tidbits

A lot of tidbits. A lot movie stuff and then some:

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian was quite nice. I liked it more than the first one. Next up is The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Peter and Susan aren’t gonna be in it, which isn’t really a bad thing imho.(IMDB: 7.5/10, Rottentomatoes: 66%,  Me: 7/10)

Kung-Fu Panda was a riotous laugh-trip. Sure, the moral of the story is something that has been done time and time again; but when it’s packaged in a film like this, I don’t really care. Cute and funny. (IMDB: 8.1/10, Rottentomatoes: 88%,  Me: 9/10)

Get Smart was a disappointment for me. Not as funny as I had expected and the best bits were those that were already shown in the trailer. I hate that… when the trailer gives away the best parts and shows more than it should. The Rock really does overflow with charisma and on-screen charm. Anne Hathaway is a knockout *drools*. Alan Arkin is steady as always. And Steve Carrell proves that he’s the modern-day master of deadpan comedy, following in the footsteps of Bill Murray, Leslie Nielsen and Peter Sellers. The problem with this movie is the script. They really should have gotten Mel Brooks to write everything.
(IMDB: 7.5/10, Rottentomatoes: 53%,  Me: 5/10)

Made Of Honor was okay, actually. Considering I had high expectations for Get Smart, which disappointed… and low expectations for this, which pleasantly surprised… I sort of liked this more than Get Smart. Again, the plot has been done time and time again, but the stars have good chemistry and there’s nothing wrong with lighthearted fun as long as it isn’t mindnumbingly stupid. So this works. It’s alright.
(IMDB: 5.2/10, Rottentomatoes: 12%,  Me: 5/10)

Wanted. Mwahahahaha! Loved it. As one reviewer puts it: “A 12-armed heavy-metal drummer of a movie, kicking and flailing through two hours of impossible. The car chase of the year.” The entire movie is preposterous with its curving bullets, shooters with pinpoint accuracy (like shooting an enemy’s incoming bullet with your own as a form of defense) and superhuman senses and abilites. I think the makers of this film secretly watched Lito Lapid’s entire filmography as an inspiration. You know, like that film where Lapid has one bullet and two targets, so he puts his knife in front of the gun barrel… So when he shoots, the bullet gets cut in half as it exits and hits both targets. Classic pinoy movie WTF moment. LOL =p
(IMDB: 7.6/10, Rottentomatoes: 75%,  Me: 8/10)

Serbis. *sigh* Serbis… a film by our very own Brillante Mendoza… the first filipino film to compete in Cannes since Brocka’s 1989 film Orapronobis… and it sucks. To each his own; and for me, it sucks. It sucks because of the nausea-inducing handheld shots following the characters of the film as they snake up and down and around an old porno theather they operate and call home. It sucks because you couldn’t understand half the dialogue for either of two reasons: 1) The dialogue is spoken in kapampangan and not subtitled, and 2) so much of dialogue is delivered over an overpowering background of street noise that you can barely understand anything that’s being said. Yeah, papa is kapampangan and i can understand some of the dialect… but what about the other people? And what’s up with the honking and revving engines of the jeepney’s in the BG?? I know that a lot of filmmakers nowadays make “art films” and “indie films”… so-called “serious films”. The type that is assigned to you for a humanities class and you make a paper on. I generally like these films. You know, trying to find the deeper meaning in it and looking for symbolisms and the significance of the small details and reflecting on the theme. But when the thing you’re watching can barely be understood and gives you a headache, it’s really a stretch to find the beauty in it. I really tried to see why the film was made that way. For sure, the director had a reason. Maybe he was trying to evoke a certain mood and atmosphere. Maybe he wasn’t telling a story and was simply showing the living situation of his characters. Maybe that’s it. But it still doesn’t work for me.
(IMDB: 6.1/10, Rottentomatoes: n/a  Me: 3/10)

I’m really really pumped for two films right now: Wall-E and The Dark Knight. Early reviews have claimed that Ledger has turned in a performance that’s nothing short of brilliant, is better than Jack, and is undoubtably Oscar-worthy. Wall-E on the other hand, is made by Pixar, and that should be enough to get you pumped; but if it’s not, know that a lot people have been saying that it’s a relatively darker tale than earlier Pixar films, but it seemingly the best that they have done so far… and that’s saying A LOT.

I’m not doing much photography nowadays. We call this a “burnout”. I’ve been so active with everything related to photography since last year that I may have reached a point where I just need to lay down my tools and breathe for a moment. There’s no drive for now. This burnout thing happens a lot in life; a lot in my life. I listen to a lot of music for a while, I get burned-out and then I stop for a long time. Same thing with blogging. Same thing with photography. Same thing with a lot of things. I’ve found out though that if you examine your burnouts, you can really see what you enjoy and matters much to you. For example, the last time I got burned-out with music was during the last quarter of last year and I just started actively listening again around last month. But before that, I was constantly listening to anything I could get my hands on for 2-3 years. Contrast this with photography, which I’m currently going through a burnout phase with, after around a year of activity. So I’d say I have a bigger musical passion.

RIP George Carlin. I was listening to his stand-up comedy bits about death and about religion and immediately became a fan. He was one angry old fuck and I’m putting him down with the likes of Bill Hicks and Richard Pryor. Here’s one of my favorite pieces from the late great Carlin where he breaks down the Ten Commandments. This is the one where he talks about THOU SHALT NOT KILL:

Murder. But when you think about it, religion has never really had a big problem with murder. More people have been killed in the name of god than for any other reason. (wild applause) All you have to do is look at Northern Ireland, Cashmire, the Inquisition, the Crusades, and the World Trade Center to see how seriously the religious folks take ‘thou shalt not kill’. The more devout they are, the more they see murder as being negotiable. It depends on who’s doin the killin’ and who’s gettin’ killed…”

and he goes on to say that that commandment is more like:

“Thou shalt try real hard not to kill anyone, unless of course they pray to a different invisible man than you.

And that’s why I like George Carlin. It’s funny because it’s true and a part of it even stings. That’s the best kind of stand-up comedy: The type that’s smart, raw and honest. The type that draws the line and deliberately crosses it. For this, Carlin will surely be missed.

Whenever I think that Carlin, Hicks and Pryor are all dead… and that Dane Cook is still alive… I cringe. 

Oh, and i’ve just recently took on watching Battlestar Galactica and I like it. A sci-fi drama that I like. I like it. It just sucks that the TV series starts where the mini-series left off and I’ve just downloaded the mini-series while I’m on my way to finishing season 1 already. Oh well, I guess it’ll still work. The miniseries will serve as a sort of “sequel” then. Edward James Olmos is badass =p

And on a final note (I think), I’m getting me immersed in a wave of musicals lately. We saw Avenue Q for the second time a few weeks ago… and the Tony awards just finished, so I was browsing the performance videos on youtube to discover that In The Heights (winner for Best Musical) is a great blend of hip-hop and traditional latin music. A friend from work who’s also a big fan of musicals has also brought quite a few titles to my attention, my favorite of which is “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown.” And I was reaaaaallly enthused to discover that an old song I knew was from this musical! “Happiness is finding a pencil, pizza with sausage, knowing the tiiiiiime….” W00t! Great song.