Category: My Opinion

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Book Reviews Fiction

On Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic & Baby

Shopaholic & Baby

Yet another fellow senior from my good old university that I am proud of (erm … somewhere in Oxford, UK), I swear I might have met Sophie Kinsella or rather Madeleine Wickham back in my college days. Make no guess of how old I am please. Onto her fifth installment of the shopaholic series, this time round, our all-too-famous Becky Brandon is back … with a baby. To be honest, I am more interested in the success formula of Sophie Kinsella rather than the book itself.

Sophie Kinsella must have been one of the most consistent writers I have come to know and such an achievement is not at all easy to attain.  I have started with her Undomestic Goddess and now onto 5 of her shopaholic series. Every single book is as entertaining as ever making me laugh-out-loud unfailingly – something that I don’t usually do unless the book is really funny. I make a note that I shall read Can You Keep a Secret? next – a book that is sitting in my bookshelf somewhere. And I am certainly looking forward to her yet-to-be-released-novel Remember Me?

On average, each chapter is about 10 to 30 pages long  and each chapter may have 2 to 3 sub-sections. Each section is engaging on its own – however sequential it is. Sophie Kinsella creates her main character (always a female so far) not without flaw, but yet commands her readers to fall in love with that character. That, is art. If I could do what Liz Phair did to a song-by-song reply to the Rolling Stones’ 1972 album Exile on Main Street, I would write a series of books with titles as follows (okay, private joke between the shopaholic fans and me):

  • The Secret Binary World of a Geek
  • Geek at Silicon Valley
  • Geek found a Soul-mate (who is into Tetris)
  • Geek and his Long Lost Brother
  • Geek and his Techno-baby

On a serious note, “Shopholic & Baby” is certainly a good read. On surface, it is the typical Becky loves shopping, Becky encounters a problem that cannot be surmounted, and Becky comes out to be the hero once again. Deep inside (OK, you can’t go that deep for a chick-lit), “Shopholic & Baby” is not too much into shopping but more into her love relationship. For those who have complained that there isn’t enough character development for Becky’s husband Brandon, rest assure that in Sophie’s latest installment, there is more into that.

Overall, I enjoy reading “Shopholic & Baby” immensely. Certainly a light read for one of my trips to the SeaWorld and the Taman Safari. If you despise any of her previous work on the shopaholic series, you probably won’t like this one either. I do recommend reading from the beginning of the series because the storyline will make more sense to you.

Are her books memorable? Probably not. Do her books entertain? A million yes.

Related Entries: Remember Me By Sophie Kinsella – A Calculated Risk That May Or May Not Work For Some, Can You Keep A Secret?, and Undomestic Goddess – A Good Read

Categories
Comedy Movie Reviews Romance

27 Dresses – Girls Would Love This

27 Dresses

If you have just started dating a girl not for long, bringing her to watch “27 Dresses” would probably up your rating for a good few notches. She may even remember this chick flick as the movie for the both of you.  So you better prepare to write down the date and place and what she wears for your future reference.  Believe me, girls have super memory when it comes down to dates and clothes.

Despite my rather vehement protest of watching yet another romance comedy two days in a row, Cynthia leaped in joy when she heard the words “27 Dresses”.  TK seconded that because he needed something to relax.  In the name of democracy, I booked “27 Dresses”.

The close to 2 hours movie has quite a straightforward storyline of a perpetual bridesmaid (Jane) who has a secret crush with his boss (George) and one day, her sister (Tess) turns up and falls in love with George.  Meanwhile, a journalist (Kevin) stumbles into Jane’s life and perhaps, having attended 27 weddings as a bridesmaid, it is time for Jane to start thinking about herself.

The chemistry between Jane (Katherine Heigl) and Kevin (James Marsden – the prince from Enchanted and the cyclop from X-men) is pretty good. I especially enjoy watching the performance of Katherine Heigl who is an Emmy-winning and Golden Globe-nominated American actress best known for her role in Grey’s Anatomy.  There are sufficient humors in “27 Dresses” that keeps the movie entertaining to watch. Some scenes – though very much like scenes straight from a TV drama – are pretty memorable (such as the one when Kevin is trying to teach Jane how to say no). The overall plot is also pretty believable without making me cringe too much. Believe it or not, Cynthia did shed some tears in some parts of the movie.

If you like the chick flick genre, “27 Dresses” maybe for you.  I personally get a bit “wedding overdose” at the end of the movie. “27 Dresses” has definitely a higher entertainment value than “Mr. Average” but scores lower in the area of originality.

