I’ve been hearing a lot about Sucker Punch and I became curious. Luckily, my GameOPS friends invited me to watch with them last weekend.
When I saw the poster, I became excited! Especially upon seeing Jamie Chung’s face there. I liked Jamie in Dragonball Evolution, it was actually a coincidence that I watched it the night before through Star Movies.
Sucker Punch is an action-fantasy film featuring 5 beautiful ladies in a mental facility. It revolves around the story of Baby Doll (Emily Browning), her history, her fantasies and her life at the mental facility. The movie tells Baby Doll’s adventures with 4 of her friends: Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Amber (Jamie Chung), Rocket (Jena Malone) & Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens).
The movie is not easy to understand. You really need to do a lot of thinking. For me, I had to research to confirm my understanding of Sucker Punch. When my friends asked me what I think of the movie, my 1st reaction was Sucker Punch was an eyecandy all throughout.
I was right in a sense but it wasn’t just an eyecandy. There were more to it than beautiful sexy ladies & awesome action scenes. It had a lesson or two. For me, my takeaway from Sucker Punch is that we have to believe in ourselves. As long as we believe in ourselves and we work on our goals, we’ll be able to achieve them.
I also plan to watch Sucker Punch once it comes out on DVD. Why? Because I heard there were several scenes that were cut and with the director’s cut version, we’ll be able to understand the whole story better.
The Academy awards had just finished and I’m in the mood to watch movies which have won on that prestigious night. Black Swan was one of them. The movie’s female lead won the Academy award for best actress. I was curious if she indeed deserved to win. It was funny that Oscars awards host Anne Hathaway joked during the awards night that when you shed some skin, you would get a nomination. So Natalie Portman did some nudity?
Well, not really but almost. I believe she portrayed the role perfectly well. Natalie Portman showed various emotions in all of her scenes. She truly deserved the award. Apart from the Oscars, she also won best actress in Golden Globes, Screen Actor’s Guild and some other award-giving bodies. Wow!
The movie was about a production called Swan Lake. The director had to cast a new ballet dancer to replace the retiring lead of the show. The lead character would need to portray both white swan who’s innocent & fragile and black swan who’s sensual & evil.
Nina (Portman’s character) along with some other dancers were shortlisted for the role. Nina was perfect for the white swan role but doesn’t quite fit with the black swan role while Lily (Mila Kunis’ character) was perfect for the black swan role. The director wasn’t really going to choose Nina until she visited his office to request for the role. He forced a kiss on Nina. Nina, being so sheltered by her mom, bit the director & stormed away.
Nina apparently got the role. She still didn’t dance that great as black swan and had been criticized much for it during rehearsals. The director had been pushing her to start letting go of herself while dancing as black swan.
Nina also had hallucinations & delusions which also affected her and her upcoming show.
You have to see the movie in order to see how her psychotic symptoms affected Nina and her performance in the Swan Lake. How one big ambition can affect a young girl and her future.
I did feel a bit uncomfortable watching the movie coz there were scenes not suited for children. I was with my mom when I watched the movie, my gosh! hahaha! Anyway, the acting were really great among the cast. Natalie Portman did an excellent job as Nina as well as Mila Kunis for her role as Lily.
You’ll definitely see a different Natalie Portman in Black Swan. Don’t miss it!
This year started rough for me. I admit that I’m experiencing difficult times. I’ve been sulking a lot and continue to do so. I’m pushing myself to live each day. Last weekend, I went out with my mom to watch Hereafter. She has been wanting to watch this movie since last year.
Hereafter stars Matt Damon who is famous for his Bourne series. The film tells 3 stories about 3 different people affected by death & after life.
Marie Lelay – a French TV journalist who upon assignment in Thailand was victimized by tsunami. She almost died but luckily, was rescued. However, the experience doesn’t end there. She began having visions of the afterlife.
Marcus – an English boy who lost his twin brother via a car accident. Marcus tried so hard looking for ways to communicate with his deceased brother. He was able to meet George and through him, he was able to talk to his dead twin brother.
George Lonnegan – a former professional psychic who has a gift of communicating with the dead. He leaves that profession as he cannot deal with the emotional impact of his readings.
It’s nice how the 3 were able to cross paths in the movie. Having similar experiences connects them. Do you believe in afterlife? Do you believe that people who have near-death experience can see things that we normal people don’t?
It’s a slow-moving movie. I saw my mom sleeping most of the time during the course of the movie. How ironic as it was actually her who was bugging me to watch Hereafter. I, on the other hand, was awake all throughout. I guess having this sadness somehow made me relate to the film. I may not have a near-death experience but I do feel that something has died in me. I cried several times and one that really touched my heart the most was when Marcus got to talk to his twin brother through George. It was heart breaking.
Directed & produced by Clint Eastwood, music was even done by him too! wow! Anyway, it’s a good movie to watch. Some might find it boring but I liked it.
The Philippines have this tradition that every Christmas holiday, they don’t allow showing of international movies. This is the reason why we had to wait for January 8 before we can watch The Tourist starring Johnny Depp & Angelina Jolie.
The wait was worth it. I know this movie might have a lot of negative reviews due to its story. I must admit just seeing Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp in the movie was enough for me. It was eye candy all throughout. Angelina was too beautiful and sexy while Johnny Depp was just Johnny Depp. It was so glad to see Johnny Depp in a different light as I’ve grown tired seeing him as a pirate 😛
The Tourist is all about finding Alexander Pearce (played by Johnny Depp) . Pearce having stolen a gangster’s money worth 2 billion plus owing British government tax money makes him a target.
Elise (played by Angelina Jolie) was supposed to work undercover for British Government against Pearce but ended up falling in love with him. Now, both the gangsters & British government were watching her too.
I’m not gonna expound more on the story as it will spoil your movie experience. If you watch movies to be entertained then you’ll enjoy this. Not too serious and not too dramatic, sometimes we just want simple movies like the Tourist.
I loved the twist and I wasn’t expecting it until around the middle of the movie. Having 2 big good-looking stars in the movie really made watching it enjoyable. Some might argue that Johnny Depp-Angelina Jolie tandem doesn’t have chemistry. For me, it worked pretty well.
Rosario was the movie my mom and I decided to watch last Christmas. The lines were long for all the entries in this year’s Metro Manila Filmfest Festival and I’m just glad we were able to buy tickets.
I had to wait for the awards night before I could share with you my review of the film. I wanted to know if they won so that I could share with you my opinion and whether or not I believe they deserved it.
The movie tells the true story of Manuel Pangilinan’s grandmother, Rosario Herrera. Rosario’s son, Jesus Herrera-Fernandez, who at 82, narrates his mother’s life in the film. The movie ‘Rosario’ is basically a flashback of Rosario’s life when she was 18 years old till she was 32 years old. A true story of a lady in the 1920s.
Rosario had come to the Philippines straight from New York just for a vacation at their hacienda. Her sheltered and quite prestigious life would soon take a turn when she, at just 18 years old, fell in love with the administrator of their tobacco company, Vicente Perez (35 years old). Rosario’s parents were furious when they found out and Rosario would then be sent to a convent.
However, Rosario would follow her heart and defy her parents’ wishes as she eloped with Vicente and lived their lives in Manila where they had 2 children. Rosario never went back to her parents and they both died without their daughter on their side..
Her life changed again drastically when Vicente got sick of tuberculosis. As Vicente was sick, the toll on their marriage would soon manifest itself as Rosario would commit adultery with her best friend’s boyfriend. To make matters worse, she got pregnant. She was caught in the act by her husband, Vicente, who never forgave her for what she had done. Back then, as it is now, adultery was shunned and forbidden as a culture. But even worse, the penalty was harsh as Rosario was sent to Hongkong in exile as she was proven guilty of adultery.
She was abandoned by the guy eventually as he could not support Rosario and her son, Jesus (who was young at that time). Rosario met another man but she decided not to go with him in the end.
Doing a period type of movie is a massive undertaking usually. Depending on the era and the time where the movie takes place, the sets, the costumes, and even the props have to be true to the time. I was honestly in awe as the movie kept going along, just seeing the people in the 1920s era gave me a totally different movie experience than usual. I have to admit that it really opened my eyes and fascination for this period, just imagining myself in such an era, really thinking to myself that this is how people lived and looked like back then.
I believe the acting was pretty excellent too among all the cast in the movie. This is a true story and you can’t really change the story just to make it award worthy or exciting. The lesson I got from watching the movie is.. karma’s really a bitch. With Rosario being unfaithful, she wasn’t able to be with her children, never got forgiveness from the people she loved and lived her life with hardships and sacrifices. Until the very end, I believe she would be haunted by her past mistakes and decisions.
Regarding MMFF awards, I was shocked that both the director and lead actress didn’t even get a nomination. I believe they both deserve at least a nomination. For a movie who being rated A and even winning 2nd best picture and cultural award, I just couldn’t believe that they didn’t even acknowledge the director and lead actress. It was contradicting, I must say.
I’m not sure if everyone would love this movie since it strays away from the usual path that many Filipino films have become in this modern era. This story chases the actual story, it envelopes the viewer in the romance that was the Philippines of the 1920s, and brings back to life the true story of a liberated woman of that time. Rosario’s life was colorful, it showed a lot of her weaknesses and faults. And also, which I think was important, the actors were splendid in the movie, and let the story of the characters speak for themselves. They didn’t overact even if they are good actors. It made the movie realistic and I guess, closer to reality.
There are a lot of firsts in this movie, 1st directorial job of actor Albert Martinez, 1st title role for Jennylyn Mercado, 1st movie of TV5 and 1st to use the Arri Alexa camera in the film. If I may add, 1st truly deserving movie that did not receive best director and best actress nominations for a MMFF movie.
