Category Archives: Films / theatre

Director Tarsem Singh’s second feature film The Fall has had a huge impact on me and it is one of my personal favourites. Originally released in 2006, this fantasy-adventure is based on the 1981 Bulgarian film ‘Yo Ho Ho’ and tells the story of a hospitalized stuntman Roy Walker (played by Lee Pace) who, while bedridden and seemingly paralyzed waist down, meets a young and naive Romanian-born girl named Alexandria (Catinca Untaru) who has broken her arm. To pass time while stuck in a hospital in Los Angeles circa 1920, Roy begins to tell an epic tale about five bandits and ‘love and revenge’ to Alexandria, who uses her vivid imagination to bring the characters to life by casting people around her as the characters.

However, the thing what makes the story Roy tells more interesting is that its characters and events are based on Roy’s personal experiences: mostly on his latest – and maybe the last – role in a film that led to him getting badly injured. The ‘love and revenge’ are closely linked to these events as well. And because of feeling angry, betrayed and hopeless, he has his own motive behind telling the story to Alexandria.

The Fall is a visually astounding masterpiece blessed with beautiful cinematography and costume design and also brilliant use of colours. They shot parts of the film in over 20 countries in during the time of over four years, thus providing glimpses of breathtaking landscapes and beautiful famous places of the earth throughout the film (Taj Mahal and The Great Wall of China being maybe the most easily recognizable ones). The years of hard work and travelling around the world were really worth it if you ask me – The Fall is a unique piece of cinema, full of bright colours, symbolism and intriguing storytelling.

One of the things I liked the most in The Fall is that the film has several recurring themes and motifs. The most notable one being different objects and people falling down throughout the film, what is definitely intentional considering the film’s title. They also play a huge role in the movie’s plot. Other more concrete examples like horses and butterflies are easy to point out because they get absorbed into the tale after Alexandria has seen or faced them in real life.

I think it’s incredible how much thought on detail has been put into this film. Director Singh even went to some extremes to elicit the best possible performances from the main leads: as shown in the film’s behind-the-scenes material, he had the actor Lee Pace appear to be really paralyzed to his fellow cast members and hide the fact he did was, in fact, able to walk. Poor little Catinca Untaru was a little overwhelmed with the revelation afterwards, but all I can say as a viewer is that she performed amazingly – was it due to this trick or not. I really adore Lee Pace and I can only say good things about his performance as Roy, whose character I cannot help but to hold very dear. Both main leads played really well together and I really loved the relationship between their characters.

About the movie’s soundtrack I can’t say much. However, I can say that every time I finish The Fall I find myself listening to Ludwig van Beethoven’s memorable ‘Symphony no. 7, 2nd Movement – Allegretto’ that played during its opening and ending credits. It’s a very beautiful piece full of ‘ups and downs’ – perfect for the film.

The Fall is not your average cup of tea and it may not be for everyone. It may even be criticized for its slow pace from time to time, and even I, somehow ironically, find myself a little more eager to follow the storyline in the real world than the visualized tale. The Fall is visually very artistic but maybe even too polished. But it’s the kind of a film you don’t stumble across every day and it’s really worth watching. And even though The Fall has not been blessed by global renown, it’s surely impressive. It’s an ode to film-making, in more ways than one.

To conclude my review I want to say what I love the most about the movie: it’s how it puts the viewer into the body of a five-year-old girl and shows what the world looks like from her point of view. It shows that naivety is not always a bad thing and that adults should have as positive look on life as children have – and that they should definitely dream just as big.

Pretty Little Liars is a popular American drama series. It’s based on Sara Shepard’s novels. The series premiere was in 2010. It’s main characters are Aria Montgomery, Hanna Marin, Spencer Hastings, Emily Fields, Alison DiLaurentis and Mona Vanderwaal. The series tells about four girls life in Rosewood after their friend got missing. They start to get messages from a mysterious ”A”, who threatens to reveal the girls darkest secrets. They start to find out who is this ”A” and then becomes clear that ”A” isn’t only a one person and there’s many of them.

