What to write about? Think you idiot.....

Since I have been warned not to write about my favorite topic of blogging, my blogging has gone into a dry phase these days. Not that there are nothing to write about, but I am trying to refrain from writing anything personal and other than those, there are only some monotonous themes.

But finally I got something worth writing. I came across a movie which, other than being a movie, was an insight of the fact if I was a feminist. If discussions on message board and my disliking for the movie are anything to go by, I would say I am not. 

The movie was Hard candy, a 2005 movie starring Juno star Ellen Page in the lead role. For the record, I hated the movie and gave it a 5 out of 10. But still, I would recommend to all guys, to all dudes. Why am I recommending the movie even when I didnt like it, and that to boys only? I am doing so because this movie is quite able to make it clear for a guy whether he is feminist or not. I am not kidding. Watch it, and if you like it, then you most probably are and if you dont, you are probably not.

Debate about the movie should be done after watching the movie, I would just write my view about the movie now and I would say that you read them after you have watched the movie. I for one, did sympathize for the guy, even if he indeed was a pedophile (although the movie never makes it clear, which only makes him more easy to sympathize with). Till the end, I just didnt care whether he was a pedophile or if he did molest Hayley's friend, I just wanted him to get out and kill that bit*h. Dont get me wrong. I am all in for the stories where the hunter becomes prey and isnt this the end of all good stories? Where the movie fails, is the fact that they never actually show Jeff doing anything wrong to any girl. How the viewer is supposed to dislike him then? And then they show Hayley flirting with him on net, which makes her look in grey shade, and which sure isnt positive. And then they show Haley making Jeff so miserable that it's unbearable to watch. That guy just keeps becoming more and more miserable. Hayley drugs him, ties him in his own house, discovers a secret locker, guesses the code so easily (come on dude, who in this age still puts ex-girlfriend's birth date as password?), then he gets a gun but even then she is able to make him unconscious, then she cuts his genitelia (well, almost), he even gets free once more but only to get stunned by Hayley once again, then he gets his noose tied up by her for suicide but he once again becomes free and as fate (or the script writer) would have it, Hayley makes him do suicide in the end. I mean, how stupid this guy is? Either he just wasnt an actual pedofile (otherwise how hard it would have been for him to tackle a 14 year old girl, even after becoming free thrice?) and that makes the whole movie without any point (or with one point, showing harassement of a adult male from a 14 year old girl). Or, he was indeed a pedophile, but the movie is still stupid cause even after being a murderer and pedophile, he just couldnt handle a teen age girl. 

On message boards, people were absolutely divided, with some claiming that those who didnt like the movie were anti-feminists and others saying that those who liked were feminist. I for one, as I said, didnt like it. Watch the movie, read my thouhghts above and decide what you think, about yourself and me.

In other news, I have started watching Scrubs and its incredible. Its a perfect blend of all kind of characters- quirky, humorous, funny, evil, good-hearted, tough, soft, silly and downright stupid, all forced to be with each other. But what takes the cake is the show's ability of being meaningful even after a lot of humor involved. The lines narrated by the lead protagonist at the end of each episode not only sum up the theme of that particular episode, they also give interesting insights of human emotions. 

How I got interested in Scrubs is a story in itself. I went to CS on 15th August, and since the person I was supposed to meet was to turn up after three hours, I started watching television. Somehow I stumbles in Star World and coincidently, they were Scrubs and that too in some back to back fashion. So I watched two episodes and got immediately interested.

I also finished Lost: Via domus and though what other reviews said is entirely true-that it is a fan service for the fans of LOST, I would say it was not that bad of a game. But then again, that might be cause I knew characters (I had watched about 10 initial episodes of LOST). Still, worth playing if you have nothing else to play.

Also, watched a few movies in between. Here are the ratings-

Indiana Jones and the kingdom of crystal skull- 8/10.

The School of rock- 8/10.

Children of heaven- 8/10.

Sideways- 6/10.

No country for old men- 8/10.

Hellboy 2: The golden army- 8/10.

Hard candy- 5/10.

Mean girls- 9/10.

Groundhog day- 8/10.

The mummy 3: tomb of the dragon emporer- 5/10.

They made me do it.....

But what was it actually?

Donnie darko (character played by Jake Gyllenhaal) is the second movie which I saw in recent times and didnt understand fully. The first one was enigmatically beautiful 'The Fountain'. 

A young man named Donnie darko is having visions of a talking bunny rabbit, whom he calls Frank. Frank asks him to do things when he is asleep and he obeys, only to find out the result in the morning. One such night, Frank prophecies that the end of the world will occur in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds. The same night a jet engine, of no origin, falls into Donnie's room. Nothing happens to Donnie as he was outside, following Frank's orders. It creates a series of events which all effect Donnie's life in one form or other. He gets a girlfriend, gets interested in Time-travel and keeps following Frank's orders. One day before the prophecied time of end of world, his parents go out of city for some reason and that day and Donnie's sister throws a partie in their home. Donnie's girlfriend comes to his home, and they go to Roberta sparrow's home, who is an old woman and all she does is standing near a letterbox and cheking it again and again. Apaarently, Roberta had written a book called 'Philosophy of time travel' which describes exactly what Donnie was seeing. At Sparrow's home, while Donnie and his girlfriend were getting bullied by some school students, Gretchen (Donnie's girlfriend) is killed by a car accident, and the driver was Frank (unmasked at that time, holding his bunny rabbit mask in his hand). Donnie shoots Frank in the eye, presumably killing him. It was earlier shown, in a sequence where Frank takes off his mask, that Frank's one eye was shot at. Also, Donnie was guided by some kind of translucent silvery plastic gel spheres to get the gun, and those spheres had something to do with Time-travel. As the prophecies time comes near, Donnie sees a Worm-hole getting created in sky. Taking Gretchen with him in a car, Donnie goes into the worm-hole, where the car acts as a vessel for their time travel. Also, due to the disturbance created by worm-hole, a Jet-Engine of a plane, in which Donnie's parents were travelling, gets broken apart and falls into the worm-hole.

Its shown then that the day is the day when Jet-Engine fell into Donnie's room and that Donnie is laughing. He sleeps after that and then the Jet engine falls into his room, killing him. Next day, Gretchen, passes by Donnie's home and asks what happened, seeing the croed. A neigbor boy tells her that a Jet-Engine fell and killed a boy in that house. Since she never saw Donnie in this time, she asks who was he and the boy answers- "Donnie Darko."

I can claim that I understood the movie, but even I wont be sure of it. The basic premise I did understand. That Donnie travels the time, saving Gretchen and dying himself. Just like when I understood the basic premise of The fountain, that all three characters were searching for tree of life, but there were so many things which I didnt understand. If Frank was shot in eye from Donnie, how his eye was already disfigured? Was he travelling time and thats why Donnie was saved from the jet engine first time? Who was Roberta sparrow exactly? What were those silver gel like sphere? An act of God? And finally, what was the bunny rabbit exactly?

I cant give it a 10, but its not because of some fault in movie itself, but because of my inability of understanding it. But before it seems unfair that I am giving less points to hide my inability of understanding it, I would say I cut them because howsoever complex a movie should be, it must be understood by the viewer, thats the beauty of direction.

One might say that movie leaves you to think yourself, to realize the end as you see fit, and I dont hate these kind of movies. The problem was, there were a lot of things inherently in the movie which were unexplained.

Still, Donnie darko is a great movie. Even if you dont understand it, you would appreciate the beauty lying in subtle scenes. Like when Donnie says his teacher to put the line into her anus, and his parents are actually amused by that. Or when Donnie asks Frank that why he wears that rabbit suit, Franks asks why Donnie wears the man suit.

Watch it twice or thrice, you will take away something new everytime. But its hard to believe that someone would actually understand the movie completely, other than the director and writter of course.

8/10.

P.S.- And for those who are interested, there is a sequel in the making. Titled S.Darko (Samantha Darko), it follows Donnie's younger sister after 7 years, on her journey haunted by a bunny rabbit.

Other movies I saw recently-

Meet Bill- 7/10.

KungFu Panda- 10/10.

Enchanted- 9/10.

Fargo- 7/10.

The Big Lebowski- 8/10.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall- 8/10.

You could be happy

I have heard this song a thousand times, starting from the time I first heard it on Smallville (Promise-Season Six, Episode 16), but never really paid attention on the lyrics, never pondered that how deep they were.

Even if not seen in perspective of my, or anyone else's, life, these are some wonderful lyrics, as is the song.

You could be happy and I won't know 
But you weren't happy the day I watched you go
And all the things that I wish I had not said 
Are played in loops till it's madness in my head 

Is it too late to remind you how we were?
But not our last days of silent screaming blur
Most of what I remember makes me sure 
I should have stopped you from walking out the door 

You could be happy I hope you are 
You made me happier than I'd been by far
Somehow everything i own, smells of you
And for the tiniest moment it's all not true 

Do the things that you always wanted to 
Without me there to hold you back don't think just do
More than anything I want to see you girl
Take a glorious bite out of the whole world. 

 Simply beautiful. 

There is another song I must mention, having wonderful lyrics (actually there are many more songs with lyrics perfectly soothing, its just that these two songs are coming to my mind right now). Its the title song of movie Have dreams, will travel, called Dreamin Aloud-

How do you speak in silence? 
Why do you speak when you're awake? 
If we just cut the tie-lines ,
then we can simply sail the way. 
Pack up you're things, write it all down, 
you'll soon be accustomed to the sound. 
Dreamin aloud...dreamin aloud....

I want to paint in colors, 
leaving the land black and white 
and if we do go back there 
we will see the day in light.
Ready to go, open the door 
just like the rainfalls from the cloud. 
Dreamin aloud...dreamin aloud.... 

Its a better day 
we are on our way 
it is anything you cant remember 
this is not just a dream.

Dont have to think about it, 
just like a river it will flow, 
we waited too long without it, 
if we just get up now and go. 
Open your eyes, and look around 
you'll be surprised what you've found. 
dreamin aloud..keep on dreamin...i am dreamin...dreamin aloud 
we are in our way...... 
keep on dreamin.

Now coming on the big news. Although something this big deserves its own entry, I was nonplussed that what would write about it, other than the main content, so I fused it in this one.

The news- Grand Theft Auto 4 is coming to PCs on 18th Nov (North America) and 21st Nov (Europe).

Its coming to us!!!!!!!!

And as I was about to finish the blog, this amazing song started playing in my playlist, which has some real deep lyrics too. Its Heartbeats, from Jose Gonzalez (and I came to know about it from the real great and super famous Sony Bravia's Color balls ad).

One night to be confused
One night to speed up truth
We had a promise made
Four hands and then away

Both under influence
We had divine scent
To know what to say
Mind is a razorblade

To call for hands of above
To lean on
Wouldn't be good enough
For me, no

One night of magic rush
The start a simple touch
One night to push and scream
And then relief

Ten days of perfect tunes
The colors red and blue
We had a promise made
We were in love

To call for hands of above
To lean on
Wouldn't be good enough
For me, no

To call for hands of above
To lean on
Wouldn't be good enough

And you, you knew the hands of the devil
And you, kept us awake with wolf teeth
Sharing different heartbeats
In one night

To call for hands of above
To lean on
Wouldn't be good enough
For me, no

To call for hands of above
To lean on
Wouldn't be good enough. 

Color-like.no.other

Radhika Gupta returns....and so does sackboy

Somtimes life leaves you absolutely bamboozled. Things happen when you least expect them, emanating from persons who didnt even esixt till yesterday, at least for you.

Something like that happened to me yesterday. When this girl named Garima sent a friend request on Orkut. We started chatting and later she revealed that she was Radhika indeed. It did suprise me, a lot I must say. But I tried not to over react. Just asked why she did so and she said she didnt know. I didnt press her on that.

We chatted for quite a while and I find her stranger as I talk more. We will see how these things turn out. There is nothing to loose anyway is there?

Coming once again on my favorite topic-games.

