“The Man from Earth” – truly a remarkable movie………………..

Update (12/18/2011): I just watched the movie for the 10th time, and still enjoying it. And also I noticed my post is coming up higher in Google search and also, the Producer of the movie Eric D. Wilkinson had left a comment in this blog post :) suprise, suprise. Yes, as he mentioned, please buy a copy from Amazon, watch it and spread the word. This is truly a one of a kind movie. 

I just spend astonishing hour on watching this master piece. I’m thrilled and no words to say. Never saw a movie like this (except Da Vinci Code and National Treasure, both brilliant in their own way…..). This is the first time I watched a movie which plays in the same location without actions packed and tack ticks…….I liked how it speaks about Buddhism and how Christianity emerged from Buddhism……. 

Here’s a comment from its official page…….
...every so often you will see a film or hear a story that will take your breath away and leave you wondering...this is one of those stories. That said it is probably not for everyone. If you don't want your believes challenged you should probably stay away from this one. The film is all about the characters and their dialog, it is what makes or breaks the film, and I must say they did an excellent job, it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time, wanting to hear more. All this topped with great acting makes this a film really worth seeing.

It goes to show that you can make great films these days without explosions and killings...so simple yet so effective. Great movie!

The story plot from the Wiki……………….

The movie begins with Professor John Oldman (David Lee Smith) packing his belongings onto his truck preparing to move to a new home. His colleagues show up to give him an unexpected farewell party: Harry (John Billingsley, a biologist); Edith (Ellen Crawford, a fellow professor and devout Christian); Dan (Tony Todd, an anthropologist); and Sandy (Annika Peterson), a historian who is in love with John. Edith spots in John's belongings next to his truck an unknown Van Gogh painting of John's with the note "To my friend, Jacques Borne" on the back written in French. Once inside, his friends persistently ask John why he is leaving.

Another friend, Art Jenkins (William Katt), an archeologist, and his student Linda Murphy (Alexis Thorpe), arrive and John's friends continue to pressure him for the reason for his departure. John poses the question, "What if a man, from the Upper Paleolithic survived until the present day?" They assume that John is working on a science fiction story and play along with the discussion. As the film progresses, John slowly reveals that he is the "caveman" under discussion when he mentions that he was given a chance to sail with Christopher Columbus in the 15th century. The revelation starts off with John's recollection of the terrain of prehistoric Earth and John's origins, which happens to be roughly 14,000 years ago. John reveals that he was once Jacques Borne, a friend of Van Gogh's, and he is now "moving on" since some people have noticed his lack of aging.

As they take a break from the discussion, Art – who is concerned about John's sanity – telephones another friend, Dr. Will Gruber (Richard Riehle), an elderly psychologist, explaining the odd situation and asks him to come over right away. In the meantime, Sandy confesses to John that she loves him, but John tells her they can never be together because of his immortality. John resumes his story by stating that he was once a Sumerian for 2000 years, then a Babylonian under Hammurabi, and finally a disciple of Gautama Buddha. Dr. Gruber arrives, at which point Dan mentions that John's tale is as impossible to be disproved as it is to be verified, a response to the many attempts to poke holes in John's story by his colleagues. The discussion takes a turn into the biological and physical condition of John and the topic of death. Gruber propels the discussion deeper into the topic of death and tension rises as Gruber interrogates John on that subject. The tension culminates with Gruber pointing a gun at John. After the drama ends with the departure of Gruber, Harry reveals that Gruber's wife has died the day before and the profession of John's immortality had hit Gruber very hard. Art and Edith are upset with John's story, while Harry, Dan, Sandy, and Linda appear to be more sympathetic.

John also mentions that he is not a follower of a particular religion, and he doesn't believe in an omnipotent God. John's audience is shocked when he reveals how he survived the crucifixion when he was Jesus by "blocking the pain", a technique he learned in India. He explains the origin of the Resurrection, Moses, and other events and people in the Bible. Tempers and emotions rise as Edith pressures John to recant his story, which offends her deep-rooted faith in the Bible. Dr. Gruber returns to the scene and apologizes to John for his "infantile behavior". As John continues to pack his belongings onto the truck, his colleagues begin to talk about the possibility of John being mentally ill or high on drugs.


The discussions of John being Jesus, Christianity, and the Bible continue and Edith, unable to take John's tale anymore, breaks down crying. Emotions in the room run high. Gruber takes charge of the situation and sternly demands that John end his "high tale" and give closure to the story; he threatens John with the possibility of locking him up for observation. John apologizes to everyone and, as he doesn't want to further upset any of his friends, he tells them that all he just told them is just a story.

