... life is so wonderful no matter what
... life is short so make the most out of it
... life is not destined, it is what you make out of it
... LOVE LIFE!!! :)
25 Months until Claret Batch 1986's 25th Anniversary !!! :)
woohoo!!!
Claret HS Batch 86 is this first graduating high school batch of Claret School of QC under the Cory Aquino regime. After a tumultuous but peaceful (notice the incongruity?) People Power in February 1986, Batch 86 faced College with renewed hope and a re-invigorated feeling in overcoming challenges ahead.
And that we did!!! Producing Doctors, Lawyers, Businessmen and Corporate Leaders, Batch 1986 exemplified the Claretian spirit of "developing individuals who are competent in the exercise of intellectual faculties and outstanding in the practice of Christian values" (one of the Claret's mission, ahem).
Current Alumni Officers of Batch 1986 -
President - Mr. Patric Laud Vice President (Int) - Mr. Albert Rios Vice President (Ext) - Mr. Edgardo Ortiz Secretary - Mr. Allan Balatibat Treasurer - Mr. Allan Young
My first movie blog pays tribute to my liking to horror films!!! From zombies to monsters films, these have been a staple in my dvd collection for the past 7 years. Horror or at least scary films touch the inner child in all of us.
The six films listed are from the newer generation of vampire films - those with special effects or CGIs but still maintaining the essence of the "horror"-ness of vampires. Although i have been a fan of the Peter Cushing series of vampire killers but watching them now has made them quite absurd and even comical. By the way, am not fan of the Twilight series as it tries to degenerate the vampire concept of being able to mingle with mortals and albeit even be romantic with one. I go for the "vampires-are-evil-thus-we-need-to-kill-them" genre. hehehe
The wanting to be scared but still have a good laugh as we know that they arent real... or arent they???? muwahahaha!!
For my first of a series of Top 5's, these are my Top 5 vampire films.
5. The Lost Boys. A new genre at the time of its release in 1987, itsateenagers-versus-teenager-vampires comical-horrorfilm. The film is R-rated and is about two young Arizonans who move to California with their mom to live in their grandpa's place and end up fighting a gang of teenage vampires.
Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim) Emerson move with their mother Lucy (Dianne Wiest) to Santa Carla, a coastal California town plagued with gang activity and unexplained disappearances. The family moves in with Lucy's father (Barnard Hughes), a cantankerous old man who lives in the outlying suburbs of town and who decorates his house with the product of his hobby: taxidermy.
The center of town life seems to be the local boardwalk, which has an amusement park. While Lucy gets a job at a local video and electronics store run by a man named Max (Edward Hermann), Michael is fascinated by a beautiful young woman he sees at a concert. When Michael follows her, she leaves the boardwalk with the leader of the local gang. The following night, Michael finds the young woman again and learns that her name is Star (Jami Gertz). As they are about to leave together on Michael's motorcycle, the gang leader, David, (Kiefer Sutherland) reappears and provokes Michael into a motorcycle race where Michael is almost baited into going over the edge of a sea-cliff. Michael punches David, who merely sees potential in Michael. David invites Michael back to his secret hangout, a dilapidated old hotel that sank underground after an earthquake.
At the lair, the gang leads Michael through an unsettling initiation involving chinese food, culminating with a swig from a wine bottle. A concerned Star warns Michael that he's drinking blood, but he ignores her and drinks from the bottle. Later that night, Michael joins the gang in hanging underside elevated train tracks. A train passes, and a stunned Michael watches the gang members purposefully fall off into a foggy gorge below. Unable to hold on any longer, Michael falls in as well. He wakes up in his bed, groggy and disoriented.
In the meantime, Sam meets two young brothers, Edgar and Alan Frog (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander) - a duo who not only run the local comics store, but they also hunt and kill vampires. Sam is skeptical of their claims but begins to notice Michael's strange behavior, such as sleeping all day, being sensitive to sunlight, and an episode of bloodlust. Michael's behavior gets worse, but Sam denies the Frog brothers' pleas to kill his brother.
The gang reveals to Michael that they are indeed vampires, and then show him by murdering teenagers at a party. Michael almost succumbs but leaves to meet Star, who explains they are both "half vampires," who will not achieve full vampire status until they have had their first kill. Then Michael and Star kiss and have sex.
Sam learns that if the "head vampire" is slain, all "half vampires" will revert back to human form. Due to his suspicious behavior, the store owner, Max, is suspected as the head vampire. Complicating things is that Max and Lucy are now dating. Sam and the Frog brothers attempt several vampire tests on Max (garlic, mirrors, etc.), but Max is unaffected by all of these tests, so it would seem that he is human. The plan now is to invade David's lair during daytime and slay the sleeping vampires, hoping that one of them is the head vampire. When the Frog brothers kill the first vampire, his dying screams awaken David and the others. Sam and the Frog brothers manage to escape from David while Michael takes Star and a young vampire boy named Laddie (Chance Michael Corbitt) back up to his car. The Frog brothers, Michael and Sam, plus the two vampire drive out of the cave. David promises revenge come sundown.
That night, Lucy is on a date with Max and Grandfather is away. Michael and the teens prepare for the gang's assault, arming themselves for the battle. The three remaining vampires attack and chaos ensues. Sam kills one with an arrow through the heart while another is knocked into a bath tub filled with holy water. Michael and David fly and battle until Michael impales David on deer antlers and kills him. However, Michael is still a vampire. Max and Lucy then appear and Max reveals himself to be the head vampire after all; the tests hadn't worked because he had been freely invited into the house by Michael before. He reveals that he had wanted Lucy as his mate and that his "family" and hers would merge. As Max is about to bite Lucy's neck, her father crashes his jeep through the wall of the house; the vehicle's hood is piled up with the large spiked fence posts, one of which impales Max, killing him. As the others stare in amazement, Grandpa casually gets a root beer from the refrigerator and remarks, "One thing about living in Santa Carla I never could stomach... all the damn vampires," indicating that he knew all about the vampires from the very beginning.
Video is available in VideoCity and Astro.
4. Vampires (John Carpenters) Who would have though that James Woods a dramatic actor would star as an off-beat foul-mouthed vampire slayer and actually be enjoyable to watch? "John Carpenter's Vampires" is a western-horror film directed by John Carpenter in 1998. Adapted loosely from the novel Vampire$ by John Steakley, the film stars James Woods as Jack Crow, leader of a Catholic Church-sanctioned team of vampire hunters. The plot is centered on Crow's efforts to prevent a centuries-old cross from falling into the hands of Valek, a master vampire. Vampires also stars Daniel Baldwin as Montoya, Sheryl Lee as Katrina, Thomas Ian Griffith as Valek, Tim Guinee as Father Adam Guiteau and Maximilian Schell as Cardinal Alba. Vampires is characterized by its strong Western overtures and allusions and its unapologetically masculine leads.
As a subplot, it tells of the Black Cross of Berziers that Valek needs to complete an exorcism which would make him able to walk in the daylight and that would make him unstoppable!! wow!!!
The movie tells of a vampire film aficionado Charlie Brewster who has a vampire for a neighbor, Jerry Dandridge. Charlie and his friends turn to vampire-killer, Peter Vincent, to help them prove that their neighbor is indeed a vampire and is responsible for several killings in their town. This angered Jerry and nearly kills Charlie in their house! In the end of course they do succeed killing the vampire but not without some neck-biting scenes!! The film is not boring at all, and again, the combination of corky humor and non-campy scenes do make a great scary movie. This is hard to find video so if you see one, buy it!!!
2. From Dusk Till Dawn The goriest vampire film i have seen so far but again this is the type of film that you should not take seriously which makes it more fun to watch. Note: Nevermind the movie's sequels, these pale much in comparison from the first "From Dusk Till Dawn'.
Plot :
Fugitive bank robbers and brothers Seth (George Clooney) and Richie Gecko (Quentin Tarantino) are fleeing the F.B.I. and Texas police. During the first few minutes of the film, they hold up and then destroy a liquor store and kill the clerk, and a cop. They eventually hijacked an RV driven by the Fuller family — Jacob – a father and a pastor experiencing a crisis of faith, his Chinese American stepson Scott (Ernest Liu), and daughter Kate (Juliette Lewis) — are on a vacation in their RV.
