Fredagskvällen spenderade jag hemma hos Filip och Björn med ett glas vin, lite Resident Evil (Playstation) och avslutningsvis med en film; 10 000 BC (IMDB). Den handlade om en mans kamp mot dem onda männen och försök att få tillbaka den kvinna han älskar.  Fastän den var jävligt förutsägbar och klyschig så var den rätt okej, underhållning!

I realised that it's not totally my fault for getting side-tracked and distracted as it's partly my dearest baby's fault! haha he's the one who has been loading all the movies for us to watch. Although, i was the one who told him to do so as i really miss watching the older disney films.

Also it's an excuse for me to spend time relaxing and not studying. Just like the fact that despite having an exam later, i'm blogging now so that i won't have to use the free time i have now to study - what an excuse!

Oh well, since it's my choice to be such a lazy-ass then i just have to deal with the consquences that result from sitting for the exams unprepared.

Usually this takes place: skip the first question, skip the second question, skip the third, fourth and fifth then quickly flip through the rest of the questions and realise that i don't know how to answer all or most of the questions! So it seems like there's no choice but to try and write a little here and there and i usually barely fill 1/3 a sheet for a question worth 15 marks when others are filling 2-3 sheets for the same question.

And also not forgetting the extremely poor results that will be released at the end of may - next month!

Actually that's all fine with me as that's what happens every single time i sit for examinations, in all my previous schools and the last 3 semesters in nus. So i'm pretty much used to all that!

In fact, honestly it doesn't really feel like it's examination time. Besides having to get out of bed before noon to have lunch before sitting for the papers, not being able to skip the papers like how i skip all lectures and having my baby nag at me to study more than usual, nothing else is really different from pre-examination time.

Anyway, my dad's flying off to italy today and as much as i would like to send him off at the airport, i can't as it'll be unfair to baby. Losing studying time wouldn't matter to me at all since i probably wouldn't even be studying but it will matter to him especially since he has two more exams to sit for this week and one of them is non-open book. And he'll definitely accompany me if i go to the airport. So i won't be sending my dad off this time.

I'm really jealous though cos i wanna visit italy as well! My dad has been there a couple of times before but i've not even been there once. And later this year in august i think, my dad will be flying off to beijing to watch the olympics! He'll be in beijing for just a few days and watching 2 or 3 events then flying off to somewhere else (i forgot where).

But that's nothing as compared to how jealous i am of my younger brother who'll be visiting france for 2 weeks in november! France!!! I am the one who took french as my 3rd language and scored an 'A' for the french 'o' level paper while my brother gave up french and now who's the one who gets to visit france?!!

Extremely unfair.

If it won't for the fact that baby and i are planning a trip to bangkok this holiday and the fact that i'll be in canada for 4-5 months next year and hopefully travelling a little in usa and europe, i'd be so pissed.

Oh look at the time, i gotta get ready now to meet baby for lunch in school. Hope his morning paper went well :)

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Edit @ 7.30pm

Today's paper was the worst so far - not in terms of difficulty but in terms of time management.

First paper - completed about 75%
Second paper - completed about 70%
Third paper - completed about 60%

I've not managed to complete any of the 3 papers and i know i'll most probably not be able to complete the last 2 papers either. It's been this way since secondary school up till now in nus, not completing most if not all my exam papers within the time limit is the norm for me every semester.

It's really such a waste cos even before my papers get marked for mistakes, i've already lost such a huge percentage of the marks due to my poor time management. If i don't complete just a few marks worth then it would not be so bad, but 25% - 40% unanswered for every single paper is seriously a big deal, especially when i'm not even sure of my answers for the questions that i answered.

The worst paper i've sat for so far in nus was for my singapore studies module in which i only managed to complete 33.3% of the paper! Was supposed to write 3 essays and i only had time for 1 essay. The second worst paper was for es2007d last semester in which i completed just 50% of the paper.

For the rest of the modules i usually complete just 60% to 80% of the papers.

Imagine the grades i recieve every semester.

Though i may not get the unanswered questions right if given more time to complete them, but at least i may be awarded a few marks here and there which could add up to a considerable number enough to pull my poor grades up a notch.

All those lost marks pull my grades way down and pull the grades of those who complete the paper way up. So all of you who managed to complete papers or complete more than i do ought to thank me cos people like me shift the grading bell curve such that it's easier for all of you to get As!

Bleah.

Anyway after today's paper i returned to hall around 3.30pm and guess what i've been doing till now! Rather easy to guess actually, i watched movies - duh.

I watched two movies back-to-back: 

"10 000 BC" - rather disappointing as the storyline is pretty flat and predictable but i must say that the main actress is such a beauty. Her skin, her features, her everything is so beautiful, so flawless, so breath-taking, so unfair.

"The emperor's new groove" - yes another disney movie as i never tire of watching them over and over again. I simply love their animation films, especially the older disney movies.

Hmm which movies shall i watch next...

Group BaLD released a pretty decent R5 rip of a very popular adventurous movie 10 000 BC literally few minutes ago. This is major improvement in the terms of quality, as the latest available version was still just a crappy cam. The movie itself isn’t such a bomb as expected, but it’s still a nice flick to watch. Check the samples and get ready to start your download!

Edit: 10.000.BC.R5.LiNE.DVDR-BaLD just pred.

From director Roland Emmerich (”Independence Day,” “The Day After Tomorrow”) comes a sweeping odyssey into a mythical age of prophesies and gods, when spirits rule the land and mighty mammoths shake the earth. In a remote mountain tribe, the young hunter D’Leh (Steven Strait) has found his heart’s passion - the beautiful Evolet (Camilla Belle). But when a band of mysterious warlords raid his village and kidnap Evolet, D’Leh leads a small group of hunters to pursue the warlords to the end of the world to save her.

сюжет: историята е за първия герой, на име Д'Лей - той е избран от цялото племе ягали, че ще го спаси, когато дойде ред на Последния лов. Но в един ужасяващ ден, когато "бял дъжд" пада от небето, "четирикраки демони" (a.k.a коне) нападат бивака им и взимат пленници. Д'Лей, Карен и Тик-Тик, тримата мъжаги на ягалите тръгват да спасят хората си и се натъкват на интересни премеждия..

рецензия: разбира се, гледах го на кино. Трейлъра изглеждаше направо епичен и щеше да е грехота да го гледам на компа. Независимо, че отзивите от световния сайт imdb изобщо не са добри, както и публиката в киносалона и приятелите ми не останаха очаровани, аз харесах лентата. Имаше добра компютърна изработка - мамутите бяха изработени невероятно, както и далечните кадри - всеки детайл при пирамидите, робите и строежа бе изпипан перфектно. (тук обаче има един голям пропуск - мамути в пустинята?!)  Хареса ми играта на Стивън Стрейт (Д'Лей), но Камила Бел (Еволет) искрено ме разочарова. Да, бе страшно красива със сините си лещи и растата, но само красотата не достига за един актьор! Сюжетната линия бе добре изградена, въпреки че всичко бе твърде предсказуемо, а сценария бе доста слаб. Музикалното оформление обаче ми хареса - много епична и тържествена музика, която лично на мен ми повдигна настроението. Филмът наскуча само на няколко места - и то точно на безсмислени диалози. Иначе действието се развиваше бързо, имаше екшън. Племената бяха измислени и изработени оригинално - и като гримове, и оскъдните им облекла - бяха много ефектни. А тъй като напоследък съм много запалена и по дредлокс или така наречената раста - харесах всичките ягали, които бяха с тия прически. Края бе много детски - точно като по книжките "Спящата красавица заспа за сто години, но целувката на любовта я спаси".. Нещо в този дух, само като изключим целувката. Бе наблегнато на любовта между Еволет и Д'Лей - особено моментът, в който тя умира в ръцете му и за него цялото пътуване и всичките битки стават безсмислени. Режисьорския поглед на Роланд Емерих за мен бе страхотен - бе дал живота от всички страни, имаше от всичко по малко. Имаше някакъв коментар в imdb, че героите не били изградени добре - да, това е вярно. Повечето бяха типизирани, не бе обърнато никакво внимание на психологическото и емоционалното развитие и с прости думи, персонажите бяха плоски. Имаше някои малки несъответствия - защо всички онези поданици са вярвали през цялото време на фалшивия Бог? Него никой не го беше виждал и все пак, всички му вярваха безрезервно. Това предполага, че тогава хората са били крайно ограничени и са вярвали на всяка притча - ами не е било така, те са били много развити математици, астролози, лечители и цялата идея за сляпото вярване в мнимия Бог е голяма глупост - не е възможно един буден философ или какъвто и да е интелигентен човек да слугува на някакви пелерини.. Но това са вече твърде големи подробности, на които не трябва да обръщам такова внимание. Важното е, че филмът ме разсея и ме накара да си почина, когато излязох от салона бях с приповдигнато настроение и пак казвам - цялостната изработка, атмосфера и ефекти бяха на страхотно професионално ниво!

оценка: 7,9/10

A duty manager appears 10 minutes into my shift to let me in. There is one other multifunctional upstairs but she crept through an open fire door (not that it should have been open). We crack on with the concessions preparing it for the day. A new guy has started and asks what to do. He is brand new and has had no formal training apparently, there is no supervisor to either introduce him or guide him, he's just there surviving on that initial motivation. I doubt that will last once he sees how things work around here.

A group of kids arrive and go down to the duty manager in the cash office to ask what to do and get sent to us. The concessions is now crowded with half of us trying to set it up and the other half filling time. Eventually the general manager appears and I have someone to alert what we are are low on, in particular popcorn. That concerns him.

We have two members of staff sick on a Sunday. Not good - there is no one on the floor to clean up the screens. I set up my concessions till and immediately get pulled off onto Box Office. I set my till up there and get literally 5 minutes training and a radio for help. The young woman on box office is put on concessions - she has also never worked on box office but would struggle with its complexity of ticket options. I struggle with the ticket options with a steady stream of customers in the morning coming up with many varieties. Consequently the radio is busy with pleas for assistance and I learn by jumping in the deep end. My voids list and refunds list begin to lengthen because the manager rushes through the till screens to fix my problem and then escapes - he has no time to show me what to do.

The fun part of the day is the general voucher from the mall for use in the cinema. It may only be to the value of five pounds but the wording on the back of the voucher is ambiguous and he has managed to get his kids in for free with it. The general relents and I can put through every customer that day for free on this ticket. That's a lot of lost revenue but luckily the offer runs out soon.

It's not only snowing outside but there is gale blowing through the automatic doors as they open all they way up to the box office. With a wall mounted heater blowing out lukewarm air it is freezing. Despite being promised fleeces a month ago there are none and we are freezing our nuts off down here

It's a slow day with the snow outside. Some of the first films of the day are empty. Horten Hears a Who, 10,000 BC and Meet the Spartens attract interest only. The highlight of the afternoon are three teenage travellers causing a commotion in The Other Boleyn Girl, and then frantically asking me for their money back after 25 minutes into the picture because they've had a call saying their mom is in hospital having a baby. They get their money back and are asked not to return. They wander into the Bowling Alley and re-appear 10 minutes later arguing with each other. Three older teenage traveller girls turn up dressed up ready for business and go into see the same film until they are ejected for being caught smoking in the toilets.

Out of about fifty multifunctionals the rumour is 15 have already left. Motivation is clearly low as we grasp what we should be doing now the support from managers in other sites have gone and we are on our own. With one manager on duty during the day he is stretched with no supervisors to organise.

