The Book of Eli

Thursday, March 25, 2010

In a time when the things we take for granted are being fought for and sometimes to kill for. The movie, the book of eli tells a fictional future when one man fights for a book that became so important for him to protect, that he is given not just permission but extraordinary skills to kill.

Its been almost thirty years and the world has become a wasteland after the war. With few people left and almost depleted resources, the rest of the population resort to extreme means to survive, some eat human meat, others kill and some scavenge on whatever it is that is useful. during this time, Eli has been walking across America, and with his gift he kills anyone who tries to him.

Upon his travel, he comes across a town ruled by Carnegie who uses bikers in search of a certain book. Eli then comes into trouble in the local bar and kills everyone inside. Seeing this Carnegie tries to win over Eli not just because of his skills but also, because Eli is literate. Despite Eli's refusal Carnegie sends Solara to seduce Eli, but is turned downed once again. Instead Eli invites her to share his food and prays before eating. After eating, Solara see's the book that Eli is reading but is Eli kept it away.

Solara then tries to imitate the prayer with her mother and was seen by Carnegie, Carnegie then asks the book that Eli has and tells that it has a cross. This sparks Carnegie to pursue Eli and his book while Solara tags along Eli, hoping to have a better life. During the pursuit, Eli and Solara comes across a house where an old couple lives, Carnegie finds them in the house and both exchange gun shots, with Eli loosing and Carnegie acquiring the book, but not without looses. Eli being left alone and being shot continues to go south, while SOlara after being successful in releasing herself from Carnegie follows Eli and both continue their jouney until they come across Alcatraz.

There, Eli asks the caretaker to gather paper as he muster his strength to re-tell the book that he had kept and read for almost thirty years. What he kept and remembered were the words from the Bible, and despite Carnegie holding the only copy of the book, he is unable to read it because the words are in braile, Eli dies after successfully dictating the entire Bible.

The Book of Eli, is a fascinating story of faith while maintaining that sense of action in a film that we all love.

Jennifers Body

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Definitely one of the movies Id love to see again. At first I thought it was just another ordinary movie and that the only aspect that made me and my girlfriend watch is the fact that Megan Fox was in it, well we'd like to see if she has more to offer than what she did in Transformers and we saw that she did.

The story is about two best friends with very different worlds, Jennifer the sexy hot chick and Needy the book worm. It all comes at a concert in the local bar when the bar burns the band who plays there suddenly takes Jenny and offers her to Satan. Since Jennifer is not a virgin which the band members did not know, turned into a flesh eating chick who preys mostly on boys.

As the story goes Jennifer confessed to her best friend Needy. Needy shocked tried to keep her boyfriend away from her, but unfortunately Jennifer caught Needy's boyfriend and tried to eat him. Needy came to her boyfriends rescue and injuring Jennifer in the process. Needy's boyfriend dies and Needy herself was bitten, what she didnt know is that anyone bitten by the monster and survives absorbs some of the monsters abilities. Needy kills her bestfriend and ends up in a mental hospital, she eventually escapes and hunts down the band members that initially killed her bestfriend, and kills them.

A very cool movie, with a very cool sound track and ill be grabbing a copy of the songs.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Sunday, July 19, 2009

One of the biggest movies this year Harry Potter and the half blood prince is the sixth movie from the Harry Potter movie franchise based from book of the same title. The movie continues the struggle of Harry against his enemies in the world of magic. I dont really want to tell much about the story as I have not yet made any synopsis of any Harry Potter Movie in my blogs, so I would suggest you read the book or watch the movie since it has an excellent story.

As you would expect from any movie adaptation, there are missing chapters and edited story lines, but I must say the producers of the movie did a good job in keeping things in-line with the book so to speak. Even if there were missing chapters you would not feel as if your having a hard time understanding the story that much, you might feel you don't need to read the actual book (but I suggest you do...). The characters were also great, maybe because they are more mature and more at ease with their characters (they are doing the movie franchise for the sixth time...), seeing them grow is fascinating indeed, from the first movie till this one.

Effects, cinematography and all the stuff that makes the movie is really superbly done, they maintained that quality that was seen on the previous movies. There weren't really that much action as it told in the book but i would have loved the movie even more if more chapters were included the movie. Its like you can watch it for the movie and not just because of the book, it was a balanced film as far as action, story and effects were concerned, in all it was a great movie and my opinion one of the best among the Harry Potter Franchise.

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is the sequel to the first movie released in 2007. Just by watching the trailer you would know that this was a movie to watch in the silver screen. It tells about the story when the decepticons return to Earth first to revive Megatron leader of the decepticons and to fulfill the revenge of the Fallen. The fallen is said to be one of the oldest transformers who visited Earth, alongside with other Primes with the goal to harvest the Sun. The Fallen made a Sun Harvester despite the disagreement of other primes since they saw early humans living in Earth. The other primes stopped the Fallen by hidding the Matrix of Leadership the key to the Sun Harvester.

Present day, Sam found a shard of the all spark and receives some of its energy and knowledge. Hunted by the decepticons he is evtually helped by his autobot buddy bumble bee and his girl friend Mikaela, Optimus Prime also came to the rescue but was killed in the process by Megatron. After learning of the meaning of the symbols Sam has seen since he found the shard he goes to Egypt and after a heavy strugle revives Optimus Prime kills the Fallen and Megatron retreats.

The movie is one of the best I have seen and really keeps you on your seat, effects were spectacullar and they introduced new transformers into the movie from the original Cartoon. There are several inconsistencies with the movie but I really didn't watch the movie and expect things to be "that" realistic, as long as I am entertained and kept me in my seat then its a good movie for me. Words cant describe what they have done with the movie, it was money well spent.

Slumdog Millionaire Movie Review

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

One of the best films I have seen, Slumdog Millionaire is a movie worth watching. The plot itself is not new but what makes the story great is how they made the such a way where ordinary people can relate and yet provide an interesting scenario that has deep meaning. Majority of the people around the world are poor or at least their not rich, similar to the Character of Jamal, born of poverty and despite the huge opportunity that he has his desire is the simpliest of things, all he wanted was for Latika to see him in the game show. Jamal has all the qualities of an ordinary person living in a rather ordinary life, but is given an extraordinary experience that everyone wanted, the only difference was, his simple desire.

Even the Antagonist were very realistic, the brother Salim who became bad not because he wanted to but because of circumstances and influence of others, but deep inside, he still loved Jamal. The game show master, who simply became ignorant in accepting Jamal's winning streak, he was also the reason for Jamal's torchure. The police officer who like the game show master refused to accept that Jamal was not cheating and the two simply acted like any ordinary person would act, out of suspicion and the desire to know the truth, and these are very human traits.

There were also the gang members who in todays society is very much a part of. Every society has its own version of a gang, whether its in Mumbai, Manila or New York. These people shape the lives of those they encounter. In all its a great realistic story.

The movie did not have a lot of visual effects, just the normal drama scenes and minimal graphic effects, it was not great but it was well enough. It's rare to see a movie that shows cinematography and choice of shots, and even the angle to be just right, not great not spectacular, but just right. And that is what I think made this movie a film worth watching

Slumdog Millionaire

Monday, February 9, 2009

This is really one of the best movies that I have watched, it has deep meaning, fresh story, something we could relate to and really shows us what reality is in life. Very few movies or stories can reach to what this film has told, something that is not filled with special effects, nothing fancy but something that has meaning.

The film is about the amazing story of Jamal, an 18 year old teenager, his life in the slums and the biggest day in his life. He is one question away from winning 20 million rupees from India's version of the game show "Who wants to be a millionaire" and as the show pauses for the next day, Jamal is arrested because of suspicion of cheating. Upon interrogation, Jamal tells his story and how his experiences led him to the game show, from childhood, to the last minute of the game.

He was born in the slums together with his brother Salem on one of India's poorest places. He lost his mother at a young age, and the two start to live life on their own, doing whatever they can to survive, at this instant Jamal also met Latika. The two had a hard life, they were taken to be part of a gangster though they managed to escape, Latika was left behind. A few years later, the siblings return to save Latika, and Salem managed to kill the leader that once held them captive. Salem then joined another gang and took Latika for himself, leaving Jamal. A few years passed and Jamal found Latika, still captive with Salem as one of the gang members. Jamal then joins the game show not to win, but he simply thought Latika would watch.

Every question in the game was answered with the help of his experiences that he remembered so vividly. He answers the last question and won the prize, but his victory was not of money but of Latika, being saved from the gangster with the help of his brother who sacrificed his own life.

A very very splendid film, something that all of us can relate to.

Inkheart Movie Review

Inkheart is a fantasy movie starred by Brendan Fraser, a very typical hero type of an actor. The movie centers on how a father, reveals to her daughter how her mother was lost and shows her his unique ability which her daughter has inherited, and this ability is to bring characters from books to life. Hauted by the past, Mo (Brendan Fraser) battles againts odds to bring back his wife and saves the world from an evil character he has unleashed years before.

The story itself is relatively nice, its not too deep nor too shallow, a movie that can be shown to the entire family. Brendan shows his hero portrayal once again, and presents his usual ability to be the man that would save the day. Other characters did play well, most notably Hellen Mirren, which portrayed as Maggies aunt. The characters was well chosen, and Brendan would really fit the character of Mo. Cinematography and how the film was shot was very nice, getting less advantage of the background and more focus on the characters.But I felt the movie could have been better with inserting more details on the how the story went.

In all, Inkheart is a great family movie, though it could have gone a lot better if story had a bit more detail. A sequel would be nice to fill the gaps on the story, such as what did the villains do, after they were released and how was life inside the book.

Inkheart

Here is another movie from Brendan Fraser, and how he saves the day once more. Inkheart is a movie similar to the genres of Naria a fantasy movie that tells the amazing powers of Mo, played by Brendan, to turn bring to life the characters from the books that he reads out loud. But there is a twist to his powers, everytime a character comes out a book someone from the real world comes inside the book.

That is what happened the time he read a book to her daughter and brought in characters from Inkheart, a story set in medieval times and filled with magical creatures. Years later Dustfinger, a character from inkheart tracks them and abducts Mo, her daughter Maggie and Maggie's aunt. The three found out, other magical creatures that came out from the book, and truth to the disappearance of Maggies mother.

Dustfinger soon realizes his mistake and frees the three in pursuit to the remaining copy of inkheart and found their way to its author. As they found the author, Dustfinger admits to Mo that his wife is no longer inside the book but is held captive inside the castle where they were previously detained. The two decides to go back the castle and save the wife of Mo, while Maggie was abducted by villains at the house of inkhearts author.

The villains soon discovers that Maggie has inherited Mo's ability and uses her to unleash a powerful evil being from inkheart. Mo stops this,while Maggies used her own body and writes a story of her own and reads it aloud to save the day.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans Movie Review

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans is the prequel to the Underworld series, and just the previous releases, the movie centers on the struggle between Vampire and Werewolves known in this movie as Lycans. The movie showed most of the previous characters except Selene which is played by Kate Beckinsale. Although Kate or Selene was gone, another female vampire was present and She was Sonja played by Rhona Mitra. Athough I liked Kate more Rhona was equally stunning, plus her awesome performance as a Vampire princess.

The movie answered a few questions from the previous Underworld movies and the origin of the great feud the first two movies revolved upon. It nice to see that there is consistency on the movie based on what was previously told on the first movie. Actions scenes were immense, with battles that show a lot of gore and brutality, which of course I liked since the battles look realistic, despite having an R13 rating. Battle choreography was very nice, accompanied by great back ground but there were a bit awkward camera angles, but great fight scenes none the less.

The actors played very well, specially for Rhona, who fought and moved just like Kate, consistent with Sonja and Selene being incomparable in the eyes of Viktor. There were a few things I made me think though, like Kraven who was portrayed as a hero by the vampires where does he come in, and why did the Viktor and the rest of the elders went to sea, when in fact they would try to exterminate the Lycans. These questions might probably be answered if producers would make a fourth movie.

All in all, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, great movie, no money wasted, very very nice.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

The third movie from the Underworld is really something, seeing the first two movies made me feel that the third movie is bound to be spectacular.

Instead of making a sequel the movie producers decided on making a prequel which is pretty neat considering that the previous movies still lack a few details on their past.

It movie is centered on the origins of Lucian, leader of the Lycans from the first movie and how he became the first Lycan able to change to human form, after being born from a werewolf mother. He was then taken by Viktor, the vampire king who used lucian to create more lycans to be viktors slaves. The idea seemed perfect, lycans being stronger than humans and immortal as well would be best suited to being his slaves, Viktor even created a colar with spikes that would immediately kill any lycan whishing to transform.

The only thing was, and based on the first movie, Lucian was in love with Viktor's daughter, Sonja. Things get complicated when Sonja tried to escort a few nobles to enter their castle, but they were attacked by werewolves which unlike Lucian could not take human form. Lucian upon knowing this rushed to save Sonja, and disobeyed Viktor by transforming into a werewolf, amazingly other werewolves seemed to obey Lucian.

