The story is simple, four girls grow up as best friends, but they will be separate for an entire summer. Each have their own adventure, each made their own discovery about themselves. The premise of the magic pants is not that fantastic, it’s just an excuse to somehow connect these different stories.

I’d seen two actresses in their TV series (Alexis Bedel in Gilmore Girls and Blake Lively in Gossip Girl), so I was at least familiar with them. Their stories were about romance, and they felt typical of a romantic movie.

The other two stories were different though. Ironically the other two girls are not as pretty (being sarcastic here), so they deal with something that felt more profound and meaningful.

Carmen deals with her father’s new family. I must say I hope I don’t become as stupid as that father, he really could have been more sensitive with his daughter. I also like that the new family was not branded as “the bad guys”, instead they’re a normal family like everyone else. I also liked the resolution to this story, it didn’t really wrap up neatly, even though we did get the inevitable happy ending.

The last story was very touching but not overly dramatic. I must say that little actress did a very good job, and I really found her endearing. It had a sad ending, but again they didn’t make it melodramatic.

I would say this movie was ok, I am certainly not the target audience, but it had its moments. There’s a sequel coming, but I don’t think I’ll rush out to watch it.

Rating: 2.5 Stars

Unfortunately this latest installment of the franchise didn’t excite me at all. I was hoping Stallone would give Rambo as good a closure as he did to Rocky with Rocky Balboa, but he failed me.

The plot couldn’t be simpler, but all you need for Rambo is an excuse for cool action scenes and maybe some dramatic moments. So I don’t complain about the plot. It does a good enough job of setting the action up.

Rambo himself is the usual moping character we’ve seen before, but he’s lost his little bit of “innocence” he had before. Now he’s older, but his view of the world hasn’t changed, which is why he’s living in a country at war.

The secondary characters don’t bring much more to this movie, including the female lead. I’ve been a fan of Julie Benz when she was playing Darla in Buffy/Angel, but her role here is of a typical scared woman who needs saving. And in some scenes she didn’t look that scared to me.

But what about the action. I must admit I was not very excited about any of the action here, I didn’t feel much tension or adrenaline watching this movie. I also think there’s a bit too much over the top gore, things that looked ridiculous and took me out of the movie.

What I wanted from this movie was a more personal story about Rambo himself, but this was only hinted at in the very last scene of the movie. This might mean there will be one more Rambo movie that hopefully will be more personal. But I don’t even know if I want to watch it after this.

Rating: 2 Stars

Lately he’s been on a British mood, creating movies set in England that have a different tone than his usual stories. This movie in particular does not have a lot of humor in it, and it’s all about the characters.

I must say I was surprised by this movie in a few occasions. There were some parts where Allen makes decidedly non-Hollywood decisions. For example when the father found the missing money, I thought that Ian would continue the lie in order to cover himself, instead he comes clean and every thing’s forgotten.

There is another scene where Ian tells his father about meeting this new girl, and then the waitress comes in and I thought she’s be all jealous and they’d have a fight, instead the scene ends there and it’s clear they had an understanding about their relationship.

Everything felt believable, the way Ian and Terry make their big decision, how they do it and talk about it. I was tense through their ordeal, and felt really bad for them.

However I felt a little underwhelmed by the ending. It just felt anti-climactic, after all the previous build up. And how likely is it for just a simple fall to kill somebody?

Despite that ending, I still enjoyed this movie.

Rating: 3 Stars

But let’s forget about the brilliant marketing and talk about the movie itself. The whole movie is seen through a portable camera, operated by one of the characters. So this is literally their point of view of the events in this story.

The big event is that a big monster is running around Manhattan. We don’t even anything else, because the characters don’t know anything else. So we just follow them trying to save their friend and trying to get out of there.

I thought this movie worked overall. The shock of seeing a monster through a cheap camera felt more real than the usual movie shot of the big monster. That realism is key to this movie. It helps with appreciating the characters, the story and the atmosphere of this movie. Even the dialogue felt real.

There are problems that come with the premise though. The main one for me is that the guy behind the camera rarely puts it down to help his friends, which I found ridiculous. He’s not a journalist, so I don’t buy that he really wanted to document this.

Sometimes the people on camera are talking to the operator, but they look into the camera, which also doesn’t make sense. And towards the end, they should have just run away leaving the camera behind. At that point there really wasn’t any excuse to keep the camera, other than to give us viewers an end.

Still, I enjoyed watching this movie, though at times I almost had a headache while the camera was shaking.

Rating: 3 Stars

This just the first in a series of unconventional decisions for this story, which is one of the things I liked about it. Of course the fight ends with them making up, but we get to know so much about them in that one scene.

From then on we see Holly dealing with her loss in her way, but then Gerry’s letters start coming. He planned a series of letters to be delivered slowly, to help Holly to go on with her life without Gerry.

Each letter comes with a different task for Holly, and the corresponding memories. I don’t want to spoil everything, but there is plenty of nice and funny moments, amist the pain Holly is suffering.

The letters are nice, but sometimes they pushed it too far, into “movie” territory. For example, a letter seems to have helped Holly find her “thing” in life, even though she’d been trying 10 years before that. How come the real Gerry couldn’t help her then?

The reveal of how the letters were sent was a nice surprise, as was the resolution of Holly and Daniel’s relationship. Again, unconventional decisions.

I must admit I enjoyed this movie more than I would like to admit, it was very affecting, so much so that my wife couldn’t sleep that night.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

This movie is actually mostly in English, since that’s the only common language. At times it’s funny, playing on the culture difference as well as some funny situations. I’ll never forget the scene where a band member is teaching Papi how to deal with women. Hilarious.

At times it’s touching, delving into the character’s past. The band’s leader had a lot of personal problems, but at the end of it he seems to be at peace. Not that he’s had a revelation of anything, but sometimes a little thing can change the way you think about life.

