The Boys Are Back (film) – 2009

The movie "The Boys Are Back" was directed by Scott Hicks (No Reservations) and starring Clive Owen (Trust, Duplicity), Emma Booth (Club Land, Town Creek), Laura Fraser (Nina's Heavenly Delights, The Flying Scotsman), Goerge MacKay (Defiance, The Thief Lord) and Nicholas McAnulty.

Joe Warr (Clive Owen) lives in Australia with his second wife Katy (Laura Fraser) and his second son Artie (Nicholas McAnulty). Katy was diagnosed with cancer and after some times she passes away. Joe a sports writer becomes a single parent and needs deal with all home tasks and take care of little Artie.

Harry is his first son from a previous marriage who lives in Scotland and was invited to stay for a while on Joe’s house.

There are many points in this movie that caught my attention such as a child growing up without father’s presence, parents that always say ‘YES’ for a child and necessity of work against necessity to leave children alone in house. Those points were wisely placed on in the movie with drastic and funny results that could easily happen in the real world.

Particularly a like it and recommend it especially because I grew up as a only child without a figure of a father.

Watch the trailer The Boys Are Back - 2009

Love Happens (film) – 2009

Love Happens is a film directed by Brandon Camp and starring Jennifer Aniston (The Bounty Hunter, Marley & Me, He's Just Not That into You) and Aaron Eckhart (Batman - The Dark Knight, No Reservations).

After a terrible car accident, in which his wife dies, Burke Ryan (Aaron) starts to write a self-help book that becomes a best seller. Despite he is a successful PH.D, he is suffering his own personal problems.

During a workshop, he meets Eloise (Jennifer), a funny florist. She brings new life to him and the story between both begins.

The conflict of ideas and beliefs are points that Burke needs to deal with.

The movie is good and you can spend a Sunday afternoon watching it.

Watch the trailer Love Happens - 2009

The Lovely Bones (film) - 2009

The Lovely Bones was directed by Peter Robert Jackson (the same director of all The Lord of The Rings and King Kong) tell us a story based on Alice Sebold’s novel in which a teenage girl who has a passion for photography, was sadly kidnapped and murdered. After that, from a parallel world between us and heaven, she watches her family suffering her absence as a result of an unsolved police case.

The bottom lines on this film are polemic questions such as: What will happen after we die? Where are we going? Who will be responsible for us? Why some spirits of dead people still amongst us?

Other important point is how all parents could prevent such terrible incident on real lives, because probably we will never are going to understand completely the behavior of human being and reasons for why they take some actions.

The cast of the film are Mark Wahlberg (The Other Guys, Date Night), Rachel Weisz (The Brothers Bloom, The Whistleblower), Susan Sarandon (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Speed Racer), Saoirse Ronan (City of Ember, Atonement), Rose McIver (Predicament), Michael Imperioli (The Lovebirds, The Higher Force) and Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada, The Terminal).

Watch the trailer The Lovely Bones - 2009

Shutter Island (film) - 2010

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio (as Edward "Teddy" Daniels), Ben Kingsley (as Dr. John Cawley), Mark Rufallo (as Chuck Aule, Teddy’s partner), Michelle Williams (Dolores Chanal) and directed by Martin Scorsese, the Shutter Island movie is a little bit predicable but in the same time completely intriguer.

The all story happened in 1954 on Shutter Island, Boston Harbor, in which Teddy and Cawley were investigating a mysterious disappearance of Rachel Solando (Emily Mortimer) from a locked room on the Ashecliff Hospital, a psychiatric facility.

As I said in the beginning, the movie is predicable and in this way I believe that I must stop here, however the capacity of imagination and untidiness mental of human being is something that intrigue me most.

The movie is ok, nothing in special.

Watch the trailer Shutter Island - 2010

Law Abiding Citizen (film) - 2009

What I have to say about this movie? Wow...

I need to be honest and say that one error does not justify other one, but... after you see the film you will understand why I wrote that.

