nine/up in the air

today was the first day of my honours orientation. was mildly surprised to see a few familiar faces amongst my cohorts; people i've seen around but never really spoken to before. orientation started at 9.00am and ended an hour earlier than expected at 3.00pm. today being a monday, i decided to check out the session times at cinema nova as they have cheap tix on mondays. i arranged the times so that i have time to go home for a nap before seeing the second movie.

3.40pm nine 
starring daniel day lewis, marion cotillard, penelope cruz, nicole kidman, kate hudson, fergie, judi dench and sophia loren.
despite reading unfavorable reviews, i still wanted to see the film, mostly because i already have a few of their songs playing on itunes in my mac and ipod on repeat. i loved marion cotillard's songs the most although kate hudson and nicole kidman did pretty good jobs on their songs. fergie probably had the strongest singing voice, no surprise as that's what she does for a living.
the film was... not as bad as i thought it would be. yes, the jumps between the imagined and real sequences are a bit choppy and it is a pretty flimsy plot revolving around beautiful women and contini but the star power of the cast really blankets over most of the holes in the film. they're all pleasant to look at and everyone had a decent singing voice. overall, perhaps a 6/10 for me although there were some members of the audience who enjoyed it enough to clap at the end.

7.30pm up in the air
starring george clooney, vera farmiga, anna kendrick, jason bateman, chris lowell.....
this one had really great reviews. it first caught my attention when i was watching the live telecast of the golden globes although i had no idea what the film was about. i have never been a fan of george clooney. whilst i'm sure that he is a great actor and all, i just don't see what all the hype about his person and his looks are about. that said, he did give a really good performance here, enough to entice me to see his other film, the men who stare at goats. also, both vera farmiga and anna kendrick were superb in their roles and i loved the way they delivered their lines.
the idea of living life in transit seemed quite appealing to me; no need to form unnecessary connections and lug around excess baggage. although i suppose after awhile it does get a bit pointless, as our protagonist ryan bingham discovered. guess you can't have everything in life.

so herein ends my life in transit as i almost officially start uni again. ww went of on a day trip to phillip island today by herself. am happy to find that there will be no orientation tomorrow so i can spend her last day at melbourne with her although part of me still wishes that i am flying home tomorrow too.

sherlock holmes/avatar/bodyguards and assassins

movie escapades since i came back =)

25/12/2009- 1 utama with fish
sherlock holmes
i'd wanted to watch avatar but fish had already told another friend they'd watch it together so i settled for robert downey jr. and jude law. it was a pretty good movie. i can totally see the resemblance between holmes/watson and house/wilson from house. the dynamic is there and i am pleasantly surprised with jude law's watson. this isn't something i'd watch twice but i'd definitely be keen on a sequel, if ever there is one to be made.

28/12/2009- mid valley with wy. my first time driving all the way to almost kl. nerve-wracking!
avatar
admittedly, i sort of dragged wy to watch this with me. she'd already said she didn't like pocahontas and i knew the plot for this was somewhat similar but i dragged her to it anyway >.< i loved the show. the special effects were damn cool and the action sequence were pretty nice. i would've liked the film a thousand times more if i hadn't been sitting to an extremely noisy grandpa and his grandkids. the kid kept squealing throughout the movie, which was normal, i mean kids are annoying little organisms anyway but the grandpa, omg the grandpa had to keep a running commentary about everything that happened. half an hour in i could not take it anymore, turned over and told the old man to keep his volume down. i would watch avatar again, if only to enjoy it without the constant noise pollution.

29/12/2009- sunway pyramid with ww.
bodyguards and assassins
wy actually wanted to watch this although i'd resolutely said no as i'd wanted to watch avatar so when ww suggested this today i agreed. like ip man, this was a movie i had no intention of watching yet was very glad i did. it was a pretty well-produced show. the action sequence and the acting were all pretty good although the constant switching between cantonese and mandarin was slightly annoying especially when it was so apparent the the actor's lips and the words coming out were not in concordance. some parts actually made me teary eyed. must be the dormant chinese in me, haha. overall, a good watch.

in summary, although i adore robert downey jr. to bits *ironman!!* and jude law is still a tasty piece of eye candy, out of the 3 movies i prefer the latter 2 despite not being as familiar with the actors. i suppose plot and special effects won out this time around, both movies had the feel of something epic whereas sherlock holmes was, in comparison, just a quaint detective show.

it feels like rain

take to the streets,
can't ignore,
world starts crashing down,
find me,
god love your soul,
everyone's the same,
on the road,
lost till you found,
strong till you break,
whenever your world starts crashing down,
that's when you'll find me.

got my offer from wehi today. it's a good xmas present. if only i could stop feeling so guilty for letting my parents pay the crazy tuition fees for yet another year.

take a step

i received my finals results today. 3 years of uni boiling down to 1 semester's worth of material. and i am sorely disappointed in myself. it's funny that when i look at my marks, i did not really see the high 93, only the low 75 and everything else in between seemed inconsequential even though they're all weighed the same. i still get my above 80 average but barely so. i hope it's enough to get me into wehi because i do not have a back up plan. i'll know next week. and i pray that it'll be good news.

they've got it good

why does it feel like everything around me is falling apart?