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I LOVE MY HALLLL!
(that is of course, without thinking about the poor poor security, minimal air-conditioned amenities, smallest room space n that lizard who guards my door every night X) )
i pray things can only get better still. :D
posted by edna at
8/09/2006 02:53:00 AM>0 comments
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i've had one of the best orientation camps recently and it has taught me one thing, winning is not everything, but sometimes u just have to in order not to disappoint those who have placed faith in you. ahh i pray hall life will be fun & enriching! i've had a good start.
school's starting soon so i'll have to abandon my blog for the time being. till then, toodle-loo!
posted by edna at
8/06/2006 03:33:00 PM>0 comments
This is just a bit of silliness, really.
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i've been stocking up on videos to watch, either borrowing or renting them, in preparation of the end of world cup season. and finally ended it has. another lonnng 4 years wait will now ensue, all the time keeping the hope that brazil will obtain world cup glory once again in 2010 africa. suddenly videos are all the rage again for me; just take a look at what i have/am going to/tried to watch:
whole series of Firefly (albeit incomplete) Stir of Echoes Serenity Elizabethtown The Shining Finding Neverland Eulogy The Client A Midsummer Night's Dream
haha, the list doesn't look so long now that i wrote it down. i'm wondering whether i should rent the real madrid movie as well. i really want to watch it but i'm afraid that it'll be a waste of money, which i havent much of left. sigh. considerations, hesitations..
Movie recommendation of the moment: Thank You for Smoking i think it's a really intelligent movie, the scriptwriter must be some kinda genius, to be able to twist and turn the english language the way he did. haha i was pretty blown away. Talent, not hardwork, is what distinctly differentiates one from another. now, wish i had some of that...
Video recommendation of the moment: Finding Neverland i dont know, but something hit me during the movie when kate winslet died and i started tearing. the dialogue was nothing too special, but the acting! it was very powerful, especially johnny depp. personal favourite scene of the movie is the "Just the Dog" scene, where johnny depp breaks into a waltz with porthos, his 'bear' and all the clowns start dancing across the great ballroom floor. I love it. Esp the clowns, and their little dances.
from the scene as well:
Peter: This is absurd. It's just a dog.
J.M.Barrie (Johnny Depp): Just a dog? Porthos dreams of being a bear, and you want to shatter those dreams by saying he's just a dog? What a horrible candle-snuffing word. That's like saying, "He can't climb that mountain, he's just a man", or "That's not a diamond, it's just a rock." Just.
posted by edna at
7/12/2006 01:11:00 AM>0 comments
C.R.A.Z.Y.
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i'm back! didn't post for quite a while because my office moved, so didnt come to work for a week! kinda missed it. i was back at work since yesterday, but my com was without internet access! what the! so couldnt post as well. but today i very cleverly used the laptop which has dial-up internet. hehe so yup.
Quite a many things have happened but i'm gonna cut them short and sweet :)
One: recently seen movies: C.R.A.Z.Y. King and the Clown Just My Luck
First two are must-sees!!!! absolutely wonderful. so so nice. and their soundtracks are really good too!! cant wait for them to come out :D coincidentally, these two movies have a somewhat homo/bi-sexual theme to it, and i like them both very much. i'm starting to wonder if my mind is thwarted in some way, or the movies were plain good, as simple as that. ...The movies were good. yeah.
World Cup 2006
i sooo love the world cup. absolutely loved it in 2002. but this year, i'm excited all the same but with disappointment and sadness. sighhh. brazil lost to france. :( i don't think that france has a very good team, just perhaps a good defence. and the brazilians displayed good sportsmanship even after they lost :) you go brazil! i'll be waiting till the next cup for your win. sad news aside, some matches were quite quite exciting!! in particular the portugal vs netherlands and portugal vs england matches. Portugal's my second favourite team, btw. the portugal and holland one was woah! fights almost broke out and i must say, this being the first time i've seen anything like that, i actually enjoyed watching the game lose control. lol :X and of course, the fact that portugal won eventually also fuelled the fun. up next the match to watch is portugal vs germany. many will be rooting for germany to win third place but i'm praying by some small miracle tt portugal will pull through. *crosses fingers* but no matter how they all turn out, i'm definitely gonna get world cup withdrawal symptoms.
i think i'm wearing out my body badly by waking up at 3am to watch the matches and after that either going for choir prac or/and work. i feel stretched, like butter spread over too much bread[quote from bilbo]. i'm feeling the strain, but enjoying it nonetheless.
Besides catching the world cup i've been doing a bit of reading. i like reading, but i have a serious problem with choosing books..as a result i rarely get down to it. so if anyone has any good suggestions just shoot me, preferably books with a somewhat dark theme written in a humorous way. think, Man from the south by roald dahl. the latest book i finished reading was recommended to me by my jie, entitled The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time. It was written in the perspective of an autistic boy, and that was enlightening for me. kinda like wow. a really nice book.
Crazy
Crazy, I'm crazy for feeling so lonely I'm crazy, crazy for feeling so blue I knew you'd love me as long as you wanted And then some day you'd leave me for somebody new. Worry, why do I let myself worry Wondering what in the world did I do? Oh Crazy, for thinking that my love could hold you I'm crazy for trying And crazy for crying And I'm crazy for loving you. Crazy, for thinking that my love could hold you I'm crazy for trying And crazy for crying And I'm crazy for loving you.
posted by edna at
7/05/2006 09:46:00 AM>0 comments
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is it in the score or did raffles chorale copy Vj's actions for pamugun- the thigh slapping and bird whistling? rawrrr.
the festa musicale 2006 video!!
posted by edna at
6/20/2006 12:20:00 PM>0 comments
The Terminal
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I caught a glimpse of HBO's blockbuster of the month: The Terminal, starring Tom Hanks. He's this unfortunate guy who is suddenly rendered 'stateless' just before he checks in at the JKF Airport in America, causing his passport and visa to be invalid. So as of then, he cant officially enter new york, nor can he fly back to his country.
