moviefreak

If you want to watch a movie that makes you wonder and doubt about many things, then this is the one for you. It’ll take you back to the past, a year after President Kennedy’s death. What can you expect from this movie? Questions and EXCELLENT acting, of course. I’ll give this movie a 7.9 stars out of 10.

Oh yeah, just found out that this movie is based on a play written by John Patrick Shanley and it’s won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as two other awards. Remember that it’s rated PG-13 for thematic material, though!

The Story:

Bronx 1964. In a Catholic school runs by a SUPER strict and conservative/rigid nun named Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep) comes a new 8th grade teacher Sister James (Amy Adams), a very innocent and kind young woman. Sister Aloysius always tries to monitor Sister James in teaching her students. She’s also very suspicious of her superior, Father Brendan Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who leads the congregation of the church and who’s a liberal person. She explains to Sister James that she should tell her everything so that she can take actions to solve the problems.

In the beginning of the story, two of the students become altar boys. One of them is a new student, a black boy named Donald Miller (Joseph Foster). It’s clear from the start that Donald doesn’t have any friends there, especially since he’s the only black boy among the white students. Therefore, Father Brendan tries to take him under his wings. One time during a lesson, Father Brendan calls Donald to his office and after Donald comes back to the classroom, Sister James notices that his attitude changes.

One day Sister James catches Father Brendan putting Donald’s undershirt into his locker. This raises her suspicion, so she shares this suspicion to Sister Aloysius, who is convinced that Father Brendan has done bad things to the boy. They try to confront Father Brendan about this matter, but he is appalled and he refuses to tell them anything. He just says that their suspicion is wrong and that he has done nothing wrong.

The innocent Sister James is now feeling such a huge guilt, so she can’t sleep well at nights anymore. Meanwhile, Sister Aloysius is still bent on getting Father Brendan to confess about all the bad things he’s done, so she’s planning to trap him to do so.

What will Sister Aloysius do? Will Father Brendan confess? Is he really guilty or is Sister Aloysius’ assumption totally wrong? Expect confrontation between Father Brendan and Sister Aloysius reaching the peak!!!!!

Notes:

1. I find the theme intriguing because I once read that if you’ve already formed an assumption about something or someone, then your brain WILL automatically look for signs that can “prove” that assumption.

2. This movie touches reality and prods my doubt, as well. It leaves me with some questions:

a. How can I be so sure about my assumptions? Are sometimes my assumptions right? Or are they mostly or always wrong?

b. Is “the right thing to do” better than “compassion and forgiveness”?

c. How far is the limit for me in order to prove the truth (and basically to prove that my assumptions are right)?

We’re moving to a new apartment bit by bit, so we’ve been SO tired. We live on the 3rd floor and we’re moving to another building on the 2nd floor, so you can imagine the exercise we’ve had today. So unfortunately I don’t have the energy to write too long in this blog. Therefore I’d just love to share some of my fave movie quotes from these movies:

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1. The Nanny Diaries

a. I don’t understand why someone can have everything and still be…so miserable.

b. Grayer is not an accessory…Grayer loves you. He doesn’t care what you’re wearing or what you buy him or what school he gets into. He just - he just wants you there. That’s it. And time’s running out, and he won’t love you unconditionally that much longer, so…for your own good, don’t miss out on getting to know him. — The nanny (Scarlett Johansson) says this to her boss, Grayer’s mother, a very rich woman who cares more about shopping than spending time with her son.

2. Stardust:

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a. The little I know about love is that it’s unconditional. It’s not something you can buy.

b. You know when I said I knew little about love? That wasn’t true. I know a lot about love. I’ve seen it, centuries and centuries of it, and it was the only thing that made watching your world bearable. All those wars. Pain, lies, hate… It made me want to turn away and never look down again. But when I see the way that mankind loves… You could search to the furthest reaches of the universe and never find anything more beautiful.

3. 10,000 BC:

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A good man draws a circle around himself and cares for those within: his woman, his children…
Other men draw a larger circle and bring within their brothers and sisters.
But some men have a greater destiny…they must draw around themselves a circle that encloses many, many more. Your father…was one of those men.

Have a blessed weekend, everybody!

Today I tried to think about my fave movies and their sequels. Generally speaking, the first sequel is usually better than the others, but that is not the case for some movies and their successful sequels - well, at least in my opinion the sequels are as good (if not better than) the first one. Here’re five of my fave movies and their sequels that I can think of today:

1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

Need I say more about this trilogy? I personally haven’t read the books (I’ve only read The Hobbit), but I think each one of the Lord of the Rings movie is SUPERB.

2. X-Men Trilogy.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this trilogy, especially since there’s Wolverine there HUE HE HE HE…What can I say? I’m attracted to beasts??? LOL LOL LOL!!!

3. The Ring Trilogy (the original Japanese ones!!!):

I think The Ring Trilogy is my number one horror movies of all time. I find it funny that hubby doesn’t think that they’re THAT scary, whereas he gets so scared while watching The Phone. I, on the other hand, find that The Phone is really nothing to be scared of. I guess it goes to say that some people are more scared to some things that other people won’t consider scary.

4. Harry Potter:

I’ve been helping out in the local library here in Sodankylä, Finland, and I must say that Harry Potter books are one of the top 5 MOST fave books to lend by the local residents here. And there are only around 10,000 inhabitants in this area, so that means that they REALLY like Harry Potter books!!! And so far I’ve been impressed with the movies, too, though I’ve never read the books myself he he he…

5. Ice Age 1 and 2.

These are equally FUNNY and they’re one of my FAVE animations of all time (yeah, I bet you know this already from my Entrecard icon HA HA HA…). I know that some people won’t even think they’re so funny (my friends and I have VERY different tastes in movies, especially animations!!!), but they just touch something inside me and they crack me up!

Images taken from http://www.glitter-graphics.com

I remember when I was young, I used to rent a lot of VCRs (yeah, no DVDs at that time, mate!) and I rented plenty of Donald Duck movies as well as Japanese animes and Disney animations. One movie that is still so memorable in my mind right now is The Little Mermaid, the ORIGINAL Hans Christian Andersen’s version, not the happy-ever-after Disney version. Has anyone ever seen this movie before?

I don’t remember it too well, so I don’t know if it’s made by Americans or Japanese, but in imdb I found this Japanese title that follows the original bitter-sweet ending: Andasen dôwa ningyo-hime.

So what’s so memorable about an animation that I can’t even remember well? How much I cried at the end of the movie, since The Little Mermaid didn’t get the Prince’s love (as she couldn’t communicate with the Prince) and she didn’t have the heart to kill the Prince to turn herself back into a mermaid, so the Prince ended up marrying the other princess and thus The Little Mermaid turned to foam.

In my young mind, I couldn’t believe that the ending was THAT sad. Such a HUGE sacrifice for The Little Mermaid for love. I felt that it was SO unfair. I “hated” the movie since it made me cry so much.

Now as an adult, I realize more that this story is VERY realistic. Life is unfair sometimes and you just have to make the best of the cards you get. No matter how much you think you’re in control, you’re definitely NOT in full control of anything. The only thing you can control is your attitude.

Do you have any childhood memory that’s still stuck in your mind when watching a certain movie? Would you share with me?

P.S. Wanna read the original Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid? Just click on the link.

Hubby bought this DVD since he’s a HUGE fan of this movie directed by Peter Jackson. Yep, the same guy who directed The Lord of the Rings trilogy. In the bonus part, Peter Jackson explained that in the 1995, when he was directing this movie, CGI was just started booming and in order to create the special effects for this movie, he had to buy SO many computers and he was stressed out about what to do after the movie was finished. So he had to think of how to make use of all the computers, right? That was when he came up with the idea of making The Lord of the Rings trilogy. So if he hadn’t made this movie, maybe there wouldn’t have been The Lord of the Rings trilogy. COOL!!!

Well, I think this movie is fun and funny complete with interesting/wacky characters and COOL effects (esp. since it was released in 1996), so I’ll give this one a 7.9 stars out of 10. Remember, though, that it’s rated R for horror/violence.

The Story:

Frank Bannister (Michael J. Fox) is a ghostbuster. He can see ghosts ever since his accident a few years ago. In order to earn money to finish his dream house, he works with three ghosts. So the job of two ghosts are to haunt other people’s houses and leave his business card there so that the owner of the house will call him and ask him to get rid of the naughty ghosts.

In the meantime, in the town where he lives there has been plenty of dead people in weird circumstances. All those people have a sudden “heart attack” but upon autopsy, it’s discovered that their arteries are fine, but it seems as though somebody has squeezed their hearts very hard. Even from the beginning of the story, you’ll see a ghost figure with a black robe trying to strike a woman named Patricia Ann Bradley (Dee Wallace). Patricia lives with her mother that seems to be controlling her all the time. She won’t even allow Patricia to go out of the house.

In this town there are also a couple who just moved in. The wife is Dr. Lucy Lynskey (Trini Alvarado), whereas the husband is the cocky Ray Lynskey (Peter Dobson). Ray and Frank get into a fight as Frank ruins Ray’s fence and lawn decoration with his car. Then after Frank sends his ghosts to haunt Ray’s house and then he comes there to “save” them, Frank sees a number on Ray’s forehead, but he doesn’t know what it means.

As the story progresses, you’ll learn that the number on the forehead shows that the person is going to die and it shows how many people the Grim Reaper (the black hooded figure) has killed. In fact, Frank’s wife had a carving of number 13 on her forehead when she was found dead. And Frank didn’t remember anything at all about the accident - you’ll know that he remembers what has happened only much later in the story. So, of course Ray dies not long after Frank sees the number on his forehead and Ray’s ghost asks Frank’s help to get in touch with Lucy. While helping Ray, you can begin to see attraction between Frank and Lucy.

You’ll also find out in the middle of the story that years and years back, Patricia Ann Bradley was suspected to be an accomplice to his boyfriend/killer named Johnny Charles Bartlett (Jake Busey) who killed 13 people in a hospital without any specific reason. That is why Patricia’s mother won’t allow her to go out of the house.

Anyway, while the Grim Reaper’s killing spree continues and Frank seems to be connected with the deaths (he’s often in the wrong place at the wrong time) and since he was a suspect in the death of his own wife, the police puts him to jail. He’s depressed since he can’t seem to help other people avoid the Grim Reaper, even though he can see it and he sees the number on the victims’ foreheads before the Grim Reaper comes. While in jail, Lucy comes to visit Frank and Frank sees a number on Lucy’s forehead. Now Lucy’s in danger and before long, the Grim Reaper comes to get Lucy’s soul…Frank’s ghost buddies try to help, as well.

What will happen to Lucy? Will Frank be able to help Lucy get out of danger with the help of his ghost buddies? Why is the Grim Reaper killing people like that? What’s the reason?

Okay, here’s the trailer:

Hubby bought the DVD since it was on a discount, so we can watch the bonus part, as well. When watching the movie, I wondered how true the description of life was in the movie. I found the answer in the bonus part. Turns out that due to the gap between the rich and the poor in Latin America, there have been plenty “Secuestro” and “Secuestro Express”.

Basically Secuestro Express is a type of faster kidnapping, so there can be up to 3 different people being kidnapped for ransom by the perpetrators and they usually ask for a smaller amount of ransom. Secuestro is a slower type of kidnapping where the victims can be kept for months or even years while the perpetrators ask for a bigger amount of ransom.

So as you can guess by now, this movie is NOT a feel-good movie. I’ll give this movie an overall 7 stars out of 10.

The Story:

Carla (Mia Maestro) and her boyfriend Martin (Jean Paul Leroux) are enjoying their night out in the car as three guys are trying to find victims to kidnap. The three guys are Trece (Carlos Julio Molina), Budu (Pedro Perez), and Niga (Carlos Madera). Among the three, Niga is the most compassionate one, whereas Budu is the roughest one. So those three guys kidnap Carla and Martin, tell them to get in the car, and they call Carla’s and Martin’s fathers to ask for ransom.

As they force Martin to get some money from an ATM, another robber with a gun comes closer to Martin (who is standing alone in front of the ATM) and tries to get the money. The helpless Martin tries to explain that he’s a victim of kidnapping, but the man doesn’t care about it. Then Budu realizes what’s going on, so he shoots the robber and they run away from the scene of crime with the car.

After that, they visit Marcelo (Ermahn Ospina), a gay drug dealer to buy some stash. They blindfold Martin and Carla while they do the transaction. Marcelo asks for some money and half an hour with Martin.

Something happens while Martin is left at Marcelo’s place (I’m not going to spoil it for you). To cut the story short, they all leave the place afterwards to go to a store. They want Martin to buy five Rolex watches with his credit card. Martin and Trece leave together to the store while Carla, Budu, and Niga stay in the car. Realizing that there are many cops in the area, Martin warns Trece to set him free or he’ll shout at the cops that he’s kidnapped. Trece decides to let him go since Martin doesn’t even care even if Trece kills Carla.

So now Carla is left alone in the kidnappers’ hands. What will happen to her? Will she be set free in the end? How about Budu’s lust? He keeps on trying to get into her pants. Will Carla be violated by Budu? What about Martin? What will happen to him?

Note:

I can’t help feeling frustrated and sad while watching the movie, especially while following the twists and turns. This movie really plays with my emotions, so I guess it’s a good movie after all. If it’s not good, it won’t be able to make me feel like I’m a part of it, right?