CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR Singapore Press Conference Posted on 21 Apr 2016 For a ‘Captain America’ film, ‘Civil War’ looks incredibly crowded. Besides the titular superhero, the third cinematic instalment of the red-white-and-blue superhero sees Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man, Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, Don Cheadle’s War Machine and Paul Bettany’s Vision join Chris Evans in the Anthony and Joe Russo-directed film. An ... more

There was a time when this reviewer looked forward to visiting record stores, with the sole purpose of checking out new soundtrack releases. With his limited pocket money, he would carefully choose which CD to purchase, and then gleefully head home to pop the disc into the player. The next hour of so would be pure enjoyment in the realm of film music. 

This soundtrack album is a fond reminder of those good ol’ times. John Debney (Oscar nominee for his work on 2004’s The Passion of the Christ) is the composer responsible for scoring Disney’s live action retelling of the 1967 movie, and he pays tribute to George Bruns’s music for the animated classic half a minute into “Main Titles (Jungle Run)”. After the beloved Disney castle intro, fans will recognise the bass flute intro that was used in Bruns’s score.

Debney wastes no time and dives straight into the action after that - you picture a fast paced scene of Mowgli speeding through the jungle as the music gets increasingly exhilarating. Mowgli’s theme is given a lush treatment, and we first hear it in “Wolves - Law of the Jungle”. This beautiful melody will be heard in several of the 20 score cues in the highly recommended album. 

Known for his swashbuckling film music (Spider Man 3, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor), Debney illustrates this in “Shere Khan Attacks/ Stampede”. The action music is grandiosely orchestrated, and you will be similarly kept at the edge of your seats in tracks like “Shere Khan’s War Theme” and “Shere Khan and the Fire”.

The 59 year old American composer shows his diversity throughout the soundtrack - “Honeycomb Climb” is a fun and playful cue, while “Arrival at King Louie’s Temple” is deviously mysterious. “Mowgli Wins The Race” and “The Jungle Book Closes” are easily the most notable cues that you can repeatedly listen to without feeling bored. Not only is there a generous amount of score material on this CD, the tracks are also smoothly put in sequence, chronicling Mowgli’s adventure.

There are four songs included on the 75 minute album: New Orleans legend Dr John performs the end credit song “The Bare Necessities”, Scarlett Johansson puts her seductive voice to good use in “Trust in Me”, Christopher Walken’s entertaining jazz rendition of “I Wanna Be Like You” is a gem (legendary songwriter Richard Sherman wrote new lyrics to reflect King Louie's scarily gigantic appearance), while Bill Murray’s version of “The Bare Necessities” is enjoyable as well. The familiar tunes of these songs are also interspersed in the score tracks. It’s a shame though, that the soundtrack producers decided to omit the songs played in the film.

Nonetheless, this is one soundtrack album which this reviewer would gladly pay for, and listen to it whenever he feels that there is so much more to film music than loud synthesised melodies.

ALBUM RATING:

Recommended Track: (23) I Wan'na Be Like You (2016) (Christopher Walken)

Review by John Li

Genre: Drama/Comedy
Director: Jason Bateman
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Jason Bateman, Christopher Walken, Maryann Plunkett, Kathryn Hahn, Marin Ireland
Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Coarse Language)
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 12 May 2016

Synopsis: After an unlikely accident, a pair of grown siblings (producer/star Nicole Kidman and director/star Jason Bateman) are compelled to move back in with their eccentric parents (Christopher Walken and Maryann Plunkett), professional performance artists whose lifetime of public interventions have alienated their children.

Movie Review:

Hollywood loves dysfunction, especially if it is laced with comedy. Yet too many of these so-called ‘dramedies’ do not know the difference between dramatic artifice and genuine pathos, coming off affected and pretentious as a result. Fortunately, Jason Bateman’s sophomore directorial effort isn’t one of them. Working off a screenplay by David Lindsay-Abaire based on the popular 2011 novel of the same name by Kevin Wilson, his alternately amusing and sobering story about the struggles for children to overcome the traumas unconsciously inflicted by their parents is an unexpectedly sharp and affecting dysfunctional family portrait, and one of the very best we’ve seen recently.