I didn't watch the whole movie, because i was disrupted by the all exciting world cup! but anyhow, as far as i've watched it, the movie's funny! Tom Hanks was good as usual. and Stanley Tucci(who played some department head in the airport) who made me laugh out loud a few times. One of the scenes i can remember was Tucci trying to explain to Hanks that his country was at war. Hanks couldn speak english well (being from Krakozhia, or whatever country that is) , so Tucci took a bag of chips, pointed at it n said: that's Krakozhia. Then he took out an apple, waved it about and said: and this is a nuclear weapon. then without warning, he raised the apple and banged it down on the chips. then the bag of chips exploded onto Tom Hank's jacket. hahaha. the expression on tom hank's face was rather priceless :)
Salchak(his boss): I know you've been waiting for years for me to either drop dead or retire... Frank Dixon(Tucci): No, I haven't been waiting for you to retire.
haha :D
Anyway as i mentioned earlier i was disrupted by the world cup :D i finally subscribed to it after thinkin for so long. yess, i know it's a little late because i've missed quite a few matches already but better late than never!! besides there are 64 matches, so missing the earlier few wouldnt matter much. so i caught Japan vs Croatia and Brazil vs Australia yesterday. Japan has quite a few good lookers! hahaha. okay, that previous sentence so confirmed the sterotype of girls watching the world cup: to look out for hot guys. but that's not true! i swear. i admit i dont know every rule in soccer but i do know some basics! and the concept of "to win you have to score" is not terribly difficult to understand. good looking players just come as a bonus ;) anywayyy, back to team japan, i'm not exactly a fan of theirs, but i certainly will support our Asian counterpart!! so my heart almost dropped at the penalty moment, but thank god for the wonderful save by the goalkeeper. He seems pretty funny. haha, especially after not stopping the ball passed to him by his teammate, which headed for the goalpost. Luckily it didnt get in! it was a 'phew' moment, but i did feel very much like laughing.
And then, came the game that inspired my need to subscribe brazil and australia. Go brazil!!! haha. i support Brazil first, then portugal. i got worried when they didnt score in the first half but thank god again, they bounced back for a 2-0 win! so YAY. And no matter what they say, i know you can do it, Ronaldo!!! Special mention to the Stupid commentator of that game, who continuously insulted ronaldo, only when there were moments when it looked like ronaldo was going to score, he changed his tune as quickly as u can say 'eat my shorts'. rawr.
next match-must-watch will be Japan vs Brazil, and though i hate to take sides i'd have to say i'm with Brazil all the wayyyy. goooooo brazil......! :D
posted by edna at
6/19/2006 10:16:00 AM>0 comments
the benefits of scv
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watched a few older movies recently! what a blast. though not all of them were great films or anything but i just like to watch movies from the 80's and early 90's. i just absolutely love the old film quality - a little faded colour and less-than-sharp images. Quality may not be at best, but it gives me a sense of warmth the way CGI filled films cannot ever do. like Vinyl records and Cds. anyway, the list of movies are:
Footloose Picture Perfect The River Wild Blind Date Cape Fear Bridget Jones : The Edge of Reason Blind Date White Chicks X2: X-Men United
if no one has realised, the first three films have the same lead: Kevin Bacon. i totally and absolutely adoree him :D he makes every movie watchable, just like Tom Hanks. Even if the movie sucks completely, cast anyone of them precious jems as the lead and the film will be salvaged. Back on Kevin Bacon, he can really act in -any- role and excel. Be it the wicked, sexually deprived prison warden (Sleepers), emotionally n physcially abused and extremely mentally unstable prisoner (Murder in the first), loving but clueless to-be dad (She's having a baby), to pole swinging gymnast & rock n roll enthusiast cum dancer(Footloose). He's simply wonderful and i think everyone should catch all his movies if they have a chance. I believe he's one of the most underrated actors of his time. give the man his due credit please! rawr.
i really wanted to watch his latest movie Where the truth lies, but it was rated R21. shitty. and i found out that the Slither shown in cinemas is a censored version. If not it'd probably be R21 as well. It makes me pissed on how protective the censorship board is in singapore. I mean, if you want a matured society who can think for themselves n make good decisions(including during general elections) then you'd better start treating us like one. dont censor anything and everything. Given the ton of money you spend on our education, i'm sure i'll be discerning enough to know what is just for entertainment, what is only acceptable on film and right from wrong.
Bridget Jones, White Chicks and X men 2 were all second and above viewings. that means i've watched them more than once. I think that's my problem. no matter how many times i've watched a movie, i can always watch it again. of course, provided that it isnt horrible and plain trashy. that trait has made me a bona fide couch potato - minus all the fats :p but to me, you can never really catch all the subtleties or little details that all help build the storyline. So multiple viewings can help. the Bridget jones romance was as sweet as ever, i Love Colin Firth. he's the most perfect boyfriend. ifbridget jones was real i'd tell her, i'm waiting for my mark darcy as well, i'm so glad you've found yours. And if having wobbly bits meant i'd find a human rights lawyer boyfriend like Colin Firth i'd happily gorge myself silly. keep fantasizing, edna...poo. White Chicks was, strangely, more funny when i watched it the second time. The more i think about the silly jokes, the funnier they get. lol. and this time, i watched with my dad. haha. He seemed pretty grossed out by the two black-white chicks, but i think he enjoyed it as well. haha.
and oh yes, i think Brad Renfro is gorgeous. esp when he was young. now he's put on a lot of weight i think from all that drugs and booze and wat not. sadly.
posted by edna at
6/12/2006 10:48:00 AM>0 comments
A little tribute to Horror
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Some interesting photos that i found :D feast your eyes on them.
posted by edna at
6/09/2006 04:35:00 PM>0 comments
What's Gotten Into You? ....argggrawrr...
________________________________________________________________ Watched slither yesterday, and now i have one more potential favourite actor on my list! Nathan Fillion. hehe. he didnt particularly strike me as being good looking when he first appeared, but i've come to realise that he's really charming. And good looking too.
Anyone who's looking for a good laugh with a bit of 'horror' and slime should catch slither! it's a horror-comedy. it's not fantabulous (by the simple fact that it's a horror movie and somewhat modelled after old b grade 80's horror flicks), but it's highly highly watchable :D i watched dawn of the dead too, and slither wins hands down :D basically it's about this ancient alien evil which has chosen Earth as it's next target. But unfortunately for it, it's up against Wheelsy's(the town name, not very sure if it's correct though. something to do with wheels..) very own Police Chief, Bill Pardy, played by Nathan Fillion! :D so too bad, you lime-diseased squidy sluggy cocksucker! pardon the foul language :p
Grant Grant: I've been around a million years! You think you can fuck with me? Bill Pardy: Yep.
haha. slither is a greatt movie for those who lurvvve to eat, because there's lots of that in the movie. And maybe, it might even deter those who potentially have weight problems to perhaps, Eat Less.
Jack MacReady: [wakes up after fainting into complete darkness] [fumbles to switch on the torch in hand] [in front of him: a large group of zombies chowing furiously into raw meat] [shocked, he stares. Zombies all momentarily stop cramming food into their bloodied mouths n look up at him]
Nearest woman zombie: grrrr... Do not look at me that way! Do Not Judge Me!....You have NO IDEA HOW IT FEELS TO BE THIS HUNGRY !!! argghrawrrr! Jack MacReady: [gives a very disgusted horrified look n runs for poor life]
it's about time to introduce who Jack MacReady is too. He is the mayor of the small town, and he's f***ing hilarious! hahaha. okay i think the very free-flowing foul language helped a great deal in the humor, but it was the delivery of the lines that did the trick. Both Nathan Fillion n the mayor excelled at this :D
all in all just go catch the movie lar! i think i've spoiled it enough for everyone already. If you liked evolution, dawn of the dead, or even shaun of the dead, you'd love this movie too.
posted by edna at
6/09/2006 03:06:00 PM>0 comments
movies aside..
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movies aside, i've been spending lots of time in choir, preparing for the world choir games this year. i must say no matter in good or bad times, my time there has always been extremely fulfilling. it's like the "food for my soul". cheesy, but true. i feel melancholic whenever i think of what would happen after the competition, when it ends. the emptiness will be indescribable. choir prac is probably the only place where i can sing as loud as i can and not be condemned as a loony. sigh. anyway, my love for kueh ling gao has grown tremendously. hahaha. he's so so adorable. so full of ingenious ideas. when he teaches and conducts, it's pure brilliance. he has my utmost respect. i think our choir is so lucky to have him, if not we'll just be a shitty congregation of people who want to sing. i feel harsh and bitter when i think about the people who are not trying hard enough during practice. note that i do not say 'not trying', but not trying hard enough. as long as you're not up to standard yet, you are not trying hard enough. sometimes i wish i could go into their heads and manipulate them. make them give 101% concentration whenever they sing, esp for nelson. to be very focused is the very least one can do, no?
i guess i could go on and on about choir and all the songs but i won't. some things are just better kept to myself. i'm just gonna put in all my effort and time into singing my best and pray hard that we get at least a gold. at least a gold. please.
posted by edna at
6/07/2006 09:17:00 AM>0 comments
X-Men III : The Last Stand
________________________________________________________________ okay wow! finally watched the other most anticipated blockbuster hit of the season. I must say i was not expecting much because of the very many negative comments i've heard before watching. With expectations lowered very much, i still tried to keep an objective view watching the movie. And guess what? i hated it. ..Nah just kidding. i Loved it! i dont care what the critics say. I cant get enough of X-Men movies i cant believe it's called the LAST stand i'm really hoping they're just playing with the audience and give us X-Men IIII in the not so distant future i cant believe jean sucked the life out of scott i cant believe mystique one of the coolest mutants lost her powers i cant believe they just refuse to give storm her long lustrous gray silver white hair i cant believe they allowed professor x to explode (literally) or evaporate or be blown away particle by particle molecule by molecule whatever in front of my eyes can you believe it professor x [!!!!!] i know i cant. okay so much for ranting. sigh. come to think of it, it's more of a love-hate relationship with this movie now. It has left me thirsty for more. okay not just thirsty, i'm practically dehydrated and dying from it.
