TOM HANKS AND CLINT EASTWOOD\'S LATEST FILM - SULLY - 99% FILMED WITH IMAX CAMERAS Posted on 02 Sep 2016 Sully, starring Tom Hanks and directed by Clint Eastwood, is filmed almost entirely with the new ALEXA IMAX(r) 65mm cameras and opens in Shaw Theatres IMAX on 8 September. While designing the new film about the Miracle on the Hudson, director Clint Eastwood did so with IMAX in mind and shot 99% of the entire film with the new ALEXA IMAX(r) 65mm cameras. The cameras, when combined with IMAX& ... more

Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Nicholas Winding Refn
Cast:  Elle Fanning, Karl Glusman, Jena Malone, Bella Heathcote, Abbey Lee, Christina Hendricks, Desmond Harrington, Alessandro Nivola, Keanu Reeves
Runtime: 1 hr 57 mins
Rating: M18 (Nudity and Violence)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: http://theneondemon.com

Opening Day: 20 October 2016

Synopsis: When aspiring model Jesse moves to Los Angeles, her youth and vitality are devoured by a group of beauty-obsessed women who will use any means necessary to get what she has in The Neon Demon, the new horror thriller from Nicolas Winding Refn.

Movie Review:

When Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn directed Drive (2011), it made Ryan Gosling a bona fide superstar – the American neo noir crime drama was dripping with so much coolness, you wouldn’t need an air conditioner. Oh, the Best Director Award at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival was a bonus too.

Two years later came Only God Forgives, a crime thriller set in Bangkok. Gosling returns with his coolness, together with Kristen Scott Thomas. Although it wasn’t as big a hit as Drive (it was booed by many of the audience of journalists and critics while also receiving a standing ovation), the film went down well with critics, the film managed to clock in a $10.3 million box office.

Refn continues his streak of controversial films with this latest work about an aspiring model whose beauty and youth bring about ridiculously amounts of fascination and jealousy within the fashion industry. Sounds like a plot from Mean Girls (2004)? Trust us, this is not bitchy fun. Brace yourself as there is sex (expected), gore (for the bloody fun), cannibalism (horrors!) and lesbian necrophilia (what?) in this 117 minute film.

A good looking 16 year old Jesse (Elle Fanning – my, how she has grown into quite a beauty) moves from small town Georgia to Los Angeles. She meets makeup artist Ruby (Jena Malone), and fellow models Sarah (Abbey Lee) and Gigi (Bella Heathcote) – and before she knows it, the three women are showering attention on her attractiveness, displaying curiosity over her sexual behaviours and things get really uncomfortable.

This is definitely a love it or hate it kind of viewing experience. You may be intrigued and awed by Refn’s bold use of theatrics and colours, but you may also be offended by what some conveniently refer to as self indulgence. At first, scenes of bondage, sex and nudity may shock you. After a while, you may become desensitised and wonder where this is going.

Fanning gives it her all to play a character who is originally fascinated by the industry, before involving herself by entering dangerous territories. Malone, Lee and Heathcote and aptly alluring as her mates turned enemies, while supporting characters played by Christina Hendricks (channeling her Joan Holloway vibes from TV’s Mad Men well into this role of an overbearing owner of a modeling agency) and Keanu Reeves (giving another creepily understated performance after Knock Knock) grab your attention every time they appear on screen.

This is a horror movie disguised in bright neon colours. The concept is respectable (the shallowness and ugliness behind the glitz and glamour of the fashion industry), but the execution remains questionable. Is this a piece of art, or is it simply a case of style over substance? You have to admit that the characters are not very well developed (we may be biased, but the brooding coolness Gosling displayed in Drive and Only God Forgives worked much better for his character), and you are mostly distracted by the visuals most of the time with this movie. This film is not one that is entertaining, but one that shrouds with an atmosphere of dread. Whether you should watch it or not? You decide. 

Movie Rating:

(The ugliness of the fashion industry is aptly contrasted by the film’s glamourous visuals, but this divisive piece of work definitely isn’t Nicolas Winding Refn’s best)

Review by John Li

Genre: Action/Comedy
Director: Wong Jing
Cast: Andy Lau, Huang Xiao Ming, Ou Yang Nana, Wong Cho Lam, Shen Teng, Michelle Hu
Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins
Rating: PG13 (Brief Nudity)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 6 October 2016

Synopsis: Mission Milano is an adventure about a wealthy entrepreneur (Huang Xiaoming) who goes undercover with an Interpol agent (Andy Lau) to protect a new invention, Seed of God, from falling into an international crime conglomerate. Together they embark on a journey to protect the invention & travel to multi cities like Macau, Hong Kong, Milan & Eastern Europe. Will they be able to accomplish their mission...?

Movie Review:

There was a time when Wong Jing was funny. That time, unfortunately, is over, as audiences discovered over the dreadfully unfunny ‘From Vegas to Macau III’ earlier this year. ‘Mission Milano’ is his first movie after that disaster – though he has written two other equally dreary films (namely, ‘iGirl’ and ‘Girl of the Big House’) – and it is only marginally better. At the very least, there is a somewhat coherent plot to string together the mostly infantile gags, which involves Andy Lau’s Interpol Agent Sampan Hung (whose Chinese name is洪金寶) teaming up with Huang Xiaoming’s billionaire entrepreneur Louis Luo to stop a Japanese criminal organisation Crescent from selling the latest bio-technology known as the ‘Seed of God’ to a terrorist conglomerate KMAX. And yet, this globe-trotting spy spoof is ultimately done in by Wong Jing’s sloppy writing and slapdash direction, which not even the stars with their palpable charisma can redeem.

As much as it draws its name from the Italian city, ‘Mission Milano’ only spends at most a third of its time in it, hopscotching from Paris (where Andy gets one of the rare bright spots of the film fighting an unknown assassin dressed as a French maid), to Hong Kong (where he is given his current assignment by his reticent boss played by Shen Teng), to Shanghai (where he recruits Louis to help him retrieve the ‘Seed of God’), to Macau (upon sighting of one of KMAX’s cronies Iron Hawk), to Milan (where Crescent plans to sell the technology it stole to KMAX), and lastly to Central Europe (where KMAX operates from its military base complete with its own runway). All that running around from city to city is really no more than an excuse for Wong Jing to stage one lame stunt after another against a different backdrop, but there is no disguising just how juvenile, scattershot and derivative these supposedly amusing gags really are.

Stealing first from James Bond, Wong Jing gives Lau’s Agent Sampan Hung the code number 119, decorates his superior’s office with the signature ‘gun barrel’ backdrop, and then assigns him a weapons specialist called Bing Bing to equip him with an iPhone to help him on the field by shooting fire and shock needles. Along the way, Wong Jing continues to ‘borrow’ far better-executed ideas from elsewhere – including sonic guns from ‘Minority Report’ that Crescent uses at Haitian Technologies to capture the ‘Seed of God’, laser-beam fortified corridors from ‘Resident Evil’ that Crescent uses to secure the technology, an ‘Initial D’ race sequence down a narrow dimly-lit hillside road at night, a Jedi Knight light sabre that Agent Sampan pulls from his phone/ weapon-of-choice against Iron Hawk, and last but not least Wolverine claws that Crescent uses against Agent Hung, Louis and fellow Interpol agent Phoenix (Michelle Hu) in a mid-air finale that Wong rips from his own ‘From Vegas to Macau II’.

Most of these ‘appropriated’ jokes do not last long – largely because Wong Jing lacks the conviction and creativity to make them pop – but the running gags are not much better. One pokes fun at Louis’ mother’s (Petrina Fung) early-onset dementia, which plays out as her mistaking Louis’ buddy Amon (Wong Cho-Lam) as the family dog Meatball and mistaking a goldfish bowl for a bowl of fish soup that she has prepared for Louis. Another has Agent Sampan, Louis and Amon taking turns to charm Crescent’s head of security Sophie (Evonne Sie) in order to get an image of her iris to unlock the facility where the ‘Seed of God’ has been stored, which leads to an over-the-top sequence where Louis spits vodka laced with Tabasco sauce into Sophie’s eyes to get her to remove her contact lens. There is no doubt it is all slapstick, but Wong Jing sets his own bar too low that the comedy ends up infantile.

Character work has never been Wong Jing’s strong suite, and ‘Mission Milano’ proves no different. Lau’s Agent 119 is all over the place, suave because it fits his mug yet seemingly insecure in the face of danger. Especially incongruous is a subplot that sees his character struggling to decide whether to call his estranged wife whom he misses, an otherwise pointless addition that pays off only for the last-minute cameo of Sammi Cheng as his spouse. Xiaoming does most of the kung-fu fighting (on account possibly of Lau’s relative age), and is called on additionally just to look debonair throughout. Hu’s silver-haired Interpol spy is intriguing at the start, but proves just as flat as the two lead male characters as the movie progresses. Ditto for Amon and Louis’ other sidekick, Ka Yan (Nana Ouyang), whose supporting roles are even more paper-thin, and except for their introductory sequence where they tag-team to test Louis’ fighting skills, are pretty much non-existent.

Even by Wong Jing’s standards, ‘Mission Milano’ ranks as one of his more disposable entries – in addition to forgettable plotting and characters (which is generally true of most of his movies), there is a distinct lack of wit or humour in most of the gags. Only because the narrative is less incoherent does it fare better than Wong Jing’s last spectacular misfire, but like we said at the start, that doesn’t mean that the prolific (and some say infamous, if you loathe his ‘mo lei tau’ style) director has regained his comedic mojo. For Andy Lau’s fans in particular, his latest collaboration following ‘From Vegas to Macau III’ depletes even more of their goodwill, and we’d hope for the sake of his reputation as an actor that his next which sees him reprise one of his iconic roles Lee Rock will be a creative rebound for himself as well as for his writer-director Wong Jing (again). 

Movie Rating:

(As unfunny as Wong Jing’s comedies come, this spy spoof with lame gags, sloppy writing and slapdash direction is a misfire not even its charismatic male stars can redeem)

Review by Gabriel Chong 

Genre: Drama
Director: Peter Berg
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, John Malkovich, Gina Rodriguez, Dylan O'Brien, Kate Hudson
Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Intense Sequences)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Official Website: http://www.deepwaterhorizon.movie

Opening Day: 29 September 2016

Synopsis: On April 20th, 2010, the world’s largest man-made disaster occurred on the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico. Directed by Peter Berg (Lone Survivor), this story honors the brave men and women whose heroism would save many on board and change everyone’s lives forever.

Movie Review:

What runs through your mind when you watch a disaster movie?

“What if I was the one stuck in the situation? Would I be still be able to think and make my way out alive?”

“Hell, that wasn’t a very smart thing to do! Serves you right for not being able to survive this!”

