TRAVEL TO MOVIES: SWEET GIRL

Director: Brian Andrew Mendoza

Cast: Jason Momoa , Isabela Merced , Manuel Garcia-Rulfo , Raza Jaffrey , Amy Brenneman , Adria Arjona , Lex Scott Davis , Nelson Franklin , Justin Bartha , Reggie Lee , Dominic Fumusa

Plot: Devoted family man Ray Cooper, vows justice against the pharmaceutical company responsible for pulling a potentially life saving drug from the market just before his wife (Adria Arjona) dies from cancer. But when his search for the truth leads to a deadly encounter that puts Ray and his daughter Rachel (Isabela Merced) in harm's way, Ray's mission turns into a quest for vengeance in order to protect the only family he has left.

Source: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sweet_girl

My Movie Review: The movie is a wasted opportunity everything felt great it had some good action scenes but the twist ruin it all and its unforgivable like everything become useless story felt too bland and dragged out. Momoa and Merced had great chemistry as dad and daughter, but her as an action character taking out big guys was laughable after all its false just a illusion! Sweet Girl is a very exact example of twist gone wrong and the girl isn't sweet why Sweet Girl this flick gives more sour though vibes- punch to punch- talk about from 100 going 0 real quick! Jason Momoa is just one of those guys you can’t help but love, acting was definitely realistic when he was at the hospital but even he can't save this fiasco probably the worst role his be in! Always another bender it lost control I thought they get back when it came back home but never had it did I as they play heart's a trick and all the magic we felt was just a hit hard heavy! Night Shyamalan-style twist that completely alters the audience's perception of the entire film! It turns out Jason Momoa's Ray died due to the stab wound inflicted by Amo Santos during Sweet Girl's opening 30 minutes you know how to make a girl cry sneaking in a bed full of lies:) What's wrong how they did it blindsided everyone and felt like robbed us a good story to enjoy!

Critics Consensus: Burdened with action clichés and tripped up by a late plot twist, Sweet Girl wastes potentially resonant story and some solid work from its well-matched leads. Lower your expectations, Jason Momoa fans he's an entertaining action star, but Sweet Girl is a slow journey to an unforgivably dopey twist. A dour slog through rote conspiratorial territory without a distinguishing factor to be found beyond the capable lead. A cynical and violent exercise that never figures out which story it wants to tell. The plot is wilfully dumb, the message pernicious. Momoa walks through it, his emotions running the gamut from A to... well, just A. And about two-thirds in there is a huge twist that does not work for this viewer. I can see the intention: to put a different cast on everything that has happen, all the violence and mayhem. A sprawling, bruising, sometimes convoluted, often emotionally exhausting drama with action sequences stitched into it. The film's true stars are the stunt and fight coordinators who render these clashes in visceral, mostly realistic fashion, although they eventually lose impact through their sheer repetitiveness. Mendoza kept me locked into his story, confused and frustrated at times, but entertained throughout. Jason Momoa's bitterly bad actioner has none redeeming features!

Source: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sweet_girl

TRAVEL TO PLACES: PHILIPPINES-- THE ORANGE VILLA- POMEGRANATE

My Personal Experience: I went to The Orange Villa- Pomegranate which is a made up place for the painted wall I saw in Venice Piazza. I went there to take some pictures at exactly one this day last year July 29, 2022, together with my sister who visit's and have condo unit nearby! This painted wall brings happy vibe for it's colorful town and lead me to discover other artwork:)

The Orange Villa- Pomegranate

Still Life with Lemons, Oranges, and a Pomegranate by Jacob van Hulsdonck, the master of a prosperous studio specializing in still life painting, meticulously rendered every surface and texture of fruit, porcelain, and wooden tabletop in this painting. He was careful to paint the still life from a high vantage point so that most of the table and the bowl's contents could be seen. Lemons, oranges, and a pomegranate, some split open to expose their succulent insides, rest in a Chinese blue-and-white porcelain bowl, dating from the Wan-Li period of the Ming dynasty!

Source: https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103RHK

TRAVEL TO MOVIES: BLACK ISLAND

Director: Miguel Alexandre

Cast: Philip Froissant , Alice Dwyer , Hanns Zischler , Mercedes Müller , Sammy Scheuritzel , Lieselotte Voss , Katharina Schütz , Jodie Leslie Ahlborn , Marco Wittorf , Caroline Kiesewetter

Plot: After the tragic death of his parents, high school graduate Jonas lives on a North Sea island with his grandfather. It is a time of departure, the time of the first great love. The arrival of the new German teacher Helena turns Jonas' life completely upside down. She recognizes and encourages his writing talent and uses this emerging trust to build an intimate relationship with him. However, Jonas has no idea that Helena is pursuing a deadly plan. Black Island is a multi-layered thriller that tells of the disastrous relationship between a student and his teacher:)

Source: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/black_island_2021

My Movie Review: The movie is dark teen flick with a tint of bad romance that tackles mystery surrounding such island boy that become attracted to the newly arrive teacher that kept secret! Black Island is a more or less lustful movie with less jump scares than expected to make up for the lackluster suspense with absolutely wonderful location & has own character shot beautiful:) What I like about it how it manage to make us curious very intrigue at the same time its a nice chill thriller with a twist end that may not be like but doesn't shy away- sign of very good movie! Totally run of the mill murder mystery made slightly better by the beautiful cinematography with characters that were enjoyable as the tension was superb and downright scary in comparison to other movies only some scenes were unrealistic but that's make it a masterpiece on its own! I've done some research where the Black Island was filmed because the scenic view was just majestic I found out that the majority of the filming took place in the Nebel municipality, part of Amrum, Germany. The island is divided into three municipalities: Norddorf, Nebel, and Wittdün! What happened at the end of Black Island? Helena tried to drown Jonas in the garden pool, but Jonas' survival instinct somehow kicked in, and he ran into the house. When Helena tried to strangle him, he stabbed her heart with a broken piece of glass, killing her after that. In the closing montage sequence, Jonas finally left the island feeling remorseful on what went down:(

 

Others Review: Had potential but crashed the characters were likeable enough but some of the plot I didn't like and other parts just outright not believable just made me mad near the end! A nothing original about the plot. Average story line. Movie was shot really good and decent acting by most of them. You will probably finish off the movie once you start just to see how it ends but in the end there is no sense of satisfaction of a enjoyable movie. One scene ruins all to be honest I was hooked since the first and I think the casts did good job and the film was shot beautifully. But one scene that happened involving a murder and the film went downhill afterwards. It's quite amusing actually, but that would easily turned off anyone with two brain cells. Overall, an average thriller that could do much better without that one dumb scene and a better buildup-linking the twist in the beginning. Black Island was a classic revenge flick, it made plenty of sense, and the ambience of the island was spectacular. Odd Happenings in the middle of Nowhere- Black Island is very simply a coming of age story about an adolescent male whose life begin spinning wildly out of control after the death of his grandmother. As a plot device, the student-teacher relationship is exploited to all levels of indecency; but while this might attract curiosity at the outset, it fails to keep for lack of anything more substantive until the discovery of such a family secret that threatens to throw His entire world into a tailspin!

Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12881516/reviews

TRAVEL TO PLACES: PHILIPPINES-- S&R THE BLUE TABLE

My Personal Experience: I went to S&R Jasa Branch San Fernando, Pampanga for a quick stop last year July 22, 2022, together with my sister who's visiting after going to relative house! S&R The Blue Table is one of iconic signature identifier of the establishment and mostly we're we eat pizza, chicken, breads and drinks that comes handy after tired day shopping for goods!!

S&R The Blue Table

S&R Membership Shopping is a warehouse club that retails premium quality imported products and services in the Philippines. S&R is your ticket to a selection of imported products all over the world. Delight to quality food, furniture, appliances, beauty products, household items, and lot more! Gain access to fresh international meat locally! Savor to our imported Australian and New Zealand lamb and beef which are available in select cuts, ready to use, and packed for your convenience. We offer both international and local premium drinks, fruits, vegetables, cheese, and fresh/frozen ready-to-cook meals. Readily available to any members at S&R club!!

Source: https://www.snrshopping.com/page/welcome-to-sr

TRAVEL TO MOVIES: BECKETT

Director: Ferdinando Cito Filomarino

Cast: John David Washington , Boyd Holbrook , Vicky Krieps , Alicia Vikander , Olga Spyraki , Filippos Ioannidis ,Yorgos Pirpassopoulos , Omiros Poulakis , Panos Koronis , Yorgos Vasiliou

Plot: While vacationing in Greece, American tourist Beckett (John David Washington) becomes the target of a manhunt after a devastating accident. Forced to run for his life and desperate to get across the country to the American embassy to clear his name, tensions escalate as the authorities close in, political unrest mounts, and Beckett falls even deeper into a dangerous web of conspiracy.

Source: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beckett

My Movie Review: The movie is a puzzling mystery that doesn't follow a generic thriller flow it has its own element that you can't explain just hints that shock you as it pop out of somewhere! Beckett is a force to be wreckin' with strong male lead to punch on punch action that may hit on unpredictable circumstance its jumping all over the place and have tendency to loose track!! What's the film tell Beckett is political psychological thriller about an American tourist in Greece while some of the plot Beckett could seem plausible foreigner on vacation getting into trouble, the film is not based on a true story, conspiracy thriller begins like could have actually happen:) Why are they chasing Beckett? Beckett is hunted because he saw a kidnapped kid, Dimos, outside of Athens the night his car crashed. He meets some social justice activists later on who are putting up posters of the boy, and they admit that right-wing terrorists snatched the child to get back at his left-wing politician uncle, Karras. What happens at the end of Beckett? He jumps from the parking garage onto the targeted car, finally apprehending the assassin and saving Dimos Karras. The movie ends with Beckett seeing the heart on his palm that April had drawn just days before. He laments to Lena, “I should have died”. Overall the take away watch closely must be in the zone to fully comprehend what happens' to fully enjoy every little chaos:)

Critics Consensus: Beckett brings a propulsive energy to its man-on-the-run story, but this rather thinly written thriller fails to consistently engage. It could be a lot better. It could be a lot stronger as it approaches the finish. But there's something to be said for watching a guy hide in a car trunk and think, "For him, this is probably the best part of his day." The premise is ripe; the thrills are rich; the payoff doesn't come together quite as easily as the rest. But much of what's here is good more interesting for verging on the ridiculous. Beckett lacks urgency, wit, and a lead actor capable of pulling together its underwritten themes. A ludicrous chase thriller keeps running off course...The novelty of watching Washington's Beckett run-and run-even as he's hampered by obvious pain wears thin pretty quickly. Filomarino’s film begs for a deeper consideration and asks its audience to look beyond its genre exterior. Its story may be simple to a fault and its themes too subtle for their own good. But there’s more meat on the movie’s bones that it may first appear! "Beckett" isn't horrible but it seems uncertain as to what it truly wants to be. Beckett is a throwback to 70s thrillers that’s easily dismissible. As is the case with Frantic, the unique setting and socialization of Beckett gives it an idiosyncratic European flavor, sort of arthouse spin on American Thriller. The setting's important, signs are smartly scattered:)

Source: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beckett

TRAVEL TO PLACES: PHILIPPINES-- TIMEZONE ARENA

My Personal Experience: I went to Timezone Arena in Greenbelt 3 last year October 8, 2022, together with my sister who spent time to bond with me as we left her husband and child sleep! We went there to spend time just the two of us siblings as they coming from Singapore and book hotel nearby we kill time at Timezone Arena as our movie in the cinemas come up it's fun!

