La vita è bella – A Beautiful Life

This film was magnificent! It beautifully surrendered how a brutally harsh war stricken situation can be made a beautifully naïve game in the eyes of a young boy with the help of is his witty father’s craftiness. Released in 1997, director Roberto Benigni could not have done a better job hitting the triple whammy of Writer, Director & Best Actor for a leading role in the 1999 Academy Awards for his lead role as Guido Orefice.

‘Set in late 1930s Arezzo, Italy, Jewish man and poet, Guido Orefice (Roberto Benigni) uses cunning wit to win over an Italian schoolteacher, Dora (Nicoletta Braschi) who's set to marry another man. Charming her with "Buongiorno Principessa", getting the timing perfect every time and whisking her away on a green horse (don't ask!) ensures they soon live together happily in Guido's uncle, Eliseo Orefice's (Giustino Durano) house. Bringing up their 5 year old boy, Giosué (Giorgio Cantarini), the war (WWII) continues without them noticing until one fateful day when the Germans arrest Guido and his son at the uncle's house during preparation for Giosué's birthday party, and transfer them to a Nazi concentration camp. Dora demands to be taken too, thus Guido is devastated to see his non-Jewish wife board the train. Protecting his son from the vile truth, Guido tells Giosué that they are just on a big hoilday, and he turns the camp into a big game for Giosué, claiming that they must win 1000 points to win a real tank and leave.’ – Just a quick run down from IMDB. - Griorgio played the naive child so truthfully that you would not help but enjoy the games they played, even though you knew they were playing to save thier lives. If it wernt for Giosué's distaste for showers, the story itself may have ended quickly - but I wont give too much away, you'll have to watch it to find out what I mean :P

The film makes that much more of an impact as it is originally filmed in Italian with English subtitles, hence its second Academy Award win for Best Foreign Film. Although for those of you who cannot be bothered reading the whole time, it does come with a English audio option. Its musical score was also a stunning component to a remarkably well written adventure - the music hightened your emotions as you went along with the journey completely divulging you the stories vulnerability. - No wonder the film won its third Academy Award for Best musical Score.

All in all… A BRILLIANT film… I absolutely loved it!! Would definitely recommend it to anyone who loves an unpredictably well written story – 9.5 out of 10 from me.

Good Will Hunting

I WISH I had the ability to figure out numbers like Will Hunting!! I absolutely love this film! – Ben Affleck and Matt Damon wrote and starred as Chuckie Sullivan (Affleck) and Will Hunting (Damon) in this undeniably beautiful story. Directed by Gus Van Sant and released in 1998, the film shows that ‘Some people can never believe in themselves, until someone else believes in them’.

I loved Will’s arrogance and stubbornness juxtaposed against his intelligence and fear of believing in himself ( I cant believe I just used the word ‘juxtaposed’ – welcome to high school English again.. :P) Anyhoo…Matt’s performance was fantastic, and as much as you wanted to slap Will Hunting and say ‘wake up to yourself’, I also felt his fear and vulnerability as a character which just made me want to hug him – I love movies that get you really connected to the characters. I also loved Minne Drivers performance as she played Will’s love interest Skylar, I loved her down to earth performance of the character, I found it was fun to watch and also very relatable from and audience perspective, not to mention her is has stunningly unique facial features that makes her interesting to watch visually.

I think I would rate this movie another 8.5 out of 10 – I know it seems like I’m ranking these really high and all – but I keep watching these amazing movies!!.. I know its only early days – but I really think this will make my top 100!!

Alice in Wonderland (2010)

“Your not the same as before, you were much more.. mucher… you’ve lost your muchness” – Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp)

Alice in Wonderland (2010), directed by Tim Burton goes to new levels in not only the visual effects, but the story line as well. I saw the movie in 3D, which I don’t particularly think makes much of a difference, but why not give it a try. With the films dark visuals and adult humor, the once Disney children’s film has developed into a story that I myself would rate a little higher than PG, as I find it hard to believe younger children would even understand the adult connotations expressed.

