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MAMA MIA

Starring: Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan, Julie Walters, Christine Baranski, Stellan Skarsgard and Dominic Cooper

Directed by: Phyllida Lloyd

Rated PG-13 for some sex-related comments

By John Delia

I really enjoyed Mama Mia, a wonderful musical that’s got a lot going for it including a good cast, excellent direction and an amazing location. The lively movie features most all of ABBA’s best hits. Much like Sex in the City this film’s audience has a direct link to females, but males should enjoy Mama Mia much better than the ultimate chick flick.

20-year-old Sophie (Seyfried) is preparing to marry her boyfriend Sky (Cooper) at her mother's (Streep as Donna) hotel on an island in Greece. She seemingly has it all; a carefree life, loving boyfriend and happy friends but one thing has been missing all her life; a father. Her only wish now is to be given away by her dad at her wedding. By reading her mother's diary she discovers that she has three possible fathers (Firth, Brosnan and Skarsgard). Sophie then secretly invites all three men in a desperate bid to discover which of them is her father before the wedding bells start to chime! But not all goes to plan, old loves are re-kindled, new loves are formed and Sophie risks everything to discover the true identity of her father.

Making the film fun and lively, Streep, Walters and Baranski step it up with some great performances both in singing and dancing. For the wedding, Donna (Streep) invites her two best friends Rosie (Walters) and Tanya (Baranski). The three steal the show with their antics. I loved the bachelor-ette party where the three find themselves the belles of the event, singing and dancing the night away.

The music of Mama Mia comes from the legendary singers ABBA with songs like Dancing Queen, Fernando, Take a Chance on Me and of course the title song. The group’s songs have survived through the years and are still hits on many radio stations. The toe tapping sounds makes the film uplifting and fun. Most of all I thought that Streep was amazing good with all her numbers and should be honored for her performance. On a down note, Brosnan was not so good and crooned a little off key at times. But, who cares, since it’s Brosnan and the ex-James Bond guy can do no wrong as far as I’m concerned.

The real winner of the film is the location in Greece where the film was shot. The amazingly beautiful island made me want to start saving for a vacation to the enchanted land. If there was a category in the Oscars for ‘best locations’ this film would surly win the grand award.

FINAL ANALYSIS: If you love musicals, don’t miss the uplifting Mama Mia

SPACE CHIMPS

Starring (voices of) Andy Samberg, Jeff Daniels, Cheryl Hines, Kenan Thompson, Stanley Tucci, Kristin Chenoweth and Patrick Warburton

Directed by: Kirk DeMicco

Rated G

By John Delia

The good thing about the animated comedy Space Chimps is that it plays to both child and adult levels. The story may be a little silly, but the fun of it being played out on the big screen makes it a winner. Topped off with some great one-liners, the adults will be laughing as much as the kids. And best of all there’s no offensive language or other unpleasant things to which children should not be exposed.

The story surrounds Ham III, grandson of the first astronaut chimp that blasted into space leading the way to manned space flight. Ham III has lived in his grandfather’s shadow and has used the relationship to further his career as a stunt chimp in the circus.

In an attempt to land a probe on a far distant planet, the U.S. Space Administration’s spaceship enters a wormhole and lands on a planet but looses its signal. If this project fails, space exploration will suffer a major setback. Not wanting to risk human astronauts that will have to traverse the wormhole in order to get to the probe and get it working, they decide to use chimps. When they hear that Ham III is working with a circus, they recruit the reluctant slacker chimp for the space adventure. But, retrieving the space probe is harder than they expected, especially since the evil dictator Zartog (Daniels) on the planet is using it as his way to control the population and loving it.

The voices of the characters are amazingly good and their performances make the film work. Combined with a snappy script, the film plays on both adult and child levels making the film a great fun. The one-lines from Titan (Warburton) like ‘Chimp off the old block,’ ‘glob happens,’ and ‘I picked a bad week to go off bananas,’ are hilarious coming from the commander chimp who has the duty of getting the astronauts safely back to Earth.

The animation of Space Chimps is really well done, but should have been made in 3D. You can see that at many times there are a lot of things coming at the screen and probably was the intention of the makers to attempt the process, but although it does not distract, I believe it would have been a more magical experience if they had it in 3D.

If you go see this film, make sure you take children along, as they will help with the laughter in scenes with which you probably would just be entranced. There are a lot of great alien beings and some fun adventure situations.

FINAL ANALYSIS: Go see Space Chimps it’s a fun film that should make you laugh no matter how old you are.

ALICE’S HOUSE (A CASA DE ALICE)

Brazil (2007); Portuguese, with English Subtitles

Running Time: 92 min; Unrated

THREE OUT OF FIVE STARS

Reviewed by Denise Castillón

A HOME CROWDED WITH FAMILY SECRETS

A subtle film about a woman, trapped by her everyday life, attempts to escape her deceitful family’s disregard by betraying them.

Alice and her elderly mother live under the control of Alice’s husband, and her three grown sons in a cramp apartment outside of San Paolo, Brazil. Alice works long hours as a manicurist at a salon, while her mother runs the home, including all the cooking, cleaning and laundry. The women may overlook the men’s deceptions, ranging from infidelity to thievery; because they have secrets of there own.

After reuniting with her childhood flame, who’s now rich, but married, Alice considers an affair to flee her dead marriage.

For her poignant portrayal of Alice, Carla Ribas won multiple awards for best actress. Exceptional performances also delivered by Zécarlos Machado as the callous husband, and Berta Zemel as the neglected grandmother.

Also starring, Vinicius Zinn, Ricardo Vilaça, Felipe Massuia, Renata Zhaneta and Luciano Quirino.

Directed by Chico Teixeira. Screenplay written by Chico Teixeira, Julio Pessoa, Sabina Anzuategui and Marcelo Gomes. Produced by Patrick Leblanc and Zita Carvalhosa.

Released by FiGa Films.

Upcoming releases:

July 18th 2008 - FLORIDA

Miami - Cosford Cinema

Palm Beach Gardens - BMC-PGA Cinema 6

July 25th 2008 – NEW YORK

Ithaca - Cornell Cinema

THE DARK KNIGHT (Running Time: 150 min; Rated: PG-13)

FIVE OUT OF FIVE STARS

Reviewed by Denise Castillón







NO JOKE! “THE DARK KNIGHT” IS NOT JUST ANOTHER COMIC BOOK MOVIE!

On top of intensely entertaining this summer’s movie-going audiences, the quality of The Dark Knight will delight discerning film lovers as well.

Christopher Nolan masterfully follows-up his film, Batman Begins, which established the dark origins of millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne’s disguised dual life as the crime-fighting Batman. His sequel progresses through the ripened storyline direction he co-wrote with David S. Goyer, and from his screenplay collaboration with brother, Jonathan Nolan.

The massive and action-packed opening scene introduces the viciously unscrupulous villain, “The Joker”, magnificently portrayed by Heath Ledger. The Oscar-talk, regarding Heath Ledger’s outstanding performance deserving a posthumous award for best actor, is not just hype.

Batman (CHRISTAIN BALE) and Lieutenant Jim Gordon (GARY OLDMAN) form a secret alliance to strike against escalating crime and their leaders. They soon include newly-elected District Attorney Harvey Dent (AARON ECKHART) in their plan to eliminate organized crime from Gotham City. Instead, the crime lords are unsettled by the arrival of brutal criminal mastermind dressed up like a freakish clown, “The Joker” (HEATH LEDGER). The intimidated gang leaders submit to the Joker’s nefarious agenda, which includes terrorizing the citizens of Gotham City, until Batman agrees to publicly unmask himself.

With her relationship now ended with Bruce Wayne, Rachel Dawes (now played by MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL), is presently romantically involved with her new boss, “The White Knight” Harvey Dent. The tough and strong-minded Assistant DA remains Bruce’s moral compass and loyal friend, despite her knowledge of his vigilante activities performed as Batman. His closest confidantes, Alfred (MICHAEL CAINE), and the ever-resourceful Lucius Fox (MORGAN FREEMAN), continue to mentor Bruce Wayne/Batman as he evolves into “The Dark Knight”.

Beyond the main plot, there are several other minor storylines with distinctive characters, ranging from corrupt cops to a criminal leader, who unexpectedly demonstrates a courageous act of humanity. Nevertheless, the film’s running time of two and a half hours speeds dizzying along.

Now almost commonplace in this year’s movie releases are disparaging references to contemporary U.S. politics. As for The Dark Knight, current governmental wire-tapping policies can easily seem inferred, when Batman enhances Lucius Fox’s sonar device to enable visual surveillance of Gotham City through each of its citizen’s wireless phone.

THE DARK KNIGHT’S dramatic opening title sequence of as well as other major action sequences were filmed with IMAX® cameras. This is the first feature to mix both traditional 35 mm and large-format in one film.

"The Dark Knight" is based upon characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. BATMAN was created by Bob Kane. Story by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer. Screenplay written by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan. Directed by Christopher Nolan. Cinematography directed by Wally Pfister. Production designed by Nathan Crowley. Visual effects supervised by Nick Davis. Special effects supervised by Chris Corbould. Costumes designed by Lindy Hemming.

Produced by Charles Roven, Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan. Executive produced by Benjamin Melniker, Michael E. Uslan, Kevin De La Noy and Thomas Tull.

Distributed worldwide, by Warner Bros. Pictures, in theatres and IMAX.

Review of the movie SPACE CHIMPS.

Review of the movie MAMA MIA.

On the set of G E D the movie with Taye Hansberry.

Great Interview with actor FAIZON LOVE!