Looking back.

Using a term from the papers, annus horribilus means ‘horrible year’, which rather describes my 2014 to a ‘T’.

[As opposed to my first thought when seeing this term, annus horribilus has nothing to do with bad anuses ew.]

From miserably failing at my one-post-a-day quota, to flunking posting timely reviews to the movies I’ve watched (fortunately I passed movie-watching); from growing white hairs (and not due to age) to getting burned out at work (which shouldn’t happen because I actually love what I do); it's been one heck of a year for me.

And it seems that’s the general sentiment going around. I’ve heard colleagues saying (with conviction) that they hope 2015 will be a better year than this.

Well, I echo that sentiment.

Per a recent post of mine, I hope to “be so happy that when others look at me they become happy too”, to the extent that my happiness makes them explode and if I'm lucky, they stay that way. I hope that 2015 will be a year where things would be straightforward and I wouldn't have to use my noggin' to manuever/dissemble/do such silly things.

I hope 2015 will be smoother than the bumpy 2014.

Most importantly, I hope to be able to write like I used to. Words used to flow from me like wee, but for the past two years or so it's as if I have urinary tract infection.

[Meaning very little wee.]

Read More......

Double Feature: Warm Bodies (2013) and Monster University (2013)

Warm Bodies

[HBO!]

My interest in the genre is more towards the zombies themselves, from a biological point of view, how they function. I mean, they don't rationalise, they don't plan, they may not feed even that often, but inexplicably, they survive.

So this movie's told from a zombie's point of view, the premise being that the zombie falls in love with a living breathing girl, and against all (scientific) odds, finds his way back to the land of the living and regains his humanity.

The movie starts off very good, but kinda falls flat in the third act. Our hero's path to the land of the living is an interesting exploration in reversing the effects of zombification, but it setting off a chain of events that leads to the redemption of EVERY zombie, well, that's a bit much for me to stomach.

Adding Deadites (can't remember what they were called, but if you see the movie you'd know who they are) was unnecessary. The focus should be on the zombies alone without any other undead element or further derivation; this just detracts from the story. Plus, these violent creatures are supposed to be able to sense heartbeats and thus feed; how is it that the confrontation between them and the recently-hearted zombies

Nicholas Hoult's portrayal as the zombie of change was good, although I thought his end scenes were done COMPLETELY human (and didn't have that awkwardness that it should). Mind, I know that his progress is way ahead of the rest; I just feel that it shouldn't be human. It should be just slightly less so.

Monsters University

[Fox Movies Premium!]

I would've preferred a sequel than a prequel. I miss Boo.

Even though the focus is more on Mike this time, the storyline ended up predictable (Mike and Sully start off disliking each other). I think the fun I got from the film is seeing that blobby monster with the four / six eyes (can’t remember his name or the number of his eyes) and revisiting the characters we got to know from Monsters, Inc.

And they found a way to fit Steve Buscemi in this one, too!

[Although, his origin didn't gel well with his eventual ruthlessness and villainy and homicidalness. I mean, he wanted to kill that poor girl.]

Despite finding the film rather humdrum, anything Billy Crystal-related gives me a kick (his last outing--Parental Guidance--was just so-so) as he’s not around a lot at the moment.

[Super-short one. Too meh.]

Read More......

Bad Milo! (2013)

This movie was featured in the weekend programme some time ago, with a picture of the protagonist with his arm around Milo, and I thought, "looks cute".

See? Cute.

It's about a guy who has bowel problems exacerbated by stress, so when he’s really stressed out he has to go take a big dump. After receiving a call from office saying that all of his work files get deleted by an incompetent colleague, he passes out in the bathroom, and wakes up next morning to find that said colleague is dead, mauled to death. Seeking help from a witch doctortherapist, he finds out that a demon has grown in his stomach, and whenever stressed, the demon will be shat out and it will go kill the source of his stress.

Does this demon stay out, you ask? No, he goes back in the same way.

It's a comedy. And a rather unique horror-comedy, at that. The only instance I can recall a monster coming out of someone’s butt is in Dreamcatcher, which kind of sucked.

Ken Marino is perfect as our hapless hero who has daddy issues (there’s a neat development in the movie but I won’t spoil it) and gets bullied by his boss because of his toilet problem. There’s also this simply adorable sequence where he tries to bond with his stomach demon (naming him ‘Milo’), and even tries to feed him with canned food.

The supporting cast is made up of a surprising number of people that I know, considering this is a movie I’ve not heard of. Gillian Jacobs, Peter Stormare (he’s the witch doctor!), Patrick Warburton, Jimmy JamesStephen Root, that Indian dude from Franklin and Bash Kunal Nayyar. It didn’t hurt the movie to have them in it; quite the opposite.

[Especially Pete Stormare. Always a plus point.]

Bad Milo! is one of those movies that you watch and readily laugh at, despite the morbid topic (the thought of Milo going back in and up is enough to make my butt curl), because funnily, toilet humour never gets old.

Read More......

New Year's Eve!

[Added disclaimer: not at all related to New Year's Eve. Except for a fact this is the day this happened.]

Today I forgot my security tag, so I had to get people to tag me out/in of the office whenever I needed to go to the loo. I figured that I could use the disabled's (a.k.a., the guest toilet) instead, so I wouldn't need to borrow someone's security tag just to go pee.

The first time I had to go, I automatically went for the ladies' and got in as someone was coming out. Mid-go(ing), I realised that I didn't have my tag with me, and that there was no one else in the toilet.

Since most people are on leave, mild panic came on, but luckily I thought of standing by the main door (it had vents toward the base of it) to see whether there were people walking by.

Five minutes later (luckily!), the cleaning lady passed by and I knocked for her to let my red-faced self out.

Since this totally counts towards my posts, I've got three more left till midnight. Boo.

Read More......

Oh, come on.

As if this year-end doesn't have enough natural disasters.

Yesterday night while watching Vampirella (not a porno), I noticed a newsflash saying another plane has gone missing mid-flight.

AirAsia flight QZ8501 from Indonesia to Singapore went missing at 6am yesterday. They still haven't found the plane yet. And this isn't even the Indian Ocean we're looking at.

#PrayforQZ8051

I hope they're just stranded on an island somewhere, or they manage to convert the plane to be like a floatation device (and thus, are still living). If so, I hope they're found soon.

Update: The evening news has reported over 40 bodies and debris found in the ocean near Kalimantan. My prayers are with the victims and their families.

Read More......

This is my resolution for the coming new year.

I was reminded from a Buzzfeed article on Tom Hiddleston (originally tweeted here) that this existed, and I aspire to be this way when 2015 arrives.

[I got disconnected halfway through reading the article because my internet is on the fritz, but I'd like to think that loading all those .gifs and pictures of Hiddles broke my internet.]

Read More......

Argh, the ambiguity!!

Yesterday was the last episode of 9: Nine Times Time Travel.

[Earlier post on this here (or just scroll slightly down).]

Compared to the very heavy preceding episodes, where our hero is shown dying at the end of it, this episode is somewhat lighter. It starts from the point of the teenaged hero, going from how he falls into journalism, and him meeting his step-niecejunior colleague for the first time.

Okay, you know what, I'm gonna name names: Hero = Sun Woo; junior colleague/love interest/former step-niece = Min Young; Elder Brother = Jung Woo.

Now, in the previous episode, a dying present-Sun Woo had told Min Young (as a child) to stay away from a guy that looks like him, as he would be the one that will hurt her (by all this time-travelling nonsense). Min Young grows up, encounters Sun Woo at her workplace (because he's her senior), and in a very comic scene, tells him that she has to stay away from him because of "trauma" (she doesn't elaborate).

