I am NOT a critic. I'm merely an observer. (Books, movies, plays, musicals etc.)

This is Courtney Chase.  She played Joanne, the central character's only daughter in this movie.   She was so cute and witty in this film For me, even if the actors played their roles well, the story was, for lack of a better term,  was so -so.   Imagine, Joanne's dad, Leonardo, owed some bad people  money.  How does he intend to pay them? To win from gambling and when that did not work, he joined the male escort service. Sigh. I'm still kinder than that imdb reviewer, because even if I think it's so-so, it's not bad as how that reviewer described the film. Good premise, great actors, but...

The Taste of Life ;-) When I was much younger I wanted to be a chef, but with my temperament, I don't think I would last inside an industrial, a hotel or a restaurant kitchen.  The cooks would probably throw rotten tomatoes at me or spoiled food.  I also realized, that even if I had training in baking and culinary arts, I couldn't repeat a recipe.  Maybe I could produce something similar that sometimes is better, but sometimes is worse. Haha! While I was watching this, I imagined myself as Kate(Zeta-Jones), God forbid,  something happens to rest of my family and I'm left with my nephew, I guess my case would be different.  Wait, I don't even want to think about it so why am I verbalizing  it? I also missed our mini-restaurant sorta kinda chain.  Sigh.  OK, I won't talk about it.  It just hurts too much.  I'm just happy I met a lot of people through that business of ours. Aaron Eckhart is so charismatic here.  I'm ...

(Sorry, but I cannot write about this film without some spoilers) We were only four people in the cinema and all of us knew each other. Why? Because I watched it with my mom, my dad and my younger brother. It was always pretty awkward watching a restricted film with my parents in a public  theater, so I was feeling a bit iffy, but I don't think I would have it any other way.  After all, we were all adults.  My dad's in his late 70's, my mom's in her mid 70s, plus my brother and I were both in our 40's so I guess it was perfectly alright. The movie had a good way of interlocking the stories, but there were many, many goofs.   Like how would someone in New York bump into someone in Paris? This was not a story about portals or sliding doors.  It's a story about Michael( Neeson ), a very successful writer who is estranged with his wife Elaine( Bassinger ) with a very young up and coming beautiful and sexy journalist called Anna( Wilde ) as...

( source ) Real/Reel I never get tired of the Silver Screen version of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, but I also have learned to love the Japanese version called  Trapp Family Story(a.k.a. Trapp Family Singers)トラップ一家物語 Torappu Ikka Monogatari . The Sound of Music 1965 version was cut short and more cinematic.  The Japanese version was well researched, still added some fictional parts, but tried its best to be somewhat like a docu-film, anime style.  The names in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical and movie were like aliases, while the Torappu Ikka Monogatari used the real names of the seven(7) Von Trapp children from Captain Georg 's first marriage.  It may have been presented in animated form, but it was real as real could be.   The SOUND OF MUSIC is timeless.  I have watched this countless times, and like what I said before, I never get tired of it. I'm really a sucker for these types of stories.  For some weird reason, when I was a l...

LOU GRANT star, Ed Asner as the Pope who recently became a Saint, John XXIII Pacem in Terris Massimo Ghini played a big part as the younger Angelo Roncalli Watching the DVD version of this TV movie proves again that one cannot know everything.  When  you read certain books and documents, you can only imagine how certain aspects of one's life are. True, not everything could be tackled, but more or leas you get to know or visualize a person's traits or psyche. Biopics sometimes differ from what actually happen in real life. Sometimes they are presented as if the ones watching are wearing rose colored lenses. Others are produced at times to malign the "other party".  Thankfully, this TV movie is very fair to all sides, even to the detractors of the very humble then future Saint. I watched this with my brothers and sisters in our Prayer Community.  I was actually late for 25 minutes(although it was announced to be shown at 7:30 in the...

Wikipedia WATCH: Steven De Guzman dances ‘My Illegal Wife’ theme—‘Akin Ka Na Lang’ This kid is really very, very talented. The SAVING GRACE We watched this movie on a Monday, meaning I'm the only one who had to pay for my way in because my parents didn't have to.  It's a good thing because my dad's head kept shaking.  Mom liked it and thought that Pokwang was even more beautiful than Ellen Adarna(maybe because her role here is not worth loving). The members of the supporting cast were all good and that little boy called Steven De Guzman as Liam was wonderful.  Well, I guess I could call him the saving grace  of this movie. Mae "Juana Change" Paner was awesome as Janet Lee Napulis. Of course, Joy Viado, Anita Linda, Pooh, Empoy, Edgar Allan Guzman and Beauty Gonzalez were very effective. :-)   Pokwang played the role of a woman who was ONLY 39 years old with a teenage daughter and a young son  who love each other dearly.  E...

Emir is a 2010 Filipino drama-musical film by acclaimed Filipino director Chito S. Roño. The film revolves around a girl that becomes a domestic helper in a fictional oil-rich Arab nation of Yememeni.- Wikipedia Release date :  9 June 2010 ( Philippines ) Director :  Chito S. Roño Screenplay :  Jerry Gracio Story by :  Chito S. Roño ,  Jerry Gracio Executive producers :  Rolando Atienza ,  Nestor O. Jardin EMIR is an epic film about our unsung heroes, our OFWs, and in this case it focuses on Amelia and everyone around her who serve in the house of the Royal Palace of the Sheikh who does not have an heir, but when finally he does, Amelia becomes the baby boy's nanny. Even if this is a musical you can feel every emotion experienced by every cast.  I am very happy that this movie appreciated abroad.  I just hope that Filipinos would appreciate it as well. The realities of life are presented here and...

I can't wait for #httyd3, but it would never be the same without the voice of Gerard Butler(spoiler).  It could still work.  Probably there would be dream sequences or something, but...or Hiccup could be older and he would be needing GB's voice. Oh, I don't know.  Maybe GB got tired or something.  I guess I have to do my job. Gerard Butler will be in How to Train Your Dragon 3.  He must be included or else... sigh.   Everyone in the cinema enjoyed this, but again, I must say, this is not for GENERAL Patronage.  It's a good thing that children don't really go alone inside the cinema, but to rate it G just to get more people to watch it is silly. The MPAA rating is PG.  Reasons: Mild rude humor, action adventure/violence. I must say that I like How to Train Your Dragon much, much better, but I can't say I didn't like this. As I mentioned earlier, everyone (at least in the cinema we were in) enjoyed this...and of course, th...

The four horsemen (Isla Fisher, Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson and Dave Franco) My brother told me this when we were watching INDEPENDENCE DAY for the nth time, "Goofs? What goofs? It's only a movie." With that in mind I would not dare mention the goofs of this film . The scenes are simply wonderful and the story and treatment are almost perfect.  The car chases are exciting and so are the magic tricks  and illusions.  I know that a lot of people were kind of expecting more, so they just got disappointed. Yet, there were also those who did not expect anything, but just relaxed and enjoyed every minute of the film. When I watched this for the first time, I didn't see it coming .  I just kind of guessed it when Dylan and Thaddeus were talking at a place Thaddeus did not imagine he was going to be. There were hints, I believe, but... I have seen this film I think about four(4) times, more or less and for one reason or another, it's not the il...