Next Movie to Review

Well, a movie came out in December of 2011 entitled "Don 2".  This is the sequel to "Don" which came out in 2006.  The 2006 "Don" was a remake of the Hindi movie "Don" which came out in 1978.  Now to see if I can get a hand on the 1978 version, which seems real cool with the 70's Cadillac in the first scene, with English subtitle.
~Gracie Mae DeLunac

Movie Review - "Pina" 12/23/2011

Another movie review by Gracie Mae DeLunac (aka Margem).  This time, the movie is "Pina" released on December 23, 2011.


Trailer:

Criteria:
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.

1/5 – Barely worth any time.

2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.

3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.

4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.

5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around – characters, music, theme, storyline, etc.



This was a documentary movie about dancing and about a dance choreographer (Pina Bausch).

Okay, it took me five individual viewings (piece by piece) to get me through this video.  It was nice to see some dancing and to see that people can bend in ways that I cannot, but I had a major difficult time trying to watch this movie.  I fell asleep at least once watching it, to tell the truth.
Mind you, I am not a documentary film enthusiast, but I try to keep an open mind for what I'm watching.

Entertainment wise, I was having an issue trying to understand why the choreographer would have made her dancers dance in such a way.  Are you trying to portray love, anguish, freedom, or just "I can dance"?  I was lost on the emotions.

I think it is great that people can use dance to express themselves but this did not tell me anything, personally.

Interesting to watch the dances, especially the dancing with water one, though there was nothing conveyed to me.



Rating:
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
Nothing conveyed as to why the dancers would dance as such or who Pina Bausch was.  For those that like watching dances and for those who like watching documentaries.

Movie Review - "We Bought a Zoo" 12/23/2011

The newest review by Gracie Mae/Margem will be "We Bought a Zoo", released December 23, 2011.

TRAILER:

Criteria:
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.

1/5 – Barely worth any time.

2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.

3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.

4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.

5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around – characters, music, theme, storyline, etc.


Well, here we are doing reviews again.  Today, I streamed "We Bought a Zoo" which was released in December of 2011.  I really enjoyed this movie.  This one was a tear-filled movie, but it was very well done and very lovely.  Basic plotline is that an adventure writer's wife passes away (6 months before the movie takes place) and he's trying to cope with being a single father to a 14 year old son that is despressed about life and a 7 year old daughter.

The son, Dylan Mee, gets expelled from school for theft.  He also is shown to have really great artistic talent drawing [with pen or charcoal] and drew a decapitation photo for his art class' wall muro (on paper).
The daughter, Rosie Mee, doesn't seem to have issues with their current situation except the fact that the neighbor next door has parties often with drinking and loud music - "their happiness is too loud".
The father, Benjamin Mee, keeps having issues about everyone giving him pity and feeling bad for his situation.  He also keeps seeing places that reminds him of his deceased wife, which makes life uncomfortable for him.
With all of these factors, Benjamin decides to move his family to start a new life.  Dylan of course is upset that he is going to be taken from his home and his friends, but Benjamin decides that it would be the best for all of them.
After looking through a lot of houses, they find one that is in a nice location and has the kind of space that Benjamin wants.  One catch, though, about the place: a zoo is on the property.

The zoo was closed to the public two years prior and the state kept the place 'barely surviving'.  If no one bought the place (house, zoo, everything) and became the zoo's owner/keeper, the animals would have to be euthanized and the zoo staff would lose their jobs.  Though he knew it would be a large undertaking, Benjamin realized that Rosie liked the place a lot and so he bought the house and the zoo.

Throughout the movie, there are struggles with the loss of Mrs. Mee, struggles to keep the renovation on going to reopen for the summer, and struggles between the single dad and his kids.

SPOILERS: The zoo reopens with a better result than that they thought, the father was able to get his kids happy and communicating with him, Benjamin is able to acknowledge that he loved his deceased wife and that he needs to move on, and the other struggles are generally resolved.




Music -
Mellow and with the program, barely noticeable.  Accented what needed accents but did not drown anything out.  There was a Bob Dylan song "Buckets of Rain" and Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl", but I don't think I recognized the other songs.


Relationships - 
I liked how Benjamin and Dylan were able to sit down and be frank about their relationship. It was good to see that parents and children can, potentially, talk real about what is going on.  It gives one hope for parent-child(ren) relations.

I like the fact that though Benjamin was mourning the loss of his wife, he still tried to be the best dad that he could be, looking out for the health and happiness of his children.  I liked that he was a very real character and that, though he had enough money to buy a zoo, he was still trying to do the best that he could:  Benjamin worked on his father-child(ren) relationships, the relationship with his brother, the relationships with the zoo's staff, and dealing with the stress of sporatic zoo issues.  I also loved the fact that he was able to have a good goal in mind (restoring the zoo to open it again) and that he was willing to go for it - his adventure. Mind you, I would not be so willing to dump money into a zoo if I didn't have experience in dealing with animals before.  Hundreds of thousands of dollars were used in the restoration of the zoo, and not all of that was the zoo's money.



Themes - 
Father/child(ren) relationships: Well done, giving hope that sitting down and talking/listening can actually fix a lot if both/all parties are willing to be serious and to the point.  Attention to the son allowed the son to go from drawings of decapitation and utter pain/despair to drawings of snakes, flies and tigers [from scared/freaked/stressed to good/creative/positive].
This movie is a reminder to parents to look out for the best for their children, for their happiness and their well-being.  If Benjamin had deserted his children for the zoo, his character would have SEVERELY been damaged.  Even though he was dealing with the zoo and his own widower issue, he always tried to keep his kids foremost in his mind [Benjamin even at one time drove a18.4 mile round-trip to get butter for corn-on-the-cob because his kids wanted butter, though upon getting back found out that Dylan found some at home.].

Human/animal relationships: Care for the animals was emphasized because it was a zoo, but the staff told Benjamin that he just had to learn how to talk with the animals.  He had to learn how to be real with the animals - talk with them, don't use baby talk.  One of the tigers (17 yr old "Spar"), at the end of his life, trusted Benjamin because he had tried to keep this tiger going with bringing in a vet, getting expensive medicines, etc.  Dylan says to Benjamin, regarding the tiger, "You did your best, Dad.  He knows that."  And it was absolutely sad to hear that the tiger had to be put down, but it is nature to deal with death.
Something about Spar's death seemed to connect with Mrs. Mee's death - the death of a human or animal maybe be painful but they should be remembered.  It wasn't until after Spar's death that Benjamin was able to move on from his wife's death.  Maybe it was because Dylan was talking with him when Benjamin realized that Spar should be put down, that Benjamin was able to connect with his son from then on, or maybe it was Benjamin realizing that life and death are hand in hand.  Who knows, but it was something to note.


Tears!  This movie was very emotional for me.  I cried when Benjamin missed his wife. I cried when Benjamin and Dylan connected. I cried when the tiger was giving up hope.  I cried when Benjamin was telling his kids the story about how he met their mom at the coffee shop.


One good thing that I took from the movie is the idea of "20 seconds of courage".  The idea is that you should give it 20 seconds of courage to do something that needs to be done.  "Sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage, literally just twenty seconds of embarassing bravery, and I promise you something great will come of it."



Must say one thing that caught my fancy: at one point, Benjamin's brother is seen walking through the zoo in very 'city like' clothes and rubber boots.  Benjamin's brother being an accountant, dressed as such, with that city gait, was just hilarious especially when Benjamin asked if he had looked like that when he first arrived.  Yes, says one of the staff.  "Wow.  That's humiliating."  I thought that small scene was just amazing.
Also, it was funny to see the bear walking the nearby town's street, though not as dramatic as the trailer makes it to be.  I just started laughing because it is so weird to see a Grizzly just walking down a street at your car.




Okay, rate.
5/5 - Absolutely amazing movie.  Well presented, well rounded.  Good emotions and good themes.  And to top it all off, it is based on a TRUE STORY.
Highly recommended!  (Oh and Matt Damon plays as Benjamin Mee, the dad, and he did a wonderful job in the part.)

Movie Review - "The Darkest Hour" 12/25/2011

'ello there!  It has been a while since I reviewed a movie for ya but here is one!  Straight from 2011 and with a theme kinda like this weekend (but not quite like the "Mayan Apocalypse" thing):  "The Darkest Hour", released on December 25, 2011.

0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.

1/5 – Barely worth any time.

2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.

3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.

4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.

5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around – characters, music, theme, storyline, etc.

Let's make this short and sweet, with spoilers a-plenty:
Romance?  A bit but it is more of a "I am fond of you because you are the opposite gender than me and you have survived too" kind of thing, though two of the characters almost kissed at the end.

Invasion - the aliens come, wrapped in a force field made of energy (somehow) and start killing the humans.  We've all seen this before but this time it was like "woah, we can't see them and they're attacking us and turning us to dust" [oh, right! The dust thing was also in "War of the Worlds" with Cruise!  Original.....].  Do the humans try finding a way to survive and return fire?  Of course.  And the humans somehow, as always, start finding out the aliens' weakness and start killing them off {to have humankind survive and to protect the planet from the alien mines}.

Music - I didn't notice much.

Horror - It is scary to have an invisible hunter coming after you but it wasn't that scary at all.  Cheesy scary, if anything.

Creativity - I must say that it is creative that they made the aliens see humans according to their bio-electrical currents instead of their heat.  I thought that the alien's view was a heat reader but it wasn't because the humans managed to slide under a cop car at one point and hide from the alien.  Also, it was creative for the humans to use cell phones and light bulbs to recognize where the aliens were (since they gave off a signal that turned on electronics and when they were not nearby, everything was dead electrically).