This movie was directed by Felix Gary Gray (The Italian Job and Be Cool) and starred by Gerard Butler (Game, P.S. I love you, 300) and Jamie Foxx (Ray, Miami Vice, The Soloist) where Butler is an engineer Clyde Shelton who suddenly and brutally lost his wife and his little daughter, murdered by two robbers. Foxx, who is the prosecutor of Shelton called Nick Rice made a deal with one of criminals whereas the other got the death penalty. After this deal and see Rice shaking one of criminal hand, can you wonder what a father and husband who has stunning technical skills would think or would do? Honestly we can, however not in the same proportion of actions happen in that movie, especially because happened after 10 years.

I can’t write more about it because sincerely I think that you really need watch it however, questions like “Is the law fair enough?” or “What consequences you can do to protect or revenge a person that you love?” maybe you have no answers if you never needed think about it.

In my humble opinion excellent movie that I truly recommend.

Watch the trailer Law Abiding Citizen - 2009

Invictus (film) - 2009

Invictus, movie which was directed by Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby and Letters from Iwo Jima) starring Morgan Freeman (The Maiden Heist, Thick as Thieves and The Dark Knight - Batman) as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon (The Informant!, Green Zone and The Departed) as François Pienaar who was respectable Springbok rugby captain team.

Springbok is how the South African national rugby union team is called and which on the movie won the World Rugby Cup in 1995. Result unexpected for nearly of all rugby fans but not for Nelson Mandela who truly believed on their conquest.

The story is based on the John Carlin book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation.

The film began on the day Nelson Mandela was elected as president of South Africa where his believes and actions without revenge were noble points that were presented brilliantly. The Springbok’ story of how they played bad until won the World Cup was completely inspirational, not only about the team but also all actions, Mandela’s beliefs and how should was difficult to lead a country after long time of apartheid.

Nonetheless, what impressed me more was the strong and powerful poem written by William Ernest Henley titled “Invictus” which is also the title of the movie and I have a pleasure to placed it below:

Invictus


Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.


In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.


Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.


It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.


William Ernest Henley

To sum up it, this movie bring us a message that nothing is impossible and to achieve desire results sometimes or all most the time you need to be persistent, you must believe in your beliefs and never give up about your dreams. I personally like it, recommend for all people that have no bias and believe in a better world. I think that one message, probably hidden or not, which we can catch it, that is sports can be a model of behaviour for entire nations.

Watch the trailer of Invictus 2009

The Wolfman (film) - 2010

In my last post I said that I didn’t like horror movies. Ok, that is true. Despite The Wolfman (http://www.thewolfmanmovie.com/) is classified as one of them, it is far from Poltergeist or something like that.

Surprisingly (at least for me), when I was reading about this movie, it is a remake of the 1941 their first version.  The movie is casting by Anthony Hopkins (‘The silence of the lambs’ and ‘The mask of Zorro’), Benicio del Toro (Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara), beautiful Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada), Geraldine Chaplin and finally but not less important Hugo Weaving (Matrix, Lord of Rings, Transformers and so on) and directed by Joe Johnson.

The story began when Lawrence Talbot (Benicio) receive a letter that in its content is about mysterious disappearing of his brother. This letter was written by Gwen Conliffe (Blunt), his brother’s fiancée.

After he discovered that his brother was brutally murdered, he starts looking for possible murder and goes to a gypsy camp where he met Maleva (Chaplin). She tells him that his brother has vanished for something evil. Suddenly, guess who appears? Yes, the Wolfman! Killing everybody and of course, Talbot with his miserable rifle, try to knock down it.

What is happen after that at all? Bites, moon, deaths, many crazy things, romance, moon, more deaths, and I can’t forget to write about our famous "Weaving", who play a role of a Scotland Yard inspector.

There is nothing especial on this movie; however for who love this kind of it is a good deal!

One thing that make think about it, and if you have some thoughts to share, why all this types of movies happen in London? I have no idea; nonetheless, mystery.......

Watch the trailer of The Wolfman 2010

Robin Hood (film) - 2010

After wondering about what I would like to write, I decided do it about something that I love: movies. Humbly, I am going to give my personal opinion at my posts.

I have to confess that I am practically addicted about movies. Seriously! However I don’t like scary ones or something near it.

I have to do analogy comparing my country and here (Perth, city that I am living actually) before I start to writing about the movie. It is amazingly different going out here than in Brazil. Only as an example, in Brazil you need to leave your house at least one hour before cinema sessions begins, otherwise there are a huge probability of you miss it. Reasons? Traffic, crowded parking lots and crowded cinemas. Ok Brazil we have nearly 190 million people, in Sao Paulo, capital, almost 13 million. Here in Perth around 1.7 million and I need to leave my house, 10 minutes before session begins.

To begin with, last movie that I saw was Robin Hood, the new version starring Russel Crowe. I have to confess that before to watch the movie, I didn’t hear absolutely anything about it and I thought myself: it is “another” version telling the same history about Robin Hood already watched in other ones.

Well, surprising the movie show up other story, in fact, a story before Robin Hood being an outlaw. Therefore, I have to agree with Dan Mecca, a famous movie reviewer, in his review “In defense of Robin Hood”. Certainly the biggest problem is the title of the movie, because the history doesn’t tell us about the Robin Hood that “took from the rich and gave to the poor.”

Despite some negative reviews, I liked it and stayed a taste of more hovered in the air.

The most funny are some reviews complaining about Crowe accent. Sometimes Irish accent, sometimes Scottish accent. Honestly, my English want to improve a lot to catch these variations.

To conclude, I recommend this movie nonetheless, you need change your mind before you think that you are going to watch a traditional Robin Hood. Have fun!

Watch the trailer of Robin Wood 2010

7 Principles Of An Eagle

Sometimes you need to have a break to wonder about life. 6 months ago, I decided to change completely my life. I got married, sold all my things in Brazil and came to Australia to build a new life.

First obstacle was the language. Unfortunately in my country you don’t need speak other language that is not Portuguese.

Second obstacle, you are a new person and need to build all since of beginning. You are a strange outside of your country. You need to proof that you are a good payer, a good person, without criminal antecedents. Ultimately, I can't complain, I need to follow the rules. I choose it for me.

Ok, maybe the word obstacle can be strong but is only figurative. I will pass over all of them easily.

Today, in my introspection I bear in mind a majestic and powerful animal: the Eagle. In particular opinion I like the Bald Eagle.

In my seeks into the Internet, I found a huge quantity of materials, pictures, and videos about it. However one catch my attention: The 7 principles of an Eagle by Dr. Myles Munroe. Bellow, I will try to write the principles in summarise way to quick read.

Principle 1

Eagles fly with eagles and no other bird can fly higher like them.

Principle 2

Eagles have a vision and remain focused no matter what the obstacle and you will succeed.

Principle 3

Eagles do not eat dead things, instead it, they feed only on fresh prey.

Principle 4

Eagles love the storm. To try tangibility, we can use the storms of life to rise to greater heights.

Principle 5

The Eagle, tests before it trust. This could be translated that in private life or in business, one should test commitment of people intended for partnership.

Principle 6

When the couple of Eagles are ready to lay eggs, they need to build a nest and a family. The preparation of the nest teaches us to prepare for changes, and the preparation for the family teaches us that active participation of both partners leads to success.

Principle 7

When an Eagle grows old, his feathers become weak and cannot take him as fast as he should. The eagle need to retire far away and plucks their feathers. Remains there until new ones growth and in this way can fly again. This means that we occasionally need to shed off old habits and items that burden us without adding to our lives.

If you would like to read this 7 principles integrally, make a search in the Internet. I can guarantee that are many websites with it.

My first post

This is my first post here. I have another blog, but it was created to tell to my friends and my family how has been the life in Australia - Perth, and of course I wrote, together with my wife, only in my mother language: Portuguese.

I decided to create another one, because this is a way to keep in contact with English and practice more my writing. This means that in all my writing in this post can have English inaccuracies, but I would appreciate if my friends or anybody could help me in this journey of learning English.

I have no idea about what I would like to write, maybe about pictures, Information Technology, running, swimming, project manager, in fact in this moment, doesn't matter. I will discover soon!

This picture that I put in my blog, I took in Rottnest Island - Perth Western Australia, one of the most beautiful place that I have had in my life.

See you I don't know when... hope soon.