The Borrower Arrietty

Stumbled upon The Borrowers Arrietty while watching iTunes Trailers. From the team that brought Howl's Moving Castle and Ponyo, Studio Ghibli produced a movie based on the novel of Mary Norton on the Borrowers.

Borrowers are tiny people living in households hidden from the human world. They "borrow" items to human which are dispensable. The Borrowers are not allowed to be seen by humans to maintain their safety of their stay in the household.

With the amazing Studio Ghibli, The Borrowers Arriety has many stunning scenes that are beyond imagination. Character profile are deep  with adorable characters to lighten up the show. Not much of captivating effects but the show progresses well. Who knows, one could expect a sequel.

Ratings: 3.5

Winnie The Pooh

Babysitting duties while everyone away. The best way to settle my 2 hyper-active nephew and niece is a movie that will ponder their minds. Both were glued on the screen till one fell asleep.

Winnie the Pooh and his friends from the Hundred-Acre woods are revamped to it's original movie. With narrators reading of the book and the characters playing along with words of the narrator is quite adorable and fascinating for the little that is.

Winnie the Pooh Movie tells 3 separate stories which were nicely gelled into one movie. Each characters are adorable and easily relateable with kids. My nephew and niece were having a ball of a time watching, till the little one fell asleep. Seems like a great bedtime story. Maybe should get her books of Pooh Bear to make her sound asleep.

Ratings: 3

Batman: Year One

Could it be by chance that DC Universe released Batman Year One very closely to Batman Arkham City the game? It's for sure splendid for me as I love them both.

There are truly many directions of how a comic character rises to what the character is now. Batman Begins and Dark Knight are plots that follows closely to the comics Dark Knight storyline. Batman Year One follows mainstream Batman and touches more of how Bruce Wayne chooses to be Batman and not Some-Other-Man. Year One also focus on James Gordon development as a police officer in Gotham City.

For fans who would like to know the true comic origins and happening, do catch show from DC Universe. DCU will bring most great comic series into motion pictures and follow exactly how it happens in the comics.

Ratings: 4

Real Steel

I love robots but I wasn't sure whether Real Steel could be added to my list. I love those animatronics with a mind of their own and able to build it's character as it progresses.

Real Steel is more of robots being controlled by humans to replace fighting in the arena. Gone were the days of Wrestlemania and Championship Boxing. The matches are replaced by chunky piece of metal bashing each other with enhanced move of former champions.

Like plots from most sport movie (which Real Steal can be considered one), there is character development but not on the fighter but the person behind the controller stick, Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman). Charlie was a former boxer who now stands behind the ring with a controller. He bets big but loses bigger till his ex-girlfriend died and left the fate of his son, Max in his custody or the mothers sister. Taking it as a wager, he took the boy in for the summer. The son is quite cunning and stubborn like the old man and the two grew closer as they spend time together in the battles.

With many battles lost and damaged robots, Max brought home a sparing robot, Atom and programmed it to fight with moves of his father. As a sparing-bot, Atom is able to withstand multiple blow which is an advantage and made the trio climbed the ladder up to World Robot Boxing League.

Character development in Real Steal made the show a success. The touching moment of the relation of father and son, and the struggle of every fight are a great plot to great sports movie. It's not all about the robots, it's mostly human connection that steals the show.

Ratings: 4

Friends With Benefits

Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis "Friends with Benefits" is very closely similar to Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher "No String Attached". The show released months after No Strings Attached and is very much alike.

However, the connection between Dylan (Timberlake) and Jaime (Kunis) is way more adorable and relate-able in most friendship. OK, maybe not the sex part but if you do, damn you have one hellava friend there.

The comedies in Friends With Benefits are way more hilarious than the latter. Girls, you will know how troublesome for us guys to pee with an erection. It's a morning struggle for us guys if our wee friend is not down by time we get to the toilet.

But wouldn't continuous sex with the same person causes affection with one another? It did in No Strings Attached and so it did for Friends With Benefits too. Though Dylan and Jaime managed it better.

Ratings: 3.5

The Smurfs

La... la... lal la la la... Who can forget that adorable yet irritatingly annoying tune? Yup I remember growing up hearing that tune daily to a point my feeble little mind was glue to the television watching little blue being prancing about in that merrily tune. These little blue beings are the Smurfs whom many 80's kids grew up with.

The philosophy behind the way Smurfs live are to stay happy and positive to the chores and duties of individual. Each Smurfs are named after their individual traits but one should not stay as one specialties.

The Smurfs lives in an enchanted forest with the evil Gargamel and his cat Azrael living nearby. Gargamel has been scheming to catch the Smurfs to possess the Smurfs positive essence which is very powerful. To add a modern twist to the movie, the Smurfs together with Gargamel were transported to modern New York. In addition, the Awesomeness Neil Patrick Harris stumbled upon them.

Though Patrick (Mr Awesome) isn't quite awesome himself in the movie. His wife, Grace (Jayma Mays) is as lovely and adorable as Glee's Emma Pillsbury. He adorableness matches those of the Smurfs.

Sure, the Smurfs are a bunch of adorable yet the tune is still annoying. Best for the kids and those young at heart or those who have not aged since ever.

Ratings: 3

Cars 2

Cars movies are adrenaline pumping and Spy movies are absolutely awesome. Spy cars are sleek and cool. Cars as spies are damn right entertaining.

The sequel to the Cars movie concentrates on Mater, mistaken as a spy car in disguise. So not much concentration on Lightning McQueen which is quite alright. Sure there are fast paced races but wouldn't it be better to watch cars with gadgets and arsenal to keep enemies at bay.

Cars 2 is sleeker with new characters such as spy cars and hot race cars. Mater can be quite adorable yet irritating. The comedy is quite expected. Think of it as Johnny English as a car.

Ratings: 3.5

An Inconvenient Truth

We have been neglecting it for far too long without noticing it. Thanks to a great humanitarian who envision a wider picture and a more pressing issue than to counter terrorism. It was such a tragic defeat but Mr Al Gore pushes on with this documentary movie.

I was having a course at work regard basic behaviours on safety and this show was featured as a stand point of the whole course. We understand the threat that can happen and will happen. As the saying, what can go wrong will go wrong. So what are we going to do about it? Let things happen and we will then solve the problem or take some time and prevent such things from happening.

A good point brought up was in balance of economy and the world, which is more important? Sadly, this era is all about money because life is getting to expensive to live in. But how about the world, where can we live without a world to in? We are seeing the threat and have acted on it, but we're living in a high-tech era powered by energy. Energy consumption that is threatening the world we live in. Based by statistic, Americans are the highest carbon emitter. Guys, do something about it or some poor country will be submerged underwater due to the melting ice caps. Such countries are Singapore where I'm living.

Truly an eye opener that's worth the cause. HIGHLY recommended to watch and pass around.

Ratings: 6/5 (You got that right. Do something about it)

Colombiana

"Vengeance is Beautiful", it sure is for Zoe Saldana. She has been playing so much great characters with so much great accenst like English, Americans, Spanish and can we count Na'vi from Avatar as another language.

Cattleya's (Zoe Saldana) family was killed upon her very eyes. She held something great that her father informed her would be her ticket out of her hell home country but she has to survive and make her way to the US Embassy. Successfully reaching the embassy, she managed to be attain a US passport and flown to US in search of her uncle Emilio. Emilio provided her a choice to live life like a normal girl but Cattleya wishes to be an assassin, to seek revenge for her family. Emilio agrees if she would pursue with education.

Cattleya grew up into a fine hitwoman, and I sure do mean FINE. She kept her life a secret even to her 'lover'. She would leave a trail of either drawing of a Cattleya which is a Colombian orchid to send a message to the victims mob head.

A truly great action movie by production of Luc Besson (another one). What made it better is definitely Zoe Saldana.

Ratings: 3.5

Nasi Lemak 2.0

I chanced upon this while looking through some recent Malay movies. Sadly, there isn't much great controversial Malay movies around since the late Yasmin Ahmad's Talentime. Then there was someone by the name of Namewee and his movie Nasi Lemak 2.0.

 The title itself would explain that the movie will be a comedy but it poked into the controversial expect of social beings in Malaysia like how the late Yasmin Ahmad would portray. Namewee managed to do it too, in a lighter and comedic way. He managed poked the seperation of the 3 main races, the mindset of each race and the many different languages that are spoken within the nation. Majority will think that it's only a Malay speaking nation but Namewee pushes on with Mandarin and slight Cantonese with Malay spoken here and there. There were even moments when each were speaking in their own language, refusing to speak in the common language and all were lost in translation. Bet that sure happens, even here in Singapore.

I've read that Namewee managed to persuade the Prime Minister to allow him to produce Nasi Lemak 2.0 as to commemorate 1 Malaysia. And true enough, some people there can't accept the controversy of the show even how true it is. People, be open and accept some feedback - work towards 1 Malaysia.

Ratings: 3.5

Zookeeper

From the people that brought you The Grown Ups, Zookeeper is about, well a Zookeeper. Kevin James stars along many talented voices including pal Adam Sandler.

After being distraught over the rejection of marriage, Griffin(James) continued his job as a zookeeper. He is well loved by all the animals and colleagues. His ex-girlfriend returned after 5 years when she was invited to Griffin's brothers wedding party. After noticing Griffin being a total klutz and to stop him complaining to them, the animals decided to break their code of silence and start advising their beloved zookeeper on how the animals mate.

Teaching a human the mating techniques of an animal can be quite interesting and feisty. Anyone wants their partner to have wild encounter, ask them to watch the animal planet. Surely, you can enjoy a thing or two.

Ratings: 3

Arthur 3: The War of the Two Worlds

A year after Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard, Luc Besson manage to complete his run within a year.

Maltazard returned in the second installment and managed to transformed into the human world, from a 2 millimeters Minimoy to a human size terror, Maltazard terrorized the human world while Arthur is still stuck in the world of Minimoy.

The trio sets out for another adventure to travel to Arthur's grandparents study in search of a vial that will transform a minimoy to a human. But Maltazard managed to raise his army using the very same vial hence Arthur had to search another method of transformation which is a visit to the Beehives.

The end of the Arthur trilogy which Freddie Highmore would be better at than the Spiderwick Chronicles. A good rendition of CGI and the real world.

Ratings: 3

Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard

After Luc Besson's 2006 Arthur and the Invisbles, he managed to create a sequel 4 years later. Apparently it is way better to make a sequel of Arthur than Spiderwick chronicles.

Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard takes place 3 years after the first movie. Travelling back to the Minimoys world is possible every 10 moons, however Arthur is only available during the holidays. The many mishap with his family and nature prevented him to meet his tiny friends. Due to a message received from a spider, Arthur took the painful journey of transformation to aid the distress message.

Upon returning to the Minimoys world, everyone was happy to see him even though they were meant to celebrate his return during the full moon. Curious about the message, Arthur asked around who wrote it and the king mentioned that Minimoy would write on a leaf instead of a grain of rice. Arthur soon discovered that Maltazard behind the message in attempt to get Arthur to return to the Minimoys world.

Luc Besson's Arthur is a family show with full of adventures and comedy. A fun filled family time for the kids and parents to watch.

Ratings: 3