A prologue that has young Baxter pretending to rob a bank for lollipops and his sister Annie getting ‘hurt’ in the process demonstrates the absurdity of their parents’ Caleb and Camille Fang’s public pranks, which they proudly proclaim as art. Indeed, for the parents Fang, who refer to their kids as Child A and Child B, their form of live, improvised and in-the-moment art designed to shock or jolt people out of their routines comes before everything, including we learn later the wellbeing of their own children. How both these siblings eventually come to be estranged from their parents isn’t quite explained, but despite keeping their physical distance from Caleb and Camille, there is no doubt that Annie and Baxter are still trying to escape the long shadow of their parents and their shared past.

Bateman himself plays Baxter, a novelist with one good book to his name, one middling follow-up and a third which he has been trying to write for the past two years. On assignment to write about war veterans in upstate New York shooting supercharged potato guns for recreational therapy, Baxter gets hit in the head and ends up with a perforated eardrum. Not knowing who else to call, the hospital gets in touch with his parents to take care of him. In turn, Baxter calls Annie (played by Nicole Kidman), now an actress whose career appears to be on a downward spiral of late, who returns to the family home to support her brother and find her own closure for a childhood which she blames for her subsequent drinking and impulsive behaviour.

Turns out the years since have not changed Caleb (Christopher Walken) and Camille (Maryann Plunkett) much – shortly after they arrive home, Caleb enlists Annie and Baxter in his latest prank of giving out fake coupons for free sandwiches at a chicken joint. But Annie and Baxter’s refusal to participate triggers what will eventually be a life-changing reckoning, as Annie and Baxter are notified by the local sheriff that their Dad and Mom have gone missing after deciding to go away for the weekend. Have their parents been abducted like the sheriff fears, and if so, are they like the other victims of a recent string of abductions, dead? Or is this yet another of their elaborate hoaxes? That’s the mystery the film teases to the end, whose revelation will be nothing less than an emotional sledgehammer.

In between the siblings’ own investigation into their parents’ disappearance, Bateman inserts old video recordings of these performance-art pieces, including a crucial one involving a ‘Romeo and Juliet’ production where Dad and Mom engineer the disappearance of the teenage actor playing Romeo in order that Baxter may step into his role and kiss his sister who plays Juliet on stage in front of all the other parents. Whether physically or viscerally through these clips, Bateman navigates the emotional undercurrents of his characters beautifully, never once letting the proceedings tip into caricature and raising thought-provoking questions along the way about how much our identity both good and bad are shaped by our parents.

As Baxter, Bateman sets the tone with a subdued performance that lets other actors bounce against. In particular, Bateman and Kidman share a lovely unaffected rapport as brother and sister that makes for one of the more convincing on-screen sibling relationships we’ve seen in a while. Annie is also one of Kidman’s most substantial portrayals of late, the actress digging deep to express her character’s deep internal conflicts which she coats with a flinty veneer. Likewise, Walken gets one of his meatiest supporting roles in some time as the eccentric, overbearing patriarch of the Fangs. Too often typecast in villainous roles due to his trademark speech pattern and drill-like stare, Walken effectively channels both to deliver a haunting performance as a self-obsessed artist who demonstrates no compunction in front of his kids even as he acknowledges that he had damaged them.

Thanks to the fine performances all round, ‘The Family Fang’ is surely one of the most poignant family dramas of late. Not many directors can balance broad comedy with real emotion, but Bateman does both wonderfully while maintaining an acute observation of the character and family dynamics that result from the dysfunction at the heart of the Fangs. While it does raise some intriguing questions about art, the more likely question it leaves you with is the impact that our parents’ actions have had on the way we turned out different, and for those who are parents, the conscious and unconscious impact of our actions on our children. Let’s just say that in addition to being entertaining, this dramedy truly has bite. 

Movie Rating:

(One of the best dysfunctional family portraits we’ve seen of late, ‘The Family Fang’ balances broad comedy with real emotion and comes out unexpectedly sharp and affecting)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Drama/Comedy
Director: Liza Johnson
Cast: Michael Shannon, Kevin Spacey, Alex Pettier, Johnny Knoxville, Colin Hanks, Evan Peters
Runtime: 1 hr 27 mins
Rating: PG13
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website: http://www.bleeckerstreetmedia.com/elvisandnixon

Opening Day: 19 May 2016

Synopsis: On a December morning in 1970, the King of Rock ’n’ Roll showed up on the lawn of the White House to request a meeting with the most powerful man in the world, President Richard Nixon. Starring Academy Award-nominee Michael Shannon as Presley and two-time Academy Award-winner Kevin Spacey as Nixon, Elvis & Nixon tells the untold story behind this revealing yet humorous moment in the Oval Office forever immortalized in the most requested photograph in the National Archives.

Movie Review:

Had it not been based on one of the odder footnotes in presidential history, you would probably have dismissed ‘Elvis & Nixon’ as hogwash – and it is perhaps this same sense of disbelief which explains why a photograph of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll shaking hands with the then-President of the United States on December 21 1970 after their meeting in the Oval Office has become the most requested image from the National Archives. As absurdists and pop-culture fanatics will gladly tell you, it was on that day Elvis Presley asked President Nixon to be appointed a federal agent at large (there is apparently no such thing) so that he can go undercover and do his utmost to combat “the drug culture, the hippie elements, the SDS, Black Panthers, etc” that are ruining the country he loves.

If that sounds like the musings of a mildly delusional person, that’s because the Elvis of 1970 was somewhat past his glorious youthful prime, and besides inveighing against the Beatles in particular and the Age of Aquarius over all, Mr Presley was spending his time in front of multiple TV screens at his Graceland home, infamously shooting them when he was bored. Beginning with such an unmistakable shot to hint at Elvis’ mental state, this comic fictionalisation traces the chain of events that led to the meeting and culminates in the encounter itself between the entertainment icon (think jeweled sunglasses, silk scarf, open shirt and giant gold belt) and a pre-Watergate Nixon just two years into his term as President who couldn’t care less about popular culture.

With an opening crawl which reminds us that no official transcript exists of the title encounter (such that ‘if it didn’t happen the way it does here, it should have’), screenwriters Joey Sagal, Hanala Sagal and Cary Elwes frame Elvis’ idée fixe as his frustration with what he sees as the breakdown of values among the young in America and his belief that he can speak to them like no one else can. So he grabs a flight from Memphis to Los Angeles, where he recruits his longtime buddy Jerry Schilling (Alex Pettyfer) and is later on joined by one of his Memphis Mafia cronies Sonny West (Johnny Knoxville), before heading to Washington D.C. En route to the capital, Elvis scribbles a letter to the President on American Airlines stationery requesting to be Nixon’s ally, which he then hand-delivers to the startled marine guards at the west gate of the White House one morning at 6.30 a.m.

On the presidential side, two of his aides who would later be implicated in the Watergate scandal, Egil Kroh and Dwight Chapin (Colin Hanks and Evan Peters), are delighted at the letter – not only are they personal fans, they also realise the public relations value of a photo op with the King, especially to show the youth of the world that the hawkish Nixon was really a cool guy at heart. Only when Egil arm-twists Nixon by telling the latter’s star-struck daughter Julie about the proposed encounter does the President reluctantly agree, though only for a short five minutes. Unsurprisingly, the meeting goes on for much longer, and though Elvis deliberately ignores Egil’s instruction not to touch the bowl of M&Ms and bottle of Dr Pepper meant for the President, Elvis will have Nixon eating out of the palm of his hand after sharing the latter’s disdain for the counter-culture and gifting the latter with a chrome-plated World World II Colt .45.

Because Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey are such brilliant actors, the meeting is literally a howl. Though Shannon looks nothing like Elvis (despite imitating the high-winged collars and woolly sideburns), he captures his character’s understated cool and sly swagger on the outside while channelling his delusions of self-importance and grandiosity on the inside. As a canny impressionist with superb mimicry skills, Spacey gets down pat the hunched posture, the wary glances, and the nervous rhythms of Nixon's speech, but the more impressive achievement here is how he portrays his character’s inner convictions during the almost farcical meeting while showing how much of a klutz he turns out to be by the end of the visit that he had never wanted at the start.

One could certainly lament that director Liza Johnson does not attempt to dig any deeper than the oddity of the much-vaunted moment in history, and anyone looking for some commentary on the politics of Nixon’s presidency will indeed be sorely disappointed. And yet, what it lacks in ambition, it makes up for in sheer comic lunacy, including a run-in with some Elvis impersonators at the airport who assume the real Elvis is one of them and an encounter with real-life Justice Department narcotics administrator John Finlator (Tracy Letts) who can barely contain his mockery for Elvis’ request. You would also do well not to keep wondering whether what you’re seeing actually happened; rather, ‘Elvis & Nixon’ just wants to be a fun little film, and that – in addition to seeing two first-rate actors play off each other – is just where it finds its groove. 

