Yowazzup: A Directory of Happening Things

The Spiderwick Chronicles is a 2008 fantasy film adaptation of Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi’s bestselling series.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Freddie Highmore and Sarah Bolger play Jared/Simon Grace and Mallory Grace respectively in The Spiderwick Chronicles

The film starts with a man named Arthur Spiderwick (David Strathairn) who somewhat seems hasty in writing a book filled with weird stuff. It seems like something is pursuing him that makes him hurriedly seals the book to keep it safe. Then the film goes back to the present, 80 years later where Mrs. Helen Grace (Mary-Louise Parker) and her family has arrived to their new house. Mrs. Helen Grace wants a new start for her family, her daughter Mallory (Sarah Bolger) and her twin sons, Simon and Jared (both played by Freddie Highmore). They move into the Spiderwick Estate which is given to them by their elderly great-aunt Lucinda, Arthur Spiderwick’s daughter.

Jared does not like moving to the new house. Since he has often being perceived as the naughty one, every now and then when something unpleasant happens, he tends to be blamed.

Jared finds a monogrammed key behind a wall after Mallory accidentally uncovers a dumbwaiter system. He later discovers Arthur Spiderwick’s studyroom and he finds a chest which he opens with the monogrammed key and finds Spiderwick’s Field Guide written by Arthur Spiderwick. Despite the attached note which warns him not to read, he does it anyway. The moment he opens the book, a strong signal is somewhat felt by the entire estate, which sends a signal to Mulgarath, a shape-shifting ogre who wants the book so he can kill all the faeries and mankind to take over the world.

Later, Jared meets a brownie named Thimbletack, who explains that magical creatures are normally invisible but can reveal themselves at will. He tells Jared about a protective circle that Arthur Spiderwick placed around the house and gives him a stone with a hole which allows him to see faeries. Simon, mistaken for Jared, is kidnapped by Mulgarath’s goblins, while Jared meets Hogsqueal, a hobgoblin who gives Jared the ability to see all faeries without the aid of the stone. Simon is released by the goblins with the condition that he must steal the book from Jared. Upon his return, Jared and Simon fight over whether they should give the book to Mulgarath without realizing that the goblins are running towards them. Although they manage to fend off the goblins, Simon’s leg is badly injured by the goblins. Mallory, meanwhile is wandering outside the circle and does not heed the warning of his brothers until the goblins attack her. Jared throws the stone with a hole so she can see the goblins and when does, she finally believes what Jared has said earlier.

Thinking their great-aunt Lucinda (Joan Plowright) can be their only hope, Jared and Mallory escapes to an underground tunnel while Simon distracts the monsters. Lucinda is in the nuthouse for telling Arthur Spiderwick is kidnapped by faeries, which is somewhat the truth. In fact, Arthur Spiderwick was “rescued” by Sylphs, a type of faerie when the goblins attacked. Lucinda tells them they must find her father to have him destroy the book. Suddenly, Mulgarath’s goblins attack them from the windows and manage to steal several pages from the book before they are driven off.

The siblings use the book to summon Arthur Spiderwick’s pet, a griffin, which takes them to the realms of the Sylphs. There, Arthur Spiderwick is still alive and has not aged since the day he was “rescued”. Spiderwick tells Jared that the only person who can save the world is Jared himself since he has the knowledge of the book. Spiderwick distracts the faeries to enable Jared and Mallory to escape from the land of the Sylphs.

On their return, Hogsqueal warns them that one of the stolen pages will allow Mulgurath to destroy the protective circle when the moon is full. Mrs. Grace, initially does not want to believe what their children tell her since she knows the children is probably under some kind of pressure after they move. Somehow, when Thimbletack appears and when Jared gives the stone of hole to see enable her to see the attacking goblins, she believes her children without doubt. The family arms themselves with steel knives and tomato sauce. When they are forced into the kitchen, they place all of their tomato sauce and salt into the oven and hide before detonating it, killing all of the goblins.

Then Mr. Grace enters the house and tells Jared that he came to apologize; however, Jared discovers that he is an imposter and stabs him in the stomach. He turns out to be Mulgarath in disguise. Jared escapes with the book through the dumbwaiter while Mulgarath transforms into a python and gives pursuit. On the roof, Mulgarath turns back into his ogre form and almost captures Jared when Jared throws the book onto the lawn; as Mulgarath transforms into a raven to catch it, he is snatched and eaten by Hogsqueal.

The Graces family bring Lucinda back to the house; and the Sylphs appear, bringing Arthur. However, since he cannot remain, because his age would return to him all at once and kill him, Lucinda asks to be taken with him, and so the Sylphs transform her back into her six-year-old self and spirit the two away.

Overall, the movie is somewhat short of expectation. But, it’s a good movie for the whole family.

My ratings: 7 out of 10.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Magic or trick?

Popularity: 2% [?]

A Las Vegas warehouse belonging to magician David Copperfield has been raided by FBI agents.

They took a computer hard drive, a digital camera memory chip and $2m (£937,000) in cash, Las Vegas TV station KLAS said.

Copperfield’s lawyer said a woman had made “serious allegations” against the magician, but insisted they were false.

Copperfield, 51, is known for his stunts, such as apparently walking through the Great Wall of China.

David Copperfield is currently on his “World of Wonder Tour”, which include Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Read the rest of David Copperfield’s warehouse got raided by FBI

Popularity: 1% [?]

