The Sensimovielert

M. Night Shyamalan Has Lost His Sixth Sense. Period. (And Al-Gore's Not Going To Be Happy Too)

2008-06-13T10:22:00.001+08:00

Warning: Some plot spoilers ahead.

Given a choice between The Incredible 'I'm gonna fool kids with CGI' Hulk, The 'Oh, I can't think or another horror movie name and must Li Sinjie be in it?' Missing and Kungfu 'Oh, I'm gonna exploit China in this movie just like how we exploit them to make us cheap-cost-but-expensive-pricetag clothes' Panda and The Happening, it seem that I only have the last one to choose. And despite Shyamalan totally flopped in his previous movies so much so Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer spoofed his work into 90% of their movie francise storyline, I still gave it go and thought he could be better this time. But I was wrong. Totally wrong.

Here's the synopsis of the film:

A pandemic of unknown cause is spreading, with victims experiencing loss of speech and physical disorientation, followed by death. The protagonist, a science teacher named Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg), runs for his life together with his estranged wife, Alma Moore (Zooey Deschanel) and the 8-year-old daughter (Ashlyn Sanchez) of Elliot's best friend, Julian (John Leguizamo), in order to survive.

Sounds familiar? One have to ask what this movie is so different about when other movies like I Am Legend, 28 Days/Weeks Later, The Saw Series, et al. have more interesting storylines (and twists) to tell about.

Well, it's the green thing. When you make the green thing very angry, the green thing is going to kill you. Maybe trying to hard to outchallenge The Hulk (which came out at the same time), Shyamalan just threw in something green as his storyline and even casted a Bambi-eyed Liv Tyler look-alike.

I'm talking about the trees here. The storyline is based on trees turning into terrorists by 'communicating' with each other and starting spewing suicidal toxins into the air to kill the human mankind. Or at least the USA Northeast mankind. And if you're expecting some twist at the end of the story - I don't know - maybe the neurotic old woman in the film has psychic communication with Mother Earth to kill us all, you'll be disappointed. There's absolutely no twist at the end of the story.

Here are some scenes from the movie, all sourced from Rotten Tomatoes.

Trees and the blowing wind are gonna kill us all! Run for your lives! Yes, that's you - Al-Gore included!

Shyamalan: I know that you're an Oscar nominess, Wahlberg, but could you pretend that you're trying to hard and over-acting in my movie please? And Leguizamo, this ain't Ice Age, ok, but can you act like a suicidal squirrel which character killed off in the half-hour of the running time?

Succesful formula: Must throw in some Liv Tyler lookalike (whose acting is like kayu) and a screaming little girl.

Oh gosh! When is this movie gonna end?
I give the overall rating as 2/10. It's really pathetic. Really. Could be considered as a serious Razzie contender.

Howsy Reviews The Forbidden Kingdom: Quick, Quick, Buddhists/Taoists! Burn Down Hollywood For Desecration of Their Religions! LOL!

2008-04-19T14:25:00.000+08:00

Wow, it's been quite some while since my last movie review.

WARNING: Spoilers ahead

Well, Jackie asked us not to expect too much from his most-anticipated collaboration with oh-this-is-my-last-epic-martial-art-movie-in-Fearless actor, Jet Li in The Forbidden Kingdom as 'it is a movie tailored for Yanks'. And yes, he is right. Yet another 'journey to the West' to go all out milking a Black/Asian's acting credentials while featuring a white hero. Expecting this film to suck, as much as Escape from Huang Shi (which I skipped), I'm a sucker for this deemed-first summer blockbuster movie and gave it a go at KLCC today.

First things first, let us revisit the synopsis of the movie, taken directly from TGV's website:

While hunting down bootleg kung-fu DVDs in a Chinatown pawnshop, Jason (played by Michael Angarano - "Will and Grace", LORDS OF DOGTOWN, SEABISCUTT) makes an extraordinary discovery that sends him hurtling back in time to ancient China. There, Jason is charged with monumental task: he must free the fabled warrior the Monkey King, who has been imprisoned by the evil Jade War Lord. Jason is joined in his quest by wise kung fu master Lu Yan (Jackie Chan) and a band of misfit warriors including Silent Monk (Jet Li). But only by learning the true precepts of kung fu can Jason hope to succeed - and find a way to get back home.

One would expect this movie to be based on Journey to the West, with all the Monkey God, Oink God, Sand God, Buddha God and Monk God et al. So, let us revisit Wu Cheng'en's storyline:

It deals entirely with the earlier exploits of Sūn Wùkōng, a monkey born from a stone nourished by the Five Elements, who learns the art of the Tao, 72 polymorphic transformations, combat and secrets of immortality, and through guile and force makes a name for himself as the Qítiān Dàshèng (simplified Chinese: 齐天大圣; traditional Chinese: 齊天大聖), or "Great Sage Equal to Heaven". His powers grow to match the forces of all of the Eastern (Taoist) deities, and the prologue culminates in Sūn's rebellion against Heaven, during a time when he garnered a post in the celestial bureaucracy. Hubris proves his downfall when the Buddha manages to trap him under a mountain for five hundred years.

But nope. You'll be disappointed. Well, what do you expect? The paper ads shouts 'No Cuts' - so would you expect the Malaysian Censorship Board to be so-ever generous in allowing a PIG (with a God status) on screen? Bah! Here's what you'll expect to get instead:

Jet Li, as Monkey King Sun Wukong AND Lan Caihe. The only MONK in the world with hair. And drinks Chinese wine. Supernatural power: Speaks Engrish in 'Tang dynasty'.

The drunken immortal-wait-a-sec-not-so-immortal-yes-immortal-again-after-drinking-mercury beggar/slacker with surprisingly good martial arts skill, Lu Yan, played by Jackie Chan. Supernatural power: Speaks Engrish in 'Tang dynasty'.

Here's a glimpse of the most-anticipated fighting duel scene from the movie:

"Li, Yanks been anticipating for this, so we'll throw in some fights, shall we?"

Liu Yi Fei, as Golden Sparrow, an orphan who wants to seek revenge after her parents were killed and she was saved by hiding in a bucket inside a well. Not to be confused with Xiao Yanzi (of My Fair Princess). Supernatural power: Speaks English in a way that she's been going through loads of English lessons.

"Babeh, wanna ride my horse?"

Collin Chou, as the evil Jade Warlord. Supposedly sent by an English-speaking Jade Emperor to teach Monkey God a lesson for creating havoc in Heaven, by tricking the monkey to give in his rod (pun not intended) and be trapped in a Terracotta-like stone figure forever. If you refer back to the original storyline of Journey to the West, he's the evil erhmm...Buddha! Isn't that a serious desecration? Burn down embassies! Bounty on John Fusco's head! Supernatural power: Making up like a drag (WTF with the green eyeshadows?)

"Do I look pweettyy with these green eyeshadows, my love?"

Li Bingbing, as the White Haired Demoness, or rather White Hair Bride (pay attention to the strong reference to the movie earlier). Supernatural power: Trying to hard to be Rapunzel. Or Brigitte Lin.

"I've been waiting for Prince Charming to save me from the tower until my hair gone white!"

Overall, although the storyline is soooo expected and nothing too brag about, the sceneries inside the movie actually saved the film (the paddy fields, the bamboo forest, Shaolin temple and monks - wait a minute, sounds like the scenes from all the Chinese-film-made-big-in-Hollywood, i.e. Fearless, Crouching and Shaolin Soccer, respectively?)...until this scene came along...

Cherry Blossoms in the middle of the dessert, anyone?

Verdict: If you are a fan of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer-like compilation of all movie hits together sans the ridiculous comedy AND Carmen Electra, then leave your brains at home and go for it. Just don't complain that "Oh, this is not how Journey to the West looks like!". Should have came with a disclaimer: "White kids who travel to modern China will not meet kungfu masters. Instead, you'll be executed for speaking up."

Rating: 3/10.

All images are sourced from Rotten Tomatoes.

In Memorium Heath Ledger (1979-2008)

2008-01-23T11:20:00.000+08:00

Yet another young artiste's death, after Brad Renfro, for god-knows-what.

Actor Heath Ledger is found dead

1 hour ago

NEW YORK (AFP) — Australian-born actor Heath Ledger, 28, the co-star of the Oscar-winning movie "Brokeback Mountain," was found dead in a New York residence on Tuesday, police said.

"Heath Ledger was found dead at 3:26 pm this afternoon," a police spokesperson said, saying he was found in an apartment in the posh district of Soho. "We don't know the cause of the death."

The entertainment website TMZ said Heath was discovered "face down on the floor" adding that "law enforcement sources ... believe it was not a crime."

The New York Times said Ledger was discovered by the housekeeper and a masseuse who arrived in the afternoon for an appointment.

They knocked on the door, but "when no one answered, the housekeeper and the masseuse opened the bedroom and found Mr. Ledger naked and unconscious on a bed. They shook him, but he did not respond," the Times said.

Both the New York Times and TMZ quoted officials as saying pills were found near the body, but gave no further details.

According to the newspaper, the apartment was inhabited by actor Mary-Kate Olsen.

Ledger, who was nominated for a best actor Oscar for his portrayal of a gay cowboy in the 2005 film "Brokeback Mountain," had separated from his former fiancee Michelle Williams in September. The pair, who met on the set of the Ang Lee-directed drama, have a two-year-old daughter, Matilda.

Lee had hailed Ledger's performance as a "miracle" of acting, reminiscent of a young Marlon Brando.

Ledger lost the Oscar for best actor in 2006 to Phillip Seymour Hoffman for his portrayal of author Truman Capote in "Capote," but "Brokeback Mountain" won three Academy Awards, including for best director.

The flaxen-haired heartthrob first came to prominence by acting as a homosexual athlete in little-known Australian soap opera "Sweat" in 1996. He played a gay cyclist in the teen soap, set at the Western Australian Institute of Sport that portrayed the lives of Olympic hopefuls.

The creator and writer of the series, John Rapsey, said it was clear even then that Ledger, then a 16-year-old sports champion and high school dropout, possessed an unusual talent.

"He himself had absolutely no problem playing the role. He handled all of that with great aplomb," Rapsey told AFP.

"What was noticeable about him was he was concentrated, very quiet, and you could see that he was really observant of other people."

Ledger, who has never attended acting school and who left his home state of Western Australia for Sydney as a teenager, credited his instincts with his success.

"The one thing that's got me to where I'm sitting is my instincts, you know, and I'm impatient. I didn't want to wait for years to work. I wanted to just get out there and do it," he said in an interview with an Australian television program in 2001.

At 19, Ledger left Sydney for Hollywood, where his standout talent was spotted by Mel Gibson when auditioning 500 actors for the role of his son in "The Patriot." The casting was Ledger's first big-time break and led to his leading role in "A Knight's Tale."

Gibson has described Ledger as possessing "the unknown factor" that "sort of lights up the screen".

Ledger continued his steady impact on Hollywood, with a small role in "Monster's Ball" (2001), followed by the lead in the lightweight "The Four Feathers" (2002), Australian drama "Ned Kelly" (2003) and "The Brothers Grimm" (2005).

At 26, the Australian was the youngest nominee for the best male actor category and the outside chance to take the statue away from fellow contenders Hoffman, David Strathairn, Joaquin Phoenix and Terrence Howard.

This month, Ledger had been working on his latest movie, "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," directed by Terry Gilliam, which was due to be released next year. He also portrayed The Joker in a Batman movie called "Dark Knight" to be released later this year.

Britney, Amy, Pete and Kate take note.

80th Oscar Nominations, My Predictions and WTF? No Simpsons and Lust, Caution?

2008-01-23T11:07:00.000+08:00

My predictions in bolded red. Some are purposely left out as I have no idea at all of the nominees. Let's see how many I got correct.

80th Academy Awards

Announced Categories

Performance by an actor in a leading role
George Clooney in "Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.)
Daniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)
Johnny Depp in "Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
Tommy Lee Jones in "In the Valley of Elah" (Warner Independent)
Viggo Mortensen in "Eastern Promises" (Focus Features)

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Casey Affleck in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (Warner Bros.)
Javier Bardem in "No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)
Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Charlie Wilson's War" (Universal)
Hal Holbrook in "Into the Wild" (Paramount Vantage and River Road Entertainment)
Tom Wilkinson in "Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.)

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Cate Blanchett in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (Universal)
Julie Christie in "Away from Her" (Lionsgate)
Marion Cotillard in "La Vie en Rose" (Picturehouse)
Laura Linney in "The Savages" (Fox Searchlight)
Ellen Page in "Juno" (Fox Searchlight)

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Cate Blanchett in "I'm Not There" (The Weinstein Company)
Ruby Dee in "American Gangster" (Universal)
Saoirse Ronan in "Atonement" (Focus Features)
Amy Ryan in "Gone Baby Gone" (Miramax)
Tilda Swinton in "Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.)

Best animated feature film of the year
"Persepolis" (Sony Pictures Classics): Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
"Ratatouille" (Walt Disney): Brad Bird
"Surf's Up" (Sony Pictures Releasing): Ash Brannon and Chris Buck

Achievement in art direction
"American Gangster" (Universal): Art Direction: Arthur Max; Set Decoration: Beth A. Rubino
"Atonement" (Focus Features): Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
"The Golden Compass" (New Line in association with Ingenious Film Partners): Art Direction: Dennis Gassner; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
"Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount): Art Direction: Dante Ferretti; Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax): Art Direction: Jack Fisk; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson

Achievement in cinematography
"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (Warner Bros.): Roger Deakins
"Atonement" (Focus Features): Seamus McGarvey
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Miramax/Pathé Renn): Janusz Kaminski
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage): Roger Deakins
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax): Robert Elswit

Achievement in costume design
"Across the Universe" (Sony Pictures Releasing) Albert Wolsky
"Atonement" (Focus Features) Jacqueline Durran
"Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (Universal) Alexandra Byrne
"La Vie en Rose" (Picturehouse) Marit Allen
"Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount) Colleen Atwood

Achievement in directing
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Miramax/Pathé Renn), Julian Schnabel
"Juno" (Fox Searchlight), Jason Reitman
"Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.), Tony Gilroy
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage), Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax), Paul Thomas Anderson

Best documentary feature
"No End in Sight" (Magnolia Pictures) A Representational Pictures Production: Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
"Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience" (The Documentary Group) A Documentary Group Production: Richard E. Robbins
"Sicko" (Lionsgate and The Weinstein Company) A Dog Eat Dog Films Production: Michael Moore and Meghan O'Hara
"Taxi to the Dark Side" (THINKFilm) An X-Ray Production: Alex Gibney and Eva Orner
"War/Dance" (THINKFilm) A Shine Global and Fine Films Production: Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine

Best documentary short subject
"Freeheld" A Lieutenant Films Production: Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth
"La Corona (The Crown)" A Runaway Films and Vega Films Production: Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega
"Salim Baba" A Ropa Vieja Films and Paradox Smoke Production: Tim Sternberg and Francisco Bello
"Sari's Mother" (Cinema Guild) A Daylight Factory Production: James Longley

Achievement in film editing
"The Bourne Ultimatum" (Universal): Christopher Rouse
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Miramax/Pathé Renn): Juliette Welfling
"Into the Wild" (Paramount Vantage and River Road Entertainment): Jay Cassidy
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Roderick Jaynes
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax): Dylan Tichenor

Best foreign language film of the year
"Beaufort" Israel
"The Counterfeiters" Austria
"Katyn" Poland
"Mongol" Kazakhstan
"12" Russia

Achievement in makeup
"La Vie en Rose" (Picturehouse) Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald
"Norbit" (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount): Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" (Walt Disney): Ve Neill and Martin Samuel

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
"Atonement" (Focus Features) Dario Marianelli
"The Kite Runner" (DreamWorks, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and Participant Productions, Distributed by Paramount Classics): Alberto Iglesias
"Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.) James Newton Howard
"Ratatouille" (Walt Disney) Michael Giacchino
"3:10 to Yuma" (Lionsgate) Marco Beltrami

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
"Falling Slowly" from "Once" (Fox Searchlight) Music and Lyric by Glen Hansard and: Marketa Irglova
"Happy Working Song" from "Enchanted" (Walt Disney): Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
"Raise It Up" from "August Rush" (Warner Bros.): Nominees to be determined
"So Close" from "Enchanted" (Walt Disney): Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
"That's How You Know" from "Enchanted" (Walt Disney): Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz

Best motion picture of the year
"Atonement" (Focus Features) A Working Title Production: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Paul Webster, Producers
"Juno" (Fox Searchlight) A Dancing Elk Pictures, LLC Production: Lianne Halfon, Mason Novick and Russell Smith, Producers
"Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.) A Clayton Productions, LLC Production: Sydney Pollack, Jennifer Fox and Kerry Orent, Producers
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) A Scott Rudin/Mike Zoss Production: Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) A JoAnne Sellar/Ghoulardi Film Company Production: JoAnne Sellar, Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Lupi, Producers

Best animated short film
"I Met the Walrus" A Kids & Explosions Production: Josh Raskin
"Madame Tutli-Putli" (National Film Board of Canada) A National Film Board of Canada Production Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski "Même Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)" (Premium Films) A BUF Compagnie Production Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse
"My Love (Moya Lyubov)" (Channel One Russia) A Dago-Film Studio, Channel One Russia and Dentsu Tec Production Alexander Petrov
"Peter & the Wolf" (BreakThru Films) A BreakThru Films/Se-ma-for Studios Production Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman

Best live action short film
"At Night" A Zentropa Entertainments 10 Production: Christian E. Christiansen and Louise Vesth
"Il Supplente (The Substitute)" (Sky Cinema Italia) A Frame by Frame Italia Production: Andrea Jublin
"Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)" (Premium Films) A Karé Production: Philippe Pollet-Villard
"Tanghi Argentini" (Premium Films) An Another Dimension of an Idea Production: Guido Thys and Anja Daelemans
"The Tonto Woman" A Knucklehead, Little Mo and Rose Hackney Barber Production: Daniel Barber and Matthew Brown

Achievement in sound editing
"The Bourne Ultimatum" (Universal): Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage): Skip Lievsay
"Ratatouille" (Walt Disney): Randy Thom and Michael Silvers
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax): Matthew Wood
"Transformers" (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro): Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins

Achievement in sound mixing
"The Bourne Ultimatum" (Universal) Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage): Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter Kurland
"Ratatouille" (Walt Disney): Randy Thom, Michael Semanick and Doc Kane
"3:10 to Yuma" (Lionsgate): Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Jim Stuebe
"Transformers" (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro): Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell and Peter J. Devlin

Achievement in visual effects
"The Golden Compass" (New Line in association with Ingenious Film Partners): Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" (Walt Disney): John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier
"Transformers" (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro): Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl and John Frazier

Adapted screenplay
"Atonement" (Focus Features), Screenplay by Christopher Hampton
"Away from Her" (Lionsgate), Written by Sarah Polley
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Miramax/Pathé Renn), Screenplay by Ronald Harwood
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage), Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax), Written for the screen by Paul Thomas Anderson

Original screenplay
"Juno" (Fox Searchlight), Written by Diablo Cody
"Lars and the Real Girl" (MGM), Written by Nancy Oliver
"Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.), Written by Tony Gilroy
"Ratatouille" (Walt Disney), Screenplay by Brad Bird; Story by Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco, Brad Bird
"The Savages" (Fox Searchlight), Written by Tamara Jenkins

Howsy Reviews 'Cloverfield': 9/11 - The Sequel

2008-01-19T16:25:00.000+08:00

I had reservations whether I wanted to watch this or not. Yes, highly anticipated movie of the early year, the 'JJ Abrams' brand and monster destruction. Who wouldn't want to see it? But my reservations came from the extremely short showing time and the expected highly shaky amateurish cinematography. Yes, I'm a sucker and finally gave it a go, especially after my first ever recent trip to NYC.

Well, Mr. Bean has done it. The penguins have done it. And not to mention the numerous 'reality' shows. Yes, the YouTube generation - citizen journalism, amateur film-making, whatever you want to call it. Just that it has been made into a full-feature film, and with monsters.

Like what I wrote for the title for my review on Transformers, "[insert your favourite tehlorlist country] Vindicated, Decepticons' The Fault!", surprise, surprise! Skycrapers got blown down one by one and it's not even a word mentioning 'terrorist'! Something unusual for post-9/11 and especially in NYC, isn't it?

The storyline is pretty straightforward, with spider-like monsters starts attacking exactly at 15 minutes run, and you could get all the spoilers from Wikipedia.

Cinematography? Score? OST? What's these?

Apart from the ridiculous plot of not caring about own's life first, almost emotionless upon seeing own's brother killed by monsters, walking from one uncollapsed apartment tower to another collapsed one scarless and the surprisingly good phone reception, the geographical and spatial accuracy are also compromised.

Like the Statue of Liberty is not just right next to the Brookyln Bridge...

This is Brookyln Bridge...

...and the Statue is that far away from the Bridge.

And many do not know that the Statue is on an island; which means that the Monster must have walked on water, swam from island to mainland or one small step of a Monster is a giant leap for mankind.

And wonder how much Nokia pay them to sell their product in the film?

Overall, I would give the film a 5/10 rating. If you're expecting "non-stop Destruction, Damage, Explosion, Extermination, Injury, Impairment, Harm, Hurt with shiny monsters" like in Transformers, you might be disappointed.

Ok, my bad. The sweet just slightly over an hour duration is just perfect. It will get annoying if it runs too long, with all the shaking and the background voice of the smart-ass filmer.

Now, how about a full feature film featuring Squatgate and Miri fight girls, Lingam, and CSL a.k.a FHM (F*cker; Horny and Mature)? Any takers?

Ratatouille Wins Best Animation for the 65th Annual Golden Globes

2008-01-14T13:27:00.000+08:00

And the rest of the winners of the no-go show:

Best Motion Picture - Drama

American Gangster
Imagine Entertainment/Scott Free Productions; Universal Pictures

Atonement

Working Title Films Limited; Focus Features

Eastern Promises
Kudos Pictures/Serendipity Point Films; Focus Features

The Great Debaters
Harpo Films; The Weinstein Company/MGM

Michael Clayton
Samuels Media and Castle Rock Entertainment a Mirage Enterprises/Section 8 Production; Warner Bros. Pictures

No Country For Old Men
A Scott Rudin/Mike Zoss Production; Miramax Films/Paramount Vantage

There Will Be Blood
A Joanne Sellar/Ghoulardi Film Company Production; Paramount Vantage/Miramax Films

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama

Cate Blanchett – Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Julie Christie – Away From Her

Jodie Foster – The Brave One

Angelina Jolie – A Mighty Heart

Keira Knightley – Atonement

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama

George Clooney – Michael Clayton

Daniel Day-Lewis – There Will Be Blood

James McAvoy – Atonement

Viggo Mortensen – Eastern Promises

Denzel Washington – American Gangster

Best Motion Picture - Musical Or Comedy

Across The Universe
Revolution Studios; Sony Pictures Releasing

Charlie Wilson's War
Universal Pictures/Relativity Media/Participant Productions/Playtone; Universal Pictures

Hairspray
Zadan/Meron Productions / New Line Cinema in association with Ingenious Film Partners; New Line Cinema

Juno
Mandate Pictures/Mr. Mudd Production; Fox Searchlight Pictures

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Parkes/MacDonald and Zanuck Company; DreamWorks/Paramount Distribution / Warner Bros. Pictures

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy

Amy Adams – Enchanted

Nikki Blonsky – Hairspray

Helena Bonham Carter – Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Marion Cotillard – La Vie En Rose

Ellen Page – Juno

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical Or Comedy

Johnny Depp – Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Ryan Gosling – Lars and the Real Girl

Tom Hanks – Charlie Wilson's War

Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Savages

John C. Reilly – Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Cate Blanchett – I'm Not There

Julia Roberts – Charlie Wilson's War

Saoirse Ronan – Atonement

Amy Ryan – Gone Baby Gone

Tilda Swinton – Michael Clayton

Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Casey Affleck – The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford

Javier Bardem – No Country For Old Men

Philip Seymour Hoffman – Charlie Wilson's War

John Travolta – Hairspray

Tom Wilkinson – Michael Clayton

Best Animated Feature Film

Bee Movie
DreamWorks Animation; DreamWorks Animation

Ratatouille

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures; Pixar Animation Studios

The Simpsons Movie
Gracie Films; Twentieth Century Fox

Best Foreign Language Film

4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days (Romania)
The Country of Romania
Mobra Films; IFC Films

The Diving Bell And The Butterfly (France, United States)

The Country of France and The Country of United States
A Kennedy/Marshall Company and Jon Kilik Production; Miramax Films

The Kite Runner (United States)
The Country of United States
DreamWorks Pictures Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and Paramount Classics Participant Productions Present a Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and Parkes/Macdonald Production Distributed by Paramount Classics

Lust, Caution (Taiwan)
The Country of Taiwan
Mr. Yee Productions LLC; Focus Features

Persepolis (France)
The Country of France
247 Films; Sony Pictures Classics

Best Director - Motion Picture

Tim Burton – Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Ethan Coen, Joel Coen – No Country For Old Men

Julian Schnabel – The Diving Bell And The Butterfly

Ridley Scott – American Gangster

Joe Wright – Atonement

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture

Atonement
Written by Christopher Hampton

Charlie Wilson's War
Written by Aaron Sorkin

The Diving Bell And The Butterfly
Written by Ronald Harwood

Juno
Written by Diablo Cody

No Country For Old Men

Written by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

Best Original Score - Motion Picture

Grace Is Gone
Composed by Clint Eastwood

The Kite Runner
Composed by Alberto Iglesias

Atonement

Composed by Dario Marianelli

Eastern Promises
Composed by Howard Shore

Into The Wild
Composed by Michael Brook, Kaki King and Eddie Vedder

Best Original Song - Motion Picture

"Despedida" – Love In The Time Of Cholera
Music By: Shakira and Antonio Pinto
Lyrics By: Shakira

"Grace Is Gone" – Grace Is Gone
Music By: Clint Eastwood
Lyrics By: Carole Bayer Sager

"Guaranteed" – Into The Wild

Music & Lyrics By: Eddie Vedder

"That's How You Know" – Enchanted
Music By: Alan Menken
Lyrics By: Stephen Schwartz

"Walk Hard" – Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Music & Lyrics By: Marshall Crenshaw, John C. Reilly, Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan

Best Television Series - Drama

Big Love (HBO)
Anima Sola and Playtone Productions in association with HBO Entertainment

Damages (FX NETWORK)
FX Productions and Sony Pictures Television

Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
ABC Studios

House (FOX)
Heel and Toe Films, Shore Z Productions and Bad Hat Harry Productions in association with Universal Media Studios

Mad Men (AMC)

Lionsgate

The Tudors (SHOWTIME)
Showtime Presents in association with Peace Arch Entertainment, Working Title, Reveille Productions Limited, An Ireland-Canada Co-Production

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Drama

Patricia Arquette – Medium (NBC)

Glenn Close – Damages (FX NETWORK)

Minnie Driver – The Riches (FX NETWORK)

Edie Falco – The Sopranos (HBO)

Sally Field – Brothers & Sisters (ABC)

Holly Hunter – Saving Grace (TNT)

Kyra Sedgwick – The Closer (TNT)

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Drama

Michael C. Hall – Dexter (SHOWTIME)

Jon Hamm – Mad Men (AMC)

Hugh Laurie – House (FOX)

Bill Paxton – Big Love (HBO)

Jonathan Rhys Meyers – The Tudors (SHOWTIME)

Best Television Series - Musical Or Comedy

30 Rock (NBC)
Universal Media Studios in association with Broadway Video and Little Stranger Inc.

Californication (SHOWTIME)
Showtime Presents in association with Aggressive Mediocrity, and Then…, Twilight Time Films

Entourage (HBO)
Leverage and Closest to the Hole Productions in association with HBO Entertainment

Extras (HBO)

BBC and HBO Entertainment

Pushing Daisies (ABC)
Living Dead Guy Productions, The Jinks/Cohen Company in association with Warner Bros. Television

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy

Christina Applegate – Samantha Who? (ABC)

America Ferrera – Ugly Betty (ABC)

Tina Fey – 30 Rock (NBC)

Anna Friel – Pushing Daisies (ABC)

Mary-Louise Parker – Weeds (SHOWTIME)

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy

Alec Baldwin – 30 Rock (NBC)

Steve Carell – The Office (NBC)

David Duchovny – Californication (SHOWTIME)

Ricky Gervais – Extras (HBO)

Lee Pace – Pushing Daisies (ABC)

Best Mini-Series Or Motion Picture Made for Television

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee (HBO)
A Wolf Films/Traveler’s Rest Production in association with HBO Films

The Company (TNT)
Sony Pictures Television

Five Days (HBO)
HBO Films in association with BBC Films

Longford (HBO)

A Granada Production in association with Channel 4 and HBO Films

The State Within (BBC)
BBC, BBC America

Best Performance by an Actress In A Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Bryce Dallas Howard – As You Like It (HBO)

Queen Latifah – Life Support (HBO)

Debra Messing – The Starter Wife (USA)

Sissy Spacek – Pictures Of Hollis Woods (CBS)

Ruth Wilson – Jane Eyre (PBS)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Adam Beach – Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee (HBO)

Ernest Borgnine – A Grandpa For Christmas

Jim Broadbent – Longford (HBO)

Jason Isaacs – The State Within (BBC)

James Nesbitt – Jekyll (BBC)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Rose Byrne – Damages (FX NETWORK)

Rachel Griffiths – Brothers & Sisters (ABC)

Katherine Heigl – Grey's Anatomy (ABC)

Samantha Morton – Longford (HBO)

Anna Paquin – Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee (HBO)

Jaime Pressly – My Name Is Earl (NBC)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Ted Danson – Damages (FX NETWORK)

Kevin Dillon – Entourage (HBO)

Jeremy Piven – Entourage (HBO)

Andy Serkis – Longford (HBO)

William Shatner – Boston Legal (ABC)

Donald Sutherland – Dirty Sexy Money (ABC)

Lust, Caution Stars Fill 2008 Independent Spirit Awards Nominations

2007-11-29T13:35:00.000+08:00

I'm Not There leads Spirit noms
Wednesday, 28 Nov 2007 12:10

Cate Blanchett is one of six actors to play Dylan in Todd Haynes' dazzling biopic.

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Todd Haynes' Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There has been announced as the 2008 Independent Spirit awards frontrunner, with four major nominations.

Six different actors play the revered songwriter in Haynes' film, including Heath Ledger, Christian Bale and Richard Gere.

But its unorthodox approach to the Blonde on Blonde legend's life is exemplified by the parts played by Cate Blanchett and young black actor Marcus Carl Franklin, who received best supporting actress and best supporting actor nominations.

The film was also nominated for best feature, alongside Juno, The Diving Bell And The Butterfly, A Mighty Heart and Paranoid Park, while Haynes received a best director nomination.

And I'm Not There was yesterday confirmed as the recipient of the event's inaugural Robert Altman award, a prize given in honour of the late auteur to the director, casting agent and cast of an outstanding independent film.

Tony Leung and Tang Wei, the stars of Ang Lee's Venice Golden Lion winner Lust, Caution, are named in the best actor and best actress categories, while Julie Delpy is nominated for best first feature for her debut 2 Days In Paris.

Angelina Jolie's role as widow Marianne Pearl sees her as the firm favourite in the best actress category, with Wei, Sienna Miller (Interview) Parker Posey (Broken English) and Ellen Page (Juno) nominated.

Leung faces stiff competition from Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Savages) Frank Langella (Starting Out In The Evening) Don Cheadle (Talk To Me) and Pedro Castaneda (August Evening).

The 2008 ceremony will be held in Los Angeles on February 23rd, the day before the 80th Academy Awards.

p.s. Apologies for all the C&P news. Haven't got time to do reviews for the latest films that I watched, such as American Gangster (my first movie in USA), Enchanted, Bee Movie etc.

KLIFF can become like Cannes in future, oh really?

2007-11-29T13:31:00.000+08:00

KLIFF can become like Cannes in future, says Rais

By MANJIT KAUR

PETALING JAYA: The inaugural Kuala Lumpur International Film Festival (KLIFF) could attain the level of the famed Cannes Film Festival, said Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim.
He said the five-day event, which began last night, would be improved in its next edition and modelled along the annual Cannes festival, which is one of the world’s oldest, most prestigious and influential film events.
Dr Rais said he had already sought more assistance from the Government to make the event more successful.
“I am sure we will be on par with Cannes in years to come if we use better technology and suitable approaches,” he told reporters after launching the festival at a hotel here.
A total of 22 films from Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa have been entered for the event – themed Celebrating Cultural Diversity – which will include a Motion Picture category.

From Down Under: Rais handing over the Best Documentary award to Australia’s Andrew Vial last night.

The film fest, organised by the National Film Development Corporation and Kuala Lumpur International Film Festival Sdn Bhd, will culminate in the main awards presentation at the Putra World Trade Centre on Dec 2.
Dr Rais added that he was pleased with the number of entries and was positive that more films would be entered in the future.
Last night, the winners of the animation, short film and documentary categories were announced.
Australia bagged the jury merit award for the Best Documentary titled 4, while Malaysia’s Upin & Ipin won the Best Animation award, and Singapore’s Wind received the Best Short Film award.

Oh, really? Can KL show Brokeback Mountain, or even The Last Communist/Village People Radio Show-alikes?

Howsy Reviews Lust, Caution

2007-09-28T05:53:00.000+08:00

Smalltalk: No, this time not featuring DAP, but the real film. Ah, wanted to review loads of movies seen lately - Chuck and Larry, The Brave One, The Invasion, Ratatouille (yeah, that was ages ago) etc, etc...but nobody's reading this, so..blearghhh.

Warning: Plot Spoilers Ahead.

Sex scenes (or the seriously lack of in Malaysia; no, not even a KISS scene!). Erotic. Venice Golden Lion. 'Brokeback' director. Tony Leung. Lee Hommmmm (all the girls, screammmm). Ipoh. Penang. You've heard so much about this film and even probaby read the novel by Chang Ailing, so what's left is for you to actually see it. So is the film up to your Ang Lee-esque expectation?

I think this scene was filmed in Ipoh. You just can't tell the difference between Shanghai and Malaysia.

All the gurls, scream and faint...it's pretty boy Lee Hom...

First of all, "Too much caution, not enough lust" is probably the best phrase to describe the Malaysian-cut version of the film. I mean, c'mon lar, not even a kissing scene? WTF? Where's the show of lust? It makes Tony Leung like playing a second fiddle in the film lar, with so less exposure (pun not intended) time. The irony is that film which do not even feature the title of the film (like Amir Muhammad's Lelaki Komunis Terakhir not even featuring the last communist guy - Chin Peng himself) but still got banned/censored. Aitellya, those at the Censorship Board must be damn pathetic losers who can't get laid.

The closest to a sex scene that you could get in a Malaysian-cut version.

But due credit has to be given for airing this film in Mandarin, and not dubbed in Cantonese - like what they did to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Huo Yian Jia.

As usual, here's the synopsis:

Lust, Caution (Chinese: 色，戒; pinyin: sè，jiè) is an award-winning 2007 film directed by Taiwanese Ang Lee. The film is an adaption of a 1950 short story of the same title by the famed Chinese author Eileen Chang, said to be loosely based on an actual event that took place in 1939-1940. The story is mostly set in World War II-era Shanghai and Hong Kong. It depicts a group of Chinese students plotting to kill a powerful collaborator with the Japanese, using a young woman as a lure.

Poster:

And trailer:

Overall, in 4 words, I would describe the film as:

Blood, Diamond Lust, Caution.

Yes, this is what Ang Lee is telling me through this film, at least the Malaysian-cut version. Just about Wang Jiazhi is about thissss close to assasinating Mr. Yee, that silly girl went and blew the cover, erhmmm...after looking at the diamond that latter gave her (this scene also features Bollywood star, Anupam Kher). So, the luster turned into the lustee?

Run, run, biacth wants to kill meeeeee!!!!!!

What about the rest of the film? Tang Wei is the gem of the film, not just about her classical Chinese women good looks (the face you would see on the infamous face powder box still used by some women now), but also her acting skills which could even earn her an Oscar Best Actress nomination (she 'masters' 3 Chinese dialects - Mandarin, Shanghainese and Cantonese and even speaks a tinge of English).

Here are the rest of the scenes from the film, in no particular order:

Mahjong playing Tai-tais comparing their husband's dic...mean...business.

Student activitism in the film puts the Malaysian student activitism like a Mickey Mouse club.

Oh, Kuang Yumin is actually a closet admirer of Wang Jiachi. But he did not do the 'experiment' to her himself due to 'lack of experience'. (Watch the film to know what 'experiment' m'kay?)

Chin Karlok plays a cameo as a proxy by Lee Hom to get close to Tony Leung.

The obvious lack of chemistry between Joan Chen and Tony Leung as a couple in the film ("the former looks like the latter's mother", so said the annoying and noisy brats at the back seats which prompted me to switch sears) justifies the 'lust'?

Overall, I would give the film a '7/10' rating, the same I gave to Ang's predecessing award-winning Brokeback Mountain.

Oh, did the film ends with this similar shirt-hugging scene, this time by Tony Leung?

Watch the film to find out...;-)

Howsy Reviews Rush Hour 3 - Strictly for Jackie Chan Fans Only!

2007-08-10T11:54:00.000+08:00

Warning: Plot spoilers ahead.

Ah, trilogies. Don't you just love them? I would say year 2007 is 'Year of 3s'. After Spidey, Piratey, Shreky (and Bourney later), Rush Hour 3 ~~will be another pirated 3-in-1 DVD that I would buy~~ is another 'summer blockbuster', banking on the antics of the Jackie Chan-Chris Tucker partnership.

After over-actingly shaking tears in Rob-B-Hood, Jackie Chan, a name synonymous with martial arts and essentially CHINESE (which I don't quite appreciate it - as I was being called 'Jackie' when backpacking in Europe), is back in a Hollywood comeback after the lackluster Around The World in 80 Days (not to be confused with Around The World in 80+3 Trips).

As usual, here's the movie poster:

The synopsis:

Chris Tucker returns to the big screen after a six-year absence as he reunites with the all-star team of co-star Jackie Chan, director Brett Ratner (Rush Hour, Rush Hour 2, X-Men: The Last Stand, Red Dragon), and writer Jeff Nathanson (Rush Hour 2, Catch Me If You Can) to deliver the third installment of the blockbuster Rush Hour franchise. Arriving in theaters on August 10, 2007, Rush Hour 3 sees the beloved action comedy duo of Tucker and Chan reprising their roles as LAPD Detective James Carter and Chinese Chief Inspector Lee respectively. This time around, the two must travel to Paris to battle a wing of the Chinese organized crime family, the Triads. Rush Hour 3 is being produced by Ratner, Jay Stern, and Arthur Sarkissian and executive produced by Roger Birnbaum (Memoirs of a Geisha) and Jon Glickman (The Pacifier).

And the trailer:

So, what fresh - besides Jackie's martial arts and Chris' mouth that won't close (and his Michael Jackson wannabe actions)? So in 5 words, I would describe the film as:

Yellow Black Eiffel Tower Fight

Third time lucky?

Basically nothing. Except that the 10-year old Soo Yung has grown up since the first in the series 10 years ago, needs a bra (according to Chris) and is hot. She is played by Zhang Jingchu, which surprisingly could speak better English than Gong Li or Zhang Ziyi anytime.

Makes one ponder, has Jackie not aged a bit since 10 years ago and still fit to be the bodyguard of the Chinese Ambassador?

One of the memorable scenes include this scene with the giant bloke, as seen in the trailer.

In real life, two of China's prominent tall blokes - Yao Ming and Bao Xishun are both hitched.

The villain is played by Hiroyuki Sanada (last seen in Sunshine - reviewed here), outplacing Steven Seagal and Tony Jaa to play the role. He plays Jackie's 'shiong di' (brother) in the orphanage. (Wonder when Jackie became an orphan, as in the earlier series he was comparing his father's greatness as a cop with Chris Tucker). Because of this, Jackie was too pussified to kill him even though he attempted to assassinate Consul Han.

They've done Chris' homeland in 1, and Jackie's in 2, so they've decided to follow the Year of the France (hey - what's Mr. Bean's Holiday, Ratatouille?) and filmed it in Gay Paree. Sad to say, the film has to depend a lot on this prop - the Eiffel Tower; which the fight scene at the restaurant supposedly operated by the Chinese triad is kinda too elaborated and boring.

And guess what? Roman Polanski, the Oscar-winning director, cameos as a yellow pages-whipping French police in the film!

Overall, I would rate the film as '4/10'. A summer popcorn flick and strictly for Jackie Chan fans only. How I'd wish Jackie would take up some romantic roles (not unlike Gorgeous), although he did attempt to sing a bit in the film.

Want more Eiffel Tower? Here are two taken at New Year's Countdown 2005.

All images are sourced from Rotten Tomatoes.

Vacancy Makes Possessed (Starring Amber Chia) Looks Like An Oscar Film

2007-07-27T13:32:00.000+08:00

Didn't really intend to blog about the thriller flick, Vacancy, currently showing in cinemas, as it is pretty pointless. I mean, if Possessed, the movie where Amber Chia was made fun of by Kenny is made to look like an Oscar film by this film, you wouldn't want to waste your [insert the ticket price] to watch this movie or even bother reading this filler post.

In 5 words, I would describe the film as:

Ride, Ruin, Rent, Run, Revive

The storyline of this B-grade film, although starring almost A-grade actor Luke Wilson and actress Kate Beckinsale, is pretty straightforward and predictable. What you have seen in the Saw and Hostel series, you'll probably seen all of them again here. I'll describe each of the plotline in 3 words:

Car broke down.

Couple rents motel.

Weirdo guards motel.

Motel has cams.

Scared couple runs.

Woman then escaped.

Man then survived.

Very predictable, eh? Overall, I would give the film a '3/10' rating. The extra point from 2/10 is for the money saved from not seeing it in the cinema. Luckily. Easily a Razzies contender.

Howsy Reviews The Simpsons Movie

2007-07-27T12:38:00.000+08:00

Warning: Plot spoilers ahead.

It's finally here. After 18 seasons = 18 years and over 400 episodes on TV, the most famous dysfunctional family in the US is finally on the silver screen! What took them so long?

Perhaps the only Oscar-worthy 2D animation this year, The Simpsons Movie breaks the norm of 3D animations flooding our cinemas and it did not disappoint. This point was even promoted in the sneak preview trailer.

Let me start off by describing the film in 5 words:

What took them so long?

Yeh, bloody long. You can read about the conception of the idea to the production which took about 6 years from Wikipedia.

And here's the trailer:

Before the obligatory opening theme song, the film started off with an Itchy and Scratchy sketch which cut into Homer saying why would the audience pay to watch something which is free on TV. Yeah, why? Because of the passion for the cult characters, props and the influences on culture, you see. From Homer's D'oh (which is listed in the Oxford English Dictionary), Bart's Cowabunga, Nelson's HaHa, Mr. Burns' Eeeexcellent to props like the D'ohnut, Quik E-mart, the nuclear power plant - you name it. All of these you're finally getting to see it on the silver screen. It really feels afresh, despite 18 seasons. As a matter of fact, I almost cried in joy when I saw the shorter remade of the opening sequence, which then cut into it being sung by Greenday.

Although the opening sequence was different, the plot did not deviate much from the series, with either one of the Simpsons member screwing up something (normally Homer, followed by Bart) and then all's well, ends well. The introduction circles around with the estranged relationship of Homer with Bart (to the point that Homer like his newly-adopted pet, Spider Pig even more) and the polluted lake of Springfield, with Lisa doing an Al-Gore with not much of support - except from her newfound Irish fling - Colin (as a homage to Colin Farrell).

Estranged relationship between Bart and Homer.

The star who stole the show - Spider Pig.

The movie also features Bart Simpson in a split second nudity, which fortunately was spared from the scissors of the Malaysian Censorship Board. Hey, you'll never know if they would be sexually aroused by cartoon characters!

Oh yeah, before that, Grampa got a premonition from God that a disaster related to a curly tail, thousands of eyes and EEPA is going to happen. It finally turned out to be true, all due to the Spider Pig's fault - when Homer threw an overflowing silo full of pig's waste into the lake, a squirrel get mutated, being captured by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and was brought to the attention of USA President Schwarzenegger. Like the very current one, he 'only leads, not reads' and picked up a proposal to put a giant dome over Springfield, to quarantine the pollution.

The Springfieldians later found out that it was Homer's fault and turned into mobs.

The Simpsons managed to escape, became fugitives and had no choice but to relocated to Alaska.

Meanwhile, back at Springfield, resources are running low and the residents thought of ways to escape. The President picked up yet another disastrous plan - to bomb Springfield into a new Grand Canyon. The rest of the family then went back to Springfield to save it, leaving selfish Homer alone in Alaska. But all's well ends well. Homer got the epiphany on how to win Marge's heart back - and saved the day. How did he do it? I'll leave it to you all to watch it. Oh, it involves this funny scene involving Homer and the giant fork, as seen in the initial trailers.

All well's ends well.

ALL the characters in the TV series are featured in the film, although some were given extra prominence, for example the hillbilly Cletus. Overall, I would give the film a '6/10' rating. Although the film lacks in laugh-worthy scenes, it is something afresh from its TV series and definitely worth the whole family watching it. A series contender for Oscar Best Animation alongside Ratatouille.

All pictures sourced from Rotten Tomatoes.

Howsy Reviews Harry Potter 5: The Order of the Phoenix

2007-07-12T13:20:00.000+08:00

To borrow the words of a film reviewer whom I share her very sentiment:

Harry, it’s not anger or Voldemort. It’s testosterone.

I’m writing this review for few people on Earth who, like me, have not read any of the Harry Potter books. There must be a few of us left. So, if you have been held at Guantanamo Bay or just woke up from a coma, this is the review for you.

I admit that I do not know the intricacies of the Potter mythology or any of the spells. I’m accepting this film on its face.

Yes, I don't have any of Pothead's books. OK, I'm lying...I have one. But I haven't read it. Bought it coz it was cheap. So, that goes. Reviewing this film on its face. And since the reviewer claims it's the testosterone and to pay homage to Daniel's full frontal in Equus, I'm going to testosteronize this review. And being the 5th in the series, also the 5th summer blockbuster sequel (after Spidey, POTC, Shrek, Die Hard), I would review this in all things '5'.

The movie's synopsis in 5 sentences, from IMDB:

As another year begins for Harry, at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry so does the never-ending articles stating that he and Dumbledore are insane.

As the ministry starts to invent new and malicious lies about Harry's account on Voldemort's return, Hogwarts begins to change for the worse as the ministry sends in their cure for all the insanity, Professor Dolores Jane Umbridge.

As she begins to inflict her rules and regulations on the students at Hogwarts they begin to find that with her as their teacher, they'll never be ready for the outside world.

So Harry along with his friends decides to take things into their own hands and begin to learn magic the real way.

As Harry starts having visions of terrible events happening with the Ministries very walls he decides to take action, leading himself and his friends into battle, ultimately teaching them what friendship, loyalty and sacrifice really means.

The movie in 5 words:

Film climax is the kissing

The movie's 5 promotional posters:

The movie's trailer in around 50 secs:

The movie's plot in 5 pictures:

Harry caught playing with his wand in public, put in trial and acquitted.

The conservative master who stopped students from playing with their wands and created mayhem.

The Minah Tudungs behind me shouted 'Cutenya kucing-kucing tu' upon spotting the kittens on the wall plates.

The students pacted against the biotch by participating in an underground wand-playing orgy.

The hideous lord-with-no-nose tries to penetrate into Harry's teenage mind coz he hasn't got one himself.

Oh, the Godfather got killed.

The movie's 5 main selling points:

The reappearance of 'Golum'

The kissing scene

.
.
.

Ah, watch it yourself.

Overall, I would give it a 2/5 rating. There's really no climax in the movie except for that kissing scene. Strictly for Potter fans only. If you expect an action-packed, CGI-laden summer blockbuster, still stick to Tranformies.

Goblet of Fire's review in my parent blog The Sensintrovert here.

Howsy's Transformers Review: [insert your favourite tehlorlist country] Vindicated, Decepticons' The Fault!

2007-07-03T13:17:00.000+08:00

Transformers? What Transformers? Oh, robots? Do people control them from inside?

OK. I have no childhood. I have absolutely no slightest idea of what they are, except for the theme song opening 'Transformers, soemthing-something-something'. Well, this is the only non-sequel, non-animated summer blockbuster and Malaysia was among the first in the world to catch it (only opening in the US to co-incide with the 4th July Independence Day), decided to catch it. Plus my friend was like literally trying to sell his liver to get the tickets...

As usual, here's the movie poster

The synopsis:

High-school student Sam Witwicky buys his first car, who is actually the Autobot Bumblebee. Bumblebee defends Sam and his girlfriend Mikaela Banes from the Decepticon Barricade, before the other Autobots arrive on Earth. They are searching for the Allspark, and the war on Earth heats up as the Decepticons attack a United States military base in Qatar. Sam and Mikaela are taken by the top-secret agency Sector 7 to help stop the Decepticons, but when they learn the agency also intends to destroy the Autobots, they formulate their own plan to save the world.

And the trailer:

Since this is like the most reviewed movie in the blogsphere, I'd stick to this 9-word descriptions of the movie:

[insert your favourite tehlorlist country] Vindicated, Decepticons' The Fault!
(wouldn't that be better - all human mankind united against er...robots)

All Destruction, Damage, Explosion, Extermination, Injury, Impairment, Harm, Hurt

If Robots Are Smart, They Don't Know Bid E-Bay?

(as to why they had to search high and low for the spectacles)

144-minute CGI climax with a tinge of high-school flick

So, you want pictures? I give you pictures. The movie has all the characters for a typical summer blockbuster flick.

The teenager's first...

Big creatures and monsters invading earth...

The hunk/jock...

The hot chick...

Finding a treasure...

The family embarrassment...

The token black guy....

The war scene...

Overall, the message that I get from the film is globalisation. An US Spanish-speaking soldier chasing robots designed in Japan (which could be manufactured in China) with after-sales-service call centre in India. How about that?

The rating? I would give it a '6/10'. It is an awesome movie but sadly with bublegum pop effect.

All pictures are sourced from Rotten Tomatoes.

The Most Favourite Animal + TV Genre = Surf's Up!

2007-06-22T11:58:00.000+08:00

What is the formula for a well-received animation, especially for the kids? Well, take the most favourite TV genre nowadays (reality), and the most favourite animal of all time (Oscar 2006: Best Docu, 2007: Best Animation), you get Surf's Up.

Awww...penguins...in a mockumentary...how cute they are...

Swifty first gave a scoop on what sort of animation Surf's Up is. Yes, it is a mockumentary/realitentary (makes your mind boggle of how they get cameras and interviewers following the surfer in the sea all the time) and isn't quite your average slapstick-joke animation you get nowadays which makes it underappreciated by the mainly-children audience.

As usual, here's the movie poster:

The synopsis:

A stylistically daring CGI feature, "Surf's Up" is based on the groundbreaking revelation that surfing was actually invented by penguins. In the film, a documentary crew will take audiences behind the scenes and onto the waves during the most competitive, heartbreaking and dangerous display of surfing known to man, the Penguin World Surfing Championship.

And the trailer (which gives obvious hints of what sort of animation you would expect):

In 4 words, I would describe the film as:

Penguin + Reality Show = Realitentary

And here are the characters of the film:

Cody Maverick, the Ray (of Everybody Loves Raymond, except that his mom doesn't quite bother him) of Shiverpool.

Chicken Joe, the unnecessary 'idiot-trying-to-be-funny' of the film, who couldn't figure out that it was being cooked. Oh, a reluctant hero also.

Tank, the surf jock and also a momma's boy. Have more satisfaction stroking his won trophies than actually hooking up with a real trophy wife.

Lani, the supposedly 'blonde bombshell' in this testosterone-laden movie.

And of course, Geek a.k.a. Big Z, the self-disgraced-comeback mentor for Cody.

Like what Swifty said, the storyline bears soem resemblance with Cars.

Think you have had enough of penguins? Not yet. Well, at least they are trying to vary it by putting a new species, the Snares penguins, which have distinct bright yellow eyebrow-stripes. They had their try with mating(and also a parody), tap-dancing, and surfing now - so what's next? I, Tux, a film about Linux next?

Overall, I would give it a '5/10' rating, to be fair to the rating I gave to lacklustre Shrek 3.

Howsy Reviews Shrek 3: Where A Dying Scene Could Be Funny

2007-06-01T14:23:00.000+08:00

It was out in the States on the 18th last week, so wasn't quite surprised when I spotted its no-so-original copies in the markets of Cambodia. But resisted from buying it (the shopkeeper was also honest saying that it is a CAM version) and only saw it Malaysia today. Should consider myself lucky as those in the UK could only see on the 19th of June while KJ in Finland could only see it on our 50th Independence Day! How bout that!

The third summer trilogy blockbuster out (after Spidey and Pirates), Shrek 3 is back again after a ritual 3 year lapse since its prequel (wow, so many 3s today!). From courtship to marriage/meet the parents, Shrek 3 is now about assuming family responsibilities and parenthood.

As usual, here's the movie's poster:

Its synopsis:

When his new father-in-law, King Harold falls ill, Shrek is looked at as the heir to the land of Far, Far Away. Not one to give up his beloved swamp, Shrek recruits his friends Donkey and Puss in Boots to install the rebellious Artie as the new king. Princess Fiona, however, rallies a band of royal girlfriends to fend off a coup d'etat by the jilted Prince Charming.

And the (rather misleading) trailer:

The storyline is pretty straightforward and predictable (when half of the cinema audience are kids, what do you expect?), but with sarcasms and suggestives. And I would say it is 50% 'Charming coup' and 50% 'finding Artie'. In just 3 words, I would describe the film as:

King-dodger, baby-skeptical ogre

The regulars are back, with Shrek and Fiona as a couple, doing couple things...with Donkey and Puss interrupting all the time...

Donkey, despite having his own family with Dragon and having cute Dronkeys, decides to join in the beasti...I mean, the fun with Shrek and Fiona. :-)

Awww....and this is the plushie Dronkey I've been dying for. Can someone get me one?

The gender confused Fox, Pinocchio with his growing organ, the three pigs and Gingi are also back.

And introducing the spotlight of the show, Artie, the heir of the King, voice by Justin Timberlake. This is not the first time JT has played a role in Shrek. Do you still remember seeing Prince Justin's poster on Fiona's bedroom wall in Shrek 2?

Almost looks the same, but with more hair, shorter and a not-so-sexyback.

Shrek was reluctant being the heir to the throne...

Shrek makeover going wrong.

So he had to find another candidate to take over - Artie, Fiona's cousin, who is studying at a high school named Worcestershire (a real province in Britain famous for its Lea and Perrins sauce).

Where there's high school, there'll be cheerleaders, jocks and balls...

Oh, as mentioned in the title, the dying scene of the King-Frog is indeed funny. Yes, even his funeral, which his coffin is a Foot Locker box! Kids, don't try this at home.

Along the way when they attempted to bring Artie back as King, they met a Harry Porter-like wizard...

While Charming is busy planning his coup-on-stage (is there such a phrase?) with other fairy tale villains like The Hook, some evil trees et al., Fiona teams up with her mother and other fairy tale beauties like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel. Go Women Power! But guess who is the betrayer among them all? (Hint: She comes with a not-very-short cum not-very-real hair).

Overall, I would rate the film as '5/10'. Not too sugary, not too childish, and not too adult-ish (although at one point I suspect that the kind Malaysian censors had censored the part when Shrek asked Fiona what should they do at the happy ending). For a feel good family laugh, this is a movie is to choose simply over some certain Pilates. Oh, don't miss out Damien Rice's 9 Crimes in the OST (which is not in the official listing).

Ah, can't wait that long till 2010 for Shrek 4!

All pictures are sourced from Rotten Tomatoes.

Howsy Reviews '28 Weeks Later'

2007-05-11T14:30:00.000+08:00

Let me make this clear first. I'm not a fan of virus-swiping-out-country-hero-saves-the-day kinda films. But I decided to give 28 Weeks Later, the sequel to 28 Days Later (which I've not seen) as I want to see what Danny Boyle is worth after his Sunshine flop. But I was disappointed. Read on further to know why.

Had the chance to choose between these two but chose the left one as I still don't quite have much faith investing my RM 8 into locally-made movies that insult my intelligence. Any positive reviews on the right film, please let me know. But I guess my intelligence was even more insulted watching the left movie.

As usual, here's the movie synopsis:

Seven months after the rage virus has annihilated the British isles, the US army declares that the war against infection has been won, and that the reconstruction of the country can begin. In the first wave of returning refugees, a family is reunited--but one of them unwillingly carries a terrible secret. The virus is not yet dead, and this time, it is more dangerous than ever.

Its trailer:

In 5 words, I would describe the film as :

Bloody zombie virus f*cked Britain

Basically, the storyline is so very predictable that you'd rather write yourself a better story that that. I let these pictures and captions do the story-telling.

Zombie virus attacks Britain.

Mom left at home.

Dad runs for life.

Kids survived and brought back to repopulate Britain 28 weeks later.

US Army Forces issued shoot-to-kill order after Mom infects Dad and Dad bites people.

Two US Army Forces 'ganged-up' against the shooting rest as the kids have special immunity in their blood.

Kids finally saved by heli waiting at the spanking new Wembley stadium, but Boy was infected from Dad and Girl had to kill Dad.

And the ending? Well, the kids crossed the channel and infects France.

To save time and money, you'd rather read the spoiler here.

So, will there be 28 Months Later? I won't be watching it for sure.

Overall, I would give the film a lame '3/10' rating. If you want some virus-infection-zombie-biting-people-on-streets and something British, stick to Shaun of The Dead. At least there are some romance and comedy in it.

Special message to the blabber mouth couple in front of me who think that they own the cinema and the whole world owes them:

Oi, itu bukan virus SARS lah, bangang. Kalo kena virus SARS, takde gigit orang darah melimpah-limpah macam tu. Orang tu terlantar kat katil tak dapat nafas lalu mampus.

Top 10 Things All Children Must NOT Learn from Spiderman 3

2007-05-07T12:26:00.000+08:00

Warning: This post contains plot spoilers.

Went to see Spiderman 3 last Friday (I know, I was kinda late) but no time to blog about it till now...

Since this is like the most reviewed film of the year in the Malaysian blogosphere, I won't bother to review it extensively here. Nevertheless, here's the movie synopsis:

Peter Parker has finally managed to piece together the once-broken parts of his life, maintaining a balance between his relationship with Mary-Jane and his responsibility as Spider-Man. But more challenges arise for our young hero. Peter's old friend Harry Obsourne has set out for revenge against Peter; taking up the mantle of his late father's persona as The New Goblin, and Peter must also capture Uncle Ben's real killer, Flint Marko, who has been transformed into his toughest foe yet, the Sandman. All hope seems lost when suddenly Peter's suit turns jet-black and greatly amplifies his powers. But it also begins to greatly amplify the much darker qualities of Peter's personality that he begins to lose himself to. Peter has to reach deep inside himself to free the compassionate hero he used to be if he is to ever conquer the darkness within and face not only his greatest enemies, but also...himself.

In 9 words, I would describe the film as:

Geeky turned suave emo; personal revenge in New York.

Decided to give it a twist for this time's movie review and it's been a while since this blog had a 'Top 10' post, so here's one. Modeled after the Narnia's one, here's Top 10 Things All Children Must NOT Learn from Spiderman 3:

1. Meteorites do not produce grass jelly/cincau-like substance. And no, it won't turn you into a super-villain if you ingest them/they stick to you.

2. You wouldn't want to block a bullet for a person who 'killed your father'. Even if your butler told you the 'truth'.

3. If you can turn into sand or produce sand, you won't be a super-villain. You are a superhero instead, and you can even 'prevent bankruptcy'. But you stand the risk of sparking war between two countries separated by a causeway.

4. In certain countries, you can't just simply hang from things in a park (especially gooey stuff), hold hands with your gf and snog them publicly. Actually can kau tim one but it depends whether you want to do so or not.

5. Plagiarism actually pays, when you work for the press in a certain country. The plagiarist continues to be a serial one and in turn will sue the whistleblower back.

6. Combing your hair down and embracing jazz doesn't instantly make you a suave emo. You've got to try harder than that.

7. Black does not normally reflect as red on a mirror.

8. In real life, when biological or physics experiments went wrong, it would be fatal or you would get cancer from mutation; not turn into sand or...erhmmm...Spiderman.

9. Gooey white stuff will not be spewed out from fingers, without much er...stimulation. Or whenever and wherever you want it. If yes, then you're a loser and pervert, respectively.

10. If you lip-sync, you wouldn't be hired at Broadway in the first place; not wait for your few performances and negative reviews.

Overall, I give the film a '5/10' rating. This is the most sugary-coated and emo series in the trilogy so far. And not unlike being a MP, stop being a superhero if you attend to your personal business all the time.

Howsy Reviews 'Sunshine'

2007-04-27T11:35:00.000+08:00

It's been a while since my last movie review, so due to ~~popular~~ Swifty's demand, here's a review of the movie Sunshine. Didn't intend to review it as I was pissed off by the reverse culture of Malaysians bringing their whole village to the cinema and thinking they own the cinema by making noises.

As usual, here's the movie poster:

The synopsis:

Seven astronauts on board of space ship Icarus II have the assignment of saving mankind by detonating a gigantic bomb into the dying Sun. Due to the screening effect of the solar wind, their communication link with the Earth is cut. The success of their mission, as well as their own survival relies solely on their own judgment, which is altered by the 16-month trip to the star. The mystery of Icarus I and her crew that left Earth and went lost closed to the sun seven years earlier is clearly a bad omen. Then as the ultimate goal is almost reached a terrible accident occurs that jeopardizes the whole mission. Due to a sudden oxygen shortage, three members of the crew must be killed so that the others can survive and complete the mission.

And the trailer:

I have to admit that I'm not a fan of sci-fi films. I am the one who can't differentiate between Star Wars and Star Trek. But gasp! "DATUK MICHELLE YEOH", so blasted the movie posters exclusively in Malaysia. So to see what she is worth since the big-time flop, Memoirs of a Geisha, I gave it a chance. Wanted to catch it on 5th April in the UK, but I was already back that time and only saw the 'second-handed' movie two weeks ago.

In 5 words, I would describe the film as:

Final Destination 4: Sun Wor(star)shipping

Almost like a sequel to the brainless Final Destination franchise, one dies after another (Asians die first, Caucasians die last) in a second mission attempt to save the dying Sun. Minus the spooky and telepathic-b*llshit n stuff, of course. Plus an almost-as-lame-as-M. Night Shyamalan twist at the end.

Here are some scenes from the movie. Warning: Spoilers ahead!

This scene could actually make a pretty good Rayban ad.

The team to save the Sun looks promising, boasting a multi-ethnic/multi-nationality team. But guess who dies last/survives at the end?

Awwww...you won't believe that Michelle Yeoh actually died from fondling a plant. Can you name another popular plant fondler, who happened to put his hand on the former's shoulder? ;)

Still proud that Datuk still carries a Malaysian accent in her English pronunciation. :)

Oh yeah, an Asian guys screwed up and killed himself at the end (rings a bell?). The blue-eyed Caucasian literally saved the day. Ho hum.

Bling-bling astronaut suit, anyone?

Favourite lesson from movie: 90%? of dust is caused by human skin.

Favourite editing from movie: Subliminal flashing of the faces of the predecessor mission team as the successor team enters their spacecraft. Wonder if Barisan Najis will be desperate enough to stoop to this tactic in our electronic media in order to win the buy-election?

Overall, I would give the film a '4/10' rating. Strongly recommended for hard-core sci-fi/astronomy fans only.

Wonder what our Bolehnauts will do if they face the similar conditions? Btw, anyone heard about their news recently? ;)

Howsy Reviews 'Mukhsin', The First Film He Watched After His Homecoming

2007-04-04T13:09:00.000+08:00

Despite showing almost a month ago, only had the chance to watch it today before it dissolves away from the Malaysian cinemas.

A film by a 'controversial' director and gaining 2 awards at the Berlinale; this film needs no prior introduction. But despite that, the film blasted off with the Berlinale award freezing the screen for almost a minute. Perhaps Malaysians love awards. Perhaps Malaysians mudah lupa (easy to forget) that this film has won awards. Perhaps Grand Brilliance, the distributor of the film, wants to hard sell it. But do you see Oscar-winning films having their awards plastered all over the silver screen?

I haven't actually seen the two prior films - Sepet and Gubra before this so I can't comment on the continuity of them in this film. In just 2 words, I would describe the film as:

Laidback, sweet

I had a colleague who asked me once if the life in the Orient would be very relaxed and laidback. But I begged to differ. I said that we are still a developing country so we need to work harder than the rest and cannot afford to have a laidback lifestyle. But I was wrong. Life in Malaysia is pretty laidback after all. I mean at least that is what it is portrayed in this movie, which a commenter in Swifty's blog agrees to this point:

Secondly, after I posted my MUKHSIN blog entry, I got to talking with an American friend who has seen the movie. I'd be interested in getting your opinion about an issue she raised: i.e., that she couldn't figure out what Orked's parents did for a living, ditto Orked's family's neighbors, and worried that people who view the movie at international film festivals are going to think that Malaysians aren't working (too hard) for a living.

On the storyline, I don't have many complaints on it. The movie has its fair share of light and heavy moments. The cameos in it are interesting. The 'Brokeback Mountain shirt-leaving/hugging' in the end was touching. The film also touches on the issues facing the Malay community, like sending kids to Chinese vernacular schools, infidelity and polygamy and debts from instalments. It could be better if the romance between the two kids could be developed further.

But on the technical side, I have lots of complaints. This film lacks the concept of dimension, space and geography. Orked's mother looks exceptionally young. Orked and Mukhsin themselves seem to have a premature puberty (12 years old having changed voice and 10 years old developing mammary glands). Audience familiar with the geography of Malaysia will be very confused. At one time they will see the school bus originating from Damansara and a kid wearing a Sarawak t-shirt. Another time they will see car plates from different states, paddy field supposedly from Kedah and amateur football teams as far as Muar coming to that elusive village. Then suddenly there's a brothel and a snooker parlour of out nowhere. Sorry to say this, but Malaysian films are still hopeless on the trailer, dialogue recording (why do you have to re-dialogue in the studio everytime?) and the subtitles part (Why repeat English subtitles when they are talking in English? Shouldn't it be in Malay? People who don't understand English don't seem to get the 'tampon virginity-losing joke'.)

Overall, I would give the film a '5/10' rating. A refreshing Malaysian flick in the midst of the flooding of brainless horror movies.

p.s. The 'music video' at the end of the film - is that really necessary?

Howsy Reviews 'Mr. Bean's Holiday'

2007-03-26T06:56:00.000+08:00

Ah, Mr. Bean. A name so familiar yet almost neglected since its full feature film 10 years ago and the animated series, Mr. Bean's Adventures. Mr. Bean's Holiday premiered in the UK on Mother's Day last week as the official film for Red Nose Day 2007, with money from the film going towards the charity Comic Relief and was released as sneak preview this weekend.

Warning: Plot spoilers ahead.

As usual, here's the movie poster:

The synopsis:

Mr. Bean returns but not for long as he goes on his travels to the south of France where mishap and mayhem begin, by the end Bean even has his video diaries at the Cannes Film Festival.

And the trailer:

No. The laptop scene is not included in the movie itself. Dunno why.

In 1969, man landed on the moon. In 2007, man played stones in space? ;)

In 10 words, I would describe the film as:

Mr. Bean's Europe Backpacking Lesson 101: Never Miss A Train

Mr. Bean's signature selfish and inconsiderate (I wouldn't say totally foolish) slapstick comedy scenes are back again, only that he is now more mature and 30% less silly. Hey, at least he knows how to operate a camcorder! Some of the familiar scenes include:

1. Walking through the traffic.

2. Demanding a stranger to hold his camcorder. And re-recording it several times, despite the train is leaving.

3. The restaurant scene, where he tried to get rid of his unwanted food by all means.

4. Impatience towards senior citizens.

Basically that are just it. Although some of the scenes are dragged on too long, they still brought back sweet memories long before there was Borat.

But what about the props? His Yellow Mini Cooper is back (with the outer lock), but is his bear?

Well, apparently according to this book which I happened to flip through when I was in Borders, he tried to apply for a visa for him but couldn't get as 'it is a restricted quarantined animal'. Aww...poor bear.

Overall, I would rate the film as "6/10". Brings back a pretty good memory since 10 years ago when I still go to the movies with my parents.

p.s. Go flip through this book if you have the chance. I think it's even more funnier than the movie, with Bean's spoofed letters to the Queen, Kofi Annan and Chirac!

Oh, and if you still haven't got a clue by now, Thank You in French is Merci, not Gracias.

Howsy Reviews 'I Want Candy', Featuring Carmen Electra in a Main Role

2007-03-26T06:15:00.000+08:00

Carmen Electra. Hmmm...can she even act? Besides negligible cameos in the Scary Movie/Date Movie/Epic Movie cash cow-milking films and those films, this is the first film where she finally has a main role (and the main selling point of the film) in it. But is the movie generally good?

Since this movie is so low profile that I can't even find a movie somewhere, here's the trailer straight away.

And I'm too lazy to review the whole storyline so here's a C&P from the net:

BRIT comedy I WANT CANDY (15), directed by Steven Surjik (Wayne's World 2), follows two Leatherhead lads in their dream of breaking into the movie-making business.

Frustrated at film school, film geeks Joe and Baggy (Tom Riley and Tom Burke) head to London with their imagined killer script but things don't go well.

Until, that is, a desperate producer (Eddie Marsan) says he'll give their script a chance - if the pair can recruit Candy Fiveways (Carmen Electra), the world's number one porn star.

Along their way they have numerous obstacles to overcome: parents, lack of money and the seedy scene surrounding them.

Jimmy Carr turns up as a local video shop worker and fellow Brit comic Mackenzie Crook also makes an appearance.

It is a predictable comedy college film but good-hearted fun and highly likeable despite its smutty side. - EMILY GOVAN

In 5 words, I would describe the film as:

Girl Next Door The Sequel

Do you still remember the storyline of The Girl Next Door? Yup, three years later they are back with the same storyline except that the bloke attends a film school in Leatherhead, Surrey now and the girl is now a full-bodied pRon star.

Here's a scene from the film:

Apparently, the greatest pRon star in the world was so touched with the script of two blokes attending an obscure film school that she agreed to film in it at the house of one of the bloke with an undisclosed payment (which is kinda nothing).

A great disappointment for a 'indie' Brit flick and a disgrace to Nick Love and Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg alikes.

I would give the film a '3/10' rating. Strictly for hardcore Carmen Electra fans only. I would have given a 2/10 but the extra 1 point was due to I got the ticket FOC. Oh, and the soundtrack, featuring Mel C.

Oh, last but not least, if you are going to expect some saucy scene for 'art reasons', stick to 9 Songs or Shortbus. Or even the American Pie series. The compulsary 'shooting' scene in this movie wasn't even real or funny at all.

Tsai Ming-liang's 'I Don't Want To Sleep Alone' Banned in Malaysia

2007-03-05T08:18:00.000+08:00

From The Star:

Tsai’s first Malaysian movie banned

BY ALLAN KOAY and LI EE KEE

PETALING JAYA: After 15 years abroad, Sarawak-born director Tsai Ming-liang came home to make a film in Malaysia.

Now that he is ready to screen it here, the National Censorship Board has banned it.

Scenes of street brawls, air pollution, poverty and menacing foreigners, as depicted in the film, were deemed to be bad for the image of Malaysia.

I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone, which was shot around Kuala Lumpur last year, stars Taiwanese actor Lee Kang-sheng and local newcomer Norman Atun.

It tells about Hsiao-kang (Lee), a Taiwanese who was robbed and beaten in the streets of the city and rescued later by immigrant worker Rawang (Norman).

The film premiered at the Venice International Film Festival last year and was also nominated for several Golden Horse awards in Taiwan, where Tsai is based.

The film received a seven-minute standing ovation in Venice, said producer Leonard Tee.

“Everyone was moved and touched by the film. We wanted to share that glory with our fellow Malaysians.”

Tee said they received the censorship board’s letter on the ban on Feb 1 and an appeal has since been made. They expect a decision by this week.

He said the board gave eight reasons for the ban, which included the depiction of Malaysians as cold-hearted as seen in scenes of local people beating up and deceiving foreign workers.

Contacted in Taipei, Tsai said he was sad the film had been banned here.

“I’m Malaysian, so I do understand the sensitivities and rules and regulations in the country. And I have done my best to abide by them.

“The film is not about Malaysia. The theme is about human relationship and the need for man to find love, warmth and someone they can depend on.”

Tsai is currently promoting the film in Taiwan, where it is slated for release on March 23. It will also be released in Japan at the end of the month, and then in Singapore and the United States in April.

About the film and director:

Synopsis
After being robbed and attacked in Kuala Lumpur, Hsiao-kang, a homeless man, is taken in by some Bangladeshi workers. One of them, Rawang, lets him sleep beside him on an old mattress he had found. As he nurses Hsiao-kang’s body, he feels calm and contented. Is it because of the mattress or Hsiao-kang? Chyi, a coffee shop maid is also nursing someone’s body – her lady boss’s paralysed son. Chyi dreads her life. When she meets Hsiao-kang later, her body fills with lustful desire. However, she realises how little freedom she has when she can’t find a place to have sex with him. As Hsiao-kang slowly recovers, he finds himself caught between Rawang and Chyi, pleading for attention like a stray cat but also always ready to fly away like a moth. Chyi’s lady boss also lusts after Hsiao-kang’s youthful body, realising that he resembles her paralysed son.

Meanwhile, a heavy haze invades the city that is so humid that it stinks of the perspiration of its multi-ethnic people. These men and women and the old mattress lose their way in the haze but find one another…

Director’s notes
This is the first time I’m making a film in my homeland, Malaysia. We discovered a special location next to the Pudu Jail in Kuala Lumpur. It is a large abandoned building. In the early 90s, as part of its economic development plan, the Malaysian government brought in large numbers of foreign workers to work on its many construction projects. One of these was the twin towers, then the tallest building in the world. By the late 90s, many of these projects were abandoned due to the Asian economic crisis. These workers became unemployed overnight and many went into hiding, becoming illegal laborers. This building is a remnant of those days. As we entered, we were surprised at how grand it looked on the inside. It felt almost like a Post-modern opera theatre. In the middle of it, we found a deep pool of dark water (probably accumulated from rain and floods). I was reminded of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The prince, princess, spirits and monsters can make this concrete jungle their new stage. I was also reminded of a poem by the Chinese poet Bei Dao:

Let us go,
For we have not forgotten.
Let us seek the lake of life.

Before I began filming, I met a young fortune teller. He recognized me but didn’t know what film I was going to make. He told me that there will be a pool of dark water in my new film and that when I find the pool, my film will be completed

Biography
Tsai Ming-liang was born in Malaysia on October 27th 1957. He graduated from the Chinese Cultural University of Taiwan and has written and directed for stage and television. His films have won many awards including the1994 Golden Lion (Aiqing Wansui, 1994), the Silver Bear for Tian Bian Yi Duo Yuan (2004) and five FIPRESCI awards.

In 2002, he received the distinguished medal of the Knight of Order of Arts and Letters from the French government. His next film will be produced by and shot at the Louvre Museum in France.

Stills from the movie:

To know more about other movies banned in Malaysia, visit IMDB's list.

Upcoming Movies- March 2007

2007-03-02T05:38:00.000+08:00

2nd March Freedom Writers
Rating:	Contains one use of strong language and moderate violence
Running time:	123 minutes
Director(s):	Richard LaGravenese
Cast:	Hilary Swank, Scott Glenn, Patrick Dempsey, Imelda Staunton, Mario
Released on:	02/03/2007

Synopsis

Erin Gruwell is an idealistic teacher sent to work at an inner city school where her students are a racially diverse group of youngsters who would rather argue and fight than learn. A mixture of juvenile delinquents and gang members, they make Gruwell’s life hell, until she comes up with the idea of encouraging them to keep a diary, a concept that gets through to even the most troublesome members of her class.

Ghost Rider
Rating:	Contains fantasy horror and moderate violence
Running time:	110 minutes
Director(s):	Mark Steven Johnson
Cast:	Nicolas Cage,Eva Mendes, Peter Fonda, Raquel Alessi, Matt Long
Released on:	02/03/2007

Synopsis

Johnny Blaze is a motorcycle stunt performer who, to save the life of the woman he loves, agrees to become the host of a vengeful spirit. The result is that, while normal during the day, at night Blaze turns into fiery motorcycle-riding demon whose job it is to send evil spirits back to hell.

9th March Becoming Jane
Rating:
Running time:	121 minutes
Director(s):	Julian Jarrold
Cast:	Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy, Julie Walters, James Cromwell, Maggie Smith
Released on:	09/03/2007

Synopsis

‘Becoming Jane’ charts author Jane Austen’s early years, when she fell in love with a dashing your Irishman called Tom Lefroy. His intellect and arrogance ignite Jane’s passions, but have the opposite effect on her parents, who want their daughter to marry for money and status. Yet while the path of true love does not run smooth, it does help inspire some of Austen’s greatest works.

Norbit
Rating:	Contains frequent moderate sex references and language.
Running time:	102 minutes
Director(s):	Brian Robbins
Cast:	Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Lauren, Marianne Muellerleile, Laura Ortiz, Thandie Newton
Released on:	09/03/2007

Synopsis

Norbit is a mild-mannered guy who has been bullied, intimidated and laughed at since birth. When Kate, the love of his life, is sent away from their orphanage, he finds himself the object of hefty Raputia’s affections. Years later the pair marry, and Norbit is adopted by her extraordinary family, but his love for Kate refuses to die so he plots to win her back and be rid of Rasputia once and for all.

Outlaw
Rating:
Running time:	105 minutes
Director(s):	Nick Love
Cast:	Sean Bean, Danny Dyer, Lennie James, Rupert Friend, Sean Harris, Bob Hoskins
Released on:	09/03/2007

Synopsis

This contemporary British thriller revolves around Bryant, a returning soldier shocked at the state of the nation. With drugs, rape and murder ruling the streets, Bryant decides that enough is enough. Gathering together a group of similarly like-minded men, they take the law into their own hands, dishing out violent punishment to the criminals they find.

THE GOOD GERMAN
Rating:
Running time:	107 minutes
Director(s):	Steven Soderbergh
Cast:	George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Beau Bridges
Released on:	09/03/2007

Synopsis

US War correspondent Jake Geismer travels to Berlin in 1945 to cover the Potsdam Peace Conference, only to discover political intrigue, corruption and danger at every turn. Shocked by the devastating toll the war has had on the city since his last visit, he soon finds himself embroiled in a murder investigation when someone close to him turns up dead in the Russian zone.

16th March


Zodiac: (for some strong killings, language, drug material and brief sexual images)
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Jr., Anthony Edwards, Brian Cox, Elias Koteas, Donal Logue,, John Lynch, Dermot Mulroney
Director: David Fincher
Producer: Ceán Chaffin, Brad Fischer, Mike Medavoy, Arnold Messer, James Vanderbilt
Writer: James Vanderbilt, Robert Graysmith
Duration: 02:40:00
Official Site: http://www.ZodiacMovie.com/
Genre: Suspense/Thriller
Distributor: Warner Brothers

"ZODIAC" SYNOPSIS

As a serial killer terrifies the San Francisco Bay Area and taunts police with his ciphers and letters, investigators in four jurisdictions search for the murderer. The case will become an obsession for four men as their lives and careers are built and destroyed by the endless trail of clues.

Premonition: (for some violent content, disturbing images, thematic material and brief language)
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Marcus Brown, Courtney Burness, Phillip DeVona, Mark Famiglietti, Jay Martin, Shyann McClure, Julian McMahon, Ritchie Montgomery, Kate Nelligan
Director: Mennan Yapo
Producer: Ashok Amritraj, Jennifer Gibgot, Jon Jashni, Sunil Perkash, Adam Shankman
Writer: Bill Kelly
Duration: 01:50:00
Official Site: http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/premonition/
Release: Friday March 16 2007
Genres: Drama, Suspense/Thriller
Distributor: Entertainment

"PREMONITION" SYNOPSIS

When Linda Hanson is told that her husband Jim has been killed in a car crash, she is shocked to find him alive and well the next day. Linda's premonition sets off a series of puzzling events as she tries to grasp the situation and stop the accident from happening.

23rd March

300

Cast

Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Michael Fassbender, Vincent Regan, Dominic West, Tom Wisdom, Andrew Pleavin, Andrew Tiernan, Rodrigo Santoro, David Wenham

Director

Zack Snyder

Producer

Frank Miller, Deborah Snyder, Craig Flores, Benjamin Waisbren, Thomas Tull

Writer

Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad, Michael Gordon, Frank Miller, Lynn Varley

Duration

01:57:00

Official Site

http://300themovie.warnerbros.com/

Release

Friday March 23 2007

Genres

Action/Adventure, Drama,

"300" SYNOPSIS

In the midst of the Persian-Greco war, Spartan King Leonidas leads his army of 300 soldiers into battle against the invading Persian army during the Battle of Thermopylae. According to legend, their valor and sacrifice inspired all of Greece to unite against the Persian foe, leading to the origins of democracy.

