9 Orphans Crossing Over with Jennifer

when was the last time i reviewed a movie? ah, too long! when the wombats came last few weeks, they left me a heck of a collection of downloaded yummies for my viewing pleasures!

i watched four to begin with : a dark, quirky tim burton's animation, a psycho-thriller, a drama on racial and immigrant issues, and a sexy horror teen-flick.

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the opening narration of an unknown persona (who's later known as the scientist) set the scene for the viewers, in deep rich voice, sad and tired -

"we had such potential, such promise but we squandered our gift; our intelligence. our blind pursuit of technology only sped us quicker to our doom. our world is ending. but life must go on."

...and so begins an odd adventure of a quirky looking character named '9'. oh, knowing that this has the tim burton's touch, you know how quirky things are gonna get!

he later joined a bunch of equally quirky-looking characters with guni-sack as bodies, stitched clumsily in patches. their bodies also lacked proper attention to detail, or rather, have too many obvious details - huge zipper in the middle, or couple of big buttons, and clearly visible thick dark thread.

as weird as they look, i can almost imagine a huge merchandise deal for 'soft toys' resembling these odd characters. i would like to have one!

these tiny rat-sized 'creatures' survived in a world where humans did not; perished in the 'iron fist of the machines'. they fight cat-sized bird robots (among others) while trying to unravel the mystery behind their 'existence'.

i love animation, and i'm a big fan of the quirky gothic of tim burton so '9' is quite a watch, although non-fans might find it a little long-winded and too serious for an animation. it's your call!

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remember the movie 'the good son' starring a very young elijah wood who's psychologically victimized by a bad-ass macaulay culkin? great acting from both, despite their youth, so convincingly in a film where the kiddos are the bad guys.

in 'orphan', the antagonist is also a kid; and to add to the 'evil'ness - a russian kid! haha...i enjoy her exotic russian accent as she manipulated her way into the people around her, to get what she wanted.

an orphan, she was adopted by a couple whose life and relationship were affected by this unseemly little girl, with unfortunate result.

while the ending to 'the good son' is a shocker (culkin's character's mother was holding wood's and culkin's hands at the edge of a cliff, and didn't have the strength to pull both boys - guess which hand she let go?), 'orphan' also offers an interesting twist at the end, which you never would have guessed...

...and you thought she's just a screwed-up grew-up-without-mommy-and-daddy sort off psycho...

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a very old harrison ford and a host of other 'talented nameless actors' star in this drama about migrating to the land of the free and home of the brave. i say 'nameless' because their pakistanis, koreans, australian actors playing the parts of immigrants or travellers, trying to make it in america.

the movie intertwines the lives of a group of people - some with desirable endings, and some the other way around. they are either illegal immigrants, or hoping for a green card, or simply counting the days when they take their oath to officially be an american citizen.

the movie presents the trials and tribulations of a family that faces deportation just because of a misunderstood high school essay, a wanabe hollywood actress had to 'pay' more than she hoped just to get a green card, a childless woman hoping to adopt an african girl, a muslim family taking it too far just to protect itself from shame, a korean kid who finally learn a lesson in being grateful to be an american citizen -

this and many more tales of struggles of the immigrants, hoping to make it in america. regardless of the state of our country at the moment (political iffyness, ragut, culik budak and mat rempit!) i am very proud to be a malaysian, where i don't feel the need to leave my country to permanently live at a greener pasture.

but perhaps, we could watch the movie, just to step into the immigrants' shoes for a change.

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mr. khairul tak sabar betul nak tengok citer ni. hmmph!

i'm no dude, but even i find her totally irresistably sexy - so i can only imagine what goes on in the mind of guys watching this movie, with lil miss foxy strutting in nothing more than hot pants, or mini teeny skirts and a cleavage that leaves little to the imagination. not to mention the super mengada manja voice of hers seducing her would-be 'meals'!

what? oh, the movie? oh, right. hmm, it's alright. i have to admit there are some suspenseful moments, just because we know something is going to sprang out any second - so i give the movie credit for that.

i love how the cute amanda seyfried turns herself into the simpleton character nerdy needy because in the only movie i've seen her in, she was this voluptuous sexy chick, and one of the mean girls alongside lindsay lohan.

we need more teen actors like her who don't mind starring in a more challenging role that doesn't involve exposing your meat and rely on good make-up!

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i'm looking forward to watch the 'imaginasium of doctor parnassus' - just to see how johnny depp, jude law and heath ledger act in the same movie, and also how they rolled the movie after ledger's untimely death.

well, till the next movie review!