Genre: Sci-Fi/Adventure
Director: Gavin Hood
Cast: Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley, Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, Viola Davis, Nonso Anozie, Stevie Ray Dillmore, Andrea Powell, Moises Arias, Conor Carroll, Aramis Knight, Brandon Soo hoo, Jimmy "Jax" Pinchak, Suraj Parthasarathy, Khylin Rhambo
RunTime: 1 hr 54 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: GV
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/EndersGame
Opening Day: 7 November 2013
Synopsis: In the near future, a hostile alien race called the Formics have attacked Earth. If not for the legendary heroics of International Fleet Commander Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley), all would have been lost. In preparation for the next attack, the highly esteemed Colonel Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) and the International Military are training only the best young minds to find the future Mazer. Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a shy but strategically brilliant boy, is recruited to join the elite. Arriving at Battle School, Ender quickly and easily masters increasingly difficult challenges and simulations, distinguishing himself and winning respect amongst his peers. Ender is soon ordained by Graff as the military’s next great hope, resulting in his promotion to Command School. Once there, he’s trained by Mazer Rackham himself to lead his fellow soldiers into an epic battle that will determine the future of Earth and save the human race.
Movie Review:
With a rumoured US$100 million production budget, “Ender’s Game” could be written off as one of the latest in a growing line of high-budget young adult flicks, which its co-producing company Summit Entertainment probably hopes it will be. A more interesting fact is that it’s also one of the first films whereby one of the other co-producers is James Cameron’s special-effects firm Digital Domain, responsible for creating most of the futuristic sets and backdrops. But visual effects, even in a sci-fi movie, can only go so far in capturing audiences. The source material’s acclaim far exceeds that of recent YA successes like “Twilight” and “The Hunger Games”: Orson Scott Card’s sci-fi novel won both the prestigious Nebula Award and the Hugo Award in 1985 and 1986 respectively, and is also recommended reading for the US Marine Corps.
Attempting to give sufficient credit to such a classic novel is director and writer Gavin Hood, best remembered for the unimpressive “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”, which received a lukewarm response from critics and audiences alike. This time though, the pieces look to be in place for a box office success. Beyond the lauded source material, he’s also got a stellar cast, led by 16-year-old Asa Butterfield, who effectively wields his expressive, bright blue eyes to convey a contradictory mix of childlike vulnerability and a preternatural ruthlessness. These are useful tools for portraying Ender Wiggin, a brilliant boy-genius recruited by the military in a world that is still recovering from the aftermath of an attack by insect-like aliens. The government is somehow convinced that training children barely on the cusp of adolescence in the ways of war will ensure future victory. Employing a combination of relentless physical training, psychological manipulation and social isolation in Battle School, Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford) and Major Gwen Anderson (Viola Davis) are looking to sieve out a suitable leader.
Ender appears to have the ideal traits, a result of both nature and nurture. On the one hand his intellect and tactical instinct are innate gifts. On the other, a troubled family background consisting of ambivalent parents, a psychotic older brother and a compassionate sister creates a detached demeanour and an understanding that mercy must be shelved in exchange for a thorough victory. Graff, convinced that Ender is ‘The One’, pulls no stops in his training and quickly puts him in command of his own platoon.
The inter-team battles resemble laser tag in a spherical zero-gravity court, lit in blue neon and dotted with blocks. Ender establishes himself as a leader worth his salt; crushing enemies along the way and swallowing the resultant guilt until an ill-fated showdown with a belligerent team leader Bonzo (Moises Arias) one day throws him off-course. Questioning whether the toll on his psyche is worth all this training to ultimately become a killer, Ender quits, only to change his mind after a rather brief talk with the one person he loves most in the world, his sister Valentine (Abigail Breslin). He moves on to advanced training in Command School under revered war veteran Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley). The script takes on a more existential tone after this point, leading up to the climactic final “game” where the theme of morality / oppression in war takes centre-stage.
The pacing may be slightly uneven but the film moves fast enough to retain your attention throughout. Visually, most scenes are filtered with bright electric blue lights and warm amber hues set against black space, which feels familiar and reminiscent of “Tron: Legacy” – both films share the same production designers, Sean Haworth and Ben Procter. Coming on the heels of Alfonso Cuarón’s astoundingly beautiful “Gravity” doesn’t do “Ender’s Game” any favours. That’s not to say that it isn’t aesthetically impressive on its own; the glossy and clinical sets are believably futuristic and highly pleasing to the eye.
