One Word

Having just watched Eat Pray Love, I was intrigued by one of the scenes in the movie. In that scene, the characters were asked to pick ONE word to describe themselves. For Elizabeth Gilbert (the main character of the movie), she stumbles at first, but finally finds her word at the end of her travels.

In the book, the word is antevasin, which is Sanskrit for “one who lives at the border.” But in the movie, it is attraversiamo, which is Italian for "to cross over". This word is also mentioned in the book, but not as "the" word. I'm not really sure why they change it.... I think the first word is better.

Which makes me wonder..... what is THE word for me? Well, I don't know any Sanskrit nor Italian, so here are some possible thoughts in English or Bahasa Indonesia :

• Fat
• Friendly (well, not really. I can be mean when I'm annoyed)
• Fun
• Creative
• Intelligent (starting to get a little too narcissistic... :P)
• Worldly
• Picky
• Sarcastic
• Konyol
• Cuek
• Explorer (emangnya gue Dora? Kayaknya lebih mirip Doraemon deh daripada Dora :P)

How the hell am I supposed to pick just ONE word? There's at least a quarter of million words (and growing) in the English language itself, and I don't think Bahasa Indonesia can ever be counted, with new (informal) words formed almost everyday  @_@

So, what do you think? (For those of you who know me) If you were to describe me, what would you say? And for everyone else, what's YOUR word?

Movie Review : Eat Pray Love

Eat Pray Love (EPL) is another movie adapted from a book (seriously, it's an epidemic now..... run for your life while you still can) by Elizabeth Gilbert . I haven't read the book yet, so I can't really comment about the differences. But all my friends who have read the book say that the book is not so good.

The story is about a successful writer who suddenly realized that she is not ready to settle down in her marriage (then why did you get married in the first place??? Women! *sigh*). So she ended her marriage and accidentally (yeah right) find a cute younger man that she screws likes. However, she still finds herself unhappy and so decided to took 1 year off to travel around the world and "find herself again". She decided that she would spend 4 months in Italy (EAT), 4 months in India (PRAY), and ended the year in Bali (LOVE). 

I have just found out that it is actually based on a true story. However, in real life, the trip was sponsored in return of her writing the book.

OK first of all, before I even begin to review the movie, take a closer look at this sentence : 4 months in Italy, 4 months in India, and ended the year in Bali. Notice anything stupid?? Well, for those of you who flunked geography in school, let me tell you Italy and India are countries, but (surprise surprise!! *rolls eyes*) Bali is NOT a country. It is an island located in the country INDONESIA. Seriously, how stupid can you be? Nevertheless, the movie still generates quite an interest for Bali, and ultimately Indonesia. So I guess it's not that bad. But please... get your facts right next time.

Now, on to the movie..... I think it should be called Eat Sleep Love rather than Eat Pray Love. Or better still, we can just skip the whole middle part and call it Eat Love :P. That way we can save about 30 minutes of movie time (btw the movie is quite long..... 2 hours and 20 minutes... but then again, I think it's kind of hard to document a year of life in 2 hours 20 minutes).

Anyway, the 'pray' part, where she travels to India, is just boring. She went to a kind of monastery where people chants, meditates and try to find their spirituality. Over there she met an old dude from Texas, who is just annoying and rude to everyone, especially her. I don't like this guy at all. Towards the end of her India trip, the old dude started crying and tells his story (why he ended up there blah blah blah). I think it's supposed to be an emotional scene, but sorry I just don't get it. I can't even understand what he's saying, and I almost fell asleep.

Also, the Italy and Bali scenes are beautiful and showcases the beauty of the places. It does make you want to go there someday. But in India, they are showing the dirtiness and crappiness of the places.

OK let's move on to the Bali scenes. Hadi Subiyanto, who plays Ketut Liyer (the 9th generation medicine man who prophesies about Liz's return to bali),  is quite funny and convincing as a medicine man who talks cryptically. But I doubt the audience can really understand what he's saying, especially with his thick Indonesian accent. Christine Hakim, who plays Wayan (Liz's friend while she was in Bali), is great for the role, except for the fact that she's not Balinese. But nobody really cares anyway, especially when they don't know where Bali really is :P

Liz's love interest is played by Javier Bardem (a.k.a Mr. Penelope Cruz). I don't know much about this guy before.... I don't think I have ever seen any of his movies. But suddenly here he is, and he will be guest starring on Glee as well. To be honest, I'm not really impressed by his acting in this movie. 

So, overall I think this movie is pretty to look at (Italy and Bali only, please), but the story doesn't have much depth into it. It's not really a comedy, nor it's a chick flick. Julia Robert shines (as always), but she's the only anchor to the whole movie. 

Key To My Heart

Short post today. Just wanted to share something strange....

As you all know, this weekend I will be moving to a new temporary place, and so I have start packing. I consider myself to be quite good at packing (i.e good at throwing stuff away), but there is a strange thing that happens everytime I move : the magically appearing keys.

EVERYTIME I move...... I always find strange keys which I have totally no idea what for. And I always leave them behind or throw them away, but somehow everytime I move, there they are again..... well, I wish one of them is the key to my soulmate's heart (all : AWWWWWW..... :P)

2010 TV Roundup part 3 - The Overrated

Like every other great stories out there (Lord of The Rings, the Millenium Trilogy, The Matrix, Spy Kids, etc), there's got to be a 3rd part to conclude and end it all off. So, in this post I will review shows that are overrated....

Cougar Town

It has been hailed as "the return of Courtney Cox to primetime television". Actually that's not entirely true, because she did try to make a comeback after Friends with a short-lived show in 2007 called Dirt. Does anybody remember that? I don't think so, since the show was buried in dirt (sorry, it was just too easy :P) after only 1 1/2 season.

In this show, Courtney plays Jules Cobb, a 40 something recently divorced woman who is trying to get back to the dating scene, which is filled with younger men, thus she is seen as a cougar that preys on young boys. Other supporting characters include her neighbor who is also recently divorced, but he's a man, so it's ok to date younger women (stereotypical.... *rolls eyes*). There's also her sarcastic best friend and her younger assistant who always bickers at every single little thing, and also her son and her ex-husband.

I watched a couple of episodes when it was showing on tv last year, and wasn't really impressed. I gave it another try this year, hoping it gets better, but sadly it doesn't do it for me. Even with Jennifer Aniston guest starring as Jules' shrink. The comedy just doesn't feel natural.... feels very very scripted. So..... NEXT!

Nikita

Maggie Q in skimpy, skin tight dresses kicking bad guys' asses every week? Sounds pretty good, right? Well, the concept is there, but the execution is not so good. The action scenes are not bad, but everything else is just boring. The story is predictable, and the conversations are as dry as a bone. (a little free english lesson there... ;-)

Shane West, in particular, is just terrible. He plays Nikita's ex-boss, who obviously still has feelings for her. The problem is that he only have 1 acting face, and it looks like he needs to poop real bad ALL THE TIME. Melinda Clarke, who plays Amanda, also only have 1 face : bitchy face. That's the face that she has been wearing ever since we first saw her on The O.C. (remember that show? I wonder what the other actors/actresses are doing.... we all know that Micha Barton has gone cuckoo......)

The only character that makes the show worth watching is Alex, played by Lyndsy Fonseca. She was a regular in Desperate Housewives for a while, and was last seen at the movie KickAss (although her performance was completely drowned by Hit Girl :P). She's young, beautiful, and have a decent acting skills. Let's hope this show won't ruin her career.

American Idol

Entering it's 10th season now, AI is still the undisputed champion when it comes to singing competition that sucks money out of advertisers faster than Carrie Underwood's albums topping the country charts.

After a disappointing ratings last year (well, who can blame it when there was no raw talent?), this year they are seriously revamping the show. Simon is out, Kara is out, even Ellen is out. The only original judge now is Randy Jackson, and the two new judges are Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler. SERIOUSLY??? Well, I guess if you're trying to appeal more to the Latino market and the older generations, that's the only logical thing to do. Or... it's possible that the producers are just scared that J.Lo might crush them with her US$27million-dollar- insured ass, and Steven Tyler will scream until the glasses all shatters if they don't let them be the new judge.

So..... we'll see what happens next year and hopefully there's more Carrie/Lambert/Daughtry out there, and less Sanjaya/Kris Allen/Lee Dewyze please.........

Phew, I think that's a wrap for this year's TV! If you have any other opinions, put them in the comments! (most probably I'll just ignore it, but hey, it's your choice ;-)

2010 TV Roundup part 2 - The Others

Continuing the previous post, now I shall give my thoughts on the rest of the shows that I watch but not as "religiously".....

Desperate Housewives

Back for their 7th season, the housewives are back, and to be honest, it feels like they're trying a little too hard this season, and seems like the roles are just swapped between the 4 leading ladies.

Vanessa Williams joins the cast as Renée Perry, Lynette's old college friend who is going through a divorce and deciced to stay in Wisteria Lane for a while. I feel this character is introduced to try to fill in Edie Britt's shoes (and house). But it's just not the same without Edie.

Bree is the new Gaby, complete with a hot contractor that she just couldn't resist (played by Brian Austin Green, or more famously known as Mr. Megan Fox..... how the hell did that happen anyway??)

Gaby is now the new Bree, having to deal with the children issues.....

Susan is the new Lynette, with the money issues.....

Lynette is back to the Lynette of season 1, with the arrival of the new baby.

And to top it all off, Paul Young is back, bringing the series to a complete de ja vu experience.....

Well, perhaps it IS the intention of the producers to bring it to a complete circle, considering that this is the last year that all the 4 leading ladies are contracted to the show. We still don't know whether this will be the last season or not.....

Overall it's still an enjoyable show, but it just doesn't make me want to stay up late at night or wake up really early just to watch the latest episode.

No Ordinary Family

A new show with some familiar faces, the story revolves around a family that went on a trip and experienced a plane crash, and got superpowers when they get back home. Sounds familiar? It's kind of a mashup of The Incredibles / Fantastic Four / Heroes / X Men.

The father is played by Michael Chiklis. You might remember him as The Thing from the Fantastic Four movies, except in this show he doesn't have to wear the orange rock suit :P. His power is super strength (e.g : catching a bullet with bare hands, jumping really high and long, lifting a car).

The mother is played by Julie Benz. She's also a familiar face, having appeared in shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Desperate Housewives etc. Her power is being able to run fast (which also comes with fast metabolism and fast healing rate).

The daughter (Kay Panabaker, last seen on Fame [the movie]) is able to hear other people's thoughts, and the son is suddenly a super genius. He's played by James Bennett. I don't remember seeing him before, but apparently he is the young James T Kirk in the last Star Trek movie.

It's a promising new show (so far it's only 2 episodes). Currently the family is still trying to figure out their newfound powers, so there's still a lot to explore. The special effects are good.... very believeable. And, a good show is not complete without the bad guys, so there's some elements of that, too..... they're not the only ones with powers!

So, let's hope it gets better, and please don't follow the same pattern as Heroes, where it gets good and then very quickly gets boring and unfollowable.

The Amazing Race

If you have a huge amount of money, what would you do with it? Some people may say that they will buy a huge-ass house. Some might spend it on jewellry. Some will say they will donate to charity. But for me..... I would use it to travel around the world!!

I am fortunate enough to be able to see the world since I was quite young. My parents always took me and my brother to overseas countries at least once a year ever since I was in primary school. I love travelling, discovering new cultures, seeing new sights, opening up the mind and soul...... therefore, I've always loved watching The Amazing Race.

In case you don't know, basically it's a race between 11 teams (each consists of 2 people) to travel to various countries and do some challenges to win US$1 million! Wow, that's a lot of money haha. There are several others gameshow on television with the same amount of money (e.g : Survivor, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire), but sori sori sori jack (a la keong racun)...... I will NEVER EVER want to be a contestant on Survivor. No offense, but to me, it's a stupid stupid show. And the questions on who wants to be a millionaire are just too hard :P

Anyway, back to the show. Apart from the sights and sounds of different countries, the appeal of the show also comes from the personality of the contestants, of course! Sometimes I feel bad for some of the contestants, because the show only show snippets of the journey, and they purposely edit it to make the contestants look angry at each other, or just plain dumb etc etc. But hey, that's how you make money on TV!

One of the interesting team this year is Michael & Kevin, a.k.a "the asian team" (I know..... how much more stereotypical can you be? *rolls eyes*). Kevin is actually a well known YouTube personality Kevjumba. I have mentioned him in one of my earlier post. So, being Asian myself, of course I'm rooting for them, but chances are slim, especially when Michael (the dad) already said "my leg hurts" during last week's episode.

So, who do you think will win? Will it be the Gleeks? Or the beauty queens? Well, we'll just have to wait and see......

Pretty Little Liars

Have mentioned this show before briefly in an earlier post. Basically it's Desperate Housewives for teens. In the beginning, there were 5 girls who were really close to each other, but each with  their own lies and secrets. One night, suddenly the 'leader' of the pack (Allison) disappeared during a sleepover. After that, the remaining 4 girls drifted apart. One year later, Allison's body was found, which suddenly brought them back together, and they each receive mysterious messages from somebody with the initial "A". This "A" seems to know all of their secrets, and is threatening to expose them...

The show was originally only meant for summer, but since it got rave reviews and ratings, it has been renewed for the 2nd half of the season, and will continue in January 2011.

I guess we'll just have to wait till then to find out what happens to those bitches girls....

Wow that's quite a long post, yeah? Well, it ain't over till I say it's over...... stay tuned for the 3rd part of the post, where I'll be reviewing shows that are totally overrated....

2010 TV Roundup - The Good

So obviously I watch A LOT of TV. And since the fall TV season has officially begun for about 3 weeks, here's my thoughts on the good shows for this year (you may have your own opinion of what's good and what's bad, but in my world, everything I like is good :P)...

Glee

The music! The singing! The dancing!!! OK I have to admit, I'm a total Gleek. Wait, you don't know what Glee is??? Here's a suggestion : STOP WATCHING PORN AND GET A LIFE!! :P

Fresh from their multiple nominations and wins at the Golden Globe Awards, People's Choice Awards, and Emmy Awards, they are back for the 2nd season with bigger, better, and more addictive (is that even possible?) song and dance routine that you can imagine. 

In this season, they are giving more time for the other characters (and some new ones as well); which is a good thing. If you haven't watch the Britney / Brittany episode, all I can say is WOW. Here's a sneak preview of what you missed : (oh boy, that girl can dance!!)

Modern Family

Also making their debut for the 2nd season, it's the winner of Outstanding Comedy Series at the recent Emmy Awards.

The story revolves around 3 dysfunctional families that are somehow related. The connection is formed by Jay, who is the father of Claire and Mitchell.

OK let's start from the top (see poster for reference)

Jay (the sort of homophobic dad) is divorced and recently married a colombian girl half his age, Gloria, who has a son, Manny, from  her previous marriage. Gloria has a very strong accent and a va-va-voom body, and is always proud of her colombian heritage. Manny has the personality of a grown up, trapped in a tiny body.

 Claire (a panicky, once succesfull career woman who gave up everything to be a homemaker --> that's a fancy word for housewive)  is married to Phil (a real estate agent. He's kinda the opposite of Manny, with the personality of a teenager trapped in a grown man's body) , and have 3 children : Haley (the rebellious teenager), Alex (the smart nerdy middle child), and Luke (the dumb one).

 Mitchell (an uptight attorney) is gay and in the first episode, had just adopted a  Vietnamese baby (Lily), together with his partner, Cameron (a very flamboyant ex music teacher who now stays at home to take care of Lily).

The story telling style is sort of like "The Office" style, with no canned laughter. 


Well, I can sort of understand why this is not everybody's cup of tea.... but personally, I LOVE THIS SHOW! My favorite character is, of course, Cameron with all his dramatic personality. At the beginning I didn't really like Gloria (ugh, too much accent!), but now I think she's funny in her own way. 

