Haywire

Reviewed by Danny the Demented
Updated 30 January 2012

The movie never went off course. It played to a consistent beat and concluded with a predictable stop. In retrospect, "Haywire" should have gone haywire; at least it would've been interesting.  

"Haywire" tells the story of a wonder woman-like super operative named Mallory Kane (Gina Carano), who was sent on a mission but then quickly found out that her boss and ex-lover Kenneth (Ewan McGregor) had double-crossed her. Now on the run, she must find out where Kenneth is and take justice into her own hands. My gosh I am boring myself just describing it. Is there a more used-up plot than the old agent-betrayed-seeks-revenge story?

Lebanese Food, FRIGG'N AWESOME!!

Written by Ruey of The Ruey Review
Updated 10 January 2012

This place was frigg’n AWESOME!! That pretty much sums up my piece about my first Lebanese meal.

Near the end of 2011 I had the privilege of meeting my friend’s boyfriend, who is a Lebanese. We were deciding what to eat for dinner, and instead of heading to China town like I always do when meeting up with my Taiwanese friends in London (to clarify, Taiwanese food is not Chinese food, they also have Japanese and Korean restaurants in China town right?), I suggested we head for some Lebanese food. Nassim, my new Lebanese friend was very excited and enthusiastic about taking us to try the healthy, and tasty food of his homeland.

Maroush, the name of the restaurant, I ain't lying

For this meal we headed to a tube station called Edgware Road. Beware, there are two very close stations of the same name!!  I don’t know how the London city planners allowed such ridiculous error to occur. After having gone to the wrong Edgware Road station, we went to the Edgware Road station on the Bakerloo line. We were in Arab town.

The restaurant was called Maroush, and according to Nassim’s friends, it is the best Lebanese restaurant in London. This claim was supported by the near 30 minutes queue before we were seated. The food did not disappoint and was well worth the wait!!

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Reviewed by Danny the Demented
Updated 3 January 2012

Note to Mr. David Fincher: yes The Social Network was a success, but that doesn’t mean you get to use the exact same style and flow on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and get the same result, because you didn’t, and now I am disappointed, crap. Thank you for spitting on my expectation you multimillionaire film maker you.

OK, maybe I am being a bit TOO harsh but I have my reasons (which I will get to in just a minute, keep your pants on guys, geez). Based on the international best selling crime-novel of the same name, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo tells the story of Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig or Mr. Bond, take your pick) and Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara, the girl in the opening scene of The Social Network), how the two damaged protagonists came together to solve the mystery of a missing girl named Harriet Vanger that has remained unsolved for almost 40 years. Without giving too much away, it's a story of murder, rape, money laundering , torture, Nazi (that’s right, Nazi), and a whole lot of eye cringing evil stuff.....by the by Marilyn Manson called, he wants his darkness back. Oh did I mention this movie is R-rated? So i guess........er......don’t bring a date because it'd be AWKWARD!!

But really in essence the movie is about damaged people finding redemption in both the mystery and each other. And in all fairness David Fincher (the master behind Se7en, Fight Club, Panic Room, Zodiac, and The Social Network) did an ok job with the screenplay written by Steven Zaillian (the pen behind Schindler's List and Gang's of New York). However the approach Fincher took is confusing and ultimately fatal for two key reasons:  1. Instead of the depressingly dark approach (or über dark for you nerds) I know he is capable of (See Se7en, still one of the most disturbing yet fascinating movie I have ever seen to date), he chose the semi dark/hip approach he used when he did The Social Network (for those of you who have been living under a rock, its about Facebook, now go shave and rejoin society already). The two films share such jaw-dropping similar pace and cinematographic style that I couldn’t shake the feeling Mark Zuckerberg was going to pop up any minute and shout " I KILLED HARRIET AND POSTED ON FACEBOOK, HIT LIKE!!" . Why not go with the Se7en route that worked so well for you and put you on the map, Fincher?  2. Yes I know this movie is based on a Swedish novel and yes the setting is in Sweden, but since you hired mostly American/English actors for this movie, why not just let them speak in English? Fincher did, of course, have everyone speak English. The puzzling thing was, even though every character spoke English, Fincher (or someone who worked on this movie) insisted all characters spoke with a SWEDISH ACCENT. WHY???? What's the point? To make the characters more authentic because it’s a Swedish story? But all they were doing was speaking English with an accent. WTF? Either speak in Swedish or don’t. English with a Swedish accent was simply ridiculous, it's almost as if no one spoke English as their mother tongue in Hedestad but because there's an American in town (there isn’t) , so they are forced to use English because this person (does not exist) doesn’t speak Swedish. It was so preposterous that I found it distracting enough to pull me away from the plot. An irreversible mistake.

Because it moved like The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo didn’t have enough time to build up any emotion connection between Mikael Blomkvist, his lover (Robin Wright, or better known as Jenny. You know, RUN FORREST RUN!, that Jenny) the suffering granduncle (Christopher Plummer) or any of his family members. Even Lisbeth, the heroine, had a rich back story that was mentioned in both the book and the Swedish film but not the US one. All in all, this movie was disappointing and unsatisfying. The Swedish film adaptation (the first one) is the superior version, and Mr. Fincher, you have been bested. Let's see if he can salvage this mess with the second and the third movie of this franchise, but if he doesn’t change course, the ship is heading straight for the iceberg called FLOP. My name is Danny and I endorse this message.  

Happy 2012 from London!!

Written by Ruey of The Ruey Review
Updated 3 January 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!! LET’S ALL PRAY FOR A GREAT 2012 AND THAT ALL WILL BE GREAT FOR ALL THIS YEAR!!


The last night of the year 2011 was my first and possibly the last time doing new year's countdown in London. According to the Mayan calendar however, it was my last, anywhere. Anyhow, it was a very fun experience which far exceeded my expectations.

Prior to heading towards the northern bank of River Thames, I had been listening to a Londoner talking about the suffocating over-crowdedness in the streets of central London before and after the countdowns in previous years. I, having had numerous experiences at fireworks in Vancouver, Taipei, and Tokyo, would not call myself a fan of such events either. However I was pleasantly surprised about how well the night had gone for me and my friends.

Although the streets were overflown with people, they were not as bad as expected. We got off at Embankment station on the District line and arrived to the river side at 10:20pm, and we still found spaces right up to the edge of the river for us to stand. In Tokyo and Taipei one would have to arrive sometimes up to 4 hours to get a spot for a decent view of the fireworks. We were very lucky.

The music from the BBC radio station played at the site was great. It was like a night out to a outdoor night club that is much more chilled-out, in a good way. People were bopping and singing to the music. The atmosphere was very nice and friendly.

The fireworks itself was quite nice. It was very beautiful. It was a bit longer than expected, which was good, and one of the best new year’s fireworks I have seen. However nice it was, the fireworks itself should not be the focus. It was the overall experience of going out, and joining all the people present in the city of London to celebrate the coming of another year that made the night a very great one. After the fireworks people slowly dispersed and hostile pushing & shoving were very limited. Although, there were some idiots trying to fly Asian lanterns up to the sky. One of the lanterns became an epic fail and fell down quickly to hit a girl walking on the street. Fortunately the girl was not hurt and the fire was put out by a gentleman after some intense stomping action. People were saying “Happy New Year” to each other on the streets. It was very nice to see and experience. Well, at one point a gentleman ran up from behind me and touched me to wish me a happy new year and ran off. At the moment it was not so nice as I thought I was being mugged for a split second, but afterwards I felt great and felt that I was part of a huge community, the London community.

It is important to note, however, that I was staying at a place within walking distance from where I was during the fireworks. If you stay at a place that requires taking the tube to get back then going to the Thames river bank for the countdown plus fireworks may not be the best choice for a new year’s eve night out in London. However, if you do get to be in London during such periods in the future, provided that you are staying in central London, why not take a walk down to the River Thames and enjoy the great fireworks, music, and the people!