Dark shadows
With Johnny Depp as Barnabas (!), the vampire that comes back two centuries after breaking the heart of Angélique Bouchard (Eva Green), his servant and mistress, but above all, a witch. The abandoned witch then has his real love, Victoria (Bella Heathcote) killed and Barnabas sealed in a locked iron-coffin. When Barnabas gets accidentally freed -his coffin is brought to surface by workers at a new McDonald's construction site (!)- he walks back to the town that belonged to his family, Collinsport, but now belongs to Angélique the witch, who has built a fishing empire that she is not ready to abandon. But the problem is she still wants Johnny Depp who still likes her tits but even after all these years has a weak spot relation-wise for pale girls that look exactly like his old love, Victoria. A very amusing film, with Johnny Depp just at the right role. He vaguely looks like Michael Jackson in the good old days (manner of speaking). Michelle Pfeiffer also plays a rather secondary role, as well as Chloe Moretz (seen in the Kickass as Mindy) , her continuously stoned daughter. Lovely soundtrack, full of music from the seventies (remember the Carpenters?)
Salmon fishing in Yemen
Dr Alfred Jones (Ewan Mc Gregor) is a leading fishing expert in the UK, and as such remains sceptical on the project of an Yemeni Sheikh to bring salmons in Yemen, until he meets Harriet (Emily Blunt), the interface between the sheikh and the UK government. He then realises that his own marriage is kaputt and that yes! he wants and he can bring salmons in Yemen. Is there anything an unloved man in love cannot do? The problem is Harriet has a boyfriend missing in action in some desert land. And a problem to the problem is that when it all seems to go sweetly between the unloved scientist and the grieving Harriet he reappears, while Patricia Maxwell (Kristin Scott Thomas) is trying to make this a “good will” story for the British morale, fetching the British PM to assist the salmon-necessary dam in Yemen. I liked the book some years ago, and the film is equally good. Has been quite some time I enjoyed a simple film like this one.
The avengers
And the Avengers are: 1) the Iron man, interpreted by Robert Downey Jr, who dresses in an iron something equipped with all sorts of guns and gizmos and that lets him fly anywhere and beat almost everybody and never, ever die or get hurt. He is excellent, as usual, especially when he is joking. 2) Thor (Chris Hemworth), who bears Viking looks and name, but strangely dresses like an ancient Roman. He comes from another planet, but does not want to kill us all. He's there just to control his brother, nr 3) Captain America, who does want to kill us all earth inhabitants indeed, for some vague dispute that happened in another planet. 4)The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), who is actually a doctor in India, but is brought back to help save humanity. When he gets angry, he becomes green and huge. In other words, the Hulk. 5) the Black Widow (!), interpreted by Scarlett Johansson, that has to bear the burden of having killed so many innocent people that she now has to become clean by protecting us from mean, weird looking extraterrestrials that in the end of the film come on earth in some sort of flying iron dinosaur that actually looks like an ugly fish. And last but not least, 6) Nick Fury (!!), the director of the SHIELD, sort of the UNSC in the distant future, who dresses in a black leather cape, has one eye and lives in a flying aircraft carrier as big as the city of Brussels that can disappear, if need be. Interpreted by the excellentissimo Samuel L. Jackson, scary even when one-eyed.
The films also comes in 3D. Don't forget to get your glasses off as you come out...
We bought a zoo
Matt Damon, father of two children, loses his wife and decides to reset the hard disk of his life and move on and away to something totally new. A house away from the city, where he and his teenager son especially can start from scratch. But their new house comes with a zoo,wild animals and unpaid employees. And of course, they buy it. Why, wouldn't you do the same? Especially if the main zoo-keeper was Scarlett Johansson? I had thought this was going to be a little film for children, but it was not bad at all. Matt Damon is a guarantee to all films he plays in.
The rum diary
Based on the novel by Hunter S. Thompson, this is the story of Paul Kemp(Johnny Depp) who gets a job in Puerto Rico as a journalist for a local newspaper. And then falls in love with rum and Chenault (Amber Heard), the woman of another rich American, Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart), who is there to turn the island into a holiday resort for rich Americans. As things turn out, Kemp has the choice to either work with him and become corrupt, or work against him and remain poor (and drunk). I liked the film. Johnny Depp is gorgeous when drunk, and the film is full of palm trees, nice beaches and American old-timers of the sixties. I got this feeling of wanting to be there at this particular time, when the world seemed like a better place that would only get richer and better...