“Boy, how do all these people still manage to look like movie stars despite the terrible, terrible circumstance they are in?”

One thing for sure, you will be able to walk out of the theatre safely when the end credits roll. That is, after you’ve gulped down your share of snacks, while seated comfortably in a cushioned chair (in an air conditioned hall, no less).

After thrilling your senses with action packed movies like The Kingdom (2007) and Battleship (2012), director Peter Berg brings one of the largest man made disasters to the big screen. Based on the 2010 Deep Horizon explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, this 107 minute movie brings viewers to the heart of the action, and explores the evergreen question of what is the price of corporate greed?

As you would expect from other disaster movies which celebrate the human spirit (and the all mighty American heroism, of course), this one features stories of how characters led others to rescue fellow crew members. You also get the corporate villain who is conveniently painted as the one single cause of the disaster. But at the end of the day, you will still be thrilled by the harrowing action sequences that will leave you hoping that you will never have to face such a situation.

Berg reteams with Mark Walberg, who worked with him on Lone Survivor (2013). Here, Whalberg plays Mike Williams, who was the chief electronics technician of the oil rig. The good looking actor puts his rugged charm to good use, while maintaining the dignity of playing a real life character. He is joined by Kurt Russell’s Jimmy Harrell, who was the offshore installation manager when the disaster happened. The two veterans are put in spotlight as they go all out to ensure the safety of the crew.

Playing the baddie is John Malkovich, the sneaky villain you’d love to hate. There are also family members (Kate Hudson, who plays Walberg’s wife) worrying back home. Oh, there’s also a heroine played by Gina Rodriguez to appeal to a wider demographic.

Most of us are not familiar with how oil rigs work, and the filmmakers have done a decent job with bringing us close to the action. The movie does not waste much time explaining the whys and hows – you will be coming face to face with non stop explosions, raging fires and lots of shaky camera shots to get a taste of what it might have been like to be near the disaster. Although there isn’t much to expect with the predictable storyline, you are engaged from start to finish because you know this is a true story.

When the movie ends with descriptions of what happened to the key characters, as well as a list of the deceased, you can only sigh and ponder how much life is really worth. 

Movie Rating:

(This disaster movie offers nothing new, but it is a solid piece of work that will keep you engaged from start to finish – and wish that you will never be involved in such an unfortunate incident)  

Review by John Li

Genre: Crime/Thriller
Director: Ken Wu　
Cast: Nicholas Tse, Sean Lau, Tong Liya, Mavis Fan, Vengo Gao, Babyjohn Choi
Runtime: 1 hr 42 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Violence)
Released By: Shaw 
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 27 October 2016

Synopsis: In a huntdown to catch a serial killer named ‘General’ (Vengo Gao), cop John Ma (Nicholas Tse) was shot through his heart and received a heart transplant thereafter. After a year and a half, a number of international crime cases that are done similarly to that of the General’s arise. John Ma and Calvin Che (Sean Lau), a criminal psychologist are brought together under the great threat and struggle to define all means evolved from the killings. Their final confrontation will uncover the lead behind the scene but will also put numerous innocent people in great danger…

Movie Review:

Much to the disappointment of fans of the stylish period whodunit ‘The Bullet Vanishes’, Nicholas Tse did not return to star with Sean Lau in its sequel last year, so it is understandable that ‘Heartfall Arises’ arrives with a fair amount of expectation of their reunion. Alas those expecting a similarly smart and intriguing psychological thriller between the pair of Hong Kong Best Actors will likely be severely disappointed, as ‘Heartfall Arises’ is much, much less clever than it thinks itself to be or wants to be. Not only is it clumsily plotted, it is just as ineptly directed, which magnifies its narrative flaws and turns entire scenes into caricature, notwithstanding the considerable acting talent on display.

Based on a story by its director Ken Wu, the Gu Shuli-scripted film builds itself on the pseudo-scientific hypothesis on cellular memory, which posits that memories can be stored in individual cells. If you believe in that hypothesis, then you’ll probably also buy the idea that an organ transplant may possibly change a recipient’s personality – and it is said that heart transplants are most susceptible to cellular memory. It is for this reason that criminal psychologist Calvin Che (Lau) believes Major Crimes Unit detective John Ma (Tse) to be the perpetrator behind the latest series of serial murders which boast the same modus operandi as that which occurred one and a half years ago, given that Ma had received the heart of the murderer who went by the alias ‘The General’ (Gao Venga).

As cliché would have it, Ma happens to be the one who had shot ‘The General’ in the head in the first place, which left him critically injured and therefore in need of the transplant. Despite being spared of the complication of rejection, Ma starts to experience visions that he cannot quite explain – most often of a girl by the beach whom he appears to be dating. That girl is in fact the General’s fiancé, whom Ma not only feels a surge of emotions after seeing but decides to date over hotpot. Just as well then that he has apparently acquired the General’s taste for spicy food, which his girlfriend-doctor (Mavis Hee) points out earlier on in the film. Oh yes, as Che explains at the start to his class, cellular memory could lead to the recipient acquiring the donor’s memories, tastes and impulses.

Could Ma also have inherited the General’s murderous impulses? Wu hopes to keep his audience guessing as the cat-and-mouse game between the police and the killer comes down to one between Che and Ma, as he teases the revelation that Che had also gone for an organ transplant around the same time as Ma. As you’ve probably already predicted, Ma’s tendencies are no more than a red herring, and given that the General is out of the picture most of the time, it is not difficult to figure out who the copycat killer really is. With that mystery pretty much solved halfway into the film, all that remains is understanding the culprit’s motive, which unfortunately Wu and his writer Gu struggle but fail to come up with anything compelling or even convincing.

