Life, Travel, GRACE

After watched the movie, probably everyone is trying to understand the logic and sequence of the story like me. For a start, I have to satisfy with my own explanation, especially for the ending scene although I’ve read some articles about the interpretation of this movie. In a same timeline, two events happen concurrently. Surely, this must have been the product of the alternate universe, after the occurrence of the first event (the forward timeline). In order for the second event (the inverted timeline) to occur, a new alternate universe has to be created (like Avengers Endgame). Whatever happens, happens. But wait, the movie’s explanation is about reverse entropy. Entropy itself is already not easy to grasp. To invert entropy, one needs additional external work, for an open system. Maybe the best solution is to follow the movie’s advice: don’t try to understand it, feel it.

There were a few good movies to be considered recently. Joker was one of them, and I don’t think I need to write more about it as there are many good reviews out there. My guess is Joker could be nominated for a few categories in next year Oscar, from acting to cinematography and musical score. On the other hand, Ad Astra has not been getting a decent review or writeup. In fact, the movie is so underrated. Probably due to how it was marketed. People might think it is an adventure sci-fi movie. In my opinion, it’s more toward drama, same genre as Interstellar . It is about self-searching as the main protagonist search for his estranged father. There are a few glimpses on what it may look like for future space travel - no frill space travel, exploration of moon and beyond. I would prefer that the script to have more emphasis on relationship between his estranged wife too, and the longing of receiving fatherly love.

With late screening date and a few cut scenes, I couldn't lament more. At least the movie get its screening slots in this country. The structure of the movie is quite different compared to Bohemian Rhapsody. It revolves the retelling of the upbringing and life of the singer (Elton John). With every major scene, a selected song is fitted appropriately. The choreography is good too. Definitely one of the must-watch movies this year, if you like music.

Was away to China for 3 weeks last month. The first I wanted to do was to catch this movie after came back. One of the best, if not the best movie of this year. Because of this movie, I've become a "partial" fan of Queen (as I like some of their tunes but not all). Although some important parts have been censored by the national censorship (related to LGBT element), it still delivers a stellar storyline with good musical performances. Now, one would weigh if next year Rocketman is going to be as good as this.

Watched this year Academy's Best Picture - The Shape of Water recently and fell in love with its score and music. After all, it also won the Best Original Score. It's a very simple story - love, hope and victory. Probably that's the ingredient of winning. On the other hand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri has my upmost reverence. In my opinion, it should have won The Best Picture. The problem with this movie is that the theme of love and hope is not there. In fact, it's a movie full of hatred, revenge and foul language. But in the end, it turns out to be redemption and acceptance. Probably that could be the reason for not getting The Best Picture. And its score and music are better than The Shape of Water. Well, that's probably my personal taste.

Having watched the new Star Wars movie on the sneak preview showing, I must say the movie was very well done. Although a lot of Star Wars fans have different opinion and comments, I thought the way the movie goes is to pave a new trend for the future trilogy. You see, any particular character can't stay for so long, thus, most of the important characters are being slowly written off from the current trilogy. But the essence of life is worth mentioning: hope, the good, mentorship. One important truth (in my opinion) that is presented is the economy of war. You see, this is the current fact of our lives. Someone will take advantage on any circumstances, especially during conflict or war. Selling weapons and military stuff is just a part of a bigger economy. The Last Jedi has truly brought out the very nature of human (and other galactic species?). It all lies on the choices available.

I never thought I would watch this documentary film in movie theatre, and at a premium. Turned out the whole hall I was the only audience. That speak so much about the choice of moviegoers. In this sequel, Al Gore presents some new statistic but with more narrative on his work and movement. The central theme of the film focuses on the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement 2016. The film was released recently, right after President Trump decided to have USA pulled out from the agreement. At the same time, the North America continent is experiencing two or more damaging hurricanes (Harvey and Irma). Coincidence? It's a good documentary. But I think the previous Inconvenient Truth is more engaging. We have to take our part to stop the global warming. Support green energy movement.

You gotta watch this movie in IMAX. With intense soundtrack and great filming photography, you will be hooked. It's a very very simple movie - evacuation of troops from a place called Dunkirk. Very minimal dialogue but the acting is sufficient to portrait the scene. The story is depicted in three scenarios with different time frame but each event is interwoven. Very interesting indeed. My guess is this movie should be nominated for its cinematography, editing and soundtrack. By the way, I still prefer Interstellar. Maybe because I'm from science stream education background.

