Genre: Comedy/Drama
Director: Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore, Tony Danza, Brie Larson, Glenne Headly
RunTime: 1 hr 30 mins
Rating: R21 (Sexual Scenes)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: http://donjonmovie.tumblr.com/

Opening Day: 7 November 2013 

Synopsis: Jon Martello (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a strong, handsome, good old fashioned guy. His buddies call him Don Jon due to his ability to "pull" a different woman every weekend, but even the finest fling doesn't compare to the bliss he finds alone in front of the computer watching pornography. Barbara Sugarman (Scarlett Johansson) is a bright, beautiful, good old fashioned girl. Raised on romantic Hollywood movies, she's determined to find her Prince Charming and ride off into the sunset. Wrestling with good old fashioned expectations of the opposite sex, Jon and Barbara struggle against a media culture full of false fantasies to try and find true intimacy in this unexpected comedy written and directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Movie Review:

Not many first-time writer/ directors would have had the gumption to take on as tricky a subject as online porn addiction, so you have to hand it to Joseph Gordon Levitt for not only doing so, but spinning an unlikely rom-com around the intriguing but risky premise of whether one such addict can find love in the real world. And here’s another even more impressive fact - Levitt plays against type as that titular individual, the ‘Don Jon’ of the movie, modelled after the fictional Spanish libertine whose womanising ways led to his tragi-comedic fate but whom eventually found redemption in love.

Right from the get-go, Levitt impresses with his sharp and incisive writing. With disarming clarity, his Lothario character Jon Martello explains in the opening voiceover just exactly why a man who has no trouble with bedding the ladies still finds function for pornography in his life. It is to his credit that we immediately come to accept why the Don, after having sex with an attractive woman, finds the need to slip out of bed, turn on his computer and then proceed to masturbate over porn.

As a fascinating study in contradictions, Jon doesn’t quite end there. He is faithful to his Catholic church, which he attends religiously every Sunday with his family, confesses his sins - that of masturbation and sex out of wedlock - and starts the week on a clean slate after a few Our Fathers and Hail Marys. Jon is also devoted to his boys Bobby (Rob Brown) and Danny (Jeremy Luke), as well as his family - a lunkhead of a dad (sitcom icon Tony Danza), a slightly hysterical mom (Glenne Headly) and a silent-texting sister Monica (Brie Larson). “My body, my pad, my ride, my family, my church, my boys, my girls, my porn,” sums up Jon several times in the movie, and it is to Levitt’s credit that Jon is such a fully formed character that we never fail to be engaged with.

Like such narratives go, Jon meets the “girl of his dreams”, a perfect 10 on Jon’s scale who is first seen in a scorching red dress standing by the bar. Barbara Sugarman (Scarlett Johansson) is cast as the fantasy girl of a million sexual daydreams, and Jon is immediately so enamoured with her that he thinks she might be “the one”. But Barbara is living in her own fantasy as well, that of Hollywood romances built on happy endings, Prince Charmings and basically unrealistic expectations - and Levitt throws in a fun faux-rom com moment with cameos from Channing Tatum and Anne Hathaway.

Contrasting Jon’s addiction and Barbara’s obsession with escapist fairy-tale romances, Levitt ruminates just how media screws up modern-day expectations of relationships, be it dating or sex, and asks pointedly whether it is still possible for two people to make a meaningful connection. The answer in Jon’s case is pleasantly unexpected; she arrives in the form of Ester (Julianne Moore), older, much less attractive than Barbara, and carrying her own emotional baggage - the first time Jon spots the lady who attends his night class, she is seen sobbing away. We won’t spoil the surprise for you; suffice to say that Moore presents an interesting angle to Levitt’s conundrum of sex versus pornography and offers a poignant explanation.

Every one of the characters is expertly crafted; even though at first sight they may seem to be constructed like formula, Levitt eventually makes each feel real and authentic. They are also extremely well-cast. Johansson, in probably one of her best performances, embodies the bossy girl from the East Side with attitude and verve, while Moore serves up another well-nuanced performance. And in smaller supporting roles, Danza and Headly are hilarious as Don’s pair of bickering parents, the former especially amusing when he first meets the bodacious Barbara.

Amidst it all, Levitt is undoubtedly the mind, heart and soul of the movie. Putting on that Jersey accent as comfortably as Tony Manero in ‘Saturday Night Fever’, Levitt inhabits his character with just the right mix of brio and empathy to depict Jon’s addiction and yet maintain the sympathy of both male and female audiences; especially meaningful is how he handles his character’s transformation from self-centred to thoughtful as he grows in his relationship with Ester.

But in a year where we’ve seen Levitt grow into one of the most promising actors in his generation, ‘Don Jon’ is even more significant for demonstrating that he can juggle triple duties - acting, writing and directing - with equal dexterity. With wit and intelligence, he brings across without preaching or being didactic the ills of pornography, especially in how it potentially limits capacity for interaction and makes pleasure a one-sided affair. As a director, Levitt gifts his movie with visual panache, the cinematography and cutting going hand in hand to create an exuberant vibe that at times is specifically constructed to mirror that high one supposedly gets from watching pornography. In particular, he uses repetition as an inspired technique to show his character’s evolution in the way that Jon approaches routines which become familiar to the viewer over the course of the movie.

More conservative audiences might initially be put off by his liberal use of crass language, or the way Don objectifies women, or even its lurid images of pneumatic breasts, bulbous buttocks and cavernous mouths, but we urge you to let the movie settle in, and you’ll find that this unconventional character study is in fact smart, assured and surprisingly poignant. Much more than about pornography, it is at its heart about finding affection and making connection, both of which technology or even its mediated communication just cannot replace. 

Movie Rating:  

(Witty, satirical, and darkly poignant, this unusual character study is an assured, stylish and ultimately impressive writing/ directing debut for Joseph Gordon Levitt)

Review by Gabriel Chong

SYNOPSIS: Reporter Lan has a special sense of calling for her work - seeking truth and reporting on a fair and accurate account of events and issues. However her boss confines her to researching news from the internet. By accident, Lan stumbles across a popular BBS forum, Dream Board where many rise up to attack the founder of the forum, Xiang. She has originally created the online forum as a space for netizens to share their own dreams and ideas. Xiang has become the subject of a heated debate because of a private video that is leaked to the public to the extent of receiving countless harassing phone calls. In the midst of these attacks, only one person stood up for her, a computer engineer Jun. There are signs that the mastermind behind these attacks is Xiang's ex-boyfriend, King. an infamous hacker. As Lan relentlessly searches for the truth, she discovers things are more complicated than it seems...

MOVIE REVIEW:

Trust Taiwanese filmmaker Hero Lin to make a movie that deserves to be seen by anyone and everyone who has an online presence.  The author of a series of Internet cartoons featuring a character known as the Woodman, Hero has since left the National Taiwan University of Arts to deliver an important movie which speaks about online etiquette, a quality which many online citizens either don’t have enough of or don’t use enough of.  Yes, we’re talking about them flaming, cyber bullying, trolling, and shaming, these types of behaviour that demonstrate the herd mentality of netizens today.

His cautionary tale is built around Taiwan’s Bulletin Board System, arguably the territory’s most popular Internet forum much like Singapore’s own Hardware Zone. Like any forum, it is organised into communities where people of similar interests hang out to discuss topics like fashion and technology, with each community being managed by anonymous administrators who perform the thankless tasks of removing offensive content. That may sound like censorship to you, but the result of leaving such terrible remarks out there may just be far worse than removing them at the first instance.

Hero’s message is one of responsibility, and so his narrative pushes the envelope to examine the ‘what-if’ scenario should freedom of expression without any sense of responsibility be allowed to prevail. Some may fundamentally disagree with Hero’s perspective on this, but we tend to agree - the consequence is one of anarchy. Indeed, that’s just what happens in the BBS when the ordinary users (termed ‘Villagers’) of one such Board are led to believe that their administrators regard them as ‘idiots’ through a leaked but tampered video.

The unfortunate targets here are two high-school students - Li Cheng Hsiang (Ivy Chen), who has been hospitalised for reasons that will only become clear much later; and Pai Wenhui (Lim Wenyi), a quiet and nondescript girl who hardly likes to socialise in real life. At first, all fingers point to legendary hacker King (Chen Bolin) as the perpetrator for the mayhem, but it soon becomes clear that he is no more than a pawn in a larger chess game played by another hacker known as Mimic (Hsiu Chieh-kai).

Hero, who also wrote the script, doesn’t juggle these story threads as deftly as he should, so the less you start scrutinising the logic about how it all adds up, the better. Most glaringly however, too much focus seems to be on hotshot reporter Blue (Puff Kuo) stumbling into the BBS looking for a story to file, her addition arguably doing little to move the plot along. And following a little too closely to the formula of Taiwan cinema, Hero swops a plainly thrilling finale for a melodramatic one, leading with a predictable outpouring of ‘Villager’ support in what is known as the ‘Purple-Hype’.

Despite these hiccups, credit must go to Hero for breaking new ground by effectively melding a live-action film with an animated one. Telling his story as much offline as online, Hero switches effortlessly between the physical actors in the real world and the 3D animated avatars in the Internet world. The latter in particular represent an intriguingly realised futuristic world, a rich representation of the kinds of interaction that go on within the online space.

It is also precisely Hero’s ability to bring to life the attitudes and behaviour - in both the best and worst sense - that ‘Silent Code’ proves such a prescient and engaging film to watch. We’ve not come across a film that has so successfully conveyed the potential pitfalls of the Internet community space, which therefore also makes this a film that ought to be seen. Some narrative flaws aside, it will at least make you sit up and think hard about what the difference between what you can say online and what you should say. .

SPECIAL FEATURES:

NIL

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Visuals are clear and sharp, while the Dolby 2.0 audio proves an adequately clean soundtrack for the dialogue.

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Gabriel Chong

SYNOPSIS: Cho (Bosco Wong) is a slacker who spends his day selling ice cream with his best friend/roommate Beer (Sammy Leung). Even though his ice cream truck business is failing, he still has a roof over his head because his apartment belongs to his uncle. When his cousin Tina (Stephy Tang) decides to return to Hong Kong, Cho and Beer are forced to share their home with her, creating an antagonistic relationship between the three. However, Cho and Tina begin to bond over time, though they won't admit to having feelings for each other. When Tina's charismatic boss Machi (Danny So) enters the picture, Cho realises that he may already be too late.

MOVIE REVIEW:

There’s been little fanfare surrounding Leefire’s sophomore film ‘Love in Time’, which is probably one of the reasons why we have found it quite the delightful surprise. Indeed, the lyricist cum playwright’s filmmaking debut ‘Give Love’ was a dreadfully unwatchable rom-com he co-directed with Joe Ma, so it’s only inevitable that one approaches his first solo venture with trepidation and extremely low expectations.

Nonetheless, the years since seem to have given him much time to improve his skills as a director, and while his latest still boasts some of the weaknesses of his earlier movie, it is a vastly more enjoyable and entertaining watch than we could have ever expected it to be. Like ‘Give Love’, Leefire builds this rom-com on a somewhat taboo relationship – that of first cousins, or more specifically between Cho (Bosco Wong) and Tina (Stephy Tang).

MSN Messenger pals who clearly like each other despite having never seen the other, they are brought together under the same roof when Tina returns to Hong Kong from Taiwan and bunks in the apartment Cho is renting at no cost from his uncle and her father. After the obligatory bickering, it turns out the odd-couple have a pretty nice chemistry between them, bonding over Cho’s ice cream business and subsequently Tina’s attempt to adapt to her new office job at an interior design firm.

Some of the best scenes between Cho and Tina see the former trying to help the latter practice how to seduce her handsome Japanese boss Machi (Danny So), whether by changing her wardrobe, or learning to walk in high heels, or asking him out casually while at the pantry, or even enjoying a candlelight dinner. Bosco Wong and Stephy Tang truly shine in these amusing yet romantic scenes that sparkle with wit and verve.

Quite as appealing too are Bosco’s interaction with his flatmate cum best buddy Beer (Sammy Leung), the latter a skeevy slacker who is clearly more interested in finding the next exotic girl (Filipino or African seem to fit the bill) than taking charge of Cho’s ice-cream business he helps run. Sammy plays the skirt-chaser with just the right amount of raunchiness without becoming caricature, and contributes a nice alternative slice of comic relief next to Cho and Tina’s pseudo-dates.

The trio are undoubtedly the stars and highlight of Leefire’s show, so one might forgive him for failing to develop properly neighbourhood provision shop owner Ching Ching’s (Mainland actress Karina Zhao) crush on Cho and Beer’s mistaken act of kindness for a deliberately unappealing braces-wearing girl (Sita Chan) at the currency exchange store. Neither of these subplots do the film any favours, and might have been better off ending up on the cutting room floor. These flaws in the plotting are also exacerbated by the perplexing left-field ending, which ties back nicely to the title of the film but otherwise pops up so suddenly that one wonders if there was any point to it at all.

And yet Leefire holds it all together by infusing his movie with an offbeat rhythm, so much so that as commercial as his movie is, there is an undeniably attractive arthouse sensibility to it. From Tommy Wai’s breezy Latin-style music composition to Lee Wai Chung’s vibrant art direction, ‘Love in Time’ pulses to its own quirky beat, and is all the more engaging and charming for it.

So even though it does have its fair share of flaws, Leefire’s movie turns out to be one of those unexpected surprises that inspire confidence in the fledging Hong Kong moviemaking industry. Away from the big-budget Mainland co-productions, such movies firmly rooted in a distinct Hong Kong flavour are like a breath of fresh air. It is also Bosco Wong’s best big-screen performance ever, and a must-see for fans of the TVB actor or of his co-star Stephy Tang.      

SPECIAL FEATURES:

NIL

AUDIO/VISUAL:

The visual transfer amply brings out the dynamic colours of the production while delivering sharp pristine images. Another pleasant surprise is the Dolby 5.1 audio track in the native Cantonese language, which provides a better surround experience than you would expect from such a production. 

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Gabriel Chong

SYNOPSIS: In the fast-paced action thriller SNITCH, Dwayne Johnson stars as a father whose teenage son is wrongly accused of a drug distribution crime and is looking at a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years. Desperate and determined to rescue his son at all costs, he makes a deal with the U.S. attorney to work as an undercover informant and infiltrate a drug cartel on a dangerous mission - risking everything including his family and his own life. 

MOVIE REVIEW:

From wrestler to a supporting actor to action star and now a franchise saver, Dwayne Johnson formerly known as The Rock has come a long way. But the man is not resting on his laurels; he means business and is venturing into more dramatic flair as well.

Produced by Johnson himself, you know Snitch is serious stuff when it contains a strong anti-drug message. Secondly, Johnson’s character gets beaten up by a few thugs half the size of his thigh and lastly, his bulging biceps are concealed by jacket and loose shirts for the entire movie length. Like I mentioned, this is serious drama we are talking here definitely not the movie for flexing his killer muscles.

Dwayne Johnson plays John Matthews, a relatively well-to-do businessman whose teenage son with his ex-wife has gotten himself into trouble with the law after accepting an unknown package containing drugs. With the law stating it’s mandatory to serve a minimum ten years or more in jail for the charges, the only way to lighten the sentence according to US attorney Joanne Keeghan (Susan Sarandon) is unless John brings in a drug dealer with the assistance of DEA Agent Cooper (Barry Pepper). Determined to save his son, John successfully infiltrate a drug cartel together with his employee Daniel (Jon Bernthal from The Walking Dead) who pulled the strings. But will he succeed in his mission before he is found out by the ruthless drug cartel?

Snitch attempts to go in-depth into the world of drug trafficking in the United States and for a while, we are thrown with term such as shot caller, the unravel of a drug kingpin nicknamed El Topo (Benjamin Bratt) and mumbo jumbo about the graveness of drug trafficking etc but nothing beats a father risking his life for the future of his son and this is what Snitch is most at ease with in the end. Writer and director Ric Roman Waugh who helmed the credible prison drama Felon built a believable human drama revolving a father’s love despite an outrageous freeway chase involving a semi and flipping cars in the last ten minutes.

The success of Snitch points to the performance of the charismatic Johnson who ditched his usual knuckles-first-talk-later approach to portray a rather ordinary character. The same goes for his co-star Jon Bernthal’s strong presence as an ex-criminal who just wants a second chance with his family. The supporting players Susan Sarandon and Barry Pepper contribute respectable performances though the latter’s ultra-long beard might be a talking point.

It’s a welcome change to see Johnson taking on a more subtle role given too much of G.I. Joe: Retaliation and Fast & Furious 6 can be a bad thing. But for those thinking this will be yet another prolific actioner of his, please stay far, far away. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

NIL

AUDIO/VISUAL:

The visual boasts nice imaging and details while the Dolby Digital 2.0 offers a rather underwhelming listening experience.

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee

SYNOPSIS: DEAD MAN DOWN is an action thriller that stars Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace as two strangers whose mutual desire for revenge draws them together and triggers an escalating trail of mayhem. The film, which also stars Academy Award nominee Terrence Howard and Dominic Cooper, marks the American theatrical debut of director Niels Arden Oplev (the original “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”). Victor, a professional killer and the right hand man to an underground crime lord in New York City, is seduced and blackmailed by Beatrice, a crime victim seeking retribution. Their chemistry and intense relationship leads them to execute a violent and cathartic plan for revenge.

MOVIE REVIEW:

13 years ago, Colin Farrell stars with Tom Cruise in the hit sci-fi blockbuster Minority Report where Cruise’s character spent his nights watching homemade videos and grieving over his son’s disappearance. And now coincidentally its Farrell’s turn to distraught over the death of his young daughter and wife in Dead Man Now.

Spending his lonely nights watching homemade videos about his daughter and wife in his apartment, Victor (Colin Farrell) works as a henchman for a crime lord, Alphonse (Terence Howard) in the day. But Victor’s has only one motive, that is to plot and kill Alphonse for causing the death of his loved ones years ago.

Despite Niels Arden Oplev’s (Danish director of the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) best efforts to bring life to J.H. Wyman’s pulseless screenplay, Dead Man Down is almost dead on arrival. The end result is a contradictory display of Euro film noir and American crime drama and the only salvageable aspects are the performances of Farrell and Noomi Rapace and the gritty, moody cinematography of New York.

Wyman’s scripting is stuffed with subplots that don’t really make things compelling or interesting even the romance between the two leads, Victor and Rapace’s Beatrice looks awkward to be true. Beatrice’s once beautiful features are scarred by a drunkard driver and now she is looking for revenge. The killer she has in mind happens to be Victor as she witnessed him killing a man across her apartment one day. This is no Rear Window of course but simply blackmail. How this pair of unlikely lonely souls ended up romantically together makes not much of a logical sense.

Just when you thought Alphonse has found out who has been blackmailing him and killing his guys in a rather exciting but brief action sequence in a building, the movie falls yet into a dour, melodramatic mode and never gets much of its momentum back. This whole exercise neither works as a revenge thriller nor an arthouse flick. If Terence Howard is miscast as the unconvincing villain, he is just one of the many reasons why Dead Man Down failed.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Interviews are basically short interview sessions with the stars and the same goes to Colin vs Terrence and Noomi Featurette. There is a Trailer, TV Spot, Photo Gallery and also an entirely pointless Movie Highlights, probably for those who have no intention to watch the movie. 

AUDIO/VISUAL:

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack delivers a loud, whooping experience especially in the finale. Dialogue sounds fine and visually, the DVD transfer is satisfactory except for minor noise.

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee

SYNOPSIS: Unlimited funds have allowed Diana (McCarthy) to live it up on the outskirts of Orlando. There's only one glitch: she's financing her shopping sprees with an ID stolen from Sandy Patterson (Bateman), an accounts rep who lives halfway across the U.S. With only one week to hunt down the con artist before his world implodes, the real Sandy Patterson is forced to extreme measures to clear his name.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Identity Thief comes from writer Craig Mazin who gave you The Hangover series. If you still have no idea what to expect, just be prepare for some preposterous premises and lots of misfired gags.

An ordinary every day, family man Sandy Patterson (Jason Bateman) found out his identity has been stolen by someone called Diana in Florida. With his credit account chockfull of shopping sprees, Sandy decides to travel from Denver to Florida to nab the culprit himself after the police conveniently claimed it’s not under Denver police department jurisdiction to follow up on the crime. With his job and reputation at stake, Sandy is determined to bring Diana (Melissa McCarthy) to justice even if it means travelling across the country leaving his family behind.

This is very much a variation of Due Date which was released in 2010 or even Planes, Trains and Automobiles which was released almost 16 years ago - A straight decent man pairing up with an oddball on a road trip formula, it never gets old but it gets tired if not done right as in the case of Identity Thief.

Running at a tedious 111 minutes, it started off clumsily and never gets into the right gear. For a comedy, it has almost the same number of car crashes as a Michael Bay movie. At least the noisy Foley effects cover the lack of jokes right? What makes things worse is the introduction of a series of characters that amounts to nothing in the end. Diana for a start has gotten herself into dire situation by selling some bad credit cards to a syndicate I supposed which is never fully explained. Two assassins (Tip T.I. Harris and Genesis Rodriguez) with guns and a grizzled bounty hunter (T2's Robert Patrick) are dispatched to get Diana but that amounts to nothing spectacular except a few snares and gun shots.

Melissa McCarthy finally gets a chance to showcase her talents after shining in her part in Bridesmaids. Director Seth Gordon managed to induce a few chuckles from the bubbly comedian despite the weak material. She sings, have raunchy noisy sex with a bar patron, she sings again, she gets knocked down by a car and blah blah while her co-star Jason Bateman continues in his umpteen role as a goody-two-shoes (watch Horrible Bosses and The Change Up) who ended up in unbelievable ridiculous situations.

Identity Thief is too much of the same old same old movie to laugh about. When it starts to get sentimental and melodrama towards the closing, it’s liked a huge slap to a face. What happens to all the mean-spiritedness in the beginning? At least we learnt that when Hollywood runs out of ideas, just get someone to throw a punch onto the throat. Not once or twice, make it thrice or more, that should do the trick. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

NIL

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Identity Thief looks sharp and clean on DVD while the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix delivers a clear, front heavy experience with the occasional rear speaker activity.

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee

SYNOPSIS: Set in a fictional metropolis named Harbor City, the movie begins with an illegal diamond deal gone wrong as small-time gangster Xu Da Fu finds there is more than one buyer salivating over his smuggled gems. A group of military men intercept the case of diamonds, killing everyone on the spot but Xu. He is rescued by Hero Wu, a young upright police officer who believes there is no gray area in justice. It does not take long before the two are targeted and chased by rival hit men and militants. The story unfolds when beautiful scientist Fan Ning comes along, explaining that the whole hullabaloo is not about the diamonds but what else the case contains: an anti-matter bomb that could destroy humanity if it falls into the wrong hands. The villians in this case are a militant group from Pawanda, a make-believe country in Southeast Asia which is planning to set off the bomb in the city.

MOVIE REVIEW:

A spin-off from the successful TV drama series, Black & White Episode 1: The Dawn of Assault once again stars Mark Chao in the leading role as Hero Wu. With his original co-star Vic Chou opted out of it, Chao is paired up with Mainland actor Huang Bo (Journey to the West) for this movie outing.

Set in a fictional country called Harbour City, a small-time hoodlum Xu Da Fu (Huang Bo) is caught in a massive plot to blow up the country by a militant group from Pawanda after a diamond deal went awry. It turned out that the case that contained the diamonds include an antimatter bomb which is highly sought after by hit men, militants and even traitors in the government agencies. With no one to turn to except a young beautiful student, Fan Ning (Angelababy), Wu and Xu must work together to uncover the plot and taking back Xu’s gems.

There are no expenses to be spared in this touted to be one of Taiwan’s most expensive production of late. Shot in Kaohsiung, the entire action flick has the feel and look of a typical slick Hollywood blockbuster. Lush action sequences featuring gun fires, explosions, fist fights are aplenty and even the climax is shot onboard an aircraft (though it’s a set built on the ground). Nothing in Tsai Yueh Hsiun’s flick is original but somehow it works despite the bloated running time.

Setting the story in fictional countries reduces the need to apologise for any offensive references but that actually took away the believability of the plot and the intention of the baddies. This is not help by the haphazard plotting and the involvement of numerous parties liked SIS and tactical force which merged into an ever confusing storyline to follow. It took too much effort to fatten up the script not forgetting the obligatory twist when it’s mainly a cautious tale of not letting the right thing falling into the wrong hands.

Chao (last seen in Vicky Zhao’s So Young) known more for his romantic roles fares rather impressively with his physical performance. He is in short the supercop of the new decade. He jumps from bridges, dangle himself from a plane, dodge dozens of explosions and bullets and remain unscathed. Huang Bo on the other hand adds some need be zest throughout the ordeal by bantering with our hero. Angelababy, the cute as button actress pops in as the girl whose father and uncle is the creator of the energy bomb though her character mysteriously disappears during the finale and pops in only at the closing scene. Pop singer Alex To appears as the Captain of SIS while twin brothers, Julio and Dino from rock group SOLER appears fittingly as two ruthless assassins together with Taiwanese veteran actor Leon Dai as an underground middleman.

With respectable action choreographed by French parkour artist Cyril Raffaelli and HK’s Nicky Li, Black & White Episode 1: The Dawn of Assault is an ambitious project by first time feature helmer Tsai. It’s not entirely flawless especially in the story department nevertheless it compensates by throwing in lots of wham-bang set pieces. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

NIL

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Visual and audio is passable for this DVD though it sorely lacks a strong 5.1 surround track.

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee

SYNOPSIS: After her husband (Tatum) is released from prison, Emily (Mara) begins suffering from terrifying anxiety and turns to psychiatrist Dr. Banks (Law) for help. But when Banks prescribes an experimental drug for her, the side effects have chilling and deadly consequences. Full of unexpected twists, Side Effects is the sexy psychological thriller that critics are calling "wildly unpredictable!" (Marlow Stern, Newsweek).

MOVIE REVIEW:

Lazy and formulaic plotting aplenty, it’s hard to find a movie that really surprises you nowadays. You get that same feeling when you popped in Side Effects. It’s going to be one boring, talky indie drama from Steven Soderbergh. Not the Steven Soderbergh who did Ocean’s Eleven but the Steven Soderbergh who did Full Frontal and The Girlfriend Experience.

It turned out I was so wrong. Side Effects is a nice balance between the indie Soderbergh and his commercial entity and it’s definitely addictive.

Written by Soderbergh’s frequent collaborator, screenwriter Scott Z Burns (Contagion and The Informant!), the flick started out as a normal drama about a young couple, Martin (Channing Tatum) and Emily Taylor (Rooney Mara). Martin has just been released after spending four years behind bar presumably because of insider trading. Emily begins to suffer from depression and a failed suicide attempt leads her to visit psychiatrist, Dr. John Banks (Jude Law). Using an experimental drug prescribed by Banks, Emily begins to suffer from side effects and no one expect it to turn deadly when one day Martin is found stabbed to death by Emily during one of her sleepwalking routines.

In the wrong hands, Side Effects could have easily becomes one of the greatest embarrassments in cinematic history, laughable even. Yet Burn’s screenplay effortlessly slides from medical drama to courtroom thriller to sordid affair, offering enough twists and turns to keep the audience guessing the final outcome.

Much liked his other movies, Soderbergh worked as cinematographer and editor on Side Effects as well under different pseudonyms. With him as the production’s beacon, the key cast members turned in excellent, intriguing performances especially the underrated Rooney and Law, many of them have worked with him in the past before. Catherine Zeta-Jones who has been getting plenty of attention-grabbing parts lately plays beautiful Dr Victoria Siebert, a relatively minor role that nevertheless questioned the existence of moral and sexuality of human beings. If she is channelling her husband’s Michael Douglas’ charismatic performances in erotic thrillers such as Basic Instinct and Disclosure then she is on the right track.

Is this a movie about the widespread use of antidepressants drugs? A thriller in the form of Contagion? It’s hard to define a Hitchockian smart title liked this one. The least we know is this man can juggle both independent and commercial titles easily. It’s such a waste to see the versatile Soderbergh opting for an early retirement from the movies given his remarkable magical touch. And of course the ability to surprise us definitely counts.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Probably culled from some TV programs and EPK, Interviews include segments with Cast Channing Tatum, Jude Law, Rooney Mara, Catherine Zeta Jones, writer Scott Z. Burns and Producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura. Behind The Scenes are mainly 8 minutes of B-roll footages. The DVD also consists of TV Spots and a Trailer.

AUDIO/VISUAL:

The visual which are shot digitally offers passable images on this DVD while the Dolby Digital 2.0 presents a subdued soundtrack that consist plenty of clear spoken dialogue.

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee

SYNOPSIS: In this heart-pounding, edge-of-your-seat thriller, veteran 911 operator Jordan (Academy Award® Winner Halle Berry, Monster’s Ball, 2001) takes a life-altering call from a teenage girl, Casey Welson (Academy Award® nominee Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine, 2006), who has been kidnapped and thrown into the trunk of a madman’s car. But with the clock ticking, Jordan soon realizes she must confront a killer from her past to put an end to a serial killer’s haunting rampage. Also starring Morris Chestnut.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Following the footsteps of race against time thrillers such as Cellular and Buried, The Call is a taut thriller right from the start wasting no time establishing our leading lady, Halle Berry as a cool as cucumber 911 telephone operator, Jordan Turner. But Jordan’s confidence is shaken one day when an intruder managed to successfully kidnap and murder the girl Jordan is advising over the phone.

With most movies showcasing cops on the prowl, The Call is a nice tribute to all the unseen folks manning the call centre. The screenplay by Richard D’Ovidio is on the whole nail-biting though not entirely flawless and once the next victim, Casey (Abigail Breslin) is introduced, we are taken on a whirlwind ride as Casey is captured and thrown in the trunk of the serial killer’s Camry while Jordan took over Casey’s case from a rookie operator and realised it was the same killer six months earlier.  

For the first hour or so, director Brad Anderson (The Machinist) did a fantastic job engaging the audience even if it means Jordan spending a huge portion amount of screentime at her desk dispensing advice and calming the trapped Casey. A Good Samaritan and a helpful kiosk attendant whom the kidnapper and Casey encountered along the way pulled off a few predictable but heart-pounding moments thanks to the nerve-wracking deaths of the victims.   

The Call only starts to crumble in the last act and dangerously veering into torture porn territory. The motive of the killer is unsatisfactorily presented and all the shocker moments turned out to be nothing more than cliches especially with Jordan leaving her post and arriving at the crime scene joining her victim and killer in a silly game of cat-and-mouse. Time on the other hand sure passed by fast as the little girl in Little Miss Sunshine is already old enough to be wearing just a brassier for the finale. Seriously it’s an unnecessary touch if it’s the filmmakers’ intention to distract the audience from the disastrous end.

Anchored by Academy Award winner Halle Berry and nominee, Abigail Breslin with Michael Eklund as the not so scary or clever killer and Morris Chestnut as a patrol cop cum love interest of Jordan, The Call is a decent thriller containing an inoffensive amount of violence. If not for the shallow ending that upstaged the rest of the movie, this title would have garnered a must-see rating.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

NIL

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Image and visual presentation is passable while the only Dolby Digital 2.0 included on the DVD exhibits a limited amount of sonic listening experience as expected.

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee

SYNOPSIS: Scott (Davidson) has been a case of arrested development ever since his firefighter father died when he was seven. He’s now reached his mid-20s having achieved little, chasing a dream of becoming a tattoo artist that seems far out of reach. As his ambitious younger sister (Maude Apatow, HBO’s Euphoria) heads off to college, Scott is still living with his exhausted ER nurse mother (Oscar® winner Marisa Tomei) and spends his days smoking weed, hanging with the guys—Oscar (Ricky Velez, Master of None), Igor (Moises Arias, Five Feet Apart) and Richie (Lou Wilson, TV’s The Guest Book)—and secretly hooking up with his childhood friend Kelsey (Bel Powley, Apple TV+’s The Morning Show). But when his mother starts dating a loudmouth firefighter named Ray (Bill Burr, Netflix’s F Is for Family), it sets off a chain of events that will force Scott to grapple with his grief and take his first tentative steps toward moving forward in life.

MOVIE REVIEW:

If you’re familiar with writer-director Judd Apatow, you’re probably expecting his latest to be yet another of his vulgar but sweet male coming-of-age sagas, not unlike say ‘The 40-Year Old Virgin’, ‘Knocked Up’ and ‘Funny People’. At least in the first hour, seeing the 24-year-old wannabe tattoo artist Scott Carlin drift through life suggests that ‘The King of Staten Island’ is very much similar to Apatow’s character oeuvre; and yet, there are signs that it is intended to be something more, such as how Scott deliberately closes his eyes while behind the wheel of a car.

Sure enough, you’ll discover a much more grim and sobering portrait of a young adult struggling to come to terms with the death of his firefighter father, who was killed in the line of duty when Scott was just a boy. That singular event continues to haunt his attitude towards life, whether committing to a budding relationship with his pal Kelsey (Bel Powley), or his neglect for his mother Margie (Marisa Tomei) and sister Claire (Maude Apatow), or even how he refuses to take charge of his life with any sense of direction or purpose.

Unfortunately – or in fact, fortunately for Scott – he is forced to confront his realities when he makes a poor choice to tattoo a nine-year-old kid he meets while hanging out at the beach, prompting the kid’s dad Ray (Bill Burr) to show up at his doorstep demanding an apology. That chance encounter sparks a relationship between Margie and Ray, the latter of whom happens to be a firefighter too. Not surprisingly, Scott reacts with a mix of anger, disbelief and hurt, but a series of ensuing developments will lead him to come to terms with his past and present.

Consider that fair warning for those who expect the sort of gross-out humour from Apatow’s earlier movies – compared to them, the tone here is a lot more subdued, especially as Scott turns vindictive to try to get his mother to break up with Ray. Apatow has always had a knack for melding drama and comedy, and more than before, he demonstrates an ability to do so with utter bittersweet realism. You’ll empathise with Scott all right, as well as the characters around him, as he learns to face his demons and everyone else tries to put things back together.

That it feels so real is no coincidence with the fact that it is loosely based on Davidson’s own story; indeed, the ‘Saturday Night Live’ actor brings his signature brand of shrugged off humour to Scott, injecting him with a distinct personality that is both familiar yet unique. His performance here has no grain of artifice; rather, Davidson digs deep at quite possibly his own insecurities to convey vividly the picture of an individual who remains stuck in life. Davidson may not have the same polish as other veteran Apatow actors like Seth Rogen and Steve Carell, but he more than makes up for it with a stripped-down and honest portrayal.

Thankfully then, Apatow gives his lead star plenty of room to shine with a generous two-and-a-quarter hour movie that moves along at its own measured and confident pace. Again, those looking for ‘The Hangover’-type shenanigans will likely be disappointed, for there are few punchy one-liners or trailer-ready set-pieces; nonetheless, there is method in Apatow’s seemingly off-the-cuff style, and you’ll look back appreciating how each scene (co-written by Apatow, Davidson and ‘SNL’ writer Dave Sirius) is a carefully constructed character-building moment that allows his stars room to explore and improvise.

As much as the story revolves around Scott, it is also made more poignant by the excellent supporting acts. Tomei is lovely as his long-suffering mother, and the scene where she lets loose on both Scott and Ray after their brawl is a perfect example of just how sharp her acting is. Burr, who like Davidson is a stand-up comic, carries the straight-talking Ray with unexpected gravitas. Powley is terrific in the few scenes she has with Davidson, and even veterans like Steve Buscemi as Ray’s fire chief and Pamela Adlon as Ray’s ex-wife shine in smaller but memorable roles.

But what ultimately sets ‘The King of Staten Island’ apart from Apatow’s previous movies is how he manages to juggle laughs and life with such deftness here, fashioning a sweet and tender dramedy which should become an instant breakout movie for Davidson in his first full lead role. More than anything he’s ever done, Apatow’s latest is brutally honest while being funny and winning, and ends up being a moving account of how the best we can do in life is sometimes to not let the circumstances we have no control over dictate how we choose to live our life.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Gabriel Chong