A SWAT team becomes trapped in a tenement run by a ruthless mobster and his army of killers and thugs.

This movie just couldn’t get any better, for the first part of the movie I couldn’t figure out what language it was at first I thought it was Thai but still it was a bit different. The movie starts off intensely, a group of Elite cops planning to take down a Drug King Pin, except they were a little over their heads. Things start off pretty good but when one thing goes wrong its a domino effect, and the fighting is intense, and nonstop, I literally mean nonstop, these guys just didn’t stop, an endless supply of bad guys. If you are a looking for an action packed martial arts movie then this is it, it delivered on everything that was promised. Loved it. Turns out its an Indonesian movie, no wonder I couldn’t figure out the language.

Link: IMDB
Rating:

I hope everyone is enjoying their Eid break, I for one am back to work but the streets were empty this morning so I’m assuming some people took the week off which is smart. This Eid break for us was simply about being lazy and completely relaxing, so with all those movie lists we had a few insane marathons, some guys passed out, some guys made it through and some watched more then me. This is just going to be a simple wrap up and some we have watched before but they were too good to pass up.

The List Of Movies We Watched:

The Avengers – Watched it twice, this movie is amazing
Battleship – Transformers but with Aliens, lots of fun
The Dictator – Damn its a funny movie

Freelancers – Think Training Day with Denzel Washington, and put in Robert De Niro, and the main character this time is 50 Cent, but also Forrest Whittaker is in it and he is pretty good. I was impressed with 50 cent, he wasn’t terrible, he had a slight mumbling problem but the movie was pretty intense, I liked it.

Three Stooges – We wanted to laugh and thought to put in this movie. It was a bit too kiddy for our taste so we stopped the movie about 30 minutes in and switched to something else. So skip it.

A Thousand Words – The new Eddie Murphy family comedy, and it wasn’t too bad, it felt a little like Dr Doo Little but this time he faced a life altering situation, and its the usual Eddy Murphy style. If you like Eddy you like enjoy the movie, its one of those easy light movies to watch.

If you are looking for a decent media player to plug into your network wired or wirelessly then I would recommend the Boxee D-Link. In my opinion there are two kinds of Media Players out there, the dumb and the smart kind. The dumb is usually the type that just plays what ever you point it too or what ever USB you plug into it. A smart player is the on that gets information for you, tracks your history, gets all the information of TV Shows & Movies with the backgrounds and images to make for a very nice user interface. You can build your own smart player like XBMC or Plex Media Server but in both cases it would require some work and finese to put together a system like that but a lot of people don’t have the patience or know how to make something like this and this case I would recommend the Boxee Media Player because it does about 80% of the smart actions without the difficulty of configuring every little detail of the device.

Pros:

• Lots of Updates for it, and its been around long enough to have fixed most of its kinks
• Very simple and clean interface
• Recognized about 90% of the TV Shows that I have, and 9%5 of the Movies
• Plug & Play no difficulty setting it up
• Scans materials and updates your shows when you add new episodes every few hours
• Keeps track of shows that you have watched and those that you haven’t, and if you are half way through a show you can play where you stopped
• The remote is simple on one side and has a qwerty keyboard on the other, very useful for when you browse online
• Works very well over a wireless network, and in my case the accesspoint is a far from it so I’m impressed with its wireless capabilites
• You can use an iPhone or iPad to control it

Cons:

• Its a bit too dumb on certain parts, I keep having to enter my storage server password everyday which gets annoying, they should give the option to remember
• If you leave it on all day you have to restart it when you use it because it hangs a bit but overall it doesn’t have a negative effect

Overall:

Honestly, Boxee got off on the wrong foot when they first started in 2010 but the hardware is great. The box is small and silent, the RF remote is fantastic, and the hardware overall is a good value over buying an ATOM/ION nettop and IR remote, and installing Boxee or XBMC. I still think this is a geeky product that is trying to be usable for non-geeks which is a step in the right direction.

Price: $179
Link: Amazon
Rating:

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, discovers vampires are planning to take over the United States. He makes it his mission to eliminate them.

Its just one of those movies that is so out there you think they can’t screw up the history of a man who is very famous. Introducing Vampires and Zombies to so many stories isn’t new but Abraham Lincoln was just a fresh twist on the story. It was interesting as it developed, why Abraham introduced the emancipation proclamation and even how he grew from a young man into the man that he is known for as well as being a vampire hunter. The movie doesn’t take the steps that you think it does and then he trains to be a vampire hunter and fights the south. The whole movie is a roller coaster and then ending was just ridiculous, but if you like vampire movies this is a fun one.

Link: IMDB
Rating:

Masked Hell denizens appear in Karakura town so Rukia and Renji are sent to investigate the matter. After a fight with them they manage to rescue Karin(Ichigo’s sister) from them but they return to hell with Yuzu(also Ichigo’s sister). Having rescued Karin, Kokuto(a hell denizen himself) befriends Ichigo and they set out to save Yuzu from Shuren(the commander of the denizens that kidnapped Ichigo’s sisters).

The fourth movie for Bleach, honestly they can never make enough and this time around its a good amount better then the previous one. This is a 2010 movie but I have only had a chance to see it these days, I’m just jumping into shows and movies without thinking of the order I’m watching them in. Bleach still on hold for me, and I’m probably going to catch up with it soon but for now I was planning on satisfying my urge to watch Bleach and this movie did it. I saw forms of Ichigo as he developed to fight stronger opponents and I just love that no matter how many times he gets beat down he keeps coming back for more. It was a pretty decent movie with a plot that kept developing and this time around I want to continue watching the anime, if you are a fan of Bleach and haven’t seen this movie then you should.

Link: AnimeNewsNetwork
Rating:

A man wrongly convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage against the U.S. is offered his freedom if he can rescue the president’s daughter from an outer space prison taken over by violent inmates.

What this movie lacks in special effects it makes up for in character, well at least Guy Pearce does, the guy is perfect for the role. Just the right combination of sarcastic and snazzy, he is the perfect tough guy lead role for this movie and they had the right type of crazies in it. The special effects were lacking significantly, the CG effects from the motorcycle chase to falling out of space were pretty. Pearce reveals a sort of endless reserve of cocky charm, a back pocketful of jokes for the violent situations in which he finds himself. He carrys the characters in his scene including Maggie Grace, the lead females. But take the action movie on its own propulsive merits, and it’s good scifi fun in a tidy package.

Link: IMDB
Rating:

Mr. China tells the rollicking story of a young man who goes to China with the misguided notion that he will help bring the Chinese into the modern world, only to be schooled by the most resourceful and creative operators he would ever meet. Part memoir, part parable, Mr. China is one man’s coming-of-age story where he learns to respect and admire the nation he sought to conquer.

I have a fascination with China, its still one of those mysterious countries to me, you always think you have knowledge of different places but China is a superpower yet its an enigma and this a book I picked up that told of a story how they lost a lot of money trying to bring the west to China and make money the way they know how. Tim Clissold is an English author so it was a different point of view, he lived and breathed China before jumping into the businesses in the early 90s. This book was publish in 2003 so they were telling the stories of China before it became the manufacturing superpower that it is now, when communism was everything and government had full control of every aspect. The book tells the story as he progressed to joining Patrick another big shot from Wallstreet to raise money and invest in China, but it turned out to be a different kind of beast and the Chinese were dealing with their own transformation at the time. All I knew about China back in the 90s was Tiananmen Sqaure, the One Child Rule, the Return Of Hong Kong, and Jackie Chan. Of course that changed as I grew up but still I wanted to know how the transformation happen and this book gives you that idea, even though it is a bit at a slow pace you get to go through his mind as he progressed from one issue to another.

Link: Amazon
Rating:

Plot Summary: Shirou Emiya lost his parents in a fire when he was young and was later adopted by a sorceror by the name of Kiritsugu Emiya. Although he was full of admiration for his adopted father and yearns to become an ally of justice, Shirou has limited powers and was unable to become a strong sorceror like his father. That is until one fateful day, he was drawn into the Holy Grail War and had to summon a female “Servant” known as Saber in order to protect himself. It turns out that the Holy Grail War involves a series of battles among powerful sorcerors to fight for the possession of a relic that will grant one’s wishes, the Holy Grail. There are altogether seven “Masters” who can summon their respective “Servants” from different classes known as Saber, Archer, Rider, Berserker, Lancer, Caster and Assasin. These “Servants” have to hide their names in order not to reveal their weaknesses to the enemies. The story revolves around Shirou and his entanglement in the Holy Grail War.

Fate Stay Night was an anime that I have had on the back burner for a while. Since it had a sequel I prefered to watch the first part since everyone was talking about the sequel. Each mage summons a “Servant” or a warrior to serve him in this battle. They all fight in different styles and I liked the way the anime was going but one thing that annoyed me, it just felt that there wasn’t enough depth. Shirou the main character just didn’t pull me in, it felt a bit flat. For an interesting story it felt like too many characters introduced and killed off in a short time to give them depth. Still it was a decent anime, now I’m just going to move on to the next one.

Link: AnimeNewsNetwork
Rating:

Shot around the world in 2010 and 2011 and narrated by Ewan McGregor, ‘Fastest’ captures the intense and thrilling reality of the MotoGP World Championship, documenting a pivotal moment in the sport. With Valentino Rossi chasing his tenth World Championship title the Italian ran into one of the toughest challenges of his career: a crop of exceptionally fast young competitors, a horrific leg break at his home race, and an amazing comeback little over 40 days later. Confronting such a monumental task and with rival Jorge Lorenzo taking the 2010 title, Rossi faced up to one of the most testing year’s in his illustrious career and along with his fellow competitors was left asking: Who is the fastest rider now?

Motorcycle Racing is one of the most dangerous sports out there, men riding side by side at an excess of 330 kph in corners on two wheeled machines. MotoGP is considered the best of Motorcycling, every team and company putting their riders on the line to becoming champions. I have always watched MotoGP on TV and I know its intense, but you can never really tell how it is or what they riders are thinking, and this is the main reason why I wanted to see this movie, you jump right into their paddocks, right behind them the intense moments. I have to say that having Ewan McGregor narrate throughout the movie is a huge plus, you can tell how passionate he is about MotoGP and the riders. You get a front seat view of how these riders became what they are and how they think, I loved it, it was brought together perfectly, the only thing that I wanted more was to see more. I would want another movie like this of these guys in the near future. On a side note this is the second movie the first one was a few years ago called Fast but I haven’t been able to find it online but seeing this one got my blood pumping so for any motorcycle fan this is a must see.

Link: IMDB
Rating:

AFter a long 3 to 4 week wait I got notification that my Nexus 7 has shipped and its on its way, as soon as I got it I even went out of my way to get it on Friday afternoon on a hot day the first day of Ramathan to start tinkering with it. I had my hunting knife ready to rip the box apart since those youtube video’s showed how impossible it was to open the box, and in this case it was so with the knife I made short work of the box, pretty much impossible to use the box again.

As soon as I took it out and started it up, they already had my email programmed into the Nexus 7, just had to sign in and everything is pretty much the same compared to any Android device. I have also been using Jellybean version of Android on my Samsung Nexus Galaxy, and I’m loving the interface so it wasn’t new to me when I was trying out the Nexus 7, Google did a great job with this software. When your handling it, it feels solid, the screen is fantastic, I didn’t try the camera yet but it isn’t a priority for me.

Just for people who are going to wonder, my home network runs on a US VPN when I switch on from the router so when I was using the Google Nexus 7 the IP was a US Based Address so I was able to play movies, magazines, and books right away. First thing I watched was Transformers Revenge Of The Fallen, very quick playback, excellent video quality, the Nexus 7 handled the action scenes flawlessly and the sound is pretty good too. For a tablet that size the speaker packs a punch, louder then I thought it would be. This is also one of the more annoying things, I took the Nexus 7 with me to another location and hooked up to the wireless, at that moment, Google Movies, Magazines, and Books disappeared so they are forever gone. I don’t understand why Google can’t sort out the media issue so everyone can access the content like Apple in this case.

Pros:

• Screen Size is Perfect, you can really watch stuff on it without feeling that its too small or too big. You can take it around with you without feeling that its big as the iPad.
• Battery life lasted about 2 days of extensive use with gaming, shows, instagram, surfing the web and all other sorts of utilities
• The Price is really cheap compared to any iPad and yet its a powerful device with a great graphics.
• Great for reading and writing emails, they have perfect the Gmail interface for the Nexus 7, its just so smooth and has all the Gmail features integrated into it.
• It doesn’t feel like an oversized phone, it feels like a genuine tablet, and I have tried the Galaxy Note, and it feels very different.
• It’s relatively light, and Asus have done a fantastic design with the design

Cons:

• Content is still somewhat lacking in comparison to Apple.
• There is a white screen problem that I am having, I can’t adjust the contrast on it so its a bit too white and it starts off too white then 15 mins later it adjust. I contacted Google Play Support and they are sending out a replacement unit right away, so it isn’t necessarily a con in this case since they didn’t even take 10 mins to say they would send out a replacement, I was just hoping for some sort of software fix for it. But I don’t mind getting a new unit.

Overall:

I love the device even though it’s lacking in content, its quick and presents all the information I want. If I’m somewhere with a wifi connection I don’t have to abuse my phone to keep me entertained, these days the amount of battery a phone has is important so I have started to abuse the Nexus 7. A lot of application work perfectly on this screen, and the Chrome Browser, Gmail and pretty much all Google Applications work better on the Nexus 7. I would recommend this tablet to anyone who is looking for something smaller then an iPad, and it can handle pretty much anything you throw at it. The Kindle Fire was my first experience with an Android Tablet, and it was good since it had the content to back it up, but it was majorly lacking in firepower but this machine is another story its the best hardware you can pack into it. I took a few screen shots so you can see how good the screen is, and a few of the applications.

Price: $280
Rating: