Everest

 Released Year: 2015

Directed by Baltasar Kormákur

Casted by:

Jason Clarke as Rob Hall

Josh Brolin as Beck Weathers

Jake Gyllenhaal as Scott Fischer

Naoko Mori as Yasuko Namba

John Hawkes as Doug Hansen

Emily Watson as Helen Wilton

Sam Worthington as Guy Cotter

Robin Wright as Peach

Keira Knightley as Jan Arnold

 Story:

In May 1996, two expeditions, Adventure Consultants and Mountain Madness, meet at base camp and prepare to summit Mount Everest, NEPAL in the following days. Rob Hall is one of three guides for Adventure Consultants, whose eight clients include Beck Weathers, who had been climbing for ten years, Doug Hansen, who was climbing to prove an ordinary man can pursue an extraordinary dream, and Yasuko Namba, who had previously climbed six of the Seven Summits and was attempting to become the oldest woman to summit Mt. Everest, NEPAL. Scott Fischer was the guide for Mountain Madness.

A month earlier on the day he leaves New Zealand for NEPAL, Rob says goodbye to his pregnant wife, Jan, and promises her he'll be back in time for the birth. While he is at base camp, she sends him a fax to inform him that the baby will be a girl, and he suggests they name her Sarah, which Jan isn't too keen on. The two expeditions are introduced to Helen Wilton, the base camp manager, who keeps in contact with all of them via walkie-talkies while they climb. On May 7, Expedition members climb from base camp to Camp II, which includes walking across a fixed ladder over a deep crevasse. Suddenly, large chunks of ice break away under the strain of too many climbers crossing one after the other and the ladder almost detaches. Worried, Rob tries to persuade the opposite group to ascend at a later date but they refuse. Both expeditions keep climbing and reach Camp IV on May 9, starting to use supplemental oxygen when needed.

Climbers reach the high altitude "death zone" and set off in the early hours of May 10 from the South Col, planning to reach the top and turn around by 2:00pm, the last safe time that will allow them to reach base camp before nightfall. Smaller expeditions sponsored by the governments of Taiwan and India also ascend on the same morning but from the North Face. Expedition climbers quickly encounter delays. Upon reaching a bottleneck at the Hillary Step, they discover that no fixed line has been put in place and are forced to wait an hour while the guides install one, pushing back their time plan. Three climbers decide to turn back. Meanwhile, Beck has trouble with his vision and sits down. He informs Rob that he had an operation the year before, but believes he will be fine after he rests for a while. Rob allows him half an hour, but tells him he must turn back if he can't see better by then.

Gradually, climbers reach the top of Everest one by one. Anatoli Boukreev is the first 1:07pm, with Rob following soon after, but many others don't reach the summit by 2:00pm as planned due to several more stops along the way. Yasuko also reaches the top and plants her flag of Japan in the snow, thanking God and celebrating with Rob, who tells her how proud of her he is. Boukreev notices that the weather does not look good and at 3:00pm, snow starts to fall and the light diminishes. On his way back down, Rob encounters Doug struggling just above the Hillary Step and orders him to turn back since it's too late to keep going. Doug insists that he won't get the chance to do this again and says he must go on. Knowing how important the climb is to him, Rob agrees and accompanies him up to the summit. Scott Fischer does not summit until around 3:45pm, exhausted and increasingly ill from high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE), which began even before he started his ascent; he had not told anyone. He tells the two climbers descending with him to continue on their own.

The weather worsens, particularly the blizzard on the south side of the mountain, causing much difficulty for descending members. Supplemental oxygen is also running out and there are no full emergency tanks stored where Rob had asked. Doug becomes semi-conscious from lack of oxygen, so Rob radios Helen at base camp to send somebody up with oxygen tanks and water, knowing they are in trouble. Doug, left alone briefly by Rob, unbuckles his carabiner from the guide rope in his oxygen-starved daze and takes a few steps along the extremely narrow path in the mountainside. Moments later in the heavy wind, he topples silently off the ridge to his death.

Several descending climbers approach Beck, who is still sitting on the Balcony. Nearly blinded by the effects of high altitude and overexposure to ultraviolet radiation, he tells them he cannot see, and they try to help him descend. He trips and knocks several climbers down the mountain some 20m from a drop off over the Kangshung Face. They later become lost after the blizzard obliterates the trail back to Camp IV and wander past midnight. When the blizzard clears, three of them set off to find help, leaving Beck and Yasuko behind.

Andy Harris, one of the other guides for Adventure Consultants, makes his way back up the mountain with oxygen for Rob and Doug, only to be told by Rob that Doug is "gone". Unable to move due to the blizzard, Rob and Andy are forced to wait on the side of the mountain. Soon, Andy suffers from hypoxia and hallucinates that he's overheating. He strips off his outerwear and dies with Rob lying next to him. In the early hours of May 11, Rob radios base camp, telling them he is still at the top of Hillary Step but Doug and Andy are gone. Helen and others break down in tears. They tell Rob he needs to start making his way down now before his condition worsens, but he tells them his hands and feet are frozen and his oxygen regulator is blocked by ice. Helen believes that if anyone can get Rob down the mountain, his wife Jan can. She calls her and puts the phone near the walkie-talkie so they can hear each other. Jan tells Rob he's got to get moving and he tries, but doesn't get far. Shortly after, knowing Rob doesn't have much time left, Helen again calls Jan, who speaks with her husband. He tells her he is cold but comfortable, asks her to name their daughter Sarah, and finally says, "Sleep well, my sweetheart. Please don't worry too much."

Scott, now alone, knows he cannot make it back and lies down in the snow as his life ebbs away. Boukreev later finds Scott and shrouds his face with his backpack. His body remains on the mountain to this day. Many climbers reach base camp with news that Beck and Yasuko have not descended and need help, but weather conditions remain too dangerous for anyone to try to reach them. Helen calls Beck's wife, Peach, to tell her the situation. Later in the day Beck miraculously regains consiciousness, but Yasuko is dead. Beck stumbles back to camp alone, to the great astonishment of everyone there. He is severely frostbitten and desperately in need of medical help. The group gives him first aid in the tent, believing he won't survive the night. Meanwhile, his wife, having been told he is still alive, calls the American Embassy and organises a helicopter rescue. The flight is risky because the air is thin for a helicopter. The pilots fly over the Western Cwm, the only feasible route, and successfully make one of the highest altitude helicopter medical evacuations.

The closing scenes show everyone departing for home. Helen and several other climbers meet Jan at the airport and embrace. Beck returns home to his family, heavily bandaged. Closing on-screen titles inform the audience that he lost both hands and nose to severe frostbite. Jan later gives birth to a daughter and names her Sarah.

 L² Scored: 10/10

L² Comment:

Oh man, i gotta give this movie a 10/10 or else i will be shooting myself to death or swallow some shits in me dude~ This movie is really awesome... Me myself has climb the Malaysia's Mt Kinabalu and i am already half dead after it, i cant imagine how those ppl manage to climb all the way up to Everest. SALUTE

This is based on a real story which ends very sadly, i cried when the Japanese lady Yatsuko reach the peak with tears and keep on saying "arigatou"... too bad in the real life, the real Yatsuko didnt manage to come down alive during the incident, but i salute her... she's a proud asian lady, and she will always be remember by her fellow frens~ may all those ppl RIP.~

Guardians of the Galaxy

 Released Year: 2014

Directed by James Gunn

Casted by:

Chris Pratt as Peter Quill / Star-Lord

Zoe Saldana as Gamora

Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer

Vin Diesel as Groot

Bradley Cooper as Rocket

Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser

Michael Rooker as Yondu Udonta

 Story:

In 1988, following his mother's death, a young Peter Quill is abducted from Earth by the Ravagers, a group of space pirates led by Yondu. Twenty-six years later on the planet Morag, Quill steals a sphere-like artifact only to be intercepted by Korath, a subordinate to the fanatical Kree, Ronan. Although Quill escapes with the artifact, Yondu discovers his theft and issues a bounty for his capture while Ronan sends the assassin Gamora after the orb.

