Valentine's Day

I was going to write a long review about this movie, but due to the lack of time, here it is, a 2 min one.

Movie is not the next Love Actually. Besides the strong (and beautiful cast), the story is disjointed and does not leave you with a warm and fuzzy feeling at the end, like other rom-coms do.

It does explore the different aspects of love though, man love, woman-child love, old people love... but so much of it was in passing, that one does not even feel a connection.

Wait for the DVD.

3/10

Travelling for Work

Its really over-rated.

FAIL

Taken from here.

Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place

With no where to go. Sigh.

How Much Do You Know Cars?

AND PASSED WITH AN ABOVE AVERAGE SCORE. B-

Quiz Created By Auto Insurance

New York, I Love You

This movie must be appreciated with the following understanding:

1. Its tagline, "Every Moment, A Story Begins"
2. That it was shot over 36 days
3. That it was a project of many directors; each who had 24 hours to film his scenes, and; one who passed away during filming
4. It won many awards at Cannes
5. It was the directorial debut of Scarlett Johannson and Natalie Portman

If you didn't understand these things before you saw the movie, your thoughts after the movie would probably be:

1. WTF was this movie about. Stories that don't seemingly join and with no conclusion. Very RANDOM
2. Lots of stars, but WTF?

I had those thoughts but what I can say is that this movie is about the energy and the mishmash of cultures of New York, and the randomness of life. It showed love in its different forms. And it doesn't conclude its stories because, who knows what will happen - thats just the way life is.

Quite a good movie, but its more for the people with imagination and with a appreciation of arty films.

7 / 10

Beds.SG

Redecorating your room can be a challenge. You contend with aesthetic issues such as theme, design, colour coordination as well as practical issues such as budget, quality of products and function.

Some of you may know that the family recently "re-built" the house. Trust me when I say that I spent every weekend visiting furniture showrooms, toilet fixtures shops, tile shops, lighting shops et al.

By the time we decided on all the fittings for the common areas, I was burnt out. There was the still issue of redecorating my room left unsettled and I started looking for an online solution.

I was recommended http://www.beds.sg for my bedframe and cupboards for the room. You cannot imagine how happy I was to find that there was such a site with detailed pictures for the Singapore market. Basically, I decided on the model I wanted, placed an order via the website, and they DELIVERED and INSTALLED for FREE!

Buying a bedframe on this website is:

1. Simple - just click click
2. Cheaper - they are much cheaper than any walk-in showroom since I think they don't have overheads for showrooms (they are about 50% or more lower in price than their competitors, even on sale)
3. Quality - amazingly, what you see is what you get. This is in contrast to some unscrupulous online shops who put nice photos and deliver you rubbish.
4. Service - Delivery was on time and simple. And customer service was prompt and polite.

I tell you, i'd recommend beds.sg to anyone. In fact, I'm going to order another bed frame for my brother from the website!

Go take a look today!

Its Complicated - Meryl Streep & Alec Baldwin

Nancy Myers can write and direct rom-coms. I mean, Something's Gotta Give, What Women Want, The Holiday... many reviewers say the same and gave this movie a thumbs-up

You have to give credit when credit is due, and she rightly sticks to what she does best.

You can't fault the script or the directing. But somehow, this movie didn't do it for me. I couldn't explain why, but the GF suggested it might be because of the casting.

It is more remote to expect 60-year olds to want to shag like rabbits. If the story was casted with 40 year olds, maybe - Patrick Dempsey for Alec Baldwin; Katherine Heigl for Streep and Jimmy Fallon for Steve Martin. The kids could be a little younger and it could be a bf instead of a son-in-law that knows the details.

You cannot fault the delivery of the actors (though GF thinks there was too much over-acting on Streep's part). But maybe it was the fault of the timing - too close to Julia Child's movie. All I could think of during the movie was how much Streep was acting like Child! The cooking, the speaking of bad french, the raptuous and seemingly fake laughter... Baldwin also did not detract too much from his 30 Rock role.

But the movie did have its saving points. I figured out what was wrong with the Morgans. There was no "awww...." moments. You know, the scene which makes your nose sniffle and heart melt? There are some in this movie.

The humour as compared to the Morgans was also a lot less slapstick and a lot more "OMG... don't do that... argh..." - that is, the embarrassing situation you know is going to happen if the actor does something like open the door, or pose in front of a laptop.

That is how rom-coms are supposed to be made.

2 down, 2 more to go. New York, I love You and Valentine's Day. More comparisons to follow. =)

6.5 / 10

Time to Tackle the Sacred Cows

Who naturally are full of bull shi*t.

Did You Hear About the Morgans?

There is no way to review this movie without giving away spoilers.

You have been warned.

Most reviewers gave this movie a thumbs down. Predictable! Yawn! They said.

Well, in my opinion, they were half right.

The movie is your typical rom-com, but then again, also atypical.

The couple did start out as at each other's necks. But in this case, it was because they were married and Hugh Grant's character had been unfaithful.

That in itself was different. The lines he said about how it was a stupid mistake resonated within me, as someone who's been down that road before. His apology was real and perhaps, that made me enjoy it for more than it was.

The pairing of SJP and Grant was odd - and you could feel it throughout the movie. Odd because they didn't step away from the roles that they have been known to play all their life. SJP as the born and bred and slightly neurotic New Yorker and Grant as the bumbling Englishman with puppy dog eyes. Who would have thought that they would have gotten married in the first place?

