The Avengers (2012)

Excellent. Galing. Maurag. Simply Great.
The amount of superlatives showered upon this summer blockbuster movie is more than deserved.
Just the concept of putting together a band of equally known characters much more superheroes is daunting. This is twice made more complex with the personalities of these high profile personalities playing them from Downey to Evans to Renner to Sam Jackson to ScarJo to Ruffallo and Hemsworth. If anyone told me that they could actually depict a decent movie of the Avengers ten years ago I would be skeptical but it turns out it would be more than just decent that it would be phenomenal.

Why? The plot is cohesive. Call it simple yet it delivers. Then, you have an equal amount of exposure in both dialogue and action scenes to the superheroes. We get a variety of mix and match actions such as Iron Man vs. Thor, Captain America vs. Thor, Black Widow vs. Haweye, Black Widow vs. Hulk, Thor vs. Hulk. We also get to see them team up a lot. This is a fanboys wetdream, like having to watch your ps3 marvels vs. avengers come to the big screen played by really good character actors. Yes, even the minor characters get their due story and screen time, especially Black Widow who is a colorful characters beautifully played by the equally stunning ScarJo. Damn, those tight outfits!

Joss Whedon (tv series Firefly) has masterfully paced this movie so as not to tire out the audience in the opening salvo but also to show hints of great action and leave us wanting for more. By the third act, we are actually salivating by all the action scenes and even being treated to comic reliefs from Hulk (Yes, Hulk arrived in a worn out motorcycle to save the day. And yes, he is funnier than Tony Stark) My three year old son even shifted from being a Captain America fan to a Thor fan mainly because of the scene below:

Tom Hiddleston (Loki), while already brilliant in the Thor movie even takes up his villainous ways another notch in this movie, by wanting to stage to the world how he plays with the powers of the so-called earth's superheroes. And yes his dialogue fuels a lot of fun (Puny Humans!).

This movie delivers the she-bangs. Need I say more. Just stay beyond the credits for more teases as usual. And here's to hoping that they do not make a Pinoy rip-off of this such the one below:

Here's to crossing our fingers even if I already the predict the title of this rip-off will be : either Abangers or Anbangis. Let's assemble!

21 Jump Street

"Embrace your stereotypes!" as the minister of 21 Jump Street bellows to baby-faced Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill tries to fathom the shock of going back to high school as undercover cops.

At first glance, nothing new here. The nerd and the jock in high school are suddenly reunited five years later in the real world as cops, inept cops to be exact. So inept that they are re-assigned to a rehashed program of undercover cops barging into high school hoping to uncork gangs, drug rings and prostitution syndicates. This program is called 21 Jump Street, unwittingly named after the location of the headquarters disguised as some sort of a chapel.

Armed with their new identities and their backpacks, the tight duo embraces their stereotypes. Only that due to some role reversal the fat nerd kid become the cool guy while the jock gets grouped with the new techno savvy nerds. Channing Tatum is the real star here, worth the price of admission. The serious, expressionless male protagonist in Dear John, The Vow, Eagle and GI Joe sheds off all the glum look and looking into the sunset boy next door persona and what we get a dry-humping in your face trying hard huge and muscular dude. This performance cements him unexpectedly as an actor. People have been putting him into dramas and rom coms and tried and tested blockbusters only to find out that he will shine in a R-comedy. As expected Jonah Hill delivers the goods reminiscent of his Superbad character. The Peter Pan audition scene captures all of that and more.

21 Jump Street tries but not to hard and actually embraces its stereotype. There's Ice Cube in his mentor loud mouth character which I think I already saw in the Longshots or something. And of course there's a great cameo that will catch you off guard. All in all, this movie is a great laugh and a breather before we go through the wild roller coaster full of blockbusters such as the Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, Prometheus and The Amazing Spider-man.

Davao

Apparently ticket sellers in SM do not get puns. I was trying to get tickets to Davao, I get a romantic comedy instead.

Seriously though, if you get the chance to watch a rom-com which the missus would gladly give you pogi points for and not come out too flaky for going, you take it. If it has Rachel McAdams in it, the more you take it. Channing Tatum? Err, no way, but the story and Adams should more than compensate for the woodesque acting.

The Vow is the serious version of 50 First Dates. Married couple gets in an accident. Wife loses some of her memory, conveniently all of their marriage and courtship period memoirs. Husband tries everything to win her back.Wife wants to figure things out on her own. Husband lets her be, if that what makes her happy. Still, fate and all that magical blah blahs in the world still leads them to each other's arms.

Wait, did I really just cough up all of that?

Apparently, these types of movies are what we can at least call matured love stories. There is no cutesy pansy, it is not too cerebral or weird, just enough realism to keep the film all too relateable (if there is such a word). It has its moments especially when they get to re-do their first date and of course during that scene when the husband lets the wife go. These moments are forgivable since it gives us light on how a lover suddenly treats you like a stranger. It could certainly drive you nuts.

The Vow although formulaic and resembling the Adam Sandler flick works for couples since it is not too pretendish, it stars a sweetheart in Rachel McAdams, someone who is sexy enough and beuatiful enough to adore but not to lust about, and of course for women, there's always Channing Tatum and his ass. I cringed every time he took something off and that's about it.

Safe House

Is it a red flag when a guy goes into a movie mainly because of Ryan Reynolds?

Probably, but one can claim it is mainly because you want to watch a Denzel and Green Lantern go physical and mental on an action thriller about espionage.

Safe House pits the veteran and the up and comer in this spy induced thriller of a young CIA agent who is tasked to protect and at the same time subdue a former CIA agent (Washington) gone rogue.

This rogue agent is auctioning a valuable piece of information that can be damageable to certain influential parties. These people of interest try at all cost to eliminate Washington's character from the equation and as the rest, is what you predict to be as a typical action movie not far from plot and substance with the typical FPJ flick.

What sets this film higher than most is the level of acting. Reynolds and Washington are top notch in delivering the veteran disillusioned agent and the hungry to prove himself up and comer. The camera work resembles the MI3 and Cloverfield style which is shaky and lifelike to a point that you would think you're the one taking the bullets even if it is not in 3D.

This movie achieves a personal objective since it was a lesser-evil choice as against to the Lloydie and Angel flick while I was wasting time bus-waiting at Cubao. Safe House reminds you a buddy flick of Washington not too long ago, Unstoppable, average to good at best but not too remarkable to be recommending to friends. See it on dvd.

Are you afraid of the ghost (writer)?

Looking back, I have been ghostwriting all my life. Back in high school and elementary, I freelanced (as in free) in making papers, book reports, and assignments for close lazy peers. It even got to the weird point of composing cheesy love letters for star-struck hopeless romantics. In college, ghost writing levels up to researching thesis and yes, even computer programs, talk about extreme ghost code writing.

As if decades of being the words behind the (wo-)men is not enough, work has never been that far out. Yes, I specialize in yet again, (gasp!) ghost writing. Now, it's on to memos, communications, your usual boring corporate stuff. Former bosses went to as far as asking me to make speeches for their parents wedding anniversaries or their daughter's debut or even some batch reunion where they were designated to speak in front of their peers.

There is little joy to be had in ghost writing other than having that satisfaction of having one-up on your bosses. Your little ego playing in their heads all this time that they would not swim in the ocean if not for your flotation words, that sense of entitlement that you are needed, or that mixed weird feeling of anger and joy that you were the one who made something great and yet can never take credit for what is good and notable.

Ghostwriting is not only technical art but goes beyond that. In usual writing styles you have to think of the audience that you are speaking to. In ghostwriting, it is that and more. You have to perfect the tone of the your speaker. Imagine having to writing inside the mind of a an elementary student (for poems and short stories), or writing such that it would not come as highly intelligent.

You see, it is hard to live life but it is harder to be a ghost. When we all crave for people to see us, what happens now when they see right through?

Seeing the Same Reflections

It is hard to deny you're in your thirties when majority of status updates in your Facebook are about little tykes and their cute and cuddly poses. Yes, my peers, our generation is slowly being eclipsed and now, we are tasked with the hardest of the hardest jobs -- being parents.

I have two kids - a five year old daughter and a two year old son, both of whom are rapidly growing up before my eyes. Just right now they are asking a lot of questions that lead to a lot more questions. Do we feed them the truth? Do we say the make believe stories? Do we just dismiss any curiosity as a tell tale sign of growing up?

Just last night, this were my son's questions?

Akello: Daddoo, bat wala ang moon and stars? Sleep na sila?

Me: Natatakpan sila ng clouds, Doy. Kasi baka mag rain rain drops.

Akello: Hindi, sleep na sila kasi pagod na sila.

How can you ever argue with that? The thing is, this sort of exchange just makes our day as parents. Whatever troubles and stresses you had at work, whatever bugged you the way home, whatever worlds of financial troubles you are in, children always have a way, in a minute of so, to give you a sense of relief, pleasure and awe all at the same time.

I never thought of myself as a good father now or terrifyingly, a better one when they grow up to be teenagers,but this much I hope we will always have exchanges such as these - when they look up to you as the only reliable source of everything and at the same time, have their own intelligent way of putting in their own idea. I do not relish the thought of having to go through long cold wars with my kids which I did with my mother, which at the time was my onle recourse to prove them wrong. Now, I can see that it is better when you have an argument with your kids than having long months of silence.

This over-zealousness of my peers putting every activity of their kids for public show puts me off now and then, but then again, who doesn't want to share to the world every first step, every first word or first test paper their kid perfected. That I can tolerate. Now, the idea of my peers putting in pictures of their grandchildren, that's what really terrifies me.