The Life of David Gale

Tonight, I watched another disturbing movie. How come I managed to picked them to watch, I have no idea. I was just going through the stack of DVDs and randomly selected the ones that I haven’t watched yet.

So, this movie is about a man who’s been given the death sentence for raping and murdering a woman. What’s ironic is that this man, David Gale (Kevin Spacey), a seemingly intelligent lecturer, is very well against the death penalty in Texas. And now he’s being charged for murder of a woman whom he knows. She’s also passionate about the protest against death sentences.

Just a few days before his execution, David Gale has agreed to do an interview with a journalist, Bitsie (Kate Winslet) from a prominent magazine. She and an intern set out to interview the guy. Well, she does the interview while her intern scours around looking for further clues.

While Gale relates his story to Bitsie, she soon discovers that he’s actually innocent of the crime of which he had been accused of. Now they’re running out of time and she’s determined to find out as much as she can so that she can prove Gale innocent in time before his execution.

It’s a really suspense-filled movie with a shocking ending. I was relieved to know that it’s a fictional movie. I thought there was a real David Gale who did what the Gale character in the movie had done!

The Magdalene Sisters

It sounds like a rather innocent title but then I should have given it more thought. Magdalene? It should ring a bell. Magdalene actually refers to Mary Magdalene, the prostitute who washed Jesus’ feet. I thought this movie was about sisters who probably came from a Magdalene family! How wrong I was.

This movie was thoroughly disturbing. On the cover of the DVD, it was written that it’s based on true events. Well, until I checked Wikipedia, I thought the four main woman characters were real women. They’re actually fictional but what happened to them at the Magdalene Asylum was true. In fact, the treatment at the real asylum was much worse than what was depicted in the film.

Anyway, it’s about four women who are considered as ‘fallen women’ because they aren’t ‘pure’ anymore. Margaret, who I think looks kind of like a smart girl, was raped by her cousin at a wedding. Bernadette, an orphan, is always flirting with boys. Rose gave birth to an illegitimate baby. Crispina gave birth to a baby out of wedlock too. Notice their similarities? They’re connected with men in one way or another but it’s them who have to suffer for it. That was during the 1960s in Ireland.

When I say that the movie was disturbing, it was literally disturbing. I felt uncomfortable and fidgety while watching it. I couldn’t stand the cruelty the girls received at the asylum. They were treated like scum, humiliated, bullied by the nuns, and even one girl was forced to ‘do a job’ for a priest.

I’m glad to know that the last Magdalene asylum was closed in 1996.

Edward Scissorhands

I absolutely love the haunting sound effects in this movie. You know, those ohhh, ahhh being sung by some choir or something. I first watched this when I was a small kid and was just intrigued with the guy who had scissors for hands.

Now that I’m older and understanding more things, I noticed the contrast being used in the movie. Did you notice the bright and cheery colours in the neighbourhood, from the houses to the people’s clothes? Then, Edward’s mansion is dark, gloomy, just enveloped in some sort of blackness. Even Edward (Johnny Depp) was dressed in black. Why was the contrast being used?

This movie is about a man, Edward, who was created by an inventor. The old inventor died before he could give Edward a pair of hands so he had to be content with scissor-hands. One day, an Avon saleswoman, Peg finds Edward all alone in his mansion. She then invites him back home and kinds of adopt him.

At first everyone in town was curious in the new, strange guy. He became popular immediately because of his talent at cutting bushes, dog’s hair, and people’s hair artistically and fashionably. You could say that he’s a creative guy.

Edward also falls in love with Peg’s teenage daughter, Kim (Winona Ryder). She behaves awkwardly toward him at first but then develops an understanding of Edward’s feelings. Kim’s boyfriend was also constantly making fun and bullying Edward. This makes things worse for Edward who’s just gullible.

A touching and poignant movie directed by Tim Burton.

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

This is one of my favourite movies of all time. I’ll definitely never get bored of watching it and enjoying the jokes in it. I highly recommend this movie to people who like Robin Hood or just like English history. I’m not sure if Robin Hood really existed?

Kevin Costner is Robin Hood and some critics said that his attempt at speaking English without an American accent was pathetic. Huh, I didn’t notice that in the movie. He performed really well as the prince of thieves.

I also enjoy watching Morgan Freeman as Azeem or Great One, which is the meaning of his name! Azeem is Muslim while Robin Hood and the other English people are Christians. Although the Holy War was going on, Azeem and Robin Hood understood and trusted each other. Because Robin Hood saved Azeem from prison which they were in together, Azeem has vowed that he will save Robin’s life in future. That’s how they’re always with each other.

Of course there’s a love story in it too. Robin falls for his childhood friend, Marian, whose hair Robin burned when they were kids. Robin also has to fight off the Sheriff who desires to gain more power and also to take over King Richard’s throne. The Sheriff also had his eyes on Marian. So, she has two men fighting over her but it’s obvious that she prefers Robin more.

It’s a tremendously exciting and fulfilling movie. You’ll enjoy every minute of it! Oh, and do check out Alan Rickman’s performance as the power-crazy Sheriff! Quite different from his role as Professor Snape in Harry Potter, eh?

Hearts In Atlantis

At the beginning, we see Bobby Garfield receiving an old baseball glove in the post and later attends a funeral. He also finds out that Carol is already dead and seems really upset to hear about it. After that, we see a flashback of Bobby’s life when he was 11 years old.

Bobby (Anton Yelchin) and his two best friends, Carol and Sully enjoy having adventures and going to the fair together. Bobby’s life also changes when they have a new boarder to live in his house. An old man with paper bags to put his stuff in. This makes Bobby’s mom (Hope Davis) suspicious of Ted Brautigan (Anthony Hopkins) but Bobby is friendly with him and even earns a dollar a week just by reading newspapers and looking out for the bogeyman.

Bobby’s mom keeps telling him that his father was useless and only left them a lot of unsettled debts. But was Bobby’s dad as bad as that or was he something else?

This movie was based on Stephen King’s book. So you can expect something extraordinary especially with Ted and also Bobby! Anthony Hopkins was brilliant as usual playing the character of an unusual man.

I’ll also look out for the book.

Movie Review: August Rush

All right, where do I start with this movie? I thought that most of it didn’t make any sense at all!

Evan Taylor (Freddie Highmore) lives in an orphanage and he claims that he can hear the music in almost everything. He also believes that he will find his parents again. If they don’t find him, he’ll set out to find them himself. The other boys in the orphanage are aghast with his peculiarity but he remains firm with what he believed in.

Then, we will watch a flashback of what happened 11 years ago. Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell) is a gifted cellist while Louis (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is a singer in a band. They happened to meet at a party on a rooftop and slept with each other. After that, due to unforeseen circumstances, they never see each other again. Lyla becomes pregnant and is constantly being pressured by her strict father to give up the baby. Later when the baby was born, Lyla’s father gave the baby up for adoption without her knowing. Instead, he told her that the baby did not survive.

Louis, on the other hand, has no clue of all the drama in Lyla’s life. He is miserable in his own life too, being unhappy that he couldn’t meet Lyla again. After that, he stopped singing and took up another job where he got to wear expensive suits and ride in expensive cars. He found a new girlfriend too, Jen (Becki Newton) but apparently doesn’t tell her much about himself.

And then back to the present. Evan finally decides to run away from the orphanage in search for his parents. He then meets Arthur who was singing on the streets and tells Arthur that he has no place to stay. Arthur brings Evan back to Wizard (Robin Williams), an eccentric man who loves music too. Wizard then makes Evan change his name to August Rush because it sounds better than plain Evan Taylor. He was probably afraid that somebody might find Evan and bring him back to the orphanage.

Now this kinds of reminds me of Oliver Twist! Instead of picking pockets and bringing the money back to Fagin, the kids in Wizard’s clan perform in the streets and bring back their earnings to him.

Now why did I say that this movie doesn’t make sense? First, Lyla and Louis barely knew each other. They were already sucking face after less than ten minutes of knowing each other. After their one night stand, they still can’t forget each other and you can see that they haven’t really moved on in their lives. They were still pining for each other.

Secondly, wow, is Evan really that talented? He has possibly never seen any music notes in his life but after a brief music lesson, he managed to compose something magnificent. Okay, so he’s a child prodigy but that was quite hard to believe. Anyway, that scene was interesting, where he was writing out music notes as if that’s what he did every day when it was actually his first time.

I still enjoyed this film despite its ridiculous storyline. Rhys Meyers is gorgeous. Girls will enjoy looking at him. He also sings in the movie! Yeah, a chance for you to drool over him. Freddie Highmore was quite okay as young Evan Taylor and as a weirdo who loses himself in the music he hears most of the time.

But I was disappointed that they didn’t show what happened to Arthur and Wizard in the end. The movie ended way too soon. They should at least have told us what Arthur and Wizard have become.

What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

So, this is one of the few movies where Johnny Depp acts as a normal guy. You can see how good-looking he is in this movie! He acted in this film when he was younger. So far, the Johnny Depp movies that I’ve watched were Edward Scissorhands, Secret Window, Pirates of the Caribbean, Sleepy Hollow, Chocolat, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Almost in all those movies, his characters were odd and unusual.

