Interesting Blogs

Friday, November 16, 2007

50 First Dates

50 First Dates - Comedy

Happy Gilmore

Happy Gilmore - Comedy

The Road to El Dorado

The Road to El Dorado - Animation

The Road to El Dorado is a kind of stuff that needs to be experienced rather than explained. But still if I give it a try.

The movie begins in 16th century (1519) Catalonia (where Spain and France meet) and tells about two men named Tulio and Miguel. During a dice game using loaded dice, they win a map that purportedly shows the location of the legendary city of gold in the New World. However, their cheating is soon discovered and as a result, they end up as stowaways on Hernán Cortés' fleet to conquer Mexico. They are discovered, but manage to escape in a boat with Cortés' prize war horse and eventually discover the hidden city of El Dorado where they are mistaken for gods.

The movie is full of sarcasm and witty hilarious incidents. One thing leads to another and you'll soon find yourself totally lot in the movie. Miguel and Tulio are the lifelong friends with very different personalities. We first meet them gambling riches for a map to El Dorado, the secret city of Gold. They win through creating. Therefore Tulio and Miguel devise an improvised escape leading them to hiding in barrels boarding a ship. When the captain discovers the stowaways he is not happy-but at nightfall the friends escape from captivity once again. This is when they become accustomed to their new friend, a horse. As the three pondering souls drift about the massive sea, they begin to lose hope. Just when everything seems hopeless, however, Tulio and Miguel hit the shore, which just so happens to be the island inheriting the road to El Dorado.

"Road To El Dorado" certainly has an action packed, fast paced opening, which works well. We do lose character development, however. The filmmakers obviously presume audiences will relate to Tulio and Miguel through assumptions of lifestyles and cultures. The main characters are believable, colorful, and provoke some interesting and funny moments.

Miguel and Tulio stumble upon the city of gold after meeting a seductive and mysterious young woman named Chel. At El Dorado, the two drifters are mistaken for all powerful gods by the town's sadistic sorcerer, Tzekel-Kan, who convinces the high Chief they are truly miraculous immortals. Miguel and Tulio dream of riches, so play along with the city's hypothesis. With money on their mind and danger lurking beneath every motive, Tulio and Miguel must figure out a way to inherit the riches before the townspeople discover their real identity.

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron - Animation

Spirit is a unique and original look at western life from the point of view of a wild horse, and native Americans. The film focuses on the friendships and perils that a wild horse, Spirit, encounters during his life.

Very well done in the presentation, using the technology available today to deliver stunning visuals that are breathtaking in their depth and realism. The music is fantastic, with songs by Bryan Adams, and music by Hans Zimmer, who also was responsible for the extremely popular music from the 1994 Disney hit, The Lion King. he story is not very deep but the fact that it isn't quite as in-depth as some movies doesn't in my opinion detract from the film as a whole.

The movie has three selling points for people who are appalled at how childish and inane animated features in the U.S. have been over the last decade or so:

1) It's got a serious story. 2) The horses don't talk. 3) The horses don't sing.

The latter two functions are served by Spirit's first-person narration, voiced by Matt Damon and told in the past tense as a reminiscence, and several songs on the soundtrack written and performed by Bryan Adams. Neither of these elements were particularly necessary and the movie would have been better without them, although they aren't fatal. Hans Zimmer's excellent music score does a far more effective job in conveying, in dramatic and emotional terms, what the songs belabor. But, thankfully, aside from Damon, there are no other celebrity voices.

The other big selling point is the artwork. The background art and western landscapes are stunning and offer a mix of painted scenes and computer-created scenery, although everything seems computer enhanced in one way or another. Most importantly, the film gives us a chance to savor the backgrounds. The characters don't zip around in constant frenetic motion the way they do in Disney movies. Although there are several chase scenes, the characters are just as likely to pause and connect with each other in movements reflecting naturalistic behavior. There are moments of gentleness, tenderness, curiosity, and discovery, so we get to see the space the characters are in and get to connect with it ourselves. There's a real palpable sense of environment and geography, of time and place, something rarely found in American animated features.

The character design is also well-done. The human characters all have solid, expressive, recognizable faces, strongly differentiated from each other. The horses are well designed also, looking like horses, but anthropomorphised enough to give them recognizable emotional responses. No character, human or animal, is exaggerated for cartoon effect.

The Music is superb and I love the track "Here I am by Bryan Adams"

Ratatouille

Ratatouille - Animation

Rémy (Patton Oswalt) lives in a rat colony in the attic of a French country home with his brother Émile (Peter Sohn) and father Django (Brian Dennehy). Inspired by France's recently deceased top chef, Auguste Gusteau (Brad Garrett), Rémy does his best to live the life of a gourmet. Not appreciating his talents, his clan puts him to work sniffing for rat poison in their food.