Despite her best(?) efforts, Min Young eventually couldn't be bothered and she sticks to Sun Woo like a leech, with Sun Woo thinking she's insane (and making his feelings on this known to her at all times) but finding her adorable and steadily attracted to her by the minute.

The episode briefly shows us the progression of their relationship through the years, right up to 2012, when all this kerfuffle first started.

He meets up with Jung Woo (now out of prison), who says that he's going to Nepal. Min Young herself is also going to Nepal (job-related), and Sun Woo pisses her off enough (he does a lot of attractive teasing) to finally tell him about her encounter with present-Sun Woo 20 years ago. Now-Sun Woo realises that it was him who met Min Young, and that he will eventually die when he's 20 years in the past.

But(!) he realises that he does love Min Young, and with the knowledge of that time travel is a possibility (and the fact that he would die if he went back to 1993) and his future self (initial-future self) telling him that "he would always make the right choice", he decides to go to Nepal to be with her (in the original timeline, he goes to Nepal to identify his dead brother and pick up his belongings).

So, the ambiguity of this is: is he still fated to die 20 years ago, mangled in a telephone booth, or, because of the time travel rippling effect in this show, will he avert this future and not die in the past.

AND WHAT'S WITH THAT LAST SCENE WHERE JUNG WOO IS AT THE MOUNTAIN DYING AND SUN WOO, LIKE, RESCUES HIM?!!

IS THIS CURRENT-SUN WOO OR FUTURE FUTURE SUN WOO!!

ARGGGHHH I SHOULD NOT HAVE READ THE INTERNET!!!

[APOLOGIES FOR CAPS-LOCK!!]

Read More......

I have six days to push out seven posts...

That is, if I want this year's post count to NOT be less than last year's.

This sounds easy enough, given the number of movie reviews I haven't posted yet are quite a bit.

Okay, back to the grindstone. This post doesn't count.

Read More......

Waddles.

Wook at him!!


Wook at his adowable fat face!!


Wook at him asking for promoshun!!


Wook at Doctor Waddles!


Waddles is from Gravity Falls, a show about twins who go stay with their Gruncle (grandgreat-uncle) Stan during the summer, and each episode has the kids encountering weird and X-Files-y stuff.

But enough on the show. Wook at his pie chart he ated it!!!

Read More......

9: Nine Times Time Travel (2013 series) [Super-long]

[It's quite the tongue twister if you say it real fast.]

This show is about a reporter who discovers magic joss-sticks that, when burnt, brings a person 20 years into the past for a duration of 30 minutes (that is, when the joss-stick burns out completely). I skipped the earlier episodes, but tuned in from the time he started investigating his father’s death. By then, his elder brother (dead at the start of the series) is now living (possibly by our hero’s meddling hand) and by his living, our hero’s junior colleague cum girlfriend wannabe is now the hero’s step-niece, because the brother had married the girl’s mother. Our hero then decides to appreciates the girl after she becomes family.

Aside from this semi-mess, he also has a brain tumour (not really caused by the time travel but worsens with each jump into the past), and in trying to prevent / investigate his father’s death, he has to deal with the antagonist of the show, who (though a devious bastard) didn’t murder his father but manipulated events so that he can ascend to the father’s position as director/chairman/head of a hospital.

[Complicated storylines and time travel seem to be the stuff of Korean shows, but they tend to be able to do them justice.]

The thing about this show is its interesting take on time travel: changes in the past affect the future organically instead of immediately (unlike other shows, where you come back to a completely different future), which means that people in the present suddenly gain new memories as the events resulting from the change occur in the past. So there’s plenty of split-screen scenes: 20 years ago versus present time; and a scene where our hero sees a message appear stroke-by-stroke on his guitar, as written by himself at that point in time 20 years ago.

One of the most thrilling sequences in the show (that makes use of the split-screen) is when our hero dies in the operation to relieve swelling on his tumour; at the same time 20 years back, his past self finds tumour medication dropped by his future self in a previous visit, and after consulting his doctor on what that medication is, the tumour was detected at an early stage (instead of 10-20 years later, when it’s too late). So, as recollected by his best friend in the present (who gains these 20-year-old memories in real time), one minute our hero’s body is heading to the morgue, the next thing: the corpse is of another person, and our hero is alive and well and delivering the news.

Also, that girlfriend/step-niece? Her now fiance discovers a love-note from her to our hero, confronts the niece, who at first doesn’t know what’s going on, but slowly regains her memories from the past timeline. Now she has memories of being a step-niece, AND majorly crushing on this guy. And at first, our hero vehemently denies this (because only he and his best friend knows about the time travelling) and even scolded her for thinking such a thing (read: incest), but as the girl spirals into madness, he finally acknowledges her original memories by showing up at “the place I kissed my senior for the first time” (something he wouldn't have known if he actually was her step-uncle), and with this exchange:

"You know the word I hate most in the world?"

"What?" says her.

" 'Uncle'."

THEN HE FRIGGIN' KISSES HER!!!

[The closet romantic approves this scene, which she cannot find with English subs on YouTube.]

Don’t worry, the show isn’t entirely about two people who want to be together but can’t anymore. It’s about our hero’s efforts in trying to right the future by remedying the past, but with each time-jump, he has to contend not just with the changes happening in real-time as a result, but with the unexpected repercussions that keeps on unexpectedly happening whenever he returns to the present.

And how completely left-of-field they are!

Currently, the series is nearing its end (either today or tomorrow, depending on Christmas specials if any), and since this show airs five days a week, the episodes this week are packing a wallop of a cliff-hanger at each end. Spoilers below:

On Monday: The frequent changes to the past lead the antagonist to have been in possession of the joss-sticks for 20 years (in his office drawer!) – and he uses a stick to travel back to order a hit on our hero in his past teenaged self. Hero finds joss-stick, stops it from burning (therefore pulling the antagonist back to the future), and uses the very last one to go back and finally make things right. Episode ends with hero getting a long scar on his arm, and growing weaker by the minute as his past self is threatened (and subsequently chased) by the hitman.

Tuesday: Hero has jumped to the past. He stops the hitman (this part is totally filler), provides his younger self with evidence on his (their?) father’s death, and tells him to reach his boss – who 20 years ago is a journalist investigating corruption in the police force. With the evidence, the changes to the future are immediate: the antagonist loses everything (literally – as he is trying to break into our hero’s car to get at the joss-stick, his golf clubs, lackeys, big car all vanish), the best friend’s memories get a 20-year update, and the step-niece gets transported from funeral parlour (step-dad committed suicide – burdened with the knowledge of being a weak douche and having caused everyone a lot of hardship by not dying in the first place) to church: it’s her wedding day with our hero!!

[SQUEE!!]

Wednesday: Timeline having righted, this episode explores where and how everyone is; those already aware still remain aware of what has occurred. The antagonist is now a lowly pharmacist owner, and tries to find the hero’s car so that he can get at the last joss-stick (which would still be burning); we get a flashback as to how the now-girlfriend got engaged with our hero (adorable, but still filler); hero counts down his final minutes before he returns to the present, but (and that is a HUGE ‘but’) hero doesn’t jump back to the future.

Like, in his car 20 years in the future, the wedding ring box first appears on the seat, and then, joss-stick and joss-stick holder disappears from the car.

And then (yes, there is still more!), 20 years back, past-antagonist stumbles onto present-hero (who is leaving a voicemail to his best friend 20 years on – ikr right?), and rams his car into him!

THE EPISODE ENDS WITH OUR HERO BLOODIED AND MORTALLY WOUNDED!!

AND TONIGHT IS THE (PEN?)ULTIMATE EPISODE!! ARGGHHHH!!

It will either end with:

a) him dying, which would make things predictable, since you can’t get away unscathed when you mess with time, OR

b) him dying, and then him undying (by some time-travel magicking) and everyone lives happily ever after except for the antagonist.

Tonight's episode has already started on 8TV! Korean shows have never gripped me so; I've been rushing in and out to complete this post as I don't have Wi-fi.

P.S. My recaps mightn’t be very accurate, because so much happens in one episode that it’s discover-a-minute exciting and I only got a chance to put this to post right now.

Thursday update!: Confirmed today was penultimate episode (meaning there's one more tomorrow) and they do show him dying! In the past! And the last person he sees is his girlfriend as a child and he gives her a final message and she remembers it all 20 years later!!

But then final episode preview shows everything as back to normal(?)! I'm confused and emotional about all this!!

Read More......

Merry Christmas!

Late, but not too late. Wishing everyone lovely tidings and joyful happiness this holiday season!

Read More......

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

This isn't exactly the Christmas movie I was looking for, but today's viewing session was rather spur-of-the-moment.

You see, we had our pipes fixed Friday morning and our water valve had to be closed for four hours while the glue dried, so we decided to go see a really long movie to fill our time.

Perfect movie for this, folks, considering there's lunch to be had as well.

*spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers ON TIME!*

TBotFA is the last movie in The Hobbit trilogy, which I hear is two movies too long. It picks up immediately after the events in Desolation of Smaug, with Smaug desolatinglaying waste to Laketown. What surprised me was Smaug’s defeat 15-20 minutes into the film; I thought they would drag this on for at least a bit more.

Thorin succumbs to ‘dragon sickness’ after evicting the dragon (meaning he becomes obsessed with gold and wants to hoard all of it – like Stephen Colbert, perhaps?) and holes himself and the rest of the dwarf company under the Lonely Mountain. The humans from the now-razed Laketown camp outside the Mountain in search of shelter, and to claim some of the gold within as part of recompense for aiding the dwarves and to also rebuild their town (I don’t recall much aiding, by the way, but since Bard said it and he looks to be of upright character, I will go along with it). Legolas and Tauriel have gone a-trackin’, and find out that the Orcs (from the first two films) are mobilizing and planning to attack the Mountain in a bid to reclaim the land behind it (which is Angmar. Cue goosebumps).

The Elves have also come to the Mountain, to claim the white gems that Thranduil has always wanted, and join forces with the humans in an effort to get Thorin and Co., to budge. Thorin’s reinforcements (led by his boar-riding cousin, Billy ConnollyDain) arrive, and are about to fight with the Elf-Human contingent when the Orcs finally arrive.

The last hour or so is true to its title, with everyone duking it out with the Orcs, even though I count only four armies (Dwarf, Elf, Human and Orc), unless you include Goblin mercenaries, which were only on-screen for like, five minutes. Probably the book is clearer on this.

Really, really cool scenes in the movie are:

• The way Bard takes down Smaug. Super-epic.
• Elrond and Saruman fighting the pre-Lord of the Rings Ringwraiths (I think), and the Ringwraiths (I think) are bamf-ing about. Also, the return of Sauron, from mere silhouetted Necromancer to the flaming eye we all know and are familiar with. One more ‘also’: Angmar. Freaking Angmar.
• The part when the dwarves lay down their pikes against the Orcs just when they are about to attack, and the Elves coming in at the last minute by jumping over the dwarves and combating the Orcs. I don’t know how else to describe this scene, but be assured it looks far cooler than my description.
• I would include the Ringworms but they didn’t get much screen-time. I mean, what is the point of mentioning Ringworms if they’re going to be in it for five seconds.
• Legolas stepping on /climbing falling stones like a staircase. Cool as this looks, I still prefer his turn in Return of the King. You know which scene I mean.
• “The Eagles are coming!” The Eagles are always last-minutely cool. Also, that guy who rode the Eagles and transformed into a giant bear and fought the Orcs. I thought he was random, but Wikipedia reminded me that he was in the second movie.
• Thorin Sheathing The Sword, when fighting Azog the Defiler. If I don’t get that Robert Jordan film series, this will most definitely do it, for me.

As with all Hollywood decisions, splitting a slim volume into three super-long movies (by using appendices) is motivated by financial reasons, however I have noticed the series’ effectiveness in getting us invested with its (main) characters. It works in getting you to care what happens to them, how they have grown, etc. And having not read the book (and not spoiled myself silly with Wikipedia beforehand), I was wowed and awed and suitably saddened by its turn of events (when I guessed wrongly who would die and who wouldn’t).

This movie ends full circle into the original trilogy, with old Bilbo getting a visit from Gandalf. It doesn’t exactly have that the same kind of finality that Return of the King had, even as the end-credits song drums its farewell into you. I did stay for the end-credits, because with so many people in this film, it’s a lovely gesture and a very, very nice feeling to finally get to know who played whom.

[Yes, there’s Wikipedia, but there’s really just so many people.]

[P.S. Link under Stephen Colbert's name leads to his hilarious interview with Smaug. It also has a clip from the movie, so you can skip to 4:48 for the rest of the interview.]

Read More......

300: Rise of an Empire (2014)

[Late, late, late.]

Ramping up the blood and gore and blood (censored version in theatres so no nudity), this movie is just an excuse to apply Zack Snyder’s stylised camera-work and techniques on battles at sea.

Initially publicised as a prequel, then a sequel, this movie is actually a during-quel, parallel to the events in 300. It starts with a very short backstory on Xerxes, and continues on to the before and then after of the Battle of Thermopylae.

The focus this time is on Themistocles, who faces Eva Green’s Artemisia, both on the battlefield and face-to-face (and you know where the latter would lead teehee), and eventually to the Persians’ defeat at the Bay of Salamis. This is spliced with scenes with the Spartans (no Gerry Butler this time), as they refuse Themistocles’ request to join them in battle at first, and, after the death of the 300, they provide reinforcements at Salamis.

[For the record, it’s been six months since I last saw this movie, and apart from Xerxes and Eva Green, I had to Wiki everything else up.]

I’m rather disappointed that there isn't much on Xerxes’ origins and how he became the God-King, although Wikipedia tells me that he wasn’t all that special in the first place, so I guess the movie had to at least have some historical basis. Eva Green steals every scene she’s in, and despite my being a horrible feminist, I looked forward to seeing her every time she comes on.

[Xerxes-related, I’m also rather disappointed that there wasn’t enough Rodrigo Santoro. Even my mum said he was pretty]

I kinda forgot why I’d enjoyed 300, and this movie reminded me (in part) of the ‘why’: war strategies. From the first film, you had the Spartans form a barricade with their shields and push Persians off glorious-looking cliffs; with this movie, it’s applied on naval engagements, seeing Themistocles and Artemisia trying to outsmart and outwit each other. The part where Themistocles rode his horse onto ships and fought people just blew my mind! I mean, it’s not strategy; it just looks seriously cool, and you’d never think to bring a horse to a naval engagement unless you’re transporting it or something.

Post is short. I transfer the adjective from Godzilla to this review.

Read More......

OMG, BC is Dr SS!

Translation: Oh my glob, Benedict Cumberbatch is Dr Stephen Strange!

After months of rumours, BC is finally confirmed to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the Sorcerer Supreme.

And he said he would be busy being Hamlet ;)

["Just when we thought he was out they pull him back in!"]

Welcome to Marvel, Ben!! Looking forward to the end of 2016!

Blogger's note: Posted this from cellphone! Edited to add this note and to reduce font for one of the lines. Whee!

Read More......

Dumb and Dumber To (2014)

In my quest for nostalgia, this movie doesn’t disappoint. Unfortunately, it isn’t as funny as the first one (though on the crude scale, it’s a match).

It had a good start, though.

