James Bond I would like to say that I've seen all of the James Bond movies but there are 4 that I've missed. Below is a list of all 21 films in chronological order listing year and the actor who played James Bond along with which ones I've seen.
YES	Dr. No	1962	Sean Connery
NO	From Russia with Love	1963	Sean Connery
YES	Goldfinger	1964	Sean Connery
NO	Thunderball	1965	Sean Connery
NO	You Only Live Twice	1967	Sean Connery
NO	On Her Majesty's Secret Service	1969	George Lazenby
YES	Diamonds Are Forever	1971	Sean Connery
YES	Live and Let Die	1973	Roger Moore
YES	The Man with the Golden Gun	1974	Roger Moore
YES	The Spy Who Loved Me	1977	Roger Moore
YES	Moonraker	1979	Roger Moore
YES	For Your Eyes Only	1981	Roger Moore
YES	Octopussy	1983	Roger Moore
YES	A View to a Kill	1985	Roger Moore
YES	The Living Daylights	1987	Timothy Dalton
YES	Licence to Kill	1989	Timothy Dalton
YES	GoldenEye	1995	Pierce Brosnan
YES	Tomorrow Never Dies	1997	Pierce Brosnan
YES	The World Is Not Enough	1999	Pierce Brosnan
YES	Die Another Day	2002	Pierce Brosnan
YES	Casino Royale	2006	Daniel Craig
More James Bond The following is a list of James Bond products not created by the franchise EON
NO	Casino Royale - TV	1954	Barry Nelson
YES	Casino Royale - Movie	1967	David Niven
NO	Moonraker - Radio	1956	Bob Holness
NO	Mainly Millicent	1964	Roger Moore
NO	Omnibus: The British Hero — TV	1973	Christopher Cazenove
YES	Never Say Never Again	1983	Sean Connery

The Prestige


The Prestige is one of the best movies of 2006!

I just wanted to get that off my chest. Unfortunately its been over a month since I saw The Prestage so it is not fresh in my mind. I've been too busy with work but finally I have some time off to blog about it.

Hugh Jackman morphs once again. I didn't even know it was him until I checked imdb.com.



But the guy that morphed even more is David Bowie.


I did say to myself "his voice reminds me of David Bowie" but I had no clue it was actually him because he looks nothing like David Bowie. He is great as Nikolas Tesla who is based on a real person who invented the Tesla Coil.



It is super hard to talk about this movie without giving away the triple twist at the end. I never saw it coming. I just want to reveal everything to tell you how brilliant this movie is but it would ruin it for you. You would not have the same experience I did knowing the ending ahead of it.

I can't wait to see this movie a second time because it is a completely different movie once you know the ending. Everything that happens will take on a different meaning. When you first see it, you don't really know what is going on or understand what you see but you don't know it yet. The movie itself is a magic trick.

Here is a quote from the movie: Every great magic trick consists of three acts. The first act is called "The Pledge"; The magician shows you something ordinary, but of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn"; The magician makes his ordinary some thing do something extraordinary. Now if you're looking for the secret... you won't find it, that's why there's a third act called, "The Prestige"; this is the part with the twists and turns, where lives hang in the balance, and you see something shocking you've never seen before.

The movie itself follows these three acts.


The movie is about two magicians who compete against each other for the greatest trick except one of them pays Tesla a great deal of money to build a machine that will enable him to do the greatest trick anyone has ever seen. Unfortunately Tesla only gets it working half way. This invention is too great to tell the world. The world is not ready for this discovery. The magician decides to go ahead and use the technology and just deal with the consequences.

The movie is full of so many great actors and the performances are first rate. Scarlett Johansson is amazing as always. I've never been a fan of Michael Caine but he's simply brilliant in this. Christian Bale is great too.

I could not stop thinking about this movie for weeks after I saw it and in fact after doing so much thinking about it I think that I've uncovered a couple of plot holes. I asked myself, if I was in their place what would I do? Would I have the nerve and guts to use this technology to create the greatest trick ever seen?

