House of Ryanne

The Little Red Riding Hood

2011-01-25T07:14:00.001+08:00

OHMIGOSH!!

Little Red Riding Hood being banged on snow by a possible werewolf!

That's enough to make me curious about this movie!!

A horror suspense/adventure take of the fable, brought to you by the directors of Twilight and Amanda Seyfried of Mama Mia! fame.

Looking forward to it =)

The New Spidey

2011-01-18T07:11:00.004+08:00

Tobey McGuire has officially retired as Peter Parker. And that promising young man in The Social Network takes over the baton and donned the legendary Spidey suit.

I am already looking forward to watching Andrew Garfield play Peter Parker.

And that sweet girl from Easy A, Emma Stone, is playing Spidey's love interest!!
I am expecting some serious chemistry!!

But I sort of like it better when she's red headed.

Anticipating!!

The Social Network - A Review

2011-01-02T22:18:00.002+08:00

The must watch movie of the year!

One of the best "courtroom" drama so far, where the verbal sparring between the sides are intense, witty and geek-humourous. And Jesse Eisenberg did a great job portraying one of the modern time geniuses, Mark Zuckerberg.

So, Facebook is THE in thing now. So should the movie about the origin of Facebook. I have no idea how true the account of the "truth" was but I applaud David Fincher for doing this very creative flashback. The whole story was broken into parts and recalled when the characters were interrogated by lawyers from both sides.

Don't know if it was just me or David Fincher is a genius, I felt that this movie has an air of academic wit in it, surrounded by dark intense realism. Poor Eduardo Saverin for being sabotaged. I really felt the pity!

I also felt the whole heritage of Harvard and its traditions throughout the movie but there is still a flair of modernity to it that reminds me that I am watching something related to the modern technology instead of Harry Potter.

And the acting was good! Jesse Eisenberg has this proud arrogant attitude going on, and he speaks so damn fast, just like most geniuses does!

Andrew Garfield clawed his way in and out of the whole deal. The disappointment, the anger, the dissatisfaction. I just love watching him perform on screen. Yes, perform.

And holy crap, Justin Timberlake was unbelievable. I mean, I didn't know this dude can act, like that? And he made me hate him, like big time hate him!

And those Winklevass brothers bore a stark similarity to Prince William pre-balding days, eh?

Ratings : 8.0/10

And I wouldn't be surprised if David Fincher won the Oscars for Best Director though this is not a movie worth winning but the award to him is long due... very long due...
And that's the way Oscar works eh?

And I have a crush on Andrew Garfield now!

Black Swan - A Review

2010-12-31T23:55:00.002+08:00

Dark. Intense. Thrilling.
Oscar winning material.

The movie is based on a very simple story. Mental disorder. Of a ballerina. Competitive, tense, stressed. Perfection.

The acting was superb. Natalie Portman was beautiful in this movie. She was aspired, scared, fierce, jealous, paranoid, confident, freaked, and all sorts of other emotions. How can so many feelings be trapped in such fragile small body? Simply amazing!

And I have to praise Natalie Portman's effort for training in ballet just so she can act convincingly in this movie. Professionalism at its best!

And there were tonnes of sexual scenes. Masturbation, whoring, lesbian sex, etc. And it was filmed rather blatantly. Surprisingly blatant for a film I thought would be artistic!

The cinematography was brilliant, capturing the essence of the White Swan and the Black Swan amidst her mental disorder. The soundtrack went perfectly with everything else.

And I applaud director Darren Aronofsky, for picking a simple topic with a simple plot, and then turned it into something so exquisite! And for pushing the boundaries between the two very talented actresses, Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis.

I would love to see how this movie fares in the major awards.

Ratings : 7.0/10

The Tourist - A Review

2010-12-31T23:13:00.004+08:00

Johnny Depp... A spy?

Almost surprising.

Angelina Jolie... A spy?

No doubt.

A spy whose only mission is to dress elegant and look pretty?

Disappointing.

The Tourist is suppose to be a spy thriller movie. But it didn't deliver. In fact, the whole movie seemed like one hell of a slow romance movie, with a little action here and there. Just when you see a little action going on, and you began to hope for more, then the hero kissed the heroine, and next scene. Disappointing.

Johnny Depp's best role is Capt. Jack Sparrow. True.
I can so see traces of Jack Sparrow here. Alexander Pearce was so badly portrayed. I feel like this mysterious character had so much space to develop. Instead, Johnny Depp took Alexander Pearce and made him the modern day casanova Jack Sparrow.

After the near-disastrous Salt, I thought I would see this movie to give Angelina Jolie a chance to redeem herself. But I was utterly disappointed. There wasn't much to the acting, nor the action.

The whole plot made no sense. It tried to be cleaver. But alas, I saw through everything before it even happened. No surprises at all.

The only praise I have for the movie is cinematography. No, the chase scenes were shitty. But at times, I felt like the film advertise Venice's elite society's lavish lifestyle. Nicely filmed.

Ratings : 4.5/10

Eat Pray Love - A Review

2010-12-31T23:12:00.007+08:00

Based on the novel of the same name, Eat Pray Love was said to be a typical Hallmark movie with gut- warming messages and food for thoughts after the movie.

Indeed, this movie is very meaningful.

I have not read the original novel. So I am not going to comment on the plot or the storyline, though I personally feels that nothing happens with such coincidence.

This movie is one hell of a tourism advertising film that lasted more than 2 hours!

Cinematography, full marks!!

And Julia Roberts is such a joy to watch! Her smile, though not stranger to anyone, brings the sunshine out of anyone!

So, Eat Pray Love focuses in three very important phase of our lives, and three must- visit sites on Earth!

Eat all you can in Italy. And I really love the concept of "Joy of Doing Nothing"

Pray in India. Not finding God, but more like finding yourself, self-acceptance, and self-forgiveness.

Love in Bali. Yes, everyone needs a love affair in Bali! To love is to lose control. Blah blah blah. You get the drift...

I feel that the movie delivers the message with such beauty and irony. Don't know if the book is better, but the movie is strong. Slow pace at times. But if you open up your mind and try to understand what is really going on, I think this is one enjoyable movie!

So see you later, alligator =)
Ratings : 7.5/10

Easy A : A Review

2010-12-15T15:03:00.002+08:00

Thought it was a dumb movie. And it was only 1 hour 30 minutes.

But it was kinda of fun. Besides all the dumb fart jokes and sexual hints everywhere. This movie is actually enjoyable.

Maybe because nobody takes a movie about a high school virgin who lies about losing her virginity to a college guy and the news spread like wildfire which gives us this production too seriously.

I love the movie for 3 very simple reasons.

1. Emma Stone is AWESOME!
Seriously, before this, she is practically unheard of. Then there she goes, playing the slutty virgin to such perfection! Her acting is so convincing! Not to mention she is kinda HOT. (I have this tiny little lesbian crush on red heads) I personally think that she took an ordinary role and totally blew it out of proportion with her brilliant acting. Her emotions are so real like I can really see it in her eyes!

2. Love the spoofs and reference to classics
The entire movie is based on "Scarlet Letter" where adultery and shame is the main theme but with such added humour! Plus, there are references on classics and popular culture like Mark Twain, Romeo & Juliet, Gossip Girl on Sweet Valley in Travelling Pants. Kinda make me feel so related to Olive Panderghast.

3. Love the bits of bitterness amidst all the humour.
The movie highlights teen issues such as sex before marriage, religion extremists, homosexuals, fat people, glorious slut, stereotype, not to mention GOSSIP that spreads like wildfire. What started out as perfectly innocent became something so bad. However, I do think that some of the issues are presented in a not-so-funny "humour" but I do credit this movie for trying.

My favourite scenes are definitely the scene where Olive and Brandon fake sex. Grunts and yells and the "big finale". Literally had me laughing like a crazy girl! But scenes where Olive was totally devastated and Todd came to rescue were super touching!

Overall, my amazement and admiration for the movie came from me not expecting such teen chic flick to contain such amazing talents like Emma Stone and presentation of serious issues with such humorous delivery.

But what the hell happen to Amanda Bynes?

Ratings : 6.5/10

Tangled - A Review

2010-12-12T10:34:00.002+08:00

A breathe of fresh air into a long time children's fairy tale, Rapunzel.

But, Tangled simply lacks the wow factor.

Enjoyable, yes.
Hilarious, quite.
Amazing. Sadly, no. I have seen the same things done better in other animations.

Tangled is centered around young Rapunzel, the bandit Flynn Rider, Pascal the chameleon/lizard/frog, and Maximus the horse.

The story is more or less the same with the original Grimm Brothers version except that Rapunzel was born a princess from a Queen who ate some magical flowers instead of a Peasant's daughter who steals Dame Gothel's lettuce. The ending of the story is as expected, happily ever after ending.

However, I have to praise Disney for paying homage to the origin of the story Rapunzel despite changing so many details in the story. Mother Gothel, which means "protective parent" in German, was really portrayed as a protective parent despite her ulterior motives instead of being an evil witch. Flynn Riders's real name is also of German heritage.

Back to the story. Tangled, despite being a children's movie, has a certain degree of maturity. It deals with teen rebellion, romance, sacrifice, dreams and so on. Yes, from the naive point of view.

The several light hearted moments are hardly memorable but I really like the two animals, Pascal and Maximus. They are so funnily cute! And Maximus has me thinking the whole time, what kind of doggy horse is that?

However, it is a little disappointing to see so many similarities between Shrek and Tangled. Rapunzel is the younger Princess Fiona, Flynn Rider is the handsomer Shrek, Pascal is the smaller Puss in Boots and Maximus is the dumber version of Donkey. Even the Ducklings bandit is like the supporting fairy tales characters from Shrek!

On the technical side, I think this one is a rather good improvement from the animation team. Love the scenes where the dam broke and where Rapunzel and Flynn watched the lanterns. It was so real and so believable!

And I think Flynn is kinda handsome, in a Zachary Levi way =)

Ratings : 6.5/10.

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1 - A Review

2010-11-22T19:49:00.002+08:00

I shall do this one short.

Why Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Suck.

1. The plot is so known there is practically no surprises. Yes, I read the book. More than once. And I find that the movie does the book no justice. David Yates is one old man that is seriously lack of imagination.

2. The trio sucks. Yes I know, they are forever best friend. But dude, we all know that Harry and Hermione will end up no where, so save some screen time for something more useful please. And there are so many back story to run but the movie has to focus on boring things like the 3 of them finding one Horcrux.

3. The acting sucks. Seriously, after so many years of playing these characters, you'd expect something more. But Daniel Radcliffe is still stone-faced. Rupert Grint is still very awkward. And the only thing I pay attention to Emma Watson is her clothes. Seriously, you are on a run but you wear stuff so fashionable that you can walk the runway.

4. The supporting casts are so much stronger than the main casts. The only performances I look forward to and enjoyed them thoroughly was Ralph Finnes' well-potrayed Lord Voldemort and Helena Bonham Carter's eccentric Bellatrix Lestrange. And Bathilda Bagshot/Nagini is very well done too. I mean, she is freaky!

5. The only thing that interest me is the animation for the tales of the Deathly Hallows. Yes. Only thing. This is a franchise and the ONLY thing that interest me is 3 minutes of faceless shadows telling a short story.

6. This movie is not friendly to audiences who didn't read the book. Whatever you want to say, but the pacing is all wrong. David Yates stayed true to the book. Yes. To the boring parts. The interesting parts are all forgotten and left out. I read the book thus I can still find my way through the parts of the movie and understood why they do certain things. But I find myself answering questions and explaining things to people who didn't watch the movie. Which eventually suck the fun out of it for me.

7. Daniel Radcliffe is so bad at acting he has to depends on taking off his shirt to appeal to the audiences.

Now, let's get to the pointless ratings.

Ratings : 3.0/10. I have seen worst book adaptation but this movie is seriously mundane. Like dead mundane.

3 Idiots - A Review

2010-11-22T19:18:00.003+08:00

This is the first time I watched a Hindu movie from start to finish.

This is the most meaningful movie I've watched all year.

This is the story of 3 engineering students studying in Imperial College, one of the top engineering college in India. Farhan wanted to be a wildlife photographer but he studied engineering to fulfill his father's wishes. Raju wanted to be an engineer purely because he wanted to uplift his family fortunes. Rancho, on the other hand, is truly interested in engineering.

This movie is 3 hours long so I do not want to bore anyone with the full synopsis. But I seriously think that every student and teacher should watch this movie.

This movie highlighted the Asian education mentality in perfect tone. How Asians generally think that getting good results will secure a good job thus gurantee a good life. This movie perfectly highlight the "kiasu-ness", dog-eat-dog world and the endless rat race in the education system where universities are mass producing students who study for exams and grades instead of the pure joy of knowledge.

Yes. Studying. Instead of learning.

Besides, 3 Idiots also included deeper issues like family, love and passion. There was one line in the movie that leaves a mark in me. When Raju's father was hospitalised and they all have exams on the next day, Rancho said to him,"There are countless exams coming but we only have one father in our lives." (I read the translated subtitles so I don't know how accurate it depicts the Hindi)

I was gobsmacked by this sentence. How many times we get angry at our loved ones because we are stressed by exams? How many parents forced their children into studying something the parents want but not the child? How many peers has forced a desperate student into suicide? How many times the education system drives one up the wall that in the end, someone gets hurt?

When Raju survived his suicide due to stress and attended his job interview, I was touched. He actually rejected a job offer because the company wants him to renounce his newfound attitude to work for them. Raju said, "I broke 16 ribs and almost killed myself to gain this attitude of honesty. I am not giving it up for money. Please take back your job offer."

Of course, all of these are presented in a much gentler way that prompt audiences to think long and hard. And the comical moments in it is priceless! I cannot forget how Rancho mock the teachers with unorthodox and creative answers over mundane topics. I also love the potrayal of Silencer that nicely contrast students who study for interest and students who are machines.

This is a movie not to be missed.

Ratings : 9.0/10

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - A Review

2010-11-22T18:58:00.002+08:00

Dumbass story. Period.

Scott Pilgrim falls head over heels over Ramona Flowers and "forgot" to break up with his current girlfriend, Knives Chau. He is then challenged to defeat Ramona's seven evil exes in order to be with Ramona.

Stupid. Story.

But Edgar Wright made wonder out of it!

Seriously, the acting is lack lustre.

