Short but inspiring. I saw twelve movies last weekend. No, I didn't spend twenty-four hours in front of a theatre screen but I did attend two cinema events featuring all the Academy Award nominees in the short film category for 2009. It was four hours of solid entertainment.

A Russian film - simply drawn and animated called Lavatory Love told the story of a washroom attendant who is surprised when flowers appear at her workstation from a secret admirer. The movie made you laugh but it also made you think about what it might be like to have a job in the service industry that is solitary and repetitive. Perhaps the menial workers we tend to ignore and take for granted are actually longing for someone to notice them. Lavatory Love inspired me to smile more often at the women who look after the public washrooms here in Hong Kong.

The popular clay animation characters Wallace and Gromit were featured in a cartoon called Loaf and Death. It's a comedy/ murder mystery showcasing Wallace and Gromit's wild and wacky inventions. I was inspired when I learned that the Wallace and Gromit cartoon makers have worked together with education officials to create a series of innovative design lesson plans for school children in Great Britain. The filmmakers offer prizes to students who come up with the most unique and useful inventions.

Three of the other short films were inspiring and thought provoking. New Boy showed what happened to a young African refugee on his first day at school in Ireland. The Pig was a film from Copenhagen. It documented the conflict between a Muslim man and a Danish woman whose fathers were sharing a hospital room. Toyland told the story of a German woman who daringly saves the life of her Jewish neighbors' son during the Holocaust.

I would be in complete agreement with the Oscar voters who chose the inspiring Smile Pinki as the best short film of the year. It tells the true story of children in India who are given free surgeries to correct cleft palates. The movie focuses in particular on the situation of a little girl named Pinki. We see what her life was like before the surgery and we visit her six months after and realize how a simple operation totally changes her world. Pinki's surgery is only one of thousands performed each year by a charity called Smile Train. It tries to help the 35,000 children who are born annually in India with cleft palates. Most of these children are condemned to lives of ridicule and hardship because of their medical condition. They can't go to school, get a job and can't marry. Smile Train is an American charity that provides free medical equipment, free medical training and on going support to nurses and doctors in 75 different countries. As a result of Smile Train's efforts over 500,000 free corrective surgeries have been performed on children in the last ten years. Cleft surgery takes 45 minutes and usually costs less than $250 US. It is almost always 100% successful. Check this movie out. The story will warm your heart.




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FILM REVIEW: "The Hangover" is something of a surprise, a film that sort of fits the 'silly comedy' genre but somehow does it in a very clever, witty and yes, funny way. The film is a boys' fantasy, but there is much to enjoy for everyone in this caper about a group of guys out on a bachelor party in Las Vegas who wake the next morning to find that not only can they not remember what happened, but they have to find out to get themselves out of the trouble they find themselves in that they have no recollection about. Much of what works in "The Hangover" is the zany, but clever script, which is used to great measure by a strong director and the fantastic chemistry he gets from all the actors involved. Despite a slow and uneven start, "The Hangover" is a lot of fun, and unlike many comedies, has replay value thanks to its timeless jokes and setting.

The film opens with a flash-forward to a scene that takes place towards the end of the film. Phil (Bradley Cooper) makes a call to the bride-to-be that they may have lost the groom. We then move back two days where we see the guys get together, ready to go on their trip. This entire set up, although necessary to establish the characters and their relationships, is the weakest part of the film, thanks to the fact that it is long and sluggish, with only a moment or two of comedy which hints at what is to come and seems oddly out of place with what you are watching. During these sequences, you might wonder if this film is actually going to go somewhere or turn in to a disappointing bore. However, thanks to a fantastic time-lapse transition from night to day, the film leaps over the bachelor party to the next morning, where we see the guys hung over; this is where the fun really begins.

Dissolving to a close-up of Stu (Ed Helms) passed out on the floor, a chicken appears behind him, slowly walking across the frame. The immediate impulse is to laugh as you have to wonder, what is a chicken doing in their Vegas suite? The comedy in "The Hangover" follows this pattern of "what the?" jokes, but somehow manages to up the comedy ante when we learn how these things happen, except unfortunately for the explanation as to the appearance of the chicken. Alan's (Zach Galifianakis) discovery of a tiger in the suite's bathroom is hilarious, as is each manic discovery afterward including that Stu somehow pulled out his tooth and got married to a stripper named Jade (Heather Graham), there is a baby in a side room, they stole a police car, they lost the groom Doug (Justin Bartha), and they somehow crossed both Mike Tyson (who hilariously plays himself) and an effeminate Chinese gangster.

Despite the silliness of the idea, director Todd Phillips and his cast make all of the humour real and engaging, and as such, have crafted an hilarious film. Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms are excellent in their roles as Phil and Stu, but the surprise here is Zach Galifiankis as Alan; his character could have easily become the slapstick comedy stereotype, and his first few scenes suggest that he will become a silly character, but over the course of the film, he becomes quite endearing and three dimensional, as all the other characters do. In this respect, the film stands out over many others in the same genre.

"The Hangover" is great fun, and has repeat value. Although the film's first twenty minutes are average, the film hits high gear by the second act, leaving you wanting more.

TECHNICAL REVIEW: The visuals stand out spectacularly in this DVD transfer. Although the film is a comedy, the filmmakers constructed some wonderful vistas of Vegas that are faithfully represented here. The colours are strong and vibrant, and the picture itself is very clean and crisp. The audio is likewise excellent, again making good use of the surround channels despite being a comedy which traditionally does not create strong surround environments.

EXTRAS REVIEW: There are only a couple of extras on this DVD. The main one is the "Map Of Destruction" which at first is a little confusing because it looks like a DVD menu, but when you realise it is actually playing back a series of behind the scenes clips automatically, it works. Unfortunately the clips are quite short and do not provide all that much in behind the scenes material other than a good section on how cooperative Caesars Palace was to the production. There is an hilarious music video of the "Three Best Friends" song, and a gag reel. Not much here to get excited about.



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With an estimated personal fortune of over 120million, Simon Cowell has achieved the sort of financial status previously reserved for Hollywood movie moguls and superstars. Compared to the mega rich Forbes list of billionaires, Cowell may still be regarded as the poor boy next door or at best "up and coming nouveau riche" but it is nonetheless an astounding achievement for someone who has no other discernible talent than a strong charisma and an ability to spot an opportunity and cash it in. Cowell leads a modern upsurge of the cult of the minor celebrity, a group which contains chat show hosts, chefs, models, and sports stars, and others who have discovered the ability to turn a little talent into a money-spinning machine.

Fifty years ago, you had to be a Hollywood star to make the big bucks in entertainment. Top TV stars and footballers, even legends like Charlton and Best, were not in the running for Forbes List fortunes. So what has changed? Why is it that certain people can persuade us to tune in and watch on high paying TV networks, and part with cash for books and videos when they can neither write nor sing and dance?

The answer is that they make it seem real and possible for the rest of us. By being ordinary and rich, they offer hope and encouragement to everyone watching, no matter where they live, that it really is possible to go from rags to riches in the click of a show host's fingers. Mass media and big business combined means mass sponsorship. The Internet has turned the entire globe into a marketplace with the ability to reward anyone who stands out or who offers something novel with mega-deal contracts. And when real talent comes along, as in the case of Susan Boyle, the machine goes crazy.

When people were powerless serfs, tilling the soil, the real heroes were those who fought for freedom and egalitarianism, the military commanders and the politicians. In an age when freedoms are taken for granted, our only concern is how rich we can become, and the Cowell cult of instant fame and fortune is the new Holy Grail. But nothing comes without a price. Not everyone is a Gordon Ramsay or a David Beckham. Even in the fields of successful cookery and brilliant footwork, Ramsay and Beckham are in the stratosphere. Their peers can only look up with respect. The truth is cult celebrities are not ordinary. Just like other heroes in the past, they possess some intangible magic, either in themselves or in the circumstances that surround them. A lucky break, hard work and commitment, the right connexions, are still just as important as they ever were.

But a word of warning. Though Warhol's fifteen minutes of fame is now a reality, fifteen minutes is not always going to be enough. With high ambition comes deep disappointment, and when hopes are dashed lives are left in tatters. The Internet, super sponsorship, and the new exciting world of reality TV talent spotting, may successfully distract people from their real problems for a while, but in the end "real life" must intrude on "reality".



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From its humble beginnings, cinema has been heralded as a uniquely endowed art form providing an escapist for a socially alienated audience. From a historical point of view, cinema seems to have played the same social role in the 21st century as that of the novel in the 18th century. Filmmaker and writer William Burrough writes, "What has made money will make money." This axiom encourages studios to the tried-and-tested formula rather than experiment with a new twist or a new technique.

Screenwriter Clodualdo Del Mundo Jr., Ph.D (University of Iowa), illustrates the "Filmaking Universe" explaining the inner circle as the mainstream industry, whereas the outer circles reveal for alternative films. "The farther the screenwriter is from the center, the more independent he or she becomes," Del Mundo says.

It is important to know that there are different audiences. The commercial industry already has a niche market but independent filmmakers still have to look for their own audience. Apart from being financed by independent producers and agencies, alternative films can also be sponsored by embassies and screened for festivals (i.e. Cine Europa, Spanish, and Japanese films).

"The idea is not to compete but to make films that the mainstream is not doing. It is important to think of subjects that the industry does not deal with, and look for new and different ways to tell stories," adds Del Mundo. Today's trend also reveals computer-generated films and characters - the Transformer, among others. "It all depends on what one is looking for," he asserts. For the industry, a good film is the one that will make money. The quality of the film is incidental. However entertaining films can also be good."

How successful has the underground art film been as an alternative to the commercial films? Experimental films, which presumably are not concerned with commercial viability, have an entirely different set of criteria. For example, in the commercial films of Anthony Balch, it has been said that the conscious, logical part of the mind is like the tip of the iceberg that appears above the water. What he is trying to do is to jar people into developing an awareness of an area under the water by actually showing them mechanisms of perception that, of course, go on all the time.

"In writing a film, one has to be interested in the project. That is a prerequisite. In my case, I try to write the best I could. I work outside the mainstream so I do not get projects often. However, I have a regular job as professor. In that way, I can choose projects I want to write. My two jobs complement each other."

Certainly, the cinema is privileged for this double adventure of acknowledging and exploring the strangeness of the world. That which takes place in our dreams is infinitely more interesting (because it's richer, less prearranged, more capable of revealing our relations with reality) than the gestures and words, the thoughts and settings, that constitute the fabric of our socialized life. Cinema is an instrument for understanding the contemporary man and shaping the man of the future as well.



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This year was outstanding with the marriages of the hottest celebrities. Are you enthusiastic about the celebrity marriages, explore a few of the hottest wedding ceremony took place through out the year 2009.

Wahlberg married to Durham

August 2, 2009 was the great day when the couples intimate the ceremony with their friends and family. Mark has dressed him with a dark suit and Durham wore the while strapless dress with the diamond jewelry. The new wedding couples have 3 children together, Ella, Michael, Brendan.

Maggie and Peter Sarsgaard

Three years living engaged together the beautiful couples got married in front of their close friends and family. The beautiful couple made their marriage at convento di Santa Maria, luxurious place in Italy. Maggie and peter respect the coming of their brother Jake with her love. Marriage was all set to make it top notch history and memorable.

Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montaq

Both the celebrity was decided to get back their home, Mexico for a huge reception six months before. The wedding place was chosen to church near Pasadena, California. Their arrival with the white rolls and the 200 guests make this marriage a really beautiful one. Bride and groom seem to enjoying each and every moment together.

Andy married to Brooklyn

After two years when the Roddick had his proposal to the beautiful model Brooklyn, they got married in Texas in the romantic event with their family and friends. Brooklyn has had arrangement in the backyard of her home where she has done a marvelous job. This was an outstanding look with the sweet voice of Elton john.

Bruce Willis with Emma Heming

One year of happy dating famous actor Bruce Willis, 54, decided to get marry with beautiful model and actress Emma Heming, 32. There are the vivid sign that they will remain very good friends since his ex-wife was present with her husband at this function. They have 3 children together.

Letterman married to Regina Lasko

It was really amazing and pack of surprises because of the old David letterman, 61 found her love with Regina Lasko, 23. Both have decided to get marry and become husband and wife. The marriage was arranged at Choteau, Montana where they have found the presence of the young child. Harry, 5, was the witness of this complete ceremony and together they have enjoyed a lot. But it was really a very astonishing marriage for the year 2009 and the David's fans.



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