‘4 Stars’ Archives
Crazy Heart
Jeff Bridges is the reason to watch this movie. He's great as Bad Blake, an old country singer who's down on his luck, with alcohol problems. He encounters a shining light in his life, Jean and her son Buddy, who turn his life around. Although the story is nothing too original, it's the characterization and the performances that make this [...]
Russell Peters
My Canadian friend told me to check out Russell Peters because he was really funny. However not knowing him at all it just wasn't a priority for me. Until one night my friend came to my apartment and we started watching part of his show. In the end we watch almost all of it (minus some parts with swearing, to avoid my son hearing them at 3). He [...]
Up In The Air
This is the critical darling of the year that can be enjoyed by everybody. It's a light comedy that has plenty of drama and seems to have deeper meaning. It has great performances, a popular lead actor (Clooney), pretty women (both young and older). Just the perfect mix. At the heart of it it's about our connection to other people, the [...]
Timecrimes
In another list of best sci-fi movies, Timecrimes was paired with Primer as the best time travel movies. Timecrimes' approach is different though, it doesn't try to explain the time machine, it only cares about what happens to the time traveler. What happens in this story is that there is only one story line happening, however we see it [...]
Primer (re-watch)
While reading and discussing about a list of best sci-fi movies of the decade, I was reminded of one of the gems of this decade, one that I already reviewed here. But I've always wanted to re-watch it a second time and try to work out the timeline in Primer, with the help of a few links. SPOILERS WARNING!! This movie is all about the concept [...]
Pandorum
After watching the sci-fi movie Moon, here's another sci-fi movie. This time it's the thriller/action/horror kind of sci-fi. Here's why you should watch it. It has good action scenes. It's very mysterious and tense throughout the story, so you will not be bored at all. The mystery is solved half-way through, and it's a very satisfying one. At [...]
High and Low
Akira Kurosawa is favorite director of mine, but I'm ashamed to admit that I have only watched 1/3 of his movies. Here's me trying to remedy that. High and Low is not a samurai movie, instead it is a contemporary crime story about the kidnapping of a boy. The first part is all about Toshiro Mifune's character struggling with his [...]
Moon
Moon is in the category of sci-fi movies that do not contain action, or cool flashy CGI effects. It's just a story that takes place in the future, where technology is advanced and taken for granted, and it explores some interesting themes that would not be possible in the present. The pacing of this movie is slow and it basically stars one [...]
(500) Days of Summer
This is probably my favorite romantic comedy of the year. It's just a very different movie that keeps surprising me. First of all the story is not told linearly, it jumps back and forth between the beginning and after the break up. But that's not just a gimmick, there's a reason for it: Tom is trying to figure out why it didn't work out, and he [...]
Tokyo Godfathers
After watching 2 Satoshi Kon movies, I was eager to watch a third. Unfortunately life go in the way, and now it's been 14 months!! I can't believe it was that long ago, in my mind it felt like a few months. But I finally managed to watch the only movie of his I haven't watched yet. And it might be my favorite. This movie is more grounded than [...]
The Brothers Bloom
Ryan Johnson's first movie (Brick) is one of my favorite little movies of the past few years, so I went into this follow up with high expectations. Luckily I was rewarded (or maybe I'm just too biased). This is a con movie, but more importantly it's a movie about con movies. The difference here is that the con is all about the characters and [...]
Sophie’s Choice
I've been wanting to check out this film for a very long time, so I finally did. It's not really what I expected, as the majority of it is about 3 friends in Brooklyn and it's happy and dramatic at times. The scenes in the concentration camp were actually few, though very powerful. The "happy scenes" were actually uplifting, just as Stingo [...]
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Two Towers really increased the epic scale of this story. Not only we get a huge battle, more monsters and "good guys", but also get the best characterizations. Now that the fellowship is divided, we get to know each character better and better. My favorite is probable Frodo/Sam and Gollum. That has to be the highlight of the movie: a completely [...]
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
I recently bought my first HDTV, so I was eager to try it out. And what better way than to re-visit some of my best DVD/movies of the past few years? Not just one movie, but the whole trilogy (plus special features). It also came at the perfect time, because my wife just finished reading The Hobbit (for her class this fall) and she actually [...]
Bonnie & Clyde
I watched this with my wife, and we found it very enjoyable. It definitely has a very particular tone to it that I don't think I've seen before. It's half comedy, half tragedy, half just plain crazy (I know there are 3 halves, that's how crazy it is). There is a clear commentary about the power of the media, something we've seen in later [...]
Rachel Getting Married
This is the last Oscar movie I'm missing, other than the foreign movies. I am glad I ended with this, because it was a real surprise. I didn't expect much about it, but somehow I really liked it. We are slowly introduced to Kym's family, after she leaves rehab. She's obviously the black sheep of the family but at least at first it seems [...]
Howl’s Moving Castle
I finally managed to watch Miyazaki's latest movie available on DVD and it's just as good as I expected. I love all his movies, but I thought Spirited Away was a bit too childish for me. Luckily this movie is a little more edgy. A world of Wizards and Witches is nothing new, but it still felt refreshing to watch this movie. There are the [...]
Tell No One
This latest foreign movie from France is probably my favorite of the bunch. This is a great thriller, on par with the best Hitchcock films. The mystery is presented almost immediately, and we slowly learn more and more about it. Alex is at the center of it, after losing his wife Margot. But then he receives an email which hints that she might [...]
Man on Wire
This is one of the most thrilling documentary I've ever seen. It's about Philippe Petit who managed to sneak into the twin towers and walk on high-wire between them. It's narrated by Petit himself and his partners, but it's presented as a heist movie. At first I didn't think this would be that interesting, I actually thought that I wouldn't [...]
Let the right one in
This is a Swedish vampire film unlike any other vampire movie. At the center of this story is Oskar, a frequently bullied 12 year old boy who meets Eli, a 12 year old looking girl, who's actually a vampire. They slowly develop a relationship which is not the usual Hollywood love story. Oskar is only 12 , and though we don't know Eli's real [...]