Acting-wise, Ford leverages on his grandfatherly gravitas in portraying a man who is convinced that the end he has in mind will justify any means. Alongside him, Butterfield ably holds his own, following his adorable turn in “Hugo” with another praiseworthy performance and creating a tense dynamic with Ford that hits the boiling point in the concluding scenes. Abigail Breslin, unfortunately, is underused. Movie adaptations of books invariably result in the loss of certain elements: While Ender’s siblings are keenly-developed and complex characters in the novel, the lack of screen time and development in the movie render them as mere placeholders.
Movie Rating:
(Don’t go in expecting typical young-adult fare. “Ender’s Game” is an engaging and visually entertaining adaption of a classic sci-fi novel)
Review by Wong Keng Hui
Genre: Drama
Director: Brian Percival
Cast: Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson, Sophie Nelisse, Ben Schnetzer, Nico Liersch
RunTime: 2 hrs 10 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: 20th Century Fox
Official Website:
Opening Day: 27 February 2014
Synopsis: Based on the beloved international bestselling book, The Book Thief tells the story of Liesel, an extraordinary and courageous young girl sent to live with a foster family in World War II Germany. She learns to read with encouragement from her new family and Max, a Jewish refugee who they are hiding under the stairs. For Liesel and Max, the power of words and imagination become the only escape from the tumultuous events happening around them. The Book Thief is a life-affirming story of survival and of the resilience of the human spirit.
Movie Review:
‘The Book Thief’ is adapted from Markus Zusak’s award-winning novel of the same title. Directed by Brian Percival, the movie stars French-Canadian actress, Sophie Nélisse as the Book Thief, or Liesel Meminger, while veteran actors Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson play her adopted parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann.
Similar to the novel, the movie opens with a narration by Death, voiced by English television and stage actor, Roger Allam. In the book, Death’s omnipresent narration allows the story to progress through temporal and spatial distances. In the movie, however, Death’s narration is less often. Despite so, Death’s most haunting lines were preserved from the book while the narration also adds poignancy to the scenes, adding prominence to the character.
Despite coming from the same studio that made the Life of Pi, the cinematography of the Book Thief could not be more different. The Book Thief did not contain the unreal graphics and colours suited for the Life of Pi. Befitting the subject matter of war and the Holocaust, the colours in the film were pale and somber. This colour scheme was set right at the start, where the train bringing Liesel to Himmel Street trudged through the desolate countryside, up to the aftermath of the bombing of Himmel Street and the end of war. The colour scheme helped convey the sense of hopelessness and wariness that comes with war, as it sucks the life out of the people living through it. Respite from the war came from the children’s innocence, and for Liesel, being in the mayor’s wife’s library. The warmth and colours in these scenes provides a stark contrast to the pale colour tones of Himmel Street in winter. This is especially so in the scene where Rudy Steiner (Nico Liersch) and Liesel plot to escape, as they make their way through the vivid autumnal colours searching for a way out of the war. In the end, however, they were forced to return to bleak reality.
The film’s two main characters, Liesel Meminger and Rudy Steiner, were well played by Sophie Nélisse and Nico Liersch. Much of the film rested on Nélisse’s shoulders, as it revolved around Liesel’s experiences during Hitler’s reign. Liesel’s circumstances had forced her to grow up far too quickly, as she recognizes the wrongness of burning books and prosecuting others based on their ideology and religion. Nélisse’s Liesel was, at the same time, precocious and weary of the world, drawing sympathy from the audience. Being almost constantly together, Rudy acts as a foil to Liesel’s maturity with his childish innocence and perspective of the world. This was a breath of fresh air in the dreary daily existence of most people in the war.
Without the constant narration by Death and the luxury to add in explanations and backstories like the book, particular scenes in the movie do seem rather abrupt and needed more explanation, while other scenes were slightly draggy. In the aftermath of the Himmel Street bombing, Rudy’s words to Liesel seemed anticlimactic and awkward, with the scene seeming to serve no purpose except to give the love story of Rudy and Liesel a needless conclusion. That aside, the movie was a good, if understated, adaptation of Zusak’s novel.
