A medida que nos acercábamos a la cumbre del G8, tuve el raro privilegio de pasar a través de no solo mi primer barricada sino de mi segunda y tercera también. Sin embargo, nos dejaron pasar amablemente. Luciendo un traje sumamente inadecuado parado en el medio de un campo, hice una entrevista con Andrew Marr de la BBC. Me sentí torpe pero así es como me siento en este tipo de situaciones y creo que salió bien.

“Cuando Oxfam conoció a Bill”

Trabajando con Oxfam, no me he convertido en experto sobre asuntos internacionales, pero he hecho un par de películas sobre países en desarrollo.

Una fue “El Jardinero Fiel” que trata sobre el gran escándalo moderno de cómo se usa a África como laboratorio de prueba de nuevos medicamentos. También actué en “La Niña en el Café” dirigida por Richard Curtis. Mi papel fue el de un empleado público en el foro del G8 en Islandia, así que probablemente mi elección como embajador de Oxfam fue una opción obvia. La película era bastante parecida a la realidad, hicieron un buen trabajo para obtener el tono general, creando una mezcla de emoción y desasosiego al mismo tiempo.

Mi mensaje para los líderes del G8 es y será siempre: “Cumplan sus promesas”. Si no lo hacen, el mundo se enfrentará a una situación crítica en la cual se perderán millones de vidas aunque la solución sea alcanzable, fácilmente alcanzable. La gente de Oxfam lo sabe mejor que nadie.

______________________________________________________________

I arrived in Tokyo a few days ago, having flown in from Los Angeles where I had been operating in jack boots and a nazi uniform. So it was a bit of a relief to get into a lounge suit. I’ve been to Tokyo once before, when filming Pirates of the Carribean, acting as “Davy Jones” or “The Squid” as I’m known in Japan. On this occasion I was warmly welcomed by Oxfam representatives and felt very pleased to be here to draw attention to the important meeting ahead.

As we drove up closer to the G8 summit, I had the unusual privilege of going through not only my first but also second and third roadblocks. However, we were gently allowed through. Wearing a deeply inappropriate suit standing in the middle of a field, I did an interview with Andrew Marr from the BBC. I felt clumsy, but that’s the way I like to feel in these situations and I think it went well.

Working with Oxfam, I haven’t become an expert on international affairs, but I have done a couple films about developing countries. One was “The Constant Gardner” which was about the great modern scandal on how Africa is used as a laboratory for testing new medicines. I also acted in “The Girl in the Cafe” directed by Richard Curtis, playing a civil servant at a G8 forum in Iceland, so that’s probably why I was an obvious choice for Oxfam to ask me to be their ambassador. The film was quite similar to the real thing, they did a good job at getting the overall tone, creating a mixture of exitement and dread at the same time.

My message to the G8 leaders is and will remain: “Keep your promises”. If they don’t, the world will be facing a critical situation in which millions of lives will be lost, even though the solution is achievable, easily achievable. The people of Oxfam know that better than anyone.

1. The Girl in the Café (Dir. David Yates)

Why Did You Pick That?

Two reasons: It's been in my queue for over a year. 2. Bill Nighy.

2. My Blueberry Nights (Dir. Kar Wai Wong)

Why Did You Pick That?

The preview and the cast sold me.

3. Persepolis (Vincent Paronnaud / Marjane Satrapi)

Why Did You Pick That?

I'll watch any animated film that challenges Pixar at the Academy Awards. And  I've been wanting to see more different animation styles.

"Big Cops. Small Town. Moderate Violence."

We're big Simon Pegg fans [wrote and starred in Shaun of the Dead], so we raced to the theater to see this one - and we weren't disappointed. Hot Fuzz is hysterical! This is the story of Nicolas Angel, the finest police officer London's ever seen. In fact, he's too good and is dismayed to find out that he's being transferred out to the sleepy town of Sandford [so he stops making his collegues look bad]. The decision went all the way to the top of his precinct and the Chief Inspector [Bill Nighy] had to tell Angel himself when he refused to believe the news.

When he gets there he's paired up with new partner, Danny Butterman [Nick Frost], son of the friendly, bumbling police chief Frank Butterman [Jim Broadbent]. Danny is a huge action movie fan, his favorite being 'Bad Boys', so when he meets his 'big city' partner, he hopes his dreams of action, gun fights and car chases will become a reality. All seems calm and tranquil in the almost crime-free town [which coupled with Danny's over-enthusiasm for action depresses Angel] until a grizzly 'accident' happens that causes Angel to dig deeper. As more and more 'accidents' occur, it's up to Angel and Butterman to get to the bottom of it, as Butterman's dreams of becoming a real life 'Bad Boy' come true. And everyone becomes a suspect. 

For the fun, the action and originality, this movie is a solid 4 out of 5. If you love Shaun of the Dead, see it. If you've seen Hot Fuzz and loved it, see Shaun of the Dead. These guys claim to have seen 'every action movie ever made' and write movies based on what they'd want to see, and they're good at it. Part spoof, part awesome. Love it!

~ HELENA

Add'l Info: Released: Feb 14, 2007 • Runtime: 121 minutes • Rated R for violent content including some graphic images, and language

"An Immortal Battle For Supremacy."

If you read my blurb on the right about 'the perils of movie going...' then you know what happened the first time we went to see Underworld. Despite being completely inconvenienced, in the end, seeing the first half again for the second time allowed us to catch anything we may have missed in this fast-paced vampire romp. We have since bought it and watched it many times... 

Underworld is the story of two clans fighting for supremacy, a fight that's been raging for almost 1,000 years [unbeknownst to us mere mortals] between the Vampires and the Lycans [werewolves]. Nobody on the vampire side of things seems to know the real reason behind this rival clash, because delving into the past is 'forbidden.' In an effort to stop the war, the lycans are working on a way to end the feud, which leads to Michael Corvin [Scott Speedman]. It's up to Selene [Kate Beckinsale], a vampire 'death dealer' to figure out why the lycans want him, which leads her to the ultimate truth, and questioning her very existance...

Though the plot is a little convoluted and some of the performances are on the cheesey side, the overall look and feel of this movie, along with the soundtrack and visual effects make it easier to forgive. Plus... we love vampires and these are as goth sexy as they get. The 'Lycans' on the other hand took some getting used to, but they were interesting enough to keep us hooked. Bill Nighy's over the top performance as Viktor, the oldest and most powerful of the vampires was comical in a good way because it contrasted his cold evilness enough to make it almost shocking. He truly felt unhuman. 

I was impressed by Kate Beckinsale's portrayal of Selene, especially since my previous exposure to her was in movies like Pearl Harbor and Brokendown Palace. Doing a dark, action-horror flick was a real departure from her norm and she pulled it off with sexy, butt-kicking grace. Speedman was okay, but got much better later in the movie, but I won't say why and ruin any surprises. Underworld also featured a very cool car: The Maserati 3200 GT. 

For the action, the effects and an interesting story, I'd give it a solid 3 1/2 out of 5. If you like vampires, monster movies, goth style or rain, this is your movie.  ;)

Add'l Info: Released: Sep 19, 2003 • Runtime: 121 minutes • Rated R for strong violence/gore and some language

Bill Nighy (from Love Actually, Underworld: Evolution, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest) plays Blanchett's devoted husband. Nighy's always got these great roles... Billy Mack, the obsolete rock singer in Love Actually. Viktor, the vampire lord from Underworld. And Davy Jones, the legendary pirate in Pirates.

Notes on a Scandal is actually pretty straight-forward. There appear to be twists and turns, but not really. A married teacher sleeps with one of her students. Her friend and fellow teacher keeps journals of everything going on. They clash. That's all there is to it. The acting is pretty amazing. You have two of the arguably best English actors of our time. Can't really go wrong with that.

The film's kind of dark. The mood is melancholic, sometimes hasty. I think that's to create an uncomfortable environment for the audience. The music and mood do a pretty good job of that. It was adapted from a novel by writer Patrick Marber, who also did Closer, which I realy liked. Director Richard Eyre is a former TV director in the UK. The only other work of his I'm familiar with is Atonement, with which he had a producer role.

