serene’s posterous

Enjoyable movie. Significantly better than the first movie. I loved
the sequences of the strange and fantastic creatures, such as the
scary tooth fairies and the troll market. The singing to Barry
Manilow while drunk on beer was very amusing too! Ron Perlman did a
great job as Hellboy, as you can feel his pathos under that thick red
makeup and costume. I would quibble a bit about the ending, because
it seemed like it is a plot hole, or at least somewhat illogical.

Based on the visuals of this movie, The Hobbit, by Guillermo del Toro,
when it eventually arrives in the theaters, would probably be a
visual feast.

Admittedly, I laughed at times. But most of the time, the laughter
was in disgusted horror. I don't think a lot of the jokes worked.
Some of the scenes were almost painful to watch. But I guess you got
to admire Adam Sandler's chutzpah in tackling the Middle East tension
comically.

Outsourced is a sweet little comedy about outsourcing of a call center
to India. The acting and comedy is low key, the essential message is
the celebration of cultural diversity. The comedy mostly comes from
the bewilderment of an American in India and the cultural
misunderstandings (for example, don't eat with your left hand in
India!). There's a sense of joy from the moment the American call
center manager, played by Josh Hamilton, decides to embrace the
culture of India.

A documentary by David Breashears on the tragedy on Mount Everest in
May 1996. The controversy and events were detailed in several books,
the most famous of which is probably Into Thin Air. Since I just
recently read two of these books,
the background of the tragedy was rather fresh in my mind.

I thought the show, first shown over PBS, was too long. In
particular, the re-enactments of the storm dragged a bit. Otherwise,
the show was very interesting, focusing on the interviews with the
survivors of the storm and their experiences. Also, there was very
little finger-pointing about who was at fault, side-stepping the
controversies that swirled around the climbers after tragedy. I
thought the most compelling interview was with Makalu Gau, who had
lost fingers and toes, and part of his nose due to frostbite. He was
one of the climbers pinpointed by Jon Krakauer (author of Into Thin
Air) as being inexperienced and maybe shouldn't have been trying to
climb Everest. It was a little strange that Jon Krakauer wasn't
interviewed, but David Breashear's reasoning was that Krakauer was
safe in his tent by the time the storm hit.

Link to website with extensive information about the show:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/everest/

Trailer:

About the life of Genghis Khan (born Temudgin) in the early years,
before he became the leader of the Mongol Empire and the "ruler of the
largest empire the world has ever known". It was a beautifully filmed
movie, and the acting was good. Tadanobu Asano, who played Temudgin,
and Honglei Sun, who played Temudgin's blood brother, were
charismatic. Khulan Chuluunn, as Temudgin's wife, had an otherworldly
intensity.

Admittedly, the battle scenes were too bloody for my tastes. And
since the historical record was scanty, there was too much jumping
forward in the time line, and probably lots of historical
inaccuracies. For example, how did he survive from boyhood if he had
so many enemies intent on killing him?

Here's the cheesy trailer that I didn't like.

I loved the movie. Visually, it was stunning. The colors, the exotic
locations, the whole fantastical setup. I especially enjoyed the bits
filmed in India - the beautiful and otherworldly buildings in Jaipur,
Fatephur Sikri, Agra etc. The reviews of the movie was mixed. I
think the NY times gave a particularly scathing review. But I think
it takes a certain mindset to enjoy the movie. Just ignore all the
cliched bits and some laughably over the top acting. Lee Pace was
competent as the injured lovelorn stuntman (I do enjoy his work on
Pushing Daisies - I really hope it won't be canceled), particularly
in the hospital scenes. Catinca Untaru was perfect as the Romanian
child with the active imagination.

Here's the trailer:

In the continuing series of bad movies...we ended up picking this
movie to watch instant on Netflix. I haven't actually watched the
first movie, but I have heard that they are essentially the same
movies with different locations. The movie was boring and ridiculous.
The clues were boring. The conspiracy theories were boring. Even
the action scenes weren't very exciting. I just don't know why all
these big name actors and actresses are in this movie - a huge
paycheck perhaps?

881 is a Singapore movie, best enjoyed by those with more than a
passing familiarity with the local culture. The dialogue is in a
mixture of Mandarin, Hokkien and bits of English. It is essentially a
musical about a pair Getai singers. Yes, the
movie is really campy, with the characters bursting out in classic
Hokkien songs, and dressed in fantastical costumes. But the movie has
a good heart, and I enjoyed the camp and the singing, and was touched
by the ending. I do wish that my Hokkien was a little better because
I had to rely on the English subtitles sometimes for the lyrics of the
songs.

Although the last parts of the movie were cute and romantic, the whole
setup and the hating each other bits were excruciating. The
characters were caricatures, and not funny at all. The other problem
is that I can't see Ashton Kutcher as a romantic hero - he is just too
floppy.

I thought this movie would be good as it starred Aaron Eckhart and
Elizabeth Banks, and Jessica Alba as the eye candy. But I was sorely
disappointed. The movie's plot was quite ridiculous, and the
characters didn't have any chemistry together.