For those not sure whether to watch Iron Man 2 or Ip Man 2...

...I mean seriously, just watch both la!

WWII renewed interest

Tried this game called Company of Heroes out of curiosity during one of the LAN parties as the guys wanted to try something new. And whenever we mean something new, it always has to be a game that all of us would be unfamiliar with, so that there would be no unfair advantage. I must say I thoroughly enjoyed this RTS game which is so heavily based on military tactics. All of a sudden, terms like suppressive fire, flanking manoeuvres, artillery barrages and kill zones made more sense than it did in the army. Compared to the RTS of old where a popular strategy would be to amass large numbers of tanks to steam-roll over another player or large numbers of cheap early units to "rush" an opponent, COH limits this with different counters and limited resources. Totally satisfying to see a mediocre infantry man, armed with a Panzerschreck (big bad Nazi bazooka) and a good cover, giving hell to a bad-ass tank / tanks without infantry support. And have you ever wondered just how ridiculous it is in some RTS games for a vehicle to get blown apart only after numerous tank shots? Over here, all it takes is a well-placed anti-tank cannon to ruin your armoured forces. And best of all, it just takes a 3 man infantry crew to man it! Hurray infantry! (If you haven't guessed by now, my support for these mobile guys stems from me being in the infantry division previously) :p

Anw the game led to a renewed interest in the WWII genre as I read up further on the history and battles. (yep, I totally love history classes and particularly the WWII history back in secondary school. Always looked forward to one of those black and white war documentaries shown during lessons.) Re-watched Band of Brothers as I did not fully grasp alot of things back then when I first watched it. (For example, I did not know that episode 9 was, in a small way, a depiction of the Holocaust when the soldiers liberated a concentration camp. Always merely thought of it as an episode lacking in action, yet it was so full of emotion when I re-watched it. Must have been that visit to Auschwitz in Poland that made me appreciate it better now) My best memories of BoB when it first aired in Singapore was its coincidental showing on the weekends right before booking in to Tekong. Oh the noob recruit days 6 years ago! And so the show served as an adrenaline and morale boost before it was back to "chiong suah" in camp, well actually it was more of the action in the show. However, re-watching the series brought about greater curiosity in the battles and operations, and of course ideas of the balance between heroism in the common man with the violence and terror of a war, and eventually the Holocaust. What was refreshing was watching the view points of soldiers in the movie and eventually the actual veterans themselves in the aptly named documentary "We Stand Alone Together" that was never shown on TV.

Speaking of the Holocaust, also watched the Pianist and Schindler's List. Interestingly, these are movies I have heard that were great or won some award during the time they were made, but somehow never bothered or found the time to sit down and watch. Both tell a great and moving story, though I tend to empathise more with the lead in the Pianist as it is more of his personal story through those troubled times and thus more focused on the individual.

To end off, decided to put up some photos that I took in black and white during my summer trip to Auschwitz in Poland last year. Though I felt the impact would have been bigger if the camp was visited in the cold harsh winter, it was nevertheless a sobering and moving experience. To all the Holocaust deniers, I mean seriously...wtf?!? There's no way millions of Jews disappear without a trace of evidence and there's so much of it remaining despite efforts by the S.S to conceal their crimes. Whatever that goes on in their minds is beyond me. It is pure racism, simple as that.

Iron gate at the entrance of Auschwitz I with the motto Arbeit macht frei (Work brings freedom)...an ironic one for those imprisoned are doomed to a horrific fate


Beyond this lies the death wall where countless were lined up against the wall and shot






Electric perimeter fences

Fences lining the exterior of the much larger Auschwitz II (Birkenau) complex

Prisoners would arrive by rail through here and then either marked for extermination or forced labour


Remnants of a gas chamber. German forces in retreat tried to destroy and cover up any incriminating evidence

Bruno is SO gay

This admittedly has to be the outrageously gayest movie I have ever watched in my entire life. Nobody pulls these ambush shock humour as well as Sacha Baron Cohen. But I still prefer Borat as it tackles more issues whereas Bruno tends to play around more with the "gayness" card.

