|
LOVE OR BE LOVED IN 1400Posted on 15 Feb 2016 |
|
DEADPOOL ranks No. 1 at Singapore box office again!Posted on 22 Feb 2016 |
|
MARVEL STUDIOS BEGINS PRODUCTION ON "GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2"Posted on 18 Feb 2016 |
|
ALL-STAR CAST FROM THE HUNTSMAN: WINTER'S WAR TO ATTEND RED CARPET AND FAN PREMIERE AT UNIVERSAL STUDIOS SINGAPORE ON 3 APRIL 2016Posted on 18 Feb 2016 |
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Wisit Sasanatieng
Cast: Jannine Weigel, Pongsakorn Tosuwan, Kara Polasit, Sa-Ard Piempongsan
Runtime: 1 hr 52 mins
Rating: PG13 (Disturbing Scenes)
Released By: Encore Films and Golden Village Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 18 February 2016
Synopsis: The newest enrollee at a convent boarding school, the aloof Mon (Jannine Weigel) becomes the laughing stock when her classmates catch her sniffing at various objects all the time. What they do not know is that Mon actually possesses a paranormal power that allows her to smell the scent of spirits. One night in the girls’ toilet, Mon encounters a mysterious ghostly being, who calls himself Senior (Pongsakorn Tosuwan), and is roped into his investigation of a brutal murder that happened 50 years ago. Along the way, the unlikely detective duo runs into both human and supernatural forces that attempt to obstruct them from the truth. On the other hand, who is the mysterious Senior? Will Mon live to find out?
Movie Review:
‘Senior’ may bear the hallmarks of a typical Thai horror, but writer/ director Wisit Sasanatieng’s latest entry to the genre after almost a decade’s hiatus is really much more.
Not content to simply follow the rules of the playbook, Sasanatieng invents his own in telling the story of an unlikely friendship between a high school girl Mon (Jannine Weigel) and the ghost of a male student Senior (Pongsakorn Tosuwan) who team up to solve the murder of a princess half a century ago.
Instead of being able to see them, Mon sniffs ghosts out, a gift she acquires after surviving a car accident that killed both her parents at the age of four. In the same way, instead of given carte blanche to walk through walls, Senior can only navigate his surroundings based on how it was before he died, which also means that he can only walk through walls that were never there when he was alive.
Before you dismiss these unconventional rules of engagement as mere gimmicks, Sasanatieng actually makes them work in the context of his story. Indeed, these rules form the very raison d’etre of the odd-couple pairing – to solve the mystery of the princess’ murderer as well as that of his own, Senior needs someone who can reach into the spiritual realm and physically go to places that he cannot enter.
In fact, Sasanatieng puts these operating principles to good effect in building up tension throughout the movie. Mon’s paranormal olfactory ability literally helps her ‘sniff’ out danger, whether is it the presence of an unfamiliar spirit or the distinct scent of hatred in a spirit out for revenge. Senior’s inability to go to certain places also heightens the sense of danger that we feel whenever Mon has to go off exploring some place on her own, such as the new areas in her convent school compound that weren’t accessible before.
And as much as you’d like to think that you’ve seen or read enough of such mysteries to know just who the real killer is, we’d advise that you hold these assumptions and let the clues speak for themselves. Not unlike a procedural, Mon and Senior’s investigation of the key figures close to the princess – including her physician Dr Saner, her lawyer Mr Praphan and her secretary Ms Woranart – finds each with a number of dirty secrets to hide and therefore probable cause. Quite rarely does a film manage to keep up a sense of intrigue from start to finish, but Sasanatieng comes real close to accomplishing that.
It is also to Sasanatieng’s credit that these scenes have a distinct sense of past and present, metaphysical and physical. There is a certain rhythm by which Sasanatieng establishes how each of these co-exist alongside each other on the screen – beginning with the physical present that is Mon’s immediate surroundings, followed by the metaphysical realm where the spirits dwell, and then the past where previous events remain frozen at a certain point in time. One particularly effective sequence sees Mon and Senior split up to search for clues in different sections of the former palace library, right before the former picks up the whiff of a particularly malevolent spirit in her presence and is strangled from the back.
Besides being a good old-fashioned murder mystery, ‘Senior’ also tries to be a contemporary teen romance as well as a schoolgirl drama at the same time, though not quite so successfully. Weigel and Tosuwan share a sweet down-to-earth chemistry as Mon and Senior, but that is not nearly enough to convince us that Senior would fall in love with Mon – or for that matter, be entangled in a love triangle with Mon’s overeager doctor friend. Ditto for the tragedy that befalls Mon’s only close friend at school, Ant (Kaykai Nutticha Namwong), after she is spurned by the lecherous male chemistry teacher on whom she has a huge crush on.
