The Expendables

"Fearless Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) is leader of a tight-knit band of men - Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), ex-SAS and skilled with any bladed weapon; Yin Yang (Jet Li), a close combat master; Hale Caesar (Terry Crews), a long-barrel weapons specialist; Toll Road (Randy Couture), a skilled demolitions expert; and Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), a veteran in precision sniping. When the mysterious Church offers Barney a job no one else would take, the team embark on what appears to be a routine mission: overthrow General Gaza (David Zayas), the murderous dictator of the small island country of Vilena. There, Barney and Christmas meet Sandra (Giselle Itie), a local freedom fighter with a dark secret. They also learn the true enemy - rogue ex-CIA operative James Monroe (Eric Roberts) and his henchman Paine (Steve Austin). When things go wrong, Barney and Christmas are forced to leave Sandra for dead. Haunted by this failure, they return to Vilena to finish the job they started (Movie Plot: Yahoo! Movies Singapore)."

"The Expendables" is definitely an action packed movie. The film was a lot better than I expected. Though the plot was old-school type, it was fine with me. There were lots of jokes between the good guys and I laughed throughout the entire show. Looking back to the action scenes, they brought me back to the action movies of the 80s by Stallone – "Rambo" franchise. There were tons of combat scenes, gunshots and explosions in the movie. Jason Statham’s moves were fast and fierce. I believe he will be the next action superstar in future. On the other hand, Jet Li and Dolph Lundgren had less action this time round. I guess Mickey Rourke loves his image in "Iron Man 2" as he kept the same hair style in this movie. I think Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis were the guest stars here as they only appeared in the screen around 5 minutes. The former WWE superstar "Steve Austin" played as a villain and he was very tough. Lastly, I want to give compliments to my favourite action hero "Sylvester Stallone". Though he is in his mid 60, his punches and kicks were fast and powerful. His overall performance was still great. I enjoyed the movie very much especially the final battle between the good guys and the baddies. For my overall movie rating, I give a 3.5 out of 5 with Two Thumbs Up!! Looking forward to get the DVD soon :P

Salt

"As a CIA officer, Evelyn Salt (Jolie) swore an oath to duty, honor and country. Her loyalty will be tested when a defector accuses her of being a Russian spy. Salt goes on the run, using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative to elude capture. Salt's efforts to prove her innocence only serve to cast doubt on her motives, as the hunt to uncover the truth behind her identity continues and the question remains - Who Is Salt?"

(Movie Details: Golden Village website)

Watched the movie when I was in Penang early this month. It was a fast paced movie with tons of action. As the story had lots of twists and turns, it kept me guessing most of the time. Angelina Jolie looked skinny this time round and her acting performance was great. I also believe she put lots of effort in practising her fighting skills as her moves were fast and convincing. Though some action scenes were unrealistic e.g. the one jumping down the elevator, I still enjoyed it. Anyway, why so serious?? just sit back and relax!! (Overall Movie Rating: 3/5).

Hot Toys - Iron Man Mark III in Battle Damaged Version Pt.3

This is the removable face plate that given as an accessory. As you can see, great detailing on the inside of the face plate. But, the scratches on the other side of the face plate are colour painted. They look unrealistic and this is the minus point here.

As the neck section can be removed from the main body, you can turn the helmet and neck individually.

Remove the chest plate, you can see the metal-like painted mechanism and his micro ARC reactor. Those gears and servos are finely sculpted with excellent paint job. A nice touch!!

You can put the face plate on top of the helmet to show Tony Stark face as it is held in place by magnets. As I didn't get the previous Mark II figure, the facial sculpt is "new" to me. As usual, the paint work and skin texture of the facial sculpt are good.

I am also impressed the removable face plate fits perfectly to the helmet. Another plus point given to Hot Toys :P


The right forearm has some amazing features as well. First, you have the opening panel to expose the mini rocket launcher. Second, you can open the side panels to expose the fine detailing gadget that acts as a "shield" to the armoured figure.

Additional pictures taken on the figure without light on features.

The armoured figure looks very cool when posing him with the nicely produced display base.

The body armour including the undamaged or clean chest plate look very convincing as they have painted scrapes here and there. The joint articulation works pretty well which allows the figure to hold some great poses. Overall, I am very pleased with the figure except for the painted scratches on the face plate. If you didn't get the earlier Mark III figure, this is the one worth for your collection. You may also read my part 1 review here and part 2 review here.

Hot Toys - Iron Man Mark III in Battle Damaged Version Pt.2

I like the colour paint on the figure this time round. The paint is more even when comparing the earlier Mark III figure.

After taking the figure out of the box, I attached the battle damaged chest plate onto him.

The figure looks cool with its light on features. Similar to the previous version, he has a small rocket launcher at his left forearm.

As Hot Toys has re-designed the AirBrake deployment system, the lower parts of the legs lift rather than open out to the sides to reveal the mechanism within.

Let's also see the newly produced air flaps at the back of the armoured figure.

Pictures taken on the back view and top view of the opened up Air Flaps. Great articulation there..

The fully deployed Air Flaps with built-in metal flaps hold fairly tight and they work pretty well. What a fantastic work done by Hot Toys again :)

This is the retractable countermeasure dispenser described by Hot Toys. To open it, you just rotate the circle section anti clockwise and it springs out. The six pegs around the section also pop up. You can push the pegs back in closed position when not in use.

As the metal-like paint work with scratches finishing is beautifully carried out, I had taken a lot of pictures when posing the figure.

I also had lots of fun to play around the figure with great poses for the whole day :P

The ejective shoulder mounted missile launchers are one of the special features come with this figure. To hide these weapons, you just slide the shoulder panels forward to push the missile launchers back in position. This feature is definitely a plus point to me. My part 1 review is here and part 3 review is here.

Penang Trip - Day 1 on 6 Aug

I and my buddies (Wayne and David) went for a short trip to Penang last week. We stayed in Tune Hotel that is located along Jalan Burma. First day, we had breakfast in the Old Town White Coffee Cafe located next to our hotel.

I ordered my favourite "OldTown Nasi Lemak Special" and a cup of mixture of coffee and tea (Yuan Yang). I love the taste of fried chicken and sambal chillies there. We then headed towards the famous "Kek Lok Si Temple (极乐寺)" situated in Air Itam.

The temple is huge. We took photos outside the first hall for assembly and prayer. There are several halls in the temple too.

After passing by several shops selling souvenirs, we took a lift to the uphill area to see the bronze Goddess of Mercy (Kuan Yin) statue.

A shelter with decorative details was constructed for the Kuan Yin statue. The architecture and artwork of the shelter is amazing. Then, we visited the seven storey pagoda of the temple.

Our legs were tired when climbing up those narrow stairs to the top of the pagoda.

We went to Plaza Gurney after having lunch at the foothill of the temple. Wayne had the Prawn Mee and David ate his favourite Ice Kacang. I tried the Penang Laksa and I liked it very much.

The shopping mall is big and we hang around for quite a while. Too bad, Toy'R'us is the only toy shop there.

We finally had our A&W root beer floats and curly fries before watching the movie "Salt" in Golden Screen Cinema and its digital sound system was fantastic.

We later had dinner at the famous hawker centre along Gurney Drive but some of the Chinese food were "so-so" only (may be I have high expectation of the food in Penang).

Luckily, the Chicken Satay from the Malay stall was good. As the chicken strips consist of meat and skin, they are tender and juicy. As for the taste of peanut dipping sauce, I prefer the Singapore version. We were very full when returning back to the hotel.