Aqua Diorite

green is the new black

2008-07-05T22:41:00.002-04:00

the hulk is back!! and his hair is still strangely longer than when he's his normal self...

anyways, the new hulk is definitely more incredible than the previous one starring eric bana in 2003 where the only scene i can recall clearly is when bana was like half naked XD.

even though the recent hulk film picks up where the previous one left off (where bruce banner tries to cure his affliction and also save the world from the eeevil scary-looking mutant thing called ex-soldier-emil blonsky), the two films are not actually related. the 1st hulk's director was ang lee (surprisingly), and the latter was directed by louis letterier.

before i saw the new film, i had some doubts and thought it was gonna be like the first one. but thankfully, i was wrong. the new one has some pretty intense action scenes, and the camerawork and editing are also well done. the cat & mouse chasing scene on top of the houses was very fast paced, and it reminded me very much of the rooftop scene in the bourne ultimatum. also, the epic fight scene between the hero and the villain was like... totallybonkers!!! i think i had my mouth hanging open the whole time, and i probably looked like a retard too, being completely engrossed in the battle. some of the moves were pretty cool and creative, but at times, the fight looked kind of like a video game. i'm not a big fan of video games.

but overall, The Incredible Hulk did not disappoint, and edward norton's very talented.

i can't think of a title because i'm speechless

2008-06-15T22:49:00.001-04:00

i sprained my ankle pretty bad, so now i'm in a cast stuck in my bed and i can't move, and i feel extremely claustrophobic in my room and i just might go jump off a cliff. if only i can move.

the good thing about this situation is that i get to watch lots of films (even though my eyes might go blind). yayyy!!

so today, i watched Amelie again. it's such a sweet and magical film, i never get tired of it.

then afterwards, i saw Fur: an Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, a film i'd wanted to see for a long time.

the film's a fictional biography of the famous photographer Diane Arbus (nicole kidman), and how she fell in love with a furry man (literally) named Lionel (robert downey jr. (he was completely different in iron man)) who inspired her to be the great photographer that she came to be. prior to meeting lionel, diane was a shy mother who was always walking in her successful husband's shadow. although she had her own dreams, diane worked as her husband's assistant in their home studio. after meeting lionel, she became more and more carefree and adventurous and lionel opened up a whole new world for her.

the conversations between diane and lionel were quite intriguing and sometimes humorous in the way they were delivered. the chemistry between the characters was great, and at times it made me feel like i was intruding on their privacy. their every action showed their hesitant love and longing for each other.

nicole kidman's portrayal of Diane is exquisite and brilliant. her every subtle blinking and shifting of the eyes (which the camera often zoomed in on) showed her character's true emotions, and i could actually feel what diane was feeling - love, fright, joy, pain, confusion.

robert downey jr. did a fantastic job playing lionel, an outsider who suffers from multiple physical and emotional sicknesses. those three words that he uttered to diane near the end of the film were so rare and heartfelt that i got a glimpse of what true love really looks like.

this film is hard to describe, it's like weird and unique and lovely and artsy and suspenseful and bittersweet and breathtaking all at the same time. it moved me very much, and i cried like a loser at a scene near the end where normal people wouldn't cry over (when diane was breathing lionel's breath). my mom thought i was retarded. i guess i just get emotional over the little things.

fur is such a beautiful touching and unforgettable story, i think it's now one of my favorite films.

i'm back!!

2008-06-09T23:22:00.001-04:00

yep, totally.

o noooo the world has come to an end

2008-01-27T19:29:00.000-05:00

so this is what the end feels like...so full of sorrow and nostalgia.
the art of film was an amazing and extremely refreshing class. i feel so enlightened. it taught me a lot of things about film that i never knew before, and how to see things through different perspectives. i now watch films with new respect.

i had so much fun in art of film and now that it's over, i'm going to be depressed for the rest of my life. just kidding.
it should be a full year course since it's totally enriching and insightful. i miss it already. *sniffles*

mr. D deserves a round of applause for his hard work, ingenuity, and funny jokes!

* APPLAUSE *

ooooh my god.