Decent flick. Probably not worth renting... But if it plays on TV, I'd DVR it.

It's more about suggestion in this moment captured from The Constant Gardener, a fine adaptation of the John Le Carré novel.

British diplomat Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) is brought to a Kenyan mortuary to identify the body of his murdered wife Tessa (Rachel Weisz), but it is his colleague Sandy Woodrow (Danny Huston), who cannot control himself.

Oordeel: Het verhaal doet je op het puntje van je stoel zitten. Fatal instinct meets Jezus en Judas. Blanchet en Dench zijn briljant (dat zijn ze meestal). Tel daarbij een ijzersterk script en je hebt een topper. Dikke aanrader dus!

The detective sergeant has no name. He works for a superior known only as The Voice. He works out of a place called The Factory, a department called Unexplained Deaths.

This nameless investigator is protagonist of Derek Raymond's Factory series of crime novels, which I've just started reading -- predictably enough, in the middle of the sequence. How The Dead Live is sensational and I immediately wanted to film it. One problem -- I wanted to film it with Stanley (PERFORMANCE) Meadows in 1965, twenty years before it was written, two years before I was born.

But never mind, I'll happily film it now if anybody will let me. The French have filmed two Raymonds, but the language of the books is so integral they must be losing masses of good stuff. How the Dead Lives alternates between madly uneven existential philosophy and pulp posturing in its narration, and shamelessly dated (even for the mid-eighties) cockney patter and noir bullshit in its dialogue. I found it utterly irresistible. You have to imagine dialogue as excessive as Clifford Odets' in THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS of Abraham Polonsky's in FORCE OF EVIL, only wrapped round a clenched London fist of slangy argot.

"'I don't think you quite understand," I said. 'I'll put it this way. The more you don't tell me right answers to what I want to know, the more I start to suspect -- and as another police officer I'd better remind you straight off, you be careful you don't pot the wrong colour on this one, darling. Because if you do you could lose the whole of this frame fast and find yourself on your ear with a pension worth five times fuck all. Now your best course is to start telling me what I want to know immediately, otherwise I'll dig it up by myself and God help you, are you reading me? It's London that wants the answer to this Mrs Mardy business fast, and I mean very fast. I've got a firework up my arsehole from my folk, and that means I'm going to have to put one up yours, it's called self-help, alright?'"

Storywise, How the Dead Live starts like Red Harvest and ends like Poe -- maybe The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, for instance. It's smeared over with death throughout, although there's only really one fatality within the novel's time-frame. Raymond is obsessed with the Big Sleep. His prose reeks of decay. His hero is a ragged scarecrow of a man, the world he moves through is slipping into putrescence. At the centre of the book is a vast manor house collapsing with damp, its contents rotting away.

"Now I saw by the final light what I had only sensed in the dark the time before. Now appeared the murderous abandon of the park -- shrubs that had once been planted in orderly groups shrank like wet beggars; the flailed and thrashed, unpruned, under diseased elms staggering in the gale. I stopped the car, got out and looked up at the ruin of the house, high, wet and hideous.

"As I stood there I suddenly felt afraid -- not of what confronted me but in a general way. I thought and felt that the secret of existence was perhaps to get old with beauty, ironically, coming closer and closer to you as you aged; innocence, everything that you had rejected or ignored as a young man, entering you like music all the time until in the end there was no more time. Then much of what had seemed so hard would be over, after too much work in cities, after patrolling too many streets for too long, after studying too many faces with the sly, fixed look of the dead."

It's purple and overripe and totally sincere, like Poe or Cornell Woolrich. The best bits are incredibly sharp, the worst bits are still kind of brilliant. By the end I had settled on Bill Nighy to play the detective sergeant in my dream movie, although there's a brilliant actor called Danny Webb who's more the right age and could also be great. He has the same mad, icy eyes as the late great Nigel Green.

"'Considering who you are and what you do,' he said, 'I think you're all right.'

'None of us are ever all right,' I said. 'We're all just waiting for the death express.'"

Schuber
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Die Holländer bringen einfach die am besten zusammengestellten Boxen auf den Markt und die Romantic Comedy Box stellt mit Nichten eine Ausnahme dessen dar. Auch optisch ist sie nicht zu verachten und mit einem Kaufpreis von 9,99€ habe ich hier definitiv ein Megaschnäppchen gemacht. :) (Inzwischen kostet sie wieder 36€, Stand: 28.04.08 ) :P

Hier geht's zu KiNGUs Notting Hill-Review

Cruise as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg

It's a story that should be done, and one that is really interesting. Will the execution be there? who knows. Tom Cruise is the one producing it under his newly resurrected United Artists production company. The last movie he came out with "Lions for Lambs" flopped big time, but many argue that it could have been a case of right movie, wrong time.

As with "Lions for Lambs," "Valkyrie" has an impressive cast both in front of and behind the camera. Check out these names: (With movie credits that I've personally seen)
Bryan Singer - Director (X-men, X2, The Usual Suspects, Apt Pupil)
Christopher McQuarrie - Co-Writer (The Usual Suspects, The Way of the Gun)

Actors:
Tom Cruise- Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (MI: 1-3, Minority Report, Vanilla Sky)
Kenneth Branagh- Henning von Tresckow (Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Shackleton)
Tom Wilkinson - Friedrick Fromm (Batman Begins, The Exorcism of Emily Rose)
Bill Nighy- Friedrich Olbricht (Underworld, Pirates of the Caribbean 2-3, Shaun of the Dead)

His foolery and Scientology freakiness aside, in my humble opinion, Tom Cruise can act. Watch "Eyes Wide Shut," "Vanilla Sky," or "Minority Report" without prejudice and tell me he can't? All 3 really great movies that I can't imagine someone else playing his role.

Will the movie flop? Who knows. I know alot of movie goers are sick of hearing about him and so get turned off when the prospect of one of his movies comes around.  I just watched the trailer for Valkyrie. I'm not going to be the first in line to watch it opening weekend, but I do want to see it in the theatre when it comes out. (I'll be saving my "Opening night" money on "The Dark Knight" by the way, but that's another story!)

Hace algunos meses les mostré el trailer de Valkyrie del director Bryan 'Superman' Singer, pues bien ahora por fin aparecen las nuevas fotos de la producción, las cuales incluyen una toma de Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) junto a Friedrich Olbricht (Bill Nighy) y en otra una foto del mismo Cruise junto a Carice van Houten, quien interpreta a la esposa del Coronel Stauffenberg. Existe una tercera fotografía de la producción en un ambientado Berlin de la época de la guerra. Todas las fotos las pueden ver a continuación.

Questa volta però Selene, protagonista della trilogia, non sarà interpretata dalla bella Kate Beckinsale, infatti, durante la conferenza stampa di presentazione della pellicola Snow Angels ha dichiarato che non avrebbe più interpretato il ruolo dell'affascinante vampira protagonista di Underworld e Underworld: Evolution. Nel film però saranno presenti Rhona Mitra (nei panni di Sonja), Bill Nighy e Michael Sheen, questi ultimi presenti anche nei due precedenti episodi.

La nuova protagonista quindi sarà Rhona Mitra, che andrà a sostituire kate Beckinsale. Proprio dal set, in Nuova Zelanda, hanno voluto smentire i rumors che parlavano di un film povero, con un budget dimezzato rispetto ai capitoli precedenti, sottolineando come il set sia immenso i vestiti curatissimi e come il film sarà un concentrato di azione e combattimenti tra personaggi mai visti fino ad oggi. Ritroviamo personaggi come Lucien, il capo dei Lycan che nutre sogni di libertà per la propria specie e un amore segreto per la bella Sonja, e il crudele Viktor, il re dei vampiri.

The word serendipity is probably not right to describe my experience finding this film, since it was an active act of searching, even if I did not know what exactly I was looking for. But if not for The Girl, I would never have found Damien Rice, and that is an act of serendipity, I believe.

The Girl is a love story, an unusual love story, with kind of a serendipity beginnning. It is a quiet lovestory, and I also found it beautiful. The two main characters, Lawrence and Gina, meet at a cafe while Lawrence has a coffebreak from work. Lawrence, a civil servant, and Gina, a young unemployd student of life, fall for each other. They decide to meet again for lunch, and then dinner, until Lawrence finally decides to ask Gina to go to the G8-summit in Reykjavik with him.

I really love Bills acting, as the quiet and almost invisible civil servant, who has been living alone for too long. One can almost see it in his walk, how he evades people while reading something work related. At times it really hurt watching Lawrence and I really felt sorry for him. For me Bills acting and Damien Rice's beautiful music are the essence of this move.

Now go out and watch it for yourself.

La película que supuestamente cerrara la trilogía de Underworld será una precuela. Poco se sabe del argumento: Se situara en la edad media y mostrara los orígenes de la línea de sangre de los vampiros esclavizando a los machos hombres lobo. La mala noticia es que Kate Beckinsale no tiene nada que ver con este proyecto, es una lastima por que si en Underworld: Evolution salió en una escena sucia (muy buena por cierto) en esta me esperaba que la encueraran por completo, ni modos. La buena noticia es que la no menos sexy Rhona Mitra va a ser una de las protagónicas de la nueva película de…bueno Terror/Ciencia Ficción/Drama.

Ojala que salga algo bueno, o que al menos muestren a Mitra como mostraron a Beckinsale…

Aquí el resto de los actores.

La foto es de Rhona Mitra en Hollow Man, por si algún despistado todavía no la conocía.

Pocas cosas son tan terroríficas como la mente enferma de personas que tienen algo de poder sobre nosotros, personas que conocen nuestros secretos más íntimos. Si las mantenemos contentas no debemos preocuparnos, sin embargo, pobre de nosotros si cometemos el terrible error de hacerlas enojar. Adicionalmente, si nos enfrentamos a personalidades solitarias e insatisfechas (en cualquier nivel) estaremos al borde de caer en una pesadilla y, quien sabe, correr el riesgo de perder nuestra vida tal como la conocemos. Notes on a Scandal es un thriller psicológico, pero a la vez es un duro drama. Es la materialización de los deseos y pesadillas más profundas de mentes que se han visto enfrentadas a situaciones imposibles de manejar.

Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett) es una joven profesora de artes, recién llegada a un deprimente colegio (¿no son todos así?) de los suburbios de Londres. Un lugar al que asiste la plebe pubescente de la región; los futuros plomeros, asistentes de compras  y también, sin duda, alguno que otro terrorista. En todos los colegios existe un(a) profesor(a) que se destaca por ser intransigente, un(a) duro(a)... un(a) viejo(a) de mierda! En este caso la función de paco la cumple Barbara Covett, interpretada por una fabulosa Judi Dench, profesora de historia y que parece haber aparecido en el colegio al mismo tiempo en que lo edificaban. Bárbara es una mujer solitaria, sola en realidad, si es que no contamos a su gato, pero es una mujer astuta y sobretodo muy observadora. Su soledad la hace analizar todo lo que ve, lo cual después anota en uno de sus innumerables diarios de vida, el único confesor de todos sus sueños frutrados, tentaciones y más bajos deseos. Sus ojos rápidamente se posaron en la nueva profesora, por la novedad o quizás porque de verdad destaca de entre la plebe... Barbara inmediatamente la cataloga como una snob fantasiosa, pero hay algo en su personalidad que le llama la atención y que la obliga a seguir mirando todos sus movimientos con atención. Debido a eso es que logra calmar a un par de revoltosos estudiantes que sacaban de quisio a Sheba, logrando la gratitud inmediata de la nueva profesora... ahhh... primer paso en la conquista de una presa, Barbara logró acercarse. El resto viene fácil y Barbara lo tiene claro, quedándo plasmado en el magistral guión como; "Es una característica peculiar de los privilegiados: intimidad imprudente inmediata", hay gente que no mide lo que dice, ni cuánta información le entrega en la palabra a un total desconocido. Por eso Barbara lo tiene fácil, para una depredadora como ella recibir esa información gratuita es invaluable.

La amistad crece rápidamente y un día, casi por coincidencia, Barbara descubre que Sheba está teniendo una relación con uno de sus estudiantes (Andrew Simpson). La rabia de Barbara pasa rápido a un segundo lugar, al darse cuenta que este es otro regalo del destino, que le dará más poder sobre su victima amiga. Decide no denunciarla a las autoridades escolares e insta a terminar su relación, buscando así alcanzar un vinculo de complicidad mayor y lograr satisfacer, con ese nuevo conocimiento, su obsesión por Sheba. Una obsesión que llevará a las dos mujeres a un lugar al que ninguna de las dos pensaron jamás podrían llegar.

Notes on a Scandal del director Richard Eyre y del guionista Patrick Marber está basada en la novela de Zoe Heller. Aquí todo funciona de maravilla, los pausados planos de cámara le entregan al relato una intensidad lenta, pero por ningun motivo tediosa, sobre todo al principio. Asistimos a la vida íntima de personas comunes y corrientes, casi como si fuesemos ellas mismas. El guión es fantástico y cuenta con unos diálogos geniales, sobre todo en el caso de Judi Dench que además actúa como narradora. Las actuaciones también son muy buenas, Blanchett es una liberal, hippie y con grandes problemas de personalidad. Simpson es un pendejo odioso, engreido y descaradamente temerario. Dent por su parte actúa de una forma tan tétrica que de se esta una película de James Bond haría que el agente británico se cagara en dos tiempos. Las demás actuaciones están también muy bien logradas, la gorda y odiosa profesora Joanna Scanlan y el esposo de Sheba, Richard (Bill Nighy).

Notes on a Scandal es un viaje perturbador a los rincones más oscuros de la mente humana, de seres normales, comunes y corrientes que podrían ser nuestros vecinos, nuesrtos amigos, nuestros familiares o incluso nosotros mismos. La película pudo haber sido mejor con un final más potente entre las antagonistas, pero tal vez eso le habría quitado parte del excelente realismo que logró generar de principio a fin. Es, sin duda, una muy buena película.

TRAILER

FICHA TÉCNICA
Nombre: Notes on a Scandal
Año: 2006
Duración: 92 minutos
Dirigida por: Richard Eyre
Escrita por: Patrick Marber
Basada en la novela de: Zoe Heller
Protagonizada por: Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, Bill Nighy y Andrew Simpson
Producida por: BBC Films y DNA Films

Genres: Action/Adventure, Art/Foreign, Thriller and Adaptation
Starring: Alex Pettyfer, Ewan McGregor, Robbie Coltrane, Mickey Rourke, Bill Nighy
Directed by: Geoffrey Sax

Wah, wah. Satu lagi film tentang remaja main mata-mata.

Alex Rider (Alex Pettifer) adalah remaja 14 tahun yang tinggal dengan pamannya, seorang bankir, dan babysitter bernama Jack (Alicia Silverstones). Suatu hari pamannya dibunuh dan Alex menghadapi kenyataan mengejutkan bahwa selama ini dia diasuh oleh seorang mata-mata MI6. Parahnya lagi, dia malah dikontak oleh badan intelligen Inggris itu untuk menggantikan tugas pamannya yang belum komplit.

MI6 menugaskannya karena berkeyakinan bahwa Ian Rider (Ewan McGregor), sang almarhum paman, telah mempersiapkan keponakannya untuk tugas intai-mengintai. Semasa hidupnya, Alex didorong untuk belajar tiga bahasa: Francais, Deutch, dan Nihongo. Selain itu ada juga pelajaran menyelam, mendaki, beladiri, blah blah blah, pokoknya semua adalah kemampuan standar seorang intel. Jadilah Alex seorang anak yang perfect. Alex menerima tawaran MI6 dengan dorongan akan mengungkap misteri terbunuhnya paman Ian. Dan menyelamatkan Jack dari ancaman deportasi (Jack memiliki kewarganegaraan Amerika, yang visanya telah habis dan terancam dipenjara).

Uh, misinya mengangkut masalah Stormbreaker, teknologi komputer terbaru yang diciptakan untuk kepentingan pendidikan anak sekolah Inggris. Diciptakan oleh orang bernama Darius Sayle (Mickey Rourke), yang memiliki dendam kesumat pada masyarakat Inggris. Dulu waktu Darius masih sekolah, dia selalu diejek karena dia orang asing. Dan salah satu teman sekolahnya adalah Perdana Menteri (Robbie Coltrane) yang menjabat sekarang. Jadi dia berencana menghancurkan Inggris lewat rilis Stormbreaker.

Kenapa Stormbreaker berbahaya? Ternyata di dalamnya ada virus genetika yang siap membunuh jutaan orang. Alex harus bekerja keras mengungkap ini.

Menurut saya pribadi, film ini terlalu maksa. Dengan berlatar kehidupan sehari-hari yang normal, jalan cerita malah terkesan tidak masuk akal. Badan intelligen mana yang mau mempercayakan misi sangat penting dan rahasia di tangan anak ingusan 14 tahun yang belum pernah berkenalan dengan dunia spionase? Meskipun dia memiliki pengetahuan layaknya seorang agen, tapi keadaan mentalnya belum siap menghadapi dunia yang penuh bahaya dan kebohongan. Apalagi setelah pamannya meninggal, pasti emosinya masih labil. Menakjubkan kalau Alex berhasil dalam misi ini.

Ketidakprofesionalan Alex terbukti dalam beberapa adegan yang menunjukkan bahwa dia cuma anak-anak yang sok jadi agen rahasia. Aah, jadi nggak seru. Nggak ada asiknya nonton "mata-mata ceroboh yang tertangkap", padahal dia sedang memikul keselamatan jutaan jiwa di punggungnya. Buat apa memaparkan berbagai macam keahlian yang menyilaukan? Seperti kodok pake mahkota pengeran, dia nggak bakal bisa loncat soalnya mahkotanya terlalu berat. Pada dasarnya dia cuma kodok yang cuma bisa ngorek.

Film ini juga diepenuhi hal-hal tipikal misalnya, keberadaan seorang cewek supercantik bernama Sabina (Sarah Bolger) yang tentu saja potensial jadi teman cewek sang tokoh utama. Itu nggak cukup. Di akhir cerita si Alex malah ngajak Sabina ikut ke markas Darius Sayle. Uh?

Trus alat-alat pengintaian ala James Bond juga kebawa. Karena Alex masih anak-anak, dia dibekali yoyo yang ternyata adalah alat pelacak berbenang nilon khusus yang bisa dipake gelantungan ala mata-mata. Ada lagi tas parasut, obat jerawat yang bisa menghancurkan melelehkan besi hingga ketebalan 9 inchi (sekitar 22.5 cm), pena berisi obat hipnotis (?) yang disa ditembakkan sejauh 8 meter, dan terakhir.... Nitendo mini plus kartu gamenya. Hehehe.

Mengenai dua hal terakhir di atas: Salah sih enggak, cuman tipikal banget.

Tapi aksi-aksinya lumayan keren lho. Pertunjukan karate solo Alex, hmmmm, banyak gerakan-gerakan yang tidak saya mengerti tapi efektif buat menjatuhkan lawan. Lalu pas Alex mengejar mobil box berisi barang-barang pamannya, dia mengejar mobil itu cuman pake sepeda. Kebut-kebutan di jalan raya, bikin macet. Dan ajaibnya, dia selamat dengan indah!

Kesimpulan: aksinya boleh juga, apalagi dilakukan oleh remaja 14 tahun, walaupun menurut saya pemainnya terlalu tua untuk jadi anak 14 tahun. Yang jadi masalah adalah cerita yang maksa itu tadi. Tapi selepas itu, semuanya boleh.