Perhaps it was a little too ambitious of Sasanatieng to try to make a film that is thrilling, sweet, funny and poignant at the same time, and the uneven tonal shifts within the two-hour running time is testament to that; yet, aside from the unnecessarily distracting subplots, ‘Senior’ is a well-constructed mystery thriller that keeps you guessing right till the very end. As a ghost movie, it is also one of the rare ones that cleverly plays with convention and doesn’t simply embrace cliché – and by extension, it will probably be one of the better Thai horrors you’ll see in a long while.
Movie Rating:
(Good old-fashioned murder mystery that also puts a clever twist on the usual - and by now, tired - rules of the 'ghost movie' playbook)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Nicolas Pesce
Cast: Andrea Riseborough, Demián Bichir, John Cho, Betty Gilpin, Lin Shaye, Jacki Weaver
Runtime: 1 hr 34 mins
Rating: NC16 (Violence & Horror)
Released By: Sony Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 2 January 2020
Synopsis: A house is cursed by a vengeful ghost that dooms those who enter it with a violent death.
Movie Review:
By now, you’d probably know how ‘The Grudge’ works: when someone dies in the grip of a powerful rage, a curse is born, and that curse gathers in the place of death, passing onto whoever enters that misbegotten place. Though no less than seven films (four Japanese and three Hollywood ones) have been built on that same formula, this reboot from producer Sam Raimi (who also produced the first two Hollywood remakes) and director Nicholas Pesce makes no attempt to refresh or put a creative spin on it; instead, Pesce, who also co-wrote the movie, seems content to simply ‘copy’ the non-linear, episodic structure of Takashi Shimizu’s original.
There is the caretaker Fiona Landers (Tara Westwood), who emerges from the iconic Saeki household in Tokyo in 2004 and brings the curse back to her house in Pennsylvania; there is the real estate couple Peter (John Cho) and Nina Spencer (Betty Gilpin), who are trying to sell the same house while coping with Nina’s possibly ALD pregnancy; there is the elderly couple William (Frankie Faison) and Faith Matheson (Lin Shaye), who hires a ‘compassion caregiver’ (Jacki Weaver) to assist them with dying; and last but not least, there is a female detective Muldoon (Andrea Riseborough), who is teamed with veteran detective Goodman (Demian Bichir) to investigate the unnatural death of a woman.
It isn’t difficult to guess how these stories are connected to one another; indeed, there are obvious cues which comes after the other, or more precisely, how the curse was passed from one individual or family to the next. Without that element of surprise, much rests on the characters themselves to keep us engaged, and that is precisely where the movie falls short. None of the characters – not even Muldoon, whom we probably spend the most time with – are given enough depth for us to identify with, such that we hardly care about the fate which will eventually befall them. It isn’t just the sheer number of characters which are simply dumped at us; it is also how their stories unfold, which frankly are treated simply as devices for jump scares.
Oh yes, rather than build tension and suspense, Pesce has a penchant for going ‘boo’ at you, which frankly feels less exhilarating than tiring. It doesn’t help that many of the scary scenes are more or less a retread of what had been done before, such as that with a long-haired woman submerged within a bathtub or the other with a man in the shower who feels a number of fingers poking through his hair. Especially for those who have seen the earlier movies, there is little that is truly new here, which only makes you wonder why they had even bothered to remake this in the first place. Not even an effectively creepy score by The Newton Brothers can make up for the lack of original scares here.
And that is a pity, because Pesce has managed to assemble an unexpectedly solid cast for his reboot. Shaye is wasted in an underwritten role which basically requires her to stare blankly; while Weaver is similarly underutilised in a story which goes nowhere. Cho lends an effectively empathetic presence as a soon-to-be parent who has to decide whether to keep or abort his unborn child, but Pesce and his co-writer Buhler don’t seem to know how to integrate that into his encounters with the vengeful spirits. While it may seem that Riseborough and Bichir anchor the main narrative, they eventually get short shrift by having to share their time with Goodman’s former partner Detective Wilson (William Sadler).
We have nothing against remakes, just not one which is as lazy and uninspired as this. Those who have seen the earlier movies will probably find that this latest addition adds little to the canon; while those who are new to the franchise will probably be puzzled just how it has managed to acquire such cult status if this is all there is. Ironically, the non-linear storytelling that made the original so intriguing becomes an utter chore here, forcing us to flit from one underwhelming subplot to another without ever bothering to impress us why we should even care in the first place. Than have you in its grip, ‘The Grudge’ will have you begrudging it for wasting one and a half hours of your time.
