mnoo

Member since 6/25/2007, last signed in awhile ago.

Interested in: Adventure, Comedy Drama, Drama, Epic, Family & Personal Relationships, Fantasy, Film, TV & Radio, Music, Reality Show [TV], Romance, Science Fiction, Spy Film, Theater, Thriller, Travel, Visual Arts

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Apocalypto

Love at first sight
By mnoo in mnoo Blog
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"It pleases me greatly when a movie surprises me positively. I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting from Apocalypto, but it certainly delivered something a whole lot different – in the most positive way possible. I guess I was preparing myself for an 'epic' movie about the Mayas, a clumsy page of a history book with great sets, cardboard people and a native language thrown in just to up the 'art' value. What I actually got was an extremely enjoyable, and personable, two hours with a well-structured action movie. For a very short while my expectations of an epic tried to make me wish for something 'more grand', but pretty quickly I was sucked in by the action and just sat back to enjoy the simple, but universally touching, story unfold.Of course, visually the film was stunning, and not just for the lingering light in the rainforest or the intricately constructed Mayan city, but for the attention lavished on the tiniest of details. The make-up and ... " [More]

Closer

Have you ever seen a human heart?
By mnoo in mnoo Blog
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"I'm not quite sure why took so long for me to watch Closer initially. I think it was partly due to the fact that when it opened people, who'd seen the original play by Patrick Marber, expressed very strongly their disgust of someone like Julia Roberts et al taking on these roles. Probably my first impressions of the film came from people who disliked it, not for the story but for the vehicle it was delivered in, and that possibly put me off of the idea of seeing it... at least before I had the chance to read the play. Never got around to that so I thought it was time to take the plunge.There's no mistaking the brutal brilliance of the play/script. There are no empty words at all, everything is delivered with precision and on purpose. I can't remember when I've seen Jude Law in a role where he's not a sleaze ball of some kind, but he was certainly perfect for this role. And it was interesting to watch his character moving through from one end of the moral spe ... " [More]

Sideways

Life and how it throws you
By mnoo in mnoo Blog
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"Finally a film that was exactly what I thought it would be. A funny, moving, and at times painful glimpse of ordinary life and human emotion. Paul Giamatti was certainly the perfect choice for the role of Miles, a failed writer and a wine buff. He gets you to feel sad with him, be happy for him and to laugh at him. There are definitely a lot of laughs to be had in the course of the road trip that Miles and, his soon-to-be-married friend, Jack are on – quite a few of them bittersweet. In a funny way, as different as this movie was to Irréversible, it somehow leaves you with a similar sad feeling. Of how small and inconsequential we really are, and how life can break you if you don't fight back hard. And yet, most of the time it's all out of your hands anyways. " [More]

Walk the Line

Life-sized lovestory
By mnoo in mnoo Blog
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"I've never been a huge Johnny Cash fan (in fact, I always preferred Waylon Jennings in the bad boy of country stakes. :P), but never the less, I quite enjoy this sort of biopics. All in all, the movie was quite predictable (in terms of how biopics are played out) and in some ways a very cliché story of fame, drugs and passion. Joaquin Phoenix most certainly gives his all and wears the Johnny Cash suit with relative ease, seeing how hard it is to portray someone known for being 'unlike anyone else'. The problem I have with Phoenix at times is the fact that he throws himself so completely into his roles that sometimes you start feeling a little detached from the character, you just look at him acting hard. And there were moments where I felt like this. Don't get me wrong though, I don't think there's anyone who could have done a better job. As shocked as I was to see Reese Witherspoon pick up the Oscar for playing June Carter, I was happy to learn that ... " [More]

Re: Top 5 Tear Jerking Scenes
By mnoo in Top 5
"1. Thelma & Louise - Just one of the best tear-jerking endings ever. Period.2. Brokeback Mountain - When Ennis feels physically ill over 'losing' Jack. Superbly acted and so real. Reminds me of how surprised I was over the physical pain true love can cause.3. Monster's Ball - Well, all of Halle Berry really, she threw her heart at the camera and it was impossible not to be affected.4. Dances With Wolves - A bit of an embarrasing one this. But yeah... Wind in His Hair: "Dances With Wolves. I am Wind In His Hair. Do you see that I am your friend? Can you see that you will always be my friend?" And off I go. 5. La Vie en Rose - This one was actually one of those REALLY annoying endings where you know from the get-go that they're going to be milking it for all it's worth and no matter how cynical you remain you can't help being affected. So yes, there it came, 'Non, je ne regrette rien' playing (which alone will get most people going, of course they ... " [More]

Oldboy

Too high expectations
By mnoo in mnoo Blog
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"Oldboy is in so many people's Top 10 and I've heard so much praise and been pestered to see it forever. So, needless to say, the expectations were perhaps very much too high going in. I did rather enjoy the first half. The plot was certainly original to start with, and the cinematography definitely ranks quite high on the visually gorgeous side of things. My problem is that I usually have an annoying talent of spotting where the plot is going quite early on (yes, I'm one of those 'I bet he killed her' people, which annoys others who might have wanted to stay in suspense until the final showdown. :P), and with this plot it was just glaringly obvious to me where it was going. So for most of the film I was just waiting for the plot to catch up and put me out of my misery. I also think that after showing so much promise at the start, and having gone to all the trouble of trying to confuse the watcher, the actual underlining story was way too simplistic and insipid. I was desperately ho ... " [More]

Irreversible

Back to the start
By mnoo in mnoo Blog
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"This was certainly a difficult film to watch and to digest. The whole film is played backwards, starting from the most ugliest and uncomfortable scenes I've ever seen and slowly returning to the start where everything was still ok. Even though it was a hard film to watch (and definitely not the best choice for a Saturday evening chilling with friends... :|) I did find it intriguing. It illustrated with terrifying clarity how fragile life is and how every small decision can affect the way things turn out. At the start you can't help but wonder what freaks these people are and how everything about them seems so fucked up, until you find out why and eventually discover that at the start, they were all indeed perfectly normal and happy. Horrible things happen in life – to completely normal people. And apparently even to people are gorgeous as Monica Bellucci. " [More]

The New World

Like a perfect poem
By mnoo in mnoo Blog
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"I would be lying if I said I didn't originally want to see this purely for Colin Farrell. Even having heard all the warnings about the length and boringness of it, I'm very pleased I did take the plunge. There is no denying that this is some of the most beautiful cinematography I've ever seen. The first hour, where the Europeans are settling in Virginia - and where Colin's Captain Smith is spending time with the natives and falling in love with Pocahontas - is such a relaxing and enchanting joy to watch that you feel like you're almost drifting through a dream. Every frame is gorgeous and everything looks so tactile… it's almost like you can feel the grass underneath your bare feet or the wind on your face or the water lapping at your skin. Just gorgeous. As is Colin. But especially Q'Orianka Kilcher as Pocahontas. She is beautiful beyond words and without even too much talking conveys everything she's feeling with sublime grace. The first half of the movie evoked such beaut ... " [More]

Brokeback Mountain

Bittersweet like life
By mnoo in mnoo Blog
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"I must say seeing Brokeback Mountain for the first time was truly a beautiful and moving experience, which will probably stay with me for a long time to come. In fact, I feel like the film is still growing on me and that I will be appreciating it more and more when time passes... and when I inevitably will watch it again. I think it's a real shame the film has acquired the reputation of 'the gay cowboy film' (even though I know it's impossible not to call it that, it just kinda flows. :P ), as it might limit the amount of people who will go and see it - and possibly prevent exactly the types of people from seeing it who really should see it. Because first and foremost, it's a lovestory. A lovestory so sincere I can't even remember when I last felt so much for the characters in a film. The acting is so brilliant that gender becomes wholly inconsequential and you are left with just the raw essence of what all of us are about. You feel for these two people and understand their pain so ... " [More]

Hard Candy

A hard nut to crack
By mnoo in mnoo Blog
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"The way I saw it, the whole point of the film was to have a jab at your own morals and, more interestingly, to demonstrate that nothing in life is black and white.The story is about 14-year-old Hayley and 30-something Jeff, who get to know each other in a chat room (seemingly serendipitously) and then proceed to meet in real life. While the film starts with the viewer thinking Haley is the one who shouldn't be meeting strangers, especially strangers as old as him, off the internet the roles reverse the further the plot develops - and Jeff realises Hayley's there after careful planning on how to punish him for what is at that point his assumed involvement in pedophilia and even murder. Hayley, played by Ellen Page, is by no means a likable character. She's very annoying, too smart for her own good and really hard to feel any sympathy towards. Jeff, played by Patrick Wilson, on the other hand seems like a reasonably normal bloke. He's well mannered and likable, and hey, he's even a p ... " [More]

Miami Vice

Elvis has left the building
By mnoo in mnoo Blog
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"As an experience Miami Vice was satisfying for some parts but quite… flat on the whole. Colin of course is always satisfying. Even with a blond mullet. And my god, the man can dance as well! It must be destiny… Err anyways. What always drew me to the original series was the atmosphere. There's this sort of definite Miami Vice feeling you get, like the excitement at the pit of your stomach when stepping into a nightclub combined with the sadness at the end of an evening after too much drink and too much… everything. The cool and hedonistic combined with the ugly side of life. It always fascinated me how they did that, with the style and the music. The film definitely had some of those atmospheric moments in it, just not enough to carry the whole thing through. The plot was a bit run of the mill and not awfully interesting. The cinematography was quite fascinating, moving in between the slick neon-lit coolness and this grainy almost documentary-kind visual world. ... " [More]

Babel

There's hope for us yet
By mnoo in mnoo Blog
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"I don't know why it took me so long to watch Babel. Especially since it's a movie that uses the mosaic type of storytelling that I find so appealing in films. I find it pleasurable following seemingly separate storylines which, in the end, are inexplicably linked together in intricate ways, especially when each of the stories is rich and beautifully crafted. Add a powerful message that makes you feel and think, and we're pretty close to my ideal movie. So how does Babel measure up? While I appreciated what Crash accomplished a few years ago, the message there was a bit too underlined and simplistic (racism is bad mmmkay). However, Alejandro Gonzales Iñárritu's Babel is so intimately constructed, with such great depth and subtlety, which was lacking from Crash, that it raises shoulders above. It takes the subject matter to another level, without any finger waggling.Even though we follow four different storylines, happening in four different countries which, to start wi ... " [More]

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Visual eye candy (40)
Visually mouthwatering films.

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