Love Happens

Genre: Drama/Romance

Language: English

Director: Brandon Camp

Cast: Jennifer Aniston (Marley & Me), Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight)

Plot:

Dr. Burke Ryan is on the precipice of a major multimedia deal, but the therapist who asks his patients to openly confront their pain is secretly unable to take his own advice. Eloise Chandler has sworn off men and decided to focus on her floral business. However, when she meets Burke at the hotel where he's speaking, there is an instant attraction. But will two people who have met the right person at exactly the wrong time be able to give love another chance? As each struggles with the hurt of love and loss, they realize that in order to move forward, they need to let go of the past. And if they can, they'll find that, sometimes, love happens when you least expect it.

Watched the movie on 30 Oct @ The Cathay with Sylvia

ah-deng says: ½ / 5 There was people snoring when I watched the movie, that was how boring the movie was. Both actors just doesn't click and for sure, no chemistry at all (Don't be fool by the movie poster!). Where did the romance portion go and did Love really happen? I bet HBO don't even think of showing.

Julia & Julie

Genre: Biography/Drama
Language: English / French

Director: Nora Ephron (Bewitched)

Cast: Meryl Streep (Doubt), Amy Adams (Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian), Stanley Tucci (The Devil wears Prada), Chris Messina (Vicky Cristina Barcelona )

Runtime: 123 minutes

Plot:

In the years 2000 Julie Powell attempts to cook every recipe in Julia Child's cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which was written in the 1960s. She writes a blog about her experience. Woven into her story is the story of Julia Child's time in Paris, in the 1950s, in which she discovers the art of cooking. Both women get much support from their husbands, although at one point Powell's husband is fed up with her excessive devotion to her hobby.

Watched the movie on 25 Oct night @ Shaw Lido with Sylvia.

ah-deng says: 4 / 5 The movie is cleverly based on two true stories, that intertwines the lives of two women who, though separated by time and space, are both at loose ends... until they discover that with the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible. Meryl Streep never fails to surprise me with her fantastic acting skills. Looking forward for her next work.

My Sister's Keeper

Genre: Drama
Language: English
Director: Nick Cassavetes (Alpha Dog)

Cast: Cameron Diaz (What Happens in Vegas), Abigail Breslin (Definitely, Maybe), Sofia Vassilieva, Alec Baldwin (Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa), Jason Patric , Evan Ellingson and Joan Cusack

Runtime: 109 minutes

Plot:

Sara, the domineering mother of Kate, a young girl with cancer. Sara’s other daughter, 11-year-old Anna, was conceived just to serve as a donor for her sick sister. On the outskirts of the family are father Brian, who feels unable to stand up to his wife’s strength, and son Jesse, who craves attention in the face of Kate’s illness. But the complicated situation gets more difficult when Anna hires a lawyer, so that she can control her own body and say "no" to giving a kidney to her sister.

Watched the movie on 22 Oct night with Sylvia

ah-deng says: 3½ / 5 The illness and family elements again touched all the hearts of the audiences. However, Cameron Diaz's mother role is a little over so to speak. On the other hand, I liked one of the quotes Kate said - "I don't care my illness is killing me, but it is killing my family."

April Bride

Genre: Romance Drama

Language: Japanese

Director: Ryuichi Hiroki

Cast: Eita (The Foreign Duck, the Native Duck and God), Nana Eikura (My Sister, My Love)

Runtime: 130 minutes

Plot:

Chie, a young woman hired to speak in a public-relations role at corporate events. One day, while at work, she mistakenly ends up in the wrong auditorium. Through this minor professional mishap, she encounters a young salary-man by the name of Taro and this is how it began... From this chance meeting, Chie & Taros relationship proceeds quickly, and soon Taro is talking of marriage. Chie, however, is hiding something she has just received the most devastating news of her life she has been diagnosed with early onset breast cancer.

Watched the movie on 16 Oct night @ GV Plaza with Sylvia.

ah-deng says - 3½ / 5 Tear jerkers never fail to earn my tears. I feel that my emotion will always goes out of control 100% with such plots, especially the deathbed moments. Be strong and face it!

