Pretty much so, yes!

Pixar has established itself as the best film making company in the world because of its top priority – story, story, story! No matter how amazing the film technique, how funny the gags or how sly the characterizations are; the story plot is superbly consummated with satisfaction.

And guess who wrote the story script for Toy Story 3?

Michael Arndt, a newcomer to the Pixar fold who had already made his name with his first screenplay – Little Miss Sunshine.

If you haven’t watched Little Miss Sunshine, go watch that movie as well. I watched it few years ago and the story is great! You could see that the standard comparison between Toy Story 3 and Little Miss Sunshine, it is written in a somewhat similar concept style (not similar story, of course) by the same screenwriter.

Toy Story 3 exceeds its brilliant predecessor (Toy Story 1 & 2) in terms of depth, excitement, humor and just about every other way.

The story manipulates us into responding to real threats faced by these toys, not just to their happiness but their survival journey.

The visuals looked gorgeous as ever, making refined use of 3D to enhance the play while staying right on to the original aesthetic.

In addition to all the familiar faces from Toy Story 1 & 2, many new characters were introduced in this sequel of which some of them played a big role in realizing this movie’s success.

In Toy Story 3, the toys’ fates are to be decided, not in a game, but for real. Grown up Andy is leaving for college and must decide if his toys will be going with him, stashed in the attic, given away or thrown out.

Things became even more interesting when the toys landed at Sunnyside day care centre, which at first glance, looked like paradise. In truth? It has a dark side to it…

And the rest of the story? I won’t spoil it here, go watch it for yourselves

Toy Story 3 is best when it’s being serious. The last 15 minutes of the story was the most intense part; from the moment the toys were dumped at a garbage landfill through the tear-jerking finale and after escaping such a near-death experience (whoops sorry, a bit of a spoiler there already haha)

I bet Toy Story 3 would be a very strong contender against Dreamworks’ How to Train your Dragon movie for the upcoming Oscars award, i kid you not!

Toy Story 3 is scheduled to release in our local cinemas (Malaysia) on 17th June 2010.
It’s a must-watch-movie!

Ratings: 9.5/10
(Note: I might be biased with my ratings because I love Pixar films lol. But heck, the movie was awesome wert!)

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- Special thanks to Advertlets & Telekom Malaysia (TM) for the early movie screening opportunity -

                          

Let me warn you; if you don’t like ‘painful’ movies, stop now.

Because during the intense part of the movie, I was like ‘SHIITTTTT’, ‘AAAHH FUCK!’, ‘DIUU LORRRR’, etc… Seriously, this movie ain’t for the faint-hearted!

Here’s a summary, to save you guys from watching the full movie:

The movie opens on a deranged German surgeon who is a world-renowned expert at separating conjoined twins

Two American girls who were travelling through Europe have just broken through the woods, got lost, handphone not working, etc…

Finally the two girls found themselves at the German doctor’s house after going through a rainstorm outside.

Girls were treated as guests by the menace doctor; then blah blah blah…

… they found themselves strapped on the hospital beds in the house basement along with a Japanese guy

Psycho doctor explains his ‘human centipede’ plan to his three victims

Girls tried to escape but failed eventually; surgery starts!
(BTW, this was the most graphic shot throughout the movie, srsly! Yet, they can still make the whole movie so disturbing!)

And taadaaa… The Human Centipede wtf.

The sicko German doctor tortured them here and there for about 20 minutes of the movie. Let you visualize one of the tortures here (this guy below is the head of the ‘human centipede’):

Gosh, sicko.

In the end, everyone dies except the girl who was in between the other two people in the centipede chain and then credit rolls… God knows what happened to her, got stucked in between two dead bodies, couldn’t escape sigh.

I have to say it was a genius move that the filmmakers handled it the way that it’s like showing you halfway and then let you mind fuck with them. It was indeed very disturbing though.

It’s a threadbare movie, but it will definitely fuck your mind upside down, literally!

Tom Six, you are sick for making this movie!

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Gosh, I think I have to watch Teletubbies to ‘neutralize’ my mind now.

LOL.

                          

Any of you tried out Gelatomio?

If you haven’t, you SHOULD!

Quality has been the priority in making all these gelato. They are made out of good recipe + high quality ingredients; which means they do not jeopardise it to save cost on the raw ingredients and had always been concerned about catering for different individual’s tastes.

Thanks to Mei Ying for the invitation, some of us were invited for a tasting session @ Gelatomio, Pavilion KL. Of course, this would not have been possible without the man who started Gelatomio in Malaysia, Mr. Massimo Minecci himself!

We managed to try various selection from the lounge, one of them is the Gelatomio On The Rock:

Macadamia & Double Chocolate gelato with Oreos, chocolate crisps & chocolate chips

Strawberry Cheesecake + Blueberry Cheesecake gelato with apple pie fillings, figs & chocolate chunks

And this alcoholic gelato – Rum & Raisins, Orange Cointreau + Crunch & Rum

Check out this video below by Heidi on how Mr. Massimo made the Gelatomio On The Rock:

Gelatomio carries more than 50 various flavour selections and are made 100% from natural ingredients. The milk based ice cream averages on 95% fat-free while the water based ice cream is 99% fat free.

And here’s an interesting fact (copied from Rebecca Saw):

He supplies to approximately 70 major hotels and restaurants in KL which includes Shangri-La, Le Meridien, Pan Pacific, Prince Hotel, Hilton, G Hotel, chinoz and espressamente… You know some of those japanese restaurants in hotels and buffet places? Some of those in-house ice cream  were supplied by him as well!

You should pay them a visit someday, try them out instead of the usual Haagen-Dazs and Baskin Robbins

Gelatomio Lounge
Level 4, Pavilion KL
(in front of Forever 21 / Cotton On)
Facebook

                          

ONE

This time the movie is not identical to Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), but they revamped the movie by putting in some familiar scenes from the past ANOES classics.

TWO

The visuals and sounds are somehow menacing; managed to evoke the feeling of dread and fright. However i think it was rather cheap that the frequent ‘jump scares’ was overused in the movie by Freddy Krueger to make it urm… horror-fied? lol.

THREE

It was very easy to predict the story! For example, at the very first scene of the movie when they showed the restaurant, i already know what’s going to happen next! Seriously, and my prediction was right! (and no, i didn’t watch the trailer before the movie)

FOUR

Script written rather poorly. It’s such a waste of time that the writer sacrifices first half hour of the movie laying out the premise: Freddy stalks children in their dreams then when he kills them in their dream, they die in real world. It was rather repetitively boring and i don’t think viewers need the multiple elaborate killing sequences to understand the show or Freddy Krueger himself.

FIVE

There wasn’t an initial focus character as was Heather Langenkamp in the 1984 original film. Nancy should be the main focus character but somehow i think she was overshadowed during the film, only until the second half she started showing up more.

SIX

If you’ve not watched any of the classic Freddy Krueger series before, no worries. This movie is basically combining few parts of different Freddy Krueger chapters into one and you’ll be explained on why Freddy Krueger is Freddy Krueger lol.

In short, if you’re too lazy to read the stuff above…

Rather boring scenes, predictable, messy, not that scary but contains some frightening moments.

Thanks Advertlets for the tickets!

                          

They serve a variety of drinks, I took the Iced Roselle which tasted something like honey sweet kinda thing? It’s actually a kind of flower drink, nice and sweet!

Cat Fish Mango Salad

This dish is kinda unique, I don’t think you can find this in any other Thai restaurants

Spicy Pamelo Salad

You know the chicken leg skin dish served at Thai restaurants? (I love that!) This is another alternative to that dish if you don’t eat chicken leg skin! Nice, spicy, sour-ish sweet!

Fish Cake wrapped in Half-Boiled Egg

Ooooh, I love this! Everyone else love this dish too! MUST-TRY dish if you’re coming to Funky Villa!

Prawn wrapped in Vermicelli

This was pretty okay, but I’m not a fan of crispy wrapped popiah skin though (I prefer soft ones eheh).

Tom Yam Kung (Red Tom Yam Soup)

Not bad, not too spicy, not too sour

Tom Kha (White Tom Yam Soup)

First time trying out white tom yam soup, but I prefer the normal red one instead.

Claypot Seafood Noodle

This dish was not bad, quite nice with the touch of the kayu manis spices.

Basil Leaf Beef

If you’re able to eat beef, try this dish too! It’s pretty decent

Otak-Otak Thai Style

Oooh I love this dish, especially the sauce around it! I think the coconut plays a part in the taste. I heard they use the coconut water to prepare this dish?
Also a MUST-TRY dish @ Funky Villa!

Steam Squid

This dish is pretty decent as well. It’s more to the sour-ish side though, so if you like sour stuff then try this out

We were also served with desserts and their Funkyrita (Funky Magarita) after dinner!

So, are you tempted to try out Funky Villa?

You should! Hahaha!

If you don’t know where it is, it’s just 2 outlets away from McDonalds Cineleisure / e@Curve
(as you can see from the picture below)

Do drop by some time for a decent meal…

Here’s the address if you need it:

Lot No G-03A, G-06 & EG-06,
GROUND FLOOR e@Curve (formerly Cineleisure)
No. 24 Jalan PJU7/3, Mutiara Damansara,
47810 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
Tel:  03 7725 2308

Facebook Page:  Funky Villa – e@Curve

                          

Natalie from Funky Villa was kind enough to invite us over for a pleasant dining experience at the place.

Funky Villa has a very unique ambience for a Thai restaurant. It has got different sections of seating place with decent interior as well as ‘funky’ dim neon lightings around.

You can either choose to sit at the normal dining area…

The sofa ‘chilling-out’ area for some drinks with friends…

The bar area if you’re coming alone or with 1-2 people for some drinks…

Or you can also chill out at the open area just outside the restaurant for cigarette puff while listening to music.

They also have an upper deck open area above the restaurant which would be suitable for birthday parties, functions, closed events and so on… I forgotten to take a picture of the upper deck, but it should fit around 40 people comfortably.

Well… why would you wanna see pictures of the restaurant’s interior without the food, right?

Stay tuned for the next post (part 2) – FOOD!

                          

One thing you need to know before watching the movie – this is a sequel, NOT a remake of the previous Alice In Wonderland (1951) classic cartoon movie.

Thus the sequel, the characters in this Alice in Wonderland movie are pretty much the same as the previous one. With the likes of Mad Hatter, Rabbit, Cheshire Cat, Red Queen, White Queen, Tweedledum & Tweedledee, and of course Alice Kingsley herself appearing in the latest movie.

Highlight the words below ONLY if you really want to read the summary of the story. I do not wish to spoil the story for you if you’ve not watched it lol.

*spoiler start*

A grown up 19-year-old Alice Kingsley who has forgotten about her childhood journey into Underland (she misheard it as ‘Wonderland’) and once more takes a trip down the rabbit-hole after ducking out on an engagement proposal that has been arranged without her acknowledgment. Having now returned to the magical world that she thought it was all just a dream, Alice has been destined to save the Underland/’Wonderland’ inhabitants from the tyrannical reign of the Red Queen.
*spoiler end*

Alice in Wonderland is a well-paced, beautifully crafted visual spectacle. Mia Wasikowska does a decent job at embodying the outsider/loner persona in the character of Alice. Johnny Depp playing as the Mad Hatter was simply mad (in a good way). Anne Hathaway taking the role as the White Queen is as though she’s not much of a use in this movie (in other words, not showing up enough, not making use of her properly). Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat is always as mysterious as the original film with its appearances (and disappearances lol).

My thoughts on the movie? Tim Burton shouldn’t have used back the same title – Alice in Wonderland. Very misleading! I thought it was a remake of the original cartoon and went into the cinema thinking: “Eyh? Storyline totally different lol.” And the ‘Wonderland’ looks flat now; there is no more bright, cartoony, tea party feel anymore. It is now a little bit darker, depressing and looked slightly haunted. They should have went with a title like… “Alice Returns to Wonderland”? “Wonderland Returns?” I don’t know… but definitely not the same title for a different piece of story.

One thing for sure is that you’ll definitely have a better understanding of the story if you know about Alice in Wonderland original story (at least go read up the synopsis/summary or something). Because i hear people coming out from the cinema not knowing what the movie was about and couldn’t figure what was happening during the show. No, i didn’t watch the original cartoon movie. But i played Kingdom Hearts game on PlayStation 2 last time and somehow learned the story from there! It helps though, better than knowing nothing

(Mad Hatter sure does look like Joker from The Dark Knight movie lol)

I gotta say that the Digital 3D effect on Alice in Wonderland wasn’t as great and immersed feeling as James Cameron’s Avatar 3D. However it does gives you a feel of like those books with pop-up castles, characters and so on (you get what i mean? Amateur 3D like lol)

Perhaps Tim Burton’s move on making the movie in 2D then later on converting it to 3D might probably be a wrong step. He should have shot the film in 3D at the first place.

Rating: 7/10

DISNEY’S ALICE IN WONDERLAND will be released in Disney Digital 3D on 4th March and opening in cinemas (Malaysia) on 11th March 2010. Wait for it alright!

                          

My mum previously used an LG Viewty and i gotta say they had definitely improved a lot in terms of their features as well as design, good job there! But anyhow, i’ll still be giving my own personal opinion regarding the phone.

DESIGN

I love the design – cool glossy jet black, thin, slim and slick finishing! The only thing i despise about the design is the length of the phone. Yes, i know it’s for fitting in the 4 inch full cinematic 21:9 aspect ratio screen thus the elongated design. But i don’t think you could comfortably hold on to the phone with only one hand typing messages or doing something on your phone. Though i think it’s not really a big issue because the phone design itself is already very ‘chio‘! In other words, it’s excusable due to the stunning beauty of the phone design lol.

DISPLAY & USER INTERFACE

It has an unusual 21:9 aspect ratio 4 inch display screen on it. Though the 21:9 ratio is not that popular for phones these days YET, i think it’s very nice, really. Add-on to its S-Class 3D interface, the animation, 3D cube and widget makes the phone looked more ‘chio‘! With the large wide screen on the phone, it makes the icons looked better than any other ordinary touch screen phones. However, there’s always an imperfection. For the phone’s interface, it feels very sluggish at times. After a long period using LG Chocolate BL40, i lost my patience to continue using this phone. If you think Nokia phones are slow, this is slower! Nevertheless, it has definitely improved from their previous phones (my mum’s LG Viewty KU990 is VERY MUCH slower than this phone! hardly tolerable if you’ve used a faster phone before that)

INTERNET BROWSING

Internet browsing experience on the LG Chocolate BL40 wasn’t really up to standard. It’s a pain-in-the-ass when you’re trying to load heavy content websites or those with Flash file on their site – the phone hangs if you’re unlucky! The speed isn’t fast, but it isn’t that slow as well (BUT i realised the browsing speed slows down after long period of web browsing). The only thing that made up for this phone’s internet browsing is the pinch-and-zoom function (but not as smooth as iPhone’s pinch-and-zoom). It also shows website screenshots as bookmark thumbnail instead of just the website title.

MULTIMEDIA

Video playback on LG Chocolate BL40 is really cool with its 4 inch 21:9 wide screen. The 3D gallery (where you see all your photos, videos, etc) is really cool as well. Flicking through the thumbnails on landscape mode with its 3D animation looks really cool. As for the speakers, it’s just… okayyy, that’s it. Good enough if you’re not picky on audio quality lol.

CAMERA

Aha! Here comes the interesting part! Unfortunately i have to say this, the phone camera is disappointing. Even though it’s 5 megapixel packed with Schneider Kreuznach lens and LED flash and what shit i really don’t care, it’s still mediocre for a decent 5MP phone like this. It’s very hard to get a sharp image, the colours are ‘off’, the image noise is seriously worse than my DSLR camera putting on ISO1600!

As if they haven’t gotten enough… Capturing photos are already a pain, recording videos is much worse! Its maximum capture resolution is VGA and the format taken is 3GP! I hate 3GP! It’s a low quality format and you’ll need to convert it to other video format before you could actually edit it on a video editing software. Besides that, the videos taken are blurry (most of the time) and with distant sound. The sound recorded in the video sucks to the max! Sorry LG i have to say this, but it’s the truth! Try watching the video below and experience it yourself!

Bottomline is that the LG Chocolate BL40 is not recommended for those who uses their phone to take pictures/videos frequently.

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Oh well probably my expectations were high, but still… it’s my personal opinion wert. I’m sure you won’t wanna read “wah this phone damn good, this one the best, this one blablablah” biased review right?

Anyway, special mention to LG Malaysia for providing me an LG Chocolate BL40 for review!