I've been making good use of my time lately by reading books and watching a lot of good movies. And here I just want to blab away at the movies that have made me think lately...

1. 300- I personally do not like gory films, I don't like violent upheavals and wars and I especially don't like it when animals are at stake. But this is just singularly spectacular. I never thought I'd like it. Okay, it's a big deal that the Spartan men are sexy and hunky but Gerard Butler (Phantom of the Opera) as King Leonidas is ammmmazing! He's strong and powerful and it's not hard to believe him to be Spartan rather than Scottish. And tha abs on this movie.. wa-hey, ladies! The blood and gore for the men, and the abs and pretty Spartans for the ladies and this R rated movie will sell millions! Anyways, the story itself is intruiging that it made me research about the war of Thermoplyae (Greek-Persian war) and the stories of King Leonidas and even Xerxes. The dude who plays Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) is actually a good-looking fella in real life. Watch him in Love, Actually.

2. Love, Actually- I watched this maybe two years ago and I didn't like it. But recently I've come across fans raving about this movie so okay, I thought I'll give it another go. And this time, I loved it! There are eight love angles to follow in this movie but the transitions are smooth, and we find out later that their lives are intertwined. There's a horde of British superstars in this ensemble cast and there are some who stood out more than others.

The thing that confused me and made love this movie are Emma Thompson as Karen and Alan Rickman as Harry. She's a great actress, he's an outstanding actor and as husband and wife, you feel their "dwindling" chemistry and understand that it is possible he could fall for the slut of a homewrecker Mia(Heike Makatsch). That ho seduced him to no end and he would have readily caved in had his wife not talked to him that she knew of the impending affair. There's a question here whether he did cheat or not. Personally, I don't think he did because the skank was left cold and blue on that Christmas night when she thought he would be coming to her. Still the relationship of husband and wife was strained since then. Let this be a lesson to all you idiots who cheat on your wives!

I also like Mark's (Andrew Lincoln) story because it's very touching. Imagine loving someone from afar, that's hard. Harder still, that she is your best friend's wife.

P.S. I love Colin Firth in this one coz his character is so tender and he finds love even though there's a language barrier between them.

3. Malena- Here's a language barrier I had to endure. Thank Goodness for subtitles! It's a beautiful story of a beautiful woman and the child whose innocence she plucked unknowingly. Monica Bellucci is beautiful and she rarely speaks in this film but you can understand all that she is through Renato's eyes. Much of her beautiful body is revealed in this movie (darn that horny boy!) but she's beautiful so it's not like you'll puke after seeing the nude scenes.

There. There's more movies that I'd like to review but I'm itching to get back to Mr. Darcy and Pemberly. ;D Pamela Aidan did Jane Austen justice. Permit me to recommend Fitzwilliam Darcy, A Gentleman to you. But get books 1 and 3. Skip book 2 if you're a Pride and Prejudice purist.