Angels & Demons

♣♣♣♣/♣♣♣♣♣

Way better than The Da Vinci Code. Actually, even in the books this is the more interesting one, The Da Vinci Code just got more hype because it attacked Jesus Christ himself. Everyone knows Jesus, but who the hell knows the Illuminati? Did you, before you saw this movie? I thought so too. I guess that explains it.

The thing about Dan Brown is that he likes to mix the geeky with the adventurous. He likes to talk about anti-matter and all those Physics crap you wish you understood while doing an exclusive Italy/Vatican version of the Amazing Race. It is okay to get bombarded with geeky stuff when you are reading, besides that is the conventional way of learning new things, but if you use a different medium like a movie, you are better off doing a documentary, lest your characters end up like walking encyclopedias. In this movie, Langdon is the talking encyclopedia of symbols and the arts. Vittoria is the talking encyclopedia of all things Physics and she doubles as a Babelfish translator too. You want help with your Latin? This is what they do for the first 30 minutes or so before they do their own version of the Amazing Race. So the first parts are kind of boring but highly informative if you are into those kinds of things.

BFF Best Friends Forever

♣♣♣/♣♣♣♣♣

Very similar to but not as funny as the other Derramas comedies. You can watch this movie if you want a quick laugh but you will probably forget all about it after a day or two. I think that is the right term, "forgettable."

Derramas' definition of comedy is absurdity, exaggeration, ad hominem jokes, and Eugene Domingo. Almost all of the time it is actually Uge who makes it work. Too bad she is not in this movie. Chokoleit has some funny scenes but he lacks the screen presence. Maybe that is the reason why she is not here.

Brain drain on the side of the writers. They resort to ripping off lines from songs and some of Sharon's quotable quotes in her previous movies. The jokes are either hit or miss. As usual it is Ai Ai's delivery that deserves to be commended. But delivery is all about style, and Ai Ai's style is getting old. Sharon tries to emulate it but it does not work for her. At least she is able to redeem herself with a drama scene or two. I like her first breakdown scene. Ai Ai also has a breakdown scene, but if put next to Sharon's, it pales in comparison.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

♣♣♣♣♣/♣♣♣♣♣

The five star rating is biased because I love Amy Adams. As for the movie itself it is that kind that chooses its audience. If you are the type of person who enjoys themes such as classic Hollywood with career driven ditzes as lead characters then you would probably enjoy this movie. If not, there is always Miss Pettigrew, who is the exact opposite, HAHAHA.

Amy Adams is simply adorable. She has that whole old Hollywood glamor girl thing going on for her in the movie specially in that scene where she sings. Wow, classic Hollywood. I think she was able to pull it off. She is very good at playing naive characters. In fact, I think she has already perfected it. But her strength as an actress is heavily based on the good rapport that she is able to establish with her co-actors, making her a perfect choice for a supporting role. By the way, she will be starring opposite Meryl Streep again this coming August in the movie Julie & Julia. I smell another Oscar nomination.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

♣♣♣♣/♣♣♣♣♣

If based on the visual experience alone I would give this movie five stars, but putting some things into consideration, I am just going to give it four. The CGI is awesome (even more so in my case because I have seen the leaked version) but there are a few glitches like some of the backgrounds, for example, can easily be deduced as fake specially that one in the woods where an unannounced important mutant makes a cameo appearance. There is also something awkward and funny about the way they fall. Even those logs falling down on Logan seem to do so in an abrupt and weird manner. And there are a lot of cheesy poses from Wolverine and Sabretooth. Parang pictorial lang, LOL.

I have two favorite scenes! One is where that Koreanovela guy jumps over the gate and does his thing with his guns and then he lands on the other side a la Carrie Anne Moss and then two or three dead bodies fall behind him. Coolness. The other one is Ryan Reynold's solo bullet-dodging action scene as Deadpool with the katana swords. Awesomeness. Wolverine and Sabretooth's fight scenes are boring. They just run towards one another (typical Wolvie claws out! strike a pose! run! and Sabretooth run! ahem, I mean crawl!... run - crawl!) and start stabbing each other as a sign of brotherly love. But then they could not seem to kill each other because of their advanced healing ability. Always a stalemate. Boredom. Ness.