Perth Trip Day 1

So, after three years of not going anywhere, my friend and I decided on a short trip to Perth, Australia to visit another friend who has moved there. He has build a nice, cosy family over there and since that means free accommodation, transportation and guide, we jumped at this opportunity :P

We arrived in Perth early in the morning ~6am. After a short nap in my friend's house, we started on our trip in Perth.

 First stop is the Fremantle market. I did not take any pictures in the market since I was still reeling from the fact I'm overseas (which is the first time without my parents)... so, I only have pictures of buildings. :P Anyhow, the stuff at Fremantle market are super cheap (not converting back to RM). My friend bought 10 koala bear key chains which costs only AUS$2... which means it's 20 cents per keychain! I did not buy it cause keychains are just sooooo common nowadays :P

 Did you know that Burger King in Malaysia is called Hungry Jacks in Australia?

 Fremantle port?

 Some nice table carving at the side of the street

 Can you imagine that this is the traffic near the market on a weekend? It's just amazing! Anywhere in Malaysia, it would be so packed with people and cars that you can't even breathe... and in Australia, there are plenty of legal parking spaces while in Malaysia, you can't even find illegal ones

 Nice window?

 Sample of car park signs. There are car parks for loading zone and car parks for different time zones... and the people actually follow the rules! They even have car parks in which one is supposed to park not more than a certain period of time, for example 1 hour and people really adhere to this rule while Malaysians would have hogged the parking space for the whole day.

 After a nice walk in the market, we went to Cicerello's to have lunch. Apparently, this is one of the most famous restaurant in Fremantle.

 And after you placed your order, you're given a beeper so that you can go back to your place to sit and enjoy the scenery and go to the counter to take the food when the food is ready.

 Cappucino... AUS$4

 Pasta... didn't try so no comment, but the person eating it says it's really nice...

 Chilli mussels... my friend says it's really nice, but I beg to differ... the mussels taste strange and the bread were so hard that it can be described as "throw at a dog and it will die :P)

 Another dish my friend is eating...

 The dish that I ordered... Traditional Fish and Chips... and it's reeeaallly nice... the fish is crispy and soft at the same time (though since it's deep fried, it doesn't have much flavour) and the chips... OMG... the fries are just heavenly... unavailable anywhere in Malaysia... all for AUS$12.95

 And there are a lot of birds around while you enjoy the seaside/port view. Not sure what bird it is... a seagull?

 But if you're not careful, you'd be attacked... like this....

 View of the boats parked at the port

 A really fat bird with a piece of fries which is not afraid of humans...

 Some of the real anchors on display at the roadside... in Malaysia, gone within a day since this metal would be worth real a lot in the black market.

 Next stop, it's Supa Golf!!! It's similiar to real golf, but with oversized golf balls and oversized head...

 Our gears...

 Now you see it....

 Now you don't... a sample of a professional pose... 

 Now you see it...

Now you don't... sample of a not so professional pose...

 Before you know it, it was already dark... actually it was only ~6pm but it's like 8pm in Malaysia... well, it is autumn afterall, so days are becoming shorter. We stopped by this super huge place that sells all types of alcohols and this is what we came up with...

 Super nice chips... must try

 For dinner, we're having bbq... or grilling I supposed...

 Food...

 I'm not sure if it is psychology... or does everything tastes just nicer in Australia... this one seems to taste nicer than the ones found in Malaysia...

 Sausages... done... crunchy on the outside, tasty in the inside....

 What are those?

 Maize lah... not as nice as those in Cameron Highlands without the 'starch'

 Chicken wings...

 Lamb rack...

 Lamb patty...

My friend says this is the nicest beer he has ever drank... I did not try it... but you should take note of this when you're hunting for beer...

And thus, ends our first day in Perth... we did not really do much of anything... but it was supposed to be a leisure trip... I really hate holidays that ended up being even more tired than no holidays... and I had a really good sleep cause the temperature was ~18C which is absolutely fabulous... how I wish Malaysia has this kind of temperature... but then again, it would drive the air-cond makers out of business :P

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!