New-to-me Movies Watched in February
1. La belle endormie (The Sleeping Beauty) (French, English subtitles, 2010)
2. The Woman in Black (2012)
3. 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
4. Kari-gurashi no Arietti (The Secret World of Arietty) (Japanese, English-dubbed, 2012)
5. War Horse (2011)
6. Moneyball (2011)
7. The Tree of Life (2011)
8. The Descendants (2011)
9. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)
10. The Artist (2011)
11. Midnight in Paris (2011)
REVIEWS:
1. La belle endormie (The Sleeping Beauty) (French, English subtitles, 2010)
Because of a curse, a young girl is forced to sleep for a hundred years. The movie follows the girl's dream journey of the girl, and even includes a reference to the Snow Queen fairytale. I kinda loved this strange surreal retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairytale, though my sister kinda hated it. It's, um, very French.
One of the things I loved (and she hated) was that it was impossible to say for sure where the dream began and reality ended. To me that seems to say that everything, all of life is a dream, or maybe it says that dreams have power over the real world, or maybe it's not trying to say anything at all. I don't know I loved the concept. Top that off with a simplicity of storytelling with beautiful costumes and lots of quiet moments, and you have a rather awesome movie. Unless you're like my sister, in which case you'd think it was a boring, unreadable movie. I leave you to decide.
2. The Woman in Black (2012)
I loved the entire tone of this creepy, haunting ghost story. Daniele Radcliff does a great job playing a lawyer, who is haunted by the loss of his wife, as well as by the strange events that happen when he visits a small town with a dark past. I love seeing supernatural movies set in older eras like this, and I absolutely love the strange house that sits in the middle of an island in the marsh, which is inaccessible when the tide is high. I would love to go stay in that house. The only thing about this movie is that the ending is a bit weird and abrupt (it didn't help that someone told me the end ahead of time), but it didn't bother me much, as I really did enjoy the rest of the movie.
3. 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
Caught this on TV. Lots of fast cars and barely dressed girls without much of a coherent plot. Also, it didn't have Vin Diesel, who really brought a lot of fun to the first one. Entertaining enough, I suppose, but *shrug*.
4. Kari-gurashi no Arietti (The Secret World of Arietty) (Japanese, English-dubbed, 2012)
Another sweet, fantastical movie about friendship and bravery from Studio Ghibli, based on The Borrowers, by Mary Norton. The animation was gorgeous, as always, and the voice actors were wonderful. Funny and fun and a wonderful movie.
5. War Horse (2011)
6. Moneyball (2011)
7. The Tree of Life (2011)
8. The Descendants (2011)
Reviews for the above four can be found here.
9. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)
10. The Artist (2011)
11. Midnight in Paris (2011)
Reviews for the above four can be found here.
2. The Woman in Black (2012)
3. 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
4. Kari-gurashi no Arietti (The Secret World of Arietty) (Japanese, English-dubbed, 2012)
5. War Horse (2011)
6. Moneyball (2011)
7. The Tree of Life (2011)
8. The Descendants (2011)
9. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)
10. The Artist (2011)
11. Midnight in Paris (2011)
REVIEWS:
1. La belle endormie (The Sleeping Beauty) (French, English subtitles, 2010)
Because of a curse, a young girl is forced to sleep for a hundred years. The movie follows the girl's dream journey of the girl, and even includes a reference to the Snow Queen fairytale. I kinda loved this strange surreal retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairytale, though my sister kinda hated it. It's, um, very French.
One of the things I loved (and she hated) was that it was impossible to say for sure where the dream began and reality ended. To me that seems to say that everything, all of life is a dream, or maybe it says that dreams have power over the real world, or maybe it's not trying to say anything at all. I don't know I loved the concept. Top that off with a simplicity of storytelling with beautiful costumes and lots of quiet moments, and you have a rather awesome movie. Unless you're like my sister, in which case you'd think it was a boring, unreadable movie. I leave you to decide.
2. The Woman in Black (2012)
I loved the entire tone of this creepy, haunting ghost story. Daniele Radcliff does a great job playing a lawyer, who is haunted by the loss of his wife, as well as by the strange events that happen when he visits a small town with a dark past. I love seeing supernatural movies set in older eras like this, and I absolutely love the strange house that sits in the middle of an island in the marsh, which is inaccessible when the tide is high. I would love to go stay in that house. The only thing about this movie is that the ending is a bit weird and abrupt (it didn't help that someone told me the end ahead of time), but it didn't bother me much, as I really did enjoy the rest of the movie.
3. 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
Caught this on TV. Lots of fast cars and barely dressed girls without much of a coherent plot. Also, it didn't have Vin Diesel, who really brought a lot of fun to the first one. Entertaining enough, I suppose, but *shrug*.
4. Kari-gurashi no Arietti (The Secret World of Arietty) (Japanese, English-dubbed, 2012)
Another sweet, fantastical movie about friendship and bravery from Studio Ghibli, based on The Borrowers, by Mary Norton. The animation was gorgeous, as always, and the voice actors were wonderful. Funny and fun and a wonderful movie.
5. War Horse (2011)
6. Moneyball (2011)
7. The Tree of Life (2011)
8. The Descendants (2011)
Reviews for the above four can be found here.
9. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)
10. The Artist (2011)
11. Midnight in Paris (2011)
Reviews for the above four can be found here.