The Imitation Game + Freeing SG

Caught this highly anticipated thriller biopic The Imitation Game! I was abit frustrated when I entered the cinema because I was a little late.
The first few parts of this movie was like warming up to Alan Turing, getting to know his personality and eccentricities. Played by Benedict Cumberbatch, Turing is depicted as a sociopathic genius whom I cannot help but draw parallel with the BBC Sherlock. "Irascible genius", coined in the film, really quite fit their descriptions; both having no regard for social decorum which lead to comic relief scenes in the film and drama respectively.

And OMG, just to digress, I've been keeping a close eye on #SETLOCK2015!!! I'm completely ruining the upcoming Sherlock special and the 4th season (in 2016 - the woes of being a Sherlock fan) with all these spoilers like:

?!?!

ANYWAY back to T.I.G., I would love to learn the specifics about the machine which Turing built and affectionately christened "Christopher" in the movie, like how it actually decrypts codes from Enigma because I felt the movie won't quite capture correctly the brilliance of Turing without, at least, explaining the process of his mammoth undertaking, which was building "Christopher". But of course the movie-makers had to make something idiot-proof enough to pander to the layman's understanding (or lack thereof, lol) at the expense of showing off Turing's mathematical and engineering capabilities. Afterall, this is a biopic film and it doesn't really matter whether it adheres to historical accounts by the film-maker's standard. Though factually false, the christening of his machine (the actual one was called "Bombe", according to Wikipedia) after a childhood friend/first love does perfectly tie in with a food-for-thought scene as to whether it is possible to humanise a machine. In the end, you could see how emotionally attached Turing was to the post-war vestiges of "Christopher".

Source

The later part of the movie touched abit on Turing's struggle as a homosexual in mid-20th century England which was abit thought-provoking because even after "shortening World War II for more than 2 years", he was still prosecuted for "gross indecency". Is it unfair and offensive to send a gay war hero who saved millions of lives for mandatory hormonal therapy? If he is spared, then does that mean the lives of thousands of other homosexual Englishmen are lesser than his?

SAUCE

Keira Knightley as Joan Clarke, serves an indispensable pillar of support for Turing in the film. A good supporting role too, for reminding everyone his immense contributions towards the end of the movie. I also loved her entrance in the movie and how she defied patriarchal expectations YAY girl power. But I was quite disturbed by the STARK difference in her hair and eyebrow colour.

Overall not a bad movie!

I also caught I Fine..Thank You..Love You, some Thai rom-com which wasn't even remotely funny at all in my opinion. I felt the movie was full of cheap laughs which does not contribute to the plot in any way. I didn't understand how the entire cinema cracked up at supposedly-hilarious scenes when they're all slapstick and unsophisticated. Halfway through the movie I was sickened and annoyed by the movie and was hoping for it to end. Its only saving grace is probably the 2 good looking actor and actress. 

Freeing SG

Freeing SG at The Cathay! I was initially skeptical about participating in these 'Reality Escape Games', because I was thinking how ironic it must be to pay to get locked in a dark room. If you know me, I hate to do things in bad lighting, and engaging myself HALF-BLIND in a mentally-demanding simulation game only brought out half-hearted attempts and redundant comments from me. But I must say that the concept of having to work your way out through puzzles and physical engagement all under the pressure of a time limit is something new. With the red LED countdown timer ticking its way to the end of 45 minutes , I was (well, at least, my friends were) compelled to think on my feet, and solve clues to lead us to the next stages of the game.

A quick search on the internet tells me that the first game we played was "War: The Battle for Freedom". We were basically soldiers trying to escape enemy base-camp or something. This room was special because there happened to be roles for some of us, er, like I was the "Scout" (complete with my personal army green sling bag), but upon entering the room I just surrendered my maps and torchlight to the 2 and a half, over-enthusiastic NS men and let them have a go at topography and morse code reading in the dark. We escaped with about 10 minutues to spare.

The next was "Ninja: The Secret Disciplines of the Shinobi", where we were first trapped in a DARK quasi-tatami room. I guess the best part of this room was this sliding/pushing compartment (which could fit 2 or 3 standing people) which transported us to an adjoining room where we were greeted with a few final challenges that stumped us. We almost made it out in the end but we were out of time.

On hindsight, I think the rooms really had disgusting, mawkish names (lol, "secret disciplines of the shinobi") but the game itself is an interesting break from all the few things you can do while you're out in Sg! Could do with more light sources.