Category: Living in SIN

Movies Awards of 2011

5 Favourite Movies

5. Black Swan (2010)

This is kinda a cheat as the movie was from 2010 in USA but only shown this year in SG.  However, that being said, I really enjoyed Darren Arofnosky’s bizzare masterpiece.  I prefer ‘The Wrestler’ still and this may be the only reason why it’s on a ‘lowly’ 5th position.

4. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (IMAX)

I can’t believe I am placing a fourth installment of a action franchise above an Oscar winning film, but this is how amazing the experience of MIGP has been for me.  Fun and action packed, Brad Bird had injected a jolt of awesomeness into the MI franchise…and possibly saved Tom Cruise’s movie career in the process.

Oh. And this movie MUST be seen in IMAX for the complete experience.  Trust me.

3. 50/50

Just how could a movie that deals with a heavy topic like getting cancer actually be one of the funniest movies of the year? You just gotta watch and find out.

2. Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)

Another cheat.  This 2010 documentary only made it in the Singapore International Film Festival which I was sooooo happy to finally get to watch on the big screen in spite of having it in my hard disk for the longest time.

This (pesudo?) documentary is captivating, entertaining, hilarious and most amazingly, it might be real.  Not only did director, Banksy reveal the world of street art, it is also an expose on the crazy world of art collection.

Whether the documentary is real or not does not really matter, I guess.  Personally, I find this film to be a masterpiece and as critical as Banksy’s famous art pieces.

1. Drive

It could be the fact that I caught this movie during my holiday in NYC.  But something about this flick that really snuck up on me, bore a hole into my mind and stayed with me for a long time.

Ryan Gosling’s turn as the man without a name getaway driver for hire is simply captivating. The quiet moments (and there’s a lot of these) the change in tone mid-way through the movie, the uber cool soundtrack, in fact almost every cast member’s performance just gets a thumbs up from me.

The odd thing about this movie is that it really divides the people who’ve seen it.  But one thing for sure, it certainly ain’t no Fast & Furious I can tell you.  Amen to that!

Honourable Mentions :

X-Men : First Class, – So good that it makes me wish the last two X-movies (X3 and Wolverine) didn’t exist, otherwise X-Men could have been a great trilogy of sorts.

Bridesmaids – This movie is sooooooooooooooooo funny.  Why everybody thinks it’s a) a chick flick b) it cannot be funny  just baffles me.

Hanna – It pains me to leave out Hanna amongst the top 5.  A action spy genre movie with a artistic blend. Not that different from Drive in many sense, just missing that ‘oomph’ named Ryan Gosling.

5 Worst Movies

5. Fast 5

To quote Nic Cage in “Face/Off” : “Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeee  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

4. Green Lantern

How can a movie about a super hero with a ring that can create anything with his imagination be so utterly unimaginative.

3. Gantz & Gantz 2

The only saving grace about this two movies is the cute actress who plays the damsel in distress manga artist (sure or not. manga artist so chio one !)

I am shallow. So sue me.

2. Transformers 3 : Dark of the Moon

As much as this movie being superior to Transformers 2, Dark of the moon is still one big steaming pile of shit that has so many plot holes it makes Mediacorp look good.

Hope it gets flushed down the toilet, but it’s movies like these that keeps movie companies afloat.

1. Sucker Punch

UGH. If any movie deserves to be worse than Transformers 3, Sucker Punch is the only worthy contender to this title. Can Zack Snyder please explain how a girl can hypnotise every penis in the room (ladies don’t seem to be affected)  through her enchanting slithering dancing ala Axl Rose can lead to all this ridiculous subplots which in turn becomes some action set piece in the mind of the slithering dancer’s mind!?

HOW? HOW? HOW?

Other Nominations

Most Intensive Movie Experience

THE scene in 127 Hours

3D movie experience be damned.  The moment James Franco severed his ligament, I actually felt the ‘cut’ as my stomach churned.  Yet, I couldn’t look away from the scene.

Danny Boyle, you’re a fucking genius.

Biggest Disappointment

The Adventures of Tin Tin

I must say, there are many contenders to this throne, but I have to give it to Tin Tin because I had such an uninteresting movie experience that I actually felt guilty for not even liking the film.  Unlike Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls where one can still lay the blame on George Lucas for giving a terrible story. Spielberg has gotta take the rap for this one.

I can’t really get into the groove of this film cos it’s so cramped with events that Spielberg seems to be obsessed with showing off what Tin Tin can do and had forgotten to let the movie breathe.

Sure the graphics looks great, but it’s just so bleah and…(ha ha) so flat.

Oddly enough an animator (Brad Bird) managed to give a good live action film in Mission Impossible; but a live action film maker simply came up short with his animated movie.

The Greg Land Debate

How does one distinguish between art and simply copying other images and recreating them into their own work?  There was this booth at the recent STGCC which really caught my interest.

It wasn’t because I was particularly impressed by the artwork, but because Captain America’s drawing looked really familiar, and then it hit me… it was Alex Ross drawing of Superman!  Although Alex Ross is often guilty of doing something similar, at least it does not look as blatant as this.

‘Originality’ or plain laziness… you decide.

Gramps Steve Rogers
Superman by Alex Ross

Here’s another example, although to be honest, the inspirational pregnant pose is quite limited but check out the two model’s face though.

Preggers Mystique
Preggers Miranda Kerr

In case  you still didn’t know why this entry was named Greg Land. Click here.