2008-01-27T18:51:00.000-05:00

"cinema paradiso" is soooo freakin awwwwwesomely brilliant. it's definitely one of the better ones we saw in class, if not the best. this film is the reason why i find foreign films so intriguing. it shows us a different view of the world that's full of imagination and beauty and how wonderful life can be (but often taken for granted). the story of this film is very heartwarming, and the bond between toto and his friend alfredo (philippe noiret) is very sweet.

"cinema paradiso" is a film about film. it starts with the old toto looking back on his childhood upon hearing the death of his beloved friend alfredo, and it takes us through young toto's (salvatore cascio) journey into adulthood and his love for film and a girl named elena (agnese nano). both characters, young toto and alfredo are very likable. toto is a curious and clever kid, and alfredo is kind and sort of a child himself. the chemistry between them is amazing.

even though the film is over two hours long and has a few long dialogues, i wasn't bored at all. it had the opposite effect on me. the film is so magical, yet unbelievably real. i didn't want it to end. it's truly a piece of art.

poor buffaloes...

2008-01-27T18:27:00.000-05:00

"the searchers" is my second western film. umm....i didn't like it that much, even though i always try to see the best elements in a film. the main character ethan (john wayne) is supposed to be the hero of the film, but he's racist and likes his sister in law. i didn't find the character charming or extremely intelligent, and also he was cranky throughout the film so i was feeling a bit cranky too from watching him being cranky.

there's also a lot of unnecessary violence. i like films with a lot of action, but in this one, the violence was stupid and not epic. why didn't the searchers and the indians negotiate? they were acting like savages, it was hilarious. in a sad way. ethan and his people were randomly killing the indians and taking out their anger on buffaloes. i would be pretty pissed if i were an innocent buffalo who's just chillin' and hanging out when suddenly out of nowhere get shot in the face. talk about disrespect for your fellow earth inhabitants...

the part that kept me from completely disliking the film is what ethan did at the end. he finally came to his senses and decided not to kill his niece debbie (natalie wood), who he originally intended to save but later decided to kill because he feared she might've been changed into an indian.
ethan did the right thing. i'm proud of him, but i still don't like him.

the landscape in the film was beautiful though.

hand me the treasure map or i'll shoot yo ass in the head!

2008-01-27T02:52:00.000-05:00

treasure hunting movies are awesome. they're full of puzzles and danger, and of course, gold. "national treasure: book of secrets" is a pretty good film. not mind blowing, but solid. some action scenes were so intense they made me bite my nails even though i'm not a nail biter.

this one is certainly better than the first one even though the plots are similar: ben gates (nicolas cage) and his friend justin do some illegal things in order to find the city of gold and clear ben's great grandfather's name. then they find clues that lead to more clues which lead to the treasure (in another underground/cave of some sort), but they encounter some kind of catastrophe relating to the treasure, and finally, they narrowly escape.

compared to the first one, book of secrets has more humor and action. also, the villain in the film is humanized at the end. he actually wasn't trying to kill everyone. instead, he did something very noble. to me, that's the most heart warming part of the film.

lola should be a marathon runner

2008-01-27T02:35:00.000-05:00

"run lola run" is a very creative and artistic german film. it combines animation and realism, which makes the film more unique . whoever came up with the idea should get a sticker.
i liked the film a lot because it's very fast paced (partially because of the electronic/techno music), and it has many unexpected twists and turns.

when the main character lola (franka potente) first got shot by a policeman, i thought she was going to die. instead, the film shows us a flashback, and what would've happened if she made a different decision on how to find money to save her boyfriend manni (moritz bleibtreu). even though we saw lola's quest to find money three times, each was different and more interesting than the last. this just shows that every choice we make matters, and every small thing we do affect other people, even strangers.

baldies have an advantage in combat because shiny heads hurt people's eyes

2008-01-26T00:54:00.000-05:00

my best friend and i were just talking about a movie he recently saw called "hitman". it's about "an assasin known only as agent 47 hired by a group known only as 'the agency' is ensnared in a political conspiracy, which finds him pursued by both interpol and the russian military as he treks across eastern europe."
after viewing the trailer, i found out that agent 47 (timothy olyphant) is bald and has a bar code on the back of his head. sounds familiar doesn't it? the bar code thing reminds me of "dark angel" and the maximum ride novels.

