22nd January 2012 (Sunday)

The flight is in the afternoon, and so it’s a usual morning, but we need to get up quite early for the rituals to be done for Chinese New Year tomorrow, and also for last preparation for the one-week long trip. I bought quite a number of shirts and jackets for the trip, so that I can choose what to wear, without much restriction. Sometimes, I agree I do wear nice clothing. Haha…back to the trip, we reached Kuala Lumpur International Airport for international flight to New Delhi, the capital of India. This is the first time we met the other tour members in the group consisting of around 40 people; a very huge group.

After a comfortable time of approximately 5 hours with in-flight entertainment provided in the plane, we finally arrived at Indira Ghandhi International Airport. It’s a very beautiful and spectacular airport, which I hardly expected from a poor country like India. It’s very cold in Delhi at night, and I was shivering. We get back to the hotel, ready for the official touring days to start tomorrow. I can’t sleep well that night, probably due to the in-adaptability to the cold environment there at the moment.

23rd January 2012 (Monday)

Early in the morning, I woke up and took the first look over part of Delhi, the capital of India from my hotel room. I can see that many are poor, and that their living condition is not really well in this densely-populated city. The environment is dusty, and the street is quite filthy. Now I can see Kuala Lumpur is way better than Delhi. The houses there are of flat roof, with no clear planning to the construction of those houses. It’s a huge city!

Happy Chinese New Year! It’s the first day of the lunar new year of dragon! According to the tour itinerary, we would be heading to several tourist destinations in Delhi like Laxminarayan Temple, India Gate and Raj Ghat (a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi). All that were cancelled as the Republic Day of India (on 26th January) is coming very soon and all the major roads in the city area are closed including those places of attractions. We can only take a view and few pictures of Lotus Temple from a far location.

What an unlucky day, and I still wonder why the authority close the roads and places so many days earlier!? Very disappointed…the day ends up with no places to visit, and after lunch, we head straight to Agra city through a 5-hours bus ride. Along the bus ride, we get to stop by and visit a gigantic temple called Jaigurudev Temple, a white-marble temple with Mughal architecture, something similar to Taj Mahal too. It’s a very nice building anyway.

We finally arrived Agra, a city with much poorer condition, but famous for the main tourist attraction; Taj Mahal. It’s already night and we went straight to the hotel we are staying for dinner too. It’s Radisson Hotel, a very beautiful hotel with excellent buffet provided for our breakfast, lunch and dinner, but we felt bored after having the similar food for two days continuously.

24th January 2012 (Tuesday)

This is the place we have to visit definitely once you are in India; Taj Mahal. It is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The bus is not allowed to stop near there, and we have to get on electric-powered vehicle to get to the entrance to Taj Mahal, a huge mausoleum built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in dedication to his deceased wife, Mumtaz Mahal. There is a very stringent security check before entering the area bordered by walls, plazas and gardens before proceeding to the iconic white marble structure of Taj Mahal.

The place is filled with many people, and many of them are busy occupying those spaces where they can take beautiful photographs of Taj Mahal. It is very hard for us to queue up and squeeze in just to get a good spot and take photographs in a quick time before the others take over. Taj Mahal is no doubt very beautiful in photographs, but is definitely much more impressive when seen from the eyes directly. I really love the feeling of being there looking at the structure with emphasis on axis and symmetry.

I took a lot of photographs there. Since we are given not a very long time in the place, I have no time to visit the mosques and the other structures surrounding Taj Mahal. The time limits me to observe the surrounding in details, but overall I can still feel the wonder of the place. Leaving the place, we couldn’t also get any time to buy the cheap souvenirs from the many stalls lining up outside the place.

After Taj Mahal, we went to Agra Fort which is also known as Red Fort. It is a gigantic complex of structures with great defence and is famous for having a beautiful view over the nearby Taj Mahal. It takes quite a long time if you want to go through every corners in the fort, and so we only covered major areas in the fort; particularly some main corridors, the prison, castle building, halls and plazas. The structures there are very planned, massive and intriguing.

25th January 2012 (Wednesday)

In Agra, we saw a much poorer and worst condition of the streets. We even saw a huge empty ground filled with people, and try to guess what they are doing? The answer is that they are shitting! Yes…shitting, filling the ground (an open space of public toilet) with ample of human turds that I can even see some clearly from far, from inside the bus. Luckily, we are not out there at the time, if not, it must be very smelly and much more disgusting to only just seeing that.

Today we left Agra and proceed to Jaipur, another city to be a must-visit in India. Along the route, we went also to Fatehpur Sikri, an abandoned city complex up on a hill. The structures in there are not much different with those we have seen from Agra Fort but those are now in much more vibrant red colour. There is also a very vast plaza near the entrance that appears to be very welcoming to visitors with a very beautiful 360 degree view.

After a 5 hours bus ride, we finally arrived in Jaipur, the pink city. It is a well-planned city with many buildings in terracotta colour. Because there is no terracotta term in colour, hence the city is defined as pink city instead. We went to textile and carpet factory and shop to see the demonstration over the products, not buying. After that, we proceed to the nearby spice shop and painting shop, and also no buying in the end because all those products are not suitable for us. At night, we stayed at Cambay Spa and Resort, which is not really good as food served are very limited.

26th January 2012 (Thursday)

Today is a very beautiful and sunny day. The first destination is Amber Fort, a giant and impressive-looking fort with many structures up on a hill surrounded by thick walls. A long barrier wall is also spotted over the hills around the area, which is used to protect the old city in the past. It is something like Great Wall of China, but with shorter length (still quite long).

It is a very long queue for the elephant ride up to the fort which is above a hill. Luckily we came earlier, if not, much more time would be wasted. Finally, it’s our turn and it’s a very shaky ride up to the fort on a pathway full of elephants’ droppings; smelly! We arrived at a plaza surrounded by mainly yellow-coloured facades with beautiful backdrop of the hills and blue sky.

We went up and up, going through ramps, stairs, tunnels and corridors and it is no doubt that it is another huge and amazing structure to visit. The main attraction is the Hall of Glittering Mirrors where at night, one flame is enough to create a sparkling environment due to the multiple reflection from the reflective materials used to built the hall. The views from the fort to the old city of Jaipur is also quite impressive.

Then, we proceed to Jaipur’s waterfront to take a closer look to the Water Palace in the middle of a man-made lake. It is built over 200 years ago as a place of retreat for the past emperors. After a short while, we proceed to the gem stones and jewellery factory for a little demonstration and we were brought to the shop. No buying definitely.

Then, we went to Jantarmantar Astronomical Observatory for a look over the scientific knowledge, research and determination of Indian history in astronomy. Those weird-looking structures and equipments available there are for the purposes like knowing the time of a day, determining the horoscope of the month, determining the angle and height of the Sun from the Earth, and many others. I hardly understand how most of the structures work eventhough the tour guide had explained it briefly.

Then, we proceed to the City Palace complex of Jaipur which houses several museums now, including paintings, armors and weapons, royal clothings, jars, etc. No photography is allowed inside and so I can only take pictures from the outside. We are also being brought to a hall of royal gathering which is very impressive, and also to a plaza surrounded by intricate peacock-styled gates.

After the tour in the palace complex, we went to the nearby local bazaar for a quick and dangerous shopping. Why quick? Because we were given only an hour for that long street of shops. Why dangerous? Because it is very challenging to even just cross a small road, knowing that the traffic is bad and the reckless driving behaviour of the people. We only bought some magnets there after some bargaining. We also see the Wind Palace along the street, with over 900 windows for women to look out in the past.

27th January 2012 (Friday)

Today, we proceed back to Delhi through a 5-hours bus ride. It’s quite boring staying so long in the bus. As soon as we reached Delhi and had lunch in a Chinese and Japanese Restaurant, our bus passes by the roads surrounded by embassies, and also the Presidential House of India, which is the world’s largest house for the head of state. It contains over 300 rooms and is previously known as Viceroy’s House.

What’s more interesting is that we saw there are many roundabouts in New Delhi, and that those places are filled with many people loitering around, relaxing with some playing small games including poker cards under the sun. The roundabouts are turned to something like a park. Then, we reached India Gate, a gigantic War Memorial gate-like structure of over 40 metres high for the 90 000 Indian armies who lost their lives in World War I. It’s a Western-styled gate and is supposed to be the center of New Delhi, with a very visible strong axis leading to the Presidential House.

At first, the itinerary already mentioned a tour to Raj Ghat, a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi, the father of independence of India. However, the place is still closed and we can’t get in there. Disappointed again. Then, the tour guide dropped the Lotus Temple tour too because it is quite far and might delay our time back to airport for flight home. Another bad decision! I couldn’t see the interior of the magnificent temple already! And yet, we are given an hour plus to visit a shopping mall near the airport.

It is so strict for the security check in the mall. You have to be inspected including your bags even before you can enter the mall. My goodness…I even give up on entering several shops in the mall as there are ample of guards watching you as if you are a thief. So, the shopping trip ended with nothing bought. Another disappointment. The authority was so afraid that we would bomb their place.

Finally, after an early dinner near the airport, we finally went back to the Indira Gandhi International Airport for flight back to Kuala Lumpur after a tiring trip. The procedures through the immigration and check-in are so annoying and wasting much of our time. The authority is too strict on that. Some last few pictures-taking and also some quick shopping in the airport before we leaved, and board the plane. We bought some chocolates, some small souvenirs (key chains, silver plate of Taj Mahal, and also a model of Taj Mahal). Okay…we were back to Kuala Lumpur International Airport in a very early morning, and we waited so long for that baggage reclaim. We had a breakfast at McDonalds in the airport before going back home for a sleep.

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That’s the end of my trip. Yes, it’s already ended, and the conclusion is that the trip came with some disappointments (not able to shop on products we wanted, and also not able to visit some places as mentioned in itinerary, some delays from the traffic congestion) and also some surprises (surprises over good quality of hotel and food we are attended to). It is definitely a uniquely-different trip, as we saw many new and memorable perspectives from India which appears to be a fresh location as this is our first time being in this huge country with population of over a billion people. It is still an unforgettable trip for me, and the experience gained from the trip is priceless. It is fun and certainly different visiting India. Want a future trip to India next time soon? Not really also….The trip is over and I’m back blogging as usual again…

(All the pictures from this post are taken by myself, please credit if you are sharing or re-using it…for the full 400 pictures of the trip, you can go to my facebook photo album and see all that fascinating images easily)

The film centered on four stories, involving 8 characters in 4 pairs, in which the females need help, and the males came for assistance with the end of a hug; either of fatherly hug, friend’s hug or lover’s hug. Four different stories unfold, which gave us much wider agendas to enjoy, while not letting us bored by focusing into only a single story for a whole movie. However, the best part of it would be the one involving Donnie Yen and Sandra Ng. Both did very well in the film, while Sandra Ng never disappoints us from her funny acts in films. Their story is the most interesting one, that covers friendship, music, and the most important; the most in humour. Their part is the most entertaining, while others are not bad too.

For Louis Koo and Kelly Chen part, there are some really funny moments from both of them, but I can’t really see the spark or chemistry from this pair from the film. Both are superstars; one in singing, and one in acting, and so they are in the film just because of their fame in the entertainment industry. For Chapman To and a girl (I forgot the name) who is blind in the film, it is fun looking at how Chapman always bluffing on her from his appearance to the places he brought her to. For the old man (I forgot his name but he always appear in this franchise of All’s Well Ends Well), I find it a bit unnecessary to even add another story just for him, with some minor casts for that portion of the film.

Overall, it is still an entertaining movie, but not really the one that will make you laugh hard. It is still fun watching this, but I actually expect more hilarious elements which are seriously lacking from this film. Only Sandra Ng saved the movie most of the time. This franchise had been performing not very well lately on this few years. Hope it can improve for a better and much funnier movie next year. The NG scenes from the final part of this film is much more funnier to watch. But now, for this one, it is still a very nice Chinese New Year-themed movie to watch, and out of 10 points, I rate ‘All’s Well Ends Well 2012′ a total of 6.9.

(This posts is written earlier and scheduled to be posted on the Chinese New Year week to prevent the emptiness over my blog for this whole week as I am not around and wouldn’t be able to online for this week) 

I am very sure that most of us especially the Malaysians would go for ‘The Viral Factor’ because of the Asian superstar Jay Chou’s presence in the film, and also that the film is shoot mainly in Kuala Lumpur, my home city. I go for the similar reasons. The story revolves on two main characters, a cop (Jay Chou) and a criminal (Nicholas Tse) finding themselves as brothers and gets attached together once they are both involved into a crime of mutated virus production for wealth by the baddies.

The story looks quite interesting, but the main idea of the virus production is not carried well throughout the film. It is now appears only to be a supporting idea to the whole story, not the main one as suggested from the title of the film itself. The main portion of the film is dedicated mostly to those gun-firing, explosions, punching and fighting scenes, which makes the film one of the best contemporary action-thriller film from Hong Kong. However, I find those elements are too much, way too excessive, which just gives not much excitement to us anymore after for a while.

It seems that the director, Dante Lam loved those gun-firing and explosions acts a lot, until to the point that I find it is really too much and unnecessary, that finally dragged the movie to a total length of over 2 hours! This film would be best if it tooks around 1 hour and 30 minutes or a bit more only. Luckily, the story still goes in a fast-paced development and it’s good. The performance by the main casts are generally well and acceptable, and special credit to Nicholas Tse that performed very good in the film. I like his stunts and acts from the film, which is so interesting and exciting to watch. For Jay Chou, he is obviously improving but still not really good enough. (sorry for Jay Chou’s fans…I’m just saying the truth)

Yeah, it’s nice seeing the movie that most of it took place at famous places in Kuala Lumpur that me and many others can recognize; Putrajaya, Port Klang, Pavilion KL, Golden Triangle, KLCC skyline, KLIA, KL Sentral, KTM Headquarters Building, and an old abandoned building in Pudu. It is a bit over that in one particular scene, they keep on showing the exterior of the flight showing Air Asia and Malaysia flag where Jay Chou is in the plane flying to Kuala Lumpur. However, do you actually need to show us the visual of Petronas Twin Towers so many times just to let us know that the story took place in the city?! That is too much as well. There is actually no need for that; the audiences already know the place (even non-Malaysians knew that already after the name of the city is written earlier in the film).

Luckily, the movie is not just about action-packed scenes. For that aspects, it is no doubt that ‘The Viral Factor’ is one of the best. There are some other aspects added, those that touched on emotional values; like the family relationship which started and ended the film very well. The two brothers (Jay Chou and Nicholas Tse), whom are the highlight of the film had their own moments and stunts, which are distributed quite evenly too. The family story further strengthened the actions by the two brothers. It is just that the virus aspect of the film needs more depth by further elaborating on the potential of the newly-produced virus and its consequences. That can be quite an interesting approach, but the director definitely put it aside and just brings his guns and bombs out for massive explosive moments only. And the sound effect is edited to be very much exaggerated in many parts, especially from those explosive and fighting scenes, until to the point that I find it irritating to my ears in some moments.

So, overall, the film is brilliant in contemporary action-thriller aspect, but too heavy emphasis on that would neglect some other aspects, especially the virus element that brought up the title of the film. So, it’s good in one side, but not really that well on the other side. There are many languages spoken in the film too (Cantonese, Mandarin, Malay, English), since the casts are not all from a single country, promoting international participation to the film with support from Malaysian authority. But overall, this movie is definitely worth-watching, exciting with ample of explosive scenes with a beautiful backdrop of KL streets and skylines. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘The Viral Factor’ a total of 7.5. Another long movie review from me.

(This post is written days earlier and would/is be posted during Chinese New Year week to deal with the emptiness of update over my blog for this whole week long when I was not around, enjoying my trip over at India)

(This post is written days earlier and scheduled to be posted on the first day of Chinese New Year as I am not around by the right time when this should be posted)

But still, I would offer a greeting to all the Chinese in the world no matter where you are or where I am (now at India), a prosperous and a wonderful new year with best of health and luck! Happy Chinese New Year to everyone especially to my family, my relatives, and my friends! And also to strangers out there (is that you?) who have stumbled upon my blog accidentally or by purpose. My greeting is for all! For non-Chinese,  enjoy your day too!

Gong Xi Fa Cai! 

That’s the most popular phrase used for Chinese New Year! This year, 2012, for Chinese now, we welcomed new year of dragon! Three years later would be year of goat, which is my year, and that’s the year I would be turning 24. But right now for this year, I am already 20 (21 in Chinese!) Let’s put aside the matter of age first, and focus on how we spend these few days of holiday and Chinese New Year festival.

Let us enjoy this Chinese New Year with great happiness; warmth from the family and fun from the friends! I’m having my Chinese New Year over at India, enjoying not the festival, but the trip itself. These few days of Chinese New Year for ordinary schedules from most of you guys couldn’t escape from visiting relatives, giving or receiving angpows (red packets), playing firecrackers, gambling, go for outing, etc. But for me, it turned out extraordinary every year when I would be going for oversea family trip at this period of time, which is the only longest holiday my dad could have from his busy work.

To add up the excitement, this post is actually my 818th post. If you translate that number into Chinese slang, 818 (发一发) would sounds very prosperous, a very lucky number combination, that wishes everyone a great fortune, and I add one more; great in health too. Hope this year of dragon would be a smooth and successful year for not only the Chinese, but for all too! For the Chinese, let’s enjoy this new year, celebrate it to the fullest, and have fun!

In the end, I sincerely wish everyone again a Happy Chinese New Year! Last but not least, I put again the image of my blog’s header below as it provides a very good feeling for this Chinese New Year! The larger version is above and would stays there until the end of the month. Ahha…I would be back to blog after this week, particularly sharing the experience I had over my India trip. Coming soon…

As the last day of the lunar year, today is the day for having family reunion dinner. Since I would be already leaving to India this afternoon, my family couldn’t have that important dinner tonight. However, we already had that, even two days earlier, on last Friday’s night at Tai Thong Imperial Palace Restaurant over at Cheras Plaza in my area. The food served there is not really nice, and the services are not very good since there are many full tables at the time, and the worst thing is we have to wait over 30 minutes just to get the payment done. Total chaos. It’s even so difficult to get parking over there.

Anyway, it’s been quite a quiet reunion dinner we had surrounded by noise from other tables cheering for ‘yum seng’ and all those stuff. The dinner costs over RM1000 and my uncle paid for it. The dinner is not held last night because my eldest sister have already went back to her husband’s hometown at Raub, and she certainly felt bored for that, staying in the deserted place for a whole week of this Chinese New Year. It’s nice and fun playing and even just watching her two baby sons….just as usual; so cute and adorable! Uhh..I already got early angpows from my dad, my grandma, and my uncle. This three are the most precious one…haha

Yesterday, is the day for last minute buying of Chinese New Year’s stuff; praying stuff, mandarin oranges, and new year biscuits. I had quite a nice time going along those shops and through the morning market (it’s already afternoon and it’s so hot!), feeling the happening atmosphere as the Chinese are filling the streets for many stuffs to do and buy. My dad felt like buying fireworks that costs RM80, the one that shoots to the sky, but after several thought, my father still insist on his principle towards the fireworks; burning own money for less than a minute enjoyment. Haha….so, no fireworks to play….

Today is Chinese New Year’s Eve and I have already packed my stuff and ready for my oversea trip to India with family once a year. What’s your plan for this new year’s eve? I think it is much better to have this day with your family; maybe doing some last cleaning to the house, helping mom for the reunion dinner, watching television together, go for outing together, or even had a little fun moment of gambling a bit together. That must be a really warm and fun day to have for everyone. Just stay out of the roads if you can, because it would be serious traffic jams on these few days before Chinese New Year. Have a safe journey if you are going back to hometown too.

Have fun and get started to feel good for this long holiday and celebration of Chinese New Year! There are also a number of new films released in conjunction with Chinese New Year. If you don’t plan to go to cinema, you may just stay indoor and watch TV; there must be a lot of programmes offered. No matter where you are, or where you want to be, who you want to be with, or what you want to have, I sincerely wish everyone an early greeting of Happy Chinese New Year! Okay, I would be going off for the trip hours later..wish everything would be fine and fun for my trip with safe flights. Happy Chinese New Year’s Eve! It’s the beginning of the week long celebration!

It is not awesome for a trip to just enter and visit a place without you knowing the story behind the place. Yeah, the tour guide would explained briefly on the history of those tourist attractions, but not in detail which I love to explore more. Hence, internet is a very good option now for me to do a bit more research on the places I am going to visit next week in three different cities in India; Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. I would be following a big tour group for this trip, which is under Golden Travel Tourworld (GTT) company.

Delhi is the capital of the nation, and in the city itself, I would have sightseeing over India Gate or known as War Memorial (a prominent arch-like landmark commemorating the 90,000 soldiers of the Indian Army who lost their lives while fighting for their empire), Red Fort (palace served as the residence of Mughal emperors), President House, Parliament House, Government Administration Building and a visit to Laxminarayan Temple and Raj Ghat, a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi. Do you know who he is? If you have learnt history before, you must have known him. He is a very famous political figure in Indian independence movement back many decades ago. Back to New Delhi, the city is described as one of the ultimate cities of a lifetime to visit and explore based on National Geographic’s Traveler Magazine. So, I would fullfill that very soon…Since the city is a huge urban area, there are many structures from historical to modern to look at, especially the government buildings concentrated in the city alone. Ahha…I’m going to have opportunity to visit the famous Lotus Temple in the city too.

Next city to visit based on the itinerary is Agra. Agra is famous for? Can anyone answer? Of course, Agra is famous for Taj Mahal! One of the seven wonders of the world, and also being widely recognized as ‘the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage’. Agra is a historical city, and there are three UNESCO listed heritage sites in the city; Agra Fort (a walled city with many historical structures inside), Fatehpur Sikri (first planned city of Mughals but is now a dead city) and of course the wonderful Taj Mahal (a huge white marble mausoleum built in memorial to Mughal emperor Shah Jahan’s wife, Mumtaz Mahal). And good news is I would be going to all that three places! Time to explore the priceless heritage structures of India, all in one city; Agra…and that would be a priceless experience for me.

The last city to visit is Jaipur, famously known as the pink city. It is a major business centre of the nation, and is famous for the urban planning of the city. It is remarkable among pre-modern Indian cities for the width and regularity of its streets which are laid out into six sectors separated by broad streets 111 ft (34 m) wide and the urban quarters are further divided by networks of gridded street. The places I am going to visit in the city is Amber Fort, Jag Mandir (a lake garden palace), Jai Mahal (a palace hotel), City Palace, Jantarmantar (architectural astronomical observatory),  and sightseeing of Hawa Mahal (a palace with a unique five-storey exterior akin to the honeycomb of the beehive with its 953 small windows called jharokhas that are decorated with intricate latticework). There would be an elephant ride to the fort up on a hill. Cool…

So, basically the trip is going to grant me opportunities to visit a lot of forts, a lot of palaces, a lot of temples! This trip is gonna be a trip to heritage places in India, and I’m quite interested as I do like to explore heritage structures, looking at the architecture and how culture influences it. Looking forward for the trip that is going to begin this Sunday, on the day of Chinese New Year Eve itself.

The plot appears to be very interesting, and the concept behind it is very new and fresh. It’s also interesting to see that each one’s time is engraved over their hand and the mode of transferring them. It now depends on how the movie goes by the plot, and it doesn’t really succeed very well. The idea of having time as the currency as the framework of the story is very creative, and it is being manipulated and delivered well throughout the film. However, the story flow gets not much deeper after the beginning, and the second half of the story just went on to the chasing scenes to capture Will Salas. This type of film could be really great, could be something like ‘Inception’, but turned out to be not really awesome due to the plot. Great concept but with dull storyline. A bit disappointed.

The first half of the movie exposes the audiences to view the consequences of having time as currency, the consequences of having a lot of time in poor zone that would result in being robbed and killed, the consequences of separating zones with time which is now the determination of wealth, the consequences of getting very rich and able to live for over a century or even for thousand years which at last appears to be isn’t very good and the consequences of letting the rich getting richer while the poor suffering from this system. All that is presented well from the film and I enjoyed that. After that, it’s all about chasing the suspect, Will Salas which at last did something very significant to replace the system by robbing banks to redistribute time for a much balanced world.

Ahaa…and I praised the effort of finding all the casts which have to be around 20s or 30s to look like a 25 years old people or children in the film. I did look thoroughly throughout the film especially over those supporting casts also and there is no flaw to that aspect. From the story, I only find it a bit unbelievable that Will Salas, the main character can handle so much thing and also winning and surviving in the end, despite almost losing his own life every time. Those parts of having few second of life left to the people in the film are very exciting, and we are very interested to know their fate at the time. And so, for that, Will Salas survived every time.

This is the first time I’m seeing Justin Timberlake taking a very important role, cast as the main character, and he nailed that character. He performed very well, together with the other main casts who are good on their roles too. The whole film basically comprises of many elements; action, science, humour, love, system and all are well distributed throughout the whole story. So as I have said, the only thing goes not well is the storyline itself which is expected to be catchy with some serious stunning climax. If that is accomplished from this film, I bet this would certainly goes to Oscars. But now, not! Too bad. Anyway, it’s still a very good movie of a fresh new concept to watch at. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘In Time’ a total of 7.5.

Oppss….I need to buy my time to replace the one I spent writing this post which is about 30 minutes…haha – (You would understand me if you have watched the film.) Wow…This is a long movie review…I seldom write a movie review this long…which shows that I have a lot of opinions for this film…Oh my god, it’s almost the end of January 2012, and I haven’t even starting to watch this year’s released films.

The story similar to the first two movies of the franchise follows a group of yougsters get kidnapped and killed in gruesome ways while being witnessed by Elite Hunting Club members who paid for all that. The franchise usually used the idea of sexy girls to attract the boys, and put them into the death situation, but it is somehow a bit different in this third instalment. The plot is twisted, with surprising agendas added, which makes this film much more outstanding than the first two. The ending gives me a shock. (No spoiler here, you have to watch yourself to find it out)

The plot gets very much exciting and interesting this time, with more scenes of the members enjoying over the killing in a room facing a bar-like area where they are seated. That part is important for the strength of the story. The murders this time in the film are much more gruesome, and I have the disgusting expressions all over my face watching those scenes where many ugly visual is revealed. Now I know why this is not released to cinema and only limited to DVD release. The violence is there, the gory is there, and it’s very exciting to watch for fans of these type of horror films like me. The like is not over the blood spilling or whatsoever; it is on the creative killing and the response from the victims, and the way it is observed and enjoyed by the crazy people opposite watching all that and of course the way it deals with psychology of the audiences (me watching it). Of course, I’m not insane or what, but this type of horror film actually gets more attention and appraisal. It’s not just about killing….

However, this third film performed badly in the ratings compared to the first two, but I thought the other way round. I find this second sequel is far better than the original and the first sequel released back years ago. It is far better in many aspects, even including the performance by the casts which is very well-done in this third instalment. What’s important is the plot, and the story goes very well and clear with some unexpected and shocking moments which are what a great horror film needs. The only bad thing is the very fake CGI effect of the roaches in one killing scene, but for the others, all the visual effects and make-up effects are very good. But one more thing, there are quite a number of boring scenes in the middle between those intense moments. So, after all, my rating to this film wouldn’t be bad also, as I gave it 6.5.

Oh, really!!!??? Great! Very great! After so many months of dedication to this blog, after so many hours spent on writing, after so many energy and effort contributed to this site, my blog finally garnered over one million hits! Getting a million views to a blog is not easy and I have accomplished it! Wow….that is really awesome, until to the point that I’m left speechless now, doesn’t know what to write more…

This is seriously incredible! I never thought of such a high number of views to my blog! I still couldn’t believe the figure I see today in my blog home page, down at the right side. Before this, I always keep looking at the number shown, and keep waiting and questioning myself; when will the figure turns to a million? And now, in reality, on this day, the number of views to my blog exceeded that figure and I’m truly glad and happy for it, for such a great achievement that I will never forget, which falls on this lovely day.

Now, I wish that the number would keep increasing, or at least maintained in a steady rate, so that my blog does not only appears to be productive, but also popular to a certain stage that I am already satisfied. I’m already pleased with over a thousand hits daily, which I never expected at the time when I just started my blog in a very humble manner. Now, my blog surpassed one million hits, and it can’t be as humble as in previous time anymore. Now, I’m hoping my blog would grow and progress well under my care, and I’m ready to look forward at more accomplishments set to be achieved and records set to be broken from my blog!

But right now, I am truly happy and enjoying how well my blog is going, with the clearest proof of the total number of hits to my blog  to this day! Now, I can say to others that my blog had over 0ne million views, which I’m certainly proud of it. (Ahheemmm…not to say that I’m showing off, but that was a fact not to be denied, right?) After 40 months of running, the blog finally obtained such an impressive result! Really…really cool that my blog got over a million hits! (Okay..sorry for repeating too many times…I couldn’t control that). Anyway, more to come (I mean, more accomplishments for my blog to come). One million hits/views! My blog and I can finally feel this level of excitement! Hooray!

The story develops quite well, with a fast-paced progress that keeps the film interesting at every moment. There are only little amount of time allocated for the love relationship between the Hal Jordan and his lover, Carol Ferris (Blake Lively) in the film, which is just fine. There are many storytelling explaining the background of the Green Lantern, and all are described well to provide understandable depth of the story to the audiences. Overall, the plot is okay, eventhough superhero movies like this one still couldn’t escape from those agendas; saving the loved one, almost died in the end but survived, etc.

I like the way some humours are added to the dialogues to make the film much entertaining to watch. A movie without hilarious moments would be seen as too serious, and couldn’t cater to general audiences. This movie is an exception, eventhough there are still not many funny moments from it; of course not, the focus is still on saving the world! Serious task! The performance by the main casts, are considerably good and the visual effects are great too.

I just find that the movie is a bit too long. It would be perfect and totally exciting if the movie is shortened to only around 1 hour 30 minutes, rather than having around 15 more minutes more wasted on unnecessary scenes. Don’t know why I got a feeling that Ryan Reynolds is not really suitable casted for the role of Green Lantern. I find it a bit weird. Anyway, overall, it’s a nice and worth-watching superhero film, and out of 10 points, I rate ‘Green Lantern’ a total of 7.3.