Captain Planet

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

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

Female Comedy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The robots ruled again!

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

Review - The Dark of the Moon

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!

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

Looks to be as good as the original...

Box Office

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

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/