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Making of Donnie Yen's SPECIAL IDPosted on 16 Sep 2013 |
Genre: CG Animation
Director: Kris Pearn and Cody Cameron
Cast: Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Will Forte, Andy Samberg, Benjamin Bratt, Neil Patrick Harris, Terry Crews, Kristen Schaal
RunTime: 1 hr 35 mins
Rating: G
Released By: Sony Pictures Releasing International
Official Website: http://www.cloudy-movie.com/site/
Opening Day: 10 October 2013
Synopsis: "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" picks up where Sony Pictures Animation's mouth-watering comedy left off. Inventor Flint Lockwood thought he saved the world when he destroyed his most infamous invention -- a machine that turned water into food causing cheeseburger rain and spaghetti tornadoes. But Flint soon learns that his invention survived and is now creating food-animals – "foodimals!" Flint and his friends embark on a dangerously delicious mission to battle hungry tacodiles, shrimpanzees, hippotatomuses, cheespiders and other foodimals to save the world – again!
Movie Review:
The last we left aspiring inventor Flint Lockwood and spunky weather girl Sam Sparks, they had just successfully evacuated the people of his hometown of Swallow Falls to escape the cheeseburger hails and pasta tornadoes generated by his Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator - or essentially, a device he invented that turns water into food. ‘Cloudy 2’ picks up mere moments where its predecessor left off, returning our heroes to where it all began, which has since turned into a Jurassic Park of Hippotatomuses, Tacodiles, Bananostriches and Wildebeets.
Ah yes, more than the original, co-directors Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn - taking over from the original pair of Phil Lord and Chris Miller who have since moved onto next spring’s ‘Lego’ Movie - seem more than happy to let their movie be filled with as many food puns as possible. Besides the aforementioned food animals, there are Shrimpanzees, Susheep, French fry-legged Cheespiders and swarms of Mosquitoasts, all of which are churned out by Flint’s ‘FLDSMDFR’ - or the acronym by which Flint’s device is referred to time and time again.
Beyond the puns however, co-screenwriters Erica Rivinoja, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein can’t quite capture the charm, intelligence nor heart that made the original such an unexpected delight. Indeed, those who have read the original Judi and Ron Barrett’s children book will probably agree that despite the mountains of excess (pun intended), Lord and Miller grounded their satire of disaster movies (think ‘Twister’ and ‘The Day After Tomorrow’) with a heartfelt father-son bonding subplot between Flint and his level-headed dad (James Caan) as well as a lively and yet unlikely romance between Flint and Sam.
Nonetheless, as Flint returns to Swallow Falls at the behest of his idol inventor Chester V (Will Forte) to retrieve and terminate his FLDSMDFR, the relationship between Flint and his dad has once again grown colder; what’s more, Flint and Sam have somewhat lost that Spark (another pun intended), with Flint so mesmerised in doing Chester’s bidding that he refuses to believe Sam’s plea to take a closer look at the so-called food terrors. Yet while the familiar themes of reconciliation and romance are once again on the table, their treatment is more perfunctory than poignant, lacking in the conviction and clarity that made them resonate in the first place.
That the storytelling isn’t up to par with the original is certainly a pity, especially when one considers that the technical artists must have really challenged themselves to do better this time round. In that regard, there is no doubt that they have succeeded exceedingly. One marvels at the amount of detail on the screen - from the flora to the fauna to the ‘Foodimals’ mash-up, almost every frame is an aesthetic wonder in itself. Not only are the living creatures weird and wonderful, they also pop off the screen with zaniness whenever some action sequence rolls along - and it is no understatement to say that the animation and even the 3D quality of it is simply stunning.
And yet with the expense of the plotting is too the characterisation, which relies too heavily on its audience’s nostalgia for its own good. There is too little time in between the puns for the characters to interact, so much so that they have lost much of their idiosyncrasies (remember just how Baby Brent ended up wearing a stuffed chicken suit) and by extension their endearing nature. The same can be said of the energetic voice cast, which while just as excellent as before, are given much less room to emote in between the frenetic proceedings.
Not that we suspect family audiences will mind - everything moves at a zippy clip, and the visual cornucopia is likely to be sufficient distraction from a less inspired plot than the original and, for that matter, a bunch of less distinctive characters. As long as you subscribe to the filmmakers’ credo that everything begins and ends with the imagery, you’ll probably enjoy this feast for the eyes. And oh, if your humour falls along the line of ‘there’s a ‘leek’ in the boat’, you’ll have the time of your life gorging on them insatiable food-borne puns.
