The power of green tea

Green tea’s healing powers have finally been scientifically proven:

Regularly drinking green tea could protect the brain against forms of dementia including Alzheimer's, a study published today shows.

It could also play a vital role in protecting the body against cancer, the study in the journal Phytomedicine suggests.

Led by Ed Okello, the Newcastle University team wanted to know if the protective properties known to be present in the freshly brewed form are still active once the tea has been digested.

Dr Okello, from the university's School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, said: "What was really exciting about this study was that we found when green tea is digested by enzymes in the gut, the resulting chemicals are actually more effective against key triggers of Alzheimer's development than the undigested form of the tea.

"In addition to this, we also found the digested compounds had anti-cancer properties, significantly slowing down the growth of the tumour cells which we were using in our experiments."

Digestion is a vital process which provides our bodies with the nutrients we need to survive. But nutrients are not necessarily absorbed into the body once food is digested. "It's one of the reasons why we have to be so careful when we make claims about the health benefits of various foods and supplements," Okello said.

"There are certain chemicals we know to be beneficial and we can identify foods which are rich in them but what happens during the digestion process is crucial to whether these foods are actually doing us any good."

[..] Okello said: "There are obviously many factors which together have an influence on diseases such as cancer and dementia – a good diet, plenty of exercise and a healthy lifestyle are all important. But I think it's fair to say that at least one cup of green tea every day may be good for you and I would certainly recommend it."

I regularly drink green tea, but I’ll do it even more now!

The Sound of Terror?

Here’s a great example of how important a movie’s soundtrack can be, especially when paired with some very effective editing:

In Memoriam

John Barry (1933 – 2011)

The world of cinema just lost one of its most cherished, brilliant, and original motion picture score composers.

Barry was nominated for 7 Academy Awards during his long career and won 5 of them, for Out of Africa, Dances with Wolves, Chaplin, The Lion in Winter, and Born Free (score and song).  The first three in that list are among my favorite original scores ever.

Barry is also remembered for writing the soundtracks of countless 007 outings, spanning four performers (Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton): Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Diamonds Are Forever, The Man with the Golden Gun, Moonraker, Octopussy, A View to a Kill, and The Living Daylights.

I personally also love Body Heat.

2011 Screen Actors Guild Awards

I just watched, for the first time, the telecast of the Screen Actors Guild Awards (aka, SAG Awards) and the ceremony was nice and swift.  What left me wondering, however, is how its categories are setup.

The Guild awards TV dramas and comedies separately but it throws them in together when it comes to feature length movies.  Why?  Furthermore, it awards both leading and supporting roles for movies, but only one category each for TV series.  Again, why?

Personally, I find separating dramas and comedies not only wise but necessary, as the two genres are so fundamentally different, and also because generally comedy always loses out to drama, so it makes sense to split the two in order to give the genre a fighting chance.  The same holds for leading and supporting roles.  It doesn’t make sense to bunch all actors together because a leading role would consistently trounce a supporting one.

That’s why the Guild’s awards assignment leaves me so puzzled.  But I digress.

Boardwalk Empire and its star, Steve Buscemi, won Best Ensemble (the equivalent of Best Series) and Best Male Actor for Drama, a confirmation that the Golden Globes got it right and didn’t just award both for their own benefit.  Julianna Margulies won Best Female Actor for The Good Wife for the second year in a row, while HBO snagged both Best Male and Best Female Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries with Al Pacino for You Don’t Know Jack and Claire Danes for Temple Grandin respectively.

On the comedy side, Modern Family, one of my favorite shows, won Best Ensemble while Alec Baldwin, a perennial favorite, won Best Male Actor for 30 Rock for the fifth time in a row.  The Best Female Actor category saw one of the night’s few shockers with a win for the legendary Betty White (who likely collected a lot of sympathy votes).

On the feature films side, Colin Firth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, and Melissa Leo were all shoo-ins and all won without any surprises, but the shocker came with the last award, Best Cast in a Motion Picture, when The King’s Speech triumphed over The Social Network, which had been the favorite for the past few months.

Does this spell trouble for The Social Network at the upcoming Academy Awards?  After all, it was the big winner a couple weeks ago at the Golden Globes, taking home 4 out of the 6 awards it was nominated for, including Best Picture, Director, Writing, and Score.  The King’s Speech, on the other hand, was leading in terms of number of nominations (7) but only won Best Lead Actor for Firth.

Could it be that the tide is turning and The King’s Speech is now becoming the favorite to win the Best Picture Oscar?  On the one hand, it just won top honors from the Directors and Producers Guilds.  On the other, it wasn’t even nominated for Best Original Screenplay by the Writers Guild (although it is nominated in this category for an Oscar).

I guess we’ll find out in about a month.

The Fighter

David O. Russell’s The Fighter, now a Best Picture Oscar nominee, is based on a true story of ordinary people trying to overcome the limitations posed by their social status in order to fulfill their dreams.

The plot: Dicky, a boxer who once beat the great Sugar Ray Leonard, is now a crack addict who occasionally trains is younger half-brother Micky to prepare him for matches that he regularly loses.  The losses pile up until Micky, realizing that in spite of their well intentions Dicky and their mother, who is his manager, are actually unable to fully realize his potential, decides to break out of their yoke.

Russell, a Best Director Oscar nominee, skillfully directs his cast, extracting great performances from Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo (all three Best Supporting Acting nominees) and even Mark Wahlberg, who’s not known for being a thespian.  Bale and Leo are actually widely expected to win in their respective categories.

A well-written screenplay together with great editing complete a production that will make you care for the lives of these semi-outcasts whose dreams live to see another day.

Grade: 8

Black Swan

If I had to pick one word to describe this movie it’d be haunting.  Black Swan is a wonderfully executed example of what great films should look and feel like.

The plot [SPOILERS]: Nina, a ballet dancer, wins the role of Swan Queen when her artistic director decides to replace his leading lady.  The role requires her to play both the White Swan, for which she’s perfect, and the Black Swan, a part whose dark undertones still elude her.  Facing competition from another ballerina, who has no trouble with the Black Swan part, Nina pushes herself beyond the point of a nervous breakdown and into pure madness.

Darren Aronofsky directs with such skill and intensity that the audience is tightly dragged along, almost bounced between reality and dream state, to the point that one doesn’t know where the former ends and the latter begins anymore.  Through great editing and cinematography, and a few well placed visual effects, the film ends up looking both highly polished and jaggedly raw.  Aronofsky has clearly established himself as a masterful auteur.

In the leading part, Natalie Portman gives a performance so intense, refined, and unyielding she deserves all the accolades and awards she has already received and the Oscar she’ll likely take home in about a month.  In Black Swan, for which Portman learned to dance ballet, this young actress gives her best performance to date, one she might never be able to top or match and one countless young actresses surely watch with envy.

Speaking of the upcoming Academy Awards, while I’ve been rooting for Annette Bening’s incredible portrayal of a betrayed adoptive parent in The Kids Are All Right since last summer, I must admit that I now hope Portman will win a very deserved Oscar.

Portman is also flanked by an intriguing Mila Kunis, a creepy Barbara Hershey, and an abrasive Vincent Cassel, all of whom offer great supporting performances.

Don’t miss this cinematic gem.  The best movie of 2011 so far.

Grade: 9

Frost/Nixon

Frost/Nixon, a 2009 Best Picture nominee, from director Ron Howard is a well written, intriguing game of cat and mouse that’s a must see for any movie lover.

The plot, based on a true story: US President Richard Nixon has resigned his office in shame after his involvement in illegal wiretapping activities has come to light.  British showman David Frost, while famous in the UK and Australia, has never been able to break into the US market and sees the opportunity to interview Nixon as his big chance.  Frost’s goal is to get Nixon to admit wrongdoing, even though the media establishment sees him as a lightweight and a long shot.  Nixon’s is to rehabilitate his name and his moribund political career.  Their battle of wills was watched by millions worldwide.

Naturally, in a film such as this, the performances and the screenplay are what make or break the final product, and here they’re all top notch.  The entire cast does an excellent job, but it’s Michael Sheen as Frost and, above all, Frank Langella as Nixon in what is likely his best work ever, who deliver incredible portrayals.

Definitely a must see.

Grade: 8

HIR

Watch this powerful performance:

HIR

Zack and Miri Make a Porno

I had heard very good reviews about Zack and Miri Make a Porno, so I decided to check it out.  I’m happy to report that the reviews were well deserved.  This comedy is funny, unconventional, original, and even heartwarming.  How often do you get to see one like that?

The plot: Zack and Miri are high school friends who share a house, car and pretty much anything else in order to make do.  When their economic situation worsens, they decide to make a porn movie to sell on the internet in order to make some cash.  Needless to say, things don’t turn out exactly as they expected...

As I said earlier, Kevin Smith’s script is well written and I tend to like him in the director’s chair.  Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks give good performances and the supporting cast is good as well.

A very nice comedy.

Grade: 7

Stand By Me

Stand By Me is a very enjoyable movie based on a good short story by Stephen King titled The Body, which, for once, was adapted quite well.

The plot follows four young kids who embark on a foot-trip to find the maimed body of a boy their age who’s believed to be dead after suddenly disappearing.  The trip will turn out to be more challenging than they had expected, both physically and mentally.

This is a heartwarming story about friendship and what it takes to stand by each other when it’s not the easy or simple thing to do.  The plot is peppered with tales and adventures that will keep the audience glued to the screen to the very end.

The four young actors, Wil Wheaton, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell, and the late River Phoenix are all very good, while Kiefer Sutherland plays the bad guy with the same tough attitude and scorned grin he showed on several seasons of 24.

A very good movie that should please all viewers but don’t be fooled by the young cast.  This is not something you want to watch with your little ones.

Grade: 7

Gothika

Gothika is one of the first movies Halle Berry starred in after winning the Best Actress Oscar for Monster’s Ball, which brought her much criticism, as it was deemed unworthy of an Oscar winner.

As supernatural thrillers go, Gothika is watchable but flawed, mostly because some parts are utterly predictable.

The plot: Berry is a prison psychologist who suddenly ends up on the other side of the divisor for allegedly committing a heinous crime of which she seems to have no memory.

Berry does a decent job, flanked by Robert Downey Jr., Charles S. Dutton, John Carroll Lynch, Penélope Cruz, and the great Bernard Hill.  As I mentioned, the screenplay is neither good nor bad, but it does manage to generate a few scares.

I’d only recommend this to fans of the genre.

Grade: 5

Funny animals

This videos is too funny:

Sign of the times

How else could I classify Entertainment Weekly’s current cover?

Images like these on a mainstream magazine can’t but help improve the self esteem (and hope) of any gay teen out there.

The 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards

The Globes were handed out a week ago today but I have so little respect for them that I didn’t even bother rushing a post in until I found the time to write it.

The big winner of the night was certainly The Social Network, which won 4 out of the 6 categories it was nominated for, including Best Motion Picture - Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Original Score.  All the prizes were fully deserved and allow The Social Network to maintain its front runner status heading into the Academy Awards’ final weeks of voting.

On the opposite end, the big loser was The King’s Speech, which had the most nominations (7), but took home only one trophy, for Best Motion Picture Actor – Drama for Colin Firth, who is also widely considered the Oscar shoo-in for Best Actor.

Best Motion Picture Actress, went to Natalie Portman, who is neck and neck in the Oscar race with Annette Bening, who won the Globe for Best Motion Picture Actress – Musical or Comedy for The Kids Are All Right, leaving the balance unchanged.  Bening, an early favorite to finally win her first Oscar this year, saw her chances diminish considerably with the release of Portman’s Black Swan.  In fact, Portman is now considered the leading contender for the Best Actress Oscar.

It looks like it’s Bening’s fate to once again watch from the sidelines while a younger actress wins the most prestigious acting award when she has a very good chance of winning.

The Kids Are All Right also won Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, a rather easy feat considering that 3 of the nominated movies (RED, The Tourist, and Burlesque) should have never been considered in the first place.  The very fact that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association considered them worthy of top honors shows how little they understand (or care about) excellency.

Toy Story 3, predictably and justifiably, won for Best Animated Film, while The Fighter, an unlikely Oscar contender at first, took home the Globes for Best Motion Picture Supporting Actor and Actress for Christian Bale and Melissa Leo respectively.  The only real surprise of the night in the Motion Picture categories was Paul Giamatti’s win for Best Motion Picture Actor – Musical or Comedy for the widely unknown Barney’s Version, since even Burlesque’s win for Best Original Song for one of the two songs it was nominated for wasn’t a shock.

In the television categories the trophies were spread more evenly and there were more surprises.  Boardwalk Empire took Best Series and Best Actor (for Steve Buscemi) – Drama, while Glee took Best Series – Musical or Comedy, Supporting Actor (for Chris Colfer) and Supporting Actress (for Jane Lynch).

HBO had 3 nominees (The Pacific, Temple Grandin, and You Don’t Know Jack) in the Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television category, but likely fell victim of vote splitting, and Carlos prevailed.  Fortunately, Al Pacino and Claire Danes prevailed in the acting categories counterparts.

Showtime was rewarded with Laura Linney’s win for Best Actress – Musical or Comedy for The Big C, while FX won likely the biggest upset of the night with Katey Sagal’s win for Best Actress – Drama for Sons of Anarchy, followed in second place by Jim Parson’s for Best Actor – Musical or Comedy for The Big Bang Theory.

Overall there were few surprises, especially in the Film categories, and the show moved along very quickly -- too quickly at times, especially when the TV winners were trying to give their speeches and were quickly shooed out.

For me the biggest surprise of the night was how sharp Ricky Gervais’ jabs were, especially those directed at people who were either in the audience or about to walk on stage to introduce an award.  Never has an award’s show host been more caustic towards Hollywood royalty, and his second run at the helm of the Globes might turn out to be his last, unless the HFPA decides the ratings are worth the criticism.  But if they opted to invite Gervais back as host next year, they might witness an exodus of celebrities who decide to stay home rather than face the public humiliation.

Now let’s forget these fluffy non-awards and move on to more serious ones.  After all, the Oscars nominations will be announced in just 2 days.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

This much reviled retelling of the original 1951 version wasn’t as bad as I had feared, perhaps precisely because I wasn’t expecting anything more than what I got.

At any rate, The Day the Earth Stood Still is fairly well written and reasonably well acted, even though both Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly never seem to emote too much to me (I still can’t fathom that Connelly has won an Oscar – especially that year - while, say, Annette Bening still hasn’t).  Thankfully, Kathy Bates and John Cleese do an excellent job in their very limited supporting roles.

The plot: alien spheres land in Manhattan and other parts of the world, triggering guarded reactions from humanity that slowly turn violent.  While trying to figure out what the aliens want from Reeves, their representative, Connelly discovers an ugly truth.

The movie doesn’t lack effective action sequences and the visual effects are top notch, so I would recommend it if you’re into sci-fi, especially if you haven’t seen the original and therefore cannot make any comparisons.

Grade: 6

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

A funny and fairly original animated movie that actually surprised me with a well written and at times quite witty screenplay.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs tells the story of a would-be inventor who finally creates something useful only to see it abused by those in power for their own financial gain.

I remember watching the trailer for this movie in the theater in 3D and thinking that with this movie the gimmick might actually make sense, but watching it at home on a regular screen made me realize that 2D is perfectly fine and consolidated further my opinion that we don’t really need movies in 3D (especially the extra cost, thank you very much).

Sure it can occasionally be fun to watch and, when done right, it can be pretty cool, but it’s not a requirement for me for sure.  In fact, I’m starting to believe that more often than not it would only cause the audience to be slightly jolted out of the story because a cool something seemed to pop out of the screen.  I’d rather stay in the flow and forgo the 3D.

Grade: 7

Caprica

This Syfy show ended last week with a mini-marathon of its final five episodes.  Seems like the network decided to quickly dump the last episodes it still had in the can not to upset the fans, but the series was doomed.  In fact, while there had even been talk of Caprica getting picked up for a second season, that turned out not to be the case.

I had previously posted about this show and re-reading what I wrote, I agree with every point I had made, although it’s now clear why the season finale felt lackluster: it wasn’t a season finale after all.

In fact, Syfy aired this show in the most bizarre fashion.  It first released the 2 hour pilot on DVD in April 2009.  Then in the fall of 09 it released it free on the Internet.  It finally aired it in January 2010 when the series officially began.  From that point on it played almost continuously until July 2010 when it went off the air with what I thought was the season 1 finale, scheduled to return in January 2011.

However, in October 2010, Syfy began airing what I thought was season 2 but turned out to be 11 unaired episodes of season 1.  This was supposed to continue till the season 1 finale, at which point Caprica would have gone on break until season 2 was to premiere, sometime in fall 2011 or spring 2012.  At this time, the buzz also began about a second Battlestar Galactica spin off (Blood & Chrome) that would have joined Caprica on the air.

Suddenly, after only 6 episodes, in November 2010 Syfy stopped airing Caprica until last week’s 5 episode marathon and the news that the series would not come back.  Does your head spin yet?

Apparently Caprica’s audience, unimpressive to begin with, kept shrinking, but isn’t the crazy schedule Syfy adopted partly to blame?  I would most certainly make that argument.

Am I disappointed that the show is over?  Yes and no.  Caprica was never particularly exciting, but it was getting better towards the end.  In fact, the last 5 episodes showed quite a bit of promise, so I’m disappointed that it wasn’t given the chance to grow.  At the same time, despite the curiosity about how the Cylons came to be and what determined some of the main themes of the phenomenal Battlestar Galactica (like the one vs. many gods), Caprica was never fully engrossing and suffered from a certain level of disjointedness.

As I wrote in my previous post, the acting was very good, the scripts fairly well developed, the directing good, and the visual effects great.  Ultimately, I guess it just never had that magical ingredient that makes a show a fan favorite, and Syfy’s on-again, off-again scheduling only made matters worse.

Grade: 7

The Wire

This HBO show garnered the best reviews ever for the premium cable channel and I’d argue that it likely stands as the best rated TV show in the history of television, at least according to critics, since unfortunately its audience wasn’t as wide as that of other contemporary HBO shows like The Sopranos and Sex and the City.

The Wire is probably the show that presented to the audience the reality of police work, the drug trade, organized crime, politics, the school system, journalism, and more with the least amount of embellishment and the closest adherence to reality I’ve ever seen.

The scripts and direction are consistently top notch, and the acting simply blows you away.  The entire cast is just amazing, but I have to mention Dominic West (Jimmy), Wendell Pierce (Bunk), Sonja Sohn (Kima), Clarke Peters (Lester), Andre Royo (Bubbles), Michael K. Williams (Omar Little), Wood Harris (Avon), and Idris Elba (Stringer) for their excellent portrayals.

The production values are, again, phenomenal, including art direction, cinematography, makeup, and score.

Ray and I had tried to watch this show when it originally aired but had to give it up because of the difficulty of understanding the dialogues.  I was finally able to watch it on DVD thanks to the subtitles feature.  I’m just mentioning this to tell you not to be discouraged if at first it’s hard to get into it.  Trust me, it’s worth the effort.

Hands down one of the best shows I’ve ever watched on TV.  Once again, HBO proves it’s THE destination if you’re looking for the highest quality around.

Grade for the whole series: 10

Technology’s ugly side

Can you imagine if you had to give up wireless communication and data transmission?  Would it be worth your health to do so?

Read on and pass it along to friends and family:

Research in the Netherlands suggested that outbreaks of bleeding bark and dying leaves which have blighted the country’s urban trees may be caused by radiation from the Wi-Fi ­networks now so integral to life in offices, schools and homes.

As a qualified electronics engineer, I am not surprised by such findings. I have long been concerned about the harmful effects of the ­electro-magnetic radiation emitted not only by Wi-Fi devices but many other common modern gadgets, including mobile and cordless phones, wireless games consoles and microwave ovens.

EMFS have also been shown to affect the brain, suppressing production of melatonin, the hormone controlling whether we feel happy or sad. In 2004, researchers at the University of Malaga found that significant exposure to EMFs increases the chances of developing depression 40-fold.

They also linked electrosmog to headaches, irritability, unusual tiredness and sleeping disorders.

This year saw the publication of the Interphone study carried out in 13 countries including the UK, and examining the links between mobile phone use and brain tumours. It suggested that those who had made heavy use of mobiles for a decade or more faced twice the risk of glioma, the most common type of brain tumour.

And this was a study based on the period between 1994 and 2004 when ‘heavy’ usage was defined as two to three hours per month. A conservative estimate of average mobile phone use now is approximately half an hour a day, seven days a week.

Since brain tumours often develop very slowly it may be many years before the full impact of our reliance on mobiles becomes clear. But they are already implicated in another area of concern to health professionals, the onset of dementia in those under 65.

Experts are at a loss to explain the increase in this condition which has seen a surge in demand for pre-senile dementia units across the country. But can we really be surprised when a study at the Institute of Environmental Medicine in Sweden confirmed this month that exposure to EMFs significantly accelerates brain degeneration?

But there are small steps which we can all take. We should all try to use hands-free sets. And women should stop carrying mobiles in their bras (breast tissue being particularly susceptible to mobile phone microwaves), a trend which is becoming alarmingly fashionable.

We should also avoid cordless phones. Their base stations transmit 100 pulses a second, 24/7, even if you’re not using the phone, and at power levels equivalent to having a small mobile phone mast in your home.

A scary article posted by an expert who’s worried by what we’re unknowingly doing to ourselves.

I’m not excessively worried because I use my cell phone very little, but I’m constantly surrounded by wi-fi, both at work and at home.

I guess in today’s society one can really only hope for the best...

A history lesson, condensed

I love this video because it gives you so much information, in a very short amount of time, and in such a pleasingly graphical way:

200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes

What if country size = country population?

That’s what the following map tries to imagine:

From the related article:

What if the world were rearranged so that the inhabitants of the country with the largest population would move to the country with the largest area? And the second-largest population would migrate to the second-largest country, and so on?

The result would be this disconcerting, disorienting map. In the world described by it, the differences in population density between countries would be less extreme than they are today.

The global population realignment would involve massive migrations, lead to a heap of painful demotions and triumphant promotions, and produce a few very weird new neighbourhoods.

Interestingly, the United States stay put, as do Brazil, Yemen and Ireland.  Every other country moves around.

Italy ends up in the bottom half of Africa!!

In Memoriam

Pete Postlethwaite (1946 – 2011)

A great character actor who excelled at playing the bad guy, like in last year’s The Town, he brought his talent to many other famous movies, like Inception, The Constant Gardner, Amistad, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Brassed Off, Romeo + Juliet, Dragonheart, The Usual Suspects, In the Name of the Father, The Last of the Mohicans, and Alien³.

The Beauty of Pixar

Just saw this fan tribute to all of the wonderful Pixar creations and I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate my designation of their Toy Story 3 as the best movie of 2010.

Enjoy:

The Beauty of Pixar

2010, the year that was

The beginning of a new year means it’s time for another year-end review post.  2010 was not a particularly happy year, even though there were some bright spots.

The low was definitely losing my dear cousin Elena to cancer.  She was my age and very dear to me, and unfortunately there was nothing that could be done to save her.  She left behind a husband and two young daughters that will surely miss her endlessly.

Pretty much the same thing happened to the husband of a friend of my best friend Vittorio, which only compounded the year’s sadness.

My work visa was renewed for three more years, which is a good thing, but my job kept getting worse.  I feel more and more isolated and less and less appreciated and I don’t have a choice but to stick around, since in this economy finding another job would be unthinkable.

On the political front, President Barack Obama, who had given us all so much hope, caused us gays a lot of heartaches and headaches with his continual refusals to forcefully step up to our defenses and instead keep raising stumbling blocks that only slowed our progress down.  Now that the Democrats have lost the House and saw their supermajority in the Senate shrink, even less will be accomplished in general, and specifically on the gay rights front.  Thankfully, just when all hope seemed vanished, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was finally repealed, which was a victory so huge we haven’t yet seen all of its benefits.

On the environmental front, in 2010 the greenhouse effect got worse, but countless idiots still deny its very existence.  We also witnessed the biggest man-made natural disaster in history with the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, whose ill effects will be felt by both humans and animals for decades to come.

Fortunately there were some highs as well.  Ray kept being very successful at his job(s), finally allowing us to actually afford some improvements on the house.  We added a playroom downstairs for the kids, by finishing half the basement, and a patio with a marvelous gazebo outside for us.  I can’t wait for the spring to finally start using them...

The kids are doing all right, although we’re still dealing with a series of behavioral issues with our son Daniel.  The dogs on the other hand, are getting old.  Diablo is still in excellent shape for her age, but we can tell that she’s slowing down and sometimes has a lot of trouble getting around.  Mina is still her usual hyper self, but her separation anxiety has gotten much worse, so much so that she’s now heavily medicated.

Finally, the high of the year was my road trip with my best friend Vittorio, which took us to my number one destination ever: the Grand Canyon National Park.  It is breathtakingly beautiful.  Words simply cannot describe its vastness, greatness or beauty.  It really is a wonder, a marvel to behold.

We also saw the Vermillion Cliffs, Hoover Dam, Route 66, Lake Powell, Marble Canyon, Glen Canyon Horseshoe Band and the marvelous Monument Valley, just to name a few.  We concluded the trip in Las Vegas, which turned out to be more attractive than I expected it to be.

All things considered, this was my favorite road trip to date, and I feel incredibly lucky to have seen such unbelievable wonders as only nature can create.

To conclude, the movies.  2010 was a very prolific year.  Between my few trips to the theater and a bunch of rentals (from Netflix and the cable premium channels) I saw 75 movies last year.  Here’s the recap:

10
March of the Penguins
The Kids Are All Right
Toy Story 3

9
Avatar
Earth
Food, Inc.
Inception
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Temple Grandin
The Social Network

8
(500) Days of Summer
127 Hours
A Serious Man
Coraline
Despicable Me
District 9
Inglourious Basterds
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
Mamma Mia!
Pan's Labyrinth
Saturno Contro
Sherlock Holmes
Shutter Island
Sunshine
The Hangover
The Hurt Locker
The Informant!
The Road
The Town
Up In The Air
Wanted
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Zombieland

7
28 Weeks Later
Alice in Wonderland
An Education
Bee Movie
Crazy Heart
Easy A
I Love You, Man
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Pandorum
Paranormal Activity
RED
Surf's Up
The Blind Side
The Crazies
The Orphanage
The Polar Express
The Princess and the Frog
Treasure Planet
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Wedding Crashers
Yossi and Jagger

6
Cat's Eye
Free Willy
Heavenly Creatures
It's Complicated
Quantum of Solace
Resident Evil
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas
Splice
The Invasion
The Lovely Bones

5
2012
Altered
Lions for Lambs
New Nightmare
Shrek the Third
The Book of Eli

4
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Space Chimps
Twilight

2
Diary of the Dead

As is to be expected, there were some clunkers, but overall I saw a lot of very good movies, and if I had to come up with my list of 10 Best Picture nominations (following the new rules of the Academy Awards...) they would be:

Avatar
District 9
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
March of the Penguins
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Temple Grandin
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
Up in the Air

And my Best Picture of 2010 was:

Toy Story 3

An unconventional choice that will no doubt be different from whatever the Academy ends up crowning, but a necessary choice for the overall achievement of this animated movie.

How often does the third chapter in a series improve upon both its predecessors?  How often do animated characters move an audience to tears and laughter as heartfelt as those solicited by this cinematic gem?  How often does a screenplay bring an audience back in time to a period we all lived through -- the loss of innocence, the moving on from our childhood interests?

For all its glorious perfection, Toy Story 3 was the best movie I saw in 2010.

Now on to 2011, since I already have 3 movies to blog about...

Sydney’s fireworks

I love fireworks and last Friday’s in Sydney, celebrating the beginning of a new year, were spectacular:

Sydney, Australia, New Year’s Eve 2010

They sure know how to salute the new year in Australia!!

I’d love to see them someday.

The Princess and the Frog

When I first saw this book, I immediately purchased it for my daughter because it is extremely rare to find Disney-style princess stories that feature a black princess (Tiana).  Subsequently, I was extremely pleased to see that the famed studio had also produced a movie, even though we weren’t able to catch it in a theater.

Unfortunately, while the story is fairly entertaining and it has a rather original take on the princess-kissed-frog-turns-into-a-prince, the movie is ultimately underwhelming and far from memorable.

I won’t say anything about the plot to avoid spoiling that original take I just mentioned, but overall this movie follows the Disney’s blueprint to a t.  There’s a princess and a bad guy, there are talking animals and there’s singing, and there’s a happy ending.

Overall, a rather nice movie for kids, but the adult public shouldn’t expect too much.  I do hope that Disney will create more adventures for Tiana though, as more cultural and racial diversity is sorely lacking in their canon.

Grade: 7

The Informant!

Steven Soderbergh’s latest big screen project is a dark comedy based on the real story of a delusional buffoon who tried to stop unlawful practices at his company by becoming an informant for the FBI all the while setting up traps and smokescreens for everyone around him, himself included.

Matt Damon, in an Golden Globes nominated performance, plays Mark Whitacre with such skill, he perfectly maintains the balance between reality and fantasy, coming across as fully believable and, almost always, sane.

The screenplay is fairly lightweight but entertaining, Marvin Hamlisch’s soundtrack is engaging and the cinematography, this being a Soderbergh’s movie, heavily tinted and quite colorful (just look at that poster...).

An enjoyable comedy, an interesting script, and a great performance make this a good film.

Grade: 8

Zombieland

Zombieland is the rare movie that tackles the horror genre with a comedic slant, but it’s even rarer in that it actually succeeds quite well in its effort to make you laugh in spite of the scariness of what you see on the screen.

Obviously, we have to thank the screenwriters for a well written and original script that maintains the balance between funny and stupid while giving us four characters with whom we can all identify.

Jesse Eisenberg (recently shining in The Social Network and a likely Best Actor Oscar nominee for it) is the lone geek trying to reach his parents by strictly following a set of self-created rules.  Woody Harrelson is the tough guy bent on terminating as many zombies as possible while trying to find some of his favorite junk food.  Emma Stone (who recently headlined the very funny Easy A) plays the protective big sister to Abigail Breslin (Best Supporting Actress nominee for Little Miss Sunshine), who just wants to go have some fun at an amusement park.

From that incipit, one wouldn’t think the end result would be very funny, but it actually is pretty good.

Grade: 8

Temple Grandin

This being an HBO original production I had high expectations, but I certainly didn’t anticipate this movie would be as good as it is.

Temple Grandin was an autistic child who had the good fortune of having a mother who never gave up on her and strived to ensure that her daughter got a chance to live as normal a life as possible.

In fact, Temple Grandin tells the story of not just one amazing woman’s journey through life (everything that comes natural to us was a struggle to learn for Temple, and yet, she graduated from college, earned a Master’s degree and went on to work on a PhD), but of her mother Eustacia as well, a terrific Julia Ormond in some of her best work ever.

As Temple Grandin, Claire Danes is simply spectacular and at the top of her game.  Both Danes and Ormond (as well as David Strathairn) deservedly won an Emmy for their incredibly good work in Temple Grandin.

Perhaps because I’m a parent myself, I felt an incredible connection with Ormond’s character as she strived to raise her daughter and always seemed to come up against a wall, only to realize, in the end, that all her lessons had been absorbed, retained, and utilized by her daughter.  It gave me hope that my struggles to single-handedly teach Italian to my kids will ultimately pay off as well.

I freely admit that I occasionally will get very emotional watching a movie, but rarely have I cried so much as I have at the end of such an uplifting and satisfying movie as Temple Grandin.

Grade: 9

Pan's Labyrinth

A sweet and magical tale from visionary director Guillermo del Toro, Pan’s Labyrinth tells the story of a little girl in mid 20th century Spain who loves to read  and lose herself in a world of make-belief.

Her adventures bring her to meet fantastical beings that are sometimes friends and sometimes foe, the latter no less terrifying than some of the real world people she interacts with.

Del Toro wrote the screenplay with a very light touch, creating full fledged fantasy characters that are simply marvelous.  Terrific are the makeup, art direction, cinematography (all 3 Oscar winners), and visual effects as well.

Little Ivana Baquero is simply precious in the role of Ofelia, the little girl who gets to live a big adventure.  Finally, Javier Navarrete created one of the most enduring, overwhelmingly beautiful, and strikingly elegiac soundtracks I’ve ever heard.  The main theme is simply timeless.

A great fantasy movie that’s not for the little ones, but that will let the adult public dream like little kids again.

Grade: 8

28 Weeks Later

The follow up to Danny Boyle’s captivating 2002 horror movie 28 Days Later..., 28 Weeks Later picks up the story of a United Kingdom ravaged by a very dangerous virus at a point when the epidemic is thought to be over and the situation under control.

A section of London is set up by the military to begin repopulating the nation, but not everything goes as planned.

As sequels go, this one is actually quite successful.  The premise is solid and the screenplay, while at times uneven, fairly good.  Fundamental for this genre, the suspense is tight throughout and the very good makeup and visual effects help in no small way.

The acting is good as well, thanks primarily to Robert Carlyle and Jeremy Renner, although you do find yourself questioning a few choices made by the characters, but, like I said, the screenplay is not leak-proof.

Overall, a good horror movie.

Grade: 7

127 Hours

Only two years after winning a Best Picture (and Director) Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle will likely be in the running again with his latest movie, 127 Hours, although this time neither is favorite to win.

As is well known, 127 Hours tells the story of mountain climber Aron Ralston, who famously ended up with an arm trapped under a boulder in a remote canyon.  Aware that no one knew where he was and facing sure death, he found the strength to self-amputate the trapped arm in order to save his own life.

The handsome James Franco plays Aron in such a free rolling, spirited way that he is a sure bet for a Best Actor nomination as well.  He likely won’t win, as this year’s favorite is Colin Firth, but he definitely would deserve the honor if only for the fact that he carries the entire movie on his shoulders strikingly well.

127 Hours is a movie that, on paper, should never work, since there is supposedly no action as the protagonist is stuck in between two rock walls and can’t go anywhere.  However, in the capable hands of Danny Boyle and James Franco, it turns out to be engaging, engrossing, and uplifting.

As a side note, since there has been a lot of talk about the gruesomeness of the scene in which Franco cuts off his arm, I have to say that while fairly graphic, it’s not gratuitously gory like what you might see in any of today’s average horror movie.

Grade: 8