Friday, June 20, 2008

The Orphanage


Hey there. What a gerat movie. I caught this flick last night. My Netflix queue is pretty low and my wife was asking our coworkers to recommend some good flicks to check out and this was praised very highly. Needing fill our queue, I see that the movie is available on what I like to call "insta-watch". I love this feature by the way, no waiting, just hit play and BAM! Movie starts. lol So last night, I hooked up the laptop to the TV, logged on the Netflix, and started to play the movie. After some techincal difficulties (had to call Netflix to fix) we finally got to the movie to work. WARNING! This will be a long post.

First impression: The movie is in Spanish... Ugh... But it's subtitled in English so if the movie is as good as they say, I can live through it.

Movie starts with a family moving into a very large house. Turns out the woman, Laura, used to live there when the place was an orphange. She bought the place and intended to turn into an orphange for special needs kids while her son, Simon, and her hubby, Carlos, lived with them.

After a few days there, Simon starts to show that he has an active imagination. He claims to have made 5 friends and they all play together. Seeing that there are no other children around, his parents play along and figure he's keeping himself entertained since no kids are around to play with him. His mom, soon after, decides that a trip to the beach is what he needs and off they go. While there, they come across a cave. Simon runs inside with a flash light to explore while Laura stays behind.

Now, maybe I missed something but... who would let a child wander into a cave on their own? I made this comment outloud, my wife just looked at Laura and said, "Her." lol

Anyways, after awhile Laura goes into the cave looking for Simon. He finds him standing and talking to a "friend". The shot of this was great. Off in the distance you see Simon but you can't see his front side of the body because the rock wall is in the way. It leaves you to think if he really was speaking to someone of it's one of imaginary friends. Simon then turns to Laura and asks if Thomas, his new friend, can go to the house. She whisks him away, but before they go, she shines her light on the floor to reveal footprints going deeper in the cave. On the way back home, Simon drops shells so that Thomas can find his home.

A social worker than stops by the house to offer any services to Laura. Laura doesn't need services and tries to make her leave but the social worker than says that she's really not here for her but for Simon. Laura lets her in and it is revealed that Laura and Carlos are not the biological parents of Simon and Simon is ill with the HIV virus. The social worker leaves Simon's file and leaves.

Weird noises begin to haunt the house. Especially in Simon's room. Simon has trouble sleeping because he is either playing or can't sleep because his friends are playing. Laura and Carlos take turns in getting him to go to sleep. On this particular night, Laura hears noises outside and goes out to investigate. She finds a woman snooping in her shed and scares her off. The next day, she encouters Simon playing with his friends and Laura chats with him. Simon tells her that he has special coins that he wants to show her. When he pulls out his coins from his treasure chest, they are missing. He then tells her how his friends will take something that is dear to him, hide it, and leave behind clues for him to decipher. Kind of like a scavenger hunt where a clue that is left behind should be returned to it's rightful place and another clue will be discovered there. He also tells her that once he finds what is missing, he can make a wish and it will come true. So as they run around the house finding clues and returning them, the last clue leads them to the kitchen drawer, where Laura hid Simon's file. Laura didn't want the file open and Simon goes into a rant how she is a liar and that he doesn't have parents. That he is just like his friends and that he's going to die. Laura stands speechless.



Carlos and Laura speak with Simon and discuss the situation with him. They assure him that he is not going to die and that they will always love him and care for him as their own. The next day, the special needs children arrive along with friends and family. Carlos brought down a box from the attic so that the kids can wear masks, which are pretty freaky by the way. lol Laura tries to convince Simon to go outside and play but Simon isn't having it. He wants to show her Thomas' "little house". Laura, reaching her boiling point argues with Simon and after an intense argument, she slaps him across the face. She then tells him that if he doesn't want to go outside, fine, stay here. While outside, all the kids are playing with masks and we're introduced to Thomas, you just don't know it's him yet. lol You'll spot him cause he's the kid with a birlap sac over his head... If you paid attention to the film, you'll notice that he's the exact image of one of his imaginary friends that he drew for him mom.

Laura goes upstairs looking for Simon. He's nowhere to be found. She searches every room and closet but nothing. She ends up in the upstairs bathroom since she heard a noise and off in the hallway, you hear a high pitch whistle and when she turns, she sees Thomas, staring at her. He slowly comes towards her. Laura, believing it to be Simon talks to him and when Thomas is close enough to be touched, Laura attempts to take off his mask. Thomas freaks and pushes Laura in the bathroom and slams the door on her fingers. I thought this shot was pretty damn freaky. It's Thomas looking into the bathroom.



After some yelling, Carlos goes up there and smashes the door so that Laura can get out. She rushes outside and heads towards the beach, realizing that who she just saw was Thomas and the friend that Simon made in the cave was named Thomas. As she's fighting through the tide to get to the beach, she sees a small person at the entrance of the cave but she slips and breaks her leg and can't continue her pursuit. Carlos was chasing Laura and when he caught up with her, he carried her back, since Carlos did not see anyone at the entrance of the cave.

Police frantically search the house and the cave for Simon but he is not found. Police inform her of this while she's in recovery at the hospital. A police psychologist comes in to ask a few questions...

Several months go by and Laura and Carlos have not given up on Simon's rescue and they have many, many posters of Simon all over the place. They have attended meetings of other parents who have lost their children and in one instance, Laura snaps because she knows her child is still alive.

A few more months pass and while Carlos and Laura are on their way to another meeting, Laura spots the social worker that came into her house with the file while at a red light. She is walking across the street pushing a stroller and Laura jumps out of the car and calls her name. The woman turns to look but before you know it, BAM! A truck runs her and the stroller over. Laura, in a panic thinking that she may have been pushing Simon, runs to check the stroller, finding a doll. She rushes over the social worker and find that she has the same whistle that Thomas was wearing. Upon reaching for it, the social worker grabs her hand and pushes it away from the window. Pretty grotesque shot of the woman's face but I couldn't find one to post. lol

Now that the police have identified the social worker, they check her house for clues. They find many old pictures and videos of the orphanage, the house that Laura bought. The police psychologist shows a picture of the orphanage group to Laura and asks her if she knows anyone in the picture. She can immediately identify her friends and herself and upon closer inspection, notices that the social worker was also there. Laura can't believe this since she considers those her most happy times that she would surely remember seeing her there. The police then tell her how she took care of a boy, by the name of Thomas, and she kept him away from all the other orphans. She placed a bag over his head so that no one would see the deformities that he had. Shortly after Laura was adopted, the other kids discovered Thomas and they led him to the cave at the beach. They took his mask and ran outside hoping that Thomas would come outside without his mask for all to see. Since Thomas did not come out, the tide rose, filling the cave, causing Thomas' death. Laura is not having it, she cannot believe that Thomas is dead since she clearly saw him and he definitely pushed her in the bathroom.

Throughout all this, you see that Carlos is losing his patience, and hope, in finding his son. He asks Laura that maybe they should leave the house and not come back. Laura, of course, is not having it and they continue their search. They then encounter a professor who knows of a medium whom he greatly confides in and tells her that if she's open, he can recommend her to stop by Laura's house to check things out. After many tense moments, the medium gets herself in a trance and notices noises. In a locked room, she hears children crying. After convincing the kids to open the door, the screams are more intense and the medium shouts out, "How can they do this to you?". Because these are in the medium's perception, we can't see the kids, but since they medium and her crew have sensitive hearing equipment, everyone can hear the children crying and talking. Carlos, believe this is all bullshit is not convinced of anything since not once did they mention Simon. He contests that they were merely looking for ghosts, not Simon. Laura, on the other hand, feels that she's learned a great deal of the house and is one step closer to finding Simon.

Many strange occurance continue in the house and during a fit of frustration, she yells out something along the lines of "give me a clue of where he is". At that instant, a window closes, smashing the glass landing on the bench. She clears the bench and realizes that you can lift the bench seat. She unveils small wooden boards with her friend's name on each one, underneath each board is a small doll representing themselves. She notices that one is missing. She realizes that the doll that she found the social worker pushing matches this style and she runs to get it and places it back with the rest of them. Upon doing this, she notices a picture under one of the dolls. She looks at it and she realizes that the hunt has begun. She is playing the treasure hunt game that she earlier played with Simon. She follows her clues and she becomes stumped when she encounters a doorknob as a clue. She runs around the house looking for a matching knob but finds none. She searches the shed, where she uncovers the remains of all her friends from the orphanage.

Police check it out and concluded that the social worker killed Laura's friends as retaliation for them playing a prank on Thomas, causing his death. She then realizes that the woman snooping in her shed the other night was the social worker. Police decide that since Laura bought the residence, she may have stumbled on the remains so the social worker was trying to remove the evidence.

Carlos packed up and is ready to go. She is not giving up on her son and asks Carlos for 2 more days, to say good bye to the house. But she wants them alone. Carlos drives off and immmediately thereafter, Laura builds her friend's beds, rearranges the furniture the way it was when she was a child and uses the dolls she found as her friends. She picks berries, serves several bowls, for herself and her friends. She then decides that she should play their favorite game as kids. She stood near a wall and knocked on it a few times and then turned around. The first couple of times, nothing. Then on the third or fouth attempt, the door opens revealing a kid standing still. She continues the knock and turn game and each time she turns, more children appear standing still. One of the kids eventually taps her on the shoulder and she goes off chasing them. One child leads Laura to a little closet. She opens the closet and snoops around trying to find a clue. While in there, a child slams the door shut. Locked in, she turn on the light and continues her search. She pounds on the wall and finds that one section of it is hollow. She then finds a hole in the wall. She pulls out her doorknob (the clue that she was stumped on) and finds that it fits perfectly into the hole. She turns it to unveil a secret basement. On the walls are pictures and drawings that Thomas made and there is a small desk with a lamp on it. She explores the basement and finds Simon, covered, and sleeping on a small bed. Estatic, she grabs Simon and covers him. Simon asks why she doesn't want to stay and play with them. She tells him that he needs to close his eyes and pretend that his friends to do not exist. She does the same, hoping that this will reverse the paranormal effects. The room gets darker and it is no longer lit, the way she found the room. The nightmare is over, there she is, standing the basement with her son in her arms, alive. Happy ending, right?

This is the "What the fuck?!?!!?" moment of the movie. She is holding her son and as she lowers him so that he can stand, he disappears. The film shot is very convincing. She is clearing holding a body but as she lowers her arm, it seems to dissolve leaving her standing there with just a blanket. I woke up my wife (she fell alseeo during the first half hour of the film she was so tired) when I said, "Oh, what the fuck..." lol

She looks around at her surroundings and notices that the rail of the stairs is broken and there's a small body on the floor. She slowly approaces it, thinking back. Flash backs come by reminding the viewer of the events. Simon telling Laura he wants to show her Thomas' "little house". The basement looks to be his little house. She remembers during her frantic search for Simon that when she opened the closet door, bars and posts crashed out of the door. She threw them back in the closet, consequently jamming the secret door so that it cannot be opened. She then remembers the poundings that she would hear at night. And lastly, she remembers the very loud thud that made her jump. She reaches out to the body, the face covered with the sac, removes it to discover that the dead body is her son.

She carries him to the upstairs bathroom and weeps. She then remembers that if she finds her "treasure", she will be granted a wish. She wishes that Simon comes back to her. With this wish, she sees a little girl outside and her boy alive in her arms. The little boy looks at him mother and tells her that he found his treasure. He found his special coins and that his wish was for him mom to take care of him and his friends forever. Laura looks up and see that the beds have kids in them, all staring at her. A little girl, blind, walks over to Laura and touches her face. She then smiles and tells the other kids, "It's Laura. It's Laura." The kids are the friends that she had as a child and one of the kids remark that she is like Wendy, from Peter Pan, where they stayed as kids yet she got older. They all gather around Laura and she reads them all a story.

At the end of the film, a plaque is placed on the grounds of the orphanage in memory of Simon and Laura. I believe that Laura may have overdosed on her meds, since she is seen swallowing many of them when she is holding Simon's body. Carlos takes one last stroll of the house, and finds the necklace that he let Laura borrow, for good luck in searching for Simon. A noise is heard and door creaks open. The movie ends with Carlos looking in the direction of the door, tears building in his eyes, and smile emerging from his face.

The movie is great. As you can see from this post, it has many details and if you're not paying attention, you will not get it. This movie reminded me some of the Sixth Sense, another movie that I love. Mostly because of the ending where as Laura approaches her son, everything starts making sense and the flashbacks help in understanding what went on the way Bruce Willis had his flashbacks confirming that he was dead. Great film, friends. Check this one out. Later!

Thursday, June 19, 2008

My Bro is/was in the Hospital

Hey there. I was falling asleep on the couch, with my wife, watching some boring ass movie with Jackie (from That 70's Show) in it. As I was just about to doze off, the phone rings. I almost didn't answer it cause I was little dazed. It was my aunt calling from her cell phone. She must've had bad reception because I couldn't really hear what she said. I was only able to make out key words like, "brother", "ambulance", "uncle", "hospital". I told her I'd call my uncle to see what's up and when I did my uncle told me my bro passed out. I figured, people pass out and they don't always go to the hospital. I asked him to describe to me what happened. He said that my bro looked "out of it" and that all of a sudden, his eyes rolled back and he slid off his chair, his body stiffened and he was slightly twitching. To me, that's a seizure, not passing out...

So we gather the kids and drop em off at my mother in laws and off we go to the hospital. All my aunts and my uncle were there waiting for news. I tell the lady at the desk that my bro was brought in here in an ambulance and I want to see him. She said I had to wait since he wasn't in a room (guess there were many emergencies that night) and was out on a gurney out in the hall way, only 1 person can be with him at a time. My mother was with him so I texted her to get out so I can see my bro.

I went in, and he looks tired as hell. The paramedics are sitting by him, keeping an eye out to make sure all is well. After a min or two, I joke around that the Lakers damn near done my brother in since they lost to the Celtics the night before. I got a few laughs from the paramedics and my bro was like, "Fuckin' losers. I feel asleep after Ray Allen hit like his 6th 3 pointer in the game." So there we are joking around, cause that's how we roll, and after awhile I left so other family members can see him.

On my second visit, they had him strapped to that machine that checks your vital signs. Heart rate, blood pressure, and I don't know what that third number was, but it ranged from 0-20. I noticed that for him to be lying there without much activity, his heart rate was pretty up there. It ranged anywhere from 90-100 and if I remember correctly, it should be in the 50s-70s at rest. I also noticed that his blood pressure was high. The last reading I saw was 147/90. I didn't mention any of this to him since I didn't want him to freak out. Instead, there we are, accompanied by my wife this time, fuckin' around and cracking jokes. We even got in trouble. Doc/nurse came over and told us that we can crack all the jokes we want, just exclude any four letter words. Damn you Will Farrell and Dave Chapelle for being so funny. lol Soon after we left.

He seemed to be doing slightly better, but because we had work the next morning, we left somewhere around 1:30 ish. Couldn't sleep when we got home so I must've gone to bed closer to 2:30. I told my mother to call me with any news, that includes him being released and what not. It's now what... 8 something in the morning and nothing. My aunts and I have been trying to reach my mother and we've gotten nothing...

Still waiting on news. Until then, Later

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Kids Say the Darnest Things

Hey there. We just got back from lunch so I'll take the time to post this before I go back to work. We tend to go my mother in law's for lunch. She takes care of our littlest one which will turn 3 on the 4th of July. Well, why we are having our lunch, my mother in laws comes to us and says, "There was something that I was going to tell you but I forgot." At that instant, our little one walks in and says, "Mommy. (mumble mumble) the wabbit playing with woxie (mumble mumble)then the wabbit, the wabbit, he said a bad word. Yeah, the wabbit said to woxie, pinche woxie." We tried so hard not to laugh. For those of you who don't know, pinche is basically the equavalent of "Fuckin'". So according to our little one, the rabbit spoke and said to her "fuckin' woxie". lol Oh man, I'm telling you. Kids these days just pick everything up.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The "Pork Chop" Incident

Hey there. So on the way back to work from lunch, my wife and I were talking in the car, as we always do, and she brings up the "pork chop" incident. We laughed and then she says, "Why don't you post THAT on your blog?" lol

What is this pork chop incident, you say? lol Well, a couple of nights ago, while we were in bed watching TV, I believe some weight loss commercial came on, or something about a pig came up, I don't remember the details... Anyways, I've gained a few pounds since I got with my wife (I used to be a stick figure 118 pounds then and am now a "healthy" 170) my wife looks at me and says, "No more pork chops for you." I damn near had a heart attack. I'm sure my heart skipped a beat or two. I love me some pork chops and I was like, no way. lol She says yes way and then comes up with, "You know, as a matter of fact, no more pork for you. That includes sausage and pork chops." Now wait right there for a moment, a man needs his pork chops. I can give you the sausage but don't take away those tender, succulent slices of meat that taste oh so good. lol

So what's my come back to her statement??? "Well, if I can't have pork can I at least have other kinds of "pork" chop? Like, from other animals, right?" Oh man, my wife started laughing her ass off. I smiled. Don't know what I was thinking (I don't think I was cause a life without pork chops just clouded my mind with terror. lol) but it's obvious that there is no other kinds of "pork" since pork comes from pigs. lmao

Oh man... If only you knew the conversations that we've had. Maybe I should I start posting those here as reference when I need a laugh. lol I've said and did many a stupid thing and I'm sure that we'll get a kick out of it. Later.

The Way to a Man's Heart



No friends, that's not a golden turd. lol That's chocolaty goodness wrapped in a gold foil thingy. lol One of the many perks of my wife and I working in the same company is that we can surprise ourselves with little notes such as these. I'm telling you people, she's bad ass. Love ya babe! Thanks.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Fairies Know Best

Hey there. Just a little something that I got from my wife via Email and I thought was hilarious. Hmmm.... Now I wonder if she's trying to tell me something by this. =o)


The Married Couple

A married couple, in their early 60's, was celebrating their 44th
wedding anniversary at a quiet, romantic little restaurant. Suddenly, a tiny beautiful Fairy appeared on their table. She said: "For being such an exemplary married couple and especially at this time, I will grant you each a wish."

"Oh, said the wife, I want to travel around the World with my darling
husband". The fairy waved her magic wand ; and - poof! - two tickets for the Queen Mary II luxury liner and Twenty Thousand Dollars appeared in her hands.

Then it was the husband's turn. He thought for a minute and said: "Well, this is all very romantic, but an opportunity like this will never come again. So I'm going with my mind and not my Heart. I'm sorry my love, but my wish is to have a wife 30 years younger than me."

The wife and the Fairy were shocked and disappointed. But a wish is a wish. So, the Fairy waved her magic wand, and - Poof! - the husband became 92 years old.

The Moral of the story:
Men who are ungrateful bastards should remember; Fairies are Female.