Reviews Galore^^

Since I just came from a 2-week term break and the first week of classes, I had the chance to catch up on my reading *lyrics ng kanta yun ah* and watch some movies. Here are some things I could say about them..hehe^^

Eleven Minutes
Paulo Coelho
(c)2004,Harper Collins

I realized that I was still too young to read this book. Its not that I don't understand the plot completely, on the contrary, I enjoyed it^^. The theme basically is sex and love (Oo,sex.) and is expressed through the story of Maria a Brazilian prostitute in search of true love.

Kung iisipin mo, parang napaka-contradicting nun diba? Diyan nakikita ang henyo ni Paolo Coelho. Usually kasi, ang pakaka-portray sa mga prostitute yung tipong bayaran na biktima ng kahirapan, and usually, ang magiging reaction mo ay either awa, or iisipin mong madumi yung babaeng yun. Pero dito sa librong 'to, iba ang pagkakapresent sa bida, matalino (san ka nakakita ng prostitute na palapuntang library?), at lalong-lalo nang hindi biktima ng pakakataon. The Character CHOSE to be a prostitute in Switzerland,kahit pwede siyang maging maid or tindera nalang. Sobrang kakaiba yung presentation.

Yung isa pang ma-eelibs ka eh yung pagkaka-present ng sex, hindi siya in the context na bastusan, or yung typical na sex sa isang romance novel. It was presented in a Philosophical sense. Eto yung isang linya..

If you love another person, you don't depend on the sex act in order to feel good. Those who live together and love each other need to adjust the hands of their clocks, with patience and perseverance, games and "theatrical representations", until they realize that making love is more than just an encounter, it is a genital "embrace"..

Para kasi sakin, mahirap ipresent ang sex sa paraang hindi bastusan at hindi cheezy. Not to mention you're placing it side by side with a theme such as love. Magaling yung pagkakagawa ng novel (malamang, Paolo Coelho eh.) But as I have said earlier, I was too young to read this book. Hindi ko siya ma-appreciate fully kasi feeling ko hindi siya pa siya applicable sakin. Another thing is that yun, medyo heavy sa puso kasi marami kang mapupulot na aral (para kang nagmarathon ng Fruits Basket) though yung mga aral na yun, hindi ko pa ma-aaply..^^

Angels and Demons
Dan Brown
(c)2000,Pocket Books

I shared the same opinion with the person whom I borrowed the book from. I think this one by Dan Brown is better than The Da Vinci Code.^^ The story is about Symbologist Robert Langdon's quest to save Vatican City from destruction brought about by an anti-christian group called the Illumunati. There were a lot of things similar to the Da Vinci Code, the calls received by the protagonist early in the morning, the protagonist pairing up with the Daughter of the first victim revealed in the story, the treasure hunt, the chase,Hindi ko alam kung nananadya ba yung author, yun nga naman yung nagdala sa kanya sa kasikatan.

I look at AnD as a spectacle. Spectacle kasi ang daming nanyayari, napaka-grandioso,sa Vatican pa nanyayari. It was much more exciting than Da Vinci Code in my opinion. It also had it share of shocking facts, though not as groundbreaking as DVC. There was a nice twist in the ending, astig na sana, pero yung ending looked like it was taken straight out of a teleserye. Nevertheless, the comment at the beginning of the book was true, it was Unputdownable, hell, I went shopping with my mom and still brought the book with me,hindi ko siya tinigilan hanggang alas-2 ng madaling araw. It was a nice read, but I can't help but compare it to his original work.

Azumi
Ryuhei Kitamura
(c)2003, Toho Company Ltd.

I was suprised when I recently learned that this movie made it to the prestigious Sundance Festival (in 2004). Not that it shouldn't be, wala lang, nagulat lang ako.

This was my first Samurai movie, so I don't know what to expect. Of course, for any samurai movie expect a lot of gore. And this movie didn't disappoint.Talsikan yung dugo, pugot na mga ulo, yah, that sort of gore. The movie, which was based on a Manga series by the way, revolves around the innocent-looking, but deadly, assassin Azumi whose mission, together with her childhood friends (who turns out to be assasins too) is to eliminate the feudal lords challenging the Tokugawa rule (I'm not sure if I remembered it correctly).

