Movie Review: Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Pt. 1

It's hard to believe that Daniel Radcliffe was 12 when he acted in the first ever Harry Potter movie: Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone back in 2001. He has surely grown up fast, now he's of age and legal playing a 17 year old in this latest installment. I wish the movie releases were closer together so that 1) Dan and his gang of friend looks younger, 2) I can still remember the plot of the previous films. Not having read the books, I'm not too familiar with the plot points and I get lost sometimes.

In this final 2-parter, Harry is still on a campaign to destroy the absolute villain Lord Voldemort and during his journey, he lost a lot of his allies, notably Professor Dumbledore. The story is getting gloomier and gloomier to the point that is quite uncharacteristic of a children's novel. How do million of kids handle lost, death and vengeance? How could we expect parents of these kids explain all these issues to them?

The mood of the whole movie is dark and every scene is gloom and doom, the wonder of magic tricks has turned into killing spells with light blood and gore. It's not your "Wingardium Leviosa" anymore. It's kill or be killed. While the connection between Harry and Voldemort is still strong, Harry must find Voldemort's horcruxes and find a way to destroy them. With Voldemort's cohorts getting into power, Harry must evade their pursuit and look for clues left by Professor Dumbledore.

Harry is playing the fugitive this time so there's a lot of outdoor living scene, but since this movie act as a build up for the grand finale, it is quite anti-climatic. I come out of it feeling the general gloominess and a bit unsatisfied. Don't get me wrong, the story-telling is superb, the acting and the special effects are great but nothing much can be expected from a build-up movie.

I heard that the finale is going to be in 3D and I mourn that it'll be the end of a fantastic story but I guess it's time. Only great story seems short and the guys are not getting any younger.

Read more...

Movie Review: Jackass 3D

In two years or so, every movie title will be "So & So 3D" which would make 3D redundant and render this argument improbable. Following the upcoming 3D televisions, maybe glasses will come pre-polarized and manufacturers will start producing polarized contacts. A new disease called the 3D Syndrome will surface where people can't tell whether they are watching a 3D graphic or actually watching something happening in real life and actually needs to resort to touching things to differentiate. More accidents will happen with people touching sharp objects and getting ran over by cars. It will be utter chaos.

At least half the movies I saw in theater for the past year were 3D movies; Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Avatar, Alice in Wonderland, Big Tits Zombie 3D, Toy Story 3, Piranha 3D. I own numerous pairs of 3D glasses in various stages of 3D technology, but I have never been more excited than when I heard the idea of putting Jackass in 3D. As people who's familiar with the MTV hit knows, there's really no plot to the Jackass franchise. Just a bunch of friends pulling horrible prank on each other. Viewers are tickled pink from extreme disgust and sheer schadenfreude.

Imagine making your friends enacting the worst/most disgusting idea you have in your life. Drink the sweat of a fat man, enrage a bunch of bees by kicking their nest around, crawling through a corridor buzzing with active tasers and cattle prods, spreading crazy glue on your hand and use it to wax your father's belly; disgusting, dangerous and insane stunts that you know you should never do but you're doing it because your friends are cheering you on. In the back of your mind, you clearly know it's stupid but you're making a movie and there's money to be made. Why not, right?

It's not important where they got their motivation from, really. I still enjoyed their insanely creative way to get themselves into situation that I wouldn't would attempt in my life. Sure, some skits are predictable and I'm pretty sure it's the same kind of humor from their TV series or their 2 former installments and I can't say if it's funnier or if they have topped themselves and god knows there are disgusting and puke inducing skits that I rather soon forget, but at the end despite the lack of substance, I still had a blast. Also, props for recognizing the general homoeroticism of the series and screening it at LA's leather gay bar Eagle. C+

Read more...

DVD Review: The Room (2003)

The boyfriend and I are both on our Day 6 of the lemonade diet and I have to say it's probably one of the hardest things that I've ever done since I do love eating. To distract ourselves from this diet the boyfriend, who has a weird sense of humor, brought over a cinematic anomaly called The Room and forced me to watch it. Good thing that I was forewarned about it being one of the best worst movies ever and I do think that it deserved such a title. The last horrible movie I've seen was probably Megashark vs. Giant Octopus by Asylum Films, bad acting, bad CGI, bad production value but at least there's a plotline, this movie called The Room takes bad movies to a whole new level.

How can I even tell you what The Room is about? On the surface, it is about a manipulative woman who is cheating on her fiancee with his best friend. In reality, it's about a man with limited talents who thought it's a good idea to make a movie and get famous from it. I think the man is indeed achieving his goals in the William Hung sort of way. Director, producer, writer, leading actor and film distributor Tommy Wiseau plays Johnny, a successful banker who's madly in love with his fiancee the "beautiful" Lisa (because everyone keeps on saying how beautiful she is), but after 5 or 7 years of courting (depending on which point of the film you're watching) Lisa is tired of Johnny and fell for his best friend Mark in a stalker-ish way. Throw in a teenage delinquent, Lisa's mom who definitely has breast cancer and another couple who likes to have sex wherever, this film is definitely a whole new cinematic experience. Oh and all the characters in the movie live in the same building apparently and constantly pop in and out of the screen for no reason.

In the first scene, Teenage delinquent Denny knock on the door of Johnny and Lisa's apartment and just hang there for no reason. Denny says he likes to watch the couple and after the couple sort of imply that they will be having sex, Denny proceed to follow the couple upstairs to their bedroom and watch when the couple is having a pillow fight then left. Another scene where Lisa's mother (who sounds like she's doing a commercial for Life Alert or some old folks insurance) just dropped by to have a short pointless conversation with her daughter then left, the whole scene that can easily be done via phone.

The editing sucks, there were four softcore love scenes within the first 30 minutes and that was the best part. The whole film feels and look like what it would be if a low budget porn director decided he wants to make a full-length movie with less attractive actors but with the same acting skills and dialogues. Tommy Wiseau other than being not that attractive has a surprisingly muscular body. In every other line, Mr. Wiseau do a fake chuckle (ah-ha-ha) and repeated throughout the whole movie even when his girlfriend was leaving him. When he's not chuckling, It's a greeting to a person who just happens to come into the space he's in and then followed by a chuckle. There's no rhyme or reason for his emotions which is mostly blank but then the change to melodrama is sudden and awkward.



This is how one of the better done scenes looks like:



The most convincing acting in the movie was done by an extra who repeated "Where's my money, Denny?" for around 10 times. But I guess one have to marvel on how horrible the movie really is and laugh at the disaster, after all despite its horrible writing there are some classic lines in the movie that really shines:


"I definitely have breast cancer."


All the sudden talking to himself for no reason: "I did not hit her, I did not... Oh hi Mark!"


"You're tearing me apart, Lisa!"