Movie Rating:
(Not nearly as clever or original than its precedessor, this visually sumptuous sequel offers a visual feast and an endless buffet of food-borne puns)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: James Wan
Cast: Rose Byrne, Patrick Wilson, Lin Shaye, Ty Simpkins, Barbara Hershey, Danielle Bisutti, Michael James Grise, Lindsay Seim
RunTime: 1 hr 46 mins
Rating: PG13 (Horror and Some Frightening Scenes)
Released By: Sony Pictures Releasing International
Official Website:
Opening Day: 3 October 2013
Synopsis: The famed horror team of director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell reunite with the original cast of Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, Barbara Hershey and Ty Simpkins in "Insidious Chapter 2," a terrifying sequel to the acclaimed horror film, which follows the haunted Lambert family as they seek to uncover the mysterious childhood secret that has left them dangerously connected to the spirit world.
Movie Review:
Unfortunately for fans of James Wan’s earlier creepfest, ‘Insidious: Chapter Two’ isn’t as great as its predecessor. Whereas the former intrigued and terrified viewers with its fascinating concept of a parallel dimension full of restless spirits (known simply as ‘The Further’), this one seems content on recycling the same elements for a gripping but slightly less captivating - nor for that matter, chilling - continuation of the earlier tale.
So titled ‘Chapter Two’ because it picks up directly from where the last left off, returning screenwriter Leigh Whannell (who developed the story together with Wan) has the Lambert family - dad Josh (Patrick Wilson), mom Renai (Rose Bryne) and their three kids - relocate from their home to that of Josh’s mother Lorraine’s (Barbara Hershey). Those who have seen the first movie might recall that Josh had crossed into the realm of ‘The Further’ to bring Dalton’s soul back, but did not return as his son did, the very entity now in possession of his body strangling the medium Elise (Lin Shaye) at the very end.
Now that the demonic spirit has actually taken on human form, what ensues feels a lot more familiar - and therefore less inventive. We wait as Renai slowly realises from the mysterious strains of the piano, the children’s toys coming to life and most unmistakably the wraith of a lady in hideous makeup wearing a long white dress that the horror isn’t yet over. While Renai teeters on the brink of scepticism, Lorraine is much more astute, teaming up with Elise’s erstwhile sidekicks Specks (Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson) as well as Elise’s old friend Carl (Steve Coulter) to reconnect with Elise in the hope of finding out just who or what killed her.
To reveal anything more would probably be spoiling it for those looking for a second helping of ‘Insidious’ - suffice to say that it has something to do with Josh’s own haunting as a child (established in the first movie) by a ghoulish bride. Lorraine’s own investigative work will lead them to well-known horror tropes - abandoned hospital rooms, boarded-up houses and creepy basements - which Wan maximises for an effectively unsettling time. Indeed, Wan’s gift as a master horror conjurer (pardon the pun) is on impressive display here, coming very close to recapturing the dread, anxiety and tension which made its precedessor - as well as this summer’s ‘The Conjuring’ - such classics.
Though effective, this sequel lacks the ingenuity that made its predecessor such an unmitigated delight. The first half of the movie plays like any other possession-themed movie (which the former smartly sidestepped by positioning itself as a precursor), using some gradually thickening pasty makeup to illustrate Dalton’s worsening condition as the link between his soul and his body gets weaker. In fact, one doesn’t even get to step into ‘The Further’ until the last third, and even that journey back into that alternate realm doesn’t delve much further about that dimension (pardon the pun) than what we already know from the first movie.
As if aware of the nagging sense of familiarity his audience must be feeling, Whannell tries doubly hard to spin some late twists into the story by adding a surprising amount of backstory - too much in fact, that the last third feels hurried and slipshod compared to the deliberately paced and more carefully crafted setup. That said, the twists do tie in pretty neatly with the yet-unexplained events of the first film - one just wishes however that Wan and Whannell could have accelerated the pace at the start to leave more time to develop the extended climax.
Even so, this is admittedly a less character-driven story than the last, and despite a similar family-in-distress plot, it’s likely that you will feel less for the Lamberts’ predicament. Though he may get top billing in the opening credits, Patrick Wilson is pretty much relegated to a supporting act this time round as the possessed dad, and earns too little sympathies for his character as a result. Bryne fairs slightly better, but it is Hershey who proves to be the scene-stealer here as the resourceful mother who gets her own ghost-busting subplot. And as the bumbling ghost-busters, Whannell and Sampson are less amusing this time round, especially with Coutler being a poor substitute for Shaye’s anchor presence in the last film.
Given how surprisingly inventive the first movie was, it’s rather inevitable that returning to that same world might feel a little less exciting. Though it may be convenient to dismiss this movie as a case of sophomore sequel lethargy, it is in fact a pretty engaging and frightening experience on its own, especially when one holds it up to the glut of horror movies Hollywood is fond of churning out for easy money. Yet this chapter is a victim of its own success, and even if ‘Insidious: Chapter Two’ was ultimately more of the same, let’s hope the next instalment teased by the epilogue will take the series somewhere much Further.
Movie Rating:
(Solidly creepy and occasionally terrifying sequel that offers more of the same by its predecessor - and inevitably winds up being less impressive)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Drama
Director: Sofia Coppola
Cast: Katie Chang, Israel Broussard, Emma Watson, Taissa Farmiga, Claire Julien, Georgia Rock, Leslie Mann
RunTime: 1 hr 31 mins
Rating: M18 (Drug Use and Coarse Language)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website:
Opening Day: 12 September 2013
Synopsis: In the fame-obsessed world of Los Angeles, a group of teenagers take us on a thrilling and disturbing crime-spree in the Hollywood hills. Based on true events, the group, who were fixated on the glamorous life, tracked their celebrity targets online, and stole more than 3 million in luxury goods from their homes. Their victims included Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom, and Rachel Bilson, and the gang became known in the media as “The Bling Ring.”
Movie Review:
Since her debut film “The Virgin Suicides”, and through “Lost in Translation”, “Marie Antoniette” and “Somewhere”, Sofia Coppola has been a divisive filmmaker lauded by some for her stylish dreamy mood pieces and criticised by others for being shallow and superficial. Her fifth feature, loosely based on real-life events that took place in 2008 and 2009 which was the subject of Nancy Jo Sales’ Vanity Fair article, is no different - while some may find it luridly compelling, others will no doubt call it vapid.
Yet in this case, we are inclined to see it as a perfect example of how art imitates life - how else will you describe the group of Southern California teenagers - four girls and a boy - who broke into the homes of Hollywood celebrities like Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Audrina Patridge and Rachel Bilson and made off with over $3mil worth of dresses, shoes, watches, sunglasses and even underwear? Can you blame them though? After all, wouldn’t it be logical to assume that they would crave exactly what defines the celebrity-worshipping, materialistic culture they were born and bred into?
But their sociopathy extends far beyond their yearning for designer swag - “let’s go shopping!” says one of the teen girls before breaking in and helping herself to whatever catches her eye, revealing nary a hint of compunction. Such is the psyche of these dysfunctional kids, who assume it’s OK to steal from the rich and wear their spoils around town, even boasting about their exploits ever so casually to their schoolmates and friends. Even more baffling is how they seek to justify their behaviour in post-trial interviews to a Sales-like reporter - all but one so conveniently blame either the environment or their peers, pulling the sympathy card to deflect responsibility for their actions.
Indeed, it might certainly be tempting to frame their story as either satire or critique, but Coppola avoids any hint of irony or outrage in her telling. Rather, she observes their actions, words and thoughts with cool detachment, casting no judgment upon her characters even though that may seem the easy or logical thing to do. Coppola’s filmmaking is also admirably attentive to the details of their lives - including Nicki (Emma Watson) and adopted sister Sam’s (Taissa Farmiga) home-schooling by the former’s mother (Leslie Mann), shy new kid Mark’s (Israel Broussard) desire for acceptance from the exciting and beautiful Rebecca (Katie Chang), and most significantly the innate fear and hunger in every teenager to stand out from their peers.
Trusting her audience to make up their minds on their own, she offers more than enough for one to discern her characters’ lack of conscience and consciousness at what they are doing. Yes, one reason why these sociopaths prove so bewitching to watch is their utter naivety - not only do they take no precautions by wearing any face masks or gloves, their post-spree ritual consists of heading off to some expensive nightclub with their stolen ‘bling’ on and around them and posting tons of photos on Facebook and Twitter.
Careful also never to revel or endorse the sort of lifestyle they represent, Coppola however aims to evoke an aesthetic in her filming which epitomises that which her characters seek for in their nocturnal pursuits - in particular, a near-wordless scene filmed by the late cinematographer Harris Savides has us watching from a distance while Rebecca and Mark burglar a hillside home set against the Los Angeles Basin, projecting a sensual attraction much like a bejewelled palace that her protagonists must have felt. There will certainly be those who disagree, but Coppola’s style ultimately makes them teenagers more relatable - precisely because we realise for ourselves how easily it is to get caught up in the pursuit for beauty and fame.
That visual panache isn’t all the movie has going for it; Coppola also gets sterling performances from her teenage cast. All eyes will likely be on Emma Watson, who post-Hermoine proves that she can as easily slip into another decisively different role which requires her to be the exact opposite of who she was in ‘Harry Potter’. But we surmise that the real standout here will be Katie Chang - arguably the ringleader of the group and perhaps the most brazen of the lot - and with poise and beauty, it’s mesmering to see how she manipulates Mark to do her bidding.
Like we said at the start, ‘The Bling Ring’ will certainly be as divisive as the rest of Coppola’s works. Perhaps more than before, there will be detractors who chide the movie for being just as vacuous as the characters in them; and yet, below its sleek shiny surface lies a certain integrity Coppola adopts in her filmmaking that is worthy of praise and admiration. Right till the very end, she sticks to playing it as it is, offering little comfort to those who indulge in the same materialism as her characters or those who decry it; yet this chronicle of American culture gone wrong is magnetic all the way through, a riveting watch that we enjoyed immensely.
Movie Rating:
(Confounding expectations of satire or critique, Sofia Coppola's beautifully observed chronicle of fame and materialism gone haywire is unexpectedly sexy, magnetic and evocative)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Action/Romance
Director: Shinsuke Sato
Cast: Nana Eikura, Junichi Okada, Kei Tanaka, Sota Fukushi, Chiaki Kuriyama, Kazuma Suzuki, Koji Ishizaka, Jun Hashimoto, Naomi Nishida
RunTime: 2 hrs 8 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Violence)
Released By: Encore Films & Filmgarde
Official Website: http://www.encorefilms.com/librarywars
Opening Day: 12 September 2013
Synopsis: In 2019, public anger at media excess has led to censorship of television, newspapers, the internet, books, movies, and music under the ‘Media Betterment Act’. To fight the armed ‘Betterment Squads’ that go around destroying objectionable materials, the nation’s libraries have formed their own para-military ‘Library Defense’. Iku Kasahara (Nana Eikura) is a new recruit to the corps, where her instructor and squad leader is Atsushi Dojo (Junichi Okada). At first repelled by his by-the-book approach to leadership, she is gradually won over by his commitment to their battle for ‘books’ and ‘the freedom to know.’
Movie Review:
The Library Wars is based on a light novel series which espouse on the Statement on Intellectual Freedom in Libraries that went into effect in Japan in 1954. The Library Defense Squad, acting on the declarations made on the statement, is a product of the reaction towards the Media Betterment Act (MBA) law passed in 1989 which allows censorship of any media that deemed to be harmful. In introducing this to the audience, Library Wars took an approach similar to Fahrenheit 9/11, where past news coverage on the reaction towards the passing of the law has been cut and linked up.
In year 2019, the 30th year since the law was passed in 1989, the fight for the freedom in libraries still rages on. Rookie Iku Kasahara (Nana Eikura) joins the Library Defense military squad, bringing along her ideals which were built on an experience she had with a mysterious man from the Library Defense Squad who protected her book which was about to be confiscated by the Betterment Squad five years ago. Her hot bloodedness and ideals were faced with ridicule from her squad leader, Atsushi Dojo (Junichi Okada). Amidst the blunders and joke that happened between these two, the real war begins as a private library that the Betterment Squad has always wanted to destroy, is to be handed over to the Library Defense.
The Library Wars’ imagination of the Betterment Squad can be said to be likened to Orwell’s idea of the ‘thought police’, who goes to the extent of using sheer terror and violence to achieve their motives to regulate public discourse. In the Library Defense team’s bid to protect the library, they even risk up their lives to engage in full armed battles with the Betterment Squad. Needless to say, there were many gun fights and also close combat scenes. These were well worked and captured by director Shinsuke Sato, who was also the director the action-packed sci-fi movie, Gantz.
The action was strongly supported by lead actor Junichi Okada, who is more than just a pretty chiseled face; he has martial arts certification for Jeet Kune Do and Kali, and uses no stuntman! His speed and agility is admirable and he is most adept with close combat scenes. The good mix of action and drama was definitely a plus point for the movie.
However, the later part of the movie lacked a bit of focus. It attempted to put the fight for freedom into attention, but it also tried to focus on the relationship development between Dojo and Kasahara. As you might have expected, the pair who were at loggerheads eventually developed a soft spot for each other. What began as a majestic ideal to fight for freedom in libraries also lost a little of its meaning when it became primarily motivated by the want to protect Kasahara.
Overall, the movie was quite well- balanced and engaging. The spirit to protect and fight for the freedom of information and expression in Library Wars is also very relatable to Singaporeans. Just this June, the government’s decision on imposing regulations for online media (which is taken to be an attempt to limit public discourse) sparked similar opposition reaction such as the organized online black out, ‘Free My Internet’. The want to protect our liberty and freedom is undeniably embedded in the human race, regardless of both time and space.
Movie Rating:
(“When the freedom of libraries is imperiled, we librarians will work together and devote ourselves to secure the freedom.” – free our libraries, free our society, free our thoughts!)
