Of late....

Hello everyone.

As you may have already noticed, I no more regularly post movie reviews here. In fact, regularly is such an understatement. Why, you might ask?

It's not that I don't watch them anymore or that I've lost touch with the art of cinema-going but in all honesty, I just don't have that luxury, you know- TIME.

Over the past year of my hiatus (which for many I assume thought would have definitely been my ultimate blogging demise) I have been working, then stopped working then moved to another country and then been working towards earning a Masters degree. Yes and would you know it, I am at the end of yet another academic year. I shall, God willing, be graduating soon enough but in the meantime I'm getting busy filming all my bits together for my last hurrah- my broadcast dissertation.

It should, I believe, come out looking like a documentary. So, you can imagine the time and effort and I am putting into my work at the moment. It's a lot of a work and professors, tutors- they never tell you these things at the beginning! Carrying around an industry standard tripod and a broadcast camera is not meant for many people. However, at my own unfortunate advantage, I do carry a bit of weight to help sustain that burden.

Filming has been good so far. My friend and I were exploring the entire Greater London just last week on the tube and on our very sore feet. We had been to places many would never think of crossing when out and about in the big British metro. And we were lugging it!

I've got some photos to share. Just some of the shots. Hopefully more coming up.

The one and only centre court at SW19.

Trafalgar Square after a very hearty Chinese meal.

Spooky- near the South Bank.

Our very talented cameraman- Yang. He bought us drinks on that boat.

The sideways Big Ben. 

A little momento from across the London Eye.

The National Gallery

My friend's obsession with the Tower Bridge and the River Thames!

More footage of the river...

Yeah. 

Nice little cafe where we had lunch in Boston Manor

before our adventure in Southall. 

Till my next movie review or whatever, laters!

Date Night

Thought I'd do with a slight change in presentation...

It's Complicated

Those who know me best are certain I'd fall in love with Nancy Meyer's little love comedy plainly due to Goddess Streep. I did- the first 20 minutes of it. I am big on Alec Baldwin too but I think this had too much of him. Meryl Streep embraces her age and maturity with grace and elegance- Nancy Meyer had better written a deserving script but she didn't so. I struggled a bit to see "mature" people being intimate. It doesn't help that Alec Baldwin looks like one of 'em Alaskan Bears Sarah Pailin would hunt down. Still, Streep's character made the picture witty and alive. I am however not at all keen on the actors who played the children. John Krasinski, Lake Bell? Come one! This isn't Over my Dead Body or License to Wed. Hell no. Casting ain't all that great but I did like the bits with the Holy Trio. Steve Martin did a good job though I would have loved to see him more in the movie. He never fails to be funny. Alec I guess had a bit of practice with 30 rock along with Tina Fey so he wasn't too bad. Maybe it isn't much of Meryl's cup of tea but if she could do Death becomes Her and She-Devil then I ought to see her in more of these.

Avatar

This was a movie I think I'll sit in for once in a lifetime- thank you. First, I had a few problems with my 3-D goggles, then I had to watch the entire movie in like 10 hours. It took forever to what seemed like a typical invasive-human race genre. Cameron had 15 years to work on this movie, so I would really expect more plot wise. We've had several of these in the past lets say 10 years; Independence Day (aliens invading though), Mission to Mars, Red Planet, Planet of Apes, The day the Earth stood still and I can go on forever. But with Cameron, since he's all up on the technological front of things, he waited more than a decade after the billions he made with the Terminator movies and lets not forget Titanic to edge out his competition. He made G.I Joe look like a cheap 70's cartoon. I'm not even going to begin on his virtual cameras, simulcam...I just think it was super cool Spielberg and Jackson had a try at it. It's amzing what you can create with a gazillion dollars and what gazillions more you get out of it. James Cameron proves to be a very good businessman, he gets what the present audience wants, just as he did with the morphing T-1000 played by Robert Patrick in Terminator 2 in the early 90's. Now Avatar is begininnng it's own cult. I'd recommend this movie to any budding motion-capture enthusiast. It's worth guzzling down a few cokes on and some popcorn.

I'M BACK!

Finally, after having abandoned my page for so long, I have decided to make a quick stop. I will be posting up reviews very, very soon and hopefully it'll keep on coming. With my relentless commitment to my studies as I approach my final year of my undergraduate studies, I must say I had to give up reviewing for a while. Although my schedule isn't getting any looser, I think I might be able to still get by one or two movies occasionally and write about it. So lets hope I can start the ball rolling again, shall we?

Rachel Getting Married

Finally....the movie I have been waiting around for has made the wait all worthwhile. Anne Hathaway has graduated from being a teen princess to Gay man's wife to Miranda Priestly's assistant to actual gifted, talented STAR. She has blossomed into a flower of a million colourful petals. Nothing less than GREAT could be said of her performance. The rest of the cast were just as amazing; Debra Winger, Rosemary DeWitt and Bill Irwin are just to name a few. It's a pity it didn't quite have a big theatrical release here in Malaysia. I love the handheld camera angle director/producer Johnathan Demme created. It feels fresh, making it appear as though it's some sort of mockumentary. Dramentary would be nice. The film had great a wedding as the title role and racial mix turned out to be a good idea. Hathaway and DeWitt made a good sister-sister pair and you should wait till you see some action between Winger and Hathaway. She really did earn her Academy Award nomination. Too bad she was in a league too ahead of her.

Beautifully encapsulating.