Movies: Abduction

Movies: Abduction

INTRODUCTION


For those uninformed, this is an action flick, that talks about... according to wikipedia,

When teenager Nathan Price (Taylor Lautner) finds a picture of himself on a missing persons website, he discovers that the people (Jason Isaacs andMaria Bello) he thought were his parents were really assigned to protect him from the government. Nathan and his neighbor/love interest Karen Lowell (Lily Collins) go on the run, but he eventually decides to track down the people responsible.

So... in case that doesnt entice you enough... maybe this picture will

OH MY?!?!?! ITS HIM ITS JACOB BLACK?!?!?!..

Interested to see the show already? How about looking at his nice toned upper body? Yep its there in this show. No shape shifting though, but on the bright side, there is no vampires in this show either.. no sparkly glowing shiny vampires.

So this show falls into the genre of action, so its supposed to be all exciting and stuff right??

IF IT WAS WHY DID I FALL ASLEEP SEEING THIS SHOW?!?!?

So from this introduction you probably could guess how the review is going to end, but if you are fans of that fella whose face up there in the poster, my review is probably not going to affect your decision in anyway.

Plot


The plot tries to differentiate itself from the common movie by starting off as a person who is not born and bred as a spy right from the scratch. It doesn't focus on the traditional carrying out of missions but rather based the show on survival of the person.

Its a plausible idea  to show the maturing or growing up of the child and trying to merge it into an action show but to be honest, i feel that this show fails on both accounts. The action is lack luster compared to shows of today and the story line is not really that engaging.


Character


The main character gets a bit of character development, but this show makes the mistake of introducing a few other characters like the girlfriend, some other cop, but not really doing anything with them hence making them shallow and not really integral to the story line. Especially the girlfriend which seems to exist merely as a way to fulfill the gender quota of the show or something.

The star's past acting in twilight doesn't help him much also as through out the show i half expected him to transform into a werewolf and do some massive killing.

The villain of the show also seems to be pretty unconvincing in the end as he seems to have no real villain training and seems overall pretty weak and disappointing in the end.


Cinematography


To be honest, this show tries slightly to put in some pretty good shots but in the end, they merely have maybe about 2 or 3 bursts of interesting use of perspectives but thats about it. It is also nothing particularly great or unique for the genre.


Music


As usual music is alright for the show, not excelling but not hindering the show either.


Spectacle


In terms of the action genre, this show doesn't really reach the standard of the current day movies with most of the scenes being overly cliche and nothing special. This show does try to be slightly funnier then the usual action flick but still it doesn't really leave any special or lasting impression.

Overall


Plot                        : 3 (Tries to join two concepts together, doesn't do well in either)
Character               : 3 (Not much lateral development, hardly any feeling for any of them)
Cinematography      : 3 (Tries but all cliche styles that are not done real well either)
Music                      : 3 (Standard score)
Spectacle                 : 3.5 (At least it tries to be slightly funnier then the usual show....)

Overall                    : 3.1 (Overall a pretty lackluster show, only real great fans of the genre, OR that guy might find this entertaining.)

See it at your own peril but i would rather if u like that actor guy, keep urself from this show to not let ur impression of him get worse.

Movies: Johnny English Reborn

Movies: Johnny English Reborn


INTRODUCTION

Ah the classic Rowan Atkinson.... for the uninformed, this is the same guy as,

Mr Bean!!! haha unfortunately, teddy doesn't make a guest appearance in the entirety of the show and in this movie alone Rowan Atkinson has more lines in his script then all the spoken lines he has in his Mr Bean series put together.

Fortunately, the very face of Mr Bean brings adds much to the comedic value of the show, and comments from some people have highlighted that this show is even better then the prequel in terms of entertainment value.

With regards to this show being a sequel, there may be questions asked whether the first movie should be seen first to understand the storyline, but to be honest, I completely forgot about what happened in the first movie and still managed to enjoy the show so the content should be pretty much stand alone. 

Now into the review proper.

Plot

Being a comedy, the storyline generally ain't supposed to be too serious, however Johnny English Reborn does make an effort to make sure that things are not merely added just to be funny with no relevance to the storyline. Hence it is good to note that all the funny things that you see right from the start does have some significance to the storyline. 

Also the plot in general is pretty light hearted but believable as far as a comedy goes and alot of the jokes are based on the innocent nature of Johnny English and how he reacts to normal situations that we might meet with or situations that we see in our usual movies and turns it from cliche into funny situations. 

Character

So the character development is pretty light hearted and fun, the show doesnt put its focus solely on Johnny all the time and there is quite a bit of entertainment value to be sought from people like his trusty sidekick, as well as the mysterious old lady that I shall not elaborate on too much till i spoil the fun for others.

Do have a slight qualm though... I kinda feel that Rowan Akitson is kinda old already with his white hair and all... too old to be having that kinda relationship with such a young woman... but this is merely an opinion and i do hope to see him in more movies after this one.

Cinematography

I would say that the Cinematography for this show is surprisingly good. There are many good shots that are taken from angles that particularly add a lot more entertainment and laughter for the show as it put things into our everyday perspective and helps us identify with the situations.

Music

The music in this show is generally good and adds the atmosphere of light heartedness to the show. But as usual in my personal opinion the music is not really the most important part in this genre so there is nothing particularly remarkable about it. Does its job well and doesn't hinder the show in anyway/

Spectacle

For a comedy, it blends together the story lines, the jokes and Rowan's great comedic faces together to bring about a show that is good for laughs from the beginning to the end. To be able to keep people laughing from the beginning to the end is actually not a simple task for a comedy as people do get bored at seeing a repeat of the same types of jokes if it is overused and this is not the case for this show. 

I do have a feeling that people who are not familiar with the Mr Bean character may not be as entertained as people who do know him, but since the show is not entirely just Mr Bean being funny, the show should still be able to charm people who do not know him in that persona.

SUMMARY

Plot                        : 4.5 (Storyline plausible, but doesnt do any redundancies just for the sake of it)

Character               : 4 (Many Characters and all most add to the comedic value of the show)

Cinematography      : 4.5 (I personally feel that a lot of laughter was derived because of the angle which certain situations was displayed by)

Music                     : 4 (Good enough, doesn't hinder the show)

Spectacle                : 4.5 (Does what it does very well, keeping people entertained from start to end)

Overall                   : 4.3 (Does well to keep itself above the competition in the genre, anyone should be able to derive a good laugh if they know what to expect, which is just to enjoy the show)

Any comments feel free to voice em :)

Movies: Don't be Afraid of the Dark

Movie: Don't be Afraid of the Dark

INTRODUCTION

Now this is the perfect example of a western horror movie, and if u check some movie sites, they might catagorize this movie as merely a thriller. Why? Read on to find out more.

Anyway premise of the movie is simple, little girl is brought to large huge house. Large huge house has many hidden secrets. NOT. Only secret is a basement actually and the rest of the show takes place in other parts of the house. Shall not reveal what are the creepy things that go bump in the night for this show, but to be honest, it is revealed really a tad bit too early and hence.... the show is hardly creepy. But if u are slightly squeamish at gore, like final destination or saw divided by 5 kinda gore, it might get u screaming a slight little bit.

Down to the movie review proper.

Plot


Plot, story line can perhaps be said to be slightly creative, but as far as the rest of the story goes, it is pretty much unbelievable. By this i mean, the ghost or monster or creature or horror thingy, which i shall not specify, is SOMEWHAT different from the usual, but how the family reacts and the story progress at times does not even stay coherent and from the views over the net, it seems that there are a tad bit too many plotholes and parts that don't make sense or are just illogical.

I can attest to that because as it approaches the end of the show, (if you last that long) you will see the biggest strangest thing that is done (or actually not done) and you will wonder who in the world will just react so simply in that manner and not do anything else.


Character


There is a bit of character development during the show, but like i said, it is quite hard to find it completely believable in the case of the dad as well as the little girl unless u are able to not look at the conventional actions and reactions of an ordinary dad, then maybe you might be able to understand him and the actions he takes... but its a big might.

The little girl is slightly easier to identify with but still her action is just slightly off that of a ordinary girl.


Cinematography


This show has quite a few moments where everything is dark and there is just a torch light shinning, so its quite dark at times, but in general the cinematography is roughly there, some angles are pretty good and produce a slightly creepy effect and there is a fair bit of funny things that happens along the show.


Music


Music is where this show tries a bit harder, it starts with pretty happy music that helps soothe people into the mood that oh its like a average life in an average house all that. Music is able to follow the atmosphere and the overall feel of the show.


Spectacle

For a horror movie, to be honest, this show would do pretty badly on the spectacle criterion. Thankfully, for those who classified it as a thriller, this show may thrill to a certain extent but its definitely not the most thrilling kind of show out there as it reveals some things a tad bit too quickly. Actually it was seriously too quick and killed off any suspense. So the thrill doesnt come from what is unknown, but rather what the unknown was doing during the show.

SUMMARY


Plot                      : 2.5 (too many plot holes to the effect that it is a bit absurd at times)
Character             : 2.5 (Unbelievable characteristics that borders on the fringe and extremity of humankind)
Cinematography    : 3.5 (Has some good shots around the show although it doesn't add enough thrill value)
Music                   : 3.5 (Average music, but least it tries and shines at certain points)
Spectacle              : 3 (To be honest it doesn't really do that well for a thriller genre, worse for horror)

Overall                  : 3 (This show can only be enjoyed by fervent fans of the genre, but even then, you can wait for the dvd, blue ray, or alternative release, perhaps if you have a low expectation when you see the show you might enjoy it more)

Ironically, the points given by imdb is slightly higher then mine. But I guess it should be around that range.

Please comment if any :D

Movies: The Cat

INTRODUCTION


So this movie talks about cats, like

NYAN CAT

LONG CAT

In case you don't know what about these cats, search up nyan cat on youtube and long cat appears in many meme pictures.

BUT enough of unrelated cats, the movie I am going to review now is this one 

First of all, this show is a korean show and the genre is supposed to be horror. There are a lot of cats that you will see in this show but for all you cat lovers, don't worry, no cats were harmed in the making of this film. In fact they even say that in the credits so there is nothing to be worried about.

There is no synopsis from wikipedia that i can easily find so I shall put my own. The story basically traces the hauntings of this girl who is a worker in a pet shop and its relation to some cats. There will be people dying and the cats in this show will range from the real cutsie ones to those that are all mean and angry. On interesting point to note is that are some dogs in this show also, and even some dogs that look like cats or cats that look like dogs. Since they are in between these two idenfications I cannot really decide which of the above statement makes more sense.

Now into the review proper.

Plot

This show basically has a standard plot, but in today's context of a eastern horror movie, it means a horror movie that is scary, but also has a fair bit of story line unlike the western horror movies that if not ripped off, are merely just scarefests that might become downright wonky.

In a statement, if you see this with people who are more emotional (read female), you might start off this show with many awwww so cute, to shrill screams and finally to tearing not because of fear but for another reason.

So this is basically a good example of a movie whereby it goes beyond its genre to come out with a pretty good story line, but the cliche is rather well repeated in Asian horror movies but kudos still for the effort.

Character

There are basically 1 human main character which is the girl, 1 not so human main character which is a cat and one very special other character. But this is not a disney show, so don't expect the cat to do anything like talking unless you are able to interpret and speak cat language.

For the most part, with the girl being the focal point, her character is pretty well developed and at the end of the show, it gives you a feeling that you really understand the situation and the entire movie and can empathize with the characters.

There are however other random characters that are brought in merely for the effect of showing how powerful this haunting is, and as far as that purpose goes, it is done pretty well. Don't expect backgrounds or development of those characters though.

NOTE: No real handsome korean guys. AT least to me. So if that is what you were finding, your out of luck here.

Cinematography

As far as horror movie goes, there are two types of scares, the first being the SHOCKING IN YOUR FACE BOO MUAHAHHA SHRILL SCREAM kinda scare, and the really creepy anxiety building up kind of scare. As far as this movie is concerned, if the first is 1 and the creepy factor is a 10, this show should be about a 6.5 as it does try to build up the creepy tension first.

I personally didn't think this movie was as scream fest as some shows I have seen mainly because there are always a few milliseconds of a time gap when you see the haunting before the music and image becomes more pronounced. This allows for some sort of reflex preparation that will ensure that you are not as shocked and this works to the advantage of the show because if you actually seen those shows with a rating of 1 on the scare factor i.e. just using pure shock factor alone, you will be screaming but its only because its sudden. There is not a really good feeling in being scared in those shows. It becomes tedious and you just dread the moment as you move from one cheap scare to another.

The show also is able to put you more into the mood of the main character from the time frame that the scenes are filmed in and this adds to the creepy value when you start to realize that whoa shes haunted absolutely EVERYWHERE!!!! EVEN AT HOME!!! CHECK UNDER THE BED!!!

Music

The music plays a very important role in horror movies and I would say that this show handles it pretty well. Using calming and happy music in the introduction to set you into the mood that this can just be a simple typical day, and not going overly loud in the scary bits of the show. So it doesn't cheat and try to shock you with a loud noise which is pretty cheap if you ask me.

Spectacle

With respect to horror genre, I believe that we Asians can be pretty proud as it seems that our horror movies do score well on creepiness as well as putting in some values into the show with better coherent story lines. Hence this show does its job of meeting the expectation of horror buffs pretty well and ends off with everyone being fairly satisfied.

It also shows that in some situations, we humans might be even more scary then hauntings themselves and this show does it so well that there was a section when I felt the human had it coming and was on the "other side" if you know what i mean

SUMMARY

Plot                           : 4.5 (Horror with a little bit extra)

Character                  :  4 (Good variety of characters, some characters however add no value to the show)

Cinematography         : 4 (Able to bring out the creepy factor pretty well)

Music                         : 4 (Does what it is meant to, effort is put in to influence mood)

Spectacle                    : 4.5 (Differentiates itself from other horror movie by adding in meaning and the cat factor)

Overall                         : 4.2 (Fans of the genre will be able to enjoy the show, non fans with slight tolerance to horror should still be able to enjoy the show)

So thats another movie review for now, but I believe the show might be ending its theater run pretty soon but it can work well for a night rental with the lights off for ambiance.

As always, please leave aside any comments if you have them.

And here is a cute cat to brighten up your day

Board/Card Games: BANG!

Board/Card Games: BANG!

INTRODUCTION

In a world where technology has taken precedence over everything we do, board and card games have started becoming things of the past. Even poker cards now remain a thing of casinos as such there are such things as internet poker and internet gambling.

Such a formal greeting, i feel like i am writing some technical report on the situation of the world.

Anyway today we shall talk about bang!, and for the uninformed this is a atypical board game that can be played from 4-7 players or 3-8 players using the expansion pack. EXPANSION PACK?!?! you mean like starcraft broodwars? Yes that is what i mean. Board/card games in today's time even have expansion packs to add depth and a bit of variety to the game.

So basically for this game, you take a role of a specific character with specific special abilities and you use cards to either arm yourself better, defence yourself better and attack the enemies. There are 4 roles to be played in the game, the sheriff, deputies, outlaws and renegade. The sheriff must kill the outlaws and renegades, the deputies are to help the sheriff, the outlaws are to kill the sheriff and the renegade must do everything and anything to ensure that he is the last man standing to win.

The catch is that, only the sheriff role is revealed and the rest can only guess who they are playing from the actions they take in game, the lies/truths they speak, and the targets they attack in the game.

Heres a few pictures of the characters in the game, for more info just search out the game online.

So the blue edged permanent cards are the equipment to help u hit people or hide from people while character cards have abilities like that, which makes every game different for your play style depending on what character you have. So for characters like Calamity Janet she can be defensive or offensive and will keep many missed and bang cards, while for people like 

you will try to get rid of all the cards as soon as possible to make full use of your skills.

So why play cards compared with other forms of entertainment?

For games like bang! you can easily squeeze out hours and hours of uninterrupted playing pleasure with people who are right there. This is different from computer games. First of all, for games you need to have the equipment and the game, and the price for playing 5 people can easily reach above 10000 bucks if you want people to play high resolution graphics. Bang costs about 50 dollars or even l

Another reason is that not everyone wants to play computer games especially the ladies. But they are much more willing to play these card games and some seem to really enjoy these kind of games. So they are much more easy to get people into as compared to other forms of games and they do not need too much time to learn.

Also there is no need for any particular places for playing, all you need is the game and a table and you are set for many hours of fun. There is alot of chances to communicate and chat and know each other better and this is probably the best reason to play card/board games. In fact many of these card games encourage interaction and chatting whether to roleplay and get into the mood of the game or to trick and cheat people for the purpose of winning.

Now for the review proper.

Accessibility

From my experience of teaching my friends from scratch how to play the game, it takes about one game to understand the essence of the game, and in 3 games most people already know how to play by themselves, by 5 games they would already have thought of the intricacies of the game and are able to play very well with respect to their roles and their characters that they have picked. So this is a really easy game to pick and play. 

The expansion set however adds a bit more complexity to the game and makes it a bit more difficult to learn. For casual first time playing its recommended to just stick to the normal deck and only when everyone is more used to it then move on to the expansion cards. For us we use the expansion characters but not the playing cards.

Along with accessibility, we can have up to 8 people playing the game if there is the expansion and even 3 people it is still reasonably fun. So this is a very big plus point as there are many games that cannot be played with more then 4 players while there are other games that are abysmally boring with 3 players.

Fun Factor

The game as many points to derive from, deceiving your friends, helping your boss, cheating both sides as a renegade, begging for people to spare you, seeing the sheriff kill his own deputy. So all in all when we played this game in school we couldnt really stop when we wanted to. So thats testament to how fun the game is, or maybe how fun it was playing with the people. Either way i trust that this experience won't be confined to only us so i do think this is a fun game to pick up and play.

Also in this game, because people can attack you, you will not really be sitting there and doing anything while waiting for your turn. So there is better immersion then other games where you just play your turn and slack while waiting for your next turn again.

Replay-ability

There is a lot of replay-ability in this game due to the fact that there are over 20 characters to choose from, and yet there are 4 different roles. So on your side there are 80 different combinations of how you could play the game in the very first place. This is unlike games like poker where there is only one way to play like monopoly because there is no change in the objective that adds to the diversity. 

Add to it the expansions we do have a game that is pretty lasting and can be played again and again.

Time needed

There are games that end in 5 mins, there are games that require 1 hour to play. Bang can take anywhere between 15 to 20 minutes for a reasonably sized game to be played and hence easier to learn and to play. It is also relatively easy to set up and play as there are no boards needed and just cards. So this game scores high on this criteria

Cost

The set of Bang! costs about 40-60 SGD depending on where you get it from. The expansions cost about 40 SGD. You can get a fullset plus expansion plus some additional cards from about 80SGD from the internet. Hence I would say it is reasonably priced and you probably will get enough BANG! for your buck. Pun intended.

SUMMARY


Hence here are the scores for Bang!

Accessability   : 4.5 (Quick to pick up and can play pretty masterfully after a few games)
Fun Factor      : 4.5 (Fun social game that is not too complex, large range for number of players possible)
Replay-ability  : 4 (Good permutations and combinations to provide new experiences everytime the game is played)
Time needed   : 4.5 (Very comfortable time for a board game)
Cost               : 4 (Reasonable price, only difficulty is its hard to obtain from your average shop)

Overall           : 4.3 (A game that you will probably like the moment you try it. Recommend everyone to give it a try either at your board games cafe or at your friends place any chance you have.)

As usual if you have other board games that should be checked out please post in the comments : D

Slab the killer, Signing off. You do not offend SLAB THE KILLA!

Movies: Contagion

Next type of review on the list is the movie review, something that more people will be interested in on the occasional what should I do today day... maybe I will catch a movie? so in that case, should Contagion be the movie to catch? Well here is a layman's view on the movie and maybe it will help you make the decision which show to see.

So, this movie falls into the genre of thriller, meaning that upon seeing, someone is supposed to be thrilled about the show all the way till the end. I don't confess to be a professional movie critique, but i guess all of us goes into a movie with some kind of expectation (even having no expectation is a kind of expectation) and wish that it is fulfilled at the end of the show.


So to prevent spoilers from the show to unknowingly creep into your minds through your eyes, this is the synopsis of the show directly from wikipedia.

Contagion follows the rapid progress of a lethal airborne virus that kills within days. As the fast-moving pandemic grows, the worldwide medical community races to find a cure and control the panic that spreads faster than the virus itself. As the virus spreads around the world, ordinary people struggle to survive in a society coming apart.

NOTE: Basically the movie will be reviewed according to some criteria that I got from this site for the lack of any other way I know how to do a review. Basically I was thinking to review the movie specifically for the genre i.e if its an action movie, I should not put too much emphasis on storyline, then I thought about it and decided that even if you want to make a action movie, you could always make your action movie have a coherent story line to add immersiveness and attachment to the characters. I do realise that certain genres might not emphasize on those characteristics, but still there can be movies that score better on those criteria and hence it should remain to act as a differentiation factor.


Plot (Storyline)


The premise of the movie is pretty simple, an outbreak of virus and the effect it has on the world in general. You will get to see the things that happen from the eyes of many people, mainly doctors and the people that were first affected. This movie starts off already with the infection in place and follows the trail of people who are affected by the virus in one way or another. People who can appreciate this movie are people who can identify this

So can you? What is this!??! Well you will know when you watch the movie, but you might not understand. Thats my advice to you. Also another piece of warning to you is that this show is under the genre of thriller, and not under genres of horror and action. So if you go into this movie expecting to be shocked and see lotsa fighting, killing, zombie infestation, monster hunting anything with semblance to a action movie, be prepared to be disappointed.


This is a movie that thrills you only by immersing you into the perspective of the people, and make you wonder if this is what will indeed happen in the real world and how you will react. In fact, if you change the disease to some disease then happened recently, you can easily view this movie as a documentary of what would have happened should a cure not have been found as fast as it did in reality.


That being said, I would feel that this is actually a bit more realistic as nothing really outlandish happens in the movie. There is no mass destruction of cities to prevent the disease from spreading like you would see in a resident evil film. Theres just a lot of discussion, and seeing how people will start to fend for themselves. Hence if you have a mindset to experience what could possibly be the more real, down to earth and self seeking reaction of the people affected by a disease, this is the movie for you.


Character


There are plenty of characters in this show. Like I said above, if you have the willingness to put yourselves in the shoes of the characters then you will be able to identify with them and feel and understand why they react in the way they do. There are so many characters in this show that its really pretty incorrect to say there is a star of the show. Just like in real life, in a real epidemic, its not gonna be a super genius scientist that saves the world all by himself, but rather through research and help from all his friends.


That being said, because there are so many characters, if you are unable to identify and feel for the characters, the movie is going to be pretty bland for you because like what i said earlier, there is almost zero action in this movie. The only excitement you can get is if you keep your mind active and wonder oh would I be doing this, would people really do this, how will I react, what if it was me?


On the plus side, there are also characters from other parts of the world that adds a bit more global feel to the epidemic. You hence can see certain national and cultural views and reactions to the same problem if you really look hard enough.


Cinematography (Diction)


Now over here there is a slight issue that I have with the show. There is a lot of perspective changes in the movie. One moment we are looking at the family, next we are looking at some doctor, next we are in the life of that doctors wife, suddenly we are in Hong Kong, then we are thrown into the WHO. So that is merely a small number of perspectives that we will experience throughout the movie.


Its was probably the intent of the director to show how all people from all over and all status and all backgrounds react to a contagion but there are times where the people look similar, or suddenly we get thrown into the perspective of someone who was merely in the background of another person's part earlier.


I was actively wondering, WHO IS THIS now!?!?! is this that woman or another woman?!?! WHICH WOMAN is THIS NOW?!?! that kinda level of confusion.


Music


Music is probably there? I really didn't hear anything particularly impressionable neither was there anything loud or haunting. Music is probably not the main thrill of the show either way, but rather the thought of the incident happening in real life


Spectacle (Wow factor, the core of the genre, whether it is explicit and done well)


So with respect to this criteria, we ask the question, if i was a person looking to see and learn what happens if there is a contagion, will I see it?


The answer to this question is YES you will have a pretty broad view of what happens given the movie length.


