I Do-Li Bing Bing's Finest

'I Do', a Mandarin movie starring mostly mainland actors and actresses is the epitome of modern love stories captured on celluloid recently.

Starring the talented, fabulous and beautiful Li Bing-Bing, the film evolves around another triangular affair pitting beauty and principles against wealth in the pursuit of love.

The main plot line is a girl in her 30's seeking marriage after a successful career and an earlier love affair that left her high and dry.

Though there are bit parts that should not have been excluded, the movie on the whole stands way way up in terms of entertainment value.

In a way, it brings us back to the early 1960s where love movies sans sex rule the day with legendary film stars such as Lucilla Yu Min,Lin Dai, Li Ching and Tang Lan Hua.

Great movie.

Watch it on You-tube!

The Saga of the Production of Mary Poppins

The Saga in the Making of Mary Poppins

Saving Mr. Banks showcases Walt Disney's unrelenting effort to make the movie, Mary Poppins.

Tom Hanks as Walt Disney

The movie tells us about the the many years that Walt Disney endeavoured to have the film rights to the book written by Pamela Travers.

On the outback

The British domiciled Australian writer at first could not accept many of the magic of Hollywood and Walt Disney especially animation.

Winning her over straddles most of the film.

A visit to Disneyland for Pamela

Though a bit draggy in some parts especially the flashbacks to the Australian farm, the movie is worth watching just to enjoy the conflicts between Walt, his song-writers and Pamela.

Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Colin Farrel and Paul Giamatti lend their  superb talent and skills to the movie.

An okay watch.

Burton and Elizabeth:Lives in Desperation

Captivating Performance

I have just watched the BBC production of Burton and Elizabeth, a docudrama of the turbulent lives of both these protagonists.

Dominic west played Burton while the talented Helena Bonham Carter played the manic-depressive Elizabeth, hard on booze during almost the entire staging of Noel Coward;s play, Private Lives.

Tumultuous Off-On Romance 

For the duration of 80 odd minutes, cascade along with the ups and downs of these ex-spouses who are, as it seems, good at throwing barbs at each other.

In reality, both of them led miserable lives.

Good to watch just to have a peep into the private lives of two of Hollywood's greatest lovers!

The Buyers Club: Inflating Property Prices

Chang's Revelation

I took this article from the  online Sundaily dated 21 January 2014 which exposed another side of the construction industry and how it impact negatively on new pre-launch residential properties .

Here is it.

"Investor clubs are buying new houses en bloc from developers, leading to the sky-rocketting of house prices. Comprising groups of individuals, they are usually led by self-proclaimed property gurus who use their numbers to secure huge discounts from developers.

National House Buyers Association (HBA) secretary-general Chang Kim Loong (pix) claims some even get discounts as high as 25% on purchase prices.

This has resulted in developers passing on the "losses" sustained in those purchases to the average buyer in subsequent phases of the project to compensate for the reduced profits in the first phase.

Chang said that to his knowledge, there are at least seven such clubs in the Klang Valley. The HBA wants the authorities to investigate the growing number of such clubs in the Klang Valley area.

As at press time, REHDA had not responded to SunBiz's queries while the Minister of Housing and Local Government did not respond to calls for comment.

Bank Negara also declined to comment on the issue.

Chang said property gurus openly advertised, even showing off who "their" developers are.

"They say they 'front for them (developers)' which means the clubs already have deals with the developers," he told SunBiz.

"Such clubs have been mushrooming in the housing industry, manipulating prices by representing an average of 100 to 200 purchasers, even up to 500 buyers.

"Some even dominate 50% of housing units and commercial development."

"The modus operandi of the operators of these clubs is to negotiate as a block purchaser with cash-strapped developers and bargain for pre-launch discounts of up to 25%," he said.

Developers, for example, fall in with the plan in order to draw-down on bridging loans from banks, where, in most cases, they will only be allowed once 50% of the project is taken up.

"So here, they've got these purchasers who say they will buy en bloc, up to 50% or 60% of the units with a certain discount.

"They may ask for a 25% discount, which is a lot, and the developer may agree, but the property 'gurus' may not tell their members they have got a 25% discount. They tell their members that they got a 15% discount, even better than the bumiputra discounts of 7% for housing and 10% for commercial (units)."

Chang said buyers get excited when they see the discount but they do not realise that the other 10% has been pocketed by the property gurus."

The Storm Before Midnight

Verbal Fencing

I guess I missed the earlier two movies called Before Sunrise and Before Sunset.

Baiting Each Other

Before Midnight  is just another milestone where the couple undergo yet another milestone in their lives, 20 years after meeting on a train to Vienna; this time testing each other in a quaint Grecian village for past failings and weaknesses and baiting each other to unravel secrets of the past as well as to get at each other's unspoken opinions of the faults of each other.

Two Sides of Personalities

Julie Delpy plays Celine, the aggressive, taunting bitching female protagonist confronting Ethan Hawke's defensive Jesse who is vulnerably trapped between sacrificing the better years away from his growing son and the need to keep his Parisian family together.

To me, the movie is too dialogy but some of the issues that was brought forth are worth thinking about.

Her-An Emotional Crutch for Life is Brief

Make Believe Hybrid Love Affair

Spike Jonze's movie," Her" have drawn raves from all around movie-land.

Captivating Roony Mara as Catherine

An arty film with a fantastic soundtrack and songs, it is actually a roller-coaster ride of one lonely man as he left the human touch to relate to a computer operating system.

Olivia as Sammantha's  Blind Date Surrogate

Thought the ending could seem predictable,Amy Adams, Olvia Wilde, Rooney Mara and Kristin Wiig  did their part to add emotions as they intersect with the life of the protagonist, Theodore, played a manic-depressive Joachim Phoenix..

Playing Amy, another OS Lover

The main attraction was obviosly the unseen person, Scarlett Johansson who lend her voice as the beguiling perating system, Sammantha.

Voice allure Sammantha played by Scarlett

Not a movie for those who want too much plot  twists and action.

Floor Dancer Kristen Wiig

The Inventive Dallas Buyers Club

AIDS-Early Challenges

If you think that this is going to buy another medical drama -think again.

There's more than meet the eye in this early war against HIV Aids.

The intensity of this medical condition in the early years sparked furious testing of new drugs where most were not approved by the FDA while AZT was on human trials and dosage issues made it toxic resulting in high mortality rates.

Dealing with non-FDA Approved AIDS drugs

One man's fight against the FDA and the other regulatory agencies including the Internal Revenue makes this movie one that is worth spending time to watch.

Dr. Eve and Her Sampling Patients

Matthew McConaughey stars as the inventive AIDS patient Ron Woodroof while Jared Leto played the transsexual role of fellow victim Rayon while Jennifer Gardner is Dr. Eve a co-doctor testing AZT on sampling patients.

Jared Leto as Rayon

Given only 30 days to live, the movie traces the exploits of Woodroof to save himself and fellow victims by circumventing US laws that forbid sales of non-FDA approved drugs. To do so, he started the Dallas Buyers Club where only memberships are sold and drugs are given free to all members that required it. This unrestricted manner of drug delivery showed immeasurable success when only 10% of victims had died.

A Gaunt looking Woodroof

Great movie.

See it to perceive the suffering that AIDS victims undergo to seek treatment in the early years of the onslaught of the disease.

The Glorious Butler of the White House

It's impossible to read all the printed word churned out by authors.

Long Butlership in the White House

A good filter would be when they are transferred into the film medium for a wider audience.

The Butler Ensemble

Serving Eisenhower

 The Butler is one of these.

The Arrival of the  Ill-Fated Kennedys

It chronicles the life and times of a share-cropper son who started life in a lawless cotton plantation who worked himself into a exclusive hotel butler position and finally landed in the White House to serve  US Presidents ranging from Eisenhower right up to Ronald Reagan.

It also sub-plots his family from his hard-drinking wife played by Oprah Winfrey to his two sons.

The Kennedys

As a true testimony of life in America, it chronicles the segregationist era, the Southern state violence culminating in the death of John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King , the rise of the Black Panthers, the Watergate scandal and the heralding of an Afro African Barack Obama into the White House.

Living in Troubled Times

Forest Whitaker was awesome in his role as Cecil. Winfrey played her role well too.

Yaya Decosta the Eye Candy

Interesting to watch are the stars who played the Presidents and First Ladies such as Robin Williams as Eisenhower, James Marsden as John Kennedy, Minka Kelly as Jackie,Jane Fonda as Nancy, Liev Schreiber as Johnson, John Cusack as Nixon and Alan Rickman as Ronald Reagan.

For me, it a good movie even though it did not get support for the Academy Awards this year

Secrets of Top of the Lake

This mini-series of six parts features Elizabeth Moss as Detective Robin Givens in a small New Zealand lake town.

A Detective with a history

A suicidal bid by Tui, a 12 year old half Thai girl to drown herself in the lake because of an impending pregnancy set the stage for a twist and turn tale of a "village bully" called Matt Mitcham who had the small rural town in tenterhooks because of his violent ways.

Tui-half Thai descent suicide attempt

The fact that the town detective sergeant is also involved in murders of woman campers as well as the revelation that robin is also the daughter of the bully provide the suspense into this mini-series.

The Village Bully 

Elizabeth Moss playing the protagonist role deserves the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama series.

Top Lake

Moss in a sexy attire

On the Romp

Trigger Happy

Comtemplative

The Paradise Sanctuary run by GJ

A New Sting

Has Its Twists and Turns

The benchmark for a sting operation has been the masterpiece,"The Sting" which starred Redford and Newman.

The Sting and the Stung

The new take for 2013 for conmanship has to be American Hustle, a take down of crime lords and corrupted Congressmen by the FBI.

The Players

Even though it make feel a bit long, the music and songs reminiscent of the 1980s such as the Bee Gee's How do you Mend a Broken Heart, Live and Let Die and other hot favorites will put you at ease.

Angelic Amy

This star-studded movie featuring Christian Bale, Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams , Jeremy Renner and Bradley Cooper will possibly make it for Best Film this year as it leaves a good taste in the mouth as the movie ends.

Delectable Jennifer Lawrence

Another Sordid Tale of Slavery

An Autobiography

While the classic Roots TV series still rule the roost, 12 Years a Slave brings back the bitter nostalgia of what slavery truly is and the atrocities and sheer brutality  done unto man by his fellow man because of the color of their skin.

Kidnapped and Enslaved from New York

In this 2013 rendition of the slave tale, Chiwetel Ejiofor played the protagonist, Solomon Northup. He put on a brilliant performance that evokes both bitterness and sadness as he tells us what he encountered in his enforced slavery from freeman to slave.

Lupita Nongo plays the Female Lead

Though some may lament that it drags on a little bit, I think we need this pace just to get the true graphic feel of the issues of slavery from the mental and physical torture that the slaves went through.

Lupita Nongo played the female lead with a cameo role from Brad Pitt as Solomon's benefactor.

Threat of Death under Salvery

I wonder whether this movie will take the Best film at both the BAFTA and the forthcoming Academy Awards.

It is certainly more arty that the comedic Wolf of Wall Street.

The Cotton Fields