anyway, d now worships agent 47, who's a real badass, and wants to be like him. i hope he was kidding.
we were wondering why the main character's name/number is 47, so d did some research, and came upon some interesting stuff that might explain why the agent was named 47. here's what he found:

the bubonic plague began the black death epidemic in europe and asia in 1347. it has a 74% mortality rate and killed 47% of europe's population
it kills in 4-7 days. although only 47% of europe was left dead, this included 74% of england's population
it vanished from europe for 11 years (4+7) before returning
the twa plane accident in 1996, the plane model was the 747
147,000 hungarians were killed in action in world war 2
western samoa gained independence from new zealand after 47 years of colonial rule
47 screws were missing from a boeing 737's horizontal stabilizer rudder which crashed in the phillipines

so 47 is connected to a lot of disastrous events. my theory on why the hitman was named 47 is he is deadly and sinful and feared by most people, like the bubonic plague.
i'm not sure about the last four results and their accuracy. they're kinda random.

i didn't see "hitman", but i probably will once it comes out on dvd. it's a bit mysterious and i'm tempted to find out more about the dangerous baldy.

be still, my heart

2008-01-22T21:15:00.000-05:00

we saw a hong kong film in class this time! it's called "chungking express", and it's definitely not how i expected a romance movie to be like. this one's more abstract. the blurred colors and flashing lights and unsettling tune on the accordion at the beginning of the film create an atmosphere that feels dangerous, yet exhilarating.

the film is divided into two parts, the first about cop 223 (played by the handsome takeshi kaneshiro), a sensitive, thoughtful, but naive young man who just had his heart broken. although he was unwilling to move on, he was very philosophical. i thought he was a likable character. his monologues in mandarin were poetic and romantic and i felt his pain, but the english translations made them sound totally cheesy.

anyway, one night, he meets a mysterious female drug dealer in a blond wig (brigitte lin), and seems to be enchanted by her. then she falls asleep and he kindly takes care of her. the next morning, after he goes out for a run, he receives a message from her wishing him a happy birthday. he then felt deeply touched that she actually remembered his birthday, and thought that perhaps someone cared about him.
then the first story ends....
it felt a bit incomplete. we were not rewarded with what happens between the two characters in the future. i can't see them becoming lovers , but maybe they'll be friends (kinda ironic, considering their jobs).

while the first half of the film lacks closure, the second half is more polished and developed. it's also funnier and less muted. the story happens within close proximity of the first story. it's also about a cop , 633 (tony leung), who is going through a difficult breakup. he then meets a girl named faye (faye wong) who works at the food counter he frequently goes to. faye's character is different from the blond woman's. faye is more innocent, open, carefree, and a little nutty. signs of her strangeness start to show when she falls for cop 633 and gets hold of his apartment key and starts rearranging his furnitures and other things without him knowing, to make his life happier. if it wasn't creepy, it would've been sweet. faye wong did a great job on portraying a crazy person. tony leung too.
the ending of this story is less ambiguous and faye and cop 633's relationship shows promise to blossom into something stronger.

i kinda enjoyed the film, because a big chunk of it is the characters' dialogs and thoughts. they're deep and peculiar, with a bit of sadness on the side. the words spoken and exchanged manage to maintain the film's subtle romantic streak without needing to add scenes of physical passion.

i would watch the film again just to hear the poetic lines and be artistically confused once more. it's a wondrous kind of confusion.

