Pitt Perfect

The more I see Brad Pitt in action the more I think he is an incredibly gifted actor. I hadn't seen 12 Monkeys in a very long time, and pretty much all I remembered was how good he was. If my memory serves me, this was one of the first roles in which he tried to diversify was he was doing, the kind of character he was playing. I think he might have been trying to prove he wasn't just a pretty boy, and he certainly succeeded. From here he would go on to play a wide variety of characters, with some (to me, at least) memorable turns in the more recent Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Burn After Reading, and Inglourious Basterds, proving his versatility and fearlessness in choosing parts in a movie.
As for the movie itself, I really like it, but then again I am partial to time-traveling stories and time-continuum paradoxes. Plus, "The Army of the Twelve Monkeys" has to be one of the coolest names for an army ever. Or one of the strangest. Or both.

Bringing Down the House

I watched 21 on DVD as soon as I was finished with Bringing Down the House, the book by Ben Mezrich on which the film is based. This is usually a bad idea, but since I was mostly concerned with being true to the spirit of the story rather than the details, I thought I would be fine.

I liked the movie, and the screenplay by Peter Steinfeld and Allan Loeb is indeed true to the spirit of the book. It hits most of the same beats and presents the story in a very similar way, but it also changes several things. This doesn't really bother me anymore, because I understand some changes occur to better present the story on a different medium, and it sometimes works for the best. In 21...

1. Some of the changes make sense, such as reducing the number of members on the MIT Blackjack Team for reasons of budget, time, and clarity.

2. Some other changes help flesh out the main character's personality and evolution (Ben, played by Jim Sturgess), such as his relationship with his friends and how it changes after he becomes part of the Blackjack Team.

3. Some changes are rather pointless though, like changing the name of the main character from Kevin to Ben (the author's name) when "Kevin" is a fake name itself (the book is based on a true story), or having the teacher in charge of the team (played by Kevin Spacey) still teaching as opposed to being retired.

4. Some other changes have to do with marketing and making money, such as the whole team being Asian in the book but only having one Asian girl in the movie –I guess an all-Asian cast would not attract audiences to the movie theater.

5. And some other changes feel too coincidental, like the girl Ben likes (played by Kate Bosworth) being on the team. Bosworth's character is actually a blend of two or three different girls from the book, and even though I understand this is common practice when adapting a novel and it helps streamline both cast and story in the film, it also feels like too much of a coincidence.

6. Finally, there is one change I didn't like, and that was giving Ben a reason to enter the team. In the book he does it because of the thrill, the danger, the appealing double life. In the movie, he does it to get money to pay for his continuing education, a much more praiseworthy motive but one that I think changes the fundamental nature of the character. Maybe that's why they gave him a different name in the movie, because he is a different character.

At any rate, I enjoyed the movie, which, as I said, is true to the spirit of the book. I found it well acted and entertaining, and you could do worse than watching it. Just don't watch the preview first, since it spoils quite a lot of things. Will they ever stop doing that?

El viejo y su coche

Después de que infinidad de personas -incluyendo a mi madre- me dijera que tenía que ver esta película de Clint Eastwood, por fin he tenido un par de horas (ocupado que está uno, al parecer) para sentarme delante de la tele y ver Gran Torino. Y debo decir que, tal vez por segunda o tercera vez en la historia, estoy de acuerdo con el resto del mundo.

El ritmo de la película, como suele ser el caso cuando Eastwood dirige, es lento pero en ningún momento se hace pesada o aburrida. La transformación de su personaje, Walt Kowalski, es interesante aunque ciertamente predecible, y su peculiar forma de relacionarse con la gente a su alrededor es divertida. Sus dos vecinos Sue y Thao (interpretados por Ahney Her y Bee Vang respectivamente) son también interesantes, aunque me hubiera gustado conocer algo mejor a Sue. Finalmente, la forma en que acaban las cosas tiene sentido, pero no puedo sino desear que hubiera sido diferente, qué queréis que os diga.

En resumen, la he disfrutado bastante más que las dos últimas películas suyas que había visto (Bloodwork y Flags of Our Fathers), y ahora tengo ganas de ver algunas otras por Eastwood dirigidas (Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby) que he dejado pasar en los últimos años. A ver si las añado a mi lista de Netflix.

Fall Movies

The Summer season is over at the movies, but that means that Fall season is about to begin. I've seen so many cool trailers for movies opening in the next few months that I can hardly wait to see them all. Plus, there are some movies I know nothing about but which have interesting titles that make me want to, at least, find out more about them. At the same time, you know it doesn't take much to lure me to the movie theater, so it's not as if I need an excuse to patron The Rave in months to come. Here you have twenty-two movies I want to go see this season:

IX. September
All About Steve (09/4): the new Sandra Bullock comedy, the preview is hilarious.

9 (09/9): the animated movie produced by Tim Burton, 9 is going to kick all sorts of butt.

The Informant! (09/18): Matt Damon as a clueless spy, the preview is painfully funny.

Jennifer's Body (09/18): Megan Fox is a high-school-boy-eating demon. That's genius, if you ask me.

Pandorum (09/18): Deep space is always the wrong place to go in a horror movie.

Surrogates (09/25): a Bruce Willis sci-fi adventure based on a comic book, it looks great despite the writers.

X. October
Shutter Island (10/2): the new movie by Martin Scorsese starring once again Leonardo DiCaprio. I haven't seen any of their previous collaborations, but this one looks all sorts of cool.

