Genre: Romance/Drama
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Cast: Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen, Tom Sturridge, Juno Temple
Runtime: 1 hr 59 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: 20th Century Fox
Official Website: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/farfromthemaddingcrowd/
Opening Day: 2 July 2015
Synopsis: Based on the literary classic by Thomas Hardy, FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD is the story of independent, beautiful and headstrong Bathsheba Everdene (Carey Mulligan), who attracts three very different suitors: Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts), a sheep farmer, captivated by her fetching willfulness; Frank Troy (Tom Sturridge), a handsome and reckless Sergeant; and William Boldwood (Michael Sheen), a prosperous and mature bachelor. This timeless story of Bathsheba’s choices and passions explores the nature of relationships and love ? as well as the human ability to overcome hardships through resilience and perseverance.
Movie Review:
Period love stories have always seemed to the writer as being overly dramatic and filled with awkward flirting, and Far From the Maddening Crowd seemed no different. The old-fashioned love story, based on the novel by Thomas Hardy and set in the sexist Victorian England, revolved around Bathsheba Everdene (played by Carey Mulligan), the orphan-turned-heiress / landowner, and her three suitors of different backgrounds and statuses.
In terms of its themes and imagery, the film does remind one of 2005's Pride and Prejudice, which also featured Carey Mulligan (but more on that later). In what is probably his most mainstream outing yet, director Thomas Vinterberg's wide shots of the rolling hills and dramatic cliffs is reminiscent of Joe Wright's cinematography. That aside, Vinterberg's usage of the idyllic English countryside serves as a contrast to the underlying unease throughout the film, that one wrong move would ruin Everdene. Personally though, the writer found the at-times too-vivid colours too jarring, preferring the usual misty and foggy portrayal of then-England.
As the rose amongst the thorns, and the free-spirited landowner, Everdene holds her own, mostly, when faced with three persistent suitors, shepard Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts), William Boldwood (Michael Sheen) and Sergeant Frank Troy (Tom Sturridge). Carey Mulligan steps up to the role with ease, portraying Everdene as charismatic and headstrong, two much-needed characteristics to survive in a male-dominated society. Mulligan was also excellent in bringing out the weakness of the character, the wounded wife controlled by her husband, and the helpless widow in danger of losing the farm to his debts. Compared to the 2013's Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby, Mulligan's performance in this film is much more noteworthy.
An interesting side note: Mulligan played Kitty Bennett in the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, the one-half of the flighty Bennett sisters, whose other half (spoiler alert!) runs off with Wickham, the good-for-nothing soldier. With her marriage to Frank Troy in this film, it makes one wonder if there were really so many soldiers in the British Army waiting to prey on naïve maidens, but I digress.
Out of the three suitors, it could probably be predicted who Everdene would end up with, although it did take pretty too long. Schoenaerts' Gabriel Oak is the Nice Guy who does not finish last (sort of), but that also means that Oak is the most boring of the three. Broody and moody for most of the movie, his most expressive parts were probably at the start, when he punishes his sheepdog. Though short, that sequence was, for the writer, the most memorable and tragic of his scenes.
The other two suitors were comparatively much more expressive. William Boldwood starts out brooding as well, but his spiral into despair probably made the character the wildcard of the lot. When it came to character change, Sheen's portrayal of the eccentric but sedate Boldwood gradually turned obsessed and slightly maniacal, increasing the anticipation for his fateful Christmas party. And finally, the sergeant with the wolfish grin who was Bad News ? Sturridge's Frank Troy was easy to hate, even from the start, amplifying the dread felt by the audience when Everdene finally succumbs to his charms.
Sticking to what seems like a faithful retelling of the Thomas Hardy love story, Far From the Maddening Crowd is unlikely to surprise readers and non-readers (who might have read the synopsis). If anything, this is probably the fault of the material, whose status as a classic love story makes it challenging for tweaks to be made. However, its faithfulness does not make the film any less enjoyable, providing readers with the joy of seeing the characters brought to life, and non-readers a more accessible platform to enjoy the material.
Movie Rating:
(With the book's classic love story status, and long sweeping scenes of the English countryside, the movie would probably interest literature loves and anglophiles. The performances from the cast are an added plus)
Review by Goh Yan Hui
Genre: Horror/Comedy
Director: Poj Apirut
Cast: Kunatip Pinpradub, Puvadol Vechwongsah, Kittipat Samarntragulchai
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Rating: PG13 (Disturbing Scenes)
Released By: Encore Films
Official Website:
Opening Day: 28 May 2015
Synopsis: Make Me Shudder comrades went for a vacation at Phuket (Island) after they graduated from their high school. They settled and rested in a tent next to the beach. With their unlucky fortune, a huge storm struck them. The gang moved into a hotel as their temporary shelter. They slept over in a hotel room. After a while, Nick woke up from a horrible dream of a Tsunami disaster, waking the rest of their gang. The television was broadcasting Tsunami news and the electricity went off after the news ended. This time, everybody turned their attention on Nick and wondered if he has insulted any ghosts again. When they turned on the torch light, they found themselves surrounded by wrapped dead bodies everywhere in the hotel. They crawled through the dead bodies hoping to find an exit until they met 3 new friends who were also stuck at the hotel. Their new friends told them an awful story of this vacant hotel. While they are telling the story, the ghosts came in and haunted them. In the end, they prayed to make merits for the dead people and successfully escaped from the miserable hotel.
Movie Review:
It seemed like a really bad idea at first, to incorporate the tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake into this movie’s storyline. The tragedy that happened on 26 December more than 10 years ago brought about so much destruction and grief, one wouldn’t expect a film, a comedy at that, to delve on it. The two other movies we have seen which dealt with the tsunami were The Impossible (2012) and Hereafter (2010). Both were serious dramas with emotionally affecting stories, but that didn’t make them any easy to watch.
So this Thai production, the third installment in the commercially successful Make Me Shudder series, is bringing its protagonists to Phuket to experience a series of supernatural occurrences due to the tsunami. Hmm, what were the filmmakers thinking? And you should, by now, realise that this is also a horror movies which will include ghouls who are probably victims of the very unfortunate natural disaster?
The boys from the first two movies return and make their way to Phuket for their graduation trip. Before they know it, they find themselves in an evidently haunted hotel, surrounded by what seems to be spirits who are anything but friendly. They also meet some suspicious “friends”, who may have more than secrets hidden up their sleeves. How will this misadventure end? And will everyone involved in this production be deemed as insensitive souls out to make quick bucks by exploiting the tragedy?
Director Poj Apirut, after making 2013’s Make Me Shudder and last year’s Make Me Shudder 2, must have been convinced by the movie production company and its investors that this is something the market wants, something that will bring in quick bucks. Well, to acknowledge the fact that movie making is a business, this horror comedy does have some laughs, banking on the silliness of zombie stereotypes and the cast’s overly exaggerated performances. There is lots of juvenile humour and schoolboy sexual references which will elicit that occasional chuckle.
If you have seen the last two movies, you wouldn’t go into the cinema expecting this to be a horror film. It’s more of a comedy, a disposable one at that, which helps kill over an hour of your time if you needed to make boring weekends pass faster.
Should there be concern that the movie would be insensitive and disrespectful to the victims and families of the tsunami? The director has got that covered nicely. Being a Thai filmmaker (after watching so many Thai horror movies, we assume the Thai culture to be one that will not “invoke” any vengeful spirits), Apirut aptly included a thoughtful voiceover narration to close the movie, something which while may seem to be lifted from textbooks, makes a lot of sense when it comes to being respectful to others.
As it may be subjective whether the tsunami should still be used as a backdrop to a mediocre horror comedy, we leave it up to viewers to decide whether they’d like to spend some mindless time in the theatres.
Movie Rating:
(While the movie serves up some chuckles, there isn’t anything new to offer in terms of horror or comedy in this cash cow)
Review by John Li
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Doraemon: Nobita and The Space Heroes Fans PreviewPosted on 10 May 2015 |
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Director: Gren Wells
Cast: Robbie Sheehan, Dev Patel, Zoë Kravitz, Kyra Sedgwick, Robert Patrick
RunTime: 1 hr 40 mins
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scene and Coarse Language)
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website:
Opening Day: 4 June 2014
Synopsis: As a young man isolated in his efforts to hide his Tourette’s—Vincent is suddenly forced into the world when his mother passes away. Vincent finds himself at a centre for those dealing with similar psychological disorders after his absent father sends him away to avoid responsibility and any disruption in the midst of his political campaign. There, he meets his roommate, Alex, who is anything but pleased to share his space which is kept in perfect order because of his OCD. Feeling more alone than ever, Vincent finds a friend in Marie, who has made her return to the centre because of her anorexia. Together, Vincent and Marie set out to escape the centre run by Dr. Rose, and steal her car in the process. But nothing is easy for Vincent and as he and Marie are about to set out on their drive to the ocean to spread his mother’s ashes, Alex stops them in their tracks, threatening to end the trip before it begins. Instead, Alex finds himself kidnapped and a backseat passenger on a three day journey that becomes a life changing experience none of them saw coming. With Dr. Rose and Vincent’s father in pursuit, the three young adults find they’re perfectly capable of living their lives according to their own rules, while breaking some others in the meantime.
Movie Review:
True to formula of any self-respecting indie drama, Gren Wells’ debut feature is made up of three dysfunctional individuals who take a road trip that doubles up as their respective journeys of self-discovery. There is Alex (Dev Patel), a germaphobe suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder. There is Marie (Zoe Kravitz), an anorexic with a cynical attitude to boot. And last but not least, there is Vincent (Robert Sheehan), whose Tourette’s syndrome causes him to have uncontrollable tics accompanied by sudden outbursts of vulgar language. As it so happens, Vincent has just lost his mother, which makes the perfect excuse for a drive down to California so that he can scatter her ashes in the open sea.
At the risk of sounding heartless, we loathe each and every one of them. Alex’s OCD shtick is annoying to say the least, not least because he goes around screaming whenever anyone touches him. Vincent is worse, twitching, stuttering and jerking around with incessant vulgarity. Frankly, we just want to give Alex a tight slap and seal Vincent’s mouth shut. The only character which doesn’t get on our nerves is Marie, who for one doesn’t scream or curse and for another has the most poise and wit amongst the three. Nonetheless, because they are in the same vehicle together, Wells, who also wrote the script, fashions plenty of antagonistic bickering among the three runaways, which quickly gets extremely grating.
There is no doubt each and every one of them needs serious mental help, but Wells trivialises their afflictions by trying to put a positive spin on them. “Amy Winehouse sucks my cock!” blurts Vincent. Are we supposed to find that funny? Or how about “Aaaah! Cunt licker! Fuck! What are you staring at?” Are we supposed to find that amusing as well? Going by Wells’ definition, all that plus Alex’s frantic attempt to wipe everything down is supposed to be quirky – not only do we fail to find the sense of humour in their loopy antics, it gets very tiresome and tedious very soon. Worse still, Wells milks it all for sentimental uplift by slowly forging a friendship between them along the way and trying to win our sympathy for these psychologically unbalanced individuals.
To be blunt, we found ‘The Road Within’ to be a reprehensible movie. There is nothing amusing about someone who curses uncontrollably, and probably nothing to be gained from condoning that person running away from dedicated help at a proper facility. Yes, Wells tries to establish a father-son bonding subplot by having Vincent’s absentee politician father Robert (Robert Patrick) give chase after Vincent flees the facility, but there are much better circumstances under which such reconciliation can take place. Wells suggests too that the healing can take place through an unlikely romance that develops between Vincent and Marie, but that’s just another false note amommmmmmng many of the film’s other hollow and simply wrong ones.
Indeed, Wells’ treatment of her own material is tonally deaf, which explains the one-note performances from her teenage cast. You’ll recognise Patel from ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ and the two ‘Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’ films, but the English actor is simply overwrought without any shade of nuance. Same goes for Sheehan, who takes his verbal, vocal and bodily contortion act too literally. The only cast member who seems to play a real character is Kravitz, and that is in part because she gets the least clichéd portrayal of the lot. Patrick and his supporting co-star Kyra Sedgwick make the best of thinly written adult roles, but at least aren’t called to plumb their undignified depths.
Make no mistake, we have every sympathy for those whose conditions Wells intends to portray onscreen; what we however take offence with is how Wells mines their conditions for easy humour while trying to get us to empathise with them. Yes, we are rarely so off-put by a movie, but ‘The Road Within’ demands a sort of indulgence that we find hard to accord. Let’s put it this way – if you’re prepared to spend one and a half hours with a teenager who stands up in church at his mother’s funeral, yells “Faggot!” at the minister, and then accuses him, in front of the entire congregation, of dying his pubic hair, well then you might just find something to like about this journey. The rest of us can stay far, far away.
Movie Rating:
(An ingratiating journey of the most frustrating kind, this wanna-be indie dramedy brings together a germaphobe, an anoxeric and a Tourette’s syndrome sufferer to inflict its own insufferable torture upon its audience)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Drama/Comedy
Director: Ho Wi Ding
Cast: Michelle Chong, Moses Lim, Audrey Luo, Ethel Yap, Oon Shu An, Joey Leong, Siti Khalijah Zainal, Rani Singam, Muhammad Mahfuz Mazlan, Nelson Chia, Jonathan Leong, Shankara Ebi
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website:
Opening Day: 15 July 2015
Synopsis: Our Sister Mambo is a modern-day romance comedy inspired by the Cathay classic, Our Sister Hedy, a 1957 Hong Kong production about a middle-class family with four unmarried daughters. Directed by Ho Wi Ding from a screenplay by Michael Chiang, the movie will star talented actress-director Michelle Chong, popular comedian Moses Lim (acting as Michelle’s father in the movie) and acting talents from Singapore and Malaysia. Set against the backdrop of modern Singapore, Our Sister Mambo follows the well-meaning efforts of the spritely second daughter, Mambo (Michelle Chong) to get her sisters – big sister Grace (Ethel Yap), third sister Rose (Oon Shun An) and baby sister June (Joey Leong) hitched, with hiccups and misunderstandings along the way. Watch Our Sister Mambo to find out how Mambo, with the help of her BFF Siti (Siti Khalijah) tries to steer things back on track.
Movie Review:
80 years is a long way to have come, and ‘Our Sister Mambo’ is specifically commissioned by Cathay’s filmmaking arm Cathay-Keris Films to celebrate its parent company’s milestone. You’ll do well to remember that as you sit through this self-congratulatory excuse of a movie, which is really better at paying tribute to the great tradition of Cathay moviemaking than for any actual merit. Indeed, how much you ‘ja jambo’ to this local re-telling of the studio’s 1957 Hong Kong classic ‘Our Sister Hedy’ will depend on how nostalgic you are of actresses such as Grace Chang and Dato Maria Manado Abdullah as well as classics such as ‘Mambo Girl’ and ‘The Wild, Wild Rose’ from the studio’s heydays in the 1950s and 1960s; and if these names don’t mean anything to you, well let’s just say this vanity project will leave you unmoved.
The titular Mambo (Michelle Chong) is the second of four unmarried daughters in a middle-class household, who starts off the most settled of the lot with a cushy job as a lawyer in a top legal firm. Somewhere along the way however, Mambo will surprise the whole family by quitting and enrolling as a trainee cook in Willin Low’s restaurant, the latter a real-life lawyer-turned-cook of ‘Wild Rocket’ fame. Mom, as played by theatre vet Audrey Luo, will go into a fit, and turn to the temple gods to pray for wisdom to come upon Mambo. And so it goes for each one of her other daughters, a la Mambo’s other sisters, as well – each will take turns to assert their own independence, which in turn causes Mom to be an even more pious Buddhist as she heads repeatedly to the temple to ask for divine intervention.
Grace (Ethel Yap), the oldest, has hooked up with a Mainland divorcee with a ten-year-old daughter. Rose (Oon Shu An) is a hardcore party animal who is content to casual date any ‘ang moh’ she fancies. And last but not least, June (Joey Leong), the youngest, is dating an Indian whose mother happens to be Mom’s professional rival in the same company. That may seem like the set-up for a riotous family comedy, but playwright-turned-screenwriter Michael Chiang plays it tame, too tame in fact. No sooner has he set up each conflict between mother and daughter does he resolve it almost instantaneously with a family dinner, which pretty much diminishes any and all dramatic tension. Chiang’s screenplay also plays it too safe, taking each conflict in turn rather than letting them explode all at once, so much so that one never feels as if anything between the family is ever at stake.
With Mom being pretty much running the whole family, there is also little for Dad to do except sit in front of the TV watching (what else but) Cathay classics and ferrying his wife and daughters to work each morning. And that is truly a pity, for the film wastes Moses Lim’s rare appearance on the big screen with a role that hardly demands anything of his comedic talent; instead, Moses gets more screen time playing a museum guide at the Cathay Gallery cum cinema hall manage at The Cathay, where he talks about his love for the old Cathay archives and how the cinema exhibition business has changed over the years. And like the rest of the members of the Wong family, it is a role under-written and under-developed, that turns out not just tame but also plain boring.
Yet if the movie turns out more tolerable than its thinly written script, that is because the cast of stage and TV veterans do their darnest to keep the energy up. Luo is the scene-stealer here, the 32-year-old actress playing the domineering matriarch with aplomb while revealing a particular gift for deadpan comedy. Her timing is spot-on, and despite the obvious age difference between her and Lim, she oozes a sweet chemistry with the veteran star more than twice her age. On the other hand, Yap, Chong, Oon and Leong have plenty of sass and spunk among them, and the scenes with all four sisters bantering with each other are both fun and delightful to watch – although it should be fair warning to Chong’s fans that her role here is much more down-to-earth than those she usually plays when she is Lulu or Barbarella.
On his part, Malaysia-born Taipei-based director Ho Wi Ding does an admirable task staging the proceedings, in particular the dinners around which the Wong family are supposed to resolve their quarrels, such that there is palpable tension in one of the earlier ones when Mambo announces that she has quit the legal profession to learn the culinary arts and genuine awkwardness in one of the later ones when Mom dresses in a traditional Korean costume to welcome June’s new boyfriend eagerly before she realises his race and identity. Ho opts for a naturalistic style of comedy than one that is over-the-top, and it is to his credit that we can therefore empathise with the various sisters as they take turns to cross paths with their assertive mother.
Like we said at the start, this isn’t a movie in its own right, but one saddled with the burden of commemorating Cathay’s 80th anniversary. That is the only explanation why it culminates in a dinner party celebrating the great Cathay film legacy, where no less than the regal Grace Chang makes a surprise video recording to express her congratulations. It is also why one of the minor supporting casts is called upon at the party to sing ‘Ja Jambo’ and why the cast are seen dancing to that very tune in front of The Cathay building right at the end. Yep, Cathay’s got its self-congratulatory wish of a movie that’s for sure; the rest of us, however, are left with just half a movie.
Movie Rating:
(Less a full-fledged movie than a self-congratulatory tribute to Cathay's filmmaking legacy, this family comedy gets by its thin script with an appealing cast that has perfect comic timing and delightful chemistry)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Action/Adventure
Director: Wes Ball
Cast: Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Giancarlo Esposito, Aidan Gillen, Barry Pepper, Lili Taylor, Ki Hong Lee, Patricia Clarkson
Runtime: 2 hrs 12 mins
Rating: PG (Some Violence)
Released By: 20th Century Fox
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/MazeRunnerMovie
Opening Day: 10 September 2015
Synopsis: In this next chapter of the epic “Maze Runner” saga, Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and his fellow Gladers face their greatest challenge yet: searching for clues about the mysterious and powerful organization known as WCKD. Their journey takes them to the Scorch, a desolate landscape filled with unimaginable obstacles. Teaming up with resistance fighters, the Gladers take on WCKD’s vastly superior forces and uncover its shocking plans for them all.
Movie Review:
If you think that there’s going to be a lot less running just because the Gladers are out of the maze, you will be surprised by how wrong you are. In this second instalment of the Maze Runner saga, there is even more running. The entire movie is really about the Gladers running away from WCKD, the mysterious organisation that is trying to harvest something from their blood in a bid to come up with a cure for the Flare virus that has hit Earth. In the process, the Gladers also have to outrun the many zombie-like Cranks who can inflict them with the Flare virus. Apparently while most of them are immune to the Flare virus, a few of them might not be but they don’t really know who isn’t immune so it’s safer to just away from the Cranks.
If you think that sounds sort of messy and, to put it mildly, not that logical for a plot, I have more bad news for you. The Scorch Trials actually doesn’t explain the context or background as neatly as I did in the first paragraph (and yes, I know my explanation isn’t really straightforward but trust me, it’s better than the movie’s). You have to pick up the pieces of information and string them together to get a complete picture but the burying of information isn’t done as elegantly as say Memento or Inception where you actually feel a sense of satisfaction once everything is clear.
But then again, this movie doesn’t require you to use much of your brains to decipher the plot. If you take it as the thriller-zombie apocalypse-teenage hero movie as it is and not go in expecting something high-brow or intellectual, then you are in for a treat. Although there is no strong character development in this second instalment, the actors do have genuine chemistry and I found myself convinced that they would actually never leave anyone of their friends alone even in the face of mortal danger. It was also tremendous pleasing to watch a fellow Asian (Ki Hong Lee playing Min Ho) taking charge of situation and demonstrating his prowess instead of being a token Asian. The choice of focusing on an ensemble effort meant that potentially interesting characters such as Newt (Thomas Brodie- Sangster) or even the protagonist, Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) are flat and you don’t feel a connection with them. Thus, while potentially fatal situations they are in may faze you, you won’t feel much sadness or pity if any of them die in the process. Episodes such as the divergence in views between Thomas and Theresa (Kaya Scodelario) and their eventual falling-out were predictable and could be smelled a mile away.
Fans of the book series will also have to brace themselves for the creative licence that the screenwriter and director took in adapting the book with the same title for this movie. While characters such as Aris, Jorge and Janson are introduced in the movie and play important roles, their roles have been somewhat modified. Similarly, Theresa’s role as betrayer becomes a lot more straightforward in the movie.
The suspense and masterful unveiling of plot twists in the book series that kept readers going have been traded for horror movie clichés. While these movie clichés do work in keeping audiences on the edge of their seats, they certainly won’t leave you feeling like you watching a cinematic masterpiece or wanting to stay for the credits to find out who was behind this piece of work.
Movie Rating:
(Try not to be too logical or intellectual and go along with the ride and you’ll find The Scorch Trials a thoroughly enjoyable movie)
Review by Katrina Tee
Genre: Comedy
Director: Doug Ellin
Cast: Kevin Connolly, Adrian Grenier, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrara, Jeremy Piven, Jessica Alba, Liam Neeson, Armie Hammer, Billy Bob Thornton, Mark Wahlberg
RunTime: 1 hr 45 mins
Rating: R21 (Sexual Scenes and Coarse Language)
Released By: Warner Bros
Official Website:
Opening Day: 4 June 2014
Synopsis: Movie star Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier), together with his boys, Eric (Kevin Connollly), Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) and Johnny (Kevin Dillon) are back...and back in business with super agent-turned-studio head Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven). Some of their ambitions have changed, but the bond between them remains strong as they navigate the capricious and often cutthroat world of Hollywood.
Movie Review:
Let’s put it simply – ‘Entourage’ is meant for those who wished the ride wasn’t over for Vinnie Chase, his loyal buddies E, Johnny and Turtle, and not forgetting of course his longtime agent Ari Gold. If none of those names don’t mean anything to you, well this movie probably won’t either, but those looking to relive the escapism which ended four years back when HBO called it quits after eight seasons will find themselves right at home. Indeed, though the series ended in 2011, screenwriter/ director Doug Ellin plunges us right back to where he left off at the end of Season 8, which in a nutshell had Vince marrying Vanity Fair writer Sophia, Eric announcing that his on-off girlfriend Sloan (Emmanuelle Chriqui) was pregnant, Johnny finding some success in an animated series called Johnny Bananas, Turtle’s tequila business going big, and finally Ari receiving an offer to run a studio.
Well, you can pretty much guess how Vince’s nuptials worked out for him by the opening sequence alone, which sees E, Johnny and Turtle riding a speedboat to meet Vince on board a massive yacht with bikini-clad babes in the dazzling waters of Ibiza. Other than that, E is finding it difficult to move on from Sloan despite hooking up with a hot blond named Melanie (Sabina Gadecki), Johnny’s TV show has all but gone bananas, and Turtle’s business is still booming. Most importantly, Ari is back from his self-imposed exile (with the Mrs’ blessings no less) to run a major Hollywood studio, and wants Vincent to star in the first big-budget feature he greenlights. Vincent’s reply? Sure, but I also want to direct it.
So the story really begins eight months after Vincent muscles Ari into letting him direct a $100 million futuristic sci-fi called ‘Hyde’ that is loosely based on the classic ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, that is already $10 million over budget and in need of another $15 million for visual effects. Unfortunately for Ari, the studio’s co-financier is a Texan oil baron named Larsen McCredle (Billy Bob Thornton), who would only agree to put in more money if his ne’er-do-well son, Travis (Haley Joel Osment), likes the rough cut of the film which Vince has been working on in the editing studio. Hint – a certain Sports Illustrated model named Emily Ratajkowski as well as Johnny’s supporting act in Vince’s film will complicate relations between Vince and Travis.
Amidst the budgetary tussle, other individual character subplots unfold. E is still trying to get back with Sloan, who is due anytime soon. Johnny is still stressing over auditions, and worse becomes the ‘talk of the town’ after a video of him masturbating is leaked by the vengeful boyfriend of a girl he was engaged in webcam sex with. Turtle wants a date with UFC fighter Ronda Rousey and must prove himself worthy after unintentionally snubbing her. And oh, Ari’s former gay assistant Lloyd (whose contact he stores as ‘Gayasian Lloyd’) is getting married and wants Ari to give him away – though Ellin has saved that for a mid-credit scene with George Takei as the minister who officiates the wedding.
As any fan of the TV series will tell you, the plot is secondary to the repartee that, at its best, is smart, sharp and really funny. Ari still has the best lines of course, and Jeremy Piven delivers them with his signature zing and pizzazz; in particular, a sequence where he is interrupted by a phone call while reciting the lines of a CD playing in his car that is meant to help soothe his nerves is simply priceless. Next to Ari, Johnny has been and continues to be the funniest one of the group by simply being clueless, daft and self-absorbed, which is also why we absolutely buy into his social media faux pas. And yet, as its title implies, this was never a show about any particular character, and true to that, the chemistry between Vince and his buddies is priceless. It was what gives the show its energy and its vibe, and is what gives the movie its pulse.
Yes, many may argue whether it is an examination or a celebration of the worst of Hollywood culture, and at the same time criticise it for being shallow, misogynistic, self-serving, xenophobic and even racist. But even as it treads on the meta between fiction and reality, Ellin’s creation was never meant to be more than just entertainment for the casual viewer based upon a souped-up universe of booze, weed, parties, sex and other forms of hedonism. A lot of it is meant to be fantasy, the glitz and glamour of fame and celebrity that lures people to Hollywood, but between that are also bits of sobering reality about how the business is run, especially in the central narrative of just who has artistic license in such big-budget investments.
At no point does anyone take the film too seriously, which is precisely why you’ll find a whole list of real-life celebrities willing to stake their appearance in the film, including Armie Hammer as an emotionally unhinged version of himself miffed at Vince for dating Emily and Jessica Alba as a wannabe first-time director who begs Ari to greenlight her film. Kelsey Grammer, Liam Neeson, Jon Favreau, Pharrell Williams, TI, David Spade and Warren Buffett also turn up at some point to join in the fun. Even the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) lends their annual Golden Globe Awards to top it all off. It’s a party all right, and anyone looking for more won’t find it here. Though the happily-ever after ending feels more tacked on than anything in any of the seasons, there is plenty of goodwill to go around, and fans should know better than to begrudge this reunion. We’re not sure how much gas is left in this tank, so savour it while the ride ain’t over.
Movie Rating:
(One for the fans - 'Entourage' returns sharp, funny, and entertaining as ever, for better or for worse)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Biography/Drama/Music
Director: Bill Pohlad
Cast: John Cusack, Paul Dano, Elizabeth Banks, Paul Giamatti, Kenny Wormald, Jake Abel, Joanna Going, Brett Davern
RunTime: 2 hrs
Rating: PG13 (Some Drug References and Brief Coarse Language)
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website: http://loveandmercyfilm.com
Opening Day: 11 June 2015
Synopsis: LOVE & MERCY presents an unconventional portrait of Brian Wilson, the mercurial singer, songwriter and leader of The Beach Boys. Set against the era defining catalog of Wilson’s music, the film intimately examines the personal voyage and ultimate salvation of the icon whose success came at extraordinary personal cost.
Movie Review:
Countless examples of great men in history have shown that there is no great genius without a mixture of madness, and ‘Love and Mercy’, a biopic of the co-founder, principal songwriter and all-around musical genius behind the Beach Boys, perfectly captures that analogy in Brian Wilson. Eschewing the template of a typical picture of its genre that is often comprised of three distinct acts – a rise to fame, a personal and consequently professional crisis, and lastly a redemptive third act – veteran film producer Bill Pohlad’s directorial debut focuses on two turning points in Brian’s life and chooses two different actors to play the same role at these different points.
It is an unconventional method no doubt, but one that pays off tremendously in creating an intimately powerful and poignant insight into the auteur. Paul Dano plays the younger Brian in the mid- to late-1960s, when at the height of the Beach Boys’ popularity, Brian suffers a panic attack on a plane and opts out of a gruelling touring schedule to write the lyrics and music for the band’s 1966 masterwork ‘Pet Sounds’. With Dano, we get to see the working process of the artist with the legendary studio musicians known as the Wrecking Crew – telling the cellists to attack their instruments like drums, explaining the apparently discordant key changes on the musical score, incorporating the sound of dogs into the background music, and even random chat between him and the musicians.
Witnessing Dano work through Brian’s ideas for the album with session ace Hal Blaine is a truly rousing experience – clearly, the visionary has the sound in his head and what he is aiming for, but translating that into the combination of oboes and cellos and French horns, finger cymbals and the unmistakable eerie notes of a Theremin requires iteration after iteration after iteration of tweaking and tinkering. As beautiful as this episode is to watch, it is also simultaneously unsettling because it marks the start of his mental breakdown, which culminates just after one of their most successful singles ‘Good Vibrations’.
The pieces are all there – his abusive father (Bill Camp) who also happened to be their manager and music publisher, the mournful lyrics that are meant to be expression of the voices in his head, and the auditory hallucinations. The last of course is also what radical behavioural therapist Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti) based his diagnosis on, but that is the story for the other narrative track. Dano is excellent in his half, delivering one of his most nuanced performances as he portrays with absolute clarity his character’s innocence, ambition, anxiety, sense of loss, pain and emotional desperation. He is heartbreaking to watch, and John Cusack, who plays the older Brian, echoes that beautifully.
Yes, Cusack looks nothing like Dano, so it isn’t that the former was cast alongside the latter for their physical appearance. That contrast however is entirely intentional and even inspired, for it does convey the sense that the Brian we see in the 1980s is nothing like the composer and musician we see in the 1960s. Cusack’s Brian is a hollow shell of a man living under the thumb of his therapist, whom we later on has been entrusted into the care of by his own family. It is also no coincidence that Eugene looks like Bill’s father, for the former turns out just as controlling, domineering and dare we say abusive.
Brian’s relationship with Eugene is nicely juxtaposed against that of Brian and his eventual second wife, Melinda (Elizabeth Banks), a saleswoman he meets and connects with at the showroom while shopping for a Cadillac. Melinda is simultaneously intrigued and worried for the soft-spoken eccentric who, by way of introduction, writes ‘Lonely Scared Frightened’ on the back of her business card. And through Brian’s sometimes childlike way of blurting out secrets as well as his bouts of paranoia, Melinda remains close by his side – much to Eugene’s consternation, who is less concerned about Brian’s wellbeing than having total and undisputed control over his whole life, including who he sees, where he goes, what he eats and who he talks to.
Just as Dano, Cusack gives an equally compelling portrait of Brian, fragile, sensitive, damaged and in need of both “love and mercy”. Next to Cusack, Banks is warm and quietly supportive. She is an excellent foil to Eugene, one who affirms and embraces Brian for the tortured genius he is, rather than beat him down for his mental infirmities. Cusack and Banks share a tender affecting chemistry, and Pohlad gives their relationship intimate focus, in no small part due to the cooperation he had with the real-life Brian and Melinda, whom we learn just before the end credits are now married with three children.
Perhaps surprisingly, the Brians from these two different timelines do not meet midway; instead, Pohlad shifts back and forth between them, weaving a complex multifaceted tapestry of his subject that celebrates both his extraordinary achievements as well as illuminates his inner psychological struggles. To their credit, Pohlad also has a great script from Oren Moverman and Michael Alan Lerner to work off, and the benefit of Robert Yeoman’s cinematography as well as Atticus Ross’ score to craft a lush, evocative movie that hooks you in with its visual and aural sensibilities.
With ‘Love and Mercy’, Pohlad has created a most unusual but also completely mesmerising biopic of one of the most talented figures in American music history. There is both genius and madness in his subject, and Pohlad pays tribute to the joy and abandon of his creative process while never diminishing the severity of his psychological turbulence. For fans of the Beach Boys’ music, it will also give new meaning to signature tunes like ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’, ‘Good Vibrations’ and most of all ‘God Only Knows’. Yes, watching Brian’s father dismiss it as ““wishy-washy... a love song and a suicide note” is a travesty that will make you appreciate the heartfelt tune even more.
Movie Rating:
(Rousing and heartbreaking at the same time, this biopic of The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson will have you see musical genius in a very different light)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Drama
Director: Wang Xiaoshuai
Cast: Lu Zhong, Shi Liu, Feng Yuanzheng, Qin Hao, Amanda Qin
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Mature Content)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 28 May 2015
Synopsis: Deng is a stubborn retired widow who spends her days caring about her two grown up sons and her elderly mother, despite her family efforts to stop her. But her daily routine starts derailing when she keeps receiving anonymous calls. What’s happening to her? Who could have anything against her? Even her husband’s ghost doesn’t seem to know…
Movie Review:
A country with a rich history does not need to try too hard to tell the stories of its people. With us being part of the Asian community, Chinais a fine example that comes to mind. Just look at the films originating from the world’s most populous country (last we checked, it stands at an astounding 1.35 billion). While we are not experts when it comes to China’s history, we have read or heard enough to know there must be a bounty of good stories which can be poignantly told on screen.
We are rather surprised that Chinese film director Wang Xiaoshuai’s latest work made it commercially to local screens, considering there are no big names (the only recongnisable starlet is After this Our Exile and The Crossing’s Amanda Qin, who plays a supporting character here). Besides, we do not remember Wang’s previous films making it to our shores. Looking at the 49 year old director’s filmography, this writer has only caught 2011’s Beijing Bicycle for a film studies module he took in school.
Known as the last film of Wang’s Cultural Revolution trilogy (following 2005’s Shanghai Dreams and 2011’s 11 Flowers), we were not sure what to expect before stepping into the theatres. The trailer makes the 110 minute movie look like a thriller, with a mysterious caller and what looks like a kidnapping involved. The Chinese title literally means “invader”, which made us believe that there is some sort of action and big story twist involved.
When we found out that the film is more than that, it further proves our point that a culturally rich country like Chinacan effortlessly tell an affectingly poignant story.
In this case, the film starts off by introducing viewers to how a retired widow is increasingly getting bothered by anonymous phone calls, and how this was initially conveniently disregarded by her doctor and children as the consequence of an aging individual. The story adds another layer by letting you know that the widow has two sons – one who is leading an alternative lifestyle as a homosexual (still largely frowned upon in Asian societies), and one who seems to be leading a normal life with his wife and child. There is also the widow’s mother, whose health is deteriorating by the day.
Herein lies an identifiable theme of seniors in the society. It’s somewhat affirming to see such familiar life episodes play out in a different country – we empathise with the different characters from their respective points of view, and are impressed by the natural performances by the cast. The relatively unknown actors include stage veteran Lu Zhong as the widow, the scruffy Qin Hao as the gay son, the sturdy Feng Yuanzheng as the family man, and Qin as his sometimes unreasonable wife.
Then Wang takes a turn with the story when he introduces the “intruder”. A young man played by Shi Liu enters the picture, and without saying too much here, he manages to evoke a certain part of the widow’s memory, resulting in her making a trip to the rural provinceof Guizhoufrom the cosmopolitan Beijing.
What happens in the province is a fine display of human emotions, ranging from regret and forgiveness to anger and atonement. When the film’s conclusion arrives, you also realise Wang, who is associated with the “Sixth Generation” filmmakers of the Cinema of China, has told a story of how a country’s past has impacted an individual’s life.
Movie Rating:
(A well told story that vividly illustrates the impact of China’s history, and at the same time poignantly brings out an individual’s wish to atone for her past actions)
Review by John Li
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