rebzombie reviews

The Education of Charlie Banks is Fred Durst’s directorial movie debut. Yup, you’ve read that right. Limp Bizkit’s front man came out with this movie in 2007 and if he didn’t tweet about it, I won’t even know it existed.

Don’t be misled by the title of the movie. The Education of Charlie Banks is not the education of Charlie Banks, played by Jesse Eisenberg. He’s already showing signs of maturity and intelligence right from the beginning of the film. It’s actually the education of Mick (Jason Ritter), Charlie’s childhood friend with a questionable character. Let’s just say that Mick would not be winning any Mr. Congeniality awards ever.

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Barry Levinson’s What Just Happened is a hilarious look of what’s happening behind the scenes in Hollywood. It stars Robert De Niro as Ben the producer, Sean Penn as himself, Bruce Willis as himself, John Turturro as Dick the agent, Michael Wincott as Jeremy the director, and Kristen Stewart as Zoe the producer’s daughter.

Ben must face his personal problems and at the same time solve dilemmas at work. The situations might be a bit exaggerated but it’s an amusing take on the stressful life of being a movie producer. I used to think that all he had to do was pay everyone but I guess I was wrong.

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Mammoth tells the tragic tale of globalization and how it effects family units.  It shows the lives of three people and the sacrifices they make for their kids.  Gael Garcia Bernal is Leo the computer whiz who is about to make lots of money.  Michelle Williams is his wife Ellen the doctor.  They are too busy with their work that they leave their daughter Jackie (Sophie Nyweide) under the care of Gloria (Marife Necesito) the nanny from the Philippines.

Mammoth perfectly illustrates how people tend to forget what their goal because they’re too busy with their daily routines.  Leo and Ellen were too occupied with work that Jackie became too attached with Nanny Gloria.  I guess this is a common occurrence around the world.

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Judging from its synopsis, I thought You’re Beautiful was going to be predictable.  Go Mi-nyu (Park Sin-hye) has to pretend to be her twin brother Mi-nam and be part of the boy group A.N.JELL., which includes Hwang Tae-kyeong (Jang Geun-seok), Jeremy (Lee Hong-ki), and Kang Sin-woo (Jeong Yong-hwa).

The predictable became unpredictable in Episode 2 of You’re Beautiful when Tae-kyeong and Sin-woo found out that Mi-nam/Mi-nyu is a girl.  That’s when the love triangle and later square comes in. It’s the sort of drama that girls would watch to gush over the male leads.  I recently saw The Case of Itaewon Homicide and I can conclude that Jang Geun-seok can really act.

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A friend told me to watch Heading to the Ground (you know who you are).  She said that DBSK’s Yunho plays a soccer player in this Korean drama.  Soccer convinced me to watch it.  Plus it features Go Ara as Yunho’s leading lady.

Yunho is Bong-gun, a soccer player with the potential to represent Korea in the World Cup.  But because of a past crime, his future as a player was bleak.  Things changed when he met Kang Hae-bin (Go Ara), a rookie sports agent who was willing to gamble on him.

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Powder Blue is about four strangers whose lives intertwine with each other.  It all happened during Christmas Eve. Jessica Biel is Rose, a stripper whose son is in critical condition at the hospital.  Eddie Redmayne is Qwerty, a mortician who found Rose’s dog that led to their torrid love affair.  Ray Liotta is Jack, an ex-con who is trying to connect with his daughter.  Forest Whitaker is Charlie, an ex-priest who wants to end his life.

It does remind me about The Air I Breathe but Powder Blue should not be dismissed as a wannabe.  The movie is well written and directed by Timoty Linh Bui.  As always, Forest Whitaker did a good job in this one. Jessica Biel and Eddie Reymayne also gave a good performance.

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The first time I read the title Dance! Subaru, the last word stuck in my mind.  I thought the movie was about Subaru and cars.  I got it wrong big time!  The movie is about dance and features Meisa Kuroki as the beautiful ballerina Subaru.

Since she was a little girl, Subaru dreamt of becoming a ballet dancer.  She shares this dream with her twin brother Kazuma.  But due to a hereditary disease, Kazuma died and since then she turned to dancing to find happiness.

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