Movies - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Since I don't like carnival I always take the holidays to read, sleep, catch up with the blogs I like and watch movies. I watched a lot of movies these days, and obviously didn't like all.

The good:

Amadeus

The movie tells the story of Mozart through the eyes of his rival, Antonio Salieri. Feeling the approach of his death, Salieri tells a priest  he lead Mozart to his death - as he believes he did. Mozart's success, allied to no dedication, led Salieri to a blind hate and his very destruction.
This movie won 8 very deserved Oscars. Everything is just perfect. Really.

The Apartment

C. C. Baxter is a bachelor who works for an insurance company. To climb the corporate ladder, he borrows his apartment to his bosses so they can comfortably cheat on their wives. He's just fine with that until one of them takes the girl he is in love with and tells her he is not divorcing his wife to be with her.
After he leaves she attempts suicide and Baxter has to take care of her. I won't ruin the end for you, but I can say it is a lovely romantic comedy. And it won the Oscar for best movie that year. It has the charm of the beginning of this genre so much explored today.

East of Eden

 Based on the last part of an extense book by John Steinbeck, East of Eden is one of the three movies James Dean got to do before he died. It is the story of a religious father, Adam, and his two sons, Aron and Cal. To him, Aron is all of good and pure, and Cal is a stubborn and revolted son. Unfortunately, the father's approval is all Cal wants. Even after he finds out he lied about their mother being dead. This movie has a good story, and some good acting too.

Stand by Me

Didn't expect much of this one - though it was going to be cheesy and shallow. It was based on a tale by Stephen King (not in a scary way). Four friends with complicated families decide to follow the train rails until the place it is believed that lies the body of a kid who was ranover by the train. During their trip they realize how important their friendship is and how hard it will be to keep it in the future. Despite hat, the movie is quite funny and really nice.

When Harry Met Sally

This is one of my mother's favorite movies. Usually, I don't like Meg Ryan, but she was quite likeable in this movie. Harry drives Sally to NY as a favour to a girlfriend. They start a few conversations, all end in complete disagreement.
A few years later, they meet again, then again, then again, so they start meeting and become good friends. But how long can a man and a woman remain 'just good friends'?

All About Eve

Anne Baxter plays Eve, a naive girl who wishes to be a theater actress. With the help of a scripwriter's wife, she gets to Margo (Bette Davis, wonderful as always) and becomes a helpful companion.
But, as a friend of Margo warns her, a person who dedicates everything to another and asks nothing in return is certainly suspect, and Eve seems to be studying, analyzing her. Said and done: Eve uses Margo and her friends to climb to stardom without their notice, and the only one who got what she was up to was an admired theater critic.

Now, to the bad:

My Life In Ruins

I really like Nia Vardalos, but ARRRGH! This movie really sucked. It is a bad romantic comedy about a turistic guide in Greece, Georgia, that in vain tries to persuade turists to pay more attention to the history of Greece.
About to quit the job, she must make one last trip, with the hairy bus driver with a supposedly hilarious name of Procopi 'Poupi' Kakas and Irv, an old man that thinks himself very funny (he's Richard Dreyfuss, I couldn't believe it). It happens that when Poupi cuts his hair, he is not so repulsive and Irv just acts that way because his wife died before he could take her to Greece (Up, anyone?). You know how it's gonna end. So cliché.

And the ugly:

Doctor Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

This movie is considered one of the best and a classic and all, but I don't know if it was my headache, or the poor dubbing (TCM is all dubbed here. It's awful), or the fact that I'm not meant to, but I couldn't like this movie. I didn't even understand it well enough to. Maybe I need sometime to get it, like I needed to love The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

To Catch a Thief

What happened to Hitchcock, Cary Grant and Grace Kelly here? It was all very badly put togheter, dull and monotonous. Grant lives a retired jewel thief, but all of a sudden roberies like his start again.
To prove his innocence, he decides to catch the responsible himself. Meanwhile, he meets Frances, who kind of desperatly tries to seduce him. Girly observation: Despite all, figurine is stunning.

Yep, that was it. Not bad for four days, I think. More later,

Sherlock Holmes and Inkheart

I know people have been talking a lot about the new Sherlock Holmes, but I couldn't resist giving my opinion too. I must say I loved the movie, for a thousand reasons, and watched it three times already! I read a lot that this adaptation didn't have anything to do with the book, but they are very wrong.
The problem is people got used to think the 'original' Sherlock Holmes is as portrayed in those old Basil Rathbone movies. Actually, those movies twisted the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle tales! And I was expecting another disappointment from this movie...

Guy Ritchie and Robert Downey Jr surprised me completely. I didn't think they were worthy of their roles. But they rocked it! Ritchie was very meticulous and Robert studied his part very well. He understood Holmes, the agitation of the mind, the limitless curiosity, the lack of responsability... Jude Law was great, as usual, and I don't say that just because he's charming.
An Kelly Reilly! She was great. She should be given more parts. Rachel McAdams too. By the way, she was so gorgeous. I wish I had her clothes in this movie, and in The Notebook too.
I wanted to point out something not everyone notices about the movie: the soundtrack. Hans Zimmer, I think he is brilliant - he made it for Pirates of the Caribbean too. It sounds chaotic, but resembles Irish folk in some way... really liked it.

About Inkheart... I always wanted to watch because of Brendan Fraser (I just simply adore with all my heart The Mummy). I heard a lot of people saying it's quite bad, but I decided to see it for myself.
I thought it was quite okay. The idea is really good, I guess that they just didn't explore that well. And the visual is very pretty, beautiful landscapes. Probably the book is better, I want to read it very much.

