Movie Review 44: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (pt1)

Title: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (pt.1)

Director: David Yates

Running time: 2 hours 26 minutes

Genre: Fantasy

In the second last installment of the movie series, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and friends are trying to find the remaining Horcruxes and  destroying them if they are to have hope of defeating the great Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes)

I have been watching this movie series since it's first episode and even though I think the book 7 of the series quite enjoyable, I find the movie to be a dread.

There are, of course highlights during the 146 minutes of screen time... but the whole movie feels dragged out. I don't envy the director having to make a decision to whether film the seventh episode in 1 movie or 2... since if he filmed it in 1 movie, it will feel too rush and if he filmed it in 2, which is what he's doing, it will face the risk of feeling dragged out.

He could have introduced some exciting sub plots to the movie... something new and refreshing not available in the novel, but instead, he kept on adding unnecessary scenes. Several places that Harry Potter and friend traveled to are just a waste of time and the screens showing them walking alone, attempting to exhibit conflicting emotions are a bore.

And the storyline for this movie is extremely boring. It's all about emotions... very little action. The director should have lengthen the fight at the beginning of the movie... it was over before I was able to make out who's who.

I'll be expecting a much better movie for the second part. Unfortunately, this meant that one must watch the part 1 of the movie to make sense of the movie...

Observation: I still don't understand much on why Voldemort can't beat Harry when using other person's wand.I mean, a wand is afterall, a tool... sure, it will augment one's power, but surely Voldemort is much, much more powerful than Harry that he don't need to have the most powerful wand in order to just beat Harry!

Bottomline: If you're planning to watch the second part of the movie, you'll have to watch the first part, if not, you won't be able to make any sense out of it.

Bamboo Ranking: 2.5 / 5.0

Movie Review 43: Resident Evil: Afterlife

Title: Resident Evil: Afterlife

Director: Paul W.S. Anderson

Running time: 1 hour 37 minutes

Genre: Horror, Action

This is the fourth instalment of the Resident Evil movie series and it starts off where the third instalment ended. The world is infected by a super virus which turns all infected humans into undead. Alice (Milla Jovovich) is one of the survivors of this apocalypse. She desperately searched for Arcadia… a place where there’s safety and is free from infection. This movie is loosely based on the Resident Evil game series.

This is the first decent film that I have watched since I started movie going two months ago. I have not watched any of the first three movies before so I had no idea what happened in the beginning of the movie. Despite that, my familiarity with the Resident Evil universe through the game series quickly caught me up to date to the developments. This film is only loosely based on the Resident Evil game series as the main character in the game is Chris Redfield, Leon Kennedy and Jill Valentine while in this movie, Alice is the lead cast. Maybe Alice is a character in other version of the Resident Evil game series (e.g. Wii, PSP, GC, etc.)... I played only those on the PC and PS.

Anyhow, I think that Milla Jovovich, as a superhuman hard-ass chick I is pretty good… although losing her powers in the beginning should have resulted in her dead in the plane crash. As for the newcomer in the series, Chris Redfield (Wentworth Miller), I think he’s pretty good as Chris Redfiled, although his screen time is really limited... would have like to have him having a bigger impact in the story development. In this film, his involvement doesn’t really change the story much. But I still really like his soulful eyes as in Prison Break, so I might be biased :P. And then, there’s a third character, which I presume exists in the previous series as well... Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) Chris’s little sister. I think she is by far the weakest character in the film... not that she’s very bad... just relatively the weakest one. It is quite obvious she is forcing emotions on her face which resulted in a very unnatural look.

As for the actions, they are pretty awesome... although those who watched the film previous instalment might find it to be the same bland thing if it’s the same. There’s one weak point though. I think the director uses too much slow motion in his action scenes. Slow motion actions are awesome when employed correctly. However, in this film... these slow motion scenes seemed like even longer than the normal motion action scenes (I feel only, I didn’t time them, okay). I think it would have been better if he could cut down on these slow motion scenes. On another point, I love the hammer/axe wielding executioner... he really is similiar to the one portrayed in RE5 of the game. And due to that, I think that he overshadows Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts), who is the film’s main antagonist. The final fighting scene between Wesker and Alice/Chirs/Claire is a little bit anti-climatic... not much ooohs and ahhhs scenes.

Anyhow, I believe that after watching this film, it made me want to watch the first three instalment of the film as well. I hope that they do make a fifth instalment as the director said that he would include Leon Kennedy in the fifth film, which I hope has a bigger role to play than Chris in this film... it would be nice to put Leon and Chris together... although it might result in having too much characters in the film and it might cause underdeveloped characters.

Observation: How did Luther West (Boris Kodjoe), one of the survivors, survive being attack by a group of undead in the deep dark tunnel remains a real mystery.

Bottomline: A nicely depicted film which is based on a game... much, much better effort than the likes of Tekken and King of Fighters. This film shows that you do not need to strictly follow the game in order to be successful as it is sometimes impossible to cram all info from a game into a film.

Bamboo Ranking: 4.0 / 5.0

Movie Review 42: The King of Fighters

Title: The King of Fighters

Director: Gordon Chan

Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes

Genre: Action

It was a time I (don't know what year it is) where a secret fighting tournament is being held in a next dimension to determine the next King of Fighters. All was going well, and in came Rugal (Ray Park) who stole three (actually two) sacred artifacts and made himself the lord the the other dimension. He forced people to fight in the tournament and kill them mercilessly... and the only hope the world has lies with Kyo Kusanagi (Sean Faris) who has absolutely no idea what is happening.

Sigh... I was expecting a good movie after several months of not reviewing a movie. First let's talk about the plot. The plot has absolutely nothing to do with the King of Fighters game series. It's just a group of random people fighting for a stupid title... there is even no mention of a prize! And boy oh boy, the plot holes are so evident that I don't even need to try. First, how on Earth did Rugal managed to single handedly enter a supposedly highly secured building without even a scathe through the front doors? He did not even try to hide at all! And that was before he got his hands on the artifacts, that means, he's at most just a decent fighter. Next, there's Kyo who claimed not to know anything about the sword, and hey presto, after a heart to heart with his dead father, he got the sword! And the name Rugal was mentioned several times in front of Kyo, before he chirped in "Hey, Rugal is the one who killed my father!" There is just no flow in the story... and the whole plot is ridiculously weak!

Next, it was the characters. Mai Shiranui (Maggie Q) is actually the lead cast in this movie... I never knew that. Anyway, her fighting scenes are okay, I supposed, but Rugal's and Kyo's and Iori (Will Yun Lee) are absolutely boring. Sean Faris is quite good in "Never Back Down" and it's sad to see him being relegated to a sword wielding maniac... and I still don't know whether he is supposedly being able to fight or not in the movie. First, he got his ass kicked by Mai and then he went sparring with Rugal and managed to hold his line for a long while. And the worst character of all is Rugal. Ray Park's portrayal of an evil overlord is just pathetic. Honestly, I found this Rugal to be a joker... and not the Batman Joker type joker.

This is by far the worst movie I have ever reviewed in 2010, and it is sad, because the cast is quite nice and the setting is good too... and I can't believe there is a fighting movie that's worse than Tekken! Fans or no fans, they won't like it at all.

Observation: Why did Terry stole someone's cap only to throw it away again in his next encounter?

Bottomline: Casts with high potential, but marred by disastrous script, direction and senseless plot!

Bamboo Ranking: 2.0 / 5.0

Super Bored...

Nope, I'm not dead yet, even though this had been the longest time ever since I updated my blog. Well, a blog is about sharing new experiences and stuff... but these past few months, things have been having a robotic feeling to it.

Almost nothing ever changes... if I discounted the major problems I've been having with a project I've been working for two years and is on the verge of being a total failure. People have been hinting here and there why I'm the one designing for such a complicated project... sigh...

Anyhow, I don't think it is prudent to complain about work online... who know's who's out there watching. So, if I take work out of the equation, my life has been pretty stagnant. Monday to Friday, I'll have the same breakfast, have lunch at the same place and buy dinner from the same stall. Saturday and Sunday, I'll be at the shopping complex and even though I told myself to try new things, I always fall back on the safe and tried food before.

So, nothing new about food. And I have been playing the same games over and over again, and watching the same tv series again and again... since the previous season of tv series have all ended and is starting all over again only in August and September. I didn't even feel like watching movies, which I did for almost every week previously... so, no movie reviews.

Sigh... so I have nothing to write about... but I supposed things will be picking up again soon as the wedding season is in again... so there'll be lots of pictures!

Movie Review 41: Shrek Forever After

Title: Shrek Forever After

Director: Mike Mitchell

Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes

Genre: Animation, Comedy

Shrek (Mike Myers) is back again and this time, more unhappy than ever. He longed for the days where he was feared as an ogre and not just some tourist attraction. In came Rumpelstiltskin (Walt Dohrn) who offered Shrek to experience the feeling of a true ogre for one day. Unknown to Shrek, the contract he signed was not what he seems as he found himself alone and without his friends. Shrek has only one day to set everything right or he will disappear forever!

A lot of people actually did not know that this is the fourth installment of the series. Frankly, even I thought that this is the third installment. Despite the not so rememberable third installment of the series, I assure you that this fourth and most probably the final chapter of Shrek series is one that you will remember.

However, this movie is not as joyful as the previous ones. It tends to have a darker mood and theme and the laughs are less frequent, although if and when they appear, you'll still have a good old laugh. The storyline is simple enough to understand and the acts (voiceovers) are still superb... although I still find myself to have a preference to Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas)... his "form" in this movie is just really belly shaking.

There's not much to tell as this is already the fourth in the series and still with the similiar casts as previous ones... you'll find Gingerbreadman, Three Blind Mice, Pinnochio, Big Bad Wolf and many other fairytale characters... all twisted for fun and to your liking. Ryan Seacrest have a minor role in this movie as well!

Observation: A tiny loophole in the storyline... if Shrek was not there to save Fiona, the fairy godmother's son is supposed to save her!

Bottomline: Recommended

Bamboo Ranking: 4.0 / 5.0

Efficiency of LHDN

This is just unbelievable! I submitted my income tax forms last month... beginning of April, and three weeks later, I actually got the check for my extra payment of income tax due to the monthly scheduled tax deduction!

If this is not called efficiency, I don't know what it is! And that is one more reason why one should submit early... and also using the online submission forms. I still don't know why people like to submit as late as possible. Is it because of the interest rates? Or is it just out of spite?

I really don't think the government should specially extend their working hours into the midnight at the last day just so that all people can submit on time. Instead, they should just work regular time and for anyone who is a second late, they should be fined.

After that, no one would ever try to submit the income tax forms the last minute! Although an iron fist government is not the most popular thing and I don't really like that kind of government, sometimes, people are just like children. They need to be smacked and punished to behave.

We are always teaching our children to be punctual and follow house rules but the adult themselves can't even follow a simple deadline that was given a two months grace period. Something is really very wrong with our people!

KFC & McD Going Green... with different strategies

I'm not sure if this is happening in other states as well, but I found out recently that McD and KFC have been participating in the "No Plastic Bags" campaign. It has started for quite some time, but since I haven't visited these two restaurants for the past few months, I was not aware of this.

Apparently, McD and KFC are not giving out plastic bags for Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. While I'm neutral towards these kind of campaigns, it is the differences on how these two restaurants tackle this matter that fascinates me.

For KFC, it's simple... they automatically charge you an extra RM0.20 every time you make an order on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. They did not even bother to ask if one would want the plastic bag. They just add in 20 cents when they punch in the order.

For McDonald's instead of charging their customers, they replaced their plastic bags with paper bags. And if you order two or more drinks, they'll give you a cardboard coaster.

It is in my opinion that McDonald's strategy is of a better one. It reduces the use of plastics while not inconveniencing customers. While it is true that we can use shopping bags while shopping in supermarkets, I don't think that it is a viable option when shopping for food. 

KFC's strategy is does not really help much in conserving plastics as they assume that each customer need plastic bags by automatically charging them.

So, conclusion? Support McDonald's! :P