It's my 33rd birthday today (14 April), so I allow myself an off day to not kill too many brain cells and just enjoy this windy day. Here's an article originally written by Aida Ekberg of Yahoo! Contributor Network on Jan 2, 2010.

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When it comes to birthday movies, the movies that have birthday themes are often much more exciting than what happens to us on our special day. This is a look at some of the best birthday movies out there, including deadly birthday movies, funny films about birthdays gone wrong, and movies about bad birthday presents. So whether you're in the mood for love, action, or a good laugh for your birthday, there's sure to be some movies on this list that will help you laugh that added number to your age away:

Gone Was the Twilight Series... Well, Not Quite Yet

The last Twilight movie opened in November 2012, and it was quite the phenomenon. Fans lined up 3 days before the purchase tickets, girls cried because they refused to accept there's no more Edward-Belle torture to self-impose to, people condemned the Jacob + What's-Her-Name-That-Belle's-Daughther combination, and it was the big winner (or loser, depends on your perspective) at the Razzie Awards.

So, that's it right? The end of an era, the end of teen-craziness over vampires-werewolves-humankind love torture? Well, not quite. In the first three months of 2013, we had at least seen three movies that are considered distant relatives / close siblings to that Stephenie Meyer's YA series (and one of them was even penned by her).

Third Cousin : Warm Bodies
This is perhaps just a distant relative, a third cousin. But when you watch this love story of a zombie and a human girl, you can't help but think of Twilight. How can you not? Even Teresa Palmer looks like Kristen Stewart in some angles. The zombie is pale, much like the vampire Edward. There are good zombies and bad zombies, much like there are the Cullens and the Volturis. The only missing connection is maybe there's no Jacob (Thank God!).

Warm Bodies takes itself less seriously thus enables it to be more funny and less pretentious. There are no lips biting from the heroine or a walking pale wood pretending to be romantic hero. It's much more entertaining.

Step-Sibling : The Host
Although it's written by the same author, this tale of an earth full of human bodies with alien souls is only considered by me as a step-sibling to Twilight. It's about the heroine who was forcefully inflicted with an alien souls but slowly learned to bond with this kind alien, and her "love-triangle" with her boyfriend, and a guy the alien is attracted to. It's complicated to put it in a sentence you see, and it's not really a triangle per se since it actually involves four souls. There's also a bad seeker (played by the gorgeous Diane Kruger) but there's no epic showdown between the good and the evil.

This movie with Saoirse Ronan front and center, is not as bad as some critics put it to be, at least Ms. Ronan herself is maintaining her good work as per usual.

Sister : Beautiful Creatures
I can summarize this in one phrase: The reverse-gender version of Twilight. There's this ordinary guy falling in love with a witch-in-making. A creepy big house located in the deep of the wood, mysteriously & creepy family members who always dress so luxuriously and sleep-inducing love story.

Good news is: at least the center duo can act better than that two from Twilight. But then again, hey, who can't?










Are there more coming our way? I hope not! Twilight is gone, just accept the fact and move on, stop making wanna-be movies when there are countless topics to be explored. Be more creative, that's how you win audience.

Random Thoughts While Watching "The Host"

Random thoughts while watching "The Host" (this is not a review, just random notes):

(1) I know I am not a movie critic, but I do want to pay my respect to the dearly departed Roger Ebert. While doing research for the movie before going into the cinema, I read that this movie was the last film reviewed by the famous movie critic, who passed away on April 4, 2013. He wrote "<The Host> is top-heavy with profound, sonorous conversations, all tending to sound like farewells." and gave the film 2.5 stars out of 4.

(2) And so it's a good thing that I know this film is critically panned, holding only 10% 'rotten' rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I went in the movie fully prepared. Hey, I'm watching a film adaptation of a novel written by the woman behind the Twilight series. What do I expect?

(3) This movie really should be renamed "The Kiss". There are like 10 scenes of kissing cramped in a 2-hour movie. Okay, I didn't actually count it, but you get my point. In Malaysia, this movie should be renamed "The Kiss: All Kissing Scenes Will Be Censored Out".

(4) Stephenie Meyer really can't resist to put in a love-triangle in her every book, and the parties involved in it are never all human. The love-triangle in this film is not really a triangle, as it actually involves four souls though only three bodies. You need to watch it or at least read the story to understand my statement.

(5) Saoirse Ronan, this lady is a treasure. Ever since Atonement she has consistently given good performances, even in not-so-good movies like City of Ember and The Lovely Bones. Her performance in this movie reminds me of her other film "Hanna", which is good as I love that film. Few actresses can convincingly be strong and vulnerable at the same time.

(6) Wonder if Twilight would be a good movie if they cast Saoirse Ronan in the lead. But that series' problems are way bigger than Kristen Stewart. It's the story itself, so you can cast anyone in the lead and the movies are still bad.

(7) Beautiful scenes make this movie more watchable. Have no idea a desert can look so beautiful.

(8) Beautiful music also makes this movie more bearable, especially in some cheesy scenes. The Melanie-Wanda goodbye scene, yes I'm talking about you. Additional note: the girl sitting two seats from me was crying during this scene.

(9) So there's no epic battle at the end. Diane Kruger was simply captured and her soul being sent away. The end. Really? Anti-climax ending. Oh wait, that's not the end, it's about the separation of Melanie and Wanda. Oh wait, that's also not the end... See, you need to watch the movie to realize the movie is dragging too long to end.

(10) Final verdict: 3 stars out of 5. True, it's not "Avatar" type of epic, but it's no "Twilight" type of disaster. There are some hits and misses, but mostly it is still watchable.

Random Thoughts While Watching "Warm Bodies"

Random thoughts while watching “Warm Bodies” (this is not a review, just random notes):

(1) This has to be my first point: the soundtrack of this movie is really cool with lots of really nice songs, though some of them I have never heard of before. Note to self: Go find the list of all the songs in this movie.

(2) This is Nicholas Hoult's second movie in 2013 which he falls in love with the girl out of his league. In Jack the Giant Slayer, he is a farm boy who falls for the princess. In Warm Bodies, he is a zombie who falls for a human girl. Ill-fated love story seems to be his specialty now.

(3) Many have compared this movie to the Twilight series, where a human girl is in love with a non-human boy. But let me tell you this, while Twilight so self-consciously serious and romantic and shit, Warm Bodies doesn't mind to be silly at all. Oh, and there's none of the agony-inflicting love triangle plot line Twilight is so proud of.

(4) And speaking of Twilight, Teresa Palmer does look like Kristen Stewart from some angles. While she is no Meryl Streep, rest assure that she can do more than biting her lips, or twisted her face like she's suffering from constipation the way Ms. Stewart did in the Twilight movies.

(5) Question #1: If all the zombies live at the airport, why is it that R is the only one living in that airplane? None of the other zombies is interested in this private space?

(6) Question #2: So zombies can be out at broad daylight? I thought zombies can't stand the sunlight? Then again, this is no conventional zombie movie so maybe that rule doesn't apply here.

(7) Poor Nicholas Hoult, he's been wearing the same outfit throughout the whole movie (save the last scene where only appears about 1 minute). I hope they wash the shirt often.

(8) The final battle against the Bonies ended even before it began. Just one line of voice over by R explaining they wiped out the whole clan of Bonies. Too bad, they could at least showcase some 5 minutes fight?

(9) Have you ever envy your sibling's achievement, cuz' it makes you relatively less successful? Last week, we watched James Franco carried the whole movie. This week, his brother Dave Franco... well, let's just say he has 10 minutes of screen time in this movie. Luck is a funny little thing.

(10) Final verdict: 3 stars out of 5. If you are looking for Twilight kind of movie, this is not it.

Random Thoughts After Watching "Beautiful Creatures"

Random thoughts after watching “Beautiful Creatures” (this is not a review, just random notes)

(1) I admit I have never heard of this YA novel before. I first came to know about this movie when I watched Hansel & Gretel few weeks ago, and they played the trailer before H&G. My first thought was: so this is something like last year’s Dark Shadows? And then I googled the movie and I realized: oh no, this is the reverse gender of Twilight, shamelessly rip off the same formula that brings Twilight to the utmost success: Two young lovers, one ordinary human being & the other not-so-ordinary, and their love-you-but-can’t-be-with-you torturous love story.

(2) I watched this movie back-to-back with “Jack the Giant Slayer”, and now realize they’re actually not much different: it’s the story of two young lovers who could not be together because of their different background. Just that “Jack” has better looking leads.

(3) Gladly announcing this good news: Alice Englert and Alden Ehrenreich are 10 times better than Kristen Stewart & Robert Pattinson. At least Englert can do more than just biting her lips and Ehrenreich can… well, it’s not so hard to be better than those two Twilighters (three, if you count Taylor Lautner) so I’ll leave it at that.

(4) The supporting actors and actresses are actually very good. Jeremy Irons & Viola Davis are very good in their limited roles. And Emma Thompson, well, I shall dedicate one whole point to her…

(5) Don’t you just love Emma Thompson? How can you not be? She’s lovely in every role. In this movie, she’s the mother of Ehrenreich’s best friend possessed by the evil. She’s both hilarious and scary (if that is even possible), and she rocks an American accent. That confrontation scene with Jeremy Irons is just great.

(6) I often mix up Rose Byrne & Emmy Rossum. I can’t explain why, because it doesn’t make sense at all but it happened. My point here is: remember how lovely when Rose Byrne became the bitch in Bridemaids? Same here, Emmy Rossum really made an impact as the evil and bitchy cousin.

(7) I spent some time trying to figure out why the actor playing the above-mentioned best friend, Thomas Mann looks so familiar to me. And I thought he was Michael Angarano. But then I googled him too, and realized: OMG, he is actually that eager young man who wants to be a witch hunter in Hansel & Gretel. I thought I’ve seen him before!

(8) One question: Why is there no mention of the husbands of these casters women, especially the evil one like Sarafine & Genevieve? If they had become evil, who would have married them and impregnate them?

(9) If Jennifer Lawrence can play 16-year-old Katniss in The Hunger Games, I bet she can handle the role of Lena just fine. Now I just wonder how different will the movie be should they cast her as Lena.

(10) Final verdict: 2.5 stars out of 5. Watch it if you like Twilight. It’s not as bad as I expected, at least I didn’t walk out of the movie half way like I did during the first & only Twilight movie I watched.