Olga Kurylenko – WilfridWong.com

Prefer Casino Royale to Quantum of Solace – My Quantum of Mad Rush from 1450 to 1658

I think I had my fair share of action packed excitement prior to the five o’clock movie “Quantum of Solace”. At 1450 (timestamp from one of my messages to M), I stepped into my Aston Martin (OK, more like a … whatever) with one hand on my Nokia phone doing last minute checking on my GPS ordinates (I did turn on my Nokia Map because I couldn’t afford to make any error and you will see why) …

OK. If you are here for the movie review, please skip to the next section.

Now, back to my quantum of mad rush … I am usually quite good at working backward and estimating what time we shall leave our doorsteps. Today, so much needed to be done and … I gave up planning. 1450 was terribly late, that much I knew. Tailgated the first car I saw on the quiet road of our neighborhood, I overtook it over a hump. My car’s engine went vroom vroom vroom and … oops, the car belongs to the Colonel whom I just greeted at the lobby, whom was my client back in my consulting life, whom must have thought who this mad man on the road was. He must have been shocked that I was that mad man on the road.

Sir, sorry Sir! It was mad rush time!

I am terrible in road direction and I relied on my Nokia Map in times like this. Spun the car to YCK Road, drove up the Lornie Road, turned right into Holland Road, exited into Holland Avenue, and as I negotiated a sharp right turn into the car park, I was greeted by the sign …

Car park full.

Uh-huh. Parachuted Cynthia out of the car with an encrypted message “6 Dim Sum Dishes, Crystal Jade”, I patiently waited at the entrance with a path that slopped upwards. My phone rang just when that dude from the Mercedes-Benz CLS in front of me let go his brake and gravity pulled this huge German machine towards my car. NO! I furiously slammed my honk while Cynthia was on the phone asking me which of the two Crystal Jade restaurants we were supposed to meet.

Handbrake Sir … please! How would the insurance agencies know who hits who in situation like this?!

As I was waiting for our dishes to arrive, I was so happy to see the ATM machine right opposite the road. In such a high tech city like Singapore, you would have thought that cashless payment is the way to go. Apparently not for where I was going to visit, Sim Lim Square (amongst many places here). One time, I literally withdrew S$1,000 notes over-the-counter so that I don’t need to bring a briefcase of S$50 notes to buy electronic gadgets. Paid by Credit Cards I will need to add 3%. Paid by NETS I will still need to add 2%. You know what? Our supermarkets should follow suit. Imagine a 2% discount on grocery bills if we pay by cash. Why not? I would. Especially now that we are in recession. Any saving counts.

I had a vague memory on where M’s client site is at, theoretically a 5 minutes drive from Holland Vee. I did get lost and I managed to get back on track thanks to Cynthia and Nokia Map. M must have forgotten how impressive my driving skill is and as I was waiting and waiting for M to appear, I calculated the route to my next destination, Sim Lim Square.

If all go according to plan, mid next week, M and I would be two very happy men on Earth with our two new cameras. So today, we went for an accessory shopping trip. To help some of you to relate, imagine you have ordered a beautiful pair of earrings together with a matching necklace from Tiffany & Co. While waiting for these lovely items to arrive, what would you do? Yes, go shopping for some new dresses to go along, correct?

We entered into Singapore River area and have to pay S$2 ERP road charges (on a Saturday?!). We turned into Rocher Road and paid another S$2 ERP road charges. Good gracious me! No wonder I love to stay at home during weekends. And when we reached Sim Lim Square, we saw the sign …

Car park full.

Uh-huh. Parachuted M out of the car to kick start the purchase process and when we reached the basement, I parachuted myself out of the car and handed Cynthia the car key. Time was 1620 and it was running out. Ran up to Alan Photo and M was happily holding his new lens. I asked for the UV filter, no stock. Battery, no stock. Dry cabinet, no stock but I could place an order that comes with free home delivery. OK, at least I got myself a rather expensive memory card.

Jumped back into the car at 1640, I paid another S$1 ERP for entering the Orchard area. By the time we arrived at the 6th floor of Cineleisure, it was 1658. TK greeted us with the popcorn set that Cynthia has been talking about for the whole day and … time for “Quantum of Solace”!

Quantum of Solace

To the character James Bond, “Casino Royale” and “Quantum of Solace” are separated by merely an hour. To some of the audience who have caught the previous installment, that is a 2 years wait. If I was to watch “Casino Royale” right before “Quantum of Solace”, I think I may be more sympathetic over Bond’s grievance towards the quite possibly love of his life Vesper’s betrayal and death. This chapter of James Bond starring Daniel Craig seems like part of a trilogy. I made such a guess because there are some loose ends and in the end credits, it says something like “James Bond will be back again soon”. If so, that may explain this mid episode syndrome when the majority of the plot is to provide answers to the lingering questions from “Casino Royale” but yet, the climax has to come from the next episode.

I prefer “Casino Royale” because I like the storyline better, because the Bond girl is more intelligent, has more air time, and because I get to see James Bond having fun, falling in love, rather than feeling so heartbroken. Besides, I think the villain of “Casino Royale” is a lot cooler.

If you like Daniel Craig role in the Bond franchise (like me), you would enjoy “Quantum of Solace”. There are some breathtaking action sequences and certainly, refresh your mind with “Casino Royale” prior to watching this one will help to understand James Bond’s state of mind better.

PS. I like Olga Kurylenko better in Hitman.

Hitman – You May Actually Like It

This is how the Movie Review Squad works: one of us fill in an application form 118(A) to propose a movie title and if none of us veto or veto the veto, we will go ahead with the booking – with exceptions of course. Somehow my fetish for horror flicks is always vetoed by TK and Cynthia, and so is my fetish for Asian movies. But that is another story.

On Saturday morning, I passed TK’s 118(A) form to Cynthia and she OK’d it. So I asked TK to go ahead with the booking. I knew “Hitman” is a video game adaptation so as a gaming geek, I certainly have no issue with it. TK picked it and God knows why he picked it. Cynthia thought the leading actor was someone else. So what was the outcome?

One dude behind us was saying stuffs like, “Man, should have watched Enchanted instead”. Another dude replied, “That is a one-star movie, that’s why!” We certainly had no idea that it is a one-star movie. Otherwise I would have vetoed it. Surprisingly, all three of us seemed entertained by “Hitman”. It is a brainless show, I am warning you. Read on if you have an open mind.

The casting is pretty international: Americans, Scottish, Danish, and Ukrainian. I thought the Ukrainian actress, Olga Kurylenko, is pretty hot for her role but Cynthia did not think so. Vin Diesel, who is the executive producer, was supposed to play the role of the lead actor Agent 47. I wonder why he stepped down and here comes the Hawaiian origin Timothy Olyphant to take on the role. I also enjoy the Scottish actor Dougray Scott’s performance whom some of you may have recognised him from the TV series Desperate Housewives. The acting is acceptably decent – judging from the computer gaming perspective. The storyline is simple, nothing fancy. It started off like the TV series Dark Angel whereby orphans are being taken in and trained as assassins.

The question is: both Agent 47 (Mike Whittier) and Mike Whittier from the Interpol (Dougray Scott) have killed people in the course of their work, what makes the good guy has the right to take life? That was the beginning of the movie and then the storyline rewound all the way to couple of months ago. The story is not that deep, trust me. But it is enjoyable. “Hitman”, I think, has faithfully followed the gaming culture. For example, at one point, all the hitmen dropped their guns and have decided to fight with their swords. Cynthia was screaming like, “How can?!” But in a computer gaming environment, it is very common to switch weapons. I told her that she is fortunate not to see a chainsaw … ha ha ha (yep, it is a legitimate weapon commonly used). And there is one particular scene I love. Agent 47 was lying on the bed and the sexy Nika Boronina (Olga Kurylenko) was on top of him with a red dress falling off her shoulders and no panties. There was no sex (close enough). It was classic. In a gaming culture, there may be lots of blood violence with pieces of corpse flying everywhere, it is never meant to be pornographic (except for a few). I love it. Not to forget to mention the music effect. It is so computer gaming, if you know what I mean. The music always intensifies when something is going to happen.

If you are in for some brainless entertainment or if you are a gaming enthusiast, “Hitman” may be for you. I personally don’t think “Hitman” deserves such a poor rating. I know there are quite a few netizens who agree with me.