Corpse Bride

I haven't talked about movies in a while. It's time to do this again. This time one of my new favorite movies of all time. Corpse Bride.
Here's the trailer:


I was a bit skeptical when I picked this movie. Don't ask me why. I mean it's a Burton movie, why should I be skeptical? Anyway, when I picked it at the library the librarian told me that this movie is fantastic and that she loved it and I think she could have talked about it for hours. And I was like (in my head) "Yeah...blablabla...whatever...give me the movie!" Let's say, I don't like it when people talk a lot instead of just giving me the stuff I want.
But I should probably talk about the movie.

I think I fell in love with this movie after the first minute. There are so many good things about this movie.
The songs are great, the music is perfect, the dialogs are funny (but not stupid funny), Johnny Depp's voice is just heaven and I want to marry Victor.
I also like the length of the movie. It's only 77 minutes long, which is a good length for a movie like that. It's perfect to watch in the morning before breakfast or whenever you don't have a lot of time. I serisously think I could watch this movie every single day for the rest of my life.

Victor: "I've got...I've got a dwarf, and I'm not afraid to use him!"

Also I watched the special features about how the movie was made and you should too if you get the DVD. It's a stop-motion movie, which means they had to take a few thousand pictures and move the puppets around all the time and bring their legs and arms and everything in the correct position. I think you have to be really patient to do this. Pretty cool stuff...

I have only one more thing to say and that's: Go and watch this movie!

Alice in Wonderland

This week's movie is a Disney movie and it's a movie I wanted to see. Alice in Wonderland.
Watch the trailer first if you haven't seen the movie or don't know what it is about (but I hope that everybody knows what Alice in Wonderland is about...but...actually...who really knows what it is about? I don't).



I'm not a fan of Alice in Wonderland. That's why I'm not going to talk about the story. I completely understand when people say they love Alice in Wonderland, I'm just not one of them.
I'm not an Alice fan, but I am for sure a Tim Burton and Johnny Depp fan. That's the reason why I wanted to see this movie.
Let's say it was okay-ish.
I was dissapointed because I had the feeling that it was less inventive than Burton's other movies. Tim Burton is such a creative person and I've already been worried when I just heard that he's going to do Alice in Wonderland. While watching the movie something happened that I can't stand while watching movies.
I didn't see the movie I was watching I saw other movies. It wasn't Alice in Wonderland anymore. It was a mishmash of different animated/cartoon movies, Narnia and Lord of the Rings.
When I watch a movie I want to say "Wow, great idea" and not "Hey, that's like LotR!"
Also, funny thing. The White Queen reminded me of Lady Gaga all the time. This was a bit distracting, but funny ;) Please enjoy Alice and the White Queen alias Lady Gaga alias Anne Hathaway in the kitchen.

Enough ranting. There were also some amazingly good things about this movie.
The costumes. Can I have every single dress Mia Wasikowska wears in this movie? Pretty please? Okay? Thanks.
They did such a great job with all her dresses. I can't even say which one I loved the most. They were all pretty.
Another thing I found fascinating is the way this movie was made. Movies that are half animated are always a thing hard to imagine. In a "normal" movie you have a set somewhere with real people and real trees and real streets etc. In a half animated movie you have a studio, a lot of green walls and that's it. I really look up to actors who can do such an amazing job working at a set that looks like that:

And I think the whole movie is made like that. I think I wouldn't do a great job in acting with all these green walls and people...

Alice in Wonderland was again a movie that I can't really recommend. Not because it was bad, no, because it's another movie where everyone has to decide him/herself whether to watch it or not.
But "I don't like Alice in Wonderland" is not an excuse ;)

Review: The Children's Hour

Genre: Drama

Year: 1961

Runtime: 107 min.

Director: William Wyler

Starring: Audrey Hupburn

Shirley MacLaine

James Garner

Summary: Karen Wright and Martha Dobie have worked hard to raise a girl's bording school. Mary, one of the girls, gets punished for telling a lie. She gets angry about that and tells her grandmother, that Martha is jealous of Karen, who wants to marry Dr. Joe Cardin, and tells her that Martha's feelings are unnatural. Her grandmother believes her and takes her out off school.
Other parents the words and a few days later there aren't any kids at school anymore. Martha and Karen don't understand what's going on. One father tells them about the rumor and they get upset.
Their perfect life quickly turned into a nightmare. Karen's fiancé lose his job for being friend with a "homosexuelle" couple and there's nobody left who believe the true story.

This movie is based on a play (same title) from 1934(!) by Lillian Hellman.

Trailer:






Positive: The way this movie is made is quite interesting. Usually movies contains lot of scenes where nobody is talking and you just have to watch what's happening. In this movie there's hardly ever a moment where nobody talks. You really have to concentrate on what they are talking about. It's like following some interesting discussions.
And the topic of course. It's about homosexuality, but in an interesting way. There is this child, Mary, who's angry and tells her grandmother a lie about her teachers. And this lie ruined them. Everybody believed the child's story.
You definitely don't stop thinking about the whole story for a while.

Negative: I found it a bit hard to follow from time to time, because they just discuss and there is not much happening. I know, I mentioned the same thing at "positive", but it is positive AND negative.
I can't think of anything else.

Sexual content: This movie is about homosexuality, but it does not contain homosexual scenes. 

Karen kissed his fiancé once and hugged him several times. And Karen kissed Martha on the cheek. This was before the rumor and it was just in a friendly way, because she wanted to thank her for something (or something like that...)

Violence: No physical violence, but I consider it as violence what Mary did to Karen and Martha.

Music: Music? Can't remember? Was there music? 

Actors: Mary is the typical angry child ;) And Audrey Hepburn is fantastic!

My Opinion: If you like old movies and want to watch something about a serious topic - go watch it!
It's such an interesting movie and I couldn't stop thinking about it. I also had a great discussion about this movie with one of my best friends. You also have to imagine the scandal, when the play was written in 1934. It was a great success, but at the same time it was forbidden.
What to think about this movie? On the one hand there is this terrible lie and on the other hand there is the fact that from the moment when people start talking about a relationship between Karen and Martha they all turned away from them and didn't even want to talk to them. That's horrible, because before the rumor people saw them as good teachers and liked them.
I think there are two points to think about after watching this movie:

• How would you react when you find out that your teacher (or someone you always liked) has homosexual feelings? And if you are against homosexuality: How to treat them?
• How a lie can ruin someones life and how important it is to be honest and always tell the truth!

Rating: 4-5 stars

Review: Europa Europa

Original German Title: Hitlerjunge Salomon

Genre: Drama / War / History

Year: 1990, Germany/France/Poland

Runtime: 109 min.

Director: Agnieszka Holland

Starring: Marco Hofschneider

Julie Delpy

René Hofschneider

Summary: Salomon, a Jewish boy, lives with his family in Germany. In the early days of WWII he gets separeted from his family. When he flees to Russian occupied Poland, he is placed in a Soviet orphanage. When Hitler invades Russia he is captured by the German army. Salomon convices the German soldieres that he is an ethnic German. They believe him and he starts to work for the Army as an interpreter, because of his good Russian skills. He quickly becomes a war hero and eventually becomes a Hitler Youth.
But he always lives in fear to get exposed.

It's a real story and is based on the autobiography by Salomon Perel.

Trailer:







Positive: The concept of the movie. It's an interesting point of view. Movies about jews in the Second World War usually show the situation in concentration camps or in ghettos. This one is different. Salomon is jewish but he act like an aryan.
The movie is also quite thrilling. Sometimes I nearly stopped breathing, because someone nearly discovered, that Salomon is a Jew.


