Away….

Up up and away….

I have decided to transfer all my reviews to Coffee Milk (formerly Espresso Break). Please, if you linked me…. kindly change the link and I shall link you over there.

I still have to think what I would place here.

Thanks!!

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Arahan – 2004

Category: Movies

Genre: Action

Director: Seung-wan Ryoo

This is about the Seven Masters of Tao meeting up with Sang-Hwan(Seung-beom Ryu). Sang Hwan was a police officer who wants to catch every offender in the city. Even if it is an official of the city. Always, scolded by his boss about failed attempts of catching by his boss. He was sent to the remaining Five of Seven Masters of Tao because he was injured when he tried to catch the robber by Wi-jin(So-yi Yoon) who was the daughter of one of the Tao. Amazingly, Sang-Hwan possessed a very strong Qi which he does not know even if he does it, and they believed he can be a powerful warrior.

All in all it was a fun movie.Very “Koreanesque” humor.

My favorite part was when Wi-jin touched the energy points of the enemy and made them pause. Funny, Funny. 🙂

I watched this movie twice already. One last year and one more time this year.

Danish Butter Cookies

Category: Food

I have eaten and got to taste this butter cookie when I was 15. I think my mom got it when she went to the States.

While we were doing our grocery over at SM Supermarket I saw the same butter cookies that I really like… and I can still remember how it tastes like. Funny, that was the effect the cookie had on me.

It was not sweet or anything and not salty… it was buttery and it has a dose of vanilla as well which I really like.

]

I asked my mom if she can buy me one tin (and the tin is actually a good container for your memorabilia).

I’m sure I will try to let my mom buy me one again sometime this month or next month. It’s yum a great pair for myyyyy coffee and a good snack while I read a good book. 🙂

Saw II – 2005

Category: Movies

Genre: Horror

Directed by: Darren Lynn Bousman

Written by: Leigh Whannell and Darren Lynn Bousman

Tagline: We Dare You Again…

Detective Eric Matthew’s (Donnie Wahlberg) son Daniel Matthews (Erik Knudsen) was trapped by Jigsaw (the killer!) along with three other women and four men at a place virtually unknown by the police (unless they can track it down). At the same time the people who were trapped by Jigsaw inhaled a lethal nerve gas which would weaken and kill them slowly.

Jigsaw is a brilliant mastermind behind these series of live or die games he loves to play to test the human fiber.

I don’t pretty much like movies that have too much blood or movies that would make you feel sorry for the victims of a lunatic like Jigsaw. But, this one was pretty much O.K. It was gross on most of the parts and all that…. and somehow Jigsaw’s reasoning was out of the ordinary and would probably make sense.. but as to how he was testing the people was just purely inhumane… but that was the point of the whole movie. The movie is all about surviving and of course to test your will to live.

During the whole of the movie.. I kept muttering: “Oh you stupid dummy! Why do you have to go inside that.. it’s obvious it’s a trap!!” referring to the part when the police raided Jigsaw’s base. The movie makes you paranoid when a person opens a door and your mind would wonder over flying daggers or something.

What I like about it is the twist of the story and of course the end part would sure be a giveaway for a Saw III. 🙂

for me it would be 3 since I don’t like too much blood.. but for the sake of the story.. I’m giving it a four.

The Illusionist – 2006

Category: Movie

Genre: Mystery

Director: Neil Burger

Writers: Neil Burger (screenplay), Steven Millhauser (Eisenheim the Illusionist)

Tagline: Nothing is what it Seems.

Starring: Edwan Norton, Jessica Biel and Paul Giamatti

Awards: Nominated for Oscar. 4 Wins and 5 Nominations.

This is actually based on Steven Millhauser’s story called Eisenheim the Illusinonist.

This is a story about a man named Eisenheim in the 1900’s in Vienna. He was a son of a cabinetmaker. When he was still young he met an old man under the tree and there the man performed magic tricks right before his eyes and vanished before him.

Chief Inspector Uhl: As a boy, I’m told, he had a chance encounter with a travelling magician. One version of the story was that the man himself vanished… along with the tree. People began to think he had some sort of special power… or at least that he was a bit different. And then he met her.

He became obsessed with magic tricks and began practicing it and people thought of him as weird.

He also fell in love with Sophie (Jessica Biel), a duchess who was pretty much above his social standing. They were separated and he travelled the world to learn more magic tricks.

It was very captivating from beginning to end.

I really like the way he does his magic in the movie, specially the one about the Orange Tree which was about defying time. It was just sooo amazing. It was pretty unusual, but I believe it could be possible if one focuses their mind into it.

The story gets tricky in the middle of the movie (although I figured it all out before the movie ended and was not a challenge for me) but nevertheless I like it much.

