All About Mel: A Fun Yet Fair Mel Gibson Tribute

Posted on February 14, 2010 Written by ripitup

Alright, folks! Love Mel Gibson? Hate him? Curious? Indifferent? Used to love him but now can’t remember why?

Well, this is the place to gather for discussions and comments.

Now, I collected all I did on Mel here:

http://cinemaroll.com/cinemarolling/all-about-mel-a-fun-yet-fair-mel-gibson-tribute/

Here is the excerpt:

Birtname: Mel Collumcille Gerard Gibson (no, really)

Birth year: 1956 (his competiton at showing his every year on his face is Robert Redford

Siblings: 10 or 11 (forgot which one). See? The love for a big family is genetic.

No. of Kids: 8 – 7 from wife Robyn, 1 from current girlfriend

Religion: Catholic.

Anti-gay?: Nope. Anti-homosexual when it comes to guys being with guys…

Click here for more:

http://cinemaroll.com/cinemarolling/all-about-mel-a-fun-yet-fair-mel-gibson-tribute/

25th Hour with Edward Norton

Posted on February 14, 2010 Written by ripitup

25th Hour with Edward Norton — Edward Norton is great. The premise is just thought-provoking.

One of those movies where the cops piss you off and you root for the drug dealer. This is the third time for me;the first two being Tequila Sunrise with Mel Gibson and Blow with Johnny Depp. But Tequila Sunrise is an entertaining romantic thriller so the emotional impact of Blow and 25th Hour are really strong. However empathy only came with 25th Hour. Not put yourselves in the shoes of a drug-dealer, but because you get the pain of a man who has 24 hours before he goes to prison for 7 years.

Monty is a nice,smart guy. He is nice to his girlfriend (Rosario Dawson), his dad, his dog…He even used to be a promising student. But some early events have ended him up in dealing drugs and he was too late to try getting out. Cops bust him and he faces a 7-year-sentence. So the movie takes us on a journey as Monty tries to live his last free day to the fullest.

It is hard to dislike Monty. There are scenes he earns your understanding, sympathy and sometimes even respect. I like the internal conflicts, his relationships and the struggles of his friends.

Freedom is the most precious thing ever and Spike Lee did a great job in engaging us with Monty’s (Edward Norton) story. You like the guy and you feel sorry for him. The movie has some unnecessary scenes involving Monty’s friends’ lives that are not related to Monty and this slows the movie considerably at times but those friends are played by Barry Pepper and Philip Seymour Hoffman and their acting makes up for it. I still can’t understand why there is even a storyline featuring Anna Paquin’s character. Totally irrelevant.

But overall it is emotional and thought-provoking with fine acting. 7.9 rating on imdb sounds just about right. See it.

Other Edward Norton:

Keeping The Faith

The Illusionist with Edward Norton and Jessica Biel

3 Romantic Roles of Edward Norton

THE PAINTED VEIL with Naomi Watts and Edward Norton

Vinyan: Starring Rufus Sewell and Emmanuelle Béart

Posted on February 13, 2010 Written by ripitup

Vinyan with Rufus Sewell and Emmanuelle Béart

What a weird and pointless movie. There were moments I liked, so I can’t say the entire movie was crappy. But if made a collage of scenes I liked, it would probably be about 15-20 minutes.

Now, I was hoping to watch an intense psychological thriller. The premise is interesting, the name is right, the location is perfect. Hell, you have Rufus Sewell in one of the lead roles. So had the storytelling been alright, the movie would be fine – even with Emmanuelle Béart.

And Emma-please, Emma- have the extra from your lip sucked and eat a little. Pirates of the Caribbean ghosts looked more in shape. And no, she is not playing a ghost.

Jeanne (Emmanulle Béart) and Paul (Rufus Sewell) are a married couple who lost their child Joshua to Tsunami. One night, Jeanne sees a video footage shot in Burma and believes she saw Joshua in there. Despite all logic, Paul has to support her decision eventually, because she is barely holding to her sanity. And as slim as the chances are, what if it really was him? It is not a thought a loving father can shake off, so he travels to Burma with her. Of course, their journey costs them a lot, with all the crooks around and with Jeanne becoming more and more irrational. It is not a journey Paul would have taken; had he known the circumstances…

If you are seriously into artistic and somewhat experimental film-making, with longer and more repetitive scenes than necessary, with promising gloom that slowly leaves itself to boring long silences…Yeah, this is your movie. I am a Rufus Sewell fan but I can’t bear to recommend it. Not if your reward would be to date him, that is.

Seriously, though. The movie tries to be a genre-bender: a heavily dramatic, spooky psychological thriller with characters slowly bordering on insanity… Had it worked, it would have been a masterpiece. But it fails miserably.

3/10. (IMDB is far more generous with 5.6)

3 Romantic Roles of Edward Norton

Posted on February 12, 2010 Written by ripitup

Yes, we know he can play a psycho, a gambler, a man who is going to jail the very next day or he can just star in the cult film Fight Club. It is so easy to get used to this diversity and we are not exactly surprised when he plays the nice, romantic fellow occasionally. But of course being Edward Norton, even his romantic parts are very different from each other. So here is a list of three (very) good movies and links to its reviews:

* Keeping The Faith

Edward Norton has directed this lovely comedy where a rabbi and a priest reunite with their old childhood friend (Elfman) and eventually both fall in love with her. Both these guys are very popular, modern and fun. But of course Norton’s character Brian Finn isn’t supposed to date. Or flirt. Or fall in love. Oops…

You can read the review below:

http://www.articlesbase.com/movies-articles/keeping-the-faith-with-edward-norton-jenna-elfman-and-ben-stiller-1852125.html

The Painted Veil

It is sad, romantic, touching, powerful and poetic. It is well-done in every way. Not your typical love affair either. An unfaithful wife (Watts) is forced by her doctor husband (Norton) to go the most dangerous place (1920s, political chaos- combined with a cholera epidemic) in China. But maybe they were both too quick to judge and despise each other? Produced by Norton and Watts. A must-see. To find out more about the film (no spoilers there either):

https://pinartarhan.com/blog/the-painted-veil-with-naomi-watts-and-edward-norton/

The Illusionist

The Illusionist takes you to a magical Vienna with fine cast: Edward Norton, Jessica Biel, Paul Giamatti and Rufus Sewell.Romantic, mystical, mysterious and lovely. For the review:

https://pinartarhan.com/blog/the-illusionist-with-edward-norton-and-jessica-biel/

Would love to hear what you think of these movies. You can comment here, on their individual pages.