Spoiler Alert! Continue at your own risk!

I cannot hold it in any longer. It's like knowing some great secret that eats away you until you finally have to tell someone.


The magician Angier pays Tesla to build a transporter. It works half way. It can make a copy but the original remains behind. In other words, it can make an exact copy of anything! The world in the year 2000 is not ready for such a device and certainly not in the year 1900.

Angier wants a trick where he transports himself from the stage to the back of the theater in an instant only its not a trick. It's real! This is Star Trek transporter stuff happening in the year 1900 thanks to the genius of Tesla and his Tesla coils.

We don't find out what the machine does until the end and we also find out that in order to avoid having multiple copies of Angier, a trap door opens and the original Angier falls into a glass cube of water which then seals at the top and he drowns.

The stage hands are all blind and have been trained to store these glass tubes where nobody will find them. Nobody is allowed under the stage to see what happens there.

Put yourself in Angier's shoes. Each night you must commit suicide by drowning and your copy continues living and doing the trick. That part I can believe.

But at the start of the movie, the other magician, Borden, sneaks below stage to see how he does the trick. He finds Angier drowning in the glass cube and tries to rescue him but its too late. The glass and thick and hard to break.

A murder investigation is conducted to figure out who pushed the water tank under the trap door. Borden is the only suspect and is convicted of the murder. We later learn that Angier is still alive and in hiding.

The plot hole I see is that Angier did not know Borden would discover his secret so his copy should have appeared at the back of the theater. How did the copy know to stay in hiding? He could not have known what was going on under the stage.

When I say copy I mean copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy, etc. since each time he preformed the trick it was a copy of a copy.

Plot hole number 2: Tesla should have been able to vaporize the original. He had to harness an incredible amount of energy to perform the transport. Seems to me it would be easy to harness enough energy to instantly vaporize the original once the transport was done.

Ciplak

If you are from the US you would be tempted to pronounce the title Kiplak but this is a movie made in Malaysia for Malaysians and yet its in English. They pronounce the title Cheeplah. In Bahasa Malay the letter C is pronounced "Ch". The letter i is pronounced "ee" and the letter k is silent.

I looked up Ciplak in the Malay-English dictionary and it says "copy, cheat during an exam, imitate".

The official movie description on Yahoo movies reads "In a country such as Malaysia, piracy isn't just common: it's indispensable. Everything from clothes and shoes to CD's and video games are available in bootleg form. Piracy has allowed the underprivileged to afford over-priced sneakers, exposed the ignorant to the wonders of non-top 40 music and increased the cinema vocabulary of an entire nation through pirated DVD's."

That read just like a documentary and I could not understand why anyone would pay to go see a documentary. So I decided to find out. Besides, I'm curious about why piracy flourishes in Malaysia even though there have been numerous efforts to stop it.

This movie was not listed in imdb.com. I did find some other movie named Ciplak made in 1991 though. I wonder why this film is not listed. Yahoo movies lists another movie named Ciplak made in 1993.

I discovered that this movie is only playing at two theaters in the entire world. One in Kuala Lumpur and one here in Penang. I have never before seen a movie playing at a multiplex that was made by a local and only playing at that theater. It would be as if Kevin Smith made Clerks then only played it at the Amboy cinema multiplex. But it makes sense because this movie is about piracy in Malaysia and not many people outside of Malaysia have any interest in that subject. In Malaysia piracy is a way of life and the government is trying to stop it but honestly I don't see them trying that hard.

At the local Prangin Mall there are about a dozen shops that sell pirated DVDs and VCDs. I've been there many times during raids. I was in a shop looking for a pirated version of Visual Studio.NET 2005 when suddenly the lights went out and we were asked to leave quickly. The sliding doors closed quickly and the place was locked up. About an hour later they were open again for business. Another time I saw them raid a shop. A huge crowd gathered and tensions were high. Police carried away boxes and boxes of DVDs. A week later that store was open again for business selling pirated DVDs.

There are weekly raids at Prangin Mall and yet nothing changes. The stores remain open. The owners of these shops keep the DVDs and VCDs in bags in the back room for a quick get away. When you want to buy something you take them the empty packaging then they go into the back to get the actual DVD or VCD. When there is news of a raid, news spreads fast and all the stores close and the inventories are hustled away to safety.

Maybe the solution is penalize the owners of the mall by giving them big fines for each day a pirate shop stays open. They are the ones that encourage and allow the pirates to setup shop.

But what would happen if piracy were suddenly wiped out in a third world country like Malaysia. I recently visited the new Queensbay Mall and stopped by the Borders bookstore and checked out prices of new DVDs and music CDs. A DVD Movie cost about RM 150 new. A music CD cost about RM 100 new. Compare that to paying RM 10 or RM 20 for a pirated DVD or CD and you can see why its so attractive. The cost of pirated goods is about 10% the original cost! Most people do not earn enough money to buy a new DVD or CD.

Because movie DVDs are so cheap you rarely see a movie rental shop here unlike the US where you see Blockbuster and Hollywood video everywhere. Why rent when buying pirated DVDs is roughly the same cost?

If piracy were wiped out then Malaysians would be cut off from having access to western movies except for the pay movie channels on TV. Movies on TV and in the cinema are censored but the DVDs are not censored so you get all of the violence, sex, drug use, obscenities, etc. that are actually in the movie.

Personally I think the Western influence over the East is a good thing since it syncs up the world in terms of attitudes and culture. The younger generation is becoming more liberal and open minded thanks to the exposure to Western movies. It opens people's minds and exposes them to new ideas. Until Malaysia's economy improves so that workers can afford to buy new stuff, piracy is actually a good thing as far as developing their culture.

I found a synopsis on kakisen.com which says "Ciplak was made for less than RM10,000, shot on a single Canon XM2 miniDV camera and edited on a home PC using Sonic Foundry Vegas Video 3.0 software. The script was originally entitled 'VCD' and written in 2001/02 before the director pulled the script out of his archives and decided to rewrite it to suit the current climate. The movie was shot on weekends between October and December 2005. Everybody working on the movie did so free of charge." RM10,000 is about USD2,500.

The movie does have its own web site and I did find trailers on YouTube.

Trailer 1



Trailer 2



I saw 3 movies the day I saw Ciplak. I had already seen Casino Royale for my second time followed by Deja Vu at Prangin Mall. I then took a taxi to Gurney Plaza for the 7 pm showing of Ciplak. I got to the theater at exactly 7 pm and they said the movie has been canceled due to lack of interest. I signed and dropped then said "I took a taxi all the way to Gurney just to see this movie". The ticket people spoke among themselves for a while then returned to say OK you can see it as long as you don't mind watching alone.

Watching a movie alone? I love that actually ... having the whole place to myself! I don't have to turn off my cell phone (hand phone for those of you in Asia) and in fact and received and read several sms' from Kelly during the movie but did not reply because I was too into the movie.

The fact that nobody was coming to see this movie made me wonder why. I had not seen it advertised on TV but then again I don't see most of the movies advertised on TV. On the day I saw Ciplak, I could have seen movies in 9 different languages. The description makes this movie sound like a documentary that lectures you on the evils of DVD piracy and who wants a lecture about what is part of your lifestyle and something you don't intend to change.

The movie does point out that there are some positive results to piracy. It has allowed the poor to have access to western movies which has influenced their society. In other words, like the Internet, it's opening their eyes to other ways of thinking. Piracy helps make the world a smaller place.

Ciplak is written, directed, produced, edited and stars Khairil M. Bahar shown here. He sort of reminds me of my friend Cedrick. Not only because they are both Chinese and look somewhat alike but because they are also both movie geeks.

