Sunday, February 22, 2015

Movie: John Wick


There was no way that I was passing up this movie. After seeing a slew of Keanu Reeves's movies on HBO, Cinemax and Star Movies a couple of months before the release of this movie, I really, really had to see this. Movie critics pegged it as a good movie. Gun-fu as they called it. Whatever, it's Keanu. That's more than enough reason.

Truthfully, I wasn't digging Keanu's Snape-like do but then he's been criticized for his hobo look in real life so I'll let this one slide. I was miffed at how brief Bridget Moynahan appears in the film. She's beautiful and they could milk the sob story of how she's dying of cancer for all it's worth. But then I remember that this one's an action flick. So Keanu becomes a widower. His sweet wife leaves him a parting gift, a wee beagle pup named Daisy. They spend a lot of time together bonding in the Charger.

Wee beagle pup Daisy
The both of them meet their nemesis at a gas station. This spoiled brat of a boy was leering at the Charger and wanted it for himself, conversing in Russian, assuming that he wouldn't be understood. John Wick replies in fluent Russian surprising the entourage and calmly said that the Charger isn't for sale.

The not-for-sale Charger
We're led to think that all is well until John Wick wakes up in the middle of the night to odd noises. His house got trashed by the Russian posse he met earlier at the gas station. The spoiled brat really had a hard-on for the Charger and just had to have it. They even beat up poor Daisy and John Wick and left them for dead. John woke up to find a dead Daisy who made it to his side. A pissed off John Wick excavates his stash of weapons and calls people he used to work with to help him look for this SOB.


Yes, the same guy who plays a pathetic fool in Game of Thrones. He needs to die in this movie! Since he's still alive in GoT, poetic justice is imperative here.


A very unassuming hotel it seems but this is the shelter for the sinister. John Wick comes here to look for answers and for vengeance. This hotel has neat rules. No getting back at fellow criminals staying here, etc, etc. If you're expecting Keanu to dole out kicks like in the Matrix, it's basically his guns that does the job.

All is well after all, John Wick gets each and every Russian scumbag and he gets a new bad-ass dog in the end. Revenge really is, best served cold.

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Movie: The Equalizer

Okay, I saw this movie way after it's release. I like Denzel Washington, great actor, probably going into the same direction as Liam Neeson, doing action movies at an advancing age (um, sorry but had to point out the obvious). 


We see Mr. Washington's character here as an upstanding citizen, helping the people around him better themselves. He hangs out at this diner, reading books which are, according to him, part of his deceased wife's 100 books to read. In this diner he meets the troubled character of Chloe Moretz.


He later finds out that Chloe Moretz's character is a street walker, under one of the stables run by the Russian mob. Her character's really feisty and she mauls one of her customers, and she ends up at the hospital after her pimp decides to teach her a lesson. Denzel then finds out about this and decides to even out the playing field, so to speak. So he gathers whatever information he could from Chloe's street walker friend and he becomes a man on a mission. He goes to their lair above a Russian restaurant. I initially expected big guns, lots of firepower, and mangled bodies. But he disables and kills all of them in under 3 minutes in smooth moves, utilizing whatever he could get his hands on and make them into lethal weapons. The result was the disruption of the Russian's criminal activities in the area. The big boss naturally wanted a head to be skewered on a spike. So he sends in this guy to do the job.


Marton Czokas, I remember this guy in Ultraviolet. He actually makes a very convincing and sadistic villain. As the movie unfolds, we discover how a guy who works as a supervisor at a place like Ace Hardware or True Value could have McGuyver skills. Denzel's character as it turns out is a special forces agent, trained to kill, and faked his death with the help of high ranking friends in the government, just so he could have a normal life. Since the bad Russian guy seems to be one step behind him, Denzel goes to his close friend to do research on the Russian guy. Said villain also happens to be ex-Russian speciaforces. They go head-to-head in a showdown. Of course Denzel wins and he goes an extra mile to kill the head of the mob in Russia and gives Chloe's character a new lease in life. The final scene shows Denzel answering emails for help. It's a feel good movie, leaving us the thought that there could be someone out there who could help us with the insurmountable.

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Movie: Taken 3

Who's your daddy?
Ooh yeah! Certainly waited for this movie. What I've been dying to know is who's the villain this time? Is it still a relative or kinsman of the Albanians? (Seriously, if it is, bitter much.) Who else got pissed off this time?

The scene opens much like in the first movie. Bryan Mills is looking for a birthday present for his daughter. He ends up buying a stuffed panda, goes to his daughter's apartment where his gift wasn't well received. His daughter appears frazzled after discovering that she's pregnant right before her father arrives. Yeah, Kim the lovely daughter, has brought trouble upon herself. First was lying about attending a concert, then too much Facetime at the pool in Turkey while her dad was trying to contact her, and now getting knocked up. I would call it justice if she was the one who got harmed in the movie but nay, to my dismay.

Don't worry, Daddy's gonna fix this...
Bryan Mills got framed for the murder of his wife after he went out for a bagel run. He goes off to seek the killers and in his way stands the bagel badger.

 I better get some cream cheese to go with the bagel
I have no doubts with this guy's acting chops. Forest Whitaker could easily play the role of a good cop. Sadly, all he did in this movie was just figuring out Bryan Mill's next move. As a good cop, I would have loved to see him thwart Bryan Mill's moves and bring him in for custody, make us want to hate him for doing so. But in this movie, we despise him for touching the bagels.

Soon enough we discover that the killers were the Russian mob (collectively speaking) but the brains behind it is Kim' s stepfather. He owes the Russian money and decided to cash in on his wife's insurance policy. Since the first movie, Liam Neeson' s got all the moves of a bad-ass daddy. All the bad guys were accounted for and put out of their misery. I wished he went bad-assed dad on Kim' s boyfriend.

Taken 3 may not be at par with the first two movies. The first part totally awed us since nobody expected Liam Neeson to do chase scenes on foot, kicks, punches and stuff. The second movie shows us serious tracking skills that I was stupefied. All I could say is that this mellowed down to a fitting end. On a lighter note, kudos to the Russian boss who did his action scenes in his tighty whiteys. That was something.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Experience: Yoga At Studio 108

I heard the criticisms about my weight from my lovely parents one time too many already. I'm definitely not a size 4, I know that I haven't done my part in devoting to a healthy me post-residency training, but WTF? I'm definitely not blind or oblivious to my "larger-than-life" debacle. I have developed some loathing for the gym. I hate squeezing myself in an already jam packed Zumba class, waiting for my turn at the treadmill and other machines. One night while having Saturday supper at Paseo Arcenas, I came across Studio 108.


I went home that night with a plan. Two days later, I purchased 15 sessions at Php 2,400 that was valid for 60 days. If I could stick to this then there's still hope for me. 


It's not my 1st time to do yoga. I dabbled at it while I was attending med school and eventually shied away from the mat when my schedule perpetrated the demise of any form of exercise. During the 2nd year of my residency training, a few yoga studios were established aside from Ananda Marga. I got to attend a studio near IT Park and ran into a few classmates from med school, co-residents from another department and a male consultant with his wife. The affair was short-lived in that studio. I managed to attend 3 classes under this teacher who wasn't fat-friendly. His crime was sloth to the 1st degree, failure to modify the asanas to my obvious handicap. Anyway, by the time I was resolved to give it a second chance, the studio closed.


I was really praying that I wouldn't get turned off with this studio but if I did, I'd just suck it up. The place easily had a homey feel and the receptionist as well as the owner are friendly and approachable. They offer different classes, healthy food and drinks, making it easy to choose and live a healthy lifestyle. By now I have already attended 15 classes and then some. I couldn't reach my toes when I started and my heels are way off the ground during downward dog and my shoulder sockets are screaming for mercy. Now I can proudly do both. I now long for the day when I can do the crow pose, mermaid pose, binds, full lotus pose, and the headstand. I never came from a class feeling dejected. Sweating like a pig is empowering in this case. I am so grateful for all my teachers who have made me do things that I never thought I'd be able to do and for inspiring me to practice, be patient, and trust my body that I'll be able to do the asanas in my own time. Namaste!

Singapore: Third Time, Still Charmed

I have to admit that my happiest vacations happened in Singapore (not that I've trotted around the globe, yet). My first time was with my parents where I was able to see how well Western culture meshed with the East, discipline could certainly be achieved and by God, how clean the country was my lungs were in shock.

The second time I came back was with my close friend, just right after we graduated from med school. We went to visit our barkada who has been residing and working there in Changi Hospital. We were able to experience the now defunct budget terminal, did a crazy side tour to Malaysia which we vowed never to go there again by bus, and riding the MRT as if we have lived there for years (thanks to our friend's flatmate who lent us a copy of a guide on transport around Singapore). We ate as the locals did at various hawker's area and we had fellow Filipino tourists asking us how to get from point A to B seeing that we were fearless in getting around the city.

On my third time, I came with my sister who had an hour's glimpse of the airport during a stopover en route to Auckland, New Zealand for greener pastures (literally). Since our family vacation to Macau became a bust, my sister gladly decided to tour Singapore before heading back to her daily grind in NZ.

You might probably wonder what tips I could impart since it's my third time touring this lovely little country, which couldn't be seen on the globe as our Singaporean taxi driver pointed out. Well, first of all, it won't hurt if you plan ahead.  For this trip, we had little time to plan (like 5 days) and work out all the details.  But we had help from Trip Advisor and other travel sites on where to stay. According to my friend who travels a lot, if you're booking a trip way ahead of time, then you can really save if it's a promo flight or budget airlines. But if you have to make a quick get away, flying full service doesn't cost as much as you think compared to non-promo flights on a budget airlines.

On arrival at the airport and after getting through Immigration, you can have your money changed for Singaporean dollars at the airport.  The chances of getting fake money are nil, and the exchange rate is fairly priced. Before going out of the airport, head over to one of the counters that sell NETS FlashPay cards, priced at 12 Singaporean dollars. This will save you a lot of time in paying for the bus, and MRT and you can buy food with it (fastfood). There's 5 Singaporean dollars worth that you can use right away to commute.  Top-ups are available at the MRT stations and convenience stores.

If you're in no hurry to get to your hotel or you could certainly wait, there are bus transfers from the airport at 8 dollars each for adults. Since we arrived at around 1 am and getting through Immigration took about an hour due to huge tourist traffic so we took the cab and it cost us 24 singaporean dollars. Don't forget to take the free maps at the airport. They're very useful guides in going around the city by determining which line to board and where the different MRT stations are. Also, the counter where we bought our NETS Flashpay card also sells cheaper tickets to Universal Studios and they also sell tickets to other attractions as well.

We were booked in BIG Hotel in Bugis area. I was apprehensive at first since during our first trip there, we toured around Bugis and it was the only place where we saw the police patroling the place. So much has changed now since the area is now the artsy district, where the Singaporean National Library is located, with numerous school for the arts, and art galleries now filling up the place. They did retain the huge market place where you could buy a lot of stuff for a very small fee. You could get diabetes from eating all those Lindt chocolates because they come sooooo cheap here. BIG Hotel came with buffet breakfasts serving Asian and Western food. So we usually eat up before we go. Stores still open around 10 am like they used to 8 years ago so we end up eating our lunch like around 4pm, just when are feet really get tired from going around.
Look at what we found in Bugis
In order to save and maximize our time in Singapore, we planned the places to visit according to the route of the MRT lines. The drawback of BIG Hotel's location in Bugis is that most of the streets are one way and the bus was just confusing so we had to rely on the MRT. On the first day we were able to cover Chinatown, Little India, Orchard Road, and Clark Quay which is best to visit at night.
Escalator leads to MRT Station (Chinatown)
Chinatown is the best destination during daytime and you could get your souvenir fix here at amazing prizes. Nobody forces you to buy anything and they don't get mad if you're just window shopping. We were hoping to find the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple but the old woman kept pointing to a building that looked like part market and part cultural center. We also tried looking for the Heritage Centre but it was so inconspicuous since it was flanked by jam-packed restaurants. My sister and I were so happy to stumble upon The Tintin Shop.
The 5th Tintin Shop in the world
We were able to go to what felt like the weirdest mall ever! We went round and round in search for an exit. Turns out the big entrance is where you exit to the main road.
Round and round we go
Find me if you can
Tourists and souvenir fix
Next destination was Little India while we didn't stay long. Not too many people walking around in some parts.
In Little India
Main thoroughfare in Little India

One of the churches found in Little India
We were getting hungry so we decided to head out to Orchard Road. We forgot which mall it was where Nando's was located but what happy tummies we had.

Chicken Peri-Peri

To spice things up
The best sidewalk ever!
Where we got off the MRT from Little India
Ngee Ann City, Orchard Road

Posh as they come
If you're brave enough to go out of your comfort zone, a very good experience would be to eat with the locals. There's a hawker's area every block or so and you can save 5 dollars at least for meals.

The Mosque
Just right across the mosque was the best murtabak. Since they ran out of beef, we had mutton. No grease, no annoying lamb smell. Another good place to eat is at Lau Pa Sat, which is the biggest hawker's place according to our friend. Adjacent to it is a street full of satay stalls much like to Larsian's in Cebu City. My apologies for the lack of pictures. The place was too hazy with smoke and we were too overcome with hunger after touring the Gardens By the Bay. The Super Trees were truly super!

The Super Trees
Time flies when you're having fun... will definitely visit Singapore again to explore hidden treasures in shops located in narrow alleys in Bugis area. Au revoir!