Big Bang Theory

This show is dedicated to all the nerds / geeks in the world. In a way, I can totally relate to the situation, because..... (drumroll please)...... surprise surprise, I was once a nerd before! (well, it's technically not really a surprise if you're my friend who already knew me from elementary school, but it's still a significant probability and we can probably prove it if we design an experiment with a finite number of elements and test it in a stabile environment so that we can have a conclusive conclusion) Anyway.... see what I mean now?? :P


Back for their 4th season, I've actually only come to know about this show a few months ago due to Jim Parsons (who played Sheldon Cooper in the show) winning Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series at the recent Emmy awards. And then the following week, I got to watch a couple of episodes while I was on a plane, and I'm totally hooked. So for the next 3 weeks I was cooped up in my room, catching up on 3 seasons (roughly 60 episodes of pure laughter :P). So to my flatmates, now you know what I was doing in my room.... don't worry, I haven't turn into an antisocial freak..... yet.


Basically the story revolves around 4 scientist (well technically 3 scientist and 1 engineer) and a "normal" blonde girl. Sheldon (a theoretical physicist) and Leonard (an experimental physicist) live together in an apartment, and in the pilot episode, Penny (the blonde waitress with an acting ambition at the cheesecake factory) moved in across the hall and become their neighbor. Howard (a jewish aerospace engineer) and Rajesh (a particle astrophysicist) are Leonard's friends and hangs out with them all the time. 


The comedy is often provided by the geekiness of the guys, contrasted with Penny's social life. Throw in some romance and a whole lot of big mumbo jumbo words, and hey, you got yourself a good sitcom! Btw this series is presented in a more traditional style (with canned laughters and sound effects). 


BAZINGA! (you'll get it if you follow the show :P)

The Mentalist

From comedy, now we move on to a slightly serious show..... I say slightly, because it does have a good dose of comedy in every episode.

The main character of this series is Patrick Jane (played by the very charismatic Simon Barker). He doesn't really have any special abilities; he's just very observant and is good at talking. In the past, he used these skills to con people into believing that he has psychic powers. Until one day, he appeared on national television and claimed that he is helping the police to track down a serial killer named Red John. Apparently Red John saw this and was not very happy. So he killed Jane's wife and daughter.

Since then, Jane has been living with guilt, and so he decided to use his skills to help the police solve murder crimes. He now works as a consultant to the CBI (California Bureau of Investigation), while focusing on capturing the real Red John.

The show is already into it's 3rd season now, and it's still consistently good. The supporting characters (a.k.a the CBI agents) each have their own distict personality, and their interactions always crack me up, especially Cho (played by Tim Kang) with his straight face and dry humour.

I like this show because it's a good mix of comedy, suspense, action, and intelligence. I usually don't really like "serious" police shows like Cold Case, Law & Order, and even CSI.

So, those are the 4 series that I will definitely follow each week. I will write more on other shows on another post.

Movie Review : Charlie St Cloud

Another movie that is adapted from a book (The Death and Life of Charlie St Cloud by Ben Sherwood). The story is about a young man who is living with his mother and little brother (their dad left them when they were little). He just finished high school and is about to go to Stanford on a sailing scholarship (is there really such a thing?), but his dreams were crushed in a car accident, in which his little brother died.

He then takes the blame for it and could not let go of his dead brother. He gave up all his dreams, works in the cemetery where his brother was buried and "play baseball" every day with his imaginary dead brother for the next 5 years. Until one day a girl comes along, they did the nasty (well, sort of.....), and he decided that sex is more fun than playing baseball with his brother's ghost. 

This film is THE make or break movie for Zac Efron. Previously he is known as the "high school musical boy", and now he's trying to take on more mature roles. Well, I guess his acting is not bad, but the whole story is quite boring and there's really nothing much to explore. So, I'm quite disappointed and should have just waited for the DVD to come out. I give it 2 out of 5 stars. 

The only memorable scene was "making love with the ghost of a semi-dead girl in a cemetery". Now THAT'S original! ;-)