Genre: Action/Crime
Director: Steven C. Miller
Cast: Bruce Willis, Christopher Meloni, Dave Bautista, Adrian Grenier, Lydia Hull, Tyler Jon Olson, Christopher Rob Bowen, Richie Chance, Chris Hill, Texas Battle, Tara Holt
Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Violence and Coarse Language)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 15 September 2016

Synopsis: When a bank is hit by a brutal heist, all evidence points to the owner (Bruce Willis) and his high-powered clients. But as a group of FBI agents (Christopher Meloni, Dave Bautista and Adrian Grenier) dig deeper into the case — and the deadly heists continue — it becomes clear that a larger conspiracy is at play.

Movie Review:

Even one of the biggest stars of Hollywood has bills to pay. So instead of waiting for his next Die Hard outing, Bruce Willis is hogging the limelight of this VOD title, Marauders though he is not exactly in the movie that much. Hey John McClane’s face sells so just get over it.

The leading man here happens to be Chris Meloni whom many will recognize from Man of Steel and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Meloni plays a tough FBI agent, Jonathan Montgomery. Together with his fellow agents which include Stockwell (Dave Bautista), Chase (Lydia Hull) and fresh-out-of-Quantico newbie Wells (Adrian Grenier), they are trying to solve a series of armed robberies. The robbers wear creepy masks, killed random people (or perhaps the victims are linked?) but they gave all the loot to charities. What’s their motive? And why is Hubert (Willis), the owner of Hubert National part of it?

Now you know Bruce Willis never actually carries let alone fire a gun here. He plays a suit and tie, respectable banker that spouts mumbo jumbo about spider and engages in salacious activities with a senator. Wait there’s more to be uncover, a crooked local cop, Mims (Johnathon Schaech) with a dying wife is also in the mix. His guys and him seem to be eyeing the loot as well.  

In a more competent movie, Marauders might even take home an award for all the intricate twists and turns. Unfortunately great ideas don’t work on paper unless properly executed, director Steven C. Miller (known for his string of VOD titles) and his writers crammed so much ideologies into one movie that none actually works in the end except for Meloni’s solid acting that pretty much holds everything together. The twist in the end is laughable with all those promised corporate and political conspiracy being largely ignored and unanswered by the third act.   

We can’t really confirm if Cincinnati is indeed a place where it rains all the time but we bet a quarter of the budget is spent on creating fake rain. At the very minimum, the heavily soaked atmosphere enhanced the cinematography to an impressive level normally not associated with a VOD title. As for the action, which mainly took place during the few bank heist sequences is mediocre and blatant. This reviewer is pretty sure you have seen better stuff elsewhere.

When it comes to the performances, Jonathan Montgomery is an interesting character. He orders wine, which he doesn’t drink. He still mourned the death of his wife who at some point is revealed to be a cop as well. Meloni nailed it perfectly again this is not a movie which makes good use of his acting. Wrestler turned actor Dave Bautista is totally wasted as the wisecracking Stockwell maybe he urgently needs Dwayne Johnson’s agent and Adrian Grenier simply can’t shake off that Vincent Chase vibe from Entourage. As for our favourite Hollywood star Bruce Willis; he is totally in for the paycheck while zombieing the entire time.

Marauders attempts to pass itself off as an above average cop-and-robbers thriller but it ends up as a convoluted and yawn fest that The Town still remains the best heist movie in recent years. 

Movie Rating:

(Slow-going and awful, more appropriate for a sleepless rainy night)

Review by Linus Tee

Genre: Comedy
Director: Andy Tennant
Cast: Shirley MacLaine, Jessica Lange, Demi Moore, Billy Connolly, Howard Houseman, Santiago Segura, Rebecca Da Cost
Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins
Rating: PG13 (Brief Coarse Language)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 15 September 2016

Synopsis: Eva (Shirley MacLaine), a widow and retired history teacher, enjoys a quiet life in the tiny town of Liberty, Ohio. Everything changes when EVA receives a life insurance check accidentally made out for $5,000,000 instead of the expected $50,000. At the not-so-gentle urging of Maddie (Jessica Lange), her best friend, Eva deposits the money and takes the chance it offers them to escape from small town life. Their destination is the Canary Islands and they have every intention of living it up. But their fantasy is short-lived when they awake to discover that they have become media sensations overnight and fugitives from justice, forced to outwit a trio of conmen, led by the local Wine “warlord”, Carlos (Santiago Segura), outmaneuver a dogged social security agent Vespucci (Howard Hesseman) who has teamed up with Eva’s daughter, Crystal (Demi Moore), and outrun the law.

Movie Review:

In this quirky comedy directed by Andy Tennant (Hitch, Fool’s Gold), the grand dame of Hollywood Shirley MacLaine teams up with Oscar winning actress Jessica Lange to teach youngsters some lessons about growing old and still having fun.

Eva Fenton (MacLaine) is a retired history teacher who has just lost her husband. With a pending mortgage on hand, her only daughter Crystal (Demi Moore) plans to sell her house and send her to a retirement home whom Eva funnily commented as “out of sight out of mind”. Her best friend of forty years, Maddie (Lange) isn’t having a great time either. She is not exactly in the pink of health and her husband just left her for his 25 years old secretary. So when the life insurance company accidentally sent Eva a cheque of $5 million instead of $50k, Eva and Maddie decides to take a vacation to an unexpected place where conmen, a kingpin and a security agent gathers - the Canary Islands.

