DVD Collection Update (19)

It's time for another DVD collection update. I've got 13 new ones since the beginning of January. To warn you, I went on a Disney shopping spree!

I got the first season of "Downton Abbey". I wanted to know why people loved it (and off course I wanted to see Dan Stevens...). And I now know why, it's loads of fun.

And if you know me a little bit, I also immediatley had to buy the second season. It has become a guilty pleasure of mine.

"In Bruges" is one of the funniest movies in the dark comedy genre. I really like Colin Farrel in this film, but Ralph Fiennes steals the show as the villain. his insults are hilarious! 

An absolute classic, sometimes I feel like buying one of those. "Psycho" deserves that title, because it's one of the best classic movies ever. And pretty scary too!

"Das Leben der Anderen" is one of the best non-English spoken movies. It's not a very spectaculair movie, but it's so well made and acted.

I went to see "Neighbors" last year with my cousin Linda. It was so much fun, finally a new comedy that could make me laugh. So when it came out, I just had to add it to my collection.

"Begin Again" is movie that puts an instant smile on your face. I just love this movie, I loved Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley in this film. Really worth a watch if you haven't seen it yet.

It was criticized, but I don't know why. I think "Sin City: A Dame to Kill For" was an amazing film. Off course it could never top the first, but it's still a great movie!

"The Little Mermaid" was the first movie I ever saw in theaters. I think I've only seen it once after that experience, so it was time for me to own it.

I actually never saw the Disney animated version of "Alice in Wonderland", so this will be another view for my movie challenge.

Just thinking of that terrible scene in "Bambi" makes me sad, but I also remember how great the entire animation was. And adorable with all those cute animals.

I also never saw the animated Disney version of "Robin Hood", so another movie on my to-watch list for my challenge.

I think I saw the live action version more often, but I really need to watch the animated "101 Dalmatians" again.

Top 10: Favorite Movies of 2014

I got to see a lot of 2014 movies, so this year I will make a favorites list of the year. Off course I didn’t get to all the movies of this year, because that’s impossible.  I didn’t see “Boyhood”, for no apparent reason. Some 2014 movies are coming out next year in The Netherlands, like “Birdman” or “The Imitation Game” and there are also some movies on this list that officially came out in 2013, but in my country it was 2014. Let’s get started, here are my favorite movies of 2014.

 

10. Edge of Tomorrow

The most recent view of this list. I wasn’t stoked about this at first, I didn’t see it in theaters. Now I regret that, because it was AWESOME! Finally the Tom Cruise action movie we were waiting for.

 

 

9. The Guest

It sounded so standard, but it was anything but standard. What I got was a solid thriller that had elements of “Drive” and 80s horror/ thriller in it. John Carpenter didn’t help making this movie, but it was like watching one of his creations. “The Guest” was amazing and thank God for Dan Stevens.

 

 

8. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Ceasar made it to my list. “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” was just as good as “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”. It’s something about apes, I’m captivated every time. And I know it’s probably never going to happen, but give Andy Serkis an Oscar! This man is a genious.

 

 

7. Begin Again

This was such a sweet film, I was literally smiling the entire runtime. The soundtrack is great and I just loved this film. When I read the synopsis I thought it was going to be mediocre, but it was so much better.

 

 

 

6. Nightcrawler

I was curious, I wanted to know what this was about. “Nightcrawler” was a surprisingly good movie, I didn’t see that coming. And Jake Gyllenhaal gave away such a mind blowing performance. He really got lost in his role.

 

 

5. The Lego Movie

I your title song is called “Everything is Awesome”, you better be awesome. And that’s exactly what “The Lego Movie” is. I never thought I would love it as much as I do. I’m didn’t even play with LEGO that much as a kid. I enjoyed this so much, I have watched the movie three times already this year.

 

 

4. 12 Years a Slave

If this movie doesn’t touch you, you’re a robot. Ever inch in my body felt the pain and the suffering of Solomon. Such an amazing movie, goose bumps.

 

 

3. Whiplash

Oh how I loved this movie! I heard so many great things about it and I totally agreed with all of those people. Seriously, J.K. Simmons in this film, if his character was real he would scare the sh** out of me.

 

 

2. The Grand Budapest Hotel

This year I discovered that Wes Anderson is one of my favorite directors. His movies are a piece of art, they look amazing. I wish I had his creative mind. I enjoyed “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and Ralph Fiennes’ performance is one of the best of the year. I’m actually missing this movie on a lot of 2014 movie lists. Maybe they aren’t Wes Anderson fans.

 

 

1. Guardians of the Galaxy

I didn’t know anything about the heroes in this film before seeing it. Each one of them stole my heart and I’m a fan of “Guardians of the Galaxy”. It’s understatement if I say I adored this movie. I even think it’s the best Marvel movie so far!

 

 

Honorable Mentions: Her, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part, Neighbors, Locke

Me & 3 Music Movies

I’ve seen a couple of music movies lately. No, not musicals, but movies where music is the theme. In many different forms too. Here are the three movies I watched.

A Late Quartet

Genre: Drama

Year: 2012

Director: Yaron Zilberman

Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Christopher Walken, Mark Ivanir, Imogen Poots, Wallace Shawn

Description: Members of a world-renowned string quartet struggle to stay together in the face of death, competing egos and insuppressible lust.

Opinion: A fantastic drama featuring some of the greatest actors of Hollywood. Surprisingly good movie!

Favorite character: Peter Mitchell (Christopher Walken)

Most memorable quote: “You treat him like a doormat and he's going to start to wonder what's outside the door”. – Alexandra Gelbart -

Best scene: The last concert that the famous quartet plays together.

Begin Again

Genre: Drama/ Comedy

Year: 2013

Director: John Carney

Cast: Mark Ruffalo, Keira Knightley, Catherine Keener, James Corden, Adam Levine, Hailee Steinfeld, Mos Def, CeeLo Green

Description: A chance encounter between disgraced music-business executive Dan (Mark Ruffalo) and young singer-songwriter Greta (Keira Knightley) turns into a promising collaboration between the two talents.

Opinion: A great feel-good movie for music lovers, a film that puts a smile on everyone’s face.

Favorite character: Dan (Mark Ruffalo)

Most memorable quote: “You know, I wasn't trying to win you over. I was telling you to fuck off.” – Greta -

Best scene: Dan and Greta walk the streets of New York and share headphones to listen to music together.

Pitch Perfect

Genre: Comedy/ Romance

Year: 2012

Director: Jason Moore

Cast: Anna Kendrick, Brittany Snow, Rebel Wilson, Skylar Astin, Elizabeth Banks, Anna Camp

Description: Beca (Anna Kendrick), a freshman at Barden University, is cajoled into joining The Bellas, her school's all-girls singing group. Injecting some much needed energy into their repertoire, The Bellas take on their male rivals in a campus competition.

Opinion: If you like the TV-show “Glee”, you’re gonna love this one. If you don’t, skip it.

Favorite character: Beca

Most memorable quote: “You guys are gonna get pitch-slapped so hard, your man boobs are gonna concave.” – Fat Amy -

Best scene: The moment where Beca starts singing “Don’t you (forget about me)” by the Simple Minds.

Favorite of the 3: “Begin Again”

Top 5 Thursday: Movie Playlist of the Year 2014

I decided to do something new, I’ve never done this before. I wanted to make a list of the five coolest, most awesome songs in movies of 2014. And it took me a while to go through all of them, because movies this year brought us some great songs. They might not be the most popular songs, you won’t find all of them in the charts, but that doesn’t take away any of their awesomeness. Here is the playlist.

5. Mr. Mustafa by Alexandre Desplat (“The Grand Budapest Hotel”)

Alexandre Desplat is an amazing composer and he made some wonderful music for “The Grand Budapest Hotel”, one of the best movies of 2014 and also one of my faovrites of the year. Fun fact: he also wrote music for this year’s “Godzilla”, “The Monuments Men”, “Unbroken” and “The Imitation Game”. Does this man ever sleep?

