vantage point

i have a couple of reasons for watching this movie:

1. Vantage Point it sounds like the kind of movie i would want to watch — featuring a great cast (dennis quaid, sigourney weaver, forest whitaker, william hurt, matthew fox) and a promising storyline (an action political thriller).

2. Vantage Point also happens to be the title of my other blog.

Vantage Point is a multilayered treatment of an international incident (assassination of the US president), told from the varying viewpoints of 8 individuals whose lives get irresistibly caught up in the maelstrom of events that occurred before and after the incident.

subtle layers of the story begin to unravel as each character goes through his/her side of the story minutes before and after the event. it’s not until the whole picture becomes complete that you begin to realize how skewed your point view can be if you only see things from a certain angle.

basically, i think Vantage Point has the best car chase sequence of any film i’ve seen. if the last 10 minutes doesn’t manage to jolt your nerves, i don’t know what else will. (the guy beside me would periodically grip his armrest and almost grabbed my arm by mistake once heheh. come to think of it, i even managed to wince and squirm a few times myself.) the car chase alone is worth the price of an admission ticket. but hey don’t just take my word for it. go and see it for yourself.

the dancing baker

no matter how many times i watch this clip, it just never fails to crack me up.

Yakitate Japan fans would be familar with this guy: Ken Matsushiro, Kazuma Azuma’s zany mentor and erstwhile Fantasia Bakery (i’m not sure if i got this right) manager. i know disco is basically passe these days but…

the elegance and vagaries of punctuation

despite the erratic trend of my attention span lately, i couldn’t help but flip over a couple of gems from Lynne Truss’s "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" — a lighthearted but informative bible-of-sorts for hapless editors.

i like Lynne Truss’s elegant and incisive way of pointing out the seemingly obvious but too often overlooked items when people rush to express their chaotic thoughts into words.

Here are a few excerpts:

Punctuation marks are the traffic signals that tell us to slow down, notice this, take a detour, and stop.

unconsciously, i find myself nodding in agreement. she attributes this to another writer, but i like the way she pointed it out. For example, consider the following:

The Consequences of Mispunctuation:

• A woman, without her man, is nothing

• A woman: without her, man is nothing.

see what i mean? sometimes, it’s funny how a couple of mislaid punctuation marks can change your whole perspective. and here’s another charming tickler for punctuation fans.

• Charles the First walked and talked half an hour after his head was cut off

huhh? apparently, the answer lies this way:

• Charles the First walked and talked. Half an hour after, his head was cut off.

cut and dried?

this blog’s inkpot is as dry as a desert… i’d like to go out and buy some refill, but frankly i’m drained to do anything more than stare into space and catch my breath.

(boy, do i need a break)

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i was able to watch Cloverfield last weekend. i think the best way to view this ‘monster’ fim is to have no expectation. with the hype stemming from its box office success and buzz from its fans, it’s easy to expect too much.

still, i guess it helps that it has a cast of little-known actors and the producers refrained from overwhelming the public with advance promotion. in a way Cloverfield strays a bit from the usual mainstream formula used in ’disaster’ movies.

p.s. again — sorry for my erratic spelling. apparently i get even worse when i’m dragging my foot while i struggle to write heheh.