Toy Story & Toy Story 2 in 3D (10/2): a double feature featuring two of my favorite movies of all time. I did go see Toy Story 2 in theaters when it opened, but I've never seen the first one on the big screen. I think that is about to change.

Zombieland (10/9): a cavalier Woody Harrelson killing zombies with a banjo = must see.

Law Abiding Citizen (10/16): Gerard Butler turns the law system against itself. The preview looks awesome.

Astro Boy (10/23): I'm really not familiar with the character, but the preview looks cool.

The House of the Devil (10/30): I have no idea what this movie is about, but it has a great title.

XI. November
The Box (11/6): the premise of this movie blew my mind. I haven't seen the preview, but I am interested.

A Christmas Carol (11/6): Scrooge strikes back, this time in CGI form and voiced (as well as the ghosts) by Jim Carrey.

The Fourth Kind (11/6): I saw the preview for this movie starring Milla Jovovich a couple of weeks ago, and it could be really creepy.

The Men Who Stare at Goats (11/6): what I've read about the movie plus the title piqued my interest. We'll see how it turns out.

Red Cliff (11/13): I know nothing about this movie other than it's the new John Woo movie. I'll have to do some research.

Planet 51 (11/20): the alternative for those of us who don't want to go see New Moon that weekend, this CGI sci-fi comedy looks very neat.

XII. December
The Lovely Bones (12/11): the new movie directed by Peter Jackson, it is based on the bestselling book by Alice Sebold that I still haven't read.

Avatar (12/18): James Cameron's long-gestating project will finally be unveiled. Will it top Titanic? Probably not, but I'll go see it all the same. Actually, I don't think I've ever seen a movie by James Cameron on the big screen. What about that?

Sherlock Holmes (12/25): Robert Downey, Jr. playing Sherlock Holmes? Sold.

So what do you guys think? Any of these movies look interesting to you? Did I miss something you're eagerly anticipating? Leave your comments and let us know!

She Did Anyway

I don't know what it is, but I love this song by St. Etienne. Maybe it's the music, or maybe it's Sarah Cracknell's voice (which I love). Or perhaps it is the wistful lyrics, I don't know. This reminds me of something Rob Fleming says in High Fidelity, the great book by Nick Hornby: "Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?" At any rate, I love this song, whatever the reason.

A la cuarta va la vencida

Avatar, la nueva película de James Cameron, llevaba desde el mes pasado escurriéndoseme entre los dedos. Primero fue en San Diego, donde me perdí la primicia mundial exclusiva a cargo del director. Después, cuando el tráiler en teoría estaba disponible en Internet, me topé con una pantalla que decía que no, que lo habían retirado temporalmente. Y ayer, cuando entré en la sala 17 de The Rave para ver Inglourious Basterds, lo único que vi fueron las palabras "December 18th" al final del tráiler. Hoy, por una serie de razones, he vuelto al cine para ver la película de Tarantino por segunda vez, y he entrado pensando que esta vez no se me escapaba. Sin embargo, al empezar los trailers y para mi desesperación personal, todos los que han puesto eran completamente diferentes a los que pusieron ayer. (He visto el de la esperada y retrasada The Wolfman, que tiene muy buena pinta, y la misteriosa Inception, entre otros.) Pero, afortunadamente, el último -que fue el primero ayer para chincharme- ha sido el de Avatar, y tiene una pinta tremenda. Juzgad por vosotros mismos.

Accented Fun

I am not a big Quentin Tarantino fan, yet I rushed to The Rave to see Inglourious Basterds, the director's playfully mispelled sixth movie. I had only seen the preview once, but it looked like a fun film, and that's pretty much all the excuse I need to head over to the movies.

IB is an alternate-history movie in which a bunch of Jewish American soldiers are sent, under Lieutenant Aldo Raine's charismatic command, to kill Nazis over to Europe. This is all Tarantino needs to sell his movie, but it's so much more than just that. As it turns out, the Basterds have a smaller part in the film than I was anticipating, and the various interlocking stories in IB showcase a handful of other very interesting characters such as Shosanna (played by Melanie Laurent) and Colonel Hans Landa (no relation to Alfredo). Without spoiling anything, I'll say that these characters' fates are intertwined, and it is a lot of fun to watch them onscreen, especially Landa, who, as portrayed by Christoph Waltz, very much steals the show.

Something else I really enjoyed was Brad Pitt's riotous accent, and the wealth of languages spoken in the movie was another delightful surprise. There are very long segments of the movie in French and German, and there's even some Italian thrown in along with the expected English with different accents. However, the use of all these languages is not gratuitous, and it proves to be a key element more than once.

I thought the movie was very well acted and directed, and Tarantino's trademark witty dialogue is everywhere in IB. One of my favorite scenes, the tavern, showcases Tarantino's strengths as a dialogue writer, and had the scene been even twice as long as it already was, I would have enjoyed it all the same.

Along with the humor, there was also Tarantino's other trademark --gruesome violence. Except for a couple of longer, brutal scenes, though, the violence was limited to a few (quite vicious) flashes here and there, and maybe it was because I was expecting a lot more blood, but there seemed to be less violence than I was expecting. (Especially for a war movie.) On the other hand, there was way more tension than I anticipated, and I spent most of movie on the edge of my seat almost holding my breath.

So, was Inglourious Basterds worth the admission price? Absolutely. Should you guys go see it as soon as you get a chance? Definitely.