I got the DVD for La Môme (it’s released in USA under the title La vie en rose) from Netflix a few days before the Oscars but haven’t seen it until after. Needless to say, I was anxious to finally see it after Marion Cotillard won the Oscar for Best Performance By A Female [...]
Entries from February 2008
Review of “La Môme” (2007) PG-13 2h 20min
February 27th, 2008 · No Comments
Tags: Biographical · Czech Republic · DVD · Drama · Foreign · France · Movies · Musicals · UK
My first photos of Saturn
February 25th, 2008 · No Comments
Well today the sky finally cleared up, and I could get to the telescope early enough after work. The moon is rising 3 hours after Saturn does today. Saturn is very far, and it looks like a tiny star to the naked eye. Even in my telescope it looks tiny. When the image if [...]
Tags: Additional Articles
Review of “The Devil Wears Prada” (2006) PG-13 109min
February 23rd, 2008 · 3 Comments
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
The plot: Andrea Sachs’s (Anne Hathaway) dream was to become a journalist. A naive young woman, she comes to New York and scores a temporary job for the Runway [fashion] magazine working as an assistant secretary to ruthless, if not sadistic, chief editor Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). Andrea puts up [...]
Tags: Chick Flick · Comedy · Drama
Lunar Eclipse February 20, 2008
February 20th, 2008 · 2 Comments
Today’s eclipse is the last one until 2010.
Unfortunately I missed the beginning, but as soon as I got home I set up my rig and began shooting. I captured the full eclipse and the beginning of the end, when the Moon started to show a thin crescent. Another unfortunate thing about this photo session [...]
Tags: Additional Articles
Photos of the Moon and Mars (Feb 16, 2008)
February 20th, 2008 · No Comments
The entire slideshow is here: http://public.fotki.com/MaxiMovieBlog/moon-and-mars-photos/
I looked up in the sky and saw Mars almost lined up with the Moon. I set up the telescope and the tripod with Canon EOS 20D camera, 300mm image stabilzing zoom lens and 2x telephoto adapter.
The difficulty of photographing the Moon and Mars together is that:
a) Moon and [...]
Tags: Additional Articles
Review of “Lady in the Water” (2006) PG-13 110min
February 20th, 2008 · 1 Comment
Lady in the Water (2006)
M. Knight Shyamalan, the creator of “The Sixth Sense”, wrote, directed and starred in this fantasy movie based on the book he wrote for his own daughter.
The plot: an apartment building superintendent Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) rescues a woman from the swimming pool he maintains. She turns out to be [...]
Tags: DVD · Fantasy · Movies · Supernatural · Thrillers/Suspense · USA
Review of “Definitely, Maybe” (2008) PG-13
February 17th, 2008 · 1 Comment
This is a new romantic comedy from the makers of Noting Hill and Love Actually.
The plot: Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds – Sabrina the Teenage Witch, In Cold Blood, The Outer Limits series, Dick, Van Wilder, Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, Blade: Trinity, Smokin’ Aces etc), a 30-something man in the midst of [...]
Tags: Chick Flick · Comedy · Movies · Romance · USA
The death of HD-DVD: Toshiba abandons HD-DVD.
February 16th, 2008 · 3 Comments
It has become known on Saturday that Toshiba will abandon its HD-DVD format, resulting in the complete victory for Blu-Ray by companies like Sony, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, Hitachi and Sharp. The format war has been going on since 2003. HD-DVD format has many advantages over Blu-Ray, but Sony and its partners had managed to attract movie studios, [...]
Tags: Additional Articles · Hardware · Home Theater
Video of the Moon through telescope (Feb 15, 2008)
February 16th, 2008 · 3 Comments
You need to have flashplayer enabled to watch this Google video
Video of the Moon shot through Meade ETX-125AT telescope with just a simple cheap Canon A620 7.1MP point-and-shoot camera that can also take 640×480 videos at 30fps. The camera is mounted on top of 26mm eyepiece.
You won’t see THE flag, but you can quite [...]
Tags: Additional Articles
Review of “Fool’s Gold” (2008) PG-13 113min
February 16th, 2008 · 2 Comments
The plot: Ben Finn Finnegan (Mathew McConaughey) and his wife Tess (Kate Hudson) were passionate about each other and treasure hunting, but now they are fed up with each other and decide to get divorced. Just as Tess has begun to rebuild her life, working aboard a mega-yacht owned by billionaire Nigel Honeycutt (Donald [...]
Tags: Action · Adventure · Comedy · Movies · Romance · USA
Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Official Trailer
February 16th, 2008 · No Comments
The official trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Directed by Stephen Spielberg.
