Earth Hour 2009. We can save the world!

Okay everyone, today is an important day. It's Earth Hour day! Today, 28th March 2009, from 8.30 p.m. to 9.30 p.m., we all need to turned off all non-essential electricity in our house and business premises. It's to raise awareness to people about the global warming and climate change and what we need to do or what we can do to help Earth. It's our fault anyway (?!), so we need to take action.

I plan to hang out with my family in the dark and eat snacks while exchanging ghost stories. You can still fun without electricity y'know. I hope you guys can find fun things to do during Earth Hour, just make sure no electricity involve. :-)

Together, we can make a difference. Peace.

Dragonball Evolution ~ review

There were a lot of negative things being said about Dragonball Evolution. So here's a positive review about the live-action movie that, I assume, would be hard to find on the web.

Dragonball Evolution is a manga/anime adaptation of the ever-so-popular Dragonball franchise. To compare Dragonball Evolution to the original series would be unfair because the movie is nothing like the original. Hollywood has a reputation of changing stories from the original source to their own version and this movie is no exception. In this version, we follow the adventure of Goku and his friends in their quest to stop the evil Piccolo from destroying the world. Here's my opinion about the movie. Don't worry, no spoilers.

The plot of the movie, while still good, needs to be improved...a lot! There are too many holes that need to be filled, too many things that were left unanswered. Why Piccolo wants to destroy the world? Why does he needs dragonballs when obviously he can destroy the world with his own hands? How does he escaped from his prison? How did Mai became Piccolo partner-in-crime? Who is Goku? How did he gain that 'monstrous power'? Etc2. Since this movie is not made according to the plot from the original series, so I think the writers should have include more explanation on the backstory. Even fans (like me!) was confused when watching the movie. But in general, I must say that the story is quite decent. If only it was a little bit longer.

This is quite unexpected but I must say...the casts were all good! Justin Chatwin cleverly played with emotions (like frustration) really well, quite a fine actor he is. Emmy Rossum was entertaining as Bulma and Chow Yun-Fat was fantastic as Master Roshi. Master Roshi in the movie is by far the most resembled to the original character in the manga / anime. Jamie Chung was excellent too as Chi Chi. She was very gentle, but very fierce too when she fights. Randall Duk Kim was very lovable as Grandpa Gohan. However, James Marsters could improve as Piccolo. He seems a bit stiff. I was quite disappointed too with the character Mai. Eriko Tamura who played Mai did a fine job but her character was portrayed as weak. They could have made her a bit strong so that she would seem more appealing. The character Yamcha, a desert bandit played by Joon Park, was a waste. He could have a much more important role in the movie other than a comic-relief.

The special effects in this movie were quite decent. Some were quite good but some were quite childish like the fighting scenes. Nevertheless, I prefer the visuals and special effects in this movie than the last movie that I watched before this. But I do wish that they would show the audience more of the futuristic world that the movie was set in.

Overall, I give 4 stars out of 5 for Dragonball Evolution. I love it! Most of the fans would hate it, I assume, because the movie derailed too much from the original not just in plot but also in characters design. But hey, everyone entitled to their own opinion. For me, it's an entertaining movie and I really wish they would make a sequel. But that would have to depend on the ticket sales.

Link: Official website

Windmills!

From all the photo shoots the girls had in Amsterdam, this one is my favourite.

For episode 12 in America's Next Top Model cycle 11, the girls had a photo shoot at a farm, a Dutch farm to be exact, complete with windmills. There were 4 girls left; Marjorie, Samantha, McKey and Analeigh.

For this photo shoot, my favourite has to be from Analeigh. She looks gorgeous and her jumping pose was perfect! I like her photo a lot. Some girls (Elina and Lauren Brie were some that I remembered) said that she doesn't have what it takes to be a model and I had to disagree with them, she DOES! This shot proved that she can model. She was called first to received her photo during the judging. Yay!

Analeigh

The judges didn't like with Marjorie's photo but I kinda like it. I don't know, it kinda works for me. McKey did quite good too. Well, she always take great pictures, so I know she would be fine in this photo shoot.

McKey

Marjorie

My least favourite is from Samantha. She looks dull. Sorry....

Anyway, like I said, the judges didn't like Marjorie's picture. She was placed in the bottom 2 together with Samantha...and Marjorie was eliminated. Poor Marjorie. She tried to gain more confidence but ultimately that was the cause of her elimination.

Team Urameshi...from 5 to 4

Yup, you read that right. In Volume 10 of the manga YuYu Hakusho, Team Urameshi lost a contestant. Not because of withdrawal or injury, but because of death. Yes, a contestant in Team Urameshi died. A lot of spoilers here, so stop reading if you want to find it out yourself.

Vol. 10 continues on the semi-final round between Team Urameshi and Team Otogi Ura. So far Hiei has won 2 fights (in Vol. 9). We get to see the rest of the action in the 3rd fight between Kurama and Urashima Ura. Kurama in his demon fox form (thanks to the fog released by Urashima Ura) intended to force some answers out from Urashima Ura about the secrets of the fog but to avoid him from spilling any more secrets, Shishi Wakamaru killed him instead. And so, Kurama won the 3rd fight. He turned back to his human form after the fog had gone.

The 4th fight between Shishi Wakamaru and Kuwabara was short where Wakamaru transported Kuwabara to another place using a cloak. The 5th fight took quite some time where Genkai returned to the arena to fight Shishi Wakamaru. Having her mask torn during the fight, all the audience knew then that Mask was actually Genkai. She had quite a reputation in the demon world for killing a lot of powerful demons when she was young. The fight ended with Genkai winning it even though she had just transfered most of her power to Yuusuke.

The short 6th fight was between Kuwabara (who had just got back from where he was transported) and the Otogi Ura team leader, Onzii. Again, Kuwabara was transported to another place and lost the fight. He was quite unlucky in this semi-final round I must say. The last fight was between Genkai and Onzii, who revealed himself to all that he was actually Suzuki, the 'beautiful' demon fighter. He was quite funny during the fight, and he was easily defeated by Genkai. And so Team Urameshi won the semi-final round and moved on to the finals.

After that, we get to see the Toguro team in action during their semi-final round. It was short, brief and cruel because the difference of strength between the 2 teams was quite big. Well, at least we get a taste of what we will see in the finals. The one I'm looking forward to is Karasu, his power is quite mysterious.

Then, the major event in Vol. 10 appears nearly at the end of the manga. Genkai met with the younger Toguro in a forest...to fight! They actually know each other, in fact they were lovers!!! Toguro wished to become a demon when he won the Dark Tournament 50 years ago so that he would become young, live longer and will always be strong. They had quite a fight but Toguro was too strong for Genkai and she was defeated. Yuusuke managed to get to Genkai to hear her last words. He tried to fight with Toguro but he was punched so hard he was sent flying to the other side of the forest. And that's the end for Vol. 10 of YuYu Hakusho.

Stay tune because I will be back with the review of Vol. 11 where the final round begins.

Race to Witch Mountain ~ review

I love Septimus Heap & Pendragon book series. I love manga, anime and cartoon. And I love Mickey Mouse and all his famous friends. As you can see, I'm very tolerable when it comes to kids-related stuff and so one would expect me to love Race to Witch Mountain, a Disney movie. I was expecting the same thing but unfortunately, I didn't.

Race to Witch Mountain is another remake from Hollywood starring Dwayne Johnson (or you may know him as The Rock) as Jack Bruno the taxi driver, AnnaSophia Robb as Sara the alien daughter, Alexander Ludwig as Seth the alien son, Carla Gugino as Dr. Alex Friedman the ET scientist, and Ciaran Hinds as Henry Burke the government agent.

The story is quite good and suitable for kids, and the acting is also good especially from both the alien kids. What I have problem with is the special-effects. Being a Disney movie, this movie SHOULD have good if not great special-effects to wow the audience with the visuals. Early in the movie there is one cool scene involving Seth and a black car which made a girl seating behind me said out loud "That's so cool!". So I expected that the rest of the movie will be just fine. However, right before the end of it, there is one scene involving the 4 protagonists that made me go "Wow, that is one ugly special effects". I mean, seriously, it was ugly and unacceptable. I know it's a movie for kids but that's not an excuse. Futhermore, there are some outdoor scenes that looks like they were shot in studio. I'm not sure whether they were shot in a studio or not but somehow they managed to made the movie looks kinda cheap which I know it's not.

However, having said all that, Race to Witch Mountain IS a suitable movie for kids and adults (especially parents) alike. Just don't expect too much of it. Or you will be dissapointed...just like me.

Monsters Vs Aliens...okay, this one looks cool.

When it comes to CG / 3D animation, I always prefer movies from PIXAR / Walt Disney. I never really enjoy Shrek except for Puss, never watch Kung Fu Panda, and never really like Bee Movie. I do have movies from studios other than PIXAR / Walt Disney that I like for example Antz and Robots but there are not many of them. But Monsters vs Aliens looks kinda cool, to me at least. The characters look funny and memorable, and the premise of the movie looks promising. I don't know, I can't really judge a movie before I see one but based on the trailer, I can tell that this movie will be a hit...well, hopefully.

Here's a trailer of Monsters vs Aliens, this one is a lot funny than the trailer that I watched recently in a cinema. Hope you guys agree with me. Enjoy! (Source: IGN)

Do you prefer soft and gentle or over-the-top?

In episode 11 of America's Next Top Model Cycle 11, the girls went on go-sees in Amsterdam with small boats and hunks as a guide. Wow, that's pretty unique. McKey would have won the go-sees challenge (as I expected) for being booked in all of her 4 go-sees but she was disqualified for being late and so Analeigh won it instead (yay!).

For this episode, the girls had a double photo shoots; 1 in heavy make-up and fancy clothes while another one with a natural look and no make-up.

In my opinion, all of the girls did quite good for the photo shoot with no make-up with Samantha and McKey producing the best pics. I love Analeigh and I really want her to win but I have to be honest, her pic along with Elina's are my least fave from this photo shoot. Sorry Analeigh, I still love you though.

Samantha- Gorgeous!

McKey- Wow!

Marjorie- Odd but pretty.

Analeigh- Not so strong this time.

Elina- Average.

For the photo shoot with heavy make-up and fancy clothes, I have only 2 pics that I love; Samantha and Marjorie. Both girls look stunning especially Samantha with her posing.

Samantha- LOVE THIS!

Marjorie- Fierce!

Elina and Marjorie were in the bottom 2 and Elina was eliminated. Well, like the rest of us, I think she saw it coming.

Dragonball Evolution: Will it survive?

This movie had been discussed quite regularly recently. From what I read, most of the people on the web feel that this movie will go downhill rather than uphill. I can't blame them really because the people behind the movie change quite a lot of things from the original manga series that made most of the fans pissed off. I personally quite disappointed that they changed the plot from the original. That is quite a turned off for me at least.

But, there is still hope. I mean, the trailers look quite good. In fact, come to think of it, maybe the change of plot was a good move. I can't imagine if they stick with the original storyline and it sucks, I probably would not be able to read the manga without thinking how bad the movie was. That would be a major turned off. Besides, I kinda like Emmy Rossum. So hopefully she did well as Bulma in the movie. :D

Here's the trailer to Dragonball Evolution that I got from IGN (thanx!). The movie had already been released in most of Asian countries (maybe because of the popularity of the manga) and I did tried to get a ticket for a midnight show last Friday but sadly the cinema hall was already full. Hopefully I can find some other day to watch it.

Enjoy the trailer! :-)

Resident Evil 5: The mission continues

The mission to annihilate zombies continues. Chris Redfield returns with a new partner, Sheva Alomar to save us all from the evil Umbrella Corp. from terrorizing human with zombies. Resident Evil 5 finally released this March worldwide and scores quite a high mark with the critics. Congratulation to all the people behind this awesome game!

Here's the trailer to the game. I think if you are a gamer, then you should buy this game. I feel like it's a must! Unless, of course, you don't have Playstation 3 or XBox 360 like me. :-(

Anyway, enjoy the trailer!

Watchmen ~ review

Here's a review from a person who lives on the other side of the world and never knew about Watchmen until this movie was made.

First of all, I must say that I was impressed with the movie. It was beautifully made with lots of cool visual effects that really worth the admission fee. The movie starts off rather slow and continues on with a slow pace until the end. Boring? Some of you may feel that way but definitely not for me because this is not a typical action superhero (or superheroes coz they are a lot of them) movie but much much more deeper than that. It explores the themes of love, sacrifices, existence, morality, and many other things that I may not be able to think of. And it also made me wonder how much will it cost to make the world a better place. Like one of the character claimed, kill millions to save billions. Was it really necessary?

I really enjoy the movie although two of my friends who were with me nearly fallen asleep. I really can't blame them though because we watched the midnight show and the movie was nearly 3 hours long. Besides, they were expecting a lot of action like your usual typical superhero movies that has been invading theaters over the years. Nevertheless, you can enjoy the movie if you focus on the story. I like how the story was told with all the flashbacks and the long introduction in the beginning of the movie. It really helps in introducing the audiences (especially those who are not familiar with the comic books) with the alternate timeline that the movie was set in.

But with little exposure from the source material, I think Watchmen will struggle a bit in finding its place in my country, Malaysia. We are more exposed to mangas and anime than Western comic books, although there are specialized comic stores around the country which provide these kind of stuff. It would help if the superheroes are popular like Superman or Batman, unfortunately they aren't. People who are not familiar with it might avoid it (like my cousins) while people who watched it might come out from theaters disappointing because they expect it to have more action than it had offered (like my 2 friends).

So here's my advice; don't expect anything. Just watch the movie and focus on the story rather than anticipating the action. I'm not sure which did the comic books explore more, the story or the action but the movie definitely favors the former. You might like it, you might not. Either way, you will have your eyes feast with beautifully shot scenes and CGI. So I hope that will do to make up the admission fee if you feel the movie sucks.

I gave 4 stars out of 5 for Watchmen. Good job Zack Snyder and all of the crews. Good job.

The girls in Amsterdam!

Let's continue on to episode 10 of America's Next Top Model Cycle 11. I skipped 2 episodes because episode 8 is a recap while episode 9 has no photo shoot but only commercial shoot. Joslyn was eliminated in episode 9 by the way, and this left us with 6 girls.

Joslyn

The girls went to Amsterdam for this cycle and they sure were excited. For this episode, they had a photo shoot in a couture gown on a boat. Two girls really stood out for me and they were Analeigh (I always love her!) and McKey. I think showing some legs really helps a lot. ;-)

McKey

Analeigh

I think Samantha did quite good too, although not as good as Analeigh and McKey.

Samantha

Sheena and Elina (again) landed in the bottom 2 and Sheena was eliminated for not being consistent enough. I kinda agree with that although she did have some photographs which were quite good. Sadly, she was not good enough for the competition.

Sheena

One funny thing that happened during this episode was when Elina totally ignored Jay during her photo shoot. Focusing too much? Sometimes I was like that too when I'm concentrating too much. Hopefully I didn't annoy anybody like Elina annoyed Jay.

By the way, Cycle 12 had recently premiered in the US. So I think it will take some time for it to be aired on television in other part of the world. I'll be waiting....