During training the management informed us we could apply for supervisory role after a couple of months learning the job and getting some experience behind us. After only two weeks and not yet gained experience in all areas of the job (floor, concessions, pick and mix, VIP lounge, and bar) we are being asked to apply for the supervisory role. With a new group of multifunctionals starting soon, probably without full formal training, they urgently need some leaders in the pack.

ontem fui sozinha ao cinema ver o Juno. adorei o filme. adorei ter ido sozinha. adoro quando um filme me emociona. adoro mesmo.

num resumo muito resumo diria que o argumento é uma comédia negra sobre uma adolescente que engravida e decide ter o bebé, mas o filme é muito muito mais. é sobre a diferença, o amor, as relações. para além de um argumento inteligente, de personagens e interpretações poderosas a banda sonora é um  chantilly bom-bom com canções fantásticas da Kimya Dawson (o genérico uma animação-ilustração uma cerejinha no topo do chantilly bom-bom). mas também é ácido.

em bonus deixo a banda sonora do filme

ps: vi 15 minutos do 10 000 B.C. que coisa mais tenebrosa. alguém me explica como é que na pré historia as babys tinham pinça para arranjar as sobrancelhas e falavam inglês. pelo amor de deus. depois do La Guerre du Feu (Jean -Jacques Annaud) era mais fácil fazer algo com relativa verossimilhança.

Първият път от доста време, когато се смях на нещо напълно нелогично, но за сметка на това пълно с потенциални майтапи. "10 000 преди Христа". Събрахме се 6 човека и се настанихме в наполовина пълната зала. о.О Имаше поне 50 други човека. Същински рекорд.

Филмът започва. Навсякъде се чува млющене и отпиване. Първи пейзаж - село на върха на някаква планина. (Чакай малко, нали пещерняците са били в пещери?) Майната им на пещерите. Пещернякът - хипар Д'Лей заявява на Еволет (не самолет!), че както оная звезда еееее там кибичи винаги там, така и тя ще остане завинаги в сърцето му. Романтични типове, баси, не като днешните. xD (Чакай малко, символиката за сърцето като извор на емоции е измислена от древните гърци, нали?). Мамутите идват. Тълпа хипари, опс, пещерняци, им се нахвърлят. Хъхъхъ, колко са страшни! Най-тъпия мамут се хваща на мрежата, влачи Д'Лей около 10 километра, после хипарът без грам драскотина му мята едно копие във врата и тъпия депресиран мамут се набучва на него. И умира. Д'Лей е герой, получава бяло копие и жена (самолета). После идват някакви с тюрбани и я гепят. Даже имат и коне (връх на технологиите, братче!). Д'Лей хуква да я спасява, като пътьом събира армия от негри с огромни... коркови тапи на брадичките (вие какво си помислихте?) и разсипва египетското царство като разбунтува мамутите, които помагат в строежа на египетските пирамиди (о.О), в крайна сметка си връща каката и се завръщат на скапания планински връх, за да правят бебета там.

Това е "гениалният" замисъл на филма. Пълен е с фактологични грешки. Не може да очакваме нещо исторически вярно (още по-малко логично) от Роланд Емерих, написал сценария на "Окото на бурята", "Денят на независимостта", "Годзила"...

И все пак, филмът е забавен, разпускащ, кара те да си припомниш интересни факти, има ефектни сцени, мамутите са яки, хипарчето е сладур, мацката си я бива (какви гърди вкара в последните сцени...). Приятно е да го гледаш с приятели в киното.

(И все пак, целта на тоя филм не е ли да ни отучи да мислим? Да преиначим историята по най-глупавия начин, пък нека хората вярват че мамути са строили пирамидите? Погледнато от ъгъла на всемирното Зло, филмчето просто прави хората глупави, не мислиш ли?)