Starring Harrison Ford and Shia LaBeouf. Karen Allen is also playing Marion Ravenwood – back from Raiders of the lost Ark. Also starring Cate Blanchett and John Hurt.
Just 95 days to go – it open on May 22.
If you [...]
Tags: Movies
Review of “Becoming Jane” (2007) PG 120min
February 13th, 2008 · 1 Comment
Director: Julian Jarold
Writers: Kevin Hood, Sarah Williams
Producers: Jeff Abberley, Robert Bernstein, Julia Blackman, Graham Broadbent, Noëlette Buckley, Nicole Finnan, James Flynn, Tim Haslam, Morgan O’Sullivan, Douglas Rae, James Saynor
Original Music: Adrian Johnston
Cinematography: Eigil Bryld
Winner of American People’s Choice Award (Best Independent Film)
The plot: this is a biographical movie about Jane Austen (Anne Hathaway – [...]
Tags: Biographical · DVD · Drama · Foreign · Movies · Romance · UK
Review of “Martian Child” (2007) PG 108min
February 12th, 2008 · No Comments
This is a feel-good drama starring Hollywood sweethearts John Cusack and Amanda Pete based on a novel “Martian Child” by David Gerrold.
The plot: a widowed science fiction writer, who writes about Mars, decides to adopt a child. He picks a 6-year old who claims he’s from Mars. A series of events happen that make [...]
Review of “Across The Universe” (2007) PG-13 131min
February 11th, 2008 · 4 Comments
This is a musical set in the 1960s. The music is based on over 30 Beatles’ songs.
The plot: an dock worker comes to United States from England to find his estranged father. There he falls in love with a teenage girl Lucy. When her brother is drafted into Vietnam, the young couple become peace [...]
Tags: DVD · Drama · Movies · Musicals · Romance
Review of “There Will Be Blood” (2007) R 158min
February 10th, 2008 · 2 Comments
“There Will Be Blood” based on the novel “Oil!” by Upton Sinclair and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (Cigarettes & Coffee, Punch Drunk Love, Magnolia, and of course several episodes of Saturday Night Live) who also wrote the script. It was in theatres in wide release for a month now, but the seats were [...]
Review of “Vanity Fair” (2004) PG-13 141min
February 7th, 2008 · No Comments
Vanity Fair (2004)
I didn’t read William Makepeace Thackeray’s classic novel yet, but looking forward to it (should have read it when I was a kid – everyone I know did). The movie is directed by Mira Nair and script written by Matthew Faulk and Mark Skeet.
The plot: Becky Sharp (Angelica Mandy/Reese Witherspoon) was from [...]
Tags: DVD · Drama · Foreign · Movies · Romance · UK · USA
Movies to see this weekend (Feb 08, 2008)
February 7th, 2008 · No Comments
Opening in theatres in wide release:
Fool’s Gold (2008) PG-13 113min – Action/Adventure/Romance. Matthew McConaughey plays Ben Finn Finnegan, a treasure hunter on the hunt for legendary 1715 century Queen’s Dowry lost at sea, while trying to keep his wife Tess Finnegan (Kate Hudson) from leaving him. Ben Finn discovers a clue and convinces owner [...]
Tags: Additional Articles · Movies
Review of “Bill Maher: The Decider” (HBO Video/DVD) (2007) R 60 min
February 6th, 2008 · 1 Comment
This is one of the best Bill Maher’s stand up comedy shows. He performs on stage in Boston in jeans and t-shirt, some time after the Bush’s “surge” began and presidential campaigns were at full speed, probably summer of 2007 when it came out live on HBO, ironically on the day Bush had a [...]
Tags: Comedy · DVD · Movies · USA
Review of “Rescue Dawn” (2006) PG-13 126min
February 4th, 2008 · 1 Comment
This Vietnam War drama was written and directed by Werner Herzog. The movie is vaguely based on Dieter Dengler’s book, “Escape From Laos”. The actual Dieter Dengler died just before the movie came out of ALS – Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Herzog previously filmed Dieter’s story a documentary in 1997 entitled “Little Dieter Needs to [...]
Tags: Adventure · DVD · Drama · Epics/Historical · Movies · USA · War
Review of “Away From Her” (2006) PG-13 110min
February 3rd, 2008 · No Comments
Away From Her (2006)
This movie is a debut as a director for young Sarah Polley, based on short story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” by Alice Munro.
The plot: A man (Gordon Pinsent) who’s wife Fiona (Julie Christie/Stacey LaBerge) loses her memory due to Alzheimer’s, has to commit her to institution. He has to [...]
