Movie review: Rio 2 (2014)

The first ‘Rio’ is a good one. So I don’t think its sequel would be disappointment. And yes, I was right. I had fun watching it. Well, I was referring to ‘Rio 2’, the sequel to the 2011’s Rio that focuses on Blu and Jewel, a sweet pair of blue macaws in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (hence the movie’s title). In this sequel, they travelled to Amazon alongside with their three kids to help their human friends to find the additional macaws they discovered while facing the return of their previous enemy, Nigel and also a huge illegal logging team headed by a ruthless leader.

The story is an interesting one despite sets further away from Rio de Janeiro this time. The macaws’ adventure at the Amazon was a good one and I enjoyed it. There are many sub-plots going on (seeing Blu and Jewel as the parents now, Blu being too attached to human lifetstyle, Blu’s relationship with his father-in-law that didn’t go well in the beginning, Blu’s jealousy of Jewel’s childhood friend, Blu’s adaptation to Amazon, blue macaws’ conflict with the red macaws, Nigel’s new team to take revenge but is always foiled hilariously, Jewel’s father’s hatred to humans, and the presence of the big bad boss of the illegal logging team) combined for a wonderful and colourful adventure in the new setting; Amazon. Many things going on, and still it goes smoothly and easily understandable.

No room to judge acting skill here since this is an animated film. However, the voice over by all the casts looks great particularly Jesse Eisenberg as Blu and Kristin Chenoweth as Gabi, the frog that is Nigel’s sidekick. While on the other hand, the visuals look great and stunning. I can easily get annoyed with musical elements (singing and dancing) in a movie but not from this one. I find it fun, energetic and vibrant to watch instead. Also not to forget many funny scenes throughout the film that can give us (even adults) a good laugh. I’m sure kids will love this. Should recommend my sister to bring his son to watch this too.

Nigel and Gabi is the funniest pair to watch here. They are not just evil. Their presence here made things go better. As for the Blu and Jewel’s three kids, I wish for more emphasis on them. Maybe they could help out with significant roles in this, like maybe to track down the bad guys, but turned out only to be a mere addition to the already heavy number of characters. And Bruno Mars is even here voicing out as Roberto, one of the new supporting characters.

The movie is entertaining all along. Well, I couldn’t say this is exciting since there isn’t any serious dangers or problems going on to the birds, not until the last fifteen minutes of the movie where climax finally comes. No worries. There isn’t any boring moments either. Everything goes dramatic and progresses well, and finally to a happy ending as expected for a light animated film like this. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Rio 2’ a total of 7.4. Rio 2 is promising as a more colourful, busier, and delightful animated film. It’s slightly better than its predecessor. Go watch it if you haven’t.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

 

Obama’s visit to Malaysia is a buzz!

The President of the United States of America, Barack Obama is now here in Malaysia (my country) for a three-days visit from 26 to 28 April 2014. He is originally scheduled to visit the country back in October last year but couldn’t do so due to their partial government shutdown crisis at the time. This time around, there isn’t anything that blocks the way and here we welcome him to our country. His visit marks the second time a U.S. President came to Malaysia, as the first one was back in 1966 (48 years ago) when President Lyndon B. Johnson set his foot here too.

Why is it that his arrival here is much more exciting, happening and making a lot more buzz than the other presidents, prime ministers or even kings? Well, no doubt United States is a superpower, and having the leader of a superpower here  is something we find of utmost importance especially of guaranteeing his safety and smooth tour in Malaysia. Just days before his arrival, I have read news of the level of security provided for him, particularly from his official presidential plane, Air Force One and his presidential limousine called The Beast and all the checks by U.S. Secret Service. Interesting facts: There is a medical operating room in the Air Force One. And if you think that it is not enough, there is also a blood bank in The Beast containing the similar blood type with the President in case anything emergency happens that requires it.

Barack Obama arrived here yesterday’s afternoon to a grand welcome after having been to Japan and South Korea. Later on, he would goes to Philippines, which would be his last stop of the four-nations Asia tour. He went to the Parliament House on yesterday’s evening for an official welcoming ceremony, and attended a state banquet at National Palace with the King and Queen, the Prime Minister and the main cabinet ministers. Today, he will be heading to Putrajaya, administrative capital of Malaysia to hold talks with Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak before going to nearby Cyberjaya for the launch of the Malaysia Global Innovation and Creative Centre (MAGIC). The US President will also hold a town hall session with young leaders from South East Asia and to visit National Mosque this afternoon.

