Wild Review

Bags are packed but is she ready to go? 

Wild Review – Awesome adaptation from memoir titled "Wild: From Lost To Found On The Pacific Crest Trail".

...life is a journey 

Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon) had no idea what she was getting herself into when she decides to go for a solo hike along the Pacific Coast Trail. Feeling down and out after losing her mother (Laura Dern) to cancel and getting a divorce from her husband. Cheryl was lost and felt the need to get a new perspective on life. The journey thru more than 1,000 mile for over 90 days takes her from harsh condition to heart-warming situation. She comes across different type of people while looking back on her life. Will she 'find' what she is looking for by the end of the trail or will she even complete the journey or drop out half way? 

...there's nothing quite like mother's love...

Reese lost out to Julianne Moore for the Best Actress Oscar but any other day she could have added another statue for this role. She carried the movie and managed to capture all the parts of Cheryl: how her life had fallen apart, how people saw her through all of it, and how strangers wanted to help her along the way. Her performance showed a great deal of range. With the help of Laura Dern, one could feel the mother and daughter chemistry between them. It broke my heart when I found out that she too lost her mom. Great acting aside, the storyline moved nicely back and forth from present to past to shed some light on Cheryl’s life.

....no easy journey....

Our stupid Malaysian censorship managed to spoil the mood when they ‘cut’ a lot of the so called ‘sex scenes’. Made the film look kinda hanging and jumpy from time to time. I really don’t get the point of rating a movie only to end up censoring it later. Other than that it’s a pretty decent flick to watch in case. Bearing in mind maybe a walkabout is all that we need. No frill. No help. Just you and your guts to perhaps rediscover yourself.

I’ll end the review with Cheryl’s first inscription on the trail guestbook – ‘If your nerve deny you, go above your nerve’ – Emily Dickinson & Cheryl Strayed  

CHAPPiE Review

Make way for Chappie

CHAPPiE Review – Time to add Chappie alongside Wall-E and Baymax as non-human characters we are going to love!

The Maker and his creation 

Deon (Dev Patel) is an engineer who ‘created’ the droids to man the city as police officers to control the crime rate in JoBerg (slang for Johannesburg). Vincent (Hugh Jackman) is pissed at Deon because his own robots couldn’t be marketed and plans to destroy his creation. Secretly Deon have been designing a programme to give consciousness to the robot but he gets kidnaped before he could test it on an old discarded police robot. The thugs take the robots away from Deon and start to teach their style of living. They plan to use Chappie in a heist to steal money by manipulating its thinking. Meanwhile, Vincent manages to sabotage Deon programme and finally gets approval to deploy his robots onto the street. His first mission is to get rid of Deon, Chappie and those involved. During the confrontation, Deon gets shot while Chappie start to run out of battery but not before discovering that ‘he’ could transfer his consciousness. With time running out will Chappie make it out alive?

Don't mess with Chappie! 

Dev Patel is back from the slum-pun intended yo! After fading into background it was nice to see him being the ‘Maker’ while I still couldn’t get over Hugh’s mullet and half pants wearing role in this flick. Sigourney Weaver was reduce to just a cameo part while Africa own talents played as well entertaining part. The biggest attraction is of course Chappie. This fella is make you laugh and even melt your heart with his well…happy chappie appeal. Don’t mind the swear words coming on every few minutes and also the firepower scenes. Just sit back and enjoy Chappie’s charisma.

Get a haircut pls...

This is a better movie by the Director, Neill Blomkamp compared to Elysium. With a storyline that touch on humanity. Go watch!

Unlikely Hero! 

P/s - Thank you Churp's Alpha Freezeforshort for the #Churpremiere tickets!  

Still Alice Review

..when you start to loose yourself...

Still Alice Review – Kristen Steward & Alec Baldwin…hmm…ooook…wait Julianne Moore? Ok I’m sold!

Family bonding time

I’ve heard people say that life begins at forty (40) but what if it starts to crumble when you turn fifty (50) because you are diagnosed with Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease? Furthermore when you are an expert in linguistics who has trouble articulating yourself as the disease progresses? That’s the situation faced by Alice Howland (Julianne Moore) when she starts to forget simple words and being unable to keep up with her daily schedule. As much as she tries keeping her rationality, we get to witness how this crippling illness changes a person. Thank goodness for her supportive family that stands by her with hope that Alice maybe drifting away but to them she is Still Alice.  

When she made this speech....
Dr. Alice Howland: Good morning. It's an honor to be here. The poet Elizabeth Bishoponce wrote: 'the Art of Losing isn't hard to master: so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster.' I'm not a poet, I am a person living with Early Onset Alzheimer's, and as that person I find myself learning the art of losing every day. Losing my bearings, losing objects, losing sleep, but mostly losing memories.

Julianne Moore…this women…there’s something about her…something special that word can’t explain. I was so bummed when her three previous Oscar nominations for "Boogie Nights," "Far from Heaven," and "The Hours" didn’t land her the golden statue but guess what? Fourth time is the charm when she flashed her electrifying smile as the Best Actress winner for this flick! Do I even need to explain myself about her acting after this? Surprisingly…both Kristen and Alec also gave one of their best performances to date in my opinion. The movie is not a made up story as there are real family out there facing this situation when their loved are caught off guard by this disorder. It’s really up to the individual person to either stand by or leave the patient.  

...then this finally happened!!! 

I can’t imagine what I would do if I was faced with condition…either as a patient or someone close to the patient. Can you imagine what would you do?

Trivia

• Co-director Richard Glatzer suffers from ALS and can't speak. So, he directed the film using a 'text to speech' app on an iPad. 

Boyhood Review

...from a boy to a man! 

Boyhood Review – One of the Best Picture nominee. Watch it and you will know why it was nominated and might as well win the award!

Mason and his juniors! 

Mason (Ellar Coltrane) is just like you and I, dealing with the ups and downs of life. This flick captures his early life going thru…well…boyhood and puberty while watching his parents Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette (another Oscar nominee) going thru their separation and their own next relationship. There’s no grand plan but just a simple story taking us thru the time of the past. One might spot their own childhood experience while watching this movie. I certainly did when I heard songs by Sheryl Crow and also the ‘Harry Potter’ era come on screen. I was just smiling silly remembering my own growing up process.

12 years transformation...

Personally the idea of making a movie for 12 years is mind blowing so for that one reason, this film deserve all the accolades it’s been receiving. Another major mile stone is the Director managed to get committed actors to follow his direction for 12 years instead of using any special effect to make them look younger or older. Witnessing the characters go thru their lives made me wish I had recorded what I’ve been doing with my life for the past 12 years. Would be interesting ey?

Growing Pains...

Win or no win…Boyhood is a nice slow movie to wind down if you want to avoid the mainstream movies flooding the cinema. Simply sit back and relax while trying to recall you own childhood. 

Kingsman : The Secret Service Review

New spy in town! 

Kingsman : The Secret Service Review – Forget James Bond, Jason Bourne or even Johnny English, there’s a new spy in town and he will egg-pun intended all his other comrades with his charm!

One perfect egg! 

Look at that yummyness! 

Eggsy (Taron Egerton) is a fatherless kid growing up in a tough neighbourhood until Harry Hart (Colin Firth) offers him an opportunity of a lifetime. The training to become one of the Kingsman is no walk in the park as Eggsy had to go thru a gruelling selection process. All the while with a sinister plan by Valentine (Samuel L Jackson) to take over the world. With time against them, it’s up to the Kingsman to save the day. 

...then there is Colin.... 

Newcomer Taron Egerton is a really charmer both as a ghetto and spy in the making. Whether he is in his ‘hip hop’ or ‘smart suit’, he sure did melt my heart with his good looks. I hope he will graduate into James Bond when he is a little older. While my other Brit crush, Colin Firth still looks dashing even with extra wrinkles. What can I say…he will always be my favourite Mr. Darcy! What makes this flick different than the rest is the style is was shoot, so damn cool! Right from the beginning till the end you are bet to smile in admiration for the British way of movie making.

Pick your weapon! 

Watch out the ‘firework’ scene done so ‘lavishly’ which otherwise would have been an ugly bloody mess. Bring on the sequel I say! I’ve had enough of James Bond and want more Kingsman! 

Project Almanac Review

Dare to travel back in time? 

Project Almanac Review – Couple of smart kids stumble upon time travel theory and try to create their own machine with dire consequences.

Welcome to yesterday...once more

David is a brilliant student faced with financial problem to attend college. In order to score scholarship, he goes thru his late father’s stuff and come across blue print on how to build a time machine. Together with his trusted buddies, they gather their brains and manage to travel back in time. Unfortunately their action cause trouble once they ‘return’ to the future. Will they able to set things back to how it was before it’s too late?

Time...not to be messed with

I don’t understand the technic of shooting a film with the damn shaky camera ala Blair Witch Project. Its fine if some of the scenes are shot in such way but this movie is like 80% go pro endorsed I think. Any longer my head would spin out of my body. The storyline is pretty much a stale one with people trying to change something is the past in hope for a better future but end up screwing it up. I guess every generation needs their time travelling movie so this flick was made with updated gadgets and current happening to get younger market to watch it.   

...when it happens...

On personal note, if I were given a chance to travel back in time. I’m not sure if I would want to do it. I mean maybe I would travel just to ‘see’ what happen but certainly would not want to mess with anything that has happened. How about you? Would you travel back in time to change anything from your past? 

#TGVTopCinderellaFan

Indian Cinderella???

Once upon a time, an Indian girl crazy about movies dreamt of attending the World Premiere of a fairy tale picture at the movie capital of the world.  She wished upon a star but realized it would just be a wishful thinking until she stumbled upon the wonderful contest by TGVCinemas. 

Mother of contest!!! 

I guess dreams do come true so the next step is to convince the panel of fairy Godmother and Godfather of judges to understand that the ‘shoe’ (read : the amazing prize) fits this hopeful participant.

....if the shoe fits.....

Growing up, Cinderella was one of my favourite fairy tales so imagine my feeling when I found out its being made into feature film directed by Prof. Gilderoy Lockhart…errr… I mean Mr. Kenneth Branagh with an amazing cast consisting of Oscar winner Cate Blanchett and the quirky Helena Bonham! Wiiiiiiiiii

Cinderella and Tinkerbell? 

Among Snow White, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella has been my top choice because despite losing her mother and made slave by her step-mother and step-sisters she remained good and kind to the family. Thank God the Fairy Godmother gave her chance to finally fall in love and change her life.

Mom & I in Singapore...

Mom & I in Singapore again! 

Mom & I in Bali! 

Mom & I back in Bali! 

Mana boleh tak pegi KLCC kan? 

We stopped by Malacca! 

Traveled to Kota Kinabalu! 

...went to Cat City! 

...perhaps Hollywood next? 

I lost my mother unexpectedly recently and been trying to live on my own since her passing. Thank God despite breaking down every now and then I’m still surviving. It was my dream to take my mother to travel around the world. We made it to Bali and Singapore but I will continue to carry her memories with me just like Cinderella did. I hope I could ‘take my Mom to Hollywood’, a dream destination and attend the premiere of the story she used to read to me when I was a kid. 

I'm willing to travel by a Pumpkin!