The chronicles of Narnia: The lion, the witch and the wardrobe

2005. I never read the books, I must read them one day. Based only on the film, I don't know why but I'm not much into it. Well, knowing me I guess I simply didn't much like the leading characters. The four kids: Peter (William Moseley) was the eldest, the good and wise one, but honestly also kind of plain. Susan (Anna Popplewell) was always whining, and never does anything, really; she was impossible when she tried to convince Peter to surrender: "listen to him, a sword doesn't make you a hero" : right, let's listen to the big bad wolf, everyone knows that's the right thing to do! *rolling eyes*
Edmund (Skandar Keynes) was unbearable: it's understandable that a kid might fight with his older brother because he misses his dad and can't stand seeing Peter as acting-dad, but from here to turn against his brothers and sisters! That's not acceptable. Instead as soon as he is in Narnia he tells everything to the Queen simply because he is afraid or because she offers him candies and tells him he might become a king, and him only, not Peter too! Stupid kid, turning against your family! You can fight them face to face, but you must be on your family's side against others!
Then there's Lucy (Georgie Henley), the cute little one, and I liked her.
In this film I liked Lucy, kind and innocent, I like Tummus (James McAvoy) and his sweet tormented look; the scenery of course, and Aslan the lion (Liam Neeson's voice), and the witch-queen (Tilda Swinton, good in the icy role of the bad witch).
That's it. The story is quite boring, really: the evil witch has iced the world and made everybody afraid of her, but luckly there's a prophecy (it's always the bloody prophecy!) that says that 4 human kids will come and save Narnia, and become the new kings and queens. Oh really, what a shocking surprise, a prophecy says our protagonists are all heroes... they certainly don't look like ones.
Peter and Lucy are not bad, him because he really tries, and her because she's little and can't do more than that.
Susan shots one arrow and her part is done, and Edmund wants to redeem himself attacking the queen, and is absurd how easily he can break her weapon... is that all she can do? They call her witch but without it she can't do anything?
At the end they are all crowned, of course: Queen Lucy the Valiant. King Edmund the just... I'm sorry, what??? Seriously???
Queen Susan the gentle... gentle... well, she was gentle to Lucy and Aslan... then king Peter the Magnificent... magnificent? Come on, where did these names come from?? maybe Peter the valiant, Lucy the gentle, Edmund the redeemed and Susan the sister... that's the kindest way, really.
I liked prof. Kirke (Jim Broadbent) when he wanted to hear all about their adventure in Narnia, but his part was very very small.
I did not recognize Neeson's voice at all, I was completely on the wrong track, thinking of a completely different name...
The film was entirely based on the four kids, and they weren't enough to have a whole movie on their shoulders..

Charlie and the chocolate factory - 2005

Well now, when I was little I loved the old movie, but I'm grown up now. The only reason why I like this movie is Johnny Depp and the hilarious way he says most of his lines here. That's enough for me, especially if I watch it on dvd and can fast-forward some scenes.
I like mother Bucket, because I always like Helena Bonham-Carter. Always. You know how sometimes it can happen that you don't understand why a certain person has been chosen for a role than they tell you "she's the wife of..." or "he's the son of..." and that's the only reason? Well, not here, never, not with Helena Bonham-Carter and Tim Burton. They're a great couple, and I love him as a writer/director, and I love her as an actress.
I also like father Bucket (Noah Taylor) because he's nice and kind; I like how the two of them always love and support each other.
Charlie (Freddie Highmore) was okay, but nothing too special.
Willy Wonka is presented as a genius that started from nothing and became the king of chocolate: years ago the town people worked for him, then after a while workers started selling his secret recipes for money, and it got so bad that Wonka fired them all and closed the factory. Today, nobody in town knows who works in there,nobody's ever seen going in or coming out. The story starts with Wonka releasing five golden tickets hidden in chocolate bars: whoever finds them wins a tour inside the factory! The first is found by a German, very fat boy, Augustus Gloop. The second is found by an English rich, spoiled brat.. sorry girl named Veruca. The third by Violet, a super competitive American girl and the fourth by Mike Teavee, an awful tech maniac boy from Colorado. The fifth is at first believed to have been found in Russia but it turns out it was a fake one, someone forged a ticket and was found out. Charlie and his family dream about him finding a ticket, but he only receives one bar a year, for his birthday. No ticket. Then his grandpa gives him a coin to buy another one: no ticket. Charlie can't believe his eyes when he finds money on the street, but he uses right away to buy another bar: Golden Ticket!!! Hoooray!
I did not like Granpa's little dance, but maybe I'm just above the age-limit for that sort of things.
What I liked ? Wonka's answer to the question "don't you want to know our names?" : "Can't imagine how it would matter" :lol: he really can't, he's not being rude, he's just weird :lol:
also : "everything in this room is eatable. Even I'm eatable, but that is called cannibalism, my dear children, and is, in fact, frowned upon in most societies. Yeah. Enjoy. Go on. Scoot scoot." :lol: of course the scenery was lovely, with chocolate waterfall and river, with very green grass and everything. While tech boy smashes things, the fat boy falls into the river and is sucked into a huge pipe and here the Oompa Loompas come for their little song... two and a half minutes, really a quick fast forward, no problem. I loved this following bit: Wonka:"that pipe, it just so happen to lead directly to the room where I make the most delicious kind of strawberry-flavored, chocolate-coated fudge" - boy's mother:"then he will be made into strawberry-flavored, chocolate-coated fudge, they'll be selling him by the pound all other the world?" - Wonka:"No. I wouldn't allow it. The taste would be terrible. Can you imagine Augustus-flavored, chocolate-coated Gloop? yeuch. No one would buy it." which said by Depp is funny :-)
OOmpa Loompas again on the boat, all boring stuff to me. In the inventing room Violet insists on trying the new invention: full three-course dinner in a gum. A chewing-gum that tastes of tomato soup, roast beef with potatos and finally blueberry pie, which is the troubling part, because Violet becomes... well, violet, or blue if you prefer, and also hugely round. Another two minutes of song, but much less simply pushing a button :-)
Wonka has a solution for this: to the Oompa Loompas "I want you to roll Miss Beauregard into the boat and take her along to the juicing room at once, okay?" and to the mother: "they're gonna squeeze her like a little pimple. We gotta squeeze all that juice out of her immediately". which actually doesn't sound very funny written down, but it was when Depp was saying it, because of the way he says things and how weird his characters appears. It's different. It's not as if a man said it, Depp's Wonka is... another thing, somehow.
Of course these are all terrible kids, only Charlie makes nice questions that make him think back, although Charlie speaks much too softly for my tastes, I barely hear him: okay he's the good one, but that doesn't mean he can't have a normal tone of voice! I didn't even care much for Wonka's past, with that horrible thing in his mouth at all hours, his dentist father that didn't allow him candies and him secretly eating them and making notes...yeah. Let's move on.
The nuts-sorting room is full of squirrels, and spoiled Veruca wants one but Wonka won't sell them (Good!) so she goes to grab one herself. They stop to look at her, and when she tries to grab one they jump on her, hold her firmly on the ground, knock her head, decide she's a bad nut after all and throw her in the incinerator with all the other bad nuts... of course it's broken, so she'll land in garbage. Her father wanted to help her, but Wonka 'couldn't find the right key', and when the squirrels have done it,suddenly he finds the right key! :-p and I love the look on his face, kind of diabolical...
In the television room there's another invention: "Imagine, you're sitting at home watching television and suddenly a commercial will flash onto the screen, and a voice will say: Wonka's chocolates are the best in the world. If you don't believe us, try one for yourself. And you simply reach out and take it. How about that?"  and he was very convincing when he said it, I really liked the idea, or maybe it was just the prospect of free chocolate... not sure.
The little twat shouts that Wonka has invented a teleport and only uses for chocolates, he's not a genius, he's an idiot, and stuff like this. The stupid kid then teleports himself, proving himself as the most stupid of all them kids. He forgot the little detail of the size, and he comes out very very small, simply saying : Now send me back... why does he think Wonka can send him back to his full size? stupid. Anyway, he'll get stretched by the taffy-puller no problem. Wonka:"boy is he gonna be skinny. Yeah. Taffy puller" and he's kind of creepy when he talks like that, with that tone of voice and that expression... :-D
this time the song is shorter, only a minute and a half, thank you. Charlie is the only kid left, so he won the final prize: Wonka wants Charlie with him at the factory, so to one day leave it to him. But "if I come with you I won't ever see my family again?" - "Yeah. Consider it a bonus". :-/ Come on, surely Willy was hard on his father, never going back, never a word... Many years have passed since he was a kid, after all.
At the end Willy takes them all, the house too, and it's a lovely image the old house inside the factory with sugar falling down as snow...
I don't like the fact that the Oompa Loompas are just one man over and over again.
ITA la fabbrica di cioccolato

V for Vendetta - 2006

I had watched this only once, years ago. I didn't remember anything, just the feeling that I liked it very much, that somehow it got to me deeply, but couldn't remember why. I came to think that maybe I hadn't been objective, maybe at the time I had a thing for Hugo Weaving and therefore liked this movie... I was really starting to think something like this, I'm telling you, then today I saw it again. And wow! it blew my mind. I'm not sure I can explain why, it's a combination of things. Mostly I'd say it has lots of good actors I like, and that means that wherever they turn there's someone I like, and that's not common. Then there's the matter of the voices. All the voices are like silk, quiet, poetic; come to think of it I think there were only two characters that used a loud voice, and they were both bad. But the good ones, they never shout. V is like poetic silk, if you can understand what I mean, but all the others too, quiet voices speaking slowly as if to give more importance to the words. Sutler is the one who shouts all the time, because he wants to impose himself.
It all starts with Evey's voice (Natalie Portman) reciting a rhyme "remember remember the fifth of november, the gunpowder treason and plot, I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot". At night she gets attacked because she's walking after curfew hour, and V (Hugo Weaving) comes to save her. They meet there for the first time. He always wears the mask, he never takes it off. They live on a future England were intolerance and fear are the government, under the slogan England Prevails. V wants to end this, he wants people to realise this. He goes to a tv studio forcing his program to be shown to all the people, to all the screens. I'm not sure, but it looks like there's only one channel..they all see it. So they see him talking and "sit down and have a little chat"; he tells them that They don't want this because words have power, and "the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression, and where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting submission" and that if you're looking for guilt "you need look into a mirror. I know why you did it. You were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. [ ... ] fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now High Chancellor Adam Sutler", then he asks them to "stand beside me, one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament, and together we shall give them a 5th of November that shall never ever be forgotten". When he's escaping the building, he's stopped by cop Dominic (Rupert Graves), and Evey sees him and helps him. V is not sure what to do with her, if he should leave her where she is, unconscious on the floor to be found by the police that will for sure arrest her, or take her with him where she could never again be let free. He decides to take her, and brings her to his home. He tells her he wanted to help her, but now she can't leave because she could lead them to him. She doesn't know what to think, he saved her and seems nice, but also strange. She freaks out, though, when she realises that he has stolen her pass in order to get near a man, the Voice of London on tv. He doesn't deny anything, he says "yes, I killed him" and then "you seem upset", just like that, and she doesn't know how to deal with that. After a while, she tells him of when she was little, and her parents were protesting against the war, until men got in their house and took them away. She tells him that she's not brave like them, that she's afraid, but that she wants to help him, if she can, so he accepts her help, in order to get close to a disgusting bishop with a preference for little girls; Evey tries to warn him!!! This really sickened me for a moment, because she surely knew what he was! Thing is, she feels like a prisoner in V's house, and wants out of that whole story and thinks if she saves the bishop then it'll be even and she'll be free, which is quite naive, but V kills him anyway. Evey escapes and finds refuge in the house of tv showman Gordon Dietrich (Stephen Fry!!!). He takes her home, keeps her safe, and even tells her his own secrets "the truth is, you wear a mask for so long, you forget who you were beneath it". V goes on with his plans. He's killing all the people that years ago took part on a particular project. Now it's Delia's turn, and he appears in the dark of her bedroom: "you've come to kill me" - "yes" - "thank God" and they talk while he waits for the poison to kill her. She was one of the people that made experiments on people, killing many. Inspector Finch (Stephen Rea) starts to doubt everything he knows, his government, and where justice truly is.
Evey is living safely in Gordon's house, until one day he broadcasts a show he wrote that didn't go through cersors, where he ridicules Sutler (John Hurt). Gordon minimizes the problem, saying it'll be fine, but when they come to get him at night, he tells Evey to hide, and protects her while they bag him and take him away, like they did with her parents, and the last look he gives her is painfully touching. How wonderful was to find Stephen Fry in this movie, and his character is great, and obviously he does it wonderfully!
Evey tries to escape, but a man takes her, throws her in a little cell, shaves her head, asks for information about V. She doesn't say anything, and she's kept isolated, with food that even the rats refuse to eat, she's tortured, and every day she refuses to say anything. She finds in her cell a letter from a woman, Valerie, who was disowned by her family and then arrested because she had fallen in love with another woman. She reads "our integrity sells for so little, but it is all we really have. It is the very last inch of us, but within that inch, we are free", and she finds strength in her words, and every time she's left alone in her cell, she keeps reading it. It comes the day where she's told she'll be executed if she doesn't talk, and she calmly replies that she'd rather die. At that point, she's let free, and discovers that while Gordon was arrested and executed, she was found by V who took her to his home, and gave her this treatment to help her overcome her fear. Now she's stronger, she's not afraid any more. She's free, truly free. Evey is not sure how to take this, knowing that it was him who tortured her, but admits that she's different now. She thought everything was fake, that he wrote that letter, and that would have been very low and painful, but he didn't, and somehow this makes all the difference in the world. He explains that the letter was true, and he had found it years ago, when she had died in the cell next to his, then Evey goes away, no more afraid of being alone.
Finch finds out about that project, and thinks V is William Rookwood, the only man that was never found, while all the others died. V gives him an appointment and tells him and Dominic the true story of that project, where they were researching bioweapons, and discovered a terrible virus and used it against their own country, poisoning the water and causing thousands and thousands of deaths (at least 80.000), that lead to a state of fear among the people, and the persons involved in the project became rich selling the antidote. The people's fear lead them to elect Sutler in the new position of High Chancellor, practically a dictator. It turns out the police has a body that has been identified as Rookwood's, so who is V then?
When the 5th of November comes, Evey goes to his house to meet him one last time, as she had promised him; this surprises him "I didn't think you'd come". They dance and he tells her he leaves everything to her, even the choice to start the train that will blow up the parliament, then he goes to kill Sutler and those of his men still alive. V goes back to Evey to tell her that after twenty years he had found love again with her, then dies in her arms.
From everywhere people masked exactly like V come out in the street, all headed in the same direction, towards the parliament. All the policemen don't know what to do because no orders are coming, this because Sutler and Creedy are dead, so the man in charge orders them to stand down, and the people simply walk through them, until they are in sight of the parliament. Finch finds Evey and sees V's body, but she says England needs hope, and starts the train= big explosion, parliament down, fireworks in the sky. Finch asks Evey who was really V, and she tells him that he was 'my father, my mother, my brother, he was you, he was me, he was all of us" and as to confirm this we see all the people taking the masks off, and we see lots of faces. We see Dominic, but we also see Gordon, Valerie and the child that was killed. V is all of us, the idea that determined Gordon's and Valerie's actions.
Saying it like this it looks too plain, I don't know how to express the emotions. It was done really really well, loved the lights, loved the choice of actors, all of them. Wow when I saw Stephen Fry! and Rupert Graves! Now he has aged well, hasn't he? He's even sexier now.
I like that V never takes off his mask, and even after watching the end of the film we still don't know who V really is. Who was he? Apparently he can't be Rookwood, if he's been dead for years. While he was cooking we saw his hands were burnt, and we thought he was all burnt like they were showing him to us, escaping after the fire, burnt but not dead. I know though that when he was playing the torturer, his hands and face were not burnt. Okay, we don't see his face clearly, never, but it's not possible to mistake Hugo Weaving's jaw. There were no scars on his hands, either. We will never truly know who he was, because that's how he wanted it  It's not the name that's important. It's the idea, the story that will go on.

As good as it gets - 1997

This is the story of Melvin (Jack Nicholson), a famous writer who spends his all time writing love books. He's OCD and always alone because he can't deal with other people. He's always nasty to everyone, but if you raise your voice he's immediately scared. Personally, I think he's nasty not because he likes it, but because this way people stay away from him.
He always locks his door, eats at the same place, at the same table, bringing his own plastic cutlery from home, and wants to be served always by the same waitress: Carol (Helen Hunt). When his neighbour Simon (Greg Kinnear) gets beaten up during a robbery and ends up for some days in a hospital, he's forced to take care of his little dog Vernell, and day after day he gets so used to it he becomes really fond of the little thing, so much that he changes his table in order to better check on him outside and even cries when he has to give it back. One day he goes to eat as usual but Carol is not there, so he goes to her house! He realises how sick her son is when he sees her run to the hospital with him. Melvin then asks his editor, or publisher, or agent, whatever, for a favour, and so her husband Dr Bettes takes a personal interest into Carol's son's health, sending the bills to Melvin. Now Carol can go back to work, to serve him his food! Simon, back home, is completely broke after all the hospital bills, and Melvin drives him to his parents' house to ask them for money: Melvin didn't want to go, so he wants Carol to go with him. Thanks to Carol, Simon finds himself again, and decides to go back. Since he doesn't have his home anymore, Melvin takes him in, however Melvin is very troubled because Carol is angry at him. With good reasons of course. Spending time with him, Carol had changed the way she thought of him, she had kissed him, but when she asked him for the real reason why he had wanted her on that trip, she was expecting him to confess he wanted her. Instead, Melvin tells her that his first thought had been that maybe if she had slept with gay Simon he might, who knows, change to etero maybe! Carol is outraged by this, specially if you consider that she was ready to sleep with him if only he had wanted it.
Simon is very grateful for Melvin's help, and also touched, and when he says that he loves him, I kind of expected some nasty remark, or quick back off, instead Melvin replies that he would be the luckiest man alive if that did it for him... and I don't know you but I was so impressed by that! Such a change for Melvin!
Simon talks to Melvin, and convinces him to go straight to Carol's house to talk to her and set things right. Melvin agrees and when he's about to go out, he realises he had not locked the door! Which might seem a small thing to someone, but he was totally OCD, so that's Huge!
Melvin goes to Carol and tells her that he feels better around her, that it relaxes him, and this was really cool, specially for someone always so tense and nervous, and she slowly forgives him, and they kiss, and they're really sweet, in a strange way. It's really a nice film, very nice. I like the actors involved, Nicholson as always plays a character who is a bit crazy, because crazy is what J.N. does best. Helen Hunt is an actress I like very much, because she looks like a real woman. Beautiful, talented and amazing, yes, but more importantly a "real" woman, and this is not so common as you might think!Not at all.
I liked many lines in this film, most of them said by Carol. Melvin of course said a lovely thing saying "you make me want to be a better man", which is always really lovely, but only when the man means it and if he actually does something to be a better person. Melvin does.
Among other things Carol says :
"When you first entered the restaurant, I thought you were handsome... and then, of course, you spoke"  :lol:
and I love how calm she is after he tells her "judging from your eyes I'd say you were fifty", and simply replies "judging from your eyes, I'd say you were kind, so so much for eyes" - wow
The title of the movie is mentioned by Melvin after he runs to his doctor, as if he could give him an instant solution to his anxieties : What if this is as good as it gets?
But it wasn't. He had to work hard for it, but he'll have much more :-D

Shall we dance? - 2004

I love this film, I really do. When it came out in Italy I didn't want to see it because the trailer was all wrong. They simply showed John (Richard Gere) looking at Pauline (Jennifer Lopez), and then the two of them dancing a tango together, making it look like they had an affair, thus destroying the whole movie. One day though I watched it on tv (it's free on tv) and I completely loved it, it was nothing like that trailer. The story here is that John has a job and a family that he loves, a wife, Beverly (Susan Sarandon) that he loves, and two children, a 14 y.o. daughter and an older son. Still, after twenty years of the same life, he feels like something's missing inside. Day after day coming back from work by train he sees Pauline looking out of the window with a melancholic look on her face, and he sees in her what he feels inside, in a way. One day he decides to go take a look. She works for Miss Mitzi's dance school, and John starts taking lessons. He doesn't even know what he's doing, until one day he asks Paulina out to dinner, well he asks her if she wants to grab a bite together or something like that, and she thinks what every girl would think at that point: that he's hitting on her. She tells him that if he joined the school aiming at her, he's wasting his time. He's kind of hurt, and thinks of ending the lessons, until he realises that he wants to dance! So he goes back. I mean, you can't blame her for saying those things. In nowadays society kindness is not usual. If a guy is nice to you, complimenting you, there's always a reason, it's never just disinterested kindness. It's perfectly understandable. On the other hand, I think sometimes men are probably careful about complimenting women they're not interested in in case they might think they're hitting on them... anyway, John goes back and he's really enjoying dancing, so much that it shows by looking at him. His daughter even tells mom that 'dad is happier lately' and she starts worrying, because she knows nothing about it. She's worried that he might have an affair, expecially because, as she says to the private investigator she hires to follow him, he's not the kind to have an unimportant fling, so if he's having an affair it's probably something important, and she wants to know and be prepared. She's kind of shocked to learn the truth. I mean, it's better than the alternative, but it's still a shock because it looks like he's a different man in some way. She tells the P.i. a nice story about what a marriage is, you know, the promise between two people that your life will never pass unnoticed 'because I'll be there to witness it', so even if he's no more working for her he tells her of the dance competition John has entered with his school. His daughter starts yelling encouraging words, to support him, with the result that he realises that they are there, and he's completely shocked!! Even more than her. Somehow this changes everything for him, he's embarassed about it. He apologises to his wife, saying he didn't tell anything because he was ashamed to admit that he wanted to be even happier that he already is, and other words like that, concluding that he won't dance anymore. 

'You could teach me' says Beverly. He shows her the letter Pauline wrote him, in order to have no more secrets between them, and she understands that this was important for him, and enourages him to go to Pauline's goodbye party. He puts on a very smart-looking dress, all elegant and charming with a red rose in his hand, and goes to see Bev at work, and he's very charming, and the scene is lovely and romantic. Then together they go to the party where John introduces her to his friends and dances a last dance with Paulina. It all ends in music and a few scenes that show us where the characters are now, some time after.
It's a lovely lovely film, full of beautiful music and I like it very much. I also like the fact that Stanley Tucci is in here, because I like him very much; he's Link, a man that works in the same studio as John, and is thought to be a huge football fan, while the truth is he likes to wear shiny dresses and dance: it was really hard to watch when he danced with that long-hair-wig and the false teeth, all shiny and fake. oh God. Why some man make such a fuss of being bald? I don't understand... anyway he looses all that stuff in the end, and ends up with Bobby, the big blonde crazy about dancing too.
The end is lovely, and I'm happy they didn't make this a film about cheating as the trailer suggested. This way is adorable and beautiful.

Frozen

Yes, now I get it. Everyone was talking about Frozen, and Anna here, and Elsa there, and I was like: what? But now I get it, I totally do. I know why so many girls talked about this. Honestly, I don't know if boys can see in it what girls can. I watch Anna waking up in the morning and I see myself, I hear my mom asking me "did you just wake up?" and me replying "no, of course not, I've been up for a long time n..zzzzzz"; I watch Elsa and I remember the difficult times growing up.
I watch Anna and her enthusiasm and she reminds me of myself when I was little and still believed that the world was magical and fair; Anna saying to Hans "you're not awkward, I'm awkward, you're gorgeous, wait what?", so cute and funny, innocent in her own way, she speaks to us girls.
I watch Elsa during the "for the first time in forever" song and she breaks my heart, because of her sadness and loneliness, and isolation, and reminds me of all those moments of solitude; then I watch her during the "Let it go" song and I see what I think every girl understands, and feels inside, and can relate to. I know it was like that for me. When she sings "couldn't keep it in, heaven knows I tried" : have you ever in your life felt that you wanted to hide a certain feeling, and find that it was really difficult to do so? And "don't let them in, don't let them see, be the good girl you always have to be" not just hiding your feelings, but trying to show something different? Like trying to appear fine when you're hurt, or to appear happy when you're sad... it eats you inside. "well now they know" what a relief it is! Isn't it?  "let it go can't hold it back any more, I don't care what they're going to say, let the storm rage on" oh it feels so good, even watching her slowly changing her expression, relieved, free for once, and also changing the way she moves, more confident finally, and also changing the way she walks, letting the storm inside her giving her energy, letting it flow inside her... so good. I can relate to that. Who couldn't? And "it's funny how some distance makes everything seem small" who hasn't felt this at least once, but probably even more than once? Something that made you feel hurt or embarassed, but when you finally can distance yourself from it, suddenly you can look at it in a different way, and it doesn't feel so heavy any more "and the fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all" free, finally free from the burden on my soul! Come on, this is so beautiful is almost made the whole movie. Right here, in this song!
There are funny moments too, of course, like Elsa saying that you can't marry a guy you just met, and there's a sense of esultation, like Finally! A Disney film where she doesn't marry the first prince she meets! But most of all how beautiful is it that the act of true love is real, for once. How could it be True love between two people that just met each other? No, the only true love that was in this movie was the love that Anna felt for Elsa, and maybe even more the love that Elsa had for Anna. That was true for sure. Between Anna and Kristoff there will be love, but with time, spending time together, and learning about each other, and liking what they learn. It was beautiful when Anna chose to defend Elsa knowing that it would cost her life, because she thought she needed a kiss to be saved. So beautiful when Elsa finally realised that she could control her power not by suppressing her emotions but by letting love guide them. Trying to suppress her power, she had always felt afraid and lonely and without hope. Now she realises the right path is different, and she can finally be with her sister the way she always wanted. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

"Let it go" lyrics:

the snow glows white on the mountain tonight - not a footprint to be seen 

a kingdom of isolation - and it looks like I'm the queen

the wind is howling like this swirling storm inside

couldn't keep it in - heaven knows I tried

don't let them in don't let them see - be the good girl you always have to be 

conceal don't feel, don't let them know - well now they know...

let it go let it go can't hold it back any more 

let it go let it go turn away and slam the door

I don't care what they're going to say - let the storm rage on - the cold never bothered me anyway.

It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small

and the fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all

it's time to see what i can do - to test the limits and break through

no right no wrong no rules for me - I'm free

let it go let it go I am one with the wind and sky

let it go let it go you'll never see me cry

here I stand and here I'll stay - let the storm rage on

my power flurries through the air into the ground

my soul is spiralling in frozen fractals all around

and one thought crystallises like an icy blast

 I'm never going back - the past is in the past

let it go let it go and I'll rise like the break of dawn

let it go let it go that perfect girl is gone

here I stand in the light of day - let the storm rage on! - the cold never bothered me anyway

Fast and furious 6 - 2013

In the opening credits there are images of all the previous films, except "Tokyo drift" because that story comes after this, with all the characters involved. The baby is born at the Canary islands, but then Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) comes to Dom (Vin Diesel) to ask for his help. There's a new baddie causing lots of trouble, stealing and killing a lot, and he needs Dom's team to help him. He shows Dom proof that Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) is still alive, so Dom goes with him.
He calls his whole team, Brian (Paul Walker), Roman (Tyrese Gibson), and everyone including Han (Sung Kang) who's in Tokyo with his girl Gisele (Gal Gadot) thinking about settling down with her. As he calls them they all join him. What follows is a real mess, not just car racing but also a tank destroying everything on the street and a big big plane that the bad guy Shaw (Luke Evans) is using to get away. Letty has lost her memory and is now helping Shaw, but after an amazing and even more absurd (and kind of sweet) rescue jump from Dom who saves her life, she sticks with him. Han is totally in love with Gisele, and is thinking more and more about settling down with her in Tokyo, and she seems to want it too. Of course he won't because he'll lose her at the end. This was an early call, it was obvious, I was sure of this because in the third movie he was alone. It was only a matter of how. She doesn't leave him or betray him, not at all, she liked him too, so that leaves just one other option. It was a big mess going on, with a big plane and all their cars attached to it with some sort of cables they used to keep the plane down. A bad guy grabs her and Han is afraid for her, and tries to help her. She fights and frees herself and when she's about to fall down Han grabs her: "I got you" and holds on to her. Unfortunately there's another bad guy crawling behind him without him noticing because all his attention is on saving her, so she lets go of him and while she's falling she shoots behind Han, to save him. All the others fight and run and eventually win and get out safely, only Gisele didn't make it, and poor Han is destroyed by it. Now they are free from the law, all together again at Dom's old house, with Mia (Jordana Brewster) and everyone else safe and happy, all except Han who still plans to go to Tokyo, as we well know. After a bit of credits, we see again the scene of Han's death in Tokyo, with a little difference. After Han's car crashes, we see a car stopping and Jason Statham getting out, and for a second I let myself hope that maybe they were changing things just like they did with Letty, and maybe Jason helped Han out of the car before it exploded, but he does nothing of the sort. My poor heart! Jason doesn't help him, the car explodes and Jason makes a phone call to Dom, so he'll probably be the enemy in the next film. I hated this. I wanted Han back. I liked him a lot, he was so cool, and cute, and sweet. He had style, and a nice quiet voice. I hate this. How could they do this to me?? They made me hope for nothing!That's cruel!
Anyway, this movie was kind of too much, really excessive, if you know what I mean. I still prefer movie number five.

Fast five - 2011

The fifth movie of the series, still before "Tokyo drift". They show us what we knew, that Brian (Paul Walker) and Mia (Jordana Brewster) freed Dom (Vin Diesel). Now they're all wanted, Brian is still with Mia and they're all in Brasil. They take a job proposed by Vince (Matt Schulze), but it goes bad. They're working with some other guys, and when one of them kills three agents Dom and his friends are thought responsible. Now they're in trouble, because everyone is looking for them. Federal agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and the men of the big boss who owns Rio. Mia is pregnant, and they decide that they need one last job, a big one, to disappear forever and live in peace. They decide to take on the big boss. They need help, so they call all their friends. Among them is Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Han (Sung Kang)! Yeeeah. Han!! There is also Gisele (Gal Gadot) the girl that in the previous film was working with the drug boss, but she always liked Dom, so comes here to help. It took more than 30 minutes, but finally Han is one of them! I like Han a lot, he has style!! There's lots of action in this movie, not just car racing, but also running and shooting. A lot of everything. Dom fighting hand to hand with Hobbs, showing that they're indestructible like their cars, because their bodies break down walls but come out without a scratch. Hobbs manages to catch them, but they all get attacked by the criminals and his men are killed. He would have been too, if Dom and his friends hadn't saved him. Dom wants to do the job anyway, and Hobbs decides to help him, until he can kill the bastard who took out his men. They do a big mess, racing in the streets, pulling with their car a big big safe with all the money of the boss. The gang sticks together all the time, one for all and all for one, like a big family, and at the end Hobbs lets them go, telling them they have 24 hours to disappear before he starts searching for them again. They split the money, and split up, all of them millionnaires. Han is touring Europe with Gisele, kissing happily :-D The story should end right here, with Han happy with his girl, we could just pretend this was the end of the story, as if "Tokyo drift" never existed! I know that will be Han's end, and I don't want it!!
This movie was not bad, I'd say that with the first one they are my favourites of the whole series. This one in first place :-)

Fast and furious - 2009

This is the fourth made, but the story is placed before "Tokyo drift". How can we tell? Han's alive :-D I was happy when I saw Han (Sung Kang) right at the start, but after 10 minutes he was already gone, they part ways, in the best of terms, yes, but still we see nothing more of him here. Then Dom ( Vin Diesel) goes away alone because he says he's still wanted and is dangerous to be around him, but Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) gets murdered while he was away. After 15 minutes she's gone too. Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) is back, and later on he replies to Mia (Jordana Brewster)'s question "why did you let my brother go that day?" five years ago, with "because at that moment I respected him more than I did myself". Brian is working for the federals to catch a dangerous drug dealer, and Dom is after him too because he killed Letty. Dom and Brian together again. There's a lot of racing, shooting and at the end they catch him. Brian is only injured but Dom doesn't go away, he's tired of running, but despite Brian's words that he helped a lot, at his trial he's still sentenced to 25 years in prison without parole, so at the end of the movie we see that Brian is back with Mia, and together with two other friends they are trying to free Dom. It ends there, but since this is before "Tokyo drift" we know that he'll be free. The end. I didn't like it much.

The fast and the furious: Tokyo drift

The third in the series. Well the third made, but not regarding the story. Anyway.
This is one of those film for boys, with lots of cars and funny drifts, but aside from that it looks pretty stupid. I'm not saying it's for boys because it is stupid, just saying that it's for boys because some boys are satisfied with lots of shiny cars. There's this guy Sean (Lucas Black) who apparently is not yet eithteen, although to me  he looks more 27 than 17. It starts with the usual lame fights between boys "you talking to my girl?" usual line of the guy who knows he has to play bully to be even noticed, aggravated by his girl that after they decide to race instead of hand-fight says "winner gets me" : really? You sell yourself cheap girl. Btw you sure they want you so badly? They simply want to beat each other, they're not doing it for you.
So, pathetic start of this teenager getting himself into trouble, and since he and his mother changed three towns in two years, it seems getting into trouble is what he knows best. This time mom sends him off to Japan. In Tokyo there's his father, but his rules of coming back home right after school and never going anywhere near a car don't really agree with Sean. His uniform is pretty cool, but he didn't even know not to enter the class before changing his shoes! Come on, he's never read a manga, has he? Probably only cars-magazine, if he reads at all. (Of course the shoes shouldn't be right out the class door, but it was probably convenient to shoot that way). He meets an 'army brat' right away, and Twinkie shows him his car, and doing that brings him into that world of cars and riders "boy, all they care about is who's got the biggest engine" yep girl, it'd seem so. Anyway, Sean meets DK (Brian Tee) whose uncle is Yakuza, and immediately they hate each other because obviously Sean like's Dk's girlfriend Neela (Nathalie Kelley), and he considers her his property. Dk works with Han (Sung Kang), and he's the only good thing of this movie. I like Han a lot, very cool and nice.
Han lends Sean a car, but Sean can't drift and wrecks it. Han is not concerned about that, he says he already has money, it's other things he's interested in. Han gives Sean another car and teaches him how to drift, and it's all going well until Dk's uncle comes in angry because Dk didn't even notice that Han was making money on his own. When Dk arrives at Han's place, at first they think it's because Sean is there with Neela, but soon the truth is clear when Dk attacks Han and even takes out a gun. They manage to escape, and a big race starts. Unfortunately, Han is hit, his car crashes and I had hopes only for a fraction of a second because I saw what was going to happen, then the car exploded and Han died.
God, what's the sense in watching the rest of the movie is Han is not there anymore? He was the only good thing here. For me I mean, because I don't care about watching lots of girls in mini-skirts, and after saying yeah, nice cars! they become boring. After all I can't drive them, right? So.. boring. I don't like Sean, and Neela is kind of plain, what's left? Oh yeah, the final race, of course. Sean goes to the yakuza uncle with some money apologising and proposing a race to settle things between him and Dk. I don't have to tell you that Sean wins the race, now that he's actually learned how to drive and drift. At the end, Sean meets Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) who wants to race with him, saying Han was a friend, that he was family.
You know aside from Han what was the other thing I liked of this film? The credits at the end, they were funny: the guy that started the race (by saying GO) between Dk and Sean at the beginning, is listed as "exceedingly handsome guy" :lol:
That's it. I miss Han. I should make a compilation with only Han's scenes...

The Expendables 2

This is not bad either, but they made a big mistake, which is why I much prefer the first one.
The team of the first movie is back. Barney (Silvester Stallone) is the leader of the team, and with him are Christmas (Jason Statham), Yang (Jet Li) whose battle skills using a frying pan made me think of Terence Hill, because he always used funny things like these. Gunner (Dolph Lundgren) is with them again, and they tell us that Gunner has a degree in engineering, another punchline because Lundgren has an Engineering degree, which anyway isn't any help to Gunner, I must say. Then there is also Caesar (Terry Crews) and Toll Road (Randy Couture), with the addition of Billy the kid (Liam Hemsworth). Billy was a soldier, but his commander killed his dog, well the dog he had found and kept with him! How cruel is that? No shred of humanity whatsoever?!?
At the beginning they are to free a millionnaire chinese man, and doing that also free mercenary Trench (Arnold Scharzenegger) whose first words are 'this is embarassing' :lol: A little embarassing are also all those little jokes like If you ruin I will terminate you, or stuff like that, I know Schwarzy made Terminator, everybody does, no reason to remind us :lol: I liked that the team had Bad Attitude written on their jeep, made me think of b.a. :lol: About looks, I preferred Stallone with that bit of beard he had in the first film; here he only has moustaches. I don't like that. Completed this mission, they wronged me by taking Jet Li off the movie so soon. The terrible joke "chinese take-away" while he was parachuting off the plane only made it worse. What made it much worse is that they chose to replace him in the movie with another chinese, which could have opened lots of nice, thrilling possibilities! Instead they chose Nan Yu in the role of Maggie. Why did they do this?!? Maggie's so annoying, and full of poses( I don't know the actress at all actually, but this character here is useless). She's brought in by Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) who is very angry with Barney because apparently he took 5 million dollars of his on last mission to the Vilena Island, and I suppose he's talking about the money Barney gave Sandra, but I had not realised those were Church money. I thought it was all Barney's money. Anyway, as a payment he wants Barney to escort Maggie to retrieve something, and they succeed but then comes Vilain (Jean-Claude Van Damme) who takes it from them and kills Billy. Maybe there's something wrong with my brain or with my eyes, because when he showed them his tattoo of a goat, I couldn't see any goat, honestly I saw a black star dancing happily... what can I tell you, I did, honest, I still don't know where he saw a goat in that!
Anyway, now they all go on a mission to avenge their young friend. Their plan: they'll look for him, they'll find him and they'll kill him... not too original, but still a good plan :lol:  The bit "We are Americans!" was fun: yeah, sure, apart one Swedish guy, a chinese girl, and of course a British guy.
At some point they were in real trouble, with no more weapons against many baddies and a tank, when help came unexpectedly. Booker (Chuck Norris), known lonewolf, killed them all and destroyed the tank with a missile, all by himself!! Of course, why not, that's Chuck's style :lol: Then there is the final showdown with Schwarzy : "I'm back" we know, we know... and again "I'll be back" yeah yeah seen than,  and then Bruce Willis joining in the action. Chuck Norris too, all the action heroes together "who's next?Rambo?" against Vilain's men, until Barney (let's go back to characters) has his personal face to face with him. Personally, I wouldn't have fallen for Vilain's speech. Man or sheep? Really? Well, listen, it's just you and me here, so I'll be whatever I want to be and you'll be a dead goat which by the way is what I want you to be. Bang bang, end of it. Instead they fought with their hands. I'd have shot him in his place, then I'd told him sheep=alive goat=dead!
Still, I really enjoyed Van Damme here, he was lots of fun and quite cool.
Anyway. It was fun enough, but I still prefer the first one.

