Great movies on a rainy weekend

It sucks... the weather has been amazing for weeks and now it's raining and it's cold and it's dark and it's gloomy and my parents in law are here visiting from Malaysia. This does not start the holiday too well. They don't mind, they're very easy and happy to stay at home all day, mom-in-law (Auntie) cooking all day long and dad-in-law (Uncle) napping, reading the newspaper and watching TV.

I, on the other hand, feel grounded by the awful weather, I wanted to go out, I wanted to go to Hampton Court Palace, I wanted to go to London and I wanted to go shopping (haven't been in three weekends - been very well behaved). I was also planning on getting a bit of colour to my pale complexion by enjoying reading my book seating on a bench by the river.

Grounded... and of course I cannot continue my final fantasy game either as I'd be hogging the tv set and it's just not nice. Luckily, I had bought some games for the PSP for travelling or else and so that has been keeping me company but it does not make up for all the exciting outdoor activities I had expected, all washed out with the rain. So we watched videos, violent, exciting, blood quenched, f-word abusing, trigger-happy, testosterone-loaded films like The Departed, 300 and Smoking Aces.

Here is my personal review of the movies. (Contains no spoilers)

The Departed
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Featuring Leonardo DeCaprio, Matt Damon, and Jack Nicholson, with Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, and Alec Baldwin
Released in 2006 and won the Best Picture and Best Director at the Oscar.

My Feeling: A great story, very well thought off, very well developped, you're not sure you get things right immediately, and the twists and turns keep you alert and paying attention as one should when watching a film. but I did not like the ending, it was a huge let down. Half way through the movie, I said, I am so looking forward to how this is going to end, and I did not like it. It could have had a better ending. Scorcese was obviously trying to be a hard ass with a hard ass story like Guy Richie's films or Tarrantino's but it did not have to. Some of the characters should not have died and the mess they were in in the first place was not resolved and no justice was done and no one in the story will go on to live happily (or just live for that matter) and it was not necessary.

300
Directed by Zack Snyder
Featuring besides David Wenham (better recognised as Faramir) I did not know anyone else.
Released in March 2007 and should get a nomination for best Special Effects and Graphic designs or whatever else was involved in creating those amazing battle scenes.

My Feeling: Story is cheesy about the oracles and the betrayal and the Queen and the Son, all cheesy but amount to 15 minutes of the film, the other 2 hours of battle scenes, negotiating between the Persians and Spartans and the strategies are simply A-W-E-S-O-M-E, did that spell it out for you? A bit too gruesome for me at times but you don't dare to blink in case you miss a split second of the action or maybe it was because I was too horrified and my face was just frozen.

Smoking Aces
Directed by: Joe Carnahan
Starring Jeremy Piven (Entourage) Ben Affleck, Andy Garcia, Alicia Keys (Sexy and perfect for the role), Ray Liotta, and Ryan Reynolds (surprisingly good in this role).
Released in January 2007

My Feeling: in my humble opinion should win an award for most hard-ass film ever before my favorite True Romance and (not-favorite but currently on top of the chart) Sin City. It beats any of the Guy Richie's hard arse blood-quenching, trigger happy, testosterone-filled movies. Anything I write henceforth will spoil the movie, but to give you a clue you have one target Israel Buddy and the tag line is "May the Best Hitman Win". So I'll say this much... if you liked True Romance, Sin City, Pulp Fiction, Snatch, Lock Stock and two smoking barrels, then you will be just in your element watching this show. If not please abstain.