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Wednesday, May 20, 2009

How I believed in love at first sight

If you've read my review on the Star Trek movie, you would've known that I went to Pavilion last Saturday to watch the movie. After the movie ends and after my lunch, me and my movie partner is still strolling around Pavilion, which is as we know it, a place where no typical everyday man (or woman) could afford from or maybe only buy from once in a while. After our lunch, it seems that our wallet is empty. Yes even the food court that we ate at is somewhat more expensive than a typical food court that you would find in any other average shopping malls. Pavilion and The Gardens are the two of the luxurious shopping mall in the capital which I know. All I can afford here is window shopping (and some stuffs from shops that have branches) and the boutiques around here will have us laughing out of the store after looking at the price tag. Well, at least that's the case for me. Ok, I'm going far out of my context here. I'm going to tell you how I believed in first love. When we were going to EON Bank to draw some money from the ATM there, we had to go past by a parking bay (with valet service nonetheless) where I laid eyes on probably the most awesome creation the motor world has to offer...



And I was mesmerized. Mesmerized as if I've forgot everything I've ever had. Mesmerized like I never had been. It's an honor to lay eyes on such radiance, such sophistication, such contained wilderness... I never believed in first love, but this machine proved me wrong. Looking at it, I forgot to breathe for a while that my face turned pale, stunned by its resonating beauty. Under the spotlight of the bay, this machine shines it's beauty into the eyes of its looker. It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But this kind of beauty is universal, and the kind of beauty that language is not required. I was in disbelief. I lost to my own belief, my own stand of "love at first sight is not love". My stand was shattered but I am glad, because my love at first sight is this Italian tailored madness under an ivory armor;

Lamborghini Murcielago.
..
I bow down to your supremacy

Monday, May 18, 2009

Star Trek Review

Yes at first glance, even I thought this is not a good idea to watch Star Trek. I've watched Star Trek: Nemesis before (Google it). The movie was Boring with a capital B. I tried so hard to like it because Star Trek is a big franchise but I failed to and fell asleep almost halfway through. But that was Star Trek: Nemesis which was still in the original canon of Star Trek. This movie however is a reboot to the canon. Hollywood tries to make it accessible not only for nerds, but also normal people alike. And the movie reviews I saw all over the internet says it was unexpectedly good. This time around, I watched the movie with my regular movie companion at Pavilion in KL, just for a change. We've been to other places before. Our movie starts at 12.15pm. Had our breakfast at Oldtown White Coffee: Signature there and their toast are one of a kind. The price was reasonable too. You should try it once in a while instead of the normal fast food restaurant breakfast. Walked around the Pavilion a little before going to the cinema for the movie. And I must say the air-conditioning in GSC Cinemas has been less cold. Probably because there has been complaints. Anyway at least it's cozy.

Being someone who never saw or liked the actual movie, my hopes wasn't really high for this one. The movie starts with the U.S.S Kelvin, which is one of the mega-spaceships like the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars. It stumbled upon one of the Romulan (a race in the Star Trek universe) ships and it started attacking. The captain of each ship decided to make truce with the captain of the U.S.S Kelvin boarding the Romulan ship. George Kirk was appointed as the captain of the ship while the original captain went and board the Romulan ship. The U.S.S Kelvin lost and also does George Kirk but he got the chance to name his son, Jim Kirk. The story then proceeds about the story of Jim Kirk and also Spock, a half human half vulcan and their story in the institute and the U.S.S Enterprise.

I know this is weird for a Star Trek movie but everything is understandable. Yes. Everything is! Including all of the intergalactic warp space time travelling thingys. The movie was action-packed, sprinkled with some comedy and drama. In one word, it was Epic! This movie has changed my whole perception of the Star Trek universe and if they decided to make a sequel for this, I'll definitely watch it. The new actors are nothing short of amazing. Kirk with his rebellious nature, Spock with it's logical explanations, have them as a team and you got yourself one heck of a duo. Much like Starsky & Hutch but they're in space. A very very good movie. If someone invites me to watch it again, I might just accept it because it was really good. Nothing short of amazing.
"Dif-tor heh smusma" (which is "live long and prosper" in vulcan).

This epic movie is worthy of a solid 9/10

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Review


As usual, my reviews are not usually up at the same day I watched it but better late than never. Saw this movie at Mid Valley (again! I know I'm getting bored myself) with a friend of mine. Saw the first show of the day. Had my breakfast first at the nearby McDonald's while waiting for the ticket counter to open. Oh I forgot to mention that I got at Mid Valley around 9.30am. I just like being early for no particular reason. Had some good ol' Big Breakfast. Did you know that Big Breakfast is the MOST unhealthy menu in McDonald's? Yikes. I can't eat them often. We had booked for it at the first place but since my partner has conveniently forgot to copy it and the line was still fairly short anyway (because it's still very early) we decided to just queue. The lines here move rather quickly despite of its length so I wasn't really complaining. Plus we save RM1 on the booking surcharge. Ehem. Got the tickets, killed some time by window shopping and entered the cinema 5 minutes before 11am. The theatre was only half full though. Or was it half empty? Hurm. You decide.

The movie started with the child life of Wolverine and his elder brother Sabretooth. Living in a family full of conflict he Wolverine eventually killed his real father after his real father shot his fake father. The claws coming out of his hands at first were made of his own bones and he used them to stab his pops. Starting from this moment on they lived as vagrants, trying to survive by using their best skills, killing. The opening montage shows that they have participated in various combats in history from the American Revolution until The Vietnam War and they haven't aged a bit. This is to show that these brothers are practically invulnerable and that they had a very long lifespan. This movie also feature some of the other heroes from the X-Men canon such as The Blob, Bolt, Deadpool, Gambit and some other early appearances from the juvenile X-Men heroes to be. The movie was action packed, the story was easy to understand, the plot was straight forward, and there was very little dull moments along the movie. I love watching the double katana wielding Wade Wilson or later Deadpool in action and I'm really interested to see more of him. Heard news that there is going to be X-Men Origins: Deadpool too but I don't know because I also heard about X-Men Origins: Magneto. So whichever comes out I'm still going to go watch it nonetheless. But he is probably my favourite character in the movie after Wolverine and just like Stryker said, "If it weren't for his mouth, he'd be the perfect soldier". And also Hugh Jackman is incredible as Wolverine and I really can't see anyone who can do it better. He has the charms and the looks. Very good lines and very convincing and quality acting. I was also very eager to see Gambit actually since this is the first time that he ever appeared on the big screen. Sadly there were very little scenes with him and few of which is key to the story. I want to see him fight more. Maybe against Deadpool. That'll be awesome. And as everybody knows, Wolverine has adamantium skeleton which are ores from outer space. And he has regenerative properties. He is just entertaining to watch because his fighting style is so different than most superheroes that evade from attacks, Wolverine just goes to it head on. Sheer excitement and a sight to behold. He's someone you'll never want to mess with I'll tell you that.

Overall, it was a great movie. Better than my expectations actually. I was thinking I aws going to see another comic book franchise going to milked and rehashed but certainly I was wrong. My partner loves it too, and this partner of mine don't like films easily. That's good I guess. At least this partner of mine is happy and thinks it's worth it. Well so do I. I give you high recommendations to go see it. It's an entertaining movie and whether you like X-Men or not, just give it a try. You might like it afterwards.

This movie deserves 9/10

Thursday, April 30, 2009

He's Just Not That Into You Review


By the time of writing, I saw this movie yesterday (29/4) at Mid Valley with some of my friends. This movie has been out for a while now, about a month I guess. But only recently that I had a chance (and a group of friends that are willing to watch it). This day was a normal day with classes until afternoon but I headed for Mid Valley right after. The movie started 10 minutes after I arrived, and thanks to my friend who have bought it for me, I don't need to queue. Bought a small pop corn and a medium coke before heading in since I haven't got my lunch yet. According to the internet, the movie was 2 hours long. Probably that's the reason it took me a while to decide whether to watch this too long because I'm not a fan of sitting in a refrigerator for 2 hours. And since I'm kinda too thin, I get real cold real fast.

For those of you who didn't know, this movie was based on a 2005 self-help book of the same name by Greg Behrendt, Liz Tuccillo, and Lauren Monchik. Due to that, the movie was separated into 4 subtle parts if I'm not mistaken, started by the interview of some people on the topic. And this movie was star-studded. The idea of the movie came from Drew Barrymore herself after reading the book, and she stars in it as well as some hollywood hot shots which are Ben Affleck, Jennifer Anniston, Jennifer Connelly, Kevin Connolly, Bradley Cooper, Ginnifer Goodwin, Scarlett Johanson and Justin Long. That's a combination that comes once in a blue moon. The movie actually revolves around a few people which are connected indirectly. There's a desperate woman, a married couple with problems, and a happy couple with problems of getting married. This is mainly a chic flick but anybody that are even remotely interested in this movie from all fuss you heard about it should go and check it out. Especially those with relationship problems or not, or a woman who's having difficulties getting a men. This movie has a lot of messages for the ladies but mens, go watch it too and see what hollywood has to say about us. Characters in this movie was predictable again, but then again it's not easy to make it not. Convincing deliveries of the characters by the actors and actresses in this movie made it a worthwhile too


Overall, it was a great movie. There's nothing much I can say about it because there's nothing that you haven't seen but why fix something that is not broken anyway. Since the movie has been out for quite a while already, the showtimes for this movie is not much anyway. For those who haven't got a chance to watch it, go ahead do yourself a favour and go watch it. Higher recommendations from me to people that is going to be, still, and was in a relationship. This movie had messages so subtle that some people that might be in some situations might get influenced by this movie too. But hey its hollywood peeps. You do the judgement. Great movie. That's what I think. I don't think it's going to be shown any longer than another two weeks from now at most. Go ahead.


This movie gets 8/10 from me.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Dear Lulu

Dear Lulu,
You are very busy;
And sometimes also you are clumsy;
When it comes to food you are very choosy;
But I'm not complaining my little daisy;
Because that's just who you are my only lady.

Dear Lulu,
You are filled with passion;
And you always know all your action;
Currently you're chasing your ambition;
I hope I'm not slowing you down by any fraction;
Because I want to be your helpful companion.

Dear Lulu,
I love you;
What I can't get you is very few;
All the time I want to do things for you;
And although you told me myself would do;
What I did was just an extension for the word I love you.

Dear Lulu,
You love me;
You always find some time for me;
I lack so much but you told me let it be;
Although somethings look very hard to me;
You'll do it regardless because you love me.

Dear Lulu,
I wonder how are you;
I wonder how do you do;
I wonder if you miss me cause I miss you;
I wonder if you're happy with me cause I'm happy with you;
Eventhough I'm not the man of your dreams that's true;
Baby I'll try to be, for you.

Dear Lulu,
Now you're away at a place I can't say;
Where it's not possible for us to contact;
And although only for a while that you're away;
I can already feel the impact;
Because you mean so much to me;
Please come home I need you badly.

Dear Lulu,
I miss you.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Confessions of a Shopaholic Movie Review


I saw this movie at Mid Valley on the 19th of March. I was really lazy to put this up early for some reason. But better late then never. This movie has been out for a while by the time I saw it, I know, but it wasn't on my movie checklist anyway because none of them are currently viewing. The film had quite a promotion I see. It was also based on the book with the same name by the famous chic lit novelist, Sophie Kinsella. Many movies nowadays are adaptations of something, books, comics videogames, even anime & manga. Not many new ideas get through. Maybe it's because of the recession in which they were trying to play it safe by makinga movie that already had followers from the material it was based on therefore they know that it will be watched by some people no matter how bad the reviews are. Or maybe even if it wasn't adapted, the original movie was made a sequel. Playing it safe all the time. Even hollywood is not recession-proof.

