Certified Copy

So I went to watch another art house film with my friend Mark.  I had previously watched the movies Before Sunrise (which I found out has a whopping 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes!) and Before Sunset with Mark and Certified Copy definitely reminded me of those two movies.  Certified Copy begins by the main character British writer James Miller giving a talk to an Italian audience on his book on the topic of originals and copies in the art world.  A French antiques dealer, whose name is not given, comes to attend the talk but leaves soon after entering since her son is hungry.  She leaves her phone number with the book's Italian translator.  Later James Miller comes over to talk with the French lady at her store and they begin on a short expedition to a town 30 minutes away from where they are.  The movie mainly revolves around their dialogue and the beautiful scenery of Italy.  Their conversation starts to take a strange twist when whilst at a cafe the woman who runs the cafe starts to talk to the lady as if Miller was the lady's husband.  When Miller returns after having been talking on the phone the lady informs Miller that the cafe owner thinks that they are a married couple.  Soon after Miller and the lady start talking as if they were truly married, to comedic effect.  I think the movie really portrays human emotions well and I think the mystery around whether the two are married or not is entertaining.  A really 'talkie' movie, enjoyable smart dialogue, I give it an 8/10.

Super 8

So I forgot to review this movie, I watched it sometime last month shortly after it was released in Hong Kong.  Having been a fan of the first two seasons of Lost I have since tried to follow up on J.J. Abram and his production company, Bad Robot Production, and their productions.   First up was Cloverfield, which was a big miss for me mostly 'cos I couldn't take all of the shaky camera work, although I guess the story line was OK and the production value was pretty good.  Next was Star Trek, directed and produced by J.J. Abrams, which was a fun movie, but the only thing that slightly bothered me was whether the physics of the movie was realistic or not.  I even watched Morning Glory, although only at my mom's suggestion, and although it was a chick flick it was enjoyable.  I've been digressing so I guess I should actually state my opinion about Super 8.  At the heart of the movie is a coming of age story and a love story between the adolescent hero and his love interest.  In the story the young characters are about 13 but we will see the young hero, Joe Lamb, overcome great hurdles in order to save his love, Alice.  I actually was lured into this movie thinking it would be more of a sci-fi action movie when actually the coming of age story and the characters of the movie mattered more.  The overarching story is that in 1979 a mysterious train carrying an unknown cargo crashes.  A group of young kids witness the scene as they were filming their film project at the train station where the train accident occurs.  As the next day comes strange things start happening in the neighborhood and the military comes in to try to manage the incident.  It becomes clear that an alien was on the train and escaped when it crashed and it becomes clear that the alien is responsible for kidnapping many of the residents in the area.  One night Alice goes missing and it is up to Joe to solve the mystery as to where she disappeared to and with the help of his friends he goes of on a search for Alice, even risking entering a zone where the military has been deployed and where civilians are not allowed to entered.  The movie doesn't go too deep into the sci-fi aspect but instead focuses on the characters and the relationships between Joe, his friends and Alice.  I guess it makes them more lovable and in the end you care about their fates.  The ending reminded me of the ending of E.T. and although ending was abrupt I think it was saved by the showing of the movie project that Joe's friend directed.  The movie project was a major part of the movie since it was how Joe grew attracted to Alice in the first place and also was how the kids spent their spare time.  By showing the finished film project it gives hope that the town moved on after the incident.  All in all a good movie.  I haven't been giving my film reviews any ratings yet so I guess this one will be a first.  This movie rates a 7/10, I would have given more but didn't mostly because there was such a build up to the ending but it sort of ended abruptly without answering questions about what happened next, like how the military would take responsibility for the incident.

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Pt. 2

OK so I had a period of time when I was too lazy to update what movies I watched and by now I've already forgotten what other movies I may have watched.  However I would not be able to forget the latest and last episode in the Harry Potter saga, it signaled an end of an era and fine conclusion to the series.  I won't go too much into the story but I guess the summary would be that Lord Voldemort is on a mission to kill Harry Potter and Harry Potter is on a mission to kill Lord Voldemort as well by destroying the remaining horcruxes, magical objects that contain part of Lord Voldemort's soul that allowed him to be resurrected after his death.  Each of the horcruxes are created with a mysterious magic that revolves around a murder and Lord Voldemort had committed many murders to create more horcruxes to ensure his immortality.  The story, I am assuming, is faithful to the book and therefore possesses all the qualities that attracted people to the book in the first place.  Of course the special effects help too and to conclude the movie the story jumps forward 19 years to see the families of Harry Potter and Ginny, Ron and Hermione and others sending their children off to Hogwarts.

Taken

So I'm not sure if there were any other movies I missed out, I can't remember.  I actually watched this movie on Blu ray at a friend's house, the movie was originally released in 2008.  It was pretty awesome since he had a nice home entertainment setup.  It follows the story of a father, a former CIA operative, who chases for his daughter after she gets kidnapped by an Albanian group of sex traders operating in Paris.  Although the movie was quite violent I couldn't help but side with the actions the father took in order to attempt to save his daughter.  The ending was obvious but the story did have one or two twists along the way where you wondered how on earth the father was going to escape his predicament.  A great movie overall, I liked the idea of attaching a reason and an emotion to all of the violence since you care that much more that the father achieves his goals in order to save his daughter.  I also liked the investigative side to the story where the father picks up clues along the way and must use both his brains and his physical skills to find his daughter with the risk of failure meaning he may never see his daughter again.