It's A Wonderful Life!

Aaahh....!!! It's that time of year again! Christmas!! Who doesn't love Christmas? Many people I suppose but I won't go into that. I will write about us, the ones who love this holiday, each for our own reasons. I, for instance, love the twinkly lights and Xmas movies. The feel-good films about love, hope, family and all around goodness. And the humour. And the sentiment.

Aww...

My all time favourite Christmas film is Love Actually, which many of you might consider to be a poor choice. Obviously, I have not seen every single Xmas movie that has ever come out but I have seen my fair share and all I can say is that naming a film your "favourite" boils down to the feelings it leaves you with. And I guess this film has left me with that warm, fuzzy feeling that relates to this particular season. And also laughing really hard!

He da man!

Of course, if I sit myself down and really think about it, I will definitely have second thoughts. Since I mentioned "da man" above, there's Scrooged, starring Bill Murray who no doubt is Da man! What a brilliant film! The best retelling of Charles Dickens' book A Christmas Carol I've ever watched and there have been so many. Then there's Gremlins. Utter genius. Don't feed them after midnight. And the wonderful and heartbreaking Edward Scissorhands which was Johnny Depp's first collaboration out of many successful ones with director Tim Burton and which proved to be a very good idea! Also good ideas were Tim Burton's other two Xmas films, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Batman Returns.

Or is he da man??

Who would have thought that the Batman would have starred in a Christmas film? But that is actually one of the many action films taking place during the yuletide. Others are Die Hard, which ranks 3rd on the IMDb Top 100 Christmas movies list (all hail IMDb! check out the link if you wish) and Lethal Weapon, awkwardly enough, both first in a series of hopelessly deteriorating action film franchises.

There has been such a variety in genres when it comes to Xmas movies. From the funny (Elf) to the horror (Black Christmas), from the romantic (While You Were Sleeping) to the historic (Silent Night), from the cringe-worthy (Jingle All The Way) to the classic children's cartoons (Rudolp, The Red-Nosed Reindeer). Films that allowed comic geniuses to unravel their worth like Jim Carrey did in The Grinch (yes, to me he is a comic genius), films that tried to teach people life lessons, such as Trading Places, The Family Man and Miracle On 34th Street and films that kinda portrayed a more down-to-earth version of people's lives during Christmas, like Bad Santa.

Decisions, decisions...

And yet all these films have one thing in common. They all send a message of hope. Yes, they tangle themes of love and family and fun but in the end, it's all about hope. Hope that things can and will get better if you only believe they will. I am not one to allow myself to believe in miracles as I have concluded that they rarely ever happen but I am a hopeful person. But then again, miracles come in all different shapes and forms. Maybe they are happening everyday and we do not realise it. Maybe just getting out of bed in the morning is a small miracle in itself. 

Anyway, if you do a quick research of all the movie sites on the internet, or talk to people who are silver-screen connoisseurs, there is one Christmas film that they all consider to be the best. Frank Capra's 1947 movie It's A Wonderful Life starring James Stewart. So if you feel like a punch in your gut and a tear in your eye for Christmas night, go watch this film. It should do the trick. 

Merry Christmas everyone...

Face off and mask on!

I am a big sci-fi and fantasy film fan. Give me superheroes, wizards and dragons any day. I think it's that insertion into another world, completely different to my own and devoid of all real-world problems that makes me love them so much. But one aspect of all these films that is very rarely applauded by audiences, unless you are a proper nerd like me, is the make-up and costume departments. I mean, even during the Oscars, when it's time for these awards to be handed out, most people are off to make popcorn or go to the loo. And it's not fair. My belief is that credit ought to be given where credit is due. Can you imagine what The Lord of the Rings would be like if the make-ups sucked and Gollum was just a man in a suit? Or if Chris Nolan's Batman still had nipples?

Seriously?

So I've been watching this show. It's a reality game show and although I am not a fan of those, unless I want to burn a couple of million brain cells, I have to admit that this is by far the best competition/elimination series ever. It's called Face Off and it first aired on the SyFy cable network in 2011. It is already in its 7th season. The competitors are special-effects make-up artists and they compete every week for the chance to not only win the prizes but to also establish themselves and earn a spot among the elite of Hollywood's special effects geniuses.

