The Devil's Advocate

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The Devil's Advocate is one of the films I have devoured in my Keeanu phase and liked it enough. And this second viewing left the same impression. But this time I like Charlize Theron too (the first time I saw it, no one was good enough for Keeanu). And didn't mind Pacino at all. In fact he was very good. All in all it served its purpose and kept me glued to the screen until its end. 

The Cockroaches

The Cockroaches is the second Harry Hole novel. And this time he goes to Thailand. I thought about getting it in Thailand but it was needlessly expensive. So when I saw it on sale in a Turkish book seller web site I didn't hesitate. And I liked it fine but I needn't have bothered except I feel good that I'm now in chronological order of Hole novels (something I was not able to do with John Rebus novels until the final four or something).


This time our drunk detective didn't actually start drinking at one point in the case and later quit again when the resolution came. But in the end he is seen at an opium den trying to smoke everything away (or rather see them as he wish).

What's Eating Gilbert Grape

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What's Eating Gilbert Grape is one of those films everyone saw and somehow I didn't. And this is despite loving Leonardo Di Caprio.

Ok confession time. I don't really like Lasse Halström films. I tried to and I have watched

Something To Talk About (one of the few Julia Roberts starring films that I don't care about), The Cider House Rules (never left a trace), Chocolat (ugh), and Casanova (probably my fave of the bunch).

Now here comes another confession, so far that was deeply hidden in my subconscious. I don't really care for Johnny Depp. There, I said it. I like Captain Jack Sparrow and Edward Scissorhands but that's about it. So I'm not into seeking films he starred in. And I guess I wanted to leave one film of Dicaprio to be on my "to watch" list (yes I have seen them all). And this happens to be his most acclaimed performance. And it is a great one. But the film was not really meant for me and it was yet abother Hallström film that left me with a feeling of "meh". 

Heralde Kız!

Heralde Kız! Yiğit Karaahmet severek okuduğum bir köşe yazarı. Bu kitabı da yazılarının bir derlemesi ve gayet güzel olmuş. Bazı yerlerde kahkahalar atasım geldi ve bazı yerlerde gözlerim doldu. Yazarın ellerine sağlık. Bir roman bekliyorum aslında kendisinden. 

X Men: First Class

Well, this is the last film I have to satisfy my James McAvoy kick (which is still going on to my surprise).
I liked the first time I saw it and liked it even better this second time. But this is nothing new since I think everyone liked it and for good reason.

The Last Station

The Last Station is a film I have only watched because James McAvoy is in it. And he was good as usual. The unexpected bonus was Helen Mirren and I even liked Christopher Plummer (as Leo Tolstoy). The film though was not really very good despite the great cast (there was also Paul Giamatti who hasn't dissapointed me so far).

Anyway not really recommended unless you are into James McAvoy who looked really cute with the traditional Russian costumes. 

The Conjuring

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The Conjuring was not a film I wanted to watch but it was the only horror option and I like Vera Fermiga and Patrick Wilson and also liked the first Saw (the others put me to sleep, literally)so I said why not?

And I ended up loving it. The story, the acting, the scares were all done very well and I think this one definitely deserved the good box office it had. Recommended. 

Dark Water (US Remake)

Photo Credit: http://thecia.com.au

Dark Water remake was right there in front of me so I recorded it and gave it a try. And I liked it very very much (I like the original too). The cinematography was so good with the clean style I like so much and lots of close up shots. I like the overall mood and acting and recommend this one on a rainy day. 

Filth

Filth beeped on my radar due to my recent crush on James McAvoy. And it was not a bad film at all, but I wouldn't have liked it as much if it didn't star Mr.McAvoy (who gave an excellent performance btw). It looked like they had a hard time adapting the novel and now I actually want to read the novel. 

Atlas Shrugged

Atlas Shrugged While vaguely aware that I do not agree with Ms.Rand's ideas, nevertheless I had grabbed this one for 1 USD at a secondhand bookshop in Berkeley. And FINALLY was able to finish it. In the end I definitely do not agree with Ms.Rand's ideas and thought the book was decent but sermonising and preaching to the extreme. However I liked the romance scenes and thought that Ms.Rand would have made a very  successful romance novelist if she had chosen that path.

All in all I'm happy that I have read it, found some interesting things in it and sometimes enjoyed it a lot while disagreed almost all the time. The prose appealed to me though and I wished that she was right next to me sometimes so that I could discuss stuff with her.  

Fright Night 2

Well my weekend film funk continued and I decided to watch a B-horror film and that usually cheers me up but Fright Night 2 didn't really work for me (although I like the original first film a lot).

Photo Credit : http://www.moviepilot.de

The main villain is female and the premise is similar with no one really believing in the vampire etc. But it just didn't work for me and was not enough to get me out.

