Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Watched the movie "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" yesterday. I didn't know I would like it that much. The movie was to talk about Joel and Clem. They met in Monhauk at the Valentine's day. The impulsive personality of Clem created a lot of drama and then, at a point, Clem decided to erase the memory of Joel from her, few days before the Valentine. The stranger attitude from Clem hurt Joel a lot, of course at that time Joel didn't know the memory erasing part. Joel decided to erase the memory of Clem from him and we started to understand these two from the flashbacks. The most touchy moment for me was that at the time Joel and Clem in Joel's head realized they were short of time because the tracking device was right after them to take out Clem from Joel's head. Clem asked Joel "It's gonna be short. What should we do?" in a house next to the seashore. Joel said "Just enjoy it." The moment, at that moment, I knew I will remember this movie for a long time.

I also love its theme song "Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometimes". "Open your heart, look around you, and it will astound you". I want to visit Monhauk.

525600 minutes

How do you measure a year? This is from the theme song from Rent. I thought I have watched this Broadway show and yet I could not be certain when I watched the DVD. Perhaps I did. Perhaps not. Tonight I spent some time enjoying this DVD. Some scenes touched me. After the movie ended, I went to YouTube to get the theme song since I like it very much.

Love Actually

Last night was pretty cold. Both Onyxia and I were slow. Looking at the screen and thinking some random things. My mind was lazy. Suddenly I had an idea. How about watch a DVD? I picked this movie. Well the DVD functioned weirdly. It required me to install a special DVD player which was designed for Universal films. Quite lame. To watch it I have to install it. After some time the movie started. Quite heavy British accent. I liked the scene where Billy sang "Christmas is everywhere." This song technically was called "Love is everywhere." To promote more sales, the marketing strategy was to replace "love" with "Christmas" and release the revised version. Many small scenes were represented: office work environment, wedding, funeral, porn-movie shooting, British prime minister move-in, and a mobile worker. This movie is like drinking a good bottle water. Not too tense, not too artificial, quite natural, quite pleasant, no hidden flavor, no surprise. You can always relate the movie to yourself. I like it. I have not finished it though. I still have half hour to go. I was saving it for later so I could enjoy watching it rather than rushing myself to finish it at a wrong day.

SAW V

First I need to say it loud that I am not a horror movie person. I am not into this type. I am so chicken. I always close my eyes when something super unwanted or disgusting or bloody or scary is going to come. If you look at my previous movie articles, you saw I have seen SAW I, SAW II, and SAW IV. I think it was the creativity that attracts me to see this series. The SAW I ending surprised me a lot. I would say the script writer is a genius. The second one is good too. The fourth one is a bit disgusting especially the last 10 min. The fifth one is just fine in my opinion. Perhaps it is just me. The preview time before the movie was super long. All the trailers in the preview time were horrible or creepy. I asked myself why I am here? What's wrong with me to come to see the movie? I felt so uneasy when looked at the big screen with disgusting scenes. The movie started. The starting scene was as usual quite scary. A new torture device. Then the story lead us back to the ending of the forth one. We knew the FBI agent somehow got caught by the new Jigsaw and put into a torture device. Smart or witty, he saved himself by opening a hall in his throat. You see, quite horrible. The story went on and 50% of the movie was retro. Trying to give the linkage between puzzles left in previous episodes. The story in this new release is weaker than previous episodes. My body was so tensed during the movie. I regretted to come right after the first torture device. Don't get me wrong though. The reason I regretted was because I felt so uncomfortable with horror movie. Not because of the weak or bad taste of the scenes. Overall, I would say the movie is not bad. The ending was interesting. Not too many people would predict the ending. Good to watch if you like to scare yourself to death.

Role Models

This movie for me is like another Super Bad or American Pie. During the two hours I laughed many times. Well, of course not every joke was fun. Some are quite dumb and others are quite low. If you just want to recover from some stress or simply look for some laughs, this movie is a good choice. We did not pay any dime though. It was a free movie screening. Would it be a worth watching movie in cinema? $10 for this movie? Most of us would shake head. The movie plot is simple. The main character got upset from his life around his 10 year anniversary in the company. He proposed and yet his girl friend decided not to accept it. Not only that, but she also wanted to end this relationship. The pissed guy and his friend then ran into troubles - got some fights with the tow away guys and drove their truck partially on a bull statue. Then a court order mandated the main characters to serve in a special behavior correction center, Sturdy Wings. Lots of incredible parts originated from this place. The lady who played the principal of the Sturdy Wings is quite genius. Lots of fun conversations from her. Each main character was assigned to spend some time with a troubled kid. You see how the main characters changed and how others reacted. Most parts of the movie were simply predictable. I particularly liked the Kiss part. The Kiss country in the role play land was totally a surprise to me. The ending of course is a happy ending.

This movie absolutely gave me some fun. The sound in the auditorium was not configured right though. Lots of times we just could not hear the conversations clearly. With lots of laughs or comments, we sometimes totally missed some funny jokes. Overall, the movie experience was very pleasant.

