INTO THE WOODS

This is a Broadway musical adapted into a movie, so there were lots of singing and dancing other than the rather exaggerated acting.

This collection of fairy tales brought together a number of characters and told some of the familiar stories that all happened in the enchanted woods in a different way from what we know of.

Meryl Streep played the Witch for the first time in her movie career, James Corden and Emily Blunt were the Baker and his wife, Anna Kendrick was Cinderella, Chris Pine was Prince Charming, Johnny Depp was the Wolf, Lilla Crawford was Little Red Riding Hood and Daniel Huttlestone was Jack and MacKenzie Mauzy was Rapunzel.

Personally, I didn't enjoy this movie at all and found all the singing grating and non-catchy or -memorable although some of the humour was entertaining.  

Meryl Streep as the Witch

the Baker and his wife, who had a brief dalliance with Prince Charming

the Cinderella who professed to enjoy house cleaning

the Prince who was raised to be Charming not sincere

the same old Wolf

the Little Red Riding Hood

Jack and his beanstalks

Rapunzel

EDGE OF TOMORROW

Based on a Japanese novel, this science fiction movie starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt is about an alien invasion and how Major William Cage played by Tom Cruise repeatedly died more than a hundred times before he and Sergeant Rita Rose played by Emily Blunt managed to defeat the alien race.

The movie has quite an interesting storyline where a public relations Major William was knocked out and sent to the battlefield with a squad to fight the invading aliens known as Mimics when he opposed the General's orders. Unknown to them, the aliens behaved like the central nervous system when they were controlled by a central intelligence known as the Omega. William killed an attacking Alpha with a mine before he died, but not before the Alpha's blood spilled onto him, granting him the ability to temporarily take over the Omega's unique ability to reset time back repeatedly to a specific time frame. From a clumsy Major who never ventured to the battlefield to one who managed to gradually anticipate each and every move made by the aliens and avoided their attack until he was killed over and over again, he was able to reset the time loop every single time he died. He met the Angel of Verdun Sergeant Rita Rose in the process and learnt that she possessed the same ability until she lost it through a blood transfusion after getting injured in battle.

With their combined wits, they eventually realized that the Omega set a trap for them instead to reclaim its ability and sacrificed their lives to exterminate the Omega in one final attempt after William too lost his unique ability after he received a blood transfusion. Fortunately, the Omega exploded and spilled all its contents, including its blood, in the water and infused William once again before he died. The time line was reset once again to an earlier time frame when William and Rita were alive but this time with the aliens exterminated permanently. 

POMPEII

The movie "Pompeii" was based very loosely on the volcanic eruption in 79 AD of an ancient Roman city near modern day Italy's Naples. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius killed almost 20,000 people and buried its inhabitants under 4-6 m of ash and pumice. For 250 years, Pompeii has been a popular tourist attraction and is listed as one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites with annual visitorship of almost 2.5 million people.

Starring Kit Harington, Emily Browing, Carrie-Anne Moss and Kiefer Sutherland, it tells a romance story of Milo, the remaining survivor of the Celtic horsemen tribe which was massacred by the brutal Roman leader Corvus, and Cassia, the daughter of the city ruler of Pompeii.

The ruthless Corvus pursued Cassia from Rome to Pompeii in an attempt to make her his bride. While trying to escape from Corvus, she was rescued by the grown-up Milo, who had by then become a gladiator known for his fighting ability, and they both fell madly in love with each other. With the help of Atticus, a champion gladiator, Milo tried to overthrow Corvus and their battle ensued and culminated with the explosion of the volcano. The ending is not unexpected, documenting the city's destruction and decimation under the prowess of nature.

I have no complaints about the movie although I didn't think it was box office material.

Kit Harington with his great abs and windswept hair

A brooding looking Milo

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as the champion gladiator Atticus

Cassia and her mother

The hateful and corrupted Corvus

Sasha Roiz as Corvus's henchmen Proculus

TODAY (15 AUG 13) PAGE 22 - HIP FRACTURE PATIENTS AND THE 5-YEAR RISK: STUDY

Doctors 'Should Do More to Inform Patients'

Contributed by Emily Liu, the article warns of the increased possibility of death from infections during this 5 year period compared to non-fracture cases because of the immobility of the patients. The five main causes of death were identified as stroke, coronary heart disease, pneumonia, urinary tract infection and cancer.

Researchers from the National University of Singapore Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health conducted studies between 1993 and 1998 on 1,166 chinese patients with hip fractures and of these, 37% of them passed away within 5 years in comparison to only 22% of non-fracture cases. This figure is alarming and more should be done to inform and warn the patients and their families of the increased risk. Assoc Prof Wilson Wang opined that infections are things that can be easily treated if caught early, hence doctor awareness and patient awareness are very important.

The immobility brought about by the hip fractures has dire consequences because of the increased risks of chest and urinary tract infections. The former can happen when the patients consume food while lying down and inadvertently, food may enter the lungs through the windpipe and cause infection. The latter can happen when the patients hold back their urine for longer periods of time because of the inconvenience and increased difficulty of visiting the toilets, thereby allowing bacteria to proliferate. The risks of dying from pneumonia were found to be higher in men and of dying from urinary tract infections were higher in women.

The recommendation by the research group to reduce the risk of mortality is to inform patients and their caregivers of the increased risk so that adequate preventive measures can be taken to help improve the mobility of these patients. Prevention of osteoporosis is also recommended because it reduces the risk of sustaining a hip fracture.

LOOPER

This is the latest vehicle starring Joseph-Gordon Levitt. The other main stars include Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels and Xu Qing.

They transform the adorable Joseph with prosthetic into a totally different person, who somehow managed to disgust me, to make him resemble a younger Bruce. Set in the future in 2044 where 10% of the population possessed telekinesis through mutation of their genes and 2074 where time travel was invented, it tracks the life of a looper - a professional killer in 2044 hired by a criminal boss known as the Rainmaker from the future to kill off their targets and dispose off their bodies in present time with reward in the form of silver bars.

Complications arose when the older Joe was captured and sent by the Rainmaker to the present via a time machine to be killed by the younger Joe, to terminate their contract to close the loop. Opposition to this was punishable by death Before being held captive, the old Joe was living in bliss with a newfound love played by Xu Qing and fought hard to stay alive so that he can change the course of history by killing the young Rainmaker to save his love interest from being killed. That was when both the young and old Joe met Sara and her only son Cid who lived in a farm.

The old Joe managed to track down three children with the same birthday as the Rainmaker and killed the innocent boys one at a time. After killing off two children, he was on to kill the third, who turned out to be Cid. Determined to save Cid after becoming close with Sara, the younger Joe turned against his older self. It was also then that Joe discovered that Cid was a freak, possessed very strong telekinetic powers and was capable of turning violent and killing people when he was enraged. When the younger Joe realized that if the older him killed Sara, that was the tipping point that pushed Cid over the edge to become the future ruthless Rainmaker if he witnessed the brutal murder of his mum, he had to make a tough choice to sacrifice his own life instead so that his older self would cease to exist, thereby dissolving the danger faced by Sara and her son.

The science fiction action movie started off quite promisingly but somewhat lost steam along the way. What was a time travel assassination eventually turned out to be a horrifying "Rosemary's child" adaptation. It wasn't as good and enjoyable as I thought it would be though.