The Hulk remake is just as shite as Ang Lee's original

With Edward Norton injecting lifeline into the Hulk "regeneration" movie, nothing can go wrong. Oooopppsss...another experimental failure.

The new Hulk movie by Marvel (yes Marvel has their own movie studio) promised to make viewers forget about the melodramatic tedium of Ang Lee's original. Even better they assigned Edward Norton to be the lead! Yes, the guy who acted in American History X and Fight Club. Finally this is the real deal, sonny - not.

The movie is much faster paced than the ponderous original, yes action scenes are relentless especially the factory showdown and the fight between Hulk and Abomination which was nail-biting I have to admit. However director Louis Leterrier's credits which includes Jet Li's Unleashed and Jason Statham's Transporter series looked capable of producing only MTV-catered B-movie action films only. Therefore that explains character and plot development which was fucking pitiful.

Apparently the director decided to shift all the backstory about how Dr. Bruce Banner was turned into Hulk into the freaking original opening credits! It looked like Marvel is taking exorcism of Ang Lee's tedium melodrama too seriously. So if the original was trying to have too much soul, this remake is void of it. When you're not empathizing with Edward Norton despite the ordeals and trouble he is undergoing as Dr Bruce Banner, something is terribly wrong. The army is chasing his ass all over Brazil at one scene yet I've never felt so indifferent over a lead character before.

The CGI is no different than Ang Lee's original Hulk. Yes the Hulk remake looked more chiselled and enormous strength in muscles but if there is a little compliment Ang Lee's Hulk looked like a freaking CGI cartoon while Leterrier's Hulk looked like its ripped from Warcraft III. The big fight between Hulk and Abomination is bloody intense but if this were shown amongst other videos in E3 or other gaming conventions, it looks like a PS3 demonstration. When Hulk and Abomination were crashing and flying through buildings the background textures lost its photorealism and the differences between two minutes previously was like night and day.

Hulk doesn't suck so bad like a typical (insert_______) Movie or a Uwe Boll trash you'll mourn for the loss of at least one and a half hours but what is pitiful is the terrible waste of acting talents such as Edward Norton and Liv Tyler. I thought both had great chemistry as a couple but the script had let them down. Now terrific action movies such as Bourne trilogy or Die Hard shows that a decent script with decent character and plot development makes a kickass popcorn flick, not this shallow comic-book CGI tedium.

Best football manager interview ever.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=578459&sec=england&cc=4716

The edited transcript of Newcastle United's interim manager Joe Kinnear's first official press conference, taken from The Guardian:

Joe Kinnear: Which one is Simon Bird [Daily Mirror's north-east football writer]?
Simon Bird: Me.
JK: You're a c**t.
SB: Thank you.
JK: Which one is Hickman [Niall, football writer for the Express]? You are out of order. Absolutely f**king out of order. If you do it again, I am telling you you can f**k off and go to another ground. I will not come and stand for that f**king crap. No f**king way, lies. F**k, you're saying I turned up and they [Newcastle's players] f**ked off.
SB: No Joe, have you read it, it doesn't actually say that. Have you read it?
JK: I've f**king read it, I've read it.
SB: It doesn't say that. Have you read it?
JK: You are trying to f**king undermine my position already.
SB: Have you read it, it doesn't say that. I knew you knew they were having a day off.
JK: F**k off. F**k off. It's your last f**king chance.
SB: You read the copy? It doesn't say that you didn't know.
JK: What about the headline, you think that's a good headline?
SB: I didn't write the headline, you read the copy.
JK: You are negative b**tards, the pair of you.
SB: So if I get a new job next week would I take the first day off? No I wouldn't. If I get a new job should I call my boss and tell him I am taking the first day off?
JK: It is none of your f**king business. What the f**k are you going to do? You ain't got the balls to be a f**king manager. F**king day off. Do I want your opinion. Do I have to listen to you?
SB: No, you can listen to who you want.
JK: I had a 24-hour meeting with the entire staff.
SB: Joe, you are only here six weeks, you could have done that on Sunday, or Saturday night.
JK: No, no, no. I didn't want to do it. I had some other things to do.
SB: What? More important things?
JK: What are you? My personal secretary? F**k off.
SB: You could have done the meeting Saturday night or Sunday. You could have had them watching videos, you could have organised them.
JK: I was meeting the f**king chairman the owner, everyone else. Talking about things.
SB: It is a valid point that was made in there. A valid point.
JK: I can't trust any of you.
Niall Hickman: Joe, no one could believe that on your first day at your new club, the first-team players were not in. No one could believe it in town. Your first day in the office.
JK: My first day was with the coaches. I made the decision that I wanted to get as much information out of them.
NH: But why Monday, no one could believe it?
JK: I'm not going to tell you anything. I don't understand where you are coming from. You are delighted that Newcastle are getting beat and are in the state they are? Delighted, are you?
NH: Certainly not. No one wants to see them get beaten, why would we?
JK: I have done it before. It is going to my f**king lawyers. So are about three others. If they can find something in it that is a court case it is going to court. I am not f**king about. I don't talk to f**king anybody. It is raking up stories. You are f**king so f**king slimy you are raking up players that I got rid of. Players that I had fallen out with. You are not asking Robbie Earle, because he is sensible. You are not asking Warren Barton? No. Because he is f**king sensible. Anyone who had played for me for 10 years at any level ... [but] you will find some c**t that ...
Other journalist: How long is your contract for Joe?
JK: None of your business.
SB: Well it is actually, because we cover the club. The club say you are here to the end of October, then you say six to eight games which would take it to the end of November. We are trying to clarify these issues. We are getting no straight answers from anyone. How long are you here for. It is a dead simple question. And you don't know ...
JK: I was told the length of contract. Then I was told that possibly the club could be sold in that time. That is as far as I know. That's it finished. I don't know anything else. But I have been ridiculed. He's trying to f**king hide, he's trying to do this or that.

There follows an exchange regarding the circumstances under which Kinnear had met the owner Mike Ashley and executive director (football) Dennis Wise.

Steve Brenner: (football writer for the Sun) We are all grown men and can come in here and sit around and talk about football, but coming in here and calling people c**ts?
JK: Why? Because I am annoyed. I am not accepting that. If it is libellous, it is going to where I want it to go.
Newcastle press officer: What has been said in here is off the record and doesn't go outside.
Journalist: Well, is that what Joe thinks?

JK :Write what you like. Makes no difference to me. Don't affect me I assure you. It'll be the last time I see you anyway. Won't affect me. See how we go at Everton and Chrissy [Chris Hughton, assistant manager] can do it, someone else can do it. Don't trust any of yous. I will pick two local papers and speak to them and the rest can f**k off. I ain't coming up here to have the piss taken out of me. I have a million pages of crap that has been written about me. I'm ridiculed for no reason. I'm defenceless. I can't get a point in, I can't say nothing, I can't do nothing, but I ain't going to be negative. Then, half of you, most of you are trying to get into the players. I'm not going to tell you what the players think of you, so then you try and get into them in some way or another, so I've got a split camp or something like that, something like that. It's ongoing. It just doesn't stop.

Journalist: It's only been a week.
JK: Exactly. It feels more like a year.
Journalist: It's early days for you to be like this.
JK: No, I'm clearing the air. And this is the last time I'm going to speak to you. You want to know why, I'm telling you. This is the last time. You can do what you like.
Journalist But this isn't going to do you or us any good.
JK: I'll speak to the supporters. I'm going to tell them what the story is. I'm going to tell them. I don't think they'll interpret it any different, I don't think they'll mix it up, I don't think they'll miss out things. I mean, one of them last week said to me ... I was talking about in that press conference where you were there, I said something like "Well, that's a load of bollocks ..."
Journalist: "Bollocks to that" is what you said.
JK: Bollocks to that. And what goes after that?
Journalist: That was it.
JK: No it wasn't, no it wasn't. What was after it? I don't know if it was your paper, but what went after it?
Journalist: I don't know.
JK: It even had the cheek to say "bollocks to Newcastle".
Journalist: I didn't write that.
JK: That was my first f**king day. What does that tell you? What does that tell you?
Journalist: Where was that? Which paper said that?
JK: I've got it. I can't remember. It was one of the Sundays, not a Saturday. It was a Sunday.
Journalist: But you didn't say that to the Sundays, you said that to us. That was during the Monday press conference.
JK: I'll bring it in and show it to you. Why would I want to say that?
Journalist: Are you saying that someone has reported you saying "bollocks to Newcastle?"
JK: Yes. Lovely.
Journalist: I don't know who's reported that.
JK: I'll tell you what, I'll bring it in.
Journalist: That's obviously going to damage you. That's not a good thing. But I don't think someone's done that. We have to have some sort of relationship with you.
JK: So have I. But I haven't come in here for you lot to take the piss out of me. And if I'm not flavour of the month for you, it don't f**king bother me. I've got a job to do. And I'm going to do it to the best of my ability. I'm not going to spend any more time listening to any crap or reading any crap. Stick to the truth and the facts. And don't twist anything.
Journalist: You know, you know the game ...
JK: Of course I know, but I don't have to like it.
Journalist: Today we'll print the absolute truth, that you think we're c**ts, we can all f**k off and we're slimy. Is that fair enough?
JK :Do it. Fine. F**king print it. Am I going to worry about it? Put in also that it'll be the last time I see you. Put that in as well. Good. Do it.Much, much later after long discussions over whether Kinnear had promised Alan Shearer and Kevin Keegan would be returning to the club
Press officer: Let's get on to football. Let's have an agreement that everything said so far, if anyone has got their tapes on, it's wiped off and we're not discussing it.
Journalist: But that's what Joe has said he thinks of us.
Press officer: I'm saying don't push it. Let's accept what's been said and try and move on.
Journalist: Move on to not doing any more press conferences?
PO: No, to doing something now.
Journalist: What, one press conference only?
(Silence)
Journalist: Any knocks?
PO: Come on, let's go football.
Journalist: What are your plans for training in the next three days? How's the training going?
JK: It's going very well. No problems at all.
Journalist: Enjoyed getting back in the swing of things?
JK: Absolutely. I've loved every moment of it.

Jesus am so fucking bored.

So Anwar yapped at Sept 16 that the govt will fall in few days bla bla bla.

Ok then he said he wants PM to arrange for emergency parliamentary session at Sept 23 to file No Confidence against Pak Lah.

Of course wat u expect Pak Lah to say? He's gone cuckoo if he says yes.

Ask the typical people on the streets about Anwar's crossover and most likely Anwar they will tell you to dream on. Of course instead of ignoring Anwar or better, just bust him under ISA the whole BN cahoots cannot resist joining his charade. Switching portfolios with Najib (Take over Defence Ministry wor), more UMNO members calling him to resign before the party's assembly in December and Muhiyiddin making more blardy noise. So much for mirage.

But then on the other side, it looks like Anwar is fucking clueless on the way this shit is going or he's still desperately trying to buy more MPs into his coalition. Fucking clueless as he still doesn't know how to do this crossover thing properly even if he already has enough fucking MPs in his hands. Does he know beforehand the parliament can only be called after Ramadan thats where he can ask his MPs to file no confidence against Badawi? The whole Agong thing, what if His Majesty rejects his request?

But then again this is Datuk Seri Anwar and he knows more shit than I do.

His mistake was imposing the sept 16 deadline and as result a lot of people are already let down. But then his "lie" may be part of the plan. All the mind games will drag on till even end of the year.

For most people, this soap opera of politics is starting to feel like the plot has dragged too much over the welcome it deserves. Do whatever you have to do Anwar but this takeover thing doesn't materialize and Pakatan's reign will be in deep shit because probably by next general election, people would not bother to vote for either Pakatan or Barisan. Who do you choose? Racist, cronyistic, corrupt BN or power-hungry, lying Pakatan?

This country cannot wait three more years to be saved.

It is already past 12 midnight.

Malaysiakini reports that from the Pakatan Rakyat speech in Kelana Jaya, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will be ready to form the government TODAY.

This is despite contradictory reports earlier that the plan may be deferred due to "distruption" to his plans.

Now there has been opinions that such "back alley" move is bad for democracy and is despicable.

But looking from events past few weeks it is obvious if Malaysia waits until the next general elections by 2012, motherland may be crippled by UMNO's undoing.

Devastated by March 8 tsunami, UMNO has not learnt its lessons and still continued its despicable divide-and-rule tactics, sweet-talking to rakyat about importance of racial unity, perpaduan and religious tolerence while preaching racial hatred messages to Malay grassroots telling them especially that the non-Bumis are going to take over this country.

The Ahmad Ismail furore has grown much more uglier with the arrests of Raja Petra, Teresa Kok and the Sin Chew reporter who covered Ahmad's speech in Bukit Bendera. Already Zaid Ibrahim the Law Minister had quit in protest.

Good news for Malaysia are the likes of Zaid Ibrahim. And better hope that Permatang Pauh showed that racial politicking has not worked with majority of Bumis who cast vote in the elections.

But like a wounded beast scorned, UMNO will throw all out to save itself from oblivion. They will instigate its ultra-fanatical members to go out on riot and cause another May 13. The mat rempits and samsengs led by Ahmad Ismail and don't be surprised if Khairy Jamaluddin follows, they will arm themselves with parangs, molotov cocktails and cause chaos everywhere. It may even be uglier than May 13th, with the mob going all out to "cleanse" this land from the clutches of non-Bumis and uphold their Ketuanan Melayu supremacy.

Should Najib take over the PM post even sooner, it will be even nastier. The former UMNO Youth leader who threatened to bathe Chinese blood in keris, this guy is much more no-nonsense than the gutless Badawi and will rule this country with an iron-fist that may make Mahafiraun-era seem like Paradise. He will use the ISA as his ultimate weapon and make arrests that will inflate Operasi Lalang figures by ten-fold. The UMNOputera will run fucking riot and it may be even too late for non-Bumis to think of migration.

For this, screw whether what DSAI does is ethical, non-democratic or betrays people's trust. Hell I do not even trust the man himself, but ask any decent-thinking Malaysian if they would pass up a chance for CHANGE.

Badawi, DPM Najib in deep shit over Ahmad revolt.

Datuk Ahmad Ismail surely has one big balls, defiantly refusing to apologize over racist statement he issued (according to a Chinese daily) despite even the DPM big man Najib issuing apology on UMNO's behalf and you gotta give him credit notwithstanding a piece of shit that bugger is. Ahmad turned the tables, demanding Gerakan and Koh Tsu Koon apologize to him instead for playing up the issue.

Sacking that dipshit would've lay the matter to rest. Instead they're not going to and UMNO big guy Badawi's best efforts is just making sure "he doesn't do it again". Heh, wanna know why? By sacking Ahmad, Badawi risks incurring wrath of ultra-fascist UMNO supporters who will take kowtowing to non-Malays a big shit smack right in the face. Badawi doesn't want that since his own support in party is already fragile as a paperthin waffle, and police report filed over his alleged money politics doesn't help either.

Gerakan and MCA doesn't want to risk losing non-Malay votes and will keep making noises but it is too late as the whole UMNO is viewed as scum by non-Malays and only terribly naive or mental people will view them otherwise. As demonstrated by Permatang Pauh elections, racial politics don't work no more.

51st Independence Day approaching for Malaysia. Are we going anywhere?

A lot has been said about the state of politics these days. The drama currently is "Anwar vs Saiful" soap which unfortunately has turned kind of stale, how Hollywood announced there would be sequel to Meet the Spartans. I wouldn't want to touch how Saiful has blown his credibility out of the water with his new blog. I mean, do you get sodomised by force 7-8 times and suddenly pop up a blog capitalizing on your current "trauma" (other than photogenic potraits of him in media which doesn't look like some dick getting assfucked 8 times). I'm no fan of Anwar, I think he's too populist and the way he's desperate to force himself into power by Sept 16 is despicable but still the most neutral observer would tell you who had screwed up. Anyway I digress.

We cannot be expected to live in a fucking utopian world. But the real world we live in sucks balls. They are right. Truth fucking hurts. The fact is when you'd expect March 8th tsunami to bring in change, the dirty linen seems to be dirtier than ever. I don't give a damn about rising cost of living, corruption and typical dilemma than the common Malaysian face this day but what hurts most is this; racial polarisation seems to be wider than ever.

True that; last March 8th Malaysians did the unthinkable. Malays voted for DAP. Non-Malays voted for PAS. Whatever the unfathomable, five years ago deemed unthinkable we did it. And thanks to that, we've seen one fucking hell of a tsunami. Dawn has arrived. So we think.

Now is noon, skies all murky and dark. Is that the picture? Those cibai fucking Nazi politicians are playing the racecard more than ever. Few months ago. Umno Penang division went street demo over Lim Guan Eng's alleged anti-NEP statement. It's blardy irony if those buggers weren't Muslims majority of those demonstrators would've been asked to pack up and go back India. Lets not get to the point the fucking demo backlashed where suddenly people boycotted Penang's mamak and nasi kandar stalls. Who's your daddy now?

In parliament, debate was set up regarding allocation of local universities to non-Bumis. Newspapers reported of Indian students scored 10A1s screaming injustice at being denied entry to local universities. Suddenly Hairy Monkey Jamaluddin after being quiet like a baby since the elections questioned the need for that. Fucking racist always a racist, ain't it?

Then not long few days ago, there were talks of PAS and UMNO having some blardy dialogue or some shit regarding Malay unity or shit and even talks of merging. Of course the chances are as good as Hull City winning English Premier League this season. Still the controversial lebai or whaever Hadi Awang is called suddenly questions why more non-Malays are gaining seats in parliament. Or something liddat. Now this is classic case of kacang lupakan kulit, no prize guessing which one is kulit.

Non-Malays like me cannot forget about how some time ago forum on Article 11 was cancelled because the Nazi Malays were making big noise. Do your Inter-Faith dialogue thing but don't bring Islam in because Islam doesn't believe in pluralism. Not to mention numerous body-snatching cases and forced conversions on children.

The fucking bigots are having the bigger say, that's my point. The liberal Malay voices like Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, Amir Muhammad, etc seems to be intimidated by these Nazi conservatives. More is needed to be done. For 50 years, Malaysia had been given the chance while countries like South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore were in wilderness. Malaysia had been given an oasis as a headstart; natural resources like rubber, tin, oil, timber etc. And as mother Malaya approaches her 51st birthday, her progress is declining as steadily as the National Football Team in FIFA rankings. Her children are still stuck in tempurung, arguing who should get the biggest piece of pie.

Migration is no way out even for battered, sidelined Malaysians. Other than the usual saying than its better hujan batu di negeri sendiri, hujan emas di negeri lain, migrating is for quitters. The real men will have to stay and continue slugging out for their rights.

Heath Ledger owns The Dark Knight and goes out with a bang.

Let's put a smile on that face! And here we...go!

Pretty much the whole 2008 awaits this masterpiece, despite a load of superhero movies that came out including Ironman, Hulk and such. The year is also a mediocre one for movies to be honest, with sudden lack of quality "indie" titles and instead steady glut of popcorn blockbusters. However TDK is a must watch for even serious fans of celluloid. The late Heath Ledger's performance of the Joker has even been compared to Marlon Brando and it wasn't just his demise that deliberately hyped the movie, the hype is light years beyond what you will see on the screen the minute Ledger's Joker appears. Ever since I've watched it, his performance continues to haunt, intrigued and glued in my mind. Only Al Pacino's Micheal Corleone, Tony Montana or De Niro's Travis Bickle has given similar treatment to me. Ledger doesn't even need to stretch his character to a role of caricature or over-the-top exaggeration, all he need to do was to simply have fun.

Joker isn't simply amoral. To even call him an epitome of evil is an understatement. Even Mephistopheles looked like Christ next to him. Money as motivation? He torches half a billion dollars of banknotes without battling an eyelid, and does not have a tormented history to justify his actions (Joker has two extremely contradicted stories of how he got his scar on the face). Joker is simply chaos. Carving a smile (literally) on someone's face is his bread and butter, complete mayhem, anarchy and destruction is his Nirvana. The only way to take him down is to play his game, what irony. And in the beginning when Christopher Nolan casted a guy famous for being a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain for Joker, nobody has a clue how he alone will ultimately be the one-man magnet for the sequel to Batman Begins.

It is not to say the rest is insignificant. Without Ledger, TDK could still stand on its own and become one of summer's great blockbusters. Christopher and his brother Jonathan took a comic book material and turned it into a complex study of morality equal inspired by likes of Macbeth, exploring arguments about vigilantism, revenge, Kantian morality and free will. But they need a force so sinister that it ultimately affects all the characters involved in it and force them to play out all their cards. And Heath Ledger became a miracle that Christopher Nolan needs in this movie.

Even though this is a one-man show like Brian De Palma's Scarface, the rest of the casting is virtually perfect and played their roles well. Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent character is stunning with his cocksure arrogance and his later Two Face role seething with unsatiable lust for vengence. Maggie Gyllenhaal was a wise choice to replace Katie Holmes playing Rachel Dawes, displaying more depth as a woman torn between her new boyfriend Harvey Dent and her old feelings for Bruce Wayne and not being mere typical damsel-in-distress character. Gary Oldman's role of Liutenent Gordon is remarkably restraint but with integrity and grit. Micheal Caine's role as Alfred is irreplacably charming, having great chemistry with Bale's Bruce Wayne and even Morgan Freeman made full use of his Lucius Fox character, who could only be given a few chances for moments of brilliance (the scene where a staff of Wayne Industries tried to blackmail him is brilliant). Christian Bale is the perfect Bruce Wayne but his Batman is the only flaw which his exaggerated gruff attempt gets annoying after a while.

Some will not agree by my choice of words about Heath Ledger being the one-man centerpiece of TDK, "tonight's entertainment" but undoubtedly his performance flashes out all vital ingredients that makes TDK be called "greatest superhero movie ever" or even "the movie of 21st century - period". This epic of the masterpiece is so, I doubt Nolan or even Scorsese himself could top this one. I would not be surprised if Nolan quits his Batman franchise for good, it is that damned good.