My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)

Genre

Comedy | Romance

Director

Joel Zwick

Country

Canada | USA

Cast

Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Lainie Kazan, Michael Constantine, Andrea Martin, Christina Paraskevopoulos, Gerry Mendicino, Louis Mandylor, Gia Carides, Joey Fatone, Stavroula Logothettis, Ian Gomez, Bruce Gray, Fiona Reid, Bess Meisler, Jayne Eastwood, Arielle Sugarman

Storyline

30-year-old Toula Portokalos (Nia Vardalos) is still single and living with her parents. After convincing her father (Michael Constantine) to go to university, she meets and fall in love with Ian Miller (John Corbett). There's only one problem: he is not Greek, and she is supposed to marry a Greek man.

Opinion

I've watched this film a lot when I was younger. Way too many times. I've also picked it weeks ago for a Thursday Movie Picks post, and I said it was a decent comedy. But I was wrong, because "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is a nice, entertaining and hilarious comedy. So much better than I remembered.

The best thing about this film is probably its simplicity. It does not have a complex or twisted plot, it is just a simple love story that develops in a quite predictable way, but it is made engaging and interesting by the (big Greek) family conflict.

Than there's the main character, Toula. The great thing about her is that you don't need to be Greek to empathize with her. She is just a woman in her thirties, she has not that kind of beauty almost all the rom-coms characters have - she is kinda like Bridget Jones but without all the vulgarities -, and it's really easy to relate to having a relationship with someone your parents don't approve.

Sure, the Greek characters are stereotypical and exaggerated, but that's what makes the film so hilarious. And it's plenty of memorable scenes, like when the family ladies convince Gus, Toula's father, that working in her aunt's travel agency was his idea, or when all the ladies are getting ready for the wedding. And the best part is that this fil suits all ages.

Nia Vardalos gives a good performances as Toula, the ugly duckling - in my opinion, she is not ugly at all though. Lainie Kazan and Michael Constantine also give good performances as Toula's parents.

Hannibal Rising (2007)

Genre

Crime | Thriller

Director

Peter Webber

Country

France | UK | USA

Cast

Gaspard Ulliel, Gong Li, Dominic West, Rhys Ifans, Helena-Lia Tachovska, Kevin McKidd, Richard Brake, Stephen Walters, Ivan Marevich, Charles Maquignon, Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė, Beata Ben Ammar, Pavel Bezdek, Goran Kostić, Robbie Kay, Dennis Ménochet

Storyline

After the death of his parents during World War II, young Hannibal Lecter (Gaspard Ulliel) moves in with his aunt (Gong Li) and begins plotting revenge on the barbarians responsible for his sister's death.

Opinion

After a useless remake - "Red Dragon" - here it is a useless prequel of "Manhunter". Unfortunately, "Hannibal Rising" isn't only a useless prequel, but it also is a horrific film as well as a shame for the Hannibal Lecter series.

Even though this was just another way for Hollywood to make more money, an origins film on Hannibal Lecter would have definitely been interesting if done in the right manner, and this is not the case, of course.

The writing is a mess, especially the plot. Like the tagline says, it all started with revenge, Hannibal's sister is killed and he wants revenge. But after two hours, a lot of plot holes, and so much nonsense you need a stack of paper to write it all, the film doesn't manage to show a proper transition of Hannibal, from young man looking for revenge to cannibal.

The disgusting script, which was written by writer Thomas Harris, doesn't feature any of the psychological insight of most of the previous entries in the series. To be honest, it kind of portray Hannibal like some sort of sick kid.

Peter Webber's direction is terrible. I am not even sure he knew what he was doing, a little bit like Woody Allen's character in "Hollywood Ending". Only that character was blind. The film completely lacks suspense and tension, but there's plenty of blood. It actually is a bloodbath.

But let's move onto the next point, the cast. First of all, Gaspard Ulliel has none of the charm of Hopkins, and I realize that's much to ask to a young actor, but he doesn't give any justice to the character of Hannibal either. He just grins for the whole thing. Then there is Gong Li plays Hannibal's Japanese aunt. This is some of the nonsense I was talking above. But my point here is Gong Li is Chinese. And even though many think they look the same, they don't. And what did she do to deserve this film? Dominic West gives a decent performance, but the reason why he even signed up for this, a mystery.

Thursday Movie Picks: Summer Camp

Hello there, and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks, a weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves where you share three movies to fit the theme of the week each Thursday.

This week we are dealing with summer camp movies. And let me tell you, it wasn't easy. Maybe it's because I've never been to a summer camp. Or probably because I'm not even interested in those movies. I almost resigned myself to the idea of going theme within theme with three Friday the 13th flicks, but then, thank god, two of the movies I watched over and over again when I was a kid came to my mind, so there you go. 

It Takes Two (1995)

Two identical little girls, rich girl Alyssa and orphan Amanda, accidentally meet one day, and try to make Alyssa's father marry Amanda's case worker instead of the horrible woman he is going to marry. Don't expect anything brilliant here, it's just a family comedy starring the Olsen twins.

The Parent Trap (1998)

Two identical twins, separated at birth and each raised by one of their biological parents, accidentally meet and plan to bring the parents back together. Yeah, the plot is pretty much the same of the previous - this one's a remake of 1961 movie though -, and the film isn't a masterpiece or anything, but if I recall it's a good family film.

Friday the 13th (1980)

After a young boy named Jason drowned in 1957, bad things started to happen at Camp Crystal Lake, like camp counselors murdered, and other stuff. They reopen the camp in 1979, and guess what, someone starts playing kill the counselor. This one isn't great. It's filled with horrors clichés and pretty much anything is bad. But after watching all the franchise I can tell you it is neither as bad as I thought at first.

Fifty Shades of Black (2016)

Genre

Comedy

Director

Michael Tiddes

Country

USA

Cast

Marlon Wayans, Kali Hawk, Jane Seymour, Fred Willard, Irene Choi, David Arvesen, King Bach, Mircea Monroe, Affion Crockett, Kate Miner, Florence Henderson, Dave Sheridan, Jenny Zigrino

Storyline

Inexperienced college student Hannah Steale's (Kali Hawk) life changes forever when she meet wealthy businessman Christian Black (Marlon Wayans). 

Opinion

One week later, here I am reviewing "Fifty Shades of Grey"'s parody, but unlike I hoped, I won't be able to say that the parody is better than the original, even though this time I didn't need to take breaks or speed up the film to get to the end.

To be honest, the idea was great. I mean, taking one of the most successful films - and novels - of the past few years and making a parody of it complete with a social satire, something decent could have been made out of it.

Unfortunately, the filmmakers' only concern was to make fun of the original film scene by scene, and while that worked for a few scenes, the rest is just filled with sex jokes, not that funny humour and a lot of stupid things. Basically all "Fifty Shades of Black" does is trying to show the audience how dumb the original movie is.

Okay, that's not true, because it also makes fun of other films such as "Magic Mike" - and I'm totally cool with that - and "Whiplash" - nope, I'm not okay with this one. And there are tons of references of other popular movies, TV shows and books, not to mention the pop culture satire that is nothing like the satire in Wayans previous comedies. Also, there is so much vulgarity that it's even too much for Marlon Wayans.

"A Haunted House 2" was better than this, still I had a few laughs, and ultimately "Fifty Shades of Black" is the parody "Fifty Shades of Grey" deserves.