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

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 

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!‘.

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

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). 

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

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

City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments trilogy)
Cassandra Clare
Margarent K. 27th March 2007
496 pages
3 out 5 (rating)

Review:

This is my first time writing a book review and this review will contain some SPOILERS. Lately (before my exam period), I had read a couple of books or should I called ‘novels’. Normally for now, I would choose adult type of fiction novel to read. In the past, I have read novels like Dan Brown’s stunning work of novels, The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (it is a thrilling fiction novel about Dracula living secretly in this modern century) and many more. Out of my curiosity, I had read this trilogy, ‘The Mortal Instruments‘, which is young adult (teen) fiction fantasy genre. Actually I’m a fan of those vampires, blood-sucking night creatures, type of story. In my young days, I used to love to read ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘, based on the hit tv english series.

Back to the topic. City of Bones is first book for the ‘Mortal Instruments’ trilogy story. The second book is called ‘City of Ashes‘ and final book is ‘City of Glass‘ which will release on March 29, 2009. It is under young adult (teen) fiction genre. The story mainly about angels and demons as in the Bible. How Nephilim were borned in this world. Nephilim are the offsprings of angels and mortals (human). The mortals or normal human beings cannot see Nephilim, unless they find out themselves or Nephilim reveal to the mortals. Let’s talk about the author a bit. Cassandra Clare is a big fan of ‘Harry Potter’ novels, previously she had wrote a fan fiction, ‘The Draco Trilogy’. It is a big hint on how this trilogy is going to be like.

Warning Spoiler Alert!!!

The protagonist is a teenage girl, Clary Fray, who lived with her mother, Jocelyn, in a normal modern New York city. Clary encountered a mysterious murder incident in a particular club, a group of teen-alke warriors were tried to kill an innocent boy. No one (in the club) saw that incident, except Clary herself and the the body disappeared once the boy was killed. Clary tried to figure out what the hell it just happened to her. She managed to find out the truth of herself and the group of warriors, which known as ‘Shadowhunters‘. ‘Shadowhunter’ is Nephilim, the offspring of angel and mortal. Jocelyn (her mother) had gone missing once she tried to find out the truth of herself. She learnt about the Nephilim or ‘Shadowhunters’ with the help of the same teen-alike warriors (encountered in that club). She had no choice but teamed up with the ‘Shadowhunters’ in order to search for her missing mother and uncover her own darkest secret of her family. Along the way, she had fallen in love with one of the ‘Shadowhunters’ members, Jace. Unfortunately, her love was a disaster and sinful. Soon, she discovered her own family secret, which is her father, Valentine, was villain in the world of ‘Shadowhunters’ and man who captured her mother. Valentine wanted to create a brand new world of ‘Shadowhunters’ by using the ‘Mortal Instruments’. With the mortal cup (one of the mortal instruments), Valentine can create his own army of ‘Shadowhunters’ from the children of human being. In the end of this book, Valentine did not success with his plan yet but he had succeed escaped. The story will continue in the second book, ‘City of Ashes‘.

Pro:

• Thrilling along the way
• Harry Potter fans will love it
• Creative concepts and ideas for the existence of vampire, werewolf and etc.

Con:

• Predictable plot and twists
• Lack of some detail facts about the world of ‘Shadowhunters’. 
• Too many ‘lucky’ strikes, protagonist is able to kill the deathly monsters, although she has not in combat training before.
• Protagonist should be in some combat training in order to be able to handle the dangerous situation

In conclusion, this novel is cheesy to read, especially for teenagers. It has a lot of ‘Harry Potter’ similarity. For an example, the main city of ‘Shadowhunter’ is well-hidden with magick spell. I like the most is how she uses the ‘angel and demon’ elements to create the existence of vampires, werewolves and etc. Unfortunately, majority of twists I have managed to predict it, since in the third chapter. I give it 3 stars out of 5. Be sure to check my review on the second book, ‘City of Ashes‘. The second book is much better compare to the first, ‘City of Bones‘. I have a feeling that this trilogy will be made into movie soon. Hollywood really out of ideas lately. 

Spore Creature Creator will release on 17th June 2008 (Full version US$9.99 & free limited version), which is tomorrow. Somehow, there’s a leaked version on the internet. This is why I can write this entry. Spore full game will be release on September 7th 2008(North America), September 5th 2008 (Europe).

Updates: Now you can download SPORE Creature Creator Trial at here.

Spore is a multi-genre “massively single-player online game” under development by Maxis and designed by Will Wright. It allows a player to control the evolution of a species from its beginnings as a unicellular organism, through development as an intelligent and social land-walking creature, to levels of interstellar exploration as a spacefaring culture. - wiki.

I am quite surprise that the creator is NOT similar like the sims 2. It is way more powerful compare to the sims 2 creator. Sadly, this leaked version is only 25% of the full Spore Creature Creator. One of the big different is user can test out the creature created in the test environment. User will have a full preview of how the full game (Spore) is going to be.

The game engine or game style is similar like the sims 2 creator. There will have three main section, building your creature (with parts such as eyes, mouth, legs & hand, weapons and etc), painting your creature (with rich texture and various of colours), and testing your creature in the test-lab environment.

Building your creature is a pretty fun section. It is similar style like sims 2, where you can adjust the part sizes and etc. Spore lets you create more in your own taste. You can adjust the size of your creature by dragging. It is a fun experience.

Painting your creature is not so great. Probably due to the leaked version fault. It is quite limited and I can’t paint in a very specific area, let say only the eyes section. It has a feature(a list of predefined paint libraries) and you can select that paint style to apply to your own creature.

Testing your creature in test-lab environment is pretty cool experience. Sadly, your creature only allow to move within the test-lab environment (inside a circle compound). There is a similar taskbar like the sims 2. There are some interactive actions. These actions will able the user to view your creature react. For example, user click the jumping action. user’s creature will jump accordingly. There is also a feature to let user view how user’s creature interact with its child/children. Other than interaction part, it allow user to capture the screenshot or video. User has the option to mail the screenshot to friends or upload the video to youtube. It’s a great integration. One last thing, it can create your creature avatar in .gif format.