The Complete Substitute for All Forms of Sociability

I have recently been checking out some new movies. I found this list by The Film School Rejects and decided to choose my next viewing from there. My first pick is Aniara , a Swedish-Danish high-concept sci-fi film that is based on a poem of the same name by the Nobel laureate, Harry Martinson. I don't know what it is about Swedish productions but I've never been wrong with the ones I do pick. What water do they drink over there? lol Anywhoo -- THE STORY Aniara  follows a group of immigrants on their way to a colony in Mars. Leaving behind an Earth devastated by natural disasters as brought on by climate change, the passengers travel through space onboard the eponymous ship, Aniara , a floating luxury hotel and mall that comes equipped with all the best in entertainment and tech. One of these techs is a semi-sentient A.I. known as MIMA programmed to provide a realistic simulation of life on Earth before its destruction.  MIMA is operated by a technician kn...

Got a text last night from my friend, inviting me to a special screening of X-MEN: Apocalypse at the Director's Club, SM Seaside City. The event was hosted by Aboitiz Land for its media friends and open to their friends and family, too. So that's how I got in. It was my first time at the Director's Club. Nice and comfy and exclusive. The seats were nice. The footrest for my rest was broken though. Someone super heavy must have abused it. As for the movie itself, very good. I wasn't disappointed by the powers of the new mutants: Storm, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Angel, Psylocke and Night Crawler. The story itself isn't that great. Of course, they had to kill Erik's family again and, of course, that makes him bad again. But then, of course, Charles manages to bring him back. Of course, Jean Grey turns into the Phoenix although I must admit I loved that part. I missed Rogue though. In the cartoons, Rogue was a very important character in the Apocalypse storyline....

I watched it with my nephew who was having his 11th birthday. I was worried that they wouldn't let him 'coz I thought the movie is rated PG13. So on our way there, I "briefed" him that he is actually 13 years old and that he was born in 2002. I know, I know, I'm so bad. -_- Then we got to the cinema in SM City Cebu, I saw that it was PG. Ahahahaha. So anyway, the movie is so awesome. I've never loved a Star Wars movie more than this one. Everybody is so awesome. I have a crush on Poe, dammit! But I ship him with Finn ~ And Rey -- oh my god, talk about amazing. She's a hero. I love her. That moment when she holds the lightsaber and the music rose -- WOW! I felt like watching Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones say "Dracarys" for the first time. Also BB-8 is sooo cuuute! I love it. I'm just gonna rave about the movie because it deserves it. If I must nitpick, the final sequence with Rey going off to find Luke Skywalker was a little s...

Source But given that Christmas week is just around the corner, and I've got so much to be grateful for and more to look forward to in the next year, I want to savor this moment and enjoy the quiet with some good company, good food and good books/movies. MOVIES I'M GONNA WATCH: Star Wars: The Force Awakens I mean seriously. I haven't watched it yet but I read spoilers. I know who dies at the end. I'm watching it hopefully on Monday or on Tuesday. I wanna avoid the weekend because crowd be crazy. And my parents are coming with mehhh! Yeah senior citizen discount!!! Carol Cate Blanchett. That is all. I am very excited about this movie. Of course, there's no way this is gonna be shown here but who knows. It's got a lot of Oscar buzz. Both stars in the movie are campaigning for Oscar statuettes so that's a definite marketing pull. Crimson Peak Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska in the same movie together? Directed by Guillermo del...

I have a soft spot for wuxia, that genre of Chinese literature and films that deals with chivalry and martial arts. I love most of the martial arts movies I've watched and enjoyed the few martial arts novels I've read. So when I heard about The Assassin , the movie immediately got my attention. The Assassin is directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien, who won Best Director for the film in the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. Shu Qi stars as the eponymous assassin, Nie Yinniang. I'm not familiar with Hou's works so I have no frame of reference. The only other Shu Qi movie I've seen was So Close , which I enjoyed but this movie is very different from the former so there's no comparison. THE STORY The Assassin  is loosely based on a short story by Pei Xing. You can read the English translation here . The film follows Nie Yinniang, a young woman who serves as an assassin under orders of her master who is a nun. Her victims are corrupt government officials. However, when N...

Pictured at left is the Philippine promo poster of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 at SM City Cebu. I watched this movie today with my good friend, Liv . I enjoyed the movies and loved the books. I was actually looking forward to this, being the last installment of what should only have been a trilogy. The studio however made the marketing decision to divide the last movie into two because that's what all the big franchises did -- e.g.  Harry Potter, Twilight, The Hobbit (this should have been only half a movie). Part 1 was good; there was a lot of revelation (District 12 is gone! District 13 exists! Peeta is alive! Peeta is evil!) and plenty of action. Part 2 in contrast is a slumber party. I'm not saying it's boring, it's just that it lacks an oomph factor. The reason I think is that we're already through the climax and the last movie is really just the denouement. In the end, Part 2 was entirely faithful to the book. But what worked for the books does...

Dude . I didn't even know they were making a movie about it. Ever since James Cameron's Avatar  came out, I've long dreamed of a movie about this videogame. Seeing the CGI work so well in that movie made me have faith that a movie based on the Warcraft games by Blizzard Entertainment shouldn't be too far in the future. And now, here, we have a trailer! And it's as beautiful as I imagined. I am soooo excited. Now, if only they would make a movie about Diablo . :D

Picture from here . This short film was written and directed by a friend of mine, my classmate from college, Clanch Dayve Belleza .  At the 2015 International Film Festival Manhattan (IFFM) in New York City, USA, Clanch's opus garnered an Honorable Mention and a Best Actor Award for Albert Chan Paran, who plays the titular character, Julie. Being a short film, it clocks in at barely thirty minutes and it's available for free streaming at VIDDSEE . Click on the link. Watch it. Share it to your friends. Then come back here to talk about it. THE STORY Julian Capoy -- Julie  to most people -- didn't mean to be a construction worker. In fact, it was the last thing he wanted to do. But having found his forte in this ultimate man's world, Julie tries to navigate his way through this sea of masculinity while hiding his true self from all but those closest to him. But can a person live like this for the rest of his life? Should  he? In this short glimpse at a turnin...

This is not a review. I'll do that after I've rewatched the movie at least a couple more times. This is just a gush post. As in, this post will just be me gushing over the movie. This goes without saying, I loved the movie. I loved most of the choices made to adapt the book to film. I have to admit, I was a little worried that the movie experience will never compare to the book immersion. But really, there's no comparison because the movie, despite its being an adaptation, can stand on its own. And I actually breathed a sigh of relief when during the reaping scene (still my favorite scene, after all), I got goosebumps all over my arms. That was the moment I knew: this movie is going to be good. So after that one scene, I just sat back and let myself enjoy the show. And it is truly enjoyable. Four stars!!!! P.S. TBH, I was a little pissed off when Haymitch was not at the reaping scene. But I guess his "grand" entrance at the train made up for it. I didn't ...

From  Mockingjay.net Shit, the hell is wrong with Facebook? I can't access it for some reason and I desperately needed to post this. People are loving  The Hunger Games.  It says so  here  from ONTD. I am super excited about this movie now. I can hardly wait. The anticipation is killing me. So much that I am spouting every cliche people utter in these moments. Liam Hemsworth is exactly what I imagine Gale would look like. He's just so handsome. I am not totally sold on Josh Hutcherson as Peeta but we'll see. And Jennifer Lawrence...as soon as I saw  Winter's Bone , I finally get it, why she got the role. God, I hope my expectations are met about this movie. Because I will never be able to live it down if the movie sucks. But so far, the consensus is that  The Hunger Games  is a scifi classic. Well and good. Now, March 23 dammit! Come on!

That's what the t-shirt of some guy -- a dispatcher for a PUJ -- says while I was waiting for my ride that would take me to Citilink and from there to Ayala Center. And it reminded me that there's supposed to be a movie made on the novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby . So I was pleasantly entertaining myself on trying to picture which actors would play which characters. I was thinking Leo could play Gatsby, or if not him, then Michael Fassbender simply because Hollywood can't seem to get enough of Fassy. At least, for now. And Nick could be played by Andrew Garfield or Tobey Maguire. Yes, the two Spidey, but Nick is supposed to exude that nice guy vibe even though the character is not exactly morally superior to the others, and these two actors...well, Peter Parker is  a nice guy. And Daisy? Well, I thought Emma Stone could pull her off, if given the chance. Then I got home and I looked up The Great Gatsby  on Wikipedia and saw that the movie is going to b...

I finished my February reading assignment earlier than intended. Would you believe me? I finished it one day. I would have finished it in half if real world didn't beckon. So. What did I think about the book? It's nothing like I expected. Well, to be honest, I didn't expect anything. But when I read it, I couldn't seem to put it down. It's a good thing I saw Battle Royale  when I did. There are certainly similarities between the two in that children are thrown into some kind of woodsland arena where they duke it out to the death. But The Hunger Games  has a more complete world than Battle Royale. And a far more compelling protagonist. Katniss is cold and manipulative but still likeable. No doubt about it. Katniss Everdeen is the baddest BADASS since oh, I don't know, Kick-Ass ' Hit-Girl. In short, I loved the book. I even started on the first few chapters of Catching Fire  because I couldn't wait till March. Meantime, OMG THE MOVIE!!!

Some good. Some bad. In as few words as possible. The Lincoln Lawyer Matthew McConaughey, Marissa Tomei, Ryan Philippe Matthew McConaughey at his charmingly slimiest as a smooth-operating defense lawyer who experiences a moral dilemma just as he is handling the biggest case in his career. While the story is nothing new -- not even a single twist in sight for the tired old legal drama genre -- the movie does well with strong performances and a solid, if a bit predictable, plot. Battle Royale: Director's Cut Fujiwara Tatsuya, Maeda Aki, Shibasaki Kou I've long heard about this movie but didn't really buy into it. It's basically about violence and moral depravity of people satirized and brutalized into a literal battleground with high school students as the participants. The movie opens strong but loses some of its cohesiveness in the middle portion before fading into a fairly predictable ending. Fujiwara Tatsuya overacts, Maeda Aki underacts, but some strong...

I love my Greek mythology. Let's see, I first encountered my first Greek god in Grade 5 when I read on my English Reading textbook the story of the seasons, how Hades kidnapped Persephone, the pomegranates, Ceres' despair, and all the stuff that followed. Then movies like Clash of the Titans (the original, not the idiotic, not to mention completely unnecessary remake),  The Odyssey, Jason and the Argonauts (to a point) and all that heady stuff came and my love was practically etched in stone. So despite movies like Troy , which is awesome in its own right (because Brad Pitt in a skirt, yo) but which didn't feature any of the gods or goddesses of the ancient Hellenic culture, I'll always have a soft spot for anything remotely touching mythos. It's no small wonder then that one of my most anticipated action movies of the year would be Immortals, directed by Tarsem Singh and starring Henry Cavill (whom I first discovered in the UK series, The Tudors, playing the sex...

  The Help STARRING: Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard Funny, entertaining, completely unsentimental but will touch you without seemingly trying. A great performance by Viola Davis and a hilarious turn from Jessica Chastain. Which brings me to The Debt STARRING: Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, Jessica Chastin and Todd Wilkinson Great thriller, great drama, fascinating characters. Sam Worthington is really a lovely man. I kind of hated him in Avatar  and in Clash of the Titans ....but his face is secks hot. Drive STARRING: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan A tense action-thriller that left me at the edge of my seat. This is the kind of action movie that doesn't get made anymore.

This is the first Israeli film I've ever seen, and my first movie with lesbian content (though I've seen my fair share of TV lesbians). Also, I'm not Jewish and I know as much as the average Catholic does about Judaism, so if I commit any faux-pas, forgive me. Then again, political correctness has never been my strongest suit. FYI: I watched this raw (the film is in Hebrew and French), so there's that, too. THE STORY The Secrets  centers around a pious girl, Noemi (Ania Bokstein) who, being the daughter of a well-respected rabbi, is learned on the orthodox faith. The film begins with the funeral of Noemi's mother and an awkward conversation with Noemi's fiance, but soon moves to an all-girls' seminary school. Noemi shares a room with three other girls -- the fat one, the funny one and the rebel. The latter is named Michelle and is from France and smokes (because she's from France!) and is rather individualistic. In other words, the complete opposi...

Not in any particular order... Kimi ni Todoke (live-action) STARRING: Tabe Mikako, Miura Haruma Actually, I've seen this like one million years ago but only kind of remembered it now. Hm. It's a pretty faithful adaptation. The actors/actresses look like their manga/anime counterparts -- except maybe for Kazehaya but the actor exudes the persona so that's fine. My favorite scene was when Sawako made this really constipated face and she says that she's happy. LOLz I love the actors who played Ryu and Yoshida. The actress who played Yano was a dead-ringer, which was really fun to see.   The Kids Are All Right STARRING: Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, Josh Hutcherson I have to admit, I never got interested in this movie. Back when this was buzzed about for the Bening's Oscar-worthy performance, I was too concentrated on Natalie Portman's The Black Swan  and didn't really bother with the other shows. And I only watched it now because I wanted...

Yeah, so I just found myself watching this movie today and was so utterly captivated by it, that I was all "what the hell am I supposed to do?" I had to read the novel again. Which I did. Today. And finished it. Today. (My obsessions are brief and occasional but they are  obsessions). The 2011 adaptation . The intro to the film confused me a little bit. I know the novel to begin with Jane's childhood with the cruel Mrs. Reed, but here we are looking at an adult Jane (actually, she should only be eighteen but played by 19-year-old Mia Wasikowska) running out of a stone house and into the wild moors. She's crying and there's fake rain all over her. It takes me a while to understand that the film has thrown us right in the middle of the story as Jane runs away from Thornfield Hall after a very ignominious discovery about her master. She's running away to heed her conscience, to preserve her principles and self-respect. She ends up, half-frozen and half-starve...

I've heard about this story for sometime now. The Japanese title is Ooku , which refers to the chamber in the shogun's castle where all the women of the shogun's harem are kept. However, Yoshinaga Fumi's manga, on which this movie is adapted, adds a twist: the shogun is a woman and beautiful men fill her harem. THE STORY In the year 1716 Japan, most of the men have died from a deadly disease that only affects men, resulting in their population dwindling to as much as 1/4 of the total population of women. Consequently, women fill in the traditional roles of men, performing hard labor, managing businesses and running government while men are pampered, protected and allowed only to indulge in light entertainment. In this nonexistent Japan lives Mizuno Yunoshin (Kazunari Ninomiya), a teenager from an impoverished samurai class family. He likes fencing and his childhood friend, O-Nobu (Horikita Maki), but because of his family's financial status (O-Nobu is a daugh...

This is a manga turned into a live-action film. I don't really trust adaptations like this. There is always something lost along the way. It could be the expressions of the characters. Manga characters are frequently entertaining because of their exaggerated expressions, something which not many Japanese actor/actress can pull out. But despite all these initial misgivings, I decided to give Solanin  a go because I loved the manga version that much and I'm kind of a fan of Miyazaki Aoi. THE STORY Meiko, played by Miyazaki Aoi ( Nana, Tada Kimi wo Aoshiteru, Eureka ) is a young office lady who, unable to bear the mundane reality of a desk job, quits and settles into a year of lazy unemployment. Her spur-of-the-moment decision creates a domino effect as her live-in boyfriend, Taneda, begins to feel that it is now up to him to bear the burden of responsibility. He sees that his part-time job as a graphic designer doesn't pay enough to support both of them and his band, c...