UP IN THE AIR, George Clooney

Depth and perception in subtle simplicity

The Intro
It's strange how you can sometimes find the coolest of movies in the most unlikely of places. I was mid-way through devouring my nasi padpik and telur dadar in Santai, when the DVD guy approached me, bearing his tray of offerings; the latest movies in pirated DVD technology. Knowing that I'd be a bored old hermit relaxing at home that night, I picked the first movie in the tray with a sexy hot male on the cover and that is how I ended up with Up in the Air the latest flick by George Clooney. :P

The Spoiler
Adapted from the book of the same title by Walter Kirn, and directed by Jason Reitman (of the Juno fame) Up in the Air tells the story of Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) a corporate downsizer who travels the country firing employees on behalf of employers who were too big of a chicken to do it themselves.

It may sound completely and utterly depressing to you and me, but Bingham totally enjoyed his job and his care-free life of being constantly "up in the air". So much so that he couldn't imagine living any other way. With his uncanny ability to break the dreaded news in the most diplomatic and encouraging way possible, Bingham was always able to minimise the damage to both the fired individual and their respective employers. He also moonlights as a motivational speaker famous for his 'What is in your backpack? Philosophy', a metaphoric manifestation of his baggage-free existence which he preached time and again to his listeners. During one of his constant travels he met his match in Alex Goran (Vera Farminga), a frequent traveller who also seemed to be married to her work. Soon they began planning their travel schedules around each other to enable them to continue on their commitment-free travel-rendezvous.

Upon his return to the headquarters, Bingham's perfectly ordered and commitment-free existence was knocked into disarray when his boss Craig Gregory (Jason Bateman) announced that soon, all of the "firing squad" will be grounded, thanks to a new technology that enabled termination via video-conferencing from the head office. The new method, introduced by a young and ambitious go-getter Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) promised to save the company a lot in flight and hotel costs of the consultants. As someone who travels over 300 days in a year Bingham was dumbfounded and decided to fight against this decision. During one of the meetings with the boss, he was asked to bring Keener along on his last trip around the country to enable them to see and learn from each other's perspective of doing things. What followed was a series of hilarious and entertaining adventures and revelations that threatened to change Bingham's very beliefs and philosophies.


The Plot Review
Okay so I've babbled on and on and you may think I've sum up the entire movie and thus spoilt it for you. But you thought wrong! Hah! The first two paragraphs were only the beginning of the movie and barely touched on the plot and character development at all. You may also thing that this is a typical rom-com and that you kinda know roughly how the ending is going to be. Again.. you thought wrong. Hah! :P

Up in the Air is more of a dramedy (sounds like a weird and depressing contagious disease eh! :P); which is a thought-provoking drama and entertaining comedy rolled into one, hence the awful-sounding term. With quirky fast-moving dialogues (which reminds me of the rapid fire banter in the Gilmore Girls) and a smooth flowing story line, the movie will capture your attention and also make you examine in greater depth the many philosophies that you may have adopted in life just to lead a comfortable, routine and pain-free existence. I absolutely loved how they can make the story light and entertaining yet profound at the same time; especially the ending where Bingham finally realised that in life you couldn't have it all and that your previous decisions and choices may have a greater impact on your desires than you realise. You cannot win from the bad choices you made (unlike typical rom-com or most movies where you will not necessarily have to pay after a grave mistake/ bad decision) but you can learn from it, move on and do better next time. That is the best lesson you will take away from the movie.

The movie also taught us that sometimes we can sacrifice so many things in our life just to chase one single important dream. Yet when the time comes it may not mean so much to you anymore and you will not be as happy as you thought you would be, probably because you have lost so much along the way in trying to get there. In the movie, Bingham had only one dream, which is to achieve the 10 million mark in his frequent flyer miles. This has only been achieved by six individuals before. The perks of achieving this include having your name emblazoned in platinum plaque on the inside of the plane and the pilot joining you for a chit chat and a drink. During his private moment with the pilot, Bingham who has suffered rejection and disappointment, went even as far as to say,

"You know.. I waited so long for this moment and thought how wonderful it was going to be. But it is not as great as I thought it would be after all."

I know I've felt that way many times and I am so sure many of you can relate. The movie also explored Bingham's relationship with his family when he dropped by for his sister's wedding. There are a few tear jerker moments and a touching ending to this sub-plot that you will really enjoy.


