Another Cinderella Story (2008)

image: wikipedia

Another Cinderella Story, starring Selena Gomez and Drew Steeley, is a modern “Cinderella” style movie, just like Hilary Duff’s A Cinderella Story.

The Plot is like any typical Cinderella story. Mary (Gomez) is a maid who works for her evil employer and guardian, Dominique, along with her silly, wicked stepsisters. She dances with the popular star, Joey Parker, in the school dance disguised behind a mask, and when the clock strikes, she hastily leaves before revealing her identity to him and drops her “slipper”, a Zune. Joey wants to know who the spectacular mystery girl is but his ex-girlfriend and Mary’s wicked stepsisters stand in the way. Her best friend, Tami, is always on her side.

The music was great, and both Selena and Drew’s voices and dance moves were astounding. I loved the songs Tell me Something I don’t Know and New Classic because they were very energetic. Selena’s clothes were cool too.

The only thing that bored me in the film was the tedious storyline. The parts of Mary’s ugly stepsisters were dull because their personalities sounded too ridiculous and brainless.

A Cinderella Story is not a favorite nor is it worth buying, but it was an entertaining teen drama.

Visit the official site

Watch the music video of Tell me Something I don’t Know

my rating: 3/5

Kung Fu Panda (2008)

Kung Fu Panda is an animated movie starring the voices of several well-known actors including Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, and Jackie Chan. It is directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osbourne.

Kung Fu Panda tells the story of an unlikely hero who shall become the warrior of the Valley of Peace.

Po is a light-hearted panda who dreams of becoming a kung fu master; but he works with his father in a noodle restaurant.

After being unexpectedly chosen as the Dragon Warrior instead of the highly skilled members of the Furious Five, he has to bear the burden of defeating the evil enemy of the valley, Tai Lung, who has just escaped from prison.

Although the movie wasn’t realistic, I enjoyed how simple it was. It taught many lessons such as believing in yourself at all times, and not underestimating others.

The story was beautiful and humorous at the same time.

It doesn’t cause the type of tension you feel when watching action movies, even though the theme of the movie was based on martial arts and fighting. Instead, the fighting and action scenes were mild, focusing on the touching story and good personal values. The music, composed by Hans Zimmer, added a touching feeling to the movie and the detailed animation made the movie very enjoyable to watch.

Kung Fu Panda is a very good movie that has a poignant story behind it; and you shall learn lots morals from watching it.

My rating: 4/5

According to Wikipedia, there will be a sequel to Kung Fu Panda.

visit the official website

Ratatouille (2007)

Directed by: Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava (co-director)

Starring: Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano, Peter Sohn, Brad Garrett, Janeane Garofalo, Ian Holm, Brian Dennehy, Peter O'Toole

my rating: 5/5

Ratatouille is a Walt Disney Pixar animation that follows a story of a rat called Remy who dreams of becoming a chef and loves to enjoy the pleasure of well-prepared food, which is tough for a rat. Remy, unlike his dad, brothers, and the rest of the colony who eat garbage, tries his best to add flavor to his food.

He finds out that his idol, chef Gusteau has recently passed away after receiving a negative review of his cookbook and his restaurant by the difficult food critic, Ego.

As the rat colony has no choice but to flee after being discovered by an old woman, Remy gets separated from the colony and accidentally finds himself at his idol’s restaurant, which is now run by Skinner, the former assistant of Gusteau.

Linguini, a young adult who is having difficulty finding a job, comes to the restaurant and is hired by Skinner as a garbage man.
He has no cooking skills at all and as he spills a pot of soup by accident, he tries to cover it up by randomly adding ingredients. Before escaping from the restaurant, Remy is determined to fix the mess. Unfortunately, Skinner spots him and orders Linguini to get rid of the rat; however he couldn’t stop the soup from being served and is stunned when a critic praises the soup.

After much hesitation, Linguini decides not to kill Remy, who has just saved his job. They become friends and make a secret team: Remy hides inside Linguini’s chef hat, directing him in the kitchen like a puppet by pulling his hairs.

Adventure and drama take place as Remy reunites with his family, Linguini tries to conceal his secret and the ambitious Skinner hides Gusteau’s will after finding out that Linguini is Gusteau’s son.

The graphics are amazing, the story is creative and convincing and so are the characters and dialogue. The music is superb too.

This is a film that is packed with laughter and adventure, and I’ve enjoyed every single moment of it… the best animation I’ve ever seen yet!

Ratatouille has won an Oscar and several awards.

Visit the official website and buy the film.

High School Musical 3 trailer and website

Visit http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/highschoolmusical3/ to watch the High School Musical 3 trailer and other videos, see pictures, read about the movie, download stuff and play games.

High School Musical 3: Senior Year is going to be shown in theatres October 24th.

Trailer:

High School Musical 3 website
High School Musical 3 soundtrack

Camp Rock (2008)

Camp Rock, which is supposed to be the next High School Musical, stars our favorite band, the Jonas Brothers, and Demi Lovato, a new rising star.

Mitchie (Demi Lovato) is a talented musician who’d love to go to a music summer camp called Camp Rock. Her mother can’t afford it, but she decides to do the catering there and will take Mitchie as long as she helps around in the kitchen.

At Camp Rock, Mitchie meets the “Queen bee”, Tess Tyler (who is also the camp diva), and her fellow bees, and in order to fit in with them, decides to hide her true identity and pretend to be one of them, dumping her friend Caitlyn.

Shane Gray is a popstar and a band member of Connect Three along with his mates Jason and Nate (Kevin and Nick). Because of his bad attitude, he is forced to instruct in dance classes for one month at Camp Rock.

When Shane hears Mitchie singing her song, This is me, by coincidence, it reminds him of how music used to motivate him. He becomes determined in finding out who the person singing the song was.

Shane soon becomes interested in Mitchie, not knowing that she was the one singing that song. This causes Tess the diva to become jealous. After discovering Mitchie’s real identity, Tess takes the advantage to humiliate her in front of Shane and the whole camp body.

Although the plot of Camp Rock was the same as any typical tween movie: When a cute talented girl gets attention from a boy, it causes the popular mean Plastic to become jealous and plot to ruin her life, it seemed more original and unique.

I thought the setting of the movie, which was a camp in the open woods, was really good because it gives you a spacious feeling.

The ending of Camp Rock was a copy of Raise your Voice (Hilary Duff), but it’s definitely better than High School Musical.

Demi and Joe Jonas have great voices and are much more talented than the stars of High School Musical. The songs This is me, Who will I be, and Gotta Find You are truly amazing.

The lesson behind Camp Rock is just be who you are and don’t hide your identity. It’s also about peer pressure and gives an insight on girl cliques and the whole popularity thing, like Mean Girls.

Apart from being great singers, The Jonas Brothers are great actors too.

Gary March, the Disney Channel World president, has confirmed that a script is being written for Camp Rock 2 (which is intended to be released on June 2009), including a special appearance from The Jonas Brothers’ youngest brother, Frankie!

Camp Rock is a pleasant family movie that you’ll enjoy watching.

Camp Rock official site
Camp Rock soundtrack site

Image credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Camp_Rock_DVD.JPG

Guess who's Coming to Dinner (1967)

Director: Stanley Kramer
Starring: Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn, and Katharine Houghton
Genre: comedy-drama
my rating: 3/5

An upper class white American couple who have taught their young daughter, Joey, to treat everybody equally despite their race are shocked as she appears one day with a black man whom she has just been engaged to.

Although they were the ones who taught their daughter to respect African Americans (who weren't respected in many areas of their country at that time), they did not expect her to want to marry one.

Joey's parents are put to the test when he says he will not marry Joey without their agreement.

Joey's mother, Christina is supportive about her daughter's marriage from the beginning when she realizes how Joey and Dr Prentice like each other.

Then Dr Prentice's parents arrive, also stunned that their son is engaged to a white woman.

His mother is supportive too.

Only the two fathers show they are not convinced.

In the end, Tracy's father gives an emotive speech and the whole family starts having dinner.

The film takes place in a few locations, mostly Joey's parents' house is San Fransisco.

Guess who's Coming to Dinner is one of the 100 Greatest Movies of the past 100 years.

It has won 8 awards, including 2 Oscars and 20 nominations.

It has very entertaining dialogue and has won a Best Screenplay Oscar.

I think this is a movie that everybody should watch; it focuses on racial issues and the society at the time of the movie.

The Dark Knight Frenzy

There's a big buzz going on about The Dark Knight, which is the sequel to Batman Begins, starring Christian Bale, the late Heath Ledger, Harry Potter's Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Morgan Freeman. The film is directed by Christopher Nolan.

In Dark Knight, Batman (Christian Bale) faces his archenemy, the Joker (Heath Ledger), who is causing chaos across Gotham City.

The Joker is a grotesque fictional comic character who looks like a clown, and (according to Wikipedia) is a master criminal and psychopath who "commits crimes and murders people for his own amusement". He has been rated the greatest villain of all time.
The Joker has been featured in several previous Batman films. (A brief history of the Joker)
Jack Nicholson played the Joker in the Batman 1989 film.

According to NEWSWEEK, the dilemma in Dark Knight is whether the protagonist should play the same unfair "without rules" game as his foe while fighting him.

"[The Dark Knight] is not a typical comic book movie"... it is rated PG-13, but many are saying that the movie is not for young kids because of its "violent and disturbing" scenes. Some recommend it for kids aged 14 or older and others for kids 12 or older. (Read an article at Yahoo! Kids)

There is also a controversy going on over whether Heath Ledger should win an Oscar or not. (Read an article)

Also read Besides Heath Ledger's, what other Oscars could The Dark Knight win?

Showtime (2002)

Director: Tom Dey
Starring: Eddie Murphy and Robert De Niro

Showtime is an action/comedy film about 2 guys with completely different personalities who star together in their own reality-TV show.

Mitch Piterson (Robert De Niro) is a stubborn, blunt detective who is forced to star in a reality-TV show with officer Trey Sellars (Eddie Murphy) after shooting a news camera when Trey mistakenly thinks he's a drug dealer and ruins his under-cover case.

Trey, high-spirited and buoyant, prefers acting rather than becoming a police officer.

During the shooting of the TV show, Mitch and Trey face a real crime.

This movie is extremely hilarious because Robert De Niro starred in it.

If you want a light entertaining action film, you'll enjoy this one.

Showtime was nominated for two Razzie awards for Worst Actor and Worst Screen Couple.

School of Life

Directed by Jake Polonsky and written by Malachi Smyth, School of life is an award-winning short film that tells the story of a not-so-well liked school student who had to go through the unfairness of life instead of reading it on paper like all the other students.

"This will be the most important lesson of your life. Maybe the only important lesson".
As the teacher hands out to each student the answers to the "Riddle of Life", Stanley has to share one copy with Garth, the school bully.

Stanley feels alienated for being the only one in the whole school who couldn't get the answers to all to his questions about life.

The music is great and I think Nick Stockwell acted the part of Stanley very well.
This is a wonderful 7-min film that teaches everyone a lesson.

Visit main page of the film



I found out about School of Life in this blog but I couldn't locate the original post.

The Blue Planet (2001)

The Blue Planet is the greatest BBC nature documentary I've ever seen.

This multiple award-winning documentary is about the world's oceans, including never before seen footage of recently discovered creatures and the deep sea abyss.

The Blue Planet is both deeply entertaining and educational.

The DVD set contains 8 episodes that covers the ocean from its deepest seas through its Frozen Seas to the Coasts.

According to Wikipedia, The Blue Planet took 5 years to make in nearly 200 filming locations. It is narrated by David Attenborough, who also narrated many other BBC documentaries, and produced by Alastair Fothergill.

I highly recommend this documentary which will keep you thrilled from the beginning till the end.

A clip from the documentary (The Deep Sea)



BBC homepage here
learn more about it at Wikipedia here
Purchase it at Amazon here
Discovery Channel homepage here

Tween Sensation High School Musical

Everyone talks about High School Musical.

I had to watch it because everybody used to awe whenever they heard that I haven't watched the movie.

I thought I was missing something huge.

But after watching 1 and 2 I wondered, "Is this what I've been missing?'

I disliked 1 because it had "A perfect plot" and everything was perfect in the end.
It had an extremely "unreal" ending where everything ended perfectly at a situation where it was impossible to get everything right. They actually tinkered the basketball board to make it in time to do the singing show and the Math competition (or Chemistry or whatever)! What makes it more unrealistic is that it they won everything.

The actors sung better than the way they acted.

Although High School Musical 2 was a little bit better because some real dilemmas occurred in the plot, the ending was still ridiculous; Troy's friends made the perfect surprise for him to meet up Gabriella in the end. It was like a fairy tale where everyone lived happily ever after.

The movie sounded fake and I didn't like the songs, even though they were good for karaoke singing.

I think this movie is fun for 10 year olds or younger kids.

My advice is that if you haven't watched the movie, just watch it because it's a tween sensation and at least you could give your opinion during chat groups instead of saying you haven't watched the movie at all.

According to IMDb, High School Musical 3: Senior Year will be released on 24 October, 2008.
I hope it's going to be more real.

Disney Channel is working on High School Musical 4, too.

Mean Girls (2004)

Mean Girls, starring Lindsay Lohan, is about a 15 year old who enters a public high school in Chicago where she must learn to survive “Girl World” after being home-schooled and raised in Africa.

The movie is based on the non-fiction book, Queen Bees and Wannabees, which talks about girl cliques and other stuff about girls in high school. It is directed by Mark Waters and stars Lindsay Lohan.

When Cady Heron joins a high school in Chicago, she makes friends with Janis and her friend Damian, who are both ‘left out’.
Then she meets The Plastics, the three mean and popular girls of the school, who let her into their group.Cady wants to join the group, but is doubtful because she still wants to keep her other friends.Janis is enemies with the “Queen Bee” of The Plastics, Regina.
She and Damian convince Cady to act as a member of The Plastics and then report to them everything that happens inside the clique.
When Regina seeks revenge on Cady by getting her ex-boyfriend, Aaron Carter back from her, Janis gets her chance to take vengeance on Regina and encourages Cady to retaliate against her.The three friends make a plan to destroy Regina and her status.
As Cady lives her double life and spends more time with The Plastics and less time with her friends, she eventually becomes a Plastic herself.It is up to Cady to make things right.

An interesting character is Gretchen Wieners, the Plastic who is a little left out and not treated very well by Regina but tries her best to fit in because she knows it’s better not to be treated very well in the clique than not to be in the clique at all.
SPOILER: At the end she joins The Cool Asians clique, where he fits in.I liked the idea behind the movie because it gives you insights on cliques and “Girl World” and it shows the struggle of fitting in.It also shows how easy it is to become mean and lose your friends.Some parts were really funny and others were supposed to be funny but they may be offensive to some people.

CONTAINS SPOILER: I didn’t like some parts of the way the movie ended because it was like a fairy tale and everyone lived ‘happily ever after’. I didn’t think the Spring Fling speech was really meaningful or necessary because it wasn’t realistic; and she didn’t have to break the crown into pieces and share it or praise the way some people dressed.

The movie had some really funny parts.

I think this movie is useful for older kids (from 11 and up) and teens.In my opinion the rating is good: PG-13, which means you should only watch it with a parent if you’re under 13.

Mean Girls does have a moral ending. One good lesson was that revenge is not good and it won’t get you get what you want. Overall, I liked the movie and it teaches you many valuable lessons.