DID NOT GIVE A GOOD DESCRIPTION OR VIEW OF THE ALIENS!  Invisible is scary but they should have shown what they really are, because sometimes that is even more frightening.  It didn't give the aliens any character aside the fact that they just wanted to mine the earth!

Good movie but rather disappointing overall.  Even the deaths of 3 characters did not phase me because the characters were not properly displayed and developed beforehand.




If you want to take your time to see another alien invasion movie [that can NO WHERE CLOSE compare to "Alien", "Independence Day", or "War of the Worlds"], see this.  Otherwise, save your time and money by skipping this.




2/5 - Little character development; a bit of interest with the alien force field making them invisible and the alien's anatomy.  Not really worth it.

So....

My question to those that read these blog posts, since I don't get comments, is this: what do you think of my reviews?
Be truthful. ;-)
~Margem

Movie Review - "War Horse" 12/25/11

Another review!  This time "War Horse", released Dec. 25, 2011.

0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.

1/5 – Barely worth any time.

2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.

3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.

4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.

5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around – characters, music, theme, storyline, etc.

War Horse

First off, I must say that this movie had a good soundtrack.  Very wonderful and instrumental.  I have a thing for instrumental songs. :-P  Good use of trumpets, strings, etc.

Anyways, this movie is about a horse.  Yes, the main character is a horse.  We see the movie start off with his birth and then continues to how he grows up.  The second main character is Albert Narracott, who is the horse's owner.  He gives the horse the name Joey and then proceeds to train him - harness, saddle, plowing (with the plow harness), to come, to stay, etc.  However, Joey doesn't like jumping but that's fine for an English farmer boy.

World War I starts and, since the family is low on funds for paying the landlord, father sells Joey to the military.  What happens after that is Joey's travels through the war and Albert trying to find Joey.  Spoiler: They do reconnect, though Albert had to join the military to do so.

5/5 - I thought that this was a very good movie.  Definitely a tearjerker at times.  I liked one character's comment on bravery - there are many forms of bravery, not just those that go to war.   I also liked the fact that they gave the horse some character, learning as he went through his travels.  I'm not going to say anything more, since I gave a slight spoiler already.  If you are okay with movies during war times, watch this!  If you can't stand fights and guns and death and all that dramatic stuff that comes with wars, you might have a problem with this movie (slightly).

Movie Review - "Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close" 12/25/11

Welcome back to another movie review, brought to you by le Margem.  :-)  This one is for "Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close", released December 25, 2011.

My rating values:

0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.

1/5 – Barely worth any time.

2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.

3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.

4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.

5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around – characters, music, theme, storyline, etc.


Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close

Set in New York city, this is a movie about a fatherless child and his search for meaning.  A year after his father [played by Tom Hanks] died in the towers of the World Trade Center in 2001, Oskar Schell finds a key in his father's closet.  Mom [played by Sandra Bullock] had not moved Dad's things so when Oskar reached to grab his grandfather's camera from the top shelf, a blue vase fell to the floor.  Inside of the vase was a small envelope with a key on it.  The envelope said one thing - "Black".  Thinking that his father had set up an investigation excursion, Oskar decides to find this Black and figure out what the key is for.  Along the way, he finds that he must overcome his fears, meet people {which had previously been very difficult for him to do} to ask them about the key, and let each person he meets to share their story.  Though he has over four hundred Blacks to find in the city of New York and wants to get the mystery solved quickly, he finds that everyone took more of his time than he planned to spend with them.  When he sits down and talks with his Mom about them, he finds that each person was missing something or someone also.  Each person made an impression on him, for good or for bad.  They are a community, even if connected through the commonality that each is missing something or that they live in the city of New York.

It was rather saddening to watch the scenes about the WTC attack on September 11, but it made me think about what happened back then.  It has been so long (over 10 years, can you believe it?!) and not living near NYC helps dull the memory of that day.  But it was interesting to think about how one event can easily traumatize a person.  Oskar was painfully aware of sounds, planes, towers, ambulances, sirens, bridges, places to be trapped, etc.  These fears can be seen as a part of his experience with the towers, though he was not personally there when it happened.  However, living in the city of NYC and having lost his father in the WTC, the event definitely would have changed his life.  I would not be surprised if I heard about many people from NYC being traumatized from that day ("The Worst Day", as Oskar called it).



5/5 – I cried, I laughed.  It was interesting watching this kid trying to solve a mystery and run all over NYC.  I was also very glad to hear that his mother had gone to all the places before he did just so the people would have been warned about Oskar coming to stop by.  It showed that she was a good mother, worried about her son, though in the middle of the movie she seemed to be "absent".  Oskar did learn about a lot of things, though his father was definitely not coming back to them.

Warning: This movie has vivid emotional flashbacks to the Sept. 11, '01 WTC attack.