Genre: Action/Crime
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Cast: Liam Neeson, Joel Kinnaman, Ed Harris, Vincent D'Onofrio, Boyd Holbrook, Genesis Rodriguez, Common, Bruce McGill, Holt McCallany
Runtime: 1 hr 54 mins
Rating: NC16 (Violence and Coarse Language)
Released By: Warner Bros
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 12 March 2015

Synopsis: Brooklyn mobster and prolific hit man Jimmy Conlon (Liam Neeson), once known as The Gravedigger, has seen better days. Longtime best friend of mob boss Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris), Jimmy, now 55, is haunted by the sins of his past—as well as a dogged police detective who’s been one step behind Jimmy for 30 years. Lately, it seems Jimmy’s only solace can be found at the bottom of a whiskey glass. But when Jimmy’s estranged son, Mike (Joel Kinnaman), becomes a target, Jimmy must make a choice between the crime family he chose and the real family he abandoned long ago. With Mike on the run, Jimmy’s only penance for his past mistakes may be to keep his son from the same fate Jimmy is certain he’ll face himself…at the wrong end of a gun. Now, with nowhere safe to turn, Jimmy just has one night to figure out exactly where his loyalties lie and to see if he can finally make things right.

Movie Review:

Before you dismiss the latest Liam Neeson action movie ‘Run All Night’ as yet another iteration of ‘Taken’, let us reassure you that there is much more to this mob thriller than meets the eye. True, Neeson plays a former man of violence with a ‘particular set of skills’ who is forced to employ them in order to save his family, but that’s about where the similarities end. Indeed, while that franchise never quite had any ambition than as a glorified B-movie, this latest team-up between Neeson and his ‘Unknown’ and ‘Non-Stop’ collaborator Jaume Collet-Serra proves itself as an impressive amalgamation of the Oscar-nominated dramatic skills on which his earlier career was built on and his more recent kickassery.

Brad Inglesby’s script starts by giving us a glimpse of Neeson after the fateful events of the titular evening – that is, lying in a forest and bleeding from a shotgun wound – before rewinding sixteen hours before to fill us in. As we soon learn, Neeson’s Jimmy Conlon wasn’t in a much better state before his most recent run-in with mob boss and childhood friend Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris) that had led to his current predicament. An alcoholic mocked by the denizens at the local pub for farting in his sleep, the former Brooklyn hitman was once Shawn’s trusty right-hand man, but has now been reduced to playing Santa at the latter’s son’s birthday party for quick cash, which he spends drowning his guilt over the people he has killed and the family he has alienated through the years.

As bad luck would have it, Jimmy’s estranged son, Mike (Joel Kinnaman), who only wants to take care of his pregnant wife and two young kids and to have nothing to do with his father, stumbles upon Danny executing two Albanian drug dealers. When Danny turns up at Mike’s house, Jimmy intervenes to save his son and ends up killing Danny, setting in motion the subsequent series of events which will see father and son move through New York City while being pursued by Danny’s men – including a professional assassin named Price (Common) who has his own grudge with Jimmy – as well as crooked cops looking to stay on Shawn’s payroll.

Rather than just skip to the chase, Collet-Serra and his screenwriter Inglesby invest in a more character-driven narrative than may be expected. A pivotal scene has Jimmy confessing to Danny’s murder shortly after Shawn returns from the morgue to identify his son’s body, which poignantly expresses not just one father’s grief (and consequent thirst for revenge) from the death of his son but also another father’s paternal instinct to protect his family by whatever means possible. Whereas ‘Taken’ (pardon the pun) the latter for granted, Collet-Serra wisely lets the polarising dynamic between Jimmy and Shawn define the conflict that ensues, giving both characters and their longstanding friendship turned brutal rivalry both shading and nuance.

Lest it be forgotten, Neeson and Harris are both accomplished actors in their own right, and both manage to find their characters’ empathetic core. Collet-Serra understands Neeson’s ‘particular set of skills’ in playing the fallible hero, and gives his lead actor space and breadth to explore his character’s vulnerabilities and motivations – even bringing in an unbilled Nick Nolte to add patriarchal weight to the proceedings. Kinnaman doesn’t get enough quiet scenes with Neeson for their father-son relationship to develop into something truly compelling, but the actors share a good rapport that give the action scenes added emotional texture.

And in that department, Collet-Serra doesn’t disappoint. Reining in the handheld shots that made the last ‘Taken 3’ an absolute nightmare to watch even on the big screen, Collet-Serra fashions a couple of impressive sequences that make full use of its New York locale. A thrilling cop-car chase through the streets of Brooklyn easily puts ‘Taken 3’s’ highway chase to shame, while a high-rise apartment complex on fire provides a tense backdrop against which Jimmy and Mike attempt to protect a kid witness. There is also the iconic Madison Square Garden, which provides the scene for a daring escape right after a Rangers-Devils game, and heightens the Big Apple atmosphere while keeping the gritty noir-ish feel of the earlier scenes.

It is certainly tempting to see this as yet another attempt to cash in on Neeson’s newfound action hero status, but ‘Run All Night’ distinguishes itself with some well-filmed setpieces to satisfy the adrenaline-hungry crowd while staying grounded with enough characterisation and good acting for its audience to be rooted with the characters onscreen. It is also his best collaboration yet with Collet-Serra, who seems genuinely interested at making a movie tailored to the actor’s strengths than simply cashing in on a fad. Even and especially if you were disillusioned with ‘Taken 3’, ‘Run All Night’ is a good, solid slab of macho entertainment that should wash away the bitter taste of that over-the-hill franchise. 

Movie Rating:

(A immensely satisfying blend of gripping mob drama and thrilling action setpieces that is easily Liam Neeson’s most credible work in recent years)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Action/Thriller
Director: Aleksander Bach
Cast: Rupert Friend, Zachary Quinto, Hannah Ware, Ciaràn Hinds, Thomas Kretschmann, Emilio Rivera, Dan Bakkedahl, Angelababy
Runtime: 1 hr 37 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Violence And Brief Nudity)
Released By: 20th Century Fox
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/HitmanAgent47Movie

Opening Day: 20 August 2015

Synopsis: HITMAN: AGENT 47 centers on an elite and genetically engineered assassin known only by the last two digits of a barcode tattooed on the back of his neck. His latest target is a young woman on the run from powerful and clandestine forces. The mission brings startling revelations about 47 and his prey, hurtling them both on a collision course with their pasts. And this time, his number may be up.

Movie Review:

Anyone who’s ever harboured the dream of seeing Singapore feature prominently in a Hollywood movie will certainly be pleased with ‘Hitman: Agent 47”, which features iconic landmarks such as Gardens by the Bay and Marina South in their full glory. A pivotal supporting character is seen admiring the orchids in the Gardens’ Cloud Forest dome, before taking a stroll along the OCBC Skyway. The headquarters of a sinister group known as the Syndicate Organisation is situated right in the heart of Marina South, against the backdrop of the Marina Bay Financial Centre and Asia Square towers. And last but not least, there is even a full-scale shootout in broad daylight along downtown Robinson Road, which probably has never seen and will never see as many Comfort taxis at the same time.

We’re not sure what it took to convince the producers and filmmakers of this videogame adaptation to bring part of the production here, but hey it is one of the few thrills in an otherwise loud and dumb action thriller. To be frank, we weren’t expecting much from this reboot of the earlier EuropaCorp film starring Timothy Olyphant in the titular role of a chrome-domed, genetically engineered, emotionless contract killer from not so far back in 2007; after all, if there is one demographic that it would try to please, it is the video-gamers who adore stepping into the shoes of the cold-blooded assassin to kill off his enemies while wrecking maximum carnage in the process, which was probably in the one-line brief that Fox gave to veteran commercials director Aleksander Bach here.

Hamstrung by a muddled script by Skip Woods (who also wrote the earlier ‘Hitman’ movie) and Michael Finch, Bach falls back on a breakneck pacing and flashy visuals to gloss over the film’s obvious storytelling flaws. Yes, despite an intriguing first half-hour that teases the characters’ motivations, the rest of the film is unfortunately as straight-forward as it gets in plotting the cat-and-mouse game between Katia (Hannah Ware) and a certain John Smith (Zachary Quinto) dispatched by Syndicate HQ. Katia is the crucial link to the Agent programme’s lead scientist Dr. Litvenko (Ciaran Hinds), whom the Syndicate’s head honcho Le Clerq (Thomas Kretschmann) needs to restart the programme. Another organisation however has sent Rupert Friend’s Agent 47 to prevent Katia from falling into the hands of the Syndicate, though it isn’t quite clear what they want from her.

