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Showing posts from April, 2011

500 Films: #8 Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 (Subtitle: Which only reminds me of The Chipmunk Adventure)

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I have fond memories of The Chipmunk Adventure movie when I was a kid, so I was eager to see how they would bring in the Chipettes. They were cute. Part of the draw to this film was also Charice's appearance in the talent show. (I think it's a psychological need to be interested in something that involves Filipino fame and talent. We're a small, so-called third world country, and therefore, quite insecure. We look for pride and significance in the little things.) She felt kind of out-of-place in that movie. But that's just me. Anyway, story was pretty predictable by the time the bad guy (who was also the bad guy from the first movie) popped up. Had to fast forward a couple of times, mainly to see where Charice came in. I'm now missing the Chipmunk movie. Plot was original, all the songs were fresh and fit the standard Chipmunk voice without being annoying. It was very entertaining. (Plus, cartoon Dave was cute! Like a mature, high-strung, regular guy, non-...

500 Films: #7 An American Girl - Chrissa Stands Strong (Subtitle: Thoughts on Bullying)

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A movie I caught on HBO, about a newly-moved fourth grader who starts at a new school and gets bullied by a group of mini-"Mean Girls" in her class. Two of whom are blonde. One is Indian. Guess which one grows a conscience later on in the movie. I didn't watch this thoroughly the first time. Personally, I don't like movies that humiliate the lead characters. It stresses me out, emotionally, so I tend to avoid them. Paul finished watching it though, and he told me how the happy ending eventually came about. So when I switched to HBO a few days later and saw it on, I decided to stick around. I won't talk so much about the movie anymore as I think most of the production values are moot for its type of film. It's a, I'm assuming, made-for-TV family drama. The point isn't how good it is, but how well it delivers its "moral lesson". In this case, the story was about being strong against bullying. I grew up watching American shows, and bullying has ...

500 Films: #6 Lincoln Lawyer (Subtitled: Bad Posters Don't Always Equate a Bad Movie)

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Before I start with describing how the movie was, two things. First, this movie was part of our usual Saturday night movie dates. I thought we were going to watch Limitless, the one with Bradley Cooper. I found out about the change the day of, wondering, "What?" because I've never heard of the movie before. Never saw the trailer. Saw the poster when we arrived in Greenbelt, which made me raise my eyebrows. "Why are we watching this? There's Hop on cinema 5 and Source Code on cinema 2 if Limitless wasn't available." But really, my reaction was because of the poster. You know how I tend to prejudge movies by their trailers? I do that, too, on a lesser scale, but with their posters. (I'm a preconceived-notion-bitch. But I'm open-minded. Eventually. I guess that should be contradictory somehow.) Which brings me to the second thing: That poster. I googled that pic for this blog post and imagine my surprise. You see, the one that hung in the theater ad...