Just Thunder

No, no, no, it wasn't THAT funny at all. It was just... nice. War movie in a comedy movie. Nice that Stiller and Black and Downey Jr. could all get together for this movie. Nice effort all around but it wasn't laugh-out-loud funny. I think I snickered once or twice. I was surprised with what happened to the war movie's director though. And I didn't right away think that the war hero would be... Oh, oh! And only near the end did I remember and realize that the big-shot, potty-mouthed, dancing producer was Tom Cruise!
But no matter, even Downey Jr. acting and looking black in the war movie didn't do it for me. On a more positive note, Tropic Thunder cut The Dark Knight's 4-weekend reign in the U.S. box-office charts. 3 stars out of 5 tops.
The other day, very early in the morning, there was a thunder-storm here in Manila. It sounded like there was a war going on. Scary and weird- now that was thunder!

Hellboy 2

I'll just go ahead and rate this with 3 stars out of 5. It was an ok movie to pass away the time but not really something you'd want to go out for. Nice graphics and effects. Simple 90-minute story that could have been shortened to maybe 40 minutes just by killing off that *deleted* but they just have to put in a *deleted* for *deleted*. Ho-hum.And then moody pyro-girl is revealed to be *deleted*. That would be an interesting future movie if they show pyro-girl giving *deleted* to a fire-breathing, pink *deleted*. And wouldn't the title *deleted* be more appropriate than Todd McFarlane's? Just my opinion.
There's a new character, by-the-way, a gas-like spirit entity housed in a deep-diving-suit-like suit. He's quirky, a little bossy, and likable in a hellboy-doesn't-give-shyt-about-him way. I think he's more useful than fish-guy. Anyway, Hellboy 2 - The Golden *EGG* army - better catch in in video. I mean it's better you catch it in video, if at all. :)
deleted: princess, love-angle, fish-guy, pregnant, birth, baby, Spawn.

Movie Madness

It's been a wonderful summer (end-of-summer here in the Philippines) for movies. First, we get the movie adaptation of the musicale who took a lot of the songs of ABBA and weaved a story with them. Applause, applause! Meryl Streep did a wonderful job, as usual. I really like her. The movie was fun. And that's all. 3.25 stars out of 5. Crazy fun! But then the Dark Knight came. With the Joker in tow (May Heath Ledger rest in peace). And tons of box-office records shattered at his wake (pun) - fastest to $100 million, $150M, $200M, $250M, $300M, $350M, $400M, top day grosses, top July grosses, top weekends grosses, etc...
It's been embraced by moviegoers and critics alike, amassing generous reviews especially for Ledger's performance. I would easily give it a 4.75 stars rating. And I would go on to say that the movie has a shot at the Oscars; Ledger too. The following poster puts into a graphic how I see the movie as- to me, it's more of a suspense/thriller than an action/adventure-run-of-the-superhero-genre. And that's why it's so fresh. After the movie Wanted, Angelina Jolie would do very well as the Batman nemesis Catwoman, don't you think? And just a month into its screening life, the tills and buzz about the next movie are as active as ever. Go see it one more time. Cray-zee gooooood!
And now a not-so-good adventure: the third installment to the Mummy franchise. It was ok. I could've missed it and everything would still be alright. So like Indiana Jones, protagonist and wife now has a son who has to share in the adventure. And since the timeline is in the 1940's, son could grow up and find another mummy somewhere to wake up who would try to take over or destroy the world as we know it and time it in the 1960's and Brendan Fraser could play the son-all-grown-up role again. Of course there'll have to be pictures of original dad Brendan Fraser lying around the house for the audience to see and use to make the connection with. I think one of the very few amusing scenes was when this skeleton warrior holding a shovel turned around and accidentally hacked another skeleton warrior's head behind him off; then he tried to pick it up and put it back on his bones-y colleague. And then the ending with the dust forming into the faces of the ancient Chinese lovers together was like the stake-through-the-heart that killed it for me. 2.5 stars I think is enough. Crazy.

Wanted: Great Movie

Go watch Wanted now! Starring Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman. 4.5 out of 5 stars!!! Wow, and I wanna get the comic book from where this started... Not since V for Vendetta, I think, did I really, really like a movie. And this one is also a comic book adaptation... Hmm... Oh, Stardust was good too but not wow good.

