The Scarlet Letter | pinartarhan.com

Crazy, Stupid, Love starring Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, Ryan Gosling & Emma Stone

Posted on October 10, 2011 Written by ripitup

crazy-stupid-love-movie-poster — Crazy, Stupid, Love starring Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, Ryan Gosling & Emma Stone. Co-starring Kevin Bacon and Marisa TOmei. Hilarious, emotional and romantic.

When Emily, his wife of 25 years (Julianne Moore), announces that she has slept with a guy at work (Kevin Bacon), Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) finds himself depressed. He spends his nights in a bar, complaining about his wife to whoever he sees.

Jacob (Ryan Gosling) is the complete opposite. He is young, rich, well-groomed and he spends his nights easily picking up women, with the exception of Hannah (Emma Stone)-who would rather marry a nice but boring guy rather than sleep with a cocky player.

When Jacob realizes what a hopeless case Cal is, he decides to take him under his wing, gives him a make-over and teaches him how to pick up women. But just when Cal has become the excellent student, Hannah decides that her life is indeed to boring and she decides to have sex with Jacob just for the hell of it.

And while Cal is conflicted between his current pick-up skills and his ongoing for his feelings for his wife, his new friend Jacob is nowhere to be found. He is just too busy falling in love with Hannah…

Crazy Stupid Love is all that I can ask from a modern romantic comedy. It is funny, it has its emotional moments backed up with more hilarity. It has likeable characters, a decent script and a couple of fun surprises. Not to mention the great cast: Steve Carrell, Julianne Moore, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Marisa Tomei and Kevin Bacon. Enjoyed every moment of it, and it is strictly recommended. Currently rated 7.8/10 on imdb.com.

Fun Notes

* In the movie, Julainne Moore’s son is reading The Scarlet Letter for school. At one emotiona outburst i class, he says that the “A” stands for “assholes, as the characters in the book fall in love like assholes and die like assholes”. But he decides to get a “J” on his chest to impress his 17-year-oldy babysitter, referencing the book.

* Emma Stone, who plays Ryan Gosling’s love interest, starred in a movie called Easy A, where she playe a high school student who kept comparing herself to The Scarlet Letter’s main character Hester.

Favorite Lines

Emily: They still make you read The Scarlet Letter? You’d think someone else would have written something better by now.

—

Hannah (to Jacob, after he has taken his shirt off): Seriously? You look like you’ve been photoshopped!

Other Posts on Ryan Gosling

Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone Trivia

All Good Things starring Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst & Frank Langella

Movie Reviews of 4 Nicholas Sparks Adaptations: A Walk to Remember, Nights in Rodanthe, Message in a Bottle and The Notebook

Other Posts on Emma Stone

Easy A starring Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, Amanda Bynes, Thomas Haden Church & Dan Byrd

Posts on Julianne Moore

The Kids Are All Right starring Annette Bening, Julianne Moore & Mark Ruffalo

Shelter starring Julianne Moore & Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Chloe starring Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson and Amanda Seyfried

Laws of Attraction and Pierce Brosnan

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

The Fugitive starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones

Other Posts on Kevin Bacon

Kevin Bacon Trivia: Kevin Bacon Movies, His Wife Kyra Sedgwick and More

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

Easy A starring Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, Amanda Bynes, Thomas Haden Church & Dan Byrd

Posted on February 7, 2011 Written by ripitup

Easy A starring Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, Amanda Bynes, Dan Byrd & Thomas Haden Church. Featuring Lisa Kudrow, Cam Gigandet, Stanley Tucci, Patricia Clarkson & Malcolm McDowell. Image via sinemag.com

Easy A is easily one of the best movies set in a high school. It is original, totally fesses up the clichés it uses and rubs its nose in it – while making us laugh and smile the whole time. A bit like Gossip (minus the darkness and drama) combined with 10 Things I Hate About You, but it is its own movie. Here we go:

Olive (Emma Stone) is a pretty, smart and accomplished high school student but no one really seems to know who she is, apart from her best friend Rhiannon (Alyson Michalka), school’s hot mascot (Penn Badgdley) and her favorite teacher Mr. Griffith (Thomas Haden Church).

This all changes by one annoying coincidence when she lies to Rhi about losing her virginity. The school’s religion-obsessed Marianne (Amanda Bynes) hears it and the next thing, the whole school has spread, changed and “enriched” the story. Not that Olive’s complaining, at least now everyone knows her name. But when she confesses the truth to school mate Brandon (Dan Byrd), he decides that he can do the same thing- spread a rumor and have a better high school life.

Brandon is gay and he asks Olive to say they slept together. When they fake it for the whole school, the rumor becomes that Olive’s slut. Rhi gets pissed Olive’s getting all the attention and Marianne is becoming more obsessed about making Olive find Jesus. Then a whole bunch of school boys ask for lies from Olive and Olive finds herself understanding what Hester went through in The Scarlet Letter…

The movie has a hilarious story, backed-up with great one-liners and an awesome cast. We have Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci for Olive’s sweet and unconventional parents, Thomas Haden-Church for the English teacher, Friends’ Phoebe Lisa Kudrow as the worst guidance counselor ever and Cam Gidanget as the oldest high school student. Of course the lead Emma Stone fits the role just fine. Amanda Bynes is annoying and funny as hell. And Penn Badgdley does look the part as the understated, good-looking guy who happens to be nice too…

Favorite Line:

Emma: I’m looking for the bible.

Bookstore Clerk: Oh, it is in the Bestsellers, right next to Twilight.

Fun notes:

Cam Gidanget, who plays Marianne’s boyfriend was actually in the first Twilight movie. He played the main villain.

Also on Patricia Clarkson:

Cairo Time starring Alexander Siddig & Patricia Clarkson.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona starring Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Javier Bardem. Feat. Patricia Clarkson

Also on Stanley Tucci

It Could Happen to You starring Nicolas Cage, Bridget Fonda, Stanley Tucci and Rosie Perez

Billy Bathgate starring Dustin Hoffman & Nicole Kidman. Feat. Stanley Tucci

Actors’ Pleasantly Surprising Roles feat. Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman & Russell Crowe

Posted on January 10, 2011 Written by ripitup

Actors’ Pleasantly Surprising Roles feat. Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman & Russell Crowe

Finding a good script is tricky. Constantly being after good scripts and trying to be versatile at the same time is even trickier. An actor might often find himself playing a character more often than other roles- such as being a cop or a villain too often. So just when you think you’ve seen all the cards up his sleeve, he surprises you as a character you have never seen before. Below are 3 examples:

* Harrison Ford in Six Days Seven Nights

Six Days Seven Nights starring Harrison Ford & Anne Heche

We are accustomed to seeing Ford in serious roles. Whether he is a cop (The Devil’s Own,Witness) or The President (Air Force One). Sure he had his characters with a sense of humor (Indiana Jones) but this one really caught me off guard.

In Six Days Seven Nights, he is a middle-aged pilot who lives on an island in Tahiti and is pretty pleased with his easy-going life. That’s until he meets Robin (Anne Heche) and a plane crash puts them both an island.

Ford’s character gets drunk too often and makes jokes at Anne Heche’s character Robin’s expense. He also falls down, gets beaten up and smiles a lot, all the while managing to be the masculine Harrison Ford we know him to be. Watch this one to see Harrison in an action/romance/comedy genre.

Two other movies if you like the combination of these genres:

Birds on a Wire starring Goldie Hawn and Mel Gibson

The Bounty Hunter starring Gerard Butler and Jennifer Anniston

* Gary Oldman in The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter starring Demi Moore & Gary Oldman

We saw Gary play the bad guy too often. Sure, when he isn’t playing the ultimate-villain (Léon, Murder in the First, Dracula), he does play a lot of shady/grey characters (Romeo Lies Bleeding, Sid and Nancy). So I am guessing I am not the only one surprised to find him as Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale in the film adaptation of The Scarlet Letter in 1995. He was a reverend, he was genuinely nice and he was playing a romantic character! And being Gary Oldman, he pulled this off brilliantly. You may or may not like the movie but Gary’s performance was…well, up to Gary’s standards.

* Russell Crowe in A Good Year

A Good Year starring Russell Crowe, Marion Cotillard & Albert Finney. Feat. Tom Hollander & Richard Coyle.

Russell Crowe might be an academy-award-winning actor, but hey let’s face it, he doesn’t have typically have a boyish charm. And he doesn’t really look like as if he is ready to make a fool out of himself. I am checking out his films to see another light-hearted role and I can’t. He played a warrior, a cop, an agent, an “insider”…. Sure, Mystery, Alaska is fun but A Good Year is even better. Not just because it features the Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard (Public Enemies, Inception) but because it shows us the two sides of Crowe- one we know so well and we are not so used to.

A Good Year follows Max Skinner- a ruthless and successful British broker in London to Provence, France. His uncle has died and left him his vineyard. All Max wants to do get the paperwork out of the way and do whatever the hell he wants with it. But before he can change the property, the property, its residents, his uncle’s (Albert Finney’s) memories and a certain French girl changes him.

This movie is directed by Ridley Scott, a director that Russell collaborates with quite often. The duo also did Gladiator, American Gangster, Body of Lies and Robin Hood together. But among them all, this is the sweetest, lightness and the most romantic movie of them all. Here, Russell’s hotshot Max gets into funny situations, falls in love, falls in love with the vineyard and discovers a side to himself that he didn’t know or forgot that it existed. And best of all, Russell isn’t alone in providing the comic relief. His friend Charlie (Tom Hollander) comes to visit. And well, Tom’s scenes are usually not so charismatic in movies and this one is no exception. Max’s broker nemesis is played by Richard Coyle– who you might remember as Jeff from TV Show Coupling– the British series that had most viewers laughing their butts off. And that’s an understatement. So it doesn’t matter if you put Richard in a semi-serious, small role. I start laughing the moment I see the guy. Oh, and the female lead is so elegantly beautiful that the story wouldn’t have made sense if Max hadn’t fallen head over heels with her. This film really made me like Russell. Yes, he is a good actor but he was just not this fun before.

The Scarlet Letter starring Demi Moore & Gary Oldman: When Adultery Is OK, part 3

Posted on July 7, 2009 Written by ripitup

The Scarlet letter (1995)

Starring Demi Moore, Gary Oldman, Robert Duvall

BEWARE OF SPOILERS!!!!

The letter is A, it stands for adultery/adulteress. It’s the 1660s and Demi Moore gets branded. Why? Oh,right- the story…

She is married to Robert Duvall’s character, who is a physician and a weird man who has sent his wife to one of the new colonies so that she could set a home before he arrives. Weird, right? In a time where women are hardly ever considered capable or to have the right to the anything without their husbands- she arrives alone. Her modern& forthright attitude is not very welcome. Even weirder, the narrator of the movie is Demi Moore (Hester)’s daughter- who will be born later- and keeps referring to Duvall’s character as Hester’s husband…

Then as Hester settles and proves herself capable of living as she likes despite others’ opinions, she meets a beautiful man by the name of Arthur (Gary Oldman).

Oh yes, with his costume of the era, long hair, beard and lovely& cute attitude, Gary Oldman is a beautiful man.They both share a passion for reading. His personality? Just as perfect. He is a priest, very modern and visionary, friendly with Indians,a pacifist and a romantic at heart. He is disappointed to find out that Hester is married. Still, their encounters continue and they realize they have not only respect & admiration for one another but a strong attraction, and deep feelings. Arthur is the one who practices self-control after he confesses his love. After all, he is a priest in love with a married woman and in 1660s, they could be “hanged for this”. So they avoid each other for a while. Then they receive news that her husband was killed in an Indians attack. When Arthur visits Hester’s home to give her the news, she is not exactly grief-stricken. She is anxious to know when it will be publicly acceptable for them to be seen together in public.

But people are bigots mostly and they live by strange rules they have set. Arthur very sadly announces that they have to wait for 7 years. Demi Moore is so disappointed with the news. But it takes them just a few seconds to engage into a passionate kiss- and then later on, into a great love-making.

Arthur and Hester, no longer to keep all those emotions in

I was so glad that they didn’t try to wait for such a ridiculous period of time. After all, there are very few things that are as natural and beautiful than two people- madly in love with each other-having sex. But of course it is not what the society thinks. And to make matters more complicated, Demi Moore gets pregnant. When people find out, they send her to jail. There aren’t exactly laws for this, but then they feel like they should punish a woman who bears a child who is not from her husband. Arthur is shocked and upset that she is treated like that so he wants to confess. But if he does confess, they will let her go but hang him.So there is no way Hester is going to risk his life. She forbids him to talk… So she gives birth in jail and Arthur can only see the child as the “Reverend”. The fact that her husband has survived makes everything even worse. He is determined to make her life hell- he accuses her and her friends of witchcraft. He also finds out Arthur is the father…

So Hester refuses to let go of her principles, to endanger Arthur… She gets branded with A, so the whole town is against her, apart from her friends whose lives are in danger…Arthur is torn between doing what’s right, what’s right for Hester…

And eventually when the town decided to hang Hester and the other women, Arthur just takes his stand, and tells them all..That he is the father of the child.That he loves her. That he is her husband in god’s eyes. He proposes they hang him instead. But when you think this might be another tragic ending, the Indians come to rescue…

It is just such a perfect, amazing love story. You root for the characters from the start. They are so humane, lovely, passionate and idealistic. Their love is real and knows no limits. I love every scene and moment from this film.

If your husband is a jerk, and you have married him against your will and meet such a great guy, it can’t be called adultery. It is just the kind of love a lot of us seek and yet seem to find only in movies…

Buy The Scarlet Letter on amazon.com

When Adultery is OK, Part 1: Revenge starring Kevin Costner & Madeleine Stowe

When Adultery is OK, Part 2: The English Patient starring Ralph F?nnes & Kristin Scott Thomas

Easy A starring Emma Stone (full of Scarlet Letter references)

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