The Acting
As far as the acting goes, when you put a super hunk and charming A-lister like Clooney playing a super hunk charming A-lister character that so resembles Clooney, you are bound to do no wrong. I sincerely believe that Clooney didn't have to do much acting on this one. He just had to flash that super sexy smile, don a Hugo Boss or Armani business suit, act all charming, flirty and a tad vulnerable and voila! he's Ryan Bingham. The best part about this movie is that there aren't that many actors. Just three main cast, (George Clooney, Vera Farminga and Anna Kendrick) one memorable extra (Jason Bateman) and the rest are just extras that added flavour to the movie. Kinda like your ajinomoto. I think both Farminga and Kendrick held their own against Clooney's uber strong super star presence and great acting. I especially loved the part when Alex told Ryan, "I'm exactly like you, except with a vagina," Anna Kendrik's portrayal of Natalie Keener as a feisty, ambitious, driven yet soft and hopelessly romantic was also noteworthy. It's weird how she reminds me so much of myself at 23. Although of course I've never bawled in public to my boss/ colleague after being dumped. Heck I've never even been dumped! :P

The Cinematography and All Those Other Technical Stuff
Since this is not one of those action thriller/sci-fi/ epic kind of movie there is not much to comment on the cinematography, special effects etc (no you don't have to wear a 3D glasses for this one). But do pay close attention to the opening scenes showing Bingham travelling through airport security, baggage check and boarding the plane. The director utilised a series of close up shots in rapid succession which I found to be not only different but also captivating. Combined with the lead character's narrative, it really achieved its purpose of showing Bingham's expert and professional way of travelling, with a touch of corporate class.


My Semi-coherent Conclusion
Unlike the previous movie I reviewed (Philadelphia) this is a very new movie that you can still catch at the cinema. So if you are having one of those stressful days at work, where you feel like you are a complete corporate slave who has presented his mortal soul to The Devil on a silver platter, don't go drown your sorrows in a pub somewhere. Watch this movie instead and come back with a renewed faith and fresh perspective to life.

PHILADELPHIA, Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Antonio Banderas

Warning : This is a review of a super old and irrelevant movie .. you can't watch this in the cinema (in fact you may not even be able to find it in most DVD shops!!)

Every once in a while, I would feel this strong need to shut out the rest of the world, be completely alone and spend time in deep thought or engaging in some meaningful activities...such as going to the DVD shop and purchasing a pirated DVD of one of my old favourite movies!! Last weekend was one such period. Feeling in the mood for Tom Hanks, (his movie that is.. although looking at how hot he still is now.. I could've been in the mood for him in THAT way too ;)), I  set out on a mission to get Forrest Gump and ended up buying Philadelphia :P!

 

When the movie came out in 1993, I was only 11 years old and remember thinking how this would be a cool movie to watch (I probably didn't know Tom Hanks that well then, but any movie with long courtroom drama has always appealed to the lawyer-wannabe in me). I only watched it two years later though. Back then I totally loved it and cried at all the touching parts. So one might think that 15 years down the road, watching it again as an adult, I would be able to grasp the significance of the storyline to a greater degree and thus enjoy the movie better right?

Wrong!!!

This is a movie about Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks), a young, up-and-coming lawyer in one of the top law firms in Philadelphia. Shortly after a promotion and being entrusted with one of the firm's biggest case, Andrew, who was a closeted homosexual, was diagnosed with AIDS and subsequently fired from his high-flying career. Although the reason given was his incompetency, Andrew later found out that he was dismissed because of his stigmatised health condition. Following this, Andrew brought legal action against his former employers and engaged the help of Joe Miller (Denzel Washington), a small-time 'ambulance-chasing' street lawyer, (after being turned down by numerous other firms). What ensued was a long and dramatic courtroom battle between Beckett and his former firm which ended in him winning the case but later succumbing to the disease.



With its team of A-list cast and a strong premise, it would have been fair to hope for one of the greatest most impactful genre-bending movies of all time. But alas.. such hope, no matter how fair it may seemed at first will definite fall short of one's expectations. Despite its promising start, the movie took a downhill turn from that point onwards. Speeding up through the important scenes (i.e. when Andrew was first diagnosed with HIV and how his condition started deteriorating thereon) and languishing painfully at irrelevant ones (the gay party scene and Andrew's opera-singing soul-revelation scene). Also, his relationship with his boyfriend Miguel Alvarez (Antonio Banderas) and his sexual habits were so sketchily depicted (although the scene where Miguel rushed to the hospital and started touching Andrew's face tenderly, asking whether he was alright was kind of cute), that one may not be able to really identify with this character in the first place, let alone sympathise with him as the story progresses.

The most disappointing part was the courtroom drama. I may be wrong but I believe that in a movie such as this, the courtroom battle is one of the most fundamental components of the movie. Doing it well will take the movie to great heights in depth and impact whilst having a mediocre set of courtroom scenes will just destroy the movie completely. It was the latter in Philadelphia. Maybe I am biased and maybe the super tight, fast-paced and factually strong legal drama of later years from great shows such as The Practice and Boston Legal have raised the bar too high that it is more difficult to impress a lay person/ courtroom drama fanatic/ lawyer buruk wannabe like me. But I was so disappointed and was almost bored during the court proceedings. It started strong with discerning opening remarks from Andrew's lawyer, Joe Miller and the defense lawyer Belinda Conine (Mary Steenburgen). But it fizzled out quickly soon after. The cross-examinations did not make any sense. The objections were cutesy and tame, at best. The lawyers looked more like amateur and stoned out presenters in a primary school class-room debate than fierce, high profile civil litigators, and the correlation between the allegations of the plaintiff and the supporting evidence was never established. For the most part, you would sit through each legal scene painfully, urging the characters to start giving you more. But you would be disappointed time and again. The best part of the courtroom scenes was when Andrew suddenly collapsed in the courtroom after his testimony. But the worst has got to be when the judgement and award of damages were announced. Correct me if I'm wrong, but in a movie where its entire premise and core goal have been about winning a legal battle against discrimination, the most impactful scene would've been the verdict and the award of the sum of damages, right? Call it predictable or formulaic but reading out the verdict and watching the winner jump for joy or members of the courthouse scream in outrage are some of the most influential scenes in any movie, period! Alas, you will not get this in Philadelphia as the movie cuts to the end of jury deliberation and later to the polling of the jury after the verdict and award of damages have been read!! Like most people, I couldn't care less whether it was a unanimous decision or not but I would have loved to hear the following words :

Judge : Madam foreperson, have the jury reached the verdict?
Foreman : We have your honour.
Judge : Very well, what say you?
Foreman : In the matter of XX v ZZ, we the jury, find in favour of the plaintiff...


Yay! People laugh, people scream, people cry and everybody go home happy!!

There were also many procedural inaccuracies in the courtroom proceedings. But these are too technical to get into.Perhaps some brilliant legal eagles can spot them. Like I said, being a former dedicated kaki ponteng law student, I am anal about such things.

The movie's saving grace was the commendable acting from its lead and supporting cast, as well as the cinematography. Hanks as expected did a great job as Andrew Beckett. It is no surprise that he won the Best Actor Oscar for this. Likewise, Denzel Washington was phenomenal as the conservative, homophobe who was also a compassionate street litigator. Having said that, I was expecting more of a clumsy, cocky and unpolished kind of lawyer from Washington. But I guess, he didn't have much to work with as the script and flow of the legal scenes were hopelessly boring. There's nothing much to be said about Banderas's Alvarez, as he didn't appear much in the movie. But hey, who knew that Banderas could look so young and jambu back in the days? Hahaa..

It is not all bad. There were some great scenes that could remind you of why Philadelphia was touted as an A-List movie. For example, the library scene where Miller finally decided to take on Beckett's case was splendidly done, showcasing the synergy and chemistry of both actors at its best. The movie was also one of the first big budget commercial films to take on the controversial subject matter of HIV/AIDS and homosexuality. And it managed to do so with finesse and simplicity without the usual exploitation of sexual orientation and sensationalism. Even Andrew's relationship with Miguel was seen as sweet, strong and somewhat believable. Although I must say, I was rather surprised when I heard the homophobic bigotry coming out from Miller's (Washington's) mouth and how he and the movie producers/ directors could have gotten away with it. Should the same movie with similar dialogues be produced and released today, the GLBT community would've definitely thrown a hissy fit and demanded a complete ban on such a discriminatory film! Shows how far we've come in the evolution of social perception :).

Another great thing about this movie is the awesome soundtrack "Streets of Philadelphia" by the ever-so-sexy Bruce Springsteen, which won the Best Song Oscar. The song created a subdued and melancholic feel to the movie which worked really well, especially during the beautiful opening credits.

Regardless, I was still extremely disappointed. Although some may find the closing scene (a silent old home video footage of Andrew as a healthy child) to be a great and touching finale, I still feel that the movie left so much more to be desired, and by the time the credits started rolling, I was left to ponder "Huh? How on earth did I ever find this movie to be so superb?" I guess the only rational conclusion is that growing up just broaden your perspective and changed your view on things. Oh well.... let's see how I'd feel when watching The Little Mermaid next.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND, Johnny Depp, Tim Burton

An In-DEPPth Look at Depp and the Mad Hatter! (Phew! Now that we've gotten the ridiculous pun out of our system, let's get on with the review)


The Incoherent Intro

Call me strange but I've never been particularly fond of Alice in Wonderland. I remember reading the simplified children's version when I was six and thinking how obscure and contrived the story was (okay…I probably didn't know those words at that age, perhaps the more accurate feeling would be "tak best ah cerita nih.. pening!"). It was perhaps second in my list of Least Favourite Children Stories (right after The Real Princess which just made me feel like smacking that whiny and ungracious bimbo of a princess!!). I probably just read a very bad adapted version but that kind of ruined it for me, to a point where I did not find the original Lewis Carrolls's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass books enjoyable at all, despite reading it years after. (Okay all you Alice's fans.. please don't fly off the handle here!)

Having said that, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are (two great) reasons enough for me to want to see this movie. Besides, one would definitely be curious to see what modern technology can do to showcase such a brilliantly imaginative and colourful children's classic. The movie posters and trailers were indeed seductive and tantalising enough. So watched it I did. (in 3D some more! First time mami tengok 3D chekk oooiii!). And it certainly did not disappoint. Burton's take combined elements from the original two books into a sequel of sorts, following Alice 13 years after her last adventure. Only remembering them as bits and pieces of her nightmare, Alice now a young woman, was being forced to conform to norms and marry an uptight young British gentleman (with digestive issues as we came to learn), the son of her late father's business partner. During the proposal, Alice got so distracted by a rabbit in a waistcoat that she left gastro-dude at the gazebo (not yet altar.. it was only an engagement people ..sheesh), followed the rabbit and ended up falling into the infamous rabbit hole that started her adventures in Wonderland (or Underland as it was supposedly known, dang.. we were mistaken for over 100 years!). Ok..this is it as far as spoilers go for me. You can go watch the rest yourself.

 

The Plot

Contrary to popular opinion, I actually like the plot. In a world of nonsensical madness, I thought the plot really worked in tying all of the elements together and giving it a seamless storyline, by providing Alice a purpose to her adventures. Even as a kid I found this to be terribly lacking in the original as she seemed to jump from one scene to the next without any reason or continuity.. (again.. I know all those Lewis Carroll's fans would so love to have my head for dinner). But then again, I for one don't fancy making a deep analytical study and comparison between the movie and original books (it's a frigging movie, not your PhD thesis :P). Neither will I go into great depths to deconstruct the significance and feasibility of Tim Burton's interpretation of the story. What Burton has done was simply to make Alice a fun, commercial movie where you pretty much leave your IQ at the door and enjoy it for what it is; clean, simple, pure entertainment. Of course, with that come predictable climatic endings, the ultimate battle of good versus evil, rescue and escape, quirky yet kind-hearted supporting characters delivering offbeat quotes, touching scenes of friendship and self discovery and most importantly an awkward-youngster-turned-ultimate-hero lead. Like Avatar, there is no reinvention of the wheel here but rather a development of the metaphorical wheel from a different perspective (i.e giving it sports rims, multi layered rubber tyres and some mean tyre threads for speed and efficiency). Alice offers all of this and more. I particularly like the scene where the Mad Hatter asked, "Have I lost my mind?" to which Alice replied "I'm afraid you have. You have gone completely bonkers, but then again..all the best people usually are." And another scene where Alice said, "I must be half mad to dream up something like this" to which the Mad Hatter replied "You must be half mad to dream up someone like me." You couldn't help but get a warm fuzzy feeling inside upon seeing this beautiful friendship develop between the two most unlikely of characters. Either that or it's just my personal bias in favour of the "destigmatisation" of insanity. Hehehe.

The Acting

As much as the hype has all been about Johnny Depp's portrayal of the Mad Hatter, I thought Helena Bonham Carter stole the show with her portrayal of The Red Queen. It's not easy to make a character nasty and domineering, yet humorous and almost endearingly insecure at the same time. Carter managed to walk the thin line between all of the opposite ends of the spectrum to come up with an entertaining character. Depp was still in top form as Mad Hatter. Although I did find it hard to catch some of his lines due to his incessant changes between being borderline lucid to being completely nuts. There was also a hint of a Scottish accent somewhere which kinda makes you go "Huh?" (but I suppose in a fantasy movie, nothing is supposed to make any sense and that includes the character's accent!). I love how he would utter some rhymes out of the blue from time to time, which if you listen carefully and if you had read the book, you would recognise them as verses of the poems from the original Lewis Carroll's novel. All-in-all Depp did a fantastic job in making Hatter the endearing ultimate anti-hero. Other worthy mentions are Alan Rickman as the wise, hookah-addict Caterpillar (I love hookah!) and Stephen Fry as the ultra suave Cheshire Cat. But the constant wide toothy grin bothered me a little as you couldn't trust whether he was one of the good guys or bad guys. Newcomer Mia Wasikowska held her own as Alice, despite being amongst strong A-list character actors. I like how she added some spunk and attitude to the otherwise boring and feeble Alice. Nevertheless, the character did not really demand much from her. Anne Hathaway's depiction of the White Queen was perhaps the most disappointing as she looked like a bleached-out goth doll and behaved like a drugged-out ballerina (perhaps she had been smoking some from the caterpillar's hookah pipes..hmm!) But underneath that intoxicated look I still see much of Anne Hathaway the person. I can't really say much about Crispin Glover as Stayne the Knave of Hearts except that if you've seen him in one movie you've seen him in all. I'm just surprised that he hasn't aged that much over the years. (He was the dude who played Michael J Fox's high-strung father, George McFly, in Back to the Future for god sakes!)

 
The Effects

Now I can't really say much about the 3D as this is the first time that I've managed to watch a movie in 3D. But I did quite enjoy the experience. The scene where Alice was falling down the hole with her arms flailing was probably one of the best. So was the final scene where she chopped off the Jabberwocky's head. The effects, colours and cinematography were simply breathtaking in 3D. Having said that, I thought that the few scenes using 3D involving humans (like the one where Hamish was getting ready to propose to Alice at the Gazebo) just made them look like cut-out dolls in a pop-out book. 2D in those particular instances would've been much better. But overall, I love how the CGI and real-life scenes seemed to merge smoothly to a point where you couldn't tell the difference from one to the other.

All in all, I think this is a fantastic and entertaining movie. Not your thought-provoking, world-changing, ground-breaking, genre-moulding kind of movie, but great clean fun that deserves your RM17 (for the 3D glasses). Hey, it even made me forget the annoying dude with the stinking stale-cigarette breath next to me..and I absolutely loathe cigarettes! That has got to count for something! :P

Conclusion

Go watch it. But if you are a four-eyed freak like me, it's better to put on your contact lenses before leaving the house. Wearing two pairs of glasses is extremely annoying! Particularly when both kept on falling off from the bridge of your nose and you had to push them back from time to time.

THIS IS IT, Michael Jackson

A sincere, unassuming homage to the greatest pop icon who ever lived...
Like most kids who grew up in the early to mid 90's, my life story and memories can be relived through a string of MJ's hits...Bad for example reminds me of the time in Kindergarten, when my teenage sister the big bully prevented me from watching Tom and Jerry so that she could practice the killer moves from the video (back when we only had one TV and one VCR player). Heal the World brings back memories of being extremely excited when my dad bought the Free Willy videotape at the Times Bookstore in Penang Plaza (back then there were only originals mind you) and watching it with my cousins. Black and White reinforced my prepubescent secret crush on Macaulay Culkin, while Scream speaks to the teenage angst that was slowly developing inside of me. To put it simply, I would never call myself a HUGE or obsessed MJ fan. But I was never in the group that didn't like him either. Nevertheless, having grown up to all things Michael, his death did affect me in a way, as, put aside the tabloid frenzy of recent years, we have lost THE King of Pop and with him the music that have shaped and touched our lives in many great ways. Without a question, This Is It was something I had to watch, regardless of my apolitical stance (or can I say amichael?:P) on his personal life and the issues surrounding his death.

A lot of people are a bit confused about this movie. Let me set you straight. If you are looking to get all the sordid details pertaining to his death from this movie..you will be disappointed. If you are looking to get a full biography of the guy .. you will be disappointed. If you want to know more about his experiments with drugs and plastic surgery...you will be disappointed. If you are looking for a great MOVIE proper with good lighting, sound, special effects and cinematography..well you will also be disappointed. Coz This Is It is none of those things. The pseudo-movie is just a collection of raw footages shot during MJ's rehearsals for the This Is It come back tour which should have happened in July at the 50 sold out shows in the London O2 arena. Yet for all that it is lacking, in your normal expectations of a movie, This Is It had the pull factor to mesmerise both fans and non-fans alike and this is solely attributed to its simplicity in depicting the legendary artiste at his best.
This is not a conventional movie. Therefore this will not be a conventional review either (but then again.. Rina and conventional don't really know each other :P) I will not go into the brief synopsis of what you might aspect of the basic storyline/plot coz basically there are none. It just started with shots of interviews of MJ's dancers some of whom have travelled more than half way across the world to audition and be a part of the King of Pop's supposed monumental comeback. OK as far as objective reviews are concerned.. this part comes across as rather cheesy and melodramatic. Then it immediately started with the number Wanna Be Starting Something showing the dance and singing rehearsals which were extremely impressive (in my point of view at least) despite being a pure rehearsal shot and MJ not even putting his 100% effort. I guess it helps also that we have not seen the man in action in a very long time. What followed was a series of rehearsals, choreography and would be special effects of the concert. The dance number for They Don't Really Care About Us for example was one of the best featured here. I especially liked how the team was practicing and putting the moves together whilst the director and technical team explained to the camera how the final effect was going to be (with all dancers duplicated to form rows and rows of thousands of dancers) and Michael joined them a little bit later and started spearheading the training session and he was just amazing. Not only was he effortlessly good and the choreography to die for but even with minimal effort at a mini run through, he still exudes this great presence that made the whole thing work! There were a lot other numbers that also featured such great choreography and performance. But They Don't Really Care About Us was my favourite. The guitar solos for Black and White by Orianthi Panagris on the other hand was simply mesmerising and here for the first time you could see that the great pop legend had a match in presence and awesomeness.

Even the slow numbers like I'll Be There, Human Nature and You Are Not Alone will make you stare transfixed at the screen, mumbling the words to the all familiar songs softly to yourself. Another one of my favourite was his performance of Billy Jean in the classic sequined pants with the single stripe on both sides that we've all come to know and love. Michael did a solo dance number here with his dancers cheering him on in awe. This was quite amusing and cute as he got all shy and embarrassed at the end and asked his team to not encourage him too much as he had to conserve his energy for the real event.

There were many more of these moments as you see a lighter, gentler, softer and kinder side to this pop icon that has hardly been portrayed by the media. Making him almost like any ordinary man. Instead of the barrage of "wacko jacko" that we have been constantly fed by the press, what we see is a humble, down to earth yet firm and efficient professional. Michael was always kind to his musicians and dancers, speaking to them nicely, treating them with respect but at the same time exuding enough firmness and authority to get things the way he wanted; a true mark of devoted perfectionist who knew exactly what he wanted. Many times you will hear him tell his cast and crew how he wanted the songs to sound EXACTLY like how he wrote it. And he was right, that was why people would go and watch the concert. You will never see him throw a diva tantrum or scream like a tortured artiste even though at one part of the movie one of the musicians was clearly getting on his nerves with the dude's callous attitude. You also get to see the child-like quality about Michael that has been reported extensively but never really seen by the public. During the rehearsal of an old Jackson 5 number, he was not able to sing and kept complaining about the volume of the music on his headset and how it was almost drilling into his brain. He just looked so fragile and timid when he was telling this to the concert director Danny Ortega that you just wanted to run over and give him a hug! Seriously! :)

The movie is not without flaws though. One of my all-time favourite MJ's hit was Smooth Criminal. Call it bad editing or maybe the result of an unfinished product but I thought the black and white intro video for Smooth Criminal just came across as rather lame and tacky. Despite the fact that they were able to edit MJ into a very old famous movie, it became very distracting and annoying once the dancing and singing begin and was interspersed with machine gun sounds from the footage. And oh you also don't get to see the legendary fall-forward-in-unison move that is the trademark of the Smooth Criminal choreography. Sigghhh..

Whilst cynics may call this a cash grab fest released to further exploit this legendary artiste, I am sure that they too would agree that looking at this great man with his eyes alight with excitement at the prospect of putting on a great show after such a long hiatus, is indeed refreshing. Even the bad camera angle, sharp editing and poor sound quality in certain instances just added to the charm of this sincere and unassuming movie. Fan or not, go watch this with an open mind and for two and a half hours at least, you can forget all the scandals and tragedy surrounding MJ and just focus on excellent music and pure clean entertainment! This at least makes This Is It worth your RM10. And if all else fail, you would at least get to sing along to all the greatest hits and be transported back to your beautiful childhood/ younger days' memories.

THE GREAT DEBATERS, Denzel Washington

Bringing Back Old Memories.....

I just saw this a few days back. 2 things made me really wanna watch this movie. 1) The title (bearing memories of my humble past as a former debater) 2) Denzel Washington and the fact that it was produced by good ol Ms Oprah Winfrey... ok dats 3 things...:P

The movie is loosely based on a true story circa 1930's Texas. In the movie, Melvin Tolston, (a real life poet and English Professor) led a small time debate team from Wiley College, an African-American institution,to a groundbreaking national victory against Harvard. In getting there, the team faced the turmoils and challenges which made their final victory all the more sweeter.

Now, on the surface this may seem like the clean cut inspirational underdog-to-victory story shared by many sports movies (think a League of the Own, Longest Yard, Mighty Ducks.. etc). However, unlike conventional inspirational drama, the movie tried to do much more by attempting to tackle social and race discrimination issues through its sub-plots. I.e., Tolston secret life as an organiser of the uprising of the national sharecropper union which fought for better rights of black and white farm workers alike, as well as the servitude of blacks to whites regardless of economic status.

The movie started strong.. with a mind captivating dialogue between Tolston and his students in his very first class. This momentum was kept up with another memorable scene in which Tolston retorted to Henry Lowe's provocation of getting him to tell them something about his (Tolston's) father where he instead talked about preserving the mental strength of the young blacks so as to no longer be in servitude to whites.

The moviemakers also juggled your mind abit with the norms of that time that no matter how educated, and rich a black man is, he's still nothing compared to white trash (reminds me of To Kill a Mockingbird a little here). This was seen in the scene where James Farmer Sr, the first black man in the US to have a PHD, (who could also afford a family car in the 1930's) was called "boy" (deregatory term of reference for black slaves in 1800s) by two white trash uneducated farmers who proceeded to rip him off his money, after he accidentally ran over their pig.

Despite its good scenes, however, the main premise of the movie (which is the supposed gruelling debates) falls a bit short of expectations. For one, during the debate tryouts, it is convenient that 4 out of 5 people who actually uttered any words at all, were picked to be in the team. (Thus reminding u of the typical nature of movie life!) And whilst the dialogue during the short tryout scene was rather cleverly crafted at the start, (where Tolston delivered a repertoire of how one should use one's words to destroy one's opponents), the movie soon became strangely disjointed when the team was suddenly announced without there being an actual tryout of the others.

Further, maybe my being a former debater makes me get too much into the debating part of the movie (just like how some adjudicators in my past tend to put their own personal knowledge into the debate instead of just analysing the matter at hand), but I really feel that whilst the debate scenes sounded inspirational at first (think: literary quotes delivered with fiery passion), the arguments in subsequent debates soon became a tired repetition of cliched rhetorics with not much substance!(blame it on my own vastly different debate and legal trainings, woo hoo!).

And to make it worst.. the debate training (which, mind u, is an essential part of dveloping one into a a great debater!) scenes which should show how the characters grew from timid youngsters to the great speakers that they were, was never succintly developed. We only saw 1 short monologue-style scene where Tolston was in a boat in the middle of the lake yelling to his trainees "Who's is the judge?" followed by their screaming response "The judge is God!" at the banks, biting what looked like a cork in their mouths... it makes absolutely no sense to me how this form of training can possibly do them any good as speakers or analysts !!...or even human beings for that matter..(unless u are training to be a ventriloquist or something).

Another thing, the Wiley team actually won their very first debate! Now.. call me traditional but in a usual underdog to victory story, the underdogs usually dont win the first competition! They need to lose and suffer first so that u can feel their pain, n root for their success and feel their victory with compassion whn it actually happen! I think the team only lost once in the movie (whn Samantha left and James Farmer Jr took to the rostrum for the first time) and even then the scene was so choppy that u dont actually feel any sadness for the team.

Besides that, a love triangle also developed between the 3 young debaters where the 2 remaining guys fought over the only gal on the team (borrowing a bit from a Bollywood Movie here) n the gal fell for the older, better looking one and slept with him, only to have her heartbroken when she saw him making out with another girl... too much of an unncecesary drama.. does nothing for the movie!

Despite its shortcomings, the movie has its strong points, the final scene was strong and roped the movie in pretty well (but I still wonder how Tolston could suddenly show up at the final debate despite the restraining orders not to get out of Texas).. gives it the beautiful ending commonly associated with A-list inspirational movies. And Denzel was brilliant (as always) as Melvin Tolston.. as was Forest Whitaker though he wasnt seen long enough in the movie to have had a significant impact. The rest of the casts, Nate Parker as the formidably intelligent bad boy, Henry Lowe, Denzel Whitaker as James Farmer Jr. a child prodigy and team researcher, and Jurnee Smollett as the driven Samantha Brooke, the only female debater in the team, did justice to their roles. Nevertheless, there was nothing over and above here..we are not looking at break-out Oscar nominated stars anytime soon.

Overall this is a good movie.. but with names like Denzel Washington and Oprah Winfrey at the helm, I was hoping for brilliant and exceptional, hence the dissapointment. Nevertheless if u are looking for an inspirational tale whilst improving your knowledge of the fight against racial discrimination, this is the movie for u.

Having said that.. Calvin darling, I am sorry I made you buy the DVD.. but oh well...at least there are two other pretty good movies in it? right? :)

PS : Fun fact 1) Denzel Whitaker who acted as James Farmer Jr is in no way related to either Denzel Washington or Forest Whitaker though he was named after Denzel Washington2) Jurnee Smollet was played Samantha was the cute kid who acted as Denise, Michelle's (Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen) bestfriend in Fullhouse in the 1990's.

PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS, Will Smith

How a Movie Can Make You Really Happy Without Having to Pursue it...I just have one thing to say in regards to the movie Pursuit of Happyness... FLAWLESSLY PERFECT! -redundant? well.. maybe.. but that pretty much sums it up!

Fun Fact!
Did u know that the real Chris Gardner had a cameo in the last part of the film? Subtle yet classy!

SUPERMAN RETURNS

Errmmm did he???
Yes Hurman I know what you must be thinking..."After I told her not to?!! Come on!" Heheh.. but seriously I did not pay to watch this movie. A good friend "belanjaed" me so yeah..no money (un)well spent here. Besides, with all the hype and publicity..not to mention the (not-so-aptly termed) most anticipated movie of the decade, it must be worthy of being written about...right?
The movie begun with super dude returning to our good ol' planet earth after a 5-year hiatus somewhere..(it was vaguely mentioned that he went off to search for the leftover of Planet Krypton which some scientists/astronaut discovered).

What exactly he did there? No one knows!! But of course if one were to scientifically analyse such things, the travelling to get to Krypton alone (judging by the speed of light, and assuming that piece of rock is really really far and really really hard to find) would have taken 5 years or even more, so he probably spent about ..hmm wut..?10 mins?15mins? An hour? on/with that piece of rock from Krypton which he soo wanted to see before it was time to head back to Earth...but then again he is Superman.. so gravity, speed of light.. yadayadayada probably doesnt apply to him..

Anyways.. I digress. the movie then proceeded to how Clark Kent tried to reclaim his job at the Daily Planet. There, he awkwardly bumped into his old flame..who non other than Lois Lane and just before he could ask her out and pick up where they left off.. boom! he discovered that she already has a new bf (the ever hunky James Marsden) and a 5 year old son to boot!Well.. duh.. what dya expect when you leave a girl for 5 years? The movie soon developed Superman's internal crisis of trying to readjust and live in a world that had moved on and no longer needed him.. along the way he continued to save the world (i.e the term world is used loosely here as we only saw him saving Metropolis) and also managed to defeat another one of Lex Luthor's plan for world domination.

The fundamental "Superman to the rescue" theme that we are all suckers for are kept in the movie... (the car-lifting scene with the crowd cheering him on with jest and Lois falling off buildings and screaming "Superman Help!!" are classic Superman and its here!!). Soon the world (again.. only Metropolis in particular) realised how much it missed him, how wrong it was to move on without him and how much it want him to come back and save people's lives!!

Towards the end of the movie there was a discovery/twist in the plot which, which whilst the director/writers tried desperately to make as unexpected as possible, just came across as inevitable to viewers with a slightly above average intelligence.(Note: it has something to do with Lois Lane's 5-year-old asthmatic kid!!)

As far as the acting goes.. Brandon Routh makes a hunk of a Superman.. so the just par average acting is forgiven.. hehehe.. but I must say his portrayal of the ultra-nerdy and awkward Clark Kent was way better than Dean Cain's nerd-turn-suave smart guy depiction of the same character in the mid-90s series of Lois & Clark.

Lets look at Lois..the Lois Lane in the comic series and all previous big & small screen depictions that we have all come to love is a strong, intellingent and driven character who can be overbearing at times but still exudes a certain charm and quirkiness that we find adorable. Alas, thanks to Kate Botsworth, Lois here came across as just a bitter, messed up, nicotine-addict single mom. Even her intelligence and journalistic capabilities were not clearly portrayed (This of course could also be attributed to the poor script and storyline). But then again...maybe I am just aversed to female smokers..:P

Having said that the movie has some good points. The special effects for one, is pure ingenuity. Of course we are looking at a difference of almost 20 years since the last Superman movie-par Reeves era.

But overall this is a miss for me. I was a huge fan of the old Superdude franchise.. and this doesnt even come close to that. Whilst it could be said that based on the departure from the norms (for one, instead of just hinting at feellings and beating around the bush, we were left with the impression that in this movie, Superman & Lois Lane were once in love, had sex and also a kid together.. remember that 5year old I mentioned earlier?), this is a fresh experimental attempt with the original Superman premise.. it doesnt live up to its "Most Anticipated Movie of the Decade" catchphrase...