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HBO
"Just our weapons, right? Why are they taking our boat?"

•At last, the King in the North lands on Dragonstone. Here he is greeted by Queen Daenerys's welcoming party, consisting of the Hand of the Queen Tyrion Lannister and her most trusted adviser Missandei. (In modern terms, I wonder who among them would be Daenerys's chief of staff?) The reunion between the bastard and the dwarf is a bit touching, as you can literally feel that they go way back, all the way back to Season 1, in fact.

•Ser Davos, are you hitting on Missandei? She's taken. Although her man has no manhood, so I guess you can pleasure her with your fingers. See what I did there? No? Okay, never mind.

•Why don't Varys and Melisandre seem to get along? I think it's probably because Varys feels threatened that Melisandre might join the Queen's entourage. Since she's a powerful red priestess while Varys is only as useful as the reliability of his spies, if the Queen had to take someone off her entourage, it would probably be Varys.

•Daenerys currently has seven (7) titles. She is Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, 1) rightful heir to the Iron Throne, 2) rightful queen of the Andals and the First Men, 3) protector of the Seven Kingdoms, 4) the mother of dragons, 5) the Khaleesi of the great grass sea, 6) the Unburnt, 7) the Breaker of Chains. Stormborn is probably her middle name, like in her birth certificate, it says "Targaryen, Daenerys Stormborn Targaryen" (as she was a child of incest).

•One has to commend Jon Snow for how he handled Daenerys Targaryen. He acted like a king, yet he did not exalt himself the way Daenerys did. Compared to Daenerys, his only title is "King in the North". He has no claim to his position except his leadership skills, his fighting abilities, and his sense of honour and justice. He's a bastard, and he knows it, yet his social status never stopped him from acting like a king. He was born to rule, and he hates it; the mantle of leadership is a burden for him to carry. But despite the pressure exerted from the side with the huge army and three dragons, Jon Snow refused to bend a knee. The northerners would've been proud.

•I'm probably not the only one who wishes Daenerys and Jon Snow should totally bone. If Snow is indeed a Targaryen, then Dany would be his aunt. On the incest scale, that would be a bit more tolerable than sibling sex (Honestly, all guys have that one aunt they'd like to bang, although I don't know if the converse is true for girls and their uncles.) That sexual encounter would indeed be a meeting of ice and fire. Coincidentally, "Ice" and "Fire" are also varieties of sex lubricants from Bliss. You're welcome.

•Poor Theon Greyjoy. He was rescued from the sea by some ironborn sailors loyal to Yara, but as they hauled his sorry ass from the water, all they could see was a coward. A craven. A pathetic excuse for a man. But like I said in my review for the previous episode, Theon had his reasons for jumping. No one is in any position to judge him, unless they've been through the same things he has. Sadly, no one will ever understand this.

•Euron Greyjoy is my least favourite character in this series. And by that I mean I hate him the most, not that I find him the most uninteresting. I hate him now more than Cersei Lannister, and I think the effectiveness of his portrayal is a testament to Pilou Asbæk's acting skills. Plus, his capture of Yara Greyjoy and Ellaria Sand seems to have turned the tide of this war.

•I think one of the yardsticks for measuring true evil is how one carries out a plan for revenge. Take Cersei Lannister, for example. At first I thought, "What's with the lipstick, Cersei?" And then it turns out it's actually poisoned lipstick, and she kisses Ellaria's daughter on the lips with it. If you recall, that was also how Cersei's daughter Myrcella was killed by Ellaria in Season 5, so there's a kind of poetic justice at play here. This suggests premeditation of the highest degree, and Cersei even goes one-up on Ellaria by dooming her to watch her daughter die and slowly decompose in front of her very eyes. True evil? You bet it is.

HBO
The only one in this episode who bent a knee was Cersei.

•Twincest is back. Hooray. Or not. Wait, who's the maid in the pixie cut? Well, she's not a new character, according to Vanity Fair. She's been serving Cersei Lannister since Season 2.

•Hooray, Mark Gatiss! Another awesome cameo for this season. Gatiss is a good actor, because despite looking like Myrcroft Holmes from Sherlock, his acting here isn't like Myrcroft at all. His character here is very serious, very corporate, and very effective. You can practically feel your loan application getting approved or denied just by listening to the tone of his voice.

•Is it just me, or does it seem like the director forced in a lot of shots overlooking the cliffs of Dragonstone just to maximise the location? It's like, "Hey, get a load of this view! You don't get this everyday! Okay, we'll shoot Varys and Melisandre here, then one brooding scene between Tyrion and Jon Snow trying to out-brood each other, then another one with Daenerys and Jon Snow when she allows him to mine the dragonglass!" They most likely dubbed the dialogue in those scenes, as I imagine the wind from those cliffs was probably howling.

•Sansa seems to have the North all taken care of. She'd make a pretty good Lord of Winterfell, or whatever the female version of a lord is. (Lady of Winterfell? Doesn't have the same ring to it, though.) Oh, and Bran's back. And he has a lot of explaining to do, because apparently his sister still thinks he can be Lord of Winterfell. I wish the Stark siblings would just team up and get Littlefinger out of the picture. It'll be best for everyone.

•Look at Bran Stark. You think that's wooden acting by Isaac Hempstead Wright? On the contrary, he's portraying a character whose brain is fried from too much weirwood use. No, I don't mean as a drug. I mean he's tapped into weirwoods too much as part of his Three-Eyed Raven training that his brain has overloaded. What would you expect from someone who can see the past, the present, and the future all at once? Not even Sansa could handle the awkward weirdness.

•Ser Jorah's greyscale may be no more, but his scars are still a horrible sight to behold. Well, at least he's cured. And I mean totally cured, because Sam even has the courage to shake his hand after that. But enough about Jorah Mormont. Let's talk about Jim Broadbent. Ah, Jim Broadbent... my new favourite character in this series. I love him so much, I even signed up on Reddit just so I could rave about how good he is.

•The Unsullied take Casterly Rock, which is a good thing. But it seems a bit fishy, isn't it, how easily they took it? I would've wanted to see some Unsullied action. Sadly, we won't get that treat this episode, because Jaime Lannister has taken his army to march on Highgarden. Also, damn you, Randyll Tarly. I thought you were honourable.

•Goodbye, Lady Olenna. You're one of the good bitches in Westeros. I don't mean that in a bad way; all the powerful women on this show are bitches. But you're a good bitch. So basically, you'll be gone by next episode, and House Tyrell's coffers will be used to pay the Iron Bank. That doesn't seem like a nice way to go. But of course, you dropped the bomb regarding Joffrey's death, which is a great dick move. The only regret you'll have is you won't see Cersei's face when she finds out it was you who poisoned that cunt.

HBO
Yeah, he's a cunt... but he's my cunt!

HBO
Red Wedding avenged: Check.

•Arya Stark is fast becoming the most fearsome character in this series. First, she's got skills with her sword. Yes, she got beat up last season, but she was blind then. And she was a student of Syrio Forel, so her training is of a higher level than the courtyard steel training of the Winterfell boys. Second, she's small, which makes her quicker and more slippery in close combat. She can probably defeat The Mountain, as long as she stays close. Third, she's a girl, which gives her the ability to slip in and out unnoticed, since Westeros, like the real world, values women less than men. Fourth, she can do face-changing now, although she needs to wear it Mission Impossible-style, unlike Jaqen H'ghar who can change faces in the blink of an eye. And finally, she also has a lot of rage and anger pent up inside her, and all this negative energy is basically her will to live.

•The White Walkers have at least three giants. Three. That's three times the number of giants Jon Snow had in the Battle of the Bastards. Plus, they're undead giants.

•Bran Stark has found sanctuary now at Castle Black, although due to some really bad timing, his sister and half-brother are at Winterfell. Tough luck. And also, Dolorous Edd can totally rock it as Lord Commander.

•Meanwhile, at Winterfell, Jon Snow, the King in the North, shows the Northern Houses his leadership skills, putting all doubts of a bastard ruling over them to rest. He and Sansa need to work on their teamwork, though, as the eldest legitimate heir of Ned Stark has a habit of undermining her bastard brother.

•Meanwhile, in King's Landing, the Kingslayer shatters his twin sister's delusions of grandeur by snapping her back to reality, reminding her that she is queen of three out of seven kingdoms, at best. Cersei, ever the sly bitch, reveals that she has a plan that could give the Lannisters dominion over the waters of Westeros: the Iron Fleet.

•Euron Greyjoy may have command of the biggest naval armada in Westeros, but his character is a douchebag. His mere presence onscreen makes me want to plunge a sword through his chest. I think he is the most despicable character on the series right now. The series needs at least one despicable character at any given time, and that vacancy was filled by Euron following the death of Ramsay Bolton.

HBO
"Come at me, bro."

•Samwell Tarly discovers that life in the Citadel isn't all knowledge and books. There's also chores involved, such as cleaning chamberpots, washing dishes, cleaning chamberpots, cooking, cleaning chamberpots, arranging books, and cleaning chamberpots. He also makes two amazing discoveries in this episode: 1) the fact that dragonglass is found under Dragonstone; and 2) the scaly-skinned Ser Jorah Mormont.

•Jim Broadbent is great as Archmaester Ebrose. He's like that brilliant professor of higher learning who always answers questions in a cocky manner, as if he's annoyed that you even have to ask the question in the first place, but deep inside he's glad that his student's curiosity isn't stifled in the least.

•Littlefinger's moves on Sansa Stark are becoming a bit predatorily creepy, and I'm afraid he might pull a stunt from out of nowhere in latter episodes that would compromise the war in the north. Please, Messrs. Benioff and Weiss. Please don't.

•That sounds like Ed Sheeran singing. It is Ed Sheeran. Oh, and there are actually nice Lannister soldiers? Who would've thought? Also, the guy who made the blackberry wine looks like a younger Stephen Fry.

•I thought they'd already be showing Beric Dondarrion in action, but I guess it's too early in the season for that. I think it's a good thing for the Hound to have joined his group, though. It seems to have activated the Hound's guilty conscience, as he finally makes amends to that farmer and his daughter that he murdered in a previous episode by giving them a proper burial. See, I've always known the Hound's a good guy underneath all that toughness.

•And finally, Queen Daenerys makes her homecoming. She finally lands on Dragonstone, and she looks about her ancestral castle as though it was in bad need of interior decorating. It made me wonder, though, how she had time to get her hair styled and her nails French-tipped while her ship was crossing the waters of the Narrow Sea. The answer: an extremely dedicated entourage.

HBO
Lord Varys obviously got a good tan.

YouTube

Once in a while, a film comes along that creates a division between critics and filmmakers. In 2012, that film was Cloud Atlas─there was no middle ground; you either loved it or you hated it. I, for one, belong to the former, and I think that all the love and hate for the film can be boiled down to one reason: Cloud Atlas is just way ahead of its time. And here are four reasons why.

Cloud Atlas/X Filme/Anarchos
The special effects isn't even one of those reasons.

YouTube

Despite sounding like a movie about Josef Stalin's wife, this is actually about Margaret Thatcher, the first female Prime Minister of Great Britain. And to answer the number one FAQ: Yes, she still lives.


"Yes, I'm alive. And so is my hat."

Seeing Meryl Streep in her Oscar-winning performance made me realize that La Streep, even with make-up to make her look old, still looks very attractive. Also, she can do a decent British accent.


"I can also sing British New Wave songs on karaoke."

This film, however, is quite boring. First, because it makes Thatcher's Alzheimer's an integral part of the story. I'm not even sure she had Alzheimer's, to be honest.


"What do you mean you're not sure?"

Second, there wasn't really any strong narrative. Like, if Thatcher was played by any other actress, I wouldn't even watch this.


:-(

And so to draw in the younger audiences, the casting department decided to throw in one actor from Harry Potter, and three actors from Game of Thrones.

Professor Horace Slughorn
Jim Broadbent

"Sometimes I'm mistaken for Alan Alda."


Magister Illyrio Mopatis
Roger Allam

"Meh."


Viserys Targaryen
Harry Lloyd

"Want a pretzel?"


Ser Jorah Mormont
Iain Glen

"I won't get to fuck Daenerys in Season 2? Why?"


If they altered reality a little bit and featured Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan having sex, that might've drawn a bigger box office crowd.



The Iron Lady. UK/France. 2011.



Rating: Six out of ten.
"No, Miss Granger, I have no potion to improve acting."

(Boo to Claire for not reviewing this despite watching it first.)

They say this is like The Dark Knight of the Harry Potter franchise. I say not really.

Okay, first thing's first. Let's get the adaptation issue out of the way.

This is already the sixth Potter adaptation. Everyone should know by now that the movie is not like the book. There are some exceptions, of course, but as a general rule, do not expect the movie version to be a hundred percent faithful to the adapted source.

So what can I say about Half-Blood Prince? It's darker. Edgier. Less action than Order of the Phoenix, but we have more flashbacks of Tom Riddle, which makes it a treat for fans of the book.

Emma Watson and Bonnie Wright are getting prettier and prettier. But sadly, Emma Watson's acting hasn't improved much. Just a little. She doesn't overact that much anymore. Daniel Radcliffe's acting has improved a lot. And Rupert Grint is always good.

On the adults' performances, Mrs. Tim Burton a.k.a. Helena Bonham Carter is in her element as usual, while Jim Broadbent is excellent as Professor Horace Slughorn. Alan Rickman is still the best. And Michael Gambon tends to look like Gandalf the Grey in a lot of shots. Must be the hair. And the beard. Or both.

This reminds me of something Homer Simpson once said: "No man should outlive his fictional wizard." Which is exactly what I felt when Dumbledore, you know, died.

Again, they say this is The Dark Knight of the Potter franchise. And I say The Dark Knight does not have any teeny-bopper romance going on every fifteen minutes or so.


*some info from IMDb
pic from movies.msn.com


Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. UK. 2009.


Rating: Seven and a half out of ten.
I love all things meta. Like all things musical, I am more subjective than normal with all things meta and I tend to rate it a little higher even if it objectively sucks. But I'm not going to do that with Inkheart. It's not that Inkheart is bad. It's just too disappointing. It has all the things that would make me go pee. Meta, Brendan Fraser, Paul Bettany, and British accents. And because the world revolves around me, they even threw in Harry Zidler a.k.a. Jim Broadbent to make me happy. I thought I would finally wake up and enjoy the movie, with Harry Zidler in the picture, but Inkheart was so mundane that I spent the entire movie in salumbaba mode.

The funny thing is, what makes it so much blah is it's lack of trivial mundane character interaction. Let me explain. The movie starts off with a cheesy narration. Of how a person does not know she or he is a Silvertongue, until it's too late. What is a Silvertongue? Why, it's this person who can bring stories into life. Like real, in a way that the-character-comes-out-of-book-and-your-wife-goes-in-book-for-replacement-now-you-have-to-find-the-out-of-copy-book-to-bring-her-back-because-you-idiotically-let-your-book-burn kind of real.

Yeah, knowing a tad too late kind of sucks.

So, after the narration on how sucky Brendan Fraser's life's going to be, the scene cuts to title and then cuts back to the action. And when I say action, I meant the background music going tun-tun-tuh-duh-dun. Sure, they showed Brendan Fraser with his whats-her-name daughter, being all fatherly and daughterly in the van, before the background music sets off, but that's the only time I remembered they did. All their other interactions after that were I-love-you-dad! I love-you-what's-her-name!

You see, I can't possibly believe that. How can you expect me to believe in love if not for the little things? There was also this supposed sexual tension (crush, whatever) with Farid (a brought to life servant or something of the Forty Thieves), and what's-her-name. But I swear, Dustfinger (a brought to life anti-hero they kept on pointing out was selfish, no wonder he was) love-hates Farid was homoerotic. Yay for homosexuality! Yay for subtlety! The basic rule they tell us in writing class is "show, don't tell." Without subtlety, you're either going to end up too cheesy, or too fake.

But I'm not complaining about the actors. They did well. The characters were cheesy or fake because they lacked a little spotlight. What the movie gives is too much background music telling me that I should be scared, or grabbing my seat in suspense now, or saying "awwww" at the monkey. It's too much action without establishment. That's why even the action failed.

Okay, everything (except the actors) failed. The movie failed. So sad really. Especially for Brendan Fraser. Having this movie after that, that, that... what the hell would we call that Mummy 3? (It certainly wasn't a movie.) I wanted to watch Journey to the Center of the Earth just because he was in it, but Inkheart and Mummy 3 makes me think that Brendan Fraser, as my mother would say, "May balat sa pwet." Basically, I think 2008 wasn't a good year for him.




4/10
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