I couldn’t care less for James Bond, but I must clarify that the only Bond film I’ve seen from start to finish is the gritty and boring Quantum of Solace. I’ve seen none of the classic 007 movies, and what little I’ve seen of Pierce Brosnan’s films I found mediocre. The darker reboot, Casino Royale (which I haven’t seen) with Daniel Craig, has received both accolades and flak, the flak mostly coming from longtime fans who felt alienated by the new take. I think the filmmakers produced the next two films like cooks preparing soup: add a little bit of this, a little bit of that, until the longtime fans shut up.
Skyfall has that balanced taste. It has wit, wry humor, some gadgets, lots of action. It’s confident enough to make fun of the franchise (“What were you expecting, an exploding pen?”) and to get rid of most of the glitter and actually explore Bond’s motives and history. It has also added a younger character (Ben Whishaw playing tech-savvy Q), which I think will attract a new generation of Bond fans.
And we must mention Javier Bardem as Silva. I want to say best Bond villain ever, but that’s unfair because I haven’t seen all of the Bond films. But he is so good in this role.
I wasn’t planning to watch this. The marketing materials for this film were all over the place but my only thought – and I know this is incredibly unfair – was, This is not a Pixar film.
It’s not a Pixar film! In fact, Wreck-It Ralph is a Disney film. I love Pixar, okay. They tell the most honest, most inventive stories, and the only stories that come close to Pixar’s tearjerker offerings are old-school Disney films: The Lion King, Aladdin, Mulan. The last animated Disney film that I truly enjoyed was 2010’s Tangled. And before that? Nothing comes to mind. I thought Disney’s animated franchise was on its way down, and isn’t that a shame. I still have fond memories of Beauty and the Beast.
Then: Paperman.
The main film had not started yet and I was already in tears in the cinema. Paperman is a black-and-white animated short film that blends traditional animation with computer animation. The result was magical, breathtaking. Disney should make a full-length film utilizing this technique. Read more about it.
It was a good piece to set the bar for expectations, and Wreck-It Ralph, thankfully, did not disappoint. I love going into the cinema armed only with the film title and friends’ assurances. It makes the cinematic experience purer.
And how this film surprised me.
Watch this film, I tell you.
Welcome back, Disney! Christ, what took you so long?
Some people I know celebrate their birthdays for a week, even a whole month. I just eat a lot at home on the day, and then it’s business as usual.
This weekend, though, felt like an extra helping of blessings for my new year.
Friday, the completely unexpected GeekFight win
I’ve heard of GeekFight, and I have friends who have joined GeekFight, but I have doubts about my geek trivia skills. I know some things, but just basic info, certainly not the esoteric ones that get asked in hardcore trivia shows like this.
J found out that the Committee GeekFight for Nov. 9 is themed “Power of Myth” – Philippine myths, Greco-Roman and Norse myths, religions ancient and current – and he seemed to have great faith in my knowledge, which of course made me more nervous. I almost backed out the night before, thinking of the hassle of driving to Quantum Cafe and finding parking on a Friday night and losing.
Well, I’m glad we went because we won.
The Modron Squadron!
We won! On our first game! It’s hilarious how our attitude changed from “It’s okay we’ll just wing it let’s just drink beer and have fun” to “MOTHERFUCKER WE HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN THIS SHIT COVER THE FUCKING WHITEBOARD”.
In the D&D universe, “Modrons resemble geometric shapes with humanoid limbs and represent a living, physical manifestation of law without regard to good or evil.” (Wiki)
Twelve teams fought in “Power of Myth”.
A highlight from the event:
Q: How is the monster from Cloverfield classified by the DOD?
Someone answers: Isa syang class-S na halimaw.
Crowd: “TAPUSIN! TAPUSIN! TAPUSIN!”
Needless to say, I had a fun Friday night.
*
Before the game, we tried Quantum Cafe’s food. These are really good:
Full Shroom, pizza on whole wheat (PhP 190)Kare-kareng gulay! (PhP 220)The kare-kare comes with sinantolan instead of the usual bagoong, but it’s a fun alternative.
I’d like to return to Quantum Cafe just to try the other dishes.
Bwakaw features a heartbreaking performance by Eddie Garcia as the aging homosexual, Rene. It is a beautiful, sweet, affecting story told with grace and control. It has the elements that can very easily allow it to lapse into a cloying melodrama – a dying dog, a lonely old man – but it never does. Instead it finds brightness in a sad life, and inserts humor in the most absurd situations. (How incredibly funny is it to see Gardo Verzosa constantly fanning himself?) And something must be said about the amazing cinematography: J said the film is so immersive that he half-expected to find himself in San Pablo after stepping out of the Film Institute. I agree. The people I saw the film with had this look in their eyes after the show, like they had just been clobbered over the head. Maybe they were expecting the same thing, the San Pablo of Bwakaw: wind-swept trees, unpaved roads, an old man with a dog in his arms riding a tricycle home.
I loved the final image of the film: Rene walking up a path and disappearing into the trees. We are not told where he is going, but at least now we are sure he is going somewhere.
Am I glad I got the chance to see this film on the big screen.
*
After lunch at Chocolate Kiss, we headed to the Christmas bazaar. I got these beauties:
Bracelet (PhP 70), ring (PhP 100), peacock-cock-cock earrings (PhP 100)
While in UP, J kept hiding his cell phone screen from me while texting. I wondered about that. He usually even lets me read his texts.
We got to their house, and found out why:
Surprise!
J was with me in Bulacan, and noticed the conspicuous absence of cake during my birthday. So he asked the family to buy me a cake, and more besides.
My thanks to J, J’s ma, his Tita Jo, and the rest of the family for the surprise dinner party!
Sunday, something new for my nails
I regularly have nail polish applied to my toenails, but not to my nails, because I’m a klutz and I chip them easily, sometimes even as soon as I step out of the salon.
So I tried UV soak-off gel nail polish, which the advertisements (and my friendly neighborhood salon) promise will last for two weeks. Mani-pedi using UV gel nail polish is more expensive than using acrylic nail polish. Mine cost PhP 550 at B&W Beauty Salon.
It’s more expensive in the bigger salons, I’m sure. (Some salons, I heard, offer the service for PhP 500 just for the manicure.) That’s a con, but the pros are 1) the polish will last longer, and 2) it dries instantly. No need to ask someone else to open your can of soda after meeting with your manikurista.
I didn’t take pictures of the procedure, but the UV machine looks like this:
So to speak! That was a relaxing 4-day stay in humid Bulacan, which would have been more relaxing if it wasn’t so humid. Gluttony! I don’t have any pictures from the birthday weekend, but if I had, it would have been nothing but pictures of food.
This is a visual feast, from the green lands of Scotland to Merida’s luscious red hair. But to quote Roger Ebert, “‘The good news is that the kids will probably love it, and the bad news is that parents will be disappointed if they’re hoping for another Pixar groundbreaker. Unlike such brightly original films as Toy Story, Finding Nemo, WALL-E and Up, this one finds Pixar poaching on traditional territory of Disney, its corporate partner. We get a spunky princess; her mum, the queen; her dad, the gruff king, an old witch who lives in the woods, and so on.”
That’s about it. The film is important for being the first Pixar film with a female protagonist, and not just any female protagonist – Merida is a princess who is not a damsel in distress. She can be an empowering role model for little girls who have seen this film, but the film itself pales in comparison to other Pixar tales. I just think they could have done more with the characters.
The Fourth Kind– The film opens with Milla Jovovich walking toward the camera and saying, “My name is Milla Jovovich, and I will be playing blah blah blah.” The film, which deals with alien abduction (known as the fourth kind, in the scale of alien encounters) is disturbing enough, but the filmmakers try too hard to make us believe that what we’re seeing is actual footage. Please.
Plus something from IMDB: The real Nome is 51% native Alaskan, but there are no indigenous characters in the film (at least none stated to be).
Now that just makes me angry.
Man On A Ledge – Has an unbelievable premise, but sure, it’s a fun watch.
The Thing (1982) – It’s an alien monster story with an actual formidable monster. (Shame on Cloverfield.) The characters’ paranoia spills out of every snow-covered scene. Very well done.
Star Wars IV, V, and VI (Remastered versions)
You and I have heard all the spoilers and have seen all the memes – “Luke, I am your father” (though in the film Darth Vader only actually says “I am your father”), Yoda, Chewie, Han Solo in carbonite, “You are my only hope” from Princess Leia, R2-D2 and C-3PO, and the Ewoks that take down an empire – but this was the first time I saw the original trilogy. I know! Took me long enough. Years ago I saw Episode IV but might have been too young to appreciate the story. I tried seeing Episode V last year I think, but got confused and got incredibly drunk (no connection to one another).
I love it. The franchise deserves it’s crazy fandom. Princess Leia is badass. Episodes IV and V are really good, but I think Episode VI is a misstep. Ewoks? Really? Here’s the two films building up the rebellion (and Ep. V seems to be a promise of greater things to come) and then – ewoks? Is George Lucas a furry?
But my criticism comes decades too late.
Also, I saw the remastered versions (thanks to J), so when the Jedi ghosts appeared to Luke Skywalker in the last scene, I was greeted by the visage of Hayden Christensen! I thought I was hallucinating.
