十月围城

This movie comprises a star-studded cast and huge budget mostly spend on building the 1906 HK central district replica. The cast 粱家辉, 甄子丹, 谢霆锋, 黎明, 李宇春, 范冰冰, 曾志伟, 任达华, 胡军, 王学圻, 王柏杰, 张学友 and 李嘉欣. Though 李嘉欣 appeared like for 3 seconds, she was supposed to be the one whom 黎明 as 刘郁白 loved but too bad, it was his dad's wife. Since that unfortunate incident, 刘郁白 led his life as a beggar. 张学友 as a lecturer, the 2nd least screen time, the one who started the movie, was assasinated while he walked down the stairs with his students.

Plot wise was based on historical records where the mission was to protect Mr Sun long enough so that he can meet the different FQFM leaders from other states/provinces. So once 梁家辉 as 革命党's 陈少白 know Mr Sun is arriving at HK, he started to gather $ and people for this mission. But the Qing imperial also wants to take this chance to eliminate Mr Sun, send his best candidate 胡军 as 刺客阎孝国. The first hour of the movie was mainly talking and building up the mood for the FQFM's holistic objective. In addition, halfway 陈少白 was captured by 阎孝国 after his men killed all the 戏班's people. They were led by 任达华 as 方天, whom was previous soldiers. The most qualified candidates were wiped out.

With 陈少白 temporary out, his best friend 王学圻 as 商人李玉堂 unwillingly took over. But as his newspaper office got shutdown by the local police, led by 曾志伟 as 探长史密夫, he became more involved and even more determined to protect Mr Sun. As he gathered people for this sucidie mission, he felt very conscience-ridden, like held in between the bigger picture and sacrificing people. As they get ready for D-day, 陈少白 managed to escape and return to 李玉堂. He mention to him so as to increase the success of the mission, they will need a substitute for Mr Sun. But as they draw lots, to boost the entertainment of the movie, the one who drew must be 李玉堂's son, 王柏杰 as 少爷李重光 who was also supporting FQFM. Both didn't tell 李玉堂 about this though 陈少白 is guilt-ridden.

甄子丹 as 赌徒沈重阳 is one of the local police who helped 阎孝国's people killed 戏班's men. 沈重阳 was 范冰冰 as 妾侍月茹 ex-husband, his gambling habits made her leave him with their daughter for 李玉堂. Knowing 李玉堂 will be involved for the mission, 侍月茹 convinced 沈重阳 to protect him by telling him the daughter is his, he should do something right so that in future she could tell their daughter, her father is 沈重阳. 谢霆锋 as 车夫阿四 worked for 李玉堂, his character is simple, never study but keen to learn and likes the 照相馆's owner's daughter. 李玉堂 did arranged the marriage before the mission.

D-day came, it lasted quite a while, the whole action sequence from Mr Sun arriving, the people protecting him, the main cast dying one by one, 阎孝国's team trying to assasinate, 李宇春 as 戏班女方红 avenging for his dad, 刘郁白's new look and almost invincible stopping countless baddie from advancing, 沈重阳 crashing himself against 阎孝国's horse, etc

Not to forget, not sure how he got his beggar like Lion King hair rebonded. Though abit heavy, overall it is quite entertaing. 8/10

Avatar 3D

Touted as the most anticipated movie of the year. The guy behind this, James Cameron who was behind Titantic, still the world's most grossed movie. Avatar was like his baby, 12 years in the making.

With both actual persons and 3D characters in an Epic told on the planet of Pandora, the plot, scripts, the native language and 3D effects.

He used motion capture animation technology to create photo realistic computer characters, this also allow him to see both the actual actors and 3D characters in real time thus able to make any immediate adjustments.

Humans are on Pandora. Their aim is to colonize the planet where unobtainium is abundant, this mineral sells for $20 million per kilo. But there are a few problems, first humans can't breath on Pandora. The most difficult problem is the native Na'vi, an indigenous sentient humanoid race who are considered primitive by human standards, yet are more physically capable than them. Their home on a gigantic tree is the ground where the source of unobtainium is.

The Avatar program is to create genetically engineered human-Na'vi hybrid bodies, also integrated with human genes. Sigourney Weaver as Dr. Grace Augustine, is the head of the program. But she has a problem, ths cost of these Avatars is high and their main objective is to link them between the humans and the native Na'vi. But the Na'vi treated these hybrids with contempt and mistrust. Sam Worthington as Jake Sully, the main guy in the movie, a retired marine. His brother, a scientist who worked on the Avatar program as killed. Thus, he signed up as his avatar should be able to gel with similar genes. He came to Pandora with Joel David Moore as Norm Spellman, a biologist.

The humans volunteer sleep in capsules to control their Avatar. When the Avatar sleeps, the humans go back to their normal lives, sounds familiar, like Surrogates. Jake's first attempt to control his Avatar simply thrilled him as he is able to walk and run, something which he can't do now. His first field trip out with Grace wasn't something he expected, he found himself facing creatures from Pandora.


The Hammerhead Titanothere, this massive creature extremely territorial and hierarchical but is not predatorious. Jake standing still seems to appease these creatures.

But soon came the Thanator, the fiercest panther like creature in Pandora, inject fear into all creatures on Pandora. He fled upon Grace's advice and though manage to stay alive, he was lost.

Into the night, he was attacked by Viperwolves. They are swift, moved in a pack and had great sense. Though Jake seems to have the upper hand earlier, there was too many of them. Zoe Saldaña as Neytiri, the Na'vi princess came and saved him. This character as all Na'vi are computer generated. He brought him back as Eywa seems to spoken. Facing her parents and their people, Neytiri's mother, Mo'at asked Neytiri to teach Jake to be one of them, Tsu'Tey, their finest warrior strongly dislike this idea. On the other hand, Jake was asked by Colonel Miles, to gather information advantagous to them in the event an hostile attack is needed. Jake is in some sort of triple 无间道, gaining trust within the Na'vi, helping Grace and also Miles.

As his time in Na'vi grew, he fell in love with Neytiri. Eventually he passed the training and test, bonding with an Ikran, a must for all Na'vi warriors. It is dangerous as the person as to entered the Ikran territory, facing numerous of them and choose the one that he believes can bond with him. As he failed to convince the Na'vi to move and in one of the human's mining work, Jake attacked one of the machine which was captured by the cam. James, the administrater gives the order to attack the hometree, thinking Jake betrayed them. Miles lead the first hostile attack and successfully brought down the hometree, leaving the Na'vi fleeing. Grace and Jake before they could explained was taken off their Avatar and held captive in Hell's gate. Neytiri was very angry as she felt betrayed by Jake.

Trudy, a retired marine pilot who flew Grace and co frequently in their trips managed to rescue them, taking one of the mobile station and went deep into the Na'vi forest. But Grace was shot while they escaped, with the capsule in the mobile station, Jake is back to his Avatar and hopes to regain the trust of the Na'vi by taming the mother of all ikran which he did. Flying it in and he managed to convince the Na'vi whom still mourning death of Neytiri's father. Jake vowed to fight the humans along with the Na'vi. He also asked Mo'at to save Grace, transferring her life to the Na'vi body but it was too late, as her life was too frail.

Her death really pissed Jake off. As he boost the morale of the Na'vi and gathered more help here and there, preparing for the final showdown. It was a battle between the pursuits of greed through hostility and the fight for their own land and freedom. As Miles and his troops advance from air to the hanging mountains, they waited as the Na'vi prepared themselves on land and in the air. With Jake leading Tsu'Tey and Neytiri, they seems to have a upper hand as their determination to stop this invasion is strong. But as the battle continued, they are overpowered by the fire power. As Tsu'Tey scacrified to stop them from dropping the crates of bombs and Neytiri's ikran got shot down, she was faced with troops and AMPs, it seems the end of Na'vi was impending. Of course, they won't die, if not, how to do a sequel if it earns loads of $ worldwide. 8/10

Friday Lunch@Wild Honey

A new place in the ever growing Orchard area. This place serves numerous type of breakfast all day, located at the recently opened Mandarin Gallery. Good place for people who like to have breakfast like food anytime of the day. The main breakfast items mostly ranged from $18 to $24, not cheap at all. The English and New York looks good. You get to see the pictures in a iPhone at the ordering counter.


This is my Wild Mocha Dulce ! I like it but just a bit sweet, maybe of the honey.
Nice mix of right expresso and chocolate, not too overwhelming. The banoffee brulee taste as nice, great for those who wanted something cold.


The NY comes with those small and juicy tomatoes, scrambled eggs with tuna I think and bagel with cheese. The English has more stuff, potatoes, mushrooms, sausage, bacon, scrambles eggs and some salsa like dips with beans in it. Other than they are pricey, nothing really fantastic about the food. The breakfast I had at Sala Phuket beats this. But being at a prime location, probably will attract its fair bit of customers or tourists willing to pay the premium for all day breakie.

风云 II

Certain scenes was shot in bluescreen, if you have watched 300, it will be something like that. No wonder it looked fake, comic like but lucky not all scenes are like that. This 2nd instalment is very CGI effects laden. Movie started with 东瀛霸主 绝无神 capturing the emperor of 神州, 步惊云, 上代武林神话－无名 and some ka xiao. They kena some 麻香毒 which weakens them but 无名's ka kia is able to give them some antidote in time. They break free but 步惊云 who sprung towards 绝无神 and dealt him a blow which felt nothing to him, his 杀拳 injured Mr Bu.

Then 聂风 came, his 风神腿 also has no effects on 绝无神. 无名 behind was preparing to dealt his most powerful move, 万剑归宗. The CGI was for this was nice and the 酝酿 for him to unleash it towards 绝无神 was not bad, 绝无神's 不灭金身 blocked all his 剑 with the last one piercing all the way through his shield. Eventually, 绝无神 prevailed, then the rest of the ka xiao tried their luck, then in the mid of the chaos, 步惊云, 聂风 and 无名 fled. 无名 is injured, asking 风云 to go find 邪皇, someone 无名 thinks can defeat 绝无神. But this 邪皇's is wierd, rarely involved in any pugilistic matters.

风云 knelt in front of the cave, begging 邪皇 to come out but to no avail till 第二梦 came, who he really dotes on. 第二梦 and 楚楚 are the 2 persons who have fixed opening lines, their words always starts with "风大哥" and "云大哥". 邪皇 did came out but he is already without both his arms, he cut them off years back when he couldn't control the demonic force within himself when trying to train the demonic way. He advised the only way to increase internal strength fast is to go the demonic way. 风 was chosen and he agreed to do it. 风 ask 云 to kill him if he is nto able to control the demon.

While 风 trained under 邪皇， 云 went to Ling Ying temple upon 无名's request but only to be attacked by a masked man. This duel somehow invoked 云's ability. The masked man is 无名, he wanted to impart 云 his 剑法 which 云 did and also added his own 悟性, thus coming out with a new 剑法. And obviously 无名 don't know how to write, named the 剑法 as "云十"剑法, Mr Bu even answered he doesn't know how to read this word, 无名 says "It is not a known word, he just written it out of seeing how his new 剑法 was formed".

云 returned to the cave but was too late as 风 break out of his training to save 第二梦. But 云 was asked by 邪皇 to go to another cave to stop 绝无神 who is finding the 龙骨 which somehow determine the 命脉 of 神州.

He came in time and with his new 剑法 and 无名's 一成功力, 云 was able to fight 绝无神, almost. This scenes also have some nice CGI effects.

Then 风 came, in his demonic form, weaving this 魔刀, sometimes fighting 云 and sometimes against 绝无神. Eventually, 风 cut off 绝无神's arm and 云 piercing through his body. With him dead, seems no more story. All left was 云 trying to save 风 from permanently 入魔. The last battle was abit too long and ended abruptly. 7/10

Zombieland

This movie is different from other zombie movie. It is a comedy but not that other zombie movies are not comedy but very few, at least I have not watched one before this. Life rated 4 stars for this, that elevates this from "should watch" to close to "must watch". But probably more zombie killing will makes this more entertaining.

Columbus is one of those surviving after America suffered the zombie apocalypse, some virulent form of mad cow disease. It not really slapstick and has some really funny moments. Columbus goes by his rules of survival in this zombieland, clearly shown out on screens to the audience, in action and words splashed across the screen. Along the movie, some lower priority rules were also reminded and new ones added. His car brokedown along his way to the Ohio, to check whether his parent is still alive. He Tallahassee, seemingly some zombie killing experts, they travelled together.

They stopped at a grocery store where they enjoy some zombie killing spree. Tallahassee has been searching for his twiggie, a sponge like cake with creams in it, one of his way of enjoying the little things in life.

He didn't find it but found 2 sisters, Wichita and little rock. They were conned into handing over the weapons and car. Wichita is bringing little rock to LA, some theme park saying without any zombies.

The guys walked and TCSS, found a hummer.

They drove then met the girls again. And got conned again, to hand over the weapons and car. Columbus then suggest a compromise and travelled together. Along the way, the stopped by some souvenior store where they smashed up everything. Wichita blurted that Ohio was already burnt to ground, that somehow like broke Columbus's hope but he realised his new hope is Wichita, whom he liked.

Before reaching LA, Tallahassee brought them to Bill Murray's house. Somehow don't understand why this part of the plot is needed, they spend some time there, bonding, Wichita also realised she has feelings for Columbus. Forget to mention, Bill Murray did appear as himself, posing like zombie. Columbus shot him :) Then the girls left again, heading to the amusement park. They found it and yes ... no zombies ... but before they turned on all the lights. Zombie from far saw and headed towards there. They got themselves stucked in the vertical shoot up ride.

Time for the guys to be heroes. One of the rule Columbus has to break. 7/10

Case 39

Case 39 is weak. I didn't read the storyline before seeing this movie. But as the movie starts, you can know the plot. Renee Zellweger is Emily, some social worker but deals more with family problems. Though already piled up with so much work, her boss needs to work over and hand her case 39, opening up the file shows a sweet and innocent young girl picture, Lillith, at that instance, you know she will be the total opposite. The funny part is it takes quite a long while to pave the path for the audience to know what was wrong with the girl.

Then in between before she knew and when she know, the movie employes cheapskate scaring tactics, sudden knock on doors, office partition, car window to scare people, this usually will work but too much makes it seems quite bo liao. The case was brought to social services because Lillith's grade drop very badly and reportedly couldn't sleep at night.
Seeing her parents gives you a more creepy feeling, it tries to mislead the audience that the parents can be bad, but from a plot point of view, this doesn't drive at all.

So we waited till things unfold, upon investigations, Emily didn't find anything suspicious that the parents could be harming Lillith but she gave Lillith her house number, just to be sure. Without evidence, Emily couldn't do anything, she even seek help from her police friend, Mike but to no avail.

She called one night. Emily rushed over and frantically she called Mike who came over. And they stopped her parents from burning Lillith alive in the oven. With this, the parents are put behind bars, the mum going into a mental institution and dad into prison. Emily's psychologist friend, Doug who liked her was providing help for Lillith's aftermath. Then something different came about, Emily became personally involved, she was touched by Lillith's plight and pleas. And requested for her to stayed with her, something not allowed in her line of work. You know "things" are happening soon ....

Then it started. A boy at her counselling class and also school was found clobbering his parents to death, though the process wasn't shown, the blood on the bed explained it. Then traces show Lillith called him at the night of the crime which she deny. Emily became suspicious and of course freaking out at the same time, she visited Lillith old house to get some stuff and saw her parent's room door have signs of multiple locks, dragging signs on the floor, etc. She was thinking the parents was bastards and doesn't allow Lillith to come in at night.

When Emily found out Lillith did make the call, she wanted to seek some truth. She went to see her parents, her mum not in a state of sanity, so only the dad can share something. Truth is out, she is some demonic thingie or whatever. She feeds on people's fear and somehow makes them see their fear which usually causes death. And she hops from targets to targets. Now Emily is really "Lao Green Shit", Lillith also knew she visited her dad. She started to show signs of confirm not the "sweet and young innocent" girl". She "free drop" the lift with Emily and her in it when Emily disallow her to go to school anymore. When emily locked herself up in the room at night, Lillith's demonice banging on the door starts, now she can related why the parent's room got multiple locks and cabinet dragged to block the door.

Liked the scene where Doug so called interview Lillith, quite creepy. She protrayed a young girl initimidating an adult, even one as a SME, quite well. Soon after that, Mr Doug died, felling to his death in his own toilet by hoards of hornets, probably before he could laid Emily. The last one to die ... must be Mike. He died before he can help emily to "kill" Lillith. The boss didn't die because he has to Emily and tell her Mike was dead. Anyway, she did get rid of her in the end. 6/10