When Video Piracy Becomes a Necessity

The Star: Bruno Banned In Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians will not get to watch Bruno on the big screen as the National Film Censorship Board has decided to give the controversial movie the axe.

According to local film distributors, the movie, which stars Sacha Baron Cohen as a homosexual Austrian fashionista, was sent to the board together with other movies for approval.

“The board did not give any reasons for the rejection. In short, Bruno has been banned,” an industry spokesman said.

The ban has come as no surprise as the movie was said to contain sexually explicit scenes and vulgar language.

The Universal Pictures production starring the outrageously funny man was released in July.

Cohen’s previous movie Borat, about a Kazakh reporter visiting the United States for the first time, was also banned in Malaysia.

Malaysia is not the only country which has banned Bruno. According to MSN Entertainment, the movie has also been given the axe in the Ukraine, Lebanon and Bahamas.

In Hong Kong, even posters of the British comedian have been banned in subway stations.

The movie, which was a hit in the US box office when it was released, was allowed in Singapore but with cuts.

Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim, when contacted, said the Censorship Board should relook its decision to ban the movie and provide strong reasons on why it should not be on Malaysian screens.

He said the board’s explanation for its decision must be based on “strong legal arguments” which may include human rights and religious values.

“The board should not also throw the movie out without giving the submitting party a chance to explain themselves for scenes which may be deemed objectionable,” he said.

Dr Rais added that censorship on the movie must be reasonably carried out because it would be rendered useless if it was severely filtered.

“They should be more realistic and pay attention to the theme of each movie. The board should allow realism to be portrayed,” he said, adding that those who represent the young generation should also be part of the censorship board.

It is believed that Bruno is available via the local pirated DVD market.

AHA! This is where people who want to watch the funny man perform will have trouble watching in cinemas. When this is banned, people will go to the shops selling those videos and even paying less than buying a ticket to watch it in cinemas. Of course, you won't be able to see it in the big theater screen, but at least you can watch it at home, pause it and watch again at your own whim.

One main selling point behind Bruno is that this funny man Sacha Baron Cohen (Ali G, for those who are familiar with him) did a lot of improvisation of his character that got into the film, like his encounter with Madonna, the angel stunt at Eminem in the video awards show, etc..he did as good as Borat. Of course, Borat is not shown here as it was banned as well.

There are many of us movie goers who really hate two things when it spoils the viewing pleasure - that is if the film is either banned, or gets heavily censored or censored (like in watching movies on network television)..bla..bla..bla. Those will irk many people..die hard movie goers. And if they happen to stumble upon an extended cut of a movie - think Watchmen Extended Cut (it runs 30 minutes longer than in theaters), they would just go to the shop and get it.

And there's the price factor. Buying a title original is pricey because the big bulk of the money is royalty money that is paid to the artist and the studio - the remaining is burning, middleman costs and then the labor service.

Of course these are among the reasons that piracy still remains there despite the government's hard efforts to stamp them off. If the flaws are still there, then the problem still remains unless if there is a workaround for those problems. Censorship remains a problem for many people..like for end users in particular.

Perhaps Zambry Should Go Into Showbiz!

Earlier on, our macha Mamak Pangkor Pele was misquoted to say that he likened himself to Mahatma Gandhi or Nelson Mandela. But actually as mentioned in Malaysiakini, it was not likened to both of them.

But it was too late. Satu Malaysia is laughing over it, even at yesterday's forum.

Perhaps given of the new look that my buddy Mob did it, Pangkor Pele should consider going into show business instead of politics. But then he can't top Ben Kingsley in Gandhi but he might want to top Kevin Spacey in The Usual Suspects or Morgan Freeman!

Knowing Between Photochemical and Digital Prints for Dummies

After watching The Dark Knight yesterday, there is something that is interesting that I would like to share to cinema viewers, particularly those who don't even know of technical aspects.

Some knowledge first:

Basically after filming, (during post-production) the technicians at the color labs (e.g Technicolor / Deluxe) will do a process that whereby the look on the camera negative will be reversed into colors that will appear on a conventional television view. The technician will press the controls to determine how much RGB (Red, Green and Blue) will be in the interpositive.

An interpositive is then subjected to various things like adding more silver into it (for richer blacks), or a skip bleach process (saturation reduction, higher contrast). This is mostly done to make sure that the original negative is damaged. Printing directly from the original negative can be dangerous at the long run as it can result in tears and scratches if misused.

Finally, once the results of the interpositive are satisfactory, it is printed onto a release print - called the internegative.

This process is called the conventional color timing.

The other process starts after developing a satisfying initial look at the camera negative, the negative is scanned into a the computer using a scanner. The colorist uses a tool, color grading tool (e.g Lustre) to manipulate the colors, contrasts, shadows, highlights and etc in a high-end workstation. Each manipulation is done on a shot to shot basis. The preview look is projected onto a projector for review and once every participant is satisfied with the look, the film files are recorded out onto the digital internegative.

The digital internegatives will be distributed to countries to enable them to make release prints for their respective theatres. There, they can change things such as putting in subtitles in e-format and etc...

This is called the digital grading timing.

How Do I Know Which Is Conventional and Which is Digital?

The answer is very simple particularly when you go to watch a movie in a cinema. The hint is already there: look at the subtitles.

If you look closely at the detail of the lettering and you notice that it is very jiggy looking, then the film uses the conventional color timing. The Dark Knight uses conventional color timing, hence you will notice of the lettering. However, the disadvantage of using this method is that chances of release prints getting scratched unintentionally are higher and the showtimes for this can last up to a month or so before scratches are evident.

If the detail of the subtitle lettering is in a very fine form, and or if you can notice how the eyes are in some low light situation (example), then the film has gone through a digital color timing, like Iron Man or Prince Caspian.

Drink Back BN's Milkshake

We're facing a grim possibility that if we let the monopoly of BN win again, it's Barang Naik for everybody and the poor and the middle are facing the economic burden. In the end, it's the BN that will bankrupt the nation, contrary to what Najib was saying.

It means that they drink our milkshake already. No. We have to drink theirs!

The video above is on the final act's climatic showdown between Eli Sunday and Daniel Plainview from There Will Be Blood. As mentioned in my previous post, you can look at the interplay between Daniel and Eli as People vs BN Government or vice-versa. The line 'I drink your milkshake' was based on the admittance and testimony of New Mexico senator Albert Fall in the 1920s who was convicted of accepting bribes on the Teapot Scandal. From the end of the video, Daniel had Eli cornered and at the height of it, bludgeoned Eli to death with a bowling pin.

One reason I use this video is to illustrate the parallels of Eli Sunday as to the Barisan Nasional Government, demanding more money (tax payers money) from the public as of Daniel. Having enough after being in that for 50 years, yes it is possible to go for a change. And that is a symbol of change, although not in a gentle manner. Eli wants to spread his faith-healing doctrine across the state of California, a.l.a here it is Islam Hadhari doctrine, which is ultimately flawed as according to some analysts and observers.

If BN is Eli Sunday, Then The Public is Daniel Plainview

If BN is Eli Sunday, Then The Public is Daniel Plainview

This afternoon, I passed off my free time to watch There Will Be Blood, a brand new film which star Daniel Day-Lewis won his acting honors at the recently concluded 80th Academy Awards. Spanning three decades from the moment prospector Daniel Plainview discovers oil, it shows how ruthless and how he cuts his path, beating his competition in his quest to achieve his monopoly of oil over California.

Of course the story was largely inspired by how famous oil magnate Edward Doheny (1856-1935) achieved fame as one of the pioneers during the oil boom period. But what is interesting of the film is how Plainview behaves. If that's how Count Dracula behaves in the literary world, then Plainview is behaving exactly like him but in the USA. You can also say that Plainview is an equivalent of Fred Dobbs from The Treasure of Sierra Madre.


Watching Day-Lewis from start to finish, looking at his moustache, sideburns, and his haircut, I have to admit that he bears the resemblance of my second uncle. Exactly, the physical features. The only difference is on characteristics and his height, much taller than my uncle.

