what is it about?
A robbery goes wrong for 2 brothers, and everything else follow suit from thereon.

the plot?
2 brothers, in dire need of money, plotted a plan to rob their parents’ jewelery store. It was supposed to be perfect. The elder brother, who was the original mastermind, had to delegate the job to the junior (Ethan Hawke) due to some unforeseen circumstances. But the junior being a chicken shit he is, got a friend to help him out. Come robbery day, everything went wrong. The friend got himself killed and shot their mom instead. Plenty of dramas ensued, with one event leading to another, and the flick would pan back and forth the storyline revolving around the robbery event…

likes
- the staggered way of revealing the plot. It was like a story being told in point form. Kinda liked it that way.
- plenty of Marisa Tomei nude scenes. Her role’s redundant yes, but why should I complaint if she’s showing us her hot perky tits?
- the believable acting from each and every cast in the flick (well, except Marisa Tomei… I doubt anyone’s giving a shit about her acting…)

dislikes
- the scene of Phillip Seymour Hoffman porking Marisa Tomei doggy style burned a painful image in my brain. It’s like watching a bestiality porn, you know? Marisa Tomei having sex with an albino hippo? Fuck. It’s tragic. (I’m pretty sure this must be a request from Phillip Seymour Hoffman himself, the scene’s like totally unnecessary…)
- nobody did Marisa justice by grabbing her beautiful tits (what the fuckkkk!??)
- the ending’s a bit of a disappointment.

spoilers
- Marisa didn’t show us her beaver.
- Phillip Seymour Hoffman dies in the end.

rating
The flick’s worth a watch. I’d give it a 7/10 with Marisa’s bare naked ass thrown in…

what is it about?
A complete footage from a camcorder, featuring a catastrophic event of a big fucking monster rampaging through the streets of New York (right, again), leaving behind death and destruction.

the plot?
Not much of a plot really. A lovesick and heartbroken guy (the protagonist) is evacuating the city from a monster attack, when he receives a phone call from his dying (but hot) girlfriend. Feeling upset about his seriously injured girlfriend in distress, he decides to be stupid and goes to her rescue out of compunction, along with a few of his friends… adventure ensues.

likes
- no bullshit introduction about the monster etc. The thing just shows up uninvited at the city, and starts wreaking havoc like he has just lost a hefty football bet. Just straight to the point.
- the effects are very much better than Godzilla’s / King Kong’s. Demolition and destruction of the building blocks are like what we saw happened to WTC during 9/11. The gore factor is equally amazing.
- the single perspective of the whole flick is quite neat, which lets the audience follow the storyline linearly, saving the need to switch plots, reducing the complexity. (read: it’s unintelligent and good in it’s own way)
- the monster looks mean and badass enough to my liking, and I also have to say that it reminded me a lot of Deathclaws in the popular RPG Fallout… (Deathclaws are fucking awesome)

dislikes
- the shaky camcorder view sucks. It’s like watching “Cops” - makes me dizzy. They could have done it with a fixed cam with the same single perspective story telling (eg: “Children of Men”).
- lack of screen time for the monster. If you’re armed with a camcorder and there’s this big monster tearing down the whole city apart (and for some strange reason, you’re not thinking about getting the fuck out of there), would you be shooting you and your buddies running around like dorks? I don’t know about you people but, I’d be pointing my camera at the fucking monster - AS MUCH AS I CAN!
- the idea of the monster being invincible is ridiculous. They could have made him bleed and stuff, it would have been way cooler.

spoilers
Everyone fucking dies in the end.

rating
Despite being a head spinning catalyst and somewhat of a gyp for not screening enough monster scene, it is still pretty good stuff to me. 7/10.

Ever wonder what is it like after you kill yourself? You transcend into a strange afterlife world, which uncannily resembles the world you’re living in, complete with apartments, cars, electricity, pubs, beers and even chicks. A special place where all suicide victims congregate. And it is just like our very own world, minus the parents and all the terrible people that made our life miserable. Sounds like a neat plan, isn’t it? Well, it entirely depends on your taste of things - think about the number of fucking emo chicks we’ll have to meet… or the bunch of soggy headed Arabs that has been lured to the place looking for 99 virgins…

That’s some imagination. Of course you fucking die after you kill yourself. Everything will be dark and you will turn into the dirt you are standing on (assuming you’re reading this blog on an unpaved road). But then, having given the capacity to think, it is kinda fun to imagine that afterlife do exist, and we get to romp somemore after checking out, eh?

That is what the movie is all about. A special afterlife world for people who dies out of inflicted causes. The plot is really simple - It is about a guy named Zia finding himself in this strange place after cutting his wrist for a failed relationship. There, he befriended a Russian guy (who got there by electrocuting himself with an electric guitar) and starts to hang out with him a lot. One day, Zia stumbles into an old friend inside a mart, and learns about his ex-girlfriend’s suicide, apparently due to her guilt of causing his death. Thinking that both of them can still get back together, Zia (and his Russian friend) embarks on a journey to search for his girlfriend in that afterlife world… and from there, adventure ensues…

There isn’t much action nor suspense in this flick, really. And no, there isn’t much special effects either. In fact, the ‘effects’ are like those that you see in the monochrome 50’s. Thoroughly fake and unconvincing. Definitely a low budget film.
But still, it was a very pleasant movie to watch. Part the reason lies with its script - humorously deadpan and trivial, which I find very entertaining and amusing. And this goes to show that a flick does not need to have a great deal of special effects to be good. With a decent script and plot, it can still be as entertaining…

This flick’s worth 7 out of 10.

(plot mistake: Zia managed to reverse his suicide in the end, thanks to one of the ‘person in charge’ who got him into a black hole… and he wakes up lying next to the girl he fell in love with when he was in afterlife (not his ex). I was thinking, if he didn’t die, then his ex-girlfriend wouldn’t have committed suicide in the first place, which then, he probably wouldn’t have embarked on the journey to look for her and he wouldn’t have met that hitchhiking girl. This doesn’t seem to connect well)

Four Oscars. That’s how many awards this flick grabbed at the 80th Academy Awards. Best director, best adapted screenplay, best picture and best supporting actor. Must be one heck of a good movie to be able to pull a feat like that, I thought. But it fell a little bit short of that in my opinion. It was just ok for me. Above average but, not really excellent. I’m gonna put what I think in point form…

- storyline
20 minutes through the flick, I can already guess what to expect for the remaining of the 2 hours. A hunter discovers an aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong, absconds with the money and a bunch of baddies (assassins) go after him. Adventure ensues. You know, not enough surprises. That was sort of a let down for me. After watching the likes like “He Was A Quiet Man“, I know how surprises and unpredictability can do to enhance the experience. I felt that the plot’s too simple and linear - but then, this is an adaptation of a novel so, it’s already not much of a plot to begin with.

- cast and characters
good and bad, but it was alright for me generally. I don’t fucking know what significance does that Sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones) character has in the movie apart from being a narrator and a confusing old fart that talks a lot of shit with unconvincing accent. That was the down side.
The good side, has got to be the character of that main villain named Anton Chigurh (an assassin that was sent by a drug buyer to retrieve the missing/stolen money). You see the guy running in the poster there? He was skedaddling away from this crazy fuck. Chigurh was such a fucking badass. Has a very odd looking hairstyle that paints a false impression of douchebaggery but don’t let that fool you. Underneath that disguise of unforgivable look, he’s a cold blooded psycho that would kill anyone or anything he doesn’t like at all. Drug pushers, cops, assassins, innocent motorists, etc - he’d kill anything, even the person who hired him. No motive, just kill. Can’t get enough of him. This guy is fucking awesome. They should make a separate movie about him…

chigurh: “do you see me?”
(The actor who played Chigurh got the Best Supporting Actor)

- actions and effects
Lots of them, and they’re all very nice. Loved the gore, the blood, the gunshots. There’s a part where Chigurl had to dress his own gunshot wound from a shotgun (or was it a hollow point wound?) which I think was splendid (and he did it without a flinch - unlike that fucking sissy Rambo who squealed like a 6 year old having an enema). Fair share of animal cruelty too - a few dead dogs (one was shown getting shot) and an intention to kill a bird (which I think was funny). There’s nothing more I could have asked for (though I’d advise to skip any parts with Tommy Lee Jones in it - which I think is redundant and out of place at times).

Over and all, I’d like to think of it as a serial killing plus action kind of hybrid flick. It’s all about Chigurh ruining people’s shit wherever he goes… and nobody can fuck around with him, right till the end of the story. It was all good for me except Tommy Lee Jones’ redundant parts and the unbelievably fucked up ending - which brought injustice to the quality of the whole plot, like a deck of cards.

This worths 7 out of 10 in my scale of awesomeness, but fell short of a Picture of The Year trophy… in my humble opinion.

You know, before I watch any movie, I would usually refrain myself from reading any sources of spoilers/reviews beforehand - so that I’d have a neutral expectations prior watching it.

So naturally, the perception that I had for this, was that it was a sick flick. A sadisticly themed slasher cum horror movie. Why? A few reasons.

The first reason, would definitely have to be the title. “He Was A Quiet Man”. Ooo fucking creepy. The movie must be about some sociopath cutting up kids or something like that… maybe a “Mr. Brooks” clone but, with much more gut retching elements in it… And then, the cast of the protagonist. It was led by Christian Slater. Like, who can look sicker than Christian Slater? He has that natural conniving son of a bitch and pedophilic look that makes him all perfect to be one. He’s there for a reason.

My suspicion kinda bolstered in 15 minutes through the flick, and then, it gradually changed into something completely different. Something which was way more pleasant. It was the same feeling that I have when I play a good role playing game - storylines that keep introducing new yet intriguing plots that makes you want to find out more about the next. That was why I got so deep into the flick, which managed to keep me glued on the screen right till the end without a flinch. That was how good it is. Unpredictable yet interesting plot.

The storyline revolves around a coy and delusional guy called Bob, who was often a product of constant harassment and oppression from his office co-workers. Bob, at the verge of committing a mass shootout at the office, was one day cut back by another delusional guy at the office, who did the shooting just moments ahead of him. Bob confronted the shooter and inadvertently became an overnight celebrity cum hero when he killed the gunman and rescued the wounded assistant VP called Vanessa (whom he had admired all the while) from being executed.

After that fateful day, Bob’s life changed. He was promoted at work for the display of courage and heroism, and everyone started to look up to him. Vanessa on the other hand, was paralyzed neck down from the shooting and scorned Bob for rescuing her. Just when Bob thought he had made the biggest mistake of his life, Vanessa asked Bob for a final favor, to finish what the gunman started - end her misery by ending her life. Bob agreed but chickened out at the last minute. In a weird twist of fate at that moment, the fuming Vanessa discovered that she can actually move one of her fingers which offered a glimmer of hope that she might be well again, and for that, credited Bob’s chickening as saving her life for another time.

From there, their relationship blossomed and Bob was at the crest point of his life. He started to socialize and felt confident for the first time. But just when he thought everything was right in his life for the first time, the remnants of his insecurity made him discover things that he aren’t suppose to know, which then triggers the return of his mental problems, in a much more badass magnitude.

Go watch it already. The movie has depth, and it’s good. This flick is worth 8 out of 10 in my scale of awesomeness.