Tuesday, February 28, 2006

2 reasons to visit NYC


Hmmm... must check my schedule and see if I can plan a trip to NYC before June. The Pajama Game starring Harry Connick, Jr and Entertaining Mr. Slone starring Chris Carmack just opened up.

Not only are the 2 shows star studded, they are also high reviewed. And yes it helps that they both have hunks in them.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Coke Commercial

Hehehe a coke commercial that just teases you.

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Spiderman 3 - In Black


Yep yep yep. This is the new picture of Spiderman 3 released by Sony. FYI, this picture is in full color, which means Spidey's new suit in actually black in color. If you're any fan of the comics, then you should know what this means.

For the uninitiated... go google the words "Spiderman" + "Vhenom". Hooyaa! Looks like Spidey's gonna play rough.

The new Aquaman... again


In a major recasting, actor Justin Hartley has been hired to play 'A.C. Curry', aka 'Aquaman' in the upcoming pilot.

Hartley replaces actor Will Toale, who originally was cast as the lead when the pilot was ordered up by The WB.

Hartley joins Ving "Pulp Fiction" Rhames who plays 'Atlantean' lighthouse keeper 'McCaffery', and "Smallville" beauty Denise Quinones, as fighter pilot 'Rachel Starling'.
"Mercy Reef" starts production mid-March in Florida.

For more pics on him check out his website.

X3 Cast Interview

Go read the whole article, its chock full of great titbits and should hold you overtill X-3 is finally released
Question: For each of you, how have your characters changed between X-Men 2 to X-Men 3? As far as powers, personality?
...
Halle Berry: And I get to fly [laughs]. That's another Brett Ratner (influence). Yeah, I do get to fly this time.

Hugh Jackman: He's a little sexier in this one though [laughs]

Ian McKellen: For those of us who get really close to Wolverine, we have to admit that his hair is getting even more gorgeous. [laughs].
...
Question: Speaking to the cast-is it easy to slip back into these roles the third time around, or is it always a challenge?

Hugh Jackman: Easier than the second, but there's always a moment. I said to Brett the first week, "Let's just get through it, I want to watch the monitor with you" and he was great to me from the beginning. After the third day I was like BOOM, there it is. I don't think all the stuff we did on the first few days were useless, but I took a few days. It was just putting it back on for me.
...
Question: Could you discuss the new actors, and the new characters?

Brett Ratner: I just signed like a 100 page document before I walked into this room (about nondisclosure) [laughs]. Juggernaut, played by Vinnie Jones, is a fantastic character and just a great actor and just a great guy to work with and be on the set with. Juggernaut joins Magneto's group, I won't tell you how, but Magneto picks him up along the way and he becomes part of the Magneto crew. There's Kitty Pryde who's an X-Men that had very small parts in the first two movies, but we decided in this version to expand that character. That's Ellen Page, a brilliant young actress who's done mostly independent films-she's in this brilliant film coming out soon called "Hard Candy".

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Funny Videos

This one is called "Window Washer".

You have to see the end.

RENT DVD

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes. Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear. Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes. How do you measure, measure a year? In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights in cups of coffee. In inches, in miles in laughter in strife. In five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes - how do you measure a year in the life? How about love? How about love? How about love? Measure in love... seasons of love.

Get it, watch it, Love it.

More Serenity News you don't care about

Newsarama is reporting that the combined sales of theater tickets and DVD sales has turned Serenity out of the red and into the black.

The total production costs for the Joss Whedon film was $39 million with a rumored advertising cost at approximately another $10 million making the total out of Universal's pocket at around $49 million. The total U.S. theater box office take was a disappointing $25 million with international theatrical sales fairing little better at $13 million leaving Universal in the red for a whopping $28 million when taking into account that studios receive around 55% of total ticket sales.

With that kind of red ink Universal and Whedon have been walking around with all their fingers crossed hoping that the DVD sales would at least allow them to break even and show the pic in the black, even if only marginally. And it looks like all the finger crossing has paid off as the latest DVD numbers look very encouraging. All DVD reports up to January 31st are in and it looks like over 2 million DVD's have been sold and VideoBusiness.com, an organization that tracks video rental information, announced that Serenity has made $9 million in DVD rentals alone.

The fact that Serenity has taken Universal out of the red and into the black is great news, but don't cheer too early. According to Universal execs it still may not be enough for them to wager on a costly sequel, even though Whedon brought this one in at $1 million under its original projected cost of $40 million.

Does this mean that we'll see more Senerity? Probably not but there's still that 1% chance that miracles could happen.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

The Prestige - New Movie

I mentioned the movie "The Prestige" a while back.

I'm glad to say that its now filming and scheduled to be released later in 2006. The cast looks top notch. For more info visit christopher nolan's site.



Here's a few pics of Hugh Jackman in costume.

Netflix's Dirty Practices

Way back in August I made a post about not being happy with Netflix's service. I knew that they were slowing down their services to me.

Well, I was right. Read this article. Netflix basically short changes its loyal customers and gives preference to new subscribers.

"In determining priority for shipping and inventory allocation, we give priority to those members who receive the fewest DVDs through our service," Netflix's revised policy now reads. The statement specifically warns that heavy renters are more likely to encounter shipping delays and less likely to immediately be sent their top choices.


This really ticks me off. So right now I'm shopping for another alternative DVD rental service and when I do, netflix can kiss my behind.

Cloning is now 9 years old

22 Feb 1997 - Scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland announced the birth of a cloned sheep named Dolly .
Hard to believe huh? 9 years have passed since Dolly was first cloned.

Here's some fact you might not have known about Dolly and Cloning.
- the success rate has been very low: Dolly was born after 276 failed attempts; 70 calves have been created from 9,000 attempts and one third of them died young

- A surprising development to do with aging resulted from finds that Dolly was apparently subject to accelerated aging.

- Cloning is quite inefficient and usually there are over 600 to 1000 nuclear transfers before one is able to grow into a stem cell. Even those animals that are successfully cloned are not as heathly as the original animal.

As you can see cloning is still in its infancy. We have made large strides in stem cell research though. Diseases like Parkinsons and Alzhimers now have hopes of a cure thanks to stem cell research. And in another 20-40 years perhaps we'll have figured cloning out.

To Bond or not to Bond

Seems there's a huge hooha, mostly from die hard Bond fans that Daniel Criag is not Bond. They even went as far as to set up a website against the new Bond called http://www.craignotbond.com/

I looked the site over and as far as I can see the main and only reason they don't like Daniel is because of his looks. They called him rough, ugly, short. OK, I'll be quite frank, I watch the Bond films because they are entertaining, but on the whole I'm not really a Bond fan.

What do I think? Criag might be Blond which is unusual for Bond but ever heard of hair dye? They call him short. Well at 6 feet, he's not short. Not tall perhaps but not short. Besides most of the actresses are about 5' 6" so he'll still be taller than them. His face might be a little rough but makeup and fewer closeups can solve that. Besides he is significantly more build than Pierce Bronsnan was.
Over all I agree that Hugh Jackman or Clive Owen would have been a much better choice but I'm also glad Hugh was not picked. People picked to be Bond are tied the franchise and allowed to do only projects that don't interfere with the franchise. I'd rather see Hugh in a slew of other films such as X3, Wolferine and The Prestige to name a few.

Eventually I don't think any noise from fans will help at this point. Contract have been signed and filming is already underway. To change Bonds at this stage would be a HUGE money sink. And honestly? I don't mind Criag that much. After all we survived Timothy Dalton as Bond and in my books that was a worse fiasco that this one.

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Misconceptions about Valentine's Day

Ein's post prompted me to make this post. its a little late considering Valentine's Day was 4 days ago but better late than never I say.

Valentine's Day isn't a made up holiday by candy and rose sellers. It originated from Roman times when one of the Emperors believed that single soldiers made better warriors then married ones, so he outlawed marriage. A priest in Rome named Valentine believed in the sacriment of marriage and disobeyed the laws to marry young soldiers. He was eventually caught and killed by the Emperor. So in memory of his sacrifice, he was named a saint by the Catholic church.

That's the summarized version of the tale. For a more detailed version I recommend these sites. Site 1 and Site 2.

Friday, February 17, 2006

Brokeback Mountain Music Video

This was created by a fan, and its excellent. I love the video takes actual movie footage. There are a total of 4 videos online, I thought this was the best.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Reasons to Love Wikipedia

Ever wondered what countries have the largest population? Or which countries have the largest land mass? Well wonder no more. Wikipedia is chock full of such triva.

Largest Population List.
Is there any wonder why companies are so gung ho on breaking into China and India? Look at the difference in population!!!

Largest Land Mass List
I had no idea that Russia was that HUGE!!! Almost twice the size of the next largest country. And China and USA have roughly the same land mass but China has about 4 time the population.

I found this very interesting. See? I have more on my mind other than Movies, Games and Man watching. Occassionally, I do exercise the cranial muscles.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

A Sob Story

I'll eventually get over this Korean film fest that I've got going, especially since I'm sure hardly anyone is interested in hearing about them. But for right now let me introduce to you this film called A Moment to Remember.

If there are times when you just feel like having a good cry, well this is the movie for you. Its a very simple tale. Poor capenter (who aspires to be an architect) falls in love with beautiful rich girl, they over come their differences and fall in love. She get's Alzheimer's and the tears start flowing. You get the idea.

But this show is very well done. The cast is likable, the plot is solid, and there's a bittersweet ending and makes you sob while comforting you.
Gotta go grab more tissue now.

Friday, February 10, 2006

A secret obsession

Everytiime I go back to Singapore, I tend to indulge in VCD's (Video CD). Most of them are miniserials that span 16-40 VCD's long. The serials usually come from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China and Korea. These are the VCD's that I bought this time round. Might seem like a lot but these usually last me all year.


I simply have to mention this korean series that I watched called "Full House". Its a romantic comedy and its AMAZING! I can't remember the last time I enjoyed watching a series more than this one. The real draw of this series is the amazing cast and humerous script. If you understand Chinese/Korean or are able to find the DVD version with english subtitles, I highly recommend this series.

Singapore Trip 04


This picture was taken at Bras Pasir, its a circular structure with a post of all the 12 chinese zodiac sign. My zodiac sign is a Rat, good thing I'm not superstitious cos my fortune's only so so.

Had to post this, it's a picture of my family and was taken the night before I left Singapore.

Singapore Trip 03

I thought this was pretty interesting. Incase you didn't know, Singapore like many other metropolitian cities, is very rushed and time's always an issue. Hence, even the travel time between each stop is timed. The scary part is that its fairly accurate about 80% of the time.

I just had to take a picture of this advertisement. This guy's mug is plastered at almost every other bus and train stop as well as in the papers. As a model the exposure is great, but I can't help thinking that if he's really student than this guy is gonna be butt of a joke. He'll essentially have no anonymity.

Singapore Trip 02

One of the main reasons for going back to Singapore was to celebrate the Chinese New Year with family. Its tradition on the eve of the New Year to have a reunion dinner with all family members. This was my reunion dinner, we had Steamboat, Tiger Prawns and Egg Salad. BTW Stramboat is essentially a big pot of soup that you put lots of stuff into.


This is my family's traditional egg salad with a plum sauce dressing. Very yummy.


This dish is a huge fave of mine and the family. Its my grandmother's recipe for Sambal Prawns. These prawns are HUGE and cost about $60 per kilogram.

This dish is called "Yu Sheng". Its essentially a fish salad and is traditionally eaten only during Chinese New Year and everyone eating will use chopsticks to toss this salad before eating. The higher you toss the salad, the better you luck for the coming year.

Singapore Trip 01

My first pictures of the trip were at Narita airport in Japan where I had a lay over.

This first picture is of the public toilet at the airport. I found it interesting becuase Japan is the home of some of the most advanced toilets in the world and the airport can't even afford to buy a bowl.


The airport also had a sushi restaurant. I ordered Chirashi and it was pretty darn good.