I have found out that they did a sequel in 1988 too but this is the 2014 version. 

Happy Go Lucky

Happy - Go - Lucky  I had never seen a Mike Leigh film before, and when I saw this on DVDigi, I remembered liking Sally Hawkings very much in Blue Jasmine and it sounded like a rom com so I started watching it. First off, this is not a rom com. This is more like a slice of life film with things happening around this lady who tries to be happy go lucky, is understanding, loving and despite seemingly immature, in actually she is very mature and also very good at her job. After her bike got stolen she decides to get a license and starts to take driving lessons. Her driving instructor is a bigoted, angry man she soon gently teases but also disapproves.

Anyway despite the lead character's cheerfulness, this film left me depressed and down. And I kind of regretted watching it. It is by no means a bad film, it just was not for me.

Starter for 10

Starter for 10 As similar to many of the films starring James McAvoy, I remember watching and liking this one a lot. And the reason I purchased it for keeps is my newly developed James McAvoy fandom. Anyway this was as good as I remembered it. And being an 80's teen (albeit not in UK)  I like it extra better. This was exactly what I needed, a decent rom com.

I also like David Nicholls as a novelist (One Day just about slayed me and I loved The Understudy). And I'm looking forward to his new novel. 

Hwayi - A Monster Boy

Hwayi  only entered in my radar because it got some awards etc. And I have only glanced at the plot not really caring for it. But purchased it anyway (as one does) and I'm very glad that I did.

First of all, this film surprised me with its story. As one ages, it is rather hard to come across a story that will interest you as if you were in your twenties. And this film did. Ok Spoilers:

Hwayi (Yeo Jin Gu)  is a boy kidnapped and then raised by 5 pyschopath criminals. How did that happen? The ransom exchange went bad. And they were stuck with the kid. So they decided to raise him. And he is now a teenager (maybe high school sophomore or senior) and he is not only smart but also talented in painting (or drawing more like). And he is a thoughtful boy although well adapted to his pscyho dads' life style.

The five criminals are all interesting with the leader (Kim Yoon Seok - and he is some of my favorite S.Korean films The Chaser, The Thieves) being especially evil. There is one gun maniac and another knife maniac who was really truly scary. There is the expert driver who stutters and not socially adaptable as the rest and there is the smart one (oddly he is not the leader)  whose is evil is more hidden than the rest. When the kid is kidnapped there was also a woman there with chains on her ankles.

So these guys are a gang of law breakers committing lots of various crimes, robbery, murder, kidnapping etc. They are very rich and their cover is operating a green house for various potted plants. The have a contact in the police department and get along well with other criminal gangs (whether organised crime or not). So one day the policeman brings them an offer to murder an old couple who refuse to vacate their homes and theirs is the only one left in the neighbourhood planned for redevelopment. The usual methods didn't work because not only the couple is rich, they also have influence. And the police take the threats made at them serious. So as a last resort the redeveloper (a gangster pretending to be a legit businessman) decides to hire killers who will act as a robbery gone wrong. They decide to accept the gig and include Hwayi too.

Well the couple and the reason they refuse to vacate the house is heartbreaking and Hwayi has an even tougher road ahead.

The film is not a melodrama (thought it may have been) and I didn't cry during (and I don't I meant to). Everything looks realistic and it was bloody, gory but not cartoonish.

Recommended if one is not squeamish.

Legal High

Legal High was purchased upon my sister's recommendation. Trying to stay away from spoilers I thought it was some sort of high school show but it isn't. It is about an idealist lawyer working for a genius lawyer who is not really an idealist but not as mean as he initially seems to be. Not really romantic but it entertained me a lot. I actually laughed out loud during which is not a common occurance. Even so, I'm not in love with it and don't plan on getting Legal High 2

Drive Angry

Drive Angry was recommended to me by two different co workers and now that I have seen it, I can see that this is an amazing thing. The reason for that is the film's R rating and scenes of nudity. I guess I'm lucky to have great co workers (for the curious one is female and the other is male) Anyway I have decided to get it when it fell to the bargain bin and I ended up liking it a lot. I like the soundtrack, the action scenes and the flow and rythm of the film. The plot is not that interesting a man escapes from a prison (SPOILERS) to save his baby granddaughter to be sacrificed at a satanic cult ritual. The leader of the cult has killed his daughter and her husband. There is a mysterious man trying to catch him and a great waitress whose car he had needed. Amber Heard is the waitress and it was not a good performance but I liked the character and let it go. Nicholas Cage is the hero and  William Fitchner plays the prison guard and Billy Burke plays the satanic cult leader. Of course I immediately figured out that he ran away from hell (literally) and in the end the guard allows him to get his revenge and he leaves the baby with the waitress and his best friend (David Morse) from when he was alive (I guess he is still his best friend because he doesn't even hesitate to help him out).

Hope Floats

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Hope Floats is an average film that is only sort of good if you like the actors (and I do). 

A Touch of Sin

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SPOILERS for the whole thing.

A Touch of Sin dropped in my lap from a festival films channel on tv. It has been a long time since I've actually watched a Chinese film (I used to love them a while ago) and this one was welcome like an old friend. I have seen a film of his called Still Life and remember liking the visuals though not as enamoured with the plot. This one was definitely more interesting and flowed easily. First of all it has the clean cinematography that appeals to me most. Next I liked the stories told in the film and the characters.

The film tells different stories with the theme of violence. The characters do not always interact and barely pass eachother by.

The one in the poster above tells the story of a man who is well liked in the community. He is well off, unmarried. His problem is the village official getting rich by an illegal sale of the village mines to another rich villager (and the guy is rich, owns private plane and all). He tries to do speak to the parties involved and announces his intention to complain this injustice to the authorities. And he tries to do so but nothing goes his way. The post office doesn't even take his letter since the address is insufficient. So he decides to take it to Beijing himself. Meanwhile the rich guy orders him to be beaten and he was. This fact also happened to make him the target of teasings in the village. So he goes and takes his rifle and shots the village officer, another person who liked to tease him (a bit viciously), the accountant who lets the whole thing happen and finally the rich guy himself. And just as I was thinking that he regretted taking this road, there was a very satisfied smile on his face and he seemed to be at peace.

The other story was a bank robber. At the beginning of the film three young men attempt to rob him on the road he was passing on his motorcycle and he calmly shots all three- a bad day for the highway robbers. It turns out that he has a wife and a son at another village and he doesn't have any intention to stop robbing banks and killing people not because he doesn't have any other option but because he find life boring and these entertain him.

We have a yound worker who indirectly causes a work accident and just quits when he finds out that he has to pay his salary for the injured worker (he was telling a story and the other got careless while listening to it). He goes to another town and finds work at a bar falling in love with a bar girl (who turns out to be a young mother who refuses his offer to run away together because she has to take care of her baby (who is looked after at another town). It was too much for the guy to watch his beloved providing sexual services to the rich patrons and he decides to work at the factory where his friend works for a lot less money. And we find out that his salary goes to his poor family at his home town and they keep asking for money. Just when one thinks it will turn out alright the injured ex colleague finds him and threatens to get him beaten if the doesn't give cash. So he just commits suicide by jumpind off a building. (I felt worse for this one since he was so young).

The other story is of a massage parlor worker (who works at the reception and doesn't provide sexual services and she is probably over 30) who is having an affair with a married man. The man's wife tries to get her beaten up but she manages to escape the hired thugs (or the wife's relatives I don't know) and just as she was chilling out after work at the sauna parlor section she attracts the attention of customers and they tried to get her to have sex but she refuses and then one of them slaps her and then she simply loses it and kills the man with a knife, rather viciously.

Yes it was a bleak film with I assume presenting issues in modern China and I liked it a lot. The clean visuals, excellent actors, interesting characters made mine a very satisfying viewing.

I can't really recommend it to anyone since it is violent and definitely not feel good but if you like this type of film, it is worth a chance.

Relic and Some Musings

Relic was one of the selections in the Audible app of a colleague who is kind enough to let me use it. It was not a novel I'd have chosen to read but it was there and I have already exhausted the library so instead of rereading(listening to) something I have already read, I decided to go for this one.

And I was pleasantly surprised. By no means a great novel, it nevertheless entertained me and despite the story was in mid 90s and the whole 'not being able to enter the museum' premise a bit of a plot strech, it didn't age badly and I was totally into it.

The story is a murder mystery in Museum of Natural History in NYC. The person who is responsible to deal with this is Pendergast (a Southern FBI Agent) but one of the things I liked about this book is that everyone of the good guys has a chance to be a hero and the villains are also given enough time.

The second thing I like best about it is the female hero (who was given more time than Pendergast) who is smart, capable and brave and not a bombshell or anything.

Also there was not much romance in the novel, some feelings of affection to our lead heroine from a minor character that was all. If there is any romance developed between the heroine and the journalist, it was being left to our imagination.

And I liked the ending (the Epilogue) very much.

All in all Relic turned out to be decent effort and I enjoyed it.

Meanwhile I'm currently reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Raynd and well have a lot of opinions and the novel seems to drag (though not the fault of the prose or plot) and weigh me down with the ideas presented in it.

So I decided to listen to Pride and Prejudice again as a balm for my literary aches since I don't want to give up and stop reading Atlas Shrugged despite the fact that there are other books I want to read.