He will leaves to Philippines tomorrow. Before he is leaving, I think there is a bit of ample time for him to truly discover the wonder of Malaysia. Maybe he can drop by at some famous tourist destinations in Kuala Lumpur like Chinatown, Batu Caves, KLCC, etc or even try our local delicacies like nasi lemak, cendol, char kuey teow, or even durian if he can stand the smell. Too bad that he only has three days here (actually only one and a half). If not, he could explore more on what we can offer to the current 44th US President.

His visit here is not only to improve bilateral ties between the two nations but also as an approach to further engage with Muslim world and these priorities reflect the American leader’s multicultural heritage, which has given him a wider view of the world. Obama’s efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples has won him the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize too. His landmark visit here to Malaysia marks a new chapter in the history of both nations. Welcome once again, Mr. Barack Obama.

(Information and images in this post are from The Star Online)

Movie review – Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Great! Really great! For quite some time, I had never been feeling this excited after watching a movie. The movie I’m referring to for now is ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’, the second instalment of this particular superhero film franchise. The story sets two years after the Battle of New York (as seen in The Avengers), when now Captain, Black Widow and Falcon join forces to uncover a conspiracy within S.H.I.E.L.D. while facing a mysterious assassin known as The Winter Soldier. After the 2012’s The Avengers, we had seen the return of Iron Man and Thor in their respective stand-alone films. Now, Captain is back too, and the outcome turns out to be much more exciting than the others.

The previous ‘Captain America’ film sets in 1940’s during the World War period where we saw the transformation of a skinny military man into a superhero with exceptional physical abilities and thus being called as the first avenger. After an encounter with the villain Red Skull, HYDRA leader, he is lost in the middle of the ocean, being rescued and slept till the present day (a bit of flashback to what’s happened on the first movie). Later in The Avengers, we didn’t see much from him coping with the current era which would be fun to see but there are many other superheroes to focus on in that film too, hence no time for that. We do see a bit of that part in this current sequel, but still I think it is not enough. It would puts in a bit of comedic touch to turn this movie into perfection, but it didn’t in the end. But don’t worry. There are still some light funny moments in this one.

Nevertheless, the story here is solid and wonderfully developed enough to have it being critically-acclaimed as it turns out to be now. It’s interesting to see Steve Rogers (the Captain) teams up with Black Widow (she previously collaborated most with Hawkeye in The Avengers) and also later with Falcon (new appearance) on many challenging tasks ahead in this movie. Nick Fury also had more significant role here which is of something good to see. The storyline is extremely engaging and the plenty of intensifying action scenes made it further fun and exciting. I just couldn’t get my eyes off the screen for even a second from the start to the end. The actions (crashes, explosions, blasts, gunfight, combat) are awesome here! I couldn’t expect more from this superhero of whom has the lesser power compared to the other superheroes and yet could contribute to this amount of climax-reaching actions in this film.

Chris Evans did not only proves himself to being a favourite by many girls out there due to his handsome look and superb fit body, but also shown good acting performance here alongside with Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow. The other aspects to compliment are the great visual effects (must be using up a lot of budget). Every action-packed scenes looks very realistic and convincing enough to keep us at the edge of our seats. There are also some very nice twists, and interesting character’s development. Bucky Barnes as the old friend of the Captain and as the Winter Soldier here (the villain) isn’t really evil and I’m happy to see him rescuing Captain in the end (sorry for a bit of spoiler) and then looking to discover more on his past (check out the post-credit scene if you haven’t watch it) after he is brainwashed by the true villain of the film, Alexander Pierce as the secret agent of HYDRA within the S.H.I.E.L.D. There are a mid-credit and post-credit scenes. Don’t miss both.

I have to say this is by far the best superhero film I have seen after The Avengers. I would rate ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ a total of 8.0. Solid story, great flow, plenty of actions and intriguing suspense. Nears perfection.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

 

Absence of nice series recently had me returning back to Runescape.

Sad to say that there isn’t any good TVB series aired recently. Those currently airing aren’t appealing to me. The last series I watched is ‘Storm in a Cocoon’ starring Steven Ma and Tavia Yeung. That was surprisingly a good drama. Now, I have plenty of time at night after work and on weekend, and I’m looking forward to get something else nice and entertaining to do before the next appealing series comes in. And the first thing on my mind to spend off my time now is ‘Runescape’.

If you didn’t know, ‘Runescape’ is a MMPORG (stands for Massively Multi-Player Online Role-playing Game) I started playing many years ago. After a year or two, I quit. The reason is that I’m not a member (pay-to-play) and many content of the games are limited to us in free-to-play browser (that’s typical since we didn’t pay a single cent for it). So, it started to get boring after some time. Then, I stopped for like two years. And when I returned to the game this time, things appear to be refreshingly new back. Now called ‘Runescape 3’, the games is enhanced with stunning graphics and effects, more possibilities of actions and even bigger in-game world for free-to-play users.

 

(Image source: http://gotgame.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/runescape-3.jpg)

Most people would be playing Dota, Warcraft, football games or some random games from Facebook or from your smartphone. But I wouldn’t let ‘Runescape’ down since it has been my favourite game last time when I was still a teenager. In the game, I got to earn coins (and now I had over 8 million, but still not much compared to the wealthy players, but my goal now is to keep more than 10 million coins), training skills (combat, mining, smithing, woodcutting, fire-making, cooking, crafting, fishing, magic, prayer, etc) and exploring new stuff. I can immerse myself into my avatar of the game for like an hour or two at night which is quite helpful to get rid of my stress from work of the day.

To further enjoy the game, I recommend to have more contents provided to the free-to-play users too since that without us, ‘Runescape’ couldn’t claim itself to be the world’s largest MMPORG game to date. Or at least lowering down the membership fee, so that more would find it affordable (including me) to be member of the game to enjoy more features. I’m hoping that some Jagex moderators or staff could see this and take into their considerations on my suggestions. More feedbacks here; free-to-play users wanted to have more quests or challenges too, bigger in-game world, more valuable drops from killing monsters, etc. Please provide that while you still can maintain the exclusiveness of the members.

My total level is over 820 (as of now), and my combat is 135. That’s considered a medium-ranked player. How about you?Try the game if you haven’t. If you have played it before, you can share here on why you quit playing it. If you are still playing it now, you can comment here on how well your avatar is progressing in the game.

 

Spent the past weekend on 3 movies.

Besides than joining a marathon (refer to my previous post) on yesterday, I spent the past weekend mostly on watching movies. If you are a frequent reader of my blog, you should know that I love to watch movies a lot. I can watch over 60 films a year. It’s a very relaxing activity for me. In the past weekend alone, I watched three movies; Escape Plan, The Internship and Carrie. All were released last year respectively. The first one is an action thriller, the second one is a comedy and the third one is supernatural horror. Three totally different categories. I am into any genres.

‘Escape Plan’ follows Sylvester Stallone’s character Ray Breslin, a structural engineer who is incarcerated in the world’s most secret and secure prison, aided in his escape by fellow inmate Emil Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger). First, Breslin seems to have no trouble escaping prison with his thorough observation and smart skills. Then, he is captured and kept in an illegal-for-profit prison on a ship in the middle of the ocean where things really turned out hard for him. I enjoyed watching how his carefully-planned strategy goes in this intense thriller, but the collaboration between these two famous veteran actors isn’t that great. A very serious film, and I will rate ‘Escape Plan’ a total of 6.8.

Next is ‘The Internship’. Time for a light comedy movie. And the story is about two salesmen (portrayed by Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson) whose careers have been ruined by the digital age, and they find their way into a coveted internship at Google, where they must compete with a group of young, tech-savvy geniuses for a shot at employment. Quite an interesting story that gives us meaningful messages in the end. I am quite entertained especially when the two tried hard to cope with the current generation as a necessity to work in Google and in the end got embarassed. I did get a bit annoyed by Vince’s acting but as for Owen, he is good. A fun movie. I rate ‘The Internship’ a total of 7.0. It looks great to work with Google. Their office is really cool.

Lastly is ‘Carrie’, a horror film based on a novel of the same name. It tells the classic horror tale about Carrie White, a shy girl outcast by her peers and sheltered by her deeply religious mother, who unleashes telekinetic terror on her small town after being pushed too far at her senior prom. First time watching Chloe Grace Moretz in such a ‘burdening’ film and she did fairly good eventhough not the best yet from her. A very good story development and the chaos she unleashed at the climax is awesome (I hope for more). Message learnt from this movie; never bully anyone. It’s bad and you may not know what he or she can do to you later for revenge. Be good. I rate ‘Carrie’ a total of 7.1.

Now, these three films helped me to push up the number of 2013 films I have watched to 52.  There had been quite a number of films this year already released and yet, I still haven’t had the opportunity to watch them. Have to get back to this year’s films already.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

Milo Breakfast Day Run 2014

I think this is my first time joining a marathon. I got persuaded by my sister to join her for a family run on Milo Breakfast Day Run 2014 at Putrajaya this morning on 20th April. And for that, I have to get myself up from the bed on 5.30am. That’s a very hard and a suffering task. I have never been waking up this early for a long time already. The sun hasn’t even rises yet. Luckily we managed to reach there right on time by 7am (the time when the run is supposed to commence) after having difficulty of finding parking. And the run only began after 7.30am.

There were a lot of people, and all (almost everyone) were in green, wearing the Milo-brand shirt given before the run after each participants registered. There were two categories in the run. The first one is 7km long. My brother-in-law joined that and he won a medal since he finished off the run in less than 1 hour and 30 minutes which is the requirement for a medal. My cousin also won that since she is quite experienced in running for marathon too. It shouldn’t be hard for me too but I didn’t take part in this category as I have to accompany my sister and her two sons for the family run category which only covers 3km.

From this marathon, I got to see how the big-scale run looks like. I got to see people of all walks of life gathering together for a run or simply a walk. Group of friends, family with children or even babies, couples, elders, etc. Before the run began and when everyone is going to the start point, I was amazed by when everyone stopped while the national song is played. I’m glad I still see sign of unity, respect and love to the country. It’s an overwhelming scene eventhough nobody is actually singing it. I won’t too. At the start point, people basically couldn’t run as there were really too many people.

This run also gave me opportunity to enjoy looking at the architecture of many government buildings there since it took place at the main road in Putrajaya (the one that started from Prime Minister’s Office to Putrajaya International Convention Centre but our run actually starts at Perbadanan Putrajaya Building opposite the Palace of Justice). First time I passed by the few new highrises built there and I find that those highrises didn’t fit the setting there well despite carrying a bit of modern Islamic design characteristics. And most importantly, I can sweat out and gets a bit healthy from this run. I didn’t actually run. Just walk for the whole 3km since I have to look after my sister’s son along the route.

But that is still quite tiring. The run ended by receiving a goodie bag and we have to wait a very long queue just to get a cup of Milo to drink. Milo trucks were everywhere but all with long queues too. There were a lot of tents set up around there for activities and sale of food and drinks. But since we were all tired, we left early. It’s quite a wonderful experience as this is my first time joining a marathon. Next time, I think I’m going for a real marathon (maybe maximum 10 km long as I know my limit) but the only worry is that I don’t want to wake up so early. Haha…okay, now I need to have an afternoon nap. Bye…

R.I.P. Karpal Singh ( 1940 – 2014 )

I find that this year is mostly filled with sad events. 2014 hasn’t been a good year for Malaysia. We were all greeted this morning yet with another heartbreaking news that Karpal Singh, the former national chairman of Democratic Action Party (DAP) and the current MP for Bukit Gelugor had died in a car accident in the early hours of 17th April 2014. He was 73. He was on his way to Penang to attend a court case later in the day when the car he was travelling in collided with a lorry near Gua Tempurung on the North South Expressway here early Thursday.

