Dreaming Away
Have you ever waken up to a dream of a dream? You were deep in sleep, having a dream, when you woke up, you were still in a dream. You woke up another time to the reality. I had dreams like that before, only a few times. But I couldn’t remember them. Yes, how often do you remember your dreams?
After Shutter Island, learned that Leonardo DiCaprio has another movie coming up soon. It is as mysterious and bizarre as Shutter Island. It is called Inception. I’ve no idea why it was called Inception as the trailer I saw earlier didn’t have any conversations. I knew I just have to watch it because the trailer looked so amazingly strange.
Luckily, the movie didn’t disappoint me. Leonardo’s acting is unbeatable. Everything he does in the movie could only get you more into it. Before you know it, you actually get sucked into the movie so deep by the character he plays. He has this charm or charisma that you just couldn’t take your eyes off of him. That makes you pay attention to the movie.
If you still can’t understand what the movie is all about, perhaps the movie fails to reach you. It’s not your fault, Inception, as well as Shutter Island, is not meant for those who do not like lengthy conversations. I ain’t gonna tell you the story of the movie, if you’re interested, go watch it.
The music in the movie is awesome! Most of the time it is the music that keeps the movie suspended. Salutes to Hans Zimmer. Am gonna grab the movie soundtracks.
Not forgetting Ken Watanabe, who played a supporting role in the movie. He has his own charms too.
An amazing movie indeed. You’ll start wondering, if you are living in a dream or reality. The dream and the reality, is just a sleep away.
This is the trailer I first saw. It’s compelling enough to make you wanting to go to the cinema, without anything being spoken.
The A-Team
Last month, saw the trailer of The A-Team, thought “old man Liam Neeson with some middle-aged guys”. Hahahaha. You can’t blame me. Bradley Cooper is still charming as ever, you just can’t miss his handsome face whenever he’s in a movie. The other 2 characters/actors, I am not familiar with. I told Andrew after watching the trailer, the actions definitely look promising, I ain’t so confidence with the cast though. Hahaha.
We decided to go ahead with the movie for the actions, and we never regret. I must admit I was wrong to judge a movie by its cast! Hahaha.
The movie was great! It has been a long time I did not laugh so much watching a movie. No, those comedies and cartoons are funny, but The A-Team was different. I couldn’t describe it, you will just have to watch it to know it.
Do you know that The A-Team was based on an old television drama series in the 80′s? I did not know! And to think that the television series was actually VERY famous!
You just gotta watch this movie for its humors and funny conversations. Forget about all the logic and rationale, just enjoy yourself. :)
Oh, and I love it when they said “AMF! Alpha, Mike, Foxtrot! Adios Mother F***er!” LOL! :P
Have You Facebook-ed Lately?
I am addicted to Facebook, I guess most of you know that. Games, updating status, commenting…… In fact Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family.
But I am overdosed with Facebook. Everyday, I spend at least 4 hours on Facebook. Weekends, if I did not go out, I’d be hooked on Facebook for 6 or 8 hours. Scary, isn’t it?
Lately, I finally have enough of Facebook. The games are getting boring, and the comments I received from friends in Facebook over my status, photos or whatever I posted, is overwhelming. I realised, I’ve lost my privacy and freedom to share. I have always hold on to one belief, if you have nothing good to say, please don’t say it. However, it is not everyone who could do just that. I’ve received some comments that weren’t so pleasant to read. Sometimes I just needed to share my frustration and it attracted unwanted remarks that could make me feel so bad about myself. Many a times people try to be smart to teach or advise me on what to do best but they forgot all I need is just some listening ears (or I should say reading eyes). Usually all I shared was a statement yet they misunderstood it was a question and they started throwing me tonnes of answers and better still, questioning.
Anyway, I can’t just start blaming everybody since I was the one who would like to share in the first place. So, to give myself a break from all the unwanted comments, I’ve decided it is time for me to take a break from Facebook. Took me more than a year to realise excessive sharing of my personal life in Facebook isn’t a good thing, at all.
Guess you will be seeing more of me here in the blogosphere. Blogging or writing is still the best way to share compare to those “status updates” in Facebook. Perhaps, I shall be more careful in what I share in the future.
I think most of you out there would start saying “who asked you to share/write so much in Facebook, you brought it upon yourself”. Well, maybe. Fortunately I still have my sense to put a stop to it. :)
It is time to get back on the normal track of my life. Start reading and picking up things that I left behind for so long that I couldn’t even remember.
Now, let’s see some funny clips from South Park. I was laughing so hard and kept nodding my head to see how true they are. :)
Green Zone
Watched this with Andrew, his favorite kind of movie, a must-watch to him. Hahaha. I had no idea what the movie was all about. All I know was Matt Damon is the leading actor. LOL. The moment I sat in the cinema and the movie started, ahh…… A war-time movie.
Did the American government lie? Are there really Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in Iraq? Have they found it? Are the lives that we lost in the Iraq war all in vain? The war is about nothing but the precious resources in Iraq? We do not know. We will never know the answers.
I wonder what the Americans would think after watching the movie. Anti-America?
Putting all the questions and controversies aside, it was a good movie. Great plot! Nice story.
The Underland. The Wonderland.
Before everything else, an official big “Hello again” to my precious Fish Avenue. Things are bad at work, I was pretty sad for the past 3 weeks or so. All my brain cells have been channeled to problem-solving, not much left for literature purposes. LOL! Luckily managed to watch a movie or two.
First time watching movie with colleagues, a Movie Treat the company’s Sports Club (aka myself) organised for all of us. But only 7 of us went.
The last time I watched Alice in Wonderland, the cartoon version, I think I was probably 10-ish. Now to see Alice in Wonderland in real person version, I couldn’t help but feel excited. The only uncomfortable thing was that I was going to watch it without Andrew.
The story was about the grown-up Alice was back in Wonderland to rescue it from the Red Queen. There was a lot of conversations and sometimes they talked in funny phrases or words, you have to really pay attention to understand them well. There was some action scenes too, which made it not so boring. But please don’t expect it to be an action-packed movie, it is not. I’ve heard people saying that the movie was so-so because not much of actions in it. Come on, it’s a fantasy movie, Alice in Wonderland! The name says it all. I wonder if they’ve watched/read Alice in Wonderland before! LOL! By the way, Johnny Depp is still as awesome as ever.
If you love magic, fantasy and all sorts of weirdness, you MUST watch it. Make sure you bring your curiosity along, you need a lot of curiosity to believe what you see in the movie. Alice in Wonderland is not for those who seek for actions.
From Paris With Love
Yeah, so much of love, in Paris. Hahaha. Just one glance at the title, I dare bet almost everybody would think that it is a romance movie, including myself. :) Again, Andrew was the one who wanted to watch it. I was okay to go along since there’s John Travolta in it. :D There is another young man, good-looking chap, Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Hmm…… Looks familiar. Ahhh…… Hugo Boss Element commercial ad, does it ring a bell now? ;)
What a unique movie. Seeing John Travolta punching and killing people, that was awesome! But he looks young in the movie, I couldn’t help but wondering if he has had something done to his wrinkle-free face. Well, you can’t blame him. Of course he has to look at his best acting alongside such a young charming actor like Rhys Meyers. And Rhys Meyers, despite his handsome face, he could definitely act well.
There was not a boring moment in the movie, at least that’s how I felt. The only bad thing is, everything moves too fast. It’s like someone is trying to tell you a story with all the actions and moves until you don’t get the chance to breathe and think about it. Also, John Travolta is trying too hard to impress the audiences (now Ethan Hunt of MI3 would look stupid in front of Charlie Wax). It was Rhys Meyers’ character that pulls everything back to the reality.
From Paris With Love isn’t the hottest movie. In fact I didn’t hear anyone talking about it nor read it before the movie is in the cinema. If you like action-hero movies jam-packed with all the actions you could ever expect in a movie, you’ll definitely love this movie just like Andrew does. Especially if you’re a fan of “Swordfish”. LOL!
Percy Jackson
Before Chinese New Year, I bought my first ever Percy Jackson book, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. Saw a lot of its movie posters while I was in Taiwan. I didn’t know what story it was until I got my hands on the book. It’s all about the Olympian gods and the demigods. I’ve always loved Greek and Roman mythology, how could I miss out the Olympus then? :) Thought I could finish the book before I watched the movie.
When I turned on the first page, I got gloomy. The story was written in first person, “I, Percy Jackson……” :( It’s funny that I don’t mind reading blogs that’s written in first person, but I do not choose/buy books that’s written that way. Why? I do not know. I just feel funny and weird to read books written in “I”.
Since I’ve bought the book, I just had to finish it. It took a little getting used to, the next thing I know, I could hardly put that book down. No fancy and big words, it is so simple and easy to understand. Then I realised, ah, it was meant for the children, dumb me. Hahahaha. The story was good enough, love the edgy side of Percy Jackson.
Went to watch the movie then 2 days ago. First, I was a bit surprised to see the “bigger” version of Percy by Logan Lerman. Percy from the book was only 12, this one on the screen looks 16 (Logan is 18 this year). Of course, this is the movie, not wholly based on the book. Then things got worse, most parts of the story have been changed. Grover isn’t the shy and timid Grover, Annabeth isn’t the wise and calm Annabeth, and Percy has become pretty arrogant and self-centered in the movie. How sad……
Half way through the movie, I had to tell myself to stop comparing it with the book, enjoy the movie! Hahahaha. Yup, it was still a good movie despite the distorted story from the book. Andrew was wondering how Luke stole the lightning bolt and why Zeus would suspect Percy, the movie didn’t explain it well. However, we still enjoyed the movie. Andrew even said “it was better than Harry Potter”. LOL! He is never a HP fan. :)
If you want to watch Percy Jackson, better watch it before you read the book. It isn’t good to have a “book” in your mind while watching the movie. If you have read the book, make sure you erase all the Percy Jackson shadows in your mind before you enter the cinema. :D
One thumb up to Percy Jackson the movie, and 2 thumbs up for the book.
I went to Kinokuniya wanted to buy the other 4 books of Percy Jackson series (there are 5 of them in total), which I’ve seen few weeks ago when I bought The Lightning Thief. Good grief, they’re all out of stock! It’s gonna take 2 to 3 months to replenish! Oh my, my, my…… Gotta try my luck in other bookstore. Sob, sob.
Now, let’s see some Percy power! Yay!
P. S. : Waiting impatiently for Clash of the Titans!
Legion
At last, watched Legion last night with Andrew. Wanted to watch it long time ago, but was so busy after the trip. Fortunately it is still in cinema.
I was so looking forward to it. The trailer looked promising. I had faith that it was going to be a good movie. Especially when I saw all those angel’s wings flying all over the screen. Andrew was also wow-ing at those gigantic black wings! LOL! We were full of faith, until last night. :(
The movie was okay, Paul Bettany looks cool. He never fails to impress the audiences with his unique look, bad or good guy, you’re just gonna love him. But he was trying too hard to look charming in the movie, what a big spoiler. Lucas Black, again I found this man familiar, it was later only I found out he is the guy from The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. His acting sucks in Legion. The rest of the cast? Not worth to mention. Oh, there’s another one, same old Dennis Quaid. LOL! Been seeing him in lots of movie lately.
The story was lousy though. There were a few parts where I almost fell asleep with their oh-so-intellectual conversations. I kept asking Andrew “why do they have to talk so much”. I guess the director/script writer treat us as some kind of kids, they have to explain every little details to us. Funny is, they left one important thing unexplained. Why her? There must be so many single ladies got pregnant before marriage, why must it be her? Who’s the father of the child? Is he special? I’m not sure if the director did it for some reason for not disclosing that. For the sequel? Perhaps. But no history on the pregnant lady, that just confused people. The armor that the Archangel Michael and Gabriel were wearing, in the movie, that was so gladiator-like! Geez…… And how funny it is when Michael referred to himself as a general of an army in the movie. *Faints* All of a sudden, the “heaven” has become some sort of invincible kingdom and the angels have become the warriors.
Andrew said, “the earth is like a playground to the God in the movie. He keeps the mankind alive when He’s in the mood and just exterminates everybody when He thinks He has lost His faith. Haha.” But he still thinks the movie is good. Hahaha. I just couldn’t believe that God could lose His faith on human. Lost His patience, yes. But faith? And He couldn’t do it and has to send a bunch of macho angels to be the assassins.
I am not a God believer, but I understand that if God ever exists, He would never lose His faith. If He could ever lose His faith on us, how are we going to have faith in Him again? Correct me if I’m wrong.
If you just want to get entertained by Paul Bettany’s look, go ahead and enjoy yourself. If you’re looking for some butt-kicking actions, be my guest. If you’re looking for some intellectual inspirations from the movie, you may want to think twice.
I still love Paul Bettany with wings. LOL! Oh, and also his jacket in the movie! Ooooohhhhh……
Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant
Saw the trailer of the movie last month, kept bugging Andrew that I wanted to watch it when it was on the big screen. LOL! I have a thing for vampires, curses and demons (it’s purely for entertainment, I’m not practicing any demonic act or research on becoming a vampire :P ). But surprisingly the Twilight series don’t seem to make its way to my heart. I did not watch any of the Twilight movies, not even read the books.
This movie caught my eyes because there was this Cirque Du Freak that I have read so often in books and magazines. The bearded lady, wolf-man, Siamese twins, dwarfs, the giant, snake-man…… They’re all freakingly freaky. I don’t think I have the guts to go see it if the circus was real.
The movie was about Darren Shan, who stole the spider Madam Octa from the vampire Crepsley, and then got himself turned into a vampire just to save his best friend Steve’s life. A 200 year-old truce between 2 clans of vampires were broken because of one boy.
John Reilly looks familiar to me, perhaps I’ve seen him in some movies but I can’t recall which ones. He isn’t the handsome man type, but he did look good in this vampire character! Middle-aged but charming. The leading actor who played Darren Shan is even more stranger to me. The only person that I could recognise from the movie was Josh Hutcherson, who played Steve. If you’ve watched Zathura, Bridge to Therabithia and the recent Journey to the Center of the Earth, you could recognise him right away. I just couldn’t believe that he has grown so much.
I enjoyed the movie, but I don’t think Andrew had a good time. Could see his boring face throughout the movie and his face didn’t even twitch while I was laughing so hard. Hahahaha……
It’s a funny and interesting movie. Worth to watch.
Sherlock Holmes
The last movie I watched in year 2009, was Avatar (2D). Then I watched Avatar 3D on the first day of 2010 with Andrew. Not much different between the 2D and 3D, sometimes the 3D looked blur and both Andrew and I felt a little bit of dizziness watching the 3D. The movie was absolutely awesome!
Before the Avatar 3D, Sherlock Holmes was my first movie of the year. Got the early bird tickets at RM9 each. Watched it on the 1st of January morning, the very first movie.
I’ve not read any of Sherlock Holmes books, nor am I a fan of Sherlock Holmes. But I am a fan of Robert Downey Jr. and a small-time fan of Jude Law. :) Downey is charming in his own way, while Jude Law is charming in every way. But I was shocked to see Jude Law appeared to be older than his age in the movie, sometimes even looked older than Downey. That certainly did not do him any justice.
Guess I expected too much of the film and I was disappointed. The movie was good, but the story seems to be a little boring. Before Sherlock Holmes could finally explain all the seem-to-be supernatural incidents, I was already guessing that all of them were some man-made plots. Did I read/watch too much of those detectives books/movies that I could now analyse things in a different way? Hahaha. I have no idea.
Love the sense of humor of Sherlock Holmes, and his weird behavior and also the way he lived not by the common rules. We were all taught to abide by the rules and sometimes we miss out a lot of fun from not following the rules. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not asking you to break the rules. Just once in a blue moon, we have to break ourselves away from this common world, from what everybody seems to be doing the common things. Not thinking the same as everyone else does, think out of the box, walk the path that least traveled by others…… Not many of us could do that, and when someone could, we always see them as a freak or weirdo. Imagine if everybody were to think like Sherlock Holmes, his rules then would become the common rules, what seems to be common now would be the weird. That would be cool, huh? :D
I wonder if there would be any sequel to this movie.
Avatar – The Rising Star
I didn’t know about the movie until I saw the trailer while sitting in the cinema waiting to watch the movie 2012. Since then, I could read about its news almost everyday and everywhere. It is James Cameron’s another billion dollars golden movie. No one could or would have missed it. Just like the Titanic 1998.
As usual, am not going to write the whole story of the movie, you could get the full length story in Wikipedia. James Cameron is so creative and talented. I wonder how he came up with the story. You have to have wild and great imaginations to write such a beautiful story and characters.
I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen, not even for 1 second. How long since the last time I enjoyed such a great movie? There wasn’t a single boring moment in Avatar. Everything looked so fantasy yet so real. There were times I felt that the Na’vi is real and we human aren’t.
The movie once again shows that human is cruel and greedy. We only take, but never give.
I’m going to watch the movie again, to soak myself in the fantasy world of Pandora again. To SEE the Na’vi again. “I SEE YOU.”
吓到笑。Where Got Ghost.
前几天Andrew在电视上看见这部戏的预告片，就一直笑个不停。还说一定要去看这部戏。我问他不是最不喜欢恐怖片的吗，说什么很假，现在却一定要去看这个更假的。他却说就因为这部够假够搞笑，所以更应该去看。真是的，什么都是他说的。
昨晚又是星期三，又是特别票价，看戏去咯！我们又迟到了，都是塞车惹的祸。
“吓到笑”真的是超好笑的！也非常的有意义。真的好佩服梁志强！
戏里边说些什么，就让大家自己去看吧。这是部喜剧片，但是有些场面和气氛还满惊粟的。有些对白简直是让人笑破肚皮。
别太认真，去看一下，大笑一下，无妨。
The Final Destination
Few days ago Nicole was asking me if I could join her to the Malaysian Furniture & Furnishings Fair in KL Convention Centre. Since Andrew would have to work till 9pm and I would normally go to KLCC to wait for him, no harm going with her to take a look. She also asked if I would like to go for a movie after that. Final Destination 4 that is.
I’ve watched all the first 3 sequels of Final Destination. The 2nd sequel is my favorite. It’s interesting to see how those teenagers fought so hard to live, for a second chance. But the new FD4 is a disappointment. Read what the critics have to say about it. The trailer looks damn good! But the movie… Sigh……
In FD4, the people are basically trying too hard to break the chain to stay alive. The actors do not have any characteristics at all. I can only identify them as, the lead actor Nick that can’t act, the lead actress Lori that tried too hard to look pretty, Janet the ostrich that is too over-the-top and the hunky Hunt. Things happened so fast that there isn’t time to look at the characters in details before they died tragically and exaggeratedly. Unlike in FD2, all characters are being played pretty well and organised.
Also, the way those people died, give me a break. They’re only disgusting, other than disgusting, I couldn’t find any other word for it. Oh yes, there is another one, exaggerating. The plot for their deaths, some of them are indeed pretty lame. LOL.
Okay, at least there is one good thing. The consequences of when things go wrong at the wrong time and wrong place, that is more logical than the other 3 sequels. You don’t see death god playing a big part in FD4, no creepy scenes with chilly winds. They are pretty logic that things could go awfully wrong when you least expected it and that’s how accidents happen.
Anyway, just my two cents of thoughts. Enjoy the movie.
Michael Is Still The Best
Michael Jackson’s burial is tomorrow. If Wan Yi didn’t tell me this afternoon, I wouldn’t have remembered.
For the whole month of August, NTV7 played his concerts and performances during all the Saturday nights. I only managed to watch one, the HIStory concert, which I have watched numerous times until I’ve lost count. Nevertheless, it is still great to watch.
From the shock of his death, to the realisation of he is truly gone, to the now he is going to be buried for good…… It has now ruled that MJ was indeed murdered. Negligence or not, MJ’s physician has caused great loss not just to the family, but to the whole world.
I still couldn’t believe all the accusations towards MJ on child sexual abuse. Look what he had done for the children. For someone who had done and contributed so much for the children in need and turned around and abused them?
Can time heal all wounds? Including this one that caused the whole world to grieve?
Michael Jackson was the best dancer and performer, and he will always remain as the best dancer and performer.
One video to remind ourselves, how much of effort MJ had put in to make this world a better place.
Chicken A La Carte
Sometimes unawaringly, we compare ourselves to people around us and we whine, complain and sulk that why our life isn’t as good as others’.
We see people with our bare eyes, we look at them at the surface. But we hardly know what is going on with his or her life. Someone may appear to us as strong and cheerful, but when no one is looking, he or she could be as miserable as anyone else. I’ve seen people wearing all branded and stuffs, but do you know that they have a whole lot of debts to bear? I, may come off as rich or maybe earning pretty well. But do you know that I have a lot of debts too waiting to be paid off? I still appear as optimistic and happy, because that’s what I want others to see me, instead of a sulking and gloomy-face Ashley. In fact, I am happy. It is only occasionally that I need to rant to let go of those frustrations.
Here is a video that one of my colleagues shared with me some time ago. My tears rolled uncontrollably while I was watching it. If you ever feel like your life is miserable and painful, please think again. At least you’re having all the comfort in the world now sitting on a chair and reading my blog.
Please spare some time watching this video, it only takes about 7 minutes of your life to see the life of many suffering souls in this world. You may feel disgusting, but again, that is life. THAT is their life……
Have you seen how the children’s eyes sparkle when they got their new toys? Those sparkles, are nothing compared to those eyes in the film.
I am grateful of what I have now.
I am in debt because I can afford to be in debt.
I am still alive today to walk the earth.
HOME
Last night, watched this special film on TV. I asked Andrew “what is this?” The film, tells us how we, human, are destroying our very own HOME with our own hands in a pace that we now can’t reverse. Oh no, sorry, yes, it says that we can still reverse it, within 10 years that we MUST change the way we live.
10 years…… Do you know how long does it take to grow a tree that is big enough to shade us from the sun? Do you know how long does it take for an iceberg to form? What can we do within such short 10 years? Is the end of the world coming in 10 years time? Now people everywhere are so intensed in fighting the world economic crisis. It’s been a long time I have not heard any of the world leaders mentioning about environmental acts.
Look at the weather now. I don’t remember it was this hot last year this time. Can you believe that our climate and weather changed so dramatically that we can no longer forecast it?
Please do take the time to watch the film, Home.
It is a good one and it will certainly make you thinking deep what you have done that contributed to this clamatic change. And of course, I bet you will do as much as you can to help to save our Mother Earth, our one and only HOME.
Do it for the sake of your own children, for their future.
Imagine this: to bring your own children to this world just to have them to witness a disaster which the parents brought to them. How sad is that.
Ashley
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