Departures

Simply beautiful. 

Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki) is a cellist in a orchestra that disbanded because of its small audience. Daigo  is left jobless and in debt because of the new cello that he purchased. He and his wife, Mika, (Ryoko Hirosue) decide to abandon his impossible cello dream and move on...to Daigo's mom's house (which he inherited when she died) because he is able to live there for free. The house reminds Daigo of his father who abandoned him and his mother, so the hatred comes rushing back to him. Daigo searches for a new job and stumbles upon NK Agency that wants people for departures. Daigo goes to the agency and is hired on the spot.

Boss: Will you work hard?

Daigo: Uh...yes.

Boss: You're hired.

If only it were that easy... Of course, his job comes with a twist: "departures" actually means encoffining dead bodies. Apparently, the dead are a huge taboo in Japan, so people would avoid Daigo like the plague if they find out about his job. To hide this from his wife, Daigo goes to a public bath to wash off the dead-body-stench and tells Mika that his new job involves "ceremonies" (like weddings). Eventually, Mika finds out and moves out of the house. His neighbors find out and avoid him. Daigo refuses to give up his job, though. He is proud of it and finds it rewarding. 

Departures was stunning. I don't think I cried this much for any other movie. Yes, death is a grim situation, but Departures puts it in a different light. Death could be happy and filled with love for the lost. Sometimes, I realized that I wasn't crying because someone died; I was crying because it was so beautiful and happy (I know that sounds corny, but if you watched the movie, you might know what I'm talking about). The encoffiner is also brought to light as a highly respectable job and super satisfying. Departures plays with the meaning of fate. Sometimes, you're so caught up with chasing a dream that you don't realize that you can dream a different dream.
The acting was superb. I loved every one of the characters because they were all so rich and had so much depth to them. They all had their own stories to tell and reasons behind their actions. Masahiro Motoki as Daigo was a great fit. He was funny at times to make the seriousness of death not so heavy.


And...I loved the music. Joe Hisaishi does it again. 

Christopher Nolan sure knows how to make movies...

unlike some people *cough cough shyamalan.

Great cast, great director...it's going to be good! I'll be at the theater this week if you need me.

The Last Airbender

M. Night Shyamalan sure had us fooled...who knew his true calling was COMEDY? The Last Airbender gave me a few laughs because it was like a spoof video of the show. I showed a clip of the movie to my friend and she thought it was a fanvid.

In the world of Avatar, there are four nations: Earth, Water, Fire, and Air. The people in their nation can bend the corresponding element if they're born with the ability. The Avatar is supposed to bring balance to the four nations with his powers (ability to bend all four elements). Katara (Nicola Peltz) and Sokka (Jackson Rathbone) from the water tribe find Aang (Noah Ringer) in an iceberg and free him. They find out that Aang is the Avatar that ran away 100 years ago because he didn't want to be the Avatar (can't have a family) and he got caught in a storm, resulting in getting trapped in the iceberg. Aang is hunted by the Nazi-like Fire Nation, who wants to take over the world with their fire bending with the absence of Aang. Prince Zuko (Dev Patel) is banished to hunt the Avatar in exchange for his fathers acceptance. When the firenation captures Aang, Katara and Sokka decide that it is their "responsibility" to help Aang. They escape with some swoosh swoosh airbending and Aang and his new friends stop by some small Earth kingdom towns to stop the firebenders little by little. He has to learn waterbending as the first step to mastering the elements (he already mastered air) to defeat the evil fire nation.

Oh my goodness! He's bending fire out of nothing! It makes all the other firebenders look like wimps.

People in the theater probably thought I was crazy because I was laughing so much when the scenes were solemn. Aang is only twelve years old, but he acts like his mother beat the childhood out of him or something.   Every single character in Avatar is stripped of his/her personality, which makes the show what it is. There is absolutely no excuse for Shyamalan's suspicious casting. I can act better than Noah Ringer and just use his stunt double to do some cool flips. Nicola Peltz had no emotion. Might as well cast a rock for Katara and invest the money on a better camera (most scenes looked blurry and foggy). Heck, I can write a better script than Shyamalan.
Aang (being a Liberater): "There's earth under your feet!" 
Earthbenders in prison: Really?? Ooh there is!! I can earthbend this earth that has been right under my feet for the past 100 years!
Me: *facepalm*
The bending in the movie reminded me of a video game. Opponent's turn. Fire ball: → O ↓ ↑ X ← Enter. You dodge. Your turn. Rock Throw: ↓ O ↓ ← ← Enter. Opponent defeated. You gain 10 EXP.

← ← ← Run away! Run away!

It takes so long just to move a tiny rock. Why waste your time bending when you could just go up to your opponent and stab them? It would be so much faster. If firebenders need a fire source, why can't everyone put out their stupid campfires? There are so many things in this movie that doesn't make sense. Even though it's a fantasy, Shyamalan's ideas wouldn't even make sense in the Avatar world. I may be a bit biased because I'm a huge fan of the show, but people that don't watch the show have common sense and are probably lost in The Last Airbender's super fast pacing. I can't say that I'm disappointed because I kind of predicted that this would be a bad movie, just not this bad. 1 star for making me laugh sometimes and promoting the show (you should watch that instead). I really hope this isn't a trilogy...

Wanted

Wait a minute...why is Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) only on the tiny corner of the poster? Isn't he the main character? Nope, Fox (Angelina Jolie) stole the show.

Wesley Gibson has it bad. His life sucks. His boss is crazy annoying, his girlfriend is cheating on him with his best friend, and he has absolutely no search results when he googles his name. It all changes when he meets Fox and gets into a gun fight/car chase. Fox tells him that his father was an assassin murdered by an assassin and introduces him to the Fraternity. The pact leader, Sloan (Morgan Freeman) says that he could be a superhuman like Fox if he used his panic attacks to his advantage and ultimately take revenge for his father. He trains and ups his endurance, strenth, etc, etc, and joins The Fraternity in assassinating the people that the Loom of Fate spells out. 

Oh boy. Wesley the Loser has a panic attack again

Wanted was an awesome action-adventure ride. The fighting scenes were very cool and nicely choreographed. Wesley Gibson was great at screaming his head off in the beginning of the film and Jolie had enough kick-butt to cover for that loser. Everything is slick until Sloan introduces the magic loom: total what the heck moment. Stand aside, Morgan Freeman. It's the Loom of Fate's turn to play God. Then came the magic bath..then the magic bullets...then the "I am your father" thing...then the exploding rats. It's a cool concept, but a bit too technical for me. And Mythbusters busted the curving bullets myth.

"This is me taking back control of my life. What the f*** have you done lately?"