Lame piece o crap

The 1st one with The Rock was a thoroughly enjoyable shit. Especially with Christopher Walken as the baddie. Well, not "Walkenesque" enough but still awesome. And why someone bother re-casting Kevin Sorbo (of Hercules TV series wor) in a direct-to-DVD sequel? I don't understand why people make these lame-o dump-straight-to-video/DVD shit, maybe there's not enough movies to rent at video stores I suppose.

People only will watch this shit if they have NOTHING to do getting stuck in middle of night can't sleep. Looks like this was the only thing to watch when I got struck by flu and can't sleep. Or if they're Kevin Sorbo fans. WTF, I don't get how Kevin Sorbo can have "fans". Yeah he's buff and decent looking but has personality of *gasp* toilet paper. By comparison Keanu Reeves looked like fucking Marlon Brando. Thats how lame Kevin Sorbo is.

His acting in this film is so nonchalant its unbelievable. The emotion of angst compared with Charles Bronson's Death Wish character is like distance from the Sun to Pluto. With Sorbo it's just "Hey, look at me I'm an angry man wanna kick ass". Even when he visited a girl who got raped by the main villain's gang, all he could do was "It's ok" with a deadpan look. Jesus, no surprise if the girl slits her throat when he leaves the room.

It doesn't helped by a script written by someone who probably just started his class in script-writing college. The guy who played Harvey looks quite fucking mean and you would want to punch him in the face (which is a GOOD compliment for a villian) but imagine the script so stilted the best he can do is scream "SHUT UP" when provoked. And the action sucked too. The director must've thought, hey tons of explosions and everybody would go a-ga-ga. Gimme a break. The main climax is such a non-climax. So Sorbo and Harvey settles for a cowboy-style shootout which is so freakin lame since we know who's gonna die.

This movie isn't as huge abomination as Ecks vs Sever (big fucking eewwwww at that name) or any Uwe Boll movies, but after watching it you thought watching a dart olympics on a sport's channel is a time better spent.

Yay I bought a book.

I have to make a confession. I seldom, really seldom buy books. Mostly because everytime I have spare cash I divert them on CDs, whether by Karajan, Bernstein, Furtwangler, Mahler, etc. You can count the number of book in my "library" with fingers on your two lil' hands. That includes complete Harry Potter collections, Lord of the Rings paperback (way before the overrated movie trilogy came out) and some bargain non-fiction biographies. However on trip to yesterday's bookfare, I plunked out RM 30 for this:
































After discount la, duh.

I have to admit, those blardy gibberish from critics who praised this book suckered me into buying this; "It reads like a part from War and Peace". I've reached Part III and it's pretty good so far. This is NON-FICTION so everything that occured is real.

Hitler broke off a truce he brokered with Stalin about staying away from Russia and launched the Operation Barbossa which backfired and became turning point which leads to Axis downfall in Europe. The vastness of Russian terrain, unpredictable and terrifying weather conditions plus serious tactical mismanagement due to huge part played by Hitler's greed in trying to conquer Caucasian oilfields lead to the German's collapse in Stalingrad. While great credit must be given to Russians for their unflinching spirit in defeating the enemy, the Red Curtain side aren't perfect with Stalin being no different than Hitler due to his paranoia and indecisiveness. A blueprint recovered from a German commander whose plane was shot down and contained vital plans was dismissed as forgery by the Great Commander himself, thinking it is a plan to confuse his troops. Countless Russian lives were lost under Stalin's directory to punish "deserters, cowards and traitors" by his own secret police NKVD regime and even worst, all Soviet prisoners of war captured by Germans when recovered were sent straight to Gulag because to Stalin they were traitors to the Motherland.

The battle of Stalingrad became the bloodiest battle in history with estimate loss of 1.5 million lives due to callous disregard of military and civilian lives. A massive german bombardment virtually flattened the city in a most horrible carnage since bombing of Guernica during Spanish Civil War. The Red Army were so reckless in their pursuit of vengence that an unarmed battalion were forced straight into German slaughter despite lack of ammunitions.

Grim and terror in war did produce some humourous moments recounted in the book. In early stages of Operation Barbossa, the Germans were ambushed by kamikaze dogs carrying bombs and anti-tank mines trained by Russians to fetch food underneath advancing tanks. In midst of brutal winter during the advance, a disillusioned German wrote a spoof "There will be no Christmas this year because Joseph has been called up to join the Army, Mary had joined the Red Cross, Baby Jesus and other children had been sent to countryside (to avoid bombing); the Three Wise Men could not get visas because they lacked proof of Aryan origin; there will be no star because of blackout; the shephards has been made into sentries and angels has become Blitzmaden (telephone operators). Only a donkey is left and one cannot celebrate Christmas with just a donkey".

The author also provided maps for referencing and illustrated photographs taken during that period. So far this have proven to be a fascinating read.