Avenue Q, Manila

We saw this last Saturday night, June 21st. It was pretty good. Most of the cast held their own although the main characters I felt weren't that consistent in their voices. But considering that these particular folks were in charge of two characters each, they can get tired over the run of the musical, so... The human characters were not as engaging as the puppet characters. And the rendition of the closeted-homosexual puppet was a bit "forced". In some early Broadway previews of this musical, I thought I saw the people portraying the puppets to be dressed mainly in black and had pale make-up. In the Manila production, they were wearing gray tops and were really acting out what the puppet was supposed to be doing but are limited in doing. So it appeared that the puppets were extensions and props. On the other hand (pun?), if the production kept to the original design, the puppets may have stood out more, but more of what's behind the words and between the lines may get lost. Filipinos are more visual, I think. One example was in the song "The more you ruv someone." Christmas Eve's line "like two brothers who go on a date" was not met with any reaction at all. Anyway, it was a nice enough experience although hearing the original cast recording previously, I would have preferred seeing that cast's production. Plus one comment regarding the theater (Carlos P. Romulo) over at RCBC Tower in Makati: there's something wrong with the spacing of the seats. Two relatively large guys in front of you and 50% of the view gets blocked already - and I'm a relatively tall person myself. And there was a mouse running about I saw during intermission. This cast is off to Singapore so good luck to you guys! Good job! Oh and I was surprised to find out Aiza Seguerra was in the cast playing the building administrator ("Super") Gary Coleman. She did her part well except for her hand gestures which were, um, mostly down-then-pointing-out-towards-the-audience. Over and over. Was she trying to act like a puppet too? :)

Different adventures

First off, an adventure with a septagenarian (sc). The film as a whole sure looked the part of an 80's franchise. Maybe the film stock they used was 20 years old too? Indiana now discovers he has a son- that Shia guy from Transformers- and saves everyone's asses from a weird Russian lady who has this alien fetish.A couple scenes were reminiscent of National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets but hey, this is Indiana Jones and the other one's with Ghost Rider. The movie was fun enough to get my rating of 3 out of 5 stars but only justified why I was not a fan of the series. Good but not great. Makes you go 'oh' but not 'ooh'.
Now onto what I've read could be Dreamworks Animation's best Animated feature. And it was actually very good. Fast paced story, storytelling, amusing enough. Oddly, some scenes that weren't really funny (to me), kids were screeching at. It lacked, well, a little more umph. I particularly liked the turtle especially when he's cooly scolding {Shi-fu}. I didn't like how the turtle vanished into peach blossoms as he died. Or dissipated.
The dragon scroll on another note kindof kills a lot of philosophies, in business or otherwise, that hinges on there being a special or secret ingredient or maybe x factor to one's becoming an "ultimate" of some sort. There is no secret- that's what the blank scroll means. Although you could see your reflection on the scroll, meaning the non-secret is actually just you.
Or it's inside you. So just believe in yourself. So it really doesn't stick. Cute furry characters. Would probably need a sequel to flesh out the ferocious five... Was it fiercesome (sc)?
I was rooting for the Tigress. The villain as a cub was pretty cute too. And when I saw from the credits that Lucy Liu voiced the serpent, I rooted for her too. 3.5 stars out of 5.
And then I still had some time to kill so I saw this independent movie where two from my previous productions were also part of.
Weird enough story to be interesting. But this wasn't a comedy was it? So... Ok, so lighting was uneven, sometimes dark, sometimes obviously put up. Makeup of supports were better than the leads. Well, I'd rather the more natural look. Abrupt music was abruptly played throughout, I thought. And (in a british intonation) what the hell was up with casting that thin, call-center-twang-speaking chick? Oh and some of the laughing and crying were theatrical. So, hmm, since I have to give out some stars... I'll give it 2 just because the story was weird enough to be interesting and/or original enough. But please, as far as twists go, the lead couldn't even look lesbian.

Faster, speed racer!

The cars went fast enough. The colors and costumes were psychedelic. The effects were impressive. But Speed's younger brother and his monkey stole the movie. The twist wasn't that shocking. And there were parts in the middle that I almost dozed off.Which reminds me I have to buy wheels for my car, Stella. And I was thinking of buying larger wheels than the standard size but then I would have to buy a set of four and that would be heavy on the budget. So back to the movie... Um, I'd let you guys see it for yourselves. You might really like it.
I liked The Matrix trilogy but that had more direction story-wise than this. It seemed this film's story was caught in an eight-shaped race track. So for me, it can only come up to a 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Iron Man to beat

I'm not a Marvel Comics fan, am more into DC Comics; however, this film rocked. Robert Downey Jr. and Jeff Bridges were great in their characters. Gwyneth's character could have been someone else.The computer effects dominated the film and was reminiscent of Transformers. The various versions of the Iron Man suit and Downey's testing them were very nicely done. Oh, and Stan Lee's cameo as a Hefner-ish old man surrounded by bouncy-bosomed ladies was amusing.
After the end credits, one last scene foretells of a future Marvel movie. And then on the radio I heard the Iron Man franchise is supposed to be a trilogy - the third movie of which would have a super-powered team doing some avenging. :)
I think I'd still wait for a Justice League movie or a Teen Titans movie. The Justice League incarnation in the sixth season of Smallville was pretty exciting too. Hmm, anyway, for me, Iron Man is up there in the league of outstanding superhero movies made. Next up, Incredible Hulk... I don't think so. The Dark Knight... definitely! Iron Man, still 3.75 out of 5 stars!

Vantage point of Cloverfield in the Mist

Hmm, does the title make sense? Anyway, for Cloverfield, I've read some nasty reviews that it's trying to do a Blair Witch Project and that people coming out of the cinemas are overwhelmed with nausea. The hand-held camera style lends very well to the story, in my opinion. The pace is gripping and much like a horror film, the characters dies one by one. Also, not placing the big momma creature in full plain view was a good strategy. All in all, Cloverfield is an entertaining movie. 3.5 over 5 stars! Onto The Mist. Almost silly. The ending is frustrating. 2 out of 5 stars!
And then to something that didn't disappoint. Vantage point. Wow. You have to see it and enjoy it for yourself. Hopefully you don't watch it with an audience who loudly reacts to the film's style of rewinding back to almost the beginning to present each "vantage point". 3.75 out of 5 stars!

Seeing stardust

I had the comic book from way back. Someone borrowed it and apparently lost it. Tsk. I wish I had it back so I could read it again. Nevertheless, the movie version is excellent. Everything was wonderful: the background music, the effects... The movie had action, comedy, suspense, some drama, adventure, and of course the fantasy element to bind them all together.
Robert de Niro and Michelle Pfifer of course gave excellent performances. The newbie (?) actor playing Tristan did very well too.
Claire Danes, on the other hand... I think someone else could have played her character - the falling star- just as well or even better. She does have a heart-melting line when she pours her heart out to Tristan who she thinks can't hear or understand her.
All in all, I suggest you go to your cinemas now and watch this movie. 4 out of 5 stars!

Disturbing

imdb
wiki
rotten tomatoes

Oh, man, oh, man, oh, man! Shia LaBeouf follows up Transformers with a gripping suspense story laced with the repression of a young man's desire to go out and have his way with the hot next-door chick. Oh, well, what could a guy do but just hang out inside his room with his member-of-the-cultural-minority best-friend. And spy on the hot next-door chick. And his other neighbors, one of which, unfortunately is... You have to see the film! Don't know where to hide the bodies of people you murdered? See this film.

Ironically, as we were watching this movie, a couple in the seats in front of us were unbelievable noisy. Yeah, disturbia indeed.

3 out of 5 stars.

No checking into a hotel room 1408

Official Website

Click on the title for the IMDB entry.

Rotten Tomatoes review

I like the film very much. It's scary and wow, it was mostly in one room and it was mostly just John Cusack. Wow. He should get a nod for this.
He must've regretted saying "Just give me the key."
Best line though would be: "Nobody lasts more than an hour." See the movie and find out why.
Definitely 3.5 stars out of 5.

Third Bourne

First of all, the cinema was very nice. Large screen, comfortable seats... (Shangri-la Edsa Plaza Mall Cineplex) Ok, regarding the movie- I haven't seen the two previous installments but I was blown away by this one. Drama: I especially liked the shots of partly covered faces. And you still sense what they're feeling. Suspense: What an idiot the reporter was! He should have followed what Jason Bourne was telling him to do. He was about to get away... alive. Oh, well. Oh and the jumping over and above roofs and through windows- move over spider-man! Look, ma, no webbing! Action: Wow. The scenes when he was duking it out versus the assets/killers sent after him was so intense! The car chase was grand too. So unreal when he backed his car over the edge of a building roof, and it rolls over a car or two parked at the ground level and he just runs away from the scene.
Made me want to see the first two movies of this trilogy. Great movie. Great story. 3.75 out of 5 stars.

The Simpsons Movie

I don't remember much about the movie except I was laughing all throughout. It was like a long Simpsons cartoon and you see the whole town and almost every townsfolk. Funny silly: Bart gets caught skateboarding across town naked; Homer dumps a phallus-shaped pig-shit silo into the lake; Disney-esque forest creatures come into the Simpson's new Alaskan cabin and help the married couple with taking their clothes off; Ah-nohld is president of the United States. Go see the movie and laugh heartily. 3 out of 5 stars. Official website here.

Bad Order (of the Phoenix)

I am not a Harry Potter book series reader. I watch the films hoping it will be interesting enough. And having forgotten what the previous ones were about, this most recent one- The Order of the Phoenix, had me enthralled from beginning to end...
Not!
Ordinarily, I would notice how many times the movie made me laugh or cry. But in this movie, what I noticed was the number of times I yawned: three times.There were some notable and interesting performances, the characters of Professor Umbridge and Luna Lovegood, more specifically. Of course, the supporting cast from the previous films still stood out even though they only had measly screen times. And at one point in the film, I went: "Hey, isn't that Helena Bonham Carter?" Cool to see her again.
As for the story itself... if you thought Transformers was a little loopy too, this one was like a bowl of mixed cereal. The special effects are all dark and blurred especially the centaurs. You'd think they just had to introduce the normally invisible but flight-capable rotting-looking horse-like creatures so the characters could fly off to London when they had to. Harry kisses a girl who eventually sort of betrays their group of magic-practicing kids; and although near the end it is revealed that she was brought under a truth serum (?) or spell, we never get to see her again... And headmaster Dumbledore gets the highlight scene of duking it out with head villain pasty-faced he-who-we-should-not-name (this has gotten old!). Oh well, good luck on the next film. Just for the fans, I'll give it a 2 out of 5 stars.

Transform!

Warning: Some spoilers.

Definitely brings back memories of the cartoons series and the toys when we were kids. The story and the transforming, lacked the punch however of the original series that made you not only stop, watch, and go out to buy toys; but made you want to be an autobot. The movie was all jazz (not the autobot who got split in two by Megatron. Oops, spoiler!). You were amazed by what you saw- robots transforming and fighting and destroying lots of stuff. And then nothing. Before our group went in the cinema to see the film, we waited while people from the previous screening had already gone out. And looking at those people's faces, it didn't look like they enjoyed themselves at all. It seemed they went to watch a foreign drama film instead of an action adventure.There weren't any dull moments though. The two plus hours went by fast. And there were quite a few chuckles from the scene where the autobots were at Sam Witwicky's house. Sam's parents were amusing. Sam's girl is hot. Sam's dog is a pain-killer addict? :)Did I get it right- Devastator is now a tank roller-blading along the highway? That scene was sweet. And what's up with Megatron being a jet too, like Starscream? I hoped there was more friction between the two. The ending was dull. It looked like Optimus was a wuss! How could he be the autobot leader if he coudn't even take on Megatron? There should be a sequel. There should be more transformers. I don't mind if the dinobots appear already. just so long as the movie is more kick-ass.3 out of 5 stars just because it was cool enough.

Threes Company

Spiderman battles three villains, finds an ally in one of them by the end of the movie, and finally finds out who really killed his Uncle. Or did he? If there's going to be another sequel, we just may get the shock of our lives when we find out that someone or something else killed the Uncle before he was shot by the Sandman when the latter was still a normal crook. Or maybe, just maybe it was a heart attack that did him in. I won't be lining up for that. The movie was painfully long. Mary Jane Watson looked untalented and helpless. Peter Parker really looked goofy the times Venom was bringing out his "badboy" side. And special effects aside, the couple of times that publisher Jonah Jameson was in the scene were what made the film a little bearable. 2.5 out of 5 stars.Shrek has babies and they're ogrishly cute and are probably very hot movie merchandise now. The movie, however, was not as cute. Thankfully, this movie was not as long as Spiderman or Pirates of the Caribbean. The only memorable scenes were the worn out death-bed scene of the Frog-King and Snow White releasing her adorable forest animal friends onto the unsuspecting tree-monsters via an electronica-sounding aria. 2.5 out of 5 stars.
Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End. 2.5 out of 5 stars too! I didn't see the first sequel so I may not have gotten some of the background story but it was still too long for a movie. In addition, Calypso was boring, Jack Sparrow acted too crazy, and the Singaporean pirate Lord had too quick a death-exit. There were a lot of things going on in the characters' minds but all we see are the action sequences and Jack's crazy mind. The sea-nery was beautiful. The monkey and the parrot were more amusing than the other human characters. This is the end of this movie franchise, Disney?
All images are the property of their respective production companies. They appear here only for reference purposes.

Borat (2006)

High shock value. I think I laughed the same number of times as I grimaced. Leaves a bad taste in the mouth especially after Borat's nude duel with his producer. Fun film. Dirty. Fun. I'm still a bit of a conservative it seems. So I'd have to give it 2.5 out of 5. Ok, 3 at most just because of the refreshing and sick naivete the character exudes. And for the various reactions from ordinary Americans that gets.

Dreamgirls (2006)

Definitely Jennifer Hudson's movie. It was long enough, has a lot of song numbers, nice production, but the story, although like a song moving melodiously through to its end, i found to be wanting more umph. Everything seemed to be just going for average. So I give it a 3 out of 5 stars.

300

Wow. Graphic and bloody and nice little story. Wow. Great art direction although a little over-the-top for Xerxes. And as for the Asian "immortals", well that looked tv-series-lots-of-villains-so-lets-make-em-wear-the-same-
thing-so-they-can-re-appear-in-some-other-scene... All-in-all still a good watch. I didn't like the traitorous monstrosity trying to be a Spartan soldier. It was too grotesque to have been born at all. Now the Oracle-dancer with the arousingly aroused nipple... until she got licked by another grotesque-ly disfigured mountain-top-dwelling, robed human-like thing. I felt for the captain and his son whose head got cleanly chopped off. The captain was saying that he regrets not being able to tell his son how much he loved him and was honored by the way the latter fought. I thought their nodding to each other just before the fatal blow was enough so the captain didn't have to get all Filipino-soap-opera-tic. And finally, the scene showing the 300 and the king downed by the arrows was worthy of stealing a mobile-phone camera shot for but I didn't surrender to the urge. My hand didn't retreat to get my pocketed celphone. The 300 died and I was still glued to screen. 117 minutes. Wow. At least 3.75/5 stars.

Brothers and Sisters

Calista Flockhart of Ally Mc Beal, Rachel Griffiths from Six Feet Under, and Sally Field, who I always thought was like an American Nora Aunor, only funnier (love her in Soapdish), are the female leads in this ABC Drama series. I think Calista and Sally make for a very good daughter-mother tandem. The rest of the cast are fine. And the story, although a bit played-out, combines comedy, drama, and real-life-like situations and dialogue (versus theatrical or literary. It just sounds like lines you would hear someone you know has actually said) to engage the viewer and tug at the heart. 3.75/5 stars.

Trivia from its wiki entry:
- The show is also known as 7 Feet Under in some countries.
- This is Sally Field's first successful TV series in more than 35 years, after doing The Flying Nun
- Betty Buckley shot the pilot, but she was fired after focus groups reacted negatively to the character when shown the original pilot of the show (then named Iva Walker), therefore, Sally Field was a late addition for Nora Walker, proving that Field's character would be a more mothering role.
- In the pilot, the character of Kevin was originally named Bryan, and was played by Jonathan LaPaglia. Bryan was going through a divorce and custody battle after coming out of the closet. After the original pilot, Bryan became Kevin, now played by Matthew Rhys, who was established as out since high school and single.
in 1970.

NEIL GAIMAN'S American Gods

An easy and engaging read. From the Sandman, to Black Orchid, Stardust, and Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett), Gaiman continues to provide excellent, original, and fantastic stories. 4/5 stars.