Kings and Queen of Comedy Asia II, 22-23 October 2011

Just for two nights, some of the most funny stand up comedians gathered at Singapore's Esplanade to tickle our funny bones.

Hosted by Harith Iskandar, the comedy filled Esplanade up with laughter. There are a total of 3 Kings (Ronnie Chieng, Papa CJ and Paul Ogata), and our one and only lovely Queen, Kumar. Of the four of them, I like Kumar and Paul Ogata the most.

Ronnie's sense of humour is rather on the abusive side with a lot of "f**k you* and angry laced comments.

Kumar is still as humourous as ever. No one, regardless of our nationality, race or religion, is spared from her sharp tongue.

Papa CJ has almost a similar style of Ronnie's, plus the pride of an Indian. He is quite good in playing with his race and adding quirky clever retorts.

Paul Ogata is a tiny man with a great statue. He is truly the highlight of the comedy night. Love his sense of humour and jokes leading up to "that was the best part".

Not forgetting the host, who is equally funny in giving out his rendition of "Grenade" and advising all women to run away from a man who sings this song when he professes his love for you.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 fairy clouds. I had a great evening attending this comedy. I love to go for more laughing sessions.

Je n'ai Rien Oublié (Small World)

The wealthy Senn family faces a threat as their holiday home caretaker's health deteriorates due to Alzheimer. Simone, whom recently married into the family, finds herself forming a strange friendship with Conrad. As she tries to help Conrad recover, she discovers the very secret which her grandmother-in-law Elvira is desperately trying to keep hidden.

Unbeknown to all, Elvira had murdered her husband and bring up her own son Thomas as the legal heir to the Senn's fortune. The only living person aware of this secret is none other than Conrad. With his health worsening, will he take this secret to the grave or unintentionally expose it?

I was a little irked by the fact that Thomas failed to remember his childhood. It is only upon seeing a childhood album when his memory was rekindled. I would imagine he is old enough to have some reminiscence of his younger days.

Rating: 4 out of 5 fairy clouds. The movie is a little intriguing and confusing as there are many flashes of scenes from different time being pieced together. You see part of Conrad's world when he is sober and times when he is stuck in a past memory.

Green Lantern

Now DC Comics is trying to get a piece of the movie-goers who have been watching too many Marvel characters on the big screen.

Green Lantern is an intergalactic cops organisation that serves as guardian of our universe. The story starts with Abin Sur being badly injured by Parallax, the embodiment of fear. Before Abin Sur passing, his ring chooses Hal Jordon, a human. The new successor now has a challenging task to ensure peace through the universe and live up to the expectation of other Green Lanterns.

While the movie is interesting, I seem to be remembering the wrong concept. The thing that stands out in my memory is Hal Jordan is an irresponsible person who somehow managed to save the world and become a better person. In my humble opinion, he is just an attention seeker.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 fairy clouds. It is quite a decent movie to watch if you don't mind the simplistic story. I'm a little disappointed that Hal defeated Parallax so easily when all other lanterns sacrifice their lives and still failed the mission.

Super 8

Another overly-hyped movie simply because it is produced by Steven Spielberg. I watched this movie during my flight to Maldives.

Set in the 70s, Super 8 tells a story of a group of young children and their encounter with Alien. Yes, another alien conspiracy story. While filming a low-budget zombie movie, the kids get themselves caught in the mystery of a train crash and eventually discovering the imprisonment of an alien by the government.

The movie attempted to build up suspense to captivate viewers and played on their imaginative of what could-be, might-be and would-be. The plot is simplistic, story is segmented and ending boring.

Rating: 3 out of 5 fairy clouds. I could have better used my time to watch other movies or sleep. Or perhaps my expectation was made higher.

Letters from Iwo Jima

I realised recently that I didn't write the review for this movie. So now it goes...

Letter from Iwo Jima depicts the story of Japanese Imperial soldiers defending Iwo Jima to keep the Americans out of Japan. The movie focuses on a soldier Saigo and General Kuribayashi, and shares their thoughts and feelings as the battle looms. Though the defense effort is futile, you can't help feeling sad for the soldiers.

While some portions of movie is a little slow pace, the development of the plot is still excellent. You see the loyalty and the honor of these men and you also pick up on the strength, humanity and horror of man's foolishness.

Rating: 4 out of 5 fairy clouds. After watching the movie, I'm quite keen to read the book which probably offers a richer background to the characters. This movie can be quite intense as war theme is general harder to digest. Yet lined with mild violence, it is more palatable than other war movies. Perhaps too soft for those wishing for adrenaline rush.

Thor

Chasing up on a number of movie reviews which I haven't had the time to work on till now.

Thor, the God of Thunder, legendary character from Norse mythology is the son of Odin. In the movie, the rash and impulsive Thor is banished from Asgard by his father for being too arrogant. Landing on Earth, he learns of humility and wins the battle against the Frost Giants and his brother, Loki.

I find that most of the fighting scenes glamorised the blond hunky Thor. Compared to other Marvels movies, Thor is meek and boring with predictable story line and a cast with bad acting.

Rating: 3 out of 5 fairy clouds. This movie is a waste of my time. Nothing exciting and not even the fighting scene. The handsome hunk reminds of me the pretty face in Transformer. No substance.

The Smurfs (3D)

I have finally managed to catch up with time to write The Smurf 3D movie review. On hearing the name Smurf, we can't help humming "la la la la lala, la la la la la...". Oh, what's the smurf are we singing? I do not have a clue. But I will honestly admit that it is an tremendously annoying tune which you can't get out of your head.

In The Smurfs, Clumsy Smurf gets into a typical trouble of fumbling all over the places and almost creating a mess to the Blue Moon Festival. While keeping away from the rest of the gang, he accidentally leads Gargamel into the Village.

As the rest of the Smurfs escape to safety, Clumsy Papa Smurf, Smurfette, Grouchy, Brainy and Gutsy run into the forbidden cave. Together, they jump an open vortex and find themselves in modern day New York. Will the smurfs find their way home again?

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 fairy clouds. The movie is a typical family wholesome entertainment. Everything falls into places and nothing to be worry about. Papa Smurf is always there to take care of everyone. It is a cute movie with a lovely ending, and nothing much to rave about.

Captain America: The First Avenger

I spent a wonderful day with some friends this weekend and caught the movie, Captain America: The First Avenger. To be honest, I'm looking forward to the upcoming Captain America in May 2012. :)

Steve Rogers makes many attempts to join the US military, due to his tiny built and health issues. But all these are just strengths to Dr Abraham Erskine, who is looking for the perfect test subject of his superpower serum. Unfortunately, he is assassinated after he has successfully experimented on Rogers.

Rogers then becomes Captain America, the one who sings and dances for the front-line soldiers. During one of his performances, he follows his heart and rescues 400 men who are captured by the Skull in one of Hydra's bases. Since then, it is his mission to destroy the Skull and Hydra.

There could be improvement to the special effect to make Rogers look more consistent in height and size in the first 20 minutes of the movie. The scene Colonel driving Rogers to chase the escaping Skull and good luck kiss from Peggy is redundant and unnecessary.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 fairy clouds. It is an eye candy for the girls to see the innocent-eye blond cute hunky man in a rescue mission to save the war and the world from the Skull. However, I can't help thinking of the Matrix with Hugo Weaving saying "Mr Anderson" and Samuel L. Jackson offering the Blue and Red pills. Eek! Nevertheless, it is a good movie to watch.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2

It has been 10 years since we watched the first Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on the big screen in 2001. It all ended in July 2011 with the final installment of Harry Potter's 7 year journey to Hogwarts and the fight against his nemesis, Lord Voldemort.

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Harry, Hermione and Ron continue to look for the horcruxes. Following the dark journey, they find the remaining 3 items and successfully destroy them as well as Voldemort. Thus marks the end of the magical world of Gryphons, Pixies, Poly juice, Diagon Alley, Quidditch and many more.

The epic finale failed to match up to the imaginative world that JK Rowling has beautifully painted in our minds. The 3D effect is limited and it did not elevate the magical charm.

Rating: 4 out of 5 fairy clouds. Despite being a fan, I did not feel enthralled by the movie. For any Potter fans, this movie should not be missed. For non-Potter fans, try to catch up. For the others, I have no idea what movies you have been watching till now.

Beauty Kings

How far should one go for beauty? For who are you trying to impress? What would you do to win? Those are the questions swimming in my brain when I watched Beauty Kings at the Drama Centre this afternoon.

Beauty Kings, a play written by Dick Lee, is all about sex, scandals, secrets and of course speedos. Oh! I have forgot to mention the numerous strip scenes. :) Don't scream, it is just bare butts and nothing more.

Beauty King tells the story of the ugly truth of molest and sexual harassment of contestants by pageant organisers and judges. The play centers around 3 contestants. M1 Adam, aka Mr Potong Pasir, is an undercover journalist who is trying to dig up some dirty truth about such pageant. M2 Benny, Mr Aljunied, is a civil servant attempting to win the pageant to please his Kate Spade wife to be. M3 Don, Mr Marine Parade, is a part-time model who used to be a girl!

Put them all together, then you spice it up with the suicide story of Gary that happened 5 years ago with some lies and seductions. Enter into the world of beauty pageant and taste the sordid juicy scandalous play.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 fairy clouds. The screenplay and props are interested. The plot is twisted but the actors are not. You do get a see a lot of hotbots and yes six-pack! *drool! Overall, the play is quite dotted with cheesy jokes like "Glico, strawberry and chocolate". A little distasteful to be honest.

The saving grace is supposedly audience participation by sms-ing to vote for our favourite contestants. Sad to say, I was not an engaged audience today. I blame my stoned reaction on working late night.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (3D)

I have never been a fan of Transformers even when the cartoon was shown on TV many moons and eons ago. After watching the first and second Transformer, I thought it would be a shame not to watch the third edition.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon tells the story of a Cybertronian invention which can end the war between the Autobots and Decepticons. Unfortunately the Ark carrying the invention is destroyed and never found.

Sam Witwicky has graduated from college and living off his new girlfriend, Carly. Meanwhile, his Autobot friends are busy working with the humans to track down Megatron and his minions. The discovery of an alien technology in Chernobyl leads Optimus Prime to the lost Ark and the comatose Sentinel Prime.

The awakened Sentinel leads to the exile of the Autobots as he has a secret pact with Megatron to revive Cybertron. This sparks another war between the Decepticons, Autobots and Humans. And quite fortunately, I meant usually, the Autobots save the world and kill both Sentinel and Megatron. I guess that I won't be seeing Transformer 4.

The first movie is novelty. The second is still fun. The third time around, it becomes boring. It is another season of save the human, save the world... and I'm so not impressed. The special effects are the same in the first and second movie. You seen it once, you seen it all.

Perhaps the only difference is Megan Fox ain't in this movie. Then again, Carly is just a bimbotic replacement. Throughout the movie, all she does is strutting around to show off her curves and pouty lips.

Rating: 3 out of 5 fairy clouds. The movie spends too much time on showing off the effects of the robot transforming and becomes too lengthy at times. It is so not worth watching. Spare the money and popcorns for other movies, if you were to ask me.