Most glaring is how the General’s modus operandi – in which he sends out a warning to his next victim, usually a wealthy business cum benefactor, and warns of his or her death hours later – is somehow forgotten two-thirds into the movie. Suddenly, what was previously referred to as ‘Robin Hood-style’ killings becomes one of vigilantism, and worse terrorism, for no apparent reason than spectacle; the latter referring to the big-bang climax you’ve seen in the trailer of an explosion taking out the iconic IFC building in Hong Kong’s Central district. That same lack of discipline explains the manner in which Wu has cobbled together disparate tricks in the genre playbook in the name of providing the story some twists and turns, even if they make little sense as a coherent whole.

All the while, Wu uses the motif of a chess game to describe the battle of wits – the first time Che and Ma meet each other is at a game of chess in the hospital grounds where both are recuperating from their respective operations; Ma names the General’s plan ‘The Gathering of the Seven Stars’, which chess players will know as a complex endgame composition; and last but not least, Che continuously reminds Ma after that initial meeting that they are due for a rematch someday. Yet not the numerous references to the chess stratagems nor the occasional Friedrich Nietzsche quotes can quite disguise the fact that there is little ingenuity to the General’s plan and by extension to the film’s plotting, which is further exacerbated by Wu’s directorial inexperience or obvious missteps that run the gamut from poorly edited action sequences to embarrassing use of CGI to plain bad framing.

These flaws ultimately waste the combined acting talent of Lau and Tse, who somehow lack the spark that they had in their previous collaboration. Lau seems quite utterly bored, and Tse invests similarly little in a role that is too thinly defined. Their co-stars come off even more insignificant given how poorly sketched their characters are – in particular, the romantic subplots that link Tong and Hee to Tse are so badly developed that they are downright pointless. What was intended as a smart psychological thriller turns out very much, much less so, not as laughably bad as some reviews have claimed but certainly one of the worst Hong Kong films we’ve seen this year. Like its title, ‘Heartfall Arises’ often turns out illogical and even dumb, what pulse it raises likely out of frustration than excitement. 

Movie Rating:

(Clumsily plotted and ineptly directed, this reunion of Sean Lau and Nicholas Tse is far from the smart psychological thriller it wants or thinks itself to be)

Review by Gabriel Chong 

Genre: Comics/Action
Director: James Mangold
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Doris Morgado, Richard E. Grant, Boyd Holbrook
Runtime: 2 hrs 17 mins
Rating: M18 (Violence and Coarse Language)
Released By: 20th Century Fox 
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 3 March 2017

Synopsis: In the near future, a weary Logan cares for an ailing Professor X in a hide out on the Mexican border. But Logan's attempts to hide from the world and his legacy are up-ended when a young mutant arrives, being pursued by dark forces.

Movie Review:

Hands down, Logan is one of the bleakest movies ever made in the X-Men series, possibly even within the long-running Marvel franchise of superhero movies. Yet for many reasons it’s one of the best.

For one, although this reviewer has been a longstanding fan of Marvel Comics’s X-Men, he has always preferred comic book adaptions where the film revolves around one central character. A constant problem with celluloid depictions of the X-Men universe has simply been this: too many characters, too little screen time to devote to any single one. This means opportunities for character-centric stories sometimes wind up capitulating to a greater focus on meta-themes of good versus evil, mutantkind versus humankind – all against a backdrop of crowd-pleasing CGI action sequences.

Nothing wrong with that, of course, but those seeking a bit more depth beyond their regular popcorn superhero action flick will be pleased with what Logan has to offer. Admittedly, the Wolverine spin-off series has been somewhat hit-and-miss in terms of capitalising on the potential for character-driven storytelling greatness. The first in the series, X-Men Origins: Wolverine (directed by Gavin Hood, 2009), received mixed reviews for its flimsy plot. Fortunately, helming the director’s chair this time is James Mangold, who also directed the well-received second chapter, The Wolverine (2013). However, it is with this third and final instalment that Mangold truly works his magic.

The film is set in 2029, in a dystopian world now largely bereft of mutants, with no new ones having been born in the last two decades. The brash, fearless Wolverine (also known by his titular namesake, Logan; played by Hugh Jackman) we’ve all come to know is visibly older, depressed and struggling with his mortality – his self-healing abilities have also retarded. Eking out aliving as a limousine-for-rent driver, Logan leads a difficult existence with Professor Charles Xavier (played by Patrick Stewart) and mutant outcast Caliban (played by a virtually unrecognisable Stephen Merchant), who shares caretaker duties of Professor X with Logan. The Professor is now a nonagenarian slowly losing his mentality faculties to senility and, without timely medication, increasingly prone to seizures that launch psychic mayhem on anyone who happens to be within his immediate vicinity.

Gone are any lofty ideals of enacting poetic vengeance on adversariesor saving the mutant world from obliteration by humans. All Logan really desires at this point, wearily, is to stay low and raise enough money to fulfil Professor X’s wish of buying a boat so they can literally sail into the sunset together to live out the rest of their days. None of this is quite what we’ve come to expect from the indomitable superhero figures that we’re so used to watching on the big screen, and it’s certainly refreshing, albeit unsettling, to watch.

Of course, trouble soon arrives when their paths cross with that of Laura (played by Dafne Keen), a young mutant girl who bears strikingly similar abilities to Logan – from her agility and self-healing abilities to her ability to grow adamantium claws. We soon learn about her origins and why a corporation named Transigen and its lackeys, the Reavers, are hot on her heels to capture and destroy her.

Logan begrudgingly finds it thrust upon him to protect her from the evil powers-that-be – it’s not unlike that familiar dramedy arc where unwitting bachelor wakes up with new baby on doorstep and has to deal with daddy duties, except this version of that story is beefed up with ten times the adrenaline. The task at hand is to escort her to a safe place in North Dakota called "Eden" and Logan takes Professor X along on the ride. Suffice to say, blood is spilled along the way, and let’s just say much of the movie is grim.

The story is not a complicated one at all. Most of the plot can be simply summed up as a big chase by the bad guys to nab the good guys; a frenetic rush to deliver the remainder of mutant progeny to safety so they get a fighting chance in a dreary, humancentric world. It’s how the story told that makes all the difference. Apart from directing duties, Mangold also shares screenplay-writing credits with Michael Green and Scott Frank and it is clear the extent of his creative control over the material has benefitted the film tremendously. Running at over two hours, the pacing still feels measured and thoughtful as Mangold takes his time to tell the story, but it never feels laborious for the audiences. There are subtle references to the previous movie instalments, but by and large you will not need to have watched them to comprehend what is going on.

This is the also first film in the Wolverine series to be given an M-18 rating, owing to its violence (think adamantium claws gleefully slicing off heads or impaling them), as well as some profane language. But it’s clear the makers of the film did not make it with the kids in mind anyway. Scenes with brutality are visceral enough to titillate, but they don’t feel excessive. The action sequences are not as flashy as what we’ve come to expect from comic book movies, but they are delivered with panache and still manage to please. Which works great of course, considering ostentation is not what this movie is after, and thankfully so.

Indeed, this is no run-of-the-mill, light-hearted action flick. Much like its direct, no-nonsense title suggests, Logan is at its heart amature, back-to-basics character study. Here we see Jackman fully fleshing out his role as the Wolverine, baring all of the persona’s vulnerabilities and insecurities. And most importantly, these vulnerabilities are essentially human. It’s the message that the X-Men comics have tried to underscore since day one of their inception, that despite our mutations and differences, we are all pretty much the same in terms of our human wants, fears, and need for love.“So this is what it feels like,” says Logan in one pivotal scene where he tenderly bonds with Laura,and it is utterlyheart-breaking. Heck, this might just be one of the best performances of Jackman’s career.

It’s still difficult to imagine that 17 years have already elapsed since Bryan Singer’s X-Men (2000), when both Jackman and Stewart first appeared on the big screen as their mutant characters. Both Jackman and Stewart have expressed that it’ll likely be their last time reprising the roles, and they should be very proud to be bowing out with the kind of tasteful, elegiac send-off that is Logan. And with this movie, there’s no doubt they’ve cemented their legacies in cinematic history as definitive versions of their characters.

Movie Rating:

(Not your average superhero action film,Logan delves deep into the titular character’s psyche on the last of his heroic journeys. Don’t miss this chance to say farewell to Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in theatres)

Review by Tan Yong Chia Gabriel

Genre: Sci-Fi/Romance
Director: Morten Tyldum
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishbone, Aurora Perrineau, Jamie Soricelli, Kimberly Battista
Runtime: 1 hr 56 mins
Rating: PG13 (Scenes of Intimacy)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures 
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 22 December 2016

Synopsis: A spacecraft ravelling to a distant colony planet and transporting thousands of people has a malfunction in one of its sleep chambers. As a result, a single passenger is awakened 60 years early. Faced with the prospect of growing old and dying alone, he eventually decides to wake up a second passenger.

Movie Review:

‘Passengers’ wants to sell you a romance between two passengers prematurely woken up from hibernation while on a 120-year journey on board the luxury interstellar spaceship Avalon bound for a distant colony planet. Whereas they are supposed to wake only four months before, Jim Preston (Chris Pratt), a mechanical engineer from Denver, Colorado, and Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence), a writer from New York City, find themselves roused only 30 years into their voyage. Alongside their space-set love story is supposedly a mystery about why they were awoken in the first place and how that is tied to the fate of the Avalon at some point in the near future, suggesting therefore a unique twist on the science-fiction genre that recent critical and commercial hits like ‘Gravity’ and ‘The Martian’ have made fashionable all over again.

And yet, Norwegian director Morten Tyldum’s sophomore English-language feature wants to be even more but ends up being even less. Scripted by rising screenwriter Jon Spaihts (whose credits include Ridley Scott’s ‘Prometheus’, Marvel’s ‘Doctor Strange’ and the upcoming ‘The Mummy’ reboot), it is a film of three related but distinct acts. The first is best described as ‘Castaway’ in space, as an outsized meteor hit causes Jim’s pod to malfunction and jolt its subject back to consciousness. Jim doesn’t suspect anything amiss at first, following dutifully a hologram greeter’s instructions to his room and thereafter to an orientation briefing – only when no one else shows up does he realise the predicament that he is in. After trying but failing to call for help or put himself back to deep sleep, Jim is resigned to living the rest of his days in solitude, with only an obliging, crimson-jacketed bartender droid named Arthur (Michael Sheen) for company.

Unlike Tom Hanks’ Chuck Noland, Jim has a choice (in fact, 5,000 of them) and he decides to exercise one on Aurora. Oh yes, faced with the prospect of living out the rest of his days alone and the certainty of death before the Avalon even reaches its destination, Jim commits the selfish act of reviving the girl he has been obsessing over – not only does he sit by her pod from time to time, he reads all the books she’s written and watches videos of her. Thus begins the middle act, which plays out as a series of meet-cute encounters between a man and a woman who are forced to live with a diminished horizon but whose mutual company allows them to focus on the here and now. Pratt and Lawrence share such radiant chemistry that their potentially clunky exchanges – such as one where he tells her that he is giving her space and she responds that it is the one thing she does not need more of – are no less than charming repartee that is simply delightful to watch.

But that is not quite enough justification for us to forget Jim’s unethical deed, and there is an inevitable expectation that the last act will address just that. Alas, there is little intention on the part of the filmmakers to explore that moral complexity in depth; as far as it is willing to go is for Aurora to demonstrate her horror and disgust at what Jim had done and work out a routine that will allow her to avoid Jim. Rather than give Jim and Aurora the time and (well) space to sort out their philosophically thorny situation, both are forced into a deus-ex-machina where the ship’s systems start faltering with increasing severity, such that they have no choice but to work together to save each other and the rest of the passengers. It is also at this point that Jim and Aurora are joined all too briefly by another accidentally reawakened passenger Gus (Lawrence Fishburne), a crew member who helps the couple figure out what is wrong with the ship.

By this time, what began as a one-person show that evolved into a two-hander has become a standard-issue action adventure – and indeed it is no surprise that the fate of the Avalon as well as that of its 5000 passengers and 255 crew members rests in the hands of Jim and Aurora. Tyldum is not blockbuster-material, so despite a finale paced like the climax of a ‘Star Trek’ movie, it isn’t nearly as exciting. Worse still, because it is trapped within the confines of a love story, the ending feels sugar-coated to satisfy die-hard romantics who would cry foul at a less-than-happy conclusion. Even though the epilogue tries to give Jim the chance to redeem himself for essentially dooming Aurora to death on the ship, it comes off ultimately forced and insincere, inadvertently serving as reminder of the compelling questions at its premise’s core that were glossed over.

Visually though, ‘Passengers’ is undeniably attractive, in large part due to Guy Hendrix Dyas’s sleek and stylish production design. The spidery double helix-like shaped Avalon traversing through space is in itself a sight to behold, and even more its interiors of shopping complexes, basketball courts, Gold Class suites and observatories. Unfortunately, Tyldum is not quite imaginative enough to push the genre forward, as evinced from Jim’s dull suspense-free spacewalks; in fact, there is but one memorable sequence in the entire movie, based on a swimming pool freed from gravity that causes its water to rise like aquatic plumes and swallow Aurora within. More than anything, Tyldum is a competent executor who at least ensures that the movie is engaging to watch, though there is a harriedness to the proceedings which undercuts any real dramatic tension or character emotion.

Most significantly, the film’s flaws lie with Spaihts’ over-plotted yet under-developed script that tries to be part outer-space romantic comedy and part science-fiction thriller but comes up short either way. If there is any reason that ‘Passengers’ remains watchable, it is because of Lawrence and Pratt, two of Hollywood’s most talented young actors who possess a golden-age chemistry that is irresistible and irrepressible. Pratt’s leading-man charisma holds the first half-hour together, while Lawrence’s undimmed magnetism infuses warmth, humour and ferocity into the morally questionable setup. As disappointing as this space-set sci-fi romance eventually turns out, Lawrence and Pratt are the only two passengers save this misbegotten mishmash from being lost in space. 

Movie Rating:

(Part ‘Castaway’ in space, part romantic comedy and part sci-fi adventure, ‘Passengers’ is over-plotted and under-developed mishmash that is saved only by Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt’s radiant chemistry)

Review by Gabriel Chong

While the 1977 musical live action animated movie of the same name featured nostalgically heartwarming songs like “Candle on the Water”, “Brazzle Dazzle Day” and “There’s Room for Everyone”, the 2016 reimagined version of the Disney classic directed by David Lowery takes things one step further. There are still touching tunes (the most radio friendly being one of the three new songs written for the film: “Something Wild” performed by electronic violinist Lindsey Stirling featuring indie pop band Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness) - and on top of that – a soaring score composed by Daniel Hart (Tumbledown, Comet).

The 76 minute soundtrack album is a pleasant surprise, with more than one hour of song and score material. The other two new songs on the CD are “The Dragon Song” performed by singer songwriter Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and “Nobody Knows” lovingly crooned by folk rock band The Lumineers. Closing the album is a newly-recorded version of “Candle On the Water” performed by rock band OkkervilRiver(this will appeal to fans of the original movie). Elsewhere, listeners will also be treated by tracks performed by St Vincent, Leonard Cohen and Bosque Brown.

It is heartening to know that album producers are still keen to include a large portion of movie scores into soundtracks. Here, there are 20 score cues, each ranging from one to five minutes. When heard in entirety, it is an impressive experience that reminds you of some of the movie’s most memorable bits (we are assuming that you have caught the highly recommended film on the big screen).

