BEST SCENE EVER #56

GOODFELLAS directed by Martin Scorsese

Genre: Thriller

Martin Scorsese explores the life of organized crime with his gritty, kinetic adaptation of Nicolas Pileggi’s best-selling Wiseguy, the true-life account of mobster and FBI informant Henry Hill. Set to a true-to-period rock soundtrack, the story details the rise and fall of Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian New York kid who grows up idolizing the “wise guys” in his impoverished Brooklyn neighborhood. He begins hanging around the mobsters, running errands and doing odd jobs until he gains the notice of local chieftain Paulie Cicero (Paul Sorvino), who takes him in as a surrogate son. As he reaches his teens, Hill (Ray Liotta) is inducted into the world of petty crime, where he distinguishes himself as a “stand-up guy” by choosing jail time over ratting on his accomplices. From that moment on, he is a part of the family. Along with his psychotic partner Tommy (Joe Pesci), he rises through the ranks to become Paulie’s lieutenant; however, he quickly learns that, like his mentor Jimmy (Robert DeNiro), his ethnicity prevents him from ever becoming a “made guy,” an actual member of the crime family.

Rating: 9.5/10

Note: well, I did cook italian (even sicilian) this week-end, and I always think about this scene when I am cutting garlic or onions.

Extra: the song is “Beyond the Sea” by Bobby Darin

BEST SCENE EVER # 55

THE WOLF OF WALL STREET directed by Martin Scorsese starring Leonardo Di Caprio

Genre: Thriller

Martin Scorsese directs the story of New York stockbroker Jordan Belfort. From the American dream to corporate greed, Belfort goes from penny stocks and righteousness to IPOs and a life of corruption in the late 80s. Excess success and affluence in his early twenties as founder of the brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont warranted Belfort the title “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

Based on the true story of Jordan Belfort, from his rise to a wealthy stockbroker living the high life to his fall involving crime, corruption and the federal government.

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A pure Scorsese movie style served by an amazing Leonardo Di Caprio, excellent dialogues, perfect direction, and a funny but thrilling story. One of his best movies, which is reminiscent and takes the best from The Bonfire of the Vanities, Wall Street, Catch me if you can, as well as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

As always, the soundtrack is terrific. I must admit I had a blast watching it and I laughed about 40 times which is unusual to me. Force is to strongly recommend this movie.

Rating: 8.5/10

MOVIE TRAILER

-THE BEST OFFER written and directed by Guiseppe Tornatore

Genre: Drama-Thriller

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Virgil Oldman is a solitary, cultured man whose reluctance to engage with others, especially women, is matched only by the dogged obsessiveness with which he practices his profession of antiques dealer. He’s never been close to another human being, not even Robert, his only friend – a young, skillful restorer of mechanical devices from every era. The day he turns sixty-three, Virgil receives a phone call from a young woman who asks him to handle the disposal of some family works of art.

Rating: 7.5/10

 

BEST SCENE EVER # 54

HARD CANDY directed by David Slade

(SPOILER SCENE)

Genre: Thriller-Horror

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A teenage girl agrees to meet a thirtysomething fashion photographer in person after becoming acquainted with him in an online chat room, and the resulting encounter finds the line between predator and prey slipping slowly out of focus in director David Slade’s provocative and topical thriller. Hayley (Ellen Page) is a 14-year-old teen whose emotional maturity seems to betray her tender age. Jeff (Patrick Wilson) is a potential child predator whose intentions toward his young chat buddy seem less than honorable. After meeting in a coffeehouse and getting to know each other briefly in person, Jeff invites Haley back to his place, and it’s not long before Jeff’s underage guest is pouring drinks and posing provocatively for an impromptu photo shoot.

Rating: 7/10

COMMENT: I open the New Year in quite a pushing way, my best wishes for 2014, believe me you won’t forget this scene, gentlemen, the movie is quite good, thanks to Ellen Page who is impressive in this taylor-made role.