They get thrown into this place which is out of both their comfort zones - the South of USA and the GF opines that the director resorted to slapstick to keep the funny up. And I don't disagree.

The movie was saved by Hugh Grant and Hugh Grant alone. I mean, no one else I know can deliver dry British wit the way he can. His one-liners made me laugh out more than any slapstick contrived situation could.

All in all, it was an entertaining, but forgettable movie. By all means, go ahead and watch it instead of Chaw, Old Dogs or whatever... but you won't be kicking yourself if you miss the run.

I'm actually looking forward to Its Complicated and Valentine's Day - 2 better rom-coms, or so I've heard.

Yes. I am a sucker for such crap. =)

6 / 10

Going Mad

Need a new job. Yoga instructor looks promising.

Sherlock Holmes

First movie of the new decade, and boy was it awesome.

You know its going to be good just by reading the list of whos who.

Director: Guy Ritchie
Lead: RD Jr
Musical Composer: Hans Zimmer

It was a totally enjoyable movie, with RD Jr epitomizing Holmes - both in his deep thinking gaze, but also with his cheeky disregard for rules and the law.

I didn't feel the movie was 2 hours long. I mean, there were no wasted scenes, brilliant music to accompany the scene (right down to the how u can hear the mischievousness in the music).

I had feared that the best scenes were shown in the trailer, but this was clearly not the case.

The lines were witty, the sets were amazing.

One negative point was that Jude Law put up a forgettable performance as Watson, and was clearly the weakest link in the film. However, that said, he is probably the best English actor they could have used... much better than the rough-hewn Colin Farrel whom they had intended to use initially.

RD Jr tried to put on an English accent. And he only marginally succeeded in the single lines. He reverted to his american accent when he spoke fast.

All in all, an entertaining movie. Go catch it!

4.5 / 5

2009

As the year draws to a close... its a good time to reflect on the past year and consider how life has changed...

I will be looking at my calendar and thinking about months past.

Happy 2010 folks!

Feeling Old

I know I should be partying... but am feeling quite old...

I Wonder...

I wonder...

how many of the many weddings I've attended in the past year and year to come will end in divorce.

I know it sounds bad of me...

but some of them shouldn't have happened methinks.

Xmas

I know I am supposed to be looking forward to the Xmas weekend, but screw it. I don't think I'll be getting any proper work done till after Xmas.

Merry Xmas everyone!

Update: A shitstorm just blew my way. EFF!

Avatar Review

We watched the best movie of 2009 over the weekend.

James Cameron is a visionary and really took SFX and CGI to the next level. I would advise everyone to watch the 3D version. Its magical.

To be honest, I wasn't keen on watching the movie in the first place. I thought to myself, its another boring cartoon - and I will walk out not relishing nor hating the experience. But I was wrong.

Yes, the storyline is predicable. Pochahontas-type. Enemy falls in love with village chief's daughter... turns to the other side... ladida.

But there are nuances in the story.

The scene where the tree burns... remind you of 911? When Michelle Rodriguez uses the term "matyrdom"... isn't it a throwback to whats happening in the world now?

The Americans used Afganistan and several of the Arab countries as proxies for the Cold War. Now they are biting back.

It is also poignant to note that this movie was also about our current relentless greed to strip the world of resouces and what we might end up with - which is quite sad, considering what (did not) happen in Copenhagen.

All in all, an excellent movie. Such that I want to catch it another time, just to pick up smaller details.

9.5 /10

Ok, so not everyone liked it. Alternative review here.

This Festive Season...

Do watch out for your friends when they drink!

Storm Warriors

So we watched the sequel of Storm Warriors. There are a lot of spoilers in this review, so avert your eyes if you haven't seen it.

The movie is for fanboys. Why? Too many gaps in the plot which you would only have known if you've read the comic. I mean, why did Demon Wind take the dragon bone? Where the heck did Nicholas Tse's character disappear to after that?

There seemed to be 2 parts to the movie. One, where the whole focus was to kill Godless, and the latter, where Cloud had to stop Wind from remaining a demon. I liked the first one better. It was like a typical movie, build up all the way to the crest and then, viola, done. You walk out smiling and satiated.

Not this one. Yes, the 2 boys went to improve themselves to fight Godless, which was dramatic and they whom they killed. Then they go into this drama-mama weepy set where Wind keeps his lame makeup on and growls and snarls at everyone because he is possessed. Tip for directors, don't have more than one orgasm per movie. The second one is always not as good as the first one. I mean, fight scene with Godless was dramatic, fight scene btw Wind and Cloud, yawn.

Gf said that there was not as much variety in this one. What she meant to say was that the romance in this one was secondary, and non-essential to the plot. U ask yourself, why the hell u have it if you aint going to play it up. Honestly, bro-love was enough, u didnt need to have Charlene Choi go all weepy.

As far as CGI went, this sequel is 11 years after the first. It hasn't caught up to match the first one.

The soundtrack was also not as memorable as the former.

What we did like were the comic book like sequences. Like it was there to remind you of the roots of the movie.

Overall, it was entertaining but nothing fantastic.

6.5/10

I'm going to party like its my birthday...

Because it is. =)