what's been happening..

just a quick update - i haven't been slacking!! seriously!

well - maybe, just in actually writing posts, but i have been making notes, seriously! from today onwards, you'll get a shot of my scribblings, hastily written notes i penned while i was watching a tv show or a movie and after i read a book.. some of the notes probably won't make sense but i'll try to expand on them as i actually write about the show..

so, see? my notebook is brimming with random thoughts, haha.. i can't wait to get them all in..

til then..

TV review: Nikita season 1 episodes 6 & 7

My notes:

- Did Devon kill Nikita's fiance? (ahh! im on a roll!)

- Finally something I think is worthy of a true spy school - pretending that the recruits were kidnapped and about to be tortured to see how far they'd go and what they'd divulge to the enemy.. Something clever from Division, finally!

- Because of the test (which turns out to be not just to test Alex but to test Michael as well), Alex and Nikita almost got found out.. I'm not sure though how they missed that fact that Alex used a payphone outside the gasoline station (they made a point of saying that they've activated her tracker but didn't see her go inside a phone booth?!). Another fail for Division, as usual.. Seriously, I don't know why Nikita is bothering.. From all these lapses, I don't know how Division got to be where it is right now..

- I had a good laugh when Robbie, who was so sure that he'd be the next James Bond, was assigned on guard duty.. Haha! Well, he did snap but it was still funny (Amanda transferred him to the cleaner program instead)

- I think Michael will team up with Nikita soon.. He's starting to grow a pair (finally!)

- I thought Devon will become one of the main cast but after leaving on his own to collect the black boxes, I think he'd just be a recurring guest on the show.. I hope they don't kill him off though, so that he'd always pop in once in a while.. It was really great seeing him and I have Casper recorded on my TV, scheduled as my next blast from the past movie, haha..   

TV review: Nikita season 1 episode 5: The Guardian

Here are my notes:

- Good to see you again Devon! :)

- When the episode started, we see a safe deposit box being opened (heavy door, under lock & key). You'd assume then that since people went to the trouble of renting a safe deposit box that its contents are valuable and therefore if you want to open it, the viewing room should be heavily guarded as well. Right? Right? Well, it seems that in Nikita's world, the boxes are under lock and key, yes, but when you view the box, you're just right outside the main foyer of the bank. What was the purpose of showing us the big, heavy bank vault door then?!

- I noticed that sometimes Maggie Q seems to be more believable when she is acting as Nikita-pretending-to-be-someone-else (reporter, scorned wife, office worker) rather than being spy-Nikita..

- I find it hard to believe that there are no cameras in the recruits' rooms so I was surprised and disappointed that there weren't cameras in the recruits' rooms and so Alex was able to get away with lifting off Birkhoff's fingerprint. In real life spy world, can she do that? Hmm..

- After Alex got in Percy's office using the fake fingerprint, Birkhoff and Michael shows up and I wondered how the computer didn't register that Birkhoff was supposed to be already inside Percy's office (how perceptive of me, right? great pick up, me! :) they entered by bypassing the fingerprint scanner but further down the track Birkhoff shows Michael the security logs showing he went inside Percy's office)

- When Birkhoff and Michael entered Percy's office, Alex had no choice but to hide.. For some reason, she turns her head and the camera pans to the "finger" that she used to gain entry, giving the audience the impression that she saw the "finger" on top of the table. Unless she has x-ray vision that can make her see objects above a wooden table, I don't know how she was able to see it. If you're going to argue that she "remembered" rather than "saw" the finger on top of the table, they should have asked her to act that she remembered something, rather than acting like she saw something..

- They might not have cameras in the recruits' rooms but I would assume that they have cameras in the training rooms. Apparently, they don't. How can they not notice that Alex is always on the computer? Also, how can they not notice that when something big is happening, Alex is always just outside of the window into the control room?

- Sorry Mojos, Devon is looking too good and the action/fight scenes with him in them were well executed that I think I might have developed a crush, hahaha..

- Speaking of black boxes, if you read my previous blog about Percy having leverage (click here), I was proven right in this episode (another yay! for me! im getting good at this, hahaha!)

TV review: Nikita season 1 episode 4: Rough Trade

Without going further into details, here are the notes I wrote while watching the show:

- Sometimes I find Maggie Q not convincing as a spy. I mean, she has the looks and the moves, but sometimes how the lines are delivered throws me off

- I can't believe that noone called the cops or for help when she assaulted the designer in order to get the location of the sweatshop

- Gotta love the action sequences

- Re: Alex, maybe I've read too many spy novels to know that you don't drink something that your enemy offers you unless you see them drink something out of the same bottle or kettle or container. She was sitting right in front of Amanda so there's no way that Amanda would have had time to do something to the cup so you'd know it came from the kettle.. Tssk.. Rookie! LOL!

- I wondered, if Homeland Security asked Percy/Division to deal with Victor and Percy orchestrated Victor's death to pacify his client, why didn't they clamor for Percy's head when Victor turned up alive and well after all that time?! Percy lied to them.. Granted that Percy may have a secret weapon in his arsenal as leverage, but still..

TV review: Modern Family season 3 episode 4: Door to Door

STELLA!!!! Cmon, how is that not beyond an LOL moment?! Oh Cam! You had me at the flash mob scene, then the "I'm breaking the window" scene and now this.. I just love you so much.. Amazing Eric Stonestreet for his portrayal of Cam, seriously!

Aside from this, I was mildly surprised at the relative closeness that the sisters now seem to have.. I know they're close in their own way but seeing them gossiping on the car and talking to each other instead of bickering was nice..

Highlight is always Cam.. Love love love!

Book review: Locked On by Tom Clancy with Mark Greaney

It goes without saying that the book is action-packed and I enjoyed every single page-turning experience.. It was also great to say 'Hi!' again to characters that I have grown to love so much (cue to Jack Ryan Sr and John Clark)..

My thoughts:

- I miss the old Tom Clancy of old where seemingly random accidents would be showcased on a chapter.. They used to make me wonder in anticipation as to how he would tie all those things up in one glorious, explosive finish.. He was positioning everything and everyone, like chess pieces, and then would hit you out of nowhere with a checkmate.. I miss those.. This book feels like it goes into the offensive from the get-go, it's one action sequence after another. It's not that I didn't like it because I enjoyed the book thoroughly.. It's just that I feel that ever since the focus changed from Jack Ryan Sr to Jack Ryan Jr, it became more, I don't know, I guess for lack of a better word, action-packed.. Not that the books of old weren't, but like I said, when the focus shifted to Junior, the storytelling also shifted.. I guess what I'm saying is that the old books had a certain feel to it, a certain degree of poetry in motion instead of brute force..

- I teared up with what happened to John.. I won't go into details but I was heartbroken..

- Jack Ryan Sr president again! Cmon, like you didn't know that would happen when he went back on the campaign trail.. I'm sooo happy.. I wish the focus would shift back to Sr coz he's a much better character than Jr..

- Melanie. I didn't like her because when she was first introduced I knew that she & Jr would hook up and I wanted Jr to myself since it's so clear that Sr and Cathy are for life (hahahaha!). I'm not sure what to make of her.. It was mentioned that Alden ordered her to keep tabs on Jr even after practically getting the boot from the Agency for the brief she's written. Then she started to work for Mary Pat but was still working for Alden. That in itself is enough reason to dislike her.. Then there's the disturbing call at the end of the book.. Who was she speaking to when Alden was imprisoned? Mary Pat? Oh, I hope not.. :(

All in all, it was a great read.. More Jack Ryan Sr, please..

Til then!

Movie review: The Kids Are All Right

I dare say that a movie with Mark Ruffalo in it is worth watching, hehe.. It doesn't matter if he's the lead or supporting or even on a cameo, just to see him on screen is enough for me.. He's just that good, in my own opinion..

The film is about a family comprised of Jules (Julianne Moore), Nic (Annette Bening) and their kids Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and Laser (Josh Hutcherson). Nic is Joni's biological mother while Jules is Laser's. Both kids had the same donor as their father.

At the start, we see that Laser seems to feel that he needs male companionship that a father can provide if he were in a normal family. And so he asks his sister Joni to contact the clinic and ask them for their father's details. I thought that was the premise of the movie, how a child in a lesbian household might try to find a father-figure and how the moms are going to cope with it.. Well, see, it didn't exactly happen that way..

Joni and Laser do end up meeting their father who turns out to be this free-spirited & charming restaurateur Paul (Mark Ruffalo). The initial meeting is awkward but then we see that in the end, it became apparent that Joni liked their father while Laser seemed to lose interest in something that he instigated.. We also see how the kids probably have felt that they have to be like their respective moms, but are really not. Joni tried to be in control like Nic but she hides a rebellious, free-spirit like Jules. Laser seems to be an average, laid-back lad but is like Nic in more ways than one..

When the moms found out that the kids have spoken with their father, they invite him over for dinner where the movie shifted from the kids to the adults. Jules and Nic have been together for so long that everything seems to have become routinary. Jules was starting to feel restless and that she's no longer Nic's priority. I think Jules would have started to have an affair at any point after that and since it was Paul who started to make her feel appreciated and wanted, the two started an affair.

While this was happening, Paul got close to both his kids and realised he's tired of his free-spirited ways. He wants to settle down and he's fallen in love with Jules. The affair is inevitably discovered and because they all needed someone to blame, the family's anger got directed to poor Paul.. I say poor because I felt that it was unfair the way he was treated in the end. I just think that Nic and the kids were too harsh, considering that he's brought about some positive influences in the family. He could have been let down gentler, is what I'm saying..

While there were solid performances by the leads, I ultimately got lost in trying to determine what the story actually is.. Was it a child in a lesbian family longing for a father? Was it about a relationship crisis that most longterm couples experience at some point in the relationship? Was it about self-discovery? Was it even about the kids? I don't know.. Maybe I'm overthinking this when I shouldn't be.. It's just that it felt that there's a lot about this dynamic that could have been developed further but was discarded.

Maybe I was too busy imagining Josh as Peeta that I got distracted and missed the story of this movie, haha.. In my defense, I watched it again and I didn't come up with anything new. Please don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie because while I was confused with the over-all story, the parts I saw had depth and it was quite heartwarming. From what I can gather, there's no need to worry about the kids because they're alright, it's the parents who have issues. :)

Til then!