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Blog Details for "Maxim's Movie Reviews and Opinions"
Maxim's Movie Reviews and OpinionsMaxim's Movie Reviews and OpinionsMaxim writes his opinions on the movies he watched recently Articles
Hot New DVD Releases This Week (June 10, 2008)
2008-06-09 06:54:00 John Adams (HBO Miniseries) (2008 ) TV-PG Paul Giamatti stars in this sweeping seven-part miniseries that chronicles the astonishing life of founding father John Adams: revolutionary leader, America’s first ambassador to England, the first vice president and the second president. The iconic cast of characters includes Abigail Adams (Laura Linney), George Washington (David Morse), Thomas Jefferson (Stephen Dillane), ... More About: June , Week
Hot new DVD releases this week (June 3, 2008)
2008-06-03 09:30:00 Cloverfield (2007) PG-13 A going-away party in Manhattan is interrupted when a mysterious, giant-sized monster launches an attack on New York City. With camcorder in hand, a small group of friends make their way out into the chaotic streets, scrambling to stay alive. Mike Vogel, Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, Michael Stahl-David, Odet Jasmin and T.J. Miller co-star ... More About: Movies , June , Week , 2008
Review: ?Bella? (2006) PG-13 91min
2008-06-03 07:58:00 This drama directed by Alejandro Gomez Monteverde was a surprise People’s Choice Award winner at Toronto International Film Festival in 2006. Consequently, it won Crystal Heart Award at Heartland Film Festival in 2007 and the actor in main role, Alejandro Gomez Monteverde, a prize for most inspirational male role in the movie. The plot: Jose (Eduardo Verástegui) is ... More About: Movies , Drama , Mexico , Review , Foreign
61st Cannes Film Festival Awards
2008-05-26 19:44:00 The jury of the 61st Cannes Film Festival , presided over by Sean Penn , named the Prize winners. At the end of the ceremony, Barry Levinson?s closing film What Just Happened? starring Robert De Niro, Sean Penn and Bruce Willis was screened for the audience. The Palm d’Or remained in France - it was awarded to ... More About: Awards , Clint Eastwood
Review of ?The Fobridden Kingdom? (2008) PG-13 113min
2008-05-17 07:59:00 Jet Lee and Jackie Chan star together in The Forbidden Kingdom , directed by Rob Minkoff (The Lion King, Stuart Little I & II, Haunted Mansion) and written by John Fusco (Young Guns, The Babe, Loch Ness, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Hidalgo, and now working on the 2009 remake of The Seven Samurai). The plot: Jason ... More About: Movies , Action , Adventure
Amazon?s Blu-Ray Disk Sale
2008-05-08 19:25:00 Amazon.com is advertising “Buy 2 Get 1 Free” deal on their Blu-Ray disk inventory. Some of the titles you can grab there are Independence Day Predator I, Robot Ice Age Terminator Fantastic 4 Mr. & Mrs. Smith Sunshine Wall Street The Usual Suspects The Adventures of Indiana Jones (The Complete Movie Collection) Transformers Gladiator more… They also advertise that all new Blu-Ray releases are sold at 30% off. You can ... More About: Movies , Amazon , Disk , Sale
Review of ?Aristide and the Endless Revolution? (2005) NR 84min
2008-05-08 08:03:00 This documentary directed by Nicolas Rossier examines the oft-suppressed story of the 2004 coup d’etat in Haiti. Only an hour south of Miami, the elected president of the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation, Jean Bertrand Aristide, has twice been forced from office with complicity of the international community. Features Aristide, Denny Glover, Sen. Maxine Waters, George ... More About: France , Documentary , Review , Revolution , Foreign
Review of ?The Namesake? (2006) PG-13 122min
2008-05-08 07:08:00 Another wonderful movie based on the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri directed and produced by Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding (2001), Vanity Fair (2004)) starring Irfan Khan and Kal Penn . The plot: In the late 60s-early 70s Ashoke Ganguli (Irfan Khan) was traveling on the train to his grandfather in Calcutta and reading a book by Nicholai Gogol. ... More About: Review , Book , Bengali , Namesake
New DVD releases this week (May 6, 2008)
2008-05-07 01:57:00 P.S. I Love You (2007) PG-13 | DVD, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray Holly Kennedy (Hilary Swank), a young widow living in Dublin, has just lost her beloved husband Gerry (Gerard Butler) to a brain tumor. Inconsolable, Holly finds that Gerry left for her a series of letters to help cope with the grief. As months pass, Holly discovers new ... More About: Week , 2008
New DVD Releases This Week (April 29, 2008)
2008-04-29 18:31:00 The Golden Compass (2007) After overhearing a shocking secret, precocious orphan Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) trades her carefree existence roaming the halls of Jordan College for an otherworldly adventure in the far North, unaware that it’s part of her destiny. Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig and Sam Elliott co-star in this fantasy-laden family adventure based on ... More About: April , Week , 2008
Review: Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay (2008) R 1h 42min
2008-04-28 21:53:00 John Cho and Kal Penn of “Harold & Kumar go to White Castle” are back for a sequel written by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, who also directed the film this time around. The plot: The plot picks up right when Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) come back home from their White Castle burger adventure. Harold’s ... More About: Comedy , Movies , Adventure , Review , Guantanamo Bay
Review: Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) R 112min
2008-04-21 08:34:00 “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” is a comedy directed by Nicholas Stoller who is well known for co-writing Fun With Dick and Jane with Judd Apatow - his directorial debut. It is written by Jason Segel, an actor from a few episodes of CSI and Alias, and most recently was cast in Knocked Up, and now he ... More About: Comedy , Movies , Review , Romance
Review: Logitech Harmony 880 Universal Remote
2008-04-20 07:19:00 I owned this remote for almost 2 years now and I loved it. Why? Because it replaced the 7 remotes that I had to use to control my home theater. Mind you, 2 years ago it was selling for about $250. Who in the right mind would pay so much for a remote when some ... More About: Hardware , Harmony , Logitech , Review , Universal
Review: The Brave One (2007) R 122min
2008-04-18 08:58:00 “The Brave One” is a drama directed by Neil Jordan and stars Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard. The plot: A New York woman, a radio show host Erica Bain (Jodie Foster), was brutally beaten and her fiancé, David (Naveen Andrews), killed when they took a walk in the park late at evening. She goes on killing ... More About: Movies , Drama , Crime , Review
Surf?s Up (2007) PG 85min
2008-04-10 08:00:00 The plot: The reality/documentary follows Cody Maverick (Shia LaBeouf), a teenage Royal Penguin, and his friend Chicken Joe (Jon Heder), as Cody leaves his hometown of Shiverpool, Antarctica, to participate in "Big Z Memorial Surf Off" competition commemorating deceased surfing star Big Z (Jeff Bridges) on Pen Gu Island. More About: Comedy , Movies , Animation , Adventure
The Black Dahlia (2006) R 121min
2008-04-02 08:33:00 A sophisticated film noir from the director of Scarface, The Untouchables, Casualties Of War, Mission: Impossible, Snake Eyes, Mission To Mars and Redacted - Brian De Palma. It’s based on James Ellroy’s Novel “The Black Dahlia” inspired by the real murder of Elizabeth Short. The plot: 1946. Hollywood. Two cops-partners, former boxers Dwight “Bucky” Bleichert (Josh ... More About: Movies , Drama , Scarlett Johansson , Crime
The Bicycle Thief (1948) UR 89min
2008-03-31 08:40:00 The plot: Post-World War II Italy is going through devastating period of depression. A job is hard to come by. Antonio Ricci manages to get a job after two years of unemployment: to drive around Rome and put up posters of Rita Heyworth, and it requires a bicycle. His bicycle is broken and he goes to great ... More About: Drama , Foreign , Black and White , Thief
21 (2008) PG-13 123min
2008-03-29 08:05:00 The plot: (from IMDb) Inspired by the true story (based on “Bringing Down The House” book by Ben Mezrich) of how some of the very brightest young minds in the country took Vegas for millions, 21 stars Jim Sturgess as Ben Campbell, a brilliant M.I.T. student who desperately needs to pay his school tuition. ... More About: Movies , Drama , Thrillers , Suspense , Kevin Spacey
Basic Instinct (1992) UR 128min
2008-03-28 07:56:00 Just watched the original 1992 “Basic Instinct”, director’s cut. This was one of the most controversial and talked-about movies when it came out. Brought me back to the days when I saw it when I was in high-school. The plot: everyone saw it. The good: one of the most memorable movies of 20th century, at least in ... More About: Movies , Drama , Thrillers , Erotic
