“Ever hear the saying an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind?” 

“The world's already blind.”

SYNOPSIS: 

Noelle (Francesca Eastwood) is a rape victim. Feeling helpless and not getting all the help she needs, she takes matters into her own hand and avenges other sexual assault victims. 

I have to be honest, reading the synopsis, I thought that this movie is going to be dumb. To my surprise, I found that I actually like this movie because it is rather good. 

First of all, I have to commend on the rape scenes because I feel that they seem rather disturbingly real. The way the rapists act, the way the victims react, the scenes seems so genuine to me that I couldn't bare to watch them. 

Being said that, in my opinion, the actors and actresses are awesome in their roles. The lead, Francesca Eastwood is awesome as always. She is that kind of girl that I think is weirdly cute. Her eyes are so big. She is able to portray the suffering of Noelle so well and her murdering confident look is awesome too. I like her so much in this movie. Besides that, the minor characters also are good and do exactly what they are supposed to do. 

For some reasons, the story feels quite personal. Going through the story development, I couldn't help but feel empathy towards not just Noelle but other victims also. Maybe it's because of the powerful performance by the actors and actresses or maybe it's because of the way everybody on campus seems genuinely ignorant about the issues of sexual assault on campus. Whatever it is, I was into the movie from the start til the end even though the pacing is rather slow. 

All in all, I think that M.F.A is a good movie because of the powerful performance by Francesca Eastwood and all other side characters. I'm also into the movie because the issues being tackled hits rather close to home and I feel what the characters feel. 

4 out of 5 stars.

SYNOPSIS:

Princess Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind tries so hard to stop two nations, Tolmekia and Pejite, from going into battle with each other as the war would only result in complete destruction of the remaining humanity. 

Hayao Miyazaki is often to as the Japanese Walt Disney as he often excel with his work. The best thing about him is his ability to build worlds that are far from our imagination and illustrates them as beautiful as can be. Besides that, the characters that he creates are often lovable and able to move the audiences' hearts with their acts.

As mentioned, Hayao Miyazaki is an excellent world builder and it can be clearly seen in this movie as the apocalyptic world of Nausicaä looks so sophisticated and yet beautiful and interesting. It is so hard to believe that this movie is released in the year 1984 because the details being put into the animation of background, characters, creatures and vehicle designs are excellent. It is like Hayao sensei can see into the future when he designs this world. 

Besides that, the main character, Princess Nausicaä, is extremely lovable. Though she prefers to be a pacifist and tries so hard not to result to blind violence, if being pushed to the edge, she can surely kick ass. She is kind and friendly but also strong and smart. She is truly a remarkable princess. She is also good in flying. Her flying skills are off the charts and it is always exciting to see her on her glider. 

Lord Yupa is also admirable. He is the best swordsman of the Valley of the Wind and his name is known by most war generals. However, despite his deadly reputation, Lord Yupa is soft hearted towards his people. 

The action parts of this movie is indeed exciting. Most of the action takes place in the air or sky, fitting the title Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. It is so cool to see those sophisticated looking planes and gun ships in action. The sword fight is scarce but still memorable as Nausicaä and Lord Yupa does a lot of damage to the enemies with their exceptional skills.

All in all, this movie is awesome and my kids love it because it is beautifully created and details being put in it is astounding. Besides that, the main characters are awesome and the action parts are thrilling. 

5 stars!

SYNOPSIS: 

The lives of four modern day vampires living together in a flat in New Zealand are being documented by a filming crew. 

First of all, this is a mock documentary or some would say mockumentary which means it is not real. It's a parody. Therefore, it is shot like a documentary where film crews follow the characters around and there are interviews. 

This movie is indeed funny. The documentary style is executed well and really brings out the subtle comedic elements. The characters appears so serious about what they really are and it is very humorous to see. I mean, it's so weirdly funny to see a vampire doing the dishes and knitting and socializing in pubs and clubs, trying to blend in the modern society. Even dressing up proves to be quite tricky for vampires because they have no reflection in the mirror.

Even though there is a script but I learned that most of the lines are improvised by the actors which means that these actors really know what they are doing because most of the words uttered by them are hilarious. Besides that, there are well timed slapstick, and funny physical humor and facial expressions. Honestly, I am not a fan of slapstick because most of them are really really dumb but the ones in this movie really make me laugh. I can say that this movie is filled with comedic variety. 

The characters are lovable. All of them are vampires but from a different era so all of them have different personalities and taste. Viago is rather pedantic and cares so much about chores, Vadislav is a lady charmer while Deacon, being the youngest of them all is rather rebellious. Oh, not to forget, Petyr, the old and grumpy mysterious one that lives downstairs. 

Even the side characters are charming. I think everyone would agree that Stu is amazing. Everyone loves Stu. Besides him, Jackie, Deacon's servant also has her good moments. Haha, the werewolves are great too. I had great laughs when the werewolves show up. 

Although this movie is about the undead, but it sure has a bit of warmth to it. It is so awesome to see all of the vampires hanging out like best buddies and having conflicts like what real friends do. The conflict and resolution between Deacon and Nick, the new vampire, is unexpectedly heartwarming for me. 

All in all, What We Do in the Shadows is what a horror comedy should really be. It is funny without relying on dumb and offensive jokes (like most movies nowadays) and the characters are lovable. 

4 out of 5 stars.

SYNOPSIS: 

Sun Wu Kong (Eddie Peng) arrives to the Immortal Mountain seeking revenge upon the gods. Unexpectedly, along the journey, he gains new friends and learns the meaning of love.

I love the Journey to the West stories as I have read so many version of it. Wu Kong is indeed different from the version I read as the story is altered to give new refreshing twists. Even though I like the original story better but this one which is written by Hezai Jin is not bad. 

It starts off bombastically with impressive fight scenes but the middle rather falls flat for me. Luckily, the ends with a huge and satisfying fight scenes. 

Do not expect this movie to be filled with Chinese martial arts fight because the fights are more magical rather than physical. I am talking about flying daggers and over the top godly powers.

The best thing about this movie is the CGI. As the fights are more of magic duels instead of physical attacks, they rely heavily on CGI. Fortunately, the CGIs are extremely well made. This movie is indeed beautifully edited.

The actors and actresses are also talented and total eye candies. Eddie Peng is awesome as Wu Kong because he has that bad boy kind of looks but at the same time manage to portray grit in his acting. I particularly love the romantic moments between Wu Kong and Zi Xia (Ni Ni) because the interaction and awkward silences seems real and sweet. I also adore Erlang Shen or Yang Jian (Shawn Yue) as his character is very cool. 

All in all, the CGIs are awesomely beautiful especially during the fights and I love the characters so much. In terms of story, I think the mid part can still be improved to be more engaging and believable. 

Rin (Hana Sugisaki) swears revenge upon Anotsu Kagehisa (Sôta Fukushi) for killing her parents. In order to kill Anotsu, she seeks help from Manji (Takuya Kimura) who is a highly skilled samurai cursed with immortality. 

I love the manga and that was the drive for me to watch this movie. Now, the best thing about Blade of the Immortal is that it is truly an action movie. From the start til the end, Manji slays and slays and slays everyone, like literally. I thought cramping 30 volumes of manga in a single movie would result in a rushed pace or shorter action sequences but no, the pacing of the movie is just nice and the sword fights are crazily satisfying. 

The second thing I love about it is the fight scenes are not heavily edited. There are no slow mo, no close up slash or whatever, no repetition of the same action from different angles, no. There are some cut scenes and a minimum amount of shaky cams, but the majority of the action scenes are portrayed to be in a continuation which for me, indicates that they don't really use stunt doubles and the actors know what they are doing. I'm impressed. 

Apart from that, I love the way the actors look and act. They really appear to be the same as the characters in the manga. The production really does an extremely good job in styling the costume, the hair and the weapons. Yeah, I love the weapons so much. 

Besides that, wow, the actors are awesome. I love Takuya Kimura so much because he is awesome as Manji. Sôta Fukushi is also good as the cool villain. Hana Sugisaki also gives her all but I wish she would dial down the high pitch yelling. It's impressive that she plays multiple characters which are Rin and Manji's sister. 

All in all, I love this manga adaptation so much because of the plenty amount of samurai action and the great performances by actors and actresses. Besides that, the cinematography is awesome and I love the way the characters look exactly like in the manga. 

4 out of 5 stars.

In of my previous post, I mentioned that I have just started cooking and prefer to cook anything simple. So, besides Singgang, I also love to cook nasi ayam because it's so easy and my kids love it. 

So, here are the ingredients and how to cook nasi ayam or chicken rice, my way. 

Ingredients: 

Onion

Ginger

Garlic

Black pepper

Some spices (Buah pelaga, bunga cengkih, kayu manis etc)

Chicken

As stated in the Singgang post, I don't put the measurements for each ingredient because I just agak - agak. That's the Malay way of cooking. Agak - agak.

First of all, blend the chopped onions, ginger and garlic together. Don't forget to add a bit of water in before you blend. 

After that, just pour the mix onto the chicken and put them all in a pot. Add water in it and boil them. How much is the water needed depends on how much soup do you want to have. Throw in the spices too. I only put the stuff I have in my kitchen which are buah pelaga, bunga cengkih and kulit kayu manis. If you have any other spices typically used in making soup, throw them in there! Don't forget the black pepper. My wife said the more the black pepper, the tastier in which I agree.

Once it's boiling, taste it. Add some salt for seasoning. Different people prefer different amount of salt, so you decide how much salt you want. When the chicken seemed cooked, the soup is done! 

Next, the rice. The principle is, one cup of rice equals to two cups of soup. I always cook one and a half cup of rice so that's three cups of soup for me. 

Put the rice in a pot and pour in the soup. Place the pot on a stove and turn it on. High heat first. When the soup is boiling, put the pot lid on and turn the heat down to minimum. Let it cook until the soup dry out. 

Finally, we're done! Easy huh? If I feel rajin, I would take the chicken from the soup, cover them with some honey and oyster sauce and pan grill them. That would make the dish extra elevated. Besides that, you can also make some sambal and serve everything with salad. 

Yum yum.

A few years ago, online dating might be something that people were ashamed of getting into. However, nowadays, online matchmaking has becoming a trend and many netizens have been successful in finding their soulmates via the Internet. One of the proofs of the success of online dating is how big Tinder has become. 

Tinder is great for meeting new people and searching for romantic prospects, however lets face it, it is not quite Islamic. I can say that many use Tinder not mainly for searching their happily ever after but simply because they want a one night stand or they want to get lucky. 

Welp, if you are a Muslim who is interested in searching for a mate online but don't want to go through the experience of being harassed by perverts and horny individuals, then Baituljannah is the website for you. Please click here to go to the website = Baituljannah.

WHAT IS BAITULJANNAH?

Baituljannah is a matchmaking website that is syariah compliant. Besides that, it protects their users' privacy and spam free. 

How is it syariah compliant and different from any other matchmaking sites? Well, once you registered and created a complete profile, Baituljannah would suggest to you individuals that might be suitable for you to choose as wives or husbands. You can interact with those people through chats in order to determine whether they are truly for you. What makes Baituljannah syariah compliant is that it monitors the interaction in order to make sure that there are no foul play or perverted messages. Therefore, you must keep the interaction clean and friendly. 

Baituljannah only monitors the online interactions. If you decided to meet up with your online match, Baituljannah will not intervene or monitor that. But of course, it is advised for you to meet up with each other's family first. Dating is not advisable as it is not the Islamic way.

Besides syariah compliant, Baituljannah also protects users' privacy by not showing their names and contact information on their profiles. Your identities are secret and other people won't be able to Google your details. It also bans any sorts of spam and advertising in the online interaction. 

So far, as I am typing this, there are 125,285 registered Baituljannah users and the number is growing by the minute. 

Therefore, if you are interested in searching for a soulmate online, why not try Baituljannah? There is no harm in trying. 

Lately, my wife has been working full time including during weekends and it's up to me to feed the kids. Can't just buy fast food all the time, can we? 

To be frank, I am not a good cook. I am just a beginner level. Noob. I only started cooking a couple of years ago. Before that, I never even made instant noodles. People would joke, "Ya, saya pandai masak. Masak air. Haha" but not me. Before this I have never even boiled water. 

So lately I have been searching for easy dishes to cook and I think singgang is the easiest. 

Ingredients: 

Lemongrass. 

Ginger. 

Live turmeric. 

Onion. 

Garlic. 

Asam keping or asam gelugor. 

Chicken. 

Salt

Notice how I didn't put the measurements for the ingredients. It's because this is no rocket science. It's up to you. Just 'agak - agak'. For instance, I don't like onions so I put only half of the whole onion. I like the smell of lemongrass so I put two in. 

Okay, so take a pot and put some water. If you like to have more broth, put in a lot of water. Boil the water on a stove then just throw in the crushed lemongrass, turmeric, ginger, garlic and sliced onion. Boil those things until you can smell a good fragrance coming out of the mix. 

After that, put in the asam gelugor and chicken. When it's boiling, throw some salt in it and taste. When the chicken seems cooked, voila! Singgang ayam is ready. 

If you like tomatoes, you can put some chopped tomatoes last. Some people like it a bit spicy, so you can also put some chili if you want. I can't put chili because I'm serving little kids. 

It is also best served with rice and sambal belacan yum yum. 

It's easy and tasty. Yum yum. Like I said, it's no rocket science. Everyone can cook it.

SYNOPSIS: 

Seal Team Eight is given an assignment to dismantle an illegal small army operation at Congo and save a valuable human asset. However, the operation proves to be leading to a larger and more dangerous mission that they must accomplish in 36 hours. 

This movie is actually the fourth installment of the Behind Enemy Lines series and was released directly on Blu Ray in April 2014. 

I have never watched the previous installments and I just came across this movie while browsing through some movies. I like war movies and action movies and IMDB rated it 4.6 out of 10 stars so I guess I ought to give it a try. 

Honestly, this movie is rather bad but not the worse movie ever. I mean, it's watchable. 

What makes it bad for me is firstly the fact that it is so low budget but they don't even try to make it expensive looking. Hehe. Some of the scenes I think are shot using a GoPro and the costumes and military equipment look low end. They even can't afford to rent a military helicopter and use a private chopper to fly from base to Congo which is rather cringey for me. 

Besides that, the characters lack the cool military factor. Despite being a Seal team, they just barge into the enemy lines gun blazing and without any real tactics. Even though through out the movie thousands of bullets are shot but I only notice the characters reloading their weapons one or two times. 

Low or rushed effort is put into the script because it lacks heart. Non of the 'jokes' are funny and any effort to show any sort of buddy bonding fail miserably to create any emotions. There are many serious scenes that I found so cheesy and funny. 

The actors do the best they can but they are indeed no first class actors. I find it silly that the characters that receive gun wounds act so normal and can move without any difficulty. Tom Sizemore's name is printed largely on the poster but I fail to see him doing anything significant. His name should be replaced with Lex Shrapnel's because for me, Lex has more screen time and action than Tom. Besides, the name Lex Shrapnel is so badass. 

I have to admit that some of the action scenes are good and made me say "Whoa...". However, most of the time, the action is just shooting blindly and blowing stuff up with bazookas. 

Some of the slow motion seems cool but the shaky cams are just infuriating. 

All in all, this movie is bad, but not the worse ever movie. I would recommend it if you have no other options or just in need of a popcorn movie. 

2 out of 5 stars.