Movie Writings

Oscar Nominations

2012-01-27T18:40:00.002+08:00

The 84th Annual Academy Awards Nominations announced Tuesday, January 24th; winners announced on Sunday, February 26th.

Best Motion Picture of the Year:
The Artist (2011): Thomas Langmann
The Descendants (2011): Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011): Scott Rudin
The Help (2011): Brunson Green, Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan
Hugo (2011/II): Graham King, Martin Scorsese
Midnight in Paris (2011): Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum
Moneyball (2011): Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz, Brad Pitt
The Tree of Life (2011): Nominees to be determined
War Horse (2011): Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role:
Demián Bichir for A Better Life (2011)
George Clooney for The Descendants (2011)
Jean Dujardin for The Artist (2011)
Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
Brad Pitt for Moneyball (2011)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role:
Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs (2011)
Viola Davis for The Help (2011)
Rooney Mara for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady (2011)
Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn (2011)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role:
Kenneth Branagh for My Week with Marilyn (2011)
Jonah Hill for Moneyball (2011)
Nick Nolte for Warrior (2011)
Christopher Plummer for Beginners (2010)
Max von Sydow for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role:
Bérénice Bejo for The Artist (2011)
Jessica Chastain for The Help (2011)
Melissa McCarthy for Bridesmaids (2011)
Janet McTeer for Albert Nobbs (2011)
Octavia Spencer for The Help (2011)

Best Achievement in Directing:
Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris (2011)
Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist (2011)
Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life (2011)
Alexander Payne for The Descendants (2011)
Martin Scorsese for Hugo (2011/II)

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen:
The Artist (2011): Michel Hazanavicius
Bridesmaids (2011): Kristen Wiig, Annie Mumolo
Margin Call (2011): J.C. Chandor
Midnight in Paris (2011): Woody Allen
A Separation (2011): Asghar Farhadi

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published:
The Descendants (2011): Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash
Hugo (2011/II): John Logan
The Ides of March (2011): George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon
Moneyball (2011): Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin, Stan Chervin
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011): Bridget O'Connor, Peter Straughan

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year:
A Cat in Paris (2010): Alain Gagnol, Jean-Loup Felicioli
Chico & Rita (2010): Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal
Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011): Jennifer Yuh
Puss in Boots (2011): Chris Miller
Rango (2011): Gore Verbinski

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year:
Bullhead (2011): Michael R. Roskam(Belgium)
Footnote (2011): Joseph Cedar(Israel)
In Darkness (2011): Agnieszka Holland(Poland)
Monsieur Lazhar (2011): Philippe Falardeau(Canada)
A Separation (2011): Asghar Farhadi(Iran)

Best Achievement in Cinematography:
The Artist (2011): Guillaume Schiffman
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011): Jeff Cronenweth
Hugo (2011/II): Robert Richardson
The Tree of Life (2011): Emmanuel Lubezki
War Horse (2011): Janusz Kaminski

Best Achievement in Editing:
The Artist (2011): Anne-Sophie Bion, Michel Hazanavicius
The Descendants (2011): Kevin Tent
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011): Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter
Hugo (2011/II): Thelma Schoonmaker
Moneyball (2011): Christopher Tellefsen

Best Achievement in Art Direction:
The Artist (2011): Laurence Bennett, Robert Gould
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011): Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan
Hugo (2011/II): Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo
Midnight in Paris (2011): Anne Seibel, Hélène Dubreuil
War Horse (2011): Rick Carter, Lee Sandales

Best Achievement in Costume Design:
Anonymous (2011/I): Lisy Christl
The Artist (2011): Mark Bridges
Hugo (2011/II): Sandy Powell
Jane Eyre (2011): Michael O'Connor
W.E. (2011): Arianne Phillips

Best Achievement in Makeup:
Albert Nobbs (2011): Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnson, Matthew W. Mungle
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011): Nick Dudman, Amanda Knight, Lisa Tomblin
The Iron Lady (2011): Mark Coulier, J. Roy Helland

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score:
The Adventures of Tintin (2011): John Williams
The Artist (2011): Ludovic Bource
Hugo (2011/II): Howard Shore
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011): Alberto Iglesias
War Horse (2011): John Williams

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song:
The Muppets (2011): Bret McKenzie("Man or Muppet")
Rio (2011): Sergio Mendes, Carlinhos Brown, Siedah Garrett("Real in Rio")Best Achievement in Sound MixingNominees:The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011): David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce, Bo Persson
Hugo (2011/II): Tom Fleischman, John Midgley
Moneyball (2011): Deb Adair, Ron Bochar, David Giammarco, Ed Novick
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011): Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush, Peter J. Devlin
War Horse (2011): Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson, Stuart Wilson

Best Achievement in Sound Editing:
Drive (2011): Lon Bender, Victor Ray Ennis
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011): Ren Klyce
Hugo (2011/II): Philip Stockton, Eugene Gearty
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011): Ethan Van der Ryn, Erik Aadahl
War Horse (2011): Richard Hymns, Gary Rydstrom

Best Achievement in Visual Effects:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011): Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler, John Richardson
Hugo (2011/II): Robert Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossmann, Alex Henning
Real Steel (2011): Erik Nash, John Rosengrant, Danny Gordon Taylor, Swen Gillberg
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011): Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White, Daniel Barrett
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011): Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Matthew E. Butler, John Frazier

Best Documentary, Features:
Hell and Back Again (2011): Danfung Dennis, Mike Lerner
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (2011): Marshall Curry, Sam Cullman
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (2011): Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky
Pina (2011): Wim Wenders, Gian-Piero Ringel
Undefeated (2011): Daniel Lindsay, T.J. Martin, Rich Middlemas

Best Documentary, Short Subjects:
The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement (2011): Robin Fryday, Gail Dolgin
God Is the Bigger Elvis: Rebecca Cammisa, Julie Anderson
Incident in New Baghdad (2011): James Spione
Saving Face (2011/II): Daniel Junge, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom (2011): Lucy Walker, Kira Carstensen

Best Short Film, Animated:
Dimanche (2011): Patrick Doyon
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (2011): William Joyce, Brandon Oldenburg
La Luna (2011): Enrico Casarosa
A Morning Stroll (2011): Grant Orchard, Sue Goffe
Wild Life (2011): Amanda Forbis, Wendy Tilby

Best Short Film, Live Action
Pentecost (2011): Peter McDonald
Raju (2011): Max Zähle, Stefan Gieren
The Shore: Terry George, Oorlagh George
Time Freak (2011): Andrew Bowler, Gigi Causey
Tuba Atlantic (2010): Hallvar Witzø

Review - Underworld Awakening

2012-01-24T18:38:00.003+08:00

Wow, it's almost the end of January and I only have one post? Daymmnnn... my work is completely kicking my ass... gotta work out a better system...

Anyway, yesterday, I went and caught the new Underworld entry... Awakening... but first, gotta cop to this... I did not catch Rise of the Lycans, because it was a prequel and there was no Selene... and I kinda forgot the second one completely... Evolution... hardly remember it... doesn't bode well for that movie huh?

Anyway, Awakening starts with images of a culling... the killing of both werewolves and vampires... as the humans discover their existence by way of infections... anyway, so the government kick-ass team finally caught up with Selene and Michael and succeeded in capturing them... cut to 12 years later when Selene was freed from her containment cell, by her daughter... Selene finds the world has changed and she has to fight to keep her hybrid daughter safe from a lycan plot to take over the world...

Not sure if this Awakening has better action than the other movies but its pace is sure fast and furious... stopping only for a bit here and there for the sake of the audience with brains so that they can explain stuff and get things moving along before the action resumes...

Quite nice... even the red herring was not too obvious... only realize it when they were about to reveal em... unfortunately, we have to wait 3 more years for the next Underworld installment... huhu...

Globes Prediction

2012-01-13T21:08:00.002+08:00

Best Motion Picture - Drama
The Descendants
The Help
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
War Horse

Will Win: The Descendants
Should Win: Hugo

Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
The Artist
Bridesmaids
50/50
Midnight in Paris
My Week with Marilyn

Will Win: The Artist
Should Win: Bridesmaids

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama
George Clooney for The Descendants
Leonardo DiCaprio for J. Edgar
Michael Fassbender for Shame
Ryan Gosling for The Ides of March
Brad Pitt for Moneyball

Will Win: George Clooney
Should Win: Michael Fassbender

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama
Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis for The Help
Rooney Mara for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady
Tilda Swinton for We Need to Talk About Kevin

Will Win: Viola Davis
Should Win: Tilda Swinton

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Jean Dujardin for The Artist
Brendan Gleeson for The Guard
Joseph Gordon-Levitt for 50/50
Ryan Gosling for Crazy, Stupid, Love
Owen Wilson for Midnight in Paris

Will Win: Jean Dujardin
Should Win: Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Jodie Foster for Carnage
Charlize Theron for Young Adult
Kristen Wiig for Bridesmaids
Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn
Kate Winslet for Carnage

Will Win: Michelle Williams
Should Win: Kristen Wiig

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Kenneth Branagh for My Week with Marilyn
Albert Brooks for Drive
Jonah Hill for Moneyball
Viggo Mortensen for A Dangerous Method
Christopher Plummer for Beginners

Will Win: Christopher Plummer
Should Win: Jonah Hill

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Bérénice Bejo for The Artist
Jessica Chastain for The Help
Janet McTeer for Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer for The Help
Shailene Woodley for The Descendants

Will Win: Jessica Chastain
Should Win: Octavia Spencer

Best Director - Motion Picture
Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris
George Clooney for The Ides of March
Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
Alexander Payne for The Descendants
Martin Scorsese for Hugo

Will Win: Michel Hazanavicius
Should Win: Alexander Payne
Dark Horse: Martin Scorsese

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture
The Artist: Michel Hazanavicius
The Descendants: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash
The Ides of March: George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon
Midnight in Paris: Woody Allen
Moneyball: Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin, Stan Chervin

Will Win: The Descendants
Should Win: The Artist

Best Original Song - Motion Picture
Albert Nobbs: Brian Byrne, Glenn Close ("Lay Your Head Down")
Gnomeo & Juliet: Elton John, Bernie Taupin ("Hello Hello")
The Help: Mary J. Blige, Thomas Newman, Harvey Mason Jr., Damon Thomas ("The Living Proof")
Machine Gun Preacher: Chris Cornell ("The Keeper")
W.E.: Madonna, Julie Frost, Jimmy Harry ("Masterpiece")

Will Win: Mary J Blige
Should Win: Elton John

Best Original Score - Motion Picture
The Artist: Ludovic Bource
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
Hugo: Howard Shore
War Horse: John Williams
W.E.: Abel Korzeniowski

Will Win: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Should Win: Howard Shore

Best Animated Film
The Adventures of Tintin
Arthur Christmas
Cars 2
Puss in Boots
Rango

Will Win: Tintin
Should Win: Tintin

Best Foreign Language Film
The Flowers of War (China)
In the Land of Blood and Honey (USA)
The Kid with a Bike (Belgium)
A Separation (Iran)
The Skin I Live In (Spain)

Will Win: In the Land of Blood and Honey
Should Win: A Separation

Best Television Series - Drama
"American Horror Story"
"Boardwalk Empire"
"Boss"
"Game of Thrones"
"Homeland"

Will Win: Boardwalk Empire
Should Win: Homeland

Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy
"Enlightened"
"Episodes"
"Glee"
"Modern Family"
"New Girl"

Will Win: Modern Family
Should Win: Glee

Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
"Cinema Verite"
"Downton Abbey"
"The Hour"
"Mildred Pierce"
Too Big to Fail

