This is a very serious movie. The audience forgets that story is based on classic comic book characters, DC Comics at that. I felt the same vibe as when I saw "The Departed" before. This is a classic gangster movie at its very core.

The director Christopher Nolan was obviously aiming for so much more than the run of the mill hero flick. The epic length of this latest Batman film is proof of his lofty ambitions. The main actors felt that passion, and all gave inspired performances.

Overall, this is so far the most accomplished film is wide release this year. The exciting and violent action begin right off with a bold bank heist to assassinations until the final face-off between Batman and his arch-enemy. (Those scenes on the Bat-Cycle were all so adrenalized and extreme!) The script, the camerawork, the editing and the music all fell in to the right synch to create an action masterpiece destined to be a classic in its genre.

Compared with the previous "Batman Begins", Christian Bale gave way to his co-stars in this one. The acting of Gary Oldman (as Commissioner Gordon) Aaron Eckhart (as Harvey Dent) and the late Heath Ledger (as The Joker) are all very vital, arresting and award-worthy. Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine attack their respective roles with their usual efficiency.

Of course, The Joker IS the more eye-catching role. Heath plays him as a seriously demented psychopathic sociopath, as The Joker had never been portrayed before. He exudes menace and dread every time he is onscreen. The creepy smudged make up completes a most unforgettably evil movie villain, much like Anton Chigurh (from "No Country For Old Men") the year before.

PS: Minor squibble: They could have done better in the casting of Rachel Dawes. The last time, Katie Holmes was a certainly prettier but rather frivolous choice. Maggie Gyllenhall in this one I felt was miscast. A better actress for sure, but the look did not fit for me.

My wife and I finally got to see this today. What can I say about this movie? I grew up on that ABBA music and I really enjoyed watching these songs actually fit into the situations in the lives of single mom Donna (veteran Meryl Streep) and her daughter Sophie (a very charming Amanda Seyfried), who live in their own villa-inn on a Greek island.

Sophie is now 20 years old and getting married to a guy named Sky. She never knew who her real father was. A few days before the wedding, she was able to get hold of her mom's old diary and got three names of possible candidates. How she was able to find the current addresses of an American architect Sam (a very enthusiastic Pierce Brosnan), a British banker Harry (a typical Colin Firth) and a Swedish writer Bill (a bit out of place Stellan Skarsgard), we will never know. But she was able to send invitations to them, and they all accept!

As I said, I was amazed how the ABBA songs seem to fit right into specific situations (not all though, like "Honey Honey" seemed misplaced). Like when Donna's best friends Tanya (Christine Baransky) and Rosie (Julie Walters) try to get a crying Donna to open up with "Chiquitita", as in "Chiquitita tell me what's wrong...") Later, they try to cheer her up with a rousing version of "Dancing Queen" that gets all the womenfolk on the island dancing.

Another part which made you feel as if the music was written for the story was "Slipping Through My Fingers", sung by Donna when she was bonding with Sophie for the last time before her wedding ceremony. This part was so beautifully touching (and yes, tear-jerking). I have not yet heard this song before, but I think I could sing this song at my own daughter's wedding.

The next song was the hit "The Winner Takes It All." Sam wanted to talk to Donna before Sophie's wedding, but Donna replies, "I don't wanna talk about things we've gone through..." Slipped in like a Cinderella's glass slipper, PERFECT! And Meryl Streep's singing was show-stopping. Vocally not perfect, but it was raw and convincing -- a bravura performance!

Everyone had a highlight. My favorite Pierce Brosnan song was "S.O.S." His rather gruff voice sounded quite unusual singing, but he kept on key. Julie Walters had her solo moment towards the end with "Take A Chance On Me", when she was trying to seduce Bill who was reluctant to give up his bachelorhood (imagine the scene ..."If you change your mind, I'm the first in line...take a chance on me" -- so appropriate!).

The story is simple, but engaging with surprises at the end. The look of the film may appear very rough around the edges due to the set design, make up and photography, but this was really like how Donna and Sophie lived their lives on that island. Cinematography was great looking with the breathtaking Greek scenery, but for some reason, it was very unflattering to the senior stars, including Ms. Streep and Mr. Brosnan. Ms. Streep's costumes do not really look very good on her.

But in general, it was very enjoyable and fun to watch. It was really the music that people loved, and the very capable cast more than succeeds to bring these beloved ABBA songs to life!

My wife and I had the time to go watch a movie this afternoon. She had wanted to watch "Mamma Mia", but now SM enforces a single screening policy, which means you cannot wait and start over for the next showing. Luckily, this movie was just about to start when we got there, so in we go!