So, Depp is Gilbert Grape in “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?”. What’s eating the guy, huh? He thinks his life is a complete misery. He has 3 other siblings. The youngest brother (Leonardo DiCaprio), Arnie, is a bit mentally-challenged and needs to be watched most of the time. If not, he’ll always be up to no good and get into trouble. For example, he loves to climb a water tower somewhere in their neighbourhood and the police will come to persuade him to come back down. DiCaprio played the Arnie character really well! That was when he was much younger too.

Gilbert’s mother is also obese and eats a lot. She never leaves the house anymore and is literally stuck to the couch in front of the television. Gilbert said that she used to be pretty in her younger days but since their father committed suicide years ago, she started to eat her feelings. When she finally stepped out of her house just once, the people in town stared at her like they have never seen her before. Well, they don’t see her much anyway. But it was very rude of them to stare!

Besides that, Gilbert is also having an affair with a married woman, Betty! She has two sons and quite a nice husband but maybe she’s not so happy with him and finds it more exciting to be with Gilbert. Their relationship deteriorated when a new girl, Becky (Juliette Lewis), appeared in town.

Gilbert is seen as being a selfish son who’s ashamed of his mother and allows other people to make fun of her. His life is kind of complicated and he’s already making it worse, that is by getting involved with a married woman. But when Becky came into the picture, he confides in her and she helps him understand himself and his family better.

It’s a nice movie, a great one for the whole family to watch together. Arnie’s escapades are quite funny. I enjoyed watching DiCaprio act as Arnie. That one was really fascinating.

Movie Review: Driving Miss Daisy

I was looking through my pile of movies, trying to find some good comedy as I needed some good laughing medicine. Anyway, I came across Driving Miss Daisy starring Morgan Freeman, Jessica Tandy, and Dan Aykroyd. Hmm, it seemed like an interesting one because Morgan Freeman’s in it. I’ve always thought Freeman as a natural and funny actor. You’ll rarely be disappointed with his movies.

Miss Daisy (Tandy) is an elderly woman who thinks she can drive properly. She’s quite a stubborn old lady and always insists on driving her car herself. One morning, while attempting to drive out of her driveway, she crashes her car.

Her son, Boolie (Aykroyd), then hires Hoke (Freeman) to be Miss Daisy’s chauffeur. She doesn’t need a chauffeur. If she wants to get anywhere, she can either walk or call a taxicab. So Hoke’s just hanging around the house helping out here and there while being reprimanded by Miss Daisy all the time.

Whatever he does, she has a reason to tell him to stop doing it whether it’s tending to her garden, or if he’s having a small chat with the servant or even when he’s just looking at her photographs! You’ll be amazed at Hoke’s endless patience and happy-go-lucky attitude. Those days were Martin Luther King days and African Americans still received unequal treatment. For example, they weren’t allowed to use the toilets at gas stations.

However, Miss Daisy begins to treat Hoke in a less harsh way and allows her to drive her around. She also discovers that he can’t read but he knows his ABCs. She then gives him a book to practise his writing during Christmas but she says that it’s not a Christmas present.

It’s a nice movie which touches on racism and friendship.

Movie Review: The Last Samurai

If you are not accustomed to movies that are bloody and gory, then you had better not watch The Last Samurai! I’m warning you first that this movie is not for the faint of heart but if you want to go ahead and watch it, don’t be hunting for me. :D

Tom Cruise is Captain Nathan Algren, a fearless, stubborn and determined soldier from America. He’s been asked to go to Japan and train the Emperor’s newly-picked soldiers to fight against the rebellious samurai. Although Algren thinks that the soldiers aren’t ready for battle yet, they are sent to fight with the attacking samurai.

It was a losing battle for the Emperor’s army but the leader of the samurai gang, Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe), decides to keep Algren alive. His reason? Probably he wished to learn more about the enemy. He was probably fascinated by Algren’s will and determination to keep on fighting even though he’s already badly wounded during battle.

So Algren is brought back to the samurai’s village and put in the care of Katsumoto’s sister, Taka (Koyuki). During battle, Algren killed Taka’s husband. It must be awfully hard for her to nurse the man who took her husband’s life!

When Algren’s somewhat recovered and has stopped asking for sake, he walked around the cozy little village and took in what he saw. Men practicing fighting, children playing and women working. Somehow, Algren felt kind of peaceful to be there at that village despite being held hostage there!

But as time went by, he and Katsumoto began learning from each other and Algren gets along with the people. There’s even attraction between him and Taka.

Algren’s supposed to be against the samurai but now he’s become their friend. What’ll happen next?

The Last Samurai’s a really interesting movie and it’s quite sad too. I was flabbergasted with the scenes where they sliced people’s heads off! But overall, it’s a great movie and like I said, the slicing of heads was truly realistic! Ugh!