films films films

the last couple of days have afforded me with the luxury of time to do some of the things i love and have sorely missed for the past few months.

and last night's golden globe has undoubted affirmed my belief in some of the best films produced this year, or rather last year.

here's the breakdown of those i've seen so far:

1. food inc
2. moon
3. the road
4. the hurt locker
5. a single man
6. 500 days of summer
7. medicine for melancholy
8. an education
9. the messenger
10. precious: based on the novel push by sapphire (later today)

food for the soul until spring break when i'll get another chance to catch up with so many of the awesome films out there. and just for the record, i was really impressed with avatar having seen it in it's full 3D glory. truly breath taking stuff.

+listening to: nothing

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Rocky IV (part 2 of 2)

continued from part 1...

As much as the opening sequence jolted my mind right into the action with a little surprise, the plot was nothing to exclaim about. It is a rehash of the same old story; everyone knows. But we keep going back to see Rocky for one very simple reason: in him, we see bits and pieces of ourselves.

The old Rocky that we identified so strongly with was still prevalent throughout, but the difference with this fourth feature lied in the subtlety of how that was brought out. In the first part of the film, unlike what I had come expect, we do not see the rash, hot-tempered Rocky of old immediately. Rather he was portrayed as being much more conservative, not nearly as flamboyant. Perhaps the filmmakers wanted to depict his maturation with the passing of time since the last film. Besides Rocky, the other characters remained similar to how they were portrayed previously, with the only exception being Apollo Creed.

What we see here is a sort of role-reversal between Rocky and Creed, with each taking up the character traits of the other, shown in the previous films (but you had to have watched the previous ones to notice). I thought this was quite a refreshing change, definitely different from the other more straight-forward portrayal of the main characters in previous engagements.

What really fascinated me, however, was the whole idea of this film revolving around the new character introduced—Ivan Drago, a boxer from the USSR attempting to break onto the US boxing scene. This “conflict” between Rocky and Drago transcends its face value as merely being a boxing match between two fighters. If you were to consider the cultural climate around the time the film was made (circa 1980s), you can clearly see where the exaggerated and negative portrayal of the Soviet Union came from.

It was still the era before the cold war ended in the 1990s, and public anti-sentiments against the Soviet Union had not seemed to ease up, even though towards the late 1980s, the Soviet government already appeared to show certain characteristics common with a liberal democratic political system.

Though understandable, it was nonetheless quite comical to a casual viewer like myself to see the somewhat jingoistic display of US might on screen. Apollo Creed showing up to the fight on elaborately decorated props, wearing a star-spangled banner robe and matching boxing shorts, with James Brown singing “Living in America” in the background—it was heavy-handed on the part of the writers, but what is Hollywood without the dramatization, and the manipulation of people’s psyche?

Having said all that, it still boiled down to what I had expected, or perhaps what many others had expected before they saw the film and what we got out of it afterwards. It was unpolished at certain spots, but it is precisely that raw and down to earth quality that we crave about. I expected a good time, and definitely got out a hell of a good time.

Rocky did beat Drago in the end. Who would have known? It wasn’t just about Rocky bashing the living daylight out of the bigger guy in the other corner of the ring, it’s about how we secretly wished it was we who were doing exactly the same thing in our own big bad boxing ring called life.


*play theme music, picture Rocky running up the flight of stairs to the city hall, both arms held up high in triumphant manner*


+listening to: blooze by peter frampton

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Rocky IV (part 1 of 2)

“The eye of the tiger, the eye of the tiger…” who could have forgotten that iconic phrase in Rocky III?

To claim that the Rocky series is one of the best sports stories of all time is an understatement as far as films go—and that is if you overlook the fact that I have only had the chance to experience the previous three installments.

A quick glance of the Wikipedia page was all that I needed to reassure myself that this movie would be as exhilarating as the previous ones. Perhaps the most noticeable fact is that Rocky IV is the most commercially successful feature in the whole series (including the recent Rocky Balboa).

That is no reason to rejoice though: box office performance does not necessarily constitute a consistently high level of quality for the film, vice versa. What it probably translates to is mass appeal— the values, perspectives or even the story itself conforms to the mentality of the average cinema-goers. Rocky in itself is a concept, an abstraction of one of the most ubiquitous (and hackneyed) scenarios - that the underdog miraculously pulls off a stunning victory against the powers that be.

Knowing fully what this genre has to offer, I was certainly not expecting a gut-wrenching melodrama, nor a hysterical comedy. Rocky is a classic albeit formulaic David versus Goliath story, and being familiar with Sylvester Stallone’s style, I was expecting more of the same “balls-to-the-walls” (excuse the French) performance right down to the thick Italian accent and that distinctive devil-may-care attitude. After all he WAS the Italian Stallion.

The credits after the opening sequence laid it all out on the table clear as day: that same pulsating theme music, clearly designed to evoke that familiar emotion, plays as prominently as ever, unadulterated, identical to the one played in the original Rocky, made almost 10 years prior. I imagined myself being fully prepared for this scene, but I was shocked how I was still caught a little off-guard, and how effective this technique of making use of the same music is in bring the audience right back into the story.


...to be continued

+listening to: 3x5 by john mayer

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moved

i don't know how to put it into words really.

Children of God. i quietly thought to myself what could possibly warrant such a title. there was no synopsis. no trailers. a simple documentary featured at the toronto reel asian film festival. i doubt that anyone's even heard of the director, seung-jun yi.

flowers in a murky river. perpetually flowing. little glimpses of the river bed. the sand, the pebbles. the camera brushes against a free diver. no, it was a child. it all seemed so jovial. one can't help but feel the sense of serenity.

but what lay ahead was anything but serene - a dark and moody peer into the meandering story of life and death.

the nepalese hindus believe that heaven lies at the end of the bagmati river. and the river gathers the souls of those cremated at its steps at the pashupatinath temple in kathmandu. for the deceased it may be the gateway to their journey in the after-life, but for some of the living, it is the only reason they're still alive.

the life story is about 12 year old alesh poudel. for him and his family, home is the temple. the deceased provide a means of survival. fishing for coins from the river with magnets and scavenging everything from gold fillings to offerings to the gods, that was the way they got by. hanging on to life by the skin of their teeth.

one quote especially struck a chord that deeply resonated within me. it was like one of those minor 7th chords with an added 13th. it aches the heart.

it says "i'm 12 and will die at 13... just because... because i just want to die."

i couldn't help but feel a little estranged. for someone so young to say something like that. the loss of innocense and the profound sadness...

the imagery, the music, the words. they all come together with the river forming an inseparable backdrop. the tapestry of life. and those unnamed ones. those of whom the world passed by without taking a second look.

what is the reason? why are we here? and why are there those who suffer in silence.

+listening to: nothing

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slumdog millionaire

i happened to watch slumdog a few weeks back (after the oscars unfortunately) but never found the time to write about it. i just couldn't resist it anymore.


i honestly started out with zero idea of what this film is all about. i thought it was another bollywood flick, with the all too typical, prevailing hiding-hehind-the-tree-like-as-if-you-can't-see-me syndrome. pardon my inherent racial bias with regards to such cultural innuendos, i just don't. get. it.

so i was pleasantly surprised that it was more hollywood than bollywood in style, but also equally relieved that the plot and settings did not get drowned out in all the farce associated with tradition blockbuster cinema. kudos to fox searchlight, i have been rewarded for being a loyal fan of this label for the excellent features that they have put out thus far.

for me, slumdog is as much about love, and lost as it is about the ever changing landscapes of india. i have never doubted in my head that india is a beautiful country, of breathtaking landscapes, of amiable and hospitable people, but perhaps this film has addressed the lesser seen and defunct side of this society, the cancer that besieges this sprawling culture of the rich-gets-richer.

one of the first few scenes that depicts hundreds of thousands of people that live in the slums on the outskirts of bombay (or the modern day mumbai) defined this whole movie: women doing laundry in filth-ridden canals probably mixed with sewage, clothes-lines strewn across the vast areas of open landfill, and little kids being themselves, carefree and restless, playing cricket, completely indifferent to the hopes and banes that plague their parents and neighbors.

the crime, the vices, the genocide, the corruption, the torture, the apathy, the contempt: everything points to irrenpentable acts that cannot possibly lead to divine enlightenment in this very much god(s)-fearing nation. yet people continue to indulge in them, or perhaps not indulge, but these acts continue to manifest, simply because the people had to do what they had to do to survive.

thus the speck of pure love is akin to an oasis, it fuels the motive force behind this film from the beginning to the end. we're all touched by the innocent nature of it, because a kid could not possibly have harbored other ulterior objectives in mind when he decided to extend a helping hand to that little girl in the rain. and even when the seemingly perfect "face" was scarred for life, he took no notice, instead, choosing to appreciate what exists beyond the surface.

and the bittersweet ending, that reminded us that we have to give some to gain some. such is the formula to a timeless story, even though it is set in one of the most estranged times that the country has probably seen to date.

oh and let's not forget the magnetic soundtrack, that was the glue that held each and every frame together. it's seductive. it's impeccable. it's magic.


+listening to: paper planes by M.I.A.

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the road to perdition

it's been a long time since i've sat down to properly watch a movie, even though friday night movie marathons are common sights in the various dorm rooms, some times with up to 16 people squeezed into the tiny space.


i love watching films by myself, usually in the dead of the night, in my case at 4am in the morning. this movie is not new to me. in fact i have already seen it a couple of times. but this time i was watching it with an objective in mind - i chose it as the subject of my very first formal essay for my film class.

sam mendes is an immense talent. if you have seen american beauty, you would have remembered his penchant for the unconventional. the road to perdition also happened to be his second outing with conrad hall as the cinematographer, who is largely responsible for both's films' aethetics.

plot aside, this time i would be mainly looking at the cinematography aspect, and the mis-en-scene (big word) techniques employed by the director to tell the story. it is very much interesting to see the amalgamation of both mendes' and hall's ideas in every shot or scene.

and the interesting choice of medium that hall decided to print the film on (kodak's vision premier print stock) which gave much stronger blacks and saturates the colour so it tended towards black and white.

what's more interesting is that this movie is also set in the 1930s, in the depth of the depression, in chi-town! probably the most gangster-esque place other than new york. i hate it though, how people always compare every other gangster flick to the godfather. road to perdition is a complete different creature. i'd say it's a lot closer to its graphic novel roots - way darker, grungier, colder.

just a few interesting pics on how they they framed the scenes. the lighting techniques they used are pretty rad to say the least. actually... it's absolutely mind-bloggling.

this is one of my favourite scenes in the movie: the classic gangland warzone

and this is the studio set up

again, the lighting and tone in the diner makes it look so much like a 30s painting

how can you not mesmerized by the colours and textures? it's just so quintisentially american

+listening to: another alternative by frank gambale

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the misadventures of the home alone

yay i'm home alone, and will be for the next 25 days. i'm really excited. not that i haven't been home alone before but being left in charge of the whole place for close to a month is something new and liberating.

and i'm sure there will be a lot of really fun things to do, like trying my hands at actually cooking something edible for myself, waking up the dead at midnight with my favourite music, air-guitaring all over the house pretending to be a rockstar and throwing lavish theme parties all day long... erm, not quite for the parties.

anyways the incessant film watching has turned into a habit that i can't seem to kick. and my bio clock is completely messed up now. all i want to do during the day time is sleep and at night i'm like hyper-active, and i can't really stop watching them films now.

so last night i decided to re-watch some old movies that i've seen a long time ago. and in keeping with related themes/ actors/ directors, like the previous stint which involved philip hoffman, yesterday's two films were both related to sean penn.

the first one i decided to see again was Dead Man Walking, which i remembered first seeing during GP class in school. the subject was on crime and punishment and i remember distinctly that the film left a deep, deep imprint in my head. it just sort of stuck there. i'm not usually a sympathizer with petty criminals, but that film portrayed what can only be described as the human side of mathew poncelet (the protagonist in the film).


through sean penn's interpretation of the character, and his soulful performance, i sort of got to walk in his shoes for just a brief few moments. and sister helen (the other protagonist), played by susan sarandon, was perhaps the other reason why the human element was so strongly preserved. through her care and love for a murderer on death row, it made me question the morality behind the death penalty and my own values and beliefs.

i guess the reason behind her actions was not to make people sympathize with mathew poncelet, but rather just to take a moment and think for ourselves what we are actually doing. the question at stake is not whether poncelet is guilty of the charges, but rather whether it is justified to punish someone by taking a life for another. it begs you to just maybe take a step off your moral high ground and get your feet dirty and just rationalize for a moment.

also, another reason why this movie has a special place in my mind is because my absolute favourite singer of all time, eddie vedder (of pearl jam fame), contributed quite a few track for the soundtrack, and among them is a personal favourite entitled dead man. the first time i heard that song i went hysterical, because eddie vedder's voice was just so... appropriate for the movie. the sorrow, the nolstagia... needless to say i got myself a copy of the soundtrack just for that song.

the second film i saw was also another one of my personal favourites in terms of the mood and tone of it - Into the Wild.


it was the tale of "alexander supertramp" (christopher mccandless), a college graduate who donated all his savings to oxfam, cut off all contact with his family and just went on a back packing trip around the country and finally to where he'd always dreamed of going - the alaskan wilderness. he lived off whatever he had with him, be it the kindness of people, friendships or the wilderness. i guess it was his way of finding his place in this world and putting some meaning into his life.

if sean penn had been about 20 years younger, he'd be perfect for the role of christopher mccandless. but as things stand, it couldn't have gotten any better. now besides being one of the most inspiring actors of our time, what he brought to the table as a first time director was the actor's perspective. and this being his maiden effort also meant he wasn't bogged down by all the constructs and limitations brought about with other more established directors. there was and absence of rules, and an air of just having a go at it, much like how mccandless just had a go at his life.

and when i read an article some time back in time magazine about eddie vedder again lending his creative genius to the new sean penn film Into the Wild, you can imagine my excitement. the longstanding friendship between sean penn and eddie vedder goes way back (eddie vedder had contributed tracks to ealier sean penn engagements like I Am Sam), and is perhaps one of the most perfect marriages of creative geniuses of our time.


what was unique about this collaboration though is that the ENTIRE soundtrack is written and performed by eddie. i almost wet myself when i read that. that soundtrack remains to this day one of the most frequently played records in my collection.

it is just such a visionary thing, to be able to live your life as you see it. i don't think i'll ever be able to do that just yet. it's that yearning for freedom that i'm sure everyone has experienced, but few actually acted upon. it's too big a risk for most of us to simply let go.

so, for those of us who are not willing to let go just yet we can always watch the film and try as we may, much of it in vain, to grasp that elusive concept of being a man on the road. personally, the film just offers the briefest of respite from the almost mechanical lifestyles we lead.

for me, Into the Wild will always be my little piece of heaven...


+listening to: guaranteed by eddie vedder

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of savages and masterclasses

for the past few days i've been watching films incessantly, and at hours when most people are sound asleep. i simply couldn't help it.

everytime i tried to catch some euro '08 actions, i always end up falling asleep right after the first half. i just can't make it past the boredom of having to wait for the half time commentator gibberish. so what i did for the past couple of nights was to fill myself up with a huge mug of coffee before the games start so i'd be awake literally the whole night long.

this however presented it with another unique challenge. whenever half time did arrive, i find myself with nothing in particular to do, so what i always do is to go to my download folder and have a look around. and then i'm reminded of the many movies which i haven't even watched so inevitably i end up clicking on one of them. the itchy fingers. and from there on, there's no turning back...

so onto my main point: usually i choose films to watch purely based on their titles. it's always hits and misses, and you never know what you'll get. but on those rare occasions when you find a gem out of all those mainstream junk, you are really satisfied with yourself on making the leap of faith because otherwise you would have never heard of it.


The Savages was such a film. initially i thought it was some kind of wild western film with lots of action but it turned out to be an incredible tale of familial relationships between a dying father, a brother and a sister. i'm a sucker for dramas depicting a depth of characters and this one sure has plenty to offer.

on the surface it seems like the ultimate tragedy and speaks of the bitter links between a failed parent and the damaged lives of his children - both struggling writers trying to land the big break, one of whom is living under the illusion of the perfect romance and the other letting the love of his life go and not realizing what he was doing.

i guess the notion that both of them somehow "failed" at their own relationships serves in turn as the reminiscent side effects of not having really been "loved" by their dad. and so one of them tried to seek instant gratification in a married man assuming that was love, while the other had met the love of his life only failing to realize what it was before letting go.

and this whole tale of two completely separate tragedies was then inexplicably intertwined when their father was diagnosed with dementia, and was quickly dying. their struggle to take care of him and finally knowing how much they loved him when he passed away seemed to have restored faith and gave them the courage to love again.

the filmed is somewhat of a hybrid between a complete tragedy and a dark comedy, because there were moments of lightness and humour which are derived from watching the interactions between the characters. plus the soundtrack had a really cheeky feeling to it at times which really made this film something of a unique piece.

once again, philip hoffman (one of my favourite actors) has delivered in spades with his touching performance. it seems that whatever role he plays, he adds that midas touch to it that just makes it such a joy to watch. and it's because of that precise reason that made me decide to revisit another classic of our time, which also happens to be one of my favourite films of all time - Capote.


i just wanted to be reminded of that electrifying performance of his again, which in my opinion is arguably one of the best lead performances of all time, certainly up there with brando in The Godfather. the fact that he alone was the guiding force of the entire film made it seem at times like a monologue, nevertheless you're simply drawn to his character. and i honestly think he was the only person on this planet up to the job of playing truman capote, who himself was quite a handful in person. seriously, this film is nothing short of a masterclass for all the other actors out there. there are plenty of good actors around, but you'll know it when you see a great one.

so do your self a favour and go get a copy of The Savages and watch it. you'll definitely be left with a lot of thoughts afterwards, about how you'd take care of your parents when they can no longer take care of themselves, and about your own family and the intricate relationships. and if in the most unlikely of events that you have not seen Capote yet, i'm really lost for words here, except that i wanna give you a big L for love. go watch it already you loser.


+listening to: help the poor by b.b. king

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the final stretch

11 june... time doesn't fly, time warp-drives. in exactly 30 days i'll be leaving this island that i've called home for the past 10 years. it's a peculiar feeling, to be heading "home", yet having seen so little and known so little about it. the early memories are all but faded by now. things have changed, drastically.


to think that i've only been back home around 6 times in the past decade is quite unbelievable in hindsight. there was always something up whenever plans were made: school camps, projects, holidays remedial, vacations elsewhere, etc.

the truth is that i'm not a homely person, that is to say i don't feel a tinge of excitement like most people when they are about to head home per se; i sort of nestle wherever i am and try to make myself as comfortable as possible. and given enough time, just about anywhere feels homely enough that i wouldn't want to leave.

but this time would be different. i'd be home for at least a month and a half. hopefully i could really take the time to do certain things that i've always wanted to do, like going on a backpacking trip by myself to tibet (don't know if it's possible), visiting the himalayas, skiing, learning to drive, surfing... sort of my own mini version of the Bucket List (before i hand my life as i know it over to college that is). if you haven't seen that film, i suggest you do because it really inspires you to go out there and do something with your life, no matter who or how old you are.

on a side note, i'm beginning to write again. which is a good thing, because lately nothing much has been popping up in that mess of a mind of mine. it's weird but sometimes words and phrases just spring up like mushrooms out of nowhere at the most unlikely and ungainly moments, like when i'm doing my morning number 2, or watching tv. ah well i better get back to putting them down before i lose them. the most beautiful things in life usually don't come by that often.

peace.


+listening to: hear me lord by bonnie raitt

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choices

why are there so many choices in life that we have to make?

humans are obsessed with customization. gone are the days of the ford model-t where "you can have it in any colour you want as long as it's black".

i'm staring at the course work list that i just got in the mail for my electrical engineering major. it's about 20 pages long, printed in size 3 font. to add the icing on the cake, the associate head for undergraduate programs signed off the letter with "happy reading through this material".

the only thing i'm gonna be happy about by the time i finish it is the fact that i would have lost total sensation in my eyelids and that my eyeballs would have gone septic. also, all my hair would have fallen out and i would probably need a completely brand new set of dentures too. good golly i must really be looking forward to reading it.


looking on the bright side, i've finally watched There Will Be Blood! oh my, oh my it was good. i've always known it would be a really awesome film but i just didn't have the time to watch it when it came out because, well i was too busy mugging for my a levels to even remember to eat, let alone watch a movie.

the landscape was bleak, and i don't know what kind of filters they used on the cameras or what type of medium they filmed it on but boy it sured looked like one of those classic 70s westerns. it's got that rustic vibe and that hard edge. the oil boom of the early 1900s as told through the relationships between a loving father and an adopted son, between a psychotic tycoon and a pseudo priest was a brilliant plot. it was like going back in time. and maybe there's a hint of parallelism to the modern-day america? oil and religion, anyone?

the soundtrack was kind of an acquired taste, and i did get cheesed out by the ending a bit: the over-acting plus the overly artificial symbolism with the pool of blood. but other than that it was very, VERY cool. both emotionally and visually.

the director paul anderson has outdone himself once again by breaking all the rules of coherence. after his previous engagements like Magnolia, which (in my humble opinion) was both INSANELY good and revolutionary, you'd think he'd toned down a bit, but... no. and daniel day-lewis? what can i say. he is mind-boggling. it just reminded me of his performance as "the butcher" in Gangs of New York. probably my favourite character in that film too.

and i particularly like the quote by lord byron from which the title was taken: "the king-times are fast finishing, there will be blood shed like water, and tears like mist. but the peoples will conquer in the end. i shall not live to see it, but i foresee it."

films like this are the sechs yo! how can you not love the movies?


+listening to: lullaby by david roth

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pandamonium and crusades

i'm not usually a fan of animations. but while on the bus, i saw the trailer for the latest panda movie to hit this summer: Kungfu Panda.


my initial reaction was oh cock another one of those lame ass cartoons. but then 1 brief moment totally changed by perception towards it. the trailer was quite funny i must admit, but at the end of the teaser where was the usual tacky tagline, that's where it made all the difference.

usually cheesy flicks will have something that goes like "armageddon comes this summer" or "this summer comes the ride of your life" or some other totally poppycock smart-ass comment that just turns people off. but kungfu panda has probably got one of the funniest ever: "pandamonium starts june 6". the spelling just cracked me up instantly, and it made me look like a complete cock on the bus laughing my yellow ass off. embarrasing, but it's so good i don't even care.

and the canterbury crusaders won the 2008 super 14 yesterday. it was a pretty exciting game. i thought the game should have swung in favour of the waratahs though, but fate dictated that the crusaders would triumph yet again. now, the test season's coming up, next week is the first test between ireland and the men in black. it's gonna be a hell of a spectacle with so many new faces!



+listening to: wanted dead or alive by bon jovi

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victory is sweet

today was a big day, well for 2 schools anyways. but i've always enjoyed a great rugby match any day. so it goes, the A division final between saints and asci.

this year is kind of special though, for the first time ever (i think) it's held at the padang. it's really AWESOME to see a match at padang. if you've never witnessed a rugby match at padang, i suggest you put it down as one of the things to do before you er... you know, expire. well in singapore anyways.



the atmosphere was absolutely electrifying with supporters surrounding all four sides of the field, so i had to settle for the steps of the city hall building, but the view was splendid nonetheless. there was certainly no shortage of drama as a couple of conversions evaded the net behind the goal post designed to catch them and landed the road. one of them unfortunately hit a car. it was great fun to watch, well i guess not so fun for the driver of the car to see a flying projectile coming at him.

anyways as expected asci won. oh well... it was still a great spectacle to witness.

on another note i just saw a great, great movie today entitled The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.


i sort of just watched it out of curiosity because i thought the title was kind of peculiar and i inferred that it's got something to do with diving or something. oh how wrong i was.

first off it's a french film, which totally caught me by surprise (happily surprised; i have a penchant for tasty foreign films). i must say it was one of the most refreshing films i have ever seen, the cinematography, the way the stories were told. it's just so... peaceful and gives you this strange, ambivalent sensation between existence and nothingness.

i would have preferred the ending to be a happy one though, but i can understand why the ending had to be tragic, as it serves as a closure for the protagonist in the film. a happy ending would have made everything seem a bit... cheesy. if you want to see a movie told in a unique way that you've probably never seen before, or have a knack for movies that make your mind run amuck because all your thoughts somehow all seem to be going berserk at once, you simply HAVE TO see it. it might just change your life. no, seriously.


+listening to: crying by aerosmith

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same old same old

woke up feeling the monday blues again, i think it's in a diminished minor key too. that basically sums up the overall tone.

there's homework piling up: yes i have to complete a stack of ludicrous tutorials before i can even attend classes in uni, that's on top of the placement exam they're gonna throw at me once i get there. and i thought going to uni would be fun, looks like the real "fun" hasn't even started. bleh...

and then there's all the immigration nonsense that i have to take care of, the F1 visas, the I20 forms, financial statements, health/immunization forms, blah blah blah. the list just goes on. i'm staring right at it and i have absolutely no intention of doing anything about them until the absolute last minute. i'm not being lazy, if you were me you'd do the same.

i still have a week ahead of me of rest before my students return from their mid term vacation. i don't feel much energized at all. in fact i'm dreading every moment that i'm awake wasting my life away. i need to go to sleep, at least i won't feel so guilty that way.

watched P.S. I Love You yesterday. a pretty nice flick though love movies are not really my type of thing. i just saw it out of curiosity. and iron man comes out on wed 30th april, can't wait any longer. i hope it doesn't disappoint like some of the previous big name adaptations.

that's it i'm going for a nap until dinner. in the words of the velvet revolver song slither (with certain words substituted):

yeah, here comes the nap
it' comes to wash away the guilt of you and i
this time i sleep...

peace.


+listening to: light of the moon by steve vai

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10,000 Blasphemous Cock

...from the director of the independence day and the day after tomorrow, came probably the shittiest movie that he probably directed so far, whoever he may be. i can't even be bothered to check.

that is the extent of the shitty-ness as far as the movie goes. i'm not trying to be cynical or overly harsh towards this film, but the amount of misdirection and deceit present in the trailers have seriously upset me. come to think of it, i had such high hopes for this film that even when people told me it was crap, i went ahead and saw it. it is therefore hard for me to remain objective on my perceptions of this film.


the poster, AND the trailer obviously showed the lead character having a go at the sabre-tooth tiger. that was the thing that attracted me in the first place. let's just say it turned out much differently, in an almost homosexual manner. some parts of the movie were so humorous, it got me laughing at a character's hair. other times it was so intriguing i had flashbacks about the commercials that were shown before the movie started.

and then there were those priceless moments where things that happened surpassed all logic and common sense. i had to constantly tell myself that "hey, wth right, it's 10000 BC, anything can happen". but surely, not dinosaurs and instant - resurrection - right - after - you - get - shot- in - the - chest - with - an - arrow? i mean even JC had to take a breather when he got crucified, before he got resurrected, no? so, wtf?

i can't even be screwed to say any more about it. the name is synonymous with horse manure to me from now on. now, the next movie that i'm dying to watch? IRON MAN. for starters it has about THE coolest sound track ever other than school of rock. the theme song for the movie? what else can it be, it's iron man of course! everytime i hear that satanic sabbath riff my blood boils! hope this movie is as good as its sound track goes.

cheers!

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lions for lambs

sure, a handful of movies have touched on the theme of the american war on terror, and politics, but none did so as directly and with such candor. neither is this one a call for anti-war sentiments in essence, because that's not the message it sends out. robert redford did a good job in threading the stories and intertwining them in a cause-and-effect sort of way reminiscent of crash and (maybe a little bit) babel but still made it look refreshing, mostly through snippets and flashbacks that slowly lead the audience to the subtle connections, not what you'd usually expect from a stereotypical hollywood flick of this nature. too bad it didn't do too well in the box office, i guess people are either all apathetic about the political landscape or too disillusioned to give a damn. either way it's their loss.


the characters and events may be fictional, but the issues at heart and the big pictures aren't. redford, tom cruise and meryl streep all did an incredible job in presenting the debate about the war (with a hint of over-acting from tom cruise), albeit being quite 'dry' at times which may annoy certain individuals who see it as 'for the sake of the argument'. it doesn't necessarily contain the action/suspense you'd expect from a hollywood production, but what it lacked in fanfare it made up in depth of characters. but somehow the plot makes you feel that it just maybe underutilized the characters by restricting the scale of the plot and could have done more with them, because the whole thing seemed just a tad like a glorified high school debate.

nevertheless, the moment for me came when the political science professor was in the restaurant having a discussion with two of his most gifted students about their decisions to go to war in afganistan in an effort to "do something now". and in reply to their justification that they could "still go to grad school and do greather things when they come back", the prof simply said "if ". that was it for me. that simple one-syllable word is in my opinion THE most powerful thing spoken in the entire film.

sometimes there is just so much more in the things that were left unsaid.


oh and by the way: the title is from a german general’s world war I observation of english soldiers bravely sacrificing themselves by the tens of thousands, which redford solemnly quotes to the unengaged student at the climax of his argument: “Never have I seen such lions led by such lambs”.

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Good movies... what're yours?

Movies tell stories. i for one enjoy those which make people think a little bit more after the credits roll, like the creamy aftertaste from a nice sip of vodka, or the subtle sweetness of fine dark chocolate lingering after it has long melted in one's mouth.

These past few days i haven't been doing much. kinda moody mostly because of certain setbacks. nonetheless i decided to watch some movies to distract myself. out of those i thought 2 really stood out, they're both kids movies. well not the cartoon-ish sort of family flick from walt disney or anything but rather movies about kids.

the first was called "Nobody Knows". Beautiful Japanese film. you really don't need the subtitles to appreciate the beauty of this film. It speaks of a Japanese single parent family with a mom and 4 kids. because of their 2 very young kids they couldn't find a place to rent so they had to smuggle them into the apartment in suitcases. then the mom left them and it was just about how the eldest brother Akira took responsibility for the other siblings.

The second film was called "December Boys". It's about 4 Australian orphan kids and their childhood adventures and special bond between them as they overcome the struggle over the likelihood of one of them being adopted.

strikingly both films are about characters and their relationships with those they love. it really touched me deep down inside. highly recommended for those who savours such sort of intertwining links between human emotions. i just somehow felt a connection with the characters in both films. i feel the psychological links, that i see myself in them, mostly in bits and pieces. but the similarities are obtrusive. i'd like to walk in their shoes for a day or two. it's fine once in a while to watch some action flicks, comedy and others but films like the above mentioned are just timeless themes. It just shows that low budget films and indie films are not inferior. they can be stunning pieces and hold their own place.

give it a try, you might just get addicted...

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Believer

...Heavenly Highway Hymns. Reminds me of a young J.R. Cash singing away in the fields on a farm down in Dyess, Arkansas.

But it also reminds me of a powerful documentary that i have seen recently entitled Jesus Camp. it tells of the Evangelical Christians and their "voracious" method of converting people, and especially using Kids to do so, and their annual gatherings, way of life, etc. I'm not being biased or whatsoever, hence the inverted comas for the word voracious. if anything i couldn't find another more neutral word.

I guess it is just the way of how certain people do certain things. and i do not doubt that those kids truly believe that their lives are touched by J.C. but I can't help feeling a bit uncomfortable that at such a tender age they are being pressured with the moral burden of confessing their sins and getting "born again". This is not a judgement, for i know the fact is that 80 percent of Evangelical Christians get born again before the age of 13. i'm simply feeling sympathetic towards those kids. what touched me was that one kid came forward during a confession session to say that he had a hard time believing in J.C. and he would really like to change that, and he started crying. it was one of the most innocent and beautiful scenes i've seen. the look on that kid's face just speaks of an unspeakable melancholic sadness.

anyways, these few days have provided for a breather, a break from the hectic schedules of late. i can finally sit down and do some serious readings again, which i have not done since i dunno when. book of the moment: the language of sycamores by lisa wingate. but i'm sure whoever's reading already know that =). thanks for the book!

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