Month: June 2008

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Movie Review: Wanted (2008)

Poster

My Rating: 4Stars

This evening I saw the movie “Wanted” at UA Cinema, Time Square, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong.

What an amazing movie!

If you do not watch any movie this year, you must see this one. Having said that, there are several coming up later this year on my Must See Movies list, that you should also watch out for: Dark Knight and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

This is an action packed movie filled with special effects and stunts. I strongly suggest you get to the theater on time and not miss a single second of this movie.

The plot of the movie is not complicated, but the writers Michael Brandt and Derek Haas must have done it intentionally so the audience will not be occupied with deciphering the plot, and miss the great special effects and stunts that integrates so well together. One can hardly tell when one starts and the other ends.

You must walk into the movie with an open mind and not question any of the events that happen in the movie. It is a movie that entertains and not a movie that depicts anything realistic. It is based on a comic book after all.

Of course, like any Angelina Jolie movies there is a token scene to show off her well toned nude body. The main character Wesley Gibson, played by James McAvoy is the only character in the movie with a full name, further adds to the comic book style of the movie.

If the plot was more complex and original I would have easily given it 5 penguins rating.

So just sit back and enjoy the 2 hours of entertainment that this movie brings.

Rating Legend:
5Stars Not to be missed
4Stars Wait for the DVD
3Stars Buy from iTunes Store
2Stars Rent it on iTunes
1Stars Waste your time elsewhere
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We Remember George Carlin (1937-2008)

George Carlin PortraitGeorge Carlin (1937-2008) dies in Los Angeles hospital at age 71 from heart failure.

I always liked Carlin the comedian, watching hours of his stand-up performance on TV shows like Tonight Show, comedy festivals like Just for Laughs and on DVDs.

His skid that I like the most is the comparison of Baseball and Football.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om_yq4L3M_I
There are many of this and other Carlin stand-up performance on his web site and on YouTube.

He will be dearly missed.

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Movie Review: The Happening (2008)

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My Rating: 1Stars

This evening I saw the movie “The Happening” at AMC Theater, Pacific Place, Hong Kong.

This is not happening! If I notice it was written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan I would not have place it on my Must See Movies list and definitely not have gone to see it.

The movie is trying to tell a story about us being too hard on nature and nature fighting back or in this case give us signs that it has enough.

There had been great movies directed by M. Night Shyamalan like The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, but there had recently been not so great movies like 2002’s Signs and 2004’s The Village. For the latter you can see my review of it in my blog.

For some reasons I had been picking low budget movies from iTunes movie rental also: Funny Games, Civic Duty.

It is not that low budget movies are always bad, but low budget movies with a silly topic/story makes a boring movie. This is the reason why I would not recommend this movie to anyone.

Hopefully with this movie it is time for Shyamalan to come up with another great movie like The Sixth Sense.

Rating Legend:
5Stars Not to be missed
4Stars Wait for the DVD
3Stars Buy from iTunes Store
2Stars Rent it on iTunes
1Stars Waste your time elsewhere
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Movie Review: Incredible Hulk, The (2008)

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My Rating: 4Stars

This evening I saw the movie “The Incredible Hulk” at UA Cinema, Time Square, Hong Kong.

Another sequel to the Incredible Hulk TV series remake, the original remake was Hulk in 2003. This time they change the actor playing Bruce Banner (Edward Norton).

Not sure if it was due to my expectations; or lack of, going into the movie, this was a pretty good movie. As many of you know, the story of The Incredible Hulk has been told many times over and over. The hero, Banner fights all odds to overcome the misguided impressions that people have of him when he is the Hulk. When all he wanted to do is to return normal and  live a regular life.

As always with any Marvel comic there is a villain, this time played by Tim Roth. Where he started as the hated villain in The Musketeer, Invincible, Pulp Fiction and many more.

In the end, they did something no other movies had done, that is to tie two different Marvel movies together to give the audience a hint of what to come.

It is a definite entertaining one to watch. Take the kids, but watch out, you may have to deal with their nightmares afterwards.

Rating Legend:
5Stars Not to be missed
4Stars Wait for the DVD
3Stars Buy from iTunes Store
2Stars Rent it on iTunes
1Stars Waste your time elsewhere
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Apple’s iPhone New Business Model

With the announcement of the iPhone 3G by Apple on Monday (Tuesday HK time), Apple apparently change its business model with the carriers around the world. I say apparent because Apple has been some what vague about the details.

AT&T has said that customers will be able to upgrade their existing Apple iPhone to the new Apple iPhone 3G without incurring any penalties (fees) for breaking their existing contracts, but they will have to start a new 2-years contract.

AT&T reports that the new Apple iPhone 3G is only available at Apple Store and AT&T outlets. Most importantly, they also state that these new iPhones will have to be activated on the spot on the AT&T network with a sign 2-years contract.

Apple’s mobile carrier partner in United Kingdom, O2 said that they will be giving away the iPhone 3G on their high-end tariff plans, as described in their iPhone 3G Service Information.

O2 iPhone 3G Tariff Plans

As of this writing there are still no information from Hong Kong’s “3” on tariff plans available for the Apple iPhone 3G. I suppose it will be something similar to what AT&T and O2 had announced.

I will be checking often to see if I can share this information here before July 11th.

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Apple’s iPhone 3G is Finally Here in Hong Kong

Apple iPhone 3GAn hour ago Apple’s co-founder, CEO, Steve Jobs, announced the highly anticipated Apple iPhone 3G during the keynote speech at the WWDC 2008 in San Francisco. It will be available July 11, 2008 in 70 countries around the world.

The announcement had some surprises; confirmation of built-in GPS. All in all were information that many of the rumor sites had already published: 3G radio, longer battery life, multiple colours (Black and White) and lower price. What was missing, that I had hoped for was video conferencing or Mobile iChat. Well there is just over a month before the actual release date, may be there is another higher version at the USD399.00 price point: more storage 32GB and video conferencing to be announced before the date.

Yes, Apple lower the price of the 8GB version to USD199.00 and the 16GB version to USD299.00. Making one to speculate there may be yet another model at the original USD399.00 price. I think I may hold out for that.

The most interesting is that it showed up on Apple HK’s Store, but when I try to follow the “Find a store” link within the page, it gave me a “Page Not Found” error. I guess Apple forgot to put up a “Coming Soon” page for this. As Hutchison Telecom had already announced last week that it signed an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone 3G through is “3” mobile brand. I just hope that it is not the only carrier that will carry the iPhone 3G in Hong Kong.

During the keynote, Steve Jobs failed to offer any details of Apple’s business arrangements with these mobile carriers in the 70 countries. It is already know from the various mobile carrier press releases in the past several weeks, there are more than one carrier in a most of these 70 countries that will be selling the iPhone 3G.

The Apple Stock had a roller coaster ride during the 2 hours of the keynote, taking a dive of almost USD4.00 during the 3rd party application demos; which most have seen during the announcement of the iPhone SDK in January, then rising to a high of USD184+ when the 3G iPhone was (“confirmed”) announced by Steve Jobs. It then drop a USD6.00 dollars when everyone realize there’s no “Just One More Thing” announcement.

I think both the market and myself was expecting Steve Jobs (Apple) to detail their future business arrangements with the mobile carriers in these 70 countries. Being a shareholder myself (full disclosure), hopefully Apple will release more details as we get closer to the actual release date of July 11th.

The one other surprise and rumor confirmation was the announcement of MobileMe, which is the next generation of .Mac for Macintosh computers, Windows computers and iPhones. To put it simply, it is a Web 2.0 refresh of (the over due revamp) .Mac service. Although, given its compatibility with iPhones (equipped with 2.0 firmware), I may again have a use for this service. Given I can install version 2.0 of the iPhone firmware on my current hacked iPhone 2G.

[Update: June 10, 2008]
Thank to the reader, AC, I just checked Apple’s “Find a Store” link and it is now pointing to a page where it lists “3” as the mobile carrier to purchase the iPhone.

Apple Apple has composed a new page which list all the countries where the iPhone will be available after July 11, 2008.

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Movie Review: The Chronicles of Narnia – Prince Caspian (2008)

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My Rating: 3Stars

This evening I saw the movie “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” at AMC Theatre, Pacific Place, Hong Kong.

A good sequel because the screenwrite did not spend too much time reviewing the previous version of the movie, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” 3 years ago. Unfortunately, this is also the reason why I feel this is not a good movie.

This is really a movie written and designed for children. With that in mind this is a good movie, as it has the mystical elements that children likes, characters that spur the imaginations and story-line that will capture the young audiences.

Having said that the story and movie is a bit lacking for adults. If you do not have young children in your household I will suggest you give it a miss.

Rating Legend:
5Stars Not to be missed
4Stars Wait for the DVD
3Stars Buy from iTunes Store
2Stars Rent it on iTunes
1Stars Waste your time elsewhere
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iPhone 3G Photos Leaked

As we draw ever closer to the June 9th Steve Jobs’ keynote at the opening of the WWDC in San Francisco, there are more any more allege photos of the next generation iPhone.
Allege iPhone 3G Photo

I had always expected Apple to transform the iPhone over time. This is obvious, when we remember that the current iPhone is the first version of the “platform” that Apple has created. Remember what the iPod looked liked five years ago? Over the years Apple improved and introduced new features and functions for the iPod, then releasing the 3rd generation iPod nano and the iPod Touch in 2007. Can you imagine what the iPhone or the “Touch platform” may be like five years from now?

I anticipate there will be some hint of this “Touch platform” to be announced at Jobs’ keynote on Monday, June 9th. I guess we will have to wait and see.