WANTED - a Roller Coaster Ride of Action!

You had to know with a cast like Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy that this wasn't going to be just another Action Thriller... WANTED is a comic book adaptation but unlike Iron Man, which I also loved, this film is rated Adult not PG. It was a full throttal ride and it hits every mark: Plot, Acting and Special Effects. An opening scene hasn't grabbed me like this one since the orignal Matrix!

You may remember James McAvoy, who is perfectly cast as the lead Wesley Gibson, from such British dramas as Atonement, Becoming Jane and The Last King of Scotland.

Here McAvoy plays a self deprecating, over apologetic, bullied cubicle drone prone to anxiety attacks (not unlike another one of my favourite flawed characters: The Narrator vs. Tyler Durdan played by Edward Norton in The Fight Club), who upon discovering he is the son of a notorious killer is assisted on a quest by a Fraternity of Assassins (aka Weapons of Fate), to find out who he is to ultimately take control of his life.

With a tagline like: CHOOSE Your Destiny, we know they have 99 minutes to attempt to turn Gibson from dorky to deadly. Does he do it? Well, I won't ruin it for you - because there is a great twist, but let's just say McAvoy has come a long way from playing Mr. Tumnus the Faun in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion or the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Morgan Freeman plays Sloan, an eerily calm M-Type Puppet Master who interprets a woven Binary Code that gives the Fraternity names or better - targets to assassin. Delivered in only a way that Freeman can do, Sloan explains where the targets come from to Wesley,

“They come out of a necessity Wesley. A necessity to maintain balance in the world. They are orders that must be executed. Entrusted to us so that we might forge stability out of chaos."

Angelina Jolie plays Fox and is back where we like her - cool, tough and sexy. Sure she stretched her acting muscle in A Mighty Heart but this is her bread and butter and I for one was happy to see her back driving fast cars, shooting and kicking butt!

With a theme like: Kill one, Save a Thousand, awesome Sci-Fi photography and it's 2 Fast 2 Furious car stunts (which may have something to do with the writing team of Micahel Brand & Derek Haas having written both) Timur Bekmambetov, the Russian/Kasakh film director's first American film will definitely - in my opinion, solidify him in the Hollywood community. WANTED opened in 22 markets over last weekend and collected $33 million dollars... I predict this will double once the word of mouth spreads.

Here's a line you can take with you as spoken by my new hero Wesley Gibson, "What the @#$% have YOU done lately?"

Get off the Couch People...

P.

JUNO!

I recently saw this quirky little gem of a film again and I must say it gets better each time I watch it!

I couldn't wait for this film to come out in DVD on April 15th. I only saw a few movies when living in Kauai and this was so worth the trek!

Here are just a few of it's memorable lines:
*Geese Banana... Shut your friggen GOB!

*Momma Bear, your Eggo is Prego... Pay for that pee stick when you're done. Don't think it's yours because you marked it with your urine. What's the prognosis fertile myrtle?

*The little pink plus sign is so unholy... That ain't no etcha sketch, this is one doodle that can't be undid, home skillet.

*Honest to Blog?!

*It's probably just a Food Baby.

*All babies want to get borned!

*Despirately Seeking Spawn or Baby Starved Wing-nuts

*Great in Chair!

*Pork Sword

*East Jesus no where...

*One BIG fat sack of NO.

*He is the Cheese to my Macaroni.

My favourite Quote is when Juno is talking to her Father about Relationships: The best thing you can do is find a person who loves you for exactly what you are... Good mood, bad mood, ugly, pretty, handsome, what have you. The right person will still think the sun shines out of your ass! That's the kind of person that's worth staying with.

xo P.

P.S. This movie was filmed in Vancouver, Kitsilano and Ladner. If you are interested in seeing what other films were shot here, check out: The Best (and Worst) Movies Filmed in Vancouver.

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SEX & THE CITY is BACK! Whoop Whoop...

What can I say... I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the 2-1/2 hours that I spent in the theatre! This film is oh SO... very fun, like visiting old friends, catching up on each other's lives over cocktails. I don't know about you, but I was so... sad when the series ended, it was like a relationship died and the reruns, were as satisfying as looking at photos of a lost love.