Meet Joe Black

The title did not sound attractive. Nonetheless, it is a worth watching movie. The story was not too complicated: a powerful and wise man was visited by the death just before his 65 year old birthday. The death this time did not take the man with him right away, instead, he spent some time in the world with the man to get joy. The power of the death made this request inrefusable. The man obeyed. The death, or Joe Black, blended himself in the man's life. Joe appeared in every occasion of the man's life. The man, or we called him Bill, was a CEO of a large communication company. Bill had to bring Joe to the board meetings even though Joe was not a board member. Of course the strange appearance of Joe drew attention and suspection. In addition, Bill had to allow Joe to join his family dinners. Family was thrilled to this new commer. Not his initial intention, the death fell in love with Bill's little daughter, Susan.
One of the worth watching scenes was the coffee shop scene. In the coffee shop, Joe (the original Joe) met Susan. The 5 min conversation between them made this film popular among female audience. The male audience asked me if I would fall to a Joe-like man with a Joe-like conversation. The answer was positive. Of course partially was due to Joe's looking. The main part was his frankness and sincerity. Romance will not be bloomed without some direct words. The frankness strike. Nonetheless, if the conversation is only filled with direct words, then the conversation becomes rude. Sincerity was essential in a good flirt. If the words sound empty or fake, no girl will believe in them. Right before the coffee shop, Bill told Susan the love was like striking thunder. This sentence helped the audience link the scenes. This sentence served as a hint. When you hear it, you know something is going to happen. Back to the performance, I enjoyed the performance from Bill the most. Anthony's acting was near perfect. The acting made Bill so real. Bill's calm and sophistication implied why the death said he was a quite successful figure in this world. I also enjoyed the facial expressions from Susan. The smiles and the expressions were innocent and seductive. I saw self-control and tension among self. Two scenes left a mark in my mind. The first one was the one when Bill and Joe saw the fireworks in the sky. The fireworks were to celebrate Bill's birthday. The fireworks were fascinating. Nonetheless, Bill must have felt sad when he saw them because he knew he was going to die during the fireworks. He liked the fireworks, he enjoyed them, but he may not be able to enjoy them any more since he would be in another world soon. Bill commented "it is hard to let go... just like life." The second scene was when the coffee shop Joe met with a worried Susan in the hills after he was brought back by the death after the death took the life of Bill. Susan recognized this Joe by his genuine behaviors right away. She asked Joe "what do we do now?" Joe replied "it will come to us". Yes, sometimes you don't know what is next. You just need a person next to you assures you and helps you clear your anxiety.

La Americana

Last night I went to see a documentary. I thought the documentary was a fun one until a friend pointed out that this documentary shall be quite depressing. I adjusted my expectation. I adjusted it right before I took off for the movie. The move was played at Stanford. You can imagine all the settings are quite cozy (school style) which is what I like. The movie was about a single Bolivian mom. At the time the film started, she was 33. She said at the beginning of the film that she would never have come to NYC if not for her daughter. She does not think she is a good mom. She has an ailed daughter who relies on a wheelchair to move her from places to places. She loves her daughter. To get a better treatment for her ailed daughter, she needs more money. She knew she would not get much in Bolivia. The only way to get money quickly was to go to the US. The solution seemed clear to her, however, going there meant that she had to leave her home, her friends, her family, her daughter, her job, and her mom. She tried to apply a tourist Visa but got rejected. So she decided to take the risky way - illegal entrance. She flew to Mexico, hid in a small trunk of a coupe, and entered the US from the Mexico-US border. She described the illegal entrance vividly. She barely breathed and felt almost dead in the line for Custom inspection. She thought she would fail. She thought the officer would have seen her. But she got through successfully thanks to a chubby girl sitting on top of her. She flew to NY. She took multiple jobs: cleaning lady for shops, cleaning lady for houses, nanny for kids, dog walker, and elder helper. She always tried to buy time. She hopped to the subway and bus. She worked and worked. She was so motivated - for her daughter. Due to her illegal stay, she could not go back to see her daughter. If she goes back, then she will have a ten year penalty. She will not be allowed to enter until the penalty ends. To earn more money, she gave up her world. She had been working as an illegal worker at NY for six years. Audience saw the talks between her and her daughter on the phone. She said once she asked her daughter what Christmas gift she wanted and her daughter replied she wanted her mom to come back. Even though she missed her daughter so much, she kept staying in NY. Why? Because she wanted to earn more money to ensure her daughter will have enough money at later time in her life. She met a Bolivian guy. Similar to her, the guy gave up his world as a travel agent in Bolivia and his family and came to NY. Why? Because he believes American Dream. This land has more opportunities. In the progress of the film, the audience witnessed the controversial Congress bill about legalizing the illegal immigrants. The bill wanted to open up an opportunity for illegal immigrants. All illegal immigrants could start working toward the citizenship as long as they have been staying in US for more than five years. The mom talked about her point of view. She even thought about getting the citizenship through marriage. Nonetheless, due to her illegal entrance, she didn't have this privilege. She regretted to entering illegally. She talked to her interviewer that she wanted to go back to Bolivia for her daughter's 15 birthday. She said her daughter was 9 when she left. She missed her daughter's growing up. She felt sad about it. She said when she arrived, she told herself she would go back for her daughter's birthday. Now the birthday was approaching. She wanted to keep her words. Of course this decision took a price - cutting off her finance source and leaving her lover. One side was her daughter and the desire to see her daughter and the other side was her daughter's future and her lover. Without sufficient capital, her daughter will not get a good care from licensed medical professionals and not able to live comfortably if one day she has to live by herself. Quite a dilemma. The mom decided to go back. Among the very last things, she went to see the Statue of Liberty that was always on her list to visit. The mom spent some time reading the carved words on the board before the statue. She didn't believe the words. Her eyes were wet. She said the reality was not like what the words stated. This land needs illegal immigrants to do jobs for them, however, this land also eliminates the opportunity for illegal immigrants (the bill). She said she was not a threat to anyone and yet this land treated her as a threat. She said the American Dream and liberty not there. She said this statue was just a symbol. The scene went to Bolivia. Her daughter was thrilled to see her return. They went to various stores to prepare her daughter's birthday. Once the birthday passed, audience started seeing the reality. The Bolivia medical system, infrastructure, living condition of the family, and struggles this family faced. After seven months, the mom spoke out loud that she started to regret returning to Bolivia. The daily wage she got was less than ten dollars. But her daughter's diapers cost her hundred dollars a year and each medical visit cost her five dollars. She realized a doctor had broken her daughter's hip by careless deeds. She was upset and yet not much she could do. She went to many places to see if any one can help heal the hip with reasonable price. The life was tough. In the last scene, the mom talked about "God bless America" and "Who is American". She said in every speech made from Bush she heard the first phrase. She wondered what this meant. She said this land only admits "Americans are those who were born here". But it was true under her definition. She said she is an American. She was born in Bolivia and Bolivia is in the American continent. So why she is not viewed by America as American? It is a radical question.

P.S. I love you

At a friend gathering night, we watched this movie. We were told this movie was based on a best seller book. The preview was so touching . Therefore the consensus was to pick this movie for the night. With no doubt, this movie is going to be a sad one. Why? Don't want to ruin your excitement. But you will knowwhy I said so in 5 min. Well don't get me wrong though. The sadness is not the main point of this movie. This movie is a heart-felt one. An ordinary man made an extraordinary plan.

I am legend

"I Am Legend" Has Record $77 Million December Sales

Saturday night we five people went to see it. It is a science-fiction thriller from Time Warner and the main attraction is Will Smith. The movie was slow and strange. I expected to see something entertaining. But the movie was not entertaining at all.

Stephane told me was a remade. The previous one was quite Christian oriented. You would see a man standing in the fountain and the way he stood made him looks like Christ. None of us, Navaline, Laurent, Mun Jun, Stephane, and I, liked this movie. It was quite surprising to know this movie has such high sales.

Surf's Up

"You know, we've known each other way back since, like... yesterday, I think it was. " from Chicken Joe

A totally surfing movie. These penguins look similar to those from Happy Feet. But the movie atmosphere and plot were completely different from those in Happy Feet. If you are learning surfing or you already a surf fanatic, then you will appreciate this movie as much as I did.

This movie started with an interview. You started knowing the main character - Cody Maverick. You knew he was a penguin living in Antarctica. Unlike other penguins, Cody surfed when others fish. Cody surfed when others tried to hitch eggs. He had his own way. His role model was Big Z who was famous for big wave surfing. Cody admired Big Z so that when neurotic event liaison bird Mikey Abromowitz was in his island for Big Z Memorial competition promotion, Cody jumped to the whale and joined the competition team.

Cody was brave, fearless, and maverick (perfect for his last name). He stood up when Tank insulted Big Z. He was totally wiped out by the big waves. All competitors showed great sympathy on the wipe out. But the event organizer, Reggie, did not. Instead, he took this wipe-out as a promotion event to attract audience's attention. A tease to marketing folks.

Lani, a female lifeguard, saved Cody when he was wiped-out and in coma. Lani took Cody to her uncle's house. Her uncle looked 100% wasted. Accidentally, Cody found out this uncle was Big Z. Oh, this uncle was his role model. This uncle was his all time hero. But... why Big Z did not want to surf any more?

Through interactions and memories, the audience understood why. Then the fun began. We saw how Big Z was called Big Z. We saw many detailed techniques in respect to surfing. Oh, made me want to try surfing.

