You know what ? I tried to write a good movie review of The Dark Knight but I just couldn’t. Just go watch the damned movie and you’ll thank me for it.

Based on the 1985 german book, Perfume: the story of a murderer revolves around Jean-Baptiste Grenouille and his quest to find the perfect scent. As you would imagine, he would stop at nothing to aquire it.

The opening scenes will set the tone for the rest of the movie. Born in a fish market under the table by his mother, Jean is left for dead with the rotting carcasses of fishes. Seems that his mother has done this before, as she routinely cuts the umbillical cord and kicks the baby away!

Instead of dying in the midst of rotting fishes, maggot infested meat and slaughtered pigs, Jean Baptiste lets out a cry. The cry that leads his mother to the gallows.

The rest of the movie chronicles Jean-Baptistes life as he attempts to learn more about the art of perfuming and his motivations behind it. It explores themes such as obsession, immortality, loneliness and the thin line between genius and madness.

I found the movie a little overlong (2 hours and 10 minutes), and it loses a little of it’s steam somewhere in the middle. However, the payoff at the end is literally quite jaw dropping.

I’d definitely recommend this film, if you are into unsettling yourself and going “oh shit, did I just see that?”

ps: Stephanie watched this film in the cinema here in Malaysia and they didn’t censor anything ! There is a lot of nudity involved and it’s quite the key element in this film. Wow, has our censorship board finally grew up ?

In movieland, studio executives are wishing that 2007 will be the biggest year for movies ever. The year 2004 comes to mind. Let’s recap the movies of 2004, shall we ?

• Shrek 2
• Spiderman 2
• Ocean’s Twelve
• The Bourne Supremacy
• Meet the Fockers
• Kill Bill vol 2

2004 , clearly a year for sequels.

If you could have guessed by now, 2007 would be the year of three. 3rd installments coming out this year are:

• Shrek 3
• Spiderman 3
• Oceans 13
• The Bourne Ultimatum
• Pirates of the Carribean 3
• Rush Hour 3
• 300

Okay, 300 is not a third installment, but it has the number 3 in it right ? Can you see the trend here ? WTF is going on ?

The numbers are getting to me

I watched 300 last sunday, and I almost creamed my pants.

300 is based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel , which is the story of the Battle of Thermopylae . In this battle , 300 Spartans have to defend a narrow road from the massive Persian army.

Firstly, this movie is historically inaccurate in these ways:

• There were actually 5000+ soldiers in the Greek army . Including 300 Spartans of course.
• Persians of ancient times were not just giants, ninjas, lesbians and monsters.

Then again, we did not watch this movie for a history lesson, did we ?

300 is aimed at the videogame generation and it really shows. The game that comes to mind , is of course God of War. Greek mythology and monsters aside , if God of War were to be made perfectly into a movie, 300 would be it.

of wolf and man

The first thing you’ll notice about the film is the superb art direction. The film has a grainy , washed out look, making everything hyper-stylized. Not like how history would look like, but how legends are supposed to be told. Beautiful.

The next thing you’ll notice is the ultra-violence. Yes, somehow our censorship board let this pass and didn’t censor a damned thing ! Severed heads , limbs , sword against metal , sword against flesh never looked so beautiful. Violence , never looked so beautiful.

The action , is breathtaking. Slow motion is used to it’s best effect here. Everytime a spear or sword hit something, you can feel the impact. Seriously, some of the action sequences nearly made me cry. It’s that good.

Spartan six packs

Next , is the machismo of it all. All of the Spartans, are blood-crazed , laughing at fear and insurmountable odds. Hell, every single damned Spartan has a six-packed-abs. Even the queen is very macho. The audience in my cinema (probably feminists) were applauding at one scene.

The music is a mix of typical movie score , rock and industrial music. When I watched the trailer and they had a NIN song in it , I wouldn’t imagine that they actually would put industrial music in the movie. One scene had the Spartans marching , and it was awe-inspiring. Of course, it all blends well into the movie, raising it all to a whole new level.

If you guys have not realized, I really love this movie. I’ve put it into my favorite movies of all time. Here’s the updated list :

• Saving Private Ryan
• 300
• Gladiator
• American Beauty
• Forrest Gump
• Apocalypto
• Troy( 300 kicked Troy’s ass of this list )

Hell, this is the results of my fanboyism:

• cutting my hair like a Spartan helmet
• attempting to get a Spartan six pack
• watch it the second time , and third time. alone , if I have to …
• pledging to buy the original DVD when it comes out
• ranting and raving to all my classmates
• ranting and raving on my blog !