THE HOBBIT, A MOVIE REVIEW - of dragons and gold, of God, the Sufis and the human ego

The Hobbit. Last Thursday evening, I grabbed hold of Mikhail to head for the first-day screening of The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey. Mikhail enjoyed himself, despite two toilet intermissions during the 3-hours plus film by Peter Jackson. But for his father (a.k.a. me), as a Tolkien geek, it was just as close to cinema nirvana as I could hope to achieve, reveling in Peter Jackson's expansive and sensitive adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's first ever book of the Lord of the Ring world. The Hobbit was written for his son, Christopher, you see. And from this humble literary effort by an Oxford Don (for Tolkien was indeed a Professor of English in Oxford - after he left my alma mater, University of Leeds), the LoTR franchise came forth and conquered the global box office with tales of Wizards and Balrogs, Rangers and the Riders of Rohan, the Hobbit Halflings, Elves, the Dwarfs, the Orcs and of course, Sauron, the Dark Lord sitting on his dark throne in Mordor... where the shadow lies.

The Book(s). Being written for a young readership, The Hobbit story is light and easy to read, and does not come near to exploring Middle Earth's history, characters and concepts later developed in Tolkien's trilogy of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. There is one more important book in his later works, and that is The Silmarillion, an even more ambitious effort which encompasses the creation of Middle Earth universe which resonates with the idea of Eru (being God), and the fallen divine favourite, Morgoth (as the Devil) who is revealed to be Sauron's master. This close resemblance to Judeo-Christian (and might I add, Muslim) lore is not unexpected, as Tolkien was a believer and a practicing Catholic. 

The Movie. Being also the shortest book of all four volumes of the Lord of the Ring world, it took us by surprise that Peter the Kiwi has managed to extend the film adaptation into a nine-butt-aching hours of three movies, the first now being The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey. What this means is that Peter Jackson has a greater cinematic canvas to bring to life the story of the dwarf kingdom of Erebor and their golden horde, the priceless Arkenstone, Smaug the Dragon, his attack and capture of the Lonely Mountain and the expulsion of the dwarfs as ragged exiles, a humiliated and overthrown race. On top of this enthralling story, the director has also managed to better capture the emotion and characters of the book, the two key personalities being Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of the defeated dwarf tribe of Ererbor, and of course the reluctant 'burglar' himself - Bilbo Baggins the Hobbit.

Helping the Dwarfs to return home. For myself, one of the best moments in the movie was when having escaped the Goblins, Thorin (who has always held great doubt as to the suitability of Mr. Baggins to survive the dangers and tribulation of the wild quest) confronted Bilbo and asked him why did he continue to stick with the ragtag band of dwarfs, on a foolish mission to regain their home and expel the dragon squatter currently occupying their fortress mountain of Erebor. After all, Bilbo has a cozy life and a beautiful little home for himself already in the Shire and has no need to assist the dwarfs in this foolhardy quest. To which Bilbo replied that it IS because he enjoys a home for himself that he is moved by empathy to help the Dwarfs return to their own home, far away in the Desolation of Smaug, in the place called the Lonely Mountain. For the little hobbit, having faced so many dangers and difficulties with the dwarfs, now truly understands the lonely pangs of a traveler in the wild, dreaming and yearning to return home. A sentiment that is shared by all of us, the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, as we too, make our bitter sweet journey through this life, to one day return to the Divine Presence... insyaAllah...

The Hobbit & The Sufi

Each of us, Men, Elf or Hobbit,

Has a Smaug to conquer,

A Dragon to call our own

And to tame,

That is our Ego.

And each of us, of high or common birth,

Has a horde of gold to regain,

A gold without the 'L',

That is our One God by any

Other name.

In a journey to a homecoming

Blessed in the Divine Presence,

To return and to rest,

and end our tearful wandering. 

In every kernel of human thought, in every tinkering of the tireless human imagination, there is a spark of truth. In every book ever written, there is a secret door to God. And I think I found one in the Hobbit.    

I hope you have enjoyed this little review. It was unexpected!

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Iron Lady and the Water of our Soul - Movie Review, 8 out of 10

AN OSCAR! Well, kudos to Meryl Streep for her Oscar win recently. I viewed the Iron Lady over last weekend, and I think she nailed the portrayal of Margaret Thatcher spot on. I should know because over the past months I have been viewing hours upon hours of documentary about the First Woman Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. And I have read, and re-read John Campbell's biography of Maggie entitled Volume 1: The Grocer's Daughter and followed by Volume 2: The Iron Lady.

THE BEGINNING. Firstly, I think it is a pretty awesome movie, and it is hard to critic any part of Streep's performance as the dogged and determined Maggie. She was the first of the conservative brand of 'conviction politician', unafraid to face down the unions and topple any sacred cows inherited from the earlier brand of paternal conservatism. There was not much paternalism (or maternalism) coming with her victorious entry into No.10 Downing Street.

OVERVIEW. The movie covered all the major turning points in Maggie's political life. From her adoption as a candidate for Finchley as the pretty (but modest) uber frau. To her surprising victory over Edward Heath to take over leadership of the Tory party, and of course her General Election win to bring B&NE its first woman Prime Minister. The movie moved pretty fast to the Falklands War, the IRA bombing of the Brighton Hotel, the defeat of the striking coalminers, her external problems with Britain's European allies, the Poll Tax and finally, the successful conspiracy of 'the men in grey' to topple one of their strongest but most divisive Prime Minister in the Twentieth century.

Having watched numerous news items and documentary on British politics, and especially the Thatcher years, I find little to fault Streep's rendition of Margaret Thatcher. And if you think that Maggie was quite pretty, especially in her younger days, you are not wrong. 

Critique. I am not a fan of a lot of what Margaret Thatcher did. I certainly do not like her conversion to the Capitalism of Hayek and the Monetarism of Milton Friedman. I find both symbiotic ideologies repugnant and as a dogma they fail to address the humanist and social responsibility which binds us all together into a community. The assumptions about human nature made in these socio-economic theories are breathtakingly short-sighted. But then again, who am I to question her convictions? She did by her lights what she thought right for her country, fair enough.

I found the film's portrayal of her doddering old age, with the absence of her loyal husband, Denis, both sweet and touching. I like movies that show people to be human, vulnerable and weak. For no matter how much you may disagree with another person's views, we are still human beings in need of each other always. To feel, to empathize and to understand. I am giving this movie an 8 out of 10.

If you would like to know more about Thatcher's political history, you cannot do much better than watch these BBC documentaries; Portillo on Thatcher (Click Here) and Thatcher: The Downing Street Years (Click Here). They will flesh out some of the stories barely covered in the film due to time constraint.

But before I finally leave the Iron Lady with you, I would like to quote a line of Maggie's from the film, which I think would be an ornate gem in any Sufi tale. I will take this as a parting gift, a final caveat - be careful what we let into the well of our mind, less it spoil the waters of our soul...

Watch your thoughts, for they become words,

Watch your words, for they become actions,

Watch your actions, for they become habits,

Watch your habits, for they become your character,

And watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

Have a thoughtful Sunday, sunshine.

Pax Taufiqa

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

THE IMMORTALS and MARGIN CALL - The movie reviews.

THE IMMORTALS. As promised, the sinner dragged himself to the nearest cineplex to watch The Immortals. In a previous posting, the sinner audaciously pre-review reviewed the movie (Click Here) and predicted that actual review would find The Immortals garnering a pitiful 3 out of 10. I am afraid that even that prediction turned out to be optimistic.

Oh, there is something about a super-Bow in the movie, but by that time I was bored.

So this is the important bit about the story - a King (Hyperion, played by Mickey Rourke) sees wife and children dying of a disease. They never actually spell out what disease, but because of that, Hyperion decides to start an all-out assault on the Greeks and their holy Mount Tartarus where he is knowledgeably informed that the Titans are imprisoned - The Titans are essentially the other gods who got clobbered by Zeus and family. So if the Titans are out, they would start another war in heaven and hopefully (thinks Hyperion), Zeus and family would all be killed. Theseus (who happens to be Zeus's bastard son, I think) gets caught up in all this, along with Phaedra the Virgin Oracle (played by Freida Pinto, from Slumdog Millionare).

This is about as naked as naked men are gonna get in this movie.
So if you are expecting another meat-feast, prepare to get disappointed.

The Virgin Oracle about to lose her qualification to be one.

Things happen so fast, there is very little time for character development, and really, I just ended up not caring at all about what happens to Theseus, Hyperion, Phaedra, Zeus or the Titans come to think of it. The script is really just barely this side of bearable, and surprisingly the set and CGI, to be absolutely honest- ain't so good as the scenes in 300. And really, Hyperion is just another pissed off guy, except that he is just really obsessed about getting his vengeance. Other than that, I think that Mickey Rourke (who was brilliant in The Wrestler) is just doing this movie for the money. Heche, who agreed to sit as co-reviewer had 2 important observations - 1. If you are looking for a large number of almost-naked men in loincloth doing manly things... well you would be disappointed. There is barely any sight of abdominal muscles or 'a cute butt'. Only Theseus was on hand to show off his ripped body. Yes, just one eye-candy for our discerning female audience. Not good enough. 2. Her second observation is the most interesting - if the Greeks were so concerned about the Oracles being virgin, why do they pick such hot-looking babes as their Oracles. Really, just choose the ugliest maidens in the village and surely, the chances of them losing their virginity would be smaller. All in all, The Immortals turns out to be an even greater disappointment than anticipated -  2 out of 10.

