The one and Only... Django Unchained!

So it's back to me again and this week i get to do Tarantino's seventh film Django Unchained.
Unfortunately, when this was released in cinema last year, I hadn't quite turned 18, so going to see it wasn't possible.

Tarantino's first film 'Reservoir Dogs' in 1992 wasn't that great. You were left at the end of the film still trying to work out what the story line really was. It was one of those films that was definitely a learning curve and platform for his future films. I can only say that his films just got better and better. Pulp fiction in 1994 staring John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson was a great film. I know that this isn't the point of the post.. the point that I am trying to make is that Tarantino just keeps getting better. I wasn't sure if he could beat Kill Bill, 1 and 2. I haven't seen Inglorious Bastards, so I can't really make a direct comparison but I can say that he definitely managed to step up his game with Django.
Django was nominated for 5 Oscars including Best supporting Actor, Original Screenplay and best picture. It won: Best Supporting actor (Christoph Waltz) and Best original screenplay (Tarantino). Unfortunately, It was released in a year that was packed with great films, Les Miserables, Argo, Lincoln, Skyfall and Life of Pi were all released in the same year, which made it very difficult for Django to pick up any more awards than it did.
It's a great film and I was really impressed with Leonardo Di Caprio. The films he has done as an adult have been great... it's just a shame he spoilt his career with Titanic. People forget that he can act because of that film, but he has done a lot of great films in his career and this one is no exception.

For those of you that haven't seen it:
Plot:
Western adventure film starring : Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo Di Caprio, Kerry Washington and Samuel L Jackson.

Django is a slave in Texas, 1858. A man called Schultz, who is German from Dusseldorf is carrying a warrant for the arrest of the Brittle brothers. Django is offered his freedom in return for helping Schultz find the Brittle brothers. Django can identify them, that is why he is brought along on the ride.
Django becomes apprentice to Schultz and learns the trade of becoming a bounty Hunter. He partners up with this man. Schultz explains that in giving him his freedom back, he feels obliged to help Django become reunited with his wife.

I think that saying anything more would be spoiling the film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUdM9vrCbow This is the official trailer.

Liam Neeson is Hanibal

A film I've been wanting to watch for a few years now, but had no idea what to expect.
I always got this sort of mixed reception from people about it and now i have no idea why. It's an amazing film... slightly comical but really awesome.
It makes you wonder why anyone would take Liam Neeson's daughter in 'Taken' when you add this to the list of films he has done and the characters he has been.
I could go on for ages about it but i wont. If you're into action and want something slightly less than Taken or Denzel Washington films but want something more than Roger Moore as James Bond then this is definitely the film to watch!

3 hours to kill- and it's not The Lord Of The Rings!

So next on our list was something we weren't sure about categorizing.

Amadeus is not a musical- it's about the life of Mozart and does have a lot of music in it, but it's not a musical because it doesn't have the main characters singing songs about how they feel all the time.
It's actually an interesting portrayal of Mozart as an arrogant young man who knows that he is musically gifted and better than everyone else. I don't know if that is how we think Mozart was when he lived, i'm not an expert and never thought about it much, but i think if i had that much musical talent i would be really arrogant as well.
The story is told from the point of view of his rival basically.
I could write you an essay or I could say that if you're an opera fan or a Mozart fan... watch it! It is almost 3 hours long, but when you listen to a classical music concert, the three hours you sit there for only feels like one. Time flies when you're relaxed.
Certainly make time to watch it and try and watch it in one sitting. It loses some of the easy flowing ability to just watch if you start from an hour in a week later.
The only name that I knew when I watched it was Simon Callow and it took me a while (3 hours) to work out who he was!
It was made in 1984, so you have to bear with the quality, but as it's set in Vienna, it has a similar feel to the setting of Casanova (the Heath Ledger film).

You're a very fine swan indeed!

I took the time to borrow musicals off of my brother a few weeks ago and watch this film.
The song 'The Ugly Duckling' was used in a car advert a few years and it really annoyed me that I didn't know the original and most importantly that I didn't know all the words!
So.... I decided to go and watch the musical that it came from- 'Hans Christian Andersen'. Perhaps some of you are like me and recognise the name from somewhere. Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish Poet and Author, famous for writing most of the stories that are well known, such as Thumbelina.
Danny Kaye stars as Hans Christian Andersen, the cobbler who gets in trouble for telling all the children in his village stories when they should be in school. In the end, the school master gets so fed up with him that he refuses to carry on teaching untill Hans has left the village. Hans is encouraged to leave by his apprentice Peter and he goes to Copenhagen. He is immediately arrested for defiling the kings statue or something to that effect. There he meets a girl that is on the other side of his prison bars and he tells her the story of Thumbelina.

He is hired and taken out of prison to make shoes for the ballet... no need to say that he basically falls in love with the ballerina who is married to the director and choreographer. Hans makes her shoes and writes her a story about the little mermaid. The ballet then depart, as ballets do and Hans is left to return to being a cobbler and telling stories.
At the end of one story, he notices that all the other children are knocking the hat off one child and he tells this child a story about an ugly duckling!
Hans isn't aware that the boys father is a publisher for the newspaper and he publishes Hans' stories. Then of course the ballet return and they are using Hans' story of the little mermaid.
In the end, he returns back to copenhagen and carries on telling stories- this time with an audience because he is now Hans Christian Andersen the writer instead of just Hans the Cobbler.
Alls well that ends well!

Benjamin Barker?

I realise that I've done a lot of the posts recently. Est has a post on the artist that i need to nag her to publish.
my post for this week (or it really should have been for last week) is on the original Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barbour of Fleet Street with Angela Lansbury.
Yes if you're wondering if i'm going to post on the re-make with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. That's scheduled for a little later in the year.

So.... where to start???
I was impressed with Angela. We all know she can sing because she sings in beauty and the beast and we all love her for it. When she starts singing as Mrs. Lovett, I wanted her to stop singing staight away. Singing as her character means singing crazily. For a moment I thought that she really couldn't sing at all, then when she stops singing the worst pies in London and sings a few other songs you realise that she can sing.
I don't think that Angela Lansbury claims to be the best singer in the world, but her voice was certainly good enough to play a character that is eccentric and definitely crazy.
Lets take a look at what we have.... obviously filmed while performed on the stage- which i quite like. It helps to know what you would see if you went to see it on stage. This film was made in something like 1982, so the costumes and make up are very outdated. You can even argue that the quality of the singers are perhaps not as good as they could be, but that's not really important.
It is a long film- 2hrs 20 mins is a long time when most people essentially know the story line and i guess you're wondering what keeps you interested for 2hrs and 20 mins. I guess that its quite mild and easy to watch. The blood obviously isn't gory- it is clearly poster paint and that makes it much easier to watch if you're by yourself.
I'll be honest and say that I didn't feel that there was anything in particular that kept me on the edge of my seat, but seeing this film is essential in the world of musicals or even in the art of stage play. The set was minimal and the cast was really very small in comparison to most modern day musicals.
Some people will argue that this should be on your list of films to see before you die- I don't know if i would enforce it, but so long as you're mentally at least fifteen, there is no harm in watching it.