FILM REVIEW: The Forest

The Forest movie talks about the story of Japan's suicide forest in Yamanashi prefecture.  It s believed that people who visits there never go out alive once they will leave the path.

The story revolves around a woman trying to find her twin sister in the forest after it was gone for how many days.  He then met a stranger and will soon help her in finding her lost sister.  But everything is not quite good as the forest will betray her and use her sadness,

The film's trailer was very good that it can really make you interested in watching the movie.  the cinematography of the film is a big factor in making this a one of sought after movie.  But the movie just simply revolves around finding the woman's long lost sister.  It doesn't give you anything.  Basically, what you see in the trailer, that's already the story and all you need to have next is on how she will do anything for her sister. 

This is another kind of based-on-true-events movies that will never give justice to that label.  I don't find this film appealing to watch, though it has a lot of twists, but it will really leave you hanging.

The film is full of jump scares, but doesn't really work.  So if you're not really into how the film was made, and just simply by having entertainment, you can watch this film, and find out on your own what happened until the end.

FILM REVIEW: Theory of Everything: A One of A Kind Film

RATING: ★★★★☆

Theory of Everything is by far one of the most famous biographical movie for it talks about the life of today's famous theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking.  The movie was based on the book by Hawking's first wife Jane Wilde, Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen.

At the beginning of the movie, it shows you the journey of Stephen being an ordinary student of physics, and on how he tries hard to have a thesis topic.  His friends was able to have their different thesis topics, but Stephen wasn't able to decide yet.

One day, there was a party held in Stephen's area, and that is where he met Jane through a mutual friend.  They shared talks about their life, and even their ambitions in life.  This is where Stephen shares something about the stars, and everything that we can see in the skies.

His professors and friends are already concerned over Stephen's lack of thesis topic, and time might not be enough for him to defend it.  During a lesson with his professor about the black hole, Stephen concluded to himself that black hole might be the beginning of all.  After it, he was able to formulate, and study about black hole as the beginning of time, and make it as his thesis topic.

On his way to school, Stephen was able to slipped and hit his head on the ground.  He was brought to the hospital, and was able to diagnosed with a motor neuron disease, or we know it now as ALS.  Everyday he is already struggling for his body is slowly showing signs, and thinking about the 2 year life expectancy provided by his doctor.  He also limits himself in seeing Jane, who was that time so worried about Stephen.

In the verge of giving up about life, Jane really tries to confront Stephen, telling him that she love him, and that she would be with him until the last day, that they will face and fight Stephen's illness together.

The Theory of Everything is a good film, and this is not basically for science nerd.  Although the first part of the film is boring for those people who don't really understand science, but the movie has a lot of lessons, especially from Stephen.

Eddie Redmayne brings you back to the young Stephen Hawking.  A reason why he grabbed the Academy Awards among other contenders.  Felicity Jones is also a good point in helping Redmayne do a superb performance.

Theory of everything is not just for the science nerd people, this film is for everyone. Too much lesson from Stephen Hawking. Eddie Redmayne's performance was superb. Again, it is not Eddie that you can see in the film, it really was Stephen. Such a great performance for this film. Such a great film. Sadly, Jane wasn't able to fulfill her promise sticking and fighting with Stephen as long as they live.

Paid Surveys at Home: SCAM!

Have you encountered this website called Paid Surveys at Home?  It promises to give you surveys and paid you money when you completed the survey.  They are promising to offer you big amount of money whenever you answer their surveys.  But let us take a look of this website first.

The website has a Clickbank|Trusted Secure logo at the top of their page.  It even have some testimonials from the "real" people joining this survey site and a calculator to try calculating your supposed "income".  Sounds great right?  Wait.  Read more.


This is what you can see if you'll scroll down their website.  It shows you how this paid survey works and how can you earn money.  It even stated that you can make $20 dollar for a 20 minute survey,  That sounds like an easy money.  It's something like $1 in every minute you take a survey/  Imagine taking a survey for an hour, isn't it a big amount of money?  But before that, let's dig deeper.

If you click the Get Started button, it will route you again to bunch of information and testimonials bragging about this company.  It's good strategy to persuade people, but I don't think anyone would like to read the writings that long.

This is the end of the page.  It only need your name, email address, and country and you are good to go.  But is it really good site and legit?  The answer is a big NO! as in! N.O, NO!  Why?  Let us take a look about it.