The whole movie is studded with little gems like that, When the hostess ask everyone to go to the yard, people cheered "Yeah!" and went out, same thing when they were asked to come back in. Screenwriters can take heed from this movie and do everything in the opposite way. It's 99 minutes of my life that I'll never get back, good thing I needed to kill time. For the movie, F. For the unintentional comic value, C-. So it averages to about a D-.

Read more...

Movie Review: Piranha 3D

Thinking that it'd be a sarcastically cheesy B-movie, the boyfriend and I went to see Piranha 3D, the film which got put down by James Cameron for cheapening the 3D genre mostly because he harbors some resentment for being fired as a director from Piranha 2, honestly it just made the movie that much more interesting to me.

The film starts with Jaws veteran Richard Dreyfuss sitting on a boat over the lake fishing for bass. As he was reeling his fish in, the boat tilted and his beer bottle fell into the lake hitting its bottom and caused a seismic reaction and the lake cracked and created a passage to an underground lake. A whirlpool caused my the crack caused Richard Dreyfuss to fall into the water and out come a drone of prehistoric Piranhas reducing him to mere bones. Yup, it's that kinda movie.

Every year, the population of Lake Victoria expands 10 folds during spring break. Wild Wild Girls director played by Jerry O'Connell has selected the lake to film his latest spring break girl-on-girl "romance action" flick. Not knowing the landscape, he hired local 17 year old Paolo Nutini lookalike Jake to be his guide while Jake's mom, a local sheriff is bound to lead a group of seismologists to the site. As the group discovered the underground lake and its occupants, Jake and his mom must fight for the survival of residents and visitors alike.

Mad traveler scientist Christopher Lloyd plays a mad marine biologist this time while another Back to the Future alumni Elizabeth Shue plays Jake's mom the Sheriff. Jerry O'Connell's acting is a bit forced but acting in this film is really secondary, considering Christopher Lloyd is in this film. There are a few titty shots but it's the gore that hits you in the face and numbed up your senses. After the 15 minutes of background information, it's death everywhere. Not just normal regular death but bloody cloud, limb off, face chewed off kinda death. Piranha attacking crowds of spring break frats, everybody dying, the whole screen in a shade of red kinda death.

While there's a few jokes in the film and you get tickled by the ridiculousness of some scenes, it's not particularly enjoyable. I knew the film aimed to be ridiculous but it borders on bizarre. Regardless, I going to stay inland for a while. C-

Happy Labor Day!

Read more...

Movie Review: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

Three weeks ago, the boyfriend and I got tickets to go to a preview screening of Scott Pilgrim Vs, The World but since there was a long, long line, we didn't get to see the movie and we were cooped up almost the entire past weekend, so I suggested to go see it at a theater in the far side of West Philly, a place I've never been before and it didn't turn out so bad.

It was kinda rainy yesterday and for some reason all the shops seems to have closed early and the neighborhood was a bit deserted. There was only about a dozen people in the theater. We were bummed out when a young mom were dragging four screaming children inside, but she came in and out a few times, so overall it was a surprisingly good viewing experience. Plus there's a nice Korean mart nearby with a nice food court.

23 years old Scott Pilgrim is walking around on the streets of Toronto with a chip on his shoulder from his last break-up, to get over his old flame he is casually dating an impressionable 17 yo Chinese girl in the form of Knives Chau much to his sister's, friend's and bandmates' chagrin. In the peak of his loneliness, Scott dreamt of a girl on rollerblades, and later this girl materialized as the form of Ramona Flowers. To live happily ever after with this girl of his dreams, Scott must defeat her 7 evil exes.

Scott Pilgrim is actually a very quirky film shot in a very anime-y and video game-y style that stayed true to the original comic series. It's funny, likable, stylish and entertaining, it hits enough geek points to make it an instant classic. The love story between Scott and Ramona is somewhat unconvincing, actually to have so many women falling for Scott in itself is not too convincing, there's no obvious traits about Michael Cera/Scott Pilgrim that's alluring. They should really spend some time explaining why a girl like Ramona would fall for Scott, and how they have bonded enough for Scott to deem going through the trouble to fight her 7 exes worthy.

Other than defeating the first ex fair and square, there were a lot of trickery involved, Scott also depended on a lot of help from his friends. Up to a point, there seems to be a rush going through all 7 exes. It is, however, visually stimulating. I even enjoyed the few rock songs even though it's not my genre of music. The special effects are great. The movie in general is cute and fun. The moral of the story or the lesson to be learned seems to be a bit forced but I left with a feeling of being entertained and thought of my own share of evil exes. B

Read more...

Wizards of Oz

Over at Vic's Maybe It's Just Me..., I've been reading a lot about new projects that has to do with the story of Wizard of Oz. So I started wondering how many Wizard of Oz related movies are coming out. An article over at Moviefone has the answer (maybe part of it):

1. Surrender Dorothy (2011)

Expected to come out next year, it's Surrender Dorothy. The project was announced back in 2002, it's based on a script by Zach Helm and it will be Drew Barrymore's 2nd directing project. It's a modern day interpretation much like Enchanted about the great granddaughter of Dorothy trying to use th power of the ruby slippers to defeat the apparently still alive Wicked Witch of the West.



2. Oz: The Great and Powerful (2013)

I guess there's no project that Robert Downey Jr. won't want to participate in, he's practically in every franchise will be playing the almighty wizard of OZ in this upcoming project. Sam Raimi is set to direct this prequel to the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the man behind Alice in Wonderland Joe Roth will be producing this one along with Disney. Instead of having Dorothy as the main character, this movie will be telling the story from the wizard's point of view. No music but more action.

Let's be honest and say that it'll focus on Robert Downey Jr. and it's be like any other of his movies.



3. Oz (2013)

Not much news for this one yet, but the folks behind Twilight and Warner Bros/New Line are behind this one. Darren Lemke who wrote Shrek Forever After wrote the script for it. It's a retelling of the original Judy Garland movie The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with more action and less music. Personally I'd like to think that Toto is a werewolf and the witches are vampires, and Dorothy is a emo girl traveling with an ogre, gingerbread man and puss in boots to see her emo boy, but that could be just me.

4. The Twisted Land of Oz (201?)

Comic artist Todd McFarlane of Spawn fame who has designed a series of twisted figurines based on the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. His Oz includes a Scarecrow who's torn apart by ravenous birds, a Tin Man who's a junkpile of Edward Scissorhands-like limbs, a flesh-eating Lion who's not at all cowardly, a Wizard who's a gas-mask-wearing mad scientist, a carnivorous creature dubbed Toto after it eats Dorothy's dog, and a nubile Dorothy who's bound and molested by depraved Munchkins. Even though he claimed that Michael Bay will direct this project and it could be distributed by Warner Bros, it seems like it is still in the pitching phase and will most likely be buried under all the other competing projects based on the same inspiration.



5. Oz: Return to the Emerald City (2012)

This might be Warner Bros' third Oz project and it takes a similar route as Surrender Dorothy, but this modern day interpretation is not about Dorothy's great granddaughter but her granddaughter who's an adult lawyer living in Chicago. She's set to defeat a new witch in Oz along with her grandmother's old pals. The script is written by Josh Olson.

