Genre: Action/Comedy
Director: Mark Cullen, Robb Cullen
Cast: Bruce Willis, Jason Momoa, Famke Janssen, John Goodman
Runtime: 1 hr 34 mins
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scenes And Nudity)
Released By: Shaw 
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 15 June 2017

Synopsis: Steve Ford (Bruce Willis) is a down but not out L.A based Private Investigator whose professional and personal worlds collide after his loving pet Buddy is stolen by a notorious gang. A series of crazy circumstances find him doing the gang's bidding, while being chased by two vengeful Samoan brothers, a loan shark's goons, and a few other shady characters. They say a dog is a man's best friend, and Steve shows how far a man will go to be reunited with him.

Movie Review:

Not since the last ‘Die Hard’ instalment back in 2013 has Bruce Willis toplined a movie (we’re obviously not counting here the numerous supporting roles, that are honestly no better than cameos, in direct-to-video duds like ‘The Prince’, ‘Vice’ and ‘Marauders’) and how much you like ‘Once Upon A Time in Venice’ depends on how much you miss and love hanging out with the dude. Oh yes, as much as it bills itself as an action comedy, this shaggy-dog tale of a former – read disgraced – LAPD detective Steve Ford who has reinvented himself as a Venice Beach private eye is really an excuse to chill out with a laid-back Willis. That is the reason we figure why sibling writer-directors Mark and Robb Cullen have managed to assemble quite the ensemble cast here, including Jason ‘Aquaman’ Mamoa, John Goodman, Thomas ‘Silicon Valley’ Middleditch, Famke ‘Species’ Janssen, Adam Goldberg, and blink-and-you’ll-miss appearances by Kal Penn, Christopher MacDonald and David Arquette.

Comparisons with the Coens’ ‘The Big Lebowski’ (given in particular Goodman’s presence as well as the Venice Beach setting) and Robert Altman’s ‘The Long Goodbye’ are inevitable but also misguided. At no point do the Cullens harbour any intention of emulating these cult classics, content instead on no more than an amiable time spent in the company of Willis and a bunch of other colourful characters that would fit in perfectly with L.A.’s funky beach community: Goodman is depressed surf-shop owner Dave Jones; Mamoa is bandana-ed gangbanger Spyder; Goldberg is real-estate agent ‘Lou the Jew’; Tyga is graffiti artist Salvatore Lopez, nicknamed the ‘Banksy of Venice’; ‘Borat’ sidekick Ken Davitian is Russian loan-shark Yuri; and we haven’t yet gotten to the pair of angry Samoan brothers and their beautiful sister, a scheming gang-girl named ‘Lupe the Bitch’, or the posse of transgender prostitutes plying their business at the Hollywood Premiere Motel. Besides Ford and Dave, the rest pop up only now and then in various subplots that are at best loosely connected to one another, but each of these characters are at least idiosyncratic enough for you to remember who they are.

Tying these narrative threads together is Ford’s beloved Jack Russell terrier Buddy, who is kidnapped one day from his sister’s (Janssen) place by two bummers and gifted to Spyder. At first, Spyder asks for four grand for Buddy’s return, intended as compensation for wrecking the former’s garage and stealing his car earlier, which Ford did as a favour to pizza parlor employee Tino (Adrian Martinez); but by the time Ford returns to Spyder’s place after borrowing the cash from Yuri, Spyder’s girlfriend Lupe has made off with Spyder’s coke as well as Buddy, so Spyder cuts a deal with Ford to let him keep Buddy if he can locate Lupe and return his coke. Besides locating Lupe, Ford is also working on a case for Lou, who’s hired him to find the person responsible for lewd graffiti being left on his condo exteriors. As things start to heat up, Ford finds an unlikely partner in his best friend Dave, whose life gains newfound purpose following the loss of his shop and house to his ex-wife by throwing himself into life-and-death situations with gleeful abandon.

Truth be told, there is really not much of a mystery here – it doesn’t take a genius to guess that Lupe has some inside help from within Spyder’s ‘homies’, or that Lou’s condos are deliberately being targeted to thwart his upcoming business deal with some Chinese investors looking to buy over the properties. Except for a brief shootout at the end, there is not even much action to speak of – unless you count an extended sequence of Willis skateboarding naked down the streets of Venice at night or his brief chase by a group of transgender prostitutes after breaking and entering into one of the rooms at the motel they favour. And if you’re expecting some witty repartee, well just let’s say there aren’t many of these as well – in part because the actors involved aren’t that practised at improvisation and  in another because the Cullens’ script is too comfortable trading in stereotypes – so much so that the funniest thing anyone utters in the movie is ‘never f**k with a man’s dog’ (though arguably that doesn’t even come close to ‘yippee ki-yay, mother**ker’).

All these faults have been justifiably pointed out by other commentators, and yet this throwback to noir comedies of the 90s isn’t nearly as dismal as many have pronounced it to be. Willis still has plenty of goofy charm to spare, and the one-two combo of Willis and Goodman in the last third is a joy to watch. Like we said at the start, if you just like to hang out with the ever-affable Willis, then you won’t go wrong with this similarly laid-back comedy. It’s a collection of many disparate parts that don’t necessarily cohere neatly into a whole, but there are scruffy laughs to be had here and there, the sun-bleaches locales are nicely filmed by Michael Bay’s go-to cinematographer Amir Mokri, and the soundtrack has a nice Pulp Fiction-vibe. If that sounds good enough to you, then you might just enjoy your time in Venice Beach with Willis, Goodman and Mamoa et al.

Movie Rating:

(There is scruffy, laid-back charm in this loosely plotted noir comedy stuffed with colourful characters, especially if you've been a fan of the ever-affable Bruce Willis)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Action/Comics
Director: Jon Watts
Cast: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Zendaya, Jon Favreau, Donald Glover, Tyne Daly, Marisa Tomei, Robert Downey Jr.
Runtime: 2 hrs 14 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Coarse Language and Violence)
Released By: Sony Pictures Releasing International 
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/SonyPicturesSG

Opening Day: 6 July 2017

Synopsis: A young Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom Holland), who made his sensational debut in Captain America: Civil War, begins to navigate his newfound identity as the web-slinging superhero in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Thrilled by his experience with the Avengers, Peter returns home, where he lives with his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), under the watchful eye of his new mentor Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.). Peter tries to fall back into his normal daily routine—distracted by thoughts of proving himself to be more than just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man—but when the Vulture (Michael Keaton) emerges as a new villain, everything that Peter holds most important will be threatened.

Movie Review:

Coming after the box office titan that is Wonder Woman, one can only imagine the pressure faced by the execs at Marvel and Sony. Especially after a string of reboots that were tepid at best.

They have nothing to worry about with Spiderman: Homecoming. It is amazing.

Just when superhero franchise fatigue is setting in, Jon Watts spins a masterful creation that’s so self-aware and on point with its observations, it feels satisfyingly fresh. Bouncy and snappy, the entire film catapults us between drama and action, with no whiplash from story or camerawork (we’re looking at you Transformers).

This chapter departs from the other entries because it doesn’t suffer from grandiose aims (“with great power comes great responsibility”) or overextending the arena. Spiderman: Homecoming is almost classic in its treatment, putting values and story above effects and “dark angsty edge”, giving us the Spiderman that we grew up reading about.

Spiderman: Homecoming doesn’t begin with an origin story, and drops us straight into Peter Parker’s (Tom Holland)  internship at Stark Industries. He battles with the big guys and enjoys his stint, but school term returns and he is back to the study grind. The enthusiastic youth is buzzing with his new-found mission in life and constantly checks on new assignments with his mentor Happy (Jon Favreau). He is ignored by the dour aide of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) so our hero tries to continue the justice streak himself by being the local neighbourhood crime-fighter.

Peter discovers a gang trading in illegal alien weaponry and desperate to earn his stripe, he tries to hunt them down, only to meet up and be overpowered by our story villain Adrian Toomes aka The Vulture (Michael Keaton). This sets us up for numerous tug-of-war encounters the duo has, including an unexpected one in the second half that adds a great dimension to the struggle.

There’s no doubt that director Watt’s greatest achievement in this film is its casting. Every actor has comfortably become the new face of their character. The tl;dr - Tom Holland is Peter Parker.

Many side stories have unravelled when given full-on feature attention, but Holland now runs the torch of this franchise with such dexterity, it’s almost like the English actor was born into it. He captures the perkiness without the cheesiness. His quips are sincere but never bland. We empathise easily with his growing up struggle as he juggles between his role as teenager and superhero, frequently having to choose sides between romance and duty, honesty and the greater good.

Spiderman: Homecoming also achieves a great feat that many before have failed - a great dynamic ensemble. Every character introduced inhabit their purpose and come together perfectly like a Swiss watchmaker’s clockwork to move the story.

Marisa Tomei’s caretaker Aunt May is a fun bundle of nerves, while Peter’s childhood bff Ned (Jacob Batalon) is a riot with his embarrassing questions and aspirations to be “the guy in the chair” for his Avenger friend when he discovers Peter’s secret. Some of the funniest humour comes from the unexpected honesty in scenes where they try to fight crime together. When caught in the library using the computer to aid Peter, Ned blurts out that he was using it for “porn”.

Referencing another great superhero film, Spiderman: Homecoming is similar to Deadpool in many aspects. It’s clever and fun, without the sexual and dark tones. It’s a rare stellar all-rounder and will easily earn thumbs-up from fans and non-fans alike.

Movie Rating:

(Fun and furious gags bounce us through this expert (and much needed) film rendition of an all-time favourite superhero, serving a new happy benchmark of how it should be done)

Review by Morgan Awyong

SYNOPSIS: American Ultra is a fast-paced action comedy about Mike (Jesse Eisenberg), a seemingly hapless and unmotivated stoner whose small-town life with his live-in girlfriend, Phoebe (Kristen Stewart), is suddenly turned upside down. Unbeknownst to him, Mike is actually a highly trained, lethal sleeper agent. In the blink of an eye, as his secret past comes back to haunt him, Mike is thrust into the middle of a deadly government operation and is forced to summon his inner action-hero in order to survive.

MOVIE REVIEW:

American Ultra is liked a stoned, slacker Jason Bourne on the loose. It’s comical. It’s extremely violent and it’s very entertaining for the most part. Writer Max Landis (Chronicle) famously went on a twitter rant after the movie bombed. He is not exactly wrong though and audiences should at least give this movie a chance on home video.   

The premise to be frank is nothing special, it simply takes a conventional spy flick and hilarious turned it into a ridiculous high-octane action comedy. Jesse Eisenberg plays Mike Howell, a stoner who spends his days doodling while working at a convenience store located in a sleepy town called Lima. He has a girlfriend Phoebe (Kristen Stewart) who seems to love him a lot and a buddy named Rose (John Leguizamo) whom he can turn to for help anytime.

At the same time, CIA agent Victoria Lasseter (Connie Britton) realized her fellow cunning colleague; Yates (Topher Grace) is about to issue an order to terminate one of Victoria’s past assets. And the asset happened to be Mike Howell. Victoria must race against time to save Mike before Yates’ assassins laid their hands on him.

Expecting Landis’ script to shed light on Mike’s past and what sort of convert operation he was in is pretty much fruitless. As a gentle reminder, this is definitely not Jason Bourne material. The screenplay prefers to keep the carnage rolling and setting up various over-the-top action set pieces for Mike to busy with. Eventually, it turned out to be very predictable as well and given its Eisenberg and Stewart second collaboration (it has transcend to a third with Café Society), their undeniable mesmerizing chemistry is what keeps things going.

The action sequences are absolutely bongus and I must say very well executed and choreographed. Eisenberg’s character made good use of items which are lying around him as weapons, very much Jackie Chan style except the violence. The finale, which took place in a supermarket, is a solid example.   

Instead of a raunchy stoner comedy which we have seen a thousand times, Nima Nourizadeh (Project X) and Landis delivered a non-stop bloody fun movie outing. Stop the nitpicking and enjoy the absurdity.  

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Unless you are a diehard fan else there’s nothing special to uncover in the Audio Commentary with Director Nima Nourizadeh. Covering various aspects of making the movie, Activating American Ultra runs at a hefty 40 minutes almost half of the movie’s running time. Assassinating on a Budget looks at the common itemsused to take out the enemies and lastly a 2 minutes Gag Reel.

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Maybe because it’s shot in digital, imaging looks murky in darker scenes and some scenes look washed out. Audio 5.1 is solid on the whole given the movie is peppered with heavy gunfire and explosions. 

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee

Genre: Drama/History
Director: Terry George
Cast: Christian Bale, Osacar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon
Runtime: 2 hrs 13 mins
Rating: PG13
Released By: Shaw 
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 29 June 2017

Synopsis: It is 1914. As the Great War looms, the vast Ottoman Empire is crumbling. Constantinople (Istanbul), ITS once vibrant, multicultural capital is about to be consumed by chaos. Michael Boghosian (Oscar Isaac), arrives in the cosmopolitan hub as a medical student determined to bring modern medicine back to Siroun, his ancestral village in Southern Turkey where Turkish Muslims and Armenian Christians have lived side by side for centuries. Photo-journalist Chris Myers (Christian Bale), has come here only partly to cover geo-politics. He is mesmerized by his love for Ana (Charlotte le Bon), an Armenian artist he has accompanied from Paris after the sudden death of her father. When Michael meets Ana, their shared Armenian heritage sparks an attraction that explodes into a romantic rivalry between the two men even as Michael hangs on to a promise from his past. After the Turks join the war on the German side, the Empire turns violently against its own ethnic minorities. Despite their conflicts, everyone must find a way to survive - even as monumental events envelope their lives.

Movie Review:

This columnist usually injects some humour into this writing, no matter how small the dose may be. However, for this historical drama film, he can only think of starting the review by saying: Poe Dameron meets Batman. You see, the epic movie starring Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale is so serious, it would be inappropriate to crack any jokes about it.

Billed as the fist big budget mainstream production to depict the Armenian genocide by the Ottoman Turkish government in the First World War, the 133 minute movie shows how the Armenians, a Christian minority, were systematically exterminated. The number of victims? A staggering 1.5 million.

While we have seen other horrifying retelling of genocides on film (1984’s The Killing Fields, 1993’s Schindler’s List, 2006’s The Last King of Scotland), this lavish production will allow a wide audience learn about a piece of history that happened more than 100 years ago.  

The fictional story arc that is set in 1914 sees an Armenian medical student (a charismatic Oscar Isaac) developing a relationship with an Armenian born woman raised in France (Charlotte Le Bon). A love triangle forms when an American journalist (Christian Bale) based in Pariscomes into the picture. One dramatic event unfolds after another, leading up to the Armenian Genocide.