Shame
The dark story of a sex addict that cannot even have sex with someone ready to get involved with him. Pretty explicit and weird, definitely not for everyone, but with exquisite performances of Michael Fassbender, the sex addict, and Carey Mulligan, his sister that tries to maintain the link with her brother. If you are ready for some soul searching, go for it.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
A group of retirees of different backgrounds chooses to spend their pension in a promising hotel in India. But when they get there, things get less idyllic than expected. Still, with time almost all fall in love with the place and the mystic charm of the country. A film full of good feelings, nice images and good actors: Bill Nighy (the one in Harry Potter!), Tom Wilkinson, Maggie Smith (fantastic!) and Judi Dench, who could have held the whole film on her own. The hotel owner is Dev Patel, from the Slumdog Millionaire!
Nothing special on scene right now...
Head to the nearest video club and rent "Letters to Juliet". Spring has come, and this film is full of nice things: Italian scenery, nice weather, Verona, good wine, tasty mama's food and love letters...
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Despite being inspired by a real tragic event (9/11), this film is weird, incomprehensible and probably also pointless. The quest of the son of a Twin Towers' victim to find the lock that can be opened with a key that his father left before he died. Unwatchable. Not a film for children at all by the way.
The Muppets
Pas bon... Histoire tiède, des voix changées. Dommage...
In time
I liked a lot this film. In a future time, people live until 25. An in-built watch counts the minutes that remain for each individual. When the time is over, they just fall dead. The only way to live longer is to be given time by somebody else. In other words, the currency is time. Your mother can give you for example an hour as a birthday present. But on the other hand, you can get killed by people who want your time because they have reached 25 but do not want to die. There is even a central “stock” exchange bureau where time is held. Time is precious in this film, literally. Very original film, with Justin Timberlake (Will Salas) and Amanda Seyfries (Sylvia Weis).
My week with Marilyn
One more good film with Eddie Redmayne as Colin Clark, a 3rd assistant director who worked for Sir Lawrence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) for the filming of The Prince and the Showgirl. This was the time when Marilyn Monroe was married to Henry Miller, but seemingly had more than one extra affairs. Marilyn is convincingly played by Michelle Williams.
The artist
The fim that gave Jean Dujardin the Oscar for the best leading role. He definitely merited it more than George Clooney for the Descendants, in my opinion. He I absolutely marvelous in this black and white, silent movie, as well as Bérénice Bejo, the Argentinian actress and his beloved in this film.
Jean Dujardin plays George Valentin, a famous actor in the thirties, who does not seem to realize that the times have changed and talking pictures are slowly entering the movie industry. He accidentally meets Peppy Miller who he helps start a very successful career, and his own career starts failing. A nice and not so unrealistic love story follows.
J.Edgar
There was a time when keeping the fingerprints of citizens almost constituted a violation of human rights. Then came J.Edgar Hoover, and it was all over. The discussion as to what he contributed to his society, good or evil, could be endless, but the thing is, I still don't understand why I did not like very much this film. I definitely did not like the make-up artist: the film goes back and forth in time, and in the parts where they are old, Hoover and Tolson are covered with such a thick layer of ash-grey make-up that they look seriously dead. This being said, Leonardo di Caprio is quite good in the role of J.E.Hoover, despite his obscure, obsessive maniac nature and his not so obscure relation with Clyde Tolson, his poster-boy assistant (Armie Hammer, seen in the Social network). Judi Dench in the role of his mother is very good as usual.
The descendants
Matt King (George Clooney) is a rich lawyer and sole trustee of a huge pristine area in Waikiki. He is also an indifferent father and husband of a comatose wife that is about to be unplugged, after a cranial accident while skiing. And that's the easy part. Because after the accident, Matt King goes berserk when he learns that his wife was cheating on him. He then somehow gets obsessed with meeting her lover, a decision he assumes with his problematic older daughter who does not seem to find that bizarre. And I am probably the only one finding the base of the film bizarre, given the scores in major sites. So, let me recap: a woman is dying and although unfaithful she has been, we get busy trying to find who her lover was. The part of the father finally assuming his role seems to be in the shadow of the sometimes funny enterprise of shedding light to the obscure side of a dying woman. Right. On the other hand, getting a lover seems like peanuts when you have such a family. Go figure. I did.
A dangerous method
Once upon a time, in a dreamy place on a Swiss lake, lived Carl Jung, a young psychiatrist with John Lennon spectacles, although a contemporary of Freud (=around 1910). Freud (Viggo Mortensen) had a feud with Jung (Michael Fassbender). Sigmund, aka Ziggy, believed all behavior was dictated by sexual instinct, but had no sex life. Carl on the other side thought that reality was much more complex, that sex was not the most important factor of human behavior, although he personally had not one but various sex lives -at least one of them of the spanking kind. La pomme de discorde is Mrs Spielrein, very rich, very beautiful, very schizophrenic and , frankly, in the end the most balanced and honest among them. I particularly enjoyed the discussion at the end of the film, by the lake, the goodbye scene, when the love-bitten Carl declares: “Sometimes somebody has to do something unforgivable just to go on living”. A very good, clever film, it spoke to me and I very much enjoyed it and hope that it wins some Oscars.
Hugo
Hugo who? Hugo Cabret, the orphan kid that repaired everything and lived in a train station, since his father (Jude Law, acts for about 30 seconds) died. He then develops a certain obsession with an automaton, believing that if repaired, it will bear a message from his father. Which of course it does in the end. Plenty of very good actors: Ben Kingsley as the exhausted toy vendor, Sacha Baron Cohen as the station inspector en mal d'amour with an artificial leg, Chloe Grace Moretz who is on a bright acting career (Minda in Kick Ass) and, as a bonus, Christopher Lee, aka Dracula, who started his acting career in 1947 and looks unbelievably well (due to sucking human blood? ) As for the film that rumors have it is going to break records during the Oscar Award ceremony, I remain doubtful. A nicely filmed children movie that would have better done to be shown before Christmas. A very H.C.Andersen ambiance that gets even more real when seen on 3D.
The clip
Le Havre
Marcel Marx, cireur de chaussures au langage littéraire t-r-è-s bien articulé, vit à Havre dans une ambiance glauque mais humaine avec sa femme Arletty (Kati Outinen, née comme moi en 1961, sauf que moi je fais beaucoup plus jeune), à l'accent finnois à couper avec le couteau. Trois choses viennent bouleverser sa vie: Arletty tombe malade, un garçon d'Afrique, immigrant illégal, a besoin de son aide pour passer en Angleterre et y vivre heureux dans sa décadence post-coloniale, et Monet, le flic moustachu du quartier (un peu Dupont Dupond) à la mauvaise gueule mais au bon cœur (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) l'embête pas mal. J'ai bien aimé, sauf que la façon de parler de Marcel fait trop leçon de Linguaphone. Et forcement, celle de Arletty élève finnois qui apprend le français avec Linguaphone.
The debt
Helen Mirren is an ex Israeli spy, venerated with her 2 men colleagues for having captured a Nazi butcher that they spotted after the second world war. But years after it starts becoming obvious that this has not been exactly the glorious affair everybody has been talking about all these years and their mission was not crowned with the success her own daughter is describing in her new published book. Very John-le-Carré and Tinker tailor soldier spy ambiance.
Poulet aux prunes
Ravi que ceci soit mon premier film 2012! Ca se passe en Iran. L'histoire des 8 derniers jours d'un violoniste dont la femme cassa le violon, et lequel ensuite décida de mourir. L'histoire d'un mariage qui ne fût pas béni par l'amour. Mais aussi l'histoire d'un amour qui ne fût pas béni par un mariage. Film de Marjane Satrapi, créatrice de Persepolis, Le poulet aux prunes se base un peu sur la même recette onirique, partie vrais acteurs partie cartoons. Mine de rien, c'est aussi plein de bons acteurs: Maria de Medeiros, Isabela Rosselini, Jamel Debbouze.
Un déjà vous, que j'irais bien revoir...Bonne année cinématographique!
PS: Oui, je connais l'orthographe de dèjà-vu, c'était un jeu de mots.
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