The film follows Hugo and his newly found friend Isabelle (Chloe Grace Mortez) who also lost her parents but is being watched by Papa George (Sir Ben Kingsley) and Mama Jeanne (Helen McCroy).  Papa George runs a toy shop in the train station that Hugo scouts out and steals gears for in order to fix and automoton that his father found before his death.

The real George Melies

Sir Ben Kingsley as George Melies

The film begins to spiral around the automoton and the identity of Papa George, and if you would like to be completely taken by the film I suggest you stop reading now…

Papa George ends up being none other than George Melies, the famous french director who directed over 500 films from 1896-1913.  The story of the film then shifts into basically a love story for film, which for me was amazing. We learn about a true story that Melies was discouraged and sort of forgotten once the war came and sold all of his assets in order to survive.  He faked his own death because he was embarrassed for the loss of his career.

This film is so well made and beautiful and the actors did such an amazing job.  I highly suggest going to see it, be you a film geek or not.  The film tells a beautiful story and really shows how much Scorsese loves film.

The film was written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan who has been nominated for two Oscars and is known for his part in writing films such as Gangs of New York and Analyze That.

The imdb website for the film describes the plot: “A young woman (Paquin) witnesses a bus accident, and is caught up in the aftermath, where the question of whether or not it was intentional affects many people’s lives.”  Filming took place in New York and it is set to be released on September 30th.

The idea for this movie just seems really interesting, what with all the Twilight hype and the fact that this movie looks like it is making fun of all that.  Honestly it reminds me of Zombieland.  This is because in addition to Yelkin and Eisenberg being similar in acting style and level of awkward, it seems to be a satire on vampires just as Zombieland was a satire on movies like Resident Evil.

Also on another note Fright Night is a remake of the 1985 film with the same title, Fright Night.  The film was written and directed by Tom Holland and has a rating of 6.8 on imdb.com. The movie opens tomorrow, so go see it if you’re as pumped as I am.

Here is the trailer:

…and my personal favorite…

The film took place long ago in the days of the American Cowboy, of which included mainly Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig.  Craig begins the movie by waking up in the middle of the desert with blood all over him and a metal bracelet that he doesn’t remember getting.  Soon after this he goes to the nearest town after beating up a family of thieves and stealing their horses.

In the town he meets the rest of the cast including Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, and Harrison Ford’s son in the film Paul Dano.  Soon after Craig arrives at the town all hell breaks loose as alien ships start to kidnap everyones “kin”.  From there the film just gets more and more ridiculous and though it was entertaining it was just very strange and confusing.

The film ends of course with the cowboys triumphing over the aliens by being just absolutely amazing and doing things that make no physical sense.  Though you can’t really argue with it because aliens and cowboys is just sort of unreal in the first place.  Overall I think I would recommend this movie, though it is out of the ordinary it was a good time with laughs and scares all rolled together in one awesome action film.

The film is set to play at the Cannes Film Festival this May, but doesn’t have a release date for The United States as of yet.  The filming took place in Sweden and the film is in English though the director is from Denmark.

Lars von Trier directed the film Dogville which stars Nicole Kidman and won an award at Cannes in 2003.

Melancholia looks interesting stylistically and the plot is something different that we’re not really used to as movie-goers.  The poster and actors make the film look as though its a romantic story, yet it’s really going to be a sci-fi sort of drama I think.  Here is that trailer, and though we might have to wait for a while to see the film I think it’ll be worth it.

Returning characters from the trilogy in this film include Galadriel played by Cate Blanchett, Legolas played by Orlando Bloom, Gandalf played by Ian McKellen, Saruman played by Christopher Lee, and Frodo played by Elijah Wood.

Cast of The Hobbit in New Zealand

The film is set to be in two parts, and the first one started filming this past March.  The Hobbit: Part 1 is set to be released in December 2012, and fans on the imdb message boards are talking about it already.  There are over 10 pages of threads on the website and a number of fan sites popping up all over the internet.

Tolkien’s LOTR and Hobbit sensations translate so well to film through the eyes of Peter Jackson, and hopefully the Hobbit films will be as well accepted by the Academy as his films have been in the past.

The films nominated for Best Picture this year include True Grit, Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The Kids Are Alright, King’s Speech, Social Network, Toy Story 3, Winter’s Bone, and 127 Hours.

The main contenders for Best Picture in my opinion are Black Swan and The King’s Speech, with Social Network pretty close behind.

As far as best director I see two in the running,  David Fincher who won the Golden Globe and Darren Aronofsky.  Ethan and Joel Coen usually hold their own as well, and I would predict them to be in the running.  On February 27th we will see what happens, and until then we just have to enjoy the fantastic films of 2011.

The film is directed by Simon West, who directed Con Air as well as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.  He has produced a number of action films as well and seems pretty well equipped for this film.  The two actors also seem to be joined by a pretty good cast, and Statham definitely has some experience when it comes to action films.

Though it doesn’t appear this movie will be in the running for the 2011 Oscars, since it missed the cut, it still seems like it will be a lot of fun.  Personally I’m just excited to see Foster and Statham in the same movie together…

Tangled is the story of “The long-haired Princess Rapunzel has spent her entire life in a tower, but when she falls in love with a bandit who was passing by she must venture into the outside world for the first time to find him,” according to the film’s IMDb page.  The film stars Mandy Moore as Rapunzel and Zachary Levi as Flynn Ryder, the handsome prince.

Directed by Nathan Greno and Byron Howard, who also have cameos in the film, the movie seems to be doing very well at the box office and has gotten some great feedback, even scoring an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes.  The story was adapted from the fairy tale, written by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, by Dan Fogelman who also wrote the screenplays for Cars and Fred Clause.

Although it’s a children’s film it seems to be a funny movie, and I would say give it a shot.  If the box office surpassed Harry Potter, and that was one of the best movies I have ever seen, Tangled had to have done something right.