Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Independent Spirit

Awards season has started full swing:
The Independent Spirit Awards have announced its nominees with Winter's Bone leading the field, followed by The Kids Are All Right


Yesterday, the Gotham Awards announced its best film recipient - Winter's Bone...


The hosts for the Oscars have been announced...

Friday, November 26, 2010

Review - 2 Alam

I have missed quite a few Malay movies lately... either I was too busy to go see it or from a lack of interest... normally, I'd go to a preview but I haven't been to one in quite a while...
Anyway, I've heard so much negative review about this movie, I had to go see it... actually I wanted to see this movie originally because of the interesting premise of the movie, this one and Anu Dalam Botol...

This week I was at RTM for a course on copywriting so everyday I'd drop by Midvalley, which was a stone's throw away...

I was lucky enough to get a ticket for the 5pm show... lucky not because it was selling out, because it was I had arrived in time for the 5pm show instead of waiting for the 7pm show... and yes, it was not filled to the brim with people... exactly 6 people in there... 5 if you don't count the one walking out in the middle of the movie...

Okay, so I heard the movie's about a guy who had surgery done on him to turn into a woman and then he/she died and the family has issues on how to deal with her death and burial because she was born a he... interesting yes?

But this movie barely touch on the subject matter... in fact they just skimmed the surface of the subject and choose to focus on how he/she was living in sin and how the earth refused to take her after her death because he/she was too sinful...

And that is one of the things I had problems with... the movie itself was sorely lacking... it felt like watching an extended music video, ya know, where the singer's acting out the song in a movie type fashion and it would stop the song every once in a while for the artist to act out a scene... yup, this movie feels like that... or a like a cheap karaoke video...

I heard that the first director quit so the second director had to take over... my guess is there was not enough footage from either director to make one cohesive movie so they decided to cut and paste the entire movie by recycling shots from previous scenes...

What's the point of all those musical montages? They did not add anything to the storyline... oh, wait, I take it back... they add annoyance to the movie-watching experience... and what's with the constant playing of the theme songs? I swear to God it's like an extended video of Amy Search... Salam Terakhir has been soiled by this movie... the song will never be the same again... sigh...

There were plenty of plotholes as well... like how exactly did the funeral was relatively media free? Where were the papparazi? She's supposed to be this hugely famous singer right? And then before she died, her big secret was exposed. You'd think the media would be all over her. And when her guy wanted to marry her, she said that he would have to get circumcised. Dude, seriously? Legally, you're still a guy in Malaysia. You can't get married.

And why did she stick around for so long before running away when the thugs were fighting who gets to do her first? And when she finally grow some balls (hahaha, geddit?) to fight and run, the thugs still bickered but you can see her in the background sashaying away...

Sigh. But that's just me nitpicking...

Acting-wise, not a single one of them was impressive. Except maybe the mother whose name eludes me till now. But then again, all the mother had to do was look sad and cry. Everybody else was basically stoic and wooden. Aaron Aziz's character should have more expressions since his childhood friend who snipped off his penis had died. But the ustaz was emotion-less, even when the earth rejected his/her body.

Then, there was this issue with the music. No, not the Salam Terakhir or that Ramli Sarip song. The soundtrack and background music. It was too eerie and a bit frightening for a non-horror movie. I kept expecting to see an entity jump out and scare the living daylights out of the six of us. Like the scene of the 'mandi mayat'... the shot showed the people doing it and then slowly move to the floorboards below them and show the water trickling down. I suppose they thought it was incredibly clever of them to then cut to a scene of Amy showering but with that damned music, you'd expect to see a Hantu Penanggal or something like that to be licking the water that's trickling to the ground... if they made this into a horror movie, I think it'd be a better movie... the soundtrack has the perfect ambience to scare people...

Overall, this movie stinks so bad that it made Lu Pikirlah Sendiri The Movie Oscar-worthy... yes, I hate this vile excuse for a movie... if there's a Razzie Award in Malaysia, this movie will dominate! I used to think Razak Mohaideen was a poison to Malaysia's movie industry but now we have a new face as The Poison... Dr Rozmey, come on up and accept your award!

Oh, just so you know... 2Alam is close to collecting the RM40 million that Dr Rozmey's been screeching in his bought advertorials and to anyone who'd listen... about 39.77 million to go...

Monday, November 22, 2010

AJL 2011


Here are the finalists of AJL, after three weeks of duking it out in the semi finals:
1) Hanyut - Faizal Tahir
2) Kebahagiaan Dalam Perpisahan - Shahir
3) Noktah Cinta - Hafiz
4) Drama King - Meet Uncle Hussein ft Black
5) Ku Ada Kamu - Adira
6) Cinta Sempurna - Yuna
7) Pelita - API
8) Berlari - Tomok
9) Sofea Jane - Black
10) Mencari Konklusi - Hujan
11) Selamat Malam - Faizal Tahir
12) Ekstravaganza - Bunkface
13) Jahat - Stacy
14) Tolong Ingatkan Aku - Ana Raffali
My faves: Shahir and Adira... AJL will be aired live January 9th, 2011... stay tuned :)

Box Office



Not a surprise that the penultimate Harry Potter movie dominated the box office eh?

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Thursday, November 11, 2010

23rd



The Simpsons has been renewed for a record breaking 23rd season!




http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2010/11/the-simpsons-to-hit-new-milestone-for-primetime-television/1


Meanwhile, I've watched Let Me In yesterday... was spoiled by unruly (and stupid) audience... and today will watch Skyline... and hopefully on Sunday will watch both Megamind and Unstoppable... have a good weekend guys! :)


Wednesday, November 3, 2010

AJL

It's almost end of the year and that means it's time for Anugerah Juara Lagu... 30 songs have been picked as semifinalists and the song presentations will be spread out over 3 nights and at the end of the third night, the 12 finalists will be announced... here are the rundown:

8 November 2010, 10 – 11.30PM:
Gerak Hati – Azlan & The Typewriter
Inilah Cinta – Akim
Kebahagiaan Dalam Perpisahan - Shahir
Mencari Konklusi – Hujan
Cinta – Mohd
Noktah Cinta – Hafiz
Hujan Bunga Di Kuala Lumpur - Ana Raffali
Nadiku – Sabhi Saddi
Cinta Sempurna – Yuna
Oh Juwita – Nubhan
Sejujur Hatimu – Adibah Noor
Hanyut – Faizal Tahir

15 November 2010, 10 – 11.30PM:
Tika Masanya – Mirwana & Hujan
Manifestasi Cinta – Fiq & Mirwana
Kau Harus Ada – Hujan
Drama King – Meet Uncle Hussain & Black
Menggegar Dunia – Adam & Stacy
Tolong Ingatkan Aku – Ana Raffali
Jahat – Stacy
Susun Silangkata – Aizat
Cinta Kosmik – The Fabulous Cats
Ku Ada Kamu – Adira
Sofea Jane – Black
Adrenalin – Faizal Tahir

22 November 2010, 10 – 11.30PM:
Realiti Dewi – Alyah
Pelita – A.P.I
Berlari – Tomok
Extravaganza – Bunkface
Bersamamu – Joe Flizzow
Selamat Malam – Faizal Tahir

Sumber: http://www.budiey.com/