Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 1)

Last night, thanks to Club Zed, me and my friends get to watch the blocked screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. After all this months of waiting, finally I get to watch the first installment of the movie. Quite thrilling infact.

Without any qualms, I must say that this movie is Harry Potter movie is a mesmerizing, spell-binding cinematic achievement, and easily the best Potter film to date.

To tell you the truth, this movie would be good for those die hard fans of Harry Potter out there and for those who have read the book from the start, but if you haven’t read it or you haven’t watch any part of the movie, it is advised that you choose other movie to watch because you will be completely lost.

The world of wizardry is going through a hard time with Voldemort seeming unstoppable turning the world upside down. More and more challenges awaits the three friends who’s on a quest to destroy the Horcruxes!

Deathly Hallows Part 1 follows best friends Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) as they try to find and destroy the Horcruxes which the evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) hid pieces of his soul in as part of his plan to cheat death and rule all. The teen wizards and witch, however, are up against much deadlier obstacles this time around. Not only must they try to achieve their goal without the wisdom and guidance of Albus Dumbledore (he died at the end of the previous movie, Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince), they must also do so without being caught by Voldemort’s supporters, who are all out to destroy  Harry.

“Harry could not quite comprehend it. Mad-Eye dead; it could not be…Mad-Eye, so tough, so brave, the consummate survivor.”

—Harry’s reaction on Moody’s death

In this film, you should really pay a closer look about the names and nouns that they are mentioning all throughout the movie for example Horcruxes. If you don’t know anything about this, well, too bad because when you get to watch this first installment, I think the movie makers already assume that you know everything about the story, that you’ve watch the films and read the book. Although when I get to watch the scenes when they were first attacked by the death eaters and Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody was killed in the process, I felt like the scenes were getting rushed. I’ve read that Harry Potter buried his eye (the only part of his body that was found) in the forest where the Quidditch World Cup was help although they didn’t put that in the movie. Mad-Eye’s magical eye was salvaged by the Death Eaters, and then, after the fall of the Ministry, given to the new head of its Muggle Born Registration Commission‘s Head, Dolores Umbridge, possibly as a gift. It was set in the wood of her office door and used to aid her in spying on her workers. When Harry, Hermione and Ron infiltrated the Ministry to find the locket Horcrux, Harry discovered the eye and, disgusted by how it was being used, stole it. Doing so, however, raised the alarm. Then everything seems to be in a blurry, from the bad timing wedding where they were also attacked by the death eaters then you have to take it from there.

“Thank you so much, Dobby, for rescuing me from that cellar. It’s so unfair that you had to die, when you were so good and so brave. I’ll always remember what you did for us. I hope you’re happy now.” 

 

—Luna Lovegood at Dobby’s funeral.

Alas! I also cried when Dobby “The Free Elf”  died. I can’t help it. This is the scene where Harry And Ron were forced to surrender when Bellatrix threatened to cut Hermione’s throat with a knife. Dobby announced his return by causing a chandelier to fall on Bellatrix. Harry seized the wands Draco Malfoy was holding, and stunned Greyback. Ron collected Hermione and Disappeared.

As Harry and the others disappeared, Bellatrix threw her knife at him. Arriving at the sea side, Harry discovered that Dobby had been fatally wounded by Bellatrix’s thrown knife. Dobby died moments later, his final words being “Harry Potter”.

I also love the part when they took Polyjuice Potion to look like Harry Potter so that they can serve as decoys for sudden ambush of Lord Voldemort as they move Harry to a safer place. Seeing them perform multiple version of Harry is really funny, a comic relief that only lasted for a minute since the next scenes where action packed.

Although I was kind of confused because there were scenes in the movie that when I asked around, it was not part of the book like when Hermione is removing all the traces of herself from the memory of her muggle parents and as well as their home, I find it a little too hard to believe that a daughter can do such a thing, or perhaps she only do that so that her parents will not know her dangerous whereabouts. There’s also a part there where Harry and Hermione where dancing and I liked that part, it reminded me that I was once a fan of their love team, that they really look good together.

All in all, definitely a must watch if you have been reading the books and watching the movies all these years. Who would pass this movie? I am vowing to read the book so that I can understand it more. There’s no harm in reading it late, I still enjoyed watching the movie. This is by far one of the best creations ever written and ever created in the movie scene.

Stephen King’s statement about the Deathly Hallows is true about the first installment of the movie that the high death toll on the side of the good guys, and the hair-trigger suspense resulting from Voldemort’s relentless pursuit of Harry, this latest Potter installment has more in common with an intense and violent horror movie than a harmless fantasy film for the entire family. By date, this is one of the most awaited movies of all time..Directed by David Yates. 

This is the official rating of the Author.

 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1 will not be in HD

So much with the anticipation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part that I didn't see it coming. I never thought Warner Bros. will make such a decision. In a surprising move, Warner Bros. has decided NOT to release ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1′ in 3D because of post-conversion time constraints.

It seems like the studio doesn’t want to put out an inferior product by rushing the 3D, like what happened to others 3D movies that left the audience feeling somehow bitter about the movie they watched. They wanted to make this movie worth it.

A statement from Warner Bros. goes like this:

Despite everyone’s best efforts, we were unable to convert the film in its entirety and meet the highest standards of quality. We do not want to disappoint fans who have long-anticipated the conclusion of this extraordinary journey.

But inspite of this, I'm sure fans doesn't mind at all or do they? for me, I really hope they considered this, not like this. Most of the Harry Potter fans out there are so excited to watch it on 3D.

Deathly Hallows director, David Yates, added his own thoughts on the situation:

For 10 years, we have worked alongside Alan Horn and the studio, whose priority has always been to preserve the integrity of Jo Rowling’s books as we have adapted them to the screen, and this decision reflects that commitment… This decision, which we completely support, underscores the fact that Warner Bros. has always put quality first.

At the end of the day, the 3D is just part of the reason fans may be looking forward to the final Harry Potter installments. And even if you’re still desperate for Harry Potter 3D action, then you can rest assured that the final part of the film, Deathly Hallows Part 2, will hit theaters in both 2D and 3D as planned. The reason for that is WB has nine months to take the time on the conversion of Part 2 to 3D.

As for Part 1, you can still enjoy it in both regular theaters and in IMAX so there’s still plenty of anticipation for all of us.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 will hit theaters (only in 2D) on November 19th, 2010, with Part 2 following next summer (in both 2D and 3D) on July 15th, 2011.

“What have you done for yourself lately?”

Let me tell you what I’ve been through. I was in that special place that only people in love know about. Romance was alive and my soulmate was revealed to me as the only person I’d want to spend the rest of my life with. My world evolved around that person as if this is the only person alive. Then suddenly it happened: the phase that I think some relationships goes through, when your partner suddenly gets tired of you and wanted something new.

Whatever you call that phase, I experienced it. I suddenly found myself alone. Single again. I spend my days in a fog, all too blurry, wondering where it all went so horribly wrong. Blaming myself for not seeing the breakup coming and hating myself for not acting sooner to avoid being single again.

It’s time to get out of that fog, to do for myself what I wish others would do, spend some special time with a special person, MYSELF. I took few small baby-steps and I tired to get to know myself more. Sometimes people think that being single after a big breakup is not much of a big deal. Well it is. Some even undergo mental changes when this happens. My friends didn’t encourage me to meet another special someone because they know that I am in a fragile state right now and that I need to understand what kind of a great person I am, outwardly and inwardly. I need to have confidence. Once again. 

So what have I done for myself lately? A lot of things. Being single, at this point gives me a lot of new things to try. 

with my badminton family

in action

I realized it’s time for me to begin a good exercise regimen. I joined my officemates in their daily not too strenuous sports activity which is Badminton. I actually enjoyed it. For some years I never enjoyed sports that much but this time, I enjoyed it. It gave me good physical endurance and at the same time it helped me have some clear-thinking time. When I am playing Badminton, I concentrate on what I am doing, I became aware of the people around me. After that I feel rejuvenated. Exercise is something new to me and it feels wonderful and refreshing.

Oplan Sagipin ang mga Binagyo

I also share some of my new-found spare time with a local volunteer group. I’ve always been part of organizations but lately, I have been stagnant. This time, I do my share to help others. It’s a blessing to help others and a worth while organization can be a very productive way to help myself as well. Many people, told me that volunteering is a great way to meet others that share your same interests, but I feel it is a great way to not only give of myself but to learn a little more of myself as well.

Mesa Filipino Moderne

Chelsea

Savory

Eat and Go

I also treated myself to a well deserved eat out that can be very refreshing. I ate alone and nourished myself. Some people are scared to eat alone or better yet felt ashamed to be seen eating alone. I don’t mind now.  It feels rewarding to know that I can do something independently and eating out by myself is something new to me. Just me and a fancy menu can be very rewarding and relaxing. After that I can share my experience to my friends so that they can check out the resto for themselves.

I know that we live on some type of financial budget. But this didn’t keep me from my new experience of doing the grocery all by myself and using my own money! I know some people do this all the time but I never had the chance of doing it alone then buying things that I really want in the grocery then cooking it for myself in the end. I find it really cool now to go the grocery and just splurge! I perfectly understand why my mom loves going to the grocery and this will not be the last time that I will do it, I will do the grocery all the time from now on.

Puka Beach in Boracay

My very first jump shot at the beach

Fire dancing :)

New places bring you to new experiences and new people. This is what I experienced as well. I engaged my self into traveling. Something that I really wanted for the past few years. To discover new places and enrich myself of the new cultures and go to places I have never been. I enjoyed my first time at Boracay and just the sight of the pure white sand beach gave me the bliss that I am craving for. 

Underground Cemetery, Nagcarlan, Laguna

I also went to Nagcarlan, Laguna where I visited the Underground Cemetery and learned a lot of things from the historical background of the place. I toured in my own hometown as well, I went to the White Cross and at the top I felt all the love and blessings of the Lord. It feels good to climb at the top. I learned something new and that when I realized that this is where my heart is. Blogging and traveling.  It gives me the excitement to try new things and meet new people. 

Jay Sean Concert

 I also love music and with that I enjoyed myself into watching the concerts that I really love featuring the artists that I have been dying to see. Dancing to the beat of the music and thumping my way to relaxation is a big comfort. Sometimes, it's nice to loose yourself with the beat of the music.

 

There is no reason why my change in relationship status requires me to be lonely or alone. It’s all up to me to make myself available and in a few easy steps I’ll have a wonderful time of new experiences, new places and new faces. This is what I have done for myself lately. To love myself more and enjoyed my sole presence in this world. To give myself time to enjoy what life has to offer.

Life As We Know It

“Having somebody support you doesn’t mean you failed, it means you’re not in it alone.” – Eric Messer

Even though the story is simple and common, the execution was great and that is the thing I love in this movie by Warner Bros Pictures  starring Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel and directed by Greg Berlanti. This is a must watch especially for those who are just starting their own family. This is why I salute all the Moms in the world. I mean, raising a kid is no joke, especially if we’re talking about shouldering all the expenses.

The story evolved when they were set up on a blind date by their married best friends, Holly (Katherine Heigl) a successful caterer who is expanding her business more and more every day. She is a very busy woman indeed, having not much time and environment to meet men and Messer (Josh Duhamel) a sports director in a TV network. They both suffer from no enough time and devotion for a relationship.

However, destiny has another plan for these two and their friends pass away in a tragic car accident. Interestingly, they had arranged the custody of their daughter Sophie to be given to Eric and Holly, the godparents. These two people, a very unlikely couple have to come together, live in the same house and put up with each other in order to take care of this adorable baby who has just lost her parents. Everything is a nightmare especially in the beginning: they do not know how to take care of the baby, their differences and dislike for each other is such a wall, their careers get in the way, social life takes a strange turn in this awkward situation.

So, basically I love this feel good movie. It made me laugh and giddy. Plus, I really like Katherine Heigl. She has this charisma with this type of characters like in 27 Dresses.

Tuesdays with Morrie

I will never forget this book. Thanks to my beloved professor to whom I look up to,Mam Angelina Borican for lending me this book and at the same time for making my college days at Polytechnic University of the Philippines worth while especially when I was serving as a student assistant at her office. I totally miss those days and the times that she would give me advices, her wonderful stories of wisdom and how she love her family more than anything else in the world plus she is so dedicated in her craft which is teaching.

Tuesdays with Morrie is a 1997 non-fiction novel by Mitch Albom. Again, one of my favorite American writer who never seized to make me cry whenever I am reading his works.  This book was later adapted into a TV movie.

This is a story about a teacher who changed his life by showing him the true reasons we were put here, and the things we should cherish. Albom starts as an average journalist to find that his favorite college professor is dying. He travels many miles and meets with his old teacher every Tuesday, and Morrie, his old professor teaches him new things about life, and what we should really look for. Mitch realizes how much better his life is with all the help from Morrie, and becomes a better person. Its a heart warming, book that gives us all a lesson in the end.

This book should be read by people of all ages. This book touched me and made me think about the things that are really important in life. This book is a MUST read. Buy this book for yourself, then pass it on to a person you love: mother, father, sister, brother, wife, husband, friend or teenager, everyone should read this book.

One of my favorite quotes in this book is: “Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.”

Morrie says this during the fourth Tuesday when he and Mitch discuss death. Morrie feels that people refuse to believe that they will one day die, and therefore, do not live there lives as fully as they would have liked and also have many regrets as they become older and their death becomes closer. He feels that once we learn and accept that we are one day going to die, we learn to live our lives fully and without any regrets. Morrie repeats this quote frequently throughout the chapter to emphasize how important and helpful it is to accept death, and what a benefit it would be to living the remainder of our lives. Morrie also wants Mitch to see how he is able to appreciate the smaller, more genuine things in life, knowing that his death is approaching.

Another favorite of mine is: “Death ends a life, not a relationship.”

Morrie states that as long as we can love each other and remember this feeling of love, we can die without ever going away because all of the love we have created will still remain. He states that after we die, we live on in the hearts of everyone we have touched and nurtured while we were on earth. This also emphasizes and expands on Morrie’s concept of always giving love and compassion; if we are able to form these loving relationships while we are on earth, not only will we live more fulfilled and substantial lives, but when we die, our love and relationship will remain in the hearts of those who we love. At the end of the novel, during Morrie’s funeral, Mitch has an internal conversation with Morrie. He feels very comfortable and serine in the conversation; this is because he and Morrie had expressed their love and compassion for one another during Morrie’s life, and now their relationship is in each others hearts.

A Two Thumbs up movie for me. Forever.

If Tomorrow Comes (A book Review)

Sidney Sheldon is one of my favorite writers of all time. Aside from that, He was also an Academy Award winning writer even before he made it that big as a Best-Selling Author.

If Tomorrow Comes is my favorite book just as I love Sidney Sheldon by heart. I must admit I have read this book around 20 times already and I will never get tired reading it. This book is a 1985 crime fiction novel and one of the best works of Sidney Sheldon in my perspective. I would strongly recommend it to any body who is a fan of his work. 

This book has three parts to it...the first part being how Tracy Whitney ends up in prison and eventually gets out of it I actually love that part when she was in prison, I  have a vivid imagination of what she went through while she was detained at the prison of hell. Aside from narrating what is going on in her, I, as the reader was also learning in the process, I was with her when she decided she wanted to fight back, when she wanted to be brave enough to fight for her rights. I just love her determination.

The second one being...how she gets revenge on the people who did that to her and mind you, it takes a lot cunning and outwitting others to get over this path. She has learned a lot from her past  and this is helping her deal what she has to finish in the present.

The third one being how she became a professional crook. She does it so well, She gets aways with almost anything with class and grace. How I wish I can be as suave as Tracy.

Whitney Tracey is like Cinderella except that she finds the wrong Prince who wrongfully leaves her in the dungeon until a more honorable and loving Robin Hood comes along and takes her to places after which they live happily ever after with the loot. A big loot at that.

That is how I would put Sidney Sheldon's plot of this story, except that I love the character Whitney Tracey because she is like every reasonably sensible woman who is ecstatic to be in love with one the most eligible bachelor , Charles Stanhope III, a banker who owns the bank and whose family name reeks with money. She carries her baby without him knowing until by some twist of rather annoying fate, she ends up in jail for murder.

The innocent Tracey gets a call from her mother Dorothy who later kills herself. Knowing the man responsible for her mother's suicide, she pursues and attacks him and disappointingly, is unable to kill him.

Tracey waits in jail hoping for Charles to use his influence and get her released but he suddenly makes it clear that he could never marry a murderer conveniently forgetting that she could be innocent plus pregnant. Of course, after all, he has a great family name to protect.

She loses her baby in jail until fate smiles again and she somehow manages to win the favor of the warden who later recommends her pardon to the governor.

Tracey finds herself alone and unemployable after that. She does try hard however – her last odd job being that of a cleaning maid but even that doesn't go too well.

Nevertheless, she is now a more sophisticated and smarter woman and manages to execute her revenge against those who caused her mother's suicide. She finds that she has the capability to engage in more productive endeavors/escapades – not exactly murderous – but criminal.

She somehow finds her niche in a variety of global thieveries, including that of outsmarting two chess champions and stealing blatantly displayed million dollar paintings. I just love this part, I was like imagining Jennifer Garner in "ALIAS" doing this scenes. I actually pictured Jennifer Garner as Whitney Tracey. I hope someday they can create a movie of this and they will pick Jenny Garner for the lead role.

Her new “career” forces her to partner with Jeff Stevens who at face value seems to be just a con-extraordinaire, until she realizes that he would give her life for her, despite losing the their loots.

Despite enjoying his company, she still entertains her plans for the revenge against Charles, the man who left her and her unborn child, until she sees him with another naïve woman in a fancy restaurant. I think she was imagining that the woman was just like her way back when she was smitten to Charles. What happens next and how a romance between two thieves develops into a happily-ever-after love affair is a whirlwind romance. 

This is the story of a woman and the loss of her innocence. It follows her plans for revenge. It also shows her trying times which lead her into an exciting life that she never would have chose any other way. I totally would recommend this for reading.  

This is the official rating of the writer. 

Twister Fries is Back!!

McDonald’s Twister Fries is back! and I hope for good   Now is the time to get twisted once again and head to the nearest Mcdo to grab that mouth watering twister fries.

The McDonald’s Twister Fries is made from the best, freshest and high quality potatoes, each twister fries’ strand are perfectly twirled and curled, the taste is unique with crispy goodness that one bite is very tempting. I have a vivid remembrance of eating Twister Fries way back and I totally look forward on eating it again like yesterday, I ate like 2 servings of twister fries! gluttony much?:) You’ll just have to try it once again, it’s pure heaven :)

If you love McDonald’s Twister Fries, then LIKE them in Facebook and watch out for awesome and exciting Twister treats and updates.

Visit any branch of McDonald’s ad grab your own Twister Fries! You might also wanna try their to die for hot fudge sundae and Mcfloat.