Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
What I was looking most forward to of Valentine’s Day? This Indy IV trailer. And WOW. I’m so psyched for this movie! Love the “Damn, I thought that was closer” line. I’ve got some of my “musings” at the end of this post, where I’m speculating about the plot, but it may contain slight spoilers (well, things that appear in the trailer, but you only notice if you’re really paying attention). [Trailer]

The Happening
A second, more plot driven trailer for this M. Night Shyamalan movie. I’m still intrigued by the idea of this movie (whole cities committing suicide for no apparent reason), but the more I see of it, the more I think this movie isn’t going to be that great. Then again I know what is “happening” (stumbled on a very early script review more than a year ago) and I’m not sure how much of a plot twist/reveal that’s supposed to be. [Trailer]

Journey To The Center of The Earth 3D
Wondering why they stuck a “3D” at the end of this movie’s name? I’m guessing, because the 2D version looks soooo bad, they want to make it clear you have to see it in 3D. This film seems so remarkably cheesy: the plot, the dialogue, the acting, how bad can you make it? The only reason people are going to see this movie is because of the 3D effects and you can see from the trailer that every scene in it is meant to have a 3D gimmick. [Trailer]

Kung Fu Panda
I had high hopes for this movie; a panda doing Kung Fu, how cool is that? But after seeing this second trailer, I have to say I’m not impressed. It just doesn’t seem funny to me and I keep picturing all the real actors when I hear their voices. Who knows though, maybe I’ll end up loving this film. [Trailer]

Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants 2
What do you get if you combine a Gilmore Girl, a Gossip Girl, Ugly Betty and Joan of Arcadia? A guilty little pleasure. I have to admit I kind of enjoyed the first movie and this trailer for the sequel seems like a perfect continuation. [Trailer]

Street Kings
Up until two weeks ago this movie was known as Night Watchman, but due to upcoming Watchman movie adaption the studios renamed it to avoid confusion. After seeing the trailer, I’m not even remotely interested in this movie, but I’m sure it will attract a fair crowd. [Trailer]

Indy IV Musings:
Did anyone else notice the Roswell, New Mexico on one of the containers (see image below)? Is this confirmation that the plot will involve aliens? I’m guessing that might mean the warehouse is Area 51. Further, the rumours are that Shia LaBeouf’s character Mutt Williams is Indy’s son, but no one’s confirming it yet. I think if it’s true though, it will be a major plot reveal. The “So you’re a teacher” line means that the characters don’t know each other. Anybody notice anything else?

Before I start this post, I have to say I’m tired. Knackered. Exhausted. My mind is completely foggy and I should get some sleep (but blogging is way more interesting), so excuse me if this post isn’t all too great.

It’s weird how some things turn out. After blogging daily for over a month, the last two days have been somewhat quiet from my side, mainly due to me traveling. Surprisingly though I’ve gotten more visitors these two days than ever before. One of my posts (this one) got stumbled and, boy, am I seeing the effects of that. Here’s a screenshot from my Google Analytics statistics from the past three days:

That’s like more than 10 times the amount of visitors I got in one year! I’m only hoping those visitors also took the time to see the rest of this blog and will be coming back for more delicious geekiness. A warm welcome to all you new Stumbled readers out there; I hope I can entertain you.

Why have I been quiet the past few days? Monday I’m getting my second wisdom tooth removed, which I’m getting done here in the Netherlands (better insurance, cheaper, etc etc). Seeing that I live in London, means having to undergo a nice “little” trip from there to here. Now most of the time I go during the day with the bus; although it isn’t as great as going by plane or train, it’s a whole lot cheaper and still doable. This time though I was a bit late with booking and decided to go with the night bus. Yeah, not a good idea, that.

The bus was completely full. I luckily got a window seat, but got stuck next to a kid who tried to curl up in her seat and played the most annoying hip-hop/rap music (using of course the terrible white iPod headphones). Of course, I also had to pick the one seat in the bus that wouldn’t recline properly. Then to make things worse, a mother and her 3 kids were sitting behind me and at times the youngest was crying, screaming and screeching. I’ve never experienced a more annoying child than that one.

Suffice to say, I barely slept that night. I got at my parent’s place at about 11 this morning and just went straight to sleep. Woke up at 6 and now (at 3 in the morning) I’m again completely exhausted. Tomorrow though I should be back in blogger mode and I’ll be posting a couple of items, including a review of Be Kind, Rewind and your weekly Trailerrific.

Episode 42: “Why does my heart cry”

I’ve been a bit lax with my “A Video A Day” posts lately and to be honest I’m finding it difficult to keep it up every single day. The last week has been extremely busy (great strides forward in my research, though) and the couple of weeks are only going to get worse (Monday wisdom tooth removal, brrr). I’m going to try to keep posting these videos, but it will be a whole lot less and certainly not every day.

As it is Valentine’s Day, I thought I should do a themed post: so I here are my favourite romantic movies. Enjoy:

Moulin Rouge
I love Moulin Rouge. It’s one of the few films that I’ll actually watch at least once a year (meaning I’ve seen it at least 7 times now). The scene with Christian singing “Come What May” in the final act still gives me goosebumps. I couldn’t find that video, so here is my second favourite song:

Amelie
For some weird reason, at first I didn’t want to see this movie. Somehow without even knowing what it was about I just didn’t want to see it. Then when I actually did (pushed into by Cristiano), I loved it. The music in this movie is superb. It never fails to sweep me away into faraway lands and fairytale settings.

Fantaghiro
Anybody else know this movie? I’ll be doing a post about it soon, but it’s a fairytale about a princess who wants to be a knight and falls in love with the prince of an enemy country. It’s a bit corny (there’s even a talking duck), but it remains one of my favourite fairy tale movies.

Ever After
A take on the Cinderella story, but with Leonardo da Vinci as the Fairy Godmother.

Interesting links for February 9th through February 12th:

• Gallery: How Google Got Its Colorful Logo – The evolution of the design of the Google logo. I love the little magnifying glass.
• Lori Nix Photography – Beautiful photography of miniatures and models.
• French Artist Talks To Aliens Using Crazy Font [Art] – Can you figure out what these messages say?
• How to Fold a Towel Monkey – wikiHow – Cute tutorial on how to fold your towels into a monkey shape. You’ve got to love that posing cat in all of the photos. Attention seeker!

Yesterday I got to go to a free screening of The Bank Job. Here’s my review:

The Plot

What in heavens would a movie called The Bank Job ever be about? Seriously, though, the answer is not a simple “a bank job”. The movie is set in 1971 and is based on a true unsolved bank robbery of a bank in Marylebone, London (I have no idea which elements of the plot are true). Jason Statham plays small-time criminal/mechanic Terry Leather who receives a proposition from former flame Martine (Saffron Burrows) of a “simple” bank job, targeting a roomful of safe deposit boxes. Terry agrees and puts together a crew of friends, all amateurs, to rob the bank. What Terry and his crew don’t know though is that the boxes contain all types of secrets. Martine is secretly working for a MI:5/6 faction, desperate to get their hands on the content of one of the boxes: compromising photos of a certain Royal, that are being used by black activist Michael X to get out of being prosecuted. Besides that, there are other people who don’t want the contents of their boxes to see the light of day and before Terry knows it, he’s in deep trouble.

The Good and The Bad

The main problem I have with this movie is that it lacks tension and suspense. The movie tries to give a historical account of the bank robbery and reveals everything from the start. Even before Terry gets the proposal of the bank robbery, the viewer knows everything about the compromising photos; who they are from, what they are being used for, who wants them and that Martine is supposed to get them. There are no twists and turns whatsoever and everything that happens in the movie is fairly predictable. The writers could have easily made it a bit more exciting: why did we as the viewer have to know what Martine was up to from the start? Why did we have to know from the beginning what was in the boxes? It would have worked so much better if the viewer found out each thing at the same time as Terry, adding a whole lot more surprised to the story.

The pacing of the movie is also slightly off. After a perfect introduction of all the players and the plot (not confusing, structured and to the point), the film continues to show how they rob the bank for about 30-40 minutes with not much exciting happening during that time. It finally picks up some pace once they open the safety deposit boxes, but the film still feels at least 20 minutes too long.

For those of you expecting some cool action movie, I’m warning you it isn’t. You won’t find any gun fights, car chases or explosions in this movie. It’s meant as a thriller and as I said before, it even fails in this aspect.

What I did love of The Bank Job was the look and feel to it. The clothes, the hairdos, the furniture; it captures the vibe of that era perfectly. I also liked trying to recognize which parts where actually filmed on location. There are a couple of scenes at underground stations (Tottenham Court Road, Edgeware Road, Baker Street) and at Paddington Station and now and then I was going: “Hey, I know that place”.

The Verdict

The Bank Job left me a bit disappointed. It’s an okay movie, but there was so much potential in it to be a whole lot greater. The story of the bank robbery is intriguing and the film just doesn’t do that story justice. Instead of a riveting suspense movie, we get a solemn account of the events. My tip: wait for the dvd; it’s not worth going to the cinema for.

[rating:3]

By now you should know I love Annie Leibovitz’s photography. I just recently discovered these two photo spreads picturing the Wizard of Oz and Hitchcock movies. The first set is from December 2005 and features Keira Knightley as Dorothy Gale. If you want to see all the images, take a look at the slideshow.

The second set just came out this week and features a wide collection of current day actors posing in iconic Hitchcock scenes. I love these two with Jodie Foster in The Birds and Marion Cotillard in Psycho. Check out FirstShowing for more Hitchcock.

Update: Apparently though they are not from Annie Leibovitz. (I misread the other article). Still they are beautiful photos.

Episode 41: “Even if nobody else sings along”

Tonight I finally finished watching the third season of Lost after starting it about a week ago. I had seen Season 2 in a similar manner back in the summer of 2006 and never got into Season 3 at the time. While I love the show, it’s somehow not one of those series that I’ll sit down for and watch every week. I have the exact same problem with 24 and it’s got to do with the timespan of both series. With each of them one season translates to a much lesser amount of time, as in: one season of 24 spans 24 hours and one season of Lost is about 30 days. When watching it once a week on TV over a period of 5-7 months, the story seems to move so slow and the full realization of the amount of time that passes in the show feels off. I find it’s way more fun to watch those type of series in one go.

My favourite scene of the series has to be the opening of Season 2 (with the opening of Season 3 a strong second). It’s a perfect blend of music, mystery and clues for those who can figure it out (you know what I mean if you’ve seen it). I love the rush/high you get when you realize something before the TV show or movie shows it to you (the reason why I love The Others and The Prestige so much; I “conquered” the movie). I had that with this scene:

The continuation of my previous Trailerrific post. In this one, I’ll be discussing the trailers of movies of which we’ve already seen at least one trailer.

The Forbidden Kingdom
Back in November I saw an early trailer for this movie, which used some unfinished edits and the soundtrack of Hero [link]. Then in the December the official trailer came out [link]. While both trailers made the movie look entertaining enough, I don’t think it captured the essence of the movie that well. Now the new trailer has been released and I’m just psyched to see this film. [Trailer] [Posters]

Iron Man
I never liked the Iron Man character, but I think this movie is about to change my mind. The first trailer came out a couple of weeks ago [link] and it already convinced me to see the movie. A new TV spot has come out now and it shows even more actions scenes and kick-ass effects. For those of you, who already want to see the movie, I suggest skipping this trailer. You’ve already decided to go and this trailer doesn’t add any more value, except perhaps some more spoiled scenes. [TV Spot] [Official Website]

Wanted
This movie looks pretty great, but I’m still disappointed they’re not following the comic (which is much more dark and evil). The trailer was released a couple of weeks ago [link] and now a TV spot has appeared. Watch it, skip it, whatever you want. It doesn’t show any real new scenes, so it’s pretty “safe” to watch. [TV Spot]

Prince Caspian
I liked The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. It wasn’t a great movie, but if you take it for what it is (a kids story) it’s pretty spot on. Heck, it’s a whole lot better than the life-size people in beaver costumes from the version I remember. The trailer for the sequel appeared some time ago [link] and during the Superbowl a TV spot was aired. As with the Wanted TV spot they don’t show any scenes that we hadn’t seen in the trailer. [TV Spot]

Forgetting Sarah Marshall
I want this movie to be hilarious just because I love all the actors in it (Jason Segal, Kristen Bell, Russell Brand), but I have a feeling it won’t be as funny as I hope. The trailer was released in December [link] and now a red band version has come out. [Red Band Trailer]

Episode 40: “No name, no other alias”

The Dark Knight trailer redone in Lego. I don’t think more explanation is required:

In the past week a lot of new trailers have come out, mainly because of the Superbowl. Now most of these trailers haven’t appeared on the Apple trailer site yet, but about half of them are from movies with already a trailer released. I’ll be splitting this post up this week into two parts: the trailers that are completely new from movies of which we haven’t seen anything yet, and the trailers of movies of which we’ve already seen at least one trailer.

First up, the new trailers:

Taken
I can’t believe I hadn’t heard more of this movie. It’s about Liam Neeson who after his daughter is kidnapped in Paris, goes on a manhunt trying to find those responsible. So far, it’s only slated for an end of February French release, with no known release dates for other countries. [Trailer]

Superhero Movie
Sometimes a movie comes along that you know you’re going to hate, but that most people are going to love. For me, this is one of those movies. It’s from the makers of Naked Gun and Scary Movie. Need I say more? I seriously can not stand these type of stupid parody movies. If you liked those movies, I’m guessing you’ll like this one. If you didn’t: To Avoid At All Costs.

Mongol
The trailer looks interesting and the film has been nominated for an Academy Award (Best Foreign Language Film), but I’ve heard reviews that weren’t that taken by this movie. It’s about the life of Genghis Khan, but its an interpretation and doesn’t follow the true history. [Trailer]

The Happening
I heard about the script of this movie a long time back, when M. Night Shyamalan was having trouble getting it made. I understand why, cause it isn’t your typical disaster movie. Without giving to much away, the basic gist of it is that people begin randomly committing suicide, killing themselves for absolutely no reason whatsoever. It seems an interesting movie, but it’s a tad difficult to promote.

The Grand
This is one of those films that looks half-interesting. Let me explain. It’s an improvisational ensemble comedy about several competitors in a poker tournament in Las Vegas. There are seven main characters, each playing a different poker stereotype. For me, half of those characters look funny and interesting, the other half not so much. [Trailer]

Second Skin
I know that people like documentaries about unusual people obsessed with their hobby, but do we really need a documentary for ever type of obsession? First Trekkies, then MacHeads and now Second Skin. What’s next? Knitting?? [Trailer]

The second half of this post can be expected tomorrow.