75 posts tagged “movie review”

MASSIVE IDEA THAT IS HARD TO IMPRESS

Category : Action, Sci-Fi / Starring : Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell, Rosamund Pike, Ving Rhames, Boris Kodjoe, James Cromwell

Based on a 2005-2006 comic book series of the same name, Surrogates boast two selling points, the concept and Bruce Willis. The movie anchors on the interesting concept of human living their lives remotely at home controlling their robotic surrogates. And you can imagine how enticing watching the trailer would be. To have Bruce Willis as the leading role in this action sci-fi is definitely a huge selling point.

What viewers are eager to watch is how the world would be in Surrogates, where every human you see walking in the streets is young, sexy and sophisticated robots, all controlled by their owners back home. Everyone now gets the chance to live the lives they want, without having to worry about youth, health, risks or any form of imperfection.

FBI agent Greer (Willis) investigates the muder of Jarod Canter, son of multi-millionaire Dr Lionel Canter (Cromwell), the original creator of surrogates. The case pulls Greer further into the truth of the surrogate-world, and also realization of what he really wants beyond the beauty that this surrogacy concept offers.

It was pretty weird watching the usually-jaded Bruce Willis under the excessive make-up, although intended, as they are all supposedly perfect-looking surrogates in the movie. We get to see the plastic version of Willis as the surrogate, and the real aging version of Greer, sitting from home controlling his other half. It was a relief that the real Greer takes over in the second half of the story, as the brushed-up version of Willis just didn't pull it off for me, even as a robot.

Do not expect too much of explosive action and stunts like Die Hard, Surrogates is more subtle and like I thought, it is not easy at all to materialize this concept well in a movie. For comic books where imagination is unlimited with drawings, the selling point of the surrogate-world works perfectly well. But in a movie, it is a totally different ball game. Audience expects to witness jaw-dropping sophistication, edgy surprises with technology and amazing gimmicks. After all, we are talking about a world, virtually virtual! Did the movie pull it off for me, I would say not to an excellent level. It was entertaining enough, but I wouldn't shout about it.

The trailer of the movie:-

Rating : B-

THE MOST UNLIKELY COMBINATION THAT WORKED

(Movie Review For Pixar Animation Studios' latest, UP)

Category: Animation, Comedy, Adventure / Starring : Edward Asner, Jordan Nagai, Bob Peterson, Christopher Plummer

It is not often we come along a cartoon or animation that uses an old man as its main character. So ordinary is this man, he is just an aging soul, mourning for his dead wife for years, and living his day-to-day mundane routine alone, accepting his fate that he would not live the dream he had always wanted for both his wife and himself. It is not always animation makers boldly apply the ingredients used in this movie UP, where we don't see animated heroic characters, no super powers, no wakcy or extreme lines, jokes and scenes, and no out-of-this-world excitements on roller coasters, flying carpets or explosions. On the contrary, what we get, is an old man who decides one day to tie his house to hundreds of balloons and sets his house afloat!

It is also not often we see cartoons using such adult concepts of bitter man mourning, sadly accepting his fate of not being able to live up to his dreams, and the constant aching moments of him missing his other half. And it is rare we get an adventure with such a combination of an aging man, an eight year-old wilderness explorer, a talking golden retriever and a colourful tropical bird.

So what can we expect out of all these, a gem like no other animations!! It was a pure treat for me to watch this movie. I like the drama appeal to parts of the story which shows us how much Carl (Asner) the main character is missing his dead wife. You can almost feel for his heartache, of not being able to live his dreams of building a house with his wife on the magical Paradise Falls in South America.

Then comes Russell (Nagai), the adorable nine year-old that will make you smile throughout the movie with his chubby cheeks and comical presense. With a twist of fate, both Carl and Russell teams up for an adventure of a lifetime, where they meet Dug (Peterson) a talking dog and Kevin, the giant tropical bird. 

What I also love about UP is the fact that it makes you not expecting too much as you watch along, but yet, unexpected twists and adventures keep popping up throughout, keeping you entertained until the end.   

It is the weirdest approach taken for an animation, the combination of the most unlikely bunch, but definitely a not-to-be-missed movie this year.

Rating : A

CLASSIC PLOT THAT STILL ENGAGES - BEYONCE & ALI LARTER DUEL IN STYLE

Category : Drama, Suspense / Starring : Idris Elba, Beyonce Knowles, Ali Larter

It's been done before, classic plot of violently-obsessed woman stalking a married man, but somehow it's appeal still works which explains the recurring attempts throughout time including the recent Obsessed by Steve Shill, the man who brought us several successful HBO movies including The Supranos, Deadwood and Carnivale. And the bigger appeal stems from two big stars Beyonce and Ali Larter meeting for the first time on big screens, and pulling off one of the biggest cat-fights of all time.   

Derek Charles (Elba) has it all, a successful and promising career at Gage Bendix, a beautiful wife Sharon (Knowles) and their son Kyle. Everything is placed in jeopardy when a temp worker at work, Lisa Sheridan (Larter) starts stalking him.
One glance at the synopsis all of us would go "Another one again?", and may not even consider giving this movie a try. Looking at the movie trailer would probably make you think twice. But it is the star appeal of both the leading female roles of Knowles and Larter that would make us ultimately visit the cinemas. We all know the potential of Ali Larter in such roles when we see her evil side of her Niki Sanders character in the TV series The Heroes. Some may doubt the acting skills of Beyonce Knowles, but many would want to see her rough things up in her fight scene with Larter in the movie.
The story builds up pretty well, nothing remarkable, but Larter made it work. Not coming off too strongly and desperate, she weaves her dementia with grace, and the chemistry between her and Alba is a treat to watch. Shill did not need any overly-done sex scenes to build up the sexual tension in this movie, but it was carried out well to keep the audience engaged. Knowles however was not given enough limelight during the first half of the movie, playing the innocent wife in the dark, the usual lines and the usual scenes. It was only towards the end that the tables turned as her character started to fight back, which Knowles finally has her share of showing off what she can do in her acting.

The trailer of the movie:

Rating : B-

MOVIE RECOMMENDATION AND MOVIE REVIEW : TRANSFORMERS - REVENGE OF THE FALLEN (2009, USA, English)

Category: Action, Adventure, Science Fiction / Starring : Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Ramon Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson

With the mega success claimed in its first instalment, The Revenge Of The Fallen can only promise the best action blockbuster we can expect this year. For the first time, being an ardent customer who will only purchase movie tickets online, I came across the highest traffic ever encountered by GSC's website. They had to practically create a temporary website with less contents and graphics to cater for the traffic, all thanks to the highly anticipated sequel of the Transformers.
In this sequel, we see our hero Sam (LaBeouf) moving to campus life while happily dating Mikaela (Fox), when all this is interrupted as the fate of the Autobots once again finds its way into Sam's life. Reluctantly, Sam who thinks his heroic days are way over, helps Optimus Prime and the soldiers of NEST, to once again save the world from falling into the evil fate of the Decepticons. In this journey, Sam unravels the secret history of Transformers' presence on earth, and how the once 'Fallen' has been defeated and now returns for its revenge.
What can I say, I don't think the Transformers movie series will ever be any lesser of a great action-packed blockbuster. The movie is filled with impressive stunts, intro to a few more exciting robot characters and their 'transformations', and as usual the witty jokes.
Fans especially male audience who came just to watch the foxy Megan, will of course be nothing less than satisfied.  This uprising star looks even more ravishing than the first movie. I never thought LaBeouf makes a good pair with her though, but he is definitely the right fit in his role as Sam. Good thing the movie does not anchor on the romance between the two, otherwise I wouldn't think the impact will work out as great as it has.
I like the new robots introduced in this instalment, they're interesting, a pure treat to watch. I also liked how the plot thickens amidst all the action, when the audience is brought back to the past where how the Autobots arrived on earth, the reason of their presence, and how it led to the devious revenge today. Kudos to the writers, for making this not just an action movie.
Now, moving on to the cons, I just have one slight disappointment with this movie. I felt the application of cheesy joke materials are just too overused throughout the movie. We remember how the first instalment managed to fit in a few funny moments, like when the robots were trying to hide from Sam's parents in their house. That worked, I liked it. But this movie, gosh, there are just too many jokes, to a point I felt some of them were totally unnecessary. A small robot doing the 'doggie' on Mikaela's leg, robots with Italian and Irish accents, annoying Sam's mum with her overacting frantics, really, it nearly pulled the movie down to a cheesy level. I just wished they would've toned it down a bit.
 

