News from Everywhere

New Poster for The Host..plus a peek ast The Monster


The Host has been gaining momentum these past few days. It just got rave reviews in its premiere in Cannes. I personally can't wait til Anwar has it on his stall near the meat section.

Anyways the international poster is out. It doesn't give away the mysterious creature living in the Han river, but I just saw a clip in Twitch...oh my. Sure, some mediocre Hollywood flicks have had more special effects shots than this movie will ever have, but the few moments this creature comes out is a Korean movie milestone.

If you want a peek at the creature, click here.



"I'm A Cyborg, But That's Ok"



Chan Wook Park hasd finally finished his revenge trilogy with Sympathy For Lady Vengeance. He has often stated that he would steer away from violent, revenge driven films in the next few projects, which leads him to involve himself in a most unlikely genre, a romantic comedy.

Of course, since Chan Wook Park is in the helm, this will not be without it's quirks.

The movie is called, ready for this? ,I'm A Cyborg, But That's Ok, it's about a girl who thinks she's a cyborg and there are a few scenes where she's in some sort of padded cell in a mental institution. Yes folks this is a love story.

That's Park for yah!!!




Tom Cruise Will NOT Be Iron Man


How many Tom Cruises do you need to screw a lightbulb?

Ok, that was a lame intro. but at least I bear somewhat good news. John Favreau, who is slated to be the director of the next Marvel franchise moneymaker Iron Man, says that he would be picking a relatively unknown actor to play Tony Stark/Ironman. So unless Tom Cruise is considered as a "relative" unknown, he may have a fighting chance. But the truth is, we have known Tom Cruise for many years now and CAN'T GET AWAY FROM HIM EVEN IF WE TRIED!!!




Ghost Rider Trailer Up.


Nicolas Cage (Boy, am I glad he's not Superman) will be Ghost Rider, and we have the trailer to prove it. I have posted pics a while a go, but the reslease schedule was since then been a little iffy. Now we have a definite date.

Click here for the trailer


Props to Twitch and TheMovieBlog

Movie Review: "The Da Vinci Code" (2006)

(Note: I wrote this back on Thursday but couldn't go through the office firewall, pardon the delay)


First of all, The Da Vinci Code was the first book that I read where I didn't stop for 12 hours until I finished it. I could easily do it with a 200 page novel, but a book at 500+ pages usually takes me a week to read. The fast pace of the novel just won't let down and you cant lay the book down even if you wanted to, seriously.

My anticipation grew for The Da Vinci Code movie. Some people have waited years for this movie to come out. When Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment and Tom Hanks were officially attached to the film, a wall of anticipation and criticism came their way right away. Some say Tom Hanks wasn't suited for the role. Some say his brilliant acting would see it through. Some just didn't want the movie done.

Then there's the religious issue...

Although The Da Vinci Code is, after all is said and done, a guaranteed hit. The movie did not come into fruition without difficulty. Protests from the Catholic church, the Opus Dei themselves, and lawsuits from authors claiming copyright infringement hit production left and right. However, this only piqued the movie going public's interest on the movie adaptation of the already well loved novel by Dan Brown.

Locally, there were pathetic last minute attempts by small groups calling the MTRCB to censor the movie completely. Which i think added fuel to the already burgeoning interest in the movie. Personally, Ithink whatever they did to stop it just guaranteed the movie 12 extra persons each theater come opening day.

Anyways, since I pretty much laid out the background, let me get to business at hand...


Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is a celebrated symbiologist on a tour to promote his book when police call him in to assist them with the murder of the curator of the famous Louvre museum in Paris. The body was laced with religious symbols written with the victims own blood while positioned in a very peculiar way. Langdon gose further deep into the mystery when he is led by Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tatou) away from the murder site whilst solving a series of cryptic clues left by the dead curator for them to solve.

This series of clues leads them to a series of objects and artifacts that eventually lead them to a secret treasure; a truth suppressed for thousands of years by the Catholic Church regarding the divinity of Christ.

First of all, I dont know what the critic were thinking when I first saw the results of the reviews on this movie. As of this writing, rottentomatoes.com has Da Vinci Code at 19% Rotten.
19 percent??

I dont know what movie they've been watching or what was in the popcorn. The movie rocked!


The Da Vinci Code movie was probably the closest book adaptation I have seen to date. Some changes were made also, which is very understandable since certain elements of the book would indeed drag the movie into a complicated mess of deliberation and intricate discussion.

Ron Howard has extracted an engaging story out of this book and obviously did as much as he can to bring to life the images and events described in the book. Loyalty to the source material was definitely bhis highest priority. From Audrey Tatou's looks as Sophie to Paul Bettany as Silas, one can definitely say that they were definitive images of what we first thought them to look like when we first read the novel.

Most importantly, Howard, master filmmaker in action, didn't lose his style as well. The graphic representations of the code solving mind processes of Langdon are reminiscent to the effects we first saw in A Beautiful Mind where you see the characters light up and stand out in different patterns.

Much of the dialogue is very reference heavy and In my opinion, one who has read the book would be able to breeze through the plot very easily. However, if you haven't read the book, you might have to pay very, very close attention. It also pays to have a little background on the subtopics such as the Opus Dei, The Priory of Sion and the Gnostic gospels.

Well, that's what the Discovery Channel and National Geographic is for, right?


All in all. fans of the Davinci Code book should be satisfied with the outcome. I, personally, am very happy about it.



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

My Favorite Movie Twist Endings

Its another weekend and here I go again with one of my lists. This is a list I have wanted to do for a long time but just couldn't get together. I'm sure some people will be happy with it. I'm sure some people wont.

I love a movie with a good twist ending. Although it is something that filmmakers should exercise bothe carfully and sparingly. It seems like a lot of todays directors rely so much on the big twist in the end tyhat they neglect the fact thatthey need to have a greatly executed story FIRST in order to catapult the ending right into the viewer's face. Movies with twist endings are also very easily spoilable, meaning that the aesthetic value of the story usually wears off after the first viewing, essentially because the viewer would know what would happen in the end after he watches it again, eliminating the element of surprise. But there are movies with more than just that one time sucker-punch "gotcha" trick up their sleeve, they also have a more introspective, permeating reason for the twist in the story. Here are some of my favorite twist endings so far. Needless to say, they are very SPOILER rich. If there is any movie you haven't seen that's on this list, feel free to skip it.

Then again, If you haven't seen it by now, you deserve to get spoiled!

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Matchstick Men- Roy and Frank are small time con artists who have enjoyed moderate success, but the big con always seems to elude them. Roy has a little problem, he has OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and likes everything clean and in order. He seeks the help of a shrink to get him back in working order as that his condition keeps worsening. He later learns through the shrink's background research that he has a daughter named Angela from one of his old flings. This new addition to his life just breaks the entire sequence of events and what's more, the little girl wants in on the business.


Twist: Frank ran away with Roy's share of the partnreship. In on the cut was the shrink who told him about Angela, and Angela, who wasn't really his daughter at all.

I enjoyed this movie because I didnt know anything about the story when I saw it. When the ending came, I was surprised because the story was actually good in itself. Adding that twist just floored me.



The Others-The house that Grace Stewart lives in may be haunted. Her daughter constantly communicates with a child named Victor who they never see. The house windows are blanketed and sealed because apparently, open sunlight is harmful to the children. Grace awaits the arrival of her husband Charles who went to war and longs for her family to be whole again.

Twist: Grace and the children witness an encounter session consisting of what they perceive to be ghosts. It turns out that these are people that are looking to buy the house but are bothered by the presence of ghosts. The ghosts being Grace and her children.

A great atmospheric movie altogether in itself. The Others transcends as more than just a great ghost story but an attention worthy study in film. Nicole Kidman's one hot ghost!!!



The Empire Strikes Back- Luke Skywalker has to begin his Jedi training. He is summoned to a swamp planet where Yoda, the only surviving Jedi Master resides. Darth Vader is fast on the heels of the rebel alliance, seeking vengeance for the destruction of the death star.

Twist: Darth Vader: "Luke, I am your Father."

Luke Skywalker: "Noooooooooooo!!!!!!"


Possibly the best of the entire Star Wars saga (I'm not even including the prequels). It is said that this is the part of the series that dealt with what was real. That life isn't fair and that you don't always win. In a three act play, the second act is always the best part.



The Usual Suspects-A group of usual suspects are hauled into a police station. They're there because whoever did what. ahe must be among them. Keaton is the more seasoned in the group. While awaiting bail, they are enticed by a mysteruious source to plot revenge. This mysterious man in control is a crime lord named Keyser Zose. A man who is said to be pure evil. This entire story is told to the customs chief by witness to the events and conspiracy hench Verbl Kint.


Twist: Proven innocent, Verbl Kint is released. With all the information provided by Verbl, Customs Chief Kujan, having gotten all the testimony he needs from Verbl, beams proud as he stares at the bulletin board. Suddenly he discovers that the board bore many of the names Verbl had been yapping about, he comess to a jaw dropping discovery...Verbl Kint is Keyser Soze.

Although The Usual Suspects is touted as one of the greatest movies of all time, I didn't care for it much at first. having only seen it recently, I have come to appreciate the impact of this movie on critics in general. It does catch you off guard.


A Beautiful Mind-John Nash is a brilliant mathematician with a penchant for cryptography. He is hired by the secret service to solve some of the codes that will let them win the war. He runs into trouble, only its of a different kind and has nothing to do with the war.


Twist: Nash actually has schizophrenia, he sees people who are not there. We are led to believe that he was hired by the government so we can experience what nash is experiencing. He was never hired by the government. He thought he was because he was constantly being visited by a government rep named Parcher. His broken codes were actually pointless congruences to nothing. He then has to figure out what is real at what his not. His wife Alicia, helps him in this life long struggle.

This is a great example of how a twist, although not exactly placed at the end of the film could be material in helping the viewer experience the character's dillemma firsthand. Great storytelling at its finest.



Fight Club-The story begins with a man and his insomnia problem. He starts to look for solutions like attending AA meetings and other far out ways to solve his problem. He soon runs into Marla. A woman who keeps attending the same meetings. The man also runs into Tyler, a soap salesman. Tyler follows his own rules and has a penchant for destruction. Together they form a club, and everybody wants in.

Twist: After Fight Club goes inter-state and turns into a series of terrorist cells accross the country called Project Mayhem, The man finds out through a member that he IS Tyler Durden,this means he has a multiple personality disorder. At this point the only way to get rid of Tyler is to get rid of himself.

Movies have the power to change your view of the world, but not necessarily for the positive. Fight Club tells you that the world is being conquered by the corporate machine with white collar slaves. I blame this movie for most of my verbal warnings in the office.




Oldboy- Oh Dae Su gets stuck in a police station after being a disorderly drunk. Next thing he knows he is imprisoned in a cheap hotel like room for along, long time. 15 Years, actually. After he is mysteriously let loose, he sets out to find the jerk who locked him up. He gets help from a female Sushi chef who took him in and some old friends and soon discovers what vengeance is all about.

Twist: He finds his captor Ji Tae in a penthouse, He is calm and collected and actually expecting Oh Daesu. Daesu asks why.Ji Tae answers, "you simply forgot". Daesu and JiTae were in the same school, where the alumni are called OldBoys. Daesu was an accidental witness to JiTae's incestuous relationship with is sister. Daesu spreads the rumor around campus then leaves for another school not knowing the repercussions. The discovery brought shame to JiTae's sister and prompted her to commit suicide.
JiTae led Dae Su to the female Sushi chef who he fell in love with and made love to the night before the Penthouse attack. The chef WAS Dae Su's own DAUGHTER. The child who after 15 years grew up not knowing his father. This puts Dae Su in a situation others would refer to as a fate worse than death. This entire setup was for Ji Tae's revenge against Dae Su all along.

The only foreign film in the list. This has to be one of the most effective twist endings in recent cinema. At a time when almost everything was already thought of and tried onscreen, in comes Park Chan Wook and his originally fresh perspective on the revenge drama genre and hits us with a hammer.



Unbreakable- David Dunn is a security guard for his home College in Philadelphia. He has never had a sick day in his life. He gets offered a job in new York and takes a train to go there. The train meets a horrible accident that kills all of the passengers except him, he gets off without a scratch. Seeking for meaning in all this he is befriended by a mysterious comic book collector/dealer named Elijah Price. Price shows him that there is a purpose behind all that's been happening to him.

Twist: Dunn realizes he has extraordinary physical strength and endurance and that his purpose is to rescue people who are weak and powerless. Later Elijah reveals to him that it was actually HE who staged the series of accidents to find his counterpart, his archnemesis, Dunn. Dunn is the superhero, Elijah is the super-villain.

