‘5 Stars’ Archives
Serenity (re-watch)
And finally we get to one of my favorite movies of the last few years. I've reviewed this already, but after re-watching it I want to delve deeper into details. Also since it's been a few years already, I can spoil the story. Since this movie has to appeal to people who've never watched the show before, the prologue explains the history of [...]
Inglourious Basterds
This is the latest Tarantino movie, which is always an event for me. I have to admit though, when I first heard that he was working on a war movie I was disappointed, since I'm not a huge fan of war movies. But if that's a reason why you're not watching this movie, don't worry about it. This is NOT a typical war movie. It's definitely a typical [...]
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Just when I thought he couldn't do better, this last movie blows away the previous two. They upped the ante even more, with even bigger battles and monsters. But that wouldn't work by itself (hear me Transformers!?!?!?), so at the heart of it all it's still the characters. I got to care about these characters even more in this movie, but again, [...]
Once
Once (2007): A modern-day musical about a busker and an immigrant and their eventful week, as they write, rehearse and record songs that tell their love story.I heard very good reviews about this movie, so I was very excited to see this. I must say my high expectations were completely met. After watching Hustle & Flow and Walk The Line I [...]
Zodiac
Zodiac (2007): Based on the Robert Graysmith books about the real life notorious Zodiac, a serial killer who terrorized San Francisco with a string of seemingly random murders during the 1960s and 1970s. David Fincher is one of my favorite directors, in fact his Fight Club is in my Top 10 favorites movies. His follow up Panic Room did not leave [...]
Rocky II
Rocky II (1979): Rocky struggles in family life after his bout with Apollo Creed, while the embarrassed champ insistently goads him to accept a challenge for a rematch. After the huge success of Rocky (3 Oscars and several nominations) a sequel was inevitable, but this time Stallone not only writes the screenplay (as in the first one) but he also [...]
Seven Samurai
Seven Samurai (1954): A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves. This is in my Top 10 favorite movies of all time, and it is considered one of the best movies in the world. Akira Kurosawa really shines in this epic, both technically and from the thematic point of view. Even though [...]
Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Str…
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980): While Luke takes advanced Jedi training from Yoda, his friends are relentlessly pursued by Darth Vader as part of his plan to capture Luke. This is without a doubt my favorite Star Wars episode. It is the darkest and most personal movie, and the annoying humor is considerably less [...]
Pan’s Labyrinth
Pan's Labyrinth (2006): In the fascist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army general escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world. This is a spanish film, taking place in Spain right after the civil war. The protagonist is Ofelia, whose life is horrible due to her new stepdad, a tyrannic army general who doesn't [...]
The Prestige
The Prestige (2006): Robert and Alfred are rival magicians. When Alfred performs the ultimate magic trick, Robert tries desperately to find out the secret to the trick. What an incredible plot. If you are at all interested in magic (and who wouldn't want to know how the hell does David Copperfield do it!!) this movie will interest you. Not [...]
Brick
Brick is one of the most interesting indy film this year, or any year. Written and Directed by Rian Johnson, it is about a crime noir story set in a high school, with drug lords and pushers and femme fatale, all as high school students. This description might seem weird, and this movie IS weird, but it works. Brendan tries to find what happened [...]
Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain (2005) is a love story. Plain and simple. It's directed by Ang Lee whom I feel a special affinity for, him being from Taiwan. But the story he's telling here is a very moving one, regardeless of the director's nationality. First of all let me start by saying that I had a hard time understanding their think accent. So about half [...]
Serenity
Back in September, I posted about Serenity. Well, I finally managed to watch it during the weekend, and this is my favorite movie of the year. It is more than I could ever imagine it would be. If you know Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, Firefly) than you know his style. An unbelievable mix of humor, drama, shocks, horror. Some of the most quotable [...]
Aliens
Aliens is a very different movie from the first one. Whereas the first was a sci-fi horror movie, Aliens is a military action/horror movie. This time they're prepared, or so they thought. This sequel again starts as a classic sci-fi story: Ripley is found 50 years later, so all her friends/family are long dead. The planet where she encountered [...]
Alien
Last year I bought the Alien Quadrilogy DVD (what a stupid name!). There are 9 DVDs in this set, so I still haven't finished watching them to this day (almost there). I will start my movie reviews with the 4 Alien movies and the recent Alien VS Predator. I don't even remember the first time I watched Alien, I was still a kid. But watching it [...]