It has been said that the first movies are better than the sequels.The ideas just start to finish when the sequels follow each other. In the case of Ocean´s I Can´t say that the first would be that better than the others do.

Masterthief Danny Ocean ( George Clooney) has just got out sitting his time in jail. The promise not to brake the rules of parole does not keep for a long time and soon his old ten-personed crowd; Robert ”Rusty” Ryan, Basher Tarr, Linus Caldwell, Saul Bloom, Reuben Tishkoff, Frank Catton, Turk and Virgil Malloy, Livingston Dell and Yen will be together again planning a new gigantic theft. The plan is to rob three casinos at the same time. How to get through the massive security system? There is also an another problem; The owner of all those three casinos is Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), the man who doesn´t give mercy to his opponents. Ocean has also an own bone to pick with him; After Ocean got a charge, his girlfriend Tess (Julia Roberts) changed the scenery and started to date Benedict.

The characters stay a little distant to the observer. A few of the actors say only couple of words and that´s it. But in the movie that´s not the point to get deep into the characters soul, just concentrate in the operation. It seems that the operation will not become to manage. After tough situations the crowd goes away from the casino doors with 150 million dollars, without the casino boss even finding out it yet. For Benedict is it enough to see from the camera that Ocean tries to warm his relationship with Tess and the casino takes Ocean to the examination. Despite Benedict cannot prove Oceans deal with the casino robbery, he will get caught by the police as the only one of the crowd just at the end of the movie.

 The humor in the movie is tastless and ugly. The environment self is dirty and scruffy, so its no wonder that the humor is also like that. The music doesn´t dazzle. If there´s no better to do at the weekend evening than to watch this kind of rubbish, I´m quite worried.

The Expendables is a movie directed by Sylvester Stallone and it was released in august of 2010. The Expendables movie is action movie and actors in film are the most known actors. All good action actors now in the same movie. Actors are Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Bruce Willis, Terry Crews, Steven Austin, Randy Couture and Mickey Rourke. The Expendables have also sequel called The Expendables 2.

Movie story line tells about mercenary group called The Expendables and their leader is Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone). Movie begins when they are doing a mission which goes well except one of the group member name Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren) are separated by Barney. After that mission Barney hears about mission with 5 million reward. Barney goes check an island that where mission is with Lee Christmas (Jason Sthatham) and meets Sandra there, but decides decline mission and leave island with Lee. Barney cant forget Sandra and return there with rest of a group: Lee, Ying Yang (Jet Li), Toll Road (Randy Couture), Hale Caesar (Terry Crews). Group need to fight with hundreds of soldiers and try to kill James Munroe, after bloody fighting with many soldiers Barney and Lee kill Munroe with knife and gun. When Munroe dies group return to their base where waits old group member Tool (Mickey Rourke).

Actors have done well in movie. I have not watched second movie yet, but I will watch that as soon as possible. Barney and Lee are tough guys who like knives and small stuff, Hale is guys who like big guns and in one chapter Hale helped other group and shot all people with minigun. Ying is small chinese guy who know how to fight without gun and he is fast also.

Effects in The Expendables is huge and well done, and you can see that money was used. Explosions are massive and fights are represented from good position and you can almost  live in fight! So if you like action films and Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham movies etc. you do not wanna miss this kind of movie, this is nobility of action films!

Plot:
Platoon is a movie that tells about Vietnam war. A young recruit, Chris Taylor, drops out of college and volunteers for combat duty in Vietnam and he’s assigned to Bravo Company, near the Cambodian border. He’s facing alot of problems from the beginning. He writes to his grandmother every now and then and he tells her that Vietnam is hell even though he’s only been there for a week. ”A goddamn week” says Chris himself. Soon after arriving, Chris is sent for an ambush during which one soldier loses his arm and few others are hit, including Chris. The platoon then returns to base camp.

Then the platoon is sent for a patrol near Cambodian border where they find a bunker complex. Sergeant Elias says ”See you next week” (even though he’s soon back) and jumps into the bunker tunnel to see where it leads. Meanwhile, Sandy and Sal are killed by a booby-trap. As the patrol moves forward, they reach a village nearby. The villagers are hiding in little holes but the platoon finds all of them. They also discover a supply cache. The soldiers are having trouble with the villagers and the chief’s wife is killed in order to get some answers. Sargeant Elias then interrupts Sargeant Barnes by also starting a fight but platoon commander Lieutenant Wolfe orders the men to leave with the villagers and burn the village which they then do. As they’re leaving, Chris also stops a group of soldiers raping two young girls.

The platoon then returns to base and they meet Captain Harris who says there will be court-martial if he finds out that there’s been illegal killing in the village. Then comes the next patrol and the platoon runs into an ambush during which numerous soldiers are wounded. Wolfe then calls for an artillery strike but accidently gives wrong coordinates which leads in friendly fire casaulties. In the meantime, Elias takes Taylor and Rhah with him to intercept the enemies. Barnes orders the platoon to retreat and he goes into the jungle himself to find Elias’ group. Barnes finds Elias in the jungle and shoots him. As Barnes returns, he claims that Elias was killed by the enemy troops. As the platoon is taking off, they spot Elias running away from a group of Vietnamese soldiers. Back in the base camp, Taylor is mad at Barnes and is willing to kill Barnes as revenge. Drunken Barnes then interrupts them and Taylor starts a fight with Barnes which results in Taylor having a cut near his eye.

Bravo Company is then sent back to combat. Wolfe also orders Ramucci to take Elias’ squad. Taylor’s good friend King is sent back home. Taylor shares a foxhole with Francis and that night NVA (North Vietnamese Army) attacks the platoon breaking their defensive line. NVA also breaks through Alpha Company. During the fight, some of the soldiers of Bravo Company are killed, including Junior, Bunny and Wolfe. O’Neill is also about to die but he manages to hide under a dead body so the ”gooks” couldn’t see him and thus O’Neill survives. Taylor’s foxhole is also blown up. Not only that, a suicide bomber runs into the battalion headquarter killing everyone inside it. Captain Harris then asks for the air force to blow the whole perimeter up. Barnes is just about to hit Taylor very hard but an explosion knocks both men unconscious. In the morning, Taylor finds wounded Barnes and shoots him. Friendly forces then find Taylor, Francis and O’Neill. Francis wasn’t harmed so he stabs himself in the leg so he can leave for home along with Taylor. Captain Harris then tells O’Neill shocking news that he gets the second platoon. Shocking because O’Neill has wanted to go home badly for a long time.

Information:
Charlie Sheen as Chris Taylor
Tom Berenger as Sergeant Bob Barnes
Willem Dafoe as Sergeant Elias
Keith David as King
Johnny Depp as Lerner
Mark Moses as Lieutenant Wolfe
John C. McGinley as Sergeant O’Neill

The movie is written and directed by Oliver Stone and produced by Arnold Kopelson. Charlie Seen, Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe are the stars of the movie. Platoon was released on the 19th of December, 1986. Music is by Georges Delerue.

Full soundtrack can be found here.

Source and full information can be found here.

Genre:
The main genre for this movie is war. Other genres are drama and action. Platoon won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1986. In 2007, the American Film Institute placed Platoon at #83 in their ”AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies” poll. British television channel Channel 4 voted Platoon as the 6th greatest war film ever made, behind Full Metal Jacket and ahead of A Bridge Too Far.

My opinion:
I haven’t ever been a big fan of war movies. Some time ago a good friend of mine told me to watch this along with few other war movies. I really liked all of them. Now I’ve watched this movie about ten times and I don’t see any reason why I wouldn’t watch this ten more times. I can suggest this movie to anyone who likes nice action because this one is full of it. Now I can proudly say I love war movies.

Alice in the wonderland is one of the most well-known fairytale of all time and because of it’s fantasy elements it’s also perfect for screen. What’s great about this adaption it’s only loosely based on Lewis Carroll’s original novel but still it’s the story we can all recognize. On this screenplay we are introduced with 19-year-old Alice, played by Mia Wasikowska, who has had the same nightmare over and over again since a little kid and after many strange things like falling down a rabbit hole and meeting Mad Hatter and others she realizes it wasn’t nightmare at all but a memory of her visit in ”underland”. She also learns her destiny is to dethrone red queen and return the crown back to the white queen whose much more peaceful monarch so wonderland would be safe place to live in again.

Film is directed by Tim Burton whose other works are for example Sweeney Todd and Charlie and the Chocolate factory. If you’re familiar with his other works you can’t fail at noticing his own personal filmmaking style in this movie. He’s probably the only filmmaker who can make colourful and bright film with dark tones and  that combination is what makes this movie so powerful and spectacular.  Burton is known from his cooperation with actors Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter and this film is not exception we see Depp as Mad Hatter and Bonham Carter as red queen and like in almost every Burton’s film the soundtrack is composed by Danny Elfman.