A girlfriend flew into town to share this experience with me (okay, maybe it was just timing and not for the film or me but...) we dressed in our cutest shoes after going for pedicures, then went for afternoon Cosmos before going to an afternoon matinee... And we haven't stopped talking about it since ;P

I thoroughly appreciated how Michael Patrick King (who I stood behind in line for coffee at Hanalei's Java Kai this Christmas) matured the characters of Sex and the City. The expanded story lines seem like they would appeal to a broader female audience.

I myself, was in fact the target market when the series was running - late thirties, single, living in the heart of the downtown core, and like the characters - looking for love... Many of my married friends, in the throws of motherhood couldn't relate and found the show vulgar. I tried on many occasions to explain how once you invested in the characters, the show no longer appeared to be only about SEX!

Whatever... they didn't have the interest or the time to invest in getting caught up - that is until the edited versions hit Cable! How smart were they (Michael & Sarah Jessica) to wait for a new viewing audience to catch up and join the band wagon before launching their film persona's - very smart!

I think Jessica Reaves' Review from The Chicago Tribune says it the best:

It's escapist fun with an enormous amount of heart, the kind of viewing that reminds you to call your best friend, just so she knows you're there if she needs you. "My friends," Carrie intones over the opening montage, "have been my salvation." Ditto, xo P.

P.S. The DVD is going to be even better! Frankly I prefer to watch the nudity & sex scenes on a small screen - I'm not so fond of the up close and personal body parts. I mean really... who needs to see Mr. Big's Tongue! Eeeww.... forever cheeky ;P
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Across the Universe!

Okay... If you haven't seen this film - DO! It is magical... really, truly! Have no fear - it's NO Hairspray!

"Across the Universe sweeps you up on a wave of terrific Beatles Songs." Peter Travers, Rolling Stone.

"It's the kind of movie you watch again, like listening to a favorite album." Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times.

2007 Golden Globe Nominee for BEST PICTURE.

2007 Academy Award Nominee COSTUME DESIGN.

I loved, Loved, LOVED this film!!! I saw it twice in the theatre - the first time I was overwhelmed with it's brilliance. The second time (a Special Christmas Eve Matinee - thanks for being "open" Mr. T.) was the best! A sold out show - with more than 1/2 of the audience having seen it before... We laughed at the jokes before the punch lines... We hummed, sang and by the end wiggled in our seats - it was a Community Event - sharing the roller coaster ride of emotions induced by the ART that is this film.

Would you expect anything less from Julie Taymor the Director of the Award Winning & Oscar Nominated Frida (2002).

PLOT:

A love story set against the backdrop of the 1960s amid the turbulent years of anti-war protest, mind exploration and rock 'n roll, the film moves from the dockyards of Liverpool to the creative psychedelia of Greenwich Village, from the riot-torn streets of Detroit to the killing fields of Vietnam. The star-crossed lovers, Jude (Jim Sturgess) and Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), along with a small group of friends and musicians, are swept up into the emerging anti-war and counterculture movements, with "Dr. Robert" (Bono) and "Mr. Kite" (Eddie Izzard) as their guides. Tumultuous forces outside their control ultimately tear the young lovers apart, forcing Jude and Lucy – against all odds – to find their own way back to each other. Sony Website.

The first person I called to share my excitement was my Dad - the man who inspired my love of film! I so... wanted him to go see it and tell me what he thought. He said, he had a hard time finding it, when I realized that it was actually released on the mainland in September! (Kauai didn't get it till December... That said, it turned out that according to IMDB that it was only released on 30 screens! How shocking... I figure there was a political conspiracy behind this due to it's anti-war message.) I awaited nervously to hear my Dad's critique, hoping upon hope that the generational gap that I've started to notice since he turned 60 was in fact just a gap and not a canyon... He called and he LOVED it too!!! I was so happy... we relived it on the phone for about an hour! He compared it to Tommy for the music and Moulon Rouge for imaginative Art Direction. 

It was a Very Merry Christmas indeed! I was given the Soundtrack and spent the week between the holidays listening to it over and over again - I felt like I was back in high school obsessing about an Album - too FUN!

Last week the DVD came out - Complete with hours of Special Features. Don't walk - RUN out and get this - if you've ever trusted me before, do it once again! And remember ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE!  Xo P.

P.S. For more information log onto Sony's Official Across the Universe.

