Category: DVD

{mosimage}The last creation from Dreamworks is an incredible animation movie full of humour, martial arts and all the magic of ancient China. 

We are certainly having a golden age about great quality animation movies released in DVD. If a few days ago we could enjoy the adventures of the little robot Wall-E, now a friendly but masterful at Kung-Fu Panda will delight all the family at the home screens. And it counts with some scenes that will remain in your memory for long time. For example,  the escape of Tai Lung from jail is one of the most thrilling moments I have experienced watching a film in the last months. Kung Fu Panda has a good plot, it is intelligent, the characters are marvellously portrayed and it is technically a new step forward in the evolving animation world. But not only that, the work of the actors lending their voices to the characters is amazing; an astonishing list that involves Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan or Lucy Liu. 

If we have to put a “but”, I would say that the story seems short with only 1 hour and 28 minutes, leaving you angry for more (a sequel maybe will appear soon in the horizon?). Maybe Kung Fu Panda is not as deep, romantic and bittersweet as Wall-E, but as a product of entertainment for children and adults, it surely ranks very high in the animation genre. Funny, intelligent and worthy to see! 

Rating 4/5.    

{mosimage}Life in jail turns into hell for Stephen Dorff. But he will also find some important allies inside the walls…

I must confess I did not have many expectations before watching this Felon. I thought it would be the typical film about jails, and certainly, in a way it is the typical film about jails…but well done. The topical issues are there: the surviving inside the walls, the enemies and the friends, the desperation, the unfairness… But one feature that turns a movie into a good one is a good director with a good script, and Felon has both. Director Ric Roman Waugh transmit a lot with his style of filming, with those fights that look so real, with the oppressive atmosphere of a real prison, and with the duality in the minds of the main characters that make you feel identified and guessing what would you do if “that” would happen to you in your real life.

The other main feature is to have good and talented actors, and this Felon nails it there again: Val Kilmer is at his best since… I don’t know, maybe since Heat. Stephen Dorff is reborn here and totally plausible in his role, Harrold Perrineau and Nate Parker are just perfect as the good and the bad prison officers and Marison Nichols goes alone with her part more than finely (and leaves us as a gift for the eyes a tasty top less scene).

A movie worthy to watch. It will make you reflect about how life can change very fast from one day to another.

Rating 4/5.

{mosimage}Based on true events, here comes a twisted history involving the British Royal Family, a porn king, the secret service and a bunch of crazy criminals.

Films about bank robberies are not exactly anything new. Every year there are a bunch of new ones trying to be the ultimate shock in the genre. With this Bank Job you are not going to find amazing final second twists, or great action sequences; the strongest points are in the solid acting skills of Jason Statham, perfect as always in his role of tough pettish British criminal and a good selection of secondary actors.

Nonetheless, I do not like Saffron Burrows for the main female role, she does not appear sexy neither enigmatic, and the chemistry there is just totally missed; a poor counter partner for Statham. Dialogues have some good moments, but characters are not built strongly enough. You do not feel identified with them, ending up not giving a damn if they get caught or suffer, or they can finally get rid of their problems after the robbery.

From my point of view, director Roger Donaldson tried to make his own personal version of Guy Ritchie’s movies, taking inspiration from Lock & Stock or Snatch, but the script miserably failed, leaving a film that you will forget about after 10 minutes of watching it.

It has a couple of good details though, if you are a rock music fan, try to spot the cameos of Pete Townsend and Mick Jagger…

Rating 2/5.

{mosimage}A game of sex, power and betrayal for a movie that reunites to 2 heavyweights of Hollywood: Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor.

Having Jackman and McGregor in a tête à tête dressed with expensive suits and chasing beautiful girls (such as the always delicious Michelle Williams) seemed to be a secure way of success. And certainly the movie is entertaining for the first 15-20 minutes. After that, better forget about it. Everything turns to be too predictable; the characters lose their colour and seem to be a parody of themselves and the script leaks every ten seconds of action with some absurd situation.  It is very easy to say that this “Deception” really makes honour to its title, but that is the total truth of it.

Unless you are a super fan of Jackman behaving as the perfect snob, you will feel bored like hell and praying for the movie to end quickly without adding more pain to your eyes. As an example, for me the funniest part of watching this movie was when reading the interesting and funny posts in imdb page with people looking for authentic list where letting fly their sexual desires, or hilarious lists of fails and bugs in the script (and the list reached over 100 after a few posts…).