Director Terry George is no stranger to this genre – he helmed 2004’s Hotel Rwanda based on the Rwandan Genocide which happened in 1994. For his latest work, he has a competent cast to work with.

Isaac continues to impress with his screen presence after wowing the world with his roles in Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), A Most Violent Year (2014), Ex Machina (2015) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). The Guatemalan American actor is capable of carrying both independent and blockbuster titles, making him one of the most versatile actors today. Watch out for the heartwrenching scene where he finds his fellow villagers piled like rubbish by a river – the sudden rush of grief stings like a bee.

Le Bon (The Hundred Foot Journey, The Walk) does a decent job as the female protagonist of the sweeping movie, while Bale (American Hustle, The Big Short) gets to exercise his acting chops. Other familiar faces you may spot are Jean Reno (Hector and the Search for Happiness), Tom Hollander (TV’s The Night Manager) and James Cromwell (Big Hero 6).

Stretching over two hours, the less patient viewer may find the pace of the movie staggering. The film neatly transits from one segment to another. While things are predictable, you also feel the emotions of the characters going through the tragic events. Some may conveniently regard this a the filmmakers’ attempt to manipulate audiences, but it works well here.

Unfortunately, the film is a box office failure with a gross of $8.2 million against its $90 million production budget. However, if the project’s intention was to bring awareness to this issue, then it has adequately done its job as numerous celebrities like Sir Elton John, Barbara Streisand and Leonardo DiCaprio’s positive remarks for the movie. 

Movie Rating:

(Despite the formulaic approach, this is a historical drama film worth your time)

Review by John Li

SYNOPSIS: Cody, Chicken Joe and Lani are back in their most epic adventure yet! The most radical surfing dream team, The Hang Five (voiced by WWE Superstars John Cena, Undertaker, Triple H, Paige and Mr. McMahon) puts Cody and his friends to the test and teaches them the meaning of teamwork as they journey to the most legendary surfing spot on the planet.

MOVIE REVIEW:

It’s never too young to start the young ones on wrestling. In order to expand their branding, WWE Studios partnered up with Sony Pictures Animation to co-produce this sequel to the 2007 animation, Surf’s Up.

The original stars Shia LaBeouf as an aspiring young surfer penguin Cody Maverick, Surf’s Up 2: Wavemania continues the adventure of Cody though it doesn’t matter to the audiences if LaBeouf is absent this time round since fans of the first animation are probably teenagers or older by now.

Cody and love interest, Lani are now running a surfer academy on Pen Gu Island until one day they are visited by Cody’s childhood heroes, The Hang 5, a group of world class surfers and extreme stunt personalities. With their leader retiring, the group is looking for a replacement and Cody, Lani, Chicken Joe and their arch rival, Tank is invited on a journey with them to Slaughter Island to see who will emerge the winner and be part of the new Hang 5.

Let’s face it; Surf’s Up 2: Wavemania is in short not made for the adult audiences. The storyline is too basic and mostly serviceable if you are expecting Disney/Pixar level of quality. It’s purely in place to deliver a few adrenalin high action sequences and crack a few safe jokes. There is also a handful of life lessons liked chasing your dreams, being a hero kind of messages stuffed inside the 84 minutes animation.  

But it’s the WWE superstars John Cena, The Undertaker, Triple H, Paige and WWE honcho, Vince McMahon that surprised us with their voice talents. Jon Heder and Diedrich Bader reprised their roles as Chicken Joe and Tank while Jeremy Shada and Melissa Sturm replaced LaBeouf and Zooey Deschanel.   

The animation by Canadian company, Rainmaker Entertainment is above average for a direct-to-video title. Probably the best we have seen so far but pardon us we have seen a lot worse on the big screen. To conclude, Surf’s Up 2: Wavemania served up a decent amount of thrills, references to wrestling gags and multiple ridiculous acts liked RTL (watch it to know what I mean) to entertain the masses. Kids will definitely love the looney tunes liked action while adults might want to shy away from this despite the voices of WWE stars. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The extras come with Bloopers, a standard making of feature called Behind the Mic: Hanging with the Dream Team, Chicken Joe’s Extreme Slaughter Island Tour, How to draw your favourite characters with Henry Yu and lastly a composer featurette, Inside the Music with Toby Chu.

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Animation details are of course subpar to a big screen feature especially hair, fur and other background textures though the younger audiences won’t find this much of a distraction. The Dolby Digital 5.1 is more than serviceable to deliver an impressive array of sound effects.   

