vinyarb

The Interview

There’s so much to say about the film ‘The Interview’ that is not about the film, but the circumstances and controversy surrounding it, the Sony hack, it being pulled off theatres initially, then releasing it on a few indie theatres alongside VOD.

But first, let’s get the review out of the way.

In and of itself, The Interview is a mediocre comedy about a bumbling, arrogant talk show host from Skylark Tonight and his producer scoring an interview with Kim Jong Un (because he’s a huge fan of the show), and subsequently coerced by the CIA into making the interview an assassination mission. The usual toilet humour accompanies a Seth Rogen directed/produced film, but This Is The End had much better humour in it.

In my opinion, the best bit was the Eminem cameo right at the start of the film, and things went downhill from there. James Franco acted like he was acting, and Seth was just being Seth. The only laudable actor in this movie is Randall Park, who plays Kim Jong Un as a shy, actually almost likeable dude who just needs his father’s approval, and secretly likes Katy Perry songs (who doesn’t??!).

Definitely not worth getting hacked and having all that sensitive information out in the open for such a film! If you really want to watch something, I’d suggest a re-run of Team America.

Rating: 3/10

Freedom of Speech/Expression needs to be used responsibly

I understand the need for us to be able to freely express ourselves in order to spur creativity, inspiration and innovation. But I think this freedom should not be taken for granted, and certainly not abused.

The plot and depiction of the assassination of Kim Jong Un in The Interview is simply overstepping the line. No wonder he (allegedly) sent an army to hack into Sony. I’d do the exact same thing.

Obama said that Sony shouldn’t have “pulled” the film from theatrical release, and that freedom of expression should not be stifled by threats, what if the opposite had happened?

What if North Korea, or Russia had made a movie that explicitly showed the assassination and facial explosion of Barack Obama in the name of freedom of expression? Would he have sat back and said “Wow Russia, that was a hugely entertaining piece of fictional filmmaking. I am Barack Obama and I endorse this film.”?

It’s one thing to go on SNL and make fun of yourself, but it’s another for an enemy nation (or at least a non friendly) to release a movie about killing (AND ACTUALLY KILLING) your President, and not do anything about it.

Freedom of Speech needs to be accompanied (at all times) with common sense and basic etiquette.

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2014 in review

Jan

2014 marked the start of an entirely new phase in our lives, where we added parenthood to the CV of Life. To tell that story, we first have to go back to February of 2014, when we took a short getaway to Margaret River in Australia.

It was a wonderful, stress-free, thoroughly enjoyable vacation where we ate, drank and generally had lots of idle time to explore the wonderful sights and sounds Margaret River had to offer. You could say it was a farmtastic stay.

Our accommodation of choice was this lovely little farm called Margaret River Hideaway, where we had a cosy little cottage all to ourselves. With Margaret River town just 3km away, driving to and from the farm was a cinch!

Some pictures from the trip:

The. Best. Meal. Ever.

Little did we know, that when we came back from Margaret River, we would bring back more than bellies full of wine! We got pregnant!

Never been happier to hold up a stick of pee

Do I look fat in these?

Since then, it’s been a roller coaster ride of gynae visits, freaking out over our pending parenthood, gushing over our pending parenthood, and watching as many movies as we could before he popped.

Then came the day, 28 Oct 2014.

Seeing him for the first time in the flesh was just the most amazing moment. And although it’s only been 10 weeks, his every movement and growth over this short period of time is nothing short of mesmerising to watch and be a part of.

New dads to be: Be as involved and as helpful as you can be, both for yourself and your wife. Feeding, bathing, diaper changing, cooing, rocking him to sleep… you don’t wanna miss out on any of these moments.

So we’re now a trio! And I can’t wait to do more as a trio!

3’s not a crowd la!

Being Daddy, Musings Comments Off

2014 in review – Film edition

Jan

This year saw a mixed bag of movies, some good, others perhaps not meeting expectations.

Here are my top 10 picks for 2014:

10. The Lego Movie

Essentially a 100 minute lego advertisement, but done so well and with so much heart, we’ll even forgive the tired ‘The Chosen One’ trope. Plus, with the sountrack, everything is indeed awesome!

9. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part I

One of the few series that, in my mind, got progressively better ever since the dud that was the first Hunger Games. Mockingjay was my least favourite of the books, but I found the film version of war politicking intriguing.

I still don’t get how Peeta has any kind of chance over Gale though.

8. Godzilla

Yes, Bryan Cranston died less than a third of the way through the film, but let’s be honest. No one goes to a Godzilla movie to watch Bryan Cranston, badass as he may be.

No, people go to a Godzilla movie to watch THIS! Fuck Yeah Atomic Breath!

7. Open Windows

Open Windows is a delightful little indie written and directed by Nacho Vigalondo. If you haven’t heard of him, I suggest watching TimeCrimes, his 2007 time-travel feature debut.

Open Windows stars Elijah Wood as an obsessed fan who bites off more than he can chew when he finds that he has won a dinner date with his favourite actress Jill Goddard (Sasha Grey!?!!).

Plot sounds generic enough, but the conceit of the film is similar to the found footage genre, where most of the action takes place on Elijah Wood’s laptop, via several program windows, hence the title Open Windows.

6. Coherence

Technically a 2013 film, but it was released late in 2013, and I only saw it this year, so I’ll put this film under my list for this year. Another indie gem, a dinner party goes awfully wrong after a comet fly-by opens up parallel universes with parallel dinner parties.

What would you do, if your situation in your universe kinda sucked?

5. Gone Girl

A breakthrough performance by Rosamund Pike, in my opinion. Brilliantly directed by David Fincher, the man who made making a website look exciting.

I’m definitely setting time aside in 2015 to read the book.

4. X-Men: Days of Future Past

One of the best sequences of the film was the rescue of Magneto, heavily dependent on QuickSilver, and it’ll be interesting to see how the same character is depicted in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

DOFP was also crucial in that it connected the 2 separate X-Men series, serving as a sequel to First Class as well as The Last Stand, featuring cast from both with equal-ish screentime.

If DOFP is a sign of things to come, I can’t wait for X-Men: Apocalypse.

3. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

I always felt that Cap was one of the weaker characters for the standalone films, and wasn’t too impressed with The First Avenger. But The Winter Soldier totally blew me away with the action, plot, and the overall impact in the aftermath of the film. The pacing never let up, and the action never let me down.

2. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Rise of the Planet of the Apes told of how a certain ALZ-113 virus gave modified intelligence to an ape named Caesar, and how that same virus would be calamitous to mankind.

10 years after the events of Rise, a generation of intelligent apes have made themselves a home and community in Muir Woods, while the human race dwindled and collapsed.

A chance meeting between the remaining humans in San Francisco and the apes and a misunderstanding between them would lead to an impending war. And if the prelude to the all out war could be so intense, sign me up for the actual war please!

Mark down this date. July 29, 2016!

1. Edge of Tomorrow

Tom Cruise dies again and again until he wins. Aside from the ending, everything else about the film was just about perfect. It was a real toss up between this and Dawn for my number one spot, but i’m sorry, in my books, aliens always wins apes.

What were your favourite films of 2014?

I will share some of 2014’s most disappointing films in a future post! Time to feed the baby!

Movie News, Movie Reviews Comments Off

Even Sony staff hates Adam Sandler films

Dec

By now, you must have heard of the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack back in November. Sure, a lot of personal information like salaries, social security numbers, and very very personal emails were leaked.

But enough of the superficial stuff. Here at vinyarb, we’re concerned with the hard hitting, impactful news, like how Adam Sandler is universally disliked, even by the very studio that ships his films.

In a file innocently titled “Soney_2012_Comments”, a raw dump of employee feedback contains these gems about Adam Sandler, and the movie making decisions backed by the Studio in general:

“In TV and Theatrical, I hope management looks closely at the money spent on development and term deals to ensure efficiency. There are a lot of term deal personnel as well as creative personnel, yet we only release a dozen or so Columbia Pictures a year, for example. And will we still be paying for Adam Sandler? Why?”

There is a general “blah-ness” to the films we produce. Although we manage to produce an innovative film once in awhile, Social Network, Moneyball, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, we continue to be saddled with the mundane, formulaic Adam Sandler films.