Aria (Lucy Hale) is an artistic girl. She has a really nice style. Aria has lived before in Iceland and then she moved back to Rosewood again. Her both parents are teachers in her school. Hanna (Ashley Benson) used to have a bulimia and she was an unpopular girl at her school, who was bullied because of her overweight. She got through the bulimia and got more confidence and took the place as the school’s most popular girl. Hanna really cares her friends a lot. She is thoughtful, brave and caring. Spencer (Troian Bellisario) is perfectionist and she always tries to please her parents. Spencer is great at school and she has good grades. Emily (Shay Mitchell) is a sporty girl. Her hobby is swimming and it’s really important for her. Emily is kind and a bit shy. Alison (Sasha Pieterse) used to be the school’s most popular girl and a leader. She knew her friends all secrets and used them to control them. She was the mean girl, who bullied, controlled and manipulated everyone. But then she got missing and everyone thought that she was dead. A bit later find out that she was still alive and she was running away from ”A”. Mona (Janel Parrish) used to be Hanna’s good friend. Allison bullied Mona and made her feel outsider. When Hanna got popular she started to pine girls as ”A”. She end up to a mental hospital but after a while she got to go back to school and she becomes one of the girls. The locale in series is Rosewood, Pennsylvania. It’s pretty ordinary American city.

When I first time watched this series I really liked it, because it had a good plot and authors. The series are exciting and mysterious. Sometimes it’s hard to stop watching these because always wants to know what happens in the next episode when it ends to an exciting point. The characters are created well and each of them has their own kind of personality. A nice bonus is that they have great styles and fine clothes. An only drawback is that the plot doesn’t go ahead. It pretty much spins around that they are trying to make clear who ”A” is. I think that features that make this series worthwhile watching are these series as an entirety, it has a good and exciting plot, the authors are good and every detail seems to be planned carefully. And I like that this series is a bit scary but not too much.  In series has also been some music from popular singers, for example Selena Gomez and Christina Perri. The series has also won many awards and it has broke viewer records.

I would recommend this to all who like girly series with a little thrill. It’s totally worth of watching.

Sources: Wikipedia

The Devil Wears Prada (2006) is both comedy and drama film directed by David Frankel. In leading roles of the film are Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) and Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep).

The movie tells about a young girl called Andy Sachs. She is a journalist who got the second assistant job in New York’s the most biggest fashion magazine, Runway. Miranda Priestly is stylish Runway’s editor in chief who demand the impossible from her employees. Andy’s assistant job in Runway takes a lot of time and it is very challenging. Her phone rings continuously and that’s why her relationship between boyfriend suffer. Later in the movie when Andy’s private life is almost broken she succeed in her job and get promoted.

When I watched the movie I thought that it was a beautiful story of young girl who wanted to be great journalist in New York City. Even though the end of movie surprised me I think that the movie is all in all successful.

In my opinion Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep are both great actors and they fit in their leading roles very well because their characters are believable. Also the other actors of the movie fit to their role perfectly.

I think that Anne Hathaway’s character Andy change a little bit when she started assistant job in Runway because before assistant job Andy was a young girl who didn’t follow fashion and she wore horrible clothes. But later when she worked in Runway she started to use trendy clothes and follow fashion.

The end of the movie was interesting because there happened surprising scene when everything turned out for the best. In my opinion the movie’s camerawork and script were wonderful. The movie includes a lot of well-known actors who perform in different scenes. All in all the movie was action-packed, funny and compelling. I like this movie a lot and it is absolutely worth watching.

The fault in our stars is popular romantic movie. The movie is based on the book The fault in our stars by John Green, which was published year 2012. It is an american movie about a boy and a girl  who fell in love. They both have cancer so the movie is current.  Cancer is the main point of the movie and the movie represents their everyday life. The girl has allways breathing apparatus with her. And the boy keeps cigarette between his lips as a metaphor. The boy and the girl went to see a famous writer who was really rude to them.  The movies environment is typical American city.

I think that the movie was good and really romantic. The movie was romantic but a little sad  in my opinion. Almost everybody else cried but me and my friends laughed because we thought it was funny. The sadest part was when the boy had only few days until he would die and the girl read her speach to the boy. In my opinion there was lots of sadness and misfornute in the movie. But it showed the true life of one who had a cancer untill the girl met the boy and it came like their own fary tale.

The movie was filmed really good and the movie felt real. The actors were really into the character. In my opinion the movie was almost same as the book and the choracter too. In my opinion the ending of the movie was better than the ending of the book because in the movie the writer who was rude to them went to give the letter himself but in the book his secretary delivered it. I think it was more respectful that the author delivered the letter himself to the girl. It honoured the dead boy who had writen the letter.

A Korean mystery and thriller movie Oldboy, which premiered in 2003 in South Korea, seems to be one of the best known Asian movies and also the best and most rated Korean movie according to the IMDB. It has won over 20 awards and it has been nominated 12 times. And all this not without reason since the film will undoubtedly amaze all the viewers with its crooked and unpredictable storyline.

