Category Archives: Films / theatre

Safe Haven is a movie adaptation from Nicholas Sparks’s novel of the same name. The movie is directed by swedish film director Lasse Hallström. As a fan of his films, I was very excited about this one. He has also directed movies like Dear John, Chocolat and Hachi: A Dog’s Tale. Safe Haven is an American romance film starring Julianne Hough and one of my favorite actors Josh Duhamel. Hallström’s movies seem to never let me down; this one goes straight to the list of my favorite films with all the exciting plot twists, romance and suspense.

Safe Haven tells a story about a young woman who leaves her house after being shown in possession of a bloody knife. The scene leaves an assumption for the viewer that she has murdered someone. She is being wanted by the police. She escapes to a small town called Southport, North Carolina. She introduces herself as Katie and acquires a job as a waitress and buys a small house from the edge of town. Katie becomes friends with her neighbor Jo (Cobie Smulders) and meets Alex Wheatley (Josh Duhamel) who owns a local convenience store. Alex’s wife has died of cancers a few years ago, and he is left alone with his two young children, Lexie and Josh. Alex immediately shows interest towards Katie, and keeps doing small, helpful things for her. They go on a canoeing trip together and soon fall in love after that.

The story goes on like any other romance film, before Alex finds out about the reports saying that Katie is a wanted murderer. Later Katie explains to him that the man he had stabbed with a kitchen knife was his husband and she was only protecting herself from his drunken assault. She also reveals her real name, Erin. Her husband, Kevin, who worked as a police and had made the reports of her being wanted was only an excuse to track her down. This episode is followed by some serious events as Kevin finds Erin’s location and it causes a fire on Alex’s store and his house, destroying them all.

The fact that the viewer sees at the beginning of the movie the scene of Erin with the bloody knife keeps the tension going on all the way. Assuming that Erin’s a murderer, it is a real surprise to find out what the situation really is. I hardly managed to stay on my seat with all the excitement. As things calm down at the end of the movie and you wait for the happy ending, there comes another twist at the very end, which leaves you speechless staring at the ending credits, just thinking like ”what was that all about?!” Keeping up with the movie’s plot twists makes a good time, but an unimaginative denouement turns the whole thing upside down, leaving you with a feeling of incongruity. Safe Haven was universally panned from critics, but from my point of view I think it was refreshing to experience something new and exciting comparing to the usual romance films.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a movie about two long-time friends, Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson), who spend a summer in Barcelona, Spain. They meet a painter called Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), who introduces the girls to the Spanish lifestyle – especially love. Both girls are fascinated by the man’s confidence and his art. Eventually they find themselves enamored with him, but Juan Antonio’s ex-wife Maria Elena (Penélope Cruz) has her own intentions. Their love drama is extremely complicated, just like people in Spain.

If I had to identify myself with one character in the movie, it would be Vicky. She has planned her whole life ahead and has a clear sense of direction. She is going to marry her fiancé, live in a fancy apartment with him and start a family. Then the unexpected happens: she falls in love with another man. Needless to say that her whole life changes its course. Cristina is her opposite, she is fearless and passionate. She is what every woman wants to be. She throws herself into adventures with an open-minded attitude. Juan Antonio depicts the idyllic Spanish lover: charming, passionate and just a bit arrogant. Penélope Cruz does an amazing job bringing to life the ex-wife, Maria Elena. She is capricious, dangerous and breathtakingly beautiful. There is something hypnotizing about Cruz’s acting that brings out the soul of the film. Her astonishing performance even earned her a handful of awards, including an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

One thing I personally would change about the film is the narrator. It feels like the cheery voice telling the obvious is just unnecessary for the plot. The narrator’s voice doesn’t work well with the romantic feel of the rest of the movie. Sometimes the narrative is almost childish, as if the viewer couldn’t see what is just happening in the movie. Maybe the narrator was intended to be a unique, artistic approach to a sensitive film, but in my opinion the attempt fails miserably.

Before seeing the film I had very high expectations, after all it was directed by the greatly praised Woody Allen. And he didn’t let me down. The movie is very dreamy, almost fairytale-like, but still manages to maintain its reality. The milieu is carefully chosen and the casting fits the ethereal atmosphere perfectly. Everything from the costumes to the setting has been handpicked with a close attention to detail, but rather than standing out, the elements blend together seamlessly. The result is a romantic setting with realistic characters, but just enough fantasy to spice things up.

Casino royale is a action, crime and thriller film released in November 2006. Film directed by Martin Campbellin who was also directed of James Bond other movie Goldeneye (1995).  Film written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis and film production is Eon Productions. Casino royale is the twenty-first James Bond but it based on Ian Fleming’s novel of the same name, which was the first James Bond story.

The film’s the main actors is Daniel Craig, who act James Bond. I think that Daniel Craig is the best actress in role of James Bond although he doesn’t look like old James Bond. The second important character are Eva Green and Mads Mikkelsen. Eva Green act Vesper Lynd, who is accountant of ministry of finance. Mads Mikkelsen act  an associate of banker and terrorist financier Le Chiffre.

Plot of Casino royale tells Bond’s first mission as an agent-00. Le Chiffre has lost soldier Steven Obano’s money when Bond prevent a terrorist attack which is designed by Le Chiffre. And Le Chiffre sets up a high-stakes texas holdem tournament at the Casino Royale in Montenegro because he must win back the money. Verper Lynd role is to protect the government’s interests and she gives the money to Bond that he can take part in texas holdem tournament. If James Bond win the tournament MI6 can catch Le Chiffre. But James Bond has also other problems related to Vesper.

The film was shot in Bahamas, Italy and United Kingdom. And at the moment Casino Royale is the most watched Bond film, and 42. the most successful movie.

I like all James Bond movies but I think that Casino royale is best shown and it happens more interesting things than others.

I watched a sports comedy film D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994), directed by Sam Weisman and produced by Jon Avnet and Jordan Kerner. The movie tells about the USA junior hockey team´s journey trough the Junior Goodwill Games in Los Angeles, California.

The main character is Gordon Bombay, who was one of the best players in the Minor Hockey League. But, in one game, he was injured on purpose by an opponent player. He got a very bad knee injury, and because of that, he had to end his career.

Other important characters in the movie are the players of the ”Ducks”, Player´s teacher Michelle McKay and a wealthy sponsor, Mr. Tibbles.

It all begins when Bombay returned back to his hometown Minneapolis, Minnesota. There he starts to work in a small hockey shop as a skate sharpener. Few days laiter, Mr. Tibbles walks in to the shop, and offers Bombay a worthy contract as a junior hochey team coach. Bombay gathered up the ”Ducks”, and the journey to Los Angeles is ready to begin.

Before the tournament starts, four new players join the ”Ducks”. When the new players had met the ”Ducks”, tournament is ready to start.

On the way to the tournament final, team goes trough many different feelings. Joy, pride, grief and dissapointment. But the most important thing is, that they had grown up as a team. Coach Bombay dissapointed the team because he just thought the money and the glory he had gained. However, Bombay realised that money can´t give him happinnes, so he apologized the team and gave his all time and concentration to the ”Ducks”. Now they can go to the final with an all new attitude and the hunger of winning.

The movie was very exiting and touching. One of the best movies that I have seen. The English language in the movie was sometimes hard, because there was so much ice-hockey glossary in it, but I managed to underestand it very well.

Les Misérables is a musical drama film released in December 2012 and chosen to be the 2012 film of the year. I think it has fully deserved this, for everything in the movie,from the touching, ingenious plot to exact makeup and styling, is well planned and put into practice.

The main plot is about Jean Valjean, a man who spent 19 years in jail for stealing a piece of bread for a sick child. Through a series of events Valjean ends up promising a dying woman to take care of her soon-to-be-orphan-daughter, Cosette. Jean Valjean and Cosette spend nine years of their life moving from one place to another and hiding from Javert, the policeman who is chasing Valjean for violating his probation. A group of students are planning a revolution under the lead of Marius Pontmercy and his friends Enjolras and Gavroche. Marius falls in love with Cosette, who has grown into a beautiful young woman.  The rest of the story is about the stages of the revolution and how the relationships developed, and shall be left untold if someone hasn’t seen the film yet.

I think one of the most important reasons why this film is so touching and spellbinding is the variety of different characters it provides. That way anyone can relate to the story and find it interesting from their own point of view. My own favorites are Russel Crowe as Javert, struggling with his keen sense of justice,  and Sacha Baron Cohen with Helena Bonham Carter as Mr and Mrs Thénardier, untruthful and unscrupulous innkeepers with whom Cosette used to live with before Valjean took care of her. 

A review of Les Misérables can not be done without mentioning the amazing soundtrack composed by Claude-Michel Schönberg. The film is based on the musical Les Misérables, and includes all fourty-seven musical numbers from the original musical. For me and many others music is an important way of conveying feelings, and the brilliance of the music in the movie amazes me every time I watch it. I think Les Misérables is a masterpiece of cinema, music and theatre arts, and I could recommend it to anyone.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) is a fantasy adventure film directed by Peter Jackson, who was also director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It is the first movie of a three-part film adaptation on the novel ”The Hobbit” by J. R. R. Tolkien.

The story takes place in Middle-earth sixty years before the events of The Lord of the Rings.  An unexpected Journey tells the tale of  Bilbo Baggings (Martin Freeman), who is convinced by the wizard Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) to join group of thirteen Dwarves, led by legendary warrior Thorin Oakenshild (Richard Armitage). Their quest is to reclaim the Lonely Mountains from the dragon called Smaug. The movie follows Bilbo’s unexpected journey through lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs, Giant Spiders  etc.

The Hobbit movies have been praised for the amazing visual effects and for all the new movie technology used while making the movie(s). For example The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey had HFR (high frame rate), which means the movie used  a shooting and projection frame rate of  48 frames per second, instead of standard 24 frames per second. In fact this movie was the first feature film with wide release to do so.  Because of HFR the movie looks smoother and on top of that the movie has stunning graphics. But to me graphics count for nothing. The reason I watch a film is primarily for a great story and well written characters. I don’t get dazzled by graphics anymore. It just gets to a point where better graphics doesn’t matter anymore.

Even though the movie was visually great, the writing wasn’t at the same level. First of all the introduction was little too long. And all together the whole Hobbit trilogy is way too long for three hundred pages book, and just to maximize profits by having three films at three hours each. Another way to notice movie is poorly written when your heroes are saved at the last minute in multiple scenes. Where does that leave us? It leaves us with all main characters intact and no dramatic tension. Albeit the main story wasn’t well written, the movie characters were very well made and their personalities really shone.

In conclusion the movie was fairly good, I personally liked it though I expected something more. It is worth of watching if you haven’t already seen it.