Last Night

On Tuesday, June 28, 2011, I went to see the movie Last Night, featuring Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington, Eva Mendes and Guillaume Canet.

The movie is about a couple (Knightley and Worthington) who's been married for four years. Knightley plays Joanna and Worthington plays Michael. Joanna is a freelance writer who writes fashion articles and Michael is a commercial real estate agent.

They seem to be the perfect married couple. No bullshit, lots of communication, healthy fighting, reminding each other that they love each other... The movie starts out with Joanna and Michael heading off to a party. They are late and Joanna needs to change. She also reminds Michael to bring a bottle of wine. This party is a work thing because many of Michael's colleagues are there.

We get to the party and we see that Michael is attracted to Laura, one of his colleagues (played by Eva Mendes). Joanna has a fight when she gets home about Michael about Laura, but decides that she overreacted. Michael is heading off to Philadelphia with Laura and another colleague, Andy, the next day.

While Michael is in Philadelphia, Joanna gets a call from Alex, played by Guillaume Canet, Joanna's former love. He says that he's in town and that he was late for a meeting, but would call her and catch up.

What happens now? You'll have to watch the movie to find out. However, it does involve people fighting off temptation. Do they succeed or do they fail?

The Tree of Life

On Tuesday, June 21, 2011 I went to see the movie The Tree of Life, featuring Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain. This movie is written and directed by Terrence Malick.

An absolutely pretentious piece of crap. I don't get what all the rant and rave is about. I like independent movies, I like artsy movies, I like dramas, I follow well in movies, I am open to interpreting movies and storylines and the whole nine yards. However, this was just a piece of crap. Two hours of my life I will never get back.

The acting was mediocre at best. Combine with a horribly written story and many scenes of nature and dinosaurs, you've got this supposedly really good movie.

Don't bother with it. I think I would have enjoyed Green Lantern way more and that is Hollywood fluff with no thinking required! I think we have a match for the worst movie I have ever seen... This is a tie for Dead Funny.

Don't waste your time to go and see this movie. There's an expression in Chinese: 送錘子

Cut me some slack... Jeez

A series of events have happened and I feel kind of down about this... I am going to rant about it so that it is out of my system and then move on with it...

I bought Panasonic headphones in January 2011. I found out last Saturday (June 11, 2011) that the right side is about half as weak in terms of volume as the left side... I thought that it might have been the device that I was plugging into. So, I tested the headphones with another device... In both devices, the left jack is consistently stronger than the right jack. I called Panasonic customer support. I told them about my problem. However, Panasonic only offers a 90 day warranty on their headphones and basically I was SOL. The cost for repairing the headphones is just as expensive as getting new ones, so it was suggested that I get new ones...

I cannot believe that Panasonic flat out refused to do anything for me. I mean... If I had been using the headphones every day, maybe... But it shouldn't be like that. Panasonic is supposedly a good name... They are supposed to make high quality products... Not products that go bad a few days or weeks after their warranty runs out. The reason why I bought Panasonic headphones was because I was impressed with the phone I got with them... So I put my trust in them... I was also quite impressed with the customer service I received on my phone... I sent in the unit and they repaired it... However, I am now worried because I am afraid that my phone is going to just die on me, or go bad, or start acting up, or (insert thing that could go wrong with it) after the warranty is up, which is soon. I got this phone about a year ago... The warranty is for a year, I think. For the headphones in question, I use them at most three times a week. I am not one of those people who have my iPod or gadget with me all the time and listen to it whenever I am on the bus.

Then, I got my account statement from my bank and I found out that my bank is raising banking fees, upping the minimum balances on their accounts for the banking fees to be waived, upping overdraft protection fees, upping extra transaction fees on their chequing accounts, effective August 1, 2011. I find it bizarre that in a time of an unstable and bad economy, where many people don't have stable full time jobs and they are having difficulty making ends meet, that my bank (and when I called to ask for more information to voice my concern - possibly two more other major Canadian banks) is upping the fees on their chequing accounts! Especially when ING Direct is offering a no-fee chequing account!!! So far, my bank has done very little to keep me with them... Their solution to saving me money is to offer more of their services which supposedly save me money. As one can see, I will be doing more research (I did research before calling my bank) and making a pros and cons list about the chequing account that I have versus the chequing account offered by ING.

And then today, when I mailed a Father's Day card. I was informed that my card was too heavy and I had to add 50¢ to my postage. I didn't take a chance because this is a Father's Day card. I know that there is a strike, so it will be late. I didn't want to take the chance of the card being sent back to me for insufficient postage. Seriously though, if I had just put the card into a random mailbox, the chances of it being sent back are pretty slim... They do not have time to check every piece of mail coming from every mailbox on the island of Montreal! I mean, sure, sometimes things do get sent back, but... The chances of that would be pretty slim.

It seems like everyone and their mother is out to get my money. To quote my brother, who has many great expressions... "Can I buy a fucking break please?!!"

Potiche

On Tuesday, June 14, 2011, I went to see the movie Potiche featuring Catherine Deneuve, Gerard Dépardieu and Fabrice Lucini.

The story is about Suzanne Pujol (Catherine Deneuve), who is the daughter of a deceased umbrella factory worker. She married into the Pujol family, Robert Pujol (Fabrice Lucini) who now runs the factory. It is 1977 and there is a strike because of the horrible working conditions. Robert Pujol gets taken hostage by the striking workers and gets injured as a result from his experience. Because of his hospitalization, Suzanne Pujol must take over the umbrella factory. Suzanne Pujol is a potiche, or trophy wife, because she doesn't do anything at home. She doesn't have to cook, she doesn't have to clean. She watches TV, she tends to her garden, and her husband doesn't listen to what she has to say.

Once she took over, she sought the advice of Maurice Babin, the mayor and former union leader. She also had an affair with him while she was married. She brought the factory back to working condition, but... Things get complicated... With her former lover, with Robert Pujol who wants his old job back and... All of this makes for a very fun and entertaining movie. I totally enjoyed it and... Jérémie Renier, who plays the son, Laurence Pujol, is eye candy for sure.

Good Neighbours

On Tuesday, June 7, 2011, I went to see the movie Good Neighbours featuring Jay Baruchel and Scott Speedman. This movie takes place in the neighbourhood of Notre-Dame-de-Grace in Montreal.

The story is featured around the Referendum vote of 1995. Louise, a tenant in an apartment in NDG is obsessed with a serial killer on the loose. She works as a waitress in a Chinese restaurant.

Louise hangs out sometimes with a tenant named Spencer. He is in a wheelchair because he had an accident about a year ago where he lost his wife. They are both kind of interested in this serial killer that's on the loose in NDG.

A new tenant, Victor, moves into the building. He's an elementary school teacher who recently moved back to Montreal. He has no friends here and he wants to widen his circle of friends.

As more and more murders take place, Louise gets more and more freaked out and starts to ask Victor to walk her home from work.

With two characters that are not as important: Mme. Gauthier, who is the owner of the building, and Valérie Langlois, who has many issues and not a friendly neighbour, the story rolls along and we are kept guessing who can be the killer!

This movie is based upon the book Chère Voisine, written by Chrystine Brouillet, which I studied in my first year of university in my French class, so I kind of figured out the plot of the movie about fifteen minutes in. It was well done, nonetheless.