Ok enough about my rants on the recession topic, going on to the movie. Since I had a friend that had read the whole Shopaholic books, I had this person to accompany me to watch it. We saw the first show of the day which was at 11.30am. The movie was 1 hour and 45 minutes. The movie was about Rebecca Bloomwood also known as Becky among her friends, who had an unhealthy obesession towards shopping (thus the name shopaholic) until one day she had her debts getting back to her. Up to a point that even a debt named Derek Smeath was chasing her around to get her to pay her debts. She was living with her friends who are getting married later. She came to New York to work as a journalist. Having her expertise in shopping, she applied for a spot in the infamous Allete magazine only to be turned down and later working on another magazine that was under the same publisher. She works in Succesful Savings magazine which is the complete opposite of what she's capable of doing. Here is also where she met her benevolent editor Luke Brandon. The story goes on as she's trying to learn to overcome her shopping habits and at the same time trying to avoid the debt collector. A chic flick that everyone can enjoy.

Now, having someone who has actually read the book to accompany me, this person told me that the movie was loosely based on the book. For example in this movie, Becky stumbled upon Brandon for the first time at a hot dog stand which he payed for Becky's hot dog, instead in the book, they met for the first time on a plane, where Becky exposed her unhealthy shopping habits to Brandon, which will be her future editor of Succesful Savings. But even when the movie was loosely based on it, and this person being a true follower of the series, this person still says the movie was pretty good, which was saying much since usually people who had read the book would detest againts changing so much from the original material. That was a good sign. Personally, I think movie makers had to change it because if they had to take everything, or a major part of the book onto the screen, it would be a very lengthy movie and it wasn't suitable for movie goers. This movie I think was made this way so that it was suitable for both the novel readers and the movie goers. The movie goers had another chic flick and the novel readers get a rough idea of what Rebecca Bloomwood is in real life. No clever twist whatsoever in this film but that was ok and not necessary. The film was pretty ok. I don't really watch chic flicks but this movie made me think twice if I should shun the genre upon view. It was pretty good for a chic flick. Everything is in order and nothing is not understandable. The comedy was ok too. You should go see it if you haven't.

I give this movie an 8/10

Monday, April 13, 2009

Fast and Furious 4 Review


As you see, this movie is in my list of movies to watch this year, so naturally I have expectations towards it. Planned to go watch this with my friends or something similar but since my mom got a hold of some free tickets (don't ask), of course I grabbed it. There's not many free things that I refuse. Who does?

Anyway, the movie was going to be in Mid Valley, on a Saturday (11/04/08). Coincidentally, I have class going on earlier that morning. So no choice, I had to attend it. The class ended about 30 minutes earlier and thanks to a friend of mine, I got sent to the nearest Komuter station without having to take a taxi. He saved me RM10. Thanks dude. The movie was a 4pm but I arrived in Mid Valley at about 11.30am. There are a lot of things I can do here of course to kill time. Had my lunch at McD's having the McValue Lunch of Double Cheeseburger. Walked around the mall, stopped by computer shops, stopped by MPH, before my mom called me to join the family for a meal before the movie. Guess what my mom got me? A McValue Lunch of Double Cheeseburger of course. My body must've been screaming like crazy if it could with the amount of fat and sugar I take in today. As you know, the movie is 18+ so my mom only got 2 tickets for this movie in which I had to watch it with my dad while the rest of the family get to watch Confessions of a Shopaholic. My movie starts at 4pm while the other one starts half an hour later. Got into the theatre and it was freezing cold. After the Transformers 2 movie trailer which was an eye candy and some booze commercials, the movie starts.

The movie starts and one of the company that works in this movie is Dreamworks, which specializes in digital special effects, which made me think, oh boy this isn't good. They're relying on some animated cars rather than the real ones. Unlike the earlier 3 movies to this series which starts with a race, this movie doesn't. This could be wrong or might be right. It's good to see Vin Diesel reprising his role as Dominic Toretto but Paul Walker hasn't yet to be seen. As in the trailer, it starts with stealing some oils and at the end of this scene was some obvious digital effects. Which was very cheesy and corny. Paul Walker appears later as the Brian O'Conner which is now working with the feds again. The movie mainly revolves around revenge that Dom was seeking to people who murdered her girl, Letty. And Brian was looking to bust the head honco of a drug smuggling gang. And coincidentally for both of the characters to reach their goals, they had to do some driving. Yeah nothing innovative but nothing wrong with that. Ok, now. What is it that made us so attracted to watch this movie franchise? Of course for the hot cars and racing action. Well, here's some spoiler for you, triple click in the white space to view it:
[Spoiler start]
there are only 2 races if I'm not mistaken throughout the whole movie and the rest of car scenes were just driving dangerously.
[End of spoiler]
There were only a handful of cars and even they don't appear much and even if they do only for a brief amount of time. This was not the Fast and Furious we have learned to like. Driving in this movie was just something that the characters had to do instead of what they like to do. Unlike in the first movie where there were drag races, races around the town in the second movie, races around a construction site in the third, all of which was done entirely by the protagonist's will purely for some good time. In this movie, such driving scene doesn't exist. It was either driving for someone or something. And there were also quite a number of death in this movie too, some which are very intense, which is not very fast & furios, which only have some deaths. This movie was more about a drama of revenge and gang busting starring Vin Diesel and Paul Walker with some hot cars in it. I don't think it deserves to be called the 4th movie because this one has so much less than what I expected because it's losing it's fast and furious factor. There are too little cars and too many dramas for a Fast & Furios movie. Still can't believe what I said? Go watch all of the previous 3 movies and then watch this one. Be honest with yourself. Newer doesn't automatically makes it better. I would say this as the worse entry of the franchise so far and if you have saw the first 3 movies, go watch it if you want to see a story progress. For newcomers to the movie, I suggest you watch any of the first 3 movies. And for movie goers and that doesn't have a problem with watching anything in the cinema, I think there could be other movies but you could still watch it if you're curious. For me personally though, I was kind of a let down. It wasn't a bad movie but it was ok. Just ok. There might be a sequel but I don't know.


I give it 6.5/10

Sunday, April 5, 2009

What will you do?

If you feel like you're the one who's causing problems among other people and that things were perfectly fine until you came along?

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

My Driving Lesson: Part 5

This will be the last entry for this episodic content. If you're interested to follow my story from the very first day, use the keyword "jpj" to look for these kinds of posts. Now, on the the post.

Again, I had to skip class for the second time this week in order to attend the test. I've submitted my special leave letter to the respective lecturers but aside from attendance, I'm also missing out on my studies. No choice. I went home on the Tuesday afternoon, but stopped by Nilai for a while to take care of some business. After all that's done, I head home using the "oh-so-efficient-and-always-arrive-on-time" KTM Komuter. I unintentionally slept in the train while sitting in a vacant train coach. Probably I was too tired from the usual headache and an uncounted for flu. Woke up a station before Kajang (UKM). I didn't remember when I doze off though. Fetched by my mom. Settled everything there is to settle, grabbed a comic, read it in my room and went to sleep.

On the Wednesday of my test, I woke up 5 minutes late. But I still took my time knowing that today is going to be a very long day with a lot of waiting. Ate breakfast and went to the centre. There was a large number of crowd there which means only 1 thing; longer wait times. So there was 3 colours (each representing a group). White for repeats, yellow and green for first timers, with the only difference is yellow is limited to 60 person. The green bunch that day was 122 person. That sucks. I hate waiting. There's a Malay saying that goes,"waiting is a torture" in which I agree wholeheartedly.

My first test was part 2, which are the hills, parks and turns. I was kinda nervous for the hill as out of all the 3 things, hills were where I failed the most. My wait wasn't very long for this. Got a car with a damaged gearbox since it produces this weird shifting sound no matter how hard I press on the clutch. And the gears itself wobble at its place. Meh. What can I do anyway. With the holy "Bismillah" coming out of my mouth, I stepped on the clutch, changed to the 1st gear and lowered the handbrakes... slowly, I lift my left foot from the clutch... the car moves and by the time the car was stable enough, I tip toed the accelerator, the car moves up the hill, my heart pulsate faster, by the time before the sidemirror is alligned with the poles, I hit the brakes, leaned outside the window to see the front wheels are perfectly in the yellow area. 1 thing is done. Now to the difficult part. After raising my hand to indicate to the JPJ Instructor that I'm done there, I repeat the process of moving, and the car moved forward without a little reversing. Thank God!! Passed the difficult part. Now the rest should be a cakewalk. Did the other 2 things well. Haha that's a little dramatic story-telling from me.


Now on to the part 3, on road. All of the peeps from group yellow and green were waiting for their turn around if I'm not mistaken 8 cars. That is 60 yellow + 122 green = 182 peeps with average of 10 minutes each = 182 peeps x 10 minutes = 1820 minutes required divided with 8 cars so 1820/8 = 227.5 minutes + around 30 minutes of the JPJ officers lunch break which now brings us to a total of approximately 257.5 minutes which is roughly 4.3 hours of maximum waiting time for your turn. And this isn't Alaska people, Malaysia is a tropical country that is very generous (sometimes too generous) with their sunshines. I was one of the last dozen people. Which sucks. I doze off multiple times because I was so freaking tired and bored of waiting. If only I had a PSP at that moment. Not to mention also thirsty, but because I'm afraid that my number is called when I went to the canteen to get a drink, I didn't buy anything. The numbers were called out randomly too. If it was called in some sort of order, at least I can do a little bit of timing to do something else to kill my boredom. So when there was very few people left there, finally my number was called out, but I still have to wait for the instructor to test another guy first.


I had Jalan 1 for my test, which is the one going near the school. Aside from a few law breaking citizens of Malaysia, there wasn't a problem. When I got back to the centre, guess what? More waiting! Yay!! If I subtract all of the waiting that I have to do, I think it'll take up no more than half an hour. So right now I had to wait for my blue card from the instructor who hasn't gave it to the person in charge of redistributing all of the cards to be kept by the driving school branch because he doesn't like to come out of his car very much so he keep a number of them before giving it back. Which made me unnecessarily wait. What an uneffective protocol.

Whatever it is, I passed them all. I got my license. My real P license I will receive this Saturday so I would only be driving by then. Which I thinki I would. Anybody want to volunteer? Hehe.

Monday, March 23, 2009

My Driving Lesson: Part 4

This event happened on a Monday of no particular holiday, which means I had to skip classes no choice. Why I did so? Well, my driving school here only has JPJ tests on Wednesday. And prior to the test day, they provide you with a final lesson before the actual test day which will determine whether you fail or pass. I think a lot of other driving school does this but which one I do not know.

So, because I had to skip class for Monday of March 23 and Wednesday of March 25, I've written a special leave letter to my lecturers pledging that my attendence will be registered as absent with reasons instead of just absent. At the time of writing I haven't submitted the letter but I have attained the initials from the driving school to prove that I really do have lessons on that day. I was planning to leave college for home at 8 in the morning because of my intelligence of not resetting the clock after the Subuh prayers, I woke up by myself at quarter before 10. The lesson starts at 1pm actually but the reason I wanted to get home early is so that I can do my laundry earlier and have some time to relax thus not rushing for the lesson. Now because I'm late, I can't really take my time doing things. As soon as I arrive in my neighbourhood, I walked straight to the driving centre branch to get their initials. Got home, warmed up my lunch, get my laundry done, had lunch, had dessert (a slice of Choc Indulgence which happen to be in the fridge) and right after I finish hanging my laundry, the instructor came.


My usual instructor can't make it today, so I had a lady instructor. I don't want a lady instructor. Not that I like men, I just wanted my first driving experience with a lady is not with an instructor. Maybe someone special. Hehe. Well I'm being honest la kan ape salahnye. And the usual cycle of the part 1 technical driving and part 2 on road repeats. Nothing really interesting today. I had less engine stalls. Getting pretty confident now. The only problem today was it was blazing hot. I could barely stand it. Added with the fact I cannot switch on the air-conditioner during technical driving to stabilize the engine didn't make it easier. 3 hours of training today. Drove home.

My real JPJ test will be on this coming Wednesday (March 25). Again I would have to skip class and from what I've heard, I'll have to wait for my turn to take the test. Urgh. I don't like waiting. But most importantly, I have to pass and get my license. Wish me luck.

I wish THIS is my first car...