7thArtFor7

Rain Man

2009-07-08T11:33:00.008+01:00

Hello everybody, it's been awhile now, more then a month i should say but as promised i came back with a fresh movie from the 80's, and one of my favourites as well.

Rain Man is directed by Barry Levinson (in his good days) and interpreted by Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman which won the Oscar for Best Leading Role. The movie also won Best Picture, Screenplay and Best Directing.

It's a wonderful story about two brothers that never met eachother. The full summary of the story is like i use to say, simple.
A car dealer and hustler Charlie (Tom Cruise) is kicked out of the house as a teenager by his father. Nowadays he knows that his father has died and left him a only a car, a 1948 Buick convertible. At the same time he get's to know that not only his father left 3 million dollars in cash, but he left it to Charlie's brother, which he never met for his entire life. Charlie then goes to visit his new brother Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), an autistic man with the ability to make complicated mathematical problems in his head very fast and with accuracy. Raymond lives in a mental institution, living in his own world, in his daily routines, with his TV programs and his nagging acts.

It's then that Charlie kidnaps his brother with the selfish interest of course, of getting the 3 million dollars for himself. It's then that Charlie starts to see what his brother really is, a nagging person which doesn't fly by airplane, only by Quantas airlines, has programmed his food habits for each day of the week and has to watch his TV programmes at a specific hour of the day.
Charlie and Raymond start an amazing journey with his father's old car, through out the country. Charlie begins discovering love and understanding with a brother he never met, and puts his greed and selfishness aside to discover and understand the intriguing world of Raymond's mind.

Barry Levison delivers us a improbable but amzing heartfull movie which was a winner at it's time. With master direction, simple and storyline with great dialogues and portrayed masterfully by Dustin Hoffman with a little help from Tom Cruise, Rain Man is a shinning adventure of two brothers who never met but have a love for eachother, which with time will be discovered.

It's a must see for everybody, this powerfull Drama from the 80's. Time when movies were still dinamic, original and excelent.

Good movies to you all. See you soon.

I'm sorry if the trailer links of most of the posts here are now down. I will try to update them as soon as possible.

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Trailer

A Fish Called Wanda

2009-05-29T19:06:00.004+01:00

As promised, this week i will review my personal oppinion about a wonderful comedy known to us all as "A Fish Called Wanda".

I always loved John Cleese, from Monty Python to, Fawlty Towers, to that horrible role he had in the last Pierce Brosnan James Bond.
Bu the man who shines in the movie is not John Cleese but yes Kevin Kline and should i say he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor with his role of hyperactive, dumb, jealous, aggressive killer. He's just brilliant in this character. The filme tells the story of a robbery and its consequences. Two English men, George portrayed by Tom Georgeson) and Ken played by another ex-monty python Michael Palin and two Americans, Wanda which is portrayed by Jamie Lee Curtis and Otto (Kevin Kline), stage a successful heist from a jeweler's store. The fun comes afterwards when they start to double-cross eachother to take all the loot for themselves.

The movie flows beautifully in the comedy genre, as it mixes the macabre's gags and jokes of John Cleese and Michael Palin Monty Python's with the satirizing spirit of the tipical British humour. Its a classic English comedy with American actors in the middle.

Maybe for some people it's just a comedy but for other it's more then that, as there's little messages within. For example the character Ken portrayed by Michael Palin is of a jewel thief with a soft heart for animals and a terrible stutter. This for me is seen as a dark ruthlessly irreverent humour as it makes funny of stutters.

The point is this a top rated comedy of British humour, with a bit of American feeling in it. Is a movie not to be missed, specially if you want a good damn laugh. It's a wonderfully entertainig piece of art from the 80's. Don't miss it. Enjoy it.

As this will be my last review in my homeland for a while, that is Portugal and i'm going on a big business trip for 6 months, i don't want you all to be sad if i won't appear for awhile here with new and fresh reviews (from the 80's of course :) ). But don't worry because i'll be back faster then you think. Did someone said Rain Man. That's your answer. Watch movies, watch a lot of good movies.

