The Box - Greed is part of human nature

The main reason why I liked this movie so much is that you cannot predict how it ends until you reach… the end! Cameron Diaz and James Madsen play the roles of Norma and Arthur Lewis, a regular married couple with a young boy which is about to live the unexpected.

One day, a simple man shows up at their door step while Norma is home alone and has a very interesting proposition. He shows a regular wooden box which has a button in the middle. The story is simple: open the box and press the button and the Lewis family gets $1 million without any further questions or explanations. The consequence: when the button is pressed, another person, somewhere in the world is going to die. This person is in no way related to the Lewis family so apparently there is no reason to worry so push the button and take the money! The family has 24 hours to decide. After that, the box will be taken and they will have missed the opportunity of a life time.

The grand finally is something hard to predict as this movie is more than a thriller, it is a psychological analysis of the human nature and the whole movie is going to leave you wondering what is going to happen next.

Taken - Kidnapping and human traffic

This is a good action movie... probably not as good as “Man on fire” but a great movie to enjoy even when you’re alone. Liam Neeson plays the role of Bryan Mills, a divorced man, retired from the Secret Service who wants to concentrate on renewing his relationship with his seventeen year-old daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace). Just like every teenager, Kim dreams about a vacation abroad with her best friend Amanda, far away from her parents so she convinces her father to let her travel to Paris for a couple of days under the false pretext that “Amanda’s grown up cousin in also going to be there”.

When the girls arrive in Paris, they are kidnapped. The mission? Desperate father is supposed to find his daughter using the very little clues he has managed to gather. Luckily, Kim manages to call her father minutes before the kidnapping and she is given instructions to put the phone down and describe shortly the men that were about to take her. The kidnapping scene is probably the best one in the movie. Can you imagine what is inside the desperate heart and mind of a father which hears on the phone how his daughter is being taken by an Albanese gang and moved God knows were? Shocking indeed!

The former secret agent and spy has to use his intuition and skills to track down Kim which is on another continent and could be taken out of France at any time. The plot thickens when the man finds out that he is dealing with a network of human traffickers…

A Lot Like Love - Make up your mind before it's too late

“A lot like love” is one romantic comedy which has that special something, making it different from the other similar movies in this category. This is story about good boy meets bad girl, have crazy and spontaneous sex in the airplane restroom and then each of them leads a separate life after one nice afternoon spent together.

With beautiful actors like Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet, this movie is going to offer some funny and romantic scenes that will make you cry and bite your lower lips at the same time. Even if Oliver and Amanda go their separate ways, destiny somehow brings them back together again… and again… and again… you get the picture! The point is that whenever one of them wants a bit more than sex and friendship, the other one seems to change his mind. I like this movie as it resembles the real life in so many ways. I’m sure that you or someone close to you have had a least one period in your lives when you couldn’t make up your mind about certain things. It’s about the same thing with relationships and commitments.

Apparently, Amanda and Oliver have absolutely nothing in common that could make them work as a couple. And yet, they somehow cannot forget that the other one exists and happy memories are the ones which are hard to be forgotten. Will Amanda and Oliver be together? You’d like to know that, wouldn’t you?

Under the Tuscan Sun - The first day of the rest of my life

The first time I saw this movie was back in 2004. I was in Brazil and I went to visit someone which was watching this movie on DVD, doubled in Portuguese. I could not make anything of it. One week later I rented the DVD and saw it in English. It was like watching a totally different movie.

“Under the Tuscan Sun” is not a complex movie… but the spontaneity and charisma of Frances (Diane Lane), a woman who must suddenly divorce the man of her dreams, make this film wonderful and a bit difficult to understand if you have never been love hurt. And is there any better solution to heal one’s heart than travel to Tuscan and suddenly buy a house? Apparently not. This is one movie everyone should watch when they are depressed as this is a movie about disappointment and the courage to start all over again.

It just goes to show you that life has a lot of surprises in store for you; you just need an open mind and the courage to look for the signs. Frances is a character which has a little bit of everything: strength yet weakness, courage yet fear, happiness yet depression but, most importantly, she sometimes acts without thinking things over… and this is what brings some of the beautiful moments in life.

The Goods - An offer you can't refuse

Now this is a marketing movie I like. In fact, if you are a marketing graduate you must dream at some point of becoming like Don Ready. This guy is a car salesman… and what a car salesman he is! With a history filled with successful sales, Don Ready (Jeremy Piven) is now confronted with his greatest challenge yet: selling 200 cars in only three days.

Just like any good movie, we do have the regular story “Boss hires Don. Don falls for boss’s daughter. Daughter is already engaged. Don is love hurt.” Other than this juicy love story, this movie is all about marketing, success and teamwork. I think that salesmen-wannabees have a couple of things to learn from Don Ready and his team of super cool cars salesmen. “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard” is looking to teach us that our entire life is one big bargain and negotiation is in our blood.

This is an amazing movie for both marketing passionates and regular people that have nothing to do with the sales business. It’s a movie about performance and perseverance and it just goes to show you that when you are just a little bit of ambition, you can reach for the top.

Man on Fire - How far would you go for the ones you love?

Out of all the Denzel Washington movies ever made, „Man on Fire” has to be the best. I was never a fan of action movies, but when the story seems so real and the scenes are so intense, who could resist? Did I mention Dakota Fanning is in this movie as well? Denzel Washington plays the role of John Creasy, a former CIA assassin who is hired by the wealthy Samuel (Marc Anthony) and Lisa Ramos (Radha Mitchell) to be the bodyguard of their charming nine-year old daughter Pita (Dakota Fanning).

The action takes place in New Mexico, in a time where child kidnapping has turned out to be a profitable business. The fascinating story is how a child’s charisma and smile can melt even the cold heart of an assassin. When Pita is kidnapped, Creasy’s life changes and it focuses on one thing: revenge on those that ever laid a hand on the girl. The roles of Pita and Creasy are played impeccably by the two actors which have the voice, the gestures and the mimics to impress even those that never cared too much about movies with assassins and revenge.

John Creasy manages to put all the gears in motion and swears “to punish anyone who has anything to do with Pita’s kidnapping”. How many people would risk their lives for a person they know so little? An action movie where you actually cry at the ending?! Nah, I would have never believed it. It makes you wonder how far would you go for the ones you love…

Zeitgeist - Heal the world

“Zeitgeist – The Movie” and “Zeitgeist Addendum” were definitely 2 documentaries that changed the vision of many people out there. The first documentary is structured in 3 parts. Part 1 refers to the history of religion and it basically tries to prove that Christianity is nothing more than a copy of different pagan religions. Part number 2 raises a big question mark around the series of events that happened on September 11th and the final part has a couple of things to say about the Federal Reserve Bank and how it controls and manipulates the world wide economy.

“Zeitgeist Addendum” tries to offer a solution for a better life by demonstrating that all the materials we ever need to lead a decent life are the natural resources of mother Earth. It gives us details about Jacque Fresco and the Venus Project in an attempt to get rid of social corruption and that one element that owns everybody’s lives: money.

Zeitgeist is not a movie for the weak; it’s a movie for those that believe in change and are willing to think outside the box. It’s about time we realized that we are not doing enough to live the happy and careless life that we always dream about. The Zeitgeist series is a non-profit one which has the courage to speak up and tell everyone the unseen face of the people that basically rule the world. The documentaries tell us the truth about the manipulation that was behind a war that killed innocent people. It shows how the Federal Bank operates in such a manner that every dollar in this world generates debt and the final result is… slavery. I know these 2 documentaries have opened my eyes and I can’t help wondering when this mass manipulation is going to end. It won’t, not until everyone is willing to accept the fact that we have to “heal the world”.

Se7en - Murder and The Divine Comedy

I don’t know what’s more amazing about the movie “Se7en”: the amazing actors or the ingenious script. You have to admit, one movie gets a special touch when the leading roles of 2 detectives are played by Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt. We have Kevin Spacey in the role of the criminal mastermind and Gwyneth Paltrow is the beautiful wife of Detective Mills.

The movie revolves around a series of crimes and an investigation led by Detective Somerset (Freeman) – one man who was ready to retire before he got forced into accepting this one last case – and Detective Mills (Pitt) – a young and recently married cop with a promotion a bit too big for what he can handle. When an obese man and a lawyer are murdered only to reveal the words GLUTTONY and GREED written at the crime scenes, the two detectives discover that these are two of the deadly sins that Dante wrote about in the “Divine Comedy”: gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, lust, pride and envy. That means there are still 5 crimes to be committed.

With shocking scenes and an unexpected ending, this has got to be one of the best thrillers I’ve seen so far. Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt play their two roles impeccably as the old and wise and the young and ambitious. The movie can become confusing when the identity of the killer is revealed too soon but I can assure you, it is worth watching until the grand finally.

P.S. I Love You - Do you believe in life after love...?

Before seeing this movie, i used to believe there was no greater love film than „Message in a Bottle”. Let’s just say that „P.S. I love you” is a story about love in modern society pushed beyond the limits of life itself.

It is said that everything in life has a solution… except for the moment you die. Hilary Swank and Gerald Butler play the roles of Holly and Gerry, a regular couple with the usual problems except they are madly in love with it each other and that helped them overcome… well, pretty much anything! In short, they were that couple that no one could ever imagine falling apart. Until Gerry’s unfortunate death. Heartbroken and devastated, Holly could not find the necessary ambition to move on with her life so she receives some help… from the man she has loved her entire life. Before his death, Gerry wrote several letters which he left behind for Holly to periodically receive, letters which taught her how to live again, and letters which would remind her that no matter what goes on in the future, he would always be watching over her.

“P.S. I love you” is a movie that teaches us that the best romantic comedies are the one that make you laugh and cry at the same time. It shows the story of two simple people with an amazing will and power to love. This is a movie that teaches us that you can take care of the one you love without necessary being present. This is a story about the courage to think about the one you love even when your days are numbered. The combination of love, letters, beautiful scenes from Ireland and “The Pogues – I love you till the end” is to be always remember when somebody asks you “What’s the best romantic comedy you’ve seen lately?”

Post Grad - And now what...?

What happens after graduation? Is it really easier to move on if you already have your life planned according to a schedule? Alexis Bledel plays the role of Ryden, the super girl and wonder child that has her life all figured after she graduates college: a dream job at a famous publishing agency, a super apartment with a dreamy view to look at every morning and looking for the guy of her dreams.

But what do you do when something goes wrong in your master plan? Since the job was given out to her college rival, Jessica, Ryden is forced to move back to her parents’ house and look for a job, any job, an ordinary job, something that gives out a paycheck at the end of the month. Just like any girl that has to take the steps of becoming a woman, Ryden walks around with an open heart, ready to embrace that one true love, whoever it may be. Zach Gilford is here to play the role of Adam Davies, “the best friend” who is madly in love with the girl and just doesn’t have the guts to say it out loud and when he finally does… well, that’s for me to know and for you to see after you watch this superb romantic comedy about teenagers, love, dreams and aspirations.

Featuring great actors, like Michael Keaton and the dream boys of Hollywood, like Rodrigo Santoro, this movie is captivating especially for those that have found themselves in that situation, where you have no idea what you next steps should be. “Post Grad” is a movie about true friendship and it touches the delicate subject of “What if the love of my life is right before my eyes and I don’t know it yet?” It’s a movie about how to turn the wrong into right and expressing true feelings and hidden desires. Now that is easy to say… but what do you do in real life when you are afraid to risk a wonderful friendship for something that could turn into a lovely romance?

Another movie blog...?!

... What makes thig blog different than every other movie blog on this planet? As they teach you in marketing class, the answer to 90% of the questions on earth is: depends. This blog is all about movie reviews, the good, the bad and the ugly of the beautiful stories on the big screen.

It reflects my unprofessional opinion: that of a 22 years old Marketing and Business Communication student, a person with interests in advertising and a regular movie passionate. In these pages you are going to read about the movies that have impressed me in a powerful manner, about the hidden messages and ever-lasting movie quotes. Some reviews will be objective, others will be subjective, depending on the impact they’ve had and the way they changed my vision about things. I don’t always believe in happy endings but I do believe that movies show reflections from the real life, about desires and frustrations, about love and war, about passion and hate and all general life aspects.

Read, rate, comment… and don’t forget to enjoy!