AMELIE

 I watched Amelie first time when I was nine or ten years old, and back then I thought that it was the strangest film I’ve ever watched. After little more than a decade, I've watched the film once again and had totally different impression. Well what do kids know right?

Amelie or in French, Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amelie Poulain (The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain), is a 2001 French romantic comedy film depicting the contemporary Parisian life in Montmarte. The film was directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. It tells the story of a smart, kind and shy young waitress girl, Amelie (Audrey Tautou), who decided to change the lives of those people around her and make them happy. After all the effort she puts to help others she is still lonely, until she falls in love with a young man (very similar to her).  and the lucky coincidence happens.

Amelie was a big success gaining acclaims from critics and winning several awards including: Best Film at the European Film Awards, Best Film and Best Director at the Cesar Awards and two BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) awards. Amelie was the highest grossing French movie released in the United States. Its soundtracks got so popular as well.

Sources:

http://siyoencontraralaestrella.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/amelie/

http://on-the-road.it/cinema/le-fabuleux-destin-damelie-poulain/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0211915/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Am%C3%A9lie

POLICE STORY

The Police Story film is the Hong-Kong series directed by Jackie Chan and two other well known movie directors, Stanley Tong and Benny Chan. The series includes six crime action films released throughout 28 years.

Police Story- 1985

Police Story2- 1988

Police Story3- 1992

Police Story4- 1996

New Police Story- 2004

Police Story- 2013

All of the Police Story movies were produced by Raymond Chow, Leonard Ho, Jackie Chan, Barbie Tung (lol), Willie Chan and Solon So; and distributed by Golden Harvest, Media Asia, Golden Way Films and JCE Movies. They were all directed by the same directors mentioned above. Jackie Chan’s first film featuring as a Hong-Kong cop was a blockbuster in Asia, U.S, Hong-Kong and many other countries. Chan returned to fame after his blockbuster movies ended up in box offices. In Ong Kong alone, the series grossed over HK$ 26,626,760. The last two  series use gritty and dark approach compared to the first four ones. Jackie Chan is one of my most favorite actors whom I consider to be one of the very rare talents who can make both light, funny and serious characters;  and among the Police Story series I liked New Police Story, 2004 very much.      
Source:
http://cinehouseuk.blogspot.com/2011/07/cine-asia-to-release-jackie-chan.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_Story_(film_series) 

BURLESQUE

I remember watching the film Burlesque starring Christina Aguilera and Cher three years ago in the Cinemax Blagoevgrad, yet the excitement the film has conveyed was so great that I remember even the details in the film like clothes of the performers and the music of the songs.

Burlesque is a 2010 musical film directed and written by Steven Antin and a debut of pop singer Christina Aguilera. It has also starred Eric Dane, Cam Gigandet, Julianne Hough, Allan Cumming, Peter Gallagher, Kristen Bell, Stanley Tucci and Diana Agron. Cher and Aguilera contributed to the soundtrack album, w^th Grammy Awards. The “ You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me” sung by Cher, won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song in 2011. The film has grossed over $90 million worldwide.

ith Aguilera contributing eight out of the ten songs and Cher the other two. The album received two nominations at the 54

Ali Rose (Christina Aguilera) moves to LA after she quits her job as a waitress. She fails every audition she goes on until one night she finds herself unknowingly in a burlesque club when she hears the music from the street. She sees Tess (Cher) and the dancers performing and becomes astonished by the performance that she decides to pursue a career in this club. And the adventure begins.

For me, the film was just breathtaking and I guess the fact that I watched it in the cinema affected much stronger reaction. Check out the trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P41uQaOLC-Q

Sources

:

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/04/25/11521/

https://www.google.bg/url?

sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&docid=YO7BLPfx-pCtoM&tbnid=naN-__C3dq1kRM:&ved=0CAQQjB0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fburlesque-trailer.blogspot.com%2F&ei=wFZKU9vrMcnJsgao4YHwDA&bvm=bv.64542518,d.bGQ&psig=AFQjCNE1yiXQEwL8DF30a3_FnDDeD06xWg&ust=1397467152058778

WATER FOR ELEPHANTS

Water for Elephants is a 2011 American romantic drama film based on Sara Gruen’s 2006 novel of the same name. The film was directed by Francis Lawrence and stars Christoph Waltz, Robert Pattinson and Reese Withwerspoon.