Honestly i'm not so hot about the directing, scripting and how the whole movie was put together because some scenes are too brief and therefore lacking in details. But i'm going ga-ga over it because i got to see so many mutants!!! lets all jump for joy!! let snap our fingers!! lets wriggle our toes!! lets ....!! well but anyway, ALOT happened in this movie, perhaps more than it could take within 1 hour 45 mins. i'm not gonna list out everything that did but for some ideas look above. and neither am i gonna say magneto lost his powers because that little scene of him playing chess with himself just showed that the cure was not permanent. and as such, i can stop worrying for the likes of mystique and magneto and rogue already. i can just imagine, if there was to be another movie (THERE BETTER BE OR I'LL TURN NASTY), rogue and bobby (aka iceman) holding hands and walking on the streets when suddenly bobby starts convulsing and rogue looks on in horror. she's got her powers back!!....
x-men cartoons accompanied me through my childhood, and for me, the most beautiful part of it was the powers the mutants possessed. This movie satisfied me thoroughly with the bounteous display of powers from many different mutants. Damn i wish i was a mutant!!! one friend told me, they could have went deeper with the mutants' characters etc. But think about it, at the end, most of the bad ones vaporised!! so no point going into their characters and backgrounds there. of course, there are those that survived lar(like the very cool -african american- girl who moves like Flash, dunno her name though), but then i think the director didnt go into such depth because it's gonna be in the next movie. Right? :D
Anyway for those who dont know already scott (aka cyclops) and jean and prof X died. Jean and prof X, being mutants of a high grade (or is it due to their psychic abilities) should be able to resurrect themselves so after the initial grief and total despair i'm alright now. cyclops is probably gone forever though...sob. and i dont know if everyone got to catch it, but there is one very brief scene at the end of the credits. sort of like a bonus and 'twist' to the movie. for those who didnt manage to catch it, the scene's basically about one doctor (the elizabeth hurley lookalike in the tape shown by prof X to his students about ethics) checking on her patient, only to hear him say something(her name i think) in a very familiar voice and she goes, in shock, 'charles?......' yup! so, hint hint there. Charles Xavier, the infamous professor X himself is not dead!! apparently he took over the man's body or someth..the patient is terminally ill i think. SEE. i told you he couldnt die. it's just not right. :D *heaves a great sigh of relief. anyway does anyone here think patrick steward, the guy playing prof x, is the perfect person to play him!!? i swear the creator must have had patrick stewart in mind when he drew prof x. they look 101% alike! no one else can play prof x. no one!!!!
hmm...now what else did i want to say..oh yes!! i didnt know mutants had grades! hahaha. (hopefully no one will ever grade humans coz i think i'd be a pretty low grade lol.) the whole grading thing made me think of wat all of their grades would be. like storm, prof x[!!!], wolverine, rogue etc... what a typical human being i am right, always waiting to judge people(or mutants in this case) and i'd probably end up liking those with the higher grade...haha. but i wouldnt! i'd just like those with the cooler powers (omg i sound like a teenage boy with hormone imbalances who's a X-Men fanatic). hahaha. but usually those with the cooler powers are of a higher grade...so..heh. anyway!! i decided to grade some of the mutants, just for fun :D
Jean Grey: grade 5 (this one was graded in the movie itself already)
Professor X: 4 ( if there was a half i'll give it to him :D but honestly speaking, prof x is so well controlled and disciplined that the extent of his powers is not really obvious. esp since it deals with the mind)
Cyclops: 3 half ( okay this is really ironic. i just read from a *website that ranked the 25 top X-Men, and prof x was second. guess who's first? yes, cyclops. ?!!?!?and he died?!!?!?)
Storm: 4 (without the half!)
Wolverine: 3
Rogue: 3 half ( this one's tough. her talent's actually really powerful but only at close range..)
Cool african american Flash girl: 4
Magneto: 4 half (i love Ian Mckellen. He made me feel sorry for magneto at the climax)
Mystique: 4 (this is after adding her intelligence to the equation. lol)
Juggernaut: 1 half ( the half is for his amazing strength of not being able to be stopped by anything after he gains momentum blah blah blah. the one is for his astonishing stupidity)
Beast: 2 (i dont really know what his talent is actually other than his superhuman strength and agility.. and can you believe he was played by Kelsey Grammer? the guy of Frasier. lol!)
Angel boy: 1 ( was quite highly rated in the *website as well but was very underdeveloped in the movie. his only talent, as i see it, is flying with wings. big deal?)
Kitty : 2 (walking through walls...okay. but i hear she's very prominent later on in the series)
disclaimer: grading was done in a few minutes. zero credibility! i only based their talents on what i saw in the movies. not a hardcore marvel comics fan.
Excerpts from very first movie:
Logan (talking about leather uniforms): "You actually go out in these things?" Scott: "What would you prefer; yellow spandex?"
Ps: jean grey looks like the girl from exorcist when she's in her dark phoenix form. scary! and where's gambit!!!! and okay my 7 day break starts today instead! lol.
(watched a quarter of that movie yest night but fell asleep due to exhaustion. looked interesting though.)
Ps: will not be posting for the next 7 days due to intensive training for the world choir games! yippee. till then, people :)
posted by edna at
5/30/2006 10:18:00 AM>0 comments
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posted by edna at
5/29/2006 09:29:00 AM>0 comments
In London lies a knight a pope interred
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"How happy is the blameless Vestal's lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd."
--"Eloisa to Abelard" by Alexander Pope
for all those wondering what exactly does this poem mean, i looked up its meaning and this is what i found..
Eloise is a Vestal. In ancient Greece, vestals were responsible for keeping the sacred fire in the temple always lit. They were young virgin women. They were honored as half-goddesses but if they happened to let the fire die, they were sentenced to death. They lived retreated in the temple, cast away from the world. This is, I believe[the author, not me], what "The world forgetting, by the world forgot" means: a blameless vestal lives happily secluded in the temple, away from the petty realities of this world. She forgets what it is like, and no one comes to remind her. Her soul is therefore so pure and innocent that she is blessed from the gods ("each prayer accepted") and forsakes any human desire ("each wish resigned").Vestals could know no earthly love, much to Eloise's dismay, for she has fallen in love with Abelard, who was sentenced to exile (from what I understood) as a consequence. This peom is Eloise's plea to the Gods and to Abelard. On one hand, she wish she could forget about him and be devoted to God, yet on the other hand she admits that she is not sorry for what happened, and is in dispair, much more so because of her lost love than because of her guiltiness. She envies both the happily coupled woman and the "blameless vestal", but she is in between, not living her passion nor accomplishing her duty, and she is torn in two.
[extract below was taken from http://people.stu.ca/~gvqlh/engl3336/miracle.htm] The poem itself is a very historical one; Eloisa and Abelard are historical characters from the 12th century and their story was well known. Pope took the story[look above] that he knew and wrote a poem with his take on it; he seems largely concerned with the issue of love between people coming into conflict with the love of a person for God. The issues Pope highlights are indicative of perhaps the religious transformations that took place in the 18th century as well as possibly some emotional issues that Pope himself (and a lot of other people) may have had.
quiz: which movie did this poem appear in? *hint: look at the poem
posted by edna at
5/25/2006 10:32:00 AM>0 comments
Edward Scissorhands
________________________________________________________________ I've watched this movie about a million times already, but when it airs on tv i'd never fail to try and catch it. One of the best movies i've ever seen!
Directed by the famous Tim Burton ( He's my favourite director, i LOVE all his work- Beetle Juice, Ed Wood [i must watch those one day!], Nightmare before christmas, Corpse bride, Big Fish, Charlie and the chocolate factory..), he casted his two main leads very perfectly. Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder. Their on-screen chemistry is undeniable(and off-screen too. They were attached for a while in real life but broke up eventually :( they were the perfect couple :( ). Their chemistry is not the sizzling hot kind, more of the sweet, subtle, understated kind. At the end you'd be dying for them to end up together, just by the way they look at each other. though sadly they didnt..
Edward scissorhands was some kind of product of a mad scientist of sorts, and the scientist died before he could finish edward. So edward only had scissors for his hands. He remained in seclusion in the scientist's house, until one day a woman found him and took him back home. At first he wins over the community with his fabulously weird hairdos and grass cutting skills. He was very popular. [one woman ( the slut in the movie) even tried to *ahem* edward, but he very politely and innocently refused, leaving her fuming and eventually maligning him] Edward discovers he has an aptitude for undoing locks and he is exploited for it. the girl he loves (winona ryder) mixes with bad company(namely her 'boyfriend' n his friends), and asks him to help break into house by opening the locks. Soon the community turns against edward because they are fearful of what more edward is capable of. It's a sad ending...well sort of. But edward gets his treasured solitude back and lives in obscurity for the rest of his life..
I love edward scissorhands. he's so innocent. edward cant tell right from wrong, because he's not really human, but he does know one thing - love. one scene in the movie went something like this: The family was having dinner with edward. the father asks: look edward, let's say one day u were walking on the street and u found a bag with five million dollars in it. What would you do? one, keep it for yourself. two, take it and give it to the nearest policeman you see. three, take it and give it to your loved ones. edward[innocently]: ...give it to my loved one? There was another instance when edward had just helped winona's character(kim) to break in:-
Edward: I knew it was Jim's house. Kim: Then... why did you do it?
Edward: Because you asked me to.
sigh :). okay, not that breaking into someone's house is a good thing, but....ain't that sweet? sweet things aside, there was one ugly fact portrayed in the movie. people fear what they dont understand, and more often than not, choose to shut it out of their lives. hence leaving it forever a mystery. It's the same applied to edward and the community he lived with. The minute something went wrong, they chose to blame it entirely on edward, simply because he was the obvious outcast. They even went to the extent of hunting edward down to eliminate his threatening presence forever. As to whether they succeeded, watch the movie to find out! haha. should be pretty easily available, even though it was 16 years ago(can u believe that!) Anyway, that part was disturbing for me. It made me wonder, if i was living in that community at that time, would i have also reacted the way they did? I probably would have..and maligned an innocent man. So to avoid that from happening in reality i am learning and trying to be more discerning . Sometimes, you just have to trust ur intuition because not everything you hear and see is a reflection of the truth. Just as said in my previous post, men have an extraordinary ability to distort facts. okay i feel my cynical bitchiness coming up again. apologies.
If i'm not wrong, this movie shot johnny depp to fame. And deserve it he did. Kudos to tim burton for having such foresight and the knack for spotting talent! truly. Especially when johnny was just a small-time actor then who acted in the -nightmare on elm's street- series before. Anyone who has seen this movie will never doubt johnny's acting ability. He is soo talented. I cant think of anyone else who could pull off edward scissorhands like that, except for maybe......................................................................nahh, there is -nobody else- :p It's because of this movie that i got to be a johnny depp fan. Each of his movies serves something different, and showcases yet another side to johnny's versatility. He carefully chooses what kind of movie he does, and rarely makes a wrong choice. He has my utmost respect as an actor, man.
In all, i'm sure you can see that this movie is one of my favourites of all time(right column) so the naturally i would say, go catch it!!! it's never too late (16 years and counting...). This movie will strike a chord in you no matter how old you are. Watch it, and you wont regret it i promise.
Original sketch of edward scissorhands by the genius tim burton himself:
adios muchachos!
posted by edna at
5/24/2006 11:22:00 AM>2 comments
The Da Vinci Code
________________________________________________________________ As this is one of the most anticipated movies this year, i just had to catch it. i even hurried through the book so i would know what's going on. Never did i read a seemingly thick book so quickly. But of course, i must also attribute that to Dan Brown's writing. quite quite exciting. Those who only watched the movie should read the book too! The book's better. Although i must say it'll have a different effect as opposed to those who read the book first then watched the movie.