I actually found the movie to be really enjoyable and quite funny- despite the 1 star rating it was given. The cast played their characters brilliantly, with honorable mention to Johnny Depp – who manages to play an amazingly endearing character even in the most flamboyant of costumes, and also to Mia Wasikowska, who at 19 years old, performed very well working along side acting greats such as Johnny Depp (Mad Hatter), Helena Bonham Carter (The Red Queen) and Anne Hathaway (White Queen). The only thing that did put me off a little was the decision to go with an Alice who had blonde hair and brown eyes. I found the all the little traditional Alice in Wonderland elements were included in the film except for that. Not to take away from Mia’s performance, because she performance brilliantly, however in every cartoon, DVD movie of the story, Alice always had blonde hair with blue eyes, as I think it portrayed a younger innocence of the character. In this particular film however, they chose to change it up, which I think took away from the story a bit. That is not to say that all the changes they made were bad, in fact I loved how they changed the name of the land to ‘Underland’ in stead of ‘Wonderland’ and explained that it was Alice’s younger self who pronounced it as “Wonderland” – And no I did not ruin anything from the movie by saying that; I’m not even sure if most people picked up on it, it was very subtle.

Anyhoo… Over all I think I’d give it about an 7.75 out of 10 – (I think I need to start watching some bad movie to mix up these ratings- or – maybe just rate to a harder scale) I definitely think this is a great movie, maybe not ‘top 100’ great, but definitely worth seeing.

Dead Poets Society

Dead Poets Society is a movie that I didn’t expect to enjoy so much. I had been told to see it by numerous amounts of people; however I delayed the actual watching of it until I figured I had nothing else left to watch in my movie collection. So I sat down with a collection of snacks to entrain me just incase the movie failed to, but as it turned out, the movie was FANTASTIC! Written by Tom Schulman and directed by Peter Weir in (1989), it demonstrates the pressures, angst’s and determination of a group of teenage boys studying at a privileged boarding school. It shows the strict structure in which their lives are directed by parents and teachers to make it through to a successful career post graduation, however when John Keating (Robin Williams), the new English teacher with controversial teaching methods starts at the school, the students begin to search for further meanings of life. I loved the flamboyancy of Robin Williams’ character; it was fun to watch him getting the students excited about learning poetry and looking at the world in a different light. It almost felt like you were there, and you could feel the relief as the boys slowly became less tense and more comfortable around the classroom, and even the school. Robert Sean Leonard (some may know him as Wilson in the TV Series ‘House’ only several years younger) played Neil Perry, a boy from a less fortunate family then many of the others, with a father would gave him no other option then to study to become a doctor, but had a secret desire to become an actor. I think I empathized with his character the most, as he wanted to pursue a certain career path, however felt obligated to follow another.

I think Robert S. Leonard played this character with such conviction, that you felt angry at his father (played by Kurtwood Smith – That 70’s Show) for being forceful and ignorant, which in turn reflects on the performance from Kurtwood Smith as the father, as he too played an impressively expressive and dominant role.

The cast of this film was full of younger stars that we now know today in a ranger of different roles. However I think this movie is the most effective career wise. The film is unpredictably sad, with a good flow of high points and low points, and you are left feeling almost loyal to the characters with an understanding of good faith and pride.

All in all I rate it about 8.5 out of 10. Definitely a movie I recommend seeing!

Pillow Talk

Pillow talk is a charmingly fun romantic comedy set in 1959 New York City. Directed by Michael Gordon in 1959 and staring the likes of Doris Day, Rock Hudson and Tony Randall, it is a feel good olden day ‘chick flick’ as us in generation Y would call it. Doris Day was renown for playing clean, non controversial roles who always gets the charming attractive male lead character. I found it amusing when watching this film, that the thoughts that were verbalised throughout the film are somewhat similar to the insecure everyday thoughts of women today. The similarities between the late 50’s portrayal of ‘girl meets boy’ storyline and the 21st century portrayal are somewhat uncanny and make the viewing of the film that little bit more amusing. The clothing is also what contributes to its classic style, with colourful classic ball gown frocks with diamonted earings and necklaces - in many ways the style has cycled and is very similar to todays working and going out attire. A main difference I did notice at the beginning of the film is the idea that women trusted strangers (men in particular) so easily. In today’s society, children are taught from a young age never to trust strangers, where it seems in the 1950s allowing a complete stranger to drive you home after a night out is the ‘norm’ if not expected. Dories Day played Jan Morrow, a beautiful career woman who shares a telephone line with a footloose bachelor/ musician named Brad Allen (Rock Hudson). She plays a woman in control of her own world, with little patience for men like Brad. Although she has never actually met Brad, his constant use of the telephone to contact his many women present a problem for both her private and professional world. However when she meets a man who she believes is everything she is looking for, she turns into an insecure, uncontrollable school girl. (Hmmm...kind of sounds familiar)…

Rock Hudson on the other hand has a charming arrogance about him that makes all women go weak at the knees, I would probably describe him as the 1950s version of Matthew McConaughey, with his smile, eyes and fake Texas accent that his character puts on. Doris and Rock have this amazing on screen chemistry that make you want them to end up together, no matter what. Even with Jan’s wealthy, good looking client Jonathan Forbes (Tony Randall) constantly proposing to her, you only ever want her end up with the deceitful, charming musician. Why is that?

I love movie like these where you can get completely lost in the 1950s style of it all. You can help but smile at the naivety of Doris’s character and the arrogance of Rocks, all in all, I give it about an 8 out of 10.

Dear John

Today I went to the movies to see the movie 'Dear John' by director Lasse Hallstrom. Now I am a big fan of the movie 'The Notebook' where I found the ending to be incredibly sad yet overwhelmingly satisfying, and as the two stories were written by the same writer, Nicholas Sparks, my expectations were seemingly higher this time around. I admittedly walked into the theatre 10 minutes late as the movie had already begun – a belated new years resolution was then created by my Mt Cotton (MC) Girl Friend and I that we would be on time for things from now on (I’ll let you know if we actually stick to it). Channing Tatum is an actor that every girl wants to have, and every guy wants to be. Everything from his intense eyes and jaw line to his bulging biceps and tough yet mysteriously endearing presence is enough to make anyone fall in love with you in a matter of two weeks. I found he played his role very naturally and honest. Whenever Tatum speaks, it almost sounds like he is forcing his words, however I found this really suited his character as John (his character) portrayed a withdrawn character with a hidden past and/ or secret. Amanda Seyfield, who played Savannah, brings a beautiful innocence to her character that makes the couple seem oddly different, yet perfectly balanced. Her eyes are beautifully round and very expressive, which makes her performance seem effortless and truthful. The innocence of her character thought to make the journey of her character somewhat predictable, however without giving too much away, the predictability was rather balance with the unexpected, although a little mediocre in regards to the storyline. I will however give honourable mention to Richard Jenkins, who played Mr. Tyree , as he beautifully performed a very truthful portrayal of Johns subtly autistic father, which had my wiping away tears from my cheeks.

All in all, the movie was about a 7 or of 10, as I found the ending rather disappointing and unsatisfying. For a movie where I loved the writer, and the actors, I was left feeling like I should go home to watch ‘The Notebook’ again to get that sense of satisfaction I was expecting.

E.T - The Extra- Terrestrial

Firstly, let me start by saying, yes, I have seen this about million times before... but its a classic! and I love this movie, so I thought I'd watch it again.
I always remember being scared of the very beginning of the movie, when Elliott first sees ET and they both scream and run away. When I was younger, the suspense of that part always seemed to scare the bejeezas out of me... and even now, I know its coming, and I'm no longer afraid of it, yet I still seem to hold my breath, go firgure. Henry Thomas (Elliott) played the role of a lonely boy who befriends a friendly alien, and did it so well that it had me quivering with tears as they said goodbye. Now I have seen this movie at least 25 times, and yet, every time I watch it, I always have tears streaming down my cheeks. I think the part that made my heart rench the most was at the end of the film as Elliott and ET are saying goodbye in the field and his mother Mary (Dee Wallace), fell to her knees as she watched in awe beside the scientist. Not to mention the adorable Drew Barreymore, who makes viewers smile everytime she walks on screen in her two high pigtails and her naive eyes.

E.T a film where you seem to become so engrossed in the story and the characters, that even now in 2010, 28 years after it was released, you don't notice outdated visual effects or the now very mechanical alien, dubbed ET. E.T is a film that I dont think I would ever get tired of watching. It DEFINATELY deserves to be in the top 100 and Steven Speilberg is a genius who seems to be able to project a seeminly ordinary idea into a work or art.

Hats off to you Speilberg!!