.

My 5 Celebrities that Look Like Each Other.

2009-07-13T11:49:00.004+08:00

I have always wondered how some celebrities look and even act like each other despite the fact that they are in a business where individuality and uniqueness is key. Here are some that I was able to think of:

Zooey Deschanel and Katy Perry

Not only do they look alike, they act alike too. Zooey and Katy both have that doe-eyed charm that made them famous. Zooey is known for picking offbeat roles and Katy for singing offbeat pop songs.

Johnny Knoxville and Josh Duhamel

I’m sure that in the smarts department, Josh has a hand over Johnny. Both actors, both moderately successful, both have been in summer blockbusters (Josh in Transformers, Johnny in Men In Black).But mostly, both look like they are in need of a shower.

Matt Damon and John Cena

Ok, so they don’t really look alike. But imagine Matt Damon all juiced up like a pro baseball player. Then we’ll talk….

Christian Bale and David Beckham

I am only referring to how CB looked like in his most recent movie Terminator: Rise of The Machines. There are parts of that movie where I was waiting to hear not his gruff barking voice, but a high pitched nasal, whiney voice that I’m sure Victoria has gotten used to by now.

Chad Smith (drummer, The Red Hot Chili Peppers) and Will Ferrell

Ok, there have been sites and message boards in the internet who have talked about this for years. Not only do they look exactly alike, they share the same resentment for being referred to looking like one another during interviews. I heard Chad is a little shorter than Will (as that Will Ferrell is a giant of a man), but put their mugshots aside, you’d think that they share the same DNA. A friend once mistook Will for being the “former drummer of the Chili Peppers.”

Movie Review: "Crank 2: High Voltage" (2009)

2009-05-05T21:12:00.004+08:00

I just got back from watching Crank 2. This one is definitely faster, raunchier and flashier than the first one. It starts off exactly where the last one left off, with Jason Statham's (The Transporter) character Chev Chelios limp body being picked up from the street seconds after he falls off a helicopter to later find out that his still working heart is removed from his chest and replaced with a battery powered ticker. He then goes into a wild goose chase to look for his heart encased in a coleman cooler being brought by a chinese triad henchman all across LA. What comes after is a trail of blood, bodies and girls. Definitely a guy's movie. The main difference that this movie had from the first one was that this one is a lot lot funnier than the first one. The laughs kept on coming up until after the credits rolled. Hehe, I'm still laughing this one out 'till now.

Rocketboy's Rating: **** (four stars)

Movie Review: "Slumdog Millionaire" (2008)

2009-03-10T14:30:00.002+08:00

This movie has received so much praise, there isn't anything I can add to what has already been said. It is said to be a "hymn to life" by some critics. Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, The Beach, Sunshine)is used to showing us gloomy facades and immediately sees the good in these dismal venues. Slumdog is no exception. He makes Mumbai a place pulsating with life and has us engaged in this tale about a boy who's fate brought him to the set of the Indian franchise of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Curiously, he knows the answers to pretty much every question thrown at him. The story focuses on how he got there in the first place, but most importantly, why.

Rocketboy Rating: ***** (5 out of 5 stars)

Movie Review: "Traitor" (2008)

2009-01-27T15:51:00.003+08:00

I like this one because Don Cheadle is the man!! Ever the improbable star, he continues to impress audiences with his 'everyman' quality and his rather hesitant charisma. This guy can act circles around Will Smith if you ask me. His role as a conflicted Special Services agent who happens to be Muslim inspires true introspection on the debate on the State vs Religion topic and all the while, entertains us with a lot of punches, kicks and 'splosions! Great guy flick.

Rocketboy's Rating: 4 stars (****)

Movie Review: "Taken" (2008)

2009-01-27T15:40:00.005+08:00

Not quite as good as Bourne, but a darn good action flick if you just turn your brain off for a couple of hours. It does try to be brainy for a bit and fails miserably, but you cant blame Luc Besson for trying since he is more well known for his penchant for high action.
Liam Neeson brings credibility to an otherwise dawdy script. But hey, don't we just enjoy seeing him break arms, chop throats with his hand and stabbing East European gangsters in the legs with electric metal prods? Schindler's List really prepared him for this role. Hahaha. That last one was a joke.

Rocketboy Rating *** stars

The Rocketboy Oscar Special

2009-01-27T15:20:00.003+08:00

Well, I'm employed again. Thanks to months of perserverance and a lot of prayers I was able to land a job I love which is closer to home. I deeply apologize fort my absence the past few months. I just needed to straighten out my priorities and get my life on track. I am glad to report that I am In good health and most of all, the happiest I've been in years.

Anyway, enough of that. I will be reviewing Slumdog Millionaire in a couple of days and will make sure that you get to know what that is about. I have read F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Curiuous Case of Benjamin Button online and have yet to see the movie. I will get all that done in my spare time, which I don't have a lot of these days. Anyways here are some quick movie reviews for you from the very few movies I did get to see these past few months.

Just Chillin'

2008-08-12T11:11:00.003+08:00

Well, it has been a while since I moved out of Manila and settled permanently in San Fernando. Things have been very slow recently. I keep myself busy by cleaning the house and watching older movies. I really don't know what to do with the hundreds of DVDs I have in my room. I might be able to sell some of them that still kind of have value, like the rare ones. Bu mostly I want to keep them just for posterity's sake, so that my kid will one day find out that daddy actually plunked cash for "Just Married".

Anyways, I have an idea I'm kind of playing around with in my head. I'm thinking of shifting my focus from movies to travel. I don't know if you guys would like to read about me going to the market, or about my latest Cebu beach trip, I guess it's all about what I want to write about. You see, I love movies, but there was a time in my life when movies were all I really cared about. Now things have changed. When you're 30 and you still talk about movies rabidly like a zit-faced fanboy, it kind of makes you stop and think.

Still, writing is in my blood. It is the one talent I know I am good at, that I get a lot of praise for, and I will not put it on the wayside just because I don't want to watch Hancock.

What do you guys think? Should I write about other stuff, or should I stick to movies and music?

Movie Review: "The Dark Knight" (2008)

2008-07-17T15:25:00.003+08:00

Cebu is a great place to be in duing the summer. Tommorrow we are going to hit the beach but for now, its movie time.

Some friends and I went and saw The Dark Knight in its first screening in Ayala Cinemas in Cebu. I was expecting a packed house...even at 12 noon. When I went there, I mean...It was PACKED. We have seen in the internets that it has been breaking box-office pre sales records in the US. The Bat has made more money than some movies make in a two-week run even before it hit the theaters.

Now on to the movie. Everything we came to expect about Batman was here. Moves, gadgets, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) and his trademark swagger,and a brand new costume that lets him turn his head around. Alfred (Michael Caine) is his usual old self and so is Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman). Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) also had very significant moments in key scenes. Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) had very little to do.

The movie owes itself, every bit of it to the late Heath Ledger as the Joker. As if his postumous presence in the movie wasn't creepy enough, he comes accross as a wildcard, a Deus Ex Machina that totally propels the film into more a than just a comic book movie. The movie itself didnt feel like a comic book movie, but more of a police drama in some parts, with dialogue too complex to be put in dialogue baloons. This is what will set it apart as a comic book movie for grown ups.

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

The Rocketboy works his last day.

2008-06-28T03:34:00.002+08:00

Today will be my last day working for my company. It was a good 5 years while it lasted, but I needed to make some adjustments to make my life less complicated and give myself some personal space. Plus, like Christian Siriano, I needed a 'vay-cay'.

Now, what does this mean for The Rocketboy Chronicles? Given that I started this blog out of boredom because I had full internet access at work and have had so for the past 5 years which will end in the next 6 hours, I could say that I might have less posts,or more, now that I have more time for posting, since work gets in the way so much, hahah. But definitely, The Rocketboy Chronicles will go on. And even if I may post less frequently (oh come on, I post at least once a month anyway),you can enjoy more meaningful, more well written, well edited posts, since I will have more time to concentrate on research and grammar and less time making money.

Movie Review: The Incredible Hulk (2008)

2008-06-13T17:06:00.002+08:00

Marvel has really been stepping things up lately. With the recent success of Iron Man, our Marvel friends now give us the re-do of The Incredible Hulk. Now the first one in 2005 (I think) wasn't actually that bad, but it failed to generate excitement and completely disappointed the loyal comic book fans with its light, cartoony portrayal of the green giant. The new script written by Zakk Penn with embellishments by Edward Norton himself and with the high octane action directing of Louis Letterier (Transporter 1 and 2) is akin to the old Hulk series back in the '70's with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno (who has a cameo in the movie as a security guard), with Bruce Banner as a lonely wanderer escaping the military's grasp instead of a short tempered genetics prof with daddy issues.

The story begins swiftly where Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) is already changed by the gamma rays that tun him into the Hulk. He is on the ruin from the army and is posing as a humble factory worker in Brazil. His free time is consumed by his search for the cure that will ultimately rid him of his condition. Not much later he is discovered by General Ross(William Hurt) the Draconian military leader responsible for the experimentations that led to Banner's predicament, so begins a wild goose chase for Banner's cure and his reunion with Ross' scientist daughter Betty (Liv Tyler).
Meanwhile, Ross is still playing god with his biological weapons and testing them on Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) who is hellbent on destroying Banner. His desire to stop The Hulk turns into obsession as he seeks to become more powerful using every chemical means necessary.

This version of The Hulk is miles better than the previous one. The human story is more accessible and the emotional transfer was more believable. Thanks to Norton's additional writing, The Hulk and Banner become more than just comic book characters come to life, they become key elements that drive the story.
There is more action in this movie than pretty much any Marvel comic book movie that has come before it. In the ending fight sequences, you can almost feel the fatigue of all the punching and pulling between the two large behemoths, The Hulk and The Abomination, as they slug and slam each other out to a pulp.

I don't want to give too much out because I highly recommend you see this. Now it looks like the gates are open for an Avengers movie now that Tony Stark has decided to join and the invitations are open.

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

Movie Review: The Happening (2008)

2008-06-13T08:36:00.003+08:00

M Night Shyamalan wrote and directed the phenomenal The Sixth Sense, which is in a lot of people’s best movies list. He also wrote and directs Unbreakable, which is on MY best movies list. After these movies he came up with Signs with mixed reviews, then The Village, then things started going down…

Just a few years ago M Night was revered as one of the best new filmmakers, now with all the press attention he’s getting about being misunderstood and the steadily depreciating quality of his movies, he’s slowly turning into Hollywood’s greatest hack, not even he saw this twist ending coming.

The Happening is MNS’s sixth film. This movie is his first R rated movie (due to graphic violence and intense scenes) and was supposed to be his redemption from the box office shortcomings of his two efforts. It starts with an occurrence in New York’s Central Park, people suddenly stopping in their tracks and then killing themselves. The government and the media immediately call it a terrorist attack. Panic ensues. We follow Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg) a Pennsylvania schoolteacher and his wife Alma(Zooey Deschanel). As they go with the torrential flow of people trying to evacuate the perimeter of ‘attack’ they see themselves dodge the presence of corpses in the street, watch their group-mates execute themselves and knock into a couple of houses. No explanation or clues are offered as to what may be causing the strange phenomena, but don’t worry M. Knight is going to dazzle us with his expert storytelling and show us how all of this is going to come full circle…

…NO!

Here’s the thing, you come into an MNS movie with expectations. Okay, lets say I ‘lessened’ my expectations due to the fact that his last 2 movies have been disappointing. At least I expected an explanaition as to what was happening through the whole freaking movie. He sets up the entire movie on this wind that when hit by it, you go crazy and hit yourself. People offer theories. Plants? Terrorism? Nuclear power plants? Fear? I came up with theories myself. But in the end, the explanation is… “There are things that occur in nature that just cannot be explained!” WOW! Why didn’t I think of that! Looks like we got a winner here M. Night! Nobody saw that coming!

I once wrote a script myself, I was 7. It was 2 pages long. I thought it was better than this crap.

Aside from the asinine plot, the acting was terrible. Everybody acted like they were in a community play. WTF? Mark Wahlberg? You were nominated for an Academy Award! What happened?

I have officially lost faith in M Night.

Rocketboy Rating: No stars (yes you heard it right!)

Movie Review: Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)

2008-06-13T04:04:00.004+08:00

Pretty much everything that Judd Apatow touches nowadays turns into gold. Judd and his crew are really busy nowadays cranking hit after hit. After 40 Year Old Virgin, Superbad and Knocked Up, and the upcoming Pineapple Express, it seems like there's no stopping this buncho of used-to-be hollywood misfits. Just a couple of years ago Judd and his team were considered box-office poison for putting out brilliant, but unpopular shows like Freaks and Geeks (also with Jason Segel, Seth Rogen and James Franco) and Undeclared. Now they have practically re-inverted the R rated comedy/stoner genre and have introduced us to rauchy comedies with heart.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall is about Peter Bretter(Jason Segel), a dead end musician with a steady paycheck from scoring TV shows who happens to be the boyfriend of rising TV star Sarah Marshall(Kristen Bell). one morning Sarah confronts Peter to break up with him (in one of the funniest, if not, most unsettling film breakups ever). Not able to cope with the trauma of being single after being with Sarah, peter decidesd to go on vacation in Hawaii and checks in hotel where, in a freak coincidence, Sarah and her new boyfriend Aldus Snow (Russel Brand) are staying. The hote's receptionist Rachel (Mila Kunis), haveing had a recent breakup of her own, sympathyzes with Peter and goes out of her way to make him feel better during his stay, some feelings develop and a lot of hilarity ensues.

FSM is a script that Jason Segel, the movies lead actually wrote himself. It turns out a lot of the events within the movie, especially the one where Sarah breaks up with him while he was naked from just getting out of the shower, were derived from his own experiences with breaking up with his old girlfriend. A lot of the comedy in FSM is improvised, and to good effect. this is probably the reason wy Apatow produced stuff is hilarious, because he gets good funny talent and lets them do their thing. Russell Brand is a brilliant discovery. Apparently this comedian is very popular in Britain and has developed quite a following in global audiences after his take in FSM. Director Nick Stoller obviously avoided for this comedy to be 'formula', as a lot of romantic comedies become. the comedy is low key but effective and the reactions are genuine. Although this may not be the funniest of the Apatownians, it ranks as one of the most realistic.

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

Movie Review: Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay (2008)

2008-06-13T05:41:00.003+08:00

Stoner flicks are a genre of their own nowadays. From Cheech and Chong to Judd Apatow, movies where tokin' weed has had its highs and lows. This season happens to be a high (man all these puns, where do I get them?) Harold and Kumar are their own franchise now just like C&C and Jay & Silent Bob (like Jedi, the come in twos). We last saw them getting back to their apartment after a night of eating like 80 White Castle burgers and deciding to follow Harold's crush and next door neighbor Maria to Amsterdam...

We begin where they left off. On the plane to Amsterdam harold and Kumar (John Cho and Kal Penn) are mistaken for terrorists, mostly because Kumar decided to bring his electric bong which looks like a terrorist assembled bomb in the plane. They are questioned, mostly by the inept FBI agent Ron Fox (Rob Corrdry) and detained in Gitmo. After a close encounter with a security guard, they escape and find themselves in a raft with immigrants, in Florida in a drug-lords pool full of 'bottomless' women and in a redneck's house with their inbred daughter, oh and sure they also get to meet and 'bond', meaning get plastered, with Dubya.

Look, these movies are meant to be shallow, crude and downright tasteless. This is the reason these movies are fun. However, sometimes, these movies try too hard. All These stoner comedies try to one up each other in terms of crudeness and complete lack of taste that in the end, sometimes, it just becomes a crap movie. The charm that the first Harold and Kumar had is gone and was drowned in a pool full of women exposed beavers and litteraly just went up in smoke (Man! I'm on a roll! "Roll", haha, another pun! Man, pot references are really useful ).

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

Movie Review: Made of Honor (2008)

2008-06-13T04:49:00.005+08:00

Chick flicks aren't usually my thing. In fact, I never really set out to watch Made of Honor but just kind of got sucked into it.

We all know Patrick Dempsey became hugely popular after becoming the resident man-candy McDreamy in Grey's Anatomy. In MOH, he takes his scrubs off to be the more generic rich 'playboy' Tom Bailey with a girl named Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) for a best friend. Like any other guy/girl best friend situation, sex and sometimes, even the talk about personal feelings for each other is taboo, so they become perpetual shopping partners and restaurant and art critics. One day art-conservationist Hannah is called to Scotland and leaves poor Tom to fend for himself. Tom feels an emptiness without Hannah's latte beside his, and decides to confess his love for her when she comes back to New York. And when she does, she has a beau in tow.

The thing about MOH is that, it is the most generic romantic comedy I've seen, so far. If you ahve seen Four Weddings and a Funeral, My Best Friend's Wedding, 27 Dresses, Runaway Bride or anything with the word 'wedding' or 'friend' in it's title, you've probably seen this. I'm not saying it's a bad movie though. It's just that a lot of ths schticks used in MOH have all been done before. There's a lot of stuff in here that Gary Marshall has done a million times before and it unabashedly exploits them. Plus this is, as clear as the crystal in a champagne glass, a film made for women, girls, chicks...only. Patrick Dempsey...nuff said. The filmmakers make it a point that Tom looks as pitiful and pretty as possible to get the women to go 'aww' and want them to be his girlfriend instead. I mean there is a scene where Tom and his 'guy' friends play basketball and debate about how 'meaningful' it is to be in a relationship instead of 'playing around' and another of the guys prepping the goodie baskets for the bridal showers. I'm not saying it doesn't ever happen, but there is so much estrogen in the final cut of the scene, I was afraid I might grow boobs.

Generic as it is. It is effective to it's target audiences, women and girls who cry during weddings and love puppies and kittens. The kissing scene towards the end (you know which one it is when you see it) is one of the best I've seen so far. The buildup toward it is just consistent and it almost feels like a reward for sticking with the film for the first 50 minutes.

Rocketboy's Rating:(***)3 out of 5 stars

Movie Review: Iron Man (2008)

2008-05-01T07:38:00.002+08:00

Looks like we've got another good one with John Favreau's take on the Marvel superhero Iron Man. I can honestly say that I haven't had this much fun in the theater since Transformers.

Tony Stark is a billionaire playboy/ military weapons supplier with a glass of brandy on one hand and no sense of nostalgia whatsoever. He is played pitch-perfectly by veteran actor Robert Downey junior. Stark is full of the character flaws that makes him the charming hero/anti-hero that he is, plus with Downey's quick wit adds another dimension to his already endearing, man's man persona. Think of Clooney, only a hundred times richer.

As Stark goes through one of his routine weapon demos in the Afghan desert, his detail is raided and killed as he is almost fatally wounded by one of his own missiles. He is abducted by local rebels where he is held captive and promised freedom only under the condition that he build a missile just like the one he demoed for the US Military. Instead he builds an armor with guns and torches, which he uses to escape the clutches of the rebel soldiers.
With his escape comes a newfound respect for life. He swears to protect the people he means to save from the very weapons he created. Thus we have an upgraded version of the desert armor, later to be known as the Iron Man.

The supporting cast is in every way as stellar as Downey. Terrence Howard is great (and funny) as Rhodes, Stark’s best friend ally in the military. Gwyneth is gorgeous as Pepper Potts. The onscreen chemistry between Downey and Paltrow is undeniable as they fumble through their awkward employer/employee dynamic. Jeff Bridges is surprisingly good as a comic book villain.

There are also a bunch of little surprises and winks at hardcore fans that will catch your attention once in a while (look for Audioslave and RATM’s Tom Morello and Stan Lee’s cameos). But all in all, this movie is just a great story told well, set in the great amazing Marvel universe.

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

Movie Review: "There Will Be Blood" (2007)

2008-04-02T06:09:00.002+08:00

This a very long overdue review. I had only recently acquired the DVD for Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood, the movie that earned Daniel-Day Lewis his 2007 Oscar.

There Will be Blood is based on an Upton Sinclair novel entitled Oil! And is a story about Daniel Plainview (Day Lewis), an oil prospector and his descent to greed and isolation. The movie has an all throughout dark and grim atmosphere that is not very unusual to a PT Anderson movie (Punch Drunk Love, Magnolia, Boogie Nights), however this one almost has a sense of Biblical ancientness. It takes place in a desert village called New Boston where Plainview leases the land for drilling. It almost feels like the Israelites wandering in the desert after fleeing Egypt. The themes of God and miracles are very sparsely tackled in the film, but are central to the film’s plot. The finale will be remembered in film history and will be a pop culture reference for many years to come.

