Rewatching My 100 Favorite Movies - Update 13

I decided to rewatch my 100 favorite movies of all-time. What those are, you can check HERE. I watch them in random order, there is no rhyme or reason there, just watching those movies I love so much.
 

42/ 100: Stand By Me (1986)
A writer reminisces about his childhood friendship in the 1950s. Flashbacks take us back to a summer in Oregon, when four young boys go looking for the body of a missing teenager. Director Rob Reiner made a moving an effective film of the story written by Stephen King, which he named “The Body”. Beautiful and believable acting by the young actor, especially River Phoenix. HERE is my full review.
 

43/ 100: Fargo (1996)
Tragicomic masterpiece by the Coen Brothers, in which Jerry has his own wife kidnapped because he needs money for a business deal. The evil scheme fails miserably because of, on the one hand, the botched work of the criminals involved and, on the other, the exceptional detective skills of the pregnant police chief Marge. Frances McDormand as Marge is a delight, she created one of my favorite female movie characters of all-time. And “Fargo” is my favorite film by the Coen Brothers. You can find my full review HERE.
 

44/ 100: Ratatouille (2007)
The film is about the young rat Rémy who dreams of becoming a chef in a top Paris restaurant. Rémy ends up in the former 5-star restaurant of his great idol, the late top chef Gusteau, where he makes an alliance with the talentless but ambitious kitchen help Linguini. Not only does the technical mastery impress, the film superbly combines seriousness and fun. The story is layered and offers top entertainment for all age. Check out my full revies HERE.
 

45/ 100: American History X (1998)
Edward Norton plays Derek Vinyard, an American neo-Nazi with intellectual ambitions. His little brother Danny sees him as his idol, even when Derek ends up in prison for the murder of two black men. In prison, Derek repents, while Danny falls further and further under the spell of a local leader of the extremist movement. When Derek is released things escalate. Edward Norton plays fantastic. The story is intense, which makes “American History X” an excellent film that is still topical. You can read my full review HERE.
 
Still to watch: 55

00s Movie Review - Rataouille

Director: Brad Bird
Genre: Animation/ Family/ Comedy
Runtime: 110 minutes
Year: 2007
Starring: Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm, Lou Romano, Brian Dennehy, Peter Sohn, Peter O’Toole, Brad Garrett, Janeane Garofalo, Will Arnett, Julius Callahan, James Remar, John Ratzenberger, Teddy Newton, Tony Fucile, Jake Steinfeld

Description: A rat (Patton Oswalt) who can cook makes an unusual alliance with a young kitchen worker (Lou Romano) at a famous restaurant.

Review: In 1995 Pixar brought us “Toy Story” and it started a revolution within the world of animations. Pixar has been very successful ever since.
The quality of the images is unprecedented. The fur of the rats looks realistic, great details, reflections, light and shadowing, the water, it’s all stunning. With the humans they choose a more cartoony style, which is a good choice. This movie isn’t one of those super sweet Disney movies and has hardly any clichés.
The story works and has enough tempo. Off course a rat can’t talk and cook, but in the world of Disney everything is possible. The characters are interesting and there aren’t any typical characters. Leading character Remy, the cooking rat, is so loveable. He is different from the other rats, but is brave enough to be different.
The do it every time, Pixar just knows what the audience wants and they are always very original. “Ratatouille is one of my favorite Pixar movies and in my eyes a masterpiece.

 Rating: 5/ 5

What's in a Movie Year - 2007

Taking a look at the year 2007, picking my 10 favorite movies from that year in random order.

Zodiac
In the late 1960s/ early 1970s, a San Francisco cartoonist becomes an amateur detective obsessed with tracking down the Zodiac killer, an unidentified individual who terrorized Northern California with a killing spree. With this special film about a serial killer, director David Fincher proves his class. In a semi-documentary style, he has made a haunting and exciting film about three men obsessively chasing a serial killer.

Ratatouille
It is Pixar’s eight feature-length animated film and it is about a young rat Rémy who dreams of becoming a chef in a top restaurant in Paris. The extremely cuddly Rémy gets a little help and ends up in the former 5-star restaurant of his idol, the late chef Gusteau. He makes an unusual alliance with young kitchen worker Linguini, who is talentless but very ambitious. “Ratatouille” is one of my favorite Pixar movies of all-time. Not only the technical mastery impresses, the film superbly combines serious matter and comical moments. The story is layered and offers top entertainment for all ages.

Juno
Juno is a sixteen year old girl who unexpectedly gets pregnant by a boy from the running team. She has to decide what to do with the yet unborn child. “Juno” writes witty and clever dialogue for this comic drama, that gets stronger and stronger towards the end.

