Top Ten movies that I’ve seen in 2008…

Was supposed to post this around the end of December but got sidetracked with other things. Well here it is now, my top ten movies that I’ve seen in 2008. You have two movies starring Robert Downey Jr., two superhero movies, two animated movies and three movies starring our old beloved heroes:

10. Tropic Thunder

I enjoyed:

• The over the topness quality of the action scenes (eg.the opening scene, the end scenes, all the explosions)
• the hollywood satire
• Robert Downey Jr.
• TOM CRUISE!!

9. JCVD

A movie with a thin plot: a washed up star gets into a hostage situation and gets wrongly accused of robbing a bank. What made this movie special is that it’s not some guy playing a washed up actor, it’s JEAN CLAUDE VAN DAMME, a washed up star himself. The movie is fictional yet it touches upon real facts about Van Damme (eg. drug addiction, child custody, rivalry with Steven Seagal, his recent work on ‘Direct to video’ movies). The ending was the biggest surprise for me. It’s not quite a happy ending yet not a sad one either.

8. Rambo

While Jean Claude Van Damme is reinventing his on screen image with JCVD, Stallone is reintroducing one of his iconic characters to the new generation. ‘Rambo’ doesn’t follow the usual 3 Act formula and instead it’s a one constant build up that ended with an explosive finale. Stallone, bring on ‘The Expendables‘!!

7. Iron Man

Iron Man aka “How Marvel movies got her groove back”. You have a hero who’s cool, crazy rich, a playa, drives cool cars, wears an indestructible armour, can fly, can blow things up, hook up with Gwyneth Paltrow and go toe to toe with Jeff Bridges (who looks badass in this movie). Add to the fact that this hero is played by the talented Robert Downey Jr. and you have a winner

6. Wanted

F***ing ridiculous but I love it. You have curving bullets, crazy car chase, violence, John Woo/Matrix style gun ballet and Angelina Jolie.

I liked the twist in the middle too which saved the story from being the typical “I’m the chosen one and must avenge my father” angle.

5. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull

I loved it. That’s right, I enjoyed this movie. On my second viewing, the parts that I did have a problem with were still problematic for me (CGI beaver, Indy inside the fridge to save himself from nuclear explosion, etc) but I enjoyed the rest.  I didn’t have a problem with the aliens which wasn’t much of a surprise for those who have been following the development of the 4th installment of Indiana Jones (you thought that was ridiculous for an Indiana Jones movie?? Come on, we had a box with mysterious powers that melts Nazis, an Indian cult group that takes out the hearts of children and a sacred cup in which you get immortality if you drink from it). Overall,  it was a fun adventure movie.

4. Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Highly entertaining movie. It’s funny, frightening and action packed. I cared about the characters and I even kinda felt sorry for the main villain too. The main highlight of the movie for me are the creature designs; from evil little “tooth fairies” to giant plant monster, the ectoplasmic german guy to the angel of death (my favourite). The audience were in awe whenever some new creature shows up and it proves that the director have limitless imagination. Del Toro, bring on ‘The Hobbit‘!

3. Wall E

Wall E is a preachy movie with an environmental message like ‘Happy Feet’. But its brilliance lies with the way it kept the central focus of the story on the main characters instead of the message itself. The first part of movie where you follow Wall E’s daily life and his unrequited love for Eve is sweet and adorable. Best Pixar movie since Finding Nemo.

2. Kung Fu Panda

Wall E is epic but Kung Fu Panda is just pure fun. I’ve lost count on how many times I’ve seen this movie but I’m still not bored with it. Introducing the classic Kung Fu story formula (clumsy guy trained into a Kung Fu master and save the village) to a younger generation through an animated feature is a smart move. You add a loveable Panda (the national animal of China aside from dragon) as the hero, hire a wide range of actors to do the voices (Comedians like Jack Black & Seth Rogen to superstars like Angelina Jolie & Jackie Chan and a Hollywood veteran, Dustin Hoffman) add some action and sprinkle it with humour and what you get is a work of genius Haha

1. The Dark Knight

You must be tired of how this movie is on everyones top list but seriously, it is a really good movie. A psychological and sociological study that touches on themes of anarchy, heroism, law & order under the disguise of a summer popcorn superhero movie.

The Dark Knight is not just a Superhero movie, it’s a two and a half hours long epic crime drama that touches on themes like law & order, the price of heroism and what people can do when their comfort zone get disturbed…The movie is about Gotham City and the efforts of three men (Batman, Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent) in saving it from the Joker, the self proclaimed agent of Chaos.

Read my DARK KNIGHT review here

One year Odyssey…

I just realized that few days ago (November 15) marks the first year anniversary of this blog! Holy F***! It has been one year? A year ago I was bored and sitting in front of my computer while starting this blog. Now…I’m still bored and sitting in front of my computer writing this post…some shit never change

Anyway, thank you to all those who viewed this blog (all 126,214 of them) and those who left comments, I appreciate it, it kept me ‘blogger sane’ because then I know somebody actually read what I wrote (especially during the early months of blogging).

When I started this blog, it wasn’t my intention to make it a big thing or anything….wasn’t really all that into the so called blogging community….but I have softened a little bit…..I like to thank those who, to my surprise, actually bothered to link this blog - my family, my friends, some people that I’m not that close with but actually come here once in a while, some I’ve exchanged comments online with and some that I don’t even know…..ok, maybe the last one got bored and removed the link to my page but yeah I remember his URL pops up once in a while in my referrers stats :-P

The story so far…

I was planning to write an overview on the posts I made since last year but I remember that I pretty much wrote about it in my previous post. So I’m just gonna copy and paste it here:

Some of my earlier post were more personal like the one I wrote about my story idea or the recurring dreams. Even the post about Battlefield and WWE were also personal. I think I should do those personal posts more often rather than being preoccupied by movies. My friend even called my site a movie blog. WTF

I also remember how at the beginning, I said to myself that I’m not going to talk about politics. Blah! I guess I failed in keeping up with that promise. Another promise that I sort of broke was the one that I stated in my About page.

…post about things that interest me…..anything that’s part of the Pop culture that I find necessary to post about (no I’m not going to talk about Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, you can find that somewhere else)

On second thought, I did not break that promise because I did not talk about them. I just posted their pictures

Recently, I made few posts on my country Brunei. I just thought that I needed to write something related to Brunei or maybe it’s just another way to balance out all those movie related post.

I’ve also noticed how I began to write more episodic posts (eg Part 1, part 2). Several reasons; either the original idea of the post was too long or I was just lazy to finish the post and hold it off for later. Examples of this can be found here, here and here.

Oh and one more thing, I realized that I have only reviewed one book. Man, I haven’t read any novels for a long time. I’ll try posting a review of books that I have read. (fiction or non fiction).

I wrote that back in March and I have little to add to it except for few things I did since March like:

• I made several pranks on this blog like my april fools joke and rick rolling people
• Made some education related post like this one about the Arts and another about studying
• ‘Live blogging’: for both the opening and closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics
• And of course, my journey to UK and the random things goin there

In a way, I think I’ve pretty much made a wide range of posts (from a serious one to a really totally random post).

So what’s coming up?

This is what I’m planning and hopefully get done.

• Finish my ‘Trylobyte Odyssey Portal’ page that I was planning to finish by November 15 lol (more on this later)
• Restructure my ‘Top Post’ page. It’s outdated now.
• Publish this post that I’ve been thinking about in the past few days
• Hopefully adding more links in my links bar/blogroll.

If you’re interested in some random statistic facts about my blog then click ‘More’ at the bottom of this post. In the meantime I’ll leave you with Coldplay’s ‘Lovers in Japan’. No reason….just felt like putting up a video at the end of this post hehe

The Movie trailer guy passed away

Sometimes I like to imagine something that I saw or heard about into a movie or more specifically a movie trailer. For example, I hear about a Bruneian family whose cars get stolen in Miri (Malaysian city across the border) and I would imagine a made up movie about a man who gets his revenge by single handedly destroy the illegal car trade business or some shit like that. I would explain the idea to my brother in a ‘trailer form’. I would imitate the movie trailer voice and say something along the line of *lowers voice like in movie trailer* “They Thought it was funny to steal his car…They Thought it was funny to terrify his family….They Thought Wrong…..This Summerrrrr….There’s nothing funny about Awang Haji crossing the border…looking for payback…..Arnold Schwarzenegger in….ONCE UPON A TIME IN MIRI”

Or I see a lot of people tapauing and I start thinking, “In a future without rules…the only way to survive….is to Tapau….This summerrr….one food…one dinner table….two men……but only one can be…THE TAPAU KING…coming to theatres near you” HAHA

So basically I love to imitate the trailer voice, it’s like a recurring joke for me. Which is why I’m sad that we won’t be hearing that distinctive voice ever again because ‘the movie trailer voice guy’, Don LaFontaine has passed away at the age of 68 due to lung collapse.

A voice actor famous for recording nearly 5,000 movie trailers, and nearly 350,000 commericals, programs, files and other presentations. He is arguably the most successful Voice Actor of all time.

Red Alert 3 cast revealed

The cast of Red Alert 3 has been revealed:

Courtesy of CNCNZ.com

Red Alert 3 is the latest game from the popular Command & Conquer franchise, a series known for its cheesy live action movies shown between missions to tell the story. In this installment:

…the desperate leadership of a doomed Soviet Union travels back in time to change history and restore the glory of Mother Russia. The time travel mission goes awry, creating an alternate timeline where technology has followed an entirely different evolution, a new superpower has been thrust on to the world stage, and World War III is raging. The Empire of the Rising Sun has risen in the East, making World War III a three-way struggle between the Soviets, the Allies, and the Empire with armies fielding wacky and wonderful weapons and technologies like Tesla coils, heavily armed War Blimps, teleportation, armored bears, intelligent dolphins, floating island fortresses, and transforming tanks.

From the trailer you can see:

• Evil Communist Russian with cheesy accent – played by Peter Stormare (Prison Break, Armageddon), Andrew Divoff (Patchy from LOST) and TIM CURRY!!
• The clueless US president – played by JK Simmons of Spiderman fame
• The old humble Allied General (Jonathan Pryce)
• Hot Communication Officers – Gemma Atkinson Ivana Milicevic (the bad guy’s gf in Casino Royale) and Kelly Hu (X-men2)
• Tanya (now blonde and played by…Jenny McCarthy )

With all the stuff mentioned above, you can be rest assured that the spirit of the old Red Alert games will be intact.

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But nothing can beat this legendary cutscene from RED ALERT 2

 

I don’t give a wooden nickel about your legacy!!

He’s one bad mother…SHUT YOUR MOUTH!

A Badass black guy walking + New York City + ultra cool music = A hell of a way to start your movie

Shaft (1971)

Who’s the black private dick that’s a sex machine to all the chicks?
SHAFT!!
Ya Damn Right!!

RIP Isaac Hayes (he was the guy who wrote/sing the theme song not the actor who played Shaft)

Oh Let it Louie, She’s Under Cover..

Here’s a random ‘game’ that my friend and I came up with during a MSN messenger session. It started with him giving me a link to the theme song of the game Metal Gear Solid over at YouTube. I replied with a link to the Battlefield 1942 theme song and so we went back and forth giving links to musical scores we like, be it from a game or a movie. But eventually we started trading YouTube links to songs that we consider to be ‘guilty pleasure’ songs (he started by ‘rickrolling’ me with that Never Gonna Give You Up song). Note that we don’t neccessarily considered these songs to be bad but they are something we enjoyed, laughed and remember fondly.

It’s kinda funny listening (and watch the music videos!!) to songs like Modern Talking’s ‘Brother Louie’ or Mc Hammer’s ‘Can’t Touch This’ again. We continually went “hey, remember this song?” or “OMG, this song used to…” back and forth. This went on for about an hour and some of these songs are now stuck in my head thanks to it.

Click More to see some of the songs that we ‘rediscovered’ during our little game over MSN. Enjoy the trip back in time

Road to the Dark Knight

The Dark Knight, definitely my most anticipated movie in the last three years, will be out this week!! Planning to catch it tomorrow or anytime this week. And I will be wearing a Black Superman T-Shirt! Why would I want to do that? On my other post, I told you about what happened during the premiere of Batman Begins:

While we were waiting for the cinema to open, I notice that almost everyone was looking at me and giggling. Later I realised that I was wearing a black Superman T-Shirt. LOL So there I was in the premiere of a Batman movie wearing a Superman t-shirt.

So just for fun and for old time sake (and boredom too), I’m going to wear that same Black Superman T-Shirt.

Anyway, here’s a rundown of our ‘journey’.

June 2005 – Batman Begins

Here’s my review of Batman Begins over my first blog.

October 2006 – Heath Ledger as the Joker

When my brother set up his blog, one of the first movie news he posted was the casting of Heath Ledger as the Joker. Although I was happy that he will be Joker but at that time I was still in a “Ledger’s cool but damn, if only Paul Bettany was Joker!!” camp. Of course I’ve now forgotten about Paul Bettany hehe. It was also around this time that Ledger said McDowell’s character from Clockwork Orange will be the inspiration of his Joker.

It’s also funny reading what was written by my brother at that time:

But don’t expect the usual Joker look with the heavy make up, green hair and purple suit

Well, he does have a green hair and purple suit!! Haha!

