Movie Review: Rush [2013]

Sports are boring. Movies about sports can be even more boring especially if they are somehow related to F1. But there are exceptions, a very hard-to-make exceptional films and I say Rush is the best among them. Rush is a true story about two Formula 1 legends of 1970s - Great Britains's James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Austria's Nikki Lauda (Daniel Bruh) - two greatest rivals whose fearless, uncompromising competition brought them worldwide glory and tragic accident during Japanese race.

James and Nikki are two opposite type of persons and sportsmen. Hunt is a party boy, women's favorite and a true macho. He enjoys every moment of his glory. Being successful and very handsome just fuels his bohemian lifestyle and no one ever says NO to him. As a racer James has this endless passion, thirst to risk, because the only thing he truly loves is speed and the fact that each race can be his last. But his enjoyment does not go further than racetrack. The moment he's done with tournament, he goes back to girls, night parties, alcohol and fun.

Nikki, on the contrary, is more antisocial person, he does not interact much with other people and especially of opposite sex. But he loves cars, not only racing, but cars. He understands them, he builds them and he feels them. That is why Lauda absolutely controls every car he drives on a track. Being a son to Austrian wealthy businessman, he sees profit and rationality in everything. For this reason he never takes "higher than accepted" risks, which means, for instance, no race in rainy day. Nikki spends his spear time with cars, making them even more perfect and comfortable, unlike Hunt, he'd never enjoyed loud and crowded parties.

But these two different people have things in common. Both disrespected their parents by going to F1 and both are trying to prove themselves and their families that this particular decision was correct. And they compete, because only one can prove that, because only one becomes the champion.

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Movie Review: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug [2013]

I swear I'll watch everything with Peter Jackson and J.R.R. Tolkien names on it, especially when it comes to prequel of my most favorite trilogy of the LOTR. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a descent followup prequel to previous trilogy and definite improvement compared to first part of it. 

I always find hard to judge movies which are prequels or sequels of iconic films, that I adore and have watched dozens of times, especially when decade has passed after their premiere. And I know how hard it is for Peter to repeat the same success in both ways - love of critics and love of fans. But I guess, he has just done it with very entertaining story, fascinating visuals and brilliant cast - just what everyone wanted to see. The only problem you can find compared to the LOTR is that  Rings first two movies were preparation for epic battle in the third and here, the second part had a distracting story of Smaug - a dragon. I know this is a story of Hobbit but I wanted a bit more of Sauron here. But it was still epic in every sense Jackson's movies are. 

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Movie Review: Lee Daniels' The Butler [2013]

It's a good thing they changed name to Lee Daniels The Butler otherwise I'd confuse it with a short movie of the same name.

Academy Award nominee director of Precious, Lee Daniels takes us back to mid 19th century in the darkest part of American history - the time when racial discrimination was a rule and not an exception, when colored people were denied everything citizens have a right to. This was a war and those people were just living in it.

Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker) was a young black boy, working on a farm when he witnessed the owner murdering his father for stepping in to protect his wife. This is when he decided to be "invisible" to white people - it was far more safe. Grown up as a servant, he moves for better life, doing his best to become a better butler and one day, he gets a call from White House and he's hired as The Butler - probably the most influential one in history. Cecil has served to 7 US presidents, from Dwight Eisenhower to Ronald Reagan and influenced many of their decisions regarding civil rights movements.

"You hear nothing, you see nothing, you only serve"

Cecil had two sons, eldest Louis is a civil right activist fighting (literally) for his and friends rights. For this reason he's been imprisoned, beaten and attacked multiple times. Father and son practically were standing on opposite sides of politics, but served the same aim - equality. They both succeed, but it had its own price.

Movie mostly focuses on White House, Gaines's interaction with politics, civil rights movements and problems inside Gaines's family and these all spins around biggest growing power of colored people. It chronologically gives pretty impressive history lesson with lots of emotions showing pain, despair, injustice,  death and hatred.

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Showtime New Series "Penny Dreadful" Teaser

Showtime released a teaser trailer of its new horror series "Penny Dreadful", created by three times Oscar nominee John Logan. Logan, who picked respective writing nominations for Hugo, The Aviator and Gladiator, brought literature's most terrifying characters including Dr. Frankestein, Dorian Gray and characters from Dracula. 

TV-Series has some impressive cast members like Timothy Dalton, Eva Green, Josh Hartnett and Rory Kinnear. Showtime does not specifically say story-line of Penny Dreadful but teaser still looks dreadful enough to be intrigued. Series is planned to air in 2014.

