Need-More-Wonder Emporium

A children movie about a magical toy store, Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium appeared to already has the right ingredients to charms its viewer, very much like Willy Wonka's chocolate factory in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. After all, what more could children love as much as chocolate if not toys?

But that is exactly what they failed to do, imbueing enough wonder into the film.
The film actually has a promising start. Hoffman's Mr Magorium, being the over 200 years old magic character he is, was delightful and likable and naturally said the strangest thing. His toys store has been around for a long time and he was planning to pass it down to store's manager, Molly played by Natalie Portman. To faciliate this transfer, the accountant Henry was hired. But when the magical store itself learnt of his planned departure, it began to throw a temper tantrum. Colours on wall desaturated and toys started to misbehave. It is up to Mr Magorium's as the fatherly figure to the store to persuade the store to accept Molly as the new owner and to Molly to retain the magic in the store.
Charming story this. If only the writer knew where to focus the story on. Everything that seems so wonderful and creative about the movie appeared to dwindle as the movie progress. I would prefer to see Mr Magorium training Molly to take over the store and using the opportunity to showcase more magical things that happened within instead of Molly trying to convince him not to depart. The direction got a bit too serious, even when the writers tried to make it light. In the end. they tried too hard to write a meaningful story that they neglected the magic. Some adults seems lost to what story the movie is trying to tell, I doubt the children will get it.
Children's movie does not always need to tell a meaningful story. The writers need to let go of reality and let their imagination just take over. I read a children book off the shelf of a bookstore about a boy taking a bath and before long, he was joined by many wild animals one by one. I admitted I don't remember the details much there is at least an elephant and a whale in his bathtub before he is done. In the end, the book never suggested that it was all just his imagination and it was an absolute delight to read it.
Yes.. the playful cardboard dinosaur was funny and the hug-hungry sock monkey was totally adorable. That were exactly what the movie need, in extra large helping. All that is sadly wanting in this movie.
But not all is lost. There is one scene in the beginning of the film when Mr Magorium told Henry how very long ago, he fell in love with a pair of shoes and bought enough pairs to last him a lifetime. That is how he knew his time is up because he is now wearing the last pair. Of course that doesn't make sense but there is something so charming about it that it will probably be the one thing I will remember about the movie in years to come.
Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium could certainly do with a little more wonder.

Of Hero and Liar

Look at the movie pass above. Apart from Kee Lin is too broke to pay for movie that is why he only watches free movie nowaday, what else can you tell?
Is anyone aware that the entire movie is rendered in CG? Looking at the promotional image, I never suspect a thing. Something doesn't quite looked right but I never once suspect the movie isn't a live motion picture.
I was told that Beowulf is a Scandinavian mythology but really, all those praises to Odin is already a dead giveaway. The movie begins with celebration of victory in war and of the new hall built. This celebration is cut short when a monster, a giant in the form of a very deformed human attack and killed most of the men there. When King Hrothgar challenged the monster however, it chose to flee. Out of sorrow, the new great hall is sealed and the King offered as reward to anyone who can kill this monster Grendel, half of all the golds he owns. Beowulf arrived and slayed Grendel, not realising that its mother is an even greater terror.
The story and script is acceptable but after the first confrontation between Beowulf and Grendel's mother, it kind of lost its direction. Much is not explained in the movie with the biggest question of all, why did Grendel's mother did what she did? She did not kill the killer of her child but instead bear another with him and gave him glory as king and warrior, undefeatable as long as she deems fit.
Why?
Isn't she trying to avenge Grendel's end?
I have no problem with how the story ends however. It was actually quite apt. How else can it ends? That's the way folklore goes.
Though not exceptional, the script is provoking enough. Fans of Neil Gaiman will still be disappointed as it somehow lacked the depth that he well known for. Still, the speech he gave to a defeated invader on why he cannot be killed is pretty powerful. It was also interesting how he tried evading Hrothgar's direct question on whether he kill Grendel's mother. I also happen to recall a scene when he explained how he lost a swimming marathon because he got caught up in a battle with a sea monster when in fact he was seduced by a mermaid.
Damned Beowulf is horny and a liar!
Since most of us were fooled by the poster of the movie, it goes without saying that the graphic was what really stood out in the movie. Due to its realistic factor, it will bound to draw comparison to Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within. The difference though, is that the color in FF:TSW is more highly saturated and the characters have more beautiful hair. I recalled right away that in the movie Virtuocity, Denzel Washington had his entire head scanned so the special effect team may render him likeliness and filmed all his stunt digitally, which is what is being done to the entire film here. To compress the size of the file however, they scraped off some unnecessay details.
Herein lies the problem with CGI. Making everything in full detail takes too much time and space so the programmers tend to cut corners somewhere, ie the supporting characters and the extras. Most of the men in the movie are probably fully rendered digitally and thus, lack the realism compared to the main characters. Even the stars were rendered in different level of details with Angelina Jolie's character as Grendel's mother the strongest while John Malkovich's Unferth the weakest. Unferth was almost unable to make any expression whatsoever. And with the raw data of the highly detailed rendition of Jolie, the programmers are now free to render her anyway they want. Tsk.. it wasn't so difficult to understand how they list their priority after all.
But why make it a CG? Why can't they just film it? With a script like that, the film would be made better when we can see some real acting. Not Oscar worthy definitely but live would still be better.
In the end, this is a movie that leave much to the viewers' own imagination. Though it has good monster fight scene supported with a decent script, it doesn't really has the substance or depth. Falling short from being an epic, most viewers were probably more interested in seeing Angelina Jolie.

Eat Your Vegetables, Shoot Your Load

"You know what I hate the most?"
Watching a crappy movie like Shoot 'em up and actually found myself enjoying it.
Shit...

Shoot 'em Up is a satire of action noir movie. The story begins with Clive Owen's Smith rescueing a pregnant woman from a group of assasins. The woman died and he ran off with the baby, intending to keep him safe and finding out the reason for the assasination.
Everything in the movie, from the people to the words to the action are either vulgar or downright ridiculous. Smith actually delivered a baby in the middle of an action in the beginning of the film and later does the same in the middle of making love to Bellucci's Donna.
"Talk about shooting your load", he said.
The movie could easily become a very bad B-graded movie except that it was evident that everything incredibly stupid about the movie is actually quite deliberate.
As if to show that this is not just a mindless action film, a lot of twist and turn are thrown in, wrapping the film in a tight conspiracy theory. Both the hero and the baddy, Hertz, also demonstrated intelligence in the pursuit for truth for the former and in locating his target for the latter. Yes... the logic used in their "investigation" is silly, I admit. Hertz located Donna because he realised that the baby needed to be fed and started looking for all lactating prostitute in the city. Smith discovered who the baby's real father is when he noticed an article in the newspaper he was using as diaper for the baby.
Clive Owen, both as an actor and as the character Smith in this movie is without a doubt the reason why this movie is so fun to watch. He is perfect for such kind of role isn't he? The dark noir type of tough guy in trench coat with a haunting past who smokes heavily to drown away his sorrow. Except for the unique twist that he doesn't smoke. He eats carrots. It is, after all, a healthier alternative, not to mention that he can used it as a weapon, or to reach a gun just beyond his grasp. Eating carrots never looked so cool before.
Another thing that most of us, or at least I can relate to is how much he hates road bully. Smith drove up to the car and forced it off the road. A very bad influence, I always wanted to do that. Most, if not every character such as the one he played here is righteous but his choice of what to be righteous about is really fresh.
With Smith disposing all the assault thrown onto him, including the 50 henchmen who ambushed his home, Hertz asked a very valid question.
"These men suck... or is he that damn good?"
Pretty much what crosses our mind in just about every action movie we saw. The heroes are good but the goons remained goons... idiots.
The writer director went to great length to portrayed Smith as a very exceptional and extraordinary man. His deductive reasoning is (silly but) sound and his skill with guns has to be seen to be believed. Actually it was still unbelievable even after you seen it but that was again, quite deliberate from the director.
I stepped into the theater hoping to catched a movie that would not assault my mind - I was too tired to think. I did not expect one who would tickle my senses the way this one does. An enjoyable movie as long as you are open to the idea that is is a satire. All those punny one-liner alone is enough to leave you in stitches. Leave your brain at home, just enjoy the ride.

For the record, I still rated Hot Fuzz as the classier and more intelligent satire to action movie.

30 Days of Night

Spiderman and X-men were cool but not as cool as V for Vendetta or 300. The number of good movies adapted from comic books seems to be increasing every month, and the lesser known non-superhero title really shows everyone what a good story is really like. This month, we can add 30 Days of Night to the list.

Lying quietly in Alaska is the northern most town in US, Barrow which during the winter, faces 30 days of darkness. A group of vampires take the opportunity to hunt.
When I first read the sypnosis when the comic book first came out, I quickly thought that that was brilliant and wondered how noone ever thought of it earlier. This will be the time when the vampires can hunt freely and openly without the worries of sunrise. 720 hours to hunt and with the town communication disabled and all means of tranportation destroyed, the entire town is doomed to die feeding the vampires' hunger (or is that thirst?). And the entire town's population amount to 120 plus after a bigger majority whom left for other parts in the country to avoid these dark period. In the end, the vampires only need to burn the whole town down and noone will be able to suspect what really went on.
The vampires actually has the help of a normal human, except this is a scumbag of a human, who went into town earlier to steal and destroy all satelite phone, kill all sledge pulling dogs and damage the town's only helicopter. His reason to help these predators is he was promised to be made one of them. He didn't get his wish.
Josh Harnett played the town sheriff who initially hoped to to capture these perpetrators but upon understanding what he is facing, contented with just leading a group of survivors from their clutch, a role that he surprising, played effectively. There is only a handful of the survivors left at the end, with the sheriff making a final sacrifice to prevent the vampires from destroting all evidence.
I managed to predict how the story will conclude but I still enjoyed the whole movie. It was quite horrifying when the vampires started unleashing their terror as their intention is apparently not just to feed but also to terrorise. They don't get such chances very often, when they are in control of an entire town. The people are brave but not stupid brave and they know the best way to survive is to hide until the sun rise.
30 days later.
The vampires weren't given much of a background but it was enough actually. Aliens and predators didn't started off in the screen with much of a background either. One clear difference of these modern vampires compared to the tradisional ones is that they do not have 2 long fangs. They have a whole row of them in their mouth. The better to bite you with, dear.
The movie can get frightening but it was not scary as in horror scary. I am never quite shaken with physical horror. After all, anything that has a physical body is something that can be fought. Still, the director managed to keep the excitement and suspense up and the characters were quite likable. A worthy movie with decent story to be watched in the theater.

The Sound of Music (NOT)

What does it mean when you hear a loud continous clanking sound from the back of your car as you drive?
I don't know either, which is why I stopped my car aside for a check when that happened last Tuesday evening. As it turned out, I had a flat. A long big bolt had somehow punctured the side of my tire. That sound was the sound of the bolt's head hitting the tar road as the wheel spins. I am glad I had a spare but I still can't figure out how the bolt got there.
And now I got to get a spare's spare since the spare I had is used and I no longer had that spare as spare for another time that I would need a spare. Dollar notes flying away again. Siennn!

Alice in Zombie-land

I was warned that I needed to watch the first two parts if I am to understand the story. I only know Milla Jovovich played a tough kick-ass babe combating hordes of undead zombies. It turned out that is enough to carry me through the film. I was also warned that the prequels, especially part 2, sucked big time. It turned out that part three didn't.
Milla Jovovich played, as mentioned above, a tough kick-ass babe combating hordes of undead zombies. The zombies in question were normal human infected with some kind of virus that turned them numb-minded and hungry for human flesh. Like a vampire, a normal human who did not die from an attack of an infected zombie eventually turned into one as well.
When the movie opened, the entire world is already overrun by these zombies. The Umbrella Corp, who is responsible for the outbreak is in secured hiding and desperately looking for a cure. This is done by continous cloning of Jovovich's Alice, whose DNA contained the secret to fight the viral infection. The real Alice however, is alone and on the run. It wasn't too long however, before she found and rejoin old friend Carlos, who is living among a group of human survivors who have learnt to adapt in this "post-infection" world. The third and presumebly final chapter of the movie also revealed that Alice is more than just a skillful combatant as she apparently has other power in her disposal. In the end of the movie, Alice once again faced the mandatory strong zombie nemesis.
Surprisingly, the movie wasn't action and gore all the way as time is taken to develop some of the character. and while I heard the zombie dogs were in both the prequels, Resident Evil: Extintion has a new horror to terrorise the humans in the form of undead ravens. They fly and are small enough to make shooting them difficult. Real menace but they led me to wonder, won't there be undead cockroaches and killer bees and locusts as well? Now that would be really creepy.
The chief scientist, who became Alice's nemesis, however, is pretty standard and boring villain stuff. I alway have a problem with normal human turning into super duper powerful being in such a short time. Too cliche. Still, my only complain is the nemesis itself. The rest of the movie is quite OK. The ending does not have a final closure, giving the viewers the freedom to decide what is next. For Alice and for the world.
Will there be another sequel? I don't know but Jovovich reportedly claimed she will not be playing Alice another time. Based on the reputation of the first two movie, I am surprised part 3 got made at all, but it was a good sequel made.

Of Gold and Silver.

So what is it about my company recent annual dinner that is so compelling that a month and a half after it was over, I still want to blog about it, despite it being a smaller event than the Sales conference in July?
Group photo at Sales Conference, where noone's face can be seen...

Best photo from Sales Conference, taken on third and final evening.

Personally, I did something that night I don't usually do.
I camwhored.
So yeah... many photos were taken and yeah... I had fun.

Me and the National Sales Manager (don't play play), or affectionately known as Ah Jher (big sister).

Me rocking it, Fred, Paul, Serena,Angelie, Peter, Chester, Adrian, Lim.

Kenny, Chester with wive, Peter, me, Paul, Adrian, Lim.

Paul, Bala(-ji), Siva(-ji), Adrian, me.

The annual dinner was on 31 Aug 2007. That was supposed to be my first public holiday in the company but I still had to attend a company function. Since it was held in Melaka, the company had graciously arranged for our accomodation in Fenix Inn. Don't let the name fool you. The place is quite comfortable, much better than some other places that had the cheek to call themselves a hotel. I suppose Fenix decided that instead of being an average hotel in Melaka, they rather be the best inn in town.
The theme of the night was Gold & Silver and it was only until during the mandatory speech in the beginning of the night that I realised why. It was Malaysia's Golden 50th annivery of independence as well as the company's Silver Jubilee of 25 years.
I wore a grey lined shirt to comply with the colour silver and sprayed my hair gold, as did Lim and Chester. It didn't actually coloured my hair gold but added golden glitter to it, like in stardust. Bala, whom everyone fondly remember as Zorro when he donned the mask for an earlier annual dinner again made his mark of creativity. He simply wore a white shirt with a rectangular sticker of gold and silver each on his sleeve. Hmmm...

4 out of five of the finalists for best dressed are from Sales team.

The best dressed award eventually went to Serena from Penang, with Adrian and Angelie clinching the runner-up prizes. Yup, there was no gender division and the reward left much to be desired but I guess the glamour that came with it cannot be bought by money. Right?
Still, the right incentive would have motivate more people to comply to the theme at least. Say... maybe a vacation trip. Just local would do but the bonus being the days spent during the trip would not be deducted from the winner's existing annual leave. How's that?

The not so glamourous sharing the glamour with the glamourous winners of the best dressed award.

The food was the westernised version of the typical Chinese 8-course dinner. Sharkfin soup was replaced with the cream of mushroom soup. While the change was refreshing and creative, the satisfaction just wasn't quite there.
See, if I have my own camera, I would have taken photos of the food as well, but I don't. Up and coming though. Already window shopping for one now. The grand lucky draw prize of RM3000 cash would really come in handy. Too bad I didn't win it. Maybe next time.
Personally, I didn't like the idea of cash prize so much. It reflected on the lack of thought on the side of the organising commitee but I admittedly wouldn't have said that if I won.

Best photo of the night. Adrian looking like a king in his palace.

Best pose of the night. HOT!!

Me, with the King and the Princess.

Group of posers. Ricky, Lim CK, Adrian, Paul and me acting larn yau yeng but my elbow made me looked like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Chester (center, in yellow, hugging wife), won the coolest pose award hands down.

If we looked cocky, it's because we are good looking!!

I believe, I mean we believe we can fly. (And there is Bala, with his little gold and silver stickers.)

Me again, with the deserving winner of the best dressed award.

Upclose. I really only put this up because the picture managed to capture the golden glitter in my hair. Barely anyway.

Will the real Mr Smith please stand up... please stand up?

Th-th-th-that's all folks!
Well, for the night anyway. The next day, we did what tourists do in Melaka and toured Jonker Street. Bought myself a cowboy hat just for fun, and for shade from the sun. Paul spent quite a sum on some ethnic musical instruments. Who would have thought he is into that kind of thing? I always thought he is a little rock and roll but I guess we just can't judge a book by its cover.
We had different noodles each for breakfast and finished with a bowl of ABC. Alice and Lim had their fortune predicted in a temple. Our lunch was pork satay and after hearing so much from Lim about its aromatic meat and gooey pineapple sauce, it turned out to be a disappointment.

Well... at least I got my cowboy hat.