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Oscar Review programming will resume shortly. I've been very busy with school lately so I haven't had as much time to write. However I have had time to check out this incredible post-apocalyptic short from Denmark http://www.ov43.com/ It tells the story of two people living in a ruined world breathing from the same oxygen tank. It's only about six and a half minutes long so go check it out!

127 Hours

Based on a true story. That's a theme at the Oscars this year. Four of the ten best picture nominees, including both of the front runners and one of the two spoilers are based on a true story. The front runners are, of course, The King's Speech and The Social Network. The spoiler that I referred to is The Fighter. Finally we come to the fourth "Based on a True Story" film. 127 hours. If The Social Network was "the movie about Facebook", then 127 Hours was "the movie about the guy who cuts his arm off". You know going into the movie how it will end. How, you might ask, can any director tell an interesting story set mainly in one location when the pivotal ending is common knowledge? Like this.

True Grit

          Last night I finally got out to my local small town theater to see a movie. The last movie I saw in theaters was Megamind, back in October. Most of the movies I watch are watched on my computer, or on the smaller laptop. Even when I watch a dvd on my television it's still underwhelming because of my relatively small t.v screen. So it's good to get out and experience the majesty of the movie theater. It really is an experience that can't be equalled, not even by huge home theater systems and surround sound and whatever else. There is something magical about going to the movies. I love it. I love sitting in the dark with a bunch of strangers. I especially love sitting through the coming attractions trailers. Not necessarily because of the trailers themselves, I've usually seen them already. But usually because in my theater there's no guarantee that any particular film will ever come to our town. However last night heralded the arrival of two films I'm interested in, Tron Legacy and Sanctum. Finally, I love the experience of waiting for a few days to see a movie, getting excited and then finally arriving and seeing it on the huge screen with surround sound, seeing the movie the way it was meant to be seen. Last night, that movie was True Grit.
   

Inception

                 So, update on my quest to actually know what I'm talking about when I make posts about the Oscars. So far I have seen seven of the ten films nominated for best picture. All that remains are True Grit, The Kid's are All Right, and...sigh... The King's Speech. I only haven't seen True Grit yet because I'm planning to see it with friends on Monday or Tuesday. The King's Speech is a film I've been avoiding for all the reasons I've detailed in various other posts, and I just watched the trailer for The Kids Are All Right and it looks like the kind of movie I have less than no interest in watching. However in the interest of being fair I will go and watch every movie nominated for best picture, as well as the films that have actors and actresses nominated for those relevant awards. So let's get this show on the road. This review is for one of my favorite movies this year, Christopher Nolan's Inception.

Fallout Fan Film, Fantastic!

You see what I did there? All the words in the title start with F. Anyway, Check out this great fan film based on the video game series fallout. For anyone unaware, Fallout is an RPG set in a wasteland after a nuclear war. I'm impressed with how great this looks. All the scenary and costumes are note perfect. Like most fan-films the acting is a little iffy, and it's a little on the sillier side, but all in all this is a great piece of film-making.



P.S. I will also be posting this on my other blog, Reality in a box http://www.alexinabox.blogspot.com/. On that blog I post all kinds of non-film related stuff about my other interests like music and gaming. Go check it out!

Ten Movies I'm pumped for in 2011!

I think the title says it all. Here we go:

#10 - Sherlock Holmes 2

Normally, the problem with sequals is that their story fails to live up to the story of the original. Luckily for Sherlock Holmes, living up to the original story shouldn't be a problem. The two problems with the first Sherlock were the slightly boring story and the honestly unthreatening boring villain. With Proffesor Moriarty coming into play the villain part is already solved, so all they need to do to make this a perfect sequel is a good story that will give the characters a bit more to do than be witty at each other. (Though in the last film, the characters alone were enough for me to leave the theater impressed.)

Top 5 New Movies I saw this year

I saw a lot of movies this year. However, most of them were old movies. I hardly saw any movies in theaters, and honestly, that's pretty normal. My theater only has two screens, and doesn't usually get movies until well after they debut in big cities. I first saw four of the five movies on this list on dvd, only one was seen in a theater. Unfortunately I haven't seen most of the big Oscar contender dramas this year, so they aren't on the list. But anyway, here we go:

Off of Hiatus.

Back again, this time for real. Finishing this semester soon so I'll have more free time, totally pumped to go out and watch more movies. There are going to be two new lists today, and I'm going to be posting loads of stuff. Lots to do!

Ghostbusters (1984)

Don't you just love how awful 80's trailers are? I mean, if this trailer was all I had to go on, I probably wouldn't have been incredibly interested in this movie. But, because I was lucky enough to be born well after the movies release date, I had the benefit of hindsight, and all the powers of pop culture on my side to tell me that Ghostbusters was awesome long before I saw the movie. But, in case you live under a rock in northern Ontario, let me tell you exactly how awesome Ghostbusters is.

Who Ya Gonna Call?

So, my first 'official' Thursday review may be a little late. Here's a poem I wrote to tide you over.

If there's something strange

And it don't look good

Who Ya Gonna Call?

Ghostbusters!

Alex Thor

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

From Dusk Till Dawn stars Quentin Tarantino as an actor. That’s interesting because in a movie that starts out with two bank robbers trying to reach Mexico while threatening and killing massive numbers of people and throwing out lines of memorable dialogue almost as often as they throw off lead rounds of death, you’d think Tarantino must be directing. At least, you would until the vampires show up.

Matrix Overload

Anyone who's read my review of The Matrix knows that I think it's a pretty awesome sci-fi/post apocalyptic/martial arts piece. However, even I have to confess there are some small problems with the plot, just like in most sci-fi movies. However Peter B. Lloyd has written a massive piece on the subject, pointing out many supposed plot 'errors' and then exposing them as in fact, just larger parts of the genius of the matrix. A lot of the errors are things that make perfect sense to me, like "how can a socket in your head control your senses? How can it be inserted without killing you?" I mean, something like that is sci-fi standard. If you feel the need to ask that question, then you probably shouldn't be watching this movie. Even so, the answers are very well researched and make you think so go check it out!

http://www.kurzweilai.net/glitches-in-the-matrix-and-how-to-fix-them

Why From Dusk till Dawn is officialy the new BEST MOVIE EVER

So I just watched From Dusk till Dawn. It was awesome. I'll review it eventually but for now all I need to show you is this one scene.




Yah that just happened.

Alex Thor

Intro to the Universe

Welcome. This is the official homepage of awesome. This page is where I talk about my adventures in the world of film, both as a lover of film and a critic, but also as an amatuer film-maker, and the experiences that entails. This page is going to be a place where I bring out my opinions on famous stuff, expose some lesser known stuff, talk about and discuss the crazy thoughts that float through my head, and blow some minds. Right now is early days but I'm going to mention some of my personal inspirations and favorites throughout the coming days. I may also let my friends use this space to talk about what they think of certain movies, or how much they hate me as a person.
What I want to emphasis is that for me, this is a journey. There's a whole world of awesome stuff out there that I haven't experienced yet, and this is a place to share my thoughts on it. I can't tell you if you'll like something, but I can tell you if I like it in an amusing and interesting way.

Oh and just btw.... (warning, lots of profanity, so if you don't want anyone to hear the word motherfucker at high volume turn your speakers down.)



One of the Greatest film scenes .....OFALLTIME.

Alex Thor