movies – Page 20 – Eliza Victoria

slumdogs, Pushers, the last man, and a dash of insanity

Slumdog Millionaire

Danny Boyle’s name sounded familiar; only later was I able to check his filmography. I loved The Beach (butt-nekkid Leonardo DiCaprio!) (and Tilda Swinton!), and 28 Days Later (butt-nekkid Cillian Murphy!) . With Slumdog Millionaire Boyle dealt with, well, something more feel-good. Yes, feel-good. The characters even (SPOILER ALERT) dance in the end (END SPOILER ALERT).

The film has predictable elements (love, rags-to-riches, a bunch of bad guys, “It’s our destiny” drivel) made exciting and unique by crazy camerawork and music. As Roger Ebert has very wonderfully put it, Slumdog is “dramatic proof that a movie is about how it tells itself”. To be sure. :)

(Although I keep thinking: if a foreigner made a film about Filipinos with the Philippines as its setting, will I like it? Will I even accept it? Honestly, probably not – although I still can’t explain why I found it okay to read Butler write through the eyes of a Vietnamese. Anyway, I think Danny Boyle has a kind heart. I applaud him and his crew for at least doing something.)

(Also: I think the kids are too cute for words. Hee.)

all in the family (or jamal, latika and salim in different incarnations) — all in the family (or jamal, latika and salim in various incarnations)

(Photos from Rotten Tomatoes, Daily Mail, and the Huffington Post.)

Push

push

Watched it during the weekend. Just wanted to kick off my shoes and watch something decidedly non-Oscar, haha. I enjoyed watching it, how about you? I’m thinking maybe I just dropped my expectations before entering the cinema. Dropped it like even if Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning just sat in front of the camera I’d still think I saw something worthwhile.

But, I liked the colors and the cinematography. I particularly enjoyed watching Dakota perform. Her characters should get drunk more.

(Photos from Rotten Tomatoes.)

Y: The Last Man

The series’ premise (all the men of the world die to a plague of unknown cause, with Yorick left as the only male alive) didn’t exactly tickle my fancy, but when I started reading it (special thanks to Kate and Andrea) I found it difficult to stop.

I’ve just finished the series and now I’m missing Yorick and 355 and the other characters terribly. Highly recommended. I’d grab you and strap you down and force you to read if I could.

(Photo from DC Comics.)

Arkham Asylum

A one-shot graphic novel by Grant Morrison, illustrated by frequent Gaiman collaborator, Dave McKean. Excellent artwork, just excellent – brings several frames of the latter Sandman collections to mind (notably Endless Nights). This novel (if I recall the news reports correctly) was used as the late Heath Ledger’s inspiration for his take on the Joker in The Dark Knight. Here the Joker tells Batman: “Enjoy yourself out there…in the asylum.”

Ledger totally nailed it.

This graphic novel shows Joker squeezing Batman’s tush – that was fun. Robin is only mentioned (“is he already shaving?”), but I would really, really love to read/watch a good story with Robin in it, anything to remove the Schumacher aftertaste.

(Photo from geekshow.us.)

did he or didn’t he

I still don’t know, and I’m still too stunned to write a decent film review. (And anyway, Roger Ebert‘s already written everything that I want to say, and more.) Written for the screen and directed by the same person (John Patrick Shanley) who wrote the Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning play, and given life by the best actors (Streep! Hoffman!) – really, what can go wrong. I love the wind and the drab setting, the tension, the claustrophobia, the crackling lights and that ringing phone – I love it. I want a DVD copy of this film. I want to watch the play.

sister aloysius and her frustrating "certainty"

“I have no sympathy for you. I know you are invulnerable to true regret.”

(Photos from Starpulse. Quote from IMDB.com)

good night, benjamin

Finally found the time to see Benjamin Button. Lovely film. :) And so long it in the end sucked up all the energy I’ve been saving for writing a good movie review.

I kid; I’m just lazy. I actually found the film engaging enough to not mind the length, a la Jesse James – which incidentally also stars Brad Pitt.

But never mind Brad Pitt – why is Cate Blanchett so perfect why?