Check the teaser out here:

Top 10 Trailers of 2013

Last year, I named To Ten trailers of 2012, choosing Les Miserable's epic trailer as a winner, with close runner up Cloud Atlas. Later it turned out that those two movies were two my top films of 2012 (being Cloud Atlas slightly more favorite than Miserables). As for now, I've seen only few of those films and I truly wonder whether movie and trailer choices still match. We'll see.

I believe that trailers are very important to promote and make people want to watch the movie. A good trailer shall deliver the spirit, importance, messages of film without spoiling anything. Making a good movie does not mean making a good trailer and vice versa. The trailers I choose have some important characteristics to me: a good shots and moments from plot, music and some emotional connections. So, here they are:

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The Road to Oscars: SAG Awards Nominees

Yesterday, Screen Actors Guild announced its nominees for the 20th annual awards, being the first awards ceremony to do so, this year. I caught up with some international film festivals, but SAG is a very interesting case to predict acting category nominations. Before moving to analyses, here are the nominees (in alphabetical order):

Best Ensemble:

12 Years a Slave

American Hustle

August: Osage County

Dallas Buyers Club

Lee Daniel's The Butler

Male Actor in a Leading Role:

Bruce Dern, Nebraska

Chiwetel Ejiofor,12 Years A Slave

Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips

Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club

Forest Whitaker, Lee Daniel's the Butler

Female Actor in a Leading Role:

Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine

Sanda Bullock, Gravity

Judi Dench, Philomena

Meryl Streep, August: Osage County

Emma Thompson, Saving Mr. Banks

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Movie Review: Blue is the Warmest Color [2013]

Blue is the Warmest Color is nearly three hours long, very bold, natural, extravagant and sexy adventure of Adele (Adèle Exarchopoulos) who accidentally falls in love with Emma - a woman with blue hair. Director Abdellatif Kechiche takes us on the journey through life of 15 year old girl exploring her sexuality, her life, her passions and interests with the assistance of people she meets on her way ahead.

Adele is a daughter of middle class parents, going to middle class school, is interested in french literature and philosophy and wants to be a teacher. Her life is just too normal and monotonous, but this is going to change when an older guy from school asks her out. Since Adele never thought she was guys' favorite and all these attention is quite new for her, she feels that something changes and kind of feels happy. But real happiness and passion comes when she accidentally meets Emma and here comes "questioning" whether she truly enjoys with boyfriends company or not. The answer NO leads to breakup.

New relationship develops dizzily and lasts several passionate years. With its ups and downs, each and every second of Emma's and Adele's lives is shown with great accuracy and realism. Movie makes you as involved as characters, binding you to the story as if it was your personal.

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Movie Review: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire [2013]

Last week I made my contribution to extremely impressive opening box office of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and frankly, it was surprisingly awesome. I have to acknowledge that first movie was not any such good. Have not read second book yet, I was charmed by the story itself, as well as filmmaking.

 

Catching Fire follows the events after rebellious win of Katniss and Peeta, who became icons for antigovernmental movements fighting against capitol. For that reason, those two, and especially Everdeen is considered to be primary threat to regime and capitol decides to turn her into antihero or to "kill" her in games. 75th Hunger Games is special, reuniting all past winner and Katniss is a shoo-in, because she is the only female winner of district 12. And so it begins, once again. Haymitch is picked as a partner of her in games, however Peeta volunteers to protect his beloved on the field.

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Movie Review: Thor: The Dark World [2013]

A hot blonde guy with mostly useless hammer is back. So, I could not resist seeing it during premiere week and I think I'd regret not to watch it on the big screen.

Thor: The Dark World follows Thor's hardest quest to protect nine realms from very old and strong enemy - Dark Elves, who were destroyed thousands of years ago by Asgard warriors and now seek for revenge and lost weapon known as Aether. The same time, Jane discovers an anomaly similar to the one that brought Thor to Earth and she accidentally gets involved into wars of the worlds. For this reason, Thor comes back to the Earth and takes Foster to Asgard for the first time (yeah, a guy takes his girlfriend to introduce to parents, but she's not particularly welcomed). But eventually, Thor brings her to more danger and the only way he sees saving beloved is to ask for help to Loki.

And then they do stuff, which is not important to tell you how enjoyable this movie was.

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What Hollywood Film Award tells about This Year Oscar Race?

The 17th Hollywood Film Awards, the first awards of the 2013 film awards season, was held on Monday night at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. Some of the actors had a brilliant start for future trophies. Let's take a look at previous winner and how they succeed at Oscars.

