Tuesday, February 16, 2016
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DEADPOOL (cinema)
Watching Tue 16 Feb 2016 (Date Amended)
Wait for our reviews then
REVIEWED
As this movie received many good reviews, I had to see it on the big screen. Even on the morning show, the theater was adequately filled even if this is a 18SX movie (no kids below 18). Perhaps today being Chap Goh Mei did help to bring in the crowds even if it had been showing from 5 Feb.
Yup I enjoyed watching this. Right from the opening credits, it was creatively done where a still picture made the backdrop and the titles were utterly "not the names" of the people involved. Background song some song from the 80's or was it 60's ?
Its story telling is kind of creative too. You can call it flashback but its like you spliced 2 scenes and joined them together. The 1st is the action one and the 2nd how Wade Wilson become DeadPool and his love story with his girl friend.
Known faces, of course Ryan Reynolds playing DP for the 2nd time but this time in a suit. I wonder if the story projected on the screen is similar to the comic books version, but its kindda of fun. I guess the character of DP being the talkative and naughty boy was splendidly and realistically done by RR. Even with the mask on (where it totally covers his eyes and mouth) you are tickled by the jokes. Quite funny where other super heroes need to loose their mask so they can bring the acting out - Captain America, Spider Man and many others. But not this one (he's not even a super hero, so to speak).
Now the girlfriend is played by Morena Becarrine. I thought she was someone younger after watching her in Homeland (the earlier series) as a mother of 2 and lately Gotham. Great choice and tango well with RR definitely.
The main bad guys are New Transporter and Haywire. Both did their part very well. In fact Ed Skrein (Ajax/Francis) was very different than the woody Transporter.
This movie was made on a $58mil budget, but it didnt feel like one... it feels like a bigger budgeted movie ! The action scenes are all tremendously done. The use of slo mo and stills are at the most creative level.
The power of the movie DeadPool lies with the writing. Some of the scripts are so funny that hearing them can make you giggle. There are so many references of real life in this movie. Imagine in a slo mo fighting scene you hear a a love song from the band Chicago ! IMDB also mentioned that RR had a hand in the writing too. BTW he is also one of the producer of this movie.
One question answered is that when a movie is shown locally in the cinema with an 18SX tag, would it be censorship free ? Sadly its not, thou some freeway is given for the "f*" word and other fowl language, noticed that the actions are compromised. One very clear example is when DP shoot one bullet and that smashed 3 heads (as in the trailer). Well that didnt reach our shore. Until a Blue Ray version is watched then we can spot what scenes are remove from the local cinema version.
Fantastic movie this one. If it is the best Marvel movie.. Yup if you are looking at it from a comedy point of view. But its high up on my list of best Marvel movies, comedy et all.
Monday, February 15, 2016
Madoff - TV Series
This is a short TV series which was shown in 4 episodes of about 42mins each. Stars Richard Dreyfuss as Bernie Madoff with other actors whom I am not that familiar except for the one playing his eldest son Mark.
Its based on Bernie Madoff the person exclaimed to run the most notorious scam in history involving Billions of Dollars in a Ponzi scheme. Even he claimed the losses to be in the range of $50 Billion even after paying back most of the "Redemption". The term is for people wanting their money back.
I like watching this type of movie as in involved trading and investments. I know of the character from the papers when he got caught something about running the Ponzi scheme but not in detail. After watching this I found out what was really going on and in a better position to give my view on what did happened.
Bernie runs his company with his family. He had his younger brother as the Chief Compliance Officer, his two sons in the investment department. His nephew and niece is also in the company holding some high position too.
But he also runs another office on the 17th floor of the building headed by his right hand man by the name of Frank. No one is allowed in this floor except the personnel working there, not even his sons. This place runs his shady business, with locked doors and no windows.
What attract people to put money in Madoff's business is his promise to profit their "investment money" by 12% a year. And he didnt charge any management fee for his service either. That attract a lot of investment for him, some with $Billions ! When he got the job as Chairman of Nasdaq his reputation strengthen even further. To the point that he didnt have to find clients for they find him !
So was he able to profit more than 12% a year so that he can give away 12% to his "investors" ? He cannot. Worst - he dare not trade due to his past bad experience in trading the stock market when he was much younger. The fact is, he kept his "investment" in a bank and earn a measly 2% profit a year.
The Ponzi scheme works in this way. Those who fulfilled their investment "period" would be paid back with 12% as commission as promised. So he used the other 10% from the later investment of other investors to come up with the extra (2% from his bank). Surely in the end he would get caught but he thought that would be much later. The market crashed in 2008 and his investors started to doubt Madoff's scheme as his investment was not effected !! In fact he reduced to 5% to cushion the market.
His investors were still worried and they wanted to withdraw their deposits. He managed to fulfilled this by paying the "early birds" "Redemption". But when a majority of his investors were withdrawing, he knew that he would hit the wall sooner than he anticipated. He went on to confess to his family. The unexpected was that his sons were the first one to betray him. Why not as he never told them in the first place. So they quickly went to see their lawyer and confessed to the FBI. On top of that, they cut all ties with their father and give the choice to their mother to choose between them or their father.
One thing about the family, they have some sort of Genetic disorder where a member of the family is highly likely to get cancer, leukemia and anything related.
At the end of the film, Bernie did a Frank Underwood in House of Cards, he spoke directly to the camera in the jail. He said that he ran a ponzi scheme in a bigger ponzi scheme run by the government.Currently he is serving 163 years in jail. His wife didnt care less as she found out that he had an affair with one of his investors.
Mark the elder son committed suicide exactly 2 years after his arrest right to the hour and minutes. His second son died of Leukemia. So did his right hand man Frank died of lung cancer. His nephew died long long before he was arrested.
Now lets ponder - was Bernie that evil cunning enough to be prosecuted by the government ?
Yup he was evil of sort because I can figure out what ever he thought of a "way out". In a Ponzi scheme the bottom lines will get burned. Simple as that. When he is no where near investing his money or whatever means to multiply his funding, no way that he can fulfill his promise to his investors.
Somebody raised the flag much earlier in his funding scheme. Problem is nobody wants to listen and he kept on growing bigger. At one time the SEC (government agency for investing matters) had an audit in his office and they could not find a thing. He was devious enough to create false documents for the auditors to see. One simple phone call could had revealed that he is not trading yet he claimed to trade in millions of dollars. He was expected to be taken down that way, but he didnt.
Good TV series definitely for those who love trading and investing watching the length of 2 movies length in duration . RD might won an award for his role as BM next year. Finally at the end of the series, like most other true stories movie, they show the real character pictures with the actors. One thing for sure actors of this series looked quite similar to the characters they played
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Saturday, February 13, 2016
SUM OF HISTORIES
REVIEW
This movie is another take on time travel. So they say in the reviews I came across. I beg to differ. This is not about time traveling rather the ability that you can alert someone in your past... by email.
The concept may be funny but then when you think about people actually can travel to the past is funnier still. But scientifically the possibility occurring in this movie might be much more possible than the usual "time traveling" we saw in movies.
But a few things straight. The movie is not in English as it is a Belgian production. As expected non of the actors I know of. However, the copy has subtitles. However, the subtitles have many consistent typo errors. But you can make them out. My only complaint due to the need to glance at the subtitles, the concentration on the acting kind of lessen. Then this is not a high budget movie. But the technology that we could have 25 years from now was only shown in a bicycle that Victor rides and the LED board when he gave lectures. But the film is clever enough not to show the whole thing there is to show 25 years from now.
To me this story is very good with thick plot which you must understand and not loose your concentration. If you do then you may not understand the head and tail of the movie especially as it is not in English. This movie prove that you dont need high budget to make a good film. This film has the mysteries and the surprises all right.
Also prove that when it comes to some edge like this, one tend to think of making some money. This film didnt touched on Trading or Forex but on abstract art.
One of my complain is on the make up. The part when the Victor saw Tom at the present time (25 years on). Tom looks young and Victor older even with the make up. The production could find an older actor to play Tom rather than try to make up Tom to be older which did not quite pull off.
Good movie at only 1hr 20mins. Sufficient to have your brain cells working thinking what this film is all about.
The concept may be funny but then when you think about people actually can travel to the past is funnier still. But scientifically the possibility occurring in this movie might be much more possible than the usual "time traveling" we saw in movies.
But a few things straight. The movie is not in English as it is a Belgian production. As expected non of the actors I know of. However, the copy has subtitles. However, the subtitles have many consistent typo errors. But you can make them out. My only complaint due to the need to glance at the subtitles, the concentration on the acting kind of lessen. Then this is not a high budget movie. But the technology that we could have 25 years from now was only shown in a bicycle that Victor rides and the LED board when he gave lectures. But the film is clever enough not to show the whole thing there is to show 25 years from now.
To me this story is very good with thick plot which you must understand and not loose your concentration. If you do then you may not understand the head and tail of the movie especially as it is not in English. This movie prove that you dont need high budget to make a good film. This film has the mysteries and the surprises all right.
Also prove that when it comes to some edge like this, one tend to think of making some money. This film didnt touched on Trading or Forex but on abstract art.
One of my complain is on the make up. The part when the Victor saw Tom at the present time (25 years on). Tom looks young and Victor older even with the make up. The production could find an older actor to play Tom rather than try to make up Tom to be older which did not quite pull off.
Good movie at only 1hr 20mins. Sufficient to have your brain cells working thinking what this film is all about.
Friday, February 12, 2016
SECRET IN THIER EYES
http://bm.cx/WLdu
Link corrected 12Feb16
Copy upgraded to BlueRay
Link corrected 12Feb16
Copy upgraded to BlueRay
REVIEWED
This movie definitely has star power with Ejiofor, Kidman and Roberts. It would not miss the target that far even if it did with the heavyweights in this. Its not an action movie thou there were shootings, punching and chasing, the scenes are mere essential and not to thrill you. Anyway those are brief ones but nicely done. The production is good with frequent flashbacks between current and what happened 12 years ago when 911 had just happened.
Acting....
Expect acting from heavy weights and you are not disappointed. NK got the least heavy acting but she did the best she could on the parts her charms was required. Still a babe in this one. Good to see her in modern times rather than the 30's in "Queen of the Desert". JR on the other hand is no more a babe. Definitely she was in character with less or no make up. But her acting was effective as expected very intense and absorbed in some scenes. CE as good as always and his part was not wasted. He sure looks like a guy with 13 years of regrets and revenge.
Thou this was done ok, the flashback between present and 12 years back got me confuse at times. Your que for the flashback is not film discoloration or frame effects but just on their hairs - receding, different style and white hairs. There's no indication when the scene changes timeline. Its your intelligence to switch or stitch between the two timeline. Not too difficult but if you dont concentrate it may spoil your focus on the film.
The story is based from a book and some sort of a remake from a foreign film. So hard for the director to get creative with the story line but stick it as it is.
The movie can be draggy at time but good acting save the day. Stay till the end when you expect everything was already over. Whats reveal can be a surprise on what the hell did happen ?
You will be disappointed if you hope this is a cop thriller movie. Its a fine drama needing concentration to watch and not get confuse.
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