Movie Rating:

(Putting aside any and every mention of politics, this genially funny comedy based on an unlikely event in history is a brilliant showcase of two first-rate actors)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Drama/Thriller
Director: Jodie Foster
Cast: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jack O'Connell, Dominic West, Giancarlo Esposito, Caitriona Balfe
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scene & Coarse Language)
Released By: Sony Pictures Releasing International
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/MoneyMonster

Opening Day: 13 May 2016

Synopsis: In the real-time, high stakes thriller Money Monster, George Clooney and Julia Roberts star as financial TV host Lee Gates and his producer Patty, who are put in an explosive situation when an irate investor who has lost everything (Jack O’Connell) forcefully takes over their studio. During a tense standoff broadcast to millions on live TV, Lee and Patty must work furiously against the clock to unravel the mystery behind a conspiracy at the heart of today's fast-paced, high-tech global markets.

Movie Review:

On their own, the various elements that form Money Monster don’t seem to work very well. It fails to be cutting enough in its critique of the deception on Wall Street masquerading as innovation or sophisticated investments. It gets your heart pumping only a little bit quicker only at one or two points as a thriller. As a conspiracy saga, the conspiracy unfolds pretty quickly and you know who the crooked mastermind behind the whole shenanigan is in less than 30 minutes into the show.

Yet somehow when the elements are put together, this movie works surprisingly well, as it takes aim at not just Wall Street and the finance industry but also at reality television and rolling news, thanks to solid performances by its leads – George Clooney and Julia Roberts.

Clooney’s shameless self-promoting television host Lee Gates could easily have been played as the more intelligent and conniving cousin of Baird Whitlock in Hail Caesar (also played by Clooney). Instead, Clooney adds dimension to the character by underplaying it at crucial moments, making it believable that this schmuck is an unwitting accomplice to a conspiracy set up by Dominic West’s jet-setting CEO simply because he doesn’t realise that there are people out there who takes his performance as a financial maestro seriously (can you blame him when the ‘maestro’ opens his act each time with some over-the-top dances that are lame hip-hop attempts?). Clooney treads the breadth of his character finely, making Lee Gates a relatable character who audiences believe is capable of being a guileless egocentric chauvinist who attempts to right the wrong created by his skulduggery by taking drastic actions, aiding his “kidnapper” (played by Jack O’Connell) and feeling somewhat paternal over him at times.

As Gates’ long-suffering producer Patty Fenn, Julia Roberts holds her own against Clooney. She manages to draw your attention although most of the time she is confined to a control panel or booth or her presence is limited to merely being a voice in Gates’ earpiece.

Director Jodie Foster balances the presence of the two stars by deftly cutting between the set and the control booth, which also helps in capturing the controlled chaos of “live” television from the onset. Setting the movie’s timeline in an approximation of real-time here pays off as the audience gets more caught up seeing the plot unfolds “live”, adding another layer of richness as the movie takes on the tone of the reality/”live” television format that it also seeks to mock and cast a critical eye on.

Foster also subtly mocks Hollywood’s cookie-cutter plot elements by putting them in and giving them a different spin. The hopeful moment where Gates appeal to audiences to help him push up the price of a stock to save his life veers in the opposite direction as the price of the stock falls further instead. Similarly, the “kidnapper”’s pregnant girlfriend, brought in to persuade the “kidnapper” to release the hostages, chooses instead to berate him for his stupid action and challenges him to shoot himself instead.

However, as the hostage situation unfolds more, Foster lets in increasingly less believable and less relatable plot elements such as stoned Icelandic computer hackers who giggle over their use of a yoda voice coming in to provide the much needed assistance to unlock the mystery. It also is a mystery as to how a subplot of Lee’s producer test-driving a new erectile-dysfunction drug adds to the movie. The tempo of the movie gets confused because of these elements which detract from it although the process of going through them is not painful. The resolution is a bit of a disappointment, ending the movie on a rather “meh” note rather than the thought-provoking note that it could have closed off with. 

