electrobird

It is the only video game adaptation worth mentioning and one of the best TV series ever made. This is writing at its finest and an it has an emotional depth that let me in tears at the end of each episode. The story of Ellie and Joel in their journey across the post-apocalyptic US and into their own souls is something I will never forget. If the game was already absolutely fantastic, the adaptation for TV is even better.

With HBO's production power, Druckman and Mazin could have resorted to every single cliché on the book, cheap action takes, jump scares and CGI monsters. They would still have a huge success. Instead, they courageously took the risk of a less traveled path, and we find drama and profound human experiences in the most unexpected of places.

Bella, Pedro and the entirety of this fabulous cast give performances like we rarely see on TV and the series most likely will grab every award for this season.

It is a world destroyed by a plague and overtaken by barbarism and totalitarian rule, but rest assured, this is about who WE are as humans and not about some walking dead plague. It's the Last of US. Emphasis in "US".

I will start talking about the Hauting (1963), but this is a review of the series. There are some minor spoilers below, nothing that will ruin your experience.

Robert Wise created The Haunting in the year I was born. The black and white film is my favorite movie, in what is my favorite genre. It is followed very closely by The Innocents of 1961.

Back in the 80's I watched it for the first time, I was so terrified that I woke up in the middle of the night with night terrors and could only recover after taking a cold shower. I will never forget the sense of dread that gripped me that night, and I do not believe another film can produce it in the same way.

Inspired by the book "The Haunting of Hill House", the saga of Eleanor is unbelievable macabre! The pinnacle of the psychological horror genre! The film does not show anything. It just suggests through shadows, statues, sounds and the tense narrative. When it's over, you do not know if everything happened only in Nell's mind, or if Hill House was really haunted... It does not matter. - Abigail, Hugh Crain, Theo, Luke... alive and dead characters have already invaded your imagination and by this time, you will be completely trapped in the story, possessed by fear and with chills up your spine.

I am a guy who spent a week reading Edgar Allan Poe's horror stories locked up alone in a bicentennial mansion in the woods of Brazil where there was no electric light and where guests were often surprised by bats, tarantulas and scorpions. I love terror and I do not scare so easy. The movie is just plain rough. I did not expect, and I watched alone on a rainy night.

I think the production was so draining for Wise that his next film was none other than The Sound of Music. As much as it deals with a subject such as Nazism, it is a film about children cheerfully singing, smiling and hanging out in the Austrian Alps. I think he was looking for a little lightness after directing this ode to the macabre.

In 1999 they remade the 1963 version, but without the same atmosphere and with CGI overuse. In spite of a great cast, it was a pile of crap. If compared to the original, it's a huge turn-off! The book yielded several adaptations for the silver screen, none compares to Wise's vision. Well, until now.

Netflix just launched a series inspired by the book. I think they tried to make their own version of American Horror Story, but they beat it by far! With the exception of its sugary ending, it is impeccable, a must see, fantastic, wonderful. Very cute little thing that will make you crawl onto your seat, lose your sleep and can only be compared to what Netflix has done best, i.e.: Stranger Things.

The creator is Mike Flanagan, a director/writer who wrote the script of "I Know What You Did Last Summer". Well, this time he climbed so much higher!

Flanagan did not fall into the trap of copying takes entirely as happened with other versions of masterpieces, the most deplorable of all, the Psycho remake of Gus Van Sant. He was clever and only hints Wise's version, despite borrowing lines such as the creepy Mrs. Dudley's... "No one ever comes to the house in the night, in the dark", which is repeated like a mantra all over the show.

There are references everywhere. The library's vertiginous spiral staircase, the hall of statues, the Red Room... The library in fact is virtually the same as it was in 1963. The hall of statues too... and as in 1963, Nell dances alone trough it in a white gown and runs barefoot through the dusty hallways of Hill House... Well, not really alone. There's decay, ghosts and Hill House itself. The evil entity that follows the Crain family through their entire lives, eager to devour their souls.

Computer images and scares are scarce and not invasive, on the contrary. They were used with much subtlety and good taste so as to not interfere with the build up of psychological terror. No exaggeration: The series is nearly flawless, wonderful and will frighten you with revelations and surprises that will leave your body limp and give you those delicious goose bumps! When you go to bed, you will want to leave the lights on, close your eyes tight and wish no one will keep you company. Who knows if the Bent Neck Lady followed you through the screen?

The script is unbelievably clever, the cast fantastic ... new actors and veterans such as Timothy Hutton, the dazzling Carla Gugino, Henry Thomas, Annabeth Gish and Russ Tamblyn who played Luke in the 1963 movie. The child actors are also brilliant Especially the little Julian Hilliard as Luke, Violet McGraw as Nell and McKenna Grace as the remarkable Theodora. Characters who you'll never forget! There are also the Ghosts. The Bowler Hat Man, the deceitful Poppy, Old Hazel and THE BENT NECK LADY! THE BENT NECK LADY!"

I loved watching the show through the very ending and may watch it again. The closing minutes are disproportionately sugar-coated and for that, I will give it a 9. A nice cliffhanger would have been better, but from what I can tell, the story of the Crain clan ends there and what follows is a brand new horror. I can't wait!

I predict Jessica Jones will be an even bigger hit than Daredevil. The series is fantastic! It is not just your regular super-hero story. It is more like a chilling noir thriller with hints of horror. It reminds me of the great characters lived by Humphrey Bogart on the silver screen: Samuel Spade, Philip Marlowe… the villain is so evil that it also brings to mind Silence of The Lambs, Angel Heart, Bone Colector, 7even. Think "Philip Marlowe has PMS and he is out to take Hannibal Lecter" ...both with superpowers. ;) Jessica is the most human superhero I've ever seen. She's an extraordinary woman, but she is hurt and she is freaking angry. If in Daredevil, Murdock was afraid of crossing the line, Jessica doesn't give a damn. She has however her own dichotomy. While somehow fragile, scarred and fearful, she can be a bitch to those who get on her way. Krystin Ritten is perfect as a 21st century Bogart and so is David Tennant as the super villain. He is introduced slowly and painfully and I promise: you will hate his guts! Both are Emmy material for sure.

As one would expect, the series is well produced, impeccably written and shot, incredibly well performed and directed, with a great atmosphere, a gorgeous sound-track, a lot of tension build-up and non-stop suspense. Great stuff! I really recommend! Don't miss out!

Crimson Peak is visually stunning, well directed, beautifully shot edited and recorded. It is technically perfect. A masterpiece that only Guillermo Del Toro could have made.

Jessica Chastain gives an Oscar deserving performance. Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston and the entire cast are perfect in their roles.

The movie has a great atmosphere. Costume design and art production are impeccable! At times, the creepy Allerdale Hall reminds me of the hotel in The Shining . It's isolated and majestic. The exterior and interiors are almost like characters themselves. The costumes reminded me of Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula. Incredibly beautiful and original. Oscar-deserving material, no doubt.

It is certainly the best horror movie made in a long time and its only flaws are the very predictable plot and the many ghosts flying around the screen haunting Edith. The screenplay is incredibly obvious and the spirits could have been presented in a much subtler way. Sometimes, what you don't see can be scarier than a CGI flying corpse with a hatchet stuck to her head. If Del Toro had learned a thing or two from Robert Wise's The Hauting (1962), he could have made this a masterpiece. Apparently he only watched the bad remake.

Regardless of these flaws, this is a great movie and worth every penny and every second of my time. I watched in XD and I was mesmerized by its beauty. I strongly recommend.

Netflix does it again. After House of Cards, Orange is the New Black and Daredevil, they now release one of the best series ever. Well directed and written, gorgeously shot and edited… From the opening sequence, you know you are watching something very special. Sense8 has the human element that Matrix lacked. It reminds me of The X-Files, but better. It is fantasy and science fiction, but not far-fetched. Not even for a single moment. It feels alive, real and very, very exciting and suspenseful.

Andy and Lana Wachowski go around the world to bring you this beauty... From the streets of Nairobi to the alleys of San Francisco through the smoggy Mexico City and the snowy mountains of Iceland, this show brings it all… and it is DEEP! The series brings elements of drama, suspense, comedy and action and differently from other Wackowski's movies; it brings characters we can relate. Every single one of them is incredibly well constructed and the cast performance is superb. It is impossible to watch this show without deeply connecting with those people. I cheered, I cried, I laughed, I bit all my nails and I feel in love with Kala, Riley, Lito, Nomi, Capheus, Wolfgang, Will and Sun. I adore those characters and at the end of the season, they were like my own family. This, my friends, is great cinema. Nothing else! …and it deserves much more! I can't wait for season two.

"After failing in a scheme to steal Leonardo Da Vinci's airship blueprints, the Musketeers..."

