Movie Diary (November - December 2014)

30.08.2014

Director: David Michod

Cast: Guy Pearce; Robert Pattinson; Scott McNairy

Plot: 10 years after a global economic collapse, a hardened loner pursues the men who stole his only possession, his car. Along the way, he captures one of the thieves' brother, and the duo form an uneasy bond during the dangerous journey.


Review: I loved everything about this film: the landscapes, the atmosphere, the performances, the metaphors... Guy Pearce is awesome in this, as a man who has nothing to lose but tries to get his car back, as if it were the only thing that links him to humanity. Pattinson really surprised me, his portrayal of Rey was pretty good and made me change my opinion on him.
The bound this two characters build is noble and unexpected, dealing with loyalty, especially and the ending closes this beautiful tale perfectly.

31.08.2014

Director: Patrick Hughes

Cast: Sylvester Stallone; Jason Statham; Mel Gibson; Arnold Schwarzenegger; Dolph Lundgren; Harrison Ford; Randy Couture; Terry Crews; Antonio Banderas; Kellan Lutz; Kelsey Grammer; Ronda Rousey; Víctor Ortiz; Glen Powell; Jet Li

Plot: Barney augments his team with new blood for a personal battle: to take down Conrad Stonebanks, the Expendables co-founder and notorious arms trader who is hell bent on wiping out Barney and every single one of his associates.


Review: I had great expectations for this film, especially after watching the second one; but it wasn't as good as I thought it would be. It has quality action, some references and jokes and a sort of X-Men: First Class moment in which Ross gathers a new team. The young people work but sometimes it felt like too much, to many characters.
I totally loved Banderas character, he was hilarious and having Harrison Ford was a great move. Mel Gibson as the villain was great too, not only evil, but capable of playing with Ross.
Overall it a very good action film, okay, the script is not great, the dialogues a little dumb, but it's not Shakespeare! It's great to switch off your brain every once in a while and enjoy the great action figures doing what they do best. What really annoyed me was the PG-13 rating. I want to go to the cinema and be able to see some great 80's style action film, with curses and blood; not some watered-down commercial flick. Come on, they are The Expendables!

01.09.2014

Director: Scott Cooper

Cast: Christian Bale; Casey Affleck; Woody Harrelson; Sam Shephard; Willem Dafoe; Forrest Whitaker; Zoe Saldana

Plot:When Rodney Baze mysteriously disappears and law enforcement doesn't follow through fast enough, his older brother, Russell, takes matters into his own hands to find justice.


Review: It's a story about family, and how we would do anything to help our beloved ones. Christian Bale is at his best, he is just fantastic as Russell. The important choice he has to make: either chosing freedom or risking everything to help his brother. Casey Affleck was good but I don't know if he was the best choice for the role.
The pace is a little slow but sometimes is nice to enjoy a film without explosions every five minutes. I agree that some takes are a quite long, still the film is gripping.

02.09.2014

Director: Dominic Sena

Cast: Nicolas Cage; Ron Perlman; Claire Foy; Christopher Lee; Stephen Graham

Plot: 14th-century knights transport a suspected witch to a monastery, where monks deduce her powers could be the source of the Black Plague.


Review: I didn't like it. I found it boring and pointless. The twist was nice but still couldn't hold the whole movie.
Nicolas Cage's wig was hilarious.

02.09.2014

Director: Alan J. Pakula

Cast: Harrison Ford; Brad Pitt; Rubén Blades; Natascha McElhone; Margaret Colin

Plot: A police officer uncovers the real identity of his house-guest, an I.R.A. terrorist in hiding.


Review: It's entertaining. It sort of reminded me of Patriot Games, but not as good. I loved the ending, it was really poetic, but Brad Pitt's accent was horrible.

03.09.2014

Director: Barry Levinson

Cast: Robert De Niro; Kevin Bacon; Dustin Hoffman; Brad Pitt; Jason Patric; Minnie Driver; Billy Crudup; Ron Eldard.

