Yesterday, I watched a whopping 4 DVDs over tha course of the day. It's quite bad and I should not morph into a coach potato and all that, but what to do; lots of DVD waiting to be watched.

The first was a terrible but watchable copy of Twilight. I watched the movie at the cinema exactly the day after my SPM's last paper. That time, I hadn't read the book. So, I didn't quite get the staring contests between Edward and Bella at first and all that awkward tension. However, as the movie progressed, it was actually quite good. I was smiling most of the time, and at one point, my eyes actually welled up with tears. Watching it again, I think, overall, its definitely worth the watch. And, although I remember when I came out of the cinema there was a pair of boys walking ahead of me that were saying, "What-lah this movie, all love only", I think boys also can watch it; my brother did and he seemed to enjoy it. But I think I'm with a lot of people when I say that the special affects were pretty crappy and the book has more insight (which cannot be helped much though). I loved the book more because there were nicer scenes and some of them did not come out in the movie. Like most book-to-movie adaptations, the book is better. (i.e. Harry Potter) Rating: 6/10 (maybe 6 and a half/10 if you'd like, just because of Robert!)

The movie begins with Adrienne(played by Diane Lane), a tired housewife with 2 kids and recently divorced. While she was packing away her children to spend a few days with her ex-husband, he tells her he wants her back and this throws her into a tailspin (this part is not in the book). Jack (Christopher Meloni), the ex, had left her for another woman, and it seems that since it did not work out with the other woman, he wants to come crawling back. But she postpones any discussion and decisions because she had promised her friend to take care of an inn her friend runs for the weekend in Rodanthe, a seaside village. There, the only guest for that weekend is a certain Dr. Paul Flanner (Richard Gere!!!) arrives. In the book, he is more quiet and you don't really get to know his character that well until the middle of the book. But in the movie, you immediately know he's got a burden on his shoulders and something is troubling him. He also comes off a little mysterious. So, they both find themselves drawn together in their loneliness (he's also divorced and has a poor relationship with his son). They learn about each other, and as a storms hits the seaside inn, they fall in love. Their falling in love is not much of a surprise, but the story that is woven in between them, about their children and their previous unfulfilled lives, is very nice to watch. I think Gere and Lane's acting, naturally, is superb and the script is well-done. Therefore, in this case, like the rest of Sparks' books made into movies, the movies are better. Must watch.

Hence, in a mood for more romance, I watched The Notebook, another Nicholas Sparks' book-to-movie. It's not at all recent, but I watched again (been a few times already) because it's one of my favourite romance movies. The book - which I read because my sister said it was so good, it moved her to tears - was also quite nice but since I prefer thick books, I thought it was terribly short of a story. The movie is lots of times better. I suppose, in both cases (The Notebook and Nights in Rodanthe) the movies gives more depth and something interesting to the story. We see how they fall in love, we see how they change, we see...more. The Notebook, if you have not watched it, is another must watch. As goes to another of my most favourite romance movies of all-time, A Walk To Remember (I even bought the soundtrack!). All of these movies were better than their books. No offense, Nicholas Sparks. Rating: (for all three mentioned) 9/10

Breaking out of the romance movies, I also happened to watch Rock N Rolla yesterday (it was after Twilight). An ardent fan of Gerard Butler, I would happily watch any movie with him in it. I've watched most of his movies, and every time I think he's good, real good. This movie is about London's high-class mobsters vs. street mobsters, so its got a lot of F-words and PG-13 stuff. One thing about it is that was really funny. Gerard plays One Two, one of the street mobsters collectively called The Wild Bunch. A certain Lenny Cole (Tom Wilkinson) is a high-class crook sweet-mouthing his way into controlling the real estate world of London and suddenly, both sides of the fence are trying to get some easy cash from an unknowing but dangerous Russian billionaire seeking to get some of Cole's contacts so that he can get his project moving without any legal restraint. Christopher Meloni shows up here again as Archy, Cole's right-hand man and narrator (you may remember him as the last son of the king to die in Stardust). For more about the movie's plot, check it out on Wikipedia over at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RocknRolla

Its really hilarious as you see them all try to be tough mobsters and bad guys and get double crossed by each other. If you like this unque type of humour, go watch it. Gerard was really funny! Rating: 5/10

I have loads of movies that I have recently watched and enjoyed, like The Duchess, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionaire, La Vie En Rose, and many more to waiting to be watched like Revolutionary Road, Doubt, Underworld 3... Hopefully I'll review the ones I've watched in the next post and hopefully, I can go out and watch Underworld 3 soon...*hint hint!*