When Quill attempts to sell the orb on the Nova Corps homeworld Xandar, Gamora ambushes him and steals it. A fight ensues, drawing in a pair of bounty hunters; the genetically-engineered raccoon Rocket, and the tree-like humanoid Groot. The Nova Corps arrives and arrests the group, imprisoning them in the Kyln. A powerful inmate, Drax, attempts to kill Gamora due to her association with Ronan, who killed his family. Quill dissuades him by saying that Gamora can bring Ronan to him. Gamora reveals that she has betrayed Ronan, unwilling to let him use the orb's power to destroy entire planets such as Xandar. Learning that Gamora has a buyer for the orb, Rocket, Quill, Groot, and Gamora work together to escape the Kyln.

Elsewhere, Ronan meets with the titan Thanos to discuss his daughter Gamora's betrayal and the loss of the orb. Accompanied by Drax, Quill's group escapes the Kyln in his ship—the Milano—and flee to Knowhere, a remote criminal outpost in space built in the giant severed-head of a celestial. A drunken Drax summons Ronan, while the rest of the group meet Gamora's contact, Taneleer Tivan. Tivan opens the orb, revealing an Infinity Stone, an item of immeasurable power that destroys all but the most powerful beings who wield it. Suddenly, Tivan's tormented assistant grabs the stone, triggering an explosion that engulfs his collection.

Ronan arrives and easily defeats Drax, while the others flee by ship, pursued by Ronan's followers and Gamora's sister Nebula. Nebula destroys Gamora's ship, leaving her floating in space, and Ronan's forces leave with the sphere. Quill contacts Yondu before following Gamora into space, giving her his helmet to survive; Yondu arrives and retrieves the pair. Rocket, Drax, and Groot threaten to attack Yondu's ship to rescue them, but Quill negotiates a truce by convincing Yondu that they can recover the orb. The group agrees that facing Ronan means certain death, but that they must stop him from using the Infinity Stone to destroy the galaxy. On Ronan's ship, the Dark Aster, Ronan embeds the stone in his warhammer, taking its power for himself. He contacts Thanos, threatening that after the destruction of Xandar, he will kill Thanos; hateful of her adopted father, Nebula allies with Ronan.

On Xandar, the Dark Aster is confronted by Yondu's fleet, the Nova Corps, and Quill's group, which breaches the Dark Aster. Ronan uses his upgraded warhammer to destroy the Nova Corps fleet. Drax kills Korath, and Gamora defeats Nebula (who escapes) and unlocks Ronan's chambers, but the group finds themselves outmatched by his power until Rocket crashes the Milano through the Dark Aster and into Ronan. The damaged Dark Aster crash lands on Xandar, with Groot sacrificing himself to shield the group. Ronan emerges from the wreck and prepares to destroy Xandar, but Quill distracts him, allowing Drax to destroy Ronan's warhammer. Quill grabs the freed stone, and with Gamora, Drax, and Rocket sharing its burden, they use it to destroy Ronan.

In the aftermath, Quill tricks Yondu into taking a container supposedly containing the stone, then gives the real stone to the Novas. As the Ravagers leave Xandar, they remark that it turned out well that they did not deliver Quill to his father. Quill's group, now known as the Guardians of the Galaxy, have their criminal records expunged, and Quill learns that he is only half-human, his father being part of an ancient, unknown species. Quill finally opens the last present he received from his mother; a cassette tape filled with her favorite songs. The Guardians leave in the rebuilt Milano accompanied by a twig recovered from Groot, which is already growing. In a post-credits scene, Tivan sits in his destroyed archive with two of his living exhibits: a canine cosmonaut and an anthropomorphic duck.