Donnie Darko

2008-01-16T22:03:00.000-05:00

(this review contains juicy spoilers)

it was on one fateful day in october of 1988 that an antisocial teenager named donnie darko (jake gyllenhaal) narrowly escaped from a plane engine which landed in his bedroom and he received a rather peculiar visitor - a demented looking bunny-man with insanitary teeth named frank (james duval), who told donnie that the world was going to end in 28 days. never in donnie's wildest dreams did he know that he and the lives of others would be forever changed.

donnie was a troubled teenager who was sarcastic and gloomy and was living with a dysfunctional family. although he was plagued by imperfections, he was a thoughtful and curious person. after frank's visit, donnie started to question the existence of time travel and to run frank's strange errands, such as flooding the school and burning down the house of the child porn owner named jim cunningham (patrick swayze). donnie's many often irrational actions alter the lives of others in small, yet significant ways, whether beneficial or harmful, which further shows that everyone is tied together by a string.

at the end of the film, after donnie's girlfriend gretchen (jena malone) died because of him, he decided to sacrifice himself in order to bring gretchen back to life and return the universe to its natural state of being. because of that, donnie was a tragic hero.

"donnie darko" is a spectacular sci-fi film because not only does it explore the supernatural world, it also appeals to the viewers' emotions. the film effectively applies distressing and sinister music where needed, and slow motion in scenes that are significant. although the film is very open ended and the events in the film all seem to flow in a circle, it does leave the viewers room for more imaginative speculation.

stupid idiots

2007-11-18T19:50:00.000-05:00

"elephant" is depressing and unnerving. it makes me sad just writing about it. i don't like watching sad things. don't get me wrong, it's an amaazing film. i won't go into detail for this one because it sort of left me speechless, and therefore my thoughts are kinda jumbled up and i don't really know what to say. i feel like anything i say about the film will put its beauty to shame.
but i will try my best.

it's artistic.
the ever changing clouds against the phthalo turquoise sky, the lovely autumn scenery and the golden sunlight that always illuminates everything mark the brilliance of life that will never again be seen or appreciated by those who died.
the slow motion scenes frame the precious moments in life that are often overlooked and untreasured.
the achingly beautiful moonlight sonata is playing in the background as the carefree footballers have their last play. it makes the audience pity them, knowing what would become of them.
i wonder, as alex gently plays fur elise on the piano, how a sensitive boy like him could manage to murder his teachers and peers in cold blood without a bleeding conscience.
the sounds are very gripping and suspenseful. or rather, the lack of sound. it's so quiet around the characters sometimes, that it seems we can hear their deepest, most private thoughts.
it's emotional.
the camera closely follows each character through their routines. we see the world through their eyes, we feel what they feel - excitement, loneliness, jealousy, affection, frustration, humiliation, freedom, scorn. we know what they lose as they die, one by one.
it's powerful.
perhaps too powerful, words are hard to describe. all i can see is the nonchalance on the killers' faces as they slowly make their way around the school, shooting and hunting. all i can hear are the sounds of loud gunshots faintly echoing down the long halls and bodies hitting the floor. in dull "thud"s.

i would've loved "elephant" very much if it wasn't so painful for me to watch.

ahh...the beauty of forever... and ever and ever...

2007-11-13T01:27:00.001-05:00

i realllly enjoyed watching "groundhog day"! it was simple yet beautiful. this was my third viewing, but the first complete one. the film was so funny and warm, i think i was smiling throughout the whole thing.

although the film isn't super fancy with special effects, it is special in itself. it starts out with a cynical and sarcastic news person (phil), who doesn't appreciate anything and always looks dead and wears a frown on his face as if he's suffering from perpetual boredom, is living groundhog day over and over and over for who knows how many times.

at first, he was confused, but after he figured out what was going on, he was just pissed, and that annoying frown never came off his face. for a few days he continued to live like this. but after a while, he started to use the situation to his advantage (for selfish reasons) like sleeping with a girl he knew from high school. when he got bored with it, he tried to kill himself in so many ways but failed each time. then after the unsuccessful suicides, he started to see life in a new light. he seemed happier and started pursuing the woman he wanted, and learning and living life to the fullest.

what was lovely about the film was the transformation that phil went through. he was a completely different person by the end of the film. no longer was he ignorant and sarcastic, but he was helping and saving and loving the people around him.

i wonder what happened to the others while phil lived the same day over and over. did time stand still for them? were their lives like clocks constantly rewinding to hour one? or were they revolving around phil like the earth revolves around the sun?

where's the boy? bring him to me and i shall make him suffer, muahaha!