Into the Wild
Chris McCandles is highly educated, the son of wealthy parents, but absolutely uninterested in social success. He decides to give his money away to survive in the wilderness and ends up in Alaska after a long journey. Is he brave, naïve or both? Director Sean Penn turns the true story into a somewhat bombastic epic about the search of a misguided soul for himself. Beautiful images, great performances, clever editing and an unforgettable soundtrack by Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder.

Atonement
The young worker Robbie is falsely accused of rape by the thirteen year old sister of his girlfriend Cecilia, in a film adaptation of Ian McEwan’s book. Excellent performances by James McAvoy, Keira Knightley and Saoirse Ronan and fabulous camerawork. Just look at that take on the battlefield around Dunkirk.

Hot Fuzz
In Sanford, ominous things happen. The gardens are too neat, the façades too clean. Not village can become ‘Village of the Year’ three times in a row without a bad practice behind it. Policeman Danny Butterman and his over-ambitious colleague Nichols Angel are investigating. After their success with the zombie film parody “Shaun of the Dead”, director Edgar Wright teamed up with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost again. And they gave us the best comedy ever made. It’s a comedy with masterly jokes and uncomfortable melancholy, that will make my day any time.

Lars and the Real Girl
This sweet, witty drama about a particularly shy young man who experiences great love with a sex doll was widely praised. His brother and sister-in-law are very worried about his unconventional romance, but gradually the village community decides to accept the inflatable Bianca. It’s a totally crazy story with a big, warm beating heart and it remains perfectly balanced. Largely thanks to the restrained, touching performance by Ryan Gosling in one of his best roles.

There Will Be Blood
Early twentieth century miner Daniel Plainview finds oil. By plodding day and night he manages to build on his initially modest success the only one who doesn’t fall for his smooth talks about the wealth he can bring to farmers is the charismatic preacher Eli Sunday. It’s a surprising epic about the rise of a misanthropic oil baron with excellent performances, especially by Daniel Day-Lewis, who once again immersed himself completely in his role.

Eastern Promises
With “A History of Violence” director David Cronenberg made a compelling portrait of the beast in an everyday man. Two years later he teams up with Viggo Mortensen again. This time Mortensen plays the omniscient Russian driver for a highly criminal Russian family in London. A very overlooked crime drama, with excellent performances by Viggo Mortenson, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl and Vincent Cassel.

No Country for Old Men
Vietnam veteran Llewelyn Moss stumbles upon dead Mexicans in the Texas desert, a car full of drugs and a suitcase with money. He takes the money with him and is soon chased by Anton Chigurh, an assassin who prefers to kill with a slaughter pistol. the disillusioned sheriff Bell can only watch from a distance. In this brilliant modern western, the action takes place out of the frame in the crucial scenes. That doesn’t mean the Coen Brothers are sparing with blood, bullets and corpses. An excellent script and especially well-performed by Javier Bardem who won an Oscar for his role as Chigurh.

Five to Watch: Movies About Cooking

I really enjoy watching cooking shows like Masterchef and My Kitchen. Or just watching actual chef’s cook, like Jamie Oliver and Curtis Stone. So what about movies. It’s a theme, but not a common theme. I picked five movies with this theme, that you should most definitely watch.

Chef
The film is about Carl, who is a chef at an upscale restaurant. Because work gets repetitive, he loses his temper. And with that his job. Carl decides to run his own food truck and sell the most delicious food from it. This is without a movie you shouldn’t watch when hungry, it will kill you. It’s such a fun film that gives you a good feeling instantly.

Ratatouille
Remy is a rat with a sophisticated palette. When he comes across the kitchen of a fantastic French restaurant, he teams up with the awkward garage boy Alfredo Linguini. Pixar and Disney are known for its originality and entering the world of French cuisine gave us that too. It’s that it’s on the screen, but I swear I can smell the food when I watch “Ratatouille”.

Chocolat
Single mother Vianne and her daughter movie to rural France and open a chocolaterie across the street of the local church. Their sweet indulgences and Sunday hours cause a moral uproar. For all people that love chocolate. And Johnny Depp. I think it’s an underrated film, it’s so much better if you look at it a bit closer.

Waitress
Jenna is a pregnant waitress practicing the art of pie-making at the diner she works at. She wants to attend the local bake off competition, so she gets enough money to leave her husband. When a new doctor arrives in town, things change. It’s a silly, sweet and loving dramady, with heart and subtle humor.

Julie & Julia
A woman’s attempt to cook every recipe from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I love this film. Two storyline: Julie, a cooking enthusiast trying the cook all the recipes in the book. And the story of Julia Child herself, on her way to completing that book. Both Amy Adams and Meryl Streep are fantastic, an underrated film.

Top 5 Thursday: Movies from 2007

Some of my all-time favourites were made in this year. 2007 was a great year for film. Here are the best.

5. Eastern Promises

Such a fantastic film, great performances by Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts.

 

4. No Country for Old Men

The Coen Brothers can go in two different directions and I prefer the dark humour, but this is probably one of their best movies.

 

3. Ratatouille

My second favourite Pixar film. It’s just something about that little rat, with ambitions as a cook, that steals my heart every single time. And it's amazing how great animated Paris looks.

 

2. Atonement

A perfect adaptation of the book by Ian McEwan. Wonderful film!

 

1. Hot Fuzz

The funniest film ever! This movie has it all, British humour is the best humour and I can watch this film over and over again. And still laugh at the same jokes.

 

They Almost Made the Top 5: Amazing Grace, Disturbia,, Rescue Dawn, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Jane Austen Book Club, Juno

DVD Collection Update (6)

There are six new additions to my DVD collection.

The first is "The Fantastic Mr. Fox". I'm so in love with this story and the movie. You can totally see the love and energy that was put in to this project. And the color scheme is just beautiful. Love stop-motion.

The newest movie I bought. I wanted to see this in the theater, but as usual nobody wanted to go with me. But that makes it always extra excited to finally get it on DVD, because you have an complete new movie experience. I know that "Oz the Great and Powerful" was criticized, but I liked it a lot. It was very entertaining and I liked the witches and the flying monkey.

What a beautiful movie "Blue Valentine" is. For some reason people think it's a romantic film to watch with your partner. Well, the title suggests it, but it's not a love story. Far from that. What great performances by Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling.

A lot of people compare it to "Hotel Rwanda". I can see why, it's about he genocide in Rwanda. Both "Hotel Rwanda" and this one are fantastic films. I slightly prefer "Shooting Dogs", it's even more confronting an rally opens your eyes. I can't believe the UN just left them there. Loved John Hurt and Hugh Dancy.

One of my favorite Pixar film, can't believe I didn't own it yet. But aren't Disney movies expensive, always! They hardly ever go on sale. I love this, such a heartwarming movie and it's set in Paris!

I had no intention of buying it, but it was on sale, the only one on the shelve an it's a steelbook! It was screaming for my attention. "Léon" is brilliant, haven't seen it in a while so it's about time.

Top 5 Thursday: Disney Pixar Movies

I love Disney and I LOVE Pixar. I simply can’t get enough of these movies and I love them all. Some more than other, so that’s why I’m sharing my top 5 with you this week. Here are my five favorite Pixar movies.

5. “Toy Story”
We meet all the characters we came to love so much. Woody, Buzz, Hamm, Slinky, Mr. Potato Head and Rex (my favorite). Toy Story is a completely unforgettable film for it’s fans. The way the two main characters are developed is amazing, though it mainly focuses on Buzz and Woody only, it’s what made the film so powerful, not to mention more entertaining.

4. “Finding Nemo”
This story is epic. A worried clownfish father looking for his son Nemo, who’s out there in the open ocean. Tuns of fantastic characters like Crush the turtle, Bruce the vegetarian shark and Nigel the pelican. But favorite is the forgetful fish Dory, who will never leave our memories.

3. “Toy Story 3”
All the characters from “Toy Story” have really grown on us. That’s maybe the reason why I loved this a little bit more than the other two movies in the series. And it introduces us to a bunch of new characters, with Mr. Pricklepants as my favorite. Usually movie sequels that come this far become a bit tawdry. “Toy Story 3” is the exception because it’s entertaining and loveable and it feels as magical as ever.

2. “Ratouille “
A story of a rat that dreams of becoming a cook. That idea alone is just brilliant and only Disney can get away with that. “Ratatouille” is so endearing and I love the connection between rat Remi and human Linguini.

1. “Monsters Inc.”
Monsters Inc. is a company that scares kids at night and they collect their screams in order to get power for the city. Sully is the main scarer and together with his partner Mike he has to deal with a child that entered their world. This is my favorite and I don’t know anyone who shares this love for “Monsters Inc.” with me. Maybe that makes me a bit strange too, like Mike and Sully.

They almost made the top 5: “The Incredibles”, “Toy Story 2”, “Wall-E” and “Up”.