life's like this - avianto's journal

I have seen the stageplay back in London, UK, 1996. I still remember it as one of the best stageplay I’ve ever seen. So, for those who never seen “The Phantom of the Opera” on stage and want to know how it looks like or want to remember the feeling of watching it on stage, this movie is highly recommended. For those who are expecting to see a “normal movie” might be dissapointed, after all this movie is a cinematical stage, it’s like “Evita”. Afterall both are Andrew Lloyd Weber’s brainchild.

The movie itself is definetely a stage. The set, the act, the music are all stage oriented. The acting may not very highly qualified but face it, this movie is not just about acting, it’s about presenting the old media, the stage, in the not-so-new media, the screen. And I must said that this movie translate the stage beautifully.

The story itself is still the same as ever, even the dialog are based on the stageplay which itself based on the 1911 novel with the same name written by Gaston Leroux. Read the novel if you find the time, you’ll find love, obsession and tragedy mixed beautifully into one intricated story.

Back to the movie itself. It was beautifully made, I have to admit that seeing Joel Schumacher in the director list made me flinch for a bit. This man is famous for action movie and don’t have any musical movie in his repertoir but I put my faith in the man who made the screenplay, Andrew Lloyd Weber himself. It also got some negative review from some reviewer, professional or amateur. It turned out that my pessimistic was not proven. I can see why those people seeing this movie negatively because as I said, they were expecting to see a “normal movie” instead of “stage translation”.

So, if you are eager to see what is the fuss about “The Phantom of the Opera” is all about, go watch the movie. But I have to warn you that this movie is not everyone’s cup of tea. You either love it or hate it. To end the review, I will give you the lyric of one of the best song from the movie, made popular by Sarah Brightman in the original play in Broadway.

Think of Me

Think of me,
Think of me fondly,
When we’ve said goodbye.
Remember me once in a while
Please promise me you’ll try.

When you find that, once again,
You long to take your heart
Back and be free
If you ever find a moment,
Spare a thought for me…

We never said our love was evergreen,
Or as unchanging as the sea
But if you can still remember,
Stop and think of me…

Think of all the things
We’ve shared and seen -
Don’t think about the way
Things might have been…

Think of me,
Think of me waking, silent and resigned.
Imagine me, trying too hard
To put you from my mind.

Recall those days,
Look back on all those times,
Think of the things we’ll never do -
There will never be a day,
When I won´t think of you…

Today in Ottawa. It was as low as -40°C, for those with °F standard -40 is the magic number when °C and °F show the same -40 number. For those who are not familiar with the words “feels like”, just take my words: “That’s the only thing you should worry about”. Never care for the word “Sunny” because if it is sunny outside then it means it is colder than usual, it may sounds strange to some of you but that’s the truth - in the winter, when it’s sunny then it’s cold. Never care for the other number / Read more …

Since this guy already boasted about his name on the q=node/view/8769 "SpreadFirefox News">Firefox NY Times Ad, I am joining the club. So here it is: Great job Firefox team! And to all 10.000 names on that ad, glad to be one of yours! We are making history. So what are you waiting for? Get Firefox! / Read more …

There are movies that have great plots and storylines but the acting are terrible and there are movies that have absurd plots and storylines but the acting are amazing. This movie is the second kind. Ocean’s Twelve is the sequel of Ocean’s Eleven and still following its tradition by casting a lot of A-list actors and actresses. With that this sequel almost got everything, it also have great camera work, great scenery, funny and witty lines, smart jokes and lots of fun moments. But the plot is well, let me put it this way, the plot has a nice / Read more …

It’s been snowing a lot here in Ottawa for the last couple of days. The pile of snow is getting higher and higher everyday. I’ve also been very occupied last weekend. Finishing, polishing and adjusting one of the CIMS’s project before Christmas break. Other than that not much happening. Waking up early, waiting for bus under the blistering snow, working at CIMS until late night, went back home also under blistering snow - not to mention waiting for an hour if I missed my bus for a split second because the bus is only running every hour on weekend… / Read more …

This movie was a rollercoaster. I didn’t put too much hope in the beginning, the original Blade and Blade II are categorized as an OK entertainment flicks, but I was actually enjoyed and entertained until half of the movie and then when I began to feel that a movie was quite promising and started to get excited then things began to move to the awkward direction. This movie started with a bang. Special effects were top notch - especially the burning vampire which is the trademark of all Blade movies, the storyline was promising in the beginning and as / Read more …

Some small changes and fixes on this new “WashOut” layout. You must put your name and e-mail address to comment. Your e-mail address will not be shown and only served as an authentification process. I will not reveal that e-mail to anybody. You can fake it tho, there is no way I could tell the difference but that is your choice and I believe we can trust each other on this issue. Add a small but unique feature: Gravatar. This service will allowed you to have your own personal avatar icon on every comments you have written not only on / Read more …

Thunderbird 1.0 was already released! In the world of absurdly humongous size webmail service like Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, MSN and others, the need for an e-mail client software is gradually reduced. Not only it need to be installed, which mean you have to own or have your own personal computer, it also need to be configured with some wacky POP3, IMAP and SMTP settings. But if you still need an e-mail client software other than the highly vulnerable against virus and trojan e-mail client software called Outlook and its little brother Outlook Express, why don’t you try Thunderbird? It’s already / Read more …

Winter is officially here, It’s been snowing on and off since December 1st this year and around 5 - 10 cm of snowpile until now. So now I presented you with this website Winter Edition, “WashOut 2.0”. Not much to change, in fact the HTML files are not touched at all, neat huh? Some people asked me about my rendered entry title, so this is the trick: I’ve implemented sIFR 2.0RC2. If you want to use it, grab the files at Mike’s weblog and tweak it to suit your need. Enjoy the new layout, hope you all like it. / Read more …

Another out of the blue question about your life. “What were you in High School?”. A jock, a nerd, a brain, a bully, a ghost, a teacher’s pet or? I was a jack of all trades =). I was a vice president for the high school comitee, an active member of photography club, not bad in classes (except for the 2nd year, but who’s getting good marks in the 2nd year and still enjoy high school? grin), excellent with math (I wonder where the hell is that skill goes), always going out partying or involved in car drag racing every / Read more …

Beautiful and wonderful movie. As a long time fan of Peter Pan and a believer of its “Never grow up” philosophy, I found this movie is quite inspiring. It’s amazingly crafted and bring tears to the eyes. Johnny Depp is amazing in this movie, he portrayed JM Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan, flawlessly and really get into the character. The story itself is about how JM Barrie got inspired by the Llewelyn Davies family especially one of the boys, Peter Llewelyn Davies, and created Peter Pan’s story. It told the story by flawlessly blend the reality and the / Read more …

If you were finding a hard time to comprehend “Davinci Code” novel by Dan Brown that this is your movie. It is about treasure hunting, some mysteries, some hints and clues, modern Indiana Jones but based on so-called “conspiracy theory”. Not much of mysteries, in fact. More likes a one big narative from one point to another without getting the viewer into a state where they will asked what is going on exactly. So linear. Not much historical insight also. The action was good, it was a fast pace adventure. It’s a decent movie but I only recommended to / Read more …