Overdue Update

I was at E-Mart just now and the foodcourt was playing this movie. It was freaking awesome. Brilliant.

How long has it been since my last update? I have no idea myself. I just logged in here without checking my last entry. It's been more than a week for sure.

So what's been going on?

Nothing. Work. Play. Hang out. Contemplate buying things from the PC fair but decided not to. Except for an 8gb flash drive. I needed one of those.

Life is like that. Just that. And I'm grateful for the boring routine. At least it's safe. No one gets hurt.

I was thinking about writing about how time flies and how it's the end of the year again. But I'm not going to do that in depth. Time does fly. And yet, December last year felt like a whole lifetime ago. How things change so fast. And yet, it doesn't feel like it's so much different. Perhaps I'm feeling jaded again?

I expect next year to fly by even faster. I also expect next year to be far less traumatic and far more boring. But by writing that down, I've just ensured that something weird will happen didn't I? Fate is a fickle beast. I know that much.

So tomorrow I don't have to work in the morning. I got called in this morning but due to some things absolutely nothing happened. Oh well...

At least I enjoyed the PC fair.

Here's hoping my next update won't take so long to post.

Gubra

For those people who haven't watched Gubra you can watch it now, starting with part 1 below:-



Mukhsin is there too.

You can also go into the user channel and watch Gerak Khas the movie... Hehe.. Also available are other good old stuff like Ali Setan. I like that movie.

Ooh, and Hati Bukan Kristal which is also really, really good.

PS: This guy also posted a lot of Malay movies. I think I wrote about watching Leftenan Adnan from his list.

Pantas dan Garang Empat

Need for Speed The Movie Pt. 4 Fast & Furious 4. With the original cast. Surprisingly good!

Thinking...

I desperately want to watch this movie for some reason. Everything I've read and seen about this has been good. I've already watched one good action comedy so far this year (Get Smart) but I think this one has the potential to be even better.

After all, it's Ben Stiller being intense. And Ironman playing a black guy. The very idea is funny already.

In other news, all this waiting around for my last day at work is making me feel queasy in the gut. Also, the thought off leaving without having first secured another job is also making my stomach feel odd.

At home, I talked about my concerns with the rest of the family and they have promised to shore up my commitments during this rather unsettling time. So that's a good thing. My parents in particular are very optimistic about my changing of career. I wish I was THAT confident.

Then again, I've always been rather cautious, a bit cowardly and would always prefer the safe, secure route. This is very out of character, mind you.

I was thinking yesterday while on my way home from work, what if it doesn't work out? What happens if I fail to secure employment in my new chosen field in lets say, three months? I guess if it turns out like that I'll just turn back home and get a new job here. I'm not a fresh grad, a noob out of school. I have 6 years with my current job and ten years overall in the IT industry. That's a good amount of experience.

My chances of working again is not as bad as some other people's. Worse comes to worse, I'll just jot it down to experience and do some crap job in a supermarket or something while I look out for other opportunities. At least I tried and I'll be satisfied with that knowledge.

This is the negative side.

Then I thought about the positive side. What if I luck out like my brother and get the chosen job within weeks of my leaving my current job? Money will never be a problem again. Ever. My master plan will activate and within a certain amount of time I might save enough and retire early.

No need to work at all if I feel like it.

Ultimately, I figure life is too short. I'm not as young as I want to be anymore and if I don't try to change my life now, when the hell am I going to do it eh? Eventually, time will catch up with me and I won't be able to do it. If I don't do this now, I'll never know...

It's a good thing that for once in my life, my family is backing me 100% this time. I'm grateful for that.

TDK

I watched The Dark Knight on Wednesday night. I was out with a friend and originally was planning to watch Hellboy 2. While queuing up for tickets I noticed that incredibly, the 10.00pm show was not yet full. In fact, some very nice seats were still available. Thus we ended up watching The Dark Knight instead.

What can I say about the new Batman movie? What can I say? I don't have enough superlatives for it. Honestly.

It was awesome, to cut a long story short.

I would like to say a few things about Heath Ledger's Joker. Now that's what I can a villain! He was kickass. Twisted, evil, chaotic and rather deranged. So out of control not even the great Batman could adequately deal with him at first. Hands down and without a doubt, this is the definitive Joker.

The Joker was fantastic. No doubt, the highlight of the film and one of the best (worst?) onscreen villains I've had the pleasure of watching.

It's so unfortunate that Heath isn't around to enjoy the accolades that he so richly deserves for such an effective job. There's this buzz going around the entertainment circles that Heath should get an Oscar for his work. I don't disagree one little bit.

The rest of the cast weren't so bad either. Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman were all top notch and I enjoyed watching them. Especially Gary Oldman.

I also have good opinions about Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent/Two Face. He was great and played the antihero extremely well. I felt sorry for Two Face. You rooted for him and wished that he would just stop and calm down but in the end...

Tragic. And very fun to watch.

I'm also quite impressed with Maggie Gyllenhaal. Before this I didn't know too much about her aside from the fact that she's Jake's sister. But she's much better and livelier as Rachel Dawes than Katie Holmes was in Batman Begins.

So how about the story? It was long and very detailed. A tip before watching TDK, make sure you go to the bathroom and have something to eat. It's a very long movie. Which was necessary to flesh out the complex plot. Which was all about the Joker and his manipulations.

TDK is one of those blink-and-you'll-miss-it type of movie, although some parts did get a bit tiresome. Especially the monologues. They could've reduced that and it would help move things along.

You need to pay attention in order for everything to make sense. Lots of subtle plot points to be noticed in all the dialogue.

Yes, there is a lot of talking. But the action does not disappoint. Of course. It's a Batman movie after all. I won't write about Batman's new gadgets (and his new suit and why he needed a new one). Just go and watch the movie already.

In summary, The Dark Knight is the best movie I've watched this year. It's also the best superhero movie I've watched in a long time. And it's also the best crime drama I've watched in a long time.

TDK works as a superhero movie and works just as well as a crime movie too. I love the gritty, realistic feel of the new Batman universe. It's more believable and not so overblown like some other superhero movies and this is a great thing.

Looking forward to the next Batman movie. Too bad Heath Ledger's Joker won't be in it...

Have you watched TDK? If not, then what are you waiting for?

Damn Good Movie

I've had no mood to blog recently. Don't really know why, there's nothing wrong. I just didn't feel like it. I have a bunch of photos in my phone that I could blog about but somehow the muse wasn't there.

Anyway, last night I watched 30 Days of Night. How good is this movie? One horror movie website called it "one of the most insanely violent, scary and suspenseful horror films in years". I agree with much enthusiasm.

The movie is set in Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost town in the US where the sun don't shine for 30 days during the depths of winter. During one such winter, vampires decide to cut the town off from civilisation and proceed to feed on it.

Rallied by the town sheriff, a few survivors of the initial vampire attack attempt to hide and wait out the winter darkness. What follows is a gut wrenching game of hide and seek as the vampires try to find and lure them out. Real edge of the seat stuff. The pacing was just right without any draggy bits. Plenty of tension and it never lets up until the last minute.

The vampires are visceral, almost animal like, merciless, extremely violent and sadistically evil with absolutely none of the mysterious sexual charm you might find in other movie vampires. They may look human but they are clearly not. I think this is what makes them all the more terrifying.

This is what constitutes most of this movie's brownie points in my opinion.

This movie is damn good, the best vampire movie I've watched in years and years. It's right up there with From Dusk Till Dawn. Extremely highly recommended for horror fans who will love the ball busting, no bullshit nature of this movie. Trust me, you won't regret it.

A word of warning though. This is not for the squeamish or the weak hearted. There are scenes that will make your stomach churn.

Suddenly, I got this urge to go watch From Dusk Till Dawn again. Anybody got a DVD or VCD I could borrow or copy?

Live Free or Die Hard

Better than the last one. I enjoyed that one too but this one edges it just a little bit.

Meanwhile, am at work and kinda busy. Nothing important to talk about this week.

There's stuff to do next week. Need to set up wireless network for someone so I'll be out getting quotes for the necessary equipment. This is a good thing. Extra money will be helpful.

I'm playing Tiberium Wars again. In full detail this time. Looks gorgeous with graphics settings set to max and anti aliasing on. My investment in a new graphics card in December is really paying off big time!

I also discovered that my Inspiron 1420 can also play some games I thought it wouldn't be able to handle. Like Tiberium Wars, although I need to dial down the graphics settings a bit. Still nice enough to play though so that's fine. I didn't buy the notebook for gaming anyway...