Categories
Comedy Foreign Movie Reviews

Mr. Average (Comme tout le monde) – A Light Entertainment

Mr. Average

My body was definitely suffering from movie withdrawal syndrome and the good thing about not having any for a while is that every movie advertised looks good. In the morning, I texted my Movie Review Squad with the message of “documentary, French romance comedy, Japanese anime, or horror?”. And almost simultaneously, I received two text messages pointing at the direction of a French romance comedy. OK. I was not the only one who was itching for some good movies. “Mr. Average” it was then.

“Mr. Average” is not one of those French movies that after the ending hits you, you have to re-watch the entire movie again.  Nor it is the typical French romance drama that has lots of character development.  The rather plump looking main actor Khalid Maadour, who plays the role of Jalil, does look like any Tom, Dick, and Harry (he does look like the policeman who can listen to people’s mind in the TV series “Heroes” to me though). The main actress from Montreal, Quebec – Caroline Dhavernas – who plays the role of Claire is anything but. She is totally stunningly attractive and sweet looking (Cynthia agrees) that I can easily bypass how immorally wrong her role is at the beginning. Claire, a budding actress, is hired by a top marketing company to deceive Jalil who has the gift of predicting what the mass market wants through his own opinions. Claire even sleeps with Jalil on day one! Surprisingly, with such a sweet looking girl, condemning her decision was the last thing on my mind … the success of making likable characters in the movie eh?

There is nothing deep about the romance comedy “Mr. Average” though the scriptwriter is pretty imaginative. You will most likely walk out of the theatre feeling happy. The soundtrack is great though. I will certainly check out the CD.

Categories
Book Reviews Non-Fiction

The Bible By Karen Armstrong – Books That Changed The World

The Bible by Karen ArmstrongI confess that when I first picked up Karen Armstrong’s latest work, I was skeptical about a biography written based on the world’s most widely distributed book. Nevertheless, I have deep respect for Karen Armstrong who is now a freelance monotheist and is able to look at all three faiths of Abraham in an objective manner. And since “The Bible” is relatively light in volume (229 pages of main text and 73 pages of glossary, notes, and index), I gave it a go. Given the track record of I still am trying to finish that close to 700 pages book called “Holy War” (1988) by the same author, I was also skeptical of my ability to finish reading “The Bible”.

“The Bible” does not promote any theory nor provide technical details on how the bible is reconstructed over the years. Nor has the author voiced out any of her opinion on what is right or wrong. Karen Armstrong simply lays down established facts over the entire history of the bible from the beginning when the stories were passed onto the next generation within the Jews, to the time when the followers of Judaism and Christianity took a different path in compiling the bible, to our present days when the bible is still being interpreted and used as the justification – in some instances – to rage war to end wars. Our civilizations evolve through cycles of violence and cycles of enlightenment and throughout the history of time, Karen Armstrong highlighted the different approaches mankind has taken when interpreting the language within the bible and the numerous key persons in history who have influenced the way the bible is complied. All these established facts are tied back to some of the major events of our world.

Personally, I think the first 5 chapters – Torah, Scripture, Gospel, Midrash, and Charity – are interesting and are quite an easy read. These chapters do not dwell too much onto the well known stories within the bible but rather the origins of the fragments of literature that existed in the old days and how these fragments were being compiled initially. I am more familiar with the Christian side of the house and I find that reading how the Jews compile the Hebrew bible is refreshingly new. More so when I realise that although Christian and Judaism have taken a different path, they did arrive at the same way on how the bible should be read – through charity. The next 2 chapters – Lectio Divina (Sacred study) and Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone!) – are quite a tough read. I will probably have to go through that again when I have time. In fact, I may even have to go through the entire book again after familiarizing myself with some of the key terms in the glossary section. The last chapter – Modernity – is a good read as it becomes more relevant to the modern day development. Finally, Epilogue summarizes the entire book with Karen Armstrong interjecting what  is deeply needed in our torn and fragmented world – ‘principle of charity’ as a spiritual discipline.

Will the bible continue to be relevant to us? I can’t say what is going to happen in year 3000 but the bible seems to have survived through millenniums. As an afterthought, the bible must be one of the most time and resource consuming projects in the history of mankind. Adding up the man-hours of the scholars and theologists and leaders who have contributed to what the bible is today is phenomenal.

My initial skepticism has largely been cast aside. The bible is still an inspiring piece of work that the devotees have contributed to. My only discomfort is that “The Bible” mostly focuses on Protestantism and America towards the end. I don’t think I have read a single reference to the Vatican, which I think has played quite a big role in reforming the Catholic tradition in recent days. Nor I have read any reference to anywhere in the world besides the West and the Middle East. The latter I can still accept due to the lack of contribution to the way the bible is compiled by the people of the East. The former, is hard to swallow.