Hills Have Eyes 2, The (The Hills Have Eyes II): Michael McMillian, Jessica Stroup, Daniella Alonso, Jacob Vargas, Lee Young, Ben Crowley, Eric Edelstein, Flex Alexander, Reshad Strik, Michael Smith
Director: Martin Weisz
Producer: Wes Craven, Peter Locke, Marianne Maddalena
Writer: Wes Craven, Jonathan Craven
Release: Friday March 23 2007
Genre: Horror
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
"HILLS HAVE EYES 2, THE" SYNOPSIS

As part of a routine mission, a unit of National Guard soldiers stop at a New Mexican outpost only to find the isolated research camp mysteriously deserted. After spotting a distress signal in a distant mountain range, the team decides to commence a search and rescue mission into the hills. Little do they know that these are the very hills that the ill-fated Carter family once visited, and that a tribe of cannibalistic mutants lies in wait. And this time, there is an even larger force of evil at work that is intent on the soldiers' very destruction.

30th March

Mr.Bean's Holiday

(for brief mild language)

Cast

Rowan Atkinson, Max Baldry, Emma Caunes, Willem Dafoe, Jean Rochefort

Director

Steve Bendelack

Producer

Peter Bennet-Jones, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner

Writer

Robin Driscoll, Simon McBurney, Hamish McColl

Official Site

http://www.beansholiday.com/flash.html

Release

Friday March 30 2007

Genre

Comedy

Distributor

Universal

"MR.BEAN'S HOLIDAY" SYNOPSIS

Mr. Bean travels to the South of France on holiday, causing the usual mayhem and ending with an unscheduled screening of his video diary at the Cannes Film Festival.

TMNT
Cast: Patrick Stewart, Sarah Gellar, Ziyi Zhang, Chris Evans
Director: Kevin Munroe
Producer: Peter Laird, Francis Kao, Gary Richardson, Frederick Fierst, Thomas Gray
Writer: Kevin Munroe, Warren Coleman, John Collee, Judy Morris, George Miller
Official Site: http://tmnt.warnerbros.com/
Release: Friday March 23 2007
Genres: Animation, Action/Adventure
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
"TMNT" SYNOPSIS

After the defeat of their old arch nemesis, The Shredder, the Turtles have grown apart as a family. Struggling to keep them together, their rat sensei, Master Splinter, becomes worried when strange things begin to brew in New York City. Tech-industrialist Max Winters is amassing an army of ancient monsters to apparently take over the world. And only one super-ninja fighting team can stop them--those heroes in a half shell--Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael! With the help of old allies April O'Neil and Casey Jones, the Turtles are in for the fight of their lives as they once again must face the mysterious Foot Clan, who has put its own ninja skills behind Winters' endeavors. Making this new incarnation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles truly cutting-edge, the film will be created entirely with state-of-the-art CG animation, giving them a completely new look for the 21st century.

Oscar 2007 Winners

2007-02-26T10:29:00.000+08:00

My predictions here. How many did I get correct?

Winners so far (in bold):

Best picture
Babel
The Departed (Howsy's review here)
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen

Best director
Clint Eastwood, Letters From Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears, The Queen
Paul Greengrass, United 93
Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, Babel
Martin Scorsese, The Departed

Best actor
Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
Peter O'Toole, Venus
Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

Best actress
Penelope Cruz, Volver
Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
Helen Mirren, The Queen
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet, Little Children

Best film editing
Babel
Blood Diamond
Children of Men
The Departed
United 93

Best music (song)
I Need to Wake Up - An Inconvenient Truth (performed by Melissa Etheridge) -really unexpected-the more (nominations) doesn't mean the better
Listen - Dreamgirls (performed by Beyonce Knowles)
Love You I Do - Dreamgirls (performed by Jennifer Hudson)
Our Town - Cars (performed by James Taylor)
Patience - Dreamgirls (performed by Eddie Murphy, Keith Robinson, Anika Noni Rose)

Best original screenplay
Babel
Letters from Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen
Pan's Labyrinth

Best music (score)
Babel
The Good German
Notes on a Scandal
Pan's Labyrinth
The Queen

Best documentary feature
Deliver Us From Evil
An Inconvenient Truth
Iraq In Fragments
Jesus Camp
My Country, My Country

Best documentary short subject
The Blood of Yingzhou District
Recycled Life
Rehearsing A Dream
Two Hands

Best supporting actress
Adriana Barraza, Babel
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikuchi, Babel

Best foreign language film
Efter Brylluppet (aka After the Wedding), Denmark
Indigenes (aka Days of Glory), Algeria
El Laberinto del Fauno (aka Pan's Labyrinth), Mexico
Das Leben der Anderen (aka The Lives of Others), Germany
Water, Canada

Best visual effects
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Poseidon
Superman Returns

Best cinematography
The Black Dahlia
Children of Men
The Illusionist
Pan's Labyrinth
The Prestige

Best costume design
Curse of the Golden Flower
The Devil Wears Prada
Dreamgirls
Marie Antoinette
The Queen

Best adapted screenplay

Borat
Children of Men
The Departed (Oscar said: 'based on the Japanese movie'? WTF!!!)
Little Children
Notes on a Scandal

Best animated feature film
Cars
Happy Feet
Monster House

Best supporting actor

Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Mark Wahlberg, The Departed

Best art direction
Dreamgirls
The Good Shepherd
Pan's Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
The Prestige

Best make-up
Apocalypto
Click
Pan's Labyrinth

Best sound mixing
Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Dreamgirls
Flags of our Fathers
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Sound editing
Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Letters from Iwo Jima
Flags of our Fathers
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

More from Beebs.

Watch it live by TVU player online.

Howsy Reviews 'The Good Shepherd'

2007-02-24T16:01:00.000+08:00

Normally the title 'The Good Shepherd' would be referred to J.C. But why would Matt Damon, The Spy Actor(TM)-(Bourne Trilogy, Departed and now this) be referred to that?

Released during Christmas in the US last year and only now in the UK, this one of the longest showing time Hollywood film so far in 2007 is about the early beginnings of the most famous spy agency in the world, CIA. As usual, this is the movie poster:

Ooooppsss, I mean this:

And here's the movie synopsis:

Edward Wilson, the only witness to his father's suicide and member of the Skull and Bones Society while a student at Yale, is a morally upright young man who values honor and discretion, qualities that help him to be recruited for a career in the newly founded Office of Strategic Services (OSS, the predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency). While working there, his ideals gradually turn to suspicion influenced by the Cold War paranoia present within the office. Eventually, he becomes an influential veteran operative, while his distrust of everyone around him increases to no end. His dedication to his work does not come without a price though, leading him to sacrifice his ideals and eventually his family.

And the trailer:

Warning: Plot spoilers ahead.

Not unlike the Terengganu Hadharites, this film is about "recruiting a network of spies" for the USA during the World War II era, and hence the birth of CIA.

CIA.

With almost a 3-hour running time and directed by Robert De Niro (his second directorial effort after A Bronx Tale), this film is overall a one-man Matt Damon film with Angelina Jolie 'posing pretty' (well, her overall screen time is just about half an hour, I would say).

Very much like their characters in the film, they have no screen chemistry at all.

In 5 words, I would describe the film as

Family, Friends, God, Ownself = CIA

Here are some scenes from the film:

Work is his life.

The plagairist professor and his betrayer.

Looking at Jolie's lips makes one's eyes burst.

A sudden twist in the film- the mysterious man in the blur mysterious film he received is actually his ....ah, watch it yourself to find out.

Matt with silly glasses. Is he short-sighted in real life?

Overall, I would give the film a '6/10' rating. Not your average spy film (no car chases and gun shots but still there's a hot sidekick) but overly dreaded. Matt Damon plays a very good emotionless and reserved nerd ~~not unlike some Sensintrovert~~.

Amir Muhammad's 'Apa Khabar Orang Kampung' Banned in Malaysia!

2007-02-22T19:04:00.000+08:00

Not again!

[Source: Mkini]

Or from theSun:

Apa Khabar Orang Kampung
Bissme S.

PETALING JAYA (Feb 22) Amir Muhammad's latest film Apa Khabar Orang Kampung, which documents the stories of former Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) members, has been banned.

The 72-minute film which earlier this month premiered at the Berlin Film Festival features interviews with about ten Malay members of the now defunct CPM who currently live in exile in southern Thailand.

This is the second film by Amir which has been banned since May last year.

His earlier movie, Lelaki Komunis Terakhir, was initially approved for limited screenings by the Censorship Board but was eventually banned by Home Affairs Ministry because the semi-musical documentary was deemed "insensitive" to Umno's 60th anniversary celebrations last year.

The Censorship Board, in an official letter to the film director today listed seven reasons for Apa Khabar Orang Kampung's ban.

The board said it objected to the film's misrepresentation of history, citing how it attempts to value the communists' struggles.

The board also objected to how the former communists tried to liken their struggles against the Japanese and the British to those of other celebrated anti-colonial fighters such as Datuk Bahaman, Mat Kilau, Tok Gajah, Datuk Maharaja Lela and Tok Janggut.

"This distorts historical fact," the board said.

It also said the movie was inappropriate because it was critical of the Malaysian government, and of first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman's role in the failed 1955 Baling talks with the CPM.

"I am not entirely surprised with the ban," Amir told theSun.

He told the Censorship Board that, he was willing to censor the film and to have it rated for viewers aged 18 and above.

"What I have shown in the film has been published in books. It is just a different point of view. In the end, the public has the right to make up their mind.

"Presenting a different point of view is proof of democracy. It appears we have a strange democracy," Amir said.

Amir said he has no regrets making the film which among others interviewed Idris Yusof (known as Pak Kasim), Chunsun Sewei (known as Pak Budin), Awang Ismail, Che Dat Anjang Abdullah, Suriani Abdullah, Yaacob Ibrahim and Indrajaya Abdullah.

Pak Kassim passed away in September last year while Pak Budin died in January.

"The movies captured bits of our history," Amir said.

He said he would appeal the ban, adding that he was also submitting the movie to the Singapore International Film Festival pending the censorship board's approval there, and to the Hong Kong Film Festival.

Censorship Board chairman Datuk Mohd Hussain Syafie said the board viewed the film four times, with one special screening for ten Special Branch officers.

"We didn't come to this decision without a lot of thought," he said, adding that the board put public sensitivity first.

To a question, he said it would have been impossible to censor parts of the film that were deemed problematic. "If we make the cuts, there will not be much to see."

He denied that the board had to be more stringent with Apa Khabar Orang Kampung because of the political heat it came under after approving Lelaki Komunis Terakhir.

"We felt Lelaki Komunis Terakhir was historically correct. That's why we gave the movie the green light."

Amir submitted Apa Khabar Orang Kampung to the board on Jan 18 and the board's decision was made on Feb 12.

Here are the 7 reasons as stated in Amir's blog:

7 reasons were given for the ban. To avoid misrepresentation, I will present them in the original Malay:

1. Tema filem ini cuba menggambarkan seolah-olah perjuangan Barisan Bersatu Komunis di Semenanjung Tanah Melayu dahulu adalah satu perjuangan yang murni dan patut mendapat penghargaan. Dengan itu mesej filem ini lebih kepada usaha pihak tersebut terutamanya ke atas anggota komunis berbangsa Melayu.

2. Filem ini juga menunjukkan bahawa kerajaan Malaysia tidak berlaku adil kerana tidak menghargai perjuangan mereka.

3. Filem in lebih kepada menyuarakan pendapat atau cerita di pihak komunis itu sahaja tentang pendirian dan matlamat perjuangan mereka supaya masyarakat bersimpati dan menghargai sumbangan mereka.

4. Kritikan-kritikan terhadap Kerajaan Malaysia jelas ditunjukkan dalam filem ini kerana menawarkan skim pemulihan yang tidak dapat diterima berbanding dengan kerajaan Thailand yang sedia memberikan tanah, rumah dan kemudahan asas bagi membolehkan mereka meneruskan hidup setelah berhenti dari menjadi komunis. Di samping kritikan terhadap kerajaan, institusi kesultanan dana (sic) penghinaan terhadap orang Melayu juga ditunjukkan.

5. Filem ini juga cuba memperlekehkan YM Tunku Abdul Rahman, bekas Perdana Menteri Malaysia sebagai orang yang menyebabkan 'BALING TALK' menemui kegagalan sedangkan fakta yang sebenarnya ialah pihak Komunis tidak bersetuju meletakkan senjata.

6. Bekas anggota-anggota komunis itu menyamakan perjuangan mereka dengan perjuangan pahlawan-pahlawan Melayu yang mementang pemerintahan British seperti Dato' Bahaman, Mat Kilau, Tok Gajah, Dato' Maharaja Lela, Tok Janggut dan lain-lain. Ini memesongkan fakta sejarah.

7. Filem ini tidak sesuai untuk dipertontonkan kepada masyarakat umum kerana fakta-fakta yang tepat (sic) di samping menyentuh sensitiviti dan kenangan pahit bekas anggota keselamatan dan orang awam yang pernah menjadi mangsa kekejaman komunis.

And here's the trailer for AKOK:

Visit also the movie's official blog here.

'Mukhsin' Wins The Grand Prix of the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk at Berlin Film Festival

2007-02-18T16:01:00.000+08:00

Feb 17, 2007:
Berlinale Generation Kplus: The Crystal Bears and the Prizes of the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk

The Generation’s eleven-member Children’s Jury of the Kplus competition programme of the 57th Berlin International Film Festival awards the Crystal Bear for Best Feature Film as well as the Crystal Bear for Best Short Film and Special Mentions to the following films:

The Crystal Bear for Best Feature Film

DEK HOR (Dorm)

by Songyos Sugmakanan, Thailand

“This film depicts with unbelievable tension how a close friendship is possible between two boys from different worlds. This film is very special, not least due to the convincing actors.”

A Special Mention

MUKHSIN

by Yasmin Ahmad, Malaysia

The Crystal Bear for Best Short Film

MENGED

by Daniel Taye Workou, Ethiopia/Germany

„This short film tells an unusual story of a father-son-relationship. We especially liked the underlying morals and its humorous presentation.”

A Special Mention

LAND GEWINNEN

by Marc Brummund, Deutschland

The members of the Children’s Jury, who are between the ages of eleven and 14 were: Can Deniz Binici, Sandra Botzet, Liliann Fischer, Maïmouna Guirassy, Maxim Michaelis, Anita Oberlin, Mara Ohlhoff, Sammy Steward, Paul Trabhardt, Ngoc Diep Lila Tran, Moritz Wagner.

The five-member International Jury of the Generation of the 57th Berlin International Film Festival Berlin awards the Grand Prix of the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk, endowed with 7,500 euros, as well as the Special Prize of the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk, endowed with 2,500 euros, to the following films:

The Grand Prix of the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk

MUKHSIN

by Yasmin Ahmad, Malaysia

“A wonderful, almost magical atmosphere, enhanced by a striking soundtrack. Poetic images of the closeness of a family and community. A witty script combined with well-rounded and humorous characters: All this in a story of a friendship that daren’t cross into love, and a love for which friendship is no longer enough.”

A Special Mention:

DEK HOR (Dorm)

von Songyos Sugmakanan, Thailand

The Special Prize of the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk:

LAND GEWINNEN

von Marc Brummund, Deutschland

“A father runs the risk of losing everything in order to grant the single wish of his son to attend a local school in this tale that touches on the difficulties of life for foreign visitors to the western world. By overcoming his own fears, he can successfully address the one and only fear of the child: not to belong. The Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk Special Prize goes to a heart-rending movie that successfully balances exceptional cinematography, editing and outstanding lead performances.”

A Special Mention:

DRENGEN I KUFFERTEN (Having a Brother)

von Esben Toft Jacobsen, Dänemark

The members of the International Jury of the Generation were:

Sitora Alieva, Reza Bagher, Justin Johnson, Leontine Petit, Andreas Steinhöfel

The award ceremony was held earlier today, on February 17 at 3:30 p.m. in the Zoo Palast.

Press Office

February 17, 2007

[Source]

Also, from Utusan Malaysia.

Here's the trailer for Mukhsin.

Howsy Reviews Brit Comedy of the Year 2007, 'Hot Fuzz'

2007-02-15T16:43:00.000+08:00

UPDATED 23rd June 2007: It's only finally showing in Malaysia from the 21st June. But only in Klang Valley cinemas. So what are you waiting for! Choose this rather than pathetic F4!

If you mention about Brit flicks, what would come to mind. Or rather who would come to mind? Hugh Grant/Notting Hill? Rowan Atkinson a.k.a. Mr. Bean? Or the Bond series? Or animations such as Wallace and Grommit? Is Britain rather scarce in a good flick, or precisely, a good comedy flick?

If 2004 there's Shaun of the Dead (SOTD) and in 2006 there's Severance, then it would be Hot Fuzz this year then. And what's a more better way to spend Valentine's Day (alone) if not by catching this long-anticipated flick?

As usual, here's the movie poster:

The synopsis, from IMDB:

Nicholas Angel is the finest cop London has to offer, with an arrest record 400% higher than any other officer on the force. He's so good, he makes everyone else look bad. As a result, Angel's superiors send him to a place where his talents won't be quite so embarrassing - the sleepy and seemingly crime-free village of Sandford. Once there, he is partnered with the well-meaning but overeager police officer Danny Butterman. The son of amiable Police Chief Frank Butterman, Danny is a huge action movie fan and believes his new big-city partner might just be a real-life "bad boy," and his chance to experience the life of gunfights and car chases he so longs for. Angel is quick to dismiss this as childish fantasy and Danny's puppy-like enthusiasm only adds to Angel's growing frustration. However, as a series of grisly accidents rocks the village, Angel is convinced that Sandford is not what it seems and as the intrigue deepens, Danny's dreams of explosive, high-octane, car-chasing, gunfighting, all-out action seem more and more like a reality. It's time for these small-town cops to break out some big-city justice.

And the trailer, which is a pretty much spoiling one:

Warning: Plot spoiler ahead.

SOTD, which spoofed a horror thriller into a romantic comedy flick totally blew...as zombie movies are meant to be the greatest comedy of all. After a 3 year absence in the British scene, playing C-grade roles in M:I:III and Big Nothing, Simon Pegg is back again with this Brit comedy/thriller-spoof flick, with his co-writer, Edgar Wright and the funny/clumsy/chubby guy, Nick Frost.

Simon Pegg back as a hero.

Continuing the traditon of SOTD, the storyline of Hot Fuzz is based the hero saving the day (police officer Nicholas Angel) and a slacker sidekick (Danny Butterman), with (hilarious) blood and gore thrown in. Like some of the Hongkie TVB series you may have seen, where a super-efficient police officer is sent to a small village to avoid the former team 'look bad'. In the fictatious small village, named Sandford in Gloucestershire (it was actually filmed in Wells), Nick's job was reduced to interacting with geriatrics and helping residents to find lost animals, with some problematic teenagers thrown in.

Missing 'person': Long slender neck.

The first three-quarter of the film was predictable and kinda monotonous, with some slapstick jokes and acts by Danny thrown in (which some could barely produce a laugh). Overly-enthusiastic with his work, Nick has to deal with his police linguistically-incorrect and cake-gobbling partner.

The police routine includes gobbling Cornetto cones.

Not only this, he has to deal with a group of elderly neighbourhood watch group, a mysterious supermarker manager (played by Timothy Dalton-former Bond!) and a nosy journalist who couldn't spell right. Strange things start to happen when homicidal cases (which often involve decapitation) arise in this supposedly 'ever-low crime rate but high accident rate' village. Nick tried very hard to convince to his colleagues that these cases do not happen by chance of accident. But is he wrong after all?

Almost towards the quarter last of the film, where he is almost murdered, only he finds out that the people behind all these murders are the geriatrics themselves! Surviving another attempted murder and manages to escape, he came back with a revenge. Who would have thought that these geriatrics are all armed with guns and know how to shoot! With his partner, Nick exchanged gunshots with the geriatrics (oh, don't ever underestimate them-they really know how to shoot...and survive at the end) and manages to change the mind of the rest of his colleagues to follow him in eradicating these geriatrics. Do I sound rude? Well, watch the film yourself to find out why they must be eradicated!

Nicholas Angel back with a vengeance.

In 6 words, I would describe the film as:

Big city cop vs. village geriatrics (in a non-rude and good way)

And overall, I would give it a "7/10" rating. For something fresh in the midst of deteriorating comedies of Hollywood, this is a pretty Brit flick.