As each of John's friends leave, John apologizes to Harry and Edith, while Art and Linda leave without many parting words. When it is Dan's turn to say goodbye, it is hinted that Dan believes John's story. After everyone but Dr. Gruber and Sandy has left, Dr. Gruber overhears John relating to Sandy some of the other pseudonyms he has used over the years. One used over 60 years ago was the name of Gruber's father, a chemistry professor from Harvard, who had left the family. Gruber, shocked and over-excited, suffers a heart attack and dies. After Gruber's body is taken away, the movie ends with Sandy walking towards John (sitting in his truck); at the last minute he changes his mind to spend some part of his life with her.

No more Kwai Chang Caine (Kung Fu) , Actor David Carradine found hanged in his luxury hotel room in Bangkok

Actor David Carradine, star of the 1970s TV series "Kung Fu" who also had a wide-ranging career in the movies, has been found dead in the Thai capital, Bangkok. A news report said he was found hanged in his hotel room and was believed to have committed suicide.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, Michael Turner, confirmed the death of the 72-year-old actor. He said the embassy was informed by Thai authorities that Carradine died either late Wednesday or early Thursday, but he could not provide further details out of consideration for his family.

The Web site of the Thai newspaper The Nation cited unidentified police sources as saying Carradine was found Thursday hanged in his luxury hotel room.

It said Carradine was in Bangkok to shoot a movie and had been staying at the hotel since Tuesday.
The newspaper said Carradine could not be contacted after he failed to appear for a meal with the rest of the film crew on Wednesday, and that his body was found by a hotel maid at 10 a.m. Thursday morning. The name of the movie was not immediately available.

It said a preliminary police investigation found that he had hanged himself with a cord used with the room's curtains. It cited police as saying he had been dead at least 12 hours and there was no sign that he had been assaulted.

A police officer at Bangkok's Lumpini precinct station would not confirm the identity of the dead man, but said the luxury Swissotel Nai Lert Park hotel had reported that a male guest killed himself there.
Carradine was a leading member of a venerable Hollywood acting family that included his father, character actor John Carradine, and brother Keith.

In all, he appeared in more than 100 feature films with such directors as Martin Scorsese, Ingmar Bergman and Hal Ashby. One of his prominent early film roles was as singer Woody Guthrie in Ashby's 1976 biopic "Bound for Glory."

But he was best known for his role as Kwai Chang Caine, a Shaolin priest traveling the 1800s American frontier West in the TV series "Kung Fu," which aired in 1972-75.He reprised the role in a mid-1980s TV movie and played Caine's grandson in the 1990s syndicated series "Kung Fu: The Legend Continues."He returned to the top in recent years as the title character in Quentin Tarantino's two-part saga "Kill Bill."The character, the worldly father figure of a pack of crack assassins, was a shadowy presence in 2003's "Kill Bill — Vol. 1." In that film, one of Bill's former assassins (Uma Thurman) begins a vengeful rampage against her old associates.In "Kill Bill — Vol. 2," released in 2004, Thurman's character comes face to face again with Bill himself. The role brought Carradine a Golden Globe nomination as best supporting actor.

Bill was a complete contrast to his TV character Kwai Chang Caine, the soft-spoken refugee from a Shaolin monastery, serenely spreading wisdom and battling bad guys in the Old West. He left after three seasons, saying the show had started to repeat itself.
After "Kung Fu," Carradine starred in the 1975 cult flick "Death Race 2000." He starred with Liv Ullmann in Bergman's "The Serpent's Egg" in 1977 and with his brothers in the 1980 Western "The Long Riders."But after the early 1980s, he spent two decades doing mostly low-budget films. Tarantino's films changed that. "All I've ever needed since I more or less retired from studio films a couple of decades ago ... is just to be in one," Carradine told The Associated Press in 2004.
"There isn't anything that Anthony Hopkins or Clint Eastwood or Sean Connery or any of those old guys are doing that I couldn't do," he said. "All that was ever required was somebody with Quentin's courage to take and put me in the spotlight." One thing remained a constant after "Kung Fu": Carradine's interest in Oriental herbs, exercise and philosophy. He wrote a personal memoir called "Spirit of Shaolin" and continued to make instructional videos on tai chi and other martial arts.
In the 2004 interview, Carradine talked candidly about his past boozing and narcotics use, but said he had put all that behind him and stuck to coffee and cigarettes. "I didn't like the way I looked, for one thing. You're kind of out of control emotionally when you drink that much. I was quicker to anger."

"You're probably witnessing the last time I will ever answer those questions," Carradine said. "Because this is a regeneration. It is a renaissance. It is the start of a new career for me.

"It's time to do nothing but look forward."

The Da Vinci Code - second round

Today I watched the extended version of the “Da Vinci Code” movie by Ron Howard (I guess this is the second time, first when it released in 2006, a camera copy – too dark and wobbly, and now a crystal clear DVD rip with subtitles and extended clips thanks to torrents). When watching movies in a PC, its hard to stop yourself by dragging the mouse to forward scenes that we don’t wanna spent time, right? Whatever the movie I guess. But there are some limited number of films I watched for entirety, “National Treasurer”, and this movie “Da Vinci Code” are on the top of the lists. May be I go more with films kinda sci-fi, treasure hunting or detective/adventure stories like “Pirates of the Caribbean”, or “The count of Monte Cristo”.

The USA, TNT television is telecasting the movie again, it started on Friday, and I couldn’t finished watching it to the end. And its scheduled to repeat again tonight at about 7pm. Problem with watching a movie in a TV is you are reluctantly interrupted by advertisements and its really annoying specially if the movie is one you wanna watch so badly. So I turned to my good old friend torrent to do the downloading.

I don’t know how true the story is but whatever the way, it’s nicely done. Specially the scene where “Sophie”, the last descendent of the Jesus Christ, un-reveal the truth of her life, you feels like something stuck on your mouth or wanna cry loud, yehh I bet you felt the same when watching the movie. What I can’t believe is how the person who wrote this book imagined and related all this history to a legendary story like this, and it’s fascinating how each puzzle works and fit each other (even they are imaginations of someone). Same thing in “American Treasurer”, it’s so nice how they stick all those bits and pieces of history into a work of art. I’m impressed.

May be this I want to do someday, craft a book like this, a fiction like Arthur C. Clarks “2001” or something like “King Solomon's Mines”. Something rim to a truth, definitely not something like “Indiana Jones movies”. I liked the first one or two Indy movies but absolutely not this new one “Indiana Jones and the kingdom of Crystal Skull”, no way……..though I like the Indy PC games.

Kung Fu Panda- Prepare for Awesomeness

Nice….What else to say. Spent almost 2hrs on it today, but its worthwhile. One of best animated film I ever watched. I’m not talking about the quality of the animations or sound or kung fu actions etc, but it feels the same sensation of how we used to watch the all time popular tele series “Kung Fu”. Don’t know when its gonna start showing at theaters in Sri Lanka, but hopefully it will be available on DVDs, at least as camera copies….right ;)

Here’s some quotes from Wikipedia,

Kung Fu Panda is a 2008 animated film about a bungling panda who aspires to be a kung fu warrior. Kung Fu Panda is directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osborne and produced by Melissa Cobb. Although the concept of a kung fu panda has been around since at least 1993, the idea for the film was conceived by Michael Lachance, a DreamWorks Animation executive. Work on the film didn't begin until 2004 and the film premièred at the 61st Cannes Film Festival in May 2008. The film was released internationally on June 6, 2008, but will be released in the United Kingdom on July 4, 2008. The film is distributed by Paramount Pictures.

Kyle XY - ABC Family Sci-Fi series

A few weeks ago, I saw a post at Indika's blog regarding an exciting dram series (I guess it is Sci-Fi) called "Roswell High". So I thought its better to mention another one, which is popular in US these days. One good thing about this is you can even watch it for free using the streaming. Its called Kyle XY and if u r at US, u can see it on every Monday at 7pm (I guess this is the correct time, check your local ABCFamily TV guide for more info) on ABC Family TV channel. If you wanna watch it online, here's the link for ABC Family watch site. Nim and me started with the "Kyle XY series one" I guess after the first episode. But I missed lot of episodes due to my working schedule, Nim never miss any :) Fortunately before the second series starts, ABC Family channel repeated the "series one" last Sunday, one after another.

So what is Kyle XY????

"A teenage boy is found wandering alone. He has no name. He has no past. As innocent as a newborn, he doesn't speak and he seems to look at the world as if for the first time. With no place else to take him, the police send him to juvenile hall where he's given the name Kyle. It's obvious that Kyle isn't like the other kids, but when it's discovered that he has no bellybutton, an administrator begins to realize just how different Kyle might be. He calls in Nicole Trager, a kind-hearted social worker, to help with the case. Sensing something special about Kyle, Nicole takes him home, much to the chagrin of her husband, teenage daughter and boisterous young son.

Settling into the Trager's busy household isn't easy. There is so much Kyle doesn't know, and yet he demonstrates amazing abilities no one can explain. His talents are just the tip of the mystery, and the questions are just starting to grow: Who is Kyle? Where did he come from? Who is the man watching him?

Every day, Kyle encounters something new.....music, a pretty neighbor, a wild party, danger, lies, jealousy, humor, touch, trust, love. And each day, the Tragers think they are getting to know him. But the mystery surrounding Kyle is just beginning."

Wanna read more about Kyle XY?