Just Reviews, Folks!

The DaVinci Code.

I never read the book. Perhaps, I'm the only person on the planet that did not. ;)

So, I'd have to rate the movie on its own. Although I'm feeling a little lazy to get into detailed mode this morning.

Overall, the acting wasn't great. Tom Hanks was a little deadpan and inanimate, Audrey Tautou was not entirely convincing. Jean Reno was okay. Paul Bettany shows a lot of potential for future heavy drama roles.

But the star of the day was Sir Ian McKellen. Yes, our dear Gandalf in Lord of The Rings. His performance as Professor Teabing was riveting.

But I found myself missing the point of the story. The central premise is that Jesus had a bloodline and descendants that has survived, till today. And that he was a man, not the son of God.

In Islam, the belief that Jesus (or Isa) is a prophet and is only a man, is well-established. Perhaps, that's why I found the premise, not very exciting. I mean if something was to shake the Vatican - it should have been the theory propounded in Islam, as opposed to a mere effeminate-looking character in a Da Vinci painting.

Or am I missing the point here? ;)

But yes, am looking to forward to the next X-Men movie. It'd be interesting to see how they portray Dark Phoenix in a movie, as opposed to a comic book. Though I've heard that Storm had a bigger part in the movie, on Halle Berry's request. Interesting.

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Next movie review, is on Man Laksa. A good attempt by Mamat Khalid, but somehow, the ingredients were not all there, to make a it a good Malay movie.

It reminded me of many Irish movies, where the story revolved around the local community. And where things are funny from everyday, ordinary reality stuff.

Yassin played his role brilliantly and confirmed my thoughts that he's the most talented of the Senario lot, as an actor. Sharifah Aleya was convincing, though strangely dressed. I found Harun Salim Bachik to be better in "Baik Punya Cilok" though. And they could have made better use of Saiful Apek.

And there's some brilliant new comic talents out there - like the guy who played P. Ramlee imitator - Hamdan Ramlee. He was hilarious!

But yes, looking at Mamat's work - Malaysian humour and comedies still has potential to make people laugh. Lots of potential. And the guy who played the MC to the Temasya Kampung Talang (I don't know what his name is) was typically funny. And Loloq had a few brilliant moments too!

And honestly, up till two-thirds of the movie, it was really looking quite good. But the problem with most Malay movie scripts has always been knowing how to end the story properly. I thought Mamat's choice was a cop-out.

But nevertheless, a good try and I look forward to more work from Mamat Khalid. He's a funny guy and he's got a lot more to give, I feel.

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Bought a copy of Siti Nurhaliza's latest album, "Transkripsi".

I was excited to see the outcome on this one, since she was working on this with the talented Aubrey Suwito - who is also responsible for Jaclyn Victor's "Gemilang" song.
And it also involved many other talents that used to do work for Sheila Majid like Mac Chew and Jenny Chin.

Transkripsi left me with mixed feelings.

On the one hand, I liked the materials in the "Prasasti Seni" album better. On the other, the songs in Transkripsi showed another side to Siti - one where she had to underplay her powerful vocals but where it gets displayed to good effect, anyway.

Nowhere is this more obvious than the second song in the album - "Biarlah Rahsia". The piano and violin accompanied acapella effect at the beginning of the song, was chilling - listen to this in a dark room and you will understand what I mean. Siti's rendition here was nothing short of poignant and heartfelt.

Perhaps, this has something to do with the fact that she wrote the lyrics and it seems like it reflects the current events in her life. One part of the lyrics touched me:

Pernahkah kau bermimpi seketika
Berada di tempatku


Overall, I felt that this album was a bit more "Indonesian-like" in its approach. This may have something to do with the fact that Melly Goeslaw did some of the tunes like "Biarlah Rahsia" and the unique "Pastikan" - which seemed slightly different than Siti's usual Malay ballad fare.

Glenn Fredly did another song for her called "Bila Harus Memilih", which was one of the better songs in this album.

And of course, the other ballad masterpiece was "Tanpa Dendam Di Hati" by Erwin Gutawa with lyrics by our own lyrical maestro - Habsah Hassan.

(Funnily enough, I fondly remember her from her work on the movie "Cinta Bukan Kristal" - who can forget Erma Fatima's famous line to that sleazy old man - "Rumah kata pergi, kubur kata mari!". It was just the way that Erma Fatima said it - brilliant! ;))


However, my favourite song in this album is not a ballad.

It's a fast song called "Intrig Cinta" where Siti had a hand in composing the tune from scratch, as opposed to the lyric-writing, which she's had some experience in, already.

Combined with great lyrics by the multi-talented Loloq (who convincingly played a Chinese contractor in "Man Laksa"), the song starts out slow and builds up nicely in the middle and towards the end, for that cheerful "Sunday morning effect". The inclusion of the Indian violin, made for nice bridge and ending, to this upbeat tempo tune.

But seriously, this song has the makings of a theme song for a romantic comedy. I can almost see and hear it at the end movie credits of a Aziz M. Osman or Afdlin Shauki movie. Especially where the beat starts to pick up and Siti shows off her superior vocals, towards the end.

(That's the imaginary movie producer in me, talking ;). Heh!)

Overall, it's a good album,. None of the songs are really bad, although some might feel a little unsuited to her. I feel that this album might do well in Indonesia, where they're more accustomed to the sort of materials produced.

This album will please Siti fans who want to see her branch out into uncharted waters - away from her "asli and balada Melayu" forte. Although I didn't enjoy this as much as I did "Prasasti Seni" - but I was pleased with Siti venturing into some new areas and to test her her abilities there.

A good singer is a versatile singer who doesn't get trapped in genres and keeps renewing the formula.

And if she keeps evolving from a great singer to a great songwriter, too - Siti Nurhaliza will keep dominating the music scene, for many years to come.

I have no doubts about that.