I was constantly in touch with LittleBigPlanet, but somehow how I forgot how cute sackboy was. To remind this to all others like me who had forgotten, Media Molecule made another trailer of LBP, this one-

If you ever step on my patch, I'll bring you down.......

For those who are wondering, the song is My patch from Jim noir.

This trailer is so funny and sackboy is so cute that I just wanna hug him all day. I am a hardcore gamer and never liked platformers, but LBP has made me excited....cant wait.

Sackboy says "Hi"

The other game I am excited about is Mirror's edge. Its not a single reason which did so, its actually a blend of many things. The mechanics of game, the graphics (and thats how you should use Unreal Engine 3.0) and sheer realism propelled it in top slot of my most awaited games list.

This is Mirror's edge for you

Its friendship day....Sandeep came home and I finished Resident Evil 4

Its friendship day folks! So happy friendship day to all of my friends, old and new. 

Coming on regular topics. Sandeep came home today and will be staying for two days. I am planning to go to Chhoti sadri now and again on Rakhi, but will have to see how that turns out.

I finished Resident Evil 4 and it rocks! A full review is in pipeline. As of now, there arent many games to play. I am playing Flatout: Ultimate carnage and Condmned: Criminal Origins as of now.

Time is boring a bit. Apart from studies, what am I supposed to do? I have finished watching Friends and Joey, Smallville and Prison break are still far from their next seasons. No decent game is getting released. All I do these days is playing some remaining games and watching 'South park' here and there.

But when it will start, I will be under an avalanche of entertainment. Smallville and Prison break will return. Many high profile games like Far Cry 2, Dead space, Just cause 2, Tomb raider: Underworld, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear sky, Spore, Crysis: warhead, Brother in arms: Hell's highway, Fallout 3, Project Origin, End war, Call of duty: World at war, Mirror's edge, Need for speed: undercover and Prince of Persia will release. 

Also, right from the day Square Enix announced Final Fantasy XIII going multi-platform, I was angry at them. Partly because of being a Sony fanboy, but more because of the possibilities of corners cutting for the game. It was a consolation that Versus is still a PS3 exclusive. 

But the announcement from Enix that there DKS3713 (this is one mighty strange name I must day) event will turn the ball in favor of Sony, made me a little excited. Today was first day of the two day event where they announced a few things. All were related to Sony platforms. These can be summarized as follows-

- The 3rd Birthday will be on the PSP as well. Nomura's team will be working on it.  
- The FFXIII demo will be included in FFVII-Advent Children Complete, as will trailers for Versus XIII and AgitoXIII.
- There will also be a FFVIIAdvent Children Complete PS3 bundle. The release will be in March 2009.
- FF Agito XIII will also be released on the PSP, no release window. The 3rd Birthday PSP will be out in 2009.
- FF VersusXIII's trailer says "Playstation3 only Worldwide".
- Dissidia PSP bundle confirmed. Release date will be in Dec 2008.
- KH PSP is 2009.

All in all, these are surely good announcements from Sony perspective, especially for PSP (I love my PSP :kisses PSP:). But I still dont think that the ball is in favor of Sony now. How can you swing the ball in favor of Sony when you announce Last Remnant, Kingdom hearts and Infinite Undiscovery timed exclusives for Xbox 360, Star Ocean 4 an exclusive to Xbox 360 and making Final Fantasy XIII a multi plat? Sony remains with only one Square Enix exclusive then, Final Fantasy XIII- Versus.

There is a day left and there must be a huge announcement in favor of Sony to really swing the ball. Something as big as announcement of Final Fantasy VII remake, though I doubt that will happen.

Anyways, I am waiting for tomorrow.......... 

Did some changes in blog

As you can see, I have done some changes in blog and I hope you like them. 

First, the most obvious change, I have changed the theme of blog. It is not dark as previous theme and links are much easily spottable.

I have added game release countdowns, which is the most awesome change here in my opinion. Whats more is that they will update automatically, which means that if there is a change in release date of a game, they will update themselves!

Also, since those countdowns made the page bit heavy, I reduced the number of posts shown on main page from 11 to 5. This should make things even.

Have a nice stay here!