Movie Review: Cop Out

Partnering Bruce Willis and Tracey Morgan in this film is interesting to say the least.

On the surface, Cop Out can sound rather boring and I have to admit the plot is rather stupid – I don’t even know how to summarise the movie! However, to give the movie credit, it was a pretty good comedy. Jimmy (Bruce Willis) and Paul (Tracey Morgan) are best buddies in the New York Police Department. Due to their own stupidity, they both got suspended. Jimmy’s daughter was getting married and he needed some cash real quick, so he decided to sell his 1952 Andy Pafko baseball card to pay for the wedding. While he was in the shop, two robbers came in and took all valuables including the card. The rest of the movie follows them chasing after the card which led them to a gang leader who promised to return the card if they can find him his stolen car.

It is rather difficult to write a review for this film since I walked into the cinema with no expectations whatsoever. I thoroughly enjoyed the film; however, when I sit down and carefully think about what to write, its easy to pick out a few points that I could criticise on such as the dialogue-richness, the obnoxiouness of Tracey Morgan and the almost nonsensical plot.

However, having said that, if you’re looking for a few laughs, you definitely wouldn’t be disappointed. The addition of Seann William Scott half way through the movie added the comedy value to the movie I have to admit, although he didn’t stay for long. If you’re after a good laugh, I reckon this is definitely the only good comedy in the theatres at the moment.

Only at the movies on 8th March.

Whip It!

A chick flick with a twist.

She got it all, then she loses it all, and then everything slowly comes back together again, except there are more aggressiveness in this one.

Based on the novel of the same name, Whip It follows Bliss Cavender (Ellen Page) who is more comfortable in blue hair, boots, rockers t-shirt and black eye-liner than in gowns. But her mother (Marcia Gay Harden), a former beauty queen, constantly push her to take part in the local Miss Blue Bonnet Pageant, hoping that she will follow her footsteps in pageantary.

One day, while in Austin, she found a flier to a derby tournament, so together with her bestie, Pash (Alia Shawkat), they went to check out the scene. Now, one thing you need to know about Derby is, its like wrestlers on rollerskates in a rink. After the tournament, Bliss knew this was her scene, but to be part of the team, you have to be 21 years old.

She lied about her age, dug out her barbie skates from her attic and sneak out of her house every week to practice. What followed were lots of blood, sweat and fights as Bliss try to push her team to win, for the very first time. One day, her parents found out about her participation, the opposing team found out that she’s not 21 and her bestie was arrested at one of the tournaments she was competing in. Losing it all meant she had to either find a way to fight back or to give up everything – but being in a derby team means, you never give up!

Whip It is the first movie directed by Drew Barrymore. She was also the producer and one of the actress as well, and who knows how she did it. If you’re after a chillaxing movie after a long day, then this is the movie you want to go to.

She was born to save her sister

Thirty minutes into the movie, my friend beside me was bawling her eyes out already.

About 15 minutes later, the other person next to me was sniffling away.

Bloody hell!

My Sister’s Keeper was based on the best selling novel of the same name by Jodi Picoult. I’ve read the book, I knew what I was in for and I have been warned that it’s a major tear-jerker.

Watch the trailer here.

Anna Fitzgerald (Abigail Breslin) was conceived through In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) and genetically picked so that she would be compatible to her dying sister, Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) who has Leukaemia. She went through surgeries after surgeries right from the moment she was born – umbilical cells, bone marrow, blood cells and the list goes on. Then, at the age of 11, her sister’s kidney failed so she gave Kate one of her kidneys. At that point, she decided to sue her parents for medical emancipation. They all know that Kate is going to die, but their mother, Sara (Cameron Diaz), would not accept the fact and Kate’s survival is the only thing on her mind.

It wasn’t exactly a major tear-jerker, but I must admit that whoever sits through that movie without shedding a tear has got to be pretty inhumane. I adored the book and I was crossing all my fingers that the movie wouldn’t disappoint and it sure didn’t. From Diaz’s portrayal of a desperate mother trying to save her dying daughter to Breslin’s superb acting of a strong, supportive sister, it’s hard not to feel connected to them. What stood out the most was Vassilieva’s raw and honest depiction of a very sick, dying girl.

I must say that I was a tad bit annoyed by the editing at the beginning of the film and I had doubt about Nick Cassevetes because I thought The Notebook was a bit overrated. It was too idealistic to my liking; however, in this one he was spot on. The script, the acting and the cinematography really makes you think, ‘What would I do, if I lived a life knowing that everyday could be my last day’.

Towards the end, there was a scene where there was no dialogue, only soft background music and you could hear the people sniffling, sobbing, coughing and see shadows of people moving their hands to their faces.

Before it turns into a movie of just tears and sobs, there were quite a number of funny parts in it as well. Overall, I must say it was a very honest and powerful movie, and I would definitely watch it again.

Definitely a 3/4 stars for me.

EC

The Ultimate Hangover

You know you have had a good night when you wake up the next morning with a tiger, a chicken and a baby in your room, not remembering what happened the night before. The Hangover is a classic bachelor’s party gone wrong, based on the saying, “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”.

Drugs, alcohol, strippers, tomfoolery and bodily harm, The Hangover follows four very different men wanting a good night in Vegas. The soon-to-be groom Doug (Justin Bartha) is your typical responsible man, but his biggest mistake is bringing his future brother in law Alan (Zach Galifianakis) to his bachelor’s party. A bit of a misanthropic, Alan hasn’t had any close friends for as long a he can remember. So he was very flattered when Doug invited him to his bachelor party. Along for the ride were party animal Phil (Bradley Cooper), a school teacher who is sick of his married life and craves the wild antics he enjoyed as a youth, and Stu (Ed Helms), a coward who freaks out at everything he knows his girlfriend wouldn’t approve.

To express his gratitude, Alan brought along a bottle of Jager and everyone had a few shots. What they didn’t know is Alan had mixed what he thought was ecstacy into the drinks, which turned out to be date rape drugs. When the guys woke up the next day, they don’t remember anything. In the room is a tiger, a chicken and a baby, and their bestfriend Doug is missing.

The three best friends thus set on a quest to track what happened the night before in the hope of finding their bestfriend Doug. This is the part where it gets interesting. To top the icing on the cake, Mike Tyson made
a cameo appearance belting Phil Collin’s classic, “In the Air Tonight”. Director, Todd Phillips, who also directed Old School and Road Trip knows what he looks for in his male casts and if anything, he picked the perfect male cast in this movie. Zach Galifianakis absolutely stole the show with his witty personality dancing and floating through the scenes.

EC/LR

Connecting Up Australia

Two weeks ago, I found myself in a room of about 300 non-profit and community group representatives, government officials, salespeople and IT geeks. This ranged from those who know all about Web 2.0 to the ones who asked, “What’s a Twitter?”

The theme of this year’s Connecting Up Australia Conference was ‘The Online Future of Nonprofits – are we there yet?’. I originally thought this wasn’t even a question to be asked, given I work for a technology-based non-profit. After two days of hearing questions like, “Does my organisation need a Facebook account?” I would have to say we may have a little way to go.

The conference started off with a great keynote by Cheryl Kernot, Director of Teaching and Learning at the Centre for Social Impact at UNSW. She introduced the concept of social entrepreneurship and provided case studies of the various innovative social enterprises around the world.

Kernot was the Program Director at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurs in the UK. She argues that Australia’s economic system has always been about economic impact, profit, and loss, and she laid out the challenge to Australia to re-evaluate charities and non-profits in its current forms and provide a role or voice for third sector as equal partner alongside the public and private sectors in our national conversations.

After Kernot’s short but interesting keynote, Mark Pesce, a web expert, inventor, writer, educator and futurist, presented his take on the current phenomenon he describes as hyperconnection, which “can’t be controlled”. Pesce gave a really insightful presentation (which can be found here) of the transition of society and organisations from a stagnant, ‘tower of power’ who seek control over everything being said about them to a more organic, community-based engagement ‘cloud’ system. The idea is that people are now more connected than ever before. The clouds are communities, communication and/or groups who are constantly changing, sharing information, ideas and opinions, with influence from every angle possible, contrary to the top-to-bottom approach of the past. The cloud is constantly evolving, enhanced by the growth of connectivity and Web 2.0 technologies. More people can speak for the organisation, which he acknowledges can be dangerous. Pesce also identifies the ‘cloud’ wants to be spoken to authentically. And he says the great thing about the cloud is it can transform into a storm of action.

The emphasis shifted quickly to social media – especially how organisations can use social media to operate, communicate and engage with their stakeholders. There was added diversity with the inclusion of presentations on online fundraising, using traditional forms of communication like email, and an interesting presentation by Edelman (which can be found here – pdf file) on the power of using stories to inspire and engage your audience.

I was spoiled for choice with a multitude of break-out sessions presented, even writing about the sessions would be exhausting. So here’s a reader-friendly breakdown:

•    Social media allows you to listen as well as communicate with people, and if you listen carefully, you know where people are talking about you so you can better communicate with them.
•    People are after generic messages. They aren’t satisfied with just facts and figures or links. They want genuine messages and stories.
•    They want to know how to take action and they want to know where the opportunities are and how they can contribute. However, ‘actions’ need to be flexible yet clear about what you want them to do.

There were a lot of questions brought up at the conference including, “Should my organisation be on Facebook or Twitter”, “Should we invest in hiring someone to look after our social media” and “Is privacy a problem when on the internet?” Being stuck trying to jump on a bandwagon or current trend is a common concern and it’s something a lot of people are doing really well, really badly or not doing at all.

Jody Mahoney, Vice President of Business Development at the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology in the USA, presented the last keynote session which put a nice closing to the conference. She imparted some really good lessons to the participants - one I really liked was about treating business development like reality TV.

“Don’t spend the million dollars until you’ve actually won it. In the business world, sales projections and anticipated clients won’t pay your bills. You need to actually close the sale to impact your bottom line. So, just because you thought the sales presentation went great, don’t celebrate that new client until you receive the signed contract. You never know how something will turn out, and often things don’t work out exactly as you had planned. Always be smart and realistic in your approach; that’s the only true way to win in the end,” Mahoney says.

She also expressed how the bottom-up attitude is impacting the non-profit sector. “The rate of change in this sector is accelerating, and will be impacted by many things… C. K. Prahalad and Muhammad Yunus, though their messages are different, both believe that the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ knows what it needs better than anyone else and the speed of engagement will drive that innovation.”

Overall, the Connecting Up 09 team did an excellent job putting the conference together and attracting a group of very diverse people. Those already quite literate in social media may have found some of the content a bit basic, but hopefully their networks have now expanded to include many people who will be more savvy in this space after attending the conference..

Connecting Up Australia Conference is an annual conference on Information Communication Technology for the non-profit sector hosted by Connecting Up Australia.

EC/LR

Interview: Leading Influenza Expert Offers Advice on Swine Flu Outbreak

Alan Hampson OAM, is a World Health Organisation expert Advisor on influenza, and was until recently, Deputy Director and operational head of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza. He is also an influenza advisor to the Australian Government, a Member of the Australian National Influenza Pandemic Action Committee and Convenor of the Australian Influenza Specialist Group.

How is Australia preparing for Swine Influenza?
The Australian government has been doing a great deal for quite some time to deal with influenza, especially since the avian flu outbreak in 1997.

The Swine Influenza has up until recently only been spreading between swines. But it has now gone on to person-to-person transmission which is the big worry about this influenza. I would suggest it shouldn’t be called Swine Influenza anymore because it now has person-to-person transmission potential (Avian flu still maintains this name because there’s no evidence of person-to-person transmission yet).

The details of the virus so far are still sketchy.

The disease control in the US has gone to Mexico to help them evaluate the situation and I know there is some evidence that the virus is present in other places particularly in the USA and the concern is it might spread more widely.

Why are we so worried about influenza outbreaks?

We are always worried about new strains of influenza which are significantly different from those that have been in the population previously because they have the potential to spread far more rapidly than the older strains that have been in the population for some time.

If they happen to cause severe disease of course it will have an impact not only on individuals but the country as a whole, especially on the health system. That’s why you plan for the eventuality (of influenza) because of the prospect the H5 virus might turn into a virus that can spread from person-to-person.

Do you think the general public should be worried?

It’s not really a good idea for individual to stockpile things like masks and anti-flu drugs. The government has a stockpile which will be used judiciously in the event of any event of major outbreak of influenza in Australia and I think that is the most appropriate way to go.

That anti-viral stockpile would be used as an interim measure so we have vaccines available to protect people. The current vaccine contains a virus which is distantly related to the virus that is circulated in Mexico and the Americas. It’s not likely to give very significant protection against this new virus, so it’s a matter of making a new vaccine if the virus does continue to pose a threat of international spread. But on the other hand people being vaccinated with a virus even distantly related to this new virus may have some benefit – it may help to prime the immune system so they may respond better in the event they do become infected.