moviefreak

Saw the movie (FINALLY!) today and I must say that it’s a very interesting view of relationships between people. I couldn’t guess what the ending would be like or how the story progressed, so it’s not a typical drama. It’s rated PG-13 for mature thematic material involving sexuality, and smoking.

This time I’m not going to write down the synopsis myself, but if you want to read it, click here.

Would I recommend the movie? Definitely, but not to younger kids (I personally think it should be rated PG-15), since the theme is pretty serious. It involves finding yourself and finding out what you want. It involves finding out whether you’ll be happy when you get what you think you want. It involves commitment versus lust/instant attraction. It makes you think about happiness and relationships in general, what kind of person you’d choose to be your lifetime partner, what kind of relationship you’d like to have with that person, etc.

For that and great acting by all the main characters (Javier Bardem, Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz, and Rebecca Hall), I’ll give this movie a 7.5 stars out of 10. I think the best acting comes from Penelope Cruz, though. She’s really convinced me that she’s such an unstable, tempestuous, erratic person.

Here’s the trailer:

End note: I must say that after watching the movie, I feel glad that I was (have been) so sure about my relationship with my hubby despite our long-distance relationship and that I’m happy with him. Otherwise life would have been so different for me.

If you can pick one movie or character that you can relate to, what or who would it be? For me, it’d be “You’ve Got Mail”.

When I watched the movie, I was happy that somebody made that movie, because hubby and I met through an online penpal/emailpal club. It wasn’t an internet dating site, just a friendship site. We weren’t looking for a spouse specificially, but when we got to know each other better, we realized that we clicked so well and now we’ve been married for over 2 years.

Back to the movie…so in You’ve Got Mail, two people also got to know each other through the internet. My heart was racing as they decided the day on which they would meet. I still remembered clearly how I felt when I met hubby for the first time in real life. It was exciting and scary at the same time. So I knew well how Meg Ryan’s and Tom Hank’s characters felt that day.

And in the movie, Meg Ryan’s character owns a cute little bookstore. Though I’ve never owned a bookstore, in one of my daydreams, I want to own a bookstore or at least a cute private library at home because I just LOVE collecting books. So all in all, I’d say that this movie really relates to me.

How about you, readers? Would you share with me?

Here’s the ending of You’ve Got Mail with “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by Harry Nillson:

This 2007 Taiwanese movie was really not what I expected (in a good way). The other title is also “The Secret That Cannot Be Told”. At first glance, I thought it was just a regular boy/girl love story in an arts school. After the plot progressed for a while, I thought it was a love story between a boy and a ghost. Boy was I wrong!!! But I won’t say anymore since it’ll ruin everything he he…

The Story:

Ye Xianglun (Jay Chou - a famous musician who’s also the co-writer of this movie) enters Danjiang Secondary Arts School to study music. The first day he comes to school, he meets the mysterious Lu Xiaoyu (Kwai Lun-mei). He heard her play a beautiful piece of music, so he’s very curious about her. They fall in love at first sight and they keep meeting each other. They’d play the piano together and he’d take her home with his bike and she teaches him how to play the pieace of music that he had heard the first day they met. One weird thing about her is that sometimes she doesn’t come to school for days. Every time Xiaoyu throws a disappearing act, Xianglun misses her more.

There’s another girl in the class who also likes Xianglun. Her name is Qing Yi (Alice Tzeng). So in the beginning it seems that there’ll be a love triangle. One time after Xiaoyu disappears from class for days (she claims that she has asthma, so sometimes she has to rest at home), she gets more and more jealous of Qing Yi.

One day Xianglun passes a note to Xiaoyu in the middle of a lesson, but the note actually reaches Qing Yi. So Qing Yi comes to the music hall to meet Xianglun and since Xianglun thinks that she’s Xiaoyu, he kisses her. Xiaoyu, who’s standing outside the room, is angry and she runs back home. She also refuses to meet him when he waits for her in front of her apartment’s gate. Xianglun keeps on waiting outside for days, but to no avail. One woman who lives in the same apartment complex tells him that Xiaoyu has quit going to school, so Xianglun doesn’t bother coming to wait for her anymore.

By now five months have passed by and it’s graduation day. Everybody in the school knows that on graduation day, the old music hall will be demolished and they’ll build a new music hall there. What happens on graduation day? Will Xianglun meet Xiaoyu again? Why is she so mysterious? What kind of secret does she have?

Here’s the piano battle between two students in the movie. It’s HOT HOT HOT!!!!

Note:

This movie actually reminds me of “Somewhere in Time“. I think the first half of the story was rather puzzling (it could have been made more engaging), but after I got more explanations on what had happened and the tension kept on rising until it reached the peak and at the end of the movie, I felt a HUGE SURGE of relief. For that and also some beautiful special effects and WONDERFUL piano performances, I’ll give this movie a 7.5 stars out of 10.

