Category Archives: Yleinen

Alice in Wonderland (2010)

My film is Alice in Wonderland. I chose the new version because i like it more than the original, animation one. The film is produced in 2010 and the director is Tim Burton. It is a fantasy movie and it is based on Alice in wonderland by Lewis Carrol. Also one reason why I love this film is because my favorite actor, Johnny Depp (Mad Hatter) , is acting on it. Other actors are Mia Wasikowska (Alice), Anne Hathaway (White Queen) and Helena Bonham Carter (Queen of hearts)  and bunch of animated characters. Almost the whole film is shot in Wonderland. The animation is fantastic and unbelievably beautiful. Whole Wonderland seems so realistic although it is so unrealistic. It is hard to explain but if you had seen the film you will understand. Also special effects are wonderful and breathtaking. For example the fight against the Jabberwock seems so real and the effects are marvelous. The film won two Oscars for best art direction and best costume design, and was also nominated for best visual effects. It is also one of highest-grossing films and its revenue was over one billion dollar.

The film begin when Alice is small and she sees odd dreams about Wonderland and White rabbit and things like that. Then suddenly she is nineteen and goes to the parties where lord Hamish is intended to ask her marry him. Alice doesn’t know what to answer and she runs away. She sees the White rabbit and follows him. Then the story lasts like the original one. She falls in the rabbithole and finds her way into the Wonderland. Since then the story changes. No-one believes that she is the real Alice and she is the one who will slay the Jabberwock. The story go on and it has similar features as the original story but the whole thing is really different. In some parts only the characters are same. Alice is define to slay the Jabberwock so the Queen of hearts could be dethrone. The war begins and Alice encounter with the beast.

I love this film so much and it is one of my favorite films! One reason could be that i love fantasy movies and as I said before i just love Johnny Depp. The plot is really good and it isn’t predictable. There is many turns and things that you couldn’t even believe that can happen. The actors are fantastic great and i just think the whole film is one master piece. I really don’t have nothing bad to say about the film except the end. It’s kind of boring but on the other hand it is a good thing because the end shouldn’t be messy. And I’m glad that everything becomes clear and nothing bothers me. So really mesmerizing film and I suggest everyone to watch it. You are going to love it!

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The Nanny

I choose television show The Nanny. It is American sitcome released in 1993 – 1999. The stars of this show is the nanny Fran Fine (Fran Drescher), a rich Broadway-producer Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaugnessy), his businesspartner C.C Babcock (Lauren Lane) and a butler Niles (Daniel Davis). This show has been written and produces by Fran Drescher and her husband. Every episode has its own story. Her (Fran Fine) job is to take care of Maxwells three children Margaret, Brighton nad Grace.

I like this kind of show because it is a sitcome, which make me laugh every time. It feels like I would be watching it by my self on live because the laughter of the live audience makes it feel so. Camera working is perfect and every single funny part has been filmed perfectly. Caracters are naturally funny. It doesn’t feel like acting more like naturally outcoming. There is no special effects at all. When funny part is coming caracters handle it with facial expressions and gestures. It works well! The voice of acter is also important. That how you say something effects on if you’re trying to say something stupid but also soud funny.

A little about plot. This all story begins when Frans ex-boyfriend fires and dumbs her. She is trying to sell cosmetics and comes to the door of Mr. Sheffield. Maxwells wife has died and he is alone with these three children. Fran Fine has not any experience of being nanny but Maxwell hires this impressive woman. And she totally changes everything. C.C, who is really in love with Maxwell becomes  envious toward Fran. The show includes a lot of sarcastic jokes between butler Niles and C.C Babcock. Frans mom Sylvia and grandmotrher Yetta gets more mishaps to the show. Every Episode is really succesfull and funny experience. I recommend!

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The Lucky One

The Lucky One (2012) is a romantic drama based on Nicolas Sparks novel directed by Scott Hicks. Logan Thibault (Zac Efron) is a U.S. Marine serving in Iraq. During the night raid he finds a photogaraph of a smiling woman which saves his life. He starts to carry the photograph around with him as a good luck charm. Later on he comes back to Colorado and starts to suffer from PTSD (posttraumatic stress desorder) and survivor guilt. Logan finds coming back home difficult to adjust to. He decides it is best to leave, and he departs to find some peace from his memories and go look for the woman (Taylor Schilling as Beth Green) in the picture to thank her for saving his life. And as you can guess, they eventually end up in a relationship.

The plot is a very common as a romantic drama and may have many clichés on it; one goes and it ends up in a relationship. But at the same time in ”The Lucky One” the plot is really different. This one is truly touching in its genre. The execution is real indeed and the actors does a very deacent job on screen, I would say it is the best Zac Efron has ever made on his career. If you are a lover of very melodramatic movies or if you are a fan of Nicolas Sparks novels you should really go for it. I promise you will love it. The Lucky One takes you out of reality and it is the best about it. You can easily emagine how many ways this story would probably go wrong in real life, but it is the meaning of the movie; sugared and enviable story of two people finding each other the way it maybe would ever happen in real life.

Facts chekd out from http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lucky_One_%28film%29

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Breaking bad

Breaking bad is an American television series created and produced by Vince Gillian. Series was orginally aired on USA for five seasons, from January 20, 2008, to September 29, 2013. It has 62 episodes. Series tells about high school chemistry teacher Walter White (Bryan Cranston) also known ass Heisenberg in drug business. In the beginning of first season Walter gets diagnosed with inoperable Lung cancer. Walter starts his criminal lifestyle together with his former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) who is producer of crystallized methamphetamine. Walter exploits his knowlendge of chemistry to produce maybe the best crystal methamphetamine in the whole world. But why he does this all? He wants to secure his family’s financial future before he dies. Walter and Jesse are going to notice that drug business isn`t so easy, when they start doing it whit New Mexico`s ruthless drug cartell, and get in trouble whit New Mexico`s police.

Walter’s family consists of his wife Skyler (anna Gunn) and children, Walter ,J.R  a.k.a. Flynn (RJ Mitte) and Holly (Elanor Anne Wenrich). The show also features Skyler’s sister Marie Schrader (Betsy Brandt), and her husband Hank (Dean Norris), who is Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent. Walter hires lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), who connects him with private investigator and fixer Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) and in turn Mike’s employer, drug kingpin Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito). The final season introduces the characters of Todd Alquist (Jesse Plemons) and Lydia Rodarte-Quyale (Laura Fraser)(233).

Breaking Bad is widely regarded as one of the greatest television series of all time, and me, myself think, that its true. The series was the most-watched cable show on American television at the time. The series received numerous awards and nominations, including 16 Primetime Emmy Awards and 58 nominations, including winning for Outstanding Drama Series in 2013 and 2014(295).The show also received eight Satellite awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two Peabody Awards and a People`s choise Award. For his leading performance, Cranston won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series four times. In 2013, Breaking Bad entered the Guinness World Records as the highest rated show of all time.

 

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Wayne’s World

”Schwing!”

Wayne’s World is a comedy movie released in 1992. The director of the movie was Penelope Spheeris and the writers were Bonnie and Terry Turner, a married couple who also wrote 3rd Rock from the Sun and That 70’s Show, and Mike Myers who also was the leading actor of the movie. Other main actors were Dana Carvey as Garth, Waynes sidekick and Tia Carrere as Cassandra, the basist of the band called Crucial Taunt and Waynes to-be-girlfriend. The movie was a big hit and it made profit of 100 million dollars just from the movie tickets in US. The movie got a sequel in 1993.

The events take place in Aurora, which is Chicagos suburb. The main characters, Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar are best friends and they both live in their parents houses.  They run a basic cable ”basement show” called Wayne’s World, which is filmed in Waynes basement. The show is a short review of current pop culture things and Wayne picking on Garth. Briefly, the rest of plot is about TV-boss Benjamin Kane buying the rights to the show and eventually failing when he tries to make the show better. Selling the shows rights tests Waynes and Garths friendship. Things don’t get any easier, when Wayne falls in love with Cassandra, who plays bass in a band which performs in bar called Comrades, where Wayne and Garth go celebrate after getting 10,000 dollars from the sold rights.  Garth and all the audience is angry to Wayne because he sold the rights but then he gets the rights back and everything is back to normal.

The amount of the laugh was too damn high when I watched Wayne’s World for the first time. The humor hit me very well and I’m frustrated by the fact that Wayne’s World has only two movies. The movie is written for teens and especially for American teens at the time. The kind of ”basement shows” as Wayne’s World were very popular by the time of the movie. All cities had 2-3 basement shows of their own. I don’t think that the movie has a message because Mike Myers’s comedy movies are usually just for laughs. I would recommend the movie for all those people who love so bad corny jokes that they became good and for those who love to laugh until they pee themselves. (Thank God didn’t happen to me.) It is easy to follow and the only thing I would done differently is the movie cameras, which quality was poor.

Lähteet: Wikipedia ja IMBd

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The Interview

The Interview is produced by Sony Pictures and Entertainment and is directed by Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen. The Interview is action-comedy and movie that takes place in present USA and North-Korea. Sony had big problems publishing The Interview, because it strongly criticizes North-Korea as a country and it’s “loved” leader Kim Jong-un. Sony Pictures and Entertainment was threatened by Korean hackers and terrorists about publishing the movie. In the end Sony didn’t show The Interview in movie theaters or made a DVD version of it, but the movie was released to internet for all us to see.

Movie starts with two small scale journalists Dave Skylark (James Franco) and Aaron Rapaport (Seth Rogen) making a TV show about celeberities. Little by little Dave and Aaron want to get to the more serious news. After some hilarious moments Dave and Aaron end up in the CIA’s office and hear that CIA Want’s them to do interview about Kim Jong-un (Randall Park), and to assassinate him. Dave and Aaron agree to kill Kim and they are off to North-Korea, There they meet Kim who kisses their bums to make the interview go well and to get Dave and Aaron to like him. During the interview things escalate quickly and all goes wild. In the end music is playing, Dave and Aaron are driving a tank towards Kim’s chopper and shooting it down with a big explosion. Then Dave and Aaron get back to USA with help of Navy Seals. And the movie basically ends.

I think that The Interview is just great comedy with all crazy action in it. I don’t know if u guys understand anything I tried to say earlier but the story line is really good. I strongly recommend this movie for everyone who loves a good laugh. On the other hand The interview brings up the problems of North-Korea in a way that makes u think what’s really happening in that closed up country where huge amount of people are poor and hungry, When their supreme leader is having all the money he wants. Also actors have done good work making this film, and money haven’t been spared when all the special effects were made. If I would have to give a school grade to this movie it would be nine and a half. Not ten because some of the scenes were exaggerated so much. That’s all I have to say, enjoy the film.

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Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver is a thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. The movie was released February 8, 1976, so it’s almost 40 years old. It was ranked 52nd-greatest American film on AFI’s 100 years… 100 movies list and it was nominated for four Academy Awards. Leading actors are Robert De Niro who plays Travis Bickle and Jodie Foster who plays for teenage prostitute Iris. De Niro was nominated for Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA film award for the best leading actor and Jodie Foster was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Famous quote ”You talkin’ to me”  is from the Taxi Driver.

Taxi Driver is a story about a former disturbed U.S Marine, Travis Bickle. He’s deeply depressed and lonely man living in New York City. Before he became a taxi driver, he used to drive his car every night until the morning. He also spent a lot of his time at porn theaters. He applied for a job as a taxi driver, and started working every night seven days a week. Travis was disgusted by the prostitution and crimes that he saw every night, so he started intense physical training and bought four pistols from a dealer, that one of his customers had suggested for him. One night when Travis was on shift, a young girl named Iris jumped in the back of the cab. She was trying to escape from her pimp, called Sport. Sport pulled 12-year old Iris out of the car and threw a twenty-dollar bill for Travis. That twenty-dollar bill kept reminding Travis of her. One day Travis found where Iris was working and hired her for 15 minutes, but not for having sex with her. He was trying to get Iris to leave prostitution and go back to her family. He got obsessed on helping Iris, and one day he left a letter to her at his apartment saying that he will be dead soon. There was also few hundred dollars for Iris to get back to home. After that Travis shaved his head into a mohawk and tried to assassinate Senator Palantine, but he failed. Then he drives to Sport and shoots at him and kills everyone that is in the brothel. He tries to kill himself but he had run out of ammunition. He fell in to a coma, and when he woke up, the media hailed him as a hero. He then gets back to his job as a taxi driver.

The movie is a great description about society unscrupulousness. It tells us how  the dregs of the people crawl to the streets when the day gives way to the night. Taxi Driver provokes the society model harshly and as no one is doing anything about it, Travis decides to take the matters to his own hands. This quote by Travis summarizes it all: ”Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads. Here is a man who would not take it anymore. A man who stood up against the scum, the cunts, the dogs, the filth, the shit. Here is a man who stood up.” The acting in the movie is great and the soundtrack was relaxing and fit the movie well. In my opinion, Robert De Niro played one of his best, if not the best role in this movie. I’d recommend this movie for those who like thriller movies and don’t get frightened about few blood spatters.

 

Sources: Wikipedia, IMDB

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Schindler’s list

I heard the theme song of the Schindler’s list in a violin concert and I thought it was the most beautiful melody I had ever heard. That is why I had to see the movie, to see if it was as good as its theme. Composer of the soundtrack in Schindler´s list is John Williams and deservedly he won an Oscar from his work.

Schindler’s list is a historical drama movie directed by Steven Spielberg and it premiered in 1993 in USA. Schindler’s list is based on Thomas Keneally’s novel ”Schindler’s ark” which was published in 1982. Leading actors of the film are Liam Neeson who plays Oskar Schindler, Ben Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes. The film is almost entirely black and white except few little things are colored, for example in some scenes one little girls’s red jacket. Its purpose was to draw attention to that little girl. Spielpberg has told about the symbolism of black and white presentation as follows: ”The Holocaust was life without light. For me the symbol of life is color. That’s why a film about the Holocaust has to be in black-and-white.”

The film is set in the World War II in Kraków and it tells a story about a German businessman Oskar Schindler who saved the lives of more than a thousand Polish-Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. At first, Oskar Schindler seems to be only after money but when he sees the liquidation of one Polish ghetto he begins to employ more Jews to save them from ending up to concentration camps. Those Jews who were saved by Oskar Schindler are called ”Schindlerjuden”. Oskar’s accountant is Jewish Itzhak Stern who almost gets transferred to concentration camp from the ghetto. Itzhak is the one who suggests to Oskar that he could use Jewish slave labour to staff his factory to save money and Itzhak starts to forge documents for Jews who would most likely have been killed. Ben Kingsley is very persuasive as restrained Itzhak Stern. Amon Goeth is a cold-blooded SS officer who sometimes kills Jews only for fun. That is hideous to watch because Ralph Fiennes plays the role so convinsingly. Oskar Schindler is a member of the Nazi party and he has great relations with Amon Goeth who he bribes to have Jews on his factory’s staff. Language in the film is interesting because the actors speak English with German accent.

Schindler’s list is a shocking description of the Holocaust but still it’s not as dreadful as it could be. The film’s only idea is not to show the Nazis horrible terror against the Jews but to show that even in the crowd of the cruellest people there is someone who is capable of good deeds. Despite the fact that Oskar Schindler was a member of the Nazi party and a loyal friend for many SS officers he set to his goal to save as many Jews as he could. Movie shows how Oskar Schindler evolves from Nazi supporter and hardcore businessman to kind-hearted rescuer. Oskar is also quite the ladies’ man and he likes drinking in good company. A touching moment is in the end when Oskar collapses to tears when he has to leave the Jews he had saved after Germany’s surrender in war. Oskar blames himself of not doing all he could, that he could have saved one more life. Itzhak comforts Oskar by showing the over 1000 saved Jews around them and saying: ”Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.”

Schindler’s list is oppressive, tragic and sorrowful description of the evil of humankind but at the same time it’s touching and beautiful story about surviving and goodness. Even though Steven Spielberg is maybe best known from his scifi and adventure movies and has increased his reputation with E.T. and Jurassic Park and many others, Schindlers’s list is said to be the Spielberg’s best movie. Schindler’s list won 7 Oscars, for example Spielberg won Best directing and Best Picture Oscars, and many other awards. Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes won Oscars from their acting too.

Schindler’s list is quite heavy to watch and it evokes a wide range of emotions. It makes you continually ask the same question: how anything so horrible could happen? The film manages to  capture the viewer by its breathtaking scenes and brilliant actors. While watching the movie you can’t avoid the tears and yes, I wept like a baby. Schindler’s list is a film that everyone should watch at least once in their lives because it’s an important reminder of the terrible events in our history and at the same time it shows how one act of goodness can affect on so many people. This film became one of my favourites and I hope it becames one of yours too.

