Movies of 2012

Out of the 8 movies in my post "Movies I'm looking forward to in 2012,", only 4 appear on this list. I have not watched Prometheus. GI Joe has been pushed to next year.

Here is the list of memorable movies - not necessarily the best movies!

1. The Avengers

Joss Whedon, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johannson, The Incredible Hulk smashing things!!! Watched this after Bersih 2.0!!! Loved it. Nuff said.

2. The Hobbit

Seen this twice in the cinema edi. Not as good as The Lord of the Rings but still, very good!

3. Les Miserables

One of the most anticipated movie of the year! The male leads let me down. The female leads made up for it. Cried so much!!!

4. Hunger Games

Liked Battle Royale. Loved Hunger Games!

5. Skyfall

The best Daniel Craig Bond!!! Exciting, cool, great villain and lots of London! =)

6. Resident Evil: Retribution

Lived up to expectations!!! Lots of shoot-em-up, video game style, zombies, hot chicks, zombies... and did i say zombies??!!!

7. Chronicle

Surprise hit of the year, for me! Went in without knowing much. Was shocked when i found out it was gonna be a hand-held camera kinda show. But i survived it - and watched a really good movie. Good storyline, dealing with what happens when one gets power.

8. Expendables 2

This is pure fun - and it was great to see Arnie and Bruce teaming up with Stallone, taking pop-shots at each other's previous movies.

9. CZ12

Jackie doing what he does best, entertaining us and making us laugh! 

10. Madagascar 3 

Watched this on the plane as i did not want to see anything serious. Had a great time! Great laughs, many LOL moments. Good one!

11. The Vow

Watched this on the wife's b'day - was surprised it was better than i expected. Maybe cuz i expected it to be really bad!!! Rachel MacAdams vow-ed me away, pun intended!

12. Premium Rush

Watched this on the day after our anniversary - not great but something different. Adrenaline pumping all the way!

13. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Another movie which lived up to my expectations. Vampires and vampire slayers. "Real" vampires, not the kind that sparkles... Liked how they tied it up with history. Hey, it's a movie, k?

14. Battleship

Another pure fun and action movie! Think i like it better than Transformers!!!!

15. The Dark Knight Rises

 This was alright. Great performance by Anne Hathaway, tho!


16. The Amazing Spiderman

I blogged earlier this year that i think Andrew Garfield makes a much better Peter Parker! The movie was alright...

17. Underworld: Awakening

Great to see Kate back again, killing vampires!!!!

18. The Girl with Dragon Tattoo

Released in the UK and US at the end of 2011, we watched this last year. A pretty good show. It helps when the story is good and keeps us glued on to find out the outcome! Now to watch the original version!!!

Top 10 sporting event/news/memory of 2012

Sorry but my sports interest is mainly footie and tennis! It was an interesting year for F1 too, i must admit. Anyways, here are my sports news (and sports related news) that i will remember 2012 for! In chronological order:-

1. Manchester City wins the Premier League (13 May 2012) - watched the last game live telecast with the wife who is a City fan. Great celebration in the end - stuff that dreams are made of!!!



2. Brendan Rodgers (1 June 2012) - so King Kenny was sacked. To be honest, while i'm a big fan of Kenny Dalglish, IMHP he just did not have it to manage a team in the 21st century. Brendan (who?) Rodgers - it is an interesting choice. Somehow, something deep inside tells me that in the long run, this may be a good decision. I hope my gut feeling is right!

3. Spain winning the Euro 2012 (1 July 2012) - I watched all their games and i absolutely enjoyed them, despite accusations of them being boring. They are indeed the best!!!

4. Wimbledon 2012 (8 July 2012) - Roger winning it for the 7th time!!!! And reclaiming the no. 1 spot in the process. he went on to hold it for a record 300 weeks!!!

5. Olympics 2012 in London - opening ceremony (27 July 2012) - stayed up all nite with the wife to catch this. Liked it very much. Very British!!! Rowan Atkinson stole the show for us!




6. Olympic Badminton Finals (5 August 2012) - this was memorable as we were at the Law Ball and a group of us disappeared as we all ran down to watch the climax outside Chili's restaurant. We stood outside there (some barefooted) with a huge group of strangers and cheered for Malaysia! We lost but what a wonderful experience!

7. Lance Armstrong stripped of all his titles (24 August 2012) - What a big news for me!!!! This caused me to stop wearing the yellow wristband that i have been wearing for possibly more than 10 years! It's not a Livestrong band but since it is yellow in colour, it is always associated with Lance Armstrong.

8. Hillsborough - Justice for the fans (12 September 2012) - the report came out that none of the Liverpool fans were responsible in any way for the disaster. Big, big news!

9. Chelsea - so many incidents!!!! Sacking of AVB, then winning the Champions League finals annonymously (heard about it much later!!!!!), sacking of DiMatteo, Benitez being booed... and Torres seems to be on fire again! Good for him!

10. Messi (22 December 2012) - he ends of this list and this year with 91 goals!!!! Brilliant!!!!!

 

Is the Hobbit better than LOTR?

I am comparing The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey with The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. In my view, the latter was better for the following reasons (not exhaustive, nor in any specific order. Warning: Spoiler alert!!!):-

1. Character development

There were some pretty good and interesting characters introduced in AUJ - and some were developed pretty well. Bilbo for instance, from the reluctant member of the team to being an important if not essential member.

But my complaint is that there were just too many people involved in this journey. 14 of them!!! I can't even remember all their names! Very little is known of some of them - just general stuffs. That is the dwarf who eats a lot. That was the wise one. That was the guy with the tattoo on his head.

Whereas at the end of FOTR, we knew all the members of the Fellowship very well.

2. Excitement

There were many exciting scenes in AUJ. And they were all pretty good. In fact, i must say it looked better than FOTR. But somehow, the excitement was not the nailbiting edge of the seat excitement. For example, the fight in the Mines of Moria was just brilliant!!! It was scary, it was thrilling. The Balrog was truly something that inflicts fear in everyone.

3. Heroic death

Yes, all 14 in AUJ survived to the end of the movie - altho if one or two did not, it really would not have bothered me (see no. 1 above). One of the best and memorable scenes in FOTR was the death of Boromir. Such sacrifice! And his last words - "I would have followed you - my brother... my captian... my king..."!!!

Which brings me to the next point...

4. Memorable lines

Sure, there were some good lines in AUJ - like Gandalf's "...remember this: true courage is about not knowing when to take a life, but when to spare one." But there were few and far between. dun get me started on the wonderful lines found in FOTR!!!


5. Comic relief

I found there were more funny moments in FOTR - thanks to Merry and  Pippin, and the banter between Legolas and Gimli. Can't remember any really funny parts in AUJ. Many scenes in AUJ may raise a smile and i do remember laughing out once or twice - but that was it.

6. Novelty

I guess Peter Jackson is a victim of his own success. When FOTR came out, i have never seen anything like that before!!! Now for AUJ, there were many "seen that before" moments.

7. Arwen

Enuf said. =)

(Pics obtained from various sites online)

Why the Amzing Spider-Man is better than Spider-man!

The title gives it away - i think that TASM is better than Spider-Man!!! Here are some of the reasons:-

1. The web-slinging and swinging scenes were pretty amazing (pun intended). Wonder how it would have been to watch it in 3D!!!

2. I'm so glad that the "web" is actually something created by Peter's brilliance - like how i remember it to be reading the comic books while growing up, and not something that the body produces (that scene in Spider-Man where Tobey Maguire tries to shoot the web was painful to watch).

3. Ben Parker - Martin Sheen!!!! What a brilliant performance by him. And as some critic also mentioned, there is more development to Ben Parker's character. Good job! Aunt May was pretty good to. But it's Sally Field - you dun expect anything less!

 4. The chemistry between Peter and Gwen was pretty good and real!!! And they look good together, unlike Tobey and Kirsten Dunst.

I specially liked this scene!!! =)

5.The fight scenes were much better - and Spider-Man really fights like a spider, jumping and swinging all over the place. Nice!

6.Gwen Stacy!!!!! I prefer her so much over the other girl.... see, i can't even remember her name...yes, Mary Jane! Gwen is such a nicer character - and she is not just a damsel in distress. She was pretty brave and helped saved New York!!! Emma Stone did a pretty good job potraying her too!

7. Finally - Andrew Garfield!!!! He has to be the reason why TASM is successful! Well played! Looked teh part! Can't wait for TASM 2!!!

Movies I'm looking forward to in 2012

Peter Jackson, Bilbo Baggins played by Martin Freeman, the return of Gollum and Galadrial, Middle Earth! Need i explain more why i'm looking forward to this?

Aliens!!!! Ridley Scott!!! The trailer looks awesome too, with lots of nods to the original Alien movies!

Been a huge fan of the RE movies - and they're bringing back Rain and bringing in Ada. Too bad no Chris and Claire.

Didn't like the first one very much - but with Dwayne Johnson - and Bruce Willis!!!! You know u're gonna get a real kick-ass action packed movie!

The build-up has been a mixed bag for me. Din think much of Thor. But Captain America was good and Ironman has been brilliant!!!! Putting them all together can mean mutiplying the good points... or otherwise! Hope it's the latter!

The end of the trilogy - if it lives up to the previous ones, then it should be good. No reason why it shouldn't - with Nolan and Bale. And now with Anne as the Catwoman!

Again, the previous Bourne movies have been really entertaining. No Matt Damon this time round bu Jeremy Renner looks really good - and more believeable as a trained agent!

Have no idea how this will turn up - but it's vampires!!!! Real ones, that (hopefully) dun sparkle when exposed to the sunlight!!!

Food in NZ

New Zealand was memorable for so many things. Among which is the food we had there! Here is the list of the wonderful food we had, in no particular order:-

1. Whitebait

This is something special at the West Coast area. Whitebait is something like "ikan bilis". It was used as bait until people realise that it is delicious on its own. The pics above show the pattie made of whitebait fish. Yummy!

2. Salmon sashimi

Kinda ironic that the best sashimi i've had all my life is in New Zealand!!!! But it's no surprise when the sashimi i had at Lake Tekapo was just down the road from a salmon farm!!!

3. Fish and chips

We had fish and chips at a few different places - and it's all pretty good! The fish is just so fresh!

4. Abalone

The locals call it "paua". We were wondering what it was and when told it was abolone, we decided to try some. Dun be put off by the weird colour - it was really delicious!!!

5. Steak

The beef in NZ is really nice. I opted for this beef fillet mignon (with gourmet potatoes, pea puree, onion marmalade and red wine jus) for our dinner in one of the vineyards (Marlborough Vintners Hotel). It was cooked to medium perfection and the taste of the beef was simply lovely!

6. Fergburger

You HAVE to try Fergburger when at Queenstown!!!! If you do not want to take my word for it, just ask the many people who stand in line queueing up for a burger on a daily basis!!!

I had the one with almost everything - 2 beef patties, bacon (of course), fried egg, lots of vege. Satisfying!!!

7. Hot chocolate

The best hot chocolate in the world? Well, if i take into consideration the view we get when sipping the pipping hot chocolate on a cold winter's night, then i would say yes. The hot chocolate at Patagonia in Queenstown is soooo rich! We even tried the lavender flavoured hot chocolate! Lovely! The same taste with the smell of lavender!

8. Pasta at Queenstown

We went to this place - The Cow Restaurant in Queenstown - for the pizza - but to me, the pasta way better!!! The seafood was so fresh and the cream was just nice! It has fish, prawns and mussels in white wine sauce!!!!

9. Farm tea

We went for a farm excursion and in the middle of it, we were treated to a farm tea meal. With tasty pikelets! Lovely!

10. Pies at Arrowtown

Arrowtown is a nice place to visit if you're in Queenstown - and one of its main attractions is its pies! Lovely!!!! I opted for deer meat pie as the deer meat is also something recommended in NZ. It was so tender and juicy!!!

11. Brilliant breakfasts!!!

We had English breakfasts at many places - yes, bacon, eggs, tomatoes, toasts... yummy!!!!

12. Cheese platter

This was an interesting dessert i had - but wonderful!!!! Different kinds of cheese with crackers, honeycomb and grapes. The combinations were endless and each of them delicious!!! I had this after i had the steak in no. 5 above.