AIM17

Artis Baru Terbaik
Azlan & The Typewriter

Bunkface

Prema Yin

Tomok

Yuna

Persembahan Vokal Terbaik Di Dalam Lagu (Lelaki)
Faizal Tahir - Bencinta

Hazami - Survivor

Jamal Abdillah - Tak Hilang Cinta Di Dunia

Riz - Kehilangan Kamu

Vince - Buah Hati

Persembahan Vokal Terbaik Di Dalam Lagu (Wanita)

Dato’ Siti Nurhaliza - Ku Percaya Ada Cinta

Dayang Nurfaizah - Hilang (Live Version)

Jaclyn Victor - Bertamu Di Kalbu

Juwita Suwito - Sejak Hadirmu

Yuna - Dan Sebenarnya

Persembahan Vokal Berkumpulan Terbaik Di Dalam Lagu

Dato’ Siti Nurhaliza & Kris Dayanti - Amarah

Dj Fuzz & Malique Feat Salam - Cerita Kedai Kopi

Inteam - Allahu Rabbi

Rabbani - Kejora Sinar Zaman

Ruffedge - Pemuja Dari Jauh

Album Pop Terbaik

Tahajjud Cinta - Dato’ Siti Nurhaliza

Ctkd - Dato’ Siti Nurhaliza & Kris Dayanti

Dayang Live - Dayang Nurfaizah

Aku Stacy - Stacy

Kronologi Cinta - Vince Chong

Full List of Nominees:

http://www.budiey.com/senarai-penuh-pencalonan-akhir-anugerah-industri-muzik-aim17/

Top 10

Siobhan Magnus - http://www.rickey.org/?p=36970
Casey James - http://www.rickey.org/?p=36978
Michael Lynche - http://www.rickey.org/?p=36983
Didi Benami - http://www.rickey.org/?p=36990
Tim Urban - http://www.rickey.org/?p=37003
Andrew Garcia - http://www.rickey.org/?p=37007
Katie Stevens - http://www.rickey.org/?p=37016
Lee Dewyze - http://www.rickey.org/?p=37025
Crystal Bowersox - http://www.rickey.org/?p=37033
Aaron Kelly - http://www.rickey.org/?p=37040

Full recap -

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/realityrocks/334696/the-american-idol-top-10-soul-sucking/

Box Office

How To Train Your Dragon ruled the box office last weekend!

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/How-to-Train-Your-Dragon-apf-1131908492.html?x=0&.v=1

However, Clash of the Titans might end Dragon's run at the top of the box-office... but you'll never know right?

The original movie, saw this on Saturday... the effects are pretty bad by today's standards so cannot wait to see the remake on Thursday... Pavilion anyone?

Sam Worthington in another epic movie...

This Town

Synopsis: In this once glamourous town inhabited by socialites, tycoons, playboys, playgirls and supermodels, it is now a cess pool filled with snake oil salesmen, disgruntled messiahs, puppets, sycophants, plastic baggers, freaks and weirdos... However, this town is also home to the untamable force known as the Cru Cru Crew. Their boss, Tom Bastion, has big plans which include hiring the lot of them to run his hotel and casino. Ingenious plan or madman's folly - only time will tell... Follow the trials and tribulations of this notorious band of bedlamites and psychosocialists as they wreak havoc through the streets of... THIS TOWN.

This new animation series comes to us from the creatively warped minds of the Rapid Binturong crew.

It's kinda like stop motion animation ala Wallace & Gromit or The Corpse Bride but This Town is in 2D and like the synopsis says, this series is about this bunch of ragtag people working for the hotel.

There is only 3 episodes released for now:

Episode 1: The hotel manager, Iceberg, and the hotel moneyman, Voodoo Bob, are summoned to the office of the enigmatic Mr. Bastion. They have no clue why and so begin to speculate on their journey up there, while learning some horrible truths about events past.

Episode 2: Still upset over Bastion's orders, Voodoo and Iceberg head to the hotel's bar to drown their sorrows. Meanwhile, Louisiana is pillaging the bar, searching for rum. All havoc ensues when a female customer arrives and orders a drink...

Episode 3: Iceberg and Arnalda discuss who'd be more suitable to take the fall should anything go wrong at the Bastion Hotel. One by one they go through the list of the Hotel's employees in order to find the pseudo "boss" Iceberg so desperately needs.


They had a rough start but there's plenty of potential, which is to their benefit since this is a series AKA they have room to improve. Although, there's plenty of cuss words in the dialogue. So if you're not a Tarantino fan, you might wanna brace yourself...

Anyway, welcome to the industry This Town! It's definitely brighter (or in their (storylines) case, gloomier) with this new addition!

