Jack Reaper

At first I actually thought this movie was a remake of those jack reaper movies.

Its not, and it was surprisingly good. 

Its centers adound a killing spree by an ex-army who had history of similar killings, only that it is not what it is. Here comes Jack Reaper who was also in the army - the very person who investigate his previous case and through the evidences knew that he couldnt have done it. 

The movie slowly unfolds each evidences to finally reveals that the motive behind the killings.

My rating: 8/10

I know, I know. I am sooo ketinggalan zaman.

But it does come with a good perk - where I dont need to wait nor pause :))

I am talking about the twilight saga - yes, I have finally been bitten by the bug. Haha. All four years too late. Imagine that..

It started few months ago when my nextdoor neighbor at work gushed about it, she too was like me, a late bloomer so to call, baru nak sibuk discover the fuss of the saga. I still didnt think much of it then, I wasnt much keen on fantasy kind of books/movies, and my biggest reluctance was due to knowing that the word vampire is in it. She however assured me that it is not one that is scary.

And so my curiousity roused - and I wasnt very objectable on the idea of reading the book anymore- in fact I bought two of the series during the BBW (hardcover for RM5 i must add :D) . They however were stashed in my bookcase - on my KIV book to read list, while I happily read my other books first.

Until I was at cousin's house - I had no book with me, and she had the first book of the series. I thought why not, and guess what - I COULDNT STOP!

This whole week I was like a zombie, reading and reading and reading, one after another, like I was racing for a finishing line - non stop. I read till late at night (actually more appropriately morning) and had only few hours of sleep, before going to work, and come back to continue reading. To the extend of masak pun I still read... Like - Pause reading - Heat pot on the stove - Cont read until minyak dah panas - pause reading - throw the fish in - cont reading till time to turn the fish - etc etc.. you get the gist. haha

Soo engrossed I know. My oh My, How I just wished for the last book (I am down to Breaking Dawn already), is done and over with already. Penat!! But definitely satisfying.

OK, now, before you ask whats the whole point of this post, I shall (chewah dah jadi Edward pulak ever so courteous) start with my reviews.

I supposed no need to say -You surely already know the book is mindbooglingly hard to put down - even for me who no longer really fall for the head-over-heels kind of love story. And yes, for the benefit of the non-converts - it is a love story.

Twilight - As it would with most of the best-sellers, the first book usually is the most exciting. When I read it, I somehow could almost understand and feel Bella - like I am her. Her perplexity over Edward's reaction, and her awe with the Cullens. How the book potrayed her being clumsy and prone to all sort of mishaps were very just, and you could just agreeing - no questions asked- how easily she would be among the 'others'. How you could just see why Edward is being so protective over her, and how they just clicked and be each other's soulmate.

The New Moon - It started with harrowing, with Edward leaving Bella in a lurch. Here, for some reason I could not really feel the loss of him going away. Partly because I knew that Edward was coming back -no thanks to the saga being highly publicised and fussed about so much that though I never really followed it, I still knew anyway that he left and came back in the end. Though maybe a tad corny to my liking but still, tt was still nice and all gooey though when Edward came back. I'd have to say that introduction of Jacob is cleverly done, and Jacob is indeed a character that you could warm up to. You know like the 'bad boy' kind of appeal. Fun loving and never cease to bore.

Eclipse - In Eclipse, where differences between Edward and Jacob were highlighted, it had indeed made me question Bella's sanity. Particularly on the fact that the Cullens are generally the cold ones. Its a bit a drawback I'd say, cos Edward is always described as hard and cold (in literal sense of course), and I couldnt help but think - especially on the cuddles - I could not comprehend or in a way accept that this is one of the trait's Bella enjoy. Because I for sure wouldnt be. I mean, when you cuddle what made it nicer or the default expected feeling is to feel warm and fuzzy (in and out)- rather than cold. So that in a sense, kinda throw me off a bit. And Edward's selflessness is starting to tire me. He's like the too good to be true kind of person, too worldly goody. Plus the emphasis on never risking Bella's life was getting a bit too obsessive- in a way that it kind of obscure the out-of-the-world-kinda-love that they have. It made Edward look more like an overtly obedient if not obsessive protector/guardian of Bella, rather than her greatest love. Next to Jacob's funloving attitude (which I obviously prefer by a long mile, as u'd hve guessed), Edward seems like a pale (no pun intended ,haha) option.

