Final goodbye...Yoshito Usui (1958-2009)

Sad, sad news. Yoshito Usui, the creator of the popular manga Crayon Shin-chan, had died. On September 12, 2009, his family filed a missing person report after he did not return from hiking in nearby Gunma Perfecture. On September 19, 2009, a body had been found at a bottom of a cliff wearing clothes matches to his. Dental records and family members had indentified the body to be Yoshito Usui.

Source: Wikipedia

I have been a great fan of Crayon Shin-chan and the passing of Yoshito Usui had certainly left a sad feeling in me. I did not even heard the news of his missing until I stumbled onto the subject on the Animax website today. I was shocked!

R.I.P.

Selamat Hari Raya 1430!

I want to give an early wish of Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all my Muslim friends and also to all those Muslims throughout the world. Have a pleasant month and enjoy the food. :-D

The Final Destination ~ review

So what would you do if you have premonitions on how you and your friends would die in about 10 minutes later? Would you run away and tag your friends along with you eventhough you are not really sure if the events that would lead to you and your friends' deaths would happen? For the fans of Final Destination movie series, the premise may sound all too familiar. But would it be too repetitive for a 4th installment?



The Final Destination (or Final Destination 4 to avoid confusion) follows Nick O'Bannon (Bobby Campo) as he tries to save his friends and a few others, including himself, from horrific death staged by Mr. Death himself (not a real actor mind you). The opening scene shows Nick having premonition of horrific accidents at a race track that would kill him and his friends. Freaked out, he rushed out from the stadium along with his friends and a few other spectators. Shortly afterwards, one by one of the survivors died in freak 'accidents'. Convinced by the disrupted death pattern due to his intervention, Nick and his girlfriend, Lori Milligan (Shantel VanSanten) and the security guard of the stadium, George Lanter (Mykelti Williamson) try to warn the other survivors about their impending death.

As a fan of the first 3 editions of the series, I must say that I like this 4th movie as well but of course it's not without flaws. Eventhough the male and female lead are gorgeous on screen, but I feel the acting especially Bobby Campo is a bit stiff. Maybe because I keep comparing him with Devon Sawa from the 1st movie, which is of course unfortunate for him, but I honestly think that he can do better.



The story, after seeing it for a fourth time, is quite predictable but that's fine with me since I was only there to see the death plan that Death had for the characters, and of course the fate of the male and female lead (survive? no?). One thing that bothers me is that the plot seems rushed. It's like they want to finish off the characters as quickly as they can, which I think is a bad way to tell the story. The audience did not even have time to feel sorry for the dead characters which somewhat disconnect the bonds between viewers and characters.



I was a bit disappointed that the director rely heavily on crushed skulls and bodies to reflect the gruesome of the deaths. Whatever happen to slow and tortured deaths like the one suffered by Tod Waggner and Valerie Lewton in the 1st movie? Now that were creepy! Anyway, there are still some creative death scenes in this movie. Some of them to watch out for are the Pool Death, the Carwash Scene, and the Escalator Death. There are tons of gory scenes in this movie so better leave the minors out of it.

Overall, I give this movie 3 stars out of 5. Although some will argue that they have had enough of this movie series, but I beg to differ. I do agree that it's hard to keep the story 'fresh' but it's not impossible. It is likely that The Final Destination will be the last movie in the series but I do hope it's not. As long as they can come out with a fresh and creative story, people would keep on watching. Well, I know I would.


Pictures courtesy of Yahoo! Movies.

What to watch? September - December 2009_part 3

Here's the final part for this series of posts. Enjoy!




9

This animation looks really cool, plus the post-apocalyptic setting makes it stands out from the rest of your 'normal' animation from Hollywood. Well, it is from Tim Burton. I'm not going to say more, you can just click here or here to enjoy the awesome trailer. I really wish this movie will come to Malaysia because I have a bad feeling that it won't.

U.S. release date: September 9, 2009
Malaysia release date: TBA




Whiteout

This movie stars Kate Beckinsale. Enough said, I'm going to see this flick. Wait, you want more? Okay, okay...It's about a lone U.S. Deputy Marshal (Kate Beckinsale's character) who was stationed at a research base in Antarctica investigating a murder, well maybe a couple of murders (I'm not sure actually). That's enough right? What...more? Fine, click here to watch the trailer. I'm off to mark my calender.

U.S. release date: September 11, 2009
Malaysia release date: October 15, 2009




Avatar

It would be crazy to list interesting movies to watch this last few months of the year without mentioning Avatar. Avatar the cartoon, you say? Sheesh, where have you been? It's an upcoming film from James Cameron, the one who brought you Titanic, remember him? Avatar would change the way we see movies, or so he said. Anyway, I would definitely not miss this movie since the trailer looks so fantastic. You can click here to be amazed.

U.S release date: December 18, 2009
Malaysia release date: December 17, 2009




Surrogates

I discovered this movie when I randomly click on a link to watch a movie trailer. I know nothing about this movie before that. Lucky for me to have click it, because this film looks great. It's a science-fiction film based on a comic book series of the same name, and it stars one of my favourite actor, Bruce Willis. I don't really know how to explain the premise for the movie (partly because I don't read the comic books) so I would let the trailer do all the talking. Enjoy the trailer below courtesy of IGN. You can click here to go to the official site.

U.S. release date: September 25, 2009
Malaysia release date: October 8, 2009

I think that's all from me. This is the final part, part 3, for What to watch? September-December 2009 series of posts. Please check out previous posts for part 1 and part 2. Thank you for reading.

What to watch? September - December 2009_part 2

Okay, here's part 2. Check it out!



2012

Like what I'd mention in my post earlier about this movie, I'm still uncertain whether to watch this movie or not since it has that hope-deprivation theme in it. But still, it looks kinda 'fun' to watch. Mmm, I don't know what else I want to say about this movie. Oh, you can click here to watch the trailer.

U.S. release date: November 13, 2009
Malaysia release date: November 12, 2009


The Princess and the Frog

Disney is bringing back the musical theme in its animation, and it's in 2D too. Awesome! I really hope there would be beautiful songs in this movie like what they did with Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. That would definitely brings back the good memories of my childhood. You can click here to watch the trailer of The Princess and the Frog.

U.S. release date: December 11, 2009
Malaysia release date: December 11, 2009


Pandorum

I really, really can't wait for this movie. It has an Event-Horizon feel to it. I know Event Horizon was not a commercial success but it does has an interesting premise. Pandorum is about 2 astronauts who wake up on a space ship with no memory of who they are. To make it worse, there are alien-like creatures with them on the ship, and who knows what happen to the rest of the space ship crews. Together, they must united...and survive. It was produced by the people who brought you the Resident Evil movie franchise, so expect a lot of gory action. You can click here or here to watch the trailer.

U.S. release date: September 25, 2009
Malaysia release date: October 15, 2009




Sorority Row

Who would love a movie about a bunch of college girls being killed one by one in a horrific way? Sounds brutal right? But in reality, slasher films have been around for decades and as disturbing as it sound, there are very popular. So it would be no surprise that another slasher film called Sorority Row would be released later this month. It's actually a remake of a 1983 film called The House on Sorority Row. I do care about the plot when watching movies, and I do want to write the premise for this movie, but I don't think most people care. They just want to see the girls anyway. ;-P

I have here the trailer for Sorority Row courtesy of IGN. Some of the familiar faces that star in this movie are Rumer Willis, Jamie Chung and Audrina Patridge.

U.S. release date: September 11, 2009
Malaysia release date: October 2, 2009

Okay people. That's all for part 2. See you again soon in part 3.

What to watch? September - December 2009_part 1

Goodbye Autobots, see you soon Harry Potter, so long Terminators. It's time for a new breed of movies to hit the silver screens. What can we expect to see in September until December 2009? Here's a list of some of the movies that I think would be interesting to watch. The movies are not listed according to their month of release, so I hope those who are reading would not be confused. Please also note that the release dates are based on many sites and were checked during the posts were written, so it might change in the future.

Are you ready? Here we go!


The Final Destination

The 4th installment in the Final Destination movie series had already been released in the US last week but had just been released in Malaysia (my home country by the way) today. I don't think I need to mention the premise of the movie here BUT for those of you who don't know (where have you been?), it's about a bunch of people who cheated death and then Mr. Death himself come hunting for them to sealed their fatal fates in a most brutal way. Confusing? Just click here or here to watch the trailer.

U.S. release date: August 28, 2009
Malaysia release date: September 4, 2009



Astro Boy

I'm really excited for this movie. The animation looks beautiful and it based on a highly popular manga/anime in Japan. It's about a journey of a robot that had been built by a scientist in the image of his deceased son. Hopefully the movie will live up to the fans' expectation. You can click here or here to watch the trailer.

U.S. release date: October 23, 2009
Malaysia release date: November 19, 2009




Tsunami

Tsunami, released as Haeundae in South Korea, is South Korea's first disaster film, at least according to Wikipedia. The movie, starring Sol Kyung-gu, Ha Ji-won and Park Joong-hoon, is about tsunami (of course! see the title) that hit a popular tourist spot called Haeundae. It already received more than 9 million admissions in South Korea. The film had also been sold to be distributed in several other countries such as Germany, Hong Kong, India, Singapore and United Kingdom.

Malaysia release date: September 17, 2009




The Box

Okay, I love Cameron Diaz. She's pretty AND have good acting skills. I also love James Marsden. But I'm not curious about this movie because of the actors but because of the premise. The Box is based on a short story by Richard Matheson called Button, Button. The story is quite interesting; a couple received a box with a button, they will get $1 million if they press the button but there's a catch, one person they do not know will die. Would YOU press it??? You can click here to go to the official site. I also have the trailer here courtesy of IGN, enjoy!

U.S. release date: November 6, 2009
Malaysia release date: November 5, 2009

I think that's wrapped up part 1. See you in part 2 of upcoming movies in September - December 2009.