Feel like I'm in the twilight zone this past 3-day weekend. Puyat from Fri overtime, had to attend Donna's pa-bday party for Jakob. Had to pass off on Pareng Arnold's party in the afternoon because am too groggy. In fact, too groggy, I misplaced the headlamp halogen bulbs I bought from ATCO's. Sayang. But then again, that's life.
Sunday started with sprucing up mom's place in time for the holidays. Maybe it's because of practice, I've put up the tree, the door welcome decor and the parol in 4 hours. Hope mom liked it. Then it's off to Makati Square for DVD's and groceries. An hour of badminton. Then, B2's bday celebration. Kapuy ako gyud!
Whew! A bit pooped since I had to put in a bit of sideline work up to the wee hours of Monday. Waking up in the afternoon, I did the unthinkable -- miss out on playing badminton or going to the gym for a DVD marathon.
TERMINAL - Great, great story with bits of humor here and there and a great rousing emotional tug all throughout in the dramedy tradition of Tom Hanks; Catherine Zeta Jones is a natural, lighting up the scenes everytime she appears. Tom is as usual, great in mixing up stirring emotions and hilarity. The end is bittersweet, with a promise kept and a promising romance broken.
LATTER DAY - An "alternative" film that should've stopped at certain points but kept on going. Dunno what the Mormons say about this film which takes potshots at the ultra-conservatism of their faith, especially on homosexual relationships. The young leads perform credibly but sadly, the characters and story are underdeveloped to be believable.
PRINCESS DIARIES 2 - The first one was more enjoyable, although this counts for good, mindless fun. Anne Hathaway is as usual, beautiful while playing the ham part beautifully. Julie Andrews breezes thru her royalty act although her singing voice is noticeably much lower, affected by her throat malady. The soundtrack yields a few gems like the 14-year old prodigy, Renee Olstead; Norah Jones; plus Wilson Phillips.
SALEM'S LOT - A great take on the original. Wow, that was like over 20 years ago when David Soul (of TV's Starsky & Hutch) along with Lance Kerwin (of TV's James at 15) fought it out with Barlow, the head vampire.T his latest version is less campy, more dramatic, and much, much darker. Rob Lowe is darn great with a sensitive performance and the story has more interesting twists, especially at the end. Very entertaining considering the almost 3-hour running time. The vampire floating through the window scene still scares. Same with Rutger Hauer as Barlow, much more menacing than before.
13 CONVERSATIONS ABOUT ONE THING - As Mathew Mcconaughey movies go, this is another good one. It's a movie that explores the subject of destiny from different perspectives -- from the lucky to the proud, from the pessimistic to the very optimistic. Very life-affirming. The movie tells tales of the kindness of strangers, our crab mentality, about how everybody's lives are enmeshed with one another, and that every thing has a reason for happening though we may never really find out why.
THE CLEARING - Another good Robert Redford film that studies the human conditions of loss, deceit, frailty. The big premise is what happens when one man decides to kill another because he thinks life is unfair. Willem Defoe is very deft while Helen Mirren shows restraint. Another great Redford film.
EULOGY - A dramedy that should get a eulogy of its own.
