This novel of Lualhati Bautista always caught my eye whenever I find myself on a decent bookstore. Its mysterious appeal tickled my interest in one of the most dramatic eras of Philippine history, the Marcos era. The writer is one of the most respected writers of our time, and is a Palanca award winner.

It’s been a big question mark why it hasn’t won as the best screenplay in the Filmfest. No doubt as to say that Dekada 70 has a most heart-wrenchingly brilliant storyline. It let’s us be witness to the events in the life of a simple family during the tumultuous time of the 70′s. During the Marcos rule, the Martial Law, and during the struggles of the subversive fugitives. Piolo Pascual, (who deservingly won as best supporting actor) played the son who was adamant on foregoing with his leftist idealism and his nationalist struggle, despite the risk of tragedies which may strike and affect his entire family. It was particularly heart-wrenching during the scene when Piolo is seen coming out from a detention cell, damaged with marks of torture. It was far more wrenching when we see Christopher De Leon, the padre de pamilya, going berserk and screaming “Pinatay nila ang anak ko!” (they killed my child). De Leon convincingly played a father whose emotions and
decisions played a large game of risk and endure. Vilma Santos, who played the mother of the children, the only woman in a family of men, is the central character of the story. It seems that she has been the only strong character among the men in his life: his husband and his children, all of which has been clouded by their own weaknesses, their emotions and how they try to desperately hide it.

In lieu of continuing the events of Geoffrey Sax’s 2005 thriller White Noise (which starred Michael Keaton and Chandra West), the supernatural thriller White Noise 2 (released in Great Britain as White Noise: The Light) begins with a separate set of characters and explores a thematically similar set of events. Abe Dale (Nathan Fillion) is a sweet-natured, contented husband and father whose wife, Rebecca (Kendall Cross) and young son, Danny (Josh Ballard) are butchered by a seemingly crazed gunman. Henry Caine (Craig Fairbrass) bursts into a diner and shoots both of them, then turns the gun on himself.
Devastated, Abe makes an unsuccessful suicide bid, then awakens in a hospital, where he finds himself in a near death experience, pulled inexorably toward a bright light. Regaining consciousness, Abe discovers his sudden, newfound ability to spot “auras” around the living that signal death in advance. He uses the precognition to save several lives from potential disaster, as a kind of ‘avenging angel,’ but soon discovers that these interventions against death wreak exceedingly dire and ugly consequences on Earth.

Jodie Foster directs and co-stars with Mel Gibson in The Beaver – an emotional story about a man on a journey to re-discover his family and re-start his life. Plagued by his own demons, Walter Black was once a successful toy executive and family man who now suffers from depression. No matter what he tries, Walter can’t seem to get himself back on track…until a beaver hand puppet enters his life.
“The Beaver” is an unorthodox therapy session for Gibson’s Walter Black, a family man at the end of his rope who has a psychiatric break after finding a beaver hand puppet, a piece of cloth and fur that becomes an alter-ego helping him to work through his problems, at least initially.
As Walter and his beaver buddy delve deeper into the nature of depression, viewers likelywill ponder whether Gibson was exploring his own dark emotional recesses at the same time.
“The Beaver” would have been more effective without the tabloid trappings, if the story had been contained within the narrower and relatable confines of the Black family, which has been torn apart by Walter’s depression.
So much so, that as the film opens, his wife, Meredith (Foster), is kicking him out of the house for the good of their two sons, angry 17-year-old Porter (Anton Yelchin) and 7-year-old Henry (Riley Thomas Stewart).

An epic true story set against the backdrop of one of the wildest places on Earth, African Cats captures the real-life love, humor and determination of the majestic kings of the savanna. The story features Mara, an endearing lion cub who strives to grow up with her mother’s strength, spirit and wisdom; Sita, a fearless cheetah and single mother of five mischievous newborns; and Fang, a proud leader of the pride who must defend his family from a once banished lion.

This is another great movie for every member of the family. Every kid will enjoy each and every scene of it. It is really a big chance of the production outfit to produce such kind of movie. This is really a globally competitive and can be praised by different critics in the international scene.
Filming over 2½ years, directors Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey follow the lioness, who is injured defending against other lions and unable to keep up with the pack. But she wants to ensure the survival of her cub. The cheetah struggles to feed her young (kills are discreetly photographed) and protect them against predators.
Kids will love “African Cats,” which is full of “aw” moments. Their parents will appreciate that narrator Samuel L. Jackson keeps things from getting too schmaltzy in this true-life depiction of the circle of life.

One of the much awaited movies that was early this year was entitled “The Housemaid”. This is another great story which all made the viewers proud of. It doesn’t only twist on the good plots of the story but on how good things are passed in every character.

Eun-yi is an innocent young woman who is hired as an upper class family housemaid, and is tasked to take care of the family’s small daughter and her pregnant mother, Hae-ra. Byung-sik is an older housemaid who has been with this family for a long time and holds many secrets. But soon enough, the master of the house, Hoon, takes advantage of his social position by slipping into the new housemaid’s bed. Hoon’s visits become frequent and Byung-sik reports the affair to Hae-ra’s mother Mi-hee, who plots to give Hae-ra the control over her husband. Soon Eun-yi becomes pregnant by Hoon and wants to keep the baby. This is discovered by the family and Eun-yi is forced by Mi-hee to have an abortion despite the young woman’s pleas to let her keep the baby and leave the house. Her forced abortion turns Eun-yi’s already fragile mental condition for the worse and she decides to take the matter into her own hands.

