The Adjustment Bureau(2011)

Would you give up your loved one and your love just because you want what's best for them and for you? This movie argues that no, you shouldn't give up on your love for what may seem like higher reason or maybe  that you should not give up because what could a higher reason be for a human being if not love.
As easy as that the question may look in this one and a half hours I think it has a real hard core to it: would you do something bad to do something good. I guess the answer is never simple because reason just got a blue screen.
Another theme touched upon is free will. Do we have it? How do we know if we do? What is the cost of it? The answers are: Yes, we know when we fight for it, it was to have a high cost at least temporarily. In the movie the implicit cost is high to start with but after that everybody will live happily ever after.
So are you going to follow the path of the Adjustment Bureau or not? What side are you falling on? 

Just go with it (2011)

A few celebrities in another romantic comedy concocted by Adam Sandler. The issue here is to see how imagination becomes reality, lies becomes truth etc. - you get the idea. I agree it is a real problem since it looks like there can never be a clear line between night and day despite the fact that there is - did you get this one?

fredi is deleting her membership (2010)

No one writes about movies anymore. After a few years of livelihood, zoomshot.blogspot.com has become a grave of long-forgotten posts. Probably only the undead still read them. Its writers have moved on, it seems.

Sunshine (1999)

"... and I knew the only way I could live my life was to account for it." With these words ends the story that the Hungarian Jew Adam Sonnenschein has been telling his tired watcher for three hours. Starting with his great-grandfather, ending with him, the story skims over different masculine extremities: the grandfather serving the emperor in the Austro-Hungarian empire, the father ignoring the fascists as long as he can, Adam himself hooking up with the communists until he comes to the conclusion quoted above and starts leading a less politically extreme life which, unfortunately, we don't get to see. His new life is modelled after the philosophy of his grandmother who, in her own words, "though I could never be a communist quite like you were, felt pity with the poor picking up the crums in the street" and, apart from that, dedicated all the time she didn't spend consoling the male family members with caring looks to taking pictures of what's beautiful in life. --- This was recommended as an introduction to Hungarian history, but really it was but a lovestory repeated thrice and glamourized by different uniforms and stiff faces. The storyline was so... Western.

Saving Grace

England. Some small village at the coast. Graces husband dies. After a short period of sadness she needs to find out that her husband has left nothing but a huge amount of depts. Grace has no income but has to pay back the depts or her house will be auctioned. Her gardener Matt has the saving idea: plating marijuana and sell it later on. Grace has the right touch for plants ,and this crazy idea could change her whole finacial problem. So they plant marijuana in secret, but very soon the whole village is informed without their knowledge. When the time arises where the drug needs to be selled Grace decides to drive to London, even though she has no idea what is expecting her or whome she heeds to talk to. I can simply warmly recommend this mivie. It is so full of heart and humor. Many scurile and funny characters are the essence of this story, especially the main actress is lovely, so full of energy and hope. It´s only about the characters and how life sometimes plays.

Equilibrium

After the third world war humans try to create a cure against agressiveness that could lead to death and desperation of the whole polulation. They find that a liquid that represses all emotions (love, commiseration, anger, jealousy, sadness, and so on) is the right thing. Everybody needs to take it in a defined period of time so the repressed feelings can´t appear on the surface of the mind of a person. The leader of the humans and the ideal of a world without war is called "Father". he makes rules and gives orders. To make sure everybody stays within the system brutal laws are taking place, people that don´t take the liquid are called "sense-offenders". The clerics, a group of some kind of special agents with breathtaking abilities of fight-methods (reminding me a bit too much of Matrix) burn everything that is somewhat connected to fellings like books, art, music,... and kill the sense-offenders (sometimes by shooting them, sometimes by buring them alive). As you probably noticed, this movie is very very violent, many people die and lots of guns are in use.  The main actor, John Preston (Christian Bale), is the best of the best within the clerics. His wife has been excecuted because she stopped taking the liquid, but nevertheless he is still the hard, ideologic man. But then he shoots he best friend and college. After that he changes. Very soon he is hunted, tries to find the undeground that wants to overthrow the system (guess what, of course with bombs and violence and stuff). Well, this movie could be good, it includes lots of interesting ideas but what comes out in the end is a violent and flat movie. The actors are not developing any deep profile and the special effects and action parts have a very much too high priority. Not even the soundtrack is too good. So, if you don´t mind people being shot every five to ten minutes or whatever this is a movie for a popcorn-evening. Not deep, good looking actors and not too much thinking.

Equilibrium

After the third world war humans try to create a cure against agressiveness that could lead to death and desperation of the whole polulation. They find that a liquid that represses all emotions (love, commiseration, anger, jealousy, sadness, and so on) is the right thing. Everybody needs to take it in a defined period of time so the repressed feelings can´t appear on the surface of the mind of a person. The leader of the humans and the ideal of a world without war is called "Father". he makes rules and gives orders. To make sure everybody stays within the system brutal laws are taking place, people that don´t take the liquid are called "sense-offenders". The clerics, a group of some kind of special agents with breathtaking abilities of fight-methods (reminding me a bit too much of Matrix) burn everything that is somewhat connected to fellings like books, art, music,... and kill the sense-offenders (sometimes by shooting them, sometimes by buring them alive). As you probably noticed, this movie is very very violent, many people die and lots of guns are in use.  The main actor, John Preston (Christian Bale), is the best of the best within the clerics. His wife has been excecuted because she stopped taking the liquid, but nevertheless he is still the hard, ideologic man. But then he shoots he best friend and college. After that he changes. Very soon he is hunted, tries to find the undeground that wants to overthrow the system (guess what, of course with bombs and violence and stuff). Well, this movie could be good, it includes lots of interesting ideas but what comes out in the end is a violent and flat movie. The actors are not developing any deep profile and the special effects and action parts have a very much too high priority. Not even the soundtrack is too good. So, if you don´t mind people being shot every five to ten minutes or whatever this is a movie for a popcorn-evening. Not deep, good looking actors and not too much thinking.

Goldfinger (1964)

On my first night with internet at my new home, I was in the mood for exciting entertainment. As I didn't find an online Hitchcock movie easily, I went for James Bond instead. Sean Connery, to be precise. Goldfinger is from 1964, which means it has very enjoyable special effects. The swimwear is also very nice: The storyline is cold wary. A gold-maniac has a deal with Korea: they give him a little bomb with which he wants to contaminate the US gold reserves so that his own reserves would decuple in value. Bond is his prisoner most of the time. Unfortunately this means that there is only one car he gets the chance to drive to pieces in the whole movie. His love stories are also not very successful at first: the first two girls he hooks on to (#1 in the picture) die few hours after their encounter. Fortunately, it's different with the last one whom he impresses so much with his judo tricks that she calls Washington to warn them of the attack. If it weren't for his charms, the USA would be an insignificant country with lots of radioactive gold today...

The Fall

  Alexandira broke her arm and now she has to stay in hospital. There she meets Roy during one of her exploring tours. Roy is an injured stuntman. He starts telling her magical stories, but only to use her for getting him the pills, morphin, enough pills to kill himself. But this Alexandria doesn´t know, so in her fantasy the coloured, adventures tale of five heroes is taking place, in beautiful pictures, full of romatic atmosphere and strong colours. It´s a very nice and imaginative film, with such a lovely main actress, my god she is so very sweet and innocent. I must admitt that this is a different king of movie, it´s all about the two main actors and how their „relationship“ developes, how they start to see each other. There is time for eyecontact, meaningfull looks, understanding problems caused by the language (for English is not the mother language of Alexandria) and lots of heart.

The Machinist

 

„If you were any thinner you wouldn´t exist“. Trevor didn´t sleep for a long time, for one year to be precise. That´s why is is not really aware of the real world, he is always tired and weak. He works in a factory of whatever machines. One day a college has an accident and loses his arm, it was Trevors fault, since then the others avoid being around him. Just before the accident happend he met Ivan, a strange guy with an ugly laughter. Ivan seems to appear around Trevor more often, he drives this red car, Trevor tries to catch Ivan, wants to find out what is going on. Why is there this scary paper on the frdge, who entered his appartment? And what is about the blood that runs out of the frige? He finds some saftey at Stevies place, a prostitute he visits regularly, who dreams of having a relationship with him. And then there is Marie, the waitress with the son. She is so very friendly. But he is sure, there is a plot going on, all against him. This movie is so scary, cold and weard. I had to stop watching it when I tried it the first time, because I was so afraid of what would happen next, what is real, who is good and bad. It took me a long time to see what is real, what is in Trevors head and what not, the story is very good made. And Christian Bale as Trevor is great. And very very thin.