New Start

New start. New job. Tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Up, up and away!

Happy Thoughts

Sometimes, happy thoughts are what you need to take you through the day.

Julie & Julia

The ST reviewer was almost right. The 2 actresses did SAVE this movie.

But he was wrong for giving it 3.5 ticks.

What was the movie going-on about? My friend YSW summed it up perfectly after the movie. IT HAD NO PLOT!

Sure, the director tried to link the lives of 2 women, from 2 different times, who started their affair with cooking in order to find themselves...

But thats it!

The movie was 2 hours long, and you could feel every. freaking. minute. of. it. In my opinion, it could have been cut to 1.5 hours and not made a difference to storyline. I mean, it was so slow and bland that several people in the cinema walked out to take toilet breaks.

YSW made a point about Meryl Streep's acting. I thought she over-acted and perpetually looked drunk. YSW said that perhaps this movie would have been appreciated better by Americans who grew up with Julia Child, and perhaps, Julia was such a character as portrayed by Streep.

Perhaps.

But in my opinion, the worst "based on a true story" movie I have ever seen.

Explaining the Workplace (Pictorially)

Argh

All I Wanna Do Is...

Flip the bird at some people.

It is no what I like to do...

But sometimes, fighting fire with fire is what I have to do.

And to top it all off...

And as if to top off a rubbish week... I had...
1. One shitty conversation with a snake in the carpark on Friday
2. Got an epiphany about how I might have majorly read someone wrongly
3. One birth, One death. Which conflicts me.
4. One shitty experience at the public pool on Sunday.

Tired.

What A Week!

Looking forward to a date with my best friend tonight.

Sigh

Ever felt that you were one man against an army?

Sigh.

One of these things do not belong here.

So this place provides simple first aid, cleans your ears, fixes your bike and knocks you up?

Defending the Cavemen

This show was touted to be the longest running 1-man show in Broadway. This was its second run in Singapore.

It angle was to explain to women why men do things or act in a certain way, which can be explained by them being remnants of cavemen evolution. In a light-hearted way, it explained why problems arise because men are so different from women, just by the virtue of men evolved from hunters and women gatherers.

"Defending the Cavemen" took 2 seperate meanings.

1. Defending the actions of the Cavemen for what we do because of our evolution.

or

2. How women, by being better at information gathering and attention to detail, defend the Cavemen who can be too focused on something, and ignoring all threats around them.

However, I think I'm not a big fan of monologues.

Like how I did not enjoy the Hossan Leong show, I didn't quite enjoy this one either. I thought the lines fell flat from delivery and weren't very imaginative.

Did the actor want to involve the audience or not? Maybe its because we Singaporeans are not used to interacting in a play - but the response was muted. But then again, a lot of foreign faces were spotted as well. And they were silent too. Perhaps then, it was because it did appear to be just a monologue, which did not want an audience to participate.

Only after the intermission did it pick up the fun-factor. But thats only cos he moved on to sex.

I must say, the play did hit the nail on the head on many points. And so, it wasn't unpleasant.

5/10 - the run is over, u can't watch it even if u wanted to. but then again, you ain't missing much =P

True, how True

With so many people leaving, very soon, this might be me. =(

Inglorius Basterds

Very rarely is a film not about the actors, the storyline or the flow of the movie. This film is one of them.

This film is about the directorial genius of one man.

The story is similar to Kill Bill, presented in a graphic novel like manner at times. You see that from the arrows that come on-screen to identify important but line-less characters. (like Goerring)

The cinematography was amazing. With influences of a Western cowboy flick (prison scene) to film noir (cinema scene) to Mafia-movies of the 1940s (the camera angle when Hilter was shot). The camera angles, the pauses in expression, the way the camera captures the emotions... you never felt the movie was as long as it was.

The soundtrack - unexpected and mildly amusing. Scenes with no words, but only a soundtrack in the background which set the mood and communicated the wordless ideas to the audience, who immediately knew what the director had in mind.

The movie was a little gory (to say the least) at parts, but then again, we always knew Quentin Taratino had a thing for the portrayal of violence in his films.

Kudos to great acting by the lead villain. Brad Pitt was ok. But not exceptional.

Go catch it! 7/10

This One Takes The Cake

Let the games begin...

Monday morning. The gloves are off.

May the non-blacks win.

The Hossan Leong Show

We saw the show over the weekend. I had been eagerly anticipating this, since it was written by Benjamin Lee, who I think blogs well.

Well, first impressions of the Drama Centre were great. There looked as if effort had been put into the set design and creation, we had great front-row seats and they had given us a plastic bag of goodies, which included a clapper. =)

And then it went downhill.

With all due respect to Mr Miyagi who wrote the show, are you having a mid-life crisis? With so many references to days of yesteryear and your childhood (black and white tvs, Ultraman...), you alienated the rest of the audience under the age of 35!

And what was with the whole show being about free gifts and shameless plugging of sponsers? It was interesting and different at the start, but honestly, it got old very quickly. I know we need to thank our sponsers, but hey, to make your WHOLE show around it? FAIL.

And lets decide on the format. Is this a stand-up by Hossan? Or a "live" TV show with different segments? Or a musical with dance and song? I'm confused since you guys did all 3.

The jokes weren't funny (Olympics - seriously, wtf was that about?), and we were laughing at you, not with you. It felt that the jokes were more suited to be read (ala blogging), then spoken.

No, I'm not seeing it next year.

Waste of my time.

(Give me my money back) / 10.

Fame!

Caught this movie over the weekend. Its a remake of the original film and from what I can see, adapted from Broadway version of the film.

The plot is not complex. Naysayers will complain that the movie was too predictable, having too many characters which led to none being developed fully, and in fact, a little confusing because some of them really look alike!

But I disagree.

The writing was excellent, especially in the opening sequence where musical scenes were spliced all so appropriately.

The director had a great eye for panning the camera angles in the dance sequence above and throughout the rest of the movie.

The soundtrack. Awesome.

And the best part is that instead of griping about the lack of plot / character development, what I liked about the movie was that it was all about raw emotions. And it came fast and furious through the various characters. There was nary a moment of pause, or if you felt the movie was just hanging.

All in all. I give this movie a 9 / 10. Please please go watch it.

This is funny.

The Worst Job In The World?

The man sure is "unlucky".

The Morning After

We went. We drank. We concussed. Was immense fun. Can't wait till next year!

Oh, and anyone knows where I can get a Bavarian bar-maid costume? =P