Rocketboy’s Rating:(*****) 5 out of 5 stars
"

Post Oscar Post

2008-02-27T18:23:00.003+08:00

I'm glad that No Country for Old Men won Best Picture this year. The Coen Brothers have long been an important fixture in American cinema and it is but fitting that they get the award for their best work yet. Javier Bardem winning Best Supporting Actor was no surprise since he pretty much won every award that let to the Oscars. Everybody was surprised that Tilda Swinton won Best Supporting Actress for Michael Clayton...including herself, so much that she gave a pretty trippy acceptance speech with George Clooney and the Batman nipples and stuff. i LOVE that Diablo Cody won Best Original Screenplay for Juno (That picture above is her, by the way, still holding her Oscar after a night of celebrating. Sweet.), I didn't know that she used to be an exotic dancer, "Enjoy the paycut" says Jon Stewart, who made a vast improvement with his hosting chores this year than last time.
It was no surprise also that Daniel Day Lewis won Best Actor> I've yet to see There Will Be Blood, if you are not aware, they DID show it here in Manila...in only ONE theater! In Gateway (I'm in Makati)! Now it's gone. I'm gonna have to drink my milkshake some other time...

My Official Oscar Nomination Reviews

2008-02-01T17:05:00.000+08:00

I've been pondering on doing another review for a great while now, but I thought I would give it some for the movies to stew in my brain so I could give them a fair assessment. Plus it would be great exercise for my severely atrophied writing skills.

The writer's strike is still going on and it is directly affecting our business at the office (we transcribe and caption US shows), It would be nice if this all could end so I don’t have to go through the internet and read about what Britney ate for breakfast and that she had her 345th breakdown while driving her newly bought (and dented) Mercedes to a school where she was going to pick up her kids she couldn’t even legally see. I miss writing about how crappy some movies and TV shows are.

Now we see that the Academy Awards are just around the corner and that the strike may take this thing down as it did the Golden Globes, part of me thinks "Heck, we don’t need the Oscars." We don’t need this over-produced pomposity that is more of a jewel-encrusted, botox-injected pseudo-fashion show smorgasbord rather than an official cultural event (like the SAGs were this year). But another part of me thinks, "I need to see what they are going to do to this year's opening sketch".

Anyhoo, after I saw the nominees this year, I have to admit. I was satisfied with the choices. There were definitely good movies to begin with. Sure I preferred some that were not included, but this year's nominees for Best Picture were definitely, in my opinion, the best of the year.

I sought out these movies at my local DVD pirate bay and found a copy for all of them except one. I think we all can agree that the quality and packaging for pirated DVDs as of late has greatly diminished, and it sucks especially for committed collectors like myself, But I couldn't pass of the opportunity of not being able to see these movies first and imposing my pompous opinion to the world like I normally do in this blog.

The only movie without a review in this list of Oscar noms is There Will Be Blood, and word is it is the best of the bunch. But I have yet to see it. But these are the ones I've seen...

Movie Review: "Michael Clayton" (2007)

2008-02-01T16:57:00.000+08:00

Alright, lemme start with one of my favorites in the bunch. George Clooney (who I pretend is who I would look like If I were white), stars as lawyer turned legal cleanup master Michael Clayton. He's a lawyer plagued with financial problems and ethical issues which would pretty much come full circle when he is assigned to "clean up" a big crap-cake of a legal problems with one of their large corporate clients generated by a colleague's meltdown (Tom Wilkinson) at a hearing. As the company CEO Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) finds ways to clean the mess herself, Clayton does some deep investigating and finds the client company and his firm hiding documents that prove them guilty, putting him in a very compromising situation.

This movie kind of reminds me of another Clooney starred politico-legal drama, Syriana. The pace and density of the dialogue is very similar, only in Michael Clayton, the dialogue is easier to follow. If you really pay attention, you wont get lost. This is the result of good writing and editing. Tony Gilroy did a good job of pacing the dialogue, which is pretty much the meat and bones of the movie, in away that legal and corporate terms are made understandable but not dumbed down.

But the film's real glory point is it's ending. I'm not going to spoil it, but it's the kind of ending that makes you want to get off your seat pump your fist and say "yessss".

Rocketboy's Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Movie Review:"Atonement" (2007)

2008-02-01T16:51:00.000+08:00

If any of these Oscar contenders has an up in terms of accolades, it would be Atonement. So far, Atonement has won the Golden Globe for Best Picture. Not that it really matters because as we have seen in the past few months, the Writers strike has reduced these lavish awards ceremonies into mere press conferences. And this will greatly affect its handicap for the other awards up for it.

