I Am Sam

I Am Sam
"Love is all you need..."

I am Sam was a very inspiring movie which focuses on great love for family. It was directed by Jessie Nelson and was premiered January 25, 2001 in the United States and won 7 Academy Awards and 7 Nominations. The movie was starred by Sean Penn together with Dakota Fanning who was then both nominated for Best Actor and Best Young Actress.

The story was about Sam Dawson(Sean Penn) who was a mentally challenged man. He raises her 7-year old daughter Lucy (Dakota Fanning) besides of his condition. Sam works in Starbucks as a crew, he was popular with the customers whom he recognizes by name and favorite coffee. Life has been great to both of them most specially to Lucy, because her dad is the most wonderful single loving dad she could ask for. Sam gives everything he could give to his daughter. He reads her stories always. Lucy is aware of her dad's condition. She doesn't want to be more intelligent than his dad. Because she knows that her dad is different.

The authorities took away Lucy from Sam. Sam fights for custody of his 7-year old daughter. He hired Rita Williams (Michelle Pfeiffer), a lawyer. The authorities only allowed Sam to visit Lucy for 2 hours per week. He didn't agree with that condition that's why he fought. During the trial, Sam breaks down, after being informed that he is not capable of taking care of Lucy.

In the process, Sam won Lucy back. Teaching everybody a great deal about love. Reminding us that love is all we need.

City of Angels

City of Angels
"What if angels walked among us,
and one of them fell in love with us?"

Falling in love is really unfair sometimes. Most of us experienced being hurt because we love. It always comes to a point that you are willing to give up everything just because of love. Sometimes we tend to choose between the two, giving up the person you love or giving up what is right or you think would do good for you. Painful it is, but we sometimes end up with nothing left for us.

I myself experienced that thing called "love". And its really a pain in the ass if it didn't turn out the way you wanted it. But what can we do if its really not for us?

That's the reason why this movie came across my mind, City of Angels. This movie was premiered April 1998 in the United States. It was directed by Brad Silberling and is nominated in 1999 for Golden Globe Awards. It was played by Nicholas Cage(Seth) and Meg Ryan(Maggie).

Nicholas Cage plays the role of Seth, an angel watching over Los Angeles who then met Maggie, a female heart surgeon in a hospital. Seth then got interested with human life and love and keeps it in a small notebook. Angels tend to be with us, when we feel some invisible presence, it is them reminding us that they are really watching over us. That's what happen to Maggie, she met Seth in a hospital not knowing that he's an angel. After some time of seeing each other, they both discovered a growing love affair. Seth is willing to give up eternity just to be with Maggie. As what i have said a while ago, sometimes no matter what or how much we are willing to give up for the one we love, if it's really not for us, it won't turn out the way we want it. Seth gave up his power as an angel just to be with the girl he loves, by the time he is ready to face Maggie and tell her that she's already a human, Maggie died in an accident.

It's really a very inspiring and dramatic movie. Imagine yourself as Seth or Maggie... What would you feel if that will happen to you? Of course, it's really painful. But all we need to do is to accept it... Move on and enjoy what we have right now. If it didn't turn out well, maybe there's another shot for us to be happy. And it would remind us... God has greater plans for us. ^_^

Zorro: Behind The Mask Review

Zorro on DVD
Movies and TV Series

I remembered this movie just by this morning and decided to get a few review about it. When I was a child, my brother and I used to play Zorro, wear a mask and try fencing with some wooden sticks we got from the backyard, I smile every time I remember those childhood moments.

Zorro really started in the film industry in the late 1920's. Entitled "The Mask of Zorro" which was premiered on December 5, 1920 and was played by Douglas Fairbanks. The film was directed by Fred Niblo, and is written by Johnston McCulley. A lot of movies are done after that year and made a great impact in the movie industry. Zorro was not only popular as a movie but it also crossed the TV series line. The series is a Walt Disney Productions which was premiered October 10, 1957 on ABC Television until September 24, 1959. The show was very famous especially with children. The story revolves on Don Diego Dela Vega who became Zorro. Whenever there are in need of help, he came along with a mask, a sword and a black horse. Everytime he finishes an enemy, he always leaves a "Z" mark and everyone got familiar with that mark that it came from Zorro.

Generations of Zorro were made from the time it was done until now. Just last October 2005, The Legend of Zorro was premiered in theaters. Reminding us that Zorro will always be alive in entertainment and film industry.

I love the Antonio Banderas version of Zorro. Lots of action and scenes that really blends with him as an actor. And of course, with a very beautiful, Catherine Zeta Jones. I hope they would do another movie of Zorro. Surely, I'm going to watch that out. ^_^

From The Mask of Zorro
"November 19, 1920"

Batman Generation: Batman 1960's TV Series

Batman 1960 TV Series on review
January 12, 1966

When i was a kid i used to tell my parents to buy me stuffs and toys of my favorite superhero. And Batman and Superman are my favorite during those times. Have you been a Batman fanatic? I've watched all the Batman movies from the late 80's until the recent movie Batman Begins which was premiered last 2005. I didn't know much about Batman until i researched through the internet about how it started. Of course everyone knows it was originated from comics. Until i found out some Batman movies and TV series that i missed.

Batman 1960 TV series was one of the Batman show that i missed. One reason why i missed that is because it was filmed and released before my birth. The series was released in the United States on January 12, 1966 (I was born in the year 1983) on ABC Television and was directed by Norman Foster. The story revolves more on the life of Bruce Wayne (played by Adam West) and his sidekick Robin. Bruce's parents were killed when he was a child, making him to train himself to fight against cruel criminals like Joker, Penguin, Catwoman and The Riddler. The characteristic of Batman here was far more than what we see on new generation Batman movies. The character portrayed here was similar to the character in the comics in the late 50's which is more silly than the Batman we see nowadays.