Among the big winners are Sandra Bullock for best actress, Matthew McConaughey for best actor, Julia Roberts for supp. actress and Jake Gyllenhaal for supp. actor. Without a closer look, there is no big correlation between HFA and Oscar winners, but it has correctly predicted win of Marion Cotillard, Christoph Waltz, Christopher Plummer, Forest Whitaker in respective years. Also most of HFA winners got Oscar nominations for the same film (for example, Casey Affleck)

Lee Daniels champed the nomination of Director of the year, for its work in controversial The Butler and Steve McQueen was awarded for Breakthrough Directing. Tom Hooper & Kathryn Bigelow won Hollywood and Oscar trophies the same time. Also, last year nominee David O'Russel champed HFA but could not make it at Academy Awards (still nominated).

Also, Monsters University wins Best Animated Feature nomination, which can easily result in respective Oscar, as in case of Rango, Toy Story 3, Ratatouille, Finding Nemo. And every other winner got Academy Award nomination without win. This might mean that MU is one of the front runners this year.

Whatever Hollywood Film Awards winners mean for Oscars race, it is still important that awards season has just started, bringing some very fine performances allover. 

See the winners here

Movie Review: Wadjda [2013] - Oscar Watch

Wadjda is Saudi Arabian submission on Oscars. This country is competing for the first time ever. And frankly speaking, this is quite impressive start, that might result in first nomination.

Wadjda is a school girl who has a dream of driving a bike, which is mostly considered to be a "boys' thing" in her community. That's why she is the only one standing for her dream, without even a little support of family. To collect 800 riyals (price of bike), she decides to compete in Quran competition to win 1000 riyals. Starting from zero and despite all complications, she beats every school girl.

This movie is about many many things. But mostly how big a dream can come and how those inhuman traditions shape persons, narrow their minds and how some of them still are sparkle of light in "darkness". Plot mostly concentrates on Wadjda, but it still exposes bad habits and traditions of Arabian society - problems in family, outside family and at schools. But those supporting stories are quietly playing behind this little girl's strive for dreams. 

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Poster: August Osage County

This is awesome. What a great poster showing Julia Roberts beating the crap out of Meryl Streep. The first screenings were followed by huge buzz about the dinner scene, which could bring Oscar nominations to both actresses and this poster is just continuation of this most talked part of film.

You can see Oscar Predictions for August: Osage County HERE

Movie Review: Despicable Me 2 [2013]

Despicable Me 2 has more minions then Despicable Me and therefore it's lot more funnier. And I can tell, nothing can get any more hilarious then this animation, it made me cry tears & roll on the cinema floor. Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but mostly I could not help myself giggling.

Gru is done with evil stuff and he's back to normal life, trying to be a good father to three adorable daughters. He produces and sell jams, which are not delicious, but he's happy, cause he finally got family. Girls love him very much, however they still want mom, so they try to get someone for their daddy, which most does not work.

Their lives get a little messy when Gru is hired by anti-villain league to fight against world's most dangerous villains. Together with the AVL agent, Lucy Wilde, Gru concludes that his prime suspect is the presumed dead supervillain, El Macho, whose teenage son likes his eldest daughter, Margo. Because of his growing mutual attraction to Lucy, Gru seems on the wrong track even as his minions are being quietly kidnapped en masse for some malevolent purpose.

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Musings on `American Horror Story: Coven` Premiere

Witches of Coven

Finally, very much anticipated third season of American Horror Story has arrived with a story of witches who are trying to survive in a modern world, after being persecuted in past centuries. I shall not start proving how phenomenal this series is, actually the only show which totally terrifies and astonishes me with superb story, masterful acting and brilliant directing.

From now on, the horrors happen in a Coven aka Miss Robichaux's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies - a mysterious school in New Orleans for witches. Episode Bitchcraft opens with flashback to quite distant past and introduces Madame Delphine LaLaurie (Kathy Bates) - a slave owner, who inhumanly tortures them to keep herself forever young. She's later killed by a Voodoo - a girlfriend to one of her victims. 

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Movie Review: Gravity [2013]

Don't let go

Do you know, why 3D was invented? I do. Because we had to see this in 3D, because Gravity is the best film experience I've ever had, just like Life of Pi last year, and Avatar four years ago. Director Alfonso Cuarón managed bring absolutely different experience of breathtaking visuals, bright colors and great directing.

Gravity follows a medical engineer Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and an astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) working together to survive after an accident leaves them adrift in space, where even one mistake can cost you a life. Since there is no one in the film except those two and Dr. Stone is left alone quite shortly after the movie starts, there are no much dialogues, however it still manages to keep you tense and stressed any minute of it, mostly because technically perfectly made visual & 3D effects.

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Movie Review: In Bloom [2013] - Oscar Watch

In Bloom is a Georgian submission on Oscars. Movie's original title literally translates as "Long Bright Days" and tells a story of two young best friends during early years of Georgian independence in 1992. Story of these two girls expose problems of our society which most of Georgians still face nowadays: domestic violence, ignorance, struggle between generations of parents and children.

