Category Archives: Entertainment

Soul Surfer – Movie Trailer

This is the trailer of an upcoming movie titled Soul Surfer. It’s based on the true story of Bethany Hamilton, a champion surfer, who loses her arm because of a shark attack, fighting through her tragedy and getting back on her feet.

The movie stars Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt as Bethany Hamilton’s parents. Bethany is played by newcomer AnnaSophia Robb.

And, my favorite artist, Carrie Underwood makes her acting debut as Sarah Hill, the youth counselor who helps Bethany get by.

The movie is released on April 8th, very close to Easter. Screening has already begun for select Church leaders across the United States, seeing as it looks to be a deep movie about Christian values.

Check it out!

 

Rabbit Hole – Movie Review

 

Rabbit Hole is an understated and well-written drama that is centered around the ordinary. Ordinary life troubled by an event. It is the story of a family coping with a tragedy.

Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart are a happily married couple. At least that’s the case until their four year old son dies. The movie is not about the son. Most mentions of the son do not come until later in the movie (how he died, his name…). This is the story of this man and woman coping – or lack thereof – with the loss of their only child.

In my head, the plot is cliche. Parents lose child, etc. But what makes this very credible is how convincingly Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart pull off the grieving parents. Each one of them portrays their coping mechanims so perfectly that you’d think they really lost a child. Some say they plot is undercooked. While you can easily see it that way, I don’t think this is what the movie promises to begin with; the promise being the “unusual” that we have come to expect from movies. This movie is rather the usual and how this usual can be made into a cinematic picture.

The movie is this slow progression of everyday life that is so ordinary that at some points, it takes your breath away. There is one particular scene involving a fight between Kidman and Eckhart that is very raw, credible, real.

There are many actors and actresses that make this movie what it is. Aaron Eckhart holds his own with his multi-layered character. But the movie’s centerpiece is Nicole Kidman, up for an Oscar for her role.

She is so astonishing in this movie that it’s very hard to think this is the actress everyone thought was past her prime. She shines as the woman trying to excise her grief, be it with her interactions with the support group or her mother… It’s hard not to applaud her fragile ruthlessness. And that’s precisely what she is: hell-bent not to feel what she’s feeling that she sets off on the most peculiar of paths: getting to know the cause of her son’s death.

This movie is based on a Pulitzer-winning play also titled Rabbit Hole. While I haven’t seen the play, I think it would have been a really interesting event to attend.

And in case you’re wondering why a movie about grieving parents is titled after an Alice in Wonderland term? Well, the way I see it: they are like Alice, wondering a world that feels so strange to them after their son disappeared from it… into a rabbit hole.

Breaking Dawn Picture leak

For the Twihards, or whoever might be interested in this, a picture has leaked from the upcoming and penultimate Twilight movie: Breaking Dawn.

And yes, as it shows… this is one of the interesting (right?) moments of the book.

Black Swan – Movie Review

Black Swan is a new psychological thriller, brought to you by Darren Aronofsky, starring Natalie Portman as a perfectionist ballerina who lands the main role in a remake of “Swan Lake”.

“Swan Lake” is basically a ballet about a princess who falls in love with a prince, only to be turned into a white swan. To get rid of the curse, she needs to find true love’s kiss. However, the prince she loves is seduced by the black swan and the white swan ends up killing herself. Usually, the swan parts are played by two different actors. But in Black Swan, the director of the struggling ballet institute wanted to have the same person play both roles, possibly to show the dueling sides of humanity. Natalie Portman’s character, Nina, excels at being the White Swan. But her frigid, perfectionist self makes it hard for her to be the Black Swan, seductive and darkly sensual. The movie is her becoming the Black Swan.

As many of you know already, Natalie Portman is getting major award buzz for her role in this. She has won almost every award this season for her role in this movie and deservedly so. She gives an intense, haunting performance of a girl breaking out of her shell on so many levels that she’s not herself anymore. The movie itself can be considered simply as Portman’s vehicle. She is the fragile ballerina who is, for lack of better words, losing it. And she loses it perfectly.

