Merry Christmas!

Ok, so Christmas was yesterday, but I was away, so :P

This was our first Christmas since my parents moved to our new house in Penang. It was also close to my sister's birthday, so we went back early to celebrate. We had a nice catered meal with my aunt, uncle, grand-aunt, grand-uncle, cousins, and first cousins once-removed (that's fun to say) in attendance. It was a fun night.

On Christmas morning, while the newly-purchased tree twinkled cheerfully, we opened our gifts. I got a t-shirt, a mug, and the always-useful cash. The DVDs my sister bought were sadly still in transit, but I think this was the best Christmas morning I've ever had. For the first time in a long time, it truly felt like a Christmas morning often seen in charming paintings and films. I feel blessed to have these gifts both material and ethereal, and I thought I would immortalise it here in cyberspace.


Merry Christmas, world.
Peace, joy, and love to one and all.

Angry Birds Peace Treaty

This is just too funny to not blog about. Angry Birds is a fun game and the birds are insanely cute. They're even more hilarious in live-action.

End the senseless conflict!

Let Me In

I've never been much of a fan of horror movies, since most of them are gratuitous gore-fests anyway and not really scary  in any meaningful way. Once in a while though, there comes a movie that transcends the common slasher/monster/evil creature flick and shows us that the horror genre is still very much alive, or at the very least undead.

Vampires are all the rage these days, with the Twilight saga (ugh), True Blood (excellent), and The Vampire Diaries (blah) et. al. creating a resurgence of interest in the bloodthirsty creatures of the night. Based on the Swedish novel and film Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In), Let Me In is a near-flawless execution of a very unusual sort of vampire love story. Set in the 1980s, this is a classic tale of young love not unlike Romeo and Juliet - if Juliet was a vampire.


***Moderate spoiler alert***




The opening scene begins with a man being rushed to the hospital. We hear over the dispatch radio that the man has been in a car crash and is a suspect in a criminal case. He is also horribly disfigured on his face and hands due to an apparently self-inflicted dousing with strong acid. The local detective later tries to get him to reveal his identity but he refuses. Called away to a phone call, the detective returns to find that the man has leaped out the window to his death, leaving behind an enigmatic note.

Cue the flashback: Three weeks ago (I think).


A young boy sits alone munching candy on a snow-covered jungle gym in a small quad surrounded by modest houses. His mother calls to him to come to dinner. We see during dinner and afterwards that the boy is struggling with a broken home, his parents' divorced or separated. An absent father, an alcoholic mother, and daily harrassment by bullies at school make for a very unhappy boy indeed.

One night, while spying on the neighbours, he sees new neighbours moving in - a young girl about his age and a middle-aged man. Something seems off about this odd couple. The girl seems in charge somehow and she walks barefoot through the snow. The next night, after more torture at the hands of bullies, the boy purchases a knife and fantasizes about stabbing his nemesis, using a tree as a stand-in. The girl is suddenly there, on the jungle gym, interrupting his reverie. She introduces herself as Abby (Chloe Moretz), and he in turn introduces himself as Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee). Like Owen, Abby says she is 12 years old (more or less, she qualifies). Despite her insistence that they "cannot be friends", she nevertheless comes to the quad each night and a relationship blossoms. She reveals precious little about herself but seems to care for Owen as much as he does for her. She encourages him to stand up to the bullies, even offering to help if need be, much to Owen's amusement.

Meanwhile, a series of gruesome murders are occuring in the small town, the victims exsanguinated. Abby's 'father' (Richard Jenkins) is seen methodically stalking and murdering a young man in his car, collecting blood in a large container. It's quite obvious that he and Abby are harbouring a bit of a secret. After his latest attempted murder is botched and the flashback merges into the present, we see the identity of the disfigured man and what happened to him. As the detective closes in, Abby and Owen continue to develop their relationship and when Owen learns that Abby is more than she seems, he must choose to either sever his only meaningful relationship or continue along a path doomed to end badly.

The cinematography presents the world as a cold, sad place. The use of muted colours and harsh incandescent lighting makes for a sombre atmosphere well-suited to the subject matter. Matt Reeves, the director of Cloverfield, helms this movie in another genre-bending effort. Seeing the events march to their inevitable conclusion engages the audience closely, with just the right pacing and mixture of light and heavy moments. While there is very strong violence and gore, it is always used in the service of the plot and is never gratuitous.

Much credit must be given to the two leads. Despite their tender years, they deliver startlingly powerful performances. The chemistry seems genuine and natural, their love story sweet in its way (apart from the murders and what-not). Their scenes are at once touching, fascinating, and a little scary. Moretz (who was great in Kick-Ass) plays Abby with a quiet sadness, saying more with her expressions than her words. Unlike her character in Kick-Ass, there is no glee in Abby when she takes lives as she does it out of a necessity to survive. Smit-McPhee (The Road, Romulus, My Father) is also very effective as Owen, playing the sweet but lonely boy looking for attachment in a world that seems set against him. These very believable performances elevate the film to far greater heights than it would have reached with a lesser cast.

I highly recommend this movie for anyone who likes vampires, love stories (sorta), or just a good movie. Someday, I must watch the original Swedish version.

Unstoppable

Still hot off the tracks of  The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 comes another Tony Scott train movie featuring Denzel Washington. This time, Washington takes the role of Frank, a 28-year veteran of the railroad industry. Partnered for the first time with a new and young conductor, Will (Chris Pine), Frank goes out on a routine job bringing in a train to the depot. Meanwhile, a shocking show of negligence from engineer Dewey (Ethan Suplee) results in freight train 777 going unmanned onto the main track at full throttle with no air brakes. In addition to being 'as tall as the Chrysler building', the train is also carrying several tanks of highly volatile molten phenol. Combined with the diesel fuel on board, the train makes for a nice town-levelling guided missile headed to heavily-populated Stanton. Other niceties include a train full of schoolchildren out on an excursion and collision course with 777.

Frank and Will do a little male-bonding where we learn that Frank's wife is deceased and he has two college-bound daughters living in Stanton. We also learn of Will's estranged relationship with his wife which has resulted in a restraining order against him. After learning of and avoiding the runaway train, Frank and Will decide to stop it themselves by chasing it down, attaching to it, and braking it in reverse with their own engine.

Despite opposition by train company VP Galvin (Kevin Dunn) who has made two botched attempts to stop and then derail the train, yardmaster Connie (Rosario Dawson) supports Frank and Will's plan. A chase on rails ensues and when they finally catch up, the hard part really begins.

Like the titular freight train, the movie builds up its momentum slowly into an unstoppable juggernaut. The tension builds and becomes more and more urgent as the train nears its final destination. The cinematography conveys a sense of the unyielding nature of the train as it thunders ominously along. Tony Scott certainly knows his trains! The action scenes are very well-crafted and demands the attention of the audience, growing more and more spectacular towards the end. The two leads turn in convincing performances within the confines of the script. The character development is kept to a minimum as to not detract from the main action, but the relationship develops naturally and believably. The supporting characters do their jobs and the train company is painted as a soulless corporation whose CEO considers only cash loss and stock devaluation in making possibly life-threatening decisions before returning to his golf game.

Based on true events (which I'm sure were much less dramatic), this is probably one of the best potential train-wreck movies you'll ever see.

Sammy's Adventures: The Secret Passage

I started writing this review like a month ago, but never finished... better late than never...

Sammy's Adventures: The Secret Passage is yet another 3D animation not produced by the two major studios. This time, the film is produced by the Belgian StudioCanal. It's in English though, and uses American actors for voice work. It tells the tale of the early years of a turtle named Sammy. His birth and initial trek from the nest to the sea is fraught with drama including being snatched by a bird. He does however encounter a female named Shelly whom he instantly falls in love with but they are separated.

Once in the sea, he eventually meets another turtle named Ray and they become lifelong friends. The rest of the movie focuses on their travels around the world and their eventual separation. Alone, Sammy encounters ships, humans, and a devious cat. He also makes friends with other turtles and meets Shelly and Ray again.

The movie has fairly obvious environmental undercurrents, starting in 1959. It's never really preachy but shows what it might be like from an unknowing animal's point of view to see the slow pollution of the oceans by human activities. A pleasant enough movie if not entirely original, it's certainly no Finding Nemo. It does however have cute characters (the cat was especially amusing), pleasant colours, and a bit of that animation magic often absent in many animation efforts like the recent Legend of the Guardians which had good animation but no heart.

The 3D effects were very apparent in this movie and it is clear that it was not only added as an afterthought. So here's to more good animations. Personally I look forward to it.

Catch-up Post: Movies

I've been feeling really lazy to write blog entries lately. If I were the blaming sort, I'd say it was a combination of writer's block and too much Starcraft 2 and then too much Plants vs. Zombies (both awesome games BTW). Aaaaaanyway, to get into the spirit of writing once more, I present three short reviews of some of the movies I watched recently.

RED

The trailer for this movie looked fun and it wasn't false advertising. Featuring an ensemble cast of familiar names headed by Bruce Willis as Frank Moses, the movie has humour and action and while not a great film by most standards, it's a good bit of harmless fun.

Frank is a retired CIA agent living quietly at home, flirting with a pensions department employee Sarah  (Mary-Louise Parker) by constantly tearing up his cheques and claiming they never arrived. Sarah dreams of travel and adventure and her wish comes true one day when Frank shows up at her apartment after having survived an assassination attempt by some old enemies. Suspecting a deeper conspiracy, Frank kidnaps Sarah to protect her being chased down by a CIA assassin, William Cooper (Karl Urban) who does not know why he has been tasked to kill an ex-CIA agent but follows orders like a good little assassin. Frank enlists the help of aged former intelligence agents like himself including former partner Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman), the slightly crazy Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich), ex-MI5 agent Victoria (Helen Mirren), and Russian agent Ivan Simanov (Brian Cox). The group embarks on a quest to clear Frank's name and discover the conspiracy to kill him.

The action sequences are well executed and it's nice to see Bruce Willis can still do an action movie although with less energy than usual. The supporting cast are suitably amusing as well. The plot involving an arms dealer and the Vice President is muddled at best so, don't go into this movie expecting a strong plot and good storytelling.


Buried

Buried presents a familiar premise - being buried alive - but distills it to its purest form in a surprisingly good thriller. The movie opens in total darkness and silence for a good minute, prompting the audience to suspect if there has been a projector malfunction. Then some breathing is heard for some time. Then finally a lighter flickers to life and we are introduced to Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds). Finding himself in a small wooden box, Paul rails against the small space, screams, and tried to claw his way out but to no avail. Calming down, he finds a functioning cellphone and tries to call for help. Meeting with the most unhelpful people ever, he grows increasingly frustrated. Eventually he gets a call from his kidnapper who demands ransom for his release. Paul tries to negotiate with the kidnapper and the embassy representative he eventually gets in contact with. As the audience learns bits and pieces of information concerning Paul's circumstances and life, time is running out for Paul.

With admirable realism, no other characters are seen apart from Paul, with the others only heard as voices on the telephone. Such a minimalist film requires a strong performance from the actor and Ryan Reynolds delivers this in spades. Formerly of sitcom Two Guys, A Girl and A Pizza Place and mostly seen in romantic comedies and the recent Wolverine movie, this role may spark off a promising career as a more dramatic actor.

As much an experience as it is a movie,  Buried succeeds greatly in conveying a claustrophobic feeling to make the audience feel Paul's discomfort. Despite taking place in a box, there are thrills to be found and never feels boring. One small gripe concerns the appearance of a snake. I imagine it must have been thinking Oh hey a box! I will explore it! An attempt to inject extra drama perhaps, but I found it a little awkward. Still, apart from that one little flaw, Buried is a fine piece of film-making and should be seen (unless you're claustrophobic).


The American

Falsely marketed as an action thriller, The American is in reality an art-housey film starring George Clooney as 'Jack', a mysterious assassin-ish man on the run from other mysterious assassins. The opening set on a snowy backdrop is promising enough and features a shocking act of violence. The rest of the movie is much less shocking, unless you count being shockingly boring.

After the initial encounter with the Swedish assassins, Jack goes on the run to a tiny town in Italy on the advice of his handler Pavel (Johan Leysen). Posing as a photographer, Jack gets a job from a mysterious woman named Mathilde (Thekla Reuten) to produce a gun to her exacting specifications. While slowly realising the weapon, Jack carries on a romantic relationship of sorts with local prostitute Clara (Violante Placido) and a friendship of sorts with local priest Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli). During all this, the Swedish assassins start to catch up with him.

George Clooney turns in a technically strong performance as a weary assassin desperately struggling to find love and attachment and looking for a way out of his chosen path in life. Nothing is revealed about the plot and the motivations of Mathilde and Pavel or even the Swedish assassins. Nothing is revealed about Jack's background either. The movies trudges on at an incredibly slow pace and lingers on scenes for long silent periods. I could have forgiven all this as an artistic film if the ending had made any sense whatsoever. Many critics have reviewed this film positively but I can't say I share their enthusiasm despite the technically good film techniques and lovely cinematography.

I was strongly reminded of the similarly-themed In Bruges which also featured assassins hiding out in a small European town. Unlike this one however, that movie contained an actual plot and an ending that made sense. It was even kinda funny. I strongly recommend staying away from this movie unless you really really like George Clooney or you've got insomnia.

Tony Roma's

Once a year, I like to have a steak meal at Tony Roma's on my birthday. Since I was travelling so much during my birthday and after, I didn't get a chance to go to Tony's until this weekend. Better late than never, I say.



For drinks, my dining partner had a pina strawberry swirl which I guess is a pina colada with strawberry. I didn't really like the coconut aftertaste but the strawberry flavour masked much of the taste. As for me, I like to treat myself to something alcoholic on this occasion and I decided to try one of the 'drinkable desserts'. I chose the Strawberry Cheesecake Martini. This concoction consisted of vodka, Irish cream, fresh strawberries and ice cream. Surprisingly light with just a hint of vodka, it was lovely to sip. Definitely deserves two pictures:



My dining partner's main course was a grilled salmon with garlic scampi butter finish. Served with fresh vegetables and some sort of yellow rice, the fish was crisp and soft in the right places.



My main course was of course, a steak. This time I chose a New York Strip steak, made well done. I prefer my meat with as little fat as possible, but I chose this cut over the filet mignon because it was quite a bit larger and I was hungry :) The steak was a fine specimen of meatiness and didn't have too much fat. The texture was suitably tender and chewy and the flavour was excellent. I chose a shiitake mushroom topping to go with it and it complemented the meat perfectly. My steak craving was well satisfied.



We ordered another drink to make up for our poor choice in ordering the pina strawberry considering we don't like coconut in drinks :) The Old Fashioned Lemonade was very tart and had a sizable portion of a lemon in it. Quite nice as lemonades go.



The bill came up to about RM160 which was to be expected and was well worth it. Thanks Tony Roma's for a lovely meal! Until next time...

Gelare

Gelare just opened recently at The Curve and we decided to have a pre-movie snack. They serve gelato ice cream and pastries, coffee, and such. First I got my caffeine fix with a simple latte. A choice of cookie or biscotti comes with the coffee and I chose almond biscotti. The coffee was not bad if unremarkable and the biscotti was ok too.



We ordered a chicken and mushroom pie too. It was a bit too peppery but quite nice.



The 'main course' so to speak: chocolate chip waffle with cookies-and-cream ice cream. The waffle came with dollops of whipped cream and was liberally drizzled with chocolate sauce. The waffle was light and fresh and the ice cream had a very thick texture to it, one of the thickest I've ever had. Very tasty :)

Over 30 ringgit for a snack seems a bit heavy, but at least it was good.

Devil

Let's face it: M. Night Shyamalan's reputation as a filmmaker hasn't exactly been glowing recently. After wowing the world with The Sixth Sense way back in 1999, many of his films have been disappointing. Amid some bright sparks such as Unbreakable and arguably even Signs, there have been Huh?? moments like The Happening and critically panned (although fairly commercially successful) fare such as The Last Airbender.

This brings us to the latest film to bear Shyamalan's once-illustrious moniker, Devil. Written by Shyamalan but directed by John Erick Dowdle, this rather short film tells the tale of five strangers getting trapped in an elevator. The kicker is that one of them is... (wait for it) THE DEVIL. It sounds hokey, but it actually works quite well. The overall feel and pacing of the movie was quite satisfying and the "twist" was interesting if not wholly unexpected.

***Minor spoilers follow***









A quiet day at a high-rise office building is shattered (along with a window) by a jumper who lands on a van conveniently parked below. Still recovering from the deaths of his wife and young son, Detective Bowden (Chris Messina) arrives on the scene. At the same time, by (un)happy coincidence, five strangers end up in an elevator which gets stuck between floors. After the initial panic, the group gets in touch with security guards Lustig (Matt Craven) and Ramirez (Jacob Vargas, also the narrator at the beggining and end of the movie). The guards - who can see but not hear them - assure them that things will be fixed soon (uh-huh).

The group comprises (yes they have names, but they're credited like this and it's more fun this way):

1. The Mechanic (Logan Marshall-Green)
2. The Guard (Bokeem Woodbine)
3. The Salesman (Geoffrey Arend)
4. The Old Woman (Jenny O'Hara)
5. The Young Woman (Bojana Novakovic)

Already getting on each other's nerves, things take a turn for the worse when the power goes out and strange things start to happen. Then people start to die. Each time the power goes out, one more person dies. This naturally creates some tension as the survivors (as well as the guards and detectives watching) are left guessing as to who the murderer is. Ramirez however, firmly believes that it is the work of the Devil himself, based on an old story his mother used to tell him that says the Devil occasionally gathers sinners together and kills them personally. Reluctant to believe in fairy tales, Bowden continues to investigate while getting help to break them out of the elevator. He soon finds out that they each have a less-than-savoury past and the Devil has reason for wanting each of them. It's a race against time to get them out as the remaining survivors dwindle.

The tension in the film is palpable. The writing is tight and the shock moments are effectively used and not overused. The lighting (or lack of it) and camera work nicely convey the claustrophobic environment of the elevator and the fear that comes with each power outage. The actors, all unknowns (to me at least), play their parts well. The Salesman is especially annoying.

In the end, the moral of the story is that Shyamalan should perhaps stay off the director's chair once in a while and just write. Oh, and be wary of your elevator mates...




PS:
Blogger messed up and deleted my post halfway when I made that numbered list. Not cool, Blogger.

Resident Evil 4: Afterlife

The venerable Resident Evil series has spawned three fairly good movies of zombie-blasting fun. The fourth in the series is in 3D and filmed with the same camera system as James Cameron's Avatar. The opening scenes recap the events of the past three films and culminates in where Alice (Milla Jovovich) left off in the last film with an attack on the headquarters of Umbrella Corporation in Japan by Alice's clones. A lone clone begins with a now-common hallway gauntlet attack. The attack is successful although the leader Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts) manages to escape and destroys the facility. He is surprised to find the original Alice on his getaway plane (a cool-looking VTOL craft). Before she can kill him however, he injects her with a serum which neutralises the T-virus in her and strips her of her special abilities (damn!). While lording it over her, Wesker foolishly neglects to steer the plane and they go ka-boom. Alice miraculously survives and goes on to find other survivors while heading to the promised land of Arcadia where there is supposedly food, shelter, and no infection.

Blah blah spoilers blah blah blah...






When Alice gets to the supposed co-ordinates of Arcadia, she finds only a graveyard of planes and conveniently meets up with Claire Redfield (Ali Larter of Heroes) who is under the influence of a memory-erasing bug-like device on her chest. Alice manages to knock her out and remove the device and they go on their way looking for survivors. They end up in Los Angeles (I think) where they find a group of survivors holed-up in a huge prison building surrounded by a sea of zombies. The group has a politically-correct mix of a Hispanic guy, an African-American guy, a Korean guy, and a couple of Caucasians. Then there's a lone prisoner who claims to be a soldier. He turns out to be Chris Redfield (Wentworth Miller of Prison Break, amusingly in prison again), Claire's brother.

The group hatch a plan to escape to Arcadia using a huge tank-like machine conveniently left behind. Unfortunately we never get to see the thing in action. The plan is complicated by the fact that the zombies have burrowed into the prison and the arrival of the Axeman (Ray Olubowale), a gigantic zombie wearing a sack as a hood, brimming with spikes and hooks, and carrying a HUGE axe/hammer (where the heck did he get that thing??) which he uses to break down the prison gates.

The group eventually escapes, losing some members along the way, and find their way to Arcadia (which turns out to be a ship). They find the ship abandoned but filled with survivors in stasis chambers. They also find Wesker who has apparently been sitting there waiting for Alice for the past six months. Bloody battles ensue and there's an additional scene during the credits which sets up the scene for the next installment (Umbrella just can't be stopped no matter how many times you destroy them).

I was looking forward to seeing many gimmicky 3D effects in this movie and I have to say I was mildly disappointed. The effects were not as in-your-face as I would have liked. The stunts and battles were well done and very cool to watch, though. The visual effects, while relatively subtle, were suitably creepy and realistic and the 3D effect was subtly present throughout. The girls looked real good and were great to watch kicking zombie butt. I'm wondering how in this post-apocalyptic world, they still have the time and will to wear make-up and lipstick. Alice also appears to be wearing designer clothes. I guess a girl still has to look good even if zombies rule the world.

All in all, the film offers everything you'd expect from it and I look forward to the next one.

Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnsssssss.....!

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole

So the visual effects company that brought us Happy Feet decided to do another bird-themed animation and they chose owls...  ya rly. Not just any owls either, but the legendary owls of Ga'hoole. Based on a series of books by Kathryn Lasky, this overly grandiose tale of warrior owls fails to create as much magic as recent animation efforts.

The story opens on a family of barn owls made up of adolescent males Soren (Jim Sturgess) and Kludd (True Blood's Ryan Kwanten), juvenile female Eglantine (Adrienne DeFaria), and Ma and Pa. Soren is a strong believer in the legendary Guardians of Ga'hoole - a group of warrior owls dedicated to defending the weak and vanquishing evil. Kludd... not so much.

During their first lesson in 'branching', which is gliding from branch to branch, Soren shows natural talent unlike Kludd which leads to much jealousy from the latter. That night, the brothers decide to practice more branching, but unfortunately end up on the ground. Unable to actually fly, they're sitting ducks (or rather sitting owls) to the many dangerous animals in the jungle. Fortunately (sort of), they are snatched up by owls from St. Aggie, an academy of sorts led by the legendary nemesis of the Guardians, Metalbeak (Joel Edgerton). At the academy the brothers join the many other young captives forced to partake in Metalbeak's evil plot to defeat the Guardians through a plan involving magnetic particles and bats (srsly). Selected owls are also offered the chance to be soldiers if they meet the species requirements. Their doctrine has obvious parallels to Aryan supremacy.

Soren manages to escape along with his new friend Gylfie (Emily Barclay) but Kludd elects to stay behind and join the evil army. The two set off to find the Guardians and make some friends along the way. It wouldn't be a huge spoiler to say that they of course find the Guardians. The inevitable battle of course happens and is quite interesting to see.

While the visual effects are very well done and the battle scenes are quite a sight to see, the film falls short of illiciting much emotion. The characters are fairly stereotypical and the plot has been seen many times over, apart from the fact that the players are owls. I found myself wondering how on earth owls could perform complex blacksmithing to create their little helmets, battle claws, and various structures. Some of the characters are quite cute and the voice work is good. But in the end, I guess I just prefer penguins.

P.S. The film features a song by Owl City... cute.

iPhone4

The iPhone4 launches in Malaysia this week. Let the fanbois and sheeple rejoice!
Pretty design and nice display, but still I say: meh

The Obamamatron

It's been a few years since the election and the Obama euphoria has died down somewhat, but there are still those who feel strongly about his message for change. There are still those filled with hope for a better future, like this little autopay machine at the parking lot in MidValley Megamall here in KL.

Yes we can, people. Yes we can.

Gifts!

My parents and sisters got me some nice gifts for my birthday this year. I got a Logitech Pure-Fi iPod dock and clock radio. It'll go well with my iPod Touch and maybe help me wake up in the mornings ;)

I also got a copy of Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty. Never played Starcraft before but I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon this time.

And as my birthday present to me, I got a Logitech G330 gaming headset so I can play without bugging my sister and the rest of the apartment.

Thanks mom, dad, and sisters!
Thanks me!

Happy Birthday to Me

Well I've completed my 31st orbit around the Sun. Wheeeeeeeeeee.......

What's happened in the past year? Let's see...  got a promotion of sorts, lots more work, my parents finally moved from my crummy home town, I got 4Mbps internet, bought a few gadgets and stuff, and... that's about it.

To celebrate, here are a few fun facts about the number 31:

• 31 is a prime number, and not just any prime number, but a Mersenne Prime which is a prime number 1 less than a power of 2. I enjoy powers of two, so this is cool.
• 31 is the number of ice cream flavours from Baskin-Robbins. Ice cream is always good and I like Baskin-Robbins better than that overpriced and overrated Häagen Dazs.
• 31 is the atomic number of gallium. Gallium is widely used in light-emitting semiconductors. I like LEDs, so this is cool.
• The sum of the digits of the 31st Fibonacci number (1346269) is 31. Creepy.
• 31111111111111111111111111111111/31 is prime. That's 31 1s on the numerator. Cute.
• 31 has the first two digits of pi and pi³ is allllmost 31. Pi is fun.

