Say Yes to life, just like Jim Carey

There are times in life when you need to laugh out loud. And when you have finished laughing, you suddenly realise there's something to be learnt from the hilarious situation.

I found that out when Jim Carrey and I had a rib-ticklin' time in the darkened hall of the cineplex near my home. Yes Man is one of the funniest movies in recent years.

Carey is known as "rubber face" in parts of Hollywood. Even though he's not an American and is actually a Canadian, he's definitely one of the best movie imports in the past two decades.

I have enjoyed Carrey's Bruce Almighty in the past. It made my day whenever I think of God and then Carrey (in that order).

With Yes Man, there's an underlying message. Most of us lead sedentary lives. We couldn't care less about the happenings around us. Most of the time, we don't have time to consider other options in life.

It would be great if we give in to our whims and fancies now and then. However, most of us are afraid to. We think our friends will consider us crazy. Our family may disown us, and we may just regret our actions.

Yes Man is basically about a man who decides one day to say "yes" to all and any challenges that come his way. Once he has made that life-altering decision, he went on to try bungee jumping, attend wacky parties and giving loans to all dubious bank customers.

Suddenly his life began to careen off the usual run-of-the-mill tracks. Along the way, he encounter strange and sometimes wonderful people.

His boss gives him a raise and promotion due to his spontaneity and as bank officer Carl Allen, he even manages to find the love of his life in Allison.

There were times in my life when I too found walking down the road less travelled daunting but on those rare occasions when I tried trudging down the unknown path, I had some interesting experiences.

So Yes Man did bring back a bucketful of feel-good sensations. After watching this movie, I reminded myself that I must say yes to some offbeat but reasonable challenges in life.

I am glad this movie showed up when it did. Very often, we lead very mundane and dull lives. We grow into adulthood and allow others to convince us that being a non-conformist is bad for our health.

Then somehow after entering the portal of matrimony, we convinced ourselves that we have to be careful all the time because we are now "family men".

This movie tells us in a hilarious way that we could live life to the fullest and have a whale of a time when we let our hair down. In other words, we must learn to let go and let the fun in.

I say a big "yes" to this movie. I am grateful it has jolted my sense of inertia that has got a lockdown on my life. Thank you Jim Carrey for the reminder.

Okay, let get off the road and drive straight down that country road and smell the wild flowers, if they are any.

Just grab those balls of fury

It's nice to sometimes come across a senseless, wacky and out-of-the-ordinary movie fare that offers nothing but fun, laughter and hilarious situations.

I am talking of Balls of Fury. If not for a couple of famous names and faces like Christopher Walken and Maggie Q, I would have given this film a pass.

But like all armchair movie critics of little significance, I made a pit-stop at this cinema hall for a brief glimpse into the window of incredible laughs.

I wasn't disappointed. Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler) is a ping-pong has-been who prefers to forget the good old days. One day, a FBI agent of equally dubious repute, Rodriguez (George Lopez) came a-visiting to recruit him to flush out a fiend who had eliminated Randy's dad with extreme prejudice.

From the moment Randy accepted the dangerous assignment, it was a roller coaster of laughs.

Nobody in his right mind is expected to take the movie seriously but you will be pleased to know that there's a smattering of familiar faces popping up on the screen now and then; people like Jason Scott Lee and James Hong.

If you want to know who is James Hong, then you haven't been sitting in front of the TV long enough. Mr Hong is that familiar looking chinaman who has appeared in countless TV shows over the decades. He's not particularly famous but his face is rather familiar in an insignificant way.

Maggie Q is sexy without being salacious or wicked. She's fun and has that kind of Eastern charm that most men, Oriental and Occidental, find rather attractive.
This 90-minute show probably wasn't a dramatic box office hit but I am sure it did make a commendable pile of cash at video rentals.

Most weekenders who have nothing better to do will rent this video on a lonely Saturday afternoon. I have caught this show in its re-run on Astro at least twice.
Each time, it came across as something like you want to view over and over again.