In the movie they showed a necklace made by Eisenheim which was ingeniously made and I want one. Haha. I’ll look for it… muwahaaha. Well.. not exactly the one that turns into a locket because that one would be pretty impossible.. I just like the wooden style of the necklace… hayyy anyone who sells that kind of necklace?

Cinematography was good. Really really good. I like the transitions. [ I can’t get the wooden necklace out of my mind still ]. Hehe

Trivia from IMDB and Wikipedia:

• So that the crew would not have to use CGI to “fake” the magical illusions seen in the movie, Norton received intensive training in sleight of hand and other stage magic techniques from British magician James Freedman^[6] and American magician Ricky Jay
• The character of Eisenheim is closely based on the magician and supposed clairvoyant Erik Jan Hanussen, who was famous in Vienna in the early part of the 20th century and was murdered by Nazi soldiers in 1933.
• The trick of the Orange Tree was invented by a 19th Century French magician named Robert-Houdin.
• At the end of the movie, in the train station, electric wires can be seen above the train tracks. These electric wires did not exist in Austria until 1912.

Movie Lines I like:

• Josef: Life and death. Space and time. Fate and chance. Theses are the forces of the universe. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you a man who has unlocked these mysteries. From the furthest corners of the world where the dark arts still hold sway he returns to us to demonstrate how nature’s laws may be bent. I give you Eisenheim.
• Eisenheim: From the moment we enter this life we are in the flow of it. We measure it and we mock it, but we cannot defy it. We cannot even speed it up or slow it down. Or can we? Have we not each experienced the sensation that a beautiful moment seemed to pass to quickly, and wished that we could make it linger? Or felt time slow on a dull day, and wished that we could speed things up a bit?
• Eisenheim: I thought we might end this evening with a discussion of the soul. All of the greatest religions speak of the soul’s endurance before the end of life. So what then does it mean to die?

Thin Red Line – 1998

Category: Movies

Genre: War

Director: Terrence Mallick

Writers: James Jones (novel), Terrence Mallick (screenplay)

Tagline: Every man fights his own war

Awards:

Nominated for 7 Oscars. Another 17 wins & 19 nominationsThis tells us the story of United States forces during the Battle of Guadalcanal in World War II. This was adapted from the novel of the same name by James Jones.

A group of young soldiers were brought as a relief for the battle-weary Marine units.

Most of the scenes were at the hill and above it the Japanese soldiers built a bunker and anyone who tries to pass through it would have a hard time since the Japanese above can see everything and the people below would not be able to see that much. Here you would see how each soldier (specially first timers) would feel during the battles. How hesitant others would be to charge the enemy and sometimes fear gets to them too. Most of the film focuses on the views of each soldiers and their personal life. How each struggle to fight at the brink of fear.

The movie shows a couple of animals and focuses them at one point, like a bird, the snake, and other animals.The bird dying shows that not only humans suffered through the war but the birds as well.  Hehe.

It’s a good movie. If you are war-movie person this is for you. It may seem confusing at first…. but the narration is pretty good… you’d get lots of wonderful insights about war there.

Trivia/Fun Facts Courtesy of IMDB:

• Three actors from Casualties of War (1989) are in this film: ‘Sean Penn’ , John C. Reilly, and Don Harvey. Although they are all higher in rank in this film, Reilly and Harvey are once again under Sean Penn’s command.
• Producers Robert Michael Geisler and John Roberdeau fell out with director Terrence Malick during pre-production. By the time they were filming, their relationship had so deteriorated that Malick barred them from visiting the set.
• Geisler and Roberdeau said they would attend the Oscars ceremony. Malick said if they were going to attend, he would stay home. Neither Geisler and Roberdeau nor Malick attended the Oscars. The movie won no awards.

Quotes:

Capt. Staros: I’ve lived with these men, sir, for two and a half years and I will not order them all to their deaths.

Pvt. Jack Bell: [voice over] We. We together. One being. Flow together like water. Till I can’t tell you from me. I drink you. Now. Now.

Private Witt: Maybe all men got one big soul everybody’s a part of, all faces are the same man.

Private Witt: Do you ever feel lonely?
First Sgt. Welsh: Only around people.

Private Witt: [narrating] War don’t ennoble men. It turns them into dogs… poisons the soul.

Pirates of the Carribean 3 – At World’s End – 2007

Category: Movies

Genre: Adventure

Directed By: Gore Verbinski

Cast: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Jack Davenport, Bill Nighy, Chow Yun Fat, Jonathan Pryce, and more.

Tagline: At the End of the World, the Adventure Begins

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action/adventure violence and some frightening images.

This is the third part after The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) and The Dead Man’s Chest (2006).

I love this one because it’s a Disney production and and and… it’s a Jerry Bruckheimer film! Muwahaha. As if it makes sense.

On a serious note.. I love the movie from beginning till the end. [ Although, I still think Part II, Dead Man’s Chest is funnier ]

I kinda like the sad beginning where the kid who was about to be executed sang a song known by pirates titled Hoist the Colours and then it lead to Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) singing the same song while rowing at a canal in Singapore to meet up with other pirate’s as well. The first part was to bring Jack Sparrow back from Davy Jone’s Locker which is not easy to bring back unlike Captain Barbossa since both his body and soul was taken with him.

There are a lot of interesting characters in this movie as well since the world’s pirates gathered for a meeting of their brotherhood known as the Brethren Court, that consisted of nine (Sao Feng, Barbossa, Jack, and other pirates of different races African, Arab and Indian) pirate lords. Jack’s father who is/was King of the Brethren Court made his appearance at the meeting as well, and he sure acts funny like Jack.. now you know where Jack got his attitude. Muwahaha.

Whenever Jack Sparrow is around so much trickery is involved…. and it’s quite evident that pirates rarely trusts anyone and if they do they have an agreement where both of them gets something in the end. Even though, they’ve had good bonds with fighting they can still trick each other over something which I’ve come to known as a pirate trait they all have inside them. Although, there are a couple of loyalists and that would be the crew who can stick with you for some time but not the captains.

The same funny crew of the Black Pearl is present, like Pintel and Ragetti [ the one with the wooden eye ] who both acted as a comic relief during the movie’s more intense scenes and they were known to provide storyline information. Without them, Pirates of the Carribean would beee boring! I also like the monkey and the parrot… great acting mumuy [an endearment for monkey!]!

I found the proposing and getting married of Will (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth [ Keira Knightley ] while fighting the enemies really unique.

All in all the movie was great and ended just fine even though it was a bit hanging in the end.. hay but nevertheless the whole of it was pretty good.

Trivia and Fun Facts from IMDB 

• They started filming without a finished script.
• Keith Richards has agreed to appear in a cameo as Jack Sparrow’s father. He has been pursued for a cameo appearance since the first installment of the series.

Banana Leaf Asian Cafe

Category: Restaurants

Banana Leaf Asian Cafe is located at Chimes(Davao City) beside Figaro. They serve Asian delicacies, from Malay food to Hong Kong Teas to Filipino inspired dining.

It’s interior is O.K. But a banana leaf sounds better if it’s in the open air, right? Hehe. Their chairs matched with the word Asian. So… that’s pretty much A-O.K.

True to it’s name, once you are seated they would place a banana leaf in front of you that would serve as your plate. [Of course, since you are their customer you can always request for a real plate if you are not comfortable eating using the banana leaf].

We ordered their Penang rice… which is pretty much o.k. Although I prefer the rice served by Ah Fat better than this one.

[Image: Penang Rice and behind the banana leaf that serves as your plate ]

We also tried their Roasted Chicken….. [ Image: Left Side ]

As if the Penang Rice was not enough [ which is really not enough ] we ordered their Nasi Gurei that tasted better than the Penang Rice plus it has a sunny-side up egg [which I really like]. Nyahaha.

We also ordered their Malay curry… but it was devoured by my sister before we can take a picture of it. Hehe. Spicy Spicy it was. But, I was soo consumed eating the Nasi Gurei that I practically ignored the Malay curry.

I forgot the name of the next dish [ we ate at Banana Leaf like 3 weeks ago and I can’t remember the name of this one.. I’ll update this as soon as I remember the name of this red-pansit-like dish]. Maybe, because I don’t like the taste and that I have decided to forget the name? Some, would like this… but not me. Not this type of dish.

For the drinks, they have a couple of various tea, and iced teas. They have iced coffee, but unfortunately it wasn’t available when I asked for it so I ordered a weird sounding milk iced tea. I never really liked teas or even teas with milk even with ice. But, I want to like it. Really. My brother ordered the Hong Kong Milk Iced Tea.. which tasted a bit like mine, only mine was bitter. My dad ordered the Lemongrass* tea… and well I kinda like the taste… and I can’t imagine it’s a plant I see everywhere in my school before.

For the dessert, they have a few choices which sounded so local to me. *girl! It’s Asian! It should sound local to you!* No fancy cakes whatsoever, they have rice cakes but not the cakes I want. Muwahaha. Anyway… we ordered the Coconut *edit this part, I forgot the name*. It tasted like Maja Blanca minus the sweet corn and peanut.

All in all it was a pretty nice restaurant. At least, we have another place as an option when we want to eat out. I don’t think a lot knew about this resto since there were only two customers aside from us. Chimes is located at a kind-of remote area and when you go there it’s because you want to go to Chimes intentionally.

*Lemongrass is called “Tanglad” by the locals. They usually place a lemongrass on top of the rice while cooking it, to add a nice smell. I guess the lemongrass tea was boiled lemongrass but I think they have a ready-made tea for that. Hehe. Lemongrass has a good medicinal properties.

Shrek (3) the Third – 2007

Category – Movie

Genre: Cartoon

Directed by: Chris Miller and Raman Hui

Tagline: Who’s ready for THIRDS?

Rated PG for some crude humor, suggestive content and swashbuckling action.

Shrek’s(Mike Myers) father-in law falls ill and Shrek was expected to take his place as king of Far Far Away. When his father-in law, King Harold(John Cleese) dies, the need to be crowned king fell upon him, but Shrek don’t like the high life of the King and insists others can do it. On his father-in law’s death lily (*he was a magical frog… soo it’s death lily for him.*) he managed to say that there was another heir to the throne and that would be Arthur. When he died, Shrek, Donkey(Eddie Murphy) and Puss(Antonia Banderas) went about in search for Arthur at a high school.

On the other side Prince Charming (Rupert Everett), saw the chance to retake the castle while Shrek is away. He managed to encourage the other villains to have their own “Happily Every After”.

The movie is almost jam packed with famous characters and their very own counterpart villains as well. You’d loveee Donkey and Puss. It was fun… on most part.. really. I had a nice time. Others may see this like another Spiderman 3 movie gone haywire because there was just too much character in the movie and the character development was not there…. but it’s ok. *too much of an optimist*

I love the lesson behind it and almost cried at the end part when Arthur “Arty” Pendragon(Justin Timberlake) *yes, yes HIM! and Lancelot, Guinevere “Gwen”, and Merlin(Eric Sidle)was there as well* made his speech in the end to the villains.

Not the exact same words.. but…

“A friend taught me a wonderful lesson, just because people see you as a loser or a bad person doesn’t mean you have to be one. You can always choose to be who you are.”

Like, in most Shrek movies it focuses more on friendship as well… and some could say that most humor are for the older audiences.

The original Shrek cast was there: Three Little Pigs, Pinocchio(Cody Cameron) Three Blind Mice, Big Bad Wolf, and the Gingerbread Man.

Donkey even have his own children there… or dragon-donkey-dren like kids. Whatever.

I really like the additional fairy tale characters, like Captain Hook, the Evil Queen of Snow White, the Ugly StepSisters (one good and one bad), Rumplestilskin(Conrad Vernon), and Rapunzel(Maya Rudolph).

I like the part with the Fairy Tale Princesses.

Snow White(Amy Poehler), Cinderella(Amy Sedaris) and Sleeping Beauty(Cheri Oteri) with the Queen. Shows them their funny side… and they would be different there because they were not dainty… or regal at all. I like the part when they( Queen Lilian (Julie Andrews) and the Princesses with Fiona) charged the castle. Pretty funny.

A lot might say, the story was predictable and all that *although at one part I thought Shrek would really want to take the post as King but did not* but the voices, the humor and the animation of course was superb. 🙂

And of course three SURPRISEs would be there IN THE END. Ahihihi. Who’s ready for THIRDS? Fits the tagline.

TRIVIA courtesy of Wikipedia.

• When Donkey takes the body of Puss in Boots, he uses his sword to carve a “D” in some wood. The character of Zorro, twice played by Antonio Banderas, is known for carving a “Z” with his sword.
• After smashing the second wall, the dazed Queen can be heard humming “My Favorite Things”. Julie Andrews, who plays the queen, sang the same song in The Sound of Music.
• In the beginning of the film, in Prince Charming’s dinner theater, coconuts are used for horse’s hoofbeats. This same technique was used in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which also starred John Cleese and Eric Idle.

Fine Things – Danielle Steel

Category: Books

Genre: Love

Author: Danielle Steel

It’s about a guy named Bernard Fine who was pretty much contented with working as a senior vice-president at Wolff’s Department Store in New York. He loves everything about New York, even the weather.

But, when Wolff’s decided to transfer him to open a store in California, he was not thrilled about leaving New York he have come to love. But, he has no choice…. he was so good at everything that the company would not want any other employee but him to start Wolff’s at California. In California… he is about to find the love of his life… named Liz who has a beautiful young daughter named Jane.

It’s a short, sweet story, although predictable and not unlike most of his works I’ve read… this was uhmm the least that I liked. But, it’s nice and heartwarming…. it was just predictable that’s all.