A paraplegic marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home.

Spoilers! Spoilers! Wait, maybe not. Who knows? Ask your Magic 8-Ball.

Announced as the evolution of 3D movies, Avatar is new James Cameron movie after… what? Titanic. Well, that’s what the ads can make you think about.

So, the plot is… exactly what the IMDB says. It’s the classic “mindless drone goes to a fight, decides he’s fighting for the wrong side, decides to switch sides.” Yes, it’s The Last Samurai, but aliens instead of Asians.

Cameron promised it would be the next step in 3D movies. In a way, it’s true. You get so immersed in the 3D environment that it’s hard to see when the real life starts and the 3D ends (or vice-versa.) The problem with it is that the 3D is completely unrelated to what we know about reality, and the few parts that fit can be easily “pasted” in the 3D.

I tried to watch the 3D version (ugh, confusing already? It’s the need-goggles-and-things-get-out-of-the-screen version) but it was full. I was kinda worried about it after watching Journey to the Center of the Earth on TV and you could clearly see the places where the jump-of-the-screen appear (different colour, different shading, that stuff.) When the session was full and I had to buy a normal (2D) ticket, I thought I’d see the same. Thing is, it isn’t. It’s as good as you’d expect (which kinda makes me think how awesome it is in full 3D.)

Acting is… well, how can you judge acting when most of the cast isn’t real? Ok, they used motion capture for everything, but how much is really captured and how much is adjusted by the 3D renderer?

With more than 2 hours and half (2 hours and 40 minutes, to be exact) it’s a little bit long. There is a bunch of eye-candy that doesn’t add anything to the story and could be easily removed but, as it’s “the evolution of 3D”, it had to be added. Right?

Overall, it’s a good movie and the action scenes are really good, even with a beaten up idea like that.

Overal: 4 of 5 stars.

A family learns important life lessons from their adorable, but naughty and neurotic dog.

Spoilers? Most probably, but I think I ruined them all in my book review. Oh, wait, I didn’t wrote a book review!

Ok, in case you didn’t read the book: Marley & Me is about this journalist, turned columnist, which have a dog that seems crazy. The dog was an artifact to make his wife forget about having kids but, in the end, becomes part of the family himself.

Now, the movie: It borrows the premise of the book, but it doesn’t follow the book. Not. At. All. It’s a movie based on the book, but not the book itself.

Yes, the story is basically the same: Guy marries woman, woman starts thinking about kids, guy gets dog to make woman use her maternal side and forget about kids for a while, guy and woman get hooked into dog, guy and woman decide to take the step forward and have kids, they do that 3 times, and then, since dogs have shorted life-spans than humans, dog dies. Thing is, most of the stories in the book appear in the wrong/different order and some characters appear out of nowhere. Which… kinda works. Kinda.

Acting is, let’s be honest, ok. It’s Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson. But, apart from that, I must say that it was probably the BEST acting of both. In one scene, when Jenny is about to be given the news that they lost their first child, there is some… light that fades on Aniston face. I mean, you can see that she’s shining because their are about to have a kid and, even before the doctor gives the bad news, she realizes that and the light just fades. And Wilson, when he’s giving the news to his wife about Marley critical condition and eminent death, leaves a small sigh on the phone, while trying to appear strong to for his family.

Yes, it’s a tear-jerker. It doesn’t mean it’s bad, though. At least it’s not another movie about the guy who lost the girl of his life (or the other way around) and find a new love in some unexpected way.

My rating: It’s either 2 or 5 stars for following the book (which it doesn’) or 4 or 5 stars if you see it as an independent movie (and it goes to 4 due the cited scenes from Wilson and Aniston.)

Frank Perry is an institutionalized convict twelve years into a life sentence without parole. When his estranged daughter falls ill, he is determined he make peace with her before it’s too late. He develops an ingenious escape plan, and recruits a dysfunctional band of escapists – misfits with a mutual dislike for one other but united by their desire to escape their hell hole of an existence. Much of the action takes place within the tunnels, sewers and underground rivers of subterranean London.

Spoilers? Probably. It’s your risk.

First thing I noticed, being a non-English native speaker, is that Irish accent is kinda hard to understand… at first. It gets easier when you get used to it, it’s easier to understand.

So you have this old guy, in prison for I can’t remember how long, who hears the news that his daughter is sick and he wants to leave to talk to her. So he makes a plan to escape, recruits one guy but, in the way, needs to “add” recruits to fill the gaps in his plan and, in return, get a chance to escape. All that while avoiding the big bad guys in the prison. It’s kinda like “Prison Break”, but with some more human parts. In a way, “The Escapist” makes “Prison Break” look really mechanic; everything planned ahead, while the first is way more basic idea building organically as elements are added.

And, besides, the ending is one of the best plot twists I have seen in the latest years.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars.

During the reign of the Vikings, Kainan, a man from a far-off world, crash lands on Earth, bringing with him an alien predator known as the Moorwen. Though both man and monster are seeking revenge for violence committed against them, Kainan leads the alliance to kill the Moorwen by fusing his advanced technology with the Viking’s Iron Age weaponry.

There may be spoilers ahead. You’ve been warned.

Ah, fantasy and sci-fi. Book stores love to sholve them in the same stands even if the their point of views are completely different. And then comes a movie to put them together. Fortunately, it kinda works. Kinda.

So yeah, you have this spaceman, with this awesome technology that makes him capable of traveling around the stars, when something goes wrong, he crashes on Earth in the age of Vikings, his prisioner, an alien (like in the movie)-like monster escapes and now he have to recapture it with the help of the residents. Again, it kinda works, ’cause he proves to be a worth warrior and the Vikings accept him to fight the thing they never saw before.

But not that the movie is flawless. Yes, it’s a dumb-down action movie like every other without the explosions, but at some point the spaceman decides to create a weapon using the metal from his ship and uses a viking forge to mold the metal. Now, let me get this straight: You have a ship that can fly around the space, resist huge amounts of gravity, have withstand the heat from re-entering the gravity of Earth and can be easily be molded with fire. Right. I can accept that there is a chance of time-travel or another human-like race that can fly in space, but I can’t accept this fucking up of simple logic.

My rating: 3 or 5 (’cause sometimes you want your brain to rot a bit.)

The canine star of a fictional sci-fi/action show that believes his powers are real embarks on a cross country trek to save his co-star from a threat he believes is just as real.

Spoilers? Maybe. Not sure

If I could use another movie to describe this one, it would be “The Truman Show for kids.” Basically, this dog (voice by John Travolta) lives in a set and believes he fights bad guys and have super powers. Then, when his human go in a trip, he runs out and need to find her again, realizing in the way that he doesn’t have super-powers, life is bigger than what he knows and, in the way, he get the help of a street cat and a crazy hamster who believes he’s a super-hero.

It’s a funny movie overall, but not great. It’s surely Pixar material (to compare with the biggest computer animated company) and character movement feels human like.

My rating: 3 or 5 stars.

When an ex-superhero is murdered, a vigilante named Rorschach begins an investigation into the murder, which begins to lead to a much more terrifying conclusion.

The best way to explain Watchmen to someone that doesn’t want spoilers: It’s what comic books want to be when they grow up.

The story starts in 1985, when super-heroes really exist, they are all American and they helped in the victory in Vietnam. Years later, when those super-heroes were deemed as “illegal” and had to put their capes in the closet and retire, the nuclear tensions between USA and USSR in the cold war are getting out of control and the nuclear clock is set to 5 minutes to midnight (midnight meaning total nuclear war.) In this universe, an old hooded super-hero is murdered and one of his old partners, which refused to stop fighting crime (hooded), decided to go into action to find the murderer. On his way, he manages to bring old heroes back into action.

In 80s terms, think this: Super Friends are considered illegal by the government, every hero has to put down their capes and return to their secret identities. Batman is the only one that still fights crime with his bat-suit clandestinely and, years later, Flash is killed and Batman goes into action to find the person who did that, pulling all the other Super Friends back into action with him.

One of the things the stands in Watchmen is the heroes are flawed, human. You have the super guy that doesn’t feel he’s related to humanity anymore, the detective only sees the world through the mask, the smart guy that doesn’t worry about killing innocents to save more people… and the others seems lost without using their capes. This sense of lost is more apparent with Silk Spectre II and Night Owl II. They simply don’t work without the idea of being caped.

Acting is… well, comic book related. You can’t expect super heroes without the cheesy lines and the “holy than thou” attitude. So it’s hard to see if the actors are over-acting, under-acting or simply in character.

Also, there were a lot of comments on how faithful the story is to the comics, with the exception of the end. Which, honestly, works fine to me. I mean, the new ending. In a way, it make it sound a lot more like “making a super-hero being a hero”.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars.

Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet’s power problems.

As usual, there may be spoilers ahead. No guarantees of anything.

On thing you have to admit: While big studios like to remake old successes over and over again till it turns sore and people don’t care about it anymore, indie studios (well, even the indie arms of big studios) still manage to come with some freaking awesome ideas for movies. “Moon” is one of those.

It all starts with Sam in his solo work in a moon base. Everything is nice and dandy, although he have to cope with solitude for 3 years. But hey, things looks good, since it’s just about 3 weeks till his 3 year contract ends and he can return to Earth and see his wife and girl. And then, out of nowhere, he starts to see… things. People, mostly. At this point you probably go with a “oh fuck, not another ‘ghosts in space’ movie.” But when Sam suffers an accident and appears back in the base and all the ghosts are gone… something makes you keep going to see what’s going on. And then you think it’s the robot that it’s fucking everything, but you keep going just to be sure. And although the plot is giving right in the middle of the movie and there is no twisting plot in the end, it’s still a very good story with an reasonably good execution, even if you all you see is Sam Bell all the time and hear Kevin Spacey’s voice. And only that.

Character attitudes are kinda weird. While the first Sam seems to keep an attitude of “happy to see another human being”, the second Sam seems to quickly shift into “I’m the original” to “we are all clones” pretty fast. Also, GERTY attitudes also seem weird, even for a robot. He says he’s there to help Sam, but the way he does that sometimes feels more like he’s trying to help Earth instead.

Overall, it’s a very good story, even with the missing plot explanations (for example, what was those hallucinations Sam saw before his accident?) and some good acting.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars.

By tying thousands of balloon to his home, 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen sets out to fulfill his lifelong dream to see the wilds of South America. Right after lifting off, however, he learns he isn’t alone on his journey, since Russell, a wilderness explorer 70 years his junior, has inadvertently become a stowaway on the trip.

You may find spoilers ahead. I’m not sure, I’m just writing this review. You have been warned.

I must say that after watching all Pixar movies so far, this is the saddest, darkest movie they ever did. I mean, seriously.

It all starts with this kid and his dream. Then he finds a girl with the same dream. They grow up, get married, still having the same dream. Then they decide to have kids and surround it with their dream. Then, in one scene, it seems they lose the kid to a miscarriage (and, as a side note: How the hell would you explain to your kid why that woman is crying?) Time passes, husband finally decided to take that jump forward to finally complete the dream (in not exactly the way it was dreamt) and the wife dies. And that’s like the first 15 minutes of the movie. From there, things just go downhill.

All the movie is dark ’cause the husband seems to find more trouble trying to get to the dream then getting there. For every single step forward, there are at least two back (sometimes, more.) Only in the final 20 minutes it turns to somewhat more happy tone, when husband finally decides to let his wife go and pursuit his own adventure instead.

So, there you have it. The whole movie is 1 hour and 30 minutes long. 15 minutes of introduction, 50 minutes of the saddest, darkest, unhappiest Pixar movie ever and then finally 20 minutes of something a little bit more upbeat.

I still like Pixar style and this movie is still faithful to it, although most of the time they seem to be careless about small details, like when Carl puts a piece of paper or chocolate in his jacket inside pocket and the scaling of the house near the waterfall (it may even be right, but the camera positioning makes it feel like that house suddenly got scaled a bit up.)

Personal opinion: 2 of 5 stars.

A chronicle of the early days of James T. Kirk and his fellow USS Enterprise crew members.

Spoiler-ish review follow.

In all honesty, I was expecting the movie to blow. I saw the trailers and they looked pretty shit. So I was pretty surprised that the movie was better than I expected. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as good as I wished.

First thing, special effects (it’s sci-fi, it’s supposed to make a difference.) They are good, in a sense that they kept it out of the plot. As in the series (all series), technology is part of the universe, but it’s not the changing factor. Same goes here.

The Enterprise is redesigned with more fluffy stuff. No more black consoles everywhere and weird, non-sensical flashing lights everywhere. You have transparent consoles and the general look is more whiter than the original. It makes sense, if you consider the leap the actual technology took in those years since the original series.

The plot is also ok-ish, but… there is something missing there. I mean, it’s not bad, there are no holes but it doesn’t totally feel like Star Trek. You have a guy looking for revenge purely for the revenge itself. In all the series, everyone is doing something based on their cultures: Humans like to explore, as do Vulcans (in their reclusive way), Klingons seek honor above everything else, Cardassians and Romulans want to expand their respective empires, Ferengis would do anything for profit and things like that. The main villain is a Romulan, but he doesn’t seem to be acting “for the Empire” although he cites that as one of his motives.

Another plot thing that feels wrong is that the Enterprise, the new flagship of the Federation, is assigned a full crew of cadets instead of a veteran crew. I mean, you have the best ship you could ever build, you have at least 12 other ships around with a crew with more experience and… would you assign some not-yet-out-of-training cadets to it? That doesn’t make any sense.

Acting/characters development is also ok-ish. In a sense, I was expecting Zachary Quinto to, at some point, “do a Sylar” and cut someone’s forehead with his finger. But, for some reason, you never expect him to do such thing in the movie, which seems he did a good job portraiting something that it’s not Sylar. And, honestly, at some point, he did seemed to be Leonard Nimoy and the original Spock. Also, the idea of explore more deeply the human side of Spock seemed pretty good for the movie. I mean, the original Spock was a Vulcan above everything else, even if he had a bit of make fun of himself — and that’s as far as he went in the original series. The new Spock is way more dimensional than the older counterpart, which is incredible good to show how he have a human nature after all.

Chris Pike, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to be Kirk. At all. I can’t blame the actor himself, but I guess the script, although focusing in the first years of those, doesn’t pay the proper respect to Kirk. In the original series, Kirk was the damn bastard you’d follow without hesitation. In this movie, he’s just a damn bastard. At some scene, when he’s running away from a big monster, I really wished he wouldn’t escape and that would be his end. “Please, remove that guy from the movie.” But, alas, he survive.

Also, it seems that new version of Kirk have some miraculous healing factor. He hurts his hand while fighting in a platform, only to take the bandages off a few hours later when he is thrown out of the Enterprise. And a couple of bruises around his left eye (after getting into some fights) slowly heals themselves in also a couple of hours.

Simon Pegg, playing the bit of Montgomery Scott, is… bleh. I didn’t like it, mostly ’cause I know the history of James Doohan. And, honestly, making Scott as a comedy relief (in the “pie in your face” sense) it’s just plain wrong. I mean, someone who personally took someone out of a suicide and fought in wars should at least have a most respectful representation of their most famous character.

McCoy is also bleh. DeForest Kelley’s McCoy was the guy that know morals above everything, even if that meant breaking laws. He was the bastion of “what is right” against “what is in the books” (which is exactly the opposite of Spock.) But, right in the middle of the movie, he does what is immoral and wrong at the same time. And, in the end, his character never get enough time to get a proper development. He’s just the guy in the background with a well known name which says a couple of lines and then vanishes.

I guess a lot of people would say “the appearance of Nero fucks up with the old timeline, so things are completely different now, including people.” Well, ok, but, for an old time trekkie, it still feels that those things really annoyed me, ’cause they were not the problem with the series. It was, actually, one of the best baselines for any series.

But not everything is “screw the old series” in this. There are several “echoes” from the original series: A “red shirt” (not shirt in this case) dying seconds after jumping into a mission, Christopher Pike (the original Enterprise captain, not the actor) in a wheelchair and even Orion girls appear in the movie.

Overall, I’d say it’s a good movie, although I would expect something more.

• 12 Angry Men (1957)
  
  Watched it. Both versions (original and the new one.) Absolutely amazing. I know that the list is in alphabetical order, but it surely deserves, in my opinion, to be on the top of the list.
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
  
  Yup, I did. I still don’t understand the ending, no matter how many times I watch it.
• The 400 Blows (1959)
• 8 ½ (1963)
• A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
  
  A very vague “maybe’ here. I saw a lot of Beatles movies (I blame my mum), but I can’t be sure if I watched it or not. I surely remember Yellow Submarine, but this one…
• The African Queen (1952)
• Alien (1979)
  
  Watched it, but I don’t think it’s that impressive. Sure, it opened the doors for sci-fi horror genre (or, at least, put it on a visible place) but… I don’t know, maybe anything horror related is not my type.
• All About Eve (1950)
• Annie Hall (1977)
• Apocalypse Now (1979)
  
  Yup. It’s weird, but not as close as 2001. Maybe I should watch it again.
• The Battle of Algiers (1967)
• The Bicycle Thief (1948)
• Blade Runner (1982)
  
  Watched it. Also watched the 3D photo in it. I still didn’t watch the director’s cut (which apparently have a complete different ending.)
• Blazing Saddles (1974)
  
  I look at the pictures on IMDB and I have that feeling that “Hey, I think I remember that”, but I really can’t say if I watched it fully or not. Counting as “no”.
• Blow Up (1966)
• Blue Velvet (1986)
  
  Again, a vague “maybe”. I’m counting as “no”.
• Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
  
  I kinda remember Warren Beatty on this, but every time I try to remember him acting, I come with “Dick Tracy”. Counting as “no”.
• Breathless (1960)
• The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
  
  I fucking know the main theme, and all the plot and I suspect I can pull some scenes from my mind, but I can’t really say that I watched it all.
• Bringing Up Baby (1938)
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
  
  Again, vague “maybe”. Again, counting as “no”.
• Casablanca (1942)
  
  Some scenes, I don’t know which song Sam have to play all the time, so “no”.
• Chinatown (1974)
• Citizen Kane (1941)
  
  That’s one movie that it is on my list for a long time and I never watched.
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
  
  Yes. And no, I didn’t think it was silly that people could walk up or stand still on bamboos.
• Die Hard (1988)
  
  Yippie Kai Yay.
• Do the Right Thing (1989)
  
  I remember that there was a big announcement about this movie and it made the name “Spike Lee” appear everywhere at the time, but I haven’t watched it.
• Double Indemnity (1944)
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
• Duck Soup (1933)
• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
  
  Yup. And, at the end, I was scared that I would cross E.T. everywhere (hey, I was just a kid at the time and I saw on the cinema.)
• Enter the Dragon (1973)
  
  Again, scenes, most of the story but I don’t think I saw the whole thing. I’m making a “no”, although it’s a probable “yes”.
• The Exorcist (1973)
• Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982)
• The French Connection (1971)
  
  Michael Caine, right? [Checks IMDB] No, Gene Hackman. It’s a “no”. (Hey, what’s the name of that movie where they steal bars of gold and run in small cars and, in the end, their truck is about to fall in a cliff?)
• The Godfather (1972)
• The Godfather, Part II (1974)
• Goldfinger (1964)
  
  All 007 movies. When I found the first one in the movie rental shop, I started renting one of the series every week (I couldn’t watch movies on the VHS on weekdays.)
• The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1968)
  
  Also in my list, but due everyone mentioning the name. Still haven’t watched it.
• Goodfellas (1990)
• The Graduate (1967)
• Grand Illusion (1938)
• Groundhog Day (1993)
  
  Yup. More than once. Bill Murray was absolutely fantastic.
• In the Mood For Love (2001)
• It Happened One Night (1934)
• It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
  
  This move is my list since forever. I saw one of the last scenes (when the guy gets in the house and around his family) but I haven’t watched it yet.
• Jaws (1975)
  
  Pieces there and there, but not the whole thing. No.
• King Kong (1933)
  
  Pieces there and there, but not the whole thing. And yes, I know it’s the original one and I’m not kidding.
• The Lady Eve (1941)
• Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
• The Lord of the Rings (2001, 2002, 2003)
  
  Guiltyyyyyyyyyyyyy.
• M (1931)
• M*A*S*H (1970)
  
  I saw some episodes of the series, but never the movie.
• The Maltese Falcon (1941)
• The Matrix (1999)
  
  Yup.
• Modern Times (1936)
  
  Scenes there and there, but not the whole thing.
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
  
  I did, but it’s only a model.
• National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978)
• Network (1976)
• Nosferatu (1922)
• On the Waterfront (1954)
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
• Paths of Glory (1958)
• Princess Mononoke (1999)
• Psycho (1960)
• Pulp Fiction (1994)

Sure. English motherfucker, do you speak it?

• Raging Bull (1980)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
  
  Yes and I never actually found out why asps? Why there always have to be asps?
• Raise the Red Lantern (1992)
• Rashomon (1951)
• Rear Window (1954)
• Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
• Rocky (1976)
  
  Yup. Me and AAADRIAAAAANNNNNNN!!!
• Roman Holiday (1953)
• Saving Private Ryan (1998)
  
  Yup, and I made it worth it.
• Schindler’s List (1993)
  
  Yes. (no funny quote this time.)
• The Searchers (1956)
• Seven Samurai (1954)
• The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
  
  Yes.
• The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
  
  Yes, dear Clarice.
• Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
  
  Believe it or not, yes. And he sings and dances just ONCE in the whole movie.
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
  
  Yes.
• Some Like It Hot (1959)
  
  Parts there and there, but not the whole thing. Also, the pieces I watched were enough to convince me that Marilyn Monroe was not an actress.
• The Sound of Music (1965)
  
  Yes, and I still sing the “Good night” song from time to time.
• Star Wars (1977)
  
  Yes.
• Sunset Blvd. (1950)
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
  
  Yes.
• The Third Man (1949)
• This is Spinal Tap (1984)
• Titanic (1997)
  
  Yes. Boring.
• To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
• Toy Story (1995)
  
  Watched it to infinity and beyond!
• The Usual Suspects (1995)
• Vertigo (1958)
• When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
  
  Yes. And the last scene, when Harry tells how he feels to Sally is truly one of the things I wish I could have the guts and the memory to tell someone. That and the scene in “L.A. Story”, when Steve Martin tells how he would change a lot of stuff to not let the girl go away.
• Wild Strawberries (1957)
• Wings of Desire (1988)
• The Wizard of Oz (1939)
  
  Yes, but it was the re-colorized version (whatever they call it.)
• Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
  
  Vague “maybe” again…
• The World of Apu (1959)

Yup, lot’s to watch. I can’t die yet.