Ben Low turned 17 yesterday, so SK, Ben and I went down to GV Bishan to catch Seven Pounds, but not before Ben finished a plate of Café Cartel’s Pork Ribs, which looked excellent. Happy birthday, Benjamin!

It’s funny how the last movie I blogged about was about living your life to the max, and then the lead character winds up killing himself in this one. Anyway, here’s a look at the movie – Will Smith stars as Ben Thomas, an IRS agent who killed 7 people in a freak crash and so is preoccupied with changing 7 lives to make amends. He finds Emily Posa, a woman who’s struggling to pay her taxes, and gives her a deadline extension, gives his house to an abused mother, and donates bone marrow and a kidney. Along the way, he strikes up a friendship with Emily, which quickly morphs into a relationship.

The turning point comes when Ben’s brother shows up while he’s having dinner with Emily, and – surprise! ‘Ben’ is revealed to be Tim, who apparently borrowed the real Ben’s IRS pass and impersonated him. Anyway, Tim goes to shag Emily one final time, before committing suicide in his bathtub with the help of a box jellyfish. So Emily winds up with Tim’s heart and she meets the guy who received Tim’s corneas, and the movie ends with them locked in a passionate embrace. It’s also revealed that Tim donated something to Ben and half a lung to another woman, so it conveniently adds up to 7 lives saved, yay.

The thing about this movie is that the storyline is actually surprisingly simple but made horribly complex as it isn’t in chronological order. Since the movie opens with Tim calling 911 in the tub, the entire show’s basically a long series of flashbacks, and worse, flashbacks-in-a-flashback, just to get to that scene, which successfully serves to confuse the poor viewer. It’s the first time I’ve caught a Will Smith flick, but his acting really is pretty good. He’s supposed to portray a suicidal dude and manages to stay morose for the entire duration, except when he’s with Emily, of course. 3/5 stars.

All in all, Seven Pounds is an excellent show about self-sacrifice, but it’d have been more touching if the viewer could actually understand it. One last thing – any idea why it’s Seven Pounds? Seven Lives would seem more appropriate, but maybe £7’s the amount of actual thought that goes into the $55 million movie. I’m just kidding, of course.

In case it seems like our blog is turning into a movie-review site (5^th in 3 months!), my next post’ll be about an article that Samuel unintentionally reminded me of yesterday. Look out for it!

-  dennis. =)

Ben Low turned 17 yesterday, so SK, Ben and I went down to GV Bishan to catch Seven Pounds, but not before Ben finished a plate of Café Cartel’s Pork Ribs, which looked excellent. Happy birthday, Benjamin!

It’s funny how the last movie I blogged about was about living your life to the max, and then the lead character winds up killing himself in this one. Anyway, here’s a look at the movie – Will Smith stars as Ben Thomas, an IRS agent who killed 7 people in a freak crash and so is preoccupied with changing 7 lives to make amends. He finds Emily Posa, a woman who’s struggling to pay her taxes, and gives her a deadline extension, gives his house to an abused mother, and donates bone marrow and a kidney. Along the way, he strikes up a friendship with Emily, which quickly morphs into a relationship.

The turning point comes when Ben’s brother shows up while he’s having dinner with Emily, and – surprise! ‘Ben’ is revealed to be Tim, who apparently borrowed the real Ben’s IRS pass and impersonated him. Anyway, Tim goes to shag Emily one final time, before committing suicide in his bathtub with the help of a box jellyfish. So Emily winds up with Tim’s heart and she meets the guy who received Tim’s corneas, and the movie ends with them locked in a passionate embrace. It’s also revealed that Tim donated something to Ben and half a lung to another woman, so it conveniently adds up to 7 lives saved, yay.

The thing about this movie is that the storyline is actually surprisingly simple but made horribly complex as it isn’t in chronological order. Since the movie opens with Tim calling 911 in the tub, the entire show’s basically a long series of flashbacks, and worse, flashbacks-in-a-flashback, just to get to that scene, which successfully serves to confuse the poor viewer. It’s the first time I’ve caught a Will Smith flick, but his acting really is pretty good. He’s supposed to portray a suicidal dude and manages to stay morose for the entire duration, except when he’s with Emily, of course. 3/5 stars.

All in all, Seven Pounds is an excellent show about self-sacrifice, but it’d have been more touching if the viewer could actually understand it. One last thing – any idea why it’s Seven Pounds? Seven Lives would seem more appropriate, but maybe £7’s the amount of actual thought that goes into the $55 million movie. I’m just kidding, of course.

In case it seems like our blog is turning into a movie-review site (5^th in 3 months!), my next post’ll be about an article that Samuel unintentionally reminded me of yesterday. Look out for it!

-  dennis. =)