I just caught the preview of the new romantic flick starring Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart – Love Happens. The romantic in me enjoys most romantic movies but ouch, having to sit through 1.5 hours of Love Happens left me aching and longing for the ending credits! Most romantic movies have a fail-proof plot but this had huge holes in its storyline and worse, no gorgeous eye-candy as their actor! Read on below for the synopsis and why I wouldn’t recommend Love Happens!

Synopsis of Love Happens

Aaron Eckhart plays Burke Ryan, a self-help motivation author who wrote his best-selling self-help book after his wife died in a tragic car accident. However, despite the seminars he conducts and the tips he gives people on how to move forward from sadness, he hasn’t really moved on himself from his wife’s death 3 years ago. In a week-long seminar in Seattle where he’s on the brink of signing a multi-million deal, he meets Eloise Chandler (is Chandler any subtle reference to Friends?!) played by Jennifer Aniston who supplies flowers to the hotel.

He approaches her, they date and he finds that she might just be the one to help him release his hurt. Will they get together? Will love happen in the least predictable circumstances?

Does it really matter? No, because the show drags too long on Burke finding himself then rushes it all the way to the end where out of nowhere, they end up falling for each other! Aaron Eckhart is terribly wooden and absolutely emotionless for someone who is supposedly grieving and later in love. If anything, he reminded me a lot of Guy Smiley from Sesame Street!

 As for Jennifer Aniston, she has definitely had better movies and this certainly isn’t one of her best. There isn’t any chemistry between the two and whatever potrayal of love in the movie seems pretty forced and superficial.

The only two things I enjoyed in the movie were the funny quirks Eloise had in writing uncommon words behind paintings and the music in the movie:

Quidnunc – a person who seeks to know all the latest news or gossip
Poppysmic – noise produced with smacking of the lips, from the Latin poppysma
Sesquipedalian – a person who loves to use long words

The Proposal starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds is a typical chick flick that brings an unlikely pair together in marriage. While the movie was light entertainment, what I loved most was the many little fashion nuggets featured during the movie that will make any fashionista drool! Read on below for a synopsis of The Proposal and my favourite fashion highlights!

Synopsis of The Proposal

Sandra Bullock plays Margaret, a tough and pushy executive editor-in-chief of a book publishing company, Colden Books, who forces her assistant, Andrew played by Ryan Reynolds, into marrying her to avoid deportation. To keep up pretences, the two are forced to spend a weekend in Andrew’s hometown in Alaska where he turns out to be the “Kennedys of Alaska”! Andrew has a lovely family and his 90-year old Grandma Annie (played by Betty White) steals the show with her fun and charm. When the family suggests they get married that weekend itself, Margaret can’t say no. However, at the wedding itself, she tells the truth and flees. Will she get deported? Will they get married? Watch and see!

Christian Louboutins in The Proposal

A good part of the movie features Sandra Bullock walking and running in super-high Christian Louboutins! That trademark red sole is hard to miss and an absolute delight to look out for! Sigh, how I love her Louboutins!

Hermes, Prada and Louis Vuitton bags in The Proposal

In the earlier part of the movie, Sandra Bullock carries a soft and lovely Prada in a wonderful beige colour.

When she joins Andrew in Alaska, she heads there with her full set of Louis Vuitton luggage and the cutest orange Hermes Birkin bag!

Take a closer look at the Birkin below. I’m sure bag lovers all over must have cried when her Louis Vuitton fell into the water (it was a fake!) or when she placed her Birkin on the ground!

As a movie, I found the two leads lacked chemistry and Ryan Reynolds spent most of the movie with a really blur expression on his face! The movie was a little confusing as they went straight from bickering and hating each other to being in love enough to marry each other – willingly!

However, I absolutely loved the fashionable wardrobe Sandra Bullock had in The Proposal and eyeing those beautiful Louboutins in every scene!

If you don’t watch it for the storyline, do watch it at least for the Louboutins and Birkin!

I grew up watching Transformers and singing the Transformers song. Secretly, I thought Optimus Prime was rather lumbering and clumsy while Megatron was super-cool! And I think I still do!

I caught The Transformers Movie when it first launched last year and came away a little disappointed in how they potrayed my favourite robots. Giving Michael Bay a second chance, I recently caught Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen. Was it good? Read on for my review below.

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen Observations

• This time, the bad Decepticons are so much badder and the Autobots have strangely reduced in number to less than 10, most of which are small cars instead of the huge mean machines the Decepticons had! Talk about being outnumbered!
• Again, the Autobots don’t transform as well as the Decepticons do. Megatron transforms mid-air while Optimus took forever to transform!
• I really liked the tongue in cheek humour they had. When they were in a meat freezer, Sam’s useless sidekick Leo Spitz said “Ugh, pigs…swine flu, not good!” That was hilarious!
• I think Megan Fox was just there for eye candy for the guys! The robotics and metal would probably have been enough to attract guys though! 

• I found it funny how they said Obama has now been safely put in a bunker when the war between Autobots and Decepticons started.
• The fight scene got really messy after a while and I lost track of who was fighting who. But for once, the humans actually had a big role to play in helping the Autobots against the Decepticons.

• At some points, I felt like I was watching a Westernized version of Godzilla tramping through a cardboard Tokyo city!
• I like the human side of Bumble Bee!
• The Fallen looked huge and seemed to be in pieces all over. It was hard to imagine what he actually looked like.

Synopsis Of Transformers 2

Megatron was happily buried deep in the sea after Transformers 1 and the Autobots have formed some alliance with some special secret force to fight the small outbursts of Decepticons around the world, wrecking havoc in their search for the Energon and Sun Harvester. If you thought Megatron was bad, the robot behind this new evil is The Fallen, a fallen member of the original Primes who covets the Sun Harvester to gain the sun’s full power for his Allspark (The Transformer’s life force) which will mean an end for Earth.

It comes back down to a college-going Sam Witwicky to once again save the world, despite his reluctance to do so initially. It takes Optimus Prime’s death (oops spoiler!) and Jetfire, an ancient Decepticon turned good, to make him realise that he is the only hero who can save Earth from falling into the hands of The Fallen. So the race begins to find the Matrix, the key to The Sun Harvester, across cities and the deserts of Egypt. Will Optimus survive to fight Megatron another day? Watch it to find out!

Autobots, transform and roll out!

I recently splurged to watch Wolverine at the new Signature @ The Gardens cinema, a swanky new cinema that opened in The Gardens, Midvalley. Unlike the normal GSC cinemas, Signature offers premium movie viewing in a comfortable and elegant atmosphere with a choice of only twin seats so do be warned if you intend to come in a group of 3! It is also one of the few disabled friendly cinemas in KL. Read below for my review of GSC Signature Cinema at The Gardens.

Your premium experience begins at the entrance of the cinema itself where everything is quiet, plush and a total contrast from the bustling crowds outside the normal GSC cinemas. The ticketing counter is also quiet with minimal queues which makes ticket buying a real breeze compared to the long queues in the old wing.

Dessert cafes and comfortable chairs and sofas are made available outside the cinema entrance for movie-goers to relax on before their movie starts. If you haven’t had your dinner, don’t fret as there is a cafe downstairs where you can purchase your food from and have it delivered to you in the cinema itself to enjoy while you watch!

The cinema has a novel way of informing the movie goers that their cinema is open for viewing with a funky strip with the cinema numbers that will light up when it is open. Enter the cinema and you will be thrilled to find plush twin seats with an arm rest that can raise for cozier seating arrangements for couples. A little table is provided by the side for you to place your drinks or food to there are no dangers of spillages during your movie. I liked how their seats were placed which meant there was no danger of people blocking you and you get to enjoy lots of leg space all around you.

Unfortunately, it is not all wonderful which I discovered when I went to the toilet before the show started. The toilets are nicely done but only one out of three cubicles were working as the other two were disgustingly blocked. It is a rather typical Malaysian habit which makes it pointless to have nice toilets if they can’t even be maintained properly.

Ticket prices at GSC Signature are naturally at a premium compared to the normal cinemas and are listed below:

• Saturday, Sunday, Public Holidays – RM20
• Weekdays except Wednesday – RM18
• Wednesday & Disabled – RM15
• Shows before 6pm – RM16
• Children – Normal Price

2 Gold Class cinemas are also available with tickets priced at RM60 for movies on any day.

Do check it out the next time you are feeling rich and in want of some luxurious movie-watching!

Signature @ The Gardens is located on:

Lot 4 –201, 4th Floor,
The Gardens,
Mid Valley City,
Lingkaran Syed Putra,
59200 Kuala Lumpur

It is a big bad world we live in and we sometimes tend to forget that as we enjoy the comfort and security we have taken for granted. Although we are often warned of dangers when we travel, travel has become something so common that we think nothing of flying a few hours to a new country or hailing cabs in countries where we can’t even speak the language.

If you have always thought those who are extra-careful when traveling are paranoid, Taken will jolt you back into awareness that the world is really a big bad place, if you aren’t careful.

I thought that it was a little ironical this show was released almost right after Liam Neeson’s wife, Natasha Richardson, tragically died in a ski accident.

Read below for my review. Be warned of spoilers!

Review of Taken Starring Liam Neeson

Taken features a single father, Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) whose job as a “preventer” or Government spy causes his family breakup. He later gave up his job to be a better father and move closer to his and teenage daughter, Kim who is living with his estranged wife, Lenore and her very wealthy husband. Like most children of divorced parents, Kim sees her father only when she needs something from him which was a signature to allow her to visit Paris with her friend, Amanda, after her 17th birthday.

