SYNOPSIS: From the creators of How to Train Your Dragon comes the hilarious and heartwarming, hit comedy of the year, featuring the extraordinary voice talents of Jim Parsons, Steve Martin, Rihanna, and Jennifer Lopez. When Oh, a lovable misfit from another planet, lands on Earth and meets a teenage girl named Tip, the two unlikely friends embark on the greatest journey of all time...the journey HOME.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Sheldon Cooper has come alive on the big screen. No not that socially awkward nerd in The Big Bang Theory but Golden Globe best leading actor Jim Parsons. Even as a socially awkward alien Oh, he still reminds audience of Sheldon Cooper. But never mind that.
In this latest CG animation from DreamWorks, Parsons voiced Oh, a color-turning Boov who befriends a human girl, Tip (Rihanna) after he accidentally made a deadly mistake of attracting the attention of his species’ most dreaded enemy, the planet destroying Gorg.
Led by the idiotic Captain Smek (Steve Martin), the Boovs are a bunch of cowardly selfish alien race. They inhibit Earth and relocate the people to Australia thus separating Tip from her mom (voiced by Jennifer Lopez). To find her mom, Tip must join forces with Oh in her futuristic hovering car across the globe or faced capture by Captain Smek.
Home at its core is a movie about bravery and friendship. However, unlike the recent more sophisticated Disney’s titles such as Wreck-It-Ralph and Big Hero Six, DreamWorks aims a little lower. Much lower in fact. Notably absence are the subtext and intricate plotting, it’s a simplistic colourful animation filled with plenty of slapstick comedy to entice the little ones in the end. Perhaps the failure of Rise of the Guardians has made them wary that they prefer to make things elementary.
What could be easily avoided during the scripting stage, there isn’t much in-depth character development between Tip and Oh. Just the usual bickering at the start before they expectedly turned into loving buddies. If there’s one thing director Tim Johnson got it right, it’s the cute factor. Oh often speaks in broken and sometimes baffling English which can be amusing and Parsons of course got it all nailed down. Veteran comedian Steve Martin is mostly forgettable as Smek despite his almost unrecognizable voice acting. So is the fate of Jennifer Lopez though she contributed to the soundtrack with “Feel the Light” after Rihanna’s “Towards the Sun”. Both theme songs predictably appeared numerous times during the music montages.
Other than adorable and cute, Home hardly qualifies as DreamWorks’ stronger titles. In fact, Disney’s Lilo and Stitch, which actually possesses a similar theme, fares better. Home is just moderately passable.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Best Party Ever! and Oh’s Party Place contain a series of songs, music clips and party planning stuff. For the little ones in the household. There’s also a photo Gallery and Trailers.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
As per any DreamWorks animation title, Home is a dazzlingly piece of visual delight. Detailing is top notch with plenty of rich colors to impress. Directional effects, dialogue and pop songs are nicely balanced and delivered in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD RATING :
Review by Linus Tee
Genre: CG Animation
Director: Peter Sohn
Cast: Raymond Ochoa, Jeffrey Wright, Steve Zahn, A.J. Buckley, Anna Paquin, Sam Elliott, Frances McDormand, Marcus Scribner, Jack Bright
Runtime: 1 hr 41 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 26 November 2015
Synopsis: "The Good Dinosaur" asks the question: What if the asteroid that forever changed life on Earth missed the planet completely and giant dinosaurs never became extinct? Pixar Animation Studios takes you on an epic journey into the world of dinosaurs where an Apatosaurus named Arlo makes an unlikely human friend. While traveling through a harsh and mysterious landscape, Arlo learns the power of confronting his fears and discovers what he is truly capable of.
Movie Review:
Pixar, most of all, should know that what goes ‘Up’ must eventually come down; and so it is with their second effort of the year, which not only is a step down from their brilliant ‘Inside Out’ but is also ultimately one of the least in their oeuvre. Grafting a familiar man-and-his-beast story around a young Apatosaurus named Arlo (voiced by Raymond Ochoa) and a feral human child whom he names Spot (voiced by Jack Bright), ‘The Good Dinosaur’ strands the former miles away from home in service of a coming-of-age tale that sees him learn to overcome his fears while developing an immutable bond with the latter. It’s a road trip all right, but one that though inspired in parts feels on the whole pedestrian to the point of monotony.
One certainly expects much more from the premise, which imagines an alternate path of evolution based on the supposition that the asteroid which killed the dinosaurs millions of years ago actually missed Earth. As such, the prehistoric creatures have remained Earth’s dominant lifeforms, learning to farm, rear chickens and build homes. On the other hand, humans are much further down the evolutionary ladder, no more or better than cavemen that go about on all fours sniffing things and peeing on trees. That explains the role reversal between Arlo and Spot, such that while Arlo speaks perfectly good English, Spot pretty much does so in grunts and growls while gnashing his teeth at anything it perceives to be hostile.
At first, the relationship between Arlo and Spot seems to cast in a much more complex mould; after all, they first make each other’s acquaintance when Arlo disobeys his father’s order to kill the critter who has been stealing their corn supply and instead sets it free, a move which in a chain reaction of events results in Arlo’s dad being tragically killed. It is somewhat disappointing to learn soon after that their unlikely bond is made up in fact of entirely familiar stuff, so in too short a matter of time, the former adversaries become best friends after Spot helps Arlo find food and navigate the initial ‘culture shock’ of the wilderness. With only each other to depend on, Spot also becomes Arlo’s unlikely companion as he makes his journey back to his family, made up of Momma (Frances McDormand) and two older siblings Buck (Marcus Scribner) and Libby (Maleah Padilla).
The journey back home for Arlo will be a test of his bravery and willpower, both of which Spot demonstrate in good measure, no doubt honed out of sheer necessity from having to forge his own way in the world. Their tender, largely wordless friendship is the emotional anchor which holds the entire movie together, and to first-time director Peter Sohn’s credit, accumulates poignancy over the course of the film, paying off in an exciting climax in which Arlo’s courage will be key to their mutual survival as well as an understated sendoff right after that will bring tears to the eyes of some. As is typical of such tales, it is the “beast” – or in this case, Spot – who steals the show, and the hunter-toddler swaddled in a diaper of leaves with his dog-like antics is adorable and hilarious to say the least.
Yet even though the cross-species bonding does have its emotional resonance, there is more than a nagging doubt that it could have been a lot, a lot more affecting. Across beautifully rendered CG backdrops that look breathtakingly realistic, our unlikely pair of heroes engage in sporadically amusing encounters with various colourful characters, including a kooky cross-eyed styracosaurus (voiced by Sohn) which tries to claim Spot as his own, a group of unhinged pterodactyls led by the “enlightened” Thunderclap (Steve Zahn), and a trio of cattle ranching T-rexes whose leader is the gruff and grizzled cowboy Bunch with the signature baritone (that’s Sam Elliott for you) as well as a pack of nasty raptors who have been preying on Bunch’s herd.
Between themselves, Arlo and Spot also squeeze in a hallucinogenic episode courtesy of some queer fruit as well as a game of blowing gopher-like creatures out of their holes in the ground. Notwithstanding the fact that these vignettes are entertaining in and of themselves, their broad, often madcap mode of humour feels jarring next to the quieter, more sublime moments between Arlo and Spot alone. More significantly, their very fleeting nature leaves one with the impression that they serve ultimately no purpose than as diversion from a thin story that is coupled with a formulaic, well-worn character narrative, with the same unfortunately true for the thrill ride-like setpieces that send Arlo and Spot tumbling down rapids.
Given how Pixar’s works are often held up as the gold standard of feature animation, it is more than a little disappointing that their latest is that mediocre. The technical accomplishments here in terms of recreating the natural rugged beauty of Yellowstone’s waterfalls to Montana’s grasslands are undeniable, but Pixar’s mantra has always been about putting the story and its characters first, and ‘The Good Dinosaur’ leaves us feeling short-changed on both fronts. Indeed, we would have been suitably impressed if this were the debut effort of a fledging studio, but as one bearing the Pixar brand name, this is no ‘Ratatouille’, no ‘The Incredibles’, no ‘Inside Out’ and not even ‘Cars’. It is barely serviceable despite evident steps at salvaging a troubled production, which by Pixar’s standards, is simply a letdown.
Movie Rating:
(One of Pixar’s weakest efforts ever, this technically accomplished but narratively bereft coming-of-age story feels prehistoric next to their illustrious oeuvre)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Eli Roth
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Lorenza Izzo, Ana de Armas, Ignacia Allamand, Aaron Burns, Colleen Camp
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Rating: R21 (Sexual Scenes)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website:
Opening Day: 15 October 2015
Synopsis: Keanu Reeves stars as Evan Webber, a happily married architect who appears to have everything a man could ever dream of – a loving and successful wife, two beautiful children and an expensive home. During a weekend alone, his peaceful existence is interrupted by the sudden arrival of two lost and seemingly innocent young girls. After naively inviting them in while they wait for a taxi, the night takes a sudden and disturbing turn when a debaucherous mistake evolves into a living nightmare.
Movie Review:
The storyline unfolds with a too good to be true kind of happy day where the Webbers look like they are from an Ikea catalogue page. Everything goes fine until, an ominous knock was heard coming from outside on a rainy night. And there stood Genesis (Lorenza Izzo) and Bel (Ana de Armas), the nubile duo who looked like the damsels in distress in the most unsuspecting way. Happily married and a father of two lovely kids, Evan Webber (Keanu Reeves) was trapped between the whorish devil and the deepest blue sea.
There were well-written roles to fit everyone perfectly into the plot (if there was any to start off with). No one could have played it better than Reeves but on a second thought Liam Neeson would have been an ideal choice too except that it would make him look like a pedophile given his age and voice. Reeves’ role as a loving husband challenged to be unfaithful jerk hubby, nominally frames the movie. The plot that organically comes together when Reeves is left alone at home, revolves around this wholly believable central character who is trapped with the sirens of the night in the same house that is meant to be the most holistic place in his life.
Director-screenwriter Eli Roth has given plenty of horror and thriller content in recent years, such as The Last Exorcism (2010), Hostel and Hostel II. The actor and producer also hails as the father of torture porn or ‘gorno’ (deriving probably from the word gory porno) from his low-budget box-office hit Hostel that was predominantly set in Slovakia and Czech Republic. Roth did take Knock Knock to the next level with storyline that sends chills down your back sans the headhunters or assailants who normally fall in the gender trap of being males imperatively. This time, the females become the man eaters and once again, who would have been a best bet than Reeves given his chocolate boy image throughout the nineties with unforgettable romantic dramas like Sweet November and A Walk in the Clouds. Roth could have turned up the thrill ride by a notch or two at least, with a back story to fill in on why the strangers of the night were doing what they had to do. Knock Knock’s rank on the charts could soar if a sequel was done based on the provocative females’ side of the story.
Does it hail as an erotic thriller that one has to watch before dying? Perhaps not. It’s a really fun movie but it is also a little off the kilter. Supremely silly and funny in a least anticipating way. The trailer might lack in the allure of a hard-core thriller where you want to shadow trail the rest of the film, but Knock Knock would be an exception. As the title suggests, you might not want to even ask “Who’s there?” when someone actually initiates that joke with you
Movie Rating:
(Watch this movie if you had liked: Misery, The Loft, Chloe and Plush)
Review by Asha Gizelle M
SYNOPSIS: In this psychological thriller from Academy Award nominated director Atom Egoyan, Matthew must live through a parent's worst nightmare when his young daughter Cassandra vanishes without a trace. Years later, when detectives Nicole and Jeffrey discover recent images of Cassandra online, Matthew puts everything on the line to get his daughter back.
MOVIE REVIEW:
In an attempt to revive his flagging career after a series of duds, former Hollywood’s hottest leading man Ryan Reynolds seems to channel all his screen presence in smaller, indie productions in the meantime before his stint in Deadpool.
Choosing to work with Oscar nominated director and writer Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter, Chloe) is perhaps the biggest reason why Reynolds and his bunch of co-stars chooses to work on this insipid kidnapping drama shot in icy cold Ontario, Canada.
In a nutshell, Reynolds plays a landscape worker Matthew whose nine-year-old daughter, Cass is kidnapped after he got down his car to pick up a pie. Unfortunately, there’s zero suspense and plot twists outright as the culprit and motive is revealed shortly after the opening credits as the story hops back and forth over a course of eight years.
It’s not really a sin to tell a story in a non-linear way (Memento and Atonement just to state a few) but Egoyan and his co-writer David Fraser apparently lack the specific skills to engage the audience often leaving them frustrated, like a game of jigsaw puzzle gone wrong.
The story which is inspired by the Cornwall pedophile ring in Eastern Ontario has Kevin Durand (The Strain) playing a well-mannered, creepy pedophile, Mika who has not only held Cass in captivity but has resort to doing video surveillance of Cass’ mum. His pedophile ring is so sophisticated that even in the span of eight years, Detectives Nicole Dunlop (Rosario Dawson from Netflix’s Daredevil) and Jeffrey Cornwall (Scott Speedman from Underworld) are unable to bring Cass back to her parents.
Instead of a straight out detective crime thriller, Egoyan throws in baffling characters’ motivation such as Mika letting Cass meeting her dad face-to-face and Matthew’s all of a sudden realization that Mika is her daughter’s abductor later on. Pedophile is a touchy, evocative subject which made for a great cinematic experience if done right as in the case of Hugh Jackman/Jake Gyllenhaal’s Prisoners. Yet The Captive sadly squandered away most of its potential on an unbelievable plot which is neither heart-breaking nor disturbing.
As for the actors, Reynolds did pull in a reasonably strong performance as the anguish father though most of the scenes he is relegated to driving in his truck or talking on the phone with his estranged wife. Rosario Dawson is amazing as Dunlop, it’s a pity she didn’t has much to do in the final act while Mireille Enos (World War Z) and especially Durand overacts at times. Scott Speedman on the other hand plays a bastard cop who attempts to pick a fight with a father whose daughter just went missing. That explained why a lot of crimes remained unsolved.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Audio Commentary with writer/director Atom Egoyan is an informative one as Egoyan provides interesting details behind the story and characters etc. The end product might not be as thrilling as you expect but he makes a good storyteller.
Captive Thoughts Featurette is an 8 minutes segment that has the main cast members and Atom Egoyan talking about the movie.
There are also 14 minutes of Deleted Scenes, an Alternate Ending and a series of Lionsgate Trailers.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
Visual and detailing are fine with the freezing landscapes looking insanely beautiful. The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound mix is serviceable with clear dialogue, occasional ambient sound effects and also an unimpressive brooding score by Mychael Danna.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD RATING :
Review by Linus Tee
Genre: Comedy
Director: Walt Becker
Cast: Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, Bella Thorne, Jesse McCartney, Jason Lee, Tony Hale, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Eddie Steeples, Christina Applegate, Kaley Cuoco, Anna Faris, Jennifer Coolidge
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: 20th Century Fox
Official Website: http://www.foxmovies.com/movies/alvin-and-the-chipmunks-the-road-chip
Opening Day: 24 December 2015
Synopsis: Through a series of misunderstandings, Alvin, Simon and Theodore come to believe that Dave is going to propose to his new girlfriend in New York City…and dump them. They have three days to get to him and stop the proposal, saving themselves not only from losing Dave but possibly from gaining a terrible stepbrother.
Movie Review:
For the uninitiated, Hollywood likes to call it counter programming. Since 20th Century Fox is no longer clinging on to a lucrative Star Wars distribution deal, it just has to make do with a fourth rodent outing to deal with the awaken force. It doesn’t cost a whole chunk of money and it already has an established audience. The answer is why not.
The Ross Bagdasarian Sr’s creations received yet another unwarranted live-action outing with recurring characters and an ultra familiar story under the direction of Walt Becker (Wild Hogs, Old Dogs). The experience probably is so awful or harmful to their credentials that none of the instalments have the same director so good luck to Becker.
Jason Lee who obviously needs the fat paycheck after the end of My Name is Earl returns as Dave, the guardian of Alvin (Justin Long), Simon (Matthew Gray Gubler) and Theodore (Jesse McCartney). When the chipmunks discover that Dave is pursuing a new romantic interest in the form of Samantha (Kimberly Williams-Paisley), the trio starts to hatch plans to sabotage it. But this time Alvin has an opponent to deal with that is Samantha’s equally obnoxious teenage son, Miles (Josh Green).
Basically the entire franchise worked on three bullet points. The first being unleashing catastrophes mayhem, second being toilet jokes and the last introducing plenty of energetic song numbers. With these points to work on, Becker indeed has dutifully discharged his duty. The movie opens with a loud birthday party that went wrong. Not long after, we have the chipmunks being chased by a crazy air marshal played by Tony Hale from Arrested Development. Then it’s back to more loud music number in the New Orleans French Quarter and Miami.
With a title liked Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip, you know the boys are going to get into one trouble after another during the road trip before realizing Dave is not going to abandon them. It’s a theme that was mentioned in the original and how many times must Dave prove to the boys that they are one family after all. In other words, the writers and producers behind the series have ran out of ideas to make a heartwarming tale of singing chipmunks and instead they cranked out more Chipmunk version of contemporary pop songs liked Uptown Funk to distract the bored adults.
If you are looking for Chipettes action then you will be disappointed to learn that they only appear briefly because they are off doing judging duties for American Idol. Likely too busy doing voicework on the acclaimed Inside Out, Amy Poehler who voiced Eleanor is out of this instalment (as if it makes a lot of difference) and also David Cross who plays crooked record executive Ian Hawke for the past three entries. The only consolation is watching Jennifer Coolidge playing Dave’s wacky neighbor. Those old enough will know she is from the American Pie series. Eye wink.
We honestly thought the original was quite an entertaining sentimental tale but it seems like Fox has squander whatever goodwill the first has built up. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip once again repeats the same old formula with the squeaky-voiced chipmunks doing the usual irritable gags and song numbers. Nothing more, nothing less.
Movie Rating:
(Harmless fun for the younger kids. Fatal for the adults.)
Review by Linus Tee
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7 LETTERS WILL END ITS THEATRICAL RUN ON 16 SEPTEMBERPosted on 10 Sep 2015 |
Genre: Sci-Fi/Horror
Director: Alec Gillis
Cast: Lance Henriksen, Camille Balsamo, Matt Winston, Giovonnie Samuels, Winston James Francis, Mick Ignis, Michael Estime, Jason Speer, Reid Collums
Runtime: 1 hr 22 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Some Violence and Disturbing Scenes)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website:
Opening Day: 13 August 2015
Synopsis: A group of grad students have booked passage on the fishing trawler Harbinger to study the effects of global warming on a pod of Orcas in the Bering Sea. When the ship's crew dredges up a recently thawed piece of old Soviet space wreckage, things get downright deadly. It seems that the Russians experimented with tardigrades, tiny resilient animals able to withstand the extremes of space radiation. The creatures survived, but not without mutation. Now the crew is exposed to aggressively mutating organisms. And after being locked in ice for 3 decades, the creatures aren't about to give up the warmth of human companionship.
Movie Review:
Welcome aboard to Harbinger! The nameless, faceless entity shrouded in an unsuspecting massive clot of ice seeks a new host to feed on, grow on and hunt down within a matter of minutes. Everyone denies the one possibility of them being the next one to be deliberated and holds on to a false hope that the ‘it’ could never harm them. Is liquid nitrogen released in an icy whoosh from a cylinder good enough to wipe out the shapeshifting curse at its ugliest and save all? Or is it just about time to send out a Mayday?
Lance Henriksen who is much of a household name to films of the preceding genre (jogging memory back to Aliens, The Terminator and Alien VS Predator) did justice to his part as a tempestuous captain of a fishing trawler trapped a fitting tumultuous weather. Camille Balsamo plays to be a wise grand-daughter of the captain who makes a discovery only to be met with strife from her uni mentor spearheading the entire project. With a host of versatile actors forming an assemblage from both big screens and otherwise, it is indeed a rude shock to have Harbinger Down’s wind robbed off its sails.
The liberator of the plot would actually be the theme or rather themes of the film weaved into one and branded as a Sy-fy flick. There is some political drama kicking in at circa 40 minutes into the storyline which is evenly punctuated with a safe measure of family drama thus allowing some room for the plot to be a tad bit more engaging. Hailing as a science fiction genre, everything could have been richly imagined since space would be the limit with puns intended, of course.
Harbinger Down’s agenda? Bringing the nauseating back. Was it realised eventually? Yes. To a king-sized degree. Except that the warmth of the plot was amiss. The theatrical poster matches the level of grimness of the international trailer which heightens the viewer expectations.
Harbinger Down is guilty as charged for stereotypical characterisation with Russians downing Vodka shots and drawling in the sexiest accent possible, blacks getting infected sooner than anticipated, and little miss brunette being the smart ar*e.
Harbinger Down sets sail exclusively for all faithful Alien franchise followers.
Watch this if you had liked: Alien (1986), The Fly (1986), Shakma (1990) and Piranha (1995).
MOVIE RATING:
(Calling all Sy-Fy buffs. Let the frozen mystery transport us back to the somewhat bleak future with its 80 plus minutes of SFX (we have a man performing in a suit, actually) paired with unearthly mewling and tentacles swaying about in repulsive fashion. Good to expect lots of grossology from the icy enigma. If only Sigourney Weaver was on board, Harbinger Down would be blazing even in the coming eons.)
Review by Asha Gizelle M
Genre: Drama/Crime
Director: Scott Cooper
Cast: Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Bacon, Dakota Johnson, Jesse Plemons, Corey Stoll, Rory Cochrane, Sienna Miller, Adam Scott
Runtime: 2 hrs 2 mins
Rating: M18 (Coarse Language And Violence)
Released By: Warner Bros
Official Website: http://www.blackmassthemovie.com
Opening Day: 17 September 2015
Synopsis: In 1970s South Boston, FBI Agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) persuades Irish mobster James “Whitey” Bulger (Johnny Depp) to collaborate with the FBI and eliminate a common enemy: the Italian mob. The drama tells the true story of this unholy alliance, which spiraled out of control, allowing Whitey to evade law enforcement, consolidate power, and become one of the most ruthless and powerful gangsters in Boston history.
Movie Review:
If his recent streak of box-office failures is anything to go by, it seems that no one wants to see Johnny Depp outside of the ‘Pirates of the Carribbean’. Of course, Depp did himself no favours by mistaking flamboyance for acting, and his last flop ‘Mortdecai’ is as good an example as any of such hubris. It is therefore no surprise that ‘Black Mass’ has been touted as his comeback film, a return to more mature, adult, grittier fare that he was first known for. Not that he has given up on the elaborate makeup and prosthetics; as the murderous Irish-American gangster James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, Depp is hidden behind a balding head, sweptback silver hair, steely blue eyes and age freckles that make him virtually unrecognisable.
Based on the exhaustively researched book of the same name by Boston Globe reporters Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill, ‘Black Mass’ chronicles how Whitey managed to stay out of the grasp of the law while building his own fiefdom right under the authorities’ noses. Essentially, that came down to what has since been termed “an unholy alliance” between Whitey and FBI agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton), the latter a childhood friend of Whitey’s who persuades his bosses (Kevin Bacon and Adam Scott) to strike a deal that would give them information to take down the Italian mafiosos ruling the city’s north. Suffice to say that the free rein Whitey is in turn given to grow his Winter Hill Gang does not turn out well at all, and eventually draws the attention of a federal prosecutor (Corey Stoll) determined to nail him.
The script by Mark Mallouk and Jez Butterworth frames three specific acts around interview testimony given by Whitey’s longtime henchmen – more specifically Jesse Plemons and Rory Cochrane as Kevin Weeks and Steve Flemmi respectively – after their arrest and Whitey’s disappearance. The first act set in the year 1975 establishes the tangled deal that Whitey struck with Connolly to become an FBI informant against their common enemy, while setting out how the former slowly tightens his grip over his criminal interests from vending machines to dope dealing. Whereas, the second act skips ahead to the year 1981 when Whitey tries to get into the Jai Alai gambling market in Florida, the ramifications of which are played out in the final act, that finds not just Whitey growing increasingly paranoid and unhinged but also the law finally catching up to his long list of misdeeds.
All the while, there is no doubt in our heads that Whitey is – as one of the characters puts it – “strictly criminal”, with no other motivation than his own interests. That however makes him a much less interesting character than you may think, for there is little complexity to the man. Sure, we are given hints of him as a loving and protective father who loses his son to Reye's Syndrome or as a devoted son who late into the film grieves deeply over the death of his mother, but both are given only fleeting mention. Ditto for the relationship between Whitey and his more legitimate brother, Billy (Benedict Cumberbatch), a state-senator who chooses like the FBI to turn a blind eye to Whitey’s criminal ways – how these two very different men relate to each other is not given much description.
And therefore, though he is ostensibly the focus of the movie, Whitey is pretty much a glossy character that ends up being all surface. Instead, Whitey is sidelined in his own film by Connolly especially in the second and third acts, as Connolly grows to increasingly untenable lengths to cover up testimony of Whitey’s crimes. It isn’t so simple as loyalty; as his own wife observes, Connolly is enamoured of Whitey, which shows up in his dressing and other increasingly lavish ways. Connolly’s own undoing is ironically more interesting to watch than Whitey’s own, for the former is a much more relatable character to whom we also grow to sympathise with.
As much as Whitey’s character is thinly written, there is no denying Depp’s fierce acting. Some of the best scenes are credit to Depp’s underplaying, in particular a dinner at Connolly’s house where Whitey gets another FBI agent to reveal his family’s secret steak sauce recipe and then confronts him about his trustworthiness if he cares to give away such a secret so easily. Depp never exploits his character’s larger-than-life nature for hyperbole, and in turn projects a chilling menace that keeps us hooked. It isn’t enough to disguise the fact that the person inside remains remote and opaque to us, but Depp is mesmerising to watch.
Edgerton is Depp’s perfect complement as the once straight-laced law enforcer who grows increasingly blind at his own complicity, especially when the noose starts to tighten around his character and Whitey. It is a pity though that the two actors don’t share more scenes together, a fault of both the screenwriters as well as its director Scott Cooper. Too little time is spent developing the relationships between the characters than sketching out a panoramic view of the Boston criminal underworld, which is also why Cumberbatch’s presence amounts to no more than a glorified cameo while Plemons and Cochrane get more screen time instead. Without that emotional grounding, Cooper’s crime drama plays no better than a procedural, coming off too detached for its own good.
One gets the sense that Cooper doesn’t simply want to follow in the footsteps of Martin Scorcese, whose classics such as ‘Goodfellas’ and even ‘The Departed’ have become the gold standard in gangster dramas. But Cooper has somewhat over-compensated by draining the energy and pulse out of his film, so much so that even the occasional bursts of violence cannot provide much by way of visceral thrills. As far as being an acting showcase for Johnny Depp however, ‘Black Mass’ is as good a comeback as one may expect; but as one in a long line of gangster movies, it hardly stands out.
Movie Rating:
(A mesmering performance by Johnny Depp and an equally outstanding complement by Joel Edgerton cannot quite save the stodginess of this procedural crime drama)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Drama
Director: Royston Tan
Cast: Joi Chua, Liu Ling Ling, Michael Tan, Brandon Wong, Rahimah Rahim, Shigga Shay
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: mm2 Entertainment and Golden Village Pictures
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/3688movie
Opening Day: 17 September 2015
Synopsis: The movie centres around a parking attendant named Fei Fei who always dreams about becoming a singer like her famous idol and namesake - the legendary Taiwanese singer Fong Fei Fei.
