The last two weeks I started with this post on the 8th of August and it’s already halfway September. O_o Anyway, the first week of August I’ve been to Bruno and Public Enemies which are two totally different style of movies. Bruno was really ehhhh graphic to put it mildly. Didn’t expect a lot of Bruno so I was ehhh very surprised by some of the things in the movie. It was a fun movie but nothing special.

The second movie was Public Enemies which I enjoyed but it was kind of overrated by a lot of reviews. It’s not a bad movie, just slow at times. The style and acting was pretty nice and it was interesting to see Johnny Depp play a real life character again. Since it’s already been about  1 1/2 month ago and appearantly the movies weren’t that memorable I’ll just finish up this post. Up to the next few posts …

Well … Transformers 2 Revenge of the Fallen has had a lot of mixed reviews on IMDB and after reading them and watching the movie yesterday I must agree with most of the reviews that are nuanced and a bit more negative about this installment of Transformers. First of all the good, or at least the things I thought were enjoyable of the movie:

CGI was very good. No doubt about that, visually the robots (I refuse to call them Transformers for reasons yet to follow) looked very spectacular. The main attraction fot this movie and the main eye candy.

Action wise it’s a typical blow up stuff movie, in short mindless entertainment.

Megan Fox is hot, but her acting is euhh … Then again, she’s the other eye candy of the movie. Which is emphasized everytime she’s in a scene. I mean come on, I know Megan Fox is hot but to have a robot humping her leg?

Now for the things I really did NOT like in general about the movie and things about the “Transformers” in the movie (but then again I might be a grumpy old fan of the original 80′s cartoonshow).

Camera style!!! IT WOULD NOT KILL TO KEEP THE FRIGGING CAM STILL FOR A FEW SECONDS!!! Specially during the transformations of the robots and all. Now we see scenery movement and camera angle shifting during a transformation. Which is very distracting and does not do the transformation any justice. Since you can’t see a damn thing of the total thing and if you can see it then the frigging swifting of camera angle makes it almost impossible to follow. More is not always the best thing in fact less is more in this case.

The robots themselves. I mean I could NOT recognize any of the robots ans I was a big fan of the cartoon in the 80′s. Specially when a lot of them were on screen at the same time during the battles. Give the damn robots some specific colouring like in the cartoon so people can see the the differences. The only one I could recognize was Bumlebee because he’s yellow.

The robots in Transformers 2 (as in the first movie) are not worthy of being called Transformers in MY humble opinion. You could have called both the movies by any other cool name which has to do with robots and it would NOT have mattered to me story wise but none of the robots in the movies can be called Transformers. At least not by me, if others think differently that’s their opinion. This is mine.

The idiotic, annoying autobot duo. Got I wanted to see them get blown up, teared apart whatever after a few scenes with them involved. They make Jarjar look like nothing.

The fallen one? What the F*%& ??? Megatron being an apprentice? hmmm much darkness I sense in this young one … WTF!!! Did I buy a ticket to  see a robot version of Star Wars? O_o That was soo frigging rediculous!!!

Other then that it was an enjoyable movie. Mindless entertainment, specially when I didn’t associate the movie with Transformers and just enjoyed the 2 1/2 hour ride.I really hope they remake the original 1986 cartoon movie into a CGI version, while leaving the Transformers appreances just like in the cartoon and not use the ones they did for the movies. That would soo kick ass. Oh well, I can only dream about that happenening …

Last week Saturday I went to the latest movie of Jim Carey which is “Yes Man“. It just came out about two weeks ago and since me and my friends (Marco & Dennis) were in the mood for a comedy we went to Yes Man.

I really have to say that the movie is really over the top and I was laughing my ass off. It’s been a while that I could say that I liked a movie. Eventhough the storyline set Yes Man up for the things that happen I couldn’t help but laugh. There were two moments in the movie which will go down and stay with me in a … euhhh how should I put it … gross kind of way.

The movies storyline in a nutshell is that the main character is a no man and by turning into a yes man finds happiness in the end. The road towards that happiness is filled with entertaining, weird, over the top events which will made me laugh my ass off. What do I mean with no man & yes man, well you just have to look at the trailer or visit the cinema to know.

