Passing

Tony Curtis, father to Jamie Lee, and actor from, amongst others, Some Like It Hot... has died...

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.ap.org/coroner-actor-tony-curtis-dies-las-vegas-home-ap?nc

Casting News

Christopher Plummer joins Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig in this Hollywood remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo...

http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20100930/ten-entertainment-us-plummer-db3f2d5.html

Casting news for the new Mission: Impossible movie is also out - http://movies.yahoo.com/photos/collections/gallery/2950/new-team-assembled-for-mi4#photo0

Cancellation

Me and my friends have this running gag... that one of our friends have this incredibly unlucky streak when it comes to TV shows... if he happens to enjoy watching a new show, then that show won't make it past the first season...

News came about Fox's new show called Lone Star... it's canceled... after two episodes... what a shame... they say it's not that bad... sigh... the curse struck again... am wondering how my friend got to liking the show already...

All other new shows of the world... beware! :P

http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/its-official-fox-cancels-lone-star--1594

Review - The Hole

After Devil, now comes another supernatural entry in the form of The Hole. Google it or IMDB it and you'll find a few other movies with the exact title.

Like this one starring Thora Birch and Keira Knightley.

The Hole is a 2009 movie that is just getting its screening time in Malaysia now. Wonder what's the hold up about?

Anyway, the movie stars mostly unknowns, except Teri Polo (Meet the Parents) and Bruce Dern (Laura Dern's father, an actor in his own right, of course). Oh, and the kid from Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, is in it as well. Chris Massoglia.

The Hole is about, yep, you guessed it. A hole in the ground. Two brothers found a hole in the basement of their new house. It's under lock and key but they opened it anyway, being naturally curious boys that they are. The pretty girl next door also got roped in and before they know it, their worst fears came to life and started attacking them.

They're all freaked out so they decided to go ask the previous owner of the house. Of course he told them it was all gloom and doom and they have face their fears head on in order to stop whatever it is that is coming out of the hole.

The movie itself was pretty okay. 3/4th of the movie, you're kinda on the edge, almost having a heart attack every 5 minutes. Yup, quite effectively scaring people and making them jump out of their seats. Even though sometimes cliched methods were used like loud noises and such, but still jolted you. If I were holding a tub of popcorn, it would have been all over me and the floor.

That's what I enjoyed most about the movie. I figured out what was happening a long time before any of my friends did. And they found it to be a turn-off because it was not scary anymore once you know what's going on.

The actors were not bad. Especially the kid who played Lucas. Nathan Gamble. Wow. Amazing scene when he was pulled down the pool and was saved by the brother.

All in all, it was not a waste of my money or my time. And after the movie, we were all hungry for a pepperoni pizza. :)

Box Office

Michael Douglas and Shia LaBeouf beat out owls and catty women for the top prize!

http://www.hollywoodnews.com/2010/09/27/wall-street-2-is-a-genuine-mainstream-hit-with-19-million/

Trailer - The Hole

Tonite at Pavilion! :)

Trailer - Deathly Hallows

Dayyymmmnnn!!!

Trailer - Priest

Stars Paul Bettany, Maggie Q and Cam Gigandet... looks to be interesting... :)

The Other Guys Preview Screening by Sony Pictures and Advertlets

I have been thinking really hard about this. How do outcasts stand out? By definition alone, they should not stand out. Not really anyway. People notice outcasts but choose to not acknowledge them.

But lately, you can see that outcasts or the other guys have been standing out.

The best example I could think of... are from the movies or TV series. More and more shows now are made with nerds and geeks either as the lead or as one of the sidekicks. Chuck, The Big Bang Theory and countless cop shows like CSI or Bones. They all feature one outcast or another and they all play important roles to the storylines.

I have to admit that I am one of those nerds. Shy wallflower types that nobody would notice. Yup, I am sooooo The Other Guys. If the normal guys aren't around or busy, then only I'd come into the picture. Socially or at work, it's all the same.

But this ain't a pity party. I am okay with it. Some people are not that nice anyway. Hehehe.

Lately though, I have been singled out a lot. Like somehow I've stood out amongst the outcasts. Am not sure how, but people found out about my blogs. Okay, so I put my blogs at my facebook profile. How was I supposed to know people would read...

So now, this wallflower who used to coast on by without so much of a whimper... is a copywriter at work... thanks to his nerdy skills... and people come up to me with a lot of questions and asking help with scripts and stuff...

Don't get me wrong. I am still one of The Other Guys for sure... nobody bothers to include me in any of their plans... but they'd wanna join me for whatever it is that I am up to... weird eh?

Anyway, guess that's one of the advantages of being The Other Guys. You're kinda free to do whatever you want, however you want it, whenever you want it. You are not confined to other people's time, or interests or quirks.