I do admit that Mary Elizabeth Winstead who plays Ramona Flowers is hot. And the character is mysteriously hot. But the rest of the actors are just like... plain, dead, boring.

Michael Cera suck big time. His face is permanently fixed to the expressionless semi-orgasmic face that has just undergone botox or something.

But what makes magic is that the movie has great special effects that makes up for the short of acting talent. Dude, if you play video games you would love this movie. If you like garage music bands, you would love this movie. If you love comics, you would love this movie. The whole time I was watching this movie, I was brought back to my kiddy days of playing Pokemon and Street Fighters. I was also reminded of popular games like VOD and Kingdom Hearts.

There are cutesy little things like item list, special "sound effects" in words, cool power burst everytime someone fights something, great colourful background when duel, and shit, even energy bar refill and lifeline status! And my favourite, enemies turning into coins when Scott Pilgrim defeats them! And the music!! It is exactly like I am playing Pokemon!

Another thing that is interesting to watch is Knives Chau played bri
liantly by Ellen Wong. I tell you, that is one creepy stalking ex!! And Chris Evans and Brandon Routh is so evil I think that they are hot!!

Ratings : 7.5/10. Dude, this is so cool even the plot is sort of pointless.

Machete - A Review

2010-11-08T20:27:00.002+08:00

This is one movie with so much tits and blood you forgot about the movie in the first 30 seconds.

Danny Trejo plays an ex-Federale named Machete that revenges against Robert de Niro and Steven Seagal over I don't know what. Then a lot of hot females the like of Jessica Alba and Lindsay Lohan taking off their shirts and shaking their tits at the audiences. Then director Robert Rodriguez decides that it is time for someone to die and splashed a whole lot of red corn syrup all over the screen with rubbery looking intestines flying all over the place. Before you know it, everyone kisses the fugly guy named Machete and everything ends in a bloodbath.

Seriously, the story DOES NOT make sense. So does Kill Bill. Or Grindhouse. Is Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino trying to outdo each other in making senseless B-grade movie that still look awesome at some point?

This movie has practically no plot. And it surprises the audience with the most unexpected thing. Like you didn't expect to see Jessica Alba's tits in the scene right after a blood fight. Or Lindsay Lohan's tits right after a break-in. I mean, you break in to steal something right? Who in the right mind would expect macho Machete to break in, make out with Lindsay Lohan, then steal things? Get what I mean?

This being a Robert Rodriguez production, everything IS expected to look B-grade. And he didn't bother to cover that fact. It is like slamming it against our face! Look at all the blood and gore and brains and intestines flying around! And all the crazy ways to kill people. Robert Rodriguez should direct Final Destination 7 'cause he is so darn creative in brutally murdering extras off the set!

I only really really like Michelle Rodriguez in the last few scenes of the movie.

She is the only girl who didn't show off her tits and she is the only girl holding big ass guns shooting people up!

She so deserves more screen time than Jessica Alba and Lindsay Lohan is practically, useless?

Yes, a visual feast of sex and violence for MOST brainless male humour. Not really of substance and I don't really see the signature tribute to any pop-culture. None the less, I still enjoy the style of Robert Rodriguez.

Ratings : 6.0/10

RED - A Review

2010-11-08T19:10:00.003+08:00

Retired

Extremely

Dangerous

An adaptation from comics, this is another movie that consists of all the icons of the yesteryear. However, unlike The Expendables, this is surprisingly, not a flop.

Bruce Willis plays an retired CIA black ops spy that is hunted by young hot gun Karl Urban because the current Vice President ordered a hit list. Bruce Willis then kidnaps his phone crush Mary-Louise Parker, recruits other retired agents the likes of Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren to shoot everything up to clear his name.

This movie has practically zero plot twists, no surprises, no character development, no nothing. It works solely on the magic created by the bench of amazing actors, which are astounding people who can carry the load of the whole movie individually. So when you put all these icons together, imagine the explosive chemistry in it!

I personally like Bruce Willis better in Die Hard. He is still very hard to die in this movie, and they totally over-rate him as a RED in this movie, 'cause he looks pretty much like a hopeless romantic pussy in this movie. The only thing I remember him doing in the entire movie was "walking" out of a car with the bumper missing him by inches and firing shots.

I gotta admit that the older folks blew the whole movie out of the water. Helen Mirren may be forever Queen Elizabeth to others but she is forever one of my favourite female action stars now. Yes. Helen Mirren. ACTION star. She is so fugging hot in this movie, and she yielded whatever guns like she has done this line of work all her life. Very very very convincing, and freaking amazing!

Whaddaya expect from a woman her calibre?

I also love the mix of Morgan Freeman's old wise man aura and John Malkovich's eccentricity. Malkovich totally provided the humour here which is downright ridiculous but we all forgive him because he is THAT good. However, it is almost regrettable that Morgan Freeman didn't get much screen time.

This is one entertaining movie where the actors' chemistry is so good that the story no longer matters. Also, I enjoyed watching the action sequences and the cliche yet funny lines! And dang, I fugging love Helen Mirren!

Ratings : 6.5/10

Fight Club - A Review

2010-10-31T13:29:00.002+08:00

You want violence? Got it.

You want blood and gore? Sure!

You want hot steamy sex? Of course.

But what is Fight Club really is about?

Brad Pitt is forever hot.
And this one is full of muscle pumping action.

Beneath all the blockbuster essential element, this is one movie that is not making sense at all, but make perfect sense! Am I making sense? Perhaps I am too stressed.

Blood and gore. Your idea of stress relieve?

This is one shit movie that has major loopholes in it that requires quite a leap of faith to actually swallow them. Edward Norton is feeling so unexpressed in his life until he met Brad Pitt and they started the Fight Club together. On the way, he, or rather they, bang Helena Bonham Carter and catapult the whole world into crazy shit ass vandalism and violence. Until finally Edward Norton thinks that he is hallucinating thus tried to stop the world from going down. And he shot himself dead/alive, I don't know, and then watched the world burn.

Whoever dressed Brad Pitt should get shot in the face.
Are you colour-blind?
Or maybe that is the whole point of the funny costume since the human mind is creative.

However, the star-cast itself redeemed the movie. Being a David Fincher piece, I expected class and elegance from the filming, and he delivered (Put aside the loop holes differences, maybe the screenwriters suck) The action was pure meat pounding brain mashing gore bloody violence. And the chemistry between the actors are interesting to watch. Edward Norton portrayed the disturbed mind while Brad Pitt totally juxtaposition him. However, Helena Bonham Carter is a little off in this movie.

Watching her was kinda fun and eccentric.
By the way, she has nice tits.

Again, after watching the movie, it got me thinking. This whole concept sprung from the opposition to general commercialism and crazy brainwashing mass media. And the people who joined the Fight Club are under-represented unsatisfied people of the lower working class. They are just merely expressing themselves through violence and vandalism. And it did reminded me that the people on top can't possibly be where they are if it wasn't for the cleaners, or the security guards, or those whom the society deemed as "useless" and "poor" people.

A very intriguing movie with interesting concept. I think it has the potential to be greater and more developed. But the ending sucks. It is as if the director took us on a long ride and we are all expecting some big bang in the end, but suddenly, everything crashed down to a very simple theory that explains everything but at the same time suck the fun out of the suspense.

Ratings : 8.5/10. Not something you want to watch with your kids. And if you do watch this, don't take it too seriously cause it is really sending the wrong message.

The Runaways - A Review

2010-10-23T22:13:00.002+08:00

This is the frugging Runaways!

I was ecstatic when I knew they were making a movie about Joan Jett. the rock goddess.

But the movie was just okay. Like... so-so okay...

From the movie point of view, the plot development was rather slow. Yea we get all the explanation about how the band came about and how hard it was trying to make it in the men's world. Blah blah blah.

It wasn't until halfway through the movie that we actually get to see some rock and roll.

But I gotta give credits to the movie for depicting the original Runaways to such accuracy. I mean, no one really know for sure how accurate the whole thing was. But I was definitely amazed at the details like the way the original band dressed, down to Joan Jett's guitars, down to the fact that they were popping pills and having sex with each other. Yup, female hot sweaty lesbian sex.

And Kirsten Stewart ROCK SHIT in this movie. Seriously, what the heck is she doing in shit movies like Twilight? She so fugging kick ass as the bra-less potty-mouthed chic rocker. Here's to professionalism. She actually learned to smoke and all. Plus she kissed her co-star on screen. Dang. She is so fugging HOT I want to do her!

Dakota Fanning was suppose to be the highlight, playing Cherry Currie and all. But I gotta admit that she sort of faded into the background standing next to Kirsten Stewart. I get it that she is trying to shed the child star innocent cutesy image by trying to be a bad girl. But seriously, every time I look at her I think of the sweet 7 year old I saw in I Am Sam.

But dude, I can't believe the vulgarity allowed in this movie. Not your average family movie. It is almost surreal with all the F-word flying around like nobody's business. Not to mention the obvious bad habits like lots of alcohol, sex and drugs. Which is exactly why this movie feels almost surreal and true. Not to say all rockers do that but you get the idea.

From a movie point of view, not exactly a highlight. Hardly memorable. But it is about fugging JOAN JETT!!

Ratings: 5.5/10

Clash of the Titans : A Review

2010-10-02T14:30:00.002+08:00

I can't really remember the story of the game and if this thing really follows the game 'cause I only watched my brother playing this game long long time ago.

But reviewing it as a movie, actually I quite enjoy this.

Sam Worthington plays a demigod, son of Zeus who wants to kill Hades and saves the City of Argos and her princess from the wrath of the Kraken by going on a quest to find witches, go to Hell, kill Medusa, etc.

The action was pretty engaging. Love the giant scorpion fight! And the fight against Medusa. Although it was pretty much predictable but the stunts were great. Of course there are a lot of CGIs and blue screen stunts, but the whole thing was pretty much a visual feast so I can actually ignore the facts.

However, the plot was a little slow in development in the beginning and it ends too fast. We were being told on and on how Perseus refused to accept his demigod status and then on and on about his journey from a fisherman to a city hero. And when it comes to the fight that really matters, I expect some huge scene with the Kraken but damn, he reduced the creature into stones within seconds.

Sam Worthington sort of suck in this movie. Acting was... er... not amazing. But I LOVE Lian Neeson and Ralph Fiennes playing Zeus and Hades.

And that Bond girl, Gemma Artenton, was pretty impressive.

Ratings : 7.5/10. Good one to watch. Not exactly classic yet.

The Expendables : A Review

2010-10-02T13:40:00.011+08:00

The action movie of the year. Supposedly.

Comprising action stars of the yesteryears and today's rising stars, this one was suppose to be the one that blow everything else out of the water.

It didn't.

This movie has Jason Statham. Nope, he didn't take off his shirt.

This movie has Slyvester Stallone. Nope, he is no Rambo and still bleeds.

This movie has Jet Li. Nope, not much kungfu around but he got his chinese ass kicked around by the white guys every little chance he got.

This movie has Bruce Willis. Nope, no dead people. And he was in the movie for like... 10 minutes.

This movie has Arnold Schzeidontknowhowtospell. Nope, he is human. And he was also in the movie for 10 minutes.

The only person I actually enjoy watching is Mickey Rourke. He comes in, deliver his lines perfectly, and leaves. Perfect. And he wasn't even holding a goddamn gun.

Err... That's almost about the highlights of the movie. Storyline? Just mash up all the damsel in distress and muscle man hero comes to rescue plot and then dump it into this whole mash pot of action stars. Yea, that's really about it.

Ratings : 5/10. I don't even remember watching this movie 2 hours after watching it.

A Team : A Review

2010-10-02T13:40:00.009+08:00

A movie packed full of testosterone.

And very sophisticated fake action.

Yes.

Sophisticated fake action.

Didn't watch the original. Didn't know if the action scenes are the same but upgraded to suit modern times or totally new. But seriously, I am quite sure the screen writers didn't know shit about physics. And the director and choreographers went along with them.

Is it even possible for navigate through the air in a tank by firing stuff?

And seriously, Newton's Third Law is totally omitted when the damn tank hit the water. With so much force and so much height, they should disintegrate the moment they brush through the atmosphere. And dropping from such height, they should be hitting the water like hitting a surface harder than concrete!

And they survived.

With big ass guns and big ass egos.

The stunt choreography wasn't bad at all, comparing the scale of what is done here. A little too perfect so to say.

And of course, watching a movie like this, we get to see the bad boys. Bradley Cooper has a body so hot it can melt the Arctic.

And Liam Neeson is just, naughty!

Ratings : 5/10. Nothing to shout about.

The Crazies : A Review

2010-10-02T13:40:00.007+08:00

So...

The government engineered some virus and intended to send the prototype for storage but the plane crashed and now it has became a global pandemic which is transmitted through water.

The little town where Timothy Olyphant played the Sheriff was infected and the whole town was exterminated by nuclear weapon.

So guess what?

The Crazies is the classic version of 28 Days Later, and this remake sort of sucks.

Okay, there were sufficient horror, sufficient blood, sufficient scares, etc. But everything is so fake. The blood is so fake, the horror is almost like Final Destination except the main characters don't die, and the scares are all jump scares. You will have the silence, the dark, the creepy music telling the audiences to brace for a jump scare. So when the jump actually comes, I had to pretend to be scared. Sucks.

And the four survivors which then came down to only two, seemed too calm for a disaster like this. Really. They even had time to go back to their old house to pack up and fix an old car for the road only to be almost killed by two infected Crazies.

Everything is so cliche I fight to not to sleep through the movie.

Ratings : 4/10.
Mundane.

Salt : A Review

2010-10-02T13:40:00.005+08:00

Salt was very much awaited since its promotional trailer.

But the ending is totally WHAT THE FUG?

Lemme get this straight, Salt is suppose to be an American spy that turns out to be a Russian spy and is ordered to kill the Russian president, then saves the American president and killed a Russian spy acting as an American spy and then be arrested for attempting to assassinate the American president but then is released by an American spy?

What?

The plot is so confusing and so full of plot holes I just stop trying to make sense of it. The cast is the only thing that holds the movie together. Angelina Jolie is as astounding as usual, with her acts and all. Plus, she is just one sexy hot face to look at. Liev Schreiber also delivered a pretty strong and convincing act.

The stunts... Well, the stuff you see on the trailer is practically ALL the stunts in the whole movie. Running around with no parkour involved is not considered "stunts". But I thought jumping off trailers and trucks was pretty cool. Wished it was filmed ala Bourne. Would make the whole thing better.

The editing was quite okay, with appropriate slow motions and stuff. But seriously, Salt is trying to be the female Bourne with some twisted storyline but the whole thing turned out to be pretty predictable and thus, failed.

Ratings : 5/10

And blonde makes Angelina Jolie dumb.

Sky Light

2010-09-22T17:53:00.002+08:00

Pictures of the dusk...

The beautiful sun hiding behind clouds

The amazing cloud formations

Sun is going down....

Love the orange hue of the sky

Kampar night light...

PS: The pictures are taken at different days at different times.

Yummy

2010-09-22T11:33:00.009+08:00

There is only one other thing to do during Study Week and Finals, besides studying and sleeping more than I should.

EAT

Home made herbal soup with rice

Dinner from local night market.

Mini burgers and fried dumplings

Fried crabs, fried scallops, dumplings and mini burgers
*Awesome finger food*

The crab shells after makan =)

Black sesame soup from OriNat
*RM2.50 worth of bliss*

Cappuccino waffles from a dessert shop near Ktar, We Dating

Pearl Tea from We Dating
Green tea grapes and Cappuccino milk tea
*I like this place because you don't have to order directly from the menu.
You can mix and match and fuse all sorts of flavour,
whether it is milk tea or green tea or even jasmine tea!*

Dumplings from Which One Cafe

Homemade Spaghetti Carbonara with mushrooms

Nasi lemak ayam from Maha Maju 2

Roti Maggi from Maha Maju 2

Guitaring under the moonlight...
Never done this before!

Accompanied by the lights from UTAR students studying...

BERTAHAN!! Finals is going to end soon!

Remember

2010-09-08T17:21:00.009+08:00

To Look Up

Addicted to taking pictures of the sky. Really.

Looks like a rush of pure white air out of no where!

Love the natural layering of the clouds!

And the layers changes so fast!
This was taken like 5 minutes apart from the previous picture.

I kinda love the contrast.
It feels like light at the end of a concrete jungle!

What does it looks like to you?
It looks awfully like a phoenix hiding within clouds to me!

This looks like a horse riding on clouds!

Dang~ I love how little things in nature makes me smile

To Look Down

We are always in a hurry so that we can move on to the next thing. How often do we look down and pay attention to food?

Tako from the local night market

Fried "scallop" and potato rolls

Once in a while, splurge on Secret Recipe Oreo Cheese Cake.
Puts a smile on your face. GURANTEED!

This is the way you eat mushroom soup!
With loads of cheese powder.

To Look Right In Front of You

Sometimes, it takes a battle of wits to challenge the brain a little.
And then snap right back to studying.

I have always wanted a set of glass/crystal chess set.

My favourite piece on the board.
The Knight!

But someone is plotting to take away my knight
Alas, he failed.
TeeHee~~

Until the next post.
Finals is around the corner. So probably not going to be so active for a while.

To my dear UTAR friends, GOOD LUCK in your finals.

Open Your Eyes

2010-08-28T17:46:00.004+08:00

Snow Patrol has a song - Open You Eyes.
*Lovely guitar riffs and great bass*

Little things that would normally go unnoticed,

Unless you Open Your Eyes.

Biggest rose I've seen in my life!
It's really HUGE.
*Thank you*

We had two tests last week, no doubt I didn't do well in both.
Alas, my brain doesn't have enough capacity to store all those info.
Sad.
Sigh.

BUT

On a much lighter note,

I was walking home on a hot sunny evening.
Darn, it was like, 6pm. And the sun is still searing the back of my neck!
But the clouds were perfect!

And we found this on the way home!
Another uniquely shaped leaf!

I never noticed how beautiful the lakeside view was...
Until I actually walked this part of the path.
PS: Usually I don't walk this way to Block B, so I didn't really pay attention.

Dawn is AWESOME!
The blueish hue and the white clouds!

And I visited the temple this weekend,

The beautiful lotus lake~~

Another beautiful lotus...

Life is just much more interesting =)

Smiles

2010-08-20T20:16:00.004+08:00

Another crazy week filled with tasks and reports and assignments and tests...

Alas. The life of a student...

Anyways, since I am so stressed up lately, I try my best to find joy in little things in life. I find this extremely effective since the small little things that nature offers can brighten up my day =) Now I am rarely troubled by the words of anger, disappointment, jealousy or dissatisfaction by other people. Really, to people who are stressed, I strongly suggest this "therapy". Just look around, and give thanks.

It was one HOT searing afternoon while I was walking home...
But the clouds seemed to be smiling at me ^^

The beautiful view of dusk at the lake side...

The road to home is so.... enjoyable... =)

NOW
.
.
.
.
.
FOOD!!!

First of all, I had a SPECIAL breakfast on monday =)

TWIN banana!!!
Extremely filling!

Dinner with my parents the weekend before last at Vegas Cafe.
This is the hound dog burger, which is LARGE... And very sour!

My lunch last Sunday...
Spaghetti with Cheese and Herbs, and extra mushrooms with crabsticks =)
The crabsticks a little over-boiled though...

My latest favourite accessory <3

See, nature does provide little reasons for us to be happy of.
All we have to do is just to stop and look.
*Nicole saw this very uniquely shaped leaf on our walk to the lecture hall. Nice eh?*

Until the next time I am free to update my poor half-dead blog...

Do You Know What Is A Lesbian Crush?

2010-08-10T00:24:00.003+08:00

This is one...

Totally... Random

2010-08-06T17:25:00.006+08:00

Grr!! I AM BACK!!! For the weekend... >.<

I have been so busy I can't breathe! But this weekend is somehow like a short break in this academic marathon. Even though I still have presentations to prepare and lab reports to do, I am okay with it... At least the storm of Mid Term Test 2 is not here, YET...

I still enjoy vandalising my notes and test papers with colour pens...
*ask anyone of my secondary school mates!*

So... Can't really come up with a good topic to blog since life's a bitch *I am still trying to love this bitch* And I didn't watch ANY movie for a very very very long time...

Huge thanks to roomie Cheryl Hew for the ice cream!!
Huge thanks to Andrew Gor Gor for the strawberries!!
You two usually make me smile at the end of a very very tiring day.

But, I did develop a habit -- Taking pictures of random things with my Sony Ericsson 3.2 megapixel Cybershot >.< *No, I don't own and would like to have a DSLR*

The pond in my teacher's new house.

Went to her housewarming party some time ago... LOVE the decos!!

There is this cute dog lying in a weird position in campus...

Thought it was DEAD!! LOL!

Turned out it was just sleeping, in a very weird way...

This is a "notice" I saw in BB Kitchen.
I find it funny!!
Direct translation : After shit, please pump.
But we all get what it means despite the "bahasa pasar" =J

Recently, I have been walking to and fro campus a lot... I actually enjoy the silence of walking alone. Cause you get to be yourself and think about things. But the BEST part of it is TAKING PICTURES!!

No, I don't mean camwhoring!

No, I didn't take this picture myself.
My mischievous lab partner did!

I take pictures of the scenery, mostly the sky and the beautiful formation of clouds!

In Westlake Garden.
Jogging there is good, when it is not crowded or noisy...

I was waiting for someone outside my house.
Starting to get impatient.
I looked up... And saw this!
Guess we really need to enjoy the little things around us!

This... is my reward... for walking through KTAR route to go home!
Sometimes, dust is so beautiful...

Rainy days doesn't mean that it is bad...
See the silver lining on the cloud? =)

It just gives off this calm and serene feeling... And I feel happy =)

2010-08-01T08:59:00.002+08:00

From the director of 300 and Watchmen....

I present to you.....................

Sucker Punch!!

I have always had the curiosity of Zack Synder's movies... They are always visually rewarding though there may be not much of a story-line. The trailer for Sucker Punch seems to be exciting, heavily CGI-ed, and blardy action-packed!

Looking forward to it!

Inception - A Review

2010-07-17T20:23:00.004+08:00

Your mind, is the scene of the crime...

Inception, is by far, the most intriguing, disturbing, creative, brilliant, twisted, *insert own adjective* movie I have seen. Yes, it is THE best production from Christopher Nolan. Yes, it topped The Dark Knight AND The Prestige.

The dream team of an amazing cast of actors, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Michael Caine, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard; two of my favourite young actors, Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon-Levitt; One of my favourite modern composer, Hans Zimmer; lead by the mastermind Christopher Nolan... This movie is worth every single cent of the ticket...

The plot revolves around a world where technology allows people to invade dreams to steal information. Cobb (Leornardo DiCarpio) was offered a chance to return to his home to be with his children and be cleared of all his suspected charges by Saito (Ken Watanabe) if he takes the job of implanting an idea into a corporate competitor by invading his dreams. Cobb took the job, and together with a team of experts, they created a dream and proceed with the inception (damn, it is a brilliant name for the movie)

I shall not elaborate more on the plot because it is Nolan's signature to surprise you with twists in the plots and surprises everywhere. I personally don't think that much of what happened in the plot made any logical sense, but this may be intentional. I mean, the main material of Inception IS dream, and ANYTHING can happen in dreams, however illogical and radical ones behaviour and psychology may be... Smart choice of materials, and screen write!

I shall say that this movie is action-packed. Cinematographic wise, the angles were filmed with such sophistication I sat glued to my seat for 2 hours with a full bladder. Nolan took the time to catch every single insignificant detail with slow motion, precise angle, with much taste and style. You will get what I mean when you watch the synchronisation of the labyrinth of dreams. The expression of timing is flawless!

The whole dream extracting and inception concept was explained so effortlessly that audiences can keep up with the flow and not feel strange yet surprises the audiences with twists and turns at the most unexpected times. At the end of the movie, we really can relate to the characters and how the whole concept works. Believe me, at the end of the movie, you feel like finally understanding one complicated logarithm or solving one particularly hard puzzle because Nolan really jogs my mind in this one, harder than he jogged my mind in The Prestige.

I really have no negative comments on this movie because it is simply... PERFECT! Except that I don't really like Ellen Page here. I love the talkative Juno and the crazy Roller Blade girl more. She is being downplayed into one serious character.

However, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was BRILLIANT! He was such a hopelessly funny and sweet guy in 500 Days of Summer. But in this number, he is totally serious and suave and VERY attractive. He is like in his pre-Matt Damon days.

He is going to hit it big in the future I tell you!

Leonardo DiCaprio is, as expected, good. His eyes tell the story. Really.

I love how Nolan put Marion Cotillard in as his subconscious projection. But I gotta say, Cotillard is SCARY. Every time she appeared in a scene, I got goosebumps. Maybe that's why I was on the edge of my seat. I kept on expecting her to show at the most irrelevant times.

Cillian Murphy and Michael Caine are like, regulars on Nolan's set. You say them in The Prestige; you saw them in The Dark Night; They are practically Nolan's favourite guys for a mentor (Caine) and a character you will definitely feel sorry for (Murphy). And THEY DELIVER!!

Ratings : 9.5/10. This movie freaks me out. I have no idea how Christopher Nolan is going to top this one with his next piece.

Revival!!!

2010-07-07T02:38:00.002+08:00

My blog is DEAD.... For... almost two weeks.....

That is like... One of the longest period I've abandoned my blog... Gosh....

Mid terms and assignments and reports are raining like shit...

And it all accumulates at Mount Stressssssss that no doubt will one day, suffocate me to death!

So, I guess this blog will be in its dormant state for a longer period of time?

I'll share some YouTube stuff if I am lucky enough to have stable internet connections =)

Gotta hold back a little on reviews, unless you guys want reviews on how lab reports are being done, which I assure you, will endlessly bore you to death!

Meanwhile, do check out the updated "Great Things Blogged" on my right column.

Featured some new bloggers in the local blogosphere.

By local, I really mean local... Like right in my university local.

Good reads! Check them out =)

S'long fellas!

I'll be BACK!

Love Drunk - A Cover

2010-06-26T11:02:00.003+08:00

I was practicing this song for my band... And then I did a slow rendition of it...

Didn't get to chance to duet with Yong Shiang yet. Itchy hands... LOL~

This is the first cover I recorded with my new webcam! Sound quality is a little weird cause I used the laptop mic since my headphones mic is not working. Hope it isn't too bad.

Damn, I love this song.

I dedicate this song to you, Evil. Because I am no longer love drunk over you. =)

To Where You Are

2010-06-25T02:13:00.002+08:00

Dear Aunt,

I suddenly miss you very much. It has been a while since you left us for Heaven on that very fateful day. Every time I pick up my guitar, I think of you. The fact that it was yours and though you never really give it to me, I felt like you would want me to have it. And now that it has become such a HUGE part of my life. It has become a lovely instrument that brings me indefinite joy.

I miss your presence. I miss you.

Your niece =)

When You Were Young

2010-06-24T02:15:00.001+08:00

One hell of a song to blast!

V - A Review

2010-06-19T00:25:00.002+08:00

V is a reimagination of 1983 classic sci-fi series of the same name V for Visitors. I will not say that the concept is fresh since most of our parents probably watched the original V in their teens and the concept has been readapted countless times over the decades.

But I do credit the series for their excellent story- telling. Each episode ends with a cliff- hanger ending that practically makes the audiences shout for more. And the suspense and sub-plots created in the series were great too!

V is basically about reptilian aliens that disguised themselves as humans and invaded Earth. Even though they claimed to be of peace but they had already infiltrated the world in governments, private sectors and all places imaginable years before the arrival of the mother ship. The cunning queen and high commander of the V's Anna (Morrena Baccarin) manipulated humans and earned their devotion. However, there were resistance in the form of Erica Evans, an FBI agent, a Catholic priest and former army, Father Jack Landry, a sleeper spy V who wanted to save humanity, Ryan Nichols, a fanatic guy who wanted vengence, Georgie and a terrorist, Kyle Hobbes. Basically, the whole series shows the tug war between Anna and the resistance.

With the setting of the story in present days, technology and scientific fiction-facts were updated to stuff like cloning, grafting, Blue clean energy, etc, stuff that were unheard of in 1983. But I'd have to say that this series being sci-fi and all, it is seriously lack of imagination and creativity. The designs for the space crafts, the space shuttles, the alien technology, everything is very imaginable and cliche. The producers didn't even try to impress us with the fact that the V's are more advanced than humans.

