When I was 7 my mum made this beautiful cake for my dad’s birthday. It was stunning, with intricate swirls of pink and green icing. You could see the amount of effort my mum had put into the cake and I so wanted to love it. But then I had a bite. It wasn’t really bad, just bland, and with a cake as stunning looking as that, you expect something amazing. And that’s exactly how I feel about Alice In Wonderland.

In this Alice in Wonderland, Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is 19 years old who falls down the rabbit hole after running away during her own marriage proposal. She lands in Underland, a place she previously visited 13 years ago, but doesn’t remember. Alice encounters the weird inhabitants of Underland, including the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen) and the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry) and gets caught up in the battle between the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) and the White Queen (Anne Hathaway).

Visually this movie is gorgeous. I saw it at the IMAX in 3D and it’s definitely worth the little bit extra to see it there. I wasn’t that convinced by 3D last year, but now movies like Alice in Wonderland and Avatar are proving how beautiful this technique can be used. There are so many pretty things in this movie: the landscapes and buildings, the costumes, the characters, everything just looks great.

Wonderland (or Underland as it’s called here) is a weird place with some wonderfully Burtonesque characteristics, like twisty curly trees and a moat full of heads. I loved both the Red Queen’s and White Queen’s castles; each have little details in them, emphasizing those character’s personalities. The animated characters also look great, with only the white rabbit in the “real” world at the very start of the movie appearing a bit jarring. My favourite has got to be the Cheshire cat though, acting just like a cat is supposed to (I so want a cuddly toy like that!). I also have to mention the brilliant costume design here. Alice has at least 7 different dresses in this movie and they all looked amazing.

Despite how stunning everything in Alice In Wonderland looks like, there’s something missing in this movie. I still can’t pinpoint exactly what it is. Charm? Warmth? The thing is… I didn’t care for Alice or any of the characters at all, there was no emotional connection to make me feel invested in the movie. Besides that, Alice just jumps from one event to the other and you never feel as if she’s in any real danger. The Red Queen screams “Off with her/his head!” a number of times, but you never really feel as if there’s an actual threat.

Alice In Wonderland is a visually stunning movie that deserves to be seen in as large a cinema you can get. Everything looks amazing and it’s worth seeing it for that alone. Story-wise it isn’t the epic movie I was hoping for, but it’s still a good addition to the Alice In Wonderland interpretations.

Last year I blogged about a cool “game” that was a giant image where you had to solve cryptic clues of movie titles. Now there’s been a new chapter in the Tron viral game that does something similar but for video games.

If you haven’t been following what’s been happening with the Tron viral game, head on over to Firstshowing.com who have done some great coverage of it so far. The latest discovery of the game is the site Arcade Aid which features an image of a huge pixel city with 56 hidden video game references. Once you solve all 56 references, you can get a ”Special Access” Encom ID, which will most probably lead to another step of the viral game some time in the future.

I’ve only got 10 so far (and then I decided I should blog about it first before continuing with it), but I already love some of the cryptic clues. How many were you able to solve?

I’ve always found it fun to try to predict the Oscar winners, but never took the time in previous years to turn it into a blog post. This year however I thought I owed it to myself to actually have an Oscar week on this blog and there’s no better way then to start with my predictions! Of course next Monday I’ll let you all know how many I had right and wrong (with more in the wrong I’m guessing).

I’ve left a couple of categories out (Best Documentary – Short Subjects
, Best Short Film – Live Action, Best Short Film – Animated
), cause I haven’t seen any of the films in those. But the rest I’ve tried to guess; let’s see how many I’ll have right. If you want to play along, leave your predictions behind in the comments!

Best Picture
:

Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

Best Director:

James Cameron – Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds
Lee Daniels – Precious
Jason Reitman – Up In The Air

Best Actor In A Leading Role
:

Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
George Clooney – Up In The Air
Colin Firth – A Single Man
Morgan Freeman – Invictus
Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker

Best Actress In A Leading Role:

Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
Helen Mirren – The Last Station
Carey Mulligan – An Education
Gabourey Sidibe – Precious
Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia

Best Actor In A Supporting Role:

Matt Damon – Invictus
Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

Best Actress In A Supporting Role:

Penelope Cruz – Nine
Vera Farmiga – Up In The Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick – Up In The Air
Mo’nique – Precious

Best Animated Film:

The Fantastic Mr Fox
Coraline
The Princess and The Frog
Up
The Secret of Kells

Best Original Screenplay
:

The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The Messenger
A Serious Man
Up

Best Adapted Screenplay:

District 9
An Education
In The Loop
Precious
Up In The Air

Best Foreign Language Film
:

Ajami
El Secreto De Sus Ojos
La Teta Asus Tada
A Prophet
The White Ribbon

Best Original Score:

Avatar – James Horner
Fantastic Mr. Fox – Alexandre Desplat
The Hurt Locker – Marco Beltrami, Buck Sanders
Sherlock Holmes – Hans Zimmer
Up – Michael Giacchino

Best Original Song
:

Crazy Heart – “The Weary Kind”
Faubourg 36 – “Loin de Paname”
Nine – “Take It All”
The Princess and the Frog – “Down in New Orleans”
The Princess and the Frog – “Almost There”

Best Documentary, Features:

Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

Best Art Direction
:

Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria

Best Cinematography
:

Avatar
The White Ribbon
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds

Best Costume Design
:

Bright Star
Coco Avant Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria

Best Makeup
:

Il Divo
Star Trek
The Young Victoria

Best Editing
:

Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious

Best Visual Effects
:

Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

Best Sound Editing:

Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up

Best Sound Mixing
:

Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Update: I completely forgot to mention this (stupid brain isn’t working 100% today), but this post is my entry into VoucherCodes.co.uk’s Oscar sweepstake! It’s only open to entertainment bloggers and critics, and whoever collects the most points (+1 for a good prediction, -1 for a wrong prediction) can win a £250 Amazon voucher. Wish me luck!

I stumbled on this cool infographic from LocateTV about the Oscars and of course it’s a perfect post for Oscar week!

Episode 162: “If I looked like Kate Winslet, I’d act naked as well”

We’re already well into 2010 and while it’s a bit late for your Best Of 2009 lists, I still think we’re allowed a bit more time to reflect on the past decade. This video from the New York Times features a whole bunch of actors and actresses all answering the same question: What is the best performance of the decade?

Here’s the full list of everybody appearing in it: Sandra Bullock, Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, Jake Gyllenhaal, Carey Mulligan, Woody Harrelson, Morgan Freeman, Christoph Waltz, Sam Worthington, Vera Farmiga, Tobey Maguire, Colin Firth, Zoe Saldana and George Clooney.

Some of these answers are great; it’s hard to pin down what makes a great performance and it’s such a personal choice, I think. I agree with Carey Mulligan about Saoirse Ronan in Atonement and with Sandra Bullock about Kate Winslet in The Reader; they both were brilliant in those. But Sam Worthington about Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor? I do think Eddie Murphy’s roles are sometimes unappreciated, but seriously, Sam?? THAT was in your eyes the best performance in the decade?

Btw, what the hell is going on with Sandra Bullock’s big hair? Is it part of whatever movie she’s currently filming?

Who do you most agree with? What is for you the best performance of the decade?

Via BuzzSugar

Slowly working my way through reviewing the rest of the movies I watched last year. I also still need to do some proper reviews of the movies I’ve watched this year. I can’t believe it’s February already!

9

Great concept, bad execution. 9 takes place in the future, where mankind has been wiped out by machines. When a small burlap doll, called 9, comes to life, he has no idea what has happened to this world. Together with a group of other dolls, he tries to figure why they were created and were meant to do.

Visually 9 looks gorgeous; the doll designs, the apocalyptic world, the monster robots, it all looks superb. But the story behind it was just too weak. There’s no real answer to any of the questions raised and the plot just jumps from one encounter to the other. It kind of feels like a bad video game, with the plot taking a back seat to the visuals. Such a shame because this could have been amazing.

High School Musical

Yeah, I finally went ahead and watched this. I always find it a bit hypocritical to completely trash a movie if you haven’t seen it. Was it as bad as I expected? Yep. Did I enjoy it? Ehm, honestly? Yes. It’s so cheesy and predictable, but it’s a fun movie that never takes itself seriously. And some of the songs are pretty catchy.

Repo! The Genetic Opera

Staying in the realm of musicals for a bit, I had wanted to watch Repo for ages.  The movie is set in the year 2056, where GeneCo rents out organs to people. If they can’t pay though, the Repo man is sent to collect their organs…

A horror opera in a futuristic world. Awesome idea! In reality though, I didn’t like the movie as much as I had expected. I didn’t like any of the songs and the story just wasn’t that interesting. I loved the comic book snapshots throughout the film though and adored all the actors singing (Anthony Stewart Head!!). I just wished they had better songs to sing.

Next

I should have expected how bad this was, seeing as Nicholas Cage is in it. It’s loosely based on a Philip K. Dick story, but plotwise it really isn’t that impressive. Cage stars as a man who can see a couple of seconds into the future and is wanted by the FBI because of this skill. A waste of time: avoid.

Eragon

I love a good dragon story, but Eragon was just aweful. The acting was bad, the story was boring (and completely ripped off from Star Wars of course) and just didn’t make sense. The dragon was pretty though.

Eagle Eye

I watched this straight after Next and Eragon, thinking I’d do a bad movie afternoon. Jerry (Shia LaBeouf) and Rachel (Michelle Monaghan) are two strangers thrown together by a mysterious phone call from a woman they have never met. Threatening their lives and family, she pushes Jerry and Rachel into a series of dangerous situations, using the technology of everyday life to track and control their every move. Surprisingly it was more enjoyable than I had expected. It’s not the greatest action or thriller ever made (no by far), but it’s a good fun movie for a rainy afternoon.

The Escapist

Frank is a convict fourteen years into a life sentence without parole. But when his estranged daughter falls ill, he is determined to escape and be with her before it’s too late. He develops an ingenious escape plan, recruiting a bunch of other inmates escapists, each with specific skills to make their escape work.

I really liked this movie. It was a bit slow going, but the way the story unfolds was pretty cool. Instead of just a normal narrative, we get to see two stories simultaneously: the preparation of the escape and the escape itself. I was expecting some weird scifi twist (mainly because I had seen glimpses of a London underground station during the escape in the trailer and was trying to figure out why they were underground, but that’s actually never explained), but even without that it’s an interesting movie.

City of Ember

Another underground movie. For generations, the people of the City of Ember have lived underground. But Ember’s once powerful generator is failing… and the great lamps that illuminate the city are starting to flicker. Two teenagers must search Ember for clues that will unlock the ancient mystery of the city’s existence, and help the citizens escape before the lights go out forever.

I wish I had read the book first, but it’s still a great movie. Yes, it’s a kids movie, but the way the fantasy world has been built up is charming. Bill Murray is good as the unlikable Mayor and Saoirse Ronan is sweet as the young heroine.

Vantage Point

I always love slightly different narratives in movies. In Vantage Point we see an attempted assassination on the American President from several vantage points. Instead of just repeating the same exact period of time from different points of view though, we slowly get more and more parts of the story. I had expected it to become a bit tiring after a while, but the movie manages to keep you interested and intrigued without repeating too much of what you seen already. Some of the ‘twists’ were a bit predictable, but even I hadn’t figured it all out.

Oscar

I wonder how many of you have even heard of this movie? Oscar stars Sylvester Stallone as Snaps Provolone, mafia boss who promises his dying father that he’ll turn into a honest businessman. On the day that he’s supposed to ‘go straight’ all things go wrong, starting with his accountant announcing he wants to marry Snaps’ daughter.

This is one of those movies I remember loving as a kid/teen, but it had been ages since I had last seen it. Was it as good as I remember? No, but that never is the case with movies you worshipped as a kid. It’s still a funny movie and has some hilarious mixups in it.

Yeah, I know we’re already a month into 2010, but I still wanted to do a list of the movies I’m most excited for. These won’t be the best movies or the top grossing movies (otherwise I would have added the Twilight and the Harry Potter sequels), but these are the movies I personally am really looking forward to.

Alice In Wonderland – March 5th (US, UK)

I can’t wait for this movie! I’ve been keeping an eye on the IMAX website, waiting till the tickets will be released (I’m not even in the country on the actual release date, but still want to get seats as quick as possible). If you hadn’t heard about this little movie yet, it’s Tim Burton’s interpretation of Alice in Wonderland, starring new comer Mia Wasikowska as Alice, Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen and tons of more familiar actors. I’m a sucker for Alice In Wonderland stories/reinterpretations, and I love the look of this movie.

