2008 European Figure Skating Championships - Ladies

FPl. Name Nat. Points SP FS
1 Carolina KOSTNER ITA 171.28 1 2
2 Sarah MEIER SUI 169.44 4 1
3 Laura LEPISTO FIN 165.65 3 3
4 Julia SEBESTYEN HUN 162.89 5 4
5 Kiira KORPI FIN 162.22 2 5
6 Valentina MARCHEI ITA 153.34 6 6
7 Elene GEDEVANISHVILI GEO 147.09 8 8
8 Jenna McCORKELL GBR 145.57 7 10
9 Ksenia DORONINA RUS 144.20 10 9
10 Jenni VAHAMAA FIN 142.40 12 7

2008 European Figure Skating Championships - Free Dance

FPl. Name Nat. Points CD OD FD
1 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS 207.14 2 2 1
2 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER FRA 205.92 1 1 2
3 Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI RUS 197.06 3 3 3
4 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 190.95 4 4 4
5 Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT FRA 185.26 5 6 5
6 Sinead KERR / John KERR GBR 182.06 6 5 6
7 Anna CAPPELLINI / Luca LANOTTE ITA 172.64 10 7 7
8 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI ISR 171.70 7 9 9
9 Pernelle CARRON / Mathieu JOST FRA 170.62 11 8 8
10 Kristin FRASER / Igor LUKANIN AZE 168.87 8 10 10

2008 European Figure Skating Championships - Men Free Program

FPl. Name Nat. Points SP FS
1 Tomas VERNER CZE 232.67 1 1
2 Stephane LAMBIEL SUI 225.24 3 2
3 Brian JOUBERT FRA 219.45 2 4
4 Sergei VORONOV RUS 210.13 6 3
5 Kevin VAN DER PERREN BEL 199.57 4 5
6 Adrian SCHULTHEISS SWE 184.94 8 6
7 Kristoffer BERNTSSON SWE 182.45 5 10
8 Andrei LUTAI RUS 180.46 9 9
9 Sergei DAVYDOV BLR 179.90 12 7
10 Alban PREAUBERT FRA 178.63 10 8

2008 European Figure Skating Championships - Original Dance

Original Dance
FPl. Name Nat. Points CD OD FD
1 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER FRA 103.97 1 1
2 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS 102.15 2 2
3 Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI RUS 97.40 3 3
4 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 95.66 4 4
5 Sinead KERR / John KERR GBR 92.09 6 5
6 Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT FRA 91.55 5 6
7 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI ISR 86.43 7 9
8 Kristin FRASER / Igor LUKANIN AZE 85.09 8 10
9 Anna CAPPELLINI / Luca LANOTTE ITA 85.04 10 7
10 Pernelle CARRON / Mathieu JOST FRA 83.67 11 8

2008 European Figure Skating Championships - Pairs Free Program

Pairs Free Program

FPl. Name Nat. Points SP FS
1 Aliona SAVCHENKO / Robin SZOLKOWY GER 202.39 1 1
2 Maria MUKHORTOVA / Maxim TRANKOV RUS 169.41 2 2
3 Yuko KAWAGUCHI / Alexander SMIRNOV RUS 167.25 4 3
4 Tatiana VOLOSOZHAR / Stanislav MOROZOV UKR 163.43 3 4
5 Arina USHAKOVA / Sergei KAREV RUS 130.34 5 6
6 Stacey KEMP / David KING GBR 129.13 7 5
7 Mari VARTMANN / Florian JUST GER 119.86 6 8
8 Melodie CHATAIGNER / Medhi BOUZZINE FRA 116.48 8 7
9 Dominika PIATKOWSKA / Dmitri KHROMIN POL 112.96 9 10
10 Marika ZANFORLIN / Federico DEGLI ESPOSTI ITA 112.11 10 9

2008 European Figure Skating Championships - Men Short Program

Men Short Program

FPl. Name Nat. Points SP FS
1 Tomas VERNER CZE 79.03 1
2 Brian JOUBERT FRA 75.25 2
3 Stephane LAMBIEL SUI 71.78 3
4 Kevin VAN DER PERREN BEL 66.33 4
5 Kristoffer BERNTSSON SWE 65.62 5
6 Sergei VORONOV RUS 64.26 6
7 Gregor URBAS SLO 63.43 7
8 Adrian SCHULTHEISS SWE 63.40 8
9 Andrei LUTAI RUS 63.04 9
10 Alban PREAUBERT FRA 60.54 10

