Genre: Drama
Director: Nick Cassavetes
Cast: Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Kate Upton, Taylor Kinney, Nicki Minaj
RunTime: 1 hr 49 mins
Rating: PG13 (Sexual References and Coarse Language)
Released By: 20th Century Fox
Official Website:
Opening Day: 17 April 2014
Synopsis: Carly (Cameron Diaz) discovers her new boyfriend Mark (Game of Thrones' Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is a fraud – and worse – when she accidentally meets his wife, Kate (Leslie Mann). Carly suddenly finds herself comforting Kate, and their unlikely friendship solidifies when they realize that Mark is cheating on both of them with yet another “other woman,” Amber (Kate Upton). The three women join forces plotting an outrageous plan for revenge.
Movie Review:
Female-centric comedies seem to be the hottest properties on the Hollywood studio lot after the unexpected success of ‘Bridesmaids’ and ‘The Heat’, and ‘The Other Woman’ is yet another example of one such high-concept movie. Beginning with Cameron Diaz’s high-powered New York lawyer Carly, it moves on to introduce Leslie Mann’s Connecticut-based homemaker Kate and finally ‘Sports Illustrated’ cover girl Kate Upton’s busty bombshell Amber as three women who are played by the same guy, Mark (Nikolai Coster-Waldau), and subsequently team up to get revenge on their cheating husband/ boyfriend.
As the billing on the poster should tell you, the focus of newcomer Melissa Stack’s screenplay is all on the women, and if you’ve seen ‘The First Wives Club’ starring Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler, this is pretty much a spiritual companion but raunchier. Except for the sight of Upton in a tiny white bikini running slo-mo along the beach, this chick flick revenge comedy is squarely for the ladies, so just as how frat-boy comedies make some female audiences squirm, we suspect some male members of the audience may similarly find themselves more than a little uncomfortable with the display of ‘Girl Power’ on screen.
But hey, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, though to be fair, getting back isn’t the first instinctive reaction the women in this movie jump at. Instead, a good part of the first half plays as female bonding as Carly becomes an unlikely confidante to Kate. Yes, whereas the conventional Hollywood comedy would have the wife going at the mistress, this one turns that cliché on its head by having the two develop an unlikely friendship over tequila shots, designer dress-ups and stay-overs - although to be fair, Carly didn’t actually know that the man that she had been dating, falling in love, and having sex with was married.
Nick Cassavates of ‘The Notebook’ is at the helm here, his first at a chick flick or rom-com for that matter, and he tries to balance the dialogue-heavy first half with some bits of physical comedy mostly from Mann’s needy, clingy and slightly neurotic routine. From the moment she turns up unexpected at Diaz’s office, Mann dials up the klutziness, with her Great Dane in tow further adding to the moments of comic relief. But look past these obvious attempts at humour and you’ll find a much more poignant emotional core - in Mann’s character, we see a loving wife who has centred her life upon that of her husband and the pain that the discovery of his infidelity brings; while through Diaz, we see a single woman cast alone from the lies of her partner.
Diaz and Mann have great chemistry with each other, and it shows in every scene that they share together. While the two women may seem opposites at the start, there is something absolutely complementary in Diaz’s hard-boiled chick act and Mann’s ditzy getup that makes for a particularly interesting, lively, and ultimately heartfelt exchange. The credit for that is also Stack’s, whose first produced work is sharper and more perceptive than the usual Hollywood shtick. And Cassavates holds it all together by ensuring that his actors never overplay their respective dilemmas, instead keeping their emotions grounded in some form of reality.
Things however resolve themselves along a much more conventional Hollywood route with the entry of Kate’s smouldering brother Phil (Taylor Kinney) whom Carly immediately sparks to, as well as Amber who is called on to be little else than a bimbo in the movie. By the time it becomes clear that Mark is also a swindler who has been using his wife’s name to run some sham in the Bahamas, you know that his comeuppance will come in some easy crowd-pleasing manner. Indeed, Cassavates doesn’t bother to find any decency in Mark, and that bias while certainly spun out of narrative convenience robs the movie of being and saying something more about love and the marriage.
