SYNOPSIS: College-educated Harvard decides to become a gangster. He is promoted through the ranks, then heads his own team. As Hong Kong prepares for its 1997 handover, Harvard works with the police to ensure survival of his gang. His former boss BJ helps him out and they swear friendship. Harvard is able to move along with the times, cashing in on trends just ahead of the authorities. He gets into businesses beyond their jurisdiction, particularly internet porn. Harvard goes legitimate, getting rid of the violet aspects of gangsterhood, alienating the fighters and those who cannot adapt. Harvard decides to resolve a gangland power struggle by himself – but discovers that the person betraying him is…

MOVIE REVIEW:

The triad genre has always been one of the signatures of Hong Kong cinema, though admittedly in recent years, the disappearance of such organised criminal activities from the colony has also led to fewer such films compared to its late 1990s peak when ‘Young and Dangerous’ was the talk of the town. Yet in spite of its declining fortunes, there are those like filmmaker Daniel Chan who continue to hold the fort, with not one but two additions to the genre within just two months.

Skipping a local theatrical run, ‘Triad’ was in fact released before his ‘Young and Dangerous: Reloaded’ and if the intentionally more violent (rated Cat III in Hong Kong, or the highest in the territory) doesn’t quite reinvent the wheel, it still is a nice throwback to the not so distant past when the genre was in its heydays. And following the narrative template of many of such films, this one again tracks the fortunes of a young and ambitious member as he rises to power amidst the ranks before falling down just as spectacularly.

That dubious honour here belongs to William (William Chan), a bookish type at the start who feels the temptations of power when veteran triad leader Patrick (Patrick Tam) rescues him, his mother and his pals from the bullying of another rival gang. Thanks to his business smarts, William quickly ascends within Patrick’s Heng Gang triad, with the latter settling into a father figure whom he turns to for advice and sometimes desperate help.

What would a triad film be without the perennial themes of loyalty, brotherhood and sacrifice? So William gets two buddies - Derek (Derek Tsang) and Edward (Edward Chui), both of whom are pretty much like what Chicken is Chan Ho-Nam – as well as a sweet demure girlfriend Michelle (Michelle Wai) whose father forbids them from being together unless he quits the triads. Despite advice to the contrary, William gets drawn deeper by the lure of power and money, his arrogance not endearing himself to the other Heng Gang elders - Ming (Lam Lei), his wife Sister Irene (Irene Wan) and right-hand man Kin (Deep Ng).

Even with a total of seven writers, the script is pretty much perfunctory from start to end – sans a twist at the end that nicely rules out the potential of a sequel. But what keeps the film buoyant are the surprisingly engaging performances from a whole host of fresh faces. Except for Patrick Tam whom you would probably have seen in some supporting role before, this will probably be the first time you’re seeing most of the young cast, who largely acquit themselves nicely with charisma and verve. Their spirited act also helps to overcome some of director Daniel Chan’s directorial shortcomings, which betray his inexperience having just helmed one other film before this.

Like we said, those looking for surprises will likely be disappointed, but ‘Triad’ offers comfort food for those who have grown up watching such genre pictures – and while this may not have the brand name of ‘Young and Dangerous’, it is deliberately edgier than ‘Reloaded’ and therefore more entertaining. Check your appetite for a ‘gu waak jai’ movie and if you find yourself starved, then you might just enjoy this a lot more. 

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Picture is clear and sharp with colours looking lively and dynamic - pity the audio, which doesn't come with a Cantonese audio track.

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Gabriel Chong
 

SYNOPSIS: SMAP's Shingo Katori stars as Matsumoto, a struggling comedian who is initially overjoyed when he's invited to appear on a pet-themed variety show starring a goofy dog named Masao-kun. Unfortunately, his luck quickly takes a turn for the worse as his girlfriend (Ryoko Hirosue) leaves him to marry another man and Masao proves nearly impossible to handle. However, his attitude changes one day when he's injured during filming and Masao immediately rushes to aid him. After that incident, Matsumoto decides to form a permanent duo with Masao. Lots of hilarious actual episodes involving Matsumoto's struggle in career, love and life itself, and Masao's marriage to a black Labrador retriever, the birth of their puppies, will be interwoven in the film. You'll laugh and cry with the story of this Lab full of Luv!

MOVIE REVIEW:

In order to enjoy “Go, Masao!”, you must either be a dog lover or a fan of SMAP member, Shingo Katori. If you don’t possess the perquisites, you are strongly warned to stay away from this title.

The story has a clumsy, meandering start with Shingo playing a down-and-out comedian, Matsumoto who is forced by his company to start a new travel show with a dog named Masao. Masao on a daily rental basis from a pet agency is a one of its kind Labrador, he doesn’t retrieve balls and he doesn’t go by the rules. Which movie dog isn’t special by the way?

The filmmakers expect us to fall in love with the hyperactive Masao and embrace the ups and downs of his new human buddy, Matsumoto unfortunately the handling of the storytelling comes across as pedestrian and definitely offer those who are accustomed to Nippon cinema of handling dog related movies an invisible list to check off. First, there is Matsumoto’s relationship with Masao that grows from hate to love. Their reliance on each other after Matsumoto’s girlfriend, Satomi (Ryoko Hirosue from “Departures”) left him for an arranged marriage by her family. And lastly, the obligatory tear-jerking ending that desperately try to justify this as a heart-warming, touching full-length movie for the whole family.

Obviously, this is a role which the multi-faceted pop star Shingo Katori can play so well. It’s not so much that Shingo can’t convincingly play a comedian (he’s well-known in playing a hilarious cross-dresser character, Shingo Mama); it’s more that the story didn’t allow his character to flesh out just how talented and underappreciated Matsumoto is. One of Japan’s most recognizable female actresses, Ryoko Hirosue has not much luck as well. While her role is relegated to a love interest, we simply don’t buy the fact that she should leave Matsumoto just because his brother says so.   

Clearly, “Go, Masao!” is a half-baked tale that tries to sell based on a couple of its familiar cast members in addition to the canine star. Even a prolonged sequence involving Masao hijacking and creating havoc in a wedding reception turned out to be more irritating than funny. This is a movie that is based on a true story certainly it deserved a lot more effort than this.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Just a Photo Gallery

AUDIO/VISUAL:

The image transfer isn’t particularly stunning, more of a decent, no-frills product. The Dolby Digital 2.0 delivers a serviceable soundtrack which is clear and balanced.  

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee
 

Genre: Drama
Director: Mika Ninagawa
Cast: Erika Sawajiri, Nao Omori, Shinobu Terajima, Gou Ayano, Kiko Mizuhara, Hirofumi Arai, Anne Suzuki, Susumu Terajima, Kaori Momoi, Sho Aikawa, Mieko Harada, Yosuke Kubozuka
Runtime: 2 hrs 7 mins
Rating: R21 (Sexual Scenes)
Released By: Encore Films & Shaw
Official Website: http://www.ninamika.com/

Opening Day: 21 March 2013

Synopsis: The sexiest and most controversial Japanese blockbuster. Lilico (Erika Sawajiri) is a supermodel whose perfect appearance and style make her the object of intense jealousy among young women. At the top of the entertainment industry, she is everywhere, all over Japan. But Lilico has a deep, dark secret…. She undergoes multiple cosmetic surgery to her entire body. Lilico makes the lives of those around her miserable as she tries to deal with career and personal problems.

Movie Review:

Its posters and other promotional materials may sell it based on skin and sex, but there is really so much more to former fashion photographer turned director Mika Ninagawa’s sophomore film ‘Helter Skelter’. At the risk of sounding clichéd, what you think you know about the movie is really only skin-deep, as this adaptation of Kyoko Okazaki’s award-winning manga proves to be one of the most riveting Japanese films we’ve seen in a long while - thanks to its bold take on an absolutely timely subject.

Essentially a cautionary tale on the pursuit of beauty and fame, it weaves a compelling psychosexual horror drama around a fictional celebrity named Lilico. Rather than start at the beginning, Ninagawa introduces her audience to Lilico at the height of her popularity, the latter’s flawless doll-like features and to-die-for figure making her the object of desire for young girls around the country. Every teenage girl wants to be like her, and that in turn has made her the subject of intense media interest, which explains her appearance on almost every fashion magazine and her crossover into the world of movies.

Unbeknownst to her adoring fans, everything about her is manufactured – well, except her “eyeballs, ears, fingernails and pussy”. The extent of her radical makeover is never shown, but hinted at especially with the sudden appearance one day of her sister, a plump and dorky girl whom you would never in your wildest imaginations ever think was related to Lilico. Her individuality stripped completely in order for her to be the vessel of others’ desires, Lilico thrives on the affirmation of her adulating fans, most of whom are no less shallow than her.

A more conventional narrative might have opted to paint Lilico as someone we are supposed to sympathise with, but Kaneko Arisa’s script eschews such contrivances in favour of a fully formed character study. Much as we might be inclined to empathise with her for being manipulated by her talent agency boss, a domineering mother figure whom Lilico calls Mama (Kaori Momoi), we also learn that she is no angel on the inside, especially in the way that she psychologically manipulates her assistant Michiko (Shinobu Terajima) and the latter’s boyfriend Shin (Go Ayano).

Like a tightly coiled spring, Ninagawa carefully builds the tension as Lilico’s precarious life unravels bit by bit. Turns out that Lilico’s plastic surgery clinic uses illegal – and worse, unsafe – methods on their clients, and is being investigated by a public prosecutor named Makoto (Omori Nao). Not only does Lilico find her seemingly perfect façade crumbling with black patches, the drug she injects into her body to maintain her decaying complexion gives her hallucinations, her brittle state of mind further battered by her declining popularity following the rise of a new fresh-faced model Kiko (Yoshikawa Kozue).

Truly remarkable is the razor-sharp precision by which Ninagawa portrays the dangers and pitfalls of modern-day society’s obsession with beauty and fame. On one hand, the movie criticises the celebrities who would go under the knife just to look more and more like what others would love for them to; on the other, it chastises the hypocritical nature of their fans, who would be just as effusive in idolising them as they are swift in switching loyalties. Without one, there would not be the other, and Ninagawa makes an empathetic point that either is equally culpable for constructing and reinforcing a vision of beauty that is ultimately unattainable.

But more than just social commentary, Ninagawa offers an experience in her film that deserves to be felt. Part of that is the visual palette she has chosen, from the playful colours of Lilico’s photography sets to the garishly red-saturated interiors of Lilico’s apartment to the simple but no less memorable image of a blue butterfly in Lilico’s hallucinations. Part of that is also her stylishly executed shot compositions which – combined with some nifty techniques she deploys – make for plenty of visual fodder to keep you fascinated.

All that visual trickery would be for naught without a strong character-driven narrative – and this is where Arisa’s script truly shines. Every character is clearly defined in relation to Lilico – whether is it the authoritarian Mama who had helped shape Lilico in the form of her youthful self, or the over-accommodating Michiko whose blind allegiance to Lilico destroys her life, or Lilico’s one and only romantic interest Nanbu (Yosuke Kubozuka) who leaves her to marry a politician’s daughter – and what is especially interesting is the consistent use of a narrative device that where each of these characters speaks to the audience to give his or her perspective on Lilico.   

Such an approach means that a lot hinges on Erika Sawajiri’s performance as Lilico, and thankfully she is absolutely stunning in the role. Returning to showbiz after a five-year absence, Sawajiri inhabits the character completely, her brave and utterly committed portrayal of a starlet’s fall from the heights of celebrity heavens spellbinding in its intensity. Veterans Momoi and Terajima provide fine supporting acts, but the show belongs absolutely to Sawajiri, letting her audience feel ever so keenly Lilico’s fears, insecurities, anxieties, and motivations.

Both as a richly realised character study as well as a sharp critique on today’s celebrity culture and obsession over beauty, ‘Helter Skelter’ rises tall above its soft-porn impressions to amaze as one of the rare Japanese films that works as biting social commentary. Sure, some might argue that it tends to go over-the-top with an almost surrealistic feel, but that very quality makes it all the more mesmerising to examine what is in itself a seemingly ludicrous preoccupation. It is dark comedy at its very best, fascinating to watch every step of the way and perhaps one of the most unique films you’ll see this year.

Movie Rating:

(Unlike anything you’ve seen before, this spellbindingly original character study of the price of stardom and social critique on the folly of chasing beauty has visual dazzle, arresting themes, and a fearless performance by Erika Sawajiri)

Review by Gabriel Chong

SYNOPSIS: It was 1917, China. CHENG is an innocent young man who works in a grocery store and has no ambition, other than to be with his lovely neighbor, the Peking Opera student QIU. One fateful night changes Cheng’s life forever, as he walks in on the affair that is happening between his female boss and the chief of police. To hide this secret, the chief decides to throw Cheng into prison, accusing him of raping his boss. Desolate, Cheng bonds with his cellmate MAO, who has an escape plan. The duo breaks out, and Cheng has no choice but to leave his life, and his dream girl behind. Cheng found a job owned by HONG, an influential man in Shanghai. As Hong indulged himself in debauchery all day long, Cheng began to climb up the underworld ladder step by step. He soon won the affection of the famed songtress BO. Although Bo loved him deeply but Cheng finds his heart belongs to the vanished Qiu. As Cheng became one of the most powerful mob bosses in Shanghai in the late 1930s, fame takes its toll when he finds himself stuck between the looming Japanese army and the scheming local secret service. To make things worse, he bumps into the love of his life Qiu along with her writer husband. Will love re-kindle in the dusk of an era?

MOVIE REVIEW:

Epic is the word used to describe “The Last Tycoon”. It’s especially rare when it comes from Wong Jing, the prolific and notorious filmmaker known more for his lowbrow comedies.

You know it’s going to be epic when Wong Jing manages to net his “God of Gamblers” star, Chow Yun Fat for the main role and setting the tumultuous times of Shanghai in the 1930’s as the backdrop, a sheer reference to one of Chow’s iconic roles in the TVB classic, “The Bund”. Together with a cast that includes the up-and-coming Huang Xiaoming, action star Sammo Hung and veteran HK actor Francis Ng as the main players, “The Last Tycoon” turned out to be Wong’s best directorial effort in years.

Wong’s storytelling ability might be questionable to some. Cheap humour, cardboard characters and jarring storylines are common in his productions. But here, he did managed to churn out a substantially well-told story with his co-writers, Manfred Wong and Lui Koon Nam. Chow plays Chen Daqi, one of the most powerful mob bosses in Shanghai. The story traces his beginning (the younger self played by Huang Xiaoming) from a nobody to his rising in the metropolitan Shanghai Tang. Drum roll for some lavish costumes and detailed set dressing.

In conjunction with his epic treatment, Wong and his writers threw in a lush love story that has Daqi separating from the love of his life, Zhiqiu and meeting her again decades later at the start of the war. The almost two hours running time allows Wong to recall the grandeur of past Hong Kong and Hollywood cinema with the leads engaging in a series of turf wars, espionage and the glorious fight against the nasty Japanese during the impending World War II. This might sound fairly ambitious for Wong to handle on paper fortunately he has the help of Andrew Lau (The Departed) in the dual role of a producer and cinematographer to ease his burden.

But Wong Jing is still Wong Jing in the end. Watch him weave his cinematic magic as he shamelessly copied John Woo’s “The Killer” gun battle sequence in a church though this time its Huang Xiaoming doing all the slow-mo gun-toting. And watch him creating some over-the-top mayhem as a prolonged explosive segment took place in a busy street (with slow-mo thrown in for good measure), that probably inspired by Michael Bay’s “Transformers” as well. Despite all the cheesiness, one notable well-done scene is the climatic theatre assassination which is filled with tension and smelled of ominous tones.

After starring in a series of less than stellar Mainland and Hollywood productions, international superstar Chow Yun Fat didn’t disappoint audience this time round with his role as Daqi which had us wondering if he works better with the Hong Kong filmmakers. Sammo Hung and Francis Ng provides some meaty performances as Daqi’s mentor and a menacing traitor respectively. Huang Xiaoming proves he is not a mere pretty face as his role as the younger Daqi allows him to flesh out his acting range further. The mainland cast members Yolanda Yuan (Zhiqiu) and Gao Hu (Lin Bei) are pitch perfect with their performances with the latter impressing with his ultra-cool moves as Daqi’s right hand man.

“The Last Tycoon” might not be a perfect movie but the usually flawed Wong Jing knows how to entertain the general audience and this one is definitely a crowd-pleaser. And to add to all the epic-ness, Andrew Lau manages to coax Heavenly King Jacky Cheung to sing the theme song so that’s enough to sooth the eardrums after all the deafening explosions.     

SPECIAL FEATURES:

NIL

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Visual on the whole looks good on the DVD while the provided 2.0 soundtrack sadly lacks the impact of a 5.1 soundtrack. 
 

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee

SYNOPSIS: Ha Yoon-ju (HAN Hyo-joo) who possesses crystal clear memory, keen observation, and utmost concentration skills, becomes the newest member to a unit within the Korean Police Forces Special Crime Unit (SCU) that specializes in surveillance activities on high profile criminals. She is assigned under Hwang Sang-jun (SEOL Kyung-gu), the veteran leader of the unit, who is rough, reckless, but warm-hearted and known for his animal-like senses and intuition. The two gradually develop a close partnership when they attempt to track down James (JUNG Woo-sung), who is the cold-hearted leader of an armed criminal organization. Using his unmatched intelligence and strategy, James manages to evade their radar every time. Now, Hwang Sang-jun and Ha Yoon-ju must do everything they can in order to find him and stop him…

MOVIE REVIEW:

If you are going to remake a movie, why not go for the best? And that’s what the Koreans did. Remaking and retooling Yau Nai Hoi and Johnnie To’s 2007 Eye in the Sky.

Obviously armed with a bigger budget as compared to the original and filled with generous amount of wide and tracking shots, directors Cho Ui-Seok and Kim Byeong-seo’s treatment takes audience to the big city of Seoul. While the technicalities are glossy and stylistic, the story remains as engaging if not as good as its Hong Kong counterpart.

Retaining some of the original’s plotting, the movie opens in a subway car where a young lady, Yoon-joo (Han Hyo-joo) is being assessed for her surveillance skills by her soon-to-be superior, Chief Hwang (Seol Kyung-gu). At the same time, a bank heist planned by the mysterious James (Jung Woo-sung) is taking place in the downtown area. The proceedings keep you guessing rigorously and strangely the movie never fails to keep things intense and taut for the two hours running time.       

Having recruited Yoon-joo and giving the rookie a nickname, “Piglet”, Chief Hwang and his motley crew are giving the assignment to uncover the culprits who robbed the bank and the Shadow which is of course James, the mastermind behind the crime. Though the remake devotes plenty of time to the surveillance team and the relationship between Hwang and Yoon-joo, the character of James and his motivation is clearly insubstantial. Setting James character as a ruthless killer is understandable but his binding to a bigger boss who appears to be a clobber remains more of a mystery.  

The rapid editing involves plenty of flawless screen switching. And you probably will be spellbound by the team members scanning through electronic roadmap, countless surveillance cameras and a vast amount of computer screens just to search for clues. Risking their lives and covers even though their job is not to apprehend when the time comes, ultimately a hectic scene of the rookie tailing a baddie who is nicknamed “hippo” because of his size becomes the highlight of the crime thriller.

The movie has no qualms retaining the shocking quotient though the action is clearly top notch with a well-staged spectacular gun fight happening in the middle of a city and some stunning CG explosion thrown in for the other sequences. Seol Kyung-gu and Han Hyo-joo both churned out superior performances as the mentor and rookie, it’s a pity on the other hand Jung Woo-sung is wasted in his first villainous role. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

A Trailer and Photo Gallery is attached. 

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Visual is clear and sharp while the Dolby Digital 2.0 did a serviceable job within its scope.

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee

Genre: Action/Thriller
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Cast: Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Robert Forster, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Dylan McDermott, Rick Yune, Tory Kittles, Cole Hauser
RunTime: 1 hr 59 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Violence And Coarse Language
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films & InnoForm Media
Official Website: http://olympusmovie.com/

Opening Day: 11 April 2013

Synopsis: When the White House (Secret Service Code: "Olympus") is captured by a terrorist mastermind and the President is kidnapped, disgraced former Presidential guard Mike Banning finds himself trapped within the building. As our national security team scrambles to respond, they are forced to rely on Banning's inside knowledge to help retake the White House, save the President, and avert an even bigger disaster.

Movie Review:

Twelve years after the events of September 11, Hollywood offers up one of America’s most prominent landmarks for devastation by hostile foreign elements – and if that isn’t bad enough, then how about the fact that it isn’t just submitting one, but two different hypothetical scenarios how such an unthinkable catastrophe might just occur. Yes, ‘Olympus Has Fallen’ comes as the first of two products of Hollywood imagination about the fall of the White House – the next being Roland Emmerich’s ‘White House Down’ timed for this summer – and besides having the advantage of being first out of the court, it is also likely to resonate more no thanks to the current geopolitical climate.

Whether out of prescience or sheer coincidence, first-time screenwriters Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt imagine a surprise attack by the North Koreans on American soil just as the South Korean President calls in on ruling American President Asher (Aaron Eckhart) following weeks of rising tensions along the DMZ border. Sound familiar? Well, Rothenberger and Benedikt’s clairvoyance goes one step further by adding a nuclear element to the unfolding proceedings, with the Korean terrorists aiming to gain control of a fictional top-secret denuclearisation system by the US called Cerberus.

With the added frisson of timeliness, director Antoine Fuqua’s throwback to the retro- thrillers of the 80s and 90s (think Die Hard or Lethal Weapon) acquires a fresh new edge, complemented by his flair for staging over-the-top action sequences. Nowhere is the latter more evident than in the swift, vicious and yet downright exhilarating scene-setting sequence that is thankfully more realistic and coherent than what the trailer hints at – essentially a two-pronged attack with the first being an air attack from a low-flying cargo plane and the second being a ground assault from a busload of tourists.

What follows is standard action-thriller stuff done absolutely right, the narrative built around that of a disgraced law enforcement official given a chance to redeem himself by saving the day – and of course the President. That hero is former top Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler), who in the opening prologue is made a pariah when a freak accident claims the life of the First Lady (Ashley Judd in a sparkling cameo). Transferred to the neighbouring Treasury building, Mike hopes to get his old job next to the President in the White House back, but his director Lynne Jacobs (Angela Bassett) tells him that Asher is not ready just yet.

Amid the hail of gunfire and explosions, Mike becomes the only point of friendly contact from within the White House, feeding intel to his bosses at the Pentagon – including the gung-ho Head of the Joint Chiefs General Clegg (Robert Forster) as well as the Speaker of the House and Acting President Alan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman). And as the terrorists led by the megalomaniac Kang (Die Another Day’s Rick Yune) have the President and his aides held hostage in the White House’s emergency underground bunker, it will also come to Rick to take down the terrorists one by one.

Comparisons with ‘Die Hard’ are absolutely valid, but that familiarity in no way diminishes the guilty pleasures one gets from watching Fuqua’s film. Best known for directing Denzel Washington to a Best Actor Oscar in ‘Training Day’, Fuqua has never been one for subtlety, but his lack of restraint accounts for much of the film’s infectious thrills. The patriotism is overwrought – a tattered American flag falling slowly from the roof of the White House against a flame-red sunset – but there’s no denying its impact in emphasising the extent of the disaster. Banning’s taunts against his enemy are largely cheesy, but they do add gusto to the enmity between him and Kang, particularly in the context of the final showdown in which Banning promises to ‘put a knife through Kang’s brain’.

Nonetheless all that is just icing for the cake – what we are really here to see is Banning kick ass, and indeed Fuqua doesn’t disappoint. After that awesome takeover of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Fuqua lets the movie settle into a taut cat-and-mouse game within the many rooms, darkened hallways and secret passageways of the White House, with Banning’s previous experience putting him in good stead to outwit and out-manoeuvre Kang’s gang of well-trained, black-clad commandos. The ensuing series of close-combat fights are brutal and pulse-pounding, though not without a wicked sense of humour – one we particularly enjoyed was that where Banning uses a heavy bust of Lincoln’s head to knock a baddie out cold.

The hard-hitting role also gives Butler a chance to return to his R-rated action hero roots from which a certain movie called ‘300’ sprung him into fame. Butler channels his best Bruce Willis here – complete with the latter’s signature mix of wisecracks and threats – but goes beyond a carbon copy of John McClane by putting his physicality to good use throughout the many mano-a-mano scenes in the film. He also has a surprisingly strong ensemble cast for support – besides those mentioned earlier, there’s also Academy Award winner Melissa Leo as the defiant Secretary of Defense who gets an especially unceremonious treatment by Kang.

But ‘Olympus Has Fallen’ isn’t a movie about niceties nor any sort of nuances; this is an unabashed remake of ‘Die Hard’ – right down to a rooftop adventure gone bad – that revels in its desire to satisfy audiences starved of the kind of the tough bloody action that such unapologetically entertaining thrillers of the past used to offer. Yes indeed, the premise that one man should save the day might seem like a hoary cliché, but let’s face it, plot and originality are not the priorities here. Instead, Fuqua delivers thrill after thrill with brutal adrenaline-pumping precision, the added real-world relevance of the North Korean threat giving the proceedings a convincing boost. Putting aside the context however, this is meant to be a diverting slice of action entertainment, and let’s just say that on that count, it is as perfect as it gets. 

Movie Rating:

(Taut, brutal and relentlessly thrilling, this high-concept ‘White House Down’ thriller is a modern-day ‘Die Hard’ done to perfection)

Review by Gabriel Chong
  

Genre: Action/Thriller
Director: Jay Sun
Cast: Andy Lau, Zhang Jingchu, Lin Chiling, Tong Dawei, Siqin gaowa
Runtime: 1 hr 52 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Sexual Scene & Some Violence)
Released By: Clover Films & Cathay-Keris Films 
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/SwitchMovie

Opening Day: 13 June 2013

Synopsis: When a joint exhibition of the famous Yuan Dynasty scroll "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains" attracts the attention of nefarious art enthusiasts on the international black-market, both Yakuza and English thugs scramble to steal it. Xiao Jinhan (Andy Lau), an Interpol agent with a tainted past, is assigned to the mission entitled "Art of War." He determines to do anything to protect the scroll and clear his name. Meanwhile, PICC agent Lin Yuyan (Zhang Jingchu) is also entrusted with the task of protecting the masterpiece, but things soon get much more personal than she bargains for. Sent by the Yakuza to seduce Xiao Jinhan, the mysterious temptress Lisa (Chiling Lin) is every man’s dream: a Carmen and a chameleon; but deep down inside she is empty and lonely. The mastermind behind this Yakuza operation is the coldblooded criminal Toshio Yamamoto (Tong Dawei), who spares no expense exploring the depths of depravity to indulge his sadism. He too will stop at nothing to possess the painting. Xiao's adventure will take him over seas and across deserts. Will he accomplish his mission and clear his name? Will Lin Yuyan and Xiao find their lost love on the banks of Hangzhou's romantic West Lake? Lisa might be able to escape almost certain death in Dubai, but will she escape the fate that Toshio has planned for her and find a new life outside his manipulative grasp? The outcome of this battle to the death, one fueled by both love and hatred, will be revealed as we unfurl the scroll "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains."

Movie Review:

Originally scheduled to be release last October but delayed due to problems with heavy post-production work, not to mention countless editing by the director, the end result is at best a patchy piece of work passing off as a Chinese version of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

Directed and written by newcomer Jay Sun, Switch is a high octane action espionage thriller filled with globe-trotting locations, an array of gizmos mostly in the form of Nokia smartphones, flashy Audi cars and a star studded cast including HK superstar Andy Lau, Taiwan’s top model Lin Chiling (Red Cliff) and Chinese actors Zhang Jingchu (Protégé) and Tong Dawei (Treasure Inn).

You might think this is going to an exciting, jaw-dropping action extravaganza for the next 112 minutes but liked me; you are going to go jaw-drop for the wrong reasons.

After a clumsy prologue which established the value of the famous Yuan Dynasty scroll Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains, we are introduced to several characters namely our hero, Xiao Jinhan (Andy Lau), a secret agent who is married to an insurance project director Lin Yuyan (Zhang Jingchu) while the villains include the generic named Yamamoto (Tong Dawei), an ambiguous agent, Lisa (Lin Chiling), a weird underworld leader, Empress (Siqin Gaowa) and a bunch of Caucasian thugs. What is supposedly an easy-to-follow, good versus evil action thriller becomes a hot mess under the hands of Jay Sun.

Obviously, Sun has no idea how to shoot an intense action scene or at least keep you to the edge of your seat. He prefers to jump from one scene to another without much coherence throw in. Agent Xiao just propel from the ceiling all of a sudden. And why is Yamamoto so mesmerised by the painting? Oh we are supposed to believe Lisa is also carrying a torch for Agent Xiao. This is no music video mind you and it becomes increasingly frustrating to watch the characters as they spout their lines without much emotion and continuity. There’s so much on the screen but everything just seems jarringly off. To his credit, Sun did have an eye for visual; the production design is so rich and colourful, you are better off admiring the artistic touches instead of following the story.

This is an absolutely embarrassing gig for Andy Lau, just when you thought the charismatic idol finally has a chance to showcase his acting in productions liked A Simple Life and Detective Dee, Switch only makes him looks nothing more than a walking, fighting mannequin. Tong Dawei equally suffers as the tortured, psychotic villain with a laughingly bad white hairdo while Lin Chiling received the worst treatment of all, she ends up as a irritable moaning, seductive character.

Our palms turned sweaty when we watch Tom Cruise hanging off the skyscraper in Dubai though we never really feel a thing for Agent Xiao when he fight off a few thugs and crashed his car in the grand Atlantis in Dubai as well. Sun tries to imitate even to a certain extent engaging Hollywood stunt choreographer and 3D experts for this movie (The 3D version is not shown here). Everything that worked in the Cruise vehicle fails in epic proportions for Switch however. It never picks up from the get-go and simply sputters all the way to the credits.

Movie Rating:

(Switch to another flick and avoid this empty spectacle)

Review by Linus Tee

SAVING GENERAL YANG conquers the Singapore box office! Posted on 16 Apr 2013 SAVING GENERAL YANG has grossed an impressive S$1.2 million at the Singapore box office making it the highest grossing Chinese movie (non-Chinese New Year) of the year overtaking THE GRANDMASTER. SAVING GENERAL YANG was released on 4 April and is currently playing on 28 screens. SAVING GENERAL YANG, which has an official budget of US$26 million, returns veteran action star Adam Cheng to th ... more

Genre: Comedy
Director: Stephen Frears
Cast: Rebecca Hall , Bruce Willis, Laura Prepon, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Vince Vaughn, Frank Grillo, Joshua Jackson, Jo Newman, Corbin Bernsen, Joel Murray
RunTime: 1 hr 43 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Coarse Language And Nudity)
Released By: Encore Films
Official Website: www.encorefilms.com/laythefavourite
 
Opening Day: 4 April 2013  

Synopsis: Lay the Favorite is a American comedy film starring Bruce Willis and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Based on Beth Raymer's memoir of the same title, the film follows a young, free-spirited woman as she journeys through the legal and illegal world of sports gambling.

Movie Review:

A star-studded cast does little when it comes to making Lay the Favorite a good film, but it sure gives what might just be the only reason for audiences to watch it. Rebecca Hall gives some sex appeal that is much appreciated in this otherwise lacklustre excuse for a movie. This film is bad enough, such that even seasoned veterens like Bruce Willis and Catherine Zeta-Jones can come across as bad actors.

Sure enough, Lay the Favorite begins as a decent-enough film, but then it begins to spiral downwards as things go all over the place. The plot becomes incoherent, and the audience is only kept from snoozing in their seats by bits of dry humor haphazardly thrown into the screenplay. There are no unexpected twists in this film, or deep storytelling to render it anything other than simply, shallow.

After the first ten minutes of this movie, the outcome of every cause and effect chain is predictable. There is no moral compass in this film, no lesson for the audience to take back. Watching Lay the Favorite, it was like waiting for something interesting to happen that never came.

The only choice that seemed to have been consciously made by the maker of this film was to glamourize the lifestyle these characters lead. From Dink’s car to the locations and the amounts of money referred to in this film, it didn’t matter that there weren’t any meaningful character-character relationships and interactions, all this film wanted to do was to amaze the viewer by showing them the high life and the drama in the world of sports betting. The characters didn’t have enough depth for the audience to be able to sympathise with them. There weren’t any sort of complex, emotional attatchments between the characters formed either that could have been interesting.

Of course, we weren’t exactly well-introduced to the world of sports gambling. Lay the Favorite is a movie about sports betting, and to the unseasoned gambler it will come across as slightly confusing because the gambling terms aren’t properly-explained. We learn a little, enough to understand the plot but it would have been better and the movie would have been more interesting as a whole had more aspects of the gambling world actually been touched upon. The audience would have appreciated a look into the entire lifestyle a lot more, much more than merely seeing the glitz of it. 

Overall, a movie that one cannot believe had a budget of $20 million. It comes across as a B-grade film, and is once again a confirmation that Bruce Willis is signing himself up for disaster on purpose, time and time again. 

Movie Rating:

(With a dull plot and lacklustre characters, taking the gamble to watch this film will not pay off. Better save your money instead.)

