Death Note: The Movie

When I picked up Death Note and its sequel Death Note: The Last Name, I thought it was yet another made-for-movies pseudo-anime treatment of a popular fad. Boy was I glad to be proven wrong. Death Note is an intelligent psycho-thriller that'll take you on a roller-coaster train ride that YOU KNOW is gonna be a fabulous wreck at the end.

The story follows Light Yagami, a bright young cadet with a strong sense of justice. As we later on learn, justice is pretty ambiguous, and really quite relative. Disillusioned at the fact that criminals are free to walk without paying for their crimes, his life is turned upside down when a bored Grim Reaper gives him the power to take away life with the use of a Death Note. Soon the audience begins to wonder whose side their on. Light, whose brand of justice deals death to whoever is labeled a criminal, or the enigmatic detective L, hidden in the shadows who has passed judgment on Light as even worse of a murderer than those he punishes. The story is a winner in that the subject matter truly is a worthy topic to debate on.

Two things work against the movie though, both of which however, can be viewed necessary. The first is that the Grim Reapers Ryuk and Rem are done in complete CGI, designed nearly identical to their anime and manga versions. To those who don't dig CGI characters, it can take a lot away from the film. But if you can get past the designs, the characterizations are pretty much done well. The second problem is that the movie is rather long. The second film is more obviously lengthened. Of course the fact that Death Note is several volumes long is the reason. There's only so much you can remove to try to still keep the film intact.

Watch these movie on a weekend afternoon when you got nothing to do. These movies have enough twists to keep you on your toes. Gore is kept to a minimum thank goodness. It's not so much an emo flick as it is a brilliant psy-war tale. Highly recommended.

Read all about Death Note at wikipedia. But try not to read too much. You wouldn't want to get spoiled.

Wikipedia article on Death Note

Here's the trailer.

"Iron Man, Iron Man, does whatever an Iron Can."

"Maliwanag ang kanyang hinaharap."

Just saw it. It rocked so hard. Robert Downey Jr. nailed his role. He certainly fits the character of Tony Stark- a formerly irresponsible billionaire on the path of redemption. Gwyneth Paltrow and Terrence Howard portrayed the awkwardness of their relationships with the title character.

The CGI was certainly seamless. I should dare say it might even be more seamless than Transformers. The designs for all five suits all fit perfectly with the situations they are used in- the rugged Mark 1 built straight from scratch, the prototype Mark 2 with all it's flaps amid the streamlined design which we later see in Mark 3, a Gold iron-Man suit which Rhody (Howard's character) promises 'next time' to and of course, the gigantic Iron-Monger, designed to be a foil to Iron Man's own suit.

The story itself was color-by-numbers, but the film ran on the spirit of each of its characters, something Ang Lee's Hulk lacked. The dialogue was superb- Wildly intelligent and ruggedly charming wit and humor. Rotten Tomatoes gives this an 86%. I certainly recommend it.

AAAND... from Robotittah of the Fwoosh

That Stark, thinks of everything.

When famished in the mornings he dons his best armor yet....The Griddle Armor, capable of making huge, oddly shaped waffles to golden brown perfection.

Stylish black and white is fabulously matched to the decor of his personal kitchen.

Last but not least he has a fully functional giant blender attachment to mix up that ton of batter to feed his personal staff and employees.

Griddle Armor....because breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. Start your day the Iron Man way at Stark International House of Waffles.

Mulawin: So Good, It Can Give You A Headache

Leaving the theatre, I felt like someone had stuck an 'ugatpak' up my... uh... back, the wrong way.
Mulawin's storyline had so much going on that it can leave you with a king-sized heeadache.
Too much emotion, too much plot, too much action, that it all ended up unfurled and misguided, with way too many loose ends. It's a great film, storywise, until you leave the theatre and a couple of hours later start thinking on what had happened.
Mulawin: The Movie is officially a part of the Mulawin/Encantadia/Etheria canon. It takes place smack in the middle of the war in Encantadia between Queen Amihan and Pirena and right at the end of the Mulawin drama.

A recap of the end of Mulawin: everyone who left the land of the Mulawin, Avila, had had their memories erased. This includes the chosen two, Aguiluz and Alwina.
Beginning the film: As luck would have it, Aguiluz and Alwina's boat on the way to the realm of man is met with a storm and they are washed ashore in two separate places.

In Encantadia, Pirena (Sunshine Dizon) weeds her way through her Diwata sisters (Iza Calzado's Amihan, Karylle's Alena, and Valerie Concepcion's decorative-more-than-anything Danaya) to get the Golden Seed and succeeds. For an unknown reason, she uses the Seed to bring back the king of the Ravena, whose name is Ravenum (Michael de Mesa, who's prosthetics are yuckier than ever before, in a good way).
This sets the search for the chosen two in motion, a task undertaken by Aviona (Bianca King, playing the character once possessed by Pirena), and the kiddie Mulawin.

Anyway, that was just the first 5 minutes. That's a lot. You can imagine what the rest of the movie was like at that pace.
The storyline wouldve been better stretched out into a mini-series.
I will not complain about the acting or sets since they're pretty much the same things in the series. Although it seems as if the FX budget all went into the Buwarka (dragon) effects, and not much was left for the wings and flight effects.
The effects, probably in chroma, were distinguishable, quite easily, from the non-chroma sleek film used in regular shots, a mistake commonly encountered in the past and evaded masterfully by 'Exodus'. The mass of effects can actually cause one to lose amour for the movie, if one was not a fan of the series.

It would help a lot if you were a fan of Mulawin to begin with before seeing this. If not, lower your expectations and focus on the story. But don't nitpick, or you'll activate a migraine.

Rax Awards for this one:
BEST DRAGON
BEST POSTER (S)
BEST STORYLINE in a FANTASY ADVENTURE

WORST EFFECTS (as in none of them were good, save for the dragon)

Ako Nood "Legal Wife"

Stroke of brilliance!!! Haha. I had so much fun watching this dramedy. The story evolves around one Filipino-Chinese businessman (Jay Manalo) who's married to three different women.

Zsa Zsa Padilla shines as the 'sosyal' Chinese wife, the first, and legal, one. She delivered her lines in perfect fookien-accented broken Tagalog and spent much of her time trying to overpower the second wife- Cherry Pie Picache. Ms. Picache was downright funny as the 'Lucky Wife' the one that was able to rise from her heritage and become a 'sosyal' woman herself, even though she speaks with English marked with a Visayan accent.
Rufa Mae Quinto rocks as the sexy Manila girl, who's hobbies include mountain-climbing and expanding her businesses. Nearly everyone did well and the teen actors' performances, half-baked though they were sometimes, were quite okay. John Prats' closet 'mujer' scenes were quite commendable and it really showed that he had a lot more training than his reel siblings Julianne Lee and JC de Vera.

Though, I did have to ask my Chinese friends, Ceci, Allen, and Sybina, if Polygami was accepted in China. sybina said that the woman's parents might just have the guy kiled if that happened.

RAX AWARDS
Best Laughs
Best Actresses (all 3 leads)

Enteng Kabisote 2: The Legend Continues to Suck

I left the movie theatre after the fourth installment of Okay Ka Fairy Ko's movie franchise with a huge smile on my face. This was because I had lowered my expectations completely of the Enteng series and aceepted it as brain-dead fun. Scratch that. There were NO expectations. Well, Vic was still Vic. I couldn't really measure his versatility cuz I think all his films were written around his generic onscreen persona. Hence, it's always been the naughty husband/goofy dad with the "Nyeaaa!", "Acheche", and "hi, fans!" lines. Kristine Hermosa fairs slightly better than before, and actually appears more useful than any other character in her family with all the balst attacks. One wonders why she has to let her husband go through all that swordfighting when she could easily do away with the moomoos with a couple finger-flicks. Aiza Seguerra's role, as with the previous movie has been sorely reduced to supporting.Alice Dixson, i have to admit, did a pretty good job as Magenta, though G Toengi was much more memorable (in the last film) even if Alice seems better fit. You will easily tire of Melanie Marquez's broken English jokes as Ina Verde. Not even the 'masa' laughed. Toni Rose (Ina Azul) was good. Victor Neri (Drago) was okay, and Jeffery Quizon's brilinat talents were wasted on his vomiting elictricity, like, half of the movie.

I wouldn't recommend this movie to be shown to children, though. Unless you want them chanting Joey's new catchphrase repetitively , (Pang-gay Pok Pok, Pang-Gay Pok Pok), or learn new phrases like 'napakain mo na si baby, asawa mo naman" complete with thumbsucking action (courtesy of Vic), or start fantasizing about their aunt (Oyo's thing for his tita's adopted daughter, which, while not tolerated by mom and aunt, goes on without moral closure). The ending sucked too. When Amorillo/Satana is confronted by her sisters, a couple of moral-lessonish sentences later, she gave up her plans, which is soooo out-of-character for the beautifully-played Satana (Bing Loyzaga). Horrid Verdana (Jose).

The special effects were the same as I remember them as a kid. No improvement. Terrible would be a compliment.

I only enjoyed the film because I was a fan of the old series. If you're not a fan, don't waste moolah on this one.

This movie was the top-grosser? Well. That explains a whole lot...

The X-Men 3 Teaser Trailer!

Source: 20th Century Fox

December 5, 200520th Century Fox has launched the eXcellent teaser trailer for X-Men 3! You can watch the teaser in High Definition QuickTime and regular QuickTime formats here. It looks like director Brett Ratner is doing an amazing job picking up the legacy from Bryan Singer, who helmed the first two films.Also, the studio has updated the official website to include even more character images. You can view them all in the gallery here! X-Men 3, hitting theaters on May 26, 2006, stars Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Sir Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, Halle Berry, James Marsden, Anna Paquin, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Shawn Ashmore, Kelsey Grammer, Daniel Cudmore, Vinnie Jones, Ben Foster, Ellen Page, Olivia Williams, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Bill Duke and Michael Murphy