Whether because it doesn’t aspire to or whether it has tried but fails to do so is not clear, though ‘The Other Woman’ doesn’t offer the same kind of big laughs which ‘Bridesmaids’ and ‘The Heat’ do. There is physical comedy all right, but these don’t go far beyond the usual pratfalls and routines which Hollywood comedies oft resort to; rather, this chick flick works better at portraying its message of female empowerment, of taking charge of one’s life, of making life-changing decisions and of standing up on one’s own feet no matter how tough it may be. As written by a woman, this brand of modern-day feminism isn’t exactly new, but it is still refreshing to watch.
Movie Rating:
(Not your conventional Hollywood rom-com, this chick flick revenge comedy built on a message of female empowerment coasts on the energy and chemistry of its female stars)
Review by Gabriel Chong
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SIR RUN RUN SHAW (1907 - 2014)Posted on 07 Jan 2014 |
Genre: Drama
Director: John Wells
Cast: Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Abigail Breslin, Juliette Lewis, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dermot Mulroney, Chris Cooper, Julianne Nicholson, Margo Martindale, Sam Shepard, Misty Upham
RunTime: 2 hrs 10 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Coarse Language & Some Drug Use)
Released By: GV
Official Website: http://augustosagecountyfilm.com
Opening Day: 23 January 2014
Synopsis: The story of the strong-willed women of the Weston family, whose lives have diverged until a family crisis brings them back to the Midwest house they grew up in, and to the dysfunctional woman who raised them.
Movie Review:
One cannot help but feel that perhaps Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning drama of family dysfunction may be better off being performed on stage and not brought to life on screen.
Don’t get me wrong. The cast turns in a fantastic performance. In the hands of lesser actors, this movie would have been a melodrama with characters that either are too theatrical or just plain.
Meryl Streep’s Violet Weston is a tour de force. Streep succeeds in showing the vulnerability of an imposing matriarch who spews venom at her own family and puts them down so as to demonstrate that she has some form of control in her life even as she is succumbs to mouth cancer and her addiction to painkillers. It is difficult to pity such a vicious woman who is impossible to live with yet it is also difficult to hate this woman who has led such a tough childhood.
While Julia Roberts turns in a commendable performance as Barbara, Violet’s most bitter daughter, it is Julianne Nicholson’s , Benedict Cumberbatch’s and Chris Cooper’s nuanced performances that impressed.
As the daughter who is finally flying the coop and living for herself, Nicholson brings out Ivy’s suppressed personality through little moments such as a shy smile at her awkward, clumsy yet endearing boyfriend/cousin, Little Charlie (Benedict Cumberbatch). A lesser actress would likely have played Ivy as a weak wallflower. Cooper also turns in a touching performance as Charles, the reliable rock in Little Charlie’s life and the only other person who sees Little Charlie as a person and just as “that loser”. The fact that they are probably the nicest and most sane people in the entire movie makes the bombshell that falls upon them all the sadder.
Venom and sadness aside, there are moments of caustic humour delivered in witty lines such as when Ivy asks her mother, Violet if she ought to be smoking and Violet retorts, “Should anyone be smoking?” Don’t go in expecting anything light-hearted.
Movie Rating:
(Strong as this cast is, the theatrical nature of characters such as Violet and Barbara may be better suited to the stage rather than disturbingly tight close-ups of this movie)
Review by Katrina Tee
Genre: Action/Fantasy
Director: Noam Murro
Cast: Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green, Lena Headey, Rodrigo Santoro, Hans Matheson, Jamie Blackley, Jack O'Connell, Andrew Tiernan, Callan Mulvey, David Wenham, Mark Killeen
RunTime: 1 hr 43 mins
Rating: M18 (Violence and Sexual Scenes)
Released By: Warner Bros
Official Website: http://www.300themovie.com
Opening Day: 6 March 2014
Synopsis: Based on Frank Miller's latest graphic novel Xerxes, and told in the breathtaking visual style of the blockbuster "300," this new chapter of the epic saga takes the action to a fresh battlefield-on the sea-as Greek general Themistokles attempts to unite all of Greece by leading the charge that will change the course of the war. "300: Rise of an Empire" pits Themistokles against the massive invading Persian forces led by mortal-turned-god Xerxes, and Artemisia, vengeful commander of the Persian navy.
