Le magasin des suicides

On Tuesday, October 30, 2012, I went to see the movie Le Magasin des Suicides.  Albeit its morbid title, this is not a horror movie, or a depressing movie, but a dark animated comedy.

The movie is situated in a French city, where life is very depressing.  Because of this, the suicide rate is really high...  There are businesses in town, like bakeries, clothing stores, etc., but the shop that is the most profitable is the one run by the Tuvaches:  They run a shop that allows people to purchase items that will help them commit suicide.  (Or, as my friend says - that will help them suicide themselves)

The family, at the beginning of the movie, consists of four people:  The father - Mishima, the mother - Lucrèce, who is expecting, the eldest son - Vincent and the middle daughter - Matilyn.  However, during the movie, we have the arrival of the newest baby - Alan...  Alan is very different than the rest of the family...  The rest of the family is relatively sombre...  After all, they have to be, because since they do sell items to help people with their own suicides...  So, they have to look the part, right?

To find out how the movie ends, you'll have to watch it.  It was highly enjoyable...  The animation is pretty decent, the jokes are funny and there is music involved.  It's kind of like a French, animated version of Sweeny Todd.  Although, those two cannot really compare.

The Dark Knight Rises

On Tuesday, October 23, 2012, I went to see the movie The Dark Knight Rises.  This is the latest Batman movie directed by Christopher Nolan.

This movie features Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Morgan Fox, Marillon Cotillard and Michael Caine.

This movie takes place where the last one left off.  It has been nine years of peace, since there was this new act that made Gotham City safe.

However, there is a storm brewing...  There is a criminal, Bane, who wants to make all the rich people pay for getting rich off the backs of the poor people...  So he puts this elaborate plan into action...

Does he succeed?  You'll have to watch the movie to find out...

I found the movie relatively depressing though.  Every time I thought that the people in Gotham City couldn't suffer more, another thing happens and it's more depressing.

Pitch Perfect

On Tuesday, October 16, 2012, I went to see the movie Pitch Perfect, featuring Anna Kendrick, Skylar Astin and Anna Camp.

Becca, played by Anna Kendrick, is new to college and gets cajoled into joining the local All-girls singing group (The Bellas), which is an all-girl's accappella group.

There is not much story here, but it's a movie about the music and the accappella groups.  It starts off with a story about The Bellas being at the finals, but they lost since one of the leads was so nervous that she vomited cookies all over the first three rows...

This was a fun movie with lots of fun music.  However, plot wise, there is not much.

Of course, Skylar Astin was nice eye candy, as well as the DJ at the campus radio station.

Looper

On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, I went to see the movie Looper.

This movie features Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt.

The movie is about Joe, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who is a hired assassin.  He is hired by the mob in the future to dispose of people for them in the past, as time travel has been invented.  So, the idea is that if the mob wants to get rid of someone, then they just zap this person into the past.  Then, these trained assassins will just zap and kill the person in the future and get rid of their body.

Of course, when these assassins sign up for this job, they accept that when they kill their own self from the future, it closes off their loop and their contract.  They get a golden pay day and they have 30 years to live their life.

Some warlord in the future, The Rainmaker, is catching and sending all of the loopers back into the past to close the loops.  So, the movie really starts when Joe is scheduled to kill someone and it turns out to be him - Old Joe (played by Bruce Willis).  He hesitates for a moment and essentially lets his old self escape...  This is bad when you let your loop go.

What happens is that Old Joe is trying to change the future by killing babies that were born that could be the Rainmaker.  How does the movie end?  You'll have to watch it to find out.

A really good science-fiction movie, with some action but not too much.  I find that the blood was tastefully done.

The Words

On Tuesday, October 2, 2012, I went to see the movie The Words, featuring Bradley Cooper and Dennis Quaid.

The story is about a writer, Rory Jansen (played by Cooper), who finds a forgotten manuscript and decides to publish it as his own...  With this publication, he becomes an overnight sensation.  However, things become awry when the true author comes forward and lets Jansen know about the manuscript.

There's also another story about an older writer, Clay Hammond (played by Quaid), who is reading from his book...  As he reads from his book, we see the events being played out by Cooper, since Hammond's story is about Rory Jansen.

When I got comments from my friend who had seen this movie before me, she said that it was not very good because the female actors were just there for sex scenes and they didn't add anything to the story...  I tried to keep an open mind when I watched it, but I have to say, I concurr with her comments.

This movie was filmed in Montreal.  And it is very clear from several scenes that it is not New York.