Today's News

Indonesian government bans productions and screenings of local teenage romance movies

By RP, Associated Press Writer

April 1, 07

Jakarta, Indonesia - In an unprecedented move, the Indonesian government has announced an immediate ban to production and screenings of local teenage romance movies. The ban was initiated with the hope that the indonesian youth would be protected from negative moral values often associated with such movies.

"The recent slate of local teenage romance movies contain scenes that do not reflect the values of ideal indonesian teenagers. These movies contain scenes of holding hands, hugging, kissing, sweet talks and rebellious dialogues, and even worse, display of unrealistic wealth such as big house, expensive sports cars and exotic foreign locations such as America", said Jero Wacik, Minister for Culture and Tourism in a statement about the ban. "We hope that this ban will protect the indonesian children and viewers from the false and negative values shown by these movies"

Teenage romance movies have been popular with the local audiences ever since the local film "Ada Apa Dengan Cinta" (lit. What's Up With Love) was screened in 2002 to an unexpected but rousing success - grossing over 4 billion rupiahs (US$400 000) locally - and sparking a revival in Indonesian cinema. The number of indonesian movies produced have increased since 2002, many of which are teenage romance and horror. While the movies have done well in box office, they have also created controversies with religious politicians who see the movies as morally dangerous to the youth, hence encouraging the ban. This ban has been viewed by many as an attempt by the government to make the country more religious, in the light of the recent public kissing ban as well as the Playboy magazine controversy.

This ban has also sparked fierce opposition from many people in the film industry, including producers, directors and actors who threatened to strike and put the film industry in a stand still. Masyarakat Film Indonesia (Indonesian Film Society) has already arranged a public demonstration to be carried out in front of the People Legislative Council building tomorrow. "Banning teenage romance movies will only destroy the film industry which will destroy the indonesian economy", commented Sunil Soraya, director of a recent teenage romance movie called "Apa Artinya Cinta" (lit. What's The Meaning of Love), on the ban.

Despite the great controversy over this ban, many people on the streets seem unaffected. A local high school student said, "Those teen movies are so bad, it doesn't matter if we don't see them anymore."

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Video Games Secrets (spoiler warning):
Game: God of War II (PS2)



Secrets: Fighting Hercules as the Final Boss



How to get it: Complete the game in The Titan Mode (the hardest difficulty) without saving and game over. After you defeated the final boss, Zeus, you will be treated to a different cutscene/alternate ending. As Kratos is about to deliver the final blow to Zeus, Hercules (awesomely voiced by Kevin Sorbo, star of Hercules: Legendary Journey) appear to stop you, after which, the battle begins. Enjoy.

Understanding Engineers

Got this from Friendster bulletin, courtesy of Imanda:

=====

Enjoy!

Understanding Engineers - Take One

Two engineering students were walking
across a university campus when one
said, "Where did you get such a great
bike?"

The second engineer replied, "Well, I
was walking along yesterday, minding my
own business, when a beautiful woman
rode up on this bike, threw it to the
ground, took off all her clothes and
said, "Take what you want."

The first engineer nodded approvingly
and said, "Good choice; the clothes
probably wouldn't have fit you anyway."



Understanding Engineers - Take Two

To the optimist, the glass is half
full.

To the pessimist, the glass is half
empty.

To the engineer, the glass is twice as
big as it needs to be.



Understanding Engineers - Take Three

A priest, a doctor, and an engineer
were waiting one morning for a
particularly slow group of golfers.

The engineer fumed, "What's with those
guys? We must have been waiting for
fifteen minutes!"

The doctor chimed in, "I don't know,
but I've never seen such inept golf!"

The priest said, "Here comes the greens
keeper. Let's have a word with him."

He said, "Hello, George! what's wrong
with that group ahead of us?
They're rather slow, aren't they?"

The greens keeper replied, "Oh, yes.
That's a group of blind fire fighters.

They lost their sight saving our
clubhouse from a fire last year, so we
always let them play for free anytime."

The group fell silent for a moment.

The priest said, "That's so sad. I
think I will say a special prayer for
them tonight."

The doctor said, "Good idea. I'm going
to contact my ophthalmologist colleague
and see if there's anything he can do
for them."

The engineer said, "Why can't they play
at night?"



Understanding Engineers - Take Four

What is the difference between
mechanical engineers and civil
engineers?

Mechanical engineers build weapons and
civil engineers build targets.



Understanding Engineers - Take Five

Three engineering students were
gathered together discussing the
possible designers of the human body.

One said, "It was a mechanical
engineer. Just look at all the joints."

Another said, "No, it was an electrical
engineer. The nervous system has many
thousands of electrical connections."

The last one said, "No, actually it had
to have been a civil engineer.
Who else would run a toxic waste
pipeline through a recreational area?"



Understanding Engineers - Take Six

Normal people believe that if it ain't
broke, don't fix it.

Engineers believe that if it ain't
broke, it doesn't have enough features
yet.



Understanding Engineers - Take Seven

An engineer was crossing a road one
day, when a frog called out to him and
said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a
beautiful princess."

He bent over, picked up the frog and
put it in his pocket.

The frog spoke up again and said, "If
you kiss me and turn me back into a
beautiful princess, I will stay with
you for one week."

The engineer took the frog out of his
pocket, smiled at it and returned it to
the pocket.

The frog then cried out, "If you kiss
me and turn me back into a Princess,
I'll stay with you for one week and do
ANYTHING you want."

Again, the engineer took the frog out,
smiled at it and put it back into his
pocket.

Finally, the frog asked, "What is the
matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful
princess and that I'll stay with you
for one week and do anything you want.
Why won't you kiss me?"

The engineer said, "Look, I'm an
engineer. I don't have time for a
girlfriend, but a talking frog, now
that's cool."

You aren't a Spartan if you aren't a real one ...

Last week, I dropped my Powerbook accidentally. As a result, it had to be sent away for repair. My list of upcoming movies is in that computer, so I can't post anything yet on that topic.

Last week's Video Games Live Concert was great. Although I was a little bit disappointed. Maybe I have been overly excited about it too much that I have looked at all the concert footages in youtube that robbed me of all elements of surprise. Nevertheless, I think the show put their best stuffs at the beginning, not the end, including the MGS and Zelda. The Mario stuffs need to be revised, they need to add tunes from Super Mario 64 (especially Dire Dire Docks theme). ... and Square Enix, what's up with not showing gameplay footage? as for lineup: how about some Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Chronno Trigger, Castlevania, fighting games (SF, Tekken) stuffs? But the highlight of the concert includes seeing video game pianist Martin Leung perform (it was Awesome!!!) and seeing vertexguy performing Contra jungle theme (one of my all time fave) live for the very first time. Koji Kondo, the composer of Mario, Zelda and almost every Nintendo stuffs out there was there and performed too, which was cool (although his performance was kinda off, but nvm). Overall, it was cool, but I wouldn't attend another one unless there's significant new materials.



After the concert was over, I went to Metreon IMAX to watch 300 with a bunch of Spartan friends (ie. San Jose State University students). As I said earlier, my expectation was low for this movie, I wasn't impressed by the hype. However, it turns out to be a good movie. Although, the story is familiar, there was enough substance by the acting and visuals to keep the story going. Props to director Zach Snyder. He is a talented director who also knows how to tell a story besides delivering good looking movies. His previous movie, Dawn of the Dead remake, was also surprisingly good and efficient horror that defied my low expectation. So, Zach Snyder, bring on Watchmen. For the score, 300 gets a solid 3.5/5

300 has been all over the news since its last week box office success. Apparently, it's happening all around me too:

- MSN nicknames full of references about the movie, especially from my "Spartan" friends
- a sudden rise in "Spartan" pride, again, among my "Spartan" friends
- girls liking the movie for different reasons, for example, Tintin never stops talking about the Spartan warriors' body display (which made me consider this movie some kind of gay parade). My sister never stopped gushing over her idol since Dracula 2000, leading man Gerard Butler.



I also finally watched Johnnie To's latest film "Exiled". It's kind of a pseudo-sequel to what many critics and fans consider his best film ever, "The Mission" (1999). It even reunites most of the cast members of "The Mission" including Anthony Wong, Francis Ng, Roy Cheung and Johnnie To's regulars Lam Suet and Simon Yam. Expectations run high ... so high, it 's ultimately bound to be disappointing.

One reason why I love Johnnie To's late 90s/early 00s films is because he could successfully deconstruct the whole Gangster/Killer/Guns/Brotherhood Hong Kong film genre successfully, adding his touch of uber-cool style and ironic sense of humour to make them great without making them another worthless entry to the genre. So while father of the genre John Woo started his downslide in Hollywood with MI:2, Johnnie To was keeping HK film industry alive with good films like "Running out of Time", "A Hero Never Dies", "Fulltime Killer" and the aforementioned "The Mission". Now, why am I saying all this? Because in some ways, "Exiled" is like Johnnie To's deconstructing his earlier genre films that I mentioned. It is filled with the same cool shootout moments that as well as absurd, ironic moments of comedy that you would expect from him. Sometimes, it feels so exactly familiar that I swear it's as if the master himself is playing a game with you. However, unlike his better films, his cool shootout actions are hard too watch because most scenes are too DARK and the usual ironic humor is mostly flat. The all familiar premise doesn't help either. So in the end, it wasn't much of a good movie at all.

Johnnie To is still active making movies. However, after this film, I can't help but feel that we won't see anymore likes of "The Mission" from him. This film feels tiringly familiar, it's as if Johnnie To has no more plans to make anymore films like this and deliver this film as the "greatest hits" to his fans. While I am confident Johnnie To can still make good films, I shall miss those films that made me his fans in the first place. Exiled score: 3/5.

============

My schoolmate in Singapore Evelyn just moved to Sunnyvale from LA and she just found a job here too. I'm gonna see her sometime this week and catch up.

This week's movie lineup looks weak, so I'm gonna catch some leftover like Black Snake Moan or Zodiac or maybe newly released The Namesake. or I could continue my Zelda Twilight Princess. or read The Game by Neil Strauss that Eric lent me.

... and oh, is anyone interested in Damien Rice's Concert in Oakland at April 28? let me know

Samsung SyncMaster931c

I finally got my old Fujitsu Lifebook sent in for repair. They took out the laptop screen and left me with 1/2 the laptop. So, I went to Frys and got myself a brand new 19 inch flat screen monitor to use with my laptop. It's so bright and beautiful. So good, I connected my Powerbook to it too. Too bad I have to return it when I got my laptop all fixed.


The Monitor


The Monitor + Fujitsu Lifebook


The Monitor + Powerbook G4

This Friday, I'm going to Video Games Live concert in SF with Alexander and Adrinata the iguana. I'm really excited about it, can't wait to hear Metal Gear Solid theme in all of its full orchestra glory.

After that, I'm going to catch a midnight show of 300 at The Metreon with kasim dkk. Now, I know I promised my overview of this year's upcoming movie earlier. It's coming soon. But 300 is one of them and I'm just gonna talk abt it now. I can't believe the hype this movie has gotten. From the trailer and story, it just looks like an ancient war spectacle film with great visuals and that's it ... I know it's written by Frank Miller based on a legend. But the story sounds ordinary - nothing interesting, and for me great visuals usually can't save it. I'm gonna see it but I'm not very hopeful.

My friend in Berkeley caught an advance screening and he said it wasn't worth the hype. He even encouraged me to watch it with Booze. Thanks, but I shall watch it with a straight face.

Sony PS3: The Empire Strikes Back

The Game Developers' Conference has started in San Francisco.and today, Sony had delivered its keynote for PS3. and it looks really good.

PS3 will have an online service called Playstation Home to combat Mii, Xbox Live and ... Second Life. PS Home is like Second Life, where you have this virtual world where you can create your own life-like avatar rendered in next-gen graphic. In the virtual world, you can have your own apartments and futuristic communities where you can do stuffs like hang out with other ppl, play bowling and arcade games, and other stuffs... and you get to own cool electronic devices too like HDTV (all Sony branded, of course). Best of all, all these ... are Free. Well, you have to pay $500-600 for your PS3 first, but still. You can say that Sony rips off everyone, but if Sony could rip them off and execute this successfully, then points to them.

... and Sony has also showed new Killzone PS3 footage. Remember the old, amazing too-good-to-be-rendered-on-PS3 Killzone footage from E3 in 2005 that turned out to be fake? Now, Sony has shown a real one. I haven't seen it, so I can't comment on it. But it was used to showcase the Playstation Edge - a new dev tool to help developers with the very-difficult-to-develop PS3?

... and Sony has also announced a new "cute" and creative game called LittleBigPlanet that got some positive buzz ... definitely an attempt to fight Nintendo on the software front.

All these are Sony's efforts to combat the recent negative buzz about PS3. I will give Sony kudos for this because I'm actually quite impressed. I definitely worry for my dear Nintendo.

BUT ... Sony has done this before, many times - making great, impressive announcements for future products, only not to deliver on its promises. This is particularly true for PS3. All these new features they just announced today will be released in earliest Fall this year. So we'll see if they can keep their promises or not. If they do, which is kinda unlikely, then Nintendo and Microsoft (and 2nd Life too?) better worry.

Gamespot Story on the Keynote.

==================================================================

On M Night Shyamalan:

Pei is definitely one blogger who knows his reader well =). Yesterday, he posted this article on M Night Shyamalan.

M Night isn't doing so well these days. Lady in The Water has just (deservedly) flopped. His off-screen egoistic reputation hasn't helped at all. But he's talented and I know he'll make his comeback especially when he's at his low point; and I'm here to talk about his new project, something that might signal his comeback.

Last month, M Night signed a deal with Paramount to make a live action adaptation of popular cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender. That sounds like a really bad idea to me. But that's not the comeback project I am gonna talk about. After the Avatar announcement, it was revealed that M Night has written an original script called The Green Effect. It was a apocalyptic thriller on Global Warming. Apparently, all studios passed on it and asked him to rewrite it before submitting it again to them.

... and then Latino Review got a copy of the script and posted a positive review (beware spoilers) of it.

... and then yesterday, Fox picked the project up and the title has changed to The Happening.

... and I couldn't be more excited.

I have read the positive review of the script and I must say I'm really excited. It has the kind of story that M Night could deliver. Now I'm going to discuss the story from the script review. So, if you don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.

=====SPOILER ALERT=====

The Green Effect is about an environmental crisis that suddenly threatens the existence of humankind. One day, people around the world in big cities started killing themselves one by one mysteriously. As people try to run away from whatever mysterious thing that causing this to happen, they discover that a mysterious toxin has been released from trees around the world and the toxin caused whoever breathes it to have an urge to kill themselves. Then, they also found out that this toxin only affects human, animals are immune to it. This then becomes a story on survival in a new world where apparently, if you don't take care of nature, nature will take care of you.

Wow, unlike that confusing muddled bedtime garbage Lady in the Water, this is actually a good, chilling, effective story worth telling. I also never expected M Night to be an environmental guy. and with the recent popularity of An Inconvenient Truth and Global Warming issues, the timing of this movie couldn't be better.

But I have to say that M Night could do better. Although he could write a good story, some elements are just so flat out wrong/unbelievable/funny (Exhibit 1: everything in Lady in the Water. Exhibit 2: alien defeated by water in Signs) that it harms the story. In The Green Effect story, that thing is ... toxin making people commit suicide. WTF is that? why can't the toxin just kill people directly? M Night probably wants to give himself an opportunity to do some gruesome death scenes. However, I think that harms the story more.

2ndly, another M Night weakness, cardboard white main characters. Since Signs (or even earlier), M Night has become weak on creating memorable characters and this seems to be no exception, from what I read in the script review. also, maybe it's what M Night has to do to be successful in hollywood, but why another white main character? he is Indian, and he probably should start making his main character another race for a change.

Lastly, nothing to do with the script, but M Night has done nothing but horror/thriller since The Sixth Sense. Although all his movies aren't simple horror movies, no one can deny that each one has horror elements in them and this one is no different. I wish that M Night would branch into another genre, like a romantic comedy maybe? lol.

=============

So overall, hopefully everything goes well and M Night doesn't let his ego gets the better of him, he will make his comeback and one damn good film. Suddenly, June 2008 seems so far away.

===============================================================

Yesterday, while browsing asian blogs, I found out that my favourite japanese singer Utada Hikaru has divorced her MV/Movie director Kazuaki Kiriya (director of Casshern). It was as sudden and surprising as the news of their marriage 4.5 years ago. Normally, I wouldn't care much about celebrity gossip. But this one makes me wonder if it's possible for 2 creatively talented people to have a long and meaningful marriage... look at Sofia Copolla and Spike Jonze.

... speaking of Utada Hikaru, if you ever eat at Pepper Lunch USA in Milpitas, you might think that the owner is Utada Hikaru fans. They play her songs everytime I eat ther, from the latest album, even. The food is good, but an audio variety would be better.

... and while browsing the asian blogs, I also learnt that HK music industry is experiencing some creative crisis with new songs plagiarising older, foreign songs and the blogger showed some examples to compare the similar situation with the music industry in US. I thought I have some examples too:

Michelle Branch's Everywhere VS Green Day's Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) (The Guitar Opening)

Jojo's A Little Too Late VS Katharine McPhee's Over It

Nickelback's Someday and How You Remind Me (this one is classic)

and this one from the blog I read that I agree with:

The Fray's Over My Head and How To Save A Life (same chorus!!!)

==========

I guess that's it for now, sorry for the longwinded entry

Thoughts on last night's Oscar

I didn't watch the whole thing. I was playing with my computer, taking showers, and went out to dinner, so I skipped some parts. But here are my thoughts:

Ellen DeGenerees sucks as a host. She's lame and not really funny. Ellen made me miss Jon Stewart from last year and he wasn't even that great, but at least he's funny ("for those keeping score: three-six mafia 1, martin scorsese 0"). How come nobody thought of bringing Jon Stewart back especially when this year, Al Gore and An Inconvenient Truth features prominently this year.

There are good commercials, but nothing memorable (Apple iPhone comes close). I missed last year's AmEx commercial by Shyamalan (before the lady in the water fiasco).

My prediction results: 11/20 = 55%. I don't know if it's good or bad. But I'm proud of predicting 2 things correctly: Eddie Murphy not winning The Oscar and The Departed for Best Picture.

I said it here before and I'll bring it up again. Eddie Murphy would not win an Oscar because he had that stinking joke called Norbit getting released before Oscar. I was surprised that Eddie Murphy didn't beg or do anything in his power to get that movie postponed after the oscar, I'd definitely do that if I was him. I think the academy is very kind enough to get him nominated (with his recent track records) and seeing Norbit released is like getting the finger from Murphy. I hope that Eddie will take this snub as a sign to make Better movies. Some actors can survive a bad movie or 2, but Eddie Murphy hasn't done anything good since Bowfinger in 1999 (I'm not counting Shrek since it's just voice work). Daddy Day Care? Pluto Nash? The Haunted Mansion? ewww... It's a wonder that the guy still has a career after a string of bad movies ... sigh. Eddie, please come back and make a good movie again.

However, Alan Arkin winning instead? I say it was undeserved. (SPOILER ALERT)
The dude died halfway through Little Miss Sunshine, before he could make a great impression. If there's anyone more deserving in that film, it's Steve Carell (and he didn't even get any mention). If this is a gesture to reward Arkin's career, I'd accept it. But I think the award should have gone to Mark Wahlberg (or Murphy, if he hasn't made Norbit). (END SPOILER ALERT)

On The Departed winning the best picture. This year's best picture oscar is a wide open race, unlike last 2 years. What made me pick The Departed is simple. It's the most seen movie of all the nominees (with the highest grossing box office). If the history of oscar has taught us, box office can make/break a best picture win: consider Titanic and Gladiator. Whereas in the past 2 years when Million $ Baby and Crash won, they didn't have any nominees with high box office. So I'm not surprised if The Departed won, even if it's undeserved. When you have the academy consisting of 5000+ voting members, don't you think the most seen film would win it hands down?

Somewhere along the show, somebody mentioned The Departed as a remake of JAPANESE film Infernal Affairs. I didn't catch it because I was taking shower then, but my sister, roommate and even a friend in Canada told me about it. Hello!! It's a Hong Kong film. Okay, I'd have to go asian film fanboy here. Everybody has their opinion. But IMHO, Infernal Affairs is a better film than The Departed and it didn't even get nominated for Best Foreign Film in 2002/2003. and finally they hand the best picture to the remake and called the original film a Japanese film? How ignorant. and the best adapted screenplay win? Come on, the screenplay copies a lot from the original and it only adds a lot of profanities and violence to it. I was upset for a short while about this Hollywood disrespect to Hong Kong film industry (No HK film ever get nominated for best foreign film). But then again, that's just the way Hollywood and Oscar works - just a popularity contest. If there's anything positive from this, it's that Martin Scorsese is classy enough to mention that Infernal Affairs is a Hong Kong film and thanks the "wonderful asian cinema". Scorsese, such a gentleman that everyone else in Hollywood should follow.

Scorsese finally won Best Director. I say good for him. I watched his win when I was in a restaurant having my dinner and I clapped my hand. Even if he had won it for the wrong film, it has been long overdue.

Lastly, Al Gore's clever stunt announcement really had me on the edge of my seat and it was the best and most memorable moment of the night.

Personal Oscar 2007

For my list last year, click here

2006 Overview:
I didn't really watch a lot of movies in 2006 (only about 38 2006 films). This is due to lack of time when I was still in school and then I wasted lots of time in Youtube, Anime (Bleach) and 24 marathons after I graduated. But then again, the 2006 films aren't really that great. At the beginning of the year, the titles look really promising. However, by the end of October, many of them have become disappointments. It's so disappointing that I become discouraged from watching more movies too. Furthermore, this year has no 5 star movie for me. So 2006 has been a really disappointing year to me for the movies.

Here are my personal awards for 2006:

Best old film discovered on DVD:
Lord of War (2005) by Andrew Niccol. starring Nicolas Cage



This dark comedy about worldwide arms trade is one of the best films in 2005. I would put it in my top 3 if I had watched it 2 years earlier. Its darkly funny, powerful and unsettling. Unfortunately, despite of Nic Cage's star power, this film flopped at box office. Roger Ebert said that "you owe it to yourself to see this film" about an Inconvenient Truth. I would apply the same statement to this film. and oh, this is the only film I gave perfect 5 stars in 2006.

Honorable Mention:
Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut by Ridley Scott

Failed Genre of the Year: Movies with Magician.
In 2006, we have 2 high profile magic movies: The Prestige and The Illusionist. While both aren't bad, both are disappointing and mediocre enough to let down the genre this year

Best Use of Powerpoint Presentation: An Inconvenient Truth (actually, it's Apple Keynote)

Most Misleading Title: The Pursuit of Happyness (should be Pursuit of Materialistic Happyness)

Best Title: Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Most Underrated Film: Superman Returns



Superman Returns is not only the best Superman film ever, it's also one of the best films I've seen this year. Yet, there seems to be so many complains about this movie, especially the romance angle and the lack of action. The last straw is when Kate Bosworth got nominated for a worst actress Razzie. Whoa. enough is enough, it's time to defend.

First, I have to admit that I am not a big fan of Superman - He is someone too powerful whom I can't identify with. A Superman film that revolves around him fighting some of his powerful adversaries would be boring because it would just be a contest to see who's more powerful. But what makes every Superman story interesting is his romance with Lois Lane. Director Bryan Singer recognized this and made this romantic conflict drive the film. This film isn't mainly about Superman vs Lex Luthor or Superman saves Metropolis. It's about the unrequited love between Superman and Lois Lane. Superman and Lois Lane love each other but they can't be together, least of which because Superman's not human, but in this film, it's about Superman's betrayal of Lois (leaving without saying goodbye) and Lois denial about her true feelings that kept them apart. It's only in the end when Superman saves Lois from sinking and Lois returns to save Superman from Lex Luthor do we see that all is not lost between them. It's as romeo and juliet as it can get it's a love story that people who are not familiar with the characters can identify with. Yes, it maybe melodramatic as it can get but this love story also drives the first 2 Christopher Reeves Superman Movies and makes them memorable. The love story, Brendan Routh as a perfect Superman (even better than Reeve) and even setting it in the same universe as the first 2 Superman Movies (the Superman Theme in the opening credits blew me away) made this movie perfect. So, why is there so much hate?

Rumors has it that the next Superman film will be more action oriented. Well, I just hope that Bryan Singer does not forget what makes Superman special and sacrifice it just for more action.

Most Overrated Film: The Departed
First let me say that The Departed is a very good, tough, gutsy film with memorable performances. It's a worthy remake of the original Infernal Affairs. However, with some critics calling it one of the best Scorsese films like Goodfellas and Raging Bull. I just have to say stop. This film isn't perfect, it has some editing issues and a joke ending. Its tough, gutsy, violent and politically incorrect scenes might give the movie some character but they also give a lot of fat and excess to the film that prolong its running time more than necessary. Watch the original film to see a more effective and lean film with a better ending. The Departed is a damn good film. But one of Scorsese's best film and a best picture Oscar nominee? You gotta be kidding.

Runner-ups:
Pan's Labyrinth
Borat (do you really want the whole title?)

Most Disappointing Film: American Dreamz
In a year of disappointments, it's harder to pick this category than the best picture. However, after much consideration, I have to pick this film which missed its opportunity so much. American Dreamz has the best Idea for satire: President Bush and American Government, War In Iraq, and American Idol. The cast is great and more than willing to participate: Dennis Quaid (as George Bush-like President), Willem Defoe(as Dick Cheney-like Chief of Staff), Hugh Grant (as Simon Cowell-like Judge), Mandy Moore (lampooning her own pop singer persona). However, writer/director Paul Weitz is not brave enough to attack and plays it too safe. The result is a failed film with too many cheap, safe jokes instead of effective ones. This film flopped badly at the box office and has probably been forgotten. It's too bad, really, if only it had more courage to follow up on its great idea.

Runner-ups:
Borat
Inside Man
Snakes on a Plane
The Prestige
X-Men: The Last Stand

Most Surprisingly Good Film: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men's Chest

The first Pirates has this overly complicated but unnecessary long plot whose purpose is to give Johnny Depps moments to shine as Jack Sparrow. The 2nd movie, surprisingly, has an overly complicated plot too, except it's actually quite good and makes sense and successfuly ties everything from the first movie into a cohesive story and yet strangely, Johnny Depp is quite subdued here. But it doesn't matter, the film has its entertaining moments with/without Depp and the cliffhanger ending is just unexpected. Can't wait for the next entry.

Honorable Mention:
Rocky Balboa

Most "Important" Film: An Inconvenient Truth

"You owe it to yourself to see this film." - Roger Ebert

Dude, it's Al Gore! it's Global Warming!

Seriously, a film that could make a powerpoint lecture so compelling deserves some mention. Global Warming is real and we should do something about it. Besides, Al Gore's story of redemption is quite compelling too.

Plain Worst Movie: Lady In The Water by M Night Shyamalan

If you need a story about overblown ego and someone fall from grace, look no further than M Night Shyamalan and Lady in The Water. A bedtime story? stereotypical characters (worst of which is the korean neighbors)? casting himself as the prophetic world savior author? Stupid names like Narf, Scrunt, Tartukic, Kii... If that's not enough, consider that he wrote a tell-all book about how he got this project turned down at Disney, the studio that supported all his movies except this one since The Sixth Sense because the studio exec actually dared to tell him the script sucks. Too bad he should have listened to the exec before making this film.

It's really heartbreaking for me as a big fan of Shyamalan to see him crash and burn on screen. He really lost it in this movie. I hope he makes a good comeback though now that he has been brought down to earth

Dis-Honorable Mention:
Daisy by Andrew Lau Wai Keung
6:30 by Rinaldy Puspoyo

Best Song: Kazakhstan National Anthem in Borat! ... (do you really want the whole title?)
Best Original Music: The Fountain by Clint Mansell
Best Cinematography: Children of Men (DP: Emanuel Lubezski)

Best Looking Film:
with CGI: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men's Chest
without CGI: The Fountain

Most Hardworking Actor: Hugh Jackman (X-Men 3, Scoop, The Prestige, The Fountain, Flushed Away, Happy Feet)
Most Hardworking Actress: Maggie Gylenhall (Stranger Than Fiction, Trust The Man, World Trade Center, Sherrybaby, Monster House)

Most "For paycheck only" Performance: Tom Hanks in The Da Vinci Code

Tom Hanks is a great actor when he's given a great role. Unfortunately, The Da Vinci Code protagonist Robert Langdon isn't one of them. A bland character in a bland novel does not make a great role and the bland looking Tom Hanks just blandly essays the character in the movie. Throughout the movie, it's so painfully obvious that Tom Hanks does not enjoy this role and he looks like he can't wait to get out of the picture. I think the hair actually acts better than him. I hope the paycheck is good.


Tom Hanks discusses on who has worse hair.

Most Versatile Actor: Ian McKellen
If there's an actor who understand perfectly how to tackle everything from shakespeare to genre films, his name is Ian McKellen. In contrast with Tom Hanks, Ian McKellen is delightful as Teabing in Da Vinci Code and he is still good as Magneto in the disappointing X-Men 3. Even his voicework in Flushed Away is great. Remember, this is the dude who plays Gandalf after all. There should be more actor like him, really.

Best Performance by an Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio in The Departed

Leonardo DiCaprio can finally bury the ghost of Jack Dawson in Titanic forever with perhaps the performance of his career here. Playing the role of undercover cop who is struggling very hard to maintain his cover as well as his sanity, Leonardo manages to really become the character and brings a lot of raw intensity and vulnerability that could match Robert DeNiro's performance in Raging Bull. Daniel Day Lewis would be proud of this kind of acting. It's too bad that the academy chose to recognize his performance in Blood Diamond instead (which is great too, but this one's much better). At least this performance should silence those Titanic critics.

Honorable Mention:
Hugh Jackman in The Fountain
Sacha Baron Cohen in Borat

Best Performance by an Actress: Helen Mirren in The Queen
When I watched The Queen, I couldn't see what's so great about Helen Mirren's take on The Queen. In contrast of Leonardo DiCaprio's screaming and shootin performance in The Departed. Queen Elizabeth is rather low key, reserved character who doesn't display a lot of emotions. However, the performance actually stays in my mind weeks after I watch it. Only then do I realize the great performance it is. The Queen might not show a lot of emotion on the surface, but inside she struggles to understand how the public turned against her soon after the death of Princess Diana. It takes a lot of talent to deliver this kind of performance and it should be rightly recognized.

Honorable Mention:
Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada

Best Picture (and Director): Children of Men by Alfonso Cuaron

2006 has great films. But it lacks truly great/ groundbreaking/ wow films. While Children of Men is not those kind of film, it's still a great one nevertheless. The film takes place in a world where women is unable to reproduce anymore and uses it to provide a scathing look at humanity and the world we live in today: government, terrorist/rebel groups, religious groups are all not spared. With excellent production design brings to life a chaotic future and cinematography (lots of long tracking shots) brings a lot of tension. There is no film that's more powerful, heartbreaking and hard to forget than Children of Men this year.

Honorable Mentions:
Babel by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Superman Returns by Bryan Singer
V For Vendetta by James McTeigue
Casino Royale by Martin Campbell

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That is all for now. I will give my views on upcoming movies in 2007 and maybe my take on the oscar ceremony that I'm watching now.

Oscar's Predictions

Here are my predictions for tonight. Many of them are based on random guess, hunch or "should win" feeling rather than buzz. For the first 6 categories, the most important ones, I especially decided to go against "buzz" in maybe 2-3 categories. Here are my predictions:

Best Picture: The Departed
Best Director: Martin Scorsese (The Departed)
Best Actor: Peter O' Toole (Venus)
Best Actress: Helen Mirren (The Queen)
Best Supporting Actor: Mark Wahlberg (The Departed)
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Children of Men (or Borat)
Best Original Screenplay: Babel

Best Editing: Babel
Best Music: Babel
Best Art Direction: Pan's Labyrinth
Best Cinematography: Children of Men
Best Costume Design: Curse of the Golden Flower
Best Makeup: Apocalypto
Best Visual Effects: Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest

Best Documentary: An Inconvenient Truth
Best Animated Film: Happy Feet
Best Foreign Film: Pan's Labyrinth

Random Guesses:
Best Sound Editing: Blood Diamond
Best Sound Mixing: Blood Diamond
Best Documentary Short: The Blood of Yingzhou District
Best Animated Short Film: The Little Matchgirl
Best Live Action Short film: West Bank Story

... meanwhile expect to see my personal awards in a few hours. It's almost done. I am still deciding on whether to see Dreamgirls or not.