nuffnang special screening: prince of persia: the sands of time

i was rather lucky though to be selected to join nuffnang special screening of prince of persia: the sands of time the other night. its all thanks to the simple-and-dunno-what-crazy slogan i posted... hiks!

alrighto. why this screening was special. that's because nuffnangers has been treated to an exclusive ‘snack & screen’ session courtesy of mister potato! andre yaa andre ya riba riba...

i already got too excited on the day i arrived kuala lumpur when i saw this on the lrt

this time i brought my cousin nivin. and as soon as we reached cathay cineplex damansara at 8.30 pm sharp, look at that people~ the line was already long enough fuhh!!!...

and as usual, we had to register before anything else. and were given 2 canisters each of the new rice crisps by mister potato. to those who still dunno, that's robb over there ;P

and as what we bloggers normally never missed to do as well... camwhoring!!! no matter what~

here's me with nicholas

with my cousin nivin

and another with nicholas, this time with rina too :))

alright, i guess let's see what i think about this movie though:

with the greasy, unkempt hair of an emo rocker and a bart simpson smirk, 'the prince' goes swinging, leaping, slashing and joking his way through 'prince of persia: the sands of time', an energetic if empty-headed adventure based on the popular video game. though set in a sea of sand that's supposed to be ancient persia, the movie features a titular hero whose anachronistic catchphrases – "that all ya got?" and "whoa", uttered in an incongruous cockney accent – makes him sound less like a middle eastern prince than an east end pothead.

the focus of prince dastan's acrobatic exertions, which careen from ninja-like moves to the wall-bouncing gymnastics of parkour, is a special dagger he has stumbled upon. when a jewel is pressed on its hilt, releasing the few thimblefuls of sand inside, it has the ability to rewind time, but only for one minute. it's like adam s's magical remote control in "click," but with a weak battery. when you run out of sand, you run out of power.

not just any sand will work, either. hidden underground is a giant glass vessel filled with the right kind. only the dagger can break the glass. once broken, the sand inside will flow through the knife's handle, giving its user virtually unlimited ability to travel backward in time. one more thing: if all the sand is used up, the world will end.

the other problem is that dastan's not the only one who knows about it. someone else wants it – most likely dastan's brother tus or his uncle nizam – and has set dastan up for the murder of his adoptive father, king sharaman. dastan, you see, is not of royal blood, so he makes a logical suspect (it might also explain the low-class accent and his aversion to shampoo). whoever really killed sharaman wants dastan out of the way so that he can find the source of the charmed sand himself and, you know, exert dominion over the blah, blah, blah.

with the assistance of the dagger's official custodian, princess tamina, dastan must stop that from happening. along the way, he and tamina – a spirited, tart-tongued women's libber in a country not known for gender equality – engage in predictable verbal sparring even as they dodge arrows, flying knives, snakes (this one: i don't like! urgghhh...) and hired assassins (called, preposterously, hassansins).

i can't compare this to the video game as i am not into it.

there are, however, a few distinct pleasures. the stunt work is consistently exciting and well filmed, by the director. and the character of seso – a sudanese knife thrower with almost no dialogue who at first appears to be a very bad guy and then turns out to be a very good one – makes a welcome presence.

i wish i could say the same about seso's boss, a bandit who befriends dastan and tamina, and aids them in their quest. played with the broadest of broad humor, he's clearly meant as comic relief. but from what? does a movie this silly really need two clowns?

every sly wink and gymnastic tumble from dastan, who already looks and acts like a refugee from cirque du soleil, seems to suggest otherwise.

now see for yourself and tell me of what you think.

prince of persia: the sands of time official website

when i am damn crazy about 'hoedown throwdown'...

this is what you will get as my slogan:

Rice Crisps by Mister Potato make my day go Hoedown~ Throw it all together, that’s how we roll!!!… ;)

and this is the line dance version. and believe it or not, i lurve to do this dance! i haven't record a video of mine though. wait and see ler... if one of these days i am up to it... ;)

so basically hoedown means a square dance, the music for a square dance, or a social gathering at which square dancing takes place.

the most popular sense of the term is associated with white americans in rural or southeastern parts of the country, particularly appalachia. it is a dance in quick movement most likely related to the jig, reel or clog dance. according to the website "streetswing", a hoedown was a virtuoso display of footwork, where a succession of dancers each tried to outdo the previous dancers. this meant that if the last dancer was the best one the audience would cheer wildly. the implied meaning of "improvised jam" has found its way into other contexts. for an example a rollerblading hoedown is a similar competitive display.

to all you nuffnang glitterati members, submit your slogan now! 150 most creative slogans will win the commenter a pair of invites to the ‘snack & screen’ session of prince of persia on 27 may 2010. not just that, in fact as usual there are many more prizes to be grabbed... woot!

nuffnang premiere screening, punisher: war zone

first of all, thank you so much to nuffnang that i managed to secure a pair of tickets to nuffnang premiere screening of punisher: war zone. i was one of the lucky 50 nuffnangers who won this by writing a slogan “If I’m the punisher, I’ll punish… those people who damaged Gaza!” hehee... simple as that, huh?!!

so like before, i didn't just go to kl for the premiere screening. of course i got some other errands to do, so i did everything all together in one shot hence my one night kl trip this time was truly packed with quite a number of agendas. what a co-incidence that rizal was there too for work matters. so i took the chance to invite him along.

we were from the city. we had to drop by any of the stations along our way, cuz he has to do some work reports. since its gonna take a while, i just waited in the car. besides it was raining outside. the weather was rather good when we were reaching damansara area. earlier when rizal asked me of "how many tolls", i thought he was asking of how much is the toll charges. when were about to reach the toll near phileo damansara, i told him that the toll is about RM1. so tell me whether i was 'jakun' or not, when i saw him showed a receipt to the cashier. then i thought to myself, "oh no wonder ler... probably earlier he wanna prepare the receipts to get free tolls heheee..." but of course i didn't ask him, cuz i was acting to be smart lol...

and there's another incident at the cineleisure's car park when we reached there around 8.30 pm— rizal thought of just leaving his small bag in the car boot and asked me whether was it safe for him to leave it there. when asked, he told me that the contents were guns.

then i was like... "wheyyy... you better bring that with you ler!" *phew*

and walking with him especially when i knew that he carried guns, really make my heart beats faster like hell! i tell you...

so we went straight to the outpost cafe near the cineleisure to get the tickets. i saw quite a number of bloggers there. unfortunately i do not think i knew any of them. i was told by robb that bloggers were entitled to get 50% off on drinks there. i went back to rizal, who waited for me outside the cafe. he suggested that we went for dinner somewhere. we walked to little penang kafe at the curve. rizal ate char koay teow. while i had assam laksa, but rizal wallup it all since i can't finish it hmm... that just reminds me of our good 'ol days together weee... sorry guys... but being with an 'undercover' that night, i guess that he just ought to keep himself in disguise :) but he's already in his casual appearance... i dunno... we bumped in to timothy after dinner though, right in front of the little penang kafe.

anyhow i did snap some pics when we went back to the outpost cafe, but not as many as usual. rizal waited for me somewhere outside (again).

here's me with robb, taken by pinky

and pinky with me, taken by robb ;)

there were two SDU to secure the surrounded area from the punisher
p/s my friend rizal carried real guns that night you know? ;)

the punisher: war zone picks up 6 years into the punisher storyline. frank Castle (ray stevenson), a.k.a. the punisher, continues to enforce his vigilante style of justice on mobster families in order to get the bad guys that always find a way to beat the system. during an attack on a mob party, the punisher unknowingly murders an undercover fbi informant and later in the same attack, he severley disfigures the face of one of the leading mafia gangsters - billy "the beaut" russoti. this facial mutilation leads the gangster to proclaim his new villain name, jigsaw. these two events set up the plot of the film as the punisher learns of his wrongful kill and his ensuing remorse leads him to want to leave the punishing business, but he can't because the monstrous looking mobster jigsaw is alive and seeks revenge on the fbi informant's wife and child and revenge on the punisher for being the cause of his disfigurement. predictably, the dead fbi informant's wife and child get kidnapped by jigsaw and in order to save them a huge war-like battle ensues between the punisher and jigsaw's army of mobsters, gang-bangers, and thugs.

this film falls under the marvel knights brand which is basically the grittier and darker division of marvel comics. marvel knights products are intended for a maturer 15 years or older audience so that the stories and characters may be re-envisioned without the limitations on explicit content that are in place with the regular marvel brand. the punisher: war zone definitely exercised pulp style violence and gore to the point of gratuitousness. perhaps the excessive and gratuitous violence will create box office interest because overall the story was predictable, the script and acting was painful at times, and the film was 20 minutes too long. i would recommend this film if you are in the mood for a mindless shoot 'em up massacre, otherwise wait for the dvd so that you have the options of fast forward or doing something else while you watch it.

punisher: war zone official site

*go and visit these related links for more great pics:
punisher 2: war zone screening
photo updated for yesterday event
movie premiere with nuffnangers @ cineleisure

punisher: war zone

it seems as though the powers that be behind punisher: war zone (go to its official site here) have finally come to the conclusion that they need to ramp up the marketing campaign if they want people to actually go see this much-belabored film.

see for yourself:

for the rest of trailers head over to http://apple.com .

seriously though, the trailers make me very curious to see what the finished product of punisher: war zone is going to be.

but honestly, i’m tired of any and all speculation about this flick. after more than a year of the rumor mill churning, i’m going to try my luck in nuffnang's latest premiere screening contest punisher: war zone 10 days before its release date in malaysia! courtesy of buena vista columbia tristar malaysia... just so i can see what all the hubub has been about! who knows, maybe agitated curiosity was the marketing plan all along…

please find the details as follow:

date : 9 feburary 2009 (monday)
venue : cathay cineplex damansara
time : 9.30 pm
hall : 10

all you have to do is just write in an email to punisher@nuffnang.com with your full name, blog URL and complete the following slogan “if i’m the punisher, i’ll punish….” in no longer than 15 words. the best 50 slogan makers will be given a pair of invitations to the premiere screening of punisher: war zone on 9 february. terms and conditions apply.

i have already email mine earlier. so wish me luck ya people!

and are you eager to see punisher: war zone?

of why i was not in red—

i remembered mya asked me that day of why i didn't come in red— both mother and son were in earth tone. well fyi gal, my winning entry was based on this blog post by robb of nuffnang! ;)


kuE's related links:

• nuffnang premiere screening—madagascar 2
  
• i like to move it, move it...
  

nuffnang premiere screening—madagascar 2

i just got back today from dreamwork's newest movie, madagascar: escape 2 africa. i went to the premiere screening by nuffnang at gsc, mid valley.

as you could see from megat's pic, he looked damn happy and excited. why not huh?!! last's mother-and-son's outing was my latest surprise tricked on him after all hehee... i love to surprise my loved ones i.e. this one. i know, i know that i have mentioned this many times before. but tell me which parents won't feel glad to see their kids' happy right. like what mya told megat, i am sure he would be very glad to tell his friends about last night, that he got the chance to watch the movie way earlier than anyone else. take note that the country's screening date for this move is on the 13th. megat told me that “no wonder ler mama asked me to bring my madagascar bag and wear the south africa's animal cap that bah (megat's grand auntie) bought for me”.

besides mya, i also met aku betul!. well i remembered his blog url in a glance because its unique. don't you think so people? —aku betul! is “i am right” in malay language. mya and aku betul! were also part of the bloggers i met at the nuffnang sharing session @ the apartment, other than marcus whom i bumped in to recently too :~) roarrr!!!... look at that people— ain't bloggers life wonderful enough(?). we are surrounded by very nice people. thank you so much nuffnang for all the great events so far...

now let me tell you people about madagascar: escape 2 africa— it was a decent movie overall, even with the unfinished scenes and rough rendering. some of the movie was in storyboard still, but it was still a pretty good watch.

i guess one of my favorite aspects of the movie was that it was fairly short. short, simple, and it gets the job done. it shows how alex the lion meets back with his pride and rejoins by overcoming some personal obstacles, and growing as a character. neat, clean, simple movie.

some of the problems i had with the movie was how it failed to focus on the four characters. sure, it's obvious that the focus of the film is on leo the lion and his father, so let's keep it like that. all that extra stuff with the other characters seemed unnecessary and foolish.

with all things considered, 7/10. nice try, but this ain't no wall-E or toystory. dreamworks just doesn't have the flare that a pixar animation product has.

what's next? maybe i'll take a look at that bolt movie from disney...

i like to move it, move it...