Hart aptly infuses folk instruments into his work to set the tone of the story between a boy and his dragon. There are wondrous moments (“An Adventure”, “Are You Going To Eat Me?”), inspiring ones (“Reverie”, “Abyss”), sweet and tender indulges (“North Star”, “Bedtime Compass”) and exciting instants (“Follow That Dragon”, “Elliot at the Bridge”). Stirling’s violin performances can also be heard throughout the soundtrack.

Because it doesn’t feature any big names, there is little chance that this soundtrack will get noticed by award jury members. But if it does, we will be over the moon. 

ALBUM RATING:

Recommended Track: (26) The Bravest Boy I’ve Ever Met

Review by John Li

Genre: Comedy
Director: John Hamburg
Cast: James Franco, Bryan Cranston, Zoey Deutch, Adam Devine, Keegan-Michael Key, Megan Mullally, Casey Wilson
Runtime: 1 hr 51 mins
Rating: NC16 (Coarse Language And Sexual References)
Released By: 20th Century Fox 
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/WhyHimMovie/

Opening Day: 29 December 2016

Synopsis: Over the holidays, Ned (Bryan Cranston), an overprotective but loving dad and his family visit his daughter at college, where he meets his biggest nightmare: her well-meaning but socially awkward Silicon Valley billionaire boyfriend, Laird (James Franco). The straight-laced Ned thinks Laird, who has absolutely no filter, is a wildly inappropriate match for his daughter. The one-sided rivalry—and Ned’s panic level—escalate when he finds himself increasingly out of step in the glamorous high-tech hub, and learns that Laird is about to pop the question.

Movie Review:

Some of you may remember reading about James Franco posting a near naked Instagram picture back in 2014. Shortly after the public knew about how the actor tried to pick up a 17 year old girl via Instagram, he showed off a shirtless selfie and although his manhood was covered, his – ahem – hair down there was visible. While the image was eventually taken down, the 38 year old’s reputation did take a hit.

If you aren’t already a fan, this movie wouldn’t help improve his image.

The Academy Award nominee (2010’s 127 Hours) plays Laird, a famous and wealthy billionaire in his latest work. He is vulgar, expressive and extremely blunt. Not everyone can warm up as quickly to this man: in the opening scene, he flirts with his girlfriend Stephanie (Zoey Deutch) via Facetime and shows his – ahem – hair down there. If you haven’t seen that photo from Franco’s Instagram account, you get to see it on the big screen here.

No wonder he isn’t getting much love from his girlfriend’s parents Ned and Barb (played graciously by Bryan Cranston and Megan Mullaly). The couple has travelled a great distance to visit their daughter over the holidays, and they are not exactly comfortable with what they are seeing. To make things worse, Laird is planning to propose to Stephanie. Ned, being the protective father, schemes to make things unsuccessful for Laird.

If you thought Franco’s pubes are the only things you may be offended with, here’s a warning – there are countless spews of vulgarities and characters are, well, just not very likeable in this 111 minute movie. Oh, and if you are a fan of Breaking Bad’s Cranston, there is an extended scene of him with his pants down, trying to get the toilet bowl spray working. The chuckles do come, but whether you subscribe to this brand of lewdness is another thing.

To be fair, director John Hamburg (2004’s Along Came Polly, 2009’s I Love You, Man) probably never meant for this movie to be a critical hit. Having written the Zoolander and Meet the Parents movies, he probably just wants his viewers to have a good laugh over no brainer, inconsequential, and possibly cheap jokes. With a story co written by Jonah Hill and Ian Helfer, this movie takes the tried and tested formula of a father versus fiancé plotline and adds lots of crude elements in it.

Franco and Cranstonhave a nice on screen chemistry and it was probably effortless to play their respective characters. Laird lives in a high tech, digital and paperless world, while Ned is the owner of an old fashioned printing company. The irony is fun and there are some clever jokes. Unfortunately, the two actors’ performances are sometimes overshadowed by side gags, including an intrusive artificial intelligence device, a dead moose housed in a tank of its own urine and as mentioned above, a fancy toilet bowl with non intuitive controls and no instruction book.

If you are in the mood for some disposable fun, then go ahead and leave your brains at the door to enjoy this comedy. 

Movie Rating:

(You’ll laugh and have fun with this disposable comedy, and that’s about it)

Review by John Li

Genre: Adventure/Fantasy
Director: David Yates
Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Samantha Morton, Jon Voight, Ron Perlman, Carmen Ejogo, Colin Farrell
Runtime: 2 hrs 13 mins
Rating: PG (Some Disturbing Scenes)
Released By: Warner Bros
Official Website: http://www.fantasticbeasts.com

Opening Day: 17 November 2016

Synopsis: “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” opens in 1926 as Newt Scamander has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures. Arriving in New York for a brief stopover, he might have come and gone without incident… were it not for a No-Maj (American for Muggle) named Jacob, a misplaced magical case, and the escape of some of Newt’s fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.

Movie Review:

How do you make a ‘Harry Potter’ movie without Harry Potter? Before the last of the eight films of J.K. Rowling’s staggeringly popular universe five years ago, that must have been the conundrum facing Warner Brothers executives as they stared at the end of the line of their most lucrative franchise. And yet thanks to Rowling herself as well as series stalwart David Yates (who helmed the final four ‘Harry Potter’ movies), there is once again new life to be found in the world of witchcraft and wizardry that she had dreamt up in the seven books of the boy wonder. The inspiration is one of Harry’s textbooks at Hogwarts, an essential text which served as a guide to magical animals written by one Newt Scamander. Rowling had written it into a companion piece in 2001, but as those who had read the 128-page book will tell you, there is a lot more that Rowling must have had to add to her first movie script even as an adaptation of that earlier book.

