Kick-Ass

In my opinion this is a kind of film that you can love or you can directly hate. There is not a middle point. This movie is sometimes comedy, sometimes surrealistic and sometimes even drama, but all immerse in a frenetic rhythm full of jokes and hyper-violence. This is the story of a geek (Aaron Johnson) that decides to be a superhero called Kick-Ass that shows some brilliant points during the film. But the best part is the performance made by Nicholas Cage (Big Daddy), because it was the first time that this actor made me laugh… and of course the performance of the little girl Chloë Moretz (Hit Girl) who was absolutely incredible. I think she is the soul of this movie.

Several moments of some of the actors during the movie, trying to be pathetic superheroes, are brilliantly mixed with amazing real action sequences absolutely typical of the classic superhero films and almost worthy of the best Sam Raimi. The expression for me to describe this film is: this movie is ridiculously entertaining, a kind of mix between “Watch men” and “American pie” but very well done to enjoy a fun night of cinema. I recommend it.

My score: 8 (out of 10)

Two lovers

This is a very interesting film that was a surprise for me. I saw the James Gray movie “We Own The Night” three years ago, and I really liked it, but this time this director entered in the field of the love relationships with a wisdom absolutely amazing. Maybe this is the best character that Joaquin Phoenix has ever played, in a bipolar role very well done. Gwyneth Paltrow works also very very well with a praiseworthy maturity. The director shows a wet, cold and solitary NY that could be also an important part of the movie like an extra character. The script is very good… and the looks, sad, happy, disappointing or quiet, that you can see during the full movie are a vital component of the film. I’ll follow the future work of this guy, James Gray. I think most of people could feel that some of the moment or the situation showed in the film could fit with some moment lived along their lives. Very recommendable film.

My score: 9 (out of 10)

Robin Hood

I saw this film expecting to see a spectacular version of this classic and legendary hero, hoping the great Ridley Scott could make a new “Gladiator”, but this time the result is not so good. You can’t see anything new that you didn’t see before in the old versions of Robin. But anyway, the movie is a good adventure film and the medieval scenery is very well done. Although I felt that Russell Crowe has the automatic pilot during the full projection, repeating most of the points of the “Gladiator” film. However Cate Blanchett made a good role as a classic and harsh and long-suffering Lady Marian. The rest of the characters are quite typical and topical, but I suppose it’s not easy to do anything new with this story that was filmed a lot of times along the history. So, I continue liking much more the Errol Flynn version of 1938 and of course the Sean Connery’s film of 1976 with Audrey Hepburn.

Well, if you want enjoy a good evening of popcorn and coke, and live a classic adventure, you can go to see it. It’s a good product but it’s really far away of the best works of the master Scott.

My score: 6 (out of 10)

Fish Tank

I read some good reviews about this film. It has some nominations for the European cinema awards and it won the Bafta award to the best film last year 2009. The director Andrea Arnold made a brilliant work showing some points about the real life, and filming a kind of social cinema quite similar to the work of Ken Loach.

The film takes place in the suburbs of London and it shows a lot of very interesting things like, for example, the life of a worker family, the lack of communication and the respect, the facing up to deception, and specially the contradictions of the adolescence or the looking for a place in the world. The young actress Katie Jarvis is a real hurricane and her work is amazing. She supports the 80% of the movie and the result is very good. One of the other actors, Michael Fassbender, appears making also a great work in the movie.

For me, this is the best film of this week. Without a doubt I’ll follow the career of this director. Brilliant movie.

My score: 9 (out of 10)

Iron Man 2

Two years ago I enjoyed the first film of this new saga. The action and the story were good, and I went excited to see this new episode. Well the movie is a decent second part, but effectively… it is a second part, and not more.

Anyway the film is quite good, with a pretty solid story. Robert Downey Jr makes a fun role as the very boastful millionaire Tony Stark, and Mickey Rourke works very well being the bad boy this time although I begin to be tired to see him always so dirty and scruffy in his last movies. The rest of characters are okay, especially Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow.

The special effects are great and you can enjoy explosions, spectacular pursuits, big and very bad robots, evil guys, voluptuous girls and some winks to the future “The Avengers” movie. So it’s a good entertainment product, a good film to enjoy an evening with pop corn and coke.

My score: 7 (out of 10)

Clash of the Titans

I went to see this movie hoping to find a good example of combination of old stories with new technologies, but the result is absolutely disappointing, specially because the film has a cast with several very good actors (like Lian Neeson, Ralph Fiennes or even the promising Sam Worthington).
The classic story about Perseus and Medusa has been changed in a lot of things. So the film seems only a B movie, and not a good film to see in a big theater and to pay the price of the ticket. But the worst part is this movie has the most dreadful 3D effects I have ever seen. It was like a pathetic paper cutout screened in front of your polarized 3D glasses. If "Avatar" is "the day" about 3D technology, this unfortunate film is "the night". You can see perfectly they originally made the movie in 2D and when they saw the success of other new films, they decided to digitalize and to polygonize the sequences to give them volume, and rendering them to try to convert the movie to 3D. But I'm sure they used only two or three stagiaires working a few days to do it, because the result is awful. So I do not recommend spending money to see it. There are better options to do it.

My score: 4 (out of 10)

An education

This is an interesting story that takes you to the London of the Sixties. It has a nice British touch and it’s really a story with moral at the end that transmits the importance of a good education in the real life; very interesting to show to your “nephews”, if you have.

The performance of the first actress Carey Mulligan is brilliant, especially because she is very young and almost a beginner, but she supports almost the full film. She looks lovely and very realist. And her father in the movie, Alfred Molina, makes also a great work, in particular when he speaks with her daughter.

The atmosphere of the sixties is amazing, very well done, both London and Paris, and you can even feel in some characters some details that you can see in classic movies like “La dolce vita” by Fellini. It is the first work in England of the Dogma director Lone Scherfig, the author of “Italian for Beginners” and the result is great.

My score: 8 (out of 10)

The Hurt Locker

I saw this film a few days ago and I enjoyed the entire movie from the first minute until the end. The director Kathryn Bigelow made an awesome work because she shows a very good story but with a format almost like a documentary most of the time. The cast work is fantastic and you can feel the tension in every operation of the specialist soldiers to try to deactivate the terrorist bombs. It’s a great movie about the Iraq war without any political interpretation: only the war and the day by day of the soldiers, like other classical war movies, like Apocalypse now or Full metal jacket.

I agree with the Academy. Without a doubt it is the best film of this year.

My score: 9 (out of 10)

Up in the Air

This is a film that makes you think about life carefully... about the professional life and about personal life. It incites you to think about maturity, about work and its importance in our life, about the disappointment (personal and professional), about the loneliness (sometimes chosen), about the track to be on (the right or the wrong one), about the election of a right person to share life... about lots of things. The dialogs are great and the cast as well. Clooney works here very well and the young and fresh Anna Kendrick matches up to him and to Vera Farmiga. Good movie to converse in front of a coffee or a glass of wine, after the movie.

My score: 9 (out of 10)

Shutter Island

This is a new collaboration between the fantastic Scorsese and DiCaprio after "The Departed" and "The Aviator". This time they made a very good thriller with a brilliant atmosphere of the fifties. The story full of tension plays very well among the reality and the images of possible madness, and you enter in the story very comfortably, although the final result is strange... when the movie finished I had the idea that it was an "already saw" film. Anyway, the performance of DiCaprio is awesome (as usual lately), and the appearance of actors like the genius Ben Kingsley or the big Max von Sydow fills the movie. I liked it.

My score: 8 (out of 10)

Looking for Eric

Nice movie by Ken Loach. The story about a depressed English postman, his friends and an imaginary Eric Cantona as his particular psychologist, is touching. Well, you can feel that Cantona was one of the writers because the story praises him too much (he looked like a kind of semi-god of football) but I entered in the story and I liked it. A comedy, with some dramatic details.

My score: 7 (out of 10)

Sherlock Holmes

A really fun movie by the great Guy Ritchie, very different from his last fantastic "RocknRolla", but cool. I loved to see a very yob and uncouth Sherlock Holmes that shows some interesting and dirty details that really appeared in the original stories by Conan Doyle. The relationship between Holmes and Watson has some interesting details, the environment of the XIX century is very well done... and it's really delicious to see that awesome Victorian London so fantastically recreated. Simply amazing! So it's a "classic" but different and full of action and comedy. I really enjoyed the film.

My score: 8 (out of 10)

A Serious Man

This is not the best film of the Cohens, but anyway it's a very interesting story, mixing comedy and drama, that pays tribute to themselves and have some autobiographical touches, because it shows a life of a Jewish family during the sixties. The story leaves some loose ends but the full story is great and the cast (full of almost unknown actors) made a really good work. It's an honest and very recommendable film.

My score: 9 (out of 10)

Avatar

This is a cool movie that let you enjoy lots of very well done 3D fx. Cameron took advantage of this technology to make a good show. The CGI characters for the Na'vi are great... It's the first time that I see so good and expressive gestures in faces made by computer. The only "fault" for this movie is that the story is quite simple and not new at all (I'm not talking about the brilliant new planet and its ecosystem and environment). I mean, really this is a mix between "Dances with Wolves", "Pocahontas" and "Star Trek" although very well filmed. So i felt a kind of "déjà-vu", but anyway, the movie is great.

My score: 8 (out of 10)

Number 9 (Nine)

I was waiting for a long to see this movie since I saw the original short film made by the same director Shane Acker in 2005, and although the film is not as good as I hoped, the result it's pretty interesting. It's a cool experiment about the "stitch-punk" that I really loved and you can feel that Tim Burton (who is the producer) is behind it. The technical animation is good, the story is slightly simple and a little bit prudish sometimes, but I enjoyed.

My score: 8 (out of 10)

Cell 211 (Celda 211)

Without a doubt this is one of the best thrillers that I saw last year. The story is good, the tension is good, the performance is good... Really, except a little detail almost all the movie is very good.... Summarizing... it's a brilliant movie and a good example to show to some of the whining people of the Spanish cinema that having good ideas and creativity let you make good movies and compete without spending a lot of money!

My score: 9 (out of 10)

Planet 51

This is a cool bet on the computer animation that the Spanish cinema business made. The result is funny and the graphical quality is absolutely impeccable. The animators made a brilliant work and you can feel that they hired the original writer of Shrek to make the script. This film is perfect to take your nephews (if you need these kind of excuses to see it ;)

My score: 8 (out of 10)