Les Misérables

Finally, the long awaited musical phenomenon <Les Misérables> had successfully made in to the giant screen. Thanks to the Oscar winning director ,The King's Speech> Tom Hooper brought us back the dream of hope and love once again to the admiration by the brilliant performance from the outstanding  casts and his truthfulness to the original screenplay. In addition, the live recording singing is certainly one of the highlights of this film. Stage trained Hugh Jackman lead role Jean Valjean conducted most scenes with his glorious voice while the factory worker turned prostitute Fantine (Anne Hathaway) eminent performance was indeed "heart wrenching" despite only a few scenes for her appearance. We didn't expect Russell Crowe could possibly sing but in regards to his role Inspector Javert shall be in pensive and solemn mood at all time which made his singing fit perfectly alright with the role. To our amazement, the idealist Marius (Eddie Redmayne) & the beautiful Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) held a phenomenal supporting performance, not only their singing but the character execution enough to have your tissue paper ready for wiping your tears away. Not forgetting the remarkable performance from wicked and cheeky role played by Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter. Yet, Eponine (Samantha Barks) who played the exact same role in the original musical and the little boy Gavroche played by Daniel Huttlestone are just impeccable. The nearly three hours of this film is really worth spending. We anticipate for the next Oscar winning for Hooper and his team for this one of the not-to-be-missed film in 2012.

 



Colbie Caillat @ Christmas in The Sand

It's Christmas and It's holiday!!! but this time is holiday somewhere in a non cold climates and there will not be any classic wintertime clichés like snow, chilly weather, and huddling around the fireplace. <Christmas in The Sand> probably the first Christmas album having such a theme by bringing a lively, cheerful and bright newly written tunes. The sound of the season for such climates may differ from <Baby It's Cold Outside> duet with Gavin Degraw but the <Winter Wonderland> & <Santa Claus Is Coming To Town> urging you to put your bathers back and getting back to the sun, sea and breeze at once. Didn't you see that coming? Despite most tracks most tracks carry an upbeat country feel but classic cover songs serve only the same purpose and achieves the ideal goal of unobtrusive replication perfectly and this "different" kind of Christmas album is also ideal for the sub-tropical climates dancing throughout the festive season without any hesitation."Not everyone lives in the snow or cold places for Christmas, so why don’t we write some songs for them to be able to relate to what their Christmas is like. A lot of the songs I wrote for it are about how not every (winter) holiday I spent has been only in the snow.” The thoughtful Caillat explained the motivation of producing such Christmas album.  If anything makes the songs sound warm and sunny, <Christmas In The Sand> made it work and melds light acoustic strumming, delayed electric lead lines, and sundry holiday percussion in a seamless blend. Could have been the sun? Could have been the sea? Could have been Caillat's childhood fantasy that she saw Santa in his bathing suit trying to catch a wave? It's all written in the tracks of <Christmas In The Sand> of her very own innovation.

 

The Guillotines 血滴子

The Savior has reigned....again or perhaps the perfect timing for Christmas blockbusters!!! Despite this was the Chinese epic and has nothing to do with Jesus Christ but the role Wolf ( Huang Xiao Ming) was indeed the reborn of Christ landed in the era of the Chinese soil. The actual flying guillotine in action was excitedly being introduced at the beginning of the movie for it power of having someone's else head in seconds. No matter how hard they try, the killer machine was just another toy being named for a group who were seriously & secretly " well trained" killers to take operation from their doyen. They "looked" deadly and masterminded and being asked to have the killer look post by the film director ( was that necessary, really??) for almost each of their appearance. It really make us sick by seeing that but not showing off the real talent for what they have. Nevertheless, the disguise and pretentious over acting not only comes from the lead casts but also the walk-on villagers who try-so-hard to make an appearance really encourage you to fast-forward the scene ( only if you can from the movie theater). Honestly, there is much of a substance in this film but another money craving movie made for the mainland Chinese market by the Hong Kong filmmakers who kowtow for their dignity to make their own gold buckets. It just generates another greater disspapointment no doubt.



Jack Reacher

On a mundane morning in an average town, five people are randomly shot dead while going about their everyday lives. All of the evidence points to one man: A sharp-shooting assassin who also is ex-military, a trained sniper. He is swiftly apprehended and dragged into custody. This is how the movie get started and drag the audiences into the rest of the hundred over minutes marathon interrogation to find out who was behind the entire crime together with the almost unbeatable Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise).

 The film is based on based on one of the bestselling novelist/author Lee Child's novel series < One Shot> aka "A Perfect Killer" with complex, detailed set pieces and characters whose loyalties and motivations are suspect at best. Everything was planned for a reason, either for a reason to fight back or for vengeance. The plots was incredibly rich and well carried out with all suspect were in place and to wait for their appearances. Robert Duvall supporting role brought a few lightness to the film and diminish the intensity of the development. German film director/actor Werner Herzog who played the creepy villain was one of the highlight of this suspense thriller as well as Richard Jenkins for one of the suspect as the district attorney.

 All and all, You can see why Cruise wanted the role for Jack Reacher as he is the epitome of cool, a  highly decorated ex-soldier and also hard as nails and hyper-intelligent despite most complaints about Cruise taking the role stem from the physical difference between him and the books’ description of Reacher. The character is 6ft 5in, while Cruise is 5ft 7in. Oh well, Cruise was one of the producers, he won't say no to that for sure.

John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John @ This Christmas

This Reunion Charity Christmas album of John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John marks their first time recording together in nearly 35 years since <Grease>. This star-studded project also features the Barbra Streisand < I'll Be Home for Christmas>, Tony Bennett <Winter Wonderland>, James Taylor <Deck The Halls>, Kenny G <Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree>, Cliff Richard <have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas> and jazz legend Chick Corea in <This Christmas>. These Oldies Goldie's are no stranger to all but creating the crave for home coming to get reunited with your beloved family...at once. <I Think You Might Like It> is the only brand new track in this album and  written by Jay Farrar, the guy who wrote Newton-John and Travolta’s beloved Grease duet <You’re the One that I Want>. Indeed, this is another long reunion after all these years for the trio. There is nothing big to shout about for this album but the contemporary vocals of Travolta & Newton-John are enough to keep you company during this festive season, even for the next one and the next. " This idea of doing a Christmas album came from a lifetime affection for Christmas holidays filled with listening to my favorite records and recently enjoying that same music that inspired me as a child and seeing that it had the same impact on my wife Kelly and my children, Elle, Jet and Ben." Said Travolta. It is surely how it shall work for traditional yet contemporary Christmas album.



6 Minutes @ Cyril "KONGO" Phan

Cyril Phan, a surreal name or better known under the internationally pseudonym of Kongo, Cyril Phan is a self-taught painter who established himself in just a dozen or so years as leading figure of the French, European and the world scene for his graffiti art. The Paris and Hong Kong based Kongo told mylifestylenews his plan on the new graffiti projects.....

 

I initially gained the fame as primarily a graffiti artist since the project I did with M.A.C group and since then I managed to move my technique towards a more mature artistry.

 

I have worked without much doubt to develop multiple skills for a couple of my clients and all the while maintaining the unique artistic identity and in keeping with my tradition of mural and fresco painting.

 

I involved myself quite a bit in numerous cultural and artistic happenings, both home and abroad. I toured around Asia ( China & Hong Kong mostly), Africa and co-founded the international graffiti festival in France. The <Kosmopolite" and the travelling "Eatingfrogtour" in mainland China and Hong Kong.

 

The project I just finished was called <KOSMOPOLIS TOUR> which is a project sponsored by Hermes. I have teamed up with Hermès to produce several silk scarves based around my signature style. A part of the proceeds goes towards my graffiti collective Kosmopolis, which supports young children around the world from underprivileged background.

At the same time, I was also working on an exhibition <Of the wall> in Singapore to Helutrans’Art space.

Next project would be my solo exhibition which take place in Paris in the Gallery Wallworks.

I am open minded and I'd like to meet with different artists. I’ve just met an amazing French choreographer, Khady Fofana, in Paris. I’ve seen her show with many dancers, it was amazing.

 

There are Hip Hop dancers performing on live african’s percussion. I would like to work with her, to combine dance and graffiti to symbolize the  “hip hop”unity, illustrating transversely, cross disciplinary art  and the need to build bridges between people. We are so different yet so close… Because we are into Hip Hop and that bring things alive

 

I am quite content for what I have now  and my career is doing well. Backed in the days, it was the opposite. The street was my playground and I was playing cat and mouse game with the police. Sometimes it was so hard that I wanted to give up. I got in trouble with the law, and got sentences. I can’t say that what I’ve done was good, but without all this difficulties to overcome, I won’t be Kongo. I’ve made a lot of sacrifice in order to be what I am today… For this I have no regrets!

 

What I really like to achieve is to get credit for my work, and to publish a book sooner or later. I guess this is what most artists want.

 

I have not lose any inspiration by far and yet to get tested the limits of my possibilities and creativities.

 

As for family, I would like to have a lot of children, to be able to give and receive love every day.

 

I would also like to create a foundation in order to receive children from the less fortunate. I would like to teach them graffiti art and to discover some real talented young artist. I would like to share the gift that I received from god as Graffiti really have saved my life.