MovieGeek is Back!

Dear friends,  neighbours, strangers, lovers and haters,

many of you may have been wondering “what the hell has happened to Moviegeek?”, “Has he decided he hates writing for this blog!?!”, “Has he had enough with movies?”, “Did he fall asleep during a screening of  The Tree Of Life and never woke up again?”.

Well, the truth is much simple.

Yes, you’re right: I haven’t been updating these pages for quite a while (The last entry goes back to a year and a half ago). Those who are lucky (or unlucky) enough to have an insight into my life, know the real reason: I now have a son!

For many people this simple sentence is probably enough to understand everything.

And yet, despite the sleepless nights, the countless nappy-changes and all the rest that comes with having a new baby (don’t take me wrong: it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me! And yes, before you ask, even better than watching E.T. in the cinema for the first time), I still manage to find some time to catch up with the latest releases and I’m pretty much up-to-date with everything out at the moment.

I just haven’t had any time all to write about a whole year of cinema releases. And it’s a shame because I really wanted to tell you how blown aways I was by Gravity, how delightful I found Saving Mr. Banks, how much I laughed during The Wolf of Wall Street and how I didn’t care it was so long. And then how I thought The Kings of Summer was a little gem that people should really try to seek, how pleased I was to re-discover Woody Allen with his Blue Jasminehow I found Prisoners absolutely terrifying, how I thought Matthew McConaughey‘s turn in Dallas Buyers Club was truly Oscar worthy (… and guess what? he actually won one!), how scarred I was by The Act of Killing and I thought they should have given Tom Hanks a special Oscar just for that last moment in Captain Phillips, possibly the best acting he’s ever done, and finally how I cried and cried and cried from beginning to end during Like Father, Like Sona film which I will find some time to talk about in more depth within the next few days, but that for I’ll just say: I loved!

You’ll be able to find a quick list of some of my favourite films of last year (2013) here.

A real moviegeek or a tired old cynic?

Some of you have pointed out that in the last few months it seems like I was disappointed by most of the stuff I saw in the cinema.

This came just at the time when I was about to choose which film to review next, of the ones I’ve seen in the last couple of days: “The Roommate” (A thriller, which is usually a genre I love), “the extraordinary adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec” (By Luc Besson who made La Femme Nikita and leon, 2 of my favourites ever!), or “Hachi” (By the director of one of the film I love the most, What’s eating Gilbert Grape)… And you know what?! I really didn’t like any of them!

It made me think: when did I become such a cynic?

It is so unlike me… I’ve always been the positive one, the smiley person who tries to look for bright side…

I love going to the movies and there’s nothing I cherish more than loosing myself in a good flick.

Whenever I go and watch something, I’m always hoping this might be the one that makes me go back to being a kid, or makes me cry or laugh with tears in my eyes, or forget about my deadlines at work and my worries at home…

The fact that I have not liked a lot films recently is probably indicative of the way cinema is today. Most of these films are just products”: they are made by a committee of advertisers, or people who need to balance their books at the end of the year.

There are very few mavericks, or real storytellers out there… Most of them prefer to play it safe and give us what their recent surveys told them they should give us.

Or is it me who is just getting pickier and pickier? Why do I seem to be the only one who thought “The King’s Speech” was a pretty average film crowd pleaser?

Why didn’t I like Scream 4, when in fact it did exactly what the “tin” said?

Should I have got lost in the colours of “Rio”, forgetting about the fact that the story line was so damn predictable?

Why wasn’t I swept away by the quirkiness of “Rubber“?

Why was I so cold in front of that tragedy that was “Rabbit hole“?

Why couldn’t I just laugh watching “The Dilemma” while everybody else was in tears around me in the theatre?

Why couldn’t I just go with “The Adjustment Bureau“, instead of looking for all the plot holes?

Why wasn’t I enchanted by Submarine?

And why am I more terrorized than excited by the idea of the forthcoming Tintin movie by Spielberg (a director I love making a film about my ultimate childhood hero?) … Why am I so afraid I’ll be disappointed?

Am I growing old and just tired of movies or are there just fewer and fewer fresh good things our there?

2010 Stats on MovieGeekBlog

This Blog has only been around for 3 months but it seems like it got off with a good start. The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ from WordPress seems to be veering towards the “wow”, whatever that means.

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: part 1 – Review November 2010


2

Tron: Legacy – Review December 2010


3

True Grit – Review December 2010


4

Black Swan – Review October 2010


5

The Fighter – Review December 2010


I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all for helping this blog being a success.

What is the moviegeekblog and why?

If you’ve stumbled across this page it’s probably because you are, like me, a movie lover… (or maybe you’ve simply made a mistake and you were searching for something completely different.  :P)

You might be thinking “There are so many movie blogs and movie-related websites out there, why do I need another one? Well, good point.

The truth is: you probably don’t.

However if you want to read reviews of the latest movies which are about to come out, or even simply just comment on what you’ve seen recently, give this blog a chance.