500 Days of Summer

Genre: Drama
Language: English
Director: Marc Webb
Cast: Zooey Deschanel (Yes Man), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra)
Runtime: 95 minutes

Plot:

After it looks as if she's left his life for good this time, Tom Hansen reflects back on the just over one year that he knew Summer Finn. Despite being physically average in almost every respect, Summer had always attracted the attention of men, Tom included. For Tom, it was love at first sight when she walked into the greeting card company where he worked, she the new administrative assistant. Soon, Tom knew that Summer was the woman with whom he wanted to spend the rest of his life. Although Summer did not believe in relationships or boyfriends - in her assertion, real life will always ultimately get in the way - Tom and Summer became more than just friends.

Watched the movie on 11 Oct afternoon @ AMK Hub with Sylvia.

ah-deng says: 4 / 5 The typical "My girlfriend got married and I'm not the groom" story yet it was not the typical way of love story. Male Lead reminds me of Keanu Reeves. But I got a shock that he was that Cobra Commander in G.I. Joe. Whatever it is, he will be one of those I'm looking out for these days.

Haeundae: The Deadly Tsunami 해운대

Genre: Disaster
Language: Korean

Director: JK Yoon

Cast: Sul Kyung-gu, Ha Ji-won, Park Joong-hoon

Runtime: 106 minutes

Plot:

Man-sik and Yeon-hee, are unsure as to whether they can overcome past wounds and continue being a couple. Dr. Kim, who cautions against a possible mega-tsunami at Haeundae, collapses in agony springing from an unexpected turn-up of his daughter and divorced wife. Hyoung-sik, after rescuing a woman from Seoul, rides out a ferocious storm to gladden her heart. A tsunami which destroys Haeundae symbolizes the establishment of a typical axis called provocation of conflicts, and later the inner spaces of the couples without anything left behind after all conflicts have ended.

Watched the movie on 10 Oct midnight @ GV Vivo with Sylvia.

ah-deng says: 3½ / 5 This movie released during the period of Typhoon and Earthquake season at our neighboring countries. As such, news of disasters flooded the TV and papers. Sometimes I wondered is it really going to be the end of the World soon?

Paris 36

Genre: Comedy

Language: French

Director: Christophe Barratier

Cast: Gerard Jugnot, Clovis Cornillac, Nora Arnezeder, Kad Merad

Runtime: 120 minutes

Plot:

A man is charged with murder. He is Pigoil, the aging stage manager at Chansonia, a music hall in a Paris faubourg. His confession is a long flashback to New Year's Eve, 1935, when he discovers his wife is unfaithful and Galapiat, the local mobster, closes the music hall. Over the next few months, Pigoil loses custody of his beloved son, Jo-Jo, and must find work. Pigoil and his pals take over the Chansonia as a co-op; Galapiat is momentarily benign. Their star is the young Douce, a girl from near Lille for whom Galapiat lusts. She in turn falls in love with Milou, a local Red.

Watched the movie on 9 Oct evening @ The Cathay.

ah-deng says: 4 / 5 Warm, Touching, Simple, Old fashioned, Lively singing, Expected. Yet there is a feel good feeling as I stepped out of the theatre. The only flaws are probably the minor details the stars portrayed too modernly which back in 1936, such habits may not be common.

Taking Woodstock

Genre: Comedy/Music
Language: English
Director: Ang Lee (Lust, Caution)
Cast: Demetri Martin, Emile Hirsch (Milk), Imelda Staunton (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince), Liev Schreiber (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)
Runtime: 120 minutes

Plot:

It's 1969, and Elliot Tiber, a down-on-his-luck interior designer in Greenwich Village, New York, has to move back upstate to help his parents run their dilapidated Catskills motel, The El Monaco. The bank's about to foreclose; his father wants to burn the place down, but hasn't paid the insurance; and Elliot is still figuring how to come out to his parents.

When Elliot hears that a neighboring town has pulled the permit on a hippie music festival, he calls the producers, thinking he could drum up some much-needed business for the motel. Three weeks later, half a million people are on their way to his neighbor's farm in White Lake, NY, and Elliot finds himself swept up in a generation-defining experience that would change his life, and American culture, forever.

Watch the movie on 2 Oct night @ The Cathay with Sylvia

ah-deng says: 3½ / 5 The year 1969, a year which I have not even exist but youths were already taking on their our charge. Hippies were definitely a colourful culture that our parents went through during that period. The contrast of the pro-hippies & antis, the grouchy mum & gentle dad. I especially like the 2 way scenes, which proves Ang Lee's professional directing once again.