A Evening With John Carter

Saturday 17th March, 2012 was one of those evenings again when the hubby snapped his fingers and announced that we should go for a movie. We drove to Subang Parade in Subang Jaya and quickly checked the show times (a number of studios are showing the same movie .....must be good!)and there Din went to get the tickets (@ 50% of course for seniors). In the mean time I managed to find a small notice on the counter giving a sinopsis of the movie.

I am really no sci-fi lover. I never enjoyed Star Wars and never even see all of it. Anything with robots or mechanical monsters are not my cup of tea. The banners have been misleading and I was sure Din thought it was about Jimmy Carter!!

After a quick dinner at Uncle Lim's and browsing at MPH (where else!), we made our way into the cinema. You know how dim they keep the lights. So, why bother trying to check the seat numbers? A10 and A11 must be on the first row. The seats were very comfortable and I thought they felt like the Business Class airline seats. It was when other patrons arrived that we realised we were seating in the "AA" couple row seats! Well since there were many seats available we continued to enjoy the "couple" seats :)

Surprise number one, John Carter is a Disney production. The story line wasn't so bad after all though I was mainly trying to distinguish the Tharks and the others and what have they. The Tharks have 4 hands, 12 feet tall and they do not fly. There was a race who could change shapes and looks and who seemed to "manage" what was happening on Mars. They have the ability to teleport themselves anywhere, even to Jarsoom (Earth) by the use of a medallion and a mantra.

The setting was in New York and Virginia on Jarsoom (Earth) and Barsoom (Mars). A war vet, John Carter had himself teleported to Mars where he got involved in another war between the City States of Zadonga and Helium. Being less inhibited by gravity on Mars, John could leap/jump to the envy of any high jumper on Earth! That proved to be of a turning point in the war effort. I thought with that ability, he really would not need any flying machine!

The ending was a sweet surprise. I will not spoil it for those who might be interested to see the movie.The shape shifters make me wonder of the possibility of such beings managing what happens on Earth.

However, I was sure Din could have slept through most of the movie.

Sinead O'Connor

Yeah, this lady is quite a character too! A little tale here........

She broke into the Irish pop scene at 21 years of age in 1988 with "Nothing Compares" as her best hit. She always kept her hair shaven but I have seen pictures of her with very short hair too..........much like Mawi AF's . She is most distinctive and controversial pop star of the 90s. An outspoken lady who speaks her mind. During a concert while singing "War" she cried out " Fight the real enemy!" and then ripped up a pix of the Pope. The audience was stunned and the NBC went to commercial. (The latter was eventually fined $2.5mil). She had actually changed a line in the song from denoting racial abuse to sexual abuse. The "act" was symbolic of the tearing of the church's secret shut up for decades.

Once she refused to sing at a concert if the US anthem were played. I never got any details as to why, but it made Frank Sinatra real mad and wanted to "kick her _ss". She also received a death threat from a pro-Israeli group while in Jerusalem. So she withdrew from performing at the so called peace festival there. She was ordained as a priest by an Irish Bishop who was from a splinter Catholic group. Of course the Vatican refused to recognise it. She retired from the music industry in 2003 to teach Catholicism to children. However, she returned in 2005 to perform but is now focusing on genres like gospel, chants and roots. She prefers to be known as Mother Bernadette Mary. So I think she may still keep her hair short or even shaven!