Perhaps it's just me but I find some of the comedic plots too insane to ignore. Christopher Walken was a small time tour de force back in the good old days. I was referring to the Deer Hunter that came out a generation ago.

These days, Walken find it personally satisfying to play roles in movies like Hairspray and Balls of Fury, and he's doing a good job at it too. Good for you, Walken!

You are in absolutely no danger of going into hysterics in praising this movie but you certainly won't want to watch it alone. See Balls of Fury who also have funny bones in their body.

Buy a couple of packets of pistachios, cashew nuts and macadamia buts and gallons of beverages and then turn on the DVD to see Balls of Fury.

Laughter is free. Laugh as if there's no tomorrow. For all of us, one day, tomorrow may never come. Think about it. Meanwhile, just laugh.

Love follows the scent of three women

Producer/director Tsui Hark who is better known for producing movies like Swordsman, Once Upon A Time in China and Seven Swords has ignited a trail of aromatic pheromone that has triggered packs of men and women catching its scent and following it.

After having sniffed it, they have either got lost or may have continued to walk in a daze.

All About Women is the story of three women who are a mixture of bohemian, oddball and corporate types. It is amazing that the entire plot was born on the cradle of pheromone. Pheromone is a chemical substance secreted by animals, including humans regardless of gender, that normally sparks sexual attraction.

On such a premise, the plot is born and before long, becomes quite convoluted that the ordinary movie goer may struggle to keep up with its pace.

Tsui Hark's brand of humour in this instance is fired simultaneously in several directions. Even though it is a romantic comedy of the slightly weird kind, it manages to draw some feeble sniggers from the audience.

However, Tsui Hark shares the credit of writing the screenplay with Korean director Kwak Jae-yong. One wonders what these two men were up to when they conjured the story in their minds.

There's an allusion that links All About Women to that Korean hit movie My Sassy Girl. Those who watch this movie can arrive at their own conclusion.

The focus of the show is on Tang Lu (Kitty Zhang Yugi), a beautiful, top-notch corporate powerhouse who has everyone running to her office when she barks an order. However, she doesn't hold a high opinion of men because she believes intelligence is the key to happiness, until one day a pheromone bullet went right up her nose.

Fan Fan (Zhou Xun) on the other hand is a dedicated lab rat who one day discovers that the secret of a woman's sexual success lies in a substance that will bring down any man to his knees. Thus, begins her experiments and the consequences that later leads to the intertwining of three women's lives.

The third party involved is Tie Ling (Kwai Lun-mei) who is an unusual specimen of a woman because she boxes in her spare time, turns rocker at night and has a handsome boyfriend that's the figment of her imagination.

If this movie wasn't so ambitious, it would have succeed magnificently from the word "go". But Tsui Hark may have momentarily forgotten that All About Women is not all about swordplay where battlefield melee adds to the attraction.

Numerous sexual tension filled scenes were deliberately exaggerated in their effects. That technique could have scored if it had been a novelty, except that it has been overused in countless films.

It would be unfair to Tsui Hark who is regarded as somewhat of a legend in Hong Kong if the conclusion is drawn that he has fumbled and fallen flat on his face.

All About Women does have its moments. They were far and few between but nonetheless they were there at unexpected moments. It wasn't a total washout.

I won't venture to say that this movie rates a "must-see". It would be more accurate to say "see it if you so wish and have some hours to kill".

Apart of Kitty Zhang who instantly draws any hot-blooded man's attention with her stunning looks, Zhou Xun and Kwai merely make up the numbers in the show. Since this movie is written, produced and directed by men, it is assumed that it also caters to men. So we get to decide where the axe falls.

This pheromone scented film is not designed to be intellectually stimulating but it seems to make a valiant attempt at arousing our physical senses in a season of Hong-Kong-no-hit-movies.

The limpid conclusion of All About Women makes one almost regret leaving Cecelia Ahern's The Gift lying unread at the bottom drawer. May be Tsui Hark will have better luck next time. We all know he can do much better.