I have a little confession to make: up until yesterday I had never seen Alien or Aliens before. It’s just one of those movie series I never got around to watching. Anyhow I finally saw both Alien and Aliens yesterday; Alien just at home on my tv, Aliens at the Prince Charles cinema as part of a Mass Effect 3 launch (sidenote: seeing the ME3 trailer on a big screen is awesome). It’s great to have finally seen both these movies, and finally understand what all the fuss is about. I liked Alien, I looooved Aliens.

So of course now I’m super excited for Prometheus. And it seems they’ve got some interesting (viral) marketing stuff going on. A couple weeks ago this TED talk appeared set in the year 2023 with Guy Pearce as Peter Weyland:

Are you excited for Prometheus?

It’s Oscar time tonight! If all goes right, I’ll have seen all Best Picture nominees this year; the only one I’m still missing is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and the plan is to see that in the cinema this afternoon. Besides the 9 Best Picture nominees I’ve tried to watch as many of the other movies with nominations, but there are still a couple I wish I had the chance to see. I won’t cover all those here though, just the 8 Best Picture noms that I saw.

The Artist

Plot: A silent movie star has to deal with the rise of talkies. Oh, and the movie is actually a silent black-and-white movie too.

I thought this was going to be such a gimmicky movie, and it turned out it was. Only: I don’t care. It’s beautifully shot, has a great (although somewhat predictable) story, and the characters are so likeable. Jean Dujardin is charming as the silent movie star, and Berenice Bejo is so sweet and adorable as the bright young actress. It also made me actually want to watch more old movies!

The Descendants

Plot: Hawaiian guy’s wife is in a coma. Guy finds out about secrets the wife had, while dealing with his kids and his family’s trust of 25,000 acres of land.

I did not like The Descendants. I can sort of see what people like about it, but it just wasn’t a movie for me at all. Yes, George Clooney is great as the troubled guy whose wife is in a coma, but George Clooney is great in almost everything he does. The plot is just slow and boring, and I came out of the movie feeling as if I just wasted two hours of my life.

The Help

Plot: It’s 1960s, Mississippi. A young white woman tries to write a book about the perspective of the black maids working for her friends’ families.

I really like the movies Emma Stone chooses lately. I loved Easy A and Crazy, Stupid, Love, and she’s one of the reasons I’m looking forward to The Amazing Spiderman. The trailer makes it seem like she’s the main character (and it makes it look like this is a upbeat cheesy chick flick, which it isn’t) and even though she’s great, this is really Viola Davis’ movie. She’s great as the quiet maid, who decides to share her story with this young optimistic journalist.

Hugo

Plot: The story of an orphaned boy living in a Paris railway station and the mysterious grumpy toy maker who works there.

Hugo is I think one of my favourite movies of last year. It’s so much more than just a kids movie, which I wasn’t expecting. I should have, cause it is Martin Scorsese, but he can be a bit hit-and-miss for me lately (I really didn’t like Shutter Island, and fell asleep during The Departed). The movie is loosely based on some real life events and people, which I didn’t know before going into the movie, but afterwards I spent a couple of hours reading up on the history behind it and it’s a fascinating read.

Midnight In Paris

Plot: During a midnight stroll through Paris, a screenwriter ends up meeting his heroes.

I loved Midnight in Paris! I don’t want to say too much about it and spoil certain stuff (although I’m not sure if it’s really spoiling if it happens that early on in a movie and actually is referred to in most summaries), cause I went into it completely blind and really enjoyed it. It’s just such a quirky and sort of romantic movie.

Moneyball

Plot: Baseball + Maths = Money

This was the movie I was least looking forward to, mainly cause I thought it was just another sports movie. It is, but it’s a sports movie with maths! And it’s very relevant to what I’m working on at the moment: they’re taking large sets of data and discovering useful, valuable patterns.

The Tree of Life

Plot: Let me get back to you on that, I’m still not 100% sure what this was about.

I finished watching this movie last night and I’m still not sure what I thought about it. It’s definitely a gorgeous movie, and for that alone I would recommend seeing it. The first hour though feels like a weird mashup of a nature documentary, a music video without the right music and an artsy stage monologue (“hack-y sack”, bonus points if you get my reference), with lots of “quiet” moments giving you time to reflect on what you just saw. After that first hour it feels a bit more linear, but there’s still that almost pretentious feeling of “this is a deep and profound movie, and you can interpret it however you want”.

War Horse

Plot: Boy meets horsy. WWII. Horsy becomes War Horsy. War Horsy makes friends.

I was really looking forward to this movie; I had heard so many good things about the play it’s based on and was expecting the movie to be great as well. There are apparently some people out there who thought this movie was great (otherwise it wouldn’t have been nominated), but I wasn’t that impressed by it. The entire first act with the boy and horse felt too sentimental, and we’re constantly told how “special” this horse is (without the horse having done anything yet). I did like most of the almost stand-alone type stories in the second act, even though they continue the “he’s a special horse” spiel. I didn’t completely hate the movie, but it just felt too soppy.

These drawings from viria13 on deviantart are awesome! They’re exactly how I imagine animation princesses would look in real life 🙂

My favourite is Belle (of course), although I would have loved to see a version of her blue dress too.

This is quite an old video (well, “old”. It’s from January this year. It’s only “old” in internet time), but I hadn’t come across it before now.

Most of you based here in the UK will have seen an Orange commercial before a movie in the cinema (not sure about other countries; I’m guessing UK can’t be the only place where they’re shown); some of them work, and some of them don’t. This latest one is part of the first group, featuring the loveable Muppets:

Via Bleeding Cool

I didn’t understand all the hype when it first was announced that this book series would be turned into a movie, and then I picked up the first book… I devoured it within a day. It’s one of those books that you can not put down. The premise is pretty much Battle Royale meets Big Brother.

I’m still not sure if a movie adaption is going to work though. What I loved about the book was that you get to see Katniss’ thoughts about every decision she makes. She knows she’s being constantly watched and it’s the internal conflict about whether or not to manipulate people that was the most interesting to me. I have no idea how and even if that is going to come across on the screen.

So now that a first trailer has come out, what do we think of it?

Some of the actors I think they’ve cast spot on (Jennifer Lawrence, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson). Others I’m not too sure about. Lenny Kravitz as Cinna looks great, even though I always pictured Cinna as Cillian Murphy. And Josh Hutcherson as Peeta… I’m still not convinced.

They’re staying very true to the book, but I’m not too sure that’s a good thing. The characters from the Capital are a bit over-the-top (pink hair, curled moustaches, etc) and seem a bit too comical for me. I was hoping they would tone that part a bit down, but it looks like they’re sticking to exactly what is in the book.

I’m curious to see how the movie goes; it’s definitely something I’ll be watching in the cinema. I still have that nagging feeling though that this shouldn’t have be turned into a movie. What do you think? Have you read the books? Do you like the trailer?

Make sure you watch the bit after the credits:

BOB from Jacob Frey on Vimeo.

I think epic and awkward is the best way to describe this:

Via Geek Are Sexy

It’s been ages since I last did a Trailerrific Thursday; I’m quite shocked to see the last proper one was in May 2010. Wow. I’ll be trying to do these at least twice a month, hopefully every week.

The Avengers: This looks great! I loved Iron Man, Thor and Captain America, so of course I would be excited for this. I’m still not sure about Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, but the rest of the cast looks great! Release Date: May 2012

The Divide: A post-apocalyptic thriller about 9 strangers (all tenants of a New York apartment) hiding together in the building’s basement after a nuclear attack. I really like the look of this movie, but I think the trailer might give too much away. My tip: stop watching the trailer at about 1:10, when “One of the best apocalyptic tales in quite a while” appears. Release Date: January 2012

Happy Feet Two: Ehm, yeah… I wasn’t much of a fan of the first Happy Feet. I liked it, but didn’t love it as a lot of people seemed to at the time. The sequel? More of the same it seems. Release Date: Novemburr 2011

Act of Valor: “When the rescue of a kidnapped CIA operative leads to the discovery of a deadly terrorist plot against the U.S., a team of SEALs is dispatched on a worldwide manhunt.” Not really my type of movie, but looks interesting. Release Date: February 2012

Carnage: Two pairs of parents, whose kids got into a fight, meet to discuss the matter, starring Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz and John C Reilly. This could be good, but for now it just looks tiring. Release Date: December 2011

Sleeping Beauty: Lucy is a Sleeping Beauty, a prostitute who sleeps (is drugged) while men do to her whatever they want, with her not remembering anything of what happened. Release Date: October 2011

The Adventures of Tintin: I never read Tintin growing up, but this looks like it could be fun. Release Date: October 2011

The Raven: A string of gruesome murders seem to be inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s work. Poe (John Cusack) joins forces with a young Baltimore detective (Luke Evans) to solve the murders. Release Date: March 2012

Q: Which side of this movie appealed to you more: the cowboy side or the alien side?

OW: I would say the western, because it’s something I never thought I’d have the chance to be a part of, because I felt maybe the genre has died for the most part. I certainly didn’t think there’d be a female role in a western that was this interesting, this tough that I would have the chance to do. So I would say the western is what got me.

Q: Could you give us some more detail about the craziness of doing the stunt when the aliens lasso you? How did you persuaded mr Favreau to let you do it and exactly what was involved?

OW: That stunt was supposed to be done by my great stunt double and we started off with me on a mechanical horse, which was the horse that they used in Sea Biscuit, but it looked way too slow for our movie. So I ended up getting on the real horse and Jon let me do it. I didn’t convince him, our stunt coordinator convinced him. He said he was confidant that I could pull it off, which made me very proud. And I felt safe cause Daniel was riding next to me. I galloped through two 80 foot cranes, and then at one point a bungee cord attached to a harness from my waist yanked me back forty feet into the air.

The danger was that I would get stuck in the stirrups, so the trick was to not get my feet stuck and get ripped in half. And that was the challenge. And it was a lot of fun, it was amazing to be floating above the set and to have this unusual perspective and there was our crew looking like little ants and these incredible deserts and mountains and canyons around us and it just made me realize how ambitious it was to lug these giant machines and cameras out into the middle of nowhere to tell a story. It was just really beautiful.

Q: I’m told you are a Trekkie, and indeed that you have a deep desire to play Captain Kirk.

OW: Well, I grew up watching Star Trek with my family often and my sister was a Trekkie as well. There have been great female characters in Trek over the years and still are. But I think playing captain… well, there was Captain Janeway, she did it well, she’s got that voice that I could never compete with. But I would love to play more powerful women in science fiction. I think what Sigourney did for women in science fiction is just incredible and I think she sort of set the standard. And I love the genre and I would love to do more of it.

Roberto Orci: Do you mind if we paint you green?

OW: That’s fine. I’d do anything.

Q: In the western for every thousand saloon girls and school mums, there is a Belle Star or an Annie Oakley. Your character clearly is in the minority. And I wondered about the research first of all into the very few women who toted guns in the West, instead of doing the other stuff.

OW: I loved doing research for this role, because I got to learn about women of the old west, which was really fascinating. There’s a great museum in Los Angeles called the Autry which I spent a lot of time at and they had a very helpful exhibit at the time called Women Of The Old West which was nice. I loved reading about how tough these women would have to be, I mean everyone had to be tough in order to be these pioneers, to settle in these border towns was not easy. I don’t know how long I would have lasted. But I did have some ancestors who did just that, and it was really interesting for me to do this research.

In terms of looking at characters in films I didn’t specifically look for female characters, I looked probably at a lot of the same guys we all were. I thought that Ella had a great kind of Clint thing to her as well. I was so excited when I realized I was literally going to step out of the shadows in the saloon to approach Daniel. I was kind of like “oh cool, I get to be the woman in the shadow and come out” and it was just one of those moments where you really fell “ooh, this feels westerny right now”. So I think I inspired by all those guys. I mean when I grew up watching westerns I wanted to be Steve McQueen, I didn’t want to be the girl, so I had fun being inspired by them as well.

Q: How you established the fact that convinced you knew what you were doing with the handgun, the practice and all that sort of thing you had to go through?

Daniel told me how to shoot my gun. Which was cool, cause now I can say James Bond taught me how to shoot a gun. But it was cool, because the guns were really beautiful and I’m not a big gun person, I’m a pacifist, I don’t really love guns in general, but I loved these antique guns, they were so interesting. And not easy to shoot. We did have a gun expert teaching me how to spin the gun, but then I never got to spin the gun on camera. I think sometimes in the wide shots we’d all be spinning the guns, hoping that we could do it and Jon would say “Guys, not all of you can spin your gun. Stop doing it”. But I did learn how, and now I have that skill. But I did then learn how to shoot it and now I can do that. I have tremendous respect for all of our props, I thought they were very cool and just another thing that made the whole experience so fun.