The point that I had to go to the restroom twice throughout the movie does not distract me from the fact that this movie is absolutely great. It surpasses even it's predecessor, Batman Begins.

Though there has been a lot of hype on Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker, maybe I'll give in that he did a credible job. He's absolutely scary everytime he speaks and he licks his scars during pauses. The point that his make-up is smeared and not perfect adds to his menace. I don't know why they have to always reiterate how he got his scars. I think I heard it thrice during the movie. Maybe they want to push the fact that the Joker is demented and as Alfred pointed out, there are criminals who doesn't need a reason to be criminals.

I love Batman's motorcycle and how agile that piece of machine is. I also loved it when Batman jumped off the building in Hongkong and glided to the other building. Seeing those bat wings in flight makes one feel nostalgic.

I'm sure the series will not end here and I don't know when the next movie will be shown. I hope they won't have to wait for 3 more years to show the sequel and I hope no one in the cast has to die. I don't know who will replace The Joker now that Heath Ledger has passed away but he sure has big shoes to fill.

Leo persuaded me to buy this book a few months ago. Since I buy almost a new book or magazine each week, it sort of became part of my book backlog and was delegated to the bottom of the stack on my bedside table. Leo found the book for me while we browsing at Powerbooks. He pointed it out to me as it was at the Young Adult section. He told me that it's really good and that I should buy it.

However, I was beginning to catch up and started reading it early this week and after the first few pages, I was hooked. I was so mad at myself why I managed to put off reading it for so long.

Anyway, where should I start with the review?

When I knew that I would like the book, I immediately notified my rpg group and told them about it. Being the sci fi/fantasy lovers they are, I'm sure they would like this as well. One of them asked me to post a review and now that I'm done, I really don't know how to start it.

Well, first of all, the main character of the book is a 17-year old teenager named Bella Swan. She moved to a small town from Phoenix. She met a pale, "beautiful" boy named Edward Cullen in school and who she learned later on is a vampire; and they fell in love. I'll stop at that as I might give out spoilers.

Quite simple isn't it? Maybe that's why I liked it. The story is so clean and not like other typical vampire stories where they focus on the sensuality of the vampires and how they "turn" other people. This one focused on their relationship and with their respective families. Yes, Edward belongs to a family of vampires too and get this, the patriarch is a doctor. He works in the hospital and he's quite an old vampire to control his urge to drink blood when he attends to his patients.

After finishing the book, I immediately rushed to Powerbooks to buy the next two books, "New Moon" and "Eclipse". Much to my disappointment, I was told that all books are out of stock. I asked if there are any available copies in other branches and they're ALL OUT OF STOCK! That's how popular the books are!

I quickly emailed my in-laws who are currently in the US to look for the books and bring them home for me as pasalubong. I still haven't heard from my father-in-law and I do hope that he finds them.

I hope there is more I can say about it. I definitely recommend it to my friends and I hope they can still find copies where I have failed.

Check out the author's website: http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/

According to the site, the series will be made into a movie! I can't wait how that will turn out.

Five words: ANG GUWAPO NI ORLANDO BLOOM!!!!! (Orlando Bloom's so handsome!!!!!).

Anyway, I got that out of my system. The movie reminded me why I fell in love with him during Lord of the Rings.

As for POTC, this is the third movie that we've seen this year that's the end of a trilogy. Previous ones were Spiderman and Shrek. And sadly, all of these movies fell short of expectations.. Leo said that they followed the path of The Matrix trilogy. The Wachowski brothers wanted to say so many things thus leading to the complication of the plot and the poor showing of Matrix Revolutions in the movies.

The writers of Spiderman, Shrek and POTC fell into that trap as well. The first movies were all very simple. For Spiderman, it's just Spiderman discovering his powers and having one nemesis; for Shrek, it's just Shrek saving a princess; and for POTC, it's Captain Jack Sparrow wanting to get the Black Pearl Black. See, simple plots lines. But as the movies progress, the plots get more convoluted and complicated. It's just so sad.

So far, I can't remember a trilogy movie wherein the last movie really ended the series with a bang. In my opinion, only Return of the Jedi (Star Wars) and Return of the King (Lord of the Rings) (hmmm....both with "Returns" in the title...what a coincidence?) have successfully finished what their first movies have started. For both "Return" movies, I left the cinema with a happy heart, but with the recent movies, it left much to be desired. Heck, even POTC gave us a headache trying to sort through the multiple plotlines and the disappearance of motives and reason. You can only suspend reality for quite some time.

But well, Orlando Bloom's gorgeous. Yumyum :) I want to watch Lord of the Rings again!!!

I'm a belated Piolo and Juday loveteam fan. The only movie of theirs that I watched (other than this) was Till There Was You (did they have another movie together other than those two?). That movie made me a convert.

Till There Was You was released, if I'm not mistaken, early last year. I didn't want to watch it at first as Piolo sported long locks in the movie. But at my officemate's urging and support (she did lend me the DVD), I watched it.

One thing I liked about the film was the scenery. Half of the movie was set at Baguio and it's surrounding towns--specifically Banawe and Sagada. The views were breathtaking--especially that of the Banawe Rice Terraces. I told Leo we should go there one time. Really beautiful place.

I also liked the story--sort off. Judy Ann's character (Abby) went off to Baguio to run after the wife to be of her brother, who happens to be her bestfriend (Sabina, played by Cheska Garcia). Sabina ran off in the middle of her bridal shower and disappeared off to parts unknown. A tape found in Sabina's bag pointed Abby to Vince (Piolo Pascual) at Baguio.

To make the long story short, Abby and Vince bonded while they looked for Sabina all over Baguio, Banawe and Sagada. Abby was very determined to find her bestfriend so she can drag her back to her brother. She just could not accept Sabina's decision. When they finally found Sabina, she did not want to return and wanted to stay with her lover in Sagada.

So where does leave Abby and Vince? Well, Vince wants a simple life and is quite happy in Baguio--singing in the Ayuyang bar, while Abby works in the very competitive world of Advertising (she smokes in the movie! Does she really smoke?) in Manila. Vince is scared that Abby will not be contented in Baguio and Vince thinks he will not succeed in Manila as a recording artist. So we then see our two lovebirds tearfully part ways. Abby hies off to Australia to accompany her parents while Vince tries his luck iin Manila to record a very emotional album.

Abby and Vince fatefully meet again during the successful release of his album. Through the rain, he saw Sabina walking down the street and he follows her to a restaurant, and there was Abby. They tearfully reunite amidst hugs and kisses.

What made this different from their previous film was how they showed their passion. Their previous movie was more "nakakakilig" because they really showed their affection for each other. For this movie, parang pigil. May daya nga yung mga kissing scenes nila. Piolo was covering the screen, not like their previous movie. Maybe because he was being sensitive over Juday's relationship with Ryan Agoncillo. It was just too funny. It's better if they just hugged without trying hard to do their kissing scenes.

I really hated Juday's character, maybe because she was so cut-throat and very abrasive. Typical yuppie. I sometimes forget that I am a yuppy and can sometimes show impatience. She was right in saying that our time is very precious and every minute counts. I've reached the point wherein a day is not enough to do everything that I need to accomplish. Even if I work 14-15 hours a day, it's still not enough. I have to sit back and smell the roses.

Anyway, Piolo has a new movie coming out soon with Regine Velasquez. I have to watch that. They look good together.

The restaurant started at Pampanga (can't remember the actual town) and they serve authentic Kapampangan cuisine. I heard so much about the place, especially their halo-halo, and it was only last Saturday that we got to try the food.

After picking me up from the office, Leo and I hied off to Greenbelt 1 where we had some merienda. We chose Razon's as I wanted to try their much recommended halo-halo. Due to the heat, I tend to eat/drink more cool drinks/desserts.

I'm not much of a fan of halo-halo as I don't like beans. Usually I tend to be lugi if I order one as I ask that the beans be removed, and I pay the same price as a regular halo-halo (a regular halo-halo can have more than 2 to 3 types of beans--garbanzos and munggo are the more common types). But at Razon's, they only have three ingredients (other than the ice and milk)--leche flan, sweetened saging na saba and strips of macapuno. It's the perfect halo-halo for me (well, maybe skip the macapuno and substitute with pinipig--that's PERFECT).

Leo tried the pancit and he said it's okay (although I don't know if that's OK or just a mere ok). I'll try that next time.

Ever since Leo saw the trailer of this movie, he wanted to watch it. Moreover knowing that it was nominated at the Oscar's. It won for best cinematography, make-up and art direction. It should've won the Best Foreign Language Film of the Year. It was really good.

