Twin Peaks (1990-1991)

Who killed Laura Palmer? I love detective stories and that was why when I watched the first episode of Twin Peaks I knew that I had to follow the series, especially when Dale Cooper entered the screen -- oh, that's the "FBI guy" from The Hidden, who looked too young that he might have been recruited right from high school.

What I really loved from the series was its dreamy opening theme - that a few minutes before 8 o'clock on Saturday evenings I had been ready in front of the tv so that I wouldn't miss the first note of the tunes and that image of the bird. [I bought the recording afterwards.] The detective plot was interesting, but some characters were sometimes weird, even though I had seen several works of David Lynch before. In the end, I missed a couple of episodes and never knew how it ended - my penfriend told me it was Laura's father - I can't remember why I missed those episodes, perhaps due to my school activities in those days or because the series disappeared from TVRI and moved to TVRI2, which my TV couldn't receive.

The sceneries in the opening credits were so beautiful and I was surprised when I received a postcard with the picture of Snoqualmie Falls and its Salish Lodge, from my penfriend who lived in Seattle. It was a coincidence because I never mentioned Twin Peaks to her.

L-R: Dr Hayward, Hawk, Sheriff Truman, Dale Cooper

Now I have seen all of the episodes. I didn't know the series was divided in 2 seasons. I thought 'Who killed Laura Palmer' was this series's tagline, so it was weird to see that the killer revealed in Season 2 episode 8. [season 2 consists of 22 episodes] After the revelation, it didn't feel interesting anymore, although the creator created a new enemy for Dale Cooper, Windom Earl. [I read later that the producer wanted David Lynch to revealed Laura's killer asap to increase the series' rating.] For me, the series centered to Laura Palmer's murder and not Dale Cooper.

In the 90's, although I missed the episodes when Laura's killer was revealed, I did watched the episodes after, because then I discussed with one of my penfriends (we both loved Twin Peaks) that the first dead-body killed by Windom Earl might be played by Kyle MacLachlan's brother and also the relationship between Nadine and Mike. My penfriend wanted to know what Mike had whispered in Bobby Briggs' ear.

Dale Cooper in The Great Northern Hotel

In that time I think David Lynch knew how to pick up beauties for his cast: Mädchen Amick, Sherilyn Fenn, Lara Flynn Boyle (although after Twin Peaks, she became so thin!), Sheryl Lee, Peggy Lipton, Piper Laurie; they were all very beautiful. I also loved those close-ups of donuts and pies, and realized that David Duchovny was more beautiful as a woman.

Basically the story was about the murder of Laura Palmer, the little town's beauty queen. Her dead-body was found wrapped in plastic, on the river-bank. FBI agent Dale Cooper came to Twin Peaks to help the local sheriff investigate the case because there was a possibility that the killer had killed a woman named Teresa Banks a year ago. We then met the town's characters and found out that they all had secrets and problems.

I think the FBI only involve themselves in a local murder case after it turns out the murderer has stricken before, so I wonder why they sent a FBI agent to investigate the murder of Teresa Banks in Fire Walk With Me.

The Great Gatsby (2013)

I remember vaguely that I read somewhere that The Great Gatsby novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald was one of the beautiful books ever written. Not sure if it’s the story or the writing style. I wanted to read this book then, and perhaps I did read a few pages and was never interested to finish it. So I don’t know if the movie version by Baz Luhrmann is faithful to the book. Thanks to the movie, however, that now I know what the book is about.

I am not a fan of both main actors in the movie: Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio; and in the first half hour of the movie, I was pessimistic. The party held by Jay Gatsby made me dizzy. Too many people came (in 1922 were party goers really that many?) and the scenes were too fast. After it was revealed why Gatsby wanted to befriend Nick Carraway, the story went smoothly.

A poor bond salesman, Nick Carraway, just arrived in Long Island New York and lived next to a palace owned by Jay Gatsby, who held a party every night. Gatsby asked Carraway to bring his cousin, Daisy, for tea. It was then Carraway realized that before Daisy married, she and Gatsby were lovers. Gatsby went to war and Daisy married Tom Buchanan, a former Yale football player.

Buchanan had a mistress, so Gatsby was convinced that Daisy never loved her husband. He asked her to leave Buchanan and marry him. Buchanan told Daisy that Gatsby was a fraud, a bootlegger. In the heat of the moment, Daisy and Gatsby went home in Gatsby’s big yellow car and Daisy, who drove, hit Buchanan’s mistress with the car to death.

Buchanan blamed Gatsby for his mistress’s death, also claimed that Myrtle (the mistress’s name) was Gatsby’s mistress. Wilson, Myrtle’s husband, shot Gatsby to death, after Gatsby thought that he had received a call from Daisy, who he thought agreed to go away with him. The call was actually from Carraway; while Daisy was going abroad with her husband.

To Carraway, Gatsby was one of the good guys; while Daisy and Tom Buchanan were careless people.

Although the party scenes made me dizzy, the landscapes were very beautiful. Carey Mulligan, who played Daisy, is very beautiful. The audience were easily convinced why Gatsby wanted her very much. I must say that Leonardo DiCaprio was suitable in that role. I don’t like him enough that it was believable how people in New York turned from him after the scandal began, that none attended his funeral.

Daisy's entrance

Compared to Moulin Rouge and Australia (which I didn’t even remember what it was about), Gatsby’s love story was much more beautiful; but I believe it’s because the book it’s based on is also a classic. Among the three, Moulin Rouge is still the best.

The World's End (2013)

"It's pointless arguing with you."

Gary King and his 4 friends: Peter, Oliver, Andy, Steven were originally from Newton Haven. In their early twenties, they attempted to do something called ‘The Golden Mile’; that was going to all twelve pubs in the town in one go and drinking in each. It was not completed.

Twenty years later we saw the five men didn’t live in Newton Haven anymore. Peter, Oliver, Andy, Steven all had steady jobs and we could say they lived in order; while Gary lived in disorder. We saw Gary in a circle meeting (the one the participants tell others about their lives like in an AA meeting) and someone mentioned how Gary never completed The Golden Mile. Something clicked in Gary’s head and he gathered his four friends and they all went back to Newton Haven, trying to complete The Golden Mile.

The Five Musketeers back in Newton Haven

It sounded simple and boring, but this movie was directed by Edgar Wright, whom I think is very good with camera trick. What audience can see is only what the camera is capturing, which he combines with cleverly cutting scenes. Far as I know, not many can make this kind of movie with not-so-big budget. The movie was fast paced, or very fast paced, or at least the characters often said their lines very fast. To complicate matters, Newton Haven had been possessed by aliens. It was a combination of Shaun of The Dead (also made by the same people) and some comic I read years ago which I cannot remember clearly, a girl found the townspeople had been turned into robots – including her parents.

In the end, The World’s End (you will find the name of this last pub in The Golden Mile is very appropriate if you watch the movie) was a very entertaining movie and I enjoyed watching it very much.

Lucy (2014)

With Luc Besson and Scarlett Johannson in this movie, I had expected to watch something extra-ordinary. However, it did not meet my expectation. I must have set my hope too high… I think the movie was too short: it was less than 90 minutes.

Lucy (Scarlett Johannson) met Richard – whom she had dated once – in front of a hotel in Taipei. He asked her help to deliver a suitcase to the receptionist and asked for a Mr. Jang. Mr Jang’s henchmen killed Richard and took Lucy to Mr. Jang’s room, where she found out that the suitcase was full of a new powerful drug in the shape of little blue crystals. To smuggle the drug into other countries, Mr Jang took Lucy and 3 other men and inserted the drug into their stomachs. While waiting for her flight, Lucy was kept in a prison and kicked in her stomach, causing a leak in the pack. She was overdosed and be able to use more part of her brain.

Ordinary people only use 10% of the brain.

She became very strong and could control her cells and electronics, could alter her appearance; but after a while she fell apart. Therefore she needed more of the drug and contacted French police to catch the 3 other smugglers. She also contacted Professor Norman (played by Morgan Freeman) who she believed understand her situation and could help her. So, what happened after Lucy could use 100% of her brain? Time and space became no obstacle? She became a sort of goddess?

Lucy's body is falling apart

Freeman & Johannson - in the same frame

Scarlett Johannson’s character gave blank looks most of the time, like she was looking through something. She probably could control cells but it looked like she had lost her soul. It was said that she had no pain, no fear, and no desire.

Maleficent (2014)

Disney's Sleeping Beauty is one of my favourite movies. The drawings are a bit different than the usual Disney style and I think Aurora, with her long golden hair, is the most beautiful among all Disney’s princesses. And why not? She’s got the gift of beauty from a fairy.

Maleficent is the same story told from the point of view of the ‘bad fairy’. King Stephan, Aurora’s father, is described here as the bad guy: greedy, selfish, and deceitful. To become a king, Stephan stole Maleficent’s wings. She had trusted him, thinking that he had loved her. For a revenge, Maleficent cursed King Stephan’s baby girl: that before the sunset on her 16th birthday, she would prick her finger on a spindle and fall into a deep slumber; and only a true love’s kiss could wake her up. Maleficent herself believed that true love’s kiss didn’t exist.

The three ‘good’ fairy who were supposed to take care of baby Aurora turned out to be incapable (and stupid), so secretly Maleficent and her raven, Diaval, took care of her. When she almost reached 16, Aurora recognized Maleficent and called her ‘Godmother’. Maleficent grew to love Aurora and tried to undo the curse but couldn’t. When Aurora fell into her deep sleep, what could wake her up but Maleficent’s true love’s kiss. Perhaps it goes to show that only a mother’s love is true.

Aurora and her Godmother in the Moors

Aurora wanted to follow Maleficent, back to the Moors (the enchanted forest kingdom). King Stephan’s army stopped them and they fought – which ended in the king’s death and Maleficent got her wings back. Thus Maleficent, the raven and Aurora lived happily ever after in the Moors.

In the movie, Maleficent was not always described as kind. She destroyed the first king’s army who was attacking the Moors; very different from young Maleficent who let the young thief go in peace. Prince Philip was described as a useless boy, who couldn't even path to the palace.

I know you. I walked with you once upon a dream.

Julia (1977)

Julia was based on a chapter in Lillian Hellman's second volume of memoirs, Pentimento: A Book of Portraits, appeared in 1973. Lillian Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was a successful American author of plays and screenplays. She was Jewish.

Jane Fonda played Lillian Hellman. In the beginning of the movie, she was struggling to write a good play in a beach house, accompanied by her lover Dashiell Hammett, a novel writer. She often thought about her friend Julia, a political activist, who now studied medicine in Vienna. There was an attack to the university (I am not clear what event it was, but people burst into the building, attacked the anatomy lab and threw students from upstairs). Lily went to Vienna to visit gravely wounded Julia, who was in a coma. Later Julia's records were removed from the hospital and no one knew about her.

Then Lily wrote a very good play which became a hit. She became famous and was invited to Russia. In her hotel in Paris, she was visited by Julia's friend, who asked her to take a train via Berlin and smuggled money for buying Jewish people's freedom.

The movie was slow. I think it was because Lily's life was not as exciting as Julia. However, this movie used Lily as its main character, and put Julia as a supporting character. Lots of time was used for the train scenes. Because she was a Jewish, we knew how dangerous it was for Lily to come to Berlin. It was almost insane for Julia, who claimed that she was her friend, to ask Lily to travel via Berlin. Julia did provide people throughout the journey to watch over Lily so that she was always safe.

After the released of this movie, psychiatrist Muriel Gardiner from New York claimed that she was the basis of Julia character. Gardiner and Hellman had the same lawyer, who could read Gardiner's memoirs.

Lillian and Julia - past and present

The Following (TV) (2013)

The antagonist was a handsome serial killer, Joe Carroll, ex professor of English literature -expert in Edgar Allan Poe's works - who had searched inspirations to write his novels by torturing and murdering young women. He had been caught by FBI agent Ryan Hardy, who almost died in his hand, and since then living with the help of a pacemaker. In prison, Joe Carroll received many of his fans, who were killers like him. Together they planned his escape.

The series was enjoyable to watch, even though I found the story didn't make sense. Joe Carroll had violently murdered 14 women and I thought that the authority should have considered him as dangerous and put him in isolation. In this series, the warden didn't seem to care about Joe Carroll activity. Carroll was free to teach his 'students' when they visited him in prison, threatened his lawyer, and planned the kidnappings of his wife and son, planned his escape, and avenged Ryan Hardy.

Too many serial killers in this series and they all idolized Joe Carroll. Most of them had uninteresting personality - mostly they were insane. I prefer watching movies with smart serial killers (and not a group of slaves like in this series), with smarter detectives to catch them.

"The grim reality is that there are always somewhere between 35 and 300 active serial killers (depending on who you ask) in the US alone." And from this fact, the creator of this series gathered them all and made them love Joe Carroll. What was so special about Joe Carroll, anyway? Apart from his good looks and good manners, he actually failed: both as a writer and a serial killer.

Skyfall (2012)

I think Skyfall is one of the best Bond movies ever made, especially from the artistic point of view. I like the fighting scene in the tall building where we could see Bond and his enemy as silhouettes.

Country comes first, that's what good patriots do. In the beginning, we saw M made a critical decision which made Bond (almost) killed. [It's a beautiful scene. Bond was shot and his body fell into the river and Adele began to sing: 'This is the end."] Choosing between her country vs her most competent agent, M sacrificed Bond without hesitation. A crooked agent, who had also experienced this, swore revenge against M. If in other James Bond movies we usually see him fights a mad man who wants to rule the world, this time it's M's personal enemy. Also, in others we see Bond fights alongside beautiful women, in Skyfall, M gets that position. [I don't count Eve because she only has little parts.]

Bond enjoyed his holidays while M thought he had been dead. He returned when he thought his country needed him. To get back to his duty, Bond had to pass some tests. It's sad to see that he could not shoot straight again. Even sadder when this lack of skill made him lose in a sort of William Tell competition and caused a beautiful woman died.

Compared to Quantum of Solace, Daniel Craig's first Bond movie, I like Skyfall much better because in this one we don't get a scary torture scene.

I also feel like we get a pre-James Bond movie because female M died here and we get a new male M. If they don't make another James Bond movie again, I can think that after Skyfall, the next sequel could be Dr. No.

Silva's silhouette leaving the burning mansion

This scene reminds me of Doraemon making a diorama for Nobita

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Eight years after the story in The Dark Knight (2008) ended, Batman became Gotham City's enemy, while the late Harvey Dent a.k.a Two-Face became a hero. Bruce Wayne seems to lose a will to live and no one has ever seen Batman since. A new character is introduced here: Blake, a young police officer who still believes in Batman, after seeing his heroic action when he was a kid.

The enemy in this movie is Bane. Before watching this movie, I really didn't see why Bane had been chosen. How dangerous could he be? In "Batman & Robin" (1997), Bane was only Poison Ivy's thug. Bane was strong, but stupid.

In this movie, when Batman and Bane meet for the first fight, Bane beats him and breaks his bones. I felt cheated. Why Batman fought him with empty hands? Where were his gadgets?

Here, Bane wants to destroy Gotham City with a nuclear bomb. We learn later that once a thug, always a thug. Bane is never the brain behind the attack.

The movie is so violent. Like the Joker in the previous movie, Bane and his gang kill people like they are nothing. The rating for this movie in the US is PG-13, which suprised me. Have we tolerated such level of violence for teenagers? But honestly, any movie with Batman in it, I bet little kids must be wanting to watch it. I hope in the future, any superhero movie won't be this dark.

The Lone Ranger (2013)

I found this movie very entertaining and enjoyable. There was a violent scene concerning eating a heart, but it was not clearly shown, so I think The Lone Ranger can be watched by a whole family. It's by Disney after all.

Not much I remember about The Lone Ranger, except that he wore a mask and was accompanies by an Indian named Tonto. So as I was watching the movies, it was a bit surprise that at first he and Tonto didn't like each other very much and that he wore a mask because he was an outlaw. I had always thought that Tonto was an Apache - all good Indians are from Apache tribe - but in this movie he was a Comanche. Tonto was forced to work together with John Reid (The Lone Ranger's real name) because the white horse (apparently the Indians believe that that white horse was from the other world, a sacred horse) chose him. To Tonto, John Reid was not as brave as his brother Dan, the Rangers' chief. Dan and the Rangers were killed by Butch Cavendish and his gang. John was left alone, half-dead, and rescued by Tonto; thus the name 'The Lone Ranger' - although he was not alone with Tonto on his side.

This version is the genesis of the Lone Ranger, although not faithful to previous versions.

The band's stage is hit by the locomotive

Next appearance by the band, with bandaged members.
The stage is still in front of the locomotive.

Jack The Giant Slayer (2013)

Many of us are familiar with H.C. Andersen's version of Jack and The Beanstalk, but when I saw the trailer of Jack The Giant Slayer on TV, I knew I would enjoy this movie.

And I did. Basically it was the same story, but I never knew that the giants really walked on our earth and did massive damage. In the Andersen story, the giant ran after Jack in his land in the sky and fell to the earth to his death when Jack cut down the beanstalk.

In this new movie version, the giants came to earth and were driven away to the land in the sky, waiting for their opportunity to return. One greedy man from earth is enough to make their return possible. Jack also gets a princess as his wife in the end.

Jack and the Beanstalk is a British fairy tale, and it's interesting to see how the magic crown used to defeat the giants here were cast into the royal crown.

Brave (2012)

Brave is not as good as I've expected. I expected it would be great because it was made by Pixar. It's not bad, either, because to me, any Pixar movie is still better than animations by other companies.

The Scottish accent in Brave is so heavy, there is even a character who cannot be heard clearly what he is saying. Without subtitles, it would be hard for me to understand the dialogues. The story itself reminds me of Brother Bear and The Emperor's New Groove.

The main character here is Princess Merida, firstborn of King Fergus, who must choose among her 3 suitors - none is what we call a typical Prince Charming. She refuses to choose, of course, and asks a witch to change her mother. Instead of changing her mother's opinion, the witch changes her into a bear. Now Princess Merida must find a way to change her mother back.

Actually, when I read the title, I imagined the heroine here would somehow lead her people against the enemy or something like that. Well, the plot is nothing like that. She is a spoiled child, who refuses to listen to her parents, and finally has her mother bewitched.

Les Misérables (2012)

As a musical film, this version of Les Misérables is rather disapponting. When I see a musical film, I expect to see the songs sung properly: the melody are sung well(some spoken parts here and there to enhance the acting are understandable) and the lyrics can be heard clearly. However, in this movie, acting is put first; it's okay to sing and weep at the same time, with the result that the singing is weak and the dialogues cannot be heard clearly (unless you are a fan of the musical and know the lyrics by heart). I think this is something between regular drama movie and a musical movie, where the writer is too lazy to write dialogues for the characters and borrow them from the musical.

I am even disappointed with Hugh Jackman. I know he could do better than that. I watched him in Oklahoma! and I knew the guy could sing. Russell Crowe was also disappointing. I am not a fan of him, but I was impressed with him in Virtuosity and I watched several of his movies and knew he was a wonderful actor and that he had a band. Perhaps the director told them to play it that way? Colm Wilkinson as the Bishop of Digne almost didn't sing either. Of the main actors, I think Samantha Barks did the best job, and the guy who played Grantaire.

It is not that hard to sing properly and act at the same time.

At first I thought Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter did a good job, but the song 'Master of the House' apparently had been shot and edited many times. It was hard to see what was going on (unless you have the DVD to pause again and again) and in the end it looked unnatural to me. It's over the top.

I like the additional parts, which are not in the original musical, such as: Marius's grandfather appearance, Fauchelevent's opportunity to return Valjean's kindness, Valjean buys a big doll (Catherine) for Cosette, Javert's chase at the city gate, Gavroche brings Valjean Marius's letter.

After Fantine sells her hair (I prefer that she is a blonde. The book says 'The gold was on her head and the pearls in her mouth'), she sells her teeth. I believe 2 of her front teeth were taken because it's said she was ugly after. However, when she sings 'I Dreamed A Dream' I see all her teeth are there.

The ending is so ordinary. I hoped that because this was a movie, special effects could be used. Couldn't they make the spirit of Fantine look better than that? And after that, when 'Do You Hear The People Sing' was sung, I hoped to see Valjean and the deads in heaven... They will live again in freedom, in the garden of the Lord. ... not in the streets of Paris.

Mirror Mirror (2012)

This is a strange version of Snow White story. Parts of the birth of Snow White until before her 18th birthday are told in very good animation. Her mother died in childbirth, and under a spell, her father, a king, married again to the most beautiful woman in the world. Couple of years later he rode into the woods and never been seen again. Snow White and the kingdom fell into the hands of the step-mother.

The new queen demands the people to pay taxes to pay for her parties and the kingdom now suffers. A baker tells Snow White to come out of the castle to see the people. On her way in the woods, she saves a half-naked prince and his aide who had been robbed by 7 dwarfs and hung from a tree. The prince resumes his journey to the queen's castle and the queen, heard that he is rich, wants to marry him. The prince, already fallen in love with Snow White, refuses, but the queen charms him, that he thinks he is a puppy and the queen in his master.

The queen orders Snow White to be killed in the woods, but the person who carrying the order sets her free. Snow White goes deep into the woods and stays in 7 dwarfs's house, where they teach her to become a thief. When she hears about the upcoming wedding between the prince and the queen, she & the dwarfs go to sabotage it. The angry queen sets out the beast (a dragon), who turns out to be the lost king. Snow White meets her father again and marries the prince, while the queen pays the price for using too much magic: she lost her beauty and becomes old. In the wedding ceremony the old 'ex-queen' tries to give a red apple to Snow White, but Snow White asks the old woman to take the first bite. The old woman eats the apple, falls down, and disappears.

I don't like the humour in this film. It's not funny. Julia Roberts as the most beautiful woman in the world? She is beautiful, but I don't think she is the most. I think animation is the best way if one of the characters is the most beautiful woman in the world. The prince is ridiculous, much more ridiculous than Prince Edward in Enchanted. The ending shows Snow White & co. dance with a Bollywood song, which I don't think match with previous atmosphere.


The scene of Snow White running in the woods is very beautiful

Dream House (2011)

In Dream House, we are taken by the lead character, Will Atenton (Daniel Craig), in a journey where he lives his dream, in a perfect house with a perfect family: his beautiful wife Libby (Rachel Weisz) and their two little daughters, Trish and Dee Dee. Will Atenton just left his job in the city so he can spend more time with his family in their country home. When he arrives in that little town, the agent who has sold him the house gives him a ride and almost takes him to a wrong house, which belongs to the neighbours' who live opposite. This little mistake gives us an explanation about what is about to happen in the movie.

After a while, Atenton learns that in his house there were triple murders. The townspeople believe that the father of the house, Peter Ward, shot his wife and their 2 daughters. Peter Ward himself was shot back by his wife. There was not enough proof against him, so after 5 years in a mental hospital he was released. This is the same time when Atenton arrives in the country. His peaceful life is disturbed when the Atentons sees someone is spying on their house. Is it Peter Ward? Is he returning to his old house?

The plot is original for me, so I enjoyed watching this very much.

The Ninth Gate (1999)

The Ninth Gate is based on Spanish novel The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, although in the movie all reference to Alexandre Dumas has been removed. Directed by Roman Polanski, this is one of must-see movies. Johnny Depp plays Corso, a book dealer, or a rare-book hunter. In the beginning of the movie, we are shown that Corso will not hesitate to do dirty tricks to make as much profit as possible. It's a very good scene: Corso offers a sum of money for 4 volumes of Don Quiotte to an heir who doesn't know the true value of those books. She is very happy to receive the money. Obviously the price offered is much higher than she has expected. Meanwhile, we see the owner of the book, who suffers a stroke and cannot move or speak, is silently furious.

Corso is hired by Balkan, a book collector, to authenticate his rare book "The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows". There are only 3 copies left, but as Balkan believes the book can summon the devil, and he cannot summon the devil with his, he thinks perhaps his copy is fake. Corso must compare his book with the other two and find which one is the original. In his quest, Corso finds that the words in the 3 books are the same, but of the 9 pictures/drawings, only 3 are original. To collect all 9 original pictures drawn by Lucifer, one must have all 3 books.

Who would think that being a book hunter can be dangerous, eh? Corso's friend is murdered and he himself is almost killed several times. It's only a book! I myself love reading, but for me the 1st or 50th edition is the same. I only need to read the words in the book and don't bother with the binding, paper, etc.

The Ninth Gate was marketed as a horror movie, so a friend of mine refused to watch this. I told him this was actually a thriller and that was no ghost in it. As much as he liked Johnny Depp, he still refused. Emmanuelle Seigner does look scary sometimes, but I always turn my face away every time she stares into the screen and tries to break the 4th wall. The scariest moment, in my opinion, is when the dead face of Baroness Kessler shown in a close-up. The original page of the 9th picture also makes me shivered. The burning castle picture is very shocking.

The Conspirator (2011)

I am not familiar with this American history, but I believe most facts in this movie are true. So Abraham Lincoln was shot when watching a play. The movie runs smoothly and we feel the injustice and prejudice after the assassination. I think in most countries, even if one's part in an assassination is so little, he/she still to be punished. However, this is America, where some lawyers still have ideal ideas.

Mary Surratt (played excellently by Robin Wright)'s part in this tragedy, is to give rooms to John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln's assassin, and his friends; for she runs a boarding house. Her other fault, is to give birth to John Surratt, Booth's right hand. Does it means she takes part in Lincoln's assassination?After the assassination, the army cannot find John Surratt, so they arrest her mother and do everything to convict her, including with false testimonies. James McAvoy plays a young lawyer who at first is reluctant to defend her -because like all good Americans, he is also angry with the assassins, but as time passes by, he believes that she should not punished because of her son's crimes.

The movie is emotionally moving. I think Robert Redford as the director did a wonderful job.

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2011)

The involvement of Guillermo del Toro made me want to watch this movie, and the title made me decide to watch this at daytime. Pan's Labyrinth is a great movie and I expected something like that, but it turns out Don't Be Afraid of The Dark's plot is not rich like Pan's Labyrinth. I think Don't Be Afraid of The Dark is equal, maybe even worse, to Mimic, which was made almost 15 years ago.

I enjoyed watching Bailee Madison, though. She plays the main character, Sally, a little girl of 10 or 11 years old. Sally's mother sends her to live with her father, played by Guy Pearce, who I think is wasted here. The father now lives with Kim (Katie Holmes - who looks very thin) and both have been decorating a big Victorian house, once belonged to a famous painter named Blackwood - who mysteriously disappeared in the end of his life (but his disappearance is not mysterious to the audience). Sally is lonely and sad, thinking that her mother has given her away. Then, Sally finds the house's basement. There live little creatures who say that they want to play with her. Soon Sally knows that the little creatures are dangerous, but no one listens to her.

Bailee Madison looks like young Katie Holmes and I think she is more suitable to be cast as her daughter than Guy Pearce's.

The plot needs more character development or side stories, in my opinion. There are also some annoying situations. We kind of want to yell, 'Oh, come on. Why don't you believe her? Can't you see?' Why the gardener keeps shutting his mouth and only says 'you must get her out of the house'? - but not saying the reason? If the monsters are many, then surely Blackwood & his son were not the only ones missing [because those are taken by them would become them]. There should be a rumor spreading in the village about the basement's house. At least the pictures taken by Sally can be a good proof.

The Debt (2010)

The title is intriguing. What kind of debt is it? Who own the debt?

It's about 3 Mossad agents: Rachel, Stephan, and David who went to Germany 30 years ago to kidnap a war criminal, Dieter Vogel, known as the Surgeon of Birkenau, who used Jews for his horrible experiments during WW2. Vogel hid/worked as a fertility doctor in East Germany using an alias and the 3 agents successfully kidnapped him, but the escape-from-East-Germany mission went wrong. They had to guard him until they have another opportunity to cross the border and bring him to Israel to face trial. In short, Vogel escaped his guards. The 3 agents couldn't tell the truth to their bosses and to make everybody happy, they made a story about how Rachel shot Vogel to death when he was trying to escape. They returned to Israel as heroes.

For 30 years they have lived with this lie. Then David died. Also at the same time, 1) Rachel's daughter published a book about their heroic deed and 2) a shocking news came from Russia. Someone had told a journalist that he was the Surgeon of Birkenau.

To pay the debt, Rachel goes to Russia (Stephan lives on a wheelchair, so he cannot do the task) to find this Surgeon of Birkenau to kill him, as she should have done 30 years ago. The ending has some surprises and this is an enjoyable film. Both Jessica Chastain and Helen Mirren who played Rachel were very good.

The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall

To celebrate its' 25th anniversary, Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of The Opera was presented at the Royal Albert Hall, and it was filmed. At first I was very excited to hear this, because I could finally see (again and again) the wonder of the show. The version with Gerald Butler is not the show itself, where on one same stage we can see how the designers cleverly show several locations: on stage, behind stage, under the opera house, the cemetery, etc.

Obviously I have never been in the Royal Albert Hall and didn't know that they cannot hang curtains there. OK, so the show has been modified, and I must say that I miss the big elephant and the mannequin. However, I must say that the Masquerade scene is much better than in the original show because for the anniversary they could afford more people.

masquerade

You little demon - is this what you wanted to see?

Sierra Boggess is wonderful as Christine. I also love Hadley Fraser's Raoul. Wendy Ferguson's Charlotta is funny and she made me laugh a couple of times. As for The Phantom, I don't like Ramin Karimloo since he ruined the only POTO live show I can see. I must say that he did a good job, but I still don't like his voice, which I think lack of emotion. It's a surprise to see Colm Wilkinson, Anthony Warlow and John Owen-Jones came. With Peter Jöback (he was the only one of the four I didn't know), they sang the title song with Sarah Brightman. Michael Crawford was also present (he didn't age a bit for the last years), but he didn't sing with them. They also didn't give him a microphone.