Movie Rating:

(Although the movie could have taken it much a notch and tighten its pacing, its relevance, at this juncture of populist voters lifting up a seemingly un-presidential choice of Donald Trump as a candidate, makes it worth the short time it takes to watch it to the end)

Review by Katrina Tee

Genre: Romance/Drama
Director: Maïwenn
Cast: Vincent Cassel, Emmanuelle Bercot, Louis Garrel, Isild Le Besco, Chrystèle Saint Louis Augustin
Runtime: 2 hrs 8 mins
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scenes)
Released By: Shaw 
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 5 May 2016

Synopsis: Tony is admitted to a rehabilitation center after a serious ski accident. Dependent on the medical staff and pain relievers, she takes time to look back on a turbulent relationship that she experienced with Georgio. Why did they love each other? Who is this man that she loved so deeply? How did she allow herself to submit to this suffocating and destructive passion? For Tony, a difficult process of healing is in front of her, physical work may finally set her free…

Movie Review:

(No) thanks to a recent series of personal encounters, this reviewer has been on a somewhat emotional roller coaster of sorts. It has also become rather apparent to him that each and every one of us has a different emotional threshold, and each and every one of us has a breaking point. When is the right moment to cry out for help? Well, again it differs. Is there a right, or in some perspectives, best time to seek solace by voicing out your anguish? As clichéd as it sounds, this writer is of the opinion that there’s no correct or wrong answer to this.

But this may also be the reason why the opening sequence of this French film spoke to this columnist. We see the female protagonist a skiing accident that eventually requires her to see a physiotherapist. Alas, it wasn’t an accident, but some sort of a cry for help, which most people would conveniently regard as a suicide attempt.

As the film progresses, we find out that she has been in a love hate relationship with a man for more than 10 years. She tries to tame this man whose very rougheness attracted her in the first place. There are some rough patches, and from a third person’s point of view, you wonder why she has to go through so much pain if she is supposed to be in love. The irony of the situation is that she is confined to the limited space during her therapy at the rehabilitation centre, where she connects with other physically damaged individuals, and realises what true love is. Yup, it’s one of those life changing moments you’ve always read about – how the physical pain does a greater job of healing your soul.

Actor turned writer director Maïwenn would emphatise best with the female protagonist. She gave birth to a daughter 1993 with husband Luc Besson, when she was 16 years old. When she turned 20, she starred in Besson’s The Fifth Element, during which he left her for the film's star, Milla Jovovich. Maïwenn would then later have a son with her second ex-husband, a real estate developer. Some life she’s had, we hear you say.

Running at 128 minutes, you feel the agony, hurts and ache our heroine goes through – though you feel that the story is heading towards nowhere at times. But hey, isn’t that part of this thing called life where we meander and wander, searching for some sort of goal while experiencing different sort emotions along the way?

For bringing such a real character to life, lead actress Emmanuelle Bercot was recognised at last year’s Cannes Film Festival with a Best Actress accolade. She is excellent in showing audiences how someone can be hopelessly indulgent in a passionate yet destructive relationship. Most amazing thing is, she makes us realise we have all been there before. Also exercising his charm is Vincent Cassel (whom we are familiar with because of his performances in Hollywood and British productions like Black Swan and Trance), who plays the rich restaurateur with an influential circle of friends, but also has serious commitment issues, drug problems and personal debts.

There are real problems in life, and it often takes a film like that for us to realise that there is much s*** to handle the moment you walk out of the cinema.

Movie Rating:

(Stellar performances from Emmanuelle Bercot and Vincent Cassel make this painful reminder on life's illogical take on love an engaging watch)  

Review by John Li

Genre: Action/Thriller
Director: Chuck Russell
Cast: John Travolta, Christopher Meloni, Amanda Schull, Sam Trammell, Patrick St. Esprit, Luis Da Silva Jr., Asante Jones, Doris Morgado, Rebecca De Mornay
Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Violence)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 12 May 2016

Synopsis: Unemployed engineer Stanley Hill (John Travolta) witnesses the murder of his wife Vivian (Rebecca De Mornay), who was attacked by thugs in a parking garage. Wracked with guilt, Stanley is haunted by the image of Vivian dying in his arms. When Detective Gibson (Sam Trammell) and other corrupt police officers are unable to bring the killers to justice, Stanley turns to his old friend Dennis (Christopher Meloni) and decides to take matters into his own hands.

Movie Review:

How in the world did John Travolta end up in the VOD circuit? Seriously, dissecting his flagging big screen career is far more interesting than this cheap Taken-rip off.

Travolta plays Stanley Hill who witnessed the brutal murder of his wife (Rebecca De Mornay in a fleeting 5 minutes appearance) in a seemingly ordinary robbery. When the police releases the killer after Hill managed to point him out, Hill decides to use his special set of hidden skills to exact revenge and take out the killers one by one.    

If you have watched the trailer, you will know obviously I Am Wrath is not a painstakingly crafted movie nor does it boast a budget of say, Face/Off. The movie attempts to create some commentary about a decaying society especially with all those news footages in the opening to tell us how high and violent the crime crates are. Then we realize later that the governor is actually corrupt and the two detectives handling the case as well. So the bad guys are actually working for the supposedly good guys and please keep in mind almost every bad guy in the movie wear tattoos which make for easy identification.

Sadly, the writers aren’t that capable to pull off such an ambitious project about corrupt police and dirty politics. The narrative is wafer thin with the acting and dialogue cheesier than a bag of nachos. The story is basically a setup for Hill and his buddy, Dennis (Christopher Meloni from Man of Steel) to drift from scene to scene firing their pistols, exchanging wisecracks and manhandle a couple of thugs who talk tough but fight like wussies.

Not that it would have been any better, I Am Wrath was originally meant to be directed by William Friedkin and star Nicolas Cage but talks fell through and Travolta stepped into the project replacing his Face/Off co-star. Trust me, it’s not like Travolta can’t play a tough guy but an Irish guy named Liam Neeson was way too ahead of him. Not forgetting Keanu Reeves’ John Wick and Denzel Washington’s The Equalizer, all the afore-mentioned movies in addition to their charismatic leading man boast niftier action sequences, better stories and handsomer production values.   

Chuck Russell (The Mask, Eraser), whose last feature movie was The Scorpion King in 2002, certainly has chosen the wrong movie to make his Hollywood comeback. John Travolta on the other hand needs to replace his agent immediately and get a better stylist as well. Just don’t hire the same people who worked on Cage’s toupee. 

Movie Rating:

(I Am BORED)

Review by Linus Tee

GIRAFFE PICTURES' POPEYE COMMENCES PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY Posted on 02 May 2016 Kirsten Tan’s debut feature-length film Popeye (working title) began filming earlier last month in Thailand. Produced by Lai Weijie (Distance) and executive produced by Anthony Chen (Ilo Ilo, Distance), the film stars veteran Thai singer-songwriter Thaneth Warakulnukroh, as a disenchanted architect who bumps into his long-lost elephant on the streets of Bangkok. Excited, he takes his ... more

Genre: Drama/Biography
Director: Matt Brown
Cast: Dev Patel, Jeremy Irons, Toby Jones, Malcolm Sinclair, Stephen Fry, Devika Bhise
Runtime: 1 hr 49 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 19 May 2016

Synopsis: The Man Who Knew Infinity is the true story of friendship that forever changed mathematics. In 1913, Ramanujan (Dev Patel - Slumdog Millionaire), a self-taught Indian mathematics genius traveled to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he forged a bond with his mentor, the eccentric professor GH Hardy (Jeremy Irons - Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), and fought against prejudice to reveal his mathematic genius to the world.

Movie Review:

This reviewer would watch anything starring English actor Jeremy Irons (all the bad reviews in the world for Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice wouldn't make you deny the fact that Irons was a gem as Alfred Pennyworth). Just hearing the 67 year old actor’s voice will make you weak in the knees - no one else can be personify an evil smirking lion like Irons did when he voiced Scar in 1994’s The Lion King.

The theatre veteran shows he is good in any role by playing English mathematician G H Hardy, known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis. He channels gravitas into the real life character. However, the protagonist of this 108 minute film is someone else: an Indian mathematician who had almost no formal training in pure mathematics. Srinivasa  Ramanujan is the titular man who knew infinity, and this story is about how Ramanujan forged a bond with Hardy, and the friendship between this mentor and mentee would result in the uncovering of one of the world’s most ingenious mathematician. 

The first thing that comes to mind is Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind, a biopic inspired by the lift of the brilliant mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. While the 2001 movie focused on the main character’s internal struggle, Matthew Brown’s directorial debut has less of the drama, but the same amount of moments to have viewers walking out of the theatre feeling inspired.

Besides Irons, kudos also goes to Dev Patel. The 26 year old British actor has come a long way since 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire, braving the harsh reviews from 2010’s The Last Airbender and 2015’s Chappie, and managing to charm in 2012’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and its 2015 sequel The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Here, he takes on the role of Ramanujan. We see the young man start out humbly in Madras, before braving all odds to travel to Trinity College in Cambridge to pursue his dreams.

The film is predictable, but in a good way. You know how the story will develop, and you believe that you’ve seen something like this somewhere before. Yup, there was a time when films need not be too smart for their own good, and worked because they were sentimentally pleasing. The movie is sturdy and respectable, and never tries to veer off balance. 

It then helps that viewers pay attention to the on screen chemistry between Petel and Irons, and are engaged in the heartening tale of how two geniuses come together to form a slow, blossoming friendship. The actors are supported by an equally capable ensemble which includes Toby Jones (Infamous, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Stephen Fry (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) and Jeremy Northam (Gosford Park, Amistad). 

This is one of those films so feel good, you would momentarily forget all the cynicism in the world and be inspired to do something about that dream you once had. 

Movie Rating:

(You’ll walk out of the theatre feeling inspired, thanks to the on wonderful on screen chemistry between leading men Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons)

Review by John Li 

Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Simon Verhoeven
Cast: Alycia Debnam-Carey, William Moseley, Connor Paolo, Brit Morgan, Brooke Markham, Sean Marquette, Liesl Ahlers, Shashawnee Hall, Nicholas Pauling
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Horror and Some Violence)
Released By: Shaw 
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/UnfriendDerFilm/

Opening Day: 28 April 2016

Synopsis: LAURA is a popular college student who lives her college life to the fullest and gladly shares it with her 800 Facebook friends. But when she accepts a friend request from her mysterious classmate MARINA, she unwillingly sets a terrible curse in motion. The dead girl’s impenetrable profile begins to drive Laura into isolation. It takes control of Laura’s virtual world and her real life as well. One after another, her closest friends die horrendous deaths. Leaving Laura with only a few days to solve the enigma of this haunting curse to save the few friends she has left, as well as her own life.

Movie Review:

Fear the Walking Dead star Alycia Debnam-Carey portrays Laura, a popular girl in university who got herself in shocking troubles after unfriending a lonely, gothic-looking classmate named Marina (Liesl Ahlers) on social media.

To begin with, Laura has a healthy group of friends around her, has a boyfriend (William Moseley from The Chronicles of Narnia) who is studying medical and looks reasonable well off while Marina seems to be all alone in the world, probably has a tragic past and she might be practicing witch craft in her free time. It’s mean to prejudiced against gothic looking girls but that’s what Hollywood is good at.   

Laura apparently is not the typical stuck up rich girl. It’s just that Marina is fast becoming obsessive and simply can’t stop sending text to Laura. You can’t help but sympathize with Laura and you are eager to find out more about the mysterious Marina. But wait, this is not really a dramatic title about friendships and such.

Friend Request is a horror thriller built around a social platform called facebook although for obvious legal reason, this was never mentioned. Anyway, after Marina hung and burnt herself alive, Laura finds that all her best friends dies one by one under mysterious circumstances and her social media account has all the terrifying videos of how they died. Is the ghost of Marina hacking into Laura’s account? And why are Marina and her wasps doing this to the sweet poor Laura?

You might assumed Friend Request has more things to say especially with all the cyber-stalking cases emerging in recent years but director Simon Verhoeven brought nothing new to the table except cranking up the volume of ominous music and inserting numerous jump scares to jolt your senses. Expect the usual long corridor walks, reflective mirrors, lots of wasps and product placement (Macbooks) because every school student carries one nowadays. The supernatural aspect offers no closure and sadly a pretty haphazard explanation is conjured to justify Marina’s tragic past and motive.  

None of the young cast members are particularly memorable. They are probably cast because they are cheap to hire and a good screamer. Besides Debnam-Carey and Moseley, there’s Gossip Girl’s Connor Paolo as Laura’s tech-obsessed friend and two nincompoop cops who appear whenever Laura’s friends met their gruesome deaths. We do not know if their appearances are meant for laughs but we are at least entertained by their presence.    

In simple term, this is a combination of slasher film and the revenge horror genre. The social media arc is just a sweetener. Scream meets Candyman meets The Ring and you have Friend Request. Mark Zuckerberg for sure will ‘unfriend’ this.  

Movie Rating:

(Yet another supernatural horror that hardly worth your time and money)

Review by Linus Tee