.: ShaolinTiger - Kung-Fu Geekery :.

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.

Syriana is a thriller of corruption and power related to the oil industry that tells four parallel stories: the CIA agent Bob Barnes (George Clooney) with great experience in Middle East that falls in disgrace after an unsuccessful mission dealing missiles in Lebanese Republic; the investigation of the attorney Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright) related to the merge of two American oil companies, Connex and Killen; the traumatic association of the energy analyst Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon) with the son of a powerful emir of Iran; and the social drama of the Pakistani immigrant worker Wasim Khan (Mazhar Munir) that is fired by the oil company.

Well it's a long time since I've done a movie review, so here you are! It's been quite a long time since I watched any movies, so there you go..

I've got a LOT of movies to catch up, so I'll bore you with some of the reviews.

Syriana was one of those big hyped movies from 2005, Oscar nominations, these awards, those awards etc etc. I was expecting a lot from it.

It got a solid 7.2 on IMDB, if not for the boring part it'd easily be a high 8.

Frankly the first 20 mins was a complete yawn-fest, I almost turned it off, I know someone that did fall asleep and someone else that did actually turn if off half way through.

It's a shame as it does get very much better after that.

It's an intricately woven tale showing the picture from the ground level with Pakistani workers being laid off in the oil fields, the political level, and the level of normal people like you and I with George Clooney and Matt Damon getting involved for vastly different reasons.

It's a deeply political film and very nicely linked together but slow in parts, it's definately thinkers film and is closely related to many of the things that have happened in recent times..

I believe it was banned in Malaysia due to some of the sensitive issues it addressed.

The acting was top notch, it's good to see Clooney taking a meaty role and once again Matt Damon showing his versatility.

It's an interesting enough movie, just don't expect any action, chicks, explosions or humour.

Serious and tense it is, light-hearted it is not.

You have to give it some time and get into the plot, the twists, the power struggles and the back-stabbing. It was based on a book which was apparently based on a real conflict, I have yet to look up who the prince was..but it's certainly interesting.

I'd give it a worth watching 6.5/10.

Most the tolls still around have already paid for the roads they are on, like LDP toll was supposed to be decomissioned 2 years ago.

And why do we pay road tax, and THEN TOLLS?

For shitty roads with holes in and bridges that fall down.

Surely with the 4.4billion they are saving from reducing the petrol subsidy they could remove tolls?