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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Forbidden Kingdom

While hunting down bootleg kung fu DVDs in a Chinatown pawnshop, Jason Tripitikas makes an extraordinary discovery that sends him hurtling back in time to ancient China. There, Jason is charged with a monumental task: He must free the fabled warrior the Monkey King, who has been imprisoned by the powerful Jade Warlord. Jason is joined in his quest by wise kung fu master Lu and a band of misfit warriors including Silent Monk. But only by learning the true precepts of kung fu can Jason hope to succeed--and find a way to get back home. (Lionsgate)
This is the short synopsis for this action movie pack.
I think the film has been a great fun, with a good balance between computer effects and athleticism.
All the more to see both Jet Li and Jackie Chan on the Big Screen together is definitely a delight even though both of them have past their prime years. But then again, the movie is more like a 6hour long movie being crammed into 113 minutes plus. That's the negative part of the movie but still despite of the flaws in it, the movie turn out to be quite good.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Mariah Carey....E=MC2

The latest album of Mariah Carey....with the title E=MC2, a bold title and she's out to prove her comeback is not another fluke. Of course, no one will believe that Mariah Carey is an avid fan of Einstein's famous theory of relativity but the golden-throated diva might just have discovered a winning formula. Not unlike Emancipation, (her previous album) E=MC2 finds Carey stacking the deck with the hottest producers and guest artists in urban music (Jermaine Dupri, StarGate, T-Pain, Damian Marley, Young Jeezy).
The result is a largely enjoyable mix of flirtatious club jams, midtempo love songs, and emotional ballads anchored by hip-hop beats that handsomely showcase the singer's powerful vocal chops.

Ever the party girl, Carey opens the album with the sleek and seductive ''Migrate,'' where she imagines getting buzzed on pinot grigio during a night out with the ladies. Other dance-floor anthems include ''I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time'' and ''O.O.C.,'' which, for all of their pop polish, never lose their soulful spirit. But it's not all about velvet ropes and playful come-ons; notably, Carey suffers from a major love hangover on ''Side Effects,'' a synthy cautionary tale about an abusive relationship. ''Wakin' up scared some nights still dreaming 'bout the violent times,'' she sings with outspoken intensity.

And yet Carey remains a romantic at heart. With the ballads ''Love Story'' and ''Last Kiss,'' she reunites with Dupri to recapture the passionate splendor of 2005's ''We Belong Together.'' It's unfortunate, then, that E=MC2 closes with its only missteps, the somber elegy ''Bye Bye'' — an odd choice for the follow-up single to the cheeky hit ''Touch My Body'' — and the preachy gospel hymn ''I Wish You Well'' (this CD's version of Emancipation's ''Fly Like a Bird''). Still, for an artist whose career was all but dead four years ago, Carey is wise to play it safe by building on the finest elements of her last CD. Were it not for the final two tracks, she could've gotten away with one of the best album for the year.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Water Horse and Ah Long

Honestly I am really disappointed watching the two movies.
Water Horse seem so interesting in the trailer but the whole movie is really not captivating enough for the audience. It started with the old man telling the story of his younger days and it seems that there wasn't really a clear direction of what the movie is really trying to say besides a legendary sea monster.
It is rather touching at the end of the movie though but for me to wait until the end, it's really a waste of time.
The Ah Long movie is another let down. Although it started off quite well, as the movie proceed, the jokes become lame and at times rather irritating. Probably the director made it a bit too long for the movie.
The football part in the movie is obviously an imitation of Stephen Chow's Shaolin Soccer.
Anyway I like the way the villain of the movie acted...full of hypocrisy and it just reflect the reality in today's society. However overall the movie is not good enough....it is too long and sitting for two hours inside the cinema is making it worse for you.
The ending is the worst part of all. It is as if the director ran out of ideas and decided to just end it that way. But the musics are funny...thank God!
Well, overall it is not the movies that I would recommend to anyone.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

BACKSTREET BOYS UNBREAKABLE

It is really tough to be cynical about the new album of the hottest boyband ever, the BACKSTREET BOYS. It courts just about every popular music style and after the last four albums, they definitely are back with a HIT. In UNBREAKABLE, they have made a full-length album, a collection of strong singles in almost all the 14 songs (quite different and quite strong as well).
It is indeed an album that is with an actual reason to be bought.
Their numbers are left with four with Kevin Richardson departure from the group. Their gospel-tinge intro is fantastic. As this album is more or less the remake or do-over of the earlier album, Never Gone, they aim for a range of different styles and employ a similar range of songwriters for the purpose.
The best song though is written without the Boys' involvement. The track opening is great with "everything but mine", offering a lot of thrills with the confines of the radio singles. "Inconsolable" is more indicative of the group's recent material...a piano-led number with an obvious debt to Hanson.
Although "Something I already know" is a better choice for release in my point of view. The chorus is powerful and lyrics actually make sense and are pretty good.
The arrangements for the album is predictable, a BSB sort of music, but it is not really a problem. The best songs are loaded up front but it remains strong throughout the whole album.
Only a few are really disappointing such as "You can let go" and "Love will keep you up all night" as it is quite obvious that they are trying too hard to fit it in the boyband album. Definitely a nightmare to the listeners...."UNMISTAKABLE" is quite good to be heard but the over doing it electronics and vocal effects sort of distort it.
Minor complaints aside, this album could just be what it takes to lift the boyband back into the fray. Best pop album of the year so far? Kinda actually.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

THE THREE KINGDOMS

It is indeed an exciting time for me....can't wait for the THREE KINGDOMS to be on the big screen....the legendary heroes of the Chinese...Liu Pei, Kuan Kung and Zhang Fei.
Hopefully the BIG SCREEN will not disappoint me again this time around.
Well, to all cinema goers, this one is one that you must not miss.
Haha! not to forget about DEATH NOTE also....a much anticipated anime....can't wait to see how the story differ from the ANIME story.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Sweeny Todd

The Demon Barber....sounds scary and the songs fit in nicely for this musical. I like the voice of Johnny Depp also...it bring out that evil and vengeance in the man that has to go through so much pain....so much so that he become a Demon himself.
The introduction of the MUSICAL was very much like THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Basically if you like Phantom of the Opera, this musical songs should suit you well as well. Although the vocal of the singers are definitely much more different but it is lively at times and evil when it is needed to be. The vocal of the ladies are not that exciting compare to the guys....PRETTY WOMAN is a nice one....a good mixture between the Judge and Sweeny Todd.
Well, if you like something that is different, this MUSICAL songs must be one of those in the list.

CONFESSION OF PAIN

Just rewatching the chinese movie, CONFESSION OF PAIN and I really fall in love with the way Tony Leong potrayed his character in the movie. No wonder he was the award winning actor in Hong Kong. Well, credit must be given to Takeshi Kaneshiro for his protagonist role in the movie.
It really amazed me how Hong Kong movies can be so complex and meaningful but not those from Malaysia. The idea of the movie was simple...revenge, anger and all. But I like it the way the movie make us think that sometimes evil might not be fully evil and goodness could be out of evil at times. It was necessary for me to watch it a few times cause I think it really shown how much pain could stir someone to act against RIGHTEOUSNESS.
It really made me wonder how and what it really means to be a Hero...not just to the world, or to the people who are lost but also to the people closest to us. So many times we ignore those who are closest to us and I think that the movie brought that up nicely.
A very wonderful movie indeed.
Thumbs up!!