2008 European Figure Skating Championships - Pairs Short Program

Pairs Short Program


1 Aliona SAVCHENKO / Robin SZOLKOWY GER 70.36 1
2 Maria MUKHORTOVA / Maxim TRANKOV RUS 62.73 2
3 Tatiana VOLOSOZHAR / Stanislav MOROZOV UKR 61.29 3
4 Yuko KAWAGUCHI / Alexander SMIRNOV RUS 61.25 4
5 Arina USHAKOVA / Sergei KAREV RUS 49.43 5
6 Mari VARTMANN / Florian JUST GER 47.23 6
7 Stacey KEMP / David KING GBR 46.05 7
8 Melodie CHATAIGNER / Medhi BOUZZINE FRA 41.97 8
9 Dominika PIATKOWSKA / Dmitri KHROMIN POL 41.23 9
10 Marika ZANFORLIN / Federico DEGLI ESPOSTI ITA 40.08 10

2008 European Figure Skating Championships - Compulsory Dance

2008 European Figure Skating Championships 21.01.2008 - 27.01.2008
Zagreb, Croatia

Ice Dance Compulsory Dance


FPl. Name Nat. Points CD OD FD
1 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER FRA 41.25 1
2 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS 40.25 2
3 Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI RUS 37.37 3
4 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 36.87 4
5 Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT FRA 34.58 5
6 Sinead KERR / John KERR GBR 33.55 6
7 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI ISR 33.12 7
8 Kristin FRASER / Igor LUKANIN AZE 33.02 8
9 Anna ZADOROZHNIUK / Sergei VERBILLO UKR 31.28 9
10 Anna CAPPELLINI / Luca LANOTTE ITA 30.97 10

Movie Review: La mome - La vie en rose

*** MIGTH CONTAIN SPOILERS! ***

Featuring: Marion Cotillard, Sylvie Testud, Pascal Greggory, Emmanuelle Seigner, Jean-Paul Rouve, Gérard Depardieu, Clotilde Courau, Jean-Pierre Martins

Genre: drama, biography

Plot: Edith Piaf’s life story

Acting: phenomenal

Drama: She didn’t live a happy and easy life

Action: it’s not about that

Funny: again not the point

Visuals: nice

Soundtrack: original Edith Piaf recordings

Official website: http://www.edithpiafmovie.com/

Comments: All the praises go to Marion Cotillard for making this role outstanding. She deserves the Golden Globe Award and is definitely deserving an Oscar too. That’s all I’m saying. Go see the movie! Also watch her in Taxi, Jeux d’Enfant aka Love Me If You Dare and A Good Year.

Rating: 8/10

Movie Review: P.S. I Love You

*** MIGTH CONTAIN SPOILERS! ***

Featuring: Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler, Lisa Kudrow, Gina Gershon, James Marsters, Kathy Bates, Harry Connick Jr., Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Genre: drama, romance, comedy

Plot: young widow gets over husband’s death

Acting: a bit off in places but they looked like they had fun

Drama: well, he dies after the first five minutes… and haunting her for the next whole year wasn’t the best of the ideas

Action: fishing apparently is a dangerous sport

Funny: the dialog is though compared to… let’s say Music & Lyrics… it’s rather weak

Visuals: nice Irish landscape, awful clothes on Hillary Swank, Gerald Butler too bulked up

Soundtrack: we get to hear Gerald Butler sing

Official website: http://psiloveyoumovie.warnerbros.com/

Comments: Not to be watched when sick. Can make people mellow. This should come first as a warning. Other than that it’s funny enough to compensate for the dramatic parts, that if you’re willing to ignore Hillary Swank’s bad fashion taste in clothes and earrings, but of course she’s an artistic person, and Gerald Butler’s too many accessories. The real stretch comes when she switches from real estate to designing shoes. I wouldn’t have children in that apartment either. For a while I thought Harry Connick Jr. should have acted for free since he played the same part in Hope Floats and already married Sandra Bullock, but a stadium is not the best place for a date and she had to remain with the macho guy. Also James Marsters was in the credits but for the life of me I can’t tell where he was.

Rating: 6/10

Movie Review: The Water Horse

*** MIGTH CONTAIN SPOILERS! ***

Featuring: Ben Chaplin, Emily Watson, Brian Cox

Genre: family, fantasy

Plot: Loc Ness monster meets CGI

Acting: good on all parts

Drama: man will always try to destroy what he doesn’t understand

Action: at sea

Funny: the little guy and then big guys was very funny

Visuals: Crusoe all the way but the scenery too

Soundtrack: splash! Splash!... and splash again

Official website: http://www.thewaterhorse.com/

Comments: It’s a nice story, funny in the beginning, lots of fantasy there. The introduction of the story is great. But then when the real action has to happen it’s sort of lacking like most movie do. It was like the screenplay writer had a great idea but just didn’t know what to do with it. It was fun though.

Rating: 7/10

Movie Review: Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead

*** MIGTH CONTAIN SPOILERS! ***

Featuring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei

Genre: drama, crime

Plot: two brothers make a plan to rob the family jewelry store and everything goes wrong from there

Official website: http://www.7h58cesamedila-lefilm.com/

Comments: Basically… a big (2 hours!) waste of time.

Rating: 4/10

Movie Review: Eastern Promises

*** MIGTH CONTAIN SPOILERS! ***

Featuring: Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Naomi Watts

Genre: drama, crime

Plot: midwife gets involved with Russian mafia while trying to find the family of a newborn orphan

Acting: believable though the accents were a little odd

Drama: it’s mafia, can’t get more dramatic than that

Action: a two against one deadly fight in the sauna

Funny: some of the dialog is

Visuals: lots of tattoos on Viggo Mortensen’s body

Soundtrack: includes a version of Ochichornya… how cliché is that?

Official website: http://www.focusfeatures.com/easternpromises/

Comments: A lot of violence, I got that impression ever from the beginning. No gun shots but more than enough throat slashing and other gruesome sights. But it’s Russian mafia so you think what the hell it all goes. The story is simple, wouldn’t say exactly predictable but then again maybe yes if you are into this type of movies. Viggo Mortensen’s character is the one that intrigues the most and we get to see in what fine shape he is in the sauna scene. Too much ink and ketch up though. Rough violence is the name of the game. But there’s more to him than we’re initially told and he’s heading for an uncertain future we can only guess.

Rating: 7/10

Movie Review: The Bucket List

*** MIGTH CONTAIN SPOILERS! ***

Featuring: Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman

Genre: drama, comedy

Plot: two terminally ill men fulfill a wish list before they die

Acting: these two play characters they know best and they do it with style

Drama: death still has to come

Action: car race, parachute ride

Funny: see above and much more

Visuals: outstanding scenery from France, Egypt, far East, etc.

Soundtrack: doesn’t get in the way

Official website: http://thebucketlist.warnerbros.com/

Comments: I’ve only watched it because of the actors in it and I can’t say I regret it. While being predictable because they still have to die the experience is worth trying and I dare say you won’t be disappointed. Maybe someday I’ll write my own bucket list. But not yet. It’s too soon… and I first have to find a millionaire to make it possible.

Rating: 8/10

Movie Review: Charlie Wilson's War

*** MIGTH CONTAIN SPOILERS! ***

Featuring: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Amy Adams, Philip Seymour Hoffman

Genre: biography, comedy

Plot: US senator helps remove Russians from Afganistan

Acting: good

Drama: what the producers didn’t realize when they made this movie is that the message sent it ‘we saved you then, now we own your asses so don’t you dare cross us’

Action: some video game war scenes… better than the ones in Lions for Lambs though

Funny: very funny dialog though not necessarily clever

Visuals: was I the only one who didn’t feel a deep need to watch Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts naked (+/- bathing suit)?

Soundtrack: cheesy 80s

Official website: http://www.charliewilsonswar.net/

Comments: There are always two sides of a coin, some might say Americans are heroes after watching this film while other might classify it as yet another example of Americans sticking their noses in someone else’s business. But let’s not get into politics here. Tom Hanks plays his character well but sort of detached. It’s more like as if his artistic creativity was gone on vacation at the time of the shooting. On the other hand Julia Roberts compensates by taking acting to the extreme creating a non easily believable character. Amy Adams is too short compared to the rest of the crew and somehow too childish and young. But it’s all worth it ‘cause Philip Seymour Hoffman steals the show.

Rating: 8/10

Alexei Yagudin - How Deep Is Your Love

After being sung by Bee Gees and Take That, there's a new Russian version of How Deep Is Your Love sung by Alexei Yagudin and Viktoria Dayneko.

Movie Review: I’m Not There

*** MIGTH CONTAIN SPOILERS! ***

Featuring: Cate Blanchett, Ben Whishaw, Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Marcus Carl Franklin, Heath Ledger, Kris Kristofferson, Julianne Moore, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Michelle Williams

Genre: biography, music

Plot: bits and pieces of Bob Dylan’s life and ideas put on music

Acting: no complaints there

Drama: a story as old as time, the artist who can’t adapt to the real world

Action: it’s not about that

Funny: again it’s not about that

Visuals: good, except for Heath Ledger’s full frontal which was just creepy and uncalled for

Soundtrack: loved it, got me interested in Dylan’s music

Official website: http://www.imnotthere-movie.com/

Comments: It made me wish I had known more about Dylan’s life. I’m not a fan and I don’t own any of his albums though that might change soon, but of course I knew who he is and had vague ideas about his career. This being said I’m pretty sure I missed some things in the movie that his fans would probably immediately recognize. It’s not exactly your usual biographic movie, it’s more like an allegory, with various actors playing the same part and doing it very well all of them in their own way. It’s not easy to explain or describe, but it’s an experience it would be a shame to miss.

Rating: 4/5