The Wolfman

"Lawrence Talbot, a haunted nobleman, is lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Reunited with his estranged father, Talbot sets out to find his brother... and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself. Talbot's childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother's fiancée, Gwen Conliffe, tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline has come to investigate...(Plot Summary: The Internet Movie Database)."

"The Wolfman" is a thriller movie. As I have never seen the original release before, it was "new" to me. The performance of the actors is good. They have the right actors for the right characters in the film, especially to Del Toro. He is suitable for "werewolf" character as he has the kind of look. The story line was weak and lacking. One part that made no sense to me - how could Del Toro establish a love relationship with his brother's fiancee "Emily Blunt" for such a short period of time? It's a bit ridiculous. There was a twist in the film. The visual and sound effects were great. Overall, the movie is "okay" but not a must see one (Movie Rating: 2.5/5).

Figures to be reviewed...

As I am currently busy packing my stuff to move in a new place, I will keep these in my
office until second week of March and only after that, I am able to take more photos on
them and do some reviews. Anyway, will post some photos on the box packaging if I can.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians - The Lightning Thief

"Trouble-prone teen Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out school but that's the least of his problems. The gods of Mount Olympus and assorted monsters seem to have walked out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology texts and into his life and they're not happy. Zeus' lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect. Now, Percy and his friends must embark on a cross-country adventure to catch the true thief, save Percy's family, and unravel a mystery more powerful than the gods themselves (Movie Overview: Fandango)."

There is no doubt it is an adventure and action packed movie just like Harry Potter. The movie plot is simple, interesting, hilarious and most importantly easy to understand. The film is more US style as compared to UK style Harry Potter. The special effects were great. The male lead “Logan Lerman” is handsome and definitely has potential in his future career. In the movie, those creatures were not surprising as we had seen a lot of the similar kind in other adventure movies. Besides the centaur (half human half horse) played by Pierce Brosnan, the special ability of Medusa with snake hair (played by Uma Thurman) impressed me as it can turn thing to stone. Of coarse some parts of the movie were fun and full of excitement. It’s entertaining throughout the entire movie. The film is suitable for all ages and my overall movie rating is 3/5.

Sideshow - Lando Calrissian Pt.2

The head sculpt is so good that you could recognize the likeness is Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian in Star Wars films. Sideshow has done a great texturing work on the hair, eyes, moustache and lips. The overall shape of the face is beautifully executed and I believe this is one of the best 1/6 human head sculpts produced by Sideshow recently.

The joints of the figure are tight enough to hold most poses and I have no issue with any movement of the head.

The sculpted hands work well with the blasters – Red Dot Scope mounted blaster and the stormtrooper blaster with folding stock. As usual, nice weathering you can have on the stormtrooper blaster.

The big belt around Lando’s waist has some simple design and it is wholly made of plastic. Lando has a “wrist comlink” and the surface of the communications device is fairly detail.

Besides nicely painted eyebrows and moustache, darker lips colour is carried out to differentiate the skin tone of the face. Although Sideshow does not produce glossy eyes to its 1/6 figures, the paint work on the eyes is considered good.

The shirt and pants are well tailored. I guess the blue cape is the best part of the costume and the wired collar keeps the cape hanging in place. The interior lining of the cape is also pretty screen accurate.

Lando wears a pair of 70’s style boots with high heels and they look funky.

Besides a display stand and two blasters, there is an extra set of hands for you to swap. Even if Lando is not a very popular character in the Star Wars universe, I still want him to be part of my Star Wars collection. Again, I am very pleased to have this figure as I like the head sculpt very much. You may read my part 1 review here.

True Legend

"After a rescue mission, Su Chan (Vincent Zhao Wen Zhuo), a successful bodyguard who works for the Royal family yearns to leave the army in pursuit of something he loves rather than a high post with the government. In the true spirit of a martial-arts practitioner, Su Chan hopes to impart his skills to others and also live in peace with his wife, Yuan Ying (Zhou Xun) and son. But his happiness is short-lived when Ying’s brother, Yuan Lie (Andy On) returns to avenge his father’s who was killed by Su Chan’s father 18 years ago, an act that shattered the life of Su Chan forever (Movie Plot: Moviexculsive.Com)."

“True Legend” is another martial arts masterpiece directed by Yuen Woo Ping. The movie plot is average as more or least the same kind of story line we had seen in "Fearless". All the fighting scenes are fast and fierce. As Vincent Zhao is a real life martial artist, his martial arts moves are very realistic. On the other hand, the performance of the villain played by Andy On was very impressive too, especially with his evil expressions all the time. We also see no action from Michelle Yeoh as she is a guest star in the film. As for Jay Chou, he has a lot of potential in the martial arts aspect. Overall, I enjoyed the movie very much and highly recommend if you are a lover of martial arts movies (Movie Rating: 3.5/5).

Gong Xi Fa Chai

Hi everyone, wish you and your family a Happy Chinese New Year, Good Health
and Gong Xi Fa Chai...Huat Arr!!!

ZC World - 1/6 Scale Office Chair

Just picked up two 1/6 scale office chairs during my lunch. These chairs look realistic
and I would like Madeline and Lucci to have them :)

14 Blades

"During the Ming Dynasty, the Emperor of China possessed one weapon greater than all others, the Imperial Guards, an elite force of assassins recruited from street orphans. Trained in clandestine combat from childhood, the Imperial Guards were masters of the 14 Blades, eight being for torture, five for killing and the last blade reserved for suicide when a mission failed. Above the law, with a license to kill, the Imperial Guards devoted their lives to the service of the Emperor alone. When the Imperial Court is taken over by evil eunuch Jia, the best of the Imperial Guards, Qinglong (Donnie Yen) and Xuanwu, are assigned to steal a list identifying those still loyal to the Emperor. However unbeknownst to Qinglong, the Imperial Guards have fallen under the control of Jia, and during the mission Qinglong is betrayed by Xuanwu. Now as the most wanted man in the land, Qinglong must seek out and rally the loyalists to rise against Jia and restore the Emperor to power (Synopsis: MSN Singapore Entertainment)."

The plot is average and predictable. I love the weapon box that Donnie Yen was carrying around his back. Inside the box, different blades for different purpose and this is amazing. Besides Donnie Yen’s great action performance, he was good in some romance scenes this time round. I was very surprised Wu Chun has good acting skills and action in his first big screen. As for the popular Hong Kong TVB actor “Kate Tsui” who played the evil role “Tuo Tuo”, her performance was impressive as well. One thing I don’t understand is there are so many good female actors in the film industry, why the producer wants to choose Zhao Wei as the female lead of the film. I guess perhaps they want a bigger share in the China market. Lastly, nothing much to compliment about the performance of Qi Yu Wu as I think his acting skills is average. Overall, this is a must see movie and I highly highly recommend it and my movie rating is 4/5.

Universal Soldier - A New Beginning

"Reactivated to do battle with terrorists who have taken over the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, Universal Soldier Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) comes face to face with a more powerful upgrade of his former adversary Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren) in this action packed sequel. Using stolen technology to transform a fearless fighter (Andrei "The Pit Bull" Arlovski) into an unstoppable force of destruction, a rogue militia holds the world hostage by threatening to blow up Chernobyl. The prospect of a peaceful resolution to the ordeal fading, the decision is made to reactivate Luc Deveraux, and send him in. But Deveraux isn't the only decommissioned Universal Soldier to be resurrected; his old nemesis Scott is back in action, too - and stronger than ever before. Now faced with the prospect of battling not one but two powerful Universal Soldiers, Deveraux braces himself for a fight he might not walk away from (Movie Synopsis: Fandango)."

There is no doubt Van Damme and Lundgren are old. But I still enjoyed when seeing both of these movie stars back in action. The plot was simple and predictable with plenty of action. Surprisingly, the moves of the new character who is played by Andrei Arlovski were great. He is tall and his punches are fast. While watching the movie, it brought my memory back to the 90's where its first instalment released. Of coarse, all gunshot and fight scenes did not disappoint me. Even if this is a low budget film, I must give credit to Van Damme and Lundgren as I believe they gave their best to make this sequel the same kind of success the first instalment did (Overall movie rating: 2.5/5).

Hot Toys DX - Joker in Police Uniform

As I always wanted to get the Joker in Police Uniform set, I don’t really border about the likeness of the extra head given with DX masterpiece. Since my buddy who is a huge TDK fan also gave his compliment on the head, I believe this head sculpt should be pretty screen accurate.

You can have two snap buttons to fasten the police jacket and a few pieces of Velcro to fasten the white shirt and pants, and they work pretty well.

I like the plastic badge with colour ribbons as it looks nice to add onto the police jacket. The little US flag pin on the jacket collar looks very “real” too. The left shoulder patch is detailed made that you still are able to read the words “City of Gotham Police Department”.

As usual, the hair is fine sculpted with good paint work. The texture of the lips and scars is beautifully executed with right amount of realistic skin colouring. The work of the eyebrows is great that is usual for a Hot Toys figure. You can also see dark circles under the glossy eyes which I believe it refers to Ledger’s actual make-up in the film.

The “pop in” shoes allow the figure to stand in any pose you want him to be.

The only thing I don’t appreciate is the “oversized collar” on the shirt.

The M1 Garand rifle with white leather strap is well produced and it fits perfectly in the gloved hands.

Hot Toys is always good in using appropriate fabric for making quality outfits to its 12inch figures. Similar to the DX Joker, the work in making his outfit - white shirt, leather belt and buckle, black tie, peaked cap and police uniform is amazing.

The top part of the cap is made of fabric while the shiny black plastic peak and metal cap badge complete the entire headgear. Overall, I am pretty happy with this figure and he definitely looks nice when posing with the rest of my TDK collection.

Edge of Darkness

"Edge of Darkness is an emotionally charged thriller set at the intersection of politics and big business. Thomas Craven (Mel Gibson) is a veteran homicide detective for the Boston Police Department and a single father. When his only child, twenty-four year-old Emma (Bojana Novakovic), is murdered on the steps of his home, everyone assumes that he was the target. But he soon suspects otherwise, and embarks on a mission to find out about his daughter's secret life and her killing.

His investigation leads him into a dangerous, looking glass world of corporate cover-ups, government collusion and murder and to shadowy government operative Darius Jedburgh (Ray Winstone), who has been sent in to clean up the evidence. Craven's solitary search for answers about his daughter's death transforms into an odyssey of emotional discovery and redemption (Movie Details: Golden Village website)."

There is no doubt the acting of Mel is great. The story line is average but draggy and very slow paced, almost causing me to fall asleep. Not much "action" and 95% of the movie is "dialogue". I guess the main attraction to the film is "Mel Gibson". To a person who likes to see a lot of action, this movie is not for him. My overall movie rating is 2/5.

Sideshow - Lando Calrissian Pt.1

If you bought any Sideshow Star Wars figures before, you know how friendly the box packaging is. It allows you to take out the figure easily and put it back whenever you want. The magnetic closures for the wrap around the box cover works pretty well. As usual, outer box panels show pictures of the figure while inner panel reveals detailed information on both the film and the character. The figure and accessories are placed in the same plastic tray. Overall, I like the box size as it would not take out a lot of space. Reviews on the figure and accessories will be done in my next post.