MOVIE REVIEW: No Escape

For our next review, we're going to follow this one up with another unusual thriller. One I said we'd watch for the good Asian representation, and that there would be no bloodshed for this one, given that we had just finished watching a different sharp-looking thriller namely, Fresh.

Are buddy-cop movies still a thing? I mean, this movie kind of flirts with the idea — but it’s way too intense to be called fun. It's a Pierce Brosnan and Owen Wilson-starrer, No Escape!

poster from impawards.com

Like any good Bond film, No Escape opens with a high-stakes, heart-pounding scene that’ll have you gripping your seat. But unlike Bond, this isn’t a fun adventure — it’s chaos. There are knives, gunshots, and bodies everywhere. No gadgets or cool one-liners here.

The story then shifts to Owen Wilson and his family, who’ve just relocated to an unnamed Asian country for his job. Along for the ride is Pierce Brosnan, who claims he's there for vacation. Think of it as an aging James Bond meets an Owen Wilson family-man character. It's an odd but interesting pairing.

Soon, things take a turn when Owen Wilson, trying to get the morning paper, learns there’s been no word from his company since their arrival. What follows is a violent uprising by rebels, and before long, their hotel is under siege. Wilson, as a regular guy with no spy skills or charm, does his best to keep his family safe — and his frantic attempts to protect them are as thrilling as they are nerve-wracking.

There are some standout moments, like the roof-deck escape, which is as satisfying as it is suspenseful. And when Brosnan swoops in to save the family, pulling off a truly Bond-esque escape (with the help of his sidekick, Kenny Rogers — yes, you read that right), it’s one of the film's most enjoyable, witty moments.

One thing that really sticks with you, though, is the mantra Owen Wilson and Lake Bell (his wife) repeat as they race to stay ahead of their captors: "We need to stay ten steps ahead." It’s their guiding principle, and it keeps them moving as one — even with their kids in tow. Every time the children (looking at you, Lucy!) made a move that added to the suspense, we were on the edge of our seats, holding our breath.

The one hiccup, however, comes with the ending. The boat scene and the border crossing felt rushed and left us with more questions than answers. But I guess that's how it goes in life-threatening situations — you just focus on survival and don’t worry about the details.

Still, despite the ending, No Escape is a thrilling ride. We’re probably staying away from thrillers for a while though...

Also, Owen Wilson did say “Wow!” at one point. Glad they kept that in. But not so glad about the travel anxiety it’s now given us. After watching this, flying overseas now feels a little too close to a Final Destination movie. Trauma's real.

MOVIE REVIEW: Goldfinger Part 1

We now come to the third Bond film in the official EON Productions James Bond franchise, the quintessential Bond film "Goldfinger".

Goldfinger movie poster from imdb.com

Although many Bond films take it as the best Bond film of all time, I don't. I basically do not like it because of this reason: Bond does nothing in this movie. There is no spying. Yes, he escaped his room and was able to know the plans of Goldfinger, but the film did not require him to do more spy work since he was already in the villain's lair. No need to track Goldfinger down.

Upon another viewing, I came to realize that he did something somehow. It was still him who made Pussy Galore turn to the good side.

The film opens with a pre-title sequence unrelated to the film's story. Disguised in a bird underwater costume, Bond appears and plants a bomb in a drug facility. After doing so, he removes his underwater suit and reveals a neatly dressed white and dry tuxedo. On a party, he meets a woman and is engaged in a fight scene. Not very shocking, right?

Sean Connery as James Bond in Goldfinger from filmforum.org

The theme song of this film was sung by Dame Shirley Bassey in her first calling, She would then sing two more times for 1971's Diamonds Are Forever and 1979's Moonraker. (Teeeeen-ten, tenteneneeeen...)

Bond's mission for this film is to watch over Auric Goldfinger. Goldfinger was suspected to be smuggling gold and yes, he was and more.

Upon meeting Goldfinger, Bond tricked him into losing a card match and on their next meeting, he tricked him again into losing a golf match with him, this time around. This made Goldfinger pissed, even killing off his woman, Jill Masterson as an aftermath of their first encounter.

Just as Bond and Jill finished their affairs in bed, Goldfinger sent his henchman, Odd Job to deal with the humiliation that Goldfinger had. Odd Job killed Jill by completely painting her in gold paint, which led to her demise. Bond was knocked out as he was reaching for the fridge to get some drinks. The introductory scene for Odd Job was quite memorable for me because of the resemblance that it had with the introduction to the series Hitchcock Presents. 

Bond was back in England, in a briefing in M's office. He was told not to make the mission a private vendetta, to avenge the death of Jill Masterson. After a separate briefing with M and the bank secretary for a gold bar, Bond met Q in his lab.

In here was the very first appearance of Q's lab, with very little gags in line with the testing if Q's prototypes. We were also shown Q's gadgets for Bond, along with his new car, the Aston Martin DB5. No invisible cars at this point yet, just GPS trackers, revolving plates, and an ejector seat, along with various insane weapons for Bond to use.

James Bond and his Aston Martin DB5 from fortune.com

Bond continued his mission on a golf course wherein Goldfinger was playing at. They were arranged for a match, and Bond took the chance to use the gold bar to distract Goldfinger into missing a shot. Goldfinger tried to cheat his way to win by having Odd Job (his caddy, too) release an extra ball. However, Bond realized that the ball was a fraud. Bond used it to his advantage by citing a rule concerning the use of different balls in a match. Goldfinger was obviously pissed and realized that it was also Bond who tricked him in Miami.

Odd Job showed off a special skill of him and his hat to scare off Bond.

Odd Job (left) throws his hat at a statue, with Bond (center), and Goldfinger (right) from 007james.com

Bond followed Goldfinger using the GPS tracker that he planted on Goldfinger's car after their golf match. Goldfinger flew to Switzerland along with his car. So did Bond. So did Bond.

While Bond was following Goldfinger in Switzerland, Bond spotted another car behind him. Realizing it was a woman on the driver's seat, Bond snooped in and damaged her car so she would ride in Bond's Aston Martin instead. What I loved in this scene was when Bond tried to show off but the woman stopped him mid-introduction. "My name is Bo--."

Bond eventually talked with the woman and suspected that she was up to something. Later that evening, Bond got in contact with her again as Bond was infiltrating Goldfinger's lair. Apparently, the woman was out for revenge for she was the sister of the murdered Jill Masterson, the one painted in gold. She was also killed by Odd Job after being chased. Bond couldn't protect her.

The car chase was one of the best of the series because of the gadgets used. The Aston Martin DB5 exposed its secret weapons during the car chase, but the best bit was when Bond used the ejector seat on one of Goldfinger's goon. 

Bond using the Ejector Seat of his Aston Martin DB5 from 007james.com

Part 2: https://angelorem.blogspot.com/2019/02/movie-review-goldfinger-part-2.html

Who Did You Become for This Year's Halloween?

Usually, people warn us that we shall fear the alive, more than the dead ones.

They say that the alive can do more damage than any paranormal being can do. Do you find this statement true?

Be that as it may, the question that I want to ask is "Why do we want to scare ourselves?" What bliss do we get in scaring ourselves?

To answer that question, we might have to answer this one first. I asked some of my friends the question, "Who do you want to be for Halloween?" and these were their answers.

One friend answered the evil nun, Valak, from the movies. Another answered being Wonder Woman, while another one answered just being another zombie.

Over the years, Halloween has become a thing not for scary beings only, but also superheroes and generally, any fictional character. You see, it'd be very insulting and offensive to portray a non-fictional character as a Halloween alter-ego.

Superheroes like Deadpool, the aforementioned Wonder Woman, and Spiderman have become fan-favorites. I've also seen movie and TV characters, too, like Sadness from Inside Out, Miguel from Coco and Sansa Stark from Game of Thrones portrayed by the always quirky Joe Jonas (Sophie Turner's love in real life). Soon after, the couple graced the public with their portrayal of Gomez and Morticia Addams from The Addams Family.

Joe Jonas' Instagram story as Sansa Stark from www.winteriscoming.net

The Addams Family from the Daily Mail website

With such observations, I found that people do not generally want to scare themselves. Halloweens have become like some sort of a showcase of creativity and imaginative decision-making with a wide mix of motif and theme, while still having the horror genre as the major theme.

Holidays, in general, are people's escape to their exhausting daily lives of school and work. The observance of Halloween is no exception to that. People take Halloween as a break from their usual selves, and they intensify it with their alter-egos.

No matter who you chose to be, just be sure that no one will be harmed or affected in doing so, only your dignity. Kidding.

Takot sa Takutan

Takutan ba 'kamo?

Ang mga tao nga naman
Hindi na maintindihan
Alam nang matatakot sila
Lalong magtatakutan pa

Manonood ng horror na palabas

Pero paos naman pag lumabas

Paos dahil sa sobrang gulat

Mga mata'y parang ayaw na imulat

Sikat din na tapatan sa telebsiyon

Mga nakakatakot na presentasyon

True to life expereinces daw

Ng white lady, aswang, at halimaw

Isa pang bagong gawain

Ang kwentuhan pagkagat ng dilim

Pero parang kalokohan lang naman

Hindi multo ang gustong patunayan

Dahil ang prowebang pinakita

Hindi multong nagpakita

3 AM challenge na pinagpyestahan

9:40 PM naman pala kinunan

Photo from androidpolice.com

Mas nakakatakot sa aswang at manananggal

Ang mga taong puro na lang atungal

Walang katuturan na argumento

Pinagaaksayahan pa ng minuto't komento

Wag maging manananggal

Sa sarili, o sa kapwa mong mahal

Pero hindi 'yung nakakalipad

Kundi 'yung manananggal ng dignidad

Filipino Mythological Creature "Manananggal" from filipinojournal.cm

Four Movies That Killed Bond in the Pre-Title Sequence

    EON Productions has always assured to us Bond fans that there will be another James Bond film after the last one by stating that "James Bond Will Return" in the end credits of the films. But what they have not assured us is that whether the superspy would be killed or not in the Bond film, not until we reach the end and Bond would be seen with his lady.

Bond's 50th Birthday

    During the earlier Bond films, up until Octopussy, the next film's title is even stated already. Take for example this in the film "From Russia With Love".

Make way for Auric Goldfinger

    Another notable one is seen in the end credits of "The Spy Who Loved Me" wherein the stated next film is "For Your Eyes Only. However, due to the rise of the sci-fi era, "Moonraker" had to rise instead.

Where's Moonraker?

    With that, let's get to the main topic. In earlier Bond films, for some reason, the viewers were always hinted that James Bond - 007 would die in the film. But if you would think about it deeper, why would be the lead character of a rising franchise kill its main lead? Funnily enough, this trend has reached the Daniel Craig era in one of his outings.

    Here are four Bond films that tried to scare us about Bond being dead.

1. Thunderball. 

This is the least effective one in this list. The pre-title sequence starts off by showing a casket with the initials "JB".  However just seconds after, Bond is seen with a girl on a floor above the funeral rite. The one in the casket is revealed to be SPECTRE Number 6, Col.  Jacques Bouvar, who apparently died in his sleep. However, spoiler alert, the colonel is still alive.

"JB" for Jacques Bouvar snapshot from film

2. You Only Live Twice

From the title itself, you can easily think that this movie has a deal with Bond being close to his death. His apparent death happens in the pre-title sequence wherein a lady is shown aiding in killing Bond. Bond fakes his death for a mission. The reveal is made after Bond's "dead" body was buried at sea which leads to the remote MI6 office. 

Bond dying on the job from cinemaviewfinder.com

3. Skyfall

In this film, Bond has to get a file from Patrice containing a list of their agents in the pre-title sequence. The chase leads them into a train and then to a fight on top it as the train is moving. Bond is assisted by a woman agent (later to be revealed as Miss Eve Moneypenny, major spoiler alert!) who eventually unintentionally shot Bond in the chest after being pressured by M to "take the bloody shot". Bond falls and is swallowed down by the waters. Agent down.

Bond waiting to be rescued by Adele's swooning from businessinsider.com

4. From Russia With Love

In the pre-title sequence of this film, a Russian agent is seen waiting for this apparent James Bond.  The scene is intensified by the background music, as they make their way in the darkness of the area. The Russian agent sneaks up and reveals his garrote watch. Upon seeing Bond, he strangles him to his death. The British superspy is now dead! But wait, no. Another Russian agent takes off from the face of this dead Bond a mask. It's just a mask. Relax.

This scene shows to us how far can SPECTRE go just to destroy its enemies. What follows is an equally satisfying film with a great roster of villains.

Red Grant strangling a deep fake of James Bond from cinemablend.com

*Photos are grabbed from the Internet and all thanks are for those who own it. For sharing purposes only. Thank you for understanding.