Archives For Films

I am not convinced.

Do not like the still, and I’m pretty sure it’s because of the color palette, and why does Moretz look so old? She has an old-people’s face. She’s missing an air of innocence that Lena had on her Eli.

But then again… that’s me picking, right?

Bigger resolution over at Cinematical.

So continuing with our list of actors, we move onto #5 with non other than French actor Tahar Rahim. And sorry for the photograph, I couldn’t find any cool photo of him big enough looking towards the camera that I could use, so this will have to do. You have to admit it’s a really stylish shot.

Born in Belfort, France, on July 4th 1981, Rahim is the 28-year-old actor who shot to fame for playing Malik on the critically-acclaimed film Un Prophète (A Prophet). Interestingly enough, this is his first major film role, after having played a “police officer” on the gory À l’Intérieur (Inside) just two years before.

However, after being nominated in the 2010 Rising Star Award at the BAFTA – beaten by Kristen Stewart… Oh, really? – and winning Best Actor at the César Awards (also with a Most Promising Actor win), at the European Film Awards, and the Lumiere Awards… well, we can’t help but wonder!

Rahim’s next project? The Eagle of the Ninth directed by Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland), based on the novel by Rosemary Sutcliff, a project which apparently has him with an ancient Gaelic accent?

Well, what can I say? After being able to front a movie like A Prophet, we want to see more. On Eagle of the Ninth, he co-stars alongside the likes of Donald Sutherland and fellow the 20 to Watch Jamie Bell.

Can I just say Noomi Rapace is really REALLY bad-ass?

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Well, talk about timing~

Someone else is using Anne Hathaway as their actress of the month… and she is placing #6 on our list of actresses to Watch Until They’re 35. This also marks the half of our list of actresses, which only means… we are doing guys and girls at the same time from now on!

Born in Brooklyn, New York on November 12th 1982, this 27-year-old actress burst into the pop culture scene for playing Mia Termopolis in 2001 for Disney’s The Princess Diaries alongside Julie Andrews. Starting your career with a Disney would-be short-lived franchise isn’t bad, but it proved to be a tough image to shed when you wanted to be considered a serious actress. This is why Hathaway had roles on films like The Other Side of Heaven, and Nicholas Nickleby… though moving away from the “princess” image was a little difficult with roles like Ella on Ella Enchanted, and The Princess Diaries 2.

Lending her voice to Red (Riding-hood) on Hoodwinked! in 2005 didn’t do the trick, so Hathaway did what actresses who want to branch-off do, and pulled a 360 by participating on Havoc, the rated-R film of suburban troubled youth, though critically-panned, the film did seem to do the trick since she followed that up with films like Brokeback Mountain directed by Ang Lee with fellow the 20 to Watch Michelle Williams, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, and perhaps her biggest box office hit The Devil Wears Prada alongside Meryl Streep.

Suddenly, she was everywhere getting gigs playing Jane Austen on the film Becoming Jane with fellow the 20 to Watch James McAvoy, and giving a new face to Agent 99 on the film adaptation of the series Get Smart alongside Steve Carell, which gave her even more exposure to the masses. However, it was in 2008 when she received the most praise when she played Kym on the critically-acclaimed Rachel Getting Married for which she was nominated for the first time for Best Female Actress at the Oscar, as well as the Indie Spirits, Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild. She even tied for a Best Actress win with Meryl at the Critics Choice Awards!

After that, yes. She followed that up with crap like Bride Wars and Valentine’s Day, so hopefully she’ll decide to be more choosy next time. Luckily, however, she made up for that by playing the White Queen on Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.

What’s next for Hathaway? Hopefully, not more insipid romantic comedies [non-negative connotation], but how about Love and Other Drugs by Edward Zwick (Defiance, Blood Diamond, The Last Samurai) alongside Jake Gyllenhaal, Hank Azaria, Judy Greer and Oliver Platt? Or Rio an animated film by Carlos Saldanha (Ice Age) alongside hottie Rodrigo Santoro, and funny guy George Lopez?

Okay, not very exciting, but she’s got over half a dozen of films “in development” on her IMDbPro page, which I can’t access… unless you wanna buy me an account. No? I didn’t think so. One of those projects is bound to be good, right? Worth keeping an eye…

Well, the Korea Herald article is specifically talking about Korean prime time television, but we all know Asia is big on the gay… being with Fan Service on promos, or by actually putting these pretty people on screen.

Min’s own film, which featured a gay pastry chef, serves as a case in point. According to Min, “Antique” drew an audience that ended up being around 86 percent female.

This might explain why the vast majority of homosexual or potentially gay characters are played by attractive actors like Zo In-sung (who starred in “A Frozen Flower”) or “Coffee Prince” heartthrob Kim Jae-wook (who starred in “Antique”).

Oh, and this topic is so totally Julz, who’s disappeared. I know she’s got a lot to comment about this topic. As for me, well… if everyone [at least in America or the UK] seem to exploit girl-on-girl — the last one to do so was Christina Aguilera on her NSFW video Not Myself Tonight, courtesy of Tudou because no one else would let me stream officially… SO SUCK IT, Aguilera’s record label — I’m all for boy-on-boy. I say it, if you’re going to be exploitative, then be exploitative with all.

And that thing about it being a trend? Well, Yaoi and Yuri have been around for what feels like forever. It doesn’t matter if it’s a trend or not, as long as it’s finally normalized.

Funny thing, I don’t know if it is because most my friends follow male groups, but I’ve never seen girl-on-girl kissing in Asia… seen a lot of boy-on-boy from everywhere there though. Having that, it was so weird to have Adam Lambert dude being criticized so badly on this side of the world.

I’ve seen a lot of girl-on-girl romantic tales of friendship that never went there… maybe because that’s what girls dream about a lot. Wonder why girls read so much Yuri and Yaoi xD

OMG. I am obsessed with Dr. Nakamats.

I am so totally smelling cameras next time.

Okay, since I have no idea when my computer will be back up, I decided to try to remember all the names that were on my non-back-up list of actors, in order to not delay my choices and ran into more names that are no longer 30. I am pretty sure that I have got all my names down, I just don’t know if I placed them in the correct order… but it will have to do.

So in the #7 position of our list of actresses to watch is none other than Eva Green.

Born in Paris, France on July 5th 1980, this 29-year-old actress shot to stardom by starring on Bernardo Bertolucci’s NC-17 film The Dreamers alongside Michael Pitt and Louis Garrel. However, she’s probably most recognized for playing Bond Girl Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale with Daniel Craig… or playing witch Serafina Pekkala on the fantasy film The Golden Compass, based from Northern Lights from the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman.

Green’s Silver Screen career isn’t even over 10 years, but with a start as Bertolucci, we can only expect the best from her, considering she’s stated she has no plans to go to Hollywood to get typecast as a femme fatale, instead she will be searching for the perfect script. Sure that shuts the door from getting exposure, but after working on films like Casino Royale, Kingdom of Hearts by Ridley Scott, and The Golden Compass — that’s like half her filmography — we think she doesn’t need it any more.

A self-confessed nerd — whom we have a weakness for — Green admires Tim Burton, Lars Von Trier, David Lynch, David Fincher, Cate Blanchett, Juliette Binoche and Helena Bonham Carter, so name-dropping doesn’t hurt her a bit. Top that off with a small commercial shooting alongside Wong Kar-Wai, which smells like good opportunity.

She speaks French and English, and is working on perfecting her American accent… and wait for it, she’s also apparently learning Japanese, which you know… would open doors there, since Japan loves anything French. And have I mentioned how exciting the Japanese film industry is? She seems to like intense directors, so could I see an Eva Green collaboration with Tetsuya Nakashima? Please, make that happen.

Sorry, I digress —  What’s next up for her? How about The Last Word directed by David Mackenzie, who also directed Young Adam and Hallam Foe (aka. Mister Foe) alongside Ewan McGregor.

Well, according to visitor Bill in this comment, his team is working on it.

Of course, me being one of the most vocal fans of Mikako Ichikawa — if not the most… seriously, you probably google her name and find my posts or images from the website — have been wanting to watch this since I got it. One afternoon, I tried watching it, but I felt the film was very dialog-driven, so I decided to stop the film and wait for someone to be kind enough… so thank you, Bill, for accepting my subs request.

I have seen a bunch of people, on my search for subtitles, that have been talking about the lack of subtitles for this film. Let me tell you, Mikako Ichikawa… so underrated.

Sure, she IS kinda creepy as lil’ sis Kumi in Memories of Matsuko, but in the end she wins us over with that final Okaeri — or is that just me? — as Matsuko goes up the stairs. *sighs* However, did you get to see Ichikawa as Tamaki Hiroshi’s wife in those few episodes of Atsu-hime starring more than rocking Aoi Miyazaki and lovable Eita?

Can I just say she’s got the most beautiful profile when she pulls her hair up? Such striking features, and so SO interesting. So much more than many other generic-looking and average-talented actresses that are much more popular.

So I wonder, why wasn’t this project much more popular?

is not really that memorable.

It’s funny, it’s got loads of moments for laughs — my dad even said so while saying it’s just a film to watch for fun with the kids.

My favorite – most surprising – moment was actually with Scarlett Johansson playing Russian-non-Russian super heroine Black Widow (aka. Natalie Rushman, aka Natasha Romanoff) taking on a dozen or so guards as Happy Hogan (played by Jon Favreau, who directed the film) was taking one of his own. But then again, it was because I literally burst out laughing, not because I thought it was the coolest thing ever… this is the best Johansson has looked on screen in a really LONG time.

Iron Man 2 – for the ones who don’t follow anything about superhero films – follows Tony Stark after he’s announced to the world that he is Iron Man, and that he’ll be the keeper of world peace, as he cockily says that he’s managed to privatize it. However, as he keeps using the Iron Man suit, his body begins a toxic transformation as the material used to power it is… well, toxic.

So as Stark processes the idea of dying, he begins setting his business affairs in order, and living a self-destructive last-days. Little did he know that an enemy is ready to use the Stark’s Iron Man tech to disrupt “world peace”.

Visual effects were their usual top-notch selves, except when Rhodey (played by Don Cheadle, replacing Terrence Howard) was using a suit… there was something funky with his moving and flying… maybe because it’s meant to not be as cool as Iron Man.

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From the New York Times comes an article that talks about how some casting directors and directors are reacting to butchered surgery jobs on actors…

Independent casting directors like Mindy Marin, who worked on the Jason Reitman film “Up in the Air,” are urging talent agents to discourage clients from having surgery, particularly older celebrities who, she contends, are losing jobs because their skin is either too taut or swollen with filler. Said Ms. Marin: “What I want to see is real.”

Even extras get the once-over. Sande Alessi, who helped cast the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies, said she offers to photograph actresses in their bathing suits, telling them they can keep the photo for their audition books.

Professional courtesy? Not exactly. Moviemakers prefer actresses with natural breasts for costume dramas and period films. So much so that when the Walt Disney Company recently advertised for extras for the new “Pirates” film, the casting call specified that only women with real breasts need apply. By taking a photograph, Ms. Alessi said, “we don’t have to ask, we will know.”

Because…

Talent > Plastic Looks… right?

Please someone tell that to Reality TV not even worth mentioning here.

And I love photos with wrinkles… of course, not MY photos with wrinkles, but I do love my movable face… even though my mother keeps telling me to stop making faces. So I’m kinda taking the Sally approach to limit of facial expressions hahahahaha.