Rise of the Guardians is an epic adventure that tells the story of a group of heroes - each with extraordinary abilities. When an evil spirit known as Pitch lays down the gauntlet to take over the world, the immortal Guardians must join forces for the first time to protect the hopes, beliefs and imagination of children all over the world.
The spirit of winter, Jack Frost (Chris Pine), describes how he came to be hundreds of years ago, lifted from the depths of a frozen lake by the Man in the Moon, and has been invisible ever since because people don't believe in him. 300 years later at the North Pole, Nicholas St. North, better known as Santa Claus (Alec Baldwin), is alerted that Pitch Black the Bogeyman (Jude Law) has returned and is threatening childhood with fear. After summoning fellow Guardians the Tooth Fairy/Toothiana (Isla Fisher), the Easter Bunny/E. Aster Bunnymund (Hugh Jackman) and the Sandman/Sandy, North learns from the Man in the Moon that they are to induct Jack as their new member. Jack is brought to North's headquarters and they attempt to swear him in. Jack, frustrated by centuries of isolation caused by children's disbelief in him, declines to join. Regardless, North persuades him to cooperate for now by explaining their mission and the looming threat of Pitch.
At Tooth's palace, the team discovers that Pitch has attacked, taken all the children's teeth, the childhood memories stored in them, and all but one of Tooth's baby fairies, Baby Tooth, whom Jack saves. Pitch declares his intention to destroy children's faith in the Guardians in revenge for his own disbelieved-in state, beginning with Tooth, who immediately begins weakening as children stop believing in her. To avert this, the Guardians perform her teeth-collection themselves for the interim, with a promise to find Jack's teeth to recover his previous life's memories. A young boy named Jamie (Dakota Goyo) is delighted to discover them in his room, as he believes in all of them except Jack, which renders Jack still invisible. Pitch learns of the Guardians' resistance and attacks Jack and Sandy; despite Jack's great efforts to save him, Sandy is overwhelmed by Pitch and seemingly destroyed.
The dejected Guardians next rally by helping Bunnymund prepare his eggs for Easter to keep children's belief strong. Although slightly complicated by the intrusion of Jamie's toddler sister, Sophie, the operation goes smoothly through to the distribution stage. Jack takes Sophie home, and discovers the entrance to Pitch's headquarters, where Tooth's baby fairies and the teeth are being held. Pitch urges him to step aside as a neutral party with the promise of his teeth's memories. Jack refuses, and Pitch attacks Bunnymund's domain, ruining the Easter-egg distribution and shattering children's faith in the Easter Bunny.
The Guardians' spirit broken, a despondent Jack departs in disgrace to Antarctica. There, Pitch tempts him to join forces, but Jack again refuses, as he wants to be loved, not feared. In response, Pitch reveals he has Baby-Tooth and threatens to kill her unless Jack surrenders the source of his power, his staff. Jack submits, but Pitch reneges and the resulting fight leaves Jack trapped in a crevasse with Baby-Tooth while Pitch breaks his staff. To counter Jack's despair, Baby-Tooth convinces Jack to unlock his memories, which reveals that he was once a mortal teenager, fun-loving, gentle, and compassionate, who died saving his little sister from falling through the thin ice of a lake and, because of that sacrifice, Jack was changed into an immortal winter spirit and immediately chosen as a Guardian by the Man in the Moon.
Inspired at this revelation, Jack is able to restore his staff and his power. Jack, as well as the Guardians and Pitch, learn there is only one believing child left: Jamie. Jack races to the boy first and not only confirms Jamie's faith in the Guardians, but also instills a belief in Jack Frost, enabling Jamie to finally see him, to Jack's own surprise and joy. The diminished and weakened Guardians arrive to join him as they confront Pitch, while Jamie gathers his friends to support them. Pitch's seemingly overwhelming power of nightmare proves no match against the children's faith, which restores the Guardians' full power to battle the villain. Sandman is resurrected by this belief, and joins the fight, leaving Pitch defeated and children's faith restored, as well as in Jack Frost. Pitch is taken down by his own fear and is dragged back into his lair.
At this victory, Jack finally accepts his responsibilities as a Guardian and resolves to protect the world's children with his new friends as well as spread feelings of joy and fun wherever he goes.
This is a very heartwarming indeed. It gives children something to believe in. Another tear-jerking movie that would make the adults see how important the children's dreams are and how one naughty Jack Frost turns into a hero for all the children in the world!