However, if you were looking for RIOTS, KILLING, MISSILES, ZOMBIES, CHOP, BOOM, BLAST, you are going to be very sorely disappointed. Virus killing people is usually pretty boring in reality unless the person becomes a zombie afterwards, so with that said, this is realism for you.


Hence this lives up to the genre of a thriller and only a thriller, but its not going to be appreciated by all and neither will it be understood by all.


SUMMARY


Plot                            : 4 (Its higher because I guess i misread the plot and thought of zombies, but its not to be so)
Character                   : 4 (Many characters and if you are able to identify, what they do are pretty real)
Cinematography         : 3 (Too much switching without clues on who they are, confused at times)
Music                         : 3 (Never really heard anything, but it was not hindering the show anyway)
Spectacle                   : 4.5 (If you really look at what the movie was doing, and you are its targeted audience, you will enjoy this show. This criteria will normally be high for whatever movies unless the movie sets off to do something and is far from achieving even that)


Overall                       : 3.7 (Basically this movie is not for everybody, you can see it once as long as you are sure you belong to its niche group)


So thats my summary for the show, I for one enjoyed it after i realised what it was out to portray.


Please leave your comments below if there are any :D perhaps any revisions to my criteria if needed

Gadgets: Android OS

INTRODUCTION

So now I shall try my hand at reviewing something closer to my heart, or rather something closer to my left thigh as that is where i put my phone in all the time. So for those who do not know me, let me set things a bit more straight. This is going to be a review of the Android OS, and by OS it means that this is not a comparison between iOS and Android and WM7 and its PHONES but rather we are just talking about OS.

Why this distinction? This is because in the iOS, there are simply only a few phones using the iOS but in the case of Android, there are various phones with different specs. So I will try to focus more on the capabilities that I do know of in the Android system and touch less on what I am not entirely clear of. That being said, a comparison of Android and iOS and WM7 will definitely be present because there must always be a reference point. Its just like saying that there must be something bad, for there to exist something good... or you must know how to hate to know how to love, experience true sadness to really be happy all that kinda stuff.

I have been using my Android Nexus 1 phone for nearly 2 years already, and are looking forward to getting the Nexus Prime when it is out. Hence I would say I have pretty good experience with the OS as well as having the knowledge of other phones with the same OS so i do know some of its issues.

OK Enough of the rambling,

Andy says hi

Interface


Home Screens
So here is a picture of the stock homescreens of android as compared to its other friends

WM7 Homescreen

Android Home Screen

iOS Home Screen

So why is this an issue? Basically the home screen is what you will see all the time when you want to utilize your phone, so this is one major issue that we should need to be aware of when you choose your OS as it affects the way you use the phone itself. 

So as can be seen on WM7, the home screen is filled with colorful boxes and the scrolling is entirely vertical. In the case of WM7 i am not sure if the main screen can actually be changed but the bright colors and size of the icons makes it easy to access and read out information. Note that they also have the semblance of widgets but i am not sure how usable they are as compared to android.

For the iOS, the usual statement people use is that it is like a large icon tray where we have icons after icons of all stuff you have on the phone. There is also folders that can help catagorize your icons and it seems like you can have limitless number of screens for all your icons although I think most people will have maybe 5 screens for icons and use folders for the rest. Note that it seems that for jailbroken phones, it is possible to also have the widgets functionality. The bottom row stays there all the time no matter which screen you switch to except the search screen if you scroll to the left.

For the android OS, this is where it gets a bit complicated. This is because depending on the phone you get, there are slight changes to the home screen that you get. The basic idea is still identical in that there are icons and widgets that you can put on the home screen. So being an android user this is where i can elaborate. From the widgets you can put on the home screen you can do many things. For example Blik Calender enables you to have a pictorial representation of your calender and the items you have to do on the home screen itself. Hence in terms of information that you can gather and place on your home screen, it is alot more then just icons. There are some widgets that are more redundant to me such as facebook widget that displays the latest post someone has but for a facebook that has tons of status updates people would find it easier to open the entire application instead. However the option is still there which is the main plus point of the android system.

There are also functional icons that you can place on the homescreen. By functional i mean the icons can directly do something. For example widgetsoid allows me to toggle my wifi, to toggle wifi tethering (i.e net sharing), to turn on my flash, to turn off my screen, or even to directly call someone. All these icons are methods of saving steps. Lets say I want to turn on my wifi in iOS, from what I know, the way the system is structured you at least need to have two steps to turn it of, one to go into the wifi options and another to off it. For android all you need is 1 button press and its done.

Note that for android, depending on which phone you buy, there will be slight differences in the home screen as HTC phones have HTC sense, motorola phones have motoblur, and Samsung has something quite similar looking to iOS home screen with additional widgets functionality. You will have cute things to do on the specific tailored made home screens such as to be able to scroll a full circle ie on the last homescreen page you can scroll one more time to go back to the first one. Or you can pinch to zoom out and see all the home screens at a single moment. You are also able to get your own homescreens such as launcherplus to further diversify and improve your home screen look.

This is one main difference that can help u make the choice between android or iOS.

Multitasking

Another issue i have heard about in the comparison of systems is its ability to multitask. Android is known to have full multitasking capabilities whilst they say that iOS has some kinda pseudo multitask. I have absolutely no clue about what WM7 has so I cannot really comment on this.

The difference between the multi tasking is that on the Android system the applications are able to function in the background. iOS multitasking seems to put the application in some kind of pause state i.e nothing else is moving and the application does not do anything. To be clear this does not apply to the music playing functionality and both systems can play music while simultaneously doing something else.

But taking a step back, for a phone that has so limited screen space, what is multi task really needed for that pseudo multitask cannot do. For all intents and purposes, iOS already has push notifications that allow some apps to inform you should anything has happened even without the app being active such as the whatsapp notifications. The only thing that I would figure there is a slight need for true multi task is if I have the sudden urge to search many sites at one time on my phone and all the sites can be loading while i am replying to a message. What more, there are actually some apps for androids that you cannot switch from without causing it to close. This is of course an issue of the developer itself but the fact remains that multi tasking abilities very much depends on whether the app developer knows how to make it work. 

So to put it simply, android has multi tasking but apps make it seem like they do not have the function, whilst iOS doesnt have true multi tasking but their developers are able to make it seem like they have the function.

To be honest however, multi tasking should not really be the driving factor that determines whether you choose one OS or the other because I hardly see myself and any other lay person having the need for the function when all you can really see is one screen at a time anyway.

Notifications

Note that this is an issue only as far as iOS is still in the 4th iteration. Apparently with iOS5 the notification will be pretty similar to android's notification having a bar on the top of the screen. 

Notification bar

Currently the situation is that one is able to pull down the notification bar for android to read and see what has transpired in the phone. But when you are playing games, you cannot really reply in the first place unless you press on the message and switch to the message screen. So really the notification bar is just there to notify but its not really that functional nor does it add anything new when you compare iOS to android.

So this is how the bar looks like as it is being dragged down, so it basically just gives extra information on the status of the phone. It might be useful if you have an email while u have an sms while u have a facebook update while you are downloading something while you have a whatsapp message while you have another email on your gmail account.

So that is how much this should be a deciding factor between the OS.

I.E its not really a big deal especially since iOS will have the same thing and it might even be improved soon enough.

That's really all that i can think of with regards to the interface for now as the other functions are pretty similar across the board.

Usability


Reliance on computers


Now when we talk about usability we talk about how we bring out the full potential of the phones. One deciding factor that made me desire android more then iOS was because of the lack of need or reliance on itunes.

I am a person who doesnt see the need to compile everything together and keep syncing with my phone. The way i do this is rather by copy and pasting the whole chunk here and there like a normal file drag and drop and the advantage is that I don't need a computer to do all the syncing stuff, and also I can have my own independent library of music on two different devices. However its said that iOS might be moving away from its reliance on computers but i am not really sure what they mean by that.

So this is probably a question of whether you are willing to install itunes on your computer and do some handphone management stuff on the computer or you prefer both devices to stay relatively seperate. This is entirely a personal choice as there are android people who do have itunes if you didnt notice from the notification bar on top.

Since both OS can have itunes so the only time when this would have an impact on your decision is if you DO NOT want itunes, then you will be pushed towards the android camp.

Phone usability


As I said earlier in the introduction, android comes in many shapes and sizes literally. The rumored Nexus prime has been said to have anywhere between 4.3 to 4.5 screen size. Note that screen size doesnt necessarily mean phone size as there will be hardware buttons taken off to keep the phone size down according to the rumors of the next android update which is Ice Cream Sandwich.

Aside from that, android phones may also come with hardware keyboards, or even playing keyboards like the xperia play.

So its all pretty attractive? Well idealistically it is. First of all the xperia play advertises itself as a phone that allows you to see the full screen while you play games as you dont need to use the on screen keyboard that is required on iphones or touch screen phones in general. However, I myself find the repertoire of games for xperia really lacking and a normal hardware keyboard can actually be key binded to give approximately the same experience. Either way this is just an issue of choice and at least android gives a bit of choice.

Another point about phone usability is that because of android homescreen and widgets, not everyone is able to utilize it to the fullest potential and you can often see android phones with nothing but icons aka iphonish look.

Stability

Now this one might be a bit of a issue for some, as android phones due to its many makes and models tend to have quite a few instances of failing and rebooting. There are also complications with many of its applications that can only be solved by always having the latest phone which is not cheap in the first place. 

Issues range from video call problems to keyboard issues that sometimes might need time for a developer to fix properly. This is unlike the iOS obviously because they control the phone hardware itself. 

Some other issues are like lag for games or complete unplayability. For example my phone runs angry birds fine but my little bro's mini x10 sony Ericsson lags by playing angry birds due to the lack of optimization on the developers part. (Playing on such a small screen is also quite painful to me)

Hence for people with some tech knowledge finding support and ways to solve this problem is possible, but for the layman buyers they might be saddened to know that not every game can be played by every phone.

Applications


This is the point where iOS becomes a major contender for android and rightly so. WM7 is merely a very tiny player in this field but it would face similar problems to android as they cater to various phones.

iOS does have the highest repertoire of applications and I do believe that there are certain applications that are exclusive to iOS as android developers have not ported or came out with anything similar. Hence if you are looking for a phone for a specific app, be sure to do the research to see whether the market itself has the app in the first place because it is not guaranteed that every app on iOS will appear on Android and vice versa.

iOS takes the cake in this arena simply because they have a bigger game market as well as bigger number of apps in general.

Developers also tend towards iOS in the first place as it is simply that much more marketable and easier to develop. Here is a graph just because i am an engineer and statistics are important.

That being said, the basics apps are all over there and for android users you can get some of these apps for free, i.e angry birds is ad supported, or the other kinda free (if you know what i mean). For iphone users you have to jail break first in order to turn non-free games into free games risking your warranty and your phone to viruses and permanent destruction.

Flash


This is one main factor that android users always throw around and rightly so. In today's day we use our phone for mobile surfing pretty often and whats surfing without flash? Even though there is talk of the internet one day not needing flash, this is something that will take time to really come to fruition and I believe that in the next two years flash will still be pretty prevalent.

Flash is used for flash games and for flash videos or streaming. Note that NOT ALL videos can be played EVEN with flash and to my knowledge, many flash games are unplayable even with flash!

So you should probably ask yourself if this is a deciding factor based on whether you like to see videos on your phone as compared to on a computer. Youtube works fine on both iOS and androids for the uninformed and iOS also does have applications that emulate flash but they do have some issues.

Longevity 


In the long run, BOTH these OSes seem to be able to hold on to their market share reasonably well and there is no worry that support will suddenly disappear for the OS like what happened to webOS. WM7 remains to be tested but till now I havent really found someone who fancied WM7 over the other two OSes.

However a special point to note is that iOS releases updates for their phones system yearly if i am not mistaken, while android has a faster cycle of releasing the stock OS updates. However, not all android phones will get the stock OS updates and although google has asked manufactures to ensure that all phones tries to get two OS updates before the end of their life cycle, they really have no control over this, Also even then, the updates will always come to stock android first and only be funneled to specific phones months later. So if you really want to keep up to date, you should consider stock android or researching the company and seeing how fast they take to bring up their own updates.

That being said, it is also fair to say that you wont die if you dont get your update. As far as gingerbread is, there is not really alot of new important additions that you must have or you feel very much cheated as compared to the earlier updates from eclair to froyo that included drastic performace updates. Just a update for those not aware is that the next iteration to ice cream sandwich will introduce the 4 main keys that we have on every android on the touch screen itself. This is the reason for the larger screen size as the hardware keys can be removed already. An advantage i can think about is that your effective screen size will become bigger and hence if you see shows on it you can actually have a bigger screen for your viewing pleasure. Same for playing games and the like. Doesn't Andy look tasty now?

Heres a site with possible features of ICS. Click me for Ice Cream Sandwich

Cost


Now on to cost. Basically all the OS are ABSOLUTELY FREE! You merely have to pay for your phone and it comes with a free OS to boot.

That being said, iphones have always hovered around the expensive range of about 1000 SGD for the phone alone.

Android phones however can be found in the ultra cheap range, all the way up to the more expensive then iphone range.

A word of advice though, if you really want to buy a android phone that lasts for 2 years i.e the lifespan of a normal mobile plan, you have to get a mid range and above android phone. Low range android phones have many problems of compatibility with apps and it might turn out to be a very frustrating experience for someone. For example you might want to play a game that requires multi touch only to realise that your phone only has a pseudo multi touch.... (Poor Nexxie 1). Fortunately Nexxie is already nearly 2 years old so a upgrade is at hand. But like i said, if you want a phone to last you the 2 years, you have to get a high end one. My Nexus 1 was almost iphone 3g price when I got it at at least it is still relevant today, but i seen people who bought just slightly cheaper android phones that are not very viable in the games department today. Hence only consider low end android phones if you just want to call and sms and do light internet surfing.

For other users that are deciding between iphone and android, dont expect to get a phone similar in ability to iphone without paying about the iphone range of pricing. Either way, at least android has a choice so you can pay the price you feel that it is worth anyway.

SUMMARY

Hence to summarize, the ratings are given in comparison to iOS and Android and my personal opinion.

Android
Interface          : 4.5 (lost a 0.5 due to too many different types of interfacing)
Usability          : 4 (Not entirely easy to use to those not tech savvy)
Applications    : 4 (Fine applications, just need to be bigger)
Longevity        : 4.5 (With google behind the driver seat and a huge market share, its not going anywhere)
Cost                : 4.5 (Good choices in price range, you get what you paid for)


Overall            : 4.3 (A very good OS, still has room to improve, as long as you researched and are sure what you want, you will not regret the decision)

Just for fun, based on what i know, this is what iOS will get

iOS

Interface          : 4 (No Widgets for information)
Usability          : 4.5 (Very easy to use with no stablity issues that i know of)
Applications    : 4.5 (Many Many applications but still no flash)
Longevity        : 4.5 (Apple is pretty rich now, even with a leadership change the fanbase is there)
Cost                : 3.5 (There is only one price range and its not cheap)


Overall            : 4.2 (Obviously the points were skewed so android will win, it is a android review after all, but tell me if my points were not true)


To end, please comment and tell me should i have made any mistakes as i follow the news of android and only slightly on the apple side. 

Travel: Cambodia Siem Reap

INTRODUCTION



Cambodia, the place of ruins and ruins and lots of ruins. That's Siem Reap for you

So as can be seen, this is one of the most common photos to advertise the place, taken on my trusty Nexus. (I didn't bring any camera because lets face it, nowadays phone and skill can do pretty well at least for simpletons like me)

So this is what u will see, along with

This is the Tomb Raider Tree

So basically that's a little excerpt of the temple part in pictorial form.

Now into the review proper.

Tourist Attractions

Basically there are a few main attractions of Cambodia in the first place. The first are the temple ruins, then there is the floating village, then its the city and night life. This first section will talk purely on the things that you will get to see there in Cambodia. This is one main difference when u compar

e Cambodia to places like Myanmar and Laos. They are all Asian countries that are not as developed. However, Cambodia prides itself on the many temple ruins that has allowed the country to benefit financially as these temples are build from as long as 700 years ago, definitely not by the people of the current generation. People go there to see the huge temple ruins, and also the more intricate carvings on the wall as u can see below.

So as you can see, there is a carving of a pig, definitely in existence 700 yrs ago, as well as a demon eating a human on the right. So there are tons of these carvings and apparently there was even one of a dinosaur that we saw in one of the other temples. They are all there to tell a story and also give us an insight into the history of Cambodia, the things that happened then.

There are also a bit of history regarding the Khmer rouge regime where u can see bullet holes in the walls of the Angkor Wat itself. So this is a place for people who like history and the man made structures of the past alongside places like Egypt and its Pyramids, people who like to admire the intricacies of the carvings and how people 700 years ago could do this on hard sandstone.


Be prepared for plenty of walking and plenty of sun over there in Cambodia and in our 3 days tour of the temples and places we visited about 8 or more temples. So thats the number you should be expecting for your own trips.

Besides that, we also paid a visit to the floating village, which required us to take a boat out and see people who lived on boats, bigger boats, huge boats that looked more like houses and they even had a floating basketball court.

House Boat Boat House

Floating School

so you can see a house boat, and a boat house, which ever floats your boat. Note that these are different from stilted houses, these are really floating boats which means then when the tide rises, the houses can actually move along further with the tide. So this is something different for people to see and this is where you can actually literally swim to school, swimming will be your favorite sport in school.


Aside from these, there are other smaller attractions that u might be interested in such as a landmine museum where a landmine disarmer specialist has placed all his mines that he has disarmed and opened it to public to fund the education of children who have lost limbs in landmine accidents. This is something that the people and children of Cambodia face with daily unlike us in the developed world. Ironically, Singapore still has not signed the agreement stating that they will not produce landmines.

Its really small actually, just a circle around the hut that u see on the top, but the entrance is 2 USD so its really fine for viewing.


Besides that there are many other places and things to do but on our 5 day trip we didnt have the time. Apparently you can even try out firing weapons like AK-47 and even a rocket launcher if u have the money. Also there are many fish spas and massage centres that are pretty cheap all over the town so you can consider one if purely for the experience sake. There is also a quaint little movie theatre in the night noon market that shows some documentary about Cambodia history for 2 USD if i remember correctly. Its really like some pirated show off the net but it was fine for just the experience

Shopping

Shopping is pretty ok in Cambodia but to be honest I am not really a shopping person. But compared to places where you would go to shop such as Hong Kong, there is really not anything unique to shop about. There are a few tourist markets where u can get shirts of the Cambodian temples, or shirts that say "NO TUKTUK" or even ur favorite traditional Cambodian clothing. Two main markets that we visited are the Central and Old Market and also there are two more markets that you can find in the vicinity called the night and noon market. They might be one and the same but according to the map they are just merely very close together. Haggling is a must here, and you can almost half the prices on most of the things there.

Night Noon Market

The Map of the place

One of the two shopping centers in Siem Reap

So there are also two shopping centers, a far cry from any other developed cities, and these shopping centres are only about 3 or 4 stories high. There are a few places to eat inside but nothing that will really excite true shoppers.


Everything there is sold in USD and their own Cambodian currency are a sort of small change in that place. Exchange rate was a dollar usd to 4100 Cambodian currency.

Food

The food in Siem Reap City can be divided into two types. The first is the kind the high class people or westerners will prefer which is mainly concentrated into Pub street that any overfriendly Tuktuk driver will bring you to. Food there is not cheap but there are alot of places to hang around at night and some people who have hotels closer to the place might find it convenient to just go down for a drink. The other type is the budget street food, and this one needs a bit more looking for. Food to eat are the "Lok Lak" which is their stir fried beef and the "Amok" which is basically meat in some kinda rendang or curry type. It is usually fish meat. There is also their yellow noodle which is apparently quite famous in Cambodia but to me its kinda ordinary to our chow mien. Didn't take any pictures of the food though but ask around for the local cuisine and its definitely there.


They also have food such as pizza and if you are up to date in the travel guides you will know that away from pub street, there are places with cheaper pizza such as a place that I vaguely recall to be exciting pizza or something to that effect. Japanese food and korean food can even be found and there is a rotating table steamboat japanese sukiyaki place in the Lucky Supermarket that is fairly priced.


Try out their shakes for drinks as it is pretty cheap compared to what u get in Singapore at about 1.25 to 1.50 USD a cup.


If all else fails there is always the standard pizza hut like place as seen below.

Their Angkor beer is apparently pretty cheap over there compared to other brands also. Overall when we were there we had a fair share of pizza, jap food, western food and khmer food.

People

People there are generally very friendly as they are practically operating as a service industry in Siem reap due to the high flow of tourist. They are mostly able to speak english and there are many tuktuk drivers eager to bring u anywhere u want. Haggling at the markets are pretty fun and light spirited and most of the ladies there are pretty happy to give u a reasonable price without leaving any bad taste in your mouth. Also at every temple stop you will have the resident little girls who will come up to you to sell you stuff. The prices can easily be slashed but what is fun and impressive is their command of English and their fun little banter with you. I had to buy some gifts from this little girl as i promised her I would buy if she remembered my name which unfortunately she did.


Be smart and just take slight precaution of your stuff. The people there are mostly honest though and I doubt there is much thieving going around there.

Accommodation/Getting around

For our accommodation, we stayed at Lin Ratanak Angkor Hotel which was fantastically priced for our budget costing us USD 37 a day for a 4 bed room. We had two toilets and breakfast was entirely provided. Only Con was that it was a bit far from the city area but we could just take a tuktuk trip over which is less then 5 mins away anyway. They also provided free fetching from the airport so overall the accommodation there is pretty good. Either way the hotel should be reviewed seperately from this post but I would say the accommodation in general is pretty fabulous with plenty of hotels for all budgets and they have pretty good customer service.

The Room and the chaps who came along

Getting around like i said was via tuktuk for our rides to the city, they would attempt to charge us 1USD per person per trip but on the 2nd day we decided that we were only going for 2 USD per trip regardless of the number of people and they were already pretty happy to oblige. Hence its fair to say 2 USD per trip to anyone in the near vicinity is a reasonable price.


On the other hand for the tour of the temples itself, we hired a guide through my travelling mate's sister and he was Tokla, a very nice and friendly english speaking guy. Basically in Cambodia u can hire a tour guide who is fluent in any language u want, french, jap, korean, chinese and they will provide them for you. Our rate was 25USD per day regardless of number of people. Add to that a fixed transport which was a van for us at another 25USD per day. Note that we got the van because the Sedan was all out so we had a free upgrade :D. The van would have cost us 50 dollars per day.


A word of advice is that if you wanna tour the temples, you might as well get a official tour guide as compared to just asking a tuktuk driver to bring you around. I am not sure of the rates for the tuktuk driver but as the guides are able to follow you into the temple and give you a brief history, I feel that the trip has more meaning.

Cost

Overall, I spent about 650 SGD on the trip itself, inclusive of food and airfare and all that kind of thing. I would say i am a low budget spender but if we took a package the starting price would already be 696 SGD on hotel and airfare alone. Hence consider doing the arrangements yourself for a bit of saving and freedom as it is not really difficult at all to plan. Note that visiting temples requires a temple pass of which a 3 day pass costs 40 USD as you can see below.

3 Day Temple Pass

Your face is on it so its not transferable but consider it a contribution to helping to preserve the temple ruins of Cambodia and to stimulate their economy. 


Also another piece of advice is any place that the tour guide brings you to eat, is grossly over priced. The same yellow noodle that costs 1.25 USD in the street markets will be sold at 4.50 USD and it tastes exactly the same. Hence if you are like me, unwilling to spend so much, have a hefty breakfast and then you can just have a drink for lunch and gorge yourself silly during dinner.


SUMMARY


So in summary the review for my trip to Cambodia by the criteria over 5

TOURIST ATTRACTION   : 4 (More then enough places to see for 5 days)

SHOPPING                         : 3 (There are places to shop, but its no Hong Kong)
FOOD                                  : 4 (Nice food cheap food, all sorts of variety)
PEOPLE                             : 4 (Nice people, pretty safe place)
ACCOMODATION             : 4.5 (Plenty of choices for all budgets, easy to get around)
COST                                   : 4.5 (Cheap for a 5 day get away and it was well filled)


TOTAL                                  : 4 (A place you must visit once in your life)


Please give comments or reviews or other advice you want people to hear below :)