Seriously, the writer of "Predators" and the director of "Resident Evil" decided that Alexander Dumas masterpiece was not good enough... so they decided to add "Leonardo Da Vinci's airship" and make some other "improvements" on this horrid joke of a movie. I stopped watching when I saw Countess D'Winter sword-fighting and spinning on the wire rig. I wondered how long before the zombies would show up.

As a lover of literature, I can't stand those Hollywood adaptations. Like when someone decided to cast Robert Downey Jr as Sherlock Holmes and also ignored that the detective from Baker Street never before touched a firearm and sent the most brilliant detective ever imagined on a shooting spree around London.

Anyway, it isn't hard to understand why this $75,000,000 piece of garbage flopped in the box office. This shows that the public is not as stupid as we may think. Vox populi, vox Dei.

I think Woody Allen is the greatest American screenwriter and director of this age - That if you can call him a director… he admittedly does nothing but let the actors free to do their work, which is probably his greatest quality.

He's been honing his skills for a long time now and at this point in his life has made countless works of art. He was close to perfection with Vicky Christina Barcelona, but perhaps that movie was way too passionate. The Purple Rose of Cairo was a great fantasy, but maybe too sugar coated. I think this time he got the recipe right. The movie is simple, but perfect.

From the opening images you get the feeling he is up to some greatness. Mr. Allen presents us with a very unique and intimate portrait of Paris… he shows us the roofs, the cafés, the people walking on the rain. All from very singular perspectives. A Paris I never seen on the postcards… Images of the City of Lights that makes you feel you are there.

The movie goes on unpretentious as Owen Wilson's character and adorable as Marion Cotillard's Adriana. A delicate masterpiece that I enjoyed for every second and as some great actors played some of my favorite artists in history, I slowly tasted every single little piece of it like a delicacy, hoping it would never end. This one deserves 10 stars.

Carl Jung once said that there's nothing wrong in not believing in God, but when atheism becomes a religion, often its followers are as fanatic and crazy as the worst fundamentalists. He actually explains that this is the reason why Friedrich Nietzsche spent his last days living in an asylum and thinking he was God Himself.

Well, I am a big fan of Bill Maher's show on HBO, but knowing how cocky he is and where he stands on religious issues, I was not surprised with my disappointment regarding his movie.

I am virtually agnostic, I am pro-choice, in favor of gay marriage, I believe that moralism (I am not talking about morality) is a cancer, and that the one of the worst things that ever happened to this country was to have a president who claimed to hear the voice of God.

I agree that there are the likes of ultra-conservative Patrick Robertson; there are ministers who exploit the faith of naive people, pedophile priests who prey on altar boys, hypocrites such as Ted Haggard, the deranged Muslims that threw planes at the Twin Towers and kids that tie C4 tablets around their bellies to explode buses in Tel Aviv. I despise the evangelicals that bombed abortion clinics in the US, the fanatics who think they have a divine right over a piece of land regardless of the wellbeing of who was living there for nearly 2000 years, Jim Jones, The Inquisition, The Crusades and the witch-hunts. It upsets me deeply when religious people try to micromanage someone's sexual life and I hate the fact that they want to control what I can see, hear and read on the media. Yes, and I am quite angry at the LDS Church for interfering on the voting of prop 8 here in California.

However, it's just fair to say that during the course of my life I had the pleasure to meet and talk with priests, rabbis, ministers and all sort of spiritual leaders or followers who were nothing but intelligent, open-minded and well-informed and I simply cannot deny that there're people such as Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, the priests who fought for human rights in Latin America during the cold war, etc, people who lived their lives for others without asking for something in return and often died for it. Really, nobody can convince me that a nun who spend her life locked in a convent praying for humankind or a monk meditating atop a mountain in Tibet are dangerous to our liberties and I wouldn't like to live in a society without freedom of religion.

At its substance, Maher's movie is a lame attempt to show how clever he is and how he can outsmart some humble folk in a small country church, a store owner or an actor playing Jesus on a theme park. The movie is a display of intolerance and arrogance simply aimed at proving that God does not exist and that we should worship Bill instead. It misses the point and a great opportunity to raise some important questions.

Hollywood movies are indeed full of stereotypes and smart educated people will agree that this one abuses that trait. I think people understand that southerners don't make love with their sisters and that Brazilians don't live in the Stone-Age.

The bus at the beginning is indeed insulting. Interstate bus lines in Brazil can be as comfortable as Greyhound; drivers are clean and well groomed. Tourists usually stay in 5 star hotels or in resorts such as Club Med. Crime rates are really high in big cities — as it used to be in some areas of Manhattan back in the 1980's — but not in small villages (the one in the movie looks like an inner-city slum rather than a countryside town).