Actually, contrary to all the critics who dissed the movie, i found it quite okay. if i was a critic i'd rate it 3 stars. Pretty neutral. The plot followed quite closely to the book, except for a few minor changes here and there. The acting was good (naturally, with actors like Ian Mckellen..), though i didnt really enjoy Audrey Tautou's performance. Maybe it's coz i didnt like sophie neveu's character from the start, even in the book. she was too dramatic for me( but yes..i admit she saved tom hank's ass). lol. Honestly the movie didnt leave me with much thought, that's why i'm glossing through everything. Reading the book actually took the fun out of watching the movie, coz i knew everything that was gonna happen before it did. poo.
Instead, i started thinking about the direction of the movie, as in, how it was directed. The director in this case is Ron Howard, and i think he's one of the more famous directors in Hollywood, though i dont know much abt him (except for the fact that he keeps cameo-ing on The Simpsons) The direction, i feel, was pretty classic. It was not brilliant, but kept simple and...lets just say, used a lot of old tricks. I suppose that was good in allowing the audience to follow the movie, but it turned boring for me after a while. If the movie was shorter, it would have been a bigger success. Because everything was fine for the movie. The actors, the script, the director, the plot... The few things i can complain about are:
-the duration -the chemistry between the two leads ( a little romance never kills!-but i'm Very positive they took that part out because tom hanks is significantly older than audrey tautou.) -there was too much hype so everyone's expectations rose too high. -Tom Hanks' bad hair ( i love him all the same though) - Hans Zimmer was the wrong guy to be in charge of the music..the background music didnt really suit some parts. haha. i know of a certain someone who disagrees :p
One special mention i'd like to make : Paul Bettany. He has pleasantly surprised me. From playing an average everyday funny guy (wimbledon), to baddie (Firewall), to tormented yet innocent soul (DaVinci Code), he's actually shown himself to be very versatile and worthy of praise. He will certainly have a good acting career in the future i think :)
To end off i would just like to remind all that Da Vinci Code is fictional and should not be taken seriously, no matter how realistic the author wrote it to be. Hell, he teaches creative writing! And i believe, even if the Da Vinci Code or any other conspiracy theories are true i would still have trust in God because my faith lies with him, and not the people who carry out his 'orders'. Man is imperfect. we have the ability to twist and turn things into the most distorted way possible and still be self-righteous about it.
Here's a newspaper clipping of the Vatican's response: click here!
posted by edna at
5/23/2006 11:02:00 AM>2 comments
The Return of the King
________________________________________________________________ i recently borrowed the LOTR : The Return of the King (the special extended version) from a good friend, and i'm so glad i did!! I'm quite a fan of LOTR, so initially i was hesitant to watch the whole 3 hour movie again (i've already watched it many times before) as i can remember almost everything that happens. Plus, the extended version was actually 4 hours plus, so yea =I But then i thought to myself, hey if it's 4 hours now that means 1 hour of unseen footage etc! that sounded so exciting, so i borrowed the vcd. =D
Those who have not watched the extended version should watch it! because most of the footage cut was actually my favourite scenes. haha. I think peter jackson wouldn have cut them out if he thought the audience could stand to sit in the cinema for 4 hours plus (stupid mainstream audience. wat's one more hour of sitting down as compared to experiencing the magic of LOTR? rawwwr. i certainly wouldnt have minded :( if you get restless you can always stand up and go to the toilet or someth.)
I thought the extended footage actually made the film more complete. Some incomplete parts:
If anyone remembers, the movie showed the most powerful member of the nazgul(or dark riders) say in his raspy voice: I'll break him. 'Him' referred to Gandalf. Later in the movie, there wasnt any scene showing him and gandalf fighting or anything, but only eowyn killing that dark rider. I thought that was pretty weird. And there's another part, where gandalf and co reached isenguard, which had been taken over by Treebeard. Saruman was locked in his tower(according to Treebeard), and there wasn't any scene with saruman at all. Peter jackson cut that out too (and apparently because of that christopher lee(who played saruman) didnt go for the premiere of that show). And lastly, in the end of the movie, everyone could see that eowyn ended up with faramir. First thing that came to everyone's mind was: how?
So yup, the extended version addressed all of that. There was a scene where the nazgul confronted gandalf in the midst of the war in Minas Tirith, and his staff was even shattered to pieces by the rider. poor gandalf!!! he was defeated by the nazgul (though i have no idea WHY since gandalf is a WHITE wizard - the highest order a wizard can attain) but before gandalf could be killed, the rohan horn sounded - which meant, reinforcements are here!! so the nazgul was forced to take a step back and go back to fighting the war ( though i'm sure killing gandalf wouldnt take more than a minute since the rider was more powerful....) oh whatever, i'm just glad gandalf wasn't killed nor injured. The extended version also showed saruman in his tower being interrogated by gandalf about sauron's next step to overtake middle earth. :D i love the wizards. But anyway saruman was eventually killed by wormtongue, who was also stranded on the tower with him. They also showed how eowyn and faramir met, and the song eowyn sang is also featured(this song was omitted from the official soundtrack). It's haunting and sad, as with most of the soundtrack..
[children chanting] ..One, two, Freddy's coming for you!
Three, four, better lock your door!
Five, six, grab your crucifix!
Seven, eight, better stay awake!
Nine, ten, never sleep again..
;)
posted by edna at
5/18/2006 01:34:00 PM>0 comments
Awfully bad movies
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It has always boggled me as to why people would want to make B-grade (and worse) movies. I mean, why waste the effort and time when u know it's not gonna be a big box office draw? with mostly obscure actors and lousy scripts, you cant blame me for wondering why. Maybe it's because they all hope for some sort of miracle and *tada! the movie is a huge sleeper hit. like Jaws. but remember, behind Jaws there was a brilliant director at work. who is, none other than, Steven Spielberg of course. so if you're not him, dont even try! waste of money. and money's veryyy important ( at least to me right now :p) so do try to understand my rage. oh yes, and B grade movies usually (note that i dont say all) SucK. like big time. stinkers. you watch them and u feel stupified.
What inspired this post actually? perhaps it's the awfully bad movies that keep showing on cinemax. well, okay, it's granted that cinemax is not as 'good' a movie channel as HBO or star movies, but cinemax shows some good movies from time to time too! i love all the old movies that they screen, which will never be found on HBO or star movies (because they only show recent movies :( ) However cinemax also screens lots of B grade movies, and in my opinion, those are movies which have been discarded and abandoned by their companies because they were such flops. And cinemax screens them because they were cheap to purchase? hmm. well anyway what exactly are these bad movies? They are those with usually large, or genetically mutated animals/insects. Has anyone realised yet that there is a plethora of such lousy movies?? you just have to watch one, and you can pretty much guess the endings for all the rest. They are soooo predictable and the 'creatures' are usually poorly computer generated, which makes it worse. a common question in my head is why do the scientists in the movie even create such monsters? why not do something more productive than say, making locusts reproduce faster and eat twice as much as they should? I'd rather them make factories release half the amount of pollutive gases they do now and patch up the hole in the ozone or something. An utter insult to our intelligence. Examples of such movies:
Anaconda (1997) Bats (1999) Deep blue sea (1999) Eight legged freaks (2002) Locusts (2005)
get the idea?
posted by edna at
5/18/2006 01:04:00 PM>0 comments
Pleasantville
________________________________________________________________ Watched Pleasantville on cinemax(channel59) yesterday. it stars Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, Joan Allen and William H. Macy. It's briefly like this: Tobey and Reese are siblings, and they get sucked into a tv show called pleasantville, where everything's well, pleasant. it's a 1950's show, so it's in black and white. When the pair reach there, they also inevitably appear only in black n white. After the intial adjusting to their new surroundings, something happens, and colour starts to appear in the town. It starts spreading, and objects and people all start getting colourful. The original townsfolk are very adverse to this change in colour, and write out a set of rules that bans all colours except white black and shades of gray. In the end, predictably, tobey fights for the 'rights' of the 'coloured' people. He wins-because everyone else changed colour(so the people have no choice but to accept colour), thanks to tobey's touching speech. Apparently you will change into colour if you express real emotion, and not just be 'pleasant' about everything. It could be feelings of anger, love, sadness or joy...
Personally i found the movie a tad too bland for my taste. I loved the black and white, plus the little colour here-and-there effect. Colours can do magic. But this time, it was not enough. the lead, was not that good (i say again, this is only my opinion). Tobey Maguire was just a little too..plain. No wonder the role Spiderman fitted him so perfectly, since peter parker was supposed to be a most unlikely hero-an average(until he got bitten by a spider, that is) young adult with problems. Honestly if i were to walk down the street and saw Tobey Maguire, i wouldnt give him a second glance. oh well : p But on the other hand, Reese witherspoon was funny. Her words were cutting, to the point, and witty. it's a pity that she had so little airtime in the movie. All in all, the movie was a letdown. It had looked so promising when i saw the trailer. poo boo.
posted by edna at
5/17/2006 03:50:00 PM>0 comments
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
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Anyone with HBO should know this movie. Coz it Rocked my socks off. It's the....legend of ron burgundy!! Starring will ferrell and christina applegate. Basically it's about a news channel and it's main primetime news team. Absolutely hilarious i tell you. I'm not a will ferrell fan and neither did i know christina applegate was starring but it was airing on HBO so i decided to give it a shot. Boy was i pleasantly surprised. Will is undeniably likeable here and so is the very classy christina applegate. The humor is heavily peppered throughout the movie, and although it is usually silly and said in a matter of fact way, it is very funny. Let's give a few examples of that:
1)Brick Tamland: Excuse me, Veronica?
Veronica Corningstone: Yes? What is it, Brick?
Brick Tamland: I would like to extend to you an invitation to the pants party.
Veronica Corningstone: Excuse me?
Brick Tamland: [struggling] The... party. With the... with the pants. Party with pants?
Veronica Corningstone: Brick, are you saying that there's a party in your pants and that I'm invited?
Brick Tamland: That's it.
(sidenote: Brick tamland is supposed to be a retard in this movie)
2)Bill Lawson: [narrating] Brick Tamland is married with 11 children and is one of the top political advisors to the Bush White House.
3)Ron Burgundy: You stay classy, San Diego. I'm Ron.. Burgundy?
Ed Harken: Dammit! Who typed a question mark on the Teleprompter?
(Ron apparently reads EVERYTHING reflected on the teleprompter ;) )
yup, so that's an example of the kind of humor you'll get. Not only do they say silly things, but there were two absolutely uproarious scenes in the movie. One was the 'showdown' between all the news teams from the various channels, where you had cameos from luke wilson, ben stiller and tim robbins (among others, i'm sure). damnn funny. especially when there was a brief scene on luke wilson's arm getting cut off. Later in the movie, his Other arm was cut off too. lol. okay shan't elaborate too much on that. The second scene was when ron's news team were in their newsroom talking.... when suddenly. ron breaks out into song - afternoon delight, an oldie (nice song) and what ensues is the rest of the team sings along, acapella style! A huge pleasant surprise it was because it was quite quite good acapella, and very funny because it was all so anti-climax. And at the end of the singing, they stopped, paused, then went back to talking normally as if nothing had happened. I Had to laugh out loud. i just had too.
Some of the actors should be pretty recognisable, like Brian Tamland, the retard, was the guy who starred in 'the 40 year old virgin'. there's also vince vaughn!!! (SIGH :D) oh i just Loveeee that guy. He's mosttt hilarious and i just adored him in the Wedding Crashers. Anyone caught that one? i'll probably do one post on that in the near future. hahahahaha. okay the laughing was random. Just writing abt the ron burgundy movie makes me wanna laugh at everything, and anything. : ) it's good to end on a happy note. In short, the movie is slapstick at times(or most of the time :p), but hugely entertaining. a mustttt watch for everyone. and lastly.....
You stay classy, san diego. :)
posted by edna at
5/15/2006 12:06:00 AM>2 comments
Daisy
________________________________________________________________ Okay first movie review of the blog!
watched Daisy a few days ago. you know, that korean show. It stars Jeon Ji Hyun, who starred in 'my sassy girl'- a movie i'm sure many would be familiar with ( though i didnt watch it :p) Honestly speaking, korean sappy love movies have never been my thing. if not for my company that day, i would never have agreed to watch it. But anyway, watch it i did, and it was................well, OKay. The storyline was kinda weird. Nothing in the movie really sank in for me, so no emotional impact there. And if a supposed love story cant do that, i would say it's a failure. There were parts which i found amusing actually. (There may be spoilers from here onwards!) Like when in the beginning, the movie was supposed to portray the assassin guy's (aka secret admirer) strong affections for the leading lady in a sweet romantic way ( i assume). But what turned out was tending more to the psychotic side if you asked me. I couldnt help but sniff a giggle somewhere there. The drama was average, it wasnt very suspenseful. Some parts shocked me (sudden loud gun shots), but that's about it. I didnt feel much love between the girl and the assassin, although he was originally supposed to be who she loved. The whole love story is funny actually. Okay, a small summary first. There is -pretty artist girl-(Par). There is assassin guy (Ag), and Policeman (P). Par went painting in the fields one day and caught the eye of Ag. He fell in love with her (somehow) because she made him feel happy and innocence-that-he-has-lost again. So after that day, Par starts receiving flowers from her mysterious admirer at her doorstep every 415. then one day, P shows up at her artist booth, requests for a picture to be drawn. He has daisies in his hand, the same type she gets every other day at her doorstep so she kinda assumes he's the one. Falls in love with him. To cut the story short, she found out at the very end who was actually sending her the flowers and said something along the lines of, ohh the one i love has been you all along. So i thought very calmly to myself, then wat about mr policeman!?!? all this while she has pined for him and turns out he's not the one she loves. she loves flower man. Whoever could fall in love with someone you've never met? just flowers (okayyyy, and a bridge) is enough pull at ur heart strings? i think not. but in korean-movie world, oh yesss it can. that's why i say korean movies are so not for me. Cynical skeptical mean biatchy me. Oh yes, and is it just me or do the two male leads look alike?? Lol.
Overall, the movie is quite watchable lar. haha. kinda crappy, but watchable! i theezk it's the eye candy. I would not suggest watching this movie unless you have money to spare. But if you're a korean manic or a sucker for love stories ( all kind, good or bad), then go ahead, by all means! An alternative is subscribing to the chinese star movies channel and wait for 'Daisy' to air there. haha.
As for the soundtrack, nothing particularly striked me. The song that kept playing throughout the movie is a classical piece by Beethoven. One of his classics i think. It's a very nice moderately heavy piece, but it didnt connect with the movie as much as it should have. Listening to the Big Fish soundtrack now, composed mainly by Danny Elfman. I think this guy is a real genius. Every piece of music he composes for any movie works magic. For example, listen to the desperate housewives theme. Also composed by the genius, it conveys the sense of mystery and intrigue that we feel watching the show. okay im sidetracking! but that's all for now anyways.
adios gente!
posted by edna at
5/10/2006 04:55:00 PM>1 comments
Randoms
________________________________________________________________ I just realised that loud heavy music makes me sleep. Whenever i listen to rock i'll start to yawn, how sad! Perhaps that would also explain why i'm very prone to sleeping on the bus and when tour guides talk. haha the droning of the loud traffic sounds and tour guides' voice is very sleep-inducing. On the contrary, soft light music makes me sit up and listen. like New age and choral, my two favourite genres :D i also very much love soundtracks. No particular type on that one, but i do prefer melancholic songs with good bass support.
posted by edna at
5/10/2006 02:49:00 PM>5 comments
First entry
________________________________________________________________ first entry to my third blog! two others have been absolutely disastrous. My first was a gp blog - as in, a blog dedicated to gp. yes, general paper. thus the failure. the second was just a spur of the moment thing, and i only posted one entry. hope the third attempt will end up much better!!
Favourite actors/actresses of all time
(not in any order):
Kevin Bacon
Tom Hanks
Vince Vaughn
Johnny Depp
Mel Gibson
Jack Nicholson
John Travolta
Colin Firth
Cary Elwes
Winona Ryder
Favourite movies of all time:
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
Ever After
Forrest Gump
Castaway
Edward Scissorhands
Exorcism of Emily Rose
Robin Hood: Men in Tights
The Breakfast Club
The Nightmare before Christmas
The Wedding Singer
Sleepless in Seattle
A blog dedictated to movies :) as long as i work, i will blog! plus i would appreciate it very much if you readers leave a tag so i'd know who has dropped by. merci !
Watched slither yesterday, and now i have one more potential favourite actor on my list! Nathan Fillion. hehe. he didnt particularly strike me as being good looking when he first appeared, but i've come to realise that he's really charming. And good looking too.