I was actually very surprised to see Brendan Fraser in this movie, just when a bigger Brendan Fraser movie is about to be shown later this month, "The Mummy 3". Brendan had been off the screen radar for quite some time after "Crash", and suddenly he comes back with two summer blockbuster movies in a row!

In "Journey," we again see the Brendan Fraser his fans all have grown to love, as the goofy action-adventure hero. This in fact could have been another installment of the Mummy series! In this adventure, he also has a pretty yet gutsy lady companion, and a young boy in tow, much like "Mummy 2."

Brendan plays Trevor Anderson, an earth scientist who felt he needed to go investigate an unusual volcanic activity in Iceland in order to locate his brother Max. It just so happened that Max's son 13 year-old Sean (Josh Hutcherson) is under his care for ten days. Max had been long lost in an expedition in search for the fabled center of the earth (as described in his favorite Jules Verne book) when Sean was only three years old,

In Iceland, they were able to hook up with Hannah (Anita Briem) who was the daughter of another scientist who also believes that the writings of Jules Verne are based on fact, just like Max. When Trevor, Sean and Hannah get trapped by a rock slide inside an old mine shaft that is when the fun and adventure beyond their (and our) wildest dreams begin!

I watched this in a regular theater, but you can clearly see that this was meant for 3D. The roller coaster-like mine car ride had of course been done so many times before, but it was very exciting just the same. I was also thrilled by the "rocks in a magnetic field" scene, the flying prehistoric fish scene, as with the T-Rex chase scene, especially when I imagine them in 3D. All throughout the adventure, we were also laughing at Brendan's funny lines and physical comedy done to break the tension of the scary scenes.

Ok, overall I enjoyed it. Check your logic at the theater door and just go along the exhilarating journey with Brendan Fraser and company. It is shallow and maybe even corny, but we both enjoyed this adventure very much. The hint of a sequel at the end is very welcome.

I think I am one of the minority who did like the first major Hulk movie by director Ang Lee, starring Eric Bana. Maybe that is why, I did not really think this movie was actually necessary to begin with. I thought Ed Norton did not fit the Bruce Banner role very much. When I watched this, I did not really snap out of my preconceived opinion of the movie. It is not a bad movie, but I still think that this new Hulk movie was not a necessary movie since there was already another good one before.

The start is very unusual. The whole origins story is compressed into the opening credits, as if this was already the sequel. If you enter the movie house five minutes after the movie began, you would feel disoriented. What was Bruce Banner doing in the slums of Brazil (man, those are really squalid living conditions there!) and working in a soft drink factory?

The actors I felt did not fit their roles. Not only Ed Norton, but also and especially Liv Tyler . She looked awkward in her role as a cell biologist Betty Ross. I also thought they did not have chemistry together. I am biased with the Eric Bana and Jennifer Connelly team-up in the first "Hulk".

Of course, the CG effects of this new movie was much better than the first. Including the overall scarier and rougher look of the Hulk himself (compared to the smooth green creature in the Ang Lee version). That outdoor action-packed scene on the university grounds in broad daylight was very well executed in terms of the details! Congratulations to my cousin Marc, whose name I saw in the final credits as systems coordinator of the Rhythm and Hues crew that created the special effects of this film.

There were surprises in the way of cameo appearances. Stan Lee again, this time as the old guy who drinks the gamma contaminated drink. Bill Bixby (TV's Bruce Banner) on an old TV show. And TV Hulk himself Lou Ferrigno as a security guard.

Now the very end was another pleasant surprise indeed. However, it also made me feel that this movie was just a stepping stone to the next bigger Marvel project in line. I think that is why this version was done in the first place, so that the Hulk gets a new look and treatment in preparation for the bigger things to come.

The first line is classic: "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again." And so it goes on in old fashioned descriptions of a mansion in the English countryside. I must admit I sort of just glossed over the first two chapters, not really knowing what these meant. But once I got to Chapter 3 when our two main characters meet, the rest of the book was a page-turner indeed.

We never even know her name, our narrator who speaks in the first person, from whom whose point of view we see the whole novel unfold. She was just a very young naive girl paid to accompany an American matron on her trip to Monte Carlo, when she met the mysterious rich widower, Mr. Maxim de Winter. As the holiday ended, Max proposed marriage and she accepted. Before she knew it, she was already the new lady of Manderley, the De Winter estate.

