While She Was Out, 2008

While She Was Out, 2008
Director: Susan Montford
Cast: Kim Basinger, Lukas Haas, Craig Sheffer



Stage: Home theatre, late TV selection on a Sunday evening

While she was out in short: Della Myers is an overwhelmed upper-middle-class housewife who lives in a large house in the suburbs with her twin children and her abusive husband, Kenneth. Kenneth lets Della know that he thinks she gives all her attention to the twins and neglects her house and her appearance. Late on Christmas Eve, Della drives to the local mall to buy gift-wrap. While searching for a parking space in the jam-packed lot, Della notices an old car taking up two spaces. Frustrated and annoyed, she decides to leave a paper message on the windshield of the old car, writing, "Hey, 'Jack'. How selfish can you be?" After the mall closes, Della's car is hold by the driver of the old car and she is threatened by four punks -- Chuckie, Huey, Vingh, and Tomás. When the security guard of the mall attempts to protect Della, he is shot and killed by Chuckie. Della tries to escape from the criminals in her truck, but the gang chases her...



Preps: Well, I see Basinger in the main window and I am curious. Haven't seen her in ages, so I need to do this again. I loved her in some elder romantic dramas or comedies like My stepmother is an alien. But who knows, what happens to the actors in decades. Let's find out.



Reality: Woooow, nothing good happens to the characters. Basinger definitely doesn't fit into the victim role, she isn't persuasive even to at least keep the level of my interest. Whatever she does in this role of a hurt wife that loses her mind, is plain stupid. Stupid character or stupidity of a nation? Or maybe leftovers in family affairs.. or similar wifes - hmm, I cannot make up my mind. Well, it's a tragedy, this movie, not by the genre, but by execution. I don't suppose I have anything really positive about it to say. The stage feels plastic, the dialogues are not really thought through. A lot of small mistakes you see in second rate movies. Different clothes being worn in same scenes, stage mixture so it is obvious it was filmed in a studio and not on site, different variations of the story make it stupid to look at,.. well, a whole bunch of stuff that annoys my eyes and would most definitely most of the viewers. Looks like noone had a second view of the movie once it was ended. Some ironic scenes lighten up the stage, but that's it. How about some sense before screening the next time, eh?

Nevertheless, the pressure, deriving from home affairs and anger, loss, abuse in family - those are real topics that I thought about while watching this stupid excuse for a movie. As a strong topic, it could be covered with a good movie. And there are several great pieces covering the topic of family affairs or dealing with pressure. Falling down is for instance one of them. Or maybe You will meet a tall dark stranger (just the one I saw last month). There are rules to be submerged to, when entering a family. We could call them also a family game with set of rules. If you don't follow, you will be struck eventually. And maybe lose your mind. Neglecting something that really bothers you or standing behind the scenes and hating your life - well, normalwise it can last for a while, but what happens after the curtain is up?



My personal rating: 3,0 (amusing up to a point, then plain stupidity runs all over me. Of the characters, of course. Save your time :)


While She Was Out on IMDB

Rango, 2011

Rango, 2011
Director: Gore Verbinski
Cast (voices): Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Timothy Olyphant


Stage: Local colloseum, row 7, late screening


Rango in short: Rango is an ordinary chameleon who accidentally winds up in the town of Dirt, a lawless outpost in the Wild West in desperate need of a new sheriff.


Preps: The newest hottest thing in our local cinemas. The kids going crazy about this. I don't know much about it, still waiting for a cartoon to catch my mind completely like How to train your dragon. Will this be it?



Reality: Well, first you take a bowl. And think about cool movies with Johnny Depp. Or cool cult movies, like Pulp Fiction. And some magic from Harry Potter. Stick it all in, mix it up and shake it, not stirr :)

Result - voila - Rango. Definitely an animated adult movie. Not much children can really take from this, but a whole wide range of stuff for the adults. OK, we have the fight between good and bad. But, to really phylosophically ask yourself, who you are and who you can become - pretty adult stuff to my knowledge. And furthermore, you get to see the remorsement period of a young chameleon, when he needs to buy his way out of his lies. It's pretty realistic, considering the facts you have stated in this movie. If you need to stand out, a way with rebuilding your image (or lying about it), could do the trick. Until the people realize it's all been a joke. And you are then mocked like you have never been before. One of the craziest and greatest ideas of the movie is definitely to stand and face the enemy (or a rival), no matter his size and no matter his backup. And in this glory there's a good chance you will get lucky and win. Apart from that, chasing the wrong thief seems to be the hot red line in the movie. Quite normal for our everyday life, I believe that many people could relate to this very much. Or chasing the wrong impression, the wrong thing (in this case, an empty bottle of what it was supposed to be water).

A substory in capitalism, bringing all the good of the world to more developed parties (Vegas, in this sense), on the account of poor and unimportant others, that cannot influence the decision of money stakeholders (mayor in this example). Lots of goodies for my brains to think about. Luckily I am not a child anymore, not in the thinking part, anyway. Children wouldn't find all these treasures in this piece.

It is packed in good music, good script and great performance. I can almost see Depp in the Pirates and I can smell Travolta in the Pulp Fiction. The snake and 3D movement, reminds me of Harry Potter. The characters remind me of old Disney stuff I was crazy about.

All in all it's a good piece, a good soup came out of this bowl. I think it could be considered as the animated version of the Pirates of Carribbean. In some sense, it really is. Depp really got his soul buried in this and makes an excellent dinner to dwell upon.


My personal rating: 7,5 (only because I think the piece could be more original. You will spend a lot of time thinking hmmmm, where have I seen this before? :) But a strong recommendation. One of better ones lately. And for sure it will rise the chameleon sales worldwide. As it did for the Ratatouille movie - with the rats)



Rango on IMDB

You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger

You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger, 2010
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin


Stage: Home theatre


Tall Dark Stranger in short: Follows a pair of married couples, Alfie (Hopkins) and Helena (Jones), and their daughter Sally (Watts) and husband Roy (Brolin), as their passions, ambitions, and anxieties lead them into trouble and out of their minds. After Alfie leaves Helena to pursue his lost youth and a free-spirited call girl named Charmaine (Punch), Helena abandons rationality and surrenders her life to the loopy advice of a charlatan fortune teller. Unhappy in her marriage, Sally develops a crush on her handsome art gallery owner boss, Greg (Banderas), while Roy, a novelist nervously awaiting the response to his latest manuscript, becomes moonstruck over Dia (Pinto), a mystery woman who catches his gaze through a nearby window.


Preps: Hmmmm, amazing cast. And Woody Allen. Enough reasons for me to see it. Allen for sure. But don't know anything about it and I feel I don't need to :)



Reality: The title makes an ironic statement that is pursued throughout the movie. Showing the reality as it is, not ironed and stashed into some fancy cover paper or pictured as it is supposed to be.. no, this movie really shows the way things can ironically change. Narrator here plays an excellent role, as always in one of Allen's masterpieces. Was surprised, though, not seeing him side by side with the breathtaking cast. Watts and Brolin have the lead character role, that is played with and over and over torn apart - in every aspect of the relationship you can imagine. Passing through past and present in a way to show the viewer the roses from the start and the vinegar at the end of the relationship.. like maturing the flowers, the nourishment and obtaining all relationships in the movie seems a desperate deed. They all flee to the inevitable end. Consisted because of greed (the relationship between the father and the prostitute), doomed to fail. Abandoning your dreams.. leading to desperation and afterall, the end.
The mother, staying at the friend that nurtures her wildest imagination with future visions, taking money for telling her things she wanted to hear - well, that's pure life - so many people do it and so many more are addicted to this. You can get pretty emotional, watching the piece, as it will drive into your brain cells and stream through your veins. I wonder all the time about the things that happen. Stealing your "supposeably" dead friend's work just to make a breakthrough (and yes, irony again), when you find out he's not dead at all and that at some point you will be exposed to public humiliation because you stole the work (or wanted a better life you thought you deserved) - this story in perticular, goes deeply in the egocentrism of a man. Trying your whole life to make a breakthrough and to make it with someone else's work, because yours isn't good enough - this just makes up for the tragedy really happening here. And trying to get another chance with a man that seeks other human beings for the sake of not being left alone.. well, the tragic moments deepen with each moment of this movie.

A splendid artwork of Woody Allen, indeed. Showing real situations, real things that can happen to each individual. Very humorous and very tragical in the same moment. And a brilliant cast. Not a moment lost watching this movie. A strong recommendation.


My personal rating: 9,0 (again, a superb piece from Allen. Pure reality and irony. In its best and its vividness - not the way we like it, because it strikes you too real. But just because it's really real.



The stranger on IMDB
You will meet a tall dark stranger official sites