Yowazzup: A Directory of Happening Things

Iron Man is a superhero movie based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Iron Man directed by Jon Favreau. The film stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark a.k.a. Iron Man, Terrence Howard as Lt. Colonel James Rhodes, Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane a.k.a. Iron Monger and Gwyneth Paltrow as Tony Stark’s hot personal assistant, Pepper Potts.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The first prototype of Iron Man

Iron Man stars Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) as a billionaire industrialist whose core business is making weapons. While testing Stark Industries’ latest missile creation called "The Jericho" in Afghanistan, he is kidnapped by a ruthless Middle Eastern terrorist organization who called themselves "Ten Rings".

The film then goes back 36 hours earlier to show what happens before Stark’s journey in Afghanistan, which includes a one-night stand with a reporter named Christine Everhart (Leslie Bibb).

Back to the future, though critically injured and almost die, Stark is saved by Yinsen (Shaun Toub), a mysterious stranger who comes to his rescue. Miraculously, Yinsen is multilingual and knows many languages, from Arab to Urdu to Mongolian. Yinsen uses an electromagnet which keeps the shrapnel from piercing Stark’s heart.

As the terrorists of "Ten Rings" enters the cave Stark and Yinsen are hiding, they both surrender and Stark is forced to create "The Jericho" missile for them. As Yinsen persuades Stark to find a way out of there, Stark first creates a very technologically-advanced heart for himself before building the rest of Iron Man. When the leader of Ten Rings suspects Stark is not working on "The Jericho" missile, he almost kills Yinsen whose life is only spared as Stark undoubtedly tells the terrorist leader that he needs Yinsen as he is a good assistant. Stark manages to create the ultimate bulletproof suit of power armor, complete with pacemaker and flamethrowers and releases himself from his captor but Yinsen dies in the process while trying to help Stark to buy time.

However, since the Iron Man suit is the first creation, it fails after flying in midair and crashed onto a desert with the Iron Man suit fall apart into a thousand pieces only to have Lt. Colonel James Rhodes (Terrence Howard) to rescue Stark.

Now back at the States, his partner Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) and especially his personal assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) is extremely happy to see him alive and kicking. When Potts insists to bring Stark to the hospital for checkup, all Stark wants is a Burger King’s Cheeseburger and to call for an immediate press conference. In the press conference, Stark requests all the reporters to sit down while he eats his cheeseburger. He immediately announces the shut down of Stark Industries weapon manufacturing to which his partner, Stane strongly disapproves.

Back at home, Stark builds a more advanced heart for himself and gets Potts to replace his "old" heart which he tells Potts to throw and burn it. Stark improves his armor and becomes the technologically advanced superhero Iron Man. After numerous testings, his advanced armor suit ends up in gold with red paint. Almost immediately, Stark puts in his latest Iron Man suit, flies to Gulmira, Afghanistan and kills the terrorists who at that point of time are kidnapping women and children and killing men.

The improved Iron Man in gold and red

Meanwhile, the Ten Rings terrorists manage to find pieces of armor left by Stark. The leader of Ten Rings, Raza (Faran Tahir) is seen meeting Stane in discussion of the remained of the armor suits found in the desert. Despite being the man who sells weapons to Ten Rings, Stane orders his men to finish off the remainders of the terrorists and left the place with the armor suit.

Back in United States, Stane gathers a group of scientists to build a more advanced Iron Man called Iron Monger. The only thing missing is the way too technological-advanced heart that Stark has built for himself. So, Stane uses a disapproved highly-advanced sound wave weapon to temporarily immobilize Stark in order to grab his heart.

Stark is lucky as his assistant, Potts has kept his "old" heart in a properly framed glass which simply says “Stark has a heart”. He struggles to reach the framed glass but his robotic assistant lends him a hand.

The fight between Iron Man and Iron Monger then pursues but not for long before the film ends with Tony Stark at a press conference revealing himself as the Iron Man.

Overall, the movie is awesome and is possibly the best-ever film adapted from a comic book. Funny, smart and properly plotted, this is probably the best movie so far for the 2008 movies.

My ratings: 8 out of 10.

P/S: Do look out for Stan Lee’s cameo appearance in the movie.

Popularity: 1% [?]

My only reason to watch Battlestar Galactica: To watch Number Eight! Hilarious as usual!

Popularity: 2% [?]

CJ7, also known as Cheung gong 7 hou in Cantonese or Chang Jiang qi hao in Mandarin is a science fiction movie written, produced and directed by Stephen Chow, who also stars in the film. CJ7 was released on January 31, 2008 in Hong Kong and Australia while it was released on February 7, 2008 in Singapore and Malaysia.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In CJ7, Stephen Chow plays a poor Chinese laborer, known only as Ti Chow who has to work very hard in order to send his son, Dicky (who is actually played by a girl, Xu Jiao) to a private school. A rich and snobbish kid in his school shows off a cool robotic toy, known as CJ1 makes Dicky also wants a CJ1. But since Ti has spent all his hard-earned money to send Dicky to a private school, he has no money left for such luxury toys. One day, while Ti is searching for a usable pair of shoes for Dicky from the garbage, he ends up finding a round green ball instead. So, he gives the “new toy” to his son.

At first, the “new toy” is almost useless, but the next day, it transforms into an “alien toy dog”, which Dicky simply calls by the name CJ7.

CJ7 is a cool alien toy dog

CJ7 is able to make a rotten apple into a fresh, juicy one. Therefore, Dicky has had a dream in which CJ7 is able to fight fierce ferocious stray dog on the street and able to invent cool gadgets for him to pass his exam with flying colors and excel in sports. However, when Dicky brings CJ7 to face the stray dog, CJ7 ends up getting beaten up by the dog instead. And when he brings him to school, all CJ7 can produce is very cute poo. As Dicky becomes angry, he takes Dicky to the toilet and forces him to produce something for him so he can score 100% in his exam. Instead, CJ7 shoots more poos like a machine gun towards Dicky. Dicky then decides to abandon CJ7 since he’s useless.

When Dicky realizes it was his own fault, he tries to find CJ7 in the garbage can but the garbage truck has taken all the garbage away.

Stephen Chow and Xu Jiao with CJ7

Dicky goes home disappointed only to find out CJ7 is at home, found by his dad. His dad is somewhat surprised that his son already knows CJ7. The movie then shows even an “alien dog” has emotions. When the toy dog realizes Ti and his son feel way too warm since the new fan Ti has bought is not working, CJ7 uses his magical power to repair the fan so that both Dicky and his dad can sleep more soundly.

Ti decides to keep CJ7 away from his son when he has found out that Dicky only gets 0 mark in his exam instead of the 100, which he added on the report card. Dicky has decided to stay with his teacher, Miss Yuen (Kitty Zhang Yuqi), as he is mad with his dad.

Ti has earlier lost his job after his argument with his boss. When he goes back to work, his boss rewards him an “ang pow” instead, and apologizes for saying Ti’s son a cheater. Unfortunately, while Ti is working, he accidentally falls from a tall building and is announced dead in the hospital.

Dicky does not want to believe his dad is dead even when Miss Yuen tells him so. He cries and he shuts off Miss Yuen and says he wanted to sleep so that when he wakes up the next day, he can see his dad besides him. The next day, when Dicky wakes up, he really sees his dad sleeping besides him. Dicky is surprised but he straightaway hugs his clueless dad. Earlier, CJ7 has used his magical power to resurrect Ti. Somehow, CJ7 has become weak as a result of using too much power in order to resurrect Ti. Before long, CJ7 dies and transforms into an embroidered keychain!

Dicky doesn’t give up and keeps on talking to CJ7, in hoping he will wake up someday. One hopeful day, Dicky and his dad bumps into an UFO. And when the UFO has landed, dozens of “alien toy dogs” are seen running towards them! In the ending scenes, we can see the school children do not fight each other anymore, instead they date each other! Even Dicky’s dad is dating the hot and sexy Miss Yuen. I wish my teachers were as hot as Miss Yuen.

Ti dates Miss Yuen (played by Kitty Zhang), the hot school teacher

My ratings: 8 out of 10. Why? The movie might not have the special effects like Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings. It might not be as humorous as Stephen Chow’s previous films, but it has all the elements that will make you laugh and then make you cry. Really great acting from Xu Jiao, whom Stephen Chow even said “She is a born actor and such a genius. In fact, she’s an even better actor than I am.” While at it, the movie reminds us a few things in life — Number 1: Don’t lie, cheat or steal even if you are poor, Number 2: Don’t take things for granted, life comes and goes like every other things; your loved ones may be gone when you least expected, so treasure them!

Popularity: 5% [?]

Sci Fi & Fantasy Festival 2006 was held in Cineleisure Damansara from December 15 - 17, 2006. It claimed to be the first-ever Sci-Fi and Fantasy event to be held in Malaysia. Some of the highlights include a cosplay competition and Eragon showcase featuring Eragon games and related merchandize. Other than that, there were Comics Zone, a place showcasing comics, manga and cartoons of local talents. There were also a cyber game arena with Eragon Official Game Launch and Demo, Warhammer: 40k: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade Tournament and Water Margin Online Game Showcase. I managed to catch a glimpse of the main highlight of the carnival, which include movie character appearance like Elektra, Jason from Hell, Freddie Nightmare, Stormtrooper, Predator and so on.

Some models displaying the latest PDA’s and clothing line

Movie Props Making Workshop by Movia Mania, Singapore

Some girls from SMK Bandar Utama dancing

Elektra from the movie Elektra

Some models displaying the latest PDA’s and clothing line and make-ups from Fling and Elianto

Stormtrooper from Star Wars

Freddie The Nightmare

Predator

Jason From Hell

Predator, Jason From Hell, Chicken Little and Elektra

Eragon (sitting first from left), Freddie, Jason, Stormtrooper, Predator, Chicken Little, Elektra and Batman (hiding, LoL!)

Eragon (sitting first from left), Freddie, Jason, Stormtrooper, Predator, Chicken Little, Elektra and Batman (now, he’s standing on the left!)

Eragon (sitting first from left), Freddie, Jason, Stormtrooper, Predator, Chicken Little, Elektra and Batman (this Batman has a low profile, no pun intended. LoL!)

Chicken Little and Elektra. Chicken Little is quite horny. He even shook his butt . Damn pervert!

The entire gang

Chicken Little’s moving away

Elektra

Popularity: 16% [?]