I had seen this musical comedy on stage and almost gave birth whilst watching as the sound was so loud. I remember thinking the plot was quite superficial and the songs, well, I was a teenager during the Abba’s years, so I had enough. My mother-in-law wanted to watch the movie and dutifully I proposed to come with my youngest son ( he’s almost 11). Surprise! We all liked it! The scenery makes you dream- it puts you in holiday automatic pilot mode. Although most of the male cast were a tad rigid and definitely not the best singers, it gave a touch of reality and tenderness to the whole thing. Mery Streep – whom I would never had seen as a hippy- was so right that you sympathize all along with her character. Her daughter on screen- played by Amanda Seyfried- was just beautiful. She stole the screen at every appearance and made a very unlikely story believeable ( at least for 2 hours). We came out relaxed and joyful. My son loved the songs. Poor me. Another summer listening to Abba. What wouldn’t we do for love…
If you need to de stress, go and see Mamma mia!.

Another action movie I thought. The kind where everything is surreal – think the after Matrix- and violent. Angelina Jolie and her overdone pout are not a plus as I am a woman and don’t need a blow job. McAvoy though is an entire other dish though. Not that I fancy him whatsoever, but I consider him one of the best actors of his generation. I am convinced that he could sell nappies to a bachelor if he wanted to and turn any scenario into a goldmine despite the director and the script – and I have a tendency to think that the director make the actors in general.( I came up to this conclusion after seeing Tom Cruise in ” Magnolia” by the way. Tom Cruise for me is the epithome of action heroes actors,fast but incapable of conveying anything less than a canvas face – a blank face – which is supposed to let the spectator imagined any emotion applicable to the situation described ( ” Your mother had died” becomes a stare of despair or hope depending on what YOU feel but if you look closely the actor’s eyes it could also means ” When is the next pause, I need a wee/a fag/ a shag/ to get out of here”.Sorry for the disgression).

Ok so the story is about the son of an assassin who becomes involved in a fraternity of assasins in order to restablish some kind of order by bringing down a villain. The hero is supposed to have his father’s pool gene and in consequence is submitted to a regime of humiliations and routines so he can replace his father – the latest has been killed by the villain-and finish his task while helping the fraternity. Ahoy, that’s a scenario. Of course there is a twist you great neenee and the final scene has probably to do something with alost part of Matrix somewhere ( never forget that a killer, even a good one, can’t always completely win. No way. This is Hollywood talking).

Morgan Freeman is as best bored, Angelina Jolie is doing her Lara Croft routine without blinking and James McAvoy gives you the most unbelievable performance of the most pathetic killer ever seen – and he is better than wonderful. Just for him, and Mr McAvoy I salute you, the movie is worth seeing, watching, buying. I hope James McAvoy continues his way to stardom and remains what he truly is at heart- a great actor. Hats off.

I hated the scenario of course. It is one of these guys thing where being tough and tougher is of course best, and they actually are plain stupid. Even James Bond looks like a grown up compared to this.

Will Smith in a comedy, playing a Superhero gone awry and possibly alcoholic, I couldn’t missed that one. For the ones who know me – and the ones who don’t- I love Will Smith. His performance is okay but the roles he chooses are just genius. He gives you a story, he delivers a performance, he makes cinema interesting. I am all for it and I don’t even check what the story is about, I go and see it. A bit the same with John Travolta and John Cusack by the way.

So Will Smith is Hancock and not doing the best of it. Comes in an idealist whom he saved, and redemption is down the road. Then right in the middle of the movie, once you suddenly realized ” So what? How far can we go with this?” , you are embark on an entire new scenario that is completely separated from the first part. You just go:” What the heck….?” and you don’t have to think it over until the end. The twist is clever although the ending was a tad over the top for me. You can see that the credit crunch is already biting- people need sweet and hopeful endings. So that’s what you get.

The kids loved it.

A lovely fairytale for girls of every age who wants to find a prince charming and please to her parents at the same time. If you are the girl in question and you have some act of independency to perform , go and see this WITH your parents.

Christina Ricci is cute, McAvoy is cute, Reese Witherspoon is under employed and the good ones win. Happy ending, it is afairy tale I telling you.

Strangely my eleven years old son liked it. So maybe it is not only for girls.

We all have heard about this one. Two lovely girls ( tongues out gentlemen please) AND Eric Bana. Guys and gals are salivating. History is happily revised, the story of ambition and love of two sisters who are living opposite in the midst of their dirty family plans is quite a program for a movie. Quite cleverly done ( you don’t need a PHD to follow the plot suttleties), you can still see that strong women have to submit to their males counterparts otherwise they have to be ready to pay the heavy consequences ( in these days, it was your head off. Nowadays, a guy who is half as qualified as you are is paid double). Neither portman nor Johansson are entirely convincing in their roles and for some reason I believe that if the director had been a tad more perverse he could have achieved a masterpiece had he inverted the roles of the leading ladies, but hey, it is not my job after all.<br />
Eric Bana is good. I liked him a lot in ” Munich”- a movie that deserves better and is worth watching. It is quite nice to see English people acting as low as Machiavel – although they don’t seem too good at it. I’d give this a five out of ten. At least Keira Knightley was not in it.

Although this is not a movie but a serie of documentaries on animals and habitat of our lovely planet, these dvds definitely deserve a review. Their quality and their purpose is a must see for the whole family. I am not so much an animal person anymore. I used to love cats, dogs, guinea pigs, mice and hamsters when I was a child. I was desperate to have an animal – but except for a hamster, didn’t have much luck. The hamster lasted 2 years and I was quite upset when he died. I inheritated 3 gold fish when I was a teenager. two of them died jumping out of the aquarium – landing on my pillow and the last one had the position of a hanging man the very last time I saw him. I tried to save a pigeon who had a broken wing and had to bury him in a park nearby- a friend of my mother helped me. As soon as I lived on my own I got a cat. He was actually my boyfriend’s family cat. His parents had decided to move back to America and had the intention to have him put to sleep. I was horrified and I adopted him. He was white and yellow with angora hair – no pure race there. I loved him to bits and since he left, more than twenty years ago now, I kept adopting yellow cats. I am without one currently, as the last one died this year – he was run over by a car. But I miss having a cat – and it is in my plans to have another one by the spring.
This said, I find animals interesting and I enjoy watching monkeys at the zoo when I bring my kids along. I am terrified by lions and bears, or tigers, or any wild cats for that matter, but I appreciate that there are more than one living form on earth. Of course I have my doubts about this last statement when I look at my fellows human, but you know what I mean.
I knew naturally that animals in the wild are predators mostly and that it is not always pretty or fair. I had once watched a documentary on lions where the father waited for the mother to go hunting and just killed his own children that he ate with delight. One of my sons was with me at the time – he was 4. Neither him or me fully recovered after this- we both don’t like lions very much anymore. But I never really truly understood what it meant to live in the wild. The truth is simple- and it is ugly. At the same time, there is something magical and incredibly hopeful about the destiny of thousands of defferent species. Imagine: all they do is look for food and look for water. They have to travel for days or weeks to have a few days of abundance that will give them enough strength to carry on for the rest of the season(s). Their fight for survival is amazing. They follow path that no one who is slightly sane would follow but they still make it. They have to sleep and walk and eat in incredible condition. And they have no choice about it. It made me terribly sad to see the victims try to run and succumb anyway. It was fascinating to see that the first bite was all that it took to make them lose the game and accept their death without even a hint of struggle. It was scary to watch a polar bear lay down and die when food was just meters away – but he didn’t have the strength to get up for it. I am not even talking about the climate changes and the human imput to add to their misery. The whole thing is being film in the best possible conditions in images that make you dream. The earth is a beautiful place but life is hell.
So for all the commuters would get into trance as soon as they step on a bus/tube/train, for all the people who have the feeling that what they do doesn’t matter, for all the children who take Father Xmas ‘ toys for granted, for all of us who believe that we deserve more than we do….Watch this. Watch and learn.

The title of this movie made me think that someone was trying to be subtle here – but it was bit obvious to me. Nevertheless I decided to drag my poor husband to go and see it ( I was not tempted by ” Beowulf” or ” The Dark is rising”…). I had a few doubts though as I had read that the plot was about a funeral among stiff uper class society turned funny because an unknown dwarf turns up and declares that he is the deceased’s lover. You couldn’t hope for something worse.
So I was extremely surprised to be taken from the beginning. The actors were playing stereotypes to start with but once we had establish what we had ( the lawyer, the doctor, the vicar, the two sons who have issues and so on ( I am not telling it all as I wouldn’t like to spoil the surprise), the whole thing took off. And the worst it got the funnier it was. The characters suddenly were not all that they seemed and we even ended up finding them less pathetic- if not sympathetic. The dwarf is actaully almost anecdotal although of course he is the catalyst for most of the action.
This is definitely English comedy at its best. discreet, displaying vulgarity only when necessary and happily excentric.
If you have liked ” Four weddings and a funeral” but would happily skip the soppy romance part, this is for you. Men can survive during this one without feeling that their brain has been half amputated.

Ok, I am supposed to say that I went to see this one because of the kids. truth is – since I saw the trailer I wanted to see it. The rat did look cute and the quality of the background of the picture looked technically appealing. My sons had all seen it while they were in Switzerland last summer but they were game to go back to see it again, so when it came out here – in the UK- I took all my children and we really enjoyed it.
The Pixar company is good; they make clever movies that adults can watch without being bored and kids have fun too. The messages are slightly more complex than the ones from Disney and the heroes, whoever they are, have good and bad sides. Their choices are not always easy and their stories are not simple. I like that. Things are rarely easy in life and I believe that a kid movie can convey the message without being desperate.
So the quality of the picture is amazing. The details are fantastic and you come out of there being ready to be more adventurous in the kitchen. The plot is of course about someone who is not at the right place but it turns out to be at the right time. Does it end well? Of course, although it is not too ambitious.
A must see. And a buy when it comes out in dvd.
But the toys are crap.

Based on the true story of Ruth Etting, this movie scandalized Dors Day ‘s fans who complained that she didn’t play her trademark happy-go-lucky character. Well, she did well. Although I suspect that the story has been twisetd enough to make Ruth Etting appear at best as a victim of her ambition and of her violent husband, at worst as a manipulator who still had to pay a hefty price for it, I must admit tha Doris Day played it well enough – I mean ambiguity here- to let you be the judge and enjoy the whole story. James Cagney plays very well the thick gangster who is not as simple as he seems. He was nominated for an oscar or an award for this role- which is absolutely well deserved.
For the fans of the oldies, a good moment in perspective.
The film – like any Hollywood production- closes on hope and a potential happy ending. In real life, this was half true. The love story survived alright but her career sunk because of the facts. Here you know. But what am I talking about?

Nicolas Cage is a good actor – although he’s not my cup of tea. In this movie he’s so badly directed that is gave me the creeps. Bridget Fonda had no charm and only Rosie Perez as the villain was acceptable. I think the story is well known; a cop is not able to leave a tip in a restaurant. He tells the waitress that if he wins the lottery, he will share the money with her. You guess what happens next. And you probably guess the end. Sweet movie, cute idea, no backbone. I was disappointed.