However, when she there, she found that she still lived under the shadow of the beautiful and perfect Rebecca, Max's first wife, who just passed away about nine months ago in a tragic sailing accident. While she had to contend with the indiosyncrasies of her new husband, she also had to learn to deal with the people in his household staff, headed by the cold and formidable Mrs. Danvers, who just so happens adores everything about Rebecca.

Her story is related with so much suppressed tension and eerie atmosphere, of frustration of not being able to live up to the very high standards for the dearly missed Rebecca. Admittedly since I have seen and read so much melodrama in other media, the twists and turns can somehow be predictable already for a present day reader. (Though these plot devices may well be quite original when the novel first came out in 1938!) There was a twist right up to the very last page of the last chapter. And that made me reread the entire first chapter and see the whole novel go full circle. Quite an amazing technique for a Gothic romance to employ.

I have a very busy semester ahead of me in Grad School. I really need to get started on my 10,000 word scientific review paper already, among other things. However when the small window of time opened up this afternoon for me to catch the latest ouevre of Director M. Night Shyamalan. I felt I might not be able to catch it in the movie house anymore in the coming weeks, so I simply grabbed that chance.

I purposely went into this movie knowing nothing about it. We learned from his debut film and hit "The Sixth Sense", that you should not try to find out about his movies' plots before you go see it. After the success of "The Sixth Sense", the reviews had been mixed. However, I still consider his movies must-sees on the big screen. While I liked "The Village", "Signs" was just so-so. But I positively hated "The Lady in the Water" to the point that I almost walked out on it. After that, I have learned not to expect too much anymore.

Now in this latest one "The Happening," the concept is very interesting. People in the Northeast United States are suddenly stricken with an inexplicable urge to kill themselves. You can imagine the tension built around people trying to figure out and escape this unknown entity that seems to be coming from the wind and the plants around them. As I wrote that last sentence, it seems to be an absurd storyline. But onscreen as directed by the suspense master M. Night, it was not bad at all. The way it was rendered made me empathize with the plight of these hapless people.

The lead star is Marky Mark Walberg was like I have never seen him before. He plays a high school science teacher in Philadelphia in this one. He struggles with his own problems with his wife (played by the very cute Zooey Deschamel) as he tries to escape the unknown scourge of nature. The train they were riding to get out of town had to make a forced stop in small town Filbert, Pennsylvania as transportation systems also go haywire. From there it was a process of figuring out how on earth they could keep alive.

Maybe it will take an open attitude to like this film. Skeptics and nit-pickers will find a lot of things to criticize. For me, I liked this movie as a whole. The corny parts were there all right, but I felt they can just be glossed over without affecting the overall feel. Just be there to "enjoy" the tension and the atmosphere of the whole (hopefully unreal) human experience unfolding on the screen. It is most definitely there for all of us to feel and be enveloped in.

P.S. As a bonus, they finally showed the trailer of the very hush-hush upcoming "X-Files" Movie!!! That is definitely my most anticipated movie event in the coming month.

I LOVED this movie!!!! I even daresay that this is the best animated motion picture I have seen since "Cars" two years ago. Although the whole story of a lovable kind-hearted underdog turned champion is admittedly an oft-told retread, the treatment is original and amazing and very engaging, and not corny (unlike a lot of the recent animated films). I cannot stop singing praises to this one. The artwork of the whole movie is fantastically rendered, no exquisite detail was spared in the scenery, the architecture and of course, the lead animal characters.

The action and fight scenes are very well done and memorable. I enjoyed watching the fight scene between Po and Shifu for the last dumpling, the fight of the Five vs. Tai Lung at the Bridge, and the climactic fight scene of Tai Lung with Shifu, and then with Po. Very exciting. My daughter even spontaneously applauded after that last fight sequence.

There were also a number of beautifully-crafted emotional moments throughout. I was inspired by the those words of wisdom of Master Oogwei to Po (loved this one most: "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."), the talk of Master Oogwei and Shifu with the peach blossom petals, and of course the touching moment of Po and Shifu after the battle, and even in that small extra scene after the credits.

The voice acting was also very good. Jack Black as Po, so natural the comedian, wow. Dustin Hoffman as Shifu, really great. I did not expect it to be him. If was fun to discover after the movie that is was Angelina Jolie who voiced the Tigress, Lucy Liu, the Viper, and Jackie Chan, the Monkey, among others. And even more minor characters like the menacing head of prison security rhino Commander Vachir voiced by Michael Clarke Duncan, all very good.

Overall, a fantastic movie experience that I would not mind watching over and over. There is something for everyone -- action, drama, and comedy. It is an animated classic in my book. Very highly recommended indeed!