Oh Dae-su (played by Min-sik Choi), an alcoholic man with a family, gets kidnapped and imprisonised for 15 years. One day after being locked out of the surrounding world he manages to escape. Without knowing who or why someone kidnapped him he begins to hunt down his captor. And soon after his escape he finds out he has only 5 days to find out the kidnapper and the reason for his capture. He seeks for revenge – but it turns out that his captor hasn’t got his one yet either.

All the characters were intresting and kinda ”out of ordinary”. The protagonist is more or less problematic even before he is captured and let alone when he has spent 15 years in a same room, watching TV and eating fried dumplings every day. As for the villain, Ji-tae Yu creates yet so laid-back but twisted character that is thrilling to watch and wait for his next move. In a supporting role we will also see Hye-jeong Kang who introduces us a mysterious young woman, Mi-do, who will help the main character solve the situation.

My first impression after I had watched the film was shocked. The movie reveals something so disturbing in the end that is not just easy to take in. But after thinking the plot again for a while I thought it was actually really clever. And my favourite part was definitely when the plot twist comes in even though it’s pretty horrendous. But after all it still is the highlight of the entire movie.

The director Chan-wook Park (Bajkwi (2009), Stoker (2013)) succeeds to keep up the thrill even unto the very last minutes of the film. And more importantly, he manages to achieve a frigid plot twist that will most likely mess you up. Because of seeing some of his other work as well I can consider him as the best director I know. The films he has directed are often pretty gloomy and provocative but it’s part of his style. Probably that’s why one of his personal quotes goes like this: ”I don’t feel enjoyment watching films that evoke passivity. If you need that kind of comfort, I don’t understand why you wouldn’t go to a spa.”

Oldboy may seem a little bit complicated or confusing at the beginning, especially for people who usually stick to the ordinary American or British movies. But often in Korean movies things will be explained in the end even though they still leave you stuff to think and struggle with. And that’s what I like about them because in that way you won’t forget the film very easily. Although this movie was pretty cruel and messed up it was extremely well done so I would definitely recommend it to anyone whose willing to watch something different. Oldboy has its American remake as well but in my opinion the original always beats the new version. Don’t shun foreign films, be brave and encounter some new experieces!

I’m doing a review about the movie ”Year one”. It’s a rather old one already as it was made in 2009. It was director Harold Ramis’ last movie he made before his death in 2014. He was also one of the writers and played the role of Adam, the first human according to the bible. The movie is a comedy which is my favourite genre. But if a movie relies only on being funny it’s not very good anymore. The plot is a mix of history and the bible and it’s making a lot of fun at their cost. I feel like they didn’t use all of the potential the idea has. The story focuses on two cavemen Zed(Jack Black) and Oh(Michael Cera) who are lazy and thus not very liked among their tribe. One day Zed finds and eats from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and starts to get ideas and solutions. Once he gets found out he’s immediately banished from the tribe. When he leaves he manages to accidentally burn the place and Oh then decides to come with him since there is nothing left for him back at home except a girl he likes but he is too shy to tell her that. On their journey they encounter a lot of scenes familiar from both history and the old testament. The plot is basically jumping from place to place and always expressing it’s dirty humour. Without that the plot would be even more poor and constant change of scenery makes it look confusing but because it’s a comedy it doesn’t even have to make sense all the time. The characters have very common personalities that are shown very strongly in them for an example a strong guy who is easily recognized to have a nature of a bully and a ruthless authoritative who despises everyone. There are some characters from the bible such as Abraham and Isaac. The casting has a lot of names I don’t recognize but there is some. Not very big ones though. Hank Azaria (playing the role of Abraham) is the most known for being a voice actor for ”The Simpsons”, the longest and most successful animated series from the USA. Jack Black(starring) is one very often seen name in comedies and was the main character’s voice actor in Kung Fu Panda movies. All in all the movie is not that good but not a total flop either. It is enjoyable if you are a fan of it’s type of humour. I would rate it 3/5.

Citations are marked in [ ]. Pressing the link opens original website in a new tab.

Have you ever got that feeling when you are losing in a video game and feel like you could replace every word in your sentence with spectrum of swear words? Or when you would rather throw up than play a game when it just mocks you and makes no sense whatsoever? Yeah… maybe my last statement went a little bit overboard, of course nobody would go that nuts just from a video game, right? If you haven’t ever known such person well now you will because that’s exactly what a person going by alias ”Angry Video Game Nerd” does!

Before going into the details one should know something about the series itself. Angry Video Game is a fictional character created by James Rolfe. It first began as a joke when James filmed an angry review of a game called ”Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest” in the 2004 [1]. However the whole thing escalated pretty quickly and few years later AVGN (I will be using this as an abbreviation for Angry Video Game Nerd) became an internet phenomenon and one of the most popular internet series known to this day. So in a nutshell the whole show is about a nerd doing angry game reviews about old and crappy games for peoples enjoyment. It actually became so well known that even James couldn’t believe it himself. Just think about: you’re just a regular person in his early 20s and you make an angry rant about something totally random as a joke and few years later you find out that you have become an internet super star. That’s pretty amazing right, but James took a step further and released a movie about AVGN, simply named ”AVGN – The Movie” on 21 July 2014.

In short the movie is about the Nerd and his adventures revolving around the game called ”Eee Tee (parody of a game based on the movie ”E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” by Steven Spielberg for game console Atari 2600. The game is said to be worst video game in history and obviously one of the most requested games for Nerd to review. Renaming is of course for copyright reasons)” and a myth around it where it is told that millions of game cartridges were buried in the middle of a desert in New Mexico involving aliens, Area 51, the government, cheap special effects and so on . Plot sounds simple yet somehow quite absurd which the movie definitely is – in a good way.

The main cast is James Rolfe as the Nerd (he also was one of the directors by the way. Other one was James good friend Kevin Finn), Jeremy Suarez as Cooper who is something one could a sidekick, Sarah Glendening as the woman of the nerd trio Mandi, Stephen Mendel as General Dark Onward the government agent, Time Winters as a paranoid, ex-scientist wearing a metaphorical tinfoil hat named Dr. Louis Zandor, and Helena Barrett as the female antagonist McButter. In my opinion they all acted their respective roles well but if I were to give an Oscar for one of them I would definitely give it to Stephen Mendel. He really made his character exactly what one would expect from a clumsy and comedic army general.

One of the most hilarious and cheap things in the movie that made me totally lose my sides were the special effects. Even though the budget was really low for a movie presented in theaters (about 325,000 dollars which he received from fans in forms of donation [2]) the special effects are really cheap looking: poorly made green screen scenes, airplanes changed into small props which are set on fire probably with a lighter, not-so-hidden use of wires and thread for jumps, levitating etc. For a person who really doesn’t have any idea what AVGN is this can sound and look quite awkward, like if the movie was made in the middle 60s and such but for a genuine AVGN fan these small, moderate effects just make the movie more enjoyable. It’s James aka the Nerds way to say: ”Hey, I heard you like watching me play bad games and suffer so let’s switch places once in a while.” (excessive amounts of swearing cut for the sake of purity) Animatronics were made really well though, plus for that.

There isn’t much to say about music. It actually is one of those things in the movie a typical movie reviewer wouldn’t consider ”bad” or ”cheap”, really great in my opinion and does what it should do: sets the mood  (here’s by the way a link for the official soundtrack). The sound effects on the other hand are exactly the same as special effects: simple, crappy and cheap yet entertaining for hardcore fans and regular viewers alike.

In summary the whole movie can be said to be a big parody. The show is all about the exaggerated reviews, Nerd coming up with new words mankind could have never believed to be in existence, mocking badly designed games even though they were made thirty years ago for a limited hardware, cheap special effects like in the movie, scatological humor, ”abomination of mankind” like the Nerd himself once said, and so on. The list could keep expanding forever. The movie is definitely not for people who take either movies or video games too seriously, can’t take on self-irony, or expect a spectacular performance from the actors and great effects. The movie parodies everything the Nerd and James himself have ever told about things that makes movies and video games ”bad”. It’s clear self-irony. Even though the movie didn’t have a good reception from the critics it still fulfilled it’s main goal: amuse fans. James killed two birds with one stone. He accomplished his greatest dream, and gave fans what they wanted: a whole movie about AVGN and a review about ET. Overall I think it was a great movie with a meaning which can be described with a proverb ”more than meets the eye”. I didn’t have high expectations because I knew it couldn’t have a budget in scale with James Camerons Titanic or Avatar. I recommend it for anyone who has any interest for old comedy movies but don’t care if they have a modern twist or to people who just enjoy other people ranting about stuff for you. I would advice taking a little peek into the AVGN series as it helps a lot understanding the movie and concept behind it, you will not be disappointed.

Official trailer (Swearing warning)