I remember sitting dumbfounded after watching this. I haven’t watched it since. But it’s one of those movies that leave you in shock by the end. You don’t want them to end. You want to see what happens next, what kind of twisted psychological game Aronofsky has up his sleeve. And this is exactly what this movie is. A huge twisted psychological maze that is so open to interpretation that my friends and I cannot even agree on who the villain in this movie is, if there’s a villain in the first place. Some say it’s Nina’s mother – a woman who had to give up her dreams of becoming a ballet icon to raise her daughter and is now trying to live her dream through Nina – or Nina herself, with her Black Swan alter ego.

Others say that it’s Lily, the character portrayed by Mila Kunis. Lily is a newcomer to the ballet institute and she can be the perfect Black Swan. She doesn’t worry about the perfection of her moves, she doesn’t care about anything basically. She just lets go. And soon enough, Nina begins to feel threatened by Lily. Or is she?

Mila Kunis gives a pretty remarkable performance. She did not get an Oscar nomination for her role, although she got a golden globe nod and lost to Melissa Leo.

All in all, this is a movie with acting of extraordinary power. And if the hair on your neck don’t stand up when the last movie of the movie comes up, then there’s something really wrong.

Born This Way – Lady Gaga (lyrics)

INTRO:
It doesn’t matter if you love him, or capital H-I-M
Just put your paws up
’cause you were Born This Way, Baby

VERSE:
MY MAMA TOLD ME WHEN I WAS YOUNG
WE ARE ALL BORN SUPERSTARS

SHE ROLLED MY HAIR AND PUT MY LIPSTICK ON
IN THE GLASS OF HER BOUDOIR

“THERE’S NOTHIN WRONG WITH LOVIN WHO YOU ARE”
SHE SAID, “‘CAUSE HE MADE YOU PERFECT, BABE”

“SO HOLD YOUR HEAD UP GIRL AND YOU’LL GO FAR,
LISTEN TO ME WHEN I SAY”

CHORUS:
I’M BEAUTIFUL IN MY WAY
‘CAUSE GOD MAKES NO MISTAKES
I’M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN THIS WAY

DON’T HIDE YOURSELF IN REGRET
JUST LOVE YOURSELF AND YOU’RE SET
I’M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN THIS WAY

POST-CHORUS:
OOO THERE AIN’T NO OTHER WAY
BABY I WAS BORN THIS WAY
BABY I WAS BORN THIS WAY
OOO THERE AIN’T NO OTHER WAY
BABY I WAS BORN-
I’M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN THIS WAY

DON’T BE A DRAG -JUST BE A QUEEN
DON’T BE A DRAG -JUST BE A QUEEN
DON’T BE A DRAG -JUST BE A QUEEN
DON’T BE!

VERSE:
GIVE YOURSELF PRUDENCE
AND LOVE YOUR FRIENDS
SUBWAY KID, REJOICE YOUR TRUTH

IN THE RELIGION OF THE INSECURE
I MUST BE MYSELF, RESPECT MY YOUTH

A DIFFERENT LOVER IS NOT A SIN
BELIEVE CAPITAL H-I-M (HEY HEY HEY)
I LOVE MY LIFE I LOVE THIS RECORD AND
MI AMORE VOLE FE YAH (LOVE NEEDS FAITH)

REPEAT CHORUS + POST-CHORUS

BRIDGE:

DON’T BE A DRAG, JUST BE A QUEEN
WHETHER YOU’RE BROKE OR EVERGREEN
YOU’RE BLACK, WHITE, BEIGE, CHOLA DESCENT
YOU’RE LEBANESE, YOU’RE ORIENT
WHETHER LIFE’S DISABILITIES
LEFT YOU OUTCAST, BULLIED, OR TEASED
REJOICE AND LOVE YOURSELF TODAY
‘CAUSE BABY YOU WERE BORN THIS WAY

NO MATTER GAY, STRAIGHT, OR BI,
LESBIAN, TRANSGENDERED LIFE
I’M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN TO SURVIVE
NO MATTER BLACK, WHITE OR BEIGE
CHOLA OR ORIENT MADE
I’M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN TO BE BRAVE

REPEAT CHORUS

OUTRO/REFRAIN:

I WAS BORN THIS WAY HEY!
I WAS BORN THIS WAY HEY!
I’M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN THIS WAY HEY!

I WAS BORN THIS WAY HEY!
I WAS BORN THIS WAY HEY!
I’M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN THIS WAY HEY!

 

Honestly, I think this is pretty great. The bridge has this one word (Lebanese if you’re wondering) that just brings it!