I also felt the lack of chemistry between characters. Erica Evans is so... predictable. Father Jack Landry is suppose to be confused but I can clearly see that he is acting "confused". Not convincing at all. Ryan does have this short of weird face symmetry that slightly suggest that he is alien, but the acting sucks...

The only person I actually enjoy watching is Chad Decker, the journalist torn between his loyalty to fame and his ethics.

Like I said before, the only thing that kept me watching all 12 episodes is the way the story was told. There is always this little hints, the fishing bait, cleverly placed somewhere in the episode and you will have to watch the next episode to find out what is really happening. And I was eager to find out who are the traitors, who are the spies, who are the sleeper agents, and the suspense never fail to work on me!

Ratings : 6/10. Not exactly appealing to me. But I would love to watch season 2, just for the story- telling.

Black & White Debut

2010-06-17T16:54:00.004+08:00

We performed two songs on the Biological Science Night, marking the debut of our acoustic band.

*Video credits to Cheryl Hew*

We performed acoustic covers of Mr Brightside from The Killers and also Falling Slowly from Once OST and made popular by Kris Allen.

ALL the members of our band are Biomedical Science students, proving that not all science students are nerds! Kumutha is our lead vocalist while Yong Shiang is our lead guitarist. I am the backup vocals and rhythm guitarist. Yi Fan the drummer didn't join us in this performance.

Photo credits to Wei Cheng and Mr Yuen

I had so much fun preparing and rehearsing for this performance! Unfortunately, we were so nerve-wrecked on the performance night itself that we kinda screwed up. Not to mention the technical problems that night. I was kinda disappointed at myself while playing Falling Slowly. I practiced so hard for the song and I was anticipating the harmonising effects of my classical guitar with Shiang's acoustic guitar. Alas, BOTH my vocal mic and guitar jack wasn't working. Kudos to UTAR technical team.

But but but...

The best fun was during the auditions. We went for audition twice and the performance during 2nd audition was the most fun performance I have ever put up so far!

I am looking forward to learning new songs, collaborating with different singers and guitarists as well as more future performances!

My dream came true.
I performed on stage to a crowd!

Glee - A Review

2010-06-16T21:50:00.003+08:00

I first thought that Glee is just another High School Musical where people randomly sing and dance out of no where and everything is so perfect that a square suddenly feels like a circle.

I was wrong about it. Glee is NOTHING like HSM. It is a musical, but better and stronger.

Glee is basically about a school teacher Will Shuester trying to restore the Glee Club, something like a music choir club, back to its former glory but recruiting social outcasts in school. There is this arrogant but talented Rachel Berry who thinks she really is a star, a dumb jock Finn Hudson, a obese black girl who wants to sing solo Mercedes, a gay but very talented and fashionable Kurt, a fake-stutter gothic asian Tina Cohen- Chang, a paraplegic guitarist Artie, a playboy football jock Puck, former cheerleader queen bee who later became pregnant Quinn Fabray, two very dumb blonde cheerleaders Brittany and Santana and a bunch of people I can't really remember. There is also interesting side stories with the Shuester-Mrs Shuester-School Councellor Emma- Football coach Ken romance foursome, cheerleading coach Sue who tries to bring Glee down and Sue-Principal Higgins blackmailing, etc.

What I like most about this series is that it does not deal with Disney's perfect little world but acknowledge deeper issues about self-esteem, homosexuality, peer pressure, teen pregnancy and all sorts of things. Being a musical, it really broke the HSM-dominated scene with fantastic covers and renditions of classic oldies, modern pop songs, brilliant mash-ups and all. And the singing only happens in a rehearsal, on stage, in a fantasy, etc. It is not HSM-Bollywood style, which makes no sense at all.

Though I never like Rachel Berry at all, but I love her voice, especially when she duets with Idina Mendez who played Rachel Berry's birth mother. They did a superb rendition of Poker Face and I Dreamed A Dream. There were also numerous guest appearances by famous recording artists and Broadway stars the likes of Josh Groban, Idina Mendez, Kirstin Chenoweth, Eve, Neil Patrick and so much more. It is almost addictive to watch!

I don't really have a favourite character in this series because the leads are not exactly likable. Rachel Berry is annoying 90% of the times, Finn is really dumb for a guy. But I do enjoy Kurt, especially when he sings. I LOVE HIS SHOW TUNES!!

However, I think I love Brittany the most. She has very very little screen time and she is a minor character so small that basically she is insignificant. But, she made use of her little screen time and blurt out lines so dumb that I like her!

Ratings : 8/10. Definitely better than HSM!

Biological Science Night 2010

2010-06-13T23:42:00.010+08:00

The Biological Science Society of my campus held a Charity Night to collect donations for SPCA. On this very historical night, our band performed for the very first time to a crowd!

Our band is an acoustic band named Black & White, since all the members LOVE black and white. Yong Shiang and I played the guitar while Kumutha took the vital role of the lead vocalist.

*Ok la... I know the title is Biological Science Night la... But my personal highlight was the performance mar*

Anyway, we had a lot of fun even though we didn't really perform that well on our debut. Technical errors, tsk tsk tsk. I also learned a lot from UTAR's celebrity band Got-Zeal-Lah.

Without further ado, allow the pictures to do the talking...

I do not own any of this pictures. Photo credits goes to Cheryl Hew, Kumutha Priya and Ashley Goh.

First of all... HUGE THANKS to my housemates and friends who came to support us!
From left : Nicole, Vee, Cheryl, Me, YY, Kumutha, Ashley, Kar Yee, Vanezsha

The Leng Lui's in Biomedical Science

More Leng Lui's from Biomedical Science

Getting ready in the waiting auditorium

See how "act cool" Yong Shiang was before performance!
By the way, that sweet guitar in his hand was Andy's guitar that cost RM3000!

Guitars that Andy lend us for the performance.
Sad to say, our campus technical equipments sucked through the roof which resulted in performers coming up with equipments and stuff on our own!

Yong Shiang testing out Andy' electric guitar.

I am posing with Andy's electric guitar!
Do I look like Orianthi? *Faster say YES*

A picture with UTAR model search Top 5
No, that wasn't his natural skin. It was face paint ok!

Kumutha with Kenny and the guitar!

WE ARE ON STAGE!
From this experience, I totally understand how important communication is between duet guitarists!

I doubled as backup vocals in our first song which was Mr Brightside from The Killers.

Huge thanks to YY and Nicole for lending me the costumes!
Someone thought I looked very rocker chic!

Our entire band - BLACK & WHITE
Yi Fan (Second from left) as the drummer didn't join us in this performance

Black & White and Got Zeal Lah.
Deepest appreciation to UTAR's "celebrity band"! Without their technical support and equipments, B&W would be so screwed!

Got Zeal Lah in action.
They performed FIVE songs that night... All totally ROCK OUT!

Also, thanks to Boon Ho who volunteered as our voice coach and musical arrangement inspiration.

Thanks to Kumutha, who dared me to dance with Yong Shiang,
now I have experienced waltzing with a guy.
Of course, thank you Yong Shiang for the dance.
Thank God I didn't step on your shoe or what!

I also want to thank my beloved roomie and "lou kong" CHERYL HEW for providing transportation for rehearsals and listening to my amateurish play day-in-day-out!
*I know you don't like pictures, so I don't post lo*

I also want to thank Kar Yee and Zach for fetching us to and fro rehearsals at the most inconvenient time. Sorry for the trouble but thanks for doing this!

Thanks to Benjamin Chang for all your kind "performer's advice" and all the encouragements!
Sorry to make you jealous la... =)

Okay, before this post becomes a Grammy thank you speech, I just want to tell the world how hype I am from this experience. And I cannot possibly have done this without the support of my friends!
ROCK ON!

Human Centipede First Sequence - A Review

2010-06-03T18:04:00.004+08:00

I watched this movie purely because Nicholas did a review of it. And I approached this movie with "three parts horror and one part curiosity".

Alas, curiosity kills the cat...
Luckily a cat has nine lives... And I am not a cat...

Basically, this story is about a mad surgeon who wanted to relive his glory days of conjoining stuff by replacing his dead surgically conjoined three-dog with humans. He kidnapped three tourists in Germany and surgically join their gastrointestinal tracts together, like mouth to butt hole. He then trained this "human centipede" like his dog until one day these humans rebelled against him and in the end everyone died a bloody death except the middle piece of the human centipede where she was trapped in between a dead "head" and a dead "tail" and I guess she eventually died too.

I do not really enjoy the movie. But I'll have to say that this is one of the most original concept I've seen. I wouldn't call this movie horror cause it wasn't really visually horrifying, like most "horror movies" in this modern times. There wasn't even much gore or what... Okay, there were significant amount of blood here and there, but not gory or bloody.

I would definitely give credits to this movie for being one hell of a psychological thriller. Being a biomedical science student, I would say that the stuff in this movie are factually correct and the procedure was medically possible, though highly unethical.

And to think that such brilliant surgeon would actually apply science to such extent, freaks me out endlessly.

Also, I think that director Tom Six is one sadist who indulge way too much in torturing the characters mentally. To me, there were a lot of suspense and a lot of excessive scenes where I was thinking, "Yes, we get it, she is scared... Yes, she is in pain... Now get over it and move to the next scene..." But there were parts where I just can't stomach the suspense, like the part where the girl tried to escape and the whole act got dragged until so long and I was literally feeling pity for the girl cause, as the title suggested, she is going to be part of the centipede sooner or later...

But one thing where I do like about the movie is that it is realistic, down to every single detail. Being interested in forensics and blood smear patterns since I watched CSI, I was often get irritated when movies inaccurately depicts blood smear patterns. But in this movie, the blood splash and blood trail is actually consistent with reality, like it actually happened that way and not arranged to be filmed that way.

I still think that the characters are stupid in the movie. The stupidest being the two policemen, especially the second police who was so damn distracted by the death of his partner that he failed to see the bad guy in the room which eventually lead to his own death. Stupid right? And that girl who went back for her unconscious friend when she had the chance to escape. Morally she is being nice, but hell, she is not being practical at all. If she would have gone out and look for help instead of trying to drag dead weight across the lawn, she might be still alive. But, Tom Six put these stupid things so realistically that I actually give the characters a break for being irrational in times of crisis.

Ratings : 6/10. I don't really enjoy the movie but the concept and how the film was put into place was excellent. Watch out for Human Centipede Second Sequence.

For those interested in watching this movie, CLICK HERE.

Disclaimer: Please be warned that this is one of the most disturbing movies I have watched. And I had to take breaks in between this 1 hour 30 minutes movie because I just couldn't stomach the whole thing at one go. Not advisable for little kids, pregnant ladies, the faint- hearted or the weak- minded.

Valentine's Day - A Review

2010-05-30T01:52:00.004+08:00

Okay... I know it's May, almost June, and no where near Valentine's Day...
But yours truly is feeling all mushy-lushy-lovey-dovey... So I watched this movie =)

The whole point of the movie is Valentine's Day, just as the title suggested. Every frame of the movie was bombarded by HUGE stars with HUGE names. And as expected, there are people who lived for the day, people who runs away from the day, people who is crazy for the day and people who are not aware of the day.

My favourite couple is Ashton Kutcher and Jennifer Garner, who started as best friends but ending for them was sooooo romantic.

And I really think that Taylor Swift should stay with playing guitar. Her character was totally bimbo. And Taylor Lautner, is soooooooooo KAYU (wood).

But I kinda like their friends who tried to have sex for the first time on this very special day! My favourite scene was the guy rehearse singing naked in her room!

Appearances by heartthrobs like McDreamy and McSteamy was.... surprising. I mean how their characters are. I totally love how Patrick Dempsey was dumped. I must remember to do that when I have the chance to!

One notable thing about this movie is the dialogues. They are not cheesy at all! In fact, Anne Hathaway's lines were so funny that I look forward to every single line she said. Of course it helps that she is a very good actress that can carry the lines and deliver them to perfection!

I also love the soundtrack! All very cheerful and happy songs by great artists. Joss Stone's "4 & 20" in the album is my favourite. Those by Taylor Swift's are okay, but not remarkable. The whole OST album carries this sort of jazzy classy taste to it. Love it!

However, there is this line that got stuck in my head for a very long time.

There was a scene where Ashton Kutcher asked his friend how he maintains a happy marriage.

That friend simply replied, "It's simple. I married my best friend."

That is exactly what I want to do. Marry my best friend! I mean, there must be a reason he is my best friend right? That he was there for all the ups and downs and lefts and rights. This guy must have known me inside out, seen me when I am happy and sad, polite and bitchy, serious and bimbo.

But but but.... I don't think anyone of my guy best friends want to marry me... They have seen and know too much...

So, anyone wants to be my new best friend?

Ratings : 7/10. Enjoyable but not epic scale.

Red Cliff 1 - A Review

2010-05-28T22:49:00.002+08:00

The most expensive Asian- financed film to date... From the critically acclaimed director John Woo, with a row of extraordinary cast of actors Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi, Chang Chen and Zhao Wei... I watched the Red Cliff Part 1 last night.

This 2 hour 30 minute movie is a historical reenactment of one of the most important battles in the China history, though according to some of my friends who are very familiar with China history that this movie is not factually accurate. But I still think cinematographically, it is still one hell of a movie.

The audiences were introduced to Chancellor Cao Cao who wanted to conquer the northern region ruled by Sun Quan and Liu Bei in the name of eradicating rebels. Part 1 of Red Cliff showcased the legendary combat skills by Liu Bei's sworn brothers, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. We were also introduced to Zhao Zi Long, a brave young commander who rescued Liu Bei's infant son single-handedly. Liu Bei's advisor, ZhuGe Liang embarked on a mission to the Wu Kingdom up North to seek alliance from Sun Quan. We were then introduced to Sun Quan's military advisor Zhou Yu and his beautiful wife Xiao Qiao. The Northern Kingdoms formed an alliances and defeated Cao Cao's land army with some very clever use of combat tactics. The movie ended with Zhou Yu instructing on the second attack via the naval route.

After watching this movie, I felt like I have watched a very expensive 2 hour 30 minute trailer of Red Cliff 2, or maybe perhaps 3. This piece is brilliant nonetheless. It is fully packed with action and occasionally, sex. No, not the 18 and above rated kind. But there were some moments where development were rather slow, like the awkward silences, the knowing glance, the unexplained action. But every scene was essential and necessary, nonetheless. I'll have to say that this movie doesn't require audiences to just watch but to interpret as well.

