syncopation

Tag: Fifteen movies that will always stick with you

So, I have been told I have been quite inactive on the blogging front… but Kaho happened to tag me, so I am going to take this opportunity to rekindle what I used to love, despite how much I am behind with uni and thesis…

But I shouldn’t waste any of your precious time with my dull, boring life, maybe except the evenings of this week, and here is the list:

1. I am Sam – this isn’t a movie I’ll watch over and over again mainly because of the emotional roller coaster that it will take me through every time I watch it. But I really love the movie.
2. Love Actually – there is just something about this movie, the happiness, the love… to me, it’s the movie to watch during the holidays.
3. Prestige – I just cannot get over how brilliant this movie is.
4. Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain – it’s the music that get me hooked, not that its cinematography isn’t brilliant, but I have its soundtrack on my iTunes, and every time I listen to it, it’s as though I am back on the streets in Paris, strolling past the aroma of Café au lait and croissant in Montmartre.
5. Monster Inc. – I simply love the novelty of the story and I will never get tired of watching the millions of colours in the film.
6. The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
7. Legally Blonde – it makes Harvard seems to be closer somehow…lol
8. Totoro

And… then I realise, 15 movies that always stick with you are really hard to name – Kaho, how did you do that?!?!?!

Just Watched: Confessions of a Shopaholic

I have wanted to watch this since I have seen its trailer in Hong Kong and it’s not finally on in Melbourne’s theatre – two weeks ago… and today I finally caught it with Irene and Christine! I miss you gals sooo much!

Overall, the movie has lived up to my expectation which… there isn’t much. But you don’t go watch a chick flick and have high expectations, right? All in all, I think it’s good for a laugh. I was not particularly impressed by Isla Fisher’s performance. But her boss (portrayed by Hugh Dancy who is smoking hot with the accent) and her best friend Suze’s (played by Krysten Ritter) performance definitely caught my eye.

My favourite scene of the movie was which Rebecca lied about being fluent in Finnish (because no one checks up on Finland…!) and when the Finnish guy spoke Finnish to her and she pretended that she understood and slapped him right at his face. (It’s not Swedish at all, but it definitely reminded me some of the good times going ‘huh?!’ in Finland.)

Lastly, a bone to pick with the movie – I am not agreeing with the fashion of the movie, especially for a movie that is set in New York AND theme Shopaholic.

Just Watched: The Secret Life of Bees

I bawled my eye out when I watched this on the flight from Hong Kong to Melbourne.

The movie is based on a best-seller novel by Sue Monk Kidd. Lily (played by Dakota Fanning) had a rough childhood because of her estranged parents and she blamed herself for accidentally killed her mother. She was brought up by Miss Rosaleen (played by Jennifer Hudson) who got discriminated and abused in town because of her colour which later led to a flee out of town.

What I have loved so much of this movie is the plot its own, Lily blamed herself for all the mishaps happening around her when she has done nothing wrong – accidentally murdering her mother, her black-friend got taken away because they watched a movie in public together and May committing suicide because of that. It’s very bittersweet and makes you want to hug her and reassure her that it will all be okay.

The background of the story itself also adds a more complicated dimension to the movie – the Civil Right Bills had just passed then – however, people are still acting like it’s just a piece of paper that didn’t mean anything. So for the entire movie it’s been quite a struggle between the colours which made it an even more engaging movie to watch.

Just Watched: Australia

I definitely hesitated before going to the cinema. First, it’s Nicole Kidman… (I have no idea why I am not fond of her… but yeah, I am not that fond of her.) Second, if you know how long the movie would be – I guarantee you would hesitate too – it’s a whooping 165 minutes i.e. 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Anyway, I think I came out of the movie theatre more satisfied than I thought I would be. It started off somehow comedian but then the romantic elements of the started stemming after an hour of the film had started. We should not forget that this film also address the issue of stolen generation. (It’s not new, but Luhrmann did a great job making the process of learning about stolen generation more tolerable i.e. way better than what Rabbit-proof Fence did.) Also, considering that this film is longer than 2.45 hours, Luhrmann deserves a medal for that there weren’t any dull moments. And hell, watching Hugh Jackman showering in the outback and riding a horse in an impeccable manner cannot be that shabby.