My jaws were actually agape once Dunn shook Elijah's hand for the first time in the end of the movie. Its the kind of ending that makes you naiively think, "are there really super heroes around us, we just don't see them?". This movie affected me so much because I love comics, and I love the whole Superman myth. The movie is a more humanized, a more, for the lack of a better term,"realistic" version of Superman.


Se7en- Det. David Mills just moved into a bad crime infested city with an uptight veteran for a partner. One of the cases he and his partner get assigned is of a serial killer who seems to be using the seven deadly sins as his pattern. He chooses his victims carefully and kills them in very morbid and gruesome ways. They have to get him before he finishes his masterpiece.

Twist: John Doe turns himself in. He has two more murders to commit before completing his seven. He leads the two Dets to the desert. A truck delivers a box. Doe tells Mills how envious he is of him because he has such a pretty wife. His partner Somerset opens the box with Mills' wife's head in it. Mills gets pissed and shoots Doe. Doe's previous kills were Gluttony, Sloth, Greed, Pride and Lust. Doe was Envy, Mills was Wrath. The masterpiece is complete.

Se7en is one of those movie that will be remembered for being original and impossibly imitatable. The image of Kevin Spacey as John Doe is forever ingrained in the collective psyche of our culture, along with Hannibal Lecter, as the representative of the ultimately cool wacko.




The Sixth Sense- Cole Sear is a boy with a gift (or a curse) he is able to see spirits from the other side. Psychiatrist Malcolm Crowe tries to get into the boy's mind and attempts to unfold the messages Cole gets from these "spirits".

Twist: After effectively curing Cole of his fear of the spirits visiting him, he finds out the he himself IS one of the ghosts visiting Cole trying to redeem himself from a patient of his he failed to help (This confirms the opening scene where his patient shoots himself in the head after shooting him in the stomach).

Originally, someone told me the ending while the movie was playing , I still wonder, in retrospect, why I didn't punch her in the face after she told me that. I wasn't really into the movies back then. It wan't a big deal to me. Little did I know that it would forever be remembered as one of the best executed twists in Cinema history. The scene still brings me chills to this day.





We got the best. Now the mediocre movies I didn't bother making a list but I sure was in the mood to add something more. I've got some of the worst in my opinion right here.



The Worst Twist Endings


Hide and Seek- Dr. David Callaway tries to cope with the suicide of his wife. His daughter has been experiencing delusions involving an imaginary friend named Charlie. Charlie tries to fix his daughter's problem by convinving her that Charie doesn't exist. Then evidence shows up.

Twist: Dr. Calloway IS Charlie. (WTF???? GASP!!! Surprise, surprise)



Secret Window- Mort Rainey tries to cope with his wife's recent affair with another man by going into the woods and writing a book. In the forest he is visited by a strange individual named John Shooter,who claims that Mort copied his last novel who starts to harrass him and do weird things to the people he associates with.

Twist: Another split personality themed movie hanging on the coattails of Fight Club. I swear, from the moment Jim Shooter came on screen, I knew for some reason he WAS Mort. So did everyone else.



Artificial Intelligence: A I- Monica Swinton is coping (it seems everybody in bad twist movies is 'coping' with something) with her son being in a coma and unable to speak. She and her husband purchase an artificial boy to relieve their sorrows. The boy shows all signs of being a real breathing boy except the fact that it cannot love, or can it?

Twist: Although there is not much of a twist in the end, its more of a "How the heck are we gonna end this movie" ending.

After being stranded underwater and forgotten for 2000 years, he is dug up by aliens and given a second chance at being with his mommy. Nobody indeed expected an ending like that, its almost Monty Python like. After artificial humans comes alien chapters of the Make A Wish Foundation.



The Village- Set sometime in the early 1900s, a small isolated community happilly lives in their little quiet enclosure in the forest, fully aware that beyond the treelines there is a bloodthirsty demon ready to devour them anytime once they cross their line of the fence. They require someone to go out in search of medicine when one of them is hurt. Ivy a blind girl, decides to go out.


Twist: We are led to believe that the movie is a period piece when outside the borders, a jeep turns out to stumble accross Ivy. The town's Patriarch Walker was a psychologist who decided to study the behavior of a society under controlled conditions. Ivy comes back with medicine. Of course he never saw the trooper or the Range Rover and thought she was given a carriage ride.




Feel free to show your love and drop a comment, I can handle it....

Movie Review: "Mission Impossible III" (2006)

As of events of late, I have not been the biggest Tom Cruise fan. This guy has done everything to basically kill his fame and make himself the butt of many late night monologue punchlines by openly poselyting for Scientology, questioning Psychiatric science, jumping up and own Oprah's couch, getting Katie Homes pregnant and eating her placenta after the baby was born and more recently, drinking olive oil stright out of the bottle. The guy's a tool. But Mission Impossible III is awesome.

This will be a review of the film, not of Tom Cruise, (which I'm basically done with, with the aforementioned rant).



Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) wants to start a new life with his new soon-to-be wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) when the IMF starts calling him up during the most important time in his life. As that the mission involves the rescue of his captured protege Agent Lindsey Ferris (Keri Russell) from shady arms dealer Owen Davian (Philip Seymour-Hoffman), he is forced to go back into active duty and kick the collective behinds of the bad guys.
Things soon take a turn for the worse when they are messing with the most sought after ghost dealer in the business. Davian proves to be more difficult than most thugs they've dealt with. He manages to get hold of Ethan's most precious Julia and the dynamic suddenly changes. Who was once unattached and effective becomes volatile and impulsive.

I've left out a lot of details in the story so as not to spoil the twists.

JJ Abrams is an awesome action director. His experiance with Alias and Lost sure has paid off in his recent movie ventures like Serenity and MiIII, he has an uncanny talent for suspense. A case in point in the awesome opening sequence where Davian counts to 10 whit a gun pointed at Julia's head facing a tied down Hunt who is at the receiving end of questioning whether or not, he knows where the eponymous "Rabbit's Foot" is. This is also where Hoffman shines as the ruthless, determined Davian. Another scene would involve the chase between 2 helicopters in a field of power generating windmills in Germany. This has got to be one of the best action sequences of the year. The massive propellers of the winmills swishing against those of the copters plus guided missiles and detonating crainial implants is just movie magic.



Tom Cruise may be a tool, but he can sure carry a movie. His charisma is very material to the success of the character Ethan Hunt. His supporting team, led by the ever cool Vhing Rhames had some really funny lines to deliver. Some really rare gems are lines very liberally distributed among the cast like the jaw droppingly gorgeous Maggie Q and Laurence Fishburne ("I will bleed on the Flag to make sure the stripes stay red", classic). Back to Maggie Q, I have never seen Naked Weapon, but I have seen the beautiful screen shots of her. I Had doubts about her acting, but she did rather well given the role. Mere shots of her face and slender figure keep the guys glued to the screen until the next explosion.

I was surprised by the lack of Kerri Russel scenes, although you pretty much know why by this time. I would have loved to see her with more action sequences.

The movie is sure to make No. 1 easy next week. But I think it could have n=made more money or could make more money if Tommy Boy would just shut the @#$% up!

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

Steve Carell in "Evan Almighty"

I never really took this news seriously when it first came out. A Bruce Almighty sequel is apparently in the works, this time without Jim Carrrey, but is led by dead-on funny superstar comedian Steve Carrell, who if you remember was Evan Baxter (Baxtabber..) in Bruce.. He was remotely controlled by Jim Carrey's Bruce while doing a news broadcast, making him fart and say funny stuff like, "I do the cha-cha like a little girl" (snicker, cant get enough of that scene).

This time the news anchor has moved on to become a politician in Washington when God calls on him to build an ark. He resists, but God makes his hair grow long until he gives in. Obviously God has lost some of his skillz since the old days, since I know he used to have much greater convincing powers beyond hirsuteness.

This looks to have the potential to be even better that Bruce, IMO. What do you think?

Props to TheMovieBlog

Complete "Superman Returns" Trailer Now Online

As promised here's the complete trailer of Superman Returns.

Enjoy!

Some Superman Footage To Knock Your Socks Off.

This is a Superman Returns clip taken out of what looks to be a preview screener for a commercial in Australia. I'm pretty sure the full version will be leaked into the web in a few days. When It does you know where to check.


It just keeps getting better and better. I am ever so pumped!