And here are some people who share my birthday:

• H.P. Lovecraft (1890) - Creepy horror writer
• Isaac Hayes (1942) - Composer of the Shaft theme. I can dig that.
• John Noble (1948) - Actor who played Denethor in LOTR and Walter Bishop in Fringe! I like Walter a lot. He's so funny and cute.
• Jonathan Ke Quan (1971) - Short Round from Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom.
• Misha Collins (1974) - Castiel from Supernatural. The most amusing Supernatural character by far.

Happy Birthday to me!

(Number facts from Wikipedia and  Prime Curios!)

Repo Men

Repo Men seems to take place in the near future. The architecture and technology is very similar to current conditions with one exception -- artificial organs have been perfected and are available to everyone. There is however, one caveat: if you miss your payments for three months, Jude Law will show up at your house, zap you with a stun gun, cut you open, and take the organs back, leaving you to probably die. Jude Law is a Repo Man, one of many who work for the company that manufactures the organs - The Union.

Remy (Law) is one of the best repo men in The Union. Together with his friend and partner Jake (Forest Whitaker), they happily go around repossessing organs for their boss Frank (Liev Schreiber). Things aren't going so well at home, however, as Remy's wife Carol (Carice van Houten) has issues with his job and would rather he switch to sales. Eventually, Remy decides to finally hang up the scalpel and make the switch, much to Jake's displeasure. Jake persuades Remy to do one last job before quitting the repo game. Things go wrong and Remy ends up with the latest model in artificial hearts. Remy suddenly grows a conscience and can no longer perform repossessions and he sucks at sales. Eventually, he can no longer make the payments on his heart and has to go on the run. You would think the company would give him a free one after all his years of service, but whatever...

Remy meets a girl while hiding out at a derelict settlement of artificial organ deadbeats. Now this girl, Beth (Alice Braga), is practically a machine. She's got fake eyes, ears, larynx, knees, stomach, kidneys, and even girly parts (Lady Mystique edition, comes in five sparkling colours). Remy comments that they make a complementary pair since he has an artificial heart and she has an artificial everything else. They run away together and eventually decide to break into The Union headquarters to delete their records which eventually leads to an icky conclusion and a little twist at the end.

Now I'm not usually one to be bothered by much in movies, but this film bothered me a little. The subject matter, while quite original, is morally disturbing. The repo men carry out their jobs like any other job, feeling no wrongdoing in attacking people, cutting them up, and leaving them to die. They even trade stories about their clients' begging and sobbing as easily as trading office jokes. That all this could be legal is frankly, ridiculous. Within the confines of its universe however, the acting was actually quite good. Law and Whitaker play their roles convincingly. Schreiber plays the morally bankrupt organ salesman as a big jerk (has he ever played a character who is not a big jerk?).

The effects are decent but the violence level in this film is extreme. Blood and limbs fly with wild abandon as Remy hacks and slashes his way through individuals and groups alike. This movie bombed badly at the box office and was generally disparaged by critics with good reason. The film is not sure if it wants to be a serious social commentary or an action film and ultimately doesn't do well as either. The twist was totally expected too. I should have just watched The Last Airbender...

Häagen Dazs

We decided to have some dessert at Häagen Dazs in 1-Utama. I've only had Häagen Dazs ice cream once before and thought it was overpriced and overrated. But hey... ice cream is always a good idea right? Right?

First overpriced ice cream: Caramel and biscuits flavour with roasted almond nibs, in a cone. This was really really sweet. Sorry about the out of focus pic; the lighting was bad and the ice cream was melting.



I had the Belgian chocolate ice cream on a brownie with roasted almond nibs. The ice cream was quite nice and the brownie too. Putting ice cream on a hot brownie may not have been a good idea though - it was soon a chocolatey mess.



The bill was about RM40 for two small scoops of ice cream and a brownie. I think I'll stick to other overpriced ice creams.

Dragon-i

I've always thought Dragon-i was one of the better Chinese restaurants around. For lunch in between movies last Saturday, we went to the outlet at The Curve. We've come here quite a lot so we usually order the same dishes. First up was some stir-fried long beans with minced pork. I'm not usually much into pork, but it's quite good when minced and fried.



Next up was sweet and sour chicken. Deep-fried chunks of chicken with sweet and sour sauce served with capsicum and pineapples, this rendition of a common Chinese dish is one of the best I've had. The chicken was still crisp and and all the ingredients melded together nicely.



We decided to try something new and ordered fried tofu with assorted mushrooms. Served as described, it was unfortunately only adequate. Oh well... live and learn.

Speed limit: 4Mbps

I've been subsisting on 512kbps ADSL for years (sad, I know). I was just too lazy to upgrade and didn't really see much need for it. But with TMNet's 'Blockbuster' promotions, I decided to take the plunge and visited the TMPoint in Bangsar. A week later, a technician called and he came to the house yesterday to check the line quality.

The minimum line quality for the speed I requested is >20dB of SNR and <40dB of Line attenuation (you can look this up in the ADSL statistics page of your modem settings page). So the tech sees my line quality: 11dB SNR and 41dB attenuation.

Heartbreak.

Undaunted, the valiant technician suggests testing at the source: the wall socket. Whipping out the free modem supplied with the package, we set up the connection on a laptop and wait. Several agonizing seconds later we are greeted with 24dB SNR and 39dB attenuation.

Joy.

Not satisfied with merely knowing the speed, the dedicated technician suggests multiple scenario testing to find the cause of the change in line quality. Phone cable quality is suspected. I was using a 60ft cable from the wall socket to my old modem. Using a new 100ft cable, we get 19dB SNR and 39.5dB attenuation. Ah, so cable length significantly impacts SNR! The solution was simple if not convenient: install the modem near the wall socket, then run Ethernet cables to each of the computers in the house. With this in mind, we activate the package and it was decided to temporarily reconnect to my old modem before I bought the network cables. The engineer in me demanded one final test: use the new modem in the place of my old modem, preserving my current wiring scheme. So we power up and connect the new modem and opening the statistics page, we are greeted with.... 23dB SNR and 39.5dB attenuation!

Eureka!

So it seems my trusty old modem, a D-link DSL-2540T, was quite ill indeed. The spanking new modem, a D-link DSL-2640B, being a younger model extracted the signal with ease where the old one stuttered. So now it sits where the old one used to, happily blinking away as the bits travel through the tubes. Goodbye old modem, you've done well. Now rest.
 
I bid the technician goodbye, thanking him for his kind service, with the assurance that the new speed would be activated within 24 hours. This morning, I disconnected the modem and hoped for the best for tonight. After a long day battling deadlines, I came home and ran a speed test.

Success!



Here's what it was before:



Now that's an improvement :)

And so the story ends well. Here's to many years of speedy viewing of dumb videos on youtube.

Dessert at The Apartment

We had a little time before the movie last Saturday, so we decided to have some dessert at The Apartment, a strange restaurant at The Curve built around the concept of being an actual apartment complete with living room, bedroom, study, and even bathroom. The picture above is the bedroom section, where we sat. The food here is nothing to shout about, but they have some interesting desserts.

We tried a meringue a week back, so this time we had our second meringue-based dessert, the Eton Mess. Now, I know nothing of Eton, but it seems they have good desserts! The dish consists of meringue with fresh strawberries, drizzled with strawberry sauce. It looks messy, but it was very nice.



Our other dessert was a Baked Chocolate Pudding. It took 15 minutes to prepare the dish as it was baked fresh and served in the baking cup. The pudding was rich and moist and went well with the vanilla ice cream included. Definitely worth the wait.



I also had a Mocha Latte just because.
It was good too!

The bill came to about RM40 which I guess makes up for the cheaper lunch we had.

Lunch at Kitchen Creatures

At Centrepoint in Bandar Utama, there's a little inexpensive restaurant called Kitchen Creatures. The food is varied, mostly Italian type dishes with a bit of local fusion. The prices are very affordable, which is apparently their thing as they promise "no frills dining".

For lunch on Saturday, before watching The Sorcerer's Apprentice, we had for starters, the Baked Stuffed mushrooms. The mushrooms were stuffed with crabstick and shiitake flavoured cream cheese, then presumably baked. They were quite nice and it's a shame there were only five of them :)

There was also some standard-issue garlic bread. Ho-hum...



Main courses included a beef stew which was quite nice. Not that much beef in it but what was there was tender, the gravy was tasty, and the price was right. The bread was nice for dipping too.



The pizza was a mushroom, ham, and onion pizza. It had the ingredients described on a fairly thin crust. It was about the size of a 'regular' pizza at a fast food place. Not bad... not great, but not bad.



There was a weird drink too: Limey George. It was Sprite, Ribena, and a slice of lemon. Not a bad combination. All in all, it was a fairly good meal, and at RM43 for two, very affordable.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

This film has  a storied past. Originally appearing as a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1797, then a symphony by Paul Dukas in 1897, the story was famously brought to attention by Mickey Mouse in Disney's classical music celebration Fantasia in 1940 and again in 1999 in Fantasia/2000.

Inspired by the animated short, we now come to the present CGI-laden incarnation of the tale with Nicolas Cage as the sorcerer and Jay Baruchel (forever known to me as the voice of Hiccup in How to Train Your Dragon) as the apprentice.


Spoilers follow (it's really predictable though, so I think it's safe to read)....

The story begins with the death of Merlin (seriously) at the hands of Morgana le Fay. This was made possible by the betrayal of one of Merlin's three apprentices, Horvath (Alfred Molina). It seems Morgana wants to get a hold of a spell guarded by Merlin called 'The Rising' which would raise the dead and enslave the world. Before she can get away with it, Merlin's other apprentices Balthazar (Cage) and Veronica (Monica Bellucci) arrive to stop her. Veronica is forced to draw Morgana's soul into her own body to prevent her from killing Balthazar, but Morgana starts to kill her from inside. In order to stop Morgana and save Veronica, Balthazar imprisons them both in an inescapable magical vessel known as the Grimhold. Before Merlin dies, he entrusts Balthazar with his dragon ring and instructs him to seek 'The Prime Merlinian', a boy who will inherit Merlin's powers and be the only person who can kill Morgana.

And so, Balthazar goes looking all over the world for a thousand years (must have been boring) until he encounters young Dave Sutler (A Night at the Museum's Jake Cherry, whom I'm sorry to say still can't act) who of course turns out to be The Prime Merlinian. The boy accidentally releases Horvath who has been imprisoned within the Grimhold like many other Morgana followers over the years like Russian nested dolls. A fight breaks out which ultimately results in both sorcerers getting trapped in a magic urn with a ten-year timer (they sure like trapping people in strange vessels).

Ten years later, Dave has gone from an awkward pre-pubescent to an awkward college student. He meets his intended sweetheart from his schooldays and she seems interested (of course) but his joy is shortlived when the timer runs out on the urn and Horvath comes after him. Fortunately, Balthazar is not far behind and rescues him. After overcoming the initial shock and reluctance (and a few battles), Dave eventually becomes Balthazar's apprentice and trains to become a real sorcerer which complicates his romantic plans with Becky (Teresa Palmer). Meanwhile, Horvath gets his own apprentice Drake (Toby Kebbell) and continues his scheme to free Morgana and execute The Rising culminating in a big battle scene, the outcome of which I think need not be mentioned.

The film is clichéd and derivative, but the effects are quite well done if not very spectacular. Baruchel plays the awkward youngster... very awkwardly and Cage turns in the performance expected of him. Of the supporting characters, Molina is always fun to watch and the others are well... they were there. Disposable summer fun, this movie is family friendly and a pleasant enough way to spend an afternoon. There's even a nod to the original story and be sure to stay for the extra scene after the credits (which I didn't see... bah).

Nerds!

While at Bangsar Village, I picked up a few boxes of Nerds candy from Wonka. I heard about these from an American friend some time ago and was delighted to find them here. They're little pebble-shaped candies of various flavours and colours. The outer shell is crunchy and the inside is juicy and soft. They come in many flavours and they're great :)

Salt

Spoiler lite review...






Angelina Jolie's latest foray as an action heroine opens with her getting beaten up by North Korean soldiers who accuse her of being a US spy and sprout such gems as, "You are here to sabotage our nuclear ambitions!" Falsely protesting her innocence, Evelyn Salt gets beaten up further but is later unexpectedly released in exchange for some old Korean guy as she is escorted out by CIA agent Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber) to be reunited with her devoted husband Mike Krause (August Diehl).

Some time later back in the States, Salt and Ted spend a regular day at the office as CIA agents masquerading as petroleum company executives. Just as they're about to leave for the day, a Russian defector, Vassily Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski), walks in offering information about sleeper Russian agents out to DESTROY AMERICA. It seems that during the Cold War, the Russians had camps where children were trained as super spies with the intention to replace actual American children whose families met with unfortunate "accidents" while visiting Russia. One of these agents is about to kill the Russian president who is visiting America for the funeral of the American vice president. Chalking this up to a well-known Cold War myth, Winters and visiting counter-intelligence officer Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor) call bullsh*t until Orlov names Salt as the sleeper agent in question.

Salt defends her innocence again but Peabody still wants to question her. Fearing for her husband's life, she escapes from the office even as Orlov himself escapes custody. Winters firmly believes in Salt's loyalty to the nation although Peabody does not share his view. Being overly well-trained, Salt manages to elude the CIA in a series of high-octane chase sequences.

Her motives come under question as she carries out the assassination of the Russian president, sparking an international incident. She then returns to Orlov who is revealed as the head of the Spy Kids program. So the questions remain: Who is Salt? Is she really an evil Russian spy? Will she redeem herself? Are those lips real?

The plot of the film borders on the absurd and is riddled with spy-movie cliché and some improbable plot points (apparently, the North Koreans allow you unfettered access if you're a foremost authority on spiders). The double/triple/quadruple-crossing gets a bit ridiculous at some point. The movie is redeemed by the tightly wound action sequences and Jolie's usual ass-kicking action heroine performance which is better than ever here. The chase scenes, explosions, and Salt's stunts make for an enjoyable, if somewhat short action flick.

Lunch at Alexis

We went to TMPoint in Bangsar to apply to upgrade my internet connection to 4Mbps (yay). Since we were in the area, we decided to have lunch at Alexis Bistro on Telawi Street. We started with sauteed mushroom 'tapas'. It was a hearty bowl of sauteed button mushrooms in a creamy garlic sauce. It was full of mushroomy goodness. The toasted rolls served with it were also quite nice.



The first main course was Chicken Escalope. Apparently an 'escalope' is a boneless piece of meat that has been thinned out by bashing it flat. In this case, it was breaded and served with roasted cherry tomatoes. It was fairly good, with the outside crispy and the inside soft and juicy. The side salad had an almond oil dressing I believe.



The second main course was a Chicken and Mushroom Pie. It was a flaky pastry served in a porcelain bowl. A creamy sauce accompanied generous chunks of chicken and mushrooms. It was nice but the pastry was hard to get at since it stuck to the lip of the bowl. It also came with an enormous serving of fries.



For drinks we had honeydew juice which was thick and fresh, and a cup of mango-flavoured tea which came in a cute little jug.



The last and most fun part of a meal: Dessert!
We had a Mixed Berries Meringue. It consisted of a layer of light fluffy cream drizzled with blueberries, sandwiched between thin wafer pieces, then topped with another layer of cream and fresh strawberries and blueberries. It was really really good. It's the first 'meringue' I've had, and I can safely say that it won't be the last :)



At RM122 for two people, it's definitely on the steep side, but at least it was good. Truth be told, I'm probably not high-class enough for this place, but it's nice to live above your station once in a while ;)