Phenomenon starring John Travolta, Kyra Sedgwick, Robert Duvall and Forest Whitekar

Posted on July 3, 2010 Written by ripitup

Phenomenon starring John Travolta, Kyra Sedgwick, Forest Whitekar and Robert Duvall. Image from http://s11.allstarpics.net/images/

George Malley (John Travolta) is a nice, sweet guy living in a small town, working as a car mechanic. His best friends are Nate (Forest Whitekar) and the town doctor (Robert Duvall). He is hopelessly in love with Lace (Kyra Sedgwick), a single mom who lives a little outside of the town with her two young children. She has been burnt once before so she is not exactly willing to let George in, no matter how sweet he seems.

George’s ordinary life gets a big challenge at his birthday; in the form of a very bright light. What the hell was that? The problems and complications arise when almost immediately after the incident, all of George’s senses have become a lot more efficient and impossibly good. He was sort of smart before but now he can sense earthquakes before the officials, without any devices, can read tens of books at night (and learn everything in them) and can even learn Spanish on a 30-minute car ride without having been able to speak a word before…His friends are scared. The Doc and Nate do their best to understand. Is something supernatural at work? And will Geroge finally get the happy ending he deserves with Lace?

Phenomenon is wonderfully smart and sweet romantic/ drama with a hint of some fantasy elements. It is impossible not to root for George- whose oldest acquaintances turn their back on him when his actions and talents don’t seem to make sense anymore. Directed by Jon Turteltaub (While You Were Sleeping, National Treasure) and written by Gerald Di Pego. This is one of my favorite Travolta films and I really love the connection and relationship he has with Grace. Wonderfully humane and emotional.

The film also has a very decent soundtrack featuring Sheryl Crowe, Peter Gabriel, Eric Clapton and more. My favorite song from the movie, as it also is used during a very meaningful scene, is Have a Little Faith in me. Rated at 6.3 on IMDB. 8.0 from me.

John Travolta Posts

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Hairspray

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Actor Musicians and Musician Actors

Favorite Actors to Play Villains

Featuring Kyra Sedgwick

6 Hollywood Couples: Gorgeous, Glamorous and Happy Together

Gamer

Buy the Phenomenon DVD on Amazon.com

Penelope starring Christina Ricci and James McAvoy

Posted on May 31, 2010 Written by ripitup

Penelope starring Christina Ricci, James McAvoy, Reese Witherspoon and Catherine O'Hara — Penelope starring Christina Ricci, James McAvoy, Reese Witherspoon, Simon Woods and Catherine O'Hara. Image from: http://www.onlinesinemaizle.net

Welcome to a sweet, quirky and fun fairy tale:

One of Penelope’s dad’s ancestors has slept with a maid and then left the girl. This ends up in the girl’s suicide. Her mother happens to be witch and puts a spell upon the family. According to the curse, the first daughter born into the family is going to be awfully ugly: a girl with a pig’s nose and ears. The spell somehow ends up affecting poor Penelope. In order for the spell/curse to be lifted, a guy from a certain bloodline should fall in love with her, even after he has seen her face.

Penelope (Christina Ricci) can’t go outside for years, according to her mom’s wishes. The press has believed her to be dead. She has gotten sick of it all, especially of men who gets the shock of their lives after they have see her. One day, things get out of Penelope’s mom’s (Catherine O’ Hara) control: A discredited heir (Simon Woods) decides to prove to the whole world what Penelope really looks like. With the help of a journalist in need of revenge, he hires a gambler (James McAvoy) to help them expose the secret. However the gambler gets to know Penelope without seeing her face first and he really likes her. But when he does see her and Penelope makes an unexpected offer, he runs away. Penelope misreads his reaction,and having had enough rebels and just ventures out into the real world. This new adventure will help make new friends (one played by Reese Witherspoon), and figure out who she really is.

Penelope is a lovely and interesting mixture of reality and fairy tale. After all we have rich vs poor, gambling, prejudice,”importance” of looks, superficiality, true love, friendship and coming to terms with who you are and how you look. So watching Christina with her special “make-up” may not be everyone’s cup of tea. But if you can get past how she looks, you are in for a real treat. A wonderful comedy-romance with supernatural elements.

Voted 7.1 on IMDB by over 15.000 people. I agree with the rating.

P.S. If you have seen Simon Woods as Mr. Bingley in Pride and Prejudice, you will have a real riot comparing his two opposite roles.

