Happy Independence Day!!!

Happy Independence Day Malaysians!!! I pray that Malaysia will be in peace and harmony for eternity. Amin.

Alright Malaysians, all together now...Merdeka!...Merdeka!...Merdeka!!!

Vin Diesel is back in Babylon AD!

This week we get to watch Vin Diesel on the silver screen flexing his muscles to protect a girl in Babylon A.D. Yup, the movie is opening this week in cinemas.

This movie was directed by Mathieu Kassovitz and stars Vin Diesel as Hugo Cornelius Toorop, Melanie Thierry as Aurora and Malaysia very own Michelle Yeoh as Sister Rebecca. I really hope Michelle Yeoh will get more screen time in this movie. She's such a great actress.

Judging from the trailer and synopsis, looks like this movie will not only have great action sequences but also a good story. But apparently Mathieu Kassovitz had criticized the distributor, 20th Century Fox, for removing the movie from his control and altering it significantly. Uh oh, looks like there's trouble. I hope this movie will turn out well. You can read more about this movie in the Wikipedia page. Just click here.

I have here the trailer for Babylon AD. For those who watched The Dark Knight in the cinemas, you should have watched this trailer too. Sorry for the low quality. Enjoy!

See you in 2009, Harry.

I bet you guys know by now that Warner Bros. had pushed the release date of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from November 2008 to summer 2009. What a shocking news. Everyone had been so patient for this movie and now we have to wait a little bit longer.

I was kinda confused though on why WB made such a decision. We will have very strong movies coming out in summer 2009 and it's a tough competition. Let's see, we have X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Transformers 2, Terminator 4, The Fast and The Furious 4, Ice Age 3 and a lot more. Can Harry survive?

Maybe Harry was moved because they need more time to edit the film, not because of marketing strategy. What do you think???

Anyway, a delay is a delay. Nothing much to argue about there. I have here the trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Sorry for the low quality. Enjoy!

Wall E ~ review

Seriously, there's nothing much to say about this movie. Great visuals, great soundtrack, great story, great movie. I'm not going to give away the synopsis because it will just ruin the fun. You guys better watch this movie for yourself because in my opinion, it's really worth it. I'm not wasting my energy eagerly waiting to watch this movie since the beginning of summer movie frenzy. It was really WORTH IT!

It's about loneliness, friendship and loyalty. These robots look more human than the people I see in the news. The last few scenes nearly bring me to tears. Marvellous, fantastic, awesome flick. Great job PIXAR!!!

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor ~ review

I watched this movie with a mixed feelings. I was kinda dissapointed there are no more Egyptian mummies ( because I love Egyptian tales) but somehow I was glad they made a third movie out of this franchise because it was truly an amazing and fun adventure.

Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser), Evy Carnahan-O'Connell (Maria Bello) and their son, Alex O'Connell (Luke Ford) had been tricked to waken up the Emperor of China, Emperor Han (Jet Li), or better known as the Dragon Emperor who had been cursed by a beautiful sorceror, Zi Yuan (Michelle Yeoh) thousand of years ago (or was it hundreds?). To undo their mistakes, they must battle Han and his Terracota Army from taking over the world with the help from Zi Yuan and her daughter, Lin (who had gained immortal life from the water from Shangri-La), 3 cute but scary Yetis and an army of dead soldiers resurrected by Zi Yuan. Will they win against the powerful, shape-shifting and evil Emperor? This kind of movie is predictable so you know the answer.

Beautiful CGI and great acting from Brendan Fraser and Michelle Yeoh. Maria Bello brings a fresh look for the character Evy although sometimes her accent sound a little bit weird. Luke Ford is kinda annoying as Alex O'Connell and his romance with Lin (Isabella Leong) looked kinda fake (I can't complaint much about her though because her beauty just blinded me ;-P). Better work harder next time guys. Not much to say about Jet Li because most of the time he was replaced by CGI effects. What a disappointment because he's such a great actor. And John Hannah is really fun to watch as he brings comic relief to the movie as Jonathan Carnahan, Evy's brother.

As a conclusion, this movie is bigger but certaintly not better. I'd prefer the 2nd movie. But I'm not saying it's a bad movie. It's really fun to watch for adults and kids alike. Great adventure to release whatever stress who may have. I'm really looking forward for more sequels. For all the people behind this movie; director, casts, crews, etc...good job!!!

Violent croc!!! Rogue ~ review

Sorry, been really quiet lately. Got some issues to settle.