Atonement is Joe Wright's (Pride and Prejudice) second collaboration with Keira Knightley in a period film, this time based on a novel by Ian McEwan. The story revolves around a couple and their lives and how a small false accusation turned their lives into tragedy. Newcomer Saoirse (love the name) Ronan plays Briony, a 13 year old who, despite naiveté accomplishes to sabotage the lives of his sister Cecilia (Knightley) and servant's son Robbie Turner (James McAvoy) and take them into the belly of history of World War II.

Atonement isn't really my kind of movie. I never got to see Pride and Prejudice because I really wasn't into the kind of British tea and biscuits movie that I thought this was. i have to admit though that the scenes involving Briony were quite mesmerizing and I was caught up in the tune of her charisma (I thought that last sentence up with an English accent). I can say, acting wise, she was the best part of the movie. The rest of the movie was an incoherent series of patched up story pieces that don’t have any sense of cohesion. The one shot sequence at the beach was particularly amazing, but see the point is, Atonement is just that, a lot of scenes like that thatched together and presented to us as we are told that we are actually watching one movie. the scenes don’t gel together as they should. I got bored halfway through it as I waited for a redemption scene that would never come.

If you are a fan of Keira, I guess its a must see just for the scenes with her in that green dress and for the guy fans, for the wet-in-the fountain scenes.

Rocketboy's Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

Movie Review: "Juno" (2007)

2008-02-01T16:45:00.000+08:00

Juno is said to be this year's Little Miss Sunshine. That little runaway hit that was made with a meager budget but eventually made it's way to peoples hearts and into film history.

Ellen Page is Juno, a pregnant 16 year old with the mouth of a 25 year old college dropout. Her best friend Bleeker (Michael Cera) is the father, but he can barely leave his bedroom except when he goes out to run with the track team, much less be a father. Juno's life turns upside down and right side up, depending upon your point of reference, as she nonchalantly goes through serious moral decisions like abortion, adoption and even a little involvement with a married man as she drinks her blue big gulp and criticizes modern music and cinema.

Again it’s the dialogue that makes this movie. We are treated with shallow banter and deep philosophical insights, often in the same sentence, at such a rapid pace, that you probably would need to see it more than once just to catch the quotes. Writer Diablo Cody will definitely be one of the writers to watch in these next few years. Ellen Page of course, delivers most of the lines that has more bite to them, and she delivers them with such finesse that you'd wonder how that brain got into that body.

Aside from the banter, the story, simple as it is, delivers what it is supposed to deliver. A story about a girl, dealing with life... as she deals with the jerks around her.

Rocketboy's Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Movie Review: "No Country for Old Men" (2007)

2008-02-01T16:22:00.000+08:00

It’s happened to you before. You go and watch a movie. After it's done, you get out confused. You ponder as to what it meant, why they made it like that. You walk home, you ponder more. You figure it out. Then it becomes one of your favorite movies. It happened to me couple of times. It happened to me when I saw Pulp Fiction. It happened again when I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey. Before Sunset. For No Country for Old Men, it happened to me again.

No Country for Old Men is written and directed for the screen by the Coen Brothers (Raising Arizona, Fargo, The Big Lebowsky) adapted from a novel by Cormac McCarthy. the story is about a Texan Vietnam veteran (Josh Brolin) who finds 2 million dollars in cash in a duffel bag in the middle of a blood spattered, body strewn failed drug exchange rendezvous in the middle of the desert. A she runs, a bounty hunter(Javier Bardem) seeks him out and virtually kills anyone who gets in his way. In the middle of it all is an aging sheriff(Tommy lee Jones) who makes sure that these two who are in his small town are brought to justice. What we get is an exciting cat and mouse chase without the frills and effects, just pure intelligent filmmaking, but we also get a philosophical look at life and how it treats us despite our best efforts.

This is officially may favorite movie in the group (and I love the other movies too). very rarely do we get to see a movie that doesn't feel like it was made in 2007. With characters who are as rich as they are well-defined. Not a line of dialogue is a wasted sound byte. Everybody in the small cast shone in his own way.

But one shone above the others. Javier Bardem's character Anton Chigurh is probably the best conceived character in film in the past few years. Chigurh is a badass. He makes Jack Bauer look like baby poo. He is evil personified. A calm, charismatic presence that is both enchanting and frightening. If this movie were released in the summer, you would see dozens of people dressed as Chigurh on Halloween. There is a scene where he tells a sales clerk at a store to call a coin-toss he just made. the clerk is puzzled as to what it was for, but we all know, based on the past few scenes, that the clerk's life was at stake. So he had everything to gain, and at the same time, everything to lose. So many sites in the Internet have been dedicated to explaining how his mind works, what his concept of free will is, and so forth. There is so much more going on in this character than just a ruthless hit man with a pneumatic tool for a weapon.

One of the most controversial aspects of this film is its "ending". This is what puzzled me when I first saw it. Anyone would be. I can’t even imagine how audiences would react to the ending if it were shown here. In some articles I had read that some people just stood up and cussed at the projector guy. I later read in some reliable review sites that it was meant to be that way to emphasize on an aspect of the movie not closely attended to by the audience, the philosophical side of the film, because we were so caught up in the cat and mouse chase. Anyways, I know it probably doesn’t t make sense to you who have not seen it, you just need to watch it. And I highly recommend that you do.

Rocketboy's Rating: 5 out of 5

Movie Review: "I Am Legend" 2007

2007-12-29T06:34:00.000+08:00

Will Smith is the perennial savior in most of his movies. If he's not flying around canyons shooting aliens, he's pretty much flying around shooting robots. Well, this time, he's running(or in some cases driving around) shooting half-dead zombies while seeking acure for a virus that has wiped out about 95% of the world's population. Think 28 Days Later with a semiautoimatic rifle and a Mustang.

The film starts out very strong with the visuals of a post-apocalyptic New York city sans the traffic and the cussing taxi drivers. Manhattan island is overrun by wildlife and wild crop among the ruins of what used to be the concrete jungle of buildings, fire hydrants and thousands of cars and trucks. Corn growing in Times Square and lions hunting for gazelles in Wall Street. Lurking in the shadows and emerging in the night, however are totally different more ferocious creatures. What used to be human beings have mutated into UV light sensitive vampire zombies out to kill every single living thing. Oh yes, and Will Smith is in the picture too as the only surviving human being with a pet dog named Sam.

The story moves back and forth between flashbacks and the present to kind of distribute the pacing of the narrative, although this technique worked in some levels, in most it just dragged us to the only moderately entertaining middle section of the movie.

By the time the last 20 minutes of the movie runs, you are treated with a teduious "what is he going to do now" feeling that just leads you to a very mediocre ending. According to rumors (which is just about as reliable as anything in the internet), test screenings showed that the original ending sucked major balls and eventually forced the producers to reshoot, which resulted with the half-baked ending we see in theaters now.

Great first half. Mediocre ending.

I Am Robot- I mean I Am Legend opens January 8 in Manila.

Rocketboy's Rating: 31/2 out of 5 stars (***)

Speed Racer and Batman Pics online

2007-12-11T09:25:00.000+08:00

Hey there. In case you have not seen these. Just take a glance and go about your normal business and get back to work.

It's not my fault. My job makes me dull.

Here's Rambo giving a dude some cold steel.

Here's Batman and his new duds (note the new flexi-adjustable neck)from The Dark Knight

Here are some shots from the new Speed Racer movie by the Wachowski Bro-sters.

My Take on the Writers Strike

2007-11-14T11:06:00.000+08:00

Ok. While I ignore the most pressing news coverage of Rene Saguisag being in the ICU of The Makati Medical Center accross the street, the impeachment petitions in Congress and the announced Pakistani elections, let me focus on the most pressing and most life-critical of all the world issues, the Writers Guild of America Strike!

Oh noes! We's got no shows to watch!!!

Ever since the strike began we all have had to brace ourselves for the impact it will have in our lives in the coming weeks. I for one am affected by it now. Being in the Philippines, US shows dont get around until about 6 months after they are previously premiered in the US, for MOST it takes longer. I happen to be one of the many who watch these shows in the internet on streaming video. And the strike just gets me irked that I wont be watching my shows in a couple of weeks after all the pre-strike scripts have been shot and cut.

My Take? GIVE THE WRITERS WHAT THEY WANT!!!!!

Isn't it about time that the studios admit that they are making silos of cash while the writers dont get any royalties for digital content like online earnings and DVD royalties. Just give them a bigger piece of the pie! Your slice already looks like pacman!

JUST GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT!