busy busy busy busy busy

photoshoots, video shoots, edits, exports, more edits, more exports, and then edit again.

this cycle supposedly ends next Friday I think.

But damn I hope it continues on, in another place. Preferably Engineers. Do pray.

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in other news. lots of challenges recently, it’s all in the mind I suppose, and how badly I want it, or don’t want it for that matter.

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Xmas came super early this year.

And yes I’ll try my best to update more again.

I’m actually trying to make my reviews in general more positively readable, rather than try to be sarcastic about everything. I could still be sarcastic, but trying to move to a more “constructive criticism” kind instead. Not sure if I’m making sense here due to the broken English, but yeah I’m sure you get the drift.

However, this movie is proving to be a little bit difficult to stick by what I just stated in the above paragraph. So lets just see how this goes shall we?

Directed by Tony Scott, featuring Denzel Washington and Chris Pine. If you had seen the trailer, you might have already guess what’s the whole storyline is about. It’s just basically a runaway train (read: runaway, not coaster), with about 40-50 cars, some of which are (yes you’ve guessed right) hazardous materials, or toxic materials. Reason behind this train being a runaway is that some dimwitted fella left his cab while the train was in motion to throw a switch, and couldn’t get back on. That fatass. And with that, the first thought that would come into any Singaporean NS-trained men’s mind would be, “got protocol, just follow. don’t cut corners”. Of course that always happens in the real world because there’s no such thing as signing extras, or court martial or DB for every small thing that you do wrong.

So Train 777 is on the loose. Speeding down the main line at full power. (Think Thomas the tank engine on steroids). There’s Connie Hooper (Rosario Dawson) who wants to manage the disaster, but there’s also her corporate boss Galvin (Kelvin Dunn) who tries to take control but every effort of his fails. The only two who may be able to save the runaway train, and the towns it’s headed for from disaster, is two train drivers, Frank Barnes (played by Denzel Washington) and Will Colston (played by Chris Pine). Both men having got off on the wrong foot over having to work with a huge generational gap, with one being wise and experienced while the other being young and cocky.

Scott did a pretty good job in trying to create something exciting to watch out of a simplistic storyline. I mean, truth be told, everything in the film is predictable. But Scott gave this 1970/80′s style disaster movie a more modernistic approach of directing and sequencing, good pacing too. Another good thing is that Unstoppable was giving a very realistic feel, more like you’re part of the disaster as well rather than watching it from a 3rd perspective. I couldn’t think of a scene where there was obvious CGI in it. A good break from the too-many-CGI-effects-movies we see nowadays.

The action sequence was good too. The camera never stays still (which is something I personally love about directors who keep their cameras physically moving most of the time), and Scott shoots trying to making action sequences as real as possible. Quick zoom ins, tracking trains at 70 miles per hour shots, very amateurish stuff that someone might have just shot off his iPhone, but it blends well with the story. On the down side, there’s only so many times you can use ariel shots of trains speeding down the countryside before it gets boring. There’s also the train full of excited kids that miraculously escapes the path of the speeding train headed directly at them. Though after it stops safely, that part of the story mystically disappears from the rest of the film. No word as to how the kids or the driver was after that. Maybe they were stuck in the siding forever.

There’s also this ridiculous scene where police try to shoot at the train to hit the emergency stop button, which is located right beside the fuel tank, using M-16s. Obviously that isn’t going to work, but maybe Americans just like to think with their guns, big or small. No pun intended.

Overall, it’s a hard storyline to carry over an hour and a half, but Scott did a great job in combining various elements to make it as interesting as possible. There’re plenty of scenes of trains, cabs which I’m sure will please any fan of trains.

Though, it definitely felt like watching Fox News for a whole hour and a half. That bit came out more and more as the film progressed, and somewhere before the ending, a whole huge full screen Fox News ID popped out. Cliche.

Rated: 2/5. Watch it if you have the time, if you love trains, and on Monday mornings where no one else is watching.

Gosh, been neglecting this place again. Banner’s outdated. Posts not available.

And the poor 30-day challenge kinda stuck because of my photo library. Um, shucks.

Okay, let’s get this daily posting thing going.

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Side note. Try routing China to USA on Google Maps. Look out for points #93 and #104. (Hint: You can’t just do it for 6000KM. You drive a bit more after that, then go another 4000KM!) Mad.

Check this out. I was so bored, I went to randomly find routes on Google Maps. And this is what came out.

No doubt, Google Maps is very detailed in their directions, even when finding directions on foot, it’s mightily detailed.

Only, sometimes, it might not make much sense. Like for example, crossing a expressway.

But that’s just a small bit.

Try this. Have Google Maps find you a route from Japan to Taiwan. It’ll tell you take this and that, turn here turn there, take a ferry, pay tolls, etc etc. And then,

Yeah your eyes ain’t fooling you. It clearly reads “Jet ski across the Pacific Ocean”, for a cool 782KM mind you.

That’s just brilliant!! I had no idea they would come up with that kinda directions. Much awesomeness. And then more expressways in China (where thankfully, it’s much less complicated as compared to Japan). Until this,

YES! Since you probably wasted a lot of money on that jet ski and fuel, you’re probably quite broke by then, so no choice! SWIM! Across the Pacific Ocean for 165KM into Taiwan!

Hopefully your passport is still readable by then, otherwise, tell the Taiwan authorities you’re just following Google Maps’ directions to visit their country.

Who needs planes when you can jet ski eh? Best of all, it’ll only take you 3 days.

AWESOMENESS.