Baftas 2007: The winners

2007-02-12T07:33:00.000+08:00

Here is the list of winners and nominees at this year's British Academy Film Awards, following the ceremony at the Royal Opera House in London:

Best film
Winner: The Queen
Babel
The Last King of Scotland
The Departed
Little Miss Sunshine

Best British film
Winner: The Last King of Scotland
The Queen
Casino Royale
Notes on a Scandal
United 93

Best actor in a leading role
Winner: Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland
Daniel Craig - Casino Royale
Leonardo DiCaprio - The Departed
Peter O'Toole - Venus
Richard Griffiths - The History Boys

Best actress in a leading role
Winner: Dame Helen Mirren - The Queen
Dame Judi Dench - Notes on a Scandal
Kate Winslet - Little Children
Penelope Cruz - Volver
Meryl Streep - The Devil Wears Prada

Best actor in a supporting role
Winner: Alan Arkin - Little Miss Sunshine
James McAvoy - The Last King of Scotland
Jack Nicholson - The Departed
Leslie Phillips - Venus
Michael Sheen - The Queen

Best actress in a supporting role
Winner: Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls
Emily Blunt - The Devil Wears Prada
Abigail Breslin - Little Miss Sunshine
Toni Colette - Little Miss Sunshine
Frances De La Tour - The History Boys

Original screenplay
Winner: Michael Arndt - Little Miss Sunshine
Guillermo Arriaga - Babel
Guillermo del Toro - Pan's Labyrinth
Peter Morgan - The Queen
Paul Greengrass - United 93

Adapted screenplay
Winner: Peter Morgan/Jeremy Brock - The Last King Of Scotland
Neal Purvis/Robert Wade/Paul Haggis - Casino Royale
William Monahan - The Departed
Aline Brosh McKenna - The Devil Wears Prada
Patrick Marber - Notes On A Scandal

The David Lean Award for achievement in direction
Winner: Paul Greengrass - United 93
Martin Scorsese - The Departed
Jonathan Dayton/Valerie Faris - Little Miss Sunshine
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - Babel
Stephen Frears - The Queen

Animated feature film
Winner: Happy Feet
Cars
Flushed Away

The Carl Foreman Award for special achievement by a British director/producer or writer in their first feature film
Winner: Andrea Arnold - director (for Red Road)
Julian Gilbey - director (for Rollin' with the Nines)
Christine Langan - producer (for Pierrepoint)
Gary Tarn - director (for Black Sun)
Paul Andrew Williams - director (for London to Brighton)

Best film not in the English language
Winner: Pan's Labyrinth
Apocalypto
Black Book
Paint it Yellow
Volver

Orange rising star award
Eva Green

The Anthony Asquith Award for achievement in film music
Winner: Gustavo Santaolalla - Babel
David Arnold - Casino Royale
Henry Krieger - Dreamgirls
John Powell - Happy Feet
Alexandre Desplat - The Queen

Cinematography
Winner: Children of Men
Babel
Casino Royale
Pan's Labyrinth
United 93

Editing
Winner: United 93
Babel
Casino Royale
The Departed
The Queen

Production design
Winner: Children of Men
Casino Royale
Marie Antoinette
Pan's Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Costume design
Winner: Pan's Labyrinth
The Devil Wears Prada
Marie Antoinette
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
The Queen

Sound
Winner: Casino Royale
Babel
Pan's Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
United 93

Achievement in special visual effects
Winner: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Casino Royale
Children of Men
Pan's Labyrinth
Superman Returns

Make up and hair
Winner: Pan's Labyrinth
The Devil Wears Prada
Marie Antoinette
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
The Queen

Short animation film
Winner: Guy 101
Dream's and Desires - Family Ties
Peter and the Wolf

Short Film
Winner: Do Not Erase
Care
Cubs
Hikikomori
Kissing, Tickling and Being Bored

Academy Fellowship
Anne V Coates

The Michael Balcon Award for outstanding British contribution to cinema
Nick Daubeny

[Source]

Howsy Reviews 'Hannibal Rising'

2007-02-11T16:05:00.000+08:00

Remember this film?

[Source]

Oopss...I mean, this film?

The prequel of the Hannibal pentalogy (Manhunter • The Silence of the Lambs • Hannibal • Red Dragon • Hannibal Rising), this is the story about the beginning of the world's most famous fictatious serial-killer cum cannibal, Hannibal Lecter. The movie comes out exactly six years after Hannibal (Rising opens on February 9, 2007; Hannibal opened on February 9, 2001).

Here's the movie poster:

The synopsis from IMDB:

This is the story of the monster Hannibal Lecter's formative years. These experiences as a child and young adult led to his remarkable contribution to the fields of medicine, music, painting and forensics. We begin in World War II at the medieval castle in Lithuania built by Dr. Lecter's forebear, Hannibal the Grim. The child Hannibal survives the horrors of the Eastern Front and escapes the grim Soviet aftermath to find refuge in France with the widow of his uncle, mysterious and beautiful Japanese descended from Lady Murasaki Shikibu, author of the Tale of Genji. Her kind and wise attentions help him understand his unbearable recollections of the war. Remembering, he finds the means to visit the outlaw predators that changed him forever as they battened on helpless during the collapse of the Eastern Front. Hannibal helps these war criminals toward self-knowledge even as we see his own nature become clear to him.

And the trailer:

In 5 words, I would describe the film as

Revenge is best served...decapitated.

Presenting...Gong Li in her third installment in a major Hollywood film as Lady Murasaki, after Memoirs and Miami Vice. So, what's the big deal about her? For her Oriental beauty, that's all! With limited dialogue (I still struggle to understand her English), I wonder if China would ban this movie as she literally is a Japanese in this film (she worships the Samurai warrior with swords and stuff). Verdict: She can't act.

Also introducing Gaspard Ulliel, the young Hannibal with a single deep dimple. Oh, I didn't know that Hannibal is a medical doctor.

Some of the revenge tactics:

Drowning his victim in a supposedly formalin tank.

And several decapitating scence reminiscent of the tehlohlist's tactics.

I'm not quite familiar with the pentalogy and besides this one, I've only seen Red Dragon, which was 5 years ago. Overall, I would give the film a '5/10' rating as although the scenes are sadistic, it doesn't really bring out the beginning of the monstrosity of Hannibal Lecter.

Howsy Reviews 'Dreamgirls'

2007-02-11T16:02:00.000+08:00

When was the last time you've seen a musical. I mean, a musical on a silver screen. Oh, to be precise, a Hollywood musical, not Bollywood ones. Well, you should at least see Dreamgirls.

Already winning the Best Supporting Actor and Actress in several major awards (and highly predictable to follow suit for the Oscars), this is one of the must-see films of 2006 (it was released in the USA then).

Here's the movie poster:

The least spoilt synopsis from IMDB:

Based on the 1981 Broadway musical comes Dreamgirls, a story of greed, tough hate, and romance. Three young women Deena Jones (Knowles), Effie White (Hudson), and Lorrell Robinson (Rose) desire to become pop stars and get their wish when they're picked to be backup singers for the legendary James "Thunder" Early (Murphy). Then they're set free for leads, but Curtis Taylor (Foxx) and Effie's brother C.C. (Robinson) decide for Deena to be lead which upsets Effie. This movie contains both original Broadway and new songs and it's one movie that the whole family will enjoy! With Beyonce Knowles, Jennifer Hudson, Anika Noni Rose, Eddie Murphy, Jamie Foxx, Keith Robinson, and Danny Glover!

The informative trailer:

In 4 words, I would simply describe the film as

Songs, costumes, fame, fortune

Here are some of the scenes and characters from the film:

The scene which got everyone clapping- Baby-Don't Leave Me. Jamie Foxx's hair was kinda lame in this film, like Tom Hanks' in Da Vinci.

Neglected by American Idol, Jeniffer Hudson rockssss in this film.

Eddie Murphy as James "Thunder" Early. Some say that this is the only time he actually acts in his entire career.

Do you spot a Diana Ross lookalike here?

For the full storyline and plot, visit Wikipedia.

The soundtrack is also definitely worth the buy as it is literally the whole film. Its songs have already occupied 3 out of 5 nominations for Best Song in the Oscars.

Overall, I would give the film a '8/10' rating. Bring your family and swing along with the songs in the film!

Howsy Reviews 'Epic Movie'

2007-02-11T16:01:00.000+08:00

Would you bother to pay [insert the price of your cinema ticket] to have your intelligence being insulted? Well if the answer is yes, this is the movie for you.

I didn't. I just sourced it somewhere. Don't ask.

As usual, here is the movie's poster:

The least spoilt synopsis from IMDB:

The twisted minds of two of the six writers of "Scary Movie" tackle the biggest mega-blockbusters of all time in "Epic Movie." The story centers on four not-so-young orphans: one raised by a curator at the Louvre (where an albino assassin lurks), another a refugee from Mexican "libre" wrestling, the third a recent victim of snakes on her plane, and the fourth a "normal" resident of a mutant "X"-community. The hapless quartet visits a chocolate factory, where they stumble into an enchanted wardrobe that transports them to the land of Gnarnia (with a "G"). There they meet a flamboyant pirate captain and earnest students of wizardry - and join forces with, among others, a wise-but-horny lion to defeat the evil White Bitch of Gnarnia.

The very misleading trailer which doesn't tell the real content of the film:

I won't bother to review this film in details as the full storyline could be read from Wikipedia. In 4 words, I would describe the film as:

Unfunny money-dumping plagiarism MTV-sketch

The filmset and backdrops are impressive (that's where the US$20 million went) to the extent that the SawIII makers purchased their 'toilet' set from Scary Movie 4. The whole movie is nothing but a mere plagiarism, and not a parody at all. As with the Scary Movie series and Date Movie, you would see the characters being punched or hurt, with some bimbo blonde (read: Carmen Electra) thrown in. Oh, this time they couldn't find Anna Farris to do this movie (she would be in Scary Movie 5 though), they found her look-alike in this film. You won't be surprised if the whole cinema could only barely produce a single laugh or two throughout the movie.

Some of the unnecessary scenes from the film:

Verdict: Overall, I would rate the film as '3/10'. If you forgot to bring your brain out for a day, this would be the movie for you.

Upcoming Movies (UK) For February 2007

2007-01-27T16:03:00.000+08:00

2 Feb- Dreamgirls

Based on the 1981 Broadway musical comes Dreamgirls, a story of greed, tough hate, and romance. Three young women Deena Jones (Knowles), Effie White (Hudson), and Lorrell Robinson (Rose) desire to become pop stars and get their wish when they're picked to be backup singers for the legendary James "Thunder" Early (Murphy). Then they're set free for leads, but James, Curtis Taylor (Foxx), and Effie's brother C.C. (Robinson) decide for Deena to be lead which upsets Effie. This movie contains both original Broadway and new songs and it's one movie that the whole family will enjoy! With Beyonce Knowles, Jennifer Hudson, Anika Noni Rose, Eddie Murphy, Jamie Foxx, Keith Robinson, and Danny Glover!

9 Feb- Music and Lyrics

Alex Fletcher, a washed-up '80s pop star, has been reduced to working the nostalgia circuit at county fairs and amusement parks. The charismatic and talented musician gets a chance at a comeback when reigning diva Cora Corman invites him to write and record a duet with her, but there's a problem--Alex hasn't written a song in years, he's never written lyrics, and he has to come up with a hit in a matter of days. Enter Sophie Fisher, Alex's beguilingly quirky plant lady, whose flair for words strikes a chord with the struggling songwriter. On the rebound from a bad relationship, Sophie is reluctant to collaborate with anyone, especially commitment-phobe Alex. As their chemistry heats up at the piano and under it, Alex and Sophie will have to face their fears--and the music--if they want to find the love and success they both deserve.

Feb 16- Hot Fuzz

Police officer Nicholas Angel is London's top cop. This tough law enforcer is good at his job--so good, in fact, that he makes his colleagues look bad. As a result, his superiors "promote" him to the village of Sandford, where all is garden parties and neighborhood watch meetings. Partnered with Danny Butterman, an oafish but well-meaning young local cop, Angel struggles to adapt. But, he just can't… until a series of grisly "accidents" indicates that foul play is afoot. Suddenly, this seemingly idyllic town is a case that Angel has to crack--hard.

23 Feb- The Good Shepherd

Edward Wilson, the only witness to his father's suicide and member of the Skull and Bones Society while a student at Yale, is a morally upright young man who values honor and discretion, qualities that help him to be recruited for a career in the newly founded Office of Strategic Services (OSS, the predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency). While working there, his ideals gradually turn to suspicion influenced by the Cold War paranoia present within the office. Eventually, he becomes an influential veteran operative, while his distrust of everyone around him increases to no end. His dedication to his work does not come without a price though, leading him to sacrifice his ideals and eventually his family.

Howsy Reviews Blood Diamond

2007-01-27T16:01:00.000+08:00

I'm gonna keep this short and simple as the hype for this film is pretty much over after the relatively lack of nominations for awards.

As usual, the poster:

Synopsis (from IMDB):

Set against the backdrop of civil war and chaos in 1990's Sierra Leone, Blood Diamond is the story of Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) - a South African mercenary - and Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) - a Mende fisherman. Both men are African, but their histories as different as any can be, until their fates become joined in a common quest to recover a rare pink diamond that can transform their lives. While in prison for smuggling, Archer learns that Solomon - who was taken from his family and forced to work in the diamond fields - has found and hidden the extraordinary rough stone. With the help of Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), an American journalist whose idealism is tempered by a deepening connection with Archer, the two men embark on a trek through rebel territory, a journey that could save Solomon's family and give Archer the second chance he thought he would never have.

And trailer:

In 5 words, I would describe the film as

Ciggie addict bloody* stone smuggler

* bloody refers to literally and figuratively

Some say the film is to preachy (like some films overly-preaching us to buy original copies yadda yadda) . Some say they would watch a documentary for history lessons rather than to watch a preachy pretty boy save the day. Some say Leo and Jen were acting in the film. I'd say that if you fancy some African-theme action movie (read: brutality, blood and gore) with some history thrown in, this would be the film for you.

Here are some scenes from the film (photos from Rotten Tomatoes):

Oscar-nominated Best Supporting Actor-for the crying scene?

The bloodshed for a bloody stone.

A journalist has the immunity and superpowers to change the world-instantly?

Having a pretty face on a boy could be difficult for serious roles in this. Like The Departed, sorry Leo, you're just trying to hard.

Overall, I would rate the film as 7/10. Yes, unlike The Last King of Scotland, this film is more complete with blood and gore and lacks the unnecessary boinking scenes, but like The Last Samurai, a white is once again overly-portrayed as a hero. For commercial reasons?

So girls, the next time you pester your boys (or vice-versa, like for some footballer who is an actor rather than playing football in LA), think of how it came from. Oh, it might be from someone's toes, if you know what I mean. ;)

Eat Your Heart Out, Dakota Fanning! Abigail Breslin Nominated as Oscars Best Supporting Actress!

2007-01-23T20:17:00.000+08:00

Eat your heart out!

The youngest Oscars Best Supporting Actress?

Full list of the nominees and my predictions to follow soon. Meanwhile check it out from BBC.

Oscars 2007: The nominees

Here are the main nominations for the 79th Academy Awards, to be held at the Kodak Theatre, Los Angeles on 25 February:

Best picture
Babel
The Departed
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen

Best director
Clint Eastwood, Letters From Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears, The Queen
Paul Greengrass, United 93
Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, Babel
Martin Scorsese, The Departed (this will be definitely Scorsese's year)

Best actor
Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
Peter O'Toole, Venus
Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

Best actress
Penelope Cruz, Volver
Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
Helen Mirren, The Queen
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet, Little Children

Best supporting actress
Adriana Barraza, Babel
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikucki, Babel

Best supporting actor
Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Mark Whalberg, The Departed

Best foreign language film
Efter Brylluppet (aka After the Wedding), Denmark
Indigenes (aka Days of Glory), Algeria
El Laberinto del Fauno (aka Pan's Labyrinth), Mexico
Das Leben der Anderen (aka The Lives of Others), Germany
Water, Canada

Best animated feature film
Cars
Happy Feet
Monster House

Best adapted screenplay
Borat
Children of Men
The Departed
Little Children
Notes on a Scandal

Best original screenplay
Babel
Letters from Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen
Pan's Labyrinth

Best music (score)
Babel
The Good German
Notes on a Scandal
Pan's Labyrinth
The Queen

Best music (song)
I Need to Wake Up - An Inconvenient Truth
Listen - Dreamgirls
Love You I Do - Dreamgirls
Our Town - Cars
Patience - Dreamgirls

Best documentary feature
Deliver Us From Evil
An Inconvenient Truth
Iraq In Fragments
Jesus Camp
My Country, My Country

Best documentary short subject
The Blood of Yingzhou District
Recycled Life
Rehearsing A Dream
Two Hands

Best visual effects
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Poseidon
Superman Returns

Best cinematography
The Black Dahlia
Children of Men
The Illusionist
Pan's Labyrinth
The Prestige

Best art direction
Dreamgirls
The Good Shepherd
Pan's Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
The Prestige

Best animated short film
The Danish Poet
Lifted
The Little Matchgirl
Maestro
No Time for Nuts

Best short film
Binta and the Great Idea
Eramos Pocos (One Too Many)
Helmer & Son
The Saviour
West Bank Story

Best costume design
Curse of the Golden Flower
The Devil Wears Prada
Dreamgirls
Marie Antoinette
The Queen

Best make-up
Apocalypto
Click
Pan's Labyrinth

Best sound mixing
Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Dreamgirls
Flags of our Fathers
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Sound editing
Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Letters from Iwo Jima
Flags of our Fathers
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Best film editing
Babel
Blood Diamond
Children of Men
The Departed
United 93

[Source: BBC]

Howsy Reviews Golden Globe 2007 Best Drama, Babel

2007-01-19T16:01:00.000+08:00

The best things in life is free. Yes indeed. Got the chance to a special free preview screening of Babel last Monday but only got the chance to review it now.

So, what's up with Babel? Brad Pitt? (I hear screams from the ladies already) Definitely not! There's more than him, despite his dominance in the trailer (below) which is solely for marketing purposes only.

Warning: Plot spoilers ahead.

First things first, here's the movie poster:

This is the least spoilt synopsis sourced from IMDB. A more detailed and spoilt synopsis can be sourced from Wikipedia.

This is a complex tale of four interlocking stories. A poor Morrocan family acquires a rifle to protect their goats. An American couple's bus tour holiday is shattered when she is accidentally shot. That couple's children, at home in the USA with their nanny/housekeeper, accompany her to Mexico to attend her son's wedding. A Japanese father, whose wife has committed suicide some time ago, is unable to communicate with his teenage daughter. A tragic tale for all concerned.

And the trailer:

In 4 words, I would describe the film as:

Mind-boggling dots-connecting in deserts

Yes, as mentioned in the synopsis, there are 4 interweaving stories in 3 continents with a desert theme [assuming Tokyo is like a 'desert' to Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi)]. Let us dissect these 4 stories one by one:

1. Bored and rebellious hormone-driven kids in the Moroccan desert.

Two hormone-laden Moroccan siblings Yussef and Ahmed (Boubker Ait El Caid and Said Tarchani), basically bored in the desert, have just received a rifle from their father to protect their goats (or sheep? according to Swifty) from foxes. But gee, what can you do in the desert besides rearing goats and shooting rocks? The younger sibling is gaining a sexual awakening, sadly, by being a peeping tom with her sister as the (willingly) victim, to the extent that he gratifies himself behind the rocks. While trying out the rifle, the siblings try to outdo each other by shooting targets, mainly rocks but finally ended up shooting an American tourist while they were aiming for moving objects.

Director Alejandro had thought that he had captured you-know-who in the Moroccan desert.

2. Estranged American couple desperately trying to save the allegedly terrorist-shot wife in the Moroccan desert.

Jeng...jeng...jeng...here's comes hearthrob Brad Pitt exchanging shots with the Moroccan kids in his suit- NOT! Brad Pitt stars as a greying tourist, Richard, trying to make up with his estranged wife, Susan (Cate Blanchett), by bringing her on an exotic Moroccan desert trip but their trip went hay-wired when Susan was shot by the above kids. With the 'I'm from a First World Most Powerful Country in the World I-don't-give-a-damn' attitude initially, the couple survived the ordeal with the help of the villagers and their U S of A, of course.

"OMG! A greying Brad Pitt? Awww....."

3. (Sexually) Frustrated Panchira deaf-mute girl in Japanese 'desert'

I would say this story would be all horny red-blooded man would be waiting for-NOT! (Well, at least for me). It is about a deaf-mute girl Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi) having an estranged relationship with her father (Kôji Yakusho; last scene as the 'eel' for the 'cave' in Memoirs of Geisha) as her mother just committed suicide. Sexually frustrated also, she vulnerably tried to get laid by panchira-ing herself (hence the 'hairy monster' thingy mentioned in my comment in Swifty's film review). Yes, there is full frontal nudity by her also, which gained her a nomination as Best Actress in the Golden Globes?

A panchira-ing girl.