ITA i mercenari 2

Green lantern - 2011

This is one of the few superhero films I don't like. I don't like the protagonist nor the effects.
The story is simple, and is told at the beginning : "Billions of years ago a race of immmortals harnessed the most powerful force in existence: the emerald energy of willpower. These immortals, the Guardians of the Universe, built a world from where they could watch over all of existence: The planet Oa. They divided the universe into 3600 sectors. A ring powered by the energy of will was sent to every sector to select a recruit. In order to be chosen by the ring, it was said one must be without fear. Together these 3600 recruits formed the intergalactic peacekeepers known as the Green Lantern Corps. Of all the threats the Corps ever faced the gravest was an entity of fear known as Parallax. Only the legendary Green Lantern Abin Sur was capable of capturing and imprisoning this beast, which he did on the lost planet of Ryut" where one day he woken up, saw three aliens "You are afraid. Good" then he ate the aliens and broke free. Pretty ugly he is too. Then we meet Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds), who looks to me like a stupid brat, not a fearless warrior. Were you scared? It's my job not to be... :-/ please!
Abin Sur protected our sector, and when he dies Hal takes his place. This was the best scene of the whole movie, the fact that he didn't freak out or asked any questions when he saw him or his spaceship, he just tried to help him, hoping he could make it. Then Hal says to his friend "he gave me this" showing him the green ring of power, and he went "he proposed?" :lol: This friend was the funniest part of the movie. About the ring being a great responsibility, he also said "well, maybe on their planet responsibility just means asshole" which made me think I wasn't the only one thinking this of him... Anyway, the immortals explains that "Will has always been our sole weapon against the forces of darkness in the universe. but as that power began to seem insufficient a great debate arose among us. should we exploit another source of power , one we had long since sworn should never be used? Fear. But the power of fear was too unpredictable. The chance of corruption too great, and so we decided against it. All of us, that is, except one. Alone, this guardian entered the forbidden chamber. He wanted to prove the light of fear could be mastered. His intentions were pure but his hopes were naive. Consumed by the yellow power of fear the guardian became the very evil he had wished to destroy. He became Parallax." and Hal being human will turn out just the right one to fight Parallax because humans know fear well, and courage doesn't mean not being afraid, but being able to face that fear and fight it.
Great morale, but still I didn't like it because I didn't like him, and the effects were kind of boring. And I didn't like the ending, with that guardian, who was supposed to be the leader of all the green lanters, or so it appeared, chooses to become the new bad guy, choosing to go to the dark side... or yellow, in this case.
I liked the oath though: In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's might beware my power: green lantern's light.
I liked Carol (Blake Lively) enough, but the film is just useless. I don't care to watch it again.

Garfield gets real

From 2007. I don't know if this is a "real" movie or how it is classified, anyway I watched it because I always liked Garfield. Still this one is really for little kids. I admit it. I mean, I watched the whole thing, but it was too much even for me. Unfortunately I've grown past that age. Too bad. For me. Oh God, let's stop thinking about age. This is one of those stories where the cartoons live in their world that is real for them, and their job is to pose for comic strips, which can become a little boring sometimes. Garfield breaks into our world but soon changes his mind because without him his strip will be cancelled, and there are a lot of troubles to finally be able to go back home. There's obviously also Odie the dog and Jon, but the film is all computer-images, not drawings, and not nearly as cute. I liked the Garfield strips, but they were way better than this bad-looking, evil-eyed thing that's supposed to be a cat.

The expendables - 2010

I like it. It's just one of those big toys, you know, lots of action and lots of famous faces all together for 80s' action movies nostalgic. It's fun, and there's even a bit of plot ! Barney Ross is the leader of The Expendables , a team of mercenaries. He's offered a job by Mr Church (Bruce Willis) false name of a Cia man who doesn't want his real name involved . Church offers the job to another team of merceraries, but apparently their leader Trench (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is too busy at the moment, which is of course perfectly understandable if you think that he was actually busy being the governor of California...
The job consists into going to a certain island and kill the dictator there. Barney and Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) go to take a look at the situation, meet local rebel Sandra, who is the daughter of the General, the dictator, and strongly opposing him. They also realise that it's not just him, most danger comes from an ex cia man, Munroe (Eric Roberts) and after making quite a mess shooting their way out, Sandra refuses to go with them to safety and stays on the island. Worried about her, Barney decides to go back with his full team : Yang (Jet Li), Toll Road (Randy Couture) and Caesar (Terry Crews). Gunner (Dolph Lundgren) was a member of the team but is left behind because he's crazy and Barney doesn't want him, so Gunner joins Munroe against them. Barney makes his decision to go back after Tool (Mickey Rourke) tells him a story of how he once saw a woman about to commit suicide and he walked away. Toll tells him that after killing so many people mayne if he had saved that woman he might have saved a part of his soul, but he didn't and now he's like empty. Barney wants to save Sandra, and the team goes back to the island with him.
There's lots of shooting, heavy shooting, and explosions, and all the bad guys are killed.  Gunner appears to be dead, but at the very end we see he's still alive, and back with them.
They save Sandra, even when it seemed a risk to wait Barney cared mostly about saving her. Before leaving, Barney gives her money to help her island, she gives him a hug and they leave. I was so glad there was nothing romantic about him wanting to help her, no kisses, just a grateful hug that tells more , much more.
Christmas is the only one with a romantic interest, but it's home. Lacy (Charisma Carpenter) is his girlfriend, but he never told her his job, he just thinks that going to her any time he can is enough, and he's really pissed off when he shows at her door unannounced and finds another man there, but later he discovers that he beated her, so he cleared things with the guy (beating him up a bit...) and then tells her she should have waited for him. Well, maybe she didn't know there was something worth waiting, he doesn't exactly describes a normal relationship.
This is just another action movie, with the difference of different action-faces together: Stallone, Statham , Li,  Lundgren on the same team. And as I said I love the fact that there is no romantic crap at the end of it. I hate where they have characters kiss and fall in love in the middle of the shootings. That is always so not-love and completely out of place.

ITA i mercenari

Taken - 2007

Well, IMDB.com says 2008, but at the end of the movie I read 2007, so.
I like this film a lot, because this is what should always happen to all those dirty, lousy, patheticly useless scumbags trying to make or use money to compensate for their lack of anything else, who take daughters away from their fathers.
Here it happens because Kim was for years left practically alone with her stupid spoiled mother who is still so pissed off with her ex-husband that she always stands in his way and tries to make him look bad : you can't follow the rules, you should leave the present here, you should go there away from her despite the fact that you came here only to see her, you should think of her for once, you have always been invisible... please someone, anyone, give her a good kick in the ass okay? I mean, some women actually have good reasons for saying these things I'm sure, but this one doesn't. It's not as if he went his own way to have fun, or to do some kind of job important only to him, or if he spent his days drinking, or else. No, he had a serious job, and he's a good person, and really really loves his daughter. This woman raised her child constantly badmouthing her father, no doubt. Paranoid, yeah right! 

Anyway, what happens? This 17 year-old spoiled girl from California wants to go to Paris alone with her 19 year-old friend Amanda (19? So old? Of course, then, what's the problem? *rolling eyes*) and then tour the rest of Europe to follow the dates of U2 concerts, although we never once hear this girl listen to their music, and her mother tells him Don't be paranoic, what's wrong with that, let her go wherever she wants and do whatever she wants, what on earth could ever happen? It appears she has never watched a news program in her life! She's not in the least concerned, her life is all shiny and golden.
Amanda is the kind of girl ready to follow a guy she's never met everywhere simply because she thinks he's cute, ready to show him where she lives, to tell him she and her friend are all alone in the house, with all their relatives countries away. Smart, really smart.
The only person who is concerned is him, Brian the father (Liam Neeson) who learns while he's on the phone with his daughter that some men have entered the house and taken Amanda, and now they're coming to get her. Brian is well trained, and loves his daughter, so he tells those men that if they don't let her go "I will look for you, I will find you and I will kill you" then guess what he does? He immediately flies to Paris and looks for her. He leaves a trail of dead bodies. The guy that lured the pretty girl alone away from home, the guys that drugged the girls, the guys that turned them into prostitutes: all dead. He finds Amanda dead, and learns that Kim is not there because being a virgin she was more valuable and will be sold for much much more. (...she didn't act like a virgin, for sure, how did they find out? simply asking? or they had all the girls they took tested?)

He tracks down and kills the men that sold her, the man who bought her and all the men protecting the disgusting man. Good.
He finally finds her girl and takes her back home. Good.
Now, I know this is just an action movie, it's not a brain thing, there's nothing to follow, and in a way the things he finds out in no time seem excessive, but this is that kind of film, just action, nothing more. Not funny, not brainy, just action. He simply stated he worked years with the government preventing bad things from happening, and one of his friends simply listening at a few words is able to tell him such a lot about the guy who took her... well it seems stretched but after all what do I know about what they can actually do? Maybe they really can, how can I say they can't? I just like the action, and the bit of story because I like stories of father-daughter love. And Liam Neeson too.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians-the Lightning Thief

This movie has great effects, true, but the story is very different from the book, practicallly it doesn't make any sense anymore :-/ It starts with Poseidon (Kevin McKidd) and Zeus (Sean Bean) fighting because Zeus accuses him of using his son to steal his Lightning. "don't steal my thunder!" :lol: okay he didn't say that! :lol: Poseidon says he hasn't seen his son since he was born, and it's Zeus' fault for forbidding it. Then we meet Percy Jackson, who likes to be in the water, and can stay at the bottom of the pool for seven minutes no problem, which is quite a stupid thing, actually, because he can't hold his breath for so long. In the book Percy could breath under water (not hold his breath forever) but here Percy doesn't do that because he doesn't know that he can!!  From time to time Percy hears his father's voice in his head, helping him. At a museum, Percy is attacked by his teacher Mrs Doods, who trasforms into a fury, but goes away simply after teacher Mr Brunner alias Chiron (Pierce Brosnan) threatens her, which is very simple, right? Go away! and she goes away... wow. easy! Percy is played by Logan Lerman, who was already 18 and although he can pass for 16, they never say clearly his age, but for sure it's not 12 like in the book!
Anyway, like in the book, we meet his mother Sally (Catherine Keener) and Gabe (Joe Pantoliano), then Grover (Brandon T. Jackson) tells them they have to go. Sally Jackson leaves immediately and drives them , but they are attacked by a Minotaur. They run away, but she can't enter the Camp HalfBlood because she isn't one, she's completely mortal: she seemed to know so much and yet she didn't know this?
The minotaur gets her, but she disappears in light, and Percy goes back out of the camp to fight him.
Once back inside, he watches Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario) fighting, and that was just embarassing :lol: she was very pretty for sure, but couldn't even pretend to fight :lol: That won't be much of a problem though, since it appears that in this film Percy can also cure others, not just himself, with water, even pool water!
At the camp, they all already know who he is , a demigod, son of a mortal and a God. During a campfire, Hades appears among the flames because more special effects can do no damage in a film like this, specially if you consider that they are the best thing about it.
Our trio wants to sneak out at night to go to the underworld to get his mother back, there's just a little detail: they have no idea where to go or what to do... so Annabeth gives her only contribution: let's ask Luke!!
Luke (Jake Abel) gives them a pair of flying shoes that he stole from his father Hermes, a cool shield and a map with the locations where they can find three magic pearls, the only way to get out of the underworld. Apparently Hades doesn't have a faithful wife, here, and she gives these pearls to her lovers to be able to get out afterwards. So just like in Dragonball they're off to find the pearls and collect them all! It's a pity that none of them can count, not even Annabeth daughter of the goddess of wisdom and intellectual work, could figure out that if three persons want to take someone else out of the underworld maybe three pearls might not be enough... anyway, they start their search following what the map tells them: place n.1 Auntie Em's emporium, they meet Medusa (Uma Thurman) which is a very cool monster, really cool, I mean this is the stuff that makes this film! She made stone statues out of people, but a kind of stone that can be broken with a simple crutch... Anyway, I was saying: Medusa! Their comment: maybe Luke didn't know. Okay, it's possible, let's see what is at the other places, shall we? Place n. 2: five men turn into a hydra with five heads, which soon become more when Percy cuts them off, oviously knowing nothing about hydras... doesn't he read comics??? Percy covers himself creating a wall of water, until Grover saves them all by using Medusa's head. By now, I was already annoyed as hell with these kids, because Grover is so so loud! and Annabeth does absolutely nothing!. Place n.3. the Lotus Hotel in Las Vegas, where they eat some strange but good looking thing and forget everything until Poseidon helps them again. Thank you Poseidon, the sight of Grover dancing was really too much to bear, as if listening to him yelling wasn't enough! He's so annoyingly excessive!
They still didn't think there was anything wrong with the map Luke gave them, apparently, because they go on all confident. Finally they meet Hades and Persephone (Rosario Dawson) with her "what will you do to me? I'm already in hell" although to be fair her hell isn't all that bad, all things considered. Okay she can't get out, but aside from that, she's doing pretty nicely, things could be a lot worse! Percy can hug his mother again, and Hades finds the Lightning into Percy's shield, the shield Luke gave him. Do you think they understand now ?? yeah, finally Annabeth says something right, although too late.
Persephone saves them by taking the lightning off Hades and only now they discover that three perals are not enough for four people! so Grover stays behind, with Persephone, because apparently they like this kind of jokes a lot! yeuch. The real Grover is a sweet, good guy.
They run to the Empire State Building, where the entrance of the Olympus is, and apparently Sally knows this very well, how can she know the right spot, the right buttons!!! Luke comes to fight him, and after that Percy goes to see Zeus, right at the last second, in the best of traditions. He hands him the lightning, meets his dad and makes a long speech :-/
At the end, Mom has kicked out Gabe, no longer useful now, and Percy goes back to the Camp. Grover is again so excessive and loud, and Chiron says the worst line "you disobeyed my orders, that's why you're mmy favourite student " how stupid is that? Is he saying that every kid should disobey orders? Especially kids this stupid? They were lucky! Not everyone is so lucky! What he did was stupid and wrong, but being lucky is better than being smart, for them.

Oh my, the book is so so much better, this is complete b****hit! Makes no sense from start to end! Great effects though, medusa was cool :-)

Captain America: the Winter Soldier - 2014

This was even better than the first one. They were both good, but this one is contemporary, so we have all the rest we know. Captain America (Chris Evans) is working for the Shield, which is an acronym for something I'll never remember, sorry, but doesn't matter because I can always find it written on some Shield symbol if I care to. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) uses him for mission, but Steve is a little pissed off because Fury never tells the whole story, always hides something, never trusts his people... of course he's just a soldier, so he doesn't understand the whole of Fury's work, and the fact that he has to keep secrets, because he knows you can never know who you can trust. Still, he's pretty sure he can trust Rogers, so after people try to kill him, apparently succeeding, he leaves something to him. Together with Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), the Black Widow for reasons I don't know, they try to uncover who's behind it. They'll find out that Dr Armin Zola's mind, put into a big computer, was able to carry on Hydra's cause, that the Shield has being more than infiltrated by it. Nick Fury is still alive of course, but his friend Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) is part of Hydra, and had him eliminated. No surprise there. What was really something was that a notorious assassin working for hydra is revealed to have Bucky's face. It would appear Bucky (Sebastian Stan) didn't die, probably because of the experiments made on him, and became their puppet. They brainwashed him, using him for their mission. Bucky doesn't remember him, and they fight. The beautiful scene was after Cap completed his mission. At that point he didn't have to fight Bucky anymore. Bucky has always been the most important person for him, always with him, and he can't fight him. At the end, Bucky saves him and then goes away, hopefully not back to be brainwashed again!
To help Cap this film there was Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) loyal to Fury, and Agent 13 (Emily VanCamp). Cute.
Nice the scene when everybody decides who follow : "captain's orders" . Nice!
Here, it is stated clearly that Howard Stark was Tony's father, but come on, that was reasonable in the comics, because it was some time ago. Now, that would mean that Howard was flying planes and building weapons in the second world war, and Tony is joining the avengers in 2012...  Howard would easierly be his grandfather.
Still, doesn't matter. These films are big big toys for us to play with, and I enjoy them a lot. :-D

Captain America: the first Avenger - 2011

I like these movies :-) Here we are at the beginning of his story, how Captain America was created. Once upon a time there was a kid who really, really, really wanted to be a soldier to defend his country, but his body had another opinion, so he was always rejected :-D
 Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) doesn't want to give up , no matter what his friend Bucky (Sebastian Stan) tells him. One day he meets Dr Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci, with a funny german accent) sees something in him "Do you want to kill nazis?" - "I don't want to kill anyone. I don't like bullies. I don't care where they're from" and offers the little guy a chance. He sends him to Camp Lehigh (as I could read on the flag) where he meets Agent Carter (Hayley Atwell) who knows how to handle stupids, and Colonel Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones :-D ) who at the end of the week will choose one candidate for Erskine project of a super soldier. Rogers is smaller, weaker, but he is smarter and much braver, or maybe not braver, just a good noble person. The scene with the grenade, where all the others took cover while Rogers throw himself on it shouting for the others to run away was something. Of course, it was the more cool because the grenade turned out to be a fake one, which did not explode, otherwise the noble gesture would have blown him up to little bits. Rogers is chosen for the big project, assisted by brilliant Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper). The experiment is completed, but the room is infiltrated, many people including Erskine are killed, and the sierum stolen, so Rogers chase him barefoot, surprised at what his new body can do :-) I particularly liked the bit with the kid thrown in the water who tells  him "Go get him! I can swim" :-) just when you thought, will he save the kid or chase the bad guy with a secret formula in his hands that could create a horde of bad super-soldiers?? So Rogers gets him, and he kills himself because he's part of Hydra, an organisation with the obvious motto "cut off one head, two more shall take its place" which is not that original, quite obvious given the name, but still, full of crazy psycopaths. Their leader is Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving), the Red Skull after he tried on himself an earlier version of the formula, when the serum wan not yet ready. What it does is amplify everything that is inside, so good becomes great, and bad becomes worse, just like The Mask, to be clear :lol:  Steve becomes better, and I'm yet not sure of how they could change him so. I don't mean the body or the height, I mean the face! The face is the same and yet it is not exactly the same, it's different.
Anyway. He's just one man, so the Colonel doesn't want him, yet he's given another assignment, to become a simbol to everyone, to tour cities...he make movies, and wears a colourful uniform until one day he performs in front of soldiers, not the usual crowd of kids and mothers. These soldiers had just returned from an awful mission, where only less than 50 came back, of 200 hundred that went out. Steve learns that Bucky was one of those that didn't make it back, and wants to go looking for him. Alone, 30 miles inside enemy territory, with a little help from Carter and Stark, who fly him as far as they can. Alone, Rogers gets inside the enemy camp, frees all the american soldiers inside giving them all the chance to fight their way out. He also finds Bucky, who has been experimented upon. Steve and a lot of american soldiers make it back to Colonel Phillips base. At the ceremony for Captain America, Stan Lee's in high uniform (maybe a general's uniform?) saying "I thought he'd be taller" mistaking someone else for the captain :lol:
For the new mission, Rogers asks some of the men he saved to go with him. Agent Carter becomes jealous when a blonde throws herself at him and kisses him. Rogers chooses a new shield from Stark's stuff, a prototipe made of vibranium, completely vibration absorbent , and apparently bulletproof :lol:
They all do a lot together, Steve and Bucky always side by side until Bucky falls down to his death.
Dr Armin Zola is captured. On the last attempt to stop and possibly kill the red skull, they chase his plane with a car, and yet Carter thinks giving him a kiss it's worth the risk of losing those few seconds that might make the difference between being able to stop the car and fall down to their death...
Only colonel Phillips "I'm not kissing you" was actually worth it :lol:  Schmidt had found the Tesseract and used it for Hydra, to give their weapons more power, but now seems like the Tesseract killed the red skull when he hold it in his hand. The terreract is lost, and Steve is alone on that plane, and decides there's not much time until it reaches New York killing lots of people, so he crashes it somewhere empty. Stark recovers the tesseract and looks for him, but can't find him. When Rogers wake up, they wanted to trick him and us into believing he was found and cured, but they didn't fool him as they didn't fool me - me because I know his story, and him because they played a game from 1941, a bit too early :-) He finds himself in contemporary America, with Nick Fury that tells him he's been asleep for almost 70 years...

Notting Hill - 1999

Why is this film so famous? I mean I know it has famous actors, but why it is taken in so much consideration as if it was a wonderful love story, instead of the boring *****hit that it actually is?
Hugh Grant is will, the owner of a bookshop, and when famous actress Anna (Julia Roberts) comes in he doesn't know who she is. As fate wants, they meet again on the street and he stains her shirt, so of course she does what every famous movie star would do in her place: she goes to his house to change!! Nothing strange about this picture, right? I guess every Hollywood star wouldn't hesitate a second before going inside a stranger's house and undress. I'll tell you more, they would all be so glad about it, that they would kiss him before leave him! Sure, why not! And does it surprise anyone that afterwards she calls him? And she even goes to his sister's birthday party as their first date? Not strange at all, is it?
I guess it was his habit of saying "Whoopsidaisis" that won her over... Oh God.
She's the one that keeps calling him, and going to his house, but when she finds reporters out of the door in the morning, she's furious as if he had betrayed her. She doesn't stop for a second to think about it, or giving him a chance, and why should she? Is not like she's a thinker after all.
Apparently his room-mate talked about her, but honestly, is it so strange that  reporters  found her? I see every day pictures of stars in magazines while they walk, while they eat... it's what reporters do. They would be a real failure in their job if noone of them had known that she was spending the night at a man's house, especially since she went there after a little scandal, so all reporters were already interested in her...
The famous line about her being just a girl asking a boy to love her didn't win me over, on the contrary it seemed pretty dull to me. Exactly where is this love? She's a movie star and falls for the first man that stains her shirt? Is that all it takes? And oh, big surprise, he falls in love with the big movie star, as if this would never happen, incredible, unheard of!!
Just how many men would be indifferent if Angelina Jolie walked into their life? or Jessica Alba, Charlize Theron, or Evangeline Lilly or whoever...
I really never understood why people find this film romantic; I find it boring, absurd and silly. And worst of all, not even a bit romantic.

Eat pray love

Boring oh so boring, is what it is. I know nothing about the book, I'm just talking about the film. It should be spiritual, emotional, but it's nothing. It starts already without feelings, because all of a sudden Liz (Julia Roberts) decides she isn't happy, just like that, out of the blue, without giving us any reasons. She wants to go on a world trip to find herself: good for you. Well, at this point I expected something, but no, there were no emotions, none at all. She spends a lot of time in India, and that should give us something, but it only gave me boredom, which is unusual. India usually is interesting, spiritual, full of life and culture, but here it was plain and boring because it was all about Julia. I should say Liz, but to me it seemed all about Julia.
Her trip to Italy was boring too; I only liked Luca Argentero, the only good thing that ever came out of a big brother. Still, it fails me why she was so fascinated by the italian word attraversiamo (let's cross over) as if it was the most spiritual and interesting thing she'd ever heard. We say it every time we cross a street, and never feel enlightened by it. Also, I don't understand why she didn't book a room in a hotel, it seemed to me like she had enough money for a hotel room...
It takes her a long time to realise she's fallen in love with the character played by Javier Bardem, as if she'd gone through a life-changing process that personally I failed to see. She seemed on vacation, to me. Nothing more. She was making a great deal about it, but it just looked like a vacation.
It was supposed to look like a journey to find her inner self, but I felt nothing spiritual watching it, none at all.

The heartbreak kid - 2007

Nope, I didn't like this. Not at all.
 It started okay, and it should have been a funny / romantic movie, but it was only occasionally funny and it was not romantic. The beginning was not too bad, but it goes down quickly.
Eddie (Ben Stiller) meets a girl, they start talking and they seem perfect for each other, so he hastily proposes to her ...  but they are even arrived to  their honeymoon place that things already start to look different, because Eddie actually knows nothing about her, and now realises that everything about her annoys him. On his honeymoon he meets another woman, and is sure that this Miranda is his soul mate, but of course it'll come out the little detail of the bride and the honeymoon, and both women will leave him.
Now there's a whole business with him not being able to fly home because he doesn't have his passport anymore, so he tries to cross the border with all the other illegal immigrants, but it'll take him a lot to finally get home. He looks for Miranda and finds that she married someone else. Wow, they all make hasty decisions, don't they??? She was single when she met him, and now she's already married to an ex-boyfriend... wow, are they afraid of something???  Eddie leaves her believing her happy with her husband, and when they meet again months later she's single again, having realised she wants him after all, and he acts happy about that, only he's again married to someone else!... Do these people think that marriage is like renting a dvd? Let's try it ! It's not like it's for life, right? Well, wrong in the case of a marriage. Of course marriages can go wrong, people change, situations change, divorces happen... but if you met someone and marry them right away without knowing each other or spending some time together in the same house  then you're just looking for it!

Christmas in wonderland - 2007

It's nice, but also boring if you don't have kids or if you're not watching it at Christmas. It's a matter of atmosphere, you know, so to enjoy a Christmas movie you have to watch it at Christmas! And, it's almost commpulsory to have kids to watch this, little kids,  because after a certain age you stop believing in Santa Claus, everything becomes a little darker, magic goes away, and a movie where a little girl asks Santa in the Mall for a million dollar because her father needs it becomes  little more than a silly fairytale.
This movie is about a family that had to move away from Los Angeles because of money problems. The father Wayne (Patrick Swayze) is again without work, but his wife is having trouble getting there because the planes are all full around Christmas, so he'll have to buy the Cristmas presents for the kids. They are three: Danny who is a teenager angry becasuse he had to leave behind all his friends, but then at the mall he looks at a pretty blond with a red bikini and starts touring the mall in search for her, until he meets her and decides that all of a sudden this is not a bad place after all, and "who cares about Los Angeles if the pretty blonde with the red bikini is here talking to me" ... then there's his brother Brian who is a little smartypants, and the youngest of the family is six-years-old Mary, the only one with the Christmas spirit, because she believes in Christmas, in Santa Claus, in family, and everything: She's six after all! She's the only one in the whole family with Christmas Spirit, and where the father takes them to the mall, Mary and Brian wander off together while Danny looks for his pretty girl, until they find a bag full of money and start having fun on their own, and the little girl trying on a load of new dresses acts exactly like a six-years-old I know: same faces, same posing..
:-) Of course the money was fake, and now two criminals are after them, but also the police because as soon as shop waiters realises the kids gave them fake money they talk to the police: Inspector Gordon is played by Tim Curry!!! And he's funny. :-) "bloody stupid place for a closet" :lol:
Of course it turns out the old man in the mall is the real Santa Claus who takes an interest in the family. The police arrests Wayne, thinking he's the boss of the operation...  and of course the real bad guys are two complete idiots, and Santa keeps helping our kids :-)
So much that at the end he offers Wayne a new job, and they go to sleep exausted, but the next morning when Mom gets home, everything is neat and perfect, with a fireplace and a tree and lots of presents, and everything , even the kitchen is perfect, everything's shiny and perfect, and the turkey is there too! Mary even got a letter from Santa Claus.
I've got to say that this Santa is the best Santa a movie has ever pictured, because he got mom home for Christmas, but also got a new job for dad, an ipod for Brian and an xbox360 for Danny....

Bad boys do by Victoria Dahl

Apparently this is a sequel; there's at least another book with the same people, more or less, but I haven't read it.
This one is not bad, a nice love story, but not exactly would all those comments printed on the cover would let you imagine. Brilliant? maybe a bit Sexy? well, there's a lot of sex, no doubt about that Hilariously funny? Now come on, where's all the fun? It's a nice read, quick and enough well written, but it's not like I was rolling on the floor you know. Protagonist is Olivia, 35, divorced, trying to get her life back on the right track after living in her husband's shadow for so long. She's very serious, she's responsible, then she meets Jamie Donovan, beautiful, younger and free, and of course she falls in love with him. Eventually. This is one of those stories when they pretend they're just having fun an sex, no strings attached and all that kind of stuff, until at the end she finds herself totally in love with him. Requited, of course, it's a love story after all.
Her ex-husband is arrogant, selfish, and already has a new girlfriend, as if trying to make her jelous.
The only funny characters is Gwen, Olivia's friend. I liked her.
In a way the only problem is Olivia herself. She's supposed to be serious, precise, her husband the only man she ever had in her life, a woman who doesn't know how to have fun at all, and yet she goes from one excess to the other. She doesn't know how to have fun, okay, but still she's only 35 and she was almost shocked when he wanted to go out at night, meeting her at 9pm, because she goes to sleep at 9pm... Come on, that's a bit excessive, isn't it? I understand a working woman going to sleep early if she hasn't any dates, with men or friends, but to be shocked as if he was proposing something crazy is a bit excessive in my opinion. On the other hand not only they do it everywhere, but she almost jumps on him at a bus stop... Well, since Jamie is described as supersexy this is more understandable that her being asleep at 9pm. Every single day. She doesn't have any interest at all in anything, no books, no films, no music, nothing.
I find annoying the attitude of the women going to Jamie's club. They feel free not only to flirt with him, but to touch him, as if he was some kind of object. That attitude is annoying in men, when there's a waitress, and it's annoying done by women too, with a waiter. He's working, come on! If it was a man touching a girl, the reaction would be that he's a pig, that he should learn his manners. These women are the same.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: book 5: The last Olympian

A great finale, I really liked it, a really good book. I don't think there's anything in it I don't approve! I liked the whole saga, it has been a while since a book, or series of books, kept me so glued to it that I kept reading while walking or eating! Yes, it is true that I don't have time to read as much as I used to, still...  I liked this one very much, and can't talk about it without risking a few spoilers...
I love the fact that we know and follow a lot of characters. Of course the protagonist is Percy, but in this case it's more that justified, it's the only right thing because he's the one narrating the story! So we follow him everywhere he goes and we see everything he does, but all the others are important, not only Annabeth and Grover, but all of them: the other kids, his parents, all the Gods... I approve the identity of the spy, I realise know that I know it that any other name would have been difficult to accept. I liked very much the scene on Nico's mother, the way she refused to leave Hades or her kids, the way she looked at him and how Hades loved her, cared about her and their children. He was the one putting them in the Lotus Hotel to save them. I liked Clarisse and Silena's friendship; I liked the battle with the dragon, how Clarisse defeated him: thinking about "Here's my girl!" makes my heart feel.  I liked Mrs O'Leary and Percy's mom and Paul and was very happy to see Rachel again, happy that she was more than a tool to use in the previous book. Really, can't think of anything wrong for now. Sure, sometimes Percy's jealousy of Luke or Annabeth's jealousy of Rachel were a bit irritating, but after all understandable for them and their age.
The whole book this time takes no more than a week of time, the last battle. Between book 4 and book 5 almost a year has passed, and if at the end of the last one he had just turned 15, now this story starts a week before he turns 16, the deadline for the prophecy. it starts with just a few pages of normal life, telling us he has spent a lot of time with his parents (well, his mother and his step-father, I mean) and with Rachel, before he goes on a mission that will be the beginning of the end. Mission accomplished, yes, but at the high cost of Beckendorf's life. I knew it. There had to be casualties in such a big war, even names we knew. From that, it's an escalation: Nico's plan to 'give' Percy the powers Achille had, the great final battle with Percy as leader of all his half-blood comrades, except the house of Ares, because at the moment Clarisse is so offended with everyone she refuses to fight! It's all very exciting, and at the end, I liked the changes and everything so much that my only problem would have been if it all ended there, just like that. End of prophecy, end of story! That would have made me angry because when you show so many new things, then you should show them well. I was almost at the end and I was thinking: I want to see the new camp, the new kids, the new Oracle, he can't just say: things are changing, and end it there! But then the new prophecy lifted my spirits: if there's a new prophecy I guess we'll get to see it, right? I want to read about it!
Anyway, in this book we see more of Paul Stockfis, we see Poseidon's 'official' family, we hear the whole prophecy, see a lot more of Nico and Hades and Poseidon and more or less everyone, and a lot of battle.
It was all very exciting, and I really can't wait to read more books of this saga :-)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: book 4: The battle of the Labirinth

This book was even better.
It's still summer, yet Percy enters his new school just for an orientation visit; it's the school where his mother's boyfriend works. Percy is troubled because at the entrance he recognises Rachel Dare, that helped him with the skeletons the book before :-) She remembers him, and helps him again when two demonic cheerleaders attack him, ruining the date he had with Annabeth in the afternoon. At the camp he meets Quintus and Mrs O'Leary :lol: meets Tyson again, and learns that Grover is on trial for having failed in his search for Pan. Together with Annabeth, Grover and Tyson they enter the Labirinth looking for Daedalus, to prevent him from helping Luke. They meet Janus and Hera, they free giant Briares who has a hundred hands... and escape from Alcatraz, Percy kills Geryon at his ranch, and sort of make peace with Nico. Annabeth refuses to answers the sphinx quiz show so they have to fight it; they talk with Hephaestus and fight with the telkhines monsters; Percy causes the vulcano to erupt and is sent to recover to Calypso's island. Leaving her it's very difficult for him, but he has to; Percy and Annabeth asks for Rachel's help to find the way into the labirinth, she can do it just like Arianna did, because she can see the right way. Back into the labirinth, Percy kills Antaeus, son of Poseidon and Gea, and saves Ethan Nakamura's life, only to be betrayed by him. Percy doesn't trust Quintus, but now the enemies are too much so he uses the whistle Quintus gave him and summons Mrs O'Leary who helps him no trouble.
They finally meet Dedalus, and discover that he's alive, in a new body he designed himself, and they already met him as Quintus. Attacked by Minos ghost and his demons, they escape borrowing the wings made by Dedalus, and fly away. They meet Cronos inside Luke's body, and Rachel hits him with her blue comb. They finally find Pan, and he tells them to take care of the earth themselves, before dying. They go back to the camp under siege, and all the kids fight the monsters, and win only with the help of Grover, Nico, Briares and Dedalus, who came to seek amends. Dionysus cured Chris Rodriguez from his madness, and now he and Clarisse are happily singing songs together, holding hands :-D I'm happy for her. Back home, Paul asks Percy for his 'permission' to propose to his mother :-) It's his birthday party, and Tyson is there too, when Poseidon rings the door, and Paul meets Percy's father :-p The book ends with Percy inviting Nico to come in and eat some birthday cake :-)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: book 3: The Titan's curse

Another good book. Grover has found two halfbloods in a school, and calls Percy, Annabeth and Thalia for help, but they win only because Artemis and her hunters happens to help.Yet annabeth is taken by the Manticore. Bianca Di Angelo chooses to become one of the hunters. Apollo drives them all to the camp while Artemide goes her own way, well Thalia drives, actually, but she didn't want to...she has a thing for heights... which is odd, for the daughter of Zeus...
At the camp, Percy calls Tyson with the i-phone, but doesn't tell him about Annabeth. The oracle walks towards them to tell hunter Zoe Nightshade a prophecy. After learning that Artemis is missing, the hunters want to save her, but the quest is for 5 people: two hunters plus Bianca, then Grover and Thalia. They don't want Percy because he's a boy, but he uses Annabeth's invisibility cap and goes anyway, after promising Bianca's brother Nico that he'll protect her. One of the hunters couldn't go, so with Percy they're now five, as the prophecy said. Together they fight monstrously huge lion Nemeo at a Mall , then some skeleton-soldiers that can't die when they defeat them, but die if it's Bianca the one defeating them. At the junkyard of the Gods, they fight a huge prototipe discarded by Efesto, Bianca enters it and die to save the others. At the Hoover Dam they are again attacked by skeleton-guards, and Percy is helped by a mortal girl that can see them: Rachel Elizabeth Dare. For once, Thalia's prayers to Zeus have an answer, and bronze angels statues become animated and help them, flying them out of there. Percy discovers that the half-cow-half-fish beast he saved is an ophiotaurur, the monster they are all looking for, because apparently if someone kills it and uses its intestines will have such a power to overcome the gods.. the Manticore wants Thalia to do it, and be the one the prophecy talked about, but the other kids help her, but they wouldn't have made it if Mr D hadn't helped them... yep, him. When they find themselves in need of a vehicle, being in San Francisco they ask for Annabeth's father's help. Despite what we all thought of her family, neither he or his wife seem to be bad persons, they're both worried about her and willing to help. They finally meet Atlas, free of his terrible weight. He could have never freed himself, he needed someone to take the weight off his shoulders, and Luke did it, then he begged Annabeth to help him and she did it, and Luke left her there. When Artemis saw her, she had to help a girl in trouble, and took it on herself. Now our heroes have to fight Atlas and free them both. Zoe is Atlas daughter, but helps them fight him. Percy can't fight because Ares' curse won't allow him to use his sword, so he does the only thing he can: he helps the goddess, by taking the weight of the sky off her shoulders. She can now fight with the others, and she sends Atlas back to his place, giving him back his curse, freeing Percy. They are helped also by Annabeth's father, who comes with his little old airplane, shooting the enemies. Zoe dies there, as the prophecy foretold her. When they finally reach the Olympus, Percy fights for monster Bessie's safety. Zeus is afraid of her, and would like to kill the poor beast, but Percy and Poseidon agree to keep it safe there. Thalia accepts to become a hunter and take Zoe's place.
Reading the book we learn that Zoe's life was sort of ruined because of Hercules. She helped him, even gave him the sword that now Percy is using, and he just left her, never ackknowledging what she did for him, and we also learn that Bianca and Nico have been in the Lotus Hotel for many years, not aging. Now, back at the camp, young Nico is furious with Percy because he promised to protect Bianca and now she's dead, he can feel it. Percy realises he's Hades' son, born before the three major Gods promised not to have children. Funny huh, that Hades is the only one that didn't break their promise?? Even Zeus, the one that insisted on it, had Thalia.
At the end, Percy will go back home, and Annabeth will go to his father's house in S. Francisco, while Grover is all excited because he heard Pan's voice telling him he's waiting for him...

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: book 2: The sea of monsters

In this book there are a few things that reminded me of something else: three kids: a smart girl and a goofy boy plus the protagonist of the title, which would be enough to remind of H.P., but here there was also the night taxi, anad the craziest drive ever, although they don't end up beated by a tree here. There's also the name of Crono that should never be named, only Percy does it anyway :-) but it doesn't matter, I'm not saying he copied Rowling's work, not at all, a little similarity doesn't matter. Percy's books are really different, and in this one the goofy kid changes, because Grover is who knows where, and in big trouble, and they go help him. A strange kid that Percy has known at his school goes with them because it turns out he's a cyclop, and Poseidon't son! Everybody seems to hate cyclops (well, everybody except Beckendorf, who has no problem with cyclops at all, on the contrary he takes Tyson to work with him), apparently they're evil (!) and Percy is somehow embarassed about that, keeps saying they're not brothers, and yet the cyclop Tyson appears to care about him a lot, even saved his life when they found the camp had been attacked and they joined the other kids to defend it.
Chiron is going away because he's been fired and accused of having poisoned the Thalia-tree, but in his dreams of Grover Percy has seen the Golden Fleece, the only thing that could cure it. Tantalus, who has been sent to replace Chiron, gives the quest to Clarisse, and she wants to go alone. Hermes comes to talk to Percy with a couple of gifts for him, and I must say I liked this Hermes a lot, he really seemed a decent God all in all, even nice. :-) Percy, Annabeth and Tyson go on the same mission by themselves, disobeying the camp and Tantalus orders. Poseidon sends them three hippocampi to take them wherever they need to go, and they reach the ship that Hermes told them, and there they find Luke in bad company, and apparently Luke wants the Golden Fleece too, to use it to revive Cronos or something like that. They flee the ship and reach land, and here there's a bizarre, silly story about chain stores that open up so quickly and so many, and apparently it's because they're a sort of monster, or depending on a monster, anyway, they meet this hydra but have trouble finding the fire that could kill it. Fortunately Clarissa comes on her ship full of zombies and fires cannons at it. Together they reach the entrance to the sea of monsters, but the monsters Scilla and Cariddi destroy the ship. Annabeth and Percy are still together, but have no news about Tyson's fate. They think he died when Clarissa's ship was destroyed. They meet Circe, who transforms Percy into a Guinea pig, because she thinks all men are pigs but she now prefers guinea pigs because are smaller and not so smelly. To save him, not knowing which one is Percy, Annabeth frees them all, and the others were Blackbeard and some of his men. Annabeth and Percy steal his ship and go away, but when they meet the syrens Percy has to save her. Finally they reach Polyphemus's island and meet Tyson again and also free Clarissa. They take the Fleece and reach a beach, where Percy gives Clarissa money to fly to the camp and the Fleece. Then Percy meets Luke and secretly opens a Iris-phone call to the camp so they can hear that Luke poisoned the tree, not Chiron. Percy and his friends are saved from Luke and his "friends" by Chiron and his centaur-friends. Percy learns why everybody suspected Chiron: he's Cronos son. Back at the camp, the Fleece cures the tree by removing all the poison, only it works too well and removes "everything", not just the poison. They find Thalia next to it, a normal girl again. I liked the Thalia-tree a lot, because it reminded me of the Eretria, the tree that had the same role of keeping the monsters out in the Shannara series, but I was glad that here it had a different ending. I'm very curious to know this daughter of Zeus :-)