Chicken Joe was absolutely a fun character. His laid-back style and interesting behavior cracked me up. His talking, like the one I quoted in sub-headline, was nonsensely entertaining. His scenes with the tribe (the yum yum yum tribe) was creative. I somehow sensed that the yum yum yum thing was a tease to French. (since French said yum yum yum) Another fun part was from kids' talking.

The competition and ending part were more educational (friendship was more important than fame). Fun to watch though. Highly recommend this 85 min movie especially in this slow season.

SAW IV

With the large screen, the impression was at least 10 times stronger

We went to cinema to watch this movie. With the large screen, the impression was at least 10 times stronger.

After watching SAW I and SAW II, SAW IV looked less repellent than before. Totof and I would like to give it a try. Navaline suggested to watch it on a Friday night. We had five people. Laurent (went back from Brazil), Stephen, Navaline, and us. Before SAW IV, we went to Dynasty for dinner. None of us had ever been there for dinner. We only had its dim sum.

I should have posted this sooner. But, I just could not do it. Every time I tried to recall SAW IV, I got myself scared. The beginning part was an autopsy. The autopsy for John, the Jigsaw. I did not watch SAW III before watching IV. So, this fact was new to me. The autopsy was horribly detailed. When staff tried to cut John's scull, I was afraid John would wake up and kill these two staff (then SAW IV would become a ghost movie). This revival apparently did not occur. Instead, the staff found a tape in John's stomach. The story began.

According to the tape, we knew someone else was doing the work that the Jigsaw used to do. The question was that who this new guy was? Two detectives were trying hard to unveil the fact. In one discovery, they found their colleague, Kelly, was executed brutally. It was absolutely a Jigsaw's work. Then we saw another two FBI agents arrived. During the conversation, someone discovered a vital fact - this hidden person must be tall enough to pull Kelly up to be hanged on the device.

In this discovery, we also learned detective Rigg's personality. Rigg was tending to do things impulsively.
The movie showed two men. Both were chained together. The left man was a disability because his eyes were sewed. The right man was a disability because his mouth was sewed. So, they could not communicate with each other (or could they?) These two men were in an extremely angry and desperate condition. The man who could not see asked questions to the man who could not talk. By no means the right man could say anything to the left man. The misunderstanding made the situation worse. Accidentally the right man found the key to his chain was on the back of the left man's neck. He wanted to get it to save himself. See, the greedy and hope made this weak looking man different. This man decided to get the key by force. He got advantage which was that he could see. His plan did not go well so he got violent resistance. The right man succeeded after 5 min. The price for his success was the death of the left man.

Then, one detective went missing. Through the conversation between a FBI and Rigg, we got a hint - all missing or dead detectives were all Rigg's colleagues. Rigg could not just sit and watch his colleagues missing. He wanted to do something. He became obsessed by this mysterious Jigsaw successor.

Rigg went home. His wife wanted to leave him for some time. Rig went sleep. During the midnight, he was awaken by some noise. He became alert. The scene was constructed quite breathtaking. Rigg was ambushed. When he woke up, he saw a red paint on a door saying "you see what I see". He walked to the library and saw a girl was trapped. Her hair was sucked by a device. If no one stopped the device, the girl would be killed. I chose not to see this scene. Then, after some mess, Rigg saw a box with two keys. One key to save and one key to kill. Rigg took both.

Audience followed Rigg and his flashback. He recalled some moments with the missing detective. It was a child abuse case. Rigg arrived at a center and entered a room. Two people were trapped together. These two were the parents of the abuse child we saw in Rigg's memory. These two were linked by some iron arrows. Through and through. On wife side, every point was harmless. But on husband side, every point was fatal - linking to artery.

After this mess, Rigg went to another location which was a cheap hotel. This time, Rigg discovered the receptionist had committed many crimes. Would Rigg ignore what would happen to this fat receptionist? You need to discover by yourself.

The scene went to two missing detectives. They were trapped together. The left detective was the one we saw in SAW II. He was hanged on a big ice cube. It seemed like if this detective slipped, then the device underneath the ice cube would trigger a vital impact on the right detective. The right detective was sitting and surrounded by water. There was a cable connected between his chair and a generator. Both detectives were guarded by a man. We thought this man was the Jigsaw successor. But he was not. He was also a victim. He was a lawyer and was the survived right man mentioned before.

And, what occurred afterwards? I did not want to mention too much. I wanted to save this pleasure for you.

Ratatouille

Everyone can cook

Saturday night the usual movie gang watched Ratatouille, a Disney and Pixar movie.

The beginning part was in a countryside. You saw the main character Remy the rat immediately. You saw his behavior was quite unusual compared to his brother and family. Remy had an excellent sense of food. He could detect disguised food poison, he could distinguish ingredients, he could appreciate food, and most importantly, he liked to cook. He accidentally saw Chef Custeau's TV show when he sneaked into an old lady's kitchen. Since then, he was fascinated by Chef Custeau and his ideas of cooking.

