Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaains!

Last night, my company had its annual dinner and the theme was Freaky Friday. I'd always admired those who had the nerve and the dedication to dress in theme for these things but I never had the nerve to do it myself. This year, I decided to change and I went as a zombie much to everyone's surprise since I'm not exactly a guy who would do this sort of thing.

I got some instructions on the net, and made myself some fake blood with honey, chocolate sauce (Hershey's even ;)), and red food colouring. It was really icky and bloody. I dirtied and bloodied an old shirt. I also made a fake wound out of chewing gum and it was totally gross. Powder and black/blue/green eye shadow rounded out the effect. I got lots of compliments on the get-up and it was a lot of fun scaring people. I'm kinda proud of myself for doing this :) Hopefully I can repeat it next year.

Posting of my full face is still against personal policy, but check out this wound:

Surprisingly realistic for something made from a pack of gum...

Real Steel

Humans love violence; at least seeing it in a controlled environment. Fighting tournaments are wildly popular and boxing is chief among them. Brutal as it is, what happens when people want more? Real Steel imagines a time in the near future when the job of boxers has been delegated to huge humanoid robots controlled by operators. Without the limitations of fleshiness, these metal men duke it out to the 'death' much to the delight of the massive crowds.

The story of Real Steel revolves around a former boxer down on his luck. Now a robot operator, Charlie Kenton's (Hugh Jackman) already messed-up life is further complicated by the arrival of his 11-year old son Max (Dakota Goyo) after his mother's untimely death. Wanting nothing to do with the boy, Charlie nevertheless is stuck with him for a while, to neither one's great delight. Max is annoying, bratty, and belligerent towards Charlie but they eventually bond over an old fighting robot they find in a junk yard while scouring for parts. Max drives Charlie to enter their robot in fights which they surprisingly win and this leads to bigger fights and the predictable father-son bonding.

It's a far from original story - basically Rocky with robots - but it's done really well and with heart and wit. Formulaic as it is, the story is still highly engaging and the robot 'chereography' is simply amazing. The fluidity and realism of the motion is really very impressive (Michael Bay, eat your heart out). Filmed without quick-cuts, the fight scenes highlight each and every punch and throw in metal-crunching detail. The main robot 'Atom' is highly likeable with his blue oval 'eyes' recalling to mind EVE from Wall·E. The way he 'shadows' his operator is really fun to watch and makes him seem almost more than just a dumb machine (a point which is alluded to but not explored).

Of course a movie with just cool robots and no humans worth rooting for (ahem), is much less fun. Fortunately we have Jackman giving a honest performance as an incredibly selfish man who seems to care about nothing other than himself but is still not beyond redemption. Evangeline Lily (forever Kate from Lost) plays Bailey, his long-suffering on-and-off romantic interest who still believes in him despite his massive screw-ups and cavalier attitude. Both fine performances, but the star of the show is undoubtedly scene-stealing little Dakota Goyo (last seen as a young Thor) who in his first big movie turns in a believable and natural performance. The character of Max is childish, audacious, stubborn, cheeky, rude, and at times too mature for his age. Goyo pulls this off while still coming across as a normal honest-to-goodness little boy secretly longing for his absent father's affection.

Everyone loves an underdog. Here we have a washed up boxer, an obsolete robot from a junkyard, and a half-orphaned little boy - underdogs if ever there were any. In the obligatory final fight, I had to resist the urge to punch imaginary opponents to cheer them on.

For a fighting good time, I give Real Steel eight out of ten baby seals.

iSad

It's a sad sad day today.

I'm writing this so I'll remember where I was when the tech world, and the world at large, grew a bit dimmer. Only yesterday, I was venting over the decidedly underwhelming product announcements from Apple, making my six-month wait to replace my lost iPod Touch pointless. This morning, while driving to work, I heard on the radio that Steve Jobs, recently CEO of Apple, had passed away the day before from pancreatic cancer, apparently not long after the iPhone 4S announcement. Suddenly, my fury over the unchanged iPod Touch wasn't so important any more. At work, I watched the tweets roll in from various people. It seemed unbelievable, although I guess it wasn't unexpected; just very ironic timing.

Now as I sit at home, going through all the tributes and reading about him, I feel oddly sad. I mean, I didn't know the man personally. I'm not even a big fan of his company's products or the walled-garden approach they so cheerfully promote. On the contrary, I've been a detractor, save for the iPod Touch (still a lovely toy). I guess I'm sad about the loss of a great mind, one of the great thinkers of our time. As one who takes great pleasure in the world of computing and technology, I appreciate Apple for popularizing personal computers. As one who loves gadgetry, I appreciate Apple for popularizing media players and pretty phones. As one who loves animation, I especially appreciate Jobs for creating Pixar, the pioneer and leader of CGI animation that has given me and millions of others so much enjoyment over the years.

Truth be told, Apple's products were never revolutionary, rather they were evolutionary, taking existing ideas and somehow turning them into products people wanted to buy. Jobs was certainly a marketing genius and his attention to detail was legendary. He has shaped a generation and like it or not, there's no denying his impact and contributions to pop culture.

At his commencement address in 2005 at Stanford, shortly after his cancer diagnosis, Jobs said:

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Inspirational words we should all be lucky enough to live by, though sadly most of us do not.

I will be buying a new iPod Touch in the coming weeks, my joy of buying new gadgetry surely bound to be coated with a tinge of sadness.

I found another quote from Steve Jobs:

“I want to put a ding in the universe.”

I'm pretty sure you did, Mr. Jobs. If not in the universe, at least on this planet.

RIP Steve Jobs, too soon.

32

Another 365.25 days of orbiting our resident ball of fire has come to a close and I've survived! Yay me!

It's been an erm... interesting year... I broke my arm, I went to China, my car broke down on a lonely highway at night, my iPod got stolen, I watched some cool movies, tried champagne for the first time, baked a cake, joined Google+, and endured the usual drudgery of work.

32 years... a fine number! Some fun facts:

• 32 is a power of 2! My favourite type of number!
• 32 is the number of teeth on an adult human. *CHOMP*
• 32 is apparently a happy number. Beats being a sad number!
• 32 is the number of completed, numbered piano sonatas by Ludwig Van Beethoven, one of my favourite classical composers.
• 32 is the atomic number of germanium which is widely used in optics and semiconductors including transistors. This is cool.
• 32 is the freezing point of water in degrees Fahrenheit at sea level. Cool... or maybe just cold.

Happy Birthday to me! Here's hoping for an awesome year ahead.

(Number facts from Wikipedia)

Breaking Down

So it finally happened... my car broke down... on a highway... at night.

The engine made weird noises as I was driving home. I thought, "Hey, I think I can make it home. I'll deal with it in the morning." The car had other ideas though. It started making screeching noises when i braked. Then some clanking noises. Then vibrations - more than usual. When the vibrations started shaking the whole car and the clanking got more pronounced, I moved to the side of the road, just before a toll plaza. With its last heave, the old girl managed to stop nicely out of the way but would not start again after I stopped the engine.

"Well this sucks... But I am prepared!", thought I.

I fished out my Auto Rescue card that I got with my insurance. I called the 24-hour toll free hotline. And got instantly disconnected. Lovely. A gazillion repeated calls later, I was not a happy camper. Epic fail, Oriental Capital Assurance Auto Rescue, epic fail.

Plan B: I called back to a colleague at my office asking if he knew any tow truck operators. He didn't. Fortunately, someone else who had not gone home did know of one. Thank FSM for life's little miracles.

About half an hour later, the tow truck arrived. The car managed to start again, albeit with a noisy protest, which made it easier to load onto the flatbed truck. You know you're an engineer when you're in the middle of a highway at night with a broken down vehicle and you're admiring the power of the hydraulic systems on the tow truck. I chose to tow the car home as it was late, and the tow truck operator didn't know any late-night mechanics.

The next day, I got the same tow truck to send my car to a workshop recommended by the same colleague nearby my company. As we pulled into the workshop and started to unload my car, I saw a familiar face and a friendly wave as I was about to alight from the truck. Coincidentally, an old friend and ex-colleague worked just opposite the workshop. I'd not seen him in almost a year. Life is funny sometimes.

