Movie Review: 2012 (3/5 stars)

Disaster maestro film director Roland Emmerich is back at his forte again (after a hiatus since Independence Day, and The Day After Tomorrow).

Expect the best movie effects in scenes like flooding, huge earth and mountain moving quakes, buildings collapsing, subway trains hurling over airplanes. I mean, the scenes are intense, and at some points, it grips you such that you’ll wonder what you will do if you’re ever in such a situation (even 10% of the scale is bad enough).

However, I think this film lacks the relationship touch that was much stronger in The Day After Tomorrow  – father (Dennis Quad) & son (Jake Gyllenhaal), and the characterisation in Independence Day (hot shot wise crack Will Smith).

Only snippets were inserted in various points of the movie (I liked the Russian billionare’s last minute valiant act).

The choice of vessels for saving humanity reminded me of the Biblical parallel, especially the part when the animals were also being loaded onboard.

That said, this movie is worth the watch, though I cannot imagine crunching on popcorns when seeing so many people perish in one disaster scene after the next.

Movie Review: Inglourious Basterds (4/5 stars)

Quentin Tarantino is back.

With a vengence.

And in this film, he exacts it on all camps – the good guys, the bad guys (which is which is really from whose perspective). What the audience is assured of is one good ol’ spaghetti western-styled movie set in the backdrop of WWII nazi-occupied France.

The script is tight, the lines are masterfully written, top it off with Christoph Waltz’s (best actor worthy) portrayal of Col Hans Landa, unofficially nicknamed “Jew Hunter” of the SS, and you have many layers of richly-crafted scenes that left me in awe.

The first “interrogation” scene is still etched firmly in my mind as I recalled how Waltz so efferverscently lured his host, the French farmer into a false sense of security through his sophisticated , cultured and highly manipulative style (hawks and rats analogy), which finally broke down the farmer.

Pin-drop tension is found at many points of the movie, where the actors are faced with life or death decisions, and Quentin just knows how long to stretch these nail-biting moments.

Humour is also found in many characters, notably Brad Pitt’s Lt Aldo Raine (the Apache). It was hilarious watching Pitt’s portrayal of a hill-billy red neck (yeah, with a lynching scar to boot). Aldo’s confidence in his Italian linguistic prowess was too much to take when confronted with Landa’s quick reparte.

This movie is about impeccable dialogue, acting and good old-fashioned story-telling. Kudos.

Movie Review: The Shinjuku Incident (4/5 stars)

This is a non-typical Jackie Chan movie, firstly because JC did not direct it, nor get involved in the stunt chereography, nor inject his slapstick humour into it.

In fact, this is a more gritty drama from Director Derek Yee who was responsible for Protege and One Night in Mongkok.

So there is hardly much of the usual JC action and moves. Yes there are fight scenes and the violence is especially graphic and gruesome (many severed hands, open wounds).

But the triad story is nicely told and has good character development (kudos to Daniel Wu for doing a very good portrayal of Ah Jie who undergoes a metamorphasis to become a colourful dopehead.)

So will Jackie Chan become Asia’s Robert De-Niro? We’ll see….

Movie Review: Quantum of Solace (3/5 stars)

Anyone looking for a fast-paced action flick will give this latest James Bond full marks.

From the start till the end, I lost count of the number of running chase scenes, with lots of glass-breaking, jumping across roofs, cars/planes/boats chase scenes.

Daniel Crag’s portrayal of the new Bond is a rough and tumble, bleed and bone-crunching 007. Perhaps this is what the Director feels is the reflection of the modern Bond.

Personally, I still prefer previous Bond flicks with the Brit gentlemen’s class and nice one-liners. They had a classic feel to it. Higher social class character with a dash of humour, a certain sex appeal (Daniel Crag oozes more tough guy, six-pecs kind of testosterone appeal).

Too many chase scenes packed into this movie with less plot and character development.

It’s just less Bond.

Movie Review: Eagle Eye (4/5 stars)

First things first.

* Spoiler Alert!

We close one eye that this movie is based on an overused plot about technology/super computer/machines gone haywire….(just like Terminator, The Matrix, iRobot, Enemy of the State…hmmn last two starred Will Smith)

Then the rest of the ride is fantastic.

Just like a roller coaster which never lets up on the pace, and gives kick-ass excitement with car chase scenes, never ending running, explosions and the works.

This is one hell of an action-packed thriller!

Go watch it.

Movie Review: The Dark Knight (4.5/5 stars)

I feel that Director Christopher Nolan does justice to the Batman movie series.

While Batman Begins was a gargantuan effort to revitalise the whole franchise and save it from smouldering in the depths of corny, campy, silly episodes (remember the hoo-ha about the nipple-shaped enhancements to the bat suit?), The Dark Knight is primed to unleash the mood of a darker, more grim, and more stark reality of Gotham and the chaos of the world we live in today.

And what better character to unleash this utter evil and anarchy than The Joker, played masterfully by the late Heath Ledger. This villian is slave to neither money nor power nor people. His complete lack of respect for boundaries and rules as well as an incomprehensible psychotic past drives the whole of Gotham city to fear such an anomaly, especially when he takes innocent lives without batting an eyelid.

Then there is the semblance of hope and justice in the White Knight who is personified by Harvey Dent (played by Aaron Eckhart), the city’s top District Attorney and legal eagle who manages to pull a coup and put more than half of Gotham’s crime syndicates behind bars.

I like that Bruce Wayne (played by Christian Bale) is torn between giving up his batsuit and many other choices.

“You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

That quote from Harvey Dent encapsulates a good part of the premise of the show.

The only gripe I had was the casting of Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes (she is just not hot enough of a babe to be wooed by the two male leads).

Jokes aside, I especially liked The Joker’s quote during the Charity Fund Raiser, vocalised in a low baritone pitch “Why so serious?”.

Now that will be a classic line for ages to come.

Movie Review: Red Cliff (4/5 stars)

Red Cliff did not feel like a 2 1/2 hour movie.

No draggy scenes, no gaps in between and despite only having 2 major battle scenes, the dialogue and storyline was really very engaging.

And towards the end, I was drawn into the plot and eager to know how Prime Minister Cao Cao will strategise his next move.

Kudos to Takeshi Kaneshiro playing the role of Zhuge Liang. Tony Leung holds his own as Adviser Zhou Yu (I cannot imagine Chow Yun Fat was originally slated to play this role) while the rest of the casting was quite apt.

I especially enjoyed the camera panning from Zhuge Liang to Zhou Yu while they were contemplating Cao Cao’s next move from across the river.

Director John Woo kicks ass in capturing the cool fight scenes

Themes of brotherhood, camaradrie and integrity that were a common thread from his earlier Hongkong movies (A Better Tomorrow, Hard Boiled, The Killer) underly this movie which takes place in the Han dynasty (circa 208 A.D.) during the Three Kingdoms period.

I’m eagerly anticipating Red Cliff Part 2.

Movie Review: The Bank Job (3/5 stars)

Confession 1: I have this thing for brit/irish/scottish accents.

Confession 2: I am quite done with standard American movies.

Final confession: The story has to make sense, down to the details.

So I liked the rawness of the movie.

Some shots were very straightforward and direct movie making, though I believe either the censors snipped off some extremely gruesome torture bits, or the director deemed it not an integral part of the plot. It’s definitely not Nip Tuck or CSI.

Then the plot.

You will find reports of the rumours of it being based on true story here and here, but overall the premise is that such a story was quite plausible, and indeed possible.

So there, final verdict – The Bank Job delivers.

Movie Review: Hancock (2.5/5 stars)

Q: Firstly, I was wondering where the title came from, what it meant.

A: Then I realised it was much ado about nothing. John Hancock played by Will Smith, is just accidentally named after the insurance company.

Q: Then next, was this Superhero movie ever a DC Marvel comic book (as in superman, spiderman, batman)?

A: From Wikipedia, I found out that Screenwriter Vincent Ngo wrote the spec script Tonight, He Comes in 1996. The draft was about a troubled 12-year-old and a fallen superhero. So there, it did not come out from a comic.

Overall, Hancock is what I would describe as a on-the-fence kinda show. You can either watch it or not watch it.

The Right side of the fence has the special effects, puppy dole-eyed Charlize Theron, some plot twists and the generic American movie formula.

The wrong side of the fence has a weak backstory to Hancock’s history, inconsistent shifts in plot development, cartoonish one-dimensional villians (you either make it fully surreal like Racer or make it realistic like Iron Man).

If you happen to be passing by a cinema with nothing else to watch, it won’t hurt to catch this.

Otherwise, any superhuman effort will not be worth it.

Movie Review: Wanted (3/5 stars)

This is like a movie for meat-eaters who are given a hamburger.

Just throw away the buns at both ends. The patty is juicy and sumptous, though a complete meal it does not make.

Some parallels must be drawn with The Matrix.

1) The protoganist is a loser dude in a loser job living in a loser house – basically life sucks, something better is out there.

2) Hot sizzling bad chick (aka Dream Babe of all hot-blooded men) hooks up with loser

3) Lots of shit happens (shooting, explosions, car chases) and someone is out to kill loser

4) He is Special (The One)

5) He gets training to unlock his powers

6) He has a Mission

7) Finally he beats the bad guys (sorry but this ain’t an M. Night Shyamalan movie where any spoiler will kill the twist which makes up the whole movie)

And that’s quite where the similarities end.

Granted that Wanted has great Matrix-like special effects (bullets that bend?)

Granted it has one of most spectacular car chase scenes rivaling my favourite Bourne franchises.

And granted James McAvoy ala Wesley Gibson does justice to his role better than the one dimensional Keanu Reeves ala Neo.

Hmmn, indeed throw away the buns as The Fraternity of Assassin’s core belief is to kill one to save a thousand. Yeah, just for kicks throw in some prophetic weaving thread.

And the hero’s parting shot, “Take control of your own destiny. What about you? What are you doing about your destiny?”

I seriously thought that the camera would then pan to James McAvoy who would do a Neo Superman thingy and go up up and away.