Thanks to the magnificent suanie and her connections, I was invited to the press screening of the local comedy SELL OUT last night. So horng, Suan, and I reached Mid Valley Gardens last night to find Gareth and Joshua among the few attendees to the screening who neither participated in the movie itself nor attached to any traditional media outlets.

GSC Signatures is my favorite cineplex currently, and it would be great if there are more movie screenings there. Then again, I shall be grateful for not having to pay to watch screenings and premiers, beggars can’t be choosers.

SELL OUT! (2008), directed by Yeo Joon Han

SELL OUT! is a movie about two person, Rafflesia Pong (yes, it’s a comedy) and Eric Tan who work for FONY media and FONY electronic division of the same conglomerate respectively. Rafflesia is a TV personality while Eric is a product designer, both of them share the same two unreasonable and demanding bosses.

Rafflesia’s show about local artists were going nowhere; at the same time, Eric Tan invented a soya bean machine but met with resistance by the two bosses in marketing the device. The advanced on a different direction with Rafflesia getting a break after filming her dying fiance’s final poem on TV while Eric Tan split into two after being exorcised by a particular medium (ala multiplicity style).

The story then proceed on and ended with one (or both of them) selling out after a lengthy process of quite a lot of nonsense that are, well, very humorous at times.

Jerrica Lai played the role of Rafflesia brilliantly, while the Peter Davis was slightly disappointing as Eric Tan, the character was just a bit flat and “kayu” in my opinion. The format of the movie was very bold, with plenty of songs ala musicals in between that, well, could have been executed in a better way (they should be shorter, mostly).

While a lot of the jokes in the movie were very funny and original, some of them were overused and got old after the 4th time. In fact, instead of nearly 2 hours, I really think that the movie would have been excellent had it been edited down to, say, an hour.

That said, Sell Out! is still a pretty watchable movie. Being a local film, it is also expected that the colors/lighting and audio are not always perfect, there is no exception here but at least it was kept in a tolerable manner. I would place Sell Out! in between The Red Kebaya and Mualaf (which I watched in Singapore since it was banned in Malaysia).

Tags:  sell out

Posted by KY | 27 Comments »

Just got back from watching Madagascar 2 a while back, and I must say this is one of the few rare movies that is actually better than the first one.

The story is a bit of a continuation from the previous show. After a short recap of the first movie, Alex the lion, Melman the giraffe, Marti the zebra, and Gloria the hippo embarked on a plane ride to get back to New York with the penguin crews and the lemur king but inevitably ended up in Africa.

The whole story is littered with so many funny moments and stupid jokes it was hilarious. My favorite scene would be the penguin accident (I shall not give any spoilers, but nice touch on the egg!)

Do catch the movie especially if you liked the first one!

Cindy (the infamous MDG winner) and me

I took a picture with the infamous Cindy for a tumpang glamor moment. There were a lot of familiar faces I saw from the Nuffnang/Nokia Silent Halloween party who were there too. Bravo to nuffnang for another awesome movie premier.

Tags:  cindy,  movie,  movie screening

Posted by KY | 30 Comments »

This year’s birthday has been particularly good, after 2 free meals from Suan & ST the night prior, I went to Sushi Zanmai at Gardens on Ringo’s treat (who also gave me a book as gift, thanks ) before heading to watch Gamarjobat thanks to complimentary tickets from Bangsar Actor Studio via Nuffnang.

Hello! Gamarjobat

Gamarjobat actually means “Hello” in Georgian, or “Herro” in Japanese, which is the country the 2 jokers, Ketch and Hiro-pon hail from. One with a yellow Mo-hawk and the other have it red.

This is in fact, my second time watching their show. Last year’s main feature was “The Boxer” which featured a very hillarious slow motion sequence, but this year’s “Western” did not disappoint either. You’ll have to be there at the horse riding and gun shootout parts in person to truly appreciate it. Their signatory fast pace intro and the very funny penguin rock star act adds was equally as hilarious.

The show will stay until 19th October, check the Actor Studio’s site for ticket pricing and schedule. If it is the only live act you’re going to watch this year, make it this one. I’m sure Ringo, Tim, Grace, and Audrey would agree, they were laughing at least as hard as me.

On a semi-related note, I had 2 more free meals in conjunction with the whole birthday thingy. Lorna spent me lunch at Ah Yip’s soup place at Plaza Damas, and Douglas bought me the 1/2 pound set at Wendy’s last night. Five free meals in a row, I must be the luckiest guy!

Tags:  Bangsar,  theater

Posted by KY | 14 Comments »

Last weekend I finally watched a movie I’ve heard about for a long time: Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket.

Full Metal Jacket

This movie was released over 20 years ago, a story about transformation of men into killing machines, about friendship, human psychology, and the torment of war.

The story is separated into two very different parts. The first half illustrates the metamorphosis of young men into US marines who are “born to kill”, emphasizes on a particular Private Pyle who dealt with the situation in a very different way. Though heavy, this section also features a very entertaining Drill Instructor who is most awesome with his usage of metaphors. Example:

Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: If you ladies leave my island, if you survive recruit training, you will be a weapon. You will be a minister of death praying for war. But until that day you are pukes. You are the lowest form of life on Earth. You are not even human, fucking beings. You are nothing but unorganized grabastic pieces of amphibian shit. Because I am hard you will not like me. But the more you hate me the more you will learn. I am hard but I am fair. There is no racial bigotry here. I do not look down on niggers, kikes, wops or greasers. Here you are all equally worthless. And my orders are to weed out all non-hackers who do not pack the gear to serve in my beloved Corps. Do you maggots understand that?

More quotes from FMJ here.

The second part of the movie reflects the cruelty of war in a very honest and in-your-face way. No romanticism, no heroism, just the very harsh reality of Vietnam war with pain, suffering, death, and pointless revenge being exhibit vividly.

The song Paint it Black by The Rolling Stones is used in the ending credits.

If you haven’t seen this movie yet, grab a copy of DVD, one of the best war movies ever made.

Maybank2u 2.0

In another totally unrelated event (except for the fact that Maybank painted their new site black), I attended the Maybank2u 2.0 preview last Monday at Marc’s Residence, KL. Events like this have since became a platform to catch up with friends in similar circle. Suan, David Lian, Erna, Michael, Thomas, Ringo, Nicholas, and more were all there.

Being in an IT field myself, I was actually quite captivated by the approach taken for the requirement study in the site redesign exercise. Very user oriented, and in my opinion, the result shows. A clean, light, and very easy to navigate website. Back end remains the same, but I believe most users will like what they see when they launch this site.

The buffet dinner served by Delicious at Marc’s Residence was, well, very delicious too. As for now, I am going to listen to Paint it Black for the nth time.

Tags:  movie

Posted by KY | 16 Comments »

Thanks to Eyeris who managed to source a pair of extra tickets for Iron Man last night, I got to watch this show before the official release this weekend. Before you ask, the movie is awesome and totally kick ass, you have to watch it when it comes out this weekend. Now lets proceed to a bit of a “review” that might or might not contain spoilers, read at your own risk.

Tony Stark’s first armour

For those who didn’t grow up with American comics (ie: me, I was reading Chinese version of Doraemon and Lau Fu Tze), Iron Man has his super power not via genetic mutation nor being born on some other planet. Instead, somewhat like Bruce Wayne in Batman, Tony Stark is an industrialist who archive superpower-hood via his engineering brilliance. If you haven’t figured it out, he built the freaking armour that allows him to fly, shoot people, carry heavy loads, etc etc.

2nd version in the making

The story doesn’t stray very far from the typical superhero movies, with the introduction of the main character as an ordinary person to the transformation that makes him a superhero to the final fight with the super villain. The difference is, of course, Robert Downy Jr. fits the profile of Tony Stark perfectly, and Gwyneth Paltrow played a brilliant role in being Pepper Potts.

awesome or not?

Then there’s the absolutely awesome CG that blends it perfectly while bringing the awe factor not any less than Transformers. You’ll love the movie, watch it!

the enemy, iron monger

Tags:  movie,  preview,  review

Posted by KY | 24 Comments »