That explains why the film’s narrative feels like two parallel storylines, both of which are set in the 1920s in New York City. The first (and the one more obviously drawn from her text) concerns the magizoologist and former Hogwarts student’s (Eddie Redmayne) arrival with a suitcase of magical creatures in tow. He’s here to do field work for the titular book that he’s writing, but no thanks to a mix-up involving a klutzy working-class ‘no-maj’ (meaning ‘muggle’ or ordinary, non-magical human) named Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), some of the beasts Newt keeps hidden in his suitcase – which is really a magical device enclosing a massive nature preserve – have escaped. Together with two comely female wizards, the struggling investigator Porpentina Goldstein (Katherine Waterson) and her mind-reading sister Queenie (Alison Sudol), Newt and Jacob set out to chase down these creatures before they wreak more havoc on the city.

And yet their blithe adventure could not have taken place in a more complicated time – not only has the Magical Congress of the United States (or MACUSA in short) set out strict rules against the revelation of the existence of wizards and/or the wizarding world, its meticulously cautious Madam President (Carmen Ejojo) has outlawed the possession of all beasts. There is perhaps good reason though – the city is torn by a mysterious force purportedly to be that of an Obscurus, a dark and uncontrollable power manifested by wizards who have repressed (rather than being taught to control) their innate powers. To track down its source, the MACUSA’s director of magical security Perceival Graves (Colin Farrell) has recruited as his informant the young wizarding pupil Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller), a bullied and abused teenager whose mother (Samantha Morton) is the leader of a group of anti-witch crusaders known as ‘Second-Salemers’.

Rounding out the second, and much darker, story is a missing dark wizard called Gellert Grindelward (Johnny Depp), which the opening prologue via numerous newspaper reels informs us has gone underground since his dark doings in Europe. It’s no secret that Grindelward and by extension, Depp, whom we see only briefly at the end of the movie, will take up much of the acreage of the four other ‘Fantastic Beasts’ films that Yates and Rowling have planned. Given how this needs to set the stage for the beginning of a new franchise, there is understandably yards of exposition and a lot of introductions to do within the just-over two hours it has. It also means that, aside from its city-shaking cataclysm of a climax, this is pretty much like an origin story, such that like the first ‘Harry Potter’ movie, one gets the distinct sense that it is holding back for bigger and hopefully even more intriguing things down the road.

Not to say that this first of a quintet isn’t charming in and of itself; oh no, in fact, we are confident that Potter fans and newcomers alike will find much to love and beguile of the rich and fascinating fictional world that Rowling has created. Indeed, there is sheer delight in discovering the menagerie of creatures that Newt has hidden in his briefcase – among them a scene-stealing platypus with a penchant for stealing shiny things, a majestic avian which changes shape and size to fill any available space, and a tiny stick-like green insect that can pick locks. Before things get serious with Graves, Credence and Grindelward, the early scenes with Newt and his unlikely companions pop with escapist fun, not least when he and Jacob get caught in incriminating situations by law enforcement while pursuing their small, furry and oh-so-cute kleptomaniac around bank vaults and jewelry stores. It is also here that we get to savour more fully the effortlessly endearing Redmayne and Fogler, one quirkily adorable as the shy and slightly awkward boy-man and the other an unassuming bumbler whose wide-eyed wonder upon the world previously hidden from his eyes channels our very own.

Like how she did with Harry, Ron and Hermoine, Rowling gets a strong character dynamic going around the four cohorts, including a budding attraction between Newt and his Auror-turned-ally Tina as well as a gentle romance (that culminates in a classic kiss under the rain) between Jacob and Queenie. It is these characters that anchor the busy plotting in the second hour with heartfelt emotion, following the addition of the rest of the undeniably talented ensemble supporting cast (though not yet a character as distinctive as Snape, McGonagall or Dumbledore emerges). And like the ‘Harry Potter’ books, Rowling’s interest in mature themes ensures that the tale is more than just a kids’ adventure, with subjects such as fascism, childhood trauma and bigotry weaved into the subtext that prove the most dramatically satisfying. Yates finds the perfect balance between the lighter and darker aspects of the story, and while it doesn’t get as bleak as either part of the ‘Deathly Hallows’, be prepared for things to get pretty grim past the halfway mark.

Even so, the beautifully ornate production design shines through every frame, whether a seedy underground jazz club with all manner of peculiar (if slightly grotesque) creatures to Manhattan’s old City Hall subway station where the climax unfolds. The special effects are equally stellar, particularly the transition from our world to that inside the suitcase and a breathtaking scene where the Obscurus wrecks destruction across several of New York’s skyscrapers before plunging into the City Hall station. And of course, the close-ups of the various beasts are just as visually stunning, some scary, some cuddly, some ethereal and some just downright goofy. Even without the appeal of adorable young children, ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ is pure enchantment, perfectly setting the stage for a whole new chapter of the wizarding world we’ve come to embrace through the ‘Harry Potter’ films. To call it fantastic may be slightly hyperbolic, but you’ll be glad to know it doesn’t fall too far short.

Movie Rating:

(As enchanting as the best ‘Harry Potter films’, this beginning of a new chapter in J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world is at times delightful fun, at times dangerously edgy, and ceaselessly fascinating)

Review by Gabriel Chong