When it comes to dramas or comedies on old age and retirement, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Quartet comes to mind. Those two probably are the gold standards of dramas starring a fine ensemble of veterans; Wild Oats unfortunately is not as polished as the two. The plot is flimsy and only one word can describe the comedy – tepid. Andy Tennant attempts to pull of a naughty adventurous comedy involving two elderly folks. Either he does not have the budget to do that or he simply does not have the skill to do so. One will spot from a mile away the up-to-no-good perfect gentleman played by Billy Connolly and to make matters worse, it’s actually pretty cringing to watch a fine actress liked Lange playing a sex-starved cougar.

Shirley MacLaine at the age of 81 still pulls in the occasional wry humor but you can’t solely rely on your leading lady for the entire 96 minutes. There are some worthy light moments involving the security agent (Howard Hesseman) from the insurance company and Crystal though it’s far too less to make an impact. I have no idea why there’s a Kingpin and a machine gun appearing for the unnecessarily prolonged finale except to make some loud noises to wake up the dozing audience.

Wild Oats underwent a tumultuous production process and it didn’t really hit the jackpot when it opened in the States. Shot in the fantastic looking Canary Islands, Spain with some throwaway sex and Viagra jokes, frankly it’s not a movie for the masses especially the younger crowd but likely worth a look for older cinema goers during the slower weekdays.  

Movie Rating:

(Overall a wasted effort for actresses Shirley MacLaine and Jessica Lange)

Review by Linus Tee

Genre: Drama/Biography
Director: Stephen Frears
Cast:  Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, Simon Helberg, Rebecca Ferguson
Runtime: 1 hr 51 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: http://www.florencefosterjenkinsmovie.com

Opening Day: 22 September 2016

Synopsis: Directed by Stephan Frears (Philomena, The Queen), FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS tells the inspirational true story of the eponymous New York heiress who obsessively pursued her dream of becoming a great singer. The film celebrated the human spirit, the power of music and the passion of amateurs everywhere. The voice Florence (Streep) heard in her head was divine, but to the rest of the world it was hilariously awful. At private recitals, her devoted husband and manager, St Clair Bayfield (Grant), managed to protect Florence from the truth. But when Florence decided to give her first public concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall, St Clair realised he had perhaps bitten off more than he could chew.

Movie Review:

If there was a soundtrack album produced for this biographical comedy drama film, this reviewer wonders whether he would be keen to own a copy. The movie’s protagonist is Florence Foster Jenkins, an American socialite and amateur soprano who was known and mocked for her painful lack of singing skill. Active during 1912 to 1944, the performer was likened to that of a musical cult figure in New York City– not too bad a thing considering how famed artistes like Cole Porter and Enrico Caruso were loyal fans.

Remember how William Hung and Rebecca Black, who you won’t bet on winning Grammys in their lifetimes, took the music industry by storm? Admit it, you had a great time putting Hung’s “She Bangs” and Black’s “Friday” on repeat.

Portraying this real life personality is the mighty Meryl Streep – trust the multi award winning actress (she is one of the 10 actors to have won three or more Academy Awards for acting) to make us laugh, cry and be moved by someone whose dreams outgrew her abilities. Throughout the movie’s 111 minutes, you will laugh at Madame Florence’s very bad singing, then wonder what differentiates you from the countless people who ridiculed the ambitious woman who was stricken with various illnesses.

At the end of the movie when she eventually passes on peacefully, you wish you have the same courage as her – as she points our proudly that people can say she couldn’t sing, but no one can say she didn’t sing.

Do not mistake this movie for a tearjerker. There are countless hilarious moments (you wouldn’t expect anything less from a plot involving a bad singer), and director Stephen Frears effortlessly pieces together moments of Madame Florence’s life to make a very likeable and enjoyable movie. After directing Helen Mirren and Judi Dench in The Queen (2006) and Philomena (2013), it must be a breeze for Frears to direct a talented and fine actress like Streep. The result is an entertaining performance that blends both comedic and heartfelt moments.

Elsewhere, Hugh Grant ages gracefully to play Streep’s partner, an English Shakespearean actor who is also her manager. The 56 year old actor manages to deliver a tender performance as St Clair Bayfield who, despite being married to Madame Florence, maintains a chaste relationship (due to her diseases) and lives in a separate residence with his secret mistress. Is there love between the two? Yes, and one that is truer to many other relationships you know.

There is also Simon Helberg (best known for his role in TV series The Big Band Theory) who plays Cosme McMoon, a pianist who trains and accompanies Madame Florence during her performances. From bewilderment and shock to understanding and empathy, Helberg also gives a commendable performance.

The story written by Nicholas Martin, though crowd pleasing, is also a poignant one. There are universal themes which still bother the society today – do we recognise effort or talent? As bystanders, what role do we play as social commentators or advocates? When put in these larger than life situations, do we have the courage to pursue what we initially regarded as dreams? These are the reflective questions you’ll ask yourself after watching being entertained by this finely made film about the tragic side of comedy.  

