Just Like Before

Distance is not a problem. Communication is also not a problem. Technology is vast that it makes the ties closer and tighter. However, for my case, human factor or human touch is still a big factor. I still believe in meeting friends for dinner, for a cup of coffee or even for a movie date.

Given our work schedules and the hectic life we live in nowadays, it would be a miracle for the Sistahud to be complete in the near future. Elline left for a better job opportunity and possibly to find Prince Charming in Singapore recently while Rachelle has been living in Sunny California since the early 2000.

I suddenly realized that we are back to the old routine. Just like before, after each class or whenever we have a free time, Mary Ann and I would go out and celebrate. We either go eat our hearts out or watch a good movie.

Yesterday was again, just like before. We ate our hearts out and watched two good movies. We met at Power Plant at Rockwell, Makati City at 10am and started our day of pure fun and happiness.


Given the time we have on our hands, we checked out the movie selection and the time of showing. We decided to watch Nicholas Cage’s Knowing and Dwayne Johnson’s Race to Witch Mountain.


In between the two movies, we had a quick lunch at Burgoo and we had popcorn during the first movie. Both movies were good and fortunately, we decided to watch RTWM last since the first movie was a little bit on the heavy side.

Since we have some time to spare, we window shopped and did some grocery shopping. Since nobody can fetch us earlier, we had dinner as well at Healthy Shabu Shabu.


Even without Elline and Rachelle, we were able to have a good time. I know having them around would be a different bang but we promised we’ll make do with what we have.

We’ll do this again soon. Hopefully we will spend another round before my birthday and then a birthday celebration in June.

As I drop Mary Ann off in her apartment, she said that she’ll email the Sistahuds and will tell all the stories we shared.

We missed you Elline and Rachelle! Come visit us soon! Better yet, we will visit you soon!

Official OotP International Trailer

The international trailer includes scenes from Fred and George's flight from Hogwarts, Umbridge and Filch's attempts to keep order, and Fudge and Dumbledore clashing at the Ministry of Magic. We also see glimpses of centaurs, thestrals, Snape, the Order, the DA, Azkaban, Bellatrix, Sirius and the Dark Lord himself.

It’s fantastic, can’t wait for this one.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End Trailer

Thanks to Jared!

Looks really good!

Teaser Trailer

For HP addicts (like moi, Marianna and Elline) that cannot wait for the “Happy Feet” Manila release, here is the teaser trailer of OoTP from HF’s official site.

Check out HBO on Demand’s four-minute sneak peek of OoTP at HPANA.

I can't wait for July.

First Official Poster

IESB.net has the first look at the new teaser poster released by Warner Bros. Pictures for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.


Whew! Here is another one for the list!

Spider-Man 3

“The Spider-Man 3 trailer was released the other day. The visual effects look eye-catching. Spider-Man 3 is scheduled for a May 4, 2007 release and features Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, and Bryce Dallas Howard.”

Thanks to frozeninferno.

I am looking forward to see the movie. The preview looks great! Can’t wait to see it.

Dance with Me

I was browsing through different channels before hitting the sack when I saw the final clips of Shadows of the Sun, a feel-good movie, and I can’t help but squeal with delight that I forgot that my throat hurts.

I heart Joshua Jackson! Yes, I do! He belongs to the top list of “men” I heart and would really squeal to death. I admire looking at his eyes and the way he reminds me of George Clooney. I love him as Charlie Conway, as Lucas "Luke" McNamara, the lovable Pacey Witter and with his latest roles as Jeremy Taylor and Duncan Shorter.

Thank to UpaPumkie

Josh is awesome and very hot!

Other dancers may be on the floor
Dear, but my eyes will see only you
Only you have the magic technique
When we sway I go weak

After 12 years of waiting...

Movie Review: ‘The Lake House’ Has Tacked-On Happy Ending
Freehand
By: Mario E. Bautista

When Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock were first paired in Speed, it really boosted their careers.

Keanu was projected as an action star and did the The Matrix series, while Sandra starred in endearing comedies like While You Were Sleeping and Miss Congeniality. When Keanu refused to do Speed 2, it flopped.

Now, they’re together again in a fantasy-romance that is the remake of a Korean movie made in 2000, Siworae or Il Mare, which is probably the same film which inspired GMA Films’ romance about calendar-challenged lovers, Moments Of Love.


We haven’t seen the original, so we don’t know what changes Argentinian director Alejandro Agresti (Valentin, The Act In Question) and his scriptwriter David Auburn (Proof) made in the Hollywood version. But judging from the finished product, we daresay that Moments Of Love is an even more affecting well-told love story than this one.

The movie starts with Kate Forster (Sandra), a doctor, departing from the glass house of the title, perched on stilts over Lake Michigan, to work in a Chicago hospital. She leaves a letter in its mailbox requesting the next tenant to forward her mail to her new address and apologizing for the paw prints her dog left behind.

Alex Wyler (Keanu), an architect, moves in and sees Kate’s letter, but he doesn’t see any paw prints, although a dog does appear later to keep him company.

The two lonely hearts start exchanging notes through a time-traveling mailbox whose red flag goes up and down like magic to indicate that they are receiving new letters. Alex lives in 2004 while Kate lives in 2006, unlike the lovers in Moments Of Love who have a 50-year difference.

To enjoy this kind of vehicle, you have to accept it mainly as a whimsical fairy tale since if you’d insist on logic, you will only spoil the narrative. But even if you buy its basic idea, the script should still try to give it a semblance of reality and credibility for us to somehow relish it.

The first kink for us is the fact that we live in the era of the Internet and cellphones. It is so easy for Alex or Kate to research on the Net about each other, and yet they don’t do it. Also, they would have simplified things if they’d just write down each other’s cell-phone numbers or put a copy of their photos inside the mailbox. If the romance was set in the ’50s or ’60s, the story would have been more credible.

But if you’re willing to overlook its lapses, you might still enjoy the film as the chemistry between Keanu and Sandra remains very appealing and they manage to sustain the human element in this fantasy love story.

The trouble with the movie is that it aims for more profundity with subplots which are ne-ver fully realized. Kate is given her own boyfriend, uptight lawyer Morgan (Dylan Walsh), but whatever happens to them is never made clear. Alex has a strained relationship with his father Simon (Christopher Plummer), a more accomplished architect, and this father-and-son drama only distracts us from the movie’s main focus, which should be the story of two lovers trying to connect across time.

These pretensions to family conflicts only bog the film down and make it so slow-moving and even less convincing as the story plods along.

Sandra takes her role as the sad single career woman too seriously that she looks so glum and passionless throughout most of The Lake House, failing to supply the energy the picture so badly needs even when she’s playing chess with her dog.

Keanu fares better as the architect who gets more upbeat when he feels that true love is coming into his life, especially after he gets a copy of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, which Sandra leaves behind in a train station. Fairly adequate in supporting roles are Christopher Plummer as Keanu’s imperious dad who built the lake house many years ago for his mom and Shohreh Agdashloo (House Of Sand And Fog) as Sandra’s doctor friend and understanding boss.

Don’t worry, though, as the vehicle has the obligatory and conventional happy ending. Still, it feels so tacked-on, only the truly gullible will be satisfied with it.
What the film really succeeds in doing is displaying the beautiful architecture of the facades of various homes and buildings in Chicago that are shown here in abundance.


They’re definitely even more wonderful than the glass lake house referred to in the title. And if only for that, the movie may still be worth seeing.

Owie Smowie, watch na watch na ako!