For AULD LANG SYNE, my dear. We are ushering in a brand NEW YEAR.

To all my dear, dearest FRIENDS who have been sincerely supporting my several online entertainment blogs throughout 2012, I must say that I am truly blessed and touched by your attention.

This NEW YEAR 2013 article is dedicated to each and everyone of you.

Be good, happy and healthy, and stay safe in the coming year !

I am attaching herewith, a personal favorite of mine, a heart-and-soul song AULD LANG SYNE.

Enjoy !

“PARENTAL GUIDANCE” Movie Review. Holy Smoke, it’s One Big Family Mess.

“PARENTAL GUIDANCE” PRESS PREVIEW

As a Christmassy “feel good” offering, this movie somewhat disappoints.

I cannot contain myself, I am not bubbling with joy either, but this is one you either love or loathe.

LOVE

Billy Crystal, Bette Midler and Marisa Tomei share the same billing nest.  Apart from that, there’s little to crow about.

LOATHE

Not a whiz bang, let’s say that the least you expect from this movie, you might actually wind up enjoying more.

“PARENTAL GUIDANCE” is unintentionally one big family mess, with put-on humor.

Here’s the product in a capsule:

 Grandfather Artie (Billy Crystal), who is accustomed to calling the shots, is a typically old school dude.

He meets his match when he and his wife Diane (Bette Midler) agree to babysit their three naughty grandkids. The children’s new-age parents are Marisa Tomei and Tom Everett Scott who have to go away for a work project.

Surely you will be amazed by several unsavory scenes on vomit, pee and poop in this unfunny comedy taking a swipe at a pair of exasperated grandparents who are trying their best to maintain their cool, whilst attending to three bratty kids.

Blame it on the “PARENTAL GUIDANCE” director Andy Fickman who is largely responsible for helming the project.

He tries hard to bowl us over, but thanks to his erractic treatment, the ensemble cast tends to go overboard in the acting department, irrespective of  grim or comedic situations.

Not to mention the predictable script which is pretentious and formulaic.

The movie has a situational sitcom “feel” throughout.

Well, one man’s meat is another man’ s poison.

Now, you be your own judge.

HAPPINESS IS INFECTIOUS. Spread the Cheer.

HAPPINESS IS ALL AROUND US

We may never really know what 2013 has in store.

Should we long for PEACE and HARMONY in the coming 12 months,
we’ll have to work at it.

Nothing comes from nothing.

Happiness, a product of your well being, is a choice,

My bestest pal who often wears a most beautiful smile often cajoles me:

“To live in peace,
We must have inner peace.

To have inner peace,
We must have a pure conscience.

When our conscience is clear and our mind at peace,
We bring peace and bliss to those around us.”

Happiness is infectious,

It’s akin to a kind word or a kind deed, so go spread the cheer,

Here’s wishing all my chums a rollicking, jolly 2013 !

Wishing all MY FRIENDS and READERS a TRULY MEANINGFUL CHRISTMAS!

2012 is coming to a close.

So what have we learnt from the last 12 months?

The FUTURE is, and always shall be, an illusion.

The PAST remains as a memory.

So hold dear to whatever GOODNESS that is in our hearts at this present moment.

Spread the season’s cheer.

Do remember to fulfill the remaining duties that YOU still have at hand.

Here’s wishing all my FRIENDS a truly meaningful CHRISTMAS 2012.

We are heralding in a splendid NEW YEAR 2013.

Tread with caution, in whatever you do.

Stay SAFE !

“THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY” Movie Review. The LULL before the STORM.

“THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY” PRESS PREVIEW

It’s a case of much ado about everything.

Everyone has his differing opinion in regard to “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”.

Hence I’ll keep this Review short and sweet to spare readers from the long overture, the tedious technicalities that come with the making of this epic.

Here’s a case in point which follows the proverbial adage that good wine needs no bush.

Because film director Peter Jackson requires no formal introduction.

His  latest offering “Hobbit” is a prequel to his immensely successful “Lord of the Rings”, allowing us to set foot again in the fictional world of the Middle Earth.

The LOTR trilogy was produced in 3 parts, the journey starting from 2001 and culminating in 2003.

Hold your breath, that was 9 years ago, long before the advent of the 3D stereoscopy.

Nearly $3 billion in worldwide grosses had been collected on this franchise.

Now “Hobbit” 2012, the almost-three-hour prequel has  arrived after the many years of waiting. Interest has since waned.

The Hobbit follows the story of Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), a reluctant hobbit who has been recruited by the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) to join him together with a motley group of rowdy dwarves to rescue their Lonely Mountain home from an evil dragon.

The quest involves encounters with trolls and orcs, visits with elves and Gollum (Andy Serkis).

The entire visual extravaganza was shot at 48 frames per second (twice the normal speed) as Peter Jackson insisted that the traditional 24 frames format has a primitive dressing.

 Striving beyond perfection, the double speed evokes a sheen of “surrealistic fake-ness” in key scenes.

 ”The Hobbit” may be an entertaining effort given the advances in digital animation and faster projection speed, but the inspiration has diminished, and it hardly enthralls the way its predecessors did.

Followers of the LOTR  movies will still continue to find plenty to rave about.

Non-followers may be bored by the overdrawn plot, the chaotic assembly of ghastly creatures and 15 main characters, some of them could have been omitted in the already complicated plot.

You simply can’t please everybody.

Right.

“LIFE OF PI” MOVIE REVIEW. Overcoming FEAR in a SEA of PERILS.

Sitting precariously on the edge of this dinghy during a killer storm, would you be able to flail your arms like this?

Serenity along the line of poetic justice ….

Dauntless on this raft ….

Overcoming the odds with this carnivorous beast

When the sea is calm, all I have to do is wait and dream ….

When you embrace 3 religions at the same time, which GOD would you holler for help?

Help me GOD, save me … I don’t wanna die!

Nightfall brings forth a deathly calm

(Snarl …) Don’t mess with me even though I am digitally enhanced

“LIFE OF PI” PRESS PREVIEW

“LIFE OF PI” is a beautifully crafted film, basked among other attributes.

It is a celluloid platform that demonstrates the resilence of the human spirit in the face of  near death where you’ve to fight for your survival.

What’d you have done to stay alive in any circumstances?

In the wake of massive media fanfare, this film is a fantasy romp that had already enjoyed a successful worldwide pre-publicity blitz.

The global media always has a divine way in drumming whatever justifiable publicity, and in this case critics have been kind towards this special effects fantasy.

With a whopping production value of USD 100 million, “LIFE OF PI” deserves the generous buzz that’s propelling it all the way to the moon, only the cinema goer can go figure and adds on.

The making of PI has stretched the limits of 3D stereoscopic technology.

One decade ago, it would have been virtually impossible to accomplish this feat.

Then there were technological limitations and animation arts have yet to be fully developed.

Research and money over time have broken down barriers and now the creative applications of  improved visual effects have deepened the film’s sense of purpose and worth.

Adapted from YANN MARTEL’s popular novel, the film pins a 16 year old Indian boy PI’s plight (SURAJ SHARMA) who’s lost at sea for 227 days.

The ship he has boarded along with the animals his family brought along to begin a new life in Canada capsizes during a violent storm.

Everyone perishes with the exception of PI and he ends up in a 26 ft life boat together with an unwanted assembly of an  orang utan, a zebra, a hyena and a Bengal tiger named  Richard Parker. In due course, all the wild animals become fodder for the Bengal tiger. Only Pi remains.

In order to stay alive, he has first to taunt the animal, to feed it with fishes from the ocean and to train it to understand and obey orders.

Richard Parker is a digital creation, it’s perfection at its best, a remarkably rendered computer animal that has been seamlessly blended into the live action.

The 3D imagery is breathlessly stupendous, drawing viewers deeper into PI’s world so that the illusion of depth becomes essential to the story.

With film director ANG LEE, you open his door and step right into the heart stomping visual feast he wants you to see.

“LIFE OF PI” purports to be an glorious insight on faith as PI embraces three religions (Christianity, Hinduism and Islam) at the same time, but it does not work based on the rules and conflicts of those religions. The days in the ocean has seen PI  transformed from being an impressionistic youth to a mature man. You can feel his searing loneliness, his confidence lost and faith restored eventually for life to move on.

God works in mysterious ways.

PI played by SURAJ SHARMA was an unknown face in India until “LIFE OF PI” and is now achieving leading man status. He is ably supported by veterans like IRRFAN KHAN, RAFE SPALL, ADIL HUSSAIN and TABU.

 Cinematographer CLAUDIO MIRANDA does a splendid job in capturing all manner of wild delights that beguiles and bedazzles the aesthetic sense.

“LIFE OF PI” is a brilliant and mesmerizing work of art from storytelling director ANG LEE.

It’s an immensely enjoyable film, so don’t miss it for the world!

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2012 and HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013. MAY the FORCE be with YOU!

A MERRY CHRISTMAS 2012 ….
FOLLOWED BY A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013.

A brand new year is dawning …. and what will the pundits have in store for us?
Another recession of global dimensions?

Who knows?

With inflation hitting us everywhere, the road to economic recovery is hardly optimistic.

But life plods on.

Did you look at yourself in the mirror today?

Year after year, do you not notice that your youth is slowly seeping away?

LIFE IS SHORT. TIME and TIDE wait for no man. No sir !!

If you don’t enjoy THIS VERY MOMENT, it will be gone forever.

MOMENTS ARE NON-RETRIEVABLE.

Do not regret if these little moments collectively, just become a memory of a certain passage in your life.

Did you say “I love you” to your mother this morning?

She may not be around forever. Are you taking her presence for granted?

Go give her a hug.

Do you treasure your friends around you, because you never really know what’d happen in the future.

Would you stop your drinking and hit the gym more often?

Did you………….??

The list goes on.

Do you have a creed to live by?

Don’t shut love out of your life,

The fastest way to receive love is to give love,

The best way to keep love is to give it wings.

Don’t take the things closest to your heart for granted,

For without them life is meaningless.

Don’t let the little moments called life slip through your fingers,

BY LIVING YOUR LIFE ONE DAY AT A TIME,

YOU WILL LIVE ALL THE DAYS OF YOUR LIFE.

Life is not a race.

It is never meant to be.

LIFE is a journey to be savored each step of the way.

Today when we drink our tea and live life, let us smile and be happy.

Let us relish this moment.

Because time and tide wait for no man.

At least we are alive and living.

AND MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THIS.