The Book Thief shows that while it is important to highlight the cruelties of war and the Holocaust, it is even more crucial to know that people do not lose their humanity during war. Innocence, kindness and generosity exist in spite of the trying times and while everyone dies in the end, it is how you live that matters.
Movie Rating:
('The Book Thief' is not your typical film about the WWII and the Holocaust, told through the eyes of a child and emphasizing the loss of innocence and cruelty of war to the common man)
Review by Goh Yan Hui
Genre: Drama
Director: Anthony Chen
Cast: Yeo Yann Yann, Chen Tian Wen, Angeli Bayani, Koh Jia Ler, Peter Wee, Jo Kukathas, Naomi Toh, Delwin Neo
RunTime: 1 hr 40 mins
Rating: PG13 (Brief Coarse Language)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Official Website: http://www.iloilomovie.com/
Opening Day: 29 August 2013
Synopsis: Set in Singapore, ILO ILO chronicles the relationship between the Lim family and their newly arrived maid, Teresa. Like many other Filipino women, she has come to this city in search of a better life. Her presence in the family worsens their already strained relationship. Jiale, the young and troublesome son, starts to form a unique bond with Teresa, who soon becomes an unspoken part of the family. But this is 1997 and the Asian Financial Crisis is beginning to be felt in the region…
Movie Review:
To put things into perspective, the Camera d’Or is only the second highest honour at the annual Cannes Film Festival, awarded to the best first feature film in recognition of promising new filmmakers. Last year, that award went to Benh Zeitlin’s ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’, which eventually came to be nominated four times at this year’s Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. The affirmation has this year been bestowed on Singapore’s very own Anthony Chen, whose debut feature-length film ‘Ilo Ilo’ may very well score the country’s first nomination in the extremely competitive Foreign Language Film category.
You might certainly be right in thinking that we may be getting ahead of ourselves if we haven’t yet seen the movie, but it is after having enjoyed every rapt minute of it that we are saying with great confidence we have not overstated the potential of this little delicate gem nor the creative force behind it, Chen. Indeed, never will you guess from watching the movie that this is only his first full-length movie, because in ‘Ilo Ilo’, Chen navigates plot, character and relationship with the deftness of a pro honed from years of experience, crafting an intimate yet broad, bittersweet yet heart-warming portrait of a working-class family caught in the throes of the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Working off his own screenplay (that is apparently a semi but not auto-biographical account of his childhood years), Chen displays an acute sense of self-awareness and confidence in his own scripting and directing abilities. Whereas lesser directors would have relied on mawkish sentimentality, Chen banks on good old-fashioned character-driven storytelling to draw in his audience. Each scene is carefully written and constructed to establish the relationship between four richly realised characters, with meticulous attention paid to their evolving dynamics as the film progresses.
Yes, ever so gently and effortlessly, Chen hooks you in to empathise with the plight of the Lim family and their Filipino maid from the titular province, which - thanks to the universality of the familial themes - transcends age, generation and even cultures. Certainly, Mr and Mrs Lim (veteran TV actor Chen Tianwen and Malaysian actress Yeo Yann Yann) wouldn’t be the first to grapple with an increasingly misbehaved young kid (newcomer Koh Jia Ler), nor - at least in the Singapore context - to hire a maid to take care of their child because both have to work to support the family.
Enter the timid Filipino domestic worker Terry (Angeli Bayani), whom Jiale treats with utter contempt at the start. From purposely sabotaging her at the bookshop to slipping away from the side gate while she waits anxiously to pick him up from school after dismissal, Terry’s new job taking care of the wilful Jiale proves to be a baptism of fire, especially as she frets over her infant son whom she had left in the care of her sister back home. While setting up the central relationship between Terry and Jiale, Chen occasionally interweaves the largely parallel circumstances of the remaining two characters - while Mrs Lim gets no joy at work watching her fellow employees get the axe and feeling partly responsible for being the one typing out their termination letters, Mr Lim is in an even worse position, having lost his job and forced to accept a temporary position as a security guard at a warehouse.
What is truly impressive is how Chen develops the story through evolving the dynamics between and among the various characters. A freak accident turns out to be Jiale’s wake-up call, marking a turning point in how he treats Terry - a particularly poignant scene sees him offering her his bowl of shark’s fin soup at a family banquet after he hears the adults saying how much of an expensive delicacy it is. But it also causes Mrs Lim to be quietly resentful of Terry, exacerbated by the small incidents like Jiale’s preference for “Auntie Terry’s” fish porridge over hers. Her jealousy not only makes her more wary of Terry - whom she suspects of smoking and even taking her money - but also aggravates her peckish behaviour over her husband.
Chen’s grasp of detail is masterful, every little event ratcheting the tension between mother and maid as well as husband and wife before building to an inevitable conclusion handled with bittersweet restraint. Ditto for his control over the film’s tone, which he carefully calibrates to keep things realistic from start to finish, lacing the drama with an undertone of real-life humour but balancing the elements deftly to avoid being either heavy-handed or facetious. And for those who have been following his short films, this is undoubtedly his paciest film to date, avoiding the long takes and arty pretences to focus on the story and characters.
That he chooses to do so is also testament to the exceptional performances of his cast. In his first big-screen role, Tianwen demonstrates a leading-man quality not quite apparent from his history of TV dramas - and with nuance and subtlety, he earns the audience’s empathy as the hen-pecked husband afraid to tell his wife the truth about his unemployment for fear of losing her respect. Yann Yann is just as solid as his complement, utterly convincing with Tianwen as a couple whose marriage is now defined by the everyday practical concerns of money and children.
Deserving of special and joint mention are Bayani and Jia Ler, who share great chemistry with each other whether as antagonists at the beginning or as each other’s guardians later on. It’s no secret why Chen had selected Jia Ler out of more than a thousand hopefuls for the role - the now 13-year-old is a fascinating natural in front of the camera, holding his own amongst the seasoned vets as the feisty kid with an unexpectedly sweet centre. Of course, the credit also belongs to Chen, who reportedly spent take after take coaxing the best out of Jia Ler.
But all that effort has clearly paid off - not only is the acting some of the best we have ever seen in local film, the scripting and directing is among the most accomplished as well. This isn’t the sort of mass-appeal movie that Jack Neo makes, nor is it the arty-farty type that speaks only to an acquired taste; rather, Chen has made a perfectly accessible drama that captures an immediately identifiable slice of Singapore life, absolutely fascinating in its authenticity, poignancy and honest-to-god warmth.
Movie Rating:
(With authenticity, poignancy, warmth and sincerity, Anthony Chen's unprecedented Camera d'Or winning drama is a true-blue gem of Singapore cinema)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Saranyoo Jiralak, Sittisiri Mongkolsiri, Kittithat, Tangsirikit
Cast: Jirayu Laongmanee, Suthatta Udomsilp, Krit Sathapanapitakkij, Ekawat Ekudchariya, Pimpakan Praekunnatham
RunTime: 1 hr 33 mins
Rating: PG13 (Horror)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website:
Opening Day: 29 August 2013
Synopsis: That summer, Joy (Pimpakan Praekunnatham), a young and upcoming actress posts a status 'I want to die' on her facebook. An attractive boy Singh (Jirayu La-ongmanee) tries to console her by taking her to the beach for the first time with her best friend Meen (Sutatta Udomsilp) and Singh's duo Garn (Kris Satapanapitakkit). The night of fun becomes horror when Joy dies tragically. Her ghost follows who she loves everywhere. Joy has something to tell her lover, her best friend and her brother Ting (Ekawat Ekudchariya), but no one wants to know or remember, leading to the thrilling story that shock every ex-teenager…
Movie Review:
Thai filmmakers love their anthologies, and in the vein of last year’s “9.9.81” - which was made up of nine short films from nine different directors that told the same story from different points of view - comes yet another portmanteau “Last Summer”. Comprising of three distinct acts from three separate directors, each chapter chooses a key character and builds in chronological order on the last to tell a related tale revolving around the murder of a teenage girl.