In Paris, the two flighty girls befriend a man, Peter at the airport who offers to share a taxi with them and from there learns that they are staying alone in Amanda’s cousin’s apartment. What follows is a kidnapping by an Albanian kidnapping ring who kidnaps young foreign girls for prostitution and a father’s race through Paris to rescue his beloved daughter in 96 hours.

Taken is rated PG13 and it is easy to see why with the many fighting scenes and drug use that follows. Liam Neeson stocks up enough body counts to make Rambo proud as he single-handedly takes team after team of vicious, brutal men with machine guns and pistols.

In several scenes, the kidnapped girls are shown to be heavily drugged and made to either serve men in construction sites as prostitutes while chained to their beds or to participate in a twisted auction if they are virgins. Some like Amanda, end up dying of drug overdose while Kim gets auctioned off in a secret warped bidding process where rich and old men buy young virgins. It does seem sickening and the realisation that there are probably syndicates out there in the world preying on young women everywhere only makes it more sickening.

Is Taken Worth Watching?

Yes, if for nothing but to see Liam Neeson’s fantastic moves and amazing spy brilliance as he tracks the kidnappers. As a father, it must be heart-wrenching to hear your daughter screaming as she is kidnapped while having to remain calm to request for her to shout out any form of identification on the kidnappers so he can identify them. With just those and a single monotone of “Good Luck” from the kidnappers, he single-handedly tracks them down and saves his daughter in the nick of time.

If I had a teenage daughter, I would definitely take her for this movie to demonstrate how dangerous the world can be and just being a little cautious and paranoid can be a matter of life and death. It is also a good way to teach her how important her choice of friends can be.

Amanda: I am going to sleep with Peter!

Kim: But you hardly know him…

Amanda: Who cares, he’s cute!

Taken is currently showing at all major cinemas.

Jamal Malik is one question away from winning 20 million rupees. How did he do it?

A) He cheated
B) He’s lucky
C) He’s a genius
D) It is written

Slumdog Millionaire was one of the hottest shows in the 2009 Oscars, sweeping a grand total of 8 awards. It has also been highly controversial as India has called for a ban due to its “incorrect portrayal” of the Indian slums. Critics have also questioned the way three slum children were given a transient glimpse of how life on the other side of the coin could be like when they were whisked from the slums to glamorous America and the Oscars, only to be brought back to the slums to relive their Oscar glory through the only pretty dresses and suits they might ever own.

With such controversy, I naturally had to catch the movie to see what the hype was all about! So read my review of Slumdog Millionaire here. Be warned of spoilers!

Synopsis of Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire opens with the Jamal Malik on the popular gameshow “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” just one question away from the 20 million rupee question. Then in a series of flashbacks, we see how Jamal is beaten and tortured by the police to admit that he has been cheating on the show for how could a boy from the Bombay slums know all the answers to the questions?!

We understand how he knew the answers as the story unfolds and we are given a glimpse of the painful and harsh life the slum children endure in Bombay. Is it a true depiction? I believe it is as the slums of India are known to be terrible living conditions where the residents often dice with death and dangers.

Slumdog Millionaire Story Unfolds

Jamal and his brother, Salim lose their mother when their slums are set on fire during Hindu-Muslim riots. They befriend little Latikha and together get rounded up by Maman, a gangster, to be child beggars. Salim saves Jamal from getting blinded by Maman (blind beggars earn double, you see) and together they eke a life living on trains, selling stolen goods and posing as fake tour guides at the Taj Mahal. Latika, unfortunately, gets left behind and as it is their destiny, Jamal returns to Bombay to find that she is now a prostitute whose virginty is highly prized. 

They rescue her with Salim killing Maman in the process and forcing Latika to sleep with him, much to Jamal’s anguish. The two brothers part ways with Salim living the bad life and working for Maman’s rival, Javed, and Jamal working as a chai-wallah (tea boy) in a call centre. Through the call system, he discovers Salim once again and finds that Latikha is now married to Javed who ill treats her. He then bluffs his way into Javed’s house as a dishwasher and begs Latika to leave with him, telling her that he will wait for her at the train station at 5pm. The very first day she attempts it, she is caught by Salim and Javed’s men and scarred on her face. Javed then leaves town and Jamal, knowing that Latika watches “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire”, goes on the show.

It ends happily with Salim helping Latika escape and Jamal and Latika finally meeting again although she thought they will only finally meet again in death. Theirs is a love that is innocent and pure which gives some hope in the cynical world we live in and the desperate background of the slums they all came from.

It is a beautiful movie that calls out to your very core of emotions. Find yourself cringing at the tough life they lived, crying at the evil ways Maman disfigured his child beggars, laugh at the simple joy the slum children have and smile when Jamal and Latika are finally reunited. It is a movie that leaves you thinking and wondering about what your destiny might be. Go watch it!

So is it also merely a coincidence that Jamal knew all the answers to the questions on the game show? Well, it was written in every bitter twist and turn in his life. It was just his destiny.

What’s great being a Nuffnanger? You get free preview tickets to watch Mamma Mia – The Movie! I love ABBA and I absolutely love musicals so I was really excited to see the movie adaptation of this famous Broadway musical. The fact that my favourite actor, Pierce Brosnan, was starring as well was icing on the cake!

Be warned, spoilers are below!

Mamma Mia opens with the sweet beautiful voice of Sophie (played by Amanda Seyfried) singing “I Have A Dream” as she looks across the beautiful blue waters of Greece before she posts 3 very special wedding invitations to 3 very special men in her life. Two are sophisticated businessmen and one a traveller but they all share one common link – any of them could be Sophie’s father!

Sophie’s mother, Donna (played be Meryl Streep) runs a little hotel on a beautiful Greek island and is bus preparing for her only daughter’s wedding. The only problem is that she doesn’t know her daughter has invited the 3 men she has spent a brief moment of happiness with.

What follows is a wonderful time of song and dance as the unusual love story unfurls into chaos. Like a true musical, most of the movie were songs instead of dialogue and the way the ABBA golden  favourites were weaved into the movie were really wonderful. The dancing was superb and throughout the show, the cinema of bloggers were often peppered with laughter. The only drawback about watching this musical in the cinema was not being able to sing along with the songs! Especially when each song had subtitles in all 3 languages akin to a karaoke session!

Fans might be surprised to know that Meryl Streep can actually sing really well and they might also be surprised to know that Pierce Brosnan doesn’t sing too well!

It was a great, light-hearted show with a nice happy ending and it has only piqued my interest to watch the Broadway production when it makes its way to our shores or Singapore! Do catch the movie if you can! You’ll have a great time especially if you’re an ABBA fan!

Mamma mia, here I go again
My my, how can I resist you?

I was bored last night so we decided to catch a movie. Unfortunately, due to poor planning, most seats were already taken which left us with no choice but to watch Babylon A.D., starring Vin Diesel. Now, I really dislike Vin Diesel as whatever few shows I have watched with him in it is always just lots of fighting and nothing much else. Plus I don’t really like his face :p But this was the best choice out of whatever movies were available!

I was surpised to see our home-grown Datuk Michelle Yeoh’s names in the opening credits and even more surprised to see that she had a relatively big role in the film, as a nun. 

Set in the far future, Babylon A.D. is about a veteran mecenary who agrees to deliver a woman from the depths of Inner Mongolia to New York. She is wanted by a religious group who originally bred her for the purpose of producing a genetically modified Messiah and to have a second virgin birth.

If I had one word to describe this loosely woven movie, it would be utter chaos. From the start, there was nothing buy chaos as it featured crowds of people constantly jostling, shouting and violence everywhere. The plot of the story was almost nil as there wasn’t much explanation provided at all and there was just generally quite a lot of violence involved. The ending was really silly and I walked out of the cinema feeling like I had wasted my money on the ticket!

Nevertheless, some scenes did make me think a bit about the way our world is going. In one scene, refugees running away from Russia waited for a submarine which was their vessel to freedom. As the submarine had to avoid being detected by the radars, the people were only given 2 minutes to board the submarine after which they were shot or mercilessly pushed into the freezing waters. It didn’t seem very different from the illegal immigrants today who risk their lives on makeshift rafts and vessels to get to freedom and I really did wonder if our world will one day be like this. If we will one day have to buy our way to freedom or a better life with gold and money.

Personally, I thought it was a really crappy show and one I wouldn’t recommend at all. However, if you are a fan of Vin Diesel, you might want to catch it simply to watch him fight his way through!

I finally caught The Simpsons movie last weekend with sis. I’ve always loved the dysfunctional yellow family on TV and was sure the movie wouldn’t let me down.

It didn’t!

In fact, it was so hilarious that I found myself giggling every so often at all kinds of little nuances and rib-tickling scenes. I love how they poked fun at everyone and everything from Tom Hanks to the President of the United States! What really cracked me up was when Marge was trying to figure out what Grandpa’s cryptic message was with a neighbour and although they couldn’t solve it, she gave him a pair of her maternity padded panty because he was so fat that nothing else could fit!

It did have a few sad moments like Homer’s epiphany moments but overall it was a fantastic movie that kept us laughing for the full one-half hours! Three thumbs up!

I can’t wait for the sequel!