Tiago's brain dump

If you ask someone to tell you the first thing that comes to mind when they hear the term "prison break movie", chances are they will start whistling or humming the main theme of  The Great Escape  (1963), recently paid homage to in the excellent Chicken Run (2000). They're both very lighthearted movies about never losing hope and the desire of wanting to be free. The Shawshank Redemption , on the other hand, while still revolving around the same themes, is much darker in its approach, being closer in structure to  Escape From Alcatraz  (1979). Differently from the latter, though, which focused exclusively on the escape, The Shawshank Redemption transcends its prison movie label by focusing on character development instead, managing to become an experience rather than a movie. Unfortunately, it was released in the same year as the critic's sweetheart  Forrest Gump , which stole a lot of its thunder (Ebert himself, at the time, considered Forrest Gump as be...

This movie is, for me, one of three owned by Bill Murray (the other two being Ghostbusters  (1984) and Lost In Translation (2003)). In any of those movies, by projecting a great deal of sarcasm and/or cynicism onto the characters he portrays, making them people you love to hate, he effortlessly manages to steal every single scene he appears in. Too bad that, in this one, some of his supporting cast (I'm looking at you, Andie MacDowell ) is not nearly as good... Here  Bill Murray  is Phil, an egocentric weather man going for the fourth consecutive year to the small town of Punxsutawney for Groundhog Day, something he deeply despises. There, due to a cosmic prank, he sees himself reliving that day over and over again, with only him being aware of the fact. In other words, his figuratively not having a tomorrow as a human being had become a literal curse. At first he's desperate, naturally; after a while, he starts to enjoy being able to act without thinkin...

1950 is to go down in history as the year in which some of the greatest female stars in the silver screen shone the brightest. In that same year, Gloria Swanson  played the role for which she would be forever remembered, in Sunset Boulevard ;  Judy Holliday  stole every scene she appeared in, in  Born Yesterday ; and All About Eve , besides introducing  Marilyn Monroe  to the world, provided memorable performances by Bette Davis , Celeste Holm ,  Anne Baxter and  Thelma Ritter , every single one of them (except Monroe) nominated for an Oscar for best actress in either a leading or a supporting role. All About Eve tells the story of Eve Harrington (Baxter)'s climb to success, taking advantage of and betraying every one of the people who helped her, in a way that would make Niccolò Machiavelli proud. Through Karen Richards (Holm), Eve is introduced to Margo Channing (Davis), a famous theater actress Eve pretends to be crazy a...

Well, this is a tough one... Whereas many of the songs in West Side Story are widely recognizable (thanks to an excellent work by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim ), not so many people have actually watched the movie. In fact, Ebert himself finishes his Great Movie review by saying that this is a film that comes short of its full potential. So why did he give West Side Story its 5th star by including it in that selective list? The dancing itself, says he. Well, I respectfully disagree... The movie spans a 2-day interval, telling the doomed love story of the Puerto Rican immigrant Maria ( Natalie Wood ) and a local guy, named Tony ( Richard Beymer ). It so happens that Tony was a founding member of the Jets, whose rival gang so happens to be the Sharks, whose leader is Maria's brother Bernardo ( George Chakiris ) -- thus setting the stage for one of many adaptations of  Shakespeare 's Romeo and Juliet . As far as adaptations go, I would say this is a pretty good...

Amarcord sure is a fun ride! There is no main character (so to speak), there is no overarching plot; it is simply a window to the village of Borgo San Giuliano, in pre-WWII Italy, that stays open for a year, from spring to spring. We get to spend two hours simply watching its picturesque inhabitants interact with each other, and, if that sounds dull, then you probably have never watched a movie by Federico Fellini ... As I usually do, I had no idea what to expect when I set myself to watch Amarcord: I had never read anything about the movie or seen any stills from it, so as to free myself from any bias or preconceived ideas. What I found was one of the most enjoyable movies I have ever watched! Everything feels so natural, so effortless, that most of the time it seems the actors are just improvising their lines. The sad thing is, the Blu-ray version available in Japan has no extras whatsoever... I would have loved to watch any behind-the-scenes footage, to confirm (or refute...