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