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee

Genre: Animation
Director: Kenji Kamiyama　
Cast: Mitsuki Takahata, Shinnosuke Mitsushima, Tomoya Maeno, Rie Kugimiya, Arata Furuta, Hideki Takahashi, Yōsuke Eguchi
Runtime: 1 hr 52 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: Golden Village Pictures 
Official Website:

Opening Day: 1 June 2017

Synopsis: Kokone Morikawa lives with her father in Okayama Prefecture. She's a typical high school senior with no special talents except one: she can fall asleep anytime, anywhere. Recently she's been having a series of strange dreams. Her father Momotaro, a gruff man of few words, doesn't seem to pay much attention to his daughter; he spends most of his time repairing and modifying cars. The year is 2020, three days before the opening of the Tokyo Olympics. Without warning, Momotaro is arrested and taken to far-off Tokyo for questioning. He's a misfit, but Kokone can't believe that he would really do anything bad. With help from college student and childhood friend Morio, Kokone is determined to make her way to Tokyo and free her father, as well as unravel the mystery of her dreams. Along the way, she discovers that those dreams are the key to facing her challenges in the real world. Kokone uses her only talent-napping-to embark on a mysterious journey that straddles dreams and reality. And waiting for her at the end of her adventure is a small but precious truth...

Movie Review:

Also known as Ancien and the Magical Tablet, Napping Princess is an adventure tale that brilliantly blends reality and dreams into one satisfying story.

Kokone Morikawa from Okayama Prefecture like any other ordinary teenagers out there yearn to further her studies in big city Tokyo. The happy-go-lucky Kokone has no special talents except the ability to fall asleep anytime, anywhere. In her dreams, she is transformed to Princess Ancien, a cursed princess who is trapped in a glass dome because of her special powers. At the same time, her Heartland Kingdom is threatened by a Colossus monster. The King’s only hope is to deploy gigantic robots to fight against Colossus not realizing his daughter with her magical tablet is the only solution to save his kingdom.  

In reality, Kokone’s mechanic father, Momotaro is somehow arrested by the police on her mum’s death anniversary. Following that, a mysterious bearded guy and his henchmen is out looking for her father’s broken tablet. Left alone to defend for herself, Kokone enlists the help of her best friend, Morio to assist her to uncover the truth behind her dad’s arrest and the mystery behind the tablet.

For beginners and those who prefer a straightforward movie,Napping Princess can be a frustrating and rewarding watch at the same time. It often swings back and forth between fantasy and reality that it might take a while before you are fully immersed in the story. In the fantasy realm, Ancien and her talking soft toy, Joy is paired up with Peach, a gung-ho pirate who is bent on saving the Kingdom with the Princess while in reality Kokone and Morio is going on a journey to Tokyo in her dad’s trusty old bike to confront the Chairman of Shijima Motor Corporation (who is probably related to Kokone). Before long you realized the two stories are actually connected, transiting into something epic and emotional.

Although teen audiences might find the character of Kokone pretty relatable and the younger audiences memsmerized by Evangelion-liked mechas and Baymax’s half brother Heart, the adults will be fascinated by all the sublime social messages director writer Kenji Kamiyama (Eden of the East, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) has included here. The Heartland Kingdom, which strived to make a mark on the automobile industry, sounds familiar. The reality side of the story is set three days before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and sort of hint the ambitious side of the country. The anime also flesh out the importance of family which make it a recommended watch for everyone in the household.

However, Napping Princess is not without its flaws. Kokone’s deceased mother deserved more flashback and the main villain happens to be a stock character without much of a backstory. The biggest have to go to the climactic showdown. The visuals are overstuffed and draining that a wiser option is to go for a more grounded, less flashy ending. “Dream” seems to be the preferred tool to tell a story given the huge success of Your Name though the latter handle it much better than Napping Princess. Still, this original Japanese anime (not based on any existing novel or comic series) charmed with its imaginativeness and gorgeous animation. 

Movie Rating:

(Not quite a knockout but wonderful enough to be on the list of must-watch anime)

Review by Linus Tee

Genre: Sci-Fi
Director: Tim Smit　
Cast: Dan Stevens, Bérénice Marlohe, Tygo Gernandt
Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins
Rating: PG13
Released By: Shaw 
Official Website:

Opening Day: 24 August 2017

Synopsis: Set in a future version of the world, the video game style plot follows an experiment for unlimited energy, harnessing parallel universes, which goes wrong. Chased by drones and soldiers, pilot and physicist Will Porter must race through an imploding world to get the Redivider box to a tower, which will save humanity, including his family, in the real world.

Movie Review:

If the idea of watching a movie unfolding like a first-person shooter video-game excites you, then you’ll be glad to hear that ‘Kill Switch’ does precisely that. Most of the film is seen from the perspective of ex-NASA astronaut Will Porter (Dan Stevens), who is hired by a secretive corporation called Alterplex to travel to an alternate universe it has created as the panacea to mankind’s energy needs in order to stabilise the system with a device known as the ‘redivider’. Unfortunately for Will, what may have seemed like a simple task turns out to be anything but, as the malfunctioning system leaves him stranded eight kilometres away from the beam-emitting tower of energy. As you may guess, what follows is a race against time to make it to the tower and insert the titular switch before our universe and its parallel copy implode, with Will being pursued by malignant drones and armed militants along the way.

It’s an intriguing premise no doubt, but director Tim Smit and his co-writers Omid Nooshin and C. Kindinger squander the opportunity to deliver a captivating science-fiction thriller. Chiefly, it isn’t ever clear just how and why things are happening the way they are on this so-called ‘echo’ universe. How is it that the identical world ended up having carbon life-form if it was never supposed to be designed that way? Is the identical world a real-time reflection of what happens in the real world, such that whatever catastrophe happens in one ends up in the other too? Why is that the environmental anomalies are causing passenger trains and ocean liners from Earth to fall through holes in the clouds into the ‘echo’? How is that the militant environmental group that had apparently precipitated the current state of chaos between the two worlds has ended up in the ‘echo’ too? Even if we are prepared to be patient and generous with the film’s jumble of science and fiction, these questions of logic are never ever satisfactorily answered at any point throughout the course of the narrative.

In fact, there is not much of a story to begin with in the first place. Besides the occasional non-POV flashbacks which establish just what led up to Will being trapped in the ‘echo’ and/or try to give him an emotional centre as a surrogate father to his sister’s (Charity Wakefield) son Donny (Kasper van Groesen), the rest of the scenes consist largely of a random, often indistinguishable, mix of running, shooting and hiding from rebels, security drones and unnatural calamities. Although the setup seems to have been ripe to explore the themes of corporate malfeasance and environmental neglect, neither are developed much in the present-day scenes. Indeed, it almost seems as if the filmmakers decided to turn the experience of playing a video-game into a movie, rather than shoot a movie from the perspective of a playing a video-game, such that the rubrics of plot and character are simply lost or overlooked here.

No wonder then that in the few scenes where we actually see him appearing onscreen, Stevens (best known for ‘Downtown Abbey’) seems to be looking perpetually bemused, not quite sure just what is expected of him as an actor. He’s probably more relieved being simply a disembodied voice behind the interface graphics reminiscent of ‘Minority Report’, and letting the audience focus instead on the two other Alterplex colleagues he joins forces with to try to stop the impending doomsday across both worlds. That appears to be his director Smit’s preoccupation too, seeing as how the latter has fun with the interface design on Will’s helmet, especially in how it keeps reminding him to seek medical help for his concussion. Unfortunately, that sense of enjoyment will likely be lost on those of us watching it, who can neither appreciate it as a fully-fleshed movie or enjoy the thrill of playing it like we would a video game. Ironically therefore, it’s likely that you’ll be wishing for a ‘kill switch’ yourself, than sit through this movie-game hybrid that does neither satisfactorily. 

Movie Rating:

(Neither enjoyable as a movie or as a video-game demo-reel, 'Kill Switch' will have you wishing there were such a device to stop its monotony of running, shooting and hiding)

Review by Gabriel Chong 

Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Rob Zombie
Cast: Malcolm McDowell, Richard Brake, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Meg Foster, Kevin Jackson, Malcolm McDowell, Jane Carr, Judy Geeson
Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins
Rating: R21 (Violence and Gore)
Released By: Shaw 
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 1 June 2017

Synopsis: 31 tells the story of five carnies in 1976 kidnapped on the morning of Halloween and held hostage in a remote industrial Hell. While trapped, they are forced to play a violent game called 31. The mission is to survive 12 hours against an endless gang of grease-painted maniacs.

Movie Review:

Rob Zombie was never a filmmaker whose aesthetics appealed to the mainstream. Even when he was rebooting the classic ‘Halloween’ franchise, Zombie’s penchant for grisly imagery and scuzzy atmosphere meant that his two most mainstream films were still necessarily niche in their audience appeal. And yet, there is no denying that Zombie has assembled a cult-like following for his brand of grindhouse horror through highlights such as ‘The Devil’s Rejects’ and ‘The Lords of Salem’, which probably explains why he was able to mount this latest through largely crowdfunding. It is also therefore understandable that ‘31’ plays squarely to the sensibilities of his fans, trafficking in excesses of gore and violence in addition to Zombie’s other signatures of lowlife characters, wanton vulgarities and a soundtrack comprised of classic rock and country tunes.

In fact, ‘31’ could be the writer-director’s most straightforward work to date, pitting five road-tripping carnival workers (otherwise referred to as ‘carnies’) against a bunch of clown-faced psychopaths in a deadly 12-hour game of survival on the night of Halloween (hence the title). Zombie gives each of these victims just enough distinction for us to recognise one from the other, but let that not be mistaken for any form of character depth or development. In fact, more effort is spent distinguishing the various deplorables that these carnies will meet over the course of the night, who are dressed and made up to look the names of the parts they are given, such as Sick-Head, Psycho-Head, Schizo-Head, Death-Head, and Sex-Head. And to top it off, it turns out that the game is intended for the entertainment of a bunch of aristocratically-dressed sado-masochists, who weigh their victims’ odds of survival at the start of each round and take bets for or against them.

Among the weapons of choice are chainsaws, nail-spiked baseball bats and machetes, such that one of the Heads will die at the blade of his own chainsaw slicing through his torso, another will be decapitated and yet another will have his head bashed in. The ‘carnies’ don’t have it any prettier or cheerier: one will be gutted from her belly to her chest; another will be carved up and served as dinner for the others; and another will be bound by spiked wires around her wrists and die by severance. Zombie makes no apologies for the carnage – like his previous movies, you’ll just have to accept that there is evil out there, and bad things will happen to good people; nor for that matter does he linger on the sufferings of his victims, knowing just when to pull away without ever stepping into exploitation territory.

