EVAN ALMIGHTY - not as almighty as bruce

Compared to the first one, Bruce Almighty, Evan Almighty still has a long way to go. With a ballooning budget of 200Million(5 miliion goes to Steve Carrel) Sony had to hand it over to universal. But its okay cuz 20-25 million went to Virginia. I guess you cant blame Sony for handing it over to universal. Production was quite difficult. You have animals running around(How did they control them? And dont worry PETA was around to ensure all of the animal's safety.) and 3 designers just to work on Steve's beard. Thats tough. And storywise, i think they really tried hard to add a sequel to bruce almighty(Sequels are a trend nowadays). it works. but the humor is not as good as Jim Carrey's version. I have to commend them for the good visual effects. A flood and the ark barging into the city hall, nice. i would suggest watching both bruce and evan almighty. so you can compare. Just a thought, the animals probably pooed a lot. Hope they had janitors around hehe Well, also, congratulations to Director Shadyac for planting trees during his production to reduce carbon emmisions. Good work. GREEN GREEN GREEN!!


CAST:
Steve Carell - Evan Baxter
Morgan Freeman - God
Lauren Graham - Joan Baxter
John Goodman - Congressman Chuck Long
Wanda Sykes - Rita
John Michael - Higgins Marty
Jonah Hill - Eugene Tenanbaum
Jimmy Bennett - Ryan Baxter
Graham Phillips - Jordan Baxter
Johnny Simmons - Dylan Baxter
Rachael Harris - Markie Parkington
Molly Shannon - real estate agent Eve Adams
Ed Helms - Ed Carson
Maile Flanagan - Mail-lady
Jon Stewart - Himself
Catherine Bell - Susan Ortega (uncredited)
P. J. Byrne - Evan's Staffer #1

Marie Antoinette

This movie is probably the longest and most boring historical movie ive ever seen. There was no action. There was no sex involved.(no boobies were shown-surprisingly!!) I think it would have saved the movie hehe but it received some good reviews by other famous people. Me, my opinion, i was bored out of my mind. Too much partying and shopping. Something ive always liked to do but couldnt. They didnt even get to the part where they execute her. That wouldve made it exciting some more. Anyway you couldnt identify where the peak of the story is. Its just one whole movie of Marie Antoinette sleeping and waking and partying and sleeping and waking up and partying. Phew!! I would be bored if my life was like that. And i would even be more bored if i watched a movie about a person who lived like that. I guess its like one of those documentaries that doesnt have to have a hollywood style plot to it. It is a film by Sofia Coppola, so artistically it is a bit different. It was nominated and awarded for: Won the Academy Award for Costume Design (Milena Canonero), Nominated for three BAFTA awards, for Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design and Best Makeup & Hair, At the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, Marie-Antoinette was entry for Official Selection of Golden Palm and won the Cinema Prize of the French National Education System, The film was nominated for Best Feature at the Gotham Awards, Won Best Art Direction at the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards, Won Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design at both the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards and the Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards.


Im no expert but these are just my opinions(They did win a lot of awards). Anyway, it did well competing alongside Xmen and other movies at that time. Plus the soundtrack's cool: New Order ("Ceremony"), The Cure ("All Cats Are Grey", "Plainsong"), Siouxsie and the Banshees ("Hong Kong Garden (With Strings Intro)"), and Bow Wow Wow ("Fools Rush In", "Aphrodisiac" and "I Want Candy") as well as newer material by The Strokes, Aphex Twin and The Radio Dept. Although it did feel out of place. Still, just my opinion. but i still like the soundtrack either way. The cast is okay.

CAST:

Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antoinette
Jason Schwartzman as Louis XVI
Judy Davis as Comtesse de Noailles
Rip Torn as Louis XV
Rose Byrne as Duchesse de Polignac
Asia Argento as Comtesse du Barry
Molly Shannon as Aunt Victoire
Shirley Henderson as Aunt Sophie
Danny Huston as Emperor Joseph
Marianne Faithfull as Maria Teresa
Mary Nighy as Princesse Lamballe
Jamie Dornan as Count Fersen
Steve Coogan as Ambassador Mercy

Kirsten fit and played the role well. I think she carries any role really well. That is what i think of the movie. Check it out for your self. Let me know what you think.

Curse of the Golden Flower

Have you ever tried watching a chinese movie without subtitles and on an east european dubbing? well i have and i tell you its the worst experience ever. HHmm a good film, they said, would be if you watched it even without audio would still be understandable. Sort of like those charlie chaplin movies. Curse of the golden flower is not one of them. I think, at least, Chinese movies are evolving into the kind that has a plot in it. They use to have kung fu. And thats all. Congrats to them. they are making better movies. Actually, i was hoping for more action on this since i do not have subs or english dubbing. sigh. There were some good fighting sequels but i think they would be minutes all in all out of a 1 hour and forty nine minute movie. so you can just imagine how much i had to endure. I think i just found out what everything was about at the end. I thought the queen was trying to seduce his 2 children. seriously. until now im not sure. (spoiler- dont read the next sentence if you havent seen it)but i know that the queen plotted a rebellion. thats at the end. hhmm thats all i got. watch it(With english subs or dubb) please. please. please. Cuz you just might not enjoy it.

Cast, cast, cast:
Chow Yun-Fat - Emperor Ping
Gong Li - Empress Liang
Liu Ye - Crown Prince Wan
Jay Chou - Prince Jai
Qin Junjie - Prince Yu
Ni Dahong - The Imperial Doctor
Chen Jin - Wife of the doctor
Li Man - Jiang Chan (daughter of the doctor)


This is the poem from the old Tang Dynasty where they said the tilte originated from:
"When autumn comes on Double Ninth Festival, / my flower [the chrysanthemum] will bloom and all others perish. / When the sky-reaching fragrance [of the chrysanthemum] permeates Chang'an, / the whole city will be clothed in golden armour." ====== from wikipedia

Jericho - America under attack

Well i havent seen skeet ulrich in a while and im glad that he made something really interesting. Jericho, a drama about a small town, isolated after a nuclear detonation from everywhere in America without communication to outside cities and the town is now left to fend on its own. Jake Green(Ulrich) visits for one day and is now stuck after the explosion. He now tries to mend broken family ties with his father, Mayor Green, by assisting in any way he can to the town. Of course, he is the leading man so gets to save the day most of the time.


Cast:
Michael Gaston as Gray Anderson
Alicia Coppola as Mimi Clark
Kenneth Mitchell as Eric Green
Pamela Reed as Gail Green (Season 1 [17])
Skeet Ulrich as Jake Green
Gerald McRaney as Johnston Green (Season 1)
Lennie James as Robert Hawkins
Sprague Grayden as Heather Lisinski
Shoshannah Stern as Bonnie Richmond
Brad Beyer as Stanley Richmond
Ashley Scott as Emily Sullivan
Erik Knudsen as Dale Turner

The show was supposed to be cancelled after one season but fans wanted it back so badly that CBS brought it back with 7 more episodes. Yeah, People Power!! Anyway, This will still play and wont be affected by the strike of the writers guild of america. Phew!! anyway, my opinion, i like the show. I hope they develop it more. Make it evolve in some way. Its good drama plus they have action from time to time. OOHH!! OOOHHH!!!! They have some sort of ex-cia guy charatcer in the show. I think that makes it more interesting. hehe Im up on the tenth episode so i dont know how it goes yet. il try to update you soon.

Aquamarine - sara paxton oohhlala

I just saw 'aquamarine'. its been long overdue. Well i guess the plot is a bit predictable. Its like watching 'the little mermaid' live. only the mermaid is blonde and has blue streaks on her hair. its cute. especially aquamarine and Hailey(jojo, the singer).



Plot: two teenage girls (Hailey and Claire), about to be separated because Hailey's mom will be working in Australia, stubles into a mermaid that got washed up into their pool(they live on a beach) . Soon they become friends and help aquamarine prove to her dad that love exists so she wont be wed to some sort of squid/blowfish(to my understanding). Well, it all boils down to true friendship. Well its mostly for kids(the movie), so it would be a good saturday morning thing to watch for them. They should have let Jojo sing to make it exciting. That's just my opinion.

anyway, here's the cast:

Emma Roberts ... Claire Brown
Sara Paxton ... Aquamarine
Joanna "Jojo" Levesque ... Hailey Rogers
Jake McDorman ... Raymond
Arielle Kebbel ... Cecilia Banks
Claudia Karvan ... Ginny Rogers
Bruce Spence ... Leonard
Tammin Sursok ... Marjorie
Roy Billing ... Grandpa Bob
Julia Blake ... Grandma Maggie
Shaun Micallef ... Storm Banks
Lulu McClatchy ... Bonnie
Natasha Cunningham ... Patty
Dichen Lachman ... Beth-Ann
Lincoln Lewis ... Theo
Matthew Okine ... Nick
Regis Broadway ... Vince
Robbie Parkin ... Pool guy
Joey Massey ... Little boy
Dillon Stephenson ... Waiter
Donna Fox ... Firewoman
Alice Hunter ... Beach girl
Adam King ... Shopkeeper
Sara Paxton [voice]... Aquamarine's starfish earrings
Joanna "Jojo" Levesque [voice] ... Hailey's starfish earrings
Emma Roberts [voice] ... Claire's starfish earrings
Nathan Lockwood, Jess Smith,Chris Brady, Dave Gilbert ... Halfday band members
Elizabeth Daily* ... Voice of Aquamarine's father

By the way, for the fans of jojo(Hailey) watch out for her in 'RV' with Robin Williams. see ya!!

