Tony Stark acted by Robert Downey Jr. was such a proud superhero character with an attitude who as opposed to many superheroes, revealed himself to the press as Iron Man. There was lots of action in the movie which is pretty much what I expect from a film like this. Effects was amazing and the Iron Man character wasn’t a bit disappointing at all.

I don’t want to spoil your excitement so just go ahead and watch it if you haven’t done so yet. It’s a 5 out of 5 to me.

Official Site: http://ironmanmovie.marvel.com/

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Now that I was able to see the film, all I can say is that I’m not really happy with it. I was not really sure if it was the “Karate Kid” feeling that I didn’t want or the fantasy part of the film. I was never really a fan of both. I also think that the movie is lacking in kung-fu action between Jackie Chan and Jet Li himself. They did have one good fighting scene inside a temple but that was just it. I was also expecting to see them fight a common enemy (The Jade Warlord) together but that didn’t happen.

The actors however did well in their individual acts. Here’s my quick assessment of their acting:

• Jackie Chan (Hop, the thrift store owner/Lu Yan, the Drunken Immortal) - as usual, Jackie did well doing the drunken fist style. Quite reminiscing of his movies back in his early days.
• Jet Li (The Silent Monk/Sun Wukong, the Monkey King) - I was quite surprised to see Jet Li as the Monkey King. I first thought that Jackie would have been a better fit for the character but Jet Li did quite well.
• Collin Chou (The Jade Warlord) - evil and powerful, he was able to portray the character well enough.
• Michael Angarano (Jason Tripitikas, the Traveler) - he was good in martial arts and was a better actor than Ralph Macchio but somehow his young age and the fact that he’s an American still gave me the “Karate Kid” feeling.
• Liu Yi Fei (Golden Sparrow, the Orphan Warrior) - darn she’s gorgeous. She was also able to show that avenging heart that she’s supposed to show.
• Li Bingbing (Ni-Chang, the White-Haired Witch Assassin) - she was supposed to be evil but I somehow didn’t feel that in her character. I think it’d have been better if she was given more actual fight scenes instead of her just using her hair in fighting.

All in all, I may not be a great fan of Chinese fantasy stories but I’d say that the movie’s storyline is interesting - especially the immortals. I would have given it a good rating if more focus was given to the Chan and Li instead of trying to give equal attention to all the main characters.

For lack of action and focus, I give this movie a rating of 3 out of 5. I simply expect more.

Official Site: http://www.forbiddenkingdommovie.com/

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After his exile, Sweeney Todd comes back to London with a vengeance desiring to kill the judge but ended up slitting the throats of anyone he desires using a straight blade which he uses for shaving.  As if that wasn’t gruesome enough, his lover / friend Mrs. Lovett covers for Sweeney’s crimes by butchering the murdered and baking them into meat pies selling them to unsuspecting customers and oh how they loved her meat pies.

Set the story aside and you’ll still love the movie as it is also a musical.  The lyrics and the music are all so wonderful that I heard myself humming inside the movie house.  Only a few phrases were said without music.  It’s not the “Sound of Music” type of music but something sounding eerie, sad, funny and lovely.

What about the characters???

• Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd once again did a great performance.  Didn’t know he could sing and act that well.
• Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin made a great performance but one thing I noticed which I did like was Judge Turpin’s accent and the emphasis of words.  He was so Professor Snape.
• Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett was so psychotic you’ll love her in the movie plus empathize with her feelings for Sweeney
• Timothy Spall as Beadle Bamford looks almost identical to his Harry Potter character Peter Pettigrew.  He was so able to portray that image of being a loyal henchman to Judge Turpin yet cannot be trusted by the rest of the world.

The rest of the cast also did well and just like Corpse Bride, this one is definitely another Tim Burton gory but lovely legacy.  Watch it, read it, you’ll definitely love it.

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I Am Legend is about such a cure and its deadly side effect.  Cancer is gone from the face of the planet and the human race is next in line toward extinction.  A new disease spreads… millions die, a few survive, and there are those who are in between - alive but no longer human.  Lt. Col. Robert Neville, M.D. (Will Smith) is one among many scientists tasked to fine a cure for the new disease and he’s running out of time.  He and his dog are the only ones left in New York - there’s no other human left alive.

Yes, this is another twist to what I call the “Zombie Genre” but I have to say that Francis Lawrence did a great job in transforming Richard Matheson’s 1954 science fiction novel into a 2008 movie.  Watch the movie and read the book.

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The storyline is more or less about a perfect society - in this case, the society inside a beehive.  Everything is just as they should be.  No traffic jams, everything is timed to the last second, everybody loves to work, and the entire hive is happy.  One bee however wishes to go out of the norm and so he did.  The movie was interesting enough to keep me awake but not enough to really impress me.   One thing I noticed though is that movie could be geared towards anti-racism.  Not sure though but the thought came to me when the main character referred angrily to the “white men”.

Perhaps my disappointment arose due to the fact that I enter the movie theater with my “child brain” - you see, the story is not really for kids but for adults but you can take the kids with you nonetheless.   One nice part was Bee Larry King and to that I did laugh.

I’ll give the movie a 3 out of 5 but I still recommend it for watching as it’s not really bad.  And oh, it’ll come out on DVD this March 2008.

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Ben Gates starred by Nicolas Cage gave a rather good performance and his sidekick Justin Bartha as Riley Poole was a perfect fit to the funny atmosphere that caught my attention and hooked me throughout the movie. Then there was Abigail Chase starred by Diane Kruger who added the ‘lovelife’ twist to the movie. This time, Ben’s father and mother are more involved in the treasure hunt as they do their best to save their family’s name.

The story line I believe is better than the first movie probably because it’s not just a mere treasure hunt and more of a family concern.

I give this movie a rating of 5 out of 5. Watch it. Bring the kids - it’s clean for them to watch.

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I won’t give out much of the story as it may spoil the surprise and I’d rather just tell you my thoughts about the film.

The Golden Compass Merchandise

Controversies… an email has been circulating well before the movie was shown warning us that this movie is Atheism for kids. While it does look like it’s quite a bit anti-religion with the Magisterium quite reminiscent of the church, there is no mention of God or religion though similarities can be seen. Read more about the controversies here and here.

The characters did act quite well and the special effects were great though I would love to have seen Daniel Craig (Lord Asriel) and Nicole Kidman (Marisa Coulter) act more. Well of course I can’t blame them for focusing more on Lyra since the story revolves around her and her daemon.

Another thing of interest in the film is the Alethiometer, also known as The Golden Compass. Unlike other compasses, the Alethiometer doesn’t point to true north but seeks Truth itself. The idea of such a device is pretty much captivated me as I am somehow seeking for truth. I’d definitely love to have such a thing.

Lessons taught… the movie kind of teaches the viewers not to just “obey” the authorities but also learn to question them. The main characters in the movie are often those who want to do things their way while the “bad guys” are doing everything in their power to force the people to obey. While obedience is not a bad thing, I think “blind obedience” can be fatal - especially when we teach our children to just “obey without questioning”.

Then there also what they call daemons in the movie. A daemon is - according to the official website - a cross between a bestfriend and a soul. Every person in in the movie has a daemon but the Magisterium doesn’t want that so they do some nasty stuff - things unimaginable in Lyra’s world. I checked their website for info and found out that I can “know my daemon” by answering a series of questions and here she is…

A daemon basically reflects the true personality of its partner and losing one is like losing one’s soul.

So how did the movie go? All in all it was great and deserves to be watched. Take the entire family with you and watch. I’ll give it a 4 out of 5 for a good story, nice acting and amazing effects. Why 4 instead of 5? Well I was actually hoping it to be as brave as how Philip Pullman wrote it.

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Today’s blog - Benj’s Busy Blog by Benj Arriola

Site design: This blog uses Wordpress and it’s template is reminiscent of Wordpress default theme which is based on the famous Kubrick theme.  One thing that I like about Benj’s custom theme is the changing header graphic image.  Try refreshing the page and you get a different header graphic image - all of which are shot by Benj himself.

Blog content: Since this is primarily a personal blog, I expect it to be well, about Benj’s personal experiences.  The content is more or less consistent with his blog’s theme and while it is not updated often (typical of a personal blog), it does contain interesting stuff.

One more thing I like about how he writes is that he makes it a point to include photos in his blog posts as much as possible to get rid of what he calls the “great wall of text” blog posts wherein all you see are paragraphs and more paragraphs.  The photos he includes in his blog posts kinds of breaks the wall.

Ad placement: Ad placements on Benj’s Busy Blog are quite well.  He puts a banner above the posts and a skyscraper on the sidebar - 2 skyscrapers in the homepage and 1 in internal (actual blog post) pages.  When you click a blog post, you will also see another 468×60 ad at the end of the post which I think is good.  However I think it would be better if he placed a medium rectangle adsense ad their instead of the 468×60.  That way, the ads will look more like “other links” and thus possibly increase clickthrough rates.

All in all, the blog looks great and is worth reading and I give it a score of 4 out of 5.

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Schindler’s List is a film about heroism with an unlikely hero at its center - Catholic war profiteer Oskar Schindler starred by Liam Neeson, who risked his life and went bankrupt to save more than 1,000 Jews from certain death in concentration camps back in World War II Germany.  Mr. Schindler or “Head Direktor” as his Jewish employees call him started out with very little money and a great idea in mind.  He wanted to make money but ended up making more than what he first envisioned.  He wasn’t a model person but ended up being declared as a righteous man by the Jews.  He thought of only himself at start but eventually learned to think about others - hundreds of them.

More than the good film and the perfect story, I would say that the best part in Schindler’s List is that it touched my life.  It may made start thinking more than just myself.  It shows a world where “others” exist and gave me a sense of responsibility in every action that I do.

Schindler’s List is the perfect drama I’ve watched so far.  If you don’t have a copy of this film, I would strongly recommend that you get one.

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However today, everything changed. ReviewMe asked me to review (paid) a website called “Credit Demystified” and at first glance I thought - nah, I don’t want to review this - but I took a look at the website anyway. Visiting the website changed my mood. This website is not just trying to sell. It’s actually trying to help more than to sell so I went on and wrote a review for it and here is it.

Site Design: Awesome and professional. The colors match perfectly and the entire look of the site tells me that they’re serious and they know their stuff very well. It’s definitely not a cheap design. Navigation is easy, in fact it’s so easy that I found the information I wanted almost immediately.

Better than the design, let’s talk about Credit Demystified’s content.

Site Content: This is actually what blowed my mind. Their website is just full of very helpful and very relevant content. They have articles on Improving Your Credit, a section called Credit Learning Center, a Credit Quotient Quiz, and even an online Library of very helpful information. While I know that this website is made to make money, all these information quickly tells me that these guys are interested in not just making sales but also in and actually more on building a good relationship with their website’s visitors.

It’s a website that I would recommend to bookmark and refer since it is a place that I would come back to when I need to demystify something about credits. If all the information on their website is still not enough to answer your question, then you can always all them via a 1-800 number prominently and smartly placed on their webite.

Finally, I decided to take a look at their About Us section and what it says there verified my feelings. Let me quote one paragraph from their website:

CreditDemystified is proudly presented by Countrywide Home Loans. The goal of CreditDemystified is to educate and inform anyone interested in credit or credit-related topics.

Emphasis Mine

There you go! It’s there goal to educate and inform and that’s what I got. Also, since it mentioned that the website is a project of Countrywide Home Loans, I decided to check www.countrywide.com too and guess what? Even the website of Countrywide Home Loans gave me the feeling of professionalism and trust but that’s a different story for a different time.

To summarize, all I can say is that this website rocks and I’ve never seen a credit-related website rock more than this - no fuss about that. It’s definitely a 5 over 5 for me.

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