What to watch? ~ 2016 movies: December

It's the last month of the year! But wait, before we put our attention to the 2017 movies, there are still some movies in December that look pretty interesting. Below are some of them that caught my attention. It's almost new year but I hope I'm not too late to share this. Check them out below.


1) Sing

Release date: Dec. 2, 2016
Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Taron Egerton, Seth MacFarlane, Tori Kelly, Nick Kroll, John C. Reilly

There are quite a few trailers for this movie and I must say that all of them look super entertaining, and the variety of music that were featured in those trailers definitely will help in getting people's attention to the film. It looks like the animated animal version of American Idol where the characters in the film compete in a singing competition. Singing competition is definitely popular in pop culture so I think the film hopes to capitalize on that as well. It does looks like it has a good and uplifting story of overcoming hardship, so I hope the movie will not only be fun but inspiring too.

Watch Sing trailer here.


2) La La Land

Release date: Dec. 9, 2016
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend, Rosemarie DeWitt, J. K. Simmons, Tom Everett Scott, Finn Wittrock, Meagen Fay

Here's another musical but this time it's not an animation but a live action musical film, which I must admit I don't normally watch in cinema but La La Land does intrigued me with it's fabulous trailers; the songs, the settings and the cast look amazing. The film received universal acclaim from critics and had won numerous awards with tons of nominations. It is also currently seen as a front runner for the Oscars. Quite the buzz, right? I'm considering to check this out at the cinema when it is released in my country.

Watch La La Land trailer here.

The Amazing Race Asia Season 5 Winners!

Parul (left) and Maggie

Congratulations to Maggie & Parul for winning the 5th season of The Amazing Race Asia! These beauty queens not only powered through all the challenges and finished the race first but also made history by making the contestants of the Philippines to win the TV reality competition for two consecutive seasons (season 4 of the show also won by contestants from the Philippines). Good job girls!

I really enjoyed this new season of the TV show, partly because it has been awhile since we had a new season, but even on its own, season 5 is a really good and entertaining season. It has interesting contestants, showcasing beautiful and unique places in Asia, and also contained some pretty challenging tasks as well as some heartbreaking moments for the contestants. I had missed an episode for this season (in which I will try to catch the re-run of it as soon as I could possibly can) but overall I can say that I'm very entertained and pleased with season 5 of The Amazing Race Asia.

While I pretty much enjoyed this new season, I also have some criticisms. First of all, they eliminated a team way too early, and I'm not talking about the end of Leg 1 of the race. They eliminated a team after the very first task of the season which is a pretty cruel thing to do in my opinion. If they don't have the budget for 11 teams, they should have make it a 10-team race from the beginning.

Another criticism is about the countries that they visited, they were only South-East Asian countries. I think they should of at least bring the contestants to one country outside of the Asia region. Or if they couldn't afford it, it could be one of the countries in Asia but outside of the South-East Asia region like Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, India or Sri Lanka. But in their defense, it's a pretty tough economy in 2016 so they might have less budget for this season than they used to.

Anyway, I hope we don't have to wait few more years for another season of The Amazing Race Asia. It has been a great season and I hope they could keep the momentum going by making a new season every year, or perhaps every other year if they couldn't secure enough fund to make it an annual thing.

Before I end this post, I would also like to congratulate Yvonne & Chloe from Malaysia (Malaysia Boleh!) and Eric & Rona from the Philippines for making it into the finale and getting second and third place respectively. A pat in the back is also due to all the people behind the scenes for this great season as well. You all have done a great job so well done!

Yvonne (left) and Chloe

Rona (left) and Eric

Images from the official The Amazing Race Asia website.

What to watch? ~ 2016 movies: November

My apologies for keep on delaying this. I have been busy with some other things in my life...and I have been lazy too! My apologies again. (T_T) Now let's just continue on, shall we? Let's look at the movies that will be released in November that I'm most excited about.


1) Doctor Strange

Release date: Nov. 4, 2016
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tilda Swinton, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Mads Mikkelsen, Michael Stuhlbarg, Benjamin Bratt, Scott Adkins

I wasn't sure what to expect from this movie when it was first announced. I wasn't even sure if I would be interested in it. But as the movie was revealed bit by bit to the public - from casting news to concept art, images and finally the movie trailers - I find it very fascinating and now I'm super pumped to go and watch it at the cinema. I haven't seen it yet as of the writing of this post, but I've read a lot of positive feedback saying that it's a good movie so I will definitely find some time to go and watch it. Can't wait!

Watch Doctor Strange trailer here.


2) Loving

Release date: Nov. 4, 2016
Cast: Joel Edgerton, Ruth Negga, Nick Kroll, Michael Shannon, Marton Csokas, Bill Camp, Jon Bass

I'm not sure how much is this story or court case is well known in its origin country but as someone who is not from the United States, I have never been aware of this case before but that doesn't mean I'm any less enthusiastic to watch it. From what little synopsis I've read regarding this movie, it sounds like a very good and touching story. Usually this small type of movie don't really get a release date here but I can see efforts have been made to bring smaller and independent movies in my country so hopefully Loving will find its way here.

Watch Loving trailer here.


3) Arrival

Release date: Nov. 11, 2016
Cast: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg, Tzi Ma, Mark O'Brien

This seems to me like an intellectual movie, a movie with a story that asks us to think instead of just having fun at the cinema. I'm definitely intrigued! Based on a short story by author Ted Chiang titled "Story of Your Life", this movie seems to have not just a compelling story but also great performances from a strong group of cast. Hopefully it will reward its audiences with a satisfying watch.

Watch Arrival trailer here.

It has been slow lately~

I have been lazy in posting new post for this blog and because of that, I am so sorry! I will try to get a new post uploaded as soon as possible.

And as a token of my apology, here's a picture of a "handsome" cat that has been lingering around in my neighbourhood lately. It's not related to anything really but I thought I'd shared the picture with you because he is just so gorgeous!💕

I will be back with new posts soon.

The Amazing Race Asia Season 5 - Are you ready?

The season 5 premiere of The Amazing Race Asia is almost here. It's been 6 years since Season 4 last aired and I'm glad that the show is finally back. Allan Wu returned as the host for the show but he will not be alone this time as for this season, there will be a pair of hosts and Allan will be accompanied by another host, Tara Basro. Eleven teams of two will compete in a race across regions to win the prize of US$100,000. For this season, the racers comprised of 3 teams from Malaysia, 2 teams from Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore while 1 team each from Vietnam and Thailand.

Let's hope it will be a great and entertaining season just like the previous 4 seasons. The new season will start airing on 13th October 2016 at 9 pm (8 pm for Jakarta and Bangkok). You can catch it every Thursday at those times after that.

Itching to find out more about the new batch of racers? Or maybe even about the new host, Tara Basro? Check out the official website to find out more.

Are you ready for the new season?

KARA ~ My Top 5 Favourite Songs

2016 so far have been quite harsh for K-pop girl groups. While it's normal to see small groups from small companies to disband (it's a very competitive space to be), this year there are also some members from big groups leaving and even some big groups disbanded, and one such group was KARA from DSP Media.

In January 2016, DSP Media had announced that the K-pop female group had been disbanded due to the contracts expiration for 3 of the members. They were a very popular group not just in South Korea but were known throughout Asia (they were particularly quite big in Japan) and of course in some other parts of the world.

I'm sure many hearts were broken when they heard the news but some things don't last forever and since the group have been around for awhile with various degree of success, it was normal to think that they would move on to some other things in their careers. Interestingly though I read comments mentioning that some of the members said that they have not disbanded, they might be in separate agencies now but they might band together again for a comeback. I'm not sure what does that mean, can they still performed as KARA outside of DSP Media?

Anyway, KARA had quite a few hits under their belt and I enjoyed quite a lot of them. In an effort to capture the memories of good pop music they had offered us in the last few years, here are my top 5 favourite songs from them. If you haven't heard any of the songs or are not even familiar with the group, you might want to check them out too. They are quite entertaining. ;-)

What to watch? ~ 2016 movies: September

September usually known as the "dry season" for Hollywood movies, but surprisingly there are quite a few interesting movies coming out this month. Below are the movies that seems interesting to me, check them out below and see if you would like them as well.


1) The Light Between Oceans

Release date: Sept. 2, 2016
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Rachel Weisz, Florence Clery, Bryan Brown

Most of the time people will spend money at the cinemas to watch movies that have a lot of special effects but sometimes I think it's good to watch some good drama on the big screen too. The Light Between Oceans seems like a movie with a good drama in it and it has a great cast too. The movie is based on a novel which had received great reviews so hopefully the movie will get positive reviews as well.

Watch The Light Between Oceans trailer here.


2) Morgan

Release date: Sept. 2, 2016
Cast: Kate Mara, Anya Taylor-Joy, Rose Leslie, Toby Jones, Michelle Yeoh, Boyd Holbrook, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Paul Giamatti

Morgan is a science fiction and horror movie, an interesting combination if you asked me. The trailer focused a lot on the mystery of this "Morgan" character, and I have to say it got me curious as well. While I am excited to watch this movie, it seems not a lot of people are because it did quite poorly on its opening weekend. I want to find out who or what exactly is Morgan, so I think I will still watch this movie at the cinema.

Watch Morgan trailer here!

E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) 2016 ~ 10 exciting new games (Part 2)

Here's the continuation of my post for the 10 games from E3 2016 that I'm most excited about. I've listed 5 games before which you can read here, so this is the remaining 5 games from the list.


6) Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (Microsoft Windows, PS4, PSVR, XB1)

The franchise had gradually becoming more action-based than when it was first started but now it seems the studio will bring the franchise back to its horror root. I don't have problem with action-heavy Resident Evil games because personally I feel there are still some horror elements in those games, but for this new sequel it looks like the horror element will be at the center stage. I'm definitely interested to find out more and how the story in this game connected to the characters and events in the previous games.

Watch Resident Evil 7: Biohazard trailer here.

While the above gameplay trailer was more to introduce the new look and direction this new sequel will take and will not be part of the actual game, the studio released another gameplay trailer, this time from the actual game itself, in 2016 Gamescom event which is currently being held in Cologne, Germany. Although this post is more about sharing the games that were featured in E3 2016, but the gameplay looks so nice that I feel like I have to include it in this post as well. Check out the awesome new gameplay trailer below.