Today I start on concessions. Word is out this is the place not to be: long queues, customer aggravation and ice cream to prepare. But this is where the cinema makes its profits. This is where the upsell ("go large for 50p?") and suggestive sell ("chocolates with your popcorn?") must be built in as well as remembering all the food, drink, confectionery, ice cream and coffee. It's daunting. But the approach is you have done the training (for about an hour as a group in a different cinema a fortnight ago) so you know what to do. The external managers and supervisors from other have no guidance from the internal managers and have been left to run the place. It's crucial to gradually bed in staff: watch the manager, support the manager and then the manager watches and supports you. But no. No time. Watch me for five minutes and then your on your own. There is no price sheet. I have no idea how to log in and despite being shown by a manager she still fails to get it right herself and I get the blame at the end of the day.

Two staff are missing today. One turns up and the other goes AWOL. So the bar stays shut till more staff arrive at lunchtime. The kid on the checkbox tears his hair out as he has few colleagues to clean the screens and managers are missing. The rain means it's a slow day until the afternoon. 10,000 BC is popular. Some films such as The Other Boleyn Girl are quiet except for a few women leaving the end of the film crying. The beheading clearly did it for them.

A customer wants some jalapenos on his nachos. But the can opener is missing. Then it's found but doesn't work. Eventually it's sorted out. But the customer has gone, disgruntled, by then. So why is there only one can opener in this place?

Eventually, we run out of popcorn and I am put on the popcorn kettle. The manager reassures it's okay for another kid to use my float. The kettle may be new but one of the two kettles is still bust. I have never been shown how to boot one up and the poor internal supervisor is as perplexed as me. I figure it out in the end and off we go. It's noisy, boring and repetitive, and not popular with the kids, but hey, it's a break from some of the more boring jobs: making up the nachos trays. Now how boring is that?

It's time to go and a kid has been asked to make popcorn. He calls me over as he and the internal supervisor are struggling - the kettle won't heat up. I explain he has left the oil switch on and its flooded the kettle. If staff had been properly inducted into the job then there would not be problems like with the popcorn kettle.

It's busy and I can't get off my station. I eventually take my float and two external manager decide to escort me down to the cash office - there is no tube available to send it down. I then get told off for not coming down and collecting a tube. I bite my tongue. I have no silver so I get told off again for not having cash changing skills. I want to slap this patronising upstart. I then get told off for letting another kid use my float. I want to let rip but she then praises me on my sales per person.

В далеком горном племени молодой охотник Д'Лех нашел свою любовь — красотку Эволет. Но когда загадочное воинственное племя напало на деревню и похитило Эволет, Д'Леху ничего не оставалось, как возглавить небольшую группу охотников, чтобы проследовать за этими властелинами войны даже на самый край света, дабы спасти любимую. Ведомому судьбой отряду неумелых воинов предстоит сразиться с саблезубыми тиграми и доисторическими хищниками и в конце героического путешествия найти Потерянную Цивилизацию. Судьба их целиком находится во власти империи, неподдающейся воображению, той, где великие пирамиды простираются до небес. И там они примут бой против могущественного бога, жестко поработившего их народ.
Teaser: 0.89 Mb / 2.21 Mb / 4.45 Mb / 7.88 Mb / 26.27 Mb / 60.97 Mb / 86.37 Mb
Trailer 1: 9.18 Mb / 12.02 Mb / 23.04 Mb / 52.14 Mb / 116.36 Mb / 193.54 Mb
Trailer 2: 5.81 Mb / 9.73 Mb / 26.08 Mb / 64.88 Mb / 92.10 Mb
TV Spot 1: 1.5 Mb
TV Spot 2: 1.5 Mb
TV Spot 3: 1.6 Mb
TV Spot 4: 1.5 Mb
TV Spot 5: 1.5 Mb
TV Spot 6: 1.5 Mb
Russian TV Spot 1: 36.3 Mb
Russian TV Spot 2: 36.3 Mb
"The Story": 1.73 Mb / 4.58 Mb / 9.80 Mb / 17.23 Mb
"Visual Effects": 14.89 Mb / 44.01 Mb / 62.97 Mb
Screensaver: Mac / PC
Wallpapers (7 Mb): Download / Mirror
Oficial site

First and the foremost thing which comes to your mind is - What was the necessity of splattering all the promos and posters with the "spear tooth" (the big f****** tiger) and woolly mammoths (the big f****** elephants) when they actually have exactly about 10 minutes of screen-time combined. Would you have forgiven Spielberg if dinosaurs appeared in Jurassic Park only for 10 minutes! And those 10 minutes are the only justification for calling this film 10,000 BC for the people in this one seem to be living definitely not before 1000 AD.