I won't go much about the plot but I will go through two more points, one will be discussed later on. While plying his trade in Little Boston, Daniel encounters Eli Sunday, Paul's twin, younger brother (Paul Dano) who is obsessed in building his ministry, the Third Revelation church. Plainview wants no part of the church business, here, just plying his trade and paying the royalties to the original owners, helping the town to prosper but was pushed into Eli's agenda on few occasions such as wishing to bless his derrick, forcing him to make a confession against his will in order to buy old man Bandy's lot for the pipeline project and even asking him money to build his church. All sorts of those things wanted by Eli is considered by Daniel as a contempt to his reputation and image, and so this is what he feels when he faced other people who is attempting to compete with him, especially Tilford for the pipeline project.

We Spill Blood For Oil : Lessons That Can Be Learned

Let's break for a now. Some of the moments that is seen in the film can be used and applied to our current society and economical scenario that is Malaysia. I'm looking the interesting parallels of the film from the eyes of Plainview as to citizens in the Malaysian society.

"Out of all men that beg for a chance to drill your lots, maybe one in twenty will be oilmen; the rest will be speculators-men trying to get between you and the oilmen-to get some of the money that ought by rights come to you. Even if you find one that has money, and means to drill, he'll maybe known nothing about drilling and he'll have to hire out the job on contract, and then you're depending on a contractor that's trying to rush the job through so he can get another contract just as quick as he can. This is the way this works."

The intermediaries are arguably the ones that adds the cost of oil to your bill. Anwar Ibrahim lately said that the net profit of Petronas for the last two years was close to $80 billion per year. The profits were never shared out to the public in say helping to reduce the government subsidies. All in all, the profit was just split up among the elite rich and filthy in Malaysia, UMNO cronies and those are preferred by the corrupt miisters against what the people deserve. Malaysia is still a net exporter, yes, and it is realistic to reduce the oil price. Say if the price is dropped back to the price pre-2006, which is $1.62 per liter, how much will you save? If your petrol tank is 50 liters, you can save at least $15 that can be used for something else useful. What about food? Food prices will drop back by 20% because oil is needed for cooking!

The above quote is also a reference and association of the nepotism and cronies that are in Malaysia. I tell you one example. YM Raja Petra once mentioned that Federal Territories Minister Zulhasnan Rafique is called the $700 million man. One of his cronies is the BSN CEO and Bukit Bintang UMNO Chief Azim Zabidi. The article about Azim and the substantial proof has clearly implied that Azim was guilty and to hide his guilt / shame, he filed a lawsuit against RPK.

Plainview: You see him? You don't tell me how to raise my family. I told you not to tell me how to raise my family. So, what do you see?
H.M. Tilford: I'm happy for you that everything...
Plainview: I've made a deal with Union and my son is happy and safe and I'm taking care of him now. So you look like a fool, Tilford, don't you?
H.M. Tilford: Yes.
Plainview: I told you what I was gonna do.

This little exchange between Daniel and Tilford mirrors what the current awareness of the urban people with the government. Now, many are aware of the government's mismanagement and poor administrative capabilities given of conspire to rob the citizen's wealth. The government is also attempting to blindside the people with their lies via the mainstream media. They also tell people to shut up and force them to accept their version of facts whereas their dirty secret is out to the public. Sadly, the rural people don't know and still blinded to the falsehood, which means there's going to be a tough time to convince them to understand the truth. Let me illustrate an example: Remember Kerisman said of 'don't argue of Malaysia being a secular state'? Well, time to show the proof and truth and keep fighting till you win!

A Possible Regret?

Eli Sunday: Oh, Daniel, please... I'm in desperate times. I need a friend... I feel the walls closing in. I've sinned! I need help! I'm a sinner! I've let the Devil grab hold of me in ways I never imagined! I'm so full of sin.
Plainview: The Lord sometimes challenges us, doesn't he?
Eli Sunday: Oh yes he does! Yes he does! Oh! He's completely failed to alert me to the recent panic in our economy and this! I must have this! I've invested... my investments have... Oh, Daniel, I won't bore you, but I... If I could grab the Lord's hands for help I would, but he does these things all the time, these mysteries that he presents and while we wait, while we wait... wait for his word...
Plainview: You're not the chosen brother, Eli. It was Paul who was chosen. He found me and he told me about your land. You're a fraud.

If you remember last time during the Asian financial crisis, Dr. Mahathir once said of people having to make tough sacrifices and even ask to contribute to the countries reserve as to prevent a further dampening the country's economy. The next global economy recession is likely to happen next year. Abdullah Badawi boasts that Malaysia can withstand the US recession with adequate reserves. But I don't think he's telling the fact. It could be a lie to hide the possibility that Malaysia is going to torn apart by the economic meltdown. It would not have happen if there is a proper mechanism and management of national finances. Economic corridors won't do good if it's not handled properly. And what if the meltdown occurs? BN government asking the public again for sacrifices again? More burden for the public...that's where really say with conviction that enough is enough. Maybe at that time, people will regret for picking the wrong guy or government regretting for refusing to sit down and hear what people say.

Solutions?

Plainview: I'm gonna bury you underground, Eli!

Well, it's time for the change. Don't give BN 2/3 majority or maybe better, make BN regret for their mistakes and their uncontrolled over corruption. Abdullah Badawi is a weak and feeble old man, his indecision and flip-flop reputation will cost the government terribly. What about Najib? In the last few months, some of the statements made by him are what I think shows a threatening tone. Some statements related to that include of reducing oil prices will make Malaysia bankrupt or said that don't do that or they will be a repeat of 1969, related to Hindraf, but in Kampung Baru, it was not as it seems to be as what people are made to believe. Someone said sometime back that during the early 90s Najib once said of 'threatening to bath with Chinese blood.', which means he's also another problem too.

Eli Sunday: I am a false prophet! God is a superstition! I am a false prophet! God is a superstition! I am a false prophet! God is a superstition!

I'm not trying to say that I insult God on that, the statement above is a metaphor when putting into the Malaysian political context. The BN government is very susceptible to their PR feel good image. I already mentioned this many times already: one slip of word, with proof of course, to the international media of the many mistakes committed by them, that's it. If there is too much international pressure, this could be possible, force the government to go damage control, meaning (indirectly) that they admitted that they are in fault.

Conclusion

[SPOILER] - In the last act of the movie, Eli and Daniel face off in another showdown. Eli has made a repeated mistake of asking Daniel again for money as he's facing monetary problems due to the start of the Great Depression period. Daniel has been hating Eli for interfering against his own personal affair, quite a long time since they first met and at the height of the face-off, Daniel bludgeoned Eli to death with a bowling pin. Originally, it was scripted to be more violent with bowling pin replaced with a tumbler and throwing Eli into the cellar beyond through the pins.

The audience was made to feel sympathy for Daniel who had worked too hard to gain self-respect and reputation as well as keeping his financial gains to support himself. It is what the oil prospectors faced as well in the early 20th century.

Election fever is hot out there, and at times when I drive in town, I would see BN posters with Mr. Clean's image there. Sometimes, I feel that BN was needing help whereas they had failed in 2004.

You're killing us with what you're doing. You're killing my image of you.

At the start of the third act of the movie, an adult H.W, married to Mary Sunday, came to see his father and told him that he wanted to do his own business and relocate to Mexico with Mary. This does not bode well for Daniel and I thought that if H.W's plan was similar to Anwar Ibrahim and his manifesto, the reply would come from Najib, who would bash Anwar and who could say 'This man thinks that he is clever in economics, but in fact he's not.' and he might add 'Anwar would bankrupt the nation.'

I wonder whether if that above statement is what BN will reply if they lose this round of elections

So, if let's say that the 2/3 majority has been denied or if the opposition wins this election by more than 148 seats, then BN would say that above, especially Najib. The effect from that probably would be that Abdullah could face the embarassment at the UMNO elections and more support would be paved to Najib to become its next president.

Eli forcing Daniel into accepting the tenets against his choice is somewhat similar to Abdullah Badawi forcing his tenets of his Civilization Islam onto people whereas many believed that it has failed against the expectations and secondly, the tenets are violated particularly during the HINDRAF and the International Human Rights Day events.

