The Wrestler, Bolt Taken by Jig Saw II

hello and welcome to today's show. i'm syigim and i'll be your host. what movies do we have today, mr. khairul? well, folks - tonight we have an oscar nominee, a disney's animation, an action flick and a horror film.

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"the wrestler can really make people cry." so said mr. khairul. did he?

never thought i'd be watching this movie. i was hoping to watch wil smith's 7 pounds before i even decided to watch this one. it's about an aging wrestler. i don't even like wrestling. i would immediately changed the channel if i happened to stumble unfortunately on a wrestling show.

but i did see this one. especially since it was one of the oscar nominees. and for mr. khairul, he obviously wanted to watch marissa tomei. *eyes rolling*. who, i must admit still looks mighty good at 46!

the verdict - a sad fall from grace, downfall of a mighty wrestler. it was not so much of him not being famous anymore - it's the other things we don't see - the relationship fall-out with his only daughter, his multiple wounds after a fight, painstakingly endured each blow and his sad, lonely nights in the trailer.

it's a reminder that with old age, comes mortality. if we're not prepared with an umbrella, come rainy days, we would be forced to seek shelters that might not be there...

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"mak, dog please.." as khaleef watched in awe of a super-dog in action.

i'm nuts about disney animations. i love, absolutely love disney animation - from the super classic 'snow white' to the much anticipated 'frog prince' - disney's final drawn-animation, and its first with an african-american princess. i practically know every single song (i miss my cds - my disney cds were in my kembara when it was stolen..) and would be mouthing the lines as i watch 'em.

oh, must you ask? of course khaleef loves them! he particularly enjoys 'the little mermaid', 'mulan' and 'finding nemo'. he can't enunciate very well yet, but he's already at par with me in the memorising-lines bit. ha ha. and oh, yes. he can sing...

now bolt. bolt is an adorable dog who thinks he's a superdog. it's really cute when he slowly discovers that he doesn't have superpowers. the idea is interesting enough but it doesn't leave an impact as nemo or even the cows from 'home on the range' did. (but chicken little is still the worst, sorry!) oh, miley cyrus is likeable as bolt's 'person' but they can certainly do without the hamster. he's so not funny.

i love the mafia-sounding pigeons. fuhgeddaboudit.

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mr. khairul loved taken. he won't admit it but i guess it's a deep fatherhood thing in him that was stirred up when he watch as a father goes on a solo mission to save his daughter. he had always said that if anything were to happen to me or the boys (simpang!) he would hunt the man down and torture him. not kill him straight away - no, that would be a sweet release of death - but torture him. so in other words, mr. khairul tu perasan liam neesan tu dia la tu...

to me, it was a surprise to see how attractive liam neesan can be in a role of an ex-spy saving his little teen-age girl. the mother and the girl were just irritating - they treated the dad like he didn't matter much (ok, i understand that it's him who were not attentive before because of his spy jobs) but after what had happen, it's still dad to the rescue.

there was this very crucial scene - a scene scarier than ANY horror scenes i've seen before - because this might happen. this was reality. ghost, goblins and boogeyman in the closet won't suddenly come out to get you - but there are bad guys out there in the real world. a scene when the daughter realizes that some men were inside the house - thru the phone, the dad tried to calm her -

"now. the next part is very important." pauses. closes his eyes. "they are going to take you."

liam neesan, as the comforting dad, said in his coolest tone of voice, to his daughter who was hiding under the bed. then he told her she "..had 5, maybe 10 important seconds." for what? find out when you watch the movie...

berdebar-debar! my sis syida too agrees how much impact this scene had on her. you should see the movie just for this scene.

also, the pace of the movie is fast and to the point - instead of lingering on unnecessary scenes. mr. khairul also commented that it was a rare thing to see a car-chase done in a construction site and he applauded the originality.

he really likes a particular exchange of words between the father and the kidnapper - which incidentally was the tagline on the movie poster itself.

Bryan: I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.

Marko: [after a long pause] Good luck.

actually it was more like, "goodde luckcke" - probably you could ask mr. khairul to say it with the albanian accent because he has been doing it every single time the dialog appears as we watched it up to the point of intollerable annoyance!

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yes, i may be ketinggalan already but i really just had my first experience with one of the infamous 'saw' movie series. saw II. sick sick sicko! but daymn the story was so interesting i just can't look away! it's not some empty movie on senseless torture and goriness - it's deep, man. the apreciation of life. solving puzzles. understanding that things may not be what they seem and words may just be what they are, literally..

"..your son, safe and sound.."

the end was so unpredictable for me! like, woah! no wonder it garnered so many fans. it's like se7en but triple the gore.

i don't know what is it about gory, blood and torture that are so appealing in a movie! i guess it's the thought that while the characters are experiencing the horrendous ordeal throughout the movie, oh you, dear viewers are safely snuggled on your leather cushions in your comfort of your home, munchin kacang puteh. no madman here, no ma'am.

my bro-in-law din likes it so much, he watches it up to 'saw V'. five episodes of goriness and filfth! man! my ol skoolmate jessica urged me to watch from 'saw 1', which i probably will since yong's buddy kak lala pun recommends watching from 'saw 1' - however, she did say it got mengarut once 'saw' entered its third installment...

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ok, i'll draw the cinema curtain for now. join us next time as we unfold our thoughts on another set of movies. next change - 'burn after reading'!