The Breaking Dawn - I am just starting. So stay tuned :)

Update: Edward continued to be annoyingly patronizing in the beginning part of the book. When Bella's life is threatened with the child she is carrying, he actually thought of asking Jake to make out with Bella - so long as she will live. I was like, erk... This is too much.. If I were Bella, I would probably have kicked his ass without second thought for even THINKING about it. Tsk tsk tsk... 

Luckily it didnt get any sickening than that, and the story was actually quite interesting. Especially after Bella has become a vampire herself. On how she is adjusting to be humanlike, and trying to remember to fidget.. and sit after standing for a period of time.. Vice versa when she is learning to do things the vampire way, those bits are funny and entertaining to read.

I am also loving the part on Jacob's perspective (part 2). Thanking profusely that it was from Jake's view not Edward (imagine that- must be dull like crazy..).

Though I kinda melted when Bells is already on par with Edward omce she is a vampire herself. He wasnt sooo careful and holding back like a he was before.. AND she gets a blardy ferrari as the 'after' car!!! How i wish..In my dreams..hahahha

On the final part, when Volturi and its entourage came, I was kinda disappointed that they didnt actually fight, and volturi just retreat - after getting nowhere with Bells saving the day. It was kinda dragged a bit, with no action - i am thinking the movie would be a bit dull if they actually follow it to the dot. I mean for book, its ok, but for movie, if the confrontations part stays as non fighting scene, feels incomplete.

All in all, twas a good read. I wished I had read it sooner - but, better late than never ay ;)

I am planning to marathon the movies soon. Tunggguuuuuu...

The Hunger Games

Rating = A must watch!!!!

I didnt expect the movie to be so good, though critics and reviews I read said so. I wasnt expecting it because I dont usually enjoy fantasy fiction very much, but the way this one was written was definitely an exception.

So apparently this movie was adapted from Suzanne Collins book. Since I havent read the book I cant tell you if it was any better than the movie itself.

What I like about the movie was that the storyline itself is different but not too far fetched as some other fantasy fiction. Its also quite focused on the lead characters and dont side track too much on the supporting roles. Usually I hated these kind of movies because they try to explain too much and tries to include stories about every one in the book but this movie did none of that- it stays on with Katniss' journey and Katniss's alone.

And the actress, my gosh, she is GREAT. Jennifer Lawrence did an amazing job in this movie. I think if it was played by somebody else the movie probably wouldnt hold it together well. I am not sure if I have seen her in any other movie though but she definitely now is on my list-of-favs.

So peeps, watcha waiting for.... catch it before the curtains falls!

Oh, here's the trailer to entice you.. :D

Weekend bersedih sedihan

Sungguhla gempak title minggu ini sesuai with the theme of the post today.

Why is it called hujung minggu sedih-sedihan? Because i watched two movies back to back - both the kinds that made my mascara turned me to look scary enuff to be casted in the next pontianak movie. Berendam air mata kalau ikut peribahasa melayunya.
To my defense - it is not sebarang movie ok, these two movies are ones people raved about.. Semua cakap besh giler.. And memang menyayat hati .

