A Movie Blog

Charlotte’s Web is something. First and foremost, the cast is something that you can consider powerhouse. Julia Roberts and Oprah Winfrey lend their voices to lovable animals. Second, the movie is so simple but you find it very appealing. Well to me at least, it is.

It is about loving and helping others in ways that are somewhat already lost in the modern way of life. We love and care for people we consider friends but we really don’t go that far, do we? But the film shows two very unlikely friends show love and care for each other even if it costs them their life. Now that’s amazing, isn’t?

I was actually excited to see this film because you know, superhero films are cool and though Ghost Rider doesn’t look the part, still the movies looks promising and interesting at the very least.

Duh! It turns out, this film is far from what it promised to deliver. The scenes are kinda boring. I was trying to convince myself over and over again that this movie is not that bad but then again the boring scenes just tire me out.

The story is not even great to begin with. I don’t recommend this film at all to those who have great expectations. They will surely be disappointed as much as I did.

Cast: Nicholas Cage as Johnny Blaze and Eva Mendes as Roxanne Simpson

Spiderman 3 is one of those films that I am really looking forward to watch on the big screen. I saw the trailer several times and I quite intrigued with the inclusion of this Black Spiderman entity. It looks like Peter Parker is haunted by his dark side and he struggles to get his old self back before everything and everyone that surrounds him gets entangled into a menacing web of betrayal, hatred, and confusion.

I will feature more pics of Spidey in my future posts.

One of the most-awaited films in 2007 is the sequel to the 2005 comic book adaptation Fantastic Four called The Rise of the Silver Surfer. The Silver Surfer is supposed to be evil but when he met the Fantastic Four - Mr. Fantastic, The Human Torch, The Invisible Woman, and The Thing - he betrayed his evil boss Galactus to save planet earth.

The Silver Surfer’s abilities include: superhuman strength, energy manipulation, molecular transmutation, control over the fundamental forces, virtual invulnerablity, degree of cosmic awareness, the ability to travel at trans-light speeds, and virtual immortality. I don’t really understand what this powers are but something tells me that this guy is very very strong. I wonder if the Fantastic Four would be able to defeat him had he not shifted sides.

I am so excited to see this film. I sure am not gonna miss this.

It was really not my plan to watch Apocalypto because I was pretty aware of the presence of some gory scenes in the film. I hate to admit that I can’t stand the sight of blood much more the sight of man getting decapitated. Yes, Apocalypto has that. Luckily, I managed to get through it and reached the end credits without puking.

The movie was intense and was very raw and brutal. I really admire the cast of this film. The scenes looked so real that I was wondering if nobody got hurt while they were doing the shoot. The piercings looked so real too. Are they?

Mel Gibson is impressive and brutal as usual. He really didn’t give me a chance to think about something else while watching. It is hard not to get engrossed in a Mel Gibson film, andI really admire the guy for that.

Starring: Channing Tatum, Jenna Dewan

Everyone deserves a chance to follow their dreams, but some people only get one shot. Tyler Gage is a rebel from the wrong side of Baltimore¹s tracks ­ and the only thing that stands between him and an unfulfilled life are his dreams of one day making it out of there. Nora is a privileged ballet dancer attending Baltimore¹s ultra-elite Maryland School of the Arts — and the only thing standing in the way of her obviously brilliant future is finding a great dance partner for her senior showcase. When trouble with the law lands Tyler with a community service gig at Maryland School of the Arts, he arrives as an angry outsider, until his skills as a gifted street dancer draw Nora¹s attention. Now, as sparks fly between them, both on and off stage, Tyler realizes he has just one performance to prove that he can step up to a life far larger than he ever imagined.[IMDB]

I love dance movies so the way I rate this particular film is somewhat biased. I really appreciate the way Jenna Dewan struts her stuff. She is a very good dancer. And Channing Tatum also works it out hip-hop style. The movie does not get you really involved with the characters. If you are looking for a film that will make you cry, watch Schindler’s list or whatever. This movie is not going to win an award either so if you’re into movies like that, please think twice before watching this film.

But if you’re into dance flicks, this is for you. The way Step Up merges ballet dancing with hip-hop is amazing. The dance finale was great and it basically delivered. I am not interested with the story anyway, I just wanted to see cool moves and listen to good dance music.

I was satisfied. So I give this one a 4/5

Starring: Zhang Ziyi, Daniel Wu, You Ge, Xun Zhou

A loose adaptation of Hamlet, “The Night Banquet” is set in an empire in chaos. The Emperor, the Empress, the Crown Prince, the Minister and the General all have their own enemies they would like to finish off at a night banquet.[IMDB]

The film has a very interesting premise yet I found it not so engrossing. Despite the lavish set and powerful cast, the film didn’t really meet my expectations. Zhang Ziyi tried so hard to play the role but it just doesn’t suit her. I like her better in House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

The film has a dark theme of raw ambition, betrayal, and jealousy. However, I find the presentation so theatrical that I failed to really connect with the characters. I just hope it would have been presented with more depth so that scenes would become much more engaging.

Rating: 3/5

I watched this movie with friends. We really just got bored about life and its intricacies that’s why we picked up Just My Luck as the movie for the day. But actually, before that decision, I was strongly protesting against watching American Haunting. I already had a bad experience concerning Emily Rose and I don’t want to subject myself again to such awfully scary situation by watching another demon-possessed-girl movie. So there we went, inside the auspices of Lindsay Lohan’s flick and hoped for the best.

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Warning: Spoilers abound!

Superman Returns has the usual Superman-saves-the-world theme. There was practically nothing new to begin with. When the world is in a mess, Superman saves the day. He is the savior that the world has always been waiting for, and now that he is back, everyone is more than happy.

The funny thing is, when Superman was away for five years, everything seemed well. But when he comes back, the world suddenly needs help all the time. There’s so much saving to do. But then again, isn’t this the very premise Superman is built on eversince? Yes it is, so just get in and enjoy the ride…sort of.

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If not for Jodie Foster, I would not have had the guts to watch this flick. When I saw the trailer of Inside Man a couple of weeks ago, I was not impressed but I was hopeful that there was something about it that might really interest me. Well, I watched Inside Man yesterday, and I must admit I was a bit disappointed.

The cast is powerful. Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Clive Owen, and Willem Dafoe. Those are big names. Before I saw the film, I was even wondering why the movie didn’t create big waves in the box office, considering the glamorous cast ensemble. After watching it, however, I somehow got the answer.

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I have been waiting for this since last week and I was very excited to see the CARS yesterday. Before then, I was already disappointed with some reviews about “Cars, being not on the Pixar scale”, and that “Cars won’t make it big”, and so on and so forth. Geez, I’ve always love Pixar’s works. Please don’t tell me Pixar has lost its touch now that it merged with Walt Disney, which by the way seems to have lost its touch already.

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Many peeps have been creating a fuss over this Superman Returns movie poster. They say this poster is a reflection of Brian Singer’s identity, having Superman appear like he is going to perform a ballet or something. Well Brian Singer is openly gay, and this poster somehow manuevered to suggest the director’s sexual preference.

Aside from ballet pose, many have noticed the presence of ‘that naughty’ peninsula, which happens to be Florida, protruding just in front of Clark Kent’s crotch. Geez, these peeps are really something. They can always generate weird ideas from a quitely simple and harmless poster.

Here’s the link: The HotBlog: Must be a Full Moon

In addition to that, this Superman comic cover doesn’t give much help though. [Grin]

I saw the trailer of Click a couple ot times already, and it never fails to amuse me everytime I see it. Adam Sandler has this certain charisma that really gets me. The first time I saw him was when I watched Little Nicky, if I am not mistaken. Well that was totally a weird movie to begin with, and I am not sure if I really like his performance there. When I saw Anger Management, I was totally pissed off by the movie. I don’t know if that’s actually the movie’s purpose: to get their viewers angry about [Jack Nicholson]’s indifference and arrogance, and be annoyed by [Adam Sandler]’s stupidity or something.

Anyway, Click stars the dashing Kate Beckinsale. This is one of the rare occasions that I’ll be seeing Kate portraying a normal life. I said this because I have been overdosed with Kate’s portrayal of roles that involve vampires and werewolves: Underworld 1 & 2, and Van Helsing.

The Click trailer was really interesting. Imagine having the power to control just about everything through a universal remote control. Cool! That clip reminded me of Bruce Almighty, all of a sudden. I don’t know, but there are some striking similarities, you know.

Unfortunately, Click will be released by August here in the Philippines. Kinda long wait huh. I just hope it would be worth the wait then.

[Caution: Spoilers Ahead]

X-Men:The Last Stand is the darkest sequel in all the three installments. The previous sequels have managed to put the number of deaths to a minimum, having Jean Grey die in a deluge in X2 and practically having no casualties [?] in the first sequel. However, X3 dares to create an atmosphere of grief, terror, and despair as it maneuvered to take the life of three important personas in the once formidable, but now vulnerable, X-Men Team.

Jean Grey has come back carrying a deadly personality within her - The [Dark] Phoenix. This personality contains all her joys, desires, and rage. And this is where she unleashes her great power; a power that even Professor Xavier and Magneto could not handle, even with their powers combined. The Phoenix was totally unstable that she killed Cyclops effortlessly with a Death Kiss. Likewise, Professor X might have given her a hard time, but he is just no match for her, and he ended up pulverized into tiny bits of human debris. That scene really shocked me, as it did the people who watched the film, and who have been following the sequels all throughout. I even thought I was just seeing things, but no I wasn’t. Charles Xavier, the mutant considered as the world’s most powerful telepath and whose powers can kill a person in an instant through his mind, was blown to pieces!

After Xavier’s death, Storm and Wolverine were left with the responsibility of continuing Charles’ vision and stopping Magneto and his army of mutants from destroying The Cure, a mutant who can ward off another mutant’s X-gene and make the latter a normal human being. These are humungous tasks to handle, and knowing that Beast, Shadowcat, Iceman, Colossus, and even Angel are there to help, doesn’t even lighten up the load. They are about to engage in a battle, they know they already lost before it even began.

The visual effects are not flawless but they are acceptable. One scene worthy of note was when Magneto brought all his allies to Worthington Labs in Alcatraz Island, by literally executing a bridge transfer.

I cannot say that I enjoyed the film, but I cannot say the film is bad either just because it did not meet my expectations. I just felt that Brett Ratner overdid something in the plot, in which it affects the entire X-Men story as a whole, with Cyclops’ death and all. My heart was heavy when I went out of the cinema and wished that things did not turn out the way it did.

I went into the theater expecting a Madagascar-and-The-Wild disappointment. Call me weird but that’s exactly the situation I was in the moment I decided to choose Over The Hedge over Sentinel. Watching an action flick starring Keifer Sutherland just doesn’t ring a bell for me. I can always watch 24 or something.

Anyway, so I went there expecting a boring movie but as soon as the film started to unravel the wonderful characters and a no non-sense plot, I was happy that my impressions were wrong. Over The Hedge is a great family movie.

The voice talents are great with Bruce Willis as RJ the conniving racoon, Nick Nolte as Vincent the bear, and even Avril Lavigne as Heather the possum. I didn’t know Avril has such a sweet voice, eh.

The story revolves around the importance of honesty and family, the ugliness of gluttony, and the “real gateway to a good life,” which RJ didn’t find in the place he thought he would - over the hedge.

This movie is a must-see. I never expected this one to possess a certain kind of depth that is seldom present in animaton flicks. Again, I am glad I was wrong. Five stars for me.