aka SATC - S3x and the City II. The movie doesn't deserve the bad reviews though. A decent one I should say, although it lack certain umph as it was on the first movie.
I was lucky enough to be invited for the special screening at GSC Garden, Midvalley.
Thanks Elin!
The invitation said 7pm, thanks god we were late! The movie really started at 9!
Started late because of the pre movie event (launching the new cabriolet)... Clearly the MC never watched the movie nor the series.. She kept on yapping on the wrong info, too embarrassing to even hear them..
Not to mention the best dress winners! The white and the cleopatra-ish stand out the most because of WTF factor!
ENjoyed the movie so much although I missed at least three good scenes (the one with Miley Cyrus, the scene where the horse kissed Aidan, and the scene where Sam making love at the beach).. I had to many sodas... I had to go to the restroom all the time.
Oh well, can always rewatch them again in 2 weeks time.
Cant wait for the next installment - Sex and the City 3: The Menopause Kicks In
Old entry.. thanks to my lazybumhectic life. This entry was on my draft for months (since July 3rd). =============================== Attended Young Comedian of Malaysia stand-up performance. It was held on every first Thursday of the month, and the venue is all over the town (Zouk Underground, Shalome Bangsar, urbanattic Chulan Square, etc)
The cover charge was RM20, but being a cheapo's best buddy (Sri), he sent me a link for 50% voucher... So voila.. Preethy, her hubby and I had a great time that night laughing our head off, well mostly.
The verdict?
4 superb 1 mediocre 2 bleargh
but seriously now, I dont remember whose who.. so Im trying my best to do the review based on my archaic memory.
The superb one were: (1) Jien, the chinese guy with a buckteeth, (2) Sri, the mek su, seriously! Im not being bias because he's on my blogroll! (3) Papi zak, with his american accent! (4) The other indian guy.
The so-so: (1) A chinese guy.. Or maybe its just me who felt that way.. Because of all his jokes, I'd read them somewhere on the net before. So nothing new lah!
The "OMIGOD-they're so bad, even Nazri Aziz made better jokes then they could!": (1) Faisal. Enough with the sex jokes already! I were about this close to shout "Hey you, you are soooo Malay, even your jokes are mediocre..." luckily Preethy refrained me from doing so.. hi hi (2) The other indian guy. Just when we thought the Malay guys was bad, this guy was the worst. No sex jokes though.. Just plain lame.
I swear I had something funny to talk about this pic, but now Ive forgotten about it already.. darn! I shouldnt procrastinate!
While we were caught in the massive jam yesterday, I went rummaging Mrs. McGee CDs collection:
Me: Eh, CD apa ni? McGee: PGL the Musical. Me: Ohh, the one that you went for 3 times this season. McGee: YES! Marvelous.
Put the CD into the player.. Malay musical background... Then the lead singer sang: Me: It that her voice? McGee: Yup. Me: You paid RM253 per show for THAT? McGee: Hey, she's a good actress. Me: Dude, it's MUSICAL... You CANT have such voice and do MUSICAL. McGee: We should be proud of our local production. Me: And she wants to do broadway? McGee: What do you know, you never been to malay theatre before. Me: Xcuse me, ive been to plenty. The recents ware P Ramlee and Wangi Jadi Saksi. Macam langit dengan bumi kalau nak compare. McGee: Aku suka okay! Shut up and listen. Me: .....
Mengelamun sebentar. Menatap jauh di luar jendela ke arah Kg Baru/Chow Kit. Renyai di luar. Muzik yg memeritkan telinga di dalam. Terasa seperti berada di set pengambaran Slumdog Millionaire.
Will only make you pening (got a headache). Just like War of the World, no beginning and no ending.
It so boring, I did my Sudoku instead... in dark!
I read somewhere that obnoxious Shy? amalan was cameo-ing as Joey, the guy who the Marky Mark's wife cheated on, but didnt see him. Seriously? you cheated on Marky mark over Shyamalan? Is akin of cheatingon Brad (Pitt) over Stephen Hawking okay!
Him
vs. Him? like no brainer okay(no pun)...
Either I was asleep, busy with sudoku or was searching high and low for my RM1.10 Lego Sultana. I bought the sultana to eat inside, but somehow it vanished, after the arab guy, who was fashionably late, sat next to me.. suspicious...
the movie was so bad, i thought I was watching cerekarama by Julie Dahlan. Pathetic... not even a star given.
People who thought otherwise would also believe Allahyarhamah Mendiang Anita Mui could sing. And they also believe Sheena Tay would marry Prince William!
Having had a healthy dose of locally produced theater, I had some reservation when I had to cough some handsome amount for a seat at Istana Budaya.
There were four of us; Zeyn, Nurul, Nurul's significant other and myself. At 8.30pm we met and after a quick hi, we were separated because of the seating arrangement. Initially the plan was for the three of us. Naturally, I bought three; Online. Words of advise, never buy the tic online, because you cant choose the seat, and you could only collect your tickets on the day of performance, and have to show your IC and credit card for confirmation.
Cut the long story short, I bought another one, over the counter at the Tower Records. The email confirmation I got from the online transaction showed seat 38, 39 and 40. Therefore I bought the seat right behind their seats.
When I collected the tickets, much to my horror, not only the seat was in a different row, it's also on the different wings!
--pic shamelessly cilok-ed from yaya's facebook
Acting civil (sorry, no drama, hi hi), we went to our seats and watched the play. But, as expected with Malay's audience, they're tend to be plenty who were fashionably late and the play were only began at 8.50pm.
--pic shamelessly cilok-ed from yaya's facebook
The play was divided into two part, with 20minutes intermission in between. Act 1 with 9 scenes mainly revolved around the life and times of P. Ramlee before he started directing. There's two major women in his life by then. Namely the legendary Azizah (played by Emelda Rosmila? who?) and cunning Junaidah (played by Atilia).
For this time around, P Ramlee was being portrayed by a newbie, Musly Ramlee. For a moment there, (well, actually till the end of the play), I made to believe that was a real P. Ramlee up there being himself. The look, the voice, unmistakably P. Ramlee's, you thought your mind was playing trick.
--pic shamelessly cilok-ed from jeffooi's blog
Part two was mainly concentrated on his achievement till his demise. With Norizan (Melissa Saila) and Saloma (Liza Hanim) played a major roles of the latest two significant women in P. Ramlee's life.
All four played their roles very well, though there's some room for improvement on Melissa's voice (when singing at the very low notes).
The music arrangements were a mixture of P. Ramlee's and Dick Lee's. The arrangement works well and you got the broadway-ish feel of the play though there was eerily some similarity on the song 'Apakah Ada cinta' (song 13, scene 8) with mulan's 'Reflection'.
-- pic shamelessly cilok-ed from jeffooi's blog
The fluidity from one act to another was an envy even for a world class performance like 'The Sound of Music'. I was so engrossed with the whole scene, I almost put up my hand when P. Ramlee (or was it sukaidi) asked 'sapa sini orang utara?' (who hailed from the norhtern states?).
And the props was so realistic, esp the train, which literally took me away on the time when I was small, riding a brown with tiger emblem train with my grandma, enjoying danish biscuits and watching the kampung scenery outside.
The only reservation I had was on the actresses bodies. They are not as curvaceous as the one you saw on the old movie. To illustrate, imagine sarimah (in madu tiga) or murni sarawak (in nasib si labu labi) in a oh-how-could-they-breathe-in-that tight kebaya. Got it? Now, imagine, Mak Dara (in Ibu Mertuaku) or Siti Tanjung Perak (in Bujang Lapok) or even Ernie (the maid in Sgt Hassan)... yeah.. these actresses are at par with these makcik2.
Nonetheless, it's worth every penny to watch such world-class performance. A standing ovation for that!
Haven't seen a movie for quite a while. The last movie I saw was the Ironman, and the Transformer before that. So yeah, it was quite a while :p
The only bummer on the Ironman movie was that the movie is kinda borderline chick flick because it went deep into the emotional and communication department. For an action movie, there's not that many action happening; there's more heart pumping actions in the devil wears prada than this one.
What i love most about the movie/ironman is that it's believable. That is he dont have supernatural power. Unlike the mutant, alien craps, which are so synonymous with superheros comic/movie.
Moreover, unlike the spidy, batoman, suparman, ultraman; ironman doesnt treat people's surrounding him with 0 deductive reasoning skills.
Like come on, you dont have to be a rocket science to connect the dot trying to figure out who the heck superman was. To add the salt, superman only 'cover' was a glasses!
Verdict: 4 stars.
Anyway, last Thursday, I decided to watch a movie and there were three choices. The Indiana Jones, The Narnia, and the Superheroes Movies.
Since I promised Izan that I will watch superheros with her, there's only 2 choices left. It's not that difficult since I hate Narnia (esp the little sister, annoying the crap out of me). I wont pay RM11 just to get annoyed thank you very much.
Little did I know, this IJ was as equally annoying too. I should have guessed it because Shia is there. Not to mention an inferior plot (alien invasion?).. and to think that 80 yrs old granpa could take so much hit on his face.. it's just kind of lost me there.
Half way the movie, i just turn on my iPod and enjoy the music instead.
My verdict: 1/2 a star, and im being generous here.
Footnote: Something odd was happening yesterday. For the first time since Malaya got it's independent from the British, Streamyx did work on weekend. 655kbps for downloading and 126kbps for uploading.
Of Movies ===================== Watched 4 movies over the week (2 dvds and 2 cinema). Runaway Jury, Pan's Labyrinth, The Transformers and Snow Cake.
Runaway Jury was an old movie (adaptation from the John Grisham's novel)about the tobacco industry (think Erin Brokovich). Pretty good movie.
As for the Pan's Labyrinth, I was expecting a sort of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' kind of movie (children movie). So, even though I had the dvd for eons, I put it aside to be watched when I fancied a light movie. Much to my horror the movie was everything I thought it wasn't. The protagonist was dead (together with kazillion more people-gory manners style), the storyline was heavy, and the monsters were way too scary for a kid's movie.
For what it worth, the story was darn good. The cinematography, music, acting and everything were perfects. Highly recommended....
But I have to add these: I could have sworn I saw Josh Duhamel grins on one of the serious-people-just-got-blown-away scene. Shia LaBeouf bored me to death with his retarded antique.
Of all those movie I watched, I had to pick Kek Salji as my personal favorite. I watched it by accident. The line for the regular movies was insanely long at the GSC Midvalley. So, there's only international screen movies available (and you dont have to queue).
This indy-low-budget-high-quality movie was starred by Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman and Carrie Ann Moss, plus others.
I didnt recognised Alan Rickman from the movie Harry Porter because in this movie, he was aged and had got a short hair.
Why is it called Snow Cake? Well, Sigourney was an autistic mother who loves to eat snow. I tried eating snow once (kononya nak buat macam ais kepal, taruk sirap segala), and it made me sick, so I wondered how she managed to gulp a bowlful of those. So in the end of the movie, that guy mould a cake from the snow and gave it to her.
Of Computers ===================== Hello Sir! What happened? Its hard to believe you have that many fans that resulted in bandwith choked. :p
New tablet pc? No lah, I just rotate my screen.
Of Rempits ===================== Comparison of rempits all over the world.
Taiwanese Rempits. Living in the edge where helmets are optional.
Italian Rempits. By the book.
The Japs. Hardcore Tokyo Drift.
Singaporean Rempits. Bicycle also can.
Local Rempits, the Pemuda UMNO one.
Local Rempits, versi puteri Umno.
Well, at least we're better of than these Filipinos rempits.
If I dont already bore u to death with previous posting on movies previews, here's more:
KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE ====================== The cat is cute, but has grown up male voice (think Garfield). Turn off!
Plot: When an apprentice witch turns thirteen, she must leave her home in order to hone her craft. Although Kiki's sole talent is broom-flying, she sets out for adventure with her cat Jiji. They settle in a charming seaside town, where Kiki establishes her own delivery service. As Kiki learns to balance independence with responsibility, her kind heart wins her many new friends in this coming-of-age tale.
Comment: Unless u enjoy watching 'CardCaptor Sakura', this movie is too Kodomo(children movie genre) for my liking. I changed to antoher movie halfway thru.
Rating: 2 / 5
PORCO ROSSO ====================== If you aspire to become female euronautical engineer, this is a good movie for you.
Gina, Porco's love interest. It's complicated.
Finally humanity prevails.
Plot: The setting is 1920's Italy, just after World War I, and the skies are ruled by daring sea-plane pilots of all sorts -- soldiers, bounty hunters, and pirates, all who after a hard day's work convene at Gina's island café to kick back, relax, and hear the lovely Gina sing. An unwritten truce between all men, no matter what vocation, is always in effect at Gina's.
The bravest pilot known at Gina's cafe, however, isn't even really a man at all. He's Porco Rosso, a once-human pilot with the heart of a lion, the cunning of a wolf, and the head of a pig. Porco is envied and hated by many, partially for his unsurpassed skill in flying, and partially for his friendship with Gina, and partially for his apparent apathy towards "humans' politics" even as the fascists are establishing their power. Such popularity could prove dangerous as Porco suddenly finds himself beset by pirates seeking revenge, fascists seeking his blood, and a jealous suitor seeking what he loves most in life.
Comment: If you don't mind not getting the standard serving of mind and eye-candy most anime dutifully dole out, and wish for something to chew on instead, Porco Rosso might pleasantly surprise you.
This movie is an answer for the old age dilemma wether 'your best friend's girl is off limit'. The answer was an obvious NO, well.... unless, he already passed away for at least a year.
The artwork and animation are well above par and a pleasure to watch, with the same amount of detail that I've all come to expect from the Ghibli studio.
Rating: 4 / 5
PRINCESS MONONOKE ====================== The princess on her way to kick Lady Eboshi's ass.
The gushingly cute tree spirits 'Kodama' (Penunggu Hutan).
Somehow, all Miyazaki's male protagonist reminded me of CY (look the same).
Plot: It is Muromachi period Japan (the 15th century), and the relationship between man and nature is in a constant state of change. Even the old gods of the forest are in danger, as humans start taking control of the land from them.
On one side is proud Lady Eboshi and her iron-making settlement of Tatara Ba, where outcast men and women make new lives for themselves forging tools and weapons of iron ... which requires vast quantities of wood to produce.
Opposing them are the animal gods, among them the Wolf God Moro, her two sons, and her adopted human daughter San, the Princess Mononoke, who has renounced her humanity to fight for the forest.
Both sides have honorable motives ... and into this fray comes Ashitaka, an Emishi ("barbarian") from the North, who seeks respite from a curse inflicted by a corrupted Boar God who attacked his village. His efforts to bring peace between the gods and humans is countered by the greed of Imperial agents and samurai, and the pride of the opposing parties themselves. But at what price does pride come, when the very land is at stake?
Comment: This movie taught us that holding grudges yield futility. Thou also should honor and respect mother nature.
In Japan's culture, the spirits are friendlier looking, good nature creatures. Whereas our spirits were always mean looking, bad intention, and harm inducing one.
As an animation, it's technically astounding, with lush forests and fire-lit villages done with the same amount of remarkable detail, and the CG sequences are simply sparkling.
Rating:5 / 5
Das Trailer
Wait.... These were all the movies I watched on Saturday. What movies did I watch on Sunday? Heh Heh, part III to come. Here's the list:
Saturday. Lazing around day. Didnt plan a thing, therefore, decided to watch my Ghibli's + other anime collections. Started with Stormy Nights at 9 am and before I knew it, it was already dark when Howl's Moving Castle ended.
Talk about couch(in my case bed) potato. I survived on nachos and water during the whole 'ordeal'.... and yeah I did brush my teeth. (Hey, i didnt exert enough sweat to warrant a shower).
Anyway, just in case you were wondering **, here's the review for those movies.
STORMY NIGHTS ============================ Tagline : Born Enemies... Sworn friends.
Gayest movie ever! The voice (the lamb has effeminate giggles), the story line, the characters and the scripts.
Tell tale sign of the gay movie. The animal wear scarves!.. (pink one).
Plot: Gayness aside, this movie is about friendship and trust.
Gav and Mei (a MALE kid named pretty-'MEI' in kanji), a wolf and a kid, meet by chance, developing a friendship that transcends the natural enmity between predator and prey. Gav is tormented by his literally "wolfish" instincts and Mei only compounds his troubles.
Mei's flock and Gav's pack hover in the background poised to tear the two apart. The unique appeal of this story lies in its radical purity, which reveals the thin line separating trust from strife, in all relationships, whether they are familial, friendly, romantic, social or international. Yet it also dares to imagine a means of reaching beyond the inherent contradictions and complexities to reach true understanding.
Gav was lurking for a quickie with Mei.
Comment: The visual is stunning where the scenes are rendered in the most creative ways making it an unusually warm and rich atmosphere.
Stormy Night is an emotionally powerful adventure animation, inspired by a positive, gentle worldview. The film has a universal appeal for audiences of all ages.
Rating: 4 / 5
CASTLE IN THE SKY ============================
The lost city of Laputa (a very nasty meaning in Spanish).
The protagonist's assistant (Pazu).
Plot: A girl named Sheeta falls out of the sky and lands in Pazu's arms. Soon after a gang of air pirates led by Dola, as well as a mysterious man named Muska, are on their tails. The chase leads them to a floating castle that once belonged to an ancient race of people.
Comment: A story that revolves around searching for an Utopia. Being in either good/evil side is not as certain as the black or white. Its a grey matter.. In the end, the utopia was not the physical aspect of it, but the concept itself ... an idea.
The music scores, animation and storyline are superb.
Rating: 4 / 5
GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES ============================ Seita and Setsuko were running for cover during the blitz.
Plot: In the aftermath of World War II bombing, two orphaned children struggle to survive in the Japanese countryside. To Seita and his four-year old sister, the helplessness and indifference of their countrymen is even more painful than the enemy raids. Through desperation, hunger and grief, these childrens’ lives are as heartbreakingly fragile as their spirit and love is inspiring.
Comment: An emotionally powerful film that meditates on the devastating consequences of war. The ending is a tear-jerking-heart-breaking one, as both children were perished under famine.
After watching it, I was mentally exhausted. It is surely an extremely depressing movie. If you think its silly to cry (howl in my case) over an anime, i recommend this film for you to decide.
Simply a masterpiece by my standard. Rating: 5 / 5
Grave of the Fireflies Trailer
SPIRITED AWAY ============================
Plot: On their way to their new home, a young girl, Chihiro, and her parents stumble into what appears to be an abandoned theme park. But all is not as it seems, as the theme park is a resort for the gods, and not a place where humans are welcome. Chihiro must fend for herself and rescue her parents, as they have been turned to pigs as punishment for eating the food meant for the gods.
More at Wikipedia: Sprited Away Comment: The cutest spirits ever! There's a spirits look like big yellow-chicks, white radishes, and frogs.
An excellent way to learn Japanese cultures and history (there're some similarities with ours).
I just fell in love with the music arrangments.
Rating: 5 / 5
Spirited away trailer
HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE ============================ Upon discovering the curse!
Plot: A plain young hatter named Sophie has her life changed when an evil witch transforms her into an old woman. Unable to face her family in such a condition, Sophie runs away in search of a way to become young again. Along the way, Sophie helps a turnip headed scarecrow, who repays her by leading her to the moving castle owned by the dreaded wizard Howl. There she befriends Howl's apprentice Markl, Howl's fire demon Calcifer, and eventually, Howl himself. Sophie then becomes the castle's cleaning lady in an effort to not only find the solution to her problem but to save Howl from his own terrible secrets as well.
More at Wikipedia: Howl's Castle The moving 'castle'.
Comment: A movie about a girl who really thought she's a plain jane and not worth a cent. During the journey to undo the spell, she discovers her inner strenght and beauty is not everything.
In the end love conquers all.
Sophie after being transformed into her 'old' self. Rating: 4 / 5
