American Fugitive tracked down in Iloilo

I wonder how many more could be hiding in the Fields Area in Angeles?

AN AMERICAN fugitive facing a double murder charge in the United States who had been hiding in the country for the past 20 years had been arrested by the Bureau of Immigration (NBI).

Immigration agents and policemen caught up with Romeo Cabarles, 54, in Tabac Sur, Oton, Iloilo City, on Monday.

click here for the newslink.

Conan O'Brien to take over Jay Leno in "The Tonight Show" in 2009

Monday night, NBC's ''The Tonight Show'' celebrated its 50th anniversary, but the popular show already is looking to the future. NBC announced that Jay Leno will stay with the late-night stalwart until 2009, when he will be replaced by Conan O'Brien.
Accompanying the announcement is news that O'Brien has signed a long-term deal with NBC which will keep him on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' for the next five years, leading up to the transition.
''It is a great accomplishment and testament to both Jay and Conan that we were able to all work together on a long-term plan for this important institution,'' says NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker. ''We look forward to more years of laughs from Jay and are thrilled to have Conan's future be as part of the NBC family.''
Leno took over ''The Tonight Show'' on May 25, 1992, as Johnny Carson stepped down after nearly 30 years on the show.

click here for the newslink.

AKIRA live action movie to be made by Catwoman's Pitof??

Live action AKIRA?

Anyone seen Vidocq? the French neoclassical murder mystery shot in digital video. The stunning shots despite (or probabaly even enhanced by) the medium prompted the producers to get this director to direct Catwoman. Which, as we all know, was a huge, HUGE dissapointment.
I just recently saw AKIRA (yeah, after 16 years since it was made) and I can say, despite the numerous copycat attempts tby other animators and "Western filmmakers" (*cough*Wachowski*cough*) that it has one of the most original concepts for an animated film.
Now as if to mock all Anime disciples throughout the world, Warner Brothers is tapping Pitof to direct the mother of all Anime..

Please, say it isn't so.

Props to Twitch.

Movie Review: "American Splendor" (2003)

Have you seen American Splendor?
I have. And its very good.

American Splendor is a story of a nobody (hmmm, sounds familiar). A Cleveland based hospital file clerk named Harvey Pekar. Pekar is a grumpy, pessimistic slob who was left by his first wife in the seventies and has grown to become quite the sour underachiever which eventually became the subject of his greatest creation, and life's true calling, his own underground comic book.
Pekar is in no way a hero. He scatches his balls in the morning. He lives in a one bedroom apartment full of old jazz records and he goes to the same boring job day in, day out (hmmm, sounds familiar). He somehow breathes life into his mundane existence however, by writing uncensored graphic tales of his everyday routine, like going to the supermarket and getting stuck behind a Jewish lady and eating at the same diner everyday.
What's unique about tis film?
The Academy Award nominated adapted screenplay by Shari Springer Bergman and Robert Pulcini treats the movie like a comic within a movie. Confusing? Yeah, I didnt understand that either.
With Paul Giammati (Donnie Brasco, Duets) as Pekar in more narrative parts of the movie, the real Pekar is also part of the cast as himself during the "off camera" sequences.
He is also in the movie in the actual TV footages of him in the "David Letterman Show". Hope Davis is also treated similarly as Joyce Brabner, Pekar's second wife and writing partner along with other of Pekars real-rife friends.

The movie is docile yet fired by the raw intesity of not pulling any punches attacking the system. Letterman, NBC nad MTV are not spared as they are portrayed as corporate monsters cashing in on Pekar's "celebrity". One very important scene is Pekar telling David Letterman off in public television how much a sellout he was and that he was just using Pekar as a laughingstock (which Letterman is notorious for).
Giamatti has always been a favorite of mine, he is very believable as Pekar even though Pekar himself is in the movie. Davis on the other hand, not only acts like the real Joyce, but looks like her too.
As the film ends, Pekar's story doesn't, he still has his comics to write and the rest of his life to complain about.

Rocketboy's Rating: **** (4 out of 5)

Pulling a Stephen King

I am finally reaching an ebb in my blogging days. There are times when you just run out of things to write about. Your life becomes so uneventful and routine that you find yourself writing about the same friggin' things over and over again. I kinda feel like Stephen King when he wrote that new novel about an evil car "From A Buick 8". decades after he wrote "Christine". I'm running out of ideas. Suggestions are always welcome, though. I respect and cherish the opinions of my legions (yeah, all five of you) of readers.

Know Who You Are! "Googlism" It!

Googlism.com will find out what Google.com thinks of you, your friends or anything!

rocketboy is destined to be one of the new world famous players whether he wins this event or not

rocketboy is becoming one of my favorite bands

rocketboy is not to be confused with tpboy from india

rocketboy is a super stud

rocketboy is one of my favorite international duelers

rocketboy is chinese

rocketboy is a 70's style punk

rocketboy is a real retard

rocketboy is nice enough to provide you with the difficult to get specs for most aerotech rms reload kits

check it out yourself.

Props to jowch of zentanglement.

Quotes from my DVD cover sheets

I own about a hundred pirated DVD's. I'm not ashamed to admit it. Before you condemn me to the depths of digital hell, let me tell you that I am also a movie fan. Die Hard. True to the bone. I am also not a rich person. And the movies I love are either not available locally even if I turn over the racks and raid the stockrooms of the most popular video stores or are simply not within my price range. Blame it on the economics. The owners of all the major film outfits in the United States and Europe are not losing money. They're just not getting added revenue. They make enough money in the homebase and just get as few extra dollars with their overseas releases. Call it poetic justice. Call it a lame excuse. I want my movie.

Having said that here is one thing about piracy I enjoy just about as much as the movies themselves....the sheet covers!!

Since it's pirated. These guys (probably Chinese or Malaysian dudes in a stock room with little or no English) don't really need to be writers and journalists to be able to write the blurbs on the DVDs cover sheets. Actually, they dont write them at all. They just copy them off the internet or on the DVDs original sleeves. A lot of these blurbs aren't exactly praising the movie, especially the critic's remarks found in the internet. But they put them there anyway. I guess they do that to make the discs look more "authentic". It doesn't bother the buyers a bit, though. People still buy the movies even though the main review on the front cover says " A Shameless Waste Of Film!" or "Time Well Wasted...".

Here are some of the ones that I own. I tried to take the best possible images I could produce with my camera phone. I apologize for some blurry images. I'm too stingy (prounced "poor") to bet myself a digital camera.

THE HOME TEACHERS

I have to admit, this movie wasn't that great. What got my attention when I saw this DVD in angeles was its blaring headline review blurb...

It turns out, when I researched this movie's review in imdb.com, this exact same blurb was one of the really scathing negative reviews by and imdb user. This led me to the conclusion that the pirates get this info from imdb.


JSA(Joint Security Area)

I was pretty excited when I found this Korean classic in the asian movie pile (when I say "pile" imean "PILE" !), so I got it right away. It was a while before I discovered the little error they made on the casting credits on the back.

It says "Set Decorator: MARK RUFALLO".

Wow! Mark must have been experiencing hard times back in 2000, he had to take up a job in Korea as a set decorator. Now that he's a big star and all, I guess just looks back at that as a "stepping stone".


SAINTS and SOLDIERS

The sacrifices made by the soldiers in the Second World War is still felt in our time. It is proper that we give them proper homage. Saints and Soldiers is a storey about five brave Allied force soldiers who crossed enemy lines to bring important info that could bring down the Fuhrer's reign. Here's the blurb...

In case you can't read it, it says, "THE HITLER'S FIVE BRAVE SOLDIERS".
Nice!


COLD MOUNTAIN

For once, they should put reviews like this on original DVD's because in this case..It's true.

The "bore"-fest which was Cold Mountain contained just as much excitement as a glass of water. The review on the back describes the movie to a T. Why I bought this DVD? The fonts on the front cover were in gold leafing. Very rare in fake DVD's. How's that for being a critic?


PASSION of the CHRIST

Now this one was the best blurb I saw so far. I couldn't help but laugh out loud when I saw what these bozos did with the most controversial movie of the year.

What sick mind would think that PASSION was "Absolutely Hilarious!"? Imagine a guy sitting in the theater watching Jesus getting whipped with the metal shard scourge laughing his butt off. He'd be dragged out of the theater in seconds, at least in this country. I'd like to see that happen, though. Now that would be funny.

