Mr+Mrs Incredible: so near yet so far....

long time ago, i saw the trailer for mr+mrs incredible. it was hilarious. funny. so, i tot it will be a nice chinese new year movie. near perfect, that is. plus, i have high regards for vincent kok as the director, better than raymond wong.

the premise was good.masked super hero met super heroine, fall in love, got married, retired to an unknown village. comes the bad guys, using kungfu competition as an excuse to collect the top martial artist so they can "suck out" their powers. nothing new there, but definitely would be perfect for a family get together and laugh- kind of movie.

the chemistry should be good. though sandra wu sound a bit old for louis koo, but then again, few minutes into the movie, the couple was believable.

the period comedy was so near a good cny movie, yet really really far away. half way through the movie, it was predictably boring. why? the whole movie is like just watching both of the star. there is no supporting cast at all. the rest of the cast, appeared like non-professional picked on the street that had no interest in acting at all. as stephen chow rightly educated us in his show, even extras are actors. it seems like they spent so much money on the 2 stars, they dont have any for the rest.

the script? it was funny, there were more than ample moments to giggle. but tat was it. unlike the trailer which really made me laugh. it was written in a way that the whole screen time was basically shared by them, noone else. we know the show was called mr, mrs incredible,but it would be nice to share some screen time with others.

the story? as i said, it was conveniently written as an excuse to make a cny movie. heck, they should make the whole kungfu tournament more interesting rather than a joke. the villian should be more like syler from Heroes. instead, the villian looked like peter and shared his power to suck other peoples power via touch. then again, in the end, it felt more like a small story about couple rekindling their love rather than a super hero movie.

the jokes? ok la.... bit of reference to adult content. but there were few genuine jokes here. especially the reference to batman. that was ori!

i left the cinema feeling slightly disappointed, then again, i blamed the trailer for lifting my expectation so high.

ratings: 2half poink!

comments: go with an open mind, probably u can enjoy it more than i do.

Boston in Ipoh: finally a decent chachangting

it was valentines day and we decided to try the new joints in De Gardens. If anyone still think De Gardens is somewhere in KL, well, this sort of new hang out place is opposite Jusco, u wont miss it.

There was this new place where we still have not try yet. We wanted to have something Western, so the first joint we headed to was Boston. it is directly opposite Jusco, next to Camera Planet, behind Oh Sushi.... all in De Gardens complex.

imagine our surprise when we hit the main entrance and had a look at the menu... this is not Western after all. uh... the menu is rather... eastern... hongkies in fact. it is another chachanting. imagine WongKok rather than kopitiam. we should had suspected, since the Chinese name is rather tell tale sign of something NOT western. anyhow, it was not exactly what we wanted so we left the place. after our disappointment in Wongkok... u can understand the low appeal. however, after going around the complex, we were still undecided so finally we came back to this joint, give it a try.

the service was surprisingly really good. upon entering the restaurant, waitress will yell (literally) welcome to u. remind me of Taiwan. makes u feel welcomed. generally service was tip top. no complaints on that. even though the place was busy for the valentine. the deco was up to my expectation. cosy. dark. the wallpaper reminded me of a Chinese tomb though. u know the ones where there were words carved on the wall, as in those kungfu movies. i wanted some wallpaper like tat but wife said cannot wor.....our seat faced the main road so it was nice...

menu... uh. what else is new in a Hongkies restaurant chachanting? nothing really. the usual noodle soup or dry. various rice, fried or steamed. cheese baked rice. pasta for a bit of western tinge. chops but not steak. i was really disappointed there was no pork served. aiyo!!!! the price was reasonable, ranging from RM4.90 for the snack, to normal RM10 range for average dish. the valentine set cost RM59.90 and believe me, no pair could finish tat much of food.

we ordered chicken fillet cheese baked rice (RM 9.95). the rice was rather bland, not cheesy enough. however the chicken was marinated well and juicy enough to keep my interest. not the best i had, i still prefer Vivo's cheese baked rice. not the best in the genre. wife ordered chicken hot plate set (RM 22.95), and for that kind of price, it was a full set of meal. i kind of like the mushroom soup. although it is definitely can based, it tasted more like Campbell's wild mushroom soup (not the normal ones) and tat was one of my fav Campbell's label. no complain. the main dish was huge chunk of chicken slice on top of a hot pan, with sauce of choice. the white sauce was rather bland as well. the chicken however was good. fries was oily like other joints. overall, it was ok. the biggest letdown was the drinks. the soya cincau with cendol was weird because the soya milk used was the health organic ones, rendering the taste rather... sterile. sometimes, lesser is more. no need to use so healthy choice....

overall, the ambience is nice. the food is ok. comparing to similar joint within the same complex. i would choose to come back again although food-wise, this is not the best place to choose from.

ratings: 3 poinks! extra for the nice environment, service

comments: come to think of it, there is not much outstanding chachanting in Ipoh, probably making this one of the top contenders, even though the food was nice, still far from great.

link:http://www.mybostonworld.com/

Boston又一城 (Ipoh, Perak) 10.00 am to 12.00am (Daily)DGR 6,DGR 7,DGR 8,DGR 9,De Garden Zone D, No.1, Persiaran Medan Ipoh, 31400 Ipoh Perak
Tel / Fax: 05 - 547 8733

[ closed ] QQ: finally found pork burger in Ipoh!

the best pork burger for me is still Ninja Joe (the one in tropicana shopping mall in PJ). probably pork burger is not easy to find, unlike the usual Ramlee version.

in Ipoh, pork burger is even more difficult to locate. forget the usual pork chop burger in those pseudo-hongkies joint such as food&tea or wongkok. those are generic food without authenticity most of the time. and most of time, the food is rather tasteless.

imagine my surprise to find a new stall beside the road not far up from Gunung Rapat Methodist Church. with an electronic board advertising their food, it is named QQ Fast food stall. the menu is in chinese, but manned by 2 burmese gentleman. the usual chicken and fish burger is there, so is fries. u can imagine anything the can be fried is there. plus there was ham and bacon sandwiches, hotdogs. the top 2 food was pork buger (RM2.80) and pork chop burger(RM2. 40). i tried to ask what was the difference between the two, since i would expect the pork chop burger to be more expensive, but the chap just told me " babi" .... i also know -la. took my risk and ordered the pork burger for me and ham sandwich (RM 2.20) for my wife.

lets dissect the food... my pork burger was rather small. they literally squash the bread using a pan cover making the burger even smaller. they claim the patty was self made, though i doubt it. the pork patty was not bad, the consistency was rather firm, just how i like it, though doesnt taste much like pork, because the taste was covered with tomato sauce. yup. they put too much sauce there that the whole burger tasted like bread with tomato sauce. they pick TWO piece of onion, small piece of onion to put inside the burger....so it was rather weird. how bout the sandwich...errrrrr... the same problem, too much tomato sauce so cant even taste the ham as well. then again, it is not really speciality ham so dun think it make any difference.

i laud the effort. i may even come back for the pork chop burger or pork chop set (RM 4.90) but in the mean time, they really need to learn how to make a good burger from the Ramlee counterpart.

ratings: 1.5 poink! (the fact it is pork burger... if not, it will end up in one poink)

comments: taste wise... go for this Ramlee burger stall along the road in Gunung Rapat rather than here. but if u are like me, dying for pork... then wat can i say..

Shaolin: sombre way to start the year

continuing the movie marathon for chinese new year, the third on my list is Shaolin... actually i ddi not plan to watch this movie. jackie chan's annual cny movie era had passed, and i am not a fren of andy lau either. however, since the movie opportunity landed on my lap, i could not resist any cny movie treat.

as i understand it, from numerous site introduction and review, apparently this movie is a remake of an old movie starring Jet Li. hmmm.. not interested in the fact. probably anyone can google the answer to that.

lets go to the technical aspect first. the acting was good, as the usual fare u can expect from andy lau with his emotionally intensive look. jackie chan in his usual goofy antics. tse was superb as the villain, believable. the direction was superb, the script was intensive, filled with buddhist teaching here and there.

not much of boring moment in the film. the action was believable, however there are still gravity defying action sequence which was definitely wire made. love some of the kungfu sequence. after all, the movie boast that it portray some of unseen kungfu in shaolin which was used NOT for exhibition. great. the moves are really fluid.

now come the story. warlord was ruthless in the beginning. bad ass. belittle shaolin. betrayed by fren, fall from grace. went to shaolin for refuge, turn over new leave, help shaolin, big showdown, died. basically tat summarize the whole show. usually cny movie has hole in their story bigger than any holes u can find in the local badly made ceiling which always collapse. suprisingly, the story was rather fluid here without much gaping wound. so that is a plus point i guess.

now comes the problem i have with this movie. the whole movie appeared to be andy lau. so centralized on him. then again, he is the protagonist and hero, so i think i have to live with it. big deal. the other issue is the whole story was predictable up to the point that i was yelling come on, get on with it!. big deal either, all cny movie is predictable in some ways. the main issue is as a lot of other people say this show is moving, tear jerker-la... i dun like my year to start off with such a movie. i prefer my cny movie to be more happy. all though this is still far from district 9 (which spoilt my whole morning) and bodyguard & assasins; which both were great great movies. i still prefer it to be more "uplifting" rather than more serious and depressing.

well, overall, it is not a bad movie. in fact, it is done rather good. just not my cup of tea.

ratings: 3 poinks! (if it is not cny, probably 3.5 ler...)

comments: fans of andy lau, go n watch.