Movies I saw in 2008

A true classic Russian film, which is played every year on New Year's Eve, that seems to represent on itself the best of the Russian spirit. Highly recommended.

Moving movie about Manuela, a mother who needs to reinvent her life after the tragic death of her only son. During her mourn journey she will find a series of female characters which will play a big role into her new life, including a pregnant nun which contracted VIH from someone very close to Manuela and a transvestite, Agrado, whose particular way of seeing life will help Manuela to struggle her demons from the past and present. Excellent plot and performances, not a surprise for an Almodovar's film.

Brilliant. Great cinematography and storytelling at an adequate pace.

Almost perfect in every sense. Recommended if you like serial-killer thrillers. We warned though this is not gore, it's more in the venue of Se7en: Psychological thriller.

This is an awesome Russian movie depicting the Afghan war, au contraire to Hollywood movies, this is more focused on the human drama and uselessness of war. What makes thos movie unique es the good balance between action, drama and even humor.

Although I absolutely don't like musicals I must say that I enjoyed this one and that DO means a lot! Why? Firstly the music is very well done and is catchy. Secondly, the plot about discrimination (racial and by looks) and overcoming it by means of music and dance really appealed to me.

Scary and oppressive film, will keep you wondering "what's happening next". Good enough for some genuine chills but not a masterpiece.

Interesting movie about a pilot who crashed during his first mission in the Vietnam War and is taken as prisoner by Charlie. Excellent cinematography, specially the slow-motion introduction scene of bombings in the jungle; acting is also good though annoyed me the attitude of "all is under control" by the protagonist which seems more like in a pioneer's camp instead of a prisoner's.

Funny comedy that exploits an interesting idea about a future that is not exactly as we use to imagine.

Entertaining movie, great acting, beautiful cinematography but seriously lacking of any plot direction; seriously I couldn't find a clue about what they were fighting for. I give it 3 1/2 stars cos' although the movie went nowhere, it entertained myself and I enjoyed the fighting scenes.

What a beautiful movie, if this can be called a movie... indeed, the "home-video" texture and feeling plus the effortless performances and simplicity of the plot makes you wonder if this is really a movie or just the life of some very ordinary people, just like you or me. Is in this particular feature that resides all the magic of tis masterpiece. Extremely recommended, watch it!

Excellent 3D animation film with superbly done characters and a entertaining plot make this film a great one to watch.

A few, very FEW scary parts, but overall slow and uninteresting and with a ending which was disappointing.

Excellent, a true Italian classic of horror! The best use of color in any movie I have seen...and Goblin's soundtrack is simply put mindblowing. This horror movie is one of the few I could watch over and over again.

This comedy sucks in so many levels that I was praying for it to finish soon. 1 star cos' at least it went on the right track for the first 15 minutes.

Juno is probably one of the most overrated film I have ever seen! From the opening sequence I knew I was wrong to ever think that this film might be enjoyable viewing. Juno as a character is possibly the most arrogant and annoying and stupid I have ever seen, a truly characterization of modern teenage stupidity, incapable of thinking out of their small dumb box... this is supposed to be funny? This piece of crap has no morals whatsoever, I mean, we all know that abortion of giving away your child is the easiest road to take: does this deserve a movie? I hated this movie basically for the same reason I hated "Into the Wild":The main character motivations/inner world doesn't deserve to be put on screen.

This is a cheesy girl comedy, when watching this you should not have higher hopes other than to expect to see air-headed girls living on their perfect world. Don't go into this movie with high expectation and you may enjoy it.

Very good, above-average apocalyptical-zombie movie about a virus who has nearly destroyed human life on Earth. More interesting for its thriller features rather than horror.

Pretty much like the first part, but with a somewhat less interesting history and performances; fewer surprises and goosebumps.

Entertaining Indiana Jones like movie about a modern day hero in the same fashion. Great for some good time spent with a beer and a can of chips.

In the same fashion as the first part but somehow didn't manage to be as captivating and interesting... good enough though for spending some time with a beer and chips again.

An excellent thriller which shows what could happen in this cyber jungle of the internet when a wacko decides to kill people and broadcast the murders live on his own website. The plot and killings are very well though out, but I have to give it minus 1 star cos' they reveal who's the murderer way too early on the film; it could have been more effective to reveal the murderer on the very last second.

An amazing, terrifying, painful and intense experience. If you are a man you will be scared to death and hoping not to suffer something similar in your life. Top-notch performances and excellent cinematography, but what makes this movie really shine is the blurry line between what we perceive as the "good" and the "bad".

Once Upon a Time in America is an almost 4 hour long experience about the lives of four Jewish friends who grew up in the lower east side of New York in the 1920s; but most important, it's a film about friendship, love, greed and time. It focuses primarily on the life of David Aranson, better known as "Noodles". Noodles begins an unlikely friendship with Max Bercovitz, which leads him into a life of crime.

It's fair to say that this film is much more character-driven than it is action-driven. Each of the characters come alive as the story progresses from the 1920s to the 1930s and eventually to the late 1960s where the culmination of this lifelong drama occurs. I haven't seen many gangster movies in my life, I have not even seen The Godfather, so I cannot compare this one to others. The entire movie has a surreal dream-like quality to it, and is replete with symbolism and allegory. The soundtrack is great addition to the film.

If I would have to use one word to describe this film though, it would be 'ambiguous'. Many scenes and lines can be interpreted in a myriad of ways. Nothing is more ambiguous and ambivalent than the central character of 'Noodles', played masterfully by Robert DeNiro. He is awkward and clumsy, yet he is cool and quick-witted. He is calm and collected, yet extraordinarily passionate. He is cruel, yet compassionate. Tough, yet very tender.

For the most part insipid and without substance, loose narrative and acting, doesn't succeed as comedy.

Gosh, this movie was truly "what a surprise!!" Let's see...first, I'm someone who's hard to get scared, that means that bowels, liters of blood and gore doesn't make and impact on me at all; I'm more in the "supernatural/ghost" type of horror movies. The Orphanage is exactly this, a movie which is full of supernatural happenings and with a story who escalates slowly into a nightmare. Watch it! specially on the cinema, the sound edition is amazing and you'll find yourself on the bottom of your seat when they try to unveil the orphanage mysteries with the help of a medium.

Magical, poetical, deep and beautiful; those four words easily describe what could easily be one of the most profound and touching movies about fate, love and life that I have ever seen. Aronofsky makes a good work at keeping the right pace and mixing characters/times to unfold very slowly the essence of this film; nevertheless, I feel that at times he tried too hard to make things too metaphorical to be understood at a first sight. He also threw some heavy imagery related to one religion that, in my humble opinion, ruined the global sense of life as being something inherent to humankind, regardless of religion.

What a shame to see in a film of such caliber some poor animated and executed CGI monsters!! Really, the movie was totally screwed up by this poor decision... but not only this does screw up this movie: the story was unconvincing, the whole idea of the plot was unclear to me (ok, so he's gonna save the Earth, but who cares??). There are some serious problems too, for example William talks to mannequins cos' he's so hungry for some human contact after having his dog as his only company (but when he finds some real humans, and even holds a boy in his arms, he doesn't give a damn...WTF?). This kind of incongruence played so bad against this film that what could have been a great film ended being another one in the bunch. 28 Days Later, being pretty similar, kicks this film bad ass and balls really hard.

Patrick Süskind's novel "das Parfum" from which this film was adapted to screenplay could probably be one of the hardest-to-adapt books of history: how do you show something as vague as an scent through images? Transmitting ideas is hard to do, transmitting abstract things is harder, but transmitting scents and its power in a way as effective as in Süskind's novel is even harder... and this is were this movie fails. Although the original plot remains virtually untouched, the director never manages to create and impact as huge as when you read the superbly done descriptions of what Grenouille smells, something that cannot be tolerated when the true protagonists in this story are nothing but scents. Imagine yourself losing your sense of smell completely...now imagine yourself walking through this world, unable to sense any smell at all, not good, not even bad...nothing at all...if you can imagine that then you'll get a good feeling about what is missing on this movie.