“The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” was released in 2008.
The film based on the novel of the same name by Irish writer John Boyne.
It is a historical-drama film, directed by Mark Herman and produced by David Heyman.

This film has an interesting and new perspective to a difficult topic. A young boy Bruno befriend with another child Shmuel. Strange is that Shmuel is on an adjacent camp and Bruno’s father leads the camp. Friendship of these children will end tragically.

There are two main characters; eight-year-old Bruno who is a son of the Nazi commandant and Bruno’s friend Shmuel who is a Jewish inmate.
Bruno is really naïve and ingenuous, because he doesn’t even think of questioning of the purpose of adjacent camp, whereas Shmuel had to try to survive alive there.

Bruno’s father is also very important character in the film. He is a Nazi commandant but his children don’t know it. There are two totally different sides in his character; a loving family man and the other hand a heartless killer. His wife Elsa knows little bit of her husband’s job. Consequently, she has to suffer because of this secret. Bruno’s sister called Gretel thinks most of the time herself rather than the cruel world around her.

Asa Butterfield as Bruno is a quite good on his role even though he seems too naive order to be credible. However he is a skilled actor, in addition, he is only ten-years-old in the movie. Actor of Bruno’s father is David Thewlis. I think he wasn’t doing his best role in this film. He was way too bland. Jack Scanlon (as Shmuel) plays eight-year-old Jewish boy in the film. In my opinion he was the most plausible actress because he wasn’t trying too much.

The soundtrack for The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is composed by James Horner. Music is big part of this film because almost in every scene you can hear some music, which wasn’t a good thing . The soundtrack is beatiful but it just doesn’t match with the film’s tough topic. Those songs would work better in some love story.

I had read the book before I see the film. I think the book is really impressive so my expectations were high when I started to watch the film. After seeing the film, I was disappointed. Characters weren’t feel as real than they were in the book. The ambience was different. All in all, the main difference between the book and the film is that in the film the denouement reveals too quickly.

In Time is a dystopian sience fiction action film written, directed and producted by Andrew Niccol. The film was released on October 28, 2011.

Plot of the film is set in a future. In the year 2169, genetic alteration has allowed humans to stop aging physically at 25, but are engineered to live only one more year. The clock implanted in their forearms, starts counting down from 1 year. If people want to live longer than 26 they have to buy more time. Will Salas 28-year-old factory worker lives with his mother Rachel. He saves a drunken 105-year-old Henry Hamilton from suffering a time-robbery assault in a bar attempted by Fortis. Hamilton tells Will that there is essentially enough time for everyone to live a full life, but the wealthy are practically taking all the time so they can live forever. Later that night, Hamilton gives 116 years to the sleeping Will and commit suicide. Timekeepers are convinced Hamilton was murdered and start looking for Will. Will travels to the city where the rich people lives in and enters a casino and meets millionaire time-loaning businessman Philippe Weis and his daughter Sylvia Weis. Will kidnaps Sylvia and brings her to the ghetto where he lives. Sylvia feels how despicable her father is and together with Will, they steal a large quantity of time and start to fight against the system.

The main cast of the film includes Justin Timberlake (Will Salas),  Amanda Seyfried (Sylvia Weis), Collins Pennie (Timekeeper Jaeger), Olivia Widle (Rachel Salas), Matt Bomer (Henry Hamilton), Alex Pettyfer (Fortis), Vincent Kartheiser (Philippe Weis) and Johny Galecki (Borel).  I think that casting is interesting but succesful. Actors fit in their characters and are convincing.

Like usually in action films there is frenetic car chases, life-threatening situations, explosions and gunplay. In this film there is just enough action in order to be compelling and exciting  but not too much. In contrast to the basic action films, this film challenges the viewer to think, which I think is great.

The movie She’s the Man (2006) is directed by Andy Fickman. It’s a romantic comedy and based on William Shakespear’s comedy Twelfth Night; or, What You Will. You can see that in characters and places names. The movie centers around Viola Hastings who pretends to be her brother so she could play with the boys soccer team. Leading actor of the movie is Amanda Bynes who plays the role of Viola Hastings. But all the roles are important for the plot. I will be telling about the characters later on.

The plot of the movie is humoristic and the personal relationships are complicated just like the ones on Twelfth Night. It all began when the girls’ soccer team in Cornwall got cut. At the same time Viola breaks up with her boyfriend Justin. Her brother goes to a music festival to London for two weeks. At which time Viola comes up with an idea to pretend to be her brother to get to play on the boys soccer team. The plan works well until some students are beginning to doubt. In the big soccer game it all comes clear and it gets some unexpected twists and turns. At the end there’s a dance in which personal relationships clears out.

The character s in the movie are typical high school students. The movie focuses on the soccer team’s players, coaches and their friends. Personal relationships are complex and in some way all relate to each other. Names and personalities are largely from Shakespear’s comedy but they have been modernized to the present day. The characters are humoristic which fits in comedy. The actors and actresses who were selected to the movie are popular among young people.

She’s the Man is based on Shakespear’s comedy Twelfth Night. She’s the Man’s plot is similar to Twelfth Night. Duke has a crush on Olivia and Olivia has a crush on Viola who has disguised herself as her brother Sebastian, Olivia kissing the real Sebastian not the disguised Viola and Duke learned from “Sebastian” how to get Olivia’s attention. In addition the names of the main characters are similar and there is lot of references to other Shakespeare’s plays and the names of the places are from the Twelfth Night.

I like this movie because it’s so fun and I don’t have to think about anything and still understand everything. It’s not those quality movies but it is the perfect movie for movie night with friends.

Madagascar is an animated comedy made by Dream Works. Madagascar was released in 2005. It’s starred by Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer and Jada Pinkett Smith.

Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Melman the giraffe and Gloria the hippo live luxury life on the Central park zoo. Marty is tired about his life and he wants to run away. Others don’t like about this idea, but Marty leaves. Alex, Melman and Gloria go to seek Marty. People catch the animals and try to transport them to another zoo. During the ship voyage runaway penguins take over the ship because they want to go to Antarctica. Because of this the boxes of animals fall to the sea and they drift to  Madagascar. The plot progresses well and something interesting is going on all the time. Only lemurs and wicked fossas live in Madagascar. Lemurs want Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria to join their pack. However Alex’s natural instincts awake and he sees other animals as walking pieces of meat around him. This brings a little bit thrill to the plot. Alex escapes deep to the jungle because he fears that he would otherwise hurt his friends . Marty, Melman and Gloria go to seek Alex, but fossas attack. Alex is a hero and he saves his friends. Friends are happy because they are together again and Alex learns to eat fish instead of meat. The penguins come to Madagascar and Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria want to go back to New York. The ending is good because it makes you to want to see next movie and because everything did not go as expected. If the movie was longer it would be boring because the plot is simple.

I like the voice actors and the voices fit their roles very well. I think that the Alex’s voice is the best (Ben Stiller). Also finnish voice acting is good. Melman’s voice is the best in the finnish dub.(Janne Reinikainen). The King Julien’s voice is funny and very good. I don’t have anything negative to say about the voice actors.

Music doesn’t play so big part in the movie. Only few songs are hear in Madagascar. I think that it is a good thing. ”I like to move it” is the theme song of the movie. That song is so catchy, but it can be so annoying. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don’t.

Madagascar is well done computer animation. All the Madagascar viewes and voices have been done very well. The movie is also funny. I think that it’s funny for children and adults. Madgascar is a movie for the whole family and I recommend it for all people, for kids and adults alike.  Madagascar is one of my favourite animated movies!

Marty: I wished I could go to the wild!

Alex: That is the worst idea I’ve ever heard.

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!

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!

A walk to remember is made in 2002 in the United States. It based on a novel by Nicholas Parks ”A walk to remember” and the film was directed by Adam Shankman. Mandy Moore and Shane West play a starring there. The film is a romantic, which tells about discreet, believer girl, Jamie Sullivan (Mandy Moore) and popular, as well as rebel boy, Landon Carter (Shane West).

Jamie is not popular at their school and she know Landon, but they have never become friends even though they have been in the same school since childhood. However, Landon must take part in the school play and provide remedial instruction to students, because of punishment set by the school. As a result, they get to know each other better and even though at first Landon feel ashamed to be seen with Jamie, because of his reputation, in the end, he falls in love with Jamie and throw away his pride and defend her when his friends make fun of Jamie.

I like this movie a lot and that’s why I chose it. Actually, it`s one of the best movies I have ever seen, even perhaps the best. It`s the first movie that I watched without subtitles, but still I understood what was going on. It`s very touching film with all the great music, composed by Mervyn Warren. I liked the fact that the movie was a restrained, and there was no naked sex scenes. The love of two people described with expressions, words and music and that is admirable. It`s rare that nowadays people films this kind of movies.

The movie is very educational too. When you have seen it, you will understand the fact that it`s childish to pretend something else that you aren`t because of your reputation. The film gives also bravery to people who are bullied because of they believe in God, when they have seen what Jamie answered to her teasers. After watching film, you can realize too, how Landon changed and became a better person, after he fell in love with Jamie and began to date with her.