Capitain America

There are things I really don't understand. One: people who make advertising, have scruples?. Two, and even more difficult to believe than number one: how can anyone like Justin Beaver? Seriously, he is just an spoiled kid with a bigger ego than himself, and he is not even cute! Anyway, number three: how can the executives at film studios be surprised because they do not collect as much money from movies as they expected? They can blame world crisis, they can blame hackers, they can blame my *ss! The problem is that they produce cr*p! Seriously, how can they believe they will bust the box? I trully believe they pay the film critics in news papers and magazines for good reviews, or just to wait to release the bad ones, so viewers are persuaded to go and watch the movie. It is not possible that Captain America scaped the lions... It's so unveliabable mediocre!

They could have done such a great movie out of this amazing hero... I am not really simpathetyc to all that American Pride thing, but I did like it in Capitain America! I wish we could have a Capitain Spain without immediately thinking of Civil War and things like that... But now suddenly they make this movie and... I don't know how to explain it. Steve Rogers is a prudish non charismatic skinny boy who suddenly became a prudish non charismatic muscular heroe. I couldn't get engaged in the story, I couldn't get excited about the action, I couldn't believe the love story... I couldn't even fall in love with Capitain America because he was so "without substance", as we say in Spain to describe a person who has nothing special at all. Oh! And female characters.................... I am not going to comment on that, but I wanna hope there are no women like that left on the surface of Earth.

Let's hope Conan is any better... Though I have my doubts. We'll see soon enough.

My rating: This is a movie for kids. Go to the beach if you are lucky, or stay home and enjoy some reading.

Sucker Punch + reflexion on o.v. and dubbed voices

You can't go to the cinema to watch this movie expecting a master piece: it's just another action movie. However, if you go with that in mind, you'll sure enjoy it! Action sequences are amazing, and the girls so pretty! I think it is the best convination for an entertainment: sexy girls, in sexy outfits, kicking ass.

The music is also great and, as in Watchmen, it drags you inside the movie. You get absolutely absorved by the action, the visual effects and the excellent song choice.

I can't say it is the one of the best films I've seen lately, but it certainly is one of the ones I've enjoyed the most. I am not sure how it is in original version (in Spain films are ALWAYS dubbed), but with the dubbing I guess the acting seems better. In my years of orginal-version-watching pursue, I've discovered that acting tends to fail a lot through the voice of the actor. I mean: actors can be good with facial expression, body language and physical expression in general, but can spoil all the role just by a non convincing voice performance, a lack of credibility in their vocal expression (sorry for the amount of made up words and expressions; I tend to get carried away by creation and experimentation with language). One clear example of this that comes to my mind right now is Angelina Jolie. For me, she loses credibility with her own voice, I don't know why but her voice performance seems to me very artificial. Nevertheless, when you hear her in Spanish, especially when dubbed by Nuria Mediavilla, she is just awesome! I heard once, and I completely agree, that Angelina is made to play action roles, she is like a comicbook super heroine, and I think this is very true! But for me she needs another voice... For me, her voice is that of Nuria Mediavilla. Believe me: try o.v. and then dubbed. This is a list of the movies in which Nuria gives her beautiful voice to Angelina: 60 SEGUNDOS (2000), ALEJANDRO MAGNO (2004), AMAR PELIGROSAMENTE,EL BUEN PASTOR, EL COLECCIONISTA DE HUESOS, EL INTERCAMBIO, LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER,
LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER. LA CUNA DE LA VIDA, PECADO ORIGINAL, SALT, SIETE DÍAS Y UNA VIDA, SR. Y SRA. SMITH, THE TOURIST, UN CORAZÓN INVENCIBLE, WANTED: SE BUSCA.

But, going back to Sucker Punch, one last thing I think is important to say is that there is no Charming Prince who appears at the end to save the ladies. As the song say: Las chicas son guerreras (girls are fighters) and they don't need a knockout to come round and save their cute asses, they can do it themselves. Boys in this movie mean trouble. Guess after all the story has a moral.

My rating: IT IS ANOTHER ACTION MOVIE, so don't expect great story, great performing or anything great you'd expect from a academy awarded movie (which I think is pretty obvios you shouldn't you, but critics all around the globe seem to keep on doing...). Just go watch it if you want action in its purest state.

Tron: Legacy? [spoiler?]

First of all, I want to make clear I actually LIKED the movie. It was not something I could qualify as awesome, but it went right up to my top 10 guilty-pleasures.

Anyway, let's go to the point: meaning of the question marks.

First, the second: it means that I don't know if I am going to say something that is really not expected for anyone familiar with TRON universe. So evaluate if you are at risk of having the movie spoiled by reading this. I relieve myself of all responsibility.

In the first movie, TRON is a program Adam (main character Flynn's friend) designed to "finish" the Master Control, who was ruling the net (world inside computers, to put it some way easy) with iron fist. Of course, that was no easy task and TRON was held prisoner. By a series of actions, Flynn ends up inside the net and helps TRON fulfill his task.

So, part two. As it is called "TRON: Legacy" you would expect it has something to do with TRON, but nothing further from the truth. It's actually all about Flynn and his son. TRON appears just annecdotically (does that word even exist? anyway...) and, in my opinion, could have been left aside completely. For me, his appearing on the screen seemed a bit forced, so as to have an excuse to call the film "TRON: Legacy"(cause, by the by, it is way cooler than "Flynn: Legacy", or so, and much more related to the first part of the movie).

So!

Rating: appart from the deceptive title, great work.

OLD BOY

Crazy Korean movie... I would just say "No comments, you have to see it", but it would be the easy way. I tend not to like the easy way.

So, how can I describe this movie? First of all: ASIAN. Nothing like anything you have ever seen in a western movie. SURPRISING, when the plot reaches the highest part, your mouth will start becoming more and more open. TWISTED, this comes together I think with the ASIAN adjective; I have never seen more twisted plots than the ones of Asian movies. Well, this one does not disappoint you. Though it seems quite normal the whole movie (right till the end), when you get to the heart of the matter, is as weird and twisted as you would expect it to be, or even more.

I don't think I need to say more, or I cannot say more... Or is it I should not say more? Because I do not want to spoil the movie.

My rating: just watch it, then we talk.

The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951)

Something new... Something old! Though I don't like using that adjective to refer to these movies, as they may be from a couple of years ago... But they are outstanding!

This movie was a recommendation from my beloved father, who used to love cinema and books and who managed to transmit that love to me. I have no doubt it is thanks to him I developed this love and passion for literature and the Seventh Art. It is a pity now he cannot enjoy so much of them, due to his eyes and several body-aches, which do not allow him to be sat for long hours. Anyway, he always comes very happily with me to the cinema anytime I find a movie attractive enough, even when not really good. Is in those moments when he starts remembering about the times when he went to the cinema in his youth, about the movies he watched and how amazing those films where. This is one of those films he remembers and he talks about it with that smile on his face. His eyes turn younger and you can tell, just but looking at them, how much he enjoyed that moment.

Given all this, I decided to watch it. And so I did this morning. I have to admit, even in the 15 inches screen of my computer, the film was really startling, and I started thinking about how it would have been to watch it in a big wide cinema screen. No wonder why Cinema reached the status of Art, why they call it the dream factory. The mix of real war scenes with the shots taken in the studio is extremely well done. The begining, for instance, is just sublime: the way the soldiers move along, the landing, the assault to the mansion. Then the battlefield at night, which must have been pretty astonishing watched inside a dark theater.

But not only from good shots you make a great movie. Dialogues and settings where almost perfect, on the verge of prepaired speech but that seemed natural if considered in the whole of the situation. I never quite understood the need for everything to be as natural as possible, especially in war films, where you expect to find heroes and villains, get confused sometimes between what is good or evil, and just get obliterated by witty responses just in the right moment.

Overwhelmed by high-tech and special effects, we lost our innocence in front of the screen and we don't let ourselves enjoy the simplicity of a good all-time black and white classic.

My rating: I highly recommend this movie to any of you who enjoy war classics and specially to those like me, who still think about cinema as that miracle, that gives life to the greatests of all heroic deeds.

The A Team [prolly spoiler, read at your own peril]

I am not quite sure about this, beginning a blog talking about the "A Team", but as I want to be consistent with my idea, I have to talk about it because I just saw it yesterday. And I am not going to say "somebody dragged me to watch it", because that would be lying. Actually, it was me who dragged my parents!

The film was not that bad. I was expecting something quite different, but at least it was entertaining. The opening maybe was the most dissapointing: no theme song! just some shades of it... And then the story, nothing like the TV series! I was glad they actually shot people (would have been so unrealistic if they didn't), there were even casualties among the bad guys! And the memebers of the A Team got shot and hurt. However, what I didn't like was the fact that they were operating in the Middle East... with CIA involved and all that spy crap.

Maybe I was expecting more something between "Die Hard" and "Rock'n'rolla", if you can figure that out... In my mind it is possible.

My rating: it's a good movie to watch in a boring August evening.