Review: Moneyball

Director: Bennett Miller

Stars: Brad Pitt, Robin Wright and Jonah Hill

Genres: Biography | Drama | Sport

Release Date: 17 November 2011

Memorable quote:
(I like two sorry)

Billy Beane: Would you rather get one shot in the head or five in the chest and bleed to death?
Peter Brand: Are those my only two options?
&
Peter Brand: I wanted you to see these player evaluations that you asked me to do.
Billy Beane: I asked you to do three.
Peter Brand: Yeah.
Billy Beane: To evaluate three players.
Peter Brand: Yeah.
Billy Beane: How many you'd do?
Peter Brand: Forty-seven.
Billy Beane: Okay.
Peter Brand: Actually, fifty-one. I don't know why I lied just then.

What?
Let’s start with the fact that this movie is based on a real story. This can be the base for a good or shitty movie, well let’s see. Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A's is the guy who needs to assemble the new line up for the season of 2002, the problem is he has no money and all the other teams have lots of it. All the good players he had were just bought by richer teams and he is left over well with left overs. He decides to turn the game and the conventions to find new players around. No more huge and expensive stars that can do everything but, as I call it specialist in one thing, most of the time those “specialists” are seen as flawed players by baseball scouts and just ignore them. Beane teamed up with Peter Brand decide to go on a mission without knowing what will happen at the end.

Yes?
This movie is what I call special; I wasn’t sure what to think about it. For me if falls somewhere in the middle between OK and good. It has all the elements for a good movie, but it lacks a couple of things to become really good. But just let’s start with the good.

From one side you can look at the movie and say this is a sports movie about baseball and who doesn’t like baseball is screwed, he just entered the wrong theater. On the other side this is a story of someone who stands in front of a big decision to go against all the known conventions and succeeds in the doing the impossible. The will to go with an idea to the limit not knowing if it’s good is seen from my part as heroic. Other will just call it stupid, but sometimes it just works out. That’s what I mean; imagine the movie or even reality would go the other way Beane would have been hanged out to the dry or even buried alive. (No this wasn’t a spoiler). This decision I would say makes this good.

Brad Pitt is a good actor, sometimes we forget it, but in this movie he showed us that he can pull it off, all the way. Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill were great together they formed this kind of team against the baseball world and they were awesome. Seymour Hoffman is as always a hero for me he can be everything you throw in his direction, as he also did with this part.

Baseball is a sport for connoisseurs; if you don’t know it it’s difficult to start loving it. There is so much behind this sport that we the people who are not used to it just have no idea. Same thing with the Baseball Jargon, drafts, runs, pitchers etc, I just don’t know those terms and the movie tried to give you as much as possible tools so you wouldn’t feel as an outsider to this world.

No?
The movie kind off succeeded in making it interesting for everyone, but still the fact is that if you like baseball it’s much more interesting for you than for others. I don’t like baseball, so this movie needed to catch me with the drama or amazing story, It didn’t enough. I believed it would but it didn’t.

I stayed interested in this movie because I was wondering if Beane could pull his idea of or not, you had some dry moments where I almost fell asleep, what can I say Baseball is lame, at least for me.

The last scene actually pissed me off, maybe I’m materialistic but I just didn’t understand this!

Well…
So the actors were great, the story was medium – well and again baseball is boring, maybe this movie will get an Oscar, but from my part it wasn’t good enough. If you like baseball this is definitely for you, if you like Brad Pitt it’s for you, if you don’t belong to those groups I wouldn’t watch it, at least not at the movies, if you have time at home, maybe. Because of all the above I grade this…

Grade: 6.5 out of 10

Mammoth

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,Trailer!!!

I know that I posted a couple of Trailers, but that’s not exactly my fault, good movies are coming up, so the trailers need to be shown to everyone. Do you remember someone called Peter Jackson, I’m not sure but if I’m not mistaken he directed a small movie franchise called “lord of the Rings”. The earnings for those movies exceeded one Billion Dollars, received dozens of Oscars and well are one of my favorite movies. If this doesn’t ring a bell, just throw yourself in front of a train or out of the nearest window because you just don’t deserve to see the next thing. I present here the trailer for the first movie of the hobbit; I saw it and loved it. Hope you will too. Enjoy!

So, I hope you are excited as me, this is just lovely to see the beloved characters and well the whole bunch again. The song during the trailer is amazing and just brings back the whole Lord of the rings feeling. I will keep you updated with more stuff as we come closer to the big moment, as always be prepared! Preeecious!

