Love this movie, its funny, its witty, its got a fantastic setting! The story goes when Nancy Brown, a secretary, falls for Mr. Block (I think that's how you spell it), her employer. However, Nancy is geeky and is dismissed, in many ways. She's not looked at twice and literally dismissed (I think, didn't catch the first part). Anyway, she vows to get Mr. Block so she becomes Barbara Novak. Barbara Novak is a country girl and writes the feminist book "Down With Love". Down With Love states the boundaries, the rules of love a woman should abide by. That includes equal rights, standing up to men and not being push overs instead of the housewife who did all the cleaning and cooking, didn't have a bright future.

Before her book became a bestseller, she tried to meet with Mr. Block countless times. However, each time, Mr. Block would stand her up as he went off with another woman for "private time". Enough is enough and Barbara then ceases to contact Mr. Block vowing to get his attention. Her editor and friend, Vicky, then takes her to see her book sales. They find only a single book on the shelf in a store and Barbara is dissapointed. Vicky then manages a show to air a segment to promote the book.

It becomes an instant hit with women across the globe and Mr. Block finally notices her, especially when Barbara disreputes him on TV. Mr. Block then comes up with a plan to uncover Barbara in a scandalous story by showing her to go against her own rules of love. After coming up with a pseudo character and managing to court her, he goes in for the kill. However, Vicky learns of the plot and comes in to stop Barbara from being exposed. Barbara is aware of what is happening and goes to let everything be recorded on the tape Mr. Block had set up to record their encounter for his expose. She tells him everything, from Nancy Brown to Barbara Novak, knowing he would come up with a plan to expose him.

After she tells him everything, the PI he hired calls to tell him Barbara Novak doesn't exist. She is a person called Nancy Brown. However, Mr. Block then says that he has fallen for Barbara. In a surprise twist, she says yes but then rejects him. Over the next few weeks, Mr. Block pursues her with no luck. He learns that Barbara has set up her own corporation and goes to be interviewed to become a secretary. She is rather cold towards him and dismisses him early on. In contrast to an earlier occurance, he counts to four waiting for Barbara to appear from behind him and call out for him. As he counts on to six, he realises he doesn't have the power he did before. As the elevator doors open though, Barbara is in there waiting for him and they go on to marry and co-author a book together.

I like the setting which is between the 1920s and 1940s. It has that oldish feel to it and if I'm not wrong, that's when women in America campaigned for more rights such as the rights to vote in elections. The story is fitting. And I think that the screen writer must have had such foresight to look at the setting and utilise it for the story. Awesome.

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Recently, watching The Blair Witch Project at midnight, alone was not a good idea. Haha. Scared my wits man! But really must thank Mesh for lending me the VCD. I liked the concept of Blair Witch which uses two types of "shots". Or rather shot sequences. There are those done with the home video camera in colour and those that were filmed for the documentary the three students were producing.

The show's premise is that three film students set out to Burkitsville, Maryland to film a documentary on the legendary Blair Witch. They set off happily into the woods where the rumoured Blair Witch resides to investigate and film their documentary. During the first night, they hear some mysterious sounds which freak them out horribly. The next morning they come across piles of stones, which explained earlier during an interview with a local, meant that they were targeted by the Blair Witch. Continuing on, they seem lost and camp again for the night.

That night, the sounds return, louder than before. The students are getting uneasy. Over the course of the next few days, they get hopelessly lost and come across more weird things. One of them vanishes one day and the next day a "package" is deposited outside the students' tent. Heather, one of the students, opens the package to find a cloth soaked with blood. Fresh blood.

During the night, they find a house. Creepily, they hear someone shouting for help. Assuming it is their lost friend, they search the house from top to bottom when suddenly we see one of the cameras simply drop to the ground. Has the Blair Witch got him? Heather runs around screaming her head off, trying in vain to find her friend. She comes across the camera lying on the floor and we see an eery figure against the wall. She freezes and soon her camera too is knocked down, leading viewers to believe that all three students are attacked by the unseen Blair Witch.

The movie uses footage from the two cameras to narate the film. Blair Witch uses the unknown and unseen to scare the viewer although the part with the voodoo dolls is disturbing. The camera shots on the other hand are unproffesional - they're expected to be. Lots of sudden pans and dropping as though the actors were really students doing a home video and then shooting some parts of the documentary. I found the film disturbing and took at least 2 hours to watch 80 minutes of film. Good horror flick. Shivers.

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2046 is about Mr. Chow, a story he wrote and his experiences he gained from it. Its pretty complicated.

The movie was interesting, even cinematically. It had some interesting shots. Like there was one segment about Mr. Wang's daughter and she was saying things like "Good", "Sure" but they only showed her feet. Her foot movements made it seem as though she were dancing.

There was also this shot somewhere near the beginning of the story, it was rather blur but the movement sort of focused later on. The shot of the tear drop later on was also different.

What I noticed was that the story was narrated by the same guy, but at different points in time, there were mini stories about different people he met. And these were in chronological order.

Later on, there are some shots of clouds which I thought were really cool. But what is more interesting was the way Wong Kar Wai told the story. It sure went on a big detour but it was different. He began the movie at the front of Mr. Chow's story, then detoured to explain HOW the story came about, making a round back to the begining of the novel he wrote. 2047.

The story then jumps between Mr. Chow's real life and the story 2047, which I thought was done in a rather tasteful way since it showed what real life experiences influenced his novel.

Although the movie was rated NC16, my mom thinks I was watching X-rated movies.

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Sky High is about a kid. Yeah, normal. Till you know who his 'rents are. They're the top super heroes in the world. So, well, as you can expect... He IS supposed to have super powers. Only, when he starts super hero high school, he still doesn't know what they are. That is...

Until he gets into a fight. His dad's arch enemy's son who is sore about his dad being put in jail. So, main character I'm talkign about, Will Stronghold, is moved to the Hero class from the Side-kick one. And he has to leave his friends back there. Enter the hero class. All the bitchiness starts. Doesn't help that he is infactuated with this girl called Gwen who is one of the most popular girls in school.

So that results in the tearing of a friendship between Will and his old friends. But what IS a stronger friendship? One of popularity? Or one of true friendship? As expected from Disney, Gwen turns out to the be the bad guy, and the arch enemy's son turns to be the good guy. Will repairs his friendship with his buddies and his old friend turned enemy turned friend again becomes his girl. Ah, fairy tale ending.

Cinematically? Well, total Disney movie. Expect all the usual shots, with little variation or creativity. Don't expect Mise-en-scenes from this movie. Expect plasticity and those model thingies. Heheh. But Sky High is entertaining, don't get me wrong. Is it just me, or do Singaporeans NOT get humour when they see it?

About Will not having his super powers clearly defined, his mom Josie remarks to his dad Steve...
"So maybe we won't be the Stronghold three, the most famous family in the world. But we WILL be the Stronghold three, the most famous family in the world!"
Laugh people! Laugh here!!! No need cue cards, lol.

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Went to watch the Da Vinci Code with Shawn & Phyllis on 1st June. Okay, judgement time. As always, they say the book is better. The story seemed rushed and although I have never read the book, I can say the movie left out the details that the book had. The book seemed richer in content and description.

Cinematically, the shots were varied. But then again, nothing outstandingly impressive. There was a lot of use of virtualness in the movie which was something unique I'd say. Like he parts where they showed what Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) was thinking. The orb that should be on the grave thingy part, and all the diagrams of the solar system and what not done by Isaac Newton. I'm not here to attack the story, I'm here to describe the movie experience.

Some shots like the shots of the well were okay. I wonder how they did that. Heh. Overall, not too bad. Only maybe a little over dramatised.

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I walked away feeling rather unsettled. I didn't know that there was a continuation after the credits. I feel so cheated now. Sigh. Nevermind, I shall try to be as unbiased as possible (disregarding personal feelings at the moment).

X-Men was enjoyable. I didn't plan on watching it. But the story line was not bad, it wasn't great either. I just feel like I should've watched the other 2 movies to understand it better. Maybe I would have.

Cinematically, wonderful effects. Like Storm's weather inducing abilities. And the lake scenes with Scott were good. But, gah, things happen. X-Men, they become decimated. Which was why I felt unsettled. So many died. So many withered. How can they BE the X-Men any more???

Getting back to shots. Some were really good. The Golden Gate part was. There was this scene, a white room with a caucasian guy dressed in white and the blue guy in black. I thought that the colouring struck out very much. White representing the pure humans, black the mutants? Hmmm, something to think about. By the way, who's the director eh?

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Today Ms. Kwa screened Memento to us. My verdict? I Love, Love, Love Memento! The way they edited the movie was uber cool and very new. Its a new narrative style. What Ms. Kwa said is true. It needs a lot of patience to understand the story.

The story in general... Its about a guy, Leonard. He has a condition, short term memory loss, not anemia. He forgets new memories easily, so he takes polaroid photos to help him in his memory. He writes down short notes on things he should remember. He's also trying to find the killer of his wife years ago.

What is really interesting (and also makes it harder to follow) is that the story is done in two halves that interwine with each other. I'd compare it to a DNA double helix. Heh, sounds complicated eh? Okay, basically it shows one shot in reverse chronology followed by another in chornological order. These keep alternating from two ends of the story. The end and the beginning and they meet at the end. The end, as in, the middle of the story if you've paid attention.

The chronological shots are done in black and white and the reverse chronological ones in colour. This helps the viewer distinguish the two sets of narratives. It features discontinuous narrative/editing. That is what makes it unique.

I give Memento 4.5 out of 5. One word of advise: Take a day when you have time to watch and digest the story.

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Working on the Group Discussion leading for HFTV on Monday, Shawn & I decided to watch a French New Wave film by Francois Truffault called The 400 Blows.

The movie was supposed to be an autobiography of his life. A mirror of his I guess. It centres around this kid, called Antoine Doinel. He doesn't really like to study in school and does badly. Pretty mischevious, heh. Well, guess the teachers built up a perception that he was a naughty kid from past experience.

Not much different at home. His mom doesn't really treat him that well, she thinks he's a nuisance. In fact, his step dad cares more about him than his mom does. Ha! And they want him to do well. Fast forward a little. He skips school, has a nice day all over Paris. There was this shot of a Centrifuge ride that didn't seem to fit into the story at all. Heh, even film makers digress.

And he goes to school next day, says his mom died. And, guess who turns up at school? That's right! Mom and dad. Heh, busted! And he leaves home, his mom misses him and takes him home. He tries to be good but its no good. The teacher's perception is set and even though he really tried to do something good for his composition, he's still the lowest scorer in class.

He goes to sleep over at his friend's place, steals a type writer thinking that they could pawn it. But, unfortunately they couldn't and he gets caught when returning it. Its his dad's office, step-dad I mean, and gets sent to the police station. His parents have had enough of him and he is sent to a juvenile deliquency centre.

When playing soccer, the ball goes out of the field and he volunteers to throw it back in for his team. After that, he dashes towards the fence and ducks underneath it and escapes the facility. The last shot shows him at the sea, something he's wanted to see for so long. The frame freezes and zooms in on Antoine's still face.

I really liked the closing shot, that close up still and the words "FIN" slowly appearing on it. Classic! References to other movies and a director were also made. Like Jacques Rivette's film "Paris Belongs To Us", another French New Wave film. And Claude Chabrol was also mentioned, in a rather humorous way. A teacher calls out in the yard, "Chabrol, you need any help?". Why humourous? I think it sorta refers to Chabrol needing help with his films, lol. All in all, 400 blows was a satisfying open ended movie. I like French movies!

Also watched bits of Pulp Fiction, Resevior Dogs and Kill Bill vol. 1. I like Tarantino's style of using anime in his films. Nice!

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