Did You Hear About the Morgans?

 Released Year: 2009

Directed by Marc Lawrence

Casted by:

Hugh Grant as Paul Michael Morgan

Sarah Jessica Parker as Meryl Judith Morgan

Sam Elliot as Clay Wheeler

Mary Steenburgen as Emma Wheeler

 Story:

A successful Manhattan couple, lawyer Paul Michael Morgan and real estate agent Meryl Judith Morgan, separate due to Paul's infidelity. After dinner one night, Meryl and Paul witness the murder of one of Meryl's real estate clients, then they become targets of contract killer Vincent and must enter the Witness Protection Program.

Paul and Meryl are relocated to the small town of Ray, Wyoming and placed temporarily under the protection of the local sheriff and deputy, who happen to be a married couple. For their own safety, they are permitted no outside contact via telephone or e-mail. They have trouble adjusting to small-town life, but after an unfortunate encounter with a bear and bumbling attempts at shooting rifles, chopping wood, and horseback riding, they eventually adjust and begin assisting the local citizens professionally. Meanwhile, none of their coworkers in NY know their whereabouts. The killer has planted a bug at Meryl's old office and in her assistant Jackie's purse, hoping to gain information, which is eventually successful.

Jackie attempts to call Meryl but Paul's assistant Adam stops her by kissing her, which she responds to by tasering him. Paul and Meryl go on a "date" in town and begin to reconcile, but then Paul is alienated when he learns that Meryl had a one-night stand with one of their acquaintances during their separation. The next day, with the killer in town unbeknownst to them, the Morgans anticipate leaving Ray for a permanent hiding place. The Wheelers invite them to a rodeo, but the Morgans are quarreling, so they decline. Leaving the Morgans without any form of security, the Wheelers leave for the rodeo. The killer tries to attack the house but is accosted by a bear, which gives the Morgans sufficient warning that they are able to escape. They flee on horseback to the rodeo to seek assistance. The killer follows them to the rodeo; they spot him and hide in a bull suit. However, they accidentally frighten a live bull into head-butting them. Meryl, unable to walk, stays hidden from the killer while Paul confronts him with a canister of bear repellant. Paul accidentally sprays himself in the face but is rescued by the Wheelers and his new friends from the town.

Six months later, Paul and Meryl have repaired their marriage. They have an adopted baby girl from China, named Rae in honor of the Wyoming town, and Meryl is pregnant with a child of their own as Jackie and Adam begin dating.

L² Scored: 5/10

L² Comment:

This movie is rather simple and very expectable...There's really nothing special for this whole film, both Grant and Parker is so used to this kind of romantic film and they are really so used to it... this is just for the sake of earning for the living? lol

Howl's Moving Castle 霍爾的移動城堡

 Released Year: 2004

Directed by 宫崎駿 Miyazaki Hayao

Voiced by:

倍賞 千恵子 Chieko Baishō  as 蘇菲婆婆 Grandma Sophie & Sophie
木村 拓哉 Takuya Kimura as 霍爾 Howl

美輪 明宏 Akihiro Miwa as 荒野女巫 Witch of the Waste

 Story:

Sophie, a hatter, is a responsible eighteen-year-old girl who encounters a mysterious wizard named Howl while on her way to visit her younger sister. The Witch of the Waste, who pursues Howl, comes to the hat shop and curses Sophie by transforming her into an old woman. Seeking a cure for the curse, Sophie travels into the Wastes and finds a living scarecrow, who takes her to Howl's castle. Here, Sophie meets the fire demon Calcifer, the source of the castle's energy and power. Calcifer offers to break the curse in exchange for Sophie's help in breaking the spell he's under, which keeps Calcifer bound to the house. When Howl appears, Sophie announces that she is the castle's new cleaning lady, hired by Calcifer because he was sick of how dirty the castle was.

