"You're right, I've got a lot of problems... But they belong to me." "You think they're yours, but they're not. Everybody that walks in that door becomes part of your problem."

I so hope I could easily explain the plot here.

John is having an affair with his wife's sister. John also promised to house his old friend Graham for couple of days. John's wife isn't very happy about that, but when she meets Graham, she really likes the guy. Later on they realise what's Graham's interest: he films interviews with women, and those interviews are mostly about sex.

Well, to be honest, that doesn't cover it. Not at all, since it's so much deeper. But last time I used two paragraphs to describe only the plot, and I'm not going to do it this time. To be honest, I don't think I could. I wouldn't have the words for it.

I watched the movie because of James Spader. Yup. My dad recognised him in The Blacklist and mentioned this movie. And I thought, what the hell, I could watch it. And I did. And it was great. It wasn't exactly what I expected. I expected it would be more about the videotapes, but it wasn't. I don't know which one I would've preferred. It probably was better this way. Because now the focus was on the characters - John, his wife Ann, Ann's sister Cynthia and Graham. We could get to know the characters, and we didn't have to focus too much on the tapes. Because they showed one tape that was made of someone who wasn't an actual character. So the tape things we saw were important because of the women in them. I don't really know how to put my thoughts into words here.

James Spader is magnificent actor. And oh, he is so pretty in this movie. I'd like to know when exactly did he turn from pretty to handsome / sexy, which ever you prefer.

I seriously have no idea what to say about this movie. It's great movie. It's amazing. And you should definitely see it.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

9 / 10

"No matter how gifted, you alone cannot change the world. But that's the wonderful thing about this world."

Haha, remember when I watched the first two Death Note movies about a year ago? Yup, I waited a year until I watched the third part.

Death Note: L Change The World basically has no connection to the two previous movies. Well, obviously it has some, like... At the beginning L says he needs to go to Japan, because Kira is most likely hiding in Japan. Anyway, in the end of the second movie - and this might ruin the plot for you if you haven't seen the two previous movies - L outwitted Light Yagami, also known as Kira, by writing his own name in the Death Note. That way, Kira can't kill L, but L has 23 days left after Kira is taken down. And L Change The World takes place during those 23 days.

Someone has created a powerful virus weapon, that is hundred times the infectious rate of Ebola, if I remember that part correctly. But the weapon cannot be used without the antidote. Creators of the weapon try to get their hands of the daughter of the scientist who made the antidote and destroyed the evidence. The daughter may hold the key to the antidote. But their plans get complicated when that girl runs to L, who is doing everything he can in order to stop the virus from spreading.

Well that was surprisingly hard to explain. I usually don't write two paragraphs for plot. Death Note seems to require two paragraphs.

Anyway, I like the movies even though they don't go the way the manga goes. I mean Kira didn't take down L, there was no Near (Well.... that's what I thought) etcetera. L Change The World is a good spin off, and extremely different from Death Note. I mean Death Note is mostly battle of the wits. L Change The World is also action. I kinda liked that. I mean, of course I prefer "the battle of the wits" kinda thing. You know, like the only Bond movie I like is Casino Royale, because of the poker game. But I didn't need that anymore, I mean Death Note saga is over in this. I watched this because of L. Yes, I am indeed an L fangirl. I like the character, he's very interesting.

I really like Ken'ichi Matsuyama as L. Even though L wasn't completely Japanese, but like 1/3 (I really don't remember, and I'm too lazy to go through another Wikipedia article on him when Finnish article let me down) Japanese etc, but Ken'ichi Matsuyama is very, very good. And he looks like L should look. And I love the people who are very strict while making the movie - all L's peculiar habits are there. They didn't leave anything out, I think. But then again, who would make a movie about one of the most iconic characters and then leave all the important quirks out of it?

The music in this movie was good and well used. I kinda wish I'd have the score of this, but it's probably very hard to find.

To be honest, some of the things in the movie were very unrealistic. But then again, I wasn't expecting to see a very realistic movie, considering what Death Note is about. So yeah. All in all I'm very happy about L Change The World.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

7 / 10

"Finally part of the earth. I touched the soil and he loved me back."

Secretary is about Lee Holloway, who gets released from hospital, where she has been since she had an incident due to self-harming. When she gets released, after a while she tries to adjust to normal life, and she gets a job, as a secretary of a lawyer, E. Edward Grey. And I don't know how to explain what happens. Let's just say their relationship starts to be more than employer / employee relationship, because it becomes a relationship between a sexually dominant man and his submissive secretary.

So yeah, first when I started to explain the plot, it seemed to go the way that it would turn out to be some kind of lame romantic comedy, but yeah, not really. And to be honest, I really liked how this movie portrayed BDSM lifestyle. Some people will, of course, always see it as some kind of abuse, if they don't know what BDSM is really about, so watching the movie wouldn't make a difference that way. I don't know. But I liked the movie. Apart from it being sexually frustrating. My god. 

Actually I wanted to see this movie, because I started watching The Blacklist and I really like James Spader. And come on, most of my favourite actors aren't in this kind of a movie. And who wouldn't want to see their favourite actors or actresses in a sexy movie, so yeah. And James Spader was wonderful, he's a really good actor. Just like Maggie Gyllenhaal was extremely good in this. Both of them did excellent job portraying their characters. I kind of wish I could say more about them, but I didn't even think I'd do this review. Not that I'd prefer keeping movies like this a secret, but because I really wasn't sure if I had enough things to say about this. I think I'm doing okay so far.

At first I actually thought that Mr Grey would be the really annoying, typical kind of boss we see a lot in TV and movies. But no, he was really nice, and mostly passive-aggressive, if he needed to. Like, he threw some doughnuts out, but didn't mention that to Lee. He told Lee to go through the trash and when she came back with the file he needed, he said he already found another one. That kind of things. Definitely that would be just as annoying as being annoyed by everything that the secretary would do, but at least he tried not to show it. And it was especially nice, when he found out about Lee's self-harm. He told her to stop, he said "You're over that now, it's in the past". Of course it would never work out like that, but it was still very nicely done if you think about it. I mean if he'd been indifferent towards that even though he knew, that would be very... very unforgivable, and after that the relationship that started between them would've been very close to being abusive, since it would be clear that Mr Grey did not care about Lee one bit.

But the story was well written. I don't know which parts are written by the author of the short story this was based on, and which ones were a bit edited. But still, characters were well created and everything. 

And well, I haven't read Fifty shades of grey, and I don't plan to, but it's pretty clear that the author has seen this movie. I mean both stories have a character named Grey, so. But the problem is that E. L. James hasn't written a BDSM relationship, but that's completely abusive - at least based on what I've heard. I've seen one person going through the book with a red marker and marking the things that are completely alarming and wrong.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

7 / 10

"The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club."

I've been kind of avoiding the situation where I finally have to watch Fight Club. Of course I had to watch it, I've read the book. That's also the reason why I didn't want to watch it. It doesn't happen often, you know, that I read the book before seeing the movie. It's so much easier to watch a movie, and it may give you the experience book couldn't, and it takes less time. So yeah. But I read Fight Club for our movie / novel club in middle school. I was 15, I felt almost ecstatic. 

I won't even bother explaining the idea of Fight Club. It's easy to explain the story, but it doesn't tell you everything, so I won't even try.

There are reasons why I liked Fight Club as a book. Narrator / main character's name is never revealed, which is very important thing to the plot. I was worried they'd ruin that in the movie - they didn't. Narrator remains nameless. I also loved the sentences that were there, without any meaning. ... Of course they have meaning, but it's not easy to figure out. "I'm Jack's cold sweat." I was kinda afraid how that'd turn out in the movie. They did that just fine. They screwed up something else, though. I could say what it was, but I couldn't explain it without ruining the story, so I will stop here.

Now I get to one of my favourite part of the movie reviews: the cast. Firstly, Brad Pitt was great. But that isn't news, I mean he is a good actor. I don't like him very much, I don't know why. He's great actor, good looking guy - I'm well aware of that but I don't like him. Helena Bonham Carter is probably the only person I can imagine as Marla Singer. I mean sure, there may be actresses out there, who could do the role just as well, but there's no one who could be more like Marla compared to Helena Bonham Carter. She's great in every way. And Edward Norton. I like him, his not my favourite, but I like him very much. And he did marvellous job. And he's very good choice for a narrator - his voice is very pleasant. 

Fight Club is a great book, great movie, but it's not easily digestible. I mean, it's not the kind of movie you can just watch and that's that. There's more philosophical stuff, you really need to ponder different questions while watching or reading. You kind of have to figure out if you agree or not with the stuff that is said. And then you have to figure out why or why not. And at least for me it's not that simple. It's not "agree" or "disagree", its somewhere in the middle. "I'd agree, but!" Like, for example, "I'd agree with that, but is that way too radical way to think?" "I'd agree with that, but was Palahniuk try to make us agree or disagree? Which one does he do?" That kind of stuff. And even if the movie is kind of thrilling and action packed, and when it goes forward, it's get more and more thrilling, action packed, also very disturbing. And then, if you've tried to really think about stuff, you kinda need to think again. "Was that worth it?" "Would that kind of thinking lead to this?" Well, maybe not directly, but...

It's really hard to explain that kind of stuff, when I can't use examples of my own thinking. Because if I do, it might kinda erase the other way of thinking. "This thing made me think that..." etc, and that's that.

You know what's the hardest part of this review? How the fuck am I going to rate this movie? It kinda deserves full 10, it kinda deserves 1. It's completely awful, but it's fantastic. It's nothing, but it's everything. I don't think I've ever had to think this hard how should I rate a movie. Oh well, let's go with the first amount of starts that hit my head halfway through the movie.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

9 / 10

//EDIT:  I actually had to change the score. I realised Fight Club isn't as good as The Hunt, Slipstream and Silence Of The Lambs, which are the only ones to have full ten stars.

(Note: I'm reading this on March 2015 and I'm laughing over the fact that I gave this movie a 10 but then changed it to 9 only to year later give it a 10 again.)

Ruby Sparks / A Change Of Seasons

Today I'm not going to do the whole "quote, movie poster, review" thing, because first of all, both movies I watched last night were pretty bad. And I didn't even finish the first one. And I can't find a good poster for A Change Of Seasons, mostly because I'd rather not put any nudity here and, ha-ha, stuff like that.

Ruby Sparks

Ruby Sparks is about an author, who suddenly starts writing a love novel about himself and a girl he came up with in his dreams. And suddenly, that girl is in his life. She's in his house, cooking, saying she's his girlfriend and everything. And then... yeah. 

I didn't finish the movie, because it was really boring and absolutely nothing seemed to happen. And also, it seemed kind of like Ruby was going to be a manic pixie dream girl, someone so adorably quirky and everything, because she was exactly how she was written. Well, the author's brother says to the author that there are no girls who are adorably quirky, because women are people too, and all that. That was kind of nice. But when the movie went forward, it seemed like the author, Calvin, didn't care about that. And well, I guess that's where I stopped watching. But apparently their relationship wouldn't be just rainbows and ice cream, I believe it got more serious afterwards. But, you know, I didn't see that.

I mostly watched this because I'm a writer, and well, Paul Dano is an interesting actor. I've never seen him anything else than supporting roles. So yeah.

☆☆☆
3 / 10 

A Change Of Seasons

In A Change Of Seasons, an English professor is having affair with one of his students, and when his wife finds out, well... after a while she starts an affair with a younger man. And for some reason, they decide to spend the weekend together. Yep, that's right, all four.

First of all, I've made it quite clear I don't enjoy romantic comedies or whatever you may call this, and you may start wondering why on earth did I watch this. ... Well... It has Anthony Hopkins in it, and he wears stupid 70s clothes all the time, so hell yeah I'm going to watch it. Also, I kind of.. expected it to be something else. I thought we'd see the affair Adam Evans (Hopkins) was having develop properly, but no, we don't know how it began. And I thought it'd be more like a drama or something.

But yeah, firstly it seemed to be kind of... boring and not going anywhere. I sort of forced myself to watch it, because I just stopped watching Ruby Sparks, so yeah. But when it started to get going it got really awkward and hilarious. It was so over the top that I don't even know how to describe it.

But, you know, I enjoyed only two things: Hopkins and the movie being hilarious every once in a while. But that's that. Otherwise it was really boring.

It's kind of sad how Hopkins is probably quite uncomfortable with nudity. I mean there are actors who can be completely naked, just cover their junk and everything is fine, but Hopkins kind of... doesn't show anything. It's a miracle if he takes his shirt of. Yes, I'm seriously saying this. Especially in the 70s he looked very pleasing, (and to be honest, he's still very gorgeous) so, you know, it would be kinda nice to see him... with... not so much clothes.

Okay this review took a weird turn.

☆☆☆☆
4 / 10

"So what is it you do?" "Government overthrows, flashy high-profile assassinations. The usual."

Red Eye takes place during a night flight. Most of the flights have been cancelling and while waiting for a new one, Lisa Reisert gets to know a man called Jackson Rippner. They seem to hit it off, and when it's time to board the plane, they realise their seats are next to each other. But during the flight Lisa realises that it wasn't a coincidence - Rippner is planning to kill a politician, who is staying at the hotel Lisa works in. Rippner gives her two choices: either she calls to the hotel and changes that politician's room, or Rippner will call someone so they kill Lisa's dad.

Red Eye was on TV once, but I didn't have the chance to watch it, since it was on so late and I was so diligent school girl then I couldn't stay up so late on a school night. And now I'm not so diligent and I stayed up late on a school night to watch it. And it was my dad's idea that I should watch it. Is this what growing up feels like? Anyway, I got interested in Red Eye because of Cillian Murphy. He's one of those actors I love very much, but I still never watch their movies unless it's by accident. Anyway, my dad bought it because he also got interested in the movie, and now I've seen it.

First of all, I was very interested in the setting. I mean, basically a kidnapping, but in public. Lisa can't do anything or Rippner will get her dad killed. So Lisa has to "suck it up" and try to act normal, which definitely is extremely difficult when in a situation like hers. I don't know, but somehow that kind of kidnapping is very intriguing. And it works pretty well, I mean it's kinda more agonizing compared to being held captive somewhere no one can hear you. Because on the plane, anyone could hear Lisa. The problem is that she can't do anything.

But it's not like she couldn't try, you know. She writes a message in a book she gave to an elderly lady, she writes a message in the bathroom mirror. She tries everything that's possible. Which is kind of the reason why I liked Lisa's character. She knew what would be the easiest thing to do - call the hotel, but that's against her morals and sense of justice. But she doesn't just sit there, doing what Rippner tells her to do. She tries her best. She's a really great character, I liked her very much. Rachel McAdams did a damn good job. She's quite good actress.

And Cillian Murphy, oh, where do I even begin? If you didn't know the story, you wouldn't think that Rippner is anything else than a normal guy runs into at the airport. Murphy plays that part very well, and he's still convincing when the character's true objectives are revealed. 

Also, I kind of figured out what kind of villains I like. I like villains with extremely blue eyes. I like villains who know a lot about other people.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

9 / 10

"You kill anybody?" "A few cops." "No real people?" "Just cops."

I haven't watched Tarantino's movies for a while. I mean the last time I watched Kill Bill, that's it. I've seen those and Pulp Fiction. So I thought I'd watch Death Proof, or whatever that's called. But instead my dad handed me Reservoir Dogs and I watched it. I mean come on, it's a classic. Or a cult. It's funny how often those two collide when we talk about movies...

Reservoir Dogs is about a plan to steal diamonds, plan which involves six guys. But, you know, it goes wrong. And basically that's how easily the plot is explained.

I love Tarantino's style. I mean especially this movie - it's been a year since I saw any other so I can't be sure anymore - but in Reservoir Dogs there wasn't a lot of action. The movie went forward because of the dialogue. The dialogue was the important part of Reservoir Dogs. Important things happen via dialogue. And Tarantino's dialogue is almost always great. (Almost always because really, I don't know, I've seen four movies, okay?) It isn't always strictly important, but it's easygoing and fun. And dirty, sometimes, but not too much. Because mostly it's easygoing. It's something people could usually be talking about.

And dialogue in this movie is important - because we never see the job they were supposed to be doing. We see them preparing for that. And then we see them leave, Mr Orange bleeding like a motherfucker in the backseat while Mr White is taking him to rendezvous. And the only stuff we know about the job and how it went, is what the men tell about it. But mostly their stories are the same - you know, they talk to each other and not someone else, so I guess that's why - so it's easy to figure out what happened. But Reservoir Dogs proves that we don't need to see everything. The important things happen afterwards and before the actual job.

Also, another thing that's pretty typical for Tarantino's movies (I've seen) is that it doesn't go in chronological order. Lot of flashbacks. But mostly they explain the characters a bit better - at least important characters like Mr White, Mr Blonde and Mr Orange. And Joe and his son Nice Guy Eddie. We don't get to know Mr Brown or Mr Blue almost at all, but you know, not everybody needs to be in an important role. And Mr Brown's theory about Madonna's "Like A Virgin" in the beginning of the movie was really fun. But I'm sort of glad that we didn't see him a lot. I don't like Tarantino acting. He's a director, not an actor. But you know, at least he's not in very big parts so.

But the actors, oh yes. I've seen Harvey Keitel in Red Dragon before. He's okay, I don't really know. Steve Buscemi is okay, and so is most of the cast. But what I really like is Tim Roth. I've liked him since I started watching Lie To Me, and it's very nice to see him in movies. He's very good. And I think he's kinda like Robert Downey Jr, mostly because of the way they look: When they are young they are okay, they are pretty boys. When they get older, they get hotter. Yup.

And I just knew Vic Vega is Vincent Vega's brother. I read it on IMDb just now. Tarantino, you sly little fox, you.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

9 / 10

"There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman; some kind of abstraction."

I'm finally writing a review of something I've already written a review of. I mean Lecter -movies don't count, since I did one whole fucking review of all three, so yeah. 

American Psycho is based on a novel by Bret Easton Ellis. I've read the book two times, I've never finished the book. First time I read like one third of the book. The second time I had like 50 pages left when I gave up. Maybe I should read it again after I finish Hannibal Rising. Maybe third time's the charm. Anyway, American Psycho is about young, successful and handsome Patrick Bateman, who dates beautiful women, hangs out in expensive restaurants and wears stylish suits. And since all of us need stress release sometimes, Patrick Bateman kills people. So yeah.

What did I wrote the last time? Well, nothing much. Damn it, why did I used to write like 3 paragraph reviews? What was wrong with me?

Usually I prefer serial killers who aren't insane, who seem completely rational, like Dr Lecter. But, Patrick Bateman is different. He's insane, but when we really think about it - after reading or seeing the whole thing - it only seems natural. He's not the kind of insane like "Let's not give him a real motive or anything, he could just be insane!" The whole fucking reason is that he's really bonkers. And basically... even though he is a serial killer character, he isn't a villain of the story. Obviously not, he's the main character. You wouldn't call him the hero exactly, but not the villain. He's the kind of character that's in the story where you can't really tell clearly, who is good, who is bad, which is basically... any other story than some fantasy adventure, detective story etcetera, etcetera. 

Okay, that was a lot of rambling so, I'll put it shortly: in this story, there is no good or bad, and even if Patrick Bateman is "a bad" character, being a murderer and all, you can't really call him the villain. And even though I prefer completely sane villains, I really like Patrick Bateman's character. That's it. (Yes, I could delete that last paragraph because of the rambling,  but I won't, because someone might like that more than this shorter paragraph about the same thing.)

All the characters in the story are pretty much annoying, but still you kind of love it. I mean every guy is a misogynist piece of rat shit, every fucking person is a vain little snob and all that. But that's somehow so very natural for the characters. That works. They talk about the clothing, they look at almost identical looking business cards and are so upset when someone else's card looks better than theirs. They are more vain about their looks than the average viewer is. It seems almost ridiculous. All the white men in suits look the same, the characters can't tell each other apart. It's great. And especially that last bit - they can't tell each other apart, so I guess it's not important if we don't recognise which character is which. Maybe we recognise the name, but that's it. And I don't know, which ones of those characters are actually so important we need to care?

Like I talked about American Psycho 2, when Rachael's inner monologue is like from a stupid teen comedy, also Patrick Bateman's inner monologue is kind of... well, it says a lot about the character. He's childless and petty, talks way too much about what he does in the morning and also about the music. (That's not the inner monologue, though. He actually talks about it.) But then again he also considers a lot about his "pain" his "insanity", he thinks about stuff that well, sane and normal people probably wouldn't. And usually in movies the character's aren't aware of their mental illness so much, but Patrick Bateman seems to be aware. Well, not completely, but more than you'd think. So he's inner monologue tells much more than even his actions do, and it's kinda weird. Usually you see more when you just look at their actions - because that's what mostly counts, right? But Bateman's character... everything counts. What he does - both spending nights in expensive restaurants and murdering - but also what he thinks.

I don't know. I think I should watch American Psycho more often. Or at least read it again, you know, maybe finish this time.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

7 / 10