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Full Metal Jacket

2009-05-21T18:09:00.005+01:00

It's good to be back. It's been a while again, but better later then ever.
This time is another war picture with a fantastic director behind the cameras, which i previously idolized already - Stanley Kubrick.
Full Metal Jacket is an ok movie, is a good movie, is an extraordinary movie. It has all the movie symptons of Kubrick films; it's different, it's based on a novel adapted by Kubrick himself, great production design with huge war scenarios build up all in England, and it has the lunatic mind of Kubrick, the perfectionism of the dialogues, the movement of the cameras, the acting, the scenarios. It's a masterpiece.

In the beginning of Full Metal Jacket, we see the faces of several young men, having their heads shaved. These young men are new recruits of the US army, these recruits are going to be trained by Sergeant Hartman portrayed by the actor R. Lee Ermey and i must say, this guy is the best of the movie, his character speaks endless obscenities, destroys the recruits identity and makes them a fighting machine with no will of their own.
Within these recruits is the private Joker which is portrayed by the actor Matthew Modine which for me is his best work so far. Never heard of him again after this movie. Anyway private Joker is the narrator of the movie, and after gis trainning he is shipped out to Vietnam. After his arrival at the Vietnam he's now a sergeant, working as a reporter for Stars and Stripes to help keep the moral of the troops high. Joker and a photographer go with the troops on the front line to advertize an hipocratic propaganda to the troops, but soon in the destroyed town of Hue hell is about to start.

This movie was released a year after the movie Platoon which was already reviewed in the past. Oliver Stone movie has a different storytelling and perspective of the Vietnam war. As for Stone, his movie is more linear, direct and simple, the war is just a subject for the story.

In Kubrick's movie war is the story, it has a non-linear narrative, has it is dived in two parts, the trainning of the soldiers, and the second part is in Vietnam war itself. Kubrick's plays all his characters masterfully, instead of showing the day-today business of the soldiers, Kubrick goes directly to the point of an anti militarisic fundamentalist. His message in the movie is that, in every war the morale is an important tool for the soldiers, without it every battle is lost. In Full Metal Jacket that is evidentely shown, in the sequences of the sniper killing Us troops in slow motion showing the cruelty of war in a magic sequence. Kubrick is saying exactly that, there is nothing remotly heroic about the way soldiers are sent to their certain death.

It's not the best of Kubrick but it has all the ingredients of a great Kubrick movie. It's fresh, different war perspective, different has Kubrick got us used to that and its a very good directing, acting and the production designs are achieved with greatness here. It's a must see pearl of the 80's and a very good one.

I promise next week i will review another good movie. And don't worry, next time it will be not war, action with aliens, or any kind of horror. Did you ever heard of "A Fish Called Wanda"?.

See you soon

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Trailer

Aliens

2009-04-23T18:54:00.003+01:00

How to start writing about a masterpiece like this it's a very dangerous job. I hope i'm worth enough to write about this major epic astonishing sci-fi action movie and the best of all time. Saying it's the best sci-fi movie of all time is in everyone choices. This choice is mine, and if you take into account the director is James Cameron and the tough actress who gives this fantastic movie a soul is Sigourney Weaver then maybe you should check it out. I think Aliens should be seen as an independent movie apart from the rest of the Alien saga. And In my opinion the best in this fantastic saga. It has the same main character yes, true but the movie evolves when new and powerfull characters let the movie flow with the same storytelling but always in a different background, different perspectives, visual, character development and astonishing methods of directing to take the same story and tell it all over again with never repeating the same which was previous done by the other directors before.

It seems easy to look back to this movie and say: "this is a very simple idea, and alien race, take some military's to kill the aliens, that's it you have some good action movie...". This is not all true, you've got to have the deepest imagination to write and to make this visual masterpiece.

