fashizzlemanizzle

X-Men : The Last Stand

Took a while to review. Reason being I yam serving the country yet again. Re-service. But nonetheless.

In wat is widely rumoured to be the final installment of the X-men TRILOGY, truth be told, after all the hype, it didnt meet my expections when reports have been full of praise and nothing less than a masterpiece.

So here is where the much anticipated Jean "Killer-Thighs-From-James-Bond" Grey reappears as Phoenix. But sadly, Phoenix is a Jekyll n Hyde kinda dudette, she's got her own personal issues to settle. No she doesnt resort talking to herself like Gollum, but she has no control over her Dark Phoenix. Her capabilities exceed even Magneto n Professor X himself. A level 5 mutant, as told by Ginger.

So the whole theme revolves around trying to tame (or maximise) Phoenix's capabilities. Prof X on one hand is trying to conceal her potential, probably t hrough hypnotism. But cheeky Magneto, tat boot-licker, is trying to encourage Phoenix to realise her potential powers and what she can bring abt to the mutant race. The other main plot is the discovery of a mutant boy who holds the ability to "cure" mutants of their "disease". And so a battle of morality begins, whereby are you considered "diseased" juz becos u're different from the rest. Or shud u make full use of ur unique ability?

Yes the main theme of this episode is all abt the segregation of the minority, yearning to be among the masses. Many parts of societies might be able to relate to this movie, be them gays, blacks, browns, blues, purples. In a way, its like an overbudget episode for Rakyat Yang Baik.

Unfortunately, the duration of the movie was way way too short. Considering the many casts involved, it was very tricky for director Brett Retner to even emphasize certain characters. As per normal, Wolvie got his fair show of show and Storm too. But it was disappointing to see Cyclops go like tat. No fight no fight i tell you. Colossus would have been a nice character to show more of. Tat Russian tin man. And im not referring to Roman Abramovich. And I juz realised that Jubilee had a cameo. And so does Psylocke. In comics, Phoenix usually appears to be a huge character, most times hiding in outer space but in this movie, she mostly walks around on foot, and one scene on the cliff wif her long hair in black clothes really reminded me of a scene from THE RING engrish version. She shud have been a more cosmic character.

There was a lack of duels in this part. Sure the fight scenes were grandeur with loads of things happening around. But it would have been fun seeing Juggernaut taking on Colossus. And Juggernaut shud have been played by someone bigger. Maybe Giant Gonzales or sumtin. Too small lah the current Juggernaut.And they shud have brought back Nightcrawler and Sabretooth. I was impressed by Nightcrawler in X-Men 2. And bring on Gambit man. And tat fight between Iceman N Pyro, like Dhalsim fighting in STreetfighter or Subzero vs Shang Tsung. Wat was tat abt? Could have shown both dudes flying around mah. And they shud have expanded more on Iceman when he was in his total ice form. Even Angel didnt get the airtime he deserves. He had much potential as he looked so cool wif those huge wings.

But yea, there were good things of it. Now look out for Beast. He was great, played by Dr Frasier Crane himself. It was like watching Frasier, but wif no Niles. But a bit corny his fighting skills. But his intellect n all, impressive. And look out for the danger room. The much talked abt room in X-Men comics finally makes it appearance. If only they showed more scenarios of it.

And interestingly, Cyclops, after the "death" of Jean, becomes emo and leaves the academy for a ride, and never to return. Now he exemplifies the S.N.A.G. Emo dude after death and rides away in his Harley. While Wolverine, typifies the Alpha-male. ROAR! So macho, beefy, act-smart, cigar chomping, cool. But he somehow showed his more responsible n mellower side in this episode. He is nvr known to be a leader, and always preferred to be alone in his modus operandi. But he took on the responsibility on leading the other X-Men with the absence of Charles Xavier n Cyclops.

I would love to see a fourth X-Men installmentt tho. Maybe this time, Dr. Sinister or maybe Omega Red or the Sentinels can become the major badass to take over Magneto. And make Gambit appear pls.

Overall, 4 out of 5 char kueys. Quite yum yum only.

Ok here's a tip. Stay till the credit ends aite.

Coldplay ticket - check. i will be standing on the indoor stadium floor on 10 July.
X-Men: The Last Stand - check.
Evol Intent - check. massive tunes from a massive man.
Dj Storm - check. One of the best dNb nites i have ever attended. Awesome awesome awesome.

its june already? World Cup 2006 Germany ladies and gentlemen. so stock up on your tidbits and drinks.

Lelaki Komunis Terakhir

I finally managed to catch the rather 'hot'movie of the moment (i'd say it ranks up there wif Da Vinci Code man at the current rate of publicity it's getting rite now) juz now. Thinking that it was the final screening by Cathay. But it almost did not materialise as I realised that, upon checking today's Life, it said the only screening is at 9.20pm. But I was pretty certain the last I checked online on Monday, the screening today was supposed to be at 5.20pm and true enough, online showed the screening time to be at 5.20pm and no sight of a 9.20pm screening. Hmmm. I went on a super-sleuth mood (in the midst of the Da Vinci hype) and rang up the good people of Cathay, and lo and behold, was assured that the movie was gonna be shown at 5.20pm and no 9.20pm showing watsoever. And she even mentioned that there's a screening later today at 10.55pm, which I was skeptical abt cause as far as I know, the extended screening began last Wednesday and supposed to end today. Upon checking Mister Amir's website, it is confirmed the extended screening has been extended yet again. Wowweeee. Cathay sure has issues on its showing times. I think the publishing side dont see eye-to-eye with the website dudes.

Sadly, due to my own procrastination, I missed maybe a good first 5minutes of it. But I managed to pick up the story soon enough. Simply put, it was a very simple linear story. Just stripped raw and nothing pretentious about it. As mentioned, there were no footage of Chin Peng or interviews of him as Amir has stated that 'whatever he wanted to say has already been said in his book'. The story was told thru words, juxtaposed onto scenes trying to very loosely relate to the words. For example, the words would be describing the beginning of the war, and at the same time we see the scene of an accident.

The song, dance and joget segments were parodies of Nationalistic Malaysian songs (rewind circa IT Song, which goes "oooooooo IT...gunnaaaa IT" and that Dadah durjana song when I was little and Kau Boleh at the height of Thomas Cup fever) were definitely done tongue firmly in cheekies. Funny even. I guess to a certain extent, poking fun at P. Ramlee classics where conveniently the scene cuts to a song and dance, no matter what the mood at that moment is. So makes me wonder, how the hell this movie got banned in Me'sia? There're no ideals promoting communism, just a side to their story (the communist side) and we even got a British point of view (he certainly didnt seem too impressed with Chin Peng, and came across as aloof). One of the communist interviewed even admitted some of the things they did were not right, and they stopped and changed their ways. Had people been given the chance to watch it, Im sure they'd have a clearer picture of why they did what they did, and perhaps even go to the extent of emphatise them for their efforts.

One thing I would like to have seen more of would be, if Amir had interviewed their Malay Communist comrades just ten miles down from Peace Village. Th impression I got was, the Malays had no spirit of communism and did not embrace its ideals. Rather, they were more willing to sell-out their comrades when lured with many many ringgits. Duit Duit, di mana kau duit?

But really, it's mind-boggling how a story without any tinge of sex (ok maybe those pomelo scenes sold by sexy vixens looked dodgy) and violence (maybe those petai boys looked menacing) or drugs (maybe those petais signified drugs), could have gotten banned. Pelik bonar. Maybe they are still afraid of the C-word (not c***b*e lah, Communist). I guess any publicity is good publicity. Im glad Cathay picked up the film and willing to run it, not for a day or 2, but maybe go for 2 weeks even. All the best Mr Amir. We always appreciate your movies from our neighbours up north (these include cilok movies too).

All done, this week's ratings will be tweaked slightly.

4 out of 5 petais. WOW! To put it simply, it was a brilliant movie done in a very simple way. Motivates me to just get my ass off the chair and shoot something.

If you've got the time, dont do the crime but try and part with 8 yusoffs and give support to, who knows, maybe the most contorversial film after Zoolander. Nyeheheheh.

Trivia : After eating petai, ur immediate first piss smells very toxic. Nastyy.

i was close to having heart attacks watching this game. i had predicted to my frens(fellow reds) earlier that we wld win 3-0.we scored 3 alrite but i didnt expect us to concede 3 as well. MADNESS i tell u.as me n my frens settled down on our seats at this lounge/bar/alfresco joint near millenia walk, we were already making our own bets on who will score for liverpool. but 20 mins, mr reliable aka jamie carragher decided to clear the ball into his own net. at that time i tot well, we still in this game..no worries.9 mins later, reina spilled the ball like a bar of soap and ashton pounced on the rebound. 0-2 to west hambugger! my frens n i were dumbfounded. wat tha fuck happened,this is a team we beat easily only a mth ago, n here we are struggling at a major cup final! but a few mins later, liverpool started to play proper footie, n peter pole crouch was damn unlucky to be called offside. but then up step, el capitan marvellous stevie g, threading a beauty of a ball ( if u playing winning 11 on Xbox, press L1 + Y) to cisse, who volleyed home pool's 1st goal of the game. after halftime, i tot here we go, we'll get 2 more goals for the win. but straightaway westham pressed on the reds defence n nearly got their 3rd. then, came the 2nd goal n it was one helluva a goal. steven gerrard whacked the ball past shakakhan hislop. and me n my frens started hi-fiving each other n just waited for the winner. but instead, paul konchesky decided to cross the ball straight into the net pass a stranded reina, who at this time was at the receiving end of a couple of nice words by other fans nearby. then, when i tot it was all over, again mr steven gerrard rembat keling the ball so hard it zoomed into the net.the table nearly fell over as a result of my celebrations.haha.
deja vu. another 3-3 cup final. as a fan,supporter for the past 18 yrs, this team is going to give me a real heartattack. in extratime, both sides had chances to finish the game. but i knew this was going to be another shootout. and reina did fantastic to save 3 penalties, and it was sweet seeing gerrard lifting another cup over his head. fa cup, european cup, zoo cup, cupcorn, as long as it is liverpool's, i am happy. on the premiership next season!

Mission Impossible

For my virgin trip to DA CATHAY upon returning from England (ahem ahem), caught the Digital Version of it last Fri nite, upon discovering earlier in the day that the online booking system of cathay was down (wat is up wif screwed up online systems?).

The movie is excellent. Absatively excellent. If you're looking for something that is action-packed Bombs Over Baghdad kinda fashiznits, this is it. Right from the beginning, it is full blown action every 5 minutes, rarely a quiet moment anywhere. So i'd suggest you ditch that GV nanchos coz u gonna be glued to the screen. It starts off being non-linear too, so pls dont be late for it.

Thankfully, Ethan Hunt (yummylicious Tom Hanks, I mean Tom Cruise) returns with short hair that he sported in MI:1. That MI:2 and his centre parting hair juz didnt work dudes. So this time, Ethan is finally settling down wif a fellow Scientology chick, and no more of those espionage mumbo-jumbo stuffs, until of course, he was given a mission in the middle of his engagement party. The guy that assigned him the mission (in the middle of a 24hr store, how romantic) looked strangely a lot like that dude from Starsky Bowl of Ed steven's fame. Anyways, the misson, should he choose to accept it, was given in the form of an instant camera. Coolness.

So the mission was, Keri Russell, (of felicity fame) had gone missing in the middle of an assignment, believed to be kidnapped by Philip Seymour of Capote fame (he reminded me too much of Benny Hill lah). Apparently Philip here deals wif monguls everywhere wif his stash of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Now Ethan has been assigned to save her. (Its no wonder Felicity stopped its run. She quit Starbucks and went on to become an Agent. Why of course. Like duh)

He is reunited wif his ol' faithful, Ving Rhames (who constantly reminded me of High Tower Police Academy fame wif his moustachy) and 2 newbies, one of which is the oh-so-prettiful Maggie Q. Ving's da man that provides the wisecrack jokes sporadically here n there.

Overall, the plot is more grandeur and takes a nasty turn at the end. More pyros, bombs-away and we even get to check out the interior of the Vatican. (NO cameo from da Pope tho). But one thing which was a pain in the arse. There were no subtitles when the cast were speaking in foreign languages (eg. mandarin and italian) and even when Ethan has this freaky ability to lip-read, I have no idea wat was being mouthed during tat sequence. Now this could only be affecting the digital version. Give me feedback if you guys had any problems wif the non-digital ones.

The biggest action sequence would have to be the one Ethan has to jump onto another sky-scraper in China (with the help of physics, no less). But my favorite scene has to be when, at the bridge after Ethan's entourage had been hijacked, we see Ethan standing, and in the background in slow-mo, a helicopter rises wif masked SAS-like soldiers of fortune, sitting there coolly looking at Ethan. That was just way way too cool.

And in its bid to cut the movie short, they didnt show the sequence of Ethan getting his hands on the Rabbit's Foot in the building in China. Probably no budget lah but i kinda got lost as to where the Real Rabbit's Foot is.

On a whole, this is an excellent movie to kick-start all the great upcoming movies heading our way. Summer season has began!

4.5 / 5 char kueys!! Yum yum yum!

On another note, I caught MI:3 in the CATHAY cinema and it was very very very huge. Jakun saya. With the carpets and ushers and strobe lights playing around, the only things missing was me n my coat n scarve n hat n cigar, and my missus in her fox coat. But seriously, it looks very grand, tho the seats feel the same as the normal GVs. And while choosing our seats, the option screen was actually not big enough to display the whole theather. Yowzah! The poor girl had to scroll back n forth while i keep changing seats.