I absolutely adore the cinematography. John Woo is a genius with the camera. Every scene was capture so intensely, no matter if it is a battle scene or just plain serene scenery. And the editing was superb. I especially love the scene where Zhou Yu and ZhuGe Liang played musical instruments together. It was so tense between the characters and all the meanings are conveyed through musical notes alone. The camera angles were perfect. I also like the love- making scene between Zhou Yu and his wife, because it is so artsy and beautifully portrayed (unlike many Western films who just get down and dirty) The whole incident was arranged against the background of rain and bamboo and white silk, which according to my interpretation, symbolises a lot of things.

Another remarkable point of the movie is the soundtrack. The boy who played the flute so wonderfully was juxtapositioned against army training in the valley of mountains. And those fearless battle tracks. Of course, one of my favourite was the scene where Sun Quan hunted the tiger. It was a perfect marriage of art direction and sound editing.

Ratings : 8.5/10. I am singing praises for this movie! But it is really darn long........

Prince of Persia : The Sands of Time - A Review

2010-05-28T22:34:00.012+08:00

I didn't play the game. I didn't read any reviews about this movie. I only watched the trailer.

And it did not disappoint at all!

I don't know if the story was true to the original game but it was very good story- telling. From the very beginning, we were introduced to how the Empire of Persia works and how Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) ended up becoming the Prince of Persia despite being born a commoner. Then the audiences were taken into a mesmerising journey of how the magical Dagger and how the Sands of Time works after an alleged assassination of the King by the Dastan. There were plenty of adventure and the ending was surprising.

I wouldn't want to reveal too much of the plot because there were plenty of twists here and there. But it did not slow down at all during the entire 2 hours. There were fight scenes after fight scenes, escape after escape and lots of romantic bickering between Dastan and Princess Tasmina (Gemma Artenton). What I absolutely love is the parkour fused brilliantly into the movie. It was known that Jake Glyllenhaal was trained by the creator of parkour himself and did most of the stunts in the movie. And gosh, I have to say that Jake Glyllenhaal surprised me in this movie. All this while ever since his huge shot to fame in The Day After Tomorrow, Glyllenhaal appeared to me as the sissy nerdy but smart guy. But in this movie, he was a man, with well- toned body and very tough characters.

Another point worth applauding is the row of extraordinary cast. Ben Kingsley, as always, is brilliant as the deceiving Nizam. Steve Toussaint and Alfred Molina were both very funny as Seso and Sheikh Amar, which provided the right dosage of comical relief to the movie, but serious enough to show that they mean business. However, Gemma Artenton was a little lack luster compared to the extraordinary cast. Don't get me wrong, she was brilliant at being very very pretty, but I personally find her lack of facial expression very boring.

Get rid of all those dirt, I find Princess Tasmina bear little resemblance to Troy's Briseis played by Rose Byrne.

The scores of the movie was exciting. Written by famed composer Harry Gregson- Williams, the scores did not fail to fit perfectly into the movie. With a touch of Middle East and a smart combination of modern digital instruments, the music literally made the action so much more alive!

Ratings : 8.5/10. Action- packed, though the climax and ending was a little weird and anti-climax, but still a good film to catch!

Red Cliff 2 - A Review

2010-05-28T22:34:00.011+08:00

This movie is a sequel to Red Cliff 1 and the story picked up right after where Red Cliff 1 ended.
I personally thought that this epic will be brilliant if watched at one go, but that would mean a crazy movie endurance test of 5 long hours.

Anyway, this epic depict of the naval war at Red Cliff between Cao Cao and the Eastern Wu empire. The princess of Eastern Wu, Sun Shang Xiang (Zhao Wei) infiltrated Cao Cao's camp and became a spy for the Wu army. When Cao Cao's army was infected by typhoid fever, Cao Cao sent the corpse of his dead army to the shores of Eastern Wu to spread the disease and forced Liu Bei to break alliance from Zhou Yu (Tony Leung). However, ZhuGe Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) stayed behind and helped the war. Part 2 was mostly about the cat and mouse game between strategic planner Zhou Yu and ZhuGe Liang trying to out-smart and out-wit each other on friendly terms. Here, we saw the reenactment of how ZhuGe Liang collected 100,000 arrows from the enemy fleet over one single night. We also saw how Zhou Yu's brilliant plan incapacitate Cao Cao's navy fleet. In the end, ZhuGe Liang brilliantly predicted the change of climate and helped plotted the attack on Cao Cao's fleet. Zhou Yu's wife, Xiao Qiao, secretly crossed over into Cao Cao's camp to help buy time for Zhou Yu's troop. In the end, Cao Cao lost the Battle of Red Cliff.

The sequel was very exciting. Following the footsteps of its predecessor, this one was equally brilliant in terms of cinematography and story telling. The angles were shot so brilliantly, with symbols of things all over the movie. I love how John Woo captured the serenity at Zhou Yu's home while Zhou Yu was practicing sword while Xiao Qiao made tea, despite the war going on. I love how ZhuGe Liang was filmed capturing the arrows and those scenes where he calmed down and thinks. The battle scenes were so surreal and definitely on par with Western epics like Lord of The Rings : Two Towers.

In this movie, I must applaud Zhao Wei for her outstanding performance as Sun Shang Xiang. She had more screen time here and she reminded me of her debut performance as Princess Xiao Yan Zhi in Huan Zu GeGe almost ten years ago. But her acting was good. She really portrayed the initial excitement for war, to the joy of being friends with the enemy while undercover, the pride of proving herself to Sun Quan that women can be equally capable, to finally, the sorrow the war had brought to her and her people.

Ratings : 8.5/10. Finally a chinese epic worth to be proud of!

Tooth Fairy - A Review

2010-05-28T22:34:00.010+08:00

There is only one word to describe the entire movie

ABSURD

Wash up ice hockey star dubbed (ironically) the Tooth Fairy crashed young children dreams got a summoned by Fairy Land to perform two weeks punishment as, you guess it right, the Tooth Fairy. In the end, Tooth Fairy learned his lessons as a tooth fairy and restored dreams, which lead him to his very own happy dreams come true. Then everyone lives happily ever after.

Chuck originality out the window. Throw soundtracks out the door. Shove cinematography into the bin. I don't even want to talk about directing or editing or any of the technical stuff. Cause this is one dumbass comedy show that I totally enjoyed based on three things.

Number 1 : Absurdity. Seriously, how cliche can this be? The writers didn't even take the effort to exceed our expectations.

Number 2 : What is more hilarious than to watch the fearsome famed wrestler THE ROCK who debuted in the acting scene as the cruel legendary Scorpion King donned on wings and tutu?

Number 3 : The little boy who played Randy who played awesome electric guitar! The actor was Chase Ellison. According to IMDb, he was born in 1993, which means he is suppose to be 17 years old this year. Why the hell he can look like a 10 year old kid that totally stole my heart with renditions of Eric Clapton's musical pieces?

Ratings : 4/10. It should be lower if it wasn't for the dude who played impressive guitar. Only watch when you have absolutely NOTHING to watch.

Ninja Assassin - A Review

2010-05-28T22:34:00.009+08:00

I thought the trailer was cool.

The statement above is totally true. Because that is all where the best scenes were. Sorry to say, the rest of the movie was boring.

This is a movie about Raizo (Rain) being trained as a ninja assassin by the Nine Clans since young but then he betrayed the clan and fought against them when they caught his first love running away and ran a sword into her heart. US forensic researcher Mika (Naomie Harris) was investigating a series of deaths in town and somehow traced it back to the Nine Clans and soon ninjas came knocking her door. Raizo came to rescue and in the end, the evil guys were killed and everyone lived happily ever after.

First of all, the storytelling sucks. There were way too much unnecessary scenes all over the movie. Yes, we all know Rain has great body. Yes, we all know ninjas were great. Yes, we all know how usually forbidden lovers fall in love and try to maintain that love. Yes, we all know there will be blood when a sword cut into flesh, etc. Everything was in excessive, rendering the movie empty with little essential parts.

Next, the action was good, way too smooth, as if the rest of the ninjas voluntarily walked into Raizo and be willingly sliced apart. And the moves were so well choreographed that it offended me as an audience. I am not stupid. Why is it that everyone dies but Raizo? If the ninjas really are as mysterious as mentioned in the opening sequence, why is it that the police armed with only guns can beat the crap out of ninjas in their very own turf? Why is it that Raizo risked his life for Mika whom he barely know? So many plot holes that not even Rain can hold it together!

Ratings : 3/10. Waste of time. Barely memorable. Excessive everything non-essential. Way too much blood and gore.

Deeper Conversation

2010-05-28T02:59:00.003+08:00

I recently discovered the wonder of local artists the likes of YUNA!

And she is awesome!

She actually had the crowd singing to her!

And that touched me as a performer!

Her voice is AWESOME!

Simply Beautiful Mess

2010-05-27T19:24:00.003+08:00

I know I blogged about this song before but I am just so addicted to it!

I love it that he totally control the entire stage and the audiences using ONLY his guitar and those beautiful voice!

I can play the simpler parts of the song and I am so looking forward to be able to play the entire song! Sad thing is that I can't reach those notes... Johnny Leong, you can be my singer?

Education

2010-05-27T12:09:00.007+08:00

I was browsing through a number of my friends' blogs and websites.

And I noticed two things :

Disclaimer :This is merely MY observation and MY personal opinion and interpretation formed based on these observations. I have NO intention of offending anyone. Opinions and intellectual spars are very much welcomed.

1. Almost ALL of them are blogging about exams.

Universities and colleges are having Finals these days
*with the weird exception of UTAR where we have very different semester schedule than the rest of the world*

SPM-ers are having their mock Trials or unified mid terms now.
*Trial exams are mock-real SPM. Now we have mock Trials that mock Trial exams that mock the real SPM. Redundant.*

2. Student bloggers can be divided into THREE obvious major category
*of course there are other minority but I am going to talk about the three MAJOR ones*

Category 1 : High Achievers

Born genius, work damn hard, become geniuses and scoring the elusive 4.0 CGPA or very close to 4.0 CGPA, like 3.9999. And they blog about missing that 0.0001 or "the higher purpose of education". I do enjoy very much reading the "higher purpose of education" posts with rare insights and creative opinions but readng about 0.0001 miss is a real turnoff since you people are so rare. I guess these geniuses have way too much brain power to ponder upon much complex issues compared to the Gifted Learners.

*Yes, I understand the quest for perfectionism. I WAS a High Achiever, that is until reality smacked me in the head with grades.*

Category 2 : Gifted learner

Not very bad grades, but not good enough either. Not very ambitious, but with a certain personal standard to achieve. Still dreaming of getting CGPA 4.0 even though hanging onto dear life between the deadly cliff of pass and fail. The Gifted Learners are too busy chasing grades than to ponder upon the noble purpose of education or the flaw in the system even though some know that grades are not everything and understanding the purpose of education is equally important as getting grades. Alas, we shall leave the pondering to the academic elites...

Category 3 : Creative Learners

This category consists of many types of students but all hold dearly to the same principle: "Work Hard, PLAY HARDER!" They couldn't care less about grades because "it is just a paper qualification that only reflect how much you can study." and they couldn't care less about the purpose of education because "I play harder than I work." How I envy this group of carefree students!

Finally, I wish all my friends and fellow bloggers GOOD LUCK IN YOUR FINALS in all your respective universities.

To High Achievers,
say HELLO to another position in the Dean's List or the President's List!
To Gifted Learners,
the sky is not too far to reach.
To Creative Learners,
please try not to set the exam paper on fire with your mind during the exams! ;)

GOOD LUCK AND ALL THE BEST!

So You Think You Can Dance Season 6 - A Review

2010-05-24T01:10:00.003+08:00

I have finally finished watching Season 6.

And to quote Mia Michaels, Season 6 did blew Season 5 out of the water!

We have several history in the making (or made) here, with not one, not two BUT THREE tappers on the Top 20. We have the first ever married couple in the Top 20. And we have the first ever Krumper on the show! And it was great!

Not wanting to give away who got into Top 10 or Top 6 or even win the show, I shall keep mum about the results. But gosh, this season's winners and finallists are so great that they deserved to be where they are! I personally see a lot of growth in Russell and Legacy, both not having formal dance education, yet perform equally well as classically trained contemporary or jazz dancers. And I seriously think that Ryan and Ashleigh should not be doing ballroom but go for contemporary instead. Ashleigh dance so well in contemporary.

My personal favourite male dancer is Jakob Karr and my favourite female dancer is Kathryn McCormick cause the both of them are AWESOME!!!

Let me share with you some of my personal favourite routines on the show in no order...

The pairing of Legacy and Kathryn. Now, the both of them are not technically awesome, especially Legacy, whom I thought cannot survive in the show since he seemed to be unable to do anything else but B-Boy. But he proved me wrong and grew so so so much. Kathryn, is as usual, great!

Now, Ryan and Kathryn... is like the dream team of ballroom dance. Ryan is strong and steady and Kathryn is flexible and graceful. And they are both so HOT on the floor!

Back to Legacy, his performance with Ellenore is one of my top favourites this season. The routine was said to be the most dangerous routine in the season and one that could win Travis Wall an Emmy for Best Choreography. They brought Mr & Mrs Smith to a whole new level!

Now, take a look at Kathryn and Russell. We all know that Russell is a fantastic Krumper but he is not necessarily a good hip-hop dancer. Kathryn, no doubt, is one of the best contemporary/jazz dancer, but in this number, she got down and dirty!

Back to something more romantic, this number by Mollee and Jakob is beautiful. Its Viennese Waltz, in a very beautiful and flawless way. Both of them keep the fluidity going in the dance. Just wonderful to watch!

Our married couple, Ashleigh and Ryan... Despite lasting very long in the show, they only got to dance together twice on the stage, and only once competitively. And this number is the one and only competitive dance. Take note of the emotions and the chemistry. This is going to be one of their fondest memories in life!

Now, finally, both of my favourite dancers dancing together! Jakob and Kathryn! Two wonderful contemporary dancers, doing a beautiful choreography, with beautiful Michael Buble's voice. Simply lovely!

Apples

2010-05-20T22:45:00.004+08:00

Someone privately replied to my previous post and made me realise something. The ultimate goal of courtship, the whole LOVE thing, it is like an endurance race in the mountains.

