entertainment, technology and more
In: Movie Review
21 Jun 2009Nicolas Cage is in another movie where future predictions come true. In Next, Nicolas Cage could constantly see the future. In Knowing, he discovers a piece of paper that has been buried for 5 decades that can somehow predict all the major disasters, including the end of the world. He tries to prevent the disasters from happening and keep his family safe.
The premise is interesting, and the graphics of some disasters are pretty good, but the movie’s premise wears out thin when shadowy mysterious figures enter the picture. Who are they? What are they doing? Those questions are answered at the end of the movie, in what has to be the most disappointing and depressing movie ending I have seen in quite some time.
Without spoiling any of the major plot points, all I can say is watch the movie without thinking too much about the story progression or its coherence. Nicolas Cage does a decent job with the given material, but this movie seems even more pointless than Next.
Rating: 25%
In: Toy
9 Jun 2009When Ugobe shut down and sold all its assets, the future of Pleo was in flux. Today Jetta Company Limited, the company that was contracted to manufacture the dinosaur robots by Ugobe, announced acquisition of necessary IP and manufacturing rights to resume production.
Hong Kong - Jetta Company Limited acquired the assets of Ugobe and will be re-launching "Pleo" in the near future. Established in 1977, Jetta has focused on manufacturing an extended range of toy, consumer electronics, juvenile, robotic and gift products and is one of the most recognized engineering and OEM companies within the toy industry. Headquartered in Hong Kong, Jetta currently operates five production campuses in Guangdong Province which combined has over 4.5 million square feet of production floor space. At the forefront of the fast-paced toy and robotics industries, Jetta continues to strive for "excellence" and is pleased to add "Ugobe" to its operations.
In: TV
8 Jun 2009Good news, everyone. Comedy Central has officially green-lit Futurama’s production. Currently slated for a 13-episode run in the upcoming new season after a long hiatus as Comedy Central has finished showing all the episodes and all 4 direct-to-DVD movies. No news yet on when the new episodes might air, but still good news nonetheless.
In: Toy
14 May 2009
Another robot bites the dust. This time, it is Sony’s robotic MP3 player that could dance to your music by… flapping. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Sony is discontinuing the Rolly in North America (and presumably in the world soon) as the $600 toy that doesn’t do much probably didn’t find enough buyers to justify its existence.
In: Toy
21 Apr 2009Ugobe, the maker of Pleo dinosaur robot has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which means they won’t be making the $350 Pleo dinosaurs anymore.
In: Movie Review
7 Apr 2009Fast and Furious is the fourth entry in the car racing franchise (although you wouldn’t know that from the title). I guess Fast 4 Furious doesn’t make much sense in the naming game. All you have to know is that, unlike the past 2 entries, both Vin Diesel and Paul Walker are back in L.A. in order to take care of unfinished business which involves, of course, fast cars and racing. Although surprisingly, there is less of car racing in this movie and if you are expecting lots of thrilling car races through the city at night, you will be disappointed.
Instead what you get is a better than the other 2 sequels overall. Storyline is more coherent, characters are developed slightly more and it is fun to see Vin Diesel and Paul Walker back in action together. In Fast and Furious, Brian O’Connor, an undercover FBI agent that no one seems to recognize (I guess they haven’t seen the first movie yet), and Dominic Toretto must infiltrate a drug operation where they drive cars filled with drugs through the US-Mexican border.
The movie is set between the events of the first one and the third one and it tries to tie everything together, which is a noble goal. But you aren’t watching this movie for its storyline or character development. Instead you want car races, car chases and action. There is a lot of girl on girl on girl kissing (maybe filmmaker’s fantasy), but many of the cars get plenty of screen time. If you suspend your sense of belief and just enjoy the ride, you will find a competent action movie that is perfect for the franchise fans. You may need to watch the first movie, confusingly called The Fast and the Furious, to figure out all the relationships but it isn’t a requisite to understand the bare bones story in this one.
Rating: 70%
In: Movie Review
2 Mar 2009The worst thing that a comedy could do is to make you bored, and Role Models certainly succeeded in boring me until the very end which was a recreated medieval pretend battle between warring “nations”. Of course, citing that as my highlight can tell you already how boring the rest of the movie was. The story follows 2 main characters: Wheeler and Danny, 2 energy drink salesmen who give talks at school about how to say no to drugs and instead get addicted to their toxic drink get into trouble and must do community service. They are paired up with 2 troubled kids and must act as a big brother/mentor.
The movie is full of visual gags, and most of the comedy from shock (such as “how dare they talk about oral sex in front of children!”) instead of real genuine jokes or gags. Role Models drags too long with the introduction of characters, especially the children. It shouldn’t take long for the audience to figure out how much of a fantasy loving geek one is, and how foul mouthed and short tempered the other one is. Instead, the bulk of the movie is focused on putting them in different situations and seeing what they will do.
The moral of the story, if any, is that any slacker can find strength within to triumph and accomplish much in life. This is exemplified by the movie’s climax where the 2 men and 2 children dress up as KISS members and participate in the medieval battle. It’s not as if the movie would have benefited from more writers, as there already were 4 on board. Instead, a much better direction would have helped the movie a lot by keeping the pace brisk and eliminating useless gags.
Rating: 45%
In: Movie Review
18 Feb 2009The best way to describe Quarantine is by the movies it was inspired of. Think of this movie as I am Legend meet Cloverfield meet Blair Witch Project. The movie follows a TV reporter named Angela Vidal as the camera crew tags along a fire crew as they are called into action. They get to a four-storey building and find an elderly woman who is frothing from her mouth and viciously starts attacking people.
The residents soon discover that Center for Disease Control has locked them in and put the entire building under quarantine. As the remaining survivors scramble to stay alive, the camera crew keeps rolling as this is the “recording” of how the events unfolded. Unfortunately what they record is very one-note and not worth saving. The movie’s premise of super rabies causing humans to violently attack each other is very reminiscent of zombies. A lot of the concepts in this movie have been done to death before, and the movie doesn’t add anything.
Worse still, they used the ending scene as the poster for the movie, spoiling the entire experience. If you have motion sickness, don’t watch this movie as there’s a lot of shaky camerawork and dark corridors.
Rating: 30%