I admit that I got interested to read this book because I really like the movie version (starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, directed by Steven Spielberg). Even after I read all of this book, I still cannot believe that this whole thing really happened.

I have a problem with the age issue. Can a teenager really concoct and accomplish the amazing fraudulent schemes as depicted in this book (and movie)? I already found it unbelievable when I watched the movie, but I explained it all with cinematic license. Reading his supposedly actual account of details on how he did those fantastic plots, like the fake doctor scam, the fake lawyer scam (though he says he passed the Bar exam), and of course, his incredible fake PanAm pilot scam, makes everything more unbelievable!

One of my favorite scenes in the movie was how he formed his own fake crew of stewardesses from high school students was quite cute and funny on screen, but reading the chapter on how he actually did it in detail makes those events downright preposterous! He even detailed how he brought them all over Europe for several days. How can that be possible?

The last two chapters of the book were not included in the movie, and these were his incredible details of his incarcerations, one in France and the other in Sweden. I can see why these were not included. This part is all exaggerated fiction if you ask me. These extremes in the contrast of a prisoner's experience in each country's penal system was so ideal in the build up of dramatic tension, it simply could not have happened this way in real life.

Oh but don't get me wrong. The book was well written. It was funny and exciting like the movie, in its own way. But I really had trouble believing that this all actually happened in real life as he described it. Is the master con-man conning us all over again by wanting us to believe that all of these fantastic adventures of his really happened? I'm sorry but I have to take the "true story" part of the book with skepticism.

It is not so common that we come across a movie about a math genius. Of course, there was "A Beautiful Mind" and "Good Will Hunting," now comes another one. "21" is the story of Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess), an MIT math nerd who wanted to go into Harvard Medical School. However, being poor, he needed to come up with $300,000 for him to get through med school. Opportunity presented itself when his math professor Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey) noted his skills and recruited him to join their blackjack card counting group. This group would go to Vegas in the weekends, make a killing at the blackjack tables by employing pre-arranged signals, code words and card counts, and go back to school on Monday as if nothing happened. Of course, you know that with schemes like this, happy days will not be forever.

I liked the movie very interesting. I did have to gloss over the fact that I honestly did not understand any of the card counting techniques they were using. What on earth does is mean if the card count is "+17" or "+15"? In any case, I liked the character arc of Ben Campbell and the predicaments he was in. I knewthere would be retribution at the end, and I liked the fact that this part of the movie ws not cut and dry. There was still a lot of suspense and unexpected developments.

Jim Sturgess, though I have never seen him before, played his role very well, as the shy intellectual turned blackjack high bidder. Kate Bosworth, while gorgeous, looked too old to be his love interest. She did not look like her Lois Lane character here, but she also does not look credible as an MIT rocket science student. Kevin Spacey played his role quite efficiently as always. It was a bit of a stretch to believe how an MIT professor can run this "business" while having a record in Vegas back in his heyday as a card hustler as well, and still keep using his real name.

Overall, I found this very interesting and a movie worth watching. It is even more interesting to find out that this was actually based loosely on a true story!

*************SPOILER ALERT


We were really very excited to watch this movie, the 4th installment of the revered Indiana Jones franchise, 19 years after I.J and the Last Crusade. It is the first day of showing here and we caught it right away.

It is everything it was. The action, the thrills, the humor, they were all there. Of course, the great theme music was there. As well as the great action photography and editing. That exciting car chase in the jungle with the crystal skull changing hands was very well shot. Although the attack of the giant fire ants seems to derive from "The Mummy", I liked the way it was executed. It also brought back eerie terrifying childhood memories of "The Helstrom Chronicle."

Harrison Ford is obviously much older, yet his charisma as Indiana Jones is quite intact. I did not initially like the news that he will have a sidekick in the person of Shia LaBeouf, but it was actually ok. I would like to watch the scene where they first meet again though. I did not get it at all why they met, which of course was how the whole adventure with crystal skull began.

Now my problems with it. First, it is so faithful to the series, that it actually felt like you have seen it all before. I think the main problem of the whole movie is the story. I found the whole angle involving aliens (yes, that's right) to be preposterous. It just gives the whole film a rather thick layer of cheese. In addition to that, old Indy was quite the superman in this film. Too unbelievable even for a movie where we are asked to suspend our disbelief. I can accept all those narrow escapes in the jungle and the pyramids, as these have been seen before in the previous films. However, surviving a nuclear blast by hiding in a refrigerator is stretching reality too much. It was a lame attempt to be funny in my opinion.

These quibbles aside however it was still a very entertaining film. Not a waste of time at all. They better do better on the next film, especially if there will be a transferring of the hat (as suggested in the final scene). I do not want this film to end up as "the Phantom Menace" was for the "Star Wars" franchise.

You know what kind of humor you are going to get into if you have seen their first film, "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle." In fact, it starts right where "White Castle" ends. Harold and Kumar plan to go to Amsterdam to follow Maria, whom Harold met in the elevator of their apartment. Unfortunately, Kumar could not contain his stoner urges and brings marijuana on board the plane, complete with paraphernalia! Uneasy bigoted co-passengers panic when they see Kumar light up in the plane's toilet. They are arrested as terrorists from North Korea and the Middle East who have connived with each other! And so charged, they are sent to Guantanamo Bay prison.

From there, the movie goes cross country poking irreverent fun at several races (blacks, Jewish, rednecks, Arabs, even the KKK) and political issues (tortures on Guantanamo prison, Homeland Security officials and "George W. Bush" himself). Very funny! Of course, the writers take the sexual and drugged out route in most of these jokes that teeter on the brink of being offensive and tasteless.

These are just saved by the stupid charm of the two leads, especially John Cho who plays the nerdy accountant gone wild, Harold Lee. Kal Penn, or his character Kumar, is really an annoying character for me, but funny just the same. The girl who played Kumar's old girlfriend Vanessa was quite appealing. Neil Patrick Harris returns in a longer role as "himself".

Apparently there are a lot of exposed body parts in this movie, but we here do not see them because of the liberally-applied censorship of "prurient" scenes. What can you expect from a "bottom-less" party, huh? LOL!

Overall, despite the lowbrow comedy style of this movie, you simply know there is an underlying social and political commentary buried in those daring jokes. They are a guilty pleasure. You know they are so wrong, yet you can't help but laugh out loud. I liked it, despite my aversion to drug-related topics. If you wait up to the end of the end credits, a small scene there tells you that there's bound to be a Part 3 to all this. Can't wait for that.

I knew the old comic book character of Iron Man, but I was not at all that familiar with the back story. This movie is a complete history of the origins of Iron Man. All you need to know about Tony Stark the man in the first few minutes. Then they went into extensive details on how he developed and perfected Iron Man. It was this part that dragged a bit for me. I just felt this went on a little too long. This protracted phase of the movie makes it NOT kid-friendly.

The production design was excellent. It was great to see the prototypes of the Iron Man costume before he decided on the final sleek look with the red metal. Stark's cliff-side house and sports cars looked great, and of course, his assistant Pepper Potts (an uncharacteristic yet memorable comeback by Gwyneth Paltrow) and his other girlfriends also looked great.

I was a skeptic when I first found out that Robert Downey Jr. would be playing Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. He just did not fit the superhero type, nor the millionaire genius playboy type of Stark. Contrary to popular sentiment, even after I watched, I still found it hard to accept Downey in this character in most of the film. The last scene, though, in the press conference, was a scene that somehow seems only a character like Robert Downey Jr. can pull off. I loved that scene and made me optimistic about the sequel.

As for Jeff Bridges, it was great to see him back in great form and looking so different. Debit is that you can see right through him from the start even if you did not have any background of the storyline in the comics. His character Obadiah Stane was very transparent and shallowly written.

Nevertheless, the flying and fighting action sequences were breathtakingly shot and very exciting to watch. They were all fast-paced and realistic. The CGI was not obviously evident. I felt though, that the finale battle with his rival giant robot Iron Monger seemed so anti-climactic. His final victory was quite unconvincing because Iron Man even had to ask for Pepper's help. Huh???

Overall it is a good enough movie, especially for a first in an apparently planned series. They had to spend a lot of time establish the character first in this installment, ok understood. Hopefully the sequel can give us more of the action we seek, since the back story is out of the way. Can’t wait for the next one!

I watched this movie because of the interesting star combination of Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor. I did not have an idea what the story would be about. However, the simple (and unimaginative) title was a give-away of the plot. Within the first ten minutes, you already feel you have seen this movie before. I immediately thought of the Clive Owen-Jennifer Aniston movie "Derailed." (The initial chance seduction occurred at a train station, as well.)

John McQuarrie (Ewan McGregor) is a lonely accountant/auditor with zero social life. He gets hooked into a sex "list" by the magnetic man's man Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman). There he meets the girl of his dreams simply known to him as "S" (Michelle Williams). Of course, since the title gives away the plot, you knew this set-up was all an elaborate deception, and nothing is really what it seemed.

As for the plot, there were a lot of improbabilities that weaken the story (some spoilers follow later for those interested). The suspense was a bit muted because the director was generous with the clues. Or may be we have just watched to many of these variations of this story in movies.

The sex "list" set-up (which was the main thing of interest that set this movie apart from others like it) was most likely inspired by real such social clubs. These lurid circles where busy high-class people just call each other randomly for some anonymous commitment-free sex, I am sure, ordinary guys like us will never get mixed up with in real life. This movie does give us a vicarious teasing peek into this alternative lifestyle, though.

I did like the triumph of good at the end though, because there were no strings attached.

I could not help but compare this film with "Derailed" because they were so similar, and "Derailed" was clearly better in all aspects. That said, this film "Deception" is really not that bad as the cheap local posters (that resort to sexy photos of girls in lingerie) would suggest.




***********SPOILERS FOLLOW**************

These are the questions that the movie requires you to turn a blind eye on: How could Bose possibly assume that McQuarrie would do his criminal bidding just because of "S"? At that time, McQuarrie had only met "S" twice, and they did not even have sex yet. And indeed, can an auditor actually gain access to perform multi-million dollar money transfers from the company he is auditing? Also, is it that easy to create fake passports? Especially in the case of McQuarrie.

This is really a very exciting unprecedented star combination for a movie: Jackie Chan and Jet Li! Wow! And the poster is really very attractive and eye-catching. There was no question in my mind that I simply had to watch this movie. Unfortunately, when I saw Entertainment Weekly rated this a D, that sort of tamed my expectations. In fact, it was only becausethe showing of "Iron Man" has already started by the time I reached the box office, that was why I went to watch FK instead today.

I was so prepared not to like it. The cheesy starting sequence with the Monkey King fighting on very fake sets that were supposed to be mountaintops was not very encouraging. I also did not like the pop art style of the opening credits, which for me did not suit my imagined plot of this film. I also did not really like the "Karate Kid"-like story which began the movie proper. I totally did not expect an American kid to figure in this!

However, by the time this American kid named Jason got transported into ancient China, and meets Jackie Chan and Jet Li, the story gets going and you are drawn in. The interaction between the two Chinese stars was fantastic, as was their fight sequence, and their comedy. The two featured female martial artists were also very good, as they are attractive. There was the good Yifei Liu (as the Sparrow) and the evil Bing Bing Li (as Ni Chang). Hope to see them both in future American films.

Overall, I am only rating this a 3 star movie now. The role of Jason never really sunk in with me. I find his character awkward and forced into the story as a bookend for American audiences. But there is no doubt that we are going to buy a DVD and enjoy watching the beautifully choreographed martial arts action sequences over and over at home.

This is already the second to the last day of their entire run that we saw tonight. But for some reason, it still feels a bit rough and unpolished. The book was quite funny, irreverent at certain points, and flirting with rated R territory (I had my 8 year old daughter with me!), but yes, it is funny (when it is intelligible). The music is quite pleasant pop. But nothing really that got me humming when I got out of the theater. I do want to find a copy of the soundtrack and listen to the music and the words better.

Could the problem be the actors? They seem to be very new in the theater world to carry an entire play (albeit being one-act, and only lasting an hour). You know they worked very hard, but somehow it fell short a bit for me.

The actors who played Matthew and Luke are quite good and in fact look like real boy band guys. Their dance moves and posturings are boy-band authentic. The guy who played Matthew (PJ Valerio), in particular, projects to the hilt like a real boy-band face-man. His best song was "Something About You," which was about sexual abstinence. The ending line is quite naughty and hilarious.

The guy who played Luke (Reuben Yu) was the best dancer of them all, very athletic in a Marky-Mark sort of way. His singing voice is also very strong, as he gets to deliver on the highest notes. His gangsta-style delivery of lines can be quite unintelligibly corny at times, though. Cool though.

The other three don't really look like boy-band members, so it strains the credibility. The guy who played Abraham (Chevy Mercado) was a very good singer but his acting, dancing and overall projection was really very awkward.

The guy who played Mark (Red Concepcion) is also a very good singer. His solo number "Epiphany" is the funniest song there in my opinion. However, is he really supposed to look so blatantly gay? The way the song's lyrics go, this guy Mark should still be in the closet, isn't he? While I think the actor who played him went too much over the top with his gay flamboyance, his delivery of the word "lust" in one serious scene is just too memorably funny.

The one that marred my total enjoyment of this musical so much for me is the guy who played Juan (Reb Atadero). He simply is not funny at all. Everything he did, be it acting or singing, his awful accent or just his mere standing on stage, was so awkward and even painful to watch. The scene where Juan had to run around screaming on stage bawling his eyes out was so long and simply too uncomfortable and unfunny. Might just be the way the character was written, though.

Overall, it was just OK for me. Just ay't, as Randy Jackson would say. This was clearly for the teens and 20s set, it seems. Those in this demographic in the audience this night really seemed to have enjoyed so much. I do not want to concede, however, that I am already to old for this musical. Hahaha! I do really want to get my hands on a soundtrack album to appreciate it more.

I like historical fiction in general. I like films that deal with historical events. So I really made time out of this very busy week to see this film. The star power of course helped a lot to convince me to catch this. Imagine a movie that combines Natalie Portman AND Scarlett Johannsen. It is certainly a must-see for that combination alone.

These two stars played the Boleyn sisters at the time of Henry VIII. Natalie is the more familiar Boleyn girl Anne, while Scarlett plays the unknown sister Mary. While their ambitious family is trying to push Anne to interest the King (played by the lucky Eric Bana), he actually falls for younger and married Mary first. Because of this, the family is brought to live in the King's court. Mary gets pregnant and gives birth to a son. But by then, the King has turned his eyes to Anne.

The rest of the story, we are more familiar with already -- how Anne teases the King with her wiles so much that he breaks with the Catholic Church in order to divorce his wife Catherine of Aragon. However, when the King finally gains Anne's body (in an unexpectedly violent manner in this film), he is at the same time wracked with severe guilt feelings about what he had done.

This situation was not helped when Anne first born was a daughter. When Anne suffered a miscarriage next, she was already on the brink of madness on how to hang on to her position in court, especially since the king has already begun to show interest in Jane Seymour.

We all know what happens to Anne in the end, so there is really no suspense there. But the family dynamics in the Boleyn family is really very interesting, albeit disturbing, to watch. The side stories and fates of Mary and brother George, as with those of their parents (particularly the mother so well-played by Kristin Scott Thomas) are so well integrated in the known history. I am not really sure where fiction separates from facts in these auxiliary stories.

It was melodramatic, that is for sure. There were so many key omissions, such as the role of Thomas More, who was not even mentioned. Nevertheless, I was entertained. Got me interested to reading the book by Philippa Gregory soon. Good enough just to see Natalie and Scarlett together, most definitely.

This was a book that easily gets your attention from the get-go. Set in 1919 and about two decades hence, "Drowning Ruth" is the story of an emotionally-unstable nurse Amanda, and her relationships with her prettier and more popular sister Mathilda and "soulmate" niece Ruth. Mathilda drowns in the icy lake surrounding their island home one night. And from there the story is spun.

You hang on to the end in order to discover what actually happened that fateful night. But before that is revealed, the story criss-crosses over time and events. The timeline in this novel is not linear. The person in which the story is written is not consistent as well, since the third person narrative can be interrupted by paragraphs written in the character of Amanda or Ruth. You get used to these shifts as you progress through the story.

As is common in these novels with very strong female leads, male characters, such as Mathilda's husband Carl and Amanda's paramour Clement, are mainly on the sidelines. Both are portrayed as weak and basically clueless to what the women around them are planning or are actually doing.

This novel is about the very deep and complicated relationships among women as sisters, mothers and daughters, aunt and niece, and as friends. The story is written in a suspenseful and engaging way that you will want to follow these all the way through to the end, despite the flawed characters. Very good. Well recommended.

For some strange reason, my reading of this book is a Personal Journey in itself. I took a very long time for me to finish this very thin book. My brother gave me this book for Christmas in 2004. It has been with me in many trips both abroad and to the barbershop. I never thought I would finish it at all. I did finish so many other much longer books in those 3 years and so. Yet it was only this Easter Morning of 2008 that I reached the final page of "The Alchemist".

I am not really one who goes for inspirational type of books. Sure I enjoyed my "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" and "The Little Prince" back in the day (maybe back in high school!). But this book never really held my attention very well. It did not have a compelling story that I wanted to finish.

As the lead character, a shepherd boy from Spain, leaves his home and makes his Personal Journey all the way to the Pyramids of Egypt, he encounters a lot of characters along the way--a gypsy, a mysterious King, a merchant, an Englishman, the girl of his dreams (Fatima), and of course the title character, the Alchemist. Between the shepherd and these people, they exchange a lot of pithy and pretty conversations, all with words worthy of gracing many a Hallmark greeting card.

All in all, it was all nice and neat. The action for me only picked up towards the end when he finally meets the Alchemist. Their conversations and interactions on the way to the Pyramids were the only things that interested in this whole book, that was why my pace in reading only picked up at this point. The scene where our hero bids goodbye to Fatima, who must accept the fate of a "woman of the desert" and wait for her man to come home, was very well written, I must admit.

Maybe because of all the hype around this book, I went in expecting too much. I did not get what I was expecting, that is why I easily got distracted throughout my reading of this book. Now I recognize that this type of writing would really appeal to a big percentage of the reading public. But sad to say, for me, it is only average as books would go. This is only in my own humble opinion, of course.

The first part of this book was really very difficult to get through. The main characters--Col. Behrani, Kathy Nicolo and Sheriff Lester Burdon--were all so deeply flawed and frankly, unpleasant people whom I never would like to meet in real life. However as you read on, the conflict they were embroiled in was simply so compelling. The suspense, as written by Andre Dubus III, was so intense and unbearable. You would certainly want to know how the conflict will be developed. The way it was built up by the author, you can feel the tragedy a mile away. You cannot put the book down until you find out what happens.

Kathy Nicolo is a down and out young woman who has just lost her house due to a county tax department error. Col. Behrani is an immigrant from Persia where he used to be very rich. He bought Kathy's house in a county auction for a fraction of the market price, and wanted to sell the house for profit. Lance Burdon is the sheriff who came to throw Kathy out of her house, but ended up falling illicitly in love with her, willing to do everything to help Kathy with her predicament.

I have not seen the movie made from this book, but maybe I should check it out. I could not help seeing Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley when I imagine the situations with Kathy and Col. Behrani were described in the book. Overall, this book is well worth the time spent reading, that is, if you do not mind the dark painful atmosphere and escalating tensions. Although I feel that the last third of the book was so over-the-top and unrealistic, I would still give this book a four star rating on the basis of the excellent handling of the emotional and moral dilemmas involved by the author.

First of all, I am not really a fan of Jazz, the Blues or Big Band music, yet Elaine and I watched Harry Connick Jr. at the PICC tonight. I was not exactly planning to watch this concert. This artist had no bonafide "hits" for me to look forward to. However, I came by these two precious Right Flat section tickets by a literal luck of a draw (thanks to Sunday Inquirer Magazine). The tickets said 8pm, but much of the audience came in after 830 already. Still when Harry Connick and his band came out and started the concert there were several empty seats all over.

I was really struck by Mr. Connick's amazing piano playing which I totally did not know about him. His singing voice was very rich and dramatic as well. I am just so sorry that I did not know probably less than half of the songs they were performing, which largely diminished my overall appreciation. I could only recognize standards like "Hello Dollly", "Jambalaya" (Harry is from New Orleans), "Iko Iko," and "Yes We Can Can." He has some beautiful and bluesy ballads like "When Someone Really Loves You" and "When Your Lover Has Gone." But the audience really comes alive when Harry stands from his piano and dances around onstage. His featured musicians (some of whom have been playing with him for the past 18 years) were excellent players of the tenor, alto and baritone sax, trumpet and trombone, all of whom got their due solo spots.

But another thing that makes this concert memorable and lively is the COMEDY! This guy Harry was really so funny and IRREVERENT. He got away with controversial jokes about Manila not having pretty women (OK, only beautiful), and that Filipinos having no rhythm (because some audience member were clapping out of time) because of his charming delivery.

Then he announced that he thought "Halo Halo" (a local mixed treats sweet dessert topped by ice) was "NASTY"! I never heard that said before. It was so hilarious when he was describing all the individual ingredients (funny descriptions of ube and nata de coco) until he reached the corn and red beans, and declared "I do not want vegetables in my snow cone!" Hahaha!

Then he spent a long segment talking about and actually challenging himself to eat "Balut" (days-old duck egg) for the first time onstage! He even called a lucky girl from the audience to instruct him on the proper procedure. He did go through with it though, and he called it "GROSS"! Hahaha! Audience loved it! Then he settled down to play a bluesy number on the piano, he let out a major burp! Hahaha! Quite the joker this Harry.

In the later part of the concert (after the Balut segment) when Harry removed his tie and blazer and folded up the sleeves of his crisp white shirt, he really cut loose in his piano playing and dancing. In his last last song "Come By Me", he even turned his back to the audience, lifted his shirt tails and began gyrating and shaking his booty across the stage to the delight of the women there! LOL!

Overall, the music style is not really for me, but there is no denying the great musicianship in this concert. The show was made more enjoyable by Harry's quirky sense of humor (no wonder he got that featured role in "Will and Grace"). He certainly charmed the audience with genuine friendliness and sparkling personality.