It's all about believing, giving importance to your friends, and knowing ones center that makes everyone of us heroes.
The most awaited anime to be rendered a live-action movie: Samurai X! I've always been a fan of this anime eversince. I watched all of its episodes and even the OVAs. It has everything! Comedy, drama, action, friendship, revenge, and strong virtues.
There were already rumours about the film that they had no plans of showing it internationally. But that would be unfair right?? Good thing that they gave in and allowed it to be shown in selected cinemas and SM was lucky enough to get the rights. At first, it was rumoured again that it'll just be shown for a week, but since ratings were so high, they had to extend it.
But we made sure and got tickets for the first showing. December 5, 2012 at 10:00AM.
In 1868, after the end of the Bakumatsu war, the former assassin Kenshin Himura promises to defend those who need without killing and wanders through Japan with a sword with inverted blade during the transition of the samurai age to the New Age. When Kenshin helps the idealistic Kaoru Kamiya from the gangsters of the powerful opium drug lord Kanryuu Takeda that wants her school for his production of opium, Kaoru invites Kenshin to stay in the school. But the drug chemist Megumi Takani escapes from Kanryuu and seeks shelter in the school.
Meanwhile the killer Battosai is murdering police officers and leaving messages attached to their bodies. When the cruel Kanryuu poisons the population to get the school, and Kenshin and the street fighter Sanosuke Sagara join forces to attack their common enemy.
It only covered the first arc of the anime. I hope so that another movie would be filmed for the other arcs. I sure would like to see Aoishi, Misao, and even Shishio in a live-action movie! ^__^
Merry just wants to focus on her studies to secure her future, discarding romances and relationships as nonsensical distractions. She wants to get in the toughest university in the country, S.H.U (Super Hard University).
But Life throws her a curve-ball in the form of a mystical object that makes Merry a magnet for everything paranormal.
I already watched this Cinema One original (as what was featured in my My Paranormal Valentines post) last February 2012. It was one of the finalist and garnered a lot of awards during the said film fest. The producers decided to air it again later that year and now they're doing it nationwide. It was a very funny, romantic movie. Again, no dull moment when you watch this film. It's a must see Cebuano pride!
In 1760, Joshua (Ivan Kaye) and Naomi Collins (Susanna Cappellaro) sail from Liverpool to North America. They set up a fishing port in Maine called Collinsport, and also build Collinwood Manor. Their son, Barnabas (Johnny Depp), grows up to be a wealthy playboy in the town. He breaks the heart of one of their servants, Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green), who is a witch and kills his parents in revenge and curses his family. He then studies dark magic to prove Angelique is in fact a witch, falling in love with Josette du Pres (Bella Heathcote) in the meantime. Angelique, in an act of jealousy, puts a spell on Josette, which forces her to leap to her death from a nearby cliff called Widow's Peak. Barnabas runs after Josette but he arrives too late. He jumps over the cliff to kill himself, but Angelique has already turned Barnabas into a vampire before he reaches the bottom. Soon after, Angelique convinces the townspeople that Barnabas is a vampire, having them capture him and bury him alive in a chained coffin in the woods.
In 1972, a woman named Maggie Evans (Bella Heathcote) travels by train to Collinsport, responding to an advertisement to be thegoverness to a young boy, David Collins (Gulliver McGrath). While on the train, she decides to change her name to Victoria Winters, practicing asking the family to call her "Vicky". She hitches a ride with hippies to Collinwood Manor, where she meets Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer), the matriarch of the family, and the families' servants, Willie Loomis (Jackie Earle Haley) and old Mrs. Johnson (Ray Shirley). It is explained that David's mother died at sea and he believes his mother speaks to him. Elizabeth takes Victoria on a tour of Collinwood Manor, which is falling into disrepair. While on the tour, Victoria meets Elizabeth's 15-year-old rebellious and provocative daughter Carolyn (Chloë Grace Moretz). At dinner, Victoria meets the rest of the dysfunctional family: Roger (Jonny Lee Miller), Elizabeth's brother and indifferent father of David, and Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), an alcoholic psychiatrist who had been hired to help David overcome his belief that he can speak to his dead mother, but thus far has been unsuccessful. David appears in a sheet to look like a ghost, trying to frighten Victoria. David talks of his mother speaking to him, and Carolyn calls him crazy, but Victoria states she believes in ghosts. After dinner, Victoria is in her room and believes she sees David again appearing under the same sheet. She removes the sheet, but sees the ghost of Josette instead, who remarks "He's coming", before hovering to the large chandelier in the foyer and falling as she did from the cliff.
That night, Barnabas is accidentally freed from his coffin by a group of construction workers. He feeds on them and makes his way back to Collinwood Manor, finding his once-magnificent mansion in ruins. Barnabas convinces Elizabeth that he really is who he says he is, and asks her of the family curse and the story of how he died. She answers that nobody knows how he died so he explains that is because he didn't. Barnabas then shows her a secret room full of treasures as a proof of his identity. She says he may stay with them under two conditions: that he tells no one else of the riches in the secret room and that he tells no one that he is a vampire, to which Barnabas agrees. Barnabas is introduced to the family at breakfast. Elizabeth explains that he is a distant relative from England and Barnabas explains he has come to help the family restore their business and family name.
Angelique, now a respected and successful resident of Collinsport, soon discovers that he has escaped his shallow grave. She wants to win him back so she visits the mansion and tells him to join her or he will regret it. He tells her he has no feelings for her and she leaves. He discovers that his family's fishing company is in ruins because of Angelique's business, Angel Bay Fishery, and takes steps to revitalize and rebuild the company (and the mansion), gaining the trust of the family in the process. As the Collins' fishery begins to pick up, Angelique calls Barnabas to her office for a meeting, again offering that he either join and love her or she will destroy him and everything he loves. She manages to seduce him and they make love, wrecking her office in doing so. But when they are finished, he says can never love her as he has fallen in love with Victoria, again leaving. Barnabas turns to Carolyn for help as he tries to win over the heart of Victoria but doesn't know how. Carolyn explains he needs to be less "weird" and tells him he should get some normal friends. Later that night Barnabas goes out into the woods with the same hippies that drove Victoria to the mansion. They discuss love before Barnabas regretfully feeds on them.
The next day, Dr. Hoffman hypnotizes Barnabas in a therapy session and he confesses to being a vampire, as well as to the murders of the construction workers and the hippies. She is shocked and fascinated by him and runs to Elizabeth to ask why she keeps such a secret to herself. Elizabeth tells her not to tell anyone else of his secret. Dr. Hoffman offers to help turn Barnabas into a human via blood transfusions. At dinner, Barnabas decides to restore their name by having a ball. Carolyn retorts that they need to have a party instead, suggesting Alice Cooper as entertainment. Barnabas agrees and they throw a party for the entire town at their mansion, at which Alice Cooper performs. On a balcony outside of the party, Barnabas finds Victoria, to whom he expresses his love. She explains her troubling past to him through flashbacks. It is revealed that Victoria was sent to a mental hospital by her parents for talking to the ghost of Barnabas' love, Josette. She is seen getting electroshock treatment as a child, then escaping through the window with sheets years later. They passionately kiss after she says she feels like she has always known him. Angelique crashes the party and sees Barnabas and Victoria kissing, becoming enraged. The next day, Barnabas discovers Dr. Hoffman is not giving him human blood, but taking several pints of his blood instead to turn herself into a vampire to avoid growing old. Enraged, Barnabas presumably kills her by draining her dry and dumps her body in the ocean with Willie's help. He then discovers David's sleazy father Roger snooping around the study, trying to find the secret room. Barnabas gives him a choice: stay and be a father or leave; Roger chooses the latter. Right after Roger leaves, Barnabas accidentally stands in a beam of sunlight after saving David from a falling disco ball and his skin burns. His secret is revealed to the children and Victoria and they are horrified.