MARGIN CALL. From a movie lemon to a movie corvette. Where do I begin with a movie about Wall Street greed that is so full of talent and amazing acting of the highest calibre. You just gotta look at the cast - Kevin Spacey as Sam Rogers, Paul Bettany as Will Emerson, Jeremy Irons as John Tuld, Zachary Quinto as Peter Sullivan, Penn Badgley as Seth Bregman, Simon Baker as Jared Cohen, Mary McDonnell as Mary Rogers, Stanley Tucci as Eric Dale and Demi Moore as Sarah Robertson - for you to realise that this is a powerhouse acting resource for the director to pull in. So did the director, JC Chandor manage to bring out the best from his actors? He did. Awesomely.

There is a Greek phrase for this scenario -
The shiteus is gonna hit the faneus.

Margin Call is a story set over a 24 hours period in an anonymous Wall Street Investment firm. Over that 24 hours, people are sacked, huge previously unnoticed liabilities in derivatives and CDOs are going to bankrupt the firm (to know more watch Inside Job, the Cannes Festival winning feature documentary which brings to light the many sins of Wall Street), and the firm's decision to dispose of ALL their toxic assets into the market by lunch time next day - which would trigger (as the movie implies) one of the worst credit crunch default in the history of civilization. People are going to lose their jobs. Other firms, banks and mutual funds are going to sink, but at least this particular firm will managed to sneak out FIRST. In one of the final scene, Sam the crusty Risk Management departmental boss confronted John Tuld, the Boss of bosses in the firm about the appalling effect on Wall Street and the economy that would be triggered by their decision to dump their foul-smelling bonds into the market. And this was John's reply - "It's just money. Made up. Pieces of paper with pictures on it so we don't have to kill each other to get something to eat..."

An intelligent and entertaining movie. A must-watch for anyone who's at least a little bit concerned about the condition of this world and where consumerism and cheap (read false) credit will ultimately take mankind to. An amazing 8 out of 10 movie.

Have a beautiful day, sunshine. God bless.

Pax Taufiqa

Hate has no place in Islam.

Love will show the way.

Movie Reviews - Real Steel, Paranormal Activity 3, Apollo 18, The Immortals and err... Clone Wars Cartoon Series

There is nothing intelligent I can think of for this caption.

Real Steel - Watching the movie is like paying for the privilege to stick your head into a blender and then turning it on. The shallow personalities in this movie leaves the non-human character, Adam the fighting robot as the only interesting diversion to this appalling movie. Adam, and of course the robot battle scenes which are quite good. In the end, Jackman takes off his shirt for some shadow-robot fighting, so there is a little sex-lite gratification for some members of the audience. But this hunk of meat from Down Under has not actually been cerebral in his choice of movies, see 'Van Helsing' and 'Australia'. A sad 3 out of 10.

Awesome

Paranormal Activity 3 - The first was a novel piece of film-making. The 2nd movie had a little too much going on (but still light years better than the Blair Witch Project 2). I am extremely happy to say that PA3 returns to the simpler set pieces of the original movie. Who would have thought that an old videotape camera (the movie is set in the 80s) on top of a table-fan can build up such suspense. But then again, I am such a complete coward. Heche had to hold my hand through out the movie. She said I was distracting her, not knowing that I WANTED to be distracted. I am giving this movie an 8 out of 10.

You will never look at a moon rock the same way.

Apollo 18 - A review I read says that "This movie is more than just Paranormal Activity in Space..." The movie basically revolves around a supposedly covert moon mission which turns disastrously wrong when 'things' start to happen on the dark side of the Moon. All shot for prosperity by way of Westinghouse cameras supplied by the Department of Defense (DoD... uh oh. spells trouble and betrayal). I found the movie pretty intense and the acting was rather good. 7 out of 10.

Another golden brown tinted movie. Urgh.

The Immortals, a pre-preview preview - I have not actually seen this movie shot through golden brown lenses. But Heche insists that we watch it. Perhaps it's the sight of men prancing about in loin cloths. The tagline 'From the Producers of 300' does not actually fill me with confidence, given my review of the Spartan movie, Click Here. But even without watching it, let me hazard a guess how it will be. A lot of male screaming and exhortation to manly and hazardous deeds. A lot of male posturing about destiny and some baloney about a good cause. A lot of steely and unnerving gaze by the hero. Gratuitous nude scenes (I am not against this) and a CGI cast counted in the hundreds of thousands. My prediction is that I will later review this movie as a 3 out of 10.

The Clone Wars Cartoon series - To show that I am not entirely the grumpy Colonel Blimp, this is a belated review of the 3 Star Wars prequels - 2 words suffice to summarise my review, 'Epic Failure'. If you are looking for some real intelligence, nuance and sprightly dialogue, cast your eye instead on the current Star Wars: The Clone Wars cartoon series playing on television. Compared to the actual movies, this intelligent cartoon series is simply light-years better. Strange but true. Having enjoyed 2 series of the cartoon show, I thought that perhaps I was too judgmental about the movies themselves. So I switched back on an old copy of the Revenge of the Sith. I could stand just about 20 minutes of this film. Amazingly, the writers of the Clone Wars could write a better plot and script for the cartoon show compared to the writers of the live action prequels.

No poems, just movies today, sunshine. You may disagree with my reviews. Hehehe. 

wa min Allah at-taufiq. 

Heroes and the Lament of History - Accepting our Heroes as Creatures Inspiring and Imperfect

15. We need heroes and flags

We need heroes.

But the heroes need you

To remember them

As men of flesh and blood.

In this lies their

High station of spirit

And faith.

For they have the ability

To be themselves,

In form and in substance,

In what is apparent

And in what is hidden,

Seeing only the thin gloss of mortality

Upon God’s Own Looking Glass,

Between the Here and the Hereafter,

Between now, and what is promised

To you and me.

THE LAMENT OF HISTORY. History holds so much treasure. In her infinite vault, history contains all our lives, right up to this point in time when you, my discerning reader, are reading this. And just like our lives, history is not all rosy and sweet. And oh boy, have I myself filled history with enough personal follies to embarrass the historians and blush the bifocaled librarians. History is important because if we do not know how we got here, then we lack the knowledge to move forward. There are many aspects of history worth a thousand years of our study, about religion, science, civilizations, romance etc. But for this next hundreds or so words, I am talking about heroes.

HEROES. Heroes in history are like sacred cows that cannot be inspected too closely, questioned or criticized. They become omnipotent presence in our psyche, taking on almost Olympian stature in our hearts. Thus, they become, just like the Olympians, a far-off and can never be reached personalities, ethereal and uncertain.

FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS. That is why when I finally saw the movie "Flags of Our Fathers" (Directed by Clint Eastwood, released in 2006) I was much taken by the raw reappraisal of the historical background concerning the raising of the flag in Iwo Jima. But most importantly, the human individuals that lived the moment, and their moments thereafter. If you have seen the movie you would have witnessed the sheer terror of hand-to-hand combat in the Pacific, the troubling doubts of the soldiers, the wistful dream of almost all of the boys (since they really were young) simply to make it alive and return home, their sudden fame and the personal aftermath of their lives post Iwo Jima. I love it because it took the heroes out of the two dimensional pages of propaganda and patriotism and laid bare their lives. After the movie, I did not think them any less and thought, "Wow... real heroes." Every single one of them.

The above prose was not born from the movie or appraisal of American heroes of WWII. Actually it was pertaining to Muslims and how they conduct themselves in the presence of their historical heroes. They are sometimes (not all the time, to be fair here) too diffident and shy to know about the Companions and Caliphs that came after. Especially concerning the Companions of the Prophet, Muslims in fact know so very little that the Companions become two-dimensional characters, almost like cartoon characters in a comic book.

MR.X THE MAGNIFICENT. I recalled to a preacher man about one personal condition of a Companion, and the preacher man was greatly offended to hear the story and rebuked me. We were talking about sex and how wonderful it is, when I shared with him a little story. The story is simple really, a famous and renowned Companion of the Prophet was someone of such flaming passion and fire, that he gets wet dreams every night. The preacher man was profoundly shocked and immediately advised me that it is forbidden for Muslims to make fun or ridicule the Companions of the Prophet.

Firstly, assuming the story is true (which the preacher man clearly doubted), I swear upon the cup of coffee that I am drinking now that I meant it as no insult or ridicule. For every single story of this Companion, good and bad (for Companions of Prophets are not perfect like Prophets) makes me fall in love with him - a towering masculine hero with a sharp tongue, a fiery passion and a truly, truly amazing Companion of the Prophet. Secondly, how can having a wet dream every night be a bad thing for any man. It is a challenge certainly for the Companion personally, because he would have to perform the complete ablution before morning prayers to cleanse his impure state post wet dream. But other than that? Come on...

You see, that is why Eastwood's movie sprang to my mind as I am writing this post. I think just as we need heroes to inspire us to good, the heroes need us to appraise them as human beings of flesh and blood. Amazing in their personal sacrifices, dedication and virtues... but not perfect. It does not make them any less of a hero to me. In fact it raises their stature higher in my soul. For I know that they are just like me... not perfect. But wow, how infinitely better are they in spite of this very human weakness that we share!

There are certain mores and manners which we should have in addressing historical heroes, that I accept. But if we approach them with love and understanding... how can we go wrong?

Look back with love.
Look forward with love.
Look at everything with love.
And even if the Lord Himself cannot be seen.
By God, He can be perceived!

God bless our heroes, sunshine. And may you have a heroic day.

wa min Allah at-taufiq.

The Movie 300, History and the Freaky Nature of Time - Prose of Ramadhan Part 12

In '300' there is a lot of screaming half-naked men. It makes up for the nauseating 'message' of the movie.

24. For freedom or for the King?

Historians are prone

To garnish history

With the trends

Of today.

Imputing alien ideas

And foreign motivation

To those who cannot,

Alas, respond.

We too,

Could be labeled the same,

Save that the subjects

Of our constant study,

Do react,

Most passionately.

Hahaha!

Our predecessors are reacting now.

And they are telling us,

"We studied you

Before you studied us."

RATIONALISM AND FREEDOM? REALLY? The prose above was recorded soon after watching the movie '300' some years back. My pet peeve about the movie is essentially the gross misrepresentation of history. In those feudal days, really, let's be sensible, nobody fought wars for 'rationalism' or 'freedom'. They fought because they had to. They fought because if they didn't, their kings, barons and warlords would probably decapitate them in a show of royal displeasure. They fought as part of an ancient contract between the ruler and the ruled based essentially on loyalty and servitude from the peasants, in payment for some protection and benefits from their masters.

A POTTER? HAHAHA! In one famous scene, the Spartans met a bunch of Arcadians who came to join them in trying to defend Greece from the Persian King Xerxes. Oh, how they mocked their fellow Greeks who admitted that they were essentially part-time warriors drafted for the butchery. All the Arcadians had proper day jobs like a porter or a farmer, which I thought was an admirable notion. Yet for the Spartan King Leonidas, it was something to look down upon, because in Sparta, the only honourable job (it seems) was to be a soldier. What the good King forgot to mention was that this was only possible because Sparta used to raid its neighbours for slaves to farm their land and perform all those sort of menial chores unbecoming of a true Spartan. Oh God... what a bunch egoistical wombats.

No, he ain't Spartan. He's Australian. I like him because
unlike Spartan Kings, he doesn't go about screaming at people.

And of course the opening scene where the Spartans dumped the less than perfect babies into a ravine did not actually ingratiate me to them. So through out the entire movie, I was willing Leonidas to lose, and really the whole of Sparta to be consumed in a Persian conquest. Of course, it wasn't so. But that is what happens when you disconnect facts from history.

TIME IS NOT LINEAR. I do not think that time is linear. I do not think that the moment that just passed merely went kaput and stop existing, having no further effect on the present and future. I think that the entire TimeScape is like the cartoon centrespread of a Sunday newspaper. I do believe that the past continues to exist even as time moves inexorably forward. And I do believe that the ancient (well, perhaps not all, but the more thoughtful ones) have already read about us, their descendants, long before we ever made our first appearance in the delivery room of the hospital. I can imagine it now... one of my ancestors reading about me, some thousand years ago...

Oh boy... Why do I always get the hopeless cases?

Have a wonderful day, sunshine. This day has been prepared for you an eternity ago. So enjoy it while it lasts!

Pax Taufiqa.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2 out of 5) - Movie, Poetry and Review

MOVIE POETRY. A couple of weeks ago I shared with my brother my idea that the highest form of poetry nowadays is movies. When you think about it, poetry is about awakening your mind and your feeling towards some particular theme or idea, and I think that modern movies do that and they use all the other medium of communicating information and emotion – The set, the scenery, the lighting, cinematography, costumes, the OST music, and fundamentally, the script, the casting, the acting and the directorial and editing skills. The movies which I have found to be beautiful to the point of visceral poetry are such well known pictures as The Godfather (Coppola), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Cohen Brothers), Glengarry Glen Ross (James Foley), Sense & Sensibilities (Ang Lee), Leon / The Professional (Luc Besson), The Green Mile (Frank Darabont) and Green Card (Peter Weir), to name but a few.

So we have some movies that can evoke passion and poetry at its highest form of human expression. And then again we have Micheal Bey’s latest in The Transformers’ trilogy entitled Transformers: Dark of the Moon. I watched it yesterday and I don’t like it much.
PLOT? I shall not talk much about it since the plot appears to have been cooked up medium rare. I will give just 2 examples here. PLOT DEATH 1 - The movie would have us believe that Sam Witwiky (Shia LeBeouf), having saved the world twice in the 2 previous movies, was awarded honours by President Obama and the British government, and having made his way through an Ivy League university found it impossible to find a decent job. So much so that he swallowed his (much injured) male pride to accept a job as a mailroom boy (!) from his dishy (ish) new girlfriend’s dashing boss, Dylan Gould (played by McDreamy himself, Patrick Dempsey). PLOT DEATH 2 – Coming to the end, Sam’s girl goaded Megatron (Yes, mighty Megatron himself) to do something rather dramatic (well, I cannot tell you what it is since it might spoil your ‘enjoyment’ of watching the movie). Man, these robots may be technologically advanced, but boy, they are dumb.
SUPERHUMANS – And it also appears that dear old Sam is a mutant, because only a super human can survive the sheer physical trauma he encountered when he gets up close and personal with one of the nasty Decepticons. Hmm. Maybe he is an alien too. If you have seen the trailer, you would have also seen one of the mega CGI scenes when one Decepticon (ShockWave) is literally ripping a high rise tower apart, and Sam, Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteleyl and some other non-descript extras are flung across the floor, and sent skimming down the side of the collapsing building(!). And after all that, nay a sprained ankle amongst these super lucky people. *Urk*

SCRIPT AND ACTING – I don’t have the heart to blame anyone because I think Shia (in Suburbia) is a competent actor, and John Turturro, John Malkovich and Frances McDormand are amazing thespians. So I blame the script. It sucks.

