Kevin Lau

Disney's Million Dollar Arm, starring Jon Hamm, is a simple yet enjoyable movie. Based on a true story, sports agent J.B. Bernstein (Hamm) can't seem to close a deal with any real athletes. In order keep his finances afloat, he decides to run a program in India called "Million Dollar Arm". Using "Million Dollar Arm", he recruits two kids from India, a country where Cricket is the number one sport, and bring them to the U.S. to earn a career in baseball. Though pretty simple and even predictable at times, Million Dollar Arm  works very well as a feel-good drama. In fact, I'd watch it again. The acting was very done in this movie. The only thing it suffers, however, is the writing. There is plenty of comedy but I feel like there isn't enough drama to balance it out. The pacing was quite simple but off in some areas; I was able to pinpoint the halfway mark of the movie when it happened and there was a ten-minute scene that the movie could have ben...

As a fan of the Fullmetal Alchemist  franchise, I was willing to dive deeper in Ed and Al's universe. My younger brother (who, coincidentally, is taller than me) found this book in the library and a was nice enough to check it out for me! From I could gather, this light novel takes place within the three year gap before the series begins. Colonel Roy Mustang sends Ed to a town in the middle of nowhere called Wisteria to check things out and fill out a report. When the Elrics get there, they meet a girl named Ruby that helps them into the town. According to rumors, Wisteria is a paradise for those who have no home to go to, those who felt were treated poorly by the military or the outside world. In Wisteria, Ed and Al discover that the economy of the town runs on equivalent exchange, just like alchemy, and everyone seems to love living and working there. However, dark secrets lurk in this paradise and soon reveal themselves, leaving the brothers to wonder if this town is reall...

Godzilla: king of monsters and humanity's savior. Towering over skyscrapers in eye-popping 3D, Godzilla is here to fight monsters for about 10 minutes in this 2-hour movie, most of the time in the background. 15 years after an accident in one of Japan's power plants, it is revealed to the audience that something was actually growing from the ground. After tampering with it, scientists accidentally release a monster into the world. After wreaking havoc, Godzilla rises from the ocean to fight it. Humans try to survive all the disaster that were caused by the monster battles, deciding whether or not Godzilla poses a threat or is trying to protect them. As I said in the beginning, Godzilla is barely in the movie, which is a shame considering all the scenes of disaster were so well done leaving me to feel like this should be a tie-in to a Godzilla movie that focused on him fighting. Unfortunately, the non-disaster scenes (you know, the human aspects of the film) are incredib...

In a post-apocalyptic world, Chicago, Illinois is fenced off from the rest of the world. inside the fence, a society is made. By keeping order in a system, children at the age of 16 take a test to see which faction they are made for and they must choose one faction to live in the rest of their life (think the houses of Hogwarts from Harry Potter and the sorting hat). However, on rare occasions, the test doesn't work for someone, the results inconclusive to tell where the 16 would go in life. This is called "divergent". Beatrice Prior is a divergent and she must keep that secret or else the government would execute her, marking her as a threat to the system. Honestly, Divergent  is far from a great book. The serious problem the book suffers from is basic writing and plot pacing. It was not until chapter 12 (around page 115, already more than a quarter of the book) where the writing and pacing found consistency, but drags for so long to get to a point that's rele...

I'm a huge Spider-Man fanboy, but I'll do my best to review this movie as a movie itself. (Spoiler alert: It does the franchise justice.) Now graduated from high school, Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is ready to move on in life and his relationship with Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). However, still haunted by the death of Gwen's father, Peter can't bring himself to stick to the relationship, fearing that Gwen Stacy may face the same fate as her father if she were to get too close. As for his life as Spider-Man, it couldn't be better. The city loves him despite of what the press say and he continues to help whenever he can, including (but not limited to) stopping a Russian mob (Paul Giammati), a fan turned supervillain (Jamie Foxx), and a long lost friend fueled by desperation and rage (Dane DeHaan). The Amazing Spider-Man 2  is just about as good as its predecessor, but slightly better. The villains are more developed to where you understand how the characte...

With the sequel over the horizon in the States, what better time to review The Amazing Spider-Man ? Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is a teenage boy who, on a trip to the Oscorp science facility, gets bit by a genetically engineered spider that grants him powers such as super-strength, agility, and a sixth sense that warns him of danger. First using his powers irresponsibly, Peter pays a hard price when his Uncle Ben is shot and killed by a thug he could have of easily stopped. Driven by his guilt, Peter becomes a crime fighter with the motto "With great power comes great responsibility." However, sometimes helping everyone you can isn't the best choice. The Amazing Spider-Man is a reboot to the Spider-Man trilogy starring Tobey Maguire and directed by Sam Raimi. Both origin stories have a different feel to them, but the recent reboot is more true to the comics than the original trilogy. As far as whether one is better to the other, it just goes to taste pre...

This book was highly recommended to me by so many of my friends. I looked it up after first hearing it only to find out it is a Young Adult romance (ugh!). After avoiding it for so long, I just caved in and bought it. I seriously regret not reading it earlier. 16 year old Hazel Grace Lancaster has been diagnosed with lung cancer since she was 12 years old. Knowing that death is inevitable and will come sooner rather than later, she chooses to shut herself from the world so less people will be affected by her death. Unfortunately, her mom thinks otherwise. Hazel is forced to go to a cancer support group every week where one day she meets a guy who couldn't stop staring at her: Augustus Waters. Quickly connecting, the story moves on about Hazel's relationship with Augustus, learning some things about life along the way. Sounds like a book for girls, but believe me, guys can enjoy it just the same. Hazel's character as a narrator was truly well-written and each charact...