This weekend a great little movie called SIXTY SIX may open in a theater near you. Click here to read my review on the movie . A few days ago, thanks to special ops media, I got the opportunity to interview the director whose real life childhood story was the basis for this movie. His name is Paul Weiland.

Some of you might be familiar with the romantic comedy titled Made of Honor starring Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monahan. Well, Paul Weiland directed it. I interviewed Paul about Sixty Six which centers around a Jewish kid whose Bat Mitzvah party happened to fall on the same date as The World Cup Finals of 1966.

Understanding a British accent has always been a challenge to me. That’s why I have to use subtitles whenever I watch Harry Potter movies on DVD. Director Paul Weiland has a very thick British accent but I was willing to try an understand every word he said.

Our conversation was done over the phone; he in London and I in sunny Southern California. How cool is that! He was nice enough to give me 15 minutes of his time.

The movie is said to be based on your real life childhood experience, how much of it is accurate and how much of it was added into the storyline?

“Everything was accurate, absolute story… the people were based on those I grew up with, some things and some of the names were changed for theatrical purposes and to protect the family. It’s an accurate sort of period movie. The whole room, the paintings; we even used the same original props. The place I got picked on when I was a kid and the same synagogue I got my Bat Mitzvah in”

What motivated you to take your childhood story and turn it into a movie?

“It happened at my 50th Birthday Party. I made a speech and in the speech, I included the story of how when I was a child, my Bat Mitzvah happened during the World Cup finals. Afterwards one of them came up to me and said that I should make a movie out of it….I didn’t want a Jewish writer to pen the script because I didn’t want it to be too cartoony.”

Let’s talk about the cast. How did Gregg Sulkin, the kid who plays the character Bernie who is supposedly a representation of you when you were a kid, get the role?

“I grew up in a working class environment. The neighborhood now is filled with different cultures and ethnics but there were many working class Jewish people back then… we were looking among hundreds of possible child actors. I knew Greg’s father and when his boy came in he was kinda handsome so we knew we had ‘geek’ him up a bit.”

How did Helena Bonham Carter and Eddie Marsan get involved in this? I’m asking this because Helena is used to starring in Tim Burton’s big budget movies. How did you convince her to play the role of the mother?

“Helena and I are good friends, she was at the birthday party, the one I told you about. When she heard that we were planning to make a movie about it, she said she wanted to play my mum Now anytime we meet, she’ll say to me ‘hello, son!’ and I’ll say to her, ‘hello, mum!’ Eddie Marsan is a wonderful, talented actor who was great in the movie Vera Drake. We wanted him to play the father but there was some scheduling problem because he was set to star in an HBO pilot but something happened and the series didn’t happen. We were lucky to have him play my father”

This movie was released in the UK back in 2006 and then it went from one film festival to another and now it will hit select theaters in the U.S. this weekend. Why did it take such a long time to finally be seen by audiences here?

“I think it was mostly the studio’s decision…. back in 2006 when the movie was released, we went up against a big blockbuster movie called Borat. The whole situation was just like my Bat Mitzvah going against the World Cup finals. The movie did all right. Jewish people embraced it and adopted the movie very well…. and now we believe that it will find audience in the U.S. as well.”

What do you hope for people to get out of watching this movie? What lesson would you want families and kids who are growing up to learn from this heartwarming, surprisingly inspiring story?

“We can choose our friends but we can’t choose our family. The movie actually has an alternate ending but the point remains. Things don’t have to stay bad, you can make things better if you’d just believe in yourself.”

In the past, you were associated with the popular comedy series Mr. BEAN, but you did not direct any of the BEAN movies. Would you direct the third movie?

“No…I mean, I’d love to work with Rowan Atkinson again, we did the movie Backadder Back and Forth, I’d love to work with him again.. but not on the character ‘Bean’”

What is your next project and can you say something about it?

“My next project will be a sequel called 69… I’m joking” (laugh)

Arsenal FC or Manchester United FC?

“I would have to say… Manchester United, they have so many trophies.”

All work and no play makes the Young & Successful feel unbalanced! To rescue our overworked souls, YSN member and movie aficionado Rama Tampubolon discusses the latest hot topics and movie reviews every Thursday on Waste Time Wisely. He runs the movie review and discussion blog, Rama’s Screen, and was featured in “United 300,” which won for “Best Spoof” at the 2007 MTV Movie Awards.

All of us face a problem of “Activity”. My observations are that people are working hard at “Activity” and become satisfied with saying “I am really working hard” or “I am really busy” and the purpose or outcome (Results) are either over looked or forgotten.

Every “Activity” must have a RESULT or it is a waste of time. One should periodically stop and make an assessment of all the “working hard” or all the “I’m really busy” statements and weigh them against the expected “RESULT” and make sure it has a time element.

Another thought of being busy is to ask a different question; too often we reflect on “what am I doing” and that is important; but perhaps a more important question is “What am I becoming?”

I’ve kept a quote in front of me. Its a quote from Albert Einstein;

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

This type of stuff has been discussed in the movie world before. But so what! We all know that the beginning of the movie is just as crucial as how the movie wraps itself up.

Summer blockbuster movies need to catch the audiences’ attention right from the start. With a bang! In a Blaze of Glory! The hero has to make a grand entrance! The opening scene determines whether or not the audience will be curious enough to want to see what’s going to happen next and stick around until the last part.

One of my favorite opening scenes of all time is from X-Men 2 where Nightcrawler attacks a bunch of Secret Service agents to get to the President. And who can forget the hilarious dialogue in the opening scene of Pulp Fiction?!

Last December in IMAX many of us saw the amazing 7 minutes of The Dark Night prologue (the bank robbery scene) before the prints of the movie I Am Legend. Now that THE DARK KNIGHT is opening tomorrow what do you think about other opening scenes from this summer’s blockbuster movies? Which one is your favorite?

Let me refresh your memory…


IRON MAN
The scene opens with Tony Stark in a military humvee. You can hear AC/DC music in the background and the soldiers with him wanted to take a picture with the playboy billionaire/weapons manufacturer. Then Boom, the humvee in front of them gets blown to pieces, a rocket launcher hits the one behind them too and the soldiers to his left and right are shot and killed. He gets out of the car and the next thing you know he’s laying on the ground with shrapnel as a souvenir.

SPEED RACER
You see Speed Racer in a locker room with his right foot itching to hit the gas pedal. Then it flashes back to when he was a kid in the classroom, distracted because all he could think about was racing against cartoon character race drivers. His brother Rex picked him up from school and off they go to drive on the race track. Just when they make the first jump, the scene goes back the present and Speed Racer finds himself in one of the most challenging tournaments of his career.

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN
Doctor Cornellius wakes Prince Caspian up from his sleep as danger is approaching. King Miraz’s wife just gave birth to a son, so he will have to kill the rightful heir. Prince Caspian goes into the closet and hides. The soldiers force their way into the room and he sees their failed attempt on his life. The closet leads to a secret tunnel which brings him outside the castle and he rides away into the forest while dodging arrows at the same time.

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL
The opening scene takes us to Nevada in the 1950s. A bunch of free-spirited teenagers are in a car trying to entice military convoy to a quick race. Then the soldiers arrive at a secret base known as Area 51 where they shoot and kill all the guards posted at the entrance. They take a man out of the back of a vehicle. They throw him onto the ground; he stands up, walks, and picks up his big hat and puts it on his head. There he is; none other than the one and only, Indiana Jones.

THE INCREDIBLE HULK
It shows biological elements, cells and green mutations along with introducing credits of the main stars, the title and the director. You see blurred vision flashbacks of that fateful day when Bruce Banner tries his experiment that suddenly goes haywire. You see things through the eyes of Hulk. The laboratory gets wrecked and destroyed, General Thunderbolt gets hurt and Betty Ross is left unconscious as Hulk runs away.

WANTED
Mr. X visits an office and talks to the woman about an interesting bullet. The woman gets shot in the head and from across the street, on another building, a bunch of construction workers start firing at Mr. X, so he runs to the elevator. He prepares himself, counts his seconds, and bam! He runs as fast as lightning toward the window and jumps through the glass. Everything happens in slow-motion; he’s in mid-air and he shoots everybody on the other building. On target too I might add. He kills the last victim and receives a phone call from a stranger who reveals that this has all been a decoy. A bullet goes through Mr. X’s head and the sequence rewinds back to the shooter.

HANCOCK
Hobo Hancock is sleeping on a bench; drunk and careless. A kid is watching the TV screen, the news is showing a high speed chase between LAPD and a gang of Asian gangsters packing heat. The kid approaches Hancock and wakes him up. He points to the screen and implies that there are bad guys. Hancock makes fun of the kid by asking if he wants a cookie, so the kid calls him an A-hole. Hancock flies into the sky and heads toward where the action is. He hits some street signs and almost hits an airplane along the way. He lands in to the bad guys’ car and even though he politely asks them to give themselves up, they open fire and the bullets destroy his whiskey bottle. Furious, Hancock takes the car with him and flies all around Los Angeles to scare the hell out of them. He kicks the car and it lands on top of the Capitol Records tower.

My favorite opening scenes: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Hancock.

All work and no play makes the Young & Successful feel unbalanced! To rescue our overworked souls, YSN member and movie aficionado Rama Tampubolon discusses the latest hot topics and movie reviews every Thursday on Waste Time Wisely. He runs the movie review and discussion blog, Rama’s Screen, and was featured in “United 300,” which won for “Best Spoof” at the 2007 MTV Movie Awards.

It’s a real sign of the times when people are creating blogs to stay up to date with friends and family. I recently received an email from my sister-in-law informing us all of their new family blog. It’s so great to be able to bookmark a link that takes me to pictures and very entertaining stories about my brother’s little family. Of course it makes it all that much more exciting when there is a 14 month involved who says and does silly and cute things everyday!

They live in Kansas and I am out here in California so having the convenience to point and click into the latest new word or favorite new toy of my niece is just spectacular. If it wasn’t for video and picture messaging, blogs, web cams and Web 2.0, I just might have to move back to Kansas!! Luckily for me, technology is keeping up with the needs of those of us who can’t be in the presence of their loved ones each day or even each month. I do a pretty good job of seeing my family and friends back home about every 2 ½ to 3 months, but I live for those little updates whether it via text, email or on a blog. I have even got my mom and dad (in their 50’s) texting. They may not always be as quick and occasionally mom will respond a day late; but that doesn’t change the smile it puts on my face keeping those little connections between us throughout the week.

I have a feeling my mom sees this technology as bittersweet. On one hand she can see her daughter in CA and her granddaughter in Kansas City with a click of a mouse. On the other hand, she knows with technology advancing as much as it is, I will have plenty of quasi-real-life-resources to stay in touch with her and the rest of my family/friends – making it easier for me to reside in California longer!!

I’ll admit, I am looking forward to the day when I can see my family live on their cell phone while they see me live on mine and we happily catch up about the day’s events!

Recently I’ve been invited to a birthday party with a neat twist. Because of the rising cost of gas and the poor state of the economy my girlfriend Jovie (many of you might know her) has planned a “Staycation.” This is a new trend and alternative to vacationing that doesn’t hurt the pocket book and gas tank as much! Urbandictionary.com’s definition is: a vacation that is spent at one’s home enjoying all that home and one’s home environs have to offer. I am really looking forward to staying in my home city while getting to act like a tourist. Pretending to go on vacation for much cheaper is something that many of us will no doubt start doing as gas prices continue to climb. This is going to be a great excuse to let myself enjoy things around the city that I might typically avoid because I am not a tourist!

She’s rented a hotel suite right by the beach, set up a trapeze class on the pier, followed by some sunning at the pool, drinks in the room and a family style dinner at a local restaurant. She’s managed to take advantage of fun elements that people might visit LA to do and packaged it up for us all to afford! Even though my own apartment will only be about 7 miles away, I will be able to lay by a fancy pool that is just next to the ocean. I am pretty sure I will be able to let my mind wander and feel as though I really went to a sunny stylish resort for the weekend! To top it all off there is a free concert later that night that is going to be on the Santa Monica Pier! She has done a great job of planning day and night activities without us having to break the bank! It’s really shaping up to be one heck of a staycation!