The film starts in the present day with an old man reminiscing his youth as a circus worker. And most of the film then takes in a flashback to the Great Depression era. Twenty three year-old Polish American student of Cornell’s veterinary medicine, Jacob unfortunately hears the news of his parents’ death in a car crash right during the final exam of the university. With a huge depth left after their parents, Jacob feels there’s no point in continuing to study further. He jumps on a passing train and the next morning he realizes he discovers that he jumped on Benzini Brothers Circus train. He meets the circus owner August, who is also the head animal trainer, and his beautiful wife Marlena Rosenbluth- the solo star of the circus. August hires Jacob as a circus vet after Jacob diagnoses the star horse Silver by laminitis, disease that affects the hooved animals’ feet. August is rough with people and animals, and his training method basically consists of beating them. He brutally beats the elephant Rosie, Silver’s replacement, when she fails to follow the orders. Jacob finds out that Rosie was trained in Polish and only understands polish commands. While working closely together to train Rosie, Jacob and Marlena fall in love with each other. However later August finds out. August together with his men beat Jacob and in Marlena’s attempt to help Jacob, August tries to choke her. Lying on the ground bloodied and beaten, Jacob looks up and sees Rosie hit August on the back and kills him. Back in the present Jacob explains what happened afterward: he returned to Cornell, took his last exam and finished his degree. He and Marlena took several of the horses and Rosie and got jobs with Ringling Brothers. They married and had five children and kept Rosie until her death.

I loved the movie. Check out the trailer below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0DbfQaentM

 Source: 

http://waterforelephantsfilm.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_for_Elephants

SLAM DUNK

In high school I read first two mangas of the Japanese sports themed manga series, Slam Dunk, and remember laughing throughout the reading. It is about a basketball team from Shohoku high school. Hanamichi Sakuragi, a delinquent leader of a gang, although warm hearted and handsome, is very unpopular with girls because of his hot temper, immaturity and bossiness and has been rejected fifty times. In his first year at Shohoku, he falls in love with her dream girl Haruko Akagi and is glad that Haruko is not scared away from him like the other girls. She introduces Hanamichi to the Shohoku basketball team after seeing his athletic talent. Hanamichi is reluctant to join the team at first, but joins in order to impress Haruko. Despite his absence of experience and background in playing basketball, with time he proves to be a natural athlete. Later on Hanamichi realizes his interest in basketball has become equal to his crush. Then there occurs a star of the school, “a girls’ magnet” and a bitter rival of Hanamichi both in sports and in love, Kaede Rukawa; and the adventure of both love triangle and basketball contests begin.

Slam Dunk was serialized in Japan from 1990-1960 and was also adapted into an anime series which had been broadcast worldwide. As of 2012, Slam Dunk has sold 120million copies in Japan alone, making it one of the best-selling mangas in history.

Source:

http://www.animeslamdunk.com/

SECRET

One of my all-time favorite movies, Secret or in direct translation from Chinese, “The Secret That Cannot Be Told” is a 2007 Taiwanese film. Popular Taiwanese musician Jay Chou stars as the male lead also co-wrote the movie. In the year of release, the movie received six nominations at the Taiwanese Golden Horse Awards and won Outstanding Taiwanese Film of The Year Awards. Also it was nominated for Best Asian Film at the 27^th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2008.

In the film, a music student majoring in piano Ye Xianglun transfers to a music school popular with the most talented students. On the first day of school, as he wanders through the piano department building, he hears a mysterious melody being played that leads him to Lu Xiaoyu, another piano student. He asks her about the song and she tells it is a secret that cannot be told. They develop a relationship and the girl’s life stays clouded in mystery. When Xianglun tells Xiaoyu that the piano building is going to be demolished on a graduation day and the old grand piano will be torn down with the building, Xiaoyu eventually teaches him the mysterious song. Xiaoyu disappears for 5 months after seeing Xianglun accidentally kissing other girl and appears on the graduation day and mysteriously disappears again. After trying hard to find out what was going on Xianglun discovers the unbelievable secret of the mysterious song and the old grand piano. I didn’t want to write here what was the secret exactly because of my wish not to spoil it for those people who might be interested in watching the movie. I hope they would be as much excited as I was when I first watched the film and discover the secret together with Xianglun.

I would highly recommend watching this movie.

 Check out the trailer below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTDuOkNSJA4

LinkedIn Value for Students

     Today numerous companies and organizations are actively using a recruitment though social media as one of their main recruitment methods. Among those, especially LinkedIn is found valuable as it is launched for professional networking specifically.

    For students and university graduates, LinkedIn is almost a must-use-social-platform in order to effectively and efficiently find the suitable jobs or internship programs. There are millions of companies on LinkedIn, including Fortune 500 companies.

    Once students have created a professional profile, they can receive alerts for the openings of the recommended jobs. Also LinkedIn gives students the chance to connect with professionals from all over the world more than any other social networks where professionals’ presence is not concentrated at all. Moreover, not only the job-seeking students conduct the research on the companies of their interest, but the companies themselves look for talented candidates and find them to hire. As social professional networks are fast growing source of quality hires for global recruiters, newly graduates are searching from an international pool of employment.

SHUTTER ISLAND
Shutter Island is a 2010 psychological thriller film starring Leonardo DiCaprio as US Marshal Edward Daniels. The plot happens in 1954 and it is about two U.S Marshals:  Edward (Teddy) Daniels and his new partner Chuck Aule investigating a psychiatric facility on the island because of the disappearance of one patient incarcerated for drowning her three children. After the arrival because of the storm the Marshals couldn't leave to the mainland and the staff of the hospital was confrontational as if they had some secret.


As the investigation continues Daniels and Aule find out that the lost patient was already found by the staff with no explanation. Getting suspicious, Daniels breaks into the prohibited part of the hospital and meets another patient under the solitary confinement who reveals Daniels that the hospitals is doing strange experiments on its patients. The ending was surprising. Chasing after each clue, Daniels gets more and more sick and confused. Things go out of his control. Eventually he has to learn that Daniels himself was a patient who went insane.
 In 2011 I went on a work and travel program to the US and I watched Shutter Island in the evening of the day I arrived in the Martha's Vineyard. The movie begins showing an island and the title says "Massachusets, Somewhere near Boston" which made me hope that there is no actual psychiatric facility near the Martha's.

https://trailers.apple.com/trailers/paramount/shutterisland/
Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shutter_Island_(film)

THE EYE (JIAN GUI)
     Somewhere in my earlier posts, I mentioned that I don't like and cannot watch horror movies. I haven't watched any horror movie for so long that I don't remember when and what was the last horror film I watched. Anyways, few days ago my friend reminded me of one really interesting and at the same time thrilling movie while we were talking about eye transplant.
     Jian Gui,(The Eye), also known as Seeing Ghosts, is a Hong Kong-Singaporean horror film from 2002. It was directed by Pang brothers, popular screenwriter and film director twin brothers. The plot is very interesting that there are several remakes of this movie in different countries. In 2008 Jessica Alba starred in the Hollywood version of the movie which many of you might have watched. In The Eye, a 20 year old Hong Kong classical violinist girl who was blind since the age of 2 undergoes an eye cornea transplant after receiving a pair of new eyes from a donor. Initially she is happy that she got her sight, however things start to trouble her after she starts to see mysterious figures that foretell her deaths. She goes on a journey to find out more about the donor and finds out that the donor girl had an ability to foresee disasters and deaths, and people from the village considered she was a witch.
     This movie gave me very strong thrills that I still remember and can easily visualize some of the parts from the movie. Existence of the souls apart from the physical body is already scientifically agreed. So after watching this movie, I doubt one would go to sleep comfortably.
Source:
http://movieposters.2038.net/movieid-482

DIARY of a WIMPY KID

     Diary of a wimpy kid is a series of fiction books for kids written by Jeff Kinney, American author and cartoonist. The books are the diaries of a main character kid named Greg Heffley which are filled by hand-written notes and simple drawings of his adventures. Diary of a Wimpy Kid series were released online in 2004 and since then gained popularity and commercial success worldwide. The books are being made into a film series by 20^th Century Fox. There are three movies by now, Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010), Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (2011), Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (2012). When asked what inspired Kinney to write the novel, he replied “I wanted to write about a kid who was imperfect in the same ways I was imperfect as a kid, someone who wasn’t really fully formed as a person yet”.

     I have watched the first movie although I am not really interested in semi-teen comedies and in fact, I liked it. Kinney’s close simulation of a kid writing the diary, seemed extremely believable so that it seems like the author really was a kid. Also the work is credible for its use for parents or potential parents to understand early teenagers’ mindset.       
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diary_of_a_Wimpy_Kid

GREY’s ANATOMY

   During the spring break I have started watching Grey’s Anatomy. The series is about surgical interns and residents at the fictional Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. Each season basically represents physicians’ academic year, with each completed year qualifying the residents at a higher level in the surgical field. In the end of each season, the final usually includes some tragic event where one of the characters dies. Compared to other series, Grey’s Anatomy seems to include many different aspects of life like medical science, love, relationship and friendship. However I keep wondering whether all the medical incidents shown in the movie are realistic.  

   The series was renewed for a tenth season last year in May which premiered on 26^th of September. The series received Golden Globe Award for best television series on Drama. 

   Although much dramatized, Grey’s Anatomy gives people an idea of surgeons’ lives and the demanding nature of the profession. Most of us know that doctors’ profession requires a lot from a person and those who work in that field constantly face work-life conflicting decisions. I heard that interestingly most of the episode titles are song names.  

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey%27s_anatomy

For Anime Lovers:
There's an anime themed social networking website where members can create their own avatars and participate in the virtual world.
It's headquarters are in San Jose, California USA.
There are over 26 million registered users, 7 million of which visit the site daily.
The main language is English.
It is a social gaming and forum website where users join online games and also communicate through the forum.
Gaia Online generates its revenue through selling Gaia gold, the money to purchase virtual goods. On average, a user spends 30$ per month on the Gaia gold.
Anime lovers might find this website fun!

HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE

     Howl’s Moving Castle is a Japanese animated fantasy film made in 2004. It is based on the novel by English writer Diana Wynne Jones. The film made $190 million in Japan and $235 million worldwide. Howl’s Moving Castle was distributed in North America by Walt Disney Pictures and English dubbing was made by Pixar’s Peter Docter (an American film director, animator, producer and voice actor). It was nominated for The Best Animated Feature Academy Award in 2006.

     The story is about a nineteen year old hatter girl named Sophie who was turned into a ninety year old woman by a witch curse. On her way seeking a cure for her transformation Sophie meets a tremendously powerful wizard Howl.

     The film received positive reviews in general. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 86% of the critics gave the film positive reviews, which prove the success and general reception of the film. Every person, at some point in their childhood, probably had dreamt of the magic land where there are witches and wizards who have the supernatural powers, and grow an imagination how everything might look like. This film’s visuals are done brilliantly and the plot is sophisticated enough that makes it more than a cartoon. Moreover, I think grown-ups might find Howl’s Moving Castle more fascinating than small children. Highly recommended to watch! ;)

Check out the trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UibodUGoL4M 
Source:
http://www.yourfaceisa.com/miyazaki-month-howls-moving-castle/

Source:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1067106/

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

The latest movie I watched is a computer animated film made by Disney Animation in 2009 on Charles Dickens novel A Christmas Carol. The novel has been adapted many times to stage, film and opera and is popular for never being out of print. It is about a bitter old greedy miser Ebenezer Scrooge who was visited by the ghost of his late business partner Jacob and three other Christmas ghosts:  ghost of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. The ghosts come to save Scrooge’s miserable faith and give him the last opportunity to make his life worthwhile and learn to show some mercy on people.

The film received mixed to positive reviews from the critics. One Wall Street Journal review says “the tone is joyless, despite an extended passage of bizarre laughter, several dazzling flights of digital fancy, a succession of striking images and Jim Carrey’s voicing of Scrooge…” Nevertheless, almost 60% of the critics gave the movie a positive review according to Rotten Tomatoes. I slightly agree with the upper comment. There were moments in the film where it seemed to me that the images are a little too spooky for young children and all the laughter and shouts too irritating. All in all, I liked the film. It brings back the Christmassy and fairy-tallish atmosphere. Also the implication is significant. Love, Respect and Chistmas.

Source:

http://commaiclimqui.blog.com/2014/04/02/download-a-christmas-carol-book/

BLIND

Few days ago, when I was thinking about the movies that left me the strongest impressions I remembered one scary South Korean crime thriller movie- “Blind”. It is 2011 movie and I watched it about two years ago. A blind girl who used to be a promising cadet in a police academy before she lost her vision, comes to the police office to reveal the hit-and-run case she witnessed (a taxi she was going in hit someone and ran away leaving her on the road). However, police officer does not take her claims seriously because she was blind and then she proves her acute senses to the officer telling him the correct approximations of his height, figure and age. They start working together having no idea that they just caught a tip of a tie to a major serial killer case which was already investigated by the whole department.

I never watch horror movies, especially the Asian horror movies because I find them scariest of all.  The furthest I can go is the crime thrillers and “Blind” was definitely one of the strongest thrills I had in a while. I remember screaming out loudly with my roommate out of fear and waking up the other roommate who was sleeping (still feel sorry).

Check out the trailer below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz_TgM3UOD4

Source:
http://earnthis.net/dans-bottom-everything-twilight/

TWILIGHT SAGA  

    One of my other favorites is Twilight series:  Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn.  They say almost all the fans of Twilight saga are girls. Well I can’t deny, most of my female friends were so much into it. But also I know a lot of guys who love this movie too, although I gotta admit they are not the macho-type of guys. Each and every episode has something different, interesting and unpredictable; and none of them came to disappoint the expectations. I applaud the moviemakers for the amazing job.

     One night four years ago, I was in my bed changing the TV channels and came across with some movie that was just beginning. I turned the TV off after ten fifteen minutes because I didn’t like the movie at all. The next month as I finished reading my borrowed Twilight book, I was super excited to watch the movie and compare my visualization with that of the moviemakers’. As you might have predicted while reading, I found it funny that the movie I turned off because of the boredom, would be the one that I would read the book and go crazy about.      

    I did Twilight marathon with my boyfriend last winter, and he got to like the series after all. He used to hate it and was teasing me whether I was a “Team Jacob” or “Team Edward” J . Now, he’s in my Team Edward lol.

Source:
http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Frozen

FROZEN

    Frozen, the latest 3D animated musical film produced by Walt Disney Pictures, was a very successful work which was nominated and won numerous awards and so far grossed 914$ million in worldwide box office revenue. The interesting plot, beautifully expressive and at the same time catchy songs and the artistic features of computer generated imagery make the film so attractive and favorite of the audience. Personally, I prefer watching this kind of quality animations rather than the mediocre movies.

     Rotten Tomatoes, a review website, reports that 89% of the critics gave the film a positive review. A lot of appraisals are collected on the songs of the film. The song from the film “Let It Go” performed by American actress and singer Idina Menzel in the role of Queen Elsa got so appreciated by the audience that Disney Animation released a multiple language version that includes about 25 different languages. (Check out the video through the link below)   

A month ago, while we were talking about this multiple language version, one of my friends said “Have you watched Tangled? Rapunzel from Tangled shows up in Frozen”. I replied “You probably mistook Elsa with Rapunzel” and he got all confused, then we made a bet. Well I lost my bet (look at the picture I’ve uploaded).    
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC83NA5tAGE 

Look, Rapunzel and Flynn! :)
Source:
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Frozen-Tangled-Little-Mermaid-Actually-Linked-42225.html

Source:
http://mediasociety.drshellyblair.com/analyzing-friends/

MORE FRIENDS
Friends Vs How I Met Your Mother

No offense to the fans of How I Met Your Mother, but I have watched the first few seasons of How I Met Your Mother and towards the fifth season I just kept losing my interest in it and by the fifth season, I just stopped watching any further. The humor and irony there seem to be too repetitive and too unsophisticated. I couldn’t help but it got more and more boring and instead of laughing or just enjoying, I was often annoyed by the plot and especially the characters. No one of How I Met Your Mother’s characters is my favorite, (funny that my boyfriend likes Barney Stinson very much, the “legen-wait for it-dary” guy). Compared to that, the characters of Friends are so cool that I could not answer right away the question “Which one of the six friends do you dislike most?”

Well I thought about it and I do not dislike any of them. I can only make a list of Friends characters from the most favorite to the least favorite:

1.      Monica Geller.

2.      Joey Tribbiani/ Phoebe Buffay

3.      Chandler Bing

4.      Ross Geller

5.      Rachel Green

First comes Monica, because I like her upbeat mood, smart jokes and hospitality. Next, there are Joey and Phoebe, whom I cannot tell one over the other. Although naïve and dumb, Joey is too cute and Phoebe is just cool, she handles difficult situations better than anyone else. Chandler’s sarcastic jokes bring him to the third place. Lastly I like Ross almost as much as I like Rachel, however a lot of times Rachel acts only in her best interest which brings her at the bottom of my list. 

FRIENDS
Friends- twenty years old, but to me still the best show ever.

Friends is about twenty something year old New Yorkers’ lives of love, friendship, downfall and career. The series won numerous awards and was nominated for Emmy awards for 63 times. 52.5 million Americans watched the final episode when it was aired on 6^th of May,2004. Up until now, many critics consider Friends to be one of the finest shows ever. I’m one of the fans of Friends and right about to finish my second round of “marathon” (just going to watch the first episode of the last season after posting this).  No matter how many times I have watched Friends, the jokes still make me laugh over and over again and the sad scenes are as touching as it was for the first time. (Once again the part where Monica sits down on her knee to propose to Chandler got me all excited with tears in my eyes).

Just an interesting fact to know: turns out that initially producers wanted Courtney Cox to portray Rachel and Jennifer Aniston Monica. However Cox and Aniston disagreed and exchanged their roles. Seems to me that almost nobody could have been Monica better than Cox. The writers found that they had to adjust the characters they had written to suit the actors, and the discovery process of the characters occurred throughout the first season.

More posts to come about Friends.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friends

Sources:

Source: http://wanna-joke.com/tag/f-r-i-e-n-d-s/page/6/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmqCeNtXzFo

Hey you guys,

     This is my first time creating a blog, probably as many of yours too, and I never actually thought it would be something I would start doing just because I was assigned to it :). Anyway I will try to dedicate myself to it and enjoy blogging while doing the course assignment at the same time. So, as my blog address says "movieswewatched.blogspot.com" I will be posting my thoughts on the movies I (and hopefully you too) watched, and especially those that I thought meaningful and worthwhile to share my opinions. Watching good movies is definitely one of my passions. Who doesn’t like them right?  

     One thing to note in advance, I love watching movies but I am not an extreme movie-lover next to someone who never misses a movie shown in the cinemas and learns all the names of popular actor/tresses. I will be writing in the perspective of a simple audience, just myself.

There is no specific genre I prefer to watch over the other, however there is one I prefer not to watch at all- horror movies. I'll talk about it later next week ;)