Categories
Action & Thriller Movie Reviews

Michael Clayton – Do You Have The Patience?

Michael Clayton

Cynthia and I have a few secret codes and signs. For instance, when we say that a film is quote unquote Oscar Material, that usually means: ya sure, it is artistic but it can quite boring (Cynthia surely did feel that way).  Okay, I personally don’t feel that bored because the acting is solid. Real solid. And that’s why you come to my site to hear different views.

Cynthia’s colleague enjoyed watching “Michael Clayton”. She actually forgot what the movie was as it was the 2nd movie straight after that, in her own words, mouth-watering Eastern Promise (remember that naked dude?). Being a walking encyclopedia of what’s showing, I guessed it right. She said she can relate to the corporate life depicted within. I can certainly relate to how she relates to the movie. I was once a “fixer”, a support consultant who was flown into Paris to fix a series of problems so that my so-called beloved firm would not get sued.  And the firm was saved. I got nothing in the end. The firm never remembers, just quarter to quarter results.

Sure, I can relate to “Michael Clayton”. When I told my new colleague ST that I was going to watch “Michael Clayton”, her immediate response was: you’ve got class!  I’ve got class? We’ve got class? Now I know. You really need to prepare yourself in order to appreciate “Michael Clayton”. Viewers are the hardest bunch to satisfy. If the movie is overwhelmingly entertaining, we complain that it does not have enough character development. “Michael Clayton” has plenty of character development and yet, some of us find it boring.

The acting of George Clooney (the “fixer” of a law firm) is solid. So are Tom Wilkinson (the lawyer who goes mad) and Tilda Swinton (chief counsel). The storyline is straightforward, nothing groundbreaking. Our little complain is that we don’t really get to see George Clooney fixing anything. There are quite a number of moral decisions involved, that’s for sure.

Surprisingly TK enjoyed the movie. Cynthia and I joked that because he got two phone calls from his boss and needed to leave the theatre. Hence, the movie is (a) a lot faster pace and (b) a lot more mysterious. Critics all over the world love this movie. I think you can too … if you have the patience.

Categories
J Pop Music Reviews

Ayumi Hamasaki’s Guilty – It’s Near Perfect In My Book

Ayumi Hamasaki’s Guilty CD DVD

Year 2000 was when Ayu released “Duty” – my favorite album before “Guilty”. Year 2000 was also the year when she started to realize that she has problem with her hearing that ultimately leads to her losing all hearing in her left ear by the time “Guilty” is released. At times I can’t help but wonder: is it because she knows she has an “end date” and therefore she works really hard to achieve as much as she physically can? As she wrote to her fans when she found that her left ear is inoperable: “I won’t stop. I won’t make excuses. As a professional, I would like to deliver the best performance for everyone”. In less than 10 years, she has released 10 studio albums and 4 compilation albums. 12 of which were debuted at number 1 in the Japanese weekly chart while the other two at number 2.

Ayumi Hamasaki has always been an inspiration to me. In year 2002, TIME did an interview with her (you can search the interview materials in YouTube when she conversed in English). I learned that Ayu’s success ingredient is to get involved in all aspects of her career and persona and she is so full of energy and determination to get to where she wants to be. She has raised the bar high as a total package – including music, concerts, and fashion – that I doubt any artist from Japan will come close to what she has achieved in the near future. She has certainly dominated my CD and DVD collection in terms of number of artwork per artist. You really should watch some of the recording of her concerts. Grandiose is the word to describe the quality of delivery.

I cannot find any song that I do not enjoy listening to in “Guilty”. The first track of a minute and a half makes a bold statement: “Guilty” is going to be one hell of a rock album. In fact, the next three songs are all rock oriented and I love them immensely. The fifth song titled “Guilty” brings down the pace and the next two songs are the most notable moderate to slow songs of the album. Then comes an instrumental, theatrical track that leads to “Marionette” – a slow song that contains a fair bit of electronic sound to it. The electronic sound intensified as the album progresses and she throws in another instrument song that leads to two more songs that are more traditional with a more J-pop feel.  Finally yet another instrument track that leads to the conclusion of a deeply emotional slow ballad “untitled ~for her~”. I cannot think of a better song to end the album.