On November 4, 1979, a group of young Iranian revolutionaries break into the US Embassy in Tehran in protest of the United States’ support of the deposed Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Then President Jimmy Carter has allowed Pahlavi to enter the United States, and the revolutionaries demand that he be returned to be tried and hanged. All of the employees inside the embassy are held hostage, save for six US diplomats who are able to sneak out of the building. The six escapees manage to get to the Canadian embassy, but are stuck there. To take them out, Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) of the CIA devises a plan so crazy it just might work: create a cover story that the six escapees are not diplomats working for the US Embassy, but are Canadian filmmakers scouting for a location in Iran for a science fiction film called “Argo”.
I have been telling people to watch the Affleck-directed films Gone Baby Gone and The Town, but these are small films that get pulled out of the cinemas after a week or so. I am happy that more people will be able to see this film on the big screen. Argo is a completely immersive experience. It nails the grainy look of 70’s thrillers, it stars the best ensemble cast I have ever seen in a film (Bryan Cranston! Alan Arkin! John Goodman!), it has plenty of humor but can be edge-of-your-seat tense, and it is a political thriller that tells the story as best as it can without simplifying the politics.
This is based on a true story, so right at the start you are already given the biggest spoiler of them all – they will be saved. DUH. I knew that, but listen: during the film, I completely forgot. And that there’s the mark of a skillful storyteller. Daredevil what? Give all of the awards to Ben Affleck. (And while you’re at it, can you please tell him to please direct another film with Casey Affleck in it please?)
October 17th, our third anniversary. Saw this at Powerbooks (Greenbelt branch). My book at a window display! And displayed along with horror books. This made me happy.
While waiting for Looper (which you should watch) to start, I saw this cell phone-encrusted robot by Nokia on display.
Robot looks so sad. I’ll sit beside you, robot.
Looper is set in the year 2044. In 2074, time travel has been invented but is outlawed, which pushes its use into the black market and the hands of organized crime. The mob uses time travel to send back anyone they want killed to 2044, and in 2044, in a field in Kansas, a Looper named Joe waits with a blunderbuss, and shoots anyone who is sent back from the future. In this way, no body appears in 2074 that can be connected to the mob, and Joe kills someone who, in effect, does not exist, and gets a good sum for it. But what happens when the mob wants to end your contract, and sends back your own future self? Will Joe be able to pull the trigger?
Don’t read any of the reviews. The fun of the film lies in discovering the secrets along with the characters.
We ended the night with wine. Cheers.
I have two stories that will be appearing in two fine publications:
My story “Maybe Another Song at Dusk” will appear in the Literary Section of Monday’s issue of Philippines Graphic. Grab a copy!
My story “A Fire That Cannot Be Touched” will be appearing in the 8th volume of the Philippine Speculative Fiction series! This will be edited by Dean Francis Alfar and Nikki Alfar, and will be available via Flipside Publishing in 2013.
I have very, very vague memories of Sylvester Stallone as the perpetually grimacing Judge Dredd (from the film adaptation that strayed from the source material and became a commercial and critical disappointment), and I haven’t read any of the 2000 AD titles where the character appears, but it doesn’t matter: Dredd is that rare kind of science fiction film that immerses the audience in a fleshed-out world without resorting to infodumps and endless exposition.
Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) is a member of a group of urban cops called “Judges”, who has the combined powers of a policeman, judge, jury, and instant executioner. They maintain order in the American wasteland of Mega City One, which runs from Boston to Washington DC. During a routine day, Dredd rides out with a rookie named Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) to a 200-storey building now controlled by drug lord Ma-Ma (Lena Headey) after the Ma-Ma gang wins in a bloody turf war.
This is not an origin story. It is a routine day on the job of a policeman in a world so bleak and ruined that the Judges become a necessity. This is the world. This is the crime. These are the Judges. This is what they must do. It is a straightforward action film that only hints at the past lives and tragedies of Anderson and Ma-Ma. Of Judge Dredd’s past we will know nothing at all. We don’t know if his thirst for justice is propelled by a personal experience. In this film at least, he is more of a symbol than an actual character. Not once does he take off his helmet.
The script is by Alex Garland, one of my favorite screenwriters and novelists. I absolutely loved the look and atmosphere of the film. I would watch Dredd again.
I couldn’t care less for James Bond, but I must clarify that the only Bond film I’ve seen from start to finish is the gritty and boring Quantum of Solace. I’ve seen none of the classic 007 movies, and what little I’ve seen of Pierce Brosnan’s films I found mediocre. The darker reboot, Casino Royale (which I haven’t seen) with Daniel Craig, has received both accolades and flak, the flak mostly coming from longtime fans who felt alienated by the new take. I think the filmmakers produced the next two films like cooks preparing soup: add a little bit of this, a little bit of that, until the longtime fans shut up.
Eliza Victoria 