4. Mexican salsa wedding turned illegal immigrant hunt.

I would say this is my favourite story in the film. Well, you get to see cute kids, a dancing, singing (and making out) at a wedding and for the ladeess...Gael Garcia Bernal. It is about a illegal immigrant Mexican nanny, Amelia (Adriana Barraza), for Richard and Susan's children (Elle Fanning and Nathan Gamble). Based on the telephone conversation with her boss (which may seem to be a very demanding one), she couldn't get a leave to attend her son's wedding. How about that! She had no choice but to bring along the kids to the wedding, which in turn the had fun chasing chickens and dancing. However, things start to turn ugly when Gael Garcia Bernal sped off at the Mexican-American customs check-point to avoid himself being caught, primarily for drunk-driving and secondarily, for being an carrying white kids.

In Malaysia, they would have 'kautim' already?

Amelia stranded in the desert with two kids.

Screenplay, cinematography, editing and score (by Oscar winner Gustavo Santaolala of The Brokeback Mountain fame) are all impressive. But the film could be challenging to the audience's senses though, as one have to bear the strobe lights and loud music of a Japanese disco for 5 minutes and occasional sudden switch from a dark to bright scenes.

It's not all lovey-dovey for this film though. Here are some goofs pointed out by Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB:

Mistake #1
The boys in the desert shoot at the tour bus from its right side, but when Cate Blanchett gets hit by the bullet, it comes through the left-side window she's resting against.

Mistake #2
When the nanny is walking in the desert, she falls down. However, when she is on the ground, she is wearing shoes completely different than the ones she had been wearing the shot before.

Goofs: Continuity: During the phone call taking place when the bus is leaving, Richard's watch is clean. Before and after, it is covered with blood and grime.

Overall, I would give the film Howsy's highest rating ever: 9/10. The minus one point from perfect is due to the goofs mentioned above and the sense-challenging scenes.

Best Film for Oscars? Crash won it; this can't be wrong....

Nevertheless, it would definitely be a Scorsese year this year...

The Last King of Scotland Was From Uganda? You Must Be Kidding!

2007-01-14T16:03:00.000+08:00

UPDATED: The DVD is now out. Buy the original!

***

When I first came across the title 'The Last King of Scotland', I was actually expecting something like this:

For more naughty kilt pictures, visit Doc Mave.

But not till I watched the trailer for the movie at the cinemas (and finally the full movie yesterday), only I realised that it is about a movie about Uganda's notorious 3rd President, Idi Amin.

Read all about him from Wikipedia. Some interesting fact about him:

As the years went on, Amin became increasingly erratic and outspoken. He had his tunics specially lengthened so that he could wear many World War II medals, including the Military Cross and Victoria Cross. He granted himself a number of titles, including "King of Scotland".

In 1977, after Britain broke diplomatic relations with his regime, Amin declared he had beaten the British and conferred on himself the decoration of CBE (Conqueror of the British Empire). Radio Uganda then read out the whole of his new title ("His Excellency Al-Hadji Field Marshal Dr. Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, CBE, Life President of the Republic of Uganda"[1]).

Amin was fond of racing cars (of which he owned several), boxing, and Disney cartoons. Many foreign journalists considered him a somewhat comical and eccentric figure; he was widely caricatured in the west as a murderous buffoon.

The fetish for titles and awards. Rings a bell back home?

Warning: Plot spoilers ahead.

Now, back to the movie. As always, first things first, the poster:

Its synopsis:

The story revolves around how a young Scottish doctor, Nicholas Garrigan, becomes, by chance, the personal physician to the new Ugandan President Idi Amin. At first Garrigan tries to ignore the crimes Amin is committing across the country, but he is forced to acknowledge their reality when a comment of his leads Amin to kill the health minister. Garrigan also develops an affair with one of Amin's many wives, and impregnates her. She is killed by Amin, causing Garrigan to attempt to poison Amin. Amin discovers this scheme and orders Garrigan killed. Garrigan is saved by a fellow Ugandan doctor, and escapes with a group of hostages released during the Air France hijacking at Entebbe International Airport.

And trailer:

In 6 words, I would decribe the film as:

White 'backpacker' can't wait to shag

So if you're looking for violence and torture by Idi Amin in this yet another movie adaptation from a novel of the same name by Giles Foden, you're wrong. It focuses on the fictional character of a white Scottish doctor, Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy), who 'became a good friend with Idi Amin'. Altough James' character is only a supporting (and he was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor in BAFTA for the role), the emphasis on the white character is obvious. So why the emphasis and lack of brutality? The director Kevin Macdonald has this to say in the Washington Post:

In "The Last King of Scotland," the white doctor, Nicholas Garrigan, is an aggressive player in his own downfall, even going so far as to have an affair with one of Amin's wives. (The Garrigan character is a composite of various whites who interacted with Amin during his presidency. One of Amin's wives -- he was reported to have married five times and fathered more than 40 children -- had an abortion to keep an affair hidden from the dictator. She was murdered. Many blamed Amin.)

Macdonald says, though, that he didn't want a movie that fictionalized the story to the point where the white character becomes a heroic figure. "It's unfortunately the economics of moviemaking," he says. "Getting whites into a movie with a leading black character."

A director wishing to film in an African country quickly realizes how important it is to gain an audience with the president, particularly if filming involves one of its most storied and tyrannical characters.

***

Macdonald says he wanted complexity and nuance. "For me this film is about colonial power, the Third World in general, and Uganda in specific. Garrigan is really a flawed white figure. He's selfish, grasping, greedy for experience for himself. I see it as a backpacking film: Middle-class white kids going to Africa who want to take something home and not realizing the consequences."

Macdonald thought a movie just showing the killings would be too one-dimensional. "Amin had streaks of brilliance, but in a mind riddled with paranoid guilt and anger," he says. "I think he was a public relations genius. I think if he were living today he'd be head of public relations for Miramax. He was once lifted on his throne wearing a kilt by four white businessmen. That picture was shown everywhere in the world. It's a conversion of the African stereotype. How Amin came to represent the worst imagining the West had. The savage king. And yet all these songs were written about him."

There you have it. Steven Speilberg tried to put an non-white as a hero but he failed. So a white can't be wrong?

From a disabled person in Inside I'm Dancing to brother to tennis star in Wimbledon and a paedophilic child-loving half-man-half-donkey in Narnia, James was transformed into a horny Scottish medical fresh grad who can't wait to get his pants off (well, actually he literally did it the this film; lucky for you girls!) to boink almost every single women (especially married ones) he met.

Gillian Anderson's (of the X-files fame) character is almost neglible, who played a married doctor who is also horny to get shagged with the young new Scottish doctor but is afraid to do so because of conscience?

I want to boink or not boink?

Forest's character as an initially-ambitious-but-later-turned-cuckoo President is very convincing (some say powerful and mind-blowing) with his African accent and gestures. It would be unfair to expect the 2 hours and 3 minutes to tell how brutal of Idi Amin killing more than 300,00 Ugandas and a mass driving out of South Asians from Uganda.

And the awards and nominations he have received so far for the character:

Whitaker received critical acclaim for his peformance as dictator Idi Amin in the 2006 film The Last King of Scotland, winning the best actor award from the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review and earning his second Golden Globe nomination; he also was nominated for Best Actor by the Broadcast Film Critics Association and Screen Actors Guild.

But will he make it big in the Oscars? A film about Africa can't be wrong (The Constant Gardener last year, remember?) but everybody's (including me) predicting that it would be a Scorsese year this year....

Some of my favourite quotes from the film:

We don't have monkeys in Scotland. If we have them, we'd deep-fry them!

You'd never know if this new president is making the nation's economy into his personal bank account. (rings a bell back home?)

Go home and tell the story to all. People will believe you because you are white.

Overall, I would give the film a 8/10 rating (a point higher than The Departed); the bonus point is for the wonderful score and music from the film.

Catch it if you can!

Now, will someone write a fictional novel of a not-so-fictional 'dictator' somewhere back home? ;)

Next up: The Pursuit of Happyness and Babel.

BAFTA 2007 Awards and Howsy's Prediction

2007-01-12T20:45:00.000+08:00

Best film
The Queen
Babel
The Last King of Scotland
The Departed
Little Miss Sunshine

Best British film
The Queen
Casino Royale
The Last King of Scotland
Notes on a Scandal
United 93

Best actor in a leading role
Daniel Craig - Casino Royale
Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland
Leonardo DiCaprio - The Departed
Peter O'Toole - Venus
Richard Griffiths - The History Boys

Best actress in a leading role
Dame Helen Mirren - The Queen
Dame Judi Dench - Notes on a Scandal
Kate Winslet - Little Children
Penelope Cruz - Volver
Meryl Streep - The Devil Wears Prada

Best actor in a supporting role
Alan Arkin - Little Miss Sunshine
James McAvoy - The Last King of Scotland
Jack Nicholson - The Departed
Leslie Philips - Venus
Michael Sheen - The Queen

Best actress in a supporting role
Emily Blunt - The Devil Wears Prada
Abigail Breslin - Little Miss Sunshine
Toni Colette - Little Miss Sunshine
Francis De La Tour - The History Boys
Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls

Original screenplay
Guillermo Arriaga - Babel
Michael Arndt - Little Miss Sunshine
Guillermo del Toro - Pan's Labryinth
Peter Morgan - The Queen
Paul Greengrass - United 93

Adapted screenplay
Neal Purvis/Robert Wade/Paul Haggis - Casino Royale
William Monahan - The Departed
Aline Brosh McKenna - The Devil Wears Prada
Peter Morgan/Jeremy Brock - The Last King Of Scotland
Patrick Marber - Notes On A Scandal

The David Lean Award for achievement in direction
Martin Scorsese - The Departed
Jonathan Dayton/Valerie Faris - Little Miss Sunshine
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - Babel
Stephen Frears - The Queen
Paul Greengrass - United 93

Animated feature film
Cars
Flushed Away
Happy Feet

The Carl Foreman Award for special achievement by a British director/producer or writer in their first feature film
Andrea Arnold - director (for Red Road)
Julian Gilbey - director (for Rollin' with the Nines)
Christine Langan - producer (for Pierrepoint)
Gary Tarn - director (for Black Sun)
Paul Andrew Williams - director (for London to Brighton)

Best film not in the English language
Apocalypto
Black Book
Pan's Labyrinth
Paint it Yellow
Volver

The Anthony Asquith Award for achievement in film music
Gustavo Santaolalla - Babel
David Arnold - Casino Royale
Henry Krieger - Dreamgirls
John Powell - Happy Feet
Alexandre Desplat - The Queen

Cinematography (Glad that COM finally gained a nomination and hope it will win!)
Babel
Casino Royale
Children of Men
Pan's Labyrinth
United 93

Editing
Babel
Casino Royale
The Departed
The Queen
United 93

Production design
Casino Royale
Children of Men
Marie Antoinette
Pan's Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Costume design
The Devil Wears Prada
Marie Antoinette
Pan's Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
The Queen

Sound
Babel
Casino Royale
Pan's Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
United 93

Achievement in special visual effects
Casino Royale
Children of Men
Pan's Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Superman Returns

Make up and hair
The Devil Wears Prada
Marie Antoinette
Pan's Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
The Queen

Short animation film
Dream's and Desires - Family Ties
Guy 101
Peter and the Wolf

Short Film
Care
Cubs
Do Not Erase
Hikikomori
Kissing, Tickling and Being Bored

[Source: BBC]

p.s Going to see The Last King of Scotland later and see if I change my predictions above!

18th Annual Producers Guild Awards and Howsy's Predictions

2007-01-04T23:29:00.000+08:00

18TH ANNUAL PRODUCERS GUILD AWARDS
SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 2007
CENTURY PLAZA HOTEL

PRODUCERS GUILD AWARDS 2007

THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURE and LONG-FORM TELEVISION nominees:

The Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures

BABEL (Paramount Vantage)

Alejandro González Iñárritu

Steve Golin

Jon Kilik

THE DEPARTED (Warner Bros.)

Graham King

DREAMGIRLS (Dreamworks SKG/Paramount Pictures)

Laurence Mark

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (Fox Searchlight)

Marc Turtletaub

David T. Friendly

Peter Saraf

Albert Berger & Ron Yerxa

THE QUEEN (Miramax Films)

Andy Harries

Christine Langan

Tracey Seaward

The Producers Guild of America Producer of the Year Award in Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures

CARS (Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar Animation)

Darla K. Anderson

FLUSHED AWAY (Dreamworks Animation)

Cecil Kramer

Peter Lord

HAPPY FEET (Warner Bros.)

Doug Mitchell

George Miller

Bill Miller

ICE AGE: THE MELTDOWN (20th Century Fox Animation)

Lori Forte

MONSTER HOUSE (Sony Pictures Animation)

Steve Starkey

Jack Rapke

The David L. Wolper Producer of the Year Award in Long-Form Television

BLEAK HOUSE (PBS/BBC)

Nigel Stafford-Clark

ELIZABETH I (HBO)

Suzan Harrison

George Faber

Charles Pattinson

Barney Riesz

FLIGHT 93 (A&E Television)

David Gerber

Clara George

HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL (The Disney Channel)

Bill Borden

Barry Rosenbush

MRS. HARRIS (HBO)

Elizabeth Karlsen

Pamela Koffler

Christine Vachon

13th Annual SAG Awards Nominations and Howsy's Predictions

2007-01-04T23:14:00.000+08:00

Just announced. My predictions are in red. From Beebs:

Best film - Drama

Babel
The Departed
Little Children
The Queen
Bobby

Best film - Musical Or Comedy
Borat
Little Miss Sunshine
Dreamgirls
The Devil Wears Prada
Thank You For Smoking

Best director - film
Clint Eastwood - Flags of Our Fathers
Clint Eastwood - Letters from Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears - The Queen
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - Babel
Martin Scorsese - The Departed

Best performance by an actress in a film - Drama
Penelope Cruz - Volver
Judi Dench - Notes on a Scandal
Maggie Gyllenhaal - Sherrybaby
Kate Winslet - Little Children
Helen Mirren - The Queen

Best performance by an actor in a film - Drama
Leonardo DiCaprio - Blood Diamond
Leonardo DiCaprio - The Departed
Peter O'Toole - Venus
Will Smith - The Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland

Best performance by an actress in a film - Musical or Comedy
Annette Bening - Running With Scissors
Toni Collette - Little Miss Sunshine
Beyonce Knowles - Dreamgirls
Meryl Streep - The Devil Wears Prada
Renee Zellweger - Miss Potter

Best performance by an actor in a film - Musical Or Comedy
Sacha Baron Cohen - Borat
Johnny Depp - Pirates of the Caribbean
Aaron Eckhart - Thank You for Smoking
Chiwetel Ejiofor - Kinky Boots
Will Ferrell - Stranger than Fiction

Best performance by an actress in a supporting role in a film
Adriana Barraza - Babel
Cate Blanchett - Notes on a Scandal
Emily Blunt - The Devil Wears Prada
Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikuchi - Babel

Best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a film
Ben Affleck - Hollywoodland
Eddie Murphy - Dreamgirls
Jack Nicholson - The Departed
Brad Pitt - Babel
Mark Wahlberg - The Departed

Best foreign language film
Apocalypto (US)
Letters From Iwo Jima (US)
The Lives of Others (Germany)
Pan's Labyrinth (Mexico)
Volver (Spain)

Best animated feature film
Cars
Happy Feet
Monster House

Best screenplay - film
Guillermo Arriaga - Babel
Todd Field and Tom Perrotta - Little Children
Patrick Marber - Notes on a Scandal
William Monahan - The Departed
Peter Morgan - The Queen

Best original song - film
Listen - Dreamgirls
Never Gonna Break My Faith - Bobby
The Song of the Heart - Happy Feet
Try Not to Remember - Home of the Brave
A Father's Way - The Pursuit of Happyness

Best original score - film
Alexandre Desplat - The Painted Veil
Clint Mansell - The Fountain
Gustavo Santaolalla - Babel
Carlo Siliotto - Nomad
Hans Zimmer - The Da Vinci Code

Cecil B DeMille award
Warren Beatty

Best television series - Drama
24
Big Love
Grey's Anatomy
Heroes
Lost

Best performance by an actress in a television series - Drama (Can't really predict on these coz I don't follow US TV)

Patricia Arquette - Medium
Edie Falco - Sopranos
Evangeline Lilly - Lost
Ellen Pompeo - Grey's Anatomy
Kyra Sedgwick - The Closer

Best performance by an actor in a television series - Drama
Patrick Dempsey - Grey's Anatomy
Michael C Hall - Dexter
Hugh Laurie - House
Bill Paxton - Big Love
Kiefer Sutherland - 24

Best television series - Musical Or Comedy
Desperate Housewives
Entourage
The Office
Weeds
Ugly Betty

Best performance by an actress in a television series - Musical Or Comedy
Marcia Cross - Desperate Housewives
America Ferrera - Ugly Betty
Felicity Huffman - Desperate Housewives
Julia Louis-Dreyfus - The New Adventures of Old Christine
Mary-Louise Parker - Weeds

Best performance by an actor in a television series - Musical Or Comedy
Alec Baldwin - 30 Rock
Zach Braff - Scrubs
Steve Carrell - The Office
Jason Lee - My Name is Earl
Tony Shalhoub - Monk

Best mini-series or film made for television
Bleak House
Prime Suspect: The Final Act
Broken Trail
Elizabeth I
Mrs Harris

Best performance by an actress in a mini-series or film made for television
Gillian Anderson - Bleak House
Annette Bening - Mrs Harris
Helen Mirren - Elizabeth I
Helen Mirren - Prime Suspect: The Final Act
Sophie Okonedo - Tsunami: The Aftermath

Best performance by an actor in a mini-series or film made for television
Andre Braugher - Thief
Robert Duvall - Broken Trail
Michael Ealy - Sleeper Cell: American Terror
Chiwetel Ejiofor - Tsunami: The Aftermath
Bill Nighy - Gideon's Daughter
Ben Kingsley - Mrs. Harris
Matthew Perry - The Ron Clark Story

Best performance by an actress in a supporting role in a series, mini-series or film made for television
Toni Collette - Tsunami: The Aftermath
Emily Blunt - Gideon's Daughter
Katherine Heigl - Grey's Anatomy
Sarah Paulson - Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Elizabeth Perkins - Weeds

Best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a series, mini-series or film made for television
Thomas Haden Church - Broken Trail
Jeremy Irons - Elizabeth I
Justin Kirk - Weeds
Masi Oka - Heroes
Jeremy Piven - Entourage

Anticipated Movies (UK) for January 2007

2007-01-02T17:05:00.000+08:00

Movie advert you can see on the buses now (which I don't intend to see):

White Noise: The Light (Friday January 5)

After the murder of his family, a suicidal man is brought back from the brink of death only to discover he can now "see" those among us who are about to die. He tries to save people from their fate but soon discovers there is a price to pay for meddling with the natural order of life and death.

It has billboard posters everywhere now (which I will give it a miss also):

Apocalypto (Friday January 5)

"Apocalypto" is a heart stopping mythic action-adventure set against the turbulent end times of the once great Mayan civilization. When his idyllic existence is brutally disrupted by a violent invading force, a man is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression where a harrowing end awaits him. Through a twist of fate and spurred by the power of his love for his woman and his family he will make a desperate break to return home and to ultimately save his way of life.

The Last King of Scotland (Friday January 12)

In an incredible twist of fate, a Scottish doctor on a Ugandan medical mission becomes irreversibly entangled with one of the world's most barbaric figures: Idi Amin. Impressed by Dr. Garrigan's brazen attitude in a moment of crisis, the newly self-appointed Ugandan President Amin hand picks him as his personal physician and closest confidante. Though Garrigan is at first flattered and fascinated by his new position, he soon awakens to Amin's savagery - and his own complicity in it. Horror and betrayal ensue as Garrigan tries to right his wrongs and escape Uganda alive.

Smoking Aces (Friday January 12)

An FBI agent supervises a manhunt for a standup comedian who has decided to squeal on the mob. Before he heads off into protective custody, the comic goes for one last hurrah in the casinos at Tahoe, drawing a crowd of assassins.

Babel (Friday January 19)

Armed with a Winchester rifle, two Morrocan boys set out to look after their family's herd of goats. In the silent echoes of the desert, they decide to test the rifle… but the bullet goes farther than they thought it would. In an instant, the lives of four separate groups of strangers on three different continents collide. Caught up in the rising tide of an accident that escalates beyond anyone's control are a vacationing American couple, a rebellious deaf Japanese teenager and her father, and a Mexican nanny who, without permission, takes two American children across the border. None of these strangers will ever meet; in spite of the sudden, unlikely connection between them, they will all remain isolated due to their own inability to communicate meaningfully with anyone around them.

Blood Diamond (Friday January 26)

Set against the backdrop of civil war and chaos in 1990's Sierra Leone, "Blood Diamond" is the story of Danny Archer--a South African mercenary--and Solomon Vandy--a Mende fisherman. Both men are African, but their histories as different as any can be, until their fates become joined in a common quest to recover a rare pink diamond that can transform their lives. While in prison for smuggling, Archer learns that Solomon--who was taken from his family and forced to work in the diamond fields--has found and hidden the extraordinary rough stone. With the help of Maddy Bowen, an American journalist whose idealism is tempered by a deepening connection with Archer, the two men embark on a trek through rebel territory, a journey that could save Solomon's family and give Archer the second chance he thought he would never have.

Rocky Balboa (Friday January 26)

The greatest underdog story of our time is back for one final round of the Academy Award-winning Rocky franchise. Former heavyweight champion Rocky Balboa steps out of retirement and back into the ring, putting himself against a new rival in a dramatically different era.

After a virtual boxing match declares Rocky Balboa the victor over current champion Mason 'The Line' Dixon, the legendary fighter's passion and spirit are reignited. But when his desire to fight in small, regional competitions is trumped by promoters calling for a rematch of the cyber-fight, Balboa must weigh the mental and physical risks of a high profile exhibition match against his need to be in the ring.

Howsy's Yuletide Movie Review: Titanic Meets Charlie's Angels in The Holiday

2006-12-18T09:07:00.000+08:00

As usual when the festive season is near, loads of those lovey-dovey, sugar-coated, 'heart-warming', feel-good movies hoard up the cinemas. This year alone, cartoon flicks aside, we have an A-list cast, The Holiday, kiddie-flicks like Santa Clause 3 and Deck the Halls and a more serious one, The Nativity Story so far.

Given the list above, what would be the obvious choice to treat yourself for a feel-good, heartwarming experience in this cold winter? The Holiday, of course! It opens in the UK yesterday and managed to catch what Cameron D is worth it besides the over-hyped relationship with Mr. ~~Sexyban~~ Sexyback.

Warning: Negligible plot spoilers ahead.

As usual, here's the movie poster:

The synospsis:

Despite being separated by the Atlantic Ocean, Amanda (Cameron Diaz) and Iris (Kate Winslet) share the same dilemma: they've both been disappointed by their significant others, Ethan (Edward Burns) and Jasper (Rufus Sewell), and are now facing a dull Christmas in isolation.

After they meet online, however, they decide to join forces and give each other a hand. They will swap houses and lives for the holidays, hoping new experiences will result in less glum holiday depression. Amanda, a Los Angeles resident, will stay at Iris' home in rural England and Iris will live in Amanda's home in the States. While on holiday, each meets a new lover: Amanda falls for dashing Graham (Jude Law), while Iris finds herself attracted to quirky Miles (Jack Black). But where does the magic of the holiday end and the reality of real life begin?

And the trailer:

The synopsis above is pretty much self-explanatory so I won't be talking much in the review here. In 4 words, I would describe the film as:

Cross-Atlantic House-swapping Chick Flick.

And here are some stills from the film:

A mansion in LA...

...swapped with a cottage house in Surrey, England...

Jude Law being his philandering self (as seen in another recent film, Anthony Mighella's Breaking and Entering-which I didn't bother to review as it was somehow tad ridiculuous) with another philandering partner, Cameron Diaz...

The oddest couple ever, Kate Winslet and Jack Black (similar to Gwenny and him, who were a slightly better couple in Shallow Hal)...

And also the obligatory geriatric, a Nancy Myer's obsession (besides Something's Gotta Give, which was far more a better film)...

Overall, I would rate the film as 4/10. If it is shown in Malaysia, give it a go but don't expect too much from the film.

Howsy's Bond Movie Review: "My Name Is Bond. Sony Bond"

2006-11-17T16:01:00.000+08:00

My name is Ja...ooppsss, I mean Sony. Sony Bond.

Like The Island, Casino Royale (which opens in the UK and Malaysia yesterday) is yet another hard-sell product placement orgy, with the film company's products, Sony, of course. Besides Sony MP3 Walkmans, mobile phones and laptops, you can find commercial orgies of Omega, Heineken, LV (uncredited, me thinks) etc.

Warning: Plot spoilers ahead. And this is going to be a negative review. Please do not read further if you are offended.

As usual, here's the movie's poster:

~~Which is a remake of its original, Casino Royale (1967):~~

Ammended: No, it's not a remake. It's the first ever serious adaption of Ian Fleming's first ever Bond novel of the same name. Thanks to film guru, Swifty, for the pointer.

The movie's synopsis from IMDB:

Casino Royale introduces James Bond before he holds his license to kill. But Bond is no less dangerous, and with two professional assassinations in quick succession, he is elevated to '00' status. Bond's first 007 mission takes him to Madagascar where he is to spy on a terrorist, Mollaka. Not everything goes to plan and Bond decides to investigate, independently of MI6, in order to track down the rest of the terrorist cell. Following a lead to the Bahamas, he encounters Dimitrios and his girlfriend, Solange. He learns that Dimitrios is involved with Le Chiffre, banker to the world's terrorist organizations. Secret Service intelligence reveals that Le Chiffre is planning to raise money in a high-stakes poker game in Montenegro at Le Casino Royale. MI6 assigns 007 to play against him, knowing that if Le Chiffre loses, it will destroy his organization. 'M' places Bond under the watchful eye of the beguiling Vesper Lynd. At first skeptical of what value Vesper can provide, Bond's interest in her deepens as they brave danger together and even torture at the hands of Le Chiffre. In Montenegro, Bond allies himself with Mathis MI6's local field agent, and Felix Leiter who is representing the interests of the CIA. The marathon game proceeds with dirty tricks and violence, raising the stakes beyond blood money and reaching a terrifying climax.

And the trailer:

Rotten Tomatoes gave an almost perfect consensus 94% rating and here's a consensus review they gave:

Casino Royale disposes of the silliness and overplayed gadgets that plagued recent James Bond outings, while Daniel Craig delivers what fans and critics have been waiting for: a caustic, haunted, intense reinvention of Bond.

Yes, in this flat world, gadgets in films which make you awe are things of past, aren't they? Want to know location? You have Google Earth, GPRS, M Chips (not to be confused with the now-dead Mahathir Chip). Want to search info? You have Google Search (which was actually used in the film), Wikipedia et al. So what's left for the film besides the obligatory fancy cars, boats, beaches, bikinis and.....girls?

Have a blue-eyed (and a minor S&M) orgy of course!

So, in 4 words, I would describe the film as:

Blue-eyed, Bullet-proof, Bond. Boring.

In this review, I would rather not talk about the controversy surrounding the selection of Daniel Craig as the new Bond and his performance (which you could read from Wikipedia) , but would rather focus on its storyline, without comparing with its original, of course. Apart from running kinda funnily, Daniel gave an overall very impressive and convincing 'Bond' performance, with the classical egoism and (lesser) male chauvinism. The girls, Eva Green and Caterina Murino are fine, except one of them was killed off too prematurely.

Bond and his fine girls. Do they have chemistry? Watch the film to find it out yourself.

Here's some more extra Bond girls dosage for the hot-blooded male in you (also for female Brokeback practioners also):

Eva Green. Blue-eyed. Better than Halle Berry.

Caterina Murino. Not another blue-eyed again!

The film started off by giving us a premature orgasm, with an action-packed chase in Uganda, which finally ended up with Bond blowing up a foreign embassy, sans cartoon controversy, of course.

A surprisingly very acrobatic (even no match for Bond) 'terrorist'.

So, everything pertaining to espionage and intelligence nowadays are to prevent terrorism bombing up buildings and stuff, innit?

It then followed by some typical Bond scenes-the car, the boats/yatches, the beach, posh hotels and......yeah, just admit it, you've been expecting the sex scenes, don't you? Well, here's something for the ladies...

Bond's pecs and speedos...

Unlike ~~M:I:3~~ Miami Vice, there's no shower sex scene. No, not even one. Just getting wet n stuff in the shower. No sex. (Too many spy films this year make Howsy confused.)

The obligatory bed sex scene...no breast fon....erhm, shall we get back to the rest of the review?

Bond: "Hun, do you think the logo 'Sony' should be tattooed over my chest?"

Well, as the name of the film suggest, there must be some gambling involved, of course, which is kinda boring. I'd rather stick to Chow Sing-Chi's and Chow Yun-Fatt's gambling series. Oh, nothing very 'Royale' about the casino either. The whole building wasn't too grand either.

Spot the two token Asians-without-dialogue in there.

Nevertheless, the casino scenes make you wonder how money is lost and gained in thin air within a few minutes, which reminds you of how our tax-payers money was spent on a one-off stone-playing space mission, innit?

Dame Judi Dench is as elegant as ever, with the same ol' same ol' furious everytime when Bond's f**k things up.

Bond, no gadgets for you in 2006. Try Google. Or stick to your Sonys.

Well, what is left to review about? Yeah...the obligatory torture of Bond, of course, which is kinda S&M-ish (good news for you ladies and male Brokeback practioners again).

Overall, I would rate the film as 4/10. You want gadgets, action, girls (and shower sex), S&M torture, exotic locations, stick to M:I:3. Or The Italian Job. Or The Bourne Identity. Nevertheless, go watch the film if you want some pop-corn fun, now that Borat is not showing in Malaysia after all.

More from Wikipedia, IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.

Oh, don't bother buying/downloading the OST, since the theme song, "You Know My Name" is not even in it!

Footnote: Was that Richard Branson at the security gates, if you know what I mean. ;-)

"Please You Come See My Borat Moving Film Review, If Not Success I Will Be Execute"

2006-11-04T16:02:00.000+08:00

UPDATED: Read the interview between him and The Guardian here. To quote:

However, as even the tree people of Borneo now know, Borat is also the invention of Sacha Baron Cohen and is, therefore, about as offensive a character as it's possible to be without actual physical harm being visited upon everyone he comes into contact with.

The film opened No.1 in 'U S and A' last weekend which took in $26.4 million.

***

Jagshemash! Borrowing the tagline from the controversial Borat, please give this movie review a serious consideration. Wah wah wee wah!

Warning: Plot spoiler ahead.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan or just simply Borat! premiered in the UK on Thursday. I would say this is a rather difficult movie to review as one would see this film as a lame slapstick racist, sexist, anti-Semitic comedy while others may find it as a very digusting but the most entertaining 'moving film' of the year.

First things first, here's the movie poster:

The synopsis:

The film involves Borat leaving his home in Kazakhstan to come to the United States and record a documentary at the behest of the Kazakh Ministry of Information. He leaves behind his mother, wife and the town rapist, bringing along his obese producer Azamat. While in America he watches an episode of Baywatch and falls in love with Pamela Anderson, so he buys a dilapidated ice cream truck and drives (he does not wish to fly as he believes 9/11 was the work of Jews) from New York to Los Angeles to have her 'vagin' and make her his wife. Through the course of his trip he interviews people from across the country.

And the trailer:

As a journalist who brought 'disgrace' to his 'home country', Kazakhstan (sounds familiar back home?) while travelling to the U S and A to 'make moving film' while searching for Pamela Anderson's 'vagin', I would say Borat is a non-animated iconic comedian and movie for many more years to come. Rotten Tomotoes has given the film an almost perfect consensus 96% rating. And seriously, how many comedians would make fun of themself to the extent of getting dirty, digusting, getting arrested and assaulted and oh, being naked (no, I'm not talking about the Jackass or Dirty Sanchez series here).

In 4 words (although unoriginal), I would describe the film as:

Wah Wah Wee Wah!

From the TV screen to the silver screen and as you could see most of them from Youtube already, most of the scenes were already spoilt but they are still irresistible which makes you want to watch over and over again. So here are some of the classical scenes from the 'moving film':

The scene at the antique shop, where Borat was like a bull in a china shop:

The scene where Borat learned to say "What's up vanilla face?"

He couldn't afford a big-ass MPV, so he got an ice-cream van instead and a bear to 'protect' him from erhm...Jews.

One of my favourite scene from the film, the rodeo show where he sang the 'U S and A' national anthem in the lyrics of his native country's 'national anthem' and where he said 'We support your world of terror' and 'I support George Bush drink blood every child and women in Iraq'.

I will skip reviewing those other 'extreme hardcore' jokes from the film, so I don't care if you beg, borrow or steal, finding them yourselves is a must.

Other classical scenes from the film could be obtained from Wikipedia, IMDB and Rotten Tomotoes. You could also watch the first 4 minutes of the film here and other deleted scenes from its Youtube's offical page.

The film's OST is not to be missed also.

It features gypsy-inspired tunes and a spoof of Kazakhstan's national anthem, sung by his brother, Erran Baron Cohen. You can watch the anthem as follows:

Overall, I would rate the film as 7/10 as most of the scenes were spoilt in the trailer and on Youtube. Nevertheless, it is a movie film not to be missed especially when you are from a 'sensitive' country; in order to appreciate how silly and ugly one could be if we keep harping on 'sensitive' issues.

Oh, to read about the real Kazakhstan, you can check it out here. Oh, Malaysia is also going to set up a tourism office there.

Read about the real man behind Borat, Sacha Baron-Cohen, who is an Oxbridge graduate like his native comedian counterpart, Rowan Atkinson here.

We also have a very famous Oxbridge graduate. Wonder if he could become the iconic comedian of Malaysia? ;)

Saw III: "You Wanna Play A Game, Jeff?"

2006-10-28T15:38:00.000+08:00

UPDATED: OMFG! Can you believe this?

[Source]

Free publicity! The Saw makers would be extra laughing all the way to the bank, since its's already No.1 in the USA.

***

Well, this is the second time the character's name 'Jeff', appeared in a psychological thriller after Hard Candy. So in case you are looking for the other Jeff, sorry to disappoint you here.

Almost exactly one year after Saw II (reviewed here), Saw III premiered today in the UK and as always, managed to be among the first to catch this highly anticipated film yesterday.

Warning: Plot spoilers ahead.

To start things off first, as usual here's the movie poster:

The movie synopsis, from Wikipedia:

Jigsaw has vanished. Now aided by his new apprentice Amanda (Shawnee Smith), the puppet-master behind the cruel, intricate games that have terrified a community and baffled police has once again eluded capture and vanished. While city detectives scramble to locate him, Dr. Lynn Denlon (Bahar Soomekh) is unaware that she is about to become the latest pawn on his vicious chessboard. One night, after finishing a shift at her hospital, Lynn is kidnapped by the deranged Amanda and taken to an abandoned warehouse where she meets Jigsaw, a.k.a John Kramer (Tobin Bell), who's now bedridden and on the verge of death. Lynn is told that she must keep the madman alive for as long as it takes Jeff (Angus Macfadyen), another of his victims, to complete a game of his own.Racing against the ticking clock of Jigsaw's own heartbeat, Lynn and Jeff struggle to make it through each of their vicious tests, unaware that Jigsaw and Amanda have a much bigger plan for both of them.

And the movie trailer:

Written in just under a week by James Wan (Malaysian born-yeah, yet another brain drain again and you'll see The Star soon with all this 'Malaysian writes Saw III' headline) and Leigh Whannell, the sudden twist in the ending would make lame M Night Syamalan eat his humble pie. Overall the film was not too bad but not too good either, and although there is full frontal nudity, much of the audience would have been immuned with the blood and gore in the games set up big Jigsaw and oh, his apprentice, Amanda. It is definitely the better horror/thriller film this year (as Halloween approaches) as compared to the lame Grudge 2 and Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. So in 4 words, I would describe the film as:

Predecessor. Successor. Revenge. Game.

Sounds familiar to you?

Filmed in a 'flashback' mode, the 'games' set up mostly by Amanda this time include Body Chains, The Ribcage Trap, Shotgun Collar, Ice Shower, Intestines Pool and The Rack (which you could read more of the details from Wikipedia). As I said earlier, these blood-guzzing, sadomasochistic 'games' are kinda pretty lame already. Basically the games are the same: You read the clues, listen to the tape recording, find a key and unlock the victim within a period before the head/leg/body blows up. You will pretty get immuned to the gory traps in Saw I and II that the movie went into a boredom phase towards the middle of it.

Not much of emphasis was put into the story of the victims and how they ended up in the 'games' to make them regret what they do, but instead the focus is on Amanda this time, which the unexpected ending involves her also. This film is not quite a sequel (continuing from the sudden twist in Saw II which Amanda is actually an apprentice of Jigsaw) and not quite a prequel (where the infamous toilet scene is shown again, in which the set was actually borrowed from Scary Movie 4, which spoofed this movie series); i.e. a bit of both. I won't give out too much details here, so you have to watch the movie yourself. Oh, and it seems there will be Saw 4.

Overall, I would rate the film as 6/10 as the blood and gore is kinda lame already but is fortunately saved by the sudden twist in the ending.

For the benefit of you in Malaysia (who will be unsure whether it will pass the censorship board), here are some scenes from the film, all from Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB.

The 'Troy' scene.

Another 'Troy' scene.

You could watch a clip of the 'Troy' scene as follows:

Amanda, the apprentice with the head trap she designed.

The nekkid scene.

Yes, all full frontal glory nekkid.

The apprentice, Amanda, with her master, Jigsaw.

Revenge is a dish best served...?

Looking forward to Borat next week! Wohooo! Keep your fingers crossed for the review.

The Sensimovielert

M. Night Shyamalan Has Lost His Sixth Sense. Period. (And Al-Gore's Not Going To Be Happy Too)

Howsy Reviews The Forbidden Kingdom: Quick, Quick, Buddhists/Taoists! Burn Down Hollywood For Desecration of Their Religions! LOL!

In Memorium Heath Ledger (1979-2008)

Actor Heath Ledger is found dead

80th Oscar Nominations, My Predictions and WTF? No Simpsons and Lust, Caution?

80th Academy Awards

Announced Categories

Howsy Reviews 'Cloverfield': 9/11 - The Sequel

Ratatouille Wins Best Animation for the 65th Annual Golden Globes

Best Motion Picture - Drama

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama

Best Motion Picture - Musical Or Comedy

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical Or Comedy

Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Best Animated Feature Film

Best Foreign Language Film

Best Director - Motion Picture

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture

Best Original Score - Motion Picture

Best Original Song - Motion Picture

Best Television Series - Drama

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Drama

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Drama

Best Television Series - Musical Or Comedy

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy

Best Mini-Series Or Motion Picture Made for Television

Best Performance by an Actress In A Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Lust, Caution Stars Fill 2008 Independent Spirit Awards Nominations

I'm Not There leads Spirit noms

Sponsored Links

KLIFF can become like Cannes in future, oh really?

Howsy Reviews Lust, Caution

Howsy Reviews Rush Hour 3 - Strictly for Jackie Chan Fans Only!

Vacancy Makes Possessed (Starring Amber Chia) Looks Like An Oscar Film

Howsy Reviews The Simpsons Movie

Howsy Reviews Harry Potter 5: The Order of the Phoenix

Howsy's Transformers Review: [insert your favourite tehlorlist country] Vindicated, Decepticons' The Fault!

The Most Favourite Animal + TV Genre = Surf's Up!

Howsy Reviews Shrek 3: Where A Dying Scene Could Be Funny

Howsy Reviews '28 Weeks Later'

Top 10 Things All Children Must NOT Learn from Spiderman 3

Howsy Reviews 'Sunshine'

Howsy Reviews 'Mukhsin', The First Film He Watched After His Homecoming

Howsy Reviews 'Mr. Bean's Holiday'

Howsy Reviews 'I Want Candy', Featuring Carmen Electra in a Main Role

Tsai Ming-liang's 'I Don't Want To Sleep Alone' Banned in Malaysia

Upcoming Movies- March 2007

2nd March

Freedom Writers

Synopsis

Ghost Rider

Synopsis

9th March

Becoming Jane

Synopsis

Norbit

Synopsis

Outlaw

Synopsis

THE GOOD GERMAN

Synopsis

16th March

"300" SYNOPSIS

"HILLS HAVE EYES 2, THE" SYNOPSIS

"TMNT" SYNOPSIS

Oscar 2007 Winners

Howsy Reviews 'The Good Shepherd'

Amir Muhammad's 'Apa Khabar Orang Kampung' Banned in Malaysia!

'Mukhsin' Wins The Grand Prix of the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk at Berlin Film Festival

Feb 17, 2007:Berlinale Generation Kplus: The Crystal Bears and the Prizes of the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk

DEK HOR (Dorm)

MUKHSIN

Feb 17, 2007:
Berlinale Generation Kplus: The Crystal Bears and the Prizes of the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk