Movie Jail Relay Race

The lovely Mette from Lime Review and Strawberries recently passed the torch to me with this interesting Jail Race/Blogathon/Game whatever.

The Rules

„It's time to put some movie people in jail. The object is to give a prosecutor's argument as to why these movie people belong in 'Movie Jail' whether it be for violating the integrity of the content source of one of their films, or being a sell-out, just making bad movies overall, getting worse as time goes on or not being in a good movie for many years. 

The baton will be passed to another blogger who will have to do the following - in order to free someone from movie jail, they have to do two things: 

Give a defence attorney argument defending the plaintiff

Pay bail: the cost of which is another case for the court and a prosecutor's argument against the actor/director of their choice that will replace the one set free. 

Then make sure to list those who have passed the baton before you.

There must always be ten people in Movie Jail. “

Previous participants:

My Film Views/The Focused Filmographer
Cinematic Corner
And So It Begins
Surrender to the Void
Cinematic Paradox
The Cinematic Spectacle
Being Norma Jean
Defiant Success
...let's be splendid about this

Lime Reviews and Strawberry Confessions

Prisoners right now

 

George Lucas

 

Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer

Jennifer Aniston

Katherine Heigl

Michael Bay

Adam Sandler

Raja Gosnell

Eddie Murphy

Todd Phillips

 

Til Schweiger

  I free...

George Lucas

The guy might be in a bad situation right now, but come on, let's be honest, he is, after all, the director of the Star Wars films and along with Steven Spielberg created the Indiana Jones series which made box office records of their own. Maybe he can still come back?....  [p.s. I just didn't knew who to free, most of the prisoners deserve to be there]

I throw in jail...

Kristen Stewart

There are two people in Hollywood I just can't stand- one is Jennifer Aniston, and fortunately, she is already in jail, the other is Kristen Stewart. I don't like her for the simple reason that I think she is not a good, or even real actress. I rarely see any change in her style- she is basically playing Bella, or better said, Kristen, in every film, and it is getting annoying. Her acting skills and choice of roles could surely be improved. Until then, Jail Time for you, KStew!

I pass the torch to...   Ruth from Flix Chatter

Small Roles... Big Performances blogathon

The lovely Ruth from FlixChatter had this great idea of highlighting smaller, but still impressive performances in movies, and asked me to be part of it.

The idea of this blog-a-thon is "to shine a spotlight on the 'unsung heroes' if you will, the overlooked performers who add so much richness/entertainment value to the film no matter how brief their appearance is, but yet they don't get the credit they so deserve." For general rules and other details, if you are interested in participating, click here:  http://flixchatter.net/2012/08/30/small-roles-big-performances-blog-a-thon/

When I first received Ruth's email, I had to think long and hard and even leave it for another day to actually find a performance like she was asking, I don't know why I found it so difficult to do or find. I am sure I have forgotten many great small performances, but this is what I thought of when I got the proposition. I have several choices: a very small part that maybe isn't very powerful, but that had an impact over me, a bigger, more appreciated role, and the last, the one I like and think fits the best Ruth's request. So taking that into consideration, here are my 3 choices:

1. The cigarette guy aka Carlos in A Single Man- there's no surprise in finding out that the part of the mysterious, yet highly attractive man who asks for a cigarette outside a supermarket in Tom Ford's A Single Man is a famous model that goes by the name of Jon Kortajarena. He may have an extremely small role in this stunning adaptation of the Christopher Isherwood novel, but for me it was quite memorable. It may have been for the predictable and shallow reason of me considering him to be a very attractive man, but I also think he had real charisma and appeal, making that scene ten times more sexier and sensual than a normal model/actor would have managed. Plus, it helped us understand George better and it was visually, very well made. Here's a clip of that moment:

