Category: Movies

Since I missed watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in Ultra 7 movie house, I had to make sure that I wouldn’t miss Tron: Legacy this time around.  On its 1st week, I finally watched it!  I’m a huge fan of the stars in the movie: Olivia Wilde & Jeff Bridges.   So I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t be disappointed in any way.

I was right!  I loved it!   Hard core Tron fans might not share the same sentiments but to each his own right?   I haven’t watched the original Tron movie.

In this modern world with all those technology advances, I believe they delivered the movie with great visual effects & awesome sound editing.  Not to mention, just how good looking the stars portraying the movie characters are.  It was total eye candy festival all throughout the movie.  I never got bored even though it was already late at night.

Tron: Legacy is a sequel to the 1982 film.  The movie revolves around Sam Flynn who is the son of Tron creator, Kevin Flynn.  It started with him as a child and Kevin showing him some toys that illustrated his vision.  Sam never thought that it would be the last time he would see his father.  As his father disappeared, the company, ENCOM International, which he was CEO of was eventually led by his business partner, Edward Dillinger.

The story unfolds with Sam constantly being haunted by his father’s disappearance, then eventually ending up in the Grid, then finally reuniting with his dad again, trying to escape the grid to go back into the real world, trying to get back his life with his dad and finally, taking ownership of Kevin’s ENCOM International.

The movie trailer below gives you an idea of what to expect.  I have heard mixed reviews but in my opinion, it was a great movie!

What I appreciate most with the movie Tron: Legacy was how it touched on the love of a father and child, the loyalty of a program to its creator and lastly, care & compassion between friends.

I cried quite a few times in the duration of the movie.  The time when Kevin Flynn and Sam Flynn first saw each other after almost 20 years.  It was just too touching, you can see genuine love from both parties.  The other instance where I cried was when Quorra (Olivia Wilde’s character) almost died, I didn’t know that she would be revived hahaha!  Lastly, when Kevin sacrificed himself for his son.  Heartbreaking indeed.

I believe there’ll be a another sequel to Tron but I guess they are weighing things to see if Tron: Legacy earns enough to make one.  I hope the movie succeeds, as I will surely watch the next sequel.  I still wanna know about the status of Tron.  It’s a mystery still.

My rating for Tron: Legacy: 4.5 out of 5 stars.

My mom got a gift from my uncle’s wife and it was a DVD.  To my surprise, it was A Journey Home.   A movie directed by Paul Soriano and a movie presented by Jubilee Evangelical Church & Youth for Christ.  I’ve heard good things about the movie, and I just knew that I would eventually see it sooner or later.

It was much more than I expected.  In all honesty, I was crying throughout the whole movie.  Not just simple crying though, I really had my eyes swollen for a day.  The movie is just full of heart-warming scenes that it’s virtually impossible to keep a dry eye and to keep a closed heart.

I cannot stress enough just how excellent the acting was in the movie.  I think all the artists really gave their heart and soul into each of their roles, most especially Soliman Cruz who did a tremendous job in the movie.   I think the hallmark of a great performance in a movie is making the audience and viewers feel and empathize what the character is going through.  With Soliman, I honestly could feel all the pain, love, and sacrifices that he goes through.  What a great actor!

The story is about a man named Dante who has been out of touch with his family for 20 years.  He lost his job and then finds out that the wife he left has just died.  He goes to her wake and was able to see his children Raffy and Kristine.  Raffy was aloof and obviously mad because his father had left them for 20 years.  Raffy’s wife, Gayle, tries to bring Dante back into their lives thinking that it would heal Raffy’s wounds.

As the plot moves forward, Dante because of circumstances that occur in the movie, moves in to live with Raffy and his family.  As Dante tries to make amends, he actually starts to become really close to Raffy’s wife Gayle and their son.  But true to the reality of how the movie captures real world emotions, Raffy just seems unable let go of the anger he feels for his father.  As the story unfolds, it is very much interesting and encouraging just how much even 20 years of separation can do when hearts open up, and forgiveness becomes the focus.

I love how realistic and how positive A Journey Home was.  It concentrated on the values of forgiveness and family.  Something most of us take for granted.

It’s really rare for us to see that kind of movie in the Philippines.  I also felt a bit sad that it wasn’t shown in major theaters last year.  I guess they intended it that way.  I believe that it should be shown nationwide.  Maybe relaunch it?  Each Filipino should watch a Journey Home.

I suggest going to a video store and grabbing a copy of this wonderful movie DVD.  A must watch and hopefully it will give you a new perspective as to how we see family and how we need to learn to give and ask for forgiveness 🙂

My Rating for A Journey Home: 5 out of 5 stars

When Harry Potter burst into the book scene, it started a wave of incredible book sales as children, teens, and even adults couldn’t get enough of the series.  It was a worldwide phenomenon.  And then, with the success of the books, they asked if that kind of success could be translated to box office hits.  Well, fortunately the previous Harry Potter films did well because it was built on the success of the books and the storyline that came with it.

And now, the final book in the Harry Potter series has come to theaters.   Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows is the final installment in the series of books written by J.K. Rowling, and for the movie version, I guess it was just too good that they had to have 2 parts to the epic finale.  This is the movie that finally puts together all the bits and pieces from the previous movies.  Harry Potter fans have been waiting for this movie to come out.  But because they have split the movie into 2 parts, I guess Part 1 had to leave us all still having a few more questions too.

Now, last week was the final week for showing in the Philippines, and leave it to me to just be able to make it at the last moment.  I’m a big fan of the Harry Potter books, so I did try to purchase tickets on its 1st week but failed a couple of times as tickets were sold out.  I tried on its 2nd week and failed again.  I put it off my mind for a couple of days then decided to watch it on its final week in the theaters.  No more stress for me but no chance for me to watch it in awesome theaters like Ultra 7 since that specific theater usually only shows the most recent popular movies that are playing.

I really like that even though Harry Potter was intended for kids, they didn’t make it a cutesy movie.  It’s really a dark fantasy story and I believe they did an excellent job translating it into the movie.  We cannot really expect every single scene in the book to be in the movie.  That’s just impossible considering how thick the book was and how rich the story was.  But being able to have a good flow of the movie was important, while still being able to keep the integrity of what was in the book must have been a big challenging as well.  However, I think they rose up to the challenge and really made the film as very continuous in its storyline where you didn’t keep wondering how each scene was connected.  I believe the people to thank are those that are in charge of screenplay.

Anyway, the 7th installment revolves around Harry trying to find and destroy Lord Voldemort’s Horcruxes which provides immortality to the latter.  In this movie, they were able to locate one of horcruxes, a locket.  The process wasn’t easy though.  Ron was fooled to believe that Harry Potter & Hermione was forming a relationship thus a conflict was there.  Harry Potter was almost drowned in the frozen pool while retrieving the Griffindor sword.  Of course, all things turned out to be good as the locket was destroyed by one of the main characters.  Guess who? 😉

The movie had its lonely moments too like the deaths of Hedwig, Mad-Eye Moody and Dobby.  I cried buckets when they showed the scene wherein Dobby was murdered while he was saving Harry Potter’s group from Bellatrix Lestrange.  It was just too saddening *sniff sniff*.  Seeing such a selfless elf giving up his life just to save his friends.

We are left hanging by the end of the movie.  It’s kinda expected as the 2nd part will be shown next year.  I cannot wait!  In the 2nd part, I guess with the same title, we will see Harry Potter’s quest to continue to find and destroy the rest of the horcruxes plus a final battle between Harry Potter & Lord Voldemort.  I bet we’ll also be able to see some love stories unfold throughout the ending.  I’ve read the book and I kinda know what to expect but it’ll be nice to see it visually shown in the movie.

If you haven’t watched the movie here in the Philippines, there may still be a few theaters showing it.  Don’t miss it!  But, if you’re not lucky enough to have watched it on the big screen, I’m sure DVDs won’t be too long until they are available.  Read the book too as a bonus!  You’ll appreciate it more.

Again, I really have to stress that you will probably enjoy this movie even better if you were able to see the previous movies.   Because there are just some key parts of the movie that relates to the previous movies.  But I think how this storyline was handled, you can still enjoy the movie even without having seen the previous movies.  Anyway, go see Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows.  There’s just too many aspects of this movie that will truly entertain not just the kids and teenagers, but I do believe this movie is literally for everyone of any age.  With all the plot twists, the great special effects, the storyline itself, I really believe this is one of the must see movies of 2010.

My Rating for Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: 4 out of 5 stars

I’ve been watching very good movies these days, one of them was Unstoppable starring Denzel Washington & Chris Pine.  I think maybe because of my age, there were times that I just slept through a movie (remember, Salt?).

Unstoppable was different though, I was wide awake during the course of the movie.  PLUS, I was actually sitting straight the whole time and almost screamed at some of the scenes.  The movie was exciting, touching, action-oriented and with lots of suspense!

I must admit when I saw the trailer, I said to myself, “why would they make such a movie?  It’s just a train who loses its brakes and then what?”.  I was quite hesitant actually when my mom invited me to watch.  Anyhow, it’s a Denzel Washington movie so I said to myself that I’ll reserve all feedback after we finish watching the movie.

With my brief description of it in the previous paragraph, I’ll try to go a bit deeper so that you will have a sense as to why this movie is truly a must-watch.  Unstoppable, is a movie of not only about a runaway train, but it’s a train carrying toxic and dangerous chemicals that is racing towards a city.  The train is literally carrying enough hazardous chemicals that it will surely destroy the city when it gets to the point of a curve that will cause the train to derail and have its chemicals spill into a fuel oil tank farm causing the disaster that everyone is trying to avoid.

This is where Denzel Washington (Frank Barnes) and Chris Pine (Will Colson) come in.  Denzel Washington portrays a seasoned veteran engineer while Chris Pine is a new hire just 4 months into his position.  In the beginning of the movie, there’s obvious friction between the two characters since many of the older workers believe that Colson is not qualified for the position since he’s too young, inexperienced, and they believe he got the position only because of family connections.

However, as soon as they find out about the runaway train, Frank Barnes decides to take it upon himself to try to stop the train, and Colson although hesitant momentarily decides to join Barnes.

It is Rosario Dawson’s character (Connie Hooper) that portrays the yardmaster in the movie.  She’s in charge of the trains coming in and out of her station.  And it is in fact her yard which the 1 kilometer long runaway train had originated from.  So her role is definitely a central role in the movie as well.

The interplay between the characters is masterful and wonderful to watch.  The development of each character, their side stories, especially that of Colson is well done by the writer and whoever has done the screenplay in this movie.

The action in the movie is not only constant as soon as we find out that the train has caught speed, has no brakes, and almost has no means of stopping, but it is brilliantly mixed in with great drama and character play as each character including Barnes, Colson, and Hooper all have a great stake in stopping this disaster from happening.

As all great movies often have, the main thrust of this movie is not just the obvious sequences of great suspense and action surrounding the stopping of this 1 km long runaway train, but it is also a story about love, compassion, bravery, teamwork, trust & responsibility.

While both Denzel Washington & Chris Pine were excellent  in the movie, it seems that my favorite character in the movie was definitely Rosario Dawson’s character, Connie Hooper.  Rosario Dawson really gave the role some great depth and not in one instance did I even realize that this was an actress playing just another role.  She really immersed herself in this role, and I think the movie was greatly lifted by her performance.   I could feel all her frustrations, happiness, nervousness all throughout the movie.  I honestly believe that she deserves at least an Oscar nomination for her role in this movie.

A must-see movie if I may say.  Don’t miss this movie, you won’t regret it.  Non-stop action, wonderfully made movie, unstoppable indeed.

My Rating for Unstoppable: 4 out of 5 stars

Finally, I was able to watch a whole entire movie on Star Movies again.  I think the last movie that I was able to catch fully was The Spirit.  Very good old movies being shown on television and I love it.  Taken is definitely one of them.  This movie was originally released around 2 years ago.

The movie stars Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen and Maggie Grace.  Liam Neeson portrays an ex secret service agent (Bryan Mills), who loves his daughter very much.  He moves to California to be closer to his daughter who now lives with her mother and stepfather.  His daughter goes on vacation to Paris with her bestfriend but is kidnapped by the Albanian mafia.  Those kidnappers specializes in sex slavery, they drug their victims and sell them to men.  The French police turned a blind eye on those crimes in exchange for  money.  Bryan vows to do everything to save his daughter.

One really great part is in Paris, when the kidnappers are in the apartment that Kim (Bryan’s daughter) is in with Amanda her bestfriend.  As Kim sees Amanda being grabbed by the kidnappers, she is in another room, she has the presence to call her father to tell him what is happening.  Bryan tells her to hide under the bed, and tells her to listen carefully.  Bryan tells his daughter Kim that she is about to be taken and that what she should do is put the phone down and scream out any descriptions of the kidnappers.   Bryan then hears heavy breathing and ends up speaking to the kidnappers, he says basically that he is an expert, that if they let his daughter go now, then it will end at that point.  But if they do not let his daughter go at that instant, then he will find them and basically kill them.  At this, the kidnapper just says, “good luck”.

Later on, with the help of Bryan’s friend, because he was able to record the voices of the kidnappers when his daughter had called him, they are able to figure out through the accent of the kidnappers that they are actually Albanian, and not only that, but what part of Albania they are from.  Bryan also finds out that this modus operandi, because of the nature of this, they have 96 hours until she disappears forever.

I really consider the point where Bryan arrives in Paris and is told that he has approximately 96 hours, this point is really the point where the movie sort of speeds up dramatically.  Now the clock is ticking, and the daughter he loves so dearly needs help.

This movie is really a wonderful testament to just how good of an actor Liam Neeson is, I truly believe he is one of the best in Hollywood.  Versatile, great character play, and just ultimately believable in most any role that he plays.

Even though I know that this is a movie that is meant to be fast paced, action-packed, and one heck of a thrilling ride, I also see the great underlying theme and motivation of the movie.  In this case, it really is about a father’s love for his daughter.  A story about how great that love can be, that bond between father and daughter, that it can border on simple focus and anger towards anyone who dares to hurt his daughter.  I just have a soft spot for it.

I was teary-eyed too especially seeing a father sacrificing everything for his daughter.  Willing to do everything just to keep his daughter safe.  I do not want to spill the whole story here even if it’s an old movie.  But the twists and turns that this movie takes, as Bryan rushes to rescue his kidnapped daughter is a movie experience that I haven’t had in the longest while.  I highly suggest you watch it on DVD.  I heard that it might have a part 2 but that’s just rumors.  If ever, I would definitely watch the 2nd part coz the this movie was just excellent.

I can promise this, that you will experience almost every kind of emotion watching this movie.  And it really is a good movie, when you can truly just sit down and be immersed in the whole storyline, the progression of the movie, and the complex bits and pieces that keep coming at you and will really keep you in suspense.  Taken is a rare movie that is able to really give you the full experience of a great cast, great acting, awesome story, perfect tempo, and so much more.  Honestly, you have got to see this!

Check out the trailer below and see for yourself.  Don’t forget to grab a DVD and watch it in full 🙂

My Rating for Taken: 5 out of 5 stars