Currently, Sophie's country is caught up in the beginning of a war with its neighbor following the mysterious disappearance of the other realm's Crown Prince. Howl receives summons from the King, who orders his various assumed identities to fight in the war. However, Howl comes up with an idea to send Sophie, under the guise of being his mother, to the king to profess the cowardice of one of Howl's two aliases. At the palace, Sophie runs into an asthmatic dog, Heen, who she thinks is Howl undercover. She also meets the Witch of the Waste, who Suliman, the king's magic advisor, punishes by draining all of her power, causing her to regress into a harmless old woman. Suliman tells Sophie that Howl will meet the same fate if he does not contribute to the war. As Sophie vehemently protests these measures, the Witch's spell temporarily weakens due to the love in her words. Suliman realizes Sophie's true relation to Howl and her strong romantic feelings towards him. Howl then arrives to rescue Sophie, Suliman tries to entrap Howl, but with Sophie's help, they manage to escape.

Sophie learns that Howl transforms into a bird-like creature to interfere in the war, but each transformation makes it more difficult for him to return to human form. Sophie fears that Howl is preparing to leave them, as his remaining time as a human is limited, he returns to interfering in the war. Sophie's mother shows up and is actually under Suliman's control and leaves behind a bag containing a "peeping bug" under her orders. The former Witch of the Waste discovers it and promptly destroys the bug by tossing it into Calcifer. Unfortunately, Calcifer gets sick after eating the bug, rendering him unable to protect the castle from being discovered.

A few hours later, the city is carpet-bombed by enemy aircraft while Suliman's henchmen invade the flower shop Howl made for Sophie. After protecting the flower shop from the bombing, Howl draws the guards away just after healing Calcifer. He tells Sophie he is not going to run away anymore because he has something he wants to protect before leaving to interfere with the war. Deducing that Howl must be saved, Sophie moves everyone out of the castle and removes Calcifer from the fireplace, destroying the castle. She offers Calcifer a piece of her hair to strengthen him enough to power and energize a portion of the castle. They head toward Howl when the former Witch of the Waste discovers Howl's heart within Calcifer. The Witch takes the heart and refuses to let go of it although it is burning her. Sophie pours water onto The Witch of the Waste making Calcifer lose all his strength and power. The segment of the castle is split, and she and Heen fall down a chasm.

Making her way toward Howl's heart, Sophie enters through the door into the black region and discovers a recollection of how Howl and Calcifer meet: Howl eats Calcifer, who then gains his heart. Sophie finds Howl, having now lost his human consciousness in bird form. They head back to the group, and Sophie asks the Witch for Howl's heart. She gives it to her and Sophie places the heart back inside Howl, returning him to life, and freeing Calcifer. She kisses the scarecrow on the cheek as thanks, who reveals that he is actually the missing prince. Heen shows the scene of their happy end to Suliman, and the war is finally over. Howl, Sophie, and the others are seen high above the bomber planes returning home from the end of the war.

 L² Scored: 8/10

L² Comment:

Seriously i dont understand why Hayao directed this film by himself and invited Takuya Kimura to voice Howl. Is it because the previous film in 2002 (The Cat Returns) did not hit well in the blockbuster, therefore Hayao needs some excitement to bring up his career again. Overall the movie is not bad, i kinda like it the magic and everything in this film~ nice :)

The Cat Returns 貓の報恩

 Released Year: 2002

Directed by Hiroyuki Morita 森田 宏幸

Voiced by:

池脇千鶴 Chizuru Ikewaki as  吉岡ハル Haru Yoshioka

 山田 孝之 Yoshihiko Hakamada as  ルーン Baron Humbert von Gikkingen
 袴田 吉彦 Tetsu Watanabe as  バロン Muta/Renaldo Moon

 渡辺哲 Yōsuke Saitō as  ムタ Toto    

 Story:

The story is of a girl named Haru, a quiet, shy and unassuming high school student who has a suppressed ability to talk with cats. One day, she saves a darkly-colored, odd-eyed cat from being hit by a truck on a busy road. The cat is Lune, Prince of the Cat Kingdom. As thanks, the cats give Haru gifts of catnip and mice, and she is offered the Prince's hand in marriage. Her mixed reply is taken as a yes.

Wanting none of this, Haru hears a kind, female voice, which tells her to seek the Cat Bureau. Haru meets Muta, a large white cat the voice told her to seek for directions, who leads her there to meet the Baron (the same Baron from Whisper of the Heart), who is a cat figurine given life by the work of his artist, and Toto, a stone raven who comes to life much like the Baron. Soon after meeting them, Haru and Muta are forcefully taken to the Cat Kingdom, leaving Toto and the Baron in the human world to follow the group from the air. The Baron and his crow friend find the entrance to the Cat Kingdom on Earth: Five lakes forming a cat's paw.

Haru is conducted to a feast at the castle of the Cat Kingdom and she begins to slowly turn into a cat with tan paws, ears and whiskers, though still mainly human, so that she will make a suitable bride for the Prince. At the feast, the Baron (in disguise) dances with Haru as part of the entertainment, and reveals to her that the more she loses herself in the kingdom, the more cat-like she will become, and that she has to discover her true self. When the Baron is discovered and is forced to fight the guards, he and Haru are helped by Yuki, a white female cat who works as a servant in the palace and who had tried to warn Haru to leave the Cat Kingdom before she was taken to the castle. Yuki shows them an escape leading to a tunnel.

Haru, the Baron, and Muta's escape moves them through a maze to a tower, which contains a portal to Haru's world. The King goes through a series of efforts to keep them in the Cat Kingdom long enough for Haru to remain trapped in the form of a cat and have her as his daughter-in-law.

Lune and his guards return to the Cat Kingdom to reveal the King was not acting on his behalf and has no desire to marry Haru; he has instead planned on proposing to Yuki. Muta is revealed to be a notorious criminal in the Kingdom (having devoured a whole lake of fish in one session), and Yuki as being the strange voice who had advised Haru to go to the Cat Bureau. In her childhood, Haru had saved Yuki from starvation by giving her the fish crackers she was eating, and Yuki has now repaid her kindness.

Eventually, the Baron, Haru and Muta escape the Cat Realm, with the aid of Prince Lune and Toto, and Haru discovers her true self and tells the Baron how she has come to like him. He tells her "Just for the record, I admire a young woman who speaks from the heart." and that the doors of the Cat Bureau will be open for her again. Haru returns to the human world with more confidence in herself; after learning that her former crush has broken up with his girlfriend, she simply replies "it doesn't matter anymore."

L² Scored: 8.5/10

L² Comment:

One of Hayao's movie after he got famous for such a long time. This story is quite special, i feel that it mix with a bit of Japanese local horror myth... this was shown when the whole bunch of cats came with their king in the night to look for Haru. Overall i love this animation and this is not the 3rd time i have rewatch  this :p

Thirteen

 Released Year: 2003

Directed by Catherine Hardwicke

Casted by:

Holly Hunter as Melanie Freeland
Evan Rachel Wood as Tracy Freeland
Nikki Reed as Evie Zamora
Jeremy Sisto as Brady

 Story:

Thirteen-year-old Tracy Freeland writes poetry and is an honor student at Portola Middle School in Los Angeles. Her divorced mother Melanie is a recovering alcoholic and high school dropout who struggles as a hairdresser to support Tracy and older brother Mason. At school Tracy is teased by some girls about her "cabbage patch" clothes. Tracy then endeavours to shed her 'little girl' image and pleads with her mother to purchase a trendier style of clothing. Melanie buys Tracy new clothes from a discount vendor in a parked van.

Tracy is then invited by Evie Zamora, one of the most popular girls at school, to go shopping on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Although Evie gives her a disconnected telephone number as a mean joke, Tracy takes a city bus to Melrose Avenue anyway, where she finds Evie and a friend at an edgy thrift shop. At the store, Tracy sees Evie and her friend continuously shoplifting. Tracy begins to feel uncomfortable, and walks by herself out of the store and sits on a bench outside. Once there, Tracy begins to truly feel the need to be popular. She then steals a distracted woman's pocketbook to be more like Evie. This impresses Evie and her friend and they all go on a shopping spree. After this incident, Tracy and Evie become best friends and Evie temporarily moves into the Freeland household.

Tracy, amongst other things, is angry about her parents' divorce and, unbeknownst to her mother, cuts herself as a way to cope with the stress. Tracy rapidly transforms into a new person as she neglects her old friends, becomes more impulsive, and cares less about her schoolwork. She taunts Melanie's boyfriend, Brady, who is also a recovering addict. Although Melanie is somewhat aware of what is happening with Tracy and Evie, she is unable to stop them.

Melanie is also reluctant to ask Evie to leave her household because of Evie's manipulative, yet likely truthful claims of an abusive childhood. As Tracy steadily shuts Melanie out of her life, Tracy and Evie become very close, even talking to each other in their own ludling language. However, after the early thrills, Tracy's new-found popularity does not make her happy. Although Tracy endeavors to emulate Evie's seductive behavior, this does not bring her pleasure. Tracy gets caught up in the so-called "romance" with a teenage boy Javi, but then later doubts he feels the same.

When Evie and Tracy try to seduce Luke, an adult lifeguard in his early twenties who is a friend of Mason, Tracy does not feel comfortable. Drawn at first into their kisses and allowing them to partially strip him, Luke throws them out of his house and soon moves away from the neighborhood.

One night in Hollywood, Mason and a friend make comments about the thong on a cute girl and is then shocked when the girl turns around and he realizes that it is his sister, with a belly ring. Tracy and Evie were at the movies with Melanie and Brady, but bolted to do other things. Later on, the girls take turns inhaling from a can of gas duster for computers and become so intoxicated that they laughingly hit each other, drawing blood. Meanwhile Melanie is unaware of how deeply the girls have fallen into petty crime, drug abuse, and oral sex with teenage boys. Seeing the harmful impact Evie is having on their lives, Melanie takes Evie back to live with her cousin Brooke. Tracy seems to agree with this, after which Evie becomes upset and suddenly betrays Tracy at school. Melanie also hopes that Tracy will go live with her father, Travis, but she is unhappy at this thought. But, much to Tracy's dismay, Travis decides he wants to take custody of Mason instead, to give him a more stable environment away from Tracy.

After being informed she may fail seventh grade, Tracy comes home after school to find Evie, Brooke, and Melanie waiting for her. When the women confront Tracy about the girls' drug use and stealing, Tracy angrily blames Evie after she sees how Evie tries to blame it on her. Brooke, convinced by Evie, says Tracy was the bad influence and owing to this, they are moving to Ojai to get away from her. Melanie stands up for her daughter, saying Tracy was "playing with Barbies" before she met Evie.

Brooke grabs Tracy and pulls her sleeve up to show Melanie the many cuts and long scars on her daughter's left arm caused by her self-mutilation. Horrified, Melanie tells Brooke and Evie to leave. Both mother and daughter weep on the kitchen floor as Melanie kisses her daughter's heavily cut arm. Although Tracy tearfully pleads with Melanie to let go of her, Melanie holds on tight, and the two eventually fall asleep holding each other. The next morning Tracy wakes up with a fresh start and a new life.

The film ends with Tracy spinning alone on a park merry-go-round and she screams.

  L² Scored: 8.5/10

L² Comment:

Love this film a lot, its different and its meaningful. The miscommunication/not giving time to know each other between parents and children do cost a lot teenagers' problem. Love the way both Evan Rachel & Nikki acted on this. And Holly Hunter really so hot, even at her age of late 40's at that time, she still brave enough to show us her big boobs, but too bad it seems to fail against fighting with the gravity~ lol

Clara cet été là Clara's Summer

 Released Year: 2004

Directed by Patrick Grandperret

Casted by:

 Selma Brook as Clara
Soko as Zoé (as Stéphanie Sokolinski)
Salomé Stévenin as Sonia
Léo Grandperret as Sébastien
Bastien Catenacci as Kevin

 Story:

Clara and her best friend Zoé head to summer camp for a summer of adventure and self-discovery. Both virgins, Zoé views camp as her chance to lose her virginity. After becoming romantically involved with Sébastien, a fellow camp member, Zoé learns that Sébastien cares far more about his friends than her and has sex with her just to impress them. After discovering this unsettling fact, Zoé turns to Clara for moral support and then, in a moment of confusion, professes her love for her. Clara, in the midst of recognizing her own sexuality, rejects Zoé's romantic advance but soon regrets the spurn, and begins to become attracted to the beautiful and out Sonia.