Eka & Natia are two teenagers living in extremely violent society, where you have no chance to find justice, or somebody to support you, even your family. This is war going inside of families and outside of them and mostly because grownups (parents) are not capable of dialing their lives. Sadly, their children get more harmed than they do. It is time when boyfriends give guns to their girlfriends, instead of some fluffy gifts, to ensure that they are safe, when underage boys can beat to death anybody they wish and when nobody cares if somebody gets killed in front of them. It's a story of massive ignorance of actions that are believed to be immoral, at least, today.

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Who Would You Cast in HBO's `American Gods`?

HBO continues to amaze its viewers with more brilliant sci-fis. After smashing success of Game of Thrones, it plans 6 seasons of Neil Gaiman's award winning fantasy book American Gods. The book, which I've never read, promises a lot with very interesting and original idea of combining all mythological gods and new ones. Here you can see Odin, Anubis, Loki and modern deities of internet, celebrities, television, etc. You think that the last ones have no chance with olds? Brace yourself, gods in this book (and show) gain power according to how strongly people believe in them, so God of Google can be more tough then Jesus, Odin, Zeus altogether. 

The good thing about American Gods is that every supernatural creature is real in it, just like dragons in Game of Thrones and personally, I think that it's going to be better then any series, including Supernatural. Unfortunately, HBO is not sure about airing date (it was announced as 2013, however), since Gaiman is still processing the pilot script. Accordingly, producers have not announced the cast, which gives me a time to wonder who I'd love to see as gods.

Lets start (list of gods are taken from book, which means they might not be in show):

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TV Series: Pilot Episode Reviews Part II

In the part I, I reviewed three pilots: The Blacklist, Sleepy Hollow & Masters of Sex. As promised, this one includes pilot episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

So, here we go:

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | premiered on Sept. 24

This is a very first TV Show of Marvel which has already proved to be the best in superhero movies. Series with lots of superheros sounds great, imagine The Avengers lasting for years. It can be awesome and interesting, if writers manage to write interesting script, but if they fail, it can become a nightmare.

Pilot episode was good one. It introduces special government unit S.H.I.E.L.D., who hunt for super powered people and the same time we meet one of superheros, who is unaware how to use powers. The good thing is that, we don't actually know whether agents of government are good ones, or bad ones. They just hunt, however they can be people saving lives of others. It means that there is tones of job for writers to do in succeeding episodes. Whole 45 minutes are quite tense, sometimes funny and entertaining. But it mostly lacks descent characters, since most of them are in a shape of well known cliches. It seems writers took an example of average agent in movies and copied them, however superheros seem to be even worse. Accordingly there is no much character developments or twists in pilot, which I consider to be essential in the first episode.

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TV Series: Pilot Episode Reviews Part I

After series finale of Dexter I started to search for some new shows, that could entertain me a little and make me forget that my all time favorite series has ended. So, here are some interesting shows I found. I've not seen most of them, since their premieres are ahead yet, but trailers and plot look quite promising, so you might wanna check them out.

The Blacklist | premiered on Sept 23

NBC brings a new original series The Blacklist. FBI most wanted criminal Raymond 'Red' Reddington (James Spader) surprisingly decides to surrender and visits its field office by himself. He has been in top list for years, but no one could ever find him. Being immediately imprisoned, he asks for the only person he's willing to talk to - agent Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone). And then Red suggests cooperation to catch the most important terrorists and criminals, they even have no idea they exist.

No one was going to compromise, but they had to since US General's daughter was under danger. Surprisingly, they catch criminal by exactly following Reddington's orders. However this was not the only name on Raymond's list - The Blacklist contains dozens of other threats. Which means, Red becomes new best friend of FBI.

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Movie Review: The Great Gatsby [2013]

Gatsby? What Gatsby?

I finally watched this year's most anticipated, my sister's favorite and Leonardo's another Oscar hope-movie The Great Gatsby. Directed by Academy Award nominee Baz Luhrmann, it has everything his movies tend to have.

This is an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald novel of the same name, which I have not read, and accordingly I can't tell how precisely the story is told, or can it be any better or not. But what I can really say is that this movie has something extraordinary making watching experience very enjoyable. 

The movie follows war veteran Nick Carraway after moving to New York City just right beside the wealthiest man in town - Jay Gatsby. This is how it works - story plays backwards. Nick in the future tells & writes his adventure from past - how he met the most important person in his life. It easily looks like Carraway still admires Jay and you might get a feeling that you're listening to a very subjective version of whole truth.

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Top 10 Movies Where Bad Guy Wins

Most of movies are about endless battle between good guys and bad guys. If good guys win, we call it "Hollywood Happy End", but some films are more realistic and follow the idea that villains win too, as usual. But some movies really surprised me the way they ended. Here are my Top Ten Movies, where Bad Guys Win, eventually.

