Nanny McPhee Returns

I also recently watched Nanny McPhee Returns on DVD. I had purchased it when it came out. I liked the first one, featuring Emma Thompson as Nanny McPhee (and screenplay writer). This time, she has Maggie Gyllenhaal as the mother and Ewan McGregor as the father.

There are more hilarious hijinx in this one. The story is the same. Children don't get along. Nanny McPhee comes to teach these children (and some adults) lessons because her motto is: "When you need her, but don't want her, she must stay. But, when you want her, but no longer need her, then she must go."

It's just as fun as the last one, with more animals this time around. Hilarious. I enjoyed it a lot. Definitely a family film.

The King's Speech

On Thursday, December 30, 2010, I went to see the movie The King's Speech featuring Colin Firth.

This is a historical drama based on the story of King George VI, his rise to power, and getting over his fear of public speaking and stammering.

This movie was very well done. Colin Firth really put in a great deal of work portraying this role. I hope he gets at least an Oscar nod, if not an actual Oscar, because he's an actor who has a lot of capability but never gets any Oscars.

Granted of course this was based upon the life of King George VI, the story is probably not all true and probably a bit fictionalized, but it is very good. The acting was superb, the lines were well-delivered. An awesome movie.

There were some other great names in the movie, like Helena Bonham-Carter, Geoffrey Rush, Michael Gambon and Guy Pearce.

A very well done movie. A must see for Oscar purposes.

A new low for Fox...

I had read about the couple who lost $800 000 because of incorrect research on a game show hosted by Fox.

Here's the link to the latest update of that story.

The whole brouhaha of the story is that a couple got the answer right for the question, but the Fox research department didn't. (I mean, that's to be expected, right, I mean, after all... They are the genius minds behind Fox News, a propoganda machine that they are trying to force onto the Canadian Public, which our lovely PM, Stephen Harper is 150% behind)

And instead of sucking up and say, "Oh, we made a mistake, that's too bad... Here, we'll give you the $800 000" they are just "inviting them back at another opportunity to play the game."

The integrity of the show's research team has been flushed down the toilet. Personally, I would not want to go back on a show that goofed so majorly.

But what do you expect, it's Fox.

The Town

On Tuesday, December 21, 2010, I went to see the movie The Town, featuring Ben Affleck.

This movie is about the Charlestown, which has an reputation of a town where bank robberies run in the family.

The movie starts off with a bank robbery. It seems to be going well when all of a sudden, the Manager gets accused of tripping the alarm. The assistant manager, Claire, witnessed an act of violence and then was taking as a hostage. After a long time driving around, with her blindfolded, the bank robbers finally let her off and told her to walk until she felt water.

However, this robbery was the first time that they had taken a hostage, so they now have that problem. Of the "gang" of the four people, the brains of the operation does not have the biggest record, so he frequents her to make sure that she doesn't remember or know too many details.

An unforeseen turn of events is that they actually fall for each other and have a relationship. Other things that happen is that there's a hound of an FBI agent who wants to take this group down for the robberies they have done and then their head honcho who is getting more and more greedy.

This movie has a small amount of action, a large amount of drama. A good mix. A really good movie to watch. Totally worth it on the big screen.

Where have our manners gone?

So, after having seen or witnessed a few things that rubbed me the wrong way, I am writing about them to get it off my chest and to ask the age old question: "Where have our manners gone?"

My first incident was on Saturday morning. December 11, 2010. I was taking the metro to go to work in the morning. I got on the metro and I was rushing from the bust to the metro platform. I didn't have the time to blow my nose. The first moment of pause that I had was when I got onto the metro. So, I took out a napkin, because I didn't have any facial tissues, and I blew my nose, into the napkin.

This guy who was sitting next to me decides to cough and the way he did it, was to make sure that he was coughing onto me. He actually put his hand at the angle so that when he coughed, the "germs" were flying towards me. What the fuck is this guy's problem? Is it because I am Asian that the moment we blow our noses, it's because we have SARS? Blowing noses is a very normal activity. Of course, we prefer to do it in the bathroom or in private, but sometimes, it is not possible. I didn't choose to do it without a napkin or to make sure that whatever I needed to clear ended up on this idiot.

The next incident happened on Sunday, December 12, 2010. I was with my mahjong club (the story of a member really annoying me will be posted another time, if at all). I was waiting, along with some other members, for a new game to start. One of these members (not the one that annoyed me a lot) was reading at a table. There were a few empty chairs. Some guy just comes up and takes a chair. When this member stated that you should ask first, the asshole who took the chair spat back, "Well, you don't need four chairs!"

Regardless of whether or not he needed those chairs, one still has to ask. That is just common courtesy. I highly doubted that the member who was reading would say, "No, you cannot take a chair." He wasn't using it... He was willing to let it go. He just expected to be asked.

The last incident happened today on the metro. I was on my way to breakfast at Chez Cora after getting some wine for Christmas parties. An older gentleman, along with a younger lady got onto the metro. The younger lady needed the assistance of a cane to walk. This older gentleman, in an entitled fashion, took the nearest seat and made the younger lady with the cane walk through the metro to the next nearest seat. Granted of course, she didn't have to walk too too far, but what the hell? I'm all about respect and giving seats to older people. However, between an older individual who has perfect use of both their legs and a younger person who needs a cane to walk... I think the person with the cane needs a seat closer than an older individual who have the perfect use of both their legs. Sorry, person with cane, even though younger, trumps person without cane and have the perfect use of both legs.

Just like in Mambo Italiano, "What is this world coming to?!!"

Love and Other Drugs

On Tuesday, December 7, 2010, I went to see the movie Love and Other Drugs. This movie features Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal.

This movie is about Jake Gyllenhaal's character, Jamie Randell and Anne Hathaway's character, Maggie Murdock.

Maggie Murdock is a 26 year old patient that has been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. The first time that Maggie and Jamie meet, Jamie is shadowing a doctor and Maggie was the patient.

The two hit it off relatively terribly. Basically Maggie comes up to Jamie and wakes him in the face with her bag. Then things kind of take off from there. They meet for coffee and then they embark on this journey of sex and learning about each other.

This movie explores many areas. Especially the aspect of having a partner with Parkinson's Disease. I also think that the way this was done, it was done very well. This is no ordinary chick flick. This is one where it makes you think!!!