And so they said this was history's greatest film of all time... Might as well perhaps watch all the movies in the world before I could deem that this was indeed cinema's finest. But having watched this film for like decades after it was made, I could say, as a modern guy who likes classic films with a modern impact, Gone With The Wind is indeed a great film... and one of history's finest.
The plot. Based on Margaret Mitchell's novel on the same title, Gone With The Wind focused on it's courageous but at the same time, very delicate main protagonist, Scarlett O'Hara in the time of Civil War, who's head-over-heels in love with Ashley Wilkes, but felt too horrified when she found out he was going to be wed to her own cousin, Melanie. Although she's the light of every party, and many men clamours for her attention, she has her attention to only one man. Upset and unconvinced, she accepted right away without doubt the proposal of Charles, another man who admires her deeply, and then left widowed when Charles was killed during the war. As she continued to battle her own anxieties and frustration during the widower's stage, in which she could only wear black, there was one man who witnessed all her ups and downs - this was Rhett Buttler, a war profiteer, much older than Scarlett, and a very direct man. Then there's all the sweeping epic feel of a war movie, as the country slowly fades to devastation, she still feels the same hunger for Ashley, but sooner realised that it was Rhett Buttler whom she really loved after all those times he had been with her.
This was Gone With The Wind, and since it's a 4-hour long film, it's too ludicrous to squeeze such epic length into an itsy-bitsy paragraph. As the main theme speaks, it's romance set in a vast grandeur and complexity of the American Civil War.
I think most of the people today would start to wonder how could this film become the box office champion of all time - and nope, it's not Titanic. I even wonder how it captured so many people worldwide, and even through time. Maybe it's about the firsts. This was the first film in full color and we are just plainly stunned. Cinematography defined this film, basing it as a 1939 film, it gives a major feat. Who could ever forget scenes where Scarlett O'Hara becomes a sillouhette against a blazing orange sky, standing on a hill, while the camera pulls back slowly and magnificently showing one of film history's greatest vista. And who could not ever dwell that those scenes of Atlanta burning, when it all looked so real? Who could forget the war scenes which were all brilliantly choreographed? Gone With The Wind boasts its immortal flamboyance and its vibrant style in filmmaking.
Also, the dialogues were amazing. Probably the most shocking exit lines in the whole history was enunciated by Rhett Butler, rather infamously, the "Frankly, my dear, who gives a damn?", and Scarlett O'Hara's "Tomorrow will be another day." When the film's too engrossed in lines, there's definited symbology in the film too, ridden with meanings beneath its dialogues. Of course, it reminds us that this film has one of the best romance movie lines ever, "You need kissing badly. That's what's wrong with you. You should be kissed, and often, and by someone who knows how..."
The hauntingly beautiful Vivien Leigh and the very manly Clark Gable were fantastic in their roles, after knowing that the two characters, Scarlett and Rhett, were two of the most coveted roles in history. I just read that the casting department took them 2 years to find O'Hara and Butler.
Gone With The Wind is the perfect definition of Hollywood filmmaking. It is a landmark, and the performances are extraordinary. I admit, it could not be one of my ultimate favourite films, but I adore its magnificence. Although it's a bit of what we called "romanticised" and muddled with dramatisations, it's as sweeping as a soaring epic.

Rating: A

So rare comes a movie that has the scale of a grand epic, so rare comes a film that blends action, adventure, romance, comedy and drama, and so rare comes a film that let us indulge with a sweeping vista of cinematography and exemplary visual magnificence - yet these all mislead us to believe that this is such a stunning film, because after all, it made us forget how silly and stupid the dialogues were and how formulaic the plot was.
Ron Howard directed this 1992 film, with a prospect of feeding critics with an Oscar prospect. But as what was mention, it's beguiling, this film. Throwing in two of Hollywood's premiere actors, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, one could bet that a film made by these two golden rods would a blasting one. It wouldn't work anyway, if makers would thrown again another Cruise-Kidman team-up, because Cruise's just felt too belittled and inconspicuous compared to what Kidman had already established after the divorce, knowing that she's now one of cinema history's greats. But perhaps, way back in 1992, it could have worked.
Glad to tell that the film could somehow entertain audience with it's own scale, giving us a familiar story about a man who lost his land, and had his father killed due to a rebellion against a land tyrant, and swore to revenge. One of the most hateful scenes in this film was when Cruise's character felt so wrathful and swore vengeance but left the village with the broadest of grins, and the villagers having a merriment of some sort. They're Irish alright, and they have this cheerful aura around them, but Cruise's expression felt too misplaced in the scene. And so this was one of the film's weaknesses, and with action and adventure, where Kidman and Cruise rode horses to mark and grab their land, which was freely bestowed by the US Government, was treacherous enough to make us believe that this was a sweeping epic film of the south.
The relationship between Kidman and Cruise was even too formulaic. We already know about two people quarrelling each other, doesn't seem to fit with each other's character perfectly, and while they continue to bawl like cats and dogs throughout the rest of the film, they would somehow realize that they were falling in love.
Even Cruise's character turning into a boxer felt also too misplaced in the film's plot, and Kidman, whom which I dearly adore as an actress, didn't show any of her acting strength.
Bottomline, one frail mind would enjoy this film, having to forget the movie's own weaknesses and rather focus on the film's looks and feel. Blimey, I admire the film's cinematography, it's brilliant, but one must not judge on the looks alone. The story was somehow a bit muddled.

Rating: B-

Finally, I've been to New York, in Times Square, strolling with my friends! Wohoo! hahahaha.. my recent photoshop creation.. hehehe

>>Click Thumbnail for the Image<<

The fuss is this... Dreamgirls had been receiving so much Oscar buzz even before it was helmed, and now, since the movie will soon kick off this Christmas, more Oscar attention had been thrown to this film that had been based in the true story of The Supremes and Diana Ross. One critic said earlier, who had watched the screen test, called this film an Oscar bait. As I watched the trailer, hell, even Beyonce looked ultra-fine as Diana Ross in this drama musical and Eddie Murphy looks like he's going to get some real serious Oscar nom. This will be a good film, I could tell from the looks of it alone. Here's the poster and the trailer.

A new film by Milos Forman, Oscar-winning director for Amadeus, Goya's Ghosts undertakes the story of Goya, the painter with so much religious issues in his life. Well, this should add to the genre itself, painter and art history films. Milos Forman's works had already been tested through time and most of them are classics, so I wouldn't bet to fret. Goya should look and feel fine, with Natalie Portman in it, as the woman who was hired by Goya as a model and then cursed as a witch.

I am getting heebie-jeebies while watching this new trailer. It's not that I'm scared, it's just that I'm unnerved. It's because Steven Soderbergh is doing a Steven-Spielberg's-Schindler's-List stunt, crafting a black-and-white film of the Holocaust period about the Good German, as the title speaks itself. It looks splendid and hopes to get some Oscar attention. I just hope it will work in the modern day. Hmm, feels like deja vu really. Will he succeed, or will he not? Starring George Clooney, Tobey Maguire and Cate Blanchett, I am looking forward to watch this film. Oh, and the poster by the way, looked like a revival of Casablanca.

Hands down: one of the best films ever created in the history of world cinema. Schindler's List, from the many films that I have seen recently (I ask for some pardon for I have seen this film only until now), is that rare gem that had made its way and broke records to become a part of my all-time favorite list, and surely the kind of film too that would break anybody's all-time favourite list.
Compelling, brilliantly-crafted, an artistic powerhouse, probably the best film of the modern era, and a consistent knock-out... this is Steven Spielberg at his best, making him one of the greatest directors in the history of film. Just forget Jaws, E.T., Jurassic Park and all the recent crap he has made - Schindler's List is his masterpiece and will continue to astound humanity towards the next generation and so on. A kind of film that makes a life of a hardcore film geek incomplete if left unseen.
Based on the true story of Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist, who saved 1,100 Jews from the Holocaust, Schindler's List makes it more worthy to be seen, and deserved to be remembered by its good-natured, fine-hearted epic story of humanity at the centre of the wildest of storms. We are being told that this is a man who had seen justice and fought for it in his own quiet way, only to save more lives, spared more deaths, and fought against cruelty. He made his own difference to the world, but despite of that, he was not the perfect hero ideally speaking. That was how it strucked me, that even the baddest of guys, there is always a good core at the centre. Yet Schindler was not bad - in fact, he was bad in his own ways. He was a womanizer, he brags, he's a gambler, a drinker, and he is ambitious, very ambitious, very greedy for money and position. But yet, he saw his destiny in his own eyes, having seen so many humans struggle while he breathes lavish air in his own luxury.
Set in World War II, where Holocaust took place, where Jews were persecuted for no reason, where death was the commonest of all plagues, and where lives were claimed for no intention.
As an industrialist, he built a factory in the Nazi-occupied Poland, and as he was a member of the Nazi occupants, he had a high-ranking position in the socialites and does very well among the other staffs. Oskar is that tall man, who dresses expensively and captures ladies with his charm, and intimidates men with his astounding presence. He is cunning and spends his money like wasteland. The bottomline of all, he gets richer because he hires Jews as his workers in his factory, paying them very low wages yet getting severely great income from it. And when he sees them, the Jews, there was a feeling that there was a flicker in Schindler's eyes we have never seen before. This is a mystery that until now, we humans never solved. We never knew why Oskar became good-hearted, why he had helped the Jews, inspite of him being a German and a Nazi-occupant. I guess this is how mysterious man could be. Goodness is always mysterious, a thing that science could never predict.
Cinematography marks history in this film, and by choosing to shoot in black-and-white instead of the modern cinema technicolor, gives this film an important history and documentary feel. It was like Spielberg wanted to sit right beside us to tell a story in its very raw form, in the barest true kind of storytelling - that sometimes, it becomes frighteningly real and emotionally and forcefully heart-blowing. This is how Spielberg must be admired at this point; he forgets about budget, or box-office gross, but gives his audience the true kind of cinematography, the honest, most brutal way of filmmaking, the most emotionally touching bravura of images, and most of all, gives us the message that would resonate to all humanity.
If Spielberg had been Picasso, and he were to make an artwork - then Schindler's List would be his ultimate Guernica, Michelangelo to Pieta, Da Vinci to Mona Lisa.
The movie is 3 hours and 4 minutes long, and every second took my breath away. There were gazillions of scenes that would strike every heart of human beings, and the terrible images of Holocaust would reverberate, remind us how horrible it was to live in the past, especially if you were a Jew. One of the best scenes in the film was when Schindler dictates Izshtak Stern, portrayed brilliantly by Sir Ben Kingsley, the names of the Jews he wanted to save. Also, another dauntless scene involves Schindler scolding a military guard not to take the children away from their mothers. And who could forget the last sequence where Schindler blames himself for not saving more Jews, and counting his possessions, blaming himself for not totally emptying his fortune to save more lives - to where Mr. Stern gave him a ring that says, "Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire...", and Schindler replied, "I could have saved more lives...". We then saw the faces of the Jews, as the camera cranes around them, seeing their faces, telling that Schindler had indeed saved already enough lives to sustain the future generations. This is cinema. And this will remain to be the most brave, most powerful scenes ever captured in camera.
The performances were all landmark. Liam Neeson had once been a favourite actor and as I saw this, he had transformed to be one of the best actors today. His portrayal of Oskar Schindler was subtle, strong and bold. Probably his best performance ever. Sadly, he lost to Tom Hanks in the 1993 Best Actor snob for Hanks' role as the gay lawyer in Philadelphia. But now who cares, Schindler's List remained to be one of history's most honoured film up to date. Ralph Fiennes as the cold and heartless Nazi commander Amon Goeth was strikingly atrocious and stunning as well. His contemptible character brings the very nature of evil in the most evil of situations, especially that scene where he hangs around in his veranda with his rifle, shooting Jews for exercise. Amon Goeth and Oskar Schindler are two very familiar elements in our daily lives - evil and good altogether.
We knew by then what the film wanted to tell us, that it is unnecessary to do such good thing everyday but more necessary to do good things in the heart of dark events. And I do not mean we should not do good everyday. In fact we should, in our own little ways. Schindler did one thing most men could not do, to stand and make a difference when every other men were incapable of doing something. He sold his fortune, he lost his money due to bribery of his officials, in order to save more lives. We can all be Schindler, all we have to do is look deep inside us, and find that inner goodness I once talked about, no matter how evil we are on the outside, there's always a Schindler within us all. In the heart of almost 6 millions Jews that were killed, Schindler saved 1,100 and now, the new generation totaled up to 6,000. What difference had he made? Quite astounding.
This is a film with a great, majestic impact to us all. This is a film about humanity - it could make you feel terrible, it could make you cry, it could make you become scared - not because of what we have seen, but because of our selves. It is because we knew there's always a Schindler in us but we don't have enough courage to bring it out. But when we do, this would be the very thing that would define each and everyone of us.

Rating: A+

Another zombie film, I know. Well, there's been a lot of zombie movies running amok in our memory like Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead, the very hilarious zombie-spinoff Shaun of the Dead, and dude, what else could be dead? I was just glad that Danny Boyle, director of this film, caught this one and dealt with it seriously - and I mean, seriously. It's not just another zombie film, for me, it's another film about the man's instinct of survival. It just occured to me that the film I watch before this was The Descent, and it, too, was a film about survival.
Jim, portrayed by Cillian Murphy, wakes up in a hospital only to find it deserted after a fateful accident with his bike and a car. He's too shocked to notice that everyone was gone, and the streets of London had been wiped blank. Later he meets Selena, played by Naomie Harris, and then discovered that everybody was infected with a so-called "rage" virus, a kind of pandemonium gene that originated with monkeys and once humans are bitten, they would become the same savage, man-eating zombie-like creatures. Well, at least, at this junction, we are being presented with a reasonable cause why people are turning zombies, unlike other films which show zombies popping out of nowhere without any because...
So they made an escapade of avoiding the "infected" ones and probably killing them on their way, and soon encountered other survivors, one was Frank, played by the fine actor Brendan Gleeson and his daughter Hannah, played by Megan Burns. They were four and they had this sole mission: to get into Manchester, to where the soldier resides, and apparently giving them hope to survive.
The characters were very real, and their personalities had this complex feel unlike most horror one-dimensional characters. Jim reflects every individual, Selena had this tough-minded straightforwardness being honed by the situation and a realist too. She's so tough that you somehow forget she has a heart and compassion, and that she eliminates everyone including a friend if they were bitten by the infected ones. Within 20 seconds, bitten individuals must be eliminated or else they turn into the infected beings.
So we know it's a horror movie, but a good science fiction too. This had stunned me because of some unnerving images including the empty, derelict streets of London, the Westminster Bridge, and haunted look of the Piccadilly Circus. The film was intriguing enough, filled with interesting plot, yet devastated by the film's conclusion. The last scenes were muddled with army shoot-outs and chases that it blurs you out. There's this probing issue also that the army were keeping the two women, Selena and Megan, to help the men with the dying generation of humans. They all looked pathetic yet the main characters struggled in defiance.
But inspite of that, it was a good film. A diabolical study about human nature, and well written, at that.

Rating: B

The Descent, for me, had done quite well on its purpose - to scare the bloody hell out of some weak-hearted audience, to satisfy blood-hungry, feast-craving, horror-licking dimwits, and most of all, bludgeoning other horror flicks that this is the real throwback to good 'ol horror movie days. I had enjoyed the film, it was a guilty pleasure, even though I thought that sometimes the film becomes a bit nonsensical. The story was alright - I mean, since when did horror stories became so tremendously affecting that it could have the possibility to change you perspective in life? Or perhaps make you into a better and more courageous person, just like the protagonists of horror movies who suddenly become dauntless.
It follows the story of six ladies who went into cave hunting, without knowing that one of them kept a secret that the cave they were about to go into was still undiscovered, with the prospect of discovering it for themselves. Giving it a name, become part of history. But there are elements surrounding the story too, like adultery and vengeance. A wife, whose husband and kid died due to a sudden car crash, finds out when they were inside the cave and dealing with horrible, unimaginable monsters, that her friend was her late husband's mistress. Somewhere between their struggle, they all find truths in the darkest of sight (caves are pitch-black), and that's what makes The Descent very human.
As they venture into the cave, there exists not only darkness, but also their deepest fears, which would trouble them, and haunt them without instances. They would battle claustrophobia, panic, and not only the darkness, but also their inner devils. And then there's the gruesome images, the human-like monsters living deep within the caves forbidden by any light, disabled with sight yet very able with the four remaining senses. They had unearthed that there is another kind of species which had evolved underneath, and in my thinking, ancient people who were locked up in the caves some millenia before and then evolved to exist in the dark, cannibals, adapting the environment most fishes and reptiles had grown to live.
The most unsual thing in The Descent was that it didn't feature any male being, but rather focused on the woman's behaviours under such circumstances. Also, I appreciated the film's gore. Yeah, it's all muck, grime and blood here, but the savagery astoundingly reflects on humans, especially the major instinct of survival and that humans, without the rational thinking, or the conscious part (quote that to Sigmund Freud), the id would suffice and overcome the brain, which makes humans irrational, impulsive and savage to the deepest core. The Descent pursued this very well.
Neil Marshall, having been directed quite a few horror films like Dog Soldiers, gave us a stunning horror film. It's a knock-out. I say, hell, it's not a corny horror flick because once you play it on your DVD, you turn off the lights and sit back on your couch, it doesn't play tricks on you like most horror movies do, but instead gives you the raw kind of horror - the ironies of human survival and human savagery. Cinematography is brilliant, and the lighting was effective, would make you believe you're in some dreary cave. Oh, by the way, this reminds me of the former film with the same theme, The Cave, but forget the latter because The Descent is way much better.

Rating: B+

It's a weird film, but beneath its own weirdness, there's a spark of good-natured filmmaking. Everything's Illuminated might not be the kind of illumination you were looking for, but as a film, it gives off its own light.
Based on the true story of Jonathan Safran Foer, whom he had written the book with the same title also, Illuminated follows the story of a man in search for his family's roots. In order to reach out to his late grandfather's wife, he must embark on a journey to Ukraine, to fulfill the mission his grandfather had once asked him - to thank his grandmother for saving his life. Yet, with all the weirdness and some oddball kind of crap, it turns out that some little transformed into a life-changing journey towards awakening to what life is, and towards illumination on one's spirit.
As an audience in a film, it came to me that Everything's Illuminated presented such unusual characters, almost very imaginative, like an irony to the tale of truth. Jonathan Safran Foer looked a human beetle. He wears the same black suit over and over again with his one-sided hair slicked back with some greasy gel, and his eyes were magnified five times by his thick, magnifying-glass-like eyeglass lenses. The most amazing thing was, he was played by Elijah Wood, and did Mr Wood did any better? Yes, he very well did, in fact, this is one of the most challenging roles he ever tackled, after brandishing some Hobbit acts. Right now, after watching the film, I could never really think of any other actor playing the role of Jonathan Safran Foer. The film's filled with oddball characters too, like the angry dog, the blind grandpa, who's an expert in driving and Will, the tour guide. All in all, I quite enjoyed the film's weirdness, and Liev Schreiber, the director, his debut film actually, did good. He has many camera tricks and he knows about cinematography. Love the sunflower field scenes.
There are lessons we could learn in this film and right very well said, there are more lessons that the characters learned. There were many brilliant scenes, and the poignant background story about the Holocaust and the Jews made it more memorable.

Rating: B+

27 episodes. 50 minutes each. 1 staggering layered story. Grey's Anatomy Season 2 does it all, without doubt. I'm done with Season 1 and now Season 2 was equally competitive as well, equally compelling and every minute really counts. Grey's Anatomy has become a television event and it's very difficult indeed to miss just one show.
The story picked up from where the first season just left us flabbergasted, and now, every single character started to battle their own inner little devils. When the first season was somewhat an overture to the whole Seattle Grace atmosphere and the lives of these interns, Season 2 delves deeper into the personal lives of the characters. Meredith Grey had sworn herself that she's over with his McDreamy aka Derek Shepherd aka Patrick Dempsey, but as the episodes went on, we are told that being friends was a difficult thing to pin down because both Grey and Shepherd were more than friends. Complications started to arise when Mrs. Shepherd arrived, played amazingly by Kate Walsh; "she's intelligent, kind, beautiful and so difficult to hate" said Grey herself. Cristina Yang played by Sandra Oh deserved critical appraise to this as she massively captures the character by heart, bringing on the hardest of stones to the Korean lass. As we know that she could be really rude and very starightforward to patients and doctors alike, but here as she tries to battle her own inner fears, we are presented with a very human Cristina Yang, who loves Dr Burke so much, more in action than words. Dr Burke meanwhile, played by Isaiah Washington, has a professional life being muddled by his love life. Dr Derek Shepherd aka McDreamy goes on with tremendous doubt on how to save his marriage while still obsessing with Grey. It all seems like a common scenario, love triangles to another love triangle, but what made Grey's Anatomy great was it's very, very good writing. In fact, one critic praised it as "the best written TV show running now."
Grey's pulls me as if it has a gravitatin force, pulling me episodes after episodes. You just can't stop watching it. As being called as another medical drama, it conincides to the fact that it focuses more on the lives of the characters than the medical surgeries. That's why people are engrossed and seemed to be emotionally pulled and follow them out throughout the show. But the very best thing in Grey's Season 2 was it's 3-part finale. Damn, it's one of the best TV finales I've ever encountered in my whole life, one that really pulls you, one that really grips and one that will surely draw some heartstrings on you (yes, even though how hard-hearted you are like Yang). Katherine Heigl as Dr Isobel Stevens was at her top form here. I just went down on my knees and praise this golden girl for giving such a magnificent performance as Izzie. Having a career that is threatened by her own personal life and her own personal connection, she's a major character that will reflect on you. And the finale? It's all about Izzie for me, and Meredith having to choose between two roads.
The soundtrack was a blast, especially "How To Save A Life" by The Fray and "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol, aired at the very last episode, which was downrightly brilliant.
Grey's Anatomy will be with us for a while and if this will continue to be a greatly written show, then it will with us for We are being told that although we could become professionals, when it comes to love, no one and nobody is professional. We have lessons to learn and lives to live. Now, I can't wait to watch Season 3.

Rating: A

Brand-new spanking poster from Christopher Nolan's period magical drama, The Prestige. Stars Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johansson and Michael Caine. I just can't wait to watch this. Apparently, one of the must-see films this year. :) I also dig the illusion of the poster. Will make you see lights around you; just stare at it for long and stare at another point in your room the next minute. Hahaha! It also looked as if it's swirling huh...

It was once said that power cannot change the course of destiny. In The Godfather III, that power continued to become steady but not too resilient, objective but not too much of a perspective. Crafted 16 years later after its predecessor, The Godfather II, Francis Ford Coppola was able to maintain that great respect he has been requiring of the audience for this history's most renowned mafia tale, and considering this as one of Hollywood's prestigious trilogies, or if not, one of the world's most influencing films of the modern times.
Finally, as I was thinking, having been able to slice in to my very rugged schedule, I had finished watching the masterpiece - and now, I should say this once and for all... The Godfather III is a brilliant film, but has its major flaws, weaknesses and fragile points. Just like its former prequels, they had their own fair share of imperfection, and it's inevitable, just like the film's protagonist/antagonist itself, Michael Corleone, power isn't fit for anything at all.
It felt like a tradition, a continuous circle of life, and Godfather III focused now on the lives of Michael Corleone's children. Now as we have sensed this Corleone's tragic visage of a character, we know that his figure, as greedy with power and hungry for position, we could think that someday, a man like this would face his doom. The Corleone family had been attemption to go legitimate, to become the most famous Sicilian bloodline to every live in New York, to become ultimately respectable in the society, to amass tremendous wealth, to silence the past of murders and death - yet the past couldn't be silenced as violence that had once been taught to Michael Corleone started to slither its woeful path to his children. Before, when Michael had been too ravenous for power, as he sensed this all happening to his children, his instinct as a father kicked in. His dream now is to protect his children from the violence, from the gruesome portrait of his family's past. This is how The Godfather III was able to captivate me; it is a story of how a father wanted to protect his children, how a father wanted to redeem himself despite of the things that he had done in his past. A father that is coming clean, changing his path and standing in front of his children, protecting them from the harsher truth outside the world that they all move in.
Most of the characters are back, including Diane Keaton as Kay. Michael still loved her but just couldn't bring the willpower to sieze her back into his arms. We are also introduced to the new characters; the children of the mafia clan. There was Mary, the only daughter of Michael Corleone, played by Francis Ford Coppola's daughter himself, Sofia Coppola; Anthony, Michael's son; and Vincent, Sonny's son, played brilliantly by the very young Andy Garcia.
Now, Michael is torn between choosing the road of power and stardom or to the road of a silence life, with his own family. He was doubting who to give his position as the Godfather, since his own son Anthony doesn't want to meddle in his own businnesses. They are then left with Vincent, the son of Michael's brother, a very egotistical, ruthless and shameless bastard of a man. At last, when Michael was on the brink of his family's tragedy including his only daughter's demise, he passed on the power willingly to Vincent. There we see as we try to sit back, that this place of power will never end and will continue to haunt the future generations.
Coppola had his own universe upon making the films. He knew how to use moods and atmosphere to create the very essence of Godfather. Although the film felt somewhat dislocated at times, everything would fall back into a solid piece at the end of it all. I believe, although it has weaknesses, The Godfather III is not the weakest of the trilogies. I think The Godfather II had the most frail plot, and The Godfather I was the best for me. But anyway, it is a trilogy and I could say an A-Lister at that. The Godfather III would have been void of appraisals without the surmounting brilliance of Al Pacino himself. Nobody could have played the Corleone father much better. My complaints goes to Sofia Coppola, who was so astoundingly beautiful yet astoundingly talentless when it comes to acting. She's as rigid as a wood when she acts. I'm just glad she goes to directing now, I think she does better in that field after loving her Lost in Translation.
Now, as we try to look back into the foundations of the film, all we see is memories now, like looking at our family picture in a very old frame. Once memorable, definitely haunting and will surely go with us forever.

Rating: A

It's official. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has it's own logo already and it's trailer will soon rise in the theaters this coming November 17, 2006. The source - non other than the lair itself, Warner Bros. Sure, they continued the silver Harry Potter name plate, which Alfonso Cuaron patented way back Azakaban era.
More update... Phoenix is almost at the finish line, currently shooting the ending scenes with Ralph Fiennes sporting a bald head again as Potter's arch-nemesis, Voldemort. Everyone's back, just as I expected, except Dobby, which the studio confirmed he was out of the film. Anyway, there's Kreacher, a brand-new spanking Black house-elf.
Phoenix teaser trailer will be released with the animated film Happy Feet. The whole movie will be released 8 months later, July 13, 2007. Mark that date. The Phoenix will rise.

Imagine this scenario: one code-decrypting machine, one powerful unparalleled multi-billion device that cracks any existing code – now being made obsolete by a new program that creates codes so complex that it becomes unbreakable. This is Digital Fortress, a program created to cripple the U.S. Government’s most secretive and significant intelligence resource, the National Security Agency (NSA). Dan Brown had written his debut thriller, probing not about religion or paintings but on the issues of the modern techno-science.
Enter Susan Fletcher, the NSA’s top cryptographer, the beautiful and brilliantly intelligent protagonist, who finds herself in a fiasco never faced before by the agency. When Commander Trevor Strathmore, the NSA’s Deputy Director of Operations, contacted her from her vacation, she discovered that a recent program had entered the TRANSLTR’s confines, being challenged by an unbreakable code that threatens the very foundations of the agency itself. Little did she know that everything was not it seems to be. Her fiancé, David Becker, a teacher of linguistics, was being sent to Seville, Spain by the yet unknown source to recover a certain ring, once worn by the deceased Ensei Tankado, an ex-NSA cryptographer, who was sacked from his job due to his perpetual protest against the intrusion to the people’s privacy. This Japanese genius was the sole creator of the program Digital Fortress, his massive backfire towards the NSA itself – a devious step to paralyze the US securities and if once unsolved would cause so much pandemonium with advanced electronic global terrorism. Tankado, who demanded NSA to publicly admit about the existence of TRANSLATR or otherwise he would auction Digital Fortress to the open, was duly assassinated at Seville, leaving Susan, Strathmore and the rest of the team to solve the dilemma. It all then goes down to Greg Hale, also an NSA cryptographer, who was suspected by Susan as NDAKOTA, a code name pronounced by Tankado himself as his partner who knew about the pass-key, a code that would terminate Digital Fortress. Meanwhile, the NSA staff, Chad Brinkerhoff, the NSA Director’s Personal Assistant, was flabbergasted to discover that the recent financial analysis presented by the relentless Midge Milken, the Internal Systems Analyst, was way out of hand. It turned out the TRANSLATR’s latest decoding cost as much as $1 billion in its latest 18-hour decryption. As they all worked in the Crypto department to solve the riddle, the rise of the conflict started when the NSA main power went off, disabling the whole area’s electricity, leaving the TRANSLATR to depend on aux power only. Phil Chartrukian, the NSA Sys-Sec was the reason of the blackout, was pushed through the generator trapdoor and got electrocuted over the fibre wires. In total darkness, there Susan started to see everything quite clearly as chilling events started to unfold. Greg Hale claimed Strathmore to be the real bad guy, setting everything up to achieve his one goal: to get into the Digital Fortress program and modify the algorithms, and then use it as NSA’s greatest landmark, to continually protect its own nation from the terrors of the own world. But Susan refused to believe, and as she continued to work for Strathmore to break the algorithm, a thousand miles away, David Becker struggled so many nerve-wracking events just to locate the ring, which was rumoured to contain Tankado’s last pass-key to the Digital Fortress yet unknowing that he was stalked by hired assassin so-called Hulohot. The climax started to step on the breaks when Susan discovered about Greg Hale’s lifeless body on the floor, pointing all evidences to Commander Strathmore; evidences that would tell he was the one who planned everything, including the killings, especially the recent target, her fiancé, David Becker. Due to overheat, TRANSLATR destroyed itself, along with Strathmore, leaving the NSA’s main databank to be vulnerable to a worm released by Digital Fortress. Tankado made everything a hoax; his pure goal was to produce Digital Fortress as a cover-up to bypass the Gaunlet, a filtering system, and launch the worm into the main databank. Jabba, a NSA anti-hacker expert, along with Susan and the rest of the staff, helped to solve the riddle of the pass-key. Without the pass-key, the main databank would be destroyed, leaving NSA open to the whole world, including the advanced security tactics of USA, weaponry and highly-classified intelligence. With brilliant simplicity, they all solved it using Tankado’s favourite saying himself, “Who will guard the guards?”, along with his obsession for prime numbers. Everything was then restored as David Becker proposed to Susan Fletcher the question for her acceptance for marriage.
It would be a downright matter indeed that there is an agency in US that intrudes the privacy of people, using decrypting methods. We tackle such issues today, as we try to imagine ourselves having sent emails freely yet without consciously knowing that somebody out there is trying to read it for instances like classified information – it’s a nightmarish picture really. But we also try to ruminate that NSA is trying to protect the welfare of its country by tracking terrorism and preventing it to happen. It’s both pros and cons mixed altogether. The issue of hacking is also present in this book like getting passwords for instance, especially inserting chips under your keyboard and traces the keys you just typed in.
Digital Fortress is not a bad book; it delivers the right amount of tension, national intrigue, web of deception, intelligent storyline, sometimes a frighteningly real plot, and some gut-wrenching action. But what’s wrong in the book was that it has Dan Brown’s methodical formula written all over it. It’s easily predictable, including the mastermind who sets everything moving like watching a banal game of chess. Also, the last two hundred pages of the book was hitched with so much action scenes that sometimes it blurs you out, a hint that so much speed could cause a glitch in your own system. This is easily Dan Brown’s weakest novel up to date. Although it’s almost real enough, it doesn’t catapult into the phenomenal crescendo of Angels & Demons, or the religiously beguiling The Da Vinci Code, and the majestically explosive Deception Point. But in fact, what made this book good to read is that aside from being so filled with terms, Dan Brown made it sure that he writes for everyone, and not just for computer brainiacs or techno-geeks out there.

Rating: B-

Who says a movie poster like this does not rock? Although quite literally ensembled, Blood Diamond's poster contained elements that makes the whole vista a classic. This is what I'm talking about, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou, and directed by Edgar Zwick, Blood Diamond drips its way to the theaters this December, telling the story how lives are claimed in Africa for the search of diamonds. Talking about Oscar buzz, watch the trailer. Judge from it.

Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman, although rumoured to be enemies, stars as real life rivals in the film The Other Boleyn Girl, and tries to capture the attention of King Henry VIII played by Eric Bana. Take a look at them, sure they looked like bestfriends after all, after the news that they had been seen in a bar drinking and having the night out. Girls.

The goddess Angelina Jolie is currently undertaking the role of Marianne Pearl, whose husband, Daniel Pearl, was killed while investigating about terrorists in Pakistan for the Wall Street Journal. Entitled A Mighty Heart, based on a true story and memoir by Marianne Pearl herself with the same title. Sure Jolie looks weird here, as they tried to make her a bit like Afro-Cuban, like Marianne herself. She works this film with hubby Brad Pitt as producer. A Mighty Heart will be released next year and a sure-fire Oscar contender.

Lindsay Lohan's best performance to date - nope, not in Just My Luck. It was in Mean Girls that she did quite amazingly. And here, she continues to receive the malignant infection that Hilary Duff had once been spreading, after the reign of J.Lo's, Kate Hudson's, and Jennifer Love Hewitt's romantic comedy showdown arena. They've graduated from that level, I hope so, and Lindsay Lohan's supposed to move on. After telling you her recent filmography, I shall say we'd be impressed: starring as Meryl Streep's daughter in the recent critically-acclaimed Robert Altman radio drama, The Prairie Home Companion, and stepping into Elijah Wood's eye candy in the Emilio Estevez-helmed Kennedy period tragedy, Bobby, with the greatest modern ensemble with Demi Moore, Anthony Hopkins, Sharon Stone, Josh Duhamel, Laurence Fishburne and many more, soon due this coming December. Also, to add into the future long list of moviemaking, Lohan embarks in a hopefully-award-grabbing turn as a sex-crazed addict in Georgia Rule, starring along with Sharon Stone. So will Just My Luck tarnish the straight-off-the-record? Like a CD album, it serves as a filler. Never important, really.
Once again puttin us into this kind of romantic movie formula, boy meets girl, fate collides and voila - into the race of mess where J.Lo had once been very good at. Just My Luck tells of a very lucky girl, who lives her life with ultimate splendour, having the right job, classy credit cards and fantastic society status. Until she meets this boy - a bad-luck magnet, who's life has nothing to do with good anything at all, filled with horrifying surprises and black karma. The both of them shared a kiss - that's how their fates suddenly switched places, stars collided. Boy became goodluck-magnet and girl became, well, the most devastated girl on Earth, who experienced the world's hateful bad luck of all bad lucks.
The film introduced the Brit band McFly as their selves, and it tried to concoct a film that's supposedly feel-good with a band, and having the blast at the end. I swear I'm gonna hate myself for this but I am a McFly fan and I dig their songs, but hell, their presence in the film didn't help at all. All the Lohans in the world couldn't even save this film, how much more for just one? Too bad this girl's making a great mess on her status, including careless driving (oops, I shouldn't have brought that up, that's Pink's territory). Once she avoids film roles like these, her career would be doing just fine.

Rating: C

This is the most unusual Adam Sandler flick. Apparently, one of the most ridiculous, perhaps innocuous, less offensive I mean, yet a Sandler flick on the bottomline. He had been with Hollywood's pretty leading ladies, like Drew Barrymore and God-knows-who-else, and now flipping it up with the stunning Kate Beckinsale. So the tight question: was the movie any good?
As what have been mentioned, Click is the most unusual Sandler movie because it isn't as raunchy as his former films. I dig 50 First Dates and I think it was one of his greatest romantic films, or The Wedding Singer for that matter. But Click here involves fantasy, a bit ludicrous that is, and romance, family story and well, life. To say, the whole movie revolved around a single universal remote that controls the universe, to rightfully explain the titular "Click", which I roughly thought to be involved in some mobile phone. Anyway, as the film started to roll on its way, the commonest things happened the way a Sandler film does (and, oh, Sandler's acting was so monotonous like always watching shades of grey that you've grown sick watching it). It's filled with elements you could predict in a Sandler movie, toss in some green jokes, over-the-top plot, oftenly silly dialogues and purely nonsensical movie-making. But as the Click had finally had it's finger on the button, it evolved into a heartfelt story about family. This is what I like in the movie. The most unlikely event in a Sandler story. The movie was able to convey the message to the people, although obviously, and brought the right kind of screenplay that we didn't expect to befall. Shall I say, a miracle in a Sandler film. Sometimes the story could be really amusing, but on the end, it kind of reflected on me that humanity is now living with everything fast and forward and that we faintly realise that we just can't simply press rewind and go back. There are things that we should cherish, that we should be lingering on, but as time flies, we somehow become irrelevant to our own selves, much like indifferent to our own surroundings. A thumb-up to you Sandler. I just thought it's all purely rubbish in you. After all, you seem to have a dose of humanity in you. Click is not the film I was looking for but gladly, it's a film that made my one night filled with content.

Rating: B