 

BEST SCENE EVER # 53

GOODFELLAS directed by Martin Scorsese

 images

Genre: Thriller

Martin Scorsese explores the life of organized crime with his gritty, kinetic adaptation of Nicolas Pileggi’s best-selling Wiseguy, the true-life account of mobster and FBI informant Henry Hill. Set to a true-to-period rock soundtrack, the story details the rise and fall of Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian New York kid who grows up idolizing the “wise guys” in his impoverished Brooklyn neighborhood. He begins hanging around the mobsters, running errands and doing odd jobs until he gains the notice of local chieftain Paulie Cicero (Paul Sorvino), who takes him in as a surrogate son. As he reaches his teens, Hill (Ray Liotta) is inducted into the world of petty crime, where he distinguishes himself as a “stand-up guy” by choosing jail time over ratting on his accomplices. From that moment on, he is a part of the family. Along with his psychotic partner Tommy (Joe Pesci), he rises through the ranks to become Paulie’s lieutenant; however, he quickly learns that, like his mentor Jimmy (Robert DeNiro), his ethnicity prevents him from ever becoming a “made guy,” an actual member of the crime family.

Actually, my favorite movie, why ? Surely because there is always something going on in this story, great actors (Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci duo is one of my favorite, remember Casino, Raging Bull), amazing soundtrack and excellent dialogues as well as a lot of details which have their importance. A master piece, a must-see at least for the direction, if you do not keen on mafia movies. For example, I love the slow-motion replay in the above scene when Samuel Lee Jackson character is killed, the song in the back is “the Bells of St. Mary’s” by the Drifters (1954).

Rating: 9.5/10

EXTRA : Santa Claus did bring this scene for you


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BEST SCENE EVER # 52

– LIMITLESS directed by Neil Burger

starring Bradley Cooper and Robert de Niro

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Genre: Thriller

Aspiring author Eddie Morra (Cooper) is suffering from chronic writer’s block, but his life changes instantly when an old friend introduces him to NZT, a revolutionary new pharmaceutical that allows him to tap his full potential. Soon Eddie takes Wall Street by storm, parlaying a small stake into millions. His accomplishments catch the eye of mega-mogul Carl Van Loon (De Niro),who invites him to help broker the largest merger in corporate history. But they also bring Eddie to the attention of people willing to do anything to get their hands on his stash of NZT.


The use of the NZT pill entails a kind of schyzophrenia effect, however instead of turning into a creepy personnality, the character will get the best of himself at least for a while, but there is always a price to be paid with drugs.

Rating: 7.75/10

EXTRA:

– The song is “Howlin’ for You” by the Black Keys:

 

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ARTICLE- VOD vs STREAMING

Capture d’écran 2013-12-14 à 16.29.37

MATCH UP –  VOD vs STREAMING vs TORRENT

and the winner is ?

Top Best Cinema is glad to talk about the easier ways to watch a movie online at the best advantages/downsides ratio. This is the match up between Legal VOD vs Pirate Streaming vs Torrent.

 First, I have to recommend to use a legal offer such as VOD, for the good reason that movies need to generate cash at least to allow other productions, and also because hundred thousand jobs depend on it.

Recently, the shutting down of Iso Hunt and other websites before (BtJunkie, etc.) seems to mark a stop for the p2p business, but the boom of illegal streaming websites is undeniable.

Here follows a review of VOD, STREAMING and TORRENT advantages and downsides:

I. VIDEO ON DEMAND (VOD):  Capture d’écran 2013-12-14 à 16.26.47

ADVANTAGES: legal

Using legal offer should make you feel right, cause as a cinema fan you can’t really accept to destroy what you like. Well at least sometimes. You can find various legal VOD offers depending on your IP address’ country, either with your Box or Channels Networks. Most of the time, you will find all audio languages and subtitles.

DOWNSIDES: costly 

The prices range from 3 to 6€/movie depending on movie release dates and definition quality (SD/HD). This is quite expensive, indeed. Better go for some all inclusive offer than to purchase movie one by one. The fact that for most of ISP offers you can only watch the movie during a certain period of time (48hours) and only for a limited number of times is definitely not pleading for it.

ADVICES: netflix

Top Best Cinema recommends to use www.Netflix.com, which offer is cheaper than most of other offers from Channels Networks and ISP Box. Do not worry, you can use Netflix from everywhere, if you are not US resident, just open the US iTunes version and you will be able to access to Netflix offer. Taking into account the exchange rate (for € and £), the all inclusive offer is really cheap.

 

II. STREAMING   Capture d’écran 2013-12-14 à 15.44.19

ADVANTAGES: free + large choice

The trend in streaming is free to watch movie (no registration but advertising), with a large choice of recent and old movies and even sometimes Series. There is no limitation of number of time and period. There are cases where some movies are available on streaming even before there are released in your country.

