My Movie Watching List 2010
Since I’m really into movies, I’d like to continue blogging about this topic for the time being.
This post is only a list to keep track of what movies I have watched in 2010. I’ll try to keep this list updated, especially with the movies I watch in the theaters. Scoring is from 1 (worst) to 10 (best).
Disclaimer: reviews and scores are biased to my preference, your mileage may vary
4. Alice in Wonderland
A popular classic story, directed by the unique Tim Burton, backed with a high budget, with the renowned casts like Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, and Helena Bonham Carter, and the awesome US$ 116.1 million breaking opening weekend box office records, will prove that this movie is one of this year’s top pick. Or not!
Last night (Mar 9) I came to the Grand Cathay to watch this movie. The Grand Cathay is currently, in my opinion, the best non-premium cinema in Singapore. With the size comparable to the GVmax cinema, it is also THX certified. Since Alice in Wonderland is not a pure 3-D movie — unlike Avatar, it’s filmed in 2-D and later converted to 3-D — I’d rather watch it in a bigger 2-D cinema than the smaller 3-D cinemas.
The movie is visually appealing. Tim Burton managed to build the wonderland wonderfully. The characters were alive and the casts were great. But unfortunately, the pace was quite slow to my taste. It couldn’t keep me excited throughout the whole duration of the movie, not even half. There were not enough surprises, if any. And the battle scene was so typical as other animated movies.
Score: 6
3. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
The visual effect displayed on the trailer and the theme (Greek mythology) were the main attraction to me. At first, I thought that it was yet another Harry Potter-wannabe teenage movie (and it seemed that it was), so I didn’t put much expectation other than great visual effect for my viewing pleasure.
After watching the premiere show at GV Plasa Singapura on Feb 11, I found the movie quite enjoyable and entertaining. It was fast-paced and loaded with fresh humors. It turned out to be a fun parody of the Greek mythology. The cast could definitely be better though veterans such as Pierce Brosnan and Uma Thurman were involved as supporting roles.
Score: 7
2. My Ex
Horror is one of my favorite genre when it comes to theatrical movies. The problem is that it can be though to find companions to watch this kind of movies. Companions that won’t scream during the play. At least I got two friends who were interested to watch this movie last Feb 8 at GV Tiong Bahru.
My Ex is a Thai-horror movie. So the cast is not familiar to me. One of the main character, however, was very attractive. She is a fairly known Thai model and actress called Wanida Termthanaporn a.k.a. Giftzy, so it’s not hard to find her pictures if you’d like to know what I meant.
The movie, though pretty predictive, was packed with a nice dosage of surprising and shocking moments. But the make-up was kinda disappointing, it can’t help the acting skill of the actors which was mediocre at best.
Score: 6
1. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Although this movie was released back in 2009, I watched it only recently on Feb 6 at Cathay Cineleisure, Orchard. Partly because my girlfriend told me that the movie was bad. Still I wanted to watch it because of the great list of cast: Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law. And of course because I like fantasy-themed movies.
Well, although it’s not a really really good movie, but it’s not that bad either. The actors also played pretty well to live up to their great names. The effect of Heath Ledger’s death during the making of the film was cleverly covered by the other actors.
Score: 7
Average Person
I don’t know the exact definition of “average person”, but someone described it as a person who does not really excel at any particular thing, but ain’t the worst either. One who has an average rating in his/her skills. Not outstanding neither poor. Maybe it’s like the saying:
Jack of all trades, master of none.
So what makes a person average? One might say you can tell by the average academic achievement, average work performance, average income, or even average look.
Can all the average scores be improved? Absolutely. Got an average academic scores? Study harder. Average work performance and income? Work harder, or, smarter, or both. Average look? Work out, treat your body nicer, or you can use the abundant beauty products, makeups, and fashion.
It’s true that not everyone born as prodigy. Not everyone can compose music at the age of five like Mozart. Or graduated summa cum laude at 12 years old from a university like Sho Yano. Or started to play golf at 2 years old like Tiger Woods.
You don’t have to be a gifted prodigy to be successful. Even the famous successful inventor, Thomas Edison once wrote:
“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
So it’s obvious, even though you are not a prodigy, it’s not the end of the world. It doesn’t mean that all doors to success are closed for you.
I can’t say I’m a successful person since I still have a lot of things to achieve in my life. So I can’t really write a recipe for success. But recently, I heard a wonderful sermon from Pastor Kong Hee of City Harvest Church at the Chinese New Year 2010 service. The sermon is much longer and a bit different to the following, because I’ll share and adapt to what I think is more relevant to the topic.
1. Sow and plant the seeds
Don’t just wait for miracles to happen. You can’t grow anything if you keep your seed in your pocket. Sow it! Plant it!
Money won’t fall down from the sky or grow on your back. If you think you are not a prodigy, then learn. You can’t expect to play musical instruments on concerts without learning. Don’t expect perfect academic scores without studying. If you’re not from a wealthy family like Paris Hilton or if you are not an ultra-lucky person like Gladstone Gander (Donald Duck’s cousin) who won all the lotteries, don’t expect to get a lot of money without doing anything.
You have to invest your time, energy, mind, effort, and money to be able to produce something.
2. Maintain your seeds and plants
You can’t just sow the seeds and leave them. They may get dehydrated and die. Crows may come and eat them. Take care of them by watering regularly, fertilizing, and protecting them from pests and other threats.
3. Wait for your seeds to grow
If you plant your seed tonight, you can’t expect it to fructify in the morning. You need to wait, give it enough time while maintain it so it will grow healthily.
You can’t expect to become a world-class cook overnight, or build a nuclear reactor tomorrow if you just started to learn physics today. Be patient and keep your determination to learn and train and surely you’ll get better in time.
Once again, not everyone is born prodigy. But you don’t have to be one to be successful. Some people became successful very late in their lives. Colonel Sanders started his franchise business in his sixties. Albert Einstein had a speech difficulties in his childhood.
4. Sow the right seed on the right ground
Don’t try to grow Durians in Chicago. Durian is a tropical fruit that will stop growing when the average daily temperatures drop below 22 °C. So if you really really need to grow it there, you’ll need extra efforts, like building a greenhouse. Or grow evergreen plants instead.
So if you’ve trying hard to learn and pick up some skills but you still feel that you’re not improving much, then maybe it’s not your ground. You’ve been learning cooking day and night for the past few years, but your cooking still taste bad. Then maybe you’re not born to cook. Try something else. Or if you really want to cook regardless the fact that you’re not talented, you can get more professional help such as taking cooking courses instead of just learning only from books.
Sometimes, you still want to be able to grow Durians although you live in Chicago. Although there are workarounds for this, you won’t get an optimal result. Just because some people regard Durians as the king of fruit, it doesn’t mean everyone will appreciate it. Some will even hate it, either the taste, the look, or the odor. So be creative and open-minded. You may have great potential talents deep inside you, waiting for you to uncover them.
Not everyone has to be a businessman, or a politician, or a musician, or a scientist. Just because some people think geniuses should be good at math, it doesn’t apply to everyone. Just because people think that medical career promises fame and wealth doesn’t mean that everyone should become a doctor.
There are a lot of geniuses. Some are geniuses in business, some in science, some in language, some in social skills, some in kindness, some in teaching, some in philanthropy, some in sincerity, some in honesty, some in relationship, some in intelligence, some in diligence, and a lot of other qualifications that people can be geniuses in.
Maybe not all kind of skills can make you rich. Being kind and philanthropist many times even cost you money. But successfulness is not only measured by how much money you can earn in life. You don’t have to be rich to become successful. But don’t ignore your potential just because you or others think that it’s not a money-making skill. Appreciate it, improve it, and maintain it. Sometimes you never know when you will need your hidden talents. And if you’ve neglected it, you can only regret when you realize that you actually need it.
5. Focus on certain types of plants instead of trying to plant all of the kind
Your ground and time are not limitless. You don’t have the time to plant all kind of seeds and your ground can only hold so much. So if you try to plant to many seeds, you will harvest a little of everything. It’s usually better to harvest a lot of one thing.
So if you want to pick up a lot of skills, you will end up learning those only on the surface. You will know a lot things but not actually understand them. It’s good to know a lot of things, but you still need to be very good at something — not only know — to be regarded as an outstanding (above average) person. Focus on one or two things you really like or you think you have a good potential in. Being a specialist can distinct you from others.
6. Ask for God’s guidance and blessing
You have planted all your seeds. You take care of them everyday. But it doesn’t rain for months. It’s so dry that you can water your seeds enough. The weather has been so bad, and pests are coming like flood. You can do anything to salvage your plants. You realize, a man can only do so much. You need the divine intervention.
No matter how hard you try, you can’t go against God’s purposes. No matter how hard you train your body, you can still get sick, grow old, and die. No matter how skillful you are, you can’t live without God’s blessing. You have to realize, that everything in the world is not eternal. And everything is in the mercy of the Lord. So not only you have to work hard, you have to maintain a good relationship with God to receive the divine guidance and blessing.
7. After harvesting, sow again
So your seeds have grown and fruitful. You happily enjoy your harvest. Then you stop working. Can you expect another harvest? You have to continue working, continue sowing, continue maintaining, in order for you to continue harvesting.
Even if you already master the skills you want. You will still need to continue sharpening and using it. Otherwise it will become dull.
10 Must-See Movies in 2010
James Cameron’s Avatar has closed 2009 and at the same time, opened 2010 with record-breaking result. Now let’s see the next batch of movies to expect in this year.
1. Shutter Island
Release Date: February 19
Why? After Gangs of NewYork (2002), Martin Scorsese seemed to love Leonardo DiCaprio so much they worked together in all recent Scorsese’s movies. The previous three movies of their collaboration brought 26 Oscar nominations, of which 9 were won; culminating with the last movie, titled The Departed (2006), which won 4 out of 5 nominated Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. After that much of collaboration and achievements, we can only expect better from them, or not?
2. Alice in Wonderland
Release Date: March 5
Why? Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, and Helena Bonham Carter. Popular people in a popular story, enough said.
3. Clash of the Titans
Release Date: March 26
Why? Because I always like the Greek mythology, especially when it is played by the rising star Sam Worthington.
4. Iron Man 2
Release Date: May 7
Why? Iron Man (2008) was a cool and highly praised by critics. Based on the movie franchise history (Spider-Man, Shrek, Pirates of the Caribbean), the second installments usually were better than the first. Based on the same history, the third were usually the worst.
5. Robin Hood
Release Date: May 14
Why? The legend of the nemesis of the rich but friend of the poor is so popular it has been filmed 9017841 times. Honestly I don’t expect a lot from this 9017842nd remake. But Russell Crow may bring something fresh.
6. Shrek Forever After a.k.a. Shrek 4 a.k.a. Shrek: The Final Chapter
Release Date: May 21
Why? Sure Shrek the Third (2007) was disappointing, but this is the final chapter, and everyone will want to know whether the green ogres will finally live truly happily ever after. This is the most important part of every princess-material story.
7. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Release Date: May 28
Why? Based on a legendary PC game and powered by $200 million budget doesn’t mean this movie won’t suck. But still, I’d like to see my childhood game hero on the big screen.
8. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Release Date: June 30
Why? Ask the girls, why! Okay I’m not a girl, but still the battle visualization between vampires and werewolves is always interesting to see.
9. The Last Airbender
Release Date: July 2
Why? I rarely followed television series. Avatar, the Last Airbender from Nickelodeon was the rare exception. I enjoyed the series and I only hope, this live-action film won’t suck as much as Dragonball Evolution (2009).
10. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Release Date: November 19
Why? Unless you worship the books so much you consider the films are blasphemy, you will want to see this. Luckily I don’t read the books, so the movies are just fine for me.
In case you don’t know, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the last book of the series and it will be split into two films. The first part will be released this year while the second part will be released on 15 July 2011. While surely it won’t stop the usual criticism that the movie was not as detailed as the novel version, it will still provide more details than the previous movies. So, considering this is the first part of the last movie, make sure you don’t miss it if you have been following it.
Other movies worth to mention
2010 will have much more movies, but my list is limited to 10. There are definitely other movies you might want to consider:
- Sex and the City 2 (May 28)
- The A-Team (June 11)
- Toy Story 3 (June 18)
- Jonah Hex (June 18)
- Inception (July 16)
All images are courtesy of Wikipedia.