Kittithat Tangsirikit gets to set the scene with his first part, telling how the popular high-school student cum up-and-coming actress Joy (Pimpakan Phraekhunnatham) ends up sneaking away with her best friend Meen (Sutatta Udomsilp) and two other boys to a beach house. Too much booze and some cocktail drugs later, Joy breaks up in convulsions from an allergic reaction linked to her asthmatic condition, and eventually dies in a pool of her blood and vomit.
Afraid of the consequences if the police discover that she had been fed drugs by them, the two males - Singha (Jirayu La-ongmanee) and Garn (Krit Sathapanapitakkij) opt instead to dispose of her body. As is expected, Joy refuses to go away. En route to a deserted cliff, the boot of the car Singha is driving pops open and refuses to shut. The next day, she pops up in the waters near the house as if she intended to find her way back. Singha ends up stuffing her in a tiny pink suitcase, an inspired prop addition that makes a neat comeback in the final short.
Whereas another movie might have taken its entire feature length duration, Tangsirikit tells Joy’s unfortunate death and the subsequent fallout on her friends within the span of just a half hour. Cutting to the chase ain’t a bad thing in this case; not only does it make for a very pacey introduction, that need for brevity has also instilled a certain discipline in Tangsirikit’s filming, who tones down the cheap ‘boo’ scares and focuses instead on crafting some truly gripping sequences laced with a deft touch of dark humour.
Taking over for the middle segment is Sittisiri Mongkolsiri, who continues the story with Meen back in school in the wake of Joy’s death. Turns out the two weren’t just best friends, they were also keen competitors - with Joy gone, Meen becomes the centre of attention, even to the extent of commanding her own fan club. Unfortunately, Meen is increasingly haunted by visions of Joy along the school’s hallways, and bit by bit, Mongkolsiri reveals how Meen wasn’t just a helpless observer in Joy’s demise.
The idea of a haunted school is one of the oldest tricks of the horror playbook, but this iteration still proves compelling with a psychological twist. Given how Meen seems to be the only one seeing Joy’s ghost, Mongkolsiri challenges his audience to guess whether in fact the disturbances are but a figment of Meen’s own imagination, or better still a manifestation from her troubled conscience. Udomsilp is utterly captivating in the role, showcasing a whole gamut of emotions from indignation to fear to paranoia and finally to desperation - and the fact that this is our favourite short of the three is in no small measure due to her performance.
Saranyoo Jiralak’s concluding chapter unfolds with a new character addition, Joy’s brother Ting (Ekkawat Ekatchariya). Though he had been living in his sister’s shadow, Ting now gets the brunt of his mother’s overbearing attention, who intervenes personally with the swim coach just so he can have a spot on the school’s competitive dive team. Like Meen, Ting is also spooked by Joy’s spirit, with most of the encounters taking place within their two-storey house. And like Meen too, Ting is also culpable for Joy’s fate - for that matter, so is their mother - which explains why the lights go off suddenly one night, an old video tape of Joy in her childhood days starts playing, and the pink suitcase makes its reappearance within the home.
Not quite as distinctive as Mongkolsiri’s entry or as exciting as Tangsirikit’s opening, Jiralak’s contribution instead resorts to conventional scares to sustain interest, redeemed only by the twists reserved right at the end. Indeed, the real star of the show is in fact Kongdej Jaturanrasmee’s deftly wounded screenplay - not only is each act well written with a establishing premise, buildup and climax, the combination of the three acts also coheres beautifully as a whole to add layers to what may seem like a deceptively simple story especially at the beginning. A strong plot is a rarity in Thai horror films, but Jaturanrasmee exceeds expectations with an engaging story complete with a recurring theme of human fallacy.
At a juncture when it appears as if the only watchable Thai horror films are those from the GTH stable, “Last Summer” represents a pleasantly solid effort by the new production shingle Talent 1 Movie Studio. The writing is impressive, the directing by three top indie filmmakers is way better than most of its ilk, and the overall package is undoubtedly one of the more outstanding we have seen in a while. If you’re looking for a good scare, this better-than-average mystery thriller should do the trick.