PLAUSIBILITY. Of course in reality there are no alien robots on planet earth, taking their blood (oil?) feud from their devastated home planet down to earth. I can suspend reality for that, indeed I cherish the enjoyment I had with the 1st movie and even the 2nd movie (just about). But this time around Michael is simply asking too much of me. Even in a comic superhero movie adaptation, the action sequences, even if physically an impossibility, must be set in a background of plausible human interaction and character development.

I am giving this movie a 2 out of 5. Actually I wanted to give it a 3 (for the awesome CGI), but I am dicing one point out because Megan Fox is not here anymore.

I KNOW YOU ARE GONNA WATCH IT ANYWAY. But I know that you will still watch it. Because it is a Transformers movie. And when the closing credits trailed down the screen, there was even applause (!) amongst some of the cinemagoers last night. So may be it is to your taste just as it was Mika's. But it certainly isn’t mine.

Have a lovely day, sunshine.

Pax Taufiqa.

Earlier Movie Reviews - The Green Lantern / Inside Job

THE GREEN LANTERN - A Movie Review (of sorts)

THE GREEN LANTERN. I saw the Green Lantern last week at the Cineplex. For a comic hero adaptation it wasn’t too bad. But as far as the superhero genre goes, it must trail behind X-Men: First Class and Thor, which I think have better scripts and character development. I do not mind romantic interludes in such movies, but the suspension of reality in the Green Lantern exercises my mind too much. And no, I am not talking about the idea of green-costumed alien guardians of the universe, and one landing here on planet earth. And I am not talking about the amazing green ring powered by ‘will power’ (which in itself is a risible notion). No, I am talking about Ms. Blake Lively who takes on the role of Carol Ferris, Ryan Reynold’s smoochie in the movie…

CAROL FERRIS. First, you are expected to believe that an incredibly hot babe is a jet fighter pilot. And not just any ordinary sort, but a test pilot. Oh, okaaay...
Secondly - she is not only amazingly pretty, but she is also the daughter of the owner of the Ferris Aircraft Company. Alright… she’s born lucky...
Thirdly - she is also the corporate vixen! Garbed in the tightest of skirts and the tallest of stilettos.! Hmm… and you want me to take you seriously? How?
Fourth - she used to be Ryan’s ex-girlfriend. As if anyone would be stupid enough to dump or be dumped by her. Riiiight…
And fifth and most unbelievably - She dumped him because he is irresponsible and probably had a naughty eye for other women. And yet she is still his co-test pilot, his super-understanding boss (who forgives him crashing a hundred million dollar jet fighter), and also an old-buddy-friend kinda ex-girlfriend, sweet (and forgiving) enough to relax with Ryan at the local pub and commiserate with the ungrateful (and obviously blind) hound. Hey… waaaaitaminute…

No poems, Rumi, Love, Sufism or other transcendental doodah in this posting, sunshine. The sinner is resting his soul by the shore of this world of form. Sometimes I think this apparent world is simply wonderful...

And btw, you can still watch The Green Lantern this Saturday, you know. It ain’t actually appalling.

Pax Taufiqa.

Please God - I don't want to see Matt Damon In a Feature Documentary about Malaysia entitled 'From Boom to Bust' - Subprime Bust Part 3

(Reposted because of posting error - Apologies)

I TOO WAS AN ADDICT. Easy credit? It is really a contradiction in terms. I got my first taste when I was only 26 years old when a foreign bank operating in Malaysia sent me a pre-approved credit card with a maximum limit of RM20,000.00. I initially ignored their earlier courtship of me when they offered RM25,000.00 pre-approved personal loan. But at 26 and the thought of carrying 20 grand of credit in my wallet was just too tempting. So many girls to chase, so many toys to buy and so little money, you see. The eternal conundrum of a fresh graduate just out of law school.

EASY CREDIT. If easy credit was channeled towards cost of the production of good and services, that is not too bad. I need to increase purchase of noodles for my wantan mee stall, I need the money to tide by my operation because I keep being bothered by the local town council enforcement officers. But to a large extent, easy credit is utilized to finance our never-ending desire for consumer goods and services. A new iPhone. A new handbag. The new PS3. The latest Armani perfume. The new Mont Blanc pen. Beef Burger enlivened with Fois Gras…. The story goes on and on… To infinity and beyond, says Buzz Lightyear.

WALL STREET. The easy access to credit, often non-documented and failing the standard credit review is also reflected in commercial credit and finance. So now everyone can go bankrupt and lose their houses. Oh but wait. I don’t think any of the CEOs in Wall Street have lost their palatial mansion in the Hamptons. Oh no, it’s the poor Joe in Middle America that’s having to pay his rising housing loan instalments while the value of his house is sinking into the quicksand of reality.

AND NOW IN MY BACKYARD. The government of Malaysia has announced an initiative called the Kuala Lumpur International Financial District – which is a multi-agency, multi-billion dollar project to enhance KL as an international financial hub. A large chunk of downtown real estate will be alienated for the purpose of developing an international financial centre, replete with entertainment, residential and travel infrastructure to accommodate the hordes of financial professionals anticipated to flock into the district.

I AM NOT CRITICIZING. I AM ONLY RAISING QUESTIONS. I will resist the impulse to attack this project, which may have good collateral effect on the city and the country as a whole. But in my brain, there is a question bouncing about, and it is this – How do we attract the merchant and commercial banks into the KLIFD if we are not able to provide the regulatory regime which they most desire? And are they not interested in a less regulated system which would permit them to structure and ‘engineer’ such magical concoctions like the synthetic collaterized debt obligations and other voodoo financial instruments? I hope I am proven wrong. I really do.

I AM A MALAYSIAN... WHEN THINGS ARE GOOD. If the international banking sector, as well as the commodities and currencies trading have all become essentially an open casino – how will we attract the biggest gamblers if we do not allow them to make the biggest bets. The main problem with trillion dollars bets is that there is also a trillion dollars downside. Can Malaysia cope with the downside? Will the Malaysian authority charged with regulating KLIFD have the expertise and the chutzpah to deal with the silky smooth presentations and goobleedegook chatter of international investment bankers and money managers? Something which even the SEC and the Federal Reserve of USA themselves failed to do. Or has each stakeholder involved in this project already purchased a home somewhere overseas, ready to pack the bags and migrate at the first hint of a financial fiasco?

THE INNOCENT MAJORITY. There are countless tens upon millions of people out there who don’t have a clue about Subprimes, CDOS, 1st Floor and Mezzanine levels of toxic bond towers, and off-balance-sheet liabilities. They are farmers and restaurant owners. They are factory workers, teachers and civil servants. They have nothing to do with the elevated conversations of investment bankers, money managers and commodities and currency traders. But they will be ones to suffer if the monolithic banking / securities / currency / commodities derivatives behemoths are poorly managed. Or even worse – barely regulated. Because in the modern world, all things are connected. And a credit squeeze will affect everybody. See Iceland, Greece, Spain, Portugal in the ever-growing list of countries either borrowing or printing money to climb out of their fiscal indiscipline.

DEAR KLIFD PROMOTERS - So go ahead if you think that the KLIFD can benefit the country. With the necessary and effective safeguards, Chinese walls, risk analysis and enforcement, it may work. But if you are trying to replicate the same 'pure' free market formula which has proven to be disastrous over the years in Wall Street, London, Dubai and other ‘international financial hubs’, then please sirs, think again.

A couple of years down the road, I don’t want to see Matt Damon in a documentary on Malaysia entitled KLIFD - from Boom to Bust. Click here on my earlier posting entitled ‘Subprime Bust Part 2 - INSIDE JOB THE MOVIE’ and a related posting entitled ‘Michael Lewis (Wall Street Insider) Mikhail Taufiq (Venture Capitalist) and the Subprime Bust’ –Click here.

188. Paper Promises
Paper money make poor substitute
For gold and silver,
A mode of transaction
On human promises.
And oh, how well
We know of man
And his paper promises!

Have a financially prudent day, pet.

Pax Taufiqa.

Love on the Road with Anis

I have known Anis for a long time. We were in college together, and even back then it was apparent to me that she will be one of the 'different' ones. I recall her showing me a letter from George Lucas's (or is it Steven Spielberg's? Sorry, Anis, if I err here) production company addressed to her. I remember holding the letter like it was written on goldpaper. Anyway, Anis, being a big fan of the Lord of the Ring trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien wanted to ask the great movie maestro whether he would be interested to put Frodo, Aragon, Gandalf and Smeagol on the silver screen. Well, the studio replied and basically said that such a movie is not in the offing, however, they are planning to produce a movie called Willow which is also fantasy based. The movie was released sometime in 1988, and collected almost USD58 million in the US alone.

I bumped into her travel blog recently and found a short write-up entitled "Love on the Road". I found it to be witty and interesting. I for one, never had the risk of falling in love on the road. Simply because I am seldom on the road. But perhaps you are the sort that would be travelling half of the year, all over the world, and may need advice on managing airport-terminal affairs and hotel lobby liaisons. If you would like to read her observations on this (and other random thoughts that she may be entertaining at any given time), just Click Here.

Thank God it's Friday!

Pax Taufiqa.

Subprime Bust Part 2 - INSIDE JOB the Movie

INSIDE JOB. At 5.14am earlier this morning I was still awake. And guess what, I only dozed off at about 9.30am. For this loss of sleep I must blame INSIDE JOB, a movie which according to the tagline, costs $20,000,000,000,000.00 to make. The movie was in fact a documentary, directed by Charles Ferguson, about the subprime bust in the USA which almost tipped the entire global economic structure into chaos. In my earlier posting entitled 'Michael Lewis (Wall Street Insider) Mikhail Taufiq (Venture Capitalist) and the Subprime Bust"(Click Here) , I touched a little about this scandal.

AMAZING MOVIE. If you wish to know just how close the world came to a financial tsunami of biblical scale, you MUST see this movie. The list of luminaries alone (both the villains and heroes of this Wall Street escapade) which were interviewed is a good reason enough to watch it - Willem Buiter – Chief economist for Citigroup. John Campbell – Department chair of Harvard University’s Department of Economics. Kristin Davis – Best known as the “Madam” to countless investment bankers. Martin Feldstein – The George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University and President Emeritus of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Jerome Fons –Served as Managing Director of Credit Policy at Moody’s Investor Services. Barney Frank – Democratic Representative for the state of Massachusetts. Samuel Hayes – Hayes holds the Jacob H. Schiff Chair in Investment Banking Emeritus at the Harvard Business School. Glenn Hubbard – Chief Economic Advisor during the Bush Administration and current Dean of the Columbia University Business School. Christine Lagarde – The French Minister of Finance, Economic Affairs, Industry and Employment. Jeffrey Lane – CEO of Modern Bank, and former Chairman and CEO of Bear Stearns Asset Management. Lee Hsien Loong – The current Prime Minister of Singapore. Frederic Mishkin – American economist and professor at Columbia Business School, Mishkin was a member of the Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2008. Charles Morris – Author of The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers and the Great Credit Crash. Raghuram Rajan – An economist and Eric J. Gleacher Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the Booth School of Business, University of Chicago. Andrew Sheng – Chief Advisor to the China Banking Regulatory Commission. George Soros - is a Hungarian-American currency speculator, stock investor, businessman, philanthropist, and political activist. Dominique Strauss-Kahn – Current Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund and former Minister for Finance, Economy and Industry, France. Paul Volcker – An American economist who served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve under Presidents Carter and Reagan from 1979 – 1987. Scott Talbott – Top lobbyist for the Financial Services Roundtable. Nouriel Roubini – Professor of Economics at the Stern School of Business at New York University. (write-up extracted from the movie's PressKit)

MATT DAMON TURNS UP THE HEAT. The narrator and interviewer was none other than Mr. Bourne Ultimatum himself, Matt Damon. I wonder just how many of the super-bosses interviewed thought "Hey, I am going to be interviewed by Matt Damon. The kids are gonna love this. I bet Matt haven't a clue and will throw me easy questions to answer... this is going to be a walk in the park". Or so they thought.See bankers, regulators and acadamicians (under pay of the financial industry) squirm in the interview chair, looking like they rather be a million miles away from the interview and Matt Damon. See grown men (the villians are all men) lie to the camera and asking for a break in the interview to regain their composure. See one particular guy lose his cool and insult Matt. Hehehe.

MOVIE ACCOLADES. The movie is brilliant and already recognised so, winning the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature recently in February 2011, and before that the Writers Guild of America Award AND the Directors Guild of America Award for Best Documentary Screenplay and Best Documentary. Sunshine, if you are an American, I suggest you spend some quality time to watch the movie. It is very enlightening, to say the least. I am not saying that the sinner predicted the subprime catastrophe, but in 2004 I recorded this prose...

188. Paper Promises
Paper money make poor substitute
For gold and silver,
A mode of transaction
On human promises.
And oh, how well
We know of man
And his paper promises!

OUT! OUT! OUT! When Jesus, the Prince of Peace, kicked out the money-lenders out of the Temple, I don't think it is because he disliked how they smelled. The economy, for those in the know (and I know you are in the know, sunshine), is not only a temporal issue - it is a spiritual issue of great significance not only because you have frauds and monopolies, but how such crimes and social injustice affect a great swath of humanity if something goes wrong. And in 2008, oh boy, did it go wrong!

Have a nice day, sunshine. And if you have the vote in America, please make you vote count. As I said, if your country has a cold, it's the rest of the world that will be sneezing. Help us.

Pax Taufiqa.

Relevant Links - 'Inside Job' Official Website / 'Inside Job' Sony Pictures Website / Wikipedia on 'Inside Job'