Book Review: Next (2006)

I think that it could be safely said that Michael Crichton was one of the most, if not the most, successful sci-fi writer today. The possibility of anything that he had wrote into his books were seemingly achievable and of course with that, the danger he proposed was therefore, a real threat. The fact that he had think that idea through, think that it might work, was one of his best traits, redeeming the quality of his story-telling which i personally would say, repetitive, and formulaic. One would only have to look for a film aptly named 'Jurassic Park' which spans three sequels in its wake. The idea of retracting the DNA from an amber that held the frozen mosquitos from the Jurassic (or any other -sic) era enabled the scientists in that film to actually gave a rebirth to creatures, great lizard creatures long lost. And granted, that even though in later findings the method described in the book (and in the film) was hopeful at best, a mere audience, a mere reader could be persuaded to agree that it was possible. That was what Crichton did at his best, mixing scientific dreams with action thrillers.

After several books that had touched many aspects in scientific (time-travel, genetics, medical hazards, manufactured error, microbiology, global warming), Michael Crichton's best was arguably reside in genetics (my personal favorite of his was 'The Lost World'), as evident in his latest work, Next.

After dealing and preaching with global warming (which in my opinion was merely a vessel to assert his PERSONAL opinion on a global warming issue) in his previous State of Fear, Michael Crichton again revisit his most comfortable science field, genetics, in Next. And it was a pleasant, fast book to read (compared to State of Fear, which i had often lost interest to continue reading after several chapters).

I won't reveal what was Next all about. All you needed to know was that in Next, Crichton proposed the possibility of manufactured genetics, altered genetics that could probably eliminate the undesirable traits in a given species (for instance, in human, they could eliminate the gene for an alcoholism), any undesirable traits, or to give a positive traits to a given species. Well, something like that.

The scientific aspect was nice, it surely give me a new something to think about, and it's always nice to had something new. As always. But it's not something entirely new. To a certain extent, i had read several articles of similar findings in Science magazine. And Crichton himself has admitted that for the most part NEXT is not really speculative fiction at all. However, i liked to point out how this book felt different with Crichton's previous books.

In Crichton's book, there were always an evil scientist, a good scientist, and ignorant commoner (but with good conscious, of course), thrown in some beautiful ladies, and a scientific topic to mull about, and there you have your Crichton's formula. The evil scientist, most of the time, dead. The good scientist took several chapters to do his hidden chore to counteract the evil scientist's deed, another several chapters to explain the things to the ignorant commoner, and yet another several chapters to battling out the evil scientist, often with physical labors. These characters, more often than not, immediately recognized as the book starts. In Next, these characters were present but mostly scattered throughout the pages, and only significantly identifiable when the book approaches the final act, at the final third of the book. The book also features many characters mainly from scientists, and attorneys that sometimes i need to flip back through the pages to refreshed my memory of a particular character.

All in all, if you are a fan of Crichton and has been disappointed by State of Fear (as i was), this book won't fail you. It's enjoyable read, and quite intriguing that once again, Crichton made us think of what would possibly happen when a technology gone a little bit too far.

My Rating: **1/2 / ****

Limbo

This site has gone in a limbo recently. Uh, i hate myself. For not keeping up with a commitment to update this site once in a week, at the very least. I'm still watching films, that was certain. And i just finished two books recently, The Children of Hurin from Christopher Tolkien, and Next from Michael Crichton. Both of which, unfortunately, doesn't live up to my expectations. Alas, i couldn't find anything to write about, or enough materials compiled from my tiny specks of gray matters that could well fit into an article that publish-able.

Well, it's a pressure on jobs, and a high-pursuit of dreams i'm in right now, which made me had to prioritized things. Anyway, i'm going to write something light in this post. It's about my favorite things. Yeah, if you'd think that it would be corny and waste of time, click away, because it is going to be corny. Anyway, you've been warned.

Favorite actresses:
Rachel McAdams - I first laid eyes on her on that stupid waste-of-time comedy (as was ANY comedy that billed Rob Schneider as its lead role. Sorry, The Animal fans, it's true), The Hot Chick. Her sheer resemblance with an Alias star, Jennifer Garner, immediately captured my attention at the time. And though she appears briefly at the film, she quickly become a sight for sore eyes and longing for more. A couple of years later, she appears in a film, one of very few film features Lindsay Lohan that at least NOT below average, Mean Girls. And again, she was a sight for sore eyes. But of course, an actress with an outward beauty was often offered only roles that show off her outward qualities. Take Jessica Alba for an instance, who wouldn't fall for her? Well, at least i fell head over heel with that coppery skin, slim and tight waist, and downcast eyes of her that could melt any guy's knees. Mine, at least. Rachel McAdams however, was on a right track to prove that she was a versatile actress. After Mean Girls, she appears in a drama, The Notebook, and another comedy, Wedding Crashes, and finally, a thriller, Red Eye, which contrary to popular beliefs, i held as one of better thriller that i could watch for the second time without wincing (with Cillian Murphy, my another favorite actor). She's still has a lot to prove, but i'm more than willing to wait to find out.

Another names that become my favorites over the years, Cate Blanchett, and Kate Winslet, whose films i'm always eager to watch despite the buzzes, or the absence of it, that circles around the film. Nicole Kidman was another, but it's been four years since Dogville the last time i saw her stellar performance. She was too prolific.

My guiltiest pleasure lays on Anna Faris an actress really closely associated with Scary Movie franchise, and a perfect, a really perfect living proof of a stereotyped 'stupid-blonde'. I couldn't see her in a serious role, nor i would like to. Another guilty pleasure of mine was Julia Stiles. But unlike Anna, whose my pleasure lay on her stupid looks, Julia had more capability in acting department and her portfolio shows exactly just that. She was 18 in Wicked when she fall in love with her own father, and grows that love into obsession, a maniacal suicidal obsession. It's a fun B-movie to watch, and it was actually enjoyable. She was again, appears in Bourne trilogy which final instalment due this August.

I was planned to wrote another about male actors. But, if it took me a good portion of my day to write about girls, it's therefore in my very best interest to not to write about men, well, at least for the time being.

Book Review: World War Z (2006)

The World War III won't be fought between nations, nor be fought between pacts. The World War III won't be fought using nuclear weapons, or state-of-the-art military equipments. The World War III was the war when human being fought for their dear extinction survival. The World War III was the war where human fought against human, where living human fought against the living dead. The World War III was the World War Z.

Ten years after the World War Z that has taken almost 1 billions (some sources say that the dead tolls was higher) lives, Max Brooks travel around the world to do an interview with the survivors of the war, prominent figures that most has been the key persons to human retaliation against the undead.

Surely, everyone who has been exposed to the world of entertainment knows about Zombies, the living dead. The events of World War Z that depicted in this book, were of course, as its name already implied, World War Z(ombie) deal with the Zombies. And it's a freakingly a fun book to read. I had only read one other book about zombie, Stephen King's Cell. And if Cell had a great opening that quickly loses its steam halfway to the end, World War Z manages to keep the book interesting during the final end.

This book is written in a manner of interview's manuscript that recorded the event that leads to World War Z and some years afterwards. The book is opened with an interview with Doctor Kwang Jingshu of People's Republic of China that recounted his experience to find the earliest case of Zombie's outbreak (Patient Zero) in the Chinese rural area. From there, the interviews went on to various parts of the world (the interviews were conducted ten years after the War declared over) with various prominent key figures recounting the event chronogically.

The book consists of many intertwined stories that crosses many genres and touches many popular references. For instance, the Chinese sub-marine story could easily fit into a sci-fi story. As well as the young Japanese adventure which easily recongnized the cyberpunk culture. It also touches some of the heavier subjects such as religions (my favourite one was when the Russian priest went outside his home with a rifle and a bible), environmentalists ('Fuck it. Say it to the whales') and philosopy. The problem of a story that consists of several other little stories were of course evident and unavoidable here, as well. Some of the story could be bored, but some of them, most, would stand out. I, personally liked the story of a Russian military dicipline (it was awesome), the New York's celebrity hideout and the beginning of the end at Hope City.

I can't praise this book enough. Released on September 2006, the Paramount Pictures has bought the right to this book, and Brad Pitt's Plan B Production would be the one to produce the film based on this book scheduled to release on 2008.

For those of you who claimed to love Zombies, grab this book, it won't disappoint, and while at it, also get yourself Max Brooks' Zombie Survival Guide (2003). It could prove handy when there's a Zombie outbreak in your neighborhood. Seriously.

My Rating: *** / **** - A fun, and light book to read

Indonesian Movie Awards 2007

You know that i had to write about this Indonesian Movie Awards. First of all, what was this? This award was created by the biggest private TV station in Indonesia in what i think the idea was coming up during the wake of dissatisfied public against the recent disastrous award that is Festival Film Indonesia. Some producers sees the opportunity in the event which sparked and spiced with some of high profiled Actors and Directors actually give back their Citra's statuette as a protest, that maybe by creating another film festival – allegedly named Indonesian Movie Awards – would probably rob the status quo as the biggest and the most important film festival in Indonesia. The question is of course, did it work?

Presentation. This has been the biggest and un-ignorable failure of this pretentious award ceremony. It felt empty, monotonous, and kinda forced. The award ceremony apparently took the theme of classics were the star attendants (the youngling snoob actors, of course. I dont see Slamet Rahardjo, Jajang C. Noer, or Didi Petet wearing more than a suit and a simple elegant dress) dressed copying the royal family. European royal family. I dont know about the rest of you, but i dont like the theme at all. It was unoriginal, half-hearted, and failed to hit the spot. I prefer Rachel Maryam's outfit which was a casual one piece dress than umm.. Titi Kamal's royal-like gown.

In the world where quite literally, everything that happened in the side of this other world could be heard and seen right this instant at the other side of the world, it's rather hard to find an originality in creativity products that tried to entertain. Take the issue of plagiarism in our television network's sinetron. That's old news. But check this one out, i just recently counted how many Dream Theater's song that has been used as a TV program's soundtrack. Panic Attack, Take the Time, and The Spirit Carries On to name a few. And i am more than willing to bet that none of these TV programs had a license to play the song. In my point of view, quite visibly, Indonesian Movie Awards based its presentation concept to the Academy Awards. And, based on what i've seen on TV, that whereas Academy Awards ceremony produced a bright, over-to-top, luxurious grandeur, the Indoneisan Movie Awards felt bland, quiet, and lame. Even though that you really had to count that Academy Awards has been around for 76 years, and this year was Indonesian Movie Awards' first.

To give it a fair measure, the nominees weren't that bad. It seems that the jury has learned form the last year's debacle of Festival Film Indonesia. They had your standard festival's categories, you know, best actor, best actress, best soundtrack, best film, and so forth. But, they also had MTV's style categories, such as best new comer, best soundtrack, best couple and some silly categories such as best singing actor? What was that? To add an insult to injury, we've also had two awards given to some of the major categories. Best, whereas the winner decided by some jury, and Favorite, whereas the winner was chosen by audience's SMS. You got to give it a hand to the producers, they still wanted as much as profit as they could get. I would personally bet that this Indonesian Movie Award won't last long, three years would be my best bet. As soon as the producers realized that they flushed the money down the drain, there'd be no more of this show.

Let's go to the winner. For me, the interesting part of any award ceremony, the real meat of the show, was to hear each and everyone thank-you list from the winner. However, the winner attendance rate was quite low in this show. Kinaryosih, the winner in at least three categories , she couldn't attend the show. Nicholas Saputra was also absent. So was Albert Faxdawer, the winner in one category. Titi Kamal attended the show only because she was also had a responsibility to deliver one of the award category. And after her second win (shared with Kinaryosih as best and favorite couple), we'd wish that she won't show up for the rest of the night. Well, that was not the case unfortunately. And so was Cornelia Agatha. She was one of the actress to deliver one of the category's nominations. Agus Ringgo, the winner of the most favourite new actor showed up just because he was the host (one of four). Also the host slash winner, was Nirina Zubir. One question, how did she got nominated anyway? In short, there's nothing spectacular, nothing that resembles thinking out-of-the-box attidute. All was down by the rules written unofficially in a book called 'How to Make a Boring Award Show'.

To give it one plus point, the video that accompanies each award presentation, that even often ran too long, contains some hillarious shots by Aming. Ironically, the best of these shots were made when Aming crossdressed as a female.

