This is another movie that I missed during my trip down under earlier this year. For some reason or the other, I just could not get around to it. Either due to lack of time or because the screen was actually in the ass end of nowhere or once when I was out of cash and the establishment didn’t accept a credit card :S. Had to wait for Kaushik (my brother) to come in with cash for the rest of the day.
Just one of those jinxed movies I guess. However, I can assure you it was worth every rupee of the five hundred and ninety nine that I eventually spent on getting the DVD. It came highly recommended by those who had actually downloaded the movie earlier. And I was added to that list of people who loved “We Bought a Zoo”. The fact that it is based on a true story is just one of the reasons for loving it.
You will love We Bought a Zoo because it is based on the real life story of Benjamin Mee (Matt Damon) – who also wrote the book (Mee not Damon in case you are confused) of the same name – and his family of a 7 year old daughter Rosie (Maggie Elizabeth Jones) and teenage son Dylan (Colin Ford). The family is coming to terms with the loss of the lady of the house – Katherine (Stephanie Szostak).
Benjamin is just not able to forget any of the places that are associated with Katherine. And money was never really a worry for the Mee family. Especially after they inherit quite a bit from their family. Finally, Benjamin decides that it is time for the family to move out of the house that they made into a home. It was time to start afresh.
But the house hunt doesn’t really look positive till the last place in the day – a 16 acre property which used to be the Dartmoor Zoo. Maggie falls in love instantly and after some thought and enough resistance from his Brother Duncan (Thomas Haden Church), Benjamin decides to take the plunge and buy themselves a Zoo. All the adventures he has experienced in his life such as flying into the eye of an actual storm would start to pale in comparison to the one that the Mee’s are about to embark on.
As mentioned earlier, the endearing nature of the story is probably the best part about the movie but lets not forget that it is backed by some really good direction from Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous). And of course the performances are just right. Whether it is from the ever dependable Matt Damon or the extremely pretty Maggie Jones. And then of course there is Hollywood’s hottest Scarlett Johansson :p
Jokes apart – very sweet movie and a must watch with the family if you can. You will love it for certain. 7 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi592747545/
Showing posts with label Thomas Haden Church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thomas Haden Church. Show all posts
Saturday, 11 August 2012
Friday, 9 March 2012
John Carter
We are actually looking at a character that was created 100 years back!!! Would you believe it??? By one of the leading authors / creators of our time. By an person who gave us one of the most memorable characters to ever be born – Tarzan. Yes. John Carter is also a child of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ imagination. He was created in 1912 and the Disney picked up a fine time to hit the screens. 100 years!!! And that too with a character that carries the name of the maker. How cool is that.
But one cannot help but wonder as to why did anyone take 100 years to come up with John Carter the Movie? From the looks of the trailer, it seems like a movie that would not be remotely short on entertainment value. The stunts seem to be miraculous to say the least. The characters are very Star Warish for lack of any other word – ergo the possibility of a fan following is huge to say the least (don’t even think that I am for once indicating that Star Wars in replaceable in any manner). Then why would it take 100 years for any production house to pick the story of John Carter and explode it onto the silver screen? Lucky for Disney that no one else did it to date.
Andrew Stanton had the backing of Finding Nemo and Wall E – 2 Animation movies that would get into the top 10 list for Animation – Any Given Sunday. And therefore, the expectations from his side were not ill placed at all. To say that he has disappointed would be unfair. But he hasn’t come upto the levels that one would have expected.
A lot of work has been done with the special effects to spruce up the movie but the screenplay and the narration get a tad complicated for the average audience as the movie moves at a brisk pace. One could not fault the audience if they were to get too confused between Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and Tal Hajus (Thomas Haden Church) and Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins) and Tardos Mors (Ciarán Hinds) and Matai Shang (Mark Strong). Kinda difficult to keep up unless you have read the books and are familiar with the story. Very Star Warish as mentioned earlier. And capable of gaining cult status like Star Wars also.
What Stanton does well though is to keep the story alive through the 130+ minutes. Gives us great quality of action sequences. Gets the near plebian star cast (except Hinds and Strong) to act a bit. And he is supported with the voices of the reliable Willem Dafoe and Thomas Haden Church. He has also left enough of a window to go into a sequel/s. And most importantly finishes off with a nice little twist. Watch out for it. Well done Mr.Stanton & more importantly Mr. Burroughs.
John Carter is a movie that can be seen by people from all walks of life and all ages. There is nothing offensive in the least. Trust Disney to make clean family movies. Definitely on your must watch list for the weekend. 7 on 10. Big screen entertainer.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2340397337/
But one cannot help but wonder as to why did anyone take 100 years to come up with John Carter the Movie? From the looks of the trailer, it seems like a movie that would not be remotely short on entertainment value. The stunts seem to be miraculous to say the least. The characters are very Star Warish for lack of any other word – ergo the possibility of a fan following is huge to say the least (don’t even think that I am for once indicating that Star Wars in replaceable in any manner). Then why would it take 100 years for any production house to pick the story of John Carter and explode it onto the silver screen? Lucky for Disney that no one else did it to date.
Andrew Stanton had the backing of Finding Nemo and Wall E – 2 Animation movies that would get into the top 10 list for Animation – Any Given Sunday. And therefore, the expectations from his side were not ill placed at all. To say that he has disappointed would be unfair. But he hasn’t come upto the levels that one would have expected.
A lot of work has been done with the special effects to spruce up the movie but the screenplay and the narration get a tad complicated for the average audience as the movie moves at a brisk pace. One could not fault the audience if they were to get too confused between Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and Tal Hajus (Thomas Haden Church) and Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins) and Tardos Mors (Ciarán Hinds) and Matai Shang (Mark Strong). Kinda difficult to keep up unless you have read the books and are familiar with the story. Very Star Warish as mentioned earlier. And capable of gaining cult status like Star Wars also.
What Stanton does well though is to keep the story alive through the 130+ minutes. Gives us great quality of action sequences. Gets the near plebian star cast (except Hinds and Strong) to act a bit. And he is supported with the voices of the reliable Willem Dafoe and Thomas Haden Church. He has also left enough of a window to go into a sequel/s. And most importantly finishes off with a nice little twist. Watch out for it. Well done Mr.Stanton & more importantly Mr. Burroughs.
John Carter is a movie that can be seen by people from all walks of life and all ages. There is nothing offensive in the least. Trust Disney to make clean family movies. Definitely on your must watch list for the weekend. 7 on 10. Big screen entertainer.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2340397337/
Sunday, 16 January 2011
Easy A
High School is probably the toughest time in anyone’s life – I don’t say that. Its those blokes from Hollywood go to significant extents to re-emphasize on that point time and over again with the string of chick flicks / RomComs that they come up with based on someone’s life and the pressures of High School. Now the case may not be similar in India but from what I hear, whatever is shown on screen is pretty close to the real deal in the West and in some cases probably made to look better. I can’t begin to imagine the pains that parents would be going through day after day. I wonder what I would do if I had kids. Tip my hat to the parents of most teenagers – especially those with teenage daughters. Cannot claim to understand your pains and fears but honestly, I wouldn’t want to be in your position – not even as close as a country mile and a half.
Did you know that my name is an anagrame for “I Love”? That’s what Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone) asks of the boyfriend of her best friend, Rhiannon (as Alyson Michalka). That too in her sultriest possible way http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3453552153/. She has waltzed into school wearing a black corset with the letter A sewed onto her left breast, black skin tight jeans (and she is really really skinny), black sunglasses, the reddest of lipsticks – in short, looking at her sluttiest best if it could be called that. Most of the guys in class have their jaws on the floor and drool all over. Needless to say Rhiannon is not very thrilled about the entire episode and she promptly declares her friendship “OVER”. Not that Olive cares – anymore that is.
It all starts off when Olive excuses herself from a weekend with Rhiannon’s parents. She lies about a date that she has over the weekend. But she spends the weekend only listening to “Pocket full of sunshine” by Natasha Bedingfield. Olive is basically your average ordinary everyday girl. A nobody @ school. With only one friend i.e. Rhiannon. So when Rhiannon repeatedly asks her how her weekend was and whether “something happened”, she takes recourse to lying once again and says that she got laid. Bad news that the overly enthusiastic “Christian”, Marianne (Amanda Bynes) is in the loo during this conversation. And The Times of Marianne goes to work immediately after that. Before one can say, Jack Daniels, Olive becomes the high school slut. Someone who gives in very easily and is available. Olive takes this in her stride and actually decides its good for her image. So when the gay boy in school, Brandon (Dan Byrd) asks her to lie about having had sex with him, she decides to play along.
Easy A tracks the life of a kid whose attempt to gain popularity just goes that little bit out of control. But the fact that she has trusting parents helps. Probably a good class for parents struggling with teenage kids at home and needless to say, for teenage kids on what should be done and what not. Emma Stone seems to be someone with talent and probably waiting for her big break of sorts. I think she is capable of it. The rest of the cast are atypical chick flick cast with the exception of Patricia Clarkson & Stanley Tucci who play the role of Olive’s parents. Directed by the young looking Will Gluck (nothing much to write home about currently) it is a decent watch. Reasonably entertaining chick flick. 5.5 on 10 from my side.
Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1057359641/
Did you know that my name is an anagrame for “I Love”? That’s what Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone) asks of the boyfriend of her best friend, Rhiannon (as Alyson Michalka). That too in her sultriest possible way http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3453552153/. She has waltzed into school wearing a black corset with the letter A sewed onto her left breast, black skin tight jeans (and she is really really skinny), black sunglasses, the reddest of lipsticks – in short, looking at her sluttiest best if it could be called that. Most of the guys in class have their jaws on the floor and drool all over. Needless to say Rhiannon is not very thrilled about the entire episode and she promptly declares her friendship “OVER”. Not that Olive cares – anymore that is.
It all starts off when Olive excuses herself from a weekend with Rhiannon’s parents. She lies about a date that she has over the weekend. But she spends the weekend only listening to “Pocket full of sunshine” by Natasha Bedingfield. Olive is basically your average ordinary everyday girl. A nobody @ school. With only one friend i.e. Rhiannon. So when Rhiannon repeatedly asks her how her weekend was and whether “something happened”, she takes recourse to lying once again and says that she got laid. Bad news that the overly enthusiastic “Christian”, Marianne (Amanda Bynes) is in the loo during this conversation. And The Times of Marianne goes to work immediately after that. Before one can say, Jack Daniels, Olive becomes the high school slut. Someone who gives in very easily and is available. Olive takes this in her stride and actually decides its good for her image. So when the gay boy in school, Brandon (Dan Byrd) asks her to lie about having had sex with him, she decides to play along.
Easy A tracks the life of a kid whose attempt to gain popularity just goes that little bit out of control. But the fact that she has trusting parents helps. Probably a good class for parents struggling with teenage kids at home and needless to say, for teenage kids on what should be done and what not. Emma Stone seems to be someone with talent and probably waiting for her big break of sorts. I think she is capable of it. The rest of the cast are atypical chick flick cast with the exception of Patricia Clarkson & Stanley Tucci who play the role of Olive’s parents. Directed by the young looking Will Gluck (nothing much to write home about currently) it is a decent watch. Reasonably entertaining chick flick. 5.5 on 10 from my side.
Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1057359641/
Friday, 17 September 2010
All About Steve
Quiz question – Who or what is a cruciverbalist? Its not a random tongue twister that I am teasing you with on an average Friday. It is someone who makes crosswords for a living. I am serious. Newspapers pay serious monies to the people who make those black and white checkerboards with clues around them that make you go completely insane. So what would a cruciverbalist be like. Someone who is very good with words right? And someone who would be extremely good with information which can be twisted along with words to give you amazingly warped clues. In short someone who in most parlances is referred to as – A NERD. Sigh!!! The story of life. If you know lots of stuff they call u a nerd. If you don’t then they call you daft.
Nevertheless, one such nice looking lady cruciverbalist is Mary Horowitz (Sandra Bullock). She works for the Sacramento Herald. She wears Red Boots that stand out like a neon sign. And she is nerd personified. She is single and stays with her parents under the pretext that her house is getting fumigated. Despite the best efforts of her parents and friends, she avoids meeting any guys. However, things change when she goes the local school for career day to explain what she does. The kids are first of all surprised to hear that people get paid for doing crossword puzzles. They also mock her when she mentions her residential status and salary. So she changes her mind about the blind date that her parents have set up for her that evening. Hoping to find someone who is reasonable she is elated to find the gorgeous cameraman for CCN Steve (Bradley Cooper).
Now Mary has a problem other than the fact that she is a nerd. She is a really talkative nerd. Talkative enough to drive most people up the wall. More importantly she hasn’t been laid for quite a while now. Once in the confines of his truck / station wagon, her enthusiasm gets the better of her and she is all over Steve – right outside her house if I may add. Now Steve maybe good looking but he is severely taken aback with the enthusiasm. Not to mention the Verbal Diarrhoea. In the immense pressure, he fakes an official emergency and scoots off. However, he does make the cardinal error of telling Mary that he would have loved to take her along with him to Boston but unfortunately Mary has work to attend. Smitten by Steve, Mary spends the whole night making her crossword which turns out to be “All about Steve”. Steve’s eye colour, hair colour, his job, his shirt etc. etc. etc. In short, she gets fired for being unprofessional. But Mary takes this as a sign to hit the road with Steve. En route she meets Elizabeth (Katy Mixon) and Howard (DJ Qualls) who help her in the chase for Steve.
AAS takes a look into 2 broad topics. Firstly the nonsense that the media covers these days and the extent to which anchors are willing to go to “generate” saleable news. The other more important aspect is the search for the answer to the eternal question – what should I look for in my partner? Who is normal? It aptly finishes by asking people “To find your own normal” and not change who you are for anyone. After all if you have to stalk someone then what is the point really? The narration is tight and doesn’t go all over the place. Director Phil Traill has kept the movie short and crisp with nothing that you can call unnecessary or force fitted. Sandra Bullock essay’s the role of the nerdy Mary Horowitz extremely well but her age definitely showed. I am sure there are better makeup artists in Hollywood. Never been a huge fan of Brad Cooper and he doesn’t give me enough reason to change my stance. AAS is definitely an entertaining RomCom. I give it 5 on 10.
Nevertheless, one such nice looking lady cruciverbalist is Mary Horowitz (Sandra Bullock). She works for the Sacramento Herald. She wears Red Boots that stand out like a neon sign. And she is nerd personified. She is single and stays with her parents under the pretext that her house is getting fumigated. Despite the best efforts of her parents and friends, she avoids meeting any guys. However, things change when she goes the local school for career day to explain what she does. The kids are first of all surprised to hear that people get paid for doing crossword puzzles. They also mock her when she mentions her residential status and salary. So she changes her mind about the blind date that her parents have set up for her that evening. Hoping to find someone who is reasonable she is elated to find the gorgeous cameraman for CCN Steve (Bradley Cooper).
Now Mary has a problem other than the fact that she is a nerd. She is a really talkative nerd. Talkative enough to drive most people up the wall. More importantly she hasn’t been laid for quite a while now. Once in the confines of his truck / station wagon, her enthusiasm gets the better of her and she is all over Steve – right outside her house if I may add. Now Steve maybe good looking but he is severely taken aback with the enthusiasm. Not to mention the Verbal Diarrhoea. In the immense pressure, he fakes an official emergency and scoots off. However, he does make the cardinal error of telling Mary that he would have loved to take her along with him to Boston but unfortunately Mary has work to attend. Smitten by Steve, Mary spends the whole night making her crossword which turns out to be “All about Steve”. Steve’s eye colour, hair colour, his job, his shirt etc. etc. etc. In short, she gets fired for being unprofessional. But Mary takes this as a sign to hit the road with Steve. En route she meets Elizabeth (Katy Mixon) and Howard (DJ Qualls) who help her in the chase for Steve.
AAS takes a look into 2 broad topics. Firstly the nonsense that the media covers these days and the extent to which anchors are willing to go to “generate” saleable news. The other more important aspect is the search for the answer to the eternal question – what should I look for in my partner? Who is normal? It aptly finishes by asking people “To find your own normal” and not change who you are for anyone. After all if you have to stalk someone then what is the point really? The narration is tight and doesn’t go all over the place. Director Phil Traill has kept the movie short and crisp with nothing that you can call unnecessary or force fitted. Sandra Bullock essay’s the role of the nerdy Mary Horowitz extremely well but her age definitely showed. I am sure there are better makeup artists in Hollywood. Never been a huge fan of Brad Cooper and he doesn’t give me enough reason to change my stance. AAS is definitely an entertaining RomCom. I give it 5 on 10.
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