DOWNSIDES: illegal + intrusive ads + bad quality

The worst inconvenient is the variability of the definition and audio quality as well as the number of intrusive advertising.

ADVICES: MrFilmZe

Top Best Cinema recommends the following streaming websites :

http://www.mrfilmze.com : movies

www.vkstreaming.org : movies

www.k-streaming.com: movies and series 

Well, there are hundreds of unlegal streaming websites which allow you to watch all the movies you want for free, but with some pop unders opening when you launch a movie. You can easily find original version and other languages.

  

III. TORRENT  utorrent-utorrent-51.jpgCapture d’écran 2013-12-14 à 15.44.43

ADVANTAGES: own the file

The main advantages is definitely the fact that it is free and you have the files, so you can watch it at anytime and as many times as you wish to.

DOWNSIDES: illegal

First, if you share some protected copyright you have to know that this is illegal, maybe except if you have bough the product and only share it with a few friends it might be considered as normal use (who knows?). Be also aware that many files can be corrupted (virus, trojan).

ADVICES: Utorrent + TorrentHound + VLC 

Top Best Cinema recommends to download Utorrent then to find your files on www.torrenthound.com. There are others like PirateBay or torrentZ but there are many files missing most of the times.

 You have to download VLC to be sure to be able to play all video files. When you open the files in the Utorrent window, do not download it when the icon is orange/vlc type (find another files), only go for blue icon/logo files in the torrent window.

Well, if you think your PC/mac is corrupted or very slow, you still can buy daisydisk.app (very cheap like 8€) which allows you to really clean your hard disk. 

 

NOTE:

All the advices given here are free of any commercial purpose or agreement, this is only a shared experience.

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BEST SCENE EVER # 51

– SNATCH (Desert Eagle Scene)

directed by Guy Ritchie starring Brad Pitt

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Genre: Thriller-Comedy

Guy Ritchie’s sophomore follow-up to his 1998 sleeper hit Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch revisits the previous film’s territory of London’s crime-ridden underbelly, and does so with the same brand of humor and stylish direction that made Ritchie’s first effort a surprise success. With a labyrinthine plot that is ostensibly oriented around a missing diamond, Snatch introduces viewers to three groups of characters intent on retrieving the elusive stone, which has been stolen from an Antwerp jeweler.

In the first group are friends and business partners Turkish (Jason Statham, who also supplies the film’s voice-over narration) and Tommy (Stephen Graham), who join up with Mickey (Brad Pitt), an Irish gypsy and boxer. Turkish and Tommy make arrangements with Mickey to take a fall in a match engineered by lunatic gang leader Brick Top (Alan Ford). In another corner resides equally loony Russian gangster Boris the Blade (Rade Sherbedgia), who has asked Jewish gangster Franky Four Fingers (Benicio Del Toro) to place a bet on the match for him.

Rating: 8.5/10

EXTRA: Video Making-Off with Guy Ritchie

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BEST SERIE # 8

A YOUNG DOCTOR’S NOTEBOOK

A doctor (Jon Hamm) recalls his time at a small Russian village in 1917 and interacts with his younger self (Daniel Radcliffe) in this black comedy series based on short stories by Mikhail Bulgakov.

For reasons that are never explained, the young doctor (who remains unnamed) — the most promising graduate of Moscow’s top medical school — has been sent to a remote hospital “in the back of the back of beyond.” There, he encounters a skeptical staff and peasants who are convinced that everything can be healed by the right kind of drops (or maybe a gargle, in a pinch). Everywhere he turns, he is confronted with portraits of the ferociously bearded Leopold Leopoldovich, his predecessor, and he is continually reminded that he doesn’t seem up to the job by a staff who worshipped Leopoldovich.

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This tale of the unsentimental education of a newly minted doctor is sort of a black comedy, but it’s also a farce, a period piece, a melancholy Russian tragedy and a meditation on despair and addiction.

This Comedy-Drama series is brilliantly directed and served by two excellent actors, the only weakness is the short duration and  number of episodes (2 seasons of 4 episodes).

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A Young Doctor’s Notebook starring Daniel Radcliffe 

EXTRA: TOP5 Best Soundtracks by Daniel Radcliffe
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