This Siti Never Sleeps At Night

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

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Movie Review: Despicable Me 2

ImageAfter being a teeny-weeny bit disappointed with Monsters University, I came in watching Despicable Me 2 hoping and praying that it gives as much as it did with all those hilarious clips before the movie release. And I wasn’t disappointed at all.

In the sequel of the popular Universal-distributed animated movie, we learned what happened after Gru threw his villain cap and has now dedicated his life as a father to Margo, Edith and the adorable “It’s so fluffy, I wanna die” Agnes, and a jelly and jam businessman. But as we all know from the trailer that I’m sure you can’t miss, Gru is recruited by The Anti-Villain League to help capture a villain who has stolen a powerful mutating chemical named PX-41. Okay, so that chemical part I don’t think you know but now you do and I won’t spoil you any further than that.

This movie made me laugh from the start till the end. And when I say “start”, I meant the introduction where they flashed “Illumination Entertainment” on the screen. There were very few moments when no one laughed. You see Gru being such a dad to a tweeny Margo, the three girls being adorable as always and they certainly do not fail when it comes to Agnes, and of course, who could ever forget the minions. You may not understand whatever that comes out of the minions’ mouths but their antics are what made everything hilarious. Also, we cannot forget the ever-slow Dr. Nefario. He has very little things to say in this sequel but whatever he did say were all gems. There are also new characters in this sequel, one being the lady who tasered Gru, Lucy, and if you are like me who have been watching every single clip of Despicable Me 2 before its launch, evil minions.

If you wanna know how the evil minion comes about, do watch the movie. You will never regret it. Also, I will never ever listen to “I Swear” the same way ever again.

The trailer…


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Movie Review: Monsters University

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Well, this is a delayed review. I watched Monsters University last week but in my defence, I was quite sick and am still sick. So, if this review made no sense at all, you can blame it all on my cough syrup (I’m feeling drowsy right now).

Anyway, on to my review of this beloved monsters movie…

If you do not know by now, Monsters University is a prequel to Monsters, Inc. so no, there is no Boo. This animated movie is set before Sullivan became the top monster in Monsters, Inc. and Mike is still… well, Mike.

I like how Pixar made the movie like a typical non-animated “young people in college” movie, with the cliché groups – the jocks, the babes, the nerds, the goths, etc. It is also nice to see that Randy wasn’t that bad of a guy – wait, no, monster – when he was in school.

But it was a little bit of a letdown from the popular Monsters, Inc. I think some people expected a sequel more than a prequel, most probably because the ending in Monsters, Inc. was when Sullivan met Boo once again. I was one of those people who was kind of disappointed a little bit because I love Boo and there were a lot of rumours of how we actually saw Boo in Toy Story 3.

Nevertheless, the movie was a fun, feel-good, family-friendly movie. In my opinion, Squishy and Squishy’s mom stole the limelight for me. Squishy is adorable and I want to grow up to be Squishy’s mom. Anyway, like any other animated movies, kids could learn a thing or two (or more) from it. So, if you have not watched it yet and you love Monsters, Inc., go and head down to watch it. Bring little kids along to. They will enjoy it as much as you do.

The trailer…


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Review: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Before “World War Z”, I have only read one other zombie-related book – “Warm Bodies”. But since I heard plenty of great reviews for “World War Z” and the movie of the same name was about to be released (then), I decided to give this book a shot. And I do not regret every second of my decision.

“World War Z” is basically a collection of survivors’ stories from the zombie apocalypse that struck our planet. It touches different aspects of the war – from the military to the general public, from the religious to the atheists – and different parts of the world – from US to South Korea.

The book is complex but that’s what I love about it. War between humans, in itself, is not simple – there is a cost on human lives among many other things. War against zombies is another level of not simple. They are the living dead so how do you kill the living dead? Like every other wars, there are questionable tactics being used to win this war and as a reader, you struggle between the morality and the practicality of these tactics. And throughout the book, you wonder if you would ever survive in a zombie apocalypse.

Max Brooks made World War Z so real and believable. If, one day, we do have zombie apocalypse, I know that this book might just save us all.

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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: