Asia's Next Top Model Cycle 2 ~ 3 episodes impression

The second season of Asia's Next Top Model had premiered on 8th January 2014. You can catch the show on Star World (Channel 711 ASTRO Malaysia), every Wednesday at 9.40 pm (8.40 pm in Jakarta and Bangkok). Currently the show had already aired 3 episodes, so here's what I think about the reality show so far.

For this cycle, the competition is based in Malaysia which I think is a great move since the show had already been based in Singapore for its first cycle. Maybe they plan to have each cycle to be based in different Asian country? If that's the case, then it's even better as viewers would get a different vibe with each cycle and that would definitely help the show differentiate itself from the other country version of the reality show.

Nadya Hutagalung remains as head judge and host of the show, while Joey Mead-King, Mike Rosenthal and Adam Williams round up the judging panel. I'm glad Nadya Hutagalung and Joey Mead-King decided to stay on the show as I feel they bring in great energy to it. But sometimes they had too many guest judges that made the judging panel seemed crowded, like with the case in episode 2. I also feel that in the first 2 episodes, the comments by the judges sound like it were scripted (except for Joey Mead-King who I feel was amazing during panel) but fortunately by episode 3 the comments sounded more natural coming from the judges.

For the first episode, 16 aspiring models were showed coming to Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur, and had their first challenge in which they had to catwalk on a runway submerged in water. After the challenge, we got our first elimination where Jessie was eliminated for performing the worst on the runway. It was pure bad luck for her that the first challenge involved water which she have a fear of. If it didn't involved water, maybe she could have performed better.

As for the first photo shoot, the girls had to take photos for their opening titles of the show. It was quite obvious from this photo shoot that the girls were still uncomfortable to pose in front of the camera. I think some of them do have modelling experience before but still almost all of the girls did a mediocre job in my opinion. I think they still need some time to get used to it, so I feel bad when Elektra became the first girl eliminated at the judging panel as I feel it is still too early for any of these girls to go home.

What to watch? ~ 2014 movies: February

There are a lot of interesting movies coming our way this year. But there are too many of them to keep track. So I've decided to come up with a list of movies that caught my interest that are coming out each month. Since different countries have different release dates, so I'm going to follow with the release dates stated within the Wikipedia list (since that is my main source anyway) which mainly follows the US release date. Take note that the release date might have a last-minute change though. We're already in January, so I'm going to skip January and start with February movies instead. So what are some of the movies that had caught my attention and will be released in February? Let's start!

1. The Lego Movie

When I first heard about this movie, I have no interest on seeing it at all. Then the trailer came out and I was surprised, it actually looks good! The trailer highlighted the innovative visuals of the Lego world and the fun characters that the movie has, so I might be seeing it in the cinema anyway. With the release date of February 7, 2014, the movie will feature a large voice cast which include Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Morgan Freeman, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Neeson, Will Arnett and Channing Tatum. Expect to see Lego version of DC superheroes in the movie as well.


2. RoboCop

RoboCop will be a remake of the 1987 RoboCop film, and will also serve as a reboot for the movie franchise. The movie will star Joel Kinnaman as the police detective-turned-RoboCop, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson and Abbie Cornish. From the trailer, the movie does looks quite interesting but it also looks a bit small in scale compared to its $120 million budget. I also read a lot of comments about the new suit which some people described it to look like kitchen appliances. Well, I kind of like it, even though it looks like a human in a robotic suit instead of a complete robot with a human head. I will wait until the movie comes out to fully judge it. RoboCop will be released in cinemas on February 7, 2014 in the UK and February 12, 2014 in the US.

My 2013 Top 10 Films ~ No. 5 - No. 1

Welcome to the second part of my top 10 favourite movies of 2013. If you missed part 1, you can click here. For those who already read that, let's continue with the remaining five movies in my list. Hope you enjoy the post.

5) The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

This second film in a planned trilogy is doing very well at the box office and most probably do as well as its predecessor, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey which raked in more than $1 billion at the box office. Personally, I feel The Desolation of Smaug is a much better film than An Unexpected Journey in terms of its plot, pace, action, and emotion that it gives to audiences. All the casts did great in the movie but I'm particularly very impressed with the dragon Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) which made a very convincing and intimidating appearance in the film. And it has a great cliffhanger ending too which make me even more excited for the third film, The Hobbit: There and Back Again.

4) The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Even before the film was released, I already predicted that this film would be in my top 10 list because I love the first film so much that it would seem impossible that I wouldn't love this one. I was right, I love Catching Fire, it was an amazing experience watching this movie at the cinema. But I realized that eventhough the film grossed more than $830 million at the box office, a lot of people actually didn't like this film based on some comments I read online with people saying they wasted their money seeing this movie at the cinema. Of course those commentators who said that they hate the movie might be just a portion of the whole audiences but still it kept me thinking; did the movie made so much money because there are people who watch it not because they like the franchise but because they are curious about the movie due to its aggressive advertising and also out of curiosity? If this is true, I wonder how Mockingjay Part 1 (the next sequel in the film series) would perform at the box office?

My 2013 Top 10 Films ~ No. 10 - No. 6

I know it's a bit late but, Happy New Year 2014!!! It is time once again to list my top 10 favourite movies of 2013. You would find a lot of lists from a lot of different people out there, so this is my list that you are about to read based on my own personal preference. I would split the list into two parts and for this first part, I've listed my favourite movies from number 10 to number 6. Let's begin.

10) 47 Ronin

There's no secret that this $175 million film is not doing well at the box office. It seems that it's not registering very well with the general audiences at the cinemas but personally I like 47 Ronin very much. It gives me fantasy, action and emotion with its telling of 47 ronin (it's what samurai without master is called) who seek their own version of justice after their master had been killed. Although I feel that the film would be much better in Japanese language, I am still very satisfied with the film; good plot, great overall performances by the film's cast and good visuals as well. It's a shame the film is considered a commercial failure because I personally think the film is good in so many ways.

9) Star Trek: Into Darkness

I would say that I'm not a Star Trek fan before which franchise consists of TV series, a string of films, novels, comics and many more. I didn't even watch the reboot movie, Star Trek, which was released in 2009. But I did watch Star Trek: Into Darkness, the sequel to the 2009 reboot film, and I love it. I always love science fiction movies but I wasn't into Star Trek before because I felt I was too left behind with the series. Luckily Star Trek: Into Darkness wasn't too confusing and new fans like me can still understand it even if we do not have any idea what the series was about before. It's a fun movie that anybody can enjoy which is a great factor to bring in new audiences. The film performed very well at the box office and managed to gross more than $460 million worlwide. I hope a sequel is in plan as I am excited to find out where would their space exploration mission would take the crew next.