What's wrong with comfort and efficiency?

Mike: Well nothing, except no one wants to fuck it.

Now, let's see how good is the other Gerard Butler movie, THE UGLY TRUTH? Well, surprisingly good and entertaining. Well, it still has some cheesy elements (but hey, without them, this kind of genre is like eating pizza without cheese). Katherine Heigl somehow always easily connects herself with this kind of character (remember Knocked Up and 27 Dresses?). Well, in other words, it is highly possible that we'll see her again in other future romantic comedy movies (although the next project, KILLER, collaborating with Ashton Kuthcer may provide some surprises). She's hot, somehow dumb, a control freak producer, but I felt she's too good to be a girl who hasn't been dating for about a year (yessss, including the sex). I mean even before she transforms, it's almost impossible for guys to ignore her in the first place. She plays a TV show producer, Abby, who feels that she lacks of dating, and eager to find a hot hunk to accompany her. The only problem is, she's to naive and idealistic to find the perfect guy. In short, she just won't find a boyfriend with her current attitude.

Now, on the other hand, Mr. Butler gives us something really new, which makes us laugh. When I read he took a major role in this movie, I was totally skeptic, I mean, Gerard Butler, the King Leonidas himself. I thought he learns his lesson from P.S. I Love You or Nim's Island that he should avoid comedy or drama. But this time, I think it works, especially with his American accent. He's funny, outspoken, talkative but without being annoying, and being a cool charismatic guy without that over the top confidence. Now, Butler's character is a hardcore TV personality, Mike Chadway, who spills the beans about the ugly truth on what makes men and women tick. Abby's boss decides to hire Mike to have his own segment, THE UGLY TRUTH, into her morning show, which eventually attracts viewers and increase the ratings. Abby was totally despise Mike in anyway, but eventually, he made a deal with her, that he will transform Abby in order to gain interest from her neighbor, who apparently, is a hot single surgeon. And in return, he can have his job at the show.

But, it doesn't take a genius to see where this story ends, does it?

Actually, I was planning to watch Tim Burton's "9", but since the ticket was out already, and I felt like I have to give my girlfriend a break from watching 'my kind of movie', then I decide, oh well, once in a while, let's watch cheesy movie. Well, it turns out to be entertaining. Funny as it is, and hot as Heigl can be, I felt that some of the cast are underused, such as Mike's sister and her son, which I thought can be much more fruitful if they were given more portion, especially towards the end. The underwear vibrator scene was hilarious, and the ugly truth itself was damn right to the bottom. So, guys, bring your partners to watch this, I'm sure you'll learn something from it...

My Rating : 7.5/10

This is not something you can control!

Last week, I managed to watch both GAMER and THE UGLY TRUTH, which happens to have Gerard Butler. On one side, GAMER is a typical action movie with some gore and it was combined with some sci-fi as the backdrop storyline. While on the other hand, THE UGLY TRUTH is a comedy romantic genre which I thought was surprisingly good! It's kinda awkward to see Butler playing in this kind of movie, but he did well in the end. So, let's get goin' with the first one.

GAMER, in short, tells a story where the advanced technology in the future is capable to bring the online gaming into the new level, where real people actually control real people. The genius, and also psychopath behind this idea is Ken Castle, (Michael "Dexter" C. Hall), who creates 2 worlds, SOCIETY and SLAYERS. For the first world, just imagine you're playing THE SIMS with actual people being controlled under your command. And for the second one, well, basically, it's COUNTER-STRIKE with using real people get shot and blown into pieces. In Society, people are getting paid to be controlled, where as in Slayers, the death-row inmates are lining up to be brutally 'played' by teenagers. The rule for the second world is simple, those who managed to survive 30 rounds, get their freedom. Meet Kable (Butler), the Slayer superstar who somehow managed to play 27 rounds, just 3 more for his freedom and to reunite with his family. Along the way, there's a hacker named Humanz (Ludacris), whose mission is to put this virtual world into an end, because he thinks that Castle apparently has different agenda. Humanz's plan is to get Kable's cooperation to help him with his plan.

I guess, Gerard Butler is the new one-man action actor, since his killing spree in this movie can be equally compared with Stallone's RAMBO. He didn't have that many lines, and what he did was just shooting and bashing heads. Nevertheless, Kable's character was written all over him. Too bad Michael C. Hall didn't get too much screen time, since I believe he's that good to be psychopath! Amber Valetta is refreshing enough on every scenes, especially with tight latex and her stupid body language of being controlled, it was just hilarious. Ludacris, well, basically he talked too much, John Leguizamo and Kyra Sedwick were just passing through. Oh yeah, last but not least, I have no idea why on earth Milo Vagina or whatever his name (the guy from HEROES) wanted to play a such idiotic character as a super lusted guy wearing Bumblebee color latex clothes. Gosh!!!

So, actually GAMER is not that bad, just an okay movie, easily forgettable along the time. The concept is not new, it's like a combination of the MATRIX in a much more easier to decipher, and RAMBO, and similar with THE CONDEMNED. The action scenes are cruel enough, and quite gory, and you'll see limbs flying everywhere. But overall, the story pace is relatively fast, and through out the movie, most of the time you'll be entertained by lots of actions and fighting not forget body parts. I felt that this movie was trying to condemn commercialization of violence, but along the way, they commercialized that violence itself, funny huh? Although, it gave us message the danger of the virtual world and its advertising for escaping reality where you can become anyone you want, especially for youths and teenagers.

My Ratings : 7/10