Heart and Souls

‘Walk like a man, Talk like a man!’

When this is sung, it makes me remember this beautiful film about four ghosts who got stuck to a kid for about 2 decades after they all got into a vehicular accident. This movie stars Robert Downey, Jr. as Thomas Reilly.

The story began with a public bus picking up four individuals of different walks of life. One is a frustrated singer name Harrison, the other is a mother named Penny, then a lady whom was afraid to express her love named Julia, and Milo who stole stamps from a kid.

On that fateful night the bus met an accident where it fell from a bridge. It almost hit a car to which Thomas’ parents are on and his mom is on labor. Thomas is born that day and the ghosts of the four individual got connected to him.

The four stayed with him, played with him during his childhood years. Thomas alone can see them. The mom, Penny, sang a song to him so he can sleep. People around Thomas got worried about him having four invisible friends. This made the four ghosts decided to disappear from Thomas’ sight but they stayed with him until he grew as a man who had trouble finding his heart.

One day, as the four of them are following Thomas, their bus and bus driver appeared and told them that it’s their time to go up. But all four bargained to finish their unfinished business before moving on. The bus driver agreed but he’ll take one of them everyday.

This prompted the troupe to force themselves to reappear to the older Thomas. This was not accepted well by Thomas after all the trouble he went through as a kid with them in his sight. And after troubling Thomas he is forced to help them.

First he helped Milo get back the stamps he stole and returned them to the kid he stole it from who is now older. After that success, the four souls and Thomas sang on the streets of San Francisco, ‘walk like a man, talk like a man’. I think it was such a classic scene. Then the bus came to take Milo.

Next they tried to look for Penny’s kids but being caught in traffic in front of a BB King concert. They had Harrison sing the American anthem in front of an audience. Harrison had to be forced in Thomas’ body to perform. This surprised the lady ghosts as well as Thomas’ girlfriend who happened to be in the same show with her parents. And at the end of the anthem, the bus came in to take Harrison.

Thomas is later taken by the police because of his stint. And upon leaving the police station, they hit a policeman’s car which happened to be Penny’s son. This made Penny ready for the bus.

And lastly, it was Julia’s turn who tracked for his old love but sadly he was already dead. But she was able to finish her task which is to help Thomas in his love life.

This is definitely among my favorites as it had a heart and emotion.

Moulin Rouge

Moulin Rouge is one the big hitting movies in 2001 that is a creation of the Baz Lurhmann who directed and co-wrote the film. It starred Ewan McGregor as the penny-less young poet Christian who falls in love with the courtesan, Satine, played by Nicole Kidman.

The plot rolled in the year 1899. The story began with Christian moving to Paris to try his fate as a Bohemian poet. He ventured into the underworld of Paris where drugs and prostitution is common place and in the center of it is the Moulin Rouge managed by Harold Zidler.

Christian came to Paris to write a play and after meeting a troupe of artists, they looked for a cast for their play. They met Satine, the star of Moulin Rouge and he fell in love with him. Satine in return first mistaken him as the Duke whom Zidler is setting up with her to save the Rouge. She fell in love with his poetry but had to disguise their love by presenting to the duke a play entitled 'Spectacular Spectacular'.

During the preparation of the play both fell deeply in love with each other that Christian made a song for both of them that has become part of the play. But due to some jealousy of one of the courtesans, their love was revealed to the Duke that he had the story changed and forced Zidler to give him Satine.

In the midst of this and without Christian's, Satine contracted a disease which I think was tuberculosis after she sput blood from her mouth. Knowing this and with the advice of Zidler, she went to the Duke. Christian thought Satine has no love of her anymore after she left him. On the day of the play, with anger on Satine, Christian appeared on the play to pay Satine. Later on, she professed her love still with Christian. Satine died at the end of the play.

This film had a lot of great scenes which were accompanied by pop music like Madonna's Like A Virgin where Zidler guised himself as a virgin as she portray Satine's interest to the Duke. Lady Marmalade that was performed by Christina Aguilera, Mya, Pink and Lil Kim was also one of their main songs. They've also used I Hope You Don't Mind by Elton John and the Sound of Music from the movie about the Von Trapp family. They also had the Rhythm of the Night. These are beatiful pop songs that they fitted on this movie plotted in the 19th century, a bit in contrast but used very well.

Aside from those familiar songs, they also have new songs that were beautifully written like Come What May, The Show Must Go On, and One Day I'll Fly Away. The costumes were also good specially the Can Can girls. Also in the movie when I first saw this, I was surprised to see Ewan sing specially after seeing him as a Jedi master in Star Wars which came out in 1999.

It was such a nice film that one would definitely like watching not only for its storyline but also by the music that they have used. That is of course if one likes musicals. Actually I had a thought while watching this, that how would they do this on stage.

My Top Ten Favorite Films

How should I start this new blog site that will focus more on my great interest in watching movies as per my other PauTravels blog that focus on my travel interest is course listing down my top ten movie favorites.

Since I started working as an IT professional, I have started on buying movies to be part of my collection and these are original copies and not the pirated ones. Probably as of last year, I already had about 110 copies of different movies which I very much like. That includes mostly romantic-comedy, fantasy, science fiction, classics, and some action films.

Among these, I'd say the following should top the list but not on arranged to priority:

1. Moulin Rouge. This is a musical which featured pop songs as part of its musical lines, starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor. The movie on the story of star-crossed lovers who met in Moulin Rouge.

2. Heart and Souls. This is a story of four ghosts who got attached to a kid who was born on the day the four met a deadly accident. It starred Robert Downey Jr. as the adult kid who helped the four ghosts finish their last tasks.

3. My Best Friend's Wedding. This movie follows Julia Robert's character as she try to sabotage her best friend's wedding. Aside from the story, its songs made it lovelier.

4. The Wedding Singer. This is set in the 80's era where it runs around the love story of the wedding singer played by Adam Sandler and the waitress played by Drew Barrymore.

5. Interview with The Vampire. Based on the novel of Anne Rice, this is a story of two vampires played by Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in their quest for a future together.

6. Independence Day. The day aliens came to earth and attacks its key cities, a group of men led the fight for Independence. Will Smith plays the main role.

7. It Could Happen To You. A very inspiring movie that focused on a cop played by Nicolas Cage who won the lottery and gave a waitress the biggest tip she got which is 2 million dollars.

8. War of The Worlds. Based from the novel of H.G. Wells, its a story about the attack of Martians to the planet.

9. Forrest Gump. This movie follows the story of a special kid who grew up to experience great achievements in his lifetime. Tom Hanks played the role.

10. Titanic. Based on the real event of the sinking of a celebrated maiden voyage of the Titanic which sank in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The story follows the love story of Jack and Rose played by Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet.

How about you, what's your top 10?