Watch Resident Evil 7: Biohazard Lantern gameplay trailer here.


7) Nier: Automata (PS4)

The trailer and gameplay demo that were shown during E3 for this game looks pretty awesome. The settings look beautiful, the enemies' designs look quite interesting, the characters look cool and their abilities are pretty neat as well; they were all eye-catching. The game is part of the Nier universe, which is itself is a spin-off of the Drakengard  series. It was stated that aside from some characters' appearances, the game will have no story connection to the other games, which I think is good to bring in new fans.

Watch Nier:Automata trailer here.
Watch Nier:Automata boss battle gameplay here.

E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) 2016 ~ 10 exciting new games (Part 1)

With everyone still delighted over the reveals at the San Diego Comic-Con, and also with the excitement of Suicide Squad releasing in theaters/cinemas, the conversation in the entertainment world had certainly shifted in these past few weeks but I want to bring us back to the E3 2016 that was held last June and the exciting video games that were featured there. I know this is a bit late but it's been awhile since I last wrote about video games, so I thought this is a good opportunity to do so.

There were so many awesome games featured in this year Electronic Entertainment Expo, and I would list 10 of them that I'm most interested in. Of course I wouldn't know every video game that were featured during that event but at least these are the 10 games from the long list of games that I am aware of. I would split the list into 2 posts so here is the first 5 games that I'm most excited about.


1) God of War (PS4)

I always thought the developer will continue this franchise but little did I know that they would switch the mythology as well (previous games were based on Greek mythology while this new game will revolved around Norse mythology). While Kratos still returned as the main character, this seems like a totally different Kratos than the one we knew from the previous games. The gameplay trailer introduced us to Kratos who is now a dad! And he teaches his son how to hunt and fight. I wonder what the story will be about this time, but however the story goes I really hope we would get to see more interaction between him and his son.

Watch God of War gameplay trailer here.


2) Here They Lie (PS4, PSVR)

I always love a good horror game and Here They Lie seems like a really unique game with its weird style and design. I'm not sure what the story will be about or even who we would be playing as, but so far from what I've seen, the game looks pretty interesting and mysterious, which is always a good thing considering this is a psychological horror game. I like games that play with your mind...well, at least those that are not too messed up.

Watch Here They Lie teaser trailer here.
Watch Here They Lie gameplay demo here.

What to watch? ~ 2016 movies: July

Sorry for posting this late! I usually post this earlier in the month but I was busy with something else so the post for this month got delayed. Anyway, without further delay, let's look at some of the interesting movies coming out in July that caught my attention.


1) The Legend of Tarzan

Release date: July 1, 2016
Cast: Alexander Skarsgard, Margot Robbie, Samuel L. Jackson, Djimon Hounsou, Christoph Waltz, Casper Crump, Jim Broadbent

This looks like a cool movie. The Tarzan adaptation that I am most familiar with is from the 1999's animated film from Disney so I'm excited to see a different take of the story albeit a darker one. The cast looks good but more important is the action sequence which looks to be quite impressive from the trailer. Critics gave mixed reviews for the film but it opened with quite solid numbers on its opening weekend in North America. Unfortunately the budget for the film is quite high so it still got a long way to go to recoup its budget. Hopefully the movie have legs.

Watch The Legend of Tarzan trailer here!


2) The Purge: Election Year

Release date: July 1, 2016
Cast: Frank Grillo, Elizabeth Mitchell, Mykelti Williamson, Joseph Julian Soria, Terry Serpico, Betty Gabriel, Kyle Secor, Edwin Hodge, Liza Colon-Zayas

I love this franchise. The premise is creepy but I think it has a good moral story behind it. I actually like the first movie more than the second one, so hopefully I will like this third entry in the franchise more than the second movie. This movie had performed well at the box office since its release and had made quite a sum of money against its small budget. Is it possible that we will see a fourth entry in the franchise?

Watch The Purge: Election Year trailer here!

Salam Eid al-Fitr 1437!

Raya cookies!

It's the first day of the month of Syawal as I post this so I want to wish all Muslims Happy Eid al-Fitr! For those who don't know, it's a religious day that marks the end of Ramadhan and to celebrate after a month of fasting and night prayers. While the religious practice is the same where we will have a 2 Rakaat prayer in the morning, cultural-wise there are many different ways of celebrating this day in different part of the world. In Malaysia, people will greet each other with the local greetings "Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Maaf Zahir dan Batin", a visit to the cemetery and giving prayers to relatives and friends that had passed away, and having "open houses" where guests will be treated to great local foods.

Although it's sad that there are still news about bombing occurred recently in some countries (including Malaysia!) and some other incidents like the Orlando shooting in United States, I wish that we can all still celebrate peacefully and to also say some prayers to those that had been involved in these tragic incidents. It is really disheartening to see people still misuse religion for other purpose. But we all have to stay strong and work together to make the world a better place for everyone.

Have a great month of Syawal everyone and stay safe.

Asia's Next Top Model Cycle 4 Winner!

AsNTM  Cycle 4 winner: Tawan

This is kind of an old news but I think it's not too late for me to wish congratulations to Jiratchaya Kedkong or better known as Tawan for winning Cycle 4 of Asia's Next Top Model. Although she had only received first call-out once, she was quite consistent and had been praised by the judges quite a few times throughout the season and in the end she had finally proved to the judges that she has what it takes to win this cycle of the reality show.

To be honest, all the final 3 contestants; Tawan, Sang In and Patricia, are strong and unique in their own way and I would be just as happy if any of them winning the competition. It was a tight race and really they are all winners in my eyes.

I had really enjoy watching this cycle of Asia's Next Top Model. It's nice to see (almost) all of the girls got along quite well. Although there were a bit of fight between the contestants, overall they were quite supportive to each other and being competitive in a healthy way.

The other thing that I love about this cycle is the new head judge, Cindy Bishop. She acted not just like a mentor and advisor but also like a mom to the contestants and it was nice seeing how supportive she was to them. And seeing her almost heartbroken several times during the eliminations truly showed how much she cared for them. There's a warmth in the way she handle any issue or situations related to the contestants and I really love that part of her personality. The previous head judges of the show had been good as well but I really, really hope Cindy Bishop will continue to be the head judge in the upcoming seasons because she is part of the reason I watched this cycle of the show.

It has been a great season so thank you for all the crew behind this cycle, it has been a great show and keep up the good work for Cycle 5 (whenever that is).

Images from Asia's Next Top Model Cycle 4 official website.

AsNTM Cycle 4 Head Judge: Cindy Bishop

Salam Ramadan al-Mubarak 1437!

Salam Ramadan to all Muslims around the world. May this holy month brings you a lot of joy, peace and blessings. And let us pray for a better world for all of humanity. Amin.

Apply now to be apart of The Amazing Race Asia Season 5!

Great news!

The Amazing Race Asia Season 5 will be coming soon and they are now looking for 10 suitable teams to join the show. It's been years since the previous season has been aired so I was quite surprised to hear this...I thought the show has been cancelled for good. It's a very delightful news to the fans of the show who have been clamouring for a new season of the reality competition. Anyway, if you think you are good enough to join the show, you can submit your video with your teammate now. It's open to citizen of Asia or non-Asian citizen who is currently living in Asia who are 21 years old and above. The travel will start around August until October 2016 while the show will be aired on TV later this year.

You can find more information in their official website.

Do you have what it takes to win the race? If yes, apply now!

What to watch? ~ 2016 movies: June

How many movies have you watched in 2016 so far? There are many great movies that had been released this year but we have only reached June and there are many more interesting new movies to come. Let's see what are some of the movies that will be released in June 2016 that caught my attention. Hopefully they seem interesting to you too.


1) Me Before You

Release date: June 3, 2016
Cast: Emilia Clarke, Sam Claflin, Janet McTeer, Brendan Coyle, Charles Dance, Jenna Coleman, Matthew Lewis

I sometimes like to watch a good love story but to be honest I usually prefer to watch them on TV at the privacy of my home. But this film looks interesting to me, and apart from that I also love the main duo who are playing the leads here, Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin. I was surprised to find out that the film had received backlash from many people though, I didn't know it would contain so many bad and negative views on disabled people (at least that's what the people that had issue with the film claimed). I will reserve my judgement until I see the movie and hopefully I will have a positive view on it.

Watch Me Before You trailer here!


2) The Conjuring 2

Release date: June 10, 2016
Cast: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Madison Wolfe, Frances O'Connor, Simon McBurney, Lauren Esposito, Franka Potente, Sterling Jerins, Patrick McAuley, Benjamin Haigh, Shannon Kook

I love The Conjuring so I would definitely want to watch this sequel at the cinema, although I was actually quite surprised that they even do a sequel for this movie. Yes, the first movie was very successful and making a sequel is like a no-brainer for the studio to make more money but I don't see the first movie as a franchise-starter so I didn't expect the studio to turn it into a franchise. Nevertheless, if there's more interesting supernatural cases to be told from the paranormal investigators files, then why not make more movies, right? The sequel would be focusing on the Enfield Poltergeist case file which is quite popular then (and still now among fans of paranormal activity I think).

Watch The Conjuring 2 trailer here!

Ranking the superheroes in Captain America: Civil War film

I've finally watched Marvel's Captain America: Civil War and it was a fun experience. Instead of a regular movie review I've decided to do a ranking of all the superheroes/enhanced humans that were featured in the film like I did with the movies The Avengers and its follow-up, Avengers: Age of Ultron. After all, this movie does feel like an Avengers movie with so many characters involved.

This list will only featured the 12 characters from each side of the teams, team Captain America and team Iron Man, so villain like Crossbones and awesome supporting character like Sharon Carter would not be in this list. I might exposed some plot points too so please be aware that this post might contain spoilers for the movie.

Now let's move on with the chart. We start from the bottom and make our way to the top of my list, let's begin!


12) Vision (Paul Bettany)

I think Vision is a very unique character but he didn't really featured a lot in this film, so that is why he is at the bottom of my list. To be honest, I think he is quite powerful, in fact he might be too powerful that the other characters might not stand a chance if the filmmakers decided to fully utilize him in this film. Anyway, I hope the studio will continue to explore the character in the upcoming Marvel movies. He is a very interesting character after all.


11) James Rhodes/War Machine (Don Cheadle)

What happened to James Rhodes near the end of the movie is very tragic, but I didn't really feel connected with the character so I placed him near the bottom of my list. But I think it is important to note that he was quite crucial in relation to Tony Stark's character development. I guess he will not be featured much anymore in the future films considering what happened to him but you'll never know because when it comes to comic book movies, anything is possible.


10) Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner)

Here's another character that was not much involved but since I already love him from the Avengers movies, he managed to make quite an impression on me even with so little screen time the character had in this film. I especially love the scene in the middle-of-ocean prison where Clint Barton was locked up and the banter he had with Tony Stark there. He is a great character, one I really like so much, so I hope he will continue to be featured in the Marvel movies.

Asia's Next Top Model Cycle 4 ~ Who are the Top 5?

We're almost at the finish line. Few weeks more and we will finally find out who will be crowned the winner of Asia's Next Top Model Cycle 4. I've been enjoying the TV show so far. What about you?

Below are the five finalists for Asia's Next Top Model Cycle 4 and my thoughts on each one of them. If you have not watch the show before, well, let me introduce you to these fine ladies. ;-)


1) Patricia (Indonesia)

I was quite impressed to see Patricia made it this far. With two first call-outs back-to-back in episode 7 and episode 8, she has definitely improved a lot and the clients seemed to like her too. What I love most about Patricia is her personality. She's so candid and funny, very likable and such a joy to watch on the show. She was not really consistent in her performance in the beginning of the competition but she is definitely one of the lead now. She could even make history by making it the second time Indonesia's contestant to win the title back-to-back on the show.


2) Julian (the Philippines)

I think Julian can be considered as an underdog in this competition. The judges always seemed to not really like her photos and she had barely made it into the competition in more than one occasion. To be honest, it was a bit frustrating for me to watch because I think she is such a beautiful girl, one of the prettiest in the competition, and I love most of her photos, but somehow it doesn't seem to be enough for the judges. I hope she will stay strong and determined to win this competition. All the best to her.

What to watch? ~ 2016 movies: May

May is here, which means you better get ready for a slew of blockbuster movies coming your way. Now we already have big movies opened in early of the year (like Deadpool, Zootopia and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) but May is still the opening month of the summer blockbuster season, which means more big movies to burn our pockets. Below are some of the movies that are opening in May that caught my eyes. Which of these do you find interesting?


1) Captain America: Civil War

Release date: May 6, 2016 (28 April 2016 for Malaysia)
Cast: Chris Evans, Robert Downey, Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Chadwick Boseman, Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Paul Rudd, Don Cheadle, Emily VanCamp, Tom Holland

Another superhero showdown movie of the year, and this time it's not just one versus another but one team battling another team, which makes it even more intense. Movies under the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been doing pretty well so it won't be a surprise if Captain America: Civil War would be a huge money-maker at the box-office too. Besides, Captain America: The Winter Soldier was highly praised and since this movie is being held by the same directors, Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, the odds are certainly in its favour.

Watch Captain America: Civil War trailer here!


2) Money Monster

Release date: May 13, 2016
Cast: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jack O'Connell, Dominic West, Christopher Denham, Caitriona Balfe, Giancarlo Esposito, Emily Meade

I almost missed this movie from my radar. Luckily I clicked on the movie trailer one day, just out of curiosity, and I find the topic that was presented in this movie quite interesting. People are always talking about inequality in wealth and how the rich seems to always become richer while the poor becomes poorer, and I feel the situation explored in this movie could be one of the tipping point of such conflict. Of course the movie won't solve the problem but I think at least it could be something for audiences to think about. Money Monster is directed by Jodie Foster and also co-produced by George Clooney.

Watch Money Monster trailer here!

Before I Wake ~ movie review

Before I Wake is a movie directed by Mike Flanagan, the mastermind behind 2013's Oculus, and starred Jacob Tremblay, Kate Bosworth, Thomas Jane, Annabeth Gish, Justin Gordon and Dash Mihok. As someone who adores Oculus, I was super excited to watch this because I wanted to see what the man behind this movie has more to offer. Mike Flanagan not only directed it but also co-wrote this movie with Jeff Howard. After struggling to secure a release date after it's distributor, Relativity Media, filed for bankruptcy, Before I Wake was finally released in Malaysia (although I'm not sure if it is under the same distributor for release outside of United States).

This is my review of Before I Wake. It will not contain spoilers (at least not any major ones) so feel free to continue on reading my thoughts on this movie.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ~ movie review

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a movie that was involved in a lot of conversation lately. Is it a good movie? A bad movie? Can it be considered successful? Or is it a failure? Why people hate this movie? Can anyone even like it? So much discussion surrounding it and the movie, directed by Zack Snyder, certainly had divided the fans. Some people love the movie, some people hate it, while others were in the middle and thought it was just okay. Most critics were unapologetic when giving it negative reviews but was it really that bad?

I'm one of the people who loves the movie and I even saw it twice at the cinema but not for the reason people would think. After the first time I saw it, I had mixed feelings about the movie. There are so many scenes that I love and the discussion the movie was trying to raise about a god-like being living among us and the world reaction to him is very fascinating, but at the same time if people would have asked me then how I feel about the movie, I couldn't say it was a great movie. The best I could say was "I kind of like it, it was okay", which I find odd since I love a lot of the scenes in this movie like I've mentioned. Then why did I watched it for the second time?

It was because I thought I had an info-overload kind of situation. There was too many things to think about, so many layers of story the movie was trying to tell me, and I was overwhelmed by it. I had the same kind of reaction after I watched Man of Steel and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire for the first time at the cinema. But after the two movies were aired on TV and I watched them multiple times, I love both of the movies now! So I thought that was the case for me for Batman v Superman too. I'm almost certain I would fall in love with it once I saw it multiple times on TV, but before it hit the small screen, I wanted to have another look at the movie at the cinema. Although I could still end up having mixed feelings about it after my second time watching it, I knew I love so many scenes from the movie that I thought it was a risk worth taking. Fortunately for me, my instinct was right and I did fall in love with the movie and appreciate the scenes even more than before. I even thought the movie wasn't long enough!

Before I discuss more about Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, let me put a warning here that this movie review will contain spoilers. If you don't want to be spoiled on details of this movie (even minor ones), I would suggest you to leave this page and read something else. If you don't mind though, well, you're more than welcome to read on.

What to watch? ~ 2016 movies: April

Zootopia and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice were smash hits at the box-office. I wonder which movies will open big at the box-office next? Usually I will follow the US release dates for my What to Watch post but this time I will include some of the release dates for Malaysia. There are quite a few movies scheduled to be released in April that I'm looking forward to, so let's check them out now.


1) Hardcore Henry

Release date: April 8, 2016 (7 April 2016 for Malaysia)
Cast: Sharlto Copley, Danila Kozlovsky, Haley Bennett, Andrei Dementiev, Tim Roth

This is a very unique film as it is in first person view, like playing a video game! I remember watching a teaser video of the film a few months back but I didn't think it will be released so soon. It looks fascinating and inventive although I'm not sure whether mainstream audience is ready for this type of film. It kind of similar to the handy-cam style of shooting when you think about it so it isn't too out-of-the-box after all and could find its own audience. One thing I'm curious about though; does the main character speak?

Watch Hardcore Henry trailer here!


2) Before I Wake

Release date: April 7, 2016 (Malaysia)
Cast: Jacob Tremblay, Kate Bosworth, Thomas Jane, Annabeth Gish

I'm so happy when I found out that this movie will be released soon. I've read before that the distributor for the film, Relativity Media, had filed for bankruptcy and the film had been pulled from the release schedule. I'm not sure what happened behind the scenes but it seems that things are getting better now and the film is ready to be released, hitting cinemas in Malaysia in April 2016 and scheduled to be released in US in October 2016. Mike Flanagan, the director of the movie, had also directed Oculus before which I absolutely loved, so I'm really looking forward to Before I Wake to see what else he has to offer. In Malaysia, it will be released in the same week as Hardcore Henry, 10 Cloverfield Lane (yup, we got that one late here) and The Jungle Book, so it's quite a competitive release date.

Watch Before I Wake trailer here!

Asia's Next Top Model Cycle 4 ~ 2 episodes impression

Asia's Next Top Model season 4 had premiered on StarWorld Asia (channel 711 and 722 on ASTRO Malaysia) on Wednesday, 9th March 2016, and currently it is at its second episode which had already been aired on 16th March 2016. At first I wanted to write a post after its season premiere but I thought maybe I should give it one more episode before I write anything about it. It allowed me to know more about the contestants and also the new line of judges.

For this season, not only do we have 14 new contestants vying for the title, we also have a new host, and a new model mentor. Taking over from Georgina Wilson as head judge and host is Cindy Bishop, while Kelly Tandiono is replacing Joey Mead-King as the model mentor. I must say, I will truly missed Joey Mead-King, not only she has been the consistent face on the show but she was also funny and entertaining to watch. She was a good mentor to the contestants too.

I was a bit confused on who is the creative director for this season. It was promoted on TV before the premiere that Yu Tsai would be the creative director, even in the official website it was stated that he will be taking that role for this season. So when he didn't show up in the first episode and Kenneth Goh showed up instead, I felt a bit cheated. For the second episode though, neither Yu Tsai nor Kenneth Goh showed up so who is the real creative director for season 4? As it was heavily promoted that Yu Tsai is indeed the creative director, I guess maybe we would eventually see him on the TV show, starting with episode 3 perhaps?

Time out! ~ Trip to Bukit Bendera, Pulau Pinang - Feb. 2016 -

I don't normally post personal stuff here but I thought maybe I'd do just that, just to try something different. Besides, it's not really that personal anyway.

My family and I went for a trip to Bukit Bendera (also known as Penang Hill) at the end of last February. It's quite an interesting trip so I thought I would share some of the nice pictures I managed to take and some of the interesting things we did up there. At least it could serve as a simple guide to people who are planning to go there, or perhaps introduce the place to people who have not been there before.

So where is Bukit Bendera a.k.a. Penang Hill? It's located in Pulau Pinang (or Penang in English), one of the state in the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia. There are island side and mainland side of the state and the hill is located on the island side. It's a popular tourist spot so if you ever get lost, you can stop to ask the locals, most likely they would know how to direct you there. It is also stated in some of the road signboards once you get closer to the area. You can get quite a few useful info from their website too like how to get there, the ticket prices for the tram to go up the hill and any interesting activities that are going to be held there.

I visited their website before we went up the hill and thought it would only be a short trip since it seems like there is nothing much to do, but we end up spending around 4 hours up there! I was shocked myself. My last trip there was when I was in secondary school so it's been awhile. It's definitely exciting to see the place had been developed well.

So here are some pictures that I managed to snap. I'm going to spam a lot of pictures here so I apologize in advance if they slowed down the loading time.

You can see the tram tracks from here

Zootopia ~ movie review

Jason Bateman as Nick Wilde (left), Ginnifer Goodwin as Officer Judy Hopps

Zootopia is the 55th animated feature film from Walt Disney Animation Studios. I've been enjoying my time at the cinemas with the last couple of films from the studio in recent years like Big Hero 6, Frozen and Wreck-It Ralph, so seeing how amazing the movie trailers were for this movie, I was certain I would have an amazing time with Zootopia too, and I sure did. So here's my review for Zootopia.

I will try to keep this review spoiler-free so you would know as little as possible regarding the plot if you haven't watch the movie yet.

So what is the basic story for Zootopia? It's about a country rabbit named Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) who had graduated from the police academy and appointed as a new member of Zootopia Police Department. Wanting to prove her worth as a capable police officer to her chief officer, Chief Bogo (Idris Elba), she must solve a missing animal case in 48 hours with the help of a fox who is a small-time con artist, Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), who happened to be a key witness in the case.

What to watch? ~ 2016 movies: March

February is definitely the month of Deadpool, that movie made so much money at the box-office (and it still playing in cinemas!). Which movie do you think will be big in March? There are a few interesting movies lining out for March, so let's check out some of them that caught my attention.


1) London Has Fallen

Release date: March 4, 2016
Cast: Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Angela Bassett, Morgan Freeman, Alon Moni Aboutboul, Melissa Leo, Robert Forster, Radha Mitchell, Charlotte Riley, Jackie Earle Haley.

I didn't watch the first movie, Olympus Has Fallen (released in 2013), because I felt like I wouldn't like the story so much even though it looked like a fun blockbuster movie. The trailer to the sequel though looks quite impressive, so I might tempted to watch it when it comes out. I'm still on the fence but judging from the trailer, the casts and action sequences are all looking good. Hopefully it will have good word of mouth too when it is released so that I would have more confident to watch it at the cinema.

Watch London Had Fallen trailer here!


2) Zootopia

Release date: March 4, 2016
Cast: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, J. K. Simmons, Shakira, Nate Torrence, Mark Smith, Jenny Slate, Raymond S. Persi, Bonnie Hunt, Octavia Spencer, Don Lake, Tommy Chong, Alan Tudyk.

This film looks very interesting. I had been consistent in watching Disney Animation movies in cinemas for the past few years now so I'm definitely going to watch this. What I'm interested the most is the world building for this movie and to see how the studio converted our daily human life and apply it for animals. I had fun even looking at the movie posters at how they interpret the animal city life so I'm really looking forward to see more from the movie. It had been released few weeks earlier than the US release date in some countries and so far it has been making good box-office money.

Watch Zootopia trailer here!

Favourite Solo Songs from Spice Girls' Members

Spice Girls is arguably the ultimate girl group in the 90's. It was a very successful group with multiple hits songs and beloved by fans worldwide. Eventhough the members had since gone separate ways, each one of them had released several solo singles and albums of their own. Their solo songs might not be as popular as their songs as a group but they are some genuinely good songs nevertheless. So for this post, I will list my favourite solo songs from each members of the group. All of my favourite songs from them are old songs so if you are a fan of them from the beginning, these songs might bring nostalgic feelings for you. But if you haven't heard any of the songs before, then feel free to take a listen, you might actually like them.


Mel B @ Scary Spice: Tell Me

Mel B has been active with TV projects in recent years. She had her own reality show, she had participated in Dancing with the Stars, and had been involved as judge or coach/mentor in a lot of TV competition shows like The X Factor UK, America's Got Talent and The Voice Kids. She had released quite a few hits in her early solo career like "I Want You Back" with Missy Elliot, and the cover version of Cameo's "Word Up!". She has not been active in the music industry for awhile though with her last single being the 2013 song "For Once in My Life". My favourite solo song from Mel B is still "Tell Me" from her debut album, Hot. It's a nice, pop song that might not really standout among its contemporaries but still, I like it.

Happy Chinese New Year 2016!

Some Mandarin oranges that we received
from friends. :-)

Happy Chinese New Year to all that are celebrating it! It's the year of the Fire Monkey, and I wish you all a successful and prosperous year ahead.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

What to watch? ~ 2016 movies: February

At first I thought I don't want to do this "What to Watch" type of post anymore because I want to focus on movie reviews and other stuffs like manga, books and video games, but then I thought maybe it's good for me to continue doing this since I like to keep track on movie release schedule anyway. So here we are again.

Before I begin, I need to put a note here and say that the release dates here (and for the subsequent monthly posts of "What to Watch") are mostly based on the US release dates unless otherwise stated.

So now let's take a look at some of the movies that will be released in February that look pretty interesting.


1) Hail, Caesar!

Release date: February 5, 2016
Cast: Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Scarlett Johansson, Ralph Fiennes, Alden Ehrenreich, Jonah Hill, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Channing Tatum, Alison Pill.

This looks like a fun movie and with an ensemble cast like that it should be interesting to watch. It is set in 1950's Hollywood though, and movies set in that era usually don't perform well in the Asian region, at least from what I can see from my own country. We'll see how this movie does when it opens in cinemas.

Watch Hail, Caesar! trailer here!


2) Misconduct

Release date: February 5, 2016
Cast: Josh Duhamel, Anthony Hopkins, Al Pacino, Malin Akerman, Julia Stiles, Alice Eve.

This movie will be released in limited release and also through video on demand in the US on the same day. Some might say it's a brilliant move seeing how small films like this usually open small in cinemas anyway, but they got Al Pacino and Anthony Hopkins in the movie so I think the studio should at least have some faith in it and let it run in cinemas for a few week before release it on the small screen. I might watch this for Malin Akerman though, she's quite underrated as an actress if you asked me. But it seems she just play a small role here so...hhmm...let me think this through....

Watch Misconduct trailer here!

2015 Movies ~ My 10 Favourite Moments!

It's one month after the new year but I still got one more list to make for the 2015 movies that I've watched. I've done my top 10 movies of the year (which I separated into 2 parts; the bottom 5 and top 5), now it's time to list my 10 favourite scenes/moments of them.

Before that, I need to remind you readers that this list might contain spoilers, so if you have one or two 2015 movies that you haven't seen yet and planning to do so and want to avoid spoilers, then I suggest you to read another post then.

One more thing; this list is in no particular order. Okay, let's start!


1) The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Scene/sequence: The opening scene with CIA agent Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) extracting Gabriella Teller (Alicia Vikander) from East Berlin while evading KGB operative Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer).

There are a lot of spy movies in 2015 and one that I feel was overlooked by many is The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. I think it's a fun movie and Henry Cavill was so charming in it. This opening scene perfectly introduced the three main protagonists and set the tone of the movie.


2) Tomorrowland

Scene/sequence: The world-flip effects when Casey Newton (Britt Robertson) touches the Tomorrowland pin.

I love any scenes that involved the world-flip effects in this movie. They look so incredibly cool and amazing! Even though I watched it so many times already in the trailer before I watched the movie, I was still amazed by it at the cinema.

3) Inside Out

Scene/sequence: The abstract thought sequence.

This is a very fun sequence. I love how they created this place as an area inside a person mind where 3-dimensional objects turned into 2-dimensional shapes and then further turned into lines. I think it represents a place inside our head where ideas are created, where simple lines and shapes could become complex objects. But then again the characters, who are supposed to be the complex objects, are the one turned into more simple 2-dimensional shapes and lines. Hmm...I think I'm wrong with this interpretation. Well, I may not know what it represents but it sure is an interesting and creative sequence.

My 2015 Top 10 Films ~ No. 5 - No. 1

Welcome back! If you found this post by accident, then this is just another top 10 list where I count down my top 10 favourite movies for 2015. I've already done the bottom half of the chart (you can click here to read it), now let's move on to the top half of the chart.


5 ~ Tomorrowland

I love the plot in Tomorrowland so it breaks my heart to see that the movie got mixed reviews by critics and performed poorly at the box-office. This movie is a big loss for Disney; the production cost around $190 million (and that not even inclusive of marketing budget) but made only around $209 million at the worldwide box office. I think it has a brilliant story, excellent special effects (especially the world-flip effects) and great chemistry between the three main characters played by Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidy and George Clooney. It does have somewhat of a gloomy premise which might turned off some parents and family audiences who expect the movie to be cheerful and light-hearted. Even though the story is very much different from your usual family-friendly or kids movies but personally I feel that the movie beautifully painted a light tone over serious topics and issues that it wanted to convey to audiences and that makes it a smart movie with great moral values, not just for kids but adult alike.

Image source: Tomorrowland website

My 2015 Top 10 Films ~ No. 10 - No. 6

You can see almost everyone on the web having their own top 10 favourite films of the year and guess what? You stumbled upon another personal top 10 favourite films list for 2015 and this time it's from... me! Feel free to click away if you had bored yourself reading all of the other people's choices of movies but if you somehow curious to find out if my list of movies have anything in common with your taste in movies, then scroll down to read more. :-)

I will be separating this chart into two posts with five movies in each post. For this one, I will be counting down the bottom half of the chart starting with number 10. Let's begin!


10 ~ Jurassic World

This is the sequel that fans had been waiting for in years, and could be the beginning of a potential new trilogy. Well, I'm not certain myself if it will be a trilogy but at least with the success this movie had achieved at the box office, we can be sure that another sequel is in the works. Some might not like the juggernaut this movie had become because they might just consider it as just another standard popcorn fare, but personally I think it is a really fun movie. It brought nostalgic factor to the old fans of the franchise and sparked new interest to the new generation which when you think about it, kind of a brilliant idea to restart a franchise.

Image source: Jurassic World UK website