Sam Raimi’s Drag me to Hell

Image Source: http://chud.com/articles/content_images/5/drag-me-to-hell-poster.jpg

“Drag me to Hell.” Judging the movie by its poster, it looked too cheesy; and most of the time horror films from Hollywood are not scary at all. But this one offers a different flavor. According to critics, this is the classic horror film we all love. And I can’t deny the fact that I agree with them even if Hollywood horror films, specially remakes, are not that scary at all.

Johnnypanic and I watched this movie before he left for New York last August and after we watched the movie I realized that even if the film was scary, it’s not something that haunts you in bed days after. The reason may be because of some scenes that has a looney tunes-ish quality/effect in it. An example of this looney tunes-ish scene was when Mrs. Ganush’s hanky chased Miss Brown. But even if it has some funny scenes and Miss Brown is a super human, it sure was a good excuse to scream inside a movie house. And it sure was a good way to de-stress yourself.

As Sam Raimi said in an interview, he wants “to entertain, thrill and scare the bejeezus out of the audience, if I can, and make them jump and shout, and if I can, make them have a good laugh too.”(http://www.cinematical.com/2009/05/28/interview-drag-me-to-hell-director-sam-raimi/)

And he was right.

Slumdog Millionaire

This is all about the slumdog controversy. An interesting commentary about the movie and more.

Caregiver: An Attack to Patriarchal Society (Male Chauvinism)

Caregiver is the latest film of Miss Sharon Cuneta under Star Cinema Productions.

My Reactions

This is a story of an English Teacher in an elementary school who took a short course in care giving for her to follow her husband in London.

The story opened with a conflict between the protagonist and her son Paulo who doesn’t want his mom to follow his dad in London.Then again, the protagonist explained to her son the importance of her leaving with exact reference to social reality – POVERTY.

When she arrived in London, several problems unfolded – personal, professional and marital. It seemed as if this film never ran out of conflict. But I can’t really identify the conflict in this film because it’s like a pot of all problems Atlas wouldn’t want to put his hands on.

Here are some of it:

1. The protagonist, before leaving the country, had issues with her immediate family and that includes her son.
2. The protagonist, before leaving the country, was offered with a promotion to be the English Department Head.
3. Her personal issues with her work – its difficulties and racial discrimination.
4. Her husband is ONE BIG PROBLEM.
5. Her self (yes. her (space) self)

The film showed the difficulties an OFW suffers in a foreign land. The film was promoted in this manner. Miss Cuneta even mentioned in one her many interviews that “you will surely have more respect to caregivers after watching this film.”

But looking at it closely, this film is not just about caregivers. Caregiver as a profession was used as a facade to show to the rest of the world both the good and bad sides of the Filipinos. The perseverance and dedication to the work at hand and on the other hand, how pride, a positive Filipino trait, can be so destructive. This film showed the Philippines as a Patriarchal society flooded with male chauvinists. This is not just about economic poverty, it is more of a cultural problem – how the colonizers implanted in our minds the wrong way of running a country, how media defined what is good and bad, how society dictates the definition of every word that runs the Filipino people – family, husband, wife, son, rich, poor etc.

The protagonist, at the end of the movie, triumphed not just as a Filipino in a foreign land, but as a Filipino woman in general against patriarchal society and male chauvinism.

Let us not take films lightly. Just because it is the story of a caregiver doesn’t mean it is all about caregivers.

My Boy Jack

Daniel Radcliffe as John “Jack” Kipling
(and this picture reminds me of someone from UP)

My Boy Jack is a poem written by Rudyard Kipling. He wrote it after his son John Kipling (also known as Jack) went missing at the Battle of Loos during World War I.

“Have you news of my boy Jack?”
Not this tide.
“When d’you think that he’ll come back?”
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

“Has any one else had word of him?”
Not this tide.
For what is sunk will hardly swim,
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

“Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?”
None this tide,
Nor any tide,
Except he did not shame his kind—
Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.

Then hold your head up all the more,
This tide,
And every tide;
Because he was the son you bore,
And gave to that wind blowing and that tide!

David Haig wrote a play on the true account of the disappearance of John “Jack” Kipling during the war and staged it a couple of times. The role of Jack was played by Ben Silverstone and David Haig played the role of Rudyard Kipling.

And now, the story of Jack Kipling is on big screen. The casts are David Haig, Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter, December Boys) and Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City).

The screenplay is wonderful so you should watch this movie.

***

Afterthought:

Maybe because Harry Potter always triumphs at the end that all of Daniel Radcliffe’s roles in his other films died at the end of the movie.

comparing august rush and oliver

summary

august rush is a story of a boy who never knew his parents not until the end of the movie. he is the son of a famous cellist and a lead vocalist of a band.

the child star

the movie starred Freddie Highmore, the amazing child actor in finding neverland, arthur and the minimoys, spiderwick chronicles, tim burton’s charlie and the chocolate factory, and will soon lend his voice to astro boy. if not for him and the OST, i would not recommend this movie.

the critique

if you’ve noticed, i only have 2 sentences to summarize the movie because there is nothing to summarize. it is like a contemporary version of oliver twist. although their was a recent version of oliver released not so long ago.

why so?

• august and oliver are very much alike. oliver lost his parents. august hoped that his parents would soon find him. they both live in an orphanage and they were being bullied by someone older than them.
• august left the orphanage, oliver was sold.
• out of their comfort zones, they met a boy. august met arthur, oliver met the artful dodger. then they were brought to a leader of a “gang.” august met wizard while oliver met fagin.
• their HQ: an old, abandoned theater.
• in the end, arthur found his parents and oliver found himself in the care of a foster father.

the difference

• oliver (1968) is a musical. august rush is not. although august rush talked about music and how we can use it to communicate.
• oliver never went to Juilliard. hahaha

the reasons why you should watch this film

• raise me up, one of the songs in the OST of the film was nominated in the oscars and it won.
• wonderful musical scoring
• cute OST
• August’s Rhapsody is wonderful
• Freddie Highmore is the lead