The rats flee the house when the resident, an old woman, discovers the colony. Rémy is separated from the others and floats in the storm drains to Paris on a cookbook written by Gusteau, following the chef's image to his namesake restaurant, now run by former sous-chef Skinner (Ian Holm). As Rémy looks into the kitchen from a skylight a young man with no culinary talent, Alfredo Linguini (Lou Romano), arrives with a letter of introduction from his recently deceased mother, and is hired to do janitorial duties. While cleaning, Linguini spills a pot of soup and attempts to cover up his mistake by adding nearby ingredients. Horrified, Rémy drops into the kitchen and attempts to fix the ruined soup rather than trying to escape. Linguini catches Rémy in the act, just as Skinner catches Linguini. In the confusion some of the soup has been served. To everyone's surprise, the soup is a success.
Rémy discovers that he can control Linguini's movements by pulling on his hair.
Rémy discovers that he can control Linguini's movements by pulling on his hair.

The kitchen's sole female cook, Colette (Janeane Garofalo), convinces Skinner not to fire Linguini, provided he can recreate the soup. Just as Skinner makes his decision, he sees Rémy trying to escape out the window and pandemonium breaks out in the kitchen. Linguini traps Rémy in a jar and Skinner orders Linguini to take Rémy away. Linguini cannot bring himself to kill Rémy. As he tells Remy about his problems, he notices that Remy seems to understand him and responds with a series of nods and other gestures. The unlikely pair begin an alliance by which Rémy (now referred to by Linguini as "Little Chef") secretly controls Linguini's cooking in return for his protection. The two perfect a marionette-like arrangement by which Rémy tugs at Linguini's hair to direct his movements while hidden under Linguini's toque blanche.

Skinner, suspicious of Linguini's success in killing Rémy, plies Linguini with vintage Château Latour in an unsuccessful attempt to discover the secret of his unexpected talents and of his knowledge of rats. The next morning, hung over and disheveled, Linguini nearly confides his secret to Colette. Desperately trying to stop Linguini, Rémy pulls his hair, making him fall on Colette and leading the two to kiss. They begin dating, leaving Rémy to feel abandoned. Meanwhile, Skinner learns from the letter of introduction that, unknown to everyone but his mother, Linguini is in fact Gusteau's son and stands to inherit the restaurant and imperil Skinner's ambition to exploit Gusteau's image to market prepared frozen foods.

One night, Rémy and his colony are reunited. While scrounging food Rémy discovers Gusteau's will, which, after a chase by Skinner, he presents to Linguini. Linguini now owns the restaurant, fires Skinner, and becomes a rising star in the culinary world. Later, Rémy and Linguini have a falling out, with Linguini deciding he no longer needs Rémy's help. Rémy retaliates by leading a kitchen raid for his rat colony. Linguini attempts to apologize to Rémy, only to discover and expel his colony. Rémy feels guilty about hurting his friend, and refuses to join them in resuming the raid.

Things come to a head the night of a planned review by food critic Anton Ego (Peter O'Toole), whose contemptuous earlier review of Gusteau's cooking reduced his five-star restaurant to four stars and eventually led to Gusteau's untimely death (which ended up dropping his restaurant's rating down to three stars). When asked what he would like for the evening, Ego challenges the staff to prepare whatever they dare serve him. Linguini, unable to cook without the rat's guidance, admits his ruse to the staff as Rémy has returned to help Linguini impress Ego, leading them all to walk out. Colette returns after thinking of Gusteau's motto, "Anyone can cook!" Django, inspired by his son's courage in continuing his dream to cook, returns with the entire rat colony to cook under Rémy's direction, while Linguini, discovering his true talent, waits tables on roller skates. Rémy decides to prepare ratatouille, a traditional dish that would not usually be considered haute cuisine, but does it so well that one bite of it leads Ego to relive childhood memories of his mother. Ego asks to meet the chef and after a frantic consultation with Colette, Linguini and Colette insist he must wait until the rest of the diners have left. At the end of the service, Rémy and the rats are revealed. A changed man, Ego writes a glowing review, declaring that the chef at Gusteau's is the greatest chef in all of France.

In the dénouement Gusteau's is closed by a health inspector, who finds the rats after being tipped off by Skinner. Ego loses his credibility and job when the public discovers he has praised a rat-infested restaurant. Everything is for the best, however; with Ego as investor and regular patron, Linguini, Colette, and Rémy open a successful new bistro called "La Ratatouille," which includes a kitchen and dining facilities for both rats and humans.

The Nanny

The Nanny - TV Show

I really liked this show and Fran Fine actually reminds me of Janice in Friends, not one of the most popular characters though. :P


The plot of the show revolved around nasal-voiced Fran Fine (Fran Drescher) from Flushing, Queens, who, fresh out of her job as a bridal consultant in her boyfriend's shop, was peddling cosmetics on the Upper East Side doorstep of a wealthy and widowed Englishman, Broadway producer Maxwell Sheffield (played by former Days of our Lives star Charles Shaughnessy). When he mistakenly believes Fran has been sent by a nanny agency, she quickly seizes the opportunity to become the nanny for his three children. But soon Fran, with her off-beat nurturing and no-nonsense honesty, touches Maxwell as well as the kids. It was a situation of blue collar meets blue blood, as Fran gave the prim-and-proper Maxwell and his children a dose of "Queens logic," helping them become a healthy, happy family.

Proudly running the Sheffield household is the butler, Niles (Daniel Davis), who watches all events with a bemused eye and levels problems with his quick wit. Niles quickly recognizes Fran's gift for bringing warmth into the family and becomes fast friends with her. He does his best to undermine Maxwell's socialite business partner, C.C. Babcock (Lauren Lane), in their ongoing game of one-upmanship. C.C. views Fran with a mixture of skepticism and jealousy, as they both have desires for the very available Mr. Sheffield.

Perpetually hovering close by were Fran's typically obsessive and food-loving "Jewish mother" Sylvia; her rarely-seen but oft-mentioned father Morty; her cigarette-addicted senile grandmother Yetta, dispensing nonsensical advice and often erroneously believing Sheffield to already be Fran's husband and his children to be hers as well, a belief she does not keep to herself; and her dim-witted best friend Val, keeping her company on her perpetual quest for a husband, and being a constant reminder that things can always get worse (as Val is much more unlucky than Fran).

Joey

Joey - TV Show

Joey was an American sitcom, starring Matt LeBlanc reprising his role as Joey Tribbiani from the popular sitcom Friends.



I was obsessed with FRIENDS. I counted down the hours until the next show would come on. I've seen every episode and own every DVD. When the last episode premiered I almost cried myself to death. When Joey came on I felt like the show was reincarnating. I had to watch it so I could keep FRIENDS in my heart. I did and it was great. I now love the show. I think Joey in LA is a great idea, and Paulo as the nerdy nephew trying to be a lad's man is brilliance. I like Gina a lot. But I think her character needs to chill out a little. You know, I love the whole-Jerk strong women but I think it needs to slow down a bit.

Many of the jokes are similar to Friends, yet these just didn't feel right. Matt LeBlanc has a unique way of acting. He has a charm that can't just be passed over. You can hardly imagine that he could be in some other way in the real life. :) His character fits him so well, that you can't just think about him as being a... let's say, serious person.

If you loved Friends you have to watch Joey.

FRIENDS

FRIENDS - TV Show

I dont think Friends needs an introduction. Its one of the best TV shows ever no doubt.

Everyone on this show is so witty and delivers their lines superbly that it's hard not to like all of them equally. However, I do have my favorite characters/actors/actresses, as I'm sure everyone who has watched the show even once or twice, to those who are avid fans of it.

We'll start from least favorite to best character/actor.

Matt Le Blanc/Joey Tribbiani:

Although some might say, because of his boyish good looks, his cute jokes that he delivers now and then (very well, mind you), and his ability to make you feel sweet and sorry for him at the same time, he is a great actor, and plays his part as Joey Tribbiani really well, he's probably my least favorite on the show. I love him, don't get me wrong, but I just appreciate everyone else's talents on the show much more.

Jennifer Aniston/Rachel Green:

Rachel Green is a fun-loving, cute little waitress, who seems to always have trouble finding Mr. Right, who is plainly right in front of her 24/7. Who is that, you ask? Well, obviously Ross Gellar. Her roommate Monica's brother. Rachel is undoubtedly most everyone's favorite character who watches this show, just not mine. Sometimes her personality can get a little annoying, and although I like her better than Joey, not very much more. But, that doesn't go without saying that I don't love her in movies. Because, well, I do.

Courtney Cox/Monica Gellar:

It's hard to put Monica Gellar so far down the list, but if I have to make room for the other three, than so be it. As much as I love her on this show, she's just not as good as she is in the 'Scream' trilogy. But, she certainly does a good job convincing you that she hates to be wrong, has to have everything her way, and is a real trooper with most all of her challenges on the show, that the writers give her.

Lisa Kudrow/Pheobe Buffey:

Now, I love Lisa Kudrow. She is definitely one of the funniest woman comedians, which is why I classify her as my favorite female on the show. She outdid herself in 'Romy And Michele's High School Reunion', but she's extraordinary on this show. She's so ingenious with her comedy which is no doubt why she's won several awards for her role on the program.

David Schwimmer/Ross Gellar:

It's so funny to me that I like him so much. He's not the best actor in my opinion, but he was really good in Kissing A Fool, and really just ok in The Pallbearer, but my second favorite on the show. He's so funny and he cracks me up with all of his facial expressions and the excellent way he delivers his lines. He is definitely my second favorite character and actor on the show.

Matthew Perry/Chandler Bing:

They should have a shrine dedicated to this man. He is so outstandingly funny in every single project that he works on! He is so hysterical and a true actor in everything that he does, it is amazing that someone can be so talented. I wish that he were given more roles than just the few comedies he's been in, including Friends. But, he is such a great character on the show, it's hard to picture the program without him. With that being said, I would also like to add that he is not only the best actor on the show, and one of my personal favorites, but I also believe that he would be such a great dramatic actor if given the chance

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friends
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108778/