Marathon Night

I love Monday...nights! I can't wait to rush back from home, scarf down a quick dinner and plonk myself on the couch to indulge in my once-a-week crime marathon night! Yes, I know all you lucky Astro peeps get to watch the CSI marathon on Sundays, I think, but I'm still stubbornly holding out from crossing over to the Astro dark side! :p

The night begins with CSI:NY at 8.30pm on NTV7. Ok-lah...I usually miss the first part while doing the dishes but it's not too bad. Detective Mac Taylor has this dry look around him but he gets the job done pretty well with his Detective Stella who isn't that bad either. What I find, however, is a certain lack of chemistry between the characters which sometimes gives me the impression that they're just going through the motions. Plots are usually good - there's a crime happening in Noo Yawk City every few seconds so there's sufficient fodder to keep viewers tuned! Verdict: 3 thumbs up!

Then it's a break from CSI with my favourite NCIS at 9.30pm on 8TV! Ooh how I love this one! There's lots of bantering between the characters, witty conversation filled with nuances, hints of romance and they work really well as a team. Plots are great (usually navy-related) and Officer Gibbs seems to have a mysterious past that leaves me guessing at the tantalising bits they throw out every now and then and who can't help but love the cheerful, old Dr. Mallard. Verdict: 5 thumbs up!

Then it's a 15 minute pee break while I attempt to watch the Mandarin news (it's mostly background noise to banana me!) while waiting for CSI:Miami at 10.45 on NTV7. Now, I've got a bit of a bone to pick about this one so fans, leave now! I do not like CSI:Miami! I wish they would swap places with CSI but I figure doing so would probably result in fewer viewers for CSI:Miami! I do not like Horatio who reminds me of a really dry wrinkled paper parchment and his side-kick, Calleigh Duquesne, irritates me to no end! Must be the way she talks! Plots are usually sea-related and are oklah, quite good but argh..the cast spoils it for me! 1.5 thumbs up *runs away from CSI:Miami fans*

And finally my favourite CSI series at 11.45pm. It pains me how late this one is because I would have had to sit through and excrutiating hour of CSI:Miami and would usually be falling asleep by the time this one comes on! I love the chemistry Grissom has with his staff, I love Greg and I do like how they put the case together. The level of gore has increased lots since I last remember, often leaving me cringing. Verdict: 4 thumbs up!

So there you go, Monday nights frenzy which often leaves me with the rest of the week to recover from the lack of sleep! By the way, this is just my personal opinion so please don't come after me with brickbats! *ducks and runs*

Movie Review: 300

Caught this new movie recently. I was initially a bit hesitant to watch it, thinking that it'll be a typical guy-sy movie with lots of blood and gore. And true enough, it was! But nonetheless, it was quite a good watch for even a girly girl like me (though there weren't any cute pink fluffy creatures singing while dancing in formation!)

So what is it about besides men (lots of em!) with really sculptured bodies and fantastic six-packs trotting about the screen with loincloths and cloaks to show off their bodies? It's actually a story of courage, team spirit, strategy and valour. It's a story of how this legendary King Leonidas (now I know how the chocolate got its name!) of Sparta led 300 of his best soldiers to fight against a marauding wave of Persians intent on conquering the whole of Asia and Europe. His valiant act inspired the rest of Greece to unite and fight against the Persians, hence foiling their ambition to take over Europe.

I was very impressed at their fighting strategy and how they fought as one, each always looking out for and protecting his neighbour. The way they have been solely trained for combat to protect their country and their freedom allowed them to laugh in the face of impending death and to embrace it, each fighting to die a glorious death for their country.

300 inspired me to google up Sparta and I found some interesting facts about them on Wikipedia:

1. It was a very tough military country with no luxuries and laws regulating everything - hence the term Spartan which we use today!
2. A child was examined at birth to see if it was weak or small. Any form of imperfection meant death for the child as only the perfect and strong were allowed to live to ensure no imperfection entered the society.
3. Male children were taken from their mothers at 7 to be trained; very brutally, physically and mentally.
4. Spartan women enjoyed a status, power and respect that was unknown in the rest of the classical world. They were educated and allowed to hold properties.

Those times were tough times in Ancient Greece! Overall, the movie is pretty gory at certain parts with limbs flailing all over the place, blood spurting everywhere and heads being cut off. It has it's LOTR moments too with Persian mammoths and strange beasts running at our poor Spartans.

But having said that, it's still a pretty good watch if you can stomach the gore. Look beyond the video-game like killing and you'll see a fighting spirit in the little team of Spartans which I'm sure the world or Bolehland would be a much better place if we all had but a fraction of the spirit they did.

Love Actually