Thanks to the invite by Sultan Muzaffar, I got the invite to watch Cinta the movie, a local production. Since FA and Suan wrote some lengthy reviews on this movie, I’m gonna try something else, here goes haiku.
Cinta, the movie
first Malay flick
I watched in cinema
it was a premier
five stories in one
many angles of affections
with ups and downs
an emotional roller coaster
some actings were great
some were a bit KAYUish
but overall
it was not bad at all
some shots were awesome
like postcards and pictures
but some sound and lightings
were not too impressive
I did not yawn
nor got bored
it was a flick
very much worth seeing
the movie opens
on 30th November
catch it on cinema
you will be surprised
side note:
One of the producers actually recognized yours truly and said something like “I recognize some of you but you don’t know who I am. I can see Suanie, Fireangel, and KY” before showing the movie. It was a bit awkward but I’ll take it as a vote of confidence. Thanks Tengku!
Also, Ally Iskandar is an awesome emcee. Hire him on your wedding or something.
Other reviews by Mimpi Pari & lyanna
It’s been a while since I last saw a good movie. I went to catch The Prestige at the cinemas without really knowing (refused to read it online) what the whole deal is about other than it scores rather high (currently 8.2/10) on imdb.
The movie is about the story of two magicians (well, actually more than two, but I shall not give you the spoilers) who were initially friends but ultimately became bitter rivals. They are being played by the Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) and Christian Bale (Batman Begins), two ex-superheros who are pretty super in their performances in this movie. There are also the always excellent Michael Caine and the easy-on-the-eyes Scarlett Johansson.
Well, you can read dozens of excellent “traditional” reviews on imdb (the link above) and many other sites, hence, to separate from the others, I will show you the graphical representation of the story line without giving you the spoilers instead.
very representative, no?
So, the above graphic basically means that the movie, as does magic, is broken into 3 parts:
The pledge, where the promise is being given (in this case, a good movie). The turn, the magician performing the trick, showing something extraordinary (some confusion and interesting plot lines seemingly leading to nowhere). And ultimately, the prestige, where everything comes together with all the twists and turns…. or something like that.
Anyway, it’s a good movie, go watch it. Here’s the trailers.
So we went to the latest play by fthe Oral Stage – fiftynineminutes which was held in a nice little location (the dram project) on the ground floor of the flat that also houses the famous 6 to 10 Grill and Nasi Lemak kopitiam-restaurant. We did have a nice meal there after the show, but lets not digress…
Pictures are described from top left, clockwise.
the location, the booklets, interlude lady, best foot forward
There were 7 shows altogether, packed into a 59 minute play with the interludes played by a maid who was terribly funny in a way. I thought that was a clever way to set up the props. The shows were Best Food Forward, Mother Tongue, Fruitcake, Showers of Flowers, Track, The World’s Smelliest Durian, and The Ground Floor.
mother tongue, fruitcake, showers of flowers x 2
Of the seven shows, there were some impressive individual performances (Lam Wai Yee & Johann Lim), some interesting moments, some artistic expressions, and even some disturbing topics. Overall, my, and judging from the reception by the crowd, most everyone’s favorite show was the world’s smelliest durian. I almost got a stomach cramp laughing.
However, I felt that a few of the plays were a little too cryptic and slightly overly artistic for my liking, though you might very well find it otherwise. The Mother Tongue with Lam Wai Yee was a great individual performance, but I thought it was lacking a little on the ending and overall message of the story, a missed opportunity. This is in contrast with the similar monologue at Rojak by Emily.
track, the world’s smelliest durian, the ground floor, closing
As a whole, though, fiftynineminutes was a pretty decent show. I can honestly say that I enjoyed myself. Though there is some areas for improvement, the Oral Stage deserves much credit for pulling this off. For only 10 ringgit and free parking, this is definately something worth going.
For tickets and the how-to in getting to the place, read my pimp post on fiftynineminutes.
of course, we only got to see it from the 13th onwards..
So I went for the much awaited Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man’s Chest on the opening day last week with a few noobs. If you don’t care enough for the first movie or this one, you can skip through all the text and maybe spend 5 seconds on the awesome pic I photoshopped down at the bottom of this post? Otherwise read on..
