By Clarence Yu

CLINT Eastwood proves that he is at the top of his game with his latest effort, Gran Torino.

Revolving around the story of Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood), a retired Ford employee and decorated Korean War vet, the movie explores themes of loss, coming to terms, friendship, and ultimately, sacrifice and redemption.

Here’s a trailer of the movie:

Set in the present day, the film begins with Walt burying his wife of many years. His grown-up children have strained relations with him, and he sets to living out the rest of his years wandering about in his home, tinkering around in his garden, sitting on his porch drinking beer and taking care of his prized possession, a 1972 Ford Gran Torino. He refuses to fulfill his wife’s dying wish, to confess to a “27-year-old, over-educated, virgin priest.”

He is bitter about many things, mainly about how the world has changed from his viewpoint, and how his neighborhood has slowly been encroached upon by a group of Asians known as “Hmongs.” He has a fast and dirty mouth, and isn’t the type of guy who would waste a second of his remaining days on anything sentimental.

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Trekky fans are sad to hear the death of Majel Barrett Roddenberry — Star Trek’s “First Lady.”

According to the Roddenberry.com website, she passed away December 18, 2008 at 12:27 AM in her Bel Air home.

The website says “she died peacefully, in her sleep, and was surrounded by family and loved ones.”

In a statement from son Eugene Roddenberry Jr., he says: “My mother truly acknowledged and appreciated the fact that Star Trek fans played a vital role in keeping the Roddenberry dream alive for the past 42 years. It was her love for the fans, and their love in return, that kept her going for so long after my father passed away.”

By Clarence Yu

WHEN Clint Eastwood uttered the now famous lines, “Do you feel lucky? Well, do you, punk?” in the polarizing landmark 1971 cop drama Dirty Harry, he might as well have been talking to himself, minus punk, as he enters another interesting phase of his storied career.

Gran Torino, which opens this December in limited release and wider in January, has been receiving mostly positive reviews as it makes its premiere rounds with the usual critics. The particular emphasis now is on Eastwood the actor, in his first starring role since 2004’s Million Dollar Baby and also rumored to be his last thespian effort.

Eastwood’s acclaim owes much to his directorial efforts: Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004) won him two Oscar awards for Best Director and Best Picture and Mystic River (2005) and Letters From Iwo Jima (2006) garnered Best Picture and Director nominations as well. He is reputed never to shout or disrupt his actors when directing, keeps his set relatively calm and focused, and delivers his films under budget and with great speed.

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By Anna Valmero

IF you only have 100 days left, what will you do to spend it?

This is the bomb question that independent, successful career woman Joyce (played by Mylene Dizon) faced after being diagnosed twice with inoperable cancer and that she has three months to live.

Learning this, Joyce resigned from work and embarked on a mission to accomplish 100 things she has never done within the time left to her. Helping her in the mission is long-time pal Ruby (played by Eugene Domingo), while Joyce’s mother (played by Tessie Tomas) added several tasks to the list in hopes of helping find a cure and make her final days memorable.

Some would say the plot of the Cinemalaya film “100” is similar to that of “The Bucket List” starred by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. At some point, yes, but the local film hits it closer to home and takes a youthful stance on how to approach death.
100 takes on the simplicity of Filipino daily life and finds both humor and tragedy in it.

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