Who said that Owls can't live amazing adventures...

Wits: 4.5/5
Story: 4.5/5
Perception: 5/5
Rating: 4.5/5 


Ever wondered what the Lord of the Rings would look like if the characters were animals, here is the owl version of it. Inspired by a book series, which focuses on these birds, the movie follows the story of a young owlet who believes in the legends that he grew up with. After he is kidnapped, more of owletnapped, by the evil ones of his kind, he discovers that the stories had a spark of reality and his dreams seem to be more palpable. I imagine that by now, you all know that this is going to end with an epic battle.

The movie in its whole is simply beautiful. Every scene, shot, detail is so perfectly drawn and rendered that I regret not seeing it in a 3D theater; I believe it would have been breathtaking. Snyder's touch for picturing combats (already seen in 300) doesn't cease to impress, the liveliness of the action making you forget that the bloody effects have been dimmed due to the presence of young audience. And all of this with...Owls.

The story includes many motives already seen in this kind of production and it has a quite predictable ending, but so did Avatar, and on a much larger scale. But it's awesome imaging made millions of people consider it as the best movie in history. You should know that for me this one is better than Avatar, since it has less common characters, and also because there's no Deus Ex Machina, a safety situation solving trick that I personally hate.

I would have liked some more character development, especially for the group of friends deciding to make the voyage; but anyway, the voices were compatible with the perception of the characters.

So, this is very artistic pretty educational jewel, to be appreciated by kids and adults alike; probably less for boy teenagers.









Details - Spoiler Alert!!!

Without the totalitarian, xenophobic and tyrannic political rulers and regimes throughout history the villain personifications would have lacked models
Thank God there's Wikipedia to understand what the main word of the story, gizzard, the gut from an owl's point of view; on the other hand how some magical metal could affect the insides of a bird, that's pure mystery 
'You're gonna give her daymares!'

Is giving up on stuff really the answer?

It was planned to write one day about the burring environment issue and the exasperating reasoning related to it. The next video was quite the last drop:




There's only two words for it: high-quality-custom-made BS.
First of all, it was one of the most politically cliched speech I've ever heard on the matter. All that was said was, poor people (especially Chinese), poisonous plastic, democracy (as if it had something to do), the little bottle, and the 2nd rate comedian puns; and NO real information to support any of these. The clamshell example reminded me of what a "world renowned scientist" and also dictator-wife once said: "How comes that cows make ammonia by themselves and you need all these high pressure and temperatures?" By the way, Biomimicry is the fundament of most of the human inventions, and it's being used without bearing a pompous name for centuries and centuries: planes are an obvious example of this.

On a more general scale the majority of the environmental talk are turned about plastics and I know you might say that I'm biased, but all of this is not about one product but more on a mentality. It goes like this: Something (plastic, cars, cow dung...) pollutes and it is bad, let's get rid of it. Well, my answer is the last 150 years are the source of this menace, technology is bad, rocks were alright, let's get back to the stone age.

What I don't understand is this tendency to advertise a backwards trend, when all it is needed is to go forward and improve the existent solutions or come with brand new ones. Of course, that what is superfluous needs to go and that can be pretty easily spotted. Let's take the example of plastics: for the technical solutions it is slightly impossible to revert to previous materials like metal or wood, but on the other hand some extra layers of packaging should go away. There are very few who could really do 180° and give up the cosines and easiness of today's comfort, probably very determined people and Amish communities; but for the basic somehow selfish human being, like myself, this is unimaginable: I mean why should we give up on stuff, which are about 75% useful, when we can do better? The military research still advances so new inventions should come up sooner or later.

Also, the ones involved in decision taking processes ought to be less biased (especially from a monetary point of view) and once a decision has been taken a whole mechanism should be put in motion to watch how things are done. Like for the chemicals inside toys and for waste disposal: every step has to be registered and so, no mistakes, involuntary or not, should appear. Example: companies should be forced to obey the stricter rule between the one of their country of origin or the one where they're selling the product; that's how regions with looser legislation won't end up with rejected batches from other corners of the world. The reasoning should be done on a planetary scale not on a petty wallet-size one. It may sound utopic but I still keep some hope on the human preservation reflex.

Another thing is about education: people should me more informed in a responsible way about everything coming in contact with them. This should be done in an instructional manner, without any materialistic or apocalyptic witchcraft-style way: plastic bottles are bad, they have chemicals in them! The thing is, that everything has chemicals in them and instead of seeing all this like kryptonite, we should learn to read a label and not take everything for granted.

In my opinion the major workshops of the present are: recycling - the intelligent way (not dumping into a hole and covering it up), non-fetishist or snotty alternative sources of energy, better fuel to energy ratio machines, less greed and dumb money-digging and population positive awareness.
To conclude, we generated our own freaking geological era, we can't go back, we should go forth but leave the blindfold and the spiked-boots behind.

You Got Stung

Acting: 3/5
Story: 3/5
Perception: 4/5
Rating: 3/5 (3.5 on the big screen)


Far from being an intellectual movie once, but frankly it was just what I was looking for.It has a Kick Ass touch to it, but doesn't reach the same level of originality.

So, a non-hero figure plays a non-hero main character who realizes that he hasn't been living his life as he should after his father's death. And he does this, as the pure megalomaniac that he is, by becoming a superhero armed with stubbornness, self-esteem up the wazoo and a very skilled partner. All of this with a little media manipulation on the side.

The story was all right, not much plot entanglements, just a couple of aces up the sleeve. But its rhythm was quite intense, so the movie was nicely dozed up in action. The action trio, the good guys and their nemesis, were well sketched and the actors playing them did their job decently. In general the characters worn their comic-book hero costumes with the right amount of behavioral exaggeration.

Christoph Waltz embodied perfectly another villain caricaturisation; he reminds me of Hugo Weaving's Agent Smith. Kato was a very good surprise, with his witty replies and his numerous aptitudes; the English difficulties bit was something that I didn't really followed. Actually the average was lowered by Rogen, which was only decent as I've said before, because there were some exaggerated features that were too exaggerated. Cameron was a cute accessory and intrigue source of the movie but hasn't a crucial part.

On the sensory side, first of all the 3D is borderline worthless, but the film has good shots and cool effects, especially when it involves Kung Fu or the Black Beauty; by the way, besides the Bat-Mobile there is no other cooler car. There were a couple of editing or conversion errors, but you won't find them unless you're really looking for them.

If you're seeking a movie for a buddies cinema-night, take your shoot with this one: you'll have a very good time.










Pros and Cons - Spoiler Alert!!!

I didn't get the trunk multiplication effect from the first combat and mainly because it never occurred again afterwards.
Chudnofsky's introduction scene is purely brilliant 
For further reference, polycarbonate is one of the toughest plastics out there (especially transparent ones), but don't take your chances to stop bullet after bullet
Cameron's age ambiguity 31, actually 36...well make more of a 40

Sometimes titles don't say anything....

Acting: 3.5/5
Story: 2/5
Perception: 3/5
Rating: 3/5 

It seems that I'm crossing shallow waters cinematographically speaking, and this time I stumbled upon a so-called spy movie.

I guess everybody remembers Ethan Hunt and his exploits which first were Mission: Impossible and later became Mission: you're shitting me (no good pun was found). Well, in this one the lord of scientology embraced the same occupation. Only that now, not only he seems to be SuperHunt on steroids aka Roy Miller aka you'll find out by watching, but also...on shrooms.
So the superspy wackjob bumps into an innocent damsel, who will inevitably be dragged into his patriot-gone-rogue or the other way around act.

I guess that all the borderline superhero abilities showed mainly by Cruise, were intended to deliver the impression of an ironic depiction of spy movies; but the story still kept a seriousness aura around it, which was somewhat opposed to the fact that I don't recall an instant when the main male character was bleeding.
Cameron Diaz's character had her own annoying part: the impossibility of following instructions which was intended to be funny, but failed to do so after a couple of occurrences.

Even with all these imperfections the movie still remains pleasant to watch, but anyway none of those can compare with the exasperating effect of the blackouts cutting of the crucial moments.

So, if you have to watch it you shouldn't despair, it's easily bearable; you could even see it on your own without any external constraint if you're not looking for anything subtle. One more thing, how in Tom Cruise's name did they come up with the title?!?!?!










Stuff - Spoiler Alert!!!

"I'll kill myself and then her" "I did, but I asked him to stay in the booth" with their respective tones
The talk with the hired gun on the train is to dumbest thing a person could have done in this kind of situation, yet not a funny cliche, but that doesn't stop them from using it; luckily the "Oh my God! Just die!" scene came after to improve the atmosphere
The car-ride on the truck scene looked pretty smooth and cool
 

More of an A- but still a good time

Acting: 3.5/5
Story: 4/5
Perception: 3.5/5
Rating: 3.5/5

From time to time one needs to relax his/her synapses in a slight active manner; that's where teen comedies step in in my case. And when they're more than bearable the whole situation gets even better.

This one's about the stigmatization in the high-school world and the power of rumor over the one of facts. Inspired by the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Emma Stone tends to assume the supposed trollop role and play by accordingly. This makes her bargain her fake promiscuity, in the detriment of her former nonexistent but still clean-cut image; and soon the whole deal goes to pot.

I found Olive to be very genuinely played, in opposition with the rest of the characters who seem more or less hyperbolized. Intentioned or not, the behavioral or the situational absurd fuels a lot of laughter.

Special mention for the parents and their very unconventional parenting skills and for the chapter titles and their quite snobbish complexity, which I sometimes employ as well. There were some goofs in editing but they're overlookable.

There's nothing more to add, a cool light movie for those in need of unwinding...










Quotes - Spoiler Alert!!!

The Sexy Silk entrance coupled with the Anagram dialog are pure gold...for this type of film of course :)
"A is for Awesome"
 "Is there an Olive here?/There's a whole jar of them in the fridge"
"This is public school. If I can keep the girls off the pole and the boys off the pipe, I get a bonus."
"So, what's with your new look? It's very whore couture."
"You dress like a stripper/...a highend stripper"