Saturday, January 25, 2014

Hello Kitty by Uglydoll



Sanrio joins forces with Uglydoll to bring you a new universe, where ugly means unique and celebrating who you are inside is the new beautiful! Meet the Uglydoll Hello Kitty family: Trunko Hello Kitty, Ice-Bat Hello Kitty, Wage Hello Kitty and Ox Hello Kitty!

Movie Review: How I Live Now



Set in the near-future UK, How I Live Now (trailer) stars Saoirse Ronan who plays Daisy, an American teenager sent to stay with relatives in the English countryside. Initially withdrawn and alienated, she begins to warm up to her charming surroundings, and strikes up a romance with her British cousin Edmund played by George McKay. Unfortunately, their idyllic summer days are soon to be over when war breaks out in the UK and the army are tasked to take them into an evacuation camp. Daisy and Edmund are separated and she has to find her way back home to reunite with Edmund.



Before I attended the movie's press screening held by MVP Entertainment and Golden Village Pictures, I was keen to see how director Kevin Mcdonald of the critically acclaimed movie The Last King Of Scotland, would work his movie magic on a film based on the 2004 novel of same name. The book won the British Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the American Printz Award for young-adult literature so the story had to be good.



But unfortunately How I Live Now the movie version is hugely disappointing. For a movie that is about war, it takes 25 mins for any real action to begin. The first 25 mins is just a bore. Kids do nothing but playing around the countryside and two of them falling in love. Yawn. The rest of the movie is only slightly less boring. Daisy running through the forest trying to get back home.

The problem with How I Live Now is that it's hard to be emotionally attached to the characters and feel for these kids and care for what they do and their exploits. Saoirse Rona is undoubtedly a good actress who did an amazing job in Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones but no matter how hard she tries in her role in How I Live Now, she couldn't raise the movie to greater heights which is a shame because the movie has so much promise. Blame the writers. The script is pretty weak.

How I Live Now is a perfect example of a movie based on a novel in which you might be better off reading the book. If you want to catch How I Live Now, it is now showing exclusively in Golden Village cinemas.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

All the Iron Man Armors including Iron Legion



There is a total of 42 Iron Man armors/suits in the Iron Man 3 movie. Mark VIII to XLI belong to the Iron Legion, a group of remote-controlled Iron Man armors serving as Iron Man's main combat support team.

This video shows all (if not, most of) the Iron Man armors in Iron Man 3. Mark VII, XLII and Iron Legion appeared in Iron Man 3 while Mark I, II and III first appeared in Iron Man 1, Mark IV, V, VI first appeared in Iron Man 2 and Mark VI and VII appeared in The Avengers. These collectible figures are by Hot Toys and Play Imaginative Super Alloy.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Hot Toys RoboCop & ED-209 (2014 version)



New Hot Toys 1/6th scale RoboCop Collectible Figure based on the classic 80s RoboCop film, specially equipped with sound effect and the Mechanical Chair (Docking Station). Approximately 30 cm tall with over 25 points of articulations, 4 interchangeable lower faces and it has the ability to speak 6 memorable quotes from the RoboCop movie.

The new 1/6th scale ED-209 Collectible is specially equipped with sound effect. It features a new sculpted body, improved articulations on arms, legs, and claws to better simulate ED-209's movement in RoboCop, interchangeable battle damaged arm and the ability to speak memorable quotes from the movie.

ED-209 will be released in Q1 2014 while Robocop will be released in Q2, 2014.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Evolution of a Giant Sunspot: Timelapse of Sunspot AR 1944



A large, complex sunspot group designated Active Region 1944 made its appearance on the sun on Jan 1 2014. One of the largest sunspot groups in the last nine years, sunspot AR 1944 is roughly 100,000 miles across. Seven Earths can fit across it!

I took images taken by SDO/HMI from Jan 2 to Jan 13 to create this daily timelapse that shows the movement of the sunspot across the sun and also a close-up to show the evolution of the sunspot.

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Hot Toys: Man of Steel Superman, Jor-El, General Zod



Hot Toys 1/6th scale figures of Superman, Jor-El and General Zod from Man of Steel. The movie-accurate collectibles are specially crafted based on the images of the actors playing the 3 characters in the new Superman movie.

Thursday, January 09, 2014

Hot Toys: 1966 Batman, Robin & Batmobile



1/6th scale Batman, Robin and Batmobile from Hot Toys. These collectibles are based on the 1966 Batman live action TV series and the 1966 Batman movie featuring screen-accurate masked head sculpts of Adam West and Burt Wart who played Batman and Robin, specially made costumes with Batman and Robin logos, weapons and accessories.

The Wolf of Wall Street: Lots of sex, drugs and F words!



On Monday, I attended my first press screening of the new year, The Wolf of Wall Street. Thanks, Golden Village! Watch the trailer above. The film at 180 mins long - yes it is that long - tells the true story of Jordon Belford, a stock broker who started his own brokerage firm called Stratton Oakmont which functioned as a boiler room marketing penny stocks. He and his employees defrauded investors with fraudulent stock sales while getting filthy rich, having lots of wild parties, sex orgies, drugs and all.



The Wolf of Wall Street is brilliantly directed by Academy Award winner Martin Scorsese and stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordon Belford. This is the fifth time Scorsese has worked with DiCaprio and the dynamic duo is at their best in this film. DiCaprio was excellent in his portrayal of Belford. Watching him, I couldn't help but wondered if this was actually his best performance to date as an actor. Scorsese meanwhile has directed another masterpiece. Ok it's a bit too long and at times too excessive. but hey, that's Scorsese.



The Wolf of Wall Street is rated R, is funny and shocking at the same time, has lots of nudity, sex and a total of 506 F words! No, I did not count them all while watching the film but yes, The Wolf of Wall Street does indeed have 506 F words. And that's a record!

The Wolf of Wall Street is the perfect movie you wanna watch when you wanna learn all things that is bad with Wall Street and have a great time while you are it. I give The Wolf of Wall Street a 4 out of 5. Now where's that penny stock pick I was reading earlier?

Saturday, January 04, 2014

Hot Toys: The Bat from The Dark Knight Rises



1/12th scale The Bat collectible by Hot Toys. The Bat is the aircraft operated by Batman in The Dark Knight Rises. Comes with the fusion reactor core which Batman attaches to the Bat at the end of the movie.

Spectacular New Year's Day Fireworks from Universal Studios Singapore



Happy New Year everyone! Hope you guys and gals have a great 2014. Fireworks illuminate the Battlestar Gallactica ride (in the background) and the night sky while entertaining thousands at Universal Studios Singapore's Bubblegum Pop 2014 Countdown party!

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