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Reality Bites starring Ethan Hawke, Winona Ryder and Ben Stiller

Posted on October 26, 2009 Written by ripitup

RealityBites-GerceklerAcitir — Reality Bites starring Ben Stiller, Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke

Favorite Line (not just from this movie, but one of my favorite movie lines ever):

Lelaina (Winona Ryder): I was really going to be somebody by the time I was 23.
Troy (Ethan Hawke): Honey, all you have to be by the time you’re 23 is yourself.

Reality Bites is a sincere and funny movie about what really awaits us after college. No matter how well we do at the university or how enthusiastic we are about starting out our lives, things almost never quite turn out the way we expect them to be. The movie is from 1994, written by Helen Childress and Ben Stiller.

Lelaina (Winona Ryder) is the class valedictorian. She hangs out with her best friends from college:Vickie (Janeane Garofalo), Sammy (Steve Zahn) and Troy (Ethan Hawke). Each has their own unique set of problems. Sammy has to deal with his sexuality, Vickie has AIDS concerns, Troy is the one with the tortured artist soul- which does make him popular with the ladies but his lack of a job and his negative attitude towards finding one pisses his friends off. After all, good looks and guitar don’t help pay the bills. As for Lelaina, the only job she could find has got nothing to do whatsoever with her ideals and dreams. Things are also complicated in the love department. She and Troy are very close and obviously attracted to each other. But they haven’t done anything about it. However Troy is not pleased when she starts dating Michael (Ben Stiller) – who is the exact opposite of Troy: He has a regular job as a TV executive, he wears suits to work and has a regular paycheck. He is also ready to have straightforward, uncomplicated relationship with her.

Reality Bites has been labeled with more adjectives than I can possibly count. Some of the negatives include outdated and pretentious. I don’t think so. I am amongst the group that finds the movie true to heart. If you are considered some sort of rebel and can’t help thinking outside the box, and have lived a part of your teens/pre-teens in the 90s, this movie hits home. It’s just the icing on top that the movie comes with a good soundtrack.

Not that things have changed so much since the 90s. We are still on the lookout for AIDS and other STDs. We still have hard time after college. Most of us still have a hard trying to convince our parents that we won’t be happy unless we follow our own desired lifestyle.

It’s not hard to identify with the artsy,brooding and broke Troy. Why should we have to work at jobs where we know we will be fired immediately because our hearts weren’t in it in the first place? Or how many times have been in Lelaina’s shoes, where we had to work at some shitty job, for an arrogant, intolerable boss- just because it was remotely related to our dreams or we simply needed the paycheck to pay for our bills and support our dreams? We go through heartbreaks and disappointments, crushes on friends and a million other complicated situations. At the end of the day, all we want is to have our financial independence and live by ourselves and hang out with our friends.

Maybe you are past the whole post-graduation depression where reality truly bites. Well, reality bites most of the time, but some people have given up on their dreams and therefore have no empathy. If you have, you may not enjoy the movie as the rest of us. But if you do remember what it was like and/or if you are still struggling to make sense of things, this is your movie. Trust me.

You can watch some scenes here.

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reality_bites3 — From left:Ethan Hawke, Winona Ryder, Steve Zahn and Janeane Garofalo

Other Ethan Hawke Movies and Posts

– Lord of War starring Nicolas Cage, Ethan Hawke and Jared Leto

Ethan Hawke trivia

– Brooklyn’s Finest starring Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke and Don Cheadle

– Cheating Celebrity Trivia: 8 Male Celebrities That Cheated (feat. Ethan Hawke, Jude Law, Kevin Costner and more)

– Before Sunrise

– Before Sunset

– 10 Celebrity Break-ups You May Not Have Seen Coming

– 10 Most Entertaining Sci-fi Movies: Favorite Sci-fi Movies of a Non-fan

– Reality Bites starring Ethan Hawke, Winona Ryder and Ben Stiller

– Alias

– Actors and Literature: Ethan Hawke, Hugh Laurie and Viggo Mortensen

Someone Like You starring Hugh Jackman and Ashley Judd

Posted on October 23, 2009 Written by ripitup

B00006ZXSO_01_LZZZZZZZ — Someone Like You starring Hugh Jackman, Ashley Judd and Greg Kinnear

Jane Goodale (Judd) is happy. She’s got a good job as a talk show producer and she’s dating Ray (Greg Kinnear), also from behind the scenes. Their relationship is going just great and they both seem totally invested in it, and Ray really makes Eddie (Jackman) look bad. Eddie is also working behind the scenes and a true womanizer. But then Ray does something Jane doesn’t see coming: he dumps her, right after having made plans for moving in together. Jane is now single, bitter, extremely heart-broken; and to top it all, she is homeless. So now moving in with Eddie seems like her only option.

The disappointmet inspires Jane to write a theory that compares men to male animals and labels dumped women as old cows. So the theory suggests that the male would move on to a new cow after a while. It also seems more fun to pen this theory under the identity of a very old professor, the secret identity only known by her best friend Liz (Marisa Tomei).

Eddie is half- amused and half-pissed about Jane’s weird assumptions. And all though he is “using women as ATM machines” as Jane puts it, maybe Eddie and Jane could make a better match than Jane and Ray ever did…

Someone Like You: A Worthy RomCom

So what if you knew she would actually fall for all Jackman right after the movie starts? No, I’m not giving any spoilers. It is just so obvious. Kinnear’s character turns out to be a jerk, and he was too good to be true in the first place. And of course we are introduced to Eddie’s past, and learn he used to be in a serious relationship which ended with the girl tearing his heart out.

And seriously, who can consider Eddie (Hugh Jackman) just a friend/roommate anyway? It just doesn’t happen. So it is a sweet and kind of quirky (what other romantic comedy you watched had so much cow talk and images ?) and funny. Of course it has clichés but they are fun so who cares? 2 men. 1 girl. 1 guy treats the girl a lot better. There are bound to be similarites to stuff you have been before.

But it does its job. It’s romantic and it is funny. And it is not like either sex will have a hard time figuring out why they are attracted to each other. It’s Ashley Judd and Hugh Jackman we are talking about.But be warned, if you don’t like to see the ending coming, please stay away from Someone Like You. And the 99.99% of romantic comedies. I’m just saying.

ashley_judd5

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A Walk in The Clouds starring Keanu Reeves

Posted on October 23, 2009 Written by ripitup

A Walk in the Clouds starring Keanu Reeves

Paul Sutton (Reeves) returns home from World War II to a wife he barely knows and that doesn’t seem all that exhilarated to see him. And unknown to Paul, she is cheating on him.They got married too soon and before he went to war so…Well, Paul is back and he needs to make a living, by selling chocolates- not something he is all that excited about.

On the way, he meets Victoria (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon) , a beautiful Mexican young woman who is back from college, and she is very upset. After all she is single and pregnant, with the baby of her professor- who is not interested at all being with her. She is very scared of what her extremely traditional father (Giancarlo Giannini) might do. So Paul offers to help. He suggests that he pretends to be her husband, meet her family and leave the next day. At least when the baby news is heard, it won’t be illegitimate. Victoria is touched by his offer and together they go to meet her family. However her father is not thrilled buy the fact that her daughter has run off and gotten married on her own, to a man the family doesn’t know and to top it all, a man who sells chocolate for a living. But the loving mother, grandmother and the grandfather (Anthony Quinn) are all happy for Victoria and welcome Paul into the family. Coincidence, accidents and the grandfather’s acts seem to get his way and Paul has to stay for more than a week, which gives Paul and Victoria more time together and well…fall in love. Of course there are huge problems. Like Paul is already married and has to leave eventually and there’s going to be one hell of a problem if/when her father finds out.

The family has a tremendous grape field and they make quite a nice and rich living out of them. The beauty of the field and the traditions that come with their crops, make wonderful cinematography and just adds to the magic of the story.

The atmosphere, the scenery and the traditions make the movie a lovely watch. The father’s extreme reactions and his quest to get rid of Paul make enough funny scenes. Overall, it is a beautiful film.

Oh yes, it is a girlie movie. It is a chick flick. Bring the labels on. Because it really is a romantic movie. It depicts a love story that is genuine that lacks any type of game-playing and manipulation. Two nice people with two very different backgrounds find each other and fall in love. Although I think this movie is sincere and can be enjoyed by either gender, I can imagine what some boys are going to say about it. Or people will find a way to bash Keanu’s acting, some seem to regard it as a hobby. In fact just the other day a friend actually said “Who the hell ever takes Keanu Reeves seriously?”. Well, to his dismay, I raised my hand – half-joking, and half- making a point. The way I see it, he is awfully underrated. He brings out whatever his role requires him to. And this movie you will see him portraying a sweet,vulnerable and romantic character in the way that it is supposed to be portrayed. So when you leave the Keanu Reeves haters and the people allergic to most/all romantic-movies, you will see that this movie is enjoyable once you leave all the cynicism behind.

End note:

Director: Alfonso Arau, the director of Like Water For Chocolate

Writers: Robert Mark Kamen, Mark Miller and Harvey Wietzman (thanks to imdb.com for writing credits)

Keanu? Reeves and Aitana Sánchez-Gijón in A Walk in the Clouds

I’m merely pointing out that writers and the director are all men. I’m just saying…

Other Posts on Keanu Reeves

Keanu Reeves Trivia 101

The Watcher Movie Review

Something’s Gotta Give Movie Review

Lake House Movie Review

Lovely and Weird: “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee”

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

Brad Pitt or Keanu Reeves?

6 Celebrities That Aged Well

Can he or can’t he act?: Keanu Reeves Trivia

Top 5 Movie Endings- featuring The Devil’s Advocate info

Before Sunset starring Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy

Posted on October 11, 2009 Written by ripitup

beforeSunset_Wall7_800 — Before Sunset starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy

trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvFosXeqmDg

If you haven’t seen Before Sunrise, please do. I am not saying this sequel won’t make sense if you haven’t, but trust me it will be so much more meaning ful. You see, Before Sunset is the follow-up to Before Sunrise- a great emotional movie that took place in 1995. I previously wrote about the first movie. I have seen it a lot of times and after watching Before Sunset again,I felt I had to write about it.

I will feel free to give spoilers, because what might seem like a spoiler for the first movie, is actually the obligatory introduction to the second.

In Before Sunrise, we met Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy). These 20 somethings met on a train while French Celine was going back to her hometown and American Jesse was on his way to Vienna where he was supposed to catch a flight the next day to the States.
Soon after they started talking, they actually bonded. Yeah, they were having fun being around each other and obviously there was attraction but the bond was also obvious. Two stranger, making a perfect connection through a chance encounter. Jesse didn’t want to let go of this and asked Celine to get off the train with him. She did. And they had an amazing day, and its night in Vienna. The bond got deeper, attraction grew and they just didn’t want to let go. To see how genuine the movie,the characters and the story go, to feel the passion and the magic of their relationship, you have to see the movie. And feel free to check imdb. It has been rated by more than 34.000 people, and it has been rated as an 8/1o. My point is if so many people agreed on this, it means both men and women liked it. It means a lot of people with different movie tastes loved it. It can’t be labeled as a mainstream movie nor it exactly fits the independent spirit where a minority seems to get the message of. It means the viwevers felt the connection as well and this does not happen very often.

So when I heard director Richard Linklater had made a sequel, I rushed to see it. You see Before Sunrise leaves you wondering whether Celine and Jesse will meet again. Whether they will have the same connection or not. The second movie answers these questions for the two characters we loved so much.

Celine and Jesse had agreed to meet 6 months later as Before Sunrise came to an end. We sadly find out that they weren’t able to. Somehow life had gotten in the way. In those 9 years, Jesse has written a book that is about their encounter. He is now at the last stop of his book tour, in Paris. As he hopes that she would, she comes to his book signing.
When she does show-up, they decided to spend Jesse’s last hours in the city together. They are both happy to see each other. So much has happened and they are more than eager to catch up. But since they are older, they seem weary of life, the heart-breaks and disapponitments they have gone through. They realize the connection is still there 9 years later. But now, things seem harder than ever. Jesse is i unhappily married with a 4-year-old kid. Celine’s hear doesn’t seem to be in the relationship she is having. Both have to face their feelings and they realize that the best time, and the best romance they had was 9 years ago,with each other,in Vienna…

It is fun,romantic,sad,heart-breaking,emotional,hopeful…It just leaves you feeling with a combination of a variety of feelings. You feel alive. Once again, it is just so easy to find yourself in Jesse and Celine. And you just cross fingers that this time they will stay together.

Is it as magical as the second movie? It depends. They were younger ,more romantic and more hopeful. They mention this in the second movie. They have grown up.We, the audience,have grown up. We have had more disappointments,heart-breaks,more journeys…We might have become more realistic and/or cynical. But the true spirit of the movie-that genuine honesty-is still the core here. Of course the romantic fool in me wished that they had met after six months. I wish that they had gotten together,stayed together,remained in love…But they didn’t. Life happened and they let life take its toll on them; on their beliefs,way of thinking. But at the same time, they didn’t change all that much. As Celine mentions in the movie, we don’t really change that much. No matter what self-defense mechanisms we develop, our hopes and dreams stay the same. So being together again just feels so right for them. It seems together that 9 years have passed.

The movie has been written by Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Hence the actors have co-written the screenplay, it is even easier for them to become to be Jesse and Celine. As I said, if you have seen the first one, you owe it yourself to see this. If you haven’t seen it, than go and just find Before Sunrise. I am still looking for a movie that will make me feel the same way these two did.

Before Sunset

before-sunset-23

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Also on Ethan Hawke:

ALIAS

Reality Bites

ACTORS AND LITERATURE: Ethan Hawke, Hugh Laurie and Viggo Mortensen