After you send this registration, they will send you email regarding your account, and they will going to give you some information how you can start earning using your account.  The bad thing here is YOU NEED TO PAY FIRST, before you can have access in your own account.  That's ridiculous! Why would you pay for something if it is offering you a job?  But of course, I want to be fair, so I asked their chat agent and this is what I received.









As you can see, the virtual chat agent is not really answering my question on why would we need to pay a registration fee.  Why would they think of putting a chat support if they just used a computer or robot in answering the questions?

CONS:

- registration fee needed ( paid surveys are usually free )
- NO "real" chat support
- Testimonials are not supporting them.  Seems like it's same testimonials as I saw way back years ago.
- too good to be true payment for a survey.

Overall, I would proudly say and advice to you to STOP just in case you are planning to be part of Paid surveys at home,  If it's too good to be true, then it is not true.

FILM REVIEW: My Bebe Love #KiligPaMore

RATING: ★☆☆☆☆

The 2015 MMFF competition has been very controversial because of the different awards, and for MMFF committee not releasing the rankings of the movies that participated even weeks after the official release.  But one of the biggest controversy for last year's MMFF was the fight between the fans of the movie My Bebe Love #KiligPaMore and Beauty and the Bestie.  I will review here the former one.

My Bebe Love #KiligPaMore talks about a story of two teenager fighting to keep their relationship because of their family having conflict with each other.  Ana (Maine Mendoza) whose father is an owner of a company (Vic Sotto) and Dondi (Alden Richards) whose aunt is Corazon (Ai-ai delas Alas) fall in love with each other and was able to keep seeing each other secretly.  Until such time, Cora and Ana's dad was able to develop a relationship and ends up together.

Vic Sotto's role in this film is nothing new for he always handles this kind of role.  The story concept is not very new to the viewer's and surely, many people will agree.  The film portrays the screenplay in a messy and incomprehensible for it was not clearly portrayed.  It's like jumping from one story to another.  Just like the previous My Little Bossings.  It is guaranteed to make you laugh in a limited time.

Many fans who were able to watch stated that it was very "kilig" and they would really watch it over and over again, but as I watch the movies, I can't say which part is "kilig".  It was merely dull, and Maine Mendoza's acting wasn't that appealing and convincing.  Though she's good in portraying her role, but viewers cannot simply feel the way she acts.

Editing was horrible for a film that's official entry in a film festival.  There are a lot of split screens as if you are watching the Eat Bulaga's Kalyeserye.  Maybe it's their strategy for the audience, but I don't think it makes a lot of sense.  It depicts two scenes in one screen, but it didn't give a justice at all.  I wasn't able to see such type of portraying of split screen before.

One thing, this movie seems like a set of commercial joined together to make a full length film.  It's not bad to have sponsors and include it in the film, but I guess exposure of sponsors was way too much.  It simply adds up to make the full length movie time justifiable.

I don't think this is a good movie, and I don't even think that this is worth your money.  You will end up  asking what happen to the film and not really understanding it at all.  This movie was able to gain more sales because of the AlDub tandem, and guess if they weren't there, this movie will not really sell.

8Share: Earning Money by Sharing

If you're in Philippines Click here to join.

Have you heard about the website 8Share?  It promises someone to earn just by sharing websites and referring friends to join.  This kind of strategy has been widely used when talking about online income type of work, and in today's world, we don't know which are true or not.

Since I will be talking about 8Share, let me give you a brief overview of what is 8Share.  According to their Facebook page and their website, 8Share is a private rewards club for social media users who like getting free stuff, earning extra cash every month, and being the first to introduce something new.  It is where members can get the latest news and share it using their social media, even on their blogs.

So, how does it work?  By the name itself, 8Share is all about sharing.  You will going to choose what "specials" you would like to share.  Specials are the list of topics that you can share.

After you spot the topic you like, all you need to do is click the "View this special" and it will route you to the portion where you can already have your unique share link.

 Unique share link is the one you need to share something.  Through this unique share link, 8Share will be able to know your unique visits.  Unique share link is of course, unique, and is not the same link with the other members' link being shared.

You just need to click the "Get your unique share link" or you can also use icons for twitter and google to easily share the link.

After all the sharing, voila! You just need someone to visit the link that you've shared.  Unique visit is equivalent to Php2.00.  Let's say you will have 50 friends to click the link you shared, you will have Php100.00 just by sharing.

Interested in joining 8Share?  If you're in Philippines Click here to join.

