SEVENTH SON

I was thinking I should post about this today because I would be extremely tied up for the next two weeks.

Starring Ben Barnes as the titular character the seventh son of the seventh son Thomas Ward, Jeff Bridges as Gregory the Spook, one of my favourite actresses Julianne Moore as the evil witch and dragon Mother Malkin, Alicia Vikander as Alice, Kit Harington (lead actor of last year's movie Pompeii) with a brief role as the apprentice Billy Bradley and Olivia Williams as Tom's mother Mam who is a good witch, the simple storyline was a letdown to me.

Thomas, the son of a good witch and human, was sort of destined to be an apprentice to help the supernatural master the Spook to kill a dark witch, who was once Gregory's ex-lover. What is a movie like this without a love relationship, hence the character Alice, who was the daughter of another witch and human, and Thomas fell in love with each other. Anyway, that was besides the point and I hardly think it was a pivotal part of the movie.

Interestingly, Kit Harington had a small part to play at the beginning of the movie and died shortly after being killed by the dragon. This was another recent movie of Julianne Moore's but I wasn't quite impressed with her character and role. Ben Barnes was just there to look good. I did find Mam quite an interesting character though.

Anyway, I don't think this is excellent box office material, which kind of explains why it wasn't released in December 14 with the bigger blockbusters.

Billy ensnared by the dragon's tail.

the witch in human form

Thomas and Gregory

Alice and Thomas

Mam who sacrificed herself to save the village

THE MAZE RUNNER

I caught this sci-fi movie last week and was sure glad I knew next to nothing about the movie before catching it because I was really impressed by it. I didn't know the storyline and didn't know who were acting in it but after the movie, I was excited enough to go online to find out more about it.

Starring a pool of mostly teen actors Dylan O'Brien, of "Teen Wolf" TV series fame, Aml Ameen, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Ki-hong Lee, Will Poulter, Blake Cooper, Kaya Scodelario who was the only female, I hope this movie becomes a sleeper hit. The only actors I knew of are Dylan, who I really liked as a secondary character with his good acting and humour in the "Teen Wolf" series, and Will Poulter, who I seemed to recall playing the bad boy in movies such as "The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader".

As with many recent movies, this is one of the movies of a trilogy. Written by James Dashner and published in 2009, this movie tells the storyline of a boy who woke up in a elevator cage from underground, with no prior memories of how he got there and what happened to him prior to the event, in an unknown place surrounded by a moving maze. He was one of many boys, known as Gladers, who woke up in similar circumstances monthly over a period of years with all necessities such as food sent up to them by their unknown captors with each captiive boy. The boys remained at the base camp because they couldn't find a way out of the maze, which changed configuration every night and which housed mysterious creatures known as grievers. Unlike all the boys before him who fell into their comfort zone following an established order and hierarchy of leaders and followers who run the place, Dylan as Thomas questioned their complacency, willingness and resignation in staying on in the unknown place held by unknown captors and created a series of events that rocked the community of boys who were divided by his actions. Suddenly, there was a change in the captors plans who eventually sent up a female, who only recalled Thomas' name and with a message that she was going to be the last one.

This set forth a chain of events which caused the grievers to be unleashed and attacked the community in broad daylight and prompted the group to be split. Thomas' unyielding determination and curiosity drove him to seek out a way to escape the maze and with his leadership and new found friends and supporters such as Alby, Newt, Minho, Chuck etc, finally made their way out of the maze only to find themselves to be guinea pigs of an experiment of a group known as WICKED (World in Catastrophe Killzone Experiment Department) from a dying world who tried to find a cure for a deadly Flare virus, and thrust into an unknown future to be revealed in parts two "The Scorch Trials" and the finale "The Death Cure".

i am so looking forward to the sequels.

the boys looking at the maze which shifted in daylight

Thomas, Minho and Chuck

Brenda and Thomas

Minho and Thomas running away from the changing maze

Minho and Thomas running back to camp

the three books of the trilogy

TODAY (18 SEP 13) PAGE 23 - DRUG-RESISTANT 'SUPERBUGS' DEEMED URGENT THREATS

Overprescribing of Antibiotics Chief Cause of Resistance - at least 2 million people in the US develop serious bacterial infections that are resistant to antibiotics each year

Written by Dr Thomas Frieden, Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this message was clearly stated in the headings of this article which I read. The CDC was extremely concerned over the alarming increase in pathogenic resistance against existing antibiotics and urgent public health threats were recently issued. According to them, at least 23,000 people died from the infections annually and yet new drugs are not being produced as fast as the development of antibiotic resistance.

The prevalent over-prescription of antibiotics in health care is accountable for the increase in antibiotic resistance by allowing these superbugs the chance to develop immunity against the drugs used to treat them. Antibiotic resistant Gonorrhoea, a diarrhoea causing bacteria and another killer bacteria are just some of the pathogens developing resistance.

Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), a family of germs that are difficult to treat, was called a nightmare bacteria because none of the strongest antibiotics are effective in controlling it. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and a resistant tuberculosis are apparently of immediate concern too.

The question now is how such infectious diseases can be effectively kept under control before it becomes a public health crisis that affects a world wide population? In the local medical arena, is anyone spearheading any control measures, I wonder?

Meanwhile, I will be going to watch the Korean movie "The Flu" on the outbreak of a fatal disease sometime soon to get some insights on what and how one can do to save oneself, their love ones or should one just throw themselves over the building when all is lost.