With the ocasion of the Super Bowl, three movies (from what I know now) will have short trailers presented during the comercial time during half time. They will probably have the bigest rating a trailer has ever had so this is a big deal. The lucky winers are "Shuter Island", "The Last Airbender" and "Robin Hood". Thanks to the Super Bowl this movies now have a chance at beating Avatar in the box office. Anyway, here they are:
Super Bowl - Trailers
"The Ghost Writer" - Release date 02/19/2010
I have stumbled upon the trailer of the new Roman Polanski movie, "The Ghost Writer" and even though I did not understand much out of it, it caught my attention.
The Ghost, is a successful ghost novel writer which has the opportunity to put on paper the memoirs of ex British Prime Minister Adam Lang, played by Pierce Brosnan. Unfortunelly things go wrong and a series of events that, from the trailer, will take our breath away in what seems to be a great thriller.
"Creation" - Movie Review
A while ago I was writing about "Creation" the movie (see it here) and I was all excited about it. At least this is what I was feeling towards the movie, but reading it now it doesn't quite express my feelings from then, they state nothing, no emotion arises after reading them, just as no emotion comes from watching the movie.
"Creation" brings in front of us Charles Darwin, the men "who killed God", as one of the characters in the movie tells him. But it's not a regular biography, one that takes us step by step with how he came to his ideas, what issues he had to deal with. No, it takes us to the moment when all the ideas are put together in a book. Darwin is a sick man and is also very upset because of the death of his elder daughter, feeling somewhat guilty for her death. Because of all this suffering he has drawn apart from his wife and family, is hallucinating about Annie, the daughter he lost, and basically he's life is in ruins. "Creation" tries to give us some background information about how he got in this state and they are all presented as stories he tells to Annie, when he hallucinates about her, or whatever memories he gets hung up on.
"Creation" does not try to tell a story at any moment, they assume we all know who Darwin was and what he wrote, what the movie tries to express is the drama which the hero goes through and what it does to him and his family. At many moments, Paul Bettany, who is playing Charles Darwin manages to pull of some intense moments, but as a whole the film doesn't quite catch you in.
From my point of view it is a decent movie, it did not meet my expectations, but nevertheless it is pleasant to watch. I would recommend it for a rainy March, Sunday afternoon.
"Up in the Air" Release date 12/04/2009
With 6 nominalizations at this year's Golden Globe Awards, one prize taken home, and many other awards, "Up in the Air" is definitely a movie to take into consideration this year.
The movie, although based on a book written before the economical crysis, is one that sets it's premises on a very up to date society. George Clooney is Ryan Bingham, a man that spent last year more then 200 days traveling, and who has a very interesting job: to fire people. He works at a company that does the dirty job for others in cases of massive lay offs and other situations like this.
Clooney makes an outstanding character out of Ryan managing to schetch his view of life rather easy to the viewers. He is one to believe, that "the slower you move, the faster you die" and tryes not to attach himself of anything, human or not, considering that in the end we all end up in the same place, alone. His main goal is to be seventh person to get 10 million miles on his fidelity card with the airline he's traveling with. He spends his whole life in aiports, hotels, rented cars and, of course, "Up in the Air".
Things change when Ryan meets two women. The first one is Alex, a business woman, that shares a similar life style to his. The second one is Natalie, a new comer in the firm he work for, a menace to his life/work style. Natalie tryes to implement a system in which all the lay offs are done online, with webcams and microphones, thus saving a lot of company money. In order to save what he believes in, and basically his life, he takes Natalie on journeys thru the country to see him at his work. In the meantime they meet with at Alex at different locations (it was the only way their relationship worked). It is obvious that the journey is life changing for Natalie, who matures along Ryan's speeches, life experience, and pragmatism, but also for Clooney's character who starts doubting that being all alone is the best thing. Things get really messy when Ryan takes Alex to his syster's wedding (practically a stranger to him) when Ryan actually saves the marriage, understands that his life was empty and gets attached to Alex. Unfortunelly for him things don't have a romantic happy ending, as Alex has a family and Ryan is just someone she enjoys being with on trips. "Up in the Air" ends it's journey surprising Ryan with reaching his goal, getting 10 million miles on his card, but realizing that that doesn't mean anything.
The movie is a comedy / drama that at the end of it makes you say: "What the fuck just happened?". Clooney makes this complex hero seem so easy and every line, every clisee he says just seems to fit perfectly like you knew it from the begging. The pragmatic replies to Natalie's juvenile yet very ambitious beliefes make you laugh every time, and his "light traveler's" attitude is just delicious. On the other hand, the movie tries to present how people cope with getting layed off, and most importantly what are the real values in life, a heavy bag, or 10 million miles on a card?
"Up in the Air" is the kind of movie with a flat line, somehow predictable but is a very pleasant one, and doesn't make you regret for a second seeing it. A word of warning for those who do not feel like watching something with meaning: "you will be bored".
Even if you saw the movie you should check out "Up in the Air"s website as it's really neet and the soundtrack is just delightful.
Also in order for you to understand better what I was talking about before with "light traveler" and heavy baggages check out the trailer bellow:
"The Book of Eli" Release Date 01/15/2010
Set in a post apocalyptic future, in the year 2034, the action is centered around Eli (Denzel Washington), the holder / owner of the last bible, that he knows of. Eli guards this bible with his life, believing that it will redeem the remaining humanity. I really don't know more about the movie except what you can see in the trailer.
The thing is that critics have decided to make out of this movie an example, so that producers will understand that we are kind of bored of Apocalypse movies, after the "brilliant" "2012" and "The Road". The second I have not seen yet, and I don't believe I'm going to.
"Variety" magazine, although not giving a proper review, but more of a summary of the story, they rated "The Book of Eli" with a C and consider this will not be one of Denzel Washington's (who is also a producer here) money makers. "San Francisco Chronicle" also rated the movie with a C, but is more indulging with it and considers it to be a bit better the the other apocalyptic movies we see everywhere with a more "dynamic action". It considers "The Book of Eli" as actually the story of the clash between good and evil, humanitarians and dictators, and enlightens us in how culture can reconstruct a society. The best grade "The Book of Eli" gets is B, and one magazine I will mention here. Michael Phillips from "The Chicago Tribune" although laughs at the predictability of the movie he appreciates "it's scale" and how the characters "breathe". He considers the movie is quite simply better acted and has a better story-line then the other "end of the world" movies.
As stated before even with bad press and stuff, I can't wait to see it! I will most likely come back with a review as soon as possible.
