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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
David Yates fails again...
I understand that The Half Blood Prince has got a high score IMDb and an exceptionally good rating at Rottentomatoes but I will explain my reasons in detail for rating it so lowly.
I went to the hall with a lot of expectations for this one cause in my opinion The Half Blood Price(which I will frequently refer as HBP) was the best novel by JKR in the entire Harry Potter series. And I was truly disappointed after watching the entire movie. The reason behind calling HBP to be the best writing delivered by JKR is because of the maturity of this book. It no longer has the sense of a kid story, it isn't so action packed like order of the phoenix but it has an injected sense of never ending suspense and thriller which puts it in a different position than the other books. But sadly the movie failed to reflect the gifts of the book.
At the end of movie in credit it shows "based on HBP written by JKR". It should have started with "very loosely based on HBP...". In the entire movie most focus was given on the teenage doubts and dilemma in romantic interests of the trio (Which by the way was also loosely followed). This book is about preparing Harry for a greater battle, where Dumbledore himself begins to enlighten Harry about the deepest secrets of Lord Voldemort which ties him to this living world and how to break those anchors of immortality. But in this movie you will find that became a secondary objective. I mean Dumbledore doesn't show Harry the very two crucial memories where Voldemort takes possession of three of the horcruxes. His particular affinity towards specific magical instruments was totally not mentioned, also Dumbledore doesn't inform Harry about any of the other horcruxes. On the top of these at the Lightning Struck Tower (where Dumbledore was killed) Harry hides instead of being immobilized. Now what the hell? why Harry would hide and do nothing to save the man he so much admired? And also Dumbledore willingly allows Draco Malfoy to disarm him putting another serious hole for Deathly Hallows where it is clearly mentioned that Draco mastered the elder wand because he disarmed Dumbledore against the later's will.
Perhaps the most disturbing event would be showing the burning of burrow. I mean why the hell two death eaters(only two) would charge at burrow, luring Harry into wilderness and do nothing to him !!! I mean at least they should have kidnapped him as thousand of opportunities were there. But instead they burned the burrow which had no value. It was a poorly decorated old house of the Weaslys with no important valuables in it, why would hey Death Eaters burn it??? As you can see a lot of unnecessary scenes were added and very crucial ones were impressively forgotten.
About performance of the casts... what can I say? nothing special. Daniel Radcliff's performance was unmoving as usual. However both Ron Weasly(Rupert Grant) and Lavender Brown managed to do a good job. Rupert Grant was enjoyable in portraying the comic side of Ron. I also expected a lot from Jim Broadbent as Horace Slughorn was an indeed very interesting character but again no pleasure came from watching him.
However the actions scenes were nice. The journey in and out of the cave was visually spectacular. Perhaps the best scene would be the dissolving of the dark mark(which wasn't in the book but no complain here), tiny lights from all the wands combining together to form an aura which penetrates through the dark mark in the cloudy sky forcing it to vanish.
So I guess you can see why I didn't like the movie(particularly the script). It didn't follow the book mostly. Where JKR herself wrote the book she provided an excellent script within the book. All the director had to do is to follow it. You will also notice that both David Yates's Harry Potter movies(Oder of Phoenix and HBP) slides away from the fundamental foundations of the books. All the first four movies however closely followed the respective books and were indeed very entertaining. I just hope he doesn't make a mess of things for the two parts of Deathly Hallows.
Love Actually (2003)
Too much love... but still works
Score:- 7/10
Well I'm not actually a romantic movie lover but I watched this one. Main cause :- Laura Linney was in it. I must say I got more than I bargained for, Linney had very brief part but what I got is 7-8 parallel good stories with a less short of convincing acting by a few. The movie starts off with a common but effective and forgotten adage that despite of all the killing, hate, anguish there is still love somewhere. Maybe I sound too much of an optimistic but lately I have been watching or re-watching a lot of crime movies so this movie was a real satisfaction.
Bottom-line if it is Christmas an if you have a true heart you will get what you want (or mostly you do). But this stupid quixotic idea was quite beautifully screen-played and it makes you believe for a few moments that you live in a perfect world (at least it made me almost believe for a moment).
One main thing
you will see a lot of familiar faces around here. Severus Snape(forgot his real name, but his accent is awesome), Laura Linney, Kiera Knightly, Jedi Master QuiGon or Raaz A Gul(whatever you prefer) and of course Denise Richard and Hugh Grant(not convincing though as prime minister of England).
These 6-7 parallel stories are merely related and while watching sometimes you forget who was with whom
but again you don't have put strain to watch this movie. What actually amazes me most that how come a jerk got so many girls when he went to America. Jesus I always wanted to go to America but I think now I will go to London first, pick up a fake but charming accent and then go for girls in America. Christ that's so bullshit but it's Christmas who gives a damn, believe whatever you want to believe. But I never thought that prime minister of England will actually fall for a girl in that manner, that's really silly of the story writer but it's Christmas again.
Overall LOVE ACTUALLY is a movie with poor acting performances braced and hushed by a good screenplay and directing with some help of Santa. If you are looking for a change and want to watch a movie just because you have nothing else to do I suggest you ACTUALLY watch it.
Blades of Glory (2007)
funny, dramatic and recommended to watch
Quite honestly I went to watch this movie without any prior expectation. My friends had taken all the good movies by that time and I was left with few seeming stupid movies. I picked it up randomly or pseudo-randomly [:)]. I didn't even check IMDb rating before watching. For the first 15 minutes I kinda felt wasting my time but later it became interesting. The fun actually started when Mckenroy and Michel were registered as a team. Their first performance was pretty good. And then it turns to good comedy. Sex addiction, horse shampoo, My Humps, sliding of Mackenroy with bare chest, holding Mackenroy up by his 'pinus', watching at each others too what wasn't there. If you are cynic person you may not like it, but if you don't worry about logic and looking for a pleasant time to have fun then I recommend this movie. This could be a family movie too if you trust your children with a little bit sex terms [;)]. Maybe this movie doesn't deserve any nomination of big awards but certainly you wouldn't regret if you watch this movie.