Sunday 25 July 2010

Review: Inception


Okay, I won't write any spoilers in my review. But one statement, Inception is one of the boldest, mind bending and the most intelligent film I watched in a while.

Summer blockbusters usually don't make the viewers think about the plot and the mystery of the movies, but in Inception, director Christopher Nolan wanna makes us think deep into the movie, into the dreams.

Twisting plot line, which is carefully and nicely presented... I don't wanna talk more about this, but the ending is so intriguing, I still think about it for hours and hours already, and it's still in my head. The cast is perfectly balanced and well sorted to their roles.

I don't wanna talk much about it, the less you about it, the better... Get surprised by the surprises...

In the end, Inception is the gem and the most original movie of this summer.

Verdict: 5/5

Thursday 22 July 2010

A Video Game Trailer that can really Match Movie Trailers

Man, I just love video games trailers these days, they are so finely made they feel like they are movie trailers. This $100 million sequel to Starcraft did just that, pure epicness!!!


Wednesday 21 July 2010

Is Music Industry on the Decline in terms of Sales and Quality?



It really makes me wonder, is the music industry is going downhill, not just in terms of sales as we know it, but also suffer from quality issues. I say that because the new decades is underwhelming compared to 2000s, 1990s and 1980s...

First, let's see the sales perspective. Music is one of the big three in Hollywood, including movies and video games, and make a bucket load of money for the industry alone. And like any other form of entertainment, music suffers from the rise of computers and Internet. As we all know, all are suffering from the piracy issues, but music suffers the worst among the three.

Piracy can hurt billions of dollars in all stuffs, ie movies, music, games, books, gadget, you name it. But why music is the worst of all? Music don't have any special anti-piracy software to curb the increasing piracy. Movies have Blu-ray installed with special DRM that makes it hard for people to hack into and burn into a Blu-ray disc, although that doesn't stop piracy, but with the quality have to be down-scaled to DVD quality and time consuming, it does slow those pirates down. Video Games have several methods: online authentication, always online to ensure it is genuine and the harshest method, lock down your whole system down so you can't play it. Music is ridiculously easy to pirate, pop the disc into a PC, click rip and upload to sharing sites.

Besides piracy, people buy music no more. Since the born of Internet store and Internet radio, people are less likely to buy a whole album. Take iTunes for example, when you listen something nice on the radio, you go to the iTunes store and download that certain song, instead of the whole album. Some stream the song instead of download it. Album sales in the past can reach tens of millions during their lifetime, now they are just a fraction of the number. For example, 2010 most critically received and the biggest debut so far, Eminem's new album Recovery first week sales was under 800k, while the past he can sell millions in a week (others artists included)

Quality side, I do see a decline as well. I have a lot of 2010 songs in my Windows Media Library, but most of the time I still scrolling down the year, 2009 and before, to click and listen instead of 2010 playlists. I also play a lot of past years songs on my phone and iPod instead of 2010. Don't be mistaken, I still love 2010 songs, but the number of "favourites" list are significantly less compared to 2009. Some artists took a eternally long hiatus to make their new album and still don't see a new release since 2006 (Justin Timberlake focus on others instead of his music), artists' comeback that is disappointing (Christina Aguilera new album, Bionic is disappointing after few years of anticipations and compared to her Jazz entry, Back to Basics) and some even come out a few years and never heard of them ever again.

So, in conclusion. I think the music industry's effort this year is lacking the spark of creativity and face tough battle against music purchase and piracy people choose. Artists these days makes more money on tour rather than on album sales, no wonder the concerts are getting more and more these days...

Sunday 18 July 2010

New Look! Dark Navy Beta

I have a new look, not me, but my blog... I ditched the all too boring all white layout and opt for the Dark Blue, black and white layout...

As the title suggests, the layout is still in beta stage... There is a need of adjusting the width and height for the sake for all those widgets and apps I used on the blog... In the meantime, enjoy the new layout!!! xD

Saturday 17 July 2010

Top 5 Websites I Can't Live Without

Internet seems to be on everyone's lives these days, so do I... There are some websites I can't live without, here is the top 5 of the list

No. 5 CNet.com

I am a geek actually, I love techs on all sorts of stuffs like cars, TV, gadgets, HD, phones, laptops, PCs and many many more. CNet is on of the tech websites I visit regularly to get those tech news and other stuff related to it...

No. 4 Autoblog.com

Everyone knows I am a car enthusiast, can talk about cars for hours. I enjoy cars from those small hatchbacks to those V8 supercar... Love the rumbling sound of the engines and the burning rubbers... Autoblog gives me a lot of details about cars that we don't see everyday in Malaysia (you know lah!)

No. 3 YouTube.com

I guess a lot of people also can't live without this as well. Since the born of YouTube, I have watched thousands of videos online without the need of downloading it, thus reduced the fear of computer viruses. Whenever I want to watch videos, is YouTube...

No. 2 Facebook.com

I guess many people think this one will be on the No. 1 spot, you'll find out who snatched from it. Guess how many of my friends are not on Facebook? None (technically speaking)... That statement says it all...

No. 1 Google.com

Well, Google is Number 1 on the list due to one thing, its dominance... The search engine is the best for many many years, can search literally unlimited number of sites in no time. After Google search came out, I rarely touch other search engines since then (ie Yahoo!, Bing, Ask and so on). And Google brand is everywhere, Google News, Google Translate, Google Map, Google Earth, YouTube (owned by Google), Google Chrome, iGoogle, Google Chrome OS, Android and others. It is just part of a huge list, imagine to full list of service...

Wednesday 14 July 2010

Monday 5 July 2010

Review: Toy Story 3


I admit, I actually skeptical about this movie at first, because when a franchise reaches a third film, the result often end in disappointment and uninspired movie. But still, I trust Pixar can give me another brilliant movie because they never failed. And, they not only did it, they nailed it...

The movie started with a western style shorts featuring the main toys of the Toy Story. But then, they are left abandoned in the box, not being played by Andy (their owner). His mom donate the Toys to daycare, their adventures started there...

As always, Toy Story 3 along with other Pixar films, is hilarious... My sister always laughs loudly when a funny scene come up, but with Toy Story I just can't hold my laugh and also laugh like crazy in cinema. There are two moments in the movie that will make me remember for a long time. First is the moment Buzz Lightyear turns into Spanish version and another one is when Mr. Potato Head put his body parts into a pancake and start walking wobbly for several scenes.

The story is also another part where Toy Story excelled. It is clearly shown the development of more than 10 years really pays off. The story is perfectly balanced from start to finish, and the end of the movie really touched me.

Toy Story 3 is a movie that will be long remembered by me and the movie reminded me of how much I've grown up. Thanks, Pixar!!!!

Pros: They nailed it!
Cons: None

Verdict: 5/5 (Can I give a 6?)