2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Disappointed, thats one way to summarize the movie for me. Maybe I was hoping the movie would stay true to the original cartoon or maybe I was hoping more then just a handful of transformers in the movie but whatever the reason is I didn’t like the movie.

Firstly I think there really wasn’t a proper story. To me it looked like the movie was written around the fight scenes. Its as if they went ok, we need to have one big fight here, two big fights there, a small one here and a nice big one in the end, now go write a movie. I know this movie is just an action packed movie with special effects made for the general audience but after Lord of the Rings this is no longer an excuse. You can have amazing special effects, lots of fight scenes, great characters AND a deep intriguing story and still make it mainstream and a box office success. Seriously with a franchise like Transformers how hard could it have been to write a proper script?

My second problem is the actual Transformers, they neither resemble nor act like their cartoon counterpart. I hate the super detailed industrial look of the movie robots, I prefer the sleeker and simpler cartoon version. Another thing, Megatron is supposed to be a gun not a plane, Ratchet is supposed to be white (thats why my MacBook is called Ratchet), Bumblebee is supposed to be a VW Beetle and Starscream is supposed to be annoying as hell! I used to love watching Megatron and Starscream argue with each other in the original cartoon but it doesn’t happen in this movie. I can’t help but feel this movie should have been an epic not a quickly scrambled together movie. Look at Star Wars and Star Trek! Because the story was short but the fight scenes extremely long, we never got a chance to get close to any of the Transformers, maybe Bumblebee since he had the largest role but he also hardly spoke. All of them actually barely had any speaking lines! My favorite part in the movie without ruining it for people who haven’t watched it is when the Transformers went to the guys house to get “the thing”. There were a bit of funny moments there and we got a feel of the different personalities of the robots but that was it, no other scene even got close to that.

Also, whats up with the heavy advertising in the movie? The guy is video conferencing with his wife and there is a huge ass “Cisco Networking” logo on the screen, a Transformer crash lands from space and visits the Pontiac dealership, another a Hummer dealer. Oh and they are ALL American cars! They took Bumblebee, a German VW Beetle and turned him into an American Cheverolet Camaro. Later in the movie you also have the Sprite machine and Xbox 360 transforming into robots which is fine if all these incidents above happened casually but instead they were very obvious which I felt was tacky.

On a positive note I really enjoyed the acting of the main kid in the movie and the visual effects of the robots was just incredible. The movie was fun to watch but I wouldn’t watch it again. My final score is a 3 out of 5.

I am at what used to be the Jeep quick service garage. I say used to be because today I just found out the Jeep quick service garage also started catering to Dodge and Chrysler vehicles. I knew this day would come ever since Mulla and Behbahanni merged. Instead of my quick service taking 15 minutes like it used to take I now have to wait an hour because there are a bunch of soccer mums with their big Durangos getting their cars serviced. (Posted from my Nokia e61i)

(Posted from my Nokia e61i)

Audi R8, Audi RS4, BMW M6 and a Porsche Carrera S. (Posted from my Nokia e61i)

I got a lot of emails and some people left comments asking me how to unlock the iPhone. Well if anyone took 2 seconds to google it they would have found a ton of “how-to guides”. If you have a mac just download INdependence, activate the iPhone then copy anySIM to the iPhone and launch it to unlock it. It can’t get any easier and its free.

Update: If you have a Mac follow this guide [Mac Guide] and if you have a PC follow this one. [PC Guide]

I love popping bubblewraps but I don’t know how fun an electronic toy version would be. If its cheap I would get it… [Link]

According to a few readers and a post by K.thekuwaiti, Zain has acknowledged the issue with the iPhone and is trying to fix it. One comment on K’s blog even states the iPhone should be working with Zain by 3PM today. If thats true it would be perfect timing since Nat should be collecting her iPhone today from U Shop We Ship.

Update: It is now confirmed, as of 3PM today the iPhone started working with the Zain network. Thank you to everyone at Zain who helped out in updating the network to support unlocked iPhones.

I just found out tomorrow night the US version of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares is going to premier in the States. In the show Ramsay Gordon visits a failing restaurant and he has one week to help the owners turn it around. Every episode is a new restaurant which makes the show really entertaining. The UK version was one of my favorite shows so I can’t wait to watch this. [Link]

It’s really gotten to a point where there isn’t much more that can go wrong. I’ve honestly lost count on how many politicians have gotten assassinated in the past couple of years and its depressing and sickening. I am going down to Beirut next Tuesday for a week long shoot and I hope things get back to normal by then. The last time I had a shoot in Lebanon another politician had gotten assassinated, its becoming fucking routine! [News]

This just goes to prove that there is a blog for everything. [Link]

After months of spy and leaked shots, Toyota finally announced their new 8th generation 2008 Land Cruiser. I am guessing they should be in Kuwait before the end of the year. [Link]

Update: Here are a ton of new pictures [Link]

I just noticed today that Sultan Center now carry Altoids! They had three flavors available, Cinnamon, Raspberry Sours and Tangerine Sours. The price? Not cheap at KD1.650 per tin!

There are a whole bunch of Vimto Ramadan ads currently being aired, this is my favorite. Its just soooo cheesy! [YouTube]

Last week I posted an iPhone versus iPod Touch post and argued the fact that the iPhone is a better deal. Well looks like a lot more people share the same opinion, here is a snippet from iLounge’s review of the iPod Touch:

In addition to the previously mentioned missing pack-ins, you also lose iPhone’s camera, phone functionality, built-in speakers, built-in microphone, side volume controls, superior screen, superior battery, larger suite of applications, and Bluetooth wireless feature.

Here is a link for the full review. [Link]

My favorite thing about Ramadan is that I get off work at 3PM. This allows me to have a ton of free time to do stuff I wouldn’t usually do like riding my bicycle.

Yesterday I went riding with Nat and the weather was surprisingly great. We rode from Marina Mall to Scientific Center, a short route since we didn’t want to take a longer one in case our bikes had developed problems after a year of storage. Imagine riding all the way to the Kuwait Towers and then finding out the bike has a problem and you have to walk back all the way to Salmiya. It would suck…

Riding the bicycle is really different from the motorbike. For one thing falling off a bicycle is no longer a big thing. Nat crashed yesterday when her bicycle slid on a curve and she just got up and continued riding. When the same thing happened to me with my motorbike I ended up with road rash, a fractured wrist and a large repair bill.

There are two brands of bikes I would recommend people getting, Trek and Cannondale. I personally prefer and ride Cannondale. When it comes to road bikes I would go with Trek but for mountain bikes Cannondale all the way. The Cannondale dealer is located in Shuwaikh, you take the first right after McDonalds on Canada Dry street and once you reach the small round-a-bout the dealer would be on your right hand corner. Trek on the other hand is available at GoSport in The Avenues and eXtreme Sports at Marina Waves.

If you are looking for a place to ride, the Gulf Road is a good place to start. For a short trail you can start off at Marina Crescent and ride all the way to Scientific Center and back. For a longer trail you can go from McDonalds on the Gulf Road and head all the way to Souk Sharq and back. Both routes use a sea side trail away from dangerous car traffic.

Cannondale have soooo many hot bikes to choose from, my favorite being the Gemini but the prices can get ridiculous with models costing KD1000 and up. You can spend a lot less of course, a member in the forum recently purchase a Trek for only KD148 and you can even get bikes for under KD50 even although I wouldn’t recommend them at all. The difference between the cheap and expensive bikes is usually weight, quality of parts, the frame and the finishing. Cheap bikes are usually heavy, equipped with the crappiest brands and handle like crap.

There used to be a riding club that met up every Friday at like 7AM to go riding but I don’t think they do that anymore. If anyone knows of another riding club please leave it in the comments below.