This week, it will all be about movies. I will give reviews on several movies that I had watched and also some sneak peek at new movies that will hit cinemas in the future.

Let's start with Rogue, an Australian production film directed by Greg McLean, the same person who directed the successful indie movie, Wolf Creek. Rogue was inspired by the true story of Sweetheart, a giant Australian crocodile that attacked boats in the late 1970s.

This movie starred Radha Mitchell (Pitch Black, Silent Hill) as Kate Ryan, the river cruise tour captain, and Michael Vartan (Alias series) as Pete McKell, the cynical American travel journalist.
A boat was taking a group of tourists on a cruise along a remote Australian river when suddenly a passenger saw a flare shooting up in a distance while they were heading back to base. Kate decided to investigate and brought the boat off the usual route to the location. When they arrived there, they saw a broken, half-sunken boat but no survivors. Then they were attacked by 'something' and Kate decided to land their boat at the nearest land as the boat had broken and water kept gushing in. From this moment on, there were shouting, screaming, crying as they realized that they were being hunted by a big croc and they were trapped on that small island with the tide kept getting higher with each passing moment. Will they survive???

This movie actually has been released in Australia in 2007 and US in April 2008. I don't know why it was released this late in Malaysia. I'm not even sure if this movie is ever release in any other Asian countries.

Surprisingly, this movie is quite fun to watch as there are many suspense moments in it, even in scenes where the croc didn't even show its scary face. The acting too was quite okay although not great. I like Radha Mitchell better in Silent Hill. Overall, it was a fun experience. If you didn't get tickets to the movie that you are hoping to watch, I recommend you choose this movie as your second choice. It's kinda predictable but hey, it's still fun.

We got a medal!!!

Congratulations to Lee Chong Wei, Malaysia's badminton champion, for bringing Malaysia the first medal for 2008 Summer Olympic Beijing. Although most of Malaysian would definitely want a gold medal, but silver is still good and we definitely are proud of his achievement no matter what. Malaysia Boleh!!!

The Place Promised In Our Early Days~ review

This anime film was released in Japan in 2004, I bought the VCD sometime in 2006, but I just watched it a couple of months ago, in 2008. Kinda weird, right? I can be a little bit weird sometimes. But at least I watched it.

The Place Promised In Our Early Days is an anime film created and directed by Makoto Shinkai. It's kinda hard to give the synopsis so I hope you guys don't mind with this short summary of the film. 3 best friends, 2 boys and a girl. The girl went missing. Three years later the boys found out that she had been in a coma (more like sleeping continuously since she didn't involve in accident or anything) and hospitalized for the past 3 years. 1 boy want to save her but the other boy didn't because if she wakes up, the world will 'vanish'. So what can they do???

It sound kinda confusing, right? I was confused too when I first watched it. So I suggest you watch this movie twice to really appreciate it. Besides, the visuals are nice and the story is beautiful too; it explore the emotion of being alone. So no harm in watching it twice. Yeah, the plot is kinda complicated but my VCD have a very bad subtitles so I didn't blame my confusion solely on the plot.

This anime film falls in the drama category so don't expect an action film like Naruto or Bleach. But it's still a nice film so if you like drama, you should give this a try.

Cute robot, Wall-E

I've been quiet for a while. Sorry about that. Been kinda sick. I'm still sick by the way. The stomachache really got into me.

Anyway, back to business. The trailer had been played for almost every movie that I had watched recently and finally Wall-E is coming to cinemas; it opens this week! Hooray!!! This is the animated movie that I've been waiting for. Wall-E has already been released in US back in June (as you can see from the date on the posters above). Although the hype is kinda subsided, but I hope people are still waiting for the release of this movie with anticipation here in Malaysia. I think some of the Asian countries had already released this movie. I wonder why they release it late here in Malaysia???

I still haven't watch The Mummy 3 so hopefully I can get the tickets to see Mummy when people are busy buying Wall-E tickets. I don't mind watch it a little bit late. We are already late anyway.

So for those Pixar and animation fans, don't forget to watch Wall-E.

Enjoy the trailer!

Twilight buzz

First, I got headache. Now, I got stomachache. But since I'm feeling quite okay now, I'm going to post something.

Twilight, the anticipated movie adaptation of the popular novel of the same name written by Stephenie Meyer, will hit cinemas worlwide (hopefully) in December. Seriously, I've never bother to know about this novel before (although I always stumble upon it quite a lot in bookstores) until I heard and read all the hype about the movie.