Go to This Town's website to watch the episodes: http://thistowncrew.com/main.html

Ekspresi

I was invited to attend Ekspresi @ Rampaisari, a Mini Performance by the Petronas Performing Arts Group on the 24th of March at Dewan Rampaisari, Level P1, Tower 2, KLCC.

It was divided into 3 experimental stage performances: theater, dance and music.

‘Dari Delhi Ke Syononto’ is a monologue (theater) written and directed by Roslee Mansor tells you the story of Dewi a girl from Delhi India, who drowned due to a sinking ship and was brought to the shores of Peninsular Malaysia. This story was set before Malaysia’s independence and Dewi’s mind was always on her dad’s last wishes of finding Syononto, the supposedly final destination of their journey. Dewi, a street dancer exploits dance as her means of expressing her frustrations, anger and sorrow.

‘Gejolak’ , an experimental dance performance, choreographed by A Sam Palal, has 4 segments which represents a variety of emotions:
- A disturbed woman for being ditched by her loved ones and being left alone
- Issues of mother earth approaching extinction
- Love Triangle
- A bird who faces challenges in life

Jezzriq Eddie Kismilardy acts as Musical Director cum arranger for his contemporary music segment entitled ‘Emotions’. This piece expresses the feelings of joy, sorrow, anger, disappointment, and sufferings towards the thing and people that we love.
Among the songs that will be showcased are: ‘Glasgow’ (rock), ‘Hijau’ (world Music) and ‘I’m Yours’ in reggae. This piece will be performed by 5 musicians.

Gambar amek curik2 nih...

I enjoyed the performances. The best bit was in the dance segment. The love triangle. Artsy and moving. :)

Of course I like the musical act (the vocalist's err... vocal performance was superb) as well as the monologue (such stage presence), although I really did not like the part where some members of the audience talking. I thought this was exclusive for movies but apparently for theater as well. Sigh...

The performers...

Kudos to the entire team! :)

Eliminations

The bottom three:

Katie Stevens

Paige Miles

Tim Urban

The elimination: http://www.rickey.org/?p=36603

Top 11

Lee Dewyze - http://www.rickey.org/?p=36410
Paige Miles - http://www.rickey.org/?p=36415
Tim Urban - http://www.rickey.org/?p=36421
Aaron Kelly - http://www.rickey.org/?p=36426
Crystal Bowersox - http://www.rickey.org/?p=36433
Michael Lynche - http://www.rickey.org/?p=36436
Andrew Garcia - http://www.rickey.org/?p=36448
Katie Stevens - http://www.rickey.org/?p=36453
Casey James - http://www.rickey.org/?p=36459
Didi Benami - http://www.rickey.org/?p=36465

Siobhan Magnus - http://www.rickey.org/?p=36471

Full Recap:

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/realityrocks/332219/the-american-idol-top-11-just-being-miley/

Movie News

Specifically, movies based on the comic books...

First up, DC and Marvel are duking it out over who can make the most comic book-into-movie adaptations...

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/buzz-log-dc-and-marvel-do-battle.html

On the same topic, the Human Torch will be playing Captain America...

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/movie-talk-chris-evans-wins-captain-america.html

And finally, another entry in the superhero genre on TV...

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/article/tv.tvguide.com/tv.tvguide.com-three-inches-underachieving-superheroes-fly-syfy

Trailer - Clash of the Titans

Clash of the Titans opens 1st April...

the characters/creatures are similar to the ones in Percy Jackson no?

Trailer Addict

Dragon

'How To Train Your Dragon' is a Dreamworks release, set in the world of vikings and of course, Dragons, adapted from the book by Cressida Cowell.


There's so many types of dragons in this movie. The central dragon is called the Night Fury, a dark dragon whose main abilities are stealth flight and also highly concentrated fireballs.

The main human character is called Hiccup, a scrawny little kid, who is also the town leader's son.

The island the Vikings live in is constantly under siege by dragons and they'd fly off with the livestock.

During one of the sieges, Hiccup unleashes a weapon he made, which lets loose bolas to snag the dragon mid-flight.

However, when Hiccup manages to track down the dragon, he could not kill. He lets the dragon, the Night Fury, go. Thus a friendship between them begins and Hiccup realizes the dragons are not actually their enemies.

Unfortunately, the other humans on the island still needed to be convinced.



It's a fairly decent outing from Dreamworks. Not anywhere near the quality of Pixar's outings though but it made for a good fun watch. The dragons are made into fun and cute creatures and watch out for a very funny performance by one of the village's livestock. :)

1st Elimination

The bottom three...

http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/first-idol-hopeful-eliminated-seasons-twist-revealed--1078

Ninebreakers

Nine is a Rob Marshall musical based on a Broadway musical.



It tells the story of Guido Contini, an Italian director whose facing a midlife crisis and writer's block. He needs to come up with a script for a movie that's shooting in a couple of weeks but he got nothing.

So he turns to the women in his life for inspiration: his mother, his wife, his mistress and his muse. Other women who have a hand in his life include his colleague, a journalist and a hooker from his childhood.

The truly standout performances came from:

Marion Cotillard as Luisa Contini, the long suffering wife ...

and Penelope Cruz as the mistress...

Kate Hudson has the most fun song sequence in the entire movie...

Basically, Nine is in the vein of Chicago but somehow it's a lot darker, maybe because of its somber storyline? It is not that bad... definitely watchable but I got this sneaky feeling that Nine is better than it actually is mostly because of the supporting performances by Marion Cotillard and Penelope Cruz and Kate Hudson's sequence...

This movie opens tomorrow... I've seen it on DVD already coz I love vampires. And the cast intrigued me. Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill.

Daybreakers is about the world being overrun by vampires and there's only a handful of humans left. The vampires need human blood to survive so they are hunting humans and also trying to come up with a blood substitute.

Meanwhile, the commoners are getting hungrier and had to resort to feeding on their own blood, which resulted in the mutation of the vampires into some sort of primal vampire, complete with bat-like limbs.

The premise is interesting but the movie failed to utilize on it. If only the remaining vampires and humans have to band together to defeat the primal vampires, then it's probably gonna be better....

The movie itself is not that bad. The pacing is a bit slow and there's no real danger posed from either the vampire camp or the human camp. Not even from the Primals. So you don't really have a sense of who's the bad guy. Of course we can tell vampires are bad but in a world where vampires are outliving humans, vampires are now the humans yes?

Anyway, the acting's decent. And the introduction of vampirism cure is neat. But then again, they never follow through with it. Maybe in Daybreakers 2?

Top 12

Top 12 is singing Rolling Stones... http://www.rickey.org/?p=35596

Michael Lynche - http://www.rickey.org/?p=35565

Didi Benami - http://www.rickey.org/?p=35572

Casey James - http://www.rickey.org/?p=35578

Lacey Brown - http://www.rickey.org/?p=35586

Andrew Garcia - http://www.rickey.org/?p=35592

Katie Stevens - http://www.rickey.org/?p=35598

Tim Urban - http://www.rickey.org/?p=35607

Siobhan Magnus - http://www.rickey.org/?p=35618

Lee Dewyze - http://www.rickey.org/?p=35623

Paige Miles - http://www.rickey.org/?p=35629

Aaron Kelly - http://www.rickey.org/?p=35637

Crystal Bowersox - http://www.rickey.org/?p=35643

Go Crystal! Go Siobhan! Hehhehe...

In the Making

Two new movies in the making... supernaturally themed of course...

The first one is about Dracula... "The Last Voyage of the Demeter" is named after the ship that carried Dracula from Transylvania to London in Bram Stoker's classic tale. In that novel, it washes up on the shores of England with one raving mad survivor.

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.reuters.com/counterfeiters-director-eyes-maritime-horror-reuters

The other one is about Abraham Lincoln...the Vampire Hunter... based on the novel by Seth Grahame-Smith...

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.reuters.com/abraham-lincoln-hunts-vampires-film-adaptation-reuters

RIP

Peter Graves, the guy who played Jim Phelps in Mission: Impossible, has passed away...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j5fphC7EqPu-MDnk8_b8qK8LzZvw

Review: Under the Mountain

Under the Mountain is underwhelming. The first truly disappointing movie that I've watched in 2010. Oh, wait, I saw Lu Pikirlah Sendiri in 2010 as well. Boy, do I wish I could get back my afternoon...

I am a massive fan of the supernatural/fantasy genre... especially if there's a horror twist to it... like Lord of the Rings, Spiderwick, Harry Potter, Eragon, Golden Compass etc...

First saw the trailer for this movie when I was watching The Wolfman... I was so excited to go see it... for a number of reasons...

1) Fire wielding twins

2) Some sort of zombie creature as the villains

3) Volcanoes

Who would not want to watch this right? Okay, maybe some people won't want to but I was looking forward to it...

So when this movie was released, I went to Pavilion to go see it. With a colleague...

THE GOOD

1) The storyline... fireraisers, Wilberforces, Gargantuas, Twin-ness... nice touch...

2) The actors that play the twins and the comic relief cousin...

3) Luscious views of New Zealand

THE BAD

1) The storyline... a bit draggy and forced at times...

2) Sam Neill has the same look on his face throughout the movie... (maybe he's thinking "What the hell am I doing in this movie?")

3) The villains are lame

4) Not enough fighting... and definitely no big battle at the end before the heroes emerge victorious...

The movie itself is not a bad production but the bad points dragged its level of enjoyment down quite a lot. I think it would have worked better as a TV movie. Or a miniseries. Yes, miniseries where they can expand on a lot of things and have the twins battle it out more or even have the Gargantua rise or something.

But I think we're spoilt for choices already in this day and age so Under The Mountain seemed tame compared to all those other movies.

I do think if they were to make it more fight-y and less kiddy, the movie would have improved leaps and bounds and would have satisfied the supernatural buff within. :)

Under the Mountain

Tonite at Pavilion... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1275861/

AI AF

The final eliminations before the top 12... http://www.rickey.org/?p=35095

I, for one, am shocked! One of my faves was eliminated... :(

Meanwhile, local reality TV competition Akademi Fantasia has announced its lineup for its 8th season... http://www.budiey.com/senarai-12-orang-pelajar-akademi-fantasia-8/

Top 16 Boys

Lee Dewyze - http://www.rickey.org/?p=34986
Alex Lambert - http://www.rickey.org/?p=34993
Tim Urban - http://www.rickey.org/?p=34998
Andrew Garcia - http://www.rickey.org/?p=35003
Casey James - http://www.rickey.org/?p=35008
Aaron Kelly - http://www.rickey.org/?p=35013
Todrick Hall - http://www.rickey.org/?p=35018
Michael Lynche - http://www.rickey.org/?p=35023

American Idol Top 16

Lilly Scott - http://www.rickey.org/?p=34863
Crystal Bowersox - http://www.rickey.org/?p=34858
Paige Miles - http://www.rickey.org/?p=34852
Didi Benami - http://www.rickey.org/?p=34846
Katelyn Epperly - http://www.rickey.org/?p=34838
Lacey Brown - http://www.rickey.org/?p=34828
Siobhan Magnus - http://www.rickey.org/?p=34820
Katie Stevens - http://www.rickey.org/?p=34815

Sandra's Speech

Now the awards season is truly over... just one last thing before I wrap up the awards coverage... Sandra Bullock's acceptance speech for her Best Actress Oscar... very nice... touching and funny... :)

And also, her Razzie acceptance speech... :)

Oscar Update 5

Best Motion Picture of the Year
Winner: The Hurt Locker (2008) - Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier, Greg Shapiro

Best Achievement in Directing
Winner: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (2008)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Winner: Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side (2009)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Winner: Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart (2009)

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Winner: El secreto de sus ojos (2009)(Argentina)

Oscar Update 4

Best Achievement in Cinematography
Winner: Avatar (2009) - Mauro Fiore

Best Achievement in Visual Effects
Winner: Avatar (2009) - Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, Andy Jones

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
Winner: Up (2009) - Michael Giacchino

Best Achievement in Editing
Winner: The Hurt Locker (2008) - Bob Murawski, Chris Innis

Best Documentary, Features
Winner: The Cove (2009) - Louie Psihoyos, Fisher Stevens

Oscar Update 3

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing
Winner: The Hurt Locker (2008) - Paul N.J. Ottosson, Ray Beckett

Best Achievement in Sound Editing
Winner: The Hurt Locker (2008) - Paul N.J. Ottosson

Best Achievement in Costume Design
Winner: The Young Victoria (2009) - Sandy Powell

Best Achievement in Art Direction
Winner: Avatar (2009) - Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg, Kim Sinclair

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Winner: Mo'Nique for Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009)

Oscar Update 2

Best Achievement in Makeup
Winner: Star Trek (2009) - Barney Burman, Mindy Hall, Joel Harlow

Best Short Film, Live Action
Winner: The New Tenants (2009) - Joachim Back, Tivi Magnusson

Best Documentary, Short Subjects
Winner: Music by Prudence (2010) - Roger Ross Williams, Elinor Burkett

Best Short Film, Animated
Winner: Logorama (2009) - Nicolas Schmerkin

Oscar Update

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
Winner: The Hurt Locker (2008) - Mark Boal

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song
Winner: Crazy Heart (2009) - T-Bone Burnett, Ryan Bingham("The Weary Kind")

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
Winner: Up (2009) - Pete Docter

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Winner: Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Razzies

The Golden Raspberry Awards AKA The Razzies are the anti-Oscars... they 'reward' the worst achievements of the year... and they always award the worst the night before the Oscars award the best...

Sandra Bullock, an Oscar nominee for The Blind Side, 'won' the Razzie for Worst Actress for her work in All About Steve.

And she showed up to the award show to pick it up! I love how humble she is... I want her to win the Oscar tonight and set a record for winning both worst and best achievements in the same year! :)

Another actress who showed up to claim her award was Halle Berry in 2005. She 'won' for Catwoman and the year before she won the Oscar for Monster's Ball.

Full story -->

http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100307/ten-entertainment-oscars-film-razzies-bu-1dc2b55.html

Meanwhile, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen AKA Transformers 2 'won' Worst Picture of 2009! I couldn't agree more. :)

The full list of Razzie 'winners' --> http://razzies.com/history/09winners.asp