James Cameron now is always known for his sci-fi and epic blockbusters movies: The Terminator, The Abyss, The Terminator 2, True Lies, Titanic and Aliens.

He's the perfect guy for the job, great storytelling, imagination and creativity in sci-fi "world". The premiss for the movie is simple as i said before, Ellen Ripley portrayed by Sigourney Weaver is found 57 years in a survival capsule which came from the previous movie from a salvage team. In this 57 years she was in hypersleep, lot has happened, the planet she escaped from is now a colonist station. When the Company which saved Ripley lost contact from the colonist station, Ripley already knows what happened, but the company wants to send her with a full group of trained marines to find out what happened, is it a problem with the transmissions or is it something worse. Ripley is to find there her worst nightmare 57 years later.

The movie is long and it passes so fast, for me this always means one thing, when something is good the time always fly. It's a wonderfull pearl of sci-fi action, beautifly production designs, great visual effects for an 1986 movie, strong hand of characters and great directing by James Cameron, who knew to re-invent what was already amazing in the previous Alien film. He direct Sigourney Weaver and the all cast into a new world and gave to the 7th Art another iconic movie for all the generations to come. If you're not a fan of sci-fi see it as just another action movie, the only difference it's in space, but if you are a fan of sci-fi, love it like the astonishing magic it delivers. Stay tooned. 7th Art will be back sooner with another great review back to the 80's.

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The Shining

2009-04-13T14:00:00.007+01:00

Why is it that nowadays the horror genre has gone soft, light, boring, why is that the masters of horror of many decades ago cannot re-invent the genre with originality, or even do a good adaptation from books, why is it that the horror genre has it was is not anymore today?!

The answer is simple, time; time took everything from an era which branded us with such relics from the masters of horror genre, such as John Carpenter, Wes Craven, Tobe Hoper, Dario Argento. It's amazing and disapointing that this moguls of the horror cinema have gone soft while producing bad quality pictures, what happened to movies like "The Thing", "Halloween", "Nightmare in Elm Street", "The Hills Have Eyes", "The Exorcist" or my favourite horror flick of all time "The Shinning". The 70's and 80's were the peek of the horror genre and as time went by, horror movies entered into the modern era of horror cinema making, new pupils beyond the chairs worked as directors to re-invent and ressucitate the horror genre, like the masters before them, but they didn't re.invented anything with their lack of originality, they only invented what was already invented, the new modern era of horror making is an updating of the past. Full of remakes, sequels and copycats of a past age of pure horror cinema making.

Let's put the best director in the world beyond cameras, an amazing adaptation screenplay from a horror novel writer aka Stephen King, Jack Nicholson and that's it, the most horrific, psychological horror thriller of all time.

The plot summary of the movie is at it follows: A man, his wife and his son, move to an hotel in Colorado during the winter to became the caretakers of the hotel in that period. The father played masterfully by Jack Nicholson takes the time while in the hotel to write his novel, but while in the hotel is son starts to see horrific and disturbing, violent visions of what previously happened there, this gift his son have is called "The Shinning". As time goes by Jack - the character portrayed by Jack Nicholson begins to slowly passing from the thin line of sanity to the obscure line of insanity. The effect of cabin fever and loneliness strikes Jack. He starts to see ghosts and worse, talks to them. One day a ghost convinces him to take care or correct his family has they are needing it. Danny the son and his mother have only one chance to escape from the insanity of the father - "The Shinning".

Stanley Kubrick was a master in all the movies he made, and this one is no exception. Kubrick was known as a perfeccionist. His movies, independently of it's genre were always as real, completly detailed and portrayed as he wanted and for me it was one of the best people who could make us experience THE cinema magic in the making. The movie is beautifuly filmed, the production, directing and the sets design are masterfuly well done. Jack Nicholson is amazing as a recovering alcoholic, insane father and husband. It's a perfect movie for the horror genre as it was. It's mandatory for those who never watched it. Enjoy and i'll be back again this month with the review of another genre, Sci-Fi (Aliens).
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Platoon

2009-03-18T15:32:00.004Z

Oliver Stone who previously was a US soldier fighting in the real Vietnam war in the Pacific before starting his director career, has delivered us with this powerfull and realistic movie 23 years ago.

In my perspective Platoon has a very simple storyline, about a conflict which divided United States of America into three groups, the politicans, the men fighting abroad and the "people" fighting in the streets to end the war which was a in my point of view, a war about ego, and very little about deploying freedom into another country, it was about which position and ideology had more "fire power" - The Communists or The Free Government Democracy which USA always stands for, or whatever you want to call it.

Anyway, Charlie Sheen followed the footsteps of his father Martin Sheen as he also played a US soldier in the very acclaimed movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola "Apocalypse Now". The story is simple, as it was based in the first-hand experience of the director Oliver Stone when he went to fight in Vietnam; a young soldier named Chris Taylor quits college and volunteer himself to go abroad to fight in a brutal war scenario which he will find out later on. After he arrives he discovers that he is just another insignificant men to the "slaughterhouse", his presence is nothing to the other veterans soldiers who are fighting there a lot more then him. As time goes by Chris notices that his own Platoon which is commanded by two officers, Staff Sergeant Robert Barnes and Sergeant Elias Grodin, is divided into two groups, the Barnes group and the Grodin group. One day when his platoon is on a mission on a village the thin line between those two groups in his platoon is broken when soldiers commit illegal killings in that village.

With a fearfull direction Platoon delivers a punch in the stomach with it's brutal, powerfull, intence violent context, and it reminds USA of the mistakes of the past.
The movie won 4 Oscars and was nominated for a bunch of more awards.

Stone directs Charlie Sheen and the rest of the cast with a steady hand when it takes to character direction. Every detail of his own experience is in the screen, the arrival at the war scenario, the fighting, the psychological meltdown of the soldiers, the jungles, the traps of the North Vietnam soldiers, the exaustion, every single detail Stone wanted us to see is there.

Very well filmed, excellent interpretation from the all cast which includes, besides Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Williem Dafoe, Forest Whitaker, Kevin Dillon, John C. McGinley, Keith David and Johnny Depp.
With a great cinematography, sound, editing, script, direction, cast is a wonderfull war movie for those who are willing to watch good quality cinema even though it's not for everyone stomach.

Its a powerful piece of art which will always be in our 7th art history. Don't miss it. Watch it, this one and a lot more. 7thArtFor7 sees you soon with another great review. Don't miss it. Ciau

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Oscars Good Or Not ?

2009-03-07T12:55:00.005Z

Hello everyone, it's been a while since i wrote anything for you. But as they say: "Better later then never". Two weeks passed since the oscar season. That's it 2009 Oscars are over, but the real question remains: Were 2008 movies nominated for the academy awards well choosen, are the oscars changing, are the oscar being liberated from the american movie machine business ?

I think yes, "The Academy Awards" are changing, say it's because of this new modern Era of the 7th Art, say it's because there are now less good american movies then there was before, say it's only some good movies which hit the cinema screens because there's no money for marketing and therefore those movies don't even are in nominated list. I just don't know, but one thing for sure, i think the Oscars are more liberally then ever before, "Slumdog Millionaire" is a pretty good example. English movie - YES but with a Indian background, actors, language, Asian culture. It was a very good bet who thought that Slumdog would win, i did. I don't say the Oscars should change but as the american constituion say, every person should be consider equal and my position is that the "Academy Awards" cerimony should be for all 7th Art industry mainstream and should get away more and more of the american/european productions and convert to a globally cerimony.

Talking of the Oscars delivered this year per si i had only one suprise actually. The Second academy award recognition for Sean Penn in his movie "Milk". I really thought Mickey Rourke would beat the competation that night. But he has time now that he "assumly" got on the right track again with his life and carrer. Sean Penn would be my second choice. Those who disagree with me and think that Brad Pitt should won, i have to tell you that he will when he gets more older.

Kate Winslet won uhhhhhhuhhhhhh, finally, come on she was deserving, 5 times nominated, give her a break, The Reader is a very good movie and very good interpretation given by Winslet. The postomous award to Heath Ledger was being expected too. He gave a very good performance and his death helped the movie a lot even if it's not a happy ending for an actor but it was a happy ending for his family to receive the award. Penelope Cruz won with no competition in my opinion. When i saw Vicky Cristina Barcelona i was expecting a nomination and For Barden too.

But the best moment of the night was definitly for "Slumdog Millionaire" who delivered 10 awards, including Best Director and Best Movie. I was expecting that too has it is the best movie of the year 100%. Thank you Warner for refusing to take the movie to the theaters and thank you Fox SearchLight for delivering the movie to the theaters and not directly to DVD. That would be a major loss to us all and the 7th Art.

In summing it was a medium 2008 season regardding to movies, Clint Eastwood hasn't competing in the major categories, but this is just my personal taste.

See you next year for more Oscars and see you soon for the new review of the movie "Platoon".

Good movies and keep enjoying the 7th Art as much as possible.

The Untouchables

2009-02-01T14:40:00.003Z

Since this is Oscar season i will leave you with one of my favourite movies of the 80's - The Untouchables. It has everything to be a great movie, Kevin Costner (in the good days), Sean Connery who won the Oscar for his role of Jim Malone with this movie, Robert De Niro and Andy Garcia, it has a director with some baggage on his cinema background named Brian De Palma, a fantastic screeplay by David Mamet and a wonderful soundtrack by the veteran and breathtaking Mr. Ennio Morricone (one of my all time favourite composers).
The story takes us back to the organized crime Era in Chicago where the Prohibition law was a must, when Al-Capone ruled the city from a violent ferocity to a wave of crime, when police was corrupt, and when people were willing to fight corruption and stop all that. It's when a police agent (Kevin Costner) convinces an hard-boiled old cop to join him in a campaign against the gangster boss Al Capone. Brian De Palma Film Noir thriller The Untouchables is like a battle between god and evil, the black and white, the fear of the dark and the splendor of the Sun.

It's a movie which actually reflects the old cinema by recalling old myths, and not producing mythic cinema. For example the scene when the gangster crwaling into Malone's appartment; the view of the ganster, a scene which was already made before in John Carpenter's Halloween. Brian De Palma clearly is influenced by the Hitchcock effect (For example the movie Dressed to Kill), but that doesn't mean The Untouchables is a copy of the old 7th Art. Noooo, it only means which a refreshing good old action police thriller using the formula many director's used before and that i think it's a tribute to the cinema.

In summing The Untouchables is great action packed thriller mastered by masters. With a more then capable director which always find inspiration for his films in a comprehensive knowlodge of cinematic history, it's possible for the audience to be connected to it and enjoy, even, for the action, just for the story, for the characters, for the actors, whatever, is a must-see from point of view and a tribute to the greatest art's of all - The 7th Art. Watch it, enjoy it. It's a Relic.

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Back To The Future

2009-01-23T15:02:00.005Z

We're back. Yes 7th Art was absent but now its back and better then ever.
And nothing better to come back with a relic of a movie like this one as we can see. Back To The Future. And that's not all. We are going to do some new polls reggarding the best movies of 2008 with the Oscars, and the worst with the razzies awards.
But for now i'll leave you with the critic of this amazing movie of the 80's and a fine piece of work and contribution to the sci-fi genre and the 7th art.

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It was 1985 when this sci-fi epic with Michael J.Fox hit the screeners. I was just a little boy with one year old and i saw it only later on TV of course. By that time Robert Zemeckis had already made Back To The Future II & III probably.

Back To The Future was one of the most successful and entertaining films of the 80's. It's an experiment on the phenomenon of time and the advances of technological progress.
The premiss of the movie is simple and direct to less thinking minds of anyone in that time. Marty McFly is sent back three decades into the past in a time machine built by a mad scientist. But when he gets to the past he has a problem, which is how to find the necessary energy source to travel "back to the future", because plutonium isn't available in 1955, and more than that, he has to make sure is parents fall in love with one another, or else his existence will be threatened.

We have to say that after all back to the future is a serious movie but with tons of comedy. It portrays two generations of the american era, the one from the 50's and the one from the 80's, and all this with the satisfactory amusement and intelligence references to the popular culture of The United States of America.
Zemeckis made history with this movie and created one of the most popular sagas of the 7th art, it's well direct, well interpreted, written with caution, and technological well developed for it's time. Maybe thanks also to the producers which are huge moguls of the cinema still today, Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall. An amazing and entertaining piece of art to all ages and fine gold keeper of the cinema of the 80's.

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The Terminator

2008-10-27T17:28:00.003Z

Arnold Schwarzenegger could be the state governor of California now but he sure did some great action movies and come on let's face it. Without them the 80's would have been so boring.
The Terminator is a lot of fresh air into our own faces. The story is simple: An apocalyptic vision of the world in a few years then... Nuclear War and a woman is the key to humanity's salvation. Guess who comes from the future to kill her... yes you guessed, our little Arnold.

This bold, explicit storytelling is straightforward to the objective and the peek of the movie as James Cameron always showed us. No bullshit needed to be said, what the movie needs, it's there and the rest is disposable. And the Terminator everything is there. Action, science-fiction, thriller and romance. Arnold Schwarzenegger amde his international breakthrough with this film and started an the action star career for good as a taciturn superman.

James Cameron succeeded in creating a formally persuasive filme. The Terminator is as convincing as the new visual language, which allows the audience to see with his eyes, thus dissolving the borders between humanity and artificiality.

It's a great action movie from the 80's. Without them our little 7th art would be more poor. It's all about making good cinema and "The Terminator" is a damn good one. Thank you Mr. Cameron. Thank you Arnold. Enjoy this precious piece of the 7th art.

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Raging Bull

2008-10-16T21:08:00.004+01:00

Do you think you've seen everything. Think again. Robert De Niro as Jack La Motta is simply brutal. Martin Scorcese got the oscar he deserved two years ago with the movie "The Departed" but he really deserved it for a long time now. Raging Bull is the exact example of that. It's the cinematic adaptation of Jake La Motta's autobiography and who's better to tell this italian self-destructive story.

The plot starts in the begining of the 1940s with Jake La Motta, one of the top middleweight boxers in the world. He's called as the "Raging Bull" for is inhuman ability to take a beating and for his random and unpredictable attacks. His agression is so strong that he can't control it inside or outside of the ring. His brutality grows with time and gets to his family. One day he meets a 15 year old girl which is hanging out with the gangsters of Hell's Kitchen. He divorces his wife and marries her. But his agression continue to grow, with jealous now for the new wife, and soon is will be terroryzing everybody arround him.

Raging Bull was the supremecy for Robert De Niro carreer who also made extraordinary movies like "The Godfather - Part 2", "The Deer Hunter", "Once Upon the Time In America", "Goodfellas", "Casino".... What makes this movie different from the other characters he performed, it's pure and simply credibility and the convincing physical presence of his character. The fascinating and terrifying convincing moments which the audience is presented are worthy of an oscar, which De Niro received by the way.

Technicly the movie is perfect, from the sound and editing, De Niro performance and Michael Chapman black-and-white photography. Scorcese is a great director as he often stands still the camera and focuses on La Motta's violent outbursts. The fight sequences are extremly realistics, from a camera close range, spraying blood ans sweat.

An heavy movie, a hard movie, a masterpiece from the past century. Unforgettable, extraordinary, agressive, a Scorcese/De Niro movie which i love very much. a masterpiece from the 7th Art. Watch it, it's mandatory.

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E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

2008-10-13T19:09:00.008+01:00

Come on let's face it. Steven Spielberg is the man!. He could have done some wrong movie choices in the last years but his achievements in the past made him the man he is today. An extraordinary story-teller, and E.T. is the proof of that. In 1982 nobody knew that this simple movie would be a touching and a turning point for a man and for the 7thArt. Spielberg already successufully commissioned productions like Jaws(1975) and Raiders Of The Lost Ark(1981) with great reviews and the suprise of audience.

The plot of the movie is simple: A UFO and its crew have landed on Earth by mistake. The aliens are discovered by a patrol of scientists and they quickly flew from our planet leaving behind one of the passengers. The small creature then hides it self in a nearby garden of a suburban home. One night he is discovered by a small children and together they will form a connection like no other. Their friendship grows with time and later the brothers of the child are let in on the secret, but must continue to hide him from adults. One day e.t. became sick and the child also became sick. Later on the film the mother of the kids and the scientist discover this encounter with the alien and put the child and the e.t. on a quarantine tent. What they don't know is why they are both sick...

This fantastic emotional, adventure, family, imagination movie is a wonderful gift for kids and adults. I remember seeing the movie when i was a kid and a lot later after the release of the movie and i loved. It's a feeling that only kids know. To experience this cinematic masterpiece of Mr. Steven Spielberg is the destruction of the imaginative power for adults and the creation of a childs own world.

In resume it's an amazing, extraordinary movie which Spielberg commands wonderfully, full of emotional and touching strings, directing the audience to find out their own feelings. A fine piece of Work for the 7th art. Don't miss this. Enjoy it !

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Scarface

2008-10-11T14:11:00.004+01:00

This unsettling, brutal remake epic is in many ways a fine piece of work. First because it has Al Pacino as the main character in a movie written by Mr. Oliver Stone (Platoon, Born of the 4th Of July, Natural Born Killers, Nixon) and the command of Mr. Brian De Palma(The Untouchables, Dressed To Kill, Redacted).
This is a film with many sides, as it is a brutal action film and also a dramatic film who tells the story of a man who the only way to show affection is by humiliating the people he loves.

The story plot is simple. In the 80's Fidel Castro opened the Cuban border to allow emigrants out, and used this opportunity to rid Cuba from many criminals.
Here is when Pacino enters the scene, playing the character Tony Montana. Tony and his friend Manny Ray go to America and start working as dishwashers. In time they rise up from that insignificant job to drug millionaires in the greed-driven America of the Reagan Era. The wealth and power of this unscrupulous millionaire with time gets to his head and comes the beggining of the end.

Al Pacino is THE leading man in this amazing and violent movie. His character is a lost soul who destroys everything and everyone arround him and Pacino does it very good and dramaticly.

Its a provocative, adult, violent, psychological and political movie. Oliver Stone explains the society needs men like Tony Montana, so that people can point the finger at him and still feel innocent. Politicians prefer to fight the legalization of drugs than take on organized crime.

A must see from the 80's and for every lover of the 7th Art. Al Pacino, De Palma, Stone, what more reasons to see this movie. Enjoy it.

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Amadeus

2008-10-09T14:30:00.004+01:00

This very adult version of the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart it's a work of genious. Milos Forman was always loved by his movies and this one is no exception. The characters in his movies are always deep, creative and genious.
The movie starts with Antonio Salieri narrative in an assylum, 30 years after Mozart's dead. There Salieri confesses to a priest that it was he who drove Mozart to his death. Mozart was a genious yes but the film also tells the insufferable alcohol addiction that drove the composer to the bottom of his life and make him an anarchyst in the view of the royalty and the aristocracy. Salieri is composing his Requiem, his darkest unfinished piece, but Mozart genious forces Salieri to confront the unbearable reality of his own mediocrity and pushes him over the edge.

Amadeus received eight Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Leading Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Make-Up, Best Costumes and Best Sound) and this means something. It means that Milos Forman will always suprise us with wonderful movies, with dark, confusing, creative and genious characters, a extraordinary narrative in all his movies and very good acting director. F. Murray Abraham won the oscar for his role in this movie; it's a credible and hateful character which we the audience recognize as a great interpretation in this fine art, the 7th art.

Watch this movie if you are a lover of the 7th Art and if you're not watch anyway and learn something about one of the most controversus composer in history - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a lunatic, a child, self-destructive man, strange, a genious of another time.

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The Elephant Man

2008-10-08T11:11:00.008+01:00

"I'm not an animal!
I'am a human being!
I am... a man!"
These are the deepest emotional words that John Merrick says in the movie the Elephant Man. John Hurt is magnificent and his performance is worth an oscar definitly. His credibility for this part is absolutly amazing and overhelming. Even with the inability to use his face or much of his voice, his portrait of the elephant man is extraordinary.
The movie is simple, its based on the true story of Joseph Carey Merrick who was born in Leicester in 1862, and who suffered from multiple neurofibromtosis, a disease that engenders spongy growths on the human skin and bones.
This said, the storyline start when, at a freakshow in London a hideous and deformed young man is the attraction of the public for entertainment. Later on this man is found by a surgeon Dr. Frederick Treves portrayed by Anthony Hopkins and he examines and adopts these exquisite creature. Dr. Frederick learns that this creature is a sensitive, thinking, intelligent, speaking human being hidden behind that monstruosity.

I was never a fan of the director David Lynch, don't ask me why, i just think his movies are too strange for me. I'm always thinking there's some true message or meaning hidden behind of all the confused and misterious movies he makes. When i start seeing the elephant man it was the same feeling but in the end i had a satisfaction that this was a great movie, simple to understand and excelent to admire.
David Lynch said "The point was to let the audience become familiar with the moster, so that the monster could disappear and the human being come into view.", and i couldn't agree more with him. I think he acomplished exactly what he wanted. The first half-hour of the movie, we see nothing of Merrick's face, only the reactions of the pople who do so. And later on, when he's revealed to us we already become acquainted with a human being and our reaction is anything but shock.
David Lynch is excelent in the command of this movie, he films in black and white with help of the cinematographer Freddie Francis, one of England's finest cameramans. The narrative is extraordinary, the characters portrayed by John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins are amazing and the extreme constrasts between areas of light and dark are very good.

It's a movie for every lover of the 7th art and a very good one. It's mandatory to everybody who loves cinema like me.

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Trailer

Star Wars Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

2008-10-07T16:16:00.004+01:00

What's the best way to start the blog in the 80's cinema decade?

Why not with one of most engaging sequel of the sci fi genre which is Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back.
Everyone remembers when they were kids and there wasn't cable TV (at least i didn't have), and friday night usually there was a movie on channel 1. I remember watching this movie over and over with my family sometimes. I loved this suspensful and engaging film from the extraordinary saga Star Wars.
The film starts with icy picture in planet Hoth where the rebels were hidden from one of the most intergalactic villain ever, Darth Vader. A sinister dark man with a dark and obscure past who wants to submit everyone to the dark side, the emperor side. We also have Luke Skywalker a soldier of the rebels who fight the emperor and the dark side. Luke and his adventurer pal Han Solo, Chewbacca fought in planet Hoth but the emperor's forces get the upper hand. Luke and his friends are able to escape to the cloud city of their ally Lando. But Darth Vader have already located the safe haven and is going to try to get them over to the Empire. But the good side of the "force"will not go down without a fight.

The Empire Strikes Back its a huge acomplishment from George Lucas, who was determined to create a new, physical cinema of audiovisual effects targeting the audience perspective faculties.
Its an inventive children's film for adults and all age groups can allow themselves to be enchanted its cult-like charm. Star Wars was a milestone of the movie magic thanks to Mr. Lucas, who we have only to thank for is vision. He revolutionized the industry, created a visual effects company, widened our horizons and gave us a view of the future filmmaking.

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Trailer