Movie Review: Battle Los Angeles, Oorah!

Well, I have to say. I love alien invasion movies. Some are plain hilarious and poorly done (recent example: Skyline) while others scare me so bad I can't sleep. Then there's Independence Day, which is just friggen awesome because it's fun and the aliens are fantastic. And who doesn't wish Bill Pullman would run for President?

Battle: Los Angeles Screenshot

Regardless, Battle: Los Angeles is a whole new kind of alien movie for me. There was an actual plot that was incredibly believable. There weren't any crazy one-liners or ridiculous personalities. The movie dealt with families and the military, more specifically the United States Marine Corps. It's the story of survival, a small group of Marines and cilvilians working together to escape a dangerous and seemingly impossible situation, taking risks, feeling afraid and helpless, sacrificing and so forth. It was a war movie, that's what it was - with aliens.

For once, the aliens were not at the forefront of the movie - they were a problem, yes, but the human characters were so much more prominent and I honestly worried for them. The aliens were almost a sidenote. I even cried at one point! Alien movies do not make me cry. Can't say that anymore.

It was Hurt Locker meets War of the Worlds. The flow of the movie was compelling, swift-moving and engaged my emotions more than I ever expected. The acting was pretty good, too. No silliness from the likes of Will Smith here. What the heck, I loved it. Skyline can sit on a pin, Battle: Los Angeles is just too cool.

Southern Malaysia's civil court ghosts

Menara CyberPort

The huge Menara Cyberport building in the capital city of Southern Malaysia, Johor Baru, has caused a flurry of ghost busting talk this week, after policemen and a medium came in to invstigate the city's eight civic court rooms for alleged demonic spirit activity.

While countries worldwide have different interpetations of what "demonic activity" actually means, there seems to be no harm done, just people in hysterics. Perhaps for good reason, as employees and a chairman have claimed to "brush into" ghosts on several occasions.

Senior court officials immediately sought help after a court employee went bonkers after claiming to have witnessed a ghost in one of the rooms. Other employees have complained of doors opening and closing by themselves. Court judges have expressed a lot of uneasiness toward the activity.

Ever since a medium came to assist in getting rid of the spirits, reports of apparitions manifesting have stopped completely and apparently the doors have returned to normal as well.

Former Johor Bar chairman K. Balarajah admitted he heard the stories of not-so-normal things going on in the courtrooms, “I received at least three complaints from lawyers about strange occurrences and sightings at the building... I have been there a few times but have not experienced anything personally."