Greek Accents

Cover of Clash of the Titans (Snap Case)

I have watched a lot of movies recently involving ancient Greece; both Clash of the Titans, Troy, 300, and last night the last half of Percy Jackson.  I have come to the conclusion that the Ancient Greeks spoke with an British accent.  Only actors from the UK have a chance at any of these roles.  I am pretty sure the ancient Greeks didn’t speak English at all, so why the actor discrimination.    If you want foreign actors to play these roles get Greeks with Greek accents.  I know we are the movie going public and can’t tell the difference, but put some effort in here. 

Maybe it is because these are Hollywood movies and Hollywood only knows about British actors.  Maybe when they do a movie in the UK about the ancient Greeks they use American Actors to give us that foreign sound.  No, they probably use Australians.  I wonder what Australia uses?

I don’t see this changing and really see it going further with the Thor movie coming out, as I believe most of the Norse Gods will have British Accents as well.  The Doctor from Doctor Who is an alien and he has British accent but that is a British show so it is therefore excused.  In Star Trek:  The Next Generation, we had a Brit playing a Frenchman. 

Hollywood, there are more accents other than the ones from the British Isles.  Sure India was a British Colony but I doubt that the entire country of India is populated by people with a Londoner accent.  Obviously realism doesn’t matter when making these movies so just cast whomever from wherever.  Don’t put the accent litmus test into the auditions.  I am sure that there are women that will say that Hollywood should but Gerard Butler into every movie, but that is something different altogether. 

Knucklehead (2010) Movie Review

Image via Wikipedia

Movie reviewers tend to look at movies from the point of view of someone looking at art.  They want movies that mean something and that take chances both with the shots and with the story.  For these reasons, reviewers hated this movie. 

I can usually separate myself from this need for high art from movies.  Sometimes I just need a fun family movie, where I can sit with my girls and share a laugh.  This is entirely that kind of movie.  It stars Big Show from WWE.  Big show is a huge favorite for not just my kids, but most kids.  He is a gentle giant and gets to play up to that in this movie. 

The plot is silly.  Big Show plays Walter, a grown up (way up) orphan that never left the orphanage.  Trouble seems to follow him around and he ends up burning down the orphanage kitchen.  The orphanage will have to close if they don’t fix it, but they don’t have money.  Then enters a down on his luck fight promoter that sees Walter as a way to win a MMA match in New Orleans. 

The movie is full of slapstick and fart jokes.  The mixed martial arts are not really showcased here.  The movie has heart though.  It is fun and Big Show does a pretty good acting job.  The rest of the cast does equally well.  It was very family friendly with some references to two of the characters being former strippers and one episode of drunkenness. 

Overall, it was a fun, family movie.  The appeal may be limited to to WWE fans or the 7-14 demographic, but it wasn’t painful for adults and was kind of fun for me as well.  You can tell that the actors had a good time making this movie.  If you have kids in the 7-14 range, I would say give this one a chance. 

blogger Tags: big show, wrestling, movies, movie reviews

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Cover of Diary of a Wimpy Kid

I watched the Diary of a wimpy kid movie this weekend.  I have read a couple of the books and they are pretty funny.  The series as well as the movie are based on the trials of middle school and the main character’s struggles with popularity.  The books are amazingly funny.  The movie doesn’t really live up to the books.

The problem with the movie is that everyone in the book is a caricature of an archetype.  For a book with illustrations, that is no problem at all.  But for a live action movie, you have to turn the caricatures into real people.  This isn’t something that child actors can do and I am not sure that they were even asked to try and be more of what they were supposed to be.  The bratty girl is the only one that came close and that is because being bratty is easy. 

The books just don’t work on the big screen.  They were perfect in book form.  That is how the story was meant to be told.  It is episodic and fragmented and that just doesn’t make for a great movie. 

Hit girl was in it and that was distracting. 

Clash of the Titans

Cover of Clash of the Titans

I watched the original Clash of the Titans with the family this week.  It was the first time Jung had ever seen it.  Which is strange.  The girls enjoy it quite a bit and really like Medusa.  Ashli, of course, has been exposed to the Gorgons in the Doctor Who spin-off Sarah Jane. 

Ally said that they got Medusa wrong because she didn’t have legs.  Jung said it was a fun kids movie that teaches a lot about mythology.  I would agree, but like Ally they kind of mixed everything up. It was still a lot of fun though and one of the greatest movies from my childhood.  Now to watch the remake. 

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• Children of the Gorgon from Tower of the Archmage (towerofthearchmage.blogspot.com)

Once

Once - main trailer

Picked this movie up because I thought it had John McGinley in it.
Seriously, the lead, Glen Hansard, looks just like him. Got home,
realized that he wasn't and, thankfully, watched the movie anyways.

The movie revolves around an Irish singer/songwriter (Hansard)
and a young Czech immigrant (Marketa Irglova) as they meet and attempt
to record a demo. Along the way a beautiful friendship is forged, great
songs are sung, and both of their worlds change a little. The music is
real as both Hansard and Irglova are professional musicians. It has a
moving, soul felt quality that instantly grabbed me. The acting was
superb. Irglova is absolutely adorable in the role and Hansard is
perfect in his role of down and out musician with a dream.

This movie was more. After I watched it, I got the feeling that
it was very important for some reason. These almost strangers came
together and helped each other out, sometimes in ways that neither would
ever have understood. It felt real and it felt pure. This movie tells
you to never give up and that it is okay to have a dream. Hansard's
character is afraid to fail at the beginning, but by the end, he, and
the audience, knows that trying and failing would still be succeeding.
This is the message I will take away. Trying and failing is still
succeeding where dreams are concerned.

Excellent movie! I have no problems telling people to rent this
one, heck buy it if you want. There is quite a bit of language in this
movie so let the wee ones go to bed first.

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Soldier (1998)

This movie came on ion tonight and I gave it a watch for the first time since seeing it in theaters.  This movie stars Kurt Russell as SGT Todd.  Todd is the soldier of the title and was trained since birth, with several others, to be a super soldiers.  The movie opens with a montage of different training that the soldiers went through and also different battles that they had fought in. 

SOLDIER (1998) pt 1 *** FULL MOVIE ***

Flash forward and the soldiers are all well decorated and Todd stands out as the best of the best.  The soldiers are aging and their numbers diminishing from combat.  Just in time, a new crop of soldiers show up.  This new group are genetically modified perfect soldiers.  To test the new soldiers Todd is pitted up against Cain 607 (Jason Scott Leigh).  Cain beats Todd in every test and eventually dispatches him in hand to hand combat with two other older soldiers, just to make it fair. 

Todd is left for dead on a trash planet and is adopted by the locals.  For whatever reason the ship comes back a couple of weeks later and they decide to wipe out the population of the planet as training for the new soldiers.  Todd has gained affection for these people in the two weeks, and decides to protect them while wiping out the new batch of soldiers, killing the leaders of the program, and liberating the old obsolete soldiers. 

The movie isn’t half bad.  I like the concept of soldiers raised from birth and the message that a non brain washed soldier will be a superior soldier to one that is basically a robot.  If you know what you are fighting for, you are more likely to win.  The really awesome thing about this movie is all the nods it makes to other science fiction movies.  Check out the trivia on imdb for a rundown.

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The Incredible Hulk

 

Incredible Hulk (Widescreen Edition)

Watched this with the girls on Tuesday night.  I was blown away.  Sure the movie was fun, but I think it was comparing it to the last Hulk movie that made it seem like the best movie in the world.  Ally loved when he finally said "Hulk smash!"  People have asked if it was as good as Iron Man and I can't really compare the two.  They were two completely different films with different paces.  Iron Man was an origin story and Hulk was a retcon/sequel/start-over.  I will say that the movie accomplished its goal of making an excellent Hulk movie.  It is hard to feel compassion for the character on screen because he loses an aspect of his humanity in the transformation.  This movie addressed this with the eyes. The eyes, although gamma green, let all of the humanity in.  I really liked the rage and roar in this movie a lot more than the last movie.  The special effects either make or break a movie like this and they did what they were supposed to do without drawing too much attention to themselves.  I really liked it and the girls loved it. 

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Different types of zombie movies

Fido

This movie was excellent.  A true "boy and his zombie" kind of story.  This movie is more than a bit disturbing at points and almost makes you feel sorry for zombies.  This one is worth a watch though. 

 

 

American Zombie - Trailer

American Zombie is a documentary about high functioning zombies that live and work in L.A.  This is directed by Grace Lee, from the documentary "The Grace Lee Project."  It is funny and makes you think.  Would you date a zombie?  Would you work alongside a zombie?  This movie forces you to ask these questions. 

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I See Movies

The Machine Girl

If you like ultra violent blood spray movies than this one is for you.  It is a revenge movie that lives up to the Tokyo Shock title.  The main character's brother and his friend are killed by a gang that is led by the son of a Yakuza boss.  Oh the boss, his wife, and son are all Ninja as well.  The movie just gets more and more bloody from there.  This movie is not for the weak of heart or stomach. 

Forever the Moment-  This is a Korean movie.  A Korean sports movie.  A Korean sports movie about Olympic handball.  A Korean sports movie about women's Olympic handball.  Now that you don't want to see it let me tell you how good it is.  It is based on the true story of the 2004 women's Olympic handball team.  The team was put together with some veterans that some considered to be over the hill and some unproved rookies.  The coaching situation was uncertain until the late into training and even then the he and the players clashed at first.  Like all sports movies, this one is a feel good title.  I won't tell you how they did in the Olympics, but the movie does have footage of the real matches along with soundbites from several of the real players and the coach.  Great movie.

 

Saint Ralph

Another sports movie and yes another feel good movie.  This movie was just awesome.  How did I miss this movie for so long.  How did this one slip under the radar of everyone I know except for Mainmor who watched it accidently.  The first 20 or so minutes of this movie are uncomfortable as this 14 y/o boy is exploring puberty.  A lot of the time with his hands.  The story is about Ralph, whos father is dead and his mother has just slipped into a coma and looks as though she is battling cancer.  He goes to catholic school and is kind of an outcast.  He is told that it will take a miracle for his mother to ever wake up.  He relates this to the XC coach saying that it would be a miracle if anyone off of his team could win boston.  Ralph is encouraged by a vision of God telling him to win the race.  It was a great movie with some great child acting. 

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