2007-11-13T01:10:00.000-05:00

"witness" is not your average thriller. not only does it have action, it also has some humor and (awkward) romance.

the movie's about a little boy named samuel (he's sooo adorable with his huge eyes and ears) who witnessed a murder, and a brave cop, john book, who tries to protect the boy in order for him to testify against the murderers. what made the movie more interesting is that the murderers were actually cops (oo0...)
i liked the movie a lot, partly because i enjoy crime movies and novels, but also because it's different from other suspense films. it's not all dramatically dark with intense music with a lot of gunshots and scary looking people, and it appeals to our feelings.

"witness" seems quite realistic. i can picture it happening here in real life.

melted gold is sticky and it smells funny

2007-11-09T21:33:00.001-05:00

"goldfinger" is a cool film. there's a lot of action. the only things i'm not crazy about are how bond met a highly attractive woman every 5 minutes (seems very unnatural), and the fighting scenes were kind of slow. my heart wasn't beating at 100 m/hr. the film is like the grandpa of modern action movies.

even though it's an old film, it does not lack humor and livelihood. it was funny how odd job's hat was like a killer frisbee. it sliced the statue's head off clean and simple in a second. i want something like that. not for cutting off someone's head. i prefer watermelons.

another interesting about the movie was goldfinger's choice of clothing. the colors of almost everything he wore resembled gold. most villains are dark and scary. instead, goldfinger reminds me of dog droppings (because of his brown jacket) and cheese, thanks to that yellow sweater he wore when he was playing gulf.
i don't like cheese. and goldfinger is so vain.

oh crud...there's been a murder! or two.

2007-10-29T21:57:00.000-04:00

i like movies that involve murder. not that murder's fun in real life, but when it's in a film, it gives the film an edge and makes it more badass.

"Double Indemnity" is a dark, spooky (but not the pee-in-your-pants kind of spooky) film. actually the first of its kind. pretty impressive, i gotta say, because it took the risk of exploring a place/genre where no other movies dared to venture.
the film portrayed the face of murder by effectively applying black and white, very suspenseful music, an almost flawless conspiracy, and an unhappily ever after.

what i liked about the film was the fact that the true villain in it was a woman. a woman named phyllis who tricked (or should i say...seduced?) the innocent and half clever salesman walter neff into murdering her husband and (almost) getting tons of insurance money. walter was kind of naive for thinking he could get away with murder and live forever with phyllis the evil witch with the deceivingly pretty face. it seemed that he was blinded by looove. it probably wasn't even love. it was more like an unhealthy infatuation.

even though it was heartless of phyllis to kill her husband, it was only 90% her fault. her husband didn't care for her, and he was a drunk who constantly abused her.
still, what she did was whack. she could've dealt with her husband differently, like fleeing (a less cowardly word would be flying-free) to somewhere far far away, or just giving her husband some champagne with happy,singing in the (please insert the place where he cleans/washes himself) pills.
walter wasn't completely cruel either. he was only killing under the influence of phyllis' very hot and appealing evilness. when he was driving in the car with phyllis' step-daughter, he was having doubts and feeling a little guilty about the fact that he was going to kill the crazy woman's husband. i felt bad that he didn't make the right decision. he would've made a great senior salesman.

life is so abnormally fair sometimes.
walter didn't get the money, didn't get the girl.
and phyllis got bitch slapped by karma.
ooo snap.

let your spirits run W i L d!

2007-10-27T21:04:00.001-04:00

wow, "Spirited Away" is a brilliant film! it's filled with interesting characters, humor, wit, rich imagination, stunning visuals, and so much more.

i'm not really into anime because some lack emotion, and the visuals look flat. but this film is so different. the creator of the film, mr. hayao miyazaki, is truly an artist because he is so observant, and applied those small observations (that are often overlooked by general anime) to the film to make it seem almost real even though it is a story filled with magic and strange talking creatures.

the first time i saw the film (about 3 years ago), i thought it was a gem, and i was immediately drawn to it. i was amazed by the intricate details the film captured, such as the way chihiro was tying her hair while keeping the rubber band between her teeth, or how she tapped the tip of her feet lightly on the floor after putting on her shoes to test if the shoes were secure and comfortable.
the second time i saw the movie was in film class (i'm glad mr. D showed it to us), i was once again captivated. the sounds in the film made it seem disarmingly naturalistic. the score was undoubtedly beautiful and nostalgic. besides that, i liked the sound of the characters' footsteps, whether they were walking across the bridge or running around doing chores in the bath house. i also liked the sound of water that appeared so many times in the film, such as when it was being poured onto the stink spirit (the contaminated river spirit), or when the train was gliding smoothly in the water that made small splashing sounds. they sounded so real!

the characterization of the main character and the plot of "Spirited Away" were very touching. chihiro, who in the beginning of the movie was a whiny, dependent and clingy emotionally weak child, matured throughout the film. after her gluttonous parents turned into pigs, she set out to save them. she remained determined to find them even when impossible obstacles came her way. throughout her journey, she was hardworking and courageous. she was kind to no face and let him inside the bath house when he seemed lonely and cold, and later did not abandon him even after seeing the damage he did to the bath house. she was also a loyal friend to haku; she looked for him when he was in danger, cared for him when he was hurt. chihiro possessed great self control during her stay at the bath house. unlike her parents, she was not greedy at all; she persistently refused the appealing gold that no face offered her, and stuck to the mission of rescuing her parents.

at the end chihiro's adventure, she had undergone a metamorphosis. she was not a scared, one dimensional brat anymore, but an intelligent and brave heroine. she not only learned about love and friendship, experienced fear, and battled obstacles, but also affected the people around her with her honesty and determination.

chihiro's love and kindness were contagious.

what IS the right thing?

2007-10-09T22:20:00.000-04:00

"Do the Right Thing" is an interesting movie. what i like about it is that it shows the brooklyn neighborhood through many different people's eyes, but the characters' lives and perspectives somehow are interlocked. also, the film uses humor and bright colors to address a very dark matter: racial injustice.

the end of the movie is kind of depressing. it shows everyone's true colors. sal the pizzeria owner is a stubborn and cranky old man who doesn't like change; buggin out is a trouble maker with strong opinions and annoys the hell out of everyone; mookie only cares about money; and the police is flat out racist. they killed radio raheem because he was black. one minute the man's alive and strong, the next, his face meets the pavement cracks, expressionless. dead.
then after that, there's chaos everywhere. mookie and his followers trash and burn down sal's precious pizzeria without a second thought.
the next morning, things seem to quiet down, and mookie and sal somehow establish a small truce...

radio raheem's death was unfair and unnecessary. it shouldn't take a death/sacrifice like that to make the people of the neighborhood get along.

what they really needed was love

"M" for Murder or Misunderstood?

2007-09-29T23:32:00.000-04:00

in film class on friday, we finally finished watching "M", which is a german film about a serial child killer and how the police and criminals (ironic, i know) try to catch him.

i usually avoid black and white films because the lack of color looks dry and gloomy, but "M" isn't that bad. the first half of the movie is kind of slow and at some points confusing, but the second part is interesting.
in the movie, the murderer seems really creepy, although no one would probably give him a second look if in a crowd. he has this hunch which if seen from profile, makes him look like an ape. also, sometimes his eyes would pop really big and they give him a look of surprise and insanity. maybe he had too much sour candy when he was a kid. or maybe he didn't get any candy at all and that's why he despises kids because they had candy and he didn't.

anyway, the end of the film is a bit surprising and very impressive. it's like an inverted version of law and order: instead of the authorities prosecuting the murderer, it's the criminals who do so. and when the criminals decide to make him suffer, his reaction's so outrageous that it's hilarious. finally, he feels threatened by the mob's vicious accusations and breaks down and starts yelling and sputtering and crying and at the same time confessing of his inner demons. he looked so pitiful and miserable that i almost felt bad for him. either he has multiple personality disorder or schizo, or he's plain nuts.
which one's worse?