Movie: Tropic Thunder (For Advanced level)

Well, it's Friday again, while you are enjoying your weekend, I'm working my head off giving lessons. Haha! But don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining! I love it! Enjoying it!

Time to introduce my favourite of the favourite movie so that you can get it sooner and watch it over the weekend.

Warning!! Lots of unwanted language in this movie!! (and food for mind for deep-thinkers)

The movie they think they're making... isn't a movie anymore.

"I know who I am! I'm a dude playing a dude disgused as another dude! "

Official Trailer

Never have I watched a movie that has so many funny and catchy quotes,never have I seen a movie with such great comedians and action starts together, never have I had Tom Cruise swearing so much and so badly in a movie, and this movie just blew my mind!!! The best part is, you don't even see Tom Cruise's name in this movie and they want you to find out after watching the entire movie!

Right, did I spoil your mood? Actually, no, because there are so many other aspects of this movie that is worthy appreciating.

Let's hear from the great actors giving you the movie review themselves!

First, I totally admire the perseverance of Ben Stiller because he worked very hard in every one of his movies in the past, yet the success was never really big. I started watching his movie since "There's something about Mary", and then it was already "Meet the Parents" and "Meet the Fockers". I watched "The Night at the Museum", and it was pretty good, but it was "Tropic Thunder" that really showed me how one's hard work finally paid off.

The most impressive of all are his hilarious quotes! Almost every line of the movie was written intelligently and it would not be possible without painstaking effort and the death of many brain cells (Ben Stiller was the director, one of the writers and producers of this movie).

The cast couldn't get any better than talented Jack Black and "Ironman" Robert Downing Jr.

Jack Black has always been hilarious and gifted in his musical talents, which was no hiding in his movies "The School of Rock" and "The Holiday". Robert Downing Jr, on the contrary, was totally unknown to me until I saw his perfect imitation of a black American Sergeant Lincoln Osiris! He was the one who gave me the feeling that Hollywood really has great talents!

If you are looking for something innovative and extraordinary, some of the catchiest lines of the century, great acting skills, and the best value-for-money-and-stars deal in town, go and grab this DVD or Blueray.

The only thing that you need to be careful is the abundant slang used in this movie, get your urbandictionary.com ready.

Tropic Thunder official website:
http://www.tropicthunder.com/

Funny Quotes:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0942385/quotes


They even have websites for the actor's characters in this movie!!!
http://www.tuggspeedman.com/
http://www.kirklazarus.com/
http://www.jeffportnoy.com/
http://www.alpa-chino.com/

And some spin-off websites:
http://www.pandarelocationfoundation.org/ http://www.makeprettyskinclinic.com/

Investment: (1886) Huiyuan Juice

Have been busying filling in application forms for my Master’s degree, so I couldn’t find time to update this blog. Sorry about that. Well, I’m back now.

Today, I would like to share a little bit about my poor views on investment, with emphasis on the English words you can learn.

Most of the time, I do not pay enough attention to the most updated news, and so I usually miss the boat to buy low. Nonetheless, on the 3rd September, I saw Huiyuan Juice going up 173% from $4.14 to $11.28 right from the day it resumed trading. From that moment, I already know, earning money from stocks or maybe any kind of investment, is a lot on timing and fate.

If I had visited the price of this stock before Coca Cola announced the proposal, or if I had always kept an eye on this stock, or if I hadn’t put so much focus on other stocks, or if I had always liked orange juice, if just anyone of these happened, I might have bought some Huiyuan shares, and then sold it at high price, but who doesn’t know it is easier said than done?

And since was so close to the proposed price of purchase, I did not buy it, and the price never reached $11.28 again. I was lucky, or was I?

Actually, when I first heard this news, I did think the price would come close to the premium price, but I was also quite sure that China wouldn’t want a foreign-based company to grow too big in China, particularly when they are talking about buying the entire juice maker, the largest in China.

And then of course, bad news followed.

DJ MARKET TALK: Huiyuan Set To Tumble; Coca-Cola Bid Rejected
2009-3-18 03:26:00 p.m. (Extracted from Dow Jones & Company, Inc., published 2 days ago.)
Huiyuan Juice (1886.HK) set to dive when resuming trade (company hasn't indicated when), possibly visiting HK$4.00-HK$5.00 range, after Chinese government rejects Coca-Cola's (KO) US$2.4 billion bid to buy out China' leading juice maker.

Xinhua reports Ministry of Commerce says deal would hurt small local juice companies, could have pushed up juice market prices, limited consumers' choices. Rejection would mark huge disappointment for investors chasing shares higher on hopes of deal getting approval, with Coca-Cola offer at HK$12.20/share; stock likely to get knee-jerk selling on trade resumption.

Huiyuan shares pay price for failed deal
(03-19 11:43) (Extracted from the Standard.com.hk, published 1 day ago)

Shares in Hong Kong-listed Huiyuan Juice tumbled sharply this morning on resumption of trading following a suspension, at one point losing half their value, after Beijing rejected a plan by Coca-Cola to acquire the mainland's top juice maker.

Huiyuan's shares were down 44.9 percent at HK$4.57, after falling up to 53 percent in early trade, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

Trading in the stock was suspended yesterday, when the Commerce Ministry announced that it was blocking the high-profile acquisition over fears that it would hurt competition.

The rejection has raised concerns among foreign investors that China is becoming increasingly protectionist.

Analysts said the sharp fall was expected as the price had doubled since early September, when Coca-Cola offered HK$12.20 for each share.

JPMorgan analyst Selina Sia said she is concerned about the outlook for Huiyuan because of weakening juice consumption in China.

''Slower juice sales seemed to be a sector-wide issue in 2008,'' Sia told Dow Jones Newswires.
''Huiyuan's business performance in 2009 could deteriorate further if consumption sentiment becomes worse,'' she added.

(The focused words are already in bold.)

From the two articles, dive and tumble sharply have the same meaning -- to drop quickly and by large amount, and the reason for this is the high premium – the extra sum paid by the buyer for the purchase, that Coca-Cola offered in the acquisition -- the purchase, and the investors’ chase of shares. As the deal is rejected, investors lost confidence and the price really did get knee-jerk selling. And it was a disaster selling!

knee-jerk /ˈniːdʒɜːk/
adjective DISAPPROVING
knee-jerk reaction/response, etc. an immediate reaction that does not allow you time to consider something carefully

Maybe not all of you are interested in finance or stocks, but the terms and vocabulary used, as you may have noticed, are words that you will probably use if you are part of the working group.
And like I have said over and over again, the Standard is an ‘educational’ newspaper which offers appropriate amount of new words in each article for fresh English learners, so do make sure you at least read 5 articles a day, one from each section.

The remaining words I will leave it for your homework (guess first and then look them up), but do not just focus on the meanings, remember the pay attention to word partners, IPAs, and the writing style of the 2 extracts.

Happy Learning!