Picture this, if Barisan Nasional / Abdullah Badawi is Eli Sunday, then everyone can be Daniel Plainview, plain and simple! Just watch the movie anyway...nuff said.

Additional material: Malaysiakini - Report Card II: Excellence, Glory, Distinction

A Pure Overkill

Before Chinese New Year, I went to watch the new Rambo movie not just because it is good, but I was told that the body count in this movie is the highest of all the series.

Los Angeles Times writer John Mueller got the final count of people getting whacked by heroes or the enemies. In the opening sequences or during the village massacre, bodies are seen being flying around and mutilated. I can imagine the massacre heads, hands torn off, blood oozing out and etc is somewhat an overkill.

Rambo's overkill reminded me of reading Mother Russia. In the book, Frank Castle massacred most of the Russian military, with an arsenal of weapons single-handedly in the missile silo in Suhdek. He said something of butchering them: "12.7 mm Dushka's just like our 50.Cal designed to be used on aircraft. You use it on people, you turn them into paint." At the final massacre, Rambo just used the same thing as Frank did in whacking those soldiers.

Back to the body count. Mueller declared that the final body count was 236, which was about more than 1.5 times higher than the body count in the third Rambo film. In First Blood, just one person got killed, a miserable Deputy Gault who fell from the chopper. Rambo whacked 83 people alone in the film, while his allied-mercenaries contributed another 40.


See the chart for the exact tally above.

Now, I'm pointing to the number 236. You see there are 222 Parliamentary seats up in Malaysia to be grabbed in the next general election. Recent tactics, some rough-hand by Barisan Nasional would suggest that BN is aiming for a clean-sweep as part of Bedol and Son-In-Law's Zero Opposition initiative. Currently, they hold 91 percent of parliament, shouldn't we think of it as an overkill?

Paul Thomas Anderson - The Next Kubrick?

The late Stanley Kubrick was known to be the first of the filmmakers to exercise total control over all aspects of his movies. He is also an artist - a man with at least three faces as writer, producer and a director. Subsequent and successful filmmakers like Francis Coppola, George Lucas, James Cameron and Steven Spielberg all followed the traits and skills of Kubrick in exercising their own creative control without restrictions and interference from the studio who would all agree to their control over the picture.

It was during the making of Spartacus when Kubrick complained that he could not rework the script - not allowed by star and producer Kirk Douglas - that Kubrick started to learn to exercise control and authority over all aspects of the movie.

All of these top filmmakers came from the experience of battling media moguls over their work on their earlier pictures. In the end, they won, they achieved great successes and that paved the way into reaching the pinnacle of top filmmakers in the world.

In the late 90s, additional players came in like Michael Mann, with his signature work, Heat, Luc Besson and among others. But there was one very young player, a rookie in the field that the world does not know until late 1999. He has the passion of making movies, wearing three hats in one identity and has a strict discipline in control over work. He is the youngest of the lot and judging by his works, he was claimed by some as the next Kubrick.


Paul Thomas Anderson (b. June 26 1970) is the son of Ernie Anderson, the host of the TV show Ghoulardi, (hence his company is called Ghoulardi Pictures). At a very young age of 23 he worked on his first short called Cigarettes and Coffee that served as an entry at the Sundance Festival. Like Kubrick, during the making of his first feature, Sydney, he had to battle with the studio over several matters, including the title (he wanted to called as Sydney, but the studio called it Hard Eight in exchange for him to keep the final cut), the film and of course the titles. Like in Kubrick's movies, he wanted just one title card and the end credits to show up at the end of the movie. Working on Sydney, he learned that being a filmmaker involves dealing with egos who would butcher the movie just to suit the marketing needs, and in the battle, he won of course.

Anderson is one of a kind that sticks to the basic principles of film making procedures which hearkens back to the 40s to the 60s. He did cited John Huston as a basic example. Robert Elswit, his cameraman in all of his movies since Sydney did say that he was a walking filmmaking encyclopedia at the tender age of 25. Only Cameron was a bit later than him. To Anderson, the technical side is the one that he loved most.

I thought once a while that some attitudes reflect either the current trend or the past. For me, I was more of sticking to my dad, wearing non-punk retro style clothes, listening to the music of the 80s and the 90s. This was in contrast with my brother who loves watching anime and listening to all those punk, techno and Japanese music. As it was something that drove him to behave like that. I have no answer to explain why it could be like that.

The major difference between Anderson and Kubrick is that most of the films that Anderson wrote are original unlike Kubrick who would adapt a book that would match the message and themes he would like to deliver. In his movies since Spartacus, only 2001 was his only original work.

Not even at 30 and his film, Magnolia was considered as his magnum opus. It was incredible for a kid at the age of 28/9 to write multiple storylines that encapsulate into one film. And there are numerous references to the infamous Exodus 8:2 thing that happens everywhere in the movie itself. It took him about two weeks to write a 3 hour plus script movie in William H. Macy's cabin and judging from that, he was incredible to pump out many ideas to form a big epic story.

Of course that gave him an AA nomination of an original screenplay award. But some people think that once you reach the pinnacle, you would not have the same success again. Wrong. Anderson's best buddies are Adam Sandler and John Reilly. It was when Sandler wanted to work on a serious drama, since most of the time he is considered a funny man, and people thought that when Anderson replying a question of his next project after Magnolia - "I'm going to do an 80-minute film with Adam Sandler," - was a joke. That resulted in Punch Drunk Love about a man who could not find love with an opposite eventually meets a girl thing.

There Will Be A Blood, his new film (I suspect that he took his time in making the movie) was out and it did well. He was consistent in all of his movies. Most of it got a 7.5 to 8 out of 10 rating and it seems that he still repeat the same thing over and over again and yet he's not even at 50. So you can say that he as much more energetic as Kubrick but he was not a perfectionist as he gives actors space to try out new things and so on. Shelley Duvall was made to do 127 takes in one scene that put him into exhaustion. Kubrick had everything planned out in advance. Fincher was another guy that follows like Kubrick. But in the overall work rate and methodology, Anderson was kind of close to Kubrick.

Add. Material: Blood For Oil

Some Stardust for Birthday

My friend Simon tends to read the entire Sandman series written by acclaimed fantasy writer Neil Gaiman. I was told by my friend Edmund that Gaiman writes wonderfully in some of the books including Mirror Mask and Anansi Boys. The book which I picked up that I got hooked up with him is the book 1602 - voted the Quills Graphic Novel of 2006.

The second film adaptation of Gaiman to hit the screen is Stardust. I never read through the book but except to jump to the last part of the book. But it's the story of a out of luck guy who eventually finds that love is not bought but comes on its own. There has been some debate over the later part of the Harry Potter series where there is a serious debate of whether the love relationship between Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger was started out of Ron buying forher relationship. But thankfully, it was clarified at Deathly Hallows, but the debate was hot on this before the release of The Half-Blood Prince.

Let's go back to 1602 for a while. 1602 is a wonderful alternate universe placing Marvel characters in a different timeline. Stardust and 1602 has something in common, an entity, an object that serves the gateway to our world and the fantasy world. In the film, it's the small breach of the wall, in 1602, it's the anomaly of an object that brought Captain America to the past. They also share some similar things like an sky-ship, royalty figureheads, and magic that is seen in both books.

I may missed out the prologue of how Dunstan met Una but the segment that arguably cheered everybody was Septimus's men fighting against Captain Shakespeare (a nod to Bowfinger - shake the spear! ) While the circus music is blaring at the background, Captain Shakespeare was playing female transvestite and suddenly facing Septimus off guard. But I've anticipated how the story played out as in the book. Just as if Aragorn and Arwen ended up well until old age having children, yes they do have. Oops, I've spilled that out but the exposition of how Tristan and Yvaine ended up was simplified. In the book, Yvaine ends up as parallel as Arwen, except their origins.


There was something that I didn't understand. The film played in US in August but started playing here since yesterday. I wondered whether the distribution here is slow given of the audience demand here. In Europe, it played well solid. It didn't make much money but the story is well written and stayed true to the book's spirit. Gaiman recommended fellow novelist Jane Goldman to help Matthew Vaughan (Mr. Claudia Schiffer!) on adapting it as Gaiman was working on Beowulf.

Perhaps that was something to cheer for myself this weekend. You'll see in the next post later tonight or another 20 hours on!

Iron Jim Doing Harry Potter?!

I really wanted to write about the fifth Harry Potter movie that I've seen with my friend more than two weeks ago, but I just simply did not have the time nor the space to write about it.

A week before the show hit cinemas, I often drive back and forth from work noticing a poster of the film with all the six kids on magic brooms where something stirred inside me. They said that there's a chase across the Thames river. Two weeks after that, and just days after the book was out, my schoolmate called me out and invited to watch the show.

It is then I started to play a little fool out of it. I pictured something as similar to the storm-drain chase in Terminator 2. That liquid-man T-1000 driving a tow truck down to the canal chasing a kid who is of course the leader of the human resistance of the future.

Haha..


I got disappointed that the thing that I missed the first 15 minutes of the show due to my friend being late. He got up late - he had to work earlier than I - and then he had to go back to his house and retrieve his wallet. All and all, I just missed the opening and the Dursley segment. Damn!

I was quite astonished to see how an 870 page book (count 776 in UK cover) has been compressed into a 138 minute movie. The book that I've skimmed through is like a Dickensian style of text, full of humor and sarcastic moments but the movie was like removing the fat and getting things to the point, something that I think Mike Goldenberg (Peter Pan, Contact) - incidentally he lost the writing job of the series to Steve Kloves back in 2000 - should be commended for the effort that he has done. And the backstories - outside events that run parallel with the events in Hogwarts was interestingly placed in the form of newspaper matinee style sequence as what Coppola would do in The Godfather.

The one character that I like most in tha film was the crazed banshee Bellatrix (1951-1998). Helena Bonham Carter (Tim Burton's partner) did better than the original choice Helen McCrory would do. But everyone is looking forward to have either Kate Winslet or Naomi Watts as Narcissa but my choice would be Spooks' Keeley Hawes. In the book she has about 15 lines, but she speaks only less than 5 in the movie, which is more menacing than ever. She could speak the style of Gamal (the lead villain in Thief III) - which is the kind of old-woman witch type as of Snow White story could be!

One crazy banshee coming up to be skewered later on

They said that Evanna 'Loony' Lynch aced the role well before coming in. They are right, she is Luna - vegetarian, hippy-figure and the kind of person that relies on faith - a complete opposite of Hermione. The kind of anti-war women in the 70s particularly like Yoko or Jane Fonda...

But somehow, the movie just can't the narrative strength as Terminator 2. Maybe it's because of the stunts. But it is the story depth that just misses out. The character progression of Harry is just close to what I think it should be. According to the novel, he goes a little crazed after his friend Hermione got hit by a purple spell.

You can't beat Iron Jim in terms of narrative. He did better judging from the record in the first two Terminator movies and Aliens - remains the best narrative scope film that he has written.

Iron Jim had a hard time working in UK while making Aliens when an assistant director had inspired a crew revolt against him and Gale Anne Hurd - people would complaint to the studio of letting a little girl producing it!? He could be hard on our three heroes, Daniel, Rupert and Emma or even to those theater-trained veterans like Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon or even others...

Iron Jim would say to them: "That's okay. I worked with kids before."

or he would say this: "That's what I don't want!"

Autonomous as what people think of Jim Cameron...many people feared him but the studio executives are yelping as they would try to outbid each other to fight for the next movie.

I often felt that the forthcoming fight between Harry Potter and Voldemort is like what Iron Jim said before. "If the 800 series is a human panzer-tank then the 1000-series is a Porsche." This parallels to Voldemort - killing people since 1943 (noted in HBP) as a panzer-tank and Harry - plunged into this situation must become a Porsche. How about the T-X? In the context of the story, not as I see it as of now.

Hahaha.

I could have covered the whole thing but not if my friend had screwed the first 15 minutes. I thought of going into the room first and have him tell the attendant that I had the ticket with him. But he was begging me quite hard to wait for him and each minute past 8.45 p.m. on that day, my heart was beating stronger and there's a sense of tension like watching football!