Honestly, I don't think Brazilians are outraged because of all the bad guys displayed in this movie. What upsets them is that you have American tourists in a slum, that the interstate bus is crap (and so is the road) and that virtually every single Brazilian (even the kids) is portrayed either as a criminal or as a dirt-bag who drives as a maniac and cleans the interior of his nose with his fingers.

If you decide to visit Brazil, just follow the guidelines given by the Brazilian consulate when you get your visa and you should be out of trouble. I never heard of a single American or European tourist murdered in Brazil and if you find an article about that I would love to see it (millions go there every year. A few are mugged simply because they don't play safe).

A Hollywood slasher will never show a white Brazilian living in a 3 million dollar apartment in an upper-class area of Sao Paulo or in Ipanema beach in Rio, as that doesn't sell tickets. People crave for the bizarre and the exotic. We like to see foreigners shown as monsters, animals or idiots, because we want to maintain our jingoistic superiority complex. That's why you don't see many American movies shot in Belgium, Denmark or Norway.

The underwater scenes have some good suspense and are the best part of this movie. In spite of the stereotypes I think it is better than the average picture in this genre.

The direction and editing on the battle scenes is great, the cast is superb, but in my opinion the screenplay and direction are lame.

It seems as the dialog is there just to frame the action and the movie is detached of any emotion. Even the part where the queen consents on being raped by Theron couldn't make me feel a thing. Lena Headey and Domic West try hard, but apparently there was such a hurry to cut back to the battle action that you don't have the chance to have any feelings about it. The scene where the Queen gives a speech to the council, is betrayed by Theron and finally kills him is saved by the good acting. The coins on the floor where a smart idea, but I wonder if that speech was written by Karl Rove.

As expected from a Hollywood movie, this one is extremely dualistic, with Spartans presented as civilized heroes, in contrast to the fanatic, promiscuous and abominable Persians.

Overall, the battle scenes are believable, the military strategies accurate and the figurine and makeup of the Spartans very truthful. Leonidas and his soldiers seem to have jumped directly from an ancient Greek vase.

However, they missed the target on the characterization of the Persians. Rodrigo Santoro is a good actor and does a nice Xerxes, but men from the Persian upper classes wore long crimped wigs and false beards. The Persians clothes and ornaments are also completely inaccurate. I've seen Persian artifacts in museums and I can say that they don't resemble to anything seen on this flick. With so many piercing and chains (not to mention the promiscuity), the Persians look more like revelers from a S&M party.

In addition, Black Persians are something new to me too. The Persian Empire never went beyond Turkey and the Caucasus was in fact in Persia. I didn't expect them to look like Brad Pitt, but I didn't think I would see so many blacks among them either.

Great cinematography and editing! The battle scenes are very well done. The sepia tone of the movie makes the blood look brown and it never spills as it would as a result of a real artery rupture. It looks more like fragments flying through the air and this makes the scenes a little less graphic and more artistic.

Unfortunately, the special effects are inconsistent and although you can't really notice the CGI on the battle scenes, the Rhino and the Elephants are way too big and unrealistic. Who knows… perhaps they looked like that in 480 BC.

I don't discriminate hunchbacks, but that orgy was gross and looks like something you would find along with bestiality, child pornography and incest on a website for perverts. It wouldn't have made the final cut, if this movie had a director or a producer.

Was there a composer on this movie?

Overall, 300 is a pretentious action flick. It is technically well done and well acted and I will give it a 5 for that reason.

What a lame movie this is! Zeffirelli made the definitive movie about Christ many years ago. This piece of garbage is not worthy of the attention it received.

Gibson made an entire movie about Christ being tortured. It feels more like a horror movie than a biblical one.

I am not a theologian, but I think the movie has some serious inaccuracies:

1- In real life John was a 17 years old when Christ died, not the grown man depicted in the movie. 2- Barrabas was not a insane murderer the movie shows. He was a Zelot (a revolutionary group that wanted to free Judea from Roman rule). He was revolutionary and that's the reason the Jews choose him against Jesus. In fact, Judas Iscariots was also a Zealot and before being Christ's disciple, he was John the Baptist's. It's said that Judas betrayed Chirst because he thought Jesus came to the world to liberate the Jews. 3- Mary Magdalene and the adulterous woman (that Christ saved from being stoned) are not the same person. As far as I know, Mary was never condemned to be stoned.