A pity that director Marcel Langenegger and writer Mark Bomback wasted so much good talent and a nice original idea, turning it into one of the worst disappointments of the last year.

Rating 2/5

{mosimage}One of the indie movies of 2008. Follow the awkward love story of two misfits trying to find their own little corner in the world. 

One thing you can say about Eagle vs. Shark. It is not the stereotypical movie about a love story. The characters are social outcasts who do not even make a big effort to integrate with the rest of the society, which is the reason maybe the reason why finally they turn to be so appealing and touching. Shot in New Zealand and directed by Taika Cohen, the film combines some good moments, like when they are at the party playing videogames dressed with their customs or the final fight with the old school bully with other not so brilliant. Some up and downs, but all in all, a consistent product. If you enjoyed watching Napoleon Dynamite, probably you will feel identified again with this one, but I must confess I had more fun watching ND. 

If you like unconventional movies with some twisted sense of humor, you will love this film. It is the kind of movie that you can love or hate, but certainly will not leave you indifferent after watching it. Worthy the effort to take a look at it and decide yourself! 

Rating 3/5.

{mosimage}Disney and Pixar release one of the most innovative animation movies in the history of cinema. Join this little robot in its amazing quest! 

With no doubt, this is the most “adult” animation movie that the privileged brains of Pixar have created so far. That does not mean that children would not enjoy it also. Wall-E is able to touch the hearts of all just with a shocking visual display and a great script, where dialogues are almost non-existent (the first human dialogue appears long after the first half an hour of the movie). Maybe you do not encounter here the hilarious humor of other previous great movies like Toy Story’s saga, but Wall-E digs much deeper, with robots that have feelings more humans than the humans themselves, flourishing topics like loneliness, love, commitment… It is a small homage to all the great science-fiction movies (probably you won’t miss the connection between Autopilot and 2001. A Space Odyssey) but at the same time it places far from being just a rip-off.

Just after watching the movie, my first thought was that it was not as entertaining as other animation movies. Then, reflecting about it, everything made sense. Wall-E is far beyond the animation genre, it becomes simply a beautiful piece of cinema, leaving you with the impression that you assisted to something magical and beautiful; the essence of cinema itself.

Rating 4/5

{mosimage}Films about poker and gambling are hot in Hollywood lately. If you enjoy the fascinating world of professional poker tournaments, you will have fun watching this.

It seems that the fever of online poker has also had a deep impact in Hollywood projects. During last year we had the luck of watching very entertaining movies like Lucky You or 21, recreating graciously the atmosphere of Las Vegas casinos. Giving a new twist to the genre, here you have a very entertaining movie to watch starring the reborn Woody Harrelson, matching perfectly his role of crazy-headed gambler addicted to all possible drugs and excesses you can imagine, and with an almost never ending list of ex-wives.  Together with him, a solid cast of secondary roles, with the highlighted presence of German director and actor Werner Herzog and his unmistakable voice.

Shot as a kind of documentary with lots of improvisation by the actors, that parodies the poker tournaments that are achieving so much success lately in mainstream Sport TV channels, the film is funny and intelligent, exploding the freaky side of being a professional poker player, but not going over the top. Hidden in the background, more serious topics like family relations or the change in the lifestyle of Las Vegas are also treated with sarcasm.

Although The Grand is not the best comedy of the last 20 years as it announces in the back of the DVD plastic box, it is certainly entertaining, being a pleasure to watch as Woody Harrelson is able to impulse his career again with a good choice of role. Pay also special attention to the cameo by one of the most legendary poker players alive: Doyle Brunson.

Rating 4/5. 

{mosimage}Follow the adventures of Ryan Reynolds when he discovers that life can offer much more than just what you plan beforehand.

Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds must be one of the most envied guy in the world during the last months after it was announced his wedding with Scarlett Johansson. I find him perfectly suitable for comedies, and he was certainly hilarious in previous films like Waiting or Van Wilder. It is a bit strange watching him in a role of a more mature person, married, and obsessed with planning all little aspects of his life, but just because of that, he is again the right actor for the role when the life of his character, Frank, starts to be messy. There is a good chemistry among him and the other two main roles of the movie, his wife, incarnated by Emily Mortimer, and his friend Stuart Townsend.

