Genre: Suspense, Thriller Director: Darren Aronofsky Stars: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel The moment she broke her toe nail, it was on. Directed by Darren Aronofsky (the same man who gave us The Wrestler and Requiem for a Dream), Black Swan is a passionate, tension-filled suspense drama about a ballerina named Nina (Natalie Portman) who is chosen to play the much coveted lead in New York Ballet Company’s production, Swan Lake. The role calls for not just a perfect portrayal of the innocent White Swan, but also the much more difficult Black Swan. Although Nina performs the White Swan…
Tagged movie review
Movie Review: Miss You Like Crazy (2010)
Genre: Romance, Drama Director: Cathy Garcia-Molina Stars: John Lloyd Cruz, Bea Alonzo When I first heard that John Lloyd Cruz and Bea Alonzo would be doing a movie together after three years, my first reaction was “How in the world are they gonna top One More Chance?!” Not that One More Chance is a perfect film. But it was perfect for John Lloyd and Bea. It was one of the best mainstream Pinoy romantic drama movies I’d seen in recent times — well-acted, well-directed, well-shot, mature and surprisingly solid. That said, Miss You Like Crazy is bound to be compared…
Movie Review: ‘The Hangover’ and the Headache That Didn’t Come With It
Last Thursday, Globe and Warner Bros Pictures invited me to the special screening of “The Hangover” at Greenbelt 3 in Makati City. The people were friendly. The cocktails were fantastic. The movie was entertaining. Entertaining. Hmmm. A good friend asked me if “entertaining” was enough for me to actually like a film. I answered him with a confident “of course.” “Sometimes,” I told him, “I just want to see a movie to be entertained. I have a habit of checking my Film graduate self at the theater door before watching. I don’t expect to be bothered or hope that the…
Movie Rundown: The Dark Night (And Other Batman Movies)
Note: I was supposed to write a full-blown genre criticism of The Dark Knight but I figured writing something too Film-graduate-ish is uncalled for. So here are some random thoughts about it and the other Batman movies. For what it’s worth, I saw the following movies again recently. You know, just to refresh my memory. The Dark Knight (2008) Genre: Action, Thriller; Director: Christopher Nolan Stars: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Freeman One of the things I hate the most is too much hype. This unsolicited noise has always spoiled fine movies…
My Top 50 All-Time Favorite Films (Part 7)
So we’ve come to the end of the road. After almost a year of counting down my 50 all-time favorite films, we have now reached the end. If you missed the first 49, here’s help: Top 50-41, 40-31, 30-21, 20-11, 10-4, 3-2. And now, ladies and gentlemen, I give you my #1 favorite film of…
My Top 50 All-Time Favorite Films (Part 2)*
A’right. I think it’s time to go back to my countdown of my most-adored movies. If you missed the first set (50-41), click here. Anyway, I have to remind you again that this is not a list of the greatest films in history but my favorites. This list is very personal. And of course, my…
My Top 50 All-Time Favorite Films (Part 1)*
Status: Tweetums, ehehehe Music: Always Come Back to Your Love – Samantha Mumba The American Film Institute has just released an updated version of their 100 Greatest American Movies list. And Ayn has just completed her Top 70 Favorite Films. So I guess it’s my turn to publish my own list — my Top 50 All-Time Fave Films. Hmmm. Why Top 50? I don’t know. It was originally 40. Then changed it to 44 to give slots to a few films I had forgotten about. And now it’s 50 because I broke some of the tie-ups — you know, multiple…