Sayonara Megamedia II

Top 5 Best Videos Rented at Megamedia

1. The Curse of the Jade Scorpion

An underrated Woody Allen movie starring Helen Hunt (where is she now?) and Charlize Theron (pre-"Monster" Oscar) abour an insurance investigator (Allen) and an efficiency expert (Hunt) who are both hypnotized via a jade scorpion into several jewel heists.It's a boy hates girl, girl hates boy,sudden plot twists later, both love each other in the end. What I like about the movie is the banter between Allen and Hunt that borders on sarcasm and blantant insults. Samples:" It's a match made in heaven...by a retarded angel.", "You better keep your legs crossed", and "Your'e searching my desk!"; I wasn't searching.I was rummaging." I know. Woody Allen got weird after all the Soon-Yi thing but trust me, this is worth the rental.

2. Requiem for a Dream

Based on Hubert Selby Jr's novel of the same title, director Darren Aronofsky shows the dangers and consequences of drug addiction. His depiction of parallel addictions of both mother (Ellen Burstyn) and son (Jared Leto) shows how things can spiral out of control when the mother gets hooked on diet pills and the son on heroin and cocaine. Its very graphic, visceral and raw. It's as if you are there feeling the hunger pangs, smelling the vomit and wallowing in the filth experienced by the characters. Ms. Burstyn was nominated for an Oscar and won a Best Actress in the Independent Spirit awards. Jennifer Connelly also co-stars as the junkie girlriend who sells her body to get some dope.It's not an easy movie to watch but it will be worth your while.

Last 3 movies next time....

Sayonara Megamedia !!!

The Megamedia Video rental shop near my apartment will be closing at the end of September 2006. It will be the end of a very beautiful friendship which I will miss terribly when it finally comes. Their 100 yen rentals on the 5th, 15th and 25th of the month have provided me with hours and hours of sometimes worthile and oftentimes worthless movie watching. As a final tribute to Megamedia and its invaluable contribution to my cinematic taste, I would like to make Top 5 lists for both the best and worst movies I rented from Megamedia.
Top 5 Worst Movies


1. Wisegirls ( 2002) - a movie with Mariah Carey acting...enough said.



2. The Hillz (2004)- a movie with Paris Hilton acting as a dumb blonde was a bit of a stretch even for her; I turned it off after the first 15 minutes of the film


3. London (2005)-starring Jessica Biehl with the tagline "A Film About Love and her victims"; was a noisy drug filled film that pretended to have nobler intentions than just having Ms. Biehl show her breasts for the camera. It was a waste of time and 100 yen. By the way Jason Statham (The Transporter) was in it and was also a total waste of talent.



4. Dr.Zhivago (2002 TV Remake)- starred bony assed-horse faced Keira Knightley in a bony assed,half-baked,pretentious remake of a classic. She should have remade any western movie of her choice and she would have played the role of a horse convincingly.



5. Swept Away (2002)- starring Madonna, directed by Guy Ritchie. I enjoyed the first part of the film where Madonna's character(Amber Leighton) was being a bitch to "Peppe" or what she calls him "Peepee". She nailed it hands down. However, during the 2nd half of the film where she had to convince us that she had fallen in love with Peepee that was the hardsell. Not even Mr. Ritchie's direction could save this movie from literally being swept away (maybe under the rug).


Next time....Top 5 Best Movies Rented from Megamedia

Typhoons away...

Last Sunday, Typhoon Shanshan came barging into southwestern Japan and left at least 6 people dead and whole lot more injured from floods and landslides. Shanshan came to Fukuoka City full force around 5PM, Septemeber 17th. We were on our way home from Church, and all the stores in Tenjin were already closing. Crossing the street to the bus stop, one felt the mighty force of nature propelling you down the street effortlessly. As I got home to Hakozaki, the wind had gotten stronger and was blowing away metal and foliage that it was absolutely dangerous to be out. Well, not exactly the flying corrugated metal roofs (aka "yero") seen in Philippine typhoons but you get the picture. The winds blew and blew till about 12 midnight then suddenly stopped. All was peaceful again. When I went out the next morning, a lot of rubbish was lying around. Even the homeless man that lived near the tunnel was nowhere to be found.Maybe he was hanging on to a tree somewhere...I do hope not though. The moral of the story is sometimes in life, what you need is to get a really good blow...ooops that didn't come out right.What I meant to say was "Typhoons are a bitch and and are messy too."