Timezone Arena

Timezone launches new look, party venue, high-tech bowling and games! Manila, Philippines- family entertainment center Timezone Arena recently introduced its new look, party venue and games in its Greenbelt 3 branch in time for the holidays. High-tech bowling alleys, a spacious party venue, life-size horse racing, a watergun game for four, trending themed games like Nerf, billiards, hologram ticket vending games, talking ticket chompers, and a wide variety of claw machines and prizes ranging from Minions to Funko Pops, are just some of the new attractions in the newly revamped Timezone-Greenbelt 3 that are yet to arrive in other outlets nationwide:)

Source: https://www.philstar.com/entertainment/timezone-launches-new-look

TRAVEL TO MOVIES: THE SWARM

Director: Just Philippot

Cast: Suliane Brahim , Sofian Khammes , Marie Narbonne , Raphaël Romand , Victor Bonnel , Vincent Deniard , Stéphan Castang , Guillaume Burstyn , Clément Bertani , Christian Bouillette

Plot: Virginie lives on a farm with her children Laura (15) and Gaston (7) and raises locusts as a high-protein crop. Life is hard: money worries and practical problems are piling up, tensions with her kids and neighbors are running high. But everything changes when she discovers the locusts have a taste for blood.

Source: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_swarm_2020

My Movie Review: The movie is a trip worth taking it focuses on a single mother breeds locusts as high-protein food, but has trouble getting them to reproduce until she finds have a sense of taste for blood that makes wanna cringe as the bugs takes over visceral as horrifying! The Swarm is disgustingly mind-blowing and absolute hoot to watch this is a French horror movie with brilliant execution and a thoughtful message that's slightly marred by stale horror movie tropes that moves you beyond expectation and somehow make room for new discovery! It's more of a slow-burn horror drama maybe the film is better for that, maybe it's not, but its subtlety and suggestiveness are refreshing as Philippot's approach is really straightforward! The movie has a good and interesting idea but the execution is kind of poor, some of the decisions didn't made a lot of sense but the metaphor is there to slay as you left awe on how's! The Swarm is a creepy crawly horror that gets under the skin biggest asset its cinematography. Whether it was illustrating how isolated Virginie ratcheting up the sense of ever-increasing dread as she scaled her farm up, knowing full well something like this could only end badly, or even just showing gnarly close-ups of the locusts themselves visuals were put to excellent use! So much so, in fact, that even with the film on mute I think the impact would have been much the same as it really did paint a very detailed picture-- striking you cannot ignore to look closer!

Critic Reviews: What Alfred Hitchcock did for birds the French director Just Philippot does for grasshoppers in this extravagantly eerie, rooted practical horror film. It's one of those examples where the message and the execution go hand-in-hand with appreciable results. The Swarm drags far too long, setting up its eventual ending, which compounds the film’s problems by delivering an ending that I can’t imagine anyone being satisfied. This is a French horror movie with brilliant execution and a thoughtful message that's slightly marred by stale horror movie tropes and predictability. Absurd and tense story seems almost believable as it combines social drama with horror. Can a horror movie be too classy for its own good? That's the question raised by Just Philippot's The Swarm. The bugs themselves are horrifying, but it's the sound that will stick with you, looking over your shoulder every time you hear insect start to buzz. Directs the hell out of the movie, parsing out the money shots and sticking primarily with skin-crawly practical FX for maximum horrific-dramatic effect. As creature features go, this one plays and finds its pulse-pounding payoff in grand style. An example of excellent special effects perfectly integrated into the story. It does his best to approach the material with a grounded sense of realism, but audiences will be aware early on that events can unfold in direction! Combining all social drama and horror, "The Swarm" is an excellent first film for Just Phillippot!!

Source: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_swarm_2020