Disturbia

Disturbia

Are we in control of everything or are we a product of our circumstance? This has been the clear division in going about one's life theoretically. The only problem is life is never that easy to dissect. Life is a mixture of both the circumstance and the control we got over a situation. Take the movie Disturbia for example, the plot really point to real life scenarios where our control over certain stuff could only be so much than our hold on the circumstance.

Disturbia, remodeled after Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, is a Dream Works Pictures product. It was just released July this year (2007). According to credible sources, it already reached the $100 Million mark as of 5 August 2007. The cast comprises of Transformer's Shia LaBeouf as Kale, Sarah Roemer as Ashley, David Morse as Mr. Turner, and Carrie-Anne Moss as Julie among others.

The storyline revolves around Kale, a teenager who happened to experience one of the most gruesome events a boy of his stature could ever imagine – the untimely death of his father. The sad part is that the son and dad tandem are together, coming home from a fishing trip, then suddenly the old man loses his life due to a vehicular accident.

Kale experienced trauma from the situation. A year later it got overblown when he was reprimanded by the teacher, whom he punched in the face. This made way for his home arrest, where a device is attached to monitor him. At home, he befriended technology. But when his mom cut it off, he focused on a different outlet. That is to observe the neighbors specifically the newly moved in Robert Turner, whose 1967 Ford Mustang is identical with the one described as the serial killer in Austin, Texas.

Kale, together with best friend Ronnie and Ashley, really got curious about their mysterious neighbor. They devised plots on how to get to know Mr. Turner better. The final solution was to get inside his house. Sure enough they were able to access the interiors of the house. But it came at a cost. Along the way, other people in the community got involved. Mr. Turner, whose trying to avoid the bad person that he is, never had the choice but to become a serial killer once again. The good thing though is that the three were able to call the cops. Mr. Turner was turned over to the hands of the police.

The ending could never be sweeter than Kale and Ashley sharing a “frenchy” for all the viewers. It was a sweet victory, that was sealed by a kiss!

Underdog

Underdog

In our lives, we always look for an inspiration. It may come in the form of an object, a desired goal, or the like. But most of the time, we are inspired by people whom we believe are bigger and better than us in stature. We look at them as heroes. We create these superheroes with the likes of Spider-man, Batman and Superman to mention a few. These are fictional characters that were borne out of man's imagination with the aim of inspiring people from all walks of life.

Wait! There's one thing that got me interesting. How about an animal for a superhero? Bet that would be a cool idea. Imagine a dog, of course known as man's best friend, being the savior of them all. Well, we have our dog right here. “There's no need to fear, Underdog is here.”

Underdog, shot in Providence, Rhode Island, is a 2007 film produced by Spyglass Entertainment and Classic Media, and distributed under the copyright of Walt Disney Pictures. Jason Lee played the voice over role for the hero dog and Alex Neuberger played the leading kid in the movie. Other actors who played part in the movie are Jay Leno, Rebekah Aramini, James Belushi, and John Slattery among others.

The story revolves around a cute beagle and a 12 year old loner. Did one day changed everything? No, I shall call it one accident. Here's how the accident went. Dr. Simon Barsinister, a maniacal scientist, was experimenting on something when the infamous accident happened in his state of the art laboratory. This is the beginning of Shoeshine's, the name of the beagle, rise to fame. He was able to absorb unparalleled powers, and in fact it includes speaking with a human voice.

Along the way, he met the lonely Jack. The spark began the friendship between the wandering dog and a loner kid. Jack slowly learns to discover the extraordinary powers of Shoeshine. Soon he help harnessed the dog to channel all his powers to solve the crimes and foreseen dangers against humanity in the Capitol City. Over the course of his Journey, he found his love interest in Sweet, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel bred dog.

His final challenge is none other than a battle against the evil ideas of the scientist doctor, who accidentally is to be credited for Shoeshine's superpowers. Underdog battles Dr. Sinister and his henchman, Cad, so as to avert their evil plans for the Capitol City. In the end, the good overcomes the bad.

The movie Underdog is a reminder for citizens to do their part if they want their community to be relatively safe and stable. Remember what the great Edmund Burke once said? “The only way for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

Yeah, Shoeshine is nothing but a dog. At least though, he is concerned with the community at hand. His humble self acclaimed job as a safeguard for the citizens of Capitol city is heroic. A dog can do it, how much more human beings? I bet we can be heroes too, even for just one day!

Superbad

Superbad

What is life? That has been the prevailing philosophical and layman question that have always been entering my thought ever since I was a little boy. I kept wandering all the time. As the years have gone by, I came to conclude that life is a compilation of memories. These memories are called the “spices of life.”

One of the memorable spices in a person's life is during the high school years, otherwise known as the teenage years. This is the transformation from a curios little boy to the pathways of manhood. It is where we start to enjoy the proverbial “fountain of youth” leading to maturity. And there is no better way to achieve the latter rather than through experience.

I think its nice to see something in the same breadth in the big screen. I guess there is no better movie than Superbad that exemplifies these proverbial spices of life, experienced during the high school years. Released just this summer (2007), the movie is intended for people of all ages. It could be applicable to incoming college freshmen, to the older people to make them look back at their last years in high school, and also for the little kids to expect something like this happening in the near future.

Superbad is written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, produced by Judd Apatow, and directed by Greg Mottola, who also produced the 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up comedy movies. The cast are composed of Jonah Hill, Micheal Cera, and Ema Stone among others. Cameo appearances are also made by Martin Starr, Steve Bannos, Mark Rogen, and David Krumholtz.

Superbad is a story about two high school best buds, Seth and Evan, going different ways in pursuing their college education. Evan, the smarter of the two, was going to Dartmouth. Seth, the perverted the less knowledgeable of the two, is going to the State University. Before the best friends part ways, they need to fulfill a promise. And that is to get laid before high school graduation.

The opportunity came when Seth was invited to a keg party by her crush, Jules. Of course, the best friend would also be in the party. And to impress the girl, Seth volunteered to pick up the tab for the booze. A common friend in Fogell announced that he would be getting a fake ID, which would serve as their passport in buying the drinks, considering it is against state laws for minors to buy and drink liquor. The whole night became a crazy night. It started with the buying of the drinks by Fogell. Real crazy adventure for these teenagers in one night. I bet it would be better not getting into details, so as not to avoid spoiling the viewers.

I bet this would be the movie for you. There is no better ending for the summer than to enjoy something hilarious. I bet it would be like having a retreat in the movie house with nothing but a bucket of pop corn, soda, and tons of laughter. A DVD copy would also be worth it I guess. Indeed, this is comedy before another push right after the dog days of summer are over.

Halo The Movie

HALO
To Be Released 2k9

The movie industry has a lot of trends in producing films. One could be the adaptation of real life events, biographies, and the like. It could also be based on a novel. Then there's the video games turned movies. This trend had been going on with the likes of Tomb Raider and Mortal Combat among others.

Video games turned movies have not really been that extraordinary on the record. There had been history of flopping among the said flicks, so as successes too. But the more interesting part is when video games are not only made into movie but also into novels. This is the case of the video game Halo.

Halo, a science fiction computer game, has already its novel publication, written by Larry Nivel, released last October 2001. A little more wait and a movie version of Halo will hit the big screen in 2009. Two years removed from its expected date of screening, Halo is said to be written by Alex Garland, directed by Neill Blomkamp, and under the flagship of 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures.

Halo is a fictional mega structure that exists with its own people, who are said to be skilled enough to be in battle using advanced weaponry. The main characters of Halo are the super robot Master Chief Petty Officer SPARTAN-117 and Cortana. In the movie, they battle the aliens invading their territory. The covenant, as what they call the aliens, are in search for something on their orbit. The problem though is that they not only look for it but they kill other people involved In the process of defending themselves, more secrets are known by Master Chief and his cohorts.

The Halo series really gives interest to diverse people of different hobbies because it was not only adopted into literature and the cinemas, but also into licensed products, with the likes of action figures edition. Surely, the action figure collector, the reader, and the movie addict will give this movie a chance since it has all three different elements meshed in one tailor-made setting.

The 11th Hour

Now or Never, Because the Environment Isn't a Constant

One reality that people experience is constant change. Nothing stays static for a long time. Change happens either gradually or instantly. Whatever the case is, it doesn't really matter. Take a look at the case of the environment. It has been changing for the worst. The state of the environment is already reaching its saturation point way faster than human beings' realization of the effects done upon them.

The 11^th Hour film documentary is the latest film regarding the decaying state of our global environment. Released just this week, 17 August 2007, it was directed by Nadia Conners and Leila Conners Petersen. Leonardo Di Caprio narrates the whole story of the environment, from the causes of the depletion to the effects on human life. It ends with a feasible conclusion on how we could at least help in minimizing the problem.

The environmental problems that the film present are not really new to us. Still the same old problems such as global warming and natural resources depletion dominate the whole picture. The consequences may come in the forms of flash floods, health hazards, and the like.

Looking from a macro perspective, it could be seen that human beings are also the ones creating these problems. Example could be on the usage of oil as fuel. People tend to depend so much on it, that better alternatives to fuel usage would only go down the drain. The problem is that the fossil fuel we use is considered as a nonrenewable resource that could only be replaced after thousands of years.

On the other hand, the micro perspective only points to one thing, which this writer thinks as one of the biggest hindrances in the change to alternatives. This is the economic concept of sunk cost. In layman's term, sunk costs are considered as costs that have been incurred and are already hard to replace since large amount of investments have been poured in and are impossible to be recovered in a short time.

Sunken costs are the things that human beings use in daily life, such as cars, electricity, and the like. An example is that if an ordinary guy has a car, would he dispose it because it used oil as fuel? Of course not, because we have to dispose all cars and change it with cars that doesn't use oil. This concept is the hardest part that human beings should overcome.

The good thing is that the documentary presented a practical and visionary solution, knowing that radical changes are already next to impossible. These solutions are Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Conservation. In the end, the message of the documentary is that humanity should not dominate but coexist in a mutual way with the environment.

Its not yet late for the human race, we are just at the 11^th hour. Do we need to wait until the clock strikes at the 12^th?

Game Plan Movie Trailer

The movie Game Plan stars The Rock as Joe Kingman, with Kate Nauta, Madison Pettis and Kyra Sedgwick. The story of a superstar quarterback Joe Kingman as a coach, a boyfriend and a father to a daughter he thought he never had. Joe Kingman had it all, riches, fame, parties, and career. But this dream life must be put aside for his 7-year-old daughter Peyton. In the midst of his peaking career, Peyton adds up to his life and Joe Kingman must figure out how to juggle his parties, practices and dates with the newfound ballet classes, bedtime stories and dolls that came with his daughter. Figuring this out alongside with her hard-edged mega-agent, Stella makes it worse for Joe. Joe tries to keep up with his schedules and duties as well. Joe's life will turn upside down as he discovers that there is more to life than money, endorsements and tons of adoring fans: the love and care of one very special small fan is the only thing that matters.

The Rock fans and avid movie goers are waiting for this one to see The Rock in the big screen once again. This sports-themed family comedy started filming on October 30, 2006. Filming took place mostly in Boston, Framingham, Worcester, Massachusetts. Fans can catch the movie trailer of Game Plan in The Simpson's Movie and Rush Hour 3. It is set to be released on September 28, 2007 in the US.

Iron Man Movie Trailer

Marvel Comic's Iron Man The Movie will be seen on the big screen. Starring Robert Downy Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man, Terrence Howard as Jim Rhodes, Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts and Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger. Marvel Enterprise and Paramount released teasers of the movie, comic book artist Adi Granov designed the teaser poster that was unveiled at the Comic-con in 2006 and movie trailer that was flashed world wide in late 2006. To keep the suspense, the makers of Iron Man kept the movie trailer and clips unpasted in the web not until early 2007. The production of the movie started on March 12, 2007 on sets in Los Angeles.

Anthony “Tony” Starks, a billionaire industrialist and inventor is kidnapped and brought to Vietnam to build a weapon. Unknowingly, Stark creates a mechanized armor suit and escapes. Back in the U.S., he discovers a dangerous plot and becomes Iron Man to stop it.

In the movie trailer, it gave the viewers a taste of Tony Stark as an industrialist giving a public speech. “Is it better to be feared, or respected? And I say, 'Is it too much to ask for both'? With that in mind, I humbly present the crown jewel of Stark Industries' freedom line. It's the first missile system to incorporate our proprietary repulsive technology. 'They' say the best weapon is when you never have to fire. I respectfully disagree. I prefer the weapon that you only have to fire once. That's how dad did it, that's how America does it, and it's worked out pretty well so far.” And also one part and he was being interviewed by Christine Everheart. As he steps out of the car, Christine Everheart approaches and introduces her self and asks, “You've been called the 'Da Vinci' of our time, what do you say about that?”. “That's absolutely ridiculous, I don't paint.”, Tony replies with sarcasm. “And what do you say to your other nickname, the 'Merchant of Death'?” Tony answers back, “That's not bad.”

It also flashed few fight scenes of Iron Man between his captors to show his super abilities, and in the end, Iron Man's flight.