Hidden in the shadows of the majestic lion head….lies a barrage of treasure to be discovered! From nifty peeing devices to collectible puzzle pieces, we reveal to you: Top 6 Cool and Quirky things … Continue reading Did you know? Top 6 Cool & Quirky things you can find in Sunway Pyramid
The holidays are here!
“Everything is awesome!”
If you identified with that phrase (and catchy song), you might be in for a treat. Tucked away in Asian Avenue, Bricksmore is truly a gem to be discovered for all Lego enthusiasts. With over 100 types of LEGO products, the store caters to all.
Whether you’re a die hard Lego fan or a beginner, beware! For by stepping into the store, you might be inspired to put those fingers and building skills to use.
Bryan, the owner of Bricksmore, was kind enough to show us around the store & introduce some of his personal favourites.
We were particularly drawn to this Star Wars Death Star boxed set which has over 3800+ pieces to construct your very own space station. You don’t even have to travel to another galaxy for this!
The best part? It comes with an entire cast of Star Wars characters, perfect for reenacting your favourite scenes over supper and teh tarik. We couldn’t get over the mini lightsabers!
If you’re a fan of the popular sitcom ‘The Simpsons‘, you might like this boxed set with it’s own Simpsons characters AND furniture! Suitable for ages 12+.
Somehow, the creators in us were fascinated by the ‘Creator’ series, cleverly designed for the imaginative (and fickle). Suitable for ages 7 and above, this series allows you to design and recreate your own set in up to 3 different ways!
“Honey, I’m home!”
The creator series is one of the most popular sets in Bricksmore, especially among the younger crowd and collectors. When Bryan showed us the back of the box, we had to resist ourselves from rearranging the model pieces to form an entirely new set. We were also impressed by the detail on each Lego piece, right down to the expressions on the characters’ faces.
Time to bring out the big guns: Bryan beamed with excitement when he brought out the Lego Technic Limited Edition 4×4 Crawler Set, one most sought-after Limited Edition sets, with only 20,000 available worldwide!
Some of the key features include a fully-functional remote control, functional doors, and it’s own unique number plate!
Needless to say, we left feeling rather inspired to add a few items into our Christmas wishlist. There’s something about Lego that opens up a world of possibilities, waiting to be explored.
If you would to get up close & personal with these Lego sets, do make your way to Bricksmore, Sunway Pyramid! Exclusive member discounts & deals await you.
Located at F1.AV.162.
Yes, Johnny Depp makes a great ‘Tonto’.
Yes, Armie Hammer (though not quite a ‘dish’) shines as John Reid aka the Lawyer aka The Lone Ranger.
But the star of the show in our opinion – Silver.
The white Horse, in which Tonto called a “spirit horse” (but could also be misguided and ‘confused’ as it chose the ‘kemosabe’ – the wrong brother), is just hysterical.
From drinking beer straight from the bottle, having the knack to show up at odd places where horses simply can’t – err…like on top of a roof, or on tree branches – Silver, who finally has a name at the end of the movie, is the most appealing character in the film.
Not that the rest of the cast wasn’t good – no no no…It’s just that, it’s a bit too boring and stereotyped – we have the damsel in distress, the baddie (like super bad as he rips out hearts and lungs and eats them raw!), the joker (obviously Tonto), the ‘I-am-the-law’ hero (who is probably the lamest hero ever)…we think we better stop before we hurt ourselves.
Watching Tonto goofing around in The Lone Ranger was like watching Jack Sparrow goofing around in Pirates of the Carribean. Outcast by his tribe, the cuckoo Native American Indian was left emotionally-scarred when his entire tribe was wiped out due to his own mistakes and greed (over a lousy watch). Though wasn’t that fond of John at first, he ‘recruited’ him to seek justice, by becoming the ‘outlaw’.
Their ‘bromance’, odd-couple relationship was hilarious – to an extent that they became a bit too…err..draggy – like the rest of the plot.
It’s a bit of a shame, that the quirky and eccentric Helene Bonham Carter’s Red Harrington only gets a tiny role in the blockbuster. Her ‘ivory’ peg-leg is really something you shouldn’t be messing around with – and as they are often featured together, the chemistry between her and Depp is indeed remarkable.
Lets see…Armie Hammer as John Reid, the ‘educated’ lawyer who doesn’t believe in using guns – yes, believable.
But Armie Hammer as The Lone Ranger – the masked vigilante seeking the ones responsible for his brother’s death, the outlaw who’s supposed to uphold the law – err..perhaps somebody else could fit in the shoes. Somebody who doesn’t get bullied as much, somebody who stands up for himself.
For someone who’s ‘educated’ he is surely a bit of a dimwit, who doesn’t realise he’s being duped the whole time.
Which is why, again, Silver remains our favourite character.
We don’t wish to give away too much of the plot – but rest assured, there are plenty of guns, slaps, action, explosions – just what you expect from a ‘cowboy’ movie. The part that got us most excited was..you guess it – upon hearing the familiar theme of The Lone Ranger. We felt like enrolling ourselves in horse-riding classes straightaway!
“Hi yo Silver, AWAY!”
9 Dragons (2009) is a long-running series by Michael Connelly, the 15th book in the Harry Bosch series which began in 1992 revolving a detective called… yep… Harry Bosch. This is one of Connelly’s most unique writing as he wrote this American detective who knew nothing about the culture of the Chinese having to learn it in a short time to put the culprit who murdered a store owner in China Town, Los Angeles, behind bars. What started out as a determination to put the murderer behind bars ended up becoming a personal pursuit to rescue his loved one. In a race against time, will Bosch succeed to rescue both the murderer and his family?
The writings by Connelly in 9 Dragons were impressive and as an Asian, we enjoyed going through the mind of the American character while he tried to understand the Chinese culture and the notorious underground gangsters and we enjoyed how the story progressed as it described in detail especially the relationship between the main character with his work partners and also all his other relationships including his superior and his family. It was nice how we gradually found out how the main character turned out to be quite an arrogant person too.
What we didn’t like about the book was how the author kept switching from the first name, Bosch and at times Harry. While in understanding, how one character calls another determines the relationship with another, for example, calling Harry instead of Bosch mean that the character has more informal relationship with the main character, we noticed that this name switching from Bosch to Harry and back to Bosch is even mentioned in the narratives, which made the reading slightly unpleasant. We reckon the author must have a reason for that but in the mean time, before our understanding comes, it will remain as an ugly mark in the book.
Apart from that, how the author described in details the sight and scenes of Hong Kong and how the 9 Dragons came in play and its the history was one of the main highlights of the novel. We really recommend you to read this book and perhaps follow through the entire novel right from Book 1. You can see the listings of the books from here:
http://www.michaelconnelly.com/extras/series/
As for now, keep on reading and… happy reading!
It’s no easy task remaking this second sequel of the evergreen, well-loved movie franchise especially when the standard is already set so high already in the past and fans all around the world have embraced their heroes so long ago but kudos to director J.J. Abrams who have produced other well known hits such as Mission Impossible III (2006), Super 8 (2011) and Cloverfield (2008). A job well done indeed! Watching the Star Trek series all over again have refreshed some of our long forgotten memories that made up some of our sweetest childhood experiences. For first timers, rest assured, you won’t be caught off-guard in a middle of some unknown plot, even if this is your first Star Trek movie.
In this series, after a devastating terror attack on the Enterprise, Captain Kirk (starred by Chris Pine) was determined to find the attacker to seek justice. Chris Pine from the start, was captivating and in a gentlest way, had so much of on-screen charisma that draws attention towards his screen character and it gradually grows stronger as the movie goes on. It was entertaining to watch how the comical debate between humanity and logic is constantly in the limelight as both characters – Captain Kirk and Spock (starred by Zachary John Quinto) showed their affections for each other in very different ways. What is interesting about the whole Star Trek series especially with these two central characters is that their voices sometimes reflect very much our own when we deal with threatening situations, emotions and even danger. Scotty (starred by Simon Pegg) was also a very enjoyable watch as he remained to give comedic punch lines the moment he made an appearance onscreen. We have to say that we noticed the strong British accent in his speech which gave him away just a little bit but, hey, we can’t say we don’t love him and his charming accent and jokes.
The Star Trek series, although a Sci-Fi, interestingly covers many other life issues such as relationship whether romantic relationship, friendship and even paternal relationship. This is what makes the series so popular as viewers sometimes can find themselves relating to the character’s dilemma. All in all, if you haven’t watched it yet, get off your seat quick and book a movie ticket now. We rate the Star Trek Into Darkness sky high. Five stars!
Did you enjoy the movie? How would you rate it? Don’t you think the costumes are just simply awesome? Which are your favourite characters and why?
What else can we say? Robert Downey Jr, a.k.a Tony Stark a.k.a Iron Man is….THE MAN!
We couldn’t think of anyone else who could step into the (metal) shoes and the (iron) body armour, and play the role any better than the guy. Though Iron Man 3 is largely about ‘boys and their toys’, with huge, extravagant and spectacular shows of macho-ism and arrogance, it also shows another part of Tony Stark and teaches people a thing or two about teamwork.
Yeah – two (or three) is definitely better than one – just look at how much help Mr Stark get from Pepper Potts, Harley the Kid, and Col. Rhodes.
Oh, and that teamwork display hanging on the air – simply awesome!
Tony Stark still displays his cockiness and arrogance in Iron Man 3, but he seems to have lost it as he puts out the challenge “You’re not a man. You’re nothing more than a maniac. I’m not afraid of you. No politics here: just good old fashioned revenge!” to The Mandarin for the bomb blast which sent his best friend, aptly named Happy, to coma.
And as it turns out, a billionaire (or is it a trillionaire?) like Tony Stark has problems like the rest of us laymen (and women) too. Anxiety, insomnia, commitment issues, flaws – well, there are indeed certain things that even money can’t buy huh?
Ben Kingsley, the awesome thespian also gets our thumbs-up for providing a ‘face of terror’, which made us all think that ‘fear of the unknown is the greatest fear of all’.
When “The Mandarin” said: “Ladies, children, sheep… Some people call me a terrorist. I consider myself a teacher. Lesson number one: Heroes, there is no such thing” – that alone sent shivers through our spine as the threat seemed really imminent, especially seeing how things are in the world at the moment.
It is, however, pretty weird seeing ‘Gandhi’ as ‘The Mandarin, the terrorist’ – but he plays the part down to the T.
By the way, Ben Kingsley plays the role of the peace-loving Gandhi in the movie err..”Gandhi” some time ago 🙂
The villain, Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) is the ‘mad scientist’ , the man-behind-the-scene – brilliant, but crazy and demented. Why is it always the smart, nerdy and geeky guys get to be the baddies, we wonder?
Iron Man 3 sees Tony Stark’s relationship with Pepper Potts going much further, and while it may seem that he’s calling all the shots, sometimes it’s her who wears the pants in the house.
That part towards the end..phooowwwaaarrr!!! You go girl!!
And at this point, we’re just so tempted to reveal everything about Iron Man 3. But nooo…you have to go and see it yourself.
Just a reminder though – remember to stay until the end of the credits…that’s all we can say 🙂
We watched Iron Man 3 at the TGV Cinemas, located at F1.MZN.1
Also, just a sneak peek, Iron Man fans, you can get their merchandise from F Floor near TGIF.
You can this interesting backdrop that you, Iron Man fans would absolutely looooove…………
Do you know the names of the characters in these paintings? Lovely, aren’t they?
Also, closer towards the escalator at F Floor, you can see this really interesting 3D Art on the floor…
Awesome, ain’t it? For those of you who have not seen it, remember to drop by and also get yourself some merchandise to officially brand yourself as an Iron Man fan.
Just to digress back to the movie, we wonder if there are any more sequels to this movie. What do you think?
It’s hard to think of J.K Rowling writing about anything else than the magical wizard world of Harry Potter. We were crushed when that era ended.
And then we were told that she was venturing into the world of adults (and adultery?!) in Casual Vacancy.
And our thought was “blimey!” (sorry, couldn’t resist Ron Wesley’s signature remark).
While not exactly a page-turner for us, Casual Vacancy was more than a decent effort from Rowling, though we thought that some bits of the book were too far-stretched (in other words, it did bore us a bit) with too many lingering conversations and dialogues.
Towards the ending (don’t worry, no spoilers here) it felt like ‘watching’ a soap opera or telenovela, Rowling was so eager to cramp everything in it.
It actually had a promising, but dark start-off, with the death of the village parish councilman – hence a ‘vacancy’ to be filled for the post. As it happened, the village is full of gossip and scandalmongers, and the political and social impact left behind by the death of Barry Fairbrother revealed a lot more than what the villagers bargained for.
But, the black comedy that made up Casual Vacancy, with Rowling’s move in using a lot (and yes, there were a lot) of variety for the ‘cursing’ vocabulary, added with scandalous and taboo issues like teenage sexuality, drugs, rape among many, had at times gotten just a little bit way too much for us to handle.
No, not because we were too naïve to think that these things don’t happen in real world; but it was rather too boring to be talked about again and again, as if we don’t already have enough of them.
Perhaps, it was Rowling’s way to unleash her inner, deepest thoughts – what she couldn’t really write in the Harry Potter series, she put them in Casual Vacancy. There are certainly no limitations or restrictions now.
We know that it is unfair to keep comparing Casual Vacancy to the Harry Potter series, on how Rowling managed to work her charms in the latter, but not able to leave such ‘magical’ impact on the former – but we just couldn’t help it.
Although the book will definitely please some of her fans, we think that a lot more will be dismayed by it. Having said that however, we would still wait, and keep our fingers crossed for more Rowling’s magic.
Check out some more wonderful literature at Popular, located at LG1.123, contact no – 03-56377280
Now, what does The Croods have anything to do with a Malaysian, you may ask?
Well well well..the pride of our nation, the wonderful vocalist from Kedah, our local girl Yunalis Zarai, otherwise known as Yuna has lent her husky, melodious voice to the soundtrack of the animated film.
Belting out the title track for The Croods, singing a duet with Owl City to “Shine My Way”, Yuna certainly did us proud, especially since the film itself ‘shone’ at the box-office.
With Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone and Ryan Reynolds lending their voices to the main characters, The Croods is an animated story about a close-knit, primitive family who just about to manage in living their barbaric live to survive various dangers.
Thanks to the overprotective father, Grug (Nicolas Cage), (seriously, if our dads are like him, we’d be like…arghhh!!) who is (literally AND figuratively) obsessed AND possessed with a paralysing fear of anything new, the whole family lives their lives “safely” in the dark, clammy cave they called home.
But then, there’d always be ONE rebel in the family as it is, and lo’ and behold, the daughter, Eep (voiced by Emma Stone) is just too adventurous, bold and daring to be kept in the ‘cage’ they called the cave. Well, as with any other defiant teenager (we’ve all been at that stage before, haven’t we?), she did the total opposite and went against everything that her father ordered her NOT to do.
Enter Guy (Ryan Reynolds), a hippie / free-thinker / high-spirited / oh and jean-wearing..err..guy and his pet-cum-side-kick sloth, Belt (who is hilarious by the way), who ‘lures’ Eep out of the darkness (yeah, ironic, we know) and wishes to show her a lot of wonders of the world.
Without giving too much away needless to say, Guy has opened Eep’s, and the rest of the families’ (including Grug’s) eyes that there are so many wonderful things that await them out of the cave, and taught them a few things about surviving in the wildnerness.
Which includes some rather amusing antics on how to trap a prey.
Yes, we enjoyed the movie..it has some funny bits…BUT…
We also thought that the same ol’, same ol’ formula is repeated again and again, making the whole movie slightly bumpy and lopsided.
Yeah, we got that messages of ‘family-togetherness’ and ‘all that is new is dangerous…and YOU WILL DIE!’ coz they were really (and we mean REALLY) emphasised throughout the film that at some point, it bored us to..err..death..(a bit dramatic, that we know).
But STOP IT already..please…
And really.. what was the ‘real threat’, coz the “end of the world” (as Guy puts it) didn’t really seem like the real McCoy…
Oh yeah… Eep truly resembles that other girl from that other animated movie, with the same wild, frizzy, unkempt red hair and the same daring and bold attitude to match. Couldn’t she have been…say…a brunette? Or even raven-haired?
Having said that though, The Croods offers a colourful, light entertainment for the whole family, and serves as an excellent comedy relief after a hard day. Ever wondered how they used to take photos back in the (extremely) old days, or how belt was created?
We say – watch The Croods to find out 🙂
We watched the movie at TGV, located at F1.MZN.1 in Sunway Pyramid.
Oscar Diggs, or Oz, (starred by James Franco) is a carnival magician who wished to be great and one day, he was swept by a tornado and ended up in the Land of Oz where he was given a difficult mission to defeat the wicked witch.
Wait a minute. Is this the same Wizard of Oz we know? You know, the one where there was this little girl, Dorothy, who sang ‘Over the Rainbow’ in one of those old movies? Well, not exactly, but yeah, it’s still the Land of Oz and yep, it’s a remake of the classical Wizard of Oz (1939) we all love.
We were a little confused at first because we did expect to see Dorothy again, maybe the grown up version of her (oh dear, we compared this to Alice and the Wonderland, didn’t we?) but then again, with the Land of Oz planted so deeply in our hearts, it will be extremely difficult for us to accept a remake and sooo, yep, we agreed with what its director Sam Raimi did to refresh the storyline while keeping some of the classical essence of what make the Land of Oz endearing in our hearts.
This Oz, the Great and Powerful is a more grown up version of Wizard of Oz, powerfully entwined in a romance plot and it was fun to see how the charming James Franco played Oz, a character who believed that he was a bad man and how he encountered the beautiful ladies – the witches Theodora (starred by Mila Kunis), Evanora (starred by Rachel Weisz)and Glinda (starred by Michelle Williams).
What we didn’t like about the movie was also what made it… nice. Sounds confusing, yeah… but what we meant are the cheesy lines, the stereotypes and all that flirting… at the end of the day, while we hated them, it was those lines and stereotypes that made the movie very entertaining. It was also interesting to see how Oscar struggled to stay through his mission. It’s a fun movie by Disney and we know the children will love it.
How it fared for us adults though? Well, we give this movie 2.5 stars. It will be nice to watch this movie but we wouldn’t put this in your must-watch list. Then again, this is our personal opinion. How many stars would you rate this movie? Who are your favourite characters in this movie? Tell us because we want to know.
Sunway Pyramid 