[SPOILER ALERT] Movie: A Point of View of The Cabin in The Woods

And the story goes…

Deep down below, lay in deep slumber some terrible giant Gods. So terrible that all they want is to wreck havoc on earth, putting an end to humanity. They can only be appeased by annual youth offerings, and that’s why humans have done a sacrifice ritual for centuries.

In modern world, it is not enough to have an old-fashioned ritual where the youths are placed in an altar and then killed by knives/swords. The believers want to see the youths (the sacrifice) commit sin and then be punished for it. For this purpose, they have built a cabin in the woods that serves as one big altar, and below the cabin, they built huge facility to control everything that is going on above.

For every ritual, the believers need 5 youths to be sacrificed, namely the whore, the athlete, the scholar, the fool, and the virgin. Once they have chosen the five youths, they place the youths in the cabin to play their roles. Even if in reality the youths’ personalities don’t suit the roles they need to play, the believers find a way to drug them and basically mind-control them.

The Hunger Games VS Battle Royale

I’ve just watched The Hunger Games and can’t help to compare it to a cult Japanese movie, Battle Royale, like many people do. Both movies are about a game/competition requiring the participants to kill each other until only one person is left. My first thought is that to people who have watched and are actually enjoying Battle Royale, The Hunger Games is just a child’s play.

Movies: Just IN TIME for THE WOMAN IN BLACK

Recently, I watched 2 movies with my fiance: In Time and The Woman In Black. Both movies have positive and negative sides, but both are also recommended for any movie lover.

In Time

The main reason I watch IN TIME is because of Amanda Seyfried. I’ve been liking this actress since Dear John, and growing even more fond of her in Chloe and Red Riding Hood. Her role in this movie, unfortunately, is not very charming or daring, but she’s still a sight for sore eyes.

The tagline for this movie, Time is Money / Time is Power, is an understatement; time really is everything.

Movies: Underworld Awakening & The Three Musketeers

My date last Saturday night was two movies: Underworld Awakening and The Three Musketeers.

Underworld Awakening

During the first few minutes of the movie, I thought “Dear Screen Gems, this looks too much like Resident Evil, and that’s not good.”
With this movie, you get what you expected, but nothing more: action-packed movie with a lot of blood and slashing, war between vampires and lycans (and humans), infiltration to a high defense building to save a “damsel in distress”, survival, survival, survival and…. a cliff-hanger ending, a promise for another installment.
Seriously, they are pushing it. At least they should make more effort to complicate the plot, because this one is boring.

Movie: Sad Movie

Sad Movie (2005)

You have been warned; if you despise a tear-jerking movie, then this is not for you. It is realistic though, showing the audience that not all love story have a happy ending. Some scenes appear to be overly dramatic, but then again, what do you expect from a movie?

It opens with a rain and concludes with a rain, as if the sky itself is crying together with the characters in this movie.

Finding Horror Movies

Horror has been my favorite movie genre ever since I was a kid. Back then, I remember being captivated watching Chinese vampire movies and Suzanna’s (an Indonesian most famous horror movie actress) movies, but the one movie that gets stuck in my mind is The Amityville Horror.

I was a fifth maybe sixth grader in elementary school when I watched it. It was aired way past my bedtime and my parents didn’t allow me to watch TV past my bedtime, so I pretended to be asleep when actually I was waiting for them to fall asleep. I tossed and turned on my bed, in the dark (the light’s switched off to keep my parents not alerted), trying so hard to stay awake. And when I was sure that the coast was clear, I sneaked out of my bedroom into the living room, which was the largest room in my house. I turned on the TV and quickly lowered the volume. The movie had already started. It’s funny when I remember it now… I mean, I couldn’t focus on the movie back then, because I was wary that my parents would be awake at any time and caught me in the act. Yet I remember the intense fear I felt from watching the scary scenes in the movie. I remember constantly checking behind the sofa that I sat on, afraid that something might suddenly jump out of the darkness to scare me.

A few years later when The Amityville Horror was remade, I was eager to see it. I went to the cinema alone (not because I wanted to relive my childhood experience watching that movie, but because no one was available to accompany me at that time). Frankly speaking, I was kind of disappointed by the remake; it’s not as scary as I hoped it would be. I wanted to watch the original version once more…but to my dismay, I haven’t find it. Nowadays I find it difficult to find a horror movie that really scares me. Perhaps it’s because I have already watched too many horror movies.. I don’t know. For me, a horror movie does not have to be gory (in fact, I don’t fancy watching movies with blood splashed all over the screen).

Let me share you some horror movies that in my opinion are good and worth watching:

Movie: Coraline

Coraline

Genre: animation, adventure

Produced by: Claire Jennings
Directed by: Henry Selick
Written by: Neil Gaiman

Universal Pictures
Laika

The Story…

CORALINE. Yes, Coraline, not Caroline. She doesn’t like it when people say her name wrong. And she doesn’t really like it when she and her family move to a flat, a place called Pink Palace, where she has no one for company except for three weird neighbors–and one stalker boy named Wybie Lovat. While her parents are busy working, Coraline feels bored to death. She explores the flat and finds a door that leads to another world..a world so identical to her real world, only the people here have a pair of black buttons for their eyes..creepy, right? At first Coraline is happy because her other parents are fun and willing to spend their time with her..but will she still feel happy when they try to trap her in this other world? when they kidnap her real parents?

Characters…

Coraline Jones

Coraline and her parents moved to Pink Palace from Michigan. Just like most children her age, Coraline is adventurous and full of curiosity.

Coraline’s mother

She’s a writer, and when nearing the deadline she’s so busy she can barely spend time with her daughter. She feels sorry and wants to make it up with Coraline.

Coraline’s father

He’s also a writer (for gardening catalogue). When his wife is busy, he’s in charge of cooking. His cooking is weird and Coraline doesn’t like it. He also makes this silly song begins with “Oh my itchy witchy girl…”

Miss Spink and Miss Forcible

Coraline’s neighbor that live in the flat below. They were once famous actresses, but now they are just “dingbats.” They have several dogs as their pets, that’s why “no whistling is allowed” in their crib.

Mr Bobinsky

Coraline’s neighbor who lives in the flat above.  He trains mice to do a circus performance, but he won’t let anyone see his mice before they’re ready. Weird as it is, he can talk to his mice. Mr B likes to eat beets.

Wybie Lovat

The grandson of the owner of Pink Palace. For some reasons, he’s not allowed to go into Pink Palace. He’s actually a nice kid, but Coraline thinks he speaks too much.

the black cat

A mysterious cat who seems to know everything. In the other world, he can talk. He gives a significant help to Coraline in dealing with the Beldam.

The other mother / The Beldam

The evil witch who creates the other world and lure children into it.

The other father

A creature that the Beldam made from a pumpkin.

Review

This is one of my super duper favorite movies. It is based on a book by Neil Gaiman. I read the book first and I love it a lot. Then I heard that they were going to make a movie–it excited me so, I could hardly wait for the movie to come out. And when it finally did, I was not, not the slightest, disappointed. The movie is awesome. I never get tired of watching it again and again. Not only the animation is superb (nice characters, terrific landscape and background), the music is also very beautiful.

Gallery

The mice have a message for you…

lonely and sad

It’s a game we play

Mice Circus

one little thing to do

puppy eyes

the dinner

the sirens of the sea

what a small world

you know I love you

Movie: My Sister’s Keeper

this pic is taken from http://www.smpl.org/depts/branches/Montana/adult.htm

MY SISTER’S KEEPER

Genre: Drama

Director: Nick Cassavetes

(C) 2009 New Line Cinema Classics Production

Synopsis

Brian and Sara Fitzgerald were devastated when they found out that their infant daughter, Kate, had a leukemia. Even more so when the doctor told them that they couldn’t donor their cord blood to Kate because their chromosome didn’t match. They were then suggested to had another child, a child whose chromosome would be a perfect match to Kate’s in order to be a donor.
Since she was a newborn, Anna Fitzgerald had undergone several tests and operations to save her sister. Cord blood, bone marrow, white-cells were some of the things Anna gave to Kate. Eleven years later, when her sister Kate needed a kidney transplant and Anna was supposed to give one of her own, Anna thought she had enough. She didn’t want to do the operation. Instead, she sold her gold locket and used the money to hire a lawyer, a Mr. Campbell Alexander, and to sue her own parents for the right to her own body.

Cast

Jason Patric as Brian Fitzgerald

A loving and caring father for his three children, and a good husband as well. He’s a fire fighter.

Cameron Diaz as Sara Fitzgerald

Sara was a lawyer but she gave up her career in order to look after her daughter Kate. She was a tough mom who fought death for her daughter’s life and she never gave up, but perhaps she was a little bit too much…She needed to learn to let go.

Evan Ellingson as Jesse Fitzgerald

The eldest amongst the three. He was a quiet boy but it was obvious that he loved his sisters (He drew a portrait of Kate–though he later torn it into pieces). He was lacking the attention of his parents but he never complained. He actually suffered from dyslexia.

Sofia Vassilieva as Kate Fitzgerald

The eldest daughter in the family. One thing that made her sad the most is the fact that not only her disease was killing her, but it was also killing her family (figuratively speaking). It was amazing that she was still able to smile wide even though she was in pain.

Abigail Breslin as Anna Fitzgerald

The youngest daughter of Brian and Sara. She loved her sister and actually didn’t mind taking care of Kate. She seemed older than her actual age. When she went to a lawyer to express her intention to sue her parents and afterward she continued on into the courtroom, she displayed a truly courageous act of a girl her age.

Alec Baldwin as Campbell Alexander

A notorious lawyer with 91% successful rate. He had an iron lung, therefore he had a service dog named Judge (it was amusing when he said “Quiet Judge!” to his dog in the courtroom and the ‘real’ judge was like “what??”). Although Anna didn’t pay him much, Campbell agreed to take her case–Later we found out that Campbell understood what it was like not to have control over one’s own body, since he suffered from epilepsy.

Joan Cusack as Joan De Salvo

The judge who took Anna’s case. She was a mother who had just had her 12 years old daughter got killed by a drunk driver.

Review

Either I’m a crybaby or this movie is really good at eliciting and stirring emotions. Hmm…wait a minute. Nick Cassavetes–he also directed The Notebook…yup, I also cried watching that one movie. If you’re a fan of drama and haven’t watched The Notebook, you should definitely watch it. It’s really romantic ^^

Back to My Sister’s Keeper… It’s actually difficult to determine who is the main character of the movie, because each character has his/her own share in narrating the story. It is one of the interesting aspects of this movie. This way we could understand each character’s thoughts and feelings, and perhaps even relate to them.

Some scenes in the movie are truly heart-breaking. For example is the scene when 5 years old Anna had to donate her bone marrow–when she was brought to the operation table she was struggling and screaming “I want my daddy! I want my mommy!” it’s obvious that she was scared. And we could see the expression of her father–he’s really torn. Another heart-breaking scene is when Kate finally able to tell her mom that she was ready to go. She knew that her mother strongly rejected the idea of her dying, so Kate used the scrapbook she made and smoothly talked to Sara about the past: “Remember that summer when I went away to camp? And I was so scared that I’d miss you guys… before I got on the bus, you told me to take a seat on the left side right next to the window so I’d be able to look back and see you there.” long pause and then she said: “I get the same seat now.” to explain that she was ready whenever death took her. And Sara started sobbing upon realizing what her daughter intended to convey to her…

My Sister’s Keeper addresses the basic issue of life: dying, and death. How a dying person perceives his/her situation, and how his/her family react to it. This is eye-opening, and I would especially recommend this movie to every social worker out there. Hello! I think this movie would interest you.

Lastly, here’s a verse I wrote a little while back…

If you glance quick enough pass your shoulder,
maybe you can see it. Death.
Because it follows us everyday, everywhere.
And it’s getting closer by seconds.
But we can never know when it will strike.
Only one thing about death we know for certain:
Death is inevitable.
You cannot run from it, you cannot cheat it.
It’ll come and get you, eventually.
Don’t get me wrong, we shouldn’t fear death.
It is death that gives meaning to life.
Without death, we won’t appreciate life.
Knowimg that we can’t life forever
makes us try to live our lives to the fullest.
So when the end is finally comes,
when the show’s over, the curtain’s drawn,
and we have to leave the stage,
we can sigh gladly and say, “That was fun!”

 

Ending

___________________________*!SPOILER ALERT!*______________________________

Anna’s suing her parents wasn’t actually her own idea…it was Kate’s. It’s not like Anna didn’t want to donate her kidney…it’s not like she couldn’t take it anymore…It was actually Kate who couldn’t take it anymore. She was aware that she could not survive her cancer. She was ready to embrace death, but her mother refused to listen to her. Therefore she took a desperate measure…and got her sister Anna to help her.

Eventually, Kate died and her family moved on… Sara continued her career as a lawyer. Jesse got a scholarship into an art college. Every year on Kate’s birthday, the family would go to Montana, Kate’s favorite place.

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