Not sure if you will notice every single song from the “Guilty” album has a beginning, a middle, and an end – a proper song ending with no fading of music (in fact a major criteria for Cynthia to assess how good the songs are). Each song is sung with full emotion and with the right amount of accentuation (that contributes to the “middle” part). All the lyrics are written by Ayu herself. Her album comes with a DVD that contains 6 videos from “Guilty” and the making of all these 6 albums that make up to one hour of visual entertainment. I enjoy watching her music videos. More so for the making of clips as we fans get to gain an insight on what Ayu is like behind the camera.

At times I wonder why bad things happen to beautiful people like Ayu who has contributed so much. Only God knows. Now that she is determined to continue the tours, I hope and pray that her right ear can last her a lifetime.

Categories
Horror I See I Write Movie Reviews

Body #19 – Lack Of Fear Factor But The Crowd Was Awesome!

Body 19

This is not my usual stuffs, I swear. It’s going to be a fun read. I think there are way more girls who can take horror movies than guys. The question is: why?! Amongst all my guy friends, I seem to be the odd one out who truly enjoy watching horror movies. But I can name you quite a number of my female friends who actually enjoy or don’t mind watching this genre of movie. Unfortunately for me, Cynthia belongs to that 1% who can’t take it. Knowing that asking TK would be a waste of time so I have decided to watch “Body #19” alone – like the last time when I watched “Alone” alone.

There was no popcorn flying to my face this time and I did make a mental note that if the dude in front was to hold a box of popcorn, I would shift seat. On my right was a bunch of girls. On my left was a pair of girls. I am telling you, I bet more than 75% of the audience are girls.

What I observe from the crowd is this: most of the audience comes in large groups. Perhaps they need some emotional support? And there are quite a number of people who are on our own. These are usually the quiet ones. The screaming ones usually come from the groups or at times, the pairs.

What I LOVE about watching a horror movie is really the crowd. I observe that more often than not, in a horror movie setting, you bound to find some pockets of audience who chit-chat throughout the movie. I think they are the scared ones and they chit-chat their way just to divert their attention. And you know there are times when something bad is going to happen on the screen – believe it or not – usually there are one or two persons in the crowd who tend to scream ahead of time (or make certain moaning sound). It is incredible how much entertainment value these people provide and it makes the anticipation more real. Then of course, at times the anticipation leads to nothing … and suddenly … BAMP! … a loud sound and most of the audience will jump out of our seats. These effects usually get me and people usually laugh about it after the act. The most disturbing ones are the scenes that get some of the audience screaming out loud continuously.

And that was what happened to at least one guy and one girl in the theatre. One girl behind me screamed so loud and so long in duration that I thought she was going to pass out. At the end of the movie, thanks to the director who gives the audience one last shock, the girl behind me was screaming and choking. I turned around and she didn’t look well at all.

I wonder why.

To me, “Body #19” lacks the fear factor. I was shocked at most 5 times and those blood scenes, or body-part scenes, or ghost scenes really didn’t get me at all. I can imagine if I was watching this with my buddy Mark, he would pass out seeing so much blood on the screen. The storyline of “Body #19” is good though – full of twists and turns. “Body 19” is from the studio that brought us “Shutter” and “Alone”. “Shutter” is a great movie by the way. I personally don’t think “Body #19” is anywhere near.

But still, I love the crowd!

Categories
Book Reviews Fiction

Scarlett Thomas’s PopCo – What A Mess?! (But I Do Know Better About Girls Now)

PopCo by Scarlet ThomasI think “The End of Mr. Y” (2007) is a classic. “PopCo” (2005) is not. Some may argue that plots do not necessarily require closure, protagonists do not necessarily be likeable.  Having read “PopCo”, I can certainly see “The End of Mr. Y” a much improved version of “PopCo”. Even the writing style is much better in her latest novel. The similarity is haunting between the two. They both full of big intriguing ideas, split storyline, groups of people from different disciplines, and tons of puzzles.

“PopCo”, like “The End of Mr. Y”, is split into two stories running in parallel – Alice’s present and her younger days living with her grandparents.  The one puzzle that strings the two stories is a necklace given by her grandpa that contains a code that leads to some ancient pirate treasure. The big ideas circle around Cryptology, marketing, and anti-consumerism that, to me, are pretty dry topics to read. “PopCo” started right giving the readers hands-on education on how to apply codes to encrypt messages. It is without doubt a fun read trying to break the codes together with Alice. The corporate retreat, that turns out to be one long brainstorming seminar in creating an ultimate toy for teen girls, dominates the majority of the literature. If I was the editor, I would have trimmed that a fair bit and I would create a more satisfying closure. I personally love to read Alice’s childhood story. Unfortunately, that too ends too abruptly. The final breaking of the ultimate code has totally gone past me – or perhaps I read a bit too fast towards the end. So much for reading a puzzle book.

One interesting takeaway though is my deeper understanding on the teen girls. It was not at all obvious to me.  Some of the highlights are as follows.  Perhaps some of you can verify for me?

  • Teen girls value motherhood a great deal. Many of their fantasies are connected to caring and responsibility (think soft toys).
  • With regards to friendship, there is a need to care far more than a need to be cared for. A typical sentiment would be: I want to be there for my friends when they need me.
  • Teen girls are non-competitive as a rule. In terms of priorities, girls from all cultures place friendship above all else.
  • The word “sharing” is very important for girls. The word “winning” is hardly important.
  • Of course girls do compete.  But they never admit that they are engaged in competition. Girls try to refine their identities to further their more general aims: to have important social relationships and find a “perfect man”.
  • Communication is of vast importance to teen girls. 79% of MSN Messenger users are girls. Closeness and telling secrets are important.
  • SMS text messaging is the most popular way for the teen girls to keep in touch. Communicating using text in this way reinforces the need girls have to exchange messages perceived as ‘secret’.
Categories
Action & Thriller Movie Reviews

Eastern Promises – A Believable Mafia Storyline With Good Acting

Eastern Promises

We all take turn within the squad. Since TK was not particularly delighted by my last pick on “My Blueberry Nights”, I let him pick this time. When he texted me with the movie title, I turned to Cynthia and asked the Walking Life! Encyclopedia what “Eastern Promises” was about. Her immediate reply – knowing how bad I am with Hollywood actor names – was “the King Kong girl”. Oh yes! I love the King Kong girl (her name is Naomi Watts by the way). So I was sold. Okay, I wasn’t sold that easily. I did a background check on “Eastern Promises” and found that it has good reviews written all over it. “Are you sure you want to watch that,” I asked Cynthia. Her reply was “Aragorn” (Viggo Mortensen). “Ah … the human!” exclaimed I. Okay, this was going to be an interesting outing.

My first impression of “Eastern Promises” is that the storyline is surprisingly simple, but yet believable. Maybe it is the Russian accents that the actors have created; maybe it is the tattoos, the absence of guns, and the simple explanation of the Russian mafia protocols in London; maybe it is the rather unpredictable storyline with just enough twists to keep the audience engaged. The acting of the Naomi Watts (the midwife), Armin Mueller (the Russian mafia boss in London), Vincent Cassel (his son), and Viggo Mortensen (the driver) are equally convincing. If you enjoy watching thrillers, there is no reason to give this 100 minutes of film a miss. Some of the violent scenes are very realistic though, let me warn you. But I think there is enough humor throughout to soften the rather dark nature of the film.

Categories
Drama Movie Reviews

My Blueberry Nights – An Art House Type Of Movie By Wong Kar Wai

My Blueberry Nights

Before I even landed in Singapore, I have already messaged our Movie Review Squad member TK to book three tickets to watch “My Blueberry Nights”. It is rather unusual to have a Hong Kong director to write, direct, and produce an English film that is packed with big names such as Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, and Natalie Portman. I am a big fan of Jude, Rachel, and especially Natalie. Besides, how can I miss an International film created by someone who is brought up in Hong Kong? For all I know, he could be my hero and role model and a testimony that we too can make a mark in the International scene.

“My Blueberry Nights” falls under the category of films having a main storyline that strings together a few other sub-stories – the type of films that I particularly enjoy watching. The main story evolves around the love story of Norah Jones and Jude Law. While Elizabeth (Jones) takes the long route to meet up with the man she loves, she encounters a couple in separation (Rachel Weisz and David Strathairn) and later on, a girl at a casino (Portman). Within these two sub-stories, there are elements of addiction on alcohol and gambling. Each character is introduced as someone whom you probably don’t really care in the beginning due to negative behaviors – to borrow Cynthia’s words – and slowly developed into characters who you do care and relate to in the end. Slow is the key word here as I can imagine, not many people can stand the pace of this film (111 minutes). Though I agree that this film can trim down a fair bit in order to fasten the pace, I can certainly admire the art within. Cynthia, to my surprise, enjoys “My Blueberry Nights” while TK does not like it at all. I am surprised that Nona Jones can act (by the way, need not to say, the tracks sang by her are marvelous). My favorite scenes still come from Natalie Portman. She is such a talented actress.

So, what the verdict? Low in entertainment value perhaps but high in artistic value I would say.