Tuesday, January 29, 2008

talk about a great start to a new year

I had possibly the worst start ever in my entire life.......

Sunday, January 27, 2008

little miss sunshine

Little Miss Sunshine is a breath of fresh air. The movie talks about the difference between winners and losers, never giving up and most importantly the strong bond a family can create, albeit it being the most dysfunctional one.

Little Olive desires to be Miss America one day and she got a call informing her that she is eligible for Little Miss Sunshine pageant held in California. Her whole family decided to stand by her despite the midst of a divorce, bankruptcy and her uncle suicidal tendency. During the journey in an old Volkswagen bus from Albuquerque to California, obstacles came in their way but as a family they find that special desperation to achieve little Olive's goal.

The beauty of the show is definitely helmed by the awesome performance of every single cast of the ensemble. From the phony father (Greg Kinnear) to the tired mother (Toni Collette) to the emotionally-unstable uncle (Steve Carell) to the hardcore gramps (Alan Arkin) to the "mute" son (Paul Dano) and the button cute Olive (Abigail Breslin), no wonder it was such a critically acclaimed movie in 2006.



And the poster is one of my favourite as it totally embodies the quirky yet strong message behind the movie..... two thumbs up!

Friday, January 25, 2008

The Dark Knight

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Heath Ledger's death 'tragic, untimely and accidental,' dad says

NEW YORK---- Heath Ledger, the talented 28-year-old actor who gravitated toward dark, brooding roles that defied his leading-man looks, was found dead Tuesday in a Manhattan apartment, facedown at the foot of his bed with prescription sleeping pills nearby, police said.

There was no obvious indication that the Australian-born Ledger had committed suicide, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.

Ledger had an appointment for a massage at the SoHo apartment that is believed to be the home of the ''Brokeback Mountain'' actor, Browne said. The massage therapist and a housekeeper found his naked body at about 3:30 p.m. They tried to revive him, but he was already dead.

''We are all deeply saddened and shocked by this accident,'' Ledger's publicist, Mara Buxbaum, said in a statement Tuesday night. ''This is an extremely difficult time for his loved ones and we are asking the media to please respect the family's privacy and avoid speculation until the facts are known.''

Outside the building on an upscale street, paparazzi and gawkers gathered, and several police officers put up barricades to control the crowd of about 300. Onlookers craned their necks as officers brought out a black bodybag on a gurney, took it across the sidewalk and put it into a medical examiner's office van.

As the door opened, bystanders snapped pictures with camera phones, rolled video and said, ''He's coming out!''

An autopsy was planned for Wednesday, medical examiner's office spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said.

While not a marquee movie star, Ledger was an award-winning actor who chose his roles carefully rather than cashing in on big-money parts. He was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as a gay cowboy in ''Brokeback Mountain.'' During filming, he met Michelle Williams, who played his wife in the film. The two had a daughter, now 2-year-old Matilda, and lived together in Brooklyn until they split up last year.

It was a shocking and unforeseen conclusion for one of Hollywood's bright young stars. Though his leading man looks propelled him to early stardom in films like ''10 Things I Hate About You'' and ''A Knight's Tale,'' his career took a notable turn toward dramatic and brooding roles with 2001's ''Monster's Ball.''

''I had such great hope for him,'' said Mel Gibson, who played Ledger's vengeful father in ''The Patriot,'' in a statement. ''He was just taking off and to lose his life at such a young age is a tragic loss.''

In the Australian city of Perth, where Ledger was born and raised, his father called the actor's death ''tragic, untimely and accidental.''

''He was (a) down-to-earth, generous, kind-hearted, life-loving, unselfish individual, extremely inspirational to many,'' Kim Ledger said, reading from a prepared statement. ''Heath has touched so many people on so many different levels during his short life.''

Ledger eschewed Hollywood glitz in favor of a bohemian life in Brooklyn, where he became one of the borough's most famous residents. ''Brokeback'' would be his breakthrough role, establishing him as one of his generation's finest talents and an actor willing to take risks.

Ledger began to gravitate more toward independent fare, including Lasse Hallstrom's ''Casanova'' and Terry Gilliam's ''The Brothers Grimm,'' both released in 2005. His 2006 film ''Candy'' now seems destined to have an especially haunting quality: In a particularly realistic performance, Ledger played a poet wrestling with a heroin addiction along with his girlfriend, played by Abbie Cornish.

But Ledger's most recent choices were arguably the boldest yet: He costarred in ''I'm Not There,'' in which he played one of the many incarnations of Bob Dylan -- as did Cate Blanchett, whose performance in that film earned an Oscar nomination Tuesday for best supporting actress.

And in what may be his final finished performance, Ledger proved that he wouldn't be intimidated by taking on a character as iconic as Jack Nicholson's Joker. Ledger's version of the ''Batman'' villain, glimpsed in early teaser trailers, made it clear that his Joker would be more depraved and dark.

Curiosity about Ledger's final performance will likely stoke further interest in the summer blockbuster. ''Dark Knight'' director Christopher Nolan said this month that Ledger's Joker would be wildly different from Nicholson's.

''It was a very great challenge for Heath,'' Nolan said. ''He's extremely original, extremely frightening, tremendously edgy. A very young character, a very anarchic presence that taps into a lot of our basic fears and panic.''

Ledger told The New York Times in a November interview that he ''stressed out a little too much'' during the Dylan film and had trouble sleeping while portraying the Joker, whom he called a ''psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy.''

''Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night,'' Ledger told the newspaper. ''I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going.'' He said he took two Ambien pills, which worked for only an hour, the paper said.

Ledger was a widely recognized figure in his Manhattan neighborhood, where he used to shop at a home and children's store. Michelle Vella, an employee there, said she had frequently seen Ledger with his daughter -- carrying the toddler on his shoulders, or having ice cream with her.

''It's so sad. They were really close,'' Vella said. ''He's a very down-to-earth guy and an amazing father.''

Before settling down with Williams, Ledger had relationships with actresses Heather Graham and Naomi Watts. He met Watts while working on ''The Lords of Dogtown,'' a fictionalized version of a cult classic skateboarding documentary, in 2004.

Ledger was born in 1979 to a mining engineer and a French teacher and got his first acting role playing Peter Pan at age 10 in a local theater company. He began acting in independent films as a 16-year-old in Sydney and played a cyclist hoping to land a spot on an Olympic team in a 1996 television show, ''Seat.''

After several independent films, Ledger moved to Los Angeles at age 19 and starred opposite Julia Stiles in ''10 Things I Hate About You.'' Offers for other teen flicks soon came his way, but Ledger turned them down, preferring to remain idle than sign on for projects he didn't like.

''It wasn't a hard decision for me,'' Ledger told the Associated Press in 2001. ''It was hard for everyone else around me to understand. Agents were like, 'You're crazy,' my parents were like, 'Come on, you have to eat.'''

Friday, January 18, 2008

a look back in 2007

2007 is a good year......it started of with chaos in school while everyone was rushing for graduation...that basically was the first half of the year.......in the middle it was liberty, freedom, a state of disbelief aka graduation.....and finally it ended with me entering a new phase of life....starting to work.....realising that I don't really like kids and the brat generation is dawning upon us

as it comes to a close which already it did because of my incessant procrastination habit in blogging nowadays...I will try to list down 10 most memorable things that happened in the year 2007...of which I am racking my brains now

1) Graduation
- seeing my parents and grandmother's proud faces when I made it. It almost felt like I came back from a war.

2) Compliment
- my first compliment at work knowing that I am appreciated by my patients.

3) Not so sober
- I got drunk for the very first time and it felt kinda nice actually minus the fact that I was sprawling on the floor in Zouk

4) Cell group
- At my house!! Little did I ever imagine that. I pray to God that when I open my house, blessings and finally salvation will be upon my family! Actually it happened this year but heck

5) Playstation 3
- My little play thing and also my reward for graduation.....

6) Voluntarism
- My stint at the hospice further substantiate that in society it is truly better to give than to receive.

7) Friends
- My clique in whom I could never thanked enough back in dental school for listening to my rants and helping me anyway possible.
- My church mates who have always believe in me. Thank you
- Fellow mobilers!

8) Bratz
- Treating a 3 year old patient who refused to open her mouth the first visit she came to the clinic and I managed to convert her into a super cooperative patient...

9) Nihongo
- My awesome Graduation Japan trip. Got to say it is possibly the best trip I have ever been to. Kudos to Bran, Xueli and Xiaxin for being such great companions. The journey will always be imprinted in my memory

10) The Holy Trinity
- God Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Without You, 2007 will not be possible and as memorable. Thank you God for you are my awesome God.

Resolutions made by me will be broken like old furnitures....so I would just like to say let 2008 be better than 2007 for all of us



Little pictures depicting my entertainment aspect in 2007
Steve Carell became my favourite actor
The Office overtook Lost in my #1 TV show to watch (for the moment)
Hairspray was a musical movie that was actually fun to watch
Maroon 5 was the most played on my ipod