I started with Hafalan Shalat Delisa, which is an indonesian movie currently aired on astro first (but of cos me being apprehensive n kedekut donlod fr 'tokey' dvd diopis instead...) . Anyway it was indeed quite a moving one. Wont say it was sangat hebat though, i somehow found the acting was a bit off, especially 'uncle smith' and 'kak sophie' - Ntah mat salleh mana la dia sapu suruh act dalam movie ni.. Nasib baik they are just supporting roles. And nasib baikla smith tu handsome (yeah sungguh tak relevant kan).. maka saya pun mem-overlook the fact yg dia memang tak terer belakon.
Despite that, i thought the movie has good very good values and it brought some repentance in me. Immediately i was reminded that sungguhla tak diligent i am in serving and obeying my Maker.Budak kecik pun lagi bagus mengingati Allah. Masyaallah. Tsk tsk tsk..

So setelah sembahyang thus settling my debt to my Maker i continued to Ombak Rindu.

Its a love story, and honestly, i have mixed feelings on this one. Tak tahulah nak ketuk2 kepala Haris tu or nak ketuk2 kepala Izzah (ketuk kepala yg datin tu takyah cakapla, since dia boleh katakan at par ngan ibu tiri bwg putih bwg merah). But seriously woman, dear Cik Izzah, why oh why la you soooo submissive. Tak paham den. I mean, boleh tak jangan redha sangat sampai camtu sekali? And that Haris, amboi sedapnya dia dah kutuk2 and pukul2 pastu tiba2 nak jadi suami mithali, and at the same time repetitively, i say it again, repetitively hurt the woman u so called cared and love. Yennaadeyyy.
Hurm. So that sums up my mixed feeling. Cos i still bleed with tears sebab kesian. Walopon geram and frustrated tengok kesah chenta dorang tu yang sungguh macam roller coaster. The thing is, i dun understand why they wanted to be with each other. For izzah, he treated u badly, apesal ko tak lari je, or in the first place why did u beg him to marry u, cant u just say u will repay him back by being his bibik or something like that?
And that Haris, yes seb baik ko cute, why the sudden change of mind, from a monster to be a loving partner overnight? In my opinion, the movie should hv shown how Haris gradually fall for Izzah rather than in a blink like that. I was still memaki hamun Haris dalam ati tiba2 he turned 360 degrees and became Romeo of Malaya.

All in all, i felt that the local movie scene is finally re-maturing . Why i said rematuring is because i thought when i was kids local movies were good, like jins samsudin movies - u know the 'esok' series, and somehow it went deterioting in more recent years, sampai tak sanggup nak tengok cos it was too insulting to the human brains intelligence. At least nowadays takdela so bad, like this ombak rindu, though still not to the level of hollywood yet, it is decent enough to watch and the fact that you get carried away ranting and crying with the movie shows that it was pretty good. Sampai masih teringat2 the tracks of the movie which i think is brilliant btw. For those yg belum pernah dengar, do catch em here, seriously it is sweeet

Life as we know it

I am just a sucker for chick movies. For two reasons:

One - They usually feature good looking actors and actresses, and who doesnt want an hour or so of drooltime..??

Two - They usually finish off with a feel good ending. No matter how turbulence a relationship is, or no matter how bad the leading casts' lives are , at the end of the day, everyone is happy and dandy.

The only difference between a good and crap chick movies are the amount of humour you'd get watching it.

Life as you know it kinda bring a fresh storyline, away from the usual girls meet guys at the most unusual place or like work or in vacation etc etc.

It is about two people who could not stand each other's guts, but had to somehow work out their difference and hatred towards each other to raise suddenly orphaned Sophie, daughter of their deceased good friends. Holly (Katherine Heigh) is a good friend of Alison (the baby's mother) while Messer (notice the pun on the name?) played by Josh Duhamel is the baby's fathers good friend going way back in College.

Katherine and Josh made a good pair, plus I have always enjoyed Katherine's movies - so far I have not seen one that disappoint.

As expected, so off they go the unlikely pair (Holly & Messer) trying to fit Sophie in their lives and living together as part of the process.

Both of them could not have been more different, with Holly being an righteous kind of girl while Messer , is a typical playboy happy go lucky guy.

It doesnt take long before Messer loses it and despise the fact that his life is over and Holly being triumphal over her thoughts on Messer - about how unreliable he is.

There were some good emotional scenes as well, like when Holly first found out about Alison's death and when Holly was dumbstruck at Messer's anger about having to care for Sophie.

It wasnt difficult to like both leading actor and actresses and their characters and to see why their good friend had thought that they would be suitable for each other.

Needless to say they both fall in love in the end - and I know it is a good movie when even after the credit rolls, I'd still want to see more.

My rating would be 8 out of 10, err, maybe 9 - if you factor in Josh's smiles and boyish grins..

The Expendables

The expendables to my eyes was just so so. What made it bearable was only because I enjoy watching John Statham.

The movie wasnt so bad, but I wont rate it anything more than 3/5. There are some entertaining part, but I thought the jokes were pretty lame.

The Expendables is actually a remake, but I havent seen the original. So I am not at liberty to say if it was any better or less.

Anyway. Overall its not a big loss if you missed it, but nevertheless if you are already at the movies and you already watched Salt, then just go for it.

Salt

This is actually a belated one. We've seen the movies two weeks back. Been busy and hadnt had time to give a review of it. I still dun really hv time, so i'll keep it short.
I have always had mixed feeling of Jolie. I kinda like her movies, but at the same time I thought she is overacting. So i wasnt really expecting Salt to be very good, more so after seeing the review it just looked like any other flick movie.
Nevertheless i was glad we actually watched it anyway cos it turned out to be quite good. Unfortunately i cant tell u the gist of the movie any more than summarised by the traillers and movie synopsis, cos if i did, then i'd be telling spoilers and it wont be as interesting when u watch it. Anyhoot thumbs up to this one, i'd give it 4 over 5, and highly recommend u see it!

The Backup Plan & Despicable Me

Last week we watched two movies: The backup Up plan and Despicable Me.

The Backup Plan
I didnt have high expectation on this movie cos many reviews rated this movie badly. Having no other movies to watch, we decided to just go for it.

In my opinion, the movie wasnt that bad. I didnt like the beginning part, cos I thought JLo was being over perasan a bit. Granted, I loved how she looked tall and slim in the movie, made me wished I am back in my ol' size..

Thank God the movie moving along for the better as it progressed. It wasnt totally funny, but there are few amusing scenes.

Overall, the movie is quite ok to me. Maybe I'll rate it 5.5 over 10.



Despicable Me
Watched this one last saturday. I still cant quite decide if I liked this movie or not. For a movie classified in comedy category, this one didnt really tickle me. Sure, there were few funny parts, but I thought not enough.

My rating? erm, 4 over 10 kot.

Killers

I was laughing through out the movie, and I have to say this is one of the best Ive seen this year.

Its about a young CIA Spencer who fell in love with the next door girl Jen. Spencer quit his fast-paced life to lead a normal life with Jen. They live happily after
until the past catches up with Spencer. His old boss came seeking for him, and apparently he has a bounty of 20M on his head.



Needless to say all that came as a shock to Jen and all the people around them whom they thought are their friends are actually secret agents or hitman of sorts.

I love the unexpected jokes and the combination of Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl (who are my fav actor n actress) just added to my joy.

All in all, if you are in for a good light humourous movie, this one is a winner.

note:
:) :) still cant stop smiling till now ...

Prince of Persia: The sand of time

I have seen the trailers for this movie for the longest time. I think they started promoting it like a good 3-4 months before the movie officially comes up. Which is nothing weird really. But, the fact that the trailer was just sooo unappealing made me just kind of sick of it already, even without before watching it.

Anyway, so thursday comes, and again, we ran out of movies to watch, except this week's release - Prince of Persia.


As usual, here is the summary as taken from IMDB:
Adopted from the streets of Nasaf by King Sharaman of Persia, young Dastan grows up amongst royalty and quickly earns his place as a mighty warrior and prince. As his brothers Garsiv and Tus plan battle strategies, a spy sends word that the Holy City of Alamut has been supplying weapons to enemies of Persia. Taking matters into his own hands, Tus orders an attack on the sacred city and upon its fall Dastan encounters the beautiful Princess Tamina. When King Sharaman dies under mysterious circumstances shortly after, and Dastan is accused of his murder, he flees with the princess on a harrowing mission to clear his name. Learning from Tamina the true motives behind Alamut's invasion, Dastan must embark on a perilous quest to stop an evil mastermind's plot for ultimate power with a mystical weapon that can control the very fabric of time.

As you can see, it is actually quite an interesting one. However maybe because of the lousy trailer, I really didnt have high expectation of this movie. I was surprised though when I watched it, it was not too bad actually.

I thought the princess could have been prettier (since she was like dubbed as the prettiest thing on earth in the movie) , and I thought the movie could have used less english (I mean it is set for Persia, obviously they dont speak english there... )

Anyhoot all in all, I think it is oklah... a 'can-go' category...

Robin Hood

Last night we watched Robin Hood.

As the title suggests, this movie was about the legendary Robin Hood and how he came about to save England from the fall to the French, set out in the 12th century.