Movie Rating:

(A crowd pleaser - featuring a winning performance by Meryl Streep, of course - that also celebrates the determination of someone who is seen as a fool by others)

Review by John Li

SYNOPSIS: Three different women becomes business partner, with their own individuality, they create a new career. The movie combine friendship, love and dream, a feel-good movie for contemporary women.

MOVIE REVIEW:

MBA Partners has nothing to do with the much superior American Dreams In China let alone the involvement of Peter Chan. Instead it’s more of a fluffy copy of the latter and instead of three guys, we have a story of three ladies who are making a comeback in life after suffering from individual setback.

First we have Lu Zhenxi (Yao Chen from Firestorm), a country girl who hopes to make it big in New York with her boyfriend. But after she is deported for selling fake bags and ditched by her boyfriend, she returned to China disillusioned. Gu Qiao-yin (Tiffany Tang Yan from Bounty Hunters) on the other hand is a gold digger who simply hopes to marry a rich hubby to pay off her dad’s debts. Lastly, Wen Qing (Hao Lei from the recent One Night Only) is a successful businesswoman whose marriage is crumbling and her daughter being threaten to be taken away from her by her ex. Together and under the guidance of a certain MBA Professor Meng (Aaron Kwok), the unlikely trio must overcome their differences and succeed in the web business.

While the movie is billed as an inspiring tale of ambition and dream, you can’t help but feel the laziness of the script, which consist of way too much coincidences and unbelievable events happening in a very short span of time. Why would a handsome Professor go all the way to help a complete stranger liked Zhenxi? Or invest so much time to ensure their web business work? The movie seems to hint that he is carrying a torch for Zhenxi but that seems liked a half-baked, lame plot device to keep the narration going.

Honestly, we don’t really see much interaction between Meng and Zhenxi in fact most of the movie is spent on Zhenxi with her childhood friend, Niu Juncheng (Li Cheng) or the occasional interactions with her fellow working partners. Kwok’s role as a charming wise professor is more of a glorified cameo that spouts generic nuggets of wisdom when require, nothing more nothing less. Yao Chen finally got a starring role that makes good use of her acting ability while Hao Lei is the most solid performer among the lot.      

MBA Partners actually comes from the hands of one of Korea’s prominent TV director, Jang Tae Yoo (My Love From The Star) so you can assured that the end product is glossy albeit slightly empty. Much of the plot developments are clichéd and pedestrian that you may find it hard to truly invest yourself in the plights of the three main characters. With nothing on the watch list, this suffices for a casual watch.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

NIL

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Both visual and sound is serviceable. 

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee
 

SYNOPSIS: A court-appointed legal guardian defrauds her older clients and traps them under her care. But her latest mark comes with some unexpected baggage. 

MOVIE REVIEW:

According to Marla Grayson (Rosmund Pike), there two types of people in this world. Those that take and those that get took. Lions and Lambs. Marla Grayson is no lamb for sure, she’s a f*** lioness.

In short, Grayson is a woman that have no qualms ripping your balls and dick apart. She is a professional con-artist who abused the healthcare system to pretentiously take over the guardianship of elders and legally seized their wealth and belongings. Her next target happened to be a wealthy retiree named Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest) who owned a fully paid property, cars and a small bagful of diamonds hidden in a safe deposit box. But Jennifer is no ordinary helpless elderly. She happened to have a son, a Russian mafia known as Roman Lunyov (Peter Dinklage).

Not only does Roman wants her beloved mother back but he also wants the diamonds. The opportunistic Grayson and her girlfriend/business partner Fran (Eiza Gonzalez) feels that there are millions to be made out of this deal not knowing that they are biting off more than they can chew this time round.

I Care A Lot is a compelling drama that takes swipe at the problematic American healthcare system that contains a severe loophole which is exploited by people liked Marla Grayson. Considering the number of helpless old folks being duped and dumped into so-called healthcare facilities. It’s atrocious and maddening. While it’s not entirely based on a true story, it’s indeed inspired by thousands of such cases.

Writer and director J Blakeson brought a refreshing if not witty, dark look at the dodgy system using Marla and Fran as two ruthless individuals out to craft a richer life in a male-dominated society. Perhaps there is a hint of feminism somewhere but Blakeson kind of pulls the brake in the last act by focusing on some tedious, cliched wicked revenge and scheming.

Rosamund Pike is excellent as Grayson. Cold, black-hearted and determined. You wouldn’t want to cross path with Pike’s Grayson in real-life. She is truly a fearless, committed actress after her acclaimed appearances in Gone Girl, A Private War and Radioactive. Dinklage meanwhile delivers yet another stunning devilish performance although considering that Grayson is exploiting harmless elderlies, Roman might not be such a bad guy after all.

Again, for argument sake, there’s no one that deserves to be root for in Blakeson’s world actually. That is made abundantly clear that Grayson is a heartless capitalist and Roman is somehow implicated in some murder or false identity case back in Russia. Maybe these factors alone justified their final fate although we are not that sure if this is Blakeson’s true intentions.

Still, I Care A Lot is a thoroughly enjoyable movie. There’s a tinge of dark humour, a spoonful of satire and a smattering of wicked fun in addition to all the strong performances.  

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee

Genre: Comedy
Director: Jake Szymanski
Cast: Zac Efron, Anna Kendrick, Adam Devine, Aubrey Plaza, Stephen Root
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scenes And Coarse Language)
Released By: 20th Century Fox
Official Website: http://www.foxmovies.com/movies/mike-and-dave-need-wedding-dates

Opening Day: 8 September 2016

Synopsis: Hard-partying brothers Mike (Adam Devine) and Dave (Zac Efron) place an online ad to find the perfect dates (Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza) for their sister's Hawaiian wedding. Hoping for a wild getaway, the boys instead find themselves outsmarted and out-partied by the uncontrollable duo.

Movie Review:

‘Based on a true story. Sort of,’ says the opening credits of ‘Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates’, that draws its premise from two real-life brothers named Mike and Dave Stangle whose story of finding wedding dates for their sister’s wedding on Craigslist went viral and led to TV appearances as well as a book. That disclaimer is liberty for first-time director Jake Szymanski (whose calling card includes a couple of ‘Funny or Die’ shorts and the HBO tennis comedy ‘7 Days in Hell’) and screenwriters Andrew Jay Cohen and Brendan O’Brien (best known for the two ‘Neighbours’ comedies) to fashion the latest gross-out wedding comedy, a fitfully entertaining if somewhat unremarkable entry into a subgenre that has seen the heights of ‘Wedding Crashers’, ‘The Hangover’ and ‘Bridesmaids’.

No different than each one of its predecessors, ‘Mike and Dave’ rests on a formula of copious vulgar gags performed by likeable actors who play misbehaving losers-in-life with hearts-of-gold. To find that balance makes the difference between a comedy that is just plain offensive and one that somehow feels warm and inclusive despite its crude misdemeanors, a constant struggle for Szymanski’s frantic, even frenetic-to-please, film notwithstanding the combined talents of Zac Efron, Anna Kendrick, Adam Devine and Aubrey Plaza – a full-body rub that the titular characters’ baby sister Jeanie (Sugar Lyn Beard) receives from a naked deadpan Indian masseuse (Kumail Nanjiani) the afternoon before her wedding is mildly amusing at first and then becomes simply disturbing; and a running gag with their butch bisexual cousin Terry (Alice Wetterlund) also gets rapidly ingratiating.

Lacking the discipline that often comes with experience, Szymanski throws everything including the kitchen sink at his audience in a desperate attempt to make something stick, and the result is often hit-and-miss, the former credit to the kooky charm that the stars bring than to the gags per se. Right from the beginning, Efron and Devine establish their loveable screw-up routine both from a home-video litany of disaster and destruction (involving wild drinking, dancing and trampoline-jumping) and from the opening sequence that shows how they use the same shenanigan every few weeks to hawk their liquor to a reluctant bar owner. Efron’s low-key straight-man act complements Devine’s intensely hyperactive get-up nicely, and though not all the improvisational work on set pays off, they have an infectiously lively rapport that rubs off on you.

Kendrick and Plaza, on the other hand, effortlessly upend gender expectations about how ‘bad-ass’ girls can get next to boys; oh yes, Alice (Kendrick) and Tatiana (Plaza) turn out to be even worse reprobates than Mike and Dave, and both actresses nail the degenerate-ness of their characters nicely. Whereas Plaza lets loose the cruelly comic side of her persona, Kendrick makes us believe in her character’s hollowed-out self-esteem (no thanks to being dumped by her ex-fiancee at the altar) and earns our sympathies along the way. It is probably no surprise that Mike and Dave will fall in love with their respective dates, and whether it is Efron and Kendrick’s sweet puppy-love romance or Devine and Plaza’s sexually-charged relationship, there is equally wonderful chemistry in either one of the male-female pairings.

But the ensemble of gifted comic stars cannot quite disguise the fact that ‘Mike and Dave’ has been constructed as a pile of sketches than as a story. Some of these work, such as a wild ATV ride that the foursome embark on with the bride and bridegroom (Sam Richardson) across the Hawaiian landscape where the dinosaurs first appeared in the original ‘Jurassic Park’; but others, like an Ecstasy trip the night of the rehearsal dinner which ends in Jeanie going stark naked and Alice covering her breasts with a horse’s mane strain credulity. Because it doesn’t have much of a backbone by way of story, Alice and Tatiana’s change of heart in the third act also rings hollow, leaving one unconvinced why such cynical individuals would suddenly turn introspective and confess (and confront) their deeper insecurities.

Despite its shortcomings, ‘Mike and Dave’ does in its sheer idiocy – and at times, lunacy – offer some delightful laughs, especially because the performers are often completely game no matter how silly or embarrassing the antics in and of themselves are. Not all the jokes hit the mark, and some miss by quite a fair bit, but if you’re looking for a fun raucous time, then you can do much worse than this unapologetically vulgar and unashamedly asinine comedy. As yet another entry in the gross-out wedding comedy subgenre though, it is mostly unremarkable and largely forgettable, so don’t go expecting another ‘Wedding Crashers’ or ‘The Hangover’ or ‘Bridesmaids’ and you’ll get your vulgar fix just fine. 

Movie Rating:

(Consistently – and sometimes desperately – lewd but only occasionally laugh-out-loud, this latest gross-out wedding comedy is good for a vulgar fix but not much more)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: CG Animation
Director: Nicholas Stoller
Cast:  Andy Samberg, Katie Crown, Kelsey Grammer, Jennifer Aniston, Ty Burrell, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Danny Trejo
Runtime: 1 hr 22 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: Warner Bros
Official Website: http://www.storksmovie.com

Opening Day: 22 September 2016

Synopsis: Storks deliver babies...or at least they used to. Now they deliver packages for global internet retail giant Cornerstore.com. Junior (Andy Samberg), the company's top delivery stork, is about to be promoted when the Baby Factory is accidentally activated on his watch, producing an adorable - and wholly unauthorized - baby girl. Desperate to deliver this bundle of trouble before the boss gets wise, Junior and his friend Tulip, the only human on Stork Mountain, race to make their first-ever baby drop, in a wild and revealing journey that could make more than one family whole and restore the storks' true mission in the world.

Movie Review:

If you’re expecting ‘Storks’ to be yet another big-studio cartoon cut from familiar thematic moulds, let’s just say that you’ll probably find yourself quite disoriented. Oh yes, right from the beginning, there is something decidedly unorthodox about its premise of titular avians having given up on their traditional business of manufacturing and delivering babies for an Amazon-like courier service known as Cornerstore.com. Whereas hopeful couples used to be able to write a letter to Stork Mountain and have their wishes come true via an elaborate baby-manufacturing assembly line operation, the long-billed birds have abandoned that task ever since one of their kind Jasper (Danny Trejo) grew too attached to one of the newborns Tulip (Katie Crown) and stranded her at their facility by accidentally destroying the gizmo containing her delivery address.

And so the story goes that the business’s star performer Junior (Andy Samberg) will be promoted to CEO if he can fire Tulip, whose clumsiness and dangerous inventions have made her a liability the outfit can well do without. Yet the intrinsically good-hearted Junior cannot quite summon the managerial mettle to do so; instead, he stashes her in the warehouse’s long-dormant baby-making wing and instructing her never to leave the premises. Meanwhile, the packed story also sees a precocious young boy Nate (Anton Starkman) ignored by his workaholic realtor parents Henry and Sarah (Ty Burrell and Jennifer Aniston) place an order for a baby brother with ninja skills. Put two and two together, and you can guess how Junior and Tulip eventually end up with an adorable pink-haired infant that they have to deliver to Nate’s family secretly and without incident.

If that sounds like an awfully convoluted plot for a road movie, you’re probably right. Like his live-action comedies ‘Neighbours’ and ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’, writer-director Nicholas Stoller’s first foray into the animated genre boasts his similar freewheeling style. And yet, amidst the weird disjointed adventure likely to confuse kids and give their parents a bit of a head-scratcher, there are such inventive displays of wit and humour that you won’t mind going along with this screwball-quick, frenetic and cheerfully nonsensical movie. Indeed, Stoller’s offbeat comedic sensibility is firmly intact, especially in a running gag involving a wolf pack led by Alpha Wolf (Keegan-Michael Key) and Beta Wolf (Jordan Peele) with amazing shape-shifting abilities which allow them to transform swiftly into suspension bridges, speedboats and submarines in pursuit of their prey.

Other expertly tooled diversions include a hilarious fight scene where Junior and Tulip do battle with a waddle of sinister white-eyed penguins in silence to avoid waking the baby, and a bro-ish pigeon antagonist Toady (Stephen Kramer Glickman) who also wants to be the next CEO-in-line. It is madcap no doubt, and yet in between the Chuck Jones/ Friz Freleng antics, Stoller and his co-director Doug Sweetland (director of the Oscar-nominated Pixar short ‘Presto’) insert surprisingly resonant snapshots of parenting. One scene has Junior and Tulip mirroring two fatigued parents bickering over how to rock the baby to sleep, and another has them each taking turns to distract the baby while the other tries to feed her. On Henry and Sarah’s part, the perpetually preoccupied parents learn to put their business on hold and help their neglected son add a tornado slide and landing platform onto their roof.

In most part, the lively rapport between the talented cast ensemble also help to speed through the story’s convolutions – and besides the tried-and-true banter between Key and Peele, you’ll be pleasantly surprised too by the back-and-forth between Samberg and newcomer Crown. It probably isn’t a coincidence that this sophomore project from Warner Animation Group (whose maiden claim-to-fame was Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s ‘The Lego Movie’) unfolds with the same rapid-fire visual and verbal delivery as the pair of executive producers’ previous work, though ‘Storks’ is far too ambitious to just follow slavishly in its predecessor’s footsteps. Like we said at the start, it does take a little getting used to, but once it hits the road, we reassure you that this free-spirited animation delivers. 

