Monthly Archives: April 2013
Movie Review: Silver Linings Playbook
***Spoiler Alert***
Synopsis:
An interesting love story between two emotionally unstable people.
Bradley Cooper suffers from bi-polar depression, while Jennifer Lawrence resorts to sex as a way to sort through her problems.
Bradley Cooper is released from a mental hospital and is told to visit his doctor regularly.
Bradley was sent into the mental hospital because he had a violent outburst when he found out his wife was cheating on him.
Bradley was put on a restraining order by his wife and asked never to come around areas where his wife would go often.
Still Bradley is convinced that they are still in love and that she wants him back.
Bradley jumps through hoops and tries just about anything to win her love back.
This is where Jennifer Lawrence comes in.
She tells Bradley that she comes in contact with his wife often and promises to hand her a letter from him, if he promises to do her a favor.
The favor is compete with him in a professional ballroom dancing competition.
They compete, bring out the best in each other, and while she falls for him early in the movie. By the end of the movie, he recognizes how important she is and chooses Jennifer Lawrence over his wife.
Final Thoughts:
This is a character driven movie, where as the story unfolds, you become more and more invested into Bradley & Jennifer’s lives.
It’s unique love story of how two people who are considered abnormal members of society find a way to create their own little world where society norms cease to matter.
I particularly enjoyed the family dimension in the story, between Bradley and his father.
Everyone is trying to cope with Bradley’s bi-polar depression and his father ends up being the one most affected by it.
Great love story, that appeals to both sexes.
Ratings:
5/5
FB Status Update: Miss-Calls
Missed calls can happen when you’re busy.
Perhaps there is a reason why you didn’t hear the phone ring. Perhaps it was never meant to be. Perhaps your day will be much better if you missed that call.
Other times you purposely missed the call.
You look at your phone, see who’s calling and think “Oh My God! Not Him! Probably wants to borrow another grand. Not Her! How many times do I have to tell her that I’m not her baby’s daddy.”
Well today I got a miss call.
Whoopeedoo right?
I procrastinated a couple of hours. Took a nap. Ate something. Literally had nothing else to do, so I returned the call.
I said, “Sorry I missed your call. Did you need something?”
She said, “Oh sorry Thao!”
I said, “Why you sorry for?”
She said, “I miss dialed.”
(Nothing more humiliating than to find out that a miss call was actually a miss dial)
She said, “I thought you were the girl Thao.”
(I take that back. There is something more humiliating. How do you mistaken me for a girl? I realize people say I’m feminine, but this is outrageous. I am so mad I don’t even know what to say.)
She said, “Well it’s late. Goodbye Thao!”
I said, “Bye”
You know I’m actually pretty comfortable with the fact that I can be feminine at times, but moments like this throw me off balanced sometimes.
For instance, take the pic I took when I was small.
Did my mom force me to wear a dress when I was small? Was it because she wanted a girl instead of a boy?
Or did I steal this dress from my sister when no one was looking, thinking to myself that I probably looked better in it than her?
It could be that I just finished watching braveheart, where it’s actually cool for men to wear skirts! So in my attempt to be extremely manly, I end up looking girly.
Sometimes the hardest thing to decipher is what’s inside of you.
Ordinary Folks
Movie Review: Submarino
***Spoiler Alert***
Synopsis:
A pair of brothers are responsible for their baby brother Martin because their mother is an alcoholic.
One day, they both wake up and find their baby brother dead.
Fast forward to the adult versions, the older brother Nick uses violence to deal with his problems. He also washes away his misery with alcohol.
He is friends with another woman from the apartment who he visits for sexual favors.
Nick meets one of his old friend who is somewhat slow and socially awkward. Nick finds out that his friend is a virgin so they visit a prostitute house. They are turned down so Nick brings his friend to meet the woman at the apartment.
Nick leaves and when he comes back he finds out his friend killed the woman because she wouldn’t stop screaming. Nick takes the rap for the death.
Nick’s brother is also grown up with a kid. The kid’s name is Martin. His wife had been killed in a car accident.
Nick’s brother is a drug addict and depends on heroin to get through the day. Social services are threatening to take the boy away if he can’t bring in any income.
The father and son are inseparable, but because of his drug addiction, he often passes out and forgets to take Martin to school or buy him any food to eat.
Things get desperate when he turns to selling heroin on the street to support his kid, but the police find him and put him in jail.
His kid Martin is placed in a foster care. He becomes de-moralized and commits suicide.
The ending of the story, you find Martin and his uncle Nick at the funeral service.
Final Thoughts:
This movie grabs your attention and never lets go for the rest of the movie.
It seems that death follows this family throughout the whole movie. Each turn of events revolves around the death of a baby, a woman, a mother, or a brother.
This is true in everyone’s life, but one doesn’t realize the significance of it as much as it is hi-lighted in this movie.
This is a dark, surreal, and cold movie.
I give it 5 stars because it depicts accurately the lives of those who do not have much, yet are constantly being challenged to put up with more and more.
Ratings:
5/5
Struggle Is Nature’s Way of …
Movie Review: The Yellow Sea
***Spoiler Alert***
Synopsis:
A man is gambles owing millions to a gangster. He settles the debt by traveling to South Korea to assassinate a business man. He accomplishes his mission but finds out many people are after him including cops, the gangster, and a dirty corporation.
He is also searching for the whereabouts of his wife who has disappeared a long time ago.
All this chasing pushes the gangster and dirty corporation against each other. They butt heads and many lives are lost. The gangster gets the final laugh, before dying himself.
The man escapes to his home country on a boat only to die halfway on the trip with what he believes to be the ashes of his wife.
Final Thoughts:
The movie starts out really slow and ends slow. The best part is definitely the middle where he plans out his assassination and is constantly being chased by cops, gangsters, and people from the dirty corporation.
There’s definitely a feeling triumph as the two evil entities (gangster and dirty corporation) go at each other, devouring each other until nothing is left.
Good story, but takes 2.5 hours to tell it which in my opinion is too long.
Ratings:
3/5
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