Negative: In the first half of the movie they speak a lot of Russian (or is it Polish?), which is a bit hard to watch, because you don't understand a word if you don't speak Russian and you have to read subtitles for about 10 minutes straight.
There were also two scenes which I found confusing. One of these scenes was definitely a dream, maybe both of them were. I don't know. It was strange and for a while I didn't know what was going on.

 

Sexual content: There is quite a lot of kissing and touching going on in this movie. Salomon has a crush on three different girls (not at the same time!). The third girl, Leni, wants to have sex with him, but he doesn't want it, because he doesn't want her to see that he is a jew. 

He also has sex with a SS woman on the train (this was one of the strangest scenes of the whole movie).

You can also see Salomon's genitales once.

I think that's it.

Sounds a lot and I think it is a bit too much. But all these scene are short and if you watch the trailer you've already seen most of these scenes. Have you ever noticed that? They always put the kissing and sex scenes into the trailer.

Violence: War violence. A couple of people get shot.

Music: Nothing special. There was one theme repeating, which was a bit boring.

Actors: Nothing special.

My Opinion: On the one hand I think it is a good movie, because of the nearly unbelievable story. A Jewish boy being a hero of the German Army during WWII! On the other hand there are some strange scenes and some unnecessary sexual content and there are definitely better movies about the Second World War out there. But if you want to see one from a completely new perspective - go watch it! It isn't a bad movie, just a bit odd ;)

Rating: 3 stars

Review: Atonement

This is my first movie review. I'm not a pro, so do not expect anything great or amazing. I have to learn how to review movies the best way and I included points which I think are interesting. 

Please let me know what you would like to know about a movie when you read a review and tell me how you liked this one.

Thank you! :)

 Genre: Drama / Romance

Year: 2007, UK/France

Runtime: 123 min.

Director: Joe Wright

Starring: Keira Knightley
James McAvoy
Saoirse Ronan

Summary: One day 13-year-old Briony Tallis, who wants to be a writer, sees her older sister Cecilia and Robbie, the son of a family servant, at the fountain. She misinterprets what she sees and this is the beginning of many misunderstandings. Later Briony reads a letter from Robbie to Cecilia and after reading this letter she is absolutely positive that Robbie is a sexual criminal.
When her cousin Lola is raped she tells the police that she saw Robbie doing it, even though she knows that it isn't true...

This movie is based on the book "Atonement" by Ian McEwan.

Trailer:




Positive: Nearly everything of the movie! Everything fits together perfectly. The locations, the costumes, the music, everything! The first 45 minutes are so beautiful. I love the locations in the movie and I would love to live in the house of the Tallis family. There are so many details in this movie.
The second part (during the war) is less beautiful because of all the injured/dead people and the blood, but it's impressive and well made.

Negative: Can't think of any. There is only one odd thing. Briony has the same haircut her whole life. With 13, 18 and as an old woman. ;)

Quote:

"How can you hate plays?!"

Music: The soundtrack is one of my favourite soundtracks ever. It's such an amazing work and it fits perfectly to the situations. Like I said, all the parts of the movies and the details fit together and harmonise. And the typewriting parts of the soundtrack are impressive.
Actors: I'm a fan of Saoirse Ronan as Briony Tallis. I don't like Briony later as an 18-year-old, but the 13-year-old Briony is stunning.

My Opinion: I love this movie. I think I've seen it four times now and I still can't get enough. Every time I watch it I understand some more things or discover something new.
It's a beautiful movie and at the same time one of the saddest stories about love ever.

Rating: 5 stars (out of five)

Movies - February - Review

Okay, here is my february movie review. Tonight is the Oscar-Show. I would like to see it, but it starts at 02:00 in the morning and ends at 06:00...
In February I watched some really good movies and some really sad.
Tell me, when you know any of them.

Warning: This is a long post! :) It seems like I have too much time to watch movies...

1.
Australia

Genre: Drama, Romance, History, Adventure

Actors: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, David Wenham, Brandon Walters

Summary: 1939. Lady Sarah Ashley travels from Great Britain to Australia to visit her husband. When she reaches the farm she finds that her husband was murdered. She has to team up with Drover and Nullah, a small aborigine boy, to take a herd of cattle through the hostile landscape. They reaches Darwin, which is bombed by Japanese and they get into more and more problems...

My Opinion: This is such a good film! But really sad. I cried a lot. I was really into the movie and forgot everything around me. Sometimes I nearly forgot to breathe! It's one of the top 3 movies I watched in february.
If you haven't seen it yet, watch it!

Rating (Stars out of five): 5 Stars

2.
Love me if you dare

Genre: Drama, Romance

Actors: Guillaume Canet, Marion Cotillard

Summary: [Source: Amazon.com] From childhood, Julien and Sophie engage in an obsessive battle of one-upmanship: if one of them hands a brightly colored candy tin to the other and makes a dare, the recipient is bound to honor it, no matter how destructive or dangerous the dare might be. When this wacky habit enters adulthood and begins wrecking their lives, they ought to change...

My Opinion: This movie isn't for younger people. I wouldn't recommend it to teens under 16 or 17 years.
But I like this movie, it's a bit like a fairy tale...

Rating: 4.5 Stars

3.
Welcome to the Sticks

Genre: Comedy

Actors: Kad Merad, Dany Boon, Zoé Félix

Summary: Although living a comfortable life in the south of France, Julie is feeling depressed. To please her, Philippe, her husband who works as a post office administrator, tries to obtain a transfer to the south coast of France. He tries anything, but he is caught red-handed, when he tries to scam an inspector. Instead of a transfer to the South he has to move to the north. He has to leave his family and moves to the town, which is known as a cold place with many unemployed persons who speaks an incomprehensible dialect called ch'ti...

My Opinion: Definitly a movie for the whole family. I laughed so much! :D

Rating: 5 Stars

4.
Benny & Joon

Genre: Drama, Romance, Comedy

Actors: Johnny Depp, Mary Stuart Masterson, Aiden Queen

Summary: Benny, an auto mechanic, takes care about his sister Joon who's mentally ill. She is a talented painter, but she can't live alone. One night, Benny meets with some friends to play poker. Joon joins the game and lost and Benny and Joon are obliged to welcome Sam, a cousin of one of the other players, at their home. Sam is a dreamer and he has great talent in being a silent comedian. Sam completely changes the life of Benny and Joon...

My Opinion: I think this is the most inspiring movie I've ever watched. Watching this movie made me really happy and I smiled the whole time for two days only because I watched this movie! It's totally crazy!
I watched it three times. Two times in English with Swedish subtitles and once in French with Swedish subtitles. It's easy to understand. If you want to improve your language skills, try this one.
Benny & Joon is my favourite movie of February.

Rating: 5! Stars

5.
Slumdog Millionaire

Genre: Drama, Romance, Crime

Actors: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto

Summary: Jamal Malik is an 18 year old boy from the slums of Mumbai who take part in the television game show "Who wants to be a Millionaire?" and is only one question away from winning 20 million rupees. The police arrests him on suspicion of cheating. They don't believe that a boy from the slums can be such a genius. Jamal says that he isn't a genius and started to explain how he could know all the answers and he tells them his story...

My Opinion: This movie is the winner of 8 Oscars. I think 8 were too much. It's a good movie, that's true, but 8 Oscars? But maybe that's only what I think about it.
From time to time it was a bit boring and I wasn't impressed by the movie. I expected more...

Stars: 3.5 Stars

6.
It's all about love

Genre: Drama, Thriller, Sci-Fi, Romance

Actors: Claire Danes, Joaquin Phoenix

Summary: [Source: imdb.com] (I took the summary from imdb, because I'm not able to write a summary by myself...it's too difficult!) The time is out of joint: it's July, 2021, but snow falls in New York City, people freeze in Uganda, gravity has lost its power in parts of Africa, and hearts give out suddenly. John, an academic on his way to Calgary, stops in New York to meet his wife Elena, a world-renowned skater, at the airport for a quick signing of divorce papers. Instead, she sends bodyguards who take John to her hotel where he catches whiffs of a plot that may place her in mortal danger. Can he trust her brother, Michael? Meanwhile, his own brother, Marciello, circles the globe in a plane observing the onset of global winter. Is there a corner of the world where love is safe?

My Opinion: Strangest movie of February! I was confused in the end and didn't know anymore what's going on. Maybe I didn't get it, but for me it's like there is no sense in the movie. Really strange.

Rating: 1-2 Stars

7.
My Sassy Girl

Genre: Drama, Romance, Comedy

Actors: Elisha Cuthbert, Jesse Bradford, Austin Basis

Summary: Charlie finds Jordan drunk in a subway station. He is worried that she'll be harmed and makes sure, that she gets home safely. They meet again a few days later and Jordan totally changes Charlie's life. They have nothing in common. Charlie is a perfect university student who has already planned his whole life. Jordan is spontainious and lives for the moment.
They fall in love to each other, but one day they decided to seperate for one year...

My Opinion: Cute movie! It isn't a typical love story. I like the reactions of Jordan and Charlie. I would give 5 stars, but Leo, Charlie's room mate, is too much talking about sex. But I like it, that Charlie doesn't care about it.

Rating: 4 Stars

8.
Buddenbrooks

Genre: Drama

Actors: Armin Mueller-Stahl, Jessica Schwarz, Iris Berben, August Diehl

Summary: It's the story of the Buddenbrooks, one of Lübeck's first families of the 19th century. It's about the good and bad times of Consul Buddenbrooks, his wife and his three children...

My Opinion: A good movie, but a bit too long. And it's a good german production. Usually I don't really like german movies, but this one is quite good.
And it's a film adaption of the book "Buddenbrooks" by Thomas Mann.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

9.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Genre: Drama, War

Actors: Asa Butterfield, David Thewlis, Vera Farmiga, Jack Scanlon

Summary: During the Second World War. Berlin. Bruno's father is a soldier and the whole family, including Bruno's parents and his sister Gretel, has to move to the country, because the father gets a new job. Near the house is a concentration camp, but Bruno, who doesn't know a lot about the war and what his father is doing, thinks it's a farm. Bruno's father actually is a high-ranking SS officier and the "farm" is the concentration camp of Auschwitz.
Bruno explores the woods around the house and discovers the fence of the camp. On the other side sits a boy, Schmuel. They quickly become friends...

My Opinion: The third movie of my top 3 movies of february. This movie is so good! But sad.
We watched it at school and I can't remember a situation like this. Everyone was staring at the screen and didn't say a word. My class mates usually talk the whole time when we watch a movie and give stupid comments, but this time it was different. We were all shocked. And we were not only shocked for one hour, it held on for hours!
Movies about the Second World War are always sad and I still don't understand how people could act in such a cruel way.
I totally recommend this one!

Rating: 5! Stars

10.
Hair

Genre: Musical, Comedy, Drama

Actors: John Savage, Treat Williams, Beverly D'Angelo, Annie Golden

Summary: Claude leaves Oklahoma to go to the Army. He leaves three days earlier, because he wants to spend some days in New York. At his arrival he meets a group of hippies. Claude falls in love with Sheila, a girl from a rich family, but it is a short love, because Claude must go to the Vietnam war...

My Opinion: Great movie! It's funny and with some really good songs. But the end is so sad...

Rating: 4.5 Stars

That's it!
Do you know any of the movies?
And are you going to watch the Academy Awards Gala?

Movies - January - Review

A short review, but a long post, of the movies I watched in January.

1.
The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring

Summary: I think I don't have to explain anything, I'm sure everyone knows what it is about...

My Opinion: I haven't read the book, so I can't compare the movie with the book.
But I was a bit disappointed of the film. Yes, it's a great story, the scenery is amazing and the music is fantastic, but it was definitly too long! 171 minutes! Nearly 3 hours...and that's only Part 1! Part 2: 172 min. Part 3: 192(!) min. All together 535 Minutes to watch. These are nearly 9 hours. A "normal" movie has about 90-100 minutes. So The Lord of the Rings Trilogy has the length of 5-6 "normal" movies... Okay, enough about the length... ;)
Because of the length I got bored from time to time and started to think about how stupid some of the characters are, especially all the bad creatures like orcs. That isn't a good sign. When I start to make fun of a movie it always has bad influences on my review afterwards...
There were also some other facts which I didn't like, but I don't want to complain too much about Lord of the Ring, because Tolkien did a great job (I say that even though I haven't read the books), he had such a great imagination and fantasy and I would love to meet him (I know, he's dead...).
I can't wait to see Part 2!
Oh, I have already seen it, but it was years ago, so I can't remember...

Rating (Stars out of five): 4 Stars

2.
Monsieur Ibrahim

Actors: Omar Sharif, Pierre Boulanger

Summary: Paris. Monsieur Ibrahim, an old Muslin Turkish, is the owner of a small market in a poor neighborhood. He becomes friend with a boy called Momo, who lives with his father in a small apartment in the street. The father doesn't realy care about the boy. Monsieur Ibrahim gives him love, education and knowledge of the Koran. They learn a lot from each other and after Momo's father leaves his son without a word, they become even better friends.

My Opinion: I liked this movie a lot. It's a beautiful and sad movie. And I the soundtrack fits perfect.
I haven't seen the first 20 minutes of the film, because we watched it at school and I wasn't there when they started to watch it, so I can't say how it starts. My friends told me about it and I think there is one scene at the beginning which isn't clean, but I'm not sure about that...

Rating: 5 Stars

3.
Save the Last Dance

Actors: Julia Stiles, Sean Patrick Thomas

Summary: Sara loves to dance and dreams of becoming a ballerina. But that dream ends when her mother dies in a car accident. She stops dancing and has to move to Chicago to her father, who she has not seen for years. She now lives in a Ghetto and it isn't easy for Sara to find her new way of life. After some time she falls in love with Derek, who enjoy dancing HipHop and he encourages Sara to restart dancing and follow her dreams...

My Opinion: A lovely film about dancing and living in the suburbs.

Rating: 4 Stars

4.
Rebel Without a Cause

Actors: James Dean, Natalie Wood

Summary: Jim moved with his family to the suburbs of Los Angeles. He quickly gets in trouble with a group of young guys. They want him to take part in a "Chickie run", which means driving cars towards the edge of a cliff. Jim take part, but one of the boys died in the race. Jim and his new friends Judy and Plato have to hide from the police...

My Opinion: I watched this one, because I wanted to see a film with James Dean. ;) Now I know, that he really is a good actor, but I didn't like the film a lot. The Plot wasn't that great and it wasn't impressive to me. There weren't any feelings about the film after the ending.

Rating: 3 Stars

5.Miss Potter

Actors: Renée Zellweger, Ewan McGregor, Emily Watson

Summary: Beatrix Potter is a thirty year old, unmarried woman who lives in London with her social-climbing family. She loves to draw and write stories and the animals she draws are her friends. But nobody wants to publish her book. One day a young man, Norman Warne, publish her book and it was really successful. Norman falls in love with Beatrix, but her parents are against a marriage...

My Opinion: I totally recommend Miss Potter. It's an emotional and wonderful movie and I nearly cried. Compared to Lord of the Rings this one was too short.

Rating: 5 Stars

6.
A Beautiful Mind

Actors: Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris

Summary: The story about John Nash, a mathematical genius and winner of the Nobel Prize. It's about his life and how he suffers from paranoid scizophrenia.

My Opinion: Really impressive and sad. I watched it for the second time and it was still amazing. Good acting and music.

Rating: 5 Stars

Have you seen some of the films of my review?
How do you like them?