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Showing posts from August, 2014

The Giver (2014)

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From the NET: The haunting story of THE GIVER centers on Jonas, a young man who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Yet as he begins to spend time with The Giver, who is the sole keeper of all the community's memories, Jonas quickly begins to discover the dark and deadly  truths of his community's secret past. With this newfound power of knowledge, he realizes that the stakes are higher than imagined - a matter of life and death for himself and those he loves most. At extreme odds, Jonas knows that he must escape their world to protect them all - a challenge that no one has ever succeeded at before. Initial release :  August 15, 2014 (USA) Director :  Phillip Noyce Adapted from :  The Giver Story by :  Lois Lowry Screenplay :  Michael Mitnick  and  Robert B. Weide "Always in the dream, it seemed as if there were a destination: a something--he could not grasp what-that lay beyond the pla

TALK BACK AND YOU'RE DEAD (2014) #TBYD

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Alabang Town Center Cinema 4 Facebook Page Talk Back And You're Dead is the first installment of the Talk Back Trilogy of  Alesana Marie  originally published in WATTPAD, but can now be bought at any of the National Bookstore or Power Books Branches Nationwide.  It revolves around childhood sweethearts Timmy and Sammy, their friends, family and other people close to them. Although it is also a movie about school gangsters, it is very, very different from SHE'S DATING A GANGSTER .  For me, this story is very reminiscent of the kind of movies Sharon Cuneta and Gabby Concepcion did during their teenage years, most especially the ones produced by Viva Films, but different. The helicopters, the large estates, rich feuding families, fixed marriages, etc.   The movie version is written by Keiko Aquino and directed by Andoy Ranay ( Trophy Wife ).  I think I am getting fond of this team.  People still found flaws, but hey.  Even SALT, INDEPENDENCE DAY and

LUCY (2014) R-16

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A woman is accidentally caught in a dark deal, turns the tables on her captors and transforms into a merciless warrior evolved beyond human logic. Initial release: July 25, 2014 (USA) Written and Directed by: Luc Besson Running time: 89 minutes Music composed by: Éric Serra Genres: Science Fiction, Adventure Film, Action Film Scarlett Johansson played her part really well.  She made me believe that Lucy could exist(had existed) and the only reason that I could not like this idea fully is my belief in God.   Let's set my beliefs aside and let's focus on the story alone.  I am not an expert in math and science, so when I watched this with my best friend, I just treated it as a sci-fi flick and just thought to myself that it happened that way  because she was the only female mule and she was kicked in the gut. The lethal drug after all is a synthetic version of something a woman produces when she is conceiving, to protect her fetus while it is still in her

Erased (2012) a.k.a. THE EXPATRIATE

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Rated R for Violence Director: Philipp Stölzl Writer: Arash Amel Stars: Aaron Eckhart , Nick Alachiotis , Liana Liberato , Yassine Fadel , Olga Kurylenko , Garrick Hagon and David Bark-Jones Liana Liberato has been appearing in a lot of psychologically damaging roles in the past and her role as Amy Logan is the mildest, in my opinion, among those types of roles. She is a very good actor and I don't know how she could play everything so convincingly at a very young age.  She was sixteen when she filmed this with Aaron Eckhart and almost seventeen when this was released.   The script that the critics lambasted as unoriginal and a hodgepodge threadbare of motifs, is actually pretty exciting.  Yes, yes, I agree, the story is somewhat old,  but hey.  In fashion, old styles become new trends with a little rehashing.  The Man of Steel has been rebooted several times and locally, Darna and Dyesebel have multiple personalities. Copycats and plagiarists are tho

Celebrity Bluff

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(From their  Facebook Page )  Celebrity Bluff is a Filipino television game show created by Marcelo Landicho for GMA Network which debuted on November 17, 2012 and November 24, 2012 worldwide via GMA Pinoy TV.-  Wikipedia First episode date: November 17, 2012 Languages: Filipino, English, Tagalog FB Page 1 FB Page 2 Official Website Main Hosts:  Eugene Domingo Jose Manalo (Celebrity Gangnammm) Brod Pete (Celebrity Gangnammm) Boobay (Celebrity Gangnammm) Wally Bayola (2012-2013) Celebrity Guest Bluffers Directed by Uro dela Cruz I love game shows and so far, this is my favorite.  I grew up watching different types of game shows.  I love the educational ones the most, and I've learned a lot of things from TRIVIAL PURSUIT and JEOPARDY, but at #CelebrityBluff, I learn about things the fun way .  I remember them too. Of course, because of modern technology, one is tempted to check the answer before it is revealed.  In a way this is good be

Sabrina Goes To Rome (1998)

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SABRINA GOES TO ROME may be a story about a teenage witch introduced to us in ARCHIE COMICS, but to me it's a story about a girl tracing her roots. As the title states, it is set in Rome, the principal city of the region of Lazio, and the capital city of Italy.   The place is really beautiful, but it is also filled with people who just want to take advantage of you.  Sabrina meets a couple of those people, and for the duration of her stay there, she sort of cheated on Harvey with one of them, played by Eddie Mills...well, let's just say that this happened before she and Harvey became official, or maybe they were on a break or something. It's easy to understand why Sabrina would fall for Paul(the name of the guy we are talking about), because deep down, he's actually a nice guy trapped in a hoodlum's body(exage!).   Thankfully, Sabrina also meets Gwen(Tara Charendoff) and Alberto(Eric Alexander), who become true friends of hers.  During her stay in

St. Rita of Cascia (2004 TV movie- Santa Rita da Cascia)

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Directed by  Giorgio Capitani Writing Credits  (in alphabetical order)    Saverio D'Ercole ... (associate writer) Elisabetta Lodoli Maura Nuccetelli Film Showing August 8, 2014 7:30-9:30 in the evening JDHP Center 1 "Blessed are the peacemakers..."  St. Rita da Cascia is the female version of St. Jude, the Patron of Hopeless Cases or the Impossible.  Besides that, she is also known to be invoked when a woman is in a turbulent marriage.  She is also the saint of single mothers(widows or not) and of feuding families. To hear the correct background music, please watch the film in its original Italian with  Portuguese  subtitles.  The English version was poorly dubbed and like what my friend and little sister, Jinkee, observed, it seemed like everything was "the climax" because of the background music.  Vittoria Belvedere  is a beautiful person, but her features are too strong and you would wonder why she was chosen, but if

How to Save a Marriage (and Ruin Your Life)- 1968

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If there was such a thing as watching a movie by accident , then that's what happened.  I watched this by accident.   I was channel surfing and this movie was about to start.  The title sounded witty and so I had my eyes glued to the television screen. I was pleased to find out that this movie starred Dean Martin, Stella Stevens, Eli Wallach and his wife since 1948 until his death THIS YEAR(2014), Anne Jackson. Just read the plot below.  It's a well-written screenplay with a comedy of disasters, mistaken identities, women's lib, mistresses uniting, making honorable women out of them ,  et cetera, et cetera.  There are just some things you just cannot fix, but there are those that become better after mending .  Yes, yes, sweeter the second time around. Stella Stevens who was already a young mother to Andrew Stevens at that time, played her part well.  A sultry siren with dignity(what a combination).  Dean Martin played the part of a bachelor in his golden