Summary as taken from IMDB:
Following King Richard's death in France archer Robin Longstride,along with Will Scarlett, Alan-a-Dale and Little John,decides to return to England. They encounter the dying Robert of Locksley,whose party was ambushed by treacherous Godfrey,who hopes to facilitate a French invasion of England, and Robin promises the dying knight he will return his sword to his father Walter in Nottingham. Here Walter encourages him to impersonate the dead man to prevent his land being confiscated by the crown,and he finds himself with Marian, a ready-made wife.Hoping to stir baronial opposition to weak King John and allow an easy French take-over, Godfrey worms his way into the king's service as Earl Marshal of England and brutally invades towns under the pretext of collecting Royal taxes. Walter tells Robin he knew his father,a freedom-fighter who hoped to unite the barons for a better society but Walter is killed by Godfrey after a raid on Nottingham. Robin rallies the barons and the king and thwarts the invasion,avenging Walter by slaying Godfrey. Sensing that Robin's popularity makes him a threat,John declares him an outlaw. Thus along with his friends,including his wife and her priest Friar Tuck, Robin joins other orphans and outcasts in the greenwoods where the legend begins.
~~~~~~~end of summary from IMDB~~~~~~~~

To be really honest, I dont know much about Robin Hood at all except that he is usually depicted wearing a red hood and helped others by stealing from the rich to help the poor. So I guess this movie was like a prelude , to show how Robinhood became an outlaw and you can be sure that there'll be sequels coming out soon.

Overall I thought the movie was quite good, I would rate it a 3 over 5 star.

Bounty Hunter

As Rizal has been down with fever and cough, there was not much activity done this weekend, tapi sempat lah jugak catch one movie.

I wanted to see Robin Hood but Rizal dont seem to be excited about it. He was more interested in seeing Bounty Hunter as apparently this one was top of the movie chart list for 2 weeks before Iron Man 2.

The storyline is very simple - it is about a bounty hunter whose current hunt is none other than his ex wife. Just as its storyline, there was nothing spectacular about this movie. Despite its famous line ups such as Jennifer Aniston and Gerald Butler, the movie to me was a flop. It was boring, and both me and Rizal came out of the movie feeling cheated.

So how many stars you say? Hmm.. maybe just 4 out of 10

IP Man 2

Yep, we watched another movie this week. This time its Ip Man 2. I didnt watch the first Ip Man so cant comment much if one is better than the other.

For those who doesnt know who Ip Man is - he is Bruce Lee's sifu. So this movie is actually based on real story - real people.

Ip Man 2 starts with snippets of ending scene of Ip Man, where he was shot by the Japanese. He then fled to Hong Kong and tried to make a living there by setting up a Kung Fu School.

The movie is really about his struggle in Hong Kong, and how he came up as hero in the end. It wasnt really a smooth sailing journey for him to set up the school - Lack of interest , not having enough money, having to earn his status of Sifu by fighting with all other Sifus in Hong Kong before being recognised as one, the list goes on.

Being without money and with dignity, he refused to budge in to the demands of Master Hung Chun-nam who is the richest and most influential Martial Arts Master in HK. The hostile treatment didnt last long though, especially after Master Hung realises what a good man Ip Man is. Their fragile friendship did not last long though when Master Hung was killed tragically defending the dignity of Chinese Martial arts against Twister (who thinks Boxing is better than Chinese Martial Arts). Btw, in this movie - they really potrayed the English as such a bitch, sampaikan dengan me sekali bengang giler with those Englishman okay hehe.

Anyway, Ip Man brought back dignity in the Chinese, when he fought back against the cocky English boxer in a subsequent Boxing match intended to pacify the controversy created with the cruel death of Master Hung. He won triumphly - beating Twister on his face just like how Twister killed Master Hung.

IP Man 2 had all good casts - Sammo Hung and Donnie Yep , who in real life is known for their Chinese Martial arts skills.

Overall I would rate it an 8/10.

Iron Man 2

Its movie night again!!

It feels like this blog has fast becoming a movie blog.. tee hee hee... thats becos I dun really have any other interesting stories to tell + I am so lazy to write... hehe

Anyway, Iron man 2 was released this week. Being a movie fan of course we didnt waste anytime to catch it. As usual we purchased tix online, and can you imagine, it was 90% sold already - whats left was just front 3 rows, boleh? (btw we purchased on Thursday for Friday show).

We watched midnight show which starts at 12:10AM. Dont know recently my eyes just shuts off at around 10 or 11-ish. So during the course of the show, of course I was battling to be awake - at least for the 1st half of the show.

The movie plot is quite simple, its about Iron Man highly inflated ego- and one disgruntled ex-partner of his father trying to revenge by creating other ironman clones to destroy IronMan.. For me, the movie was just okay-ish. I thought the first one was better.

The losers

This is one more comic made to the big screen. You can check out the synopsis from GSC here:
A highly skilled CIA team is attacked by their own agency and left for dead. They set out to learn why they were betrayed, and to avenge the wrong, as well as other injustices they encounter.



For me, it was entertaining. The storyline is quite straightforward, but what made it good is that they have just enough actions and surprises and tricks. So folks if you havent seen it, this one wont disappoint

When In Rome

Okay this is what we watched last saturday...



How was it? It was enjoyable, nothing to shout about though. The main character is darn cute... so nevermind the cliche sometimes ridiculous storyline, at least I get to ogle at the hero's cute face.. teee hee hee...


Uh and guess who I met...:::


