I saw “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” yesterday and as can be expected it was good. My main problem with the movie though is that it just left me hanging! I haven’t read “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” and since I do enjoy the movies a lot don’t plan on reading it until I’ve seen the last film. I know I’ve got it backwards but it’s just more exciting to watch without knowing what’s going to happen next. I do love reading but this time the film adaptations are just so good (despite minor scenes) that I don’t think it would do a disservice to the book by watching the film before reading it.

Anyway, back to the “Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince.” What I liked about the movie (let’s not discuss the story anymore because we all know it’s good) is that it delivered. The CG was spectacular, a lot better than in the last movie “Order of the Phoenix” where we were introduced to Hagrid’s giant half-brother, Grawp. Grawp was adorable but like the centaurs was obviously CG. In contrast I don’t remember any part of the “Half-Blood Prince” looking unrealistic. Watching the film makes you think that everything is being shot as is.

The actors/actresses did not disappoint as well. The cast has obviously grown not just in age but in maturity in their acting skills. Those that stood out to me were Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), who was able to embody his very conflicted role, Rupert Grint (Ron Weasly), though I must be biased because Ron is my favorite character, and Frank Dillane (older Tom Riddle), who just sent shivers down my spine…he was so creepy! Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) did a good job as ever showing as Harry growing to be more than a boy. Others who did not stand only because in relation to their own achievements as actors (they always do an excellent job) are Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix), Alan Rickman (Snape) and Michael Gambon (Dumbledore). Cutest character in this movie is the same one in the last movie – Luna Lovegood (played by Evanna Lynch). She’s so cute I can’t help but wish Harry would just hook up with her instead of Ginny.

We always knew “Bruno” would be controversial and what’s happened in Britain and Ukraine is just more proof that not everyone can handle the film.

According to Reuters, Ukraine has banned “Bruno” from being shown in theaters and sold in DVDs after its culture ministry commission decided that the film “included an artistically unjustified exhibition of sexual organs and sexual relations, homosexual acts in a blatantly graphic form, obscene language, sadism, anti-social behavior which could damage the moral upbringing of our citizens.” The commission’s decision is not surprising since Sacha Baron Cohen’s previous film “Borat” was also banned in Ukraine. Time reported that Deputy Culture Minister Tymofiy Kokhan, head of the commission, told them that 9 out of the 14 commission’s experts voted to ban the film. Evhen Minko, chief editor of media-watchdog magazine Telekritika,is however concerned because he says that the comission’s decision shows that they do not understand the film at all. Taras Karasiychuk, director of the Gay Alliance of Ukraine, stated though that the comission’s decision was not really out of a moral standpoint but to earn points with the elections coming up. He says, “It’s more populism than a desire to protect morals.”

Meanwhile in Britain, where the film is enjoying great popularity, Universal Studios decided to release an edited version of “Bruno” so that younger audiences can see the film. The edited version, which will be just about 2 minutes shorter the original version, will open in British theaters in July 24 and can be seen by anyone 15 and above. Now this decision clearly does not show intolerance or ignorance but sound judgement.

“Bruno” dominated this weekend at the North American box office with a total of $3.6 million earned this weekend. The rest of the movies that made it to the box office top is listed below.

Studio Weekend Actuals: July 10 to July 12, 2009
1 Brüno – $30,619,130
2 Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs – $27,607,497
3 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – $24,213,875
4 Public Enemies – $13,794,240
5 The Proposal – $10,603,884
6 The Hangover – $9,933,238
7 I Love You, Beth Cooper – $4,919,433 3
8 UP – $4,715,746
9 My Sister’s Keeper – $4,294,382
10 The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 – $1,543,516

Bruno, though topping the weekend box office, is predicted by some to not only rake less money in compared to “Borat” but also have a short run. The reason for this is that “Bruno” did a lot better last Friday ($14.4 million) than Saturday ($8.8 million), which might mean that it is quickly losing steam. According to Universal distribution president Nikki Rocco the figure does not automatically equate to that though since such occurrences are usual during summer.

“Bruno” as we well know stars Sacha Baron Cohen and, like his first very notorious and successful film “Borat”, the movie is as shocking as ever, if not more. “Bruno” shows the exploits of a gay Australian fashion designer out to conquer America. Surely this film will turn out to be as controversial as ever given its very explicit content. My only tip would be to watch this film if you liked “Borat” and steer clear or regret it if you didn’t.

As for Eminem I only have one message for you: If you aren’t over the butt incident during the MTV Movie Awards better not watch “Bruno” because it will bring it all back to you.

“Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” is just around the corner and muggles worldwide are all breathless with expectation. I won’t be recounting any of the past Harry Potter films nor going to be giving a synopsis of what this film will be about (If you don’t know yet then just grab a copy of the book.) but will be simply blabbing about the latest in the lives of the Potter film stars.

As we all know Emma Watson had a very public fiasco when the wind conspired with her hormone ridden teenage boys fans and flicked open her dress for her to reveal nice long legs and her underwear. She showed “Hermione-like” calmness on David Letterman and good humour when she said, “At least I’m wearing underwear.” When it comes to her kissing scene with Rupert Grint (Ron Weasly) both of them agree was uncomfortable. As Rupert said, “I remember being inches away from her lips and thinking, ‘Good lord, this is going to be strange.” Emma Watson even goes as far as saying that with Rupert being “like a brother” to her kissing him “felt like incest.” A thing the little kids who will be watching (I think this one’s rated PG and not PG-13 like the last two films.) need not know. Whatever the case, you can be sure their unease won’t show on screen. Of course we’ll have to wait for “Deathly Hallows” till we see this scene.

As for their future beyond the Harry Potter films Daniel Radcliffe has expressed his desire to continue acting, Emma Watson is not yet sure though she seems to be seriously considering on going to college, and Rupert Grint is just sure that he’ll be missing the shoots and is adopting a wait and see attitude on what the future holds for him.

As for muggles worldwide all we can hope for is that wherever you are, come Wednesday, it won’t be literally raining on our parade, which is what happened in the London premiere. I guess it just goes to show that their magic wand works only in the film and not in real life.

I was right. Not too much to gloat about though because no one needs to be a psychic to know that “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” would be a huge box office hit. Transformers 2 might be on its second weekend but it managed to hold on to the number one spot at the North American box office. It was a close call between “Transformers” and “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” with figures pointing to a tie at first with both Paramount Pictures and Century Fox studios giving out estimates of $42.5 million as the movies’ earnings. After the final count though “Transformers” came out on top with $42.3 million and “Ice Age” $41.7 million, a mere $600K difference in revenues. Transformers so far has had a good run with total sales of $293.4 million just in North America and a total of $593.8 million worldwide sales. We can expect the movie to continue racking up ticket sales at a pretty good pace since it’s still just on its twelfth day. With the good turn out you can be sure cinemas worldwide will continue playing it for several weeks more.

Other movies that made it to the top of the weekend box office include:

#3 “Public Enemies” – Universal $25,271,675
#4 “The Proposal” – Disney $12,857,482
#5 “The Hangover” – Warner Bros.
#6 “Up” – Disney $6,521,389
#7 “My Sister’s Keeper” – Warner Bros. $5,788,327
#8 “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3″ – Sony $2,534,228
#9 “Year One” – Sony $2,323,843
#10 “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” – Fox $2,043,288

The Ice Age will be back tomorrow and we hope for everyone involved sakes that it will be received warmly. To be honest I am not a fan of Ice Age but since this one’s in 3D and I promised my dad just this weekend that I’ll be bringing my nephew to the next 3D movie then I just might see this (cross my fingers they don’t decide to come by and visit till Ice Age is out of the cinemas). Now that doesn’t mean that I don’t like it at all but I’d rather spend my money on other movies that would be more enjoyable for me. Of course, it’s called selfishness. Anyway here’s what the makers say you expect if you do decide to watch Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

There’ll be dinosaurs – Quite obvious from the title. This is scientifically erroneous since dinosaurs were no longer around during the real ice age so start explaining that it’s only in the cartoons that those mammals coexisted with those dinosaurs.

Better animation that the first two Ice Age movies – Again this should be pretty obvious since a 3D film would have better animation. So at least the 3D aspect will surely provide entertainment value.

The laughter meter - It might not be that funny but according to Roger Moore of Orlando Sentinel some of the jokes worked mostly thanks to Scratte (voice of Karen Disher). According to Ella Taylor of the Houston Press though, “there’s no breathing life into a formula that ought to have bowed out gracefully while the going was good.” Ouch! So don’t expect too much but try to keep it positive so you can still enjoy the movie.

Got vetoed and ended up watching “Transformers Revenge of the Fallen” instead of “My Sister’s Keeper”. So did I end up enjoying myself? Yes. Did it live up to the hype? I’m not quite sure. Will it keep on topping the box office? Hell, yeah!

“Transformers Revenge of the Fallen” was a fact-paced action-filled movie with such loud booms that my seat vibrated time and again. It was definitely entertaining and did deliver on the promise that it will provide plenty of action and lots of visual effects. My problem with the movie though was that I actually found the action scenes a bit too much. There were way too many action scenes that the storyline, though an interesting one, seemed like an excuse just to make a blockbuster action movie at times. Not only were there too many action scenes but the action scenes though they really looked great, were often too confusing. Half the time I couldn’t distinguish whether the Decepticons or the Autobots were getting blasted.

I did like the concept because it was great to learn more about the Primes and the history of the Transformers. The problem was that I would have liked the movie to be a bit more cerebral giving us more insight to the history and not coming up with lame symbols that looked senseless when Sam (Shia LeBouf) explained why Einstein’s theory was all wrong.

As for the actors the ones that did entertain were mostly the CG twins and the Decepticon that fell in love with Mikaela (Megan Fox). I liked Sam and Mikaela’s characters in the first Transformers movie but this time their characters seemed a bit lacking in substance this time. Megan Fox managed to be as sexy as ever but this time around it just fell flat, like they were just shooting scenes to show how sexy she was, it wasn’t funny, cool, nor significant, like in the first movie when her sexiness underlined the reason why Sam had the hots for her. Sam’s character also managed to seem a little shallow with his wanting to be normal problems. The Sam before meeting the Transformers is permitted to be shallow but who would still be totally wrapped up in oneself after such experiences? The characters I did like this time around were Agent Simmons (John Turturro), Leo (Ramon Rodriguez), and of course Sam’s mom (Julie White), who provided the laughs in the movie.

With all my criticism about the movie would I say that it wasn’t worth watching on the big screen? Definitely, not. It just didn’t deliver for me but it was still entertaining. If you plan on watching it at least watch it on the big screen to be able to enjoy the visual and sound effects, because it is the kind of movie where you can do without watching it at all if not for that. Watch it because of the CGI. Watch it because the first movie just compels you to watch this one. But don’t expect to be blown away by this film.

The movie to watch in my book this coming weekend will require me to bring a whole box of tissue. “My Sister’s Keeper”, an adaptation of Jodi Picoult’s book, has captured my attention the first time I saw it’s trailer, tugging at my heartstrings with the few scenes revealed. “My Sister’s Keeper “ is a film about a family of a dying child and a sister “created” to save her . Sofia Vassilieva plays the role of the suffering 15 year old Kate who’s dying from leukemia. Abigail Breslin plays the role of her sister, Anna, who was literally conceived/created using science to be Kate’s genetic match. Anna, who from infancy has been constantly giving blood and bone marrow to her sister, finally refuses to be a spare parts factory when one of her kidney is required to keep Kate alive. Now that is a story to make one’s head spin.

So far judging from the handful of film reviews I’ve read it seems that the director Nick Cassavetes succeeded in what he set out to do – flood the cinema with tears. Cameron Diaz is also garnering praise for her performance of the mother who desperately keeps on putting her dying daughter’s needs above Anna’s. This is a great role for her and one that might just give her the break she needs to get more challenging roles than those that merely require her to be the cute girl with a great smile that she is.

Now that the Academy Awards has announced that it will be considering twice the number of movies (from 5 to 10) as nominees for the best picture category what people are wondering about is whether we’ll actually be seeing a box office movie get the best picture award. Many are skeptical about such a thing happening though and share Jon Favreau’s, director of “Iron Man”, sentiments when he said, “I think it’s going to help the musicals and comedies and the genre films, but I don’t think this means they will be winning. I think this means more people are in on the party, but I think you will still see films sweep. The nominee list is going to look like an Iraqi presidential ballot with all the names. I also think it could hurt small films that have won in the past, like ‘Crash’ and ‘Slumdog Millionaire,’ which may suffer when there’s more choices.” Favreau has a good point indeed since the Oscars are likely expanding the nominee count just to get more attention from the same viewers that watch the box office hits but will likely stick to their current criterion, which will mean that the more artsy films will still keep on winning. Still, for those hoping to at least get nominated this will at least give them a better chance. Better a nominee than be being completely snubbed, right?

As for Oscar’s official reason, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Sid Ganis said, “Last year there were more movies that I thought might have fit in the nominations.” I’m pretty sure that the year before that and the year before that there were also other films that didn’t make the cut which would have if there were 10 nominees instead of 5. So you can bet it’s all about ratings and not their wish to give more films a chance at win the Oscar.

Alice in Wonderland has always scared me when I was a kid. I think it still does scare me a bit now. One look at the concept art Disney released on the upcoming Alice in Wonderland film and its enough to peak anyone’s interest, no matter how queasy one may be with the trauma the weird story inflicted on you as a child. Aside from the great effects, costume and all that we can be sure though that the movie, which won’t be coming out till March of next year, will be as surreal and weird as the story since Tim Burton will be the one directing it. No problem with me now though I will never consider it a children’s story and won’t be bringing the kids to see the film (not sure if it’s going to be PG anyway) until I deem it not scary.

Cast includes Mia Wasikowska as Alice, Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, Michael Sheen as the White Rabbit, Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, Alan Rickman as the Caterpillar, Christopher Lee as the Jabberwock, and Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat. For a longer list of the cast visit Alice in Wonderland’s IMDB page.

Here are some of the pictures that were first published in USA Today. As you’ll see they really do capture the magic of Alice in Wonderland.