Sherlock Holmes

Watched with: My Snooqums @ Cathay EHub (26/12)
Snacks: None
Genre: Action / Adventure

"Elementary my dear Watson."

The year is 1891 and London is overrun with crime.
In the middle of it is Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.), inventor and investigator. Accompanying him is his trusted partner Dr. John Watson (Jude Law) who more often than not saves Holmes' skin.

After the black-magic practitioner Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) is caught and executed, Watson decides it is time to retire and settle down with his fiance Mary Morstan (Kelly Reilly) much to the dismay of Holmes.
But when the mysterious Lord Blackwood seems to rise from the grave, Watson is forced to rejoin his partner-in-crime-solving.

And when an old flame of Holmes', Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) suddenly reappears during investigations, things are afoot.

I'll be honest I was really disappointed.
One of the first books I ever read was the Sherlock Holmes tale "The Hound of the Baskervilles" and it was great.
But this so called 'new-age' Sherlock Holmes is really crappy.
Yeah sure Robert Downey Jr. gave us a new type of hero with Iron Man but I think that they could have just left Holmes alone.
It's a pity Mark Strong had to waste his talent in such a pointless role.

And to make things worse - there'll surely be a sequel.

Give this one a miss please.

PS he didn't even say "Elementary my dear Watson."!!!
How can he not say "Elementary my dear Watson."?!?!?

Final Verdict:

Avatar

Watched With: Mr Baps Saigon @ Cathay Cineleisure (23/12)
Snacks: Chicken Nuggets & Iced Lemon Tea
Genre: Sci-Fi / Action

"James Cameron is god."

The year is 2154 and humans have harnessed technology.
The mineral Unobtanium is worth loads and mining on the moon Pandora is in the interest of bigshot Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi).

By his sides are scientist Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) and military leader Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang).
While the latter believes that the elimination of the local race The Na’vi is the best route, the former has techonolgy which allows humans to use their mind to control physical forms of 'avatar' of the local Na'vi people hence gaining their trust and enabling the mining operation without bloodshed.

Enter the latest subject for the avatar project - biologist Norm Spellman (Joel Moore) and Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a former marine who has lost the use of his legs but will now be able to use them again with his avatar.

What begins with the intention of gaining their trust gets complicated when Sully not only gains the Na'vi's trust but also starts believing in their cause and culture, falling in love with the local tribe leader's daughter Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) in the process.

Will the rest if the crew including pilot Trudy Chacon (Michelle Rodriguez) be able to sort things out peacefully or will the relentless Colonel Quaritch have his way.

There was so much hype about this movie.
From the graphics to the state-of-the-art CGI techniques used to the fact that James Cameron was finally getting to make this movie after 11 years.
All the reviewers were giving it 4 or 5 stars. All the reviwers.

Well I've got news for you buddy.
Parts of it were interesting and creative and some CGI was spectacular.
But James Cameron is NOT god. I assure you.

God would not have made such a predictable movie which kinda seems like a cheap rip-off of older movies like 'Surrogates', 'Jurassic Park' and 'The Matrix'.

Maybe the hype helped. Maybe a lot of things.
It was nice for awhile. But not as good as people made it out to be.
I think it'd be more worth it on DVD.

Final Verdict:

New Moon: The Twilight Saga

Watched With: My Snooqums @ Cathay EHub (04/12)
Snacks: None
Genre: Romance / Fantasy

Admit it. You think Jacob looks like me.

Star-crossed lovers Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) are at it again. Despite the Cullen vampire clan willingly accepting Bella into the midst, Edward slowly realizes the risks as well as the downside of a human-vampire relationship which leads to him ending their relationship and the Cullens leaving town for good.

Bella is heartbroken but slowly finds solace in good friend and secret admirer Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner/Adam Shah).
As the two grow closer and closer, it becomes harder to move further as Bella still pines for Edward and Jacob realizing this slowly drifts from Bella towards leader-of-the-pack rebel Sam (Chaske Spencer) to follow his destiny.

When Edward's sister Alice returns to give Bella news of Edward, events take a whole new turn and affairs are from from over.

Despite it being relatively short and unresolved I think i quite enjoyed this one.
The Twilight Saga of books/movies is not just for chicks oright.
Vampires and werewolves are always good subject matter.
I guess the trouble with series movies is that you have to wait awhile before you get to see the next one which is pretty frustrating.

Look out for Dakota Fanning as one of the Volturi.
Very nice.

Final Verdict: