Moving Out

Check out for http://chiawono.com/category/movie-talks/ new posts

[Blog Recommendation] Firdaus's Blog

I watch, I talk. Others do the same thing as well. So let me introduce you to a good friend of mine, not only a movie enthusiast (as he stated on his own), but also a scriptwriter, a movie director and an actor. Wow. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, *drumroll* please meet Firdaus Salim.

He just started his own movie blog. You can see it here or type "http://firdaus607.blogspot.com" (without the double quotes) into your browser address. Where I wrote a bigger picture, he went into details, and that's what I liked about the blog. Sure, he could use a more catchy phrase as the blog title or pay a little more attention to the grammar, but with a content like his, who cares?

So pay a little visit to his site and leave some comments if you please.

I watch, I talk. I also read. Feel free to watch and talk by yourself.

Adam (2009)

People met and parted in many different ways. Some more memorable than others, while some were more painful. Adam (the name of the movie) told us a story about the meetings and partings of Adam, a 29 year old with Asperger's Syndrome, and his new neighbor, Beth.

This was, of course, not your normal love story, given that the main character is someone with a mental problem. But throughout the movie, we were given a very important lesson that 'normal' is a strange thing for a 'strange' person. Just like the other way around. And that lesson brought us to a better appreciation of life, of love, and of other human beings.

The movie started with the burial of Adam's father, the only person that was able to support him so far (including doing his laundry and buying his food). Afterwards, life wasn't on good terms with Adam. Subsequently, he lost his job and trapped thick in managing the estate that his father had left. In between those situations, Beth came to his life. From a total stranger, they became neighbors, and then friends, and then close friends, and then lovers. And later it was Beth that brought Adam back on the game. Or so she thought, because when she looked at it again carefully, the line between her helping him and him helping her became very thin.

Beth lived an almost perfect life with a rich father and an even richer ex-boyfriend. But later in the movie we found out that maintaining a perfect looking life cost more than most of us can afford, and we're not talking about money here. And so, in her quest to pursue her dreams, She met Adam and fell in love with him. Not because of sympathy and also not because of her own heartbreak, but because sometimes a completely strange stranger is the only one that sees and reaches beyond our barricades. And that's what Beth experienced.

In the end, we were taken to witness how one lie, petty and unintended, and how one word, simple but unspoken, could change the whole course of someone's life. This might not be your normal love story. This might also not be your favorite one. But you would agree that this is definitely one story worth pondering.

Ending? Good ending. Not necessarily happy, but definitely not sad. If I said anything more, it would be a spoiler.

Just as an extra piece of information, this movie won the Sundance Film Festival for the Drama category.

I watch, I talk. Feel free to watch and talk by yourself.

The Little Fockers (2010)

We met the parents in 2000.

We met the Fockers in 2004.

And in 2010, Gaylord Focker was back with two 5-year-old twins and a ton of mess-ups including an "affair" with a pharmaceutical salesgirl, a lousy and cheating house contractor, a once (or twice) in a lifetime birthday party, and of course, a 90 minute mental (which later turned to physical) war with his father in law.

After several years of marriage, Greg (Gay) Focker and Pam were now the proud parents of Samantha and Henry Focker whose 5th birthdays were just around the corner. The family wasn't in their best shape. Sam wasn't talking to her father and Henry was having a little problem with social life (which he didn't seem to have).

Jack Byrnes, the ex-CIA father in law was in a desperate need for a successor for his clan's legacy. He had a heart attack and his first choice for the next family leader, the Bobfather, was proven to be having an affair. So the only viable option was the Godfocker (I know, I know, just watch the movie and you'd understand).

And so the story started. Along came Andi Garcia. Not this Andy Garcia of The Godfather but rather a very charming, beautiful, energetic, easy going, and easily drunk pharmaceutical representative selling an erectile dysfunction pill played perfectly by Jessica Alba. On a side note, like another billion men on Earth, I'm a fan of her. But it had nothing to do with this film other than the fact that I practically held my breath and hit the person beside me whenever she appeared on the screen.

Ok. So the story started. Along came Andi Garcia just when Jack was being very concerned about the affair issue. Throw in some financial and educational problems into the family. Stir it up with a too good to be true ex-lover. Mix it up with misunderstandings and silly prides. Put in some family values (for the sake of the younger spectators, of course). And look what we have here: The Little Fockers.

Well, judging from the movie title, one might expect that the story was more into the children. But apparently, it was not. The main issue here was again the feud between Greg (Gay) and Jack which occupied approx. 90% of the movie. The circle of trust, the cat and the milking, the eye and finger gesture, the espionage , and many other elements were brought back from the first movie. The only new thing here was Jack's encounter with Google and it's kind of ironically funny. One thing worth taking note for was that there were many little funny slips of the tongue throughout the movie. And just like all other predictable movies, the climax was near the end of the movie when the two finally fought bare-handed several minutes after jack saw Greg (Gay) seduced Andi (which was actually the other way around).

This movie probably won't make it to the Oscars. It relied too heavily on Ben Stiller and Robert de Niro, and one of them wasn't Oscar quality (no hard feeling here, just a joke). But believe me, you didn't need an award winning movie to make your day. This movie was great in it's own way. Not to mention Jessica Alba and her charming, beautiful, energetic, easy going, and easily drunk pharmaceutical representative selling an erectile dysfunction pill cast.

I watch, I talk. Feel free to watch and talk by yourself.

Tangled (2010)

We grew up watching Disney movies and cartoon (except maybe this person). But as much as we liked Cinderella, Snow White, The Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Ariel Mermaid, Pocahontas, or even Tinker Bell, there were two things:

First, it's hard to put ourselves in their shoes (Ariel and Pocahontas didn't wear any shoes and it might be very hard to wear Tinker Bell's or try to fit into Cinderella's, but that's not what I meant). Let me put it this way: if you're not already a princess, probably you'd never have your prince riding in white horse came all the way from far far away and rescued you from your perils. although probably you're not in any peril anyway at the moment. And for any boy who wasn't already a prince, well, thin chance getting a princess even if you managed to get a white horse. The closest we have in comparison was Pretty Woman (starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere). But even that didn't just happen to anyone. PLUS Richard Gere was already some kind of prince, wasn't he?

Second, no matter whether she's the Beauty or the fairest among them all, no matter if she can swim or fly, and no matter whether she's tanned or pale, we would find it hard to fall in love with the characters in the film. Not that they weren't pretty enough, but we had to admit that the electricity or the chemical or the whatever you name it just wasn't there. But Tangled was different. I fell in love with the princess 10 minutes after the movie started. Her big eyes, her long hair, her sweet singing, her passion for the outside world, her fear of her mother, her agony between those previous two, and all the other things about her, they're just lovable. If you're seven, you'd want to be her or befriend her. You're thirteen, you'd think that you were her (or she was you, whatever). And if you're twenty eight, all your memories of your younger days when you're seventeen or eighteen would come rushing and maybe cause a smile or two. She was just the girl next door that most of us remembered (only that she's not next door, but locked away in a tower hidden behind bushes and thorns).

But enough for the moment about Rapunzel. The other characters were twisted. Yes, she's still a princess but the male protagonist wasn't quite the prince you'd imagine. Well, he's more like the prince of thieves (but unlike Robin Hood, he didn't quite have the sharing spirit). We got a very funny and righteous horse. We also got a chameleon trying to be cute. And we had bad guys and bad guys gone good. And not to forget the evil mother, the standard king and queen and townsfolk, several stupid guards (I'm starting to get suspicious that they're the same in most Disney movies), and a cupid (but from the kind that you didn't hope to see).

The storyline was altered. Not much, but still altered. But the overall story became better (in my own opinion which I wrote in my own blog). And it had the Disney kind of happy ending, that's all that matter. And as a bonus, we're given beautiful and heart warming emotional scenes.

A little note on the dialogues, they're modern. Although the setting took place in far far away (like usual) in a time we couldn't tell, but the dialogues and most of the jokes were modern with a touch of Hollywood here and there. Not your classic Disney kind of conversations, but still very enjoyable.

In short, with the twisted characters, altered storyline, non-classic conversations, and all the others mixed-up elements, there're no other way to call this movie as something other than TANGLED (pun intended). It's the modern version of classic Disney. It's the human version of fairy tale. And it's the you version of Disney. Enjoy the movie. I did.

Ps: For those who're wondering who's this person i was referring to at the beginning, well the story goes like this: He's a self-nominated movie fan who never watch classic Disney other than Tarzan. The end. May he live happily ever after.

Oops and I almost forgotten. I watch, I talk. Feel free to watch and talk by yourself.

Step Up 3D (2010)

It's Step Up. The setting was moved from MSA to NYU but it's still Step Up. And aside from the NYU setting, the rest remained pretty much predictable.

Before I wrote further, I had to say that it's nice that we could see familiar faces throughout the film. We got Moose from Step Up 2: The Streets as the leading actor. We got Camille from Step Up as one of the female protagonists. We even got the MSA crews like Cable, Kido, and some others that I'm sure you'll come to notice if you watched the whole series again.

I believed that I said the word "further" in the previous paragraph. But I guess it's not that much further. The movie was okay. The dance moves were better from the previous two films. I didn't complain for the lack of details or character interaction or storyline because we were served with minutes and minutes of great dance battles. Even Tarantino couldn't do much about it. Speaking of whom, his name did come out in this movie. In short, it's a good watch to relieve stress or just to hang out with friends.

And go get some pop corn when you watch. Some parts are boring.

I watch, I talk. Feel free to watch and talk by yourself.

Rain Man (1988)

I came across this movie by accident. I was dozing off this afternoon and suddenly I caught a couple of familiar faces on the screen. It was the HBO Signature playing Rain Man (1988).

A simple search later provided me with the awards this film had won:
- The Academy Award Winner for Best Picture;
- The Academy Award Winner for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Dustin Hoffman);
- The Academy Award Winner for Best Director;
- The Academy Award Winner for Best Writing, Original Screenplay;
- The Academy Award Nominee for Art Direction, Set Decoration;
- The Academy Award Nominee for Best Cinematography;
- The Academy Award Nominee for Best Film Editing;
- The Academy Award Nominee for Best Music, Original Score;
- The People Choice's Award as The Favorite Dramatic Motion Picture.

You can find the other information including the synopsis here but believe me, you would want to watch this movie by yourselves.

The plot of this movie was not very complicated. After all, it's family oriented. The story went like this: Charlie Babbit (Tom Cruise) was the prodigal son that never returned. Too bad for him because his father then removed his name from his shocking three-million-dollar will. The estate went to Raymond Babbit (Dustin Hoffman), the autistic-(but also remarkably genius)-elder-brother Charlie never knew he had. In a quest to claim his share, Charlie then kidnapped Raymond from his mental facility and took him on a 7-day-road-trip in which both of the brothers developed a connection so much deeper than what the doctors and psychologists had ever developed in the past 20 years.

What happened in the end was predictable although not quite a Hollywood style happy ending.

There are several trivia in this movie worth mentioning:
- In this movie, you can see the young and handsome Tom Cruise dancing with Dustin Hoffman with the ever-wonderful Las Vegas cityscape and lights as the background;
- Raymond had always thought that Charlie called him Rain Man (instead of Raymond);
- Raymond Babbit (like many other autistic children) had potentials. He was a genius mathematician and he had a photographic memory. Find more about autism here.
- Dustin Hoffman's son and the movie director (Barry Levinson) appeared as cameo;
- Again, you can see the young and handsome Tom Cruise (it's freaking 22 years ago after all and he's freaking young and handsome);
- You can find more trivia here, but those only made sense if you have watched the movie.

In the end, I recommended this movie very much. I was so touched by watching it, not to mention my logic was awed by the superb acting of Dustin Hoffman. Tom Cruise was an eye pleaser (I'm NOT gay, friends) and his acting was very good as well. But what's most important was that it reminded me again what family's really worth. As Lilo's father always said, "Ohana means family, and family means nobody gets left behind."

I watch, I talk. Feel free to watch and talk by yourself.