Movie Rating:
(An almost scare-less retread of the original, this reboot will leave you begrudging it for wasting a good one and a half hours of your time)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Comedy/Romance
Director: Kan Jia Wei
Cast: Ekin Cheng, Chrissie Chau, Dominic Ho, Connie Man, Lam Chi-Chung, Joyce Cheng
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Sexual References)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website:
Opening Day: 17 March 2016
Synopsis: Evan, Johnny, and Irwin are best friends since childhood. One day, all three of them are dumped by their girlfriends. While drunk, Evan comes across a website called “Get Your Dream Girl”. All he needs to do is enter the criteria of his dream girl and upon payment, he will get what he wants. On an impulse, Evan throws in his life savings. He receives a parcel containing parts of a human model, which he assembles into a woman figure. The next day, he finds the mannequin is alive…
Movie Review:
Even before From Vegas To Macau 3 has ended its theatrical run, HK’s most prolific director Wong Jing has embarked on his Mission Milano with Andy Lau and Huang Xiaoming. Before you can actually utter “Wow”, he has already produced a movie called iGirl with ex-assistant director turned director Kam Jia Wei at the helm.
Set in the outlying island of Cheung Chau, this sci-fi romantic comedy stars Ekin Cheng (Breakup 100), Dominic Ho (The Gigolo) and Lam Tze Chung (Kung Fu Hustle) as three buddies who decide to order cyborg girlfriends for companionship after their gold-digging partners unceremoniously dump them. As this is a Wong Jing produced effort, expect the cyborgs to appear in the form of sexy stars Chrissie Chau (also Breakup 100) and Connie Man (Flirting in the Air) not forgetting the daughter of late comedian Lydia Shum, Joyce Cheng (Huat Ah! Huat Ah!).
To broadly summarize it, there’s nothing sci-fi about the entire affair unless you take into account the unnecessary overload of dodgy CGI in the last half and some decent production design work. Wong Jing and Kam apparently tried to instill some messages about technology and relationship into it but as everyone knows Wong, he is no preacher, he is one of the foremost entertainers in the HK movie industry. Thus he not only once again categorized women as sex objects but trampling on other A.I. related titles such as Ex Machina, Her and you read that right, Men In Black.
Just in case you are allergic to boobs and skin, iGirl comparing to other Wong Jing flicks is very much a tame affair. For precaution, you might want to close your eyes when Chau displays her flawless back. In fact, it’s a decently sweet rom-com from start to a quarter before it ends. We shall elaborate on that later on. And credit must go to Kam for at least making much effort not to reduce it to a raunchy nonsensical story about sex-starved naked female cyborgs running amok in 3D.
The first act tells the endearing relationships between the buddies and their cyborg counterparts and how they teach the robotress how to behave liked a proper human being. At the same time, the buddies’ avenging exes are out for revenge though they are only given fleeting screentime. The typecast Chrissie Chau plays the innocent 001, opposite Ekin Cheng’s Evan, they look liked a pair of believable “lovers” except one of them is actually a cyborg. Cheng who has lost much of his clout as a star since his young and dangerous heydays still has the charisma to channel that leading man charm and Chau surprisingly showcases a more than serviceable performance.
That can’t be said of Evan’s two other buddies, Johnny (Ho) and Irwin (Lam) who simply can’t wait to bed their cyborg mates, the flirtatious, sultry 002 (Man) and the overweight 003 (Cheng). This is after all a Wong Jing flick. Who can blame him for injecting sexual references when you have Gigolos’ alumnis, Dominic Ho and Connie Man among the cast. The remaining stars Joyce Cheng and Lam Chi Chung expectedly by default becomes the movie’s comic relief because of their bubbly personas.
Because the movie never touches on the irobots’ mysterious creator “Mr. Intelligence” and his motives, iGirl ultimately is a silly outing and nothing of all the clever artificial intelligence that the teaser make it out to be. As a rule of thumb to end every movie on a high note, the finale even throws in a redundant hokey fight between the exes and cyborgs so you can boast to your fellow friends after the show, “You know what, I just caught the latest silly but entertaining Wong Jing movie”.
Movie Rating:
(Post CNY Wong Jing flick that is best view on a weekday)
Review by Linus Tee
Genre: Adventure
Director: David Lowery
Cast: Bryce Dallas Howard, Oakes Fegley, Wes Bentley, Karl Urban, Oona Laurence, Robert Redford
Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins
Rating: PG (Some Intense Sequences)
Released By: Walt Disney Studios Singapore
Official Website:
Opening Day: 1 September 2016
Synopsis: For years, old wood carver Mr. Meacham (Robert Redford) has delighted local children with his tales of the fierce dragon that resides deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. To his daughter, Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), who works as a forest ranger, these stories are little more than tall tales...until she meets Pete (Oakes Fegley). Pete is a mysterious 10-year-old with no family and no home who claims to live in the woods with a giant, green dragon named Elliott. And from Pete’s descriptions, Elliott seems remarkably similar to the dragon from Mr. Meacham’s stories. With the help of Natalie (Oona Laurence), an 11-year-old girl whose father Jack (Wes Bentley) owns the local lumber mill, Grace sets out to determine where Pete came from, where he belongs, and the truth about this dragon.
Movie Review:
And Disney has hit the right note again – this time with the live reaction re imagining of Pete’s Dragon, a 1977 musical film written by Malcolm Marmorstein. While the original film felt somewhat weirdly silly (in a good way) with its human and illustration hybrid, the updated version directed by David Lowery (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints) is charming and simple piece of work that is charming from beginning to end.
The 103 minute movie stars Oakes Fegley as Pete, a little boy who grew up in the woods with an enormous, shaggy dragon named Elliot. He is a little like The Jungle Book’s Mowgli, but less chatty and more amiable. His parents died in a car accident early in the film, and he is saved and adopted by the equally tame Elliot. The two spend the next few years together, playing hide and seek in the woods, Oh, Elliot takes Pete on joy rides in the sky too.
And as all coming of age tales go, Pete gets in contact with the ‘outside world’, where he is taken on by a small family and much tackle the challenges of being integrated into a ‘civilised’ society. Problems surface in the form of materialistic loggers, dragon captors, and gasp – worldly loneliness and worries. How would Pete, who was brought up in a simple and stress free environment, deal with this harsh ‘reality’?
A word of caution for cynics – please lay off this delightfully gentle movie that invites viewers to enjoy themselves. You don’t believe in magic and prefer to spend time picking out illogical film plots? Go check out a pretentious arthouse flick instead. You aren’t ready to be moved by a simple story between a boy and his best friend, who happens to be a dragon? Go watch something violent with menacing fire breathing dragons instead. There may not be many ups and downs in the story (cynics will complain that it is predictable), but this film is something Walt Disney would have been proud of - one that will leave viewers smiling and feeling good about how the world is a pleasant place filled with goodness.
After the success of Maleficent (2014), Cinderella (2015) and The Jungle Book (2016), Disney continues its successful streak of bringing animated classics back to life. This family adventure is the type of sentimental film that you, as a parent, want your children to watch. It contains lessons of what being a good friend means, and why ties that bind are the ones which matter. There is so much sincerity and earnestness in this film, you will want to give a big hug to your loved ones and tell them how much you treasure them in your life.
It helps that Bryce Dallas Howard and Robert Redford headline the film by playing the father and daughter pairing who takes Pete into their human family. They are so likeable on screen, you will feel that there can be no nastiness in the world. Elsewhere, Wes Bentley and Karl Urban are the alpha male characters (the latter is the antagonist who isn’t even that dislikeable).
Needless to say, Fegley is the star of the movie. He portrays Pete with an engaging amount of heart and mind, and he feels like a natural, unlike other child actors who over emote. Not too bad, considering he is acting against a green screen most of the time. The result is a bond between a boy and his dragon, one that have both parties being proud of each other’s existence in life.
Movie Rating:
(If you are ready to believe in magic, this lovely re-imagining of Disney’s 1977 musical film is an unassumingly gentle piece of work that reminds you that you will smile at the simplest things in life)
Review by John Li
Genre: Drama/Romance
Director: Venus Keung
Cast: Dominic Ho, Connie Man, Leslie Lam, Iris Chung, Alex Lam, Teresa Mak, Hazel Tong, Winnie Leung, Tony Ho, Samuel Leung
Runtime: 1 hr 37 mins
Rating: R21 (Sexual Content)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website:
Opening Day: 25 February 2016
Synopsis: The King of Gigolos, Fung (Dominic Ho), has taken an apprentice, Dick (Alex Lam). Fung meets Monica (Connie Man), whose mother is seriously ill and needs money for surgery and treatment. Monica takes Sushi’s (Iris Chung) advice to become a prostitute. Monica becomes Fung’s apprentice but falls in love with Fung. Eventually, Monica and Fung become lovers…
Movie Review:
‘The Gigolo 2’ is a film made for titillation – anyone who pretends otherwise is either foolish or deluded – so it is probably pointless to debate about the film’s strengths and flaws by conventional movie-going standards. After all, were you expecting more than a threadbare plot to string together a series of sexual gags and gigs? Or that the characters will be anything more than their skin-deep qualities? If you were, this soft-porn romance/ drama/ unintentional comedy from Wong Jing’s pleasure factory is probably not for you; as for those who know exactly what you are in for, you'll likely find this Category III film passably entertaining.
Continuing from where its predecessor left off, this sequel finds Dominic Ho’s titular male prostitute semi-retired and running his own nightclub at Lan Kwai Fong. On occasion though, the ‘King of Gigolos’ still offers his services to female clients to teach them the pleasures that sex can bring. One example is the soon-to-be-married female lawyer Isabel (Leslie Lam), who is worried that her extra thick hymen will get in the way of sex with her future husband. Yet another example is Monica (Connie Man), a wannabe actress and part-time social escort who wants to pick up some professional tricks of the trade.
Now as much as the title implies that this movie is about Fung, ‘The Gigolo 2’ is really about Connie and her ‘coming-of-age’ as a prostitute. Initially a shy soft-spoken girl devoted to her good-for-nothing boyfriend of three years, Monica has a change of heart when she catches him cheating on her with a ‘sex partner’. Saddled too with her mother’s medical bills, Monica abandons her initial inhibitions and agrees to have sex with a rich client. Because of her inexperience, she is quickly labelled a ‘dead fish’, so in order to erase her bad name, Monica reaches out to Fung to teach her how to give men a good time in bed.
Fung’s method of instruction includes getting her to watch AV films to learn the art of moaning sensually and sucking on a cigar with two ball-shaped objects (whether walnuts or fish balls or even two scoops of ice cream) hung around it to learn how to perform a good blowjob. Proving to be a fast learner, Connie soon goes from pariah to icon – though her success comes at the expense of that of her best friend Sushi (Iris Chung). This isn’t the sort of movie about the ups and downs of their friendship – indeed, just as Sushi had supported her when she was a newbie to the trade, Connie repays the favour by telling their ‘pimp’ (Teresa Mak) to invite Sushi along for any business opportunities.
Despite that, a late third-act twist has Sushi and her fellow gigolo boyfriend Dick (Lam Tsz-sin) accept a pair of sadistic clients in the form of Tony Ho’s perverted mob boss Big Dog and his wife Mona (Winnie Leung), so as to earn enough money for the down payment on an expensive condominium apartment they hope to settle down in. That turn of events is no more than excuse to insert a couple of S&M scenes to (yes) titillate its audience, but those looking to be turned on will likely be underwhelmed; rather than sexual, the gratification from these scenes comes from admiring their sheer ludicrousness, almost like a modern-day ‘Sex and Zen’ with whips, restraints and ball gags.
Oh yes, the fun in any Category III film is not from getting a ‘rise’ out of its sex scenes – especially not in today’s era of Internet porn – but rather in appreciating its sheer fakery, especially a bunch of largely unknown actresses trying to look like they are having a pleasurable time and/ or sounding like they are about to have an orgasm anytime soon. That is certainly not lost on its director Venus Keung, who turns up the volume and lets his camera linger on the actresses as they gently sway their naked bodies while moaning out loud with their eyes closed. Why bother pretending that it is real when everyone knows that it is simulated?
Therein lies the pleasure of ‘The Gigolo 2’ – by not trying to be something more than it is, it manages to be both fun and corny at the same time. There is nothing in this day and age particularly exciting about its display of skin or depiction of sex, but there is still pleasure to be had watching a bunch of young, nubile actresses ham it up for the big screen. That is the niche that Category III Hong Kong films still have, and ‘The Gigolo 2’ proves that such films still can – for the lack of a better word – hit the G-spot.
Movie Rating:
(Trashy, slapdash and clichéd, ‘The Gigolo 2’ embraces its lowbrow nature with self-aware glee – and manages to be both fun and corny at the same time)
Review by Gabriel Chong
|
XINYAO DOCUMENTARY THE SONGS WE SANG WILL BE RELEASED EXCLUSIVELY AT 5 GOLDEN VILLAGE LOCATIONS FROM 24 MARCH ONWARDS!Posted on 25 Feb 2016 |
| « Prev | 266 | 267 | 268 | 269 | 270 | 271 | 272 | 273 | 274 | 275 | 276 | Next » |
Most Viewed
No content.