Genre: Romance/Drama
Director: Christian Ditter
Cast: Lily Collins, Sam Claflin, Suki Waterhouse, Christian Cooke, Tamsin Egerton
RunTime: 1 hr 43 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Sexual Scene and Some Coarse Language)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 30 October 2014

Synopsis: Rosie and Alex have been best friends since they were 5, so they couldn’t possibly be right for one another...or could they? When it comes to love, life and making the right choices, these two are their own worst enemies. One awkward turn at 18, one missed opportunity...and life sends them hurling in different directions. But somehow, across time, space and different continents, the tie that binds them cannot be undone – despite unwanted pregnancies, disastrous love affairs, marriage, infidelity and divorce. Will they find their way back to one another, or will it be too late? Based on Cecelia Ahern’s bestselling novel “Where Rainbows End”, LOVE, ROSIE is a sassy, heart-warming, and utterly modern comedy-of-errors tale posing the ultimate question: Do we really only get one shot at true love?

Movie Review:

Will they? Won’t they? That’s the question that lies at the heart of ‘Love, Rosie’, a flighty rom-com based on Cecilia Ahern’s 2004 novel ‘Where Rainbows End’. Our lovebirds are Rosie (Lily Collins) and Alex (Sam Claflin), two inseparable friends who have known each other since they were kids. Even though it isn’t plainly apparent to either of them, there is no doubt in our minds that they are in love with each other, so all that matters is whether they will recognise their feelings for each other and whether they will eventually be lucky enough to get together.

As mawkish and predictable as it may be, such films succeed or fail on the basis of their audience’s investment in the primary relationship – and we are happy to say that thanks to the excellent chemistry between Collins and Claflin, it is somewhat winsome, somewhat delightful and always amiable. There is an undeniable spark that bounces off the pair whenever they share the screen together, and it is this seemingly effortless rapport between them that gives the film its heart and soul through its numerous shopworn narrative clichés.

To be fair, ‘Calendar Girls’ screenwriter Juliette Towhidi is somewhat hemmed in by her source material, and to the best of her abilities, does try to emulate Richard Curtis’ brand of Brit rom-coms by giving Rosie plenty of witty quips. Yes, it is from Rosie’s point of view that we get to see their on-off love story unfold, beginning at the point where she is just about to deliver her congratulatory speech on the occasion of Alex’s wedding and rewinding to 18 years earlier when they first shared a passionate kiss at the school prom – though as Rosie admits, she was too inebriated to remember that life-changing moment.

It is precisely on that fateful night that Rosie will lose her virginity to fellow classmate Greg (Christian Cooke), who will also end up impregnating her. Her shock is compounded by Alex’s infatuation with a shallow blonde named Bethany (Suki Waterhouse) and the reality that she will not be able to join him in America as he pursues an Ivy League education at Harvard no less. We won’t inundate you with the details, but suffice to say that what follows after is a series of bad relationships, wrong partners, missed opportunities and an increasingly elusive chance of enjoying a happily-ever-after.

In his English language debut, German helmer Christian Ditter makes no apologies for romanticising their respective circumstances. Rosie, for instance, doesn’t seem to be doing too bad for a single mother raising her daughter on a minimum wage working in a swanky hotel as a maid; nor, for that matter, is Alex’s obsessive-compulsive Type A girlfriend (Tamsin Egerton) any bit more believable. Every individual scene is calculated and played for maximum crowd-pleasing effect, set to a genial pop tune that is supposed to help us identify just what we should be feeling for the characters at that particular moment.

And yet, the clichés and contrivances do not come off ingratiating precisely because of Collins and Claflin, who anchor the film with warmth and sincerity, so much so that you’ll feel bad for dissing their characters at all. Ditter has also assembled a surprisingly effective supporting line-up – and besides Egerton as Alex’s high-maintenance fiancée, Jaime Winstone is utterly hilarious as Rosie’s best friend Ruby who is always willing to tell her the hard truth no matter how much it hurts.

Rather than get by with originality, ‘Love Rosie’ endears precisely because of its leads. To Ditter’s credit, he gets the tone of the movie right, never dwelling too much on its potentially heavy-handed moments and always keeping things light, fluffy and frothy throughout. There is also good fun in the flashback sequences, where the film’s attention to detail like the use of MSN Messenger and Nokia 3210s will surely delight those who lived and loved through that era. It may not be as witty or inventive as the best Brit rom-coms, but it is a pleasantly entertaining diversion that will leave you smiling.  

Movie Rating:

(Predictable and mawkish but also winsome and delightful, this Brit rom-com is saved by the chemistry between its leads, Lily Collins and Sam Claflin)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: William Brent Bell
Cast: A.J. Cook, Sebastian Roché, Collin Blair, Brian Scott O'Connor
RunTime: 1 hr 38 mins
Rating: M18 (Violence and gore)
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 14 August 2014

Synopsis: Following the brutal slaying of an American family vacationing in rural France, a peculiar man living near the crime scene is blindly charged with their murders. Believing her client is innocent, expatriate American defense attorney Kate Moore and her team decide to take a scientific approach in order to prove his physical incapability to local authorities. As she delves into his enigmatic family history, she uncovers evidence that suggests the rebirth of an unexpected legend. When a bloodbath ensues, Kate must do whatever she can to survive the surrounding terror and prevent the chaos from spreading.

Movie Review:

We’ve seen enough of faux-documentary horror films to greet the next one with trepidation, and so it is with William Brent Bell’s werewolf-themed movie WER (get it?). Bell was the director of another such cinema verite, the atrocious 2012 exorcism flick ‘The Devil Inside’, so pardon us if we weren’t exactly expecting much from this follow-up. But as it turns out, WER is in fact a surprisingly competent low-budget shocker, taut and tense from the get-go and keeping it up all the way to a gripping finish.

Bell, who co-wrote the film with his ‘Devil Inside’ screenwriter Matthew Peterman, chooses the French town of Lyon and its outskirts as his setting. There, a vacationing family has their holiday brutally interrupted when the father and his seven-year-old son is attacked by a beast, leaving the mother in critical condition. The suspect is quickly apprehended by the local police - his name, Talan Gwynek (newcomer Brian Scott O’Connor), a seven-foot tall hairy man with huge hands who lives near the vicinity and clearly fits the description that the mother provides. 

Talan is assigned to an American lawyer, Kate Moore (A.J. Cook), who recruits her ex-boyfriend cum medical expert Gavin Flemyng (Simon Quarterman) and a techie Eric Sarin (Vik Sahay) to assist in her investigations. At first, Bell directs our sympathy towards Talan, whose crime seems to be both his intimidating appearance as well as his laconic nature; indeed, Kate vehemently objects to her client’s treatment, strapped with a chest guard and shackled from head to toe.

There are also a couple of red herrings, such as a similar crime in the vicinity where a number of horses were attacked by a savage bear, the local Government’s plans to reacquire Talan’s family property, and most prominently Gavin’s discovery of a medical phenomenon which can explain Talan’s behaviour. But of course, this is after all a werewolf movie, and in case you’re worried that Bell does a genre reversal, well we’re here to reassure you that it isn’t the case; rather, he saves the action for the second half of the movie, as Talan goes berserk during his medical examination and transforms into quite something altogether.

From that point on, Bell offers fans of the genre what they have been waiting for, and might we say that even those who have seen many a werewolf picture will probably be surprised by what unfolds next. Moving from an abandoned building in the city of Lyon to the Talan family property to the system of caves in the hills behind his property, Bell stages some pretty compelling action as Talan becomes the subject of an intense police manhunt. Kate, Gavin and Eric tag along for the action too, but Bell cleverly weaves in a subplot that converges with Talan’s escape in an impressively heart-pounding finale.

Be advised though, this isn’t on the same scale as the significantly bigger-budgeted summer blockbusters notwithstanding its proximity in terms of release date; rather, WER was clearly filmed on a much smaller budget, and Bell wisely keeps the action on a much more intimate scale. As with most werewolf movies, Talan here also struggles between his human and beastly nature, and Bell hints clearly at an emotional connection between Talan and Kate, both of whom miss their deceased fathers dearly. Besides being emotional, the action is often also visceral, not afraid to portray Talan’s animal instincts in full gory.

Compared to ‘The Devil Inside’, WER justifies its faux-documentary format much more convincingly, with Bell making the astute choice of switching to more conventional filming techniques (rather than be confined to a handheld camera) depending on what is best suited for the scene. It also represents a notable step-up for the filmmaker, whose previous work came off gimmicky and derivative. Indeed, for all the doubts we had about the film, WER doesn’t suck; in fact, it is one of the better werewolf movies we’ve seen so far, and a competent little horror picture that stands on its own. 

Movie Rating:

(A surprisingly taut and tense horror thriller made of the faux-documentary format that doesn’t ingratiate)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Action/Thriller
Director: Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez
Cast: Jessica Alba, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Josh Brolin, Eva Green, Mickey Rourke, Rosario Dawson, Juno Temple, Jaime King, Bruce Willis, Jamie Chung, Lady Gaga, Christopher Meloni, Jeremy Piven
RunTime: 1 hr 42 mins
Rating: R21 (Violence, Nudity & Sexual Scenes)
Released By: GV
Official Website: http://sincity-2.com

Opening Day: 28 August 2014

Synopsis: Co-directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller reunite to bring Miller's visually stunning “Sin City” graphic novels back to the screen in SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR. Weaving together two of Miller’s classic stories with new tales, the town's most hard boiled citizens cross paths with some of its more reviled inhabitants. SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR is the follow up to Rodriguez and Miller’s 2005 groundbreaking film, FRANK MILLER’S SIN CITY.

Movie Review: 

Nine years is a long time to wait for a sequel, but in the case of Frank Miller’s ‘Sin City: A Dame to Kill For’, it’s as if it was just yesterday. Yes, fans will be glad to know that the years since have not dulled the sensibilities of Miller or his co-director Robert Rodriguez, both of whom have returned to script and helm this faithful sequel - and by faithful, we mean that it is just as hard-boiled, gory, garish and violent. In short, if you did not like the first one, then there’s no reason you should bother with this.

But for those who have been eagerly awaiting a return to the outlandishly scuzzy urban hellhole of Basin City (given the eponymous title for its collection of thugs, mugs, femme fatales and their criminal and moral misdeeds), you’ll be glad to know that ‘Sin City’ is just as we had left it. Indeed, it picks up not long after where its predecessor left off, with one of the few good guys in the earlier film who was lucky enough to keep his head (pun intended) - the quintessential tough-guy of tough-guys, Marv (Mickey Rourke).

Marv narrates from a first-person perspective the prologue which is as much introduction as neophytes will get to this portrait of urban dystopia. Awakening on a deserted highway outside the city, Marv recalls his altercation with a group of frat boys beating up a wino before he blacked out and his subsequent return to Kadie’s saloon, where he keeps an eye on its resident stripper Nancy (Jessica Alba) whose tragic past was the subject of the previous movie as well as whose obsession for vengeance bookends this current one.

But Marv and Nancy ain’t the only ones who are back; Senator Roark (Powers Boothe) returns to play the much-reviled villain of this chapter, the father of the notorious Yellow Bastard slain by Hartigan (Bruce Willis) before the latter met his own unfortunate death which Nancy spends the last tale trying to avenge. It is Roark whom Joseph Gordon Levitt’s brash hotshot Johnny confronts one night during the former’s backroom poker game, his arrogance leading not just to his unceremonious downfall but also the death of an innocent dancer Goldie (Jaime King) whom he picks up at Kadie’s.

In between the two consecutive nights of poker which Johnny challenges Roark, Josh Brolin steps into the role which Clive Owen previous inhabited as private investigator Dwight McCarthy, whose former lover Ava (Eva Green) reaches out to save her from an abusive husband Damian (Marton Csokas) and his henchman named called Manute (Dennis Haysbert, who replaces the late Michael Clarke Duncan). As it turns out, Dwight is being played by the diabolical and seductive Ava, who as the titular dame is easily the most compelling and intriguing object of this whole enterprise.

We don’t blame Dwight for not having the resolve to simply walk away from Ava; wielding femininity like a trap, she also ensnares deputy police chief Mort (Christopher Meloni), despite being forewarned by his associate Bob (Jeremy Piven). Dwight’s subsequent journey of redemption offers a detour that brings back Rosario Dawson’s Gail, madam to Old Town’s band of lethal prostitutes, including the Japanese longbow-wielding assassin Miho (Jamie Chung, replacing the original’s Devon Aoki). It’s easy to take it for granted, but you have to give credit to Rodriguez for his sheer effort at reuniting such an ensemble group of cast and characters to ensure that his sequel does indeed feel, look and tell like one.

In part of course that has to do with the way the ‘Sin City’ movies are structured; and like its predecessor, this one weaves several of Miller’s lightly entangled tales into a larger narrative piece, with loose connections between the characters of each individual vignette. Of these, the centrepiece is also the most fascinating, due to Green’s scene-chewing performance in various states of undress - but nudity aside, she is sexy, funny, dangerous, wild and in two words, compulsively watchable.

The suitably menacing Boothe is an excellent complement, singlehandedly the reason why the segment with Levitt as well as his showdown with Alba manage to pop off the screen. But it is still a weak finish, because Alba remains a pretty but pretty empty actress, unable to convey the angst and anger tormenting her character as she struggles to muster up the courage to pull that trigger on Roark despite seeing him every night at the club where she gyrates. Rourke plays the tough-guy with the soft spot like the back of his hand, but his onscreen appearance still makes him one of the most iconic denizens of the city.

And on their part, Rodriguez and Miller demonstrate the same faithfulness to the latter’s illustrations, so that just like the last movie, this one unfolds in the same graphic-novelly way. The dynamic signature visuals are still intact - high-contrast black and white, with occasional splashes of saturated colour for emphasis - but so is the deliberately ham-fisted dialogue that is meant as a hark back to the neo-noir thrillers of the 1940s and 1950s. As we said before, in terms of style and tone, it is as if we never left ‘Sin City’ despite the nine-year gap.

That may sadly not be enough to win new converts, as ‘Sin City: A Dame to Kill For’ may very well be a victim of its own predecessor’s success which has inspired other such adaptations like ‘300’, ‘Sucker Punch’ and even Miller’s own ‘The Spirit’. Yes, this sequel doesn’t so much as improve on the earlier film as recreate and recapture the same noir-ish nihilism. No matter, familiarity after a close-to-a-decade absence still feels both fresh and comforting to us at the same time, and we suspect fans of ‘Sin City’ will feel likewise. 

Movie Rating:

(Everything you love about ‘Sin City’, you will love about this sequel - and Eva Green is indeed a dame to kill for)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Sci-Fi
Director: Phillip Noyce
Cast: Brenton Thwaites, Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Alexander Skarsgård, Katie Holmes, Odeya Rush, Taylor Swift
RunTime: 1 hr 28 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: GV
Official Website: https://thegiverfilm.com

Opening Day: 21 August 2014

Synopsis: The haunting story of THE GIVER centres on Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), a young man who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colourless, world of conformity and contentment. Yet as he begins to spend time with The Giver (Jeff Bridges), who is the sole keeper of all the community’s memories, Jonas quickly begins to discover the dark and deadly truths of his community’s secret past. With this newfound power of knowledge, he realises that the stakes are higher than imagined — a matter of life and death for himself and those he loves most. At extreme odds, Jonas knows that he must escape their world to protect them all — a challenge that no one has ever succeeded at before. THE GIVER is based on Lois Lowry’s beloved young adult novel of the same name, which was the winner of the 1994 Newbery Medal and has sold over 10 million copies worldwide.

Movie Review: 

At this point, you can be forgiven for feeling fatigued by the recent glut of YA-lit adaptations of the dystopian variety, but before you write off ‘The Giver’, know that Lois Lowry’s Newbery Medal-winning novel in fact pre-dated Suzanne Collins’ ‘The Hunger Games’ and Veronica Roth’s ‘Divergent’ by about 18 years. And that means, rather than the other way round, both Collins and Roth probably got some of their ideas from Lowry’s 1993 bestseller, although ironically it took both these hits to convince that ‘The Giver’ was ripe for the big screen.

Instrumental in shepherding this long-gestating adaptation from print to screen is Jeff Bridges, who plays the titular character that is so named because he is only one that holds the collective remembrances of a long-gone society. The rest of its members know not of where they came from, but only of what is necessary - in order to prevent a repeat of the catastrophe which led to the collapse of mankind (referred to as The Ruin), the all-seeing and all-hearing Council of Elders deemed it essential to eliminate difference and emphasise sameness through a conduct of strict rules, imposed politeness and language precision, as well as a daily dose of medication which suppresses feelings.

It is also within this context that it had been decided there should only be one person amidst the community who knows their history, his role to offer advice to the elders when the need arises. That is the responsibility for which our lead protagonist Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) has been selected for at a ritualised graduation ceremony marking his transition from adolescence to maturity, his weighty mantle of Receiver of Memories in contrast to the more commonplace roles which his good buddy Asher (Cameron Monaghan) or his teenage crush Fiona (Odeya Rush) have been chosen for - as a drone pilot or a Nurturer for newborns respectively.

So Jonas goes off daily to the edge of the known world to learn from The Giver, a wise but jaded Elder still reeling from his failed prior attempt to pass on his knowledge to a young woman named Rosemary (Taylor Swift in a glorified cameo). Yet Jonas isn’t just learning the memories as if they were facts off an encyclopaedia; rather, he is experiencing them through the Giver, these feelings spanning a gamut from emotional highs, sensory rushes, music, dance, and most of all, the concept of love. Why would anyone want to deny others the opportunity to feel such joys, Jonas asks?

It is only logical therefore that Jonas defies the rules to share the pleasures of feeling with his loved ones - his family (Alexander Skarsgard and Katie Holmes as his parents and Emma Tremblay as his little sister) and Fiona - much to the chagrin of the Chief Elder (Meryl Streep), who regards his behaviour as nothing less than sedition. But Jonas’ struggle is both within and without; even as he tries to escape the grasp of the Chief Elder and her security forces sent to retrieve him, he finds himself struggling to come to terms with the darker side of human nature - violence, war, greed and tragedy.

At the end of the day, Lowry poses this question to her readers, a question which this adaptation retains with sparkling clarity. Is it possible for mankind to choose love, not hate, peace, not war, and choice, not denial? Of course, the movie does, like the book, take a stand against sameness by emphasising the beauty in diversity, and above all, the wonder of experience. Purists may object to certain liberties which Michael Mitnick and Robert B. Weide’s screenplay takes with the book, but we’re glad to say however that the essence of Lowry’s classic remains beautifully captured here.

Director Phillip Noyce does take the movie one step further than the book by using colour as metaphor - the first half hour unfolds in flat black and white, gradually transitioning from muted to saturated colour by the time it reaches the extended action climax. Amidst the burst of colour, his choice of montages from sunsets to tribal dances to Renaissance wedding ceremonies to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest and even Nelson Mandela is stirring to say the very least, and it’s hard not to be moved by his personal salute to the human spirit.

Just as convincing is Thwaites, the actor best remembered for his role as the handsome prince in ‘Maleficient’ acquitting himself well with an engaging yet thoughtful performance that we hope puts naysayers’ doubts to rest about upping Jonas’ age in the movie. Bridges lends a steady old hand playing the grizzled Giver, though it is a pity that he doesn’t share more scenes with Streep, whose acting talents are grossly underused in a nondescript villainous role that doesn’t require her to do much more than look menacing - yes, Bridges and Streep do share a scene towards the end of the movie, and boy are these veterans compelling to watch.

Thankfully, the same can also be said of the movie as a whole, which will more than banish any skepticism you may have about it due to genre (and possibly, thematic) fatigue. Yes, ‘The Giver’ may follow in the wake of more higher-profile franchises like ‘The Hunger Games’ or ‘Divergent’, but it Is easily more thought-provoking than either of them as a cautionary tale against conformity and obedience. Is the world a better place without emotion? Is the world a better place without diversity? Should life be led as choice or conformity? In a summer with too much bombast, this is a surprisingly intelligent little picture that deserves to be seen. 

Movie Rating:

(Far better than your average YA-lit adaptation, this thought-provoking and visually stimulating science fiction offers a compelling portrait of human nature at its best and worst)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Hunter Hayes' Tribute Video To The Unsung Heroes of Singapore Posted on 08 Aug 2014 This National Day, Warner Music Singapore would like to celebrate our nation’s 49th birthday by recognizing the daily contributions of everyday Singaporeans – the unsung heroes of Singapore. The concept of the video was inspired by the lyrics of Hunter Hayes’ powerful hit single “Invisible”, lending light to society’s oblivion to the significance of the r ... more

Genre: Action/Thriller
Director: David Leitch, Chad Staheski
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Jason Isaacs, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Adrianne Palicki, Dean Winters, Bridget Moynahan, Willem Dafoe
RunTime: 1 hr 36 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Violence and Coarse Language)
Released By: GV
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/johnwickmovie

Opening Day: 23 October 2014

Synopsis: An ex-hitman comes out of retirement to track down the gangsters that took everything from him. With New York City as his bullet-riddled playground, JOHN WICK is a fresh and stylised take on the "assassin genre".

Movie Review:

Keanu Reeves shot to superstardom in Speed and that was a stunning two decades ago. Five years after crashing a bus through LA, he reaffirmed his star status in the then groundbreaking sci-fi action flick, The Matrix. Since then, the actor of mixed ancestry has dabbled in a number of high-profile projects and indie titles, produced an acclaimed documentary and directed his very first feature. But he has yet found a role that ranked alongside Jack Traven and Neo.

All thanks to stunt coordinators and performers David Leitch and Chad Stahelski (founders of action outfit, 87Eleven), Reeves has finally found a character that redefined his flagging career. Forgive his almost soulless appearance in 47 Ronin, you want a badass Keanu Reeves action vehicle, you have it in John Wick. The script by the little known Derek Kolstad reeks of minimalism. It’s purely a lazy action movie, one that frankly never pushes beyond the boundary. Yet somehow it works under the hands of Leitch and Stahelski and the casting of our leading man.

With hardly a lull, Reeves plays a mysterious ex-assassin, a man so powerful at his craft that people jitters at the mere mention of his name. However, Wick decides to retire after his wife fell sick and after the death of his beloved partner, devoted his time to care for his pet dog – the last gift given by his late wife. Unfortunately, the son of a Russian mobster, Iosef (Alfie Allen from Game of Thrones) punctuates Wick’s quiet life after he took a fancy to Wick’s Ford Mustang. Isoef ambushed Wick at his home in the middle of the night, took his muscle car and gasp killed his dog! The ruthless act trigger the anger back in Wick and what follows is the ultimate revenge against those who are hired to stop him from killing Iosef and the target himself.   

The movie is structured predictably that you already knew what’s coming. To its credit, John Wick is never pretentious, it served to entertain and it accomplished its goal with much ease in the end. Leitch and Stahelski are such old-timers in the stunt field that most of the action seen in Wick is both beautifully and brutally executed. Men are often stabbed, kicked, disabled and shot in the face and to the talented production designers, the numerous action sequences actually took place in a number of different locations such as a disco club, parking lot and hotel room just to give it a little variety. The raw bloody gunplay reminisces one of early John Woo movies and it’s definitely a visual feast. Cinematographer Jonathan Sela (Max Payne, A Good Day to Die Hard) provides the movie with a chilling moody feel at the same time, keeping his lenses glued to the ground forsaking the usage of crappy shaky cams.

Just when you thought Kolstad’s storytelling is so uneventful, he manages to throw in surprises after surprises. Besides, the laugh-out-loud sardonic humour, the world of thugs, assassins in John Wick is much more than mere clichéd tough Russian mobsters, a promising setup for more sequels to come. Killers stayed in a luxurious hotel and they trade using only gold coins. A specialized crew is hired to clean up crime scenes and disposing the bodies. There are rules to abide with and everyone in this world comes with a price.

Besides Reeves doing his tough guy routine and should I add he is damn good at it, Bridget Moynahan (I, Robot) also has a small role as Wick’s wife seen in a brief flashback montage. Swedish actor Michael Nyqvist (Ghost Protocol) plays the movie’s main villain, Iosef’s mobster daddy and he plays it uber-cool. Everyone’s favourite character actors Willem Dafoe and Ian McShane play a fellow assassin and a mysterious hotel’s owner respectively.

When it comes to voting for a stylish action packed movie for 2014, John Wick easily wins hands down. If you missed Denzel Washington hunting down Russian thugs in The Equalizer, then don’t miss Keanu Reeves hunting down Russian thugs. It’s just as crazy but with a dog in the latter, I declared John Wick the winner. Who can resist a cute puppy with Bambi eyes?

Movie Rating:

(Keanu Reeves proves he is still on top of the game)

Review by Linus Tee

AFTERIMAGES aims to revive the classic tradition of horror anthologies Posted on 11 Aug 2014 Mythopolis Pictures’ AFTERIMAGES comprises five short horror stories that unfold when a group of students burn paper effigy cameras for the wandering spirits during the ghost month and they receive films in return. Director Tony Kern, who is also the writer, remembers growing up watching classic TV shows “Twilight Zone” and "Tales from the Crypt". The anthology f ... more

ROBIN WILLIAMS (1951-2014) Posted on 12 Aug 2014 One of the best comedians of our time, Robin Williams has died. The cause of death is believed to be suicide via asphyxiation. According to his publicist, who confirmed the news, the actor had been battling depression of late and recently entered 12-step rehab for drug abuse. Robin Williams' breakout role was being an alien in the hit 70's sitcom, Mork & Mindy. By the early 80& ... more

Genre: Drama/Comedy
Director: Matthew Weiner
Cast: Owen Wilson, Zach Galifianakis, Amy Poehler, Laura Ramsey, Jenna Fischer, Lauren Lapkus, Paul Schulze, Joel Gretsch, Alana De La Garza
RunTime: 1 hr 54 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Coarse Language, Nudity and Drug Use) 
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 11 September 2014

Synopsis: When Steve Dallas (Owen Wilson), a womanizing local weatherman, hears that his off-the-grid best friend Ben Baker (Zach Galifianakis) has lost his estranged father, the two return to Ben's childhood home to discover Ben has inherited the family fortune leaving the ill-equipped duo to battle Ben's formidable sister (Amy Poehler) and deal with his father's gorgeous 25-year-old widow (Laura Ramsey).

Movie Review:

Is Are You Here funny? Not really. Meaningful? Maybe. Worth the time? I doubt so.

From the creator of Mad Men, Matthew Weiner’s directorial debut is a laborious mess of comedy-drama that somehow just doesn’t click despite having talents like Owen Wilson, Zach Galifianakis and Amy Poehler on the cast list.   

Wilson and Galifianakis play two lifelong friends, Steve Dallas and Ben Baker. Steve is a smooth-talking, womanizer who works as a weatherman on a local television while Ben spends his days detached from the outside world smoking weed, ranting about the environment and back to smoking weed. But things started to change when Ben learnt that his estranged deceased father has left him a huge fortune hoping it will turn his life around.

And so will a nice rural farmhouse, a grocery store, a 150-arce farm and a young beautiful stepmother Angela (Laura Ramsey) change the lives of both Steve and Ben?

Just when you thought Weiner can weave some magic into these characters. There’s whole lot of yapping that doesn’t work, scenes that are overlong and well, lots of clever lines that come out oddly dull. It’s not the fault of the cast because Galifianakis has played the neurotic, paranoid, man-boy to perfection. His co-star, Wilson of course has always been the laidback womanizer onscreen and even the always funny Poehler is relegated to churning out mean, embarrassing one-liners as Ben’s controlling sister.

The main problem with Are You Here is that it meanders and often throws you off course, like an unnecessary scene where Steven chases and subsequently chops off the head of a chicken for dinner. It certainly isn’t funny and obviously in the wrong territory - we are not watching The Hangover IV are we? Weiner even throws in the occasional naughty bits probably to keep the men in the audience awake.

Are You Here unquestionably has a message about finding your true direction in life, though I don’t really see it in the greedy eyes of Steven and the mentally suffering Ben. The setup failed to convince us about their friendship and by the movie ends after 114 minutes, all the squabbles and fighting are nicely tied up and dumbed down.

Matthew Weiner might wield considerable power on the small screen but an effort like this only leaves us perplexed and disappointed.  

Movie Rating:

(An utterly bloated lesson on human relationships)

Review by Linus Tee

Genre: Action/Thriller
Director: Wych Kaos
Cast: Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Rade Serbedzija, Gary Daniels, Kane Kosugi, Kelly Wenham
RunTime: 1 hr 29 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Violence)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 21 August 2014

Synopsis: A young man, Kazuya Mishima, wakes up alone in an unfamiliar hotel room without any recollection of who he is or how he got there. He is tormented by flashes of his past and by the face of an ominous stranger. The next thing he knows, Kazuya is ambushed and kidnapped by an underground crime organization and, soon after, turned into a ruthless assassin. During a mission to assassinate a man named Brian Fury, Kazuya finds that his target harbors clues to his true identity. With the help of Fury and a female assassin, Kazuya follows the clues, leading him to the lab of his reoccurring flashbacks. Here, he will finally confront his past and the ominous man of his nightmares – Heihachi Mishima, face the ultimate betrayal, and learn the truth about who, and what, he really is.

Movie Review: 

We do not blame you if you can’t quite remember anything about the first ‘Tekken’ movie; like many of its ilk, it was a forgettable attempt at translating the Namco video game for the big screen. Given how cold a reception it had gotten, it’s no surprise that this sequel is arriving with so little fanfare, given a theatrical release in some territories and dropped straight to video in many others. Not to worry though, if you haven’t caught the first movie, this is an in-name only sequel, and in fact is meant as a prequel to its predecessor.

Whereas the earlier film chose Jin Kazama as its protagonist, this one makes Kazuya Mishima its lead character. Fans of the game will know that Kazuya was only a good guy for the first instalment, thereafter turning into one of its main antagonists from the second one onwards. Fans will also know that Kazuya is in fact the son of Heihachi Mishima, the head honcho behind the infamous Iron Fist tournament of Tekken City where fighters from the eight mega-corporations ruling the world battle it out for survival and glory – and for those who are interested, the only continuity ‘Tekken 2‘ has with the earlier film is that Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa returns, albeit for no more than a glorified cameo, as Heihachi.

This is a story which ultimately culminates in Kazuya learning that he is the son of Heihachi, but before we get to that big reveal, writers Nicole Jones and Steven Paul introduce us to Kazuya as a man with superb fighting skills who wakes up one morning in a room not knowing who he is or where he comes from. As he tries to escape from a gang of heavily-armed militia, he is knocked unconscious and brought before a questionable character known as the Minister (Rade Serbedzija). Though he says that he is running a reformation school for ‘sinners’, the Minister turns out to be no saint himself, wanting Kazuya only to do his bidding by acting as his assassin for hire.

Long story short (because there isn’t much plot to begin with anyways), Kazuya discovers that the Minister isn’t the man he says himself to be thanks to a former compatriot named Bryan Fury (Gary Daniels) who defected from the Minister’s ranks and whom Kazuya was sent to kill. His only ally? Rhona Anders (Kelly Wenham), a British chick who tries to emote very hard in order to project a sense of conscience.  Rhona who? Yeah, you’re right. She isn’t in the Tekken universe to begin with, nor for that matter is the Minister. There is a more interesting backstory here about how the film began as a project known as ‘Agent X’, and was only revealed later on as a Tekken prequel – hence the blatant use of character names which don’t even belong to ‘Tekken’.

But perhaps the most disappointing element about ‘Tekken 2’ is that the action just doesn’t cut it. Unlike ‘Tekken’, this origin story for Kazuya doesn’t boast of any grand tournament to speak of, relegating the fights instead to the first act where he is made to show off his fighting skills in the Minister’s training camp and in the third and last act where he confronts Bryan and later on comes face to face with his estranged father Heihachi. Unfortunately, the choreography is utterly disappointing for a movie which should thrive on its mano-a-mano fighting; there is no distinction in Kazuya’s technique and for that matter between any of the fights to make them stand out against each other.

What we get is a series of poorly edited shots (thankfully not shot in the jerky close-up style) stitched together with little sense of continuity between them. That is even more upsetting for fans of Kane Kosugi, whose role in ‘Tekken 2’ marks the first leading man break for the talented American martial artist of Japanese descent. Kosugi executes some beautiful moves, but they are lost amidst the unremarkable choreography and some dismal editing. It suffices to say that neither Kazuya nor his opponents get to express any sort of personality through their moves, and as a result none of the fights are actually memorable.

The title alone may draw those who have played the game before and may be excited to see a real-life incarnation of their avatars, but not even nostalgia can rescue this abysmal martial arts-based movie which only bears the ‘Tekken’ name for familiarity and to ring up more coin. The clearest indication of just how thin this movie is lies in director Wynch Kaos’ (who directed the equally abysmal ‘Ballistic: Ecks Vs Sever’) habit of replaying shots from earlier scenes under the guise of Kazuya’s own flashbacks. Indeed, ‘Tekken 2’ is an embarrassment to the ‘Tekken’ franchise and an outrage to fans of the game, so you’ll be wise to avoid it whether in theatres or on home video. 

Movie Rating:

(A terrible cash-grab attempt that will understandably outrage fans of ‘Tekken')

Review by Gabriel Chong