P.S. Spoiler alert.

The Wicker Man is surprisingly good movie, in any sense. Left alone the plot & cast, the last scene is definitely worth being rewatched and remembered. Killing Edward Mallus when he is trying to find "lost" daughter, was a jaw-dropping twist for me. However this is a good thing, because movie ends exactly as it's supposed to.
How it ends: Character of Nicolas Cage is killed by women settled on the island. It turns out that his daughter has never been missing and this whole story was a trap to bring a sacrifice to their gods.

In this case, it’s the suburban couple Oliver and Cheryl Lang.  Their neighbor, Michael Faraday, believes that the Langs are maniacal terrorists.
How it ends: Well, the Langs are terrorists, and after planting a bomb in the trunk of Faraday’s care that kills almost 200 people, they get away, having framed Faraday for the explosion

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TV Series: Dexter 08x12 - Remember the Monsters? [Series Finale]

The Night has come, the night of all nights

After brilliant 8 years, we farewell the most original and bloody series of all time. Dexter has ended in the most controversial way a show could end. I am pretty sure it will take a lot talks and discussions among fans, whether it was good or bad. But definitely, it could be better.

Remember the Monsters? is not alike any of other episodes. It's mostly about Dexter and Debra, because Dexter is blaming himself for everything he has done to sister and for that reason, he tries to make everything better again. We see a lot flashbacks to the time when Morgan became a father, his relationship with Deb and all sweat memories connecting those two.

I liked the ending (though I've imagined it quite differently) because it's happy and sad the same time. It still arises some questions and most importantly, whether Dexter was a real monster or he was just a victim of Dr. Vogel?! The same time, he really regrets not killing Olver Saxon.

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Movie Review: American Beauty [1999]

This post is part of Debut Blogathon hosted by Terry Malloy's Pigeon Coop and Three Rows Back. The blogathon intended to write a review of best and most important directing debuts. And because American Beauty is one of my most favorite movies of all time, I decided to talk about Sam Mendes's brilliant first feature.

I want to thank both of them for running such an interesting, productive and creative blogathon. 

____________________

I cannot imagine any talk about directing debuts without even mentioning Sam Mendes’s 5 Oscar winner picture American Beauty. Considering everything I am going to discuss in my post, none of the directors have ever had such a high standard debut as Mendes had.

American Beauty looks at average life of average American family, their aspiration to happiness, their failure to actually be happy and the way how it ends.

Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is a father to a troubled teenage daughter Jane (Thora Birch) and a husband to a successful wife Carolyn (Annette Bening). They smile every day, collect flowers, drive Jane to school, work hard and have a family dinner in the evenings. Everything just seems perfect, as it supposed to be. But Lester, who himself tells the whole story, does not feel so. He jerks in the shower in the mornings, hates his job, thinks that daughter hates her father (damn right) and can’t stand his own wife. Burnhams’ life is just a show, a commercial for how normal they are when they are anything but. However, inside each of family memeber feels messy and lost.

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TV Series: Dexter 08x11 - Monkey in a Box

I did not see that coming

Episode 10 - Goodbye Miami was a bit disappointment having no twists or any suggestions how the show will end. It did not bring much new, except Vogel's death, which was pretty predictable for me. Monkey in a Box starts the same way actually, as a look at quiet life of Dexter, however in the end things start to change.

Dexter and Hannah are making final arrangements to leave the town, but there are a lot complicating issues including Deputy Marshall, Vogel's death and Morgan's attempt to kill Oliver Saxon. After Hannah visited the hospital the FBI has renewed search for her and they are getting closer and closer.

Saxon tries to negotiate with Dex to stay  apart and leave everything as it was. But being threatened does not work much for Serial Killer, so he makes some plans up to deal with a guy who killed Evelyn. However Morgan is trapped, he is not willing to kill Oliver by himself (WTF) and for this reason he sets him up so that Miami Metro could trace him. This is the first time he did what Debra wanted him to do and I am pretty sure they both are going to regret this.

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My Most Anticipated of 2013: Part II

In early May, I drafted a post about my top 5 movies I can't wait in 2013, I saw most of them (except American Hustle), so it's time for new ones. Most anticipated of 2013 includes movies, TV Shows and performances I can not wait in 2013. 

But before that, you may want to read my reviews of: Star Trek Into Darkness | Stoker | Now You See Me | The Great Gatsby (coming soon)

Most Anticipated Performances of 2013

Julia Roberts in August: Osage County

She is #1 actress for me and it's been like that since I remember movies. However, most of her best films were shot long before I heard about Julia Roberts. I have huge hopes for August:Osage County and her Oscar chances. As a fan, I desperately want to see her name among nominees. 

