Osama: The Incredible Final Countdown

Katryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty surely is a slow fuse as it builds the precursor to the longest man-hunt ever in history. Then it quickens and tightens as it went along!

Bent on killing the invisible Osama Bin Laden, Maya, a 9-year CIA operative plots the scenarios where Osama will likely be sequestered.

On the Edge of The Seat Suspense

A chance event of a courier sending a missive to a Jalalabad fortress of a mansion, sends waves to Maya that she may have at last found the hideout of Osama.

Killing of a Terrorist

As she rubbishes the theories that Osama was hiding in the high hills of Afghanistan where he cannot communicate with his operatives, she got the big wigs all the way to Obama to give her that chance so that Osama will not slip away this time.

The Success of   US Espionage

Her sixth sense paid off as they finally annihilated the man responsible for the destruction of the twin towers of the New York World Trade Centre and avenge the deaths of countless innocent lives taken away by the suicidal plane bombs on the towers.

A gripping movie-worth every sen and every second to watch the movie!

Les Miserables-A Resounding Musical Treat

Symbol of Revolution

This is one great musical based on the story by Victor Hugo of the French Revolution and one man's atonement for stealing bread, his retribution of 19 winters and a man, bent of catching him called Inspector Javier for breaking parole.

Love in Battle-scarred Paris

The songs are great particularly Anne Hathaway singing I believe and a young Cossette  sating Castle on a Cloud.

Jean Valjean the Protagonist

The story ended well with the loose ends being sewn up well where the value of forgiveness overtakes vengeance.

You must be Broadway inclined to enjoy this movie.

Javier who never gives up!

I did since I enjoyed Miss Saigon very much when it was staged in Drury Lane, London.

The Unfortunate Fantine

The music, song and lyrics are strangely similar and powerful.

Cossette 

The songs will play in your mind many times over after you have seen the movie.

The Life of Pissing Pi

Tiger meets the Modern Mariner

This is another Ang Lee wonder that manages to put him back into the limelight after the legendary Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the controversial Brokeback Mountain. That he could even take the classic novel of Sense and Sensibility  and bring magic into it is sheer indicator that he would go far.

Extraordinary Visual Storyteller

In Life of Pi, we are again embedded into s foreign culture and this time it is the Indian sub-continent. From the French quarters of Pondicherry, we have to take in a privately-run zoo, a voyage at sea and a survival between man and beast.

Pi's adventure with the tiger, Richard Parker and a whole new world out there on the open sea is at once spectacular and captures our hearts as we savour the delight with our eyes. The computer graphics must have been good as it was in 3D at the cinema.

The Survival Game

The short side-line story of the two Japanese investigators of the sunk vessel and their evaluation of the stories spun by Pi of cannibalism and the adventures of the zebra, monkey, tiger and himself is amusing nonetheless.

Co-existence  out of Necessity

Though I have my reservations that the movie could have been better, I felt that I enjoyed it so much more than Spielberg's Lincoln.

Lincoln-Politics,Lobbyists and Abolitionists

If you like the back-room antics of lobbyists and wheeling-dealing and hard dialogue, perhaps you may like Steven Spielberg's movie about the hey-days of Abraham Lincoln in his second term fighting for the end oft slavery, the Civil War and the family drama within the White House.

Surveying the Carnage of War

Do not expect any excitement per se as it does follow close to script about Abraham Lincoln; how he won the Congress's vote to end slavery and his death at the Ford Theater.

It is a long  movie of  150 minutes; so be prepared for the long haul.

Cabinet Meeting at the White House

Nominated for 12 Academy Awards, it is piped to take the lion-share of the statuettes this time around.

Cucumbers for YTL Corp

No buying signals so far

Apparently there is early talks that Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) is having talks with YTL Corp to set up a consortium  to bid for the  RM4.85 billion Standsted Airport in UK.

Basing on the same model it used in Delhi and Hyderabad in India , MAHB will work hand in hand with YTL to develop the whole third hub as it manages the airport as the operator.

YTL has some RM 16 billion sitting nice and cushy and MAHB can definitely see the benefit of a strategic alliance with YTL Corp.

While a torrent of shares changed hands with a price uptick for MAHB, buying interest in YTL Corp was missing despite this welcome news.

What gives?

Making No Bones About It

Bone Readers

Actually I do not watch TV series;not on our local networks anyway.

The closest to a series was American Idol.

What I do these days is to watch backdated series.

So, this afternoon, I just went back to the First Season of Bones to see whether this series has chemistry since it started way back in 2005.

They must have done something right to last this long.

Was there magic between Emily Deschanel and David Boreneaz?

As I have just watched the pilot, I think if at all the chemistry is there, it is as yet latent.

The pilot was so-so and really did not stand out.

Perhaps watching the full season may change my mind.

FGV-OPM,Ponzi and Defying Gravity

Losing your trousers;burning your butt

Call it what you may.

If you had bought into FGV  during the IPO or in the month it was listed, you have got one pretty hole in your wallet.

I agree it is OPM-Other People's Money but then as public stewards of money, there must be a cut-loss position.

Even it you were to play an averaging down game, you still must have a policy when after an average that equals the net tangible asset of the counter, you must desist from any more accumulation.

After  jointly losing  some RM 75 million, EPF and the Pensions Fund have nothing todo but to sorrowfully lick their wounds.

Question is: As most cornerstone investors must have scooted off with their tails between their legs, what could these two funds do?

While EPF may work like a Ponzi Fund with collections from both employers and employees every month, the Pensions Fund must really be worrying its heads off as they have to pay out pensions every month.

Losing such a huge amount of money must really be nerve-wrecking!