May 2007 – Joker revealed

I remember there was this viral site where you need to submit your email. With each email submitted, a single pixel of the first Joker picture is revealed. I contributed, my brother contributed and so did everyone around the world. Eventually, the above picture was revealed. When I first saw it, Jigsaw from SAW series came to my mind lol

July 2007 – Teaser trailer

A teaser trailer was released featuring only the Bat Logo, a dialog between Bruce & Alfred and the first reveal of the Joker’s voice by Ledger. My first reaction to the trailer was “Holy Shit! He nailed the laugh!!”

August 2007 – Wizard World footage

Fans who attended the Wizard World in Chicago were treated with an exclusive footage from the movie. It wasn’t leaked at the time therefore we only relied on descriptions written by those who were there. Now, that footage has been released and you can watch it below on YouTube.

Nov 2007 – Joker makes his debut on the cover of Empire magazine

When I started this blog back in November, I didn’t waste time making a post about The Dark Knight.

Dec 2007 – New Dark Knight trailer featuring the Joker

New Dark Knight trailer attached to the Will Smith movie, ’I Am Legend’ immediately became a hit primarily because it’s the first time we get an idea of Ledger’s version of the Joker. Everyone starts saying catch phrases like “Why So Serious?” “It’s all part of the plan” and “Let’s put a smile on that Face“

Jan 2008 - The tragic death of Joker himself, Heath Ledger

Luckily, he completed his work on The Dark Knight. His death created a lot publicity for the movie and his role as the Joker. Some say he had trouble sleeping because he was so physically and psychologically committed to his role as the Joker so he took a lot of pills. But I doubt that his role as the Joker led to his death.

April 2008 – Joker in nurse outift

As summer movie season approached, the picture of Joker in a nurse wardrobe got leaked. It was funny and creepy at the same. Later, various posters for the movie were released mostly featuring Batman and Joker. Finally, a new trailer was released shedding more light on the potrayal of Harvey Dent by Aaron Eckhart.

July 2008 – Early Reviews

Early reviews poured in and almost all of them were positive. Some have compared it with such movies like Heat (Dark Knight is more of a Crime Drama than a superhero movie), Godfather II and Empire Strikes Back (the latter two are examples of sequels that are infinitely better than their first movies).

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Here’s a music from the soundtrack called ‘Like A Dog Chasing Cars’ to pump you up. Enjoy!

RIP Stan Winston

Special Effects master, Stan Winston passed away after “a seven year struggle with multiple Myeloma“. You may have never heard of him before but you probably have seen many of his work. Remember that T-Rex that chased Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park? Or that indestructible metallic skeleton of the Terminator? None of those would be possible without this man, the legendary Stan Winston.

The thing about most of his special effects is that they never get old. Just watch movies like Jurassic Park or Terminator 2 and you will be surprised that the effects are still good. And those movies were made more than ten years ago!!

Click ‘more’ to see videos of his work. Put most modern Hollywood CGIs to shame.

Contra movie?

Some guy made a cool fan trailer for a movie adaptation of Contra, the popular shoot em up Nintendo game from the 80s. Check it out

WARNING: The music from the trailer may be NSFW (that’s Not Safe For Work)

 

Forbidden Kingdom

Just saw Forbidden Kingdom starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li. What’s good? The fight scenes and hot Asian babes. What’s bad?  Chinese English. Speak Chinese with english subtitles dammit!! Just speak English only when you talk to the American Kid. Oh another warning, there’s also too much of those ‘old wise Chinese proverb type of talking’. Something along the line of ‘the bridge between Heaven and Earth of the river with flower to the Sun within the Gate of No Gate’ . OK, it’s not exactly like that but you get my point.

In short, I see the movie as nothing but a tribute to the martial arts genre. Therefore, you get to see stuff like badass monks, a young loser who later turn into a great fighter after training under a martial arts master, sword fights, people defying the laws of gravity, extensive fight sequence (the main highlight is the Jackie vs Jet Li fight), a woman with white hair (like the ‘Bride With White Hair’ referenced in the movie), stuff about heaven and earth realms and lastly Jackie Chan fighting drunk just like the Drunken Master.

Speaking of Drunken Master, I went to Youtube to rewatch those Jackie Chan fight scenes from his past movies that I remember watching when I was a kid.

Here’s Jackie Chan kicking ass from Drunken Master II. No CGI, No Wires, No Chris Tucker LOL Enjoy!