The story is set in Fascist Spain where there was this young girl called Ofelia who travelled to rural Spain with her pregnant mother to be with her stepfather, a ruthless captain. In her new home, she meets a fairy who shows her a different world.

According to the different synopses I read, Ofelia created the world from her imagination to help her deal with the ugliness of the war but I would like to believe that the world that she sees is indeed real. That she indeed came "home" when she died from the mortal plane. Though the writer might not meant it to be, I can still believe it to be real.

Though the story is not common, it's still not something new for me. Filipino folklore is rich with faeries and children disappearing because they ate the food of the faeries. They disappear to live with the "other" folk as they've forgotten the mortal world when they ate the food.

Watch it! Get the DVD!

I can't say that I'm a big fan of fantasy series. I credit that to my good friend Allan who has his book club where they discuss fantasy and sci-fi books. I love reading these type of books though--especially tha sagas. The never-ending stories with each book running from 300-500 pages. The recent Dragonlance book I read (Dragons of Summer Flame) ran up to 585 pages and I finished it in 2 days. These books just sucks me in and even if I only read them once, the story remains in my mind for months.

I first read the Chronicles (Dragons of Autumn Flame etc) and Legends (Time of the Twins etc) when I was in College but I only borrowed the books either from Allan, Rico or Mariano at that time. When I saw them being sold at National and Powerbooks, I knew I want my own copies although I can't remember much of the action in the books (hey I said I only remember stories for a month. This was YEARS ever since I last read them).

I first bought the Chronicles and the Dragon of Summer Flame (the latter does not belong to the Dragonlance Chronicles but it makes a nice sequel featuring the children of the Heroes. In fact, the remaining Heroes of the Lance died in this book) about a couple of years ago and I bought the Legends a few weeks ago. As I had nothing better to read, I decided to get started on these books (7 books all in all). And what do you know, I finished them in less than 2 weeks.

Going all those 7 books made me appreciate the Heroes more and though how belated it is, gave me an idea how to make a good role-playing character. There is a difference between good and evil and it's something that I can never seem to get right.

For role-playing enthusiasts, the books can give one a clear example on what it means to be Lawful Good and Lawful Evil. It's difficult to be that Lawful that's why I usually stick to Chaotic Good but it's only in the "Summer Flame" book that I realized what "Chaotic" can be. Our friend Mike plays that alignment perfectly.

Going back to the books, I wanted to read more of the series. I was ecstatic although a bit disappointed to learn that the Dragonlance series have spawned probably more than 150 books in the market. The original series was written by Weiss and Hickman as a supplement to the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game and the writers of TSR (which became Wizards of the Coast although I don't know if they were bought by Hasbro) took it from there. Allan said I should just get e-books but I can never seem to get the hang of reading from my laptop. I still love reading from paper.

An ordinary person can relate to the stories. It's always good versus evil. It will also remind you of the Filipino faith as there are a lot of "magical" aka "religious" artifacts floating around Ansalon that people hold dear. There's an artifact that turns the undead. Another item that can protect the bearer from death spells. We Filipinos have the same thing although we call it in a different name -- agimat.

I also love the stories despite the fact that it's never-ending. I like if a story mentions a character from another book. It's like visiting old friends and knowing that their still alive and okay. It's always so heartening.

I love the characters. I feel that they're my friends and come to think of it, I see my friends in these characters too (or vice versa). My favourite character is Raistlin. He's an evil character but I like the way his persona was developed and how he changed in the end. He was so focused on his goal and he really knew what he wanted. I wish I could be the same. A person with focus and a goal. I don't want to imitate his evil but I admire his drive.

When Leo showed me the trailer of this movie, he was very excited. Apparently, he's a fan since he was a kid. Moreover knowing that the leader of the turtles is his namesake.

I was not expecting much from this movie. After all, I can't get the image of the old cartoons from my head (TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesTeenageMutantNinjaTurtles). I also remember how it was such a big hit to the kids that they would submit drawings of their Turtles to PhilStar (or was that Inquirer) to feature in the kids section.

But I was surprisingly entertained, not only by the graphics but by the story as well. The graphics were very good. I'm not an expert but I like the way it looked. It also seemed a bit dark. As for the story, it's not original but it gave the immortal angle a different twist.

There are some flaws though. Like how all 13 monsters ended up in New York City. Or probably more background on Casey and April and probably on Splinter as well.

Nevertheless, I recommend it anyway.