My Laptop Desktop

This is my desktop… so far anyway… enjoying my laptop very much… ;P

The Notebook

Based on a Nicholas Sparks novel, this movie, starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, is about an old man who reads to a woman to help her remember her past. She suffers from a disease known as dementia where mental abilities decline especially memory. The story of her life begins in North Carolina where rich city girl Allie spends is spending her summer holiday. She meets Noah, a poor country boy, who ha fallen in love with her at first sight. Initially she rather dislikes the guy but ends up falling for him as well. Soon they became inseparable, spending every waking moment with each other. They were two very different people. They were so different that they argued a lot but the on thing they had in common kept them together, the were madly in love. This start to change however when one day, Allie’s father invites Noah over and was introduced to the family. Allie’s mother dislikes Noah the most because she only wanted the best for Allie and Noah is definitely not. One night, the couple lost track of time and Allie’s parents were enraged. Noah overhearing the shouting match between Allie and her parents decides to the thing he thought best for her and told her that since she was going, it’ll never last. The next day, her parents took her away, back to the city and she couldn’t find Noah. She told his best friend to tell him that she loves him. When Noah got back, she was gone. He wrote to her every day for one year but her mother kept her letters, so she never got any. Noah later joins the army during World War II. Allie volunteers as a nurse and she meets a soldier who was persistently wooing her even though he was hurt so badly that he was totally wrapped in plasters. But after he recovered,they started going out, fell in love and got engaged. Noah on the other hand came back from the war just fine and with the aid of money from the government and his father, he bought his dream house, the one which he promised to fix up for Allie. Then by chance, he sees Allie again, but he sees her with her fiancee and he became heart broken. He put up the house for sale but always found an excuse not to sell it. One day, Allie sees the advertisement he put up with a picture of him and the house, and she decides to go see him. She later finds out that he never gave up on her and they were still obviously in love with her. In the end she decided to go back to Noah… This is when the old woman came to remember her life and she recognized the man reading to her as Noah.They spend a few minutes together but then she lost her memory again. It was heartbreaking for Noah who really did not want to give up on her. One night he went to visit her in her room and by some miracle, she recognized him. The next day, the nurse in charge of looking after Allie find the two together, hand held and dead, together. It’s quite a touching story really. A true love story. The movie itself was quite good, not too boring. I recommend you watch it if you are a romantic or love love stories… Cheers…

All Aboard The Polar Express

I’m sure most of you have heard about this film already… and I’m actually pretty slow… I had been meaning to watch it ever since I got back from London but I didn’t have the time… Anyway… this animated movie stars Tom Hanks and the great thing about the movie is that even though it is animated, the guy looks exactly like Tom Hanks… hahahaha!!! So what’s the movie about? It’s about this little boy who had a serious dilemma whether or not to still believe in Christmas… On Christmas eve, the little boy awoke to some rustling sound thinking it was santa but he soon finds himself getting about The Polar Express, a train that goes to the North Pole… on the way there the magical train gets into some trouble but of course they manage to get pass these troubles and get safely to the North Pole. The other children on The Polar Express were brought there as a lesson for all their doubts and morality. Anyway, the little boy finds himself believing again and in the end he meets Santa… I think the movie has a good soundtrack and is itself a good Christmas movie… Nice and simple with a simple message as well… simple but very original… but all in all it’s quite a good animated movie… My recommendation is to watch it for Christmas only… Cheers…

A Series Of Unfortunate Events – Book 7: The Vile Village

Count Olaf’s Disguise: Detective Dupin

Situation: The children go off to V.F.D (Village Of Fowl Devotees) where the aphorism is “It Takes A Village To Raise A Child”. They picked to go to the village because V.F.D was the last clue the Quagmire triplets have left for the Baudelaire children. However this crazy village was run by a council of elders and they force the children to do horrible chores for the WHOLE town. As they had hoped, they indeed started getting clues of where the Quagmire triplets were. Everyday they would get a coupling written by Isadora Quagmire leaving them clues of where to find the Quagmires. One day, there news of the capture of Count Olaf. However, it turned out that this man was not Count Olaf but he had the same distinct one eye brow and a tattoo of an eye on his left ankle. It turns out that the man knew the Baudelaire parents but could not get the message to the children before he was murdered. Then with the arrival of Detective Dupin, the children were accused of killing the mystery man and were thrown in jail. Luckily, the children managed to escape and found their friends. It wasn’t before long that the village found out and caught up with the children. The Quagmires managed to get away but not the Baudelaires. But by a stroke of luck, Count Olaf’s identity was revealed…

Ending: A bad one

The Aviator

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett and Kate Beckinsale, directed by Martin Scorsese. Howard Hughes (DiCaprio) is an eccentric billionaire industrialist and hollywood film mogul, and is also a playboy. He became a millionaire at only 18 years. This is basically a biopic of Howard Hughes. It starts off showing Hughes as a visionary and genius who redefined film making and aviation. But there is one thing seriously wrong with him, he is an obsessive germaphobe. He dreams of the fastest, biggest, craziest aircraft and spends every cent of his money making them come true. And because of all these obsessions, the general public view him as a lunatic and he becomes a laughing stork. This is even more so after the war ended and his planes became of no use. During the test flight, the plane crashed and he was seriously injured, physically, financially and worst of all mentally. After that, the US government unleashes a lawsuit against him, claiming that he cheated the government and the people of 56 million dollars because he did not delivered any functional one. The truth was that the senator in charge was ‘bribed’ by the owner of Pam Am the biggest aviation company at the time. With his wit in his hand and also ‘evidence’ against the senator’s biasness he some what won the trial. It seemed like things have taken a turn for the better especially after his greatest creation the ‘Hercules’, the biggest aircraft ever made at the time managed to take flight. But in the end, he still went mad. The movie itself was not bad, I’m not too big a fan of biopics. But the actors gave a good performance. I personally think Leonardo DiCaprio gave an outstanding performance like he often does even though I don’t really like him all that much and Cate Blanchett did a great work as Katherine Hepburn. Overall I rate this a good movie, most probably an award winning one. Watch it but I won’t guarantee that you’ll like it… Cheers…

National Treasure

A Disney production and seems to be not very popular among the people… Starring Nicholas Cage, Harvey Keitel, Jon Voight, Diane Kruger, Sean Bean and Justin Bartha. Anyway, the story is about a legend about a huge pile of hidden treasure which was guarded by a secret society whose members, over the years, included the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. This secret was passed down to the Gates family and the current youngest generation was Benjamin Franklin Gates (Cage). He was told the legend when he was a young boy by his grandfather. Ever since he was obsessed or passionate as he would like to call it, about finding this treasure… Many years later, he sets out to find the first clue, “The Secret Lies Within Charlotte”… He teams up with Ian Howe (Bean) a rich man with lots of resources. But after they find the next clue which involves the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin decides to pull out but Ian refused to. This lead to Ian trying to kill Benjamin. Thankfully but not surprisingly, Benjamin survives, otherwise the movie would just end there. Anyway, in order to stop Ian, Benjamin’s only choice was to steal the declaration. Actually it was his only choice because everyone else with the power to stop it did not want to listen mainly because they thought he was a lunatic. Anyway, he did manage to get it but unfortunately the declaration came with some trouble, in the form of Dr. Abigail Chase, the person in charge of the museum in which the declaration was stored. Anyway, from one clue to another, Benjamin manages to get ahead of Ian, until of course the time when the evil guy always manages to get the good guy. Anyway, Benjamin was captured by the FBI but they made a deal where he helps them capture Ian first. However, he manages to get away and reunite with his assistant and Dr. Chase whom had join their alliance and also had obviously fallen for him. But still the bad guys have the upper hand since they had capture Benjamin’s father. After that they were brought to the last place, the resting place of the treasure. When they got there, however, they met with a dead end. Believing that Benjamin had the next clue, Ian forced him to tell him where the treasure really was. Benjamin and his father manages to trick them and after they supposedly left the good guys to die, Benjamin and his crew finds the treasure. Well in the end, being the good guy of course, they believe that the treasure should not be owned by any one man and so they decided that the best way was to split it to their respective countries, where the treasure were claimed and put them on display. They of course got their share as well and Benjamin being the leading man, naturally got the girl. The end. Well it was an ok story. Quite cool the way they made all the things that already exists into clue that lead to the treasure… but the movie itself wasn’t that entertaining… I would say watch it if you have time but don’t waste your money if you don’t like The Mummy. It’s not nearly as exciting… Cheers…

A Series Of Unfortunate Events – Book 6: The Ersatz Elevator

Count Olaf’s Disguise: Gunther (An ‘In’ auctioneer)

Situation: The children are again in the care of new guardians, Jerome and Esme Squalor (Jerome was a friend of their mother’s). The couple was rich. The lived in a penthouse with 71 bedrooms and an assortment of other rooms like living rooms, sitting rooms, standing rooms, dining rooms, breakfast rooms, snack rooms, ballrooms, bath rooms, kitchens and rooms with no use at all. Count Olaf appears as the auctioneer in charge of the ‘In’ auction’ annually held by Esme Squalor. The plan was not really aimed at the Baudelaire children but rather to smuggle their good friends, the Quagmire triplets that he had kidnapped when they were at boarding school…

Ending: A bad one

A Series Of Unfortunate Events – Book 5: The Austere Academy

Count Olaf’s Disguise: Coach Genghis (A coach in Prufrock Preparatory School)

Situation: The children are now placed in a boarding school. They meet two good friends, Duncan & Isadora Quagmire (The Quagmires were triplets but their brother, Quigley, died in a fire which also claimed their parents, just like the Baudelaires). The Quagmires were also left a huge fortune. Coach Genghis picks the Baudelaire children to be his ‘trainees’. He makes them do laps every night non-stop until dawn which they then had to attend classes or do their jobs. The plan was to get the children so tired that they will be expelled…

Ending: A bad one