MR 3300!! and with new paint... new seats... new tail lights... wow... new owner certainly takes good car of this baby :)

Clash Of the Titans

This is a remake I suppose of the longtime movie. Its not really my cup of tea but then there is nothing else showing on the cinema, so tengok je la

Since I didnt watch the first one, I cant exactly compare. In terms of cast , I think they are all okay. This movie is all about action, takde emotion-emotion nor does it have humour stuff (which would have been my preferences)

I am sure we are all familiar with the storyline, Its about the Perseus the half mortal. He was raised by a fishermen and his wife and never knew his true origins. Until the day after his family was killed by the underworld God - Hades, who were actually creating chaos for humans for their blatant disrespect of the Olympians.

In his pursue to revenge the death of his family, he discovered that he is in fact the son of Zeus the King of Gods, and was asked by the people of Argos to save Andromeda and kill the Kraken. There he goes saving the world by killing Medusa and finally claimed Andromeda.

These greek god mythology never really interests me, so pardon the mistakes or errors in this review. For those who would want to know more about this Greek mythological figures, you could check it out here.
And not forgetting click here if you want a proper review of Clash of the Titans.

Edge of Darkness

As always, I find it difficult to find time to blog about my daily doings. Same goes with this post. I actually have watched this movie last week, but only today I find the time to write about it.

Btw, I have also decided that I am going to just combine my movie blog (which never have materialised in the first place) in here. I have a feeling that I wont be able to blog about ALL of the movies I watch but we'll see.

Anyway last week we catched Edge of Darkness, just the night before Rizal left for Korea. Starred by Mel Gibson, it is about a father who lost his daughter right infront of his eyes.

The movie starts by showing flashbacks of a lil girl playing by the beach. She is Emma, the daughter of Tom Craven (Mel Gibson) who is a senior detective with the police force. Then it snapped back to the present and showed young Emma coming home to dad - taking a short break from work. It goes on showing some father daughter moments. I think the mum has passed away.

It doesnt take long before the movie sees some action. Emma looks sick, throwing up at the dinner table so both of them were scrambling to go to the clinic. The moment they opened the door, a car came by really fast, shouted Craven and shot Emma.

See, I knew from the trailers that Emma's death was to do with something she did. So it was no surprise for me that Tom found out that Emma's death was not because of him (contrary to the police force's theory where Tom was the target and they mistakenly hit Emma instead)

Anyway, as it turned out, Emma was killed because she knew and saw something she wasnt supposed to at the place where she works - a nuclear facility.

I wont spoil it for you and tell you the whole storyline ; basically this movie is about how a father investigates and trying to find out the truth behind her daughter's murder. Whats satisfying about this movie is that all the bad guys got killed, and more so, killed by the disstressed father himself.

Overall I would rate it 8 over 10. Though we know what is the storyline, the movie manage to keep us guessing (of the reason WHY she was killed). Mel Gibson as always is an excellent actor. There were some adrenaline moments, sad and of course funny moments too.
The Verdict: Highly recommended. * Sideline gossips: I wonder why it wasnt making headlines though. Could it be because Mel Gibson's blatant dislikes of Jews? in fact this movie was funded by BBC and some UK based company. Word has it that he was shunned by those big producers in the US becuase of the controversy over his anti-semites outburst... hmm...

Everybody's Fine (movie)

Last night we watched the movie Everybody's Fine starring by Robert De Niro.

Its been a long time since a movie would tug my heart, and this movie did.

It was a beautiful story about how a father trying to rekindle family ties with his drifting children. It had started on Robert De Niro mowing the gardens, taking out the garden tables and chairs, buying the very best of everything from meat to wine to even BBQ pit.

All is set. Then, one after one calls came in from the kids saying that they couldnt make it.

Parent being parent, he decided if the kids cant come to him, he would go to them.

This is where it started to be heart-wrenching. Against his Doctor's order, he went ahead anyway to take the long trip to New York to see his son David. Waited and waited at the doorstep of the apartment, but not a sight of David.
Eventually, he left after leaving a note under David's door.

He then went on to his daughter's. She is a successful advertiser. He arrived but no sooner she is already making excuses for him not to stay. And there of course he observed the heaty moments between his grandson and his son inlaw.

It went on like that with his next stop, all his kids making excuses of not be able to accomodate his stay, and at the same time he discovers all the picture perfect life they painted to him were actually not true.

As a subplot, David is actually arrested for drugs in Mexico, hence why he is nowhere to be seen when De Niro went to his New York apartment; while all his children were like avoiding him cos they do know what to say to him, was also afraid to let slip of David's arrest and was so afraid that they would let him down.

This movie was so beautifully played, as always De Niro is an excellent actor, the movie really potrayed a parent's feeling. Needless to say I was moved to tears at some parts while watching it. Rasa kesian and rindu to Mama and ayah, and at the same time rasa so guilty for not able to be there more often for them. I was silently praying in my heart for Allah to make me a filial daughter, and to make me be one that would always make them happy and feel cared and loved for. Insyaallah

The sad father