Review: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1

Director: Bill Condon


Stars: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner

Genres: Adventure, Drama , Fantasy and Romance



Release Date: 17 November 2011



Memorable quote:
Edward Cullen: No measure of time with you will be long enough. But we'll start with forever.





What?
We start to story where we left off in the previous chapters; Bella and Edward are getting married. (Oh my god I’m so excited!!!) Of course the werewolves don’t like this idea and Jacob even less. Of course if you put the simple fact aside that she is human and he is a vampire, the idea of getting married and you know having little pale babies is fun, but the whole movie is about this so we can’t just ignore this fact. Of course this makes us ask Bella, did you never hear of protection! That’s some lesson we give children nowadays. So Bella gets pregnant and the small baby/flesh-eater in her belly becomes a time bomb, I think this sums it up.

Yes?
Honestly I don’t have a lot to write in this section, I suffered during this movie. Torture would probably be more pleasant. But I do need to say that as any movie of a franchise I have a soft spot for sequels, I need to see them. I’m like an addict; you tell me that a better coke is on the market I will probably try it out.

Then we had another good thing which were the special effects. I like how they make the men transform in to wolves, this is just exciting. How they changed Bella’s look to become anorexic was amazing, I actually felt disgusted, so in this part they did a good job.

No?
Unfortunately we will have more in this section, what do you want me to say it really was a bad movie. I have watched all the Twilight movies (I know I shouldn’t brag about this) but its true, and this last chapter wasn’t just the worst of all of them, it was simply not fun to watch it. You have movie where nothing happens, you are neutral, you there you not, no difference, but here I actually felt bad watching it. Too many things just didn’t work for me. Let’s start.

I talked to some Twilight book readers, who call themselves “twihard” fans (cheesy I know, but you
get the point) and they say that the considering they awaited this movie for such a long time, this was a scandal. It should have been amazing, wedding dress, babies, and romance; instead we got a pointless soap opera. The director didn’t bring any of the emotions felt in the books, nothing.

Another annoying part was the lack of things that happened and even if something happened how they were put on screen were just boring, not exciting. We had a couple of possibilities for a fight, the tension is there and just when you believe it’s going to become interesting, nothing happens, everything calms down and they walk away.

And what’s up with the lame music throughout the whole movie, seriously a disaster.

Finally the birth of the weird baby thingy, we get stupid close ups an attempt to build up some tension by moving the camera in first person, just ridiculous and beginner like.

Well…
This movie was bad, I didn’t like it, Twilight fans didn’t like it, of course we don’t take the 12-17 girls who are just pumped up by stupid hormones, but this was just a big waste of time. I watched it because it’s a franchise I needed to for your sakes. So here is it, they get married, she gets pregnant and that’s that, the whole movie in one line. If you want something more, watch the trailer her above and you have the whole thing, just jump to the last part of the story.

Before I forget it thanks for my Twilight correspondant for her side of the story (Alix)

Because of all the above I grade this…

Grade: 2 out of 10

Mammoth

The Dark Knight Rises, Trailer

Sometimes things happen that change a generation, a man on the moon, the Bugatti Veyron or believe it or not a movie. I think that the Dark knight did just that. I loved Batman Begins and The Dark knight was just to amazing for words, so you can understand my excitement for the next Batman. Since the movie was announced secrecy is the main word. We didn’t get anything, no trailer, no images no nothing. Then at the beginning of this month the information started to flow. The wheels of marketing started to move and we got a lot to show; Images, videos and stories, followed by the Prologue last week and the trailer. I know the movie will only come out in June 2012, but I am excited as hell. Here you have the trailer, and it looks awesome. Enjoy!




From the trailer we can agree on a couple of sure things. This looks awesome, but that’s not what I meant. Anne Hathaway can definitely pull off Catwoman, Bane is heartless and cold, and Batman just looks cool. So I know I said it already three times, but this is just so exciting, be prepared!!

Trailer, the dictator!!

I remember the first time I saw Borat I wasn’t sure how to react, it was funny, alter on it became hilarious. On the other hand Bruno was just weird and well Sacha Baron Cohen worthy. I’m sure a lot of you have already watched this but I saw it as my duty to make it official and show it. Only today I watched this four times. It just looks hilarious and in perfect timing with the depart of our dear friend, Kadaffi. So without further due, enjoy the comeback of our ambassador in Hollywood! Before I forget go to the bathroom before, because the trailer is funny!

I’m sure you need tissues to calm yourself down, I hope they didn’t show everything in the trailer. So as always be prepared!

Coming Up, Mission impossible 4: Ghost protocol

I don’t think I can find someone in the Western world who didn’t hum the Mission impossible track at least once in their lives; of course this is an understatement, not only that you hummed the melody, you stood next to a wall, holding some plastic gun in hand pretending to be a special agent . Everyone loves this soundtrack and it became the melody when you do something that is not allowed or even illegal. As you all know this comes from the movie franchise Mission Impossible. And yes I’m sure you can argue that the first one was great, the second one not that good and so on, but in reality who cares. You just come for the excitement, gadgets and of course again the “soundtrack”. You just buy the ticket to see how many crazy impossible stunts Ethan hunt will do to save the world from evil. That said the next and probably the last MI movie comes out tonight and I will hopefully go and see it as soon as possible. It seems it has even a good story, besides the explosions, car chases and crazy gadgets. Enjoy!

Storyline (IMDB)
The IMF is shut down when it's implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin, causing Ethan Hunt and his new team to go rogue to clear their organization's name.

You see I didn’t lie; you get exactly that what you pay for. A crazy story, explosions and the soundtrack!

Trailer, Men in Black 3!!

The men in black franchise got hit by a lot of bad reviews because people just didn’t connect to the whole thing. I on the other hand liked it. The movies had always this funny twist and weird action. And we could even say that Will Smith was born with this. The beauty about making movies which main theme are aliens, your options are limitless, you can do whatever you want, and no one could tell you, that shit’s crazy. Said that I think Will Smith came a long way since the first one and it looks like this is going to be OK. There was a big debate for a long time to make this movie or not, well you see the results of this debate. Enjoy!

So what did we have here, aliens, time traveling, the memory eraser and the ridiculous guns, looks like fun to me. And of course we get a lot of the same again. As always be prepared for the alien invasion and the men in black!

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

Well it seems that every time I think that the Madagascar flix won’t be any good they come up with something crazy as this. I must admit the second one wasn’t one of my favorite movies, but again I was excited for the penguins, they just crack me up every time I see them. So as it seems they have decided to make a third one and it looks quite good, again we can see the penguins, can’t wait for them. The release date is around summer 2012, which is in a long while, but it seems worth watching it anyway, so here you have some teaser for the summer blockbuster of 2012.

This actually looks fairly decent, I even laughed a couple of times here, we have all the same characters (yeah the penguins too), so it is going to be a hell of a movie, at least I hope so. So as always, be prepared!

Review: Immortals

Director: Tarsem Singh

Stars: Henry Cavill, Mickey Rourke and John Hurt

Genres: Action | Drama | Fantasy

Release Date:10 November 2011

Memorable quote:
Theseus: Stand your ground! Fight for order! Fight for the man beside you! Fight for those who bore you! Fight for your children! Fight for your future! Fight for your name to survive! Fight! For immortality!

What?

At the dawn of mankind, there was a War, the once who lost became the Titans who have been imprisoned in Mount Tartaros, the once who won became the Gods, to rule over the world from Heaven. Hyperion a Bloodthirsty king has declared war on Humanity and the gods who abandoned him in his time of need. The only way to defeat mankind is to obtain the ultimate weapon, the bow from Epirus, to unleash the Titans and destroy mankind forever. His rival: Theseus a simple man chosen by Zeus himself to lead the fight against Hyperion and to give mankind a fighting chance.

Yes?
I think an introduction is needed here, to explain my opinion about this movie. I like movies that show war, blood, swordfights and huge armies. This doesn’t make me cruel or Bloodthirsty, but this makes me a bit biased towards movies that contain all those features. So let’s take for example the movie 300, loved it, even though other critics hated it. So this is my opinion and that’s that.

This movie was a mix of action and cruelty and lots of it. You go from one fight to another; still being shocked by the flowing stream of blood the next already hits your face. The action scenes were just beautiful and the fighting choreography was amazing. I guess almost everything was made with the computer, but nevertheless, great.

I entered the theater and I got the 3D Glasses, I was afraid this was the Achilles heel of the movie, from now on it’s going to suck, but it didn’t the 3D was amazing, not that crappy “throw something at me” 3D, but the whole thing had this amazing depth, and it was just stunning. Then we had the slow motion parts, which are nowadays a mandatory device in action movies, we had a lot of them, loved every single frame!

I think the actors were chosen wisely, they gave a good and convincing performance. The best part of this was Rourke, as we saw him in the Wrestler, he is the symbol of “manhood”, he doesn’t care about his looks, he is cruel and indifferent to everything around him, and the cause is the only thing that matters. Killing or letting someone live just doesn’t matter. He was so evil that I just felt it in my bones.

The main thing here was that the movie wasn’t boring and entertaining, it wasn’t the quality of the story, but more the action scenes and effects that kept me watching it till the end.

No?
As I said just here above, it wasn’t the story that made this movie interesting it was the spectacle, and this is the main flaw of the movie, the lack of an interesting story. If it would have that the movie from my part would be perfect. That’s that.

Well…
So, we had here an entertaining movie, for people who like blood dripping and action scenes. People, who don’t like the things mentioned above, just won’t like the movie and will probably say that this is a waste of time. I liked it for the stuff it was great in, if you go for the blood and action watch it at the movies because this is the main part, if you don’t just don’t watch it at all. Because of all the above I grade this…

Grade: 8 out of 10

Mammoth

Coming up this week, The Muppets!

Some of you heard of a show called “the Muppet show”, this aired years ago on TV, I guess most of you are familiar with Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy. The truth is that I was never a big fan of this show, but at least I remember it showing on TV. So this is the next big thing in cinema this week, of course we have other newcomers, but I believe this is the one we should keep our eyes on. Until this moment the Muppets have earned a nice some of money, just behind the New Twilight (this isn’t my official review, but just to keep you away from a disaster, don’t watch it at the movies, it is crap, and that’s not only the “Y” chromosome talking, a lot of big Twilight movie fans agree with this judgment, and it doesn’t matter they earn a lot of money!)
So on the 8th of December we get…

The Muppets

Storyline (IMDB)
When 3 Muppet fans learn that Tex Richman wants to drill under the Muppet theater for oil Gary, Mary and Walter set out to find the Muppets who have been split up for years Kermit lives in his own mansion depressed in Hollywood, Gonzo is a high class plumber at Gonzo's Royal Flush, Fozzie performs with a tribute band called The Moopets , Miss Piggy is the plus-size fashion editor at Vogue Paris, and Animal is at a celebrity anger management rehab center in Santa Barbara.

For the first time here you have the trailer.



Just enjoy your childhood heroes coming back to life on the big screen, and relive the characters once again, enjoy!

Mammoth

Review: In Time

Director: Andrew Niccol

Stars: Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried and Cillian Murphy

Genres: Action | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Release Date: 27 October 2011

Memorable quote:

Will Salas: For a few immortals to live, many people must die.

What?

We find ourselves in the future, but not the too distant one, people stop to age after 25, and there are no more dollars or euros or any other currency. People pay with time. The Phrase time is money has a different signification here or better said it is just literal. When you’re time is up you die, simple as it sounds. You pay for everything with time, meaning you go on a bus, supermarket or a movie; they just take away minutes, hours and seconds of your total living amount. This means that the poor have a day to day maybe two which means a constant struggle for survival and the rich stay immortal. After Will receives the gift of time, he is wrongfully accused of murder he tries to bring down the system that keeps the rich rich and the poor poor

Yes?

I know what you think, I thought the same thing the first time I saw the trailer, and this is some deep shit. Time is money etc. I must admit the idea is really great and only for this the movie gets a couple of points, but again is this enough? I think it lacked something, I just can’t put my finger on it.

I liked how they developed this small idea in to a full system where everyone is a piece from it, you have a couple of basic ground rules that keep the movie together and keeps the movie going, which again is really good.


We have Murphy here, the bad guy from the first batman, he was good, I liked him as the bad guy and he was a good choice for him. Seyfried was also good and she did play this little rich kid in a good and convincing way.



No?

I like good ideas, especially when they are in the science fiction section. But the basic concepts of science fiction need to be upheld at any costs. In this movie we find that we have rules and most of the time they are even followed but my big problem here is the beginning of the movie, the lack of explanation how mankind got to this amazing point where people won’t live past 25 and all what follows. Even when we deal in science fiction there need to be strong fundaments, and here we didn’t get any. We got here something like; it’s like that live with it, this is a major disappointment.

We talked about the good acting, well on the other hand we had Timberlake, I think he was just not convincing in some parts, especially when he needed to show emotion he didn’t convince me, maybe next time, no harm done.

But what annoyed me the most about this movie is the fact that they didn’t use the huge potential they had in their hands. The idea was great, but I believe such a movie, which includes so many, important issues especially nowadays should have done it better.

Well…

All in all this movies was lacking some wauw moments, nothing here made you sweat in your chair, even though the big picture here was nice and even interesting. You can watch this at home, no trip to the movies is necessary here. Because of all the above I grade this…

Grade: 6.5 out of 10

Mammoth