Review by Tho Shu Ling
Genre: Comedy
Director: Satoshi Miki
Cast: Kazuya Kamenashi, Yuki Uchida
RunTime: 2 hrs 9 mins
Rating: PG13 (Brief Nudity)
Released By: Encore Films
Official Website: http://www.encorefilms.com/itsme/
Opening Day: 24 October 2013
Synopsis: A casual scam triggers a surreal series of events, which turns everyone into “ME,” who eventually turns on each other. Hitoshi, who is at first disoriented in the world that is inhabited by so many Hitoshis, yet unexpectedly finds the uncomplicated relationships among “himselves” quite comfortable.
Movie Review:
Ever thought that there is too little time and too much to do? What if there are more copies of ‘yourself’?
‘It’s Me It’s Me’ is a movie adapted from an award winning Japanese novel of the same name centering the protagonist Hitoshi (played by Kamenashi Kazuya). Hitoshi, a failed photographer turned electronic sales assistant wanted a break out of his mundane life. It took a drastic change from when he picked up a phone from a fast food restaurant. What at first appeared to be a harmless phone scam turned out to be disastrous in many sense. Copies of Hiroshi began to show up and began to threaten the existence of the ‘original’ Hiroshi…
Directed by veteran variety program director Miki Satoshi, ‘It’s Me It’s Me’ is slightly offbeat the usual comedy that we see. Instead, it is touted as a ‘suspenseful comedy’ in the movie’s Japanese catch copy. Definitely living up to that, the movie hooks the viewer in suspense as the purpose and identities of the copies of Hitoshi began to complicate and make a mess out of his life. At the same time, it maintains the comedy from drawing comparisons of the distinctly different yet similar copies of Hiroshi.
Undoubtedly, the greatest draw of the movie is to watch how an actor transform into 33 characters but retain the ‘original’. It is probably one of the most challenging roles Kamenashi Kazuya has till date, and it was truly impressive to see how he manages to bring out the ‘sameness’ of the characters but was also able to work on the intricacy of the characters to bring out the distinct differences in look and behavior. In particular, the scene where the ‘triplets’ met up at a small apartment was exceptionally impressionable. The director worked this scene nicely to put all focus on the ‘Hitoshis’, where one can observe clearly Hitoshis’ way of eating and their small habits. They were totally in sync and worked to perfection owing to the efforts of both the director and actor.
Supporting actor Kase Ryo also proved to be one of the most versatile actors around through this movie. Whether it is taking on a more emotional character from Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) or the hot headed policeman in SPEC (2012), or the self-absorbed head of department in ‘It’s Me It’s Me’, Ryo seemed to deliver convincing performance of these roles effortlessly. His support role in this movie was definitely a value-add entertainment wise.
‘It’s Me It’s Me’ is nothing short of surprises; an unorthodox modern fantasy. It gives a great room for imagination for the viewers which can be intriguing to some but frustrating for others. It also took an unusual approach to explore the theme on personal identityand puts one to thinking which is the ‘real me’? Is it how people see me or how I believe myself to be? In trying to arrive at a conclusion, it’s a pity that the movie got slightly rushed towards the end. Nonetheless, it was a fairly good resolution albeit a different one from the original novel.
Movie Rating:
(One of a kind suspense comedy that grapples with the theme of personal identity. Which is the real ‘me’?)
Review by Tho Shu Ling
Genre: Drama/Comedy
Director: Craig Zisk
Cast: Julianne Moore, Michael Angarano, Greg Kinnear, Lily Collins, Nathan Lane, Nikki Blonsky, Sophie Curtis
RunTime: 1 hr 31 mins
Rating: NC16 (Some Sexual Scenes and Coarse Language)
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website: http://englishteachermovie.com/
Opening Day: 12 September 2013
Synopsis: Linda Sinclair (Julianne Moore) is a 40-year-old unmarried high school English teacher in the small town of Kingston, PA. Her simple life turns an unexpected page when former student Jason Sherwood (Michael Angarano) returns home after trying to make it as a playwright in New York. On the verge of abandoning art and pressured by his father (Greg Kinnear), to face reality and go to law school, Linda decides to mount his play—a dark, angst-ridden, ambitious work—as a Kingston High production, with flamboyant drama teacher Carl Kapinas (Nathan Lane) directing. Now well out of her comfort zone, Linda takes further risks in life and love, the stage is set for a highly comic downfall. With the play, her reputation, and teaching career on the line, Linda finds an unlikely ally in herself. Amidst the ruins of her formerly perfect life, can she find a way to her own unique storybook ending? …
Movie Review:
With a title as nondescript as ‘The English Teacher’, we can fully understand why you might not be sure just what sort of movie sitcom veteran Craig Zisk’s feature filmmaking debut actually is. Indeed, we were quite equally clueless, and had even assumed a serious drama thanks to acclaimed actress Julianne Moore receiving top billing in the titular role, so imagine our surprise when we realised that this is in fact a comedy - and not just that, a screwball comedy to be exact.
Yes, you’ve heard us right, this is in fact a comedy about a stereotypical high-school English educator whose structured life falls apart when she falls for a former student-turned-playwright. As played by Moore, Linda Sinclair is a 45-year-old single lady that has no luck in guys (a mildly amusing montage of her dating experience sees her giving a failing grade to each one of her potential suitors) and is therefore driven by one singular purpose in life - to share her love of the English language in the classroom with her students and in the process inspire them to greatness.
One particular student she used to be very proud of is Jason (Michael Angarano), a failing playwright who has since moved back to her sleepy Pennsylvania town after failing to gain any traction in New York City. Motivated by personal reasons not to see the flame of his passion extinguished by his dad (Greg Kinnear) keen to see him get a degree in law, she persuades him to let her read his unproduced play and is so transfixed in it that she shows it to the school’s drama teacher Carl (Nathan Lane). Equally impressed, they make a case to the principal and vice-principal (Broadway regulars Jessica Hecht and Norbert Leo Butz) to stage it as the school’s annual theatrical, but the pair is less convinced due to the darker themes within and a double suicide of an ending.
Nonetheless, they eventually acquiesce to not staging ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ for a fifth time, and with that victory, husband-and-wife screenwriters Dan and Stacy Chariton quickly set up the major conflict that precipitates the chain of events after. On a spur of passion, Linda and Jason have sex in a classroom, that consummation unravelling her world as she takes it upon herself to defend Jason from his domineering father and use her personal savings to finance every single indulgence of Carl’s production. But most significantly, she goes intensely jealous of Jason’s subsequent attraction to the lead actress Halle (Lily Collins), even going to the extent of threatening her.
Suffice to say that it doesn’t go well for Linda- and the same in fact can be said of the movie, which begins to get more and more implausible. Missing the opportunity for satire or even dark comedy (think Alexander Payne’s ‘Election’), this one instead hits a farcical tone that renders the entire exercise so insignificant it might as well be fluff. Unfortunately, Zisk’s smallscreen experience in ‘Weeds’ and ‘The Larry Sanders Show’ works against him here, as he directs the proceedings in sitcom-like fashion, so much so that little of what happens following Laura’s indiscretion hits a genuine note.
But the fault isn’t Zisk’s alone; the writing vacillates between upper middle-brow references to Charles Dickens, Stephen Sondheim and even Japanese noh style to lowbrow material like backroom dalliances and petty jealousies. Despite the occasional witty lines, it is unclear just who this comedy is meant to appeal to, and the end result is too frivolous to appeal to a serious-minded audience and too mild to delight a mainstream-skewing audience. That’s a pity, since the always excellent Moore does demonstrate some wonderful comic timing - though not even her kooky turn can quite save this from anything more than a failing grade.
And so its unremarkable title ultimately reveals a much more fundamental problem at the heart of this comedy-drama - so determined is it to be different and quirky that it has forgotten to ensure that it doesn’t end up being a farce. That it eventually does makes it utterly lightweight when it could have been much more, and makes this one lesson you won’t lose anything if you skip it entirely.
Movie Rating:
(A seriocomedic farce masquerading as respectable arthouse fare, this "English Teacher" barely makes it past a passing grade)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Nicolás López
Cast: Eli Roth, Ariel Levy, Andrea Osvárt, Natasha Yarovenko, Nicolás Martínez, Lorenza Izzo
RunTime: 1 hr 29 mins
Rating: M18 (Violence & Sexual Violence)
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website:
Opening Day: 12 September 2013
Synopsis: Chile has it all: gorgeous landscapes, smokin’ hot women, cool dudes, great wine, and the wildest parties. For a hapless American tourist, nicknamed Gringo by his two Chilean pals Ariel and Pollo, the trip has been heaven on earth — except that he just can’t hook up with the ladies. Gringo’s luck seems to change when the group meets a trio of babes who agree to accompany them on a trip to the coastal town of Valparaíso. The new friends are having the best of times whooping it up in a dance club, until a violent earthquake brings the entire city down around them. With this one-time paradise now a landscape of death and destruction that’s seething with terror and panic, our unlucky heroes must run for their lives from looters, escaped convicts, and the inevitable aftershocks.