Having watched all Robert's films, I need something new, that would fire my great passion towards her up.

Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club

Requiem for a Dream is his greatest work and generally phenomenal movie. In Dallas Buyers Club Leto plays HIV positive transgender Rayon. His character is genuinely awards-perspective and I am looking forward to his stunning performance.

The same time, I am a great fan of him as a performer and member of 30STM.

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Trailer: August: Osage County [2013] #2

The Weinstein Company released second trailer of its most anticipated family drama/comedy August: Osage County, a movie that boosted Oscar chances for Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts, who might fight for top prize in the same or separate categories. As Weinstein already clarified, Streep will be campaigned for lead and Roberts for supporting, however the Academy is itself eligible to vote them in any category they want.

Second trailer looks even better exploring main characters and their acting. It gives more juicy material for further discussions whether both Meryl and Julia make final top five at awards, or not, or maybe someone (for instance, Margo Martindale) can also get more chances. It also give more time of dinner scene, which probably shows best award worthy  moments in the whole movie. 

Here you can have a look at the trailer:

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Top 10 Films of Last Decade [2000-2009]

After drafting Top 10 Male and Female performances of 2000-2009, it's time for movies. My movie list is mostly based on IMDB rating I give each film after watching it. Having taken a close look at feature films premiered from 2000 to 2009, here is my TEN most favorite ones:

Moulin Rouge! is my favorite musical of all time and the second highest rated (after Les Miserables). Baz Luhrmann has managed to unite a spectacular story, with greatest visuals and beautiful music, amazing cast and heartbreaking finale in one movie masterpiece. 

A very crazy, dark comedy by insane brother Coens. Ethan and Joel are great directors, one of the greatests, each their movie is a lot enjoyable and close to perfection. However, Burn After Reading is the most extraordinary among them with delightful sense of humor, brilliant cast and perfect directing. You can't see such entertaining movie each year.

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TV Series: Dexter 08x10: Goodbye Miami

We had a long (two weeks) break from Dexter. It's been a while. Make Your Own Kind of music exposed totally different direction of the show, since it brought brain surgeon back, who turned out to be Dr. Vogel's senior son. Having regrets because of her acts, Evelyn does not want Dexter to kill Oliver Saxon.

If you saw preview of this episode, you might know that Dex is leaving Miami with Harrison and Hannah. But before that, he tries to kill Saxon to make Dr. safe.  The same time, he secretly talks to Debra about his future plans in Argentina and farewells with Homicide Department.

Goodbye Miami gives a great hope that our favorite serial killer is back to his real work - killing other killers and he will never be distracted by random things like love, life, care and women. The whole season seemed to be very calm compared to previous 7. It is understandable that things change in order to bring the show to the end, but we don't want to see Dexter turning into another happy ending sad drama.

For the first time, this episode made me think that maybe the writers want to turn Dexter into a person who rids of his bad habits, who becomes alike others (otherwise becomes abnormal). I do really hope it does not happen, it will disappoint a lot.

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Top 10 Male Performances of Last Decade

Here is another list of my Top Tens: Top 10 Male Performances of Last Decade (2000-2009). The list includes actors who did an outstanding acting job, created or portrayed memorable characters and generally had the best years of their careers. 

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TV Series: Dexter 08x09 - Make Your Own Kind of Music

Are We There Yet? made clear that Dexter did not actually kill "brain surgeon" and he or she is still alive. The same time, Zach Hamilton turns out not to be a killer of those he was accused, on the contrary this young psychopath learned literally everything from Morgan and therefore followed the code. (I still can't get over his death)

Make Your Own Kind of Music is more relaxing episode, it does not suggest some important plot twists, but it explores many new things we might be guessing and did not believe. This episode takes look at three major points: Hannah & Dexter further relationship, "brain surgeon case"/Cassie's murder and Debra.

In Are We There Yet Dexter asked Hannah to stay to move forward together and she happily accepted the invitation. But this is never going to be easy, since Hannah is already chased by FBI. Dexter decides to take care of it himself, alongside many other problems he's to deal with. Dr. Vogel, as always, genuinely questions his ability to succeed anymore. He literally is starting to be human. As a fan of cold blood serial killer, I don't enjoy this much, but on the other hand, he seems more real now. 

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Top 10 Female Performances of Last Decade

I love making lists, top tens, bottom tens and etc. This is one of my favorite ones Top 10 Female Performances of Last Decade. Why last decade? As a matter of fact, I have seen majority of the movies that premiered during 2000-2009, but I can't say the same about the ones which came out in XX century. So, it would be wiser to choose best from those I've seen. Here are, top female performances of 2000-2009:

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Movie Review: Now You See Me [2013]

The closer you think you are, the less you'll actually see.

Now You See Me has been one of my most anticipated movies of 2013, because the trailer really sold an interesting story and great cast. Movie is about four magicians, called Four Horsemen, who robbed a bank during their performance in Vegas and rewarded the audience with millions of dollars. The whole idea of robbery was to bring a random man from audience to any bank s/he wanted and they'd get money from there. So, all this crime was happening live, watched by hundreds of people.

FBI starts investigation. But there is nothing to investigate, because if they do, this means they believe that it's possible to transfer a person from Las Vegas to Paris in less than three seconds. Four Horsemen are released from police office shortly after interrogations.

According to legend, four horsemen are people who are chosen  once in two centuries by a secret organization called The Eye. They aim to protect real magic. Chosen four are: J. Daniels Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco). Each of them have different magic talent, but they make a really good team. In the beginning of movie, some guy (probably Fifth Horseman) is secretly giving them invitation for meeting and when they meet, they get an assignment to make a biggest magic show ever done.

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Movie Review: Star Trek Into Darkness [2013]

I've never thought I'd love Star Trek, especially with so much Hollywood happy ending.

I had such an anticipation for Star Trek Into Darkness the whole year, that I could most likely be disappointed after seeing it. Especially, when I am not a huge fan of sci-fi, unless they are scary. But my faith in J.J. Abrams totally restored last night. I saw the movie I wanted to see - a great action, catchy story and brilliant cast. 

Movie starts with USS Enterprise mission of rescuing endangered species from an active volcano. However, Captain Kirk's effort to save Spock's life at any price compromises the mission and nearly gets him booted from Starfleet. He could have been, if not a new villain that threatened safety and piece not only on Earth but in whole Galaxy. After attack at Starfleet HQ and killing Captain Spike, the Earth sends Enterprise to bring criminal to justice. Accordingly Kirk is still on board heading to uninhabited dark planet, where Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch) is suppose to be.

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TV Series: Dexter 08x08 - Are We There Yet?

Dexter is quietly going to its end. I don't know whether it's logical or good one, but it's the end. Hopefully, a lot interesting and intriguing things happen lately, so this might mean the most bad ass finale we've ever seen. Who knows!

Are We There Yet? suggest majors plot twists of this season, it questions everything we've believed so far and brings persons, we were forgetting, on the surface. Mostly this episode is about investigating of Cassie murder, Hannah and Dexter relationship and Debra's efforts to get rid of her as easily as possible. But there is even more happening in the end.

From previous episode, we remember that Zach is a major suspect in murders and Dex seems to be a lot disappointed, because he seemed to be liking him and the idea of being a mentor. We all thought that he deserved to be killed? Did he? Or just the writers tried to trick us? I've missed something before, Hamilton was so much fan of Morgan and he tried to be like him so hard that he would not kill anybody. It turns out that he started to follow the code by himself which is why he does not particularly fit the characteristics of Dex's victims.

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Movie Review: Ordinary People [1980]

Robert Redford's directorial debut Ordinary People is one of the most controversial Oscar Best Picture winners of all time. Having beaten Raging Bull and The Elephant Man, you can often see this name with Crash, Shakespeare in Love and many others as the biggest statuette robbers. Well, I don't know what's going on those peoples' minds, but I hardly imagine better family drama that have marched on any awards.

Ordinary People gives a close and precise look at up-class american family after the tragic death of elder son in boating accident. Movie tells a story of them dealing with guilt, love, alienation and regrets and all ups&downs they experience in family relationships. 

Calvin (Donald Sutherland) and Beth (Mary Tyler Moore) Jarretts were parents to two boys: Buck (who died in an accident) and younger Conrad (Timothy Hutton), who had an unsuccessful attempt of suicide after witnessing brothers death. After rehabilitation in hospital, he returns home with the hope of better days but nothing goes any good. Conrad is having bad dreams, does not sleep at all and his relationship with mother is ruining. Despite trying to distract attention with sports, he can't help strengthening family ties. This is when he starts seeing a psychiatric Dr. Berger (Judd Hirsch). 

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Movie Review: Iron Man 3 [2013]

There are a lot reasons one should respect Marvel, Iron Man series is one of them. Despite me not being a huge fan of comics, superheros and world-saving flying guys, I've actually enjoyed any of its films. Iron Man 3 is another descent, well assembled action movie that took an entertaining two hours and eleven minutes of my Friday night.

Film gives a look at Tony Stark's rehabilitation life after Iron Man 2 finale. He tries to live a quiet life in his underworld, fixing, assembling, experimenting machines, while Pepper does an out job in the office. 

Before the real action starts, we see a flashback to 1999 when Tony accidentally met Aldrich (Guy Pearce) - a fan of him, who is actually good at inventing things. Start practically ignores him. So, he comes back to Iron Man's life in modern time. Meanwhile, a world is under imminent threat of terrorist attacks - more than ten blowups have totally ruined US security system. What is more, each of explosion turns out to happen somehow itself, without any actual explosives. Since Star has retired, he continues a non-hero life. But when he becomes next target superhero rises.

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TV Series: Will & Grace [1998-2006]

Will & Grace is one of the series I've already recommended to watch. But I think I want to dedicate a full post to this very entertaining and hereafter one of my favorite TV-Show. 27 Golden Globe nominee, multiple Primetime Emmy winner show tells a story of Will Truman - a gay New York lawyer - and Grace Adler - straight interior designer, who's been best friends for ages and even at their early thirties they live together. This actually means that they mostly are single, with maximum relationship duration couple of months. First episodes of show escalate after Grace dumping her "longtime" boyfriend just before wedding and moving to Will's house. And here starts the story.

Will and Grace are two different persons with shared characters, lives and interests. They are totally supportive to each other, never date men if without approval and don't even think to get married. They enjoy being together. And yes, they are perfect in playing Taboo against any opponent.

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Movie Review: V/H/S [2012]

V/H/S is a found footage genre horror movie that was supposed to be terrifying, but for no reason turned out to be crap. Uniting 6 different segments it tells six different horror stories recorded by the victims themselves.

A gang of outlaws is hired by unknown person to look for a VHS cassette in someones house and record all this on tape. They enter the house and find more than just a tape - a dead body and tons of tapes. Now you think that the dead body means something, right? Forget it. Nothing makes sense in this movie, even each segment separately. The "best" of segments (Amateur Night) gives a look at bunch of drunk youngsters who are killed by some supernatural creature. It is a little creepy in the beginning, especially the girl, who's strange behavior sells the whole story. This part  is also the bloodiest but it does not goes any further providing no scares at all.

This is followed by a story of married couple, who are staying at some hotel. Somebody is visiting them at nights, making a footage of everything she does in their room - stealing money and killing Sam (husband). And later she vanished with wife Stephanie.

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Movie Review: Epic [2013]

Something called Epic is supposed to be epic, but instead this new animated feature is above average feature. However even more entertaining, than you think.

Oscar winner director of Ice Age, Chris Wedge, brought a well known and predictable tale of two worlds' interaction with each other - the visible and non-visible ones. 

Professor Bomba has been searching for tiny people in nearby woods for years. He has scarified everything to his job, including wife and a daughter, because he believed in success some day. After the death of his ex wife, their girl Mary Katherine (a.k.a. M.K.) moves to his house to get closer to dad. But he does not seem to be an easy person to get along with, his obsession makes him forget everyone except those tiny people who actually live in his mind. So, daughter who came home to be close with father, is upset, since she does not believe anything about mystical world around them and decides to leave. But she is accidentally transferred to the parallel world of those tiny people, her father has been looking for.

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TV Series: Dexter 08x07 - Dress Code

Previous episode A Little Reflection gave some tricky points for this week's episode - Hannah was back, Dexter did not kill Zach, because Vogel suggested to raise him up.

Dress Code brings great followups for each points. Starting with Hannah, Dex tries to understand the reason she is back and tries to trace her. It seems she is not hiding and actually wants that Morgan found her easily. Debra is worried about her sudden appearance in Miami and practically asks brother to kill her, however he seems to have different plans about ex-girlfriend.

Zach becomes bigger trouble having zero control over himself. It seems writers do not want him to be a bad person, he seems miserable in beating his dark passenger and therefore he totally hopes for Dexter's help. Hamilton is a little, confused kid, who does terrible things and hates himself for this reason and a serial killer is the last chance. Morgan has already decided to be "Harry" for him, to teach a code and make new himself.

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Trailer: The Counselor [2013]

Director Ridley Scott comes back with a huge cast of Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz and Natalie Dormer. The Counselor tells a story of lawyer who finds himself involved in drug trafficking. Trailer looks really intrigue and beautifully crafted and whatever the story comes,  the cast of this caliber can make everything brilliant. We'll see, but before that, have a look at it:

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Trailer: Thor: The Dark World [2013]

Thor: The Dark World international trailer was released today. Sequel to the epic movie Thor will premiere in early November, bringing a huge cast on the screen - Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Idris Elba and many others. The original one claimed a great love from fans and raving revews of critics. And I wanna tell you, the second one looks even more stunning in any sense. At least trailers are getting better and better.

Movie continues the big-screen adventures of Thor, the Mighty Avenger, as he battles to save Earth and all the Nine Realms from a shadowy enemy that predates the universe itself.

Have a look at trailer here:

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