I did not get the chance to watch this film at the cinema, but it's a good thing a lot of HD copies are uploaded online. Well, this entire films revolved around the story (or shall I say the epic space adventure) or just a few people. Basically Gravity is about american astronauts in outer space who were unexpectedly warned by the ground command post to abandon its mission because of the ill effects of a Russian mishap on the other side of space, involving their satellites. In an attempt to commence the evacuation or escape fast, they all end up on a freaking awful situation--literally lost in space. Well, then some of them die (actually all of them except the lead female star Sandra Bullock), who sought refuge from an abandoned Chinese space station and disembarked her way to the earth’s atmosphere. What is horrifying here is the freaking parachute that was attached to her escape vehicle--it turned out it won’t let Dr. Ryan leave the outside world. To add, she had a bad dream of Matt beside her on her near death moments. And who could ever forget the arf arf and all the woof woof barking she did? I find it awfully nonsense. Painfully, she plunged all the way down to a lake with frogs, and I thought she could have died from drowning, yet managed to escape a near death expo from outer space. In the end, she emerged out of the water, savouring the earth and air and seems to be elated that she is still alive. Hmm, 7.5/10 for me. I just don't know, it feels like there’s something wrong with this movie. Maybe the characters were just so few. The lesson of the story: Learn chinese language and writing; coz’ if she did, it could have saved her from a painful dump into the lake. Buddha was there watching her all the time.
Summary:
Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky (George Clooney) in command of his last flight before retiring. But on a seemingly routine spacewalk, disaster strikes. The shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalsky completely alone - tethered to nothing but each other and spiraling out into the blackness.
I was bored, and in an attempt to learn classical or medieval literature, I ended up exploring the triumphs and conspiracies thrown against the world's major religion. During lag times, left alone in my room, I developed a hobby of logging into my free HOOQ account, and thanks to GlobePH (Globe Telecom / Tattoo) for the unlimited movies. However, weird as it sounds, I was quite on the historical theme and conspiracy issues lately, so I decided to watch again Ron Howard's, "Angels and Demons", starred by Tom Hanks, which is an adaptation of author Dan Brown's popular book. Mr. Brown who also wrote "The Da Vinci Code" and "Inferno" is one of my admired authors. I admit, I was (and still) interested in reading science fictions and documentaries tackling about conspiracy theories, catholicism and history. These themes are captivating and sends a thrill to the bones, it makes the readers or viewers analyze and even provoke you to conduct research thereafter. What is important (for me) is that whatever we learn, watch or study, we still keep our values and morality in place. There will always be an issue of sensitivity and morality when it comes to personal choices but ‘respect’ comes in the middle of the discussion. After all, each one of us is entitled of self expression. Watching A&D again on a rainy aftee. #DanBrown #novel #AandD #HD #streaming
A photo posted by Rotsen (@wotzentiger) on Jun 19, 2015 at 2:45am PDT
It is indeed nostalgic to watch this movie again, although I can recall viewing much of the movie highlights and trailers online, about half a decade ago. This movie had so much criticism and blatant prohibition, which I guess just added to the audience adrenaline to wait and watch for its release last 2009.
Summary from megashare.sc states: Despite his notorious relationship with the Church, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is once again called upon to decipher the clues to a catastrophic conspiracy. The Pope has died, and before conclave can begin to determine his successor, the four preferitti (primary hopefuls for the papacy) are kidnapped. An ominous threat of their hourly demise, along with the complete annihilation of Vatican City, is issued as an elaborate revenge scheme for a persecuted group known as the Illuminati. With their meager time limit steadily counting down, Langdon, accompanied by beautiful physicist Vittoria Vetra, must travel throughout Rome to unravel the carefully hidden signs that will lead them to a terrifying adversary, a harrowing discovery, and the shocking truth
My favorite character of the story, awkwardly, is the carmelengo himself, Ewan McGregor. The role as the Vatican’s carmelengo means that he is the administrator of the property and revenues of the Holy See. Formerly, his responsibilities included the fiscal administration of the Patrimony of St. Peter. As regulated in the Apostolic ConstitutionPastor Bonus, the Camerlengo is always a Cardinal, though this was not the case prior to the 15th century, according to the article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camerlengo_of_the_Holy_Roman_Church . He was so good at his role, that it was so convincing. Later towards the end of the movie, its a surprise that he was the villain although he seem to have faked the heroic helicopter jump to save Vatican from undue annihilation. For Dan Brown, as always, I think he wrote a very captivating novel which made it to the silver screen.
On the other hand, Prospect Magazine of UK commented:
One online article says: As a believer in the enjoyably awful, I would recommend this book wholeheartedly if I could. But it is mainly just awful. Nevertheless it is still almost worth reading. In the publishing world they have a term, “pull line,” which means the few words of apparent praise that you can sometimes pull out of a review however hostile. Let me supply that pull line straight away, ready furnished with quotation marks: “The author of The Da Vinci Code has done it again.”, as published in their website: http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/arts-and-books/dan-brown-inferno-clive-james-da-vinci-code
By the way, I am a Catholic, and will always be a believer and follower of the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church-- well, to the best that I can. I watched this movie online through my megashare.sc account, dedicated to free video streaming.
How Snackee has withstood the drastic economic demands and ‘diverse taste’ of Binalbaganons.
Foremost this is a long overdue commentary about my hometown, Binalbagan. I left this town for almost a decade to study in Bacolod (capital), and only went home for New Year’s eve since 2004. Not until 2015 when I resigned from my job as a nurse, and so I had lots of flashbacks of this placed dubbed as “Banwang Panganay” (the first town to have been established by spaniards eons ago). Well, take a look at this picture below. Hello rich kids, that is Snackee. He just happen to have lived a low profile life, while the entire world was busy collecting happy meals and eating chicken joy. In our small town, Binalbagan, much of my childhood memories were contributed by Snackee. He does not only offer snacks, rather, meals and a lot of space to play. Okay, it seems to be a copycat of the famous Mc Do Lacson branch with huge play place in the center. (I wonder where the heck did they dump those colorful plastic tunnels).
Look at Snackee’s face, his hair and nose looks like Ronald’s and his eyes and physique is that of the happy bee, Jollibee. He is happy.
For more than two decades, Snackee is still operational here in Binalbagan. Not that I wonder if who were those patronizing it, but I am glad on how far it has endured Binalbagan’s drastic economic demands. Most of the restaurants here close, or re settle into another place after about 3-5 years of operation. But then, Snackee remained in its place for almost 20 years. Now, we have here: Mila’s (a branch of the Hinigaran renowned buko pie) and also Melting Pot (and I remembered a shooting incident that occurred at Melting Pot beside RMCI, 5 years ago) to name a few. Nevertheless, I am happy of the many more fastfood stores and cafes that sprout around the corners of the town. Indeed, I think Binalbagan has established its silent and resilient mark in the province, amidst all trials it’s economy has faced. Snackee for me is a symbol of resilience. Amidst may competitors in the fastfood business, it has remained operational, discreet and true to its purpose--to provide affordable food. Binalbaganons for me are resilient too, amidst all the trials we encountered, we have kept our faith in God and trust to our individual families. Come and visit Binalbagan, 6107. It's just an hour and a half trip from Bacolod City through the popular Ceres bus, or merely an hour using a private car. Our fiesta is on May 15th, celebrated with an annual Balbagan Festival, and our patron saint is St. Isidore / 'San Isidro Labrador' (the parish church is located just accross the town hall). Snackee's FB fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Snackee-gusto-Ko-Happy-Ka-Binalbagan-Negros-Occidental/220347111439725