 L² Scored: 3.5/10

L² Comment:

Seriously, this movie only managed to get me awake for around 1 hour then the rest i was mostly half asleep and half awake while watching it in the cinema. The storyline is just all over the place for me, not really like it. It makes me think of "the hitchhiker of the galaxy", which i dislike a lot... gosh~ i hate it coz this film have so many of my favorite celebrities inside and i still dislike it...

No Country For Old Men

Released Year: 2007
Directed by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

Casted by:
Josh Brolin as Llewelyn Moss
Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh
Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Ed Tom Bell
Story:

West Texas in June 1980 is desolate, wide open country, and Ed Tom Bell laments the increasing violence in a region where he, like his father and grandfather before him, has risen to the office of sheriff. Llewelyn Moss, hunting pronghorn, comes across the aftermath of a drug deal gone awry: several dead men and dogs, a wounded Mexican begging for water, and two million dollars in a satchel that he takes to his trailer home. Late that night, he returns with water for the dying man, but is chased away by two men in a truck and loses his vehicle. When he gets back home he grabs the cash, sends his wife Carla Jean to her mother's, and makes his way to a motel in the next county, where he hides the satchel in the air vent of his room.

Hitman Anton Chigurh has been hired to recover the money. He has already strangled a sheriff's deputy to escape custody and stolen a car by using a captive bolt pistol to kill the driver. Now he carries a receiver that traces the money via a transponder concealed inside the satchel to Moss's hideout. Bursting into the room at night, Chigurh surprises a group of Mexicans set to ambush Moss and murders them all. Moss, however, one step ahead, has rented the connecting room on the other side, so by the time Chigurh removes the vent cover with a dime to grab the cash, it is already back on the road with Moss.

Tracking the satchel to a border town hotel, Chigurh's pursuit climaxes in a firefight with Moss that spills onto the streets, leaving both men wounded. Moss flees across the border, collapsing from his injuries and waking up in a Mexican hospital. There Carson Wells, another hired operative, offers protection in return for the money. After Chigurh cleans and stitches his own wounds with stolen supplies, he gets the drop on Wells back at his hotel and kills him just as Moss calls the room. Picking up the call and casually raising his feet to avoid the blood on the floor, Chigurh promises Moss that Carla Jean can be saved only by returning the money. Moss remains defiant.

Moss arranges to rendezvous with his wife at a motel in El Paso to give her the money and send her out of harm's way. She reluctantly tells Bell to try to save her husband, but Bell arrives too late. He sees a pickup carrying several men speeding away from the motel and finds Moss lying dead in his room. That night, Bell returns to the crime scene and finds the lock blown out in his suspect's familiar style. The scene shows Chigurh hiding behind the door of a motel room, observing the shifting light through an empty lock hole. His gun drawn, Bell enters Moss's room and notices that the vent cover has been removed with a dime and the vent is empty. In fact, we see that Chigurh was not present in the room when Bell entered, indicative of the aging sheriff's rising sense of anxiety and fear. Bell visits his Uncle Ellis, an ex-lawman. Bell plans to retire because he feels "overmatched," but Ellis points out that the region has always been violent. For Ellis, thinking it is "all waiting on you, that's vanity."

Carla Jean returns from her mother's funeral to find Chigurh waiting. When she tells him she does not have the money, he recalls the pledge he made to her husband that could have spared her. The best he can offer is a coin toss for her life. She refuses to play, instead stating that the choice is his alone. Chigurh leaves the house alone and carefully checks the soles of his boots. As he drives away, he is injured in a car accident. He leaves before the police arrive.

Now retired, Bell shares two dreams with his wife, both involving his deceased father. In the first dream he lost "some money" that his father had given him; in the second dream, he and his father were riding horses through a snowy mountain pass. His father, who was carrying fire in a horn, quietly passed by Bell with his head down and was "going on ahead, and fixin' to make a fire" in the surrounding dark and cold. When Bell got there, he knew his father would be waiting. Then he woke up.

L² Scored: 4.5/10

L² Comment:

Tons of killing and messy blood scenes. Though it won the best film, best director, best screenplay, best supporting actor in Oscar, but a big yawn yawn for me. I just don't really like this~ sorry...