This race is not only about skill and luck, but of endurance too. If one is hasty, one will be worn out before the race is over. If one keeps looking into the rear mirror, one can't concentrate on the road and is bound to make mistakes. If one predicts the route, one might lose track of what is right in front of their track and eventually get lost.

Therefore, live in the present.

PS : I think my dad has been trying to tell me the same thing for a very long time. Don't live in the past, don't live in the future. Live in the present.

Credits to Carlos Gustavus El Marcelino for the interesting insight.

Three

2010-05-20T02:40:00.002+08:00

This is the story about three people, living in a world, looking for something call "Love".

DISCLAIMER : This is purely something that sprouted randomly out of my mind. Maybe I am being very cynical after watching the very very very cheesy Valentines' Day; Or maybe I am being very betrayed after a "close friend" told me that "we barely know each other."*ouch*

And the gender conotation DOES NOT represent that only men or women are like that. It's just there to make my story-telling easier. ;)

The Egoist

This Egoist needs to have a girlfriend/boyfriend to feel good. The Egoist uses a relationship to reassure himself, to tell himself that he is desirable, he is "in demand", he is good enough, he is worthy enough. The Egoist needs The Other Half to secure himself, to boost his ego and self- confidence. The Egoist is almost always in a rebound relationship and constantly say that "I need to FIND a boyfriend/girlfriend."

My note to The Egoist : You don't FIND love, love comes knocking on your door. Why are you LOOKing for someone to decorate your arm all the time?

The Needy

The Needy actually doesn't need anything. She only needs to have a girlfriend/boyfriend to "just be there" or to "just have someone". She doesn't really love, or even like The Other Half but need The Other Half to do her bindings. She needs The Other Half to be her Driver, ATM machine, sex machine, washing machine, vending machine, dish washer, car washer, floormat, etc. And all the while The Needy THINKS that she loves The Other Half but at the first sight of trouble, she fleds.

My note to The Needy : Love is something sacred. Don't use it as a commodity.

The Invisible

He is not invisible at all. But he comes quietly and goes quietly. The Invisible takes care of The Other Half silently, supporting The Other Half from behind, helping The Other Half from the side, shielding The Other Half in front. And when the time comes, he walks away, even when it is very painful to do so. The Invisible often gets overworked and underpaid. The Invisible takes The Other Half exactly the way he/she is, good and bad. The Invisible would rather take a second seat in The Other Half's life so that he can be in his/her life.

My note to The Invisible : There are so many of you, yet so little of you.

Writer's note : When I draft the post, The Egoist was in the image of someone who hurt The Moon; The Needy was in the image of someone I personally disagree with; The Invisible was in the image of my dream love. Now that I've finally finished writing this post, I suddenly realised one thing. I have written The Invisible completely in the image of my parents. And reading back, I felt like I was The Needy at times. And everyone has a little Egoist in him/her. Who doesn't want attention or reassurance from The Other Half? Why do human, unlike animals, get marry and live with someone? Simply because we want The Other Half to witness our lives and to reassure ourselved that we've lived.

I was naive when I drafted this post. But after writing, I felt that I've grow up, just a little. Therefore I still want to post this and share.

And to tell my family and all my friends, THANK YOU FOR BEING A PART OF MY LIFE, no matter how brief or how shallow...

Use Somebody

2010-05-18T00:38:00.002+08:00

I was sitting in front of my laptop, humming a tune while randomly surfing...

Then I stopped myself. I was humming Use Somebody by Kings of Leon.

Immediately I went on YouTube to satisfy my sudden craving for this song. And guess what I found.... Pixie Lott doing an acoustic cover of the song! And it's superb!

Now I feel like doing a cover! Yay!

Fringe - A Review

2010-05-16T22:23:00.003+08:00

I have finished Season 1 and almost finishing Season 2 now....

And I am endlessly being impressed by whatever that happens in the series!

Freaking awesome, literally!

Fringe is a TV series about FBI agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) who recruited eccentric scientist, fringe science frontier and former mental institution patient Dr Walter Bishop (John Noble) and his equally brilliant but cunning (in a nice way) son, Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) to investigate series of unexplained phenomena known as The Pattern. This stuff includes flesh dissolving viruses, man-morphed creatures, chimeras, time travelling, inter-dimensional travels, mind control, memory reading, reanimation and all sorts of stuffs. It's the new generation of X Files, minus the creepiness.

The main characters Peter Bishop, Olivia Dunham and Walter Bishop

The entire Fringe division

I like it that the stuff there seems to be scientifically possible but not quite achievable in the next, maybe, two decades. I like it that most things on the show are factually accurate but not quite imaginable. It is like manipulating and bending known science theories to accomodate all these wild ideas! This, in my humble opinion, is what triggers imaginations and really start off some serious research!

I love the plot of each episode. Though to some people, there might be a certain predictability in the episodes. After all, it's a one hour show with an obvious introduction, conflict, climax and resolution. But, there is a main story with a bigger picture here. Each episode, we discover more about the characters and add some knowledge regarding The Pattern. It is really addictive!

And I officially have a HUGE lesbian crush on Olivia Dunham! She is so cool and so fearless! She draws her gun, watch her steps and she never lets the bad guys go unpunished. But she is flawed in some ways, like being emotional, too perfectionist, focus too much on work, etc, stuff that most people can relate to. But I think her character is where these people can draw strength from and say to themselves, "I can do this!"

And I also absolutely love Peter Bishop. Just cause he is handsome. In the rugged way. Like he can be mean if he has to, but most of the time he is very nice.

However, my favourite character has to be Dr Walter Bishop. His character is conflicted in so many ways. He was not a kind man who attempted all kinds of nasty tests on human. But now that he is old and apparently has repented, you can't help but to sympathize him. And his oblivion cravings or wants for certain food or item is absolutely funny. He provides the comical relief in this mostly heavy and serious show!

All I can say is.... WATCH THE SERIES!!

Ratings : 9/10. Must watch if you are into Sci- Fi. Must watch if you are into facts and figures and imaginations. Must watch if you want thrill and excitement!

Iron Man 2 - A Review

2010-05-16T19:29:00.003+08:00

After much anticipation, I FINALLY GOT TO WATCH THIS MOVIE!!!

The last time I actually watched a movie in the cineplex was... half a year ago... So, this one was really really exciting for me!

And the movie didn't disappoint me!

The movie picked up right after where the first one ended, after Tony Stark made the announcement that he is Iron Man. So, the world applauded his effort while the politicians were after his "privatised world peace" business. Then somewhere in Russia there was a man named Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) creating some high tech weapon equally powerful as Tony Stark's and he seeked revenge from Stark. Then, the rest of the story was pretty cliche; Stark made Pepper CEO of the company, Vanko attacked Stark; Stark went out of control; Military tried to control Stark; Stark's competitor Justin Hammer hired Vanko; Vanko attacked again; Stark gained some sense; Stark saved the world; Stark kissed Pepper; They all lived happily ever after.

But, I have to applaud Scarlett Johansson as the super spy, Natasha Romanoff aka Natalie Rushman here. She is uber HOT and very very efficient in her work, undercover and not undercover. I credit that to the latex suits but really, she has got nice flaming red hair to go with her killer eyes. (Yea, I have a thing for red- haired girls)

Seriously, she is smokin' HOT!

Pepper Potts, unfortunately, simply fades into the background even when she is strutting around giving instructions.

There was also a change of casts where Don Cheadle plays Rhodey. I gotta say I like the previous Rhodey better cause this Rhodey is way too serious and very not fun to watch. Iron Man 1 was two funny dude joking around while one makes hell out of everything while the other secretly keep an eye on the other. Iron Man 2 is like watching Tony Stark do stupid things and Rhodey so fail to discipline him.

Rhodey with his big ass gun

Tony Stark chilling around not fighting evil

However, this movie is still packed with punches and loaded with so much action it blows off the audiences' mind. Except the fact that when we have finally settle into the fight scenes and cheering on for more explosions, Iron Man and Mr Sidekick decided to try to blow each other off and kill the villain. The climax is so anti- climax. And the ending was like the director shouting to the audience "Alright, I've blown enough stuff up, so let's get cheesy." I was sitting on my seat, satisfied with the actions, but still thinking "What? That's the end?"

The soundtracks were nothing short of fantastic, and the cinematography is superb. CGIs are pretty believable too. I mean, we all know that Iron Man suit was CGI-ed onto Robert Downey Jr. But it was believable. And that tentacle lightning whip thing was pretty impressive.

Ratings : 8/10. Not as good as I want it to be but definitely as good as expected. Oh, I forgot to mention that Samuel L. Jackson made a cameo appearance here!

Daybreakers - A Review

2010-05-15T22:08:00.003+08:00

This is one hell of an elaborated movie about vampires!

In the year 2019, the world was plague with disease where everyone on Earth turned to vampirism. The problem is now that the human blood they were farming were dying out and soon they will not have enough food. And vamps without food turns into ugly primitive bat-like creatures which are absolutely disgusting. So Chief Hematologist Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) tried to find a blood substitute. That is until he met a group of human fugitives and some ex-vampire nicknamed Elvis (Willem Dafoe) who showed him how to cure vampires by turning them back to human. Of course some corporate guy who farms human blood can't allow that to happen. Thus, the humans were exterminated but in the end the bad guys died a dreadful death and the good guys got away.

I really like the concept and the details of this movie. The whole daylight driving and night school stuff. Little details that tells the audience that the epidemic was going on for some time and that people were used to all this. I also like the idea that these vampires carry on life as usual, with blood drink stalls, subway, blood research lab and all. The whole concept and the idea of a world occupied by vampires is just so cool! And many other ideas such as human blood farming, ex vampire blood cures and all, surprises me in many ways.

Cinematography was normal but very realistic. The CGIs were pretty realistic too. Its doesn't even look fake. I totally believe the stuff, the freakish eyes, the ugly looking bat- like creatures, the gore... However, the soundtrack was a little mundane and nothing out of ordinary from the plot nor the acting. Even Willem Dafoe and Ethan Hawke seemed mundane.

However, this movie did raise a few questions... Should this phenomena really to happen, will the world choose vampirism? If the world is populated with vampires, is human farming moral since that is like their former selves? When the vampires got starved, who should be making the decisions about burning them? And how do human and vampires co-exist? Very thought provoking indeed.

Ratings : 6.5/10. If you are looking for action, look elsewhere...

Percy Jackson and The Olympians : The Lighting Thief

2010-05-14T22:51:00.003+08:00

Gosh... Why did I spent 2 hours of my life watching this movie?

Actually it's 2 hours well- spent! Cause I get to watch several movies combined into one heavily Americanised movie.

At first, I feel like I was watching some kickass trailer when Poseidon and Zeus announced war on each other. Then I felt like I was watching High School Musical, simply because that dude who played Percy Jackson looked awfully like Zac Efron. He even copied Zac Efron's hair!

Logan Lerman as Percy Jackson

Zac Efron from High School Musical

Then it was like watching Harry Potter where dear Percy was scurried away by Grover and a wheelchair-bounded professor, just like Dumbledore protecting Harry Potter. Then it was Spiderman, where Percy discovered that he was a demi-god. His father was Poseidon. Great power comes with great responsibilities huh? Then Harry Potter again, where dear Percy's mum died for him to protect him from evil. Then it was X-Men, where Percy went to the school for gifted demi-gods like himself. He hooked up with Athena's daughter Annabeth and emulated the Potter trio in America. I love how Alexandra Daddario futilely tried to be Hermione Granger, but girl, Emma Watson is hot, you're not. Then it was American modern version of Lord of The Rings, where the Jackson trio embarked on a quest to defeat Medusa (Uma Thurman), a multi-headed creature whose name escapes me, the Lotus soul stealer and Hades to save his kidnapped mother. Then Percy miraculously found the bolt within the shield and returned the bolt to Zeus, saving Earth from major disasters.

First of all, there all so many plot holes in the story that no star-casts can hold it anymore. Percy immediately hook up with Annabeth in Camp Demi-God after his mother died? There were conveniently THREE pearls in the United States for three person? And these so called demi-gods absolutely failed maths... And why on Earth did Grover "Samwise Gamgee" Percy's sidekick be so absolutely loyal to him and "volunteered" to stay in hell? And seriously, casting director fail too! Medusa is suppose to be the ugliest woman on Earth that anyone who sees her immediately turn into stone. Uma Thurman who is so uber hot can't play Medusa. She is like one hot babe with snake like hair and electrifying beautiful eyes.

However, I did like the comical twist of Steve Coogan as Hades. He was like the stupidest Hades ever!

Cinematograpy and editing wise, I don't really like it. The flow of the scenes were random and not continuous. Soundtrack is very cliche too. Nothing spectacular to applaud about the CGIs either. It is all seen-that-done-that-felt-that. Acting sucks big time. Logan Lerman as Percy Jackson and Alexandra Daddario as Annabeth really did nothing except to look pretty and smile for the camera. Pierce Brosnan should retire from acting after James Bond cause Mama Mia was a pain to watch and Percy Jackson was even more painful to watch.

Ratings : 4/10. Pure entertainment. The only creativity here is how the hell did the scriptwriters put so many famous pieces together and still manage to screw up, even with a star cast?

Kick Ass - A Review

2010-05-13T01:33:00.002+08:00

Where is my head?

Kick Ass just BLEW MY HEAD OFF!!

At first, I thought this was a kiddy show about superheroes, like the motion picture version of The Incredibles; When a friend told me it was brutal and nothing like kiddy show, I thought it was some lame movie picking on nerdy kids; When I actually watched the movie, WHAT THE HELL?

This movie is about Dave (Aaron Johnson) who was a typical geek that dreamed of becoming a superhero. Thus, he bought some suit fron eBay and named himself Kick Ass. Lame name, I think. Cause every time he did some "heroic" act, he ended up getting his ass kicked and Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz) have to save his ass. The real superheroes here are vigilantes Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage) whose superhero name is kinda... er... wrong... and Hit Girl who is SUPER SUPER SUPER COOL! They were after mob boss Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong) and his ambitious son Chris.

The plot was relatively simple. Nothing too out of ordinary. Except the character Hit Girl. I have to applaud Chloe Moretz' superb performance here. She is the only 11-year-old girl who can legally curse like a truck driver and still look darn cool! And all those stunts! Either she is really good at actions or there is a really good small- sized stunt girl. She totally stole the show with her attitude and the action scenes! Hello, that's the little girl from 500 Days of Summer!

