The Dark Knight has finally arrived on the big screens here in the Philippines and I watched it on the first day so I can write this review before the movie goes stale. Here goes…
The movie gives a good intro of the Joker’s bad attitude in the very beginning in a bank robbery scenario. An intro which tells that The Joker is a double-crossing maniac and a psychotic villain who cannot be trusted. Heath Ledger did well in portraying evil Joker allthroughout the movie and is one of the reasons why I didn’t get bored even though the movie is a bit long.
Then of course we have Christian Bale as The Batman who in this movie seems to have played a role second only to The Joker - at least in my opinion. The “dark side” of The Batman is revealed when he finally gets pissed of The Joker while interrogating him. His batmobile was destroyed in the movie only to reveal the batcycle which doubled as an escape module for the batmobile. And oh, I loved the Lamborghini. Batman got a new lighter suit which he requested Lucius Fox to create because the older suit was heavy and made him slow.
Aaron Eckhart played the role of Harvey Dent, Gotham city’s new District Attorney who was also called the “White Knight” by the Gotham’s people. He teamed up with The Batman and Lt. Jim Gordon in sacking the city’s mob which kindled Joker’s passion even more. He eventually turned into “Two-face” after half of his face got burned in a building explosion planned by The Joker.
Gary Oldman (Jim Gordon) once more played a good role as a supporter of The Batman and is a bit more involved in this movie than the previous one. He saved the mayor and even saved Batman himself only to end up with his family being held hostage by Two-face.
All-in-all the movie is packed with a good balance of action and story which I think will be enjoyed by adrenalin junkies and critics alike but I think it would have been better named “The Joker” than “The Dark Knight”. A 5 out of 5 for this movie.
No, this is not a new movie but I feel glad to have watched it again last night on HBO because it’s one of the few drama/sci-fi movies that I really liked. I first watched it on the big screen back in 2000 and haven’t seen it again until last night.
The film stars Dennis Quaid and James Caviezel as father and son, Frank and John Sullivan respectively. The year was 1969 and Frank (the father) was a daring fireman while John (the son) was a six-year old boy. The first few scenes were about Frank’s job and his family then all of a sudden the year was 1999. Frank’s dead and John’s a policeman who rediscovered his father’s old ham radio. With a little help from the freakish aurora borealis, father and son were able to get in touch again through the radio and eventually got reunited.
The movie is filled with action, drama, mystery and science fiction. Both actors played well in their roles as well as the other actors and actresses. And to top it all up, the movie still got my attention 8 full years after I first watched it. It’s the perfect marriage of sci-fi and drama and is definitely a must watch!
Buy the Frequency DVD Today on Amazon. It’s a 6 out of 5. Yes you’ve read that right, 6 out of 5!
It’s been quite a time since I posted the first and only blog review on this site so I reckon that I should write one now. Today, I’ll be making a short review of Macalua.com owned by Marc Macalua.
Before that, who’s Marc? He’s the founder of SEO Philippines and is called by many (myself included) an SEO guru. But will his site macalua.com pass my taste? Let’s see. First, here’s a screenshot of his site taken just moments ago.
The first I noticed is the size of the header. It’s pretty large and definitely will eat up most of the space in today’s UMPCs. The header part contains “Macalua.com | E-commerce Strategy, SEO, PPC, E-Mail Marketing, Affiliate Marketing and Web Analytics” on top then some links and a search bar then a blue section that contains a short blurb and a very large SEO on the right. I think it’d be better if the blue section will be minimized a bit to make more space for the content below.
The site is laid out for screens that are at least 1024 pixels wide and I think that’s fine since most of the monitors today have at least a resolution of 1024×768 pixels. The site has two sidebars placed side-by-side which I think is the reason for the choice of layout width. The placement of the sidebars effectively accentuates the content on the left. The only problem I see with the sidebar is the contrast between the gray background and the gray text.
As for the content, I noticed that almost all of the posts on the homepage have comments which I think is a result of regular traffic. After all, Marc is a popular guy and getting traffic from fellow bloggers will be expected. I also noticed that there are no ads on the site which added to the simplicity of the design makes it look very professional. The site as a whole caters to a wide variety of topics which is what I’d expect in a “personal” blog such as this one. You can find anything from SEO to Photography on his site.
All in all, I think a little bit of tweaking on the design will make it more user-friendly but aside from that, it’s a good one. I’ll give it a 4 out of 5.
Here’s another “nobody” turned into “somebody” kind of film. The story begins with an account manager named Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) who has a very annoying boss, a friend who has an affair with his girlfriend, and suffering from panic attack. Wesley eventually meets Fox (Angelina Jolie) at a pharmacy who then tells him that his father died on a rooftop the night before. An assassin then appears and a gunfight ensues between Fox and the assassin. (Complete plot at Wikipedia).
James McAvoy did a pretty good job with his role which kind of reminds me of Tobey Maguire in Spiderman. The unassuming boy who turns into a “superbeing” with really special gifts. On the other hand, I don’t think Angelina was at her best in this movie. She did a lot better in “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” but that may be due to the character that she needs to portray.
The movie has a very fast-paced storyline and high-speed action with pretty cool special effects somewhat reminiscent of Matrix Trilogy. Gun fights with bullets hitting each other in the air and “curving” bullets are quite new to this film though. If you love action, then you have to watch this movie. If you’re looking for “story” then I have to say that there’s not that much to see.
I’m giving this a 3.5 out of 5.
The movie in one three words - Unique and Funny. The movie Hancock stars Will Smith as drunk superhero with a bad attitude who does more damage to the city than help whenever he does his superhero duties. He does so much damage that people actually hate him whenever he fights crime.
One day though, Hancock saves Ray Embrey from being hit by a train but in doing so derails the train so badly that people who saw the “rescue” got furiously mad at him once more. Ray on the other hand pacifies the crowd and thanks Hancock publicly. Ray then makes it his mission to improve the public image of the not-so-popular superhero.
As the story goes, John Hancock meets Ray’s wife Mary (Charlize Theron) who also had special powers that Ray didn’t know of. Hancock asks Mary for an explanation which ended up in a fight between the two. Mary then tells both Ray and Hancock of her superpowers and that she technically is Hancock’s wife.
I won’t tell you the rest of the story but if you really want to read more of the plot and just go over to Wikipedia and read it there.
So what do I think of the movie? Well, it’s unique and hilarious considering that we are all used to superheroes being loved by the public. Hancock on the other hand portrays a drunk, sad and lonely superhero who’s got some serious problem and has no idea of who he really is. It’s actually more of a comedy-drama than an action movie.
Would I tell you to go and watch it? Yes, I would. It’s another must watch movie for the family.
Before I start with my “real” review of this film, allow me to summarize what I’m going to say in just one sentence - The 2008 film “The Incredible Hulk” is way much better than the 2003 film Hulk.
The movie is actually a reboot of the 2003 film and I’m glad that such an act was taken to justify the Green Marvel character. The movie has better effects and better actors and actresses. To avoid confusion as to the real origins of the Hulk character, the film starts with a flashback which effectively re-establishes the history of how Bruce Banner became Hulk and while the flashback is a bit fast (I hear a pair of moviegoers asking each other what was going on), I think it’d suffice for most.
The main reason though on why I think this is much better than the 2003 film is that it is more consistent with the stories popularized in the Marvel comics years back. To help with this consistency, a brief appearance of Tony Stark (Iron Man) in the ending as well as the mention of “Stark Industries” in the flashbacks was made. Even better than that, the Hulk’s enemy in this movie is the “Abomination” - another Marvel character.
This movie is a must watch especially if you’re a superhero (or in this case monster-hero) lover.
