Unfinished

Alex has a very strange habit. He loves watching movies. But he can happily stop the movie halfway, or even with only 10 minutes left for that matter, to take a nap, read a magazine in the loo, or worse, swap DVDs!

I don't understand this at all. At one time, quite a few years back in fact, he was watching Meet Joe Black starring Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins. He got sleepy towards the end. Having seen the movie prior, I told him there were only a few minutes left and that he should just finish watching it. But no, Mr Sleepy Head couldn't keep his eyes open anymore and decided to abandon the movie. The next day, a thief broke into his apartment and stole a few items, including the Meet Joe Black VCD! And no, till today Alex never saw the ending of the story.

That incident didn't teach him the joy or importance of watching a movie from the start to the end within one sitting, though. He still "breaks" his movies, all the time. Most annoying. And last night, we rented The Wickerman with Nicholas Cage in the lead role. I no longer have a stomach for horror movies and simply loathe watching a scary show all by myself, especially at night. So I was glad to have a partner watching with me.

I should've known. At 10.30pm, he started yawning and we were only half way through the movie. I wasn't that keen on the movie at first but slowly got hooked and I wanted to know what happened next. But Alex loudly excused himself, leaving me alone with The Wickerman. Truth be told, it wasn't that scary but I was just too chicken to watch it without another person next to me. So I abandoned it as well.

No more horror flicks for me. Waste of time and kills the fun if I have to watch it with the only other adult in the house!

Now, That's Magic

I finally watched The Prestige. Bought the DVD on sale. And it's really worth it. To sum it up, it is brilliant.

Of course, me being an idiot, I had to spoil my fun at least 10-fold by reading the plot and story before watching the movie first. Yeah, stupid me. For some reason, I'm always partial to spoilers. I couldn't wait for the real thing, so I looked for an alternative. You can find almost anything on the Internet these days.

The turns and twists of the story are amazing. Hats off to the author of the original novel, Christopher Priest, as well as Christopher and Jonathan Nolan who expertly adapted the novel for the big screen. It's astounding how creative and imaginative some people can be. Makes me feel extremely inadequate sometimes.

The casting, directing and acting were superb. It is a star-studded cast, with my favourites Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale playing the lead roles of Robert Angier and Alfred Borden respectively. Yeah, Wolverine and Batman are both in the movie!

Well, actually, they played more than one role each. Jackman is dashing and charismatic as the showman magician. He is also quite effective playing a perpetually imbibed actor hired to be his double in his act. Bale's performance too is unblemished. He is unrecognisable in his other role as Fallon, Borden's loyal illusion engineer. And David Bowie - well, I wouldn't know Tesla is Bowie if I hadn't seen the credits!

It was a thrill watching the 2 leads trying to outdo and sabotage each other (I was so mesmerised I didn't touch my favourite potato chips, not even once, and that says a lot!). But what heavy prices they had to pay!

Now I can't wait to get my hands on the novel. Meantime, I will just watch the movie a few more times. Of course, the extras on the DVD will certainly be a bonus for me.

Art House Movie Conundrum

As much as I love movies, I am never into art house movies. Never was, never will. They are just too "deep" for me.

Good old Bala used to ask me to check out free art house movie screenings in KL back in our reporter days at The Sun. He meant well, always willing to share what he perceived as great things with his pals (still does), including moi. I tagged along a couple of times, and each time I came out feeling like an idiot!

While everyone else gushed over a particular film, my mind went blank. What the heck was the movie about? I didn't get it. Either I was profoundly stupid or everyone else feigned cleverness. And if someone happened to ask "So what do you think of the show?", I would produce a safe answer - "It was err, interesting," and quickly walked away before he or she asked another question that was even harder to answer.

Here in Melbourne, the video stores are filled with a huge range of art house movies from around the world. For reasons best known to himself, Alex recently picked one called "Irreversible" starring Monica Bellucci from the shelf.

If you've seen it, you'll know how graphic the violent scenes are and how weird it is - it actually starts from the end and keeps going backwards chronologically. I was totally confused and it took me a while to realise the strange sequence. Watching it really drained me. But I must say, each chapter (about 15 minutes) is only one take, with no cuts in between - pretty impressive acting.

Still, impressive or not, art house movies are certainly not my cup of tea. I don't want to tax my brain when I'm watching a movie. I just want to laugh, get some cheap thrills or marvel at beautiful things. Yeah, that's shallow, I know. But that's just me.

Movie Night

Tuesday. My favourite day. Why? Because of cheap video rentals on Tuesdays. Yep, it's my movie day.

Going to the cinema is an expensive affair here. When we watched Transformers a couple of months back, it cost us a bomb - AU$16 per adult ticket! Renting DVDs is a much cheaper alternative. And there are quite a few options too.

At Video Buster, you can rent a DVD for only AU$1 on Tuesdays and have it for a week. Of course for new releases, the rental period may be limited. Another good place to go is Video EZY. Gosh, they have everything and a lot of new movies. They even sell ex-rental DVDs at crazy prices. Its rental charges are higher than Video Buster's. Still, it's a lot cheaper than going to the cinema.

Renting DVD is really worth it. The kids truly make the best of it, watching their kiddie shows at least 7 times before returning the DVDs!

And another plus - all DVDs are original and uncensored. If you don't like something, don't watch it. The movie rating is clearly printed on the cover. Read carefully before renting.

Well, gotta go. Have to catch my Ocean's Twelve now. I know it's an old movie but I didn't get to see it when it was first released. So it's a treat for me tonight.

Proudly Australian

Back in Malaysia, we have this "Beli Barangan Buatan Malaysia" campaign. Buy local, support local goods. Apparently, there is a similar thing in Australia. You'll see the label "Proudly Australian" in many locally produced and manufactured goods.

It's hardly surprising since the market here too has been inundated with goods "Made In China". The funny thing is, even the "Made In China" products here are better than those seen in Malaysia.

Anyway, it's not just locally grown and manufactured goods that are the pride of Australians. They have another kind of goods and exports that they are immensely proud of - movie exports.

Yep, just look at Nicole Kidman. She is BIG here. I had no idea until I got here. You can find pictures and news bits about her in EVERY issue of the tabloid magazines here. Every move she makes, every statement she issues, every man she is seen with, etc, are all documented meticulously. Good thing she doesn't live in Australia. She would've been hounded by the paparazzi all year round. Wait, maybe that's why she doesn't live here.

And of course, there is the multi-talented Hugh Jackman too. I never thought much of him until I saw Kate & Leopold, in which he played a poor nobleman from 1876 transported to the 20th century. The movie sank but Jackman as Leopold truly shone. Leopold and Wolverine were as similar as black and white. That was when I realised this guy CAN actually act. And to my utter surprise, I later found out he actually had a stage and musical background. Wolverine in musicals?? Yeah, his range is that amazing. Needless to say, I'm a big - and perhaps a bit obsessed fan - now. Yeah, my desktop wallpaper features Leopold. Gorgeous. Ha ha.

And there are others too - Cate Blanchett, Russel Crowe, Naomi Watts, Heath Ledger, Julian McMahon, etc. And I just read that many Australian TV actors are also in the running for various awards in the Emmys.

Watch out Hollywood. Aussiewood will rule someday!