The judges are Glenn Hetrick (Buffy The Vampite Slayer, Babylon 5), Ve Neil (Ed Wood, Beetlejuice, Mrs. Doubtfire) and Neville Page (Watchmen, Cloverfield, Avatar). In the first two seasons Patrick Tatopoulos (I Am Legend, Resident Evil: Extinction, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans) was the third judge and currently Lois Burwell (Braveheart, War of the Worlds, Lincoln) is filling in for Ve Neil who is working on The Hunger Games: Mockingjay.

I'd say Glenn Hetrick is realistic enough and movie-ready...

What I have come to realise after having watched all seven seasons (one was enough to realise, the rest have been tremendous fun) is that these people are truly geniuses. They combine imagination, skill, talent, time management, professionalism and a genuine love of the art. They are given challenges that would have other people dumbfounded for days and yet they pull it off spectacularly. 

Dumbfounded...

From Nosferatu to Night of the Living Dead, from Star Wars to Guardians of the Galaxy, from The Wizard of Oz to The Lord of the Rings, from King Kong (1933) to King Kong (2005), from Batman: The Movie to Batman vs Superman, it is these artists that have made these worlds come to life. That have given form to creatures we could only imagine. Or not even imagine. The costumes, the creature concepts and designs and the make-up are all arts in their own right. Tremendously underrated and more than often ignored, these artists should be appreciated for their contribution to cinema and for the creation of worlds we would all want to visit or live in.

Superstar market...

When I was little, I used to love watching all the commercials on TV in between my favourite shows. But, as I said, I was little and I knew nothing. Just like Jon Snow. As I grew older, I realised that commercials are essentially exceptionally boring and with little to offer. Nonetheless, during my stay in England, I found out that some commercials can actually be fun, if a little effort was put into making them. They were not particularly well-made but a lot of them were funny. And that had a much more lasting effect. Even if the entire ad had nothing to do with the product promoted.

As time went by, companies recognised that better ads meant better revenue so, I assume, they decided to up the ante. More money was put into creating better TV commercials, better actors were hired, better slogans were made up and in later years, better special effects were used. And it worked. Advertisements improved significantly. Evolving from cheesy short trailers into little pieces of art.

Needless to say that many well known actors began their careers advertising all sorts of products. Joseph Gordon-Levitt advertised Pop Tarts, Brad Pitt advertised Pringles, Batman (Ben Affleck) advertised Burger King and Breaking Bad megastar, Bryan Cranston, advertised hemorrhoid ointment, Preparation H. It doesn't get any more embarrassing than that.

But those were not only the prelude of huge careers for the stars mentioned above - and many others such as Keanu Reeves, Paul Rudd and Morgan Freeman - but it also paved the way for all the super cool, super funny, super entertaining and super star-studded commercials that we enjoy today.

George Clooney has practically made a second career for himself promoting booze and coffee in the very successful Martini and Nespresso ads respectively. Oscar-winner Matthew Mcconaughey, apart from having been the face of Dolce and Gabbana's perfume for men campaign, is now starring in commercials for Lincoln Motors, incorporating a bit of the ambiance of his True Detective persona and taking advantage, I suppose, of the fact that he is, after all, the Lincoln Lawyer. Charlize Theron has advertised for Dior. Julia Roberts for Lancome.

If you're gonna go big, might as well go huge!

Then companies decided to take it even further and have more than one superstars in their ads, making sure that no one could ever forget what they saw. Which is clever. I mean, when you get Lionel Messi and Kobe Bryant outsmarting each other on a plane, I reckon you have made something very memorable. Not to mention that nowadays celebrities are pouring in to do commercials to promote honourable causes, such as the Stand Up To Cancer campaign. Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hardy, Idris Elba, Gillian Anderson and Steve Coogan among others. Brilliant idea!

But I have to admit that the star-studded, uber classy and exquisitely crafted TV commercial made for the new Jaguar F-Type Coupe starring Sir Ben Kingsley, Tom Hiddleston and Mark Strong is, by far, my favourite.

It's a gem. It's the evolution of advertising. It's the reason why people would start watching commercials again. You would think that all those marketing geniuses going around, throwing products at people's faces, have finally got it right. And then they go and ask Kevin Costner to do a Rio Mare commercial and ruin everything. Meh...

O Captain my Captain

I've always wanted to write something about comedy. It is one of my favourite genres and I have a fairly extensive collection of funny films. I wanted to write about my favourite comedies and my list of top comedians and how I absolutely adore stand up comedy, which is the rawest form of the art. I wanted to write about how I love slapstick and "in your face" jokes like Zoolander and Ace Ventura. But that I also love the more refined and caustic type, such as Monty Python and Blackadder.

And then it all fell apart. Suddenly, I no longer wanted to write a funny piece (as funny as I can be, which is not a lot). I could no longer write about these things because on August 11th comedy suffered an immeasurable loss. Robin Williams passed away and neither me nor the rest of the world felt like laughing anymore. A piece of my childhood died. A man I truly admired and loved for what he did and how he made me feel, left us.

 July 21, 1951 - August 11, 2014

I think the first time I ever saw Robin Williams act was when he did Popeye. I was extremely young and had no idea who that man was. I could tell that he was good at what he did but I could not realise just how good. But then came other films. I quickly learnt that he could be funny, or not so funny. He could be sad, angry or downright insane. He had a wide gamut and he delivered all of his roles with extreme conviction. He had to make you laugh and he had to make you cry and he had to make you feel. And he could. And he did.

O Captain my captain...

He was so funny and talented and full of life. But he was also sombre, with a hint of sadness in his eyes and a look that cried for help. What I loved about him was how his eyes squinted when he smiled. It's very hard for me to explain what I saw when he smiled like that. He had a tenderness to him that melted your heart every time. And it was there that you could sense that he also had a bleeding heart. You could see that in his films. Films like Awakenings or What Dreams May Come or Jacob the Liar. You could see that in Dead Poets Society, Good Will Hunting and Patch Adams. And you could definitely see this in his most heart wrenching film of all (in my humble opinion) The Fisher King. That he was not acting. That he really hurt inside. And you believed him.

That look...

And then there was the roller coaster ride. Then there was Aladdin and Mrs. Doubtfire and The Birdcage. And my personal favourite, his 2002 Robin Williams: Live on Broadway. The magnificent comedian going at a thousand miles an hour and delivering some of the best comedy we have ever seen. And you could not help but be in awe of his amazing energy and talent. And you forgot all about the sadness in his eyes. Maybe that's why he did it. Maybe he compensated for that lack of happiness in his soul by making other people laugh.

A standing ovation to you sir!!!

I cannot begin to express how much his loss has saddened me. I cannot even explain it myself. I suppose it has something to do with the fact that it hurts me to know that deep down he felt alone and scared and sad. He, of all people, did not deserve that. A very sad ending to a very soulful story. I have no way and I do not wish to say goodbye to this brilliant star but I will borrow the Academy's words and just say "Genie, you're free".

TV killed the movie star (not)...

I am a movie fan. I love watching films. On the other hand, I loath watching the telly. I have a serious hate-hate relationship with everything that is on. I don't know if this is because I'm sick and tired of what local channels present or if it's truly bad broadcasting. I love English TV but whenever I mention that to anyone from the UK, they have a hearty laugh and tell me to get a life. So, I guess it's not just a local thing. Everyone must feel that the quality of television shows in their country is poor. Especially if they mainly watch MTV.

Global trash...

When I was growing up, I remember there used to be some really ace TV shows on, like The Dukes of Hazard and Knight Rider. The A-Team and Married with Children. And Macgyver... OK, so having just mentioned those, I reckon that with the exception of Married with Children, maybe they weren't all that "ace". Not that they were bad shows. Some of them were even considered extremely groundbreaking and ahead of their time. And they were. But in retrospect, they did lack all of the good quality acting, special effects and lustre that went into, let's say, movies.

Epic...

As of late though, things are starting to change. TV networks started investing more money in creating better shows, actors decided that television is not such a bad medium after all and writers decided to put some heart into it. In my opinion, the shift began quite a few years ago, when a small yet ambitious show cast two not too well-known actors and set off to conquer the unknown. And they did. Agents Mulder and Scully and their X-Flies made network bosses, producers and writers realise that it was time to go bigger and better.

Apparently the truth is out there...

Two years after The X-Files went off air Lost came out. And Prison Break the year after that. As did Supernatural. And actors, who up until then were considered TV actors, were "promoted" and cast in movies. And there was commotion and things started to flow the other way. And all of a sudden you had Kiefer Sutherland starring in 24. Alec Baldwin in 30 Rock. Martin Sheen in The West Wing. Glenn Close in The Shield. Robin Williams in The Crazy Ones. Kevin Spacey in House Of Cards. A gazillion actors in Game of Thrones. All of a sudden film actors started starring in TV series. Everyone saw it as a bad thing. A downsizing of sorts for the actors. But that is a specious claim.

To name but a few...

There are many articles out there where people complain that film actors should return to the big screen and stop doing TV. I could not disagree more. It seems that this new fad, for lack of a better word, is really working. The success of some of these shows is immense. Downton Abbey was made. Homeland was made. But most importantly, True Detective was made. And we were all left in awe. Because not only did we have Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey gracing our screens with their major acting chops but the show is better than good. It is excellent. The script is brilliant. The acting is impeccable. The directing is top notch. Everything about this show yells quality. The best TV show I have seen in my life. By far. And I have watched the entire three and a half seasons of Game of Thrones. That should say a lot. 

All my dreams have come true...

I don't know why this shift has proven to be so successful. I have never given it much thought. I just know that it works. It is mind numbing to think how many TV shows are on at the moment. How many successful TV shows. And with the power of the internet, we have access to all of them. I have made the mistake of asking people which show I should watch next. Big mistake. Everyone has a favourite. The Walking Dead, Criminal Minds, Sherlock, The Big Bang Theory. And all of them are good. Truly good. And more are coming. A couple of shows I will be looking forward to are Gotham and Constantine. But it still makes me wonder. Is this another one of those bubbles that will eventually pop? Maybe. 

The stuff that my dreams are made of...

I reckon that a lot of people I talk to about movies pity my shallowness. I guess it's hard for them to understand how a well-educated, intelligent, mature 25 year-old (or 35, for those who know me) can claim films like The Avengers and The Lord of the Rings as her favourites. For them, fantasy and sci-fi is childish, meaningless and fake. Having just written and re-read that phrase, I think I pity them more. These types of films are, partly, what allows me to stay in touch with my long lost childhood that I so naively threw away. Magic, spaceships, super heroes, miracles, dragons!!! I believe these are what's missing from everyone's life!!

How can you not like dragons???

Still, that is not to say that I do not appreciate other types of films as well. Serious films. Films that deal with the human condition, with people, with love, hate, wars, families, values. Well known, star-studded films like Doubt, The Shawshank Redemption, Dead Man Walking, Lions for Lambs, 12 Angry Men and The Help. Or not so successful or popular films such as My Sister's Keeper, Under the Tuscan Sun, A Family Thing and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Or not so serious, such as Welcome to Collinwood and The Truth about Cats and Dogs.

So different and yet so superb...!!

To me, if the story doesn't take you to a land far far away, then it has to make you feel. It has to make you smile or cry, think or wonder, hope or despair because if it does not make your blood flow a little faster then what is the point? To borrow and ever so slightly twist Colin Firth's character's heart-wrenching words in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, if a film does not stir your soul then "it has not made it's mark".

After doing a bit of research on my very long list of favourite films, I have come to realise that so many of them are based on true events. Older films like All the President's Men, Inherit the Wind, Lorenzo's Oil, JFK.  Newer films, such as Mrs. Henderson Presents, Vera Drake, Rush, An Education, Frost/Nixon and Shattered Glass. And Oscar winning films, old or new, like Schindler's List, The Wolf of Wall Street, Dallas Buyers Club, The King's Speech and Amadeus. Some stay truer to the real life events they are based on and some take a few extra liberties. There have been films that have caused minor or major uproars because of the loose use of the term "based on a true story" but I don't mind that. I just view it as a poem on screen and grant the creator artistic license.

...-ish!

There are of course, other genres that I have not even touched upon yet. Comedies, love stories, horror films, mysteries. Zoolander and The Full Monty. Silver Linings Playbook and One Day. World War Z and Hostel. Zodiac and Shutter Island. All of the films mentioned above are, in my heart and mind, brilliant. They have something to offer to the viewer. They have depth, they have style, they have excellent performances. And I like them all. So, I suppose I am a bit twisted in that way.

It's impossible to narrow down the list. It's endless. I guess Jimmy Kimmel had an epiphany when he decided to incorporate all of Hollywood into one movie.

Not sure if it would work, though...

Diamonds are forever...

After a really quick search on the internet, it appears that there are countless film awards handed out each year, around the globe. There are the critics' awards, the festival awards and the most popular ones, the industry awards. The Oscar's fall under the latter category and are also known as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards. There are also the Golden Globes, the Cannes International Film Festival awards, the BAFTAs, the Sundance Film Festival awards and a multitude of others that sadly no one has ever heard of. 

Yay me!!!!

Apparently, the US is the second largest producer of feature films in the world, right after India. And although India undoubtedly offers viewers a lot more bling than the States, Hollywood still remains the most glamorous movie industry of all and the Academy Awards the most anticipated film ceremony of the year. 

But to be honest, the Oscars can sometimes be unjust and misleading. There have been several occasions where truly exceptional performances lost out to other artists who, to be fair, were not always less deserving but they were by no means the best out of all the nominees. And when I say performances I do not solely mean acting. This includes directors, musicians, make-up artists and everyone who participates in the making of a film, as it is their performance that is being judged.

The most notable example is of course the exquisite Leonardo DiCaprio, who has yet to win an Oscar. As an actor, he has been nominated four times for an Academy Award and he has won nil. I don't mean to say that, for instance, Jammie Foxx did not deserve the Oscar for Ray, but Leo was admittedly exceptional in The Aviator.  It must have been a tough choice. Also, in 1993 he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Again, I'm not saying he should have won, but I am not entirely convinced that Tommy Lee Jones' win was just either. Personally, I thought that Pete Postlethwaite deserved that Oscar. Or maybe Ralph Fiennes for Schindler's List. Matthew McConaughey totally deserved it this year though.

Soon... Very Soon!!!!

Still, Leo is young. He has an amazing and award-ridden future ahead of him. But there are several other artists that the Academy has overlooked over the years, which makes it hard to not think that the entire process is completely biased and controlled. Peter O'Toole, received a "consoling"  Academy Honorary Award in 2003 after being nominated and overlooked a whopping eight times. And in spite of the fact that he was tottering into antiquity, as he so eloquently put it, he did attend the ceremony, receive the award and was a perfect gentleman, giving a wonderful speech to the very people who had consistently snubbed him for several decades. Sir Charles Chaplin has also won not one but two Honorary awards for his contribution to film and an Oscar for Best Score for the film Limelight in 1973, but his acting skills were apparently never recognised by his peers as award-worthy. And Sir Alfred Hitchcock. The legendary director was nominated five times but never got the golden statue for his directorial work, despite having made some of the most iconic films of all time. 

Legends

Surely, there are more examples I could give, but I reckon it is not necessary. Anyone who is into films will have an example of their own which can be subjectively or objectively argued. And they are probably right, from their own point of view. But the recognition of a good film is so much more than an award at the end of the year or box-office revenues and pop corn sales. Sure, being awarded as the best at what you do must be overwhelming but that is just an award for one film, one year, one time.

What makes film artists last forever in the public's mind is the love of the art and the need to excel at what they do. It's good acting, riveting directing, mind-numbing script-writing, unforgettable scoring, mesmerising cinematography, breathtaking visuals, the magic of movie-making and the way it makes people dream. The art of storytelling. 

And dream we did!!

What we as fan want from our favourite artists is for them to never sell-out for the glory of an award. To never burn out because to us they are stars. To be diamonds, which we all know, last forever.