Posts Tagged ‘disney’
Last Updated on Wednesday, 20 March 2013 11:23
Written by andersm
Wednesday, 20 March 2013 08:18
I almost missed the evening’s pre-movie beer, having completely lost track of time. Fortunately, a timely SMS reminded me of the true purpose of Sundays; SMEx.
Anyway, this movie was a masterpiece of giving the audience what they expect; the references to the 1939 The Wizard of Oz were numerous, starting with the opening.
For those who forgot, The Wizard of Oz opened, as any movie of its time, in classic black-and-white. This lasted until Judy Garland, er, I mean Dorothy, arrived in Oz. Then there was a true explosion of over-saturated colours. There was even this brief shot from inside the house (still in black-and-white) looking out to the land of Oz (in colours).
Needless to say, when this movie opened, not only in black-and-white, but in 4:3 aspect ratio, I was thrilled as a little child: I knew my expectations had been anticipated and would be met. And, without revealing too much of the plot, the movie delivered as it had promised. The child-like optimism from the ’39 classic are still here, but with special effects that L. Frank Baum couldn’t have dreamt of.
Everything from scarecrow to the poppy field gets an appearance, but one thing had me surprised, I must admit: I had temporarily forgotten that Disney had recently acquired LucasArts and the Star Wars franchise. I must admit that there was a certain special effect typically associated with StarWars that I had not seen coming in this flick. Not bad, but a bit unexpected.
All in all, it was everything you might expect from the poster, but not more.
Last Updated on Sunday, 9 September 2012 04:28
Written by olegm
Sunday, 9 September 2012 04:28
It’s been over a year since the last SMEx Pixar movie, Cars 2. And while with Cars it was pretty much clear what to expect from the start, Brave was a completely new and different kind of experience. Was it worthy of a Pixar name? We’ll get to that later…
First I want to say a couple of words about the new Pixar short, La Luna, that traditionally was shown right before the main movie. And those words are: “simply brilliant!” It’s a story of a young boy’s first night working with his father and his grandfather on something very special and extraordinary. Stunning animation and clever humor aside, La Luna delivers a strong morale: be original, think for yourself and don’t be afraid to make decisions.
Back to Brave, my answer is Yes, the movie is definitely one of Pixar’s best works: stunning visuals, human-like animations, insane level of details, a destinctive style and some of the funniest Irish accents I’ve ever heard. Everything worty of an Academy award just by itself, but thanks to Disney, Brave’s story is flat and rather uninspiring. The movie evolves at a steady, predictable pace, leaving pretty much nothing up the sleeve to surprise a viewer (well, maybe except the witch’s answering machine – loved that part!) And one last complain goes to Disney’s music department: those songs suck! Please don’t ever, ever use something like that again!
In conclusion, if you’re a fan of Pixar or feel like watching a stunning cartoon – definitely go and check this movie.
Tags: animation, boring, cartoon, disney, pixar, shitty music, stunning | Posted under Reviews | 2 Comments
Last Updated on Saturday, 29 May 2010 05:06
Written by minch
Saturday, 29 May 2010 05:05
SMEx has finally gone International! Thirteen of us took a trip to London to watch Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time at the giant IMAX screen, listed as the biggest screen in the United Kingdom. It was big, and the cinema is designed to get you even closer to the screen. Watching a movie on this screen made Colosseum look like a postage stamp 
Obviously the trip wasn’t just a flight in and out to see the movie (unless you were Dutch), but most people took the time to have an extended break. Most of us met up on Friday afternoon at the hotel and promptly all left for a walk thought Hyde Park since the weather was so nice. It was mid 20s and sunny. We ended up at the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, in which luckily enough for the big kids (Jeremy and myself), you are allowed to walk, so we cooled off in the fountain itself. After some more walking and thinking we weren’t going to find anywhere we ended up at a nice restaurant for dinner and then moved onto a pub later.
Day 2 was the day of the movie. In the morning people we doing various things but we all met up at the London Eye at 12.30pm. Not all of us made it to this meet point due to transport delays though. From here we headed to The Borough Market near London Bridge station, on the advice of Andy, and this market didn’t disappoint. Many different types of food to try for lunch! From here we all took a walk along the Thames to the IMAX cinema. At this point we were only missing two people who were were hoping to meet at the cinema. Due to delays with the London underground Lissy and Tommy didn’t make it to the cinema, and thought they would be stuck with tickets to a movie they couldn’t see, but due to some quick talking, and luck we managed to scalp their two tickets to a nice couple who enjoyed the great seats at the discount group rate! After the movie we headed out to watch some soccer match a couple of people thought was important, but I don’t remember what that was, then on out to a couple more places… day 2 over
The next couple of days was a mixture of shopping, sightseeing and eating. Highlights were: Rodizio Rico, which is an all you can eat Brazilian BBQ restaurant, and wow that was a lot of good food. Maharani which is an Indian restaurant in Soho where the food was just amazing and plentiful. Madame Tussauds, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, London Eye, British Museum, Imperial War Museum, Science Museum, Natural History Museum, Oxford Street shopping, Buckingham Palace where a lucky few even got to see The Queen, and the list goes on and on! All in all it was a great trip with great friends with just fantastic weather. It could not have gone better if we had planned it! I’m looking forward to the next trip already!
Check out some of the pictures here
Tags: Action, disney, International, London, Persia | Posted under News | 2 Comments