6. Wicked (2012)

There's news that the Broadway hit Wicked will be brought to the silver screen which would be great. The fans of the musical would know that it's kind of a prequel to the Wonderful Wizard of Oz retelling a different version of the background to shine a different light to the story. I've tried to get tickets to the musical for the longest time and could never manage to see it. Putting it on the big screen will definitely draw a lot of people, if, we are not tired of seeing all the other ones yet. Even it's set to come out in 2012, no one has been cast yet and there has been no signs of production beyond having a script.



7. Dorothy of Oz (2012)

This animated series is a sequel to the Wonderful Wizard of Oz where after Dorothy clicked her heels and went back to Kansas and found it destroyed by the tornado and everyone is moving out. She got mysteriously sent back to Oz again but find it deserted and decaying. All the people in Oz went missing. On her way back to Emerald City, she finds herself some new characters and a new villain in the form of a Jester. It's an all star cast, hopefully some music in this one. I just saw 1985's Return to Oz with The Craft's Fairuza Balk, I guess it will have feel if not storyline.



There's also a MySpace movie project called Wheeler of Oz that just came out and I just watched The Wiz again a few weeks ago. Why are all the Oz movies coming out in the same time? Even one new movie every year is a bit too much. I'm only interested in Wicked anyway.

Read more...

QFest 2010 Megapost (Part 2)

The film festival is almost over, while I don't think I've had enough that's probably because of all the films we have chosen, they are actually quite good and I don't regret seeing any. Here's the last three:



You Should Meet My Son is a comedy about a closeted young man who's constantly being matched up by his mom and her sister. After broken up with his boyfriend who disguised as his best friend and roommate in front of his mom, the mother learned the fact that his son is gay and took a crash course on gay life from a neighborhood boy and a night at a gay club. When she has found a suitable match for his son, the son changed his mind.

The movie was hilarious and fun. Of course, this movie sets in the unlikeliest situation but it's what gay men imagine their mom would do if they went cruising online or hung out at a gay bar. Set in Alabama, the aunt draws all her modern living tips from Glamour magazine but both sheltered from anything else. It was indeed fun up to a point, but after the mom gets to meet a lot of different gay characters. The cast suddenly expanded 4~5 folds and it kinda became a circus. The religious element got a bit old and the path that the son chose to take was illogical and creates negative feelings. Some of the casts are unconvincing and a bit awkward in delivering their dialogue but generally it tries to deliver jokes after jokes. B-

With the film, this short film from Director Keith Hartman was also shown which I'm sure we all loved.



---



It seems to be a trend now that there's a zombie for the past 3 festivals and I went to see them all. I walked out of the extremely pretentious Bruce LaBruce's Otto; Or, Up With Dead People, ZMD: Zombie of Mass Destruction was fun and impressive. This year's tag along Danger After Dark horror fest brought us the best zombie movie yet. It doesn't have anything to do with being gay, but the only sold out movie I went to is Big Tits Zombie 3D. You heard me right. Big Tits. Zombie. 3D.

This campy softcore porn of a gem from Japan tells the story of a bratty drunk girl that just came back from Mexico and for money she contacted an old acquaintance who operates a strip club. In the club she met four other girls from different background, the five of them performed in a rundown town nightly for customers that you can count with both hands. The story took an unsuspected turn (oh who am I kidding?) when they found a key for a door that linked to an abandoned building across the street.

The 3D is completely bullshit, but the camp value of this film goes through the roof. Blatant countdown on 3D moments where actors themselves will put on the glasses with you, unnecessary shots where bras would be ripped off bodies of female characters, pyrotechnics out of places you never wanted to see, midgets, the famed tentacle monster, handsome Japanese men with giant chests with too little cameo time but they are all hilarious. It's the most laughter I've heard in a movie theater in a long time, it even got me curious of the repulsive RoboGeisha. One could only hope that all B-movies are as good as this one. B+



---



The last movie is a beautiful story from Brazil called Do Começo ao Fim or From Beginning to End. It dabbles in the dangerous topic of incest. The story doesn't have too much of a plot or any twist and turns, it's just a simple story about two brothers, Francisco and Thomas, growing up together and living codependent in the suburbs of Rio. Their family is very well-to-do and even they noticed that the boys were being a little too intimate from a nearly age, they figured it's better to let it run its course than to traumatize them. When their parents died, moved out and leaving them alone in the house, all boundaries came loose.

It's a sentimental and romantic movie beautifully lit, staged and captured. The actors are all gorgeous. The director focused a lot of time describing the childhood of these boys, maybe I've seen too much Hollywood movies and I keep on expecting some major plot twists but they never came. Then suddenly the years have passed and even the first sex scene was beautifully filmed, I'm not quite sure of the logic behind it. I also don't understand the sexuality of the brothers, it seemed if it's not for each other they might not necessarily be gay. And as abruptly as the years has passed, the ending was also a bit poorly edited. If the beauty wasn't there, the film itself can be seen as boring. I wonder if it's an attempt to normalize a subject as controversial as incest, it's almost just like any other epic love stories you see, told by beautiful people.

Maybe not every stories need car accidents and tragic endings. B



---

I already miss the festival before it was gone.

Read more...

QFest 2010 Megapost (Part 1)

Once a year, Philadelphia has an extraordinary gay and lesbian film festival that make me proud to be gay in this town. The Philadelphia QFest run concurrently with the LA Outfest. While it's true that most gay film producers and stars live in LA, the Philadelphia QFest is not inferior in scope. Just this year, we have about 50 international full-length and short film compilations to choose from, which makes me a very happy camper. I treasure the moments spent on reading and circling the films that I might want to see. In addition to gay films, this year small Danger After Dark movie festival tagged alongside, adding more selection for the boyfriend to enjoy.

To cut down on budget, the boyfriend and I chose 5 films to go see together and the first one of the bunch is a French comedy called Rose et Noir or Fashion Victim. The film is set in 1577 Paris, where a famous fashion designer was hired to go to Spain to produce a wedding gown for noble's daughter to wed King Henri VIII's nephew. It was a ploy to stabilize the relationship between both countries. Though the famous couturier is but a phony, his designs and tailoring comes from a young staff of an arab, a jew and a gay guy. The crew along with the fussy designer's brother and the adolescent soon-to-wed prince begins their journey into chaotic Spain in the midst of the inquisition.



The movie takes a lot of liberty in historic accuracy but of course, it's not meant to be serious. Instead of being about fashion, the film is more about the oppression that religion causes. Jews, gays, Arabs and protestants alike are all prosecuted by the Spanish Inquisition. Things like fashion and music are deemed to be sinful pursuits, the joys of life are sucked dry by Catholicism. The title of the film itself represented the ways of living by the two opposing groups. Freedom necessary for joy and creativity and the movie told it in the most flamboyant and funny way possible.

The actors are likable, the costumes are great, the fashion show in the beginning is unlike anything I've ever seen. At the end, there's a poignant point at the end of the movie that popped out out of nowhere that reminded me of some Bollywood movie where the ending doesn't have anything to do with the entire movie and the ending where everyone walked up and down the runway made me think of the ending dance of those films. Albeit some plot points that I can spot from a mile away, I did enjoy this movie and found it quite funny. B--

---

Every year, I try to go see a short film compilation with the believe that with less time, they'd have to do more to draw their viewers in much like commercials and without the constriction of a 90 minutes period they won't have to fill up the time with nonsense. This year we got to see 6 of these shorts in a compilation called "Short, Sexy and Sweet":



After is about 3 young men seating at the front porch onlooking to a park where a couple of guys were playing football. They all fantasize about one of the player wearing a red shirt in their own different ways and while there are some flirting coming back, the young men reacted in their own way when the fantasies met a tragic end. It's very much like a low budget art school freshman film, that's weird and dorky. In the beginning, it stated that the film was inspired by a Dennis Cooper poem called "After School, Street Football, Eighth Grade". I'd like to read that poem, if it's true, it's bound to be one twisted poem. C-

On The Way To The Videostore is a black and white film about a phone call between a cub and his hag retelling the story where he saw his favorite porn star on the street and his plan to cruise him. This is a sophomore art school film with more bells and whistles that didn't seem necessary. It reminds me of the Cabearet video that fellow blogger Erik posted, because it will be more successful as an act than an actual movie. With its length, it can even be on YouTube. Cheesy dialogue, clumsy plots, not too attractive actors, it doesn't have too much going for it. But it's fun. D



Thirteen Minutes Or So detailed the aftermath between two straight men who went to a bar and later on... had sex. After everything was done, one of them started to freak out about what their sex acts represents while the other took the nonchalant approach. The dialogue between them two contemplating with their own homophobia and acceptance was touch. Though something tells me that one of them has to know that he's gay and randomly preys on straight guys at the bar all the time. C

Last Call shows Gavin recounting his treasured moments with the love of his life Mark at a mysterious bar. Mark is a much younger musician but their love was torn apart because of Gavin's drinking problem. After rehab and a year and a half of sobriety, Gavin seeks out Mark for reconciliation but found out that things cannot be anymore. This short film is quite well produced and the editing is obviously superb to all others. The concept and the look come quite fresh, Mark can improve a little in the acting part and the moments can be more significant but it's still good. C+



You Can't Curry Love has a title that I deem a bit too much but the cast is gorgeous. An East Indian from London was sent by his gay-baiting boss to Indian to check on the progress of that branch and meet a handsome hotel clerk. They slowly fell in love while traveling India, the film touch on different social issues and gay life in India. When it's time for the Londoner to return home he's face with a choice, does he return to his roots or follow his boss whom he has a huge crush on? In all honesty, this film feels more like a gay travels guide to Indian on Logo mashed with the presex gay porn scenes but the cast was incredibly charming even the fag hag in it, the hotel clerk in particular was gorgeous. The film is incredibly sweet, and of course, they ended with a dance. B



The last one is called Bedfellows. It's a quirky film done in the form of a fairytale where a guy finds a one night stand and when the sex is over he dreams of a life with this stranger, from marriage, adoptions until his last breath. In his fantasy, he experienced the full range of emotions from various life events but he eventually have to wake up. It's a new kind of story told in a fresh way. It was very hard for me to see it as a fairytale at first, especially when the narrator's voice is a bit awkward. I reckoned that not everyone can be Morgan Freeman and I got over that soon. The primary set is well done, throughout the film the two main characters were subtly aging which is brilliant. It's a story that can only be told by a short film. There can always be a few improvements but it's pretty well done. B-

Of these six shorts films, three of them involved a scene where a character got into a car accident. If I were to compile a slew of shorts, I will not put those three together unless I based the theme in accidents and tragedy. Not all of them fits into all three of the Short, Sexy & Sweet category.

To Be Continued...

Read more...

Movie Month: July 2010

Opened this week, were megabuster Twilight: Eclipse and the much followed Avatar: The Last Airbender which both got the suckiest reviews in film history.

I saw the first Twilight and I was appalled that they completely distorted the legends of vampires. Yes, a million of teenage girls were ruffled by the romanticism within, every young girl's dream right now is to be special enough so that two supernatural being would fight over them but in all honesty the movie is just freaking boring. The only expression from Kristen Stewart was the one on the poster, just read the synopsis on wikipedia and you can save yourself $10 and 90 minutes. And no I haven't seen the latest installment but according to the box office, it should be releasing on DVD soon enough.

Casting an Asian Anime with an all-white cast? What? Caucasian Buddhist Monk? What? All the main characters are white when all the extras are Asian? What?

About a year and a half ago my neighbor told me that M. Night Shaymalan has a casting call for Asian actors to appear on The Last Airbender and in hindsight maybe I should have ran there and see what's up. It's something to do, but the result seems to be quite lackluster. I mean how awkward is it to have an Asian themed movie done by a white cast? Probably worst than Jake Gyllenhaal faking a British accent while being the Prince of Persia. What worst is the Asian extra running in the background reminding you that there's something wrong with you main cast. I was a little excited at first, thinking it's a 3D movie and I do like movies dealing with the elements and all, but after reading that the 3D effect was shit and the acting was also down in the toilet. I guess it's a big "No, thank you!"

There was a protest in LA against film favoring Caucasian actors, they should know that Asian actors fit in a kung fu movie better than anyone.

---

The Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival has rebranded themselves as QFest last year and it's coming back this year with a hefty film selection. After the enjoyable procedure of reviewing every movie, rating them by interest levels and drawing time blocks to make up a workable schedule and balancing budget. I've selected 5 movies to attend with the boyfriend. QFest is running in conjunction with a horror film festival and we're going to see a film call Big Tits Zombie 3D, go figure. Anyhow, it should definitely be better than this RoboGeisha that I'm sure with driving me insane if the whole 90 minutes is anything like the trailer.



---

Other than that, there's also Despicable Me that feed on the 3D obsessions. There's also Ms. Jolie's Salt that look slightly interesting. I'm also a bit intrigued in the dark teenage magic movies involving a possessive in the name like The Vampire's Assistant, or The Sorcerer's Apprentice if they can only be in 3D. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World also seems very interesting but that would be in August.

Read more...

Movie Review: Toy Story 3

From the first installment of Toy Story back in 1995, Andy, the kid who played with Woody and Buzz had grown up to be a young man of 17 and ready to leave for college. He must decide the fate of his long neglected toys.