Also on Christina Ricci:

Cursed starring Christina Ricci, Joshua Jackson & Jesse Eisenberg

Cursed Trivia feat. Christina R?cci, Portia de Rossi and more

The Fall starring Lee Pace and Catinca Untaru

Posted on March 10, 2010 Written by ripitup

The Fall starring Lee Pace — Tarsem Singh's The Fall is just magical, fun and very emotional. Lovely job from everyone involved. And as always, great performance from Lee Pace.

1920s, Los Angeles. A hospital.

Roy (Lee Pace) is a bed-bound patient, injured from a movie stunt. Alexandria (Catinca Untaru) is a little girl with a broken arm. When they meet, Roy starts telling her a story of epic proportions. Roy is a fine story-teller, Alexandria has a wonderful imagination and director Tarsem takes us through a wonderfully bizarre journey with amazing visuals. Bandits, Indians, Charles Darwin, a wicked governor and other colorful characters are all parts of this tale. Reality and fantasy are impressively inter-wined and they are both very good.

I dare not say more about the plot because each detail is so important, I just don’t want to take away from the movie.

This film is just magical. It does get a bit slow at some parts but the climax more than makes up for it. I found out it is based on a 1981 Bulgarian film called Yo ho ho. I was a little disappointed because I had thought the story was so original. But it doesn’t matter. It may not be original but it is damn good. The acting is lovely and it really grabs you.

The Fall movie poster — Amazing photography.

You have to see it. 7.9 on imdb. 8.0 and up from me.

Other Posts on Lee Pace

Lee Pace Trivia

Possession starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Lee Pace and Michael Landes

Soldier’s Girl: A Haunting True Story starring Lee Pace and Troy Garity

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day starring Amy Adams, Frances McDormand and Lee Pace

When in Rome starring Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel. feat. Lee Pace

The Good Shepherd starring Matt Damon, Robert De Niro, Angelina Jolie & Lee Pace

20 Reasons to Love Stardust- feat. Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes, Robert De Niro & Charlie Cox

Posted on January 22, 2010 Written by ripitup

Stardust starring Charlie Cox, Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro. Image via amazon.

Stardust is- hats off- one of the most entertaining, beautiful, fun and impressive movies I have ever seen. The story is based on a novel by Neil Gaiman. It is an advanced fairy-tale for adults which children can enjoy as well. It is complicated, original, life-like and lovely. Complete with witches, kings, throne-thirsty princes, stars, pirates…The whole works. Yes, I am extremely positively biased because I love absolutely everything about the movie. Hang around and see if you agree.

1. The Novel: Neil Gaiman

The story is based on Neil Gaiman’s novel.

2. The Story: Jane Goldman – Matthew Vaughn

Little English village Wall is bordering next to a magical kingdom called Stormhold. While Wall is a typical English town with typical humans, Stormhold has witches and weird stuff going on. Right now, the main question for the King and the remaining sons (3 sons have been murdered by their brothers) is who will own the crown. The king-to-be is supposed to acquire the jewel, which flies out the window and into the sky. The sons start chasing the star while trying to get rid of each other.

The jewel causes a massive reaction in the sky, causing a star (Yvaine) to fall down- in the form of Claire Danes, wearing the jewel.

Tristan Thorn is young man has to get the star to show to his beloved Victoria. Victoria is a spoiled young woman who is merely using him. Tristan and Yvaine have to start an unwilling alliance, since she needs Tristan’s magical candle to go back home. How Tristan came to possess the candle has a beautiful story of its own.

But of course things are more complicated: 3 sister witches need to get the star. One of them goes out to get it- they need to cut out the star’s heart and eat it, to restore beauty and youth. The journey is full of adventure, surprises, interesting characters, dangers, romance and fun.

3. Direction: Matthew Vaughn

Vaughn is a British director who previously directed Layer Cake with Daniel Craig. Haven’t seen it yet, but I fully intend to. Of course has nothing in common with Stardust, apart from Vaughn himself. But I don’t care if he doesn’t direct anything I like ever again. Stardust is perfect and Vaughn deserves a lot of credit for that.

4. The whole movie crew: Especially production, cinematography, effects and make-up.

Amazing. If you saw the movie, you know what I mean. If you haven’t, wait till I go over the cast members.

5. The Score:

Just right. Adds to the magic, action and romance.