The movie is about Mo and his daughter Meggie. When Mo reads aloud, he brings fiction to life. The last time he did it, from a book called Inkheart, he set free some villains who took his wife Resa away. In his desperate search for the book to fix it all up, he, his daughter and an aunt are captured by the same villains. They want him to read out a creature that is the essence of evil in the bok, but they will do anything to escape, save Resa and put everyone on place.
Wish I read the book. I loved the idea.

Buenos Aires, Percy Jackson Day Kit and The Warrior Heir - Cinda Williams Chima

I have so many to say and there's been such little time! Sorry about the length of this post, really.

Wednesdat I returned from a trip to Buenos Aires, in Argentina. Me and my family stayed for only four days, but it was enough to get to know the city. Which is, by the way, really beautiful - the old buildings tried to copy Paris' style, so they are really majestic. The trip was good also for me to remember my spanish that hasn't been used for a while.

I even have a trip adventure to tell. When you go to Buenos Aires, you have to see a tango presentation. The best tango house would be open just the day we arrived, so we went even though we were tired. The place was really beautiful, with a certain The Godfather atmosphere, all made of wood and velvet. We ordered our dinner and waited. And waited. The lights began to fail, they went on and off. We were starving, but the food didn't come. After two hours of food-waiting, light-blinking boredom, our meals did come. And they looked soooo yummy. And as we grabbed our forks, the lights went out and everybody there stood up. We looked around to see if the show was about to begin or something, as I tried to cut my meat in the dark. Then someone screamed, FIRE! It was a pandemonium. Everyone ran. I grabbed my sister by the arm and went down the staircase, trying to be calm. My sister was very scared because we couldn't see our parents, who were helping my grandparents. When we reached the streets, we could see the fire. It was very high, taking over the whole side of the building. My parents found us soon, and fortunately everyone got out safely. Well, since no one got hurt, I must say it was the best of my day.

Otherwise, the trip went really well. I bought a really nice leather jacket, something I always wanted, and a red trench coat I really loved! In Argentina stuff like that is not very expensive. I also could buy some MAC makeup because of the Duty Free shop. (Here in Brazil, you just can't have MAC. It costs, considering 1 real - our currency = 1,7 dollars, the equivalent to 100 dollars a lipstick. Yeah, it's revolting).
In the airport, while waiting, I had plenty of time to read The Warrior Heir. I did like the book, though I have a few buts. Follows the plot:
Jack Swift (by the way, really like the sound of this name, so very well put togheter) is a teenager who lives in Trinity. When a newborn, he had to do a complex heart surgery, and that's why he has to take a medicine everyday. One day, late for school, he forgets it - and everything changes. He throws this guy he doesn't like to the other side of the football field during training - without laying a finger on him.
So his aunt Linda comes to town and takes Jack and his friens Will and Fitch in a search for an object burried in their great-great-great-grandmother's grave. It is a sword. They are followed, and Jack shows again uncommon powers, specially when using the sword, but their followers are very powerful too. From this point on, Linda finds herself with no option but being honest to him about his family's strange history.

It happens the world is divided between Weirs and Anaweirs - that is, magicians and non-magicians. The Weirs are divided in five classes: Enchanters, Sorcerers, Warriors, Soothsayers and Wizards (who control all the rest). When Jack was born, he should be a wizard, but he didn't have a heartstone. The surgery was made to give him one, but he was given a warrior's heartstone, to serve the interest of the surgeon, the wizard Dr. Longbranch. The warriors are very rare, because they die at early age, and very valuable, because of the Game. The Game is a tournament between the two wizard's houses: White Rose and Red Rose, to determinate which has greater power. As wizards don't want to be involved in the fight, they use the warriors, in this sanguinary, medieval system. Leander Hastings becomes Jack's master and gets him to the Game, all to fulfill an ancient vendetta.
The characters that pleased me the most were the secondary ones - Will and Fitch, aunt Linda, Hastings, Becka (Jack's mom) and Leesha. I found the very human and complete. On the other hand, I didn't like much the main ones. Jack is the best, but sometimes he shows no personality at all. The worse is his beloved one (that later in the book has a surprising role), Ellen Stephenson. I found her dull and boring. In the end she gets just a little tiny bit better. Doens't make up for before that, though.
So, I would read the sequence, but I'm not dying for it. All in all, it is a good adventure-fantasy book, but is not extraordinary.
Now I'm reading Jane Austen's Persuasion... already on chapter 4. Post about it when I'm done.

Finally I got my Percy Jackson Day kit. The Percy Jackson series of books are a very nice modern adaptation to the greek mythology stories that is being transformed into a movie (let's see how that goes). Basically focuses on the demi-god Percy (the od part coming from Poseidon) who goes to Half-Blood Camp to train to be a hero. He's set out on a quest with friends Grover (a satyr) and Annabeth (daughter of Athena) to get back Zeus' master lightening - and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods. Rick Riordan, the author, has a great writing style, agile and quite sarcastic.

The brazilian publisher made an event that was a whole day when fan-clubs competed through tasks for prizes and people could also win those kits answering correctly questions about the book on twitter. Me and my sister competed both ways and won a kit for each! It comes with a T-shirt, a page marker, five bottons, a pen (or maybe a sword?), a raincoat and two tickets! Whee!

Very happy for my things. Soon the movi comes out, and I hope not to be too disappointed.
Well, classes start tomorrow. So happy for it! - no.