I watched this movie here, though the quality isn’t perfect, but at least I got to watch it for free ha ha ha…

Saw this 2007 movie on TV last night. It was okay and funny in some parts, but for some reason it’s hard for me to feel “enchanted” by this movie. Maybe it’s because I’m not the type of person who likes the combination of cartoon and real life. It just seems too hard to believe. If I want to watch fairy tales, I’ll watch pure fairy tales movies.

I do appreciate the writer’s effort in trying to “change” a fairy tale character to be more real in terms of relationship (by teaching her to date and get to know the spouse first before “meeting a prince for a day and then get married the next day” and telling her that relationship is HARD WORK) and a real life character to believe in love more and to give love another chance (that even a-soon-to-be-divorced couple can find sparks in their love life again and cancel the divorce), but I don’t think I want to watch this movie again. Once is enough. That’s why I’ll only give this movie a 6.5 stars out of 10.

However, I think Amy Adams fits her character well as Giselle. At least I find her truly believable. I think the cutest character in the story is Pip, the chipmunk. I WISH he would come out more often HE HE HE HE…

The Story:

Giselle (Amy Adams) lives in a cartoon land and she sings about meeting the prince of her dreams, someone to love and to live with happily ever after. A troll comes into her house to eat her and Prince Edward (James Marsden) comes to the rescue. They agree to get married the next day, so the next day Giselle comes to the castle wearing a beautiful wedding gown and tiara. She makes dresses herself with the help of animals. However, Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) doesn’t like it since she doesn’t want anyone to be a queen. She wants to stay as the queen, so she disguises herself as an old woman who tries to entice Giselle to come to a wishing waterfall. Then once she gets closer to the waterfall, Queen Narissa pushes her down so that she would come to earth as a living being, a place where “happily ever after” doesn’t exist.

The confused Giselle doesn’t know what to do. She has never seen a car in her entire life and she comes out of the gutter in the middle of a busy road. She tries to find the castle to get married to Prince Edward. Then Morgan Philip (Rachel Covey), the daughter of Robert Philip (Patrick Dempsey) notices her and they bring her home since she’s soaking wet. They finally let her spend a night there and the next morning when she wakes up, Giselle sings and invites many animals to help her clean up Robert’s apartment.

Innocent Giselle makes Robert worried. He thinks that she is a crazy woman. She keeps talking about marrying Prince Edward and that he is coming to rescue her. Robert doesn’t believe that at all. Meanwhile, Giselle keeps on making new dresses from Robert’s curtains and carpets (this is hilarious!!!). Robert tries to put some sense into Giselle’s head by telling her that she can’t marry a person she doesn’t know, a person whom she has just met for a day. In real life, a couple needs to date and get to know each other first. So Robert teaches Giselle “the ways of the world”, whereas Giselle tries to make Robert believe in “giving love another chance”. One time Robert brings Giselle to his office (he’s a lawyer) and there Giselle manages to bring a couple back together, though they almost got divorced.

Trouble comes when Robert’s longtime girlfriend Nancy Tremaine (Idina Menzel) finds Giselle in Robert’s apartment (whereas she’s never been allowed to spend a night there yet), so Nancy is angry with him. Giselle helps Robert make up with Nancy by making a wreath out of fresh flowers and she sends two doves to send the wreath to Nancy. She has also secretly slips two tickets of a dance along with the wreath. Of course Nancy is very happy now and she forgives Robert.

True as her prediction, Prince Edward comes down to earth to find his true love along with Pip (a cartoon chipmunk who’s Giselle’s best friend, but in real world Pip can’t speak properly like in the cartoon land). Queen Narissa sends Nathaniel (Timothy Spall), who’s actually in love with the queen, to stop the prince from ever finding Giselle. She also gives him 3 poisoned apples to kill her.

Will Prince Edward be able to find Giselle? How will he find her in a big city like New York? Will there be a “happily ever after”? Expect some twists at the end!!!

Yeah, I know this movie was released in 2005, but I only saw it last night on TV he he he…I think Steve Carrell is the right choice to be the 40-year-old virgin, since he has that innocent face. It is fun in plenty of scenes, but I don’t think I want to watch it again. I think Evan Almighty and Get Smart (both starring Steve Carrell as the lead character) are more memorable than this movie. So I’ll give this one a 7 stars out of 10.

Remember that it’s rated R for pervasive sexual content, language and some drug use. —> I do think that this movie has a little bit too much sexual terms he he…

The Story:

Andy Stitzer (Steve Carrell), who is obviously 40 years old, works in an electronics store. He loves collecting action figures and playing games. (It’s not that he was never attracted to women. It’s just that he has had plenty of bad experiences with women.) One day his colleagues ask him to join them in playing poker. While playing, he brags about all the sexual encounters he has experienced, but he gets into big trouble when one of them asks about what it feels like to touch a breast and he says, “Like a bag of sand.” Then they realize that Andy is still a virgin.

So they try many ways to make Andy get laid. They ask him to go out with them to a pub, one of them lends him his porn collection, then they ask him to join Speed Date (where they can meet 20 people in 20 seconds or something like that). They even trick him into believing there’s a party in an apartment when actually they’ve hired a prostitute to sleep with him. Of course all these things fail to make Andy lose his virginity.

One day, a woman named Trish comes into the store to ask for prices of some electronics equipment and Andy is the one who has to deal with her questions. Through this conversation, Andy finds out that Trish has a store right across the store where he works in. Trish sells things in eBay and before leaving the store, she gives Andy her phone number.

After being challenged by his friends, Andy gathers her courage to ask Trish on a date, since he is truly interested in her. Andy is afraid of telling Trish that he is a virgin for fear that she might think he’s an oddball, whereas Trish hasn’t told Andy that she has three kids and the eldest kid has got a child already, so she’s practically a grandmother already (she’s around 40 years old). 

What will happen between Andy and Trish? Will the relationship work out? When will Andy lose his virginity?

Notes:

1. One of the funniest scenes in this movie is when Andy and Trish are going to make love and Trish is in the bathroom and she tells Andy to put on a condom, but he doesn’t even know how!!! So he opens so many bags of condoms and then at that time Trish’s daughter and boyfriend come barging into the room and Trish’s daughter thinks that they have made love so many times judging by the many condoms left around the bed. LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL!!!

2. I personally don’t think there’s anything wrong with being a virgin, whether you’re a man or woman. What Andy said at almost the end of the movie was really touching, but I won’t write it down here since it’ll spoil the moment he he he…You just have to see it for yourself to know what it is!!!

My Hungarian friend lent me this Hungarian movie DVD, so I saw it last night. It’s a romantic drama and it’s the first Hungarian movie I’ve ever seen. This movie does A LOT of going back and forth from the present to the past, so in the beginning I have to be really careful in separating which is which, but the longer I watch it, the easier it is to know which is the present and which is the past.

For some reason, the movie makes me sit at the edge of my seat, DYING to know why and how and what’s going to happen next, so for that reason I’ll give this movie a 7.2 stars out of 10, even though I find that there are some gaps that I’d love to know more in details, but I guess you can’t try to jam them all in one movie.

The Story:

In the beginning you find out that Lora (Lucia Brawley) is now working in a wine tasting company and she’s lost her sight. Before losing her sight, she used to work in a museum. She’s undergoing some therapy and as the story progresses, you’ll know that her blindness is due to psychological problems, so it’s not really a physical blindness. But what made her lose sight? What has caused the trauma?

As the movie takes you back and forth from the present to the past, you’ll know that over three years ago, Lora was in a restaurant with her friend. At that time the band’s saxophonist kept on looking at her and it was clear that he was head over heels in love with her since the beginning. The saxophonist is Geri (Péter Nagy) and he has an older brother named David (Ernõ Fekete). David is a playboy and he’s a smooth operator, whereas Geri is more of the shy little brother. Being a playboy, David decides to take the first step to get to know Lora and they become a couple, whereas Lora becomes very good friends with Geri.

It was clear that Lora and Geri has always had a special friendship, but for some reason David is more able to “attack, seduce, and conquer” Lora, so Geri has no chance. Things become complicated as Lora’s best friend, Betti (Zsófia Szamosi), warns her against David, but the smooth operator David has bought a ring for Lora (even though he still sleeps with other women). 

Even from the beginning of the story, it’s clear that David has died, but you’ll never really know why and how until almost at the end of it. His death also creates a strenuous relationship between Geri and his Dad, who feels that David is “the best son”, whereas Geri is the no-good-son. 

Anyway, in the present time, Geri accidentally meets Lora again and he is surprised to know that Lora has lost her sight. Geri, who’s still very much in love with Lora, tries to befriend her again. Since they were always good friends in the past, they also have so much fun in the present.

However, can Lora get over the memory of David and move on? Will she be able to get her sight back? What happened in the past with David? Will she and Geri be a couple now that David’s gone?

Note:

1. Warning: There’s a sensual scene and some nudity in the movie.

2. Found the movie’s trailer in youtube, but unfortunately there’s no English subtitle, but if you’re curious, you can see it here: