Holiday

Every time I think of Christmas this romantic comedy flick called The Holiday crosses my mind. I've seen this movie so many times but it just never get old and as a matter of fact I watched it again just recently. I love to travel so the thought of traveling last minute excites me. So, here goes my own synopsis.

The Holiday (2006)

Cast:

• Amanda Woods (Cameron Diaz) – rich movie trailer producer
• Iris Simpkin (Kate Winslet) – society column editor from London
• Graham (Jude Law) -Iris' brother
• Miles (Jack Black) – does musical scores for movies
• Arthur Abbott (Eli Wallach)– renowned scriptwriter during Hollywood's golden age.

Plot:

Amanda Woods kicked her lived in partner Ethan out of her L.A home because he slept with his young Secretary. Amanda lives in a humongous house in L.A, a workaholic and a movie trailer producer thus she makes a lot of money but less time for Ethan.

On the other side of the world, Iris Simpkin, a column editor from London, is busy with her column (amidst the company Christmas party) happened to be still madly in love with her ex-boyfriend/co-worker Jasper Bloom. Iris caught Jasper cheating but remained friends with the bloke and as a matter of fact gifted him this first edition book he's so yearning to have for Christmas. On that same fateful night Jasper's engagement was announced (with a girl from the circulation department) leaving Iris an emotional wreck.

Amanda asked for a break from work to get over her heartbreak over Ethan whilst Iris thought of going somewhere to mend her broken heart. Amanda saw an ad posted online about 'house exchange' and eventually picked Cotswold, 40mins. from London. Iris posted the ad online a long time ago and the two over chat eventually agreed to do the 'house exchange' ASAP. With Iris, she aimed to go somewhere far to fall out of love from Jasper which she pathetically told him via email.

Iris live at an old country house faraway from the city, it was winter which was different from where Amanda hailed from, windy but no snow. Iris was flabergasted as soon as she set foot at Amanda's house because it was humongous which is quite the opposite with Amanda's reaction once she reached Iris' little country home. It was a small country house with fire place and a dog. Amanda thought of heading home the next day thinking she never felt more alone until a sot Graham knocked the door, Iris' big brother. Graham just would like to sleep for a night to get over his hang over from drunkeness and was surprised to see Amanda, a stranger inside his sister's crib. Amanda thought Graham was gorgeous and t'was mutual. The two made out although told each other not to make a big deal out of what happened. Graham told Amanda in case she changes her mind to drop by at the Pub. Amanda did and the rest was 'it's complicated.'

Going back to Iris in L.A, she met Miles, he was supposed to pick up Ethan's stuff from Amanda's house. Miles introduced Maggie to Iris, his girlfriend. Iris still head over heels with Jasper received a phone call from the later about something his writing about. Jasper asked for Iris' addy to 'send' her the manuscripts yadda yadda which is perhaps just an excuse for him to know Iris' whereabouts and probably hoping they could patch things up despite Jasper's being engaged already. Iris met this old neighbor Athur Abbott, lost in the neighborhood, offered to drive him back to his house. The two became friends and Arthur learned that Iris is in L.A getting over a guy.

Back to UK, Amanda visited Graham's house and found that he already have two lovely daughters and thought at first he's married. Graham confessed his a widower and his two daughters loved Amanda since there hasn't been any female in the house other than their Aunt Iris since their mom passed away.

Iris on the other hand confessed to Miles (after Miles got heartbroken and saw Maggie with another guy whilst him and Iris were at the video store) that she's in L.A to get over Jasper. Miles realized he's luckier compared to Iris so he made her pasta, wrote a musical score for both Iris and Arthur. Arthur was invited btw to an event to honor his contribution to the hollywood movie world. Iris helped him to be fit for the event and discard his cane.

Amanda and Graham went out on a date. She told Graham she hasn't shed a tear since her parents broke up. Graham found it really peculiar but nevertheless accepted Amanda as she is. Miles little by little fell in love with Iris after seing how lovely she is as a person.

Fast forward, Arthur successfully attended the event in his honor, Amanda and Graham agreed to make things work despite the distance. Amanda finally cried a river the day she was supposed to go back home to L.A. Miles asked Iris if he could spend New Year's eve at Iris' place in the UK and it was a happy ending.

FIN

I love this movie because it didn't just focus on one story. There's Amanda's story, Iris, Miles and Arthur. Plus, I love the setting especially Iris' old country home. It's like the best of both worlds. This is a movie that will never bore you because there's a lot of things going on.

Foodie...

Ok, 'nuff of the movie stuff i'm engrossed about, let me just share this chocolate cake recipe I'm raving about. This is the only steamed cake that I made which never failed me measurements wise haha! So let me share it with you guys. I'm looking to make a special chocolate cake this coming Christmas.

my home made chocolate cake, steamed
for roughly 30 mins.

Chocolate Cake

½ cup unsweetened cocoa

12 Tbsp. All purpose flour

½ tsp. Baking soda

¾ tsp. Baking powder (0.05 oz.)

¼ tsp. Salt

2 large eggs (room temperature)

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil/coconut oil

2 tsp. Vanilla extract

½ cup buttermilk (room temperature)

2016 AlDub calendar...

In the absence of buttermilk, I use evaporated milk with white vinegar as substitute. It always come out just fine.

Etc.

Before I end this bloggie, my sissies bought a couple of AlDub calendars which came free if you order McDonald's chicken meals. We made sure we get ours as souvenirs for this years phenomenal love team. Hey they set the twitter world on fire and made tons of TV commercials. What's not to love about them right?

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Relax. See a movie.

• Water for Elephants (Drama/Love story) •

Main Characters

• Jacob Jankowski - Polish-American; main character, fell in love with Marlena

• Marlena Rosenbluth - Star of the Circus, Benzini Brothers; wife of August

• August - Marlena's Husband, Owner of Benzini Brothers 

Jacob, an elderly man stubbornly refused to leave the place where the circus would be held claiming he didn't escape from a nursing home. Charlie, the circus manager,  thought that Jacob might've indeed escaped from a nursing home. Charlie, out of compassion invited Jacob to his office and eventually found the old man's circus story interesting upon seeing the photo of a woman on an elephant sitting in Charlie's desk. 

Flashback - Jacob as a young man studying at an Ivy league school Cornell University as a Veterinary medicine student. He received a devastating news the day of his final exam--his parents passed away leaving him empty handed. He learned his parents were in deep debt leaving him no home no nothing. 

Jacob took the first train he saw after walking many miles. He later on learned that he hopped on a traveling circus train called Benzini Brothers. 

He started working outright after he was invited by the men on the train who also works for the circus. Jacob saw Marlena, the beautiful bombshell who happened to be the circus' main attraction and her as white as a snow horse. Jacob noticed Marlena's horse is partially limping and seemed in pain since he's a VetMed student on his final semester.

Jacob was later on introduced to August so he gets hired as an official circus employee. August declined at first but when Jacob mentioned that Marlena's horse may never walk again he got August's full attention. August learned Jacob is from an ivy league school Cornell and even called him a veterinarian thus welcomed him to the circus, introduced him to Marlena (his wife). 

Jacob secretly fell in love with Marlena. He also learned that August has temper, a schizophrenic and at the same time cruel to animals. Because of Jacob's genuine love for animals he suggested to put down Marlena's horse to put an end to the poor animal's suffering. Jacob shot the horse, maybe inhumane but the most humane way to alleviate the horse's pain in an instant. 

The story is quite long but after Marlena lost her horse, August bought an old elephant named Rosie to perform with Marlena. Jacob often gets invited to dinner by the couple and he learned that August is possesive and sometimes hurts Marlena. 

August became cruel to Rosie and hurts the elephant because it won't obey any command from him. Jacob then learned that Rosie was trained in Polish thus solves the problem. Marlena alongside Rosie became the star of the show again. 

Marlena and Jacob fell in love, August found out about it, Marlena told Jacob that August is planning to dispatched him and the later offered Marlena to run away with him. The two did but eventually got caught by August's men in a hotel room, Jacob was mauled and the men took Marlena. 

Jacob went to the circus and there goes the havoc. August's dusgruntled former employees started unleashing the carnivorous circus animals like the lion, tiger etcetera. There was a stampede and while August is on the act of strangling Marlena (wh totally went nuts) the elephant Rosie then pulled something from the ground and hit August which instantly killed him. It was a relief, not the bloody part but that's the only way to end the story, get the villain killed right? and in that case no human gets penalized. 

Jacob and Marlena, inspite of the age difference got married and had five kids. 

The end.

Back to present day - Charlie agreed to Jacob getting a vet job at the circus. 

I honestly loved this flick. I did read few chapters so at least I already have an idea that it was during the time of depression. The book was quite lenghty and despairing but the movie was awesome. Given a chance i'll watch it again cuz there are very few movies nowadays that makes sense fortunately amongst them was Water for Elephants.

• Side Effects (Suspense) • 

Emily is suffering from depression long before. Her husband was incarcerated which even more heightened her depression. After her husband was released from prison she continuously acted weird because of her condition and turned to her new shrink, Dr. Banks who later on prescribed this experimental drug (seen on TV commercial) to combat her depression.

Emily used to see a different shrink in the past (catherine zeta-jones) but quit seeing later on. Things has gotten disarray when Emily started sleep walking as a side effect of the anti-depressant drug prescribed to her. One fateful day, Emily stabbed her husband while sleep walking which led to his death. 

Emily was detained because all the blame was put on Dr. Banks, he became legally responsible for Emily being his patient. Later on Dr. Banks learned that Emily is a liar and drilled down on him to be responsible for her condition. 

I found out later during the later part of the movie that Emily's former female shrink (catherine zeta-jones) has a relationship with her thus manipulates her and blame the crime on Dr. Banks so they could continuously conceal their illicit relationship. Zeta-Jones was also then responsible for Emily's money through bank transfers to different accounts making her look broke despite having a filthy rich husband with whom she eventually killed. 

zeta-jones and Emily's ploy did not last for very long. Dr. Banks used Emily to con zeta-jones but later on the two were both incarcerated. Dr. Banks reclaimed his job as a shrink and life with his girlfriend and stepson. 

I enjoyed this movie seriously because of the twists aside from Rooney Mara is one of the best actress i've seen to date (remember the Girl with a Dragon Tattoo hollywood version?). This flick won't bore you. 

• The Haunting in Connecticut (Horror) •

The Campbell family moved to upstate Connecticut because one of the Cambell boys, Matthew has cancer and they need to save money traveling far from home to the hospital. 

The Campbell's then chose this old Victorian home because of its low cost. The family settled in and started experiencing weird things. Matthew picked the basement room because he found it big enough for him inspite of the eerie locked sliding door.

Matthew started having visions about the house as if he gets teleported to a different time, same house yet he saw a lot of corpses occupying the locked door in his room. He then saw Jonah, the son of the house owner in his visions/nightmare or whatever who seemed to have strong psychic abilities.

Lemme just skipped that part a bit because the Campbell's then learned that the house they bought used to be an old funeral home. Imagine how spooky that is right?

Anyways, moving on, the house later on seemed possessed, things gets hauled here, there and everywhere, lights flicker, Matthew seemed possessed too.

Matthew became friends with a priest at the Cancer institute who happened to know matters about the supernatural. The priest advised they have to free Jonah's spirit and the rest of the souls trapped in the house. And so Matthew did by burning the house down but eventually almost caused his life. The Campbell's eventually survived.

This movie was ok. T'was lenghty though but nevetheless it's tolerable compared to other nonsense horror movies. 

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flick picks

the karate kid

top billed by jackie chan and jaeden smith. 

Twelve-year-old Dre Parker and his mother Sherry move from Detroit to Beijing after Sherry gets a job transfer at her car factory. After a day in a park, Dre develops a crush on a young violinist, Meiying, who reciprocates his attention, but Cheng, a rebellious kung fu prodigy whose family is close to Meiying's, attempts to keep them apart by violently attacking Dre, and later bullies him at school. During an attack, the maintenance man Mr. Han comes to Dre's aid, revealing himself as a kung fu master. (Wikipedia)

Closer

stars natalie portman, jude law & julia roberts.

In the opening scene, twenty-four-year-old Alice Ayres and Dan Woolf see each other for the first time from opposite sides of a street as they are walking toward each other among many other rush hour pedestrians. Alice is a young American stripper who just arrived in London, and Dan is an unsuccessful British author who is on his way to work where he writes obituaries for a newspaper. Alice looks in the wrong direction as she crosses the street and is hit by a taxi cab right in front of Dan's eyes. After he rushes to her side she smiles to him and says, "Hello, stranger." He takes her to the hospital where Alice is treated and released. Afterward, on the way to his office, they stop by Postman's Park, the same park that he and his father visited after his mother's death. Pausing in front of the office before he leaves her and goes to work, he reminds her that traffic in England tends to come on from the right, and on impulse, he asks her for her name. They soon become lovers. (Wikipedia)

I feel so lazy writing movie synopsis today. 

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