Now comes the grand plot. Old Lady Oracle - The Chosen One - Save the World....If these three phrases sound alien to you then either you are too dumb or you don't watch Hollywood flicks (in which case you might want to give this a try and probably end up liking it). For the rest, let's pray together that Hollywood writers are cured of this plot device....we've had more than enough of those. Still, despite all this I wouldn't have complained if the film was even a tad less boring. Those 109 minutes seemed like forever.

The screenplay and the dialogue is so bad and funny that atleast it could have been one of those "so bad it's good" flicks but sadly it cannot be so because as the unsuspecting viewer the feeling of being royally cheated overrides everything else. Mr. Emmerich - brace yourself for next year's Razzies and everyone else please save your money for something else.

When you're director Roland Emmerich, you're most subtle movie to date has been The Patriot. When you're director Roland Emmerich, you're movies tend to be sci-fi effects-drenced extravaganza's like Stargate, Universal Soldier, The Day After Tomorrow and Independence Day. But most importantly, when you're director Roland Emmerich, you're probably expecting your audience not to be massively moved by your movies, but to at least have fun. You're not expected, no matter how dire some of your efforts may be, to bore your audience. Even the crap-heap that was Godzilla is still watchable. But this is something that director Roland Emmerich seems to have forgotten for his latest effort, 10,000 B.C.

Something else that Roland Emmerich seems to have forgotten is this; he is not Mel Gibson. Gibson's Apocalypto seems to be the watered-down template for Emmerich's 10,000 B.C., with the changes basically being (a) have everyone speak English, and (b) put some pre-historic monsters in there for some fun. But where Gibson basically had a man trying to escape from an entire hunting party, this time we have Steven Strait's D'Leh trying to get back his girlfriend Evolet (Camille Belle) from a warlord who has stolen 300's Xerxes barratone-in-a-cement-mixer voicebox.

But where Gibson had a straight-lined pulse-pounder, Emmerich drags everything to a snail's pace by interwiving daddy issues, a psychic witch, and the lead character being involved in three, count 'em, THREE prophecies, all from different civilizations who happen to live near his own village. And on top of this, some of the scripting is down-right dodgy. "A White Sheet" is when its snowing, "Giant Sea Birds" are boats, "She had her breathe stolen" means she's dead, and "Four-Legged Demons" are, in fact, men on horseback.

And then there's some geographical issues. Now, we know there's a difference between film-criticism and just plain nit-picking, but when the characters walk for a few hours from there mountainous terrain and find themselves in a tropical jungle, and from there a barren desert is nothing but a stone's throw away, well, there's definitely something up. This is probably why the country of origin is never discerned, for at any one time it could be Peru, Egypt or Madagascar.

But its not all bad. Lead actor Steven Strait is something a hybrid of Colin Farrell and Josh Hartnett, and spends most of the movie topless, which should please at least some viewers. And Camille Belle is nice in a "not quite a total damsel in distress" character. And some of the special effects involving the creatures, most notably the Woolly Mammoths are pretty good. But even here, the film falls down flat. One of the scenes involves the characters being chased through high grass by what seems to be a half turkey-half velociraptor, which isn't very scary at all. And then the arrival of the Sabre Toothed Tiger is marred by the fact that it does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. It just growls, jumps around a bit, and then wonders off.

All in all, Emmerich should stick to sci-fi. He has a better vision of a nihilistic future than he does of an optimistic past.

Three Out Of Ten.