Movie : Inception

http://inceptionmovie.warnerbros.com/

Do you remember your dreams? Do you remember the beginning of your dreams..how do you get there..? No, right? You just remember being right in the middle of it..not even the end of it, because you usually got snapped out of your dreams like your fingers snapped...And when you wake up, sometimes you don't remember anything. And always, what you dreamed doesn't make any sense in the real world.

And another....can you steal an idea when it is still in someone's mind.....?

The Dreamer gives this movie two thumbs up! I am familiar and in favour with movies embracing the concept of mind-reading, mind-dwelling or psycho-thrillers because they always leave my mind spinning around looking for acceptable answers (..not always logical ones..) for the end of the story. Like Shutter Island, it's a good movie although it pained me to think that whether Ted Daniels is sane or not and whether the whole movie happens in the real world or just in his unstable mind. But this is another movie. Inception is new. Inception is about subconscious state of the human mind, the dreams...twisted to become some kind of technology. And humans, as we know, as much as they have gone forward in creating new technology, nonetheless have gone beyond all means to corrupt the technology for their own greed.

And Inception is about a group of thieves, and they steal ideas from the victims' mind inside their dreams. There are rules of sharing the same dreams, there are dreams within dreams and in due process of their mission, they must not lost their minds in the layers of dreams and they have to keep in check which is a dream and which is reality.

Each of the group members has a role in the mission. There's The Extractor, The Point-Man, The Architect, The Forger, The Chemist and The Tourist.. (..like Ocean's 11...anyway, this movie is about a heist anyway, albeit a different kind..). Usually, they steal the idea, but on this mission, they have to 'plant' an idea in someone's mind. That's what 'inception' means in this movie.

What I like about Inception is the concept, the story, the characters, the acting, the cinematography..a lot of cool scenes...what can I say..almost all. Reading about this movie, I like to know that the director, Christopher Nolan ( The Dark Knight) has tried to keep the CGI to the minimum, building almost everything..trying to put real things a lot..I salute that. And with the powerful music of Hans Zimmer just suit the mood of the movie, you just couldn't move from your seat for 2.5 hours to follow the story, experience the adventure, to understand the dreams and the emotional conflicts, and in the end.......

And I left the cinema with a smile of satisfaction amidst the applause of satisfied viewers... 

Despicable Me & Toy Story 3

Despicable Me...I like!!

Alright. The interesting promo made me gave this movie a go. What is it in this latest animation that is so endearing? Let me see... Gru, his yellow minions, and most adorable, Agnes. So, ok..Gru is a villain. He steals things. He has one mission, and only one ultimate mission....that is to steal the moon. To steal the moon, he needs a weapon called the 'shrink ray', and a big loan from the Bank of Evil to build a space rocket. In his most ambitious plan ever concocted with the goal of committing 'the true crime of the century', even better than the other villain who stole the Pyramid of Giza, he has an army of yellow creatures and a scientist/inventor friend to help him out. However, he is not alone in his conquest, a rival, Vector, is in his way. Then he met 3 little orphan girls; Margo, Edith and Agnes (so cute!!) whom he adopted with something else in mind. However, little did he know that he had acquired more than he bargained for with those girls. He learned something else in the adventure.

To me, this movie is adorably funny and exciting. Just don't expect that you will bounced out of your seat with laughter on the first scene because the story builds itself rather 'gently'. Once you have been introduced with all the characters, you would've understand it all and appreciate the funny moments. My favourite scenes include the scene at the theme park ("It's so fluffy, I'm gonna dieee!!!") and when Gru read the girls bedtime tories... :) . Showing in all major cinemas from 8th July, if you like this 3D feature film with the creative works from the guys behind Ice Age and Horton Hears A Who, this one should be in your movie list.

Now, Toy Story 3 is perhaps the most hilarious and emotional one of the 'trilogy' (assuming that Disney/Pixar is not planning for a fourth installment..). Alright, if the first Toy Story was about Woody and Buzz meeting each other for the first time and competing for the affection of then 6-year-old Andy, and in Toy Story 2 they both had their own mission to settle upon and meeting Jesse ( and Andy was still a kid ), Toy Story 3 is about the toy team battling with their fate as Andy grows up and is going to be in college. Who knows what will Andy do to them....keep them, put them in the attic, give them up for donation or just thrash them out?

Jeez, the story is quite thick to me, full of adventure, not forgetting highly hilarious and funny, and emotionally touching too at the end. Who would've thought that I would be nearly teary-eyed watching an animation movie?! I love the previous two movies but I dare say, this one is the best. Whatever it is, it's worth going to the cinema for it. And there's a whole bunch of positive values that we (not only children) could learn from this movie, especially about friendship. Of course, it's a movie for kids, what else can I expect? But you know, not every kids' show can demonstrate a good value behind the funny lines and graphic animation. Toy Story 3 is a must to see.
 ENJOY! 

Note: Toy Story 3 poster from disney.go.com

itsy bitsy teeny weeny thots......part one

...I hate it when my inspiration to write came when I was driving...couldn't just open the laptop then and there, and it is so unwise to text and drive..and by the time I was finally free, the inspiration has gone, the mood has faded..and so the idea and inspiration just became the dust in the air...

...experience teaches us a lot...but sometimes we learn it the hard way, that we always forgot to be thankful...

...grudges...we are allowed to feel it, but not to keep it...grudges fade with time...

 

Welcome 2010!

A year has passed...another year has come...and I never failed to write something about new year every time it comes. Resolutions....I thought I've already bored to think about it. Can we passed by a year without having resolutions? Some people seemed to already have enough of it, I heard on the radio this morning that one caller said that his resolution for this year is not to make any resolutions, hah! It was just a snippet on the air so I didn't get to know why he said that. But to me, whether we like or not, whether we've already bored with it or not, actually we make it every year, sometimes we just didn't realize it. There must be one time in our mind that we think of something that we want to get, we want to achieve or hope for in the future, whether it is achievable or not. There's no need to deny it. We always want to work on something until we get the result that we wanted. At the early stage, we always feel high-spirited to go and strut our stuff. Anyway, sometimes we will lose the drive as time passes by..let's say, mid-year, or quarter of a year...That's why DRIVE is important. We should tell somebody about the resolutions that we have made. Tell it to somebody whom we care for and also care for us. After that, we will feel that this person has indirectly become our 'observer', or the person whom we want to prove ourselves that we can 'walk the talk'.

One of the mistakes that we always do (..and what I did..) when we make our resolutions is to make it too general. Sometimes we like to generalize things too much that in the end, we don't know whether we have achieved it as we initially wanted it or not. "I want to be a better person this year"...we might have said that last year. So ask yourself, "Have I been a better person than before?" "How can I measure it in order to know that I have achieved it or not?" Well, can you? For example, you might better set it like this, "I promised myself not to throw tantrums in front of my boyfriend in public like before." So, how's the score? Have you achieved it? No? Only once? Well, it was better than 5 times last year. Then, you can move on. In other words, you have taken one step ahead to be a better person. So, the keywords here are;

ACHIEVABLE..BE SPECIFIC..MEASURABLE

Just now I have mentioned something about DRIVE. Like a marathon runner, we should have that air pistol to start the race and the cheering crowds all the way to keep us running to the finishing line. Lately, I am enjoying 'The Biggest Loser' show quite a lot. It's amazing to see big size people, committing themselves for several months to lose weight and by the time of the finale they become totally different people. They become persons of the same identity but with new spirit to live and new mindset. Of course, they have their trainers, eating and exercise discipline, but they cannot stay there tolerating each other and enduring all challenges if they don't have the drive. It could be about money. It could be about freeing themselves from being bullied. It could be about wanting to fit into a dream dress. It could be about being healthy and wanting to live longer for the sake of their families. Whatever it is, they have the reason to get going. And that is the thing that we must have to make our resolutions become reality.

And so....yes, I do have resolutions. I have two for this year. I have told them to someone. They can be achieved, they are specific and they can be measured. In fact, I have already started to work on one of them and I will start on the other one anytime soon. Last but not least, I hope by the end of this year, I would be able to tell the result in this blog and I wish everybody else all success. Give all efforts and ask The Almighty for the blessing and the strength to move on. Au revoir....

Are you lost in your own world?

Sometimes we learned about ourselves from the eyes of the others...

Well, I don't know if someone has already coined these words, but they sure ring a lot of truths in my mind. Some people are being self-centered so much that they don't give a chance for themselves to hear about what other people think about them, or how do other people perceive them. Some people are so defensive when they face criticism, that they are in denial of all the bad points given to them. Some people just take it all in, and let the critic change them for the worse. I guess how you respond to a critic depends on how you regard yourself as a person, also how much do you accept or not accepting yourself.

Have you fully accepted the way you look? Have you fully accepted the way you handle yourself in front of people? Have you fully accepted the way you think, eat, talk, act, etc. Have you accept the true facts of who you are and feeling peace with it?

For example: You are a crier when it comes to watching sad and tragic movies. You'd cry easily and feel very sad in front of the tv. Do you accept that character being part of yourself? Would you hold back your tears so that others watching with you won't see, or would you just let it out and reach for the tissue, not minding if the others also cry or watching you with a smirk on their faces? Would you see that as your weakness? Or just you being you..and didn't give a damn about it?

Coming back to my entry line, sometimes you get to see who you are from other people's opinion. You can take those opinions in either way, good or bad. It goes this way, people tell you that you are A, B or C. Once you know about it, you will be thinking of it, "Am I A, B or C?", "Why does he/she thinks that I am A, B or C?". Coming again to how you regard yourself, you will either think, "No, I am not A, B or C. He/she had misunderstood me.", or "I haven't realize this, but I might have been A, B or C. I should take a note on this".

All right, so how many of us are egotistical, or have a mind open enough to receive this opinion cum critics about yourselves? Truth does hurt sometimes. But if you stand firmly on what you believe about yourself,and you think that people are just not understanding you well, you might just let it pass, and keep an open mind about it. It is not worth bawling over the matter, and that you know who you are. You don't have to explain anything. Sometimes people can be mean with their words, sometimes it's just that they are unable to convey their intentions well, when it might have been a good one (But I don't deny the fact that some people are purely disrespectful...). But then again, this is life. Let's get on with it. There's always something to learn from our dealings with life. Buena suerte.