wanted: a swell movie
Posted by: onyxx on: July 20, 2008
due to a spatter of good films i’d seen lately, i really didn’t think Wanted would measure up to the rest, so i basically ignored it.
good thing my friend was insistent about watching it. actually she had already seen it, but i guess she just wanted to persuade me that it was good enough for second viewing. also, i wasn’t in the mood for Hancock, so i gave in.
ok, more than halfway through the film i got convinced. and during the last 20 minutes i was half-cursing myself for not seeing this earlier. i initially thought it was more hype than anything, but after considering the movie from many angles i am now sure that it’s one of the better films i’d seen so far (2008).
angelina jolie (Fox) was — as expected — great. it’s almost downright easy to see her as this beautiful and lethal assassin who can kick your ass with a mere flick of her finger. james mcavoy (Wesley Gibson), although not the first actor you would automatically think of for an action flick like Wanted, does an amazing job as a reluctant recruit into a secret band of assassins. and morgan freeman (Sloan) has a heavy screen presence that would serve him in any role he chooses to portray.
if Timur Bekmambetov (director) had chosen to play Wanted (based on a comic book series by Mark Millar) as a straightforward story, it would have lost most of its charm and heft. The twist near the end made things worthwhile and more interesting.
[i'm seeing The Dark Knight for the second time tonight, so my review on this amazing movie will have to wait till then.]
another update on pluto
Posted by: onyxx on: June 14, 2008
the hoopla on Pluto’s status (is it? or isn’t it?) continues.
the latest update [http://www.blog.newsweek.com/blogs/labnotes/archive/2008/06/12/pluto-finally-gets-some-respect-sort-of.aspx] on the formerly-the-farthest-planet-from-the-sun has given Pluto something of a boost — or something to that effect — after being downgraded by the International Astronomical Union to a mere ‘planetoid’.
according to the IAU, Pluto and other similar-sized celestial objects, particularly those found in the Kuiper Belt, will henceforth be known as “plutoids”.
hmm… i don’t think this move is likely to settle uproar anytime soon. poor Pluto. what next?
this takes me back to my grade school days when we used to recite the names of all 9 planets. the first 3 planets that i found easy to memorize — aside from Earth — were Mercury (first), Jupiter (largest), and Pluto (last).
countdown to Kung Fu Panda
Posted by: onyxx on: May 16, 2008
Kung Fu Panda is generating some favorable early buzz courtesy of some early good reviews and its splashy appearance in the Cannes Film Festival in France. the star-studded hype is spearheaded by the golden couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who incidentally provides the voice for one of the main characters in this animated flick.
naturally, Jack Black, who plays the title role, gets the chance to show off his patented goofy antics while in cannes. he is joined by the heavily pregnant ms. jolie and dustin hoffman.
the cast includes dustin hoffman (ku fu master) angelina jolie (tigress), lucy liu (viper), and jackie chan (mantis).
Kung Fu Panda is expected to hit the theaters on june 6, 2008.
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