The Weinstein Company presents this story of an American (John Cusack) in Shanghai who, through the investigation of the death of a friend, ends up falling in love while stumbling upon a political conspiracy in this period drama from 1408 helmer Mikael Håfström. Gong Li and Ken Watanabe co-star in the production, from a script supplied by Hossein Amini.
The film is a big vision, a vision of one of China’s oldest and largest cities but its a slow burner for sure so don’t get excited expecting lots of action, there are sequences of gun fighting and ‘mob’ type hits but for the most part this is mainly dialog in good looking locations. I’ll be honest, this film did get a touch boring throughout with many characters, changing relationships, alliances, crosses and much spy/espionage chat (you need to pay attention) but little spy/espionage thrills, what there is was short and sharp and benefits from excellent camera work.
It falters mainly towards the climax. You aren’t taken aback when you find out who’s the criminal. Besides it doesn’t make sense why X prefers to help Y who’s just attempted to hurt him badly instead of Z who wishes to redeem for his mistake by doing X a favor (which is clearly evident in the penultimate sequence). Cusack is a good actor and gives his best, but some actors simply don’t fit every bill. The rest of the casting was appropriate, though.

I’ve been a green lantern fan my whole life, and this movie was great, should have been longer and go into depth more on sinestro, kilowog, and tomar re, and fight scene with parallax should have been longer. As a true fan I was a little upset because Jordan wasn’t as arrogant and was kind of whiny in some parts which weren’t how he was in the books but still great. Ryan Reynolds was perfect for the part. Best super hero movie ever, a little better then the Dark Knight I think.
I saw the animated version prior to this. Good movie by Warner Bros. turning this timeless piece into a movie the visual effect are great!
This movie is a 10 because I said 10 times to myself “wow!”. I think this movie has deemed action read study love! Well seriously, the dynamite my body did when I saw this movie was like … ALL THE GREEN LIGHTS were like or … and you know what guys? It feels great because this movie has something that none other movie has. You know what is that?

Super 8 is a terrific movie! It’s a great way to spend 1hr.50 minutes at the theater. At times Super 8 can be sometimes tedious, and a weird, but with loads of action, and suspense, Super 8 is hard to hate! Super 8 doesn’t fail, but Super 8 wins for its entertaining action, edge- of-your-seat suspense, and jump-out-of-your-seat scares/moments. Super 8 wins because it also has everything that most teens and adults will enjoy: action, suspense, bizzare creatures, with some very funny humorous moments! See Super 8 today, trust me it’s a really good movie!
I give Super 8 an A- for its terrific action, edge-of-your-seat suspense, jump-out-of-your-seat scares/moments, and for it’s very humorous scenes. Go See Super 8 today! Trust me it’s a great film! You’ll love it!
All of the actors seemed better in Super 8 then those featured in Cloverfield. Kyle Chandler has gotten critical praise across the board for his performance in Friday Night Lights, and he does good with what he was given here, but he could have been given just a tad bit more dialogue and emotional scenes to showcase his talent on the big screen. The kids in the film lead by Elle Fanning are the best part of the film. Their curiosity as budding young filmmakers is exactly the way any kid would be; with a few things they do being a bit over the top and outrageous but like Charles says in the moving “It adds production value”

One of the timeless superheroes and heroines are Marvel’s X-Men. This year, the production outfit has decided to produce a film which tells the starting point od the formation of the X-Men. This is for the sake of the younger generations who also love this kind of genre.
The focus of the film is on that of Michael Fassbender’s character of Magneto. Fassbender did a tremendous job in portraying this young hero ultimately turned villain. The secondary focus is on that of James McAvoy’s Charles Xavier, later known as Professor X. He also does a superlative job in his portrayal of this well known X-Men character.
This film contains great action sequences, and the mutants abilities are implemented in very unique ways by director Matthew Vaughn. From an anchor being lifted by Magneto and smashing a boat, to the X-Men intervening in the Cuban Missile Crises is very awesome. Perhaps the most spectacular scene in the film as witnessed in the trailer is Magneto lifting a Russian Submarine, this is purely miraculous and very well done.

This film is well done. Kenneth Branagh has delivered a very well balanced film that is filled with a theme of redemption. Redemption is in the sense that Thor abandons his pride and gains humility while on earth.
In order to gain his humility Thor must overcome several internal and external conflicts. Two of those afflictions are Loki and the Destroyer.
The acting in the film is superlative. Seeing Anthony Hopkins as Odin is quite a sight, and it is quite mesmerizing. This film does well in tying in with the Avengers which is due May 2012. Chris Hemsworth did a tremendous job in playing Thor, but perhpas the most captivating actor within the film was Tom Hiddleston as Loki. He was completely convincing in his capturing of the characters maliciousness and mischief. I applaud Kenneth Branagh for his effort in genuinely producing Thor, while at the same time modernizing him. Essentially Thor is the hybridization of cinematic poetry and superhero mythology and it makes for a great film.
At the center of the story is The Mighty Thor, a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. Thor is cast down to Earth and forced to live among humans as punishment. Once here, Thor learns what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of his world sends the darkest forces of Asgard to invade Earth.