The Wingless Birdman of Imagination

Playing with Your Mind

This is definitely an art-house movie.

Directed by the famous Alejandro Innaritu, this is a movie of human aspirations and the 'daringness' to dream again.

Here a washed-out protagonist icon of a screen hero relives his life on the stage putting up a play titled, "What Do We Talk When We talk of Love?"

He fights with relationships with his ex-wife, his daughter and his alter-ego, the dark Birdman who taunts him to take chances to better himself.

The last part of the movie is surreal and leave much to the imagination.

This is one movie I would not want to revisit or to review.

Brilliant-Eclipsing Gravity and Even Space Odyssey 2001!

Breath-taking Fare

Interstellar is another masterpiece from master director,Christopher Nolan.

In this science-fiction movie, he explores complex ideas like like wormholes, relativity, time and the elusive five-dimensional thinking.

A Fantastic Visual Experience

It is both factually educational and thought-provoking.

The premise of the future Nolan world is overpopulated and in constant struggle to feed the masses. Though farming is the future, the crop blights seems to engender government investment in interstellar research to look for an alternative live-able world for humans.

Transcending the worm-hole

Continuing from partial information retrieved from earlier Lazarus missions, Matthew McConaughey's piloted the last Ranger into deep space after taking from a cue from his daughter's poltergeist premonitions. With the aid of two robots and 3 crew members, he transcended a wormhole just beyond Saturn, into a new galaxy.

Hathaway as Dr. Brand

The new world  through the lens of Nolan is nothing short of breathtaking. The visions of the black holes, the worm-hole, ice-planets and water planets are simply beautiful.

The Water Planet

As for the actors, McConaughey's character is well-developed. Hathaway and Caines' characters's are fairly developed but Damons's role as Mann, the baddie, is mostly minuscule and forgettable.

The Ice Planet

Totally unforgettable will be Mackenzie Foy, who plays the young sensitive Murphy. For her part, Jessica Chastain provides the melodramatic thread of an adult Murphy that connects both father and daughter  over time and space wherein springs the solution to the entire panning out of the Interstellar story.

McConaughey, Chastain and Hathaway

Almost stretching to  2 hours 47 minutes, this movie may win some Oscars this February.

The young Murphy

Superb storytelling and enjoyment of a movie but for its length!

Unsinkable LPI

It really punches through today!

After announcing a bonus of one share for every two shares held, London Pacific Insurance saw hyper-space action this morning ramping up its price to RM 20.68 for a RM 2.18 increase.

Tracing its share from the prior 13th GE period in 2013 to the effects of  oil slumping in mid 2014 till today, the price did have short-term weaknesses every now and then but every time there was positive news, it ran ahead of the pack.

I expect some price correction as we approached the ex-date.

Assuming someone has 1000 shares, would it mean that  he will be better off with an additional 500 shares at a new price?

His holding at current price is RM 20,000. If he sells it today, he will reap RM 20 K.

However, if he doesn't, then this will be his risk scenario.

If the theoretical ex-price is about RM 10.00 per share, then his holding of 1.5 K shares will be worth RM 15 K. He will then take on a paper loss of  RM 5 K.

However, in the event that it ends at yesterday's price of RM 18, then his 1.5 K holdings will translate to a cool RM 27 K.

If and when this comes true, then it will one super bonanza of RM 9 K for such a holder!

So can this one Teh Hong Piow stock be the one with the kapow effect?

Doldrum Oil Prices

Crude Gold No More?

It's approaching the end of January 2015 and yet there is no respite.

OPEC has met and refused to cut production and shale oil is still rattling the market.

The Saudi King has changed and King Salman is in charge.

So, what is the crude oil position today(29 January)?

As expected, oil prices opened up weak in Asia after record US stockpiles sent it tumbling to near six year lows in the previous session.

To most analysts, the outlook truly looks bleak.

On Wednesday, the US reported record high inventories elevating further anxieties in the market.

According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), domestic crude oil stocks rose by almost 9 million barrels last week to reach nearly 407 million, their highest since the government began keeping records in 1982.

"The market expects stockpiles to keep rising, pushing front-month prices further down as refineries enter maintenance season and are likely run at lower utilisation rates," ANZ said in a morning note on Thursday.

Brent crude traded at US$48.60 (RM176) a barrel at 0131 GMT (9.31am Malaysian time) while US crude was at US$44.43 a barrel, both close to six year lows.

As a corollary, Swiss bank UBS said in a note on Thursday that cheap oil would not have a major boosting impact on Asian economic growth.

"Big, big drops in oil; small effects on economies... Cheap oil should give a small boost to Asian GDP, but not really enough to warrant major changes in growth forecasts," it said.

Researchers at Energy Aspects said in a note to expect a "a new normal  in the making for China-slower and less oil intensive growth".

They added that "oil consumption in China will become more efficient, leading to slower demand growth of around 0.2-0.3 mb/d (million barrels per day) compared to expectations of above 0.5 mb/d."

So, for the whole year of 2015, what can you see through the looking glass, Alice?"

Stephen' Hawking's Theory of Everything

Love and Sacrifice

This all-catching title for a movie encapsulates the space sciences and quantum physics and one man's mission to prove that there is a theory of time and the creation of the universe.

His Best Selling Book

Stephen Hawking's doctoral thesis is about the existence of black holes and the death of falling stars. His later theories were to demonstrate how stars burnt to their death in the black holes.

Generally, the movie tells us of the love life of Stephen and his wife, Jane Wilde and the love triangle that finally emerged when Jane fell astray in love with the pastor Jonathan Jones and married him.

Romance in Cambridge

As for Hawking, life  goes on as he lived with his ravaging motor neuron disease till this day

Good portrayals by Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones.

Redmayne and Jones in the lead

Hope it can garner some Oscars this time around.

The GST Terror!

Come April 1, be ready to pay the piper like a fool.

With the imposition of GST, many items that are currently tax-free will attract 6% GST tax.

The chart below shows you how you will be hit.

The Unbroken Olympian

Unbroken Valour

Anjelina Jolie's movie, Unbroken showcasing the life and times of Louis Zamperini from his rowdy childhood days, his rigorous training in track and field and to his triumph in the 5,000 meters track event at the Berlin Olympics in 1936 set the stage ahead for the second half of his life as a bombardier shot down over the Pacific Ocean, lost  at sea in a life-boat with two comrades and finally his incarceration and brutal torture  at the hands of a sadistic commandant in a Japanese hard labour camp in Tokyo.

Capturing Olympic Gold in Berlin 1936

The incessant torture by the commandant of the camp named Bird Watanabe who took an instant dislike of him and the challenges he was put through physically and mentally can be quite graphic and nerve-shattering to witness. Louis Zamperini was only completely sure of his peace of mind when the Allied Forces took Tokyo.

The real Louis Zamperini who died in 2014

This movie was directed by Angelina Jolie and she co-produced it as well.

Quite a good movie to watch especially the agony and triumph of Louis.

Good Directing

A Weekend Escapade in Danang

5th Most Populous City

   My daughter had a week-end resort in Danang, Vietnam from 23rd to 25th January 2015.

Danang Street Food

Travelling on Air Asia, the journey began with a hitch. The plane that was supposed to fly them developed fuel leakage from one of its tanks. So, after a long wait, they got on board the plane that have just got in from Danang.

Danang Beach Hotel

Arriving almost two hours late, she had a late lunch with her colleagues from the office.

Heritage Cham site

So the office skipped the team building exercise but managed to pursue the rest of their Danang agenda.

Pristine Beaches

On reflection she told me that the two-nights 3 days stay was a breather and she managed to enjoy the cool climate of Vietnam, the ambiance of the hotel, historical Cham artifacts. good food as well as some shopping for Vietnamese coffee.

Messy Traffic

From Selma to Montgomery

The Civil Rights Classic

 The movie;Selma, chronicles the civil rights fight of Martin Luther King against the state of Alabama where Blacks were denied the right to register to vote.

Standing between Lyndon B. Johnson the President of America and King is  the racist Governor George Wallace who made it his personal mission to curtail the rights of the Blacks.

David Olewoyo as King and Carmen  Ejogo as Coretta Scott King

A moving docudrama, it is well paced and keeps the audience longing in anticipation for the next thing to happen in this volatile quest by King to secure voting rights for the Blacks from President Johnson through a Bill of Rights.

The walk across the bridge from Selma to Montgomery by King and the protesters as they faced the local police force bent on beating them down is the climax of this movie.

This movie has great stars both in starring roles and in cameos.

Attractive Ejogo

David Olewoyo stars as King while Carmen Ejogo stars as his wife Coretta. Johnson was played by Tom Wilkinson with cameos from Cuba Gooding Jr,Giovanni Ribisi and Wendell Pierce. Oprah Winfrey acted as  Annie Lee Cooper and also co-produced Selma.

Great movie to enjoy if you like witty dialogue.

Shale and Innovation-The Tectonic Shift of Oil

Shale up your alley!

I have edited Guy Bechor’s Opinion Piece on the Shifting of the focal point of  crude oil beginning 2015. 

I do not know how much of this is based on facts and how much on conjecture but it makes interesting reading.

Stones and Rock Flakes?

If you read this piece and believe it so based on one singular fact, then it must be that in 2014 the USA lifted its oil export embargo  technically causing a mayhem in world markets beginning in January 2015 with the phenomenal slump of world crude oil  prices. 

Mountain of Oil

This can be described nothing less than tectonic!

And the conjecture part? 

Minting Oil Money

Bechor tells you that this will be the likely scenario.

I will put them in bullet points.

New Black Gold

• The new innovative technology has flung open the doors to extract shale oil economically which will potentially produce 12 million barrels of oil per day within a year. 
• Minusing domestic consumption, a million barrels a day will be available for the USA to export! In contrast, Iran today only manages to produce 1.5 million barrels a day. Also, as of today, the USA has become the single largest crude oil producer to the world eclipsing even the oil lord, Saudi Arabia.
• Bechor expects oil to keep on dropping in price with little reprieve. 
• His scenario is Arab oil exporting nations will begin to lose their shine. Politically, deprived of the oil largesse they are used to, there will be internal shocks in the form of political and social turbulence and upheavals. The sudden cutbacks will also curb their development and their influence on world politics.
• Non-OPEC nations will also enter the export market along with the USA. These include Canada, Brazil, Mexico, and Nigeria.

Innovation-Driven Process for Shale

2015 is a brand new world powered by a revolution of information, innovation and inventions.

Every USD Spent will bring in USD2

So,if you do not have a creative mind, you will so be relegated to be fossilized!


PS:

Latest figure of oil production in USA from Commerzebank of Germany on 22 January 2015:

" The USA now produces a good 9 million barrels of crude oil per day,the largest volume in 28 years. Never before were crude stocks in the US as ample at this time of year than at present."-Reuters

You Only Live Twice-Tan Hoo Passes On

I guess I can call him a good acquaintance.

Our paths did cross way back in the early 1980's.

Seconded from the Ministry of Health, Tan Hoo was involved in sewage projects in such places like Sungkai and Lunas. We were looking to upgrade the pit latrine systems.

He was an affable guy, telling me about the stories when he was studying overseas. The interesting one was how he dived to harvest abalone in Australia. Or was it New Zealand?

His favourite expletive was, "No Shit!"

He got his Datukship when he became Director-General on the Health Services Department of the Ministry of Housing

You Only Lived Twice?

Yes, when he was renting a house and reading the Sunday papers in Section 17,  a bullet graced his forehead after ricocheting off his wall. It was a shot from a police chasing a robber.

He lived to tell the tale and told me so.

As he passed away on 19th January 2015, I bid him farewell in the high heavens!

Sniper Fire

Bulls-eye precision

If you should compare this movie called American Sniper to the classic, Enemy at the Gates, the former pales in comparison.Nothing beats the cat and mouse fight between sharp-shooters Jude Law and Ed Harris!

However, after a second review of the movie especially with good English subtitles, Clint Eastwood's treatment of this movie chronicling 4 tours of duty of Chris Kyle in Fallujah  has its good moments. Though Eastwood tends to be overtly melodramatic,carrying on from such movies such as The Unforgiven  to Million Dollar Baby, American Sniper does not  differ too much from the Eastwood mould-dry,draggy and tending towards dry realism almost resembling a pseudo documentary. There is still too much details amidst the bloody gore and violence.

Starring in the main role as the protagonist Chris Kyle,  a Navy Seal sharpshooter is Bradly Cooper and Sienna Miller as his lonely wife who enjoyed only 3 days of her honeymoon before Chris was whisked off to Iraq. Sadly, she was 'put on hold' and  had nothing to look for in life except to bear his 3 children and to await his safe return from his missions.

The Speed of a Bullet

Though it is a long movie, it does provide ample excitement especially in the final minutes of the conflict in Fallujah against a background of a raging sandstorm and gun fire.

This movie may appeal to war aficionados, but I feel that American Sniper may be closer to the American audience and may yet garner a fistful of Oscars this time around.

Eye Candy for the movie

In real life, after his heroics in Iraq, Kyle was murdered by a war veteran.

Escapism into the Wild

The Wild Option

One of the current movie making the round at the local circuit is Wild.

It is a depressive movie chronicling the downward spiral of a woman named Cheryl Strayed who almost tipped over due to the death of her mother and the dissolution of her marriage.

To overcome her grief, and with an absolute lack of hiking experience,  she took on a heavy backpack and chose the tortuous Pacific Crest Train ( longest and toughest) as her challenge to overcome the pains of  her plight.

Challenging Depression

Though Witherspoon showed her many sides of what it is to grief, the movie somehow did not hit the high notes.

Characters were not well developed and the story hardly build up to a crescendo especially with its too many flashbacks.

You  can give this movie a miss.

The Big Eye Genre

The Big Eye Wonders

I must say this movie, " Big Eyes" have its share of interest though there are critics that will tell you that without Christoph Waltz and Amy Adams in it, it will be another run-of-the-mill B Grader.

The plot-line is simplistic-a divorced single parent, Margaret (Amy Adams) sought a new life for herself and her daughter, painting portraits  of waifs with saucer-shape eyes. A trickster, Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz) saw her talent and married her to tap on her talents but with a twist. He wanted every painting to bear his name instead of hers. As he basked in his new found fame thanks to his marketing skill, his ego got the better of him and he estranged himself to Amy and her daughter.

When Margaret started her painting business in Hawaii after leaving him, Walter tracked her down and a court case ensued.

Margaret in her studio

Who won should be no mystery.

Watchable fare based on a true story that spans the period 1950's through 1960's.

Chilly Nights with the Nightcrawler

Chilly Nights with Lou

If there is one recent movie that may give you the creeps, it is Nightcrawler.

A movie depicting the lives of free-lance stringers who prowl the nights and compete to scoop on tragic news from violent accidents to murders to sell to  tv stations and the low-down dynamics of their operations is well-documented here.

Jake Gyllenhaal as the chilly-looking Lou that will do anything to succeed in his new found trade and his desperate quest by bargaining to move ahead to the top of the heap is the premise of this exciting dark movie.

By the way, Rene Russo still look voluptuous at her age. Believe me.

Quite a worthy movie to watch.

Boyhood-Living Through It!

Mason- A Brilliant Portrayal 

As the Academy Awards ceremony looms closer, I have spent time watching some good movies lately.

Top on the list was Boyhood.

It was a cinematic feat-a first of its own kind where a movie was made chronicling a twelve-year period  of a boy from his young years until he reached college-going age. The producer and director Richard Linklater must be credited for their sustaining effort of more than a decade, to bring this classic movie to the silver screen.

The quality that the movie brought through both Mason (Ellar Coltrane) and  Samantha (Lorelie Linklater) as they literally grew before your eyes throughout this period is truly profound and beyond all comparison. It's a great feeling to experience their growth from childhood to pre-adulthood.

As for acting, Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette were brilliant.

Arquette  Linklater,Coltrane and Hawke

Patricia Arquette may seem like the underdog for The Best Actress  nomination this year if the hot favourite Julianne Moore finally gets the coveted Oscar for her dramatic role in Still Alice this time around

Still, Boyhood is a joy to watch especially through the eyes of the parents as they undergo the phases of happiness,depression,separation and divorce through the years and the effects they have on these 2 children.

Great movie. Watch it.

In Memoriam of Alex

Always in our Prayers

Though, it is less than 20 days late for a 7-year memorium, I think it is still appropriate to write a blog entry in memory of my dear departed friend, the late Mr Alex Ooi Eng Chor.

He was a good friend of mine and had often invited us to his home where he will personally cook Penang food for us. Talk about a servant attitude, that was he!

He left us on 15 December 2008 when he was just 58 years old.

I will always cherish him in my prayers.