James Bond Begins

Had the opportunity of a lifetime last night. Got to watch the preview of the latest James Bond flick, Casino Royale! What an experience and what a movie it turned out to be. However, I must say that it didn't really hit MY mark, (it's trailer made me expect more)but it was very entertaining. I must say the approach was very different than other Bond movies. A very daring move by the 007 franchise owners.

It was a story of how it all started. Just when he was promoted to double-O status. Bond was meaner, more human but still suave. Rookie mistakes here and there, but this was to show that he was still green at that time. Great action and the script was near perfect. I assumed it must have been very challenging for the director but he did very well. I just love how the chemistry between James Bond and Vesper Lynd developed. Both acted very, very well. But, at some point, the movie went a bit slow. Probably due to the story turned into a love story for a while. Superb soundtrack, too. All in all, I think Daniel Craig was almost perfect being James Bond in this movie.

I would give a rating of 8.5. Don't expect the usual Bond stuff and it is definitely a must-see movie and worth the 2 1/2 hour!

Movie Website Review

Last week, I checked out for year end hot new movies in the internet. Browsing my firefox, I bumped into several movie website, movies.com, rottentomates.com, movietickets.com, futuremovies.co.uk, even our own local gsc.com.my and several others. Quite nice and very informative. I especially like movies.com website, very easy and clear cut. Others are a bit ceramuk and messy. So I came across the must see movies line-up, like Transformers, Casino Royale, Open Season, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning AND lastly, our very own Cicakman (what a pathetic title to begin with)

So, I checked each movie's website. Wanted to view the movie trailers and whatever interesting. Transformers' website was cool! There was a contest where you can actually submit a line for Optimus Prime to speak in the movie, can you believe that?? Way cool! The trailer was good as well, although a bit short, but I got the glimpse of what to come this 7.4.07. Can't wait! Next, was Open Season. Cute website. Targeting kids, obviously, it offers...er kids stuff. The trailer was fun, as well. Spontaneously, I had the urge to bring my daughters to watch it once it's out.

Casino Royale was next. Very, very cool and suave website. The trailer was breathtaking. God! Made me wanna be the guy! You can actually download the trailer to PSPs. The soundtrack was superb, as well. It has online James Bond game, too. And guess what? The website offers poker game online, as well! With so much offerings, and I totally believe, a super cool James Bond movie this going to be, I will be among the first, lining up at the movies come Nov 17...in London! Coincidently, I'll be leaving for the city on that day!

Next, was Cicakman. An ambitious website, I would say. Nice graphics. BUT as usual, Malaysians like to do it halfway. Very disappointing in terms of what it offers. Several options were made available in the website, like, About the Film, Downloads, Gallery, Trailer, Get Updates and etc. I checked all of them and almost everything replied with COMING SOON. And this was from a movie that was supposed to be out very soon. Except for Downloads, which only offers one pathetic wallpaper of Cicakman himself, nothing else worked. The website was not user friendly as well. The screens kept overlapping on each other. Overall, it's a total embarassment to our local movie scenes. I can bet that the movie will be half baked as well.

Sigh, still waiting for that day, when I get to be proud of our own local stuff.