Category: Entertainment

Today is Chinese New Year of the Boar in 2019, and I would like to wish my dear readers a Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year. I celebrate the occasion by watching a movie above starring Jackie Chan. The plot goes like this: A legendary demon hunter (Jackie Chan), tracking down beasts that enter the human dimension, assisted by a lawman protégé and a mixed group of friendly monsters. You can watch the trailer on Youtube that’s embedded in this blog post to get an idea of what I mean.

Well, the show took 2 hours or so and the graphics were entertaining, albeit poor storyline. Nevertheless, it was entertaining to watch in the Premiere Class of GSC. Many cinema goers came in red clothing, and some families bought the same design red t-shirts to show unity and solidarity. This is the first Chinese New Year that we celebrate without dad’s presence as he had gone to be with the Lord on 17th December 2018 last year.

Following the events of How to Train Your Dragon 2, Hiccup continues to rescue dragons with his fellow dragon riders and friends in order to bring them back to Berk and create a bustling dragon and human utopia. Unfortunately, his efforts have also resulted in the island becoming severely overpopulated with dragons. In a response to the overcrowding, Hiccup desires to find the “Hidden World”, a safe haven for dragons that his late father Stoick told him about. Meanwhile, a white female Fury[9] dragon, held captive by warlords, is given to infamous dragon hunter Grimmel the Grisly as bait for him to capture Toothless for the warlords’ use as an alpha.

Toothless discovers the female Fury (dubbed a “Light Fury” by Astrid) in the woods around Berk and the two quickly becoming enchanted with each other; yet, the Light Fury senses Hiccup’s presence (him having followed Toothless) and flees. Hiccup and Tuffnut later discover Grimmel’s dragon traps in the woods. Grimmel visits Hiccup that night, but the latter has prepared an ambush to capture him; Grimmel manages to escape burning down Hiccup’s house and most of Berk in the process. In response, Hiccup rallies Berk’s citizens and dragons to leave Berk on a quest to find the Hidden World and safety from dragon hunters.

Mid-journey, the Berkians discover an island which they initially plan to rest on; soon, though, they decide to settle there, even if only temporarily. Seeing Toothless’s inability to fly solo hindering his growing relationship with the Light Fury, Hiccup rebuilds an automatic tail for him. Upon receiving the tail, Toothless flies off, meeting the Light Fury on his own and flying with her to an unknown land. Valka, on a scouting patrol, notices Grimmel’s approaching army, quickly reporting back to warn Hiccup. Hiccup and the dragon riders head to capture Grimmel; yet, they fall into his trap, barely escaping. Ruffnut is captured, but irritates Grimmel until he lets her go. Unknown to Ruffnut, she has accidentally revealed the Berkians’ new location, and Grimmel secretly follows her.

Hiccup and Astrid search for Toothless, finding the Hidden World and seeing Toothless and the Light Fury leading the dragons there as alphas and mates. However, the two are soon discovered, with Toothless being forced to leave and take Hiccup and Astrid back to the Berkians. Hiccup realizes his people wouldn’t be safe living with dragons in the Hidden World, and moreover, have no business intruding upon the dragons’ home. Suddenly, Grimmel, having followed Ruffnut, appears and captures Toothless and the Light Fury.

With Astrid’s encouragement, Hiccup sets out with the dragon riders to stop Grimmel and his army and save Toothless, the Light Fury, and all the captured dragons. Gliding in on wingsuits, the group catch Grimmel’s army off-guard, igniting a massive battle. Hiccup frees Toothless, while Grimmel drugs the Light Fury into obeying him. Hiccup and Toothless give chase; after a heated aerial duel, Grimmel tranquilizes Toothless midair. Hiccup, realizing he cannot save Toothless by himself, frees the Light Fury instead and implores her to save the Night Fury. Hiccup and Grimmel plummet to the ground with Hiccup fully prepared to sacrifice himself in order to save Toothless. The Light Fury, however, unexpectedly returns to save Hiccup as well while Grimmel falls to his apparent death.

The battle won, back on the island, Hiccup fully realizes that the dragons will likely never be safe in the human world and the Hidden World is where they truly belong. With great sadness, Hiccup and Toothless bid farewell to each other as all of the Berkians set their dragons free. Toothless and the Light Fury then lead the dragons to the Hidden World. Some time later, Hiccup and Astrid are married as the Berkians settle permanently onto their new island.

Years later, Hiccup, Astrid and their two children sail across the sea to visit Toothless, the Light Fury, and their three offspring at the edge of the Hidden World; Hiccup vows that until mankind can coexist peacefully with dragons, the dragons will stay hidden while the Berkians guard their secret.

n the mid-1930s, widower Michael Banks lives in his childhood home with his children Annabel, John, and Georgie; his housekeeper Ellen and sister Jane are helping him raise the children. However, Michael has taken a loan from the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank to cover expenses, and William Weatherall Wilkins’ associates come to the house to warn him the family’s home will be repossessed if the loan is not repaid in full by Friday. Michael and Jane remember their father George left them shares in the bank that can cover the loan, and search the house for the certificate proving their ownership of the shares. During the search, Michael finds his old kite, but sees no worth in it anymore and puts it out to give away.

A strong wind whips up, taking the kite to the park where Annabel, John, and Georgie find it. Georgie grabs the kite string and is nearly pulled into the sky, but saved by lamplighter Jack. As they gain control, Mary Poppins descends with the kite. Returning to Cherry Tree Lane to take care of the three children as their nanny, Michael and Jane are astonished. Mary begins her duties by drawing the children a bath, which leads down to an imaginative oceanic world. However, when Mary and the children return to the house, she denies anything fantastical happened.

Michael and Jane go to the bank to see if he can find proof of his shares, but bank manager Wilkins denies that there are any records of them – and destroys the records as soon as they’re out of sight. Later, Annabel and John decide to sell their mother’s “priceless” Royal Doulton bowl to help pay off the debt. Georgie tries to stop them, and the bowl ends up damaged while the three fight over it. Jack greets Mary and joins her and the children on a trip inside the bowl’s painting. There, the group meets the talking animals drawn on the bowl, and Mary creates the Royal Doulton Music Hall. However, after the performance, Georgie is kidnapped by a wolf, a weasel, and a badger, and Annabel and John go to rescue him. They succeed, but end up falling off the edge of the bowl, quickly waking up in their beds, where they are comforted by Mary over their mother’s death.

The next day, Mary and the children go to see Mary’s cousin Topsy to get the bowl fixed. Although Topsy initially refuses as her shop has turned upside-down, Mary helps her see things from a different perspective, and she agrees to fix the bowl. They then go to the bank to give Michael his briefcase, but when the children go to Wilkins’ office to ask him for help, they overhear him planning to repossess their house regardless. Georgie interrupts the banker’s meeting, and the children are forced to flee. Michael sends the children home with Mary, but they become lost in fog. They encounter Jack and his fellow lamplighters, who teach the children Cockney rhyming slang and light their way home. There, Michael reprimands his children for putting his situation at risk and begins to break down, having been grieved over his wife’s death, to which the children comfort him, echoing Mary’s words.

The Banks family prepares to move out of their house, but while examining his old kite, Michael realizes Georgie used parts of the shares certificate to cover the kite’s holes. Michael and Jane head to the bank while Mary and the children go with Jack and the lamplighters to Big Ben to “turn back time”. Jack and Mary turn Big Ben back five minutes, giving Michael and Jane enough time to reach the bank. Wilkins, however, refuses to honor the certificate. Mr. Dawes Jr. arrives and ousts his nephew Wilkins from the bank for his corrupt practices. Dawes Jr. affirms Michael and Jane’s ownership of the certificates and reveals George had invested Michael’s tuppence from 25 years ago, giving them enough money to pay off the loan.

The next day, the Banks family go to the park, and purchase balloons which carry them into the sky, while Mary Poppins senses it is time for her to leave. The Banks family and Ellen return to their home on Cherry Tree Lane. Michael and Jane realize Mary Poppins has left once more, and speak their thanks to her. As Mary flies away, she turns back and smiles down on London.

On Cybertron, the Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, are on the verge of losing their civil war with their enemies, the Decepticons, and begin making preparations to leave the planet. The Decepticons ambush them during the evacuation, and Optimus sends a young scout, B-127, to Earth in order to set up a base of operations where the Autobots can regroup. B-127 reaches Earth alone, crash-landing in California and disrupting a training exercise being conducted by Sector 7, a secret government agency that monitors extraterrestrial activity on Earth. Sector 7 Colonel Jack Burns presumes B-127 to be a hostile invader and attacks, driving B-127 into the forest, where he is then ambushed by the Decepticon Blitzwing. When B-127 refuses to reveal Optimus’s whereabouts, Blitzwing spitefully tears out his voicebox and damages his memory core; despite this, B-127 manages to kill Blitzwing before collapsing from his wounds. Before entering stasis, B-127 scans and transforms into a nearby 1967 Volkswagen Beetle.

Charlie Watson, a teenage outcast traumatized by the death of her father and resentful of her mother Sally for remarrying, finds B-127 in his Beetle form in a scrap yard belonging to her uncle Hank, who gives it to her as a birthday present. Upon starting B-127, Charlie unknowingly accidentally activates a homing signal that is detected in space around the surface of one of Saturn’s moons by Decepticons Shatter and Dropkick, just as they are in the middle of interrogating the captive Autobot Cliffjumper. After brutally killing him for defiance, the pair head to Earth, where they masquerade as peacekeepers to persuade Sector 7 to help them find and capture B-127, whom they deceive into thinking is a dangerous criminal.

Meanwhile, Charlie revives and befriends the amnesiac B-127, whom she nicknames “Bumblebee” and teaches him how to communicate through his radio. Together, they unlock a message from Optimus urging Bumblebee to defend Earth in their absences, which restores some of his memories. Bumblebee is discovered by Charlie’s neighbor Memo, who agrees to protect their secret due to his feelings for Charlie. Left alone, Bumblebee accidentally destroys Charlie’s living room and causes an energy spike that attracts Sector 7’s attention. When Sally blames Charlie for the destruction, Charlie angrily leaves with Bumblebee and Memo, only for the group to be intercepted by Sector 7, Shatter, and Dropkick. Bumblebee is captured while Charlie and Memo are returned home. Charlie finally expresses her pain over her father’s death and makes amends with her brother, who helps Charlie follow Burns to the Sector 7 outpost where Bumblebee is being held. Shatter and Dropkick torture Bumblebee into revealing the Autobots’ whereabouts and leave him for dead after revealing their plan to bring the Decepticons to Earth. Powell is killed before informing Burns the truth about Decepticons. Charlie revives and restores the rest of Bumblebee’s memories with one of Sector 7’s high voltage guns. After fighting past Burns’ obstruction and attempt to re-secure Bumblebee, the pair set out to prevent Shatter and Dropkick from contacting the Decepticons with a beacon. Burns and his men also attempt to stop Shatter and Dropkick, but Shatter destroys their helicopter and nearly kills Burns, who is saved by Bumblebee.

Bumblebee kills Dropkick and Charlie deactivates the Decepticon beacon, causing an enraged Shatter to pursue her. Bumblebee causes a flash flood by puncturing a dam wall, crushing Shatter under the rubble, before being rescued by Charlie. Realizing that he had been wrong about Bumblebee, Burns buys them time to escape before the army arrives. Charlie, realizing that Bumblebee has a greater purpose on Earth, tearfully parts ways with him. After saying goodbye, Bumblebee scans a 1977 Chevrolet Camaro and drives away. Charlie returns to her family while Bumblebee meets up with Optimus Prime, who is disguised as a red 1977 Freightliner semi truck, as more Autobots arrive on Earth.

Six years after saving the game Sugar Rush from Turbo’s revenge, Wreck-It Ralph and Vanellope von Schweetz are still best friends who hang out every night after work in Litwak’s Family Fun Center and Arcade. However, six years of being a racer in Sugar Rush has caused Vanellope to express quandaries with the increasing predictability of her game, so Ralph tries to surprise Vanellope with a new hidden track in Sugar Rush. Vanellope enjoys the track but goes against the controls of the player to ride it, causing the wheel on the console to get stuck, and Mr. Litwak inadvertently breaks the wheel while trying to unstick it. Knowing that the company who made the part went out of business years ago, Litwak has no choice but to unplug Sugar Rush, rendering Vanellope and its citizens homeless.

After a talk with Fix-It Felix Jr. in Tapper’s, Ralph decides to venture with Vanellope via the newly installed Wifi router to the internet to find and purchase a new wheel for Sugar Rush from eBay. The two follow Litwak’s avatar and meet KnowsMore, a search engine who points them towards eBay. Ralph and Vanellope successfully acquire the wheel via auction, but find they have no money to complete its purchase, which they are told will expire within 24 hours.

After consulting pop-up advertiser Spamley, Ralph and Vanellope venture to a popular online game, Slaughter Race, to steal a valuable car they can sell to cover the auction. After engaging in a high-speed chase throughout Slaughter Race, the car’s owner Shank commends Vanellope for her racing skills, causing visible jealously in Ralph at the budding friendship. Despite not allowing the pair to take her car, Shank points the duo towards video sharing site BuzzTube after posting a video of Ralph taking a leaf blower to the face. They meet up with the algorithm Yesss who gives Ralph the funds earned from his videos’ popularity. When the money earned turns out to not be enough to keep Vanellope from returning to Slaughter Race to consult Shank, Ralph decides to make more videos playing off the top trends to earn more money.

Ralph becomes a viral sensation with Yesss playing off this by having her assistants venture out into the internet and spamming users with pop up ads. Wanting to feel useful, Vanellope offers up her services as a pop-up advertiser. Not wanting Vanellope to fall back into Slaughter Race, Ralph has Yesss appoint her to the fansite Oh My Disney! where Vanellope realizes that she is an unauthorized advertiser and ends up meeting the Disney Princesses. The Princesses talk to Vanellope and stress the importance of finding and pursuing one’s dream through song, inspiring her to return to Slaughter Race.

Meanwhile, Ralph successfully earns the money for their eBay bid, despite being hurt after reading the rude and mean-spirited comments posted on his videos. After being accidentally answered over the phone and put on mute, Ralph finds Vanellope back in Slaughter Race confiding in Shank about her desire to stay there and leave the arcade. Desperate to not lose his friend, Ralph approaches Spamley about any possible virus that would make Slaughter Race more boring and less desirable for Vanellope. Spamley takes Ralph to the dark web where they meet Double Dan, who gives them an insecurity virus that analyzes any imperfection and spreads it to other parts of its surrounding area. The virus, scanning Vanellope, spreads her glitch throughout Slaughter Race, causing the game to shut down and reboot, almost killing Vanellope and Ralph in the process until Ralph breaks out from the game before it shuts down.

Vanellope discovers Ralph’s actions and berates him for them, asking him to leave her alone. The surviving virus escapes Slaughter Race and scans Ralph’s insecurities and spreads them throughout the internet itself. The virus manifests into hundreds of alternate versions of Ralph that tear up the internet in a rampant search for Vanellope. With the help of Knowsmore and Yesss, the pair attempt to lead the horde of virus Ralphs to an anti-virus software. The virus Ralphs form a giant Ralph that capture Vanellope, as Ralph attempts to fight them off. Ralph catches their attention and calls them out on their selfish possessiveness of Vanellope, claiming that letting go and accepting her choice to stay in Slaughter Race does not have to mean the end of their friendship, and can actually strengthen their bond. Having let go of his insecurities, the gigantic virus Ralph disappears, in the process dropping Ralph, who is saved with the help of Spamley and the princesses.

The internet is restored and Vanellope decides to stay in Slaughter Race, with Ralph returning to the arcade and participating in activities with the other arcade members, while regularly video chatting with Vanellope. He watches the sunrise from Game Central Station, coming to peace with the changes in his life as he heads to work with Felix.