Tangy Travis

I watched a few movies lately, some of them are really nice, some of them I don’t even know what’s the movie about. I’ll just discuss those which I think is really nice.

I’ll start with Forgetting Sarah Marshall. This is one of the best comedy I’ve watched recently. It’s from the producer Judd Apatow, who also produced other comedies like The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and Superbad (I quite like these 3 movies as well, super funny :D). It seems that the comedies he produced have really high quality, and isn’t like those meaningless comedy recently with a really stupid plot. Back to the movie, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is about this guy who’s trying to forget about her ex, Sarah Marshall (performed by the hot lightning girl in Heroes Season 2, Kristen Bell). While going for holiday after their breakup, both of them unexpectedly met up at a Hawaii resort, and thus begins the story. As usual, there are certain scenes which I can’t stop laughing and absolutely love em. The movie kinda advices us not to hold too tight on a relationship when it’s long gone. Highly recommended for anyone especially comedy lovers.

The second movie is a really old one, 12 Angry Men, filmed in 1957, having the same age as our beloved country, yay. Movie lovers should need no introduction to this film. It’s a classic , a real classic, ranking #10 in IMDb top 250 explains it all. The film is notable for its use of almost one set throughout the whole film, 99% of the film takes place in one single jury room. The story is simple, a jury member tries to persuade the other 11 members to acquit the suspect on trial on the basis of reasonable doubt. The story is really nice that I just couldn’t press the STOP button. I love their dialogues especially during the argument scenes. The jury’s method of slowly digging into small little things reveal more and more possible mistakes in the trial is really impressive. It doesn’t have heavy action nor does it have any impressive graphics, but it has an excellent plot, which should be the core element of a movie, instead of some fancy computer generated graphics or some lame action scenes.

The third movie is The Machinist. I watched it because it has a decent 7.8 rating in IMDb and features the super duper thin version of the buffy Christian Bale I saw in Batman Begins. The following is quoted from Wikipedia:

Christian Bale starved himself for over 4 months prior to filming, as his character needed to look drastically thin. Allegedly his eating consisted of one cup of coffee and an apple (or a can of tuna) each day (approximately 275 calories). According to the DVD commentary, he lost 62 pounds (28 kg), reducing his body weight to 120 pounds (54.4 kg). Bale wanted to go down to 100 pounds (45.3 kg) but the filmmakers would not let him due to health concerns. He later regained the weight, plus an additional 40 pounds (18 kg) due to weightlifting, in preparation for his role in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins.

The plot revolves around a machinist who has insomnia and hasn’t slept for a year. This causes him to be so terribly thin, like a skeleton covered in skins. A series of incidents cause him to question his sanity. I enjoy the movie’s mysterious stoyline, you just can’t stop watching the movie to know how the story ends. The ending, of course was a surprising one and did not disappoint me. I like Christian Bale even more now, willing to starve himself for 4 months just for a movie. He is a really good example of a professional actor, doing anything possible to portray the character as close as needed. Highly recommended!!

The next and last movie I’m gonna mention here is this new movie from Singapore, Money No Enough 2. It’s a sequel to the successful Money No Enough 10 years ago, and I think is still showing in cinema now. The core actors remain the same, adding other new supporting characters as well. I really enjoy the movie, laugh like mad in the cinema. I like the story about inflation, where prices of goods are increasing but our income has never increased, which is happening to Malaysia right now and our government seems to be ignorant about it. Add a bit of comedy, family issues, and some Singapore society problems, that’s roughly all about the movie. Recommended for people who knows Mandarin and Hokkien. I myself don’t know how to speak Hokkien even though I am a Hokkien, so there are quite some parts I have to refer to subtitles.

That’s all. Hope you guys read this!

Films

Yay, finally found da right theme to be used. I got kinda bored with the old theme. I’ll change the font in the next couple of days.

By da way, dis new theme is called “Modern Notepad”.

Blog

Nothing much to write about these days. Not many movies that I watched recently give me the urge to write about it, except The Dark Knight and Wall-E. I love these 2 films, especially The Dark Knight. Buying original DVD is a MUST, hopefully there is a 2 discs version with some extra features and deleted scenes!

Not many games to play recently as well. I tried Space Siege, but, uninstalled it after 30 mins playing. The next game that I am waiting faithfully would be Spore, 7th Sept 2008. Crysis Warhead follows next on 16th Sept. I have high hopes for these 2 games, and please, Crysis, please, lower down your graphics requirement!!!

Malaysia’s politic situation seems to be entering its final phase. We have roughly 2 more weeks before 16th September 2008, where Anwar promises the forming of a new government by Pakatan Rakyat. I sincerely hope for a time of change. Barisan Nasional is too rooted with corruption that its impossible to cleanse them. I don’t really care who will form the next government as long as there is changes in the country. BN often promised this and that but the budget they allocated never reach the project, how to improve?

My biggest hope would be a drastic improvement on KL’s public transport as I am a frequent user myself. STAR LRT works fine, it’s super crowded during peak hours but at least its understandable, just that its slightly expensive. PUTRA LRT and KTM is worse, you need to wait for few trains to get in, imagine the queue. By the way, what I hate the most is the feeder bus at the train station. Sometimes, it feels like it won’t come no matter how long I wait. There was once I wait for half an hour and still the bus did not come. I gave up and take cab home instead. Another scenario is where the bus comes, everyone rush in without queueing, usual in Malaysia. I couldn’t get in because there were way too many people. After the bus went off, another bus came instantly. What’s the point of all this when you wait for half an hour, the bus came, everyone rushed in, the passenger became sardine fish. After that, the second bus came like 1 min later, with almost no people in the bus at all. I even had a place to sit during peak hours. Why can’t the bus come every 15 mins or so? The passengers will be more equally divided and no longer need to be sardine fish.

Hopefully 916 will be a success. Everyone is fed up with BN.

Government, Life

Yay, I finally get to watch Wall-E. Reviews are extremely positive of the film, 8.7 on IMDB and 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. Plus, its from Pixar, creator of Ratatouille, The Incredibles, Toy Story etc. This 2 reasons are good enough for me to spend some money and enjoy the film in a nice and comfortable cinema. By the way, something unexpected happen in Mid Valley - I saw Ah Fai and the Little Yellow Devil queueing for movie tickets!!! I went up and had a quick chat, but gosh, she keep asking me for strawberries. Oh no!!!! Guess I gotta go to Cameron Highlands again this weekend to pluck some strawberries for her.

Back to da film, Wall-E is actually the name of a robot, alone in the deserted earth cleaning up garbages for the past 700 years!! I don’t want to reveal too much spoilers here, just that the film is related to global warming, a really good theme for times like this. The plot revolves around the “robotic romance” between Wall-E and another much more advanced robot, Eve, which really looks like an iPoD. (After doing some digging, I realize Eve and iPoD are from the same designer. Credits of the film has a special thanks to Steve Jobs.) We are all familiar with humans romantic stuff but what if its between robots? You will be more impressed with Pixar studios if you think the idea of rats cooking impresses you enough.

Humans in the film have become way too fat to even walk on their own because they have robots to do everything for them. All they have to do is sit on the electronic chair and ask for help. I keep on laughing cause they need robots to do every small little thing for them. The end result is the decrease of bones in their body. I got a feeling that humans might turn into such state if technology keeps on improving. Technology should be something that assists humans but not something humans should rely on. A deserted earth might also become reality if earth keeps getting warmer and warmer.

One of my favourite scene where Wall-E is holding Eve's hand

Another element that impresses me is the sound of the film. The first 40 minutes of the film has no dialogues at all because the robots can’t speak properly. They use some “beep beep” sound or simple words to communicate. Because of this, it is important to make sure the sound these robots use are good enough to replace ordinary dialogues, with the core meaning still there and is easily understood by the audience. To achieve that, Pixar hires Ben Burtt to do the character’s sound design. Below is quoted from Wikipedia:

Benjamin Burtt, Jr. is a four time Academy Award-winning sound designer and sound editor for many famous and noteworthy films, as well as directing an Oscar-nominated documentary. Burtt’s most memorable work includes creating the “voice” of robot R2-D2 in the Star Wars films, as well as various sound effects like the lightsaber, the heavy breathing sound of Darth Vader and the speederbike chase sounds from Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

He is one of the person that made Star Wars so successful back in the 80s. Needless to say, the sound he designed for Wall-E is excellent. Those sounds are really really cute and with the wonderful eye expression of Wall-E, this film is simply one of the best movie I watched this year. It is an absolute must watch film for everyone especially for its global warming issue.

Films

Yay, last Monday my fren Jonathan gave me a small Joker figure. He bought some Nestle stuff and got 2 of these as free gifts. So nice of him to give me his extra one. THANKS JON!! It’s quite small, almost the size of your palm. Best of all, it’s got a kicking leg. If you push its right leg from behind, it will automatically kick the leg up. It’s really fun to play with its leg sometimes. It aint super cool or nice, juz a rather CUTE Joker. I’m not sure if these free gifts are still available on the market. All I know is that it comes with all the NESTLE cereal stuff and you can get Batman and Scarecrow as well. Go get it quick if you still want it, while stock lasts!!

I juz found a pic with all the free gifts. Have a look!!

Toys

Suddenly thought of dis weird question. Have you guys ever used your laptop in a toilet?

I’ve never done it. Feels kinda dirty.

[poll id="1"]

Life