(The movie poster from the Net)
Who loves conspiracy-action movies? I do!π±
And although you have an idea on how everything will end up, you still wanted to see it because you want to know what's between the opening credits and the expected ending.
So, I dragged my mom to watch this movie because she loves action. I once brought her along to watch Mission Impossible Fallout and she enjoyed the action sequences.
Angel Has Fallen is the third in the 'Fallen' series that started with Olympus Has Fallen, where Koreans have successfully taken over the White House, and London Has Fallen, where terrorists were able to bring chaos to that city, which made me think, their theme song should have been 'London Bridge Has Fallen Down'.
But this time, it's back to Washington D.C., where Gerard Butler is part of the US President Morgan Freeman's Secret Service. Butler's stellar employment record was about to bring him directorship to lead the entire SS team, much like his role in the movie 300 where he led Spartan warriors who looked like GQ models, when an old friend decided to turn him into a scapegoat. As to why and how, you may have to watch the movie.
What I love about these conspiracy-action movies are the creative action scenes and political plots that make you feel you're watching Keifer Sutherland's 24 but with a two-hour time limit.
But other than Gerard Butler (who I sometimes confuse with Clive Owen) and Morgan Freeman, both Hollywood favorites, I was happy to see Jada Pinkett Smith add a strong feminine character to the equation, replacing the void left by Angela Bassett, who sometimes distract me with the way she purposely rounds her mouth when she speaks. They had Bassett killed in London Has Fallen.
Here, Jada was the smart FBI agent who I thought would have ended up catching Butler as she was on his trail. But I was shocked that they, too, didn't want her around. π© Oops!
Angel Has Fallen is like Harrison Ford's The Fugitive because he had to run and hide, Angelina Jolie's SALT because he could free himself while being guarded in a car and in chains, and probably any other movie where they wanted to do away with the US president.
I would have wanted Angel Has Fallen to try harder when it came to hiding from the audience who was the brains behind the conspiracy. The minute he came into the picture, I immediately knew who it was; I didn't tell my mom, of course. She was so focused on the gunfire and flying dead bodies. π
The final action scenes also disappointed me. A hospital could blow up in flames? Really?! π·And with all the police and Secret Service crawling around the perimeter, they were still able to bring in explosives? Oh well, that's why it's called a movie.
The first hour of the film impressed me, especially the drone attack, while Nick Nolte was also a surprise in the second half, although I'm not sure if he could really type.π
I'd like you to watch Angel Has Fallen only if you like Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman, and conspiracy-action movies.π
I can't recall where I read about this story of humanity: the Philippines was able to bring in Jews from Europe giving them a safe haven and ensuring their survival from Hitler's diabolical purge. Surely, I didn't read this from Philippine history books or heard it from history classes at school. Or maybe my own school teachers didn't even know about this. (Sadly, the Philippine Department of Education lacks the competence to include regional and local history to its lessons at school.) Or maybe I read about it when Schindler's List was shown in local theaters years ago when someone tried to make the local connection.
The movie Quezon's Game is a story of how a Philippine president successfully brought to the Philippines more than a thousand Jews from Germany, saving them from oppression and execution. His name was Manuel L. Quezon, the president during the Philippine Commonwealth from 1935 until 1944 when he died in the US from tuberculosis.
From 1938 until 1941, Quezon, with the help of Paul McNutt, then high commissioner to the Philippines and, would you believe, Dwight D. Eisenhower, then military adviser to the Philippine government and later the 34th American president (as the Philippines was a US colony at that time), and Jewish businessmen living in the Philippines, planned and successfully executed the expatriation of Jews to the Philippines, disguising their departure from Germany as employment for skilled professionals.
While the movie was not like Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List where we saw (and eventually could not unsee) how the Nazi's carried out their purge, President Quezon, like Oskar Schindler, also had a list. As to how a list of 10,000 names just became 1,200, you have to see the movie.
My knowledge of President Quezon is limited to what I learned from school: he led the Commonwealth government, exiled himself to the US during the Japanese Occupation, and died from TB there. And the sad fact that his widow and daughter were later killed by local rebels who rained bullets on their car in 1949.
But after watching this movie, I now place Manuel L. Quezon up there among Philippine leaders whose compassion for their people and humanity is more admirable than their political achievements. Raymond Bagatsing, the actor who played Quezon, and Rachel Alejandro, who played Aurora, his wife, both convinced me that this couple drew strength and shared each other's kindness for the Filipino and other races.
Last year, I discovered that President Manuel L. Quezon played a part in my hometown's history (Read blog here). In the late 1930s, our town mayor, Don Felix Montinola, met President Quezon at Baguio City to seek his help in building our town hall. I even have a photograph of our town mayor with President Quezon taken during that meeting. Now, I wonder whether, during that meeting, Quezon's plan to help save the Jews was already being discussed in whispers.
While my takeaway from Schindler's List was a better understanding of the Holocaust as well as its very memorable theme song (composed by John Williams and played on the violin by Itzhak Perlman), which, to me, is the saddest of all time, I bring home from Quezon's Game, the pride that, once in our history, we welcomed and gave refuge to brothers and sisters, not of our race, when other nations did not and would not.π’
This movie is a must-see for all Filipinos. We should be aware of this part of our history and let's celebrate it as this is who we are as a race and as a nation.π This story should be part of every Philippine school's history lesson.
That day when I watched this film, I went inside the cinema curious. I came out as a proud Filipino.π
PS. Quezon's Game has won several awards from film festivals in Texas, California, and Canada. These posters I used are courtesy of the movie's Facebook page.
It was a clear choice from the movies showing at our local cinemas: Rampage seemed like King Kong in the city; Ready Player One seemed like Tron; and Act of Violence seemed like Taken without Liam Neeson.
A Quiet Place is just exactly like that - a quiet movie, where a family goes through their daily survival without any footwear and loud parents.
Its story is what I found fascinating and unique. It's set in future America where blind and big creatures are hunting down Americans (probably both Republicans and Democrats) by following the noise humans make.
Emily Blunt is the mother of three children, and her husband, played by John Krasinski (also her real-life husband) directs.
As spoken dialogues are rare in the movie, it's a lot of sign language and tiptoeing. Although you'd think it's easier for them as they need not memorize long lines, their task is doubly difficult as they have to convey most of the story through facial expressions and movements.
Blunt, in particular, was amazing. The scenes where she was about to give birth while nursing a skewered, bloody foot and playing hide-and-seek with the creature in her own house, all of these while suppressing her screams of painful childbirth are worthy of another acting nomination.
As the creatures in the movie communicated through sounds, they reminded me of the same mysterious creatures from Matt Damon's Great Wall. The clicking sound made by the creatures from both movies sounded eerily the same.
And as to how the family survived (or did they?), you have to watch it.
I love the film because it's a tasteful suspense-slash-horror; not a lot of mangled bodies and wasted blood everywhere.
I love the film because it was actually fun for the audience to play hide-and-seek along with the characters. And you'd feel you'd also survive as long as you kept your breathing slow and soundless.
I love the film because there were no unnecessary scenes meant to prolong the movie. Although, for one and a half hours, I sympathized with them knowing that any loudness could end their idyllic life in the countryside or their shop-till-you-make-a-sound visit to a ghost town could end in tragedy.
As to the soundtrack, it would have been cute if they threw in Simon & Garfunkel's Sound of Silence, or Mariah Carey's I'll Be There. You don't actually need to call anyone's name. Just call out.
In the meantime, go watch it but avoid the popcorn.:-)
Javier Bardem is one of the best actors out there. If you saw James Bond's Skyfall, he was so good as the bad guy they gave him the honor to kill 'M' (Judi Dench) as a reward.
Here, in Dead Men Tell No Tales, the latest installment of the Pirates of the Carribean franchise, Bardem is Capitan Salazar, a ghostly Spanish-speaking captain who, after educating the audience on how to properly pronounce his name in Spanish: 'sa-la-thΓ‘r' (si, the 'z' has the 'th' sound in EspaΕol), would destroy an enemy pirate ship and kill all, except one, on board. He would spare the life of one pirate so he could to tell whatever happened to the ship, because, he says, "dead men tell no tales".
Other than the Dead Men Tell No Tales title, it's also known as Salazar's Revenge, which immediately reminded me of the best hopia in the Philippines: Salazar hopia! Ha-ha-ha! So, you can just imagine me sitting at the movie house eating my cheesy hotdog with upsized Coke, while thinking I was biting the yummy Salazar hopia every time Capitan Salazar showed up on screen.
Although Geoffrey Rush, an Oscar winner, and Johnny Depp, an Oscar-nominee, are very good actors, in this installment, however, Javier Bardem, with his floating hair, Edward Scissorhands-ish make-up, and deep Spanish accent, carried the movie.
Will Turner's son, Henry, played by Brenton Thwaites, and Kaya Scodelario, a scientist accused as a witch, had the most fun with the action scenes. Do watch out for scenes on Jack Sparrow and Kaya's execution. The stunt choreography was very creative and entertaining.
This is what I like with this franchise. It's always an all-star cast, where there is hardly a weak link among the actors. Each is allowed to shine, but some just naturally outperform others.
Orlando Bloom, after having been trapped under the ocean, resurfaced after ten years to reunite with Keira Knightley at the end of the movie. Thankfully, she wasn't allowed to deliver long lines, or Capitan Salazar would have killed her himself. Ha-ha-ha!
Do catch Dead Men Tell No Tales, and perhaps, you can probably bring along the real Salazar hopia to munch while you watch.
Just don't forget how it's properly pronounced. Ja-ja-ja!
It was a bit strange watching Chris Evans without his Captain America costume, and it was even stranger nobody addressed him as Captain Rogers.
Here, in Gifted, he's a hunk of an uncle to a super-genius niece, whose mother killed herself after proving the Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness, a super-difficult problem, the solving of which was an achievement that could have won her a Nobel prize.
Mckenna Grace, playing the genius and gifted niece, became the subject of a custody battle between Evans and his own mother, who wanted to send her granddaughter to a school for smart kids, while Evans wanted her to grow up a normal child.
Although thirty minutes before the end, I sort of knew already the outcome of the custody battle and the ending because movies like this always made sure that everyone went home happy.
But mid-way, Gifted reminded me of Changeling, which starred Angelina Jolie. In Changeling, Angelina was a single mom who lost her son to a kidnapper. In Gifted, Chris Evans became a single dad to his niece but lost her, although temporarily (oops!).
Maybe this film's primary audience would be single parents, who could learn a thing or two on how to raise a child, and on how to keep off meddling grandparents.
Octavia Spencer, the Oscar best supporting actress for The Help, was the good neighbor who helped babysit Mckenna when Evans was away.
You can skip this film, unless you're a big Chris Evans fan, or into difficult math problems. You could probably help Mckenna Grace help solve one of the Millennium Prize Problems after watching the movie.
Me? I hate math.
I wonder if The Circle's original title was Facebook-slash-Google-slash-Apple reality TV.
Because all I saw during the movie was a gargantuan of a company based in sunny California, run by two guys resembling the likes of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (founders of Apple), and was about to control the virtual and real lives of everyone on Earth.
Emma Watson, as a new employee at The Circle, and even without her magic wand, magically became a star employee and a reality Internet star without having to disrobe like one Kardashian and without having to dress up like one Hilton.
Although we are all familiar with those apps and programs that have made our lives easier, these things have also taken away our privacy, especially with those cameras that follow us everywhere, even when we pee. The film also reminds everyone that we are all under surveillance by what we do online or in reality, which in turn reminded me of the George Orwell's novel, 1984, that talks about Big Brother watching over us all the time.
And even if they threw in Watson's family's sad episode and her near-drowning kayaking, the scene where her friend, Mercer, flew off a bridge was probably the lesson everyone with a smartphone should always keep in mind: technology can kill.
And this made me ask: what is the movie's message anyways?
No more privacy for all of us? We know that already.
More transparency? Hmm. There's Wikileaks for you.
That computers and apps will rule the world? 'Skynet' did that in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
And you'd also be wondering what convinced Tom Hanks and Emma Watson to do this film? Huge talent fees, perhaps?
Did I like this film? To some extent, I did because it's reality.
Should you watch this film? Nah, you can pass. Just go back to your social media.
