Movie Review - The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Title: The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Director: Guy Ritchie

Running time: 1 hr 56 minutes

Genre: Thriller / Action

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is based on a television series aired back in 1964. The film centers on the origin of two characters; Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill), an American spy and Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer), a KGB agent.

Solo was sent to retrieve a woman, Gabby Teller (Alicia Vikander) from East Berlin to extract information on her uncle whereabouts. There, he encountered Illya, who shows great determination in stopping him. Finally, Solo managed to get back across West Berlin. However, the next day, he was given a new task... to team up with Illya in order to stop a group from creating their own nuclear weapon.

I have not watched the TV series before, and truth to say, I wasn't impressed by the film's name. If it's not for Henry Cavill (Superman) and Armie Hammer (Lone Ranger), I would truly not have watched this film.

And I was not disappointed. The film have good pacing and it was both serious and funny at times. Armie and Henry made a great team, with good chemistry. Illya is mostly the 'muscle' of the two, but occasionally shows great depth and intelligence, while Solo is portrayed as an arrogant and intelligent spy but with a heart for passion as well.

While the plot is pretty generic, it did have a middle twist that I did not see coming. And thankfully, there's not much screen time for the love scenes which I absolutely abhor. This film sets a good footing to what would be a good movie franchise. However, chances of sequels, in my opinion would be rather rare as both main actors have booked film slots for many years to come.

Observations: I totally loved Illya's "Kiss". The greatest skill of all!!!

Bottomline: For those looking for a fun filled, light hearted action film.

Bamboo Ranking: 4.0 / 5.0

Moving to New Office - Innoplex

Just finish moving to new office last Friday, 8th August 2014. The new building is a 7 storey red and white building that now houses employees from all three previously separate buildings in separate location. The new building name is Innoplex.

Everything is new, so it's good. But the desk place is smaller than the old one. The old cubicle is with an 'L' shaped desk, which the new cubicle is with a straight desk only... though I am able to create a fake 'L' by using the space on top of the drawer.

My old cubicle had an overhanging cabinet to put stuff. New one none. Now, if I stretch my head just a little bit, can see other people already.

 

Old cubicle

 New cubicle

However, I do like the position of my new place. My back is windows, so no people can peek at me over my should to see what I'm doing. On my left hand side is a great view of Penang Second Bridge. Total privacy... now can view webpage in full size instead of minimized size!!! :P

New view

I am totally thankful for my place seating arrangement... privacy, nice view, near enough to pantry and washroom and yet far enough so I won't be distracted by the people walking in and out of the place.

The lights in the office are equipped with motion sensors. So, when I arrived in the office (I'm usually the first), it will turn on automatically along the path that I am walking. Of course, later during the day, all lights will turn on irrespective of motion.

The new phone is very complicated, though informative. I will have incoming number, can record miss calls, do group talk, connect to computer, etc. Haven't really have the opportunity to fully utilize the myriad of functions the new phone has. The phone in my old cubicle cannot even mute call or put calls on speaker. Now, we are given headsets too.

The meeting rooms are nice too look at, but the walls are all glass... so you'll have everyone outside looking in and people inside looking out everytime someone pass by. There are some "special" meeting rooms with themes as well.

Oil rig theme meeting room

Wind zone theme meeting room

The cafeteria food price is slightly more expensive. The utensils are new, so that's a good point (no more broken trays!)... and they even serve brown rice! The seating is unfortunately limited. Totally not enough places to sit if 100% of people in the building eat in the cafeteria at the same time. Also, the new cafeteria does not serve dinner anymore. Had to walk back to the old building to have dinner, which I'm currently not doing because the link bridge between the old building and new building is not ready.

Well, as always I never look at only the good points of something. I just have to find some fault with something and keep on harping on it... I just can't stop thinking how many flight of stairs I have to descend during a fire drill, which happens twice a year here!!!

A Glass Half Full or Half Empty

I have always try my utmost to live a normal, boring and peaceful life. I avoid any exciting activities in my life and I have always maintain a low profile in my life and work. If I am a really rich person, I would have been a kidnapper's dream come true. You can basically chart my activities after one week's observation. My activities repeat in the same cycle every week.

And Mistress of Fate has been kind to me in allowing me to life in a low profile, normal life. No one pulled me directly or indirectly in office politics (maybe they know how useless I am?), no exciting event has ever happened to me in my daily life and all is good... until now.

Well, to be frank it isn't really an event... it's just a narrow miss which if you really look at it, has nothing to do with me.

On 8th March 2014, a MAS airplane went missing during its trip from KLIA to Beijing. And I could have been one of those in the plane. My family, relatives and I were planning on going to a trip to Beijing. And with our usual practice, we would have taken that exact plane to Beijing. Usually, we try to start our holiday as early in the weekend as possible and the 8th March (Saturday) 12.35am flight is totally in line with our normal practice.

As fate has it, my aunt had to celebrate her grandson's birthday, and being the coordinator of the whole trip, she decided that we should take the plane to Beijing on 9th March 12.35am. With that singular decision, we have narrowly escaped what could be the most exciting (not in a good way) time in my life. Taking a step back, come to think of it, if my family were on that plane, that would have been the end of our line. All my other relatives have at least one family member who did not plan to join in our trip to Beijing. Only my family decided to go to Beijing in full force. Our full family would have been gone (though at the time of writing it is not confirmed that there are fatalities in the missing plane).

After hearing the news, the first reaction would be the feeling of relief, but then came the depression. Due to this event, my aunt decided the cancel our trip to Beijing. Understandable, but still a gloomy feeling enveloped me when she called me in the morning to tell me about the decision. 

Yes, of course, my condition is nothing compared to the relatives of those who did board the plane, but as with a normal selfish human being, all I can think of is just myself, how it inconveniences me, how embarrassing it would be when I have to tell my boss to cancel my leave, how to face my colleagues when I have redirected them to deal with my "stand-in" during my absence next week.

Yes, I am thankful that I narrowly averted a disaster, but I am really down that the trip that I had planned on going had to be cancelled... so, half empty or half full. I mean, as I mentioned earlier, if one were to take a step back to view on the whole, my trip to Beijing on Sunday morning had nothing to do with the missing flight on Saturday morning, so why am I being punished?

Ah, well... it's just a ramblings of a bored out of mind, useless, selfish human being... don't mind me...

I supposed it is customary to post the check received from Nuffnang in the blog.

The money I got is nothing to scream about, but I'm posting it just the same :P

The great thing about this is that not much effort need to be given to get money from Nuffnang. Okay, maybe a lot more effort is needed if one wanted to get over a thousand a month. But I quite content with the slow and steady once in a while bonus... though with the recent rise in prices, the money from this cheque is gonna be like a drop of water in the ocean :P

This blog has been dormant for a very long time... might want to start up again... though I think I have mentioned this multiple times. Anyway, might have an overseas trip coming soon... so if I'm not too lazy and if I got my hands on a camera (I'm still using feature phone, so no good phone camera to take pictures) I might post the pictures up here again.

Just booked plane tickets from Penang to KL. Did you know that MAS plane tickets are actually cheaper than Air Asia? Luckily I did check MAS ticket price else I'll be paying extra for nothing! I'm connecting a flight out of the country from KLIA... so taking MAS to KL is more convenient than taking Air Asia which would land in LCCT where I have to take a bus to get to KLIA. So, taking MAS is actually more convenient and cheaper!!!

Movie Review 45: The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey

Title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Director: Peter Jackson

Running time: 2 hours 49 minutes

Genre: Fantasy

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is an epic tale about an adventure a hobbit take with a group of dwarves and a wizard in an effort to take back Erebor from a dragon, Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch... not voiced in this episode)

The subplot, however is the base for the next epic tale to be found in Lord of the Rings. It is about how Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) come about to the "One Ring" which triggers the events in Lord of the Rings series.

This review is gonna be totally skewed. I'm a fan of J.R.R Tolkien's stories... long before it gained immense popularity amongst the "regular" people due to the marketing it received as a result of the movie blockbuster by Peter Jackson.

Reprising his role as the director, Peter Jackson transformed the tale from a novel to the silver screen seamlessly. Despite the numerous bad publicity about this movie (eg. animal deaths, new standard of FPS, etc.), I'm still in love with this movie.

That said, I think that this movie is a little bit dragged out. It is too soon to make a conclusion since the second and third part of this movie is to be screened in 2013 and 2014 respectively, but I found the first 30 minutes of the movie to be quite a bore. Sure, he has to lay down some sort of history but I think the dwarves singing in Bilbo's house a little bit too long and too much. And the introduction of Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) and Saruman the White (Christopher Lee) as a guest actor serves almost no purpose whatsoever.

The fight scenes while nice, contain too much of senseless actions and again, dragged out. The battle for Moira is uninteresting and the fight under the Misty Mountains is kind of ridiculous.

Despite all those things, I still love The Hobbit. Martin Freeman as Bilbo is okay, I supposed... but my opinion might be somewhat "non-neutral" because I loved him in his act as Dr. Watson in the "Sherlock" tv series. On that note, Smaug, to be voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch in future episodes, is the Sherlock in "Sherlock" tv series.

Ian McKellen reprising his role as Gandalf the Grey is brilliant... though he does seem to be quite worn out in the movie... and that might because I'm affected by news of him commenting that he had wanted out from the movie several times due to multitude of delays... but that's just me... will keep an eye out for it in the future episodes.

As for the leader of the dwarves, Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), his acting is quite good and make a really convincing leader in a band of dwarves trying to retake their home. While speaking of dwarves, I think that the "look" of the dwarves in this movie to be quite strange... I can't quite point it out, but there seemed to be something wrong with their hairstyle/costume/face. And they have to introduce themselves as dwarves for me to confirm that they are indeed acting as dwarves.

While I seemed to have more bad things to say about this movie than good, it is indeed a good movie and the journey with the hobbit, wizard and dwarves is a really exciting one.

Before I sign off, there has been one thing that a lot of people commented to me about the "One Ring". They said the the "One Ring" only made you invisible, and that it was not powerful at all. Well, let me tell you that the "One Ring" is really, really powerful ONLY when is used by Sauron (Dark Lord). In other people's hand, it is just a trinket... but all people covet it because they refuse to believe that. They all think that they can control the power of the Ring.

Observation: Gandalf's advice to Bilbo about letting someone live ultimately led to Bilbo not killing Gollum which led to Gollum being captured and tortured about information on the "One Rings" which led to the events in Lord of the Rings. Basically, all those bad things that happened in Lord of the Rings, is Gandalf's fault!

Bottomline: A must watch for those who loved Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Bamboo Ranking: 4.0/5.0

Perth Trip Day 4 & 5

And the 4th day was a day of beaches. There were stories on the beauty of the Australian beaches and so we made it into our itinerary.

 Sample beach...

 What was surprising to me was the availability of such things for people. If this were in Malaysia, the bags + the box would be long gone...

 Beach 2...

 Beach 3...

 This is the AQWA... otherwise known to us as the underwater aquarium... did not go in... should have cancelled the dolphin event and go to this instead...

 The Boulevard... quite famous woh...

 Finally... had the first meal of the day, which was technically lunch... hot chocolate...

 My friend had this BLTA... bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado...

 Another view of BLTA...

 Pizza... so so kua... don't really like the brown thingy... forgot what it's called... very sour...

 I had pasta... quite nice... though my personal preference would be the cream based sauce... but this is the only pasta on the set lunch menu :(

 Another friend has a lamb thingy...

 After lunch, we went boat shopping...

 But was quickly distracted by this Cold Rock ice-cream... over a thousand combinations woh... and the ice-cream were mixed with toppings of your choice on a slab of cold rock... true...

 My ferrero rocher + honeycomb ice-cream..

.

 And we notice this nice sign shows the distance to various major cities in the world... KL is in... unfortunately it's spelt wrongly :(

 Continue boat shopping...

 Boat shopping...

 Autumn leaves...

 Then, it's off to the beaches again... this time, it's beach for animals, not humans... in this case, it's a horse beach...

 And a beach for dogs...

 Too bad it was a cold day and there were no horses taking bath in the sea... it would've been a sight... the beach for animals is surprisingly in a very good state.

 Dog beach is just next to the horse beach... and this dog came dangerously close to us... technically, the owner of the dog would have been fined since his dog crossed over to the horse's beach... I can't imagine the chaos if the dogs were chasing the horses in the water...

 Some dogs in the dog beach... dog owners stayed on land...

 At night, it's of to one of the posh place for dinner... Kaili's Market... you can buy the fish at the market next door and give it to the restaurant for them to cook for you... surcharges applicable of course....

 Me with my hot chocolate... again...

 My friend had a glass of Sprite... and he kept on complaining he's cold...

 Another had tea... cute tea pieces...

 I had this seafood chowder for starters... while the texture is creamy enough... the ingredients were not as nice as I had expected...

 Don't remember what's the name of this dish... but it's the same fish that the penguins ate yesterday! Those were non-fried of course... it's quite nice... a little bit like ikan bilis... but a little bit more meat.

 My main dish is the Rock Lobster! And frankly, it's overrated. This is only half lobster and it's AUS$34++ and I liked the cheese more than the lobster meat itself... still, it's an experience one should try... but I know enough that I will not order lobster in the near future... not that the lobster is not fresh... it is in fact, very fresh... I just think that it's same as an oversized prawn. :P

 Another friend ordered grilled lobster...

 And another ordered some indian food... which looks nicer than my "big prawn" :P

 And another ordered burger... I think...

And this my dears, is my first proper breakfast in Australia... which is taken at the airport... in day 5 of Perth...

And thus ends my 4/5 day short trip to Perth. Total expenses, inclusive of air tickets, baggage, food, taxis, souvenirs ~RM3000++, which could have reach RM5000++ if I had to stay in a hotel... but then again, I don't think I would visit Australia if I had to spend RM2000++ on accomodation :P

Perth Trip Day 3

Day 3 in Perth was particularly uneventful. The only event we had for the day was a trip to the Penguin Island to watch dolphins and penguins... there's sea lion watch too, but we did not opt for that package.

 Breakfast... first time I had in Perth... was in McD... their breakfast set were slightly different from Malaysia's being that their sets mainly consists of pork bacon and the drink is cappuccino

 Bacon burger! With avocado sauce too...

 We reached the meeting point early in the morning... early being ~9am

 And got on a boat that's surprisingly quite full despite it's Monday.

 Then, for those who opted for the dolphin watch package, we were transfered to another boat...

This so-called swimming with the dolphins package does not guarantee a sighting of dolphins. We basically have to sail around and hope that we're lucky... that and plus the experience of the guides and the speaker that's immersed in water, letting out dolphin's sounds. So the pics caught were quite scarce... all pics of dolphins are caught by my friend.

Dolphin...

Dolphin...

 After about 2 hours (I think) of chasing dolphins, we were finally let off the Penguin Island. This island is a protected reserve... the guide said something about level 7 or something to that effect. Even the toilet is the natural ones... no water flush...

The island is a nesting ground for pelicans... and the female ones were quite protective of their nests... we were continuousness harried by this particularly annoying bird.

 And the island is filled with them!

 Close-up of the bird... I'm not sure if this is how female pelicans look like... or it's another bird altogether...

 This is a pelican, but it's nowhere on the island...

Picture if the egg the birds were protecting...

 The scenery is okay i supposed, if you can ignore the shit that's everywhere...

 Next, we went into a showroom to watch penguins... which is rather disappointing...

 Penguin swimming...

 Penguin feeding...

In conclusion, I would not really recommend joining this adventure as the thrills are quite short and at a high price... to watch the penguins and dolphins, it was ~AUS$85... and it peaks more than AUS$100 if you want to watch the sea lion as well... at least for the sea lions, you watch it in the sea in a boat/ship that has a glass underbelly... the penguins watch was totally so "duh".

Anyhow, after this "adventure" we were back at home, do a little shopping to buy nougats and chocolates... and that is a must buy. However, I was in one shop that's selling 250g of nougats for AUS$27 while another shop that's selling 1kg nougat at the same price! Not sure if they accidentally put up the wrong price or what.

And oh, the supplements here are super cheap even after the currency conversion. So, if you have any vitamins, omega, calcium you want to buy, you can buy over here as well!

Well, that's all for a short uneventful third day in Perth.