Les Miserables (1998)

I watched this movie when it first came out, and Liam Neeson has been my #1 man ever since.  Tall, strong, broad shoulders, and the dominating strides.  All the package in one man.  💓💖💗💘😍

Two themes were present in this movie.

1.  How far would someone go to atone one's sins?
2.  How far would someone go to uphold the rules of the law?

There were no villains in the movie.  Everyone came from different background with different thought process.  That was the real conflict.

When Liam Neeson was trying to hold back his tears at the end of the movie because he was finally free, I cried!

Les Miserables (2012)

When this movie came out, everyone forgot about Liam Neeson's Les Miserables (1998).  I was so mad because I thought the other movie was a far superior product.

I felt nothing in this movie.  The songs didn't inspire me.  The Thenadiers singing was intrusive.  The movie was too long.  Anne Hathaway cried her eyes, but it felt like she overdid it.

Basically I was just unhappy that everyone forgot Liam Neeson was also Jean Valjean.  Mr. Neeson should've gotten more applauses back then, not when he finally did Taken 1, 2, 3.

Horror short story, #2

I don't know what I was smoking when I had this dream.  It was so vivid that I had to write it down.

I also don't know how to classify this story because I was awoken by a noise.  Either this was a sweet family reunion short story or a murder horror crime scene.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My brother and I were at my parents' place, which was a cottage-cabin type of house.  We came back from groceries shopping.  Plastic bags and paper bags were everywhere on the kitchen counter.  Everyone was chatting.  I decided to go upstairs to my bedroom for a nap.

Gradually the chatter died down.  Gradually I woke up from the nap.  I looked into every bedroom; I went downstairs; the groceries bags were still on the kitchen counter.  I called out for them.  Nobody answered.  I shrugged.  Maybe they went out again.

I went upstairs.  There appeared a white grandmother.  She had straight, shoulder-length grey hair.  She wore a red sweater.  She was plump but basically a regular-size grandmother.  She was not part of the family.  She was not in the cottage earlier.

My heart jumped.  I asked, "Grandmother, do you want to go downstairs?"

She replied, "Sure."

So we walked downstairs to the kitchen.  She tapped on the microwave oven and commented, "I could never figure this thing out."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Fin ~~~~~~~~~~~~`

I heard a "weeeee" noise.  It wasn't too loud.  I woke up from the dream.  I thought it was the neighbor or Math Teacher.  I asked him later; he said he didn't make any noise around that time, but the neighbors were being loud as usual.

So, either the noise prevented me from meeting my white grandmother from a previous life, or the noise prevented me from being murdered by a white grandmother in my dream.

Seriously, was I high or something?  I would have never thought of this idea in a million years if I were sober.

On the other hand, I do my best writing while sleeping.

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Nine Months (1995)

This movie will be 30 years old next year!  The babies born during this movie would be 30 years old!  I feel dated~

At first I thought, wow, Hugh Grant and Julianne Moore looked young.  Then I was sad because Robin Williams was also in this movie.  Then the baby's ultrasound was on a VCR tape!  VCR!  OMG 😲  Over the weekend I met up with a friend that said her children streamed everything online.  Do they even know what a DVD is, let alone VCR?!

Everyone was so cute.  Comedy was chuckling fun.  It left me with a warm and fuzzy feeling.  A great movie to review on a weeknight.

Skyscraper (2018)

This was exactly The Rock's movie.  We could guess every trope.  The Rock's buddy was a bad guy but still good enough to tell The Rock to run.  One villain must be the sexy woman, but it wasn't right for The Rock to beat her up so they had the wife beat the woman villain up.

We enjoyed the movie very much.  I squealed in a few scenes when The Rock was in danger.  Math Teacher liked the story gave The Rock a vulnerability.  Otherwise The Rock was simply too powerful.

I liked the plot showed us some details in the beginning and then called them back in the end.  Not every movie needed to be a smart movie, but consistency made the plot flow better.  It also showed the writers at least knew their beginning, the middle, and the end.

Happy New Year 2024! 明けましておめでとうございます

 

Year of Dragon

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

Math Teacher said this movie inspired a lot of pop culture references so I needed to watch it to understand those references.

Um, what do I say?  This movie was strange.  Or it wasn't my cup of tea.  Or I did not understand British humor.

For a run time of 90 minutes, I got bored.  Math Teacher's favorite part, Galahad the Chaste, really had nothing to do with the rest of the movie.  And that was about it.  A lot of jokes didn't have anything to do with the movie, like the opening credits kept sacking someone, or someone complained monarchy was a dictatorship, or the modern police scenes.

Of course my favorite parts were already uploaded to YouTube, the swallows with the coconuts.  They were funny because the joke was mentioned in the beginning of the movie and then again towards the end.  Consistency.

I also liked all the insults hurled by the French soldiers at King Arthur.  Very creative.

The Equalizer (2014)

Another Hollywood trope. A man in a quiet life that nobody knew he was a bad-ass. Then the man was forced to re-join the violence to help someone helpless.

I don't mind. Shoot them up and beat them up! Denzel Washington was so cool.

When Math Teacher was reading John Milton's Paradise Lost, he had to stop at this section to read it to me: 

"Whence and what art thou, execrable shape,

That darest, though grim and terrible, advance

Thy mistreated front athwart my way

To yonder gates?  through them I mean to pass,

That be assured, without leave asked of thee:

Retire, or taste thy folly, and learn by proof,

Hell-born, not to contend with spirits of heaven."

Roughly translated as:

Where and what are you, shit face,

You think you're big and scary, you dare to block my way to the gate.

Rest assured I'm going to pass, without asking for your permission.

Get out of here, or taste your own medicine, and learn,

you trash, Not to fuck with the heaven born.

This scene was when Satan leading a group of fallen angels to try to get into Eden; a fugly shape blocked his way.  I immediately said Denzel Washington was the only one that could pull these lines off as Satan.  So dominating, so confident.  Anyone in his way will be pummeled to death.  Hollywood, call me!

Aquaman (2018), Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)

I watched the first one to be prepared for the second one.  Wow, the first one was a lot of movies.  It crammed everything into one movie, epic adventure, sci-fi, romance, action, politics.  Maybe the studio was afraid there wouldn't be a sequel. Most of it was probably the director telling Jason Momoa, "Just look handsome and smoldering."  I didn't mind.  😋

The second one was cute and entertaining. It continued the same style as the first one. Globe trotting adventures with a lot of undersea actions. I really like the brotherhood bonding. The bantering was fun; it showed their love and respect for each other.

The villain was a bit generic, but I liked that it wasn’t one true chosen villain. Anyone that picked up the fork could be a villain. So there were a few twists that were enjoyable.

By the way, was Black Manta’s chest CGI’ed? It was too magnificent. I couldn’t look away. 😍

The mad scientist was adorable. Randall Park is a great actor. I hope he gets more roles in the future.

One thing I had to pick on was, Jason Momoa's suit looked loose.  Did they run out of money on tailoring?

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2023!

Wish everyone a great Christmas and a happy new year!

This is my very first year buying an advent calendar. The treats were delicious. Looking for numbers was so much fun! Definitely buying different types of advent calendars every year from now on.

This year I went to different neighborhoods to see Christmas decorations. I did not feel comfortable taking pictures of people's homes. So, here's my own banana bread! Click here for the recipe!

Here are my annual tradition of taking photos of Christmas trees.

Monterey, CA, USA

Walnut Creek, CA, USA

Monterey, CA, USA