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Trauma starring Colin Firth and Mena Suvari

Posted on February 5, 2010 Written by ripitup

trauma with Colin Firth and Mena Suvari — Trauma with Colin Firth and Mena Suvari. See the ants crawling on Colin's face? Yeah, the ants have a big part in the movie. Bloody Hell!

Ben (Colin Firth) has issues. He just his lost his wife in a car accident where he was the driver. His wife’s family has gone on with the burial while he was in a coma and they don’t seem to want to talk to him at all.

He starts working with an old friend and goes to therapy. His mind constantly plays tricks on him and he is starting to believe he is going insane. Then there is the issue of a famous singer who was recently murdered. He is absolutely fascinated by everything about the case. Is it possible that Ben murdered the singer?

While Ben tries to stay sane, he develops a friendship with his beautiful and interesting neighbor Charlotte (Mena Suvari). But Ben can’t tell whether she is real…

Actually, the concept is really interesting. Colin Firth’s performance is great as usual. Mena Suvari is lovely and I can’t think of anyone else who’d be better for the role. Colin’s best friend is played by Tommy Flanagan and frankly, I love seeing him in movies no matter what the role. Seeing an actor for the first time at one of the most heart-breaking scenes in Braveheart does this to you. Remember the wedding scene where William Wallace (Mel Gibson) goes to a wedding where he comes back to his village as a grown man? The English interrupt the wedding and take the bride away. The groom is Tommy Flanagan. Of course he becomes one of Wallace’s most willing soldiers after that. To see him in a larger role, you can check out Atilla– where he plays Attila’s (Gerard Butler) cousin/nemesis.

So the idea is promising and the actors are just fine. Then why the hell was the movie rated 4.7 on imdb? Because the script writer overused ants and the director did a lousy job. Yeah, Ben collects ants and what’s strangely weird at first, comes back to annoy you again and again. Then there are Ben’s delusions that were shot as if you were watching a horror movie. You are not. This is a psychological thriller and if the makers thought this could be horror, that’s a delusion right there. With a different approach, we could have a pretty decent movie. I am not saying you shouldn’t watch it. I am just saying the fast forward button can come in handy.

More Colin Firth-starring movie reviews :

St. Trinian’s

Apartment Zero

The English Patient

More movies with Tommy Flanagan

Braveheart

Attila

St. Trinian’s starring Colin Firth and Rupert Everett

Posted on February 4, 2010 Written by ripitup

Colin Firth really started to disappoint me? What the hell was this movie? Why was it done? And more importantly, why did he think this one was a good idea? There are about 2 good jokes in the whole film and one was a reference to Colin Firth but one joke is not equal to comedy.

Rupert Everett has even a worse role. Actually he has two roles one as Colin’s ex-love interest. And no, they are not gay. Rupert plays an ugly-as-hell, old-woman. Oh dear.

What is this movie about? Boarding School, bunch of extra-hyper,extra-annoying and naughty girls pulling pranks on everyone. Colin is the minister who wants to stop it all.

Don’t see it. I am only posting so that you won’t try to watch or at least will know what awaits you. You were warned.

Other Posts on Colin Firth

The Last Legion starring Colin Firth

Trauma starring Colin Firth and Mena Suvari

The British Actors We Love feat. Colin Firth, Daniel Day Lewis, Rufus Sewell and Ralph Fiennes

Apartment Zero starring Colin Firth

The Accidental Husband starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Uma Thurman &Colin Firth

The English Patient feat. Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Kristin Scott Thomas & Colin Firth

Hollywood’s Tall Actors feat. Colin Firth, Keanu Reeves, Gerard Butler & More

Elizabeth: The Golden Age starring Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush and Abbie Cornish

Posted on February 4, 2010 Written by ripitup

Elizabeth The Golden Age with Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Abbie Cornish and Geoffrey Rush. Co-starring Samantha Morton and Tom Hollander.

Elizabeth The Golden Age is truly a feast for a person who enjoys epic period pieces. It is glorious in all aspects. The fact that Cate Blanchett didn’ t win the Oscar for best actress isn’t something I can’t bring my head around. But it is not just her. Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush, Abby Cornish and Samantha Morton are all great. This is the second Elizabeth movie with Cate, the first movie – Elizabeth- was made in 1998, with Cate in the title role. I haven’t seen it but I am seriously tempted. But I am wondering if Joseph Fiennes was as good as Clive Owen?

Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth: The Golden Age — Cate Blanchett as the Queen in Elizabeth: The Golden Age. This is it. I am officially a Cate Blancett fan. What can I say? I love portraits of powerful and impressive women.

Elizabeth is loved by her people. She is strong and open-minded. She cares about her people. She refuses to marry any man just to have a heir. She loves her power, country and values her freedom. Of course she has enemies. Spain wants her gone and their king is making plans with Elizabeth’s cousin Mary Stuart, who is under house arrest in Scotland.

The Queen’s right hand Sir Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush) is very worried and doing the best he can to protect Elizabeth from any possible threats.

Clive Owen as Walter Raleigh. He takes The Queen's breath away. And Bess's. What? Can you blame them? Walter also is big on his principles and principles; only two of the attributes that attract Elizabeth. I am guessing him being gorgeous plays a part too.

Things get even more complicated for Elizabeth when she meets and falls for Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen). He is a free-spirited sailor who respects his queen and is a fine captain who has pissed off many Spanish during his fruitful cruises. Elizabeth can’t exactly have a normal relationship with a man who has and wants nothing to do with royalty, can she? And although Walter seems to be romantically interested in his queen, his attention is also fixed on one of the Queen’s maids- Bess (Abby Cornish)…

Abby Cornish as Bess in Elizabeth: The Golden Age — Abby Cornish as Bess. She is just so beautiful.

It has it all: Betrayal, love, romance, passion, friendship, war, strategy, loyalty and conflicts. It has action and drama. The costumes, art direction and the lighting add to the fairy tale feel of the film. The complex relationship between Walter, Bess and Elizabeth only make the plot much more interesting. There is nothing typical about the Queen’s character and Cate Blanchett does a great job in making the movie spectacular.

Shortly, I loved everything about the movie. If you like your epic, see Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

And since I have covered many Clive Owen movies on my blog (although there are more to come), I think a poll on your favorite Clive movie is in order. Vote away.

[poll id=”2″]

If you want more of Clive Owen’s movies, click the name of the movie to go the reviews/trailers.

Whip It starring Ellen Page, Drew Barrymore and Juliette Lewis

Posted on February 4, 2010 Written by ripitup

Whip It, starring Ellen Page, Drew Barrymore and Juliette Lewis

Fun. This movie was just really fun. Roller-skating, dreams, romance, family issues and friendship came together beautifully.

Ellen Page (Juno, Inception) plays Bliss, a 17-year-old girl more into indie and bohemian stuff rather than her mother’s (Marcia Gay Harden) obsessive interest in beauty pageants. Bliss and her best friend are bored to death by their small town Bodeen and Bliss finds the perfect escapism when she gets a flyer for a roller derby in Austin.

These roller-skating chicks fascinate her. She works really hard and manages to get into a team. This is where the fun actually starts. Her team mates (rap singer Eve, Drew Barryomore, Saturday Night Live’ s Kristen Wiig) are all fun loving young(ish) women with fun nicknames. Their coach is a nice guy named Razor (Andrew Wilson) whose problem is that while his team loves the game, they don’t seem to mind losing all the time. So he is delighted to have Bliss: she is fast and determined. She has many problems though: She doesn’t seem tough enough and her biggest rival Maven (Juliette Lewis) really hates her. She has lied about her age to get in and her parents have no idea what she is really doing….

Yeah, this is one of those coming-of-age stories. We watch Bliss’ first passion, first love (band singer Oliver, played by Landon Pigg), her relationship with her not-always-understanding parents. But Drew Barrymore (also the director of the movie) has done a great job of entertaining the audience and making us empathize with the characters. Despite all the themes you have seen before (maybe with the exception of a roller derby), the movie has a certain freshness to it. All the actors are lovely but of course Ellen Page owns the film. The movie is based on the novel of Shauna Cross. Shauna Cross wrote the screenplay herself.

Rated 7.1 on IMDB. I think anywhere between 6-7 is just fine.

Fun Facts:
– Despite looking really 17, Ellen Page is actually 23 in this movie.

– Landon Pigg is really a singer in real life, this is first major role.

– The coach is played by Andrew Wilson, who is the brother of Owen Wilson and Luke Wilson.

– The roller derby is host is played by Jimmy Fallon.

– Pay attention how “Pash and Bliss” rewrite the lyrics of the song Joleen for Bodeen.