Jennifer Connelly – WilfridWong.com

He’s Just Not That Into You – My Buddy’s Just Not That Into The Signals Of The Opposite Sex

He's Just Not That Into You

My buddy whom I am not going to reveal here must have found the film rather confusing by the girls who dissect signals from a relationship in that kind of detail. He fell asleep and snored (just a bit) halfway into the show.

Gosh!

Though I am from the male species, I do have my share of trusted moments when consulted by the opposite sex, analysing signals, giving my thoughts on why guys think or behave a certain way. Girls love to analyse, guys love to theorize – just my observation. OK. Maybe “He’s Just Not That Into You” kind of over-dramatized the love relationships in just a bit, I thoroughly enjoy the dialogues and the storyline.

This more than 2 hours movie is loosely segmented into relationship topics such as why he’s not calling, what if she’s not sleeping with you, and etc. And each topic has a hilarious opening act in form of an interview by an actor unrelated to the storyline. A film with love stories of different forms and shapes intertwined with one another: a happily married couple with the husband tempted by a beautiful girl (*ahem* voted as the sexist girl alive by FHM in 2006 and I don’t blame the dude – who could resist?!), a girl’s relationship to a guy whom she doesn’t see her future with and involved with another one that shouldn’t have happened, a girl who finds relationships from within the online world, a happy couple who have been living together for 7 years and the girl suddenly wants to get married, and a girl who doesn’t seem to able to find love despite being very active in the dating scene.

There is hope – I think that is the theme of the film.

“He’s Just Not That Into You” has quite an impressive casting including famous actors and actresses such as Jennifer Connelly, Drew Barrymore, Ben Affleck, Scarlett Johnasson, and Justin Long as well as TV stars such as Ginnifer Goodwin of Big Love, Bradly Cooper of Alias, and Kevin Connolly of Entourage. It is a talented cast with quality scripting. The only reason I can imagine why this film has a lower than average rating is that if you think too deep on each topic, you may end up dissatisfied. “He’s Just Not That Into You” doesn’t represent or generalize the guys and girls, the straights and the gays in our world. It is just a collection of lighthearted stories to entertain.

I wonder which actresses are you favorite ones and why. Here is my list (and Cynthia likes Jennifer Aniston the most).

Ginnifer Goodwin – She is just adorable and I just love the drama. I feel her story the most.
Jennifer Connelly – I like the theme of able to deal with any issue in a relationship so long as the couple stays true to each other.
Drew Barrymore – Her role is minor but she puts a smile to my face whenever she appears. Best line: checking all these different portals just to get rejected by seven different technologies.

The Day the Earth Stood Still Was the Day We Returned from Our Bandung Trip

This morning, minutes before we checked out of the hotel from Jakarta and to catch a plane back to Singapore, two of our Movie Review Squad members were busy booking our movie tickets via the free wi-fi network provided at the hotel lobby while the third one was on the 10th floor busy catching up with a last minute dosage of Indonesian info-tainment on TV. Cynthia is in love with Keanu Reeves; I am not sure what TK is in love with; and I am simply a fan of sci-fi stories.

TK and Cynthia appear to have enjoyed “The Day The Earth Stood Still”. Given the fact that we have not watched a single movie for more than a month, anything that moves on the big screen excites me. Maybe I entered the theatre with the benchmarks of “The Matrix” and “The Fifth Element” in my head – both have the theme of saving the earth. Even in my state of movie deprivation, I think “The Day The Earth Stood Still” is far off from my benchmarks. Nevertheless, an entertaining movie that has to be watched on a digital 4K projection. The image is so crisp clear. If I am to pick one or two things I like about this film, that would be the cinematography and the special effects.

The main challenge in liking this film does not lie entirely in the storyline. It is rather the inconvenience truth that we are facing. Yes, we humans are the destructive bunch. A few years ago when Cynthia and I attended the Christmas Mass at a Cathedral in Hong Kong, one message from the sermon left a deep impression onto me: In this year (can’t remember the exact year), two third of our nations are in conflict. And yes, we humans not only destroy each other, but also the planet too. I can bet with you that 100 years later when our future generations look back to today, they would laugh at our perpetual denial to link our selfish actions to global warming. They would laugh at our perpetual denial to link smoking to cancer and to our perpetual resistance in stop making cigarettes too (why do we make and consume things that kill us?!), amongst many others.

And perhaps, yes, Mother Earth needs a reset. If we look at a larger scheme of work and to acknowledge that Earth is a very rare and unique environment that sustains life form (I once read a report from the used-to-be famous magazine Scientific America on how probable, or rather improbable, there is another planet like ours out there in the Milky Way), maybe human beings are not the best thing that happen to Mother Earth.

The stage set in “The Day The Earth Stood Still” is ambitious. And personally I don’t think the filmmaker has a satisfying conclusion to why we humans deserve a second chance. Yes, we may change when we are at the brink of extinction. But wouldn’t that be a bit … too late?

PS. Brands that I observed being advertised in “The Day The Earth Stood Still” are: Honda, McDonald’s, Windows Vista, LG, and Citizen.