13 Going On 30: endearing~

the Poster:

the Plot:

Jenna Rink (Christa B. Allen) is an unpopular girl celebrating her 13th birthday on May 26, 1987, who is desperate to overcome her unpopularity at school. Jenna especially wants to join the "Six Chicks", a school clique led by Lucy "Tom-Tom" Wyman (Alexandra Kyle), who takes advantage of Jenna's desire to fit in by manipulating her into doing her school works and stuffs.

For Jenna's 13th birthday, her best friend, Matty Flamhaff (Sean Marquette), gives Jenna a doll dream house he built for her and a packet of "magic wishing dust" for her birthday, which is sprinkled on the roof of the house.

At the birthday party hosted at Jenna's home basement, Tom-Tom dashes Jenna's hopes of joining the Six Chicks by pulling a cruel practical joke on her. Jenna, mistakenly thinking Matt was responsible, yells at him and barricades herself in the closet where she put the Dream House. She cries and rocks backs and forth, bumping into the wall, wishing to be "30, flirty, and thriving". The wishing dust from the dollhouse sprinkles on her, and seconds later, Jenna awakens as a 30-year-old woman (Jennifer Garner) living in a Fifth Avenue apartment, without her friends or family. It is now 2004, but Jenna has no memory of the 17 years that have passed since her 13th birthday.

30-year-old Jenna's best friend, Lucy (Judy Greer) (no longer nicknamed Tom-Tom), drives her to her work office. Soon, Jenna discovers she works for Poise, her favorite fashion magazine when she was a teenager. Missing her best friend from 1987, Jenna asks her assistant to track down Matt. To her dismay, Jenna learns she and "Matty" have been estranged since high school when Jenna fell in with the in-crowd, and that Matt (Mark Ruffalo) is now engaged to Wendy (Lynn Collins).

Back at office, the magazine editor, Richard (Andy Serkis) informed the staffs that for the 7th time Poise is scooped by Sparkle and this leads to the company decision to redesign their theme to revamp Poise. After Jenna overhears Lucy badmouthing her to a co-worker, she sadly realizes that what she thought she wanted wasn't important after all. This is complicated by the fact that Jenna has become a shadow of her former self. She has lost almost all contact with her parents, and she is having an affair with the husband of a colleague. Not only that, she is generally hated by her co-workers and anyone else she has worked with.

Jenna slowly realizes that the person she has become is neither trustworthy nor likable. in the fit of everything awful, Jenna heads back to her hometown in New Jersey and, while her parents are out, hides in the same closet as 17 years before and cries. Her parents return and find her hiding, and they welcome her in for the night.

The next day, she reminisces by looking through school yearbooks and other items from her school days and catch-up on the 17 years she doesn't remember. These inspire her on her return to Manhattan.

Over several outings and working together on the Poise revamp project, Jenna becomes friends with Matt again, asking his help for her project. Although Matt is engaged and Jenna has a boyfriend, they kiss during a nighttime walk.

After making a successful presentation for the planned revamp for Poise, Jenna prepares for the lunch date with Matt to celebrate the success.

During her time away from the office, Lucy snooped around at Jenna's desk and found the letters that incriminate Jenna as the person who shared Poise materials with Sparkle in return for the offer to be Sparkle Editor in Chief. Matt showed up at the office to cancel the lunch with Jenna and met Lucy instead. Lucy informed him that Jenna's not going to use the photos Matt took earlier for Poise and made Matt sign a release forms that she schemed to take to Sparkle instead for the post.

When Jenna arrived at Matt's home, Wendy was there and commented that Matt was not in, perhaps getting the tuxedo for the wedding during the weekend.

Dejected, Jenna returned to the office the next day only to receive the bad news: Poise is shutting down because the work she put into the relaunch ended up in Sparkle. Jenna learns from Lucy that in all these months, she was the one responsible for sabotaging Poise from within by sending their material to Sparkle. Lucy herself has accepted the position of Sparkle editor-in-chief, using Jenna's work as her own, similar to what she did when the girls were in middle school.

When everything in her world seems to crumble down, distraught Jenna rushes to Matt's house and begs him to call off the wedding. Dazed, Matt confesses he loves Jenna, but cannot change the fact that he's marrying Wendy. From his closet, he pulls the "dream house" he made 17 years before and gives it back to her. Jenna realizes how hard it is to Matt to make such decision and thus, she backs away and leaves in tears, saying that she wishes him to be happy for she loves him.

Unbeknownst to Jenna, specks of wishing dust still remain on the dream house, and as she wishes she was 13 again, she finds herself back in the closet of the basement at her parents' house, being a 13-year-old again. When Matt comes to check on her, she jumps on top of him and they kiss. She also realizes that Tom-Tom will never be a true friend and tells her down.

17 years later, Jenna and Matt are married and live in a house which resembles the dollhouse, happy and content as Mr and Mrs Flamhaff.

the Review:
blame the sick me but i cried buckets over the scene where Matt confesses he still loves Jenna yet he has to honour his promise to marry Wendy.. wallahai.. sedih betul..

sweet je JG ni..

a very nice pair :)

the two main characters are really lovable.. and even the protagonist in the form of Lucy is believable.. what is the main theme is that at 30-ish, we are given a certain time to relook back at what we have done and achieved to the point that is it this that we really want..

thinking back, personally, i only had that one moment when one guy loves me, and i turned him away. it's sad really. and even if i had to ask, do i want to give a different answer if Allah takes me back to that moment in midValley, some 13 years ago, i really have to say, no matter how hard it was to say no, to watch him watch me walk away, i have to say yes, i'd say no again.

kerana Tuhan.

the Adventures of Tintin: layannn~

the Poster:

the Trailer:


the Plot:
Tintin (voice of Jamie Bell) a young journalist, and his dog Snowy are browsing in an outdoor market in a European town when he stumbled upon a model of a three-masted sailing ship, the Unicorn. He bought it on the cheap, but was then immediately accosted by the mysterious figure of Barnaby (voice of Joe Starr) and then by the sinister Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine (voice of Daniel Craig), who both try to buy the model from Tintin, without success.

Tintin takes the ship home, but it is broken during a fight between Snowy and a neighbour's cat. As it breaks, a parchment scroll slips out of the ship's mast. Snowy spots it but is unable to alert Tintin. Meanwhile, incompetent detectives Thomson and Thompson (voices of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost) are on the trail of a pickpocket, Aristides Silk. Tintin visits Marlinspike Hall, the origin of the ship model. There he meets Sakharine and learns that there are at least two model ships. Tintin puts the scroll in his wallet, only to have the wallet stolen by Aristides Silk, the notorious pickpocket.

Later, Barnaby tried to warn Tintin of the secret behind the Unicorns but before he could say anything substantial, Barnaby was shot to death. Tintin then is abducted by accomplices of Sakharine, and imprisoned on the SS Karaboudjan.

On board, Tintin escapes and meets the ship's nominal captain, Haddock (voice of Andy Serkis). Haddock has been supplied with whisky by first mate Allan, who is working for Sakharine, and the captain is permanently drunk, and doesn't know what's happening on board his ship. Tintin and Haddock (and Snowy) eventually escape from the Karaboudjan in a lifeboat. Sakharine sends a seaplane to find them, but Tintin is able to capture the plane, and fly towards the (fictitious) Moroccan port of Bagghar, but they crash in the desert.

Dehydrated in the heat, and suffering from a sudden lack of alcohol, Haddock hallucinates, and starts to remember stories about his ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock, who was captain of the Unicorn during the 17th century. Sir Francis' treasure-laden ship was attacked by a pirate ship, led by the masked Red Rackham, and, after a fierce battle and eventual surrender, Sir Francis chose to sink the Unicorn, and most of the treasure, rather than allow it to fall into Rackham's hands. It transpires that there were three models of the Unicorn, each containing a scroll. Together, the scrolls will reveal the location of the sunken Unicorn, and its treasure.

In Bagghar, Tintin and the Captain find out that the third model ship is in the possession of the wealthy Omar Ben Salaad, but it is encased in a bullet-proof glass display case. Sakharine's plan is to stage a concert involving famous diva Bianca Castafiore, the "Milanese nightingale", whose penetrating singing voice will be able to shatter the glass case, allowing Sakharine's trained hawk to fly down and steal the third scroll. After a chase down to the harbour, pursued by Tintin and Haddock, Sakharine finally escapes with all three scrolls. Tintin chases him back to Europe and arranges a police reception for him on the dockside. Haddock and Sakharine, who is revealed to be the descendant of Red Rackham, replay their ancestors' swashbuckling sword fight, using dockside cranes, swords, and even bottles of whiskey. Haddock is eventually victorious and Sakharine is promptly arrested by Thomson and Thompson.

With the three scrolls in their possession, Tintin and Haddock find that the indicated location is Marlinspike Hall, and that the hall had been built originally by Sir Francis Haddock. There, in the cellar, they find some of the treasure, and a clue to the location of the sunken Unicorn. Both men agree to continue the adventure.

the many Pictures of the Movie:

Tintin and his able Sidekick, Snowy the Dog.

Tintin was besieged with offer for the Unicorn model by Barnaby and later on, Mr Sakharine.

the slain Barnaby left a clue "Karaboudjan". Thompson and Thomson failed to help Tintin in unravelling the clue.

Tintin met oft-tipsy Capt. Haddock for the first time.

Tintin, Snowy and Capt. Haddock braved the Morroccan desert. there Haddock was sober and able to recount the tales of the real Unicorn.

in his delirious state, Capt. Haddock remembered the story of Sir Francis Haddock and his nemesis, the pirate Red Rackham. Haddock deciphered that Mr Sakharine is in fact the descendent of Red Rackham as he is of Sir Francis Haddock's.

Tintin, Snowy and Capt. Haddock in pursuit of Sakharine and his henchmen at the streets of Bagghar. the evil guys had snatched off the 3 scrolls of clue.

Sakharine threatened to burn the scrolls with clues. Tintin managed to snatch it off his hands. Sackharine was apprehended by Mr Thomson and Mr Thompson.

the coordinates on the scrolls brought Tintin, Snowy and Capt. Haddock back to the decrepit Marlinspike Hall.

Tintin and Capt. Haddock found the part of treasure which was kept at the secret cellar. also found was the real clue for the Red Rackham's treasure location.


the Riviu:
this movie offera a tantalising 3D animation feature of the famous Tintin and his pursuit of the story behind the Unicorn. as i'm no fan of Tintin, i just went along with ride. and found it tolerable.

there are a lot of bigwigs involved. as for the voices, the actors involved are notable but unable to lend some notion of warmth to the movie. what i'm trying to say is that, should they decided to use any suitable Tom, Dick and Harry, it would have generated the same output. the exhilarating live motion effect however is the bane of the movie, you can't help but being included in the journey.

i have taken a liking to Snowy and Tintin. Capt. Haddock on the other hand, is guilty of being a drunk sod who often caused troubles to Tintin. Mr Sackharine as the villain was truly evil and believable.

coming from someone that is not a follower of Herge's cartoon, i watch it disinterestedly (thus the rating of 2.5 star). Watch it only and only if you're a fan. then you'll get your money's worth.

next installment of Tintin's movie is due by 2014.