Having to list something based on a theme you yourself recommended (journalism of course) is ironic. I’m was excited about journalism at the end of 2019 because I work in journalism. Also when I recommended this theme I had just seen one of my recommendations! Now many months later the plan I had has escaped me and now I don’t know what I was thinking. Anyway, here’s my three not so theme within theme recommendations. There is a bit of a connection in here but it took ma AGES to figure out!
To keep things on a lighter note, I will do a review on this romantic-comedy I saw when I was in Tallinn again. I wasn’t thrilled about it because I had heard bad things about it and usually those bad things happen to be perfectly correct. And that in mind I sat in the cinema and watched This Means War.
To be honest, I liked it, I liked it a lot! I don’t know if I am foolish to do so or I am just a lousy wannabe movie critic or I had one of those “I love going to the movies” feelings that took over my body – who knows. But I felt like I had to be honest, so there you go, I liked it a lot. The reasons actually go beyond the movie itself. The story was cheesy and unbelievable to the furthest degree but isn’t it with all romantic comedies?
Reese Witherspoon was the leading lady who until dating two guys at once was unlucky with love. But when she starts dating Tom Hardy after meeting him in the dating network-site where her page was set up by her friend (who I don’t even want to talk about) she also meets Chris Pine. There you go, two reasons why to see this movie, the chemistry between Pine and Hardy was just a sight for the eyes itself. I also think that Hardy’s lips on a big screen had a mysterious effect on me.
Of course this movie has a 6,4 score on IMDb and of course the movie gets bad reviews because the whole idea behind it is ridiculous beyond measure but I am not looking at that. I know romantic comedies could be much more logical, they should but it’s not how they are. The rom-com’s have become unreal stories with unreal hot people being single in the beginning of the movie – this is how they are and this is what I am not even looking at. I guess I am saying that I liked it because I was entertained, the fun side of me enjoyed it and the serious and critical side of me was resting at that time because if not, I would have felt bad of spending my time and money on that. Besides, what woman wouldn’t like a bromance between Chris Pine and Tom Hardy – I know I would and I did.
★★★
I was certain that I wanted to read the book before watching the movie, so it took me a while to get the chance to do so. Finally I did both and I must say, I’m very happy that I read the book before the movie cause I wouldn’t have read the book after watching the movie – and I loved the book!
Water for Elephants is a movie starring Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson as Marlena and Jacob who fall in love (obviously). Then there’s the villain who manages the circus where Marlena and Jacob work, August portrayed by Christoph Waltz who is amazing. What was quite disappointing was that in the book the circus had two big names – August and the owner, in the movie August was both and it felt a bit weird. Although the screenwriter Richard LaGravenese has much experience (he also wrote PS I Love You onto the screen) reading the book just before seeing the movie showed off the weaknesses. A part of the book that I really enjoyed was Jacob’s mundane days as an old man: the movie had none of that. I guess they tried to make the movie all about the love story while the book has much more depth to it – the reason why I’m not surprised that this movie has mixed reviews. It is interesting that it still maintains a 7.0 on IMDb – although the movie has Robert Pattinson in the lead, we can’t trust the score (he won a Teen Choice Award for this – get it? Teens!).On that note I have to add that I never had issues with Pattinson’s acting skills – it’s just his role as the Sparkles that doesn’t suit me.
Keeping in mind the screenplay and the differences from the book, the acting still managed to save most of the movie. I mean, it was a great cast and I am a sucker for animals in movies – the elephant was adorable and the chimp as well. But just because it turned out to be another romance movie with some drama in it I can’t say it’s my favorite. It could’ve been similar to The Notebook moment, it had that vibe in the book, but instead it was toned down and distanced from the present while putting more emphasis on the Jacob and Marlene story. If you haven’t read the book, you might like it more but I’m giving it a 3,5 out of 5 because various elements of the movie/book made it still enjoyable to watch.
PS: In my case, the book cover was this lovely version of the movie poster so I ended up liking this one a lot, it has all the main elements of the story and it looks elegant.
“Life is the most spectacular show on Earth” says the movie trailer for Water for Elephants because the movie is about the traveling circus group called The Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, I wonder if the movie would be as spectacular…
Water for Elephants is the newest movie for Robert Pattinson the ever so popular sparkling vampire Edward for a lot of teens – I don’t care for Twilight but that doesn’t mean I don’t like Pattinson. Right the opposite to that, I think Pattinson is one of the talented ones in young America (plus, he’s English) and is going far, after the Twilight thing wears off he can do roles he really loves because to me he seems to be over Twilight a long time ago.
Another name in this is Reese Witherspoon who I don’t really like nor hate, I just have no opinion on her – must be the serious/not so serious roles that make me confused but she is pretty. But for me the most exciting is Christopher Waltz, that guy is like the king of Europe for me. After the Inglorious Bastards it is hard not to think anything else of Waltz, he is great and I have no problem watching Water for Elephants when it comes out because I have nothing against the 3 leads.
Movie itself is based on a book (no surprise there) and the first look of the trailer gives me the Notebook vibe, I don’t know what it is, probably the old guy talking about his youth in the circus where he falls in love with a woman who is actually the circus owners girlfriend? The book has many awards and it’s quite fresh (2006) – I don’t think I will manage to read it before it opens on April 15th, 2011 but I’ll give it a try. Meanwhile, happy waiting for this one, I think it’s going to be great.
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6b2XhXkPpg”]