Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea

The latest 2008 animation from Studio Ghibli, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea is directed by the fame filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. And yes, I'm a big big fan of Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki's work!

The animation tells the story of a naughty little fish who runs away from home to explore the bigger world of the sea. Taking a ride from the jellyfish, the little fish drifts close to the human world and is rescued by a 5 year old old Sosuke, who befriends her and names her Ponyo. Ponyo falls for Sosuke and makes to choice to become a human.

The story is a little similar to The Little Mermaid, except Ponyo has a much easier time, as well as the true love and friendship of Sosuke who accepts her in her true form. It is a rather cute and fun little movie, allowing you to delve into the world of the fantasy and underwater world.

Rating: 4 out of 5 fairy clouds. This is a nice family movie as well as for the young at heart. Good weekend movie to watch when you have nothing else plan.

Burn After Reading

This is a story of nothing at all. It's a mish-mash of confusion, secrecy and jumping to conclusion.

The plot starts with Osbourne Cox, a CIA analyst, who resigns from this job. He forms a new goal in life, and starts a memoir of his work with the bureau. His wife, Katie, immediately seeks the help of a lawyer to proceed with a secret divorce case and made a copy of important information off Osbourne's computer onto a CD.

Making matter worse, this CD is misplaced and accidentally lands in Hardbodies Gym. Chad is a typical brainless instructor while his colleague, Linda is obsessed in wanting to undergo plastic surgery to improve her look which she hope will in turn increase her chances of seeking a soul mate. Both decided to blackmail Osbourne thinking that CD contains top CIA information. When the blackmailing fails, they presented the CD to the Russian Embassy.

Making matter worse, Harry who has been sleeping with Katie, also begins to date Linda. While he was at Katie's house one day, Chad happens to have broken into the house hoping to steal more information off Osbourne's computer. Unfortunately he gets killed by Harry.

At this point Harry's paranoid has gotten worse. He started to attack a guy whom he has been watching and observing him for a while. He then discovers that his wife has arranged with a legal firm to file for divorce with Harry.

Complicated plot and sub-plots but pieces of the puzzles eventually falls neatly into one another at the end of the movie. There are many good actors this film, which makes it rather entertaining. But the real story is really no story at all. It is just plainly a lot of misunderstanding and guessing of are these people really up to. Each of them have their own agenda, and at the end, no one really wins from this twisted adventure except for Linda, who got CIA to fund her plastic surgery at the end of the day.

Rating: 3 out of 5 fairy clouds. I expected more from this movie, thinking that the crew is a group of cool and excellent actors. But it has failed to amaze me mostly.

Red Cliff

I never say no to free movie... at least most of the time. This afternoon I watched Red Cliff (Part I). The blockbuster movie is the latest of John Woo's film. It is a rather ambitious movie as it tried to emulate the grandiosity of Lord of the Ring, in terms of CGI animation.

The story of the Three Kingdom is fascinating as there is already a well developed depth and personality to each of the key character in the original story. The movie has an easy job of just adopting and scripting the important scenes to make the complete movie. However, I feel that the director focused too much on the costumes and martial arts effect, which I do agree that it is rather excellent. You can feel the war and you can feel the characters while watching the movie.

Though it is an entertaining movie, I'm disappointed with the animation. It is just too reelistic, failing to demonstrated the real natural beauty of those supposed landscape. A bad CGI animation is still capable of destroying a good movie, which is what I feel towards Red Cliff.

Only one complain, I understand many feel that Tony Leung has a sexy appeal. But please spare me and try not to overdo on the seduction scene between him and Lin Chi Ling. I felt rather turn-off by two intimate scenes between these 2 actors as it is simply nothing more than just a brainless teaser that doesn't add any value to the movie.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 fairy cloud. A decent movie to watch if you are a fan of the Three Kingdom. Otherwise, nothing much to miss about this film. There are many other more well-done films like The Last Emperor which has wonderfully weaved art and film-making into one solid end product.

Pathology

This is a freaking scary thriller! I'm still shivering with goosebumps after watching it.

Starring the cute Milo Ventimiglia as Dr Ted Grey, he is a top student, graduating from Harvard Medical School. He joins the most prestigious Pathology in the nation and meets Dr Jake Gallo.

Dr Grey is very brilliant and analytic, as such the elite group of interns in this programme takes an instant dislike for him. However spotting his talent, Dr Gallo invited Dr Grey to their little elite game.

The question Dr Gallo poses is, "If you can kill anyone, who would you kill?". Their little game of fun and thrill soon turns dark and spirals out of control. Turning against each other, who is really the brightest of them all? Who can solve the mystery of death when you know that no body is safe anymore.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 fairy clouds. Not a typical movie I would like to watch. But it is still fascinating. If an option, I prefer CSI over pathology for a simple reason - less dark and less gruesome. Then again how can I resist the charm of Milo. What a piece of ass!

Gia

Gia, or more correctly Gia Marie Carangi, is a young girl from Philadelphia who was talent spotted by a photographer at a tender age of 17. The HBO movie is about her life as a supermodel.

Gia moved from Phili to New York and was signed up by a powerful model agent Wilhelmina Cooper. From a unknown little girl, Gia was thrown into the spotlight to become a supermodel. In fact, she set the standard of the highly profile life of a supermodel.

Life is not a bed of roses for the glamorous one. Her loneliness and constant fear of being abandoned by her loved ones caused to her to heave into the arms of drugs, which eventually led to her downfall. She passed away with AIDS at a young age of 26.

The movie is very well-scripted, tantalising, erotic as well as emotional. You go through the motions of Gia's high and low of her career as a model as she parlays the moment. Angelina Jolie who played Gia has done a darn good job. She has the wild side as well as the feminine side of Gia. The only disappointment I have will be that Angelina look a little too old for the role of a teenager and at the same time, she doesn't have the innocent charm of a young girl which Gia possessed.

Rating: 4 out of 5 fairy clouds. This 1998 HBO movie is still its punch. A pretty decent girl's movie as they will sympathise and empathise with Gia while the guys will probably enjoy the tantalising erotic seduction of Gia.