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Red Apple - (Colors!)

After playing my Touch for quite awhile, I’ve decided to write a review on this awesome & amazing app which works on iPod Touch/iPhone. Colors!

colors_01

Colors! is a painting application for your iPod touch/iPhone. It is firstly developed for Nintendo DS. It is not so powerful as photoshop but it is better than your-one-and-only MS PAINT (default painting application on windows platform). Colors! is based on modern painting techniques originally developed for drawing-tablets, it allows to adjusting brush size, opacity, soft-edge, hard-edge and dynamic brush size/opacity via accelerometer (tilting left/right). And one cool feature of this app, it allows to play the whole drawing process.

colors_02

I have draw a Red Apple. (Yeah, NOT too good piece of artwork). It’s a bit tough to draw since using your finger tip to draw. Need more practices. I’ve used roughly 30mins to complete it. As I’ve mentioned before, it allow to playback your artwork process. Below is the-speedy-video on my Red Apple.

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Or you can go to Colors!-Red Apple to view the my Red Apple process. It is indeed a must app in your iPod Touch/iPhone, especially you are keen in ART. Colors! has two version, FREE and PAID. FREE version disable the save feature. 

Touch, touchy, Touch!

On wed, I just got a new cool gadget. :D 

myTouch_01

It’s not iPhone but iPod touch, 2nd Gen. The picture above looks really like a dummy, right? Due to some stupid reasons, Malaysia here was delayed. Only until now, 2nd Gen iPod touch just on store but with limited stocks. Well, I get ‘Touch‘ from Hong Kong instead through a friend of mine, with much lower price. 

myTouch_02

What’s inside the box? 

  • Quick start guide book
  • Apple stickers
  • Dock adapter
  • Lame-cheap earphones
  • Small-tiny polishing cloth
  • USB-2.0 cable for charging and sync
  • And 8GB iPod touch
So what’s new with the 2nd Gen ‘touch‘? There’s volume control buttons at the left-side and with built-in speaker. The built-in speaker is rather soft, do hope the future firmware can make it louder. Internally, the new ‘Touch‘ has a different processor. As the result, 2nd Gen ‘touch‘ can not be Jailbreak (for now).
myTouch_03
Thickness? It is not slim compare to 1st Gen. The slimmest is just the optical illusion. It has a rounded-curve on the side . I’m very impress with the weight, it is rather lighter than I thought. 
myTouch_04
It must be synchronized first with latest itunes software before you can use it. I will be using this gadget, ‘Touch‘ as a portable surfing & gaming device. There’s tons of cool game available on the AppStore. It is a pity that it can’t be jailbreak for now. 

 

Honey, Money, Mamma Mia!

Honey honey, oh. Money money, oh. Mamma Mia, here I go again.

mamma_mai_poster

 

Title: Mamma Mia! 
Year: Summer 2008 / 16th July 2008(USA) / 25th September 2008 (Malaysia) 
Directed: Phyllida Lloyd
Genre: Romance / Musical / Comedy
Runtime: 108 mins
Country: USA / UK 
Language: English

Cast:
Amanda Seyfried (Sophie), Meryl Streep (Donna), Pierce Brosnan (Sam), Colin Firth (Harry), Stellan Skarsgard (Bill), Benny Anderson (cameo)

Synopsis / Plot:
20 year old, bride-to-be Sophie Sheridan was trying to find who her real father is. She had invited three potential man as her ‘father’ based on her mother (Donna) dairy for her wedding. She didn’t tell her mother about them. This is a musical stage movie, based on the catchy songs from ’70s group stars (ABBA), with additional music also composed by ABBA member, Benny Anderson.

Review:
What is ‘Mamma mia‘? It is something like a slang of ‘Oh my god’, ‘Holy cow’. I have just watch it recently. It is a great and wonderful movie, I must say. With the wonderful actresses and actors plus the classical, catchy songs (Honey honey honey) which composed by ABBA. This movie is adapted from stage musical with a book by British playwright (Catherine Johnson). I have no watch the stage musical version before, so I can’t judge much. The story-line is pretty well developed and with the right song in the right scene. In addition, it is also mixed with humors (based on Greek comedy style) during the singing scenes. There’s a twist in the ending, and no reveal who is her real father, unless do a DNA test (spoiler a bit). Nonetheless, the movie is targeted more on older generation of person (at least 30 years old) or the person who enjoys classical English songs. Benny Anderson (ABBA member) had been on cameo appearance. 

Pro:

  • Laughable scenes along the way
  • Catchy, wonderful, enjoyment songs
  • Nice romance story line 
  • Parents might enjoy as well :mrgreen:

Con:

  • Non English music lovers or youngsters might not enjoy
  • Some of the actors have a pretty ugly voice. Sad to say that. 

This movie is really recommended, especially for ABBA fans. I give 4.5 out of 5 in this ‘Mamma Mia!‘.

 

The Minimoys

What are Minimoys? They are tiny and small people, which are roughly 2.5mm size.

theMinimoys

Title: Arthur and the Minimoys/Arthur and the Invisibles/Arthur et les Minimoys 
Year: Fall 2006 
Directed: Luc Besson
Genre: Animation/Fantasy/Family
Runtime: 103 mins / 94 min
Country: France
Language: English/French

Cast:
Freddie Highmore (Arthur), Madonna (Voice of Princess Selenia), Mia Farrow (Granny), Robert De Niro (Voice of the King)

Synopsis / Plot:
Ten-year-old Arthur, is trying to save his grandfather’s house from being demolished, goes looking for some hidden treasure (ruby stones) in the land of the Minimoys. He discovers a tiny kingdom of elf-like creatures (Minimoys) in the back garden, living in harmony with nature. Once inside, he’s transformed into a Minimoys and joins forces with the lovely princess Selenia to defeat the evil M, who-must-not-be-named

Review:
This movie is quite an old movie, end of 2006 in France. As you can see, this movie is not from popular production, such as Disney or Dreamwork. It is based on a french children novel, ‘Arthur et les Minimoys’ by Luc Besson in 2002. Luc Besson is also the director of this movie. It is part of 3D animated when Arthur steps into the world of Minimoys and part of live action movie. Based on wiki, this movie is the most expensive in French production.

I have just watch it recently. Malaysia Cinema is not showing this. So, you have to watch on DVD version. I’m quite disappointed and surprising  that the DVD edition is a censored version in the USA. The kissing scenes of Arthur and Princess Selenia have been trimmed. Why? And I don’t see those Disney production movies censored those scenes in their DVD edition. This movie is a fantasy, laughable and beautiful children movie, with the combination of 3D CGI and real action. It is very recommended to watch with your family. I find this is much better compare to ‘The Journey to the center of the Earth‘ (2008).

Pro:

  • Few laughable scenes
  • Beautiful and stunning 3D animation characters and environment
  • Fantasy, magical story-line.
  • Well acting in the real action scenes 

Con:

  • Illogical scenes such as Arthur (in Minimoys world) becomes extremely good swordsman, whereas he is just a normal kid in real life.
  • A bit strange when the voice of Princess Selenia is Madonna and trying to seduce Arthur (10 year old kid). 
There will be two upcoming sequels, Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard (2009) and Arthur and the Two Worlds War (2010). I give 4 out of 5 in this movie.

 

Kung Fu HipHop?

Kung fu soccer,kung fu dunk,kung fu panda and now kung fu hip hop. It’s just weird.

kungfu_hiphop

Title: Kung Fu Hip Hop/???
Year: 2008
Directed: Fu Huayang
Genre: Action/Dance
Runtime: 90 mins
Country: China
Language: Mandarin/Cantonese

Cast :
Jordan Chan, Fan Bingbing, Popin Hyeon-joon, Pan Xiaoting, Yang Yang, Gao Min, Xing Aowei

Synopsis / Plot:
Kung Fu Hip Hop” is a warm touching story of 3 adults who have bravely pursuing of their dreams and how they overcome all challenges ahead of them in the dancing world. It all starts off with a dance competition which the 3 main characters are taking part in. From there the story continues to show their creativity and passion for music and dance along with what happens in the dance competition. The 3 of them have break through their highs and lows, share their sweat, tears and laughter, together they solved all difficulties and challenges in winning the glory of the title “Dancing King”.

Review:
My first impression of this movie is a total crappy movie (based on the title of the movie). It is totally another ripoff title from Kung Fu Soccer. After watched, I was wrong. It is pretty wild good with the help of Hong Kong star, Jordan Chan as the protagonist in this movie. It is much better compare to Jay Chow’s Kung Fu dunk, which is total crap movie with full CGI, lame storyline and dull/bad acting from Jay himself. *sorry for Jay fan* This movie is actually like ‘Step up‘, american hiphop dancing movie.

Pro:

  • The dancing part is pretty interesting and stunning
  • The kung fu part is also pretty interesting and real effect as well.
  • Less CGI effects

Con:

  • Storyline is rather simple and similarity from ‘Step Up’ or ‘Step Up 2′
  • The ending is totally lame

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