A preliminary inspection indicated a poor verdict. In the words of the mechanic: condemned. In order to confirm, he had to take apart the engine to look at it, so he told me to come back five hours later. With nothing to do, I decided to go to the office to pass the time even though I was officially on leave. My friend very kindly sent me to my office.

At the office, I endured the jibes about my predicament from my boss and colleagues who knew about it. Ironically, I had been planning to buy a new car and a colleague was just remarking yesterday that my car would break down in the middle of the highway. I blamed him for it of course. Lunch and a few hours later, I left early and walked back to the workshop, The mechanic confirmed that the engine was better off replaced as a piston had broken (hence the clanking) and some other parts of the engine were worn out, no thanks to my poor service record. No use crying over spilt milk, so I asked him to give me a quotation over the weekend.

My friend sent me to the nearest train station and I rode the rails home, carless. We had a good run, old girl.

Moral of the story: Service your old car often, and sell it before it's too late. Procrastination has a high price sometimes, and I guess I'll just have to pay it. I only hope I can sell the car for the price of the repairs at least :)

EDIT 20/08/2011: Got the car back last night and she's purring like a kitten. Nice to have a car that doesn't vibrate violently when idle.

Captain America: The First Avenger

Captain America never did appeal much to me, since he looks kinda goofy and I'm not even American. I do however know the significance of the character and from trailers, the movie looked to be a fine entry to the Marvel series of movies.

The story of Captain America is about a little guy with a big heart. Short and scrawny Steve Rogers (amazingly still played by tall buff Chris Evans) is on a mission to join the US Army in the midst of World War II. Constantly rejected by army recruiters, he finally gets his chance when selected by Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) to take part in an experimental super-soldier program. Under the guidance of Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) and British liaison Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), he eventually becomes Captain America and earns the ire of Johann Schmidt a.k.a. The Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), a Nazi and old 'associate' of Dr. Erskine working for Hitler. Schmidt has his own plans however and of course, it's up to Cap to stop him.

This movie is a great example of what a superhero movie should be - not too heavy on the drama, not too over-the-top on the 'comic-bookness'. The script and pacing are handled well and takes its time to tell the story. The imagery of the 1940s comic-book world is visually compelling. There are pretty good effects and pronounced '3D-ness' - clearly not a cheap conversion. Props, set design, and effects all blend perfectly together to bring the world to life.

The acting by Evans, while not mind-blowing, is all you could want. As Steve Rogers, he is earnest, brave, and madly patriotic. As Captain America, he's well, Captain America. Weaving is menacing as Red Skull, even if a little one-dimensional. But then, sometimes villains should just be villains. Atwell shines as the love interest and Jones has fun with his small role. The small but important role played by Tucci adds pathos and a deeper meaning to the plot. Most of the movie, however stands firmly on the impossibly broad shoulders of Evans and he sells it very well.

There's a great line in the movie that says that only a weak man knows the value of strength. Captain America: The First Avenger has a strong message of perseverance, inner strength, and patriotism. With a strong script, good effects, and decent actors, who could fault that?

Seven out of 10 baby seals agree and look forward to watching The Avengers next year.


Note: There is an extra scene after the credits, so do stick around.

Hanna

The concept of a young girl being a trained assassin is an oddly compelling one, no doubt due to the strange juxtaposition of the sweet girl and the ruthless killer. Cropping up in anime and film - Gunslinger Girl and Kick Ass spring to mind - the girl assassin is given a dramatic treatment in Hanna.

Saoirse Ronan (what a name!) plays Hanna, a lass of 16 years. Blonde-haired and blue-eyed, she looks like a regular girl, except when she hunts and kills a deer with her mad archery skillz on a generic snow-covered mountainside. Her father Erik (Eric Bana) seems to have raised her in isolation and instilled certain skills in her in preparation for some unknown mission. The first act concerns itself with establishing their relationship and has minimal exposition.

Once her 'mission' starts in the second act, we get plenty of fight sequences set to music. There's a distinctly 'European' feel to these sequences, which is a good thing really. Unlike Hit-Girl in Kick Ass, Hanna displays no glee in her killing, just cold efficiency. The action scenes are interspersed with scenes of Hanna partaking in 'normal' teenage girl activities. Some of these were a little too drawn out for me to be honest, but some involving another teenage girl - probably the first one Hanna has met - provide some really funny lines and comic relief.

The pacing is not too bad, although lacking a certain inertia at times. It's certainly not a non-stop crazy action movie. The acting from Ronan is inspired and believable. It totally makes up for the tepid The Lovely Bones. Bana doesn't have that much screen time, but he does his best and looks good doing it. Cate Blanchett is coldly creepy as the mean CIA agent chasing down Hanna and Erik. She's also obsessed with dental hygiene, which adds a bit of (weird) colour to the character.

The plot points are not entirely original and some revelations are a bit clichéd, but it's handled with style and good performances all around. For these reasons, I give Hanna seven out of 10 baby seals.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

It strikes me that when I started watching Harry Potter movies, I was still in college. A full decade later, much has changed in my life and in the fictional lives of the characters in the movies. I confess that I have not read any of the books, being more into the more 'serious' Tolkien stories. I have however, always applauded the fact that Harry Potter books actually got children to read rather long books, which is a good and increasingly rare thing. I did watch all the movies and enjoyed them to varying degrees from the light-hearted first movie to the darker and more serious later instalments. And so we come to the final movie of the long saga.

***Minor spoilers as usual; you did watch the first part, right? Right?***






The movie opens abruptly exactly where the last one left off with Big V (Ralph Fiennes) taking possession of the Elder Wand. After burying Dobby (sniff) with honour, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson), and Ron (Rupert Grint) set off to find the remaining horcruxes they need to destroy in order to defeat the Dark Lord. It's hard to say more without spoilers, but it's obvious that there will be trouble, adventure, more than a few fantastic creatures, some laughs, some tears, and battles of a magical nature. The classic multi-front battle is well executed with a large battle on one front and several small groups on side-quests to achieve the main objectives that will lead to victory.

The movie doesn't disappoint in the effects department. The creatures are utterly convincing, insomuch as mythical creatures can be convincing. The magical bolts are pretty and deadly. Other spell effects are nicely done and particularly awe-inspiring in the big battle scenes. Sets are impressively constructed and very detailed. Having not read the books, I don't know how closely the movie follows the books, but I imagine it is as close as it could be within the confines of a movie. The pacing is handled well with lulls between action pieces for the audience to catch its collective breath and take stock of the status of all the characters.

The acting in the lead and secondary roles are very good especially in the secondary roles played by veteran actors. Fiennes is menacing and gets to make creepy voices exhorting people to turn on Harry and his friends. Alan Rickman is wonderfully complex in his characterisation of Snape. Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint are dependable as they have been throughout the movies but are sometimes overshadowed by the more experienced thespians.

On the downside, I only have a few little nit-picks. Granted, this is more of a problem with me rather than the movie, but the lore is a little thick and may be confusing to those who haven't read the book or remembered the previous movies. I've had to read up on the interwebs to fully understand some things. The 3-D is pretty good for a conversion and some of the CG elements were well-served by the extra apparent dimension, but due to most of the movie being so dark and gloomy, the dimness caused by the 3-D glasses made it really hard to see things. If I had to do it over, I would give the 3-D version a pass. Lastly, I will also say that I was not impressed with the make-up work in a particular scene.

This last instalment in the long-running franchise ties up the whole plot nicely and is quite satisfying a conclusion. It's weird that there won't be a Harry Potter movie next year, but I'm grateful to have experienced the whole ride. Kudos to the author, directors, actors, writers, and all involved for a magical 10 years.

For bringing fantasy and magic to a generation, I give Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, and the series at large, eight out of 10 baby seals.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

After the fiasco that was last week, I finally got to see Transformers: Dark of the Moon in all its 3-D glory. I bravely watched it at the same cinema because it was still the easiest place to get tickets. After months of seeing the trailers and that extra one week delay, I have to say... meh.

***Whole bunch of spoilers, but who cares really?***

This third and perhaps/hopefully final instalment of Michael Bay's foray into movies with giant robots opens with scenes of the war in Cybertron. A lone Autobot ship escapes with some super-high-tech-stuff but unfortunately gets shot at and crashes on (surprise, surprise) our moon. The film posits the idea that the US-Russia space race of the 60s was in response to this crash-landing on the dark side of the moon. Scenes are cleverly spliced with actual footage to show the moon landing as a cover for investigating the huge vessel.

All well and good, so far.

But not for long.

Then we get to the much less interesting Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf) who is apparently still unemployed despite having saved the world twice. He has also apparently been dumped by Megan Fox who must have finally realized she was way out of his league. On the bright side, he has inexplicably landed another hot chick called Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley). After too many scenes of Sam being annoyingly annoying, we eventually get back to the giant freaking robots. The Autobots find out that the US has been sitting on the location of the alien craft and Optimus is not pleased. They travel to the moon in a spaceship they conveniently seem to have made/bought/stole/conjured and retrieve what's left of the technology which turns out to be an instant wormhole generator system. They also find their long lost former leader Sentinel Prime (voiced by Leonard Nimoy) who invented the thing.

Despite being told not to interfere, Sam annoyingly does anyway and investigates on his own. Surprisingly, he finds out things that the military 'intelligence' were unable to find out themselves and so they let him play with them after all. An unexpected betrayal causes humanity to reject the Autobots and ask them to leave Earth, leaving us to fend for ourselves against the Decepticons. To make matters worse, Carly's boss Dylan (Patrick Dempsey) turns out to be as slimy as he seems and Sam has to wade into enemy territory to save her - and hopefully the world, again - sans giant robots.

Even more so than the last movie, this one suffers from incredibly choppy editing, jarring tone shifts, murky plot, silly dialogue, poor script, lack of narrative cohesion, and under-average acting. Speaking of acting, some scenes with Sam and Carly are particularly cringe-inducing. LeBeouf seems to be getting tired of this role or I just don't find the character endearing any more after two movies of him getting whinier and more fidgety. Huntington-Whiteley is little more than window-dressing. Ken Jeong appears so insanely over-the-top that the performance is only a little funny. John Malkovich has an enjoyable appearance. Frances McDormand gives an unremarkable performance. John Turturro is still a little amusing at least in his recurring role. The script doesn't do the actors any favours and features far too many out-of-place and forced one-liners.

The film is not without some silver linings in an otherwise dark cloud. Bumblebee is still adorable. Optimus is still cool. Nimoy makes an awesome giant robot. The effects are quite impressive especially the giant-evil-sandworm-from-hell. The 3-D effects are actually well-implemented and most of the show seems to have been filmed in 3-D. The film seemed not as dim as most 3-D shows. Towards the second half of the movie, the pace improves (not hugely, but better than the tedious first half). Some of the robot battles and other action sequences were actually quite fun to watch, even if some of the battles were too quick and confusing which is not helped by the Decepticons all looking almost the same.

While technically compelling, this latest instalment proves that the series could really use a reboot and/or a new director. They can keep the effects team though. Maybe put more focus on the robots instead of the unnecessary humans.

For technological achievement and for Bumblebee, I give this movie three out of 10 baby seals.

EPIC FAIL

There would be a Transformers: Dark of the Moon review here, but unfortunately I didn't get to see it today.

I had pre-purchased tickets to watch Transformers in 3D at Cathay Cineplexes at The Curve today. We got there a wee bit late but we made it while the trailers were still playing. We got our 3D glasses and sat down. There were audio issues. The Captain America trailer (which looked pretty good) had no sound but instead had the filler music track they use in between movies. Then they tried to play the movie... with no sound.

They tried again.

Darkness. Picture. Silence.

And again.

More darkness. Silent film.

And again.

Then they rebooted the projector.

And still no audio.

Then they turned on the lights and announced that the projector was broken and they were cancelling the show. Refunds were to be given at the counters :(

In all my years of watching movies - quite a few of them at this very cinema - never has a show been cancelled. They didn't even have the sense to offer additional compensation for the inconvenience.

So to Cathay Cineplexes at The Curve, I say to thee: EPIC FAIL

Super 8

If you were a child of the 80s and grew up on early Spielberg movies such as The Goonies, ET, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Jaws, go watch this movie now; you won't regret it. Being a child of the 80s myself, I was immediately reminded of these classic movies from the acclaimed filmmaker. I have often thought that some of the great movies of all time were made in the 80s and closely adjacent years. Maybe I'm biased, but the quality and child-like charm of those films and others like Stand By Me, Jurassic Park, and the early Indiana Jones movies are hard to deny. While I also enjoy the edgier films of today, I sometimes bemoan the fact that simple but memorable movies like those from my youth just aren't made any more these days. Super 8 changes that perception and allowed me to be 12 again for a couple of hours.

***Light spoilers ensue***
Since this movie has relied on low-key secretive marketing, I'll try not to give anything away that wasn't in trailers.




A classic bunch-of-likeable-kids-have-an-adventure movie, Super 8 opens with an allusion to a tragedy: an industrial accident has left young Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) without his mother. To make matters worse, Deputy Sheriff Jackson Lamb (Kyle Chandler of Early Edition and Friday Night Lights) isn't much of a father. Joe finds solace in a close-knit group of friends including budding filmmaker Charles (Riley Griffiths), borderline pyromaniac Cary (Ryan Lee), somewhat nerdy Preston (Zach Mills), none-too-bright jock Martin (Gabriel Basso), and especially Alice (Elle Fanning) whom he has a bit of a crush on. Four months after his mother's death, Joe and his friends spend the summer making a Super 8 zombie-themed movie under the direction of Charles. While filming at a train station, they witness the most spectacular train wreck ever filmed. In the aftermath, they find some strange cargo and it sounds like SOMETHING came out of one of the cars. The kids high-tail it out of there as the air force arrives on the scene. Not long after, strange happenings occur in the fictional small town of Lillian, Ohio. Weird things go missing: microwaves, car parts, power cables. Dogs run away in droves. People vanish without a trace. As Joe's father tries to grapple with increasingly panicking citizens, he grows ever more distant from his son. Meanwhile Joe continues to work on his friend's movie and nurtures a growing romance with Alice, which is not without some opposition from their respective fathers. The strange events come to a climax when the air force gets more involved and sinister happenings are clearly afoot culminating in a thrilling adventure for the kids.

The acting by the children, especially Fanning (I coulda sworn she was a tiny little girl) and newcomer Courtney, is very good and very natural. The kids all have some really funny lines and background dialogue reminiscent of The Goonies. Their chemistry really sells the plot and the film. The villains are suitably mean archetypes typical of classic Spielberg movies and Chandler does his job of portraying the distant but still loving father as well as one could hope. Using relative and total unknowns for the lead roles was a smart move by Abrams and he may have discovered a great talent in Courtney (who was ironically just hoping to land a commercial for laughs and a little bit of extra money).

Clearly a loving homage to the films of Spielberg, JJ Abrams continues his unbroken streak of awesomeness with this movie that combines many of the elements of the aforementioned movies with the same wide-eyed wonder that made them memorable. Even the music by the Abrams' resident composer Michael Giacchino (who also composed the excellent score for Up among many others) was reminiscent of John Williams' scores for early Spielberg films. The imagery of small-town Americana, gorgeous backlit skies, and kids on bicycles harks back to films of the era as well. The effects are very believable and while Abrams doesn't skimp on the CGI, it is used sparingly and seamlessly, never overshadowing the story.

Derivative perhaps, but Super 8 derives from some of the best material ever made and infuses it with a heart and soul sorely lacking in so many recent films. The plot is well fleshed out and takes its time without ever being boring. Abrams is definitely one of the most gifted storytellers of our time and further collaborations with masters like Spielberg would bear glorious fruit indeed.

For near-perfection in storytelling and for allowing me to be a kid again, Super 8 gets 9 out of ten baby seals.



Oh, and do stay for the credits :)