Aaron Johnson, sad to say, appears to be bland and boring except the fact that he has nice eyes and nice body. And in my humble opinion, Nicholas Cage still suck.

I also have to applaud the cinematography here. The angles of the scenes were shot in such perfection that everything look real and fantastic. My favourite scene was when Hit Girl bust into the bad guy's building and totally pawn everyone along the corridor! The choreography involving Hit Girl is wonderful. And the script writers are very creative in terms of speech. No, I don't mean the excessive profanity, but the actual jokes in it. Some are kinda dumb but very hilarious nonetheless.

I tell you what is kick ass in this movie - The SOUNDTRACK! I absolutely love the opening theme and the ending theme, Stand Up by The Prodigy. The credits song, Make Me Wanna Die by Pretty Reckless is so so so so addictive! And the rest of the songs, some classic rock pieces, fit right into the scenes! Some songs are pretty ironic, like some kiddy funfair-like tune playing when Hit Girl literally slices someone's leg off.

Ratings : 8/10. Not a movie to watch with little kids. Really excessive profanity and gore. But bloody KICK ASS!

When Five Fell - A Review

2010-05-08T17:25:00.003+08:00

This is a short film shared by Chien Young, and I love it.

This clip took on five different perspectives of a girl's love story. These five perspectives are of five common household items. Five things stood out to me in this short film.

1. The music

It fits into the clip nicely. The mood, the tone, the pitch... It is so relaxing and sentimental. And it brought the audience into the story so nicely. Of course, it played with our emotions... The sorrow, the abandonment, the loss... The sharp pause when the rain stopped - Brilliant! The use of violin and fast piano tempo to bring out the emotions in the climax is perfect! Well done, Jesse Chui!

2. The narration

This clip features five very distinct voices, David Choi, Bobby Choy, AJ Rafael, Paul Dateh, and Chris Dinh. The lines are beautiful... I listened to the lines while watching the clip and felt that the lines fit perfectly into each item. But when I listened to the lines while NOT watching the clip, and suddenly, the sorrow hit me. Those are lines utter by people who were betrayed, abandoned and forgotten. Someone watching a person he loves love someone else...

3. The cinematography

Brilliantly filmed. Brilliantly edited. The angles, the scenes, the settings... Its beautiful. Its breath taking. Its touching. I love the blur before the glasses, the angle between the mouth and the phone, the rain and the use of shadow to show "broken" umbrella and the perfect shadow of a kiss, the little details with the scarf, the broken cup... I love the transitions between acts where sceneries were used. And I absolutely love the whole concept where the audiences were kept blur about the guy but in the end, we see everything clearly. Kudos to Wesley Chan for the brilliant cinematography!

4. The five items

Glasses, phone, umbrella, scarf, cup - Things most girls have... And all these five items represent the five senses. The glasses - The gift of sight; Phone - Speech and communication; Umbrella - Touch "If you hold my hand, I'll be yours forever."; Scarf - Scent "To know her scent, it means that we were close, closer than anyone else."; Cup - Taste. Five items that represented everything in a relationship, five senses that we happily take for granted and neglected daily, five things that are so important to someone else but not us...

5. The concept

This story is about a girl meeting a guy and fell in love. To me, this kind of love is sweet and beautiful. But this clip showed me that this love can be sad and beautiful at the same time. Watching someone you love, not love you back as much as you love her, but love someone else... And the most creative part of the whole concept is that the story is not told through a third person perspective but told through five different views where these items are equally "involved" in the story but somewhat are "outsiders".

We delight in the promise of falling for love.

We crumble in the dread of falling from love.

Everyone falls. Everything falls.

Ratings : 10/10. I love everything about this clip. It is touching and beautiful. Although this story is about five items expressing themselves but anyone who has fallen in or out of love can relate to those words.

Thanks Young. This is beautiful.

Nearer My God To Thee

2010-05-08T00:44:00.002+08:00

Music that moves people to tears...

I stumbled across this beautiful piece and I listened to it for many many times.

This is very respectful of Andre Rieu and the Johann Strauss Choir and Orchestra. Perfect piece that is so full of emotions and feelings, all expressed through the fiddle.

Beautiful isn't it?

Beautiful Mess

2010-05-03T05:28:00.002+08:00

This beautiful number by Jason Mraz is simply... impressive...

I LOVE the lyrics! And the meaning behind those soulful voice and those powerful lyrics!

This song is really about pure, innocent, true love; A love that beats all the odds and all the flaws. It is about seeing someone perfectly imperfect.

I melt listening to this song...

Adagio by The Celtic Tenors

2010-04-30T03:54:00.002+08:00

I am really addicted to this song at the moment.

Have been playing it on loops since... I don't know when... Haha...

This is a very beautiful vocal rendition of this century-old song.

Love how the tenors controlled their vocals and how they project the emotions into the song.

Enjoy~

Gives you goosebumps doesn't it?

Hero

2010-04-29T16:16:00.002+08:00

Suddenly I am very addicted to this duet...

David Cook vs David Archuleta in American Idol Season Finale.

I personally feel that it is a fusion of two distinct styles. Cook is obviously a rock singer while Archuleta is more sentimental. Obviously Cook has the advantage here since his rough rugged voice suits the song very much but Archuleta really shone as a star here, holding the song equally well.

Cool eh?

Year 1 Trimester 3

2010-04-29T01:52:00.007+08:00

I am at the end of Year 1...
I gotta tell you guys this : Time flies when you are having fun!

Anyway, didn't really take much pictures this semester. Mostly because I wasn't that active in events this semester, plus, all academic stuff have robbed me of my time to go shopping, thus no new clothes to camwhore with...

Anyway, I have some pretty "academic" pictures to share with, and of course, some highlights of this semester!

Cell Biology was fun this semester. A lot of cell viewing and not a lot of reports to do...
There are several interesting microscopic slides I want to show... Hehehe...

This is a root tip.
We were suppose to identify the plasmodesmate, which is a transport channel between cells.

This is a spirogyra. I simply admire such organisation and biological design in this small cell.
I particularly like the spiral shape DNA and the plastids.

This... Is what I do in Cell Bio lab...
Playing Substance-Tarik with test tubes, literally...

This... Is what Kumutha do in lab...
She advocates PEACE!!

Serious work time... For Kumutha at least...

This is a protein test.
The purple test tube tested positive for protein by Biuret's reagent;
the blue one is the negative control test.
I like the hue of the colour.

This is a very unorthodox Iodine test for starch.
This is a pulp of mashed potates...
Iodine solution turned into blue black smiley face due to the presence of starch!

This smiley face, however is brown...
This is because this onion pulp has no starch...

I also enjoy Anatomy & Physiology II lab a lot this semester, mainly due to the very nice lecturer Dr Michelle and of course, the lack of reports to rush...

This is a slice of your small intestine, ladies and gentlemen.

This is a microscopic slide of that is inside your balls, gentlemen.
See those small little dots in the centre? Those are your not mature baby sperms...

This is how normal breast tissues look like...

This is how lactating breast tissues look like...
Lactating means mothers that can feed breast milk la...
Notice how much the tissues expanded to accommodate the milk...
Very painful process...
So LOVE THY MOTHER!!

I'd consider the urine test experiment as the highlight of our A&P II lab.
See how we so carefully labelled the cups as to avoid confusion ;)
*I wonder what will happen if one really mix up the urine collection cup and the drinking cup*

Champion in urine production!!
Drink the least amount of water, but produce the most urine!

The four very very honoured urine supplier!
I was the tester that gets to play with syringes and test tube!!

Okay... Put aside academic stuff...
BIOMEDICS BBQ WAS THE BEST!!

Huge thanks to Charine, Sok San, Kar Moon, Si Feng and all the organisers!
YOU GUYS ROCK MAN!!

And Happy Birthday to Yong Shiang again!

Looks yummy right?

Yummy le...
Chicken marinated with curry and... erm... I am not quite sure what the other one is...

I do what I do best... EAT!
With Nicole!

Zach looks like he is advertising for some... Don't know what product! LOL!

And we were requested to do one emo pose...
I wonder what Kumutha is trying to do...

This semester was fun! I hope next semester is going to be equally kick-ass!!

The Big Bang Theory - A Review

2010-04-25T01:28:00.003+08:00

I have officially finished two seasons of The Big Bang Theory! *Yea, I know I am a little slow*

This is a half-hour sitcom which tells the story of two physics geeks living next to a dumb blonde while another two geeks frequently visit the aforementioned two geeks. The main characters are experimental physicist Leonard Hofstader, theoretical physicist Sheldon Cooper, geeks Howard and Rajesh and of course, the dumb blonde, Penny. No offense to blondes, seriously, but this girl in this particular set on this particular show IS a dumb blonde.

In my humble opinion, the most interesting and most attractive part of the show is the geekiness within. Their extensive comics, figurine, video games, costumes, etc obsession; Their scientific jargoons applied in the most common daily routine (Surprisingly I understood them); Their very very big ass theories and hypotheses used as anecdotes where apparently only the four geeks understood (Again, surprisingly, I've read some of them before); Their tortured genius living among "commoners" OCDs and many many more.

My favourite character so far is Sheldon Cooper, played by Jim Parsons, who is seriously geeky, a tortured genius with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and a royal pain in the ass. He has a sky-rocketing IQ of 187, a child prodigy with multiple degrees, a strict adherence to routine and is extremely logical and smart. He also has no sense of humour, very heavy on sarcasm, lack of understanding of irony and is a arrogant fella with completely no sense of humility. Sounds a little like Dr Gregory House. To me, he is THE life of the show. Leonard is too kind and too normal to be genius, even when he is one; Howard is funny but mostly disgusting; Rajesh is... erm... silent... So, the obvious outstanding character is Cooper!

The plot for each episode is quite simple actually. I can even watch it over dinner, ensuring my tummy has half an hour to efficiently digest my meals. But, there are plenty of space for character development and certainly very entertaining. Ok, if you are not a science geek, probably you will think that these four guys in the show are losers because you have nothing to relate to them. However, if you have even a small glimpse of geekiness in you, you may be able to relate to some of the characters and actually understand their jokes.

Ratings : 8/10. Not for people who think they are very cool. Certainly NOT for people who think geeks are losers.

*PS : Who has Season 3? By the way, I have moved on to Fringe for the time being... *

Seven Nation Army

2010-04-18T18:59:00.002+08:00

Splendid choreography in So You Think You Can Dance Season 5 group dance!

Love the crunching and popping moves! And that guy with the liquid popping fingers! Cool man!

*I thought rock songs as geng as Seven Nation Army is hard to dance to... But they proved me wrong with this rock-ass piece!*

When I Am Feeling The Blues

2010-04-16T14:45:00.002+08:00

This is the song that I listen to...

Dear Lord, give me strength to carry on.

My home may be out on the highway,

Lord, I've done so much wrong

But please, give me strength to carry on.

Dear Lord, give me strength to carry on.

My home may be out on the highway,

Lord, I've done so much wrong

But please, give me strength to carry on.

Not a very religion person myself. But it has gotten past more than one storm.

AMEN!

If You Don't Do Anything, No One Will...

2010-04-16T02:14:00.002+08:00

I came across this blog, Planet of The Monyets and got to know about Tiger BlogFest 2010.

So in response to this event, though I don't think I can do much in my little blog here, I still feel obliged to share with you all, this critical issue - The extinction of a species.

Notice that the tiger they found in the woods, weeped tears, from those pair of majestic eyes.

Also note that the commentator said that there aren't any practical measures taken due to miscommunication of the state and federal government. Are the politicians only in seats for money, fame and the supposed fight for human right? Haven't they humiliated themselves enough to actually focus on important issues - Fighting for tigers' survival? It would be such great irony where our national emblem has two majestic tigers, while Malayan Tigers are being ruthlessly poached in our very own territory.

As Emily Dickinson puts it :

A Dying Tiger

A Dying Tiger—moaned for Drink—

I hunted all the Sand—

I caught the Dripping of a Rock

And bore it in my Hand—

His Mighty Balls—in death were thick—

But searching—I could see

A Vision on the Retina

Of Water—and of me—

'Twas not my blame—who sped too slow—

'Twas not his blame—who died

While I was reaching him—

But 'twas—the fact that He was dead—

Tiger is the heritage of the world. A player, a predator and a living organism of our biodiversity. And now it is being hunted for the bare skin on its back, the medicinal values within its very flesh and bones. It is now, on the brink of extinction.

If we, as human, do not act upon this violent against tigers. Then we, should be ashamed that we call ourselves sentient beings.

Cold Water

2010-04-15T23:31:00.002+08:00

Damien Rice. Wonderful singer. Soulful sad voice. Very nice guitar play.

I don't know why I am so into the slow romantic acoustic guitar play. Maybe that's why I can never graduate into electric guitar. Cause I really like that mellow sound of classical guitar pick and that sharp piercing hum of acoustic guitar strum.

Enjoy this one... Love the harmonisation by Lisa and that absolutely smart fuse of tribal chanting.

Lost

2010-04-15T23:02:00.002+08:00

This is a wonderful piece I stumbled across yesterday. It is currently playing on loop on my player.

Love the lyrics. Love the guitar plucking. Love her voice.

Sing along if you want to... Cause the lyrics are simply beautiful

If roses are meant to be red

And violets to be blue

Why isn't my heart meant for you

My hands longing to touch you

But I can barely breathe

Starry eyes that make me melt

Right in front of me

Lost in this world

I even get lost in this song

And when the lights go down

That is where I'll be found

This music's irresistible

Your voice makes my skin crawl

Innocent and pure

I guess you heard it all before

Mister Inaccessible

Will this ever change

One thing that remains the same

You're still a picture in a frame

Lost in this world

I even get lost in this song

And when the lights go down

That is where I'll be found

I get lost in this world

I get lost in your eyes

And when the lights go down

That's where I'll be found

Yeah yeah

I get lost in this world

I get lost in your eyes

And when the lights go down

Am I the only one

Ooh

Yellow

2010-04-10T20:32:00.001+08:00

YY showed me this piece of extraordinary dance performance from So You Think You Can Dance Season 6.

Instantly fell in love with the music... A rendition of Yellow by Vitamin String Quartet.

