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Last Night starring Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington, Eva Mendes & Guillaume Canet

Posted on June 21, 2011 Written by ripitup

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Note for the readers who haven’t seen it:

Last Night starring Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington, Eva Mendes & Guillaume Canet
Last Night starring Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington, Eva Mendes & Guillaume Canet. Image via movieophotogallery.com

I won’t give any spoilers, and the premise of the movie is so simple that feel free to read and comment on the post even if you haven’t seen the film. It is all about fidelity, love, romance, sexual attraction and cheating.

Last Night Premise:

Joanna (Keira Knightley) and Michael (Sam Worthington) are a young, British, married couple living in New York. Joanna is a freelance writer, while Michael has an office job. Their only problem seems to be Laura (Eva Mendes), Michael’s attractive colleague. Joanna is sure that Laura wants Michael, and is not very happy at the idea of the two of going on a business trip together. Michael assures Joanna that nothing is going on and goes off to his trip.

Joanna’s worries leave her when she runs into Alex (Guillaume Canet), her ex French boyfriend who she was never quite over. They agree to meet at night, for a couple of drinks.

In the meantime, Laura and Michael also decide to go for a couple of drinks after the meeting.

From this point on, we get to know more about Alex and Joanna’s past, their connection and how Alex is still very smitten with her. Will the fact that Alex has a girlfriend in France, or that that Joanna is married, be enough to stop them?

Aand will Michael finally cave in to the sexy Laura’s advances? Michael  tries to decide between his conscience and his sexual attraction. Which will take over?

 

*

Verdict

Last Night has a very simple, yet humane premise. It refrains from making the characters from being hard to relate to, or unlikable (although I did manage to hate Laura). We have a young couple who is supposedly still in love have one night apart. Michael will either fight off or give in to the appeal of a one night stand. Joanna will give either give in to her feelings to Alex, or resist him for Michael. Or maybe she will swim in highly grey waters….

There are 4 options, really: Both or neither will cheat, either Michael or Joanna cheat.

The acting makes it watchable. I mentioned the characters relatable. You don’t have to live in a nice New York flat to be able to be intrigued dilemmas: love vs. sex, loyalty vs. impulse, the idea that a person might still be in love with person while sexually wanting other, and the idea that a person can be simultaneously in love with two men.

Well, the romantic in me rejected both theories. The skeptical in me believed that both parties were equally likely to cheat. I won’t tell you the outcome. But let’s discuss theories, opinions, and experiences  both about real life, and these movies’ characters anyway.

Who do you think will cheat? What would you do if you were one of these 4 characters? And if you have seen the movie, spoil away. I allow spoilers in the comments: )

Written and directed by Massy Tadjedin.  Made in 2010

Currently rated at 6.6 on IMDB. I give it a 6.

 

Also on Keira Knightley

Pride and Prejudice starring Keira Knightley & Matthew Macfadyen

London Boulevard starring Colin Farrell & Keira Knightley

Keira Knightley Trivia

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: drama, Eva Mendes, Guillaume Canet, Keira Knightley, Last Night, last night 2010, last night cast, last night movie, last night movie 2010, Massy Tadjedin, movies, romance, Sam Worthington

Red Riding Hood starring Amanda Seyfried, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons, Gary Oldman & Billy Burke

Posted on June 13, 2011 Written by ripitup

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Red Riding Hood starring Amanda Seyfried, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons, Gary Oldman & Billy Burke
Red Riding Hood starring Amanda Seyfried, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons, Gary Oldman & Billy Burke

Valerie (Amanda Seyfried) is a beautiful young woman living in a medieval village by a forrest. The most common fear among the people is the wolf that keeps attacking the village. While they managed to keep the wolf from attacking the humans by presenting it with animals, the wolf starts killing with Valerie’s sister. This infuriates them all,and the town priest (Lukas Haas) calls for the expert werewolf-hunter priest, Father Solomon (Gary Oldman). However many of the villagers don’t want to wait and kill the wolf themselves. Among these brave men are Henry and Peter, the two men who make Valerie’s lives highly complicated:

 

Peter (Shiloh Fernandez) is Valerie’s childhood friend and the love of her life. He is a loner without much money. Henry (Max Irons), on the other hand, is well-off, and Valerie’s mother (Virginia Madsen) is adamant? that her daughter marries Henry to get a better life.

 

As the villagers come back with the head of the wolf, and minus Henry’s father, they are certain they don’t need Father Solomon. However Solomon arrives with bad news. He informs the villagers that what they hunted is a simple wolf, whereas they are being hunted by a werewolf. He closes the village doors and tells everyone to be suspicious of each other, as the werewolf has a human form and could be any one of them. When the werewolf attacks, he doesn’t harm Valerie. Instead he talks to her, and apparently only she can hear it. It asks Valerie to come with it, and if she doesn’t, it just won’t leave the villagers alone. This sends the villagers into suspecting that she is a witch, and she starts suspecting everyone. Can the werewolf be Henry or Peter? Or her own grandmother (Julie Christie). And whoever it is, why does it want Valerie?

**

Red Riding Hood takes the basic elements from the fair tale, plays around a little, puts in a werewolf instead of wolf, puts in a love triangle and serves it with a good cast. We get a mystery thriller, which is more of a gothic romance than a thriller.

While it is not a bad experience overall, I just had one big annoyance: the werewolf. Directed by Twilight’s director Catherine Hardwicke, the werewolf- very much like the wolves in Twilight– big and very badly structured on the computer. When you have a laughable villain, It really takes a lot from the movie, a movie that is supposed to be a thriller.
But the ridiculousness of the villain aside, it is a fun film. You get to guess who the wolf might be, who Valerie will end up with and when she just might have sex with one of them…
I did mention good cast, right? You have Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Billy Burke, Virginia Madsen & Julie Christie.
It is not great, but it is not bad (apart from the wolf’s appearance). It also has a decent soundtrack. It is watchable if you are in the mood for a romance with supernatural elements lurking around.

 

Fun notes:


– Many watchers inevitably compared this to Twilight, where there the series are based on the love triangle. Here, the love triangle consists from 3 humans- although we suspect there is a werewolf among them.

– Twilight’s Chief Swan (Billy Burke), a.k.a. Bella’s father again gets to play the female protagonist’s father. Although Valerie’s dad could learn a thing or two from Swan when it comes to parenting.

– You might be bothered that a medieval village is dominated by modern English and American accents. But if I can accept a werewolf exists (for a movie), I can accept the accents.

**

Currently Rated 4.9 on IMDB. I suspect it could have earned higher votes, had the wolf looked menacing and not fake.

 

Also on Amanda Seyfried:

Chloe starring Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson and Amanda Seyfried

Veronica Mars starring Kristen Bell, Teddy Dunn, Jason Dohring & Enrico Colantoni


Also on Gary Oldman:

GARY OLDMAN: Talk about diversity!

Air Force One starring Harrison Ford, Glenn Close and Gary Oldman

When adultery is okay, part 3: The Scarlet Letter

Lestat, Dracula and Other Vampires featuring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Gerard Butler, Stuart Townsend and More

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: Amanda Seyfried, billy burke, Catherine Hardwicke, Gary Oldman, lukas haas, max irons, movies, mystery, red riding hood, red riding hood cast, red riding hood movie, romance, Shiloh Fernandez, thriller, Virginia Madsen

The Awesome X-Men: First Class with James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon & Rose Byrne

Posted on June 7, 2011 Written by ripitup

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X-Men: First Class starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Kevin Bacon & Nicholas Holt
X-Men: First Class starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Kevin Bacon & Nicholas Holt. Image via morfingen.com.
  • Warning! This review has been written for the people who have seen the X-Men movies (If you haven’t seen X-Men movies, there might be spoilers)

 

X-Men: First Class is the prequel to the X-Men series. We go a couple of decades back, to a time when Magneto was Erik (Michael Fassbender), and Professor X was Charles (James McAvoy), and he could walk… We get to see how the mutants were recruited by Charles to help save the humans from the common enemy Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), a man with a couple of mutants in his charge. Shaw is trying to destroy as many humans as he can because this makes him stronger, and Erik cares more about taking his revenge than helping others.

Here is how the story starts:

1940s

–          The smart and telepathic Charles is born to rich but absent parents. He is living in a mansion when he meets Raven (Jennifer Lawrence), the girl who would later become Mystique. Raven had occasionally planned to hide her true (blue) colors, but Charles reveals his secret, as well as hers, befriends her and keeps treating her like a sister as they grow up.

 

–          Erik loses both parents to concentration camps, and is kept alive by Shaw for his ability to control and move metal, an ability that surfaces when he feels extremely upset and angry. When Shaw kills Erik’s mother to guarantee the necessary amount of rage, he gains a very powerful enemy.

 

–          Fast forward over a decade. Charles becomes a professor whose specialty is mutation, a specialty he uses to pick up girls. However, he becomes aware of the common enemy, and the existence of not-so-friendly mutants when CIA agent Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne) pays him a visit, demanding an explanation about mutants. While most of the CIA isn’t that cooperative and understanding, an agent played by Oliver Platt takes Charles to the special unit he has built, where Charles and Raven get to meet the mutant Hank (Nicholas Hoult) and start recruiting other mutants to help America, and Russia against Shaw. Will they be able to prevent a nuclear war and stop Shaw? What will break Charles and Erik’s bond? And how will each of the mutants feel about conformity or individuality and uniqueness?

 

**

 

X-Men First Class is indeed a first-class prequel. It carries the right amount of emotion and character development (for the main characters), the glorious kind of action and terrific acting on all parties. To be honest, I wasn’t really excited to see it after seeing the trailer. But I am so glad that I did. The movie works so well on so many levels that the trailer just doesn’t do it justice. The movie also has fun references to the X-men movies, as well as 2 great cameos* (read below to spoil the surprise a little) from the X-Men cast.

*Hugh Jackman, who plays Wolverine/Logan, is sitting in a bar when Erik and Charles show up, trying to introduce themselves. The other mutants have been interested, whereas Logan replies “Fuck Off! “ And orders another drink.

*Erik is drawn to Raven, but he finds her too young. When he sees her in his bed, he says “Maybe in a few years…” That is when Raven turns herself to Rebecca Romjin- who has played Mystique in the series.

*

The bottom line is: See this movie! It has a great cast, a great story and great effects. The cameos, and the other fun references to the X-Men movies are just bonuses!

Currently rated at 8.3 on IMDB.com. A heartfelt 9 from me. Can’t wait to see it again. It also made me want to re-watch the X-men movies.

Fun Notes:

– X-Men first class was directed by Matthew Vaughn, who also directed Stardust, Layer Cake and Kick-Ass.

– One of the co-writers & co-producers is Bryan who directed the first two X-Men films.

 


**

Also on James McAvoy

James Franco, James McAvoy & James Marsters: Collective Trivia for 3 Namesake Actors

Also on Rose Byrne

Damages Season 2 Review: Starring Glenn Close, Rose Byrne, Timothy Olyphant, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt and Ted Danson

Wicker Park starring Josh Hartnett, Diane Kruger, Rose Byrne & Matthew Lillard

Adam starring Hugh Dancy and Rose Byrne

Also on Oliver Platt

Dangerous Beauty starring Rufus Sewell & Catherine McCormack

Love and Other Drugs starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway

2012 starring John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Thandie Newton, Danny Glover & Woody Harrelson

Benny and Joon starring Johnny Depp, Aidan Quinn, Mary Stuart Masterson and Julianne Moore

The Three Musketeers starring Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen and Chris O’ Donnell

Also on Kevin Bacon

Handsome Actors to Play Villains: Viggo Mortensen, Tom Cruise, Xavier Samuel, Kevin Bacon and Kevin Costner

Actor Musicians and Musician Actors: Keanu Reeves, Jon Bon Jovi, Kevin Bacon

5 Awesome Revenge Movies Feat. Gerard Butler, Kevin Bacon, Antonio Banderas, Brandon Lee and Mel Gibson

Stardust, The Air I Breathe, Playing by Heart, The Good Shepherd, Hairspray & He’s Just Not That Into You: 6 Good Movies with Brilliant Casts

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: action, adventure, bryan singer, Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Kevin Bacon, matthew vaughn, michael fassbender, movies, nicholas hoult, rebecca romjin, Rose Byrne, x-men first class, x-men first class cast, x-men first class movie, x-men first class trailer

Looking Forward to: Straw Dogs starring James Marsden, Kate Bosworth & Alexander Skarsgard

Posted on May 28, 2011 Written by ripitup

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Straw Dogs 2011 - starring James Marsden, Kate Bosworth & Alexander Skarsgard.
Straw Dogs 2011 - starring James Marsden, Kate Bosworth & Alexander Skarsgard. The remake of the 70s's Straw Dogs is coming to the theaters in September, 2011 - hence the lack of a proper poster. Image via fragman.web.tr

Hollywood loves the idea of a city couple/family to move to the country, only to have something terrible happen to them because of their house. It has been the theme of many movies (and this will be a whole other post), and this time  we have (the remake of) Straw Dogs.

What makes Straw Dogs attractive to me is (apart from the cast), is that this time the house isn’t haunted.  There are no *Supernatural (see below  the movie still for the related Supernatural episode) elements here. The villains are very much human. From what it seems, these villains are not even scary convicts or threatening strangers. They were born and bred in that town – a town Amy Summer (Kate Bosworth) boasts of being so safe that “they don’t even lock the doors”. It is with that great, safe town in mind that they move there, and hire the locals (led by True Blood’s Alex Skarsgard)  to repair their roof. But the locals turn out to be bullies, and they decide that they want to play by their own rules, and not their employers’. Of course David Summer (James Marsden) tries to fire them, but guess what? They really don’t take no for an answer, and turn the Summers’ lives into a living hell. So who do you think will win?

I always find that human villains make for creepier, more thrilling movies. And if the story isn’t that far-fetched – if you feel like this could be you- then you are in for a treat.

I don’t know if Straw Dogs will deliver, but the trailer looks really promising. And it is better when James Marsden doesn’t just play the cute romantic lead, because he has a knack for playing darker, or at least, grayer characters. Check out 24th Day to see what I mean.

Adapted and directed by Rod Lurie. The problem? Straw Dogs has got to live up to the original Straw Dogs, a 1971 movie starring Dustin Hoffman. Straw Dogs is based on the novel The Siege of Trencher’s Farm, and the 1971 movie script written by Sam Peckinpah & David Zelag Goodman.

Coming to the theaters in mid-September. Link to the youtube trailer:

Still from the 2011 movie Straw Dogs- James Marsden & Kate Bosworth
Still from the 2011 movie Straw Dogs- James Marsden & Kate Bosworth. Image via usmoviereviews.com

 

* Supernatural:  Ofcourse the TV show Supernatural has a “haunted” episode where a family relocates to the country to solve their problems, and it is not long before the kids get to meet the “ghost”. But is she acutally a ghost, or can the non-supernatural be much more terrifying than any supernatural element?

Also on Kate Bosworth:

21 starring Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth and Kevin Spacey: It’s Vegas, baby!!!

 

Also on James Marsden:

Enchanted starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey & James Marsden

24th Hour starring James Marsden & Scott Speedman

James Marsden Trivia

Gossip starring James Marsden, Lena Headey, Norman Reedus, Kate Hudson & Joshua Jackson

Stardust, The Air I Breathe, Playing by Heart, The Good Shepherd, Hairspray & He’s Just Not That Into You: 6 Good Movies with Brilliant Casts– feat. Hairspray with James Marsden

 

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: Alexander Skarsgard, Dustin Hoffman, i dustin hoffman straw dogs, James Marsden, james marsden movies, Kate Bosworth, movies, rod lurie, Straw Dogs, straw dogs 1971, straw dogs 2011, Straw Dogs cast, straw dogs movie, The Siege of Trencher's Farm, thriller

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