*** Spoiler Alert ***

Through a snafu, the bag of toys that was meant to end up in the attic got accidentally put in the trash and after feeling abandoned, the toys sneaked into a donation box meant for a nearby childcare center. At first, the daycare center seemed welcoming. Mr. Lotso in the form of a tattered strawberry-scented fluffy bear had the daycare center governed into tip-top shape. Slowly, the gang discovered that there are dues to be paid in a place like this. From traveling between afew houses and another place across town, the toys are all over town in this installment and it all just sound a little bit more far-fetched then usual. But the heart warming theme throughout the movie held it together.

Woody longer to be by Andy's side, while the rest of the gang understand that a separation is inevitable. For a 17 year-old boy to feel the need to bring a toy to college seems a bit strange. In reality, most boys would have moved on to more afe appropriate things like video games. Most toys don't last that long, most toys get forgotten and trashed. If these toys do have feelings, I can't imagine how traumatizing it would be for the toy to see his owner getting drunk and having sex and how traumatizing it would be for the college kid to be lectured by these seemingly dead objects. So I guess it's natural for the producers to create an endpoint for these characters.

It's generally a feel good movie with lots of laughs and actions. It's especially fun to see Ken being teased throughout the movie for being a girl's toy. He's acting very flamboyant but yet not gay because he's in love with Barbie, so I guess it's a play on metrosexuals. I find Joan Cusack's voice to be a little sharp and awkward for voice acting, but everybody else did a pretty nice job. It's worth a watch. B

Read more...

Movie Review: The Middle Eastern Two Sex & The City 2 and Prince of Persia

The boyfriend and I had been looking out for some new collect-them-all Lego merchandize that require us to go to a rather isolated part of the city. An after going to that area two days in a row and still unable to collect 16 different figurine in blind baggies (despite having a barcode breaker), I decided if I'm going to that part of town again, I might as well take advantage of the nearby movie theater that plays mainstream movies. We only have two such theaters in the city.

So after comparing movie times for the best time saving combination, I paid 18 bucks for 2 matinees: Sex & The City 2 and Prince of Persia.



Sex and the City 2 - The Terrible 2

I have been a big fan of the TV series. Heck, I used to subscribe to HBO just for that and cancel when it's off-season. That was before you can download TV programs or watch it for free online and nothing much else on HBO get me hooked. It was the late 90s during the Spice Girls "Girl Power" era, the story of four self-empowered mid 30s figuring out what life is actually about is compelling. Of course, all the nude sex scenes and cute guys are perks. I was sad when they ended the series but felt that the story had kinda ran its course but I also rushed to the theater when they released the first movie and thoroughly enjoyed it. SATC2 though is definitely quite different then its predecessor.

It is entirely a gay man's fantasy; Instead of writing a continuation of the former storylines, the movie seems to be based on an alternative universe where they started out by inexplicably marrying their two main gay characters who hated each other in an overtly extravagant manner. In reality, just because they are both gay doesn't mean they are bound to marry and with their vocations, they would have never be able to afford marrying in a palatial space with a tiny river in the middle with live swans, in the style of old Hollywood glamour, with a gay men's chorus singing throughout the engagement, by Liza Minnelli and paid her to sing Single Ladies with two back-up drag dancers. But it can happen in fantasyland and like the girl with the eyes that sparkles says: "We're not in Kansas anymore."

The girls are all struggling with their own problems; For Samantha, it's going through menopause, for the others are married lives and family lives. The relief came in the form of an one-week all expense paid trip to Abu Dhabi that pretty much fall from the sky. Thus, the girls packed enough for 5 outfits per day to a country where women is repressed. Rest assure that Abu Dhabi is full of hot guys including some man servants who wants to fulfill your every needs and a bikini wearing Australian rugby team with tons of costume changes and slow-mo runway walks, basically it's the adventures of the anatomically correct Priscillas or a gay man's wet dream.

The thing that worries me the most other than the plot being so unrealistic to the point that the whole movie becomes just an excuse to see the girls doing what they used to do is that, the girls don't look like how they used to. The wrinkles on everyone's forehead seems to have at least doubled. Even though I might be hated for saying so but especially in Samantha's case, she eerily reminds me of how hard Madonna is trying to reclaim her lost youth by flaunting her body. It's almost like learning that your mom still have sex with various men, it's embarrassing.

The plot is thin and the drama and problems of each character are pretty much created by themselves and turn out to be nothing at the end. It's purely illogical, nobody wears a full skirt to a street market in the middle of a desert. The highlights of the movie for me was the two naked backsides and an impressive tent of the gentlemen who Samantha was screwing and the reappearance of Aiden Shaw. Context-wise this movie is to gay men and middle-aged housewives what Twilight is to teenage girls. We hee-ed and haw-ed to the adventures of these rich bitches that sparkle under the sun, but we are constantly reminded that they don't really exist. It's nice to see them though. C



Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time

From Abu Dhabi, we traveled to the Old Persia. Where Jake Gyllenhaal plays the famed title character of the game franchise Prince of Persia. Love that game. By naming the movie The Sands of Time may signal that this could be a multi-parter which make me very excited.

The storyline seemed to be loosely based on the video game, but dramatized and humanized. Jake plays Prince Dastan (The prince has a name?!?), who was originally an Orphan rescued by the King because of his courage. He started out to be somewhat of a rascal but in an effort to help his brother conquering a holy city called Alamut, he soon won over his audience for his quick wit, acrobatic ability and military strategy. The ruler of Alamut is a priestess Princess Tamina who was brought up to guard a dagger with the ability to turn back time. Prince Dastan stumbled upon the dagger and for his victory, he was to marry the princess. In the celebration, he was tricked into giving his father a prayer robe that has been poisoned. His father died from wearing the robe and Prince Dastan set to escape with the Princess in tow.

I was never a huge fan but Gyllenhaal is growing on me, he looked a lot more chiseled now though I can't figure out why Prince Dastan needs a British accent. The battle scene was edited to look like the puzzle solving stages in the game without the actual puzzle solving which is just a bit disappointing. The subplot to link the movie to Bush's search for the WMD in the Middle East is rather gimmicky and pointless. The ostrich racing scene and the lot also seems to be packing peanuts to fill the time.

The major lesson of the movie is the strength of brotherhood but nobody seemed to have learned it, instead the second lesson of trusting your heart seems to be more important. It is confusing to start, how do you choose the words of your seemingly nonconforming or even irrational non-biological brother over the words of your father's brother? Which brotherhood takes precedent?

With good special effects, some acrobatic scenes through the roof of Persia, and Jake Gyllenhaal occasionally flashing some chest hairs even without nipple shots, Prince of Persia is entertaining enough for the ones who had played the game. If not, the movie might seem incredibly generic. It could be more exciting if the mystical elements can be further explored or used in fight scenes. I did enjoy myself, here's to hope for a better sequel. B-

Read more...

Movie Review: Iron Man 2

On the surface, Tony Stark is enjoying his new rock star or even god status after revealing to the world that he is indeed Iron Man, but secretly Tony is slowly dying of palladium poisoning from that electromagnetic mechanism that's keeping his heart beating. The stress of his deteriorating health and his country questioning his possession of the ultimate weapon, Tony is living everyday like his last and not particularly in a good way.

Meanwhile, the son of the forgotten physicist/engineer, recently deceased Anton Vanko co-creator of the massive electricity generator of Stark Industries has taken upon himself to exact revenge on Tony Stark. After being recruited by Stark Industries' major competitor, Ivan Vanko developed an army of mechanic drones to battle Iron Man.

Ivan Vanko, played by Mickey Rourke, was introduced as this episode's villain. Not only was he able to build robots, he's also able to write programs for them as well as develop mechanisms to manipulate electricity. A hybrid of Crimson Dynamo, Whiplash in a robotic shell like Iron Man. While Mickey Rourke is engaging, I'm not too sure how the son of a world class inventor would be with a full cast of tattoos. I'm also unclear why he waited until his father's passing to scheme on Tony Stark.

I also have mixed feelings about Don Cheadle replacing Terrence Howard to play Lt. James Rhodes, they are two very different actors and they seem to be portraying two different characters. In the first installment, Terrence Howard showed that Lt. James Rhodes has a deep friendship, almost a soft spot for Tony Stark. Don Cheadle however demonstrated a resentment from the very start, plus Cheadle's portrayal was a bit one dimensional.

With the S.H.I.E.L.D side story, we see Samuel L. Jackson playing Nick Fury the leader of the organization. What's exciting to see was Scarlett Johansson playing Natasha Romanoff aka The Black Widow. While Iron Man, War Machine and Whiplash's fighting style is more of a demonstration of strength and fire power, the Black Widow's athletic combat showcase was refreshing and exciting. The decision of not giving Black Widow a Russian accent provided a more updated version of the character and a contrast to Whiplash.

I'm none too pleased by the downward turn of Tony Stark's character at the beginning. It was tough to watch the supposed protagonist of the story acting like an asshole. I realize that it's the story but what can I say? I like my superheroes to uphold morality. I can't look to Pepper Potts for moral guidance now, can I?

Of course, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, the visual effects were great, just look at how many companies and staff were involved with it during the credits. I simply can't wait for the upcoming Thor movie, Captain America movie as well as the Avengers movie. (Of course, there's also a new X-Men and Green Lantern, woohoo!) Score: B

Read more...

Movie Review: Kick-Ass

After walking in the zoo for hours yesterday, me and my boyfriend were tired and looking to sit and rest for a while, so we decided to go to the movie. I was sincerely pooped and thought I could possibly do the rare nap during a movie but no such luck. Kick-Ass was awesome.

The movie started out with a high-school comic book geek Dave who get bullied and robbed all the time. He wonders why there are no real life superheroes. Even without superpowers, anyone should be able to go out and fight for justice. So there's what he did, he bought a scuba suit, modified it and walked around with batons and wait for crime to happen. Without training, he got beat up a lot and ended up in an accident that screwed up his nerve endings and made him that much more persistent to pain.

After saving a person's live and became an internet sensation, he inspired a lot of people to be vigilantes, it also helped him in his personal life. More importantly, it gave ex-framed cop Damon McReady and his 11 years-old daughter Mindy a way to act on their revenge on local mobster Frank D'Amico.

While Aaron Johnson who played geeky unassuming Dave was weirdly adorable, the show stealer is Chloe Grace Moretz who played Mindy who later transformed into grimy Hit Girl. It is indeed a one-girl show, from the beginning where she gets shoot by her father Damon (who's played by Nick Cage) so she can get used to the shock and then the debut where she kills a room full of people in 2 minutes sharp. Other than leaving a massive blood trail, she also left the audience all jaw-dropped in awe.

The storyline is simple, the action satisfying. Nick Cage played Damon pretty well, though when he's wearing costume it does show that he's quite out of shape and his jaw surprisingly wrinkly. There are plenty of realistic scenes of beating people up and lots of blood, despite having a kick-ass kid in the movie, this movie is definitely not suitable for children. As an adult though, I thoroughly enjoyed it. B+

Read more...

Movie Review: Alice in Wonderland (3D)

Seems like all the movies I see these days are 3Ds, I wonder why. It's oddly uncomfortable watching movies with a pair of glasses over my existing glasses, anyway.

Quirky, free-spirited 19 year-old Alice is forced to attend a party where a local lord with bad digestion problem asked her for her hand of marriage. Her father has just died and the family business needed someone in a prestigious position to take over, so the family looked forward to the union. During the party, Alice spotted a rabbit wearing a long coat and stumbled into the big rabbit hole after chasing after it. Having forgotten her previous adventure, Alice goes back into the world of Wonderland and starts another adventure.

Tim Burton continues his obsessions with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter who play the Mad Hatter and the Red Queen capably. Surprisingly, Anne Hathaway's Wonkaesque White Queen fits quite nicely into the Burton world and so is Matt Lucas' Tweedledee and Tweedledum. No doubt, there will be a chance for us to see them in future Burton projects. The story is a loose adaptation of the book, Mia Wasikowska who plays the title character seems like the plainest, most innocent girl in this bizarre world. The contrast might be a bit too severe, since as a lead actress one should project at least some charms which she seems to have been lacking.

The story itself is not an obvious one. Aside from having a lot of dialogue being unclear, the protagonist was assigned with a task that she refused but somehow was forced to follow the steps laying in front of her. She lacked a clear purpose or an personality. It's like she's a ragged doll waiting for the storyline to commence, the special effects to take hold. The world surrounds her was interesting and entertaining, Johnny Depp and HBC have the odd gifts of making the most unbelievable characters believable, even though Mad Hatter goes through serious length of illegible self-mumblings. To make the movie climactic, it brought a monster for Alice to fight, which I slightly detest simply because it seems to follow a artificial preset Hollywood formula but I don't really know how I would feel if they go without it.

Aside from a good cast, what saves the movie were Wonderland where fishes walk swishily on land, where little talking mouse has the courage to aim for the eyes of big monsters. The CGI is amazing and essential in the whimsical Burton world. With a hidden self-empowerment message, fans of the Narnia series will enjoy this movie. B-

Read more...

Logorama

Via Advertising is Good For You

The winner of Best Animated Short Film of last week's Oscar - Logorama. Even though being a short film, it's 16 minutes long and it takes a while to load. But it's quite well-made, so enjoy.

Read more...

Movie Review: 9

These few days there's nothing much on TV other than the Winter Olympics and honestly it's not really that interesting to watch people skate around in circles like the human version of Nascar. So the other day the boyfriend and I went to rent a movie and we settled on an interesting animation called 9.

This movie came out last September and as I remembered, the trailer was a bit dark and the storyline ambiguous, that's part of the reason why I didn't rush to the theater for it. But like most animation, it aimed to please its target audience which usually are children, so it turns out not to be scary at all. Though the concept is a bit vague.