Oh. How can I blog this post without adding this little gem :

Chasing Amy - Tracer

Singapore Toy Game & Comic Convention 2011

I made a trip down to the 2011 Singapore Toy Game & Comic Convention (STGCC) which is an annual event for all geeks to gather under one roof to do all things geeky. Oddly, for an event which is probably inspired by the famous San Diego Comic Con, the localised version seems more like an anime cosplay event instead.

The whole event hall was hardly packed on a Sunday afternoon and there is definitely a need to gather more shops and organisations to be more involved in future conventions.

Let me break down the catergories for you :

Toys – There are quite a few booths for this but nothing more than stuff that you can see on a Sunday afternoon at the Chinasquare flea market…and in fact there are MORE stalls selling toys there.

That being said, it is really great to see Hong Kong’s Hot Toys setting up a booth and displaying their awesome collection which some are available for pre-order.  The sight of Bespin Luke Skywalker really made me wanna whip out my credit card and buy  it…although it’s really cool for me to see the Christopher Reeves Superman which is coming out at the end of the year…which I’ve pre-ordered.  heh heh heh…

Games – The big boy of this category would definitely go to Nintendo’s 3DS booth which offered attendees some hands-on with the new console.  Unfortunately though, that is pretty much it.  The other stuff that can be grouped under this category are some anime card game and some Tamiya toy car thingy.  I know. WTF right?

Comics – WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE GODAMM COMICS?!?

This is the most disappointing aspect of it.  The only comics I do see are from Planerds (which is from Harris) and Kinokouniya did something, although I can’t remember what now.  And this dude who sells vintage comics really gets my thumbs up.  This is what comics cons should have. Comic fucking books!

Best of the Rest –

Singpost somehow managed to tie-in with something relevant.  Marvel comic stamps! OMG, I liked the idea, but too bad, I don’t really keep stamps. Cool idea though.

Popcornpop  – this is one of my fav shops in Singapore. They sell lots of posters and Japanese small sheet posters which usually have some alternative but cooler designs.  Located at the Esplanade. Go check them out.

Overall, it could really do much much better, but lets be honest…10 years ago, we do not even have anything close to this, so I guess 1/10 of a comic con is better than no con at all.  I just wish though, they could combine all these different ones (like the anime convention and..dunno what ) as ONE.  Its pretty boring to see the same booths two different conventions and all that cosplayers really need to brush up and do something out of the box.

Took some pics though.  Enjoy! 🙂

What we learnt from a historical election

  1. WP should call the shots in the opposition now, because it’s clear they’re the only ones that can push the PAP into the 50+ percentiles consistently. They also fulfilled their strategic objective of capturing a GRC, so assuming they can hold it in the next election, that’s the thin end of the wedge for the forthcoming two-party system. As much as I want a strong third party and seeing how ossified the cozy 2 party structure in the US and Britain have become (granted, those are ACTUAL mature democracies, so rot has set in after so much time), Singapore is simply too small to support more than 2 parties of significant size.
  2. I don’t know what is it with my Teochew demographic, but I find it hilarious we’re the bastion of Singaporean opposition these days and simply refuse to be dislodged. Ah well, it’s nothing to be ashamed of, quite the contrary.
  3. I hope someone wasn’t pulling my rock-hard leg when he said an East Coast MP had mentioned on the record during a post-election interview that George Yeo should be president. Even by the PAP’s usual obliviousness to reality, they shouldn’t be stupid enough to hand priceless political hay over to the opposition (and if I was running things in the white camp, that person would never advance further in politics again). It’s also against the normal SOP of the party, as it usually discards fallen politicians like worthless scrap without fail. NO TIME FOR LOSERS eh, Harry?
  4. Seriously Mediacorp? How Pravda-ish can you get? Granted, I only observed the Channel 8 coverage, but there was barely anything spoken on Aljunied all night as they could possibly get away with, and then some up until the actual result. Then they covered Low’s victory speech but subsequently drowned us with the usual drivel from the PAP’s successfully elected new candidates. That’s as eyerolling as it gets, but OF COURSE they then had to reserve the Potong Pasir loss right to the very end to spike the WP victory narrative. Local media, as predictable as it gets. It’s a pity we’re so insignificant in the grand scheme of things, because our elections badly require some third party coverage. Maybe by a respectable network such as Al Jazeera….oh wait, dumped out of SG because CNA would wither before any actual competition. Me bad.
  5. Badly grimacing Dragon Prince is like balm on my black heart.
  6. The Chiam era is over. The writing was on the wall though, since he barely held on last time round and is now weakened post-stroke. Even his last sympathy visit to his old haunting grounds this week failed to have much significant effect. It probably WAS over when the SDP fiasco occured, since that robbed him of his old power base and forced him to start all over again, and unlike many of his opposition peers, he just isn’t that great at the most crucial aspect of being an opposition lynchpin now, recruitment of the ranks. I guess it’s poignant that on the day that the opposition made electoral history, the curtain should fall on a fixture of the old order.
  7. Oh dear, Mr Nett Happiness. Things didn’t turn out too well for a SM tonight eh? A pity Tin made it in, but I suspect Goh won’t have to worry much about a power base anymore in his party, assuming he still had a significant one before Sat. He did win though, so that is still a nett plus in the happy column, right? Consider the alternative of drowning sorrows together with a former foreign affairs minister.

Sandcrawler in Singapore

 

Jawas & Droids Not Included

Woohoo!!!!!!! This is so cool !! Meet the new LucasArts Animation Office.

I’ve no frickin’ idea where it’s gonna be but I wanna go visit it already!