Not only is this film educational about a very interesting subject but it is also entertaining in a cheap low budget sort of way. Don't expect great acting, high quality film, great editing, special effects. This is all low budget as I mentioned before. But they did pretty good.

The main character likes to break the forth wall and speak directly to the audience. One of my favorite parts is when he is explaining the different qualities you can get on DVD or VCD. As he is speaking he switches that that level of quality so you can see for your own eyes what it looks like. Some movies are filmed off the screen by someone sitting in the audience the picture and sound are horrible and you can hear people in the audience laughing or talking. He might also bump the camera or have to change the film so you lose part of the movie. It's also shot at an angle shooting up. If you watch this pirated movie on VCD you are watching the lowest of low but when its all you can afford, you don't care about quality. You just want to be entertained at a price you can afford.

And that's why piracy continues ... one word: Demand. As long as there is a demand for low cost entertainment, pirated DVD and VCD movies will still find a market. The only way I can see for the demand to disappear is for the economy to improve and people start to earn more money so they can afford the real thing.

This girl who played Diane played by Nazneen Halim was way too hot for this movie. One cool thing is that that you get a taste of Malaysian culture by watching this movie. I heard today from Kelly's uncle that Malay girls like to date Chinese guys. In this movie Malay girls are dating Chinese guys so the movie reflects what is really happening in Malaysia. They have a nice cross section of Chinese, Malay, Indian, British, Australian actors.

I had to laugh at the beginning when the main character Jo is talking to his friend in Britain who has a very strong British accent and Jo says "Even I can't understand you. You need English sub-titles" then English sub-titles appeared so we could understand his English.

This was Bahar's first full length movie. I look forward to move of his stuff and hopefully he will include Nazneen as well!

on a side-note, this is the first time I'm using the new blogger beta and the first time I'm embedded a YouTube video (which was super-easy btw) but I kept getting this error

ERROR

Your HTML cannot be accepted: Tag is not closed: <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ju_O2d2bnzU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425">

It kept stripping out my </embed> tag! What a pain!

Deja Vu

I had never heard of this movie but if Denzel Washington was the star, I was going to see it.






Here is my list of favorite Denzel Washington films.

• The Mighty Quinn
• Mo' Better Blues
• Malcolm X
• The Pelican Brief
• The Bone Collector
• Virtuosity
• Courage Under Fire
• Training Day
• John Q
• Antwone Fisher
• Out of Time
• Man on Fire
• The Manchurian Candidate

Plus I'm a big fan of anything Jerry Bruckheimer is involved in. Here is my list of my favorite Jerry Bruckheimer productions.

• Young Doctors in love
• Flashdance
• Beverly Hills Cop
• Top Gun
• Days of Thunder
• Dangerous Minds
• Con Air
• Enemy of the State
• Gone in Sixty Seconds
• Coyote Ugly
• The Amazing Race
• Pearl Harbor
• Black Hawk Down
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
• CSI: Miami
• CSI: NY
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
• National Treasure

I love seeing movies in which I know nothing about. The first time I did this was the movie The Hitcher. I was in college and I rode my bike past the theater and saw the movie poster and decided to go see it without any knowledge of what it was about. I was blown away and thought to myself, what a cool way to see a movie ... with no pre-conceptions. Just let everything be a surprise.

I had a similar experience with Deja Vu. Jerry Bruckheimer products like to push technology beyond what is currently possible. You see it in the CSI TV show with their advanced computers that can pull up any info they're looking for.

Enemy of the State featured technology where you could spy on someone from space. This movie took that idea 5 steps further and came up with a technology that will probably never exist. But it was semi-believable since they said they stumbled on it by accident. That I can believe. Many great things have been discovered by accident. If you're actually looking you probably won't find.


I enjoy time-travel films which is another reason why I enjoyed the film.

If you can get past the idea about the technology being way to sophisticated and advanced to be believed then you can enjoy this film. Just keep telling yourself that this technology could be possible if discovered by some fluke.


They never explained how they could pick up audio from the past. They never really explained why it was limited to that area and they never explained why they were recording data from that area before the incident happened (I'm trying not give too much away).

If you think too much you'll realize that a time paradox is created. If he goes back and time to stop the crime then he will never have gone back in time to stop it therefore it will happen therefore he will there he won't ... and you're stuck in an infinite loop which causes the universe to freeze and cease to exist.


But lets just assume that another future is created and either there now exists two parallel realities or the old reality is replaced with the new one.

They spoke of another interesting concept that you cannot change the past because anything you do already happened in the future (or past) in an alternate reality. Denzel's finger prints were found at the crime-scene although he had taken care to wear gloves. That's because he goes back in the past and visits the apartment with no gloves. That sort of makes sense but not if he creates a parallel or alternate reality. Then his finger prints would not show up in that reality.

When he goes back in time he leaves notes for himself in the future. Again, this should not have worked if there are split realities.

OK, I agree that I'm thinking too much but I did manage to turn my brain off and enjoy the film. Afterwards you can have fun picking it apart but the important thing is that you go and enjoy it. Lately I have forgotten to turn my brain off and it prevents me from fully enjoying a film so my advise is think less and enjoy more.

Casino Royale

I saw it a second time, this time the reels were not mixed up so it made a little more sense. Each time you see a movie again you will see new things. The sixth time I saw E.T. I was seeing new things. Same thing happened the sixth time I saw The Road Warrior. It's a wide screen and there are so many different thing happening you can't possibly see it all the first time.

I look forward to seeing Casino Royale a third time when I can watch it un-cut and un-censored.

I had missed the first 10 minutes of Casino Royale the first time I saw it. I thought I had only missed a few seconds but I was wrong. There is a black-and-white opening where Bond makes his second kill. The only reason I knew that I had missed it is because I saw an ad for the movie on TV which featured it. The opening to Bond movies are a must-see. The credits are always amazing too and Casino Royale is no different.

I remember at age 13 walking into a Bond film a little late. It was The Spy Who Loved Me. and the first thing I saw was Bond skiing off a cliff then ejecting his skis while he was free-falling. He then opens his parachute.

Have we ever had a Bond this hunky before? I don't think so. This Bond definitely breaks with some of the traditions and stereotypes of the old Bond and that's what I love about this film.

You know this is a different bond when Bond breaks with tradition. Usually Bond will order a vodka-martini shaken not stirred but in Casino Royale he orders a vodka-martini and the waiter asks "Shaken or stirred?" to which he replies "Does it look like I give a damn?"

This is the first and only Bond where he breaks into M's apartment. As I mentioned in my previous entry for Casino Royale, the part of M has been played by Judi Dench in all of the Pierce Brosnana Bond films but what I didn't realize is that M was played by a man in the early Bond films. I noticed that while watching "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" on TV.

This is the longest Bond film ever at 144 minutes. "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" held the record for 37 years at 140 minutes. I also read this is the only Bond film that it rains. Daniel Craig is also the youngest Bond since George Lazenby played Bond in 1969 in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". I also read that "Casino Royale" is the most often filmed of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels totaling three times: in 1954, 1967 and 2006.

I was wrong in my previous blog entry about Casino Royale where I said "I'm pretty sure this is the first time he falls in love." Here in Malaysia they played all of the Bond films and I happen to catch the end of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969). It's one of the only Bond films I have not seen. Bond falling in love is the main plot of this movie. At the end they actually get married but just as in Casino Royale, he can never have the girl and she is killed off.

After seeing Casino Royale I tried to watch some of the older Bond films from the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s but they all seem cartoonish and silly now. As I watched "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" I kept thinking what a joke of a movie it was.

It is my hope that Daniel Craig continues to play Bond for five more movies and after that they continue with this more serious tough-guy Bond and never return to the silly nutty Bond of the past.