pratchettfan Blog

Yesterday I saw In Bruges in the cinema. Two hit men are sent to Bruges in Belgium to take cover after a job in London went wrong. Whereas Ken enjoys the sights in this medieval town, Ray is still pained by pangs of remorse and is wondering what he should do in a "shit-hole" like Bruges. But after meeting Chloë, a Belgian drug dealer, his outlook seems to change a bit. If only their boss would finally call to instruct them about their next move...

In Bruges is a fantastic movie which manages to bridge the gap between hilarious dark comedy and drama, without the later sliding into the ridiculous. Colin Farrel and Brendan Gleeson deliver a perfect and extremely believable performance. This is probably the best movie I've seen this year and the ending is simply wonderful (i.e. not your standard happy ending). However, a word of warning for the faint of heart, in the second half of the movie the action does pick up and there are several long pursuits and a good deal of blood.

I've seen Juno on Monday (as usual I'm a day behind with blogging ;) ) and I loved it. It's a realistic and funny comedy filled with snappy remarks and awkward scenes that provokes loud laughter. I can recommend this movie wholeheartedly to anyone who likes the Royal Tenenbaums and Amélie.

A ruthless farmer genetically engineers a new race of sheep to revolutionize farming. However, when environmental activists steal one of the by-products and accidentally set it loose, the sheep suddenly develop a liking for blood and humans start transforming into super-sheep. And Henry, a former farm boy with a sheep-phobia, is the only one who can try to stop them...

This is probably the best splatter movie I've seen since Braindead, which incidentally was also shot in New Zealand. In addition to the cool and low-key special effects the movie is full of hilarious scenes and funny lines. Especially  the dialogs between Henry and Experience, the environmental activists, are laugh out loud funny.

When I was a child we had several traditions for Christmas Eve (the day the presents are unpacked in Switzerland). First, we went to church at 5pm. Second, we ate canapé for dinner while watching Santa Claus. As I remember it, it was the perfect family Christmas movie with a nice happy end and of course, lots of presents. Unfortunately, television stations replaced this movie with The Santa Clause, which I admit is very funny and cool as well, but still it just ain’t the same ;).

Jet Li stars in the newest movie produced and written by Luc Besson. Jet Li plays Danny, who was raised by a money shark and used as a killer. After a car accident Danny can escape from his prisoner and gets adopted by a blind piano repairman (Morgan Freeman).

Jet Li proves in this movie that he can do more than just fight. His portrayal of Danny as a man with no experience other than fighting and how he slowly discovers the world around him is extremely convincing and touching.

Overall a fantastic movie with lots of action as well as drama.

After rereading the book last week I went to see the movie yesterday evening. I was impressed. It's one of the best novel to screen adaptations I've seen in a long time. Of course there were dozens of things left out, but it stayed extremely true to the spirit of the story and left all the key ingredients in tact. Add to that a splendid cast with stars such as Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman and you get an unforgettable experience. However, for someone who hasn't read the book, the story might move too fast and Grenouille might just remain an enigma.

So if you've read the book and liked it: Go see the movie!

Something special had to happen to celebrate my 25th birthday. And going to the movies all day long is something unique, something I haven't done before :). To my pleasant surprise lots of people decided to join me, even if just for one or two movies. Nevertheless, there were four of us going the whole nine yards.
The day started at 2pm with 'An Inconvenient Truth', Al Gore's documentary about global warming. To be honest, there were now new facts revealed, but it was nevertheless very interesting to see those facts condensed and supported by powerful pictures.
After a short break we continued with 'Pan's Labyrinth', which turned out to be my favorite movie of the day. A compelling fantasy-tale about a small girl trying to flee the cruelties of war into a fantasy world, it isn't a movie for children though.
Third in line was 'Smokin' Aces'. The trailer looked quite promising, but the movie failed miserably. We weren't sure if it wanted to be more comic or more dramatic, but neither approach worked. The term 'mindless violence' quite closely fits the feeling that we left the movie with.
To round things up we visited the midnight screening of 'Ghost Rider'. After 'Smokin' Aces' this was a real joy. The movie was funny and successfully so and still had very cool characters and scenes.
On the whole it was a memorable birthday party :)

From the first minute there could be no doubt that it was a real Tarantino movie, because the first shot revealed a couple of feet on a dashboard. And there they remained for most of the intro. But feet didn't remain the only well known things from the Tarantino universe. Mentions of Big Kahuna Burger and Red Apple as well as a pussywagon sticker could be spotted throughout the movie.

The story is quite simple and inconsequential: Stuntman Mike has a Death Proof car which he likes to use to terrorize women. The movie tells two of Mike's 'adventures', whereas he 'succeeded' in the first part and walked off scott free he gets his comeuppance by the second group he chooses as victims.

As usual in Tarantino flicks there are some hilarious dialogs and a unique style. This movie is dedicated to seventies trash movies. This manifests itself in several ways throughout the film, such as in the short clips warning the audience of the mature content of the movie, terrible cuts with bits of color visible between, repeated scenes where the movie springs back half a second and an overall bad quality of the picture with lines appearing all over. But as this was surely intended it gave the movie a special feel that makes it stand apart from 'modern' flicks.

The references to Kill Bill didn't start with the Pussywaggon sticker. The scene introducing the second group of 'victims' was shot in black and white, the ringtone of one of the cell phones was Twisted Nerve (the song whistled by Elle Driver when she visited Beatrix Kiddo in the hospital), and when the color suddenly returned the car was a bright yellow.

Conclusion: A very entertaining movie even if it doesn't reach Pulp Fiction brilliance. At times one's kept at the edge of your seat, fearing for the heroines, at others one's a bit bored by its lengths. If you like Tarantino's movies you should definitely check it out. Otherwise you might still enjoy it but be warned, this is no movie for the faint of hearted.