PinKiko's Talk

The Men Who Stare at Goats

There is a secret new age army who uses paranormal abilities to defeat the enemy instead of weapons. Bob (Ewan) is a reporter who follows Lyn (George) to write a story about the new army. Kevin Spacey plays the bad guy and Jeff Bridges a hippie / army leader. It is very funny especially the dancing scene. It has dark humour like Burn After Reading without the witty lines. If you liked Burn After Reading, this is a close second cousin in humour. Good cast. Bonkers storyline but entertaining.

9

This animation is about a group of 9 fabric characters who are the last survivors on earth. The earth has been destroyed by machines that have taken over the world and they are killing everything in sight. Number 9, the last of the fabric characters convinces the others to destroy the machines rather than live in fear and hiding. Good animation. Quite dark, not suitable for young children.

Michael Jackson's This Is It

Even I'm not Michael Jackson's fans, but I do appreciate his work and of course I appreciate him by watching this movie... And I must say that this movie is Magnificent..!!! I can't imagine how hard Michael practice for his last-but-never-happened concert... He really wants to be involved in every segment, from choosing the backstage dancer, setting the right tune, and making the videos... And the other thing that amazed me is the camera video used to take this movie, even it is for Michael's private collection but the picture was very clear... It is like it was planned to be released on a movie... And for Michael's himself, his dance and his voice leaves me petrified on my seat while watching this movie... Really amazing... I just don't have another higher praise for him... The weak point of this movie is just this movie only a set of Michael Jackson's song that want to be performed in his last-but-never-happened concert, so people may be bored while watching it... And I do feel it when it comes to the song 'Beat It'... But overall, it's really worth to watch... A documentary movie that gave us memory of the King Of Pop, and of course a movie to show our appreciation to him... Goodbye Michael, may you rest well in Heaven... God Bless U...

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

This is the last movie that Heath Ledger made and he died during the filming. The director wasn't going to finish the movie, but with the help of Heath's fellow actor friends - Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell the story was complete. Set in London a travelling show invites people to enter the imaginarium of Dr Parnassus through the mirror. People follow their dreams but in order to do so, they unknowingly give up their souls to the devil. Great cast. If you like fantasies like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or Alice and Wonderland, you will enjoy this movie with more adult themes.

Fame

This movie is shot like a documentary following a group of teenagers from their auditions to their graduation from the Performing Arts school in New York. It is not as wholesome as High School Musical, nor is it as gritty as the original Fame movie. The music is modern and relevant for today's reality TV addicts.

Up

Carl and Ellie are best friends from childhood. They get married and move into a lovely house. The next part is sad. Many years pass and Carl is forced out of his home by developers, so he ties thousands of ballons to the house and sets off for Paradise Falls in South America. There he meets his lifetime hero who iss hunting a very rare bird. I love the characters - Russell (boy scout) and Doug (dog). Good plot, although sad in parts, it is funny and an uplifting movie.

Surrogates

This movie is a bit like iRobot. People use robots / surrogates to live their daily lives. They operate the surrogates from home and experience the outside world through the surrogates. That why they can do their jobs efficiently, create beautiful images of themselves and they do not experience danger or illness. However the people start to die as their surrogates meet tragic deaths. Bruce is the FBI agent who solves who is behind these crimes. Good plot.

The Soloist

Great cast. Based on a true story where a columnist (Robert) writes a column on a homeless man (Jamie) who was a talented celloist. The movie sees Robert trying to get Jamie back into ordinary society. It deals very sensitively with mental health issues. Good movie.

Fireflies in the Garden

Good cast but quite a dark story. Michael (Ryan Reynolds) is an author who returns to his family and hometown to celebrate his mother's college graduation. However, his mother Lisa (Julia Roberts) is killed in a car accident. The family are forced together to prepare for the funeral. Painful memories of his relationship with his father and his aunt are brought up. Only problem - you feel for the characters but it doesn't explain what all the family secrets are.

Fast and Furious

Finally the original characters reunite. Brian (Paul Walker) is now in the FBI and Dom (Vin Diesel) is up to his old tricks of hijacking cargo. When Lettie is murdered Brian and Dom work together to find her killer and bring down a drug baron in Mexico. Out of the all of the movies, this has the more in depth storyline but all I wanted to see was the car racing, which it is renown for. Instead of the usual Fast & Furious car racing, this becomes another car chase action movie. Good storyline but could have had more car racing.

District 9

Set in South Africa. An alien spaceship with 1 million aliens are stranded in District 9. They have been there for 2 decades and the citizens want them moved out. The aliens have superior biotechnical weaponary. A government agent is appointed to evict the aliens and re-locate them to District 10, in the process he is infected and mutates into an alien. It is shot in a documentary style. Good plot.

Inglourious Basterds

The long awaited Quentin Tarantino movie. It is set in Nazi occupied France during WWII. A group of Americans, led by Aldo (Brad Pitt) known as the Basterds ambush Nazis and kill them viciously. There is terror within the Nazi camps. The Basterds disguise themselves as Nazis to get into their company. Diane Kruger plays a German actress who conspires to help the Basterds kill the top men - Hitler and Gobbels at a Nazi film premiere. The ending would be spectular if it was true. Good performances by Brad and Diane.

The Ugly Truth

Very funny rom com, where a TV producer falls for an annoying TV presenter. Predictable but hilarious.

The Proposal

It's good to see Sandra back. This is a funny rom com about a horrible boss who forces her assistant to marry her to allow her to stay in the US. They travel to Alaska to announce their engagement to his family with funny consequences. Great cast and plot.

Blindness

Triumphantly captures the chaotic world in which these quarantined blind individuals cohabitate. However, it is ultimately a frustrating and lengthy film that not only lacks depth and understanding, but gets dull in the end.
The acting was very average (i.e. once the Japanese man turns blind... wow, could it suck even more??).
Also, I really didn't like nor appreciate the style of the film. I know they were trying to correlate blindness with white touches here and there, as well as slightly shaky camera movements, it just didn't get to me and reinforced the ambiguity which I felt was an inherent part of the film.

Up

Well, I don't know what I should say on this movie, but I just can't give this movie a perfect score... To be honest, it is the second worst Pixar movie in the era 2000s after Cars... It is great, the story is very original, which is I thought would be a wrong decision if this movie hasn't got an Oscar nominee for Best Original Screenplay... But this movie is having too many nonsense thing... The idea flying up the house with a balloon maybe is a great idea, but to carried it with your shoulder, especially you're an old, very old man, is a nonsense thing... Even with a help from thousands of balloon and a kid... But I must say Pixar is did it again, another hit with an original story and a great visual effects... Well, if you don't disturbed with all the nonsense thing, you will be surprised because you will like it...

The Ugly Truth

Definitely not the best comedy of summer 2009 but worth a watch. Its only attribute lies in its humour which nearly killed me, as well as many others, of laughter.
Other than that, it is incredibly formulaic and much to my own dismay (seeing as I am a devout fan of chick flicks)I have to say it is the most cliched film of the year and has the worst cheesy ending.
Katherine Heigl is stunning as always and is probably the highlight of the film, next to Gerard Butler, although their on-screen chemistry is flawless and fits the film perfectly.

Cinema Paradiso (Nuovo Cinema Paradiso)

One of the best European film of all time!!! Guiseppe Tornatore makes a great, really great movie about friendship and everlasting love... Two big thumbs up too for the cast, especially for Salvatore Cascio as Salvatore Di Vita-child and Philippe Noiret as Alfredo... They're special friend relationship really makes me wanna cry, it's beautiful... And a thumbs up for Agnese Nano for playing the beautiful Elena in this movie, she's the perfect cast for this movie... Overall, I can considered it as one of the best European film of all time I've ever seen... But, too bad they had a pretty long duration, almost 3 hours, which is can make everyone who watching it could sleep in the middle of the movie.. But that thing didn't happened to me, because I really enjoyed this movie... And a great decision for the Academy Awards by giving this movie Best Foreign Language Film winner..

Public Enemies

Gangster movie set in the 1930s. John (Johnny) is a notorious bank robber who escapes jail and evades the police. Hoover sets up the new FBI with Christian Bale leading the agency to hunt down John. Very violent but exciting. My favourite scenes are the scene in the theatre when the FBI commerical comes on and where John walks into the police station and wanders into the investigation room. You get to see two great actors together - Johnny and Christian.

Public Enemies

Gangster movie set in the 1930s. John (Johnny) is a notorious bank robber who escapes jail and evades the police. Hoover sets up the new FBI with Christian Bale leading the agency to hunt down John. Very violent but exciting. My favourite scenes are the scene in the theatre when the FBI commerical comes on and where John walks into the police station and wanders into the investigation room. You get to see two great actors together - Johnny and Christian.