The Martian: castaway with plenty of gravity

I was bit doubtful to go for The Martian. Survival film appeals little for me. I would rather go for natural disaster flick. However, once in a while there are a few that worth to be mentioned though not on my top list of must-watch. Castaway could be the yardstick for all survival story, but tad bit boring. I do like Tom Hanks but watching him for the whole 2 hours is bit too long. The recent Gravity has one of the best cinematography with breathtaking space scenes. However, not everyone would root for Sandra Bullock in the movie, and the whole show felt "sterile". I'm happy to say that Martian excel in most departments and end up being an enjoyable film if we can suspend our belief slightly.


Matt Damon practically carries the whole show, and he is lucky that he is indeed likable. He plays a botanist who was left stranded in Mars, while his teammate thought he was dead after an accident. The rest of the whole chronicles how he survived in the lonely planet while people at earth struggle to rescue him. The whole show is about survival instinct, human fighting spirit and innovation. Did I say that one must suspend our believes a bit? Though the explanation given for every science in the movie probably are possible, but how could one be so resourceful, and so good in practically everything? It is like watching a McGyver episode, but in space. Botanist planting potato in Mars? Bit far fetch but believable, but botanist fixing vehicle, botanist messing with radioactive elements, botanist practically fixing some space equipments? Wow, NASA training must be change each one of the astronaut to be McGyver.


Forget about those natural disaster scene, this show is more about human survival instinct. However, the balance of Damon and those back at earth actually made the film enjoyable. The script was light, rather than going for those philosophical depth lines, which is good. I cant help but cheer when Damon was rescue at the climax of the film. ( Come on, that could not be a spoiler, everyone would expect the hero to survive, right?!) It totally deserve the high rating in Rotten Tomatoes.


ratings: 4 poink~!
comments: finally they found the winning formula for this genre. While I do enjoy Castaway, I felt Gravity was overrated, but Martian is the best of the lot.

Sawasdee: authentic Thai within reach

As much I enjoy Thai food, I still stay far away from it. Mainly because the economic ones are not authentic (which revolves around tomyam only) and the authentic ones are not economical (imagine high class restaurant). The one that probably top my list would be the one opposite Tesco in Kampar, but to hear that similar one exists in Ipoh, I could not wait to give it a try. More over, I heard numerous good review for the place make me want to try it more.

Sawasdee is situated in Taman Siber, near Taman Botani. It may need some googling up, but if anyone is heading toward Taman Botani (near Taman Song Choon), south of Ipoh, just look for a junction to the left after Shell which will be on the right). The road may look deserted with lots of empty lots, but just locate the crowd, and we will find the place.

The menu is definitely centers around Thai with few chinese selections. Mind you, because it is not a big restaurant, one may need to wait a while if the shop is full. But the food is worth the wait. We wanted to try some basic thai in the form of green curry chicken (RM15). In the first bite, it is not impressive. Though it felt "lemak" enough, it lacks the spice and the hotness. However, with a few more mouthful, the taste start to set in, and it felt satisfying. Not the usual green curry that we got use to, but delicious nonetheless. The BBQ pork (RM15) felt very close to the chinese "namyu" pork, which is deep fried pork marinated with 5 spice and "namyu". On its own it still feel special, but with the Thai sweet sour dip, it lifted the dish to another level. Our sambal paku pakis (RM8) however, felt bit short of expectation. It felt common, like any other sambal kangkung.


The 3 dish could easily satisfy up to 4 person, making it around RM10 per person with drinks. Economical? Definitely. Authentic? How more authentic then to have dishes cook by Thai. Satisfying? This is more than satisfying. There is a wait for the food, but after tasting it, I definitely want to return for more.

ratings: 3 half poink~!
comments: it may or may not be the best economical authentic Thai restaurant out there; after all it depends on personal taste. But it should be among the top Thai shop out there.

Everest: epic real man vs mountain story

This, again, will be a short review. Everest, as the name suggested, is the movie about scaling the earth highest peak. Yup, we knew that it is not an easy task, Yup, we knew that many people gave up their lives in the process of conquering the mountain. However, watching the movie gave me a different feel.


The movie is simple. It is based on one of the earliest New Zealand adventuring company which commercialized Everest mountain climbing. The whole movie is about of their climbing trip went wrong. And that, summarized the whole movie. People died. People survived.

Instead of nature survival movie, it ended up as a mountain climbing documentary. Do not misunderstand me, the cast did the best they can with the limited script. However, as a movie, Everest is just average. Near to zero character development makes me wonder at time, which character is who. The story felt rather flat at time. Having said that, the one scene featuring the phone call of the main protagonist remain as one of the most poignant moment in recent years. Do not expect lots of action, but instead, expect lots of breathtaking cinematography and exposure on the finer details of Everest climbing. That, itself, is worth the movie ticket.

rating: 3 poink~!
comments: watching the movie makes me want to climb some mountain. that is how strong this documentary is. ....ooops, I kept forgetting that this is a movie (still based on real events though)