Road To Perdition (2002) R 117min
2008-03-25 17:45:00 The plot: Mike Sullivan (Tom Hanks) works as a hit man and enforcer for crime boss John Rooney (Paul Newman), whom he views as a father figure. However after his son witnessed a killing he has done Rooney’s own sun (Daniel Craig ) kills Mike’s wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and other son, and Mike Sullivan finds him self on the run trying ... More About: Movies , Drama , Adventure , Crime
Night at the Museum (2006) PG 105min
2008-03-24 06:57:00 Director - Shawn Levy | Writers - Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon, based on book by Milan Trenc Cast: Ben Stiller as Larry Daley | Carla Gugino as Rebecca | Dick Van Dyke as Cecil | Mickey Rooney as Gus | Bill Cobbs as Reginald | Robin Williams as Teddy Roosevelt | Patrick Gallagher as Attila the Hun | Rami Malek as Ahkmenrah | Steve Coogan as Octavius | ... More About: Night , Museum , Night at the Museum
Dr. Seuss? Horton Hears a Who! (2008) G 88min
2008-03-17 19:03:00 This 3D animated film based on Dr. Seuss’ (Theodore Geisel) short story is directed by Pixar veteran Jimmy Heyward and Steve Martino and produced by Twentieth Century Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios - the creators of the Ice Age and special effects for Titan A.E.. The plot: Horton (Jim Carrey), a gentle elephant, discovers a whole ... More About: Comedy , Movies , Adventure , Fantasy
Short video of Saturn through the telescope
2008-03-14 07:00:00 Just came home from work, and wanted to glance at Saturn through my Meade ETX-125AT telescope. Wow, I had never seen it so sharply - I could even make up the orange color of the planet. The planet is very far, and at that distance human eye can’t make out the color and the planet ... More About: Video , Telescope , Short
Ladrón que roba a ladrón (2007) PG-13 1h 40min
2008-03-12 06:39:00 Yet another heist movie, this time - a Latino Hollywood flick. The plot: two former thieves, a Colombian Emilio () and Alejandro, who sells pirated DVDs on the street, reunite in Los Angeles to rob the biggest and worst thief they know - also former thief, Claudio Silvestrini, who made millions with TV infomercials as Moctesuma Valdes, selling ”snake oil” products to poor naive ... More About: Comedy , Movies , Action , Adventure , Crime
Vantage Point (2008) PG-13 90min
2008-03-03 16:02:00 WARNING: this review may contain spoilers. This is yet another fiction thriller movie about a President of The Fee World (that is, USA) being saved by his security detail. The plot: President Ashton (William Hurt) arrives to Salamanca, Spain to attend a summit on global terror. Two secret service agents, Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid), for whom its a first assignment after he recovered from taking a bullet for the president earlier, and Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox) , are assigned to protect him. Despite them doing all they could, the president is assassinated before their eyes and eyes of millions of TV viewers and large crowd. Several bombs go off in the crowd and dozens of people are killed and injured. The agents are after the suspect. Agent Thomas Barnes uses tapes recorded by bystanders and TV journalists to uncover the truth and get the lead. The good: The movie is starring Forest Whitacker, fresh from The Last King Of Scotland. He’s playing an American tourist who&rs... More About: Point , 2008 , Vantage Point
La Môme (2007) PG-13 2h 20min
2008-02-28 01:21:00 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 Actor in a Leading Role, and Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald won an Oscar for Best Makeup. Marit Allen was also nominated for Best Achievement in Costume Design, but the Oscar went to Alexandra Byrne who designed costumes for Elizabeth: Golden Age. The plot: This is the biographical story of Edith Piaf. It covers her life from her childhood (5 year old Edith was played by Manon Chevallier, 10-year old by Pauline Burlet) during and after the World War 1 in poverty when her mother was singing on the streets panhandling for change and her father was fighting. When he came back from war little Edith was in poor health and neglected, and he decided to leave her in the brothel in Brittany where her ...
The Devil Wears Prada (2006) PG-13 109min
2008-02-24 07:14:00 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 with her extravagant boss’s requests because she is told that if she can last a year she can land the journalist’s job she craves. At first she is doing quite poorly, and she is a target of nasty comments from her fashionistas co-workers. She thinks she is being targeted and unappreciated for her hard work unfairly. The first breakthrough comes when a hot young writer, Christian Tompson (Simon Baker), she met at the fashion show helps her get an unpublished manuscript of next Harry Potter book for Miranda’s twin daughters. The second when her co-worker gets hit by the car and Miranda chooses Andrea to go to Paris with her. Miranda is faced with a dilemma, how... More About: The Devil Wears Prada , Prada , Devil , The Devil
Lunar Eclipse February 20, 2008
2008-02-21 06:57:00 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 was that the night was cloudy, which makes it hard to focus the camera. I have done the best I could under the circumstances. Equipment used: Meade ETX 125 AT telescope Canon EOS 20D digital SLR camera Canon A620 digital camera Canon 75-300 EF zoom lens with image stabilization Opteka 3x AF High Definition Telephoto Lens (converter) As you can see from the pictures of the rig, some pictures had been taken using Canon EOS 20D attached via t-ring to the accessory port of the telescope. Some pictures had been taken using the zoom lens with the 3x zoom converter lens attached. In the latter configuration auto-focus is impossible. I had to switch to manual focus. Focusing th... More About: Eclipse , Lunar , February , 2008 , Lunar Eclipse
Photos of the Moon and Mars (Feb 16, 2008)
2008-02-21 06:35:00 The entire slideshow is here: http://public.fotki.com/MaxiMovieBlog/moo n-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 Mars move across the sky very fast, so exposure must be short b) No matter how sturdy tripods are, they are not sturdy enough, which too calls for short exposures and high aperture and probably high ISO setting (I use 100 or 200, or else I get too much digital noise). c) Moon is so bright, that very short exposures are enough to get the details. However, with short exposures Mars disappears from the photograph because it’s very small and dim and it’s not being exposed enough. Fortunately they night was clear, so I have done the best I could. You are welcome to share your astrophotography tips and techniques here ... More About: Photos , The Moon , 2008
Definitely, Maybe (2008) PG-13
More articles from this author:2008-02-18 08:43:00 This is a new romantic comedy from the makers of Noting Hill and Love Actually. The plot:Â 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 a divorce, suddenly finds his 10 year-old daughter Maya (Abigail Breslin - Signs, What I Like About You, Raising Helen, Family Plan, Ghost Whisperer, Little Miss Sunshine, Santa Clause 3, No Reservations and more - quite an impressive resume for a 11 year-old) wanting to know everything about how he and her mother fell in love. Scrambling to find a way to present a gentler version of his story to Maya, Will changes the names of the three women with whom he was once in love, in order to make Maya guess which is the one he finally married. And as Maya puts together the pieces of the story, she also helps her dad realize that it may not be too late to go back and find a h... More About: 2008 1, 2, 3, 4 |