I am also extremely impressed by the dance moves. It is a combination of hip- hop, B- Boy, breaking, popping and many other distinct styles. Seriously admire their physical strength to hold the dance!

Can't Help Falling In Love With You

2010-04-05T00:18:00.002+08:00

When I listen to the song, and feel its emotions...

I think I grasp the emotion of each beautiful note...

Like a melancholic rendition that sang of unrequited love...

I really want to dedicate this song to you...

Moon - A Review

2010-04-01T20:55:00.002+08:00

This one has been sitting in my hard disk for quite some time...
I expected the movie to be some freaking show like Sunshine starring Chris Evans, Michelle Yeoh or something... It really was like that at the beginning...

But as the story developed, I really begun to like the main character. This movie is really one heavy weight acting movie. Sam Rockwell carried the whole movie, with the aid of the voice of Kevin Spacey as the intelligent robot GERTY.

The movie was about Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) being the only personnel on moon to harvest clean energy. Two weeks before being deported back to Earth, he started having hallucinations and crashed his Rover. Next, Sam woke up in the informatory with not much memory of what happened. Later it was discovered that there were clones of Sam Bell in the harvesting base. The rest of the story was quite interesting, watching two clones interacting.

I love the soundtrack of the movie the most. The music played with our emotions perfectly. The soundtrack really amplify the sadness of the movie. There wasn't much action or thrill, but more of a psychological thing, watching how two person with the exact same personality interact, how they beat the crap out of each other and then helped each other. It was like watching twins but they were the same person.

I really have to credit Sam Rockwell in his superb performance. He doesn't really say much but said everything through his eyes. Those sad lonely eyes defined the older Sam clone, like he really missed home. And when he found out about the truth, those sad eyes showed despair and hopelessness. Meanwhile, Rockwell portrayed the younger Sam clone to be one hot- headed, hot- tempered, fresh person who has yet to endure his three year duty alone on the moon. Really enjoyable to watch!

Ratings : 8/10. Not much of a plot. Almost feels like watching Hurt Locker, like you don't know what to expect next, only this one is much better acting and much better concept.

The Only Exception

2010-04-01T02:30:00.003+08:00

I am absolutely in love with Paramore's new album Brand New Eyes!!!

Current obsession is this song... The Only Exception...

Love the acoustic play!

I am so going to learn this song!

Poooooooooooooooooooooooot

2010-03-28T17:11:00.005+08:00

Click to enlarge...

Wonderful Tonight - A Cover

2010-03-27T13:51:00.002+08:00

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MUM & DAD!!!

This post was supposed to be up on 24 March, but your daughter here was half-dead with assignments...

I know my guitar play and my voice doesn't even do Eric Clapton and the song any justice...
But the lyrics reminds me of my parents...
*I changed some of the lyrics to suit you guys better ya*
Therefore, I want to dedicate this song to your love for each other ;)

From many years of your marriage,
You have taught me care,
Pay attention to the details of life;
You have taught me to smile,
Even when life is upside-down;
You have taught me to trust,
To place my faith in another being;
You have taught me tolerance,
No matter how annoying the little habits are;
You have taught me forgiveness,
No matter how huge the fight was;
You have taught me to look beyond one's face,
And look into the beauty of one's heart;
You have taught me the greatest gift in life,
You have taught me to love.

Mum & Dad, without you guys, I will never be who I am, where I am now.
THANK YOU!!

When It Rains, Friends, Lovers or Nothing

2010-03-26T22:59:00.003+08:00

I am totally in love with these two beautiful songs these days... Like playing them alternately on loop forever...

This one is by John Mayer...

Friends, Lovers or Nothing...

Definitely best performance I've watched so far... Love the sign language! Like so sweet!

Take a listen at John Mayer's Heartbreak Warfare, Who Says, and some older ones like Slow Dancing in the Burning Room... Definitely put me in a mushy lovey dovey mood!

This one is by Paramore

When It Rains... Acoustic version...

I like this version better than the hard rock one... Not like the original is not good.

This one just gives me goosebumps!

I personally find their albums very entertaining, especially when I am studying. Gives me the Omphm! The other songs that I strongly recommend are... wait... their entire albums!

Enjoy!

*Dear readers, yours truly Ryanne is half-dead loaded with assignments and tests... Forgive me for the very slow updates...*

Charlie and Drew

2010-03-21T00:24:00.002+08:00

A little restless today. So I YouTube "So You Think You Can Dance" and found this pair!

Most beautiful lyrical piece I've seen!

And their wonderful flow! Just great!

This one is a slightly comical one. But look at the techniques! Wonderful ballet dancers with great basics!

I WANT TO DANCE LIKE THAT!!

Brief Interviews With Hideous Men

2010-03-20T13:12:00.006+08:00

I downloaded this movie because of its very interesting title. This one has been sitting in my hard disk for quite some time until this evening, I thought that I could deal with some serious movie.

A Brief Interview With Hideous Men, has no specific storyline. It is about Sara (Julianne Nicholson) doing a research on feminist movement by looking at men. And the whole movie is just men talking about their fantasy, their relationship, what they think women want, and what they feel about things. There were a few observations from Sara's own eyes, like her professor, the men in the coffee shop, her own failed relationship.

The guy who shouted "Victory for the forces of Democratic Freedom" when he climaxed in sex.
*I would probably castrate the guy if this happens to me* just joking~

Two educated men in suits that curse like truck drivers
and talked about how they f***ed girls.

This is one intense soul searching movie. It poses a lot of questions. There are no definite answers or a solid confession, or a guideline on how women should want, or act, or perform. These are just questions and thoughts posed by men, and the movie totally leaves the thinking to the audience. In my case, I started thinking what I want or how my actions affect men. The audiences get to form their own opinions, and make their own conclusion.

Two guys discussing about what they think women think or want.

I felt like I've watched a documentary narrated by different people instead of a movie. The interviews and scenes were so nicely edited that whatever one person said can be connected to the next. And there were certain scenes, where one expects the answers, and suddenly, the interview was cut and we were brought to another subject. Only in scenes later were certain questions answered by some other character or by a totally unrelated scene. I feel that it is a very good way to intrigue audiences and keep them on the issues.

My most memorable scene was the one where an old black guy talked about his father's job as a waiter in a glamorous men's toilet. He hated his father for his job, for serving other with fortitude, for cleaning after other white men with no dignity. In the same scene, the father narrated his own life, saying that he was doing it for his children's future. It felt almost ironic to me.

How the father serves while the son (in blue shirt) narrates...
It is a flashback so brilliantly portrayed!

The most memorable scene...
Father and son, standing opposite each other...
Father (in white uniform) saying how much he loved his children that he can take the humiliation of his job;
Son(in blue cardigan, and flashback) saying how he hated his father for having no dignity.
Sad but wonderfully brilliant juxtapositioning!

Another sequence that caught my attention was the one where three different men told their girlfriends in three different situation, perhaps, even at a different time, that they cheated, with the same way of saying it. The script was so nicely written and believable that for a moment, I really start to stereotype guys as shit holes who cheat and tell their girlfriends the same things.

If guys know that it is almost unacceptable for a lady to accept the fact that he is cheating, why cheat in the first place?
And why try to soften the fact that he cheated on her with sweet words in order to save the relationship when he knows that she is going to freak?
Why cheat in the first place if you want to save the relationship?

The whole point of the movie, however, is to show that all guys are the same from a girl's perspective. Good educated guys in suits are assholes and they cheat, while the normal average guys spend most of their time getting intimidated by smarter girls and feel insecure about themselves. I don't know how true these feelings are, or if they represents the insecurities most men felt. But I think that this movie is a great one as it provided a glimpse into how modern feminism and strong iron ladies have affected these men.

Ratings : 8.5/10.

Girls, this is a movie that will raise quite a number of issues for us to ponder on. Guys, please watch this with an open mind. There might be some stereotype or there are some issues that hit you right in your ego, but take a moment to acknowledge your own fear and to acknowledge that there are SOME men on there feeling this way.

MGS Girl Guides Camp 2010

2010-03-18T01:59:00.006+08:00

Finally, I hijacked some pictures from Facebook and some of my own improved photoshop-ed pictures.

Tadaa~

This is MGS 4th Girl Guides Annual Camp 2010!

*Let me SS a bit... I started the first Guides camp in 22 years of MGS history. Damn bangga it is held annually now!*

Let the picture do the talking...

Flag ceremony test that almost drove Mei Ping insane!
By the way, I totally do not agree with lowering the passing standard to accomodate higher passing rate of people who almost don't know how to raise a flag.
Imagine the embarrassment if we actually send you to international events.

Good old days of making gadgets and tripods...
I miss those days man!

They climbed up Bukit Bangkong...
Too bad I didn't join due to my own insanely busy uni schedule

Reaching the top!
Left : Ms Sawaran, Ms Komathy, and the bunch of insane senior Guides.

Organising committee and campers!
Great job to these Guides!
Proud to say that they did a better job than I did!

Yi Ying and her partner in crime!

Trying hard to start the fire...
I only joined the campfire on Saturday night.

The fire was so small at the beginning.
*OMG.. Guides who don't know how to start campfire. Shake head*

Until grow a little bigger

Until so BIG... Almost charred the porch roof!
*Raining mar... So have to start the fire in the porch lo*

The no more pictures for campfire night...
Cause I was too busy eating...
Whoever's idea it is to marinate the chicken with curry powder and kicap with no honey for BBQ, eh, actually your recipe not bad ar!

I hope to join you all next year, as a full-fledge guider myself!
Thanks for the wonderful time girls!

Salam Kepanduan ;)

Time To Update

2010-03-16T00:23:00.003+08:00

I took a look at my last post and realised, it has been more than one week since I last updated my blog!

Compared to my insane daily updates, this is like... HoR is DEAD!!

This is because I have so many midterms and quizzes and assignments, and presentations to prepare for. I am literally carrying a mountain-load of work!

But I did went to my secondary school's campfire night. It was a three-day camp but due to busy schedules and assignment meets, I only showed up for the campfire. It was the BEST four hours in like, three weeks! I met my Guiders, Ms Sawaran and Ms Stanee, and of course my beloved juniors Mei Ping and Yi Ying and Kai Qi and many many more of them! It was almost amusing that these new young guides don't know how to start a campfire! It is true that every empire has a rise, a climax and a fall. Really glad that I lived in MGS Guides' rise and climax. At least we produced several good quality guides who went as far as international events in my years!

Sorry people, the picture quality was bad because it was too dark... So no pictures T_T

After next week, I should be able to take a very very short gasp of air from all these work. I really wanna go shopping, watch a good movie in the cinema (the last time I went to a cinema for a movie was three months ago, thanks to someone who reminded me last night *Bluek*), treat my brother to a Secret Recipe cake (since he has been talking about it forever), go to a live performance in Station A (any other recommendations on live cafe music in Ipoh?), and SLEEP!!!

For the time being, I shall take a break from my studies and read some other casual stuff. I am currently reading Freedom Writers' Diary, a collection of diaries from students in Long Beach about discrimination and world peace. Suddenly feel like wanting to reread The Diary of Anne Frank. The last time I read the book was when I was in Form 2 or something. Still too young to understand the issues in it. I think now I am much more mature in thinking to really understand and appreciate the book. Hopefully the library has it! ;)

As for now, I'll better go back to my mundane chores...

Till the next update (I hope soon... )

You Make Me Weak At The Knees

2010-03-06T01:33:00.003+08:00

I was listening to the What Goes Up OST and found this jewel!

This is an instrumental piece by Electralane. Absolutely adore the catchy beat and the brilliant piano play. It is really simple basic melody but the mood it sets, and the "cheekiness" in it. AWESOME!!

Salt

2010-03-04T17:59:00.003+08:00

I am so watching this

*Fingers cross that Hollywood didn't blow this one out of proportion with cheating trailers!*

Release date in US is 23 July 2010.

Who play a spy better than Angelina Jolie? *Besides Jennifer Garner that is*

Nine - A Review

2010-02-28T03:15:00.003+08:00

I have wanted to watch this movie ever since I watched the trailer.
Again, this is another living proof of how Hollywood has this ability to blow things out of proportion with its trailers.

From the director of Chicago, the heavy- weights with the likes of Oscar winner Marion Cotillard and Danile Day-Lewis, the sexy Penelope Cruz, the fantastic singer Nicole Kidman from Moulin Rouge, Hollywood leading lady Kate Hudson, M from 007 Dame Judi Dench and legend Sophia Loren, one expects a great deal of performance from Nine.

So what happened? It sucked.
This is what happen when you crammed too many big stars into 2 hours with barely enough time for any character to develop properly. All we get to see is how tormented Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) was, trying to come up with a script for a movie. And being the perverted man he was, he turned to ladies for inspiration. The ladies were of course the critical acclaimed row of fantastic actresses in their very own right. The wife Luisa (Marion Cotillard), the mistress Carla (Penelope Cruz), the ex flame Claudia (Nicole Kidman), the fantasy Stephanie (Kate Hudson), the childhood idol Sereghina (Fergie), the mother (Sophia Loren) and the tailor Lilli (Dame Judi Dench).

All these fantastic actresses only got one song, at most, two songs, to sing in the two hour plus movie. Daniel Day-Lewis, whom in my humble opinion, cannot sing, got to sing quite a number of songs. And being a musical, I perfectly understood when actors suddenly burst into songs. But the way the songs were presented in this movie was really weird. I'd rather the songs be incorporated into the story where the dances are actually relevant. This movie's sole reason for a dance to occur is in Guido's old twisted desperate mind. The dances and the songs were his imagination, which make no sense.

If Nine won the Oscar for costume design, I am so going to boo the Academy committee. The costumes weren't even fantastic. It was just fancy. Nothing that beats the like of Moulin Rouge or Chicago. And none of the songs were memorable, except one by Fergie. But her part was so small that Sereghina was barely memorable.

But I do have to credit Marion Cotillard for portraying the sadness of an abandoned wife so perfectly.

And Judi Dench who didn't even sing but was so fantastically entertaining by only saying the words of a song. And Penelope Cruz's dance at the beginning of the movie was so sexy and alluring even a straight gal like myself think that she is hot!

Nicole Kidman and Kate Hudson however, barely leave any impression.

Ratings : 6/10. Not bad compared to other films, but epic failure when coming from a cast and crew so great. Great acting and execution fails in the hand of poor directing and screenwriting.