The Twilight series (currently 4 books have been released in the series with the latest, Breaking Dawn, just arrived in bookstores this month~ August 2008) has gained a lot of attention not only from fans (they called themselves Twilighters and Fanpires among others) but from critics as well. Although the first book in the series, Twilight, received mixed reviews from critics, but it won several recognition and honors including a New York Times Editor's Choice and Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. Impressive! No wonder there's so much hype on the movie.

Twilight, I mean the movie, is directed by Catherine Hardwicke and star Kristen Stewart (Panic Room, Zathura, The Messengers) as Bella Swan and Robert Pattinson (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) as Edward Cullen. Twilight is actually a love story between a human, Bella, and a vampire, Edward and the challenges they face because of their differences. Well, at least that what I understand from the reviews that I read since I never read Twilight before. Maybe I should give it a try....

Anyway, with all the hype, even a non-reader like me can't wait for this movie to come out. I hope it's good because if it's not, I don't know how many lives will be sacrificed by the Fanpires.

You can read all about Twilight at the official site, StephenieMeyer.com or at the Wiki page. Thanx to Movie Fanatics too for the poster. Really nice. By the way, the designer of the poster is an 18-year-old Canadian photographer, Joey Lawrence. Talented guy! Check out the interview at Movie Fanatics.

Sorry guys....

I'm not feeling very well right now. I'm having a really bad headache. So I didn't prepare any post for tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. But I will post something as soon as I feel a little bit better.

Sorry....

Midori no Hibi manga is here!

Previously, this manga was serialized in Kreko or Arena magazine (I'm not sure which) in Malaysia. And now finally we had it in volume format. Thank you Gangstarz! Although the anime series had already been in the market for quite a while now, I bet fans still flocking to buy this one since the story for manga is longer compare to the anime. Plus, the size is much bigger. Although it is a little bit expensive, RM6.50 each, compared to other famous manga published in Malaysia like Naruto and One Piece but it's still worth it.

Volume 2 and 3 has already been published too, and I just bought volume 2 a few days ago. So guys, don't forget to buy this if you're a fan.

Urameshi Team stays strong

From Vol.1 until Vol. 7, this is by far my favourite cover.

The Dark Tournament continues on with Kurama and Hiei fighting their opponents. Then, it's Yuusuke's turn to fight the last member from the opponent's team. They win the first round. Things doesn't look good for Hiei though, and Yuusuke too. They had sustained quite a lot of damage and may affect their performance in the next round.

They will face Dr. Ichigaki's team in the 2nd round. There are humans in this team, which is weird since human seldom participate in the Dark Tournament, except for Urameshi's Team of course (they were forced!). Things doesn't look good for Urameshi's Team (again!) because Hiei and Kurama are absent. Where are they?

Things are getting more interesting....

This volume also contain a short story at the back of the manga. It features Hiei and Kurama and tells the story of how they first met. Kurama looks cute in short hair. :-)

Okay, move on to Vol. 8 now.

TARA 3 is coming!!!

I was surprised to see an add of The Amazing Race Asia Season 3 last night on television. I mean, they're going to air it soon?!? I thought it would be next year. I felt like it was just yesterday that I watched the finale of Season 2. Well, the sooner the better.

From what I get from Wiki, this season will premiere on 11 September 2008 and will only have 11 episodes, 2 episodes short from the previous seasons. Mmm, I bet something unexpected happen, like an accident, that force them to cut it short. And like Season 2, this season will also have quite a few numbers of local media personalties. We will have Natalie, the winner of 2005 Miss Universe and also the wife of Thai tennis player, Paradorn Srichaphan; Pailin, the runner-up of 2006 Miss Thailand Universe and also a contestant in Miss Earth 2006; Tisha, once Miss Phillipines (later had to give up her crown due to citizenship) and the ex-girlfirend of Survivor Philippines's host, Paolo Bediones; William and Isaac, sports commentators and football agents for professional players in the Korean K-League; and (surprise surprise Malaysia!!!) Ida Nerina, a well-known Malaysian actress and icon.

I was surprised to see Ida Nerina in the contestants list. I thought TARA is not a suitable program for a Muslim to participate, since you have to eat 'disgusting' food, that might be considered 'haram'. Well, maybe I was wrong. Maybe TARA's people did checked about all this and only included food that can be tolerated by Muslim. Mmm...if that's the case, I want to apply for next season too! Wait, there's another important factor... strength and agility. Oh right, I'm not fit enough. :-P

From the add, Allan Wu (host) says that this is the toughest race ever. Can't wait....

Oh, one more thing. Like Season 2, they will air a special episode called Racers Revealed 1 week before the actual premiere, that is on 4 September 2008. Don't forget to watch it!

There's a new curse in town

This game looks pretty cool, and pretty scary too. Siren: Blood Curse had recently been released in Japan in Blu-ray Disc format followed by worldwide release on PSN (PlayStation Network) last July. This is the 3rd game in the Siren game series. Siren: Blood Curse, also known as Siren: New Translation in Japan, is actually a re-imagining of the first game in the series, Siren. The game is divided into 12 chronological episodes which are grouped into 4 chapters. Players will take control 7 playable characters to discover the mystery behind the spooky village of Hanuda.

This game receives a lot of positive reviews from critics and users alike. So I bet this game is going to have huge success. Since this game is only available through download (except in Japan of course), so I assume not many people, especially here in Asia sans Japan, have played this game. So I guess we don't have other choice but to wait for the Blu-ray Disc format to be released.

I have here the trailer for Siren: Blood Curse thanx to GameTrailers. Also thanx to GameSpot for the cool images. So, enjoy guys!

Journey to the Center of the Earth ~ review

This is definitely a movie for the kids.

Journey to the Center of the Earth is a fun movie with a lot of CGI and actions thrown in together to make up a crazy adventure far beneath the ground. I found the CGI to be beautiful although some scenes do look fake. And there are something wrong with the lines too, especially the one from Brendan Fraser. It sounded...fake. I don't know any better word to describe it. It doesn't sound real as if he was reading it instead of speaking it.

But in general, it's a nice movie. It may not appeal to all adults, but it doesn't make you want to run out of the cinema either. In fact, I watched this movie with a heavy feeling (due to some personal problems, nothing to do with this movie whatsoever) but I walked out from the cinema hall with a smile. It's a light movie, fun, visually-stunning and funny. The acting is pretty good, especially young actor Josh Hutcherson. Brendan Fraser and Anita Briem did quite well too. I like her accent by the way. ;-P

This movie is already out for awhile in Malaysia so better hurry up to the cinemas if you haven't watch it. Some Asian countries still haven't release this movie though. Just hang in there guys. It will come out eventually.

Visit the official site for more news and features. Just click here to go there. And thanx Yahoo! for the pics.

Sneak peek: Terminator Salvation

Cool poster of Terminator Salvation released during Comic-Con 2008 at San Diego. I'm not a hardcore fan of Terminator but surely I'm a fan. Although I do feel the 3rd movie was a little bit shallow. They seem to focus on the action rather than the plot. It's cool to have mind-blowing stunts in a movie but it also need to have a good storyline to complement it. Anyway, I hope they will not repeat the same mistake with this one.

Thanx to Movieblog for the poster. Please click here to read the rest of the news of this soon-to-be-blockbuster movie.

What next for Nelly Furtado?

I like Nelly Furtado. She write great songs. I have all her 3 albums; Whoa, Nelly!, Folklore, and Loose. I was kinda surprised to find out that she moved towards RnB music for Loose but fortunately it turn out great. She's like a chameleon. I wonder what type of album will she make next???

Here's the MV for her single, Say It Right. Enjoy!

A month to celebrate!

Today is the first day of August which means that we have enter the month of Malaysia Independence. Hooray!!! Although the Independence Day is at the end of the month, but I bet there will be Malaysia flags all over the place. Tall buildings, houses, shopping malls, cars, streets, everywhere! And the best part is yet to come, the TV commercials! I love all those funny, heart-warming, mind-poking, spirit-lifting (sound kinda weird, is that even grammatically correct?) TV commercials.

I hope all my fellow Malaysians will enjoy each other's company and respect each other's beliefs and culture and brings out the spirit of Malaysians in whatever method possible. Although this behavior of respect should be practiced all the time (not just near or during the Independence Day), but at least show more of the values in this month.

A reminder to those flag-bearer, please change your flag if it's already worn out! I hate seeing our flag still being used although it looks like an old piece of cloth, all worn out and shred. Feels like in a war or disaster movie or something. Hate it! Respect our flag guys.

I know it's kinda early but, what the heck...Happy Independence Day!!!