(Photos from Cinemablend.)

taken

20090130ho_taken_500

It’s one of those films where you feel sorry for the son/daughter for having a sweet but suffocating parent, only to have succeeding events prove the parent right. Of course the parent has to be proven right, or there won’t be a movie. (The film’s called Taken, remember?)

Co-written by Luc Besson (La Femme Nikita), Taken leans heavily on the action, carefully taking its weight off the social commentary and the domestic drama. Bryan Mills’ family heartaches I actually found more intriguing; a deeper exploration would have been wonderful, but hey, we need more space for the car chases and the fight scenes, right?

What the heck, I enjoyed the film, and Liam Neeson’s cool. :D

(Photo from Post-Gazette.com)

this movie has bled to death

twilight-462-large1

Watched Twilight, thanks to a friend’s gift of a cinema pass. And was I glad I didn’t cough up more than a hundred pesos for this piece of crap.

Okay, so maybe I’m being too harsh, and anyway, I’m not included in the movie’s target audience (i.e. “16-year-old girls and their grandmothers,” according to Roger Ebert, because “[t]heir mothers know all too much about boys like this”). But see, my sister who has read (and loved) the book hated the movie adaptation. So there.

Movie bored the hell out of me. Twilight itself seem to have been bitten by a vampire – the scenery is lush and green and alive, but everything else (dialogue, characters, plot) seems sucked dry and dead. Thank goodness for the grass, right? And the flowers, and the sunset.

Lifeless. And lame. The jokes are unfunny and awkward. The story feels choppy, too. There seems to be no progression, no flow, just a jump from one scene to another, a rehash of the book’s dialogues that are awkward to begin with (The word “irrevocably” sticks out. And what to do with the lines “Your hands are pale-white and ice-cold” and “You are my life now” ?). The Cullens look more anemic (throw them some white gloves and they’re mime actors) than otherworldly. Baseball game, cheesy. Even cheesier confrontation between the Cullens and the three outsiders (The CUs of the eyes reminded me of the card game scene in The Parent Trap).

The fight scenes/tearjerker scenes didn’t make me feel anything because nothing felt to be at stake.

And god, what a school. If I were Bella I’d be scared of what I got myself into. The students seem brain-damaged. (“Look, Bella, it’s a worm, it’s a wooooooorm.”) The one teacher that is shown is over-the-top-cheery and hence, annoying. Now, don’t tell me that’s the point. Okay, I get it, let’s highlight Bella’s alienation but come on. Boring, even small-town-boring (and over-the-top-cheery) can be presented in entertaining ways (wit wit wit) – this is Hollywood!

Yes, wit. I came into the cinema hoping for at least a small amount of wit (knowing I won’t buy the supposedly kilig scenes) and didn’t get any. The conversations feel forced for some reason. (The “You’re an independent woman” bit made me cringe.) The running gag on the pepper spray elicited a few chuckles from me (mainly because there’s a father accompanying his daughter in my row and he’s laughing like there’s no tomorrow – cute and he reminded me of my father and i love et) but that’s about it.

Forks (or wherever this movie was shot) appears to be such a gorgeous place. The movie could have been more stylish, more (say it) artistic.

But then, Twilight doesn’t exactly want to go in that direction, does it. The movie, with its use of songs by Muse and Radiohead, and the cars and Edward Cullen in cool shades, wants to be hip. It doesn’t quite get there, either.

A shame.

Photo Credit: LATimes.com

weekend update

Sorry. Couldn’t think of a better title.

* * *

Watched Bolt with the brother on Saturday as an act of rebellion (four of the seven cinemas in Trinoma screened Twilight; probably three-quarters of the population lined up in Trinoma that day was going to see Twilight.) At one point the seat plan of Cinema 7 [THX] showing the occupied seats was flashed on one of the LCD screens, and we saw red. (The seat plan for One True Love on the other hand was as white as snow). I felt a little bad for the mother and daughter in front of us who were trying to find two seats in a particular cinema which would allow them to sit beside each other. I don’t know what happened to them. Mommy probably told the daughter to sit two rows behind. What can you do, Mom wants her some Edward Cullen and she’s the one who’s paying – no one can argue with that.

We couldn’t watch Madagascar 2 because I’ve already seen that, which annoyed my brother. We could have watched One True Love but we’re not that rebellious.

I love Bolt. :) I just hated the fact that they screened two scenes of it when I saw Burn After Reading a week ago, John Travolta and Miley Cyrus saying, “This movie’s unlike any animated movie you’ve seen before.” WHAT? What’s with the hard sell? It turned me off. Doesn’t Disney get that people are going to watch whatever crap they’re going to cough up, no matter how ridiculous? Yes, even if it’s a movie about a 78-year-old man who ties balloons to his house so he can visit South America.

When they screened those two scenes, I actually became suspicious: maybe Bolt’s going to suck. Why else would they sell it so hard?

But it didn’t. Damn you Disney! *shakes fist*

* * *

Before watching the film, I had to drag my ass around the mall in order to help my brother find a gift for his girlfriend. After 45 minutes (inclusive of two rest stops, my request) of walking in and out of shops, I looked within myself and said, with all the sincerity I could muster, What the fuck are you doing? You’re a self-respecting individual!

We entered Silverworks because my brother wanted to give the girlfriend a pair of earrings. I asked what kind of earrings, and my brother said dangling earrings, so I asked the girl at the counter, “Do you have any dangling earrings?” She brought out a display rack. I pointed at a pair and said these look nice, but my brother said he didn’t like the stones.

The girl at the counter looked at my brother, turned to me, gave me a big smile, and said, “Ma’am, try niyo.”

My brother, who was taller than me, had his arm around me. I saw the girl’s smile and was horrified when I realized what she was thinking.

But I didn’t want to ruin her day. We left without correcting her.

* * *

I was given the same smile when we crashed into Girbaud and inspected the bags. (My brother handed me one bag after another and positioned me in front of the mirror like a mannequin. “I wanted to see how it looks like when you carry it.”) Ulk. I wanted to wear one of those shirts with the arrow, but mine would say, I’M WITH MY BROTHER YOU CAN STOP SMILING NOW.

* * *

They’ve banned Plurk at the office, after banning Multiply, Friendster, and Facebook. You can’t even Google the term “proxy”! (Trust me, I tried.)

One day, those people from IT will walk in on us and find us cutting ourselves, saying, “I can’t feel anymore!” Or, they’ll find us starting fires, torturing small animals, dancing naked in a circle as if it were the Middle Ages.

I don’t know how I’m going to survive the holidays at work.

* * *

This morning an old woman stopped me on the stairs, saying the apartment has a clogging problem and so every unit has to pay 110 pesos and can I spare some now because the men are already here. She pointed vaguely beyond the staircase. Clogging problem? But I just took a bath and the drain in our bathroom worked okay.

She spoke in English every now and then. I said I’ll go ask my landlady about the payment. She said I should give the money now so the men could start working. (And I was thinking, What men? I don’t see any.) I told her I was going to be late. Then she said something that gave me the sense that she hated my landlady’s guts.

According to my landlady, the woman was a former building administrator who was suspected of graft and corruption, and who actually owed my landlady’s family some money.

She seemed crazy, too. I don’t know. I hope she doesn’t own a gun. Or a pipe wrench.

for more blood sucking

So Twilight is practically everywhere, isn’t it. My sister even let me read a text message that’s been going around lately. Something about discarding the knight in shining armor for the vampire with the Volvo. Something like that. If you’ve become the subject of forwarded text messages, you’ve made it. Big time. Like Inday.

This popped up on Yahoo:

LOS ANGELES – The vampire romance “Twilight” drained the box office in its opening weekend, taking in $70.6 million.

Catherine Hardwicke’s film also enjoyed the biggest opening ever for a female director, blowing away the previous standard of $41.1 million set by Mimi Leder ‘s ” Deep Impact ” in 1998.

I’ve been making fun of these crazy teenage girls, but then I realized: I’ve been crazy about Harry Potter just a few years back. I’ve read all the books and I’m sure I’m going to see the last two films, no matter how bad they turn out to be. I suppose I’ve been made fun of by those standing outside.

And I realized I didn’t care, really. So yeah, I’ll still make fun of these crazy teenage girls.

Let’s follow The Soup‘s lead, shall we:

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