X-Men: The Last Stand is possibly the best of the three X-Men films so far. Why? Because it’s no long a simple good versus evil, mutant against homosapiens, “if you’re not with us, you’re with the enemy” kind of flick. But is this the final installment of the Marvel comics trilogy? If you’d stayed on… Read More »
So, the Manila city council has passed a resolution banning “The Da Vinci Code” in all cinemas in the city because the movie “is undoubtedly offensive and contrary to established religious beliefs which cannot take precedence over the right of the persons involved in the film to freedom of expression.” In a phone interview with… Read More »
I was reading American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis and it suddenly dawned on me that the choice of Christian Bale as Batman in Batman Begins was, to put it in Ellis’ term, “premeditated”. In the chapter titled “Nell’s” (page 206, Vintage Contemporaries, paperback), there is a paragraph that goes: “Daisy! And Patrick, you devil!”… Read More »
The premise for Phone is simple. Cell phone rings. Someone dies. Exactly why, we’re not so sure. While the cell phone, admittedly today’s modern device of choice, plays a central role in linking the storyline of this movie, it’s easy to get confused initially if you don’t follow the plot close enough. The storyline of… Read More »
The Road Home is a poetic love story that poignantly shows us the past and the present through the eyes of a son just coming to understand love acutely desired in youth and fiercely remembered in old age. Director Zhang Yimou’s recent effort may have smacked of crass commercialism, but The Road Home is not… Read More »
Windstruck, the pseudo-sequel to the romantic comedy My Sassy Girl, starts off brightly enough, even though the opening scene has the female lead character, Yeo Kyung-jin (played by the effervescent Jun Ji-hyun), on the verge of a headlong plunge to meet her maker (or should it be her lover?). This scene sets the stage (and… Read More »