Yes Man is a real Jim Carey movie, comparable with Ace Ventura. Mindless laughter and simple entertainment. So if you want that then I can recommend Yes Man, otherwise just skip this one and head off for another movie.

Two days ago I went to the latest Batman movie with some friends, Batman The Dark Knight at the Imax theatre. When we got at the theatre it was really crowded which was quite a surprise since it was really nice weather the whole day. We thought it would be less crowded since most people hit the beach with this weather. Anyway, after a long wait for the tickets and another long wait to finally enter the cinema we found some nice seats for the movie.

I heard a lot of good things about the movie, well ok, granted I only asked what people thought and told them not to tell anything about the rest. Also looking at IMDb (Internet Movie Database) it has a high score and all. Even though I was really tempted to read the comments and everything I resisted the urge to do so. The only thing I know was that Heath Ledger (RIP) who plays the Joker committed suicide or something like that.

So expectations were quite high for the movie to be honest. And boy did Batman The Dark Knight deliver, I was blown away by Heath Ledgers performance as the Joker. He simply blew everyone else off the screen. Story wise nothing new, basic comic turned into movie thing in my opinion but entertaining none the less. More so because of the strong performance of the Joker I didn’t have the feeling the movie was that long.

I can highly recommend everyone going to see the latest Batman movie, just don’t expect a lot story wise and enjoy the rollercoaster ride that is called Batman The Dark Knight and hosted by the Joker.

Today I finally went to the “Da Vinci Code” with a friend of mine. We were at the Erasmus and were having lunch when we started talking about movies and in an impulsive whim we decided to see the Da Vinci Code. The movie was starting within 35 minutes after our decision to go so we had just enough time to get from the university to the theatre in downtown Rotterdam.

Before seeing the movie I already knew some things about the story since I saw a few tv programs about the Da Vinci Code on various channels. I haven’t read the book yet so I wasn’t biased plot and story wise except for the fact that the book is one of the best selling books at the moment. So I wasn’t really expecting a lot, I intentionally kept my expectations low.

I must say that the story is very good and intruiging, eventhough I was told that a lot of things were left out and changed. But that’s inevidable when filming a book. Same thing happened with the filming of Tolkiens “The Lord of the Rings”. Anyway this post is not about LotR but about the Da Vince Code. I liked the story and now I know that I’m going to read the book just to see what I missed out on. And about the warnings that you would not be able to follow the story if you haven’t read the book. Those are NONSENSE !!! The story is not that hard to follow, you have to pay attention but it’s no rocket science.

SPOILER WARNING !!!
If you haven’t seen the movie yet do NOT read further as it contains spoilers. Read at your own risk. If you’ve seen the movie you know what I’m talking about.

Some of the acting and plot was below par in my opinion. I was kind of dissapointed with the acting of Tom Hanks, whom I consider a good actor with a lot of good roles in the past. Plot wise I could see some of the dialog and events coming from more than a mile away which disappointed me. I mean, halfway through the movie, when they were in the house of Sir Leigh Teabing I already was thinking that Sophie Neveu was one of the offspring and bloodline of Jesus Christ and in the end when they were below in the basement of the final church I was like: “Noooo, you’ve got to be kidding me … is this for real ?!?!?!”

Same thing with the following instances:

The final part then suddenly Langdon realizes what the poem/verse means, first thing I thought was: “Nahh it couldn’t be below the two pyramids in Le Louvre” only to see that it was exactly what I was thinking. Somehow when the two pyramids were shown in the beginning and Langdon made a comment about it I had a feeling that something was going to happen.

The Sir Leigh Teabing plot twist, he being the “bad guy” or at least manipulating the whole thing was kind of predictable. I got that hunch when Silas could enter the mansion without being noticed by anyone.

In the church in the end when everybody is standing there like it’s some kind of happy reunion was kind of weird and corny.

There are a few more things but overal I enjoyed the movie and am anxious to start reading the book. But that will have to wait untill after my exams the coming two weeks.

If I had to rate the movie I would give it an 7,5. Nice, enjoyable but not without its flaws plot and acting wise.