The Lovely Bones

Watched With: My Snooqums and Mr & Mrs Porno @ The Cathay (20/03)
Snacks: Iced Lemon Tea
Genre: Drama / Fantasy

"You're not supposed to look back, you're supposed to keep going."

Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) is a perfectly normal and happy teenager.
She lives with her parents Jack (Mark Wahlberg) & Abigail (Rachel Weisz) and her sister Lindsey (Rose McIver) and brother Buckley (Christian Thomas Ashdale).
From time to time her grandma Lynn (Susan Sarandon) drops by to visit.

She loves photography and fancies a boy in school Ray Singh (Reece Ritchie) who fancies her too.

Yes everything is just roses for Susie Salmon.
Until she is raped and murdered by her neighbour George Harvey (Stanley Tucci).

And as Susie watches from the afterlife, she realizes how precious life is. And not just the major parts but the little things.
Like friends. And love. And her family.
As father Jack and the rest of the family try to come to terms with life without Susie, Susie must come to terms with her own fate.

This is no murder mystery. This is no suspense thriller.
You will find out the exact plot within the first 45 minutes. But this is partly the beauty of this movie.

It is not a look at "who killed the girl?".
It is a look at how much we take life for granted at times.
It is a look at how much of a mark we leave on people during our time on earth and how it is not as easy as we may think to carry on even though we know we can.

I was expecting more visuals but this movie was watchable enough because of the creativity of its storytelling.
I think I should get the book.

Final Verdict:

Up In The Air

Watched With: My Snooqums, Mr & Mrs Porno @ FilmGarde Iluma (12/03)
Snacks: Iced Lemon Tea
Genre: Drama / Romance

Ryan Bingham's (George Clooney) job is to fire people.
Corporations hire his firm and his boss Craig Gregory (Jason Bateman) flies him out all over the country to professionally fire people.

Ryan is so accustomed to his job and travelling that he has his own system to it. I guess you could even say he's addicted to it in some ways.
And Ryan is aiming to reach 10 million frequent flyer points which is a feat achieved by only a handful of people in the past.

But with technological advancements, Ryan's plans of reaching that mark are jeopardized when 'video' technology can cut the travel costs of the company.

In a last ditch attempt, he is to bring newbie Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) with him on the road to show her the ropes and give her a taste of what the job is really about and how it is not as simple as it seems.

While travelling, Ryan meets fellow frequent-flyer Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga) which whom he begins a relationship with.
When his younger sister's wedding approaches, Ryan begins to re-evaluate his life and his plans.
Was he really happy just flying around trying to reach marks which served only his pride?

Hmmm maybe it's because it had to do with the airlines which is why I connected to this movie so much.
But honestly it's quite a nice picture.
Very meaningful and a bit sad at parts actually.

Great performances and I now see why this rather low-key movie gained so much Oscar buzz recently.

Final Verdict:

Alice In Wonderland

Watched With: My Snooqums @ Cathay EHub (06/03)
Snacks: None
Genre: Fantasy

"You're late for tea!"

Alice Kingsleigh (Mia Wasikowska) is now 19 years old but she still has a recurring dream where she follows a white rabbit to a mystical land.

And now that she is old enough, she is set to be married to the son of her late father's partner from his trading company.
Alice obviously feels that she is not ready and wishes she could just run away from it all.

Her chance comes when she follows a white rabbit and she falls into the rabbit hole.
This brings her to Wonderland.

It is here that she meets characters like The Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), Tweedledee & Tweedledum (Matt Lucas), The Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry), Absolum the Blue Caterpillar (Alan Rickman) and The White Queen (Anne Hathaway) all of whom believe that she is the hero who can save Wonderland from the rule of the evil Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) and her general Stayne (Crispin Glover).

Alice encounters many wonderful and scary creatures in Wonderland but her self-doubt is her biggest monster to overcome.

Can Alice save Wonderland and her friends?
Can Alice save herself?

This is an age-old story that I personally loved when I was a kid.
And I can safely say that this adaptation is definitely aimed for the adults. Tim Burton's dark vision is apparent as usual and this is fine.
But if you're expecting to have the same kind of tone as the original story/cartoons/movies of old then I fear you will be disappointed.
For this movie is really boring. Seriously.

And just for the record.
I think that Johnny Depp overdoes it in this one.
Let's face it. The Mad Hatter is.. well.. mad. No point trying to justify why he's mad. He's just The Mad Hatter. Period.

Let's stick to the original for the kids folks.

Final Verdict: