Midnight in Paris (2011)

Brutal. Andava para ver este filme há que tempos. Realizou-se. Vale tanto a pena. Por Paris. Pela extravagância de ter um actor a imitar o próprio realizador a fazer de actor. Pela ideia do regresso à golden age de cada um. Pela ausência de violência,  de drama, e por ser possível fazer um filme genial mesmo assim.

5 ***** sem duvida.

Blue Jasmine (2013)

Numa frase...it sucks ! 
A actriz é boa, e ter um histórico de fada no Senhor dos Anéis, ajuda. Mas não chega.
Demasiado previsível, a história demasiado básica.
A única vantagem que vi foi um certo realismo, o "não acabar bem" típico da americanada.

Dar-lhe-ia 2 *****. Ok, 3 pela performance da actriz principal, Cate Blanchett. 

Gravity (2013)

After watching Mission to Mars, I remembered the Nespresso dude flying in a space suit, somewhere in my mind, so I went to search it, and found Gravity, a 2013 space movie, with Sandra Bullock. I always forget the dude's name, besides the fact that he is charmant, 007 lookalike, and talks to God !

So... Gravity. It's good. On one end, It is a tiny little bit too fantastic, with the tandem flights between Space Stations, and of course, how fast one can do things after boarding a russian or chinese pod just by looking at the red buttons and lights.

On the other hand, it is very real, in what it shows about the dangers orbiting presents, with debris floating around earth with a very low decaying rate, and it's also well done on the physics/cinematics of the whole spacewalking thing.

I'll give it a 4*****.

Mission to Mars (2000)

I'm a Brian de Palma fan, since Body Double (a nice cult movie, 1984, best year of the century, of course!).
So, I gave this a shot. It features Mars in all its splendor, so it's quite actual, as nowadays we have probes from several countries (India, China, Japan, US, Russia, EU) flying around several space hot spots, Mars being the hottest.
http://www.mars-one.com/ is planning 2024 as the beginning of Mars colonization, and if this really true, then the movie, shot in 1999, is not far away from reality.

The plot itself is rather speculative as it features "life on mars", and several other "walks in space" that are in-credible (as opposite to credible). But well, it's not a bad movie.

I give it 3.5 ***** , the 0,5 is due to the fact that I believe in UFOs !

The Magnificent Seven (1960)

I saw this may be 25 years ago. Good to see I still have old memories, because I could remember some parts. I was looking at an HD movie to watch on my 55"LGTV and suddenly I passed through a scene of this movie and I thought, yay, what a great definition, this must be filmed with the latest HD cameras...but then... wait a moment.. this is OLD.. Yul Brynner is there..McQueen is there... it's a proper Old Western.

And it is.

Ah, and au contraire, it's not a typical american movie, because.. people die. Good people die. Actually.. well, I won't tell you. 

4****, if you like the Western motto, this is a good movie for you.

Life of Pi (2012)

This is one of those movies...I like.

Can't explain why. May be because it's not as americanized as usual. Nice shots, nice story, you blend in with the surroundings, and it feels like you're really there, out in the ocean. Well, Kon-Tiki was better, tbh. But still...

I give it 4**** because of the story, and because the 3D was credible enough for me not to bother thinking about it, and only in the end I started thinking about it... ok, the tiger looked like 3D. What else ? The other animals too, now that I think of it. What else ? The island too, I'm sure...

If you haven't seen it, go for it !

Oblivion (2013)

Managed to watch this yesterday. Typical Tom Cruise movie. 

If you've seen Minority Report, or a movie like Total Recall, with brain memory erasing and such crap, this is for you.

As to special effects, they are nice, the ship has a good design. The bike...NOT.

Sound... it's good, I'd say, because Joseph Trapanese was responsible for the music and such.

I give it a 3-3.5 ***** because of the soundtrack, plot and because of the idea of a transpariglass pool in the clouds at height of 5 km or so.

A Royal Affair (2012)

3.5-4 ****

Watched it tonight and it's a good movie. European, slow paced, great photographic scenes. Nice acting. After remembering historic details, it fully complies. Persons, dates locations, events, everything matches.

To hear them spoken in Dannish is nice, for a change. English subtitles fix it.

Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

This is a rather liberal view of the Grimm brothers story, featuring the huntsman as the hero, instead of the damn prince, that only shows up at the end and only kisses her. Also, the dwarves part was a little rewritten, and in the end, the rewritten actually works.

The effects are great, and the filming on location in Scotland (I'd bet) also works wonders.

The only real minus are the "faeries"...come on, faeries that look like extra-terrestrials out of an area 51 detention block ?

I'll give it a 3 out of 5.

Skyfall (2012)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyfall

Watched it after I cooked my own "Cod in the Oven". Sliced large tomato and onion, sliced pre-microwaved unpeeled potato, fresh cod, bay leaf, lemon juice, salt, and olive oil. It roxxx.

Well, the Cod was WAY better than the movie. I can't say I like Daniel Craig. He has a russian look and feel that does not fit James Bond AT ALL. Sam Mendes...well, he did one of my all time favorite movies, American Beauty. But such a recognition does not mean eternal bonhomie.

It's not a great movie, except...that's right, for the Score ! Nominated for best OST, and rightfully so. The music is the best thing in the movie. The rest, sucks. Even the women suck !

I'll give it a 2 out of 5.

Collateral (2004)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collateral_(film)

With Tom Cruise.

Watched this yesterday, out of boredom. In general, I'm a fan of Tom Cruise because of my youth, Top Gun (not the movie, but what it meant to several people around me, in terms of their life style and career).

Well, I liked the photography, the way the camera rolled inside the car, how it depicted the night sky, the environment lights, the chopper views, the fact that it was not a "car pursuit" kind of movie, except for a very brief moment.

The story itself was ridiculous, too basic, and the way it ended could be foreseen 15 mins. after the movie started. Typical american ending.

Anyway, it's worth seeing, there a lot of camera takes that resemble Blade Runner, its night-like atmosphere, except it isn't raining.

Another movie it can be compared to in terms of its atmosphere is "Desperately Seeking Susan". Not the drama, of course.

I'll give it a 3.5 out of 5.

Argo (2012)

Long time no see, lots of movies to describe.

This time, Argo,a movie depicting the problems between US and Iran after the 79 revolution.

I remember it, I remember learning to read english and french by reading Newsweek and L'Express, where they extensively wrote about what was going on.

After watching the movie, it felt a good movie had gone down the "a little naive" path away from reality, because of the way the Canadians were depicted. I guess I was right, after reading about what went on.

Nevertheless, it's a great movie, not to be missed.

The fear they felt is the same someone from the West can get when they cross the border to a muslim country, not knowing their language, their culture, watching them look at you with something you may define as "hatred". 

In truth, things are not quite like that, but this is the fear that drives mistrust, that drives hatred between Men.

I'll give it a 4 out of 5.