And for the most part, people still leave you alone, which is exactly what I like. I mean, you can go off without people asking for you or wondering where you've gone off to.

For me, that's the best part of being one who doesn't fit in or an outcast.

And no, I am not gonna go all 'Carrie' on you normal folks at the preview... :)





For bloggers who wish to join this competition or wanna see the preview with the Advertlets team, go here --> http://www.advertlets.com/weblog/2010/09/10/advertlets-presents-the-other-guys-preview-screening-this-12th-october-2010/

Review - Legend of the Guardians

First of all, thank you to Advertlets for inviting me to the preview of Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. Really appreciate it... They even asked me if I was coming to the preview of The Other Guys... haven't had time to do the write up, hopefully I'd get it done soon... :)

Anyway, on to the review... (go to my pal's blog for his take on the movie...)

First of... this movie sounded like it was an Aussie/NZ project or at the very least The Association of Actors with Accents.... hehe, not that it's a bad thing coz it made the owls have regal air or a bit dignified... in any event, the movie boasts the who's who in the industry... talents like Ryan Kwanten of True Blood, Oscar winners Geoffrey Rush and Helen Mirren, Sam Neill and fantasy movie staples Hugo Weaving and David Wenham.

The movie is directed by Zack Snyder. Yup, the guy that directed 300. So that's why the movie has all of the war fight slow-mo move.

To tell you the truth, I have not heard of this movie before or bothered to google it before watching. I only watched the trailer at Advertlets website. So I did not know whose voice goes where and all that...

At first glance, the movie is great. Nice animation work. Nice graphics and rendering. Or is it coloring. Either way, it's all nice.

Even the story was great. But then, when you really look at it, you notice things. Not that it's all bad mind you...

The movie is suffering from M Night Shyamalan Syndrome (MNSS). It's a disease where a story that's really big and needed all kinds of exposition and back stories but can only be told in one hour or less so it's boiled down to the simplest points and everything was rushed through so that all it's points were told.

Yup, MNSS. If you watch Lady in the Water or The Last Airbender, then you'd understand what I mean. It's like taking The Lord of the Rings trilogy and boiling it down to a two hour movie.

Guardians started out with a nice view and then a majestic owl flying and hunting. Then it arrived home to feed it to its young. The owlets were playing roles from a legend they'd heard from the parents. Somehow or rather the owlets got captured when they fell from the tree and was taken to a far off place where they were forced to be either slaves or soldiers. One of them escaped and flew away to find the Guardians to help rescue everybody and bring the evil owls down.

That's basically the story. It felt a bit rushed. The legend was told once during the role playing and then... BOOM! They're transported right into the legend. But we don't really know it's the legend until after the owlets were told to go get help from The Guardians.

The Guardians were found without much hassle. Scouts were sent. Owlets were trained. Big battle ensued. Dust settled. We see the winner. And of course, there's a hint of a second movie. See? Rushed.

But the quirky supporting characters kinda elevated the movie a bit, providing some of the funnier moments, despite the seriousness of their quests.

Like I said, this movie is like The Lord of the Rings boiled down... not that it's bad. It's quite good. But I can't imagine bringing children to watch this because the battle scenes were quite graphic and the scare/thrill factor was quite high. Either way, despite the shortcomings and the MNSS, this movie is better than anything *cough* The Last Airbender *cough* that we've seen this summer.

Preview

Legends of the Guardians at Pavilion 8pm, thanks to Advertlets... see you there! :)

Box Office

Ben Affleck's new movie won the box office race, over Devil, Resident Evil and Easy A...

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.ap.org/town-talk-box-office-opening-with-238m-ap

Review - Devil

M Night Shyamalan has been getting a lot of flak lately, especially for that blunder that is The Last Airbender.



He first exploded onto the scene with the kick-ass The Sixth Sense, even though he had made a couple of movies before that. And he was always wearing at least two hats: Writer and Director. Sometimes Producer as well...



Unfortunately for him, his movies are not as good as The Sixth Sense but not that bad either. Unbreakable. Signs. The Village. But then again, the quality seemed to have been dropping since Unbreakable. Either he peaked too soon or The Sixth Sense was just a fluke.



We kept hoping his next movie would be half as good as The Sixth Sense but he had never been able to deliver. Lady in the Water clearly showed that he had lost his touch, although the movie had a pretty decent storyline. The Happening was just too weird and/or not really able to be made sense of...



Then he decided to tackle The Last Airbender. Hmm, maybe it'd work out well since the material has already been laid out in front of him. But noooo, he had to poo-poo all over that. Yup, I am an avid Avatar fan. He got a lot of it wrong and he took the life, soul and fun out of everything we hold dear about Team Avatar.



MNS really should stick to just writing and not direct. That way he could concentrate on making the script kick-ass instead of having his attention diverted into a million different ways.



But I am not a M Night Shyamalan hater. I am just disappointed. He had a lot of talent and potential to pull off The Sixth Sense. Of course, I also know that he is not the only one to be blamed for all those lacking movies coz there are other producers in charge and the studio execs... they could have easily forced him to make something better... or not... I guess we'd never know...



Anyway, with Devil... once I saw his name is on it... I was simultaneously excited and nervous. Rolling my eyes and clapping giddily.



MNS is back to The Sixth Sense territory. And he's only writing the script. So he won't be helming it lazily like he did The Last Airbender.



Watching the trailer, Devil does seem pretty interesting. And it totally was. As I have said many times before... what you don't see is genuinely scarier than something you can see on screen... it's like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity... scary shit right there... Devil also employs the same technique and it's all done within that one elevator car...



The tension and suspense... wow... the acting was also pretty good, featuring mostly unknown actors...



And the writing was excellent... I normally would have caught the red herring a mile away but this time, I did not see it until the pivotal moments before the unveiling of the red herring... MNS did such an amazing job tying everything together... kudos... hopefully, he'll stick to what he does best from now on... not directing, not acting... just writing scary movies...



Although I did find some storylines unnecessary but I guess it was a bit to throw us off the scent of the real killer behind it... excellent horror movie! :)

Review - Going the Distance

I haven't even heard of this movie until an ex-colleague of mine asked me to accompany her for a sneak preview. Boy, it was soooo sneaky that there were only a handful of people in the cinema hall. Like 10 people... which was good coz we were seated so far away that we could sit comfortably... hehehe...

Anyways, I have always liked Drew Barrymore so I thought why not... plus, Justin Long and Barrymore have been the talk of the town in regards to their relationship... whether it's on or it's off...

Either way, this movie is a romantic comedy about two people who met and got it on famously... but the problem is the girl's leaving to the other side of the country.

It's a nice enough movie. The two leads have excellent chemistry together and the acting was not too bad.

Drew Barrymore's forte is lightweight comedies so she's pretty good here. Justin Long is also good as the guy who has to deal with the long distance relationship. He sidestepped his normal roles AKA quirky and annoying and made the guy somewhat likeable. The scene when he had to make a difficult decision was kinda heartbreaking. Proves how good he actually is...

They're supported by a few interesting and hilarious characters. Guess that's the norm when it comes to quirky romantic comedies. The wacky sidekicks.

Christina Applegate is especially hilarious and the tough as nails and no nonsense older sister. She's excelling in this kind of role, especially after carving out a name for herself in Samantha Who? and her Emmy winning scene stealing role as Rachel's sister on FRIENDS.

Trailer - Devil

M Night Shyamalan's producing and writing... hopefully it'd be better than when he's directing... sigh...

Kinda looking forward to go see this, and apparently it's showing in Malaysia now...

New Judge

Jennifer Lopez is the new (and third) judge on American Idol...
12 million pay day... must be nice...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1312060/American-Idol-2010-Jennifer-Lopez-seals-rumoured-12m-deal.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Lopez was a mentor before... check out this blog, at the very end to see how she did...

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/realityrocks/389729/idol-opinion-is-jennifer-lopez-really-worth-12-million/

VMA

Lady GaGa won big! Finally! Coz she was robbed at the Grammys! But I kinda prefer Poker Face to her other songs... :)

http://new.music.yahoo.com/various-artists/news/list-of-2010-mtv-video-music-award-winners--62005338

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole Movie Screening by Advertlets & Warner Bros.

My fave owl is the snowy owl... because? Well, look at it...

It's so pretty and mysterious... okay, okay, it's the more famous of the other owls... coz of it's starring role in all of the Harry Potter movies... yup, that's right... Hedwig's a Snowy Owl...

See? Pretty... and famous... hehehe

Advertlets is gonna have a screening of Legends of The Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole on the 20th of September... and I wanna go see it... for those of you who also want the exclusive tix, go here --> http://www.advertlets.com/weblog/2010/09/06/advertlets-presents-legend-of-the-guardians-the-owls-of-gahoole-movie-screening-in-3d-this-20th-september-2010/

... and see if you guys can get in on the bandwagon as well... by the way, Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir Batin to everyone... :)

Box Office

George Clooney and The American is #1!

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gLY31rVTKe56e4o0vG7dLK5Yt4Qw

American Idol

Kara DioGuardi is out...

http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20100904/ten-entertainment-us-idol-db3f2d5.html

Black Swan

Natalie Portman, already an Oscar nominee for Closer, has earned Oscar buzz for 'Black Swan'

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_162-20015473-10391698.html