Representing Humanity Blogathon

Sam from Duke & The Movies recently started a very cool blogathon, and the big question we need to answer is:


Extraterrestrial forces land on Earth. Unknowing of our planet and society, you can pick five films from the history of cinema that represent humanity. What titles would you choose and why?


It's very hard to choose, but I would probably try to show the world as an extremely diverse, creative, yet complicated place to be in, also showing realistic movies, as they need to know what is Planet Earth! I will try to make it chronologically, because I think it might help them to better understand Earth and its inhabitants. 


1. A historical movie showcasing Ancient times, just so they can see the early stages of the planet and how it all started- it could be Ben-Hur, The Ten commandments, The Gladiator, Troy...you name it! I will choose The Ten Commandments, although I haven't seen it, so I may be wrong, but I think is what I am looking for to show them!

2. A period drama- for their costumes, the story, their manners and the conservative, yet passionate natures of people in those days. My pick: Pride&Prejudice (2005?)

3. A movie from or about the 20s-30s. Since we also need a musical to make them happy after all the previous dramas, I will go with Chicago

4. A movie about life, its trial and tribulations and with a normal, rather realistic scrip. I can't think of anything better than Paris, Je t'aime: multiple stories, great actors, amazing directors, and with believable storylines. 

5. The final one would be an action packed, entertaining type of movie that is currently topping the box office. This was pretty hard to decide, since there are big choices like Harry Potter, James Bond, The Dark knight, Lord of the Rings and so on, but I will stick with the current king of the world, as it has a great mix of drama, action, love, comedy and superheroes: Avengers

Not the most original choices, but I think these will help give a basic image of the world they are stuck in! Hope you like it and thank you Sam for the great idea!

Musical Saturday: Chicago[2002]

I've had some musical reviews lined up for the blog for months, waiting to do a Musical week, but I decided instead to feature one musical per week, since my film viewing habit has not been very active during these last few days. So, first in line, CHICAGO!

Chicago is one of my favourite musicals of all time and I am glad to have the chance to talk about it!

Directed by Rob Marshall, it tells the story of Roxie Hart, a young woman who shoots her lover and ends up in prison. She tries to get out by hiring Billy Flynn, a big shot lawyer who always wins (played by Richard Gere), but has a few "bumps" in the road (Velma Kelly- Catherine Zeta-Jones, Mama Morton-Queen Latifah and others).

Let's start from the beginning. Catherine Zeta Jones opens the show, with a great performance of All that jazz and mantains her fierce, sassy, sexy, strong act throughout the movie. She delivered in a big way and deserves her Oscar as supporting actress- she is fantastic in every shape or form, acting, dancing and singing wise!

Then we meet Roxie Hart- not as pretty, not as sassy, but with a certain charm. Renee Zellweger is good and correctly portrays her character, but it wasn't 100% for me. I do have to mention the shot of her from toe to head whilst singing, she does have some nice legs and gives her all during the dance numbers.

Queen Latifah is Mama Morton; I think the casting was spot on and I loved her in this movie. ("When you're good to mama, mama's good to you"). Other memorable mentions are Christine Baranski as the reporter and Taye Biggs as the announcer/pianist.

And then we go to my favourite scene of the movie, featuring one of the best songs, well musical songs, ever. It's called the Cell Block Tango and I love it.

Richard Gere is charming- I never thought I would be seeing him in underwear singing "All I care about is love", but he is surprisingly good and has a palpable chemisty with both Zellweger and Zeta-Jones. Same goes for John C.Reilly, who is a fantastic actor, but always underused, in supporting parts, as a silly, stupid character.

The direction is wonderful, the transitions between the action and the dream stage sequences are well done, the singing and dancing numbers are flawless, flashy, visually beautiful and lovely to see, the sets and costumes take you back to the 20s, the actors deliver in every scene and all in all, it is a memorable movie.

As I said, one of my personal favourites musicals. Hope you like it, too!