Lame movie: 3 out of 10.

Now I know why the Right didn't want me to see this movie.

Mr. Moore does an excellent job deconstructing G.W. Bush presidency. He may make his and there, but I only have to think that people that have called Michael Moore a liar haven't seen the movie.

Sadly, the facts are all there indeed and people that don't believe are in denial and do need to deprogram. Anyone that follows the news is aware of the things that are happening since G.W. Bush took office. The movie just adds two plus two.

Excellent movie, better than Columbine. Michael Moore deserves the Palm D'Or, he deserves all the prizes, including the Oscar.

Thanks to Mr. Moore for making this amazing movie!

Great visual effects (best I've seen so far), production design, great trailer, etc. Dumb script, poor plot, terrible direction of actors.

Those images of ghosts in the clouds at the end were soooooooooo cheesy! I would have hated this movie a little less without that pathetic display of amateurism. They could have cut at least 30 minutes of garbage from this movie.

The Mummy is not really good, but this movie... Well, it was indeed a little better than the League of Extraordinay Gentleman, but that's not much to say, is it? It starts well, and then it gets worse and worse... finally, you have that pathetic ending.

I grew up in Rio and the violence on those projects and slums was common place on the news. As a matter of fact, both violence and misery are toned down on the screen. It strikes me much more than Tarrantino's or Scorcese's because I know it is FOR REAL! I remember well during the 80's when drug dealer Bolado from the Rocinha slum was killed: His murderer was burnt alive with the gasoline from his own motorcycle, later they blown his head away with a shotgun to make him stop yelling.

The fact of the matter is that City of God is not a slum, but a project. As the movie explains, those people were transferred there form former slums in Rio during the military dictatorship in the 60's. Their old slums gave place to upper middle class condos and shopping malls. They were transferred there and totally forgotten!

Anyway... what a fantastic movie and what a combination of talent! A superb cinematography and editing, incredible well tied script, great direction and acting.

This movie doesn't make justice to the book "O Crime do Padre Amaro", by Portuguese writer Eca de Queiroz.

This story was written in 1871 (not in 1875 as the described on the movie) and the original narrative takes place in a small village in 19th Century Portugal. It described the story of a young priest, who's assigned as the parishioner of the village and gets obsessed with a beautiful young woman. It lost most of its dept when transported to 21st century (a time when pervert priests seducing little boys is commonplace), and its new elements (drug dealers, etc) and new ending didn't add anything to the story.

On another note: Do over-religious girls wear miniskirts in Mexico, or this was just used to accentuate Amelia's sensuality?

I think that - along with Central Station - this is the finest movie ever to come out of Brazil. Walter Salles shows he can go beyond the cheap formula of violence/misery/sex that populated most Brazilian films in the past. While showing the true face of poverty, he doesn't nourish the expectation with such corny stereotypes. That's chasing scene will stay in my mind forever. I am glad to see that Brazilian cinema is experiencing its richer moment since the 1960's.

The first time I've heard about Behind the Sun, I thought it was a tale based on the true story of two families in the state of Paraiba. The ongoing vendetta was in the news all over the 1970's. I was surprised to hear that `Abril Despedaçado' was in fact based on a book from an Albanian writer. It's amazing how the Brazilian Northeastern backdrops fit the plot perfectly. The movie describes the economical changes - cattle ranchers taking over the decadent sugarcane farms - that happen in that region following the end of slavery in the late 19th century.

The actors are superb - particularly the splendid veteran Jose Dumont, who plays the father; it is hard to believe that only nine of them are professionals! The photography is strikingly beautiful.

It impress me the reactions regarding the casting of Rodrigo Santoro for the role of Tonho. Has anyone ever met an average 1910's sugarcane picker of Brazil's Northeast region???? I don't see the same reactions when a young and handsome Al Pacino is chosen to play Serpico, or when Julia Roberts is cast to play Erin Brokovitch. How many roles Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt would get if casting directors took such nonsense seriously? Well, for me Rodrigo Santoro was a pleasant surprise.

Just as a note, this film was not shot at the Pampas, as someone said. The semiarid region in the Northeast of Brazil is known as Sertão (and that vegetation is called Caatinga). The vast grassy and treeless plains known as Pampas - great for cattle, you will not find cactuses or sugar cane there - are located in the South of Brazil and go all the way to Central Argentina. Thousands of miles away from the arid Northeast.

I loved this movie!