James McAvoy

Yes, an entire entry on James McAvoy, albeit, a short one.

Damn boy... those blue eyes can't be natural...

I adored him in Narnia, though I didn't recognize him at first.
I ached for him in Becoming Jane, when she left him in that inn.
I watched Wanted & Atonement because he was in it.
When the trailer for X-Men:First Class came around, I was gleefully applauding the casting choice for Prof X.

Yes yes - girlfriends who are reading this, you know full well how unabashed my obsession with James darkhairblueeyesenglishaccentdelicatefeaturesjustwalkedoutofavictoriannovel McAvoy is, so you shouldn't be surprised that I'm going on and on about him now.

Those luscious lips of his are just MADE for Austin & Shakespeare. I make no pretensions. This is not head-over-heels-love... this is legs-on-shoulders-lust. (Best phrase I heard today, btw...)

Oh and yes, by the way... X-Men First Class was worth the price of the ticket. I don't think it's worth the 3D price though.

Review: Wit

Here heavens appoint
My pilgrimages last mile; and my race
Idly, yet quickly runne, hath this last pace,
My spans last inch, my minutes latest point,
And gluttonous death, will instantly unjoynt
My body, and soule
Holy Sonnet VI: This Is My Play's Last Scene, Here Heavens Appoint by John Donne

Wit (2001), movie for TV directed by Mike Nichols.
Teleplay by Nichols and Emma Thompson, based on a Pulitzer Prize (1998) winning play by Margaret Edson.

Holy crap the writing was good. Lingered long enough to read the credits. Co-written by Emma Thompson - am not surprised. She is, by far, one of my favourites. The movie starts off with her playing Vivian Bearing, cancer patient. Through the movie, we catch glimpses of Prof Bearing, literary chair at some unnamed university. Strong and intelligent, dying of advanced ovarian cancer, on some drug trial.

The script has you laughing at her (for want of a better word) wit. She takes on the whole hospitalisation process with dry humour, sarcasm and (to my utter delight) speaks to the audience directly, looking straight into the camera, explaining jargon, procedures, feelings & why nurse Susie offers her a Popsicle. It's like the movie is a personal conversation.

I am not detracting from the acting - that was really good as well. She is not one to shy from the ugliness of the process of dying. I found myself completely swept up in the power of her utter helplessness (oxymoron intended), the baldness of her head, the pale, cracked lips trembling as she is bent in half with pain... even the stereotypical regret of how clinical she ran her life and her classroom, versus how she nearly begs for humanity from her doctors, and shamelessly fakes a blocked tube to get the same from Susie.

I highly recommend this movie. The prose is as good as the poetry, the story well told. The actors are efficient and accomplished. You'll recognise a few familiar faces I'm sure. It is a simple and effectively-told story with a sad ending, but you expect it. It makes no pretensions.

I adore!

Movie Review: Sucker Punch

I love love love!

From the Director of "The 300". Nuff said.

Glorious lighting, CGI, background colour, cinematography, it's an action-packed fantasy flick. It looked like the movie version of a manga or video game. From dragons to steam-powered Nazi soldiers... machine guns, samurai swords, sailor cosplay, leather, helicopters, trains, bombs... the eye is never still. If that's your cup of tea, GO WATCH IT! I had a GREAT time!

Not to be watched from your tiny TV or computer - to fully appreciate the effects, pay the price of the ticket. Seriously.

Story wise, it's nothing too deep nor meaningful. The storyline (though somewhat stereotypical & hence predictable) is enough to keep the action going. It's just a filler between CGI segments, really, so expect that.

Movie Review: Battle: Los Angeles

I feel like I've seen this movie before. Several times.
It's Independence Day meets War of the Worlds meets Black Hawk Down meets AvP.

Many things were broken in the making of this movie.
It's a flick you want to see in a movie theatre - to fully enjoy the special effects.
The aliens were ... not the point of the movie.
It's about how an aging Marine rediscovers his usefulness in the face of alien-induced adversity.

(cue violins)
"My men who died are engraved in my mind - I miss them everyday... "
"They're your men - not mine, (but I'll just quietly play hero cos I've been in the service longer than you've been alive)..."
"I need you to be brave. I need you to be a little marine for me, because Marines don't quit..."
And many such meaningful lines are some of the things you should expect of the dialog.

Go watch it in the cinema, it's a blast.
Most times, quite literally!

Movies I saw in 2010

A Nightmare on Elm Street
Alice in Wonderland
Avatar (3D)
Book of Eli
Brothers
Clash of the Titans (3D)
Couple's Retreat
Date Night
Daybreakers
Despicable Me (3D)
Did You Hear About The Morgans?
Fame (2009)
Greenzone
Inception
Ip Man 2
Iron Man 2
Karate Kid
Killers
Knight and Day
Legion
Little Ashes
Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Salt
Sex and the City 2
Shrek: Forever After
Shutter Island
Solomon Kane (did not finish)
The A-Team
The Blind Side
The Bounty Hunter
The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader
The Collector (did not finish)
The Contract
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
The Losers
The Other Guys
The social network
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
The Spy Next Door
The Tooth Fairy
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Toy Story 3
Valentine's Day

Movies movies movies! 2011

On my "Gotta watch" list for 2011:

Beastly
Bourne 4
Captain America
Cars 2
Fast & Furious 5
G.I.Joe 2
Ghost in the Shell (LIVE ACTION)
Ghostbusters 3 (BELIEVE IT BITCHES)
Green Lantern
District 10
Hairspray 2
Hitman 2
I am No. 4
I,Frankenstein
Iron Man 3
Jumper 2
Kick Ass 2
Limitless
Margin Call
McGyver (Yes, I said McGyver)
National Treasure 3
Pirates 4
Priest
Rise of the Apes
Sherlock Holmes 2
Sin City 2
The Lady
The Mechanic
Thor
Transformers 3
Twilight 4
Wolverine 2
X-Men 1st Class


The Jury is (still) out
Battle Los Angeles
ContaigonHangover 2
Neuromancer
Prometheus
Real Steel
Rise of the Apes
Super 8
The Change-up (Ryan Reynolds, baby)
The Hobbit
Unbound Captives
Upside Down
Water for Elephants
28 Months Later

Things that terrify me:
Arthur with Russell Brand
Cowboy bebop with Keanu Reaves
Cowboys and Aliens with Daniel Craig
Fathom with Megan Fox
Ghost Rider 2 with Nick Cage
Mars needs Moms with Seth Green
Max Steel with Taylor Laudner
Piranha 3DD
Rambo 5 with Sly Stallone 
So Undercover with Miley Cyrus
Shark Night 3 with Katharine McPhee
Terminator 5 with Christian Bale
The Smurfs
The Green Hornet with Seth Green (I see a pattern forming)
Total Recall with Colin Farrel

Where to find the time???

Review: Avatar (3D)

Oh. My. God.
12 years in the making, and (depending on which reports you read) USD230mil - 500mil later, I think it's worth every penny and every day. The amount of technology Cameron co-designed for the film - the 3D cameras, the motion-capture tools, the virtual production pipeline... this movie has done a helluva lot to contribute to the development of 3D *anything*.

The effects are AMAZING, and more than compensate for the ecological messages and cheesy script. Some of the animals on Pandora came straight out from some acid dream. Really imaginative!

I have no words to describe how much I loved the movie, especially in 3D. Go watch it! Multiple times even.

Review: The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

Ummmmm.... I didn't get it.
It was visually pleasing, but yeah. I didn't get it.

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Movie Freak 2009

Movies I watched in 2009.

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Review: The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Lord have mercy.. this series made me feel like a pedophile.
Granted, it's the characters that I'm enamoured with, and Edward is technically 109 years old... but Still!

Jacob's 6-pack alone is worth the price of the ticket.
Someone please tell me he's legal.
Also, there are 4 or 5 others like him.
Yummy.
I certainly want to see more of Sam!

Whoever did Edward's lipstick, take away her makeup brushes. She needs to leave the industry.
However, Edward half naked, is Edward half naked.
THANK YOU.
REALLY.

Bella is irritating, but I've said before that the screen Bella isn't half as endearing as the book Bella, and the book Bella is a whiny brat to begin with.
No, I did NOT like book 2, so I didn't expect to like movie 2.

I wouldn't pay to watch it again, but am a big enough fan of the series to buy the DVD.
And Jacob's abs help. *grin*

Review: 2012

Special effects were Amazing!
The story is predictable and rehashed, but then again, I really was in it only for the effects.

Woody Harrelson did crazy REALLY well!
I recognized Amanda Peet from Studio 60 (I still mourn that loss), but she did nothing special.

Go see it.
If what I heard is true: that Roland Emmerich is leaving the genre, then Go See It.
The effects are WELL worth the price of the ticket.

Review: This is It

I really enjoyed myself!

It's a "Making Of" type of thing. Very interesting footage of rehersals, concept discussions, the 3D Thriller release, props, stage toys, etc.

The 11 principle dancers came damn close to making me cry in the first 2 minutes. They were just *YUM*... black/white wife-beaters always push the right buttons *laugh*

Michael was portrayed as a consumate professional - he knew every song, every key, beat, mood, effect... He knew what he wanted, and how to get it from the people around him.

I've always thought him an entertainer, first and foremost. His songs are catchy, his moves, mesmerising. This movie did not disappoint.

He will be missed.

Review: Law Abiding Citizen

You HAVE to watch this movie.

Its stars Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx.

And Jack Dalton.
Well.... it's really Bruce McGill...
But any decent fan of MacGyver would be going "Jack Dalton! So old liao!"
*laugh* Well maybe not *exactly* like that...

It's tastefully violent, though I confess... a girlie moment had me muting the sound (Read: stuck my fingers in my ears) in one scene involving a circular saw.
It certainly made me look at my mobile phone in a WHOLE new light.
You'll see what I mean.

Engineer has wife & daughter. 2 men break in, murder + rape wife + daughter, didn't manage to kill Engineer. Robber 1 makes deal with DA's office to roll over on Robber 2, even though Robber 1 is actually murderer+rapist. Engineer begs DA not to settle, but DA more worried about maintaining his 96% conviction rate. 10 yrs later, ppl start dying.

The story is an age-old one of revenge but though the central plot isn't new, it's very well told. It keeps a good pace, the unexpected shocks easily holding your attention. The emotions are believable, and hey, it's Butler, which is always nice. *laugh*

*So* worth the price of a ticket. Just make sure you leave the kiddies at home. It's not a pretty movie.

Review: District 9

I couldn't hack it. I had to go home & watch cartoons to go back to my happy place. I felt ugly and dirty.

Movies are my preferred form of escapism. It is for this reason that I prefer supernatural (eg. ghosties & ghoulies) to the twisted realism or the really twisted (eg. Saw & Psycho). If it gets too scary or gruesome, I can just pooh-pooh it away, because it's not real/it's just a movie/we're not really like that.

District 9 was too real. I didn't know what lies to spin to myself to make me feel better. We, as a species, are UGLY. We're manipulative, profit-worshipping, weapon-toting, lie-spewing, UGLY. I wasn't sure when I teared up, whether I was angry or sad. Maybe both.

The surest sign of intelligence out there is the fact that they haven't contacted us.

In many ways, it was a good movie. However, it held too shiny a mirror up to humanity for my liking. When you see so much filth all in one go, you start to forget the sparks of kindness, love, charity and honour we're capable of when we remember to try. I choose my rose-tinted glasses, damnit.

I wouldn't watch it again.

Review: Beyond A Reasonable Doubt

Waste of time & money.

The "twist" is predictable & hastily done.
Scenes from when she's rescued in the car park to the end are absurd.

In the words of my fellow Malaysians:
Like that also can ah?????

Review: The Ugly Truth

Gerard Butler is the Hot.

The movie had copious amts of profanity, used to garner gasps of "omg I can't believe he said that". The movie on the whole, was funny, albeit with the predictable endings & (not-entirely-successful) attempts at charm that are part of the formula of its genre.

The good: Gerard Butler is the Hot. There was a lift scene, which prompted Lisa to comment that it was "so Grey's" *laugh*.

The bad: copious amts of profanity that detracted from the charm of the movie. It's hard to focus when the censorship board kicks in. However, I was VERY surprised at how much of the script *did* get through the board.

The ugly: nothing really. I just couldn't resist adding this in. *grin*

It's an easy watch. Fun and light. Wouldn't pay for another ticket, but wouldn't mind watching it again on TV or downloads DVD or something.

Review: Blood: The Last Vampire

Total waste of money.

The demon/vampire figure they came up with was a joke.
Literally.
Like the whole theatre laughed at how ridiculous it looked kind of joke.
Like I nearly snorted my Sprite kind of joke.

Saya was better than Jackie Chan in the old days of Drunken Master. She could whoop like 60 vamps, single handed, without a scratch.

Character development was limp. We were all waiting for SOMETHING to happen. ANYTHING.

The ending was crap.
After all that build up, it was a real let-down.

Wouldn't watch it again if you paid for tickets.
Well, maybe if the popcorn was good...
Must find my DVD. I'm sure the anime version wasn't that bad... or was it?

Review: Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

WTF was that cyborg/robot that can mimic human skin/WHATEVER doing in that movie??????
Never mind that she looked uncannily like that alien in Species, but did her robot have to channel Species too???
Desperation isn't an excuse - the franchise is doing Monstrously well.
So ... WTF?????

Also...
If you're going to kick Devestator's arse, with one shot (and let's not focus on how you're trying to please WMD conspiracy theorists with that "top secret rail gun"), why can't you do the same with the other damn robots? Are they further from the sea than that one particular bot climbing that pyramid?
WTF?????

It isn't fair that Constructicons get a role and Dinobots were left out *pout*
Roland, particularly, was miffed.
Though there was a nice leopard-type-bot that was quite nicely animated...

Never mind the 2 somewhat irritating robots you chucked in as spare change (personally, I thought they were kind of cute in a redneck/stereotype latino way)...
But to have a DREAM / WHITE LIGHT SEQUENCE to re-form the matrix from DUST?
SERIOUSLY.
WTF?????

Having ranted, the special effects were Excellent. The transforming robots, particularly, got the royal treatment in CGI. Really Excellent Stuff.

Optimus' voice made me wonder if it's wrong to want to hump a robot.
Bumblebee got a larger roll. Yay! :)
Those actors in uniform? Yummy!

I got emotionally involved when they killed Optimus. Yeah yeah I'm a wuss, whatever.
They've got some nice writing - really funny sequences - but honestly, you'd be hard pressed to remember them when the nice shiney robots enter stage left.

I'm definitely going to watch it again.
And leaving my ranting at the door, I'd probably notice more of the shineyyyyyy...

Voices of a Distant Star

I found it!

The anime short that made me cry.
I first saw it about 2 yrs ago - surfing Astro, flipping channels.
There was no indication of its name.
I sat, mesmerized for 20 minutes.

It's ACHINGLY beautiful.
Made entirely on the director's Mac, voiced by the director & his fiance.

Mikako, a middle school girl, is drafted into some advanced Space Program sent to find the Tarsians around Mars and Jupiter. She leaves behind her soulmate, Noburo.

They communicate via some email sent through mobile phones. As she moves further and further into the star systems, it takes longer and longer to get each message through. Years pass between messages. Noburo tries to move on - live his own life, but he cannot seem to let go. His heart stops every time the phone beeps.

There are flashbacks of her childhood with Noburo - flashes of rainy afternoons spent talking at a bus stop, bike rides together, of watching the starship wakes claw across the sky.

As the battles rage on, ships are lost. Both wonder - even as he receives the messages, is she still even alive?

He's old enough now to join the navy. There's some vague indication that he's joining the rescue missions for the missing or destroyed ships.

I both hate and love the fact that the ending is left ambiguous.
She drifts off during a battle. We never find out if her mothership has been destroyed, leaving her helpless in space, surrounded by the enemy.

It's the ultimate long distance love story.
And it made me cry all over again.

Review: Dark Knight

Quite good, really!
Lots of things that went boom. Lots of things that went fast. Lots of shiny high-tech things that made me scrunch up my toes.

I was surprised at how good Ledger was. Didn't expect him to be. There was a slight debate about whether Ledger or Nicholas made the best joker... I think they were playing for different teams. Manic-mad vs. funny-mad.

I like how this bat man has a slight lisp. =)
Costume & makeup was GREAT. Two-face's makeup was REALLY good.

Entertaining? Most certainly!

Go get a ticket now!