Filed under: Feminism, Flicks | Tags: Gerald Anderson, Kim Chiu, Paano Na Kaya
This movie has a fluffy fairytale-like mood in the real world, about a bratty kid always running away from home because he hates his dad and his stepmom’s guts. He believes that his mom died because his dad had an affair with his now-stepmom. Therefore, he wants to be an adult so that he doesn’t have to be brought home each time he runs away.
This bratty kid is so bratty he borderlines evil. I know I should be more sensitive to these kinds of domestic dilemmas, especially sensitive to kids, but it’s a good thing I don’t have the innate tendency to go awww over kids (I’m choosy). I too came from a dysfunctional family (sometimes really, who doesn’t?) but I don’t wave that around as an excuse for being a major brat. And I realized this back when I was freaking seven years old. Every time I see the evil bratty kid, I want to throw tomatoes at him. I mean, it’s so understandable that Karen Mok (the stepmom) eventually blew up and kicked bratty kid out of the house. There stupid one, you don’t have to run away. You’re kicked out! Ha!
I would have done that from the very start–he’s not my kid anyway. Yez, I are evil. Furthermore, it’s Karen Mok. This bratty kid is attacking my Karen Mok (okay, and Stinglacson’s Karen Mok too). I shall cleanse the world of all brats for her, with a song in my heart while I’m doing it.
So anywho, the brat wanders around the park at night and sees this huge tree. This huge tree is special because it wasn’t in the park in the earlier scenes of the movie. A wise old creepy man, doing what wise old creepy men do best, crept from behind the brat and said in his wise old voice, “Ah, yes. Huge tree. I am so great. You saw me earlier in this movie playing with my little test tube of potion. And now, there’s a huge tree in the park. Because of my potion I dropped onto the little plant. And because I’m great. And weird. See my quirky glasses and fake beard? That indicates my weirdness but the kind that’s supposed to be endearing. But if my beard is fake, then am I really that old? Screw it, I’m still wise. I made the potion, didn’t I? Now I’m just going to wave it in front of your face and… why no! You can’t have any of it! Whatever you do, don’t ever, ever steal my potion.”
The brat (of course) eventually steals the potion, runs away, trips and wounds himself. The magic potion seeps into his wound. He falls asleep at the park and when he wakes up, he’s now Andy Lau. Talk about improvement.
If my imaginary audience already thinks that I do spoilers more than I should, my imaginary audience better skip this one fast. Quick, click that X button.
For those who are risky enough, let us proceed and watch a movie with Andy Lau in it. With so many movies he starred in, is Wait ‘Til You’re Older worth the time? Well,
FULL REVIEW: http://dacouchtomato.blogspot.com/2010/01/wait-til-youre-older.html
Ganito din ang Avatar. Except nasa ibang mundo siya, at siyempre, mas masaya at fancy kapag pinanood sa 3D (kaya lang nahilo ako halfway through the film, sana maperfekto nila ang teknolohiya sa lifetime ko, gusto ko ring maabutan ang holographic films).
Simple ang kwento ng Avatar. Siyempre, maganda ang content ng kwento na makokopya naman sa kasaysayan ng pananakop ng mga banyaga sa mga nanahimik na bayan (i.e. Amerika sa Pilipinas). Siyempre, along the way, kailangan magpasok ng love story. Simple lang. Pati actually ang mga karakter ay stereotype, wala masyadong internal na komplikasyon (naiiwan na lang ang komplikasyon ng karakter para sa bida, ang mahalaga lang namang magbago ng ideolohiya ay ang sa kanya–at ang audience) para madulas ang kwento. Epektibo ang paggamit sa mga stereotype na karakter (hello, Mr. GI Joe, I’m looking at your muscles and the way you speak) kaya patunay lamang na hindi kailangan ng mga artsy fartsy shit kung hindi kailangan nito. Ang importante, maintindihan na gago ang nangyayari sa kasaysayan. Maaawa at magagalit. May drama.
Ang special-effects? Well, masyado siyang hyped up. Siguro magaling ang teknolohiya pero creativity-wise? Para lang Final Fantasy. Actually sobrang mas maganda ang Final Fantasy. Excited na ako sa Final Fantasy XIII.
FULL REVIEW HERE:
http://dacouchtomato.blogspot.com/2009/11/jennifers-body.html
“I believe that Jennifer’s Body doesn’t really aspire depth. At best, I see it is a montage of every Hollywood teen and horror element from every Hollywood teen and horror flick I’ve ever watched. It was bordering on camp. Before watching it, I thought it was going to be camp. But it wasn’t. It had become much more original that that. By being a montage, it actually managed to produce something different altogether. And it surprised me. Because I hated Juno being overrated and I was expecting this good premise of a flick to disappoint me, and you don’t usually get something different altogether from montage. You get … a montage, not something fresh.
But amidst the Hollywood obsession of Hollywoodizing Asian horror flicks, Jennifer’s Body, fresh in its glorification of all that has been used up, should receive a nice welcome. (I remember feeling this way about the first Pirates of the Carribean. That flick–with the swordfight scene–was a very, very nice welcome amidst all the Hollywood Kung Fu exploitation.)
But I don’t want to be obsessed with the form, like this post did. Not that there’s anything wrong with forms (I like forms). I think this flick can also merit from the angle of this-is-not-a-horror-flick but more on this-is-actually-a-story-about-two-bestfriends, or this-is-much-more-feminist-than-Juno-can-ever-be.
First off, boys were objectified as much as Jennifer’s body. And I’m not only saying that because she’s literally eating them. Each boy stereotype was nailed to its one dimension-ness: the dumb jock, the emo kid (he even whimpers “Do you even know my name?” before sex), the good boy-next-door boyfriend, and even the foreign exchange guy. It was a girl, also, who tried to save these boys.
Second, sure, that lesbian sex scene seemed uncalled for. But that would probably reinforce Adrienne Rich’s theory on lesbian continuum (or was it another feminist? I should learn to namedrop properly). But that sex scene actually epitomizes all the years they were there for each other, now more than ever–with Jennifer turning demon and all. I mean, don’t heterosexual relationships do that? If this were a boy and a girl bestfriend, and they finally give the audience the satisfaction of ending the sexual tension–that of course, proves that they somehow love each other in a romantic level too–would people protest and say, oooh, lesbian exploitation (which of course, is another layer, for in the discussion of form, this lesbian exploitation is actually a satirical poke on porn objectifying lesbian relationships [girls fight then they have sex], the same way the audience were supposed to objectify Jennifer’s body)? Besides, the sexual tension between them had been established from Fox’ first appearance.”