Movie Rating:

(Screwball-quick, frenetic and cheerfully nonsensical, this gleefully unconventional animated comedy delivers the laughs and some surprisingly resonant snapshots of parenting)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Sci-Fi/Thriller
Director: Luke Scott
Cast: Kate Mara, Anya Taylor-Joy, Toby Jones, Rose Leslie, Boyd Holbrook, Michelle Yeoh, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Paul Giamatti
Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Violence)
Released By: 20th Century Fox
Official Website: http://www.foxmovies.com/movies/morgan

Opening Day: 15 September 2016

Synopsis: A corporate troubleshooter (Kate Mara) is sent to a remote, top-secret location, where she is to investigate and evaluate a terrifying accident. She learns the event was triggered by a seemingly innocent “human,” who presents a mystery of both infinite promise and incalculable danger.

Movie Review:

Any movie that dares to name itself after its main character better be sure that he or she is worth giving a damn, and unfortunately, ‘Morgan’ fails even on that fundamental level. Who is Morgan indeed, you ask? According to first-time feature filmmaker Luke Scott (son of Ridley, who produced) and writer Seth Owen, Morgan is a genetically engineered superhuman born and raised in a glassed-in cage her whole life, who suddenly goes berserk one day and stabs one of her guardians (Jennifer Jason Leigh) in the eye after her favourite privilege of going outdoors is curtailed. Is Morgan a “she” or an “it”? Is she or it able to experience emotions like anger and frustration just like any other human? These are the questions that form the film’s central mystery, which are supposed to keep us intrigued as corporate risk-management consultant Lee Weathers (Kate Mara) is sent to the compound of this top-secret project to assess its long-term viability.

Not surprisingly, Lee’s discovery of Morgan is meant to be our own, but instead of spending time with the specimen herself or itself, Lee bides her time making introductions with the caretakers in the facility who are frankly just born out of cliché. Among them, there is the officious chief scientist (Toby Jones) who doesn’t want to let years of hard work go down the drain, a hot-headed young behaviourist (Rose Leslie) who shares an unusually close bond with Morgan, a stern and protective ‘mother’ (Michelle Yeoh) who is just as disdainful of Lee, and a nutritionist (Boyd Holbrook) who is probably the least attached to Morgan. Each are defined fleetingly, but just as well, since all of them – and that includes the psychiatrist who was attacked by Morgan – regard Morgan as family and insist on protecting her for what they think was no more than an ‘accident’.

Because Lee is given so little time to interact with Morgan (which is somewhat amusing, considering how the latter is the subject she was sent there to evaluate), we learn more about Morgan through a brief encounter that the smug psychologist Dr Alan Shapiro (Paul Giamatti) has with her. Like Lee, Alan has been dispatched by corporate; his mission to determine whether she has feelings. That single five-minute sequence, which also serves as the turning point at the midway mark, is just about the best thing the film has to offer – not only does it build up grippingly to the point where all hell breaks loose, it also confirms the sort of being Morgan really is on the inside. As much as she just looks like an angst-ridden teenager who mopes about in a nondescript gray hoodie, Morgan is in fact a highly advanced killing machine when provoked – and let’s just say Alan gets deep enough under her skin for her to rip his throat out.

As if afraid that he has put his audience into slumber with an exposition-heavy setup, Scott over-compensates by turning the last third into a frenetic Lee-versus-Morgan action thriller. By this point, it no longer matters if Morgan is a ‘she’ or an ‘it’; indeed, what really matters is whether Morgan kills everyone first before Lee manages to take her out. It should not also come as a surprise that Lee also has her own particular set of physical skills, which further confirms our suspicion from the beginning that she is more than some ‘risk-management consultant’ that corporate has sent to investigate the situation. There is a twist at the end that really isn’t as clever as it thinks itself to be, but is at least more convincing than how all the people who made Morgan are so enamoured with her and appear absolutely clueless about the sort of fighting machine she can become.

Comparisons will no doubt be drawn with ‘Ex Machina’, a far-superior science-fiction which also through the creation of a remarkable new life form flirted with the question of what it means to be human in the age of genetic engineering and artificial intelligence. But whereas the former was indeed keen on exploring the debate, ‘Morgan’ is simply content to exploit it for standard B-action thrills. That probably explains why, besides a coolly unsettling performance by Anya Taylor-Joy as the titular character, the rest of the cast seem utterly uninterested in their roles. We hardly blame them though – good ideas do not a good movie make, especially not when these ideas are ditched halfway through. Like we said at the start, a movie named ‘Morgan’ better make us care about who she is. Who is Morgan? Is Morgan a ‘she’ or an ‘it’? Frankly, we can’t quite be bothered either way. 

Movie Rating:

(If you've seen 'Ex Machina', there's no reason you should even bother about this poorer cousin)

Review by Gabriel Chong 

Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Adam Wingard
Cast: James Allen McCune, Callie Hernandez, Corbin Reid, Brandon Scott, Wes Robinson, Valorie Curry
Runtime: 1 hr 29 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Horror)
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films and Clover Films
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 15 September 2016

Synopsis: It’s been 20 years since James’s sister and her two friends vanished into the Black Hills Forest in Maryland while researching the legend of the Blair Witch, leaving a trail of theories and suspicions in their wake. James and his friends Peter, Ashley and film student Lisa venture into the same woods each with a camera to uncover the mysteries surrounding their disappearance. At first the group is hopeful, especially when a pair of locals Lane and Talia offer to act as guides through the dark and winding woods. But as the endless night wears on, the group is visited by a menacing presence. Slowly, they begin to realize the legend is all too real and more sinister than they could have imagined.

Movie Review:

Love it or hate it, there’s no denying that ‘The Blair Witch Project’ was a landmark film for the horror genre in terms of technique and marketing. Made on a micro-budget of US$60,000, it complemented its then-novel found-footage format with clever marketing which positioned the film we would see as ‘recovered footage’ shot by the three student filmmakers who had gone missing in the Black Hills Forest of Burkittsville, Maryland while making a documentary about a local legend known as the Blair Witch. That it eventually achieved a lifetime box-office gross of US$250 million made copycats inevitable, but no other horror film since then – aside from the first ‘Paranormal Activity’ – has been able to replicate its formula to the same winning effect.

It would seem folly therefore for any filmmaker to attempt a sequel, let alone reboot, the original; and yet, despite our initial skepticism, we were quickly won over by director Adam Wingard and his regular writing collaborator Simon Barrett’s tense, gripping and even nail-biting follow-up that stays true to its predecessor while expanding on the mythology of the Blair Witch. Rather than going for the convenient of assembling yet another bunch of foolhardy adventurers to go back into the forest, Wingard chooses to establish a much emotional (and logical) raison d'être for flirting with danger – an online video of the house which was last seen in ‘The Blair Witch Project’, and a fleeting glimpse of a figure which James (James Allen McCune) believes to be that of her missing sister Heather Donahue, one of the three student filmmakers who went missing two decades ago.

Joining James on his quest to locate his sister are his filmmaker girlfriend Lisa (Callie Hernandez), his best friend Peter (Brandon Scott) and Peter’s girlfriend Ashley (Corbin Reid). Their first stop is the home of ‘Darknet 666’, aka Lane (Wes Robinson), who had uploaded the video; and having grown up in these part of the woods, Lane shares stories of the Blair Witch legend, including one where a father of seven children in the 1940s kills his whole family after claiming to have heard her voice and another where a mother says a hand reached out from under the river in the woods to pull her daughter in. But Lane only agrees to show James where the video was found on one condition – that they bring him and his girlfriend Talia (Valorie Curry) along for the hike, which James eventually acquiesces to despite Peter’s objections.

To reveal any further details would be spoiling the thrill of not knowing what to expect, but let’s just say that there is a nice midway twist that divides the group into two camps and leaves each more vulnerable to the hauntings later on. Lest you dismiss the movie as a whole lot of mindless running around, we reassure you that there is a surprisingly well-constructed story amidst the melee, which ties in seamlessly with the original while establishing a clearer order to the hauntings. Indeed, fans of the original will recognize the shallow creek known as Coffin Rock, where something bad happens to one of the characters here. Fans will also recognize the unexplained loud thuds at night, or the cairns and the five-pointed compound symbols, to which Wingard introduces the concept of lost time and the perpetual loss of daylight that adds to the fear and paranoia of the characters trapped within the wilderness.

That suspense is no doubt accentuated by the visual flow of the movie, which is further testament to Wingard’s achievement. Yes, Wingard and his cinematographer Robby Baumgartner do knowingly violate sight lines to make us as disoriented as the campers, but the shots are carefully pieced together to alternate between still and moving ones in order not to be nausea-inducing. Technology has also helped a lot in this regard, and whereas such means were not available two decades ago, the use of hands-free recorders and drone cameras allow for different points-of-view other than from the respective characters. So instead of diminishing the viewing experience, the found-footage format rather enhances the atmosphere of anxiety, dread and sheer terror, especially when we are like the characters unable to see what is coming from behind our backs.

The same can be said of the film’s shocking third-act twist, which takes place almost entirely within the house that Heather was last seen. Even more foreboding from the inside than it looks from the outside, the two-storey farm building plunges its visitors into a disorienting maze of corridors and decrepit rooms before they are made to confront its real horror. Oh yes, it is here that our characters – and us – come face to face with the Blair Witch herself, a hairy half-human, half-animal beast that stands tall and towering over its victims. These last 20 minutes in the Blair Witch’s presence are easily some of the most claustrophobic and nerve-wracking moments we’ve had in a horror film in quite a while, deliberately paced so that you have no time to catch your breath in between. It is frightening as hell when things go to sh*t, and by the time the ending that leaves just enough possibility for a follow-up comes around, we guarantee that you’ll be left thoroughly shaken.

To be sure, it was never possible for ‘Blair Witch’ to capture the zeitgeist like its predecessor did, but between convincing fans of the original that this follow-up some 17 years later is worthy of the original and striking a chord with a new generation of viewers, we’d say that Wingard’s film accomplishes both excellently. Indeed, ‘Blair Witch’ pays ultimate homage to the ground-breaking original by situating its characters in a fictional world where ‘The Blair Witch Project’ was a real document, and builds on that history to find its relevance in a franchise that was once thought dead after the disastrous 2001 sequel ‘Book of Shadows’. Not only does this sequel (filmed in secret under the title ‘The Woods’) breathe new life into the Blair Witch horror once again, it proves that found footage remains a formidable technique if employed by the right filmmaker. Both frankly make this one of the must-see horror movies this year. 

Movie Rating:

(As perfect a sequel as it gets, this tense, gripping and even nerve-wracking follow-up to ‘The Blair Witch Project’ stays true to its predecessor while expanding on the mythology in clever and terrifying ways)

Review by Gabriel Chong 

Genre: CG Animation
Director: Chris Renaud, Yarrow Cheney
Cast: Louis C.K., Eric Stonestreet, Kevin Hart, Ellie Kemper, Lake Bell, Jenny Slate, Bobby Moynihan, Hannibal Buress, Albert Brooks
Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: UIP
Official Website:

Opening Day: 1 September 2016

Synopsis: For their fifth fully-animated feature-film collaboration, Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures present The Secret Life of Pets, a comedy about the lives our pets lead after we leave for work or school each day.

Movie Review:

‘Wonder what our pets do all day?’ teases the latest animated comedy from the creative minds behind ‘Despicable Me’ and ‘Minions’ – and indeed, what a brilliantly simple yet intriguing question, considering how many of us own pets and how much time they spend at home during the day while we’re out at work. As imagined by Illumination honcho Chris Meledandri, some like the rotund feline Chloe (Lake Bell) help themselves to whatever’s in the fridge, some like the puffy Pomeranian Gidget (Jenny Slate) indulge in Mexican soap operas, and others like the aging basset hound Pops (Dana Carvey) hold block parties. Oh yes, it’s a whole other outrageous world that goes on among the pet community when their owners are out, including cake-mixer massages, frat chugalugs from the toilet and poodly death-metal headbanging.

Co-directors Chris Renaud and Yarrow Cheney establish these home-alone high jinks right at the start, but as it turns out, settles for a much more conventional narrative to anchor the rest of the madcap shenanigans. In fact, if you’re already thinking that ‘The Secret Life of Pets’ is ‘Toy Story’ but with critters, you’ll be proven right in more ways than one – like that Pixar classic, the familiar but undeniably witty script by Brian Lynch, Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio centres on the rivalry between a beloved king-of-his-castle and the new interloper vying for number-one status in their master’s eye. The former in this case is a pampered Jack Russell terrier Max (voiced by comedian Louis C.K.) living the perfect life in New York City with his loving owner Katie (Ellie Kemper), and the latter a bear-like Newfoundland mutt named Duke (Eric Stonestreet) whom Max deems ‘the death of all good things’.

Their feud lands them lost in the streets of New York City, where they will find themselves at the mercy of feral alley cats (led by Steve Coogan’s freakish Ozone) as well as a ragtag band of abandoned former domestics who call themselves the Flushed Pets and whose leader is a cute but psychotic bunny named Snowball (Kevin Hart) hell-bent on the destruction of humans. Motivated by her infatuation for Max and inspired by the telenovela ‘La Pasión de la Pasión’, Gidget assembles Chloe, Pops, a red-tailed predatory hawk (Albert Brooks), a perpetually-lost guinea pig (Renaud), a hyperactive pug (Bobby Moynihan), a laid-back dachshund and an adrenaline-seeking budgerigar (Tara Strong) to find them. Notwithstanding, it is the bad pets who steal the show – besides the insanely adorable (pun intended) Snowball, there is a tattooed pig (Michael Beattie), a one-fanged viper, Sea-Monkeys and a couple of sewer gators.

With such a large ensemble, there is hardly room to build the thematic depth, narrative complexity, character investment or emotional poignance of a Pixar movie; instead, the emphasis here is on keeping up the manic energy through a constant stream of chase sequences, action set-pieces and anarchic humour, so much so that you wish they’d pull back on a little on the throttle from time to time to give the throughline more breathing space. Yes, amidst the almost breakneck pace from start to finish, neither the tension between Max and Duke nor the subtle message about the responsibility of pet owners survives the almost breakneck pace from start to finish. Not all is lost though – and little in fact, especially if all you’re looking for is pure unadulterated fun.

Living up to the Illumination brand name, the visuals are bright, colourful and absolutely gorgeous to look at. Colours pop off the screen, and New York City in autumn never looked quite as perfect as it does here in vibrant shades of red and orange. Just as accomplished is the character animation, lively, expressive and oh-so-dynamic through the streets, alleyways, sewers and rivers of New York City. The elaborate set-pieces buoy with playful absurdity, including a dramatic rescue along the Brooklyn Bridge. There is also a fantastically surreal song-and-dance number in a sausage factory. Like we said, there is hardly time to catch your breath before you’re plunged headlong with the characters into yet another outrageous scramble, but the laughs go hand in hand with the action that pretty much are non-stop in both quantity and velocity.

Still, there is an undeniable sense of missed opportunity after the pile-up of fur and feathers settle. As it turns out, some of the funniest and most inventive bits are already in the trailers, although watching them all over again undeniably doesn’t diminish their amusement. But ‘The Secret Life of Pets’ could have been a lot more with a stronger story and character development, both of which are sacrificed amidst the busy animal antics. So despite a similar premise but with pets, this is no ‘Toy Story’; as an escapist summer movie, it is great fun for the whole family with an especially sweet parting shot for the pet owners amongst us.

Movie Rating:

(Lively, colourful and often laugh-out-loud hilarious, this frenetically-paced action adventure trades character investment and emotional payoff for pure manic fun)

Review by Gabriel Chong