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A Beautiful Mind starring Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris & Paul Bettany

Posted on December 13, 2010 Written by ripitup

A Beautiful Mind starring Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris & Paul Bettany

John Nash (Russell Crowe) is a brilliant mathematician who gets into Princeton on a prestigious degree. Obsessively working on a big and original idea for his doctorate thesis, he is often mocked by his peers due to his highly anti-social and odd behavior. His only real friend turns out to be his roommate Charles (Paul Bettany).

After a while, a night out with friends gives him the perfect idea and he gets the credit and success he deserves. Years later, he is working with his Princeton friends, Sol (Adam Goldberg) and Bender (Anthony Rapp) at MIT. There he meets a beautiful student named Alicia (Jennifer Connelly) and they start dating. However, Nash has already accepted a secret government assignment as a code-breaker, recruited by a man named William Parcher (Ed Harris) and his assignments start getting riskier after marrying Alicia. But is John’s paranoia justified?

As Nash is admitted to a mental hospital under the authority of Dr. Rosen (Christopher Plummer), both Nash and Alicia are about to face a shocking revelation…

A Beautiful Mind is based on the life of the mathematician John Nash, and the biographical book of the same name. Directed by Ron Howard in 2001, A Beautiful Mind is one of those rare movies where you agree that it deserved all the Oscars and Oscar nominations it received. And I definitely wish Crowe had won Best Actor. It was one of the most humane, authentic and touching performances I have ever seen on screen.

The movie won 4 Oscars: Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Connelly), Best Director (Ron Howard), Best Film (Ron Howard & Brian Grazer) and Best Adapted Screenplay ( Akiva Goldsman). The nominations were Best Actor (Russell Crowe), Best Editing, Best Makeup and Best Music (James Horner). I also wish the movie had gotten the best makeup academy award – especially for what they have done with Russell Crowe.

You see, I have never been a Guy Ritchie or Christopher Nolan or Quentin Tarantino fan. Sure there have been Nolan movies that I enjoyed but as I realized once more, I will take a Ron Howard movie any day. Ron has directed Apollo 13, Ransom, Far and Away, The Da Vinci Code, Cinderella and more. Yeah, I guess I am more into old-fashioned story-telling with great actors, lovely music and an interesting story than cult appeal.

Highly recommended.

Fun Note: Co-stars Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly got married in 2003 and they have a child together.

Other Posts on Russell Crowe & his movies

A Good Year starring Russell Crowe & Marion Cotillard

Other Posts on Jennifer Connelly & her movies

Coming Soon:The Dilemma starring Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Connelly, Kevin James, Winona Ryder and Channing Tatum

Jennifer Connelly Trivia: 14 Facts About Actress Jennifer Connelly

Dark City

Requiem for a Dream

He is just not that into you

Of Love and Shadows

6 Hollywood Couples: Gorgeous, Glamorous and Happy Together

Other Paul Bettany Movies & Posts

The Tourist starring Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie & Paul Bettany

Firewall starring Harrison Ford, Virginia Madsen and Paul Bettany

6 Hollywood Couples: Gorgeous, Glamorous and Happy Together

Other Ed Harris Movies

Copying Beethoven starring Ed Harris & Diane Kruger

Swing Shift starring Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell & Ed Harris

And when did you last see your father? starring Colin Firth and Jim Broadbent

Posted on November 18, 2010 Written by ripitup

And When Did You Last See Your starring Colin Firth and Jim Broadbent

It is hard to say that author Blake (Colin Firth) respects or admires his dad Arthur (Jim Boradbent) much. He is even embarassed by him and a little angry. And who can blame him?

Arthur wasn’t exactly a model father. He was cheap, didn’t support his son’s dreams, cheated on his mom with his mother’s sister; all the while his mom was aware of the whole thing???

There is a lot of anger in Blake and there is much confrontation to be made but Blake has to overlook all these feelings when Arthur gets really sick. Blake moves back home for a while to help his mother and sister out and trying to be with his father in his final days. Despite all the negative stuff that has happened, a father-son relationship is just too complicated to be just in black and white…

There is no problem with the acting or the direction. Colin never has trouble playing any character but emotional just suits him even better. The only problem here is that we have seen this story before. Maybe not with all its elements but it has been there. The less than perfect father? Angry son? The resiliant wife who loves her husband despite everything???It is a true story but what would movie-goers lose if this has not been made into film? Sadly, the answer is nothing.

I am not saying this is a bad film. I am just saying it is all too familiar. If you are not an absolute fan of father-son films and are not crazy about Colin Firth, there is not much point in seeing it.

If you do want to see a much more remarkable father-son(s) movie, watch The Boys are Back with Clive Owen. Also a real story, but with much more interesting elements and more likeable characters…

Other Posts on Colin Firth

Colin Firth Trivia

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

St. Trinian’s starring Colin Firth

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.

Public Enemies starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard

Posted on July 23, 2009 Written by ripitup

[pro-player width=’530′ height=’253′ type=’video’]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8xOgO7_eT8[/pro-player]

Public Enemies (2009)

Directed by: Michael Mann

3694551785_529848bf92 — Johnny Depp in Public Enemies. It is a fun and fast ride. And it takes a really good movie to be just that at 140 minutes!

Johnny Depp is John Dillinger. He is smart, fast, loyal to his friends and romantic & sweet to his girl. He robs banks because he just loves the thrill of it. He can escape prison, saves his friends from prison and tries not to harm any innocents in the mean time.

The movie involved less robbery scenes than we expected-as one friend put it. It includes more violence than you hope for and it occurs where you don’t really want it. But is it a bad movie? Absolutely not. I love period pieces. I love the glory and the romance of it. Set in the 1930s, Public Enemies offers well-crafted costume design. Johnny Depp is sexy, mischievous and addicted to action as Dillinger. Bale is well…some complain that his acting is flat. But then so is his character. He joins forces with the bureau who is run by Hoover (Billy Crudup) – a man more interested in looking good for the press and getting publicity than justice. Otherwise they would have spent half the effort on other criminals.

Our respect and admiration for Dillinger weakens as he makes mistakes and starts to act more like a pawn than the expert chess player. His weakness and love for his girlfriend (Marion Cotillard) don’t really help him either.

Funnily enough, I have gone to see the movie with two friends and ran across three other friends who happened to be watching it in the theater next to ours. The group of three were disappointed. I turned out to be the only one who thoroughly enjoyed the movie; until the last 15 minutes or so – at least.

The whole John Dillinger myth the movie built was completely destroyed towards the end.

As desperate he was, he made mistakes that he would have seen coming and could have solved.) Still, John is a very interesting character and immensely enjoyable to watch. Recommended.