Becoming Jane

Becoming Jane viewing is the result of my recent James McAvoy infatuation. I have always liked him but recently want to watch more and more about him. I guess I have a thing for pasty Scot men with ginger beards and acting talent (since I like Ewan McGregor a lot too).

This film however would have interested me even if it starred Benedict Cumberbatch :). It is a slice of life of one of my all time favorite writers, Jane Austen. The section when she had a thing with the Irish Tom Lefroy (it didn't end happily). Jane Austen is acted by Anne Hathaway, who is an American with not as good as English accent as Rene Zelleweger did with Brigitte Jones. But she is a very good actress and I liked her interpretation of Ms.Jane Austen.

I don't remember whether I have cried during my first viewing (I must have since I cry at everything) but this one brought a flood.

I enjoyed it much better this second time.

Limit

Limit  is a Japanese TV show that I have watched sometime ago but never found the time to write about. I liked the premise (schoolbus accident, five different girls ending up at a forest waiting for rescue) and it was a decent show but didn't leave much of an impact in the end. 

Düğün Dernek

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Düğün Dernek gösterildiği yılın en iyi iş yapan filmlerinden biri oldu. Komedi olduğu için benim fazla ilgimi çekmemişti ama Digidvd'de karşıma çıkınca bir göz atayım dedim. Bir kaç yerinde yüksek sesle kahkaha attırdı, Tüpçü (ortadaki kel olan) tiplemesi fizik olarak rahmetli Öztürk Serengil'i hal ve tavır olarak Recep İvedik'i hatırlattı. Neyse oğluna düğün yapmak isteyen ama maddi imkanları kısıtlı arkadaşlarına destek vermek için düğün macerasına atılan ekip bir sürü badire atlatır ki bunlara kızın Letonya'lı akrabaları ve eski nişanlısı dahil değil. Komedi filmlerini sevenler tavsiye etmekle beraber, ne bileyim ilk Recep İvedik veya GORA kadar güldürmedi beni.  

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Photo credit: http://themovieblog.com/

X-Men: Days of Future Past ended to be the film that got me an hour away from my house to watch. I love James McAvoy and he was great as the young Professor X.
The film turned out to be a very good one. A detailed plot that kind of made sense. Lots of characters, some with old and new versions, all given life by very good performances. Actually there was not a weak link in this one. I actually may have shed a few tears.

Not being a superhero kind of person. The ones I like are Batman-who doesn't have any superpowers- and two angry guys Wolverine and Hulk. Wolverine because of his melodramatic life story and he looks good and Hulk because of his melodramatic life story. But after this film I also like Professor X because I like the way he thinks (a major change on my part) In fact I think he has become my favorite superhero.

The power I would get if I had a chance would be brain reading (it was a close call since I wanted teleportation too) and Professor X is the kind of brain reader I's aspire to be.

And then there is Michael Fassbender. I superficially started to like him better after Shame. And he was good in this too (now I wouldn't see a film because he is in it but I'm always happy to see him).

Photo credithttp://www.kahramanlarsinemada.com

And of course there is Mystique and Jenniffer Lawrence. I love her. So here is a nice fan made photo (I think)

Photo credit http://images5.fanpop.com

I recommend this. 

The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale is the novel that made start on my Margaret Atwood love. The reason I got The Blind Assasin was that I "looked inside" of The Handmaid's Tale at amazon.com. It was love at first sight. And the novel is great (not surprisingly I suppose). My only complaint is that I have listened it (and this went so well in Maddaddam triology) and Claire Danes didn't do it justice. In fact if the prose was not that beautiful it may easily have turned off someone who was not already enamoured with the novel. Ms.Danes was overacting which sort of killed one of the things I love about Ms.Atwood's prose, its simplicity. Every word and emotion were shouted. Anyway to me it was a minor annoyance but wanted to note it if anyone's thinking of getting it. 

The Fault In Our Stars

The Fault In Our Stars did not enter in my curiosity zone because of it being a YA weepy. Then they decided to make a film about it and both the novel and film (not yet released) have been getting such a buzz that I was not able to ignore them anymore. So I borrowed my colleague's old kindle once again and gave this a go. Aaaaaand it is nothing special but recommended if you like a weepy. Yes it made me bawl and I had to reach for the tissues. I didn't like either of the kids and their smarty pants discussions (it worked for me in Juno but not since then - I kind of liked it in Vampire Academy the film too-) but I can't hold a grudge to two teens with terminal cancer. What I liked best about the book was the way the writer treated them a nice evening, I thought that was very kind on the characters and the reader since through my tears I kept thinking well they'll alway have Oranjee....

Stay away if you are not into melo but if you are then it is not a bad time waster.