SYNOPSIS: They have escaped from the maze but Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and his fellow Gladers now face a greater challenge: searching for clues about the secret organization known as WCKD. Their journey takes them to the Scorch, a desolate wasteland filled with unimaginable dangers. The mystery deepens at every turn as the Gladers work together to discover their purpose and battle to survive in this must-see, electrifying adventure.

MOVIE REVIEW:

If you have yet to watch The Maze Runner, fret not you didn’t missed much. The good news is you don’t even need to catch the first one in order to catch the sequel, The Scorch Trails because it’s just another instalment featuring a group of youngsters running.

As a YA dystopia action movie, it functions perfectly and is easily accessible to almost everyone. It has a handsome charming young lead in the form of Dylan O’Brien as Thomas who not only leads a group of fellow comrades out of a terrifying maze but also one step away from finding out what the WCKD actually is. Despite running at 131 minutes, the pacing is remarkable swift and it offers significant thrills in the form of zombified humans dubbed Cranks.  

But there is one major gripe about The Maze Runner series; it continues to keep the audience in suspense refusing to reveal the purpose of WCKD and what actually happened to the entire human race. From what I heard the screenplay by T.S. Nowlin has taken a new route as compared to the original novel by James Dashner. But do rest assured the entire journey is never dull as director Wes Ball kept his young cast members on their toes at all times, only stopping occasionally to deliver some emotionally wrenching moments and the appearances of a new villain, Mr Janson (Aidan Gillien).

New characters Brenda (Rosa Salazar), Jorge (Giancarlo Esposito), Mary Cooper, a former WCKD scientist (Lili Taylor) and the leader of the resistant army, Vince (Barry Pepper) are introduced to the original group which consists of Minho (Lee Ki Hong), Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) and Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), clearly some characters are fillers at this point as this episode is merely a buildup to a bigger warfare in the coming instalments.  

It’s subjective whether you appreciate a movie with not much of an opening or ending to talk about. You just have to hang on for the final conclusion. At the very least, it has an engaging cast, some nice CGI and action sets to keep things running.   

SPECIAL FEATURES:

There are 16 Deleted Scenes and Extended Scenes with Optional Commentary by Director Wes Ball, Screenwriter T.S. Nowlin, Producer Joe Hartwick Jr and Film Editor Dan Zimmerman, a 15 minutes Gag Reel, Concept Art and Storyboards galleries and Trailers. 

AUDIO/VISUAL:

With the exception of some soft CGI shots, the visual presentation is generally solid and sharp. Dialogue is clean and there is a generous amount of dynamic panning sound effects to put you right into the action. 

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee
 

SYNOPSIS: THE FANTASTIC FOUR make a triumphant return with Marvel's next generation of heroes - four young outsiders who teleport to an alternate universe, their physical forms altered in shocking ways. Their lives changed forever, Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm must harness their incredible new powers and work together to save Earth from a former friend turned enemy, the infamous Dr Doom.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Except for the X-men franchise, Fox is known for messing up practically every Marvel property it owned. From Mark Steven Johnson’s Daredevil to Gavin Hood’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine to this huge disaster called Fantastic 4.   

It all started pretty well with Fox intending to reboot the Fantastic 4 property before Marvel takes it back and the hiring of Josh Trank coming off the success of Chronicle, an original indie superhero movie which was both critically acclaimed and commercially successful.  Then rumors start to swirl when there wasn’t much publicity despite being a tentpole title. Before you even know it, the bomb has exploded.

Before we actually thrashed the entire affair, Trank’s version (or whatever is left of it) of the renowned comic property has an overall grounded feel. The science sounds legitimate enough, the tone far more serious than the Tim Story’s versions and factor in the slightly improved CGI, this could be at least a bearable summer flick.

Unfortunately, the finished product is one hell of a disheveled event. The main characters lack an emotional arc, there is no joy or humour for a Marvel related movie and most obviously, the story is made up of last minute script revisions and reshoots. And for a US$120 million production, they can’t even afford much of a location shooting and instead alternating the story between labs, more labs and a CGI conceived Planet Zero.

For an origin story, the introduction of the various characters is simply awful. Okay so Reed Richard (Miles Teller) and Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) are childhood friends who manage to invent a teleporter and are talent spotted by a Professor Franklin Storm (Reg E Cathey) who conveniently has an adopted white daughter, Sue Storm (Katie Mara) and a rebellious son, Johnny (Michael B. Jordan). Not forgetting Franklin also has a weird problematic protégé, Victor vom Doom (Toby Kebbell). Somehow, these guys manage to teleport themselves to a strange planet, stumbled upon some green goo and equipped themselves with all sorts of funny powers on the way back. As to what and why Sue, Johnny and Ben continue to work with the United States military after the freak incident remains a mystery. And why on earth did Reed ran away for half of the movie is baffling. Why it took almost an entire movie duration for Doom to return and wreck havoc on earth is laughable.

Of course, we will never get to see the fantastic version of the movie which Trank claimed has made. Maybe it’s time to hand over Reed Richards back to Marvel or chose what Sony did, just work with the guys who has made so much money out of one Avengers. Catch this only to know what the whole world is fussing about.  

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Powering Up: Superpowers of the Fantastic Four is an informative 19 minutes segment that talks about the visual effects and designing of the costumes. Also included is a Concept Art gallery. 

AUDIO/VISUAL:

The entire move looks bleak and dark but I guess this is intended. Color grading didn’t spoil much of the viewing experience while the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack certainly engulf the audience with its wide range of sonic sound effects. 

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee

SYNOPSIS: The next generation of Griswolds is on the road again for another hilarious ill-fated family adventure. Following in his father's footsteps, a grown-up Rusty Griswold (Ed Helms) surprises his wife, Debbie (Christina Applegate), and their two sons with a cross-country trip back to America's "favorite family fun park," Walley World. What could go wrong?

MOVIE REVIEW:

Vacation coincidentally serves as sort of a sequel, reboot and remake of the original 1983 Vacation starring Chevy Chase as Clark, the head of the Griswold family who took his family on a road trip to visit a theme park.

This updated 2015 version stars Ed Helms (The Hangover) as the son of Clark, Rusty, a budget airline pilot whose idea of bonding with his family is to follow in his father’s footsteps that means taking a road trip all the way from Chicago to Walley World theme park in LA. Kind of unbelievable considers he is a pilot. Basically it retains the same old storyline but updated with the latest gross-out gags courtesy of directors/writers John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (Horrible Bosses, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone).

Helms practically ports over his character Dr. Stuart Price from the Hangover series to Vacation. Both characters are harmless at the core and always possess the best intentions in whatever they do. Ironically their best intentions always ended up to be moronic and dangerous liked a shortcut to a hot spring turned out to be a sewage dump and his rental of a SUV, the Tartan Prancer is basically a piece of junk.

The jokes are always on Rusty Griswold but the rest of his family members also contribute to some side gags. His wife Debbie (Christina Applegate) debuted a projectile vomiting gag while his obnoxious younger son Kevin constantly piles on the coarse language. However it’s Chris Thor Hemsworth that steals the show as the ridiculously well endowed Stone Crandall, the conceited celebrity bull-rearing brother-in-law of Rusty. On the other end, Charlie Day from Horrible Bosses cameos as a suicidal rafting guide and The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus appear as a truck driver.   

Nothing in Vacation screams of originality because all the raunchy gags have appeared one way or another in recent adult comedies. In fact, We’re the Millers starring Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis scored better in terms of laughs and heart. Nonetheless, for it’s one-minute-a-gag attempt, Vacation is still worth 99 minutes of your time, decent for a staycation but not for a long haul. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

There are 12 minutes worth of Deleted Scenes with one alternate scene that involved the fate of the Prancer. 

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Dialogue is clear and pop tunes are easy on the ears rest are mostly dynamic ambient effects. Visual presentation is solid with the exception of some soft CGI tweaking for scenes set inside the car and background. 

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee

SYNOPSIS: At the height of the Cold War in the early 1960's, CIA agent Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) and KGB agent Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer) must put aside longstanding hostilities to stop a mysterious international criminal organization bent on destabilizing the fragile balance of world power. With only one lead, the agents race to find a vanished German scientist, who is the key to infiltrating the organization.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Only Guy Ritchie can make heterosexual guys fall for heterosexual guys. Take a glance at his filmography and you realise they normally feature good-looking, well-dressed guys that talks and fights equally well. Sherlock Holmes, Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels just to name a few.

Ritchie of course repeats his penchant once again in this remake of the classic television series, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Assembling two of Hollywood’s hottest young actors and set during the Cold War era, Henry Cavill (Man of Steel) and Armie Hammer (The Lone Ranger) plays a CIA agent/professional thief and KGB agent respectively who must against all odds team up to stop a mysterious criminal organization from detonating a nuclear weapon. In short, it’s everything you expect from a Guy Ritchie flick and please don’t let that dated setting puts you off.

The screenplay by Ritchie and Lionel Wigram (Sherlock Holmes) indeed took a moment to get things going but once the plan is set, the fun begins. Cavill’s Napoleon Solo is like a laidback American version of James Bond playing opposite the more uptight Illya Kuryakin (Hammer), the duo ignites a couple of interesting gags liked the breaking in to a shipyard which resulted in a hilarious explosive sequence and to a climatic car chase towards the end. Of course, expect frequent acts of double-crossing and mistrust as this is a spy movie after all.

The international star-studded cast also includes Swedish actress Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina) as the woman whose father is the alleged scientist behind the nuclear warhead. Australian Elizabeth Debicki plays a sexy Nazi sympathiser while Ritchie’s fellow Englishmen Jared Harris and Hugh Grant plays high-ranking officials. Visually speaking, the 60’s setting are seamlessly weaved into the movie courtesy of the hardworking production designer and Oscar-nominated costume designer Joanna Johnston. Props, vintage cars and the on-location shooting in Italy easily enhance the viewing experience.

All round stylish, often witty and a classy score by Daniel Pemberton, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is an unexpected gem among the slew of spy genre movies released in the past year. Once again, Ritchie has the power to make you fall in love with the adventures of the male leads even if you are a manly straight guy. Enough said.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

A Higher Class of Hero is a 7 minutes feature that touches on the fight choreography and car chases seen in the movie.

AUDIO/VISUAL:

The movie is color degraded to have a 60’s touch though it didn’t really take away much as a result of it. Blacks are solid and detailing impressive.  A Guy Ritchie movie seldom disappoint in the sound department and U.N.C.L.E surrounds the viewers with dynamic sound effects from gunfire to explosion. 

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee
 

Genre: Drama
Director: Jay Roach
Cast: Bryan Cranston, Helen Mirren, Diane Lane, Louis C.K., John Goodman, Elle Fanning, Michael Stuhlbarg, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Alan Tudyk, David James Elliott
Runtime: 2 hrs 4 mins
Rating: PG13 (Coarse Language)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/TrumboMovie

Opening Day: 25 February 2016

Synopsis: The successful career of 1940s screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) comes to a crushing end when he and other Hollywood figures are blacklisted for their political beliefs. TRUMBO (directed by Jay Roach) tells the story of his fight against the U.S. government and studio bosses in a war over words and freedom, which entangled everyone in Hollywood from Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren) and John Wayne to Kirk Douglas and Otto Preminger.

Movie Review:

Showbiz is, well, a show. And then there’s this thing called the Academy Awards. Hosted by the Academyof Motion Picture Artsand Sciences, it is an annual American awards ceremony which aims to recognise excellence in cinematic achievements in the film industry as assessed by the Academy’s voting membership.

Anyone who has been on the Internet would know one of the most talked about topics at the 88^th Academy Awards is who will go home with the Best Actor Oscar. The countless number of memes about Leonardo DiCaprio’s four unfortunate misses with the statuette (three Best Actor and one Best Supporting Actor nominations) has gotten almost the whole cyberspace rooting for the 41 year old actor, who has come a long way since achieving international fame by playing the lovelorn good looker Jack Dawson in James Cameron’s Titanic (1997).

And since we know that there are factors like television ratings and advertisement prices involved in the Academy Awards (it is a business like any other commercial products, if you have been too idealistic to realise), the attention on such chatter is one of the determining elements of ‘winning’ movies, actors and filmmakers.

Wait, isn’t this review supposed to be about Jay Roach’s film about Hollywoodscreenwriter Dalton Trumbo, whose work has been highly regarded by the industry until he and the other artists were jailed and blacklisted for their political beliefs? Why did we just spend three paragraphs on whether DiCaprio is worthy of being crowned Best Actor at the Academy Awards?

You see, this is what we mean by the importance of chatter, what people are consistently talking about. As much as we feel that this film’s lead actor Bryan Cranston is the worthiest winner out of the nominees (DiCaprio for The Revenant, Matt Damon for The Martian, Michael Fassbender for Steve Jobs and Eddie Redmayne for The Danish Girl), the 59 actor, who is a first time Best Actor nominee at the Oscars, is unlikely to take home the golden statuette.

Cranston, who is best known for playing Walter White in the crime drama series Breaking Bad, is perfect in this 124 minute drama. His screen presence is strong, and effortlessly gives gravitas to the titular Trumbo. The remarkable performance is one of the most affecting we have ever seen on the big screen, from the scenes of him writing and smoking in his bathtub, to the sequences where he uses his sarcastic sense of humour to address naysayers.  

Roach, who is known for his directorial work in comedies like the Austin Powers movies and Meet the Parents, delivers a compelling piece of work based on John McNamara’s screenplay from Bruce Cook’s book Dalton Trumbo. Inaccurate historical representations aside (go find out more from history textbooks if you want to find out more), the film tells a story of the showbiz industry that we have heard much about – star power, glamour, dirty money and ugly politics.

It helps that Cranston’s co stars include capable actors like Diane Lane (Unfaithful), Helen Mirren (The Queen), Louis C.K. (Blue Jasmine), John Goodman (Inside Llewyn Davis), Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man) and Elle Fanning (Super 8), making this film a must watch for those who are fans of good acting.

As for Cranston’s fate with the Oscar trophy, that’s what those “Should Win and Will Win” lists are for.  

Movie Rating:

(Bryan Cranston delivers a remarkable and affecting performance, making him the worthiest Best Actor winner at the 88^th Academy Awards – but hey, that’s just us)  

Review by John Li

Genre: Action/Comedy
Director: Wong Jing
Cast: Chow Yun Fat, Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Carina Lau, Nick Cheung, Shawn Yue, Kimmy Tong, David Chiang, Angela Wong, Michelle Hu, Lo Hoi Pang, Yuan Qiu, Maria Cordero, Jacky Hueng, Charles Heung, Li Yuchun
Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins
Rating: PG13 (Brief Nudity)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 5 February 2016

Synopsis: At the wedding of his daughter, Ken (Chow Yun Fat) is warned by Michael Chan (Andy Lau) of a mysterious tycoon who is plotting to kill him. Before he could react, a blast is heard and the newly weds fall into a coma. Enraged, Ken embarks on a mission to get revenge for his daughter, together with buddies Michael, Mark (Nick Cheung) Faye and Long Wu. Ken is invited to a gambling event set up by the tycoon to mock and tease him, but emerges victorious with the help of Michael, Mark and Faye, despite being induced. Will he find out the true identity and intentions of this malicious mastermind?

Movie Review:

From Chow Yun Fat’s Ko Chun to Andy Lau’s Michael Chan to Chow Yun Fat’s more recent Ken Shek, three generations of gambling legends unite in the third instalment of Wong Jing’s ‘From Vegas to Macau’ franchise; and how perfectly apt really, since it was from the prolific mind of Wong Jing that these iconic characters of Hong Kong cinema were hatched and etched into the public consciousness. Yet, as befitting as it may be for him to be at the helm of this reunion party, it is also ironically the reason why we are quite so utterly disappointed at this lazily scripted, messily directed piece of overblown, over-the-top nonsense which Wong Jing is passing off as a fun Lunar New Year caper.

Not that the previous two chapters, which saw Chow Yun-Fat portray Ken as a playful and even zany riff on his 1980s ‘God of Gamblers’ character, were classics; yet imperfect and at least mildly shambling as they were, ‘From Vegas to Macau’ and ‘From Vegas to Macau 2’ were a boisterous mix of kinetic action and goofy humour buoyed by Chow’s effortless screen charm. That charisma is sorely lacking in this bloated follow-up – given how Ken is joined not only by Nick Cheung’s former D.O.A. accountant Mark, but also his master Ko Chun’s disciple Michael (Lau), Michael’s no-nonsense partner Kitty (Li Yuchun), a new nemesis named J.C. (Jacky Cheung) and last but not least a female equivalent to his male robo-butler named Skinny that the latter unsurprisingly takes a romantic interest in.

Continuing on the downward trajectory set by its immediate predecessor from the original, the sorry excuse of a plot that picks up from the events of the former has the love-crazed J.C. plotting to exact revenge on Ken for leaving Molly (Carina Lau) in her current comatose state. So J.C. detonates a bomb in the form of a robot designed to look like Michael at Ken’s daughter’s wedding (Kimmy Tong), and sets Ken and Nick up to look like they stole the US$15 million they recovered from Molly’s international criminal organisation D.O.A. in the last instalment. Thanks to Michael and Kitty, Ken and Nick manage to break out of a high-security prison in Hong Kong, where they seek refuge in Michael’s home in Singapore before going to a fictional island named Paradise Island in Thailand to confront J.C.

To nitpick at Wong Jing’s script for his story is perhaps missing the point; after all, Wong Jing makes no attempt to disguise that it exists merely as narrative glue to connect standalone gags to action-heavy set-pieces. Yet even on that basis, we are left wanting. One minute it seems like Ken and Nick are running from the Interpol, the next it seems that they have teamed up with the latter to take down J.C. But most inexcusable is how characters seem to pop in and out with no discernible reason, the best example of this how J.C. suddenly turns up with Molly’s assistant Kammy at Michael’s house to challenge everyone to a game of table tennis in order that they hand over Ken. Even more than the last sequel, this one presumes audience goodwill in overlooking the gaping holes and lapses of logic in its plotting.

Unfortunately, there is little quid pro quo in our willingness to suspend disbelief. Compared to the previous instalments, there are a grand total of three gags that work here – the first which has Ken lead his fellow inmates on a sing-along of the classic ‘Prison on Fire’ song ‘The Light of Friendship’ (友誼之光) at the prison where no less than the song’s Macanese singer and songwriter Maria Cordero is the warden; the second which has a traumatised Ken regard himself as Zhang Wuji and his friends as other ‘Jin Yong’ characters after watching a classic adaptation of ‘The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber’; and the last which sees Michael and Kitty play a game of mahjong with Yuen Qiu and Lo Hoi Pang to the tune of Sam Hui’s classic ‘The Mahjong Heroes’ (or ‘打雀英雄傳’).

As much as we love to see Chow Yun-Fat, Andy Lau and Nick Cheung clowning around with each other, the rest of the gags are tired, forced and uninspired, so much so that the middle act set in Michael’s house passes by like a slog. Worse still, it is in this same act that we are forced to put up with Wong Jing’s inexplicable obsession with his robotic creation in the last movie, that he takes one step further by having Ken’s Robot Stupid try to get ‘fresh’ with Michael’s Robot Skinny in various ways. Only the surprise appearance by Law Kar-Ying as an ammo expert by the name of ‘Only Yu’ (you either get the joke or you don’t) enlivens the proceedings, though after that initial tongue-in-cheek name-play, Wong Jing can’t even seem to follow through with anything amusing.

Seemingly aware of his audience’s tedium, co-director Andrew Lau over-compensates in the last act with an excess of gunfire, pyrotechnics and CGI. Instead of actual locations, Lau has opted to build a number of grand sets to make up J.C’s elaborate underground lair, most of which he then proceeds to blow up in slo-mo theatrical fashion after equally dramatic shoot-outs. Still, the action hardly excites, and is often over in a blur. The only two sequences which leave an impression – but for the wrong reasons – are a completely gratuitous one where Lau unleashes his ‘Michael Bay’ ambitions by letting Robot Stupid and Robot Skinny take on four evil robots in ‘Transformers’ fashion before Nick Cheung turns into ‘Iron Man’ to finish them off, and a totally cringe-worthy showdown between Ken and J.C. in the latter’s (literally) highly charged laboratory where Jacky Cheung gets to show off his best ‘Harry Potter’ wand-waving impersonation before Carina Lau miraculously emerges from her coma to end everything off on yet another melodramatic note.

Despite the high-profile additions of Andy Lau and Jacky Cheung, ‘From Vegas to Macau 3’ is easily the weakest entry of the series, no thanks to a shambolic plot, imbecilic gags, and incoherent action. What fun we had watching Chow Yun-Fat reprise his role as Ko Chun and his hyperactive doppelganger Ken is sorely watered down here, as Wong Jing spreads his time amongst the other key players and even plays down his role. Instead of honouring the legacy of his past screen creations, Wong Jing does them an absolute disservice and even disgrace by bringing them together without meaning or motivation. There is only so much nostalgia can get you, and it is too easy to recognise all that star-power as bluff.   

Movie Rating:

(Despite the star power, this third instalment of Wong Jing’s gambling-themed franchise is lazily scripted, messily directed and no more than overblown, over-the-top nonsense)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Drama
Director: Todd Haynes
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Kyle Chandler, Jake Lacy, Sarah Paulson, John Magaro, Cory Michael Smith, Kevin Crowley
Runtime: 1 hr 59 mins
Rating: R21 (Homosexual Theme)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: http://carolfilm.com

Opening Day: 24 December 2015

Synopsis: New York 1952. Carol is elegant, sophisticated, wealthy and married. Therese is just starting out in life, unsure of who she wants to be. A chance encounter in a Manhattan department store sparks an extraordinary friendship between these two women. Carol is caught in a bitter divorce and a custody battle for her daughter, but finds herself mesmerised by this mysterious, quiet beauty. Finding herself alone on Christmas Day, Carol invites Therese to escape on a spontaneous road trip into the heartland of America. It is during this magical journey that the two fall hopelessly and desperately in love. But this is 1952 and Carol is risking everything for this relationship that defies society's conventions. Based on the best-selling novel by Patricia Highsmith, author of 'Strangers on a Train' and 'The Talented Mr Ripley', Carol is a powerful romance fueled by the suspense, danger and exhilaration of forbidden love.

Movie Review:

After sitting though the entire 118 minutes of this Todd Haynes directed drama about a young aspiring photographer and her relationship with an older woman going through a difficult divorce, you may wonder what the big deal is about. After all, a large part of this film involves restrained expressions and suppressed feelings between the two female leads. If you’re not in the mood to indulge your senses, you may want to sit this one out and opt for something louder and funnier, something littered with more action and laughs instead.

Call it the female version of Brokeback Mountain (2005) if you will, this gorgeously lensed film is an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel “The Price of Salt”. While we are not as well read as we hoped to be, one thing we know – that things were very much different 60 years ago where there was no Internet and social media to air your views and stand up for what you believe are an individual’s ‘human rights’. That explains why the protagonists in the film are not your vocal LGBT community that we are familiar with today.

The plot starts off fairly simple – a temporary staff at a department store in Manhattan (Rooney Mara) is approached by a glamorous older woman (Cate Blanchett) who purchases a model train set for her daughter as a Christmas gift. The two form an immediate attraction (you know how they say feelings do not require logical explanations) and begin a romantic relationship. Of course, like any other relationship, this is not without its ups and downs. Introduce elements like secrets, a divorce, a fight for a young girl’s custody and the occasional emotional outbursts.

Haynes, an independent filmmaker, has films like Velvet Goldmine (1998), Far From Heaven (2002) and I’m Not There (2007) under his belt. The 54 year old, who is openly gay, is known for exploring themes of identity and sexuality in his works – and his latest film is no different. Through the characters, we see how personalities are put at odds with the perceived norms of the society they live in. At times, this tension becomes subversively dangerous that is screaming to explode in the open.

This is clearly Blanchett (The Monuments Man, Cinderella) and Mara’s (The Girl with the Golden Tattoo, Side Effects) show. The two women have perfect on screen chemistry, having you believe that they are any other couple going through the best and worst of times. Both are getting critical acclaim and you can expect to see their names in the nominee lists at the upcoming awards season. Blanchett is effortlessly classy, and the unspoken power and authority in her conceals the vulnerability we can identify with. Mara portrays the fresh faced character with ease, putting in the right amount of emotions at the appropriate moments. For that, the 30 year old won the Best Actress at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.

Pundits can also expect nominations in the art direction (kudos to the team for the attention to details and the number of props to bring out the era’s look), costume design (one can only imagine the effort the team put into deciding what is donned by Blanchett and Mara in the film) and cinematography (Edward Lachman was also responsible for 1999’s The Virgin Suicides and 2006’s A Prairie Home Companion, both of which were visually stunning) categories.

We need not say more – if you’re in the mood to appreciate the finer aspects of human emotions through a visually appealing medium, then this is one film you should watch.  

Movie Rating:

(A quietly powerful film that reminds you how raw – and real - human emotions can be)

Review by John Li

Genre: Drama
Director: Anton Corbijn
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Dane DeHaan, Joel Edgerton, Alessandra Mastronardi, Stella Schnabel, Ben Kingsley
Runtime: 1 hr 52 mins
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scene and Some Nudity)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 31 December 2015

Synopsis: Inspired by the true story of photographer Dennis Stock (Robert Pattinson) and Hollywood’s rebel actor James Dean (Dane DeHaan), brought together for a LIFE Magazine assignment. Their journey leads to an unbreakable friendship and some of the most iconic images of the age.

Movie Review:

If you’ve never heard of the series of iconic portraits of the late James Dean by ‘LIFE’ magazine photographer Dennis Stock back in 1955, then you really shouldn’t bother with this tepid re-telling of that photo-spread. Indeed, Anton Corbijn’s film of the same name isn’t a biopic of the method actor who had died in a car accident in the same year at the tender age of 24; rather, it tells of the brief and testy friendship between Dean and Stock as the latter tracks the former from New York to Indiana to photograph the ascending actor whom he believed was on the cusp of major stardom – more specifically, right before the premiere of ‘East of Eden’ and Dean’s filming of what would be his last motion picture ‘Rebel Without A Cause’.

Essentially a two-hander between ‘Twilight’s’ Robert Pattinson (who portrays Stock) and ‘Chronicle’s’ Dane DeHaan (who plays Dean), it is as interested in the photographer as well as much as the photographer’s subject, both of whom shared a mutual disillusionment of the Hollywood publicity machinery. A freelancer whose calling card is his black-and-white set photos of Nicholas Ray’s ‘Johnny Guitar’, Stock is first seen at Ray’s Chateau Marmont shindig angling for a similar gig on the set of the notable filmmaker’s next project – which would be ‘Rebel’. That career borne out of such ad-hoc shoots and red-carpet assignments has led Stock to be estranged from his wife and young son in New York, and Stock is frustrated both with the knowledge of his inadequacy as a father and the fact that his artistic career seems to have stagnated.

It is at that same dinner party that Stock would meet Dean, who invites Stock to watch a private preview of ‘East of Eden’ the very next day that would convince him there was something extraordinary about its lead actor. “I want to capture his awkwardness,” Stock says. “It’s pure.” The relationship that follows is unfortunately anything but, less so we suspect from the vague sexual chemistry between them than the result of an ambiguous screenplay that cannot quite find the right footing for the pair. Instead, it is content most of the time to let Stock corral Dean to pose for the camera, including a recreation of the most famous Dean image of all – that of the actor moodily striding through New York’s Times Square in the rain, smoking a cigarette and with his coat collar turned up.

There are some brief moments of – for the lack of a better word – life, such as when a scene-chewing Ben Kingsley as Jack L. Warner (of Warner Brothers) tells Dean off for dissing his studio’s Western and refusing to toe the line with the studio publicists. Another memorable scene has Dean laying his heart bare to Stock in a train dining car on the way to the former’s childhood home in Indiana about the painful loss of his mother as a child. Yet, these moments are too few and too far in between a film that never quite knows where it is going or where it wants to go with the central relationship between Stock and Dean – and in the absence of anything meaningful or compelling, one wonders if it is even basis for a whole movie.

That frustration is compounded by a listless turn by Pattinson, who pretty much shrinks his way throughout the show. We’re not quite sure what kind of person Stock was when he was trying to persuade Dean back in the time, but we doubt such a lethargic and obtuse person would have ever convinced Dean to agree to any kind of shoot in the first place. DeHaan, on the other hand, has the unenviable task of trying to translate an enigmatic real-life person into something more than a mirror impersonation, and despite mumbling his way through a lot of the time, succeeds in portraying his character’s awkwardness, insouciance, and rebellious nature. It is still an affected performance all right, but at least it does pop.

As much as ‘Life’ may have seemed a perfect project for Corbijn, who is best known for creating classic images for rock acts U2 and Joy Division, the Dutch-born filmmaker never quite finds a focus for his latest film. All the same, the one compliment we will give is the fact that it does look lovely, aided by his gifted d.p. Charlotte Bruus Christensen and production designer Anastasia Masaro, who vividly evoke the 1950s style of Hollywood, New York and the farming town of Fairmount, Indiana. Like we said at the beginning, those familiar with the portraits might be curious to check out the back story to the shoot; otherwise, this meandering study of the bond between the star and his photographer is too slight and too out-of-focus to matter.

Movie Rating:

(Unless you are a sucker for all things James Dean, this frustratingly obtuse portrait of the relationship between the star and the photographer of his 1955 'LIFE' portraits is not worth your time) 

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Comedy
Director: Ben Stiller
Cast: Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Penélope Cruz, Kristen Wiig, Olivia Munn, Christine Taylor, Benedict Cumberbatch, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Billy Zane, Will Ferrell
Runtime: 1 hr 42 mins
Rating: NC16 (Sexual References)
Released By: UIP
Official Website: http://www.zoolander.com

Opening Day: 3 March 2016

Synopsis:  Derek and Hansel are modelling again when an opposing company attempts to take them out from the business.

Movie Review:

There was a time when Singaporewas regarded as a prude nation. Zoolander, the outrageous comedy directed by Ben Stiller in 2001 was banned because the comedy’s storyline involved an attempt to assassinate the Prime Minister of Malaysia. Due to bilateral sensitivities (and also the excessive drug use in the 89 minute movie), it was initially not allowed for all ratings. In 2006, the ban was lifted and the movie was rated NC16, allowing it to be made available on home video. 

Fifteen years later, the filmmakers decide to release a sequel. And if you haven’t already scoured the worldwide web for reactions to this movie, you may be unaware of the countless negative reviews that are unkindly directed at the comedy that was highly anticipated and came with a publicity campaign that was kind of a big deal.

This reviewer was so excited that he re watched the first movie days before the preview screening, hoping to relive some the comedy magic. But alas – maybe it’s the abundance of critical comments that have been surrounding movie  (and the urban myth that a sequels usually can’t live up to their predecessors) – there’s just this bugging feeling that this comedy is like Derek Zoolander (and to a certain extent – Stiller himseld?): a has been.  

Justin Bieber, Benedict Cumberbatch, Sting, Susan Boyle, Ariana Grande, Kiefer Sutherland, Anna Wintour, Marc Jacobs, Kate Moss, Tommy Hilfiger and MC Hammer. These are just some of the cameos you should be looking out for when you are watching this 102 minute comedy.

Does the plot really matter? Not really, because you are not expecting this movie to take home any trophies during the award season (there’s that possibility that it may make its mark at the Razzies though). You do not really need to care about the conspiracy Zoolander (Stiller) and his pal Hansel McDonald (Owen Wilson) find themselves in during a fashion event in Rome. You also need not pay attention to the plot about their return to the fashion industry after being secluded from the glitz and glamour of the modelling world.

Are there jokes which made the original cult comedy a hit? Well, let’s just say with the kind of movies consumers have been bombarded with in recent years, the kind of ridiculous humour may not go down well with the folks who have a high regard (maybe too highly, in this writer’s opinion) for their taste in comedies.

Yup, the storyline is silly. And Academy Award winner Penelope Cruz’s role in the movie is definitely won’t be a feminist’s cup of tea (oh, what would any hot blooded dude do to star in a movie alongside a female star with that figure!), but hey, if you are not chuckling, that’s just your inner Scrooge not wanting you to enjoy this movie.

Co stars include Kristen Wiig (whose talent is kind of wasted behind that thick makeup and those exaggerated outfits), Justin Theroux (reprising his role as the Evil DJ from the first movie) and Will Ferrell, who looks like he had a really enjoyable time playing the villainous Jacobim Mugatu. Ferrell is the funniest to watch in this movie, but his appearance is a little delayed.

Our advice to those who are still interested to watch this movie? Leave all your common sense at the door, and enjoy the comedy as it is.   

Movie Rating:

(Ridiculous? Very. Funny? Quite. Intelligent? Not at all. Enter the cinema knowing this, and you wouldn’t walk out cursing and swearing at the movie’s stupidity)

Review by John Li

Genre: Romance/Comedy
Director: BAIK
Cast: Han Hyo-joo, Kim Dae-myeung, Do Ji-han, Bae Seong-woo, Park Shin-hye, Lee Bum-soo, Park Seo-jun, Kim Sang-ho, Chun Woo-hee, Ueno Juri, Lee Jae-joon, Kim Min-jae, Lee Hyun-woo, Cho Dal-hwan, Lee Jin-uk, Hong Da-mi, Seo Kang-jun, Kim Hie-won, Lee Dong-wook, Ko Asung, Kim Joo-hyuk, Yoo Yeon-seok
Runtime: 2 hrs 6 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Sexual References)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Official Website:

Opening Day: 17 December 2015

Synopsis: Woo-jin changes every day: into a man, a woman, a child, an old man ... and even a foreigner. And one day, when he visits his regular furniture store, Woo-jin finds E-soo and falls for her at the very first sight. And when D-day comes, he decides to confess to her. "What do you prefer? Sushi or steak?" "I ... practiced this many times." Are you able to love someone who changes every day? .

Movie Review:

Don’t we always wonder whether the people who say that they love us do so for how we look on the outside or who we are on the inside, and hope that it is the latter, given how looks are ultimately ephemeral? That’s the dilemma at the heart of commercials director Baik’s feature filmmaking debut, ‘The Beauty Inside’, which imagines a man who wakes up as a different person each day – an old woman, a middle-aged man, a young lady, a child, an Asian, a Caucasian etc. It isn’t a new idea; the same conceit was first part of a series of Youtube shorts by Drake Doremus, but Baik has used that high-concept to explore just how a person with such a condition would be able to hold a normal relationship with a woman and in doing so stretch the limits of inner beauty to its extreme.

In voiceover, our lead protagonist Kim Woo-jin enlightens us about his identity crisis that he has been coping with since he turned eighteen nearly 12 years ago. Only two people are aware of his unique circumstance – his mother and his best friend, Sang-beck (Lee Dong-hwi) – and as you may guess, they are also the only two people whom Woo-jin keeps enduring relationships with. A designer and woodworker, Woo-jin prefers retreating to the comfort of his studio away from the glare of the public eye, relying on Sang-beck to supply him with the raw materials he needs for his work and to sell his handcrafted furniture via their private-limited company. Though he humours Sang-beck by going to bars to look for one-night stands with him, Woo-jin has his eye really on a certain salesgirl Yi-soo (Han Hyo-joo) in an avant-garde furniture store, whom he visits in a different “shell” regularly.

And then one day, Woo-jin decides to ask Yi-soo out for a dinner date, thus beginning a three-day marathon of staying awake in order that he may get to meet her in the form of Park Seo-jun. Eventually though, he drifts off on the subway and wakes up as a middle-aged man, and despite turning up the next morning at the bus stop where they have arranged to meet, he doesn’t approach Yi-soo for fear of startling her. It will be months later that the lovelorn Woo-jin finally decides to reveal himself to Yi-soo, which happens to be in the form of a young woman who first identifies herself as a company intern. Despite being shocked at first, Yi-soo’s love for Woo-jin convinces her to persevere in a completely unconventional relationship that comes with a few rather predictable ramifications.

Besides the fact that she cannot recognise him at first sight on any given day, Yi-soo is also faced with doubts from her older sister as well as her boss why she seems to be seeing a different man every night. Of course, their relationship is not without its charms – in one particular iteration where Woo-jin appears as a young boy, Yi-soo slips Woo-jin alcohol in a Yakult bottle at the restaurant where they are having dinner when the servers are not looking; and in another, Woo-jin turns up as the dashing Lee Beom-soo at a corporate party after being an elderly woman just two hours ago, much to Yi-soo and her boss’ pleasant surprise. There are equal bits tense and heart-wrenching moments between Woo-jin and Yi-soo as there are sweet and tender ones, but as narrative convention dictates, there will be a heated, tearful argument before the pair finally reconcile – and in beautiful Prague, no less.

As much as the concept lends itself to broad comedy or social commentary, Baik and his co-writers K. Ganggeul and Park Jung-ye are not interested in either; rather, they eschew thought-provoking subjects like gender or racial identity in favour of a simple and straightforward romance that probes just how far true love can be divorced from a person’s physical appearance. Yet it is also because it is so singularly devoted to this theme that their film ends up being slight and even shallow – indeed, it glosses over how Yi-soo would relate to someone who looks the same sex as her, or speak a different language as her, or is of a different race, or of a different skin colour. Such nuances are unfortunately lost in a film that is otherwise keen to be as pleasing and inoffensive as it can be, and no more than a romance in the strictest sense of the word.

Without such ambition, ‘The Beauty Inside’ ends up being – for the lack of a better word – skin-deep. In the most significant scenes, Woo-jin is played by no fewer than 21 actors, including Do Ji-han, Lee Jae-joon, Lee Jin-wook, Seo Kang-jun, Lee Dong-wook, Kim Hee-won and Yoo Yeon-seok; and if you count every single representation of him, there are a total of 123 distinct actors. There is some fun watching Woo-jin switch from identity to identity, and die-hard romantics will lap up the sentimental scenes of Woo-jin and Yi-soo sharing couple time together, but those are pretty much the only pleasures that you’ll get in a very deliberately paced soft-focus romance that is pretty to look at on the outside but lacking in depth on the inside. 

Movie Rating:

(An intriguing premise gets a very straightforward and rather bland execution in 'The Beauty Inside', whose pleasures are ironically, skin-deep)

Review by Gabriel Chong