Certainly is not a movie that will make your jaw hurt with laugh after laugh, but it is entertaining to watch, and there are a couple of memorable moments like Frank riding his brand new acquired motorbike or when he is running naked along the ice hockey field. As usually happens with those holidays where you get involved without planning much and turn to be the best of your life, life is also funnier when unpredictable. Not the best comedy of the year, but surely worthy to watch.

Rating 3/5.

{mosimage}With more than 100.000 spectators at Finnish cinema, now arrives in DVD one of the strongest Finnish releases of the year. 

I must admit that I enjoy watching movies for children. I love cartoons, I am a fan of animation movies from Disney or Pixar, and I want to believe that it is good to conserve a naïve attitude towards the world, and never completely grow up (the “stay golden” advice that so wisely Coppola gave us in Rebels”. So I started watching this Myrsky with very open minded attitude. The disappointment was huge, saving the first 10 minutes of the film, the best ones due to the presence of those adorable cute puppies. Director Kaisa Rastimo achieved one thing that does not happen often to me, to feel anger for the time wasted watching the movie. There are films that I like and films I do not like, but not every director can be “proud” of making me feel real anger because of the final product.

 The point is that Myrsky is not a film for adults, neither a film for children. The parents (Laura Malmivaara and Janne Virtanen) are portrayed like clowns with no authority whatsoever over their children; the children are annoying in their attitudes, and nobody can ever feel identified with a dog with violent tendencies every 10 seconds. I don´t know if Kaisa was trying to achieve a Finnish copy for Beethoven, but certainly this movie is just a negative example of what to do with a pet at home, not showing any discipline and even getting dangerous when the “boss” is a girl of 7 with too many birds in her head. Apart from that, the plot is ridiculous, how a girl of 7 can still believe that she receives letters written by dogs? How can the parents be so permissive with the intolerable behavior of the dog? How can a dog become so aggressive when growing up surrounded by a friendly and healthy family environment? This is the first time since FREE! Magazine was created that I give the lowest rate to a movie, but believe me, Myrsky got it totally deserved. If you are thinking about buying a nice movie for your children this Christmas, skip this one. 

Rating 1/5

{mosimage}The so long-awaited 4th long-feature of the popular saga is finally in DVD for the delight of millions of Indy’s fans around the world! 

A

fter many years waiting for it and with a hesitant Steven Spielberg finally getting embarked as director of the project, the action cinema lovers had in front of their eyes the new Indiana Jones film. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was a little masterpiece in the genre, and according to Harrison Ford, he was waiting for the right script to come back to incarnate to the intrepid professor and archeologist. Funnily, we could say that it is precisely the script the weakest part of the film. The introductory sequence in the military base already tells that this is going to be the weakest Indiana Jones movie so far, and the continuation does not improve much the first impression.

The movie has some good moments and features, like the plausible appearance of Harrison Ford who makes fun of his own age, or the good choice of Shia Labeouf as Mutt. But Cate Blanchett´s role is certainly a parody of what a good “evil” character must look like in the saga and some action sequences like the attack of the giant ants, the atomic explosion or Mutt jumping like a monkey from tree to tree are too far ridiculous. 

It looks like this time the tandem Spielberg/Lucas did not find the inspiration to achieve what fans were so long expecting. Let’s see if there is finally a fifth last chapter of the saga to leave a better taste in the mouth of Indy’s followers.  

Rating 3/5

{mosimage}Once is probably one of the best Irish films coming into scene in the last decade. Discover the power of music in the streets of Dublin.

First time I watched Once was in a little film festival sitting in open air in a quite cold summer night. At the beginning, being honest, I was about to leave, thinking it would lead me nowhere while watching how a girl with strange accent was wandering around Dublin with her vacuum cleaner. But step by step I got totally involved in the action. Director John Carney, who also wrote the script, achieves one of the best indie movies of the past years, ending up with a surprising but refreshing success in many countries where cinema distributors were convinced to give it a try. With a very little budget and a solid plot, he narrates a beautiful tale of love, music, hopes and sometimes harsh reality.

Glen Hansard (maybe he rings a bell for some of you having acted in The Commitments years ago) and Marketa Irglova have a good chemistry together, and it is delicious to walk around the streets of Dublin while following their adventures and misadventures. Music is superb (the film won the Academy Award for the best song) and the characters feel real.

