Movies I saw during January

First of all, I sincerely apologize for neglecting the weekly leisure report. The reason behind this is that there is no sun. I know it sounds weird, but I miss my bike rides and that makes me feel without strength or passion to do anything else.

Now, the hard part is to rate the films. It is easier to do so when it is just a few of them and they are fresh in the memory.

1. There will be blood, ****
   The film is based on the 1927 novel Oil! by the Pullitzer Prize winner Upton Sinclair. I cannot tell you how faithful the film is to the book as I have not read it yet. There will be blood is an exploration of greed. How far can a man go in business, religion and family just to attain a better economical position?
   



2. The Wrestler, ****
   Darren Aronofsky has directed two of my favourite movies: Pi and Requiem for a Dream. While The Wrestler does not enter into my favourite films list, it is a good exploration of the ups and downs from fame and prosperity.
   



3. 4 luni, 3 saptamani si 2 zile (4 months, 2 weeks and 2 days), ****
   This is a Romanian film, situated in the communist period. It explores the extends of friendship as well as the implications of unwanted pregnancy and anti-abortion laws. I guess this films hits harder for me because it is easy to picture this as a common situation in Mexico.
   



4. Knocked up, ****
   What is a relation about? Peter Pan Failure to Launch Male gets Hard Working Female pregnant in the first date after randomly meeting at a bar. The idea of respect for life kicks in. Responsibility enters the picture. This romantic comedy is great in the sense that goes beyond the individual ego perennial in contemporaneous films of the sort.
   



5. 500 days of Summer, ****
   Just another romantic comedy iteration of the "Boy Meets Girl" theme? I enjoy this being an exploration of the failed not-happy ending story. Life is not fair or just, but it is not over until you die. Anything can happen in the meantime.
   



6. Pride and Glory, ***
   An exploration of the corruption theme in a Police Department. The actors are big names, Voight, Norton, Farrell, but somehow the film fails to deliver. Nevertheless, the moral characters and the the struggle between content and ambition are picturesque.



7. A fost sau na fost? (Was it or was it not?), ***
   Another Romanian film. I am thinking of it as a comedy, but I am not Romanian. If you go out to manifest your discontent for the Communist Dictatorship after the Dictator leaves, is it, or not, a revolution? Again, I relate to this film because it is so easy to imagine everything happening in Mexico.
   



8. The Holiday, ***
   A romantic comedy about two troubled girls with polarized attitudes toward guys. Again a lot of big names, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, JackBlack, and 5 minutes of Edward Burns. It delivers, both a good laugh and the one tear.
   



9. Australia, ***
   A romantic drama-slash-adventure film. What really got hold of me is the magical realism used in this film. Magic realism is ever present in Latin America, the writers of Australia manage to exploit the magic of Aus, read with an Australian accent that makes it sound like Oz, at the time "The wizard of Oz" was hitting the theatres and WWII was hitting the country.
   



10. The Hangover, ***
    Just watch this film. You are going to laugh yourself to tears. I can not say more, just trying to remind something to write makes me laugh.
    



11. Inkheart, ***
    Books, it is all about books. Today, Inkheart seems to me like the first film to talk about books with respect. Polanski's The Ninth Gate with Jhonny Depp, based on Reverte's The Club Dumas, comes to my mind, but I saw it so long ago that I am not sure. In any case, respect thy books.
    



12. Enchanted, **
    I like Disney's movies. I love this film and I will watch it again sometime in the future with my kids, if I ever had children.
    



13. Smoking Aces, **
    Have you ever seen a Guy Ritchie movie, like: Lock, Stock and Two Smocking Barrels or Snatch or Rocknrolla or even Sherlock Holmes? You can see that this film just screams I want to be a Guy Ritchie movie. Just for your information, it was directed and writen by the same guy who wrote Pride and Glory, Joe Carnahan. By the way, this guy is directing the upcoming A-Team movie. There is a second smoking aces coming this year too.
    



14. Ong Back, *
    My first thought was "I must be old, I did not get hype about this martial arts film", then I watched again Kung Fu and Wong Fei Hung just to check and I still get the hype about martial arts films, ergo it is the film that sucks and not my mental age maturing.
    

This January, I also watched the first season of the following television series

1. Better Off Ted (Season 1), ***
   The series is focused on Ted, a Research and Development manager in Veridian Dynamics, your friendly all for profit we don't care about you or our employees company, and his moral dilemmas in trying to be a coherent example to his young daughter. You better watch it, you will enjoy it.
   



2. Party Down (Season 1), *
   What happens to some of the people that move to L.A. to become rich and famous individuals of the film industry? They end up in the catering industry. I am not into the reality-like theme. I need that detaching "this is fiction" feeling in order to laugh about stupid and hollow people.
   

The Big Bang Theory third season is back and the episodes 12 - 14 are awesome. So, there is an episode about meta-physics and Leonard gets into trouble for that; in the next the guys got sacked, Sheldon's ensuing paranoia keeps you laughing; finally, do you want to know what happens when a Theoretician has the brilliant idea to go into sleep deprivation? Watch the episode 14.