Today, while I was walking around at work, I suddenly realized that I was humming Hari Raya songs... A student saw me doing that and also hummed the same song... Looks like I'm in the Raya mood already... Then, I went to the library and computer lab to wish everyone Selamat Hari Raya... I was hoping to see all of my colleagues but most seemed busy with work...

This year, my mom told me that I should get my own baju raya... She has prepared the baju melayu, so all I need to get are some casual clothes to wear... I only wear baju melayu half day during raya... At noon, I would change into jeans and t-shirt... Mom used to buy all of my clothes but since I'm working now, it's my own responsibility... 

A new dilemma for me is whether I should give out duit raya or not... Hmm... I don't really about my cousins since I only see them once or twice a year... Maybe after a few years of working, I'll start giving duit raya to them... Therefore, I decided to only give to my two younger brothers, my parents and also my baby niece, Danisha... The question now is how much should I give them... Hmm...

Anyway, I'm going back to Terengganu tomorrow... As usual, I would be traveling from Melaka to Terengganu by bus... I bought the tickets a month before... Hopefully I would be home by Sahur... Mom's home cooked meal is what I'm looking forward the most... Besides that, to be able to break fast together with my family is going to be awesome... 

Hari Raya is always a feast for me... I'll use the setahun sekali excuse to indulge all of the wonderful food... I usually aim for rendang ayam to be eaten ketupat palas or lemang... My stomach is grumbling as I'm typing this... My other craving is nasi minyak... The one that my aunts and my grandma make is the best... Besides all of the dishes, I also love cookies and munchies... Almond London, Cornflakes cookies, various kinds of nuts, and many more... Setahun sekali beb! Tak makan, rugi!!!

For those who are reading this entry, I wanna wish u "Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri"... Maaf zahir dan batin... Be safe while u're on the road... Ingatlah orang yang tersayang...

I've been waiting for this movie because I used to love watching the series of Conan : The Adventurer on TV3 when I was a lot younger... Sitting on a couch with my family, I watched Conan slayed countless monsters and witches... I was a bit skeptical though when I learned that Jason Mamoa is the one who's gonna play the latest Conan because I always thought that Conan should be a bit fairer or Caucasian like (thanks to Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ralf Möller for putting that image into my mind)... However, Mamoa slashed down all my early judgments by delivering a brilliant performance as the new Cimmerian warrior! 

THE STORY

Born on a battlefield, Conan (Jason Mamoa) possessed natural talents in slaying... Conan's father and fellow Cimmerians were killed by Khalar Zym (Stephen Lang) in his quest of finding the last shard of an ancient magical mask that could grant great power to the one who wears it... Being the sole survivor of the tragedy that had fallen onto Cimmerian tribe, Conan spent his years searching for Zym to seek revenge...

THE AWESOMENESS

Jason Mamoa

Like I said before, Jason Mamoa is awesome as Conan... He wielded his sword well and acted like a true barbarian... He even looked like one... Look at those strong arms and firm abs... In order to look more bad-ass, they gave him quite a number of scars... I had to admit that he's pretty hot...

The Action

This movie is indeed action packed... After all, this is a movie about a barbarian... You surely can expect a lot of slaying and sword wielding action... What I loved the most about this movie is the creativity of the director, Marcus Nispel, in showing so many ways a person can die during battle...

My favorite scene was when Conan and Tamara (Rachel Nichols) battled the sand warriors... It was delightful to see those sandmen coming out from the ground as if the sands were liquid... 

Rachel Nichols and Stephen Lang did fairly good in terms of delivering some stunts... but of course, non could match Jason Mamoa's level of bad-assness...

The Origin

Most movies introduced their main casts in a lame or rushed kinda way... However, in this movie, the director was wise enough to spend an appropriate amount of time to tell the tale of how Conan was born and what made him a powerful barbarian... I loved the part when they showed Conan as a kid and the bond between him and his father... It sort of made the tragic massacre more heartfelt...

Marique

Three best friends, Nick (Jason Bateman), Dale (Charlie Day) and Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) had something in common - they all wanted their bosses dead... The reason for such sinister thought was because the bosses were extreme jerks... However, being just ordinary men who were incapable of hurting people, they resorted to finding a hitman for the job... Having zero knowledge on how to hire one, they ended up doing the killings themselves... Things didn't go as planned though and it landed them into all sorts of trouble such as being suspects for murder by the police and being hunted down by one the bosses...

THE HORRIBLE ONES

Censorship

Most of the jokes didn't work because parts of them were cut out... I felt so cheated and I wanted my money back... The Malaysian censorship board did a really sloppy job... They managed to censor most of the vulgar words but some of them they didn't bother removing... It ruined the movie for me...

Predictable Plot

The story line were quite predictable... I knew that Nick would be dreaming of punching his boss about the promotion issue... I could guess that his boss would kill Kurt's boss out of false jealousy... I predicted that Kurt would screw up with the tape recorder during the murder confession time... The story was rather direct and lack of surprises... However, the abundance of jokes made up for it...




3 out of 5 stars...