Rango

when my sister first mentioned "Johnny Depp is Rango. Jom pergi tengok!" with a brilliant face lighted up with the most incredible idea of the century, i just had to immediately agreed to do it. we are both big fans of Johnny Depp anyway. it just had to happen. except when reality wouldn't be so kind. i study (and reside, currently and obviously) in the northest of the north of Terengganu and my sister is living at home, where my heart is, which is in the southest of the south of Terengganu which is also about 4-5 hours-drive away.

so, when my class is in KL and the itineraries said "Friday night, TGV KLCC. (optional)", of course i would immediately pick up my phone and text my (married, haha^^) brother saying "Let's go watch Rango! You, me and Kak CT. Friday night." (it's just, i need some more time to wrap my mind around the fact that he is now a married man. i just have to accept that there is one woman who has more rights on him than i do nowadays. and that he is actually a charmer. how else would he charmed that lovely Kak CT then?(=) sure enough, he replied with an enthusiastic "Yes!!" and there we were, TGV KLCC for the much anticipated Rango.

funny, witty and charming. like Johnny Depp himself was Rango. well technically, Rango was voiced by Depp but it was as if the character 'Rango' was written with JD in mind. maybe it was. i should check the facts. (like Dato' Lat's old boss at NSTP used to shout at him: "check your facts!" yeah, i caught Kampung Boy Sebuah Muzikal at Istana Budaya. spensive tickets. not for "rakyat marhaen" like me. but it was very enjoyable. 9/10 for both Awie's and Atilia's vocals. superb. no, no. this is for another entry. moving on.)

Rango is a chameleon. a bit delusional one i think, but perhaps that is just a part of his charm. he was a pet chameleon, kept in a terrarium with ample water supply and a few real-but-static friends. when he was somehow, by cruel twist of fate, dropped in the middle of the desert, he found himself to be dehydrating extremely fast and in desperate need of water.

he then found a female lizard (iguana), Beans, which after one confrontation and one acquaintance, she offered a ride for Rango. the ride though, did not reach the town in which Rango was hoping to find some water.

the town, when Rango (which real name is not Rango and remained a mystery throughout the movie) arrived, was not as Rango had expected. luckily, he's had a bit of practice in acting and thus he began his phony act, fooled the town for a while and got tangled in the mayor's bigger act. he's got a good luck though. he sort out the messes and the town was freed from the evil mayor. the end.

p/s: the movie was great, but i'd want to watch it again on my laptop. can't concentrate the other day because the theater was full and i was tired. couldn't enjoy the silky smooth voice of Johnny Depp to the fullest.

credit photo: http://www.flicksandbits.com/2011/03/01/3-minute-clip-from-%E2%80%98rango%E2%80%99-%E2%80%93-featuring-the-voice-cast-of-johnny-depp-isla-fisher-alfred-molina/8201/

The Social Network

to be honest, my two latest favourite movies would be The Social Network and The King's Speech (the two movies that had their share of fights at award events) and i had intended to review both albeit my reviews are lame, incomprehensible at times and even incorrect for some unfortunate movies. i will still review the movies i've watched.

however, seemed that my brother had reviewed The King's Speech, i wouldn't fare better than him so let me just bring you to the other movie of the year (for now); The Social Network.

TSN was inspired by David Fincher's The Accidental Billionaires. it's about the origination of the mind-blowing, blood-sucking and addictive-as-hell website called Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg, played brilliantly by Jesse Eisenberg, was a genius sophomore at Harvard University with average look and a little bit high self-consciousness (made even more badly after insensitive comments thrown at him by ex-girlfriend Erica Albright). the dump proved to be something of a blessing for him because (flashing far, far forward now) Facebook today worths 50 billion dollars.

this story of the founding of Facebook is told through flashbacks during two lawsuits faced by Mark; one from the Winklevosses twins (Armie Hammer) and their partner Divya Narendra (Max Minghella) and another one from Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield). can't recall any other movies that i like which used this method of story-telling but TSN pulled it off almost flawlessly.

Mark was approached by Cameron, Tyler and Divya after he made a website which allows Harvard students to rate the female students based on their hotness. the girls were obviously furious when their private facebook profile photos were illegally published at the website and be compared to each other (Mark hacked the other houses' facebooks in order to gain the pictures). however, the site was a major success among the guys and it caused the Harvard's network to almost crash.

the Winklevosses and Narendra were impressed by Zuckerberg's talent in computer programming and asked him to work with them to build a site where women could get on with Harvard guys called Harvard Connection. in the flashback, Mark remembered that he said 'yes' to them (to the proposition to work with them) but when asked by the lawyer, Mark said something about his answer was very vague to him because he had said it three or four years ago. Mark ended up did not build Harvard Connection but instead he came up with another idea (perhaps inspired by Harvard Connection) which he called The Facebook. this caused the lawsuit from the said Harvard's upperclassmen.

on another story, Mark was sued by his best friend and co-founder of Facebook Eduardo because he had diluted Eduardo's shares in Facebook from 30%++ down to 0.03%. Eduardo admitted that he did not read the papers first shoved to his face to sign because he himself was excited about the new 500,00 dollars investment made Peter Thiel but the second time around, when more papers were asked of him to sign, he started reading and he realised he made a huge mistake signing the first papers.

in the end, the Winklevosses and Narendra were paid to sign a non-disclosure agreement while Eduardo's name is back as the co-founder of Facebook.

i wouldn't know how the lawsuit from Eduardo was resolved but i am just glad it did. because Mark and Eduardo are a symbol that money can't replaced friendship and that's the moral of the story.

p/s: my friend said that the real Mark Zuckerberg's friends were not happy about the movie because it did not reflect the true reality. oh well, the movie's fine by me.

credit picture: http://www.cheri-movie.com/archives/378

Easy A

i watched this movie, i think no more than a month ago but it felt like a hundred years because i've been re-watching it for so many times i've lost count. i couldn't review it any sooner because:

a. i just got the soft-copy no more than a month ago and so please don't mind the time-frame between the moment Easy A was released and the second i decide to write this post.

b. i was facing my TESL foundation course mock-exam which, even though didn't stop me from playing the movie in the background while i'm studying with a serious studious face, did stop me from posting my so-called movie review on this very humble blog.

okay. that's settled. so the movie was great fun. no, to say it was just a 'great fun' for me would be 'a bit of an understatement, guvnor!' - i never even know the existence of The Scarlet Letter and already i think i would want to read it. maybe not watch it. i like Sony's quality on the movies i watched.

Easy A is about Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone), normal and below-average breast size (as had been stressed in the movie) teenager in Ojai, California looking to spice up her image to get more notice from the opposite sex teenagers. or more like, accidentally looking now that Marianne Bryant (Amanda Bynes) had nonchalantly did that for her.

if this is a tv-series, i'd be a serious fan for it. olive's parents are just awesome, olive's a good girl (with just a good intention to help out her schoolmates) and mr. griffith is better off without that who*ing wife of his.

fun movie. coming into the closet as one of all-time fav. along with Freaky Friday, Shrek (1, 2, 3 & 4), Toy Story (1, 2 & 3), The Corpse Bride and a few others.

credit photo: misssunflower.com

positively nerve-wrecked

i wrote about her once. never thought i'd be writing one special, last post for her.

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she struck me as an anime-lover. an AC of some sort. beautiful drawings and she often showed them to me, especially when she just finished drawing and very enthusiastic about it.

i'm going to miss that enthusiasm.

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(she was in the same car with Joseph and Iniyan but she was in coma up until eight hours ago)

R.I.P., Goh Shu Yin (1992-2011)

numbing

too young. 19 is too young. i am 19 and i too think 19 is young.

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but death comes. promised to every living thing - never slowed, nor fasten. you can be 19 or you can be 90. you will die.


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he was sitting next to me. his phone rang once, surprised the entire class for we were sitting for our last paper. we laughed. but i don't remember i heard his. a smile maybe, but hardly a laugh. now that i think about it, i should've tried to bring the laugh out of him.

i remembered some time from our last sem when we were thrown together and i got to ask him all these personal questions. he was a brilliant science student back in school. so i asked him the most obvious question:

"why didn't your pursue in science?"

after a lengthy pause, he said:

"i want to become a teacher." simple. with his usual innocent-like smile.

...

i said to some of my classmates the other day:
"if he ever converts, dibs."


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he was an accomplish speaker, a punctual by nature. material of a leader. (forever in envy with him about that)

i'm usually not punctual, even when i want to. so me and him, i never resolved that. never told him i'm sorry for all the trouble my less-than-punctual nature ever caused him. that's the closest i ever got to him. the closest it will ever be.



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they were my classmates. Phuah Joseph and Iniyan Meganathan. 10/03/2011-R.I.P.