Larry Crowne

      So let's get right into it. Tom Hanks shows his true colors both directing and starring in his new movie "Larry Crowne." He isn't one of my favorite actors but he proves himself to be one of the hardest workers in the business. Take a look at his resume you'll find that he produced thirty four titles, directed eight others, and played sixty-four different characters. He is someone that is worth watching and has shown talent from day one. In his new movie, "Larry Crowne", Hanks shows poise and never loses his composure. It's most likely the cause of years of experience and a state of seriousness. Just think about it. If you had to work for money, instead of just borrowing it from your parents, you'll be less likely to splurge with it. Since Hanks directed the movie, his acting must have improved with that fact.

      Hanks plays the role of Larry Crowne, who is a dedicated salesman and has been employee of the month a total of nine times. The only problem with his superiors is that he doesn't have a college degree. After being fired and with a little help of Cedric the Entertainer, he heads back to school to forge new friendships and relationships. What do I think about Cedric in this movie? I thought he did a satisfactory job. Nothing too special there but he's Cedric the Entertainer...I don't mind him in any movie. There were points in the script in which I started out wanting to rain hell on the movie and then ending up not knowing what to do. Hanks kept it for the most part original and always changed things up on me, except for one scene. Keep on the look out for it.
      Julia Roberts plays the role of Mercedes Tainot, a tired college professor with a crumbling marriage, who is on the cusp of being an alcoholic. She faces the grim theory that she can't help any of her students because of their lack of cooperation and attention, that is, until Crowne becomes her student. I don't know what to say about Roberts other than her laugh scares me. For me, she's in the grey. I don't really like watching her but at the same time she makes me want to shield her from the injustices of man. I don't quite get it. Would I watch this movie again? Probably not. There were several instances of "forced" acting and powerless lines in clutch scenes that I very much dislike. In the end, it is a nice family movie that leaves the viewer with not much to complain about. Just do me a solid and please tell Wilmer Valde-what's his face to get off the set, please. Thanks.

The Beaver

          Another long day of work...another movie night! I wanted to break away from the thriller genre and sit in on a family drama. For a couple of nights now, I've been skimming through the titles, just to see my options, and I passed by "The Beaver" once or twice. The strange feeling that the title gave off caught my attention and I ended up giving it a shot. 

      Bad idea. This movie, directed by Jodie Foster, stars Mel Gibson, Foster herself, and Anton Yelchin. It is about a depressed and mentally ill executive and father who decides to use a hand-puppet to turn his life around. Foster should have given this role to someone else. Sorry to say this but the story line isn't original, it has a take on the 2007 Oscar Nominee, "Lars and the Real Girl." Add this into the mix with Gibson's carefree acting and the only way this movie will shine is through the hard work of the supporting characters. You would think that Gibson, being a two time academy award winner that he is, would be able to really sell it. No dice. His character situation was serious but he turned Walter Black into someone to laugh at. 

     In my eyes, the only hope for this movie lies within Anton Yelchin's fresh acting. He certainly is the person to watch in this movie. He plays the role of Walter Black's son, who wants to be the exact opposite of his father. He plays this role with finesse. If it wasn't for his presence in the movie, I would have pressed the stop button midway. Overall, sorry Gib, I loved you in Braveheart, but you can't ask me to watch this movie again.

India Trip Day 6: ..."Me Jareyu" (...I'm Leaving)

      "Despite having been tortured by the weather and the humidity here, I have come to the realization that we made a little home for ourselves here. In a couple of hours we are going to have to say our goodbyes to Monachen Uncle, Glency (who I now call GD), Glaison, and Gracy Aunty. Shucks.
      Remember when I told you that I'll make a friend out of Glaison? Well here you go. We were just talking to each other about music, the photos I took during the trip, relationships, dreams, and our goals. We were dying of laughter at one point. He's only been with us a day and when it comes to family, one day just isn't enough. We just hit it off. As I was charging my cameras in the hotel lobby, he came down and we talked for about a good hour or so. I learned a lot about him. He's in school for engineering and he's been getting coaching classes for the profession since the 8th grade! But his real interests lie in creating music, playing badminton, and government. He wants to make a difference in this country. He sees that there are politicians in high standings who don't do anything but bicker about the other guy. He wants to be that hero that propels this country into a kingdom with the likes no one has ever seen. He has great vision and a heart of honesty. I would follow him. I learned all this in just a few minutes. That's all it takes when you talk to the ones you trust. I hope he does the thing in which he places his heart. He better talk to me through emails like I told him to as I was leaving.
       I don't think GD wanted to address the fact that we were leaving. We were all standing in the lobby about to leave and when she came down the stairs she wouldn't look at us, she just went straight for the newspaper. Wherever Glency goes in life, she's going to bloom like the lotus in the summertime. I say lotus mainly because that's her favorite flower. I asked her if she ever wanted pets to take care of and she said, "No, I like plants and taking care of them." She's driven, super confident, won't take shit from anyone, and very knowledgeable. She has a pure heart and a steel attitude. Solid in what she believes in and tough to the touch. And she should be, we all all have the same blood in our veins. Seriously though, she has the qualities that I want in myself. If I was around her more, maybe I would have caught on myself.
        Monachen uncle...I don't really know where to start with him. I don't even know if I could end if I begin either. Some of the things he says makes us forget that we're heading in different directions in a couple of hours. He annoys me when I'm busy doing something or when I'm busy doing nothing. Out of nowhere, he would slap the area near me very hard and scare the crap out of me. I got a great candid picture of him, which I am keeping, with his disapproval, for a very long time.
        Gracy Aunty is as serious as she is humorous, very. Having the perfect balance between the two is freakishly difficult but she proved it otherwise. In times of hardship, she stands like a tower. She isn't scared of anything which I know is where GD gets it from. In times of need, she's the one that stands tall in front of everyone. Literally, I think she's taller than I am. Actually, that's not really saying much. My mom looks to her when she is in a bad situation, it's going to be rough seeing them part. They couldn't stop hugging each other when they first met in the airport.
        We're eating our last breakfast with each other. I'm being a bit of a drama queen, aren't I? I don't know the next time we'll see each other. But when we do, even though our finances, personalities, and state of minds may be different, the fact that family is family will never change. When we're together, we'll have each other to lean on and support. We spent only a moment with each other but it is a moment we'll always look back on.
         I'm sitting down in the airport lounge area right now. My stomach hurts really bad right now, I think it's because of the hot pepper and the sweet syrup I ate before. Don't ask.
         During our touring, we bought something from a small boy selling products on the street. It's something that changes its shape if you push or pull segments of it. We've been playing with it ever since we got it. The bad thing is that it breaks apart really easily since it's only strings of aluminum with ends like semi-closed hooks. By the end of the day, it had no resemblance to what it looked like when we first bought it. I fixed it today morning and wanted to give it back to GD but she told me that I could keep it. It's very special. The more I thought about it, the more it symbolized the relationship what we two families shared. Even though sometimes there maybe brief spaces between us or breaks, it could always be put back together giving a beautiful product. I have to stop being such a sap.
        Flight 465 isn't going to be ready to board for another hour and forty five minutes. Time is slowly floating by. My sister and I took a tour of the airport shops and by the time we were done, only fifteen minutes had passed. My mom right now is laying passed out on my sister's shoulder and I don't know where my dad went. Soon we'll be in Kerala, the state which harbors pretty much all of my family. It's hard enough letting just one family go, now I am going to be tested with more than 20 others...sigh. The freaking flight is delayed by another hour and a half. Seriously, Air India, seriously? I thought we look out for each other."

India Trip Day 5: Dream Away

         The first part of this entry may be confusing. Hell, it was confusing to me looking back at the entry. I wrote this part right when I got up. I was probably still half asleep while writing it.

         "What a dream. All I remember though is one part having to do with what I wrote in my first blog entry and my little sister was in it. It's really strange. In the dream, I was writing notes from a book I read before. The name of the book is not coming to me. I then closed the cover of the book and the name of my blog was on the cover with someone else's name written under it! As soon as I saw it, I wanted to do find this guy and give him a piece of my mind, no, my fist. I remember walking around in determination and I told my sister that I need to find this person. What makes it stranger is that the book only had a chapter and a half of text written in it. It was incomplete. Why couldn't my dream be about me going back in time and taking the place of Shah Jahan or Akbar?  I'm waiting for an epic dream like that to blow my subconscious away. My subconscious, is there a worse place? I hope no one gets to see it.
         It's five in the morning here and I tried waking up my dad to tell him to get ready. No luck. He just turned the other way. If we're late in picking up his brother, he'd better not look at me. You know what, I'm going to play it off that I didn't try to wake him up at all just to confuse him. Hah!
         Yeah...That wasn't even brought up, failed attempt at confusion. It was a stupid idea anyway. That was an interesting trip to the train station. We had a possible encounter with a pickpocket but our aunt would have slapped him in the face and that's if I didn't nab him first. One lucky guy, I think he knew we were on to him so he went on his merrily way. We finally met up with Glaison and Monachen Uncle. Things were awkward at first with Glaison. We were very happy when we said our first words to each other and then we didn't talk for a good half hour. Truthfully, I don't think this awkwardness will leave us anytime soon. Hopefully it will. All I know so far is that he has played piano for a while and he likes to play badminton. All of a sudden I'm getting a headache. I think I've been staring the screen a little too long.
         Yo! Too much, too much. I can't believe I made it through the day. We visited so many places today, it's crazy. The only thing bad about it was that the dreadful humidity made that headache massively worse. As a result, I couldn't enjoy the first couple of sites as much as I wanted to. But after seeing the freaking amazing Lotus Temple all my problems just vanished.
         We had a lot of laughs today and we grew closer together as a family. We tried to surprise a family relative that lives in New Delhi but we ended up having a tough time. They expected us to get there a couple of days earlier but, anyway, we got through it as a family. Our driver was taking us for some shopping and, as I heard it, he kept calling the places "undergarment shops."  He kept on saying it and I couldn't help but get a little weirded out. Why does this guy keep on saying this and why is nobody else reacting? I don't want to go there. So as we were talking about what we were going to buy there and I casually answered, "undergarments." They all started to laugh hysterically. Supposedly, he was saying under-government. Hehe
          There's no sleep tonight. Tonight is out last night in New Delhi so we're going to put it to good use. We're going to talk to each other till morning. I don't know if I'm going to pull through that. I don't think I ever talked to someone throughout the night. Noon flight tomorrow to my second home. Kerala, its been too long. Eight years to be exact."