8Share is one way of earning money just by doing what you love :)  Try it now and see how your sideline income grow!

Oscar Nominations 2016

image from google image

The official full list of Oscar Nominations has been released already, Thursday morning.  Some of the nominees are surprising and first time ever to be nominated, some are already veteran nominees of Oscar.  The Revenant movie starred by Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy leads with 12 nods.

Here's the full list.

BEST PICTURE

The Revenant
The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
Room
Spotlight

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Leonardo DiCaprio - The Revenant
Michael Fassbender - Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne - The Danish Girl
Bryan Cranston - Trumbo
Matt Damon, The - Martian

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Cate Blanchett - Carol
Brie Larson - Room
Jennifer Lawrence - Joy
Charlotte Rampling - 45 Years
Saoirse Ronan - Brooklyn

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Christian Bale - The Big Short
Tom Hardy - The Revenant
Mark Ruffalo - Spotlight
Mark Rylance - Bridge of Spies
Sylvester Stallone - Creed

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Jennifer Jason Leigh - The Hateful Eight
Rooney Mara - Carol
Rachel McAdams - Spotlight
Alicia Vikander - The Danish Girl
Kate Winslet - Steve Jobs

BEST DIRECTOR

Adam McKay - The Big Short
George Miller - Mad Max: Fury Road
Alejandro G. Iñárritu - The Revenant
Lenny Abrahamson - Room
Tom McCarthy - Spotlight

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Bridge of Spies
Carol
The Hateful Eight
Sicario
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

The Big Short
Brooklyn
Carol
The Martian
Room

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Bridge of Spies
Ex Machina
Inside Out
Spotlight
Straight Outta Compton

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

The Revenant
Mad Max: Fury Road
Carol
Sicario
The Hateful Eight

BEST FILM EDITING

The Revenant
The Big Short
Mad Max: Fury Road
Spotlight
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Bridge of Spies
The Danish Girl
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Carol
Cinderella
The Danish Girl
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

The Revenant
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

BEST SOUND EDITING

The Revenant
Mad Max: Fury Road
Sicario
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
The Martian

BEST  VISUAL EFFECTS

Ex Machina
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

BEST SOUND MIXING

The Revenant

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

Bridge of Spies

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Embrace of the Serpent
Mustang
Son of Saul
Theeb
A War

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Anomalisa
Boy and the World
Inside Out
Shaun the Sheep Movie
When Marnie Was There

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

Earned It - Fifty Shades of Grey
Manta Ray - Racing Extinction
Simple Song #3 - Youth
Til It Happens to You - The Hunting Ground
Writing's on the Wall - Spectre

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

Body Team 12
Chau, Beyond the Lines
Claude Lanzmann
A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
Last Day of Freedom 

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Amy
Cartel Land
The Look of Silence
What Happened, Miss Simone?
Winter on Fire

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

Ave Maria
Shok
Day One
Stutterer
Everything Will Be Okay

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

Bear Story
Prologue
Sanjay's Super Team
We Can't Live Without Cosmos
World of Tomorrow

FILM REVIEW: Anguish (2015)

theatrical poster

RATING: ★½☆☆☆

Anguish is a 2015 movie that will waste mostly 80 minutes of your time.  It doesn't give you any justice in watching this film.  This film is poorly made.  The screenplay might be good, but it doesn't really give justice to what it's suppose to imply.

Let us define what is the meaning of the word Anguish first.  According to the dictionary, the word anguish means severe mental or physical pain or suffering.  So basically, the name itself explains already the movie.

The movie has a lot of establishing shots which aren't really necessary anymore.  There are also some shots that were put maybe on purpose just to achieve the minimum time for the full length movie.  There's one guy where the camera focuses on him at some point, I waited for what the boy's purpose until the end of the movie, but I failed to find out.  Until the end of the film, the guy was just being focus or sometimes passed by in the camera.

At first it talks about D.I.D, then it talks about demonic possession, then it became like Insidious. You don't even know what it's really all about.  Maybe because it talks about mental illness, but it doesn't really give justice.  It can really make you anguish watching this movie. It's based on a true story, but it doesn't make it any good even with that based-on-a-true-story label.  The horror label wasn't able to be justified.

The last part is the only good thing I find in the movie.  It's where love of the family is shown.

This movie could have been improved.  The story line can be improved.  There are a lot to improve.  This movie is like an experimental movie.