Super Robot Taisen OG Divine Wars

Japanese title: スーパーロボット大戦OG ～ディバイン・ウォーズ～

Now that I’m done with my header image, I guess I’ll just post up a non-movie review before I watch Transformers and reviewing it. Hah. And yes, it’s pure coincidence that this series features robots as well.

Finished this series not too long ago. Before I start on anything here are 2 links with some info on this show.
1) ANN
2) Wiki

There’s also a GBA game on this. There are differences between the game and the animated series but I guess they aren’t important to most people unless they play the game and watch the series.

Well then, back to the main topic. This show is obviously a mecha show and being a recent show, graphics wise it looks pretty ok with all the CG and nice colouring they do nowadays, as compared to really old school mecha shows which didnt had such nice graphics and colouring.

The battle scenes arent that spectacular either, just pretty normal. Perhaps all the CG made it look a little better at times. Well at least there are a few “important” pilots in the show so it isn’t just a showcase of the main character and him only so u can expect to see different robots (or whatever u wish to call ‘em) in action.

Storyline wise it’s pretty much ordinary. Nothing too exceptional about it. But I guess many mecha series are somewhat like that so can’t really fault it.

I thought this show would be pretty ok since it has a game on it, and another shorter and older OVA on it. Maybe that isnt a really good gauge of what to watch huh or maybe my expectations are getting higher. Better off watching other series unless I’m missing something crucial here… Heh.

edit: while the TV aired series is 25 episodes long, there’s a ep 26 DVD exclusive. Seems that it’s really popular these days, to encourage DVD sales bah. Haha. As usual, the DVD exclusive ep doesn’t really affect the storyline at all, especially this one is more of having a more complete ending after all the war/battles they have been through. Yeah, so you’re not missing out on much things anyway. =P

New Header!!

Yeah. It’s out. I know PS technique wise it’s very easy stuff to do but I had a more painful time trying to get the sprites out on my own -_- It’s no wonder people who have bothered to make sprite rips hate it when people just rip it off them. It’s tedious work -_-

I’m going to state where I got the sprites from just for the fun of it. I’m sure some of you can recognise where they are from anyway.
1) KOF ‘99 - K’, Iori, Kyo
2) KOF ‘02 - Orochi Chris
3) Samurai Showdown series - Referee
4) MOTW - Jaehoon and Rock
5) RBFF series - Krauser and Chonshu
6) Last Blade 1 - Stage Background

I know the text is kinda outta place but oh wells :P Other than that, any feedback and suggestions are welcome. :)

跟踪 (Eye in the Sky)

Rating: PG
Running time: 90 minutes
Opens: 21 June 2007, Now showing

I think people generally do not want like this type of show or arent willing to go to a cinema to watch. There were a total of 9 people when I watched it @ AMK Hub. That’s pretty few. Even Hot Fuzz had at least 3 times that number. I dont think the difference between Tuesday and Wednesday is that great considering it aint school holidays nor public holiday.

Well it’s kinda another Cops vs Thieves show, which I think is what Johnnie To (杜琪峰) specialises in, though this time the focus on the cops side would be the surveillence team. The reason why for its movie title is explained clearly in the early segment of the movie. For once, an English title that’s different in meaning from its original Chinese counterpart is explained.

Anyway, the movie is about the work of the surveillence team and how they operate and carry out their duties. Certainly, it’ll be different from the work of the actual team, but at least for a big part of it it seems somewhat logical though I seriously doubt the amount of manpower available for 1 investigation, especially in the early stages.

Being a show that’s only 1.5hours, things had to end pretty quickly which may not be a bad thing since simply showing more and more surveillence work could possibly get repetitive (and boring) especially since the movie has already covered many ways and aspects of it. But I have to admit I didn’t really get enough kick out of it. Haha.

It’s also the first time I see Simon Yam (任达华) with an image that’s so “Uncle”. An uncle that’s so observant about the things and surroundings. Kinda interesting. Lol. And also the first time I see sudoku having so much air time in a movie. Too bad I’m not that good at sudoku to be able to see if the numbers written on them are correct or not, since the difficulty level of those puzzles certainly aint your average Today/MyPaper standard :P

Ah yes, about the dubbed audio. Yes I know, it’s to cater to a bigger market, a bigger audience. I can still recognise a few voices that appear ever so often in the drama serials I watch but at least overall their voice actor cast should be bigger since I hear more distinct voices now. Lol. That’s the difference brought about by their respective budgets between movie and drama serial production huh.

A Chinese movie that isn’t so “arty and abstract”. Neither is it plain action and shoot-outs. My take: 3/5

Records Update 28/6/07

Yay, finally improved my Sudoku (hard) timing to 3m32s. XD

Still trying to get a good way to make my header image… Sigh… I really have dont have much talent in design…

Hot Fuzz

Rating: NC16 (Violence and Strong Language)
Running time: 121 minutes
Opens: 21 June 2007, Now Showing

Kinda slow in dishing out my 2cent review this time, probably because I went out yesterday too. Ah well, before I begin I would like to comment that when I tried naming the picture as “hotfuzz.jpg” it just doesnt want to display correctly no matter how I tried. I wonder if it clashed with wordpress system in any manner. If any of you knows why this happened, please kindly enlighten me.

On to the review proper now. Being an action comedy, certainly there were times that I had a good laugh. There are occasions that I think things were presented in such a manner which is supposed to make the audience laugh but I probably couldnt get it due to my inability to appreciate (probably British) humour. However, I could feel sense that the producers were attempting to infuse some American humour into the show on some occasions, probably to cater to a bigger target audience.

Thankfully, it isn’t an all lame totally no story movie. At least there’s a main storyline regarding certain incidents that take place though the way it ended might not be considered very well done. With its main emphasis on comedy, certainly the action scenes werent so good in comparison. In fact, it’s not very impressive considering recent action movies I’ve watched. But as long as you’re not watching this for the action, it’s certainly not going to bother you much.

I also thought the way certain scenes were linked (in terms of video editing) to the next were kinda different from a usual movie. The flow is kinda different. I think only “weirdos” like me actually look out for things like these.

For those who havent seen the posters, “They’re BAD BOYS. They’re DIE HARDS. They’re LETHAL WEAPONS.” is written on them, making one think that some kind of spoof might actually take place. Unfortunately I do not know those movie series very well. From what I gather, I guess the wear of those sunglasses and car chase were representative of Bad Boys. Not so sure about the other 2, except maybe in certain angle shots, Angel looked a little bit like a younger Bruce Willis. Those who know about these series might be able to spot more references. Do let me know ok? :)

Oh, being me, I happened to spot some errors (non-plot related) in the movie. I’m sure there are many more but here’s what I spotted anyway:
1) Continuity error 1: When Angel was chasing some shoplifter down the streets, he ran past the Golden poser (crap I forgot his character name already) in this particular angle shot (side). Then when it switches angle (front), the positioning of Angel with respective to that Gold dude is different (Angel ran past him once more).
2) Continuity error 2: At 1 point in time Angel and his buddy were in the car and the latter was eating his ice cream. There comes 1 point where an ice cream cone remains unchanged even though he did bite on it. Haha… Imagine there’s such an ice cream cone that can’t be finished… Willy Wonka will certainly want that.
3) Common mistake of some action movies - somehow wooden tables can be a good shield against repeated shotgun shots that are fired off no more than 2-3 metres away. Also, those displays used at supermarkets for those processed meat can also withstand gun shots. Bravo suddenly easily available commercial products become bulletproof. :D

Have a good laugh. Action is secondary. My take: 3.5/5. Go watch it if you want something a little different from the weekly blockbusters that are coming (transformers, die hard 4.0, harry potter etc).

RF2 page v1.1

Woah, what a big jump in version. However, that’s not due to updating of new movelists and descriptions but rather the introduction of tables and more tables to make things neater. Took me a while to organise it properly with all the formatting presented nicely. Should be easier to update subsequently. Thanks for the suggestions and feedback.

More feedback and suggestions are welcome. Need not apply to the RF2.

As for the header image, I’ll start work on it soon. Dont have to keep reminding me about that. Thanks. :)

And yay, passed the 1,000 mark. o.O

Need to sleep now. Look at the time :O

Cathay & ZoneX@AMK Hub

Finally went down to AMK Hub after both the cinema and the arcade are officially opened (16 June and 23 June). Will give my 2 cents worth on these 2 outlets.

First up, Zone X @ AMK Hub. Once you’re near this brand new outlet, you can really smell that it is indeed brand new. All the smell from the recent renovation work is still so distinct (like paint odour etc etc). What’s more, there are still workers scraping the floor right outside the Cathay cinema sales area & Zone X aka outside Nebo (i’ll get to that later). Anyway, on to the most important stuff for any arcade centre - the game machines. Let’s see, there isn’t really much and doesnt take much to actually recall what kind of things they have there. Near the entrance would be all the UFO catcher-like machines, you know those catch soft toys or sweets type. Think have a total of 5 machines. There’s also the 三国大战 machine, 1 circle dedicated to mushiking machines. There’s also Time Crisis 4, the Gundam Assault game, World Combat, House of the Dead 4, a few basketball machines, a few Daytona 1 machines, a couple of OutRun machines, a couple of Initial D stage 3 machines, 1 Percussion Freaks machine, a few machines which I dont really know how to describe. As a result, there aren’t many traditional game cabinets around for games like KOF (1 pair for ‘02, 1 machine for ‘03), Guilty Gear and others. And if you’re wondering, I didn’t take down notes on what machines there are, else it would be a complete listing already.

Dont really have much idea what exactly Nebo is about at the moment. I guess I will only bother to find out more after I get it, which of course is mainly for the Nebo TapZ MIP card meant for Zone X (if you really bother can go ZoneX homepage and read about it). Heh. Anyway it doesnt seem to be very ready since some of the furniture are still wrapped in plastic and stuff like that. And of course the area right outside it is still “under works”. Well at least Nebo card has at least 1 usefulness I can foresee, that’s $6 for weekday and $8 for weekend movies @ Cathay outlets. Not too bad huh.

Ok, now for the cinema. It’s new. The aircon’s cooling. Seats are comfy (maybe ‘cos they’re new). Arm rests are quite low so couples dont have to worry. You can hold hands throughout the movie or however long you want to do so. Not really an audiophile so no particular comments on the sound system. Definitely acceptable by my standards but oh well for those who are particular about such things, please do go find out on your own. Now, after exiting the theatre, the smell of paint is like super heavy. And lots of things and equipment placed behind, obviously showing that they rushed work to make it operationally ready for business but havent cleared all the remaining items yet. It’s kinda ugly to see those things, as compared to the overall new and clean (relatively) presentation of its sales area and theatres. They ought to do something about it soon.

Hmm, I think that’s about it. Oh yah, I watched Hot Fuzz there so you know what to expect in the near future :)