Movie Rating:
(Thanks to a sharp script and some solid direction, this portmanteau horror made of three distinct but related acts is a well-staged exercise in intrigue and suspense)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Comedy/Family
Director: James Bobin
Cast: Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, Animal, Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell, Tina Fey
RunTime: 1 hr 47 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Official Website: http://muppets.disney.com/
Opening Day: 24 April 2014
Synopsis: Disney’s “The Muppets Most Wanted” takes the entire Muppets gang on a global tour, selling out grand theaters in some of Europe’s most exciting destinations, including Berlin, Madrid and London. But mayhem follows the Muppets overseas, as they find themselves unwittingly entangled in an international crime caper headed by Constantine—the World’s Number One Criminal and a dead ringer for Kermit—and his dastardly sidekick Dominic, aka Number Two.
Movie Review:
If Kermit and Miss Piggy got married, what would their kids look like? You’ll find out in this sequel to the brilliant The Muppets (2011). Oh, before we move on, we are also reminded that this also the seventh sequel to the original motion picture in 1979. For the record, this was sung to us in the movie’s opening number “We’re Doing a Sequel”.
Okay, back to the beloved screen couple’s offsprings. To be honest, the little pink frog and the little green piggy as seen in the power ballad performed by Miss Piggy and Celine Dion (more about that later) are a little freaky. But when you see the couple growing old together in what seemed like a dream sequence, you’ll get a warm fuzzy feeling that leaves you smiling. And that is something we wished there are more of in this musical comedy caper movie.
Not that this James Bobin directed production is a dull affair, but it would have been nice to have more heartwarming moments that made the last movie so well loved. Other than that, this 107 minute Disney picture is a guaranteed hit with viewers young and old.
If you’ve been following the movie’s hilarious series of online trailers, the story isn’t much of a surprise. Straight after the last movie (we see the backs of Jason Segel and Amy Adams in the opening shot – probably body doubles), The Muppets embark on a grand world tour. What they don’t know is how they will be involved in a European jewel heist caper headed by a Kermit lookalike and his dastardly sidekick Dominic Badguy (Richard Gervais in a riotously funny role).
Yup, you’ve read it right. The sidekick’s (affectionately known as Number Two) last name is Badguy. However, when he tells The Muppets it’s actually pronounced as “Bad Gee” in French, our loveable friends actually believe him and move on with the plot. Hey, that’s old school humour for you – no scepticism and cynicism. Everyone just wants to have a laughing good time in the cinema.
And that’s what the filmmakers have prepared for viewers. Expect illogical and laugh out loud antics – one of the best gags have to be singer songwriter Usher playing an… usher. Yup, this is the kind of humour you can expect from this recommended movie. There are clever gags (The Muppets make the headlines on a slow news day, Christoph Waltz doing a waltz, and many more), catchy songs (relive the plague that was Macarena in a Bayside Boys remix version), side splitting performances by Tina fey (as a Siberian prison guard who has the hots for Kermit) and Ty Burrell (as a French Interpol inspector who knows how to enjoy a long lunch and early knock off), and celebrity cameos to entertain you from start to finish.
Ah, celebrity cameos – who would turn down an offer to be in a Muppets movie? Without giving away too much, watch out for appearances by familiar faces like Puff Daddy, Lady Gaga, Saoirse Ronan, Chloe Grace Moretz and many others. Celine Dion’s performance as a fairy godmother is wonderfully spot on. Listen to her powerful vocals as she backs up Miss Piggy in an unforgettable song sequence.
There are lots more to talk about, but the fun is to sit through the movie without knowing what joke or cameo appearance is in store. When the movie ends with “Together Again” from The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984), you’d wish more comedies would be this satisfying.
