A MOVIE LOVER

Should I recommend to see it? Let's see... A few days ago I went to see a new Spanish drama "Ma ma" by Julio Medem starring Penélope Cruz, Luis Tosar, Asier Etxeandia and Àlex Brendemühl. I was warned that this film is heavy, so I was prepared for a hard subject matter, but I wasn't prepared for that much drama and tragedy. The film is very good. It's very solid acting from all of the actors, especially Penelope Cruz who does know how to make you cry every second of the movie. The film is very well done in the way it shows a human nature drama and how people deal with death, loss, terminal illness, raising kids, marriage, divorce, etc. Yes, it's not a light movie at all, but it does give hope and it does put things in perspective as you start to appreciate every minute of your life...

It's been a while since I've been absolutely breath-taken away by a movie as I was just recently by the Ang Lee's latest story about the boy and the tiger - Life of Pi . Surprising enough, I actually knew about this movie way before it has opened in USA. The film critics from around the world were raving about this film-story for months, including the fact that the film got Academy Award 11 nominations: Best Picture, Best Direction, Adapted Screenplay, Production Design, Cinematography, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Film Editing and Visual Effects! Should I say any more? The anticipation of the film has been, definitely, built by the time it arrived to the theaters in America and the world-wide recognition of the film speaks for itself. Here's what I'm going to tell you, aside from the fact that I'm a very tough movie critic - Life of Pi is nothing you've might have ever seen before, and not because the story takes ...

First of all, If I were Constantin Stanislavski  - [the work on whose Acting Method/System won me an acceptance to apply with the Harvard University in 1999] - I would have left the movie theatre on the first scene... One cannot portray a psychologically ill person by simply freezing in spasms and moving a jaw in all the possible directions. It's not enough to roll one's eyes and start mimicking an ill person. This is exactly what Keira Knightley's character - Sabina Spielrein - did and what almost drove me out of the theatre. I can accept a bad acting, but only in certain movies I usually watch once in a while for the sake of being mindlessly entertained. But Knightley should have known better - not sure why the director didn't notice such a bad acting? She should have studied an ill person - just as Dustin Hoffman did for his part in Rain Man , for which he spent almost a year at a special clinic. She should have spent at least a day or two at a psychiatric...

"Vincent Will Meer" stands for "Vincent Wants to Sea" , which in my opinion, first of all, could use an action verb in the title of the movie - perhaps "go" or "see"? Germans have been very, very good filmmakers in the past few years. Aside from the Deutschen black and white films, like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), they've been known for solid films - although, during Nazi times, the filmmakers were too occupied shooting documentaries about Hitler...

When I walked in the E Street Cinema today to see a movie, I had two choices - to see The Trip or The Beginners, both movies received raving reviews from the American movie critics. So, when I have a choice of two, I usually get a second opinion - from the guys at the register, who, sometimes, see a movie before anyone else does in the city. This is what they said: "The Beginners is a good movie, very funny...and there is a talking dog in the movie..." "But The Trip is even better..." And that made up my mind and I went to see The Trip and.... I've made a great decision. First of all, I must admit, I'm a big fan of British movies. UK does not make many films - at least not like the Hollywood machine. They make just a few, and out of those few, only one or two make it across the border, and when they do - they impress the hell out of international audience... The Trip is a road-movie that combines some of the best elements of the British cinema - great...

 People who choose to either miss movie trailers and/or do not pay attention to them before a movie they came to see starts, miss a lot. I can't stress enough of how important it is to watch the trailers to see what's coming next in your neighborhood. Most often we miss trailers on TV. Most often we don't read the movie ads in print press. Most often we tune out of a radio film ad...Movie trailers in movie theaters - are most often the only times we can actually see what's coming out. Even more - we can feel the reaction of the crowd in the theater to estimate if a movie would be 'liked' or 'not liked' by the crowd. Moreover, if you are like me - a sucker for foreign, independent and art-house films, there are 99% chance that the only way you'd find out about a new foreign film - is through the movie trailers at a theater. Unfortunately, due to the Hollywood's overproduction of the films, there are not many films that are making it to USA f...