.: ShaolinTiger - Kung-Fu Geekery :.

Batman and James Gordon join forces with Gotham's new District Attorney, Harvey Dent, to take on a psychotic bank robber known as The Joker, whilst other forces plot against them, and Joker's crimes grow more and more deadly.

Honestly I think Christopher Nolan can do no wrong....he's only made 8 movies and 3 are in the top 250 on IMDB...and I'm guessing this will make it 4 (Memento, The Prestige and Batman Begins).

He's back again to take us on another rollercoaster, Batman Begins was hailed as one of the best superhero movies of all time and it really returned to the roots of Gotham City..dark, brooding, nasty and violent. The character of Bruce Wayne was captured by a fantastic Christian Bale - he's fast becoming one of the best actors around.

And this...The Dark Knight, just rocks in and blows you away. It's sad, truly sad that Heath Ledger is gone and I would be surprised if he doesn't nail an Oscar for his performance...he's truly terrifying, unhinged and totally believable as the joker. It's hands down one of the best performances in any movie I've ever seen. RIP Heath, you surely went out with a bang.

This movie delves deep into the character of Batman and Bruce Wayne, his own flaws and how the Joker desires to make him look at himself and why he does it - does he have a deep down loathing for society? It's a character study and a gripping one at that. The cinematography is perfect along with the sound-track - it really takes you there.

The Batpod comes out, and it's awesome! Christian Bale is great as Bruce Wayne and Batman, although the spotlight isn't on him so much in this movie.

Maggie Gyllenhaal was better than Katie Holmes in Batman Begins....but still not the strongest player in the movie.

The rest of the regulars put in great performances (Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman). Not sure about Aaron Eckhart still..The Scarecrow made a very brief entrance too, but wasn't really part of the movie.

The movie was long, and in places it felt it - this would be my one and only complaint. If not for that it's near perfection. This is the most I've written about a movie for a long time and I definitely have to get a BluRay version of this to watch on a huge HD projector at some time in the future.

I give it a dark and dastardly 9/10, definitely close to being best movie of the year.

I still feel elite as I saw this movie on Tuesday...and IMDB still doesn't have a rating because not enough people have watched it!

A hard-living superhero who has fallen out of favor with the public enters into a questionable relationship with the wife of the public relations professional who's trying to repair his image.

This is a movie I was looking forward to for some time as Will Smith is really growing as an actor, apart from that this is a novel movie concept - it's not a Marvel superhero! It's not from a comic book and the main character is somewhat dysfunctional. Thanks to Nuffnang for the screening!

You can say his last two movies weren't exactly amazing too, they were all about Will Smith, something like Will Smith showcases (I Am Legend and The Pursuit of Happyness).

Will Smith played his character very well, the drunkard, bumbling, overpowered Hancock (Without being too Willsmithish). The character was a breath of fresh air, the dialogue was good (apart from the stupid censorship - they let 'Fuck' through but censored 'Asshole' about 100 times?).

Come-on Asshole isn't even that bad a word is it?

ASSHOLE ASSHOLE ASSHOLE ASSHOLE ASSHOLE!

Say it one more time...and I'll...haha. Watch the movie and you'll know. The rest of the characters were decent enough and Charlize Theron was excellent as usual...and SUPER hawt.

There are some interesting twists and turns in the movie and it's filmed beautifully, it has a very realistic feel without too much fancy CGI. It's more about the characters and their relationships than anything else.

It's not a typical superhero showcase as Hancock would say....they are all GAY.

One of the best lines in the movie is..

"Well you should sue McDonalds because they fucked you up!"

Anyway if it wasn't for the horrible censorship I'd probably give it an enjoyable 7/10, but with the mashed up dialogue....I'd have to give it a worth watching 6/10.

In 1957, Indiana Jones is thrust back in action, venturing into the jungles of South America in a race against Soviet agents to find the mystical Crystal Skull.

So Indy is finally back with the 4th part and high expectations with the first Indiana Jones movie back in 1981 being one of the best movies ever made (Raiders of the Lost Ark - #16 on IMDB). The Last Crusade was good too, Temple of Doom wasn't so great but was still enjoyable. All in all a great trio of movies..I was excited about Indy 4 coming out since it was rumoured then announced..

Finally I got the chance to watch it!

All in all it was good, it wasn't fantastic...it won't go down in the archives as a classic like Raiders of the Lost Ark but it was pretty decent.

Does Harrison still have it as Indy? Yeah he does! He kicked butt. I have to say the humour of the earlier films wasn't there in this one. It seemed a little too polished and a little less fantastic.

Our man held his end up tho, old he may be he still rocked and he was still pure Indy!

Shia LaBeouf was actually pretty decent and far less annoying than I expected him to be, Ray Winstone was far less of a bad-ass than he usually plays.

The rest of the cast were good, not a lot of depth to the characters though and I think the first time I've seen Cate Blanchett playing a real baddy.

The action sequences were good although the ending was a bit 'WTF is this ID4?'

It's certainly lacking the magic and suspense of the earlier 3 movies..I'd have to say so far this is the worst Indy.

Direction was good of course by Spielberg but mainly I think it's the script that let it down, should they have made this movie? I guess not...but they did, I hope they don't make another. Let Indy live as a legend!

All in all I'd give it a worth watching 6/10.

Scientist Bruce Banner desperately hunts for a cure to the gamma radiation that poisoned his cells and unleashes the unbridled force of rage within him: The Hulk. Living in the shadows--cut off from a life he knew and the woman he loves, Betty Ross--Banner struggles to avoid the obsessive pursuit of his nemesis, General Thunderbolt Ross.

The new Hulk movie came somewhat out of the blue and very quickly after the fabulous Ironman, it's another Marvel production and considerably better than the first Ang Lee effort "Hulk". It wasn't as hyped as Ironman and perhaps they should have bought it out first...

Not to say it's not a good movie, but it's hard to compete after Ironman. It's doing well om IMDB with a 7.9 at the moment - I'd say it'll go down to somewhere about 7-7.2 as it's not quite that good.

Some found the Ang Lee version much to 'talky', this one is a bit slow in the beginning too - it does pick up. Hulk is a sad story after all and thankfully it's much better played out in this version though.

Edward puts in a good performance as the weakling Banner trying to hide away and solve his problem with Gamma poisoning.

Liv Tyler is a bit annoying, she seems to be lacking depth..the Hulk on the other hand is fantastic. Especially the show down with the Abomination!

Hearing those immortal words of "Hulk Smash" was fantastic.

The rest of the cast was solid, William Hurt was great as the general and looked as though he came straight out of the book. Tim Roth was good as the slightly twisted Blonsky and the rest of the cast supported well (with the cameos from Stan Lee and the REAL Hulk Lou Ferrigno).

The Hulk is a bit of a one dimensional character himself, only the aspect of Banner adds something to the story...and the tussle between Ross and the General.

I'll be interested to see where they take it after this.

I give it a Hulk Smashing good 7/10.

Billionaire industrialist Tony Stark builds a high-tech suit of armor and leads a double-life as the superhero, Iron Man.

Well everyone has been buzzing about this movie, I have to admit I'm a little late in watching it - been WAYYY too busy lately. Managed to catch up with a couple of movies this week! I tried not to set my expectations too high for Iron Man as that tends to lead to disappointment. After a sneak peak at IMDB and the stunning 8.2/10 I was rather looking forwards to it (Not to mention it went straight into the top 250 movies!).

It is of course also the first Superhero/Comic movie that Marvel has actually made themselves, the others are made by big studios...and well now I think everyone hopes Marvel will continue making their own movies. Hulk is coming out soon, after that a list of others (Spiderman 4, The Avengers, Thor, Nick Fury etc).

Anyway back to Iron Man, this movie ROCKS! Plain and simple, Robert Downey Jr. absolutely owns the character of both Tony Stark and Iron Man.

The CGI is flawless, the way he interacts with the holographic renderings is fantastic. The way the whole movie is put together is believable, it's not too fantastic or unrealistic and it shows the development of Iron Man. Iron Man itself is also a nice concept, a man made hero rather than something spawned from a genetic mutation or a spider bite or a nuclear reaction.

Of course there will be comparisons between this and Transformers - I'd say this has the edge very slightly due to the fact the jokes and character interplay are slightly more adult oriented. Transformers is excellent, bit a little kiddy in parts.

Iron Man is funny, I laughed out loud quite a few times, the lines are great and Stark is of course obnoxious but witty. I have to say I think this is the best movie of the year so far and something is gonna have to do bloody well to beat it.

If you haven't watched it yet...do stay until after the credits. The credits are damn bloody long, but it's worth it!

You have to watch this before it goes off the cinema - if you haven't already of course. This is a movie that has gone onto my "Buy Original DVD" list..

Ironman rocks, nothing else to say - 9/10.

The mysterious and charismatic Russian-born Nikolai Luzhin (Viggo Mortensen) is a driver for one of London's most notorious organized crime families of Eastern European origin. The family itself is part of the Vory V Zakone criminal brotherhood.

This is a pretty gritty film, I hadn't actually heard of it - but Suanie recommended it so it must be good! It's got a strong rating of 7.9/10 on IMDB (One of the highest scores I've seen for a while).

The movie revolves around an average British girl (Naomi Watts) getting entangled with the 'Vor V Zakone' AKA the Russian Mafia - a scary bunch at the best of times. There is really quite a number of then in the UK, especially around London and they control a fair amount of territory.

It's pretty gory, violent, sexual and nasty - there's betrayal and all kinds of things going on.

Viggo Mortensen absolutely rocks it as the bad-ass Nikolai. He took method acting to the max, he really becomes Russian, the way he tilts his head when he speaks, his mannerism, everything is fantastic!

Vincent Cassel is also excellent as the narcissistic, confused, violent and down-trodden big-shot mafioso.

After stabbing someone in the eye during a naked fight in a sauna, I have to say Viggo is a real man now!

This is a great movie, an unexpected gem in the rough...definitely a must watch in my books. If you haven't seen it go and find it now and watch it and watch Viggo ROCK IT.

This is a memorable movie, the noirish setting, the vivid characters, great scripting, character development...it has a the lot!

I give it an eye-poking 8.5/10.

Master director Quentin Tarantino indulges his inner fanboy by paying homage to his favorite B-movies in DEATH PROOF. Stuntman Mike stalks beautiful women with his deadly vintage car, but when he picks a trio of tough girls (Rosario Dawson, Tracie Thoms, and Zoe Bell), he learns they aren’t such easy prey. As with any Tarantino film, there are plenty of nods to pop culture.

This is a movie I've been meaning to watch for quite a while, it's part of a double bill 'Grindhouse' with Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez - the RR being Planet Terror (I haven't watched that one yet).

They are supposed to be oldskool exploitation movies from the 70's - those that come on late at night with guns, hot chicks and lots of car crashes. They generally have no plots and are padded with dialogue to extend the meager budget.

Death Proof is no different! It's pretty much nailed the genre right down, but then it should with QT being the ultimate movie geek.

It has a lot of references to his previous movies (Red Apple, Big Kahuna Burger, breakfast scene from Reservoir Dogs, lots of references to Kill Bill and more!).

There isn't much of a plot to speak of but there is loads of lightning dialogue from start to finish, very Tarantino dialogue.

This is not a movie destined to be a box office hit, it's a movie QT wanted to make himself, it's not guided by a studio or by commercial success - this is a movie fan movie - a movie for film geeks.

Personally I loved it, the hot chicks, the awesome car chase, the obscure references and the witty lines delivered with sass.

It had some characteristically bad ass female leads too, watch the tables turn in the second half of the movie.

I give it an ass whooping 7.5/10.

A thriller that centers on Isabella El-Ibrahimi, the American wife of Egyptian-born chemical engineer Anwar El-Ibrahimi, who disappears on a flight from South Africa to Washington. Isabella desperately tries to track her husband down, while a CIA analyst at a secret detention facility outside the U.S. is forced to question his assignment as he becomes party to the man's unorthodox interrogation.

There seems to have been a spate of politically driven movies especially regarding the middle-east conflict and similar matters. It's to be expected I guess with the current climate, it is after all what is on peoples' minds.

Movies such as Babel, Syriana and even Constant Gardener come to mind as they all deal with conflicts.

Extraordinary rendition and irregular rendition are terms used to describe the apprehension and extrajudicial transfer of a person from one state to another and the term 'torture by proxy' is used by some critics to describe situations in which the U.S. has purportedly transferred suspected terrorists to countries known to employ harsh interrogation techniques that may rise to the level of torture. SOURCE

Scary eh? Basically you can be taken from anywhere to anywhere without ANYONE knowing about it.

Rendition tells a story, some may say an almost real story of an Egyptian man seized by the US government for no apparent reason..his case is very similar to the real life case of Khalid El-Masri who went through a similar experience due to one different letter (Al-Masri vs El-Masri).

The characters are strong, especially Omar Metwally as El-Ibrahimi, you can almost feel what he's going through.

Supporting are Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal.

The movie does make you think, is it ever right to torture another human being? Is what the US considers anti-terrorist action fair and just?

Do human rights matter when it comes to saving thousands of lives?

These are questioned that may be raised in your mind when watching this movie, to me that's a good sign..it means it's provocative and it touches on some fairly sensitive points.

The flow is good and the camera work is absolutely stunning, it's beautifully filmed. The soundtrack goes along with the movie well.

The only flaws I would say are the lack in character development of Mrs El-Ibrahimi and the agent played by Gyllenhaal. You never really get to understand these characters or find out who they are.

Even so it's worth a watch, I give it a strong 7/10.

A gun-for-hire known only as Agent 47 hired by a group known only as 'The Agency' is ensnared in a political conspiracy, which finds him pursued by both Interpol and the Russian military as he treks across Eastern Europe.

I was a great fan of the Hitman (Hitman: Codename 47) games even though they were ULTRA hard....1 life, no saves, no waypoints. You have to nail the level perfectly in one shot to proceed, and damn were they hard. It was the game that introduced bullet-time too (slow motion).

I was looking forwards to this movie for some time but only just got chance to watch it, I was expecting it to be pretty bad...as most game to movie efforts so far have been poor at best. I was pleasantly surprised as it was actually quite good.

Sure it's not going to win any Oscars..but it's worth watching to see Olga Kurylenko naked, man she's smoking hot.

Timothy Olyphant played Agent 47 very well, he had the character nailed down...the other characters in the movie were a little weak but it was interesting enough.

The plot was ok, the action was good (would have preferred if it were a little more graphic) and the pace decent enough. The movie somewhat reminded me of the Bourne trilogy, the style and the story too.

All in all it was an enjoyable Sunday evening movie, not too heavy and not too crappy. If you're a fan of the game or a fan of these kind of movies it's definitely worth a watch. Don't expect anything ground breaking.

I give it a cool as ice 6/10.

It seems like this year is going to be the year of clashes...Things just keep happening on the same day, or the same weekend.

Starting with this week and a company dinner or Hannah Tan's gig at Somo on Thursday night.

Shortly followed by a Sailing Trip (7-9th), Tiesto (9 & 10th) and World Lupus Day (10th)...all on the same weekend.

Then Kite Runner movie and Sean Kingston at Zouk on the same night.

Before that MDG visit to the house clashed with something else..

The trip to Sabah clashed with the Nuffnang Pajama Party.

*sigh*

It could be looked on as a good thing I guess, at least I have plenty of things to do...just why do they all have to happen on the same days/weekends - then the rest of the time nothing! Oh well, I guess it's a good sign blogs are getting more important - we are getting invited to more and more serious events, locations and trips.

Power of blogs eh?

How do you decide which to do when you have a clash in your schedule? Does work come first? Or does the one that would benefit you most come first? Or the one that you would enjoy most?

Would you go on a sailing trip or go for 2 days rave with Tiesto? Or would you forego both to help out a charity endeavour you are involved with?

Decisions decisions...so far I'm swayed to Tiesto and rush back to KL for the charity thing then back to PD for the second night of Tiesto!