Not a new movie. It has been released for a while. Just got to watch it on HBO lately (was it HBO, or Fox Movie? Never mind which channel). Superb acting by Helen Mirren and Alan Rickman. And know that this is Alan's last movie before he passed away. You should've seen him in all the Harry Potter's movies. Back to this movie, besides the good acting, the plot and the development of the storyline are excellent. Gripping and intense. This is the warfare of the modern day where drone is used to surveil. Decision is made based on the image channelled via the drone or bug. Pretty interesting. When military people decides to take out the life of a group of terrorists (including the suicide bomber in this movie), protocol comes in. Every decision made has to be weighed for its consequences in terms of collateral damage, legal implications, diplomatic consequences and humanity. In the end, the ultimate purpose outweight the rest, where some distortion or improvisation acts are incl...

I did not watch volume 1. Thought it was another money-sucking-superheroes-movie. Then I came across its soundtrack. I got hooked. The selection of songs for the soundtrack was very well done. That was volume one. Now, recently I listened to the soundtrack of volume two. Again, I was hooked. Those 70's and 80's songs were great and well fitting with the movie. Because I like its soundtrack, so I watched the movies (both vol.1 and vol.2). I must say vol. 2 has more humor and better characters development. Initially I thought vol. 1 soundtrack is better. After watched the movie, vol. 2 soundtrack is not too bad. Great songs from the 70's and 80's. Awesome mix!

At first, I thought the movie title was a bit odd. Then only did I know it's a musical film. I enjoyed my previous view of Chicago (2002) last few years (watched in the flight). It was the best musical movie I had so far. It really deserves the Oscar's best picture. Now back to this latest movie, La La Land. It's not too bad either. Although the number of songs is not as many as in Chicago. They are very easy to the ears - simple and nice. The plot of the movie is also quite simple. It tells of two people, where they meet, and fall in love. But each of them also has their dream. Now, to achieve one's dream, one may need to sacrifice. And that's how the story goes. The opening scene is one of the best parts. It leads you to the mood that you will want more. I predict this movie will at least win the Oscar's in cinematography and costume design. Not sure about the best picture -  there was one part I felt bored, maybe I was too tired though.

Watched this movie during the flight to UAE last month. Well, actually I could have watched it in my previous Malaysia Airline flight to South Korea but decided not to as the subtitle has already taken up quarter of the in-flight screen. Anyway, this is a really really good movie. Probably one of the best movies I've ever watched, although it didn't win the best picture in Oscar. It won for the best cinematography and best director though. Totally agree with the judges' choice. Good acting by the main actor, Leonardo DiCaprio as well. The movie tells about the survival of a frontiersman, after being attacked by a bear, then left by the team members, witnessing the murder of his son, and then seeks for revenge. At the end, he comes to a clear conscience that "revenge is in the Creator's hands". Kinda bit biblical. It's a dramatic yet adventurous kind of movie. Was very pleasant to follow the entire story.

Watched this movie last Saturday. It's a prequel to A New Hope . What I like about this movie is that it has continuation to Star Wars IV. So it's sort like a missing link to the big picture. It has a simple story - how the rebel retrieve the plan of the Death Star. There's not much character development here. Even though the focus is on Jynn Erso, I feel that the director could do more to expand the side of her story. The music score is not memorable. Probably due to shorter time frame to compose and arrange by new composer. I think John Williams could do better. On the downside, the producer had somehow "cheated' the fans - there're at least 12 scenes from the trailers which do not appear in the movie. They must have done a massive re-shooting. Well, if you didn't see the trailers, then the movie is not that bad. Even if you have seen it, if you take into the account of the story, it does serve a good plot. Again it is the good guy vs bad guy theme, where...

Who would have thought there would be Star Wars Episode VII after the conclusion of two trilogies? Well, anything can happen. And yes episode VII has been released last December. Went to watch it with the kids last month. Not sure if they really understood the story. But I guessed they should have enjoyed the flight scene. Anyway, I have not been writing about movie since end 2014. That's because I haven't been watching any movies. As far as I remember, I had Hotel Transylvania 2 , A Good Dinosaur and Star Wars: The Force Awakens . There are some good movies which I've missed out, like The Martian (anyway, I've just watched it online last night). So three movies for last year and all watched with the kids. Now, is Star Wars: The Force Awakens worth a watch? I would say yes. It's fresh and nostalgic. Unfortunately, the characters' development does not meet my expectation. I was expecting more. But maybe because it's a trilogy, so characters' developm...

Have not been writing for quite some time. Was busy with the new job. At last, everything almost completed. Some of the things need to be done intentionally, like watching a movie. I think I only watched 2 movies this year. The previous one was X-Men: Days of Future Past. That was a good movie. Anyway, I was expecting Interstellar since mid of the year. The movie was quite fresh. The feeling it's like when you watched Inception for the first time. Talking about science, they did it pretty much brilliantly. More attention was paid on the accuracy of the physics. Unfortunately, I still couldn't buy the idea when the "future" sent a message to the "past" and it was happening at the same time. Perhaps my understanding on time relativity is not deep enough. Gonna read Hawking's book then. In my opinion, the movie was trying to convey a question to us - whether should we focus on the advancement of science or human survival. And both works side by side as port...

Well, the following movies are not the movies of the year as acclaimed by the mainstream movie review. Since I've only watched two movies this year, so they have come into my movies-of-the-year list. Is not that I don't want to watch movies but finding the time away from kids for movie seeing is near impossible in this and perhaps next one or two years. The most anticipated movie of the year is the sequel and completion of The Dark Knight. It was good that the director / writer has decided to end the story in 3 series only. Unlike other superhero movies, you may have unfinished story. Thus, this sequel was timely told. If you have watched the first two series, you may notice there's a continuation theme. In the first movie, we were introduced with the origin of fear and the purpose of fear. In the second movie, chaos was the main theme. This was paired with sacrifice. The third instalment focused on hope. Although the third instalment may not be as good as the second...

We had watched a few movies over the past one month. Two of them are notable and in its own class. X-men: First Class was some sort of a reboot for the X-men franchise. It tells the story of the origin of the X-men team. The story evolves around good vs evil, love vs hate, humanity vs survival, discrimination vs acceptance. It offers great acting and good plot too. Definitely won't disappoint you. I would say it's comparable with Star Trek (2009) in terms of fresh idea. Now we know why Professor X is in the wheel chair and how Magneto got his helmet. Super 8 is not your regular superhero movie. The title itself simply me ans super 8mm film being used for the filming by a group of teenagers. While filming a scene at the train station, they witness a train accident. Apparently the train is carrying a precious cargo and the "thing" escapes. It has a plan. And so as the teenagers. If you like E.T. , this movie could give you some resemblances of it. Bear in mind, t...

By far this is the best Chinese movie in the list. It tells a story of a bandit posing as a city major in order to gain fortune. At the end, the act becomes a war deal between the bandit and the warlord of the city. Many film critics thought the movie has numerous metaphor. They might be true but I find the movie quite entertaining and in certain scenes it's humorous too. Perhaps the best script from the movie is this: 張麻子：「你說是錢對我重要，還是你對我重要？」　 黃四郎：「我」 張麻子：「再想想」 黃四郎：「不會是錢吧」 張麻子：「再想想」 黃四郎：「還是我重要」 張麻子：「你和錢對我都不重要，沒有你，對我很重要」 This is the metaphor between power and money. Perhaps it's a reflection of China's struggle as world power and greatest economy house. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

T his is a movie about Facebook. Don't expect to see love story or how-to-find-your-love type of movie. In fact, it tells the story behind the creation of Facebook. It was told that Facebook was created out of dissatisfaction and anger of Mark (the founder) after a breakup. Subsequently, he faced lawsuits from the creation of Facebook - illegal hacking of university's system, intellectual property, ownership of the corporation. Personally, the narration of the movie is quite fresh. Thanks to director David Fincher (he directed the previous Benjamin Button and Fight Club). At the end of the day, maybe we should emulate the creator passion and determination of doing what he thinks is right and then perfect it. And fight for what is yours. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A documentary about Afghan version of singing competition (a la American Idol). As reported, since 1979, the Afghan people have suffered foreign invasions, civil war and Taliban rule. During that time, music was considered disrespectful and sacrilegious by the ruling body (yup, Taliban). From 1996, it was a crime to dance, listen to music or even watch TV. In 2001, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was formed. In 2004, the first elections were held. Restrictions on music and dancing were lifted. Afghan Star is the country's first televised talent competition. Its first inception was in 2005 and the show is still running as of this year. Despite continuing conflict, the TV station is searching the country for a new generation of music stars. Male contestants outnumbered female contestants. Yet, the people support their favourite stars regardless of ethnic. The documentary features four contestants journey throughout the competition - their glory, fame and persecution. One of...