However, what I do enjoy more than the movie itself are the movie reviews. Foreign film critics are generally quite gentle while Aussie film critics couldn’t be more critical to their national film. The Age, Canberra Times and Western Australian all gave neutral to negative film reviews. But I guess that’s only true to the Aussie culture… and they really cracked me up!

Here’s what Schembri of Canberra Times said:

As for the visuals, the film is pretty — you cannot point a camera at the outback and not get something impressive — but there are only so many wide shots of the Aussie outback that the human mind can stand.

And finally, this speaks my heart:

If only Baz had made the damn thing shorter by at least half an hour.

Just Watched: Bella

Bella is my most favourite movie of 2008 to date. The movie was a plain story but a greatly-told one. Frankly, I like it even better than Vicky Cristina Barcelona! The movie was set in New York but heavily related to Mexico (Mexican food! Hmmm…. Guacamole!) and Spain (Perhaps not quite, except the mentioning of Real Madrid? I just love the Latinos too much ;)) The cinematography was great, and so was the music. (Rachael Yamagata’s Meet Me By the Water was playing when the end credits were rolling!)

A well-spent 1.5 hours :D

The Unfulfilled Love

As far as I can remember, Vicky Cristina Barcelona is the third Woody Allen film that I have watched. It’s just very Woody Allen. A story about relationship being told in the most straight forward way with Scarlett Johansson in the cast. There is nothing I really want to discuss but only one line in the movie: Only unfulfilled love can be romantic.

And I couldn’t agree more about that.

When you read a novel, a fiction, or a whatever, to me, at least, the most enchanting part is always the progress of falling in love, or pursuing love but never the happy-ending. Nothing interests me after the girl gets the boy, the boy gets the girl, the girl gets the girl, or the boy gets the boy unless an extramarital affair involves or someone cheats. Believe me or not, I am neither melodramatic nor pessimistic. I do love happy-ending once in a while when I feel like the world is a horrible place. But they are never the most memorable footage. An unresolved love story makes you keep thinking about it. A resolved love story, however, leaves no room for your imagination and you just stop thinking about it all together. Because the only thing to tell in a fulfilling love story is the outcome whereas in an unresolved love story, every single detail tells the story.

Recently, I have discovered my most favourite scene in Grey’s Anatomy: after Mark first appeared in the show, being punched by Derek, pleading for Addison to go back to NY with him and then sitting at Joe’s talking to Meredith whilst waiting for Addison to show.

Meredith: What are you still doing here?

Mark: I am hoping Addison shows up.

Meredith: You are still in love with her?

Mark: You are still in love with him.

Meredith: She won’t show, you know. He’s not the kind of guy who leaves if he can help it.

Mark: What if you were wrong? What if just this once, life comes down on the side of the dirty mistresses?

For the record, it’s not that I like it when Meredith and Derek’s relationship kept circling the drain, but I’ve never seen Meredith more in love with Derek in that scene, even without Derek being physical presence. To Meredith, watching Mark waiting for Addison to show was déjà vu to her and she knew the outcome. At that moment, you realised how deeply Meredith was hurt and accepted the fate that she was just the adulterous whore. It seemed that she had completely given up but as Mark said, she was still in love with him. And that was the unfulfilled love.

Now I have come to understand,
The way it is,
It’s not a secret anymore,
’cause we’ve been through that before,
From tonight I know that you’re the only one,
I’ve been confused and in the dark,
Now I understand,

I wonder why it is,
I don’t argue like this,
With anyone but you,
I wonder why it is,
I wont let my guard down,
For anyone but you
We do it all the time,
Blowing out my mind,

Just like a star across my sky,
Just like an angel off the page,
You have appeared to my life,
Feel like I’ll never be the same,
Just like a song in my heart,
Just like oil on my hands

- Like A Star, Corinne Bailey Rae

Just Watched: Mama Mia!

This is my second time watching Mama Mia! – first the musical, and second time, the movie.

What is good about this movie is that it is definitely a no-brainer and not heart-wrenching. (I am starting to understand why comedies can be such a hit because after a week worth of hard work, you seriously don’t want to think during the weekends.) You can just sit back and enjoy 2 hours of fun, music, and Meryl Streep dancing her butt off (which I would never ever imagine seeing it). I was not very impressed by her performance at the very beginning of the movie, I guess particularly due to her unusual portrayal, but it got better towards the end.

Since none of these actors are really trained in singing, of course they are going down when compare to the Musical version and the original ABBA version. But all of them have managed to do a pretty good job except maybe Pierce Brosnan, which I could hardly stand it when he was singing to Meryl Streep’s character. Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård sang all right. My favourite parts of the movie are when the old-girls-trio sing and dance together. You CANNOT miss it. It totally cracked me and Yuen up.

Overall, as this is a movie, so it doesn’t have the level of interaction like you are watching a musical. So it really was a bummer when I wanted to get up and dance towards the end only realising I was in a movie theatre and that would be over the top. But as a movie, I think it’s worth having a copy of it at home just for a good laugh and music when you need something to laugh at for a girls-night-in.

And finally, the verdict is… Yuen is going to watch it again with her sister and Greek is too beautiful. How on earth did I miss it last year???!?!

Just Watched: The Dark Knight

For the record, The Dark Knight is NOT a bad movie.

I definitely went to watch it because it’s Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale again. I loved Batman Begins and I loved The Prestige. So theoretically it’s almost guarantee that I should not be disappointed by this combo however, I was definitely disappointed this time no matter how people kept raving about this movie, not because it’s not a good movie, but because it’s not better than or even, as good as the past two movies I’ve watched by Nolan, in my very humble opinion.

Most audience love the intensity of the movie and how it is full of suspense. But I was looking for more than that from Nolan. It’s definitely true that Nolan and his production team had delivered a lot during that 2.5 hours and the story line was undoubtedly complicated to handle however, I wasn’t particularly impressed by the twist. I actually didn’t think it was unexpected and was handled as well as Nolan could have: every thing happened after the twist was just kind of hazy and couldn’t even leave a decent impression.

As far as I concerned, the acting was up to standard. Heath Ledger definitely out-acted Christian Bale. His portrayal of Joker was just so vivid that all the lines delivered by him were so memorable that I could still remember most of them. Whereas for Christian Bale, I think he has already done his best with his character. And how could I ever forget Michael Caine? His portrayal of Alfred has never let me down. Morgan Freeman however, in my humble opinion did not do as well as he had done with Batman Begins. It could be because of how the lines for his character were written. But I think he could still have done a better job. And boy, how wrong was I when I thought Katie Holmes was a bad cast for Rachel…

And please, I cannot understand their motives of filming in HK. I just found the whole HK story line completely unnecessary. So redundant that it could be taken away from the movie and show it to the others and they will be completely oblivious that part of the movie is removed. I was also pissed that most of the scenes in HK were indoors. God knows where that could actually have been. Nevertheless, I was impressed by the scene that Batman flew down from the top of IFC and gliding through the pretty night scenery of Hong Kong, but on the other hand, how the heck could the slow wind speed of urban HK support Batman’s weight was beyond my imagination… But if they did fly the entire crew to HK for just that scene, my only comment would be: what a good way of contributing to even more carbon emission. (Oh wait, I forgot the States are NOT in the Kyoto Protocol.)

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention that I didn’t even see Edison Chan in the movie. My mom claimed she did, but apparently no one can agree who’s actually him – some says he’s Lau’s assistant and some says he’s the security who asked Morgan Freeman for his mobile. My point is, he was that unnoticeable.

Stonehenge and Sex and the City: the Movie

We went to Stonehenge today! I was so looking forward to it when Cybele told me it’s just near by in Salibury as I, weirdly, always have the wrong perception that it is far far away in Scotland!

We joined a local tour which departed in Bath and later for three hours including transport. (FYI, Bath to Stonehenge takes 2 hours back and forth…) We were briefly shown the Westbury White Horse from afar but of course were allowed to spend some time in Stonehenge on site. Stonehenge actually means stone-hang. Archaeologists actually still have no idea how and why Stonehenge was formed, not to mention some of the stones are dragged from the other side of the country! Cybele told me when her father came here gozillion years ago, he was allowed to walk through the pillars but we were only allowed to admire the stones behind the troughs.

On the way back, our driver Chris showed us a booklet compiled of pictures of mysterious crop circles. The last page even showed a humorous car-version of Stonehenge that is found in Michigan, probably with cars from Detroit!

Cybele and I had dinner in an Indian place close to Bristol Uni and I saw a lot of monumental buildings of her uni. Afterwards her friend Kit joined us to watch Sex and the City: the Movie at Odeon!

As a previous viewer of SATC, I wasn’t very impressed by the movie although the critics seem to love it. Personally the movie didn’t feel like SATC to me and was too rush. What I enjoyed about SATC the most was the girls; brunch time and chatting intimately about everything. However the two-hour-and-a-half-movie was packed with different story lines. By the time it has laid them all out, the story teller almost had to rush into tying up all the loose ends in the short time frame. Not to mention they also have to introduce the main characters to the new viewers of SATC in the beginning of the movie. (I swear I had no clue what SJP was mumbling at the beginning of the movie) As a result, it felt like to me the girl talk has been cut short even though the movie was still very much all about the four girls. Of course, the fashion aspect of SATC is still the cream of the crop: the Monolo shoes, the Vivienne Westwood wedding gown, and all other gorgeous accessories are enough to have your eyes glued to the scene without much effort on the story line. Who cares about the critics’ complaint of heavy air-brushing?

Just Watched: Made of Hono(u)r

Sorry, I just can’t help it – honour looks weird without a ‘u’.

Okay, so I watched Made of Honour because Patrick Dempsey is in it. But I think I am growing out of the whole chick flick phase, possibly because of the overdose of Grey’s Anatomy. The whole thing is just too fairy tale and I am not buying this kind of story anymore – best friends falling in love with each other without knowing it and the guy has to go all the way to another foreign country to stop his best friend from marrying the wrong guy. And it has totally become an overkill when Patrick’s character has to get on the horseback to get to the chapel to interrupt the wedding ceremony.

Acting-wise, I of course enjoying having Dempsey on the screen. And Monaghan and him do have good chemistry. I am certainly not complaining watching the two enjoying each others’ company in two of my favourite places in the world. But I think I am more impressed by the acting of Kathleen Quinlan who is the mother of Monaghan’s character. And lastly, seeing Dempsey in mini-kilt and with briefs underneath it was too much and unnatural. That said, I however would not have a problem if the deleted full Monty scene was shown if it is handled naturally.

I don’t know what’s got into me, maybe watching Enchanted, ironically, made me realise there is no fairy tale in the real world. And for the record, although I find the movie very endearing and absolutely adorable, I don’t see why people like it so much that they are even talking about the possibility of making a sequel! It’s just another overly-merry Disney movie that is loaded with love songs with overly-optimistic lyrics.

Anyway, I should stop poisoning the world with my crazy bitter rant. Made of Honour is a good movie, go watch it if you have never been to Scotland or you like Patrick Dempsey or Michelle Monaghan, or you are still in the chick flick phase.

Seriously, what’s with all the bitterness and sarcasm? My apologies if I have ruined it for you. I definitely have watched way too much Grey’s.