After crossing the border, they arrive at the "Titty Twister", a strip club in the middle of a desolate part of Mexico, where the Geckos will be met by their contact Carlos (Cheech Marin) at dawn. The group drinks to their merriment and and they take special notice of the club's star performer, Satanico Pandemonium (Salma Hayek) during an extended solo performance. However, near the end of her set, the doorman and bouncer that Seth and Richie beat up earlier arrive with back up, looking to settle the score with the Geckos. In a short confrontation, Richie is wounded, and as he bleeds, he is attacked by a transformed Satanico, now revealed as a vampire!!
Chaos ensues as the employees and strippers are all revealed to be vampires. Most of the patrons are quickly killed, and Richie is bitten by Pandemonium and bleeds to death. Only Seth, Jacob, Kate, Scott, a biker named Sex Machine (Tom Savini) and Frost (Fred Williamson), a Vietnam War veteran, survive the attack. They quickly establish that despite their reservations about believing in vampires, they have to accept the reality at hand in order to live through the night. Seth also convinces the group that Jacob is their best weapon, but only if he rediscovers his faith and confidence enough to become a preacher again. The slain patrons — including Richie — then come back to life as vampires, forcing Seth to kill his own brother.
As they struggled in killing the vampires, they escaped to a back storeroom and fashion anti-vampire weapons from items found therein, including a pneumatic drill, crossbow, shotgun and holy water (which requires Jacob to recover his faith to bless it). Jacob, knowing he will soon turn into a vampire as well after being bitten, makes a reluctant Scott and Kate promise to kill him when he changes.
The four then make their final assault on the undead. Jacob changes, but Scott hesitates to dispatch his father, allowing Jacob to bite Scott. Scott then hits Jacob with holy water and shoots him. Scott is then captured by several vampires who begin to devour him. Begging for death, Scott is shot by Kate. Only Seth and Kate are alive, surrounded by vampires. Just as they contemplate suicide, streams of sunlight shine through new holes in the walls, making the vampires back away.
Dawn has come, and Carlos is trying to shoot his way in. On Seth's call, Carlos' bodyguards blast open the door, letting in full sunlight and killing every vampire inside, aided in part by the disco ball in the center of the room. Carlos admits that he had never entered the club, but that he had thought it looked like "a fun place."
Kate asks Seth if she can go with him to El Rey, but he declines, She (in the RV) and Seth (with Carlos) go their separate ways after Seth gives Kate some cash. As they leave, the camera pans back to reveal that the "Titty Twister" was actually the top of a partially buried ancient Aztec temple, presumably the home of vampires for centuries, and that hundreds of trucks and bikes have been toppled down the side of the cliff.
Memorable lines : This is also hard to find video so if you see one, buy it!!!
It was greeted by a generally positive critical reception and was a box office hit grossing $82,522,790 domestically and $133,339,902 overseas for a total worldwide gross of $215,862,692,making it the most commercially successful adaptation of the novel to date. The film also won three Academy Awards, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Effects Editing and Best Makeup and was nominated for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration.
1. Salems Lots Technically a tv-movie, it was however released commercially in the 70's and was actually shown in movie theaters in the Philippines. I remember watching this as a kid and having a nightmare days after vividly remembering the scary face of "The Master"... scary!!! I believe, a cd copy of the film can still be found in Video City otherwise you can download it from bittorrent sites.
The plot revolves around a small American town that slowly becomes infested with vampires.The appearance of the lead vampire in the mini-series was inspired by the motion picture Nosferatu. As in that film, vampires are portrayed as monstrous and repulsive in keeping with legend and folklore, though in King's novel the character was described as more human looking.
Other vampire films considerables : Blade Trilogy (Wesley Snipes), Van Helsing (tecnically not a Vampire film) and Interview With a Vampire.
So if you have the chance to rent or download these movies, enjoy and have the scare of your life!!! :)
Madonna / Celebration spends another week at #1 United World Chart!!! The world surely loves Madonna!!!
Although the album drops to #20 at the Billboard Charts, the world pays tribute to Madges double cd by making her #1 for two weeks. It is rarely seen that best-of albums get this kind of buying attention...and as a bonus the sinle is still in the top 10 at #7 on its 10 week!!!
UWC article -
Despite a 47% sales decrease to 172.000 copies, Madonna's best of compilation 'Celebration' holds the top spot of the global album chart for a second week. In 3 weeks on the tally the album moved nearly 700.000 units.
Let's take a look on the year-to date chart: Lady GaGa's 'The Fame' leads with nearly 3,8 million copies, following by U2's 'No Line On The Horizon' (3,4 million), Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' (3,3 million) and Kings Of Leon's 'Only By The Night' (3,0 million).
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Celebration debuts at #1 Worldwide!!! #7 at the Billboard Album Charts
1.. Madonna - CelebrationWarner Bros. - 323.000 - 1 week at No.1 - Largest Sales Increase (Billboard #7) 2.. Paramore - Brand New EyesFueled By Ramen - 273.000 - Hot Shot Debut 3.. Barbra Streisand - Love Is The AnswerColumbia - 244.000 (Billboard #1) 4.. Mariah Carey - Memoirs Of An Imperfect AngelIsland - 202.000 (Billboard #3) 5.. Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way To BlueParlophone / Virgin - 160.000
BILLBOARD SHOCKER TWIST : BARBRA IS #1 !!! Paramore is #2 !!!
Thus Barbra extends her lead as FEmale with Most #1 Albums with 9, Madge is second with 7 and Mariah is third with 6.
I guess i was excited for having a status quo on the placing.
Well, we have the UWC to be excited about as we will see the full week sales of Celebration..
Billboard article -
While many were focused on a battle between Paramore's "Brand New Eyes" and Mariah Carey's "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" for the top slot on the Billboard 200 this week, Barbra Streisand trumps them both. "Love Is the Answer" earns Streisand her ninth No. 1 on the chart, opening with 180,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan.
The debut extends Streisand's lead as the female act with the most No. 1s in the history of the Billboard 200. It's also the her best sales week and highest charting album since 1997, when "Higher Ground" started at No. 1 with 207,000.
"Answer" beats the arrivals of Paramore's "Brand New Eyes," which enters at No. 2 with 175,000, and Mariah Carey's "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel," arriving at No. 3 with 168,000. First-week sales projections had estimated that Paramore would finish ahead of the two divas. As it turns out, Streisand surprised many with how well her album sold in non-traditional ways -- such as through Starbucks, QVC and via her Web site -- and that likely threw a wrench into forecasting sales.
"Brand New Eyes" gives Paramore its best sales week and highest charting album ever. The band's sophomore album, "Riot!," peaked at No. 15 in 2007. "Eyes" also starts at No. 1 on the Top Digital Albums tally with a whopping 73,000 downloads.
Carey's "Memoirs" begins its Billboard 200 life with 168,000 -- off quite a bit from the opening of her last set, 2008's "E=MC2." The latter effort bowed at No. 1 with 463,000, her biggest first-week sum ever.
Those titles are just three of the record-breaking eight entries in the top 10. Rock band Breaking Benjamin's "Dear Agony" arrives at No. 4 with the act's best sales week -- 134,000. It's the Hollywood Records band's first release since 2006's "Phobia" debuted and peaked at No. 2 with 125,000.
Alice in Chains visits the top 10 for the first time since 1996 as its new album, "Black Gives Way to Blue," bows at No. 5 with 126,000. The album is the band's first with new vocalist William DuVall, who replaced the band's late frontman Layne Staley in 2006.
Madonna's new greatest hits set, "Celebration," starts the party at No. 7 this week with 72,000. Rounding out the top 10 entries are Miranda Lambert's third album, "Revolution" (No. 8 with 66,000) and Selena Gomez and the Scene's "Kiss and Tell," which debuts just a little behind Lambert's sum at No. 9 with 66,000. Only two albums in this week's top 10 also appeared on last week's chart: Pearl Jam's "Backspacer" falls from No. 1 to No. 10 with 58,000 (down 69%) while Jay-Z's "The Blueprint 3" drops from No. 2 to No. 6 with 89,000 (down 34%). >>
25 Months