Will Win: Downton Abbey
Should Win: Mildred Pierce

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Drama
Steve Buscemi for "Boardwalk Empire"
Bryan Cranston for "Breaking Bad"
Kelsey Grammer for "Boss"
Jeremy Irons for "The Borgias"
Damian Lewis for "Homeland"

Will Win: Steve Buscemi
Should Win: Damian Lewis

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama
Claire Danes for "Homeland"
Mireille Enos for "The Killing"
Julianna Margulies for "The Good Wife"
Madeleine Stowe for "Revenge"
Callie Thorne for "Necessary Roughness"

Will Win: Claire Danes
Should Win: Madeleine Stowe

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy
Alec Baldwin for "30 Rock"
David Duchovny for "Californication"
Johnny Galecki for "The Big Bang Theory"
Thomas Jane for "Hung"
Matt LeBlanc for "Episodes"

Will Win: Alec Baldwin
Should Win: Johnny Galecki

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy
Laura Dern for "Enlightened"
Zooey Deschanel for "New Girl"
Tina Fey for "30 Rock"
Laura Linney for "The Big C"
Amy Poehler for "Parks and Recreation"

Will Win: Tina Fey
Should Win: Amy Poehler

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
Hugh Bonneville for "Downton Abbey"
Idris Elba for "Luther"
William Hurt for Too Big to Fail
Bill Nighy for Page Eight
Dominic West for "The Hour"

Will Win: William Hurt
Should Win: Idris Elba

Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
Romola Garai for "The Hour"
Diane Lane for Cinema Verite
Elizabeth McGovern for "Downton Abbey"
Emily Watson for "Appropriate Adult"
Kate Winslet for "Mildred Pierce"

Will Win: Kate Winslet
Should Win: Elizabeth McGovern

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Peter Dinklage for "Game of Thrones"
Paul Giamatti for Too Big to Fail
Guy Pearce for "Mildred Pierce"
Tim Robbins for Cinema Verite
Eric Stonestreet for "Modern Family"

Will Win: Guy Pearce
Should Win: Eric Stonestreet

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Jessica Lange for "American Horror Story"
Kelly Macdonald for "Boardwalk Empire"
Maggie Smith for "Downton Abbey"
Sofía Vergara for "Modern Family"
Evan Rachel Wood for "Mildred Pierce"

Will Win: Maggie Smith
Should Win: Jessica Lange

Box Office

2011-12-28T19:52:00.004+08:00

Ghost Protocol is on top!

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-27/paramount-pictures-grabs-box-office-crown-with-mission-impossible-boost.html

Meanwhile, the Oscar ballots have been mailed out to the voting members...

Nominations - Golden Globe

2011-12-16T14:02:00.003+08:00

Adele continues steam-rolling through the year-end with lotsa recognitions! The Grammys are surely hers...

http://music.yahoo.com/blogs/chart-watch/chart-watch-extra-top-25-hits-200054457.html

The Golden Globes nominations are out!

http://omg.yahoo.com/goldenglobes/nominees/

Axed

2011-12-14T19:28:00.005+08:00

Shows that have been canceled for 2011 including Charlie's Angels and Prime Suspect US...

http://tv.yahoo.com/slideshow/807/photos/2

Follow this link to see if you fave shows are in trouble or not...

http://tv.yahoo.com/shows-in-trouble/#ec

Next, 10 Midseason replacements that are hot at the moment...

http://tv.yahoo.com/blogs/television-without-pity/photos-10-midseason-shows-t-wait-see-180031057.html

And finally... the CW has released its returning shows in January... I did not realize the CW has quite a number of my fave shows like The Secret Circle and The Vampire Diaries...

http://www.tvguide.com/news/cw-one-tree-hill-premieres-1039260.aspx?rss=breakingnews&partnerid=yahoo&profileid=tv2

Box Office

2011-12-12T17:40:00.002+08:00

The slowest weekend... New Year's Eve rocked it...

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-box-office-20111212,0,5457985.story

Writer/Producer

2011-12-08T13:52:00.001+08:00

The Writers Guild and The Producers Guild have announced their nominees...

http://www.hollywoodnews.com/2011/12/07/the-producers-guild-of-america-pga-announced-today-the-television-series-nominees/

http://www.hollywoodnews.com/2011/12/07/writers-guild-awards-announce-their-nominees-television-news-radio-promotional-writing-and-graphic-animation/

Adele

2011-12-06T14:34:00.003+08:00

Congratulations Adele! For her six Grammy nominations...

and also for having the biggest selling UK album of the century!!

http://zeenews.india.com/entertainment/music/adele-s-21-biggest-selling-album-of-century_101561.htm

AJL 26

2011-12-04T08:16:00.003+08:00

After 3 semi finals, the final 12 songs for Anugerah Juara Lagu has been announced...

1. Kalau Berpacaran : Suhaimi Meor Hassan feat Ana Raffali feat Altimet
2. Karma : Faizal Tahir
3. Penakut : Yuna
4. Sedetik Lebih : Anuar Zain
5. Awan Nano : Hafiz
6. Cinta Muka Buku : Najwa Latif
7. Wanita Seluruh Dunia : Projek Pistol
8. Beribu Sesalan : Ning Baizura, Shila Hamzah , Jaclyn Victor
9. Kekanda Adinda : Atilia feat Monoloque
10. Sungai Lui : Aizat
11. Kisah Hati : Alyah
12. Gadis Semasa : Yuna

I like Awan Nano by Hafiz, Beribu Sesalan by 3 Suara, Kisah Hati by Alyah... and I see a Penakut vs Sedetik Lebih smackdown...

No offense to Anuar Zain (who I love listening to actually), but I really want Yuna's Penakut to win over Sedetik Lebih... as a protest to the whole AIM debacle...

And pls let Yuna keep this win (if she wins)... or give the win to Sedetik Lebih and then retract it later and give it to Penakut...

Casting - Hansel and Gretel

2011-12-03T20:33:00.005+08:00

Ever wondered what ever became of Hansel and Gretel?

http://www.hollywood.com/news/Jeremy_Renner_and_Gemma_Arterton_Are_Hansel_Gretel_with_Guns/10005754

Awards - NBR

2011-12-02T21:49:00.003+08:00

Hugo, The Descendants, Beginners and We Need To Talk About Kevin got thumbs up from the National Board of Review...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/8930587/Hugo-named-Best-Film-by-US-National-Board-of-Review.html

Nominations - Grammy

2011-12-01T14:27:00.004+08:00

Kanye West got seven nominations while Adele got six... but Adele's are mostly from the main categories, while Kanye's are mostly from the rap categories...

http://www.grammy.com/nominees

Awards - Gotham

2011-11-30T18:03:00.006+08:00

Awards season is upon us... first up was the Gotham Awards... (yes I know the pix is of an Oscar awards... huhu)

BEST FEATURE

Winners: Tree of Life (dir. Terrence Malick) / Beginners (dir. Mike Mills)

Nominees: The Descendants (dir. Alexander Payne), Meek's Cutoff (dir. Kelly Reichardt), Take Shelter (dir. Jeff Nichols)

BREAKTHROUGH ACTOR

Winner: Felicity Jones (Like Crazy)

Nominees: Elizabeth Olson (Martha Marcy May Marlene), Harmony Santana (Gun Hill Road), Shailene Woodley (The Descendants), Jacob Wysocki (Terri)

BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR

Winner: Dee Rees (Pariah)

Nominees: Mike Cahill (Another Earth), Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene), Vera Farmiga (Higher Ground), Evan Glodell (Bellflower)

BEST ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE

Winner: Beginners

Nominees: The Descendants, Margin Call, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Take Shelter

AUDIENCE AWARD

Winner: Girlfriend (dir. Justin Lerner)

Nominees: Being Elmo: A Puppeteers Journey (dir. Constance Marks), Buck (dir. Cindy Meehl), The First Grader (dir. Justin Chadwick), Wild Horse, Wild Ride (dir. Alex Dawson and Greg Gricus)

BEST DOCUMENATARY

Winner: Better This World (dir. Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega)

Nominees: Bill Cunningham New York (dir. Richard Press), Hell and Back Again (dir. Danfung Dennis), The Interrupters (dir. Steve James), The Woodmans (dir. C. Scott Willis)

BEST FILM NOT PLAYING AT A THEATER NEAR YOU

Winner: Scenes of a Crime (dir. Blue Hadaegh and Grover Babcock)

Nominees: Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same (dir. Madeleine Olnek), Green (dir. Sophia Takal), The Redemption of General Butt Naked (Eric Strauss and Daniele Anastasion), Without (dir. Mark Jackson)

The Gotham Awards celebrates the greatest achievements in the world of indie cinema.

http://www.hollywood.com/news/The_Gotham_Awards_Winners_Announced/9785653

Star Trek

2011-11-25T13:25:00.003+08:00

2009's Star Trek sequel gets a release date...

http://www.hollywood.com/news/Star_Trek_Sequel_Gets_a_Release_Date/9415097

Box Office

2011-11-21T16:53:00.004+08:00

As expected... Breaking Dawn broke the box office...

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1674730/breaking-dawn-debut-opening-weekend.jhtml

FFM24 Winners

2011-11-20T22:37:00.010+08:00

Anugerah Gemilang Perdana
Skor Muzik Asal Terbaik: Edry Abdul Halim - Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa
Pereka Kostum / Busana Terbaik: Rosada Abdul Hamid - Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa
Penyunting Terbaik: Syamsul Yusof & Hisyam Jupri - KL Gangster
Penataan Bunyi Terbaik: Hisyam Jupri & Rizal Ashreff - KL Gangster
Cerita Asal Terbaik: Martias Mohd Ali – Libas
Lakon Layar Terbaik: Syamsul Yusof - KL Gangster
Sinematografi Terbaik: Mohd Noor Mohd Kassim – Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa
Penataan Seni Terbaik: Anuar Paharudin & Kek Ting Lam - Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa
Pelakon Pembantu Wanita Terbaik: Faezah Elai - Cun
Pelakon Pembantu Lelaki Terbaik: Soffi Jikan - KL Gangster
Pelakon Wanita Terbaik: Eja - Janin
Pelakon Lelaki Terbaik: Shaheizy Sam - Kongsi
Pengarah Filem Terbaik: Syamsul Yusuf - KL Gangster
Filem Terbaik: Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa
Filem BoxOffice: KL Gangster

Anugerah Perdana Khas
Filem Pilihan Penonton Astro Melalui SMS: Kongsi
Pencapaian Gemilang: Datuk Michelle Yeoh
Pencapaian Sepanjang Hayat: Tan Seri Jins Shamsuddin
Anugerah Juri Bintang Wayang: Sidek Husin
Anugerah Khas Juri: Libas
Anugerah Khas Juri Filem Genre Mistik Terbaik: Janin
Anugerah Khas Juri Pelakon Komedi Terbaik: Allahyarham Zami Ismail

Anugerah Gemilang Cipta
Poster Terbaik: Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa
Kesan Visual Terbaik: Yusry Abdul Halim - Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa
Pelakon Kanak-Kanak Terbaik: Mia Sara Nasuha - Sekali Lagi
Pelakon Harapan Wanita: Nadiya Nisaa - Cun
Pelakon Harapan Lelaki: Taiyuddin Bakar - Hantu Bonceng
Lagu Tema Asal Terbaik: Edry Abdul Halim - Sedetik Lebih
Pengarah Harapan: Jurey Latiff Rosli - Libas
Filem Pendek Terbaik: The Other One
Filem Animasi Terbaik: Altitude Alto
Filem Cereka Bukan Bahasa Melayu Terbaik: Great Day

Here is the link to the results of AIM, which I completely forgot to add here... http://akudansesuatuz.blogspot.com/2011/11/keputusan-pemenang-anugerah-industri.html

Prediction - FFM

2011-11-18T11:32:00.006+08:00

This weekend will be the finale of the FFM24... my predictions are as follows:-

Pengarah Terbaik
Should win: Osman Ali – Cun!
Would win: Yusry Abdul Halim – Merong Mahawangsa

Pelakon Lelaki Terbaik
Should win: Awie – Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah
Would win: Remy Ishak – Nur Kasih

Pelakon Wanita Terbaik
Should win: Lisa Surihani – Sekali Lagi
Would win: Siti Shahriza (Eja) – Janin

Pelakon Pembantu Lelaki Terbaik
Should win: Syed Asri (Shy8) – Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah
Would win: Khir Rahman – Merong Mahawangsa

Pelakon Pembantu Wanita Terbaik
Should win: Faezah Elai – Cun!
Would win: Sabrina Ali – Khurafat

Lakon Layar Terbaik
Should win: Syamsul Yusof – KL Gangster
Would win: Mira Mustaffa – Nur Kasih The Movie

Cerita Asal Terbaik
Should win: Mira Mustaffa – Nur Kasih The Movie
Would win: Mamat Khalid – Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah

Penyunting Terbaik
Should win: Syamsul Yusof – Khurafat
Would win: Brian Ng – Kongsi

Sinematografi Terbaik
Should win: Daven Raghavan – Cun!
Would win: Norhanisham Muhamad – Nur Kasih The Movie

Penataan Seni Terbaik
Should win: Irwan – Cun!
Would win: Faizal Yusof – KL Gangster

Penataan Bunyi Terbaik
Should win: Hisyam – K.L. Gangster
Would win: Sazali – Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa

Kostum Terbaik
Should win: Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah
Would win: Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa

Lagu Tema Terbaik
Should win: Azry dan Ari – Sekali Lagi
Would win: Edry Abdul Halim – Sedetik Lebih (Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa)
Winner: Edry Abdul Halim – Sedetik Lebih (Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa)

Pengarah Harapan
Should win: Jeffrey Chiang – Dilarang Masuk
Would win: Khir Rahman – Dalam Botol
Winner: Jurey Latiff Rosli – Libas

Pelakon Harapan Lelaki Terbaik
Should win: Aeril Zafrel – Aku Tak Bodoh
Would win: Arja Lee – … Dalam Botol
Winner: Taiyuddin Bakar - Hantu Bonceng

Pelakon Harapan Wanita Terbaik
Should win: Nadiya Nisaa – Cun!
Would win: Nadiya Nisaa – Cun!
Winner: Nadiya Nisaa – Cun!

Pelakon Kanak-Kanak Terbaik
Should win: Erynne Erynna – Damping Malam
Would win: Mia Sara Nasuha – Sekali Lagi
Winner: Mia Sara Nasuha – Sekali Lagi

Poster Terbaik: Merong Mahawangsa
Kesan Visual Terbaik: Yusry Abd Halim (Merong Mahawangsa)
Filem Pendek Terbaik: The Other One (Ng Ken Kin)
Filem Animasi Terbaik: Altitude Alto (Mushroomhead - Multimedia Uni)
Filem Cereka Bukan Bahasa Melayu Terbaik: Great Day

And... here is a controversial statement from Raja Azmi after Pengarah Harapan was announced and her movie did not win...

http://www.gua.com.my/hiburan/berita-hangat/Saya_Hilang_Rasa_Hormat_Pada_Jurey_Raja_Azmi.html
&
http://www.gua.com.my/hiburan/berita-hangat/Dosakah_Saya_Menang_Jurey_Latiff.html

And... here is the article for the winners from Malam Anugerah Cipta, which gave out 10 awards:
http://www.gua.com.my/hiburan/berita-hangat/Hikayat_Merong_Mahawangsa_Ungguli_FFM_24.html

Review - The Adventures of Tintin

2011-11-17T15:16:00.003+08:00

To be honest, when I first saw the trailer for Tintin, I thought it was boring and would not be a very good movie. However, last weekend, I suddenly changed my mind and decided to go watch it with some friends. And that decision was one of the best ones I had ever made.

The Adventures of Tintin was, in one word, awesome!

Feels like we were watching an Indiana Jones movie or something. It has everything. Mystery, thrills, action, comedy, drama. Seriously. It was like watching a live action movie, instead of a cartoon. But then again, only an animated feature could have shown what Tintin had shown...

So, basically, The Adventures of Tintin is about Tintin, a journalist who is good at cracking mysteries and solving crimes, with a little help from his sidekick dog, Snowy. This time, he got caught up in the drama of vengeance and treasures when he bought a model ship, not knowing what it was really worth.

After he bought the model ship, he was thrust into someone else's drama and he had no choice but to participate and solve the mystery. This brought our heroes across the world and into all kinds of mischief and excitement.

The best thing in the whole movie? Snowy. Tintin's sidekick dog. Really, really good and helpful.

Jamie Bell, Daniel Craig and Andy Serkis all brought life to the animated characters with their voice works.

There were plenty of inside jokes from Spielberg too. If you can spot it of course. Hehe.

Basically, a pretty good movie that was not boring at all, in terms of pacing and storylines and action. It gets you thinking as well. And laughing. Oh, there was plenty of laughing. And on the edge of your seat thrills. Although it came out slightly after the summer (in Malaysia at least), The Adventures of Tintin is a great summer movie! A thinking man's summer movie even! :)

Box Office

2011-11-14T13:19:00.003+08:00

The Immorals... I mean Immortals have conquered the box office!

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/11/immortals-jack-jill-j-edgar-box-office.html

AJL 26

2011-11-11T19:22:00.002+08:00

The Semi Finals of AJL 26 will go down on 18 November, 25 November and 2 December at 9pm on TV3. The AJL Semi Finalists are:

1. Sungai Lui oleh Aizat(Aizat/Anas, Aizat/Anas)
2. Ilusi oleh Adira(Audi Mok/Audi Mok)
3. Pokok oleh Meet Uncle Hussein feat. Nubhan (Taja/Tun Teja)
4. Kalau Berpacaran oleh Sohaimi Mior Hassan/Ana Raffali/Altimet (Sohaimi Mior Hassan / Ana Raffali / Altimet)
5. Beribu Sesalan oleh Ning Baizura/Jaclyn Victor/Shila Amzah (Kevin Chin/Tinta)
6. Muda oleh Hujan (Noh Hujan/Noh Hujan)
7. Wanita Seluruh Dunia oleh Projek Pistol (Boy Clifford/Boy Clifford)
8. Kurnia oleh Mizz Nina & Noh Hujan (Noh Hujan/Noh Hujan)
9. Luar Biasa oleh Shahir (Audi Mok/Zelfirdaus)
10. Karma oleh Faizal Tahir (Audi Mok/Faizal Tahir/Audi Mok/Faizal Tahir)
11. Mata Hati oleh Nubhan (Audi Mok/Audi Mok)
12. Janji oleh Akim (Akim/Akim)
13. Kekanda Adinda oleh Atilia & Monoloque (Monoloque/Monoloque)
14. Gadis Semasa oleh Yuna (Yuna/Yuna)
15. Cinta Matiku oleh Sixth Sense (Sixth Sense/Sixth Sense)
16. Penakut oleh Yuna (Yuna/Yuna)
17. Kisah Dongeng oleh Stacy (Edry Abd Halim/Edry Abd Halim)
18. Aku Permata oleh Salma (Taja/Tun Teja)
19. Sedetik Lebih oleh Anuar Zain (Edry Abd Halim/Edry Abd Halim)
20. Di Penghujungnya oleh Iqa (Edry Abd Halim/Edry Abd Halim)
21. Cinta Teragung oleh Hazama (Kuncidemak/Kuncidemak)
22. Cinta Muka Buku oleh Najwa Latif (Najwa Latif/Ika Latif)
23. Awan Nano oleh Hafiz (M.Nasir/Budi Hekayat)
24. Bila Bertemumu oleh Shiha (Ajai/Ajai)
25. Menyesal oleh Sixth Sense (Gjie/Sixthsense)
26. Maaf Dari Hati oleh Sofaz (Mohd Atlas/Mohd Atlas)
27. Kisah Hati oleh Alyah (Manusia Putih/Manusia Putih)
28. Bagaikan Bidadari oleh Tomok (Aubrey Suwito/Tomok)
29. Babak Pertama oleh Drama (Ammar Habir/Aepul)
30. Perpisahan Ini oleh 1st Edition feat. Aizat (Erol 1st Edition/Jijo 1st Edition)

Festival Filem Malaysia

2011-11-09T15:26:00.002+08:00

The final nominations for FFM24 are:

Pengarah Terbaik
Osman Ali – Cun!

Mamat Khalid – Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah

Yusry Abdul Halim – Merong Mahawangsa

Syamsul Yusof – KL Gangster

Ahmad Idham – Senjakala

Pelakon Lelaki Terbaik
Syamsul Yusof – K.L. Gangster

Awie – Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah

Shaheizy Sam – Kongsi

Remy Ishak – Nur Kasih

Zahiril Adzim – Senjakala

Pelakon Wanita Terbaik
Maya Karin – Cun!

Siti Shahriza (Eja) – Janin

Tiz Zaqyah – Nur Kasih

Lisa Surihani – Sekali Lagi

Liyana Jasmay – Senjakala

Pelakon Pembantu Lelaki Terbaik
Hasnol Rahmat – Mantra

Soffi Jikan – KL Gangster

Khir Rahman – Merong Mahawangsa

Syed Asri (Shy8) – Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah

Salehuddin Abu Bakar – Hantu Bonceng

Pelakon Pembantu Wanita Terbaik
Intan Ladyana – Bini-Biniku Gangster

Faezah Elai – Cun!

Fauziah Datuk Ahmad Daud – … Dalam Botol

Sherry Merlis – Janin

Sabrina Ali – Khurafat

Lakon Layar Terbaik
Yusry Abd Halim – Merong Mahawangsa

Syamsul Yusof – KL Gangster

Syamsul Yusof – Khurafat

Farid Kamil – Kongsi

Mira Mustaffa – Nur Kasih The Movie

Cerita Asal Terbaik
Mamat Khalid – Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah

Syamsul Yusof – Khurafat

Syamsul Yusof – K.L. Gangster

Martias Ali – Libas

Mira Mustaffa – Nur Kasih The Movie

Penyunting Terbaik
Wan Mohd Hafiz – Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa

Syamsul Yusof – Khurafat

Syamsul Yusof – K.L. Gangster

Brian Ng – Kongsi

Ahmad Mustadha – Senjakala

Sinematografi Terbaik
Daven Raghavan – Cun!

Mohd Noor Mohd Kassim – Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa

Azami Alias / Omar Ismail – Khurafat

Mihd Shaufe Abd Wahib – Libas

Norhanisham Muhamad – Nur Kasih The Movie

Penataan Seni Terbaik
Anuar Paharudin – Mantra

Anuar Paharudin – Flat 3A

Anuar Paharudin – Merong Mahawangsa

Faizal Yusof – KL Gangster

Irwan – Cun!

Penataan Bunyi Terbaik
Brian Ng – Flat 3A

Sazali – Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa

Hisyam – Khurafat

Hisyam – K.L. Gangster

Dustin – Nur Kasih The Movie

Kostum Terbaik
Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah

K.L. Gangster

Kongsi

Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa

Lagu Tema Terbaik
Edry Abdul Halim – Sedetik Lebih (Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa)

One Nation Emcee – Klip 3GP

Yasin – Nur Kasih The Movie

Azry dan Ari – Sekali Lagi

Syamsir – Sini Ada Hantu

Pengarah Harapan
M. Suurya – Sumpahan Puaka

S.Baldev Singh – Rasuk

Jeffrey Chiang – Dilarang Masuk

Khir Rahman – Dalam Botol

Jurey Latiff Rosli – Libas

Pelakon Harapan Lelaki Terbaik
Aeril Zafrel – Aku Tak Bodoh

Zalif Sidek – Bini-Biniku Gangster

Arja Lee – … Dalam Botol

Adey Syafrien – Flat 3A

Pelakon Harapan Wanita Terbaik
Nadiya Nisaa – Cun!

Shera Aiyob – Karak

Syamira Azmil – Karipap-Karipap Cinta

Shamimie Amalina Nor Norhisaham – Klip 3GP

Sara Ali – Nur Kasih The Movie

Pelakon Kanak-Kanak Terbaik
Wan Nor Aizat – Aku Bukan Tomboy

Irzan Shah – Cun!

Erynne Erynna – Damping Malam

Ilyas Suhaimi – Nur Kasih The Movie

Mia Sara Nasuha – Sekali Lagi

The People's Choice

2011-11-09T11:31:00.003+08:00

The Deathly Hallows leading the field of nominations...

http://my.news.yahoo.com/daniel-radcliffe-tops-people-choice-nominations-143000927.html

Box Office

2011-11-08T11:29:00.001+08:00

Puss in Boots defeated a Tower Heist for the win!

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20111107/GPG0503/111107030/Box-office-Tower-Heist-can-t-steal-top-spot-from-surprising-Puss-Boots-

Anugerah Skrin 2011

2011-11-05T01:02:00.007+08:00

Full Results:

Lakon Layar Terbaik - Erhan Baharuddin/ Sujin Lee - Aku Tak Bodoh

Lakon TV Terbaik - Sabri Yunus - Sanggul Beracun

Videografi Terbaik - Sanggul Beracun

Pelakon Pembantu Wanita Terbaik (Filem) - Nadiya Nissa - Cun

Pelakon Pembantu Lelaki Terbaik (Filem) - Sidek Hussin - Karak

Pelakon Pembantu Wanita Terbaik (Drama) - Elfira Loy - Kum Kum

Pelakon Pembantu Lelaki Terbaik (Drama) - Allahyarham Faizal Yusof - Jangan Hantar Aku Ke Neraka

Drama Komedi Terbaik - Geng Surau

Rancangan Realiti TV Terbaik - Showdown 2011

Rancangan Muzikal Terbaik - Shout Awards 2010

Rancangan Bual Bicara Terbaik - Selami Jiwa Dato' Fadzilah Kamsah

Anugerah Pelakon Wanita Terbaik (Filem) - Siti Shahrizah (Eja) - Janin

Anugerah Pelakon Lelaki Terbaik (Filem) - Remy Ishak - Cun

Anugerah Artis Harapan Pantene - Fazli Daniel Ali - Yang Terpuji

Anugerah Pelakon Wanita Terbaik (Drama) - Umie Aida - Airmata Nur Salina

Anugerah Pelakon Lelaki Terbaik (Drama) - Eman Manan - Janji Syurga

Pengarah Terbaik (Filem) - Osman Ali - Cun

Pengarah Terbaik (Drama) - Sabri Yunus - Sanggul Beracun

Anugerah Yasmin Ahmad - Syamsul Yusof

Drama Rantaian Terbaik - Juvana

Filem Terbaik - Magika

Drama Terbaik - Sanggul Beracun

Taken from http://www.tekanplay.com/

007

2011-11-04T11:18:00.002+08:00

The 23rd Bond movie has a title now...

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/11/03/james-bond-skyfall/

... and Andy Serkis struck gold...

http://www.deadline.com/2011/11/andy-serkis-closes-big-planet-of-the-apes-deal-should-fox-campaign-for-oscar/

Box Office

2011-10-31T13:47:00.002+08:00

Puss in Boots kicked ass all alone, without the ogre, the princess and the donkey...

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/10/box-office-puss-in-boots-rum-diary.html

FFM24

2011-10-27T14:52:00.003+08:00

Malaysia's very own Oscars, the FFM24 will be held on the 19th of Nov... the list below are of the movies that are eligible for contention this time around...

1. Sini Ada Hantu (Astro Show/Double Vision)
2. Cun (Tayangan Unggul)
3. Tolong Awek Aku Pontianak (Tayangan Unggul)
4. Rasuk (White Merpati Entertainment)
5. Khurafat (Skop Productions)
6. KL Gangster (Skop Productions)
7. Seru (Tayangan Unggul/Hanmania)
8. Karipap-Karipap Cinta (Cinematic Pictures)
9. Libas (MDAG Marketing)
10. Di Larang Masuk (Cineworks)
11. Al-Hijab (Empat Semudra Plantation)
12. Kembar Siang (Metrowealth Pictures)
13. Kongsi (Metrowealth Pictures)
14. 3 2 1 Cinta (Metrowealth Pictures)
15. Sekali Lagi (Metrowealth Pictures)
16. Flat 3A (Metrowealth Pictures)
17. Senjakala (Excellent Pictures)
18. Sumpahan Puaka (Genius Parade)
19. Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa (KRU Studios)
20. Karak (KRU Studios)
21. Penunggu Istana (Primeworks Studio)
22. Nur Kasih The Movie (Primeworks Studio)
23. Klip X 3GP (Primeworks Studio)
24. Toyol Nakal (Artistik Pictures)
25. Ratu The Movie (Lineclear Motion Pictures)
26. Raya Tak Jadi (Lineclear Motion Pictures)
27. Momok Jangan Panggil Aku (Galaksi Seni)
28. …Dalam Botol (Penerbitan J.A.S)

Guess which 5 will be shortlisted for the Best Film honor? My picks would be Sini Ada Hantu, Cun, Tolong! Awek Aku Pontianak... well, I only loved 3 movies? Hmm... maybe Sekali Lagi can join in the list... but other than that...

Pretty sure when they actually release the names of the nominees, Merong would be nominated... le sigh...

http://www.gua.com.my/hiburan/berita-hangat/FFM24_42_Filem_Layak_Bertanding.html

http://zonfiniti.blogspot.com/2011/07/senarai-pencalonan-festival-filem.html

Review - Al-Hijab

2011-10-24T00:40:00.005+08:00

To be honest, I have no idea what a Hijab is until I watched this movie. Or the trailer of this movie. But I have known the concept of it all before.

Unfortunately, the Hijab in question did not came about until one third of the movie... and then, after the hijab thing happened, it came into play quite late in the game as well...

Anyway, this movie is Pierre Andre's baby... him, of the Seru and Jangan Pandang Belakang fame...

Actually, the storyline is a bit iffy... Rafael (played stiffly by Pierre) is an aspiring actor who finally gets a big break in the film industry. His first major movie role. In a horror movie. Unfortunately for him, he does not get easily spooked so naturally he turns to the hijab thing, which by the way, is the unseen veil covering our eyes from seeing the supernatural and the otherworldly.

Come on. Isn't it a wonder that your acting career kinda stalled? You. Just. Can't. Act. And I am not talking about Pierre Andre himself. Hmm, although, now that we're talking about it, he was quite stiff, especially in his scenes with Nur Fathia, who is a dead ringer for Ashley Tisdale. That's Sharpay Evans from the High School Musical trilogy, for those not in the know.

Back to the not being able to act. Seriously? You'd go for that kind of thing? You just cannot pretend to be scared of something? Do you need to see it up close and personal? Come on! Does not make sense. Unless you really are stiff like wood and cannot act. Again, I am talking about Rafael.

Since we're talking about acting, might as well start taking a swipe at the actors. As I've been alluding to, or kinda outrightly saying, Pierre Andre is quite stiff, and not the good kind. But not all of his scenes were stiff though. There were some subtle facial expressions that he did pull off but mostly, he was just stiff. Especially in his lovey dovey scenes with Ashley Tisdale...

Nur Fathia is not too bad here but when she's sharing the spotlight with Pierre, kinda falls flat... Maybe they both just don't have chemistry... Nur Albaniah fares a lot better in this movie. At least she played it with a bit more natural flair... and Maimun Talib, for the brief moments she was on the screen, was great. Her face has that naturally mean and strict look, but then again, her role was not really a stretch for anyone. Well, except maybe for Rafael. Ooh, burn! *sizzle sound*

Anywho, if you are watching this movie, and you are watching it carefully, you can totally see the dubbing work and it was sloppily done. Not sure where the blame lies. I really have to look into this. Is it the actors missing their marks and/or delivery? Is it the director who allowed the actors to miss their marks? Is it the editing people? Is it the dubbing people? Is it the producers? Who? Seriously. Who? Coz a lot of the Malay movies have horrendous dubbing work. But kudos though for the actors doing the dubbing. Their voice acting was kinda good. Unfortunately, the actual acting on screen was not up to par with the voice acting. Sigh.

Sounds like I am being overly negative yes? Dude. This movie was quite bad. From the horrendous dubbing, to the iffy-ness of the plot, to the corny-ness of the romantic scenes/dialogue, to the lame-ness of the script and the predictability of the ending, to the damn plotholes...

I mean, seriously... The opening of the movie? Had nothing to do with Hijabs at all... and I am not even sure what that was exactly. Was it a precursor to the movie that they were about to start filming? Coz immediately after the opening scene, we see a script with the title of Jalan Mati. But the opening scene had nothing to do with any dead ends. Sigh. I thought once Rafael got the hijab thingy done, then they would somehow refer to or tie in the opening scene to the entire movie but noooooooooooooo... nothing like that ever happened...

Don't even get me started on how Rafael was able to walk from a kampung back to the city, when clearly, it took him all day to drive from the city to the kampung. Not too mention him walking from the deserted building back to his house. And then the Audi car. He was supposed to get the car when he works for the future father-in-law but he was already driving it. Maybe he borrowed it. But he has his own ride...

And then, once he was hijab-ed, he did not get to see much of anything... but other people sees it hovering nearby him... which doesn't make sense much... coz he was supposed to be able to see, but was not supposed to attract those elements...

And then, when he could see the scariness... he turned down the lead in the movie... the only reason you went through that was to finally know what it takes to feel scared, to get a genuine reaction for the movie... but after you are able to do it for reals... you quit the movie... W. T. F. ?? That's 50K down the drain dude. Seriously? And a chance to work with Fazura. Seriously??

And... when your final redemption came around, we knew what was gonna happen... and we were right... and the reaction from Rafael was not of horror or even resigned to the fact you are stuck to that fate... it was more like he saw a box of gold bars or something to that effect... but that's just me being nitpicky...

Anyway, I do feel that Pierre Andre's work has been slipping... maybe he feels complacent with the successes of his horror flicks... I really don't know what's going on... but Jangan Pandang Belakang, for what it's worth, was quite okay and actually redefined the local horror genre...

That was RM18 down the drain... yup, I actually paid for Premiere Tickets... don't ask me why... if only there is a way to get a refund... I suppose I could just walk up to Pierre and demand my money back... like I was tempted to do with Prof Razak Mohaideen when I paid to watch Sifu & Tongga... but guess that would just be a fantasy... even the sight of Ashley Tisdale speaking Malay was not enough to cover the RM18... huhu...

Box Office

2011-10-17T15:39:00.001+08:00

Still reigning supreme...

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,2097040,00.html

Casting: Bond 23

2011-10-13T22:41:00.002+08:00

Javier Bardem will square off with Daniel Craig in Bond 23...

http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/the-projector/javier-bardem-latest-bond-baddie-160045095.html

AMA

2011-10-12T12:59:00.003+08:00

Adele has the most nominations for the American Music Awards...

http://my.news.yahoo.com/adele-leads-ama-nominations-143000745.html

Box Office

2011-10-10T15:20:00.002+08:00

Real Steel knocked out the competition...

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-box-office-20111010,0,4933693.story

Fall TV: Good & Bad

2011-10-05T13:36:00.004+08:00

Among those who posted good numbers for Fall's new shows is The Secret Circle... Yay!

http://tv.yahoo.com/slideshow/771/photos/1#rr0923

Best Paid

2011-09-29T11:46:00.002+08:00

Eva Longoria tied with Tina Fey as best paid TV actress...

http://my.news.yahoo.com/eva-longoria-tina-fey-best-paid-tv-actresses-143000035.html

Catwoman

2011-09-27T11:31:00.002+08:00

Anne Hathaway's Catwoman is facing the same negative buzz as Halle Berry's...

http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/the-projector/anne-hathaway-looks-interesting-catwoman-142747276.html

Meanwhile, Charlie Sheen and Warner Bros settled their Two and a Half Men dispute...

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/charlie-sheen-warner-bros-reach-settlement-over-two-225300749.html

Box Office

2011-09-26T16:56:00.001+08:00

The Lions beat back Brad Pitt...

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/lion-king-chases-off-brad-pitt-remain-no-154529536.html

Box Office Emmy

2011-09-19T11:27:00.004+08:00

The Lion is still King!!

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/09/box-office-lion-king-drive-straw-dogs-contagion.html

Meanwhile, the Emmy winners have been announced!

Yay to Modern Family, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Gwyneth Paltrow, Maggie Smith, Jim Parsons and Melissa McCarthy!!

http://www.imdb.com/features/emmys/2011/nominations

Creative Arts Emmy

2011-09-16T17:32:00.003+08:00

The Creative Arts Emmy has been announced! Holly Holiday won!! Woo-hoo!!

http://www.goldderby.com/television/news/1882/emmys-2011-complete-list-of-creative-arts-winners.html

Box Office

2011-09-12T16:54:00.004+08:00

Contagion beats The Help...

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/contagion-cleans-box-office-first-place-165628265.html

P/S - RIP Andy Whitfield...

Oscar Host

2011-09-07T11:47:00.003+08:00

Eddie Murphy will host the Oscars next year...

http://my.news.yahoo.com/eddie-murphy-confirmed-oscars-host-143000740.html

2011-09-06T17:39:00.003+08:00

The Help still on top...

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/help-puts-overtime-no-1-19m-155248861.html

Two and a Half Men

2011-08-25T18:00:00.003+08:00

Two and A Half Men started promoting the new star...

http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/cbs-unveils-racy-ashton-kutchery-new-two-and-a-half-men-ad--3341?nc

Box Office

2011-08-22T14:46:00.003+08:00

The Help got a boost, beats off Apes...

http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2011/08/22/the_help_takes_over_the_top_spot_at_the_box_office/

Review - Horrible Bosses

2011-08-18T13:11:00.006+08:00

Horrible Bosses? Horrible title. But the movie is not horrible at all. In fact, it is quite the funny one. Funnier than the other summer R-rated comedies (Bridesmaids, The Hangover II).

One of the reasons I wanted to watch this is because of Jennifer Aniston. And Jason Bateman. Playing against type, Aniston kinda stole the show here whenever she's on screen. Bateman is playing the straight guy here but still manages to get some laughs. But that's probably due to the interactions he had with the other two guys, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day.

Sudeikis, from SNL and 30 Rock, is not bad here. So is Charlie Day, whose high pitched voice and awkward geekiness is milked fully here.

So, basically Horrible Bosses is about... yup, you guessed it... horrible bosses. One guy was passed over for a promotion even though he was promised it by the boss, one guy had an asshole for a boss and the other one has a maneater for a boss, sexually harassing him every day. They all come up with the idea of getting rid of their bosses.

Like all R-rated comedies, this one is full of cussing and outlandish stunts... but it's funny... unlike some other movie where it's not entirely funny at all... (read: Bridesmaids)...

It was a pleasant surprise, this one... :)

P/S - I really feel sorry for Jennifer Aniston... she has not had a hit on her name alone in a while now... all of her movies that are very successful are the ones where she plays second fiddle...

Review - The Hangover II

2011-08-16T11:06:00.006+08:00

The Wolfpack is back! This time, they're heading to Thailand for Stu's wedding... History repeats itself as they wake up in another city and have no recollection of what happened... and have lost Teddy, Stu's bride-to-be's baby brother...

The first movie was of similar storyline... they went to Vegas for their friend's bachelor party but winds up losing him and they have to retrace their steps to find the friend... even the conclusion was similar...

I did not get to see this movie until after it got the Golden Globe nomination... and yes, it was quite different from the rest of the summer stuff... but with this movie, because of the familiar retreads... felt like there was nothing special about the movie... has the been there, done that feel... well, obviously, coz it's a sequel... but some sequels are quite fresh...

To tell you the truth, I was not really inspired to review much these days... Not sure if it's coz of puasa or the movies are not that good... sigh...

Anyway, The Hangover 2 is not without its good points... the same formula that made the first one good, still applies here... the stars' chemistry together is a wonder to watch...

Unfortunately, Zach Galifianakis is slowly starting to carve a niche for himself as the uber weird guy in all the movies... I first saw him on Tru Calling... and was glad to see him making a name for himself... but with the two Hangovers and that movie with Robert Downey Jr... he'll soon be typecast for sure...

Other than that, it was just enjoyable... leave brain at the door and enjoy... :)

Box Office

2011-08-15T10:58:00.002+08:00

Apes did it again!!

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/08/box-office-the-help-rise-of-the-planet-of-the-apes-final-destination.html

Awards - Teen Choice

2011-08-09T13:58:00.003+08:00

Taylor Swift dominated the Teen Choice Awards...

http://extratv.warnerbros.com/2011/08/winners_taylor_swift_dominates_at_2011_teen_choice_awards.php

Box Office

2011-08-08T13:50:00.003+08:00

The apes beat off blue creatures, cowboys and aliens...

http://www.thehdroom.com/news/Weekend-Box-Office-Apes-Rise-to-the-Number-One-Spot/9348

Catwoman

2011-08-06T01:08:00.002+08:00

The latest Catwoman...

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/first-look-see-anne-hathaway-catwoman-dark-knight-131006882.html

Superman

2011-08-05T12:12:00.001+08:00

New Superman costume revealed...

http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/superman-revealed-first-photo-man-steel-165334772.html

TV - Ringer

2011-08-04T11:00:00.002+08:00

Buffy the Vampire Slayer AKA Sarah Michelle Gellar is returning to TV!! Yay!!

Pleeeeassseeee be good! Pleeeaaaasssee be good!

Buffy 9

2011-08-01T13:41:00.003+08:00

Yay! Can't wait! :)

http://geek-news.mtv.com/2011/07/27/sdcc-2011-joss-whedon-is-your-master-dishes-on-buffy-season-9/

Box Office

2011-08-01T12:19:00.003+08:00

It's a tie!

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/box-office-shocker-cowboys-aliens-gets-smurfed-144941080.html

Captain Planet

2011-07-29T11:28:00.001+08:00

Captain Planet movie? God, I hope it's not gonna be preachy and hokey and corny... huhu...

http://my.news.yahoo.com/captain-planet-movie-031900769.html

Trailer - Paranormal Activity 3

2011-07-28T16:04:00.002+08:00

Teaser trailer... although it's called Paranormal Activity 3, it seems to be a prequel...

Female Comedy

2011-07-27T16:25:00.005+08:00

Bridesmaids surpasses Sex and the City...

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/usmovies.thehollywoodreporter.com/bridesmaids-passes-sex-and-city-become-top-rrated-female-comedy-ever

Review - Flat 3A

2011-07-26T11:28:00.008+08:00

Flat 3A tells the story of Fiqah (Intan Ladyana), a factory worker who is pregnant. Anas (Adey Shafrien), the boyfriend, forces Fiqah to undergo abortion. After that, Fiqah is overwhelmed by guilt and remorse that she moved to another flat with her friend Ratna (Shasha).

Unknown to her, the house she's moving in was the base of a black magic shaman, Kang Suman (Zaidi Omar) and people there suspected Kang Suman was responsible for the disappearance of a little girl named Fatin.

Fiqah is then haunted by a little girl in the house, who she says looks like Fatin. But Ratna dismisses her claims because Fiqah is still traumatised.

Meanwhile, Fatin's mom (Kathy Azean) and uncle, Wahyu, who is an exorcist, carry on searching for her.

Yet another horror movie... this one's from Azhari Mohd Zain, who brought us Santau and Mantra. Flat 3A's slightly different from the other two, but still kinda the same... especially the whole shaman/bomoh theme... guess he really can't run away from those elements...

For me, this was an entertaining movie... not too scary, but it has its moments... unfortunately, the whole experience was marred by the storytelling... although I loved that the story had layers and it was told separately but was united at the end by one common thread... but there were things that did not work...

For example... Fiqah... where did she fit into all this... it was just too coincidental for her involvement in this... why was she haunted by Fatin? Why doesn't Fatin just haunt someone else into solving the mystery of her disappearance? Why did she show up at her mom's place that night and not the nights before? And why doesn't the people around the flat do something about her and Kang Suman's disappearance? Plus, dead body? Would've reeked right? The entire flat would've smelled like, well, rotting flesh...

Anyway, even after all that, I still liked this movie... mostly because how every character and storylines eventually link to one another... it's like an onion, multilayered and delicious... hehe...

Acting-wise... not too bad... I've never really liked Intan Ladyana coz she was not too good an actress plus her voice is a bit too shrill... but she was not bad in this movie... suited her... Ery Zukhairi and Adey Shafrien looked like they could be twins or brothers... faces are too similar... they did not do a bad job but kinda stiff in a couple of scenes...

All in all, enjoyable... not too bad...

Box Office

2011-07-25T11:18:00.003+08:00

Captain America defeated the Boy Who Lived...

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2011-07-24-captain-america_n.htm

Meanwhile, Harry and friends continues to make history...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/21/idUS146822109520110721

Captain America

2011-07-21T12:37:00.002+08:00

Some countries are renaming Captain America...

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.ap.org/captain-america-keeps-full-name-most-world-ap

Trailer - The Dark Knight Rises

2011-07-20T11:41:00.003+08:00

First the poster, now the teaser trailer is out... attached to The Deathly Hallows II...

http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/dark-knight-teaser-answers-questions-raises-more-001124184.html

Poster - The Dark Knight Rises

2011-07-19T12:49:00.003+08:00

The new Batman's poster is out... probably a teaser poster...

http://blog.movies.yahoo.com/blog/1698-dark-knight-poster-looks-familiar-inception-like

Box Office

2011-07-18T10:52:00.003+08:00

Harry Potter defeated Batman and Jack Sparrow... and conquered the current box office, naturally...

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/Movies/07/17/boxoffice.ew/

Casting - Glee

2011-07-15T11:09:00.006+08:00

Major casting news from the Glee camp... seems like 3 of its main stars will not continue on after Season 3...

http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/glee-star-cory-monteith-learns-hes-fired-in-the-hollywood-reporter--3329

http://www.usmagazine.com/moviestvmusic/news/chris-colfer-lea-michele-react-to-glee-casting-changes-2011147

And I've heard that Sam (Chord Overstreet) won't be returning in the next season... what's going on with Glee?

In other news, the Emmy nominations are out!

http://www.emmys.com/

Some of my faves are nominated... like Melissa McCarthy from Mike & Molly (although I love her for her other works such as Samantha Who?), Chris Colfer (Glee), Jim Parsons and Johnny Galecki (The Big Bang Theory), Tina Fey (30 Rock) and Ty Burrell and Julie Bowen (Modern Family)!! Woo-hoo!!

Full nominee list: http://www.emmys.com/sites/emmys.com/files/PressReleaseNoms2011emmys.pdf

http://www.emmys.com/sites/emmys.com/files/PressReleaseNoms2011emmys.doc

Review - The Deathly Hallows II

2011-07-14T13:28:00.006+08:00

The final movie is finally here. The kids practically grew up right in front of us. It's a bit of a bittersweet moment...

So... Part II of The Deathly Hallows starts when Voldermort got the Elder Wand from Dumbledore's grave. Harry Potter and his friends are still on the hunt for the horcruxes in order to destroy Voldermort's soul and vanquish him for good. One of the horcruxes was in Hogwarts. Soon as they return to Hogwarts, Voldermort and his entire Death Eater crew came a'knockin' and an all-out magical war begins between the forces of good and the forces of evil.

If you guys read the book like I did, you'd be psyched about this movie, especially about the Battle of Hogwarts where many characters died and many characters rose to the occasion.

Unfortunately, they made plenty of changes to the storylines... the Battle of Hogwarts was reduced to a tiny fragment of its initial awesomeness and most of the fights were changed. I understand from a filmmakers/scriptwriters POV to make it the way it was shown on film, coz it would mean that the main characters/main supporting characters get a chance to shine, rather than just let them be a part of a huge army. But that was how it was supposed to be...

I don't get how JK Rowling would've allowed this to happen. I mean, you spend a lot of time writing it and then to have it reduced to THAT... I would've thrown a tantrum... I did throw a tantrum once the movie was over...

But then again, that's just me. I did not even bother to read the rest of the books in the series but I did read The Deathly Hallows. And the Battle of Hogwarts was one of the most awesome battles ever! Yes, yes, I know it was kinda difficult to translate all that to film but they could have tried... some bits you could've left out but the really important ones (such as Bellatrix Lastrange and Voldermort's demises) should've been intact...

One thing I was glad they decided to not follow from the book was McGonagall's feistiness and also her battling Snape. Was awesome! Like Catwoman but with fire instead of a whip! You go girl! Hehe... am so glad she could finish the whole series... I love Maggie Smith... :)

Anyway, the acting was really good, as it always were. Special effects were also on point. The epilogue was touching... and it is a fitting end to an awesome series of books/movies. Harry, Hermione, Ron... we will miss you guys... *sobs*

Review - Sekali Lagi Pontianak

2011-07-13T14:14:00.009+08:00

The title of this post seems to suggest that this is a review of some sort of Malay spoof movie... which it is not... it is a review of two movies as a result of last night's movie marathon at Pavilion.

This is quite a busy month for me, even though I still watch movies every week but my movie days are normally reserved for the high profile blockbusters of the summer and my friends definitely won't wanna watch Malay movies, especially these two... today I am going to see Harry Potter's final movie, so it was decided that I would watch Sekali Lagi at 6pm and then Tolong Awek Aku Pontianak at 9pm.

Sekali Lagi is a charming little movie starring three of the best working actors today, Lisa Surihani, Shaheizy Sam and Bront Palarae. It's about Arman (Shaheizy Sam), who is an adult but has the mind of a child. Autism. On his daily outings, he met Amy (Mia Sara Nasuha, who I suspect is Afdlin Shauki's daughter, but I could be wrong), and they hit it off really well, since they were about the same age mentally, but Amy is a bit more matured though.

Amy's mom, Shila (Lisa Surihani) is a single mother working in the city and is being helped by Bront Palarae's character, who is carrying a torch for her. Unfortunately, Shila was still badly scarred after being dumped by the love of her life and finding out she was pregnant with Amy at the same time.

The very first thing you see when the movie started is the labelling... this movie was said to be a romantic comedy... romantic comedy my ass... there was barely any laughing out loud scenes that would constitute a comedy... it is not even a dark comedy... it's actually a drama... a very emotional drama at that... I actually cried... haha... yup, nothing shameful in admitting it... lucky I was alone and there was barely anybody in the cinema...

Anyway, this is a very charming, emotional drama... and the storylines get peeled off one layer at a time... like an onion and each layer added quite a punch to the movie... and it's all tied up together pretty neatly... for a layman like me, I was pretty impressed with the level of storytelling here...

Acting-wise, this movie is rife with good actors... I am biased I admit but I love Lisa... she did a really good job here... so does Bront Palarae and Kartina Aziz... Shaheizy Sam is of course really good, hands down... the young actor in the movie is not bad as well, although there are times the dubbing failed her but mostly she did a good job, for someone that young...

Any movie that gets me crying is a good one...

After this movie, it's off to watch Tolong Awek Aku Pontianak... from director James Lee, who is increasingly becoming one of my favorite local directors. His first movie... or maybe the movie of his I saw was Histeria and it blew me away... Sini Ada Hantu was a good movie as well... so I was looking forward to seeing this one, even though the title really turned me off...

Tolong! Awek Aku Pontianak is about Bob who is a floormat/wallflower who just got dumped by his gold-digging girlfriend... he moves to a different house to have a fresh new start... and his neighbors are two girls who happens to be pontianaks... of course he falls for the older sister without knowing she is a supernatural entity...

But then Bob's boss tried stealing her from Bob and she revealed her true identity to him and he plots to save Bob from her, even though Bob is smitten with her... In a side plot, another supernatural entity is coming to KL because a bomoh type person is hot on her tail...

This movie is rife with pop culture reference... just about every single horror movie was referenced... from Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam to Zombi Kampung Pisang... although this movie is less funny than Sini Ada Hantu and less scary than Histeria...

Acting-wise, this movie is nice enough, even the cartoon-ish characters were handled well...

I've never been a Sazzy Falak fan but I enjoyed her performance in this movie. Liyana Jasmay supports nicely but she was rarely required to do anything much but pouts and stand around looking cute... Zahiril Adzim's second movie role (as far as I am concerned coz I've only seen him in one other movie, Senjakala) and he did a better job here. He played wallflower well with a bit of the charm and likeable aura thrown in.

The surprise for me in this movie is Nurul Wahab, the singer... she seemed natural at this... maybe I've missed her doing some movies, I don't know... but then again, she was not required to do much...

I do have one gripe though... the fight scenes were a bit wooden... would've loved seeing the pontianaks going at it with a showing of impressive powers or something... but you can totally see when they were fighting it was broad swipes at nothing...

Other than that, I had fun watching two good movies... I have read some reviews and my colleagues have told me stuff about both movies but I cleared my mind when watching... wanted to watch without prejudice or expectations... unfortunately, some stuff stuck to mind and I saw what they were talking about but with relatively low expectations, I watched both and thoroughly enjoyed the movies...

P/S - today is The Deathly Hallows Part 2 at Times Square *gurly shrieks*

Marathon

2011-07-12T10:46:00.002+08:00

Today, after work... going to Pavilion to catch two Malay movies... yup, I do watch Malay movies, and these two aren't even horror movies... okay2, Tolong Awek Aku Pontianak can be considered horror, but it's more comedic...

One of my favorite Malay actresses, Lisa Surihani... and two of the better actors working today, Bront Palarae and Shaheizy Sam... hope it's good...

One of my favorite directors... James Lee... looking forward to this one after Histeria and Sini Ada Hantu...

Box Office

2011-07-11T11:33:00.001+08:00

The robots ruled again!

http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/box-office-transformers-is-prime-once-again.php

Review - The Dark of the Moon

2011-07-08T09:12:00.003+08:00

The thing about the Transformers is that there are a lot of fans of the 80's cartoons. The first Transformers movie was not too bad, quite enjoyable and nice. Unfortunately for us, the second one was not good at all.

Yup, Michael Bay's gone and screwed up the Transformers franchise with Revenge of the Fallen. The robots were relegated to secondary characters and some weren't even named. They could be destroyed by human weapons. Even Optimus Prime needed Even Stevens to save him. WTF right??

So with the third one, I had hoped that Bay would've made a Transformers movie where the robots were the focus, instead of the humans. Against all odds of course. But The Dark of the Moon had gone back the way of the first movie. More focus on the robots, although the human elements were still aplenty.

There were about 9 Autobots and apart from Optimus, each robot had about 2 lines each on average. Still better than RofF.

At least no robots needed a human to save them or revive them. But now, the robots actually die by human hands. Sigh...

Anyway, I did enjoy this movie. A lot better than RotF. The new girl, Rose Huntington-Whiteley, was a nice replacement for Megan Fox, even though Fox's character was no damsel in distress and could hold her own like Shia LaBeouf's character. At least this new girl and Sam had chemistry and she did a good job considering this is her debut.

I do like the space bridge storylines and the fact that the Autobots were betrayed by one of their own. Other than that, not much left to be said. Unless of course, you were not originally a fan of the original Transformers. Then The Dark of the Moon is a very good summer flick...

I want to win tickets to Larry Crowne and Lulla Man!

2011-07-07T11:16:00.005+08:00

First of, I just wanna say that this post is specifically written to win me some free tickets from Adverlets... *crossing fingers*

If I could get a second chance, what would I have done differently in high school? Hmm, lessee... what would I do differently... I probably would have tried getting past my body issues and self esteem issues. Just to be comfortable in my own skin. I think that was one of the worst times in my life, the uncomfortableness and the feeling of being left out coz I was different than the rest of the cookie cutter clan. Other than that, nothing else I would've done differently.

How do you rekindle a dying relationship? This is tricky. Coz I haven't really been in a long term relationship and most of them died instantly. No such concept as 'dying'... huhu. Anyway, I guess I would just have a talk with the partner. Long and deep. Air everything out. Weigh in the pros and cons, and then decide on a course of action. Hmm, sounds like the dying relationship is gonna die huh? :)

Trailer - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

2011-07-06T15:11:00.002+08:00

Looks to be as good as the original...

Box Office

2011-07-04T09:17:00.003+08:00

Dark of the Moon is #1, not surprisingly... but underperformed against Revenge of the Fallen...

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.ap.org/transformers-shape-up-with-years-best-weekend-ap

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.reuters.com/transformers-global-box-office-hits-372-million-reuters

TCA

2011-07-02T09:25:00.003+08:00

The Television Critics Association announced the nominees for its awards...

http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/06/13/tca-nominations/
http://tvcritics.org/2011/06/13/the-television-critics-association-announces-2011-tca-awards-nominees/

Ferrera

2011-06-29T14:02:00.004+08:00

America Ferrera, the star of Ugly Betty, has gotten married...

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/america-ferrera-weds-at-star-packed-bash/66050

Today, will be watching Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon at Pavilion... crazy... tickets have sold out since Monday...

Craig-Weiss

2011-06-28T12:23:00.002+08:00

Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz got married! Did not even know they were dating...

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/daniel-craig-and-rachel-weisz-secretly-wed/65882

Box Office

2011-06-27T14:33:00.003+08:00

Cars 2 zoomed past Bad Teacher and Green Lantern for the win!

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/entertainment/2011-06/27/c_13951052.htm

Katy Perry

2011-06-24T17:29:00.002+08:00

Katy Perry performing magic while singing Hot N' Cold... have a good weekend everybody! :)

Review - Green Lantern

2011-06-22T13:15:00.003+08:00

Now it's The Green Lantern's turn at the cinema. I am not a fan of DC Comics. More of a Marvel fan myself. Come to think of it, I don't really own much DC Comics, except for the special stories. I don't own any Superman or Batman comics... I do own plenty of X-Men comics... I am pretty well-versed when it comes to Marvel characters (but not completely)... but DC characters? I am not really familiar with them...

The Green Lantern in question here is Hal Jordan. He is a pilot who was chosen to replace a dying Green Lantern. You see, there is more than one Green Lanterns in the universe. In fact, there are thousands of them. Hal happens to be the first human chosen.

So this movie is about Hal Jordan accepting his fate/destiny and the responsibilities that comes with wielding the power of the ring.

Hmm, sounds to simple eh? Let me try that again. A great supervillain by the name of Parallax who had been imprisoned by Abin Sur, one of the best Green Lanterns around, had escaped his confinements and sought Abin Sur out for revenge. Abin Sur was mortally wounded and sought the nearest inhabited planet to find a worthy successor of the ring. Parallax continues on his journey of devouring people's souls by instilling fear in them, heading for Oa, the Lanterns planet, for more revenge.

The Earth happens to be in the way of Parallax's journey to Oa and Abin Sur also landed on Earth. The ring found Hal Jordan to be his replacement. Unfortunately, Hal Jordan is not the responsible type. Him being chosen also did not set well with the other Lanterns. But Hal Jordan has to step up and stop Parallax before he destroys the Earth on his vengeance quest.

The movie itself was a bit subpar when compared to all the other superhero movies, especially the recent ones. However, if looking at it from a standalone point of view, it is a fine movie. I like all the human aspects instilled in the movie, as opposed to just concentrating on the superhero aspects. I think Batman Begins started this trend...

Ryan Reynolds is a good actor. Has fine comedic timing. Has great body for action-y stuff. And we know he can pull off dramatic roles as well. So he's kinda perfect for The Green Lantern. And maybe Dylan Dog... huhu... The movie kinda rests on his able shoulders. Supporting casts are fine but not too memorable and none stole Reynolds' thunder.

Villainy of the movie is kinda weak, which ultimately led to its downfall. The mini villain was not too scary although he did kill someone in cold blood. The main villain himself was not really scary. A dark cloud of fear? Come on. The final fight was not climatic at all. But fear not (pun intended), after the credits it was revealed who would be the villain in Part 2... guess that is where the battle lies...

Box Office

2011-06-20T11:16:00.003+08:00

Green Lantern blasted away the competition...

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/06/19/2274569/green-lantern-is-no-1-at-the-box.html

Trailer - Fright Night

2011-06-17T16:00:00.003+08:00

Fright Night has been remade... with Collin Farrell, Anton Yelchin and Toni Collette...
coming soon... I remember watching this movie when I was younger... scary stuff... not too sure if the new version is as scary... or maybe it's coz we've seen so much stuff already... *shrugs*

Review - Super 8

2011-06-15T18:23:00.002+08:00

Super 8. A title that is quite misleading, unless you’ve watched the movie and know what the title was referring to. If not, then you would get the impression that this movie is about 8 superheroes or something, especially this summer where we get comic/superhero overload.

This is what my friends were thinking. And I have a sneaking suspicion that this was why they felt the movie was not enjoyable. At least a part of the reason why they did not enjoy it. Yes, 7 out of the 10 people watching it did not like it. Me? I loved it.

Super 8 is about a bunch of kids who were filming a zombie movie in the summer of 1979. While they were filming at a train station, they witnessed a train crash and after that, mysterious things started happening at their town, such as being overrun by the military, dogs disappearing, power failures and such.

But for them, none of those things matter. The only thing that matters was the movie they were making. And for one of them, the movie was really important because it gave him the chance to get close to a girl he was crushing on.

Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse when the object transported on the train turns out to be a huge alien and it started rampaging in town.

This movie was written and directed by JJ Abrams, the writer/creator/producer/director behind TV’s Felicity, Alias and Lost as well as movies such as Mission Impossible, Star Trek and Cloverfield.

Speaking of Cloverfield… if you enjoyed that movie (which Abrams produced), then you’d enjoy Super 8. Cloverfield was a film about New York under sieged by a gargantuan creature but it was told from a small group of people’s point of view. The fact that they were living their lives and trying to survive was the main focus of the movie instead of showing the monster on a rampage was a pretty good angle in my opinion. You can relate to them better, which is always a good thing because once they perish, you feel something… or you’d get worried about their safety.

Super 8 is the same way. It focuses on the teenage children as they live their lives and try to make their movie, at the same time, facing a extraterrestrial attack. And here is another reason why some of my friends might have gotten turned off by the movie. A normal monster movie would have you seeing the monster rampaging from beginning to end. Super 8 did not really show the alien until after more than half of the movie.

For me, this is the better way of storytelling. It is far scarier when you do not see the scary thing like what The Blair Witch Project had done… than showing the monster every other frame like what Karak: Laluan Puaka had done…

Anyway, the cast of this movie are young and relatively unknown, except for the supporting cast. But then again, the most prominent actor in the supporting cast is Kyle Chandler of TV’s Early Edition and Friday Nights Lights. He plays the main character’s almost absentee father.

Joel Courtney has the burden of playing the main character and this is his debut in a feature film or any sort of acting actually. He did a really good job of making you feel for him and his pain, sorrow, joy and happiness.

Helping him with a solid acting is Elle Fanning, playing Alice Dainard, the object of his crush. Yes, Fanning. Dakota’s younger sister. Guess acting runs in the family, but Fanning, the elder Fanning, needs to be careful coz she is starting to get stoic as she matures… she was a fantastic young actress and I do hope Elle doesn’t go Dakota’s route. Not that Dakota is really bad though. There’s still hope…

Anyway, in case you did not know, this movie was produced by Steven Spielberg. So flashes of The Goonies and ET was evident in this movie. Guess you can say Super 8 is like The Goonies meets ET meets Cloverfield. For the three of us, this was an enjoyable movie anchored by strong performances by the two leads.

Stick around for after the ending because they actually show the zombie movie that the kids were making, using 8mm cameras and entering it in a movie festival. It’s really hilarious! Yup, that was what the title was referring to. The film that was used to make the zombie movie.

Box Office

2011-06-13T09:55:00.002+08:00

Super 8 defeated the X-Men...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-rt-us-boxofficetre7590ku-20110610,0,4134561.story

Super 8

2011-06-09T09:29:00.003+08:00

It was either Dylan Dog or Super 8 and Super 8 won... Dylan Dog will have to wait until the weekend... Steven Spielberg and JJ Abrams... should be really good, if not awesome...

Cancellations

2011-06-08T10:24:00.003+08:00

The TV season is almost over... almost time for the summer TV season... and the cancellations have begun...

http://www.rickey.org/v-brothers-sisters-and-no-ordinary-family-canceled/

Box Office

2011-06-06T07:52:00.001+08:00

First Class is at the top of the class...

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/06/movie-projector-x-men-first-class-hangover-part-ii.html

Wonder Woman

2011-06-04T20:08:00.002+08:00

The new Wonder Woman series would not see the light of day...

http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/nbc-passes-on-wonder-woman-pilot--2972

Review - First Class

2011-06-03T16:56:00.005+08:00

X-Men. Children of the Atom. Four movies have been made about them. Now comes a fifth movie. But this one is not a sequel. It’s a prequel. Which means the story is set earlier, before all three X-Movies and the Wolverine movie.

X-Men: First Class is the title. Referring to the first few mutants Charles Xavier took under his wing. Unfortunately, this is one of the many liberties the filmmakers take in this movie. The first class of mutants that Xavier taught were Jean Grey, Cyclops/Scott Summers, Hank McCoy/Beast, Bobby Drake/Iceman and Warren Worthington/Archangel (as pictured below). Only Beast shows up in this movie.

So the story goes like this. Erik Lensherr was a survivor of the Holocaust. His parents were murdered and he himself was tortured and experimented on. When he grew up, he sought revenge against his tormentor, who has now gone under the name Sebastian Shaw and is running the Hell Fire Club.

Charles Xavier was studying genetics and grew up with Raven Darkhome. Moira MacTaggert, CIA, is investigating a possible terrorist threat and chanced upon the Hell Fire Club’s mutants. So she sought Xavier’s help to understand the threat and also to make her superiors aware of the looming danger.

Sebastian Shaw has an agenda of getting Russia and America in a nuclear turmoil so that more mutations would develop faster and normal humans would be eradicated. It is up to Xavier and a bunch of young mutants under Xavier’s wing to stop a nuclear war from occurring. Meanwhile, Lensherr is tagging along to exact his vengeance upon Shaw, not caring about the imminent nuclear war.

The acting in this movie is not bad. At first I thought James MacAvoy could not possible embody Charles Xavier but he proved me wrong. Or was I just indifferent? Anyway, Michael Fassbender as Erik Lensherr? Wow. Genius. He was really good. Not just because he did not wear underwear while wearing a track suit and you can kinda see his ‘weapon’, hehe. But he was actually awesome at portraying the vengeful and hurting Magneto.

Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar nominee for Winter’s Bone, has it easy with Raven / Mystique. She was not required to do much but just to be pretty and sometimes blue.

The other supporting characters were quite good as well. Rose Byrne was okay playing Moira MacTaggert, although Moira’s Scottish lilt completely disappeared. January Jones was perfect playing the White Queen, Emma Frost. She really looked the part. Although her diamond state was completely weird. It looked like she turned into a human tin foil instead of diamonds. But that’s not her fault.

Kevin Bacon was deliciously evil as Sebastian Shaw, without being overly creepy or overly gross or even overly campy. I was thinking that he was not as big and imposing as Shaw in the Saturday Morning cartoons, but it worked out nicely. Guess Bacon has a natural flair for playing a bad guy like he did in The River Wild.

Watching this movie as a regular layman, First Class is really awesome. It has action, hunks, babes, superpowers, drama, a bit of comedy, heroes and appropriately bad-ass villains.

Watching this movie as a comic book nerd? It is still awesome. Plenty of mutants and powers on display. Lots of pop culture reference, especially of the X-Men mythology and lore. They even have cameos by Rebecca Romijn and Hugh Jackman. Who wouldn’t wet their pants?

But then again, as a self-proclaimed comic book nerd, I did not like the liberties they took with the characters and the storylines. Maybe it’s just me. But I hated the second Transformers movie with a vengeance! The robots took a back seat and some of the more bad-ass robots were made lame and easily disposed off. What the…?!

Like the Phoenix storyline in the original trilogy… that was also a WTF moment for me. Guess this really can’t be helped because they needed to make the story cohesive and kinda foreshadow the original trilogy. But some things they could’ve not done. For example: Emma Frost’s diamond state. If I am not mistaken, she only got that secondary mutation after a trip to space where she was exposed to the same radiation that empowered the Fantastic Four.

First Class takes place during the Cuban Missile Crisis and is not even close to when Emma Frost can turn into a walking diamond. But I guess only die-hard nerds would care about this stuff. I am sure the people who have not read the comics did not know/care about it. *shrugs*

For the comic book nerds, just check your knowledge and memory at the door and just enjoy the movie. I know I did, even when I forgot to check my brain at the door.

Finale - Smallville

2011-06-02T13:11:00.001+08:00

The lowdown on the series finale of Smallville...

http://tv.yahoo.com/slideshow/714/photos/

Review - Kung Fu Panda 2

2011-06-01T10:24:00.002+08:00

I have an issue with Jack Black. Not a major issue like hatred or anything. It’s just… Most of his movies are the same. It involves a man-child whose living a life under a rock until something happens that shake said life and the man-child needs to grow up and deal with the issues. Sometimes I think he is not really acting but just being himself. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. For the most part, I did enjoy some of his movies. Like School of Rock. And of course, Kung Fu Panda.

So of course, when Kung Fu Panda 2 comes out, I was excited to see it. The first Kung Fu Panda was quite a good movie. It had comedy, action, drama and lots of slapstick, courtesy of Po.

In the first movie, Po was just an ordinary panda that was working at his father’s noodle shop but has big dreams about being a kung fu master. He got his chance when he crashed a ceremony and was named the Dragon Warrior. Nobody believed he was actually the Dragon Warrior, until he defeated Shenlong, once in line for the title.

Now, Po is back with more awesomeness. This time, Lord Shen, a peacock gone mad, is hell bent on taking over the world with a new weapon that uses the technology of fireworks and metal and obliterating kung fu. Po and the Furious Five are called to put the kibosh on his plans.

This was a nice progression, storyline-wise, from the first movie to the second movie. Especially with the addition of Po’s muddled past. The Furious Five all have had their back stories told via the short animated film years back.

And they way they tie it to the current villain was quite nice too. Years ago, a soothsayer predicted that a warrior of black and white will stop Lord Shen. Lord Shen then did something about it, to stop the prophecy from coming to pass.

The voice acting was on top form, like in the first movie as well. Besides an all-star cast of Jack Black (Po), Angelina Jolie (Tigress), Lucy Liu (Viper), Jackie Chan (Monkey), Seth Rogen (Mantis), David Cross (Crane), Dustin Hoffman (Shifu), we now have Michelle Yeoh as the Soothsayer, Gary Oldman as Lord Shen, Danny McBride as the Wolf Boss, Dennis Haysbert as Master Ox, Jean-Claude Van Damme as Master Croc and Victor Garber as Master Rhino.

Like the first movie, this movie has comedy, action, drama and lots of slapstick. But as the curse of sequels go, The Kaboom of Doom could not really match Kung Fu Panda’s level.

However, I do find the part where Po needed rescuing from the Furious Five a lot a bit grating on the nerves. No, I am not talking about the group attack. Plenty of times, he needed to be saved by Tigress or someone. He’s supposed to be the Dragon Warrior. I get that his training was the shortest of all of them but it just seemed like he was relying too much on the others. Other than that, it’s a fun movie. :)

The Hobbit

2011-05-31T13:48:00.001+08:00

The 2 Hobbit movies have official titles and release dates now...

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/movies/titles-and-release-dates-announced-for-two-part-hobbit-prequel/story-e6frf9h6-1226066311593

Box Office

2011-05-30T10:31:00.002+08:00

Fight of the sequels... The Hangover 2 beats out Pirates 4 and Kung Fu Panda 2...

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/05/29/box-office-update-hangover-kung-fu-panda/

Review - Karak

2011-05-26T13:47:00.007+08:00

Karak. A tiny town in Pahang. Used to be the way for KL people to go to Kuantan. Not anymore, after the highway was built.

There were plenty of urban legends and ghostly stories associated with the back roads of Karak. So when I heard KRU Studios was going to do a movie about them, I was excited. Even more excited when I find out Shahir (of AF8 fame) was starring in it. Yes, yes, I am a closet Shahir fan. Shhh.... dun tell anyone... hihi...

So yesterday, I was suddenly informed that Karak the movie had a premiere showing in KLCC. Premiere means stars would be there so I jumped to the chance to go. Plus KLCC is really near my office.

My media invite/entrance pass...

So the movie begins with a family stranded at the side of the road. Car problems. So the husband went off to find help, leaving the wife and baby in the car. Yup, this is the creature eating the husband urban legend. Seriously creepy scene. But it turns out it was just Nik (Shahir) telling the story in a car with three others.

They were stuck in a jam on the highway because there was a huge accident up front. They needed to get back to Kuantan because of classes in the morning so they decided to use the back roads, which would require them passing through Karak town. They stopped for a breather and that's when trouble started. The paranormal kind.

Story-wise, the plot really was exciting and new. There had never been a movie about Malay urban legend before. At least not that I know of. Or I remember. The opening scene with the flying creature eating the husband was good and creepy and scary. Dare I say it, right up there with the murder of Drew Barrymore in Scream. Okay, okay, it's not that good. Maybe Jada Pinkett's murder in Scream 2. Haha. But yes, it was good.

So the scene really set the expectations in my mind about the movie. And when they stopped at Karak town, the mood from the opener was still strong and the scare/horror kept on coming. Although I do detest the usage of loud music just to scare people or make them jump, there were genuine scares and horror abound.

At least until after a third of the movie. Then, it was just ghostly barrages, one after another. So much so that the entities stopped being scary.

I do feel the movie was split into three. The first part - scary shit. The second part - confusion. The third part - wrapping up. But looking at it now (and remembering), it was not as bad as I thought. I do have issues with part 2 and 3 of the movie.

For example: why would you pull a Sofea Jane and go 'berkemban' in the middle of the night and in the middle of a jungle when you just came out of an accident caused by ghostly presence and you are staying in at a creepy man's house. You might get mauled by a creature or a tiger or even by the creepy old man. The sexual part is unnecessary I think.

The necklace? What's the significance of it? Is that the source of the demonic activity? But she was already harassed by it before she put that thing on. So which is it? Which entity was actually doing the haunting? The one that was already at the house or the one that's been following them since they stopped at Karak? Why follow her? Why follow their car? It was never really explained why things are happening to them, except for the fact that the entity wanted to corrupt the girl. Hmm, sometimes I wish scary movies would stop using religion as the go to object to solve the hauntings. It's cliche and if it really was that easy to get rid off the entities, then why not just straight away call for the bomoh or pak imam and deal with it in the first five minutes of the movie? Coz there won't be a movie... I know...

Also, during the opening credits... it would have been a lot nicer if they put in a montage or illustrations of the Karak urban legends... at least, we'd know em before we watch this movie... I am sure some people don't know of the legends...

Acting-wise, pretty good debut for most of them. Shahir and Shera Aiyob, was pretty natural and kinda convincing in their acting. The best friend guy, Md Eyzendy, is no beginner, having been in two other horror movies in recent memory, Seru and Khurafat. In Seru, his character was the same as the one in Karak. The disbeliever. Even though the evidence is right there in front of his face. Kilafairy, the girl who went Sofea Jane in the jungle, was the weakest of the four. Not sure whether it was due to her inexperience or because that's the way her character was written. So damned annoying. Guess that's the cliched dumb blonde characters in horror movies that are always first to die.

So, all things considered, is this a good movie? Like all of April's horror flicks, this movie fell short of its intended awesomeness. Which would make one think that people are just jumping on the horror bandwagon because horror movies are quite profitable... just checked Finas' website... I stand corrected... the previous years' horror movies were profitable... April's movies were all not profitable... Khurafat was the only horror to make it big... hmm, maybe that had something to do with it was the only Malay movie showing in that part of January... and now all the Malay movies have to fight against the summer blockbusters...

Anyway, Karak is pretty watchable. The first 1/3 of the movie is really good and would satisfy horror movie fans. The rest of the movie? Just leave logic and brain at the door and enjoy... I know I did... :)

P/S - Now that I really think about it... it made no sense that the three of them are dead but they still interact with one another and we get to see their interactions... whose POV was that? When Nik and Jack were talking... if only Shera Ayub's character survived, then shouldn't she be in all the scenes where the other three are talking?

PP/S - What exactly did Tok Malam see when the entity using his wife's face were grappling with Nik and Jack? Coz he could not see Nik and Jack in the flashback. So he would've just seen the entity right? Speaking of Tok Malam, why did he not yank the necklace off of the girl when he sees her wearing it?

Winner

2011-05-26T10:57:00.000+08:00

Guess who the winner is?

http://www.rickey.org/american-idol-10-winner/

Final Two

2011-05-25T12:17:00.003+08:00

The final two performing tonight! Will it be Lauren? Will it be Scotty? I prefer Lauren coz she can sing a wide variety of genres but I think Scotty will take the title...

http://www.rickey.org/lauren-alaina-flat-on-the-floor-american-idol-10-finale-video-mp3/

http://www.rickey.org/lauren-alaina-maybe-it-was-memphis-american-idol-10-finale-video-mp3/

http://www.rickey.org/lauren-alaina-like-my-mother-does-american-idol-10-finale-video-mp3/

http://www.rickey.org/scotty-mccreery-gone-american-idol-10-finale-video-mp3/

http://www.rickey.org/scotty-mccreery-check-yes-or-no-american-idol-10-finale-video-mp3/

http://www.rickey.org/scotty-mccreery-love-you-this-big-american-idol-10-finale-video-mp3/

Trailer - True Blood

2011-05-24T15:06:00.002+08:00

True Blood will be back on the small screen soon since most of the regular fall shows are finishing up... time for summer shows to start...

http://tv.yahoo.com/show/39147/videos/25197230

Box Office

2011-05-23T11:49:00.003+08:00

Without Bloom and Knightley, Pirates of the Caribbean still rules!

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/05/box-office-pirates-plunder-soft-at-home-huge-overseas.html

Review - On Stranger Tides

2011-05-22T03:49:00.002+08:00

Whoa. It’s the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie already? Wow.

The first Pirates of the Caribbean movie was phenomenal. The Curse of the Black Pearl propelled its three stars to superstardom. Okay, okay, Johnny Depp has always been a superstar but his performance as Captain Jack Sparrow actually earned him his first Oscar nomination and solidified his career. Orlando Bloom was already famous as Legolas from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but this movie proved he could be a swashbuckling hero without the pointy ears. Keira Knightley went on to earn an Oscar nomination for her work in Pride and Prejudice.

So yes, it was a phenomenal movie. The right amount of humor, the right amount of action, the right amount of romance.

You would think that there’s no more storylines and that they would leave the series alone right? No. At World’s End left it open-ended.

Fast forward to this year. On Stranger Tides opens. I was first turned off by it because I thought the other two Pirates of the Caribbean movies were not as good as the first one. And then I read Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom were not coming back. Not really a good sign.

Penelope Cruz was then cast as the female lead. Guess they really haven’t had a Spanish influence on Pirates of the Caribbean yet. I like Penelope Cruz. She was the single best thing about Nine. I love musicals but there was no saving that. Okay, maybe Marion Cotillard was good as well.

Anyway, I saw the trailer. But it did not really excite me still. But it is a Pirates of the Caribbean movie and it is Johnny Depp… so I went to watch it anyway.

On Stranger Tides starts with Captain Jack Sparrow (Depp) attempting to rescue one of his crew. Then he hears a rumor about him recruiting people to go to the Fountain of Youth. Which peaked his interest because he was not the one recruiting. Turns out, it was Angelica (Penelope Cruz) who was recruiting in his name/disguise. Angelica wants to go to the Fountain of Youth to help her father, the infamous Black Beard, who is dying. Hot on their trails is Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), who has a score to settle with Black Beard… and the Spanish fleet, who are also seeking out the legendary fountain.

So there you have it. This movie is about the adventure to go find the Fountain of Youth. And what an adventure it is. Seriously. I thought the movie might have lost its magic and/or spark but I was wrong. It still got it. Johnny Depp did not phone in his performance and Penelope Cruz is a fine addition to the series.

However, the movie did get off to a slow start. Like the first few minutes for example. It’s classic Jack Sparrow. Has a ‘been there, done that’ vibe. But as soon as they get off sailing the high seas, then the movie starts to take on top form. I’m talking about zombies and mermaids and ghost ships.

Is this movie any better than the first three movies? It is definitely in a class of its own. In a good way. Nothing can touch the first movie though. Not even the second and third movie. But this one comes quite close to equaling the amount of thrills from the first movie. I guess the second movie suffered greatly because the ending was a set-up for the third movie and that turned off most people. Just like the second Matrix movie… felt like an unfinished movie...

But I am not saying they were bad movies… just not as good…

So I guess if there were a fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, then I’ll go watch it and it will probably be good as well. Or they could pull a Fast & Furious and have the next movie with Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom… but Johnny Depp/Jack Sparrow is essentially the movie so not sure if it would work…