Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Directed by David Yates
Written by Steve Kloves, based on J.K. Rowling's novel
Cast Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton, Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, Jim Broadbent, Bonnie Wright, Helena Bonham Carter
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0417741/



Reviewed by Paivi
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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth installation of the Potter -series is a story of Harry's (Daniel Radcliffe) sixth Hogwarts wizard school year. The evil lord Voldemort has gained more and more strength and his impact has reached even the muggle world - bridges are collapsing and people are dying because of the work done by his Death Eaters. This affects also the wizarding school and the school is covered by extra protective spells to prevent the evil from coming inside the school grounds. However, even the best is not always enough, the evil has its ways, and this leads to events that make Harry once again lose someone important to him.

Voldemort and his Death Eaters are not the only pain the students in Hogwarts face. They are growing up and it is no less than sex that causes them trouble and heartache.

Hogwarts school gets a new Potions teacher, professor Slughorn (Jim Broadbent) and former Potions master, professor Snape (Alan Rickman) gets to teach the Defence against the Dark Arts (it's a pity all of the actual classes have been cut of the movie). Slughorn is not asked to Hogwarts by professor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) without a reason, but he holds a secret Harry must find out, as this secret may help in destroying lord Voldemort.

Finally - professor Dumbledore takes Harry along with him in the action. The headmaster gives Harry a lot of new information on Voldemort and together they continue discovering the Evil Lords secrets in their attempt of destroying him once and for all.


Half-Blood Prince continues the Potter-saga in a very similar fashion as the couple of previous movies have done - it leaves most of the book's complex plotlines out. This is good in a way that it is impossible to squeeze everything from those enormous novels into a bit over 2-hour-movie. But even though something has been gained, something is also lost in this process, and Half-Blood Prince feels a bit hollow, as if it was made without a heart totally involved. The biggest flaw is probably the fact that even though the name of the movie is Half-Blood Prince, the mystery around the Prince is totally left out and the discovery of the Prince in the final scene seems almost corny.

The pains and sorrows of growing up are very prominent in the movie, so much it made me ask were they really that important? That so many scenes were included in the movie in the expense of the actual Harry-Voldemort -story? I would have preferred a deeper digging into the storyline that really matters, and leave the love life of the young ones less visible - after all it is not that much visible in the original story either.

The main trio of the saga have really grown up, but they still fit into their roles as before. Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) has grown up to be a total stunner and Rupert Grint's (Ron Weasley) talent as a comedian has strengthened on. Radcliffe has always had a bit stiff style of acting, and he continues the same way. Tom Felton (Harry's arch enemy Draco Malfoy) however looks perfectly like his father's son in his suit. Rickman as Snape and Gambon as Dumbledore are brilliant as always. It is wonderful to see these classic actors work so well in a movie targeted to young audiences.

Half-Blood Prince offers the fans of the saga a nice and working piece of magic and action, but don't expect to see a masterpiece.

Hannah Montana: the Movie (2009)

Hannah Montana is a Disney -phenomenon that has a great deal of appeal on especially young girls. Understandable: Hannah is a superstar every girl would love to be because at the same time she is a superstar, she is just a normal girl with normal teenage problems.

Hannah Montana: The Movie is the story of a girl who is living a secret double-life. During the days she (Miley Cyrus) is a normal school girl Miley Stewart, who has a best friend Lilly (Emily Osment) and who lives with her father Robby Ray (Miley's real life dad Billy Ray Cyrus) and brother Jackson (Jason Earles). But every once in a while she transforms into a brilliant, young pop star called Hannah Montana and draws arenas of young fans. Hannah is a bit like Britney Spears in her early days.

Miley has made a promise to her single father (her mother has died when she was young): she will keep Hannah a secret and won't let the popstar affect her normal life. As soon as the stardom starts interfering with Miley's real life, she will quit.

Easier said than done. Being a superstar is like a drug: once you taste it, you'll keep wanting more and you don't want to give up. So when Hannah starts taking too much of Miley's time, daddy decides that it is time for a break, and takes her (against her will of course) to the countryside, to see her grandmother Ruby (Margo Martindale).

Miley rebels at first, but then realises how much she had missed the peace and quiet of the countryside and riding on her horse. When Travis (Lucas Till) from the neighbour turns in, she notices there are some things in the normal life she can't live without.

The story of Hannah Montana: The Movie with all the glitter and fuss is a bit shallow for a grown up, but I'm sure it will have a very different appeal on younger girls. After all, with all the superstar stuff, Miley is a normal girl and with all her rebellion she is still unconditionally loved and supported by her father. In real life that might not be the case.

The movie involves all the features a young, shy girl just about to grow up would love (I was once like that and when I think of myself at 12 years old, I'm sure I would have loved a story like this): popstardom, horses on the countryside, a cute boy from the neighbour and the loving and caring adult who is always there and understands the young.

Besides from the shallow story, what bothered me was the overly stupid scenes which try to make Miley/Hannah more adult, more Cosmo-girl, more funny - when she's fighting with Tyra Banks over a pair of shoes for example. The best parts are the ones with some deeper thought in them - when Miley is having a discussion with her father in the end is beautiful.



Directed by Peter Chelsom
Written by Daniel Berendsen, based on Michael Poryes, Richard Correll and Barry O'Brien's characters
Cast Miley Cyrus, Billy Ray Cyrus, Lucas Till, Jason Earles, Emily Osment
IMDb http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1114677/

Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)

Happy-Go-Lucky is a fresh and humorous movie written and directed by Mike Leigh. It's a movie about a 30-year old school teacher Poppy (Sally Hawkins), who is single, who lives in London and has a lot of friends and very positive and easy-going personality. She's all about happiness and can't really understand miserably behaving, unhappy people.

The story starts when Poppy visits a new bookstore and runs into this quiet bookseller (Elliot Cowan), who doesn't really care to share a word with her. But with her humorous attitude she turns that uncomfortable situation into a laughable matter and is soon out of the door and out of that weird situation. For her disappointment though, she finds out someone has stolen her bike, but hey, being the easy-spirited young lady she is, she doesn't really get too nervous, is just a bit disappointed she didn't have a chance to say goodbye to her bicycle.

The story continues when she gets home, to this nice townhome she shares with her friend for years Zoe (Alexis Zegerman) and starts to talk about the fact that after losing her bike she needs a driver's license. Zoe is okay with that idea as long as Poppy isn't planning to use her car from now on.

It doesn't take too long when Poppy is already taking her first driving lesson from a local driving instructor Scott (Eddie Marsan) who is a bit weird guy, has a pretty bad temper, some serious issues and takes his work as a driving instructor way too seriously. He's favorite saying is: Enraha! Enraha! And that becomes an inside joke between Poppy and her friend Zoe. Enraha! So it's a challenge for both Poppy and Scott, being miles apart with their attitude and personality, sitting in this tiny car for an hour every Saturday, trying to make it work. But for Poppy this doesn't seem to be a big problem and she keeps on coming back every Saturday, even though things are not going too well with Scott or the driving lessons.

The viewer can follow these hilarious driving lessons and the colorful conversations through the entire movie and eventually things go bad between these two, Scott totally loses it and gets violent towards Poppy. This is the final straw for Poppy and she tells him that she doesn't want him to teach her anymore.

Poppy also has some peculiar hobbies. She goes jumping on trampoline's after school and starts taking flamengo lessons with her co-worker. She also likes spending time with her friends and goes to pubs and clubs with them quite often, being a single woman she is. But she's not worried about her situation and doesn't stress about not having a family or a child at her age. She is simply happy like she is, enjoying every moment.

And it's no suprise that also love is about to find her. When she notices that one of her students Nick (Jack MacGeachin) is behaving violently at school, social worker Tim (Samuel Roukin) comes to her help to figure out what is going on with this young man. Poppy realizes that Tim is actually a nice guy and they set up a date. And that thing leads to another... So, you may guess the rest already.

This movie gave me some much needed positive energy. Poppy herself reminded me of a bright yellow balloon that has found it's way to get free from the balloon seller and is flying high in the blue summer sky, so free, so happy and so full of energetic yellow color. Saying this I have to give credit to Sally Hawkins who delivered Poppy's spirit with such an enthusiasm and talent I couldn't but admire her performance. No wonder she won a Golden Globe for her role.

The plot itself wasn't too deep or complicated. It was simple, straight forward and almost diary like. Just going through a period of time in Poppy's life. There were no hidden agendas, no twists and some things were predictable, but that didn't matter too much, since the whole movie was so easy-going and relaxed. And the dialogue in this movie, so bubbly and fascinating!

I think we all need a little bit of Poppy inside us! Darn good movie to watch when you want to lift up your spirits and have a good laugh!



Written by Mike Leigh
Directed by Mike Leigh
Cast Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan, Alexis Zegerman, Samuel Roukin
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1045670/

He's Just Not That Into You (2009) - Movie review

Don't you just sometimes want to relax by watching a movie that is not so deep, but entertaining an funny? Even though you may run into some clichées and "I've seen it before" scenes? Well, I do and won't hesitate to see these so called Chick Flicks every now and then.

He's Just Not That Into You falls into this category. The storyline is bubbly and quite entertaining, and the cast is full of well-known actors and actresses. Names like Ben Affleck, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly and Scarlet Johansson. Not to mention some new names (at least for me) like Justin Long, Ginnifer Goodwin, Kevin Connolly and Bradley Cooper.

In this movie there are several parallel stories of singles or couples who are desperately trying to understand each other and read other peoples behavior. This may sound a bit chaotic, and maybe it is, but the cast keeps the story alive and compelling until the very end.

The story begins with the early childhood of Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin), when she gets the first clue that men are not that easy to read. Years later she is still struggling to find a perfect match and finds herself always waiting by the phone for THE phone call, from a man who is obviously not that interested. But through a failed date with Connor (Kevin Connolly), she meets Alex (Justin Long), who is able to help her to read the signs men give and she is hoping her love life will get a bit better with his help. And everything goes well until she starts to misread Alex and thinks he's falling for her... Or maybe he is?

Gigi's friend Mary (Drew Barrymore) has her own obstacles when it comes to men and feels that she has been dumbed with every possible gadget that our modern technology offers. But she doesn't want to give up and believes she will find her man, eventually. She just has this problem wanting to share all her love-life details with her "perhaps not so straight" co-workers, which is not always the smartest way to do things.

When a man and a woman decide to be just friends, what do you expect happens...? Ben (Bradley Cooper) and Anna (Scarlett Johansson) run into each other at a local grocery store and sparks fly immediately. Ben tries to hold back and explains that he's happily married with his wife Janine (Jennifer Connolly), but Anna won't give up and persuades him into a relationship, which starts first as a friendship, but you know, who can resist Scarlett? I mean... Anna... ;-)

And what if you have been together for years, let's say seven years, and there is no sign of him to be interested in marrying you? Would you start thinking it's against the nature? Well, at least Beth (Jennifer Aniston) feels this way about his long relationship with his beau Neil (Ben Affleck) who seems to be totally against marriage and Beth can't help but think that maybe this is a bad sign. A sign of something much more serious. A sign that says that he will never marry her and even worse; is not that into you...

And of course ladies love to share their thoughts about all the disturbing details of their relationships and point of views from friends are always highly appreciated. Who else can give you help in these matters than another woman, since they know the best. Don't they?

You can expect to see a lot of new turns and little twists, but don't expect this to be too deep or a life changing experience. Entertaining and funny, but an average movie experience, I would say. And one star goes to the cast, absolutely!

Directed by Ken Kwapis

Written by Abby Kohn, Mark Silverstein
Cast Ben Affleck, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, Scarlet Johansson, Justin Long, Ginnifer Goodwin, Kevin Connolly, Bradley Cooper

IMDb http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1001508/