Viktor saw Lucians disobedience, and punishes him, after receiving severe punishment Lucian escapes with a few slaves but returns after knowing that Sonja would be killed after Viktor knew about their relationship. Lucian tries to free Sonja but was captured, Lucian is once again punished but this time by seeing Sonja die before him by being burned from sun light. Lucian once again tries to escape, but is severly injured, despite being weak, he calls upon his werewolf bretheren to attack the vampire castle. The sheer number of were wolves over powers the vampires and is over run, and Viktor is defeated by Lucian.

Quotes from The curious case of Benjamin Button

Monday, January 26, 2009

I'm supposed to include these on my other post, but I think, these lines deserve a separate post. You can check my blog on The curious case of Benjamin Button movie here.

Now, here are some of the lines I find interesting on the movie:

"Along the way you bump into people who make a dent on your life. Some people get struck by lightning. Some are born to sit by a river. Some have an ear for music. Some are artists. Some swim the English Channel. Some know buttons. Some know Shakespeare. Some are mothers. And some people can dance." -Benjamin

"Your life is defined by its opportunities... even the ones you miss." -Benjamin

"It's a funny thing about comin' home. Looks the same, smells the same, feels the same. You'll realize what's changed is you." -Benjamin

"For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again." -Benjamin

"Benjamin, we're meant to lose the people we love. How else would we know how important they are to us?" -Ms. Maple

"It's funny how sometimes the people we remember the least make the greatest impression on us." -Benjamin

"You can be as mad as a mad dog at the way things went. You could wear, curse the fates, but when it comes to the end, you have to let go." -Capt. Mike

The curious case of Benjamin Button

I rarely enjoy movies which do not belong to action, fantasy or science-fiction, and this movie is one of them. I liked the story because I find it interesting and different, the movie showed audiences what its like to live your life backwards, being to old to do things and too young to know almost everything.

The story begins when a dying woman made a request to her daughter to read a diary she kept, and so begins the life of Benjamin. Benjamin had a rare illness, he would live his life backwards, born with signs of old age but as time passes by he body gets younger. Abandoned by his father while her mother died during labor he was left to a Queenie, a care giver.

Queenie loved him like his own son, and Benjamin loved him back, and as he seemed to be on the right place, being with old people and all, he experiences life as if he was old enough to understand yet in his heart he was just as young as his child neighbors.

Benjamin met Daisy from her grandmother at the home care, and as time goes by they went their separate lives. Benjamin now a sailor who soon enters World War II on a tug boat and Daisy who became a ballerina, but soon had an accident. Both experienced a lot of new things, specially Benjamin, time went on and despite their misunderstandings they soon lived together bearing a child. Benjamin realized Daisy could not raise both of them, now that he is getting much younger and decides to leave them. Daisy found a suitable father, and Benjamin starts to be a child in form, but looses memory. Daisy now old,took care of young Benjamin,until he looked like he was just a new born. Soon Benjamin looked at Daisy for the last time then slowly closed his eyes and died.

Pretty tragic, but very deep, I liked the story, the plot, the way it was directed, and the characters as well,I think this movie should be a classic.

Click here to see some of the lines that I liked on the movie

Twilight the Movie

Monday, December 1, 2008

One of the most anticipated movies of 2008, Twilight tells about a teenage girl who has just moved in with his father and fell in-love with a vampire. The movie is a screen adaptation from a novel with the same title by Stephenie Meyer, you can click here to check my previous blog about the book.

The movie adaptation was fairly nice, but I just can't help to notice some points that really made this movie less that what it supposed to be. First was the choice of characters, while I liked Kristen Stewart as Bella and Robert Pattison as Edward Cullen, some of the supporting characters just made me think, for example, why did they made laurent a black jamaican dude, and why did they choose a chinese teenager as Eric. I've heard rumors that Kristen isn't beautiful enough for Bella but, the book doesn't state Bella to be a beauty queen, not until she becomes a vampire herself.

Another point was that the movie made a lot of emphasis on the scenery of Washinton state which kinda made it look like a film from a wildlife channel. I also didn't liked the way the vampires move, since they looked liked moves from Power Rangers or something. And the last, the movie looked more like a soap opera or a TV series rather than a movie.



But the movie also has a few points, while it's expected that the movie adaptations would be different from the book, this movie still sticked to the book with few minor changes for effects but still acceptable, since you can clearly hear the characters say the famous lines from Meyers book. I also think the characters portrayed their role pretty well just as it was told in the book.

In all, the movie should have been great if it were just made just like say, "Underworld" or "Interview with the Vampire", films that feel like a movie and not a TV series. I'm no director but I think the angles which the movie was shot could have been in a better position.

I like twilight, and thanks to the book, this movie is still a great film to watch. A modern Vampire lovestory and putting a new definition to vampires.

The Incredible Hulk

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

I'm always amazed on how they make movies out of comic without making it cartoon like. The incredible Hulk is a very well made film, though it wasn't as spectacular as I'd hope for.

the story is like the continuation of the first movie, but I'd really like to know why it's title isn't called The Incredible Hulk part 2. The story goes after Bruce Banner played by Edward Norton whose experiment for the US military used himself as a guinea pig on gamma rays and ended up being a rampaging green monster killing people and destroying properties. After avoiding detection for a long time he ended up in Brazil and not only that he was able to find a job and learn Portuguese.

At first I thought the factory girl he saved from a bunch of factory bullies would be his partner, but then she never left Brazil. Unlike Bruce whose blood has dropped into one of the bottles and ended up in a US consumer in America (played by the legendary Stan Lee) gave the US military a hint on where to find the elusive green giant. As soon as the military was tailing Bruce he ended up in a tight situation with the factory bullies and with the military, as a result, Hulk emerges destroying everything in its path.

Bruce then finds himself in Guatemala and works his way to the United States to find her partner the lovely Betty Ross played by Liv Tyler. As soon as they met they worked to find a cure to the green menace but again the military was tailing them, this time of the military officers Emil Blonsky took some of experiment of Bruce to become a supper villain but still his exposure to the gamma rays was low and sure enough one kick from the hulk and his bones became crushed gravel.

Bruce and Betty after eluding the military finds Mr. Blue who helped Bruce suppress the green giant within him, but after a successful experiment, the military ever persistent came to ruin everything and this time Emil took Mr. Blue and asked him to inject more gamma rays and the result was an abomination, another green giant and this time gave the hulk a fairly good match. But then the Hulk still prevails after a few hits here and there plus a few damaged property.

At the end of the movie Gen. Ross (father of Betty and the guy responsible for making and chasing Bruce) was found drinking in a bar and all of a sudden Tony Starks shows up, and we all knew him, he's the Iron Man, and he tells Gen. Ross that they are building a team! Hhmm... wonder what that was all about but I guess if all the Marvel super heroes would show in one movie, that would be a blast.

The movie was great and I think the story was fairly nice, but there was a lot of talk and the hulk seemed to be more timid and in control of himself, not like the one we knew that rampaged everything in sight. The hulk in the movie was also more controlled by Betty and though the green giant still gives a nice scream, there were a lot of times he looked rather calm. It's also nice to know that the hulk uses his signature moves in the movie.

The movie was great and is a good addition to other great marvel movies.

Step Up 2: The Streets

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Wow!!!, one great word to describe this movie...I mean it..

I haven't seen the first movie and i don't really care, all i know is that this movie is a blast. The movie started out great revealing what the movie is all about, and you'd guess it dancing. The moves on the train was fantastic specially the dude who seemed to be a human vibrator running under the seat then out, for one time they looked liked monkey jumpin' around the train, but hey, they pulled out great with those moves, i think it was a great way to start the movie, it lets the audience (such as myself) to have a taste of action right from the start.

Andie is very sexy and very talented with her craft, but unfortunately for her, she ended up in a rather unhealthy group of friends, i thought the black dude was hitting on her, but at the later part of the movie, he showed up to be the bad guy.

In almost every movie there's always a dork, and this guy was supposed to be one, or so i thought, he ended up being one of the most talented and important friends Andie has got when she goes to compete, it never came to my mind until he danced and he dances very well. I also thought it would be better if Andie had met with her "crew" before she thought of competing, i dont know, it might just look interesting...

But the best part of the movie,was their last dance, i mean it was a blast, the pouring rain went very very damn well, and their moves was unbelievable, specially when chase was like pumping Andie's heart out..wow!!!, i wished i danced that well...

its a very very good movie, id rather watch this movie for several times than some of the titles from the first quarter of this year...very nice...