Today’s visit to my local DVD store took me around 10 minutes. That’s actually a long time for me. I can usually spend less than five minutes in the store and know what I want (usually New Releases) – assuming I haven’t seen it at the movies first. But I’m happy to spend longer in the store if it means finding little gems like ‘After Sex’.

The movie is about what happens after the hanky panky (just as the title suggests). And it’s filmed so well that I found myself all over the place emotionally watching it. The movie is split up into short sequences between eight different couples – different people with different needs and sexual orientation. Pretty much everything’s covered – the gay couples (both male and female), the straight couples, the swingers, the cheaters, the virgins having sex for the first time and the one night stands. And not only is the script great but the cast will blow you away – Mila Kunis (from That 70s Show) and Zoe Saldana (pre-Avatar), Taryn Manning, Emmanuelle Chriqui and Jane Seymour even does a small bit.

The opening sequence was particularly powerful because the exchange between the two characters resonated with me on so many levels. When movie dialogue makes a connection to you, you know you’ve got a winner. The individual performances are also stellar; Zoe Saldana and Mila Kunis are particularly great as are Emmanuelle Chriqui (as the cheating ex-girlfriend) and Taryn Manning (as the actress that fools her date into thinking she’s an incest-loving escort from Arkansas).

Movies like ‘He’s Just Not that Into You’ might be fun to watch and may have some big names fronting for the camera, but when it comes down to it, it’s always about sex and ‘After Sex’ deals with this straight-up without all the BS inbetween.

PCR’s Rating: 5/5

Crazy Heart heralds the return of Jeff Bridges. Not that he hasn’t already produced fine work prior to this (his creepy and way too convincing psycho-killer Barney in ‘The Vanishing’ springs to mind). In Crazy Heart however, Jeff Bridges takes control of the role with the ease of a seasoned pro and nails it 110 percent.

And don’t be put off by the fact that Crazy Heart is a movie about a country/western singer. Although Crazy Heart is about music (you can’t really have the man without the music since Jeff Bridges protrays a musician afterall), it’s also the story of a man with nothing left to live for, down and out and looking at life through a whisky bottle. All is not lost however, when his character Bad Blake meets the younger and charming local reporter Jean (portrayed wonderfully by Maggie Gyllenhaal) in Sante Fe while on the road. Bad Blake and Jean begin a relationship and it seems things might be finally looking up for the aging musician. But life has other plans for Bad and throws him a bit of a curve ball that lands pretty much right in his face.

You don’t have to be a fan of country/western music to appreciate the struggle of a man who has nothing left to live for but eventually finds himself renewed through the love of a good woman and the revival of his musical talent. Jeff Bridges is Bad Blake and represents the life and soul of so many musicians who find that life has somehow passed them by. And when all the glamour and fame finally wears off and the well of creativity runs dry, what do you live for? This is the story of Crazy Heart. I highly recommend this to fans of Jeff Bridges and to anyone who enjoys a well dramatised and well scripted movie about life, love and music.

A new day dawns and so the vampire creeps, creeps, creeps its way slowly back into the shadowy depths of mythology. Or does it? Has Hollywood had its fill of blood-letting and bloodlust? Do we finally bid farewell to Edward Cullen, Angel, Eli and Bill Compton? Or does the vampire continue to dig its nails into the everlasting flesh of Hollywood, holding it in its eternal embrace.

With Daybreakers just released in the US (doesn’t arrive on NZ shores until March this year), it’s possible we’re about to see a huge decline in vampire related movies/books/tv shows and the like. Obviously True Blood has found its niche and with current trends aside, will probably continue for a few seasons yet, given its popularity. Other than the continuance of the Twilight movies this year (Eclipse releases in New Zealand in July), it seems the vampire may have had its time in the limelight. Perhaps Hollywood really has had its fill of vampires. Let’s take a quick recap over the last few years and look at just how popular the vampire has been in the entertainment medium:

1. Twilight (books and movies) – based on the books by Stephanie Meyer. Made vampires look hip again and even trendy caus’ they mention google
2. Let the Right One In (movie based on the novel) – back to more traditional roots, you can’t deny the understated creepiness and allure of Eli, the 12 year old vampire that befriends a lonely boy on a swing. Just awesome.
3. True Blood – bringing the vampire wayyy down south made this TV show with its raunchy and sexy appeal something to really sink your teeth into. Also based on books and starring New Zealand starlet Anna Paquin in the lead role.
4. The Vampire Diaries – also based on books and started a little bit of controversy when it was revealed by the author’s legal representation that Stephanie Meyer allegedly plagiarised parts of the book to create her own. Wow, vampire politics even!
5. Daybreakers - features Ethan Hawke as a cool looking vampire dude who befriends a group of humans. Kinda weird when you think about a world populated by vampires where humans are the endangered species.
6. The Vampire’s Assistant – apparently we didn’t get enough of the teenage vampire running amok with Twilight. The Vampire’s Assistant does however feature some other freaky looking people like Salma Hayek with a beard!
7. The Underworld trilogy – started off so very well with Kate Beckinsale bringing sexy back to the vampire that fights werewolves. So much promise with this story but not too sure what happened along the way. Even the brilliant Michael Sheen couldn’t save this vampire story from the harsh critics of hollywood.

So if Vampires have had their day (or is that night?), what -  if anything, could replace them? We’ve got Wolfman with Benecio Del Toro and Emily Blunt clawing its way to theatres soon but I doubt that’s going to spawn a million and one stories/books/movies about werewolves. And without the vampire in hollywood, things just wouldn’t really be the same. Or would they? I guess only time will tell but one thing’s for sure, the vampire has had one hell of a ride over the last few years. Maybe it’s time the vampire got some of that eternal rest we keep reading about… you know, until hollywood needs to feel its cold, vice-like grip on its throat once again.

For some, climbing a mountain that you know in your heart of hearts will most probably kill you is a passion and for a few, an obsession. There’s something deep and primal about man going up against nature but you kinda expect that the outcome will rarely be a positive one. Thus is the case for our adventurous mountain climbers from Germany and North Face is their story.

From a purely cinematic point of view, North Face is photographed beautifully. I’ve never been to Germany so I’ve never seen the Eiger Mountain but in this movie and from a distance, it really is beautiful and uncompromising and doesn’t look in the least bit threatening. For climbers Toni Kurz and Andreas Hinterstoisser, the challenge to face Eiger is overwhelming and cannot be ignored. After leaving the Fuhrer’s army to climb their mountain and make history as the first to do so, things start to really decline at a rapid pace.

Again, this is another movie supposedly based on the true story of the climbers who faced their most terrifying challenge ever only to succumb to a plague of bad luck, poor preparation and bad timing. Mother Nature it seems, is a more than formidable opponent and is captured in all her glorious fury as she unleashes her wrath upon the climbers. As they ascend the “Murder Wall”, the locals’ nickname for Eiger, step by painstaking step the climbers realise they are slowly losing their grip on their dream, their hopes and eventually each other.

North Face is similar to “Touching the Void” in the sense that it truly captures the essence of Man vs. Nature and the struggle of two friends with a dream to climb one of the most dangerous mountains in the world.

Distributor: Madman Released: 2009 Genre: Drama/Romance Credits: Director: Warwick Thornton Written by: Warwick Thornton Starring: Rowan McNamara, Marissa Gibson, Mitjili Napanangka Gibson, Scott Thornton Rating: MA

This dvd was supplied by Madman NZ for preview.

Samson and Delilah is a love story like no other. A relationship that takes both on a journey far beyond the outskirts of their rural outback homes and exposes them to the harshness of the city. Samson and Delilah are two aborigini teenagers who find themselves relying only on each other as circumstances force them to go on the run. Running from the only homelife they’ve ever known, they take shelter under a bridge and befriend a homeless man who also seems to be running from something.

As one situation leads to another resulting in the inseparable couple being torn apart, it’s apparent to Delilah that their situation has become desperate and she calls home for help. For the first time in the story of the two lovers, the future looks bright.

An extremely powerful story with superb casting, Samson and Delilah will grab you out of nowhere with its intensity and vulnerability. There’s a wealth of talent coming out of the Aussie movie industry and we’ll lucky enough to see some of it exposed in this beautiful film- a must-see movie this year!

Samson and Delilah is available via Madman Australia:

I just couldn’t resist posting this here because a) it’s funny and b) every man and his dog are talking about New Moon right now so here’s my contribution:

New Moon as seen in the Sims universe

Enjoy:

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Distributor: 20th Century Fox (NZ)  Released: 2009 Genre: Comedy/Romance/Drama Credits: Director: Marc Webb Writers: Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber Starring: Jason Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel Rating: TBA (Rated M in Australia at time of writing)

I think I disliked Summer Finn. And I loved her at the same time. Although I’m sure it wasn’t entirely Summer’s fault – writers Neustadter and Weber probably have claim to fame on that one. But whatever they intended for Summer to be, Zooey Deschanel embodies her perfectly.

500 Days of Summer is not a love story, but a story about love. Jason Gordon-Levitt plays Tom, a guy who feels life is letting him down. He works in a job that doesn’t make him happy and, more importantly, he is not in love. In fact, he’s not even dating. Life is pretty miserable all-round for Tom. That is until Tom meets the vivacious, beautiful and ridiculously charming Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel) who seems to literally sweep Tom off his feet. Yep, things may seem very backward and non-conventional, but it grows on you… and quickly.

The way in which the movie is structured is very unusual but very hip. As we look at glimpses of Tom’s 500 days of Summer in a chronological timeline, we are taken back and forth into varying intervals of Tom’s life with Summer – before, during and eventually, after the demise of their relationship. Tom hopelessly tries to piece together the puzzle of Summer and why she cannot feel about him the way he does about her. Of course, the blatantly obvious realisation is that Tom will never find the missing pieces of the puzzle (because there are none to find), and instead Tom wallows in self-pity about what might have been with the girl of his dreams. It’s a while before he begins to see that he’s trying to fix something that just isn’t broken. As Summer eloquently puts it, sometimes it’s just “life”.

Zooey Deschanel and Jason Gordon-Levitt are brilliant as the two ill-fated lovers. And the supporting cast, in particular Chloe Moretz, who plays the younger sister and confidante of Tom, are wonderful.  It’s refreshing when you see a movie that seems almost too good, when two actors click so naturally on screen, you’re still talking about their antics hours later. That’s when you know a movie is good, that’s when you know a movie is great.

The soundtrack really is the ‘icing on the cake’ and blends seamlessly with the off-beat humour and unconventional flow of the movie. Infectious tracks such as Regina Spektor’s “Us” and Wolfmother’s “Vagabond” accentuate the movie’s highs and lows as if they were written with this movie in mind.

500 Days of Summer is brill. It’s got the right amount of comedy to make you laugh (but not until you cry), the right amount of romance (without being Romeo and Juliet), and a talented cast that makes it all seem just real enough to think about those times when it was right to say “it’s just… life”.

It’s a little over two months away from the release of New Moon in New Zealand (19 November) so this will probably be the last glimpse we’ll get to see before the release. And each and every time a new trailer for Twilight goes online, the internet gets that much slower… it’s a pain!

Here’s Edward, Bella, Jacob and the volturi doing what they all do best… kicking ass and looking great while they do it!

Check out the new trailer for New Moon: The Twilight Saga thanks to TA.

If you’re in the mood for romance then you’ll enjoy the upcoming movie 500 Days of Summer from Fox Movies. Talented actors Jason Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel star in this upbeat comedy/romance hitting New Zealand theatres in October. The soundtrack is killer (one of my favourite songs ‘Us’ by Regina Spektor is beautiful) and we’re really looking forward to this!

Here’s the trailer:

The first trailer for Agora has been released via Firstshowing. It depicts a woman (played by Rachel Weisz) in Ancient Alexandria who is a philospher fighting against the injustices of her time. If you can imagine the world then was a very different place (although, some women may argue not that different in some aspects) and people who spoke out against the government or men in power were usually put to death without question. The movie is also based on a true story.

Check out the trailer: