It's disturbing how I find "The Prince and Me" more enjoyable than "Catwoman" or "I, Robot"

To think I only watched it because my apartment-mate wanted to watch it but she didn't know how to get around yet.  I told Tanya about it on YM the other day and she said I'm already a "chick-flick" guy.  I don't mind.  On my own, I wouldn't really have gone and seen it so it's weird that I found a girly movie more entertaining than the movies I really planned to watch.  I guess it is unfair to compare the three movies together... but what can I do?  I watched "Catwoman" last Saturday, the "Prince and Me" last Sunday, and "I, Robot" the weekend before.  They're lucky I didn't compare them to the movies I watched on cable ("I Am Sam", "Catch Me If You Can", "8 Mile", among others).  I think this unexpected opinion of mine is a product of the expectations I put up for each film, and how I thought these expectations were met.

I expected "I,Robot" to deliver more than it delivered.  I figured out who was manipulating the NS-5's about a little bit after the half of the movie.  I guess it was a deep film for me to fathom, because I can't figure out how VIKI manipulated the three laws of robotics to reason out that humans can't take care of themselves.  Will's interrogation of Sunny was very good though.  He really looked like the bad guy.It was probably the best scene of the movie for me since all the action scenes were ho-hum.  I watched "Catwoman" with low expectations because of my firm belief that CATWOMAN = Selina Kyle = Michelle Pfeiffer.  I wasn't disappointed.  Patience's transformation into Catwoman (the cat-licking scene) wasn't really that great like Selina's in Batman Returns.  Her dual personality is really confusing.  Oh yeah, the costume sucks.  Halle Berry was very sexy in it, I admit, but it just didn't do it for me like the full body suit worn by Michelle.  The CGI's, er, scenes where she leaps from building to building made me think, Spiderman...1.  It was Spiderman 1-type CGI's where you know its CGI.  Anyway, the highlights: Halle Berry fighting the jewelry store thieves (she should've worn THAT costume all throughout the movie, it's much better) and... Sharon Stone (as Laurel Hedare).If it wasn't for her (Stone's) character, this movie would've really gone below expectations.

I went to see "The Prince and Me" to while away the Sunday afternoon, expecting that it'll be one of those Cinderella stories where the royal blood pretends to be a commoner, meets and falls for a commoner, gets to experience the commoner way of life, cover gets blown, commoner feels cheated, they work things out in the end, living happy ever after.  It was all going according to expectations ... until she saw the globe in the palace room, and next thing I knew she told him she has to go pursure other things while he prepared her a turkey sandwich with his new meat-cutting machine.  It would've been a good ending if the producers have left it at that.  However, since this is a feel-good movie intended for girls, couples, and romantics, there had to be a happy ending: She graduates from college, he becomes king and promises to wait for her until she does the things she wants to do, and then ... credits roll.  Good compromise.  At least the audience is left with the thought that they could actually end up together.  There were many highlights: the bar scene where he asked her to take off her top for him; Soren getting hooked on xBox; the holding hands under the table (uh, note to self. . . . ); the rush to open the Parliament session; the poetry reading in the laundry room.  It was your usual run-of-the-mill romantic story for about five-sixths of the movie.  Made me think if I'm ready to make the sacrifices, concessions, and compromises that are often needed to be made when getting into a relationship.  Well, granting that my heart doesn't override my mind anytime soon, I guess I'll stick with my selfish, self-centered, me!me!me! person in the meantime.  Oh, also thought Mandy Moore would've been a good Paige Morgan too.

There are places I remember....
Oh these places had their moments....

    Yesterday, Janelle sent me a link to her online album of pics from Singapore.  And, as always, seeing photographs of happy times with family or friends never fails to make me well. . . a little nostalgic.  Maybe I am a sucker for memories (the essence of photographs,for me), for looking back, for remembering.  Shifting from picture to picture made me think, Egad, those were happy times.

I'd bet my monthly per diem that hasn't been released yet up to now that I wouldn't have lasted Singapore life if I didn't have Janelle, Anna P, Mel,Ces, and sometimes Lira and Abeth, for company.  Well, maybe I would've, but it would've been a loooooooooooong five months.  It's not that the project I got assigned to was stressful.  In fact, my project is heaven compared to the ones the girls got themselves into.  My projectmates Of course were good company but I guess being with people who who have bigger spheres of influence (I remember that's the term used by our COMM 3 instructor) made the whole Singapore experience more memorable.  We had dinners, lunches, breakfasts every now and then (Snoopy Place, DKNY, Clarke Quay,Sketches, etc.).  I went to Sentosa with Mel and Ces in an Amazing Race kind of way, with a no-taxi-ride policy.  I watched Honk with Janelle and fellow officemates.  Went to the Botanical Gardens and National Orchid thing with Janelle, Lira and Ms.Flor.  Watched Minority Report with Anna P and Abeth.  We were all there when our office got dissolved.  I remember us scrambling to meet up at Janelle and Anna P's condo to have dinner and rant over ice cream.  I don't remember the flavor though.  Anyway, I'm drifting off.  Seeing the pictures made me dwell in reverie the rest of the day and of the evening, hence this post.  Made me also realize that I didn't get the copies of these pictures from my laptop when I resigned.

It's been two years already since then.  I'm in Thailand now, working on a another project, under another employer.  I seem to be having a good time with my projectmates/roommates after work.  Still, I miss Singapore.  Especially the one where I was last 2002.

It's Not All Me. . . It's Not All My Fault

Just realized I made a big boo-boo last time I published this blog.  After I changed my CD of the moment in the blog template for June, I published the whole blog.  This meant all my CDs of the moment from June 2004 up to way back April 2003 are all Songs About Jane, erasing Coldplay, John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Crying Ladies OST and other.  Sheeesh.

"Turn to Page Three Hundred and Ninety Four..."

My manager brought a DVD player with him when he came back from Manila last week.  Last Tuesday we watched "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", and I remembered I haven't really commented on it when I watched it last June.  I actually already checked out the website at www.harrypotter.com.  Signed in using the student name Rob Thomas.  I've been sorted into the Gryffindor House though I was hoping to go into Slytherin.  I even re-potted my own Blast Skrewt in Herbology class.  I even picked out my wand from Ollivanders, though I can't remember what it was made of.  I just swished and swished until I knocked some books off the shelves.  Haven't tried out for the Quidditch team yet though.  Probably try next time for Keeper, or Beater.  I think I won't be that good at chasing snitches.

Actually, I don't have that much comments.  The Time-Turner twist of the story was really the highlight for me.  I admit, I really skimmed through the ending part of the book so I really don't remember a Time Turner and its effect in the story, especially the part where Harry conjuring up a Patronus to save his other self and Sirius on the opposite side of the lake.  Buckbeak was pretty cute.  I never pictured Remus Lupin to look like that.  I've always thought he'd look like Dennis (from Ghostfighter fame) in spiritual form.  He didn't look that ragged to me.  Peter Pettigrew almost matched what I had in mind.  Emma Thompson, although very good, didn't really look like Professor Trelawney to me.  I always pictured the professor to have glasses bigger than her face, with thin arms and shawls.  Gary Oldman, though acting only near the end of the movie, was very good as Sirius.  Sirius' animagus form though, didn't match what I had in mind -- I pictured him as a bull dog.  Same goes for Lupin's werewolf form.  I thought he was pretty skinny.  Quidditch was not that exciting here, unlike in the first movie.  Now Snape, I think, is becoming one of my favorite characters.  The most memorable line for me during the movie, aside from Dumbledore's words of wisdoms, were his repeated instructions to turn to page 394 when he took over the Defense Against The Dark Arts class.  The kids seems to have grown too fast for their characters and I kept thinking that the creators should start filming books 4 and 5 already so they don't end up with 20-year old Harry, Ron, and Hermione playing teenagers (in Beverly Hill 90210 fashion).

The scenes didn't really blow me away. . . .  Could be because of the lighting.  Then again, it is (in terms of theme) dark.  Alisa was right when she told me that the movie are not for those who did not read the book.  It never even mentioned the connection between the Marauders' Map with the four friends (James, Remus, Peter, and Sirius).  You also had to find out on your own why there was a Patronus that looked like a stag.  Anyway, there's still the Time Turner effect to make up for all of it, and that preview of things to come in the future installments: Gary Oldman as Sirius Black, Emma Thompson as Professor Trelawney, Hermione "developing" more into a woman, Hermione and Ron's growing fondness, Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort(?), Rowan Atkinson as Mad-Eye Moody(?), and all the other powerhouse cast who will play Cho Chang, Cedric Diggory, Viktor Krum, Rita Skeeter and the rest.

Is Spiderman 3 Coming Soon?

I think few sequels better their predecessors.  Spiderman is one of them.  I definitely liked Spiderman 2 than Spiderman, both story-wise and production-wise.  I expect it to be another box-office hit, surpassing the record of the first one.

One of the good points of the movie, and very markedly for me, is that Spiderman, in most of his web-slinging scenes, doesn't look like a computer-generated image (CGI) anymore.  In the first one it's really obvious that the one swinging here and there is an animation.  Another good point about the movie is the story.  I like the way the movie shows the drama side, not just the action scenes, sort of balancing it.  For example, I half-expected Aunt Mae to be miraculously saved from being evicted by some stroke of luck, but it didn't.  I felt sorry for Doc Ock when he lost his wife and he got control of his mechanical arms.  I felt sorry for Peter when he was struggling to meet the demands of being a superhero and being a working student.I kinda understood Harry Osborn when he slapped Peter during the party and told Doc Ock to go after Peter to get to Spiderman.  I pitied him in the end when he discovered Peter IS Spiderman and he's fighting the memory of his father urging him to avenge him against Peter, which made him stumble into The Green Goblin's secret lair.  You just know he's one of the next villains in Spiderman 3.  Maybe it's because one of the screen story writers, as I saw in the opening credits, is Michael Chabon ( The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay ).  I really liked the "Raindrops keep falling on my head" scenes.  Really looks like a lull-before-the-storm kind of scene.

The fight scenes between Doc Ock and Spiderman were great, especially the ones on the train.  For a few seconds I thought some other superhero like Thor ( in a cameo role ) would appear and help Spiderman stop the train.  I don't get the point where Spiderman reveals himself as Peter Parker to almost everyone, except Aunt Mae.  Mary Jane, Harry, Doc Ock, the people in the train station -- all of them now know who Spiderman is without a mask.  Maybe it'll come in handy in writing Spiderman 3.  I sure hope they don't wait another two years to show it though.I wouldn't mind watching Spiderman 2 again (in fact, I'm planning to, if I can convince my projectmates to see it one more time) even if it means costing me another 120 Baht for the ticket and another 80 Baht for the drinks and the popcorn.  Keep the sequels coming, Stan Lee.

Death In The Family

My uncle got buried today.  He died on the Saturday I got back in Bangkok.  My mother sent me a text message in the morning, saying Kang Julian has been rushed to the hospital the night before and all his children are being told to come home ( almost all my cousins were working in Manila, two were contract workers in Saudi Arabia ).  Then in the afternoon I was walking in MBK, I got another text message from my mother, saying she and Ate Luring (my aunt, her sister) are planning to leave for the province on Sunday, and that Kang Julian was already dead.  I don't know exactly the cause of death but my mother said he's been sick a long time.  Now that he's dead, and with Ate Fely (meningitis I think) and Ate Viring (breast cancer) gone before him years ago, my mother is now the oldest among the siblings.

I only saw Kang Julian less than 15 times, growing up.  When I last saw him (at Ate Viring's funeral I think) he looked thin and frail, but was still very strong.  My other cousins and I used to joke about how he walked, with his pelvis getting ahead of his whole body, so he walked like a supermodel on a runway.  Some would say he should have been in a wheelchair already at his age.  I remember my mother telling me once that her father (my grandfather) gave Kang Julian an agimat (amulet) for him to get any girl he wants.  He got Ate Urnata, who died some years before him.  I wonder if I can have that amulet (sounds desperate, I know), if there was such a thing.  He was the eldest, and the only boy in the family, not counting my grandfather's sons with other women.  Kang Julian had many children, the normal in our family (which in a way makes me abnormal, being an only child, but that's another blog topic) and some of these cousin of mine I grew up with as a kid: Ate Mila, Kuya Monay, Ate Baby, Ate Boots, Ong-Ong.

I felt so lonely not being there with them in Marinduque for the wake and funeral.  At a minimum, I felt like I should at least be with my mother, who in another perspective, lost her brother.  There would be a wake, where the men and the teens would drink gin and lambanog and the women would hang around the kitchen, talking.  There would be the mass, the procession, the interment, and then a buffet, who I heard once, is funded by contributions from relatives.  I authorized my mother to withdraw the maximum that the ATM I left her would allow for the trip.  You never know what needs to be paid.

I can imagine my cousins crying.  First their mother a few years back, and now their father.  It doesn't matter if they're already married and have a family of their own, or already have jobs outside our province (be it in Manila or in Saudi).  It doesn't matter either one who whether you were really close to the one who died.  It sucks losing a family member.  Then again, far be it from me to question the grand scheme of things.  Borrowing a line from A Tale of Cities, I know Kang Julian went to a "far far better rest than he had ever known".


Goodbye
by The Corrs

I never thought one day you'd be gone
away forever more
No one can say, no one could explain
why you were taken

Oh where are you now?
Could I get there somehow?

It's time to say goodbye
Block out the sun and pack up the sky
Don't let my tears start to make you cry
Each time I try to say my goodbye
Try to stop asking why

Tell me it's true, tell me there's something more
Another time for love
One day I'll know, one day I'll be there
Will you be waiting?

Oh where are you now?
Could I get there somehow?

It's time to say goodbye
Block out the sun and pack up the sky
Don't let my tears start to make you cry
Each time I try to say my goodbye
Try to stop asking why
Try to stop asking why...yeah

Where are you now?
Could I get there somehow?

It's time to say goodbye
Block out the sun and pack up the sky
Don't let my tears start to make you cry
Each time I try to say my goodbye
Try to stop asking why, why
Try to say my goodbye

SCQ

The first weekend I was in Manila I got to watch the Star Circle Teen Quest Grand Questor's Night on TV.  It was my first look at who got through the rough screening process and it was very clear that the ones who did do not really know how to dance well.  They were all pa-cute and very safe with their answers ( very showbiz, so I guess they're following the right path ).  The female finalists were stand-outs, especially Sandara, who was evidently the crowd favorite, aside from that Vic Zhou don't-look-a-like pretty boy who won.  These kids are lucky it's a popularity contest and not a talent search.  And boy, are they popular.  ABS-CBN has that effect on anything it touches, overexposure aside.  I think there's more in store for these kids though and I would have loved to have stayed and see how far they go.  I saw in a forum in www.peyups.com that the station is giving them a show, called SCQ Reload.  Probably a teen show the likes of Gimik, G-mik, Berks, Buttercup, or (much better) Tabing-Ilog.  I guess acting is where these teens are good at.  For sure, hype will be on their side, as ABS-CBN is a master at this.  They even made a theme song for the show, which I find really catchy, and got me humming it some times.  So jologs of me, I know.  Then again, when was I not?


SCQ RELOAD THEME

Try to understand me
This is just the real me
Why can't i just be myself and be accepted can't you see
Di na kailangan
Magkunwari kung minsan
Wala namang masama sa ginagawa
Diskarte ko'y iba
Ang kailangan ako'y
Pagbigyang tumindig sa sarili
Support's what I need
Sa aking barkada
Sa aking pamilya
Wag ipilit sa kin ang hindi ako
Okay ako...