i am sure some of you people must have been wondering of what's up with the "i like to move it, move it with madagascar 2!" marquee up there since last night. its a non-standard HTML markup element type which causes text to scroll up, down, left or right. well its all because of nuffnang whose giving away more premiere movie screening. i came out with that quick and simple idea with an instant. i was just trying my luck though. i thought of bringing megat.

madagascar: escape 2 africa is the sequel from madagascar. i remember that i went to watch it (madagascar) with megat. but i didn't write the review last time ler plak... blerk! well here's something than nothing of what i can remember—

“there are all sorts of things working against this film. the most notable is the fact that a certain standard has been set by "finding nemo" and "shrek" and if it isn't one of those films, the critics jump all over it like paparazzi on a starlet accidentally flashing some nipple.

the movie centers on four central park zoo animals who accidentally leave their comfortable confines and find themselves in madagascar where an egotistic lemur seems to rule. however, it should be about the penguins who set everything into motion. the penguins are clearly the most interesting characters in the film. everyone wants more penguins. unfortunately, penguins are not much fun to animate, i'd guess, so we get to follow around four considerably more boring characters: alex the lion, marty the zebra, melman the giraffe and gloria the hippo.

the penguins set everything in motion by tunneling out of the zoo and giving marty the idea that the wild would be an interesting place to be. marty escapes with a plan to get to grand Central station and head for connecticut. the rest of the characters escape too, hoping to get marty back, but they're captured. this prompts the humans to put them all on a boat to africa, but their boxes fall off the ship and they all end up in madagascar.

ironically, it's when the story gets to madagascar that the movie stalls badly. the primary story element concerns alex's starvation and his increasing interest in taking a bite out of marty's hindquarters—hardly life-affirming, metaphorical stuff. has there been a successful movie about one character wanting to put his mouth on another character's ass? like most of the animated features that people simply don't take to, "madagascar" is more about the technology behind the animation than it is about the story. it's fine to look at the pretty colors, but when the story doesn't work, the movie is a failure.”


there you go ya... its better late than never *glurp*

now we shall wait and see for the part two of the movie...

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talking about “move it!”, as you could see one of the main reasons that i captured the screenshot of my blog is because of my new blog lay out. chantek kan? as far as i could remember, i had used the previous blog design for almost two years or so. meaning my blog also got to move it ya... what when i got it done with the help from jess of delicious design studio, about last two days of ramadhan just in time for raya hehee... according to KNizam, this is the seasons of blogs/web sites changing lay-out (?).

in fact i am in the mid of getting my blog to make another move very soon wohoo!!!... sorry ler i won't give you people any hint. let it just be a surprise! :~)

mamma mia premiere screening by nuffnang

i had the opportunity to watch mamma mia at a private screening last night at gsc gurney plaza in penang, before the movie will be released some time this week. it’s all thanks to nuffnang for giving away THREE (3) tickets instead of 2 as i was among the pioneers who wrote in to them for the movie; that i got the chance to bring both my darling puteri and megat.

us, during registration; as captured by 5Xmom

so people don’t you all think nuffnang has been treated me very well all this while. NO! they are not paying me for saying this. what are you waiting for? go and register with them now here.


now talking about mamma mia the movie, this romantic comedy was interesting to watch besides the fact that i cringed at hearing most of the actors/actresses sing. when everyone was not messing up the ABBA hits, the movie was rather enjoyable. amanda seyfried’s character decides to get married and wants her father to give her away, however there are three men who are possibly her daddy. if that isn’t juicy drama, then i don’t know what is.

on the other hand, the movie was the bomb… it was soooo good… i couldn’t anticipate anything!!! it was amazing… it was also such a well cast movie… everyone did their thing… except maggie g was incredibly boring.

this is one of the few plays i’ve actually seen, which ended up being great… it’s funny to think of ol’ pierce taking a stab at singing, yeeesh…

even at first megat thought that he won’t like it, as he has been told by his lovely mama that the movie’s soundtracks were basically out of ABBA hits from the 70’s duh!... he was wrong when at the end he found that the movie was rather interesting enough with the wonderful hits.

today is 20.08.2008

blimey! its only almost half a day that i realized today's date is 20.08.2008. i was like... arrgghhh... i like those numbers :)

just like the date 08.08.2008., i am sure this date is very special to some also i.e. marriage, newborn, etc. whatever it is i wish everyone all the very best on this one of a kind date.

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actually i have just came back from our 4D3N trips to kl last night. i really missed blogging sooooo much! so many pics to load, so many stories to tell... i will leave them when i am ready to do so.

but anyhow i can't resist myself to blog about this, as soon as i found out that there will be a premiere screening of “mamma mia! the movie” by nuffnang in two locations!

date : 22nd of September 2008 (monday)

time : 9pm

venue : GSC one utama (new wing)

hall : 9

pax : 250

date : 22nd of september 2008 (monday)

time : 9pm

venue : GSC gurney plaza penang

hall : 8

pax : 180

all you have to do to get a pair of tickets to watch this splendid musical sensation is write a blog post with the title “mamma mia! the movie” and talk about what you look forward in this movie. you can talk about ABBA, meryl streep, pierce brosnan or anything related! go here to find out more about this. i have submitted mine (read it here). so what are you waiting for nuffies? the movie will be released in malaysia on the 25th of september 2008, and we will get to watch it three days earlier! insya allah...

p/s to all you nuffies!!! please please please... nang it! occay? tqsm! mwahhh...

“mamma mia! the movie”

to swipe a phrase from my other favourite band, we are now into ABBA’s “imperial phase”, their shift from one-hit wonders to the world’s biggest pop group sudden and complete. the world had, in fact, been patient with ABBA—“mamma mia” is the fourth single from their self-titled album, the others - “so long”, “i do i do i do i do i do”, “s.o.s.”—having been each more popular than the last. that triad looks like an evolution now, but they were all on the same record, so the development is in the band’s (and stig andersson’s) understanding of what they were commercially capable of: a play-safe “waterloo” throwback, a lilting bit of light pop and then the fully unleashed melodrama of “s.o.s.”, indelible melodic hooks melded perfectly to the song’s emotional beats.

“mamma mia” is more iconic than “s.o.s.” but it’s not as good. the ABBA sound still has a bit of glam in it-- those glittery smeary guitars over the intro; the boys getting near the mic—and this would gradually fade, but this record is a mish-mash of ideas done well here but better elsewhere in their catalogue. the nervy stacatto piano bed, for instance, shows up again with more confidence on “money money money”. the shouty “JUST ONE LOOK!” hook calls back to “waterloo”. the record’s best moment—that sudden sweep into “yes, i’ve been broken hearted...”—is its most ABBA-ish, showing their flair for (forgive my lack of technical terms!) inserting ballad-y hooks into upbeat songs. and finally, i don’t think the lyrics are up to their later standards - the “mamma mia!” refrain itself feels like a working title to fit the melody which just hung around because they couldn’t think of anything better.

some people’s tolerance for ABBA is low because their music is so inescapable—i respect that point of view but if anything i feel i don’t hear enough ABBA, there are swathes of marvellous andersson/ulvaeus songs which get overlooked in favour of the usual five or six. but of those five or six, this is the one where i can most sympathise with the ABBA-weary: its lack of an emotional catch for me makes it more vulnerable to overplay.

from what i understand, the four members of pop group ABBA have attended the swedish premiere of mamma mia, the film which features 22 of their songs. several thousand fans cheered as benny andersson, bjorn ulvaeus, anni-frid lyngstad and agnetha faltskog walked down the red carpet in stockholm. lyngstad and faltskog also embraced meryl streep, one of the movie's stars. the group had not met up since the original mamma mia musical opened in sweden in february 2005. they have not even performed in public since 1986, 12 years after shooting to fame by winning the eurovision song contest with their track waterloo.

owh... how i can't wait to watch this myself—
its the story of donna (streep) who is about to attend the wedding of sophie (amanda seyfried), the spirited daughter she's raised alone. for sophie's wedding, donna has invited her two lifelong best girlfriends—practical and no-nonsense rosie (julie walters) and wealthy, multi-divorcee tanya (christine baranski) —from her one-time backing band, donna and the dynamos. but sophie has secretly invited three guests of her own.

so what now for this trend? are musicals back? maybe. will romantic comedies get sillier, raunchier and more musical? possibly. will hollywood being paying more attention to the female audience—almost certainly. which means some more interesting, entertaining, counter-programmed summer movies.