You need to lose your life in order to see how "biutiful" it is. Alejandro González Iñárritu captures this in a beautiful way in his film. The movie concentrates on Uxbal, a single father of two, who needs to put order in his life before he dies. He is actively involved in the life of Barcelona's underground crimes.
Uxbal is interpreted by Javier Bardem who is well known for his appearances in Mar Adentro(The sea inside), Love in Time of Cholera and no Country for Old Men. He loves heavy metal music and he portraits himself as a worker not an actor. His interpretation in Biutiful is very profound, sending to the audience his feelings and keeping you in front of the screen up to end of the movie. He knows when to be desperate and acts like that. He knows when to be rough, he knows when and how to be aggressive and as the main character of this movie he was the perfect chose.
The Mexican and Spanish co-production was shot in Barcelona and took nearly 3 years of hard working to accomplish it, since the beginnings of the writing process. The director was absolutely spectacular by carrying the audience from one corner to another in order to create his magic piece of art. He takes the naturalism to extreme and thus creates a bonding with the audience at a certain point of the movie that didn't break until the end.
The movie is captivating in every sense. It presents an insight of corruption in Barcelona, involving African people who were selling cheap things for tourists and Chinese people working for their living and having as a house the basement of a warehouse. You can see the suffering of Uxbal when those Chinese people die because he bought the cheapest heaters; this is one of the most thrilling scenes in the movie. Even if Uxbal is diagnosed with cancer, he cares for his family as nothing happened and he's like a starving wolf with a starving family. He creates his own black labor empire just for his own survival. He bribes cops for African people, he finds labor for Chinese people in a construction site. The movie is complex and has lots of threads but the main things it underlines are: make peace with yourself before you die, leave your affairs clean and take care of the family you love. Altogether, the movie faces the viewer with death in such a way that no movie that I've ever seen does.
It's a "must see movie" from which you can learn a lot and a movie about which you can create references. It's an example of living art, the art of loving people.
I eagerly awaited this movie. For it I prepared myself with all Pirates of the Caribbean movies. I watched them and I loved them.
The movie director Rob Marshall has done a good job. But he forgot one thing that 'This is the day you will always remember as the day you almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow!' and this is a movie where the captain escapes twice, I mean how can you forget such a thing. That's a minus for the movie.
There is to much of SF in this movie. Captain Blackbeard is some kind of magician when he's on his ship, he knows it and he acts like it. I like the way he inspires fear to all around him even to the audience. The movie theater went mute at his first appearance. I liked the way Rob Marshall inspires fear in that scene. I think is a memorable scene and can only be compared with the scene where Elizabeth Swann exits Barbossa room on Black Pearl in the first movie of the series.
The movie keeps the arrogant manner in which Jack Sparow treats his friends or enemies. And also keeps it's funny rhythm and jokes of Jack Sparrow, Captain Jack Sparrow. The main character is one of the best pirates in the Caribbean seas, but he's without a ship and a crew and I think this is suited for a Captain acting like Jack Sparrow. I can only say that Depp is playing the role of Jack Sparrow and Captain Jack Sparrow is a wannabe pirate. Most likely Barbossa is a real pirate captain, he behaves like one. Also one important thing about Jack Sparrow is that he avoids commitments. We can talk hours about Jack and his adventures.
One pleasant presence is the one of Angelica Malon played by Penélope Cruz. She is the ex-girlfriend of Jack Sparrow also the most probably the only woman for witch Jack has feelings as discovered by Gibbs. She doesn't really fit in this movie, she isn't the type of actress that let's go on the stage, she is to romantic for a pirate movie.
The story continues from the las episode At world's end when Jack embarks on a quest for finding The Fountain of Youth. After Jack escapes from Barbossa and his Englishmen soldiers he finds himself captured on Blackbeard ship. Where he tries an unsuccessful mutiny only to find the power of Blackbeard. Everyone embarks on the same quest The Spanish, The English led by Barbossa and The Pirates led by Blackbeard.
To clarify things Barbossa embarks on this quest only to kill Blackbeard who captured The Black Pearl and made him lose a leg, Spanish embark only to destroy the fountain, Blackbeard and his daughter Angelica want to get rid of a premonition that said an crippled men will kill Blackbeard and Jack is working alone to get his ship back from Blackbeard and gain immortality.
The fights are not so spectacular but they are filled with lots of funny moments.
I won't tell who succeeds on their quest I will let you see the movie.
I am a great, great fan of both Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. They worked great together in some masterpieces of our time like, Edward Scissorhands, Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sleepy Hollow and Ed Wood. And they are great even when they don't work together like Pirates of the Caribbean(Johnny Depp) and Batman(Tim Burton).
Depp brings a great contribution to Tim Burton's dark creative visions to life in films ranging from animation to horror. Johnny never choses a role based on the possible success of the movie, he has chosen roles which he found interesting. Most of the roles that Johnny Depp played under Tim Burton direction represented one of Burton's personality, a certain pattern or a conflict inside his ego. Mad Hatter is a rather important character in Alice in Wonderland, he is crazy, wacky but most important he meets Alice when she shows up in Wonderland. He loves having tea parties with his best friend, the March Hare, and the Dormouse.
Alice in Wonderland has won 2 Oscars, Best Achievement in Art direction and Best Achievement in Costume Design. Even though it must be appreciated by the press and the critics the movie is very criticized and poorly rated. Why do I like Alice in Wonderland?
First of all is a different view of the same story that is told in many ways.This kind of morbid horrifying thing is an excellent view for older folks and the one's who appreciate art, not for little child's for which the story told by their parents or read in the books should be the best way to get in the Wonderland world.
I must add that Tim Burtons direction and experience with horror movies is a great benefit to the movie view. I don't really recommend it to children's, I can't recommend any of Tim Burton movies to children's, even if I was a child when I saw many of his movies. The movie bears Burton's fingerprint. You can see it in the decorations, costumes and story. You can even smell the movie. The movie sends both smiley's and fear. The felling that you have when you see this movie is making it a great one.
Third is Johnny Depp acting is unique every time he plays a character in some movie you have to see him. He is funny, he is enjoyable, he is great, he is a monster, he is whatever you like. Seeing movies with Depp is a relaxing thing to do on a daily basis. His role The Mad Hatter is just great because Johnny Depp is not just a pretty face. He really explored the tragedy of The Mad Hatter. We all know that he's essentially insane, sad and confused about the world around him and Depp succeeds bringing that in front of the audience throughout the movie.
Mia Wasikowska a native Australian is playing her first important character. The character suffers a Tim Burton adaptation, Alice is no longer the precocious girl we're using to seeing and hearing about in popular culture. She's an adult dealing with some serious challenges regarding her future. Waskiowsca used her own interpretation of that struggle to make her version of the character truly unique. Alice is at this time in her life where lot of people experience something that she's going through. She is very stressed and feels that she doesn't belong in her family so the story is about reconnecting her with her own beliefs. She reread the books in order to have an adult version of the story in mind and see the difference between reading them as a young girl.
Mia states that she loved working with Tim Burton:
'Tim’s really trusting as a director so from the minute that you know you’re cast, you just feel a lot of trust and freedom and collaboration as well, which is sort of all you can ask for.'
Helena Bonham Carter career is in a closer relationship with both Tim Burton and Jhonny Depp as she starred in Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Big Fish, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and eventually in Alice in Wonderland. She also stared in Fight Club and Harry Potter series playing as Bellatrix Lestrange and got an Oscar for her interpretation in supporting role for The Kings Speech. She tackled a wide range of characters. She’s been the sweet optimistic girl, the careless free-spirit, and the beautiful sex symbol. In Alice she stars as the frightening villain, which makes you wonder if there’s a specific type of role she gravitates towards more than the other. 2009 sets her in The Times top 10 British Actresses of all time.
She joined the cast in Alice in Wonderland as The Red Queen, the sole tormentor of Wonderland, who's been prophesied to fall from power at the hands of Alice. She's a caricature in ever sense of the word, but Carter has fun with it and makes her enjoyable to watch. She' a one woman show. For this movie she wears a lot of makeup she also puts a bald cap on witch was rigorously painted and then the cream of the crop is the giant wig. An excellent play for Helena which was frightening enough to scary most of the child's.
The movie needs lots of attention to be seen. It's a like for the movie and a great movie to re-watch after a while.
A movie that keeps you connected for it's entire length. A multiple layered piece of artistic work. It includes all things that make a good movie. The director, Paul Thomas Anderson, creates a perfect mix of family, greed and religion as seen in the early days of oil prospecting.
Paul Thomas Anderson depicts a perfect atmosphere of short breathtaking shots and scenes of great intensity that surprise the violent way of doing business. The movie star Daniel Day-Lewis, plays his character Daniel Plainview in a theatrical way, very much resembling with Bill the Butcher from Gangs of New York. His role is a very well played one; as a salesman he had to be a showman in order to sell, the way he used his "son" to manipulate the landowners being emblematic.
Daniel Day-Lewis prepares himself for his roles in such a manner that the audience is likely to be impressed. He began to study so much his character that he became a "Plainview" in his real life, 24/7. For the Plainview character Daniel's family was with him all the time, nearly went crazy with this role and having Plainview around all the time, the kids thought it was a laugh at the end to have this different bloke as their dad. Daniel stated that:
"My wife is amazingly tolerant. I knew that from the word go. She just believes, like I do, that if you are attempting anything of creative nature, no rules apply"
The hardest thing for Daniel Day-Lewis is to get out of his character after his work has succeeded. You may ask if this is the key to success? To train yourself and enter your character's life 24/7? I say he already answered that question by receiving an Oscar for this perfect impersonation of Plainview.
The Oil machine he creates is cruel and doesn't care about humans or humanity at all. He only cares about making money and attaining profit, like any corporation nowadays. The importance of profit for Mr. Plainview is causing his loneliness and avoidance, even his "son" giving up and fleeing to create his own oil company. The end finds him dead drunk, killing an inoffensive false prophet with a bowling pin.
The movie is a must to watch for the art it represents. It doesn't have a strong story to tell and you often get bored of the common drilling actions that the movie presents. The character worth watching is Daniel Plainview, who creates the magic; he is "la piece de resistance" of this movie. Even when he drinks whisky he makes it with style.