 L² Scored: 7/10

L² Comment:

A lesbian movie which involve those teenagers who are confuse about their own sexual desire. The whole movie is not bad, i would have score it a bit more higher if there are more sex scenes and nudity~ lol

Break Up Club 分手說愛你

 Released Year: 2010

Directed by 黄真真 Wong Jane Jane

Casted by:

房祖名 Jaycee Chan as Joe

薛凯琪 Fiona Xie as 阿花 Hua

叶山豪 Hayama as Lies  

邓健泓 Patrick Tang as Sunny

 Story:

Joe met director Jane and told her about the break up club he saw online in the library, but other computers cannot access to that website. Jane gave him a video camera to shoot the things he wanted to, Joe shot friends and his life around him, he even wanted to shoot himself having sex with his girlfriend Hua, but found out by Hua and they broke up.

Joe help his friend Sunny to break up with his sticky girlfriend and this help Joe to get back together with Hua. When both of them get together again, they got more argument on their daily life. At this moment, Hua met Lies who tackle her fiercely. Hua accepted Lies and decided to go to America with him, though Joe wanted to win back Hua, but he couldn't use the break up club to do it. But at the airport, Hua saw back the clips Joe make and she finally decided to go back to Joe...

L² Scored: 6/10

L² Comment:

There's really nothing to shout at for this movie, its a simple nice romantic movie directed by Wong Jane Jane. The storyline is kinda special though, but there's no peak moment at this movie at all~

CZ12 十二生肖

 Released Year: 2012

Directed by 成龙 Jackie Chan

Casted by:

成龍 Jackie Chan as JC
姚星彤 Yao Xing Tong as CoCo
權相佑 Kwon Sang Woo as Simon
張藍心 Zhang Lan Xin as Bonnie
廖凡 Liao Fan as David
Laura Weissbecker as Katherine

 Story:

The movie begins by a man telling the story of the Old Summer Palace and how it was looted in the 1800s by the British in the Second opium war. Among the treasures are bronze heads of the 12 Chinese Zodiac animals.

In the present day, the bronze heads are auctioned for over a million euros each. The main company supplying the bronze heads and other stolen relics is MP Corporation. JC, is tasked by MP Corp to find the remaining lost bronze heads, with a promise of a 10 times bonus if he can recover all of them. JC visits a man named Professor Guan, who had created 12 identical replicas for study purposes with his team of researchers, under the pretense that he is a reporter named Martin from National Geographic. When left alone, JC scans the multiple bronze Zodiac animal heads using special gloves so that his secret organisation can replicate an extremely realistic model of them. After scanning, he goes to Paris to find a woman named Coco, recommended by Professor Guan, for more information on the whereabouts of two bronze heads.

JC, along with his partners Simon, David, and Bonnie, infiltrate a mansion to find two of the bronze heads. JC manages to decode the password to a top secret vault and finds two bronze heads, a painting called "The Roses", along with many other valuable national treasures thought to be lost inside. JC's cover was soon busted but managed to evade capture with all the valuables, but is spotted by Coco. Having no time to explain himself, he tells Coco to meet him at a boat house while fleeing from the mansion's security. At the boat house, Martin tells Coco that he is working for a secret corporation that is trying to recover all the lost relics for China. The guards from the mansion storm the boat house and try to attack JC. However, the police are called in and arrest all of them. JC, Coco and Simon are cleared of any wrongdoing and are released.

Coco, JC and his team are invited to a castle owned by a lady named Katherine (Laura Weissbecker). Unknown to them, the guards from the mansion continue to tail them out of suspicion. It turns out the captain of the "Indestructible", one of the ships involved in the destruction of the Old Summer Place and taking away the treasures, is Katherine's great-grandfather. This upsets Coco, who confronts Katherine on the issue. JC and his team find many valuable treasures in the castle, including the Bronze head of the Rooster, and hatch a series of plans to ferry them out. JC promises Katherine that he will help her locate her great grandfather's remains.

The next day, they venture out in search of the Indestructible's treasures, located on a seemingly uninhabited island. JC instructs Coco and Katherine to stay behind while his team explore the island. However, Coco and Katherine disobey JC's orders to look for Katherine's great grandfather's corpse on their own. They get entangled among the vines and this forces JC to rescue them. The group accidentally discovers the remains of the Indestructible, several more bronze heads and a large quantity of gold (plus the remains of Katherine's great-grandfather.) As they prepare to leave with all the artifacts, they are confronted by the guards from the mansion. In turn, the island's local inhabitants, a group of pirates, appear and promptly capture all of them. JC and his team fight their way through to escape the island via a log set up with a pulley system, leaving the five guards with the pirates.

Back on the yacht, Coco accidentally discovers the real motive of JC's ventures and confronts him. Subsequently, the log carrying approximately eight tonnes of gold and the corpse of Katherine's great-grandpa sinks due to the heavy weight of the gold and the corpse, and all the log's contents are lost. Nevertheless, JC and his team still get rewarded for recovering some of the lost bronze heads. The group is enraged when they find out that the supposedly-missing dragon bronze head was already at the hands of MP Corp all along, thereby making it impossible to claim the large bonus. Meanwhile, Coco and her fellow students' protests over the sale of the national treasures escalated quickly to grab worldwide attention. As Coco's students try to find out more about MP Corp, three of them, including Coco's younger brother, are captured. Coco approaches JC for help but JC seems nonchalant.

JC contacts MP Corp on the availability of "The Roses" artefact and is allowed into the secret premises. Having toured the entire factory, where almost exact duplicates of the relics are made to be sold as real relics in auctions, JC deduces the location of the captives. He challenges a long time rival who happens to be there as well – the unscrupulous treasure hunter, Vulture, to a fight but it ends in a stalemate. JC bargains with MP Corp to sell "The Roses" painting at a reduced price and secures the release of the three hostages. When MP Corp refuses, JC fights his way to the chamber. During the ensuing fight, a furnace explodes due to a guard's baton rupturing one of the pipes. The explosion destroys most of the facility. JC later settles for the release of the three hostages in exchange for the painting and not paying damages done to the premises.

Meanwhile, the dragon bronze head is expected to fetch the highest price in the auction but no one bids for it due to increasing pressure from activist groups. MP Corp, in a bid to teach these groups a lesson, threatens to throw the relic into an active volcano, calling the mission "Let the Dragon Fly," if no bids are received by 12:00 noon the next day. The deadline passes without a single bid and Vulture leads a group of three sky divers to throw the relic into the volcano. JC intervenes and, in the ensuing air-borne struggle, seemingly dies in order to save the relic from dropping into the volcano. As a mark of respect, Vulture hands over the relic to a sprawling JC. MP Corp's owners are arrested on suspicion of counterfeit relics. JC survives and is seen recovering in a hospital and on good terms with everyone, including Vulture. The movie ends off in JC kissing his wife.

  L² Scored: 9/10

L² Comment:

Omg, i have totally forgotten to blog about this movie after i have watched it in the cinema lol~ Rumors said that this will be Jackie Chan's last movie, but is it true? I thought he is preparing for "Police Story 2013"? So, is this some sort of a technique to attract more audience in the cinema? His wife and son even came out in the movie and help out to gain more fame for him.

Overall i love the storyline, though some of his action is a bit predictable, but i still love it. Surprisingly, he is using Kwon Sang Woo in this movie, i mean, i love Kwon, but don't you think he is a bit too famous for that character? But i definitely like Zhang Lan Xin, this girl really got potential and she's very beautiful too~ Overall the whole movie is good, expected to be a bit more better on the comedy part, but well, i couldn't ask much more than this then~ lol