Plot: After a prank goes disastrously wrong, a group of boys are sent to a detention center where they are brutalized; over 10 years later, they get their chance for revenge.


Review: Awesome film with great acting. It was incredibly sad and heartbreaking, especially when you see all the pain and humilliation the boys went through. Whether the story happened or not, the trial segment is great, a sublime payback.

04.09.2014

Director: Kathryn Bigelow

Cast: Jessica Chastain; Jason Clarke; Mark Strong; Jennifer Ehle; James Gandolfini; Édgar Ramírez; Kyle Chandler; Harold Perrinau; Stephen Dillane; Joel Edgerton; Chris Pratt

Plot: A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L. Team 6 in May 2011.


Review: Before watching I had read a lot of negative reviews and I actually started thinking the film was really bad. It works, as far as I'm concerned. It isn't the typical war film with a lot of explosions and endless shootings, but it creates suspense and makes you realise that some people spent practically most of their lives chasing the target. I read it was torture but to me it looked more like the end justifies the means. They tortured the prisoners but it didn't seem okay, you see how Maya loses sensivity and her bounds are broken. I also read that this film was only made for Americans which I don't think it's true, as I'm not American and I loved it.
The performances were really good, I really liked Jessica Chastain and James Gandolfini but I think Jason Clarke stole the show.

05.09.2014

Director: Joel Schumacher

Cast: Henry Cavill; Dominic Purcell; Michael Fassbender; Emma Booth

Plot: A man and his brother on a mission of revenge become trapped in a harrowing occult experiment dating back to the Third Reich.


Review: The film was really bizarre. I have to admit I just watched it because Cavill and Fassbender were in it. The story was crazy: a Nazi occultist who with some runes and human blood can live forever, so he slaves a family making them immortal in order to get more victims. But that's not all, he can also bring back to life dead creatures turning them into indestructible zombies. Not that bad, but too much for my taste.

05.09.2014

Director: Tony Scott

Cast: Robert Redford; Brad Pitt; Stephen Dillane; Catherine McCormack

Plot: Retiring CIA agent Nathan Muir recalls his training of Tom Bishop while working against agency politics to free him from his Chinese captors.


Review: Amazing thriller, much better than I expected. Both Pitt and Redford give strong performances. I loved the style, the flashbacks and the plot.

06.09.2014

Director: Pierre Morel

Cast: John Travolta; Jonathan Rhys Meyers; Kasia Smutniak

Plot: In Paris, a young employee in the office of the US Ambassador hooks up with an American spy looking to stop a terrorist attack in the city.


Review: I just wanted to watch some good action and it delivered it perfectly. Was fast paced, funny at times and gripping. I really liked the twist and Travolta was awesome. Vincent Vegas lives!

07.09.2014

Director: Jim Sheridan

Cast: Daniel Craig; Rachel Weisz; Naomi Watts; Marlon Csokas; Elias Koteas

Plot: Soon after moving into their seemingly idyllic new home, a family learns of a brutal crime committed against former residents of the dwelling.


Review: Well, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It's like poor man's Shutter Island. Still it was entertaining and suspensful but I could see the main twist from miles away. I don't think Craig was the best choice for the role and his changing accent distracted me a lot.

08.09.2014

Director: Baltasar Kormákur

Cast: Denzel Washington; Mark Wahlberg; Paula Patton; Edward James Olmos; Bill Paxton; James Marsden

Plot: A DEA agent and a naval intelligence officer find themselves on the run after a botched attempt to infiltrate a drug cartel. While fleeing, they learn the secret of their shaky alliance: Neither knew that the other was an undercover agent.


Review: Very entertaining, funny and with great action. Washington and Wahlberg are a great duo. I really enjoyed it.

09.09.2014

Director: Woody Allen

Cast: Colin Farrell; Ewan McGregor; Tom Wilkinson; Hayley Atwell; Sally Hawkins

Plot: The tale of two brothers with serious financial woes. When a third party proposes they turn to crime, things go bad and the two become enemies.


Review: It was good. It's a different film and I was shocked to find out it was directed by Woody Allen. The performances were good, especially Wilkinson and Farrell's. It's great to see how the characters start changing and you realize no one is actually completely good or bad. It was a smart choice to place Farrell as the lost, broken soul.

10.09.2014

Director:

Cast: Mel Gibson; Joanne Samuel; Hugh Keays-Byrne; Steve Bisley

Plot: A vengeful Australian policeman sets out to avenge his loved ones whom were murdered by a motorcycle gang in retaliation for the death of their leader.


Review:

11.09.2014

Director: Damián Szifrón

Cast: Ricardo Darín; Oscar Martínez; Érica Rivas; Leonardo Sbaraglia; Rita Cortese; Julieta Zylberberg; Darío Grandinetti

Plot: A story about love deception, the return of the past, a tragedy, or even the violence contained in an everyday detail, appear themselves to push them towards the abyss, into the undeniable pleasure of losing control.


Review: Just amazing! The best Argentinian film I've ever seen. All the six tales are great and none of them seems out of place. Outstanding acting, especially from Darín (Bombita) and Rivas (Hasta que la Muerte nos Separe). It's interesting to see what would happen if someone just loses control when pushed to the limit and how everything will end if we answer with violence.

11.09.2014

Director: Fabián Bielinsky

Cast: Ricardo Darín; Dolores Fonzi; Alejandro Awada; Manuel Rodal; Jorge D'Elía

Plot: A quiet, cynic taxidermist, who suffers epilepsy attacks, is obsessed with committing the perfect crime. He claims that the cops are too stupid to find out about it when it's well executed, and that the robbers are too stupid to execute it the right way; and that he could do it himself relying on his photographic memory and his strategic planning skills. After he is invited on a hunting trip away from his home, an accident gives him the chance of his life: the possibility to commit the perfect crime he has been waiting for.


Review: Intriguing, suspenful and dark, but a little slow-paced.

12.09.2014

Director: George Miller

Cast: Mel Gibson; Bruce Spence; Michael Preston

Plot: In the post-apocalyptic Australian wasteland, a cynical drifter agrees to help a small, gasoline rich, community escape a band of bandits.

15.09.2014

Director: Josh Boone

Cast: Greg Kinnear; Jennifer Connelly; Lily Collins; Logan Lerman; Nat Wolff; Liana Liberato; Kristen Bell

Plot: An acclaimed writer, his ex-wife, and their teenaged children come to terms with the complexities of love in all its forms over the course of one tumultuous year.

19.09.2014

Director: Isao Takahata

Original Title: Hotaru no haka

Plot: A tragic film covering a young boy and his little sister's struggle to survive in Japan during World War II.

21.09.2014

Director: Joel and Ethan Coen

Cast: Jeff Bridges; Matt Damon; Hailee Steinfeld; Josh Brolin

Plot: A tough U.S. Marshal helps a stubborn young woman track down her father's murderer.

22.09.2014

Director: Joel and Ethan Coen

Cast: Frances McDormand; William H. Macy; Steve Buscemi; Peter Stormare; John Carroll Lynch

Plot: Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of the quite pregnant Marge Gunderson.

23.09.2014

Director: Guy Ritchie

Cast: Jason Statham; Jason Flemyng; Dexter Fletcher; Nick Moran; Steven Mackintosh; Vinnie Jones

Plot: A botched card game in London triggers four friends, thugs, weed-growers, hard gangsters, loan sharks and debt collectors to collide with each other in a series of unexpected events, all for the sake of weed, cash and two antique shotguns.

25.09.2014

Director: Werner Herzog

Cast: Christian Bale; Steve Zahn; Jeremy Davies;

Plot: A US Fighter pilot's epic struggle of survival after being shot down on a mission over Laos during the Vietnam War.

26.09.2014

Director: Mikael Håfström

Cast: Colin O'Donoghue; Anthony Hopkins; Alice Braga; Rutger Hauer; Ciarán Hinds; Toby Jones

Plot: An American seminary student travels to Italy to take an exorcism course.

29.09.2014

Director: Catherine Hardwicke

Cast: Amanda Seyfred; Gary Oldman; Shiloh Fernandez; Max Irons; Lukas Haas; Billy Burke; Julie Christie; Virginia Madsen

Plot: Set in a medieval village that is haunted by a werewolf, a young girl falls for an orphaned woodcutter, much to her family's displeasure.

03.10.2014

Director: Andy and Lana Wachowski; Tom Tykwer

Cast: Tom Hanks; Halle Berry; Hugo Weaving; Jim Broadbent; Jim Sturgess; Ben Whishaw; Doona Bae; Susan Sarandon; Hugh Grant; James D'Arcy; Keith David; David Gyasi

Plot: An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.

05.10.2014

Director: Robert Rodriguez; Frank Miller

Cast: Mickey Rourke; Jessica Alba; Joseph Gordon-Levitt; Josh Brolin; Eva Green; Bruce Willis; Rosario Dawson; Powers Boothe; Jaime King; Jamie Chung; Ray Liotta; Dennis Haysbert; Christopher Meloni; Jeremy Piven; Christopher Lloyd; Juno Temple; Julia Garner.

Plot: Some of Sin City's most hard-boiled citizens cross paths with a few of its more reviled inhabitants.


Review: I enjoyed it, but I had the constant feeling that something was missing. It seemed incomplete I don't know why. Maybe it was all she time we had to wait or the fact that we're sort of used to this this style and it's not surprising anymore. I loved the first one, all the stories fit perfectly, and I think this is not the case.

-Just Another Saturday Night: It's the introduction, like "The Customer is Always Right" in the first one. Marv finds himself lost in chaos without remembering how he got there. It wasn't as shocking and mysterious as the opening of the first.
-The Long, Bad Night: I liked this one, and I liked Gordon-Levitt. But still it was sort of slow paced and not as caricaturesque as I expected.
-A Dame to Kill For: very faithfull to the comic and Eva Green is great, she's the perfect Ava! My favourite. I was hoping Clive Owen to get off the train when Dwight was supposed to have a new face, but it never happened. That would have been awesome.
-Nancy's Last Dance: It felt rushed and was kind of predictable. It was like they only wanted Nancy to have a solo story where she could show the badass she had become and this was the first thing that came to their minds.

06.10.2014

Director: Leigh Janiak

Cast: Rose Leslie; Harry Treadaway

Plot: A newlywed couple finds their lake-country honeymoon descend into chaos after Paul finds Bea wandering and disoriented in the middle of their first night.

09.10.2014

Director: Albert and Allen Hughes

Cast: Johnny Depp; Heather Graham; Ian Holm; Robbie Coltrane; Ian Richardson; Jason Flemyng; Joanna Page

Plot: In Victorian Era London, a troubled clairvoyant police detective investigates the murders by Jack The Ripper.

14.10.2014

Director: Scott Derrickson

Cast: Eric Bana; Édgar Ramírez; Olivia Munn; Chris Coy; Sean Harris; Joel McHale

Plot:New York police officer Ralph Sarchie investigates a series of crimes. He joins forces with an unconventional priest, schooled in the rites of exorcism, to combat the possessions that are terrorizing their city.

15.10.2014

Director: Ivan Kavanagh

Cast: Rupert Evans; Antonia Campbell-Hughes; Steve Oram

Plot: Film archivist David suspects that his wife Alice (Hannah Hoekstra) has been cheating on him. This stress is compounded when David's work partner Claire gives him a reel of to-be-archived footage that shows that his house was the setting for a brutal murder in 1902 and he starts to believe that a spectral presence is in his house.

16.10.2014

Director: John Boorman

Cast: Jon Voight; Burt Reynolds; Ned Beatty; Ronnie Cox

Plot: Intent on seeing the Cahulawassee River before it's turned into one huge lake, outdoor fanatic Lewis Medlock takes his friends on a river-rafting trip they'll never forget into the dangerous American back-country.

17.10.2014

Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

Cast: Clive Owen; Daniel Brühl; Carice van Houten; Ella Purnell; Pilar López de Ayala

Plot: Two children living in different countries are visited nightly by a faceless being who wants to take possession of them.

17.10.2014

Director: David Cronenberg

Cast: Viggo Mortensen; Maria Bello; Ed Harris; William Hurt

Plot: A mild-mannered man becomes a local hero through an act of violence, which sets off repercussions that will shake his family to its very core.


Review: I just loved it. Everything was great, specially the performances. Viggo Mortensen is amazing and fits perfectly in the role. The athmosphere is very dense and painfully slow, which makes a great contrast with the crude violence scenes.

18.10.2014

Director: Phil Lord; Christopher Miller

Cast: Jonah Hill; Channing Tatum; Ice Cube; Peter Stormare; Amber Stevens; Wyatt Russell; Jillian Bell; Nick Offerman

Plot: After making their way through high school (twice), big changes are in store for officers Schmidt and Jenko when they go deep undercover at a local college.


Review: So much better than the first one. Hill and Tatum have great chemistry together. The whole movie is hilarious and almost every scene made me laugh (or al least smile). The ending credits are brilliant!

19.10.2014

Director: D.J. Caruso

Cast: Alex Pettyfer; Timothy Olyphant; Dianna Agron; Teresa Palmer; Kevin Durand

Plot: Aliens and their Guardians are hiding on Earth from intergalactic bounty hunters. They can only be killed in numerical order, and Number Four is next on the list. This is his story.

19.10.2014

Director: Peter Jackson

Cast: Viggo Mortensen; Ian McKellen; Elijah Wood; Christopher Lee; Orlando Bloom; Sean Astin; Liv Tyler; Sean Bean; John Rhys-Davis; Hugo Weaving; Dominic Monaghan; Billy Boyd; Ian Holm; Andy Serkis; Cate Blanchett

Plot: A meek hobbit of the Shire and eight companions set out on a journey to Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring and the dark lord Sauron.

21.10.2014

Director: Stuart Hazeldine

Cast: Luke Mably; Jimi Mistry; Colin Salmon; Pollyanna McIntosh; Nathalie Cox; John Lloyd Fillingham

Plot: The final candidates for a highly desirable corporate job are locked together in an exam room and given a test so simple and confusing that tension begins to unravel.

23.10.2014

Director: Peter Jackson

Cast: Viggo Mortensen; Ian McKellen; Elijah Wood; Christopher Lee; Orlando Bloom; Sean Astin; Liv Tyler; John Rhys-Davis; Hugo Weaving; Dominic Monaghan; Billy Boyd; Andy Serkis; Cate Blanchett; Brad Dourif; Miranda Otto; Karl Urban; David Wenham

Plot: While Frodo and Sam edge closer to Mordor with the help of the shifty Gollum, the divided fellowship makes a stand against Sauron's new ally, Saruman, and his hordes of Isengard.

24.10.2014

Director: Peter Jackson

Cast: Viggo Mortensen; Ian McKellen; Elijah Wood; Christopher Lee; Orlando Bloom; Sean Astin; Liv Tyler; John Rhys-Davis; Hugo Weaving; Dominic Monaghan; Billy Boyd; Andy Serkis; Cate Blanchett; Brad Dourif; Miranda Otto; Karl Urban; David Wenham; Ian Holm; John Noble; Sean Bean

Plot: Gandalf and Aragorn lead the World of Men against Sauron's army to draw his gaze from Frodo and Sam as they approach Mount Doom with the One Ring.

25.10.2014

Director: David Cronenberg

Cast: Viggo Mortensen; Naomi Watts; Vincent Cassel; Armin Mueller-Stahl; Josef Altin; Tatiana Maslany

Plot: A Russian teenager living in London who dies during childbirth leaves clues to a midwife in her journal that could tie her child to a rape involving a violent Russian mob family.

26.10.2014

Director: Ana Piterbarg

Cast: Viggo Mortensen; Soledad Villamil; Daniel Fanego; Sofía Gala

Plot: A man tries to escape his life by assuming the identity of his deceased twin brother; but things soon get complicated as he has to deal with his brother's dangerous matters.

Review: I really liked this one. The only reason I wanted to watch it was because I was intrigued of how Viggo Mortensen would deliver a role in Spanish with Argentinian accent and he indeed did a great jod. The ending seemed a little rushed compared to the rest of the film but it still worked for me. Very good acting, dark setting and interesting plot.

27.10.2014

Director: Noel Clarke

Cast: Noel Clarke; Ian Somerhalder; Brian Cox; Alexis Knapp; Luke Hemsworth

Plot: A former soldier is taken captive and awakens in the back of a van where he learns that he only has a few moments to figure out how he got there.


Review: Interesting premise but poorly executed. I didn't like Clarke's acting and the soundtrack was very odd. The worst of all were the fight scenes in slo-motion, which seemed completely fake. Still it was intriguing and very fast-paced, which made it somehow entertaining.

01.11.2014

Director:

Cast: Tim Curry; Susan Sarandon; Barry Bostwick; Richard O'Brien; Patricia Quinn; Nell Campbell; Jonathan Adams; Meat Loaf; Peter Hinwood; Charles Gray

Plot: A newly engaged couple have a breakdown in an isolated area and must pay a call to the bizarre residence of Dr. Frank-N-Furter.

04.11.2014

Director: Lars Von Trier

Cast: Willem Dafoe; Charlotte Gainsbourg

Plot: A grieving couple retreat to their cabin in the woods, hoping to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage. But nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse.


Review: I was expecting it to be very disturbing and grafic, but this was way beyond that. I understand the concept, the symbology and the question of what evil is, but the shocking scenes distracted me from that, especially the bloody hand job and the clitoris cutting scene. It was shot beautifully and Gainsbourg gave an outstanding performance, but I think the whole movie was too much.

05.11.2014

Director: Joon-ho Bong

Cast: Chris Evans; Jamie Bell; Tilda Swinton; John Hurt; Ed Harris; Octavia Spencer; Ewen Bremner; Kang-ho Song

Plot: Set in a future where a failed climate-change experiment kills all life on the planet except for a lucky few who boarded the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe, where a class system emerges.

06.11.2014

Director: Sylvain White

Cast: Jeffrey Dean Morgan; Idris Elba; Chris Evans; Zoe Saldana; Jason Patric

Plot: A CIA special forces team are betrayed and left for dead by their superiors, galvanizing them to mount an offensive on the CIA.

07.11.2014

Director: Akiva Goldsman

Cast: Colin Farrell; Jessica Brown Findlay; Russell Crowe; Jennifer Connelly; William Hurt

Plot: A burglar falls for an heiress as she dies in his arms. When he learns that he has the gift of reincarnation, he sets out to save her.


Review: I totally loved the first part, Peter and Beverly's romance was beyond sweet. But after that I lost complete interest, it was very dissapointing.

08.11.2014

Director: Gary Shore

Cast: Luke Evans; Dominic Cooper; Sarah Gadon; Art Parkinson; Charles Dance

Plot: As his kingdom is being threatened by the Turks, young prince Vlad Tepes must become a monster feared by his own people in order to obtain the power needed to protect his own family, and the families of his kingdom.


Review: At first, I didn't find anything special about it, I though I would watch it and forget about it in a matter of hours. I liked the ending when Vlad stays on the sun to die, it would have been great if the screen faded to black there. But I enjoyed the meeting between Vlad and Mina, and the old vampire staring at them from the shadows

09.11.2014

Director: Derek Cianfrance

Cast: Ryan Gosling; Bradley Cooper; Eva Mendes; Mahershala Ali; Rose Byrne; Ray Liotta; Dane DeHaan

Plot: A motorcycle stunt rider turns to robbing banks as a way to provide for his lover and their newborn child, a decision that puts him on a collision course with an ambitious rookie cop navigating a department ruled by a corrupt detective.