Kick-Ass – April 2nd (UK), April 16th (US)

The first two trailers I saw of Kick-Ass looked awesome, so much so that I’m now in Avoid All Marketing mode. I know I want to see this movie when it’s released and I just don’t want to be spoilt by any new trailers. I’m still a little bit scared about Nicholas Cage (when was his last good movie?), but my hopes are high. Kick-Ass is about a teenager (Aaron Johnson), who decides to become superhero after being inspired by the heroes of comic books. He soon comes across a mysterious vigilante called Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage), and his daughter Hit-Girl (Chloë Moretz).

Iron Man 2 – April 30th (UK), May 7th (US)

I wasn’t the hugest fan of the first Iron Man, but I still am excited for its sequel. The moment Samuel Jackson was revealed at the end of the last movie was one of my best cinema experiences (everyone was cheering together and it felt great). I know this movie is going to be a blast! Especially with Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke added to the cast. Not too sure about Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow, but at least she does look the part!

Robin Hood – May 14th (UK, US)

This is the one movie on this list I’m still really dubious about. So far it just looks like Gladiator in medieval times. But it’s Ridley Scott. And Russell Crowe. And freaking Robin Hood. I want to like this so much and be swept away as I was with Gladiator.

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time – May 28th (UK,US)

I love the look of the trailer; it reminds of The Mummy and Pirates of the Caribbean (in a good way). I think this is mainly going to be a fun action movie. It won’t win any awards or anything like that (and I have a feeling it might lean towards the cheesy side), but I think it’s going to be one of those movies I could watch over and over again.

The Last Airbender – July 2nd (US), August 13th (UK)

Yeah, I was addicted to the TV show, so it was kind of a given I’d be excited for the movie. As I said last week, I think the trailer looked awesome! I haven’t always been a fan of M Night Shyamalan, but I like how he’s staying true to the original (at least from what we’ve seen so far). I still have some doubts (like how will Appa and Momo look like?), so bring on the full length trailer!

Inception – July 16th (US)

Christopher Nolan is one of my favourite directors, mainly because of Memento and The Prestige. I mean, I loved Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, but I adore and love love love Nolan’s movies with unusual intricate story lines. Inception seems to fit right in along those lines with a trailer that looks complex and a completely mental. Yay, my type of movie! I love how Leonardo di Caprio has said in an interview that it “didn’t make sense to him” while shooting the movie.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World – August 6th (UK), August 13th (US)

I know I shouldn’t be this excited for a movie of which I’ve only seen a handful of images. But everything I’ve seen so far just looks cool. The comic book has been on my wish list since I’ve heard of the movie, and I like the style of it all. Plus it’s being directed by Edgar Wright, the genius behind Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. I mean it can’t turn out bad, right?

Rapunzel – November 24th (US)

I still haven’t seen Disney’s latest animation yet (The Princess and The Frog), but I’m already excited for Rapunzel. I grew up with the golden era Disney musicals (I was 6 when The Little Mermaid came out) and it’s great to see them going back to them. Plus Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi (Chuck!!!) as the main characters? Yay!

Tron Legacy – December 17th (US)

And last but not least, Tron Legacy. It’s been ages since I last saw the original, and about time that I give it a rewatch. The footage we’ve seen so far of this sequel looks awesome!

So do you agree with my choices? Or are there other movies you’re more excited in seeing?

I told you last week I’ve been waiting to see more footage of The Last Airbender. We saw a teaser last June, but since then we’ve only gotten glimpses of posters and screenshots. Well, the TV spot for the Super Bowl has just been released and supposedly some time soon we’ll get to see a full trailer:

This looks awesome! I loved the cartoon on which it is based and I think M. Night Shyamalan has the skills to make this work. I’m still worried about how they’re going to squeeze 8 hours of story into only 3 hours max of movie (yeah, not every single episode of the first season is important to the main plot, but you’d be surprised how many episodes are necessary for the story or feature recurring characters).

I also want to see some non-action scenes and see whether or not these kids will be able to portray the characters the right way. The TV show was pretty goofy at times, but that goofiness made the serious episodes all the more worthwhile. I hope that they don’t get rid of that for the the movie.

Every year I say the same thing: I must try to review more of the movies and books I’ve seen, preferably right after I’ve actually seen them. And for the past two years I’ve ended up with a long list of all the stuff I hadn’t had the time to review. So for the next couple of days I’ll be doing a couple of posts with all the “left overs” I’ve got: short mini reviews about the movies and books I’ve seen/read in 2009.

I’m not even going to try to promise that 2010 will be any different. Instead, I think I’ll make these mini reviews a more regular thing and try to do one once every two months or so. I’ll still be doing reviews for the main movies and books I’ve read, but the smaller stuff (like things I watched on TV a full 2 years after the movie originally came out) will be just done in these mini reviews.

So here’s part 1 of the things I’ve watched in 2009:

Up

I don’t think I can say much about this movie that hasn’t been said yet. It’s a brilliant tale and if you haven’t seen it yet, do yourself a favour and watch it. It isn’t my personal favourite Pixar movie (that still remains Wall-E), but it’s got some great moments in it and everyone I know who’s seen it loves this movie!

Rachel Getting Married

I saw this movie around Oscar season trying to watch most of the movies that were nominated (in some way or another). This has to be one of most boring movies I saw this year. Yes, Anne Hathaway is good in it, and there’s tons of drama and tension, but really not the type of movie I enjoy watching.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Loved this movie, but I have to admit it has it’s problems. Visually it’s stunning (think the old drawings of Monty Python in CGI), but the plot doesn’t make much sense and I completely lost track of what happened in the last quarter of an hour. I know it could have been so much greater if Heath Ledger was still alive, but as it is, the story kind of falls apart.

FAQ About Time Travel

Brilliant little movie about 3 guys who get stuck in a time loop in a pub. It’s been described as a Shaun of the Dead type movie but about time travel, and it does kind of fit into that description. I had never heard about it before watching it and it pleasantly surprised. Plus it’s one of those movies that does require a 2nd viewing to completely appreciate it.

Law Abiding Citizen

The difficulty with this movie was that you weren’t really sure who you were supposed to be rooting for. Gerard Butler is kind of billed as the main character, but to call him the protagonist… no, not really. After a plea bargain sets one of his family’s killers free, Butler decides to take justice into his own hands. It edges on the border of being a smart, intelligent movie, but in the end fails to deliver.

Madagascar 2: Escape To Africa

Cute, easy sequel to the first animation. Nothing really special, but still an enjoyable movie.

Trick ‘r Treat

I first heard about this movie in 2007, but because of some trouble with the studio it didn’t get released properly until this year. It’s an anthology of 4 Halloween stories, all happening on the same Halloween night. I didn’t like all of the stories, but it works well together. I think my favourite was the one about Anna Paquin, who together with her friends has dressed up as sexy fairy tale princesses to pick up boys.

The Reader

The second Oscar-y movie in this list and one that I hadn’t expected to like. The movie is about Michael Berg, a German lawyer who as a teenager in the late 1950s had an affair with an older woman, Hanna Schmitz, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a guard at a Nazi concentration camp in the later years of World War II. Kate Winslet is great as Hanna Schmitz and her Oscar win is completely deserved.

The Oxford Murders

Another movie of which I had seen the trailer ages ago and then just never heard anything about. I loved the movie for its mathematic references and discussions and I really think I should read the book. Better than most movies in this genre without the assumption that the viewer is a complete idiot (which annoys me with a lot of movies).

Stranger Than Fiction

From all the films on this list, Stranger Than Fiction is a typical “me” movie; it’s a bit quirky, bordering the line of comedy and drama with an unusual. Will Ferrell plays Harold Crick, a slightly OCD tax auditor, who one day suddenly hears a voice narrating his life. It’s an unusual movie with that touch of fantasy and whimsicality while still remaining quite serious.

It’s that time of the year again that I’m listening to Christmas music, but my playlist always has some non conventional choices. This year I thought I’d share them with you! I love Nightmare Before Christmas, so (of course) most of the songs are in my Christmas playlist.

My favourite though is What’s This? And it has the most Christmassy feel to it. I really like Danny Elfman’s voice; I’ve tried searching, but does anyone know if he has sung any other stuff? Enjoy: