G Movies Feature!

Was happy to be featured as GMovies featured member of the week! ^_^ 

We love GMovies! It's this amazing app which allows you to buy and reserve movie seats online right at the comfort of your homel you can already choose your seats hours before your movie starts! 

Screenshot from my iPad for our Big Hero 6 Movie Tickets - the checked seats are ours!

We love tha app and you would too! You can download it on the Apple Store and Google Play :) 

So they gave me the exciting news that I would be their first Member of the week feature on their website ^_^ When they sent me their list of questions, I answered them as I usually would - with long essay-like answers :p 

Unfortunately they only needed short answers (about 300 characters per answer) since it was going up the site there was some technicalities to consider :p So I edited and shortened my answers for the post but I still wanted to share with you guys my original answers ^_^ 

Here's the link to the feature: http://gmovies.ph/member-of-the-week

Whole name: Marica (Ica) Hontiveros-Cheng

Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/marica.cheng

Instagram: ica_cheng

Twitter: ica_cheng

Blog Link: www.pchengphotography.blogspot.com 

Favorite movie of all time:

It's funny when I say I'm a Movie Buff but I can't say that I have a favorite movie of all time. I'm the type of person who generally anticipates movies that are about to come out, see them then talk a lot about them through Social Media but I can't say I have an all time favorite movie. 

Most of the movies I like to watch though are action, suspense, thrillers, romance, comedy, adaptations -there should be a genre like that, with all the adaptations today. I'm not a big fan of the horror genre though as I already mentioned in my The Walking Dead post but my favorite Zombie movie would definitely be Zombieland (2009) -there's always a work around :) 

It's like there are movies the I can watch over and over again (Forrest Gump (1994), The Italian Job (2003), Speed (1994), Rush Hour (1998), Fight Club (1999), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), while as a book lover I wouldn't miss out on adaptations as well- we're fans of J.R.R Tolkien and the movie adaptations are six movies! 

Paul and I make it a point to watch the extended DVDs and special features to learn all about the magic that goes on in creating awesome movies. For 2014 - my favorites so far are Guardians of the Galaxy and Big Hero 6. ^_^ While I can go on and on and prattle on and on about movies, it really goes back to me not having an all time favorite movie which is frustrating but I guess that's just how I am. ^_^ 

Most memorable quote from your fave movie: 

Not my ultimate favorite but definitely a favorite of Paul and myself:

Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden in Fight Club

"You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in your bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your f*cking khakis. You're the all singing, all-dancing cr*p of the world."

-Tyler Durden

Fight Club 

What is your earliest movie memory?

My earliest memory of watching movies; would be the movies that my Dad watched. I'm a big Daddy's girl so I absorbed everything that he admired and being a genuine geek himself, my Dad easily passed that in to me. 

"Luke, I am your Father" 

I remember watching the first Star Wars Trilogy (1977-1983) on VHS Tape (over and over again) some of the scenes that made an impression on me were of course the infamous: "Luke - I am your Father - NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" exchange and with Luke loosing his arm. As a kid I despised  antagonists like Jabba the Hut and adored critters like the Ewoks. It was awesome to get to watch the special features on the original trilogy all these years later. I'm sure my Dad would have loved that. 

I can never forget the "monkey brain dessert" in Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom (1984) and will always remember Arnold Schwarzenegger in a leather jacket and shades on as The Terminator (1984) before any of his other roles. 

Another early movie memory was the bathroom-scene in Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park (1993) the one with the line that goes: "When you gotta go-you gotta go." If you've seen the movie you would know it's not your typical bathroom scene :P 

When this meme of Sigourney Weaver being chums with the eponymous Alien came out and I was laughing about it, Paul said - "You couldn't have seen that! You weren't born yet!"

Alien came out in 1979. I might not have been born yet but I am my father's daughter after all. ^_^ 

Which movie changed your life and why?

This is a tough one but I would have to say Shawshank Redemption (1994). It changed my life because of the themes of the movie such as hope and maintaining hope in a hopeless situation, which I think is very important. It's a shame that I have yet to read the Stephen King novella on which the movie is based on. (I'll have to put that on my to-read list). 

Another important theme in the movie is "integrity" and keeping that integrity in a place where there is none. I love how the movie is a happy ending (in a way) where in the protagonists got the ending that they deserved and well let's just say that everyone got what they deserved and there is always that satisfying sweet justice in that. 

Unlike movies nowadays which rely on fast paced action to earn their stars but for Shawshank Redemption, the whole story takes place in a span of two decades which makes the redemption in the end so worth it. 

Aside from the themes in the movie, I love that Shawshank Redemption's performance does not follow your typical Hollywood formula of earning big and fast in the Box Office; instead it only finished No.9 during the weekend of its release only to earn a total gross of $16 mil. which was a big flop and did not even meet break even but just like Andy in the movie, the film received a lot of nominations and outstanding reviews from critics and got it's redemption.

The film had great success on cable TV, VHS, DVD & Blu-Ray release and is ranked as #1 in IMDB's Top 250 list which is based on a million votes and the film is also considered as one of the best movies of all time. 

So you see- you don't need state of the art graphics, a lot of stunts or a huge budget to have a successful movie; all you need is a good story and amazing actors! 

Whom do you think is the most underrated actor and why?

The Elusive Edward Norton

When I first encountered this question I immediately thought of one of our favorite actors - Edward Norton. Even if he has a number of roles and movies under his belt as well as nominations and awards for his roles, he has this underrated nature about him which I believe comes from his reputation of not being accepting of his celebrity status. 

We love Edward Norton for the variety of roles that he plays whether it is the confused narrator of Fight Club, the sleazy two-timing antagonist of The Italian Job or the loving brother in American History X or even hilarious cameos, like the fictional member of Spandeau Ballet in the 2010 series of Modern Family, you can't deny that Norton is a true talented actor who would probably get the praise and popularity he deserves if it was not for his perfectionist attitude and infamous clashes with directors and producers. 

We'd definitely love to see more of Edward Norton - we just can't get enough of him! 

Which movie soundtrack is most applicable to your life?

Another difficult question for me because I am both a big music aficionado and obviously a movie buff and I definitely believe that the soundtrack to a movie is integral to bring in the emotions that the scene in the movie wants to convey. I also believe that a good OST can easily bring back memories of the movie when you listen to a song even if the movie is decades old. 

So here are some of my favorite OSTs 

Forrest Gump (1952-1983) 

The songs for the movie were chosen to pinpoint time periods in the movie, which I really liked because it felt like you were traveling through time and got to listen to the best songs in those years. 

I would say that it's applicable to my life since the soundtrack is a chronicle to a life, which means lots of songs throughout the years and decades and if I were to have a soundtrack to my life it would definitely have the same structure. 

Twilight (2008) 

Will jump at the chance to put a photo of Hayley Williams of Paramore on the blog :P

Only because my favorite band Paramore has two songs in this OST. "Decode" and "I Caught Myself" and I love the songs from Muse as well! (Supermassive Black Hole) for the first movie and I just loved that song from Iron and Wine "Flightless Bird, American Mouth". 

If you could watch a single movie genre all your life, what would it be and why?

As a movie buff I generally love watching movies so instead of having a specific genre that I would watch all my life I will just mention genres I won't watch or bother watching.

I'm not much of a Horror fan so those are out. I don't care much for slasher films or parody films either. Any movie franchise that reaches above the part 3 mark is definitely something I would stay away from. Movies that have the same premise over and over again (Final Destination) is another genre or franchise I won't watch. 

Aside from what I mentioned I would pretty much watch anything and everything else. ^_^