toy story 3

The $11 I spent on watching Toy Story 3 is the best $11 I’ve ever spent this entire summer. The movie was so ridiculously gooooooooood! I LOVE PIXAR OMG. And I actually cried 3 times during the movie: at the start when they showed Andy’s childhood film reel, and then when they showed how Lots-o-Huggin’ Bear was abandoned by his owner, and at the end when Andy left college and gave his toys away. (T_T) IS SO SAD. I don’t think I will be able to throw away any of my soft toys from now on. (Especially since I used to believe that soft toys do come alive at night when I was a kid.  I would open my eyes in the middle of the night to peek at them but none of them moved…duh.)

Then again, I cry at everything these days. I remember crying even before last year’s UP started showing…I already bawled my eyes out when the short film Partly Cloudy was playing. It was so sad when none of the storks wanted to deliver the baby animals made by the dark cloud! *sniff* Partly Cloudy is my favourite Pixar short ever, so I encourage you to watch it if you haven’t already.

My favourite new character is Buttercup, the soft toy unicorn. He didn’t have a lot of screen time but he’s so cuteee! And I think this time round, Barbie and Ken owned the movie. Everything they do is so hilarious. Love the attention that Pixar pays to details too. In the following ‘Ken Meets Barbie’ scene, look at the ‘WTF’ faces on Woody and Buzz when Ken spots Barbie..it’s hysterical. And I loved that Barbie’s ponytail is always in a mess – because that’s exactly how it is in real life! Barbie’s hair is made out of polyester plastic, so no matter how many times one combs it, there will always be a bunch of plastic wavy strands sticking out. And I KNOW THIS VERY WELL, because I used to own over 15 Barbie dolls. Strangely, I only had ONE Ken doll, and I got sick of him very quickly and left him alone in the toy box.

And Pixar never lets the technology overrides the plot. The 3D graphics are so seamless and effortlessly done – I didn’t even realise I was watching a 3D movie. Pixar doesn’t exploit the 3D technology or purposely go out of the way to make things pop out of the screen just for the cheap thrill factor.

The only thing I didn’t like was Tom Hanks’ voice-acting. It’s not his fault really, but his voice is so distinctive that everytime Woody spoke, I went, “Oh, Tom Hanks is speaking”. It kind of takes a bit away from Woody’s characterisation and destroys the fantasy. Some actors try to manipulate their voices a little bit for animated films so that it’s less recognisable, but I think Hanks didn’t do that at all..or maybe Pixar wanted it to be wholly Tom Hanks. *shrugs* But I’m sure this is only a problem for people like me who’ve watched quite a bit of movies starring Hanks.

GO WATCH TOY STORY 3. SO AWESOME. It’s now my second-favourite Pixar film of all time, right behind Finding Nemo.

And oh, if you are a fan of Hayao Miyazaki…TOTORO makes a cameo!! How randomly awesome is Pixar?

abu dhabi tourism movie

If you are a fan of Sex and the City, please don’t miss out on the latest movie. It’s super hilarious and fun! If you’re not a fan, well..hmm..it’s pretty good for just relaxing. Brainless popcorn fun.

Me? I LOVED THE MOVIE! I totally want to visit the Middle East now! Ohh and I love Samantha Jones so much!

the ultimate place of pain

I have not written about the (now super famous) movie ‘The Hurt Locker”, even though I saw it awhile ago. Simple reason: I was quite traumatised by the film. I think I almost hugged my bunny to death while watching the film.

One thing people need to take note is that..this is not just another Hollywood film. It is based on real life events. There are really people getting killed on a daily basis for no reason. There are soldiers out there risking their lives, but the world moves on without really acknowledging them anyway.

But I am sure the crew took a lot of creative liberty in making this film…a lot of things depicted in the film were clearly dramatised (e.g. James, the male protagonist, being left alone on a mission – it was clearly done to showcase his bravado..but if I’m not wrong, this is a very serious military offence..a solider should never be left alone, especially in Iraq).

Another scene shows 3 soldiers exploring the streets of Baghdad in the middle of the night..and the 3 of them separates to search out the bombers. What?! Is that possible in real life? I was taken aback by the absurdness of this scene..how can the 3 soldiers go in without alerting or calling for more back-up? They should have went in with a proper unit in the first place anyway.

Many parts of the film were highly unwatchable for me..I hated the scene whereby James had to disarm a human bomb (he opened up a kid’s body and took out the bomb). I wish I didn’t have to view that scene alone, but I did, and that image will now be in my memory for a long time.

People always laugh at airhead beauty queens who wish for ‘world peace’ at beauty pageants..but those beauty queens are actually the smart ones. We really do need world peace.

Entertaining film? Yes. Eye-opener? Yes. Completely factual, accurate, and fair in the way it depicts the war in Iraq? Not so sure.

P.S The film title originated from military lingo. The hurt locker = ultimate place of pain.

top 66

Is there such a thing as watching too many movies?

Pixar is such a great animation studio. Every single film to come out of Pixar excels in story-telling. Even though they are great at animation technology, they never ever let technology overshadow the basic essence of a movie – the story.

Tom Hanks – such a fantastic actor. My heart broke into two when he had to let go of Kelly in Cast Away…and when Jenny left him in Forrest Gump. He has had his fair share of flops (Da Vinci Code wtf?), but there’s no denying that he’s one of the best in Hollywood today. Leonardo DiCaprio is great too..but unfortunately that babyface of his always take some credibility away from him. Matt Damon, always enjoyable to watch.

James Horner and John Williams..words cannot express how much I love these two composers. Some of the most grandiose pieces in cinematic history came from them – Jurassic Park (will always love the French Horn solos), Titanic (the music is enough to make me cry), Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Star Wars.

I also realised that as I grow older..I start to cry at every single thing. I didn’t even feel anything when I watched Cast Away 10 years ago. But I bawled my eyes out when I saw it again on cable TV recently. Why did Kelly have to listen to the others and let Chuck go? If she really loved him, she could’ve stayed single for life, right? Maybe I’m being overly-idealistic or stupid..but if she didn’t let him go..then everything will still be okay. Sigh~ sometimes it’s better to just follow your heart. What do the others know. They will never know.

The Oscars are happening in just 2 more days! I can’t wait!! I love both Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin!! What a marvellous idea to make them both host together. (And if Avatar gets Best Picture..I’m going to injure someone. It doesn’t deserve the award.)

Here are my favourite movies of all time – not arranged in order.

everybody needs a co-pilot

Up In The Air is easily one of the most enjoyable films I’ve watched in awhile. Avatar was eye-candy fest and a technical marvel, but its story was sooo cliché. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief was silly. The Informant! was above average, but not spectacular.

So among all these films, Up In The Air proved to be a breath of fresh air from 35,000-feet.

If you enjoyed Thank You For Smoking and Juno (I enjoyed both films immensely), then you will be delighted to find out that Jason Reitman directed Up In The Air too. However, it’s very different from the previous two films. Thank You for Smoking was very witty and tongue-in-cheek, while Juno was heart-warming and indie-cool.

Up In The Air, was for me, funny, heart-breaking, devastating, and the film took me to places which I didn’t really want to examine.

I completely resonated with the film and I could totally understand what George Clooney felt throughout the movie – emptiness. When he finally reached his life goal at the end of the movie (10 million flyer miles, which gets you an exclusive lifetime executive membership with American Airlines + getting your name printed on an AA plane + a chance to meet the Chief Pilot), he realises he doesn’t really want it. He has been travelling so much for his work that he has completely disconnected himself from society, including his family. But he thought it was okay, because he didn’t want a family, and he didn’t want to be tied down. But at the end of the film, he realises that he was wrong all along. And he utters the words, “I’m lonely.”

Sometimes, even when you are okay with being solitary..like shopping alone, eating alone, watching movies alone..at the end of the day, the feeling of emptiness just eats away at you. Even if you are surrounded by people day in and day out, you can’t help but feel hollow. I guess it’s a film that’s going to resonate with a lot of urban dwellers.

I don’t know if it’s common to feel that way, but I feel that way pretty often. This is something I don’t like to think about. So I just shrug my sister off whenever she looks at me quizzically and asks, “Why are you going to the movies alone again?” I think it’s perfectly normal, but she thinks it’s really worrying. (I’ve spotted a cultural difference about this too..I see a lot of Caucasians going to the movies alone, but seldom do I see Asians doing the same thing. Maybe it’s a cultural thing..i.e. how Westerners are socialised to be more individualised compared to Asians who are more tied to their community.)

George Clooney puts on a great performance..you will see none of the silly schticks that were so omnipresent in films like Ocean’s 11-13 or Burn After Reading.

First-class entertainment, yes/yes? Enjoy the emotional flight, all 1 hour 45 minutes of it.

Run Fatboy Run

Run Fatboy Run is a 2007 film starring Simon Pegg, who is only the best British comedian of all time. I fell in love with him ever since Hot Fuzz and he is just as awesome here. The script is not comparable to Hot Fuzz of course, but Pegg makes it all worthwhile. This film talks about how Dennis (Pegg) tries to get back the girl he left at the altar when he found out that she’s getting married to someone else. Hilarity ensues. Many crude jokes abound in the film, but somehow Pegg makes all the crude jokes easy to stomach.

So there was this scene whereby Mr Ghoshdashtidar (landlord) advises Dennis (tenant) on what to do to get back his ex-girlfriend by talking about his own relationship. I didn’t think it was particularly funny, but when I saw Pegg’s face at the end of it all, I LOL-ed.

supreme masterpiece

I think ‘United 93′ was never brought in by the local film distributors and it was never a box office hit in USA. Such a pity though, because it is possibly the best documentary-type movie I have seen in my life. It grabs your attention right from the very start and your heart doesn’t stop racing throughout the film’s 120 minutes. Every single gripping minute of this film is so well directed..you won’t be pausing the movie at all.

4 commercial airliners (American Airlines Flight 11, American Airlines Flight 77, United Airlines Flight 175, United Airlines Flight 93) were hijacked on 9/11 and only one missed its target due to the valiant efforts of its passengers. You will see exactly what happened on UA 93′s flight path, from the take-off to the crashing.

I actually had to grab my bunny soft toy and hug her for 3/4 of the movie because the film was too darn compelling. Everyone needs to see this movie. (Don’t bother torrent-ing it..it’s all dead because this movie was never popular to begin with. I lucked out and found a $9.99 copy during HMV’s end-of-year sale. It’s sad that this fantastic film was relegated to such a sale..but whoopee for me.)

Dawne: Powell, what do you got.
Powell: Hey, I got a hijack on the phone. Boston.
Dawne: Is this a sim?
Powell: No, real world!
Dawne: Come on, where’s EET?
Powell: It’s a no-shit hijack! It’s Boston!
Dawne: You serious?!
Powell: Yeah!

Live Long and Prosper

Star Trek is such a phenomenal movie. Really, really fantastic film! I think it’s safe to say that most die-hard fans will be pleased with this storyline and yet it managed to attract people like me who knows absolutely nothing about the USS Enterprise. This is one of those must-watch summer blockbuster movies like Iron Man last year.

The casting is fantastic..I was delighted to see Simon Pegg (playing Montgomery Scott) as I’ve been a fan since his hilarious Hot Fuzz production. And Chris Pine lucked out..Star Trek will beam his career so high and far away from his embarrassing choice of past movies roles.

Jai Ho!

I don’t know if I’m not artistic enough or what, but most of the raved Academy Awards’ contenders have left me feeling underwhelmed.

The Reader – 3/5

The Wrestler – 3.5/5

Slumdog Millionaire – 4/5 (Highlights: beautiful cinematography and soundtrack ..I’m in love with A. R. Rahman’s score for the movie, especially Latika’s Theme/Dreams on Fire)

MILK – 4/5

Hugh Jackman’s opening monologue made me laugh so hard with the line ‘The Reader! I haven’t seen The Reader!’ and his shameless movie plug ‘I’m Wolverine!’ Despite his song-and-dance prowess, the show still fell flat. I was bored after 15 minutes.

I still prefer Jon Stewart as a host for the Oscars..he saved the whole show from sinking last year. It doesn’t matter that his stint last year recorded the lowest-ever ratings for Oscars, it’s clear that he was a better overall host. Watch his hilarious take on this year’s show – where he makes fun of everything, including himself.

The most beautiful speech came from the winner of Original Screenplay – screenwriter Dustin Lance Black. Channel 5 edited his speech so if you watched the repeat telecast you would’ve missed 90% of the speech’s essence. That was not the only thing they censored out. They also removed the kissing scene from MILK during the Pineapple Express parody skit. That was like the funniest bit! MDA seriously needs to take a chill pill.

Will Hunting from 1997

Will: You know, I was on this plane once. And I’m sittin’ there and the captain gets on and he does his whole, “We’ll be cruising at 35,000 feet,” then he puts the mike down but he forgets to turn it off.

And so he turns to the co-pilot. He’s like, “You know, all I could use right now is a fuckin’ blow job and a cup of coffee.” So the stewardess fuckin’ goes bombin’ up from the back of the plane to tell him the microphone’s still on, and this guy in the back of the plane’s like, “Hey hon, don’t forget the coffee!”

Sean: You ever been on a plane?

Will: No, but it’s a fuckin’ joke. It works better if I tell it in the first person.

Sean: Yeah, it does.

I got inspired to watch Gus Van Sant’s 1997 work Good Will Hunting after catching Milk recently.

Good Will Hunting was even better.

I can’t believe I’ve never watched this phenomenal movie until today. Every single line of dialogue is a quote-worthy gem. There are so many life lessons one can take away from the film. I can watch this movie over and over again.