Up (2009)

Photo source: Associazione Italo Americana del Friuli Venezia Giulia

Directed by	Rob Minkoff
Starring	Ty Burrell, Max Charles, Ariel Winter, Stephen Colbert, Leslie Mann, Allison Janney
Music by	Matthew Margeson

Short Story:
When Carl Fredricksen was a little boy, he idolized famous explorer Charles F. Muntz. Unfortunately, Muntz is accused of presenting false evidence about the skeleton of a giant exotic bird he claims to have discovered at Paradise Falls, and leaves the public eye, vows not to return until he captures one alive.

Time passes, Carl meets Ellie, a Muntz fan who's dream is to have a house overlooking Paradise Falls. They practically grow up together, get married and decide to save money for a trip to the Falls, but life always intervenes in the way of things to buy, to fix, etc. A now elderly Carl finally arranges for the trip, but Ellie gets cancer and passes away before they have the chance to realize their dream.

Enters Russell, a young Wilderness Explorer who tries to collect the last out of a collection of merit badges in the hope that his divorced parents will come to his badge award ceremony. He knocks on Carl's door and offers him help of any kind so that he can earn his final merit badge, the one for assisting the elderly. Carl is not particularly forthcoming, but when he is ordered to move to a retirement home, he flies away in his home by using thousands of helium balloons and inadvertently takes Russell along. They get to Paradise Falls, find the giant bird and name it Kevin, befriend a talking dog, a Golden Retriever named Dug and get to meet Muntz. The problem is, Muntz is still looking for the giant bird and when he figures out that Kevin must be the creature that eluded him all those years only to befriend Carl and Russell, he becomes very hostile.

Carl and Russell's unlikely duo go through a series of life-threatening adventures during which Carl's house is destroyed, but not before he finds Ellie's childhood scrapbook. It turns out that while Carl's been living in regret for not giving Ellie the adventurous life they've always wanted, she filled out the scrapbook with pictures of their married life and left him a note saying “Thanks for the adventure- Now go have a new one.” More adventures ensue, Carl manages to rescue Kevin (now Muntz's prisoner), takes over Muntz's dirigible and flies it back to the city where he presents Russell with his final badge.

Verdict:
LOVE this movie! Up is the first animated and 3D movie to open the Cannes Film Festival. It was extremely well received at the box office, and it remains one of the best Pixar movies to date. It is just the right mix of thriller, adventure, love, humor - everything, really. The characters are genuine, well-formed, the dialogues full of heart and the story itself is one that most of us can relate to. An absolute must see, feel-good movie.


Favourite quotes:

Russell: Good afternoon. Are you in need of any assistance today, sir?
Carl: No.
Russell: I could help you cross the street.
Carl: No.
Russell: I could help you cross your yard.
Carl>: No.
Russell: I could help you cross your porch.
Carl: No!
[closes the door on Russell's foot]
Russell: Ow.

Carl: You'd better get up, Russell. Or else, the tigers will come and eat you.
Russell: There are no Tigers in South America. Zoology.

Carl: [Having arrived above Paradise Falls in South America, miles from where they took off] Don't worry, I'll get you down, find a Bus Stop.
[cuts off the strings to some of the balloons, allowing the house to descend down]
Russell: Whoa, that's s gonna be like a billion transfers to get back to my house...

Contact (1997)

Staring Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, William Fichtner, Tom Skirritt

Contact is a science fiction adaptation of the
book with the same name written by Carl Sagan who was a predominate astronomer. It follows Dr Ellie Arroway who is a scientist at the SETI institute that discovers indisputable evidence that extraterrestrial life is out there and actively sending messages to humans. The movie takes great length to explore the possible ramifications and philosophical implications of just how might a situation like this effect our society. One of the most enjoyable aspects of this film I thought was how there was a lot of thought directed in trying to back a lot of Contacts concepts in actual scientific contexts rather than extravagant Hollywood style action, giving contact a refreshing aspect to it.



Dr Ellie: "I'll tell you one thing about the universe, though. The universe is a pretty big place. It's bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So if it's just us... seems like an awful waste of space. Right?"

Aliens (1986)

Director James Cameron
Staring Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn.

Aliens is the prequel to the original film Alien, it continues off from where the last film ended. Following Ellen Ripley who has been found after 57 years of drifting in hypersleep (a sort of stasis). She must once again encounter the alien entity that destroyed their crew as a colony of humans has been developed on the planet where the organism was found. Although the film is directed by a different director to the first, James Cameron still managers to deliver a successfully thrilling sequel which I believe is an improvement from the first film. As well the role of sigourney’s character which showcases well developed heroine at a time in film where there weren’t many.

Ghostbusters (2016)

Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon

Ghostbusters is a highly successful movie from 1984 and now we are presented with a new updated version of the classic. The movie features the same story about four scientists who believe in ghosts while nobody else does. Strange things start to happen and the city is taken over by the supernatural, giving the scientists the chance to fight it with their inventions.
The movie was strongly criticized especially because of the gender change in the roles. Instead of four male characters as protagonists, they now decided to put four females in their place. This is important for representation and my personal feelings are positive towards this change. They have also swapped the dumb female secretary for a male one.
Overall the film is the same as before, with a few updated jokes and, of course, modern special effects.
My favourite quote is from the scene where Kevin, the secretary, decides to create a logo for the Ghostbusters and he comes up with the old one, but with breasts and, when everyone looks shocked and disappointed he says: “Is it the boobs you don't like? Because I can make them... bigger”.

Trailer:

Now You See Me (2013)

Now You See Me (2013)

Starring: Dave Franco, Mark Ruffalo, Morgan Freeman

Now You See Me is one hell of a smart assy movie. It has some awesome scenes. The scene where Daniel gets out of the handcuffs, and switches agent Rhodes phone and he says “always be the smartest guy in the room”. The trick of robbing Tressler, and giving the money to the audience. Also, the scene where they find out about Rhodes, and who he really is. So cool! “I did not see that coming”.

It is cool how Rhodes goes from being the one hunting them to the one who is really behind the making of them as a group, and who orchestrated the whole event, of stealing money from Tressler, the insurance company that wouldn’t pay for his father’s insurance, and also taking down the guy who debunked all of his dad’s magic tricks. “the real magic is getting four strong solo acts and getting them to work together”.

And can we talk about Dave Franco in this movie. Soooo good “You’re a big boy now, Jack”. The scene where Jack fights agent Rhodes, and Fuller, sooo cool!

The movie also has some killer lines

“the more you think you see, the easier it is to fool you”

“oh, no nothings ever locked”

“I thought you were quite a dick”

“as if they were on the inside”

“could you be more of a condescending ass”

“this is kind of a talent only area”

“I can’t tell you how long I’ve waited to see that look on your face”

Now You See Me trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_diRgwPCS8

image from https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTY0NDY3MDMxN15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTM5NzMzOQ@@._V1_UX182_CR0,0,182,268_AL_.jpg

Arrival (2016)

Starring: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker

Arrival is a brilliant movie that shows a unique perspective of what non-terrestrial species may represent to humanity. The movie starts with the invasion of 12 alien objects in 12 distinct parts of the world. The locations are random and the countries are working to solve the puzzle.

The “space ships” are just there, inoffensive containing the alien specie inside. The great point, in my opinion, is the “non-humanification” of the them. They don’t look like us, they don’t walk, communicate, breath or behave like us. They are different, as it should be.

The climax of the movie happens with the decision of China cuts off the collaboration with other countries and decide to attack. If that happens, the scientists would not be able to receive the gift from the aliens: their language. For them to translate and understand it, they need the cooperation of all 12 nations and avoid war.

Different from other movies, the aliens are shown as allies and not enemies. The only down point that got too unrealistic was when the main character gets inside the alien atmosphere and survives. Apart from that, it is a movie that makes you think about cooperation and decision make.

The best quote was from Dr. Louise Banks: “The weapon is their language. They gave it all to us. Do you understand what that means?”.

Trailer:

Mr Peabody and Sherman (2014)

Photo source: FamousFix

Directed by	Rob Minkoff
Starring	Ty Burrell, Max Charles, Ariel Winter, Stephen Colbert, Leslie Mann, Allison Janney
Music by	Matthew Margeson

Short Story:
Mr Peabody, a highly accomplished "renaissance" talking dog (business titan, inventor, scientist, Nobel laureate, gourmet chef and two-time Olympic medalist - to quote his modest self-assessment) adopted a 7-year-old human son, Sherman. Mr. Peabody is educating Sherman using his own invention, the Wayback Machine. Their travels through time cultivate a real passion for history in Sherman, who is eager to share his knowledge on his first day at school.

The problem arises when Sherman gets in a fight with Penny (a fellow student from history class) over the George Washington cherry-tree anecdote. The highly provocative situation leads to Sherman biting Penny, which in turn leads to a Child Protective Services officer trying to remove Sherman from Mr Peabody and place him in foster care. To rectify the situation, Mr Peabody invites Penny and her parents over for dinner. While the adults are trying to find some common ground, Sherman shows Penny the Wayback Machine and together they go on the most exciting adventure of their lives. They go to Ancient Egypt, where Penny is to marry King Tut, but when they find out that she must follow her future husband in death, make a narrow escape with the Wayback. Unfortunately, the machine runs out of power and they have to make an emergency stop in Renaissance Florence. Here they meet Leonardo Da Vinci and get to try his famous flying machine. We even find out the secret behind Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile.

They manage to power up the Wayback, but on the way home they run into a black hole that forces them to make another emergency landing right in the middle of the Trojan War. Penny gets trapped into the Trojan horse, Sherman rescues her, but must go back to present to warn Mr Peabody that he might die in the past. When those who time-traveled meet with their present-time selves, a rip occurs in the space-time continuum that prevents anyone from traveling back in time. This rip causes numerous historical figures to invade the present and Peabody, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Agamemnon are all trying to figure out how to repair the space-time continuum. Surprisingly, the solution comes from Sherman, who suggests that they travel in the future, rather than the past. Peabody and Sherman take off in the Wayback, fix everything and get back right in time for school, but this time Penny and Sherman are good friends.

Verdict:
I absolutely loved this movie! Can't really understand why it performed so badly at the box office, but if you're into intellectual humor, be prepared to laugh so hard, your cheeks will hurt. Children will love all the history-related fun facts and even without that, it's a really good story, brilliantly executed.


Favourite quotes:
Penny: I'm not Penny anymore. Now, I'm Princess Hatsheput, precious flower of the Nile.
Mr. Peabody: "Precious," perhaps, but if you think we're going to leave you here, you are most definitely in "de-Nile."
Sherman: [laughs] I don't get it.

George Washington: I hereby award Mr. Peabody a Presidential pardon.
Abraham Lincoln: Me too!
Bill Clinton: I've done worse.

Mr. Peabody: Sherman, don't you remember why I told you to stay close to me during the French Revolution?
Sherman: Because after the French Revolution, it was gonna rain?
Mr. Peabody: Close. I said "After the French Revolution comes... the Reign of Terror!"

Penny's father: When it comes to the safety of my daughter, nothing is more important than...Shello? Sure, I'll take a survey.