BETTER THAN JPB, BUT FAR FROM A MASTERPIECE

MORE EXCITEMENTS GROW ALIVE AT THE MUSEUM IN THE SEQUEL

Category : Comedy, Action/Adventure / Starring : Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Hank Azaria, Owen Wilson, Robin Williams, Steve Coogan, Bill Hader

It was two years ago in the story when Larry Daley (Stiller) saved the museum from the three old night guards at the American Museum of National History. Now he owns Daley Devices, the successful company which manufactures his inventions which include the Glow-In-The-Dark Flashlight. But is he really happy with his new found career, Larry is about to find out as he lands himself back into the adventure that is linked with his old friends at the museum, who only become alive during the night.

Most of the museum pieces are replaced by the new technology of interactive holograms and are sent to storage at the National Archives at the in Washington DC. Dexter the Monkey however steals Akhmenrah's tablet along with them to the new place, and the adventure soon starts again as Larry rushes to the National Archives to save his friends who is caught in the battle with other exhibits which have grown alive, and violent.

We are introduced to a series of exciting new characters growing alive at the National Archives in the second instalment, including the giant octopus, Abraham Lincoln, a different version of Teddy Roosevelt and Albert Einstein. The one who is causing a stir is Kahmunrah (Azaria), Akhmenrah's older brother, who recruits other villains including Al Capone (Bernthal), Ivan The Terrible (Guest) and Napoleon Bonaparte (Chabat) to complete his mission to conquer the world.

Azaria absolutely steals the limelight in this movie, giving a great performance as Kahmenrah, the overzealous and vicious but yet trifling and comical villain. Most of the best laughs in this sequel come from him, enjoyed his performance.

While in the first chapter we had Sacagawea (Mizuo Peck), this time we have Amelia Earhart (Adams), the fiesty and hungry for adventure female companion in Larry's new adventure. For me it was the magic and excitement of the exhibits growing alive that entertained us in the first instalment, while for the second, it was the comedy aspect that made it worked. The movie was hillarious throughout, and because we are talking about the National Archives, the possibilities of more museum pieces growing alive becomes endless, watch for yourself.

The trailer of the movie:-

Rating : B+

MOOVIE REVIEW : CARAMEL (2008, International Screens - Lebanon, Arabic)

Category : Drama, Comedy, International Screens / Starring : Nadine Labaki, Yasmine Al Masri, Joanna Moukarzel, Gisele Auoad, Sihame Haddad, Asiza Semaan, Adel Karam

Caramel revolves around the intersecting lives of five Lebanese women. Layale (Labaki) runs a beauty salon in the busy streets of Beirut, along with two friends, Nisrine (Masri) and Rima (Moukarzel). The story tells us each of their problems in life, where Layale is stuck in an affair with a married man that is going no where, Rima is attracted to women, while Nisrine is about to get married but she is no longer a virgin, something of a taboo nature in Arabic marriages.

Their long-time customer Jamale (Aouad) is also facing the point in her life where she is feeling insecure from her age and dying ambition of becoming an actress. Rose (Haddad) is a tailor nearby the salon, carrying the burden of taking care of her mentally unbalanced sister, Lili (Semaan).

A movie about sisterhood, pains in life, meaning of not giving up yet, and best of all, a surprise to me, which was the element of comedy introduced in this story. As subtle as any foreign drama would be made for international screens, Caramel still succeeds in inserting funny scripts and jokes throughout the plot. And I like the fact that it did not take away the drama approach of how an international screens movie should be.

Characters were convincing, taken well by most of the casts. Nothing over the top, but yet we feel for Labaki's character suffering from her dead-end affair, and Haddad's dilema when she had to give up her only chance to love again in her twilight years for the sake of her mentally-ill sister. I particularly liked the part where Layale meets the wife of the man she is having an affair with. Completely sympathetic, angry and in a way devilishly envious, Labaki carried out her role very well.

The trailer of the movie:-

Rating : A-

MOVIE REVIEW : SHINJUKU INCIDENT (2009, Mandarin)

Category : Drama, Action / Starring : Jackie Chan, Naoto Takenaka, Daniel Wu, Xu JingLei, Fan BingBing, Kato Masaya, Yasuaki Kurata, Chin Kar Lok, Lam Suet, Takizawa Hideaki

The selling point which would attract most viewers to go watch this latest movie by Jackie Chan is the fact that they were promoting this to be the most different movie Jackie has ever done, as how he described himself "Maybe one percent action, heavy drama". We are all so familiar with his action packed movies, it would be a good change to see this.

Steelhead (Chan) is a tractor mechanic who enters Japan illegally in search of his long lost girlfriend, Xiu Xiu (Xu). He meets Jie (Wu) along with other illegal immigrants from the mainland including his buddy Jie (Wu) who work through manual labouring jobs to survive each day in the foreign country. When Steelhead finally bumps into Xiu Xiu, he realizes she is now married to the Yakuza leader Eguchi (Masaya). One day Steelhead saves Eguchi's life and they both form an alliance which eventually drags the simple-minded Steelhead deeper embroiled into the world of gangsterism. 

I did not really find this movie to be of great standards by a mile for Jackie. Yes, we all at some point have felt his action movies have gone somewhat mundane throughout his whole career, but one still has to credit the high standards of raw stunts designed in the most intriguing ways in his movies which entertained viewers so far. Did this movie transform this to another level higher for the actor, not really. It was much lesser action, no arguements about that, but it was no great drama to me. It strikes me as just another gansterism movie which has been quite common to the Hong Kong productions. Put away the fact that it has a star studded cast, Shinjuku Incident is just, unfortunately another gangsterism movie.

Did Jackie also manage to impress us with another side of his acting, this time in a drama, not really either. Jackie's strength in his acting has always been to me his likeability factor. We would usually like his character in all his movies. To ask him however to push himself one huge step further in his acting to bring out more levels of emotions, convincing viewers of what his character is trying to put across, was perhaps a little out of his reach. We still like the Steelhead character, but convincing ability, probably only halfway.

Daniel Wu on the other hand had a more interesting character to play in the movie, where the initially humble and innocent Jie eventually transforms radically towards the end as he is pushed to the brim of his wicked fate. Although the second part of the portrayal of his character was to me a little overdone, I still enjoyed his acting this time. Good effort there.

Now, the most important point I wanted to make about this movie. I find the core message of Shinjuku Incident a bit far too corny, far-fetched and unbelievable. Steelhead was portrayed as the noble man throughout the story, and he resorted to using of gansterism (where he killed many along the way) to buy himself power, a place in the Shinjuku district for him and his mates, and also an identity other than an illegal immigrant in Japan. Right after this, we soon find Steelhead preaching with highest passion against gangsterism and to remain noble and righteous. Definitely childish if they expect all the viewers to buy this storyline and the message of the movie. I was pretty put off about this part of the movie, which unfortunately is the core message.

The trailer of the movie:

Rating : C-

MOVIE REVIEW : THE UNBORN (2009, English)

Category : Horror, Thrillers, Suspense / Starring : Odette Yustman, Gary Oldman, Cam Gigandet, Jane Alexander, Meagan Good

The Unborn is produced by the man who brought us mega-blockbusters like Transformers, The Rock, Armageddon and Pearl Harbour. This new movie starring Odette Yusman (Transformers, Cloverfield) is not his first horror/thriller investment, where he has previously produced movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Amityville Horror and The Hitcher. 

Casey Beldon (Yustman) is plagued by nightmare visions of a lurking boy and strange looking dogs. After a strange incident which takes place during her baby-sitting of her neighbour's children, one of her eyes starts to change colour, and she starts her journey of discovering her hidden past, where she has a twin brother who died in the womb. She also learns that the boy taunting her is the soul of her twin brother, who is possessed by an evil spirit called dybbuk, who is trying to force his way to be reborned into the world of the living. 

This movie is filled with thrilling scenes, so it's great for fans of horror movies. It also uses elements of horror similar to Asian movies like Ju-On. Although some of the scenes may be slightly predictable, we still get enough suspense expected in a good scary film.  

The plot used in this movie is pretty straight-forward, as the main character digs deeper into the past of her family and reveals the mystery of her nightmare visions. It does not offer any twists if you're looking for a shocking endings like Six Sense or The Others.  

What you can expect from The Unborn is a basic horror movie which gives you decent thrilling scenes throughout.

Trailer of the movie:

Rating : C

MOOVIE REVIEW : REVOLUTIONARY ROAD (2008, English)

Category : Drama / Starring : Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, David Harbour, Michael Shannon

Quite a buzz has been made on this movie which reunited the Titanic couple DiCaprio-Winslet, including both of them carrying out steamy scenes in front of the director Sam Mendes, who happens to be Winslet's spouse. Lots of positive reviews and ackknowledgement given to the powerhouse acting duo, who happened to receive a number of award nominations, and Winslet's win at the Golden Globes. Not a huge fan of hers, but I was looking forward to watch DiCaprio in action again in a heavy drama.

Both Frank (DiCaprio) and April (Winslet) have always believed they were special, they are vivacious in character, passionate in their dreams, and are aiming to live their lives together based on higher ideals. Time passed, they bought a house along Revolutionary Road, had two children, and their lives were soon trapped in the conformity of life in the suburbs. Frank is in a marketing job he hates, while April becomes a suburban housewife who longs to escape from the life she is deeply dissatisfied with.

All their friends couldn't understand why they are not entirely happy, they are always looked upon as the young, good looking couple living the ideal lives. And when April bounces the wild idea of them leaving everything behind, move to the glamourous city of Paris and start everything anew, their friends are all heavily disapproving, to a point ridiculing their sudden naive hopes. Both are getting energized about the plan, when things start to deteriorate one by one. April discovers she is pregnant, but is adamant it is no show-stopper, as she develops a bold back-up plan, an abortion, which Frank disapproves. Frank then gets a promotion which means a much higher pay with a more challenging and vibrant job scope, and is soon getting second thoughts of leaving the place. The couple is gradually, well I should correct myself, 'drastically' pushed to their extremes as they fight back and forth on this matter.

The reason why I said drastically is because I wasn'y totally sold with the idea of how this situation faced by them could push them to such extremes. They were constantly fighting in the movie, not just the usual domestic fights, but seriously berating each other, taunting one another to the lowest respect. While I acknowledge both their acting were good, I was just put off by the slightly ridiculous emotional ride they are trying to sell in this movie.

I was very disappointed, as I have anticipated it as one of the better drama movies in 2008. It wasn't just the couple, the story also introduces another character, John (Shannon), son of a realtor friend of theirs (Bates), who is a mental patient whose anger and emotions are awkwardly (in my opinion) forced into the plot, again, just to stir up some emotions without much of a point. To me the movie was trying too hard to bring the audience into a radical emotional ride of the characters, and in a way trying too hard to show off how well the two (DiCaprio and Winslet) can act. But I wasn't sold, the plot wasn't believeable, they failed to convince. I didn't regret watching it, solely because the two acted pretty well, but I was hugely disappointed with everything else.

The trailer of the movie:

Rating : C-