3 Reasons Why I liked Into the Forest (2015)

Static

Would you have survived the lockdowns without computers, the internet, and Netflix? Would you have survived without electricity?

While living deep inside the beauty of the forest, like any of the young generation sisters Nell and Eva were looking forward to medical school and a prestigious dance group respectively. Nell was using computers for studying while the dancer Eva a great sound system in full blast when suddenly all electrical power was lost. Into the Forest is the story of their struggle.

These are the 3 things I liked of the movie. There are spoilers.

3 reasons Why the 100 series Finale made No Sense

Clarke Griffin on the warpath

My watching the 100 up to its finale is a case of loving the characters and the world building - up to season 2 at least -  but hating where it’s going. It was always shorter than the average season which helped me soldier on. 

I am surprised that the series finale ended in a great victory for all of humanity. No human is left in the physical mortal plane, transcended in what can only be described as a sci-fi version of heaven.

These are the three things I did not like about this “win”. This rant has spoilers.

Incendies (2010)

War is brutally simple. 

It will always be just the one thing: live or die; loss or victory; longing or hatred; joy or sorrow. Incendies doesn’t get with that program. It manages to be beautifully nuanced.

3 Reasons Why I hated the movie Triple Frontier (2019)

Former Special Forces on the run and on mules

I give you three reasons why Triple Frontier sucks and there are spoilers.

Booksmart (2019)

Books are only the beginning.

Booksmart is the misadventures of Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever). They have dedicated all their time to each other and to academics; they always get good grades, teachers love them. Classic overachievers. Now the best friends have one night left to see (high school) life for the very first time.

Io (Netflix) (2019)

To Sam, Io is only an all text email

I really thought Sam Walden (Margaret Qualley) and Micah (Anthony Mackie) would science the shit out of their predicament.

Warrior Nun (Netflix)

Deep in the inner recesses of the Roman Catholic Church is the Order of the Cruciform Sword, guardians of an an angel’s halo, wielded by the Warrior Nun. Since the Crusades the halo bearer has lead fellow sister warriors in a war against demons. 

The halo gets passed from warrior to warrior through the centuries until lately it ended up with a civilian that no convent, much less a secret paramilitary one, would want.

Scotland's Home of the Year (BBC Scotland)

Michael Angus (standing) with Kate Spiers and Anna Campbell-Jones at front
Images from The Herald

While still walking through the rabbit hole of Britannia I came upon Scotland’s Home of the Year (SHOTY). The show is a tour of houses without the historical slant that Restoration Home had and more of the owner’s personal taste. 

A big red heart symbolizes that taste which the owners will make known as the favorite spot. Judges look out for it and once found they stop to see through the owner’s point of view. Judges and episode winners see each other only in the grand finals.

Restoration Home (BBC Two)

Dr. Kate Williams, Caroline Quentin and Kieran Long
BBC Two

While on a self declared break from my regular series I went down the rabbit hole that was YouTube, one video led to another until I found myself hooked on Restoration Home.

A production by the BBC Two, the documentary series presents old buildings acquired by ordinary citizens who are willing to see through the crazy idea of restoring said structures to habitability. 

Dark (Netflix) (2017, 2019, 2020)

Think Back to the Future, Groundhog Day, and the series Counterpart; all swallowed, chewed, grinded, spat out, and presented as good spaghetti, for lack of a better analogy. Dark is the most convoluted time travel story I have ever seen.

Recommended to me as a German Stranger Things, Dark is far from it. Only a small town vibe would be shared by both series and no more. 

Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)

We're not gonna make it

So Spencer repairs the game and this launched the story into Jumanji: The Next Level?

Little Women (2019)

Letters from Father

Science fiction and an end of the world scenario: Contagion, It Comes at Night, 12 Monkeys, or the Walking Dead - like many others curiosity drove my choices of what to watch at the start of this pandemic. A compelling watch but with days upon days of isolation, I couldn't without flipping out. Laying low from negativity such as news, social media, and in my case certain movie genres is indeed good advice. 

Since then the movies or TV series I’ve seen to name a few are: Money Heist, Star Trek the Next Generation, All the President’s Men, and The Last Dance. Actually I am surprised to be relying more YouTube than the movies I have on file. 

Still cautiously avoiding just the one genre, for this week’s entertainment I traveled to a bygone era via a light hearted period piece from the 2020 Oscar Best Picture nominees.

The March sisters looking at the Laurence house

Little Women, the classic Louisa May Alcott’s tale said to be based on author’s own family, has been made and remade at least 10 times, I was old enough to remember only 2 movies that included this latest one. I never saw or read the story, until now.

Missing the Americans

via GIPHY

Why do Americans always end up as heroes in the movie; my Ex brought up the topic one time. Since it was long ago, I can’t remember any emotional weight that was behind the question. She may have wanted a geopolitical chat with me assuming my memory of her bringing up Henry Kissinger is even in the same conversation.

Sagada Trip 2019

3 guys, #galingupis; me, paeng, and mike at the
Banaue Rice Terraces view deck

Santa Rosa Integrated Terminal Dry Run, Me Reading between the Lines

From autocar.com

The quoted passage below is from Laguna Transport Hub still Empty, a news article from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and published on the 30^th of April, 2019, Tuesday.

True Location Specific SMS

I was sent these messages by just being within range of Terminal 3 and Terminal 4. 

There was a time when people thought the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) emergency messages are excessive but I wonder could they be as location accurate as this one because the last thing people need in emergencies is a boy-who-cried-wolf situation.

Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War

Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War by William Manchester

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Think of the movie Saving Private Ryan but only if Private James Ryan did most of the talking. If he started his story from his signing up for military service and he talks of his experience from battle to battle; the friends and comrades he had lost, often violently; till finally he talks of his experience again only this time as an old man visiting the old battlefields.

How Quotes from Infinity War solves Thanos

Spoilers obviously, albeit technically a theory.

Having watched the two quotes below from Avengers: Infinity War, I believe that Avengers 4 will at least have part of the solution - thematically at least - as written in the comics.

2Go, Off Peak and Changing Bunks - Boracay 2017

I dropped the ball arranging a boat ride to Boracay. Ticket sellers for 2go at SM Manila had answered me that the Tourist Class was a room of 8. My biggest mistake was thinking that a mass of bunk beds was the only cheapest section of a passenger ferry like this one, and anything higher in price would automatically be a room.

It wasn’t a room. There the open air type and the type with air-conditioners, the Tourist Class was fortunately the latter. Only a confluence of long weekends that November 2017 saved the trip from being a nightmare.

Overlooking Fire Safety and Quakes

Although I don't full picture the engineering significance of what makes for good steel, the allegation is not surprising.

Over the last 12 years, buildings have been erected in the country using a weaker type of steel bars, and manufacturers and structural engineers have been hiding this fact from the public, a group of public safety advocates said on Thursday.

Inquirer, 2018

If preparation against fire can be overlooked what more for earthquake?

There were no “proper fire exits in the building,” IOHSAD and other labor advocates found out. (Kentex factory fire) 

Manila Times, 2015

An initial investigation of 23 establishments surrounding the ill-fated Kentex factory in Valenzuela City also showed violations of the country's fire code, President Benigno Aquino III revealed on Monday, June 1.

Rappler, 2015

“Dubbed as the worst fire in Philippine history, which claimed many young lives and several others, the ash and soot of what remained of the structure once known as the Ozone Dance Club led to questions and subsequent investigations of its structural integrity and fire safety measures,” read the ruling.

Philippine Star, 2014

Ozone Disco - Rappler and Photo by AFP

A 38-storey building in Ortigas complex in Pasig has failed to comply with fire safety requirement imposed by the Fire Code of the Philippines, a top official of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) said yesterday. 

Philippine Star, 2002