Friday Night Lights - Gary Hobson, a football coach?

I use to watch kyle chandler in his tv show 'early edition', it really intrigued me and i followed it everytime i can. every new episode was new and exciting. plus i liked cats so a character that talked to cats appealed to me. well now, gary hobson of early edition is a football coach in the now on its second season(shooting at present, i think), Friday Night Lights.

Friday Night Lights focuses on the Dillon Panthers from Dillon , Texas. It starts off by introducing each of the characters and im not going to focus on that anymore cuz there's a lot of them but i will tell you that it describes how the nearing football game affects each of them. It stars : Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Gaius Charles,Zach Gilford, Minka Kelly, Taylor Kitsch, Adrianne Palicki, Jesse Plemons, Scott Porter, and Aimee Teegarden. Well, just try to imagine the movie 'varsity blues' (starred: james van der beek - i havent seen you in a while, dude!) only its drama and add in a love triangle here and there. That's what its about. Well i think the americans are going to accept it widely(since its football and hot chics are all over the show) but i still have to see. So that's Friday Night Lights Season 1 episode 1 for me. Hope you guys check it out on cable or tv.

By the way, Kyle Chandler blew up in one episode of grey's anatomy as a bomb squad specialist. just a tidbit of information heehee..

hairpsray - these people are high!

Well, lately musicals have been played often in my house. i dont know why. i always try to see something new and i dont usually kow what i am getting myself into. Hairspray is a 2007 musical film and is a film adaptation of the Tony Award-winning 2002 Broadway musical of the same name, adapted from 1988 comedy film. 1962 Baltimore, a teen named Tracy Turnblad pursues her dream as a dancer on a TV show. A show that is usually accompanied by clouds of hairpsray. its toxic, people can die with that much exposure. see it, believe me. but the dance steps are good. the songs are okay. i still like 'enchanted' better. the songs and the dancing are better. maybe 'hairspray' is not walt disney. i have to commend travolta, its hard to pull off the character he chose in the movie.



It stars John Travolta, Queen Latifah, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Amanda Bynes, James Marsden, Brittany Snow, Zac Efron, Elijah Kelley, Allison Janney, and introduces firsttimer(really, its my first time to see her) Nikki Blonsky as Tracy Turnblad.

a good year - russel crowe

this is going to be a classic one day. this movie includes as a cast: Russell Crowe, Marion Cotillard, Albert Finney, Freddie Highmore, Archie Panjabi, Richard Coyle and by Director Ridley Scott. Written by Marc Klein and runs 118 minutes. it has a touch of tuesdays with morrey and that movie of Keannu reaves, a walk in the clouds(i think). If you watch this movie, (well maybe its not showing in theatres anymore - so rent it on dvd) you have a feeling as if you are reading it directly from the book. Although i didnt read the book it originated from, thats what it feels though. i dont know why i get to watch a lot of feel good movies lately, but it is a feel good movie. its very much like russel crowe, lately. he's been making feel good movies for a while now(i loved cinderella man by the way)


well let me tell you a little bit about the movie without spilling too much. Max(Crowe) is a cold stock exchange specialist(if thats what they call 'em) and finds out that his uncle died and he is the receiver of the estate(vineyard) his uncle leaves behind(he is the nearest of kin) so he decides to cash in. but as he spends time in the vineyard, things get a little bit complicated. and this is the part where i say, "watch the movie coz thats all you are getting!" well, i might end up ruining it for you. so enjoy.

ehcnanted

some like it. some dont. a very funny movie from walt disney(i think) its a chic flick. but you'll laugh most of the time. its a good way combining 2d animation and real life people. im a big fan of cartoons. so i liked it. and you can actually recognise the actors from the cartoons. so i say the animators and cartoonists did a good job. plus the singing is cool. remind me to get the soundtrack later. watch out when the lead female character calls out her animal friends. its really good.(the scene i mean) and its not an actual damsel in distress kind of movie. hehe its a good movie all in all. good dialogue. good singing. i hope they really were the ones that sang it. the plot is okay. its a good family movie. (",)