 

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb

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Dear John

Dear John (2010), is romantic drama-war movie directed by Lasse Hallström. The movie is an adaption of novel of the same name written by Nicholas Sparks. It is a sad story about soldier’s life when he falls in love with a college student. The soldier called John (played by Channing Tatum) is on two-week holiday from Germany while he met Savannah (played by Amanda Seyfrid). Events took place in the early 21st century.

On the movie their romance is put to test when Savannah is about to go back to college. She promises to write John overseas until he returns. During 12-months they send many letters to each other and try to keep the romance up. However things are not simple when between them are thousands of kilometers and army. Unfortunately John’s father’s serious illness, as well as 9/11 attacks will make things more difficult.

When I saw the movie for the first time, it attracted many different emotions. In one way the movie was really sad and made me thoughtful. But on the other hand the main characters love and in front of it all making was really wonderful to watch.

I think that the theme of the movie is very well invited, because on the other John defends the country when Savannah continues her studies. Theme explains how every day, thousands of people defend our country. At the same time we are living a normal life without knowing dangers that soldiers face every day. What if your loved one would go to another country at the mercy of the war? Would you be worried about him? In fact, I can relate very well Savannah’s emotions and fear, when a loved one is far away and he could be in a real danger. With the constant fear is not good to live with. The loved ones should always be nearby.

During the movie the themes are becoming increasingly deeper and the main characters are faced with disappointments, and through them to grow spiritually. When John’s father’s illness takes him on a gurney, John will have to learn how to express his feelings towards his father. At the same time he has to take care of his special job in the army. He can’t afford to mix romance, emotions and work with each other.

My opinion about the movie is very positive; I’m going to watch it again for sure. The plot, theme and characters are insanely good and well executed. Cast suitable roles like a glove and they make the characters and the story credible. I would recommend the movie to all young adults, especially those who’s dear is currently unable to be next to you.

 

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dear_John_%282010_film%29

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The Imitation Game

When in war, we usually notice and remark the soldiers and leaders because they are something we actually know and can see. They are reachable, touchable, not instantly and absolutely beyond our comprehension. So, leaders are leading soldiers, but who is leading leaders? The main key of control is the key ordinary people cannot know and see. It is top secret, dangerous but still so fascinating. It definitely is beyond our comprehension.

Nowadays we all are aware of the form of war – it is global, as everything else in this century. In the time of World War II the form of war differed much from today. The electronical way of going war had not taken its first steps then. So the movie (based on real events) is about those first steps as an asocial mathematician Alan Turning is trying to break the Enigma machine which the Nazis send their coded messages.

Watching the not-so-social mathematician trying to work together with his team was everything but boring. I actually found it very interesting. He really weren’t sure what you are supposed to say and how to react in social situations. At first I was convinced him to be an Asperger or something but then I changed my mind. What if the extremely clever persons just act differently compared to the ordinary ones? The mathematician having some neurological syndrome was not an obvious thing to me anymore.

What is the problem, then? I mean, why would a genius mathematician need social skills? The thing is that trying to achieve the goal as a team is quite pointless if the leader of the team has very poor social skills. You need to do co-operation to solve the problems and to do work together, not someone who is just playing his solo.

The questions of society are well represented in two areas. The first one is the dismissive attitude towards the more beautiful sex – the scene where a female work applier is almost forbidden from applying for the mission because of her sex took my very notice.  The old gender roles were essential part of controlling the behaviour. The second one is homosexuality being illegal at that time and so the main character is forced into hormonal therapy in medical treatment because of his sexuality. I think the movie lightens how hard it must have been to live as a homosexual person.

Cumberbatch’s acting as Alan Turning made a real impression on me. His gestures were kind of  puzzled but still insensitive at the same time which fitted perfectly the characteristics you should expect an asocial mathematician to have.

I am not an aficionado of this kind of movie genre but the reason why I liked The Imitation Game so much was because of its deeper thoughts placed within the flickering scenes of action and thrill. There are wonderings about the nature of humankind. The scene in which young Turning is almost buried alive by his fellows made me feel sick with its cruelty. When having been hit and bullied, you would be expected to become a pacifist or something but later it happens Turning to be holding they key of control in the war. That very scene summarized the war – where human, always violence.

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