Movie Review:
Coming off the high of the successful film anthology 7 Letters, where director Royston Tan was the lead filmmaker, is Tan’s 3688 (想入飞飞). The film is Tan’s fifth feature film following a seven-year hiatus after 12 Lotus, and there are expectations for the film to replicate the success of 881.
Similar to 881 and 12 Lotus, 3688 revolves around music – songs of the late Taiwanese singer, Fong Fei-Fei, to be exact. Local singer Joi Chua stars as Xia Fei Fei, the only child of retired Rediffusion salesman Uncle Radio (Michael Tan). Fei Fei works as a parking attendant, or a “Fong Fei-Fei” to support her small family. As Uncle Radio succumbs to dementia, Fei Fei is aided by the extroverted neighbourhood kakak-cum-kopitiam drink stall owner Ah Luan (Liu Ling Ling) and the constantly friendzoned Mao Shan (Brandon Wong).
The film can be clearly split into two parts – Fei Fei the parking attendant and Fei Fei the singing competition contestant. The extensive first half served primarily to construct Fei Fei’s home and workplace, and did not contribute much to the actual storyline. This might be partly due to the unnecessary sequences, and introduction of characters that did not serve much purpose, packing the half with too many, too short scenes. The short scenes also made the half feel choppy and disjointed, not giving the audience enough time to appreciate the relationships between characters, as everything was pretty much touch and go.
Thankfully, the second part was much better, dedicating more time to delve deeper into Uncle Radio’s state of mind, as well as Fei Fei’s struggles when dealing with her father’s illness, her lack of confidence, and her surroundings. Given that Fei Fei was participating in a singing competition, it also provided the opportunity for Chua and Tan Bee Keow, who plays the stereotypical diva contestant, Anita, to show off their singing skills, which were, to be honest, much more enjoyable than their acting.
The straightforward storyline and simple setting meant that first-time actress Joi Chua would have plenty of chances to shine. However, the acting was lackluster and stilted, as Chua drifted around carparks and just looked lost for most part. Chua’s best acting occurred in the scenes with theatre actor Michael Tan, whose performance as Uncle Radio was easily the most memorable. The father-daughter scenes, especially after Uncle Radio was diagnosed with dementia, were also the most poignant. Perhaps it was the lack of dialogue, or perhaps it was the Xia family’s HDB apartment, but those scenes were the highlight of the film, and will probably cause many wet eyes in the theatre.
Also new to acting was local rapper and YouTube personality Shigga Shay, who plays Yoyo, Ah Luan’s son. It might be the smaller role compared to Chua’s, as well as his rapping throughout the film (seriously, that rap on Fong Fei-Fei was wow), but it felt that his performance was not as cringe-worthy. On the other hand, providing the much-needed comic relief amidst the too-real world problems was Liu Ling Ling, with her loud costumes and voice, and to a lesser extent, Rahimah Rahim as Jenny, Fei Fei’s nemesis at work.
Personally, I liked that the ending of the film, which did not tie up all the ends too neatly, adding to the realism of the film. That said, the unimportant, frayed strings dangling were the most irritating – the sub-plots which do not add to the storyline, but seemed to be introduced to the film just because. Case in point: why did Fei Xiang (Jerry Huang) come back to New York, make coffee, then lie on a bed for the rest of the time? Would the film be as complete without the introduction of his role? Yes, probably.
As a whole, the film does seem more like an ode to the disappearing icons of Singapore than anything else, such as the white uniformed, hat-wearing carpark attendants, the subscription cable radio service Rediffusion, kopitiams and the soon-to-be-redeveloped Dakota Crescent. This was done at the expense of the storyline but to be honest, I did not mind it at all.
Movie Rating:
(With a healthy dose of nostalgia befitting the SG50 festivities, and the father-daughter relationship portrayed by Joi Chua and Michael Tan, 3688 is likely to be a crowd-pleaser, which will tug at the audience’s heartstrings)
Review by Goh Yan Hui
Genre: Crime/Thriller
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Cast: Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin, Jon Bernthal, Daniel Kaluuya, Maximiliano Hernandez, Victor Garber, Jeffrey Donovan, Raoul Max Trujillo, Bernardo P. Saracino, Julio Cedillo
Runtime: 2 hrs 1 min
Rating: NC-16 (Coarse Language and Violence)
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website: http://www.sicariofilm.com
Opening Day: 17 September 2015
Synopsis: In Mexico, SICARIO means hitman. In the lawless border area stretching between the U.S. and Mexico, an idealistic FBI agent [Emily Blunt] is enlisted by an elite government task force official [Josh Brolin] to aid in the escalating war against drugs. Led by an enigmatic consultant with a questionable past [Benicio Del Toro], the team sets out on a clandestine journey forcing Kate to question everything that she believes in order to survive.
Movie Review:
Denis Villeneuve isn’t the first to make a film about the cross-border war against the Mexican drug trade, but his ‘Sicario’ is quite possibly one of the most gripping ones we’ve seen on the subject. To underscore just how entrenched the issue lies, it begins not directly across the border but in suburban Arizona, where an FBI team led by field agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) are shocked to find dozens of rotting corpses hidden behind the drywall of a nondescript one-storey house which they have been sent to retrieve a kidnapped victim. The shed outside the house also happens to be booby-trapped, and blows apart shortly after the FBI team has concluded their raid.
Immediately after, Kate is presented with the opportunity to catch the guys across the border really responsible for the tragedy. This is Kate’s story, who agrees to join a black-ops operation led by a DOJ contractor Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) on an excursion to El Paso to escort a high-ranking cartel boss (Bernardo Saracino) back across the border for interrogation. Matt expects that their contingent will be ambushed while crossing the bridge, so he’s brought a whole army of burly military men with him, but what intrigues Kate is the stoic, solemn Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro), a former Mexican prosecutor who is now officially enlisted as an advisor.
As Kate (and us) will soon discover, she is way out of her depth. Her introduction to El Paso includes the sight of bodies, naked and decapitated, hung from overpasses. A border firefight in dense traffic leaves more than a half-dozen people dead. With absolutely no hint of compunction, Matt wetworks the man they had brought over the border for information that would illuminate just how the cartel has been operating. On her night off back in Phoenix, she is almost choked to death by a local sheriff who has been paid off by the cartels. And all the while, Matt refuses to give her a straight answer just what exactly their mission is – the only hint she gets is from Alejandro, who says cryptically, “Nothing will make sense to you Americans and you will doubt everything we do, but in the end you will say, those guys were right.”
Kate is our lens into a world of moral turpitude that doesn’t possess neat, clean or straight-forward answers to the questions it poses. At what cost and by what means should the war on drugs be counted on and fought with? Is it even realistic to expect that the narcotics trade can be wiped out by eliminating the heads of the cartels? Or have we reached the point where the only practical solution is to gain control of the entire trade? Actor-turned-screenwriter Taylor Sheridan paints a morally cynical picture of the real-life war and presents a solution that, while ethically questionable, remains a compelling one that deserves debate and scrutiny.
Trading scope for intimacy, Sheridan fashions an intense character study of Kate, the tough but idealistic agent forced to find her place amidst a disorientating reality awash with ambiguity. And just as Jessica Chastain did in ‘Zero Dark Thirty’, Emily Blunt delivers a powerful gender-free performance that mixes confidence, bewilderment and vulnerability. There is no attempt to emphasise how she is one female in an alpha-male dominated world, and for that matter is her character given any backstory for us to empathise with; rather, it assumes that no one, whether male or female, would be any less helpless or disconcerted against the throes of the drug war.
Blunt’s complement is twofold – one, the smarmy swagger of Brolin’s DOJ contractor; and two, the quiet menace of Del Toro’s ‘sicario’. Yes, the latter is who the title refers to, and easily the most intimidating character of the lot – not just because he seems to be the most uncompromising one of them all, but also because his motives are shrouded in mystery right till the very finish. Though Blunt’s Law School-graduate partner (Daniel Kaluuya) does pop up from time to time to help her find centre and sanity, this is essentially a three-hander between Blunt, Brolin and Del Toro, and the masterful acting from all three pros is gripping to watch in itself.
That’s not to dismiss Villeneuve’s cinematic style, which is clear, assured and riveting. Keeping the pace blisteringly suspenseful, Villeneuve never misses a beat driving the character beats through a series of slick setpieces, moving effortlessly from a tense opening raid to a thrilling shootout on the Mexican-American border and finally to a night-time stealth operation filmed in night and thermal vision. Reuniting with his ‘Prisoners’ cinematographer Roger Deakins, Villeneuve switches between vast aerial canvasses of the desert countryside to carefully framed close-ups in a way that only the immensely light-dark attuned Deakins can to make the film as a whole visually arresting.
Even though its subject isn’t new, ‘Sicario’ is still a breathless piece of genre entertainment that renews Villeneuve’s credibility as one of the foremost directors in Hollywood today. Villeneuve navigates the complex political realities of the Mexican drug trade and its actors with clarity and skill, never simplifying the difficulties, opacities and trade-offs involved. Those familiar with his earlier works such as ‘Incendies’ and ‘Prisoners’ will probably recognise this as his most commercial work to date, one that balances its ethical conundrums with sheer white-knuckle action. Indeed, it is both cerebral and visceral, smart and entertaining in equal measure.
Movie Rating:
(Gripping, exciting and provocative, Denis Villeneuve’s take on the Mexican drug trade is an uncompromising character study that pulses with white-knuckle suspense)
Review by Gabriel Chong
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