30 days of night movie review

I don't remember when I saw the trailer of 30 days of night, but I do remember that I was intrigued by the movie. I believed the concept or idea behind the film was original and the bits I could see on the trailer showed some talent. At least some talent on the editing of the trailer. I just watched the film yesterday and I was happy to see I was not mistaken. The movie is good. And is scary.

The plot of 30 days of night is as follows (at least the bits I can't tell): In a small town in Alaska, on deep winter, there are 30 continues days when the Sun does not come out. On that same day most of its inhabitants move to other cities, and leave a hundred taking care of everything while this 30 days of night pass by. But is it not this the best period of time for a group of hungry vampires to attack a city? When there is no danger to day light exposure? How come nobody thought of this before?

30 days of night is directed by English film director David Slade, the person behind the multi awarded "Hard Candy". The film stars: Josh Hartnett and Melissa George among others. 30 days of night was nominated in 2 film festivals in the UK and in the US.

30 days of night is the best movie for two hours of entertaiment. When you look for this, entertainment, is not because you are planning to question every other character on the movie, and you easily accept the idea of vampires and stuff. If have the attitutude of cleverness and you just don't like monsters, vampires, zombies, etc. 30 days of night is not a movie for you. Other than that, the film makes an excellent 2 hours of fun and entertainment. I am even looking forward for a second part.

The best scene on 30 days of night? This is the best scene:



If you are interested on the movie, here you can find the trailer of 30 days of night:

http://film-movie-trailers.blogspot.com/2008/05/30-days-of-night-movie-trailer-david.html

SAW 2 movie review

While I am not a fan of gore movies, I do like terror films such as The Night of the Living Dead, or your average b-movie such as the Blair Witch Project or, in our case, SAW. The original film, SAW, came out in 2004 and I just got to see the film last year, 2007 that is. I was positevely surprised as somehow I totally missed the hype over SAW and I just rented it following the logic that, when a terror film gives way to sequels, might be because the first part is good. I did not know the secret of SAW at all. Which, I am happy to say, surprised me of the movie.

I was so surprised that I had loads of curiosity over the second part. I am a strong fan of films and cinema to know that sequels are rarely good, but I was curious still. Today finally they showed the film on the TV and finally I managed to see the second part of SAW, and I did not pay anything. Just two hours of my precious time. I was not dissapointed, because I did not have big expectations, which is what exactly what you should do when watching SAW II.

I won't tell you the plot of SAW 2 nor my favourite scene of the movie. I do want to tell you that is not really worth paying money to watch it, buit it does make a good two hours entertaining film. I will stop on the second part of SAW and I won't go for the rest of the movies of the series.

Hidden Agenda movie review

I just finished watching Hidden Agenda. I am a fan of Ken Loach even though I have not seen more than 5 of his movies. It is a film that is relatively easy to get your hands into, as you can get it in any shop in a DVD. Hidden Agenda was premiered in 1990 and was nominated for a Goya award in Spain and was also nominated in Cannes where it got two awards.

If you are going to watch Hidden Agenda I strongly suggest you get informated about Ireland, Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom and the IRA; otherwise you are not going to understand much and, most important of all, you won't understand the main point of the movie. It is no secret, I believe, that Ken Loach likes Ireland. It must be said that Hidden Agenda depicts an Ireland from the early 80's. I've been in Dublin and Belfast several times and the present day does not resemble anything to the movie.

The plot of Hidden Agenda, as much as I can tell without spoling the movie for you, is as follows: Two American lawyers are in Belfast, gathering information about the violation of human rights in Northern Ireland. One of them is contacted by a British Soldier who says has very important information for them. And then...

Hidden Agenda is a good movie for a good afternoon. But it is not for entertainment or for a 2 hours fun. If you are not interested in events going outsite your country or you could not care less about the difference between Ireland and Scotland, then Hidden Agenda is not for you. On the other hand, if you are interested, it is a great film. It is also a good point to start if you want to get to know more about contemporary Irish history.

What I did not like about Hidden Agenda is that perhaps is a bit short. My favourite scene in Hidden Agenda? The conversation between the detective and the chief of the police.

Here is the movie trailer of Hidden Agenda:

http://film-movie-trailers.blogspot.com/2008/05/hidden-agenda-movie-trailer-ken-loach.html

Persona non grata movie review Oliver Stone

If it would not be because an special edition of a series from the french department store FNAC, I don't think I would have come across the movie "Persona Non Grata". Even on the Internet is difficult to get some information about this film of director Oliver Stone. The movie is less than 70 minutes long and it is a documentary.

The main character in Persona Non Grata, if I may call him like that, is Oliver Stone and Yasser Arafat, as we follow during the film the former, looking to interview the latter. The recently deceased ex Palestinian president is the referred character of the movie title, the Persona Non Grata, the un-wanted person. It was filmed in 2002-2003, when the situation in Israel and Palestine was particularly difficult.

The plot (story line is better) of Persona Non Grata is as follows: Oliver Stone comes to Israel and Palestine looking to interview all the parts involved in the conflict. He witness some massacres and, let's say, day to day situations, going on on both sides of the border.

Obviously, Persona Non Grata is not a film for entertainment. It is more a movie to get an insight into the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as, I believe, it portrays a balanced perspective. If you do not really understand who is who in the conflict, Persona Non Grata might be a good starting point and a front line account of the conflict. You must have a little knowledge though of who, for example, Ariel Sharon is, Yasser Arafat himself, etc.

In Persona Non Grata the editing is sometimes a little bit annoying, and sometimes the sounds effects are out of place. But in general, it is an interesting documentary.

The most interesting part of Persona Non Grata? The interviews.

Be kind rewind movie review

What happened to Michel Gondry with "Be kind Rewind"? Don't get me wrong, the movie is great, I loved it. I cannot remember the last time I laughed so much and so loud when watching a film. But there is something wrong with the Script, you can feel it, specially in the second half of Be Kind Rewind, not to say the ending. My theory is that someone in Hollywood did not like how the movie was going and edited the film or influenced it somehow. I am 100% sure that the movie was much longer and the producers or the distributors shortened it drastically. Anyway, Be Kind Rewind is still a great enjoyable film.

The plot of Be Kind Rewind is as follows: In the corner of a derelict city surrounding New York, lives and old man who owns a video shop, Elroy Fletcher. A video shop rental with VHS videos only. And with the threat of demolition, he goes to the city to learn how to improve his business and give up VHS for the DVD format. Meanwhile, he leaves someone in charge of this video shop, the character of Most Def, Mike. He is friends of Jerry (Jack Black), who somehow gets his body magnetised and inadvertently erases all the VHS tapes. They must find the way to have movies to rent to their few customers and at the same time help Fletcher to save the building and the video rental business.

Be Kind Rewind is absolute fun. It is the imagination behind Michel Gondry that drives the movie and the unbelievable funny scenes. The film is a good two hours entertainment. My complain is, Be Kind Rewind could have been even funnier, but it is obvious someone put his hands on the film. A producer, a company, something or someone. We will have to wait for the DVD to see if there is a longer version, deleted scenes, a director's cut, etc.

Still, I laughed a lot.

The best scene in Be Kind Rewind? I prefer to say that the first half of the film is the funniest.

Here is the trailer of Be Kind Rewind:

http://film-movie-trailers.blogspot.com/2008/04/be-kind-rewind-movie-trailer.html

Our brand is crisis movie review

I honestly don't remember where was the first time I read about the movie "Our brand is crisis". But I am sure it was several years ago. And just today I had the opportunity to watch the film. Perhaps "Our brand is crisis" is part of the political films that have been produced in the last years. Or perhaps before Bowling for Columbine, it was not so popular to produce, direct and watch this kind of movies. In any case, "Our brand is crisis" is not an overrated film and it is not easy to come by.

The "plot" of "Our Brand is Crisis" is as follows: the president of Bolivia (in 2002) seeks reelection and hires an American company to help him. The film follows all the decisions made behind some of the tactics used by Goni (the then-Bolivian-President) and its team, the speeches, the focus groups, the ups and downs, and some of the moves which lead him to be reelected. And the aftermath of the reelection.

Obviously "Our Brand is Crisis" is not a film for entertainment, at least is not what the film looks for. This is a movie that you really sit to watch, that makes you think and reason, not only during the almost two hours of the film, but hours later and perhaps (and hopefully) days later. You can enjoy the film, as you will enjoy a glass of wine or a fine cheese. But you won't if you are looking for is a bottle of beer.

The best scene in Our Brand is Crisis? I can't tell you.

Here is the Our Brand is Crisis movie trailer:

http://film-movie-trailers.blogspot.com/2008/04/our-brand-is-crisis-movie-trailer.html

Robocop movie review

The Robocop movie was a huge success. It became a cult movie, 2 more Robocop movies were filmed (with less success), several Robocop video and arcade games, Robocop TV series and animated cartoons as well. But if we isolate the film of Dutch Filmmaker Paul Verhoeven and look at it ignoring the marketing created afterwards, we can say that Robocop is a very good film.

The film entertains, has believable characters, does not take part in Hollywood cliches, the script surprises the audience throughout the movie and has a lot of the characteristics of a B-movie: some gore, some violence, rough characters, the bad guys are more powerful than the good guys, etc.

The plot of Robocop is as follows: Detroit is falling into the hands of private companies. They want to issue a robot cop who will control the violence and insecurity that prevails in the city. After some failures, the Robocop project is introduced. At the same time, a rookie policeman is in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he is ambushed by some criminals and almost gets killed.
The body of the policeman is then used for creating Robocop. But then he meets the criminals who killed him and finds out that...

Robocop is great entertainment. Even better now, a few years later, when we can make aside the failed second and third parts of the movie. It is part of an era, the era of the B-movies, that makes you wonder if something like that will happen again: low budget films with great scripts. Highly recommended. Looks like the DVD edition has interesting extras.

The best scene in Robocop? The last scene.

Here is the Robocop movie trailer:

http://film-movie-trailers.blogspot.com/2008/04/robocop-movie-trailer.html