Ouch.

Here are more details on the hack.

Also, if the Sony staffer thinks that films adapted from novels represents innovation, I think we all have the answer on why Sony is on the outs.

Entertainment Comments Off

Happy Father’s Day!

Nov

I celebrated Father’s Day on the 28th October, 2014, as we welcomed our little bundle of joy, Oliver, into this world.

Even penning this down, two weeks into parenthood, I’m still awed with a flood of emotions, ranging from elation, bliss, fear of being responsible for an entire human being, pride, and of course relief at discovering that hey, I too can wrap a mean swaddle.

Exhibit A – A Mean Swaddle

It’s a whole new phase involving lots of sleepless nights, tired bodies, and yet, it’s something that enriches me more than anything I’ve done till date. Watching his every emotion and facial expression as he sleeps, is more exciting than X-Men: Days of Future Past!

Feeding him, changing his nappies (incidentally, this naughty boy constantly poops when we are changing him), and then patting him to sleep has become a routine, and even though it’s been less than two weeks, I feel myself improving exponentially and getting much better at handling him. It’s like I’m living Edge of Tomorrow, PG version.
Feed. Sleep. Repeat

It’s been a thoroughly exciting ride so far, and we’re only two weeks in! Stay tuned for more updates!

Being Daddy, Musings Comments Off

ALS Ice bucket challenge

Aug

Thanks to all the celebrities doing it the past few weeks, you must have heard of the ALS Ice Bucket challenge by now. Celebrities have taken the challenge by storm, and in the process, helped raise awareness and fundraise for ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), a progressive neurological degenerative disease for which there is currently no cure.

A quick search on ALS ice bucket challenge will yield you videos ranging from Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Chris Pratt, Jimmy Fallon, Taylor Swift, Chloe Grace Moretz and many more taking the challenge, and in turn issuing their challenge to keep the viral factor going.

Here’s Chris Pratt

Bill Gates (as challenged by Mark Zuckerberg)

And here’s Lady Gaga doing the challenge the only way she knows how (creepily)

I think using the power of celebrity to raise awareness, and raise funds to fight ALS is brilliant.

Not to take anything away from this campaign, and I may be (or probably am) totally off-base here, but I’d like to bring to your attention another deadly and rare disease.

Multiple System Atrophy (MSA)

Multiple System Atrophy, like ALS, is a neurological degenerative disorder. Like ALS, there isn’t currently a cure, and likewise, the prognosis is poor. ALS affects roughly 2 in 100,000 people. MSA roughly 4.6 in 100,000 people. It’s been almost 2 years since my mother was taken by MSA, and experiencing firsthand how debilitating this disease is, I really hope for a breakthrough in finding a cure for this horrible disease.

Taken apart, they’re both considered rare, but together, their fatality rate makes one sit up and take notice. I may be simplifying things, but since both are neurological degenerative diseases with similar symptoms and conditions, will a breakthrough in one study help with research in the other?

Is it worth thinking about pooling efforts, sharing research and working through this together?

Update: Here’s a bonus. Lotame’s very own VP of Client Success Zach Boisi getting iced!

Musings Comments Off

All the Google search ads you’ve clicked

Jul

Google remembers everything. Even the search ads you’ve clicked on in the past.

All the Google ads you’ve ever clicked: https://t.co/7YjvyBHsik

— Dan Frommer (@fromedome) July 3, 2014

Sometimes, it’s interesting to look back on the ads you’ve clicked, and see the kind of story it paints your life, as you search for your answers through Google. Here’s my ad click history over the past year.

I started the year planning a trip to Margaret River, hence the rental car. Post the awesome trip, I started wondering what a home would cost me there. I then became interested in COE prices, as I started taking note of car prices and insurance costs.

What’s your ad-click history?

To see yours, simply go here, and sign in.

Digital, Marketing Comments Off

NCPG loses

Jun

National Council on Problem Gambling Singapore bets big against Germany in a banner to warn against excessive gambling.

Loses.

Yay! Daddy say tonight go W Hotel Staycation!

Musings Comments Off

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