The Pikom PC fair is this week. Unfortunately, I can't go because of work.. No big deal I guess, I have enough computer stuff at the moment and I honestly don't know what else to buy.

In conclusion, life is still like that. I'm just going through routine stuff at the moment.

To be honest, I actually felt like writing one of my highly entertaining (or is that highly exasperating?) introspective posts about myself but for the life of me...

... I couldn't think of anything.

Very sorry folks, Riding the Mellow is rather dull these days with its complete lack of drama.

The Bee-Yoch-ing Hour!

Yes, I watched the ball-busting, bone-crushing, unrelenting glorious actioner that is Transformers!

The movie started quietly enough. It was quiet. For about 5 minutes. Then the Decepticon Blackout got bored of being a big, fat MH-53 Pave Low chopper and transformed.

The entire population of Star 2 went nuts and my head promptly exploded.

This is the kind of film that rushes up to you, grabs you by the scruff of the neck and drags you through two hours and twenty minutes of furious action and wanton robotic violence. To put it mildly, Transformers rocks. If you watch it in the right spirit of course.

I was very worried about all the stuff that I'd been hearing about this movie. I was worried that all the changes wouldn't work. Things like Bumblebee not being a Beetle and Optimus having a mouth. Stuff that I don't remember from the cartoons and comics and other stuff that the producers had to cut out.

All those doubts quickly evaporated as Blackout and Frenzy do their nasty work in the first 15 minutes of the movie.

The humans weren't bad either. Shia LeBeouf and Megan Fox did an excellent job in their respective roles, especially LeBeouf who carried many scenes with his wit and humour. The supporting cast was good enough too.

But let's face it, people came to watch Transformers not to ogle at Megan or laugh at Shia's jokes but to watch Autobots and Decepticons go at each other's throats. And go they did.

Hugo Weaving's Megatron was spot on, menacing and uncompromising. Just as he should always be. I got to say though, for some reason the Decepticon Barricade really caught my attention. Such attitude. To Punish and Enslave indeed.

I have one minor complaint. Not enough Starscream. More Starscream in the sequel please?

How about the Autobots?

I love that scene with Bumblebee's bee shaped Bee-yoch rear view mirror ornament. I want one for myself. It would be so cool.

Optimus was Optimus. What can anyone say about him? With or without a mouth, Optimus is Optimus.

Of the others, I like Ironhide the most. He's as badass as ever, in whatever reincarnation. I have to say that this version of him is the most badass ever, especially in terms of raw firepower.

All in all, as an old G1 fan, I'm very surprised at how much I enjoyed this new Transformers. It was brilliant. It might not have been old skool G1, but all the things that define the Transformers were all there. The spirit of G1 is alive and well!

I'm glad they didn't tone down the violence. That would've turned it into a stupid toy movie, as opposed to an awesome toy movie.

To wrap things up, I say that this movie is the best action flick I've ever watched in a long, long time. Perhaps even for all time. It's so good, I'm going to watch it again this week!

One more thing, if you are going to watch this movie looking for meanings and analogies and flow and symbolism and other arty stuff, take my advice.

Don't watch it.

This is NOT an art film. Transformers is robot action movie about robots kicking each other's ass. Watch it as that and nothing else. If you expect it to be anything else, you will be like those humourless pseudo-film critic morons on IMDB.

In other news, I heard some unsettling news the last few days.

I heard rumours that because of our recent takeover, there are plans to relocate the plant somewhere else. Like China. Or Thailand. Or West Malaysia. As can be expected, a lot of people are worried about this.

From what I've been hearing officially, it's going to be business as usual. The only thing that'll change is the company name.

So many conflicting rumours. I supposed I'm not going to worry about it until I know for sure.

But I guess it's not a bad thing to activate Plan B...

DOA

I watched DOA when I got home from work this morning. Boy, what a fun movie it was. It's so much fun I think I'll watch it again.

This might be the most fun kung-fu flick I've watched in a good long while.

That Holly Valance is really hot stuff. Of course every guy with eyes would know that already. Still, very hot stuff.

The other girls were really hot too. And the fight scenes were brilliant which is the usual thing to expect from a Corey Yuen movie.

I hope people make more movies like this.