Prawns never seem to look that good

District 9 is a surprisingly refreshing sci-fi flick with an intriguing plot. The style of presentation by using short sequences of interviews and news reports to help describe the background story was interesting but sometimes a little messy. It depicts prawn like aliens as refugees stranded on Earth and being housed and isolated in the slums. Perhaps a direct reference to the refugee problem in Africa? Anw the film highlights the cruelty and selfishness of Man such that in the end, it makes the audience root for the ill-fated lead as well as his alien partner. Action scenes were generally ok, with the inclusion of alien weaponry controlled by alien DNA and a mechanised walker reminiscent of that in Bioshock and Starcraft respectively, which were able to please sci-fi enthusiasts, though I still dislike the shaky camera action ala Cloverfield.

A Yo Joe or Oh No!!

Just caught GI Joe recently and I have to admit I somehow enjoyed this loud trashy flick even more than Transformers. If Transformers was way overboard with military porn (still don't understand why all the military shit is needed in Transformers, but for GI Joe it is completely justified), GI Joe is even wayyyy overboard and absurd in terms of the military technology involved. But still it was all good fun. After all, what's not to like about a classic cartoon series in the 80s coming to the big screen and getting a bit of a revamp?

Some points of interest to me:

1) We used to have nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, biological weapons but now nanomite weapons as a WMD? Crazy...but fascinating from an engineering point of view

2) It seems the Joes have gone truly international in our age. While GI Joe has always been an all-American army or America's finest, it seems that the forces of globalisation have won this time. I know diehard fans are gonna make noise over this, especially the Americans.

3) Snake Eyes = Ray Park = Darth Maul from Star Wars. This guy has always been a favourite. I remember always using Snake Eyes in the GI Joe game on the Nintendo console over at my cousin's place when we were kids. He's still one of my favourite and cooler characters around.

4) Baroness is hot! But I want her glasses even more! Functions as a scanner and automatically becomes a pair of sunglasses. Cool!

5) The Doctor / aka spoilers ahead Cobra Commander (read: the big bad guy) resembles sooooo much like Darth Vader! Only Darth Vader without the loud heavy breathing noise! His grand schemes make him the overall mastermind though, so I suppose he could also be the Emperor in Star Wars too! Both look dead ugly to me!

An interesting feature for those who have never heard of GI Joe

Potter and the HBP = ............

The title pretty much speaks it all. While I am not truly a Harry Potter fan, (I never read the books and I watch the movies just for the sake of watching), this new movie was simply ultimate boring taken to a new level. While the previous 2 movies had some admirable fight scenes and a climax, this one was simply too dull. I suppose the death of "some important prof" was supposed to be the most emo and significant finale scene but it was treated rather.....well insignificantly. The whole movie kinda ended with a ....... and then slowly dropped to an all-new low of ....... and then finally ending with a dotz. Think the whole story also left a lot of things unexplained especially the bit about the half-blood prince. What is the significance of this HBP?!? Or perhaps about the R.A.B?!? In fact, I thought the budding romances between the characters in the show were the more interesting and humourous bits that saved the show. Heck...think of it as the O.C with wands and brooms and magic!

Ice Age 3

First thoughts: What are they teaching kids these days?!? I was pretty sure that the dinosaurs came way way wayyyyyy before mammoths or sabre-tooths existed! Oh wells...minor gripe, but it was the first thing I noticed and commented when the trailer came out anw.

Secondly, it's a 100% family flick. It actively promotes the idea of happiness when finding your other half (as evidently shown by Scrat forever searching for his acorn and meeting into his other half too....was amused at how the ending played out for him though), the notion of children (like the mammoth main guy getting all excited about his newborn child and the 3 cute baby T-rexes) and the idea of companionship. (as evidenced by the herd the characters have formed throughout the course of the first 2 movies and the need for companionship and support within the characters)

I was more enchanted by the new character Buck though. He's this crazy loner weasel who's really gone completely wacko after spending too much time in Dino land in solitude and on his own seeking a life of adventure. Injects a fresh kind of air needed for the sequel as opposed to the softer "oh-so-safe" and predictable characters that have returned. On the other hand, I think the movie was trying to mean that everyone should have a companion / find your other half if not will end up as cracko as Buck. Wows....trying to imply that I am fast going down that route? Hmm...

Anw, overall a decent movie to catch for 6 bucks.

Transformers = Military Hardware Porn for the U.S of A

I just caught Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and I had kinda mixed feelings on it.

1) Expect a bad plot. Hmm....nobody gives a damn about plot when it comes to action blockbusters anyway. Just indulge in 2 and a half hours of mindless and overwhelming explosions and pretty soon will forget what the whole mess is about.

2) I seriously cannot stand the pervasiveness of American military technology portrayed in the film. It's as if they are touting the American army, navy and air force is the best. Nothing beats the F22s or some huge ass aircraft carrier or coordinated air strikes (they always have to emphasise this) I was particularly appalled that Devastator went down in a single shot from a cannon from an aircraft carrier. Devastator, a fan favourite and possibly one of the stronger Decepticons in the cartoon series....damn. Reduced to rubble and role as a vacuum cleaner in this film. Not very flattering for a character that charmed many back in the 80s for being the first terror in the Decepticon's arsenal for its ability to form into a huge rampaging robot from 6 smaller ones. Oh yeah and did ya know? Devastator has balls too....doubly appalled and seriously WTF!

However while the point on America's military being all bad-ass, it did expose one flaw in it. I was particularly charmed by Soundwave's (the satellite) and Ravage's (the jaguar-like animal) sneak attacks upon the Americans, something which I believe no force of F22s or standard army would guard against, which pretty much mirrors the war on terror that the U.S is fighting now. In short, having too much of all the fantastic military hardware equipment, or how many missiles or bombs won't win a war of espionage, guerilla tactics and a hard-minded enemy.

3) Fight sequences were too short? Was expecting an epic confrontation at the end. But it was over in erm...10 seconds?! Wow...the forest fight scene was done pretty well though. Can't say the same for the ending. Looked more like a hurried job to me. Heard they fried their IMAX digital imaging equipment at the end.

4) Like most sequels, I feel that the first film was better than the second. Action-wise and CGI-wise, although I agree that this sequel was way much better, however the sore lacking point was that it lacked the personal introduction of some of the various robots compared to the first. I think most ppl would brush it off as the robots being one of the film's cannon fodders for another American air strike (particularly evident in the final battle) but did ya know that most of them had names and had interesting personalities in the cartoons? It's kinda sad that they are now reduced to American bomb targets now. One thing which I did enjoy was the interaction between Megatron and Starscream which has been played out in every incarnation of the Transformers franchise. Everybody likes Megs whacking the cowardly Starscream. Nuff' said.

Having said my piece, I think there are more damning articles out there regarding this movie. Particular points of interest so far are about the squabbling twins in the movie whom some ppl have derided it for being a racist stereotype of black ppl. One article I read was from ENI: Robots in Blackface, which was kinda true in a way.

Best quote from the article "“I purely did it for kids.” Bay says. Fantastic, not only have you made a $200,000,000.00 nationally advertised engine of violence, sexism and hate, but you’ve aimed it at children! Genius! Why should we be surprised? This is a PG-13 movie with misogyny, drug use, violence, alcohol, torture, swearing, tons of onscreen graphic death and a massive toy line that says nice and clear on every package “ages 5+.” Cute."

My personal take: the twins were annoying as hell. Just like Jar Jar Binks in the Star Wars prequels.

Other points of contention were the Chinese lambasting the first scene set in Shanghai as being too dilapidated and "lok cock". It's insulting to the Chinese!! And the way the U.S military muscles into Chinese territory....wows!!

Having said that, if you just pay 6 bucks and go into the theatre to immerse yourself in mind-numbing explosions and a popcorn chewing blockbuster, don't think too much, go ahead and forget the long rant which I just posted. Cheers!

DB Evo

I was very much disgusted after watching Dragonball Evolution. Heng I did not spend the 6 bucks to watch in theatres. Hollywood practically murdered a manga classic. And I speak for many people who also feel the same way. I was kinda amazed during my exchange that my Italian and French friends closely follow lots of manga stuff, and that includes Dragonball. (Vegata or Goku is usually the favourite). Anw back to this movie, let's just say that Goku doesn't look Asian enough (his hair ain't very spiky and there are idiots on the Net who actually think he turns into an ang moh when he goes into Super Saiyan mode), Master Roshi is not 色 enough (Chow Yun Fatt as 色 anyone?), Bulma looks too old, and worst of all the fight scenes are pathetic. Would have expected something more "Dragonball" like the final fight in the Matrix Revolutions between Neo and Agent Smith (though it did not really make too much sense in the context of Revolutions). Instead all I see is hurling of fireballs here and there.

Dragonball should be more like this, plus fireballs

There was this 1989 Taiwanese movie adaptation of the Dragonball manga which I watched when I was very young. Though it was lame as hell, but at least it was way more funnier, entertaining and it captured the essence of what the story was about, compared to what Hollywood churned out.

Check out the Taiwanese version...hate the English dubbing though..the Chinese one was way much better..

Slumdog M

I surprised myself by watching another Indian movie after cc2c. So Slumdog Millionaire really is my 2nd ever Indian movie I have watched, after rave reviews and constant "nagging" by my friend to watch it. At least this time I found the story fascinating, unbelievably incredible and tight enough to actually glue me to my seat. And there isn't an intermission and excessive singing and dancing at least! I'm not too sure why the movie won so many awards though, not that it doesn't deserve it, but people have compared it as the Charles Dickens story of the 21st century. So I am guessing in the midst of our very messed up world and economic gloom, an endearing movie such as this lifts spirits and brings a dash of optimism and feel-good factor amongst movie-goers.

TF updates

Some Transformers updates that caught my attention, namely a new trailer which is an extended version of the first, the list of autobots making an appearance in a GM commercial and the villians of the show revealed as toys. Now just wondering what they would look like in the movie.

Trailer


GM commercial and introducing the new vehicle concepts




The Fallen


Devastator, the combined form of the Constructicons and undoubtedly will be much of the talking point when they do combine in the movie

More trailers for 2009

Looks like 2009 will be a year of movies for the fan-boys and reliving fond memories as a kid by having these known works since childhood come to the silver screen!

GI Joe: Rise of Cobra


Dragonball

Teaser Trailer for the Fallen

Just out recently...Revenge of the one-eyed monster and one-wheeled unicycle!

And revealing that mysterious unicycle...it's actually a construction steam shovel transformed..looks dead ugly as hell though...

From cc2c

OMG!!! I simply cannot believe it that I actually just watched a whole full length Bollywood movie, thanks to Adec!!! Hindi with subtitles!! If you are wondering what "From cc2c" means, it's actually this new movie in the cinemas called Chandni Chowk to China. Check out the trailer.

And I think you can probably guess it's some Indian dude that goes to China, ppl believe he's some saviour and at the end of the day supposed to learn Chinese kungfu and defeat the bad guys. Yah...something along that line. Highly entertaining yet a bit lame at the same time. Add in music and dancing amidst weird settings (check out the next vid to see what I mean!) typical of Bollywood movies and I couldn't help laughing my ass off the whole time. Plus the female lead was quite hot too although she looked better when she was playing the femme fatale. The biggest problem, however, was the show was tooooooo toooooo draggy with loads of unnecessary extended scenes and also with all that singing and dancing. (heck they even have an intermission?!?!)

Talk about a gr8 Sino-Indian cultural exchange!

ROTF: All hail Megatron....are you even returning?!?

Kinda hoping Megatron will return in the Transformers movie sequel, although there's very mixed opinions about this. The director says no but there are some photos released on the net which I thought looked seemingly fitting for the Decepticon leader. His many alternate modes in the various series have been a tank anw.

However, I am starting to guess this is going to be one movie where I know the plot is going to suck but I'm still gonna pay $$$ to watch it anw. Throw in a Fallen character that ties with the apocalyptic end for both factions in Transformers lore, a tie-in with the pyramids in Egypt (they are probably gonna say that maybe the Transformers built them or some shit like that), that Sam guy talking gibberish in Cybertronian language along with his hot babe, the over-involvement of the US military (read: too much human interference); and already this is starting to sound very very complicated....

A new teaser wallpaper here...an overglorified Decepticon symbol or perhaps the face of the new baddie in the movie?

Looks like all will be revealed in June....

Body of Lies....Terrorism at work

Wootz!! HR exam over!! Went down to watch Body of Lies at PS with Selina and Simon. When was the last time I actually strolled down Orchard Road leisurely on a weekday afternoon and watching a movie costing $6.50? Damn....must have been ages....

Anw...short vibes about the movie...overall a not too bad action thriller focusing on the war against terrorism. Story's kinda tight, although the action, soundtrack is sooo Ridley Scott (the guy who did Black Hawk Down). Russell Crowe somehow got way way way much fatter here compared to his Gladiator days. Leonardo Dicaprio is reprising his Blood Diamond stint with his more "macho" and less "pretty boy" image with lots of his dialogue laced with F*&^%$!!! Only reason why the show got NC16 is this one scene in the movie where Dicaprio gets his fingers smashed brutally onscreen during his captivity (captured and videoed by sick Muslim extremists) and oh of course if you can't handle the sight of a Chinese couple getting blown up in Amsterdam (during a terrorist attack), then I suppose that's another reason.

Sweded....

Did not know what came over me, but I actually bought the DVD for the movie "Be Kind Rewind". Was feeling kinda pissed that the movie was cut halfway aboard the plane on my return flight home from SEP and I did not get to finish it!! But anw this movie caught my attention at that time cos it had Jack Black in it and it's actually quite interesting. The plot is simple: Jack Black gets magnetized, accidentally erases the tapes in his friend's VHS store and now to cover up, they have to "swede" the movies. These "sweded" movies unexpectedly become popular with the customers.

A short definition of "sweding" from the Urban Dictionary is as follows:
"The summarized recreation of popular pop-culture films using a camcorder, limited budgets, amateur actors and loads of creativity. The process is called sweding. Upon completion the film has been Sweded." Customers are told that they have to wait longer and pay more for these movies cos they come from Sweden, hence the name "sweded"!

Of course they face obstacles along the way and the most difficult one is the task of making the money to save their video store from being relocated. In the end, they rope in the towns-folk in a community effort to make their own movie. While the film is not laugh-out-loud funny, it is light-hearted and kinda heart-warming to see the 2 like-able dudes pull in everyone in their community to make things work.

And not to forget, with the film's release, the Internet was set abuzz with tons of 'sweded" movies created by fans. Some of which I found and enjoyed and I think you can probably relate to are posted below: (Remember...it's low budget and amateurish and I feel that you must have watched the original movie to at least understand and laugh at some of the things these guys do, that's the whole meaning of being "sweded" :p)

Terminator 2


Predator


Star Wars


Jurassic Park


Armageddon


Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring

Tropic Thunder: My kinda movie!

Watched this crazy movie recently and I like this kinda genre of movies. Those that don't really take itself too seriously and laugh-out-loud kind. Think nearly every character / supporting cast had their memorable moments or quotable quotes. When you have Ben Stiller and Jack Black, can't really go too wrong. :p

Things that I like:

1) Cock up story that sounds quite believable...dumping a bunch of prima-donna actors into the middle of the jungle to shoot a movie only to find themselves involved in a "real" war movie with druggies.

2) Believable starting trailers for the actors, espeically for Kirk Lazarus' gay priest one with Tobey Maguire! Tobey's expression looks damn wrong la!! And Speedman's "Who left the fridge open" cheesy comment in his action sequels.

3) They blew up the director!! Yesh!! He was Brit anw.....oh well..

4) The Chinese / Vietnamese / Flaming Dragons in the movie. Their Chinese was horribly horribly BAAAD! So bad that I laughed like siao especially the little gang leader and the dialogue exchange they had with Lazarus when he was impersonating as the farmer.

5) Booty Sweat. The "I like pussy" black guy who promotes the energy drink who also turns out to be gay. Tony and Peiyi kinda agreed that when they see this character, they thought of me loh.....haha wth.....Jack Black then responds that he would gladly suck his balls before giving a vivid description of it in order to be released from being tied.

6) Tom Cruise...a fat, bald and vulgarity spewing Tom Cruise. They literally put the guy in a fat suit and had him violently dissing everyone...even right to the Flaming Dragon gang....my bro said he and his friends enjoyed that part cos it made them remember their lessons in law when Cruise touched on some International Law Code and scorch earth policy!

7) And of course the star of the show, in my opinion, was Robert Downey Jr, with his portrayal of the black sergeant, and actor that refuses to break character and gets kinda confused in the process. Hilarity ensues. But the best part was his Chinese dialogue exchange with the gang leader that led to him blasting his way through and ending with "I'm a lead farmer, muthaf*&&*^("!

The Lead Farmer...don't mess with him!

Total War!!!

My bro just got Medieval II Total War Gold Edition as it runs fairly smoothly on his laptop...been wanting to play this game and I highly recommend it..Love the combination of the strategic element upon a campaign map that resembles playing the boardgame "Risk" and a real-time strategic placement of troops upon the battlefield for simulation and warfare. To properly explain this, here's introducing a series of design diary clips from the designers themselves...

Cities, castles...it's a bit like Risk eh?


The importance of religion in Total War....elements that need to be micromanaged in the game...


Siege Warfare...the real-time strategy element kicks in here....


Introducing what comprises of a typical medieval army...


And now showing what happens on the open battlefield...continuing the real-time strategy element here....


The Britannia Campaign..(English, Scottish, Vikings, forts, castles, war museums...was so glad that I managed to experience all of it during my SEP :p)


The Crusades..reference this to the Kingdom of Heaven clip at the bottom...

Was brought into the Total War series by first starting on Rome Total War...and that led to an increased interest in Roman history (stuff like its society, military tactics) and that was why I was so excited when I actually got to go to Rome and Italy during my SEP trip. (slight digress :p) Interestingly, I also remembered how one of my JC classmates, Po-lung, would tell me so much about the Shogun and the predecessor Total War series too during our JC days...and I would go nodding my head and half-acknowledging his words (obviously I sounded totally sian and clueless to what he was talking about at that time!!!)......but had I played these games back in those days, I guess I would have appreciated more of his words.

The Total War series has been revolutionary in terms of gaming and bringing up interest in history. In fact, some interesting facts to share here...

1) The game engine for the strategy map was used in 2 series of TV programmes (Decisive Battles by the History Channel and Time Commanders by BBC2) where it was used to recreate famous battles on TV with certain fine-tunes by real military historians and academics to maximise history accuracy. These programmes are really interesting documentaries on their own.

2) Perhaps the most powerful effect has been the increased interest in military history, whether it is in the Roman times or the medieval times. So much so that even Hollywood came in with many big budget epic movies.....think Gladiator, Troy, Alexander, Kingdom of Heaven and 300. Actually, Gladiator came in before all of these and the effect of increased interest in Roman and classical history was dubbed the "Gladiator Effect" by the New York Times. The Total War series happened to run through this time period and served to reinforce this interest.

And presenting the very defining moment in cinematic history from Gladiator....one of my favourite cinematic battles...the one that started the Gladiator Effect


Another favourite....the battle for Jerusalem in the Crusades...

When Bugs and God cross.....

Interesting stuff to ponder about..caught Starship Troopers 3 over the weekend cos I was bored...only thing I always liked was the propaganda stuff that they come out with in support of the Federation. "So you wanna be a citizen?!!" And of cos...mindless bug squashing...

I have read somewhere that the original novels on Starship Troopers as well as the movies was a satire on militarism. The world is portrayed as dystopic, jingoistic and militaristic in nature. In addition, it depicts a state which evokes Nazi Germany, with the strong use of propaganda and iconography (although I must confess again...this is one of the more interesting parts throughout the franchise)

However the latest movie satires heavily on religion as well as modern current events. Issues like the nationalisation of religion, separation of the church and the state, terrorism (in the form of peace terrorists), weapons of mass destruction (mechanised units at the end of the movie) and the war on terror and aggression surface, which clearly shows the current troubles and concerns faced by the US.

Will leave a few clips here just for thought...again...warning advisory...Do NOT watch if you feel seriously offended by what is proposed by the Federation!!

Intro clip with current propaganda from the Federation network...serious propaganda sia...Would you like to know more? :p


A recruitment advertisement to join the Federation fleet and pilots


God is on our side!