Movie Review:
Continuing with his perennial theme of young, often spoiled, American vacationers getting caught up with nasty stuff during their exotic vacations overseas, Eli Roth heads to the coastal city of Valparaiso, Chile, to pose as the “Gringo” caught up in the bowels of the city’s filth when a massive earthquake and several huge aftershocks bring out the worst in the people there. Indeed, though the first half hour might entice you to go visit the city for its picturesque beauty, we’re pretty sure that rosy feeling will be gone by the end of the movie.
At least the Chilean authorities will probably be happy with Nicolás López’s unnecessary preamble, which is altogether an all-too-long introduction to Roth’s divorced lawyer with a daughter and his two Chilean pals, Ariel (Ariel Levy) and Pollo (Nicolas Martinez). Gringo likes the vineyards, but his pals prefer the night life, and so most of what we end up learning about them revolves around their hunt for women around clubs and parties. By the time the quake actually hits, they would have made the acquaintance of a pair of Hungarian sisters - the wild Kylie (Lorenza Izzo) and her more cautious sister, Monica (Andrea Osvart) - and a Russian model Irina (Natasha Yarovenko).
Unfortunately for us, “Gringo”, Ariel and Pollo are no Wolf-pack (a la “The Hangover”), so listening to them banter ain’t particularly enjoyable or for that matter interesting. In fact, the dialogue and situations in López and Guillermo Amoedo’s screenplay are pretty banal, so much so that even at a brief 89 minutes, the movie threatens to outstay its welcome by its first third. To make matters worse, the subsequent hour hardly makes the frustrating wait worthwhile.
If it had seemed at that point strange why Roth would be the brains behind such a tame exercise, then what follows after will certainly put to rest those doubts that the filmmaker has yet to abandon his “Hostel” tendencies. The first quake strikes when “Gringo” and his friends are at an underground club, and as revellers are impaled, dismembered and trampled during the melee, it becomes clear that López and Roth share the same wavelength as filmmakers. Oh, did we mention, Ariel has his hand severed while helping an injured woman, and the desperate search for his severed hand is mined for some low comedy?
It doesn’t get better once they get out. A tsunami warning sounds, and the rickety old cable cart they put Ariel on to get him to safer higher ground snaps and crashes on the way up. There are looters on rampage on the streets and prisoners on the loose. Run, hide, dodge, rinse, repeat - that seems to be the formula López happily adopts, and other than staging a vast array of grisly deaths, the filmmaker doesn’t seem to pay much attention to the other aspects of moviemaking like continuity or pacing.
Indeed, López doesn’t care much about his characters once the mayhem begins, and genre fans might have some fun confounding their own expectations about who lives, who dies and who dies when. But that cavalier attitude arguably makes the first half-hour slog even more annoying - after all, why bother to waste our time indulging in these characters when each one is in fact as disposable and dispensable as the next? Yes, we might as well also warn you at this time not to expect a happy ending for any one of them, for López has no intentions of sparing even the last man - or for that matter, woman.
What he has intended however is deliver a B-grade splatter-fest in the guise of a disaster movie, and only in terms of genre mixups and twisting the usual conventions does ‘Aftershock’ seem to have a point. Otherwise, it is hardly clever, not quite engaging, and only mildly gore-rrifying, and on the Richter scale, too mild to ultimately leave a lasting impression.
Movie Rating:
(A lot of gore in a pretty bad disaster movie - if that’s your thing, ‘Aftershock’ might still rock your world; otherwise, don’t bother)
Review by Gabriel Chong
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LAST SUMMER Cast InterviewsPosted on 27 Aug 2013 |
Genre: Comedy/Romance
Director: Dennie Gordon
Cast: Zhang Ziyi, Wang Lee Hom, Yao Chen, Ruby Lin, Ada Choi
RunTime: 1 hr 53 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Coarse Language)
Released By: Shaw and Scorpio East Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 19 September 2013
Synopsis: Sophie is back and this time she’s going cosmo. From her stomping grounds in Beijing to tropical high-tech Singapore to the outback fishing villages of Hong Kong to a stunning gondola finale in the mazes of Venetian Macao’s canals, “My Lucky Star” is raising the bar on love and adventure in this new extravagant comedy. Going nowhere in love and stuck in life as a lowly travel agent, Sophie finds escape in her own comic book creations. Winning the office contest for a prize trip to Singapore suddenly turns her life upside in the best way possible, as she meets there the man of her dreams: David, the handsome super-spy from her own comics. Their dalliance takes place at the spectacular Marina Bay Sands SkyPark infinity pool, amid their search for the billion-dollar jewel, the “Lucky Star Diamond,” a gem capable of destroying the world, one country at a time.
Movie Review:
‘Sophie’s Revenge’ was one of the pioneers of Mainland Chinese cinema’s recent obsession with Hollywood-styled rom-coms, its success at the box-office no doubt paving the way for countless others for better and for worse. Unfortunately, this quasi-sequel that sees Zhang Ziyi reprising a similar role as a gifted comic book artist belongs in the latter category, and not even having American director Dennie Gordon at the helm manages to save this spy comedy from its own tedium.
