The Bank Job

The Bank Job(2008)
a Roger Donaldson film
Jason Statham (Terry Leather)
Saffron Burrows (Martine)

This is a pretty controversial based-on-a-true-story film. But then it serves its purpose to actually expose the truth regarding the bank robbery in Baker Street, London. It is said that the story was not allowed to leak out in the media because part of the stolen valuables from the safe deposit boxes had contents that would disgrace a member of the British Royal family.

Terry involved himself in a plan to rob a bank with Martine, his former girlfriend, to pay for his debts and employed small-time criminals to make an intricate plan possible. What he doesn't know that Martine was doing it for the MI5 (Military Intelligence, Section 5), UK's counter-intelligence and security agency, which were after the contents of a particular safety deposit box containing scandalous photos of prominent people including Princess Margaret.

This is a story of different people coming from different classes of the society who were all placed in compromising circumstances. A group of people who robbed a bank with an intention to just get the money and leave placed their lives in hazard - not just because of the police after them but because they discovered they had with them the secrets of well-known persons who were in desperate measures to have it all back.

Original Sin

Original Sin (2001)
a Michael Cristofer film
Antonio Banderas (Luis Vargas)
Angelina Jolie (Julia Russell)





"No this is not a love story, but it is a story about love. About those who give in to it, and the price they pay. And those who run away from it, because they are afraid, or because they do not believe they're worthy of it. She ran. He gave in."

This film was shown when I was in Sophomore and I guess it was a reason I could not rent a copy of this and watch at home because of its infamous sensual scenes. Last week, my girlfriends and I had a get-together - DVD marathon with lots of unhealthy edible high-caloric foods. A friend brought a copy of this with the knowledge that it was something we'd be giggling about. Raised by conservative families and studied in strict Catholic institutions, yes, we still felt like high school students. Oh well you know, skipping to the "scene" already and even make a rewind of it. LOL. *just kidding* But be real, you must have done it for once in your life. Don't be shy and never deny... If not, then for your sake, do it even just for once in your life! Hehe. Unless of course you're already watching a film full of it, like no story or anything. LOL. Now, that's the one I haven't tried watching yet. *promise! cross my heart* Let me omit the "dying thing" on that mantra. I'm too young to die! Seriously, this was not the usual naughty flick like American Pie or Euro Trip. This was far more serious and dramatic than we expected and instead of replacing it with another film, we decided to just watch it until the end.

This story was about Luis Vargas, a successful businessman, marrying Julia Russell and falling passionately in love with her. While she, on the other hand, was holding herself back from the possibility of reciprocating the same. With a wicked clandestine, she was driven to please Luis with her carnal prowess. His trust was betrayed when he found out that Julia was not the real Julia Russell after all. And worse, he discovered the hidden agenda - running away with nearly all his fortune with her.

"She never was here. You were married to a dream. A dream that stole your soul. God must have been angry with you the day he let you look in that woman's face."

Infuriated by the iniquitous deception, he collaborated with Walter, a detective, to find her and held with him an intention to kill her. But when he did find her, she told him the truth - that her real name is Bonny Castle and that she was working with Walter. Engulfed by his deep longing for her, he welcomed her back and even showed her a promising future with him.

"Whore! Liar! Thief! Don't you see? Don't you see that I cannot breathe without you? I cannot live without you? Don't you see that? Don't you see how much I love you?"

Albeit not driven as before and confused by her unacknowledged emotions, she still worked with Walter to pursue their plan because his control over her was too overwhelming. Luis later on discovered the infidelity of Julia and the vicious plan to poison him.

Luis: Laugh when I tell you that I still love you.
Julia: No, not me. You don't love me.
Luis: Oh yes. Oh yes. Yes, you. Not Julia Russell, not Bonny Castle. You. I love you as I know you. Because I know you. As you are. Good and bad. Better and worse. I told you this already, but you didn't believe me. Tonight you will. To us. A short life but an exciting life.
*drinks cup with poison*
Julia: Don't do that.
Luis: No other one. No other love but you. From first to last. Start to finish. Don't change, Julia. Don't ever change.

"And perhaps later on I will tell you the story of how we came to be here. It is an interesting tale. Some of it is even true. But for now, I can say that from the moment I saw her, I loved her. And no matter the price, you cannot walk away from love."

The Undomestic Goddess

The Undomestic Goddess (2005)
401 pages

by: Sophie Kinsella

"If I've learned one lesson from all that's happened to me, it's that there is no such thing as the biggest mistake of your existence. There's no such thing as ruining your life. Life's a pretty resilient thing, it turns out."

Have just finished reading this book and I must say that this has been my dose of sunshine on this cloudy day. Full of hilarity and witty remarks, no one does it like Sophie Kinsella aka Madeleine Wickham (her real name). I SOO LURVE IT! lol.

The story is about a brilliant corporate lawyer, Samantha Sweeting, who seems to never have the time for anything else than her work. In fact she doesn't have a minute to clean her place and even tidy up her table. An intelligent woman whom you might envisage as someone independent but wait, she's not self-sufficient enough because she is practically naive in the art of household chores - can't cook, can't do the laundry, and cannot sew on a button! Her assiduousness and commitment paid off when she finally became a partner - the thing she ever wanted. Or is it? Or her mother's?

But then, as she vowed to begin cleaning up her table, she found a document that revealed something horrible - she discovered she made the most basic mistake of a lawyer. She then left the office, still at shock, leaving London via train and a bank with 50 million quid loss. Finding herself in the middle of nowhere, she then ended up in a huge house, whose owners mistakenly identified her as an interviewee as "Housekeeper".

Her adventure begins here - learning what matters most in life - as she finally realized what she wanted to do and to have. Samantha then realized the value of time after she met Nathaniel and unlike her uber busy ex-beau Jacob who would do the deed for just effin' six minutes due to their busy skeds, Nathaniel showed her the beauty of having time to relax, enjoy the surroundings and have good loving sex! But will he still love her despite the major lie - that the housekeeper he loves is actually a mathematical whiz who can incredibly solve high-number problems and an exceptional lawyer of a top-rank company? The ending though is very much predictable.

"Six minutes isn't sex. Six minutes is a boiled egg."

21

21 (2008)

a Robert Luketic film
Kevin Spacey (Mickey Rosa)
Kate Bosworth (Jill Taylor)
Jim Sturgess (Ben Campbell)

"You need discipline to stick to the system through thick and thin, and honesty with yourself to recognize if you're not playing well." - John Chang

The movie was entertaining. But it wasn't what I expected. This movie stimulated my curiosity regarding card counting, how it's done and if it is illegal. My curiosity heightened when I discovered that this was based on a "true story" (sorry I never had an idea). That, however, disappointed me more after knowing that the movie did not exhibit the True details. I guess it really entails artistic mind to put some mild exaggeration.

These were additional scenes that made the movie juicier but not an actual resemblance of reality:

• scholarship interview
• romance between Ben and Jill
• cellphone conversations (this happened in the early '90s)
• the beating up
• drinking and going to strip clubs after every winning
• hiding the money in the ceiling
• everyone attending MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
• Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey)
  

What I found interesting in the movie was the codes they used to represent the count. And more interestingly, it is true! And the real people who are the inspiration of the characters in the movie:

• Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) - Jeff Ma
• Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth) - Jane Willis
• Kianna (Liza Lapira) - Laurie Tsao
  
• Jimmy Fisher (Jacob Pitts) - Mike Aponte
• Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey) - a combination of 3 people: Bill Kaplan, J.P. Masser, and John Chang
  

Jeff Ma or the real Ben Campbell appeared in the movie as a dealer. John Chang, on the other hand, still refuses to reveal himself that when interviewed by Fox Business analyst Neil Cavuto, he appeared on cam but in a disguise. By the way, he still plays.

"The cards do not know whether you are angry, ecstatic, upset, laughing, or crying. As long as you're making mathematically correct decisions, your emotional state is irrelevant. Now, if you get upset, you may be less likely to make correct decisions, so it makes some sense." - John Chang

A Moment To Remember

A Moment To Remember (2004)
a John H. Lee film
Choi Chol-Soo (Jung Woo-Sung)
Kim Su Jin (Son Ye-Jin)

"Being able to forget easily is a gift."

That was the sensible response of Kim Su Jin's father after she asked him why he forgives her easily despite the numerous times she disappointed them. Attempting to abscond with a married man was an absolute faux pas that could've put her family's name in disgrace and yet they still welcomed her with open arms - a prodigal daughter that she is.

She later fell in love with the manly and volatile Choi Chol-Soo who happened to be the foreman of her father's construction business. Without enough income and good family backfround to tell were enough reasons for her father's disapproval of the relationship.

With no father, Choi Chol-Soo was abandoned by his mother when still an infant. His brusque attitude and stern look was caused by too much hatred and angst in his heart. He was filled with resentment towards his mother and of the unkind world - of his ill and unjust fate.

"There's an eraser in my head."

It was one of Su Jin's funny remarks. The "eraser" here was the progressive degenerative brain disease, which is Alzheimer's. Her condition began to worsen - getting lost, looking for Choi Chol-Soo inside the refrigerator, leaves the gloves inside and tried looking outside forgetting that he was just actually sitting on the sofa behind her. The most tearjerker part here, I guess, was when the only memory she could hold on to was her love affair with her married ex-boyfriend, which left her husband, Choi Chol-Soo, devastated and perplexed. It was a battle that he had to endure despite the uncertainty of whom she truly loved.

It tells a story of a young couple very much in love and filled with contentment having each other but later challenged with the trial of fighting the gradual inevitable loss of Su Jin's memory caused by dementia.

Love in the Time of Cholera

Love in the Time of Cholera (1988)
(El amor en los tiempos del colera, 1985)
434 pages

by: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Nobel Prize for Literature (1982)

"He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers gave birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves."

I highly recommend this book to those who are enthusiasts of the concept of unrequited love. Some find it boring but it wasn't for me. Probably one would find it as too detailed. It is indeed filled with vivid descriptions, which is likely of GGM. I wasn't surprised that it became a bestseller in NBS and Powerbooks last March. I can't help but be moved by this dramatical and lyrical masterpiece.

This is about lovers, Fermina and Florentino, who fell in love at young age. However, young Fermina had to marry a well-off doctor. It might seem common but the lines were so touching. Florentino here is romantic that after the husband of Fermina died, after 622 affairs and at the age when death could loom anytime, he declared his love for her once again - a love he knew had always been there and meant to last forever.

My favorite part, however, was not about them. I was moved more by Florention's last love affair with America, a young girl who loved him with all of her heart and soul - love that was innocent and genuine. Unaware of the truth that the man she loved could never reciprocate the feeling, she served him sincerely and leaving the old Florentino guilty. When America died while Florentino was in a cruise with the love of his life, Fermina, he ignored the news of her death because he knew that was the only way to keep him alive. It was when they were about to go back that he remembered the dreadful death of America and he locked himself up in the bathroom and cried - it was then he realized how much he loved her.

*This is the book featured in the movie Serendipity - the way Jonathan (John Cusack) could retrieve Sara's (Kate Beckinsale) number.*

"Together they had overcome the daily incomprehension, the instantaneous hatred, the reciprocal hastiness, and fabulous flashes of glory in the conjugal conspiracy. It was time when they both loved each other best, without hurry or excess, when both were most conscious of and grateful for their incredible victories over adversity."