Movie Review: Chariots of Fire

This movie would be great to watch during the Olympic season. Alright, the Olympics are over but we can still watch it anytime! Why, it’s also about the Olympic Games but in 1924. The movie begins by showing a group of men running happily along the beach.

The two heroes are Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson) and Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross). They are real people and this movie was based on a true story. Both guys are excellent sportsmen and they run as quick as lightning.

Now this Harold guy is really competitive and I think he wants to be the fastest man on earth. However, he has to compete with Eric to see who is better. When both of them finally ran with each other, Eric won and Harold took the loss rather badly. He’s a sore loser and just wants to win the race. So he asks Sam Mussabini to train him to be a better and faster runner.

Well, the Olympic Games is around the corner and the athletes are told on their days of events. When Eric found out that he’s going to be running a 100m race on a Sunday, he didn’t want to. He’s a pious man and believes that Sunday is a day of rest and that he couldn’t run on that day.

The authorities tried to change Eric’s mind so that he’d run on that day. They even roped in the President of the United States to persuade him to run on Sunday. Luckily, another athlete came up and offered to trade places with Eric. So Eric would still be running but in the 400m on Thursday.

It’s just a simple movie about a few runners before the Olympic Games. It shows how they trained, ran, went to college, met girls, etc. A good movie for aspiring athletes out there.

Movie Review: 10 Things I Hate About You

This is the modern and high school version of William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. There are two sisters who are still named Kat (Julia Stiles) and Bianca (Larisa Oleynik). Kat is the older, bad-tempered and scary sister whilst Bianca is sweet and absolutely charming.

Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), the new boy in school has a major crush on Bianca. His guide and new friend, Michael, shows him around school and tries to tell him that Bianca is not worth chasing after because she’s shallow and conceited. However, Cameron is too deeply in love that he’ll do anything just to go on a date with Bianca.

The sisters’ father, by the way, has this rule that forbids his daughters to date until they graduate. But later, he changed the rules. The new rule is that Bianca can only date when Kat does. Now almost every guy in school is afraid of Kat and Bianca thought that all hope is gone since she thinks that Kat will never, ever date since she’s kind of like anti-social.

But then, Cameron and Michael came up with a plan. They’ll try to get Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) to go out with Kat. Patrick’s a hilarious character. It’s said that he ate a live duck once and many other bizarre things! He’s the bad boy character with long hair and don’t-care attitude. So the two fellas thought this guy is the one who can handle Kat.

All they need now is money to get Patrick to ask Kat out on dates. Well, that’s where Joey comes in. Joey’s the rich and popular guy in school and he’s also interested in Bianca. Cameron and Michael trick him by telling him that if he paid Patrick to go out with Kat, then he himself can also go out with Bianca. He doesn’t know that Cameron actually wants the girl for himself!

You’ve got to watch the movie for yourself to actually enjoy it. I’ve always liked the story ‘The Taming of the Shrew’, so I couldn’t wait to watch this movie. Did you know there’s another movie version of this Shakespeare story starring Rufus Sewell? I’ve watched that too and that’s really funny. Rufus Sewell’s a talented actor and his character was delightful to watch.

Movie Review: The Notebook

Finally I watched this movie. It was not shown in Malaysia, right? And why didn’t they??? It’s such a good movie that it should be shown everywhere. It’s a sad and happy movie.

Noah (Ryan Gosling) ‘blackmails’ Allie (Rachel McAdams) to go out on a date with him. That part was funny. There he was hanging from the roller coaster on one hand to make Allie agree to go out with him. But she got back at him by pulling his pants down right there in front of everyone!

But then both of them fall in love. They spent more and more time together and probably fell in love with each other more every day. However, Allie has to go back to New York to continue her studies while Noah will remain in Seabrook, his hometown. That time was summer time, by the way. Allie’s mother doesn’t approve of the relationship between the teenagers because Noah's poor while Allie has a bright future in front of her.

So, the last time Allie and Noah saw each other was that night when they fought and broke up with each other. The next day, Allie tried to find Noah to tell him that she’s already leaving for New York but she couldn’t find him. She tells Noah’s friend, Fin, to pass a message to Noah saying that she’s sorry for everything and that she loves him.

They then move on with their lives. Allie meets a new guy (James Marsden). He asks her to marry him. Noah rebuilt an old house his father bought for him. He built it the way Allie had asked him to the last time they were in it. He still hoped for Allie to return to him.

One day, he spots Allie walking in a street and he gets down from the bus he was in to go after her. He then sees her with another man, which is her fiancé. He leaves feeling devastated and without speaking to Allie.

I'm not going to reveal the ending to you but I guess you know it already! It's a happy and sad ending actually.

It’s really a great and moving story. I cried profusely while watching it! Hmm, I bet many girls cried too. I wouldn’t be surprised if even guys did shed a few tears. Great movie. One of the best romantic movies I ever saw.

Movie Review: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

I went to watch The Mummy 3 a few days ago. Quite a number of people have been talking about it so I might as well watch it myself! I’m not really a fan of The Mummy movies but this Mummy 3 movie was really good and hilarious. The hilarious parts would include John Hannah’s scenes in the movie.

The Evelyn character is played by a different actress too, Maria Bello. The original actress, Rachel Weisz rejected the movie because she had problems with the script, I think. Well, what a waste. Anyway, the new actress is not that bad.

Of course, there’s Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh but their roles are minimal ones. You won’t see much of kung fu stunts from Jet Li. Michelle Yeoh had more stunts than him.

So the story’s about the Terracotta army and the evil Dragon Emperor who wants to marry Zi Yuan (Michelle Yeoh) but her heart belonged to another guy, General Ming. Well, she managed to curse the Emperor and his army before going on to live an immortal life.

About 2000 years later, Rick O’Connell’s son, Alex (Luke Ford), all grown up and following in his father’s footsteps, discovered the Terracotta army. His father thinks he’s a good-for-nothing kid while his mother is quite over-protective over him. I thought Alex an arrogant and cocky kind of guy.

Besides that, a General Yang is set on bringing back the Emperor to life to continue leading his army to conquer everything in sight. When he managed to bring the Emperor to life, he pledged loyalty towards the emperor.

Oh, I almost forgot about another new character, Lin (Isabella Leong). She is Zi Yuan and General Ming’s daughter. She is ready to stop anyone who tries to bring the emperor back to life. Alex falls for her but she tells him that they can’t be together. Ah, the usual drama!

That was a great Mummy experience for me although no mummies are involved now, only an evil emperor in the form of Jet Li.