Kung ganito ba naman kaganda ang papatay sayo, bakit hindi? Aya Ueto as Azumi

The plot, Okay lang, its not your typical plot, so you wouldn't be bored. What bothers me though was the effects. Yung pag pinu-pugot yung ulo, bothered kasi ako dun sa dugo eh, halatang computer generated. Tapos the way Azumi moved during the fight scenes, I would've appreciated it more if they did it Hong Kong style,Yung mga tipong de-tali..but no, it was computer generated. Lessened the realism in the movie. Another thing that bothered me was the ending, it was so illogical (or maybe I was just confused...NAH!), I was literally shouting TA*&*NA PAANO NANYARI YON??!!, which was a big letdown (o ako lang talga yun), pero its not all that bad.

What wowed me was Azumi's fight scene with Bijomaru on the enemies' base. I wasn't expecting the camera angle, I mean the camera angle revolving lateral to the characters was already ordinary, but imagine placing the camera in a Ferris Wheel, where the characters are positioned smack in the middle of the ferris wheel, elibs ako grabe, ang galing nung idea. Astig din yung scene na kakalabanin ni Azumi ang isang buong batallion sa base ng kalaban. And she did it realistically! Kung baga pwede talagang manyari yung ganun. (Pero bad trip talaga yung ending eh.) The characters were very convincing, Aya Ueto looks innocent (as she should be),Bijomaru was literally, ermm..crazy...and he looks like a bishounen...hindi siya ganun ka-awkward. I can't help but notice that one of the characters looked like Buwi Meneses of Parokya ni Edgar.

The movie (erm, don't let the fact that its gory bother you) is something one could enjoy.^^ Its anything but boring, Pero medyo ma-bobother ka lang sa effects, kasi hindi siya ganun ka polished. Aside from that, go get a DVD copy.^^ I just borrowed mine, and I still need to pass it to someone.

The Dukes of Hazzard
Jay Chandrasekhar
(c)2005, Warner Bros.

To be honest, I watched this movie because of Jessica Simpson. I saw her music video and thought that she was going to do some serious ass-kicking in the movie. Little did I knew that I was going to be disappointed T_T.

The plot was simple, the revolves around the Dukes' quest to save the little quiet town of Hazzard from being turned into a strip mine by a wealthy businessman in their town. Since I haven't watched the first Dukes of Hazzard movie, I can't compare it with the original(But reviews were saying that it screwed the original). As I see it, the stunts were great!, the movie was filled with punchlines which makes the movie fun all in all.^^ I was disappointed though, with Jessica's role (as Daisy Duke), all she did was attract attention then her cousins (the protagonists Bo and Luke played by Sean William Scott and Johnny Knoxville respectively) take action. Pa-sexy lang yung ginawa niya sa movie, I mean, yun lang ba talaga yung gawain niya?..

You cannot find any serious points for you to ponder on in the movie (except Environmental Awareness siguro), because the movie was not meant that to be that way (I think ^_^), I think it was just meant to be taken as a fun movie^^ at Nag-enjoy naman kami ng mga kaibigan ko^^

-END of reviews^^v-

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So the first days have come and gone, tapos na ang first week ng klase. At this point, its time to get serious. Somehow, I feel overwhelmed by this term because I'm taking up subjects which I thought I'll never take up. Parang nung first year pinapangarap lang namin yung mga subjects na yun, tapos ngayon,we're actually attending these classes. Two subjects, CoCirFu (Comuputer Circuits Fundamentals) and its laboratory counterpart, CoCirLa, scares me the most because the subjects are way out of my league. Generally, the subjects are about Microprocessors and Interfacing with Input/Output devices. By the end of the term, you probably know how much your PC technician knows about what's inside your CPU. The professors were like talking in Alien Tongues, I couldn't understand a thing they were saying T_T. The quote, "what you don't know, won't hurt you" is definitely not applicable here (hehe).^^