"Don't choose the better man... 

Choose the man who makes you a better woman..." 

Two spies fall in love with the same girl...

For guys who want to take their love partners to watch a romantic movie but dislike romance, well, this movie is definitely for you because besides all of the cliche hanky panky antiques, there are also  humor and a bit of action! Therefore, u can fulfill your female partner's need for a romantic experience and also have a little fun yourself...

Bromance

Despite the fact that Reese Witherspoon who played Lauren is really cute and hot in this movie, I was actually more entertained at the relationship between FDR (Chris Pine) and Tuck (Tom Hardy)... No, for those who haven't watched this, they're not gay... They're just best friends and colleagues... Ahemm, okey... Yeah, as I was saying, I was more intrigued at the bromance between FDR and Tuck rather than their pursuit to win over Lauren's heart...

Why? No, it's not because I'm gay... Bitch please, I'm married... It's just because their interaction with each other is quite humorous... Like the time when FDR demanded Tuck to stop copying his sentences but he refused... Kinda reminded me of my relationship with my bros... God I miss those people...

The most entertaining part is when both spies compete with each other to prevent each other from sleeping with Lauren... The scene when Tuck shot a tranquilizer dart at FDR was effing hilarious... 

Romance

The romance part would be more heartfelt if u choose a side between FDR and Tuck... I chose team Tuck and therefore, every time FDR scored, I felt bad... Maybe that's why this movie is not just a pop corn flick for me though it was intended to be... Gosh, I'm so emotional... 

If u push aside the things said in the above paragraph, well, what I can really say is, this movie is just like any other romantic comedies - predictable, full of cliches and cute... 

Yeah, everything's quite predictable... I knew that Lauren and FDR are gonna meet at that store... I knew that Tuck didn't break the rule of the game (If u know what I mean...)

Yeah, this movie is full of cliches... Show the girl something new but simple and yet so meaningful, she'll fall straight into your arms... 

Yeah, Reese Witherspoon is so cute... She's cute with FDR... She's so soft with Tuck...

TYPICAL ROMANTIC COMEDY!!! (Imagine me saying it with lightning effects at the background)

However, I'm not saying that this movie is too typical that it's bad... No no no no no... As a matter of fact, the bantering between FDR and Tuck, the turn of events, and Lauren's every response and action are so entertaining, I almost ignore the typicality... 

Action

Action is not the main focus of this movie... Therefore, thou shall not expect this movie to be like James Bond or other epic spy movies... Hmm... Okey, this movie is more like the movie Knight and Day where the action part is not overwhelming or jaw dropping, but it's not too lame either...

The crew needs to work more on making the special effects more realistic... The part when enemies' MPV rolling towards all three main characters is clearly computer generated... 

The verdict? In my opinion, this movie is very entertaining... Like I said before, the thing that I enjoy the most about this movie is the competition and care between FDR and Tuck... It's hilarious and I had fun... 

3.5 out of 5 stars...

By the way, the sexy scenes were cut... Najib didn't keep his promise about the censorship thing... 

To tell you the truth, I'm not so fond of children's short stories and novels because I've never read most of the popular ones... If you ask me about Where the Wild Things Are or The Cat in the Hat, I'll just answer, "Yeah, I've seen the movie... It was nice..."... 

Not much of a reader, I am...

That's why when I first heard about The Lorax coming out to the cinemas, I was like, "Mehh... Never heard of it... Not interested..."

However, I finally became interested in the movie after noticing how easy for it to conquer the first spot in the blockbuster list... I must check it out...

In Thneedville, everything, except the humans, is artificial... The trees are either mechanical or made of rubber, there's not a single dirt can be found on the ground and even the stray cats are robotic... Fresh air are commercialized into a commodity... In simpler words, for the citizen to breathe fresh air, they must pay... However, they like it that way... 

The business of selling air is founded and monopolized by Mr. O'Hare (Rob Riggle) and in order to keep his factory running, it is his priority to prevent trees from growing around Thneedville... because trees produce fresh air for free...

Ted (Zac Efron), a young citizen of Thneedville has a crush on Audrey (Taylor Swift) and is determined to give her a tree as a present... His adventures starts as soon as he leaves the city to search for the extinct trees where along the way, he founds out about the Once-ler (Ed Helms) and how he was the source of chaos in Thneedville...

Extremely cute and educational are the words I would like to use in describing this movie...

Of course, if u've watched Despicable Me, u would already expect the cute part... If Despicable Me has only the minions as silly, cute characters, The Lorax has little bears, silly looking birds and singing amphibious fish... Tripling the cuteness factor...


What makes it more amusing to watch is that half of it is a musical... Colourful characters dancing and singing in a chorus made the kids who were watching in the same cinema as I was excited and clapped with joy...

The song that caught my attention the most is "How Bad Can I Be?" sung fully by Ed Helms because it's quite dark... With the image of trees being cut and the young Once-ler getting bigger and meaner, I recalled being scared a bit...


Most people regard things that are educational are boring but this movie has proven that we can educate children about something without being too serious... Those who had watched it must realize that The Lorax is actually a depiction of how pollution is triggered and what can be done to save mother nature from extinction in real life...

After the movie, it would help a lot if parents do a follow up with their children on how they can preserve nature's beauty by relating it to the scenes... That way, we can start educating our children about preservation at a very young age...

I say that this movie is very good for those who care...


The Lorax is a fine example of how borderless the area of imagination can be... The design of trees, animals, vehicles, and houses are so unique and interesting... Even the tree cutting machine is an ingenious design...


The colours of everything in the movie are also very vibrant, portraying cheerfulness... Yup, definitely a good children movie...


The main drawback that I can think of so far is the fact that it is a children's movie... What I meant was that this movie maybe not for adults especially those who take things so seriously... The lame ones...


To summarize, parents can use The Lorax as a tool to create awareness among children on the need of change in order to save the environment from further damage because it's very entertaining, cute, cheerful and yet, educational...

It's also a good watch for adults who still have a bit of childishness in them because the characters are indeed cute and funny...



3.5 out of 5 stars...

After a couple of months waiting for the right moment, I finally bought myself a new mobile phone! Introducing, Sony Ericsson's Xperia Neo V... I bought this phone mainly because in my opinion, it's the best one I could purchase with my budget of RM900... and because my brother in law recommended it over Samsung Galaxy W... 

The "V" is actually a Roman number and not an alphabet... Though, most (including me) prefer to refer it with the alphabet since it sounds cooler... 

Basically, Neo V is closely similar to the prior model, Neo...

Insufficient stock of 8 megapixels camera due to the damage done by the horrifying earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year has forced SE to "downgrade" its Xperia Neo to Xperia Neo V... Neo is equipped with 8 megapixels camera while Neo V's is only 5 megapixels...

You lose some, you win some... In order to compensate with the camera downgrade, SE installed a more recent version of Android, Gingerbread, into Neo V making it more powerful in terms of programme processing... Ice Cream Sandwich is also available for download...

The curvy back side and compact design makes it easy to hold... Made entirely out of plastic, Neo V is also quite light... 

I "accidentally" had the opportunity to test the phone toughness and durability just after a few weeks after purchasing it... While riding my motorcycle home from work, my phone jumped out of my pants' left pocket and dove straight onto the hard tarred road... 

I hit the emergency brakes straight away as soon as I noticed it missing from my pocket... After walking back a few metres from where I parked my bike, I discovered the phone with it's back cover and battery disassembled... A part of me died that day...

The back cover was fine - no scratches... However, the front was badly scratched...

The good thing is, the touch screen was totally unharmed and the phone still worked without glitches... Quite tough huh?

I managed to replace the front cover with a new one that I found online... Actually, the replacement cover is for Neo, but since both models are similar in design and size, it fits perfectly... Unfortunately, opening the parts voided the warranty... Sucks for me... Don't get me wrong, I'm very particular when it comes to phone care... It's just that, shit happens... and when it does, it stinks...

The touch screen is bright and clear, and the response to tap is very good... Only a feather light tap is enough to trigger any application and function...

Of course, this phone is no match with Samsung's Super AMOLED screen in terms of brightness...  I've compared it with my brother's Samsung Galaxy W and his phone is certainly brighter... However, Neo V's definitely better than my dad's Nokia C7-00...

I tested out the battery and with minimal use (short calls, no gaming, no music, no camera use, light texting), it managed to last from Thursday to Sunday... That's three days of endurance which is not bad for a smart phone... However, if I maximize the use by playing games, using the Internet function and listening to music for a few hours straight, I need to charge it at least twice a day... 

Battery saving apps are essential for smart phones in order to maximize battery life... Currently I am using two apps which are Battery Dr Saver and JuiceDefender... Both apps work great for me... After using them, my phone battery last longer...

In terms camera, of course Neo V's performance is no match with Neo's because the difference of megapixels... However, I found that Neo V's is actually not bad... The flash is bright, it has auto-focus, and the images are very sharp...

The front camera, on the other hand, is not that good since it's just VGA...

So far, the main drawback of this phone that resent me the most is the lack of internal memory... After using it for a couple of weeks, I noticed that my phone gradually slow down... It was because I had installed too many application in my phone memory... The solution was, I downloaded an app named APP 2 SD Free in order to detect applications that I can move from phone to SD memory... Once I've moved most of my apps into the SD card, the swipe between windows became smoother and applications are opened faster...

I can only install a handful of applications because even if I install downloaded apps in SD card, the internal memory is also affected since running the apps requires the use of internal memory...

Sony Ericsson hasn't fix its wireless connectivity problem... Most Sony Ericsson phones, including Neo V, cannot detect certain wifi connection especially the ones that come from home routers... The solution is to change the channel of your wifi to 11... or, u can also download Wifi Analyzer which detects wifi connections with any channel... Though, the prior solution works better... Contact your service provider if u have difficulty changing your wifi settings...


Above writings are based on my hands on experience of using the phone for about two months... All in all, I'm quite satisfied with this phone though a little upgrade in the internal memory would go a long way for this phone...

My brother and I had done a few comparison between his Galaxy W and my Neo V... As a conclusion, both have their own strengths and weaknesses... For example, Neo V has less internal memory but Galaxy W has 2 Gigabits... However, Neo V has HD camera and better interface... We agree that both are on par with each other... After all, they are about the same price...

For a better review on Neo V, click here...

In need of relaxation and escapism, I took a bus to Selangor on Thursday last week to meet my wife at her house at Balakong and bring her back to Terengganu... She's been away for a few weeks training some newbie debaters for a tournament meant for rookies... Even after marriage, she's still passionate about English language debate and therefore, with my permission, willing to travel around the country to participate in debate training and tournaments... I thought I could handle another week being apart but at last my will to hold on was defeated by my longing for good company and dearly love... Chewah... 

Before going back to Terengganu, we spent quite some time leisuring around the Klang Valley and Kuala Lumpur... Since both of us were mentally and physically weary out of our duties and responsibilities, we pampered ourselves with a spa package that we purchased via Groupon.my... It was a sweet offer, with only RM68 per person, we got to enjoy a 30 minutes infrared sauna session, 30 minutes full body scrub, 30 minutes full body mask and an hour full body aromatherapy massage... 

The highlight of the package was definitely the full body massage... It was very relaxing and refreshing, something that I really needed after weeks of working... 

Though, getting to the spa was rather tricky since the place was kinda isolated, a bit far from the main city... It's located at the ground floor of an apartment called Happy Mansion, Petaling Jaya... We took the Light Rail Transit (LRT) from Serdang to Asia Jaya and then reached the place by taxi... 

Here are some pictures for u to get an overview of how beautiful the interior looks like... 

Want more info on the place? Click here...

The next day, my mother in law, Mama, brought us to Sogo, Kuala Lumpur to eat at Manhattan Fish Market Restaurant...

It was my first time eating at that place and my first impression is... BURRPPP... It was satisfying... We ordered a promotional set which include the stuff u can see in the above pictures and also soup and pasta... 

After the meal, we dragged our feet to shop for cloths... My wife wanted to learn how to sew her own skirts and tudung... We bought some colourful cloths at Nagoya and Kamdar... They offer cheap prices for high quality and beautiful pieces of cloths... 

Check out the total price of the ones we bought...