted that there will always be a war to use them, I mean what would Coca Cola do without thirsty people to sum it up, Yuri ends up becoming an arms dealer, a lord of war.

And as we follow Yuri throughout his story it's also the whole history of the twenty plus last years unfolding before our eyes, the Lebanese war, the Balkans war, the fall of Berlin's wall, the ill fate of the Soviet empire, and the huge gun heritage it left, the African conflicts, and every trigger needs a bullet, and Yuri provides them all, with an interesting point of view on things, to him he is just meeting the demand, he is just an observer, and trust me, he could convince you in five minutes that he is similar to the dude who sold you your vacuum cleaner, only he does it more efficiently and with an observer point of view.

Blood money can buy things also, and it buys Yuri his trophy wife Ava (Bridjet Moynahan), it buys him the fifth avenue apartment, and everything else money can buy, and Yuri is even smart enough to hide everything from his beloved wife and cute kid, but his brother can't take it, and becomes a rehab candidate, the dangerous path of Yuri leads him to cross the paths of a rival arms merchant (Ian Holm) a sadistic African president André Baptiste Sr (Eamonn Walker) with his crazy son André Jr (Sammi Rotibi), while being chased by the Elliot Ness like agent Valentine (Ethan Hawke) when money is not available deals are closed with other means, but that's another story, and the movie comes to a surprising conclusion, colder then a mid winter shower in Siberia.

Well, let's roll the superlatives, Andrew Niccol is a genius, Nicholas Cage, and Ethan Hawke and everybody else deliver Oscar worthy performances, the art direction is awesome, this move should be the one people would walk out as they did with «The Matrix» with a feeling that they have another perspective on things, an eye opening experience, surely we are not slaves of some machines, but the truths in this movie are very contemporary, and very disturbing, the worst being that it even has the «based on true events» story.

Not only do you need to watch this movie, you need to watch it twice, one for the story and another for the details, and then you might find yourself in an urgent desire of a drink, or two or six, anyways, it's one of the best movies we reviewed in here, and interestingly enough it's an independent one, Hollywood can't make a movie like that, matter of facts people who make trigger happy movies, are the public opinion shapers, and these same people are the ones who did market all the wars where Orlov did business, and if you can't see the connection, then go watch «lord of war» a third time, and wonder how many real life Orlovs are out there, some of them are people you and I respect, boy are we dumb !

The Holiday

First of all, here at JM we are not against any movie genre, because no genre is brilliance proof, even romantic comedy aka «chick flick», Sina did shed a tear over «city of angels» and «sleepless in Seattle», and «When Harry meets Sally» are amongst my favorite, but what about «The Holiday» a movie which a Hollywood executive would explain by saying «Four weddings and a funeral meets there Is something about Mary».

«there is something about mary» leads us to Cameron Diaz, the former model turned actress which was revealed by this movie, in «The Holiday» she plays Amanda Woods an L.A woman too successful for her own good, who did not cry since she was fifteen, lives in a mansion, and has looks to die for, but on the flipside She has a disastrous romantic life, where she suffers a bad breakup during holidays season, So she decides to go for two week holiday to the furthest and quietest possible place, a three clicks online search leads her to a home exchange website where she finds out about a nice cottage in Surrey proposed for a home swapping, the cottage is owned by Iris

Iris Simpkins (Kate Winslet) is the anti thesis of an L.A girl, she is too British for her own good, the kind of girl to own all the records by Dido, but her romantic life is as disastrous as Amandas's, suffering the only thing worst to a breakup during the season, so they both agree, and the Californian ends up in freezing Surrey, and the British in sunny LA. Both girls make interesting encounters Name meets Graham (Jude Law) a British bachelor with manners and wit and a secret, and Name meets Miles (Jack Black) a movie score composer who can't put the right tune on the soundtrack of his life, and also meets Arthur (Eli Wallach) a guy who was there during Hollywood golden age and lived to tell her the story, both of course kind off re discover love and themselves and the meaning of life and whatever .

Okay girls, I know you love movies like these, but this one is far too pink even to the Celine Dion crowd, everybody knows that these movies are well crafted marketing ploys designed to attract the «sex and the city» demographics and their huge buying power, but please, I never thought i'd say this, but this movie makes «Desperate Housewives» look like «Casablanca», the interesting idea of the juxtaposition of LA life with British life is lost in endless kissing scenes and senseless dialogues, and the romances unconvincing, Eli Wallach for god's sake, the guy who played «The Ugly» in «The good, the bad and the ugly» seems to be wondering what He is doing in this mess, but can't blame him though he did if for the check, so did Jack Black off course who plays a part worthy of a Telenovela actor.

And while Cameron Diaz drags the movie down with her unconvincing character, Kate Winslet counterbalance it to a certain extent, her character is more interesting, but not even to the level of a Kate Hudson, or Sandra Bullock, and frankly it's not even a compliment.

So look, If you are a boy, it's a good plan to watch with your wife or girlfriend if you have the needed patience, and if you are a girl, it's a good breakup relief, or for an afternoon with your girlfriends, but if you happen to also love movies, toss this off the window, and go watch «closer» which is what this movie aspires (and fails) to be, in all cases, remember that these are only romantic comedies, so please don't take life lessons from them, because if you map your life over a romantic comedy, granted that you will end up lonely in the holiday season, with nobody to swap your apartment with.

Year: 2006
Director: Nancy Meyer
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Eli Wallach, Jake Black