Movie Review - Captain America

I have been looking forward to this movie ever since I saw the trailer a few months back in February 2011. I really liked what I saw as Steve Rogers a.k.a Captain America ( played by the excellent Chris Evans ) really took his Captain America role pretty well despite critics saying he's already had a role in an another superhero outfit as the 'Human Torch' in Fantastic Four.

As usual, wifey bought the first day tickets at E-Curve. Arrived at The Curve at approximately 7.30 PM and started window shopping before hitting the movies. Since we already had the tickets, there was no rush to buy them beforehand or shall I say 1 hour before the show starts. When we arrived at the cinema around 9 pm, around 15 minutes before the show starts, I was puzzled to see the counters are almost empty with no queues lining up to watch this movie since its the first day ! Its really odd knowing us Malaysians are really suckers for superhero movies but then again, this was not to blame since that very same night, the Malaysian football Team is playing the Singapore National Team for the 2nd round qualifiers for the World Cup 2014.

At 9.15 pm, we both checked in the cinema and got to our seats. The movie started with a group of people searching and they found a crashed plane in the middle of a snowy area. After cutting a hole in the plane, they found at the cockpit of the crashed plane the Shield with the Captain America logo on it giving us the assumption something bad must have happened to Captain America at the end of the show.

It all started with Steve Rogers, who has a "totally failed physique"

Movie Review - Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Pt 2 finale

To be able to watch this movie on the first day of its official launch is a big privilege nonetheless thanks to my beloved wife who made the effort to go all the way sacrificing her sacred one hour lunchtime to go to Cineleisure, Mutiara Damansara to buy the movie tickets. She managed to get us a beautiful couple seat in Row C for a 9.10 pm show(cant thank her enough for buying first day tickets for major shows!).

"I have always wanted to say that"

As usual, the movie started exactly where it left of in Part 1, with Voldemort ransacking the coffin of Dumbledore to obtain the "Elder Wand". The adventure soon after that involves Harry Potter, Ron and Hermione, finally deciding that the next step to further finding the next Horcrux lies in the pits of Gringotts. With the help of Griphook, a goblin who used to work at Gringotts, they managed to break into Bellatrix Lestrange's vault. The adventure then leads to them heading to Hogwarts for their face-off with their current headmaster, Severus Snape. The storyline does somehow shorten from the novel but this can't be helped as the show was only going for 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Voldemort and his death-eaters expecting Harry to turn up..

There a few flashbacks that showed Severus Snape when he was young, with the help of CGI, he looks a bit like a transsexual dude, but I guess that's how it is. The important part is the storyline anyways!. This part of the Harry Potter sequel does tell that it emphasizes more on action and fights with spells flying everywhere and the Death Eaters attacking Hogwarts with a big major finale. The acting from Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, is always superb and also the "long awaited kiss between Hermione and Ron" was nothing short of quality.

To cut things short, it is a great finale for a great series that has been around since I was small and it grew with me and for most of us, Harry Potter and his adventures lived inside our hearts and now its time for us to let him go. Not to forget, the movie did end with Harry and his friends sending their children to Hogwarts for magic education. THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS.

Bersih 2.0 - post-mortem

Its been 2 days since the events of 'Bersih 2.0' that has engulfed Malaysia, the country where I was born. For those who don't know what 'Bersih 2.0' is, it is a gathering of people who are against the federal or ruling government accusing them of having an effect or influence on the election committee(SPR = Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya) in all its decisions or even ballot counting. The controversial issue that happened on 9th of July, 2011, was that 'Bersih 2.0' is an illegal entity all together and the government was pushing the matter to the public to deny its rights and existence to the public. However, the 'Bersih 2.0' committee consisting of S.Ambiga who is also an ex-head lawyer to the 'Majlis of Peguam', A.Samad Said, and Anwar Ibrahim continued to push forward with the plan accusing the government of not giving the people its freedom of speech. Yes, I agree, there has been a lack of 'freedom' when it comes to giving public speeches in Malaysia, however, it all bores down to one thing, to maintain PEACE and HARMONY.

In Malaysia, any leader can say whatever they want and guess what ! People will actually believe it because nobody actually KNOWS THE GODDAMN TRUTH ! The people can only assume this, and assume that, this happened and that happened, somebody played somebody's ass and so forth, but nobody knows the actual truth whether the events told by the leaders actually HAPPENED in the first place ! Ok, back to the Bersih 2.0. The gathering involves a yellow t-shirt being worn with a Bersih 2.0 logo on it.

There are 8 demands of Bersih 2.0 were :-

1. Clean the electoral roll

2. Reform postal ballot

3. Use of indelible ink

4. Minimum 21 days campaign period

5. Free and fair access to media

6. Strengthen public institutions

7. Stop corruption

8. Stop dirty politics

Read all those 8 carefully and if you can sum it up into 1 equation. What is wrong in that 8 demands ? Let me tell you what is wrong in that 8 demands. This country has always practiced fair elections. The world is not perfect, of course there will tend to be mishaps and errors in the voting process along the way, however, Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya is created for a reason and its to monitor the election procedures and processes. To blame SPR for not practicing fair voting procedures is absurd as the people and the government is the one that has created it (from the Anwar Ibrahim as DPM period as well!). Another thing I want to point out is, if the ruling government has any influence over the election process, they would not have lost badly during the last general election and there wouldnt be any "political tsunami" rite ???

So tell me people, which part I got it wrong ?? And don't start telling me about the indelible ink, we are not a 3rd world country like Africa to start using indelible ink.

The Importance of Improving Yourself

To improve oneself, it takes determination, courage and of course, knowledge. We can always say

"I have learnt enough, I guess there's nothing more to learn"

But that's where we are wrong !. In life, as human beings, god gave us brains to learn, even as muslim's, we are encouraged to learn, learn and continue learning until the day our body and soul succumbed to death. Once a person, who either can be working or still studying, decides that he/she is satisfied and content with what they have in life, that's where life ends for them.

For example, in a working environment, where we have colleagues who functions and works only as much as what they are paid for. It is this workplace mentality that is killing our Malaysian society. There's this famous saying :-

"Why should I work more than what I was paid for?"

Yes, it is true and it makes complete sense to not find the motivation to work more than what you are paid for, but there will come a time, where you will be paid more than for what you work for.

"Always work more than what you are paid for, as later, you will paid for more than what you work for "

- Andrew Matthews

There are 2 types of employees in the office. The first one, will work and function as they are told, strive to improve themselves as they are motivated to earn more and move up the career ladder. The second one, only exists for the sake of existing and occupying the space in the office. He/she is not interested in making more, earning more, improving in terms of knowledge nor skill, and is only looking forward to pay day. These group is called the "paper weights". They are just for the sake of being there. So tell me now, which type of employee, is the most dangerous to have in your company ? And what should we do with these kind of people ?? Feedback's are very much appreciated.