OIC: try to look past the cheesiness

I had meant to try OIC for a long while. I had been passing by the place in Ipoh Garden south festival walk area for a few times, but everytime, I ended up at Suhshi Zento

Anyway, imagine my surprise when OIC open in Kampar. And to add to the surprise, it is such a enormous joint, it felt like the main branch compare to the rest of the branch. It is situated in the corner of the row of shop opposite Kampar Gravel Pump museum, within walking distance to Grand Kampar Hotel in Kampar New Town.

Still, I had to wait for months before I got the chance to come here. Coming back from Ipoh, my stomach was growling for food, so me and Colleen decided to stop by for brunch. It was 11am, and the place is still relatively empty. Service is rather attentive given that there are not that many clients. The place appeared spacious, however, the decoration is really cheesy. Imagine colour changing LED lights on the ceiling. Better still, imagine them heart shape. Yup, I can imagine this to be a 80's version of a drinking pub.


Next comes the menu. As expected, it is the usual kopitiam stuff. The pseudo western choice, the Asian rice and noodle, some bread derivatives, and don't forget the pasta also. However, for a big place, the choices are really limited. Imagine only few types of pasta (the usual bolognese, carbonara and aglio) and the usual chicken chop with mushroom/ black pepper sauce. The focus here probably would be eastern delights as there are more choices in term of rice and noodle variants.

We wanted something heavy so Colleen ordered the fried noodle (mee, beehoon) with duck eggs (RM6.50). The presentation, again is rather cheesy with custom printed heart shaped OIC plates. It is the usual charkuetiao with the duck egg; one would expect to pay up to RM5 for a dish in the usual stalls. It is surprisingly nice, though could not beat the roadside stall version for the lack of "wok-hei". I can really taste the duck egg unlike some stalls which the noodle taste overpowered the egg so much so that it would not make difference in between duck or chicken eggs. However, the bean sprout was a bit on the raw side, but it did not sink the dish, luckily. Next, is my carbonara spaghetti with duck slice (RM 13.90). The carbonara sauce is really disappointing. Given the price, I would expect a better rendition but the although the sauce is creamy, there is not much taste which led to a bland dish. However, the roast duck slice is the saving grace here. Nicely roasted, it has the perfect amount of charred smell with the aroma of duck meat. It had been a while since I tasted such nice duck meat. The RM2 addition for the set lunch was bit disappointing though. The extra RM1 for the soup of the day made me felt like being short changed. I know it will be the usual "mix-with-water" cream soup, but the amount is so little that I practically can finish it at one gulp.

Overall, dining here is rather average, but there are few gems here and there. Worth a try.

ratings: 2 half poink~!
comments: look past the cheesy deco. And there are even steamboat at night, I heard.

OIC Cafe Kampar
2198-2201, Jalan Timah
Taman Bandar Baru
Kampar
05-4660128, 4658268
open for lunch, dinner until late supper

Godzilla: tribute to the Japanese classic

Watching Godzilla brings me back to the olden days, watching men in rubber suits fighting each other. That would include Ultraman and Godzilla. I have better recollection of Ultraman since there are so many generations of them until now. Therefore, I told myself I must watch Godzilla to reminisce my "lost" Gojira childhood.

When the film opens, it started off with such promise. Bryan Craston is somehow believable as the American engineer working in a Japanese nuclear powerplant. The opening scene of him watching his wife die in the nuclear meltdown was so poignant that I thought it would set the tone to the whole film. However, when the film progress, it started to develop into a mirror image to all those Japanese monster Godzilla film. It may or may not be a good thing. Look how the American remake destroy Japanese cult favourite. Look at 47 Ronin. Or the last Godzilla (which I have no recollection at all after watching it: selective amnesia perhaps). However, since Pacific Rim proves that American could do the Japanese some credit (although it was not base on any Japanese film specifically, it was still a tribute to the Japanese monster-mecha genre, none the less), there is some glimmer of hope.

You see, in all those Japanese monster film, the human does not matter. They are more like  decorations and fillers to make the film longer. The highlight of the film is the big monstrous battle between Godzilla and the evil monster (or Ultraman with any monster). Similarly, the human actors here pale in comparison to Godzilla. Ken Watanabe looks constipated throughout the whole film (I have great respect for Watanabe but I do felt his talent was wasted here). Craston story is poignant but only given limited screen time. Much of the film focus on Aaron Taylor Thomas, but seriously, I do not care much whether the American soldier reach home or not. Surprisingly, Elizabeth Olsen is believable in her role with those limited screen time. The whole film is a big long and tedious build up for the final battle. The whole story is so simple. Evil monster appears after years of being dormant, now feeding on nuclear energies. Human was unable to stop them. So, nature sends Godzilla. Throw is some side stories of a husband losing his wife in the past, a husband trying to get home, a Hiroshima second generation trying to stop nuclear catastrophe and a soldier trying to save the city. Insignificant stories compare to the Godzilla arc.

Luckily the Americans did not butcher the film. At least, it was NOT the American who saves the day. It was Godzilla who saves the day. The whole show is about Godzilla vs evil monster NOT how the American survives against evil monster. And they even kept the laser from Godzilla mouth. Cool~! And they kept the term "Gojira". Finally. And they also kept the trend of keeping the story mindless and illogical. Yup, there are so many holes in the story that could even sink Godzilla.

So, the whole film boils down to CGI and camera works. There are hit and miss. Again, they try to emulate the Japanese counterparts of not revealing Godzilla too early. Fine with that. The CGI are passable but somehow I expected more for a summer blockbuster. The MUTO (evil monster) design could be better. Likes the old Japanese film, Godzilla looks rubbery. Here, Godzilla is so chubby that it looks rather "kawaii" than menacing. Colleen says it reminded her of her soft toy penguin.

Still, it was enjoyable outing for me. Probably it was because I was from the early Gen-X who tends to enjoy mindless violent monster movie like this. Worth the watch then.

ratings: 2 half poink!
comments: sorry to say, but somehow American remake of Japanese cult classic still do not work for me. Probably Pacific Rim is the only exception.

The Amazing Spider-Man-2: the legacy of the amazing sequels

I do not understand why would I pay to watch The Amazing Spiderman reboot. I absolutely have no recollection on the first movie, except for a certain lizard running around and there was only Gwen Stacy replacing MJ as Peter Parker's love interest. I still need to adjust to Andrew Garfield playing the webslinger, replacing Tobey Macquire. Yup, I still do not understand why would I reach for my wallet to pay for the ticket but I sure did not regret that I do.


The Amazing Spider-Man 2 pick up from the first movie where Peter discover his new found power, manage to hit on Gwen but in the final battle, caused Gwens father to die. The second movie tried to introduce everything fast as early as possible, so fast that it felt like a roller coaster ride. A very rushed one. At one point Peter appeared to be happy with Gwen, in the next frame they were having fights so bad that they broke up. Anyway, throw in some abandonment issues, and we have a Spider-Man at his low point. What is a super hero movie without super villain? The main baddie here is Electro, who manage to control electricity. He appeared cartoonish and amazing at the same time. And finally, to add the icing on the cake, we have the Green Goblin appearing, and delivering a final decisive blow which actually lift this movie above the rest.


To be fair, I still think Tobey Macquire is the best spider-man with his naive and innocent eyes. However, Garfield here did a very good job, and I really start to root for him as the web-slinger. Emma Stone, on the other hand, is rather likable as Gwen Stacy, though not everyone would agrees with me. The chemistry between them is so believable that I actually felt sad at one final scene when they need to part.  Jamie Foxx is underutilized here as Electro ended up most of the time as CGI. Dane DeHaan, on the other hand, is really convincing as the confused yet menacing Green Goblin. True enough that the script did not gave him adequate chance to develop his character, but he shines in his limited screen time. He actually looked rather creepy in his scenes. Though he is still far from Joker in the Dark Knight but he proves that he could play a villain better than others.

The CG action will probably make the ticket price worth it though the opening web-slinging scenes appeared bit rushed. The final battle between Spider-Man and Electro is one of the better CG battle rendered recently. However, I actually grew tired of the stop-slow-motion gimmick used in some of the battle scenes.

Then again, the battle is not the thing that shine in this movie. It is how the story revolves around Peter-Gwen relationship that shines. It is the struggles, the confusion, the I-love-you-therefore-I-must-let-you-go moments that probably I will remember later. It is the one single poignant scene in the clock tower in the final battle that will definitely tug at the viewers' heart. It is rather odd how the first movie is so forgettable yet the second one seems to hit so many right notes. Probably it is the legacy of Spider-Man movies. In the past, the first Tobey's first Spider-Man movie was ok, but the second one was really great. So much so that I rooted for Dr Octopus in the end, and I still remember their battle mid of the movie in the train.

With the amazing sequels, I hope this reboot would not end up with the curse of the third movie. In the similar past whereby the second movie was great, but the third actually kills the series. Hey, that happened to X-Men as well.

ratings: 3 half poink!
comments: could have been better if they make Electro more menacing as Green Goblin. Since Venom had made his appearance in the past movie, I still hope he will make it as the villain in the next one. Or at least, Carnage will do.