Silent Night Signals a Fight - Spotlight

Legend has it that Silent Night stopped a war, at least for a night, a hundred years ago in the trenches of the First World War. 

Accounts may differ now on what exactly caused the ceasefire, what songs were sung, what things were done such as was there a game of football? Nevertheless the Christmas truce is remembered as a miracle.

The Punisher (Netflix) (2017)

The Punisher hit all the right notes typical of a ronin of the American military machine. It blends in. I did not get any comic book feels even with Karen Page and that Detective who owes his promotion to Daredevil were on hand.

Leave No Trace - Potipot

Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints, kill nothing but time.

The popular traveler's adage literally means not to take, not to leave, and not to destroy anything from the places you visit. Sustainable travelling is the goal.

In the Valley of Elah (2007)

In the Valley of Elah is about a father’s search for his youngest son. On the surface it looks like the typical family drama propelled by a detective story but in truth there is a cleverly hidden antiwar subtext underneath. Too clever that I actually missed it.

Gifted (2017)

Spoilers

Gifted reminds me very much of I am Sam. The same basic elements are there: a father, a young girl, and a third party wanting to break them up. The story also plays with the what-if half of the relationship is an outlier; for Gifted it’s the girl as she is boosted to the level of a math prodigy.

My American Journey: Colin Powell

My American Journey by Colin Powell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My American Journey: Colin Powell is detailed.

Spider-man Homecoming (2017)

Spoilers

In honor of the 3 Spider-man movie versions in over 15 years, here are my 3 character related observations of the newest one Spider-man Homecoming.

Identity Crisis

The exploration of death is inevitable in a superhero story. 

Not to be confused with the loss that often makes the hero, this exploration of death is of the loss which occurs during and perhaps because of being a superhero. Batman has already lost a Robin. In Marvel, Spider-man has lost a girlfriend. 

A hero is supposed to save lives so what questions and doubts does death raise? 

What would Uncle Ben say?

 

With great power there must also come, great responsibility.

Peter Parker’s biggest regret and therefore the greatest lesson about having powers is what made the above arguably the most famous quote of Spider-man. 

It Comes at Night (2017)

So what if you had all the supplies, the fortified dwelling, when the world all goes to shit.

The Defenders (Netflix) (2017)

I’ve seen it before, 4 times before; or 5, since Daredevil had a season 2. Watching the Defenders is like watching every Netflix MCU series, again, only this time 8 episodes long. The end conclusion is even the same: the Iron Fist is the weakest link.

(Spoilers ahead)

Why Not Flats?

It's a curiosity of mine after seeing the most popular shoes ever in a dinosaur movie. The fact that Bryce Dallas Howard had to defend her shoes of all things speaks ill of a dinosaur movie and of running in heels.

Where is the rain of my youth?

Giphy.com

Where is the rain of my youth?

Pit stop in a Bypass Road?

Lead car overtakes the car in front of it and follow car came close behind. Lead car returns to the right lane because there was oncoming traffic, and then suddenly it signals left.  We waited until traffic was clear before we turned left to park at the Bangihan ni Kuya.

My Top 2 Quotes from Season 7 Finale - Game of Thrones (HBO)

Spoilers.

This season I found it easy to narrow down all the season episodes to a few quotes without googling so perhaps this Nerdist article is true . I had less of a tangled web of stories to wade through; the season was all about fun and ease of travel - impossibly easy.

Both quotes are from the season finale, The Dragon and The Wolf. I feel they speak well of the entire season and can even be a lens with which to see who wins it all.

Ayaw Tumabi ng Poste

There's a joke about a drunk who hit an electric post. As expected the drunk never admitted to anything wrong. He didn't fall short of honking and honking, the post just didn't step aside (Ayaw tumabi ng poste).

Skipping a Minefield of Spoilers

Long ago I thought I can map spoilers out, see them in advance, have my eyes jump over or flick the scroll bar faster to avoid the ‘dangerous’ facebook posts.

Competitive Price

The Lost City of Z (2016)

(Spoilers)

Sounds like a sequel to a Brad Pitt movie but looked more like an Indiana Jones, if Indy was real. The Lost City of Z involves the search of a lost city but with less fun, more public ridicule, long walks and boat rides across vast jungles, and most of all, glory is uncertain.

Tumbledown (2015)

Spoilers

Tumbledown had elements I liked. There’s a small town; writers for protagonists; a musician with a cult following; and grief. If done right, any one of those can make a compelling love story but sadly they were not wrapped up into one coherent story.

The Nice Guys (2016)

It is refreshing not being able to see where a movie will go. There were elements that didn’t normally go together: mystery and humor, dramatic actors doing humor, porn and social consciousness. I favored one and was surprised constantly with the other.

War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

Spoilers.

The War for the Planet of the Apes suffers from wrong expectations.

Dunkirk (2017)

Dunkirk reminds me of 2001: A Space Odyssey – at least what little I remember of it – but with less classical music. Both are critical favorites but there is just an empty feeling when the characters barely talk. Well, empty is a strong word but more a feeling that something is missing.

Designated Survivor (ABC) (2016)

I never got to see Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan ascend to the Presidency in the movies so I had high expectations that Designated Survivor can scratch that itch. The show’s lead character Tom Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland), Housing and Urban Development Secretary, rose in a similar manner as Jack Ryan – an attack that completely destroys the Capitol Building wiping out the American leadership that was in it.

Finish it - Rose & Grace Bulalo

I looked at it quite sadly like I’ve never looked at a leftover before - a big bowl of bulalo. My eyes were measuring every angle of it for meat. There's no more green leafy vegetables in the soup because that was the first one I ate. Still a healthy or an unhealthy amount of meat is left.

The Lennon Report (2016)

When a loved one dies it’s usually an ordinary day. There’s no sign of it coming and yet it did. You expect the world to end if only because it doesn’t feel right going on without them, yet the world moves on.

Never planned to be in Baler, Aurora

Does having your picture with the name constitute as proof of visit?

Kung walang plano natutuloy, kung di naplaplano natutuloy. Roughly translated it means – if it’s not planned it pushes through, if it is planned it won’t come true.

Spare Parts (2015)

Spare Parts is an uplifting movie based on the Wired Magazine article La Vida Robot made in the same mold as the Mighty Ducks. Only here instead of ice hockey it is an underwater remote operated vehicle – robotics – contest sponsored by the Office of Naval Research and NASA.

Dencio's - Drinking Spot Overlooking QC

Imagine the 3^rd level of a building that rests on top of a hill and surrounded by a golf course and high end exclusive villages. The view afforded to you by Dencio’s Capitol Greenstreet is simply unmatched in the entire Quezon City.

The Fate of the Furious (Fast and Furious 8) (2017)

It seems I’ll be with the few thinking that the latest of the Fast and the Furious franchise has run out of steam and should call it a day. People are still buying it in droves. Furious 9 is now guaranteed and a Furious 10 will supposedly be the last of it all.

Spoiler warning.

13 Reasons Why (2017)

The first thing that came to mind was the movie I Know What You Did Last Summer. Somehow tapes were made naming the 13 people who killed somebody which seems to be the voice on the tapes. Suicide disclosure on the trailer notwithstanding there was an implied darker reason to it all. 

It made some sense. 13 people, un-sportsman like odds, one girl dead – got to be a murder conspiracy. After the first episode I realize the operative word was ‘reason’ hence the title 13 Reasons Why. 

The Girl Who Played with Fire

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Unlike the first book – Dragon Tattoo – The Girl Who Played With Fire started slow. Remember how book one had started with the mysterious gifts Henrik Vanger had been receiving that set the pace for a compelling mystery, this book didn’t start off with anything similar. Literally it was wallowing on the beach holding glasses with umbrellas kind of slow.

Can You Work with a See-Through Gadget?

Star Trek the original series and Star Trek the Next Generation had variations of a tablet.

image from dynamickarma.com

Tablets are a common occurrence now, so what does Hollywood do but improve on the props and special effects of the past. Now it's about transparent displays.

The Expanse has its Hand Terminals.

image from Forbes

image from Forbes

And big transparent displays

image from moviedeskback.com

Even Star Trek updated its displays

image from blueeyes-and-hockeysticks.tumblr.com

Tony Stark has also been transparent and not just with Bruce.

image from rebloggy.com

image from rebloggy.com

I know a lot of these props have a cinematic motive than practical use. My guess is those transparent screen's primary purpose is for the actor just to be seen even while they are working.

Keep in mind I consider the hologram a little different because they serve a purpose besides reading.

image from jacobcruzsblog.wordpress.com

image from giphy.com

image from rebloggy.com

But what if? Consider that some people have credited Star Trek with calling out the tablet years before it has been invented, will the latest incarnation of  cinematic computer displays be real one day. 

Can people really work at length on a gadget that their sight can pass through?

What I Fear about Reviewing Movies

I love vlogs like Lessons from the Screenplay, Every Frame a Painting, and Movies I love (And so can You). They have such great technical insight. They are able to see and express more aspects of the film when I can only say things like: boring; it works; I like his acting; I don’t like this or that and so on.

Sometimes I fear that watching these vloggers and others tackling the same field, I lose the simple joy of watching a movie; that I’ll lose my blissful ignorance. Add to that the practice of writing a review means I have a tendency than most people to break things down.

Wonder Woman (2017)

Agreed. Wonder Woman is the best DC Extended Universe (DCEU) movie to date. Although I am not really sure being compared to Captain America: The First Avenger is a good thing. There are indeed comparisons but Wonder Woman is better. What does that even say; the best of DCEU is equal to whatever The First Avenger is to Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Before moving on, spoiler warnings. I am at a loss why readers would still need warning because any review is a potential spoiler however vague they try to be. Anyways.

Don't Breathe (2016)

Rocky (Jane Levy), Alex (Dylan Minnette), and Money (Daniel Zovatto) are small time crooks preying on homes. Money is slow considering their level of expertise, until one day, the mark of a lifetime comes into their attention with a potential windfall of $300,000 in cash.

Disney Copying Disney (Guardians and Pirates)

Here there be spoilers...

Max Steel (2016)

I don’t like Max McGrath or more accurately I don't like Ben Winchell. What works is the reluctant hero or the pompous one who’s been taken down a peg. To me Ben was neither. 

A Sequel of a Looping Story

News came out on the first week of May 2017 that an Edge of Tomorrow sequel is very likely. Emily Blunt has promised to return, Tom Cruise is on board. Doug Liman is quoted as saying:

“We have an amazing story! It’s incredible! Way better than the first film, and I obviously loved the first film. It will be called Live Die Repeat and Repeat. Tom [Cruise] is excited about it, and Emily Blunt is excited about it. The big question is just when we’ll do it. But it’s not an if, it’s a when.”

So, what do we have? 

The Girl on the Train (2016)

It was a modest start. The girl on the train even looked bored; so bored her mind picks on the houses she sees by the tracks. But from modest beginnings The Girl on the Train ended with a bang.  

There is drama and mystery; everything wrapped in a theme that challenges a woman’s validation of self. An original gem giving us a brief respite in this era of superhero movies.

Louder than Bombs (2015)

via GIPHY

Brave; skillful with the camera; able to empathize with the locals and tell their story; Isabelle Reed (Isabelle Huppert), a famed war photographer, died in a head on collision just a mile away from her home. 

At first glance, it looked like her luck just ran out after all the near misses.

UP Diliman - The Best Place to Jog in Quezon CIty

In jogging, what I love is a straight line where I would know my endurance based on how much between points A and B I am able to finish at a jogging pace. Was it 100 percent or 50 or 25 of A to B? Sure, a treadmill may have a distance reading but it doesn't beat the fact the you're actually moving.

Based on that qualification nothing beats, in Quezon City at least, UP Diliman as a jogging venue.

UP Diliman Osmeña Ave. Sunday, around 6:30 am. It may not be obvious but

as far as the eye can see there are joggers

Nerve (2016)

Nerve is a story about social media excess; how wrongly it has been used for self-actualization; for communication; and for interpersonal relationships. It could have been great had it not been distracted by what I assume are marketing priorities and gave the story’s two young lovebirds more focus than the game that brought them together: Nerve.

I pay to Globe and get a Bayantel Receipt

I am going to add on to what Mark Madron of the Filipino Scribe says in his original post Open Letter to Globe and Bayantel. 

Ghostbusters (2016)

Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig), Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy), Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) and Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones) may have not laughed their way throughout the story but it feels like they did. 

That’s because the 2016 Ghostbusters had the comic pacing of a sitcom or more appropriately a Saturday Night Live.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

It’s a team of a-holes now instead of the individuals in Vol. 1.

Sureseats eMailed Seating Details

For the first time I received an email from Sureseats giving the details of my reservation including the copy of my e-ticket. It's a good upgrade considering before it I actually had to print screen into an image and upload it to my smart phone. 

Blue Jay (2016)

Blue Jay is an entirely different love story. The typical would just have a boy and a girl act out the romance; as it goes through its ups and downs until then by the end the audience would be all mushy and daydream on when and where can they find such a lover.

Battery Indicator Wanted - Electric Clippers

I use this on my head for some time now. Looking at the manual I am not even sure if it is even meant for the head just the mustache but hey it is still working for maybe 5 years now. There's not much difference between the stubble on my head and mustache anyway.

A Monster Calls (2016)

The story begins “with a boy too old to be a kid, too young to be a man, and a nightmare.”

The Girl with All the Gifts (2016)

The few zombie movies that I like offered solutions to the problem rather than just be running away: I am Legend had a cure and in World War Z, Brad Pitt discovered a means of defense. Knowing that the heroes of a zombie genre can do nothing but run away feels restrictive. I am the one that feels tired for them.