Movie: The Ring of the Nibelungsa.k.a. Kingdom in Twilighta.k.a. Curse of the Ringa.k.a. The Sword of Xanten

	Distributor:	Columbia Tristar
	Release:	2004
	Genre:	Drama, Action, Adventure, Fantasy
	MPAA Rating:	PG-13 for some intense action violence and brief sexuality/nudity

When a movie is being promoted in relation to a very popular movie with the same theme, the words "rip-off", "cashing in", and "expect to be disappointed" flash through my mind.

So, when this movie was being promoted as the story that influenced Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, I had second thoughts about watching it. I finally did - not because I liked Lord of the Rings, but I had read of the stories of Siegfried when I was in grade school, way before I read Lord of the Rings (which I read when I was already in my 20s).

As it turned out, it is a good way to spend about two hours while munching popcorn. The costumes, settings and props were okay; the story tried to stick to its literary source; and the acting wasn't bad (Loken's Brunhild is a warrior woman, so once more, we have the stern face most of the time).

The story was different from what I remembered reading. That's because I read of the Siegfried in the Volsunga Saga, while this is largely based on the Nibelungenlied version. No Brunhild surrounded by fire here, but Siegfried still kills a dragon, falls in love with two women (when I was a kid, I would have trouble remembering which "hild" is what woman in the middle of the story, hehehe!), and the story ends in tragedy.

As in Terminator 3, Kristanna Loken does a lot of stunts and has a nude scene. At least you hear her speak and you see some emotion on her face in this movie.

Furmann played Siegfried in a way that we can relate to the tragic hero in the books as a human like us... who just happens to have more powers than ordinary mortals. Witt played Kriemhild as a beautiful young woman who, although she isn't "evil", was willing to use magic to get the man she wants. I think the Kriemhild in the books was more cunning.

I don't think any of the other actors sucked, either, although a better show of emotions from the kid who played the young Siegfried would've been nice ... and yeah, I know he's supposed to act like he was in shock.

Being linked to the Lord of the Rings may have worked in prodding people to watch this one, yet it also ensures that this movie remains in the shadow of Peter Jackson's trilogy. If you go to webforums discussing this movie, comparison to LOTR is inevitable. I do find it funny how some people trash this movie for having too many elements similar to LOTR, and yet not know that the story of the Nibelung dwarfs, their ring, and Siegfried existed long before Tolkien was born.

Movie: Guess Who

	Distributor:	Columbia Pictures
	Release:	March 25, 2005
	Genre:	Comedy
	MPAA Rating:	PG-13 for sex-related humor

Watched this because among the other movies being shown at the cinemahouse, this was the lightest and my friend wanted to laugh and not cry, use too much grey matter, or get excited.

If you're going to watch this hoping to find something enlightening, forget it. New jokes? Most of the time you could anticipate what the joke's going to be, and there are a few I didn't find funny at all. Don't get me wrong - I did laugh a lot watching this movie, so it is funny.

Is this movie memorable? Not really - not even the jokes.

Worth a movie ticket? If the ticket's cheap, yes ... but I think this is something you'd rather wait to be shown on cable TV.

Movie: Sahara

	Distributor:	Paramount Pictures
	Release:	April 8, 2005
	Genre:	Action/Adventure
	MPAA Rating:	PG-13 for action violence

This is an adventure/quest movie, reminiscent of ... well, all those adventure/quest movies you've seen - Indiana Jones, Jewel of the Nile/Romancing the Stone, The Mummy/Mummy Returns, National Treasure, to name the well known films of the genre.

McConaughey plays treasure hunter Dirk Pitt who has an obsession with finding a legendary battleship that disappeared near the end of the US Civil War. Zahn plays his partner, Al Giordino, but since McConaughey already has the rougish leading man part, Giordino ends up as the comic relief. Cruz plays Dr. Eva Rojas, the lady with the save our environment/world agenda.

The movie starts by introducing us to Dirk, then moves on to WHO doctors (Eva Rojas) worrying about a possible epidemic in West Africa. The doctors think the ground zero of the disease is in West Africa, Dirk gets a tip that his missing battleship might be in the same area, the doctors elbow their way into joining the Treasure Hunters, and the story picks up pace from there.

Dirk and Al have been best friends since childhood - that explains why Al puts up with Dirk's obsession with a battleship, even if it lands them in the middle of a desert. Both were in the Navy before becoming Treasure Hunters - which will explain why they know how to work guns and do some stunts when the latter part of the story calls for it.

I don't know much about the US Civil War, so I wouldn't know if the battleship mentioned here did exist. Neither am I knowledgeable of Africa's politics, geography and history. In other words, I enjoyed the movie without having to cringe about probable inaccuracies.

I think it's a given that the storyline of the missing battleship and it's treasure is more in the realm of make-believe. The "epidemic" storyline is what keeps this movie in the realm of the possible. We've heard of the Ebola virus, and for the first half of the movie, I thought the cause of the deaths was a virus similar to this ... and that added thrills to the movie of the "Outbreak" kind. The movie chose a less horrifying cause though - poison seeping into the water. That's where industrialist Massarde (Lambert Wilson) and his political backer, who happens to be the president of the country Dr. Rojas thinks is ground zero, come in. They're the bad guys here.

Our heroes get a little help from Dirk's boss and the CIA (?), and a lot of help from the "rebels" ... in fact they saved the day.

For all the fast action, the ending left me hanging though ... the bad guys corner our 3 heroes, then find themselves facing a larger army of rebels and so our heroes rejoice. All of a sudden I remembered I was watching a feel good movie, and the syllables "ho-hum" come out of my mouth. A better ending could have made this movie more memorable.

Book: The Rule of Four

	Authors:	Ian Caldwell Dustin Thomason
	Genre:	Psychological fiction
	Publisher:	Bantam Dell Pub. Group
	Year Published:	2004

What is the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili?

It's supposed to be one of the most beautiful books published during its era (it was published in 1499). It also has a lot of secrets. First, no one alive now really knows who the author is, although there are theories - from the two Francesco Colonna to be found in history, to Leon Battista Alberti. Second, it is full of symbolism - in both the pictures and words used. Third, hidden messages within the text have been found - starting with "POLIAM FRATER FRANCISCUS COLUMNA PERMAVIT" (Brother Francesco Colonna loved Polia tremendously) - which is the phrase formed by the decorated initials to be found in the first page of each chapter.

In other words, it was a book that could churn out enough plots to make a novel - which is what Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason did. The book is actually an offshoot of Ian Caldwell's thesis at Princeton.

The publishers/bookstores may be hoping to ride on the success of Brown's Da Vinci Code when they released this ... as this book could be found displayed in the section of the store near, or even included in the "Da Vinci" pile (which includes books related to Brown's novel). One would pick this up thinking it is a novel running along a similar vein.

Is it? Well, only as far as it is about a modern day person discovering secrets embedded in something created during the western world's Renaissance period.

Dan Brown's book is a series of events that unfold as each clue is unravelled. It follows a straight line as far as narration is concerned. The Rule of Four also follows a series of clues ... but the clues may take you backward or forward that the you may get confused - is this point of the story taking place in the "current" time or is it something that happened a week, a month, or a year ago? It seems that Caldwell and Thomason are trying to imitate the dreamlike state of Poliphilo's story.

Brown's Langdon is a middle aged man at the top of his career, while Caldwell and Thomason's Paul and Tom are mere college students. Langdon deals with top honchos as peers - which gives him privileges; Paul and Tom have to sneak around if they do not have access to information they need. Brown's novel tells in detail how a museum or a police force works. Caldwell and Thomason give homage to life in university.

The Da Vinci Code is all about unraveling the secret, The Rule of Four gives its narrating character, Tom, time for introspection - so it is ALSO about a person finding himself as much as it is about people finding the secret to a treasure in a book.

The action in The Rule of Four is not as fast paced as that in the Da Vinci Code. If you are looking for this adrenalin rush, you may be a bit disappointed. The things to treasure about The Rule of Four are those statements pertaining to the character's observation of life, and the people around him, as well the authors' attempt to put the Hypnerotomachia within the context of history. Actually, you will learn more about the time of Girolamo Savonarola than you would about the Hypnerotomachia Poliphilo. Seldom would you find references to actual pictures or phrases from the book. Most of the time, the story merely says that Paul has found a new clue in the book.

Movie: The Wedding Date

	Distributor:	Universal Pictures
	Release:	February 4, 2005
	Genre:	Comedy and Romance
	MPAA Rating:	PG-13 for sexual content including dialogue

My friend summed this movie as "Pretty Woman" done in reverse. It is in the sense that the woman here hires a guy to be her date to a wedding, they fall for each other, happy ending.

In Pretty Woman, the prostitute transforms herself ... which is part of the movie's charm. In Wedding Date, the guy easily blends in whatever group he's taken to by his date ... in fact, he's almost perfect - so it's still the woman who undergoes a transformation. There is no stigma to being a date for hire it seems.

Anyway, two people I like are in this movie ... Debra Messing and Jack Davenport.

I know of Messing mostly from the Will & Grace TV series, where she is just adorable. I think the only other movie of hers I've seen apart from Wedding Date is The Mothman Prophecies (she may have roles in other movies I've seen like Walk in the Clouds - but I honestly never noticed her in those movies). She is as quirky and lovable playing "Kat" in this movie as she is when playing "Grace".

Jack Davenport is the guy I might have seen in TV and movies before, but I really only remember him in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie and the TV show Coupling. I came to love this guy watching Coupling, and I think his character in Wedding Date is similar to his character in Coupling.

Funny scenes in this movie:

Nick and Kat sharing Kat's bed for the first time. Kat and Nick (the "date" as played by Dermot Mulrooney) are retiring for the night and while they're talking, Kat unobtrusively puts all available pillows in the middle of the bed to serve as a "dividing wall" ... which Nick only notices when he gets in the bed.

The shower scene. It's actually idiotic why Kat would enter the bathroom if she doesn't want to see Nick naked ... she knows he's taking a shower, so why would she freak out when she finds herself looking right at his p_n_s? They pulled it off anyway.

Amy's revelation. Eddie (Davenport) politely excuses himself after Amy (Kat's younger sister, played by Amy Adams) tells him she had slept (more than once) with his best man Jeffrey (Jeremy Sheffield), then promptly proceeds to angrily chase Jeffrey out of the church in front of bewildered wedding guests.

Speaking of Amy Adams ... it's hard to not remember that pretty face. Problem is, I couldn't place where I've seen her before. I seem to recall seeing her play a bitch in another movie ... my brother and friend don't seem to remember her playing a bitch ... and now looking at her film bio... I think they remember her from "Catch Me if You Can". I remember watching that movie but not the others in her film bio ... so why do I think she's good at playing spoiled or bitchy girls? What movie is this brain of mine referring to?

Movie: The Pacifier

	Distributor:	Walt Disney Pictures
	Release:	March 4, 2005
	Genre:	Action/Adventure Comedy Kids/Family
	MPAA Rating:	PG for action violence, language and rude humor

Vin Diesel doing comedy?

It's a reason to pull you into the moviehouse, curious if he could pull it off. Another is the news that it managed to land at No. 1 during its week of release.

Arnold did try a movie like this in Kindergarten cop - and it wasn't much of a hit. Could Vin do what Arnie can't?

Well, this movie says Vin can do comedy.

The movie's in the middle of the funny scale. Not bad, but it didn't suck at all.

A soldier trying to run a household is a funny premise, but you overdo it and fails to bring on the laughter. There were moments in the movie where they tried too hard and just missed it.