Even so, ‘31’ is pretty gruesome from start to finish, and like we said at the beginning, is made squarely for the fans who made this movie possible. If you’re among the converted, you’ll probably also be delighted to see his regular ensemble, including his wife Sheri Moon Zombie, Jeff Daniel Phillips and Malcolm McDowell. You’ll probably also revel in the sheer gonzo performance of Richard Brake as the most memorable ‘Head’ of them all named Doom-Head, who first appears at the start of the movie with face covered in white paint and blood to deliver a chilling monologue and then re-appears towards the end to finish the job after the other ‘Heads’ prove incompetent. Oh yes, if you’re a fan of Zombie’s films so far, then ‘31’ is just comfort food; if you’re not, this is not about to change your mind.

Movie Rating:

(Comfort food for ‘Zombies’ – meaning fans of writer-director Rob Zombie – this latest crowd-funded effort that boasts his signature bawdy, bloody aesthetic and excesses of gore and violence plays squarely to his crowd)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Action/Thriller
Director: Jonathan Mostow
Cast: Sam Worthington, Odeya Rush, Allen Leech, Verónica Echegui
Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins
Rating: NC16 (Some Drug References and Violence)
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films 
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 15 June 2017

Synopsis: This high octane thriller focuses on Lucas, (Sam Worthington), a solitary assassin, hired to kill a young woman, Ella, (Odeya Rush). When he can't bring himself to pull the trigger the plan falls apart, setting in motion a twisted game of cat and mouse. Now both are marked for death and forced to form an uneasy alliance. Relentlessly pursued across Europe, their only hope for survival is to expose those responsible for brutally murdering her family and bring them to justice.

Movie Review:

Before we see Sam Worthington hops on a banshee again, he is Stephen Lucas in The Hunter’s Prayer.  In our humble opinion, one of the most completely bland, completely boring and completely hackneyed movies of the year. Bear in mind we still have six more months before the end of 2017.

Stephen Lucas is an assassin for hire. He has a wife and a daughter whom he is estranged from. He might be an ex-army veteran but the fleeting flashback didn’t give us further details. Add to the fact that he is also a junkie who needs a shot every few hours. When his next job involves killing a teenager named Ella (Odeya Rush from Goosebumps), he ends up protecting her which causes him to incur the wrath of his boss, Addison (Downtown Abbey’s Allen Leech).

The screenplay is so formulaic even though it tries hard at every corner to put you on the edge. The movie takes us across Europe with numerous killers supposedly on the loose to hunt down Lucas and Ella, because accordingly the bounty on the latter’s head is huge. This alone gives the movie some excuses to churn out a few less than stellar shootouts and car chases. Honestly, you should have seen far better executed stunts on the small screen.

The biggest problem with the story lies in the one-dimensional villain. Ella’s dad has been killed for embezzling Addison’s money and the money is now residing in her savings account in Switzerland. Addison looks like the kind of guy who made his riches from narcotics and other shady deals. He is tough with his son and calls his ex-wife a whore. Basically stuff that the filmmakers wants us to believe that Addison is BAD, an asshole; however he ends up being more of a ghost than a human. And shortly after, we are led to believe that a corrupted FBI agent is also helping Addison, which pathetically adds no icing on the already plain cake.         

Sam Worthington of course is no Leon the Professional. He plays Stephen Lucas in the same manner as Jake Sully, except Lucas looks bushier. For a junkie, I must admit he is pretty well built and agile as well. With a lousy script, The Hunter’s Prayer needs a charismatic leading man to pull it off, but Worthington neither has the talents of Jean Reno nor Keanu Reeves to play a wretched, suffering character unfortunately. Hailee Steinfeld on the other hand is thanking her lucky star for giving up on the role that eventually went to Odeya Rush, since it’s better for her to spend her time on her singing career.   

You will be shocked to know that The Hunter’s Prayer is helmed by director Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3, U571). Although seven years have passed since his last big-screen feature, it’s hard to imagine that this clumsily, generic made action thriller actually has his name stamped on it. Seriously, it’s a flick that lacks energy and emotion, moviegoers might prefer to wait for the Avatar sequels instead if you are a fan of Worthington. At least this time he has James Cameron to guide him. 

Movie Rating:

(An alternative name for The Hunter’s Prayer will be Plain Vanilla)

Review by Linus Tee

Genre: Comedy
Director: Andrew Jay Cohen
Cast: Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler, Jason Mantzoukas, Nick Kroll, Allison Tolman, Michaela Watkins, Ryan Simpkins, Jessie Ennis, Rob Huebel, Cedric Yarbrough
Runtime: 1 hr 28 mins
Rating: NC16 (Coarse Language and Some Violence)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures 
Official Website: http://www.thehousemovie.com

Opening Day: 29 June 2017

Synopsis: After Scott and Kate Johansen (Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler) lose their daughter Alex’s college fund, they become desperate to earn it back so she can pursue her dream of attending a university. With the help of their neighbor Frank (Jason Mantzoukas), they decide to start an illegal casino in the basement of his house.

