Mission: Impossible III Singapore/Asian Gala

M:I:III Gala

The Singapore/Asian Gala for Mission: Impossible III was one strange event. Taking place at 4 locations (GV Grand, Cathay Orchard Cineleisure, The Cathay Cineplex, Shaw Lido), my friends massb, dgital and I were assigned to the Shaw Lido event. massb and I were there courtesy as consolation winners in Mediacorp's contest, while dgital was there on assignment for movieXclusive

Why are we Waiting?!

The crowds were gathered eagerly to anticipate the main event for that evening at Shaw Lido, and that is the rapelling of 4 stuntmen and the revelation of the new LED screen on the facade of the building. In my opinion, and no offense to the organizers, this must be one of the most plain gala openings ever. Can't hold a whisker to what M:I is all about. You can view the clip of this below



It was over in less than 2 minutes, but what was on screen caught our attention - the winners of Mediacorp's contest sharing their experiences of the World Gala in Rome. We were only a whisker away in potentially being there! Damn! Tay Ping Hui was the celebrity host who accompanied the winners, and they got Tom Cruise to call their moms :-P

Anyway, back to the local gala, we proceeded back to Lido's cinema foyer, hoping to rub shoulders with some local celebs, but as it turned out, it was cordoned off for DHL staff - you see, they are a major sponsor of the proceeding (and of the movie too I suppose), so I guess it was a company event of sorts.

Spot the Celeb!

We only spotted Phyllis Quek, Wong Li Lin and Allan Wu amongst the crowd (see if you can spot the latter two in the picture above). There was one more relatively unknown Ch5 female artist dressed in a white cowgirl gear. Err hello, Brokeback was so last year ok?

There wasn't much entertainment except for a short dance sequence by 3 dancers, and one more by a female toddler. What gives? Though I think they had a lot of fun dancing to bastardized versions of the Lalo Schrifin classic theme tune, especially the toddler. Sorry no pics of the skimpily clad dancing baby, by then I was too bored to whip out my trusty cam




Security was extremely tight at Lido's Hall 1, there was a queue line and plenty (at least 8) security folks checking bags for contraband like cameras. massb and I were assigned to Hall 2. Security was lax (surprise), so I managed to take pictures of what you're about to see. At first we thought Hall 2 was gonna suck, but as it turned out, it has been transformed into a Digital Hall as well. So take note!

Inside Hall 2

DHL sponsored all the goodie bags (8 days mag, one pouch cum bag, one pen cum calculator), in addition to free Pepsi and popcorn. All the bad pre-show event programme is forgiven :-P

Goodies, Freebies, Freeloaders Unite!

You can read my review of M:I:III here, and as usual, when the credits roll, everyone started to rush for the doors. Carpark coupon not enough ah?

What's the Hurry?

As for us, well, it's the conventional way home by the MRT...



Did I mention we were dressed for the event, well, sort of?



All in all, it was a pretty uneventful Gala, not quite fit for a blockbuster like M:I:III. But what the heck, I suppose plenty of others who attended had fun in one way or another, at least the movie was well worth the wait.