25 June 2015

SAN ANDREAS



I watched this movie on my birthday in Taiwan. It was my first choice because I would prefer to watch a chinese movie while I was there but this was the only feasible choice then given the time.

Starring Dwayne Johnson as the lead Ray, Carla Gugino as his ex-wife Emma, Alexandra Daddario as his daughter Blake, Ioan Gruffudd as the cowardice real estate developer Daniel, the asian actor Will Yun Lee as Dr Kim Chung, Colton Haynes as the helicopter rescuer Joby, this was a highly unrealistic movie where Ray, a helicopter rescue pilot, went about with his helicopter and a boat to save his ex-wife Emma and daughter Blake from the killer earthquake which measured 9.6 on the Richter scale, the tsunami, and all the effects of the catastrophe e.g. crumbling buildings.

Kylie Minogue had a cameo role as Emma's sister Susan and she died together with an entire building of people, except for Emma who managed to make it to the rooftop of the building and was rescued by Ray on his helicopter before going all out to locate Blake, who was saved by a stranger Ben Taylor, who later became her boyfriend, and his younger brother Ollie, before the father came to the final rescue.

Well, I looked past how unrealistic the plot was, and enjoyed the movie for what it was - an action-packed movie.
the collapsing Hoover dam 
seismologist Lawrence Hayes and the reporter Serena

San Franciso destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami
Ollie, Blake and Ben (L to R) watched on with horror as the tsunami hit their building
Ray and Emma

24 June 2015

FLOWER DOME - NURSERY RHYMES


After the tulips display on fairy tales, it was followed by the nursery rhymes and here I am showing some of the plants shown in the display. 
Hydrangea cultivar

Hydrangea cultivar

Digitalis (Foxglove)

Pelargonium cultivar

Pelargonium cultivar


butterfly made of artificial flowers

Dahlia cultivar

Dahlia cultivar

Dahlia cultivar

Pelargonium

Pelargonium


Jacobaea maritima 'Silver Dust' (Dusty Miller)

Synonym: Senecio bicolor subsp. cinerariaCineraria maritima

Campanula (Bellflower)

Rosa cultivar (Rose)

Aquilegia (Columbine Flower)

08 June 2015

TOMORROWLAND

This Walt Disney movie seemed to be made for kids. Naturally, George Clooney is the lead Frank Walker and together with Britt Robertson as Casey Newton, they travelled to lala-land, I mean Tomorrowland, so that she can change the course of the world before humanity destroyed the earth.

I most certainly am not a fan of George, but Casey was relatively likable.
Casey in Tomorrowland

a young George Clooney
an adult and older Frank

Casey has the ability to change the world

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

I watched this movie weeks ago and I seriously don't remember the Mel Gibson and Tina Turner version, so I couldn't do any comparison.

Starring Tom Hardy, whom I knew would go far after the 'Inception' movie and he did in 'The Dark Knight Rises', as well as Charlize Theron, this genre of movies of a post-apocalyptic world in a desert wasteland has little appeal on me. However, I like both leads as Max and Furiosa respectively, and was pleasantly surprised to see Nicholas Hoult, who was still strangely cute as the war boy Nux.

Furiosa drove five mistresses of the Immortan Joe to escape from the Citadel where they were held captive as breeders to produce offspring for the tyrant leader. With the aid of Max, Nux and few surviving members of her clan, they escaped further into the desert just to make a turn back to confront Joe and his legion of warriors, before defeating them and returning back to the Citadel.

If given better movie choices, I wouldn't pick to watch this movie though.
Max

Max held captive

a war born and raised boy Nux

who can resist the frowned expression of Nux?

Hugh Keays-Byrne as Immortan Joe

Zoe Kravitz (extreme left) seemed to be appearing in a number of recent movies