Invictus

Doing my call today, I decided to spend the afternoon on site. I ended up in front of the television in the lounge and flipped the TV channel all afternoon. I then came across "Invictus", the movie about the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa. It was not just about the rugby, but about the relationship between Nelson Mandela and the Springbok Captain, Francois Pienaar.

The movie was directed by Clint Eastwood and the acting was superb, with Morgan Freeman playing Mandela and Matt Damon playing Pienaar. The plot however was rather slow. Invictus was the title of a famous poem which Mandela kept to keep his spirits up during the years being incarcerated in jail during the Apertheid era. Inspiring!

Having a Smurfing Time

Lunchtime Thursday. Just about the best time to hit the cinema. Except that it was a public holidays and we should have considered ourselves lucky to have bought the tickets ahead of time, on the day the movie opened nationwide. The place was full.

We ordered our food and drinks, then took our seats. Irfan sat next to me and he was already clapping before the opening credit. The power of marketing eh?!

The movie was a fun ride actually, although I remembered as a child, the original comics from Peyo were much more interesting. The plot was cheesy as you would expect, nowhere near as good as Rio or Kung Fu Panda, but really, you couldn't expect to see a Spielberg masterpiece here. It was fun, and my boys had a great time.

The graphic was excellent although one couldn't help but notice that the human actors were doing their scenes in front of a green screen. Their movement were kind of awkward, accommodating the Smurfs character into the frames which was obviously inked in digitally afterwards. But believable still.

The waiting area after the boys were done with it ....The lights were too dim for photos. Irfan settling into his seat ....The movie was rather short by all accounts. It started just before 12.30 and we were already out of the theatre by 2.

All in all, it was a fun day out. My boys had been talking about the movie for quite some time and when I told them I got tickets for today's show, they woke up pronto this morning. Would I recommend the movie? Definitely. Especially if you have kids with you. A feel good movie, most definitely.

Tickets for the Smurfs

Bloated from yesterday, I missed breakfast. We spent the morning in front of the television and cleaning the room. Most of our friends and relatives were still in their kampung, so we decided just to have lunch outside while having a look at how deserted KL had been.

We were quite surprised that when we approached Mid Valley, all the carpark indicated red, meaning full. We were lucky that the parking tickets were still issued as I desperately needed to get to Gardens today. The reason, tickets for tomorrow's show of the Smurf! We settled for a parking bay on level B4, right at the bottom.

There were still plenty of tickets available for the afternoon show tomorrow. After the tickets were sorted out, there was a small matter of lunch. As usual, the boys wanted pizza, and we landed at Alexis.

Settling down for lunchMy cod. Looked dry, but was actually rather nice.The salad and pizzaThe place was full, but we managed to get the sofa seats still. A pleasant lunch as the boys were treated to a nice pizza - we had to order two since they finished both. I had some cod for a change, and it was not that bad. My rocket salad was a bit dry today, the leafs were rather too bitter and hard.

Irfan's chamomile teaEmpty-looking Mid Valley GardensWe sat down for tea - Irfan had his dose of chamomile, hence he was pretty chilled after that. Headed over at Isetan, where Anita bought a dress, before heading back home in an almost empty Federal Highway.

Looking forward for the Smurfs tomorrow ….

Transformers 3

As I mentioned in the previous entry, we had a nice time celebrating a birthday party of one of Idlan's classmate at the cinemas. And Transformers 3 did not disappoint. Cue the usual Michael Bay hyperbole, over the top special effects, slow motion macho shots, hot babes and understated heroes.

Of the three movies on the chain, this was the best. The focus of the movie we're clearly on the Transformers themselves rather than the hot babes or the human characters. Even the special effects were tone down to make it more believable, and not to undermine the main action. And actions they were. The storyline this time around was more on the struggle of Optimus Prime in dealing with his identity, specifically dealing with the place where he was from, Cybertron. The idols that he worshiped in the past were not who he was ..... and I shall leave it at that.

The human characters from the the first couple of installments were back, except for Megan Fox of course. But to be honest, we did not really miss much without her as the new love interest was equally as hot. The main protagonist this time was more on Optimus, with the antagonist being Sentinel. It was action-packed as you would expect, but the usual comedic moment - watch for Deep Wang. Even John Turturro was back to reprise his role.

Of the three movies in the series, this must have been the most matured in terms of story development if you can call it that. There were many gaps in the story however, and some of the conjectures being made took some believing. The first part of the movie however reflected the director's, Michael Bay frustration with the general reception of the first couple of movies. The main character, Sam found himself jobless despite saving the world twice, paralleling what happened to Bay in essence. Despite making blockbusters after blockbusters, he has yet to find any formal recognition of his efforts. Once the melodramatic was over, the real action picked up, and it was relentless from the first 30 minutes onwards.

I left the theater with a broad smile. If it was a feel good movie, it certainly succeeded. The pace was furious and despite the movie running over two hours, I hardly felt it. Initially, my boys were restless, but once the action started picking up, they were glued on to their seats. By the end, they were asking me to get them the toys from the movie - clearly a success on the Bay's part. I had reservation however concerning taking young children to watch the movie. Some of the scripts were rather crude - especially for children who do understand English - and some of the sequence - the humans disintegrating into skulls upon being shot by aliens and the blood-like material coming out of some of the Decepticon characters after being hit - we're quite gruesome. So, parents discretion were very important.

Source Code

The film Moon, staring Sam Rockwell released a couple of years ago was a great sic fi thriller. Often these sic fi affair tried to vow you with their clever visual effects and wildly improbable storyline. Moon was different. Essentially it was about a mining scientist plied by Rockwell who was on a two-year mission marooned on the moon, only in physical contact with a robot. Apparently it was one of those clever artificial intelligence ones who can read his mood and interact accordingly.

He was looking forward to return to his young family - a daughter born when he was away - when something peculiar happened, and things started to unfold from then on.

The same directors' sophomore effort (Duncan Jones), Source Code, offered something along the dame vein, but not stereotypical of Moon. It offered enough action to keep you at the edge of your seat, in the meantime made you think about the whole affair. It again left a lasting impression, something that only hit me a few days after the fact. Good quality psychological thriller, with a definite twist in the end. As the movie would be coming out on DVD soon, I suggest that you grab it when it came put. If you were into psychological thriller, you couldn't go wrong with this.