Movie Review:

We love Will Ferrell, but boy does ‘The House’ suck. To be sure, Ferrell has been somewhat on a downward streak of late with 2012’s ‘The Campaign’, 2013’s ‘Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues’ and 2015’s ‘Get Hard’, chalking up a string of duds that made us sorry for the gifted comedian. Unfortunately, his latest from the writers of the wickedly funny ‘Neighbours’ and ‘Neighbours 2: Sorority Rising’ takes that streak to a new low – not only is it almost bereft of laughs, it is so lazily written and incompetently directed that you wonder why Ferrell and his equally talented former ‘Saturday Night Live’ star Amy Poehler even bothered.

Outrageous as their high-concept movie may sound, Brendan O’Brien and Andrew Jay Cohen actually play it very safe by sticking close to the winning formula of their previous duology. In place of Seth Rogen and Leslie Mann’s new parents is Ferrell and Poehler’s Scott and Kate Johansen, who are confronted with the imminent prospect of an empty nest when their beloved only daughter Alex (Ryan Simpkins) goes off to college. In place of obnoxious next-door neighbours is the threat of Alex losing out on her university education, which similarly forces our typically gentle, benign couple to respond in extraordinary ways. And last but not least, like ‘Neighbours’, the actions of our lead couple will ultimately disrupt the quiet suburban neighbourhood in which they live in, in turn getting into the crosshairs of local law enforcement.

To take Scott and Kate from begging their respective bosses for pay raises and applying for a bank loan to setting up an underground casino is Jason Mantzoukas’ Frank, their no-good neighbour whose gambling addiction has led to an impending divorce with his wife Raina (Michaela Watkins). After Scott and Kate gamble away what little they had in their bank account intended for Alex’s studies, Frank convinces them to turn the rule of the casino in their favour by simply being the house; and of course, Frank’s luxurious two-storey mansion whom Raina had recently moved out of just happens to be conveniently available to set up their not-quite-so-legal den. If it all seems to come together too quickly and too easily, it does – one moment Frank is pitching his eccentric idea to Scott and Kate; the next, he has it already all set up, including roulette tables, chips, croupiers, cash-counting machines, safes behind the wall and even stand-up comedy routines to keep his guests entertained.

Rather than exploit the comedic possibility of how three ordinary people could organise an entire gambling enterprise, Cohen, who makes his directorial debut here, prefers to let his audience laugh at Scott and Kate behaving badly. One running gag has them getting high and/or drunk, including a particular scene where a clearly inebriated Kate relives her college days by peeing openly on her lawn in the middle of the night. Another running gag has Scott and Kate pretending to be Italian mobsters a la ‘The Godfather’ or ‘Casino’, adopting nicknames ‘The Butcher’ and ‘The Burner’ suiting their weapons of choice, i.e. an ax and blowtorch lighter respectively, as they track down and threaten patrons who have taken lines of credit and owe them money. At least the former is reasonably believable; the latter however goes completely off the rails, especially as Scott, Kate and Frank conduct their harassment in broad daylight no less with few repercussions.

That Scott and Kate come off behaving illogically and incoherently is a result of poor scripting and worse direction – how the former will go from being traumatised after accidentally cutting off the middle finger of one cheating patron to brandishing an ax like a mafia gangster is hardly explained; ditto how both father and mother land up spending more of their time at Frank’s house than with Alex before she goes off to college. In fact, the whole movie seems to be pieced together from haphazardly thought-of bits – a scene hinting of possible tension between Scott and Frank, given how the latter seems to make business decisions unilaterally, amounts to nothing; an extended cameo by Jeremy Renner as a fierce local thug seeking revenge on Scott is wasted in an unfunny sequence that mistakes mutilation and immolation for humour; and a subplot involving a corrupt city councillor Bob (Nick Kroll) who withdraws the town’s scholarship for Alex and siphons the town’s money for his own personal amoral gain is essentially superfluous, not least because it seems to serve no other purpose than to give the film an additional ending just in case Renner wasn’t available to shoot his scene.

It is frankly little consolation that Ferrell and Poehler have great deadpan chemistry next to each other – after all, there is only so much that both, despite their considerable improvisational comedy skills and an excellent supporting ensemble, can do to save a witless script. As much as it pains us to say it, Ferrell is yet again wasted in a movie that does no justice to his talents, and even depletes some of his audience goodwill. Given their short but bright track record with the ‘Neighbours’, it isn’t difficult to guess why Ferrell decided to bet on Cohen and his co-writer O’Brien; pity then this ‘House’ is no winner, not just a losing hand but literally and figuratively a complete bust.  

(Even with two comedic aces Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler, this lazily written and shoddily directed 'House' is no winner) 

Review by Gabriel Chong