Review by Nishanthini Ganesan
  

Genre: Drama/Thriller
Director: Allen Hughes
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Kyle Chandler, Alona Tal, Natalie Martinez, Barry Pepper, Jeffrey Wright 
RunTime: 1 hr 49 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Coarse Language and Sexual Scene)
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films & InnoForm Media
Official Website: http://www.brokencitymovie.com/

Opening Day: 18 April 2013

Synopsis: Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg) has a promising career as a New York City cop until the night he is involved in a controversial shooting. Stripped of his badge, but kept out of jail by New York's popular Mayor (Russell Crowe), he re-makes himself as a private investigator. Times are tough, and when the mayor offers Billy $50,000 to investigate the First Lady's (Catherine Zeta Jones) extra-marital activities, it seems like a straight forward payday. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes apparent that the Mayor is not at all what he seems, and for Billy to achieve redemption he will have to risk everything - possibly even his freedom.

Movie Review:

With a heavyweight cast the likes of Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe as leads and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jeffrey Wright and Barry Pepper as supporting, ‘Broken City’ ought to be so much better than the ho-hum political thriller it is. And yet, like its title, there is something broken about this yarn, the fault of that not of the cast but rather its writer Brian Tucker and its director Allen Hughes. Indeed, both seem to be stuck in a different era from this one, so much so that their tale of corruption in the Big Apple seems utterly anachronistic and embarrassingly ham-fisted.

Whether the casting or the storytelling came first is moot, but when you manage to get both Wahlberg and Crowe to sign up for a film that pits one against the other, you better give them something damn good to work with. To Tucker’s credit, both Wahlberg and Crowe’s roles do play to their strengths. Wahlberg’s disgraced former cop Billy Taggart is much like the earnest blue-collar character he has played well in previous movies like ‘Contraband’ and ‘Four Brothers’; while Crowe’s self-confident New York City Mayor Nicolas Hostetler is a variant of his alpha male roles in ‘American Gangster’ and ‘Body of Lies’.

Sadly, that is about as far as Tucker gets. His first produced screenplay (which was apparently on the coveted Black List of unproduced scripts a few years ago before it was picked up) spins an all-too familiar story out of equally clichéd elements – a real-estate scam, a re-election campaign and a flawed hero searching for redemption. You can pretty much guess how it is going to unfold when Billy is called in by Nicolas to help collect evidence of his wife Cathleen’s (Zeta-Jones) indiscretion, the apparent adulterer turning out to be the campaign manager of Hostetler’s chief re-election rival, Jack Valliant (Pepper).

Long before it takes Billy to put two and two together and realise that Nicolas has been undercutting the city and its folks to fatten his own pockets along with that of his Wall Street cronies, you’re already folding your arms waiting for the moment when Billy will confront Nicolas and ultimately do the moral thing despite the latter having evidence of Billy’s previous indiscretion made none too ambiguous in the opening prologue. Even though it is plainly clear to his audience, Tucker intentionally makes the proceedings convoluted by overstuffing it with supporting characters – including a conniving police commissioner Carl (Wright) whose loyalties are not immediately clear and a shady businessman’s son (James Ransone) in a crisis of conscience after finding out his father’s dealings.

Certainly, it doesn’t help that Hughes’ direction – his first solo outing without his brother Albert – is surprisingly inept. A sequence where Billy loses his cool after seeing an explicit sex scene in the independent film his girlfriend Natalie (Natalie Martinez) stars in is meant to add complexity to Wahlberg’s character, but ends up going nowhere. Even more shocking is a key scene where Billy so conveniently picks up a box of incriminating evidence that has just been thrown out by the same group of people shredding other important documents in the office, the ludicrousness of that setup matched only at the climax when it turns out one critical page of evidence still remains so expediently intact. Such glaring loopholes are hardly mitigated by the noir-ish feel that Hughes does bring to the film, a pale comparison though when held against the gritty city types he used to do in ‘Menace II Society’ and ‘American Pimp’.

The fact that it remains watchable is credit to the A-list cast Hughes has somehow managed to assemble. Wahlberg knows the role of a flawed cop like the back of his hand, and his character benefits from the assuredness of an actor who has played the part many times before. On the other hand, Crowe – not often seen as a villain – brings magnetism and menace in equal measure as Nicolas, lighting up the screen especially in the film’s most riveting sequence that has him going against his opponent in a showy mayoral debate. Supporting perfs are good, but it is the interplay between Wahlberg and Crowe that truly crackles.

Pity then that the movie rarely lives up to the potential of its heavyweight cast with clumsy plotting and even more inept direction. Ultimately, its tale of political corruption in modern-day New York is dated from the get-go, and neither Hughes nor Tucker seem to be savvy enough to realise that, resulting in a setup that is contrived and unconvincing. And because of that deafness, ‘Broken City’ is already broken right from the start, offering only the most formulaic thrills within a irreversibly flawed and altogether clichéd premise. 

Movie Rating:

(A tone-deaf political thriller whose plot machinations seem stuck in an older bygone era, this all-too formulaic movie is watchable only for its A-list stars)

Review by Gabriel Chong