Tuesday, June 2, 2009

High School Musical

East High School's basketball star Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) and math-whiz Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens) meet at a New Year's Eve party at a ski lodge over Christmas Break. Here, they take part in a karaoke contest and sing ("Start Of Something New").

They discover they have a great chemistry between them and end up exchanging numbers.

A week later, Gabriella's mother is transferred and Gabriella begins classes at East High in Albuquerque, New Mexico where Troy sees her in homeroom. After making sure that it is she on his cell phone, Troy accidentally gets detention, along with Gabriella, his best friend and teammate Chad Danforth (Corbin Bleu), scholastic decathlon captain and head of the science club Taylor McKessie (Monique Coleman), and Drama Club co-presidents Ryan (Lucas Grabeel) and Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale).

After homeroom, Troy and Gabriella see each other again and as they start talking near the sign-up sheet for the winter musical auditions, Sharpay sees them and assumes that Gabriella is interested in signing up. With Ryan's help, Sharpay determines that Gabriella is an "Einsteinette", and puts an article of her previous academic achievements into Taylor's locker.

During detention, Taylor approaches Gabriella and invites her to join the school's scholastic decathlon team. Due to their detention, both Troy and Chad miss their basketball practice, much to the annoyance of Coach Jack Bolton (Bart Johnson). During a confrontation between Bolton and Ms. Darbus (Alyson Reed), it is made clear that neither of them has any real respect for the work that the other does. Troy eventually takes part in basketball practice, but he cannot seem to stop thinking about Gabriella and how he might actually enjoy singing ("Get'cha Head In The Game").

Troy skips basketball practice during free period to go for the auditions, which Gabriella also attends. However, both are too shy to come forward, so they hide behind a janitorial rolling cart as Sharpay and Ryan perform their version of the audition song ("What I've Been Looking For"). When Gabriella finally decides to audition, Troy offers to sing with her, but Ms. Darbus says that it is too late.

After a confrontation with Sharpay, Kelsi Nielsen (Olesya Rulin), the composer of the musical, trips and drops her notes and piano music. Troy and Gabriella rush to help her, and she offers to let them hear how the song was originally supposed to sound. Troy and Gabriella then sing the slower version of the song ("What I've Been Looking For (Reprise)"). Ms. Darbus hears them from behind the auditorium entrance and gives both Troy and Gabriella a callback. The next day, Sharpay sees the callback sheet and is furious. Once Chad and all the basketball players find out that Troy skipped basketball practice to audition for the musical, they are all shocked.

At lunch, everyone learns that Troy is doing something way out of a basketball player's nature, and the students start confessing their secret passions and talents ("Stick To The Status Quo"),

including basketball player Zeke Baylor's (Chris Warren, Jr.) love for baking. At that moment, Gabriella slips and accidentally spills her lunch all over Sharpay's shirt. Sharpay tells Ms. Darbus that Gabriella did it on purpose and tries to convince her that Troy and Gabriella are trying to destroy the musical, but Ms. Darbus will not hear a word of it. Troy asks Gabriella to meet him at his secret hideout, the roof of the school, which also serves as a greenhouse. There, she reveals that singing with him at the party was like meeting a new friend at kindergarten; she felt that he was like a best friend, although she hardly knew him. Meanwhile, Zeke attempts to talk to Sharpay, who says that she would rather stick pins in her eyes than watch Zeke play basketball.

Chad and Taylor decide that they need to devise a plan so that everything returns to normal. The basketball team tricks Troy into saying that Gabriella is not too important while she watches them through a wi-fi link. Gabriella is hurt and confused about where she and Troy now stand ("When There Was Me And You"). Troy tries to talk to Gabriella, but she tells him that she is not interested in taking part in the musical.

After feeling guilty about ruining Troy and Gabriella's relationship, and noticing that they are no longer interested in the basketball game or the decathlon, Chad and Taylor decide to tell them the truth. Chad, Zeke, and Jason explain everything to Troy in the greenhouse and offer to support him at the callbacks. Taylor and the scholastic decathlon team tell Gabriella what they did, but she is still angry and hurt because of what Troy said, convinced that he meant it.

That night, Troy goes to her house, but she pretends to be busy with homework. He then calls on her cell phone from her backyard, telling her that the guy she met on vacation is much more like him than the guy that "said those stupid things". He climbs onto her balcony and starts singing the harmony of "Start of Something New" in an attempt to persuade her to attend the callbacks with him. Gabriella then forgives him, and together with Kelsi, they start practicing for the callback at school.

Soon, Sharpay and Ryan overhear Gabriella and Troy practicing, and feel intimidated by the competition. Sharpay succeeds in convincing Ms. Darbus to change the callbacks to the same time as the basketball championship and scholastic decathlon. Kelsi overhears their conversation with Ms. Darbus, and when she tells everyone about this, they are devastated. However, the chemistry team, the basketball team and Kelsi work together to come up with a plan. On the day itself, Taylor and Gabriella send a code by computer into the system to disrupt the basketball game by shutting down the scoreboard, and boiling a noxious chemical to stall the decathlon.

As Troy and Gabriella then rush to the theater, Sharpay and Ryan finish performing their song ("Bop To The Top"),

confident that they will get the part. Troy and Gabriella show up after Ms. Darbus has called their names twice, and she tells them again that they are too late. Many other students start streaming into the auditorium to support them and Ms. Darbus has no choice but to allow them to perform their song. Gabriella freezes when she sees everyone staring at her, but Troy tells her to look only at him, and she finds the courage to sing ("Breaking Free").

Ms. Darbus eventually decides to award the lead roles to Troy and Gabriella, making Sharpay and Ryan understudies (and at the basketball game, Sharpay accepts her defeat and tells Gabriella to "break a leg"). After winning both the scholastic decathlon and the basketball game with Troy's last minute shot, Chad gives Troy the winning ball and later asks Taylor out to the victory party. The film ends with the entire school gathering in the gym to celebrate ("We're All In This Together").

  • Chad Danforth (Corbin Bleu) is Troy's best friend, and is very good friends with Jason and Zeke.
  • Taylor McKessie (Monique Coleman) is Gabriella's best friend.She is captain of the school Scholastic Decathlon team.
  • Jack Bolton (Bart Johnson) is Troy's father and the coach of the basketball team.
  • Ms. Darbus (Alyson Reed) is the stern drama teacher at East High.
  • Jason Cross (Ryne Sanborn) is friends with Troy and Chad, and plays for the basketball team. He also tends to ask silly questions in class.

Angels & Demons

Angels & Demons is a 2009 American film adaptation of Dan Brown's eponymous novel. It is the sequel to The Da Vinci Code, another Brown film adaptation, even though the novel Angels & Demons was published first and takes place before the novel The Da Vinci Code. Filming took place in Rome, Italy, and the Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California. Tom Hanks reprises the lead role of Robert Langdon, while director Ron Howard, producer Brian Grazer, and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman also returned.

Under the watchful eye of Father Silvano Bentivoglio and Dr. Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer), the CERN scientists start the Large Hadron Collider and manage to capture three vials of antimatter. Immediately afterward, someone kills Father Silvano, and uses his retina to break into the containment room to steal one vial of anti-matter.

In Rome, the Vatican mourns the passing of the Pope. The Vatican staff prepares for the Conclave of the College of Cardinals, which will select the next Pope. Until the Conclave selects a new Pope, the Camerlengo (Ewan McGregor), a Vatican priest and former helicopter pilot, assumes day-to-day control of the Vatican. Reporters, nuns, priests and other faithful all crowd into St. Peter's Square, waiting for the white smoke from the Conclave. But the Illuminati, a 400-year old, underground secret society, kidnaps the four most likely candidates (preferiti) before the Conclave goes into seclusion. The Illuminati threatens to kill them at 8, 9, 10 and 11 PM, and then destroy the Vatican in a burst of light at midnight. A video feed shows the missing anti-matter vial, which will destroy the Vatican and parts of nearby Rome when the magnetic containment field fails after the vial's battery dies.

The Vatican summons Drs. Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) and Vittoria Vetra from CERN to help them solve the Illuminati's threat, save the four preferiti, and replace the vial's batteries. Langdon listens to the Illuminati message and deduces that the four cardinals will die at the four altars of the Path of Illumination. However, no one knows where these altars are located. Vetra demands Commander Richter (Stellan Skarsgård), the captain of the Vatican's Swiss Guard, to bring Father Silvano's diaries from Switzerland. She hopes the father wrote down the name of whomever he discussed the CERN experiment with and who must possibly be the mastermind behind Silvano's murder. Langdon also demands access to the Vatican Library (something he has requested 10 times already) to see the original copy of a Galileo's banned book which may contain the location of several churches used by the Illuminati as gathering points and which were also the altars. Using the clues from this book, Langdon, Vetra, Inspector Ernesto Olivetti (Pierfrancesco Favino) and Lieutenant Valenti (Victor Alfieri) of the Vatican police race to the first church, only to find the dead body of the first Cardinal underground, branded with the word "Earth".

They find the direction of the church with the second Illuminati altar, but arrive in time to see the next Cardinal die after being stabbed at his chest, branded with the word "Air".

While Vetra studies father Silvano's diaries Langdon and the Vatican officers locate the third church with the third Illuminati altar and try to save the third Cardinal from burning to death, but the assassin appears and shoots and kills all the Vatican officers escorting the professor (including Valenti) and after a brief fight cuts Olivetti's throat, effectively stopping Langdon from saving the Cardinal branded with the "Fire" word.

After escaping from the assasin professor Langdon convinces two members of the Rome police to race with him to the last church of the "Water" altar,

but the assasin murders the two policemen before throwing the fourth cardinal into a fountain. However, Langdon manages to save the last preferiti Cardinal this time, who manages to tell Langdon the location of the murderer's hideout. When Lagdon and Vetra arrive they are confronted by the assasin who spares their lives since "he wasn't paid to kill them" and reveals that his contractors were people from the church. The assasin escapes afterwards and upon entering his car and picking up his payment is killed as the vehicle explodes. Langdon and Vetra find clues to the final victim, who turns out to be the Camerlengo. After arriving at the Vatican using a secret passage, they and the members of the Swiss Guard enter the Camerlengo's room and find him in the floor branded with the vatican church symbol on his chest and apparently about to be shot by Commander Richter of the Swiss Guard.

The Swiss Guard officers shoot at their commander to save the Camerlengo. During the confussion the dying Richter gives Langdon a key to his office. Then the Camerlengo, Langdon, Vetra and the Swiss Guard officers discover the location of the stolen antimatter vial. When they find it, they discover that the battery is about to expire, which would cause the vial to explode and destroy a large part of the city. The Camerlengo takes the vial and uses a helicopter to fly away from the Vatican. Then the priest sets the autopilot and escapes from the helicopter, using a parachute to land. After several seconds the bomb explodes and the Camerlengo lands, being considered a hero by the people present at the Vatican and even as the best candidate to be the new Pope by the members of the Conclave. Meanwhile professor Langdon and Vetra use the key from Richter and watch a video tape that he kept in his office which showed that the mastermind behind the murders of the original Pope, the preferiti and the stealing of the antimatter vial was in fact the Camerlengo and not the Illuminatti. Richter discovered this and while he tried to arrest the Camerlengo the priest branded himself with the church seal and accused the commander of the Swiss Guard of being a member of the Illuminatti and trying to kill him. Langdon shows the video to the members of the Conclave and after the Camerlengo realizes that he has been discovered he sets himself on fire using holy oil from the Vatican and dies.

The Vatican announces to the media that the Camerlengo died due to internal wounds suffered during his landing and is canonized by the catholic church. The Conclave designate the surviving preferiti cardinal as the new Pope, and he gives Langdon the Galileo book that can help him finish his book in reward for saving his life before.

Many characters have been changed for the film. These include:

  • Vittoria Vetra's father, Leonardo Vetra, is replaced with a research partner named Silvano, who writes the journals and is murdered for his projects.
  • The novel's Italian camerlengo, Carlo Ventresca, becomes the film's Northern Irish camerlengo, Patrick McKenna.
  • The Swiss Guard commander, Commander Olivetti, becomes Commander Richter. Olivetti becomes the head of the Vatican police.
  • The Hassassin, an Arabic man who hates the Catholic Church, is replaced with a Westerner named Mr. Gray.
  • Captain Rocher does not appear in the film. Instead, his role near the book's climax is played by a bishop.
  • Cardinal Mortati, who oversees the conclave, is renamed Cardinal Strauss.
  • Gunther Glick and Chinita Macri do not appear in the film. Instead, numerous reporters from different countries perform reporting roles.
  • Maximilian Köhler, director of CERN, does not appear in the film. Instead, his role in the beginning is played by a Vatican police representative, and his role near the end is played by Commander Richter.

Differences between book and film

  • The funeral of the Pope is an original addition to the movie, as in the novel, the Pope is already buried and conclave is about to commence.
  • In the novel, Langdon goes to Geneva after receiving a phone call from CERN. In the film, a representative of the Vatican Police visits him in Harvard, and tells him everything there.
  • Vittoria is working on the antimatter at the beginning of the film with Silvano and a whole team, while in the novel, she returns to CERN after her father's murder. Also, only she and her father worked on the antimatter project.
  • The Corps of Gendarmerie of Vatican City does not appear in the novel; the Swiss Guard handles all matters.
  • The antimatter journals are sent over to the Vatican in the film, but Commander Richter confiscates them; this is how he learns of the truth.
  • Vittoria is able to restore the antimatter canister's battery in the film by doing a few simple defusing processes to the canister as long as there is at least five minutes of time left. In the novel, she must fly the canister back to CERN to recharge it, so the canister is much more dangerous in the novel. However, in the movie she decides not to replace the battery since cold temperature in the Necropolis would be depleting the batteries faster; removing and replacing with new ones might not have been possible because the charge would not hold for sufficient time to replace the battery.
  • In the novel, while confronting the assassin at the 3rd Altar of Science, Langdon survives by hiding under a stone tomb and is later found by police when his watch alarm goes off. In the film he hides down a grate in the church floor until the police and firefighters hear him banging.
  • The Diagramma book written by Galileo Galilei during his house arrest is presented in the film as a simple booklet, while it is in folios in the novel. Hence, Vittoria permanently destroys it when she rips page five off in the film.
  • Vittoria is not kidnapped during the Santa Maria della Vittoria incident; at that time, she is working on reading the antimatter journals.
  • Langdon and Vittoria do not kill the assassin together. He is promised a reward for his actions but is blown up when a car bomb explodes in the car he was supposed to make his getaway in.
  • The last brand in the novel is the Illuminati Diamond, which is a combination of "Earth", "Air", "Fire", and "Water" in the shape of an ambigram diamond. In the film, however, it is two keys crossed with each other, not even an ambigram. According to Langdon, its upside-down image is a reference to St. Peter's upside-down crucifixion.
  • In the film, Langdon does not accompany the camerlengo in the helicopter, and thus does not injure himself in the Tiber River.
  • In the film, Langdon and Vittoria discover the truth about the camerlengo in Commander Richter's office, as the Pope's seizures required security cameras to watch him. In the novel, Köhler gives him a small camera to watch the scene, while in the film, Richter gives him the key to the camera screen in his office.
  • The truth about the Pope fathering the camerlengo is not mentioned in the film, although the camerlengo states the Pope adopted him. The only reason given for the camerlengo murdering him is that the Pope became too open to science, which the camerlengo was uncomfortable with, as he believed religion alone should dictate morality, let alone the Creation.
  • The camerlengo immolates himself in the novel on the roof of St. Peter's, and dies calmly. In the film, he immolates himself using one of the ninety-nine oil lamps' oil as fuel, and the sanctuary lamp's flame as fire, and dies screaming.
  • Cardinal Baggia, the fourth preferiti, survives his drowning in the film, as the assassin left Piazza Navona right away. Langdon manages to use the bubble-producing hose to save him, and manages to get bystanders to help rescue him. Baggia then informs Langdon that the four preferiti were imprisoned in Castel Sant'Angelo. As anticipated, he becomes Pope in the end, and Cardinal Strauss succeeds McKenna as the camerlengo instead. In the novel, Baggia also dies, and Mortati, despite his status as elector, becomes pontiff.
  • The package loaned indefinitely to Langdon is not the last brand, but the Diagramma book written by Galileo Galilei.
  • The love thread between Langdon and Vittoria in the book is not depicted in the film
  • While the book Angels and Demons is a prequel to the Da Vinci Code, the movie is a sequel.
  • The assassin gets inputs through internet in the film
  • In the novel, Langdon goes alone to the archives the second time while looking for Bernini's statues. In the film, he is accompanied by a swiss guard
  • The tourist guide in the Pantheon (novel) is replaced by a female guide

About Me

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im Rose Ann Ramones, 18 years old from mariveles, bataan, PH.. taking up Bachelor of Science in Nursing, a second year student of Bataan Peninsula State University Main Campus to be transferred next academic year on Balanga Campus.. i am fond of reading, cooking, surfing the net, listening to music which depends on my mood.. im a reserve person, shy, hopeless romantic, dominant, abstract, introvert, feeler person..