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2007 Spring Films

Buongiorno… or should I write Bonjour being back in Canada! Italy was Bellissimo... but I missed my movies ;P

Last night I went to see Knocked Up Written & Directed by Judd Apatow who also wrote and directed “The 40 Year Old Virgin”. It was SO good… Something I didn’t expect… Vancouver is all a buzz about it because the lead character (and actor actually) is from Vancouver, Canada and is a complete stoner – which is typical of our reputation of being the weed capital of North America due to our very mild inexpensive “BC Bud” grown mainly on Vancouver Island. Which interestingly enough is also the geographical area that supports Canada’s only Surf Community – interesting.

Anyways, the movie was TOO FUNNY following 2 story lines. One about the guy and his posy and the other about the girl and her reality… A perfect balance – in other words a perfect date film – which is really hard to pull off. Gross-out jokes seldom work in a chick flick and visa versa but Apatow did it and even better than in his first film!

I have seen a TON of films lately… all due to being on so many planes this month… Here’s my personal critique – for whatever it’s worth:

Children of Men – I watched this twice now… EXCELLENT Film!

Every character has a rich backstory, the overall theme totally touches on the subliminal fears of this generation even though it is set in the future. Michael Caine plays I think one of the best roles of his career and has an incredible monologue about the differences between “fate & chance” awesome and haunting.

Painted Veil – Beautifully filmed and incredibly acted by Edward Norton & Naomi Watts. A period film from the 1920’s about a Cholera outbreak in China. A CLASSIC LOVE STORY… They didn’t have a lot of money for marketing – I predict huge numbers in DVD rentals & sales. (By the way... American History X was on Television the other night and is still on my Top 10 Provocative film list... Edward Norton is up there with Sean Penn & Ben Kingsley as one of those actors whose character development comes from a place of authenticity vs. ego!)

History Boys – A British Film about a prep school preparing it’s elite students for entrance exams to go to Yale. It won tons of awards when it was a musical play on stage… So imagine my surprised to learn that the main character – their teacher was a Pedophile! NOT MY KIND OF FILM.

Pan’s Labyrinth – A Spanish film that was up for several Academy Awards this year due to it’s special effects. They made a point of saying it was a fantasy film about a little girl but it was NOT for children! So… true, it swung back and forth between fantasy and reality… The reality was very BRUTAL & VIOLENT hence the main character a 12 year old created a fantasy world to escape. I have a hard time watching anything where children or animals are hurt so not my type of film, but I could see why it was being praised for it’s creativity.


Music & Lyrics – Billed as a Romantic Comedy but really only a Comedy, and light hearted one at that, due to the fact I didn’t believe the chemistry between Hugh Grant & Drew Barrymore. EHHhhh... A rental at best.

Shooter – Interesting stats and math on how to successfully shoot a moving target but a little too red-neck and violent for me. In general a Rambo remake. For the record, I would have NEVER gone to see this - but it was the only film on a flight to Toronto :{

Catch & Release – A cute & sweet little Romantic Comedy filmed entirely in Vancouver (pretending to be Oregon), a perfect MENSTRUAL rental ;P By the way, did you know that Kevin Smith went to The Vancouver Film School - briefly, 3 months I think. He got a 70% tuition refund and used that to make his first movie!

Letters from Iwo Jima – subtitled, so a little hard to sit through but an interesting Japanese perspective on war. Clint Eastwood is consistently amazing with his attention to detail. More my FATHER's type of film...

Apocalypto – Talk about violent but really WELL DONE – excellent story telling.

The Good German – It’s tough when you try to make a “classic”. They filmed this in black & white - fashioned after “Casablanca”. A character study of 3 people (2 Americans and 1 German) in Germany in the 40’s. The crude sex and violence made it uncomfortable to sit through, hence the word of mouth killed it at the box office and I predict in DVD as well. DON'T Bother...

Happy Feet – sweet and fun – with a great Global Warming message.

I haven’t seen the big releases like Spider Man 3, Pirates 3, Shrek 3 (though I LOVE Mike Myers – being Canadian and all), Oceans 13 or Surf’s up - yet…

As you can tell, I don’t have a favorite genre, I’ll watch pretty much anything. That comes from working in the film industry I think, even if the movie is CRAP I realize how much work and effort has gone in to the making of a film that I truly believe there has to be at least one redeeming quality – like people ;P People are never black and white, we operate in the grey, that’s what makes us interesting - I think. P.