THE CAST

6. Michelle Pfeiffer

Michelle Pfeiffer in Stardust. No worries, we see both versions in the movie. Image credit: People.com

She is the witch out after our star. She is just breath-takingly beautiful and cunning. Michelle Pfeiffer is brilliant as the main villain. She has always been my favorite actresses and one of the women I find truly gorgeous. She is a woman to be envied and admired.

7. Robert De Niro

Robert De Niro in Stardust. If you thought Jack Sparrow was interesting…

You have never seen him De Niro this. I watched tens of movies of him and I thought I had seen all his faces. I was wrong. His performance as the captain of a lightning- catching pirate ship (now, that sounds like a great job) is just hilarious. Without him, the movie would just not be half as good.

8. Charlie Cox

Charlie Cox in Stardust — Charlie plays Tristan. And I thought all the good looking men were born in the 60s…Shame on me.

Cox Plays our male lead Tristan. He makes a perfect transition from the naive boy to the smart guy- getting only more handsome with the captain’ touches to his image. He grows wiser but remains nice and romantic. The result? Eye candy and lovable character all in one. Cox is growing up nicely. I previously watched him in Casanova. Period pieces and swords just become him…

9. Claire Danes

Stardust- Claire Danes with Charlie Cox — Claire Danes is lovely as Yvaine.

She is just adorable as the star Yvaine. She shines (both literally & metaphorically) throughout the movie. She has the truest observations about mankind. She is pretty and I totally forgave her for boring me to bits in Romeo + Juliet (I dislike the movies as a whole, not just her as Juliet)

10. Ben Barnes

Ben Barnes has a small part as Tristan’s father’s youth. He conveys innocence, curiosity and fascination perfectly. I wish he had a bigger part but hey, the film-makers worldwide seemed to agree with me that Ben is a great actor so he went on to get leading parts in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Kasbian, as Prince Kasbian and Easy Virtue. They also seem to agree that Ben is just as beautiful as a man can get since they cast him as Dorian Gray in Dorian Gray.

11. Mark Strong

Mark Strong in Stardust — Mark strong rocks as the ambitious prince after the jewel.

I had first seen Mark Strong in Body of Lies starring Russell Crowe and Leonardo di Caprio. He played his accent so perfectly; I could swear he wasn’t a native English speaker. He is English however and he is a marvelous actor. He can make you forget you saw him in any other role. He truly becomes his character. He is perfect as the King’s smartest, most cunning and charismatic son. He also makes one badass villain in Sherlock Holmes.

12. Henry Cavill

When I found out that the guy playing Victoria (Sienna Miller)’s arrogant jerk of a boyfriend- who also seemed really awfully blond and stupid- was the same gorgeous Henry Cavill who stars in The Tudors next to Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Wow! Kudos to making department for making Henry repelling. That takes talent.

Henry Cavill in the Tudors — Henry in The Tudors. Now, that’s the Henry Cavill we are used to.

13. Sienna Miller

Sienna Miller in Stardust — Sienna Miller as Victoria. Tristan’s journey starts because of her.

I don’t know why people think she can’t act. I think she gives whatever the role requires. She plays the beautiful and superficial Victoria just right. I also loved her as Casanova’s true love in Casanova.

14. Kate Magowan

Well, Tristan owes his existence to her. Literally. She is one of the key characters. I can’t imagine anyone else for the part. She is pretty, strong and determined.

WITH

15. Peter O’ Toole

He has only about 5 minutes as the king but who cares? He is Peter O’Toole and we love to see him on the screen.

16. Rupert Everett

Same 5 minutes goes for Rupert, but he really is good for an idiotic prince.

17. Nathaniel Parker

He play’s Tristan’ s father. Aside from the best father figure one can have, I think he is a good choice for Ben Barnes’ grown-up version. However I can’t see Ben turning into him in 18 years. Maybe 36? But hey- I guess it was tough being a single dad during those times…

18. Ricky Gervais

Always funny to see him. I especially enjoyed his part this time I saw Stardust- having recently watched The Invention of Lying and Ghost Town.

19. Ian McKellen

How is that for a narrator?

20. Seriously? You need more reasons? You have got to be kidding me!!!

7.9 from IMDB, voted by over 87.000 people. Not bad, but I voted it a 9, just for the record. What are you waiting for? Let the magic begin. I think I saw it 4 times already. And no, I am not done with the movie yet.

The trailer is below.

[pro-player width=’530′ height=’253′ type=’video’]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6_gBg4XjWk[/pro-player]

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