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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

Firewall starring Harrison Ford, Virginia Madsen and Paul Bettany

Posted on May 21, 2010 Written by ripitup

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Firewall starring Harrison Ford, Virginia Madsen and Paul Bettany
Firewall starring Harrison Ford, Virginia Madsen and Paul Bettany. Image from: http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/HPO/firewall.jpg

Consider yourselves warned. This movie will not surprise you. You will get the ending you always do. That being said, it is just not a bad movie.

After a movie, I usually cruise through IMDB boards and check out what the other folks are saying. It’s quite amusing. No matter what the movie, you will find people that had a good time, that hated it and that just don’t really care. Some people think Harrison Ford should stop acting (in action films).  Because he is too old. Yeah, I know. People would love to manage actors’ careers…

OK. Enough with the gossip and the sarcasm. I did warn you that this is a predictable movie. But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s entertaining:

Jack Stanfield (Harrison Ford) is a happily married man with 2 kids, aged 8 and 14. His wife (Virginia Madsen) is a beautiful architect and the marriage is great. His only problem is the merger his bank is going through but it is nothing he can’t handle. His life gets very difficult and complicated, however, when his best friend Harry (Robert Forster) introduces him to a businessman (Paul Bettany). Jack is a security specialist working at the large bank. The “businessman” makes him an offer and as Jack leaves to get home, he finds the businessman in his car. His name is Cox, he wants $100,000,000 from the bank. He also has taken his family hostage. From then on, it is a matter of life and death. Jack tries to outsmart Cox, and every time he fails, Cox proves that he is not kidding. So Jack needs to rob the bank he is protecting – and this robbery is a lot more technological and a lot less physical than the robberies we are used to…

It is not a masterpiece. It doesn’t have surprises. Still, I liked watching Jack finding a way to pull the stunts off. I had fun. The fun isn’t in trying to figure out whether Harrison will save his family. It’s in more how psycho the villain can get and how Jack can steal that much money, cover Cox’s track. And let’s face it, Bettany makes a fine villain. You might recgonize Jack’s secretary Janet (Mary Lynn Rajskub) as she has helped out Jack Bauer more than once in the series 24.

And why would people think Harrison is too old for this role is beyond me. It is not like he is playing Clive Owen’s part in Shoot Them Up or Gerard Butler’s in 300! He is trapped, he needs to save three members of his family. Anyone’s adrenaline would be pumped up. Watch it if you enjoy a typical thriller/action and like Bettany and Ford. By the way, remind me, did Harrison Ford ever play a villain?

5.8 on IMDB. I’ll give it a 6.Let me know what you think.

P.S. I read that Harrison Ford declined to play in Schindler’s List, claiming his stardom would get in the way of the message of the movie. I am glad Liam Neeson has the title role but what do you think about Harrsion’s remark? Do you think he is right? Or just cocky?

?

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: crime, Firewall, Harrison Ford, Mary Lynn Rajskub, movies, Paul Bettany, Robert Forster, thriller, Virginia Madsen

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