After a catatonic Lloyd reveals he was faking it for 20 years (the exact number of time between this movie and its first, Dumb and Dumber), Harry is need of a kidney and they both set out to find Harry's illegitimate daughter to see whether she is a donor match. Hilarity, devious plots and pranks ensue.

The movie parallels the first one almost to a ‘T’, as if trying to see whether the same formula could work 20 years later. From the road trip to the large villainous sidekick getting inadvertently killed, down to Lloyd having a fantasy sequence (where he kicks ass and then imagines his love interest's tatas to be the front of a truck) and undercover police (not so obvious, eh), from the insidious plot underway to the Lauren HollyLaurie Holden, I can go on and on.

Don't get me wrong; it's not that I didn't appreciate all the references and tie-backs to the first movie, it's just that it's exactly the same movie. The difference is that I could name so many funny things from the first movie, and not that many from this one; laugh-out-loud moments were far and rather few.

My main quibble with the movie were some plot devices that, even when proven that they weren't in fact loopholes, still weren't satisfactory at all. Like, how can the conference people not know what the renowned Dr Pinchelow looked like? Couldn't Kathleen Turner write smaller on the postcard and go, "Dear Harry, I'm pregnant so I need the 40 bucks you owe me, love Fraida"? It's as if there was no other way to create comedy (or acts of stupidity, if you will) in the film and they had to rely on such sloppy writing.

And with all the throwbacks, I thought there could be a connection between Laurie Holden toand Mary SamsoniteSwanson, because the resemblance is uncanny. Alas, it was not to be. And (again) since we're on the topic of throwbacks, it's not the same without Harland Williams nor a Jeff Daniels' explosive diarrhea scene.

On top of that, I actually feel sorry for Lloyd (easily the mean-spirited of the duo, based on the first film), when he gave up his kidney for Harry, only for him to reveal it to be a prank.

So, Dumb and Dumber To: watch, or don't watch?

If you like/love the first film and also throwbacks, do watch. If not, well, then don't.

Malaysians, there is a scene in the movie that's (quite obviously) cut, but no worries. Just YouTube the trailer, and there it is.

[Despite the long list of similarities, I left out two of the best throwbacks in the film, one of which is in the post-credits scene. It's worth the wait if you're a fan.]

Read More......

And this (related).

Read More......

This.

Read More......

Oh-em-fricken'-gee, Marvel!

First off, Civil War! Phase 3's first movie is Civil War!!

Then, then, Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange! Though it's not final yet and after he said 'probably not' at one point because he was gonna be Hamlet!

And now my week is complete (despite it just being Wednesday) because the scene they released with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is, in fact, the one they showed in Comic-con!

WHERE EVERYONE TRIES TO LIFT THOR'S HAMMER!!

Well, half of everyone. That, I know now.

I embed said video below. The rest of the vid is mostly footage from the leakedreleased trailer from last week.




[Cumberbatch and Hiddles in the Marvel universe!! Internet, start imploding at the thought! Now, if the 'Batch becomes J'onn J'onzz... he will officially win the (comic book) world.]

Read More......

I chose a totally good day to Google updates on the second Avengers movie.

The official trailer just leakeddropped! Usually I have awful timing and only get up to speed, like, a week later or something.

It seems that the official trailer was supposed to air during next week's episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but this was all over the Interwebz yesterday.

Marvel's reaction to this was:

Dammit, Hydra.
— Marvel Entertainment (@Marvel) October 22, 2014

HA HA HA!

and they relented and followed up with the official release (embedded below). Do watch in (H)HD!



Two-and-a-half minutes long, we finally get to see Ultron as portrayed by James Spader (having been teased in that awesome multi-character poster released some months ago), and he sounds fantastic at being foreboding and malevolent (I guess all that talking on his part in The Blacklist really helped). I cannot wait to see/hear him (heard he also did the motion capture) when Age of Ultron finally opens.

One more reason to look forward to Labour Day! iMax here I come!!*

*Disclaimer: Still dependent on whether I've the cajones to go through paying RM30 for something that might make me nauseous.

Read More......

2014 Movie List.

[After using exclamation and question marks in past years, I'm working my way through punctuation. Next year, I think I'll use a comma.]

Only release months (Malaysia-relevant) are below because it's September and we're down to our last one/two movies.

1. I, Frankenstein (January) 
2. The Lego Movie (February)
3. Robocop (January)
4. 300: Rise of an Empire (March)
5. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (March)
6. The Amazing Spider-man 2 (May)
7. Godzilla (May)
8. X-Men: Days of Future Past (May)
9. Maleficient (May)
10. Transformers: Age of Extinction (June)
11. Guardians of the Galaxy (July)
12. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (August)
13. The Expendables 3 (August)
14. Sin City: A Dame to Die For (donno; probably nevar in Malaysia)
15. Dumb and Dumber To (November, but probably nevar in Malaysia to)

If I remove Maleficient (which is a movie I didn't want to watch after I read its Wikipedia entry), then I'll get 14 movies for 2014 woooo. But I won't.

I should get started on my 2015 one now, no? Okay, I'll take my own advice.

Read More......

2013: Movies I Could Be Bothered To Watch.

[And I finally could be bothered (screw grammar!) to release this post. Soooo overdue; includes some movies I didn’t get around to reviewing yet.]

I'm actually pretty proud of myself, when it came to watching movies last year. Out of the 16 on my list, two (#13 and #14) got pushed into 2014, and two others (#2 and #10) I did not watch.

2013 Movie List

1. Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters
2. Warm Bodies
3. Jack the Giant Slayer
4. Oz: Great and Powerful
5. G.I. Joe: Retaliation
6. Iron Man 3
7. Star Trek Into Darkness
8. Man of Steel
9. World War Z
10. Monsters University
11. R.I.P.D.
12. The Wolverine
13. 300: Rise of an Empire
14. Sin City: A Dame to Kill for
15. Thor: The Dark World
16. 47 Ronin

The only movie not in this list that I watched is Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, and it's not in because I didn't even know it'd be out in 2013.

So 12 above and 1 outside of list, and I watched 13 movies in 2013 ohwowaccidenttotesneat.

2014 movie list will be up in a bit (and by 'a bit', I mean 'tomorrow or something').

[Blogger's note: This post has been so delayed that I finally saw Warm Bodies and Monsters University on pay-TV. Reviews eventually! And no, this doesn't count as meeting the list; meeting means going to the theatres or at least, watching it in the year it's released in.]

Read More......

#ExplainAFilmPlotBadly Faves!

[Splitting posts is not cheating. Not really, anyway.]

Here are some of my favourites from this hashtag; click for pictorial spoilers/answers. If there are no pics, well, you can read.

Racially diverse group journeys to a volcano to destroy jewellery. #explainafilmplotbadly pic.twitter.com/6te03PczbI
— LOTR Reactions (@LOTRReactss) September 6, 2014

The most detailed, concise, thorough and relevant review of the Les Mis movie I have read, #dear #lesmis pic.twitter.com/BMjnjYWP
— westendproducer (@westendproducer) January 12, 2013

A man finds out that his entire life has been a TV show. The show gets cancelled. #explainafilmplotbadly
— Michael Blackman (@paracomedian09) September 7, 2014

The Truman Show. Surprisingly good film.

A death row inmate teaches Tom Hanks how to pee. #explainafilmplotbadly
— Michael Blackman (@paracomedian09) September 7, 2014

Haha! The Green Mile.

#explainafilmplotbadly A baby is put in a corner but not for long.
— Lincoln C. Chinnery (@lincolnwrites) September 7, 2014

Obscure = better. Dirty Dancing.

Hockey player falls into a lake, finds a machete, harshly reprimands teens for hooking up. #explainafilmplotbadly pic.twitter.com/1TEuvrLj8M
— Mark Winslow (@WinstonUK) September 7, 2014

Naive girl spends 5 movies choosing between a corpse and a dog who's sexually attracted to her infant. #explainafilmplotbadly
— Geované M. (@KingOfHearts_II) September 6, 2014

Very apt. One of the last Twilight movies.

A guy lies to the police for an hour and a half, then leaves. #explainafilmplotbadly
— CT (@HockeenightsCT) September 6, 2014

He lies brilliantly, in fact. The Usual Suspects.

And a special shout-out for:

It's the one where Sean Bean dies. #explainafilmplotbadly
— Mata Haggis (@MataHaggis) September 6, 2014

Going through hashtag search showed me QUITE a number of repeats, though from different people. I hope I've gotten all original ones.

Read More......

#ExplainAFilmPlotBadly

It’s purely by accident that I discovered this trending Twitter hashtag.

And I’m very glad I did.

One of my major, major loves (aside from bitchin’) is movies, and I’m having a huge blast going and guessing my way through the tweets. For some reason, Titanic, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Star Wars and Forrest Gump are very popular choices, although I did see some good ones relating to Captain America.

This hashtag adds to the long list of things that make me want to get Twitter, but I’m still resisting! But I can’t help but participate in this one, though. In keeping with tradition, my contributions are below 140 characters. Answers are below each description line, blacked out, so please highlight.

• Surfer dude carries out father’s legacy, targets matricidal detective. #ExplainAFilmPlotBadly
  Frailty

• Batman and Wolverine try to one-up each other while Alfred and Black Widow take sides. #ExplainAFilmPlotBadly
  The Prestige

• Extraterrestrial securing preservation of own species, constantly thwarted by humans using time travel and plot holes. #ExplainAFilmPlotBadly
  Men in Black 3

• Buddy cop movie perpetuates stereotypes of blacks being really, really loud, and of Chinese doing kung-fu. Does this three times. #ExplainAFilmPlotBadly
  Rush Hour films.

• Aliens make old people young again or something. #ExplainAFilmPlotBadly
  Cocoon. Okay, maybe I jumped the shark with this one.

Argh, temptation! I'm seriously pumped about this one :P

Edit: Updated to include link to posts hashtagged https://twitter.com/hashtag/ExplainAFilmPlotBadly?src=hash. Enjoy!

Re-edit: To black out answers in points 4 and 5. Sometimes HTML is sucky.

Read More......

Godzilla (2014)

[Watched it on my birthday. Four months late. Spoiler warning still needed? ]

Godzilla was surprising on so many levels:

1) Juliette Binoche

2) Her being in the movie for 10 minutes

3) Bryan Cranston’s very un-Malcolm in the Middle performance (we don’t get Breaking Bad here)

4) Him being in the movie for 20-25 minutes (I wanted to see more of him being serious!), and

5) Godzilla is the freaking good guy!?

Spoilers aside, I was expecting an hour-and-a-half of a dinosaur stomping on a city and puny humans trying to stop it. Yannoe, stereotypical monster movie fare (or as I like to say, an Ultraman movie sans Ultraman).

What I didn’t expect to see was TWO OTHER monsters, and that Godzilla would be the one to take them DOWN!

All this came to me in the scene where Ken Watanabe says that Godzilla was listening in onto the MUTOs’ (I can’t remember what it stood for, but fun fact: this guy from Adventure Time, Adam, has that as a surname) radar pingings / communication / whatever.

Coolest. Realisation-setting-in-halfway-through-the-film. Ever.

I watched this movie with the giddiness of someone discovering everything for the first time, having not seen the Godzilla film from the 90s (but having this vague impression that it was like Jurassic Park). I also slightly overexcited myself by mistaking the first MUTO to be Mothra, just because it took flight. I also got a kick out of seeing Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen together as husband and wife in this film. They’re gonna play brother and sister in the second Avengers movie! Ooooo!

But I’m getting sidetracked.

The great Godzilla reveal was grand, coming out of the water, causing a tsunami, and to see his chunky legs stomp past buildings in Hawaii. There’s a bit of a slow burn until we get to see him in his full glory, but I didn’t notice it much as I was still reeling over the number of monsters in the film and Godzilla being the good guy.

The movie tries to balance a nature vs nurture message (the MUTOs only wanted to breed), but no one really gives a cow when three monsters are duking it out and causing the same level of destruction as Superman and Zod did.

[Reminder to self: Settle Man of Steel review.]

And with a far cooler Fatality take-down! I mean, pry open mouth, breath nuclear down throat, anyone?!

Short review is rather short. I enjoyed this movie a lot.

Read More......

Captain America: The Winter Solder (2014)

[Slowly but surely. Very slowly.]

I wasn’t all that into the first movie, because there were a whole slew of origin movies at the time, and even though Steve Rogers was actually decent (and not cocky, brash and/or arrogant), it was still an introductory film to yet another comic book character.

So it was completely without much anticipation that I went to see Winter Soldier.

And I was taken aback at how not-boring it was.

Exploring how Steve settles into the modern world after his awakening and the subsequent battle of New York, shit immediately happens when the Winter Soldier (an assassin long thought to be Soviet myth) surfaces and turns out to be Steve’s best friend (thought to have died in Captain 1).

Throw in Hydra, which was thought (lots of thinking in this movie) to have gone done with the death of the Red Skull (also in the first movie), and with this, we have an (implicit) explanation why Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. have been so freaking humdrum: because Hydra tends to be synonymous with Captain America, and they didn’t want to spoil the storyline for Cap’n 2.

[It actually makes sense that Agents exist to combat Hydra.]

Then you have Nick Fury faking his own death, a few people from past Marvel outings getting outed as Hydra molls (Jasper! Senator Garry Shandling from Iron Man 2!), and though it’s a lot to cram in and digest in a two-hour movie, it didn’t get draggy nor did I find it overcrowded.

I was also glad that Scarlett Johansson wasn't also there to perpetuate the film stereotype of male and female leads falling in love with each other and no one else. Thankfully, there’s not a trace of a blossoming romance between the Black Widow and Captain America.

[Because she needs to have one with Hawkeye!]

After the frankly-mild Iron Man 3 and the slightly better Thor 2 (setting up to gonna-be-good Thor 3), Captain 2 is a vast improvement over its first movie and, compared to its fellow Phase 2 movies, a much better entry to the MCU. Though the first one had heart, this one had also twists and turns worthy of an espionage film (you can’t have Robert Redford in a movie like this without giving him a meaty role like the bad guy. Poor Powers Boothe).

[Fun fact: Redford and ScarJo were in The Horse Whisperer a long, long time ago.]

Do, do watch. This was the movie that made me sit up and acknowledge that Marvel can not do any wrong.

Read More......

The Expendables 3 (2014)

I have absolutely no idea how to review this movie.

If I attempt this like an actual reviewer, there might be quite a bit for me to critique. But I don’t feel like doing that because I found this film a lot of fun, and though it’s not quite as fun as the second movie, I’m not disappointed either.

[Not like Spider-man 3.]

So, I’m just gonna go through this in listicle format (list + article = listicle. Yes, it’s an actual new word, and no, it hasn’t anything to do with ‘testicle’), with what I liked and what I didn’t quite like (in no particular order and with spoilers):

Liked:

Evident in this movie and the previous one, everyone looked like they were having a ton of fun hanging out together, shooting and blowing things up aside, which makes the audience enjoy the ride as well. It’s like the action movie version of Grown-Ups, all friends getting together, and that fact itself makes the whole endeavour far less pointless.

Wesley Snipes – Damn, I missed this guy. He doesn’t look a day older than he did in the Blade films (and that was a long while ago!), and I loved the part where the team asks him what he was doing time in prison for, and he says, “Tax evasion.” Ha! It was so much fun watching him.

Antonio Banderas – Him channelling a benevolent and even more chatty version of Assassins’ Miguel Bane. Despite him being the comic relief that never shuts up, the scene where he tells Sly what happened to his last team is one of the best in the film. It was a lot of fun watching him too, though he looks very emaciated; I hope he's alright.

Harrison Ford is actually a supporting character! I thought he was only cameo-ing, but he had far more screen-time than Bruce Willis ever would. That’s probably Sly one-upping his former(?) friend.

Kelsey Grammer is also a supporting character and not a cameo! Good on him! Maybe the next one he'll get to hold a gun.

“GET TO DA CHOPPA!” One of the reasons why I love the Expendables films is because of all the throwbacks to the actors’ respective past movies, although there’s far less references in this one than in Movie 2. There’re also sly nods to Willis’ falling out with Sly (Ford saying, “he’s out of the picture,” when referring to Willis’ character, Church), and my personal favourite, tax evasion.

Young vs old – By introducing the young team and still retaining the old, team make-ups in future movies (if any) would be on rotational basis, I believe. I think with what went down with Willis, it’s Sly’s way of saying that everyone (but him) is expendableinterchangeable. You might think that overcrowding the movie would affect the pace, but I found it fine to split the first half with the youngsters, have them get caught, and then having the oldies break them out and then fight and blow up stuff together. The movie itself is roughly two hours long.

Villain-wise, Mel Gibson is more menacing and threatening as an antagonist compared to JCVD and Eric Roberts (from past outings). He still looks good, despite that whole anti-Semitic rant and subsequent under-the-radar that happened some years back. The final fight between him and Sly was just okay, but you have to consider the fact that Gibson isn't an actor known for brawn.

Absolutely no romantical notions whatsoever. I don't like romance to distract from my action movie. Just because you have a woman in the show doesn't mean she has to flirt or fall in love or want babies with any of the guys around her.

Not liked:

Jet Li is out of the Expendables!! I mean, he may still be in future films, but he’s in Arnie’s team so I expect cameos. He didn’t even do any kung-fu this time around. I wonder whether he wanted out, or the other way around. I'm guessing the former; after all, he’s only there for the China market. I think Banderas is his replacement; he got third billing.

Not enough Dolph Lundgren!!

Terry Crews – I don’t get why he has to get shot (and in the ass too, it looked like). It just makes it look like there’s only quota enough for one black guy in the team (i.e., Snipes).

No Chuck Norris!! I enjoyed seeing Chuck Norris tell a Chuck Norris joke.

Ronda Rousey – Girl’s got moves, but unfortunately she’s not really good with her face. She looks like pouting, belligerent child whenever the scene calls for her to stare/glare people down.

Still not enough Lundgren!!

With the above, my take on The Expendables 3 is DO WATCH, if you loved the 80s and action stars that you haven't seen in a very long while. Of course, you can consider the first two outings as having seen them recently, but if you are me, the throwback movies themselves don't count.

Read More......

R.I.P. Robin Williams (1951 - 2014)

I glimpsed the headline yesterday, while looking up random Sherlock crap. My heart just sank.

I clicked the link, read the article, hoped it was fake, Googled, and finally, reluctantly, accepted it as sad truth.

This is a guy I grew up on. Aladdin, Hook, Mrs Doubtfire, Jumanji, these are movies I watched over and over again as a child and never once failed to enjoy each viewing an ounce less.

I knew him first as a comedic actor, but gradually relished seeing him in more dramatic albeit villainous characters. There's something unsettling and unnerving when he's in these roles, and it's not because a comedian is trying a hand at being serious, it's just that he does dark really well.

It saddens me to think that maybe he did dark too well.

I don't see him much these days, although there's so many Law and Order: Special Victims Unit re-runs that I've seen that one episode he's in at least three times. And occasionally I’d channel-surf onto The Crazy Ones. Every once in a while there’d be a slew of re-runs of his movies, but not recently.

I've never did get around to thinking that people in showbiz are mortal just as we are, so even natural deaths (at really, really old ages) still surprise me.

But something like this... never could I have expected that this is the way he would go.

[The above picture is from JuicyJCosplay on Instagram, and I would’ve embedded the whole post but I can't get the putz of the embed code to work and I’m too depressed to Google for the solution.]

Rest in peace, Robin McLaurin Williams. Hope you're in a better place now.

Read More......

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

[“Hooked on a feeling…”. Mild spoilers.]

I’ve been excited about this movie ever since I saw the hilarious first trailer. Unlike Iron Man, Captain America and Co., (whom I knew of either vaguely or from newspapers or Marvel Zombies), I've never heard of the Guardians of the Galaxy, but because of said trailer and the usual Marvel-film hype, I went in with some level of expectation. First time ever.

And I wasn’t disappointed. Although, I can’t say expectations exceeded, either.

In brief, Guardians revolves around five escaped convicts who band together to claim a huge bounty on an item that one of them had stolen at the start of the film; an item, which the main villain of the film needed for trade with a larger big-bad in order for the latter to commit genocide. Through the course of the film, our convicts elude the main villain and other parties who also want the item, and become unlikely heroes as they try to prevent a planet from being massacred and defeat the bad guy.

Un-blanding the paragraph (which wasn't at all easy to write in the first place) would mean writing out almost the entire plot, and that’s my main quibble of the film: there’s not exactly a coherent storyline to speak of. It’s very all over the place (character gets item everyone wants amidst geo-political warfare and probable genocide and there’s a guy who collects things), but the movie is just so much fun that you don’t notice how messy it is.

[Unfortunately for me, I'm left with “something I can’t quite put my finger on”-itis.]

Rooting its emotional core with Peter Quill (“you may know me by… Star-Lord”), pivotal scenes come with classic songs from the 1970s and 80s (including the awesome “Hooked on a Feeling”, which is also in the trailer), heard through his Sony Walkman and “Awesome Mix Vol. 1”-tape with all his mother’s favourite songs. Peter left Earth as a young child at his mother’s death, and listening to the mix-tape is his way of remembering his mother and reminding him of his home planet.

After those poignant first scenes on Earth (its 8-10 minutes to me is almost at par with the opening of Up), the movie establishes its comedic tone by having Chris Pratt (who plays Star-Lord) strut and dance his way through alien ruins. Pratt fits the standard cocky, sarcastic hero mould that we’ve acquainted and re-acquainted ourselves with in each superhero movie, but he’s so freaking adorable (like a teddy bear! a giant ginger teddy bear!) that I didn’t even realise this (cocky sarcasm) until time of writing.

As fitting as Pratt is as the lead, he has his movie almost stolen from him by two characters who are completely CG’ed: Rocket (Raccoon) and Groot. The pair (voiced by Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel respectively) showed more humanity, emotion and compassion (this especially from alien wood) than all other characters put together. I’m surprised that Diesel got billing ahead of Cooper, who got in far more dialogue than expected, compared with “I am Groot”.

After the wasted opportunity Green Lantern was, I was sceptical of another movie set in space, because how much time spent in space really depends on the production budget. I’m glad that in Guardians, we barely spend any time on Earth (only in the beginning), though we do spend almost a cumulative half-hour on the mostly-human-looking Xandar. Luckily, this doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the film.

[People behind Green Lantern sequel or reboot, please take note. Two hours of Oa would be comparably better than one hour of Earth.]

Guardians introduces an ensemble instead of just a solo act, so backstories for everyone but Peter are told via exposition. This I somehow noticed, which annoyed me for the rest of the film that I noticed. Thankfully, in all of that exposition is witty dialogue, and its very able actors and trip down nostalgia lane make the movie work.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe movies tend not to deviate into the unknown (even Thor doesn’t really talk about other Realms), so it's great to see this film delve deeper into more obscure material, and, to quote another sci-fi saga, “it boldly goes where no (MCU movie) has gone before.” Unfortunately, I didn't quite find this movie fresh or original (as I hoped it would be), but it is a solidly entertaining new entry. Considering how the past few were tried-and-tested box office material (Iron Man threequel, Thor and Captain America sequels), Marvel Studios still has that magic touch, and I'm looking forward to seeing whatAnt-Man and Doctor Strange movies bring.

This movie's end-credits doesn't tie in to The Avengers 2, but the find scene does tease a unexpected possible re-boot for a character long-dormant.

I was so, so psyched with that last scene.

Do, do watch this movie, and just laugh at everything.

[Post-script: Galactic-outlaw version of The Avengers, anyone?
- Group of people with nothing in common? Check.
- Same group arguing and (almost) trying to kill each other at first)? Check.
- Bad guy freaking working with Thanos? Check.
- Come together to stop bad guy in second-half and save universe? Check.
- Hulk-Smash-Puny-God moment? Check, although 1) he is Groot, 2) Ronan didn’t get smashed, and 3) no utterance of “puny god”.]

Read More......

G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)

[I'd forgotten about this post until I re-visited my 2013 movie list to see how many I hit. That was early this year. I'm now in the process of finishing my 2013 movie reviews (for a movie about zombies, World War Z isn't exactly easy to write), and then I have to get started on my 2014 ones. Aside from The Lego Movie, I'm adhering to my watch list pretty well.]

The Rock (or, the Batu--Malay for 'rock'--, as my mom and I affectionately call him) seems to be in a LOT of franchises these days.

From the generally-unwatched Walking Tall (previously Kevin Sorbo), to the Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (previously Brendan Fraser), the Batu has now ousted Channing Tatum. I'd like to think that he also tried taking over the Fast and Furious franchise, but how can you go up against a dude named Diesel in a movie about cars?

Anyway, over-exposed or no, I still like him, charm and mega-watt smile and all. I’m just surprised he doesn’t have first billing in the end credits.

The sequel does away with the nanomites and almost all its characters from the first movie, except for the really cool ones and the President decoy. Duke bites the dust within 10 minutes of the film, and the Rock takes over as the franchise’s new hero and leads the remaining few Joes left (after the fake President declares them traitors and exterminates the lot) to save the world from total annihilation.

Considering how much footage they give Lee Byunghyun, they should’ve called this movie The Rise of Storm Shadow. The scene in the trailers where ninjas hang off mountains? It is as awesome as it looks. That is just about the most impressive part of the movie. Interestingly, Storm is exonerated from the murder of his and Snake Eyes’ master, and Storm becomes a kind of anti-hero that doesn’t want to play with Cobra any more.

Kinda makes you wonder what they are going to do with the third movie. Storm and Snake’s feud is just about the most interesting aspect of the film.

Having Bruce Willis as the first ever Joe was gimmicky, but it worked. He’s in a million things these days, so much so I’m getting the feeling he’s phoning it in (Stallone giving him shade regarding the third Expendables movie didn’t help), but he was pretty okay in this film.

In general, this movie is a step up from the first film, though reboots seem to be something very, very convenient these days because I don’t see the reason why everyone but the Korean and the silent one got axed.

Oh well, that’s Hollywood machinery for ya.

P.S. I wasn't really in the mood for a Joe sequel (even though I enjoyed the first movie), but watched it anyway because of the awesome music from the trailer. It's the Glitch Mob remix of The White Stripes' Seven Nation Army. Check out the live version here!

Read More......

Not again.

First, a plane disappears in the oddest and most unsettling way imaginable, with developments and red herrings like something out of the movies. It's still missing, and no one's the wiser about the 'why' of it.

Now, this. Flight MH17 crashing in the Ukraine, presumably (though most likely) shot down by a ground-to-air missile.

I mean, come on! 'Wrong place, wrong time' aside, it's uncanny how Malaysia (specifically our national carrier) keeps hitting global headlines for all the wrong reasons.

[And in Visit Malaysia Year, too.]

And of all the military accidents to happen (yes, I believe it was an accident), it had to happen to a plane full of civilians and not a drone.

Rest in peace, MH17. Our prayers and thoughts are with you, and with your family and friends through this difficult time.

[I still can't wrap my head around this. A missile? Of all things, a freaking MISSILE?! And shot down while flying over a country formerly of the Soviet Union, and is currently having secession problems with Moscow! Cold War, anyone?]

Read More......

Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

Not I! Especially if he comes bearing books!

For (most probably, I'unno) the first time ever, the Big Bad Wolf book sale was in Penang, and I was totally excited as book sales in Penang generally mean "buy 1 get second one at 10%" or "members only" (which is 20%).

Which is still quite disappointing because I'm never a member of anything.

[And I would be disappointed as well if I were a member.]

So I made time out of work to attend the sale, and it was like the warehouse book sales of old.

Books laden everywhere, all (yes, all!) costing RM8, and I managed to buy three! Only, but it's more than my usual numbers, which are either one or zero.

Because one of those books was A Memory Of Light, retail price RM110! Yes, I (well, my mom) found the hardcover, and I totally bought it for 8 friggin' bucks!!!

BEST. BUY. EVAR.

I'd also bought Hilary Mantel's Bringing Up The Bodies (couldn't find Wolf Hall) and Robert Ludlum's The Prometheus Deception, and am working my slowly through Mantel. Her writing style takes a bit getting used to.

Blogger's note: Sale was two months ago, so this, as usual, is late-posted. Off-topic, early Happy Star Wars Day!

Read More......

After.

Just one or two days after I published my post on MH370, the government had announced the plane ended its journey in the middle of the Indian Ocean, nowhere near any islands or other even-smaller form of land mass.

I find it a bit premature for Malaysia to release a statement like this, given that absolutely no debris (related debris, at any rate) has been found so far and all analysis and the resulting conclusion are merely conjecture. I don't get why that statement projected an air of finality about it when absolutely nothing concrete was found yet.

With so many red herrings thrown up so far, understandably an announcement like this made the already-pissed Chinese even more pissed.

But what I don't get is all the conspiracy theory-ing: that Malaysia has somehow whisked these people away (for reasons unknown).

I get China's anger and frustration. What I can't understand even more is that people actually believe that we are capable of such a thing. And by "capable", I mean they're giving us way too much credit.

I even scoffed when I first heard that they were even looking into the Straits of Malacca. Like, hello, the plane was going to Beijing, it was heading away from the Straits...

But my heart sank when they announced that the plane turned west right before it was supposed to fly into Vietnam airspace.

Mind you, when news of the initial Straits search was announced, we all still thought the plane was somewhere en-route to Beijing. It was supposed to not be complicated.

The fact that many nationalities were on board that plane meant that our littlest-but-for-Singapore-and/or-Brunei country was thrust into the global spotlight. For those of us familiar with our state of affairs, I believe we got stage-fright and a case of the jitters at the time we're not supposed to. Our obviously-obvious lack of experience in this area led to missteps even when things were still relatively straightforward (bomoh aside).

But what everyone else seems to be forgetting is that we also have our own people on-board, and it was a plane bound from Malaysia, and it was our national carrier. We stand to lose a lot more than 'people', and at this point, I'm not sure it's an understatement when I say we have lost quite a bit...

Malaysia has said it would not give up until the plane is found. But we lack the technology to continue, and we are relying on the kindnesses of others, and they have no obligation to not call it a day after we do.

The last update we have on this is that China found a ping in the ocean, and I sincerely hope this ping doesn't go the way of all the debris we've found so far.

Read More......

#PrayForMH370

I hope the plane and its passengers are found soon. I pray that they are unharmed and well.

And if there are/were malicious hands at work, I hope that they get theirs and I pray such a thing won't happen ever again.

Read More......

Happy Chinese New Year!

Year of the Horse, here we are! May the year bring you lots of joy, happiness and prosperity!

[Simple post because I'm slightly brain-dead right now. Off to eat mandarins!]

Read More......

Happy 30th (plus one week, give or take) anniversary, Apple!!

[This post is one week-plus late.]

I stumbled onto the Apple website last Saturday, and it took me down memory lane.

This was technically my first ever computer, because even though my dad bought it, I used it 95% of the time. He bought it in 1993 (I can’t recall the year myself, but the wall postings – don’t ask – say 12-3-93).

What I do remember is my dad borrowing his brother’s VCDs (in its advent) and one such VCD was Army of Darkness. How I re-discovered this movie in my teens is a story for another time.

Lil’ ol’ Malaysia. People used to get this blank look on their faces when I told them I used a Mac. When they asked me what it was, I told them, “Not PC.”

I always thought it was us tiny Mac users against the PC world. After a few years, ‘PC’ became ‘Windows’ and after that came ‘DOS’, which had the coolest-looking (in context) games that I couldn’t play on account of my having a Mac. ‘PC’ now stands for ‘personal computer’, generally referring to computers (or even laptops, I think) that aren’t business-owned or something, I’unno. I never bothered with the term.

My dad bought, and I read, a ton of MacFormat (and it’s still around!! Whooo!!) more for its games and 'edutainment' content than anything else, and playing a ton of game demos. I remember wanting Living Books (any Living Books, really), but only had to settle for demos where you can only play the first page. My childhood was mostly made up of demos.

Aside from MacFormat, I also read other mixed platform magazines, which had mostly PC/DOS games and nary a cross-platform one.

How time flies. And I’m really glad I was there for 21 of those years.

Happy 30th, Apple. Here’s to another 30 years of innovation, creativity, and awesomeness.

Read More......

Just saw "His Last Vow"...

...and I take back my comment about shark-jumpers.

This episode has all that I've been missing so far in Season 3. It has so many twists and turns, and, like in earlier seasons, the focus on the episode is on crime-solving, and everything that happens throughout the episode leads back to that crime-solving and the villain at hand.

[I'd rather interactions and relationships and all those other human things take a backseat rather than the front row.]

And what a villain! The "Napoleon of Blackmail" wasn't introduced in previous episodes (only very minorly hinted-at) but Lars Mikkelsen (the actor who plays him) was cold and calculative and what you'd expect to get from a villain in the final episode of a season people have been waiting two years for.

Simply brilliant, overall. Luckily there's only three episodes per season for this kind of build-up / pay-off, because if I had to wade through any more episodes like the previous two, I may have given up streamingon the show entirely.

Main story aside, there's a titbit at the end of the episode that hints at what Season 4 could be like, and if it really isn't misdirection... well, I just really hope it's not misdirection. Fingers crossed!

'Till Season 4, here's Sherlock Humour for ya. I'm currently on page 39 and it took me a few nights to get there.

Read More......

Saw The Sign of Three...

...and found it rather 'meh'.

I've been getting this niggling feeling that Sherlock has jumped the shark a little, with the absolutely funny but case-wise slightly pointless Episode 1, and with Episode 2, aside from the much more exciting third act, it was really quite boring.

I don't get why this needed three writers on it; it's like a massive filler episode. Ep. 1 (though it seemed to cater more to the Internet than anything) had only one writing credit to its name, and it was far more enjoyable than this one. Go figure.

Episode 3 will be aired today. Since Tuesday is a public holiday, I'm still totes gonna check it out; hopefully we get to see the major villain that's been hinted in Ep. 1.

[I still think it's a shame to bump Moriarty off so early; the guy who played him is really brilliant at being psycho.]

[Or is it "evil high-functioning sociopath"?]

Read More......

Ehmagerd, Sherlock's on AXN!

And about bloody time!! AXN has been showing previews yesterday like nobody's business.

For the past three years, I've had to read about how glorious Sherlock is, given that BBC Entertainment is extra and I don't stream or download shows because of my slow Internet connection.

And right now I'm only streaming the series because it (up till now) only had six episodes in total, though an hour and a half each, and I never expected that we could get this show at all (like Will and Grace). Plus, Benedict Cumberbatch showed an excessive amount of bad-assery in Star Trek into Darkness so there's my catalyst there.

So finally(!), Sherlock is going to be made available to the rest of us who have minimal satellite TV, and my mom can finally see how frickin' awesome this TV show.

Can't wait for Thursday!! Series 1 Episode 1, wooo!

Read More......

#SherlockLives! Spoilerish!

Totally. Worth. Skipping. Office's New Year Party. For.

And I was totally tricked into thinking that the opening scenes were how he did it! Never mind that it seemed a bit far-fetched with the whole Mission: Impossible face-off thing and the hypnotist.

But the part when he kissed Molly... Oh em SQUEE!! I don't ship but still!!

Series 2 Episode 3 ended with Sherlock faking his suicide. It's in line with the original stories, except that instead of falling into a waterfall, BBC-Sherlock falls off a building.

I mean, it's a lot more difficult to go fake-splat onto concrete than it does on water, yannoe.

The actual case for this episode really isn't much unlike previous episodes (it brings to mind the V for Vendetta movie); its brilliance comes from John coming to terms with Sherlock being alive, which leads to some very funny (and very emotional) scenes between him and Sherlock, and with Sherlock's interactions with all the other characters.

[I don't know why I'm into bromance these days. Thor/Loki FTW!]

The episode even pokes fun in answering how Sherlock did it, showing us three scenarios, one of which has a scene that totally made my day:

I DON'T SHIP BUT STILL!!

Though the actual answer is not outlandishly ingenious as expected/hoped, it doesn't exactly disappoint either. Thankfully, I've only jumped on the series some months ago, so I didn't experience a two-year withdrawal like other fans (hopefully this doesn't happen to me when Series 3 ends).

Parts of the episode didn't really sit well with me, though. Sherlock riding a motorcycle through London like a bossstuntman? It seemed like an unnecessary bit of action. And Sherlock himself is a lot more humorous now, which is a bit weird watching because part of the humour from Sherlock is from watching him being completely aloof from others. Plus, I know it's his thing to gather facts on people only at first glance, but I kinda prefer it when there's an explanation as to how he derives those facts.

[Like in Series 1 Episode 1, when he first saw John. Good times.]

Anyway, Episode 2 is coming out this Sunday, which is a fantastically unexpected surprise to me as I'm used to weekly schedules, and I absolutely cannot wait. Toodles!

EDIT: I was just informed by the Internet that even Sherlock's admission, which is the last of the three scenarios, seems just to be that: another scenario. Damn. No wonder at the end of the episode John asked him how he did it; I just presumed that he didn't share with John what he told Anderson. 

Read More......

2013: Resolutions I Couldn't Be Bothered To Keep.

[As I didn't expect the apocalypse to be postponed indefinitely and all.]

In line with the general idea that at any given moment we were all going to die, I kept even less resolutions than I did the last time around. To save you all a heck load of time, I only achieved...

One. Movie-go more.

Sadly, my writer's block prevented me from hitting two resolutions (the second being 'blog more'), although I did top my counter from '07.

That's all for today, folks. Dry run, today.

Read More......

Happy 2014, peeples!!

Aside from it being nice to get a holiday mid-week, thankfully, this doesn't fall on a Saturday, which is a non-workday that won't get replaced! Woooo!

Read More......