Cast also includes quite many actors from Harry Potter for example above-named Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman, who we all know as a potion teacher in Hogwarts, makes a voice-role as blue Caterpillar. His remarkable voice is like made for this role but you can’t stop thinking that it’s maybe too recognizable since everyone perceives his voice as professor Snape.

Not only Burton created a box-office hit what it totally was it was sixth film that grossed 1 billion dollars worldwide (after Avatar, The dark knight, Pirates of the Caribbean: dead man’s chest, Lord of the rings: the return of the king and Titanic) but also an award success. It got three Academy award nominations in 2011 and it won two in ”Best Achievement in Art Direction” and ” Best Achievement in Costume Design”. It also won two BAFTAs in categories ” Best Costume Design” and ”Best Make Up & Hair”. Overall it won 18 different awards and it got 42 nominations in several categories.

Mad Hatter: Have i gone mad?

Alice: I’m afraid so. You’re entirely bonkers. But I’ll tell you a secret. All the best people are.

While the fifth Die Hard -movie A good day to Die Hard is coming to movie theaters at 15.2.2013, it´s perfect time to go back to the film from which the whole Die Hard -series has begun. The name of the film is simply Die Hard and it´s directed by John McTiernan.

But what´s Die Hard 1 all about? The terrorists take control of Nakatomi Corporation´s office aka Nakatomi Plaza, where a group of people is celebrating the Christmas Eve. Only John McClane, starred by Bruce Willis, a cop from New York and the hero of the movie succeeds to hide from the terrorists. His wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia), who works for the Nakatomi Corporation, gets caught and joins the other hostages.

The character of John McClane is different from the other action heroes at 1988, the year the film was made. Things are also going badly and John isn´t so superior. But he always figures it out, how to demolish these terrorist´ plans.

The direction and the cut of the film is one of a kind. It´s a good combination of what you see and what you don´t see and it creates the excitement to the movie. The camerawork helps you to understand, what the each one of the characters see and at the same time helps you to follow the story and the relationships between the characters. Also the environment, a huge sky scraper, which isn´t totally finished yet, gives different locations, because each block is different and recognizable.

The casting has succeeded to choose the right actors to the right roles. Bruce Willis as John McClane is amazing and he can say those kind of black humor -lines believably. Yes, watching this film makes you laugh! Also Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber, the leader of the terrorists is fantastic: his voice, accent, facial expressions etc, they all work! Only Bonnie Bedelia as Holly leaves me cold, because I think that she doesn´t act at all. But, lucky me, she´s just in a supporting role and isn´t shown on the screen as much as the others.

In the film there is one speciality: the German terrorists speak German to each other! Generally the Hollywood-actors speak English instead of their characters´ motherlanguage. This is one thing why I´m so impressed by Alan Rickman acting the one of the bad guys; he´s got the German accent, too!

I haven´t listened to Die Hard´s music earlier so much, but when I watched the movie again for this film review, I realized, that there are many famous songs in it. For example in the scene, where the terrorists succeed to open the vault full of bearer bonds,The Ode to Joy (Ludwig van Beethoven) is played on the backround. And because it´s Christmas, you can find many Christmas songs from the film. I think that well-planed music is one sign of a fabulous film.

The amazing plot is a thing that is missing from many action films, but not from Die Hard. There happens so much in the film, but it´s still one and whole. Even the tiniest things and lines belong together, because the movie is done well. Die Hard 1 is a good start to this series and the plot provides many possibilities to sequels.

Yippee-ki-yay, this is what I call an action film!

Casino Royale was released on 14. november 2006. It is based on Ian Fleming’s novel Casino Royale (1953) and it was directed by Martin Gampbell. It is the first Bond movie featuring Daniel Craig.

The Plot is consisted of Bond’s journey of becoming a double-0 agent, playing in a high-stakes poker game and discovering how no one can be trusted. Casino Royale is the new beginning for Bond movies. It’s story is continued in Quantum of Solace (2008) and Skyfall (2012). These movies explain the beginning of Bond and other characters such as M, Q and Miss Moneypenny. But only Casino Royale was written by Ian Fleming.

The casting is done very well. The actors are suited well to their characters and bring them to life. The Main star of the movie is obviously Daniel Craig as James Bond. He might not be the Bond we are used to but he brought something new to this series. Craig is joined by Judi Dench as M; Eva Green as Vesper, the Bond girl; Giancarlo Giannini as Rene Mathis, Bond’s contact and Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre, the Bond villain.

Casino Royale features great camerawork, effects and stunts. Effects include the biggest effect ever to be in a Bond movie the sinking of an Venetian house and the crash of Bond’s Aston Martin that broke a Guinness World record with it’s 7 rolls. Music of the movie was composed by David Arnold. The title song You Know my name was performed and composed by Chris Cornell.

Having also read Casino Royale (1953) I can safely say that the movie is actually much better! Believe it or not. The novel beeing the first of it’s kind it didn’t tell things that the movie did. The book starts at Montenegro with the poker not from how Bond became a double-0. Not to say the novel is bad but I like how in the movie more information is given of Bond. Of course the endings differ from each other because the movie needed to end so a sequal could be made.

All in all Casino Royale is a great movie. It’s different from former Bond movies and some people (including me) call it the best Bond movie ever made.

Memoirs of a Geisha is a book written by American author Artur Golden. Genre is historical. Movie was released in 2005 and it stars the Chinese actresses and only one Japanese, even if much of the movie is set in the popular geisha district of Gion in Kyoto in Japan

At the age of nine, Chiyo Sakamoto (Suzuka Ohgo as a young Chiyo) is taken from her home with her older sister Satsu and sold to an okiya (which means  a geisha boarding house).

Other people living in the okiya are another young girl named Pumpkin, elderly and grumbling Granny, money-obsessed Mother. Also the famous, but mean, geisha Hatsumomo (Gong Li), who is disliking Chiyo, and sees her as a threat.

Despite warnings, Chiyo plans escape with Satsu, but is caught. Enraged at her for dishonoring the okiya, Mother makes Chiyo pay off her debts as a slave.

While working as a slave in okiya, Chiyo meets a kind man who gives her money. Chiyo starts calling her as a Chairman (Ken Watanabe) and he’s her first love. She donates the money, praying to become a geisha in the hopes of seeing him again. Soon an older geisha called Mameha (Michelle Yeoh)  persuades Mother to pay  Chiyo’s training. When she can restart her training, Chiyos geisha name becomes Sayuri (Zhang Ziyi as an older Chiyo) and Mameha is acting as her mentor. And at the one point it is clarifyed that Chairman have sent Mameha to help Sayuri.

But because Hatsumomo sees Sayuri as a possible rival she tryes to destroy her fame and take all her customers. But as always, bad people has only bad endings and Hatsumomo losts everything that sha had and is ejected to the streets.

Same time Japan is on the brink of entering world war 2 and many Geisha are evacuated.  Sayuri is  send  far north to work as a kimono maker.  At the end of the war, customer visits Sayuri and asks that if she would return to Okiya and work as a geisha again.

Eventually Sayuri and Chairman confess their love to each other and teh film ends in the words: ”To a man, Geisha can only be half a wife. We are the wives of nightfall. And yet to learn of kindness, after so much unkindness… To understand that a little girl with more courage than she knew, would find that her prayers were answered…can that not be called happiness? After all, these are not the memoirs of an empress, nor of a queen. These are memoirs of another kind.” – Sayuri

 Avatar is a fantasy and adventure film. It was released in 18th of December in 2009 by 20th Century Fox. It is scripted and directed by James Cameron. James Cameron started in 1994 working on avatar. Then he wrote a 114-page screenplay. The film budget was 237 million dollars. Avatar is in position four of the world the most expensive movies list. Soundtrack of the film is ”I See You” which sings Leona Lewis. The film was developed for a number of new techniques and software. The film has been released on DVD and Blu-Ray. The film in the lead roles are Sam Worthington who plays Jake Sully and his co-star Zoe Saldana who plays Neytiri. Other important actors are Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang and Giovanni Ribisi. Cameron wanted to film actors who were not necessarily so well known.

Two and a half hour movie can hold a lot of plot twists that will keep the viewer awake movie time. Avatar incredible special effects to create a complete package which take the viewer to another dimension. Avatar ranks planet named Pandora. Pandora’s beautiful landscapes include waterfalls and abundant vegetation. The lush nature brings the movie stunning colors.

Avatar has received four nominations in the annual Golden Globe Awards, in categories ”Favorite drama movie”, ”The best director”, ”The best music” and ”The best movie song”. Avatar has been awarded awards a Golden Globe the best drama film and the best director. Avatar has received Oscars for the best production design, characterization and special effects. Avatar was nominated for Oscars for the best director and the film.

I have watched Avatar again and again. I think that film is one of 2000’s the best films. Avatar amazing execution effects which adds an incredible viewing experience. Avatar is the greatest adventure of all time which carries with it. I recommend the movie for everyone who likes fantasy.