Karpal’s assistant, Selvam is also killed in the accident. The other two passengers, the driver and one of Karpal’s son, Ramkarpal are both safe. May he rest in peace, and my deepest condolences to his family and to all his friends particularly from the Opposition. It must have been a tough life for Karpal Singh. A motor vehicle accident in 2005 left him using a wheelchair permanently and problems with his arm. But he still stays on his active political career until recently that he decided to step down as the national chairman of DAP. Now, his death is also caused by another motor vehicle accident. It’s very unfortunate for him.

Being in the opposition is never easy in Malaysia. However, he never felt afraid, never felt of giving up, and never stop from fighting for justice and democracy in the country. His political career spanned for over 40 years, when he first joined DAP in 1970, citing the party’s multiracial political platform following the race riots in 1969. He was first elected to parliament in 1978 as the representative for Jelutong, Penang and held the seat for more than 20 years. He then led the party to its strongest ever win in 2008 General Election and further improving the party’s success in the most recent General Election in 2013.

His most iconic actions would have been heavily criticizing the restriction of media coverage of the opposition, rejecting death penalty especially in relation to drug-trafficking offences, staunchly opposing to the notion of Malaysia as an Islamic state, arguing that the Constitution provides for a secular nation with Islam being the official religion and not being a fully Islamic state (considering the presence of citizens of other races in the country) and also highly against PAS (another opposition party)’s plan of implementing ‘hudud’ in one of the states . Besides that, he is also known for being a very firm person and a man who dares to challenge whichever is wrong, hence being a man to fear in the Parliament, and a strong leader of the opposition.

His death today led to many people, particularly politicians, including the Prime Minister to pay tribute to this courageous man. In both courtrooms and parliament, he was known as a controversial figure. He was suspended from parliament numerous times, charged for sedition, and had been detained under Malaysia’s internal security laws. He had went through thick and thin. His reputation as a firm lawyer and opposition politician earned him the nickname “the Tiger of Jelutong”. His death today certainly is a great loss to the nation. It may turned out to be a happy news to the government (since he is a strong member of the opposition that the government has to watch out for), but it is definitely a saddening news to most Malaysians. He made an important mark in the nation’s history. R.I.P. Karpal Singh.

Tragedy after a tragedy. A plane last month, a ship this month.

It’s been about 40 days since the Malaysia Airlines plane MH370 disappeared on its route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. And unfortunately, even till today, there is still no sign or any solid evidence linking to the aircraft discovered. 40 days have passed! This is getting really weird to me. Do you feel the same too? Despite advanced technology in present days, a single lost plane still couldn’t be found. Previously, there had been many reported sightings of debris from ships, planes or satellites, but they all appeared to be a false alarm. Some images taken were quite convincing, but still in the end turned out to be not related or that the objects couldn’t be found anymore in the same area as previously photographed.

All that must be certainly frustrating for everyone, especially to the family, relatives and friends of the passengers and crews on-board the ill-fated aircraft. People are still very concerned to find out the truth behind this very mysterious disappearance in the aviation history. Eventhough there were few occasions recently that sound from something underneath the southern Indian Ocean is detected, but the outcome is still negative. We have come to an early conclusion that all lives in the flight are presumed dead and that the plane crashed in the ocean as informed earlier by the Prime Minister of Malaysia. Nevertheless, the search operations led by Australia now is still on-going in search for the plane and its black-box. Hoping that the truth will be known very soon.

The missing plane that carried mostly passengers from China had now sparked anger from their people, mostly due to the inefficiency of our authority in handling the matter and the misleading information provided to them. We saw series of protest and also boycott recently. Not long after that tragic accident, another incident involving China occurred in Malaysia again when a Chinese national is kidnapped in a resort at Semporna, Sabah over a week ago. This is worsening the ties between these two countries. Our authority couldn’t even provide safety to a young female tourist vacationing in our country. I understood why Chinese nationals hate us so much now. I apologized on behalf on our failed government.

Two pandas from China are supposed to arrive in Malaysia this month to stay here for ten years as an agreement made few years ago to mark the 60th anniversary of the friendship between Malaysia and China. However, both pandas are now scheduled to arrive next month as the priority now is to search for the blackbox of the missing aircraft. I’m now hoping that our authority to seriously take good care of the pandas and not let anything bad happened to them. The pandas are China’s treasures! If not, further backlash from the mighty China and they will be mad at us t0 the maximum level.

Today, we heard a news of a South Korean ship sinking on its way from Incheon to Jeju Island this morning (image above). There are over 400 people on-board and the cause of the sinking is still unknown but I do feel relieved by the efficiency of the search and rescue teams of their country. 4 people are reported dead unfortunately, while many others are still missing, but at least we have over 100 people successfully rescued. We should learn from them eventhough they are both different situations. If this thing happened over here, I guess our authority is still looking for the location of the ship?? (by that time, more casualties already), or maybe taking a nap first before taking further action. Crisis management of Malaysian authority: FAIL.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

‘The Grandmaster’ won big at 33rd Hong Kong Film Awards

The result of the 33rd Hong Kong Film Awards held yesterday came to me as nothing surprising. Already knew from day one once the nomination list is released that the martial-art epic film ‘The Grandmaster’ will be the biggest winner. The film, directed by acclaimed director, Wong Kar-wai took home 12 awards out of 14 nominations received, thus becoming the single movie with highest number of wins in history of Hong Kong Film Awards, one of the most prestigious awards in Chinese film industry.

I was quite bored watching the entire show yesterday as I kept on hearing ‘The Grandmaster’ being called out as the winner again and again, both in technical and acting categories. I was also quite disappointed with the emcees (Teresa Mo, Gordon Lam, Ronald Cheng). Their talks couldn’t flow smoothly and the outcome from their hosting turned out to be quite awkward for me. There are also much lesser number of superstars attending the presentation ceremony this year. Nevertheless, we still see many artists there, like Jackie Chan, Tony Leung, Carina Lau, Sammi Cheng, Kelly Chen, Miriam Yeung, Nick Cheung, Louis Koo, Anthony Wong, Wong Jing, etc. Hereby below are the results of the 33rd Hong Kong Film Awards along with my comments in some categories. You can check back the nomination list here if you wish to know in detail who else are nominated but didn’t get to win: https://vincentloy.wordpress.com/2014/02/09/full-nomination-list-for-the-33rd-hong-kong-film-awards-2014/:

Best Film – The Grandmaster

Comment: Very much predicted. A top quality production but usually this kind of movie that won the most awards is boring for me.

Best Director – Wong Kar Wai (The Grandmaster)

Comment: Third directing win for Wong Kar Wai. He is very interested on making heavy films that are usually favourites by awards’ judges.

Best Actor – Nick Cheung (Unbeatable)

Comment: I’m glad he won rather than Tony Leung. I’m not saying that Tony Leung isn’t great but ‘The Grandmaster’ seems to emphasize more on Ziyi’s character than his one as ‘Ip Man’. Nick Cheung’s effort in ‘Unbeatable’ is paid off finally. Louis Koo has to wait again, since he had never won best actor before despite having many previous nominations.

Best Actress – Zhang Ziyi (The Grandmaster)

Comment: Everybody knew Ziyi will win this. Now, she had won 9 best actress title these two years from her role as ‘Gong Er’ in ‘The Grandmaster’ alone. Incredible. I was still hoping Sammi could win from her brilliant performance in ‘Blind Detective’. She had been nominated 7 times but without any win before. Pity her. Really wish her time for a big win will come very soon. 

Best Supporting Actor – Max Zhang (The Grandmaster)

Best Supporting Actress – Kara Hui (Rigor Mortis)

Comment: This is a surprise. Everybody is expecting the little Malaysian girl, Crystal Lee to win from her role in ‘Unbeatable’. She had previously won Best Actress at last year’s Shanghai International Film Festival for the same role but not even winning in supporting category here. Weird. But I have to say that Kara Hui is a solid actress and deserved to win too. 

Best Screenplay – Wong Kar Wai, Xu Haofeng, Zhao Jingzhi (The Grandmaster)

Best Editing – William Chang, Benjamin Courtine, Poon Hung-yiu (The Grandmaster)

Best Cinematography – Philippe LeSourd (The Grandmaster)

Comment: Very much expected as ‘The Grandmaster’ was also nominated in Oscars (86th Academy Awards) earlier this year in the same category. Very unlikely for an Asian film. Eventhough it didn’t win at Oscars, but I’m sure it is strong enough to win here.

Best Production Design – William Chang (The Grandmaster)

Best Costumes & Make-Up – (The Grandmaster)

Comment: Also nominated in Oscars early this year. So, expected to win here in this category easily. 

Best Visual Effects – Enoch Chan (Rigor Mortis)

Best Action Choreography – Yuen Woo Ping (The Grandmaster)

Comment: Eventhough I don’t quite like the movie, but I enjoyed its action choreography. Delivering actions in slow-motion is a nice approach seen from this film.

Best Cross-Straits Chinese Language Film – So Young (dir. Zhao Wei)

Best Score – Umebayashi Shigeru, Nathaniel Mechaly (The Grandmaster)

Best Song – (The Way We Dance)

Comment: This song is energetic but I prefer ‘Blind Love’ song for the film ‘Blind Detective’ by Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng to win. 

Best Sound – (The Grandmaster)

Best New Actor – Babyjohn (The Way We Dance)

Best New Director – Adam Wong (The Way We Dance)

Lifetime Achievement Award – Chang Hsin-yen

‘The Grandmaster’ sweeps almost all awards. That’s it. This caused many other films to have win nothing (Detective Dee: Rise of Sea Dragon, Blind Detective, The White Storm, Drug War, etc). ‘The Way We Dance’ and ‘Rigor Mortis’, both by new directors were also winning two to three awards respectively. Very good achievement. ‘Unbeatable’ manages to grab one for best actor luckily. If not, the movie which was a commercial and critical hit last year would be a major letdown in the awards ceremony. Looking forward to more top quality movies from Sammi Cheng so that she will win best actress very soon. She must be frustrated that whenever she is nominated in a particular year, there must be some other superbly strong opponent present to take the trophy. Anyway, I’m sure your day will come for a major win very soon.

(Images and information in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

 

Watched three films that coincidentally start with ‘S’ in the title the past week.

The past week had been busy days due to me having to rush for a deadline in my job. However, I didn’t get any pressure eventhough I’m staying back everyday as I had these three films for a little bit of entertainment at night after work before I went to sleep and get ready for the next day of work again. These three films are released this year but are less popular. And the coincidence is that these three films start with alphabet ‘S’ in their respective movie’s title.

The first I watched the past week is ‘Snowpiercer’ (released last year in South Korea but not anywhere else till this year). It’s a Korean film but it’s generally an English language film that sets in a future where a failed global-warming experiment kills off most life on the planet, and a class system evolves aboard the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe via a perpetual-motion engine. A man at the back of the train (lower class) led his group of people for a rebellion. Chris Evans is here, but not as the famous Captain America, but as the man mentioned earlier, named Curtis. I like movie that tells about different classes of people, and for this, things got much interesting when all events were in the train itself when the group goes further to the front section of the train. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Snowpiercer’ a total of 7.3.

The next I watched is ‘Stage Fright’. Slasher films have been one of my favourite movie genres. This one tells about a snobby musical theater camp that is terrorized by a blood-thirsty killer who hates musical theater. Something different as it combines music with killing spree by a psycho. And some murder scenes are quite gruesome. I also like the suspense of guessing who is the killer on which it is revealed surprisingly in the end. Not the best slasher film but considered a fresh entry to the genre in recent years when people are producing lesser films of this kind. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Stage Fright’ a total of 6.7.

Lastly, the film I had just finished yesterday is ’13 Sins’. The story is about a cryptic phone call which sets off a dangerous game of risks for Elliot, a down-on-his luck salesman. The game promises increasing rewards for completing 13 tasks, each more sinister than the last. This is very interesting as things get crazier as story progresses. Mark Webber is the show stealer as Elliot. And I enjoyed the twist in the end eventhough I think some parts can be much better developed. There is this engaging dare-to-do situations involved alongside with climatic mystery of who is organizing this sinful game. A good thriller film. Out of 10 points, I rate ’13 Sins’ a total of 7.5. The best of the three.

Three movie reviews in one post. Short and straightforward. These three films are not receiving high publicity but should not be ignored. Sometimes, lesser known films can be better to your surprise.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)