Disney’s first fully Chinese film, The Magic Gourd (Baohulu de mimi) or more known as The Secret of the Magic Gourd globally is mildly amusing but is overall disappointing. Co-produced with Hong Kong computer effects firm Centro and co-directed by John Chu, Magic Gourd is a story about a young boy coming across a mysterious magic gourd which helps him achieve anything he wants simply by thinking about it.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Wang Bao (Zhu Qilong) is a young boy who fails miserably at his academic as well as at extra-curricular activities. He always wake up late and fail to finish his homework. One day, after being ridiculed at school, Wang Bao runs into a forest with his fishing pole and pail and discovers a mystical lake as he trespasses the beyond the forest’s limitation. Even when he’s fishing, he lies down and falls asleep, which simply shows how lazy the young boy is. As expected, his fishing pole suddenly shakes and he wakes up and catches the magic gourd.

The Magic Gourd (Lau Ching-Wan, Cantonese version / Peisi Chen, Mandarin version) tells the boy that he can grant every wish come true. After telling the gourd what he wants and the gourd failing to grant it, Wang Bao walks away disbelievingly before the gourd strongly emphasizes to Wang that he needs to agree to become the gourd’s master in order to be able to grant wishes. With the promise of having every wish come true without having to do an ounce of work, Wang immediately becomes the gourd’s master and immediately, the gourd grants Wang’s wish of getting a lot of fish. The gourd grants Wang hundred of fish with all of fish floating in the air. Wang purposely chooses a few variety of gold fish. After that, the gourd grants Wang food, with majority of them being fast food after the boy tells him that he’s hungry.

Then, Wang abruptly flies to the school with a mini plane, driven by the gourd so that he can show off to his friends that he can actually catch fish. When his friends see the gold fish in his pail, they quickly point out that goldfish does not live in the lake or sea water. This instance forces Wang Bao to go to the school library to borrow a book after sea creatures.

How brilliant is the magic gourd anyway? There are many occasions in which the gourd tries to grant the boy wishes but ends up screwing him up - when Wang Bao wants to get into a sold-out movie with dinosaurs, the gourd literally puts him into the movie next to a T-Rex, when Wang Bao wants to “eat” his opponent’s chess pieces (the Chinese says “eat” instead of “capture” in chess), so the gourd literally puts the chess pieces into Wang Bao’s mouth. When Wang Bao says he wants all the toys from the toy store, the gourd has every toy from the toy store move to his room.

While the movie lacks the effects and a strong storyline, the actors presumably have done very well in their roles. The voice of Hong Kong actor Lau Ching-Wan manages to give life to the gourd with his amusing voice performance that otherwise, the movie would have been a total failure. Gigi Leung, meanwhile acts as Wang Bao’s teacher that her existence is merely to teach the kids a valuable lesson with sayings like “there’s no such thing as an unearned reward”.

Eventually, the Magic Gourd is a movie more suitable for kids with its objective to educate them instead of just mere entertainment.

Popularity: 1% [?]

David Copperfield’s tour in South East Asia will not only be in Singapore and Bangkok but Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as well! Yes, you heard me right. In fact, his Kuala Lumpur tour will be earlier than Singapore and Bangkok - on Oct 30 and 31, 2007!

Unlike Singapore, David Copperfield will have two shows per day in Malaysia - 5:00pm matinee show and 8:30pm evening show! The tickets for the matinee shows start from MYR 83 to MYR 383 while the tickets for the evening show are priced from MYR 83 to MYR 423. There will be 20% discount for children between 3 to 12. Sometimes, I wish I were a kid.

For more information and to get the tickets, visit www.axcess.com.my

Popularity: 4% [?]

Amaze. Conjure. Magic. Escape. Illusion. Watch it all come true, every night.

Long hailed by audiences and critics alike as the greatest illusionist in the world, David Copperfield is back to woo Singapore audiences again, after six long years. Witty, engaging and supremely entertaining, David Copperfield has elevated the ancient art of magic to new heights and redefined it along the way. He has made the Statue of Liberty vanished, walked through the Great Wall of China, flown through the air and made audience members disappear and reappear in places they would never expect.

Catch the master illusionist, David Copperfield, in his new Asia tour “World of Wonder”, on 2nd and 3rd November at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

“David Copperfield, World of Wonder”
Date: 2nd & 3rd November 2007(Friday & Saturday)
Time: 7pm
Venue: Singapore Indoor Stadium
Ticket pricing: $148, $128, $98, $68 (excluding $2 SISTIC fee)
SISTIC ticketing hotline: 6348 5555

Get your tickets online

Popularity: 3% [?]

Good day!

• Now, I have more reasons to eat slower. So, don’t complain when you have a meal with me.
• Harry Potter casts magic on workplace.
• Another Simple Life’s star in DUI. Life is so simple, you know.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Learn a cool magic trick from this little girl!

Popularity: 2% [?]

Have you heard of magic cone?

Click here to view the instructions and watch the animation

Popularity: 1% [?]

Happy Holidays! Holiday shoppers kick off the season!

• Heidi Klum and Seal have a baby Seal.. uhh.. boy.
• Magician David Blaine escaped gyroscope after two days hanging in it.
• Folic acid may reduce heart attack risk.

Popularity: 1% [?]