Archive for January 2008
These Old Guys Rock
It feels really strange that more than 20 years after I have watched three of the best action movies of my lifetime namely Raiders of the Lost Ark, First Blood and Die Hard, I can still get to watch the fourth sequel of each of these blockbusters. Unlike the Bond movies, the most amazing thing is that all the sequels still have the original actors acting in them.
Bruce Willis returned as John McClane in the fourth Die Hard series last June and passed the acid test. It was an enjoyable action packed movie, true to the old Die Hard theme. Since Bruce Willis is 53 years old, he may opt for a fifth one but that should before 2010, otherwise, I can’t see him running around and dodging the bullets.
Die Hard – 1988
Die Hard 2 – 1990
Die Hard with a Vengeance – 1995
Live Free of Die Hard – 2007
Last week, Rambo 2008 opened with Sylvester Stallone still doing his jungle stunts at the age of 61. I really cannot see him doing another sequel. This has to be the last. Will probably catch it this weekend.
First Blood – 1982
Rambo – 1985
Rambo III – 1988
Rambo – 2008
Harrison Ford will be coming out with the fourth Indy series later this year and he will be 66 years old then. I really don’t know what to expect but I will definitely not miss this sequel as Raiders was definitely my all time favorite.
Raiders of the Lost Ark – 1981
Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom – 1984
Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade – 1989
Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – 2008
Whether it is purely for the money or whether Hollywood has ran out of ideas for new movies, such sequels is really mind boggling considering that many of the movie goers weren’t even born when the first original movie hit the silver screen. Imagine these kiddoes paying money to watch three senior citizens running around and fighting the bad guys. I am glad that I was around to watch the original shows. Nothing is better than the very first showing.
What sequels will Hollywood consider next?
Maybe Michael Douglas doing another Romancing the Stone sequel?
Eastern Promises
Jan 27 – After an unsatisfying date with “Cloverfield”, we decided to check out another highly rated movie “Eastern Promises”.
The movie kicked off with a midwife named Anna Khitrova who found a Russian-language diary of a Tatiana, a fourteen-year-old girl who died during childbirth with a card for the Trans-Siberian restaurant, which is owned by Semyon. Anna went and look for Semyon to try and track down Tatiana’s family so that she can find a home for the dead mother’s baby girl. Anna found out that Semyon and his unstable son, Kirill, had abused, raped and forced Tatiana into prostitution.
Cloverfield
Jan 26 – May & I watched Cloverfield without any inkling what to expect and after few minutes, I realized that it used the same concept of actual first hand outlook from the camera like “The Blair Witch Project”. My first reaction was that it was going to be a long a difficult two hours. If I had known, I might not even have gone for this movie.
After a slow start, the movie took off with bang with what initially appeared to be an earthquake in New York. Cloverfield was a refined version of The Blair Witch Project and it was absolutely enjoyable after the first 15 minutes.
Women Only
I was surprised to discover a “Women Only” bus service as I tailed an interstate bus near Taman Melawati in Kuala Lumpur recently. While such a gender discriminatory service may appeal to an ultra sensitive religious group, it leaves me pondering, what is going to happen next? Air Asia flights for women only? Will it stop at discriminating ‘gender’ only. Maybe it was from my previous experience with cups but images of Halal buses and non Halal buses flashed through my mind.
I feel very sad that we are more divided today than we were in the early years after 1969. I truly fear the situation will spiral out of control and we would need a Rosa Parks to bring us all back to our senses.
Cristiano Ronaldo Scores 25 goals
Jan 28 – Manchester United continued their march with a 2:0 win over Reading in a 19 January league game and followed by a 3:1 win over Tottenham Hotspurs in a FA Cup match last night which enable Manchester United to proceed to the quarter finals of the 2007/2008 campaign.
While the Red Devils continued their winnings ways, Cristiano Ronaldo continue to dazzle the crowd at the Old Trafford scoring one goal in the Reading game and two goals in the win over Spurs bringing his total goals scored for all competitions to 25 goals.
His closest rival is Robbie Keane who scored 20 goals while Emmanuel Adebayor has only 19 goals. Meanwhile, high profiled strikers Dimitar Berbatov and Nicolas Anelka has only 13 goals and 12 goals respectively. Steven Gerard and Roque Santa Cruz had fared better with 15 goals each while Ronaldo’s teammate Carlos Alberto Tevez has 14 goals to his name.
As Sir Alex Fergueson’s boys taken on Portsmouth at home on 30 January followed by an away match at White Hart Lane on 2 February, all true Red fans will be cheering for more goals from Ronaldo.
Gabriel
Jan 22 – Not knowing that it was an Australian production, we decided to check out “Gabriel” at the Cathay Cineplex in the Curve. I have nothing against Australia but their movies are way down my list of ‘watchable’ movies.
Gabriel was written, produced and directed by Shane Abbess. It was his first feature movie. The leading role featured Andy Whitfield who acted as Gabriel.
The story line was interesting enough when the Archangel Gabriel was sent to the world to fight the Fallens who has plunged the world in total darkness. He was the last Archangel left. Six other Archangels have been sent earlier and were presumed to have been killed.
Gabriel’s arrival was felt by the Fallens who were led by Sammael. As Gabriel moved around the mortals, he found five Archangels Uriel, Raphael, Ithuriel and Jade alive. All of them had failed in their quest and lived in shame as normal beings. Not knowing that the Fallens were at his heels, he led the Fallens to the Archangels who were hiding. The Fallens quickly sought them out and killed Uriel, Raphael and Ithuriel.
Gabriel was left alone to fight the Fallens.
(Verdict ahead)
The Amazing Race Asia Ep. 10
The Race Continues from Ep. 9
Marc & Rovilson who finished first in the previous leg, started the tenth leg at 11.48 p.m. but had to wait for a 7.30 a.m. train to Budapest which allowed the last team, Paula & Natasha, who started the race five hours later at 5.08 a.m. to catch up at the train station.
Four teams got on the 7.30 a.m. train but Adrian & Colin were missing. The teams were extremely puzzled and were speculating where they were.
One Year Of Blogging
Well, I just realised that I passed the first anniversary blogging. I started last year a day before my birthday. Here I am, a year older, not necessary a year wiser.
It was a very slow start, even though my second blog came immediately the next day after my first, it took me 3 months before my third in April 2007. Since then I averaged about 10 per month totalling 94 blogs in my 1st year of blogging.
Had a total of 6,344 blog views. Most of these would be from a couple of friends and my partner who bothered to read my rambling but I do get occasional views from strangers. It is flattering to have actual viewership but my purpose of the blog is capture some of the experiences and thoughts which I have before I lose it. I think it served its purpose. Some of the trips which I have made would have been lost forever as time fades the memories.
Do I have more things to document? I definitely do.
Will I continue my blogging at the current rate? I really don’t know. Life is so unpredictable that you really won’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.
I am just pleasantly surprised that I have done this for a year. Let’s see what happens in another year.
Sg Lembing Revisited
20 Jan 08 – Since the first trip to Sg Lembing, I have wanted to do the things which I have missed namely:-
1) Do the sunrise climb to Bukit Panoramic
2) Savour the famed Sg Lembing Yong Tau Foo
3) View the Rainbow Falls at Gunung Tapis
4) Visit the Pandan Falls
5) Go through the 3 hours hill trekking
6) River wading along Sungai Kenau
7) Going down to the underground mines. Read the rest of this entry »
The Amazing Race Asia Ep. 9
The Race Continues from Ep. 8
Marc & Rovilson was the first team to start in the wee hours of 2.17 a.m. They had to take a train to Prague and then head for the observation tower and count the steps up to the top of the tower. Marc & Rovilson found that the next available train was at 4.20 a.m. The wait for the train allowed Adrian & Edwin, Ann & Diane and Paula & Natasha to catch up. Pam & Van who started at 4.17 a.m. missed the train took the next one. At the observation tower, there was another bottle neck as the opening hours were 9.00 a.m. By the time it opened, Pam & Van also caught up and it was a race with five teams.