2. Jared Leto in American Psycho- people don't give him as much credit as he deserves. I never actually understood how good an actor he was until this movie, and I haven't even seen Requiem for a dream, in which I've heard he is fantastic. He always has smaller, yet interesting and memorable parts, and American Psycho is no exception. He plays Paul Allen, one of Bateman's colleagues, who Patrick has a grudge on, because of Allen's success and charm. Leto portrays the wacky, cocky character wonderfully and blends into the crazy, unbelievable world quite easily. Here's a clip of the movie- he is in it for a short time, but the whole scene is pretty great:

3. The housekeeper from Schindler's list-Helen Hirsch played by Embeth Davidtz- Schindler's list is one of my favorite movies of all time and, in a sea of amazing actors, stunning scenes and memorable performances, I still remember her very well. Firstly for her beauty and quiet demeanour. Secondly, for the way she brought humanity to the story, the environment and the house, and more specifically, to Ralph Fiennes' character. I absolutely love the scene in the basement when he discovers her bathing, the fascinating conversation between the two and change in attitude of Amon. This could have been a turning point for him, but it wasn't, just because of his nature- no matter how much he tried to look at things from different perspectives or listen to his heart, he couldn't change. Still, Embeth's performance is breathtaking and I loved it. 

With the exception of the third choice, I am not very convinced that the first two are awards-worthy or fantastic performances, but I just wanted to highlight them one way or another. You can call them Honorable Mentions, as number 3 is the final and, probably, best choice!

Hope you enjoyed it, can't wait to see what the others chose!

May recap

May was a pretty good month for me. I finally finished all my projects and essays for university and successfully turned them in, and now I just have to focus on my dissertation. After that stressful beginning of the month, I went back home for a week and a half and enjoyed spending time with my family and some close friends, while my mom spoiled me and fed me like there was no tomorrow :) Now I am back in London, ready to rumble, do my research and find a job. I need a job/work experience/internship/anything to do this summer, otherwise I will go crazy!
[Side note: lovely London people, what do I have to do to get into the press screenings? can I or is it too early to do it? help please?]

As for actual movies I saw this month, I am happy to check some important titles I've been meaning to see for months (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, City Lights and so on).

Here's the list for May:


Movies:
Young Adult [2011]
City Lights [1931]
Some Like It Hot [1959]
Coco avant Chanel [2009] foreign film
Taxi Driver [1976]
Raging Bull[1980]
The Virgin Suicides [1999]
Le Scaphandre et le Papillon [2007] foreign film
Big Fish [2003]
Moonrise Kingdom [2012]
Brief Encounter [1945]

Books: 1

I also participated in some very cool blogathons
- Nostra's The Ten: Best actors of all time- my pick
and
- Duke&the movies' Representing Humanity- my choices

Next month:
- 2 concerts (Maccabees and BBC Hackney Weekend)
- Viewing of Frankestein, the Danny Boyle theater play that he directed, starting Benedict Cumberbatch and Johnny Lee Miller, which also was broadcast live across the UK, and now it's being re-introduced to some select theaters. Just so there are no confusions: I am going to see it in the cinema theater, so no, unfortunately, I won't see Cumberbatch in person, but he will be on a huge screen in front of me, and I am fine with that :)
- Diamond Jubilee parties
- Tate Museum visit
...and hopefully, many more interesting things!

Have a great June everyone!

The Ten: Best Actors of All Time Relay

Nostra from the very entertaining blog myfilmviews.com started a great series/blogathon called "The Ten: Best Actors of All Time Relay". The idea is

 I’ve created a list of what I think are the best actors. At the end I, just like in a real relay race, hand over the baton to another blogger who will write his own post. The blogger will have to remove one actor (that is an obligation) and add his own choice and describe why he/she did this. At the end the blogger chooses another blogger to do the same. The idea is to make this a long race, so that each blogger gets a chance to remove and add an actor. We will end up with a list (not ranked in order) which represents a common agreement of the best actors.

The Previous Entries:

• My Film Views
• The Focused Filmographer
• Front Room Cinema
• I Love That Film
• FlixChatter
• All Eyes On Screen
• Time Well Spent
• The Warning Sign
• moviesandsongs365
• And So It Begins…
• cinematic corner.
• Andy Buckle’s Film Emporium
• Duke and the Movies
• Southern Vision
• Defiant Success
• Cinematic Paradox
• Encore Entertainment
• Okinawa Assault
• Amiresque
• Flickers 

The actors

Humphrey Bogart

Marlon Brando

Daniel-Day Lewis

Robert De Niro

Ralph Fiennes

Paul Newman

Jack Nicholson

Richard Burton

Peter Sellers

Jeff Bridges

After mulling over the top ten, I have decided to remove Peter Sellers just for the slightly embarrassing reason of not seeing a lot of his work. 


OUT                                                                           

When I was asked to add my pick, I had 4 or 5 choices that stuck into my head for a couple of days: Gary Oldman, Anthony Hopkins, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Viggo Mortensen. I settled on one- I may change my mind and decide I was wrong, but it would be too late by then. So I have decided to go with 


IN                                                 

Gary Oldman is my choice for one simple reason: DIVERSITY. The man has been everything from Sid Vicious (Sid and Nancy-1986), to an Irish American Gangster (State of Grace- 1990), Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (1991), to Dracula (1992) and had the part of the dreaded villain more than once in his lifetime (Leon, The Fifth Element, Air Force One). Now he is known and loved for portraying universally loved characters such as Sirius Black in the Harry Potter film series, James Gordon in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, and George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011). Only one Oscar nomination under his belt, but I think you all agree that it is too little for this man. Diversity for me is one of the crucial things that an actor should have in order to survive and stand out from the rest of the film world and I believe Gary Oldman proves it in the roles he chooses. Oh, and he is damn fine at what he does. If he weren't, he wouldn't be here, right? 

I hope you agree! I'm always rooting for the underdog, so here is one for your list :)

I now officially pass the torch to the lovely Ruth from "...let's be splendid about this"

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!

Houdini's Magic Ticket

Dan from www.top10films.co.uk recently started a great blogathon that you should check out, it's wonderful! http://www.top10films.co.uk/archives/8591/comment-page-5#comment-37359

Basically, if you can get a magic ticket transporting you anywhere you want, what would you do with it?

What animated feature would you love to walk around in?

I've never been a huge animation movie fan, but I remember growing up and seeing Beauty and the Beast and Snow White over and over again! If I'd have to choose, Beauty&Beast wins just for the great songs and great characters!

If you were a cop who would you want as a partner?

Are you kidding me? Mark Whalberg any time night and day! He is one bad ass mother f***er!Loved him in this movie! He might be evil, the bad cop, and he gets the job done!

What character would you most want to enjoy a passionate romance with?

This is probably the hardest one! Being a rather sensible, romantic girl, there are so many to choose!Trying to remember the best romance movies I have seen, I can't really say that I would like to have a passionate fling with either of them! I love Dirty Dancing, The Notebook, Legends of the fall, but I wouldn't like to be involved with Patrick Swayze. So it comes down to Ryan Gosling or Brad Pitt- considering we are talking about character and not actor, I guess I have to choose....no, I won't, I can't!
Oh, I know, I got it!
Have you guys ever seen Country Strong? I would love to get a guy like Beau Hutton, tall, sweet, deep voice, guitar man, who I can have a quiet night at home! Garrett Hedlund all the way!
See, you are getting the romantic side out of me! It's so cheesy sometimes! :)

What movie gadget would you love to try out?

That's easy, the Dolerean time machine! You can guess why...I would just borrow it for a couple of journey back in time, during the 1800s England and one in the future; wonder how I will look like!


What film's plot would you alter and how would you do it?

Hard to say, I don't usually have the need to change the plot. I think the only time I remember it to happen has the end of American History X; I was so furious about what happened and I wished I could change something! But I couldn't really say how I would alter it! No inspiration here, sorry!

What one film would you most want to be transported into, simply to be a part of that world?

Again, not a surprise here, but I love the Harry Potter world and the movies are really good!In some points, even better then the books (horror, I know)!

That's my take!Hope you liked it!