Geeks r Us

Conversation that ensues over lunch immediately after watching "Iron Man".

(Spoilers ahead...)

W:
"So, what was that thing that Tony Stark had on his chest for?"


Me:
"Well, remember initially he had a car battery that was attached to his chest? Well, the thing on his chest was an arc reactor which basically generates energy, like the car battery, to create an electromagnetic field that prevents the shrapnel in his chest from piercing his atrial septum hence killing him. Although in reality, in this day & age, he could probably have open heart surgery to get the shrapnel removed."


W:
"Oh. How does it work?"


Z:
"Well, theoretically, it would require some kind of fusion reaction to happen in order to create the energy. There would be these two electrodes that sit within plasma, & the arcs of light that shoot between the electrodes would be the energy that is created."


Silence.


Me:
"Are we movie geeks or what?"


A, W & Z (in unison):
"Yes!"

'Nuff said.

Iron Man!

One word.

AWESOME.

This was a rare occasion that we had the opportunity to enjoy a movie in an actual movie theatre in Beijing even BEFORE it is released in the USA.

Movies have always been an outlet of escape from the real world for me, together with TV & books. And I needed something today...and "Iron Man" didn't fail to deliver. Robert Downey Jr. shone in his quirky portrayal of Tony Stark aka Iron Man. He brought humor & sexiness to the role - something which I have never associated with the comic book version of Iron Man. (Admittedly, I have never been an Iron Man fan, & don't "know" him very well, having preferred Spiderman & the Fantastic Four; nonetheless, I had always thought him to be a very serious, straight-laced, "by-the-book" kind of character.)

Action-packed, & jam-packed with special effects, I was riveted to the storyline, as were my boys, who were also thrilled by the heavy rock music that was used for much of the accompanying background scores, including classics by Black Sabbath & ACDC.

One gripe I had , though, was the name of Tony Stark's assistant. Why Pepper Potts (played by Gwyneth Paltrow)??? I would think that the writers could have come up with something less comical! Pepper Potts????!!!!

Comic fans will not be disappointed by this film. I know I wasn't.

Hint: Don't leave before the credits finish rolling, or you'll miss a scene that lays the foundation for a future Marvel movie....

Die Hard, or rather, Hard To Die

Man, that Det. McClane ought to be given The Ultimate Survivor award.

Spoilers ahead...





















He managed to live through being shot at by multiple automatic weapons from multiple bad guys, shot at by a fighter jet, falling off aforementioned fighter jet onto semi-destroyed freeway slanted at an 80 degree angle then sliding into concrete debris, thrown out of a speeding cop car, blown up by a rigged computer, blown up by natural gas in a power plant, falling from a height equivalent to oh, about 3 flights of stairs.

Hmm...have I left anything out? I probably have.

Despite Det McClane's apparent immortality, I did enjoy the movie. It was mindless entertainment, with amusing dialogue, and fantabulous stunt work (although these days with the extremely high quality of CGI, it is sometimes hard to differentiate between what is virtual & what is real).

Harry Potter: Losing Its Magic?

Possible spoilers ahead:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
Harry Potter: The Order of the Phoenix (henceforth to be referred to HPOP) was, I hate to say, a disappointment.

I felt like the whole movie had a subdued air to it. Yes, I know the story gets darker here, & the children are no longer children anymore. I miss the magic that was so apparent in the first three installments. During those movies, I didn't want it to end. But in HPOP, that childlike exuberance is gone, replaced by a moody, angst-filled Harry. The unique relationships between the three friends seems so superficial now - the movie didn't seem to dwell enough on it. There was no Quidditch, and the Cho Chang-Harry relationship was barely touched upon (despite the much hyped about first on-screen kiss).

Perhaps it's the fault of the screenplay, which felt so condensed that the editing looked sloppy with such clumsy & glaring cuts during some of the scene changes, that it left us with mouths gaping & asking "Huh?" I know it's hard to translate a book into film, especially one with so many elements in it, but this director (David Yates) & screenwriter (Michael Goldenberg) seem to have done a rush job on this movie, that even the credits at the end of the movie are "cheap" looking!

Bring back Steve Kloves, I say (and according to the IMDB website, he will be doing the screenplays for both the Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows - Yay!) and Chris Columbus too while they're at it, and finish off the series with a Bang!

Movie-mania

My family has always been mad about movies. Preferred genres included romances/romantic comedies (moi), action (A,Z & W), sci-fi/fantasy (all of us), & comedies (Z & W). This pretty much covers 80% of the movies out in theatres at any one time.


We would catch the latest releases on opening weekend. So moving to Beijing with its limited number of English movies (I read somewhere that they get on average 20 English movies a year -20!) really bummed us out as far as this recreational activity was concerned. True there are bootleg copies of the latest releases out in the DVD stores usually within 2 weeks of the movies' release despite efforts of the copyright lobby. But nothing beats sitting in a movie theatre watching a movie on widescreen with Dolby/THX (or other system) sound blasting.


So having been back here in Singapore for about a month now, we have, so far, watched a total of 5 movies (not counting the 2 - Harry P. & Die Hard 4.0- that we will be watching this week).


Pirates 3 - a disappointment. Johnny Depp was great, but the storyline which continued from Pirates 2 lost me. No doubt the special effects were well done, but a movie can't live on SFX alone.


Fantastic Four 2 - loved it! I used to read FF comics as a kid (still do sometimes!) which is probably one reason why I enjoyed the movie. But Jessica Alba doesn't quite cut it as Invisible Girl though (ya, ya, I know she is probably one of the most downloaded celebrities in web-dom)...just something about that blonde hair which just doesn't go with the rest of her look.


Nancy Drew - Curiosity got the better of me & I succumbed to the temptation & greatly regretted it within a half hour of the show. I had previously blogged about it & my first impressions were not wrong. Sigh.

Transformers - Jaw dropping CGI, & awesome action sequences made for light entertainment. I think it's a "guy movie" as my kids LOVED it. I thought it was OK, worth the ticket price, but wouldn't want to go back & see it again. But my geeky car-loving son probably thought it was one of the greatest movies ever...hey, what more could a boy ask for? An intelligent Chevy Camaro that speaks & turns into a superhero 'bot when need be.

Shrek 3 - another disappointment. I watched Shrek & Shrek 2 on DVD & thought they were both excellent movies. But Shrek 3 was just plain corny. Weak dialogue, fairy tale characters springing up left right & center, predictable storyline all made me wish for the movie to end ASAP.

I am looking forward to more movies this week. Harry Potter/Det. McClane, here I come!

Books & Movies

NOOOOOO!!!! What have they done to Nancy Drew????

I just came across the "Nancy Drew Movie" website & it looks like they have changed this classic character into the latest geek-turned-cool-chick a lá "She's All That", "Never Been Kissed", "10 Things I Hate About You" etc.

I remember devouring this series of detective stories voraciously in my pre-teen years. I think I must have gone through the entire series before moving on to the"Hardy Boys" series, which, by the way, was made into a short-lived TV series starring Parker Stevenson (whom I had a teeny weeny crush on) as Frank Hardy & Shaun Cassidy as Joe Hardy. I vaguely remember the Nancy Drew TV series as well, but I don't think they brought it into Singapore. If they did, it didn't make much of an impression.

Targeted at adolescents, the Nancy Drew books were unique because its main character was a girl, with brains (gasp!), had a cute boyfriend and leadership qualities (gasp again!). Given the fact that this character was created in the 1930's, you can see how unusual this was. And the series has endured because of these qualities. She made it cool to be smart.

And now look what they've done. Watching the trailer, it seems like the producers have tried to make it more appealing to the modern-day teenage girls by making Nancy Drew's transformation from geek to cool dudette, the focus of the story. And her best friends George & Bess seem to have disappeared as well.

It's always tricky trying to make a movie from a beloved book or series of books. The Harry Potter series was pretty well done, for the most part, depending on which installment one is talking about (although nothing beats reading the books). And the Lord of the Rings has been done true to the heart of J.R.R. Tolkien's books; I ploughed through all three books consecutively which I would never had done had it not been for the first movie "Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring". Although I enjoyed the movies more than the books, I thought that Peter Jackson stuck to the core of the story & brought out its soul when he translated the written word into the amazing visual images we saw in the three movies.

I hope that I will be proven wrong in my preliminary impression of the Nancy Drew movie, although it doesn't look promising from the trailer.

:(

Spidey's Back!

We finally watched the much anticipated "Spiderman 3" today. Yes, amazingly, the movie came out here in China together with much of the rest of the world, & we were definitely not disappointed.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:

We have been eagerly awaiting its release since last year. We recognized the street (Broadway) where the Sandman was hiding in the dump truck, as well as the street where Peter Parker did his Tony Manero strut a la Saturday Night Fever. I even caught a glimpse the Art supply store (Pearl River Mart) where I went to buy paint! I still kick myself when I think about how we could have witnessed the actual shooting of a blockbuster movie!!!

I was impressed by Tobey Maguire's performance, especially his nerdy-geek-trying-to-be-cool Venom-ized Peter Parker. And I must say, he does a pretty good jazz dance routine (well, it looked like it really was him doing it & not a stunt double).

The storyline may be a bit too busy for non-Spidey fans or for first time audiences who missed the first two installments. Because (without giving too much away) there was the Peter Parker-MJ thing, and the Peter Parker-Harry Osborne/Green Goblin II thing, and the Venom-Spiderman thing, and the Sandman/Flint Marko-Spiderman/Peter Parker thing, and the Peter Parker/Gwen Stacy thing & the Peter Parker/Brock thing...so as you can see, lots of things going on. But there was also some closure with regards to Ben Parker's murder & also with Harry's enmity against Peter. I was a bit disappointed with Sandman's rather schizoid changes in behavior though - bad one minute, then all soft & emotional the next.

And the special effects...OMG...the CGI wizards have really outdone themselves this time & have done an AMAZING job with this. The Sandman & Venom were brought to life vividly, and the aerial fight scene between the GG & Spidey was awesome (for lack of a better word).

So for die-hard Spidey fans like moi & my son, we walked away from the theatre with a smile, and a hope that there will be a fourth installment to this very successful series. We even stayed till the end of the credits hoping for a teaser clip, like what happened in X-Men III, but alas, nada. But in the movie world where moolah means a lot (and this franchise is probably one of the most successful coming from Marvel), I suspect that Spidey 4 will happen.

FF2

I just watched the trailer for Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and it looks...well... FANTASTIC.

It opens in Singapore June 14, 2007.

Guess who's going to be there?

Me!

Yay!

:)

Scoop

After reading the mixed reviews received by this Woody Allen movie, I decided to go ahead & watch it anyway (OK, OK, I admit it...Hugh Jackson was a BIG draw for me ☺), & managed to convince my guys to come along with me.

We watched it at the new mega-movie theatre at the spanking new mall called Vivocity (we're still trying to decide whether to pronounce it as Vi-VOc-i-ty -which rhymes with velocity- or Vi-VOH-City - derived from the Latin word "vivo" meaning life, I think).

I'm glad we did watch it, although it didn't blow me away. It showed my kids that comedy needn't always be the slapstick & pie-in-my-face kind that is typical of Jim Carrey and the SNL alumni like Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider & Mike Myers.

The dialog was, well, typically Woody Allen-esque, with witty comebacks & self-deprecating humor although Mr Allen's frequent stuttering (whether intentional or not) got a bit stale & annoying after a while. Scarlett Johanssen showed her versatility with her portrayal of eager, naive journalism student, Sandra Pransky, hot on the heels of her first scoop. Hugh Jackman didn't really shine here, although he looked mighty fine in Speedos (*GRIN*).

Sidenote: we were very impressed with the movie theatre. We were in Cinema Europa which is supposed to have a bigger screen, & allow movie-goers to enjoy the movie in an elegant & intimate setting. It was indeed very comfortable, & more "high class" than the regular theatres (tickets DID cost $1 more); but I wished that the seats could have reclined a bit more.
Sigh...which reminds me that I AM going to miss movie-going when we are in China...

Oh, & by the way, my kids actually enjoyed the movie & found it funny! I guess they are smarter than I think...heeheehee...

Memoirs of a Geisha (which I think, should have been renamed Memoirs of Bitchy Geishas)

Just caught the above movie tonight. Haven't read the book yet, so maybe that's why at the end of the movie, I didn't quite get the point of the movie. That geishas have hard lives? That love triumphs in the end but you still may not get the guy? That women can be real bitches? (I think the last point stood out the most, with all the catfights & backstabbing shenanigans that was going on throughout the movie).

Zhang Ziyi did a great job, as did the young actress, Suzuka Ohgo, who played the younger version of Chiyo. Felt that Michelle Yeoh's performance was lukewarm, and she sounded rather out of place with her semi-Japanese semi-Singaporean accent. Gong Li as THE bitchy geisha also played her role well. There was also a hodge-podge of other Asian actors (my husband & I call them the recycled Asians, as they take turns appearing in various movies & TV series as the token villian/Asian gangster/gung-fu master/wise old man, such is the sad state of affairs for Asian actors in Hollywood)). Ken Watanabe, as Chiyo's love interest gave a credible performance. What stood out for me, as far as the acting talent was concerned, was that it was understated, which was refreshing; many Chinese/Asian movies tend to have overly done, melodramatic performances by its stars, & this was a nice change.

Was it a good movie? Yeah, I think so - wonderful cinematography, costumes & make-up, which should garner it some Oscar nominations in their respective categories. Didn't think too much of the storyline though. In any case, it was interesting watching an ex-patient star in her first BIG Hollywood production...

Now I need to decide whether the book is worth reading or not...

So romantic, can die

Call me crazy, but I sat through a second viewing of "Pride & Prejudice" today, and liked it even better the second time around. Matthew Macfadyen as the dashing Mr Darcy certainly grows on you, as I had said before. There's just something about the Mr-Darcy-striding-through-the misty-meadow-towards-Elizabeth-Bennet scene that stirs my innards. *YUM*

After the last couple of weeks, I needed a "feel good" movie, and nothing lifts the spirits up like a good old historical romance with a happy ending.

Footnote: They showed the "Coming Soon" trailer of "Casanova" starring Heath Ledger & Sienna Miller- hmm...looks like my cup of tea :).

Pride & Prejudice the Movie (*Spoiler Alert*)

Die-hard Jane Austen fans would hate this movie. Not only did they change & condense bits of the story (especially Darcy's explanation to Elizabeth about Wickham's past behaviour), but the screenwriters also modified some of the dialogue of the characters.

Me? I liked it. I especially liked the lead actors playing Elizabeth (Kiera Knightly) & Mr Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen); Donald Sutherland also did a superb portrayal of Mr Bennet & the scene in the study where he asks Lizzie about her true feelings for Mr Darcy brought me to tears. Judi Dench, as Lady Catherine De Burgh, did not fail to live up to her reputation.

The emotional angst & passion in the story were turned way up compared with the mini-series starring Colin Firth, & will satisfy the ladies who will swoon over Mr Macfadyen's Darcy. The scene in which he strides through a misty hazed meadow towards Elizabeth before they finally declare their love for each other, did for me, what the scene of Colin Firth in a sodden white shirt at Pemberly, did for Bridget Jones. Sigh...

Harry Potter & GOF

Watched Harry Potter & the GOF tonight. Have mixed feelings about it. Loved the special effects, and the stars of the show did a wonderful job, but somehow felt like the movie had a rather chopped-up-then-put-together-again feel to it. I guess the director was trying very hard to squeeze all the important elements of the story into it, without ending up with a 4 hour movie! I wish that some of the supporting characters like Cedric, Fleur & Cho had been given more screen time & allowed to develop their characters a bit more. Even Snape didn't get to show his colors as much this time around. And Sirius was reduced to literally ashes in the fireplace in just one scene.

A-n-y-hoo, I think it's worth a second look (we are such movie buffs that we tend to go a bit overboard sometimes!) to catch some of the minor bits & nuances which we may have missed the first time around. Hmm...maybe will try Gold Class.