The less you think about the plot, the more you are likely to enjoy the visceral pleasures that the film offers. True to the spirit of its source material, the action here is brutal and pulsating, with heads blown off, bodies sucked into giant jet engines, limbs slashed and blood basically splattering everywhere (and for those who are wondering, much of the bloodletting takes place in interiors rather than exteriors, so don’t get your hopes up about seeing all that happening along our streets). Bach choreographs and executes the action with gory flair, and fans of the IO Interactive game will be glad to know that he makes the effort to retain its aesthetics.  

Yet no matter how diverting the shootouts or fisticuffs may be, there is no hiding the fact that the characters are under-written. Though Friend makes for a surprisingly good Agent 47 – and we are not just talking about his looks – the actor best known for his supporting part in ‘Homeland’ is shortchanged by the script’s reluctance to develop fully the theme of choice versus blind obedience. Ware makes a sufficiently harried female protagonist, but Quinto is utterly wasted in a role that doesn’t quite know what to do with him after it is revealed that he is actually working for the Syndicate. Veterans Hinds and Kretschmann have even more limited roles, but their natural gravitas elevates their presence just ever so slightly.

Of course, you’ll probably should not expect a film like ‘Hitman: Agent 47’ to be moulded on an intricate plot or deep characters, and true enough, it isn’t. Rather, it takes its action seriously, which is what its target demographic is likely to assess it on anyways – and in that regard, it succeeds as a fast-paced thrill ride all right, even though it is equally mind-numbing. That said, there is greater relish watching some of the action unfold in our very own backyard, no matter that the reasoning for re-locating the action from Berlin to Singapore midway through the film is tenuous at best, and the novelty in watching the sights we are familiar with within a big-budget Hollywood action thriller makes it slightly more enjoyable. 

Movie Rating:

(Loud, dumb but executed with enough flair and momentum not to bore, this ‘Hitman’ reboot also offers Singaporeans the cheap thrill of watching some of our iconic landmarks in a Hollywood action thriller)

Review by Gabriel Chong

SYNOPSIS: The inspiring tale of Winter isn't over. Several years after receiving a prosthetic tail, Winter loses her surrogate mother, leaving her alone, grieving and unwilling to engage with anyone even her best human friend Sawyer. Worse, she may have to be moved from her home at the aquarium due to regulations requiring dolphins to be paired. When Dr. Clay Haskett and his dedicated team can't find her a companion, it looks like they may lose their beloved Winter...until an unexpected turn of events bring them hope. 

MOVIE REVIEW:

There’s always a dolphin movie for every generation. The people from Generation Y probably remember Flipper, a 1996 movie that stars a very young Elijah Wood. Generation Z has the best of both worlds. Not only they have Dolphin Tale, they even get a sequel called Dolphin Tale 2 within a span of three years!       

Winter, the lovable dolphin with a prosthetic tail is back and this time round, she finds herself isolated and depressed after the death of her companion, Panama. In the meantime, her savior and human friend, Sawyer is pondering over a chance to attend a prestigious program at Boston. Without a suitable companion, Winter is require by law to be transfer to another aquarium in Texas. Will Winter be able to continue her stay at the Clearwater Marine Hospital (CMA) in the end and will Sawyer leave for his studies?

As in the first movie, Dolphin Tale 2 is an inspiring, meaningful drama for everyone in the family especially kids. Children will generally be in awe by the beautiful underwater-filmed sequences of the dolphins. There’s even a turtle and a pretty well trained for the camera Pelican. It’s kind of hard to tell if digital enhancements have been done to the dolphins’ expressions etc during post-production but Winter seems to be a much better actress than many of her human counterparts in other movies.

Dolphin Tale 2 can be very much uneventful and slow moving for the most part. That’s because screenwriter and director Charles Martin Smith is adhering to the true-life events in which the sequel is based on. The most exciting moment in the movie happens when the center receives news of a young injured dolphin being send to CMA. Other than that, there are some awkward romance bits between the two adolescences, Sawyer and Hazel, (daughter of the owner of CMA) that are best left on cutting floor.  

Though mostly are back for mere brief moments, very much everyone from Harry Connick Jr, Ashley Judd, Kris Kristofferson and Morgan Freeman returns for the sequel. Dolphin Tale 2 is highly recommended for it’s educational value. If you have young kids at home, you know who this sequel is for.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

TThe cast and filmmakers talk about the real-life events that inspired the sequel in Dolphin Tale 2: True Story.

AUDIO/VISUAL:

The DVD offers an overall decent soundtrack and the visual presentation is generally sharp and for lack of a better word, decent.  

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee

Making of Features for LOST AND LOVE Posted on 09 Mar 2015 Two making of features for Andy Lau'sLOST AND LOVE(releasing on 26 March) have been released. Check out the difficulties faced by the crew and the popularity of Heavenly King Andy as they travelled around China for the shooting. _____________ Music Video for Andy Lau's LOST AND LOVE The music video, 回家的路 (song lyrics written by Andy hims ... more

SYNOPSIS: In this thriller based on the terrifying doll from The Conjuring, John has found the perfect gift for his wife, Mia - a rare vintage doll. But Mia's delight with Annabelle doesn't last long. 

MOVIE REVIEW:

That creepy doll in The Conjuring gets it’s own movie in this cheaply produced effort from producer James Wan and cinematographer turned director John R. Leonetti.  

Fast and furiously written by Gary Dauberman to cash on the success of The Conjuring, Annabelle is a prequel to the events of the James Wan movie. However Dauberman and Leonetti has none of the magical touches of Wan to make this tale worth telling for the big screen. Shoddy writing and plenty of cheap jolts hamper the spin-off unlike the slickly produced original.

The very predictable and familiar plotting has a young couple, John and Mia who is expecting their first child being haunted by the doll that was given to Mia by John as a present. The hauntings continue even after they moved into a new apartment. It seems the demonic presence is not after Mia but their young baby, Leah.

Annabelle hardly conjured up enough scares or fright to make this a hair-raising viewing experience. Without the presence of Wan to lead the way, Leonetti resort to doing close-ups at the spooky doll more than once in a failed attempt to elicit fear. A character suddenly gets tossed into the air and the unexpected appearance of a demonic form is probably the only thrills you get.

The mostly unfamiliar cast members did their best to deliver despite the flimsy material. Annabelle Wallis who plays Mia deserves a special mention as she tried her very best to put on her freak out look throughout even though all she did was dashing from room to room looking bewildered.

Dolls can be very scary in movies especially one that looks like Annabelle. However, this utterly lazy effort couldn’t even muster enough fear let alone telling a worthwhile companion tale to the much superior, The Conjuring. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The cast and filmmakers talk about the mysterious happenings on set in The Curse of Annabelle. 

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Dark and black scenes look fantastic on DVD. Dialogue is clear and the perfect sound mix makes the jump scares loud and dynamic. 

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee

SYNOPSIS: From producer Guillermo del Toro and director Jorge Gutierrez comes a breathtaking animated comedy with a dazzling visual style unlike anything you've seen before. Torn between the expectations of his family and the desires of his heart, a young man named Manolo sets off on an epic quest that spans three spectacular worlds in order to reunite with his one true love and defend his village.

MOVIE REVIEW:

All thanks to producer Guillermo Del Toro and director Jorge R. Gutierrez (both Mexicans by the way), we get to enjoy a Mexican folklore infused animation, The Book of Life.

The Book of Life is both ghoulishly fun and imaginative and very often it’s like a Mexican version of Tim Burton’s groundbreaking The Nightmare Before Christmas. The animation by Reel FX Animation Studios (which is hell lot better than it’s previous effort, Free Birds) is gorgeous, colorful and filled with plentiful crazy, sometimes scary images.

The story on the other hand, which is jam-packed with mythology and characters, is ambitiously squeezed into a compact 95 minutes runtime. Two divines, La Muerte (Kate del Castillo), ruler of the Land of the Remembered and Xibalba (Ron Perlman), ruler of the Land of the Forgotten enters a bet involving three young kids, Maria, Manolo and Joaquin.

Maria (Zoe Saldana) of course grows up to be a pretty lady and her two suitors; Manolo (Diego Luna) struggles to be a guitarist and also as a matador at the urging of his father while Joaquin (Channing Tatum) is already an established hero in their town of San Angel. Who will win the hand of Maria? And who will win the bet in the end?

It’s very much a romance tale at its core as we follow Manolo as he journey from the Land of the Remembered to the Land of the Forgotten to get back to his only love, Maria. Despite the occasional music segments, younger kids might be lost from the frenetic pacing especially with all the dizzy exchanges between the dead and undead. Hopefully all the dazzlingly visuals and gags will make up for it.

The voice work is overall top notch with Ice Cube standing out as the jovial Candle Maker. The Book of Life features themes of friendship, love and family unfortunately it might be all buried under the visually stunning animation. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Adventures of Chuy is a new short featuring Chuy the pig. Music Moments round up the movie’s music sequences so you can play them all. The DVD also includes the Audio Commentary by Director Jorge R. Gutierrez, a stills Gallery, "No Matter Where You Are" Music Video by Us the Duo and a Theatrical Trailer. 

AUDIO/VISUAL:

With popping colors and details, The Book of Life looks wonderful on DVD. The clarity of the songs and dialogue never disappoint while ambient and surround effects are generally well-placed.  

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee

SINGAPORE SITES LAND LEADING ROLE IN HITMAN: AGENT 47 FILM Posted on 12 Feb 2015 For the first time in recent history, a Hollywood event movie will feature Singapore’s famous landmarks: Twentieth Century Fox’s action thriller HITMAN: AGENT 47 highlights many recognizable locations from that country. They include The Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, The Arts House (former Parliament House), The Supreme Court, The Art Science Museum at Marina Bay Sands a ... more

Genre: Crime/Action
Director: Daniel Alfredson
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Jim Sturgess, Sam Worthington, Ryan Kwanten, Jemima West
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Coarse Language)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 19 March 2015

Synopsis: Based on crime journalist Peter R. de Vries’s account of what has been called “the most notorious kidnapping of the 21st Century, “KIDNAPPING FREDDY HEINEKEN” explores the abduction of Dutch billionaire brewery magnate Freddy Heineken (Anthony Hopkins) and his chauffeur, Ab Doderer, who were kidnapped in 1983 and held for what was the largest ransom for an individual at the time.

Movie Review:

‘Kidnapping Mr Heineken’ is proof that a great crime doesn’t a great crime movie make. Based on the true story of the Dutch brewery magnate’s kidnapping back in November 1983, the case was notable for setting a record for the largest ever ransom payout in the country - that is, a cool 35 million Dutch guilders, or about US$20 million. It was also a rare case where the police were barking up the wrong tree all the while, thinking that his abductors were a well-organized terrorist group like Baader-Meinhof, when reality they were a bunch of five working-class individuals who turned to crime after their construction business went bust.

And yet these sensational elements seem lost in its Danish director Daniel Alfredson’s retelling of the tale, a puzzlingly inert adaptation by William Brookfield based upon an exhaustively researched book by noted crime journalist Peter R. de Vries. Instead of acquainting his audience with the quintet of childhood pals, Brookfield drains them of much personality aside from its leader Cor Van Hout (Jim Sturgess) and his hot-headed brother-in-law Willem Holleeder (Sam Worthington) – and if not for HBO’s True Blood, Ryan Kwanten will probably be as indistinguishable from his fellow supporting cast members Mark Van Eeuwen, and Thomas Cocquerel, who round up the unappealing bunch of scruffs.

Similarly, there is no effort made for us to understand their predicament other than a single scene at the beginning where they are denied of a much-needed loan by the bank to keep their company afloat. The moment they concoct an elaborate scheme to rob a bank in order to finance the actual kidnapping however, any motivation driven by their socio-economic hardship is practically thrown out the window. In its place are rote scenes of them planning the heist, scoping out their target’s habits, building separate soundproof cells at the back of a workshed owned by one of them for their mark and his chauffeur, and figuring out alibis for themselves so that they would minimise any suspicion.  

In the hands of a better director like David Fincher, we would already be intrigued by the procedural dynamics by the time our protagonists grab Mr Heineken – alas, Alfredson never manages to build anything compelling from their planning, and besides a perfunctory car chase following their bank robbery, the montage that follows immediately after is as dull as a doorknob. Even the kidnapping itself is over and done with without much fanfare, leaving one to wonder if any planning was necessary in the first place seeing as how it was no more difficult than a walk in the park. Any subsequent interplay between the kidnappers and Mr Heineken is equally lacking, and just as lacklustre is how the pressure of their crime takes a toll on their mutual friendship – which is a point that the film tries to make, seeing as how it ends with Mr Heineken repeating his line about how having a lot of money and having a lot of friends are mutually exclusive outcomes.

To get to that, a whole third act is devoted to the kidnappers’ denouement at the hands of the law, but Alfredson’s failure to get his audience to root for the band of ‘brothers’ robs it of any emotional resonance. Since Vries doesn’t offer any hint of just how the police managed to figure out that they were chasing the wrong tail at first, Alfredson’s film offers no such logical connection as well, resulting in a very odd state of affairs where we are one moment led to think that the kidnappers had pulled off their grand plan without a hitch and then later made to realise that the police are already on their tail. It is unsatisfactory all right, not helped yet again that we frankly can’t quite be bothered that the kidnappers each get their comeuppance.

But frankly why should we bother when the filmmakers don’t even seem to be interested in their film at all? There is no effort to expound the intricacies of their audacious plan nor to portray how their interpersonal dynamics change through the course of the kidnap, leaving nothing at all for us to care about or be invested in as the caper unravels. Yes, Anthony Hopkins’ apathetic countenance says it all, and we frankly don’t blame him for not even bothering in the first place. Like we said, a great crime doesn’t a great crime movie make, but an adaptation this dull should truly be criminal. 

Movie Rating:

(For a movie based on a ripped-off-the-headlines kidnapping, this dramatically inert thriller is shockingly dull)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Comedy/Romance
Director: Cameron Crowe
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Bill Murray, John Krasinski, Danny McBride, Alec Baldwin
Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins
Rating: PG13 (Brief Coarse Language)
Released By: 20th Century Fox
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/AlohaTheMovie

Opening Day: 4 June 2015

Synopsis: In Aloha, a celebrated military contractor (Bradley Cooper) returns to the site of his greatest career triumphs and reconnects with a long-ago love (Rachel McAdams) while unexpectedly falling for the hard-charging Air Force watchdog (Emma Stone) assigned to him. From Academy Award®-winner Cameron Crowe, the writer-director behind such films as Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous, Aloha also stars Bill Murray, John Krasinski, Danny McBride, and Alec Baldwin.

Movie Review:

Aloha from Hawaii, where the people are ridiculously good looking. At least, they were, when you look at the US military base containing Allison Ng (Emma Stone), Tracy Woodside (Rachel McAdams) and Brian Gilcrest (Bradley Cooper).

The protagonist, Gilcrest is the disillusioned ex-military man, present-contractor who returns to Hawaii in disgrace for one last chance to get back into the good books of Carson Welch (Bill Murray). Once in Hawaii, he is immediately acquainted with his babysitter, Ng, and reunited with the ex-girlfriend, Tracy, now married to John “Woody” Woodside (John Krasinski). Gilcrest and Ng eventually fall in love (no surprises here), Tracy and Woody remain married, and rockets were launched into space.

For someone clueless about Hawaii (other than the World War Two attack on Pearl Harbour), the film provided an interesting introduction to Hawaiian history, myths and legends. This was admittedly not given much screen time, but when it did, triumphed the romantic storyline – but more on that later. Despite criticism that director Cameron Crowe whitewashed the cast and miscast Emma Stone (who was actually, one of the highlights of the show), he did an admittedly fair job of showcasing the effects of the US occupation and military base, which is encroaching on the rights and territory of the Hawaiian nation.

However, not the same could be said about the romance between Gilcrest and Ng, Air Force Captain-turned-babysitter. Perhaps it was the unbelievable speed of falling in love, the awkward flirting, and the clichéd dating scenes... but the couple felt like they were forced together in order to distract Gilcrest from breaking up the Woodsides’ marriage. On the other hand, the remnants of romantic tension between the ex-couple, Gilcrest and Tracy, were on point, with them dancing around each other and the elephant in the room until Tracy reaches her boiling point. Which, actually, didn’t seem to change much of the status quo.

In the midst of the history lessons and awkward flirting is the underappreciated Woody, an Air Force pilot whose marriage with Tracy was threatened by Gilcrest’s reappearance. As Woody, Krasinski of NBC’s The Office fame provided the much-needed comic relief and distraction from the slow-moving main storylines, with his bro-scenes with Gilcrest being the high point and most memorable scenes of the film. Stone also contributed to the comedy, albeit through playing up the stereotypical young, enthusiastic and idealistic overachiever who worms her way into everyone’s good books. As with her recent film outings (i.e. The Amazing Spider-Man movies, Birdman), it seems that Stone can do no wrong.

As a rom-com, Aloha misses the mark for both genres, with a somewhat stilted romance, and not enough comedy to be convincing. Instead, there is a sense of uneasiness that continued throughout the film. As mentioned, this is partially due to the awkward flirting, as well as the constant foreshadowing of the arrival of a Hawaiian god by Mitchell (Jaeden Lieberher), Tracy’s and Woody’s son. The god never arrives, much like the film’s promise to deliver beyond its good-looking cast and the idyllic setting of Hawaii.

Movie Rating:

(Part Hawaiian tourism advert, part eye-candy fest, Aloha had more misses than hits, resulting in a largely forgettable movie)

Review by Goh Yan Hui

Genre: Sci-Fi/Action
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Cast: Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Sigourney Weaver, Hugh Jackman
Runtime: 2 hrs
Rating: NC-16 (Coarse Language and Violence)
Released By: Sony Pictures Releasing International
Official Website: http://www.sonypictures.net/movies/chappie/

Opening Day: 5 March 2015

Synopsis: CHAPPiE - an experimental robot built and designed to learn and feel. Like any child, Chappie will come under the influence of his surroundings – some good, some bad – and he will rely on his heart and soul to find his way in the world and become his own man. But there's one thing that makes Chappie different from anyone else: he is a robot. The first robot with the ability to think and feel for himself. That’s a dangerous idea – and it’s a challenge that will pit Chappie against powerful, destructive forces that would ensure that he is the last of his kind.

Movie Review:

It’s a good thing Neill Blomkamp secured his next directing gig before his latest went into wide release; indeed, while the South African born Blomkamp has been acclaimed as one of the most distinctive science fiction directors of the modern era after his debut ‘District 9’, he failed to make good on that promise with his underwhelming sophomore feature ‘Elysium’, and ‘Chappie’ marks yet another costly misstep that threatens to send his career the way of the Wachowskis. Its premise of an artificial intelligence becoming human is by now a familiar one, but rather than build on what its predecessors had to offer, this childish and noisy spectacle fails to develop any of its themes, be it the oft-repeated idea of consciousness or its social allegory of class divisions.

Set once again in Johannesburg in the near future, ‘Chappie’ opens in the same way as ‘District 9’ with mock news footage establishing how the police have commissioned an elite team of human-sized droids – called ‘Scouts’ – from a robotics firm known as Tetravaal to restore law and city and reduce the body count for the force as well. The ‘Scouts’ are the brainchild of an idealistic inventor called Deon (Dev Patel), whose creation is hailed by his company’s CEO (Sigourney Weaver) to the consternation of a jealous colleague Vincent (Hugh Jackman). Unlike the ‘Scouts’, Vincent own invention dubbed the ‘Moose’ requires direct human control, and has understandably been sidelined as his company banks its future on greater deployment of the ‘Scouts’. Their rivalry is supposed to set in motion a series of events that leads to our titular character taking on a much more heavily-armed ‘Moose’ in the overblown finale, but any sort of meaningful build-up between Deon and Vincent is cast aside in favour of a gangsta subplot that is frankly misplaced.

Celebrating his love for his homeland’s rap-rave group Die Antwoord, Blomkamp has cast both members as low-life gangsters Ninja and Yo-Landi (played by the group’s Ninja and Yo-Landi Visser), who in the opening sequence following the scene-setting newsreel are seen to have bungled a heist and now owe their boss Hippo (played by Blomkamp vet Brandon Auret) $20 million. To procure the compensation owed, Yo-Landi comes up with the laughable notion of obtaining a remote control so that they can switch off the Scouts. The search for that ‘remote’ leads them to kidnap Deon, just as the latter has prepped one of the decommissioned Scouts – or ‘Scout 22’ as he calls it – for his experiment in synthetic consciousness. By simply uploading a data file he created, Deon turns that scout into a thinking and feeling robot who is also taken together with his inventor and earns the affection of Yo-Landi. It is Yo-Landi who gives him the name ‘Chappie’, and in turn, Chappie calls her ‘Mommy’ and Ninja ‘Daddy’.

Almost the whole second act is dedicated to Chappie’s learning as a sentient being, which is disturbing to say the least. On one hand, Mommy teaches him English, reads him bedtime stories and encourages him to go pursue his dreams. On the other, Daddy and his accomplice Amerika (Jose Pablo Cantillo) try to manipulate his fundamental mental constructs in order that he may assist them in their heist of an armoured vehicle – and their tutelage involves tricking him to ‘rob’ cars, hold a gun and ‘put people to sleep’ with a knife, while speaking in hip-hop slang and outfitted in tacky old necklaces. The fact that many of these scenes are played as comedy without any acknowledgment of its anarchic undertones only reinforces just how tone-deaf Blomkamp’s movie is, so much so that Chappie’s questioning of our human failings – expressed in his confusion why humans break promises and do bad things – rings hollow and even hypocritical.

There is no apartheid allegory here, but it is clear right from the onset that Blomkamp’s sympathies still lie with the disfranchised in society, as can be seen from the way he embodies Chappie’s thuggish caretakers with supposedly likeable traits. Though that posture may have worked in ‘District 9’, it feels shockingly misplaced here, in particular since their ‘tutelage’ leads only to violence, crime and death. It doesn’t help that Chappie isn’t an endearing character in his own right, coming across as a hyper-active chatterbox without nuance or restraint – and Chappie remains an unrelatable character from start to finish.

Despite his efforts at trying to get his audience to identify with his character’s struggle to develop a mind and soul of his own – not just what his ‘maker’ programmes himself to be or what he has been taught to follow – Blomkamp fails to make good on an intriguing theme that several other filmmakers have explored to much, much better effect before or draw any poignancy out of it. Between Chappie’s incessant chatter and Blomkamp’s attempt to pack as much diffuse plot into the runtime, there is hardly any space given to explore the intellectual notions that the movie flirts with (but never indulges in any serious manner), and it is perhaps telling that it eventually decides that a person’s individual consciousness can simply be reduced to a data file and transferred from human to android without any loss or change in character.

The same idiocy unfortunately extends to its stock character archetypes. Patel’s inventor is never given any motivation why he developed a consciousness for his androids in the first place. His rival played by Jackman is no more than a cartoonish villain, and even embarrassing for the A-list actor. Weaver continues a streak of playing the thankless supporting character, but the most ill-advised bit of scripting and casting has got to be the triumvirate of Ninja, Yo-Landi and Amerika/ Padillo, who are not only caricatures through and through but some of the more off-putting ones in recent memory. Sharlto Copley does a capable motion-capture for Chappie, but that work is sadly overshadowed by a character that could absolutely do with an overhaul.

Ditto for the whole picture in fact, which recycles themes from much better genre equivalents and gives them a South African underbelly spin that frankly doesn’t work. Blomkamp’s flair for staging a propulsive picture (with some help from an equally intrusive score from Hans Zimmer) is still intact, and so is his verve, but ‘Chappie’ is hyper-frenetic, over-plotted and yet under-developed at the same time. It is not even ‘Elysium’, which Blomkamp has in recent weeks admitted that he ‘f**ked up’. We only wonder what he is going to say about ‘Chappie’ when he starts doing his rounds for the next ‘Alien’ movie. 

Movie Rating:

(Noisy, overblown, and yet under-developed, this mash-up of ‘Robocop’ and ‘Short Circuit’ is a jumbled mess made from recycled parts of much better sci-fi equivalents)

Review by Gabriel Chong