 

 

4. Lost Stars by Adam Levine (“Begin Again”)

I loved this movie and its soundtrack. This song I just can’t get out of my head, it’s so good! Not a Maroon 5 fan, but Adam Levine nails this song!

 

 

3. Anthonio (Berlin Breakdown Version) by Annie (“The Guest”)

This synthy, John Carpenter-esque cut was part of one of the nicest surprises of the year. From a distance, “The Guest” looked like a fairly standard genre piece, but it was so much more. And Dan Stevens also is one of the biggest breakthrough stars of the year.

 

 

2. Everything is Awesome by Tegan and Sara ft. The Lonely Island (“The Lego Movie”)

There are earworms and then there is “Everything is Awesome”. So catchy that the mere mention of its name can instigate mass chanting, it’s hard to believe that it was created by people.

 

 

1. Yellow Flicker Beat by Lorde (“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2”)

It may be overshadowed by “The Hanging Tree”, but this is the best song of the soundtrack. And my favourite song of this year’s movie playlist.

 

 

They Almost Made the Top 5: Solomon by Hans Zimmer (“12 Years a Slave”), Love me Tomorrow by John Newman (“Edge of Tommorow”), Old Man by Neil Young (“The Expendables 3”), Come and Get Your Love by Redbon (“Guardians of the Galaxy”), Hero by Family of the Year (“Boyhood”), American Interior by Gruff Rhys (“American Interior”), We Build This City by Starship (“The Skeleton Twins”), The Hanging Tree by Jennifer Lawrence (“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1”)

Top 5 Thursday: Movies I Watched for My Challenge (November 2014)

Damn, this month I saw some good movies. There was only one movie I gave less than 3 stars, so it was really difficult for me to make this month’s top 5. But here are the best movies I saw this month for my challenge.

5. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

I’m a huge fan of the books and I was really looking forward to seeing this. If you read the books, you like this movie too. But for the people who didn’t read the novels, it might be a disappointment. There isn’t as much action in it. It’s also my least favourite so far, but it was still an amazing cinema experience.

 

 

4. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

I loved this movie. I really liked Walter and his vivid imagination. Ben Stiller really did a wonderful job both with directing it and playing the lead role.

 

 

3. The Guest

This came as a surprise. I never expected it to be this good. And that soundtrack, so awesome. I can recommend this movie to anyone.

 

 

2. Rushmore

Wes Anderson has become one of my favourite directors and I especially love the way he tells his stories. This was one of his first films and I loved every minute of it.

 

 

1. Begin Again

This movie is about music, the love for music and the passion of sharing music with other people. After seeing it, I starting listening to the soundtrack and I actually still have some of the songs in my head. This movie was better than I initially thought it would be. It’s on my favourites list now.

 

 

They Almost Made the Top 5: Fruitvale Station, Dallas Buyers Club, The Expendables 2, Pitch Perfect, Napoleon Dynamite, Snowpiercer

100 Movie Challenge 2014 - # 139: Begin Again

Director: John Carney

Genre: Comedy/ Drama/ Romance

Runtime: 104 minutes

Year: 2013

Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Keira Knightley, Hailee Steinfeld, Catherine Keener, Adam Levine, James Corden, Ceelo Green, Mos Def

Description: A chance encounter between disgraced music-business executive Dan (Mark Ruffalo) and the young singer-songwriter Greta (Keira Knightley) new to Manhattan turns into a promising collaboration between the two talents.

Review: In “Begin Again” we follow two music lovers who happen two run into each other. Greta followed her boyfriend Dave to New York. He is starting to break through as a pop star, but the fame gets to him and he dumps Greta. Record producer Dan’s life is a complete mess. He lives separate from his wife and hardly connects with his teenage daughter Violet. With that Dan also loses his job. One night Greta and Dan meet during open mic night and they decided to make an album together. Recorded in the most beautiful places in New York.

“Begin Again” brings together a famous actress who never sang, with a famous singer who hardly ever acts. Keira Knightley has a surprisingly good singing voice, fit perfectly for a modest singer-songwriter. Adam Levine, frontman of Maroon 5, has a very good voice and isn’t a bad actor either. It’s a bit of a risk for Levine to play a role that actually mocks singers who sell their soul for hits. And for Knightley it’s also a very huge step to start signing in a movie. The best role however is for Mark Ruffalo. His role might not be the most original, but Ruffalo is experienced enough to make it a memorable role. Dan is funny, pathetic and enthusiastic and you just hope the best for him.

Clearly present is the critique on the current music business. Stay authenic and let the music speak for itself. The result is in Dan and Greta’s album. With minimal resources they record an album on the streets of New York. It gives us some beautiful scenes and it shows us the power that music can have.

The film is filled with beautiful songs and it shows New York at its best. “Begin Again” is a delightful movie that puts a smile on your face. I loved it!

Rating: 5/ 5

Movie Trailer Sunday (132)

Here are this weeks trailers.

Night Moves

Description: A drama centered on three environmentalists who plot to blow up a dam.

Director: Kelly Reichardt

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning, Peter Sarsgaard

Trailer: Trailer "Night Moves"

Comment: Looks gripping and suspenseful

Into the Storm

Description: In the span of a single day, the town of Silverton is ravaged by an unprecedented onslaught of tornadoes. The entire town is at the mercy of the erratic and deadly cyclones, even as storm trackers predict the worst is yet to come. Most people seek shelter, while others run towards the vortex, testing how far a storm chaser will go for that once-in-a-lifetime shot.

Director: Steven Quale

Starring: Richard Armitage, Sarah Wayne Callies, Matt Walsh, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Arlen Escarpeta, Max Deacon, Nathan Kress, Jeremy Sumpter, Kyle Davis, Jon Reep and Scott Lawrence

Trailer: Trailer "Into the Storm"

Comment: For some reason I Always like disaster movies, maybe it's one of my guilty pleasures.

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Description: From their home in the storm sewers of Manhattan, four Ninjitsu-trained turtles, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello and their sensei, Master Splinter, battle evil.

Director: Jonathan Liebesman

Starring: Megan Fox, Alan Ritchson, Jeremy Howard, Pete Ploszek, Noel Fisher, Will Arnett, Danny Woodburn and William Fichtner

Trailer: Trailer "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"

Comment: I grew up with the cartoons and I loved the films already made. Kinda looking forward to this!

 

Words and Pictures

Description: Prep school English teacher Jack Marcus (Clive Owen) laments his students' obsession with social media and good grades rather than engaging with the power of the written word. A one-time literary star, Jack has not published in years filling his spare time with drink versus the art of language. He meets his match in Dina Delsanto (Juliette Binoche), an abstract painter and new teacher on campus, who was once celebrated for her art. From the start, the two flirt and provoke each other with equal relish.

Director: Fred Schepisi

Starring: Clive Owen Juliette Binoche

Trailer: Trailer "Words and Pictures"

Comment: Yeahhh, want to see this.

Begin Again

Description: Gretta (Keira Knightley) and her long-time boyfriend Dave (Adam Levine) are college sweethearts and songwriting partners who decamp for New York when he lands a deal with a major label. But the trappings of his new-found fame soon tempt Dave to stray, and a reeling, lovelorn Gretta is left on her own. Her world takes a turn for the better when Dan (Mark Ruffalo), a disgraced record-label exec, stumbles upon her performing on an East Village stage and is immediately captivated by her raw talent. From this chance encounter emerges an enchanting portrait of a mutually transformative collaboration, set to the soundtrack of a summer in New York City.

Director: John Carney

Starring: Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo, Adam Levine, Hailee Steinfeld, Catherine Keener and James Corden

Trailer: Trailer "Begin Again"

Comment: Keira and Mark are two of my favorites!!