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For some strange reason, sequels have always been notorious for being lousy successors to the original work. Be it video games, movies or even books, plenty of sequels have been known to not live up to the original work. Plenty of sequels share on thing in common: they’d always be inferior to the original piece of work in one way or another and unfortunately, that formula holds true for Ocean’s Twelve (2004).

For those who don’t know, Ocean’s Twelve is the very aptly titled sequel to Ocean’s Eleven, a 2001 film (which I reviewed on this site previously) about how eleven men managed to pull of a heist, making all of them millionaires. However, the moment this film begins, Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), the man from whom the original eleven stole $160 million from in the previous film, is on the hunt for Ocean’s eleven, eventually tracking all of them down one by one. He even goes so far as to detonate a bomb placed in Rusty’s (Brad Pitt) car as a warning. In the end, Benedict asks for all $160 million, plus $38 million interest and the eleven come up short by $97 million. Hence, they have no choice but to go back to their old ways, stealing valuable items to pay off their debt, but since their too “hot” to work in the United States, they travel to Europe in order to continue with their dirty work. However, as they are about to steal the world’s oldest stock certificate from an eccentric old man, they realise that they’ve been beaten to the document as it has already been taken by another thief who left them a message through an MP3 player. Soon, they discover that it was the Night fox (Vincent Cassel), a legendary European thief, who beat them to it. After which, the Night fox reveals that he is partially responsible for them being lured to Europe as he then proposes a challenge to the eleven: both them and the Night fox will attempt to steal the Corronation Egg within a week, if the eleven win, the Night fox will pay off their debt to Benedict. Hence, the team accepts the offer since there’s no other way for them to raise $7 million in a few weeks, which leads to even more twists and turns in the plot.

While the plot might seem quite interesting, it actually makes for a pretty boring movie on the whole. Most of the movie shows the team discussing rather than putting their plan(s) into action, which was more of what we saw in the first film. In fact, it almost feels as if the action is about to pick up when the team tries to steal the document and you’re on the edge of your sea, then when you realise it was all for nothing, you just sink back into your seat, getting bored with it and the rest of the film just doesn’t redeem itself. The plot is just sloppy with a lot of plot holes, like how the team suddenly got released when they were arrested by the police, and it just stinks of lazy writing on the whole. Not to mention the climax is practically non existed since there really isn’t much to get excited about even in the later parts of the film. By the time the movie ends, you’re probably stunned by the fact that the film simply ended the way it did, then you’d probably wonder why you wasted your time with it.

Still, not everything about the film is bad. If there’s one redeeming quality about it, it’s the acting. The original cast is back from the original film and they put on a great show here even with a broken plot. The ensemble cast still do a great job of portraying a team of professional thiefs who know what they’re doing every step of the way. Not to mention the few scenes in which we actually see the team in action are pretty exhilarating, such as one scene in which they need to raise a building to gain a clear shot through a window in the second floor. These scenes are what made the first film so great, it’s just unfortunate that the filmmakers and writers failed to see this, or else this could have been a great, if not better movie as compared to the original.

Still, Ocean’s Twelve (2004) didn’t do that bad in the box office, in fact it was a commercial success in comparison to other films. However, when you compare it to the original Ocean’s Eleven, it fell below expectations. If you were a fan of the first film, I’d suggest you don’t waste your time on this one, since it really is nowhere near as good as the original film was. Unless you’re a real die hard fan and can’t wait to see what happens to the team after the original film, this film might be worth a rent.

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While in the past Nokia used to dominate the handphone market with it’s dynamic range of mobile phones, that has all changed in recent years with Sony Ericsson learning how to adapt to consumers’ needs. It now has an even more dynamic range of phones for consumers to choose from: from their Cybershot series, to the Walkman series to the latest R series which all have FM radio receivers built in so that you need not plug in headphones to listen to your favourite local radio station. Among all the Walkman phones, one phone really stands out in my opinion, the Sony Ericsson W910i.

For starters, it’s a slider phone which is relatively slim and light and comes in multiple colours (black, white, red, bronze) all of which look great in their own right. Sliding open the phone will reveal the flat keypad hidden underneath, the standard 12 button keypad has all it’s keys tightly packed together, but each individual key is just large enough so that your fingers won’t hurt while trying to use it. However, this keypad will take some getting used to, oftentimes you’re not quite sure if you’ve hit a button or not due to the fact that there isn’t much tactile feedback from the keypad. On the bright side, this does make the keypad really, really silent, allowing you to type long messages without getting irritated by the keypad.

The layout of the buttons is slightly different from older Sony Ericsson phones though, it now resembles the layout of a Nokia phone, ie. a selection button on each side and a “pick up” and “hang up” button right below them. The default “back” arrow button is gone, but it’s relatively easy to get used to the new way of navigating around the phone as it feels pretty natural. The D-pad feels really solid and is a breeze to use to navigate through menus as well as your media.

Speaking of media, the phone has a great media browser that allows you to easily access and browse through your pictures, songs and videos. Everything is neatly organised and everything is easily accessible, allowing you to enjoy your media collection. The Walkman function of the phone is probably the highlight of the media browser, considering how it’s a Walkman phone after all. You’re able to view songs by artist, album or track and can create playlists as well. Not to mention album art will be displayed (albeit in a very small box in the top left hand corner) if it’s available. My only gripe is that the Walkman function won’t differentiate between songs and other sound files, for example even recordings are included in your tracks. It can get quite irritating at times to have your play mode on “shuffle” and suddenly have a recording start playing.

The phone has several other small but useful features as well, for example a motion sensor which will help the phone automatically flip landscape images to fill the screen when the phone is held sideways or flip the media browser menu. Also, while a song is playing, you can hold down the Walkman button and shake the phone left or right to change tracks. It’s more of a gimmick than anything else, but it’s a cool gimmick nonetheless. Another useful feature which is seldom advertised is that there’s a light sensor built into the phone somewhere as well. When you’re in darker conditions, the screen will dim and the keypad lights will brighten up and vice versa. I never knew about this function until I realised the screen kept changing brightness, and I must say it is a really useful feature as it really does help quite a bit.

All in all, Sony Ericsson W910i is a great addition to the Walkman series, with all the features you could want in a standard phone, and with everything in a slim and beautiful package, it’s an ideal phone for most people out there looking for an affordable phone to purchase.

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For some reason, Hollywood seems to be obsessed with romance. No matter what sort of film it is, practically every Hollywood production has to have some corny romance thrown in between the two leads. Over the years though, we’ve seen quite a few romance films, some pretty good ones, mediocre ones, and some that make you cringe at how corny or cliche they are. Thankfully, I’m glad to say that Once (2007) belongs in the former group.

Most people might never have heard of Once, which is not surprising considering how it’s a pretty low budget film, not to mention it isn’t even a Hollywood production. Instead, it’s an Irish production, directed by John Carney and starring two relatively unknown leads, Glen Hansard (member of Irish rock group The Frames) and Markéta Irglová, both of which are Academy Award wining singer/songwriters. However, throughout the entire film, neither of the leads are named, even in the credits they’re listed as “Guy” and “Girl”. It starts off as Guy is basking on the streets of Dublin and catches the attention of Girl while playing an original song of his. The next day, Girl brings her spoilt Hoover vacuum cleaner to him after realising his other job is fixing vacuum cleaners. However, before they head to his dad’s shop, they stop by at a music store as Guy requests that Girl play a song on the piano for him. They end up playing a guitar/piano duet of one of Guy’s songs, “Falling Slowly” (which was actually co-written by both Hansard and Irglová). In that scene, you can just about see the sparks of a new relationship beginning to form and from then on, they continue to meet up with each other and grow closer and closer.

However, the great thing about the plot of this film is that unlike other plots, the ending isn’t “happily ever after” (sorry if that was too big a spoiler for some of you). I won’t go into more details about that, you’ll have to watch the movie for yourself. However, the main focus of this movie isn’t exactly the romance, but rather the music. It’s been dubbed to be a “musical film”, kind of like High School Musical, but on a much higher level. For example in HSM, the characters will suddenly break into a song for no reason whatsoever, yet in Once, all the songs are performed in full over the course of the day, without causing the film to skip a beat. It’s as if the songs were meant to be sung at those precise moments instead of them being forced into the film. In fact, the film went on so smoothly that I didn’t really think of it as a musical film until after I read about it afterwards.

And speaking of the music, all of it is pretty good. You won’t find any wild, trashy music here, just very simple melodies (save for Hansard’s octave leaping parts) with minimalistic background music (a piano and/or guitar perhaps) - the recipe for a great soundtrack. After all, it’s on multiple charts (be it Billboard or the US charts), has had 2 Academy Award nominations under its belt. Handsard and Irglová’s “Falling slowly” even managed to clinch the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The soundtrack really is that good and worthy of a 5/5 rating by itself, not bad for a film on a budget of around $250,000.

With a budget that’s only a fraction of other Hollywood productions, don’t expect any fancy camera work here, in fact it almost feels like you’re watching a documentary of Guy’s and Girl’s lives because of the way the film is shot. None of the acting is anywhere near Hollywood level though, but that doesn’t really matter in a film like that. Hansard and Irglová will still manage to charm you with their natural chemistry (in fact they became a couple during/after filming Once) and down to earth acting (as much of the dialogue was made up on the go). The parts of the movie where they really shine are when they’re doing what they do best - singing. After composing those octave leaping melodies, boy can Hansard deliver the vocals.

However, there’s still a deep element of romance involved in the film, and you can’t help but feel frustrated and sad by the time the show ends. I myself am pining for a sequel (Twice?) just so that we can watch the two leads live happily ever after. Unfortunately, that won’t happen since both leads have expressed little interest in continuing to act. It really is an emotional film that will touch anyone’s heart by the time the credits roll.

Once (2007) is another must-watch film, and would be great as a film for couples to watch. It’s all about how two people are deeply affected by each other in a very short period of time, and with great music thrown in for good measure. Be sure to grab a DVD of this movie as soon as possible.

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While this movie might be old, it is in fact a remake of an even older film of the same title which was released back in 1960. However, the fact that it’s a few decades old didn’t prevent director Steven Soderbergh from assembling a stellar cast to play Ocean’s Eleven men this time around. In fact, he’s done a great job with this remake of the movie in my opinion.

While it is indeed a remake, the script has been completely rewritten, but it shares the same premise as the original movie: 11 men plan a highly elaborate attempt to steal large amounts of money. In the original film, the team stole from five casinos at the same time. However, in this film, Danny Ocean (George Clooney) begins his hunt for a specialised team of men to pull of a heist. This once again differs from the original films where the members of the team were all amateurs instead of the professional thieves involved in this film. They plan to rob an underground, high-tech vault which is shared by three casinos, all of which are owned by one Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia). It is soon revealed that Danny Ocean has an added incentive to rob Benedict of his money: his lover is actually Danny’s ex wife, Tess (Julia Roberts). From then on, the 11 men then begin planning their highly elaborate heist of around 160 million dollars.

I won’t spoil any more of the plot for you here, especially not the actual plan of their heist. Partly because you really should watch the movie and experience first hand how director Steven Soderbergh decided to reveal the plan bit by bit to the audience; but also partially because I would have no idea how to properly explain the entire heist. The plan itself is so deep and complicated, yet it all fits together just nicely like the cogs of a wheel, because everything just makes sense. By that I mean you could almost imagine 11 similar men pulling off such a heist with exactly the same plan in real life. Midway through the film you’ll begin to wonder what in the world is happening since the movie doesn’t exactly reveal the entire plan to you before they actually attempt the heist, you only get to see bits and pieces of what they put together to prepare for the heist itself, never really knowing what they have planned behind the scenes. Even after they successfully carry the money out of the casino, you’re still scratching your head and wondering how in the world they managed to do it, you might even get frustrated at the movie’s lack of logic at that point in time. However, the movie then begins to show you scenes from the planning stages of their heist, as well as a few more scenes set in the present, that help to explain the entire operation. By the end of those flashback scenes, you’re left applauding the brilliant writers that thought of such an elaborate scheme.

Of course, the wonderfully intricate plot is backed up by a great cast as well. All eleven members of the ensemble cast do a great job of acting out their various roles, especially ShaoBo Qin who plays the part of the Grease Man, Yen (who, while not given many lines, undoubtedly drew quite a bit of laughter from the audience). Brad Pitt and George Clooney perfectly play the roles of mysterious pros who know everything while Matt Damon plays his part as the newbie who is desperately trying to learn the ropes from the others. I don’t have much to say about the acting in this film, since there’s really nothing much to comment or complain about it, everything’s top notch.

All in all, Ocean’s Eleven (2001) has got to be the best film of its genre that I’ve seen thus far, and in those seven years since its release, no other film has come close to this standard in my opinion. This is definitely a must see for almost anyone, though the plot might take awhile to digest and understand. However when you finally realise how elaborate the entire plot of the movie is, you’ll really begin to appreciate it. I promise watching this film won’t be a waste of your time.

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Surely the Simpsons require no introduction? After all they have been one of the top animated sitcoms both in America and around the world for around two decades, winning 23 Emmy Awards and 26 Annie Awards while bringing fun and laughter to millions of households worldwide. No other animated sitcom has come close in terms of popularity as almost anyone will immediately recognise the yellow skinned family. Thus, it’s surprising that they waited till the 20th anniversary of the show before they finally brought the Simpsons to the silverscreen in the very aptly titled “The Simpsons Movie“.

While the show was brought from a 20 odd minute long TV episode to a full length film of 3 times the length, the very essence of The Simpsons still hasn’t changed. The same family made up of Homer, Marge, Maggie, Bart and Lisa Simpson go on a wild adventure in this feature-length film unlike any other episode of The Simpsons. Once again sticking with the tradition of other Simpsons episodes, the plot makes no sense. It starts off with Green Day performing on a makeshift stage, and then dying when the polluted lake they are on errodes their makeshift stage till they themselves go underwater (yeah, that’s really how wild the plot can get). After which, Homer adopts a pig (dubbing it spider-pig) and dumps all its waste in a silo which he eventually dumps into the already polluted lake. The water then causes animals who touch it to morph into wild monsters, hence “President Schwarzenegger” randomly chooses a plan to cover Springfield with a dome to prevent the problem from spreading. From then on, hilarity ensues as the entire town is after Homer’s head for causing such a problem after they realise the silo belonged to him.

Don’t ask any questions about the plot, it’s supposed to be this illogical, as most other Simpson plots are. Yet this completely weird plot makes way for some downright hilarious moments which I won’t spoil for you here. Anyone who’s a big fan of the Simpsons TV series and loves the humor found in the hundreds of episodes thus far won’t be disappointed here. The writers have stuck with the tried-and-true formula of Simpson TV episodes and provide similar jokes throughout the entire film that will undoubtedly have you laughing. For example in the usual opening of any Simpsons episode, the camera will show Bart writing lines on a board through a window, in the movie, he’s writing “I will not download this movie” or something to that effect, obviously showing how the movie will have you laughing from the very moment it begins, not to mention how Homer laughs at us for paying to watch the film when it’s something we could watch for free at home.

Despite becoming a feature-length film, the filmmakers didn’t take any chances with the art, which is a good thing. You can see some improvements made to the show as a whole as the colours seem a lot more vivid as compared to the usual TV episodes. Other than that however, nothing’s changed in terms of how the film looks. None of the animations are overdone and everything just looks and feels the same, as if none of it would feel out of place in any other Simpsons TV episode. It’s a good thing they didn’t decide to do something radical for the film in terms of its art style or else it might have caused a few people to be turned off.

Also, all the brilliant voice acting is back to voice the various characters obviously. From Nancy Cartwright voicing Bart and Yeardly Smith voicing Lisa, the family is sitll voiced by the brilliant cast who have been doing their job for 2 decades. Knowing this, there’s obviously nothing to complain about the voice acting, after all these people have been at it for 20 years, how could they screw up now? The fact that they’re producing a movie now instead of the usual TV episode, all of them manage to inject the same life and energy into their characters that allow them to exude the same amount of charm as they always have been.

Still, this film isn’t perfect, while the voice acting and animation might be great, no one ever expected a Simpsons movie to be perfect. The plot really gets too outrages at times, and while the writers tried to include some form of “moral dilemna” into the film, it just doesn’t fit well. In the end, all this movie was meant to do is to provide us with a Simpsons TV episode that’s 3 times as long, and that’s exactly what it does. Packing in more humour than ever possible in the past, The Simpsons Movie is a great comedy since practically everyone is already familiar with the characters. If you miss out on this film, I only have one thing to say: D’Oh!

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