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:  comics,  Gwyneth Paltrow,  iron,  iron man,  ironman,  movie,  preview,  review,  Robert Downy Jr.,  show

Posted by KY | 24 Comments »

I received the invitation to the premier of Dunia Baru the Movie from the PR lady Nuradila (Thanks! Keep them coming) at Grand Brilliance about a week ago. Initially I didn’t think I would be going to the movie, cos 1st, it is a local production (many of them aren’t very entertaining), and 2nd, it is also my badminton night.

However, things in life usually turns out the way you never knew it would. Due to fact that I need to steal Suanie’s car for CNY, and that she wanted to catch the show, I ended up ditching badminton. BUT, before the movie starts, the Suan actually thought it might be a great idea if we skip the whole show and have a big dinner instead. I told her to be nice and just watch it in full.

We were both pleasantly surprised by our collective decisions at the end. Dunia Baru was just so entertaining!

Dunia Baru the Movie

The movie is actually based on a massively popular TV series by the same name on TV3 about life in college/university. In the movie, Anizah was being kidnapped by a stalker, her university friends then ganged together and traveled a long way to rescue her. 90% of the show is about their adventure, with a lot of funny bits and a few heart warming moments.

I particularly like the performance and character of the rocky chick, played by Elyana. A very strong character who also sings very well.

The stars of the movie (shot with my N82)

The movie does show a parallel to one of my favorite comedy, Eurotrip. With a lot of almost lame but very funny bits. I was laughing my butt off on so many instances it was ridiculous. The soundtrack was awesome, and sceneries very beautiful. Of course, production quality and sound quality suffers a little, but luckily they did not get into the way of me enjoying the movie.

The cool thing was, all the stars were seated just a few rows behind me during the screening!

Give this local show a try, I must say I am impressed. Much better than I am Legend that’s for sure.

Tags:  dunia baru,  gsc,  movie,  screening

Posted by KY | 11 Comments »

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

Tags:  cinta,  haiku,  malay,  movie,  review

Posted by KY | 13 Comments »

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.

Tags:  christian-bale,  hugh-jackman,  michael-caine,  movie,  review,  Scarlett-Johansson,  the-prestige

Posted by KY | 12 Comments »

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

Tags:  davey-jones,  dead-mens-chest,  jack-sparrow,  johnny-depp,  movie,  pirates-of-the-caribbean

Posted by KY | 11 Comments »