This is a very nice little story that anyone can enjoy. It’s also a breath of fresh air amongst the American movies I’ve watched lately.

Rating: 3 Stars

The visual style is certainly the same as his Hong Kong movies, in particular this film reminded me of Chungking Express and Fallen Angels. He uses slow motion a lot in all his movies, to create a certain mood. It’s different from what John Woo does with his slow mo action scenes. Here the emotional mood is highlighted.

His editing style is also very easy to spot, his cuts are not always linear, or they just skip through time in an unexpected way, so that at first you’re wondering what is going on. But it wasn’t confusing at all in this movie.

I would say this is probably one of his most accessible movies, which is a good choice for his first English speaking work. The plot is a simple one: it’s part road movie, part romance. But that’s not what this movie is about.

It’s about growing up, figuring what you want from life, going out on a journey and experiencing life. Once Elisabeth (Nora Jones) figured out herself, she could go back to NY and get on with her life there.

I liked the performances fine, nothing too brilliant or mindblowing. There are a lot of good actors in this little movie, most of them appearing in their own little story segment. Norah Jones is the main character, and she did a good job. The only problem I had was that she looks so much like Vanessa Ferlito (from CSI:NY and Deathproof), I kept thinking of Vanessa Ferlito.

I wouldn’t say this is his best movie, but it’s definitely a good one. Certainly more accessible than his previous 2046, which was much more artistic.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

The main star of the story is Margot, played by Nicole Kidman. She’s so annoying and spiteful that I have no idea why her husband ever married her or even wants her back.

I can see why her son would still love her and want her attention, but at times she still treats him as bad as anyone else. These are not plain evil acts or just her being a bitch, she just speaks her mind all the time and behaves righteously as if she knew better than anyone.

I felt really bad for all the other characters who were trying to be friendly with her. Her sister Pauline is really trying to tolerate her and be her friend, and her fiance’ is also trying to deal with her. I actually liked Jack Black in this role, even though he’s playing more or less the same character in all his movies.

Even when Margot is verbally attacked by her lover Dick during a public interview, I didn’t feel bad for her at all. Yes I agree he was a jerk, but I just had no compassion for her at all.

I appreciate that Baumbach is working out some personal issues with this story, Margot being a writer that writes everything about her private life, just like Baumbach does. I just couldn’t find any appealing factor in the star of this movie at all.

Rating: 2 Stars

This helps putting us into his place, transferring to us his feeling of being trapped inside his own body. But we also see the way the people around him behave, how they deal with Bauby’s situation. Not only his family and friends, but also the nurses and doctors helping him.

I was fascinated by the therapy he goes through, first of all the method in which he communicates. Since he can only use one eye, the eye blinks are the only way to express himself. We also see how he passes everyday, from the mundane bath they give him, to the meals and etc…

Despite the serious nature of this story, there are plenty of laughs. We hear Bauby’s thoughts throughout the movie, and some of his comments are really funny.

Things can obviously get serious, I was particularly touched by the scene where for the first time he communicates to his therapist that he wants to die. Her reaction to that statement was totally believable.

I really liked this movie, I think it is well worth watching, if not just to learn about what he went through. However I wasn’t totally blown away by it, because there are times in which I was a little bored, things weren’t as interesting. But overall I liked this movie.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Best Supporting Actor

• Casey Affleck
• Javier Bardem
• Philip Seymour Hoffman
• Hal Holbrook
• Tom Wilkinson

I liked Casey Affleck, was underwhelmed by the others, who just weren’t in movies I liked. Expect for Bardem, the creepiest villain I’ve seen in ages. Just his voice scares me to death.

Best Supporting Actress

• Cate Blanchett
• Ruby Dee
• Saoirse Ronan
• Amy Ryan
• Tilda Swinton

Ruby Dee was in the movie for only a few minutes, I liked Amy Ryan, Swinton I though was overrated, while Saoirse Ronan was good in her role. But the best performance has to be Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan.

Best Actor

• George Clooney
• Daniel Day Lewis
• Johnny Depp
• Tommy Lee Jones
• Viggo Mortensen

Haven’t seen There will be blodd yet, but I liked Mortensen and Clooney. Tommy Lee Jones is just on another level for me.

Best Actress

• Cate Blanchett
• Julie Christie
• Marion Cotillard
• Laura Linney
• Ellen Page

I don’t even understand how Blanchett was nominated. Christie was excellent as was Cotillard. However the one that I enjoyed most was Ellen Page.

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Atonement
• Away From Her
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
• No Country for Old Men
• There Will Be Blood

Haven’t read any of these books, so I am basing this on the screenplays alone. No Country was fairly simple, I didn’t get Atonement, but I loved the subtleties in Away From Her. Haven’t seen the other two.

Best Original Screenplay

• Juno
• Lars and the Real Girl
• Michael Clayton
• Ratatouille
• The Savages

Haven’t seen Savages or Lars. Liked Ratatouille, Clayton was ok, but Juno was a very strong screenplay.

Best Director

• Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)
• Jason Reitman (Juno)
• Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton)
• Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men)
• Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood)

Haven’t seen Butterfly. Juno is fun, but a big part of it was the screenplay. I think the Coen brothers should get this one, this is really their vision.

Best Picture

• Atonement
• Juno
• Michael Clayton
• No Country for Old Men
• There Will Be Blood

I think Atonement and Michael Clayton are overrated and don’t belong in this list. I am really torn between Juno and No Country. No Country is technically a masterpiece, the suspense is incredible and the performances are great. However Juno had so much heart, I really had a great time with Juno. In the end that’s what I’ll best remember.

Of course there are some favorites of mine that weren’t nominated: Once, Zodiac, The Namesake.