Movie Review:
‘300: Rise of an Empre’ isn’t a sequel in the strictest sense of the word; rather, seeing as how King Leonidas and his small but mighty band of Spartans all but perished under the sheer numbers of the Persian army led by Xerxes in the three-day Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C., this ‘side-sequel’ stands astride the events of the original film by taking place within the same concurrent period of time. Not to worry though - for those who can’t quite recall what happened the last time round, there is enough backstory to make up for the seven-year wait in between the two instalments.
Taking the place of Leonidas is the Greek general Themistocles (Australian actor Sullivan Stapleton), who in the extended prologue is seen shooting an arrow straight into the heart of the invading Persian King Darius (Igal Naor) in battle. King Darius happens to be the father of Xerxes, but more significantly, he also had a surrogate daughter in the Greek-born Artemisia (Eva Green). The young Artemisia had been sold into slavery after the massacre of her parents by invading Greeks, and was rescued on the brink of death by none other than King Darius himself.
Returning to script and produce but not to direct is Zack Synder, who together with his co-screenwriter Kurt Johnstad, lay out some relatively heavy exposition in the first half hour drawn again from a graphic novel by Frank Miller. Though one may get the impression from the name of that novel ‘Xerxes’ that the emphasis should be on the Persian god-king, the more intriguing character here - as well as that given significantly more screen time - is that of Artemisia. Indeed, it is Artemisia whose motivation for revenge inspires the same of the grief-stricken Xerxes, the latter of whom then undergoes a transformation from human to god-like complete with gold-dipped skin, multiple piercings and his unmistakable glistening chrome dome.
Turns out that Xerxes’ battle with King Leonidas was just one front of the Persian invasion of Greece; and since that story had already been told, this ‘side-sequel’ as we had described it earlier paints the other front in battle, one that takes place at sea between the two navies. Again, the Persians triumph in numbers, so the Greeks led by Themistocles employ some clever tactical manoeuvres to outwit the first two charges of the Persians, which Artemisia delegates to her generals to lead in order to observe - and test - the formidability of her opponent.
Taking over the directorial reins is the commercials ace Noam Murro, who stages the naval battles with plenty of visual flair. Each major sequence is different enough from the rest to offer real variety, and impresses not just with its sheer display of military might but also its detailing of Greco-Persian battle strategy - the last we have seen such an exciting combination of both was in John Woo’s ‘Red Cliff: Part Two’. Nonetheless, those hoping for a reprise of the blood-soaked violence in ‘300’ need not worry; there is still plenty of beheadings, skewerings, and sword slashes - though we might add that there is perhaps a gratuitous display of arterial sprayings which could really be toned down a little.
Much less successful however is Murro’s attempt to recreate the stylistics of Synder’s original. Try though he might of aping its predecessor’s mesmeric, affected visual presentation, Murro’s film ultimately looks less elegant, the use of slo-mo in particular coming off obligatory and even pretentious. Whereas Synder preferred artistic compositions, Murro here prefers to leave war looking grittier and messier, which stand sometimes in contrast to the beautifully rendered digital backgrounds inserted once again by CGI wizards. Not surprisingly then, it isn’t the man-on-man clashes that prove most spectacular this time round, but the swooping overhead shots of Greek ships going up against their clearly more daunting Persian armada.
While substituting Artemisia for Xerxes proves inspired, the same cannot be said of Themistocles for Leonidas. Not only does Themistocles come off bland compared to the macho-man heroics of Leonidas, Stapleton takes the role just too seriously, lacking in the charisma and self-awareness that Gerard Butler brought to his character. You’re more likely then to be transfixed by Green, who portrays Artemisia’s malevolence with scene-chewing glee. She knows exactly how to deliver each line of the intentionally stilted dialogue, adding just the right touch of vampiness to make them campily entertaining; nonetheless, it is very likely that one will remember the centrepiece sex scene between Themistocles and Artemisia where both take turns to prove themselves the ‘man’ in the ‘f**king’.
If it isn’t yet clear enough, Green is a big reason why this long-gestating sequel doesn’t come off unnecessary. Like we said at the beginning, ‘300’ isn’t the most straightforward movie to stage a sequel; and even though this hardly matches the poetic storytelling of the original, there are still plenty of scenes of glorious bloodletting if that is your thing. We prefer though the visual spectacle that the impressively staged naval standoffs offer, and of course the spectacle that is Green’s scene-stealing turn as a warrior queen. A word of caution too - don’t expect a neat ending, for the open-ended conclusion suggests that the filmmakers think there is still lots of potential in the Greeks’ eventual vanquishing of the Persians at Plataea and Mycale to continue the mythology of ‘300’.
Movie Rating:
(More blood and more slo-mo but done in slightly less artistic terms - this ‘side-sequel’ taking place alongside the original ‘300’ is better for Eva Green’s scene-chewing villainous turn than relatively unknown Sullivan Stapleton’s bland heroics)
Review by Gabriel Chong
If, by any stroke of luck, Joel and Ethan Coen came across this humble review, this writer would like to thank them for soothing his soul with their reflective film about a singer songwriter who struggles to find himself in 1960s New York. The soundtrack album produced by T Bone Burnett and the brothers is a godsend too, with its 42 minutes of folk music which has some miraculously calming effect.
Like the film, the album kicks off with the titular Llewyn Davis performing the mournful “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me”. Oscar Isaac, who plays the protagonist, croons the tune with so much melancholy, you can imagine yourself sitting in a smoky club listening to his woes. The tune that follows is “Fare Thee Well (Dink’s Song)”, Isaac’s duet with English musician Marcus Mumford, best known as the lead singer of the band Mumford & Sons.
One highlight on this highly recommended album is “Five Hundred Miles”, a familiar tune covered by the film’s stars Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan and Stark Sands. The comforting vocals of the performers, accompanied by the lovely guitar strums, will make the most stressed individual at ease. The wacky “Please Mr. Kennedy”, written by Ed Rush, George Cromarty, Burnett, Timberlake and the Coen brothers, is a creative piece of work that was unfortunately ruled out by the Academy in the Best Original Song category – no thanks to of the strict rules due to the connection to a 1961 song of the same name.
Isaac, who was born to a Cuban father and a Guatemalan mother, isn’t just an actor. The 33 year old is also a singer, having played lead guitar and sung vocals for his band The Blinking Underdogs during his days in Miami. It’s no wonder then, that he effortlessly performs the songs on this soundtrack. “Green, Green Rocky Road”, “The Death of Queen Jane” and “The Shoals of Herring” are just some of the tunes which you’ll fall in love with.
This soundtrack will grow on you, and will have you putting it on repeat mode – simply because one can always rely on music to find solace in life.
ALBUM RATING:
Recommended Track: (1) Hang Me, Oh Hang Me
Review by John Li
Genre: Drama
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Tom Holland, Anna Chancellor, George McKay, Corey Johnson
RunTime: 1 hr 41 mins
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scene)
Released By: MVP and GV
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/HowILiveNow
Opening Day: 23 January 2014
Synopsis: Set in the near-future UK, Ronan plays Daisy, an American teenager sent to stay with relatives in the English countryside. Initially withdrawn and alienated, she begins to warm up to her charming surroundings, and strikes up a romance with the handsome Edmund (George MacKay). But on the fringes of their idyllic summer days are tense news reports of an escalating conflict in Europe. As the UK falls into a violent, chaotic military state, Daisy finds herself hiding and fighting to survive.
Movie Review:
Yet another adaptation of a YA novel, ‘How I Live Now’ is Meg Rosoff’s 2004 novel of an attitudinal American adolescent named Daisy (played by Saoirse Ronan) who arrives in the U.K. to stay at a distant cousin’s house in the English countryside and is forced into post-apocalyptic survival mode when a nuclear device devastates London. Given its target audience, there is of course a love story thrown in, in this case between Daisy and her stalwart handsome cousin Edmond (George McKay) with whom she falls in love with just before the outbreak of what we hear is compared to World War III.
Whether due to budgetary constraints or as a pure artistic choice, the depiction of such a cataclysmic geopolitical event is uncharacteristically muted. So we hear the news reports on TV, we see the ash raining down from the sky, we see even the soldiers in their chemical suits forcing the evacuation of Daisy and her cousins into refugee camps, and finally we witness the brutality of some paramilitary force that’s supposedly part of the ‘bad guys’, but really at no point during the movie do we get a real sense of the danger and urgency of the situation.
We’re not familiar with the book, but it seems in adapting Rosoff’s novel, director Kevin MacDonald’s regular screenwriting companion Jeremy Brock has retained the intimate - and we might add, excessively narrow - scope that places its focus on one thing and one thing alone, Daisy. That might be palatable if Daisy were a more compelling character, but as it is, she is no more than a disagreeable brat of a teenager who hides her vulnerability behind bleached-out bangs and coal-black eyeliner - and oh, the fact that she is also anoxeric and germophobic doesn’t exactly garner much additional sympathy.
Indeed, the first half hour of the movie only emphasises her petulant behaviour, throwing tantrums around the house she shares with the enthusiastic 14-year-old Isaac (Tom Holland) and a much younger Piper (Harley Bird) except when Edmond is around. Nuclear winter hits and the kids are forced to move into a barn deep into the woods on their own - their mom (Anna Chancellor) is nowhere to be seen after the bomb - until the army comes and sends them packing into gender segregated camps.
Even at this stage, there feels little peril, and one could easily pass off the camps as evacuation centres following some natural disaster. A brief skirmish in the woods with some members of a paramiliary group lets MacDonald engage in some display of graphic violence akin to his most respectable work yet, ‘The Last King of Scotland’, but otherwise the images of genocide and body-bagged corpses seem scattershot and obligatory. Daisy’s subsequent trek through the woods with Piper to return to the barn also feels tedious, chiefly because there is little dynamic that Daisy - caught up most of the time in her self-absorbed world with her own thoughts in voiceover no less - shares with Piper.
Worse still, Ronan’s performance hardly draws you into her character. Gradually typecast in such roles (remember Stephanie Meyer’s ‘The Host’?), Ronan’s previous screen incarnations have proven that she is better at playing a Katniss Everdeen-styled heroine than a teenager caught in the throes of passionate love; unfortunately, she is called upon to do a lot of the latter here and given very few opportunities to play the former. The other teenage members of the cast barely register too, but that is also because the film trains its focus on Daisy and little else.
Like we said, that isn’t a problem in and of itself, but such a character study that is presumably intended to portray the confusion and terror of adolescents caught in events beyond their understanding and control requires a much stronger emotional and moral centre. Vacillating between a teenage romance and a wartime survival story does little favours, especially since the two parts remain distinct. And because it lacks consistency and a clear vision of what exactly it wants to be, this dystopic teen romance meanders and bores, hardly the kind of science fiction you want to be bothered with now or any time in the near future.
Movie Rating:
(Neither a fully-fleshed apocalyptic thriller nor a moving teenage romance, this YA adaptation is not likely to satisfy its teenage demographic nor win many adult fans as well)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Drama/Comedy
Director: Alexander Payne
Cast: Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb, Bob Odenkirk, Stacy Keach
RunTime: 1 hr 55 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Some Coarse Language)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: http://www.nebraskamovie.com/index_splash.php
Opening Day: 27 February 2014
Synopsis: In Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska” a father and son steer the American road comedy into a vanishing Midwest on the trail of a dubious fortune – and in search of an understanding of each other that once seemed impossible. This is the story of the Grant family of Hawthorne, Nebraska. Now transplanted to Billings, Montana, stubborn, taciturn Woody (Bruce Dern in a role that won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival) is well past his prime -- such as it ever was -- and possibly his usefulness, but he believes he’s got one last shot at mattering: a notice that he’s the lucky winner of a million-dollar sweepstakes. To claim his fortune, Woody insists he must quickly get to the sweepstakes company’s office in Lincoln, Nebraska – a 750-mile journey that seems unlikely given that he can barely shuffle down the road a few blocks, at least not without stopping for a drink. Worried for his father’s state of mind, it falls to Woody’s reluctant, baffled son David (Will Forte) to accompany him on a trip that seems hilariously futile on the surface. Yet, their odd journey becomes a kind of modern family odyssey. When Woody and David make a pit-stop in their hometown of Hawthorne – with the Grant’s tart-tongued matriarch (June Squibb, “About Schmidt”) and anchor-man son (Bob Odenkirk, “Breaking Bad”) joining them – word of Woody’s fortune makes him, momentarily, a returning hero. Then it brings out the vultures. But it also opens a view into the unseen lives of David’s parents and a past more alive than he ever imagined. Shot in a black and white Cinemascope that mirrors the dusky beauty of small-town USA and the film’s high contrasts of humor and heartbreak, the film gives comic consideration to questions of family roots and family riddles, delusion and dignity, self-worth and the quiet yearning for a dash of salvation.
Movie Review:
This writer wasn’t exactly sure he would be comfortable watching Alexander Payne’s latest work. Nope, in case you are wondering, this 115 minute film isn’t a horror flick. Neither is it slapped with a “Disturbing Scenes” consumer advice from our friends at the regulatory board. It’s just that, at this columnist’s age, it’s about time he come to terms with certain issues in his life, and some things may, well, to put it simply, be a little too close to heart.
You see, Payne’s film puts an ageing, near senile father in the spotlight. Alongside him is an estranged son who hasn’t made it big (by society’s standards, at least) in life. The alcoholic father receives a coupon which has him believing that he is going to win a million dollar mega sweepstakes marketing prize. Thing is, he has to travel all the way from Montanato Nebraska (we aren’t exactly sure how far away it is, but let’s just say by local standards, it’s not a MRT ride away) to claim it. So, we have the father and son duo on a road trip, in glourious black and white, no less.
Do not be mistaken that this reviewer’s father is plagued by old age, senility and booze related problems. What Payne, together with writer Bob Nelson have done here is to create a character that somehow embodies that nagging issue all of us will eventually face – elderly parents. This one lifetime we have, nothing comes close when it comes to parent child dynamics. It’s only natural that some of us have it better (read: a rosier happy family portrait) than the others, but essentially, at the end of the day, it is a metaphorical road trip similar to the one in the movie that we have to take with the folks that brought us life.
While we are fully aware that veteran Bruce Dern will probably not be a trophy darling come the award season (he did snag the Best Actor award at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival), we are taking our hats off this 77 year old dude. The Chicagoborn actor, who was last seen in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, is heartbreakingly perfect as the dazed and helpless man whose life story begin to unravel when he reaches his hometown Hawthorne. Scenes of him shuffling on the streets, driven by one determined goal of claiming his one million dollars, is both tear jerking and side splitting to watch. With the strands of fluffed out white hair swaying in the breeze, Dern’s portrayal of a true to life senior citizen is one of the most affecting we’ve seen in cinema.
The cast also includes the scene stealing June Squibb (who Jack Nicholson’s wife in Payne’s other geriatric film in 2002’s About Schmidt), who plays Dern’s visibly annoyed wife, and Saturday Night Live alums Will Forte and Bob Odenkirk. Forte is one to watch here, unassumingly playing Dern’s son who, under circumstances, get to know his father’s and ultimately, his place in life.
The highly recommended film may be like Payne’s Sideways (2004) because it’s a road trip movie, or is similar to The Descendants (2011) as there is a character trying to put pieces of someone’s life together, but this is the American auteur’s best work to date yet, simply because it touches an issue so close to heart, you’d walk out of the cinema wanting to be a better person.
Movie Rating:
(A heartbreakingly beautiful piece of work which explores the finer moments of family, roots and essentially, life)
Review by John Li
SYNOPSIS: Keller Dover is facing a parent's worst nightmare: His young daughter and her friend go missing, and panic has set in for both families as hours turn to days. Heading the investigation, Detective Loki arrests only the suspect - the driver of a dilapidated RV on which the girls had been playing but a lack of evidence forces his release. As pressure mounts, Loki's team pursues multiple leads while a frantic Dover decides he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Gripping. Intense. Powerful.
I can’t help raving about Prisoners even before I start on the review. It’s such a compelling crime drama from Incendies’ director Denis Villeneuve that you wouldn’t feel the movie clocked in at a staggering 153 minutes.
Every minute of the movie is absorbing from the incredible performances of Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal to the incredible cinematography by Roger Deakins to the tightly wound script by Aaron Guzikowski.
If you love David Fincher’s serial killer drama, Zodiac (which coincidentally also starred Gyllenhaal), Prisoners is another great nod to the genre. Serving as a thought-provoking thriller, the movie opens with the Dovers and Birches celebrating Thanksgiving together. When the daughters from both families suddenly went missing, a suspect by the name of Alex Jones (Paul Dano) is caught by Detective Loki (Gyllenhaal). Unfortunately, the police have to let Jones off as he only has an IQ of a ten year old. Keller Dover (Jackman) decides to take things into his own hands. He went on to capture Alex, kept him locked up in his dad’s dilapidated apartment building and torture him for answers.
Prisoners is not just a simple whodunit thriller, it challenges one to question religion and your own morality if trapped in a similar situation as Keller Dover. The deeper it goes, the character of Keller goes darker. Those with children will fully grasp the suffering of Keller despite the questionable method he chose to resolve the situation. The torture sequence is pretty disturbing though it’s relatively easy to forgive Villeneuve’s decision to portray the gruesomeness.
The performances of Jackman and Gyllenhaal are flawless and engrossing, the latter an emotionally tormented father and the latter, a twitching tough cop. It’s a waste both are not nominated in the Best Actor category in the Academy. And it’s not just the two of them, the supporting cast includes Academy Award nominee Terrence Howard who shines as Franklin Birch, Golden Globe nominee Maria Bello as Grace Dover and the talented Paul Dano as Alex Jones.
Roger Deakins deserved his 11th nomination for Best Cinematography given the highly atmospheric execution here. Heavy rain, snow and a generally brooding mood, it’s like watching Deakins create camera magic to consistently maintain the gloominess. Look out for a scene where Loki weaves in and out of heavy traffic in a downpour to rush to the hospital. The lighting and weather effects are incredible.
No doubt about it, this child-kidnapping thriller is amazing. Prisoners is a must-see.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
NIL
AUDIO/VISUAL:
Audio is overall subtle with a clear dialogue mix. Visually while it’s intended to be naturally soft and dark, it still make the viewing experience a pleasant one.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD RATING :
Review by Linus Tee
SYNOPSIS: On the hottest day in 50 years, in the density packed urban centre, a serious fire incident happened to a busy commercial tower because of an unexpected phenomenon known as “flashover”. As the fire burned their conscience to the ground, those who lacked passion in their life were about to meet a gaggle of firefighters with an indestructible enthusiasm to save lives.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Nowadays the Pang Brothers can tackle anything from horror to detective drama to the martial-arts genre. Thus it doesn’t come as a surprise they are adding a disaster movie to their resume.
Two of HK’s most prominent dark skinned actors, Sean Lau and Louis Koo play brothers, Tai Kwang and Keung. The former a by-the-book firefighter and the latter, an ex-fire fighter turned boss of fire solutions company. Co-written by the Pang Brothers, Out of Inferno laughingly is one flick that is born out of coincidences and clichés. You see when a fire start burning ferociously in a commercial tower, the wife of Tai Kwang’s Si Lok (Angelica Lee) and Keung happen to trap in the same building. It doesn’t take a genius to know that Tai Kwang will be next in line to be assigned to save the trapped victims.
Besides the main actors, there is usually a standard list of ready-to-be-perish victims and Out of Inferno has no lack of them. A selfish gynecologist, a father and son team of security guards, a man who has just killed his boss over some diamonds and a little girl played by Crystal Lee of Unbeatable and The Viral Factor. The all too ho hum storytelling and predictable rivalry and disagreements between the brothers become wearisome over time. And it doesn’t take long they are going to join hands to get out of the dire situation in the end.
The generous support from the Guangzhou fire department contributes to the scale of the production. Technically, the pyrotechnics and visual effects are respectably execute though it lacks a sense of urgency and danger when you compare it to Johnnie To’s Lifeline which is almost liked two decades earlier. Still, a scene involving a construction crane transporting survivors across to safety brings out the Pang Brothers’ skill in creating some high levels of anxiety.
It’s always nice to have Sean Lau around despite the unnecessary heavy-handed drama. At the minimum, Lau just looks so stoic and cool in uniform that you will trust your life in his hands anytime. The prolific Koo also did a decent on-screen job grappling with ropes, fire and water for a paycheck. Despite a generically plotting, Out of Inferno served a decent plate of action and tension, nothing exceptional or memorable I must add. For a Pang Brothers’ production, this is generally good enough.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
NIL
AUDIO/VISUAL:
For a title that relied a lot on the audio and visual to work, the technical aspects of the DVD are only serviceable.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD RATING :
Review by Linus Tee
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AWARD-WINNING HONG KONG ACTRESS SANDRA NG IN SINGAPORE TO PROMOTE LATEST CHINESE NEW YEAR MOVIE "GOLDEN CHICKENSSS" THIS 25TH JANUARY!Posted on 13 Jan 2014 |
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