Can you imagine how many decades this Batman movie and series gained an impact in entertainment industry? I myself really enjoyed those Batman movies that I've watched. He has lots of new outfit, gadgets, cars and enemies on every movie they've released. Interesting for me but on some movie critics, they got bored on the story plot. Anyway, hope to catch another Batman movie in the future.

Batman 1960 TV Series

Mr and Mrs Smith Review

Mr and Mrs Smith

Mr and Mrs Smith was one of my favorite movie of Angelina Jolie. It was really a very exciting movie combined with great story plot and director. It was premiered on June 8, 2005 here in the Philippines. Starred by two of my favorite actor and actress in the U.S., Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt and was directed by Doug Liman and written by Simon Kinberg.

The story is all about two couple John and Jane Smith who was married for about five or six years and constantly attending marriage counseling. During the counseling, they tell the story about how they met and how it all started. In the middle of the story, what they don't know is that they were both hired assassins by a different rival agency. And their goal is to eliminate Benjamin Danz but when the two rival agency found out about it, they were ordered to kill each other... John vs Jane.

In June 6, 2006, a two-disc, unrated version was released on DVD which includes much more sex and violence as they cannot release it for the original movie to meet the PG-13 rating.

I love their acting in this movie. Very realistic and sweet. Really a great combination. And everyone knows that this movie has been one reason why they fell in love with each other. ^_^

Smallville Review

Smallville
"Every superhero has a beginning..."

Smallville was premiered last October 8, 2002 in the Philippines but in US, it was released on October 16, 2001. It was a television series that follows the adventure of Clark Kent(Tom Welling) when he was a teenager who lived in Smallville, Kansas, during the years before he become Superman.

It started when a meteor shower destroyed the small town of Smallville in Kansas, it killed more people and became the reason why Jonathan (John Schneider) and Martha Kent (Annette O'Toole) found their son. Their son, Clark Kent is starting to become a teenager and has a crush on the hottest girl in school, Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk), but Clark still doesn't know about his true identity. His parents didn't told him that they found him in a spaceship when the meteor shower came. And as he started to develop and learn his powers, he would begin to develop a friendship with his future enemy, the bald Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum). He would fight people that is being transformed by the meteor kryptonite. And that would be the start of a legendary superhero... Superman.

Reviews: Coach Carter

Coach Carter
"It begins on the streets. It ends here."

Coach Carter is one of my favorite movies which focuses on team sports and importance of education in our lives. In America, only few Black-Americans get the chance to go to college. It is because after they graduate High School, only 50% of the students go to college. Some of them don't have enough money to support their college education. Some of them get pregnant. Some of them get arrested by cops due to illegal dealing of drugs and firearms. Some get killed through gang wars.

The film was premiered in the Philippines last July 1, 2005. It was directed by Thomas Carter and was played by Academy Award-nominated Samuel L. Jackson as Coach Carter.

It was a movie inspired by a true-life story. Coach Carter is a controversial basketball coach of Richmond High School in Richmond, California who received high praise and criticism when he made public news in 1999 for benching his entire undefeated team due to poor academic performance. At the start of the movie, Coach Carter took a part-time low paid job as a coach of his old high school team in an inner-city public school in Richmond, California. The team was completely undisciplined and disrespectful. They also lost almost all their the previous season.

Coach Carter set new rules for the team. He want to take the team above his standard of control and discipline. He made each member of the team sign a contract which states that they must maintain a 2.3 grade point average (C+), they must attend classes and sit in the front row, and they must wear jackets and ties on game days. Discipline is not only observed outside the gym but they must also look out for their academic performance. The first day of training was not that quite easy. Almost all of them suffer body aches and fever. Timo Cruz (one of the top scorer of the team) didn't agree with the contract of Carter. He leaved the gym on the first day of their training.

Under the discipline of Carter, team Richmond started winning basketball games. Carter's son, Damian withdrew his enrollment for St. Francis (the no. 1 team from the previous season) and transferred to Richmond under his father. Timo on the other hand wants to get back to the team. He fight hard in order to prove Coach Carter that he deserves to be back to the team. Carter ordered him to do enormous number of suicides, sprinting drills and thousands of push-ups for a week. He didn't came up with the deadline and the team offered Carter to help Cruz which made Carter decide to get Cruz back in the team.

After several number of victories including invitations from different schools, the Richmond team continue winning. But their academic performance doesn't suit their signed contract which made Carter the decision to lock the gym. He canceled several practices, forfeited their games, and made the team to go to the library to study with their teachers. Carter doesn't want them to be like those other Americans not being able to go to college and attain their dreams. He wants them to realize the value of education that he wanted for them. Carter doesn't want them only to be champions, but being able to go to college and play college basketball. Eventually the lockout was ended due to the votes of School Board of Directors and parents that fought back to end the lockout and let the team play again. Carter resigned for the position when they voted to end the lockout. Unfortunately, the team didn't stop what Coach Carter started. Instead of playing basketball, they studied in the gym with their teachers. After working hard with their academic performances, they pass their grades and maintain the grade needed for the contract.

At the end of the story, they didn't won the state championship. But they stayed champions among their parents, teachers, schoolmates and to Coach Carter. Kenyon, Junior, Worm and Cruz were among those who went to college.When they graduated three years later, Damien got a scholarship to West Point.

It was really a very great story of team work, discipline, family, education, respect and reality. I am really touched by the story most specially with what Timo Cruz said the time they were studying in the gym. He thanked Coach Carter for making him a better person, giving him the chance to have a better future and to fulfill his dreams. A very inspirational movie, most specially for students in this time.

^_^