In a parallel universe, a scientist created a robot with an artificial intelligence that allows it to create machine weaponry. The robot was taken from the scientist prematurely and used for war, but then as expected it malfunctions and started to eliminate all humans. To save humanity, the scientist created little burlap puppets and imposed part of his own soul in them. As the final puppet came to life and the last bit of soul left the scientist's body, the journey of salvation begins.

The story expanded from an Oscar-nominated short film produced and written by animator Shane Acker. The short film was abstract, whimsical, concise and without any dialogue. The problem is, it is difficult to expand an abstract concept into a full-feature film and explain it in words. It opens up a whole can of worm; the world that can only exist in imagination have to be weighed down and linked up to a more realistic scenario and it didn't get anywhere.

While the animation is really well done, the story is a bit forced. The story started with only a small villain that's easily conquerable comparing to the upcoming feats. With a slight alteration, they could have lived in peace and never triggers anything else. The nine parts of the scientist's soul does not have distinguish traits to differentiate themselves from one another. Two of the dolls are twins, one is an autistic loner and one is a female dragoneer. I'm not too sure how it reflects the scientist's psyche. Other than that there are hocus pocus magic that doesn't quite fit the science/robot theme and the trigger for nature to revive is questionable too.

Personally I think the story could have altered a little bit and make the dolls programs of human traits that the malfunctioned "beast" can download and after they all sacrificed and uploaded to the beast. The beast will gain a "conscience" and start producing robots to reconstruct the world or even reconstruct the dolls for a happy ending, it'll be more plausible than magic, but I'm not the writer.

I still enjoyed it. Again the animation is flawless and beautiful, but the story reads like a misconceived video game. It would, however, be a lot more enjoyable if it were a video game. It is certainly something that the director can think about. B-

Read more...

Movie Review: Avatar (3D)

I remember some weeks ago, I wasn't thrilled at the idea on paying to see a movie about blue lizards with an environmental message. It sounded unrelatable and preachy, and they do tell you why no restaurants sell blue food. And all the plugs on late night TV just made it worst, they made it sound like a major effort to salvage a sunken big budget movie, I wasn't convinced that it will be good at all. But then two weeks in every friend who has gone seen this movie has started to tell me about how visually stunning it is with comments on the less stellar storylines, I started to think that I was wrong about Avatar and the more raving reviews I've heard from different people, the more I'm sold.

I didn't expect to come into a fullhouse almost a month after the film was released. I guess since it is not a franchise and people are not quite sure what the movie is about, they don't rush all in to see it the very first week so the viewers are still coming in a steady stream.

In the year of 2154, handicapped marine Jake Sully is recruited to be in a planet exploration project his twin brother was supposed to take part. His brother died unexpectedly and since they share the same biological profile, Jake became the natural choice to overtake his brother's avatar - a remote controlled biological shell that resembled the occupants of the destination planet Pandora. The people of Pandora, called the Na'vi, are 10-15' tall blue skinned creatures who lived harmoniously with their surroundings and can communicated with animals and vegetations on the planet. Jake gained the Na'vi's trust and learns to be one of them while the military's interest is to secure a rare mineral called Unobtainium. So Jake must find a way to prove himself and find where his loyalty lies.

Basically, Avatar is Pocahontas set in a distant future, a far away planet, with less music and more CGI creatures and action. At least it's a sorta classic story and the viewers are all dazzled by the visual effects and the gun blazing to care about the oddly familiar storyline. I don't know if it's appropriate to compare to Wizard of Oz in its period, but it felt what my first experience of seeing a color movie would be like. Avatar succeeded in the seamless integration of CGI and real people with 3D effects, the use of vibrant colors throughout the movie also achieves dazzling results.

You can't help but feel for the blue creatures as their homeland was being destroyed. All the Na'vi characters are really likable. Main character Jake Sully played by Sam Worthington comes alive in his avatar and his sex appeal did not diminish in either form. Sigourney Weaver is a sure bet for sci-fi credibility. Zoe Saldan of Star Trek 2009's Uhura fame, plays a Na'vi princess with complete control and believability. I love movies that open my eyes and take me places and Avatar achieved both.

Visually is stunning and original, wished I could say the same for the storyline, but I was too dazzled to notice. A-

Read more...

Movie Review: Nine

Forgive me father for I have sinned, it has been two months since my last movie and after this long stretch I returned to the theater for Nine. The thing that attracted me most to the movie was the great, great cast. Dame Judi Dench who's always a pleasure to see, Nicole Kidman, the very beautiful Penelope Cruz, Kate Hudson, Fergie and they even got the legendary Sophia Loren. I didn't know anything about the story but my friend BL, who's a big theater fan, told me that Nine was originally a Broadway musical that managed to do better than Dreamgirls when they were both showing at the same time in 1982, so I went in with high expectations and they do tell you what happens when you have high expectations, don't they?

Nine is about world famous director Guido Contini facing his own mid-life crisis. With some early success, the whole Italy have high expectations on its own golden boy Guido Contini when he announced that he will be starting production in less than a week on his upcoming movie boldly named Italia but in fact Guido has yet to come up with a script, not even a storyline. As he escaped to a spa along the coastline to soul search, he is faced with other problems like his much ignored wife Luisa, his married and somewhat obsessed lover Carla, a young American reporter who seduces Guido for some inside scoop, his movies' leading lady Claudia while spiritual guides in the from of a prostitute, his dead mother and a seamstress friend appeared.

The movie while pleasant at times has many, many problems. I was pleased to be able to see a very brilliant cast, but most of them only interacts with Guido and not each other. They are all given a 5-10 minutes time to explain their relation with Guido, mostly through a song but it was to sparse for any character development. Worst of all, the songs were not memorable. Throughout the movie, I was wondering why it was named Nine. It was not a number that has been mentioned anywhere, I counted the women around him and only came up with 7 and it remained to be a puzzle throughout the movie.

Guido was presented as a wimpy guy who can't handle pressure, who lies and cheats to get forgiveness for the things he did and when the women leaves him one after another, I start to wonder why they loved him in the first place. Probably because he made them look pretty and perfect as a director, but that point did not come across. Actually nothing much came across. Fergie played a prostitute who lived in a sand mount at the beach and nothing was said about her significance on Guido's life, she was just a loon who came up and sung a song.

BL was worried about Sophia Loren's singing skills but she didn't get much chance on that. Kate Hudson was wonderful as a singer but her outfit was more 70s than early 60s. Penelope Cruz plays a bimbo mistress with trashy highlights, who's a bit overtly sexual for Guido. (I didn't know people other Charo actually say "Coochie-coochie-coo!") With a film set in Italy, they surely didn't show much of any sights. The entire film is a bit stuffy, looks like it could have been filmed inside a sound stage. And then part of it was spoken in French, Italian and accented English that makes the movie even harder to figure out.

The fact is, I really wanted to like Nine. But with the depressing storyline, the lack of stellar story telling just conjured up a general sense of bummer-y. I would have sat and watched the cast play Texas Hold'em and managed to have a better time. BL and I will rent 8 1/2 next time and see how the story should have gone. Did I mention that the songs are not catchy?

A little bit of everything, plenty of nothing. C

Read more...

Weekend Meme: "Grossest" Films Meme

I haven't seen a movie for quite a few months. Sure, the boyfriend and I had rented a few movies but nothing too memorable. I think the last movie I saw in theater was Zombieland, which was fun. The last movie I saw on TV was a zombie movie called Mulberry Street that I kinda liked, so you know what my movie trend is now. I'm not quite persuaded that I should see New Moon, Red Cliff or Ninja Assassin. No movies in theaters or coming up that I really wanted to see. Weird, because usually during holidays there would be some amazing movies coming up. Besides Nine (The Musical), since the cast is amazing, I'm hoping that it would be what Chicago could be or even better.

I saw this list at Advertising Is Good For You a few days ago which is a list of highest gross movies of this decade originated at Wikipedia.

As in all the other movie meme,

- Bold the movie if you’ve seen it.
- Put asterisks next to the movies you’ve seen and really liked.
- If you saw a film and hated it, cross it out.

Reasons on why you like/hate it would be appreciated.

***1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (New Line; 2003) $1,119,110,941
A great ending to a great trilogy. Liv Tyler was so pretty in it.

2. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Disney; 2006) $1,066,179,725

3. The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.; 2008) $1,001,921,825

4. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Warner Bros.; 2001) $974,733,550

5. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Disney; 2007) $960,996,492

6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Warner Bros.; 2007) $938,212,738

7. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Warner Bros.; 2009) $929,022,922

8. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (New Line; 2002) $925,282,504

9. Shrek 2 (DreamWorks; 2004) $919,838,758

10. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Warner Bros.; 2005) $895,921,036

11. Spider-Man 3 (Columbia; 2007) $890,871,626

12. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Warner Bros.; 2002) $878,643,482

13. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (20th Century Fox; 2009) $878,615,229

14. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (New Line; 2001) $870,761,744

15. Finding Nemo (Disney/Pixar; 2003) $864,625,978

16. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (20th Century Fox; 2005) $848,754,768

17. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Paramount; 2009) $833,229,011

***18. Spider-Man (Columbia; 2002) $821,708,551
I was super excited to see Spider-Man on the big screen for the very first time.

19. Shrek the Third (DreamWorks; 2007) $798,958,162
Overstayed its welcome a little bit.

20. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Warner Bros.; 2004) $795,634,069

21. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Paramount; 2008) $786,636,033

22. Spider-Man 2 (Columbia; 2004) $783,766,341

23. The Da Vinci Code (Sony/Columbia; 2006) $758,239,851
Not as good as it can be, I'm still not convinced by Tom Hanks as a middle aged action hero.

24. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Disney; 2005) $745,011,272

25. The Matrix Reloaded (Warner Bros.; 2003) $742,128,461

26. Transformers (DreamWorks/Paramount; 2007) $709,709,780

27. Ice Age: The Meltdown (20th Century Fox; 2006) $655,388,158

28. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Disney; 2003) $654,264,015

29. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (20th Century Fox; 2002) $649,398,328

30. Kung Fu Panda (DreamWorks; 2008) $631,736,484
A little too formulated and unnecessary.

31. The Incredibles (Disney/Pixar; 2004) $631,442,092

32. Hancock (Columbia; 2008) $624,386,746

33. Ratatouille (Disney/Pixar; 2007) $623,707,397

34. The Passion of the Christ (Newmarket; 2004) $611,899,420
Come on!

35. Mamma Mia! (Universal; 2008) $609,841,637
Pierce Brosnan, much like Richard Gere should never be casted in a musical.

36. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (DreamWorks; 2008) $603,900,344

37. Casino Royale (MGM/Columbia; 2006) $594,239,066

38. War of the Worlds (DreamWorks/Paramount; 2005) $591,745,540

39. Quantum of Solace (MGM/Columbia; 2008) $586,090,727

40. I Am Legend (Warner Bros.; 2007) $585,349,010

***41. Iron Man (Paramount; 2008) $585,133,287
I was super excited to see Iron Man realized on screen and brilliantly at that.

42. Night at the Museum (20th Century Fox; 2006) $574,480,450

43. King Kong (Universal; 2005) $550,517,357

44. Mission: Impossible II (Paramount; 2000) $546,388,105

45. The Day After Tomorrow (20th Century Fox; 2004) $544,272,402

46. Madagascar (DreamWorks; 2005) $532,680,671

47. The Simpsons Movie (20th Century Fox; 2007) $527,071,022

48. Monsters, Inc. (Disney/Pixar; 2001) $525,366,597

49. WALL-E (Disney/Pixar; 2008) $521,268,237

50. Meet the Fockers (Universal; 2004) $516,642,939
Ben Stiller is a bit tired in these comedy where he embarrasses himself.

Well, I can't say I hated many of them and of course, or else they won't be movies with the highest gross, but I'm surprised to find I didn't really LOVE many of them. I guess you don't have to be a superb film for people to buy tickets to go see. Kids films and fantasy series seems to be big sellers, interesting...

Anywho, have a great weekend!

Read more...

Movie Review: Zombieland

Went to see Zombieland with the boyfriend because he likes zombies and it seems like a fun movie. For some strange reasons I have found Woody Harrelson to be quite sexy, Matthew McConaughey and him seems to emit the same kind of energy even though Woody has a lot less hair.

Anyway, zombie movie... another virus outbreak. In the beginning of the movie, they showed a globe seemingly destroyed; The oceans seemed to have gone and replaced by and gleaming, menacing red lava lines. In this post apocalypse world, most people had been turned into zombies, so a young kid nicknamed Columbus developed a list of rules for himself in order to survive. Along the way, he meets a crude drifter that takes too much joy out of zombie slaying and driving big cars, also two female tricksters that have serious trust issues, but who can blame them? The zombies are everywhere.

Lately, I've seen a couple of movies that features fast moving zombies, zombies that can run, climb and jump. I always thought that zombies were slow and move in drones, that's why it wasn't exactly threatening to me, but these are different. Other than the usual goo spewing, broken limbs and the chewing of human flesh, it was explained that the virus they contracted inflamed their brains and make them violent and hungry, but how come they only attack humans and not each other?

But that's besides the point. It's about fright and flight and big guns! Inventive ways to smash and kill zombies. To the contrary of the common sense on epidemic outbreaks the quartet chose to go to a metropolis and go to an attention grabbing venue at night, but of course it's not logic that we needed, they were asking for trouble for sure. I especially enjoyed the opening sequence of the rules and zombie outbreaks, smashing stuff in a Native American souvenir shop, flashy guns and different action sequences. It's like being a little kid at the candy shop, though the ending sequence is a little bit lazy. I would enjoy a Kill Bill style sequence with more inventive ways to kill then guns.

It was fun, it could be more enjoyable if there were more substance, in the form of a few more rules might work. B

Read more...