Still out of luck at love, Sophie clocks her days as a telephone receptionist at a travel agency in Beijing, while dreaming of being whisked off by a Chinese 007 on an exciting adventure which she indulges in the comics she draws at home and at work. The setup is lively and energetic, with Gordon switching effortlessly between live-action and animation to show how the scenarios in Sophie’s comics are in fact her own wildest dreams; there is also a generous use of split screens, especially when she contrasts Sophie’s sad predicament with that of her two best friends and her bitchy rival Cici (Ada Choi in a pointless cameo).
But just as you thought the filmmakers might be aiming for some quirky fun in the same vein as its predecessor, their much less noble intentions come to light. Out of the blue, Sophie wins a ticket to Singapore to get away from the mundane realities of her everyday life; just as conveniently, some precious diamond that is also a crucial component of some weapon of mass destruction goes missing in London, leaving some unnamed spy agency to send David Yan (Wang Lee Hom) in pursuit. The place of exchange? Singapore. Well they must not have heard about our tough laws here; otherwise, they might consider some other Southeast Asian country.
If you aren’t aware, our own Marina Bay Sands is one of the big corporate sponsors of this movie, and so where else do Sophie and David find themselves but here in our very own MBS hotel? As the tired cliché goes, Sophie is immediately smitten by David and owing to her infatuation, does every little darn thing to get close to him, inadvertently foiling his plans to stop the diamond from falling into the hands of international assassin Mr Gao (Taiwanese go-to baddie Jack Kao) and his employer Black Widow (Chen Yao, who also happens to be a ‘Sophie’s Revenge’ alum).
Besides a key sequence that unfolds within the compounds of MBS’ Ku De Ta, Sophie and David also get to sell the sights of MBS from the lobby, within a suite facing the Bay and most significantly within the Infinity Pool on the 57th floor. A job well done for their Marketing Comms no doubt, but where does that leave us viewers? Well, pretty much empty. Aside from admiring the beauty of our Bay area at night (and spotting local actor Benjamin Heng in a cameo as a bartender), there’s no disguising the fact that neither of the four writers involved - Amy Snow, Chris Chow, Hai Huang, and Yao Meng - care about spinning a credible plot to string together the promotional shots.
That same nonchalance pretty much carries on throughout the movie, which ditches Singapore midway for Hong Kong before culminating in a bloated climax set in Macau’s The Venetian. The former pit stop sees an utterly cringe-worthy interlude set on board a floating home that Aberdeen is famous for, just so Sophie and David can deepen their feelings for each other and the latter can teach the former kung fu before sending her out as a covert operative to infiltrate an exclusive nightclub. The latter is equally inane, unless you count the sight of Zhang Ziyi steering a gondola in the Venetian your idea of fun.
It’s not so much that the entire movie is episodic in nature, but rather the fact that these episodes that are meant to be the highlights of the whole aren’t particularly funny, inventive or entertaining. That means, despite some visual trickery (the shots do change pretty quickly throughout the entire movie), you’ll hardly find yourself engaged in the slapstick shenanigans that Gordon tries to unfold at a breakneck pace. Rather, you’ll probably be thinking just how much them brands paid to be on the screen with such prominence - besides MBS and Venetian, we count Lenovo and Bvlgari.
Not even the combined star power of Zhang Ziyi and Wang Lee Hom can rescue the movie from its doldrums. It may have been refreshing to see Ziyi shed her icy image as Sophie the first time round, but that novelty wears out too quickly here, and one soon realises that she lacks the comic expressiveness to shine in such a screwball comedic role. Lee Hom does exactly what he is called to do, that is, look dapper and suave as a secret agent and the object of Ziyi’s affections. Sadly, they share little chemistry with each other, coming off almost as if they were too caught up playing their respective parts.
Despite its title, there are no lucky stars to be found here - neither Ziyi (who also produces the movie, Lee Hom or Gordon gets any favours being involved with this thinly plotted, poorly imagined and shoddily executed excuse of a movie. Indeed, it is no more than a vehicle for numerous product placements and corporate sponsorships, they perhaps the only lucky ones to give themselves a pat on the back for getting their brand names up in the movie. Otherwise, whether by the standards of a rom-com or a spoof of the spy genre, this Star hardly shines.
Movie Rating:
(A collective vehicle for product placements and corporate sponsorships masquerading as a movie, this spy spoof is a gem only if you're Marina Bay Sands, the Venetian, Lenovo or Bvlgari)
Review by Gabriel Chong
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