After.Life

I recently saw After.Life and must admit that I was a little disappointed. The film came out last year. The majority of the film takes place in a funeral home. After a terrible accident, a woman wakes to discover that she is dead. Although she feel alive, her body is slowly decaying, and although she can speak and move, the undertaker is the only one who can see and hear her. The undertaker must persuade her to accept her death and move on, but the woman's fiance seems unable to let go.

This film was disturbing and slightly intriguing. Unfortunately, despite having an excellent cast, the film simply fell short. There simply was not enough really going on to hold my interest, and the characters never really became three-dimensional.

The film is visually beautiful and definitely worth a watch if you find yourself with some time on your hands, but it is definitely not a must-see.

Chloe

I recently saw a film called Chloe. It was written by Erin Cressida Wilson and directed by Atom Egoyan. The film was adapted from another film called Nathalie that came out in 2003 and was written by Anne Fontaine.

The film begins with a doctor. She suspects that her husband is cheating on her. She hires an escort to tempt her husband in the hopes that she might find out the truth once and for all. It proves to be a more difficult task than she originally anticipated. She is soon pulled into a downward spiral that eventually puts her entire family in danger.

This film was a lot more interesting than I was led to believe from the trailer. The three main character were much more three-dimensional than I expected. I found myself "rooting" for all of them. The husband and wife were excellently portrayed by Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore. The escort was played by an extremely dynamic Amanda Seyfried.

I would definitely recommend this film. It is definitely a must-see!

Clash of the Titans

I just saw the Clash of the Titans and actually really liked it. I have been pretty hyped up about the remake ever since I hear that they were doing one (see the post that I wrote when I originally heard about the remake). I was always a huge fan of the original ever since I was little and was very pleases to see that they remained pretty true to it. Most of the major plot changes that were made were made for the better. The original film came out in 1981. Both films follow Perseus. He is the mortal son of Zeus and must embark on a quest in order to defeat the Kraken and to save Argos and Andromeda.

The main issue that I had with the remake was the lack of coverage of the other gods. A few gods and goddesses are briefly shown on Olympus, but Zeus and Hades are the only ones that get any real screen time. The original showed a lot more interaction between the gods and goddesses. That said, the characters that were shown were very interesting. This is a pretty simple story. Without the interesting characters, it would just be an action movie. No characters were shown very in-depth, but there was just enough to keep the audience involved and caring about what was happening. This was definitely not Liam Neeson or Ralph Fiennes best performances. Sam Worthington and Alexa Davalos were okay. I was really impressed with Gemma Arterton, Jason Flemyng, Mads Mikkelsen, Liam Cunningham, Hans Matheson, and Nicholas Hoult.

I would definitely recommend this film. It is definitely a must-see!

Dream Cast Thursday! Dracula

This week's Dream Cast Thursday is Dracula. There have been many adaptations (some are true to the novel, and others simply use the character). The hardest character to cast was definitely Dracula. For me, it will always be Gary Oldman. I looked at several adaptations when choosing my cast. The first adaptation that I looked at was Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). The second adaptation that I looked at was Dracula 2000. The last adaptation that I looked at was Bram Stoker's Dracula (2006).

The first character that I recast was Dracula. Dracula has been played by Gary Oldman (1992), Gerard Butler (2000), and Marc Warren (2006). For my cast, I chose Jason Isaacs.

The second character that I recast was Mina Murray (named Mary Heller in Dracula 2000). She has been played by Winona Ryder, Justine Waddell, and Stephanie Leonidas. For my cast, I chose Keira Knightley.

The third character that I recast was Jonathan Harker (named Simon Sheppard in Dracula 2000). He has been played by Keanu Reeves, Johnny Lee Miller, and Rafe Spall. For my cast, I chose Henry Cavill.

The fourth character that I recast was Lucy Westenra (named Lucy Westerman in Dracula 2000). She has been played by Sadie Frost, Colleen Fitzpatrick, and Sophia Myles. For my cast, I chose Sienna Miller.

The last character that I recast was Professor Abraham Van Helsing. He has been played by Anthony Hopkins, Christopher Plummer, and David Suchet. For my cast, I chose Liam Neeson.

So what do you all think of this cast? Who would be in your adaptation?

Dream Cast Thursday! Cleopatra

For this week's Dream Cast Thursday, I will be recasting historical figures. These figures have appeared in many adaptations (including Caesar and Cleopatra 1945, Cleopatra 1963, Cleopatra 1999, and Rome 2005). I tried really hard to pick the right people for the roles. It was really difficult (especially since I love some of the past casting choices - especially in Rome), but here are my choices.

Cleopatra has been played by Vivien Leigh (Caesar and Cleopatra), Elizabeth Taylor (Cleopatra), Leonor Varela (Cleopatra), and Lyndsey Marshal (Rome). I feel as though Cleopatra is an extremely important character. I actually ended up choosing an Italian-born actress. I thought that this would be a good idea, since she was a descendant of Ptolemy (Macedonian General to Alexander the Great) and by many accounts looked Roman. I ended up choosing Giovanna Mezzogiorno.

The next character that I cast was Julius Caesar. He has been played by Claude Rains (Caesar and Cleopatra), Rex Harrison (Cleopatra), Timothy Dalton (Cleopatra), and Ciaran Hinds (Rome). This was another character that was really hard to cast. I wanted to get the age relationships right between characters. I ended up choosing Liam Neeson.

Next, I cast Mark Anthony. He has previously been played by Richard Burton (Cleopatra), Billy Zane (Cleopatra), and James Purefoy (Rome). I went back and forth between several actors for this role, but ended up choosing Eric Bana.

The second to last character that I recast was Brutus. He has been played by Kenneth Haigh (Cleopatra), Sean Pertwee (Cleopatra), and Tobias Menzies (Rome). I ended up casting Dougray Scott.

The last character that I cast was Octavian. He has been played by Roddy McDowall (Cleopatra), Rupert Graves (Cleopatra), and Simon Woods (Rome). I ended up casting Laurence Fox.

So what do you all think? Who would you cast?

Clash of the Titans?!?!?!?!

It has recently been announced that there will be a Clash of the Titans remake. I do not expect everyone to share my intense enthusiasm. Very few people share that love that I have for the original. I thought that I would do a quick breakdown of some of the changes...

1981- Harry Hamlin 2010-Sam Worthington PERSEUS

1981-Judi Bowker 2010-Alexa Davalos ANDROMEDA

1981- Laurence Olivier 2010-Liam Neeson ZEUS

New characters not found in the original:
Gemma Arterton LO, Hans Matheson IXAS,

Ralph Fiennes HADES, Jason Flemyng ACRISIUS, and Nicholas Hoult (rumor).




So Exciting!!!