All in all, i'm actually glad that there was actually another Indonesian Film Festival. As with everything else, i've always firmly believed that a quality of something could always be improved when there's a competition. And who knows, maybe with the presence of this award, Film Festival Indonesia would tried to improved its quality in order to reclaim the throne. Because that even though i percieved the award in such a negative attitude, it still beats the last year's FFI by a mile.

Anyway, where was “Realita, Cinta dan Rock 'N Roll”? I loved that film. It certainly better than “Mirror”.

Film Review: Spider-Man 3 (2007)

All those hype and quite for naught. Or probably that i had so much expectation that after seeing the final result, i was agree with Tobey Maguire's initial response after attending the official screening in Tokyo several weeks ago that Spider-Man 3 was in fact a merely so-so. However, i would like to pull this one a little further that i thought even with Venom's marvelous presence on this third instalment of the franchise, this one fell a rather far behind the other two.

Spider-Man 3, in my view, could clearly separated into three parts. Pre-Venom (the real Venom, the Eddie Brock's Venom), Venom, and after Venom. The Venom part is excellent. The other two were boring.

I never liked Peter Parker or Spider-Man. I never had a real connection with Peter Parker. Sure, he is a rigid, uncertain, and not-so-confident young fella, but with certain gift that he more often than not consider as a curse as well. For some, for many, that made him more human than any other superhero that ever gazes presence on the comic book pages. Quite probably, ironically, that's what made me loses connection to him. However, on the previous two instalment, Tobey Maguire could deliver and believable as Peter Parker / Spider-Man. Something that i don't fell anew in this film.

Continuing his latest adventure, Spider-Man encounters several old nemesis (Goblin Junior, and his-own-uncertain-feeling) and couple new ones (Sandman and Venom). Sadly, these encounters were largely, mostly attributed to coincidences. There's no real threat in these encounters. They're simplified and ultimately, negligible.

The film ran long, two and a half hours, but, even if it had more than sufficient feature-length, i still felt that the film was in a hurried pace, especially in the beginning. There were too many to introduces, too much to tell, and too little time. Thus, there's no real emotion sparked between me and the characters. I felt like flipping through a comic page, scanning the bubbles without really reading it. Ironically, at the after Venom part, the film dragged its way trough the exit with quite a few lame scenes and lame scripts that i kept my eyes rolled up in exasperation.

All in all, i must see the other two instalment before i could verify my comment, but i think it's safe to say that action wise, this film was a ok, story wise, this film felt like one of those 80's comic with all those silly story line and lame dialogue. Oh, and there was this scene when Spider-Man flew before the waving flag that filled the entire screen. I was the only one who laughed out loud in the theater at the scene. And i tell you, that was an instantaneous laugh and that scene really made my opinion firm that this film was nothing but a joke. I really do hope that there wouldn't be number 4. Oh, this franchise has hit a new low.

My Rating: *1/2 / ****, and i'm being generous.

Film Review: Sunshine (2007)

It's already become a habit that whenever i sit during a film, a template of reviews unfold within my head, and evolved as the film progresses. My initial response to Sunshine during the first act was that the film had a huge potential to satisfy. With Cillian Murphy whom had stellar resume in my book, i'm almost certain that the film will be at least enjoyable. Well, that was my initial response during the first act.

It turns out that the film quickly loses its steam halfway, and really really dragging during the final act. It's almost painful to watch. It seems that Danny Boyle had lost his confidence in delivering the prominent internal conflict between his actors and decides to throw one particular bad guy that had this 'slasher-flick' stamped all over his figure.

Sometimes in a future, the Sun, our only Sun loses its core and gradually dying and left us on Earth into a prolonged winter. A crew of eight, probably brightest scientists on Earth went into the sun to deliver a bomb to iginite Sun's core thus created a newly born star. The crew went aboard Icarus II. Now, if there's a II then there should be I. Fact is, Icarus I went AWOL during a similar mission seven years prior.

Like i said, the first act was beautiful and promises a thrilling experience, that i could almost ignore several factual errors and enjoy the first act. However, my satisfaction meter went quickly straight down to the bottom of the well when the second act approaches. The factual errors weren't so negligible anymore, and there's one single factual error that disturbed me a lot and ruined the whole experience. While trying not to spoil anything, the single factual error that had disturbed me had to do with supposedly the most accurate, reliable, and crucial key to the whole mission. The computer.

Regarding this issue, if i wanted to made a comparison of what's work and what's not, i would like to compares the computer's malfunction in 2001: A Space Odyssey and the similar case in Sunshine. In 2001: A Space Odyssey, HAL's malfunction was due to its logical circuit wanted to ensure the success of a mission whatever the cost. In Sunshine, however, Icarus' malfunction was an entirely writer's error (most likely deliberate) and it left me felt cheated afterwards. And in my opinion, there's nothing worse than cheating your audience.

That's ruined the whole third act. I don't have to mention that most of third act consists of an overly-dramatic sequences, almost preachy, and real pain to watch.

My Rating: * / ****

For Some, Apple is a New Religion

This picture taken from the MacWorld 2007, showing some spectators that gathers and inspects the new iPhone prototype, encased in a glowing sealed display. Notice the glowing face of the attendants, it almost feels poetic, like some scraps taken from a sci-fi film where the brightest Earth's scientists were gathering to observe their latest alien specimen, or something like that.

For some, Apple is a new religion. I may not entirely agree with such statement, but with an iPod in my pocket, and a MacBook at my desk, i may close enough to be called a devotee. Does that mean that i would had those iPhone? Oh, yes, should i have the budget.

The Legacy Shall Live!

Random:

I'm using three computers at the office. I develop mainly at my MacBook. However, the database i'm using, as well as the application server, lived on the server, running under Windows. In addition to that, i'm also using a Desktop PC, which i'm using to browse the internet, and mainly, to exhibit my foreign exchange trading. Thus, if you come by at my office, you'd see two screens on my desk. One usually displayed an Eclipse IDE, and the other usually displayed a candle-stick chart.

I called my MacBook, "Cerpelai", my desktop PC, "Musang", and my server, "Tupai". Thus, the legacy. They shall live!

Me and OSS 2: A Small Step to begin A Grand Voyage

The date was February 2006. A little more than a year ago when i start doing a commute daily trips for a total of forty kilometers (25 miles). Finally, i get out of PHP universe (and swore a silent oath that i'd never go anywhere near it anymore) and once again embraced my first love, Java. It took me a mere four months when i started to feel bored of what i was doing. That's another negative traits of mine. I get bored easily. Again, on my defense, on the project i'm working in, i was doing a clean-up jobs. And you who ever been into a software industry surely knew that clean-up jobs is a pain in the ass. You dwelved into codes that has been written and re-written by god knows how many programmers before. Each with their own style and their own conventions, and the one who paid me expect me to patch things. Oh, i hate that kind of jobs. But i kept holding on to that company until a year later.

Why, you said? Again, it's because of that simple thing again. That same small thing that has kept me in chains for more than two years at the campus.

The date was May 2006, i went to Padang for a training session with the end-users. And that's where i met her. The one who captured me by heart, by a slight look of her eyes, and one who finally pushes me to walk through the door.

I loved a silent company. I often went to movie theater by myself, enjoying a Starbuck coffee by myself, in short, i just love going anywhere, without anybody to hold me down. The prospect of having a girl clinging into my arms, dragging me to a nearest department store where there is a 70% discount, it's not something that i would look forward to. But, this one, from the moment i laid eyes on her, i just knew that she's a silent company. And she was. She knew how to treat me, and though there were still some sparks among us, but it's a difference unavoidable because two individuals are meant to be different. Suffice to say that she was the almost perfect puzzle-piece that fit into mine. Almost, you say? well, if you asked me, there's no way in this puny world created by Allah, that there would be a perfect thing. He made her as an almost perfect because of course, He wants me to learn to respect others. Thus re-shaping myself to further compliment the piece that was hers. Oh, i could go on about all this melancholy debacles. But i had to stop.

Anyway, in only two weeks, i spilled anything to her, revealing any secrets that i have been hidden for so long. And though i can't be sure about it, i believed that she also did the same to me. She pushes me, encourages me, but never really pushes me. My friend used to say that i was like a wild horse, run amok, run wild without any directions, and trusting fate that who knows maybe when i stop to rest, i found my prairie, a heaven on Earth. He couldn't be more wrong. But of course, as a wild horse i was, i refused to had a rein attached to me. She knows about it. She still let me runs around, but slowly, she built fences that guide me to her pictured prairie. A prairie she knows i wouldn't refuse.

Some accomplishments were made, both in my relationships with her, and in my pursuit of happiness (yes, i used this word). And that's where i was right now. Just a step beyond the door. Adventures waiting, wealth promising, but there wouldn't be any wealth, without blood and tears. But now, i'm ready to spill any blood, any tears, anything. Now that i had a princess awaiting for me, right at the end of this road.

To be concluded...

Me and OSS 1: A Seven Years Itch

OSS stands for Open Source Software for those of you unaware about what was OSS stands for. This is a semi-autobiographical blog contents that spans over the last seven / eight years of my life.

My first acquaintance with the world of computing and programming was of course on my very first day at the Faculty of Computer Science, University of Indonesia. I was as excited as a kid who went into a candy store, and permitted to grab anything. It would seem at the moment, that i've been given a key that opens a door so tremendously opened to a brand new world of excites, of funs, which are all free to be explored and found and conquered. Alas, it took me almost eight years to really step into that door.

I was generally known as a smart kid when i was still a brat grown to a mere adolescence in a small-small city. During that time, i get used to a whole lot of compliments from my families, friends, even strangers. Some even say that i had a genius trait in my blood. Looking back at the time, i was so ashamed about those compliments and my lack of subtlety upon receiving them. On a bright side, it taught me a valuable lessons which most likely than not, i'd apply to my kids later on. Never. Never give them too much compliments.

Like i said, i get used to compliments the whole time, that i thought life would like a walk in a park. Easy. I go to good college, graduated with honors, notice the plural, admitting to a huge multi-national company, and retired rich. That's life as i'd imagined before i went to college, before i went into a big city, before everything falls apart.

I couldn't escape quickly enough from my past. That's a mistake in my part. Huge mistake. I told you before, it took me seven whole years to finally realize that i was not as good as i thought i am. Back to where i wrote my first computer program in Java, i thought, hey, if programming was this easy, i shouldn't give much effort to it. Wrong! Well, in my defense, i hadn't sure whether to pursue and build dreams based on computer science, pure mathematic sciences (which my ONLY favorite subject in High School), or something more absurd, such as being a writer, or a film-director. I hadn't sure of anything back then. Which turns out that i tried to learn so many. The result? i knew A of anything, more subjects than my peers, but what i had wrong was that some of my peers, they knew A-Z of one single peculiar thing, thus made them specialized. And look where they are right now. Surely, higher than i am. This whole not knowing to do are what would kept me at bay.

I graduated, not on time, but not too shabby, still, not on time. Five years to be exact. I got to work at my campus, doing a crappy things with PHP. I never liked PHP, and i despised it even more right now. It's just a plain hate, and in my opinion, one doesn't need a reason to hate something (or someone). I just hate them. But, life was easy at the time. It's like robbing your campus blindly. That's how it's like. I got paid for doing small things. Fortunately, i don't get paid much anyway. I'm working there for a little more than two years. Oh, how i wish i had that time back in my laps again. That two years of idling should get me more knowledges, but not. I knew about some of the hot frameworks at the time, i learned Flash even though i was no designer, learned Ruby, Ajax, and many more. But like i said, i learn A of anything, and never get into the B.

The fact is, there is a small thing that kept me at the campus. Nobody knows about it. The only person who knew about it was my girlfriend. And i wish to keep it that way. Because it's so goddamn embarrassing. It's suffice for you to know that during that two years at the campus, i hadn't sent any application letters, either it's for a job or a scholarship. It's because of that small thing. No plural here. Just a small thing.

And then came a sudden realization. The project of which i am working at the campus was finished. That leave me jobless, and jobless means of course, no money.

A couple of months later, a friend recommend me to a certain software consulting company based on Java. And that's where slowly but surely, i've decided my path, and ultimately, step into the door of which i already had the key the whole time.

To be continued...

Film Review: L'Appartment (1996)

This is a part one of two from what i like to called as Monica Belucci's contemplation. I mean, who wouldn't love her? with that bosom and milky white skin? um, anyway, the first film i would like to review is L'Appartment.

I had had a sense of deja vu at some time on the film. It turns out that i've seen the Hollywood remade of this film starring Josh Harnett and lovely Diane Kruger. But, there'd be no question on which of the two i liked best. It's this film, hands down.

Pay attention to the timeline of this film as it weaves its story in a flash-back, back and forth fashion. All i could tell is Max (Vincent Cassell) and Lisa (Monica Belucci) are what you'd call a perfect couple meant to each other. But when Lisa went AWOL without any notice, explanation, or whatever, we knew that Max would've been devastated, but eventually, as he tries to pick up the pieces and moving forward, Lisa came back knocking at his door. Well, it's an over-simplification, by far, of course, but suffice it to say that it's enough to made sure the audiences were rooting for Max and Lisa to be back together again.

It's not your everyday romantic drama story, anyway, as it features at least one antagonist to took a role similar and close enough to be named as villain. To be quite honest, she (Romane Bohringer) is the one who drives the film forward, spins it in motion, a spotlight at the center stage. She was torn among three characters, and she delivers nicely. She's the one who really sets her mark on my brain as the film ends.

There's a huge substantial different between this film and its Hollywood remade counter, the ending. I wasn't prepared for the ending, and it wasn't the kind of ending i would expect, or i would like to see. And well, it was rather unpleasant. In my part, it was rather unfortunate how a film this beautiful, with its magical camera-works, imagery, and superb story-telling suffered from the - again, in my part - rather un-satisfactory ending. But on a second thought, the ending was also why i loved this film more than the Hollywood remake.

My rating: *** / ****

Summer 2007 Preview: Summer of Sequels

Even though that i've only known (and experienced) either sunny weather, or rain, i celebrated summer holidays with my own way. Movieplex. Generally begins on May, the summer season is a season where big-budgeted films (not necessarily smart, but features nifty eye-candy, big paid actors, and those that could qualified as a guilty-pleasure in my part) best experienced on a big screen.

Generally begun on May, this coming 2007 is a yet another year full of sequels.
Spider-Man 3 hit early on May 4, 28 Weeks Later on May 11, Shrek the Third on May 18, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End a week later on May 25. Further out, Ocean's Thirteen on June 8, neck-in-neck with gruesome guaranteed horror flick, Hostel: Part II, June 15, another super-hero flick, but this one features one of my favorite Marvel character, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, the trailer was awesome, Evan Almighty coming a week later, June 22, though i dont generally concord with the idea, and as much as i liked Steve Carrell, i doubt he would accomplish what Jim Carrey had in Bruce Almighty. John McClane coming back, with luscious Mary Elizabeth Winstead as his daughter, Live Free or Die Hard coming June 26.

Please note that i only mentioned sequels.

Michael Bay's Transformer hit on July 6. And if one talks about Michael Bay, who needs plot? Blow things apart, that's what he does best, and he better keep at it on this film. Super annoying teenager witch, Harry Potter hit the theater with his fifth installment, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix the week after, oh, did i mentioned that he's super annoying? for those of you who haven't read the book, the book (and the film) would be a legit proof that he's a super annoying teenager witch.

Further out, the last closure of Bourne trilogy, The Bourne Ultimatum hit on August 3. And i tell you this, Jason Bourne (JB) could kick James Bond (JB)'s whimpy ass any time, any where. The duo, Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker back again in Rush Hour 3. But really, who cares? They're back on August 10. And that's conclude the summer of sequels (excluding Transformer) release date. There were still many high-profiled line-ups that i haven't mentioned, such as Hot Fuzz, Simpsons the Movie, Stardust, Hairspray (remake), Ratatouille (Pixar's), 1408 (Stephen King's adaptation), Black Sheep (awesome New Zealand's horror), Nancy Drew (you who grew in 80's must know this girl, if you don't, then you don't read books much), Mr.Brooks, and more.

Except for Pirates, Bourne, and Transformers, nothing excite me much. Well, you see Pirates and Bourne both had their FINAL installment (Pirates could give a fourth sequels though) which wraps up things, like how the heck was Captain Sparrow escapes that Kraken at the end of its second installment, and how does Jason Bourne settle things with Thread Seventy-One? Transformers? well, this Hasbro's toys was my unfulfilled dream to have when i was a child.