When the title flashed on the screen, the Malay translation on Dead Men’s Chest was “Harta Lelaki Mati”, following the tradition of producing awesome translations such as Eraser – “Pemadam”, Spider-man – “Manusia Laba Laba”, Saving Private Ryan – “Selamatkan Ryan Peribadi”.. ok maybe not the last one. GSC at 1U put us through half an hour of bullshit before starting the movie at 10pm when the ticket says 9:30pm. This is getting to be almost as bad as Chinese wedding, remind me to be late by at least 20 minutes next time.
Pirates 2 is pretty much a continuation of the first installation, The Curse of the Black Pearl. Returning roles are Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow (duh), Orlando Bloom as Will Turner, Keira Knightly as Liz Swann, Liz’s Dad, Norrington, and a few others, most of Jack’s crew, including the first officer. The new characters of importance are Davey Jones and his crew, Dalma, and Will’s father.
The story revolves around the British navy trying to secure Jack’s compass by pressing charges on Will and Elizabeth to force Will to search for Jack, now captain of the Black Pearl. Apparently Jack’s compass always points to where your desire is. When Will got to Jack and asked for the compass, Jack of course, being a pirate, didn’t really care about his friends and were only concern about himself and his deal with Davey Jones that were coming up.
The movie then got us into the adventure that features sword fights between Jack, Will, and Norrington, battle between the Black Pearl and The Flying Dutchman (Davey Jone’s ship), Jack’s crews escape from cannibals, Will’s father, the two visits to Dalma the voodoo lady, … and then it ended.
Much to my dismay, unlike the first one, this movie does not stand on its own. After 2.5 hours, we discovered that the ending lies on the 3rd and final installation of the Pirates franchise. Then again, with Chow Yun Fatt and the return of captain Barbosa, it might make things really interesting.
Overall the movie was pretty good, the lack of the element of surprise that gave such an impact on the first film was undoubted lacking. However, the visual effect team did manage to make up for some of the losses by producing a very stunning visual treat that blends in very nicely with the story and not appearing fake at any instance. The effect on Davey Jones’ character was particularly impressive.
As for the story, it was a quite entertaining, albeit some what slow in the beginning of the film. Johnny Depp did not disappoint either. I’ll give it a 7 out of 10 and an 8 for the first movie. Will definitely go for the 3rd installation next year.
our local Suanie Jones and Fag Sparrow
Right after watching the dissapointed Poseidon, we went to the cinema again the next day for the much anticipated third installation of the X-Men franchise, X-Men: The Last Stand. Again, this review might contain spoilers, you have been warned, noob.
one pretty satisfied viewer
The story:
A ‘cure’ on the mutant gene was found and being offered to mutants who wish to be human, permenantly. Thus the mutants were splitted into two camps: an opposition to the cure led by Magneto, seeking to destroy it and anyone who stands in between his quest; and Professor X, who basically wish to leave the decision on the individuals.
The movie then took us back to 20 years ago when Professor X and Magneto (they were still friends) visited the then young Jean and revealed that she has the strongest of all mutant power, with a dark side.
Fast forward back to the not-so-distant future, Jean is found to found to be alive by Cyclops. However, the experience has also brought out her dark side that is the Phoenix. A wild and uncontrollable personality, with the highest mutant power that was kept in check by Professor X previously. Cyclops was killed.
The story then developed with the effort of Magneto recruiting Jean/Phoenix and a bunch of other mutants to eliminate the ‘cure’ of mutant gene, as they suspect that the government will make this ‘cure’ a weapon against mutants (they were right). Professor X tried to stopped Jean from becoming dark Phoenix but was killed by her.
Incidentally the cure is originated from a mutant boy whose power is to nullified all mutant powers that are close to him. Magneto wanted to kill the boy, who is located at the Alcatrez (now medical) facility. In the process, the Golden Gate Bridge was moved to link up the famous island with the main land by Magneto.
Thus a war between mutants led by Magneto and the government broke out, with Wolverine and Storm leading the 6 X-Men gang trying to stop Magneto. At the end, Wolverine had to make the most difficult decision and killed Jean to prevent dark Phoenix from using her dark power.
My criticism and praise:
My verdict:
Overall X-Men: The Last Stand is a very solid movie. However, although it stands very tall among the super hero movies, I personally feel that it is slightly lacking if compared to X2, but not by much. I’ll give it a 7.5/10, the movie currently enjoys a very good 7.9/10 rating at imdb. You can also learn more on the characters at wikipedia X-Men page
