Country Strong

Did you know that Country Strong was strongly inspired by country-girl Britney Spears? Yeah...

Oh boy, I really like that movie! I'm not even American and I'm even less into country music, but somehow this movie gets me every time I watch it.

Gwyneth Paltrow plays fallen country-superstar Kelly who lost her child after drunkenly falling down 10 feet off her stage in Dallas. The film starts with her being in rehab where her secret lover sponsor, Beau, who happens to be a quite decent country-singer himself meets here husband/manager James, who decided to get Kelly out of rehab early to start her comeback "Encore"-tour.
Beau and former Miss Dallas Chiles are set to headline and the two of them become friends.
Of course, Kelly was far from ok, so she relapses several times, misses two of her three concerts and has a few dozen meltdowns throughout the movie.

What I really like about the movie is the ensemble and the characters. EVERY single one of the actors does a superb job, Paltrow is incredible in this quite challenging roll and all of the characters really play their parts in such a genuinely believable way - it's a rare sight in Hollywood.

The soundtrack is absolutely flawless as well. The mostly original songs find their way into the viewers ears immidiately and they're here to stay. Prepare yourself humming titles like "A Little Bit Stronger" or "Country Strong" for days and days after watching the movie. The soundtrack is available on iTunes, too, so if you can't get enough of it, download it now.

Apparently the movie was based on the lives of real popstars such as Britney Spears and Michael Jackson, and it is quite sad to see, what the industry, the press and media and their own team of greedy managers can do to a human being that's supposed to be strong and glamorous, just because he or she happens to be a superstar.

In conclusion, I highly recommend watching Country Strong - and not only for people who are interested in country music or pop culture. In the end it's just a really tragic story about a woman who wasn't heard, even though she was belting in a microphone in front of thousands of people.

Grey's Anatomy Season 11, Episodes 1-3 [Review]

I’ve been watching Grey’s Anatomy for a very long time. It’s in its 11^th season right now and there is no end in sight. I predicted its cancellation years ago and boy was I wrong. Even though the ratings dropped a bit, the stories got more and more confusing and unrealistic, Grey’s is still here.
This is my recap to the first 3 Episodes of Season 11.

S11E01 I Must Have Lost It On The Wind

The first episode is basically a “where were we?” from last season. Most of the issues from last season were solved and the basic drama revolves around Derek having to decide whether to stay in Seattle or move to the east coast., Arizona and Callie deciding whether they’re gonna have another child or not and of course there’s Maggie, Ellis Grey’s child from her affair with Richard.

For a season premiere, the episode was not too special, to be honest. It was character driven as always, but some of the patient-doctor-eye-opening-moments were too obvious, like when Derek had to tell a little boy that his mom is dead and it instantly reminded him of leaving his family for his job.
Maggie is actually a really decent character. It would have been better to include her earlier in the series, since it will be hard for the audience to accept yet another half-sister to appear on the radar, especially after killing Lexie off not too long ago.
However her dynamic with Richard was interesting to watch and her (failed) approaches towards Meredith (who is known to be welcoming to all of her half-sisters) were also quite entertaining.

Luckily they didn’t waste too much time talking about the departure of Cristina, she will probably reappear on the series sooner or later anyways, but the aftermath (giving away her seat on the board to Alex) was definitely there and it was quite funny watching Alex grow into his new position as Meredith’s person (there is no other original intern left in the cast, so that makes sense).

In conclusion, the episode had no big surprises for us, it was relatively April-Jackson-free, which is a good thing and adding Derek’s sister Amelia to the cast wasn’t too noticeable…

S11E02 Puzzle With A Missing Piece

The second Episode was much, much better. It was Maggie-centric, which was a good thing to do, since the character is completely new to everyone and she definitely has to position herself in the family that is the hospital.
It was cool to see her being both clever, intelligent and smart, but human and emotional at the same time. Especially her conversations with her adopted parents were really interesting and shed light on her character. To be honest, even though this whole “Meredith has another sister”-twist is completely ridiculous, Maggie has already more depth than April (she lost all of her credibility with her Jesus/Virgin arc).

Along Maggie’s exploration of her new workplace, hassling with (still clueless – at least right until ) Meredith and other doctors, some of the other character’s stories are continued, the focus remains on Maggie and her relationships, though.

In conclusion: Much better than the premiere, giving the absurd story around Maggie a little more credibility, still setting the stage for the next few episodes.

S11E03 Got To Be Real

Finally we get a little bit more insight into Owens mind and his new cooperation with Callie and the army-guys is a promising plot, especially with Callie facing problems with Arizona yet again, when the latter decides to start a new fellowship in prenatal surgery (we need Addison!!!) and eventually deciding against having another baby via surrogacy.

Also, Meredith tries to cope with Maggie’s revelation, while Alex is preparing to claim his place on the board, heading into battle against Bailey.

In addition to that, Avery complains about not being able to operate enough, because of his position as board leader and Derek, who is obviously depressed by Meredith’s decision not to leave Seattle fights with his sister like a little boy…

In conclusion, this newest Episode was the most interesting one and as I see it right now, this season could get a little bit more interesting than the last.

Grey’s Anatomy always had its ups and downs, but it seems to be on the right track to go back to its former glory. If only Katherine Heigl would make a surprise return and mess things up with Alex, but she probably pissed off Shonda Rhimes for the rest of her life…

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon [Review]

I know it’s been a few years since this masterpiece hit the big screens, but I just recently re-watched it, after paying some of the beautiful locations it was shot at a visit and I love this movie more than ever…

Ang Lee sets this martial arts epos in ancient China, when bandits and vagabonds made the roads through the Middle Kingdom dangerous and not likely to be travelled alone. However, a small group of highly trained swordsmen and martial artists protect the innocent and keep the streets clean.
One of them is accomplished Wudang fighter Li Mu Bai, who sends his long-time friend and secret soulmate Yu Shu Lien to the Forbidden City to hand his legendary sword to a local friend as a gift, since he wanted to step away from a life on the edge.
Soon after, the sword is stolen by an unknown warrior, and in order to sustain the thief’s honor Yu Shu Lien lets her go.
Soon after, it turns out, that the thief was Jen, the daughter of governor Yu, visiting at the same time and who was promised to be wed to someone she doesn’t even know – but secretly trained by Jade Fox, who killed Li Mu Bai’s former master and retrieved the ancient teaching from Wudang.
The story evolves after Li Mu Bai follows her through the most beautiful areas in China, finally challenging her at a mystic bamboo forest.
The story subtly revolves around Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien’s repressed feelings for each other, mirrored by Jen’s emotional and passionate – but equally forbidden – love to a thief from the desert, both couples trying to find a way to be together.

In my opinion, Ang Lee created a masterpiece with this movie, and its Oscar nominations and wins clearly show, that I am not the only one who thinks so.
The fantastic fighting sequences are completely non CGI with only the cords, the actors hung from having been removed in preproduction.
The actors all do a wonderful job, though obviously I wasn’t able to watch the film in its original language, Mandarin.

A sequel to the movie was announced a few months ago, but only a few of the original cast will return and I doubt that it will be as successful as the original. Only time will tell.

During my stay in China I was able to visit some of the shooting locations from the movie, and if anyone of you is going there anytime soon, I can highly recommend the beautiful bamboo forest and the gorgeous Wudang abbey, which actually exists (though I don’t know, if that’s the actual name). You can easily google all the locations and how to get there exactly – it’s worth a trip…

The Hunger Games - Catching Fire [Review]

I know it's late, but why not talk about this already much talked-about sequel to 2012's The Hunger Games. So here are my opinions...

First of all, I have to say that I enjoyed the first part of this four-part trilogy (yes, they are turning the last book of the novel-trilogy into two separate movies - a trend that I don't really like btw) and that I couldn't wait to finally see the second part.
The first part introduced us into this post-apocalyptic world, where children are forced to kill each other in an arena - with the slaughter made into a big television event, watched by thousands of people similar to popular reality competition shows of our times.

Before watching the first part I was kind of hesitant, because I heard that it's yet another movie of the so-called Twilight-generation, but since I found Twilight trashy and cheesy enough to actually enjoy it in the end, I thought - why not give The Hunger Games the same chance?

Ok, but this is about Catching Fire... The beginning of the movie came in a bit too quickly, which made me regret not rewatching the first movie before, but after five minutes I got used to the characters and to the new situation and some memories of the first movie were refreshed in the first part of the film anyways.
Let me say, I really like Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss. She is a very talented and beautiful actress and her heartfelt performance of the first installment was only exceeded by the emotional rollercoaster-ride she showed us in this sequel.
Plus, whoever designed those costumes has done a marvelous job (once again), her "wedding"-dress was one of the best things in this movie.

The story was quite simple: The two main characters had to do the Hunger Games again, because the evil Capitol felt that Katniss shouldn't become the symbol (Mockingjay) of freedom to the rebels, but this time the winners from all the previous games were in the running.
The games itself were located in a fake-tropical paradise with various dangers like thunderbolts, waves, aggressive monkeys and creepy skin-cauterizing fog. Compared to the first movie the dangers of the arena were a bit more intimidating, but the adversaries were simply mundane. As a viewer I did not feel like Katniss was in immediate danger from any of the other tributes at any time. The ending conveniently told me why, though, which kind of satisfied me. However a bit more action and brutality wouldn't have hurt the movie. But since the books aim to a teenaged audience, the script had to adapt to that target group.

In conclusion, the movie has its ups and downs. When the two main protagonists spend some time in the capitol - that's when the real story happens. The rest, of course is pure action and entertainment, but the real, creepy, compelling part of the movie is the scheming and manipulating of the government. It shows the audience how much power media has over them and sometimes even makes the viewer wonder how much he is controlled by TV, Internet and all those "modern" things himself...
In a hypothetical way, this vision about the future comes quite close to what our fate might really look like. However the whole fiction lacks in depth. We don't get a lot of back information in the movies. I haven't read the books (yet) but I know, that even those won't answer questions like "What happens to the rest of the world? Does every country have the same system? Are there any other countries?"

Ok. If you liked the first movie, you will also like the second one. It's not an epic, must-see classic, but it's fun and inspiring - at least for some of us. And Jennifer Lawrence is doing a magnificent job!