Barnabas meets with Angelique that night and refuses her offer once more to cooperate with her to run the town, also refusing to return her love. While leaving her office, he is forced into a coffin waiting for him right outside her door, and Angelique then binds him with chains and drives him to the cemetery, leaving the coffin in a crypt and telling Barnabas she will destroy everything he loves and then come back for him in a few days. Just before driving to the cemetery, she blows up the rebuilt Collins canning factory by reciting a spell. While the fire is still raging, David learns from his mother that Barnabas has been locked up and where to find him. David goes to the crypt and frees Barnabas from the coffin. While the police and firefighters try to put out the fire, Angelique plays a cassette recording she recorded during her last meeting with Barnabas in which he confesses to being a vampire and killing the construction workers, the hippies, and Dr. Hoffman, revealing that the Collins family is harboring a murderer. This turns the townspeople against the family once more, leading them to the mansion. At the mansion, Angelique is shocked to see that Barnabas has escaped. Barnabas offers to be arrested in place of the family, but then grabs Angelique, prompting a policeman to shoot him several times. Revealed as immortal, he then shows the townspeople Angelique is a witch: as he squeezes her, her skin cracks like porcelain. The townspeople run away from the mansion in horror. Angelique sets the mansion on fire, and brings the wooden statues and portraits to life, as well as making blood run down the walls of the living room and splintering the wood of the mansion. Carolyn, who is revealed as being a werewolf (because Angelique had sent a werewolf to bite her as a baby), fights her, but is beaten back. Elizabeth, armed with a shotgun, stands up to Angelique, and David summons the ghost of his mother Laura (whom Angelique admits killing), who throws her into the chandelier. Angelique, her porcelain skin fracturing, literally offers her heart to Barnabas, insisting she did in fact love him, but he refuses, telling her she isn't capable of love and only wanted to control him. Upon being rejected by Barnabas, her heart literally breaks and she dies. Barnabas looks for Victoria, who hasn't been seen since it was revealed that he was a vampire. David tells him that his mother said she is headed for Widow's Peak. Barnabas catches up with her there, but Victoria tells him that they can never be together as she lives in the light and he lives in the shadows. Angelique's spell makes Victoria jump over the cliff. Barnabas jumps off after her and bites her on the way down, turning her into a vampire to save her life. Afterward, Victoria tells Barnabas to call her Josette, and Barnabas narrates that his curse has ended. The film then ends underwater, with a school of fish swimming away from the body of Dr. Hoffman, who opens her eyes, revealing that she too is now a vampire.
A lot of people who watched this movie didn't really appreciate it. They said that they didn't like the plot. One even said that Tim Burton + Johnny Depp does not always work or turn out good. Maybe they just didn't understand the movie or they were just expecting more. I know that this was based from a classic soap opera. Didn't really know the story of the classic series. But the movie was again another hit for Tim Burton, at least for me. I still love how he made the movie. It still had the Tim Burton touch, the weirdness in all of his works. This what I loved in his movies. So still a thumbs up for you Tim! And Johnny as well! ^_^
Sophie, a hatter, is a responsible-yet-plain 18-year-old girl who on her way to the bakery to visit her sister encounters by chance a mysterious wizard. This encounter arouses the Witch of the Waste, who comes to the hat shop and curses Sophie, transforming her into an old woman. As the curse prevents her from telling anyone of her condition, Sophie decides to leave and seek out a cure.
Sophie meets the fire demon Calcifer, who powers the castle and recognizes that Sophie has been cursed. Calcifer offers to break the curse in exchange for Sophie's help in breaking the spell he's under, which keeps Calcifer bound to the house. When Howl appears, Sophie announces that she is the castle's new cleaning lady, hired by Calcifer because he was sick of how dirty the castle was.
Currently, the country Sophie is in is caught up in the beginning of a war with its neighbor following the mysterious disappearance of the other realm's Crown Prince, and slowly the war begins to creep into Sophie's country itself. Howl receives summons from the King, who orders his various assumed identities to fight in the war. However, Howl comes up with an idea to send Sophie, as his mother to announce what a coward he is and that he would be useless. At the palace, Sophie runs into an asthmatic dog, Heen, who she thinks is Howl undercover. She also meets the Witch of the Waste, who Suliman punishes by draining all of her power, causing her to regress into a harmless old woman, with little memories of her past actions. Suliman tells Sophie that Howl will meet the same fate if he does not contribute to the war. As Sophie vehemently protests these measures, the Witch's spell temporarily weakens due to the love in her words. Suliman realizes Sophie's true relation to Howl and her feelings towards him. Howl then arrives to rescue Sophie, Suliman tries to entrap Howl, but with Sophie's help, they manage to escape.
Sophie learns that Howl transforms into a bird-like creature to interfere in the war, but each transformation makes it more difficult for him to return to human form. Sophie fears that Howl is preparing to leave them, as his remaining time as a human is limited, he returns to interfering in the war. Sophie's mother shows up and is actually under Suliman's control and leaves behind a bag containing a "peeping bug" under her orders. The former Witch of the Waste discovers it and promptly destroys the bug by tossing it into Calcifer. Unfortunately, Calcifer gets sick after eating the bug, rendering him unable to protect the castle from being discovered.
A few hours later, the city is carpet-bombed by enemy aircraft while Suliman's henchmen invade the hat shop. After arriving in the nick of time and protecting the hat shop from the bombing, Howl draws the guards away just after healing Calcifer. He tells Sophie he is not going to run away anymore because he has something he wants to protect before leaving to interfere with the war. Deducing that Howl must be saved, Sophie moves everyone out of the castle and removes Calcifer from the fireplace, destroying the castle. She offers Calcifer a piece of her hair to give him strength enough to power a portion of the castle. They head toward Howl when the former Witch of the Waste discovers Howl's heart within Calcifer. Sophie pours water on Calcifer to make her let go of the heart, making Calcifer lose his power. The segment of the castle is split, and she and Heen fall down a chasm.
Making her way toward Howl's heart, Sophie enters through the door into the black region, Howl's childhood. She sees a recollection of how Howl and Calcifer meet: Howl eats Calcifer, who then gains his heart. Sophie finds Howl, having now lost his human consciousness in bird form. They head back to the group, and Sophie asks the Witch for Howl's heart. She gives it to her and places the heart back in Howl, resurrecting him and freeing Calcifer. She kisses the scarecrow who reveals that he is actually the missing prince. Heen shows the scene of their happy end to Suliman, and the war is finally over. Howl, Sophie, and the others are seen high above the bomber planes returning home from the end of the war.
Being a Studio Ghibli film, this movie is really bound to be a thumbs up to me. Based on a novel by Diana Wynne Jones, it was later on adapted by Hayao Miyazaki into an anime. It combines politics and magic and showed Miyazaki's pacifist side. Saw this anime years ago and instanstly loved it. ^_^
17 years old, the summer you can't turn back to...
A stranger's love will look forward…
...while her own love looks back
If she remembers to time leap...
Seventeen-year-old Makoto Konno lives with her family in the Shitamachi area of Tokyo, Japan. Makoto lives with her younger sister, Miyuki, and her aunt, Kazuko Yoshihara, is an art restorer at the Tokyo National Museum. When Makoto discovers a message written on a blackboard at her high school, she unknowingly falls upon a mysterious, walnut-shaped object. On her way home, Makoto is ejected into a railroad crossing when she loses control of her bicycle and is struck by a train. However she is transported a few minutes back in time to before the accident. Makoto learns from Kazuko that she has the power to "time-leap", to literally leap through time. At first, Makoto uses her power extravagantly to avoid being late, to get perfect grades on tests, and even relive a single karaoke session for several hours. Makoto soon discovers that her actions can adversely affect others.
Makoto ends up using up more of her leaps to recklessly prevent undesirable situations from happening, including an awkward confession of love from her best friend Chiaki Mamiya. Eventually, she discovers a numbered tattoo on her arm which counts down with each leap. She determines that the tattoo indicates that she can only leap through time a limited number of times. With only a few time leaps left, she attempts to make things right for everyone. After Makoto impulsively uses her final leap to prevent a phone call from Chiaki asking if she knows about time-leaping, she is too late to prevent her friend Kōsuke Tsuda and his new girlfriend, Kaho Fujitani, from being struck by the train when he uses her faulty bike. But time freezes and Makoto discovers Chiaki nearby.
Chiaki confesses that he is from the future and leapt through time to see a painting being restored by Kazuko, as it has been destroyed in the future. While walking in the frozen city, Chiaki hints that his original era occurs after a worldwide catastrophe destroys mankind. He reveals that he has used his final leap to prevent Kōsuke's accident and has stopped time only to explain to Makoto what the consequences will be. Having revealed his origins and the source of the item that allowed Makoto to leap through time, and being unable to return to his time period, Chiaki must disappear. Makoto realizes too late that she loves him as well.
True to his words, Chiaki disappears when time begins again and Makoto is upset. As she tries to come to terms with losing him, she discovers that Chiaki's time-leap had inadvertently restored one time-leap to her: Chiaki had leapt back to the time before Makoto used her last leap. Makoto leaps back safely to the moment when she gained her powers, at which point Chiaki still has one remaining time-leap. She reveals everything that he told her in the future concerning who he is, the ability to leap through time, and his reasons for extending his stay in her time frame. Makoto promises to make sure the painting stays safe so Chiaki can see it in his time. As Chiaki leaves, he tells Makoto he will be waiting for her in the future to which Makoto responds that she will run towards him.
Added to one of my favorite anime movies. An adaptation of the classic novel, The Girl Who Run Through Time. I'll look for that novel. I'd really really want to read that novel! I fell in love with the characters in this movie. Although most reviews thought that the ending was hanging and left unclear, I loved it. Made me cry. Heheh... Thumbs up! ^__^