I'll see if I have more to add i in the future. Hopefully then I'd have a beter camera.

Movie Review "The Classic" (2003)

A My Sassy Girl clone that's not trying to be but can't help it. I guess that's how i can describe "The Classic". Kwak Jae Yong's follow up to the destiny prevails romantic comedy "My Sassy Girl".

The movie concentrates on two timelines of a mother and daughter during their teenage years, both played by Son Yeh Jin. Their struggles in life and love and of course their fate.

It is obvious that it tries to move away from the MSG context, but I just cant help but see elements that tie them up. I therefore associate it as a little inferior to it's predecessor. It attempts to be more dramatic and concentrates less on the romantic comedy elements that made MSG a hit. Which, in this case can be a letdown for MSG fans. I have talked to soemone ho had seen this movie without seeing MSG first, and she loved it. I guess you can having seen MSG first kind of killed the "experience"for me. Although I don't regret it. Not one bit.
It felt kind of long, even for a Korean melodrama. It was promising a very dramatic climax which kind of just went "pfffft" five minutes into it In the end, I was kind of relieved that it was all over.

Rocketboy's Rating: ** (2 out of 5)

LucasFilm Confirms "Star Wars: the TV Series"

Found this blurb under TheForce.net

Yesterday TFN was up in Los Angeles for the DVD press day sponsored by Lucasfilm and Fox Home Entertainment. We are pleased to announce that Lucasfilm confirmed officially a Star Wars television show coming in the future. They didn't comment on setting (post-Episode III or post-Episode VI we would guess)or release schedule (we expect Fall 2006). Either way - this is coming for sure!

To be honest, I really don't know if this is good news. I love the Star Wars saga. I love what it has done to me and to the way I see things. I just dont want to see it all flush down the corporate toilet. They may hire some very talented writers. They may raise the bar with special effects. The real question then arises...Do we really need a new Star Wars story??
On the other hand, there is a lot of back story to be exploited (Luke after the war, Han and Leia's children, the "other" Jedi, uhh..Jar jar?), the and there are a lot of avenues for more stories to be generated from. Characters? Oh my Jabba! Theres a bantha foodoo-load of characters to make interesting stories out of.

Comments?
Props to twitch for the update.

Tricktickler R. Smooth

Wassup, 'Yall.

That's my pimp name up there. If your want your own pimp name...click on the Snoop. Check out all the cool pimp stuff too.

Now, I gotta looks fo' mah hommies befo'mah momma get......oh crap, I give up(shudders in disgust).

Indie Pinoy Rules!!!

CAVITE is a story about a Philippine American going back home to his province. The movie was made independently by young Fil-Am guerilla filmmakers Ian Gamazon and Neill Dela Llana. It turns out that they did not have the budget to pay for a lead actress as that they were turned dow by every actress they offered the part to. They had to make revisions in the script and turn the main character to a guy instead. Lucky for them this was not the type of movie that was dependent on the main character's looks. The movie boasts (I don't know if "boasts" is the right word) of scenes of Manila's urban decay and trash filled "esteros" but not in a Carlo J. Caparas way, but more of a Mereilles "City of God" kind of way. If you have seen RadioActive Sago Project's "Astro (AstroCigarette)" Music Video, you'll know what I mean. Click the picture to go to their website.

Two Movies...

I'm going to be reviewing two movies today for a change. These two movies in fact, have been the center of my interest these past few days. That's why I haven't been blogging as often as I normally would.
To tell you the truth. I'm currently addicted to Korean Cinema. And I mean ADDICTED. I don't know why. Sure, I saw "My Sassy Girl" more times than I should, but that didn't get me hooked right away. Its like....It GREW on me. It started with an occasional movie every now and then. Now, I go to Quiapo and Makati Cinema Square on a regular basis just to see what's new in the shelves. I almost don't look at the American Movies anymore. I just bought "Cold Mountain" off the shelf just because the cover had gold leafing, and so that I can get my folks something they might be interested in watching.

I know that this will pass in time, but heck! I'm running out of money.

Anyway, here are my reviews...

Movie Review: "Please Teach Me English" (2003)

One Very Funny Movie. Sure, its formulaic. It does not profess to be anything more than a funny movie about something that Filipinos and Koreans share other than eating dog--BROKEN ENGLISH!

Moon-Su: "Are you Cold?"(much funnier when spoken with a Korean accent)
Young-ju: "No Cold"

I am proud to say that I was once, an English tutor to Korean teenagers. I can say that I (and tutors like me) APPRECIATE the jokes more than the typical pinoy. But that's not to say that its not a treat for everyone else. It's the little things that make it funny like the exclusion of the last vowel syllable when they pronounce a word---like--Cathy. It would be pronounced (Cass--). And the use of body language with simple questions when asked to answer a simple question in English instead of actually talking.

The movie itself is surprisingly fast paced and like any typical Korean movie, its pretty long. But the laughs keep on rolling as English is murdered llike jews in Schindler's List.
My favorite part is, of course, Lee Na-Young, the dorky yet lovable bida Young-ju or "Candy". I'm a sucker for dorky, nerdy chicks. If you look under her glasses, she's actually pretty hot! But the movie utilizes her charm as more of a potential beauty hiding beneath really unstylish glasses. Her main concern is that she is being treated as plain or in her words "normal".

Young-ju:(Shouting out the window in the middle of the night) "I AM NOT NORMAAAAAL!!!"

Jang Hyeok plays Moon-Su, cocky self-proclaimed playboy who enters the same tutoring center where Young-ju is forcibly enrolled in by her employer for not being able to answer a foreigner's question and plea for help. Moon-Su has his eyes set on Cathy (Cass--) played by Aussie hottie Angela Kelly and thinks proposing to a girl in English is sexy. He also wants to learn so he can talk to his natural born sister, who lived in the states when she was sent out for adoption and does not know Korean.
The movie turns into a serendipitous trip for both characters where they find something more in their continuous association more than the correct translation of "Simbap" in English.

This should give you two hours of fun and continuous giggling at the eccentricities of Koreans and their steadfast desire to learn the most inconsitent of languages.

Shooter: "What's your favorite Movie??"
Young-Ju:"..."
Shooter: "I will repeat, What's your favorite movie...M-O-V-I-E. Movie!"
Young-Ju: "uhhh....AH! MOOBIE?!...uh, JIRO-JIRO, SEBAN!! (flashes v-sign in her excitement)"
Shooter: "007....you mean James Bond!?"
Young-Ju; "Yes!!"
Shooter: "WHY"
Young-Ju:"..........."

Rocketboy's Rating: **** (4 out of 5)

Movie Review: "Oldboy" (2003)

Very few movies come out with such intensity and universal impact that it starts to change the whole course of movie history altogether. "2001: A Space Oddysey" gave ust the first images of space in full color. "The Godfather" made gasngsters cool. "Star Wars" combined Fanstasy and Science Fiction. The "Sixth Sense" and "Fight Club" gave us the sudden twist ending. "OldBoy" is one such movie.
The first fifteen minutes just suck you in. A loudmouth drunk gets arrested and kept in a police station for hours. We don't know why. he gets bailed out by his best friend and is being taken home so he can give his birthday present to his little girl. He dissapears. We don't know why. Next scene-he is being sent food into the crack of a solid steel door that served as his prison for the past 2 months. Who put him there. We dont know. Why? We don't know. We later learn that he stays in the prison for 15 years. He tries to escape. Suddenly, he is released. Why? What do you think?
The protagonist Oh Daesu is played by Min-sik Choi (of Failan) and Ji-tae Yu(of "..into the Mirror") plays the antagonist. I wont give any more details. You figure out the rest when you watch it. You can visit the asian cinema sites in the links section of this blog and you won't find a single review that doesn't give it praise.

It has been called a "Sucker-Puncher" of a movie because it catches you off guard. Makes you look into yourself and prompts you..even forces you to look into a direction you find apalling or disgusting. The sudden twist in the end may not be a new thing anymore, but it hasn't been done this way before. Oh no, sir.
OldBoy has received awards in numerous different film festivals including second place in the Cannes Film Festival. My bet is that this will be a strong contender for this years Oscar for best Foreign Picture. A Hollywood remake is under talks, I just hope thgey make a totally new thing out of it and not associate it with this masterpice. This movie is in my top ten of all time for sure.

Rocketboy's Rating: ***** (5 out of 5)