Ready? OK! is a fun and inspiring film .  I really enjoyed watching it as the films has influences from two of my favorite films ” Billy Elliot ” and” But I am a cheerleader ” .  The film follows the adventures of the 10 years old ( almost 11 ) Josh Dowd who is energetic young boy who is studying in a rather strict private religious school and is in its wresting team.  But Josh is not that interested in Wrestling - he would like to join the school`s cheerleader team and as abut wrestling - well he wears a homemade button with the face his favorite varsity wrestler.
The school officials do not approve Josh attempts to join the cheerleaders team. On the he is being told to ” forget all hopes that he would ever join the team “. And then we see how cheerful  really is the young boy as he doesn`t give up - but says ” Hey I am not trying to brake the rules - but change them ! ” . Would`t it be wonderful if more people had his attitude ?
The character development in the film was quire well made - as we gradually learn a lot of new things about Josh , his mom , uncle and even his ” artistic ” neighbor. Carrie Preston play good in the challenged work of overworked mom - who doesn`t really have time for her son - worrying that she might have troubles at her job as people could decide that she is not ” what they are looking for ” . She gets worried that her expectation of her son are not being fulfilled and her confusion makes her admit that she just don`t know what to do …or say . That until she is told by their neighbor that  to him ” Josh is  one of the  most  smartest , funniest , most sensitive little boy he  ever had a please of knowing ” and that she is missing an amazing opportunity of being there for him, helping him to be himself - not what the others are expecting him to be .

Is Josh in troble ?
My own experience with cheerleaders is from the time I was studying in the US.  That`s the very first time I saw cheerleading teams

Have you ever wondered why some of my reviews seem so personal ?
The answer would explain my addiction to coming of age movies  - and it is as simple as saying that I have been through similar experiences to the characters in the movie I review.  It`s not always my experience - sometimes it is the experience of someone I knew well - well enough to help me associate with the actors on screen and what they go trough.
That being said I am going to tell you that my review of  The Interrogation of Michael Crowe is going to be one of those personal reviews. The film is a true masterpiece and is  based on  real people and events  -  I have seen scenes with my own eyes that closely resemble the events shown in the film.
The Interrogation of Michael Crowe is the second feature film produced by Court TV. It focuses on the plight of 14-year-old Michael Crowe .  One morning his younger sister is found murdered in her bed. The police officers decided to accuse Michael for the murder of his sister after seeing things in his room such as the game ” Final fantasy 7″ and drawings from ” Dungeons and Dragons “  . Michael was cruelly interrogated for 11 straight hours . The police used variety of  scare tactics to get a confession from the confused boy - they lied to him and got what they wanted …
If I am to categorize this film - I would say that is was an extremely heavy and hard to watch  psychological drama.  First thing you will notice when watching this movie is the brilliant acting .   I don`t recall knowing another movie in which the entire cast is so well selected and flawless on screen. Mark Rendall who played the role of the 14 years old Michel Crow deserves a special recognition as his portrayal of the intensity of emotions Crow felt in the interrogation room was next to perfect.  I would like to quote few extracts from an interview transcript in which the real Michel Crow and Mark Rendall answered questions about the story and the movie itself :

Just opened my RSS reader and stumbled on a post about the short movie 10 Minutes. My opinion is that the movie was quite well filmed - showing how much can 10 minutes be for someone and how less of a time for another. I would like to get your feedback on this film - do you think it deserves its high rating at IMDB ( 8.4/10) ?
Similar film : Savrseni Krug

Phillipp Kirkorov is a famous Russian singer. I like some of his songs - especially the one I am posting in this entry. The clip is definatelly well made - and somehow makes me feel a bit of nostalgia .

Few weeks ago I stumbled upon Shape Collage. Shape Collage is  a  freeware program  that allows you to transform a group of photos you specify to an amazing collage which can take any shape or even form a word as the photos are arranged in letters. I already created some quite fun collages - like writing my name from photos of mine on you can do a collage from your favorite artist or movie covers . The possibilities are pretty much endless . My experience with the software is very positive - its fast , very responsive and produces amazing results.
Here is a short demo video of what people have been doing with Shape Collage :

You can find more examples on the program`s web site
If you decide to give it a try and make some collages for movies or treble music performers - please free to share them with me either via comment or via the contact me page and they would most likely end up in this post. Let`s see how creative you can get ( :

I am officially labeling El Niño Que Gritó Puta one of the greatest films ever made. Just finished watching it and could hardly describe what I feel - in fact it worries me a bit as I am afraid that the review of the film is going to be a bit more emotional than usual . But that is a good thing - isn`t it ?
When the set the film in my DVD player I had no idea that it would be that powerful. Indeed the first scenes are quite misleading - and it rather reminded me of Twelve and Holding. What impressed me straight away was the film soundtrack - composed by Wendy Blackstone it was powerful and really which emphasizes the drama of a story. At first we see boys fooling around and their mother obviously is unable to control them - first they are too wild and then they seemed to luck much respect to her.  It is those scenes in which we are introduced to the young protagonist of the film the 12-year-old  Harley Cross who delivers a first class performance as a confused and psychotic adolescent. We first see him as  capricious and impulsive young lad but learn a lot more about him as the story develops.It must have been quite challenging for him to play such a complicated role. His facial expressions , his eyes - I can assure you that you are going to remember them for a long time after seeing the film.
I would like to quote of of my favorite movie reviewers Marc Savlov who in his review of The Boys Who Cried Bitch excellently described the talents of Harley Cross :
“Harley Cross, as Dan, has managed to tap into a gold mine of talent. He’s all ticks, stutters, gleaming eyes and mood swings, thoroughly convincing as a juvenile psychotic, while at the same time imbuing his character with a terrible inner sadness and confusion.
It’s rare to see a young actor come across so convincingly in such a deep and powerful role, but Cross is a master of the game here, and Dan Love is as believable as a gunshot in the night. ” (link to the original review of Marc Savlov)
Of co

I have been thinking of doing an article about Chernila dlya pyatogo klassa ( Чернила для пятого класса) for quite a while.  The group was formed in 1992 by Sergey Kuznetsov  who is the producer  and composer behind Steklovata ( СТЕКЛОVАТА ) , New Forms ( НОВЫЕ ФОРМЫ ) , Alis and many other well known formations . Worth mentioning is the soloist of Chernila dlya pyatogo klassa -  Igor Veryaskin who started working with Sergey from the age of twelve  .  Before that he used to sing in a local choir. He appearance in the group video clips is quite memorable . I picked two of my video clips for this entry - but if you like them you will find many at youtube and the official site of Chernila.
My favorite clip :
ya tebe obyavlau voinu
…and another one which always brings smile to my face  :
The music of Chernila is lyric , with a lot of guitar vibes and even saxophone . The group was lucky that soon after its formation they were Sergey found a sponsor which allowed them to establish a studio they can work at.  In the years to come they produced quite a few albums which I enjoy listening to.
Nowadays Igor Veryaskin lives in the capital and composes his own music.
Materials used :
Information about the group at Gosdetstvo.ru , the group`s page at the Sergey Kuznetsov creative studio and the official site of Chernila dlya pyatogo klassa ( which is an excellent resource in terms of music and video clips ). They are fortunate enough to have some information available about them in English including a LastFm profile.

PS : Recently I discovered an excellent and very informative video about Sergey  Kuznetsov. Its is in Russian - but even if you don`t have knowledge of the language I think that it is worth seeing

Are you a soccer fan ? Do you like comedies ?
If you answer yes to at least one of the questions above than you should definitely see the Spanish film Carlitos y el campo de los sueños. It has been a while since the film was released and it became quite popular in the Spanish speaking countries. Carlitos is 12 year old boy who loves soccer and is good at it. Unfortunately he is an orphan and the director of the orphanage where he lives hates sports .

Everything changes when Carlitos sees an advertisement for a selection contest which will allow talented young players to join the National Football Federation sports team and play in the Junior European Championships. But there is a problem - Catlito is not allowed outside the orphanage. During a school trip he manages to sneak out and attend the contest - and that’s when the adventure begins. He is approved - but now has to find a way to escape of the orphanage without being seen, train in secret while at the same time maintaining good grades at school.

The young Guillermo Campra delivers an outstanding performance in the role of Carlitos. He is rapidly gaining popularity in Spain - and is soon to appear in TV series called Águila roja . His acting talent and adorable looks are guaranteed to win him many fans across the world. You can check his personal web site at blogger and leave him an encouraging comment. Raúl appears in the film as well - so some football fans will be delighted
Carlitos is a nice comedy which kids will adore, as will the adults. As a film it is not perfect, but definitely fulfills it’s main goal which is to entertain. It teaches us all that with hard work and devotion, dreams can become reality.
Today I have a special guest author from Spain ( nicknamed Pajaro ) who would like to share his opinion on Carlitos with you :

Carlitos y el campo de los sueños

Una pelicula para todos los publicos entretenida y con un bonito argumento y un buen reparto de actores .Una pelicula par

It is not everyday that I blog about movie which I haven`t seen yet. However the short movie Quake starring Chase Ellison has been on my list for a long time - and I have to mention its existence in my blog - so some of you may get it . The problem is that its available on itunes for only 2 $ - yet Itunes require an US billing adress - which I don`t posses .  The only impression of the movie I have at the moment is from its trailer - but as soon as I manage to find a way to get it I will be sure to update this post with a detailed review.  It must be a good movie judging from its 8.10/10 rating at its imbd page.
The movie is filmed in Los Angeles, California - Chase plays the part of Toby Fisher, a 13 year old boy who has to learn to face his fear of earthquakes when scientists discover a new fault line runnning through his neighbourhood.
The reason for which the movie remained rather unknown for the wide public is its name - a search for Quake in Internet would bring back a lot of resuts related to the famous game. In fact there are some people who even think that Quake the movie is about the game - which of course is not the case.
Rate this movie and discover more at movies.theskykid.com

I was wondering what title should I put on this article. Street Magic or Volshebniki Dvora as the Russian vocal group behind those names are quite popular with both of them. In addition I had doubts about doing an article on them as they are part of the mainstream those days and you probably already know much more about them than I do.
The group was established in 1989 and with over 20 years on stage gained wide popularity in Russia as well as abroad. Wider exposure was achieved through the media exposure they received while participating in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2005″ in Hasselt (Belgium). In additional one of their soloist, the talented Vlad Krutskih has become widely recognized as their front man and is now Russia’s best known boy singer…(Más). That being said I would note that all of the children in the group possess enormous talent and its obvious that the people who work with them are professionals. One of the things you will notice when watching videos of Street Magic is the their great choreography - of course those of you more familiar with the Russian scene would know that the performers there have always been known for that. But it often feels seems like Street Magic does the extra bit. Most of their songs are full of energy and entertain people of all ages.
Their official web site is the best resource for learning more about them ( it should be the same for all groups ). It is available in Russian, English and Spanish and is packed with resources such as audio, video clips and photos.

Read more at esckaz. /You can download the original photos and songs on the: Official web site
Listen at lastfm / BCSD profile / если вы говорите по-русски- Владислав Крутских

It pays to follow blogs - like mine or the one of  boingboing - you get to discover all sorts of cool things like the video of the young David after dentist …and the effects of medicine on kids.
The video you saw is rapidly gaining popularity and now there is even an animated version of it - which is cool , but I still prefer the original one

Declan Galbraith - An angel

Antonio Jose rules !

Very touching video clip of Billy.