hostel 2 was not what i had expected. although tarantino's twisted mind produces great movies, evidently, it didnt have the same effect on horror films. yes, the scenes of death were creative and original, but it was exaggerated to the point where it became humorous. unlike hostel 1, it was suspenseful where someone was actually trying to escape. hostel is supposed to be a movie where i pay my $14 to see wealthy people killing bystandards. i want to be grossed out, not laughing to cheese. this time, i only saw a few killings done properly in the appropriate dungeon. the other killings of the villains were exaggerated. if you have seen tarantino's movie "from dusk till dawn", there were so many body parts laying around and a vampire rock band using them as instruments that it was accepted by viewers to be boring. hostel 2 was sort of like that: a girls head gets chopped up and used as a soccer ball. not impressive at all. (5/10)

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couple weeks ago, taking yana around los angeles renewed my passion for this great city. in a nutshell, i practically showed her the major sites of LA and Orange county. one day, we were immersing ourselves in LA's dense oriental culture, the next day we were in a magical world of disney, and last, i showed her the reason why orange county is so posh that it has 2 different tv shows named after it: "the orange county". so-cal is like no other. so big and diverse, i really felt like a tourist during these few days.


saying hi to the local newport sea lion


close-up of our sleepy friend