This Siti Never Sleeps At Night

Up all night so you know what to watch, read, and hear

Monthly Archives: June 2013


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Movie Review: World War Z

ImageI watched World War Z about two to three days ago but I chose to review the movie only after I finished the book, which I was reading more than halfway through. I chose to do this because what I had read in the book and what I had actually watched were different stories to me.

World War Z, the book written by Max Brooks, is basically a personal recount of each survivor that a UN investigator interviewed after the zombies war, named “World War Z”. The name of the investigator was not revealed, if I recall correctly, because as he said in the book, it’s not about him but the survivors of the war. The book was quite complex and it’s apt because war, in itself with humans, is not simple. War against zombies would be an entire different thing because zombies are not humans and don’t think like one (actually, they don’t think at all). It touched many a subject from politics to religion.

World War Z, the movie directed by Marc Forster and starred Brad Pitt, was quite the exact opposite of what I read. It is about Brad Pitt’s character, Gerry, who was a retired UN investigator, forced to return to his former job after zombies attacked the entire planet. He tried to find the cure and, at the same time, save his family.

The difference between the book and the movie doesn’t quite end there. Even the movement of the zombies were different between those two media, which I can simply summarize as such: book – slow; movie: fast super-non-human power (unless they are dormant).

The differences I mentioned above threw me off as I love the book (which, by the way, I have not reviewed yet and will do so later) and when I watched the movie thinking that it’s an adaptation of the book, I was left confused. I wanted to love the movie. It is a good zombie movie with quite an original storyline with the exception of a number of annoying characters (really, don’t they ever watch a zombie movie in their world? Straight shot to the brain will be the only thing that will kill a zombie. It’s in EVERY single damn zombie movie out there! Shot on the head!), if not for the fact that the movie is called World War Z, after the book and it’s supposed to be based on the book.

I really, really want to love the movie. I really do but I simply can’t. If only it’s not called World War Z but Brad Pitt: The Zombie Killing Machine, I would probably love it.

In conclusion, if you watch the movie, love it and decided to read the book, don’t. You will be like me, completely and utterly dissatisfied and also confused. About the movie. Not the book. The book is simply brilliant. As such, I would give the movie a two out of five popcorns from me. My expectations of the movie were dashed.

The trailer…


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Movie Review: Man of Steel

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I just came back from watching Man of Steel and this was my expression during 90% of the movie:

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Before I gave my review, let me tell you what the movie is about. In a nutshell, it’s the life of Superman before he became Superman and what happened when he finally accepted that he’s Superman.

And now my review…

Cinematic-wise, it was brilliant – the CGI effects and cinematography was brilliantly executed. I was watching it in digital and it still came out really great. I bet it would be better in 3D. But story-wise was so dull.

I have to confess, first of all, that Superman is my least favourite superhero out of all superheroes/heroines out there. But I watched Smallville and Lois & Clark and those are probably better than what I watched earlier. That said, my examples were TV shows because I vaguely remember the old Superman movies. But it’s still Superman and about Superman!

The storyline was too heavy for me. The thing about movies is that you can’t make it so heavy and dark because it could get really dull. Even dramatic movies, they have to add in some light-heartedness into it so that the audience members wouldn’t get bored with the drama. And I’m not even comparing this to Marvel movies. If I were to compare this movie to The Dark Knight franchise, which is part of the DC comics world, at least the franchise had some comical moments in between so that it wouldn’t get too dark. The character itself is already pretty depressing so you wouldn’t want to darken that further.

Also, the way the movie transitioned between the past and present were pretty confusing to me. I get that it’s trying to fit the present to what happened in the past. But I was still quite confused. I do appreciate the background of Superman in this movie. I don’t think we see much of Superman’s background in the TV shows unless you love the comics. So I didn’t know much about his parents and how he came to earth. So that part of the movie was probably one of my favourites.

Now, I was wondering whether it would make a difference if Christopher Nolan helmed the director’s seat instead. He did a great job with The Dark Knight franchise. As a producer, I don’t think he can make that many calls. I’m not sure as I’m not in the industry to guarantee that. But it’s just something that I wonder. I have a feeling it would.

I don’t enjoy the movie. It falls flat for me. I wouldn’t suggest wasting your money watching it but if you’re curious, go ahead.

The trailer:


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What’s On Stage: Dirty Dancing

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Yes! The first stage review for me on this blog!

Dirty Dancing: The Musical is currently playing in Singapore and being a musical fan, I caught it yesterday with a few of my pals.

Everyone knows Dirty Dancing so I’m not going to get into the plot. It is a classic story of Baby and Johnny, two different people from two different backgrounds who came together and dance their way through the summer. This very classic story is now put on stage into a musical featuring one of the timeless classic, “Time Of My Life”.

I am pretty disappointed with the musical. It literally puts what was in the movie onto stage and it gets really cheesy for me especially the scene in the ocean. What was a romantic scene in the movie became a joke on stage. It was also really draggy as they follow the movie through and through. Now, movie and stage are two completely different mediums and you need to know how to differentiate the two. What I wanted to see was not a replica of the movie onto stage. What I wanted to see was the musical interpretation of the movie. So what I ended up watching bored me out. I would also like to point out how there are times when the band drowned out the voices of the singers so you had to strain to hear what they were singing. But the musical does have a redeeming factor – the dance. The dancing on the stage was really great. I’m glad they do not screw that up in the least. You can’t screw that up. The dancing made Dirty Dancing dirty dancing.

So, if you have not watched the musical wherever you are and are considering watching it if it is on tour in your country, I would suggest watching the movie instead.

The trailer:


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Movie Review: Now You See Me

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Yesterday, I watched Now You See Me starring Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson and Morgan Freeman among others.

I have to admit that my reasoning for watching this movie in the first place was my crush on Mark Ruffalo. But the trailer was really good in selling the movie so I decided to watch it. It is about four magicians who managed to rob banks through “magic” and give the money to their audience. Mark Ruffalo acted as the FBI agent trying to nab these four magicians and Morgan Freeman as a former magician determined to reveal their secrets.

This is the kind of movie that you need to pay attention from the start. It was quite thrilling to see the four magicians together. The way the director made the magic show was really stylish and modern. The movie also made it seem like these four magicians are the modern-day Robin Hoods. In some way, they are. What I also like about the movie is the ending. Earlier, I said to pay attention from the start. I paid attention from the start and I am the kind of person who could guess a movie’s ending or how the movie is going to go. The ending for this movie was so brilliantly done that it threw me off. I can tell you no one in the theatre I was in could guess the ending. Practically everyone gasped. I was completely thrown. It made me so speechless. But what kind of put me off is the acting by Melanie Laurent as an Interpol agent partnering with Mark Ruffalo’s character. It seemed a little off to me.

That said, it is a good movie to watch and I enjoyed it very much. It is definitely worth the money.

The trailer:


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Love It Or Hate It: Cargo

Being kind of unemployed right now gave me a lot of time on my hands. I just found this YouTube video on Tumblr and decided to watch it. I did not regret my decision to do so.

This YouTube video is a short found on YouTube by a Tumblr user named “ladykalliste” called Cargo. It is a finalist in Tropfest Australia 2013.

In a world where people seemed so interested in zombie apocalypse in movies and books, this particular short film gives a breath of fresh air to the popular plot. It is a very short film but it managed to show the love of a father for his child, even when zombie-bitten.

I’m not a particularly huge fan of zombie apocalypse storyline but this 7-minute short film gripped my heart. Warm Bodies shows that there is some form of humanity still even when R is a zombie. This short film does it in 7 minutes.

Love it or hate it? I absolutely love it.


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TV Review: Game of Thrones – The Rains of Castamere

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There are no words to describe how I feel after watching the latest episode of Game of Thrones. No words at all so I will just leave you with this gif to express how I feel and let me collect my thoughts before I write a coherent review of the episode.

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I don’t read the book and I know this was written ages ago. There is nothing we can do about it because it’s a book that’s written ages ago. George R. R. Martin had written it and meant for it to happen and he has said that it was one of the most difficult scenes to write. Trust me, as a viewer, it is going to be one of the most difficult scenes to watch for any TV shows. If you are wondering, Kurt and Blaine’s break-up scene is one of those difficult scenes to watch. 

Because what I am about to write would contain spoilers, I have to hide what I said under the cut…

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