Maybe it touched especially my hearts since I am an expat too and I lived in Ireland for 1 month, but this DVD is worthy every penny of it. A tasteful movie that proves that great cinema can be also made with low-budget.

Rating 5/5

{mosimage}Our big and angry green friend is back causing destruction wherever he walks through

Edward Norton is the one chosen to incarnate The Incredible Hulk in this new adventure of our green massive friend, and alas he makes a good job. It seems that this actor was born to carry on with roles twisted and with bi-polar personality.  He is basically the best of a film with some nice touches. The beginning in the favelas of Brasil is certainly entertaining, and the cameo by Rickson Gracie slapping the face of Norton really surprised me gladly! The first half of the film is well done and directed with rhythm and keeping a great pace, although in the end it turns to be a bit predictable, and the final battle against the two monsters could have been more spectacular. Tim Roth is maybe not in his best role here, and looks a bit like a parody of himself, while Liv Tyler and William Hurt are just correct but not brilliant.

Fans of The Hulk will enjoy this, and for the other spectators who want action and not much of a twisted plot, this will work. But it left me a bitter sweet taste, because it had the ingredients to be better but the final product was just “average”.  Lovers of cameos will love this film too counting with another special one unaccredited by Robert Downey Jr. near the end.

Rating 3/5

{mosimage} Robert Downey Jr. faces one of the most important roles in his life as Tony Stark.

There was a big polemic around the choice of Robert Downey Jr. for this role, but finally, after watching this Iron Man, I think most have to agree that he is the right person for the job. His personality as a fallen and reborn Hollywood star matches perfectly with Tony Stark, a rich businessman dedicated to build weapons that will turn into a super hero wrapped in a power suit.  Most of us have grown up following the adventures of the Marvel super hero created by Stan Lee (who of course does his “official” cameo in the film) so there is no much need to explain who Iron man is. Director Jon Favreu takes some licenses from the original comics to identify the story with modern times, but the result is pretty plausible.

You can find together with him, a cast with luxurious names such as Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow and overall the excellent and almost unrecognizable Jeff Bridges. The interaction among the actors is certainly the best of a movie that otherwise, turns to be too much predictable. It was missed a bit of more risk in the script, which does not shine as bright as the suit of our beloved Iron Man. Just another comic adaptation with some good moments, but do not expect big surprises here, apart from the obvious big one of seeing Downey Jr. in this role.

Rating 3/5.

{mosimage}Being a nerd turns to be a pain in the ass when you start high school and somebody systematically bullies you. Owen Wilson will put a remedy to that!

I am a big fan of Owen Wilson and I had big expectations when I saw the cover of his new DVD: Drillbit Taylor. The role of a naïve homeless on charge of being the personal bodyguard of three funny losers who just started high school seemed to be tailored-size for his comedy sills. In a way Drillbit Wilson offers what you expected, no more no less. Owen Wilson is credible in his role of big child, and the teenagers perform correctly, but the script is not shiny enough. The jokes in general are not so funny and the action is pretty predictable from the beginning to the end. The best parts of the movie are maybe when Owen Wilson is acting as a fake substitute professor at the High School. But the relation among the main characters could have been more strongly built.

Not one of the best comedies recently released. Unless you are a real die-hard fan of Wilson, you will perfectly survive skipping this one.

Rating 2/5.

{mosimage}Poker is just like real life. You can bet hard and win… or lose everything. Ben Campbell will see both sides in Las Vegas casinos.

I must admit I have no idea of playing poker, but I love movies about poker. Not long time ago we had the chance to see Eric Bana´s great performance in Lucky You, and now we assist to another little masterpiece with this 21. A group of young and hyper-talented students will try to put the biggest Vegas casinos at stake led by the methodical Kevin Spacey, and Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) will have to carry a double life: a grey and shy student during the scholar week and a successful gambler at weekends.

Sturgess is credible in his performance, mastering a difficult multisided role, while the beauty of Kate Bosworth is a balsam all over the film. They are perfectly supported by two huge Hollywood names such as Laurence Fishburne and Kevin Spacey in brilliant secondary roles.

A good cocktail and an intelligent script make the movie pretty enjoyable from the beginning to the end. There is also space for a couple of small twists that enrich the plot but do not destroy it. Nice title to watch!

Rating 4/5.