Movie Rating:
(It’s good ol’ fun as The Muppets come together to bring you this very funny and joyous movie)
Review by John Li
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TRAILER REPORT 8/8/13 - THOR: THE DARK WORLD, ENDER'S GAME, MUPPETS MOST WANTED, CAPTAIN PHILLIPS, THE COUNSELLOR AND HERPosted on 08 Aug 2013 |
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THE WALT DISNEY STUDIOS SHARES NEVER-BEFORE-REVEALED DETAILS ABOUT UPCOMING ANIMATION TITLES WITH FANS AT D23 EXPOPosted on 12 Aug 2013 |
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Jorge Michel Grau
Cast: Franciso Barreiro, Alan Chavez, Paulina Gaitan
RunTime: 1 hr 30 mins
Rating: R21 (Mature Theme and Disturbing Content)
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website:
Opening Day: 22 August 2013
Synopsis: A middle-aged man dies in the street, leaving his widow and three children destitute. The devastated family is confronted not only with his loss but with a terrible challenge – how to survive. For they are cannibals. They have always existed on a diet of human flesh consumed in bloody ritual ceremonies... and the victims have always been provided by the father. Now that he is gone, who will hunt? Who will lead them? How will they slake their horrific hunger? The task falls to the eldest son, Alfredo, a teenage misfit who seems far from ready to accept the challenge... But without human meat the family will die. Shocking, bloody and deeply moving, WE ARE WHAT WE ARE is a remarkable re-invention of the horror genre – a visceral and powerfully emotional portrait of a family bound by a terrible secret hunger and driven by monstrous appetites. …
Movie Review:
Depending on how you like your horror films, Mexican writer/ director Jorge Michel Grau’s filmmaking debut might either be an atmospheric genre flick or a frustratingly slow exercise in pointlessness - and we'll be upfront by saying that it was pretty much the latter for us. The tale of a family of cannibals struggling to survive after the sudden death of its patriarch, Grau’s macabre tale set in Mexico City tries to be allegory on the desperation and subsequent perversity of the lower class, but that metaphor is somewhat lost in a thinly written and deliberately paced story that is likely to test the patience of many viewers.
Indeed, too little happens too slowly and too seriously in the not-quite-brief-enough 89 minutes that Grau tries but ultimately fails in holding his audience’s attention. What starts out somewhat riveting with a disoriented middle-aged man collapsing dead on the sidewalk turns into a ponderous family drama with a dysfunctional mother Patricia (Carmen Beato) and her three children - Alfredo (Francisco Barreiro), Julián (Alan Chávez), and Sabina (Paulina Gaitan). Now that there is no one to bring home the meat, Patricia and her sons are faced with the task of finding a human sacrifice to complete what is simply known as “The Ritual”, essentially meant to identify someone among them who can take over Dad’s place as head of the household.
Grau’s storytelling unfolds in telenovela-fashion, as brother fights with brother, sister sides with one of the brothers, and mother starts by having a nervous breakdown and then returns to reassert her authority in the family. It almost seems like yet another family, if not for the fact that their arguments revolve around whether the sacrifice should be a homeless child, a prostitute or a gay - in particular, Julián’s violent and impulsive kidnapping of a street hooker stirs up a torrent of anger from his mother, given how their father was previously given to “whoring”. Moody and disquieting it may be, one cannot quite shake off the feeling that it is no more than a glorified family soap, with cannibalism thrown in to disguise the laboured melodrama of sibling rivalry, maternal rejection, repressed homosexuality and incestuous desire.
Those looking for the film to live up to its R21 rating for gore will have to wait till the last third, since Grau largely keeps the violence before that off-camera, leaving the bloodbath for an extended climax where a chain of events leads the police and a group of vengeful prostitutes (who are friends of the lady Julián kidnapped and killed) at their doorstep. Even so, the staging of that climactic confrontation is as muted as the rest of the movie, the gore no more than splatter that looks like it could have been left over from some 80s exploitation flick. Consider this fair warning to those looking for some sort of payoff at the end - if you’re looking for a thrilling finish, you’re going to be massively disappointed.
And so, despite what its tantalising premise might suggest, this is firmly an arthouse drama that trades in quiet long takes for a large part of its duration. The fact that the family crisis we see unfolds in a cannibalistic tribe does make it slightly more engrossing than if it were just an ordinary family, but there’s no mistaking that this is still the stuff of melodramatic soap opera - and by that, we also mean not enough here is sufficiently compelling to live up to its aim of being political allegory. But like we said at the start, perhaps most significant is the undeniable feeling that this family drama of cannibals is simply pointless - after all, why bother with this aberration if they are ultimately no different from any ordinary family in their dysfunction?
Movie Rating:
(Even with an intriguing element of cannibalism thrown in, this glorified melodramatic family soap is a slow and plodding exercise in pointlessness)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: War/Drama
Director: George Clooney
Cast: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville, John Goodman
RunTime: 1 hr 59 mins
Rating: PG13 (Brief Nudity)
Released By: 20th Century Fox
Official Website:
Opening Day: 20 February 2014
Synopsis: Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, The Monuments Men focuses on an unlikely World War II platoon, tasked by FDR with going into Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners. It would be an impossible mission: with the art trapped behind enemy lines, and with the German army under orders to destroy everything as the Reich fell, how could these guys – seven museum directors, curators, and art historians, all more familiar with Michelangelo than the M-1 – possibly hope to succeed? But as the Monuments Men, as they were called, found themselves in a race against time to avoid the destruction of 1000 years of culture, they would risk their lives to protect and defend mankind’s greatest achievements.
Movie Review:
The Monuments Men is a movie adaptation of the novel, The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History, by Robert Edesel. Directed, written and starred by George Clooney, the film tells the story of a group of men, the Monuments Men, tasked to retrieve lost art from the Nazis during World War Two.
The film starts with Frank Stokes (George Clooney) obtaining approval from President Roosevelt to form a special task force to prevent and retrieve the art theft by the Nazis. This special task force consisted of several museum curators, art directors and art historians, amongst which included James Granger (Matt Damon) and Richard Campbell (Bill Murray). With the cast boasting of such experienced actors, one would expect the acting and storytelling to be smooth, and they do not disappoint. The topic of WWII is pretty overused, but the cast managed to breathe new life into the topic. While middle-aged men going through basic military training were entertaining, it was their single-mindedness in protecting the art that made them inspiring, and made the importance of art relatable to the audience.
As the Monuments Men split to hasten the retrieval of art, Granger was sent to Paris and met Claire Simone (Cate Blanchett), the curator of the gallery who tried to save art from the Germans. After a lengthy period of time, Granger finally gains Simone’s trust, who helps him to search and identify the stolen art. Blanchett is convincing as Simone, an independent woman fiercely protective of the art she was in charge of, even in the face of death. Simone’s awkward seduction of Granger is also strangely endearing, although it was a relief that Granger does not take up her offer.
As the war ends, two of the Monuments Men, Donald Jeffries (Hugh Bonneville) and Jean Claude Clemont (Jean Dujardin) lose their lives on duty. This brings about one of the most pertinent questions in the movie: Is the effort to retrieve the art worth their lives? A particularly memorable scene explains the stance of most officers – when Stokes requested for a vehicle and guards to carry out their duty, the commander insisted that he was not going to lose men for the sake of art. This view was echoed repeatedly throughout the movie, as the Monuments Men faced multiple hurdles while carrying out their operations. The movie emphasizes the importance of art – as a symbol of culture and history – and it being worth fighting for. However, it also romanticizes the men’s work, making the film rather sentimental and whimsical.
War films often fall into the trap of being good vs. bad, depicting the Allied and Axis powers on either side of the good/bad spectrum. ‘The Monuments Men’ tries to portray it otherwise, attempting to emphasize the humanity in all. In spite its intentions, the film could still be seen as depicting the Allied powers as good and the Russians and Germans as selfish and evil. This dichotomy of characters does let the film down, making it stereotypical and losing the balanced view that might be present in the novel and other historical records.
The film also treads the fine line of being a dramatic comedy, but failed to achieve either genre. The portrayal of Hitler and the US Presidents felt more of a parody, especially Hitler, who did not speak and seemed to be represented just for the sake of him being there. The jokes included in the dialogue also seemed predicable and dated. One questions the suitability of the film being comical, due to the heavy subject and desire to inspire. Perhaps a somber tone would be more suitable, making it less distracting for the audience to follow the true purpose of the movie.
The Monuments Men meanders through the plot without a clear climax, and tries but fails to convince that the art is worth the time and effort. As a whole, the film does seem like a glorification of US action and participation in the war, fighting for liberation, and now, for culture. While it is an interesting take on a resistance force during the WWII, the movie is largely clichéd and forgettable.
Movie Rating:
(An interesting war story told in another angle, but the too-draggy storyline and undecided portrayal lets the movie and cast down)
Review by Goh Yan Hui
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