Chef Custeau owned a restaurant, Custeau's, in Paris. He always said "everyone can cook". Custeau's was a five star restaurant. However, Mr. Critic Anton Ego did not like to give Custeau a cozy life. In a visit, Ego downgraded Custeau's star from 5 to 3. You saw from the TV that Custeau could not bear this fact and died. In the meantime, Remy and his family were discovered by the old lady. The old lady disliked rats very much. She was so determined to kill all rats. All the rats evacuated and went to the sewer system. In the evacuate, Remy was floating with Custeau's book "everyone can cook". However, he was separated from his family.

Remy arrived Paris. He was so desperate. Then, you saw Chef Custeau's image appeared from his book. Custeau cheered Remy up and encouraged him to go up to see the world. Coincidentally, Remy saw Custeau's kitchen. He was thrilled to see the kitchen. All the cooking, all the activities, his eyes became huge due to the happiness.

Then, Remy saw another main character - Linguini. He was a trash boy. He did not have any cooking talent. He accidentally messed up the soup. Remy was so worried that he decided to stay at the kitchen to correct the mess. Somehow Remy was caught. During the quarrel between Remy and the Kitchen chef, the soup was accidentally brought to the table where a lady critic sit. The lady apparently liked the soup very much. The kitchen Chef could not let Linguini go. He kept Linguini and wanted him to dispose of Remy.

Linguini was desperate. He sit on one side of La Seine. He discovered Remy's talents and brought him home. You saw how Remy and Linguini discovered a funny techniques which allowed Remy to control Linguini's hands and to guide him how to cook.

With Remy, Linguini became more and more famous. All Custeau's guests liked Linguini's dishes. In the meantime, Remy discovered a big secret - Linguini was Custeau's son. With this fact, the evil kitchen chef should not inherit Custeau's but Linguini should. Of course, the kitchen chef tried hard to hide the secret. His effort went in vain. Everyone knew this fact. Linguini owned the kitchen now.

Then, the scene went to a dark, coffin looking room. You saw Anton Ego was there. By all means, Anton Ego did not like Custeau's revival. He decided to visit Custeau's. Everybody in Custeau's feared.

Remy reunited with his family. Remy taught his brother how to appreciate food. His brother periodically brought some friends to Custeau's to "appreciate food" since then. Remy needed to steal food from Custeau's storage room for the food appreciation. Chef Custeau's image appeared few times to give Remy caution. But Remy did not listen.

The night before the important night, Linguini caught Remy's stealing. Linguini was pissed and decided to split with Remy. Remy was hurt. But Remy could not let Linguini down. Around the dinner time, Remy went back to Custeau's. Everyone in the kitchen saw Remy. The rule of thumb in the kitchen was no rats. Of course, everyone wanted to kill Remy. Linguini stood up to protect Remy. In addition, he revealed the secret - it was Remy who cooked those fantastic dishes.

Everyone in the kitchen disgusted the fact. They left. Colette, the female chef, returned. Ego and other guests were outside. Three people were not enough. What to do? Then you saw Remy's dad summoned all family. Tons of rats. All of them followed Remy's orders in food preparation. Linguini, Remy, and Colette teamed up and served "Ratatouille" to Ego. The Ratotouille dish reminded Ego of his childhood. Ego was moved. Ego would like to talk to the Chef. Of course Colette would not allow this. The consensus was that Ego needed to wait til all the guests left. Ego saw Remy. Ego was shocked. But, Ego did not disgust the fact. Instead, he published a very genuine critic for Custeau's - "Chef Custeau said everyone could cook… I think what he really meant was that an excellent cook could come from anywhere…"

Custeau's was forced to stop due to rats. Did Linguini and Colette stop restaurant business? No, they opened another restaurant where all Remy's family resided in the loft area of the restaurant. Now, Remy could enjoy Paris from the loft. You saw Ego afterwards became Remy's fan. What was the name for this new place? It was called "La Ratatouille".

Afterthought:

I liked the movie. Not just for the scenes. I also liked the way how director Brad Bird presented all crews after the movie. Nice ideas. Millions of nice ideas and imaginations there. Ratatouille is absolutely an appreciable movie

300

Tonight we dine in hell

If you like computer effect oriented movies, if you enjoy fighting scenes, if you like to know Battle of Thermopylae, if you like to hear people screaming Sparta, or if you are a geek, you will enjoy this movie a lot.

Or if you just want to be wowed...

I saw this movie at a movie night. 300 is a fictionalized Battle of Thermopylae (I knew this history after the movie). The main characters are Spartan King Leonidas, Spartan soldiers, and Spartan Queen Gorgo. The beginning part was to show how Spartan men were raised, what Spartan boys had to go through before their manhood, and how strong Leonidas was. The middle part was to let audience understand what was going on between Persians and Greeks. You saw how determined Leonidas and other Spartan soldiers were, how strong Spartan soldiers were, how insane Spartan people could be (Spartan men's specialty was to kill, to fight, and to protect), and how corrupted and shamed an politician could be. Of course 300 vividly showed how Spartan fought against Persians. Tons of fighting scenes during the movie. Interesting and creative fights were here and there. The producer and film script writer had a lot of imagination. Many scenes were filmed aesthetically.

If you want to know more detail on 300, you can click on this link, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_(film)

I really enjoyed this movie. The story is quite straightforward. But, the way the film was produced makes 300 stands out. Totof and I were totally wowed from the beginning to the end.

Spider pig rules

This Spider Pig story cracked me up. We liked it a lot. I have not seen the movie yet. I knew this clip because of Totof. He saw the movie and was amazed by this part. So, he showed me the clip from YouTube. I embedded it here.

Lust, Caution

Directed by Ang Lee


Friends mentioned this movie. They highly recommended it.

I like Ang Lee. I checked IMDB and this movie appears to be a good one. If you have seen it already, let me know if you like it.


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808357/

SAW II

Another astonish enigma

In SAW I post, I said we were thinking to watch another SAW sequence. We did. After SAW I, we decided to take some relaxing time. We had a light dinner. Then, the movie night began.

Two SAW movies in a row. What a day

The show began with another victim. You saw a guy with a helmet. The helmet has spikes on the front. You could tell if the helmet was close, the guy would die. The guy saw the monitor and the clip. He knew the key to open his helmet was under his right eye. If he wanted to survive, he needed to cut himself open. Another bloody scene. He did not make it.

Then, the scene turned to a detective. Apparently this time the Jigsaw wanted this detective involved. He even wrote down the detective's name on the ceiling.

The detective recalled something and so all the cops and SWAT's went to a steel factory. They found the Jigsaw. Like SAW I, the Jigsaw set up a trap. Three SWAT's were down by triggering the trap. The Jigsaw was calm. He said casually to the detective, a female cup, and the SWAT leader "you need to worry about the problem in that room". So they went to the room. Of course they did not trigger something to kill themselves. So they were extremely careful. They uncovered some monitors. In the monitors, the detective found his son was in a room with a group of people.

The room was locked. You saw the images from the monitors. But you could not heard anything. The Jigsaw said the room was locked. Around 10 people were there. The Jigsaw said in 2 hours poisonous gas would be released to fill the room. The lock would be turned on in 3 hours. So, if any in this room could survive in 3 hours, then would be free. Or, if any could solve the riddle and open the safe (the safe linked to a secret passageway to outside), they would be free. The Jigsaw hinted these people that everyone in this room linked to each other. You could not find the link among these people. They were types across the spectrum. Where was the link?

The detective wanted to save his son. You saw some good scenes between the Jigsaw and the detective. Meanwhile, you saw how people in that room reacted. Panic, selfish, desperate, scared... Some bully scenes occurred. People gradually discovered some nasty truth through the Jigsaw's tapes. People turned to distrust each other. The group split. Somehow the most dangerous person in the group found the way to open the safe (the way to get out). The way could be peaceful or violent. Just need to ask everyone to turn and reveal the number behind each other's neck. But this person did not choose the peaceful way. He did not want to work with others. He wanted to do everything in his own way. So, misunderstanding and distrust came. People were killed due to these two causes.

In a corridor, four people discovered the little boy was the son of the detective. In turned out everyone except the little boy in the room had some histories with this detective. Apparently the detective framed these people to some crimes they did not commit. These people suffered due to this dishonor frame. No matter how tense the detective's relationship with his son, he loved his son. He could not witness his son suffer for him.

The movie at that point gave a strong message to the audience. The detective was not a good person. He set people up and framed people in order to get some credits for himself. But, the Jigsaw was cruel. He wanted the innocent son to pay off his father's sin.

Then the detective went crazy. He just wanted to save his son. He compromised with the Jigsaw and pressed the button which allowed the area where the detective and the Jigsaw were to sink down to the garage immediately. They drove to the house. In the meantime, the female cop found the source of the signal. So all SWATs moved to that house too. The SWATS did not see any one in that house. But the house was the same house. What was going on? Then they discovered all the moves they saw from the monitors were not real-time. These moves had had happened some time ago. Then, a safe suddenly opened. You saw the son of the detective was placed inside the safe. He was alive.

Then, you saw the detective was trapped. Amanda set him up. You realized that the detective was who the Jigsaw wanted to capture.

An unpredicted movie.

Inside Man

Somehow, the Hindu music and New York City historical buildings mingle well

It was my first impression of Inside Man. The Hindu music gave me an ancient and exotic feeling. The music and the visual images of New York City buildings clicked. It was my first time to listen to a Hindu music. Quite enjoyable.

The movie was kicked off by Dalton Russell's talk (Dalton was played by Clive Owen). Dalton mentioned the difference between a cell and a prison. This talk was essential. If you miss this talk, then you will miss an important hint. So, listen to it carefully. We did not pay much attention to it. After the movie ended, we rewired it to the beginning and played it. All of us had a "that's why" thought.

We saw a bank was robbed by a group of painters. These painters collected electronic devices (reasonable). I thought the robbery would be similar to others. I was wrong. These painters asked hostage to take off all their clothes (not for sexual reasons) and re-dress up like them (so you barely recognize who is hostage and who is not). This step was intelligent. I never thought about that.

Denzel Washington in this movie was a street-smart detective Keith Frazier. Keith was asked to handle this case. Keith was informed by a local officer who passed by the bank at the very beginning of the robbery that if anyone approached the door, two dead bodies would be thrown out of the bank. Keith would not allow this situation to happen. But, how to get robbers and hostage info? He put devices in Pizza and tried to hear something. What he and other cops heard was the talk from a former Albania president in Albanian. This plan did not work.

The scene went to Arthur Case's office. Arthur Case (played by Christopher Plummer), the founder of the bank, seemed to have a secret hidden in this bank. So Arthur approached Madeleine and wanted her to get his secret out to avoid his secret getting exposed to the public. Madeleine White (played by Jodie Foster) was an expert in pursuing people to do things. Madeleine appeared to have quite high level connections. So she could obtain the privilege to enter the bank. She entered the bank with a NYPD jacket and talked to Dalton, who revealed Arthur's secret. Dalton shows Madeleine (not the audience) a document from the safety deposit box. This safety deposit was the one that Arthur requested Madeleine to approach. Based on Dalton's talk, you knew that Arthur Case, the chairman of the board of directors and founder of the bank, had somehow received money from the Nazis during World War II for unspecified services that resulted in Jewish deaths. We learned Arthur earned enough to start the bank where the hostage has occurred.

Keith did not know the secret. What he wanted was the safety of the hostage. The device plan mentioned above did not work. He then played the game baldly. He walked in the bank. Through the main entrance. Dalton was next to him all the time. Keith saw all hostage. Keith saw the vault was open. But nothing apparently was moved out from the vault. He talked to Dalton. He tried to piss Dalton off. He almost got Dalton (but another painter discovered it and stopped it). The scene between Dalton and Keith was a good one.

Keith gradually discovered that the robbers' goal was not money. Oh, then what the goal could be? Madeleine did not reveal Arthur's secret to Keith. After a well-planned hostage release, you saw how hard Keith tried to get Dalton. But Dalton was not there. How come? Then you saw a cell in the bank. Dalton was there.

The movie ended creatively. With nice projector and home theater sound system, the movie looked even better. Some interactions in the second half part help the audience understand the stories, the plots, and the secrets. All actors played well. The story was not plain or general. I expect to see another Spike Lee's movie.

OSS 117: Le Caire nid d'espions

If you have not had a chance to know French, try this movie

You will then say to yourself "No wonder". This movie presents French vividly. In a fun way.

Yesterday, I went to have a free screening (another word, free movie) with Totof, Heve, Navaline, Fabian, and Kitty. The free screening was supposed to start at 6. So, Totof and I were in a hurry. Then, we knew, we were too early. We should have known that. French never done things on time. We should have given the movie crew 15 min polite time (which means we should have arrived at 6:15).

The movie crew changed the free screening room. So Totof called Navaline and Heve to ensure they would come to the right location. Apparently Navaline parked her car far away from the main quad. Totof called her at 6:05, but she was still walking when the time hit 6:30. At the beginning of the wait, we saw two people at the same hall wandering around. It appeared that they were waiting for someone too. We did not know them. So we just politely nod. Then, a funny thing happened. Kitty showed up. These two people knew Kitty. Oh, they were waiting for Kitty... and Navaline. Everyone at the hallway connected to each other. The world is small. You never know who you can link to.

A hilarious movie

The introduction, the dot, the line, the link, was quite art-oriented (when you see it, you will know what I meant). The beginning reminded me of 007. A handsome looking hero with a dangerous female enemy. A sexy, dangerous, proud little thing. But... The first scene ended up funny and silly. Totally unexpected. You knew at that moment that OSS 117 was not just a 007 movie. I did not want to spoil your interest in OSS117. So, you need to figure out this by yourself.

OSS 117 was a French secret agent. OSS 117 was a code. Just like James Bond or 007. OSS 117 had a charming smile and very interesting eyebrows. His eyebrows could act too. Many excellent expressions were due to his eyebrows.

The way OSS 117 and other French agents recognized each other cracked me up. They asked each other "how is your veal stew?" The correct answer was "Excellent." Then the beginning person needed to say "There is a hearing that the side dish was good. What is it?" The second person needed to answer something silly. The lines did not sound intelligent at all. You could imagine anyone who likes veal stew could provide a similar answer. How could these line served as spy recognition tool? Very silly.

The silliness of OSS 117 was unlike that of Austin Power. Austin Power type silliness was more sexual. OSS 117 kind silliness was more French humor. The movie was in French with English subtitle. Sometimes the English subtitle did not make sense. For instance, the subtitle said "You are "Russian" at me". What did this mean?

Many fun parts were pronunciation jokes. If you do not know French, grab a French friend with you when you watch OSS 117. Then you would understand more.

Overall, I have fun when I watched it. A hilarious movie. Recommended.

SAW I

A creative enigma type movie

If we did not have dim sum with Navaline, we would never got a chance to watch SAW I.

Dim sum at Saigon Sunnyvale is quite tasty. Yesterday Totof and I went there with Navaline. We ordered various types and all of them were with good quality. During the lunch, we talked about Guitar Hero. Then Navaline suddenly asked us if we would like to watch SAW IV together. Of course a big NO. I did not like to watch horror movies and scare myself to death. Totof could watch bloody scenes. But he did not enjoy horror movies much either.

Navaline said SAW was just an enigma. Every victim was there for a reason. Every victim must have done something wrong in the past so the Jigsaw brought the victim to "the room". If the victim could solve an enigma before the time was out. The victim could redeem their life. SAW was more like a thriller than a horror movie.

Sounded interesting. I was not that against SAW after her explanation.

We went to Totof's place after the lunch. We played Guitar Hero. We could tell Navaline very much liked this game. First song, Navaline tried Nirvana's Heart Shaped Box and got 84% at easy level. So we encourage her to try medium level. She tried Pearl Jam's Life Wasted and Cheap Trick's Surrender. Suddenly, she asked Totof to get SAW I. Oh, the SAW topic was back. Well, since we were not that against SAW I, we could give it a chance. We continued to play Guitar Hero for an hour. We all had fun with it.

Breath, breath, and breath

Then, we decided to switch to SAW I. The beginning was ok. After 5 min, we were all tensed. The director used flash back to show us what the Jigsaw has done and all the scenes were cruel. Somehow I remembered Amanda, the girl who survived from the Jigsaw's capture. She took the key out from a man's stomach and opened the jaw confinement.

Then the scene went back to a room where you saw two victims were chained at two corners and one body laying in a big blood pool. Each victim found an enveloped and a tape inside. The tape provided the game rule. Apparently the rule for Lawrence, a doctor, was to solve the enigma by 6. Adam, another victim, found a kidnap image accidentally when he looked around Lawrence's wallet. The image showed that Lawrence's daughter and wife were kidnapped. On the back of the image, it said you would look more clearly when you shut your eyes. Adam asked his partner to turn off the light and Lawrence found a box and a cell phone.

Both tried to remember how they ended up in this room. Some scenes were quite scary especially the one Adam remembered. The scenes were flashed back to two cops. Two cops were chasing after the Jigsaw. At a face to face confinement, a cop was cut by a sharp knife at throat. His partner was chasing after the Jigsaw. The Jigsaw setup a trap and this partner cop killed himself by gunshots by triggering the trap. Bloody. And you saw the Jigsaw crawled up and the move enriched the scary atmosphere.

Then you understood the sins Lawrence and Adam had. Then the discovered cell phone rang. Lawrence realized his family was in danger. He needed to get out of here. He did not solve the enigma by 6. The kidnapper decided to kill Lawrence's daughter and wife. Lawrence was blinded. He did not see what was happening in his house. He only heard by the cell phone. You heard a struggle between his wife and the kidnapper. Then you heard a gunshot. More and more. You saw how desperate Lawrence was compared to his calm at the beginning. A dramatic change. You saw how Lawrence reached his decision - cut his foot by a saw. I could not watch that scene.

Lawrence then crawled to the gun and shot Adam. Adam was dead. Lawrence was yelling loud to the camera and said he completed all missions he had. He begged the Jigsaw to free his family. Then the door was opened. Zep, the kidnapper, opened the door because he needed to kill Lawrence. Lawrence was saved because suddenly Adam moved swiftly to get the gun. The anger that Adam had in assuming Zep was the Jigaw made him crazy. He took the toilet cover and stoke it on Zep's head. Zep was dead.

Lawrence crawled out and promised Adam he would come back to save him. The cruel part came when Adam found a recorder and a tape in Zep's packet. Zep was not the Jigsaw. Zep was also a victim with a game for him to play. Adam was mad. Then you saw the body in the blood pool stood up. He was alive. He was John. He was the Jigsaw. What an amazing scene.

The Jigsaw left Adam another cruel fact. The key of his chain was left in the bath tub where Adam woke up at the beginning of the movie. It was Adam who kicked the key and pushed the key to the sink hole. The key was gone due to his kick. The Jigsaw wanted Adam to taste "alive" and then closed the door. That was SAW I.

I was so tensed during these 103 min. SAW was much better than I thought. It was a good movie with incredible ideas. I would not mind watching other SAW's. Navaline and Totof agreed with me. So we were talking to get another SAW...

V for Vendetta

Remember remember the fifth of November

Sounds familiar? This line was the first line in the movie of V for Vendetta.
I liked this movie for various reasons.

Did you notice? The music from the attached is a partial from Peter Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. Right, my old time favorite.