wonderwall

I can't stop thinking about you

It's not fair

Is it that what I have been waiting for all this time is finally coming true?
Or is it another bluff?

It better be real, I better not be dreaming

Because I love you
I never stopped doing it
And I'm waiting for your sign

To give in... one last time

My Xmas spirit is BACK

My Xmas spirit is totally back, the lead singer from my favorite band (Panda) just answered two questions from me on Facebook. I literally died and was born again. I'm a motherfucking phoenix biatches!!! :D

Best X-Mas ever or WHAAAAT???

by the happiest boy alive

I just wanna run

Song recommendation of the day:

I Just Wanna Run by The Downtown Fiction

"Like a game of chess I predict your move
I think I know you better, better than you do"

the unexpected

Oh what have you done
You came back to haunt me
Make me smile and wonder

I knew it wasn't over
I knew you had not left

I wanted to hear what you said years ago
But hearing it now
Is more than enough
Is more than perfect

It made me yours

by lui mogenno

Saw Saga REVIEW

Screenplays by Leigh Whannell (Saw, Saw II, Saw III); Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II); Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan (Saw IV, Saw V, Saw VI, Saw 3D)

Directed by James Wan (Saw); Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II, Saw III, Saw IV); David Hackl (Saw V); Kevin Greutert (Saw VI, Saw 3D)

Starring Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Costas Mandylor & a lot more...

So when the Saw franchise started off (we didn't know it would be a franchise for starters) mostly everyone was fascinated with the new horror flick. It had an original plot, the enough amount of scares and bloody situations to attract fans of the genre and let's face it, an amazing twist ending that left more than one with their jaws dropped (I include myself in that category). I consider myself a fan of horror movies and so I was glad, and kind of worried that they were going to produce a couple of sequels for this little Saw gem... but of course they didn't stop there, of course they HAD to make 6 sequels... damn.

Let's start off with the cast and Jigsaw itself: Tobin Bell is a sufficiently creepy lead, I admit that, even if the real creepy star is his nightmare-inducing doll and its tricycle... yikes... Amanda (Shawnee Smith) is a cool add to, she made the story more interesting... and I guess with a couple more exceptions I could say generally the cast is wow... kind of bad... yes, I am talking to you stupid male lead from Saw 3D, you were TERRIBLE. 

Okay, I got a little derailed there, hehe... But you can see where I'm going, my point is that even do the Saw franchise started off well, it was predictable that it would ultimately burst in to flames and kill us all with it. But let's be fair, I actually had a lot of fun with most of the sequels, which is something. Nothing ever toped the first installment, but Saw II was a good campy bloody gory film that also featured a great twist ending and some pretty disgusting new traps. Of course the disgusting new traps kept on showing up, every time more gross and more disturbing than the last one (check out the trap involving pigs in Saw III... yuck).

Talking about Saw III, it wasn't as fun as Saw II, but it was far more disturbing, and it was still kind of acceptable... except for lead guy Angus Macfadyen, I hated him so much, he was like REALLY annoying. And also, the twist wasn't that big this time around... Now moving on to IV and V... something went wrong here... they were okay but... who ever thought it was a good idea to give the writing job to Dunstan and Melton, creators of the 'oh so awful I want to rip my head off' Feast? Bad call people... IV was fine, but lacked credibility and moved too slowly, V... does anyone even remember what happens in V? It was a very entertaining movie, but completely irrelevant to the story.

Safe to say that the twist endings are pretty much dead by now, which is sad... I mean they try, but, we don't like them. However, Saw VI was a surprising big improvement from the past couple of films, it was more complex, it had more history, the traps were way more clever, anyway, they got our attention back... so this Halloween we actually got excited to go check out the new SAW 3D, which from the trailers looked extremely cheesy, but we had our hopes. Man did they let us down.

Saw 3D is beyond terrible. The screenplay is AWFUL, absolutely retarded, the cast is even WORSE, they literally wrote the most stupid characters ever and cast very ridiculous and bad actors to play the roles.  The use of 3D is kind of pathetic except for the opening credits, how lame is that? And wow, don't even get me started on the most predictable twist ending ever. What a way to ruin the series... I mean, after 6 movies we endured... this is how they decided to close the franchise? Sad. Just plain sad. I'll pretend it ended in Saw VI and invent a better ending of my own, thank you very much.

Saw 82

Saw II 71

Saw III 64

Saw IV 57

Saw V 58

Saw VI 73

Saw 3D 32

OVERALL 62

PS. Please don't make more Saw films. Thanks.

Biutiful REVIEW

Written by Alejandro González Iñárritu, Armando Bo and Nicolás Giacobone

Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu

Starring Javier Bardem, Maricel Álvarez and Hanna Bouchaib

Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu, delivers his fourth film, this time apart from screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, to once and for all prove that he can stand on his own as a filmmaker. The movie tells the story of a man called Uxbal (Bardem), who works within the underworld of modern Barcelona needs to find a proper legacy to leave to his children now that he realizes he is dying of cancer and has counted days left of life.

Biutiful has been getting a lot of positive buzz from everywhere, including american critic awards that place it among the top 5 best foreign films of the year and the golden globes, and I find it difficult to believe that the Academy Awards won't do the same. Let me just start off by saying I'm a fan of Iñárritu's past work, I think both Babel and 21 Grams are amazing films, and that Amores Perros has been Mexico's best bet for an award together with Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth. 

Iñárritu is an impeccable director, he can get very strong performances from his cast and has a very powerful way of expressing feelings through his shots. He brings scripts to life and creates really strong emotional atmospheres in which it is truly hard not to get caught on. And Biutiful is not the exception, the film comes out very strong and powerful and will suck you into its mood right from the start.

Strangely, this time around, I was not a fan of getting immersed into Iñárritu's world. Biutiful has got to be one of the most depressing films in history, no kidding. It was dark and seriously sad. I'm a fan of drama, but this movie really gets you down, I mean, you feel so bad for the characters, it actually hurts. A LOT. Still, not even I can deny the fact that this movie's entire direction, acting (Bardem is brilliant), art, music and screenplay (most of it) are simply amazing, Iñárritu really knows how to do a work of art, and in that he succeeds once again.

But when it comes to personal taste, I wouldn't dare come near this movie again, as it was definitely not of my liking. As I said, I found it to be too dark, slow and depressing for my taste, not to mention that it eventually feels kind of long. And as a fan of this director, I think his previous work is way superior, I really enjoy how he manages to interlace several characters and stories in one film, and this time that was certainly missing. I know he can't always do similar work, but I'm just saying I prefered that over this.

Finally I would like to add that as a Mexican, I'm proud of Iñárritu's success with this film, but I believe that he, as other mexican filmmakers, can deliver something even bigger, stronger and more beautiful to compete for international awards. Still, this is an impressive achievement, and that won't pass unnoticed.

STORY 75

DIRECTION 85

ACTING 90

ART, MUSIC & VISUALS 90

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE 50

OVERALL 78

by lui mogenno

green eyes make me blue

Song recommendation of the day:

Green Eyes Make Me Blue by The Dead Cool Dropouts

"don't show me mercy...
cos' I can't win this fight... with you on my side..."

Get Him To The Greek REVIEW

Screenplay by Nicholas Stoller

Directed by Nicholas Stoller

Starring Jonah Hill, Russell Brand, Elisabeth Moss, Rose Byrne and Sean Combs

Nicholas Stoller brings back the character created by Jason Segel in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, british rockstar Aldous Snow (Russell Brand), and now tells the story of how Jonah Hill will try to get him on time for his return concert at the Greek theatre, which could be hard as he is pretty wild.

Get Him to the Greek is a good comedy, let me just say from start that I thought Russell Brand delivered a hilarious performance once again and he pretty much carries the whole film on his back, seriously, don't doubt for a second that he'll be the one delivering the laughs! 

The writing is okay, some great jokes around, funny situations, nice cameos from LOTS of people, weird songs, it's all good fun. I still do think that Get Him To the Greek had enough potential to be a way superior film than it ended up being, because as it moves forward I was kind of feeling the laughs fading away and some dull moments starting to kick in. In the nature of this kind of comedies, Greek does okay and serves its purpose to entertain, but it's ultimately not as memorable or amazing as it could have been, I honestly prefer Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Still, once again, I loved Brand!

STORY 60

DIRECTION 65

ACTING 80

ART, MUSIC & VISUALS 65
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE 75

OVERALL 69

by lui mogenno

Piranha 3-D REVIEW

Written by Peter Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg

Directed by Alexandre Aja

Starring Elisabeth Shue, Adam Scott, Steven R. McQueen, Richard Dreyfuss, Jerry O'Connell and Jessica Szohr

Piranha's plot is simple. Thousands of prehistoric piranhas are released during spring break... you can imagine the massacre. This horror comedy features Alexandre Aja in the director's chair, better known for movies such as Hills Have Eyes & High Tension (which I loved) and Mirrors (which I puked on).

There isn't really much to expect from a movie called Piranha is there? So it's perfectly normal that you don't go into the movie theatre expecting anything else but a fun time. And essentially you get what you want, Piranha is quite funny at some parts, and we obviously get tons of blood, gore and nudity... so if you are looking for something like that, the movie won't disappoint, actually some of the death sequences are pretty original and really awesome... as sick as that may sound.

Still, I gotta admit I was expecting a little more coming from Aja, I mean, he had seriously screwed up with Mirrors (what the hell was he thinking?), so I thought this could redeem him, but Piranha didn't fully convinced me, I mean it was good harmless fun I guess haha, but the screenplay was missing some of the witty dialogues and situations needed for such a film to work in its totality. And man did I hate Jerry O'Connell's character... he has got to be one of the most annoying men on earth.

I also should add that I didn't get to see it in 3D because my near theaters couldn't care less about us and didn't release it that way, so this could have affected my opinion a bit, but still, you can't possibly base a movie in its 3D format experience. So to sum up, I gotta admit I had a good time at the theater, Piranha is entertaining, dumb, gross and extremely gory... but it pretty much stays there.

STORY 40

DIRECTION 60

ACTING 40

ART, MUSIC & VISUALS 50
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE 65

OVERALL 51

by lui mogenno

The Social Network REVIEW

Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
Directed by David Fincher
Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Armie Hammer and Justin Timberlake

The Social Network takes us on a ride through the story of the creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg (Eisenberg), from the beginnings in his Harvard dorm to all the controversy surrounding the law suits against him. Supposedly, some of the things depicted in the film are not entirely true... but... who cares?

David Fincher truly hit the jackpot with this movie. I mean, who knew a story surrounding Facebook, in the right hands, could actually have so much potential? The screenplay is just plain amazing. There wasn't a moment where I lost my intrigue or excitement in the movie, some of the sequences were so good I didn't even want to blink so that I wouldn't miss a second of the action! This thanks, also, to the sharp and impressive performances by a very talented young cast, from which I gotta admit, Andrew Garfield stands out, not to ignore the leading guy, Jesse Eisenberg, whose performance is simply a blast to witness.

Social Network reminds me in a way of the style in the movie Zodiac (also by Fincher), because its strenght is also in its story, dialogues and characters, but I believe this is a major improvement in all aspects, and that coming from a guy who also loved Zodiac. David Fincher doesn't get older, he just keeps on getting better. His direction here is quite perfect for the story, I can't think of anyone who could have done a better job.

The movie itself is smart, it's funny, it's dramatic and it's fully entertaining from beginning to end, the characters are rich, some of the shots are amazing, the music and art direction fits perfectly as needed (look out for a brilliant sequence featuring a rowing competition) and it all just blends together to deliver us easily one of the best films of the year. 

STORY 100
DIRECTION 100
ACTING 100
ART, MUSIC & VISUALS 100
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE 95

OVERALL 99

by lui mogenno

hello again

